Author's Note: I've had this fic up on AO3 for a couple of months, and figured I should probably share it with the lovely people here, as well. It's is a pretty big departure from my other fics. If you're looking for a Gugukoku shippy fluff trash fic, this is not the story for you. That said, it's a mashup that I find pretty intriguing, so if you're into either Gugukoku or DRRR, I hope you'll find it interesting, as well.
Sunlight filtered through the young spring leaves, illuminating the ground below, where a young kitsune and tanuki were playing. Chasing each other from shadow to shadow among the trees, they alternated between their human and animal forms. They were alone in these woods, after all, so there was no harm in it. Of course, like all young nature spirits, they had been warned by their elders of the dangers of letting a human see their true form, but things like that didn't matter on days like this. This day was for celebrating the end of a long winter. The tanuki was especially excited to stretch his legs after waking from his hibernation. A warm breeze blew through the glade, carrying with it the scent of cherry blossoms, the scent of new life.
Suddenly, the tanuki stopped his frolicking, turning his nose to the wind. A new aroma was beginning to permeate the air.
"'Raki-nii, what's wrong?" the fox asked, skidding to a halt beside him.
The tanuki shushed the younger spirit and used one arm to pull him protectively behind him. "I smell something… strange," he whispered over his shoulder. "Humans… and metal." Turning on his heel, he made sure to keep his own body between the young fox and whatever was coming. "We should leave. Now."
The kitsune clung to the older spirit, burying his face in the front of the tanuki's kimono. "I'm scared," he whimpered. His pointed fox ears, still visible even in his human form, drooped slightly with his unease.
Patting the fox's silver hair reassuringly, the tanuki forced himself not to let his own fear show. "It'll be all right, Kokkuri-chan," he whispered, wrapping his arms around the kitsune's small frame before turning him around to head out of the glade. "Just stay with me, and everything will be fine. I'll keep you safe."
"Promise?"
"I promise, now let's go." He gave the fox a gentle push to get him moving.
The two made their way carefully through the wood, doing their best to avoid making sounds or leaving tracks that would attract attention to them. They could hear people approaching through the trees behind them, talking amongst themselves and cutting or breaking anything that got in their way. As the humans neared, the tanuki's sensitive nose picked up a new scent: smoke. It was not the same smoke as a wood fire, but it concerned him enough to pick up the pace, sacrificing a bit of stealth for the increased speed.
"Not much farther now," he whispered to the fox as they hustled through the underbrush. "Home's just over that hill, and then we'll be safe." A moment later, the snap of a branch just behind him froze him in his tracks.
"Look at that, Aozaki-san," a gravelly voice said a short distance away. "I thought you said no one lived in these woods. That's why we came here to…." The voice died away, leaving listeners to speculate about what it was the men came here to do.
"That was the intelligence I received, Akabayashi-san," another, deeper voice growled in return.
"And yet, I see children before me, you know?" The one called Akabayashi paused, and the strange smoke smell spread through the trees. "Wait," he continued a moment later, his tone sharpening dangerously. "Not children. Look."
The blood drained from the tanuki's face, and in its place, his veins filled with cold dread. His striped tail was still visible, a mistake he sometimes made when switching between his animal and human forms too quickly. He had to work to keep his hands from shaking. "Kitsune," he whispered to the young fox in front of him, "I need you to run. Run home."
"But… Shigaraki nii-san," Kokkuri protested, looking up at him with wide, fearful amber eyes.
"Please," the older spirit pleaded. "They've seen my tail, but they may not have noticed you yet. Run home. I'll distract the humans here."
Tears began welling at the corners of the fox's eyes, but he nodded nonetheless. "I'll go get help, and we'll be back here in a minute." Without another word, he returned to his animal form and darted through the trees.
As the younger spirit disappeared into the underbrush, Shigaraki turned around. Maintaining his human form, he pulled his straw hat up over his eyes. Then, he pulled his sake gourd from his sleeve. He was young, but he was still a tanuki after all. He took a drink to calm his nerves and pulled a shakujo out of thin air. The metal rings of the staff clinked against each other as he took up a fighting stance.
"Look at that," the tall, red-haired man said, his lips curling into a vicious smirk. The tanuki recognized his voice as belonging to the one called Akabayashi. "I think he wants to dance, you know?"
"Does he now?" Aozaki appeared to be a large bear of a man with scars covering his face. "I'm not really that into beating up kids."
"Didn't you hear what I said? He's not a kid. He's a tanuki, all right? They're supposed to bring good luck, or wealth, or something." Akabayashi carried a cane, but wielded it like a cudgel, tapping the heavy metal handle against his palm threateningly. Light glinted off the lenses of his glasses as he advanced on Shigaraki. "And anyway, I've always thought gangsters should keep exotic pets."
The word "pet" struck the tanuki like a blow to the gut. He had heard it from his elders before. That was something humans did with animals, where they kept them in cages and never let them see the light of day or breathe fresh air. It sounded like the worst fate he could imagine, and he'd be damned if he just sat there and let it happen to him. With a shout, he sprang from his stance and leapt at Akabayashi. Just before the metal of the shakujo struck him in the face, the man ducked and caught Shigaraki across the shoulder with the handle of his cane. The young tanuki tumbled to the ground with a pained grunt.
"Feisty little thing," Aozaki commented, cracking his knuckles as he, too, moved toward the young spirit. "And you're going to feed him? Take him for walks, that sort of thing?" He tried unsuccessfully to keep the humor from his gruff voice. "I'd like to see you explain it to the vet when you take him in to have him fixed."
"That's the thing with tanuki," Akabayashi replied, easily dodging another blow from Shigaraki and cracking him hard in the arm with the metal of his cane. "You don't get 'em fixed. They need all the proper things in all the proper places, see. That's where they keep their luck."
Aozaki snorted. "A lot of men think they keep their luck in their balls. That don't make it true."
"Haven't you seen those statues, though? They've got huge…." He began gesturing with one hand, but paused to lash out at the young tanuki again, this time striking him across the face, sending him to the ground with blood streaming down his cheek. "Well, anyway. Seems like they might actually be important, if we believe that kind of thing. We may as well keep him basically intact."
Stunned by the last blow, Shigaraki was slow to haul himself up again. He had just managed to get his knees under him when he felt the end of Akabayashi's cane under his chin, tipping his head up slightly.
"I'd stay down if I were you, pup," the red-haired man said, crouching beside the tanuki.
He knew that the man was right, but his pride would not let him give in so easily. With a growl, he spat at Akabayashi, splattering his glasses with saliva. As Shigaraki continued trying to regain his feet, Akabayashi sighed and removed his glasses. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping them clean. Lifting his eyes to Aozaki, he asked, "Would you mind?"
The large man's face split into a predatory grin. "I thought you'd never ask." Aozaki hauled the tanuki roughly to his feet by his two-toned hair, then dealt him a swift punch to the gut, bruising his ribs and knocking him cold. Releasing the spirit's hair, he allowed him to fall to an unceremonious heap on the ground. He took a step backward and felt something snap under his foot. Looking down, he saw Shigaraki's shakujo, which had fallen to the ground after an earlier attack. Its haft was split where the large man had stepped on it. The tanuki's hat, which had flown off after Akabayashi's blow to his face, was sitting forgotten on the ground a short distance away, spattered with blood.
"And here I thought maybe you'd carry him for me," the redhead complained, grunting with effort as he stood, the unconscious tanuki thrown over his shoulder.
Aozaki laughed. "Nah. He's your pet, you can carry him."
"He's going to get blood on my suit."
"You should have thought of that before you split his face open, idiot."
The two continued their banter as they walked from the glade, heading back to the car that would return them to Tokyo.
Kokkuri ran as fast as he could back to the den he shared with Shigaraki. The kitsune had lost his parents a few seasons ago, so the tanuki had taken him in like a younger brother. Not far from their home, the fox knew that other spirits kept their own dens. If he could just find them…. In a panic, he ran through the trees, crying out for anyone nearby.
A tengu peered down from a nearby tree to gaze upon the noisy intruder in his domain. "What do you want, little furball?" he growled before yawning broadly. "Did you get separated from your tanuki friend while running through the woods?"
Tears welled in the kitsune's eyes again. "W-we were just p-p-playing, and then he said we had to… to come home because there were humans…."
The tengu sneered at the mention of humans. "What were they doing in these woods?"
"I d-don't… I don't know. But… 'Raki-nii and I were in our human forms… and they… he… he left his tail out, and they saw it. He told me to come home, that he would distract them while I ran…." He sniffled pitifully, dabbing at his eyes with his paw.
The tengu hopped down from the tree. "Take me to them."
By the time they arrived, the trees had fallen silent again. Apart from the places where the ground had been disturbed by the fighting, or where tracks had been made coming and going, there was no sign of anyone there. Kokkuri returned to his human form to look around, thinking the added height might give him an advantage. Meanwhile, the tengu prowled the area, looking for additional signs of the humans.
As he completed his circuit of the grove, the tengu came upon the broken shakujo. He nudged it with his geta, rattling the metal rings quietly. "Did this belong to the humans?" he asked, looking up to try to get the fox's attention. The young kitsune had found something of his own, however, and had sunk to his knees on the forest floor. "What is it?" the old bird asked, walking over to him.
Kokkuri's fingers trembled as he clutched the straw hat, his gaze fixed on the droplets of crimson blood that stood out in stark contrast with the normal golden color of the straw. "This is his…" he whispered, his breath hitching slightly in his chest. "This is Shigaraki's hat. He was wearing it when I left."
The tengu crouched beside him and sighed heavily. "It looks like the humans may have carried him off, then," he said quietly. "There's not much to be done. Let's get you home."
The kitsune's lip trembled. "But… but what about Shigaraki? I can't… I can't just leave without him. He's supposed to protect me."
The tengu grunted in response. "And he did. You're safe, and the humans are gone. I'm sure he wouldn't want you to sit around and mope about it. He would want you to live, to stand on your own feet and move forward. As for him…." He sighed. "He's probably hot pot by now."
Tears streamed down the kitsune's face as he and the tengu headed away from the scene. He clutched Shigaraki's hat in his hands as if his life depended on it. As he walked, he began telling himself that he would find the tanuki and bring him home. With each step he took, his resolve grew, to grow strong and rescue his big brother.
When Shigaraki awoke, he found he was lying on a hard, unforgiving surface that did nothing to relieve the ache of the many bruises from his fight with Akabayashi. He could hear activity around him, voices echoing almost as if they were in a cave. Opening his eyes groggily, he saw that he was in a cage with heavy bars. The cage was in a large, dimly-lit room, near a wall. There was nothing natural in this place, everything was cold metal and cement, and it smelled of the same strange smoke he had encountered in the woods. A pair of tall men walked up to the cage. One of them, the tanuki recognized as Aozaki. The other was unfamiliar.
"What's this?" the unfamiliar man asked, gesturing to the cage.
"You'll have to ask Akabayashi, Director."
The director sighed and rolled his shoulders slightly. "I'm asking you, Aozaki. What is this? Human trafficking is not a business I'm particularly keen to get into."
Aozaki ran a hand through his hair. "It's not business-related, Director," he replied at length. "I guess you could call him a souvenir of our trip to the country. Akabayashi calls him his pet."
The director's lip curled in distaste. "Is that so? I suppose he and I will have words. That's all, Aozaki."
The bear-like man bowed stiffly and left without another word. The director gave Shigaraki and the cage another lingering glance before turning and heading deeper into the shadows. He found Akabayashi a moment later, conversing with a few other members of the organization. The director cleared his throat to get the men's attention, and motioned for the redhead to join him. "A word, Akabayashi."
"Yeah, boss?" He walked over with his hands in his pockets, his cane hooked in the crook of one arm.
"I'll be blunt," the director said, keeping his voice low as he pinned the other man with a piercing glare. "I did not realize you had an interest in young boys."
Akabayashi choked, nearly dropping his cane. "W-what?" he croaked once he found his voice again. "Who says I do?"
The director's eye twitched slightly. "If you don't, explain that." He waved his hand toward the cage on the other side of the warehouse floor. "Aozaki says you're calling him your pet." He spat the word, his distaste evident in his expression.
The redhead's gaze settled on the tanuki, who had woken up and was looking around the warehouse with wide, wary eyes. "Ah, about that…" Akabayashi started, laughing nervously. The director arched an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. "See, he's not actually a human kid…." When the director did not seem moved by these words, he added, "And it's not like I brought him here for anything… anything weird. I thought he'd be good luck, you know?"
Massaging the bridge of his nose, the director sighed again. "Explain. Start with that part about how he's not human. That should be interesting."
Akabayashi began walking toward the cage, taking his time to choose his words carefully. "Have you heard of tanuki, Director?" he asked at length.
"Those statues people keep outside of businesses, with the grotesquely large…?"
"Yes, those. This pup here," he said, rapping on the bars of the cage with the end of his cane as he stepped up next to it, "is a real one. A live one." Crouching beside the cage, he reached his cane through the bars and used it to lift Shigaraki's tail into view, despite the young spirit's best efforts to escape his reach. "See? Most human children don't have these, yeah?"
The director hummed thoughtfully, his lips curved into a frown. "And what were you planning to do with him, after bringing him here? It would be bad for business to leave him like this."
Akabayashi stood, tapping his cane against his shoulder as he thought. "I suppose I hadn't considered…"
"No, I suppose you hadn't," the director interrupted sharply. "If he's a dog, train him. If he's a beast, break him." He turned and began walking toward the door. Then, another thought coming to him, he called over his shoulder, "See that it's done quickly."
Running a hand through his hair, the redheaded yakuza sighed, looking over the tops of his glasses at Shigaraki, who crouched at the back of the cage with his hackles raised. "Geez. You're going to be more trouble than I expected, aren't you, pup? You'd better be worth it." Waving a few men over, he motioned to the cage. "Move this into that room." He nodded to a door a short distance away. "I've got some work to do." Taking off his jacket, he slung it over the back of a chair outside the room and rolled up his shirt sleeves.