Chapter 7: Undefined Fantastic Reminiscence!
At Myouren Temple, at Mamizou's residence, Mamizou is asleep and is about to wake up.
Mamizou begins to wake up and starts to yawn. "That was a nice sleep," she says as she begins to look around, hoping to not see a certain something. "And no Yashima to ruin it for me this time," relieved to see that the certain someone is not around. She starts to turn around and begins to talk again, "what a…," and pausing to hear a sudden "morning" out of nowhere.
Suddenly, Mamizou noticed a kitsune figure at the side of her bed that greets her with "morning". In the shock, she screams and then uses a bullet on it, which it then disappears.
Mamizou is seen still in the bed, holding her chest with her hand as her heart is beating fast, her head against the pillow, nearly scared to death. "What…,"she says whilst panting as she then continues, "... was that? Aren't I fully awake yet?" She puts her hand over her eyes and has a suspicion on who the culprit was that did this little "prank". "I bet it was that Yashima again. It couldn't have been me, I have had enough sleep." She says, dismissing it as just her eyes playing tricks on her due to the possibility of her being half asleep and she then begins to get up, "time to pay him a little visit. She fires a bullet at the entrance of her room and also begins to carefully navigate her room due to… uncertainty. "I can't believe I have to move like this," she says in caution.
Meanwhile, outside of the Myouren Temple premises, Yashima, in his "Child form" is seen fast asleep and dangling from a branch.
"No more sake, please," says a sleeping Yashima, who is in his "Child form". Just then, Nazrin appears and sees Yashima practically sleeping on the job. "And what are you doing, Yashima?" She says in a curious and slightly annoyed manner.
Yashima, still asleep, begins to talk in his sleep yet again. "Jerry is too noisy. Please kill her," managing to hear Nazrin in his sleep and thinking that she was apparently in a dream of his.
Nazrin begins get annoyed. "What!?" she says as she then becomes furious by this and begins to shout at Yashima, "WAKE UP, YOU INSOLENT YOUKAI!"
Yashima suddenly wakes up due to Nazrin's shouting and then gets scared due to it, nearly losing his grip of the branch and falling off of it. "AHH! Wh-wh-what!? Oh, it's you, Nazrin," he says in a frighten state as she then begins to sweat from noticing Nazrin in his presence. Nervously, he asks this, "wh-why are you here?"
"I just came to check up on you and see if you are doing alright," confirms Nazrin. "But it seems like you are still slacking off!" She says, informing Yashima that he was doing the one thing that she did not expect to find; neglecting his duty.
"But I wasn't. Honest!" Persuades Yashima who later assumes that what he did was completely innocent, "It was just a short nap."
Nazrin sighs due to what he said, excusing it as just a petty argument, "that is the same in my eyes! A nap is still away from working." "And anyway, didn't you say that your power only works when you are awake? Don't you think that, that makes sleeping even worse?" She asks him, since she distinctly remembers Yashima once confirming how his own power work, which just shows that his own actions is only his own carelessness.
Yashima begins to touch his digit fingers together continuously. "Well… that is true. But I'm sure I'll get rid of that side effect at some point," he says casually as he then laughs, taking what he said as just a petty thing, despite the fact that he wants to do his job.
Nazrin then responds to Yashima, "you better, for your sake… I know you need your rest and all, but you have the tendency to mess about during the times that you should be on guard," trying to seem understanding but at the same time, insinuating that Yashima is not fully committed to his job.
Yashima puts both of his hands against the back of his head and, admittedly, says, "that is my fault. It's because my illusions do half of my job and I feel like I can afford to leave my post," saying that he can afford to mess around, however that does not excuse the sleeping part...
"Whatever the case…," Nazrin says as she then turns around and starts to go to Myouren Temple after doing what she came to do and continues talking "... don't let me catch you asleep on the job again."
"Oh well," Yashima says. He begins to close his eyes and then yawns, still feeling sleepy after Nazrin disturbed him. "Life is hard for a bake-danuki," he complains as he begins to try and go back to sleep and says more, "and don't I know it?"
Just then, an angered Mamizou is seen going out of the premise of Myouren Temple and marching towards Yashima, shouting his name in the process.
Yashima, still on the branch and asleep, starts to open up an eye. "Oh great, the Teakettle has come," he says, not wanting Mamizou to turn up. He then begins to fake his crying, saying, "why can't I be left alone!?"
"What are you playing at?" Asks Mamizou, who is still cross with him, "are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
"What are you talking about?" Says Yashima, pretending nothing happened and that Mamizou is just saying random things from out of the blue.
"Don't play dumb with me, dear!" Mamizou then says back to Yashima, catching him out on his lie. She continues, talking about what Yashima did or must have done before, "you left an illusion in my room before. Did you leave that before you left or did you come back again? Why do you insist on pulling these tricks on me?" She asks, wanting to know the answers on why he does such things.
Yashima begins to giggle, believing that the answer is obvious, which is weird considering Mamizou would particularly know answer already. "It's because I see you as a big sister," is what he ends up saying anyway.
This causes Mamizou to become confused. "You see me as a sister?" She asks, "wait? And this is why you do these pranks?"
Yashima goes and laughs again yet again and then begins to respond to Mamizou's question, or rather questions, "it's because I just want to have some fun with you! Up until now I have only spent time with a wolf girl. And you… You are just like me. I mean, you look like me," saying that all he wanted was fun, supposedly harmless. And perhaps Mamizou's appearance is another reason why he does this, or maybe it is why he calls her "sister".
"But that doesn't make it right," Mamizou protests, "there are things that people do not like, you know! And there are certainly people that do not like to have these pranks set in place against them."
"And there is one more thing that you should know, Teakettle," Yashima says, abou to inform Mamizou of something.
"What now?" Mamizou asks, who is about to get a shock.
Yashima then points towards Mamizou and tries to hint at something, "I am not actually here. Look behind you."
"What?" Asks Mamizou, who then gets touched on the shoulder oh so suddenly and then turns around to find something that caught her by surprise.
It was Yashima! In his… "Adult form," who was apparently behind Mamizou for quite some time. "I was never on that tree branch since before you got here," he says.
Mamizou immediately jumps as a reaction to seeing Yashima being her. "Ah! But. How? She says in her own confusion. She turns around to see the illusion of Yashima on the tree branch, who is basically there at the time and then the illusion disappears. "Oh, so it was another illusion of yours. Why do you do that?" She asks.
Yashima then begins to confess, "it's a habit of mine. And especially since I came to Myouren Temple." He continues, talking about his own abilities this time, "I told you, I create illusions. They are my speciality, just like transforming is your speciality."
Mamizou begins to look intrigued as Yashima just said something that she weirdly thought he had no knowledge of. "How do you know that I can transform?" She asks.
"Well, you mean that human with a leaf and a scarf was never you? Come on, I've seen you transform before," he says to Mamizou, acknowledging that she can indeed transform.
Mamizou thinks to herself, "shoot, he knows too much already…"
"Not that it never occurred to me. I have kept an eye on you since being here," says Yashima, who implies, considering he is a guardian as such, has been keeping watch over Mamizou.
An unconvinced Mamizou then says this, "but I've never seen you apart from that day when you attacked me, though," since she does not ever recall seeing him past that time when they had a battle.
Yashima then begins to say more to Mamizou, about a part of his past when he came to Myouren Temple and more. "Oh yes, you were here when I came with Byakuren. You might not remember, but that was the first time we saw eye to eye. But ever since staying with you since that day, I have been in the shadows, especially since becoming the guardian, where I would spend most of my days outside the premise."
"The first time I ever…," says Mamizou as she then tries to think, "wait. Now that you mention it, I do remember Byakuren coming into the premise with someone," she says, finally remembering something.
"Oh? So you do remember, at last?" Asks Yashima
Mamizou tries hard to remember what she thinks she thought that she could remember. "I… vaguely remember. It was… it was…," she says as she finally begins to remember something.
Mamizou's memory
Going back 110 years into the past, just before Yashima was even a part of Myouren Temple. Mamizou is seen sweeping the grounds of the Myouren Temple, just doing a bit of work around the area.
"Hello there, Mamizou!" Greets Shou, appearing in front of her.
"Hello, Shou. Do you know where Nazrin is?" Mamizou asks, curious on where Nazrin is.
Shou responds in an unsure manner, "Nazrin?" She begins to think, "not really sure. I think she had to deal with a few people before," he says.
Nazrin is seen arriving in the area that both Mamizou and Shou are in. "Shou, you dropped this," she informs her and then goes to give Shou her pagoda. .
"Wow!" A surprised Shou says in such a manner, "I was wondering where that was. You really are a lifesaver, Nazrin!"
"Don't lose it next time, OK? I'm off to the temple. Byakuren should be back soon." Says Nazrin.
Mamizou catches what Nazrin just said. She then asks her about it, "what, Byakuren's coming back? I did not know that she left. What is her business this time?"
"She went off to Myouren's grave to pray for him," explains Mamizou, telling her where she went since she herself, knew.
Mamizou begins to ask something out of wonder, since Nazrin said something that made her think otherwise, "really? But, didn't we bury him here? Why do it away from the temple?"
"It was for personal reasons," Nazrin says, saying that this is something that does not concern the Temple or the residents, "we felt that if we buried him here it would only get in Byakuren's way. You know how sensitive these things are. So she goes out once every so often to pray because she still cares for him."
"I am starting to feel like I should not have heard any of this." Thinks Mamizou, thinking that what she heard was really not meant for her own ears. And why should it? Not like it concerned her at all.
Shou then begins to talk, but about a different matter, "meanwhile, Nue and Koishi left us. Well, I said Koishi left, but she was really kicked out."
"Now, I can understand why Nue left, but why did you boot Koishi?" Mamizou asks, saying this this is both something that she understands and misunderstands due to it being of two different things.
Shou goes to say this to Mamizou, "she was bringing in whatever youkai she could find. The one in particular was a kasha."
Nazrin has quite a big respond towards Mamizou as a continuation of what Shou ended with, "we already have Kogasa and that youkai just was not that scary to be truthful. But the main reason why we did not invite her was because we thought that she would try to steal things such as corpses. This isn't the place for that. So we stopped her from coming in and kicked Koishi out because she herself, wanted to have things her way. Besides, she's a satori. Mind you, her mind reading abilities are what make her so frightening"
"So now, only Byakuren is the only one who can recruit youkai?" Mamizou asks Nazrin.
Shou then says this to Mamizou in response to her question, "that is what we think is best, yes. This is like a safe haven for us after all and she is the one who brought us all here. It only makes sense that she does it," hinting that it is thanks to Byakuren that they all have a place to call "home".
Just then, Byakuren appears. And she happens to appear with someone.
"I think I will go and see Kogasa. See you later!" Shou says just before leaving for the graveyard.
Mamizou then spots Byakuren and begins to greet her, "oh, hello there, Byakuren, dear."
"Hello everyone. Well, I have come back peacefully," Byakuren announces.
"So you had a nice evening?" Asks Nazrin, who then turns her attention to something else since Byakuren seem to have someone with her, "but who is that with you?"
Yashima is seen next to Byakuren and by her side, grabbing tight hold of her.
Byakuren has this to say to Nazrin, "oh, I was going coming to that. Nazrin, could you take care of him for me? I found him around as I was on my way back here," supposedly wanting Nazrin to take care the business involving him.
"What's the cutie's name? Do you know?" An eager Nazrin asks.
"I never thought to ask. It was all so sudden," says Byakuren, saying that she never really asked him since it never seemed to occur since it was not on her mind, apparently.
Mamizou then goes towards Byakuren and then looks at Yashima and begins to say something to him, as a casual greeting, "hello there, little one." She then starts to bring herself down and asks him something, "tell me, what is your name?"
Yashima does respond, but he mumbles his response, "Ya-Yashima. Yashima Hogo."
"Leave him for now, Mamizou," an alerted Byakuren says as she tries to make Mamizou aware of the situation, "he is scared at the moment, don't you see that? I cannot imagine what he went through."
Mamizou, who is still level with Yashima, gets intrigued by what Byakuren says. "What? So, you saved this poor boy?" She asks.
Yashima, as a reaction, slowly starts to cry.
Byakuren is seen being alerted by this. "Now look what you did!" She says in a heightened tone of voice. "Nazrin, help me calm him down," she says.
"Why me?" Questions Nazrin as she then continues, " I'm not good when it comes to comfort," hinting that she is not suitable for this.
Mamizou tries to comfort Yashima. "Shh… Please, don't cry. You are in safe hands, now. Byakuren won't hurt you and neither will we," she says.
Byakuren just looks at Mamizou and says this to her, "Mamizou…?"
Mamizou begins to hug Yashima and carries on trying to comfort him, saying, "there, there, dear. I won't bite," and thinks this, "well, not you, anyway."
Yashima slowly stops crying due to what Mamizou had been doing and he begins to think to himself, "who is this person? She is so gentle."
Byakuren is astonished by this and has this to say, "wow, Mamizou, I'm impressed! Who knew that you were good with other youkai?"
Mamizou then gives Byakuren a weird look. "Don't patronise me," she says to her, not impressed at what she said to her. She then looks at Yashima and asks him a question, "what youkai are you? From looking at you now, you look a bit like me".
Yashima, now a bit calmer than before, replies, "I'm…," he looks around the area with a look of uncertainty but then carries on talking, "... I'm Yashima no Hage-tanuki."
"So you are a bake-danuki like me? That must mean that you can also transform." Says Mamizou, assuming that she knows a little about him already.
Yashima has something to confess, with might seem as a bit of an upset on Mamizou's part, "I'm sorry…," he looks away before continuing, "... I can't transform."
Mamizou questions him on this, "what do you mean, you can't transform?"
"Give it a rest now, Mamizou," says Byakuren.
Mamizou goes to step away from Yashima and bring herself up again. She then turns her attention to Byakuren and says this, "say, Byakuren. Could I take this one off your hands?" Implying that she would like Yashima for some reason.
Nazrin just looks at Mamizou and protests, "but Byakuren told me to look after him. What are you playing at this time, Mamizou?"
"Nothing at all. I just thought that maybe I should be the one to care for him. I have felt a little lonely since Nue left." Mamizou says, hinting that it is all innocent that and that only felt lonely in Nue's absence.
"Well, if that is what you want," Byakuren says as she then pushes Yashima towards Mamizou, "go to her, little one."
"I hope you know what you're doing…," a concerned Nazrin says.
Mamizou then leaves with Yashima.
Nazrin to Byakuren, "Byakuren, why make Mamizou take care of him?" Since she is uncertain on the decision.
"Why not? They are both of the same species. It seems to make sense that one of his kind looks after him," says Byakuren, implying that is makes sense for one of one species to only take care of another of the same.
Nazrin is still not impressed by this as she does not think that Mamizou is a good enough candidate and feels like someone else should do what Mamizou chose to do. "But do you really think Mamizou can be trusted with him? She doesn't exactly have a bedside manner. Or at least, not when she is under pressure," she says.
Byakuren closes her eyes and smiles) Then he best not get on her nerves. (Opens her eyes and has this to say, "who knows? Maybe they will get on like a house on fire. You saw how she handled him just now."
Nazrin rolls her eyes and responds to Byakuren in an unsure manner, "I suppose…"
Meanwhile, with Mamizou and Yashima.
Mamizou is seen talking to Yashima, wondering what happened and why Byakuren brought him here. "So Byakuren just found you, did she? What happened back then?" She asks.
"I'm sorry, it's not something I want to talk about," says Yashima, wanting to keep things to himself.
Bu Mamizou demands answers, so she asks him, "oh? Why not?"
Yashima begins to act worried by this. He then inexplicably says, "I just want to leave all of that behind."
Mamizou begins to look concerned and thinks to herself, just what happened with him? Oh well, I won't force it out of him."
Yashima, out of the blue, asks Mamizou a quick question, "so you are a bake-danuki as well?"
Mamizou begins to act happy. Happy at the fact that he was able to identify what she was. "That's right! And it seems like I will be taking care of you for now. You can thank Byakuren later," she says to Yashima.
"Then that must make you a relative of mine?" Yashima asks Mamizou, thinking that there was some connection between them both.
Mamizou begins to wonder. "I never thought of it that way. I suppose it would," she says.
They both arrive at Mamizou's residence.
"And here we are. This is where you will be staying for the time being. So make yourself at home," Mamizou kindly announces.
Yashima becomes surprised by this and asks, "really!?"
Mamizou, as a way to reassure him, has this to say to him, "why, yes. This is your home now. Myouren Temple is a safe haven for us youkai. And don't worry about starving or thirst. I will bring you all of those needs."
"Really?" He repeats and he then begins to sob. He had never heard such kindness before. "You don't know how happy that makes me!"
Mamizou sghs. "Now, dear. Don't start crying on me again," she says to him.
Yashima continues to sob and unintentionally says this due to the mood that he was in, "my life has been nothing but despair. I was not wanted by anyone and I felt discarded. I was away from the world, lost and abandoned. Then Byakuren… Byakuren…"
Mamizou tries to comfort Yashima yet again. "Everything will be alright now," she says.
Yashima unwittingly has more to add as he stops crying and says this, "I just… I just did not know what to do anymore. Why can't I just escape reality and leave it all behind!? Why can't I just leave this cruel mistress? Why!? I don't want to feel this pain in my heart anymore." He then begins to yell, "I WANT TO ESCAPE! ESCAPE THE PAIN!" He says as he then begins to cry again.
Mamizou begins to shed a tear due to what she had heard. He then begins to talk to Yashima, trying to convince him of something, "but you are here now. I promise that Byakuren and I will look after you. You won't feel abandoned anymore. I will service your needs and Byakuren will keep you safe. Shou and Nazrin were saved by Byakuren just like you and Kagi is just like you in that she felt discarded. Well, I call her "Kagi" anyway, but her real name is Kogasa. You are not alone here. We all share a similar pain."
"Do you…," says Yashima as he sniffle in the middle of his sentence and then carries on, "... really mean that?"
"Yes. We all have something in common and that is why we are here," confirms Mamizou, "this is why you are here, don't you see? Byakuren didn't bring you here because she wanted more youkai, she brought you here because she thought that you were in need of help. This residence is a refuge for us youkai."
"You really…, " says Yashima, as he then begins to move towards Mamizou and then jumps on her and begins to say the rest of what he was going to say rather emotionally, but in a sense of relief, "... MEAN IT!? This makes me so, so happy." He then kisses Mamizou on the cheek.
Mamizou begins to blush by this. "Now, that's enough of that!" She says to Yashima, wanting him to cease.
A now content Yashima begins to get off of Mamizou. "I promise I will be good to you, Big Sister! Can I call you "Sister"?" He asks.
"If that is what makes you happy, then sure," responds Mamizou.
End of memory
Back in the present now, present day Mamizou, after remembering what she had forgotten all those years ago, begins to look shocked due to her own realisation. "So you were that person who I took care of all these years?" She questions.
Yashima, who has changed his personality and is now in his "Child form", seems rather glad that Mamizou was able to remember. He says, "it took you long enough to remember! And I'm really grateful to you for being there for me."
"You said that you would be good to me, didn't you? So what are you doing making MY life a hell?" Says Mamizou, wondering what Yashima's intentions are since he said one thing and to her, seemingly contradicts himself.
Yashima answers to Mamizou exactly why he is such a pain for her, "it's because I like you and I just want to have a bit of fun with you. I was lonely for so long and you helped cheer me up! I owe it to you and Byakuren."
"And this is why you have been so mean to me? You wanted someone to love?" Questions Mamizou.
"I wanted someone who cared about me. You were the only person that treated me like I was part of a family. You are like a sister to me and that is why I act the way I do. It's not because I hate you or anything. It's none of that," explains Yashima.
Mamizou then says something that she recalls hearing Yashima say on that day, "you just wanted to hide yourself from reality. That is what you said."
Yashima starts to look sad by this and says to Mamizou, "my past was a horrible one. It's not something I like to talk about."
"But your other form, the "adult" form. That's not really a transformation?" Mamizou asks Yashima, wanting a bit of an insight.
Yashima then says to Mamizou exactly what that form of his is and why he uses it, "that is only a physical illusion of my former self. This form that you are seeing now is my real form. It is the only type of "transformation" that I can do. I'm Yashima, the Hage-tanuki, the Guardian of Myouren Temple. I use the form to suit my appearance."
"But I have not seen you in so long. You were out here all this time?" A wondering Mamizou says.
"I know, it's been years since we saw each other. I spent a lot of my time out here and when I came into the premise I would never see you there. Then when I became the guardian of this place I started staying outside even more. I became so distant from you, it stung. I only started seeing you again a few years ago, but I never had the chance to talk to you. It must have been 85 or so years since I last saw you. It's no wonder you forgot about me," he says.
This makes Mamizou think for a moment. "Huh, so being a guardian took its toll on you, did it?" She asks him.
Yashima grips his hands tightly. This was the job that he wanted but it ended up meaning that he had to lose something. "But it's what I wanted! How else am I meant to pay my debt to Byakuren? The person who made this all possible and changed my entire life," he says to Mamizou, explaining that he is only doing it for Byakuren.
"I'm… I'm sorry," says Mamizou as she begins to feel guilty, "that was thoughtless of me." Not wanting to continue, she begins to leave, but not before saying, "I think I will leave now. See you after."
"Hey! It's fine. I just like staying here and being with you! I am forever grateful." Says Yashima.
Mamizou starts to shed tears by this, feeling a little bit sorry for hearing far too much. She thinks to herself, "I can't believe what he is saying. He really does mean it." She wipes her face as she stops crying and carries on thinking, "he must have been through so much to feel this way. I just cannot understand how he must feel at the moment. He must have suffered so much."
"And don't forget to mind your step!" Yashima shouts to Mamizou, saying his catchphrase in the process.
End of chapter
Next chapter: The Thought that Counts
