InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Azun Daiou High ❯ A Shrine, A Shop ( Chapter 2 )

To whom it may concern:

I have recently become aware of the allegations of plagiarism of the Japanese text, Inuyasha. I know, as do many others, that that this text is of the property of the one Rumiko Takahashi, and not to be confused with my own work in any way. This is an original fan fiction of Inuyasha, and should be kindly regarded as such. I hope this dispels any misconceptions.

Sincerely,

Virga

 

Azun Daiou High

 

Chapter 2

 

Inuyasha's nose twitched and his eyes opened.

 

This tree was one of the few places he liked. Of course, it was probably because it was at the back of a shrine. The Marena Shrine, he thought it was.

 

The shrine was large, one that was run by a group of people. If it had been run only by family, it would've been run by a single old woman.

 

Or not, Inuyasha was no longer sure. A lot could happen in two weeks. After all, he liked the tree, not the shrine.

 

At the moment he was lying on the branch, his head and shoulders supported by the trunk. His eyes had opened when a calming scent wafted over with the breeze. He smiled. It was very quiet.

 

"Inuyasha." His mouth became a hard line.

 

"Why did you hide this from me?! You knew, you knew all along. I trusted you. Did you ever trust me?"

 

"I have always trusted you," Inuyasha's voice was barely a whisper. "Never doubt my trust for you."

 

"Then why, Inuyasha, Why?"

 

The voice changed.

"At the bridge, she said, I don't know where that is but that's what she said-"

"What?!" He muttered, but in his mind it was loud, angrily so, bouncing within the confines of memory. "Who is this?!"

"I-I can't! If she, if she finds out, I'm..."

Fair enough. "Keh."

And then he could see her face.

An ethereal beauty, entrancing. Eyes closing in sadness. a small mouth slightly open, as though about to speak. a shimmering blue and orange, silver. hair of silk, floating about her face.

Her eyes.

Cold, distant. A maelstrom of emotions, hidden behind a shield of brown.

Inuyasha felt tired again. Slowly, his eyes closed, and he gave into sleep.



---I can't do homework tonight, I have to straighten my hair!---



"Ma-re-na Shrine."

She cocked her head to the shrine name plate. Souta, further down the street and holding a soccerball, turned and saw her just standing there. "Nee-chan! Aren't we going to the park?!"

Kagome glanced at him, then her gaze swung back to the shrine steps. Then Souta, then the shrine. Then she smiled dazzingly at him.

"Come on, Souta, we'll make a stop here first."

"Aww, you promised."

Kagome ran up the stairs anyway. Souta huffed, faintly annoyed, but followed her.

"Look, Souta, it's the torii!" She was at the top of the stairs, pointing at the red shrine gateway. Unlit lanterns swung gently from either side of the gate.

"It's bigger than at ours," Souta commented, reaching the top. "This place just has too many steps- whoa."

 

Close to all signs of suburban life were gone. As she stood there, she felt younger, she felt as though someone had lifted her higher up, to a place of inexplicable beauty, a place where anything, if only for a moment, would, could, be possible.

 

The path was wide, square tiles, leading up to the entrance of the shrine. There were two pairs of stone 'komabutsu'- the dragon, thin and lithe, its tail coiled, its form an almost undetectable green hue. The phoenix, wings outstretched, the slender neck holding its head up high, its tail feathers curling and trailing at its base.

 

The shrine itself looked well-structured and sturdy. It was a low, single-story shrine, a simple design of solid wooden sliding doors, a slightly raised platform, and large, round pillars supporting the roof. The roof itself was low and sloping, tiled with shades of grey. The scent of incense hung in the air.

 

The shrine was surrounded by various trees. Kagome recognized some of them. There were plum trees and sakura trees, some blooming late in the season. Pine and oak.

 

On either side of the path leading up to the shrine, were smaller structures, probably storage rooms of some kind. Two of them had shimenawa across their doors.

 

Close to the torii, a little to the left of the path, was a chouzuya, a basin of water, with white ladles crossing its mouth.

 

Frozen, Kagome and Souta could only stare, its majesty overruling any thought of moving. Then, a loud cry from a distant bird jerked them back into reality.

 

“Nee-chan, maybe we should cleanse ourselves.”

 

“… I guess so.” They washed their hands and mouths.

 

“Welcome to Marena Shrine.”

 

A young girl was standing just a little behind them, around fourteen or fifteen years old. She had long, dark brown hair, in two low ponytails, and a fringe past her eyebrows. Her eyes were large and wide, her skin a creamy white, her face soft and curved. She was wearing a traditional shrine maiden outfit, white and red.

 

Kagome was a little nervous. She hadn't realized the girl was there. “Um, sorry for intruding,” she said sheepishly. Souta, in turn, grinned at the girl, embarrassed, and picked up his soccer ball.

 

The girl smiled in response.

 

“If it isn't too much trouble,” Kagome said politely, “would you tell us where the priest of this shrine might be?”

 

“The priest is currently not available, but I can take you to the one in charge.”

 

“Please.”

 

They trailed behind her. She was a slow walker. Patiently, one foot stepped in front of the other, flowing. Kagome elbowed Souta, hard. He had been alternating between very fast and very slow. He immediately adjusted his pace to the crawl they were going at.

 

The main hall was large, and dimly lit. They were led through a side door, into a smaller room, which was open to the outside, natural light sharpening the distinction between light and dark. A low, square table sat in the middle of the room, and cushions to sit on placed neatly around it.

 

There, sat a woman. With a novelty eye patch.

 

Stunned with surprise at the unusual patch, words slipped out. “Sugoi! That's a mad eye patch you got there!” Then she remembered that the shrine was sacred.

 

The woman chuckled at Kagome's red face. “Thank you, love. It is, isn't it?” She touched the patch with a hand. “It serves its purpose well. Why don't you sit down? Mihoko-san?” She asked the girl. “Would you like to stay with us?”

 

The girl smiled and bowed. “Thank you. But I still have many things to do today. With your leave…?”

 

“Of course.”

 

She stood straight again, and left. Kagome smiled.

 

The woman stood and bowed. “Welcome to Marena Shrine. I am Kaede, a stand-in for our currently non-existent priest.”

 

Kagome and Souta bowed at the same time, and she spoke for them both. “I am Higurashi Kagome, Kaede-sama, and this is my younger brother, Souta.”

 

Kaede-sama grinned, somehow coming across as warm and inviting. “Come on, sit down and have some tea.” She indicated a teapot and cups. “Are you two new in this district?”

 

They sat down. Souta decided to speak. “Yeah, we're new here. Just moved into block four a couple of weeks ago. It's cool here.”

 

“Well, this is the local shrine around here, and I'm pretty well known, close to everyone around knows me.” She laughed. “Being the eldest of the mikos here, I had no choice but to accept the position of head of this shrine.” Kagome and Souta laughed nervously along with her.

 

“So, no priest, right?” Kaede-sama nodded. “Why not?”

 

“I don't really know,” the miko said, suddenly dreamy. “Legacy, I suppose. The shrine hasn't had a priest for a while. Umm, what was it? Fifty years.” She grinned as they sweatdropped. “We're waiting for someone. Someone unique. And until we do, this shrine will be priest-less.”

 

“Umm, cool.”

 

“This is a meeting place for everyone, so make sure you guys come over again. And bring the family.” She winked.

 

Kagome saw Kaede as just a little off the mark, but then again most everyone she had met were. For some reason the population was more open than usual, generating a friendly, if fucked-up atmosphere. It was crazy, and perfect. Perfect for a mixture of humans, youkai, hanyous, and a rebellious, fucked-up teenager from a conservative town.

 

 

 

---I can't do homework tonight, I have to straighten my hair!---

 

 

 

He felt a vibration against his leg, and pulled out the contraption. One of his acquaintances had given it to him. He looked at the message.

 

There's been a little injury. Satsurou

 

Inuyasha yawned widely, pocketing the phone again. He glanced at the surrounding area, then hopped off the branch onto a lower, skinnier one. He braced himself.

 

The branch bent and groaned under his weight. Then it sprung back, and Inuyasha used the momentum to leap forward. The jump took him above the canopy of the trees. He squinted; he really had to get sunglasses sometime.

 

He could see the road at the bottom of the hill. Once, he had jumped from the summit, straight down. The road gained a large pothole, but no one was blamed, as a `large silver blur' was not a sufficient description to convict anyone.

 

As it was, the force of landing had given him long split wounds on both feet. The aching pain he endured that night was enough to cause him to avoid jumping from such heights again, though one day he would practice landing without injuring himself.

 

Maybe.

 

Near the foot of the hill, he leapt onto the roof of a building.

 

And began to run.

 

 

 

---I can't do homework tonight, I have to straighten my hair!---

 

 

 

“This is so boring,” she complained, kicking the ball around half-heartedly. Above them the sun glared at them in all its majestic glory. Her skin glistened with sweat, and she sighed, falling back onto the grass when the wind picked up.

 

“Ah, the kazekami. It has saved me.”

 

“You're going overboard, Nee-chan. And get up, the ball's theirs, you know.”

 

“Make me.” Through lazy eyes she watched him kick the ball away to the group he had lent it to, for some reason deciding not to play soccer. He turned to face her again but instead looked far beyond herself. “What is it?”

 

He shook his head. “Just a youkai, I think.”

 

“Hmm.” She lay back down again. “Like another world here, sometimes. Before we came here I'd never seen a youkai walk down the street.”

 

“Yeah, I know…”

 

“It's so weird, yeah? And Kaede-sama, I mean, where can you get an eye patch like that? And school's mad as, man. But I swear, the rate we're going, graduation'll be set back two or three years, no one learns nothing.”

 

“Haha, well yesterday was really demented, our sub was this short woman who sounded like she didn't have a voice at all. Everyone was just doing their own thing, and she was running around trying to tell us to be quiet.” Kagome was laughing. Souta grinned and went on. “And then- Get this.”

 

“Yea.”

 

“We-” He burst out into a strange case of giggles, but struggled on. “We ended up-”

 

“Come on, what's so funny?”

 

“We ended up locking the teacher in the store cupboard outside our room.”

 

Kagome cracked up. “You're joking!” she declared, gasping for air.

 

“Nope.”

 

“That's so cruel!” She burst out laughing again, leaving Souta to wonder if she had said `cruel' or `cool'.

 

 

---I can't do homework tonight, I have to straighten my hair!---

 

 

Old industrial sites were scattered throughout most cities. Old American films, which still screened in some run-down theaters stuck in time, showed huge factories and buildings, but this was not the case. These were small by comparison. On many of them, their corrugated iron roofs were removed, and the buildings would be made into apartments. Others were still in use. Sometimes they were given full makeovers, and the dark brickwork and iron roofs were covered in smooth concrete and semi-opaque glass.

 

Some retained their faded, ramshackle nature. Any noise from these places, with the exception of the early morning and late night, was heard in sharp, sudden bursts of sound that coloured the air. Then it would vanish, leaving the pigeons to wonder.

 

The streets lacked life. There were only roads, no pathways. Some were very wide, maybe twenty metres across. They were flat, even and empty. Dead leaves and animals, rubbish had long disappeared, rotted away, removed. Graffiti was elaborately scrawled along the walls. Minute alleyways were woven under and around buildings. They were tiny and dark, no more than a metre or so across, the way bumpy and uneven. The air was cold, very cold, and still.

 

Up on the roofs, the pigeons sat. During the day they would alternately leave to where they chose; at night they would invade an empty warehouse to sleep in. The highest part of the roof was marked by a single row of bricks, dividing where the iron might meet. Many pigeons, at any part of the day, would sit there.

 

The hanyou made barely a sound, running along these rows of bricks. Yet where he ran, birds rose up in swarms, the fluttering of their wings like a hum in the wind. It was a lonely sound, echoeing and fading.

 

He slowed down, and almost immediately felt the heat rising off the roofs, emanating from his own body. At the edge of a building he jumped down, the cool air rushing around him. He walked along one of the roads, avoiding the masses of white blemishes on the ground. Some were fresh.

 

When he felt that he had cooled down enough, he ducked down an alleyway. His eyes adjusted to the dark quickly, and his mouth twisted into a resentful smile. His body traits did not compensate for the life he had been born to lead. His expression relaxed, and took on a dull, bored look. His ears focused straight ahead.

 

Nearby, he could hear the muted sound of breathing. He stepped out of the alley and looked left. He was there, in his usual denim and a bandana hanging from a pocket. Although he usually walked in a stooping posture, Satsurou was tall now, leaning with his back to the wall. He seemed to be sleeping, facing the sky. Inuyasha imagined a bird shitting on his face; he was practically offering it to the rats above.

 

Past Satsurou, the building that was a warehouse was open. Large, round pillars descended from the ceiling. The light was dim, with a bluey-green hue. Inside were lines of mismatched trucks, with many spaces in between. All the others were out, Inuyasha knew. This bunch of no-good losers were hired out for everything, from removalists to deliveries to markets.

 

Arms folded casually across his chest, he waited in front of Satsurou.

 

He tall for an Asian, a strange, stretched look to him. His arms were long, his legs were long, his face was long, his eyes seemed to sink into the sockets of his face. His bones seemed to stick out of his flesh. Poke him and he might've fallen.

 

He also had the nerve to keep waiting people waiting for no reason at all.

 

Eventually, when Inuyasha was thoughtfully examining the exposed, pale neck, Satsurou opened one eye, saw Inuyasha, and faced him. His mouth stretched and parted into an unproportionally large grin. His teeth were tinged a dark shade of yellow, and bad breath radiated from his mouth. Inuyasha wrinkled his nose.

 

“Yo, Inuyasha. You 'right? Heard you've had a bad time.”

 

He said nothing.

 

Satsurou's cheerful demeanor fell away. “Well, one of our guys, um, Getsuma… anyway, the idiot decided to take a break off the highway and was attacked. He's fine,” he continued in a reassuring tone, although Inuyasha was past caring, and Satsurou knew that, “but he'll be out of it for a while. I need you to go and finish the job.

 

“It's very basic, actually, just take the silks to the destination. Getsuma should know. He's on route 139, he'll tell you what to do.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

Inuyasha leapt high, back onto a rooftop. Birds scattered, startled into flight. Below him, he could clearly hear Satsurou's voice, cursing him for breaking his good mood. Although why he would be in a good mood after finding that one of his men had been attacked, would forever remain a mystery.

 

The city was built on a hilly area, as most were. In the distance shrouded in mist lay many mountains. A few streams between the hills still existed, and were built around, and the outskirts of the city was mostly grass and forest, solid concrete marking the main highways, smaller roads being dirt trampled repeatedly by tired feet. The city did not thin out into disrepair; rather, it ended suddenly, the line between urban and natural apparent. Outside the city, if one ever deigned to leave, would come upon small farming villages. Log cabins and huts stuck to sides of mountains. Shrines marked themselves with individually designed torii.

 

Inuyasha ran through the trees, keeping the specified highway in sight. He let his mind wander, giving himself the pleasure of enjoying…

 

…this feeling.

 

Unburdened.

Unrestricted.

 

It felt nice.

 

 

---I can't do homework tonight, I have to straighten my hair!---

 

 

Inuyasha forcefully exhaled, trying to remove the horrible smell of gas emissions from his nose. It was lucky that the wind picked up, blowing about carelessly, as the smell made his head hurt. So he knew he was close.

 

He could see the truck. It wasn't a very big one, as trucks go. It was parked on one side of the road. Its door was open. In front of the truck was a narrow dirt track, that swerved away from the highway, swallowed by the trees. He glanced at the truck again. A short, squat man was sitting in the shadow of the door.

 

He ran, swinging onto a tree, then jumped into the sky. His shadow shrank, flashing past Getsuma. He noticed the movement and looked up. Inuyasha saw him set a long, smooth rifle to his shoulder, aiming straight at him.

 

He never liked the sound of the gun firing. Flattening his ears against his head, he narrowed his eyes at the man.

 

Getsuma fired.

 

Inuyasha winced.

 

The long bullet flashed harmlessly past him.

 

The hanyou landed heavily on all fours, several metres from the man. His head snapped up so that their gaze locked. Getsuma still had his gun aimed at him. Then his eyes widened slightly, and he relaxed. He lowered his gun.

 

“What the hell was that for?!” Inuyasha yelled, indignantly angry.

 

Gestuma spread his hands wide and shrugged, looking amused. Inuyasha advandced on him, one hand held up so that his claws flashed in the light. The glint of vengence was in his shadowed eyes. Getsuma held his hands up in surrender.

 

“My sight isn't like yours, Inuyasha,” he protested as he advanced. “When somethingthat I can't see because it was in the sun flies at my head, I'll shoot. Don't tell me you've already forgotten that.” He looked at the young hanyou.

 

Ooops. He had forgotten that. He only wanted to scare the living shits out of the guy. Inuyasha turned away and folded his arms. “Keh.”

 

“Well, you have to take this lot to Mado.” Inuyasha looked at him blankly. “the city past the North Mountains.” Inuyasha's expression didn't change. Getsuma sighed. “The place where you were invited to a `secret meeting' by those drag queens.”

 

Inuyasha clenched a fist. “Those bastards.”

 

“Anyway,” Getsuma continued, “the clipboard with all the information you need is in there. You just do that. I'll be fine on my own.” He tried to stand. Inuyasha looked him over, then a bored look came into his eyes and he pushed Getsuma back onto the ground.

 

“What…?”

 

“Why didn't you shoot it?” Inuyasha opened the back of the truck and ripped a long strip of silk.

 

Getsuma's voice carried. “Armour. And we're supposed to deliver all that, not maul it.”

 

The truck door slid shut again. “They're all stingy bastards, they can do without their precious silk.”

 

Inuyasha was amazingly resourceful. Getsuma's broken leg was bound in a splint. He nodded at his handiwork, satisfied. He then dragged the protesting man to a nearby tree and propped him up. “Stay here and try not to die. I'll come back and pick you up later. If I forget, well, that's your problem.”

 

Getsuma stretched his arms, and then looked him squarely in the eye. “With all the effort you've put into me, boy, I'd say you actually want me to live.”

 

Inuyasha fully returned his gaze. “If you die, I don't get paid,” he answered.

 

 

---I can't do homework tonight, I have to straighten my hair!---

 

 

“Your ass is showing.”

 

“Thank you. I have always wanted to hear that.”

 

Souta laughed.

 

They were in her room. Souta wsa sitting on her bed, a huge mattress. A small pile of manga books were next to him. He held one in his hand, a finger marking a page as a makeshift bookmark.

 

Kagome was on the far side of the room, practicing some martial arts skills from memory. She was wearing a short skirt and a loose jumper several sizes too big for her. Her movements flowed, alternated between high and low, left and right. Her breathing was steady.

 

When she was younger, she had to struggle to focus on every movement she used on her opponent. Now she centered her concentration on an invisible foe, attack and defence coming naturally to her. She spun, punched, dodged spun, blocked, spun again.

 

Souta observed with a critical eye, head cocked to the side.

 

“Is it just me,” he said curiously, “or have you gotten slower?” But she wasn't responding to his jibe.

 

Kagome continued her unrelentless attack. A wailing screamed in her ears. She no longer had one enemy, she had many, all black blurs, all around her, and coming closer. The room seemed darker, more dangerous; her head began to hurt. She kicked and swung at her opponents, her eyes flicking wildly to each one. They came closer.

 

Stars exploded in her eyes suddenly, rising up, obscuring her vision. Her eyes hurt. She lost her balance, falling forward. Her eyes squeezed shut, she whined, “Oww… hurts.”

 

Souta laughed. Kagome noticed and tried to jump up and grab him by the shoulders. He squeaked and shot backwards, his book flying from his hand.

 

Kagome clutched at thin air.

 

He blinked.

 

She blinked.

 

She looked at her hands, then began to wail. “I've gotten slower, I've gotten WORSE! Oh man what am I going to do now? My sensei would kill me if he found out. Shit,” she froze, stunned, as though she had just realized the situation.

 

“I'm slow,” Kagome whispered.

 

“Uh, excuse me…” a hesitant voice sounded from the front door. Souta jumped up and with a hurried, “I'll get it,” ran out of the room. His pile of books collapsed across her bed. Kagome was rolling around on the floor in emotional turmoil, groaning, “I'm slow, I'm slow, I'm so slow, I'm slower than the slowest sloth, I'm slow, I am so pathetically slow…”

 

Souta shook his head. “Come in, Nijo-kun, Okaa-san isn't around.”

 

The boy, Nijo-kun, took off his shoes, saying, “Get changed, Rashi-kun, we're going to the arcade. Come with?”

 

Kagome calmly sailed past Souta, ruffling his hair. She had somehow managed to change into a longsleeved shirt and slacks. Greeting Souta's friend, who was a good head shorter than him, she wandered into their tiny kitchen/dining room. “Who wants some Cola?”

 

A few minutes later, Souta and Nijo-kun were leaving. Her little brother passed the kitchen, a hat in his hand, and paused. “Nee-chan, one glass-”

 

“-only. Man, who the hell are you, my mother? I'm not stupid, you know.”

 

“Sometimes it's very hard to believe that, you know?”

 

“Piss off and come back, brat.”

 

“You're slow.”

 

“… I'm slow…”

 

 

---I can't do homework tonight, I have to straighten my hair!---

 

 

Fusa was bored. Very bored. Strangely, the shop had been empty all morning. She opened her eyes and sighed.

 

The little bell above the door rang merrily. At the sound Fusa shot up, plastered a cheesy expression on her face and called out sweetly, “Welcome to-… oh, its just you.”

 

“Yonai-sama…” the small girl was holding onto the doorknob in both hands, her hair in a long braid.

 

“What do you need, Dan-chan?”

 

The girl beamed. “the order has arrived, Yonai-sama. They're at the front right now. What do you want me to do?”

 

Fusa leaned over the counter to look out the door. There was indeed a truck outside the shop. Her nostrils flared. It looked disguisting.

 

“It's ugly. Take it around the back and get the guy with the weird haircut to help you.”

 

“Yes, right away!” Overcome with responsibility, the girl bowed, her hold on the heavy door releasing. She squeaked as the door bumped her out of the shop.

 

The bell rang.

 

Fusa sighed, sitting on a stool. It truly was an uneventful day. She pulled out a magazine from beneath the counter to read the boredom away.

 

“Hey, coffee lollies!”

 

 

---I can't do homework tonight, I have to straighten my hair!---

 

 

She huffed, inspecting her arm. It was reddening, otherwise, nothing was wrong. Uzuki brushed herself down with her hands, then trotted to the truck. The driver leaned out the window of the truck as she approached. He seemed so far away. She smiled.

 

“Yonai-sama said to bring it around the back. Is that okay, Mr Driver?”

 

His head moved slightly, then he grunted and looked at her again. “Fine. Get in the truck and show me the way.”

 

“Eh?!” Uzuki became flustered. “I-I can't,” she cried out anxiously, a hint of hysteria in her voice. “Mama told me never to get into cars with strangers.”

 

She saw one silver eyebrow rise out of tinted glasses. Then he turned his face away. All Uzuki could see was one of his gloved hands. She heard the sound of a truck door opening. Then he leaned out the window to look at her again. This time he jerked his head. He was wearing a black cap with his hair in a ponytail. “Get in.”

 

Uzuki didn't exactly know why, but she didn't feel self-conscious or wary around the driver. She nodded, smiling, and walked around the truck, ducking easily under the open door. It soon became evident that it was impossible for her to climb into the truck by herself.

 

She heard a sigh, then two gloved hands hooked under her shoulders, lifting her up. She was released ungracefully onto the seat. The driver reached across her and the door closed loudly.

 

“Um… thank you very much, Mr Driver.” She smiled cutely.

 

He started to drive. “Keh.”

 

After she put on the seatbelt, which was covered in dust and looked very unused, she began to stare openly at the driver. Meaning, Uzuki's head was facing him, her expression dumb, curious, wide.

 

He was wearing a big, black jacket, zipped closed. It made him look small. His slacks were faded. She looked at his face again. His ears were hidden behind his bangs. He had a messy fringe. His face, under the sunglasses, was tanned and remarkably young-looking.

 

“What?”

 

“Huh?! Um, um, nothing! It's nothing!” Uzuki exclaimed, blushing guiltily.

 

Under her direction, both survived the short trip, although the truck was sporting a few - well, several - fresh, and most likely permanent, bruises. Uzuki leapt out of the truck with enthusiasm. The driver took his time.

 

The lane was a short one, and wide. It has a dull, dirty look to it; two huge dustbins stood in front of a small rusted garage door. The girl ran to the opposite side of this, to a blue metal door set in brickwork. The door was shiny.

 

Uzuki grabbed the door handle and opened it. It squeaked. Then she remembered the truck driver and spun on her feet to face him. He had just got out of the truck. “Please wait here a moment, okay? I'll be right back.”

 

She turned and ran into something solid.

 

The tall teenager looked down at the blinking confused girl sitting on the sidewalk. He had a haircut remarkably like a hedgehog, the tips of his hair dyed orange, his roots, dark brown. He was wearing black bell-bottomed jeans and shiny blue and white sneakers.

 

He blinked. “Dan… chan… ?”

 

Uzuki scramed, launching herself at him. She hugged him. “Morri-san, Morri-san! I haven't seen you in AGES,” she said, pulling a face. He laughed.

 

“But we only saw each other a few minutes ago,” he replied, wriggling his eyebrows. Uzuki pouted.

 

He turned his smiling face to the truck driver. He didn't look very inviting, but he also didn't seem to be going anywhere soon. So he strode forward.

 

“Hey, I'm Morri Kiyoshi. Nice to meet you man.” There was a pregnant pause. “So… what's your name?”

 

“Morri-san, he drove the truck of stuff here for us, and Yonai-sama said to bring the order here.”

 

Kiyoshi looked down at her.

 

“Terajima.”

 

He looked at the driver again. Said driver walked around to the back of his truck as he spoke. “I'm Terajima.”

 

In the end, Kiyoshi ended up carrying all the items inside by himself. Terajima-san offered no help after the papers had been signed, leaning against the side of the truck. He was scribbling something on his clipboard.

 

Uzuki had somehow managed to climb back into the truck, and was now sitting in the seat, talking animatedly to the non-respondent white haired young man.

 

“… Yonai-sama told me that the truck was too ugly and to bring it around the back before it stank up the street but I don't think she saw you or she would've seen how nice you are and let your truck stay…”

 

The metal door clanged shut. Kiyoshi walked over to a shelf and placed a box there. Then, he opened the door and walked back to the truck for another round.

 

“… And so we're all like a family, and I'm the youngest, and I work here while daddy is a merchant, but I can't stay at mummy's because she went away. Daddy said a fox bewitched her into loving him and she left us…”

 

“… for not properly protecting mummy, but Yonai-sama slapped him and told him he was an idiot and that he still has to take care of me. I work with Morri-san lots, but his room is always messy. My one is always clean. I…”

 

“Daddy taught me lots, he teaches me better stuff than at school. I can fight. I'm a good fighter. I can beat daddy every time. He taught me to fly, too.”

 

“Fly?” Terajima's voice was very quiet.

 

“Yes. But daddy makes it look very easy, but it's very hard…”

 

“Dan-chan,” Kiyoshi said warningly. Uzuki looked up and gave him a cheeky smile. “All done?” she piped.

 

Kiyoshi nodded. He looked at Terajima who was still absorbed in his clipboard. He inclined his head towards him slightly, and the truck driver ignored it. “I'm done.”

 

“Good.” He turned to Uzuki. “Get out.”

 

“Whee!” She jumped into Kiyoshi's arms.

 

“Oof! You're heavy!”

 

“Na, na! You still have to carry me.” A paper was shoved in her face. “Eh?”

 

It was Terajima-san. “Something you should probably get to keep your mind on the ground.”

 

She grabbed it and waved it around. “Thank you,” she sang.

 

Kiyoshi was staring at the truck driver, who got into his truck. Then he spoke. “You won't… report anything, will you?”

 

The driver snorted and the engine roared into life. That was when Kiyoshi realized that under his side bangs was… nothing. No human ears. The driver looked at him again, and drove off.

 

He stared after the truck as the cries of delight assaulted his ears. “Wow, isn't it cute, it's so beautiful, wow…”

 

He looked at the picture. It was a puppy. He smiled.

 

“It's so cute, cute, cute…”