Cold. All she could feel was cold. Yet she curled, it was useless. Her body would not be the slightest warmer. She tried seeing. Opening her eyes. How did she know what an eye was? The piece of information came to her effortlessly. She could not open then either although she did notice they existed. What was wrong with her? Why was she cold? Why could not she see? Moreover, the most important matter that have been troubling her and painfully aching in the back of her head. 'Who am I?'
After what seemed like forever, she felt warm. She could feel it entering her skin and stopping her shudders. Gladly taking in every heat she could get, she did not notice a silhouette through her eyelids. When they stopped in front of her, blocking all the heat, she finally opened her eyes. She did not even notice she could see again because of her happiness while getting warmer. In front of her, a man was standing with a grin plastered all over his features. He had shoulder-length dark brown and his eyes were of a beautiful dark red color.
"Welcome home!" he said, while some weird people started gathering around the strange tall man. There were two children closer to her. Both probably around 8 years old .They had dark brown hair and dark colored eyes. There was also a gorgeous lady wearing black clothes. Her hair was of a beautiful shade of white and her eyes were vine colored. Yet what made her stand out were two long black rabbit-like ears that emerged from the sides of her head, in the middle of the silky, straight white hair.
"You don't really have a name but we shall call you Fuyuhana. It's written like winter flower." the woman added, with a kind smile directed to the girl. Now she could also see more people. A small, frail looking, man with his eyes closed and wearing a strange triangle hat. The word 'hat' simply came into her head just as naturally as when she thought of eyes when she was cold. Also, a refined looking young woman appeared in her periphery vision almost as if she feared Fuyuhana. She was holding a pink umbrella and her hair was a gold blond tone that seemed to frame her face perfectly. She seemed a doll until Fuyuhana looked at her eyes. She had no sclera. Just pitch-black eyeballs that seemed to hold all light and emit their own star light. That looked so wrong for Fuyuhana and yet all she could do was fell mesmerized by those beautiful eyes.
"Fuyu… hana?" she asked filled by curiosity, trying to see how her name tasted like in her tongue. "I'm so sorry! We haven't really introduced ourselves!" the white haired lady suddenly exclaimed. Fuyuhana recoiled at the sudden exclamation. "I'm the former Myoue but you can call me Inari." the tall man introduced himself. The poor girl had completely forgotten his presence while taking in her surroundings. She got startled when he spoke. She was in some sort of traditional Japanese house, she noted.
"I'm Koto! These are A and Un" she motioned to the children standing there with bored faces and poking each other "this is my son, Kurama" she gesticulated to the small man "and this is my daughter, Yase" she smiled at the young woman. "Nice to meet you" she said, giving a nod. Fuyuhana nodded back and smiled. Thankfully, Yase seemed taken aback but returned the smile a split second later. "Oh! I almost forgot. One more thing, dear." Koto added. Fuyuhana shot her head up, eager to learn more about these people, this place and mostly about herself. "You are our daughter from now on! So please call Inari and I as mom and dad!" Koto sang cheerfully. Fuyuhana backed away ever so slightly at the huge amount of information she was receiving (which had caused her a minor headache) that nobody seemed to have noticed. Or so did she think.
"Oi! What are you guys doing? You are scaring her!" a man that was at the corner of the room shouted at the crowd gathered around Fuyuhana, who turned her head to see the source of the sound. There, leaning against a wall, was a tall man with messy dark brown hair, almost green, and penetrating blue eyes. His features seemed contorted. He looked unhappy. "Why so rude to our mom?" Yase murmured under her breath. "That is our brother, Myoue." Kurama inexpressively explained to Fuyuhana. 'Myoue? Why are there two Myoue? Guess it's a position or characteristic, then?-' Fuyuhana thought to herself. "Thinking about the idiot's name, right?" he cut her thoughts. She looked surprised at him for assuming correctly and for interrupting her thoughts. "Be nicer, Yakushimaru." Inari reprehended Myoue, whose name seemed to be Yakushimaru. "It's actually a title given to the Head Priest of this shrine." Myoue answered his own question, ignoring Inari (who looked rather irritated) and confirming Fuyuhana's suspicion that his name was Yakushimaru.
"Mom?" she asked reluctantly, turning to face Koto. "Yes, dear?" she politely answered ignoring Yase's irritation for having her spotlight of being Koto's attention, once they were talking while the scene with Myoue unfolded. "What… am I?" Fuyuhana looked at her hands. They seemed like the others' in shape and size. Her skin had a pale complexion and her fingers were long and slim, becoming slightly thinner at her fingertips. Koto looked with compassion and opened her mouth to answer…-
"I'm home!" a girl burst in with a huge transparent hammer with little colorful spheres inside, breaking the walls of the room and creating a hole in the ceiling, making Fuyuhana jump slightly and bringing a disapproval look to Myoue's and Kurama's faces while Inari, Koto and Yase all laughed. A and Un simply ran to her side and turned into spirit-like dogs, a blue and a red. 'Shikigamis' Fuyuhana thought, impressed, once she recovered from her shock.
The girl stopped dead on her tracks when she spotted Fuyuhana. Without any warning, she jumped on Fuyuhana and started talking too fast to Fuyuhana completely understand. She understood some things like how she was happy to have a new sister, since she grew up as a only child, how Fuyuhana was beautiful and she could not believe how their family was growing fast. She was just like Inari; the only difference was that her hair reached her waist, neatly arranged in a low pony tail. Then, after talking about some more tings Fuyuhana did not really understand, she asked her name "Fuyuhana. What's yours?" she asked interested in her recently discovered sister and who seemed to be a future great friend. "Koto! Our mom is Koto Otona." she answered with a huge smile "I hope we can get along from now on, Yuyun~! And that name really suits you. Mom gave it to you, right? So treat it with care." she added with a kind laugh. Fuyuhana nodded, dizzy with her new nickname, and looked out of the room, towards the three-season deck. It was quite cold and a thin layer of snow covered the ground and the leafless trees. 'It's winter, huh. It's beautiful. I can barely wait to see what autumn looks like.' Fuyuhana wondered. "Yuyun?" Koto asked, tilting her head, still on Fuyuhana "Sorry, I dazed off." Fuyuhana answered her while a nervous laugh left her lips.
Everybody seemed to be too busy fixing the ceiling and walls to notice their conversation although Fuyuhana spotted a discrete smile on Myoue's lips.