No Feet (The Floorboards Creak)
Fandom: Nurarihyon No Mago
Summary: ''In Ukiyoe Town, there is a house. Strange things happen there.'' Outsider POV on the Nura house and those that reside in it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Nurarihyon No Mago.
In Ukiyoe Town, there is a house. It is a large, old-style mansion and it has been there for centuries. The floorboards creak and the and the front gate is always open. Nobody feels welcome to enter, though.
The few that have been inside speak of the terrifying creatures painted onto the fusawa panels. Yokai, they whisper, the headless, the seductresses, the women with frozen kisses. The ones who steal your bread when you're not looking and those you may never look in the eye, lest you lose your life.
They speak of bristles, as if they brushed their cheeks. They speak of spikes, as if they pierced their flesh. They speak of shadows, as if they engulfed them.
But never, they speak of the sounds at night. Never they speak of the feet that made the floorboards creak. Never they speak of doors left open in parts no-one ever comes.
Nobody says anything about the pink petals that spread in the street in front of the Nura house, even in the middle of winter, when they mingle with the snow as blossoms of spring and impossibility. Because that would be admitting that the sakura tree always flowers. That the family that lives there never ages. That even the son- the brown-haired, cheerful, human Rikuo- is never quite right.
And if they admit that- then what stops the monsters from staying on the panels? Then what stops the shadows from advancing? Then what.. Then what prevents their nightmares from becoming reality?
They sit inside and draw close in front of the fire place, clutching at each other. Silent, they are, speaking of a hundred thousand things, and yet, not one word leaves their mouths.
In Ukiyoe Town, there is a house. Strange things happen there.