The last thing Sawamura Eijun expected to bring home from his run this morning was an injured tanuki he found in the middle of the forest. A cool looking rock? Sure. A large acorn? You bet. A bright colored beetle? Maybe.
But an injured tanuki he found caught in a bear trap that can barely walk? Never in a million years did he think he'd be bringing one home. But it's not like he could just leave the little guy out there. Another big snow storm is supposed to be coming tonight. And if that didn't take the poor thing out, some predator probably would have. And the thing looks too cute to go out either of those ways.
Now that he thinks back to that trap, he should really tell one of his supervisors about it. They had set them up last summer to ward off bears coming closer to the area, but Eijun hadn't gone that far into the forest when he found it. A little kid could have easily found it and gotten seriously injured.
Speaking of injuries, the tanuki in his arms let out another pitiful whimper as its body shook. Poor little thing, the injuries on its legs look nasty, and it must have lost a lot of blood if it's caked down fur tells Eijun anything. All the more reason for Eijun to hurry back to his house so he can help the little guy.
Walking into his small house, Eijun quickly realizes that he doesn't know how he is going to treat the animal in his arms. He doesn't have any supplies, other than a small first aid kit, which doesn't have the supplies to treat much more than a couple cuts. So all he can do right now is put the tanuki down gently on the living room couch. Once he does, he makes sure the tanuki isn't going to move before he runs off to the bathroom.
He grabs the first aid kit under the sink and also wets a bath towel, taking it back to the living room with him. He is surprised to see that the tanuki is where he left him on the couch. He would have thought the animal would try to run away again. Maybe the thing really is in a lot of pain.
Eijun crouches next to the couch, opening the first aid kit. It takes him a few minutes to locate everything that they need to help the tanuki. It's mostly band aids with a couple of disinfectant wipes. Oh, hey there's a role of bandages in there.
Eijun starts with one of the wet bath towels, using his free hand to pull the little guy up into his arms. The tanuki doesn't fight him like before. Instead it lets out another pained whine, leaning its head against his chest.
It almost feels like he could hear the little guy's heart beating through his clothes. Or maybe that's his own. Either way, it's reassuring to feel the heartbeat and hear the soft snuffles coming from the tanuki.
"It'll be okay," Eijun promises softly, "I'm gonna get you fixed up."
Although after Eijun wipes the blood off the tanuki's fur, he quickly realizes he has no idea how to actually treat the injuries. And they are a lot larger and worse than he expected.
Eijun tries to think of anyone he knows who could help him. Wasn't his neighbor, Kuramochi a vet? He could probably help! Although it was Sunday, the man's only day off. Eijun also remembers Kuramochi mentioning something about going away this weekend. He will just have to do something to hold the tanuki over until tomorrow.
Eijun takes the tanuki's paw in his hand, slowly lifting it into the air, holding the little creature's paw carefully between his two hands. He gently wraps one of the rolls of gauze around the tanuki's leg.
His other hand goes under the tanuki's body so he won't accidentally hurt the creature. Eijun finishes wrapping the first wrap and picks up the second one. Now that he's done wrapping the tanuki, Eijun looks down at the animal. He's taken care of all the visible injuries he can see.
It seems even cuter lying down like this. Eijun wants to pet it, to scratch behind its ears or even give it a gentle stroke across its fur. If it weren't for the injury. And the fact that the tanuki is hurt. Eijun would want to keep the animal safe until they could figure out what happened to it. But if they couldn't find someone else to help then Eijun knew he wasn't letting this little guy out of his sight for the rest of the night.
With that settled, he stands up. Carefully setting the tanuki onto the floor. He grabs a blanket, draping it over the tanuki and pulling it tight to make sure it doesn't fall. Once finished with that, Eijun walks over to the kitchen and looks through the cabinets. He starting to grow hungry, it is about dinner time, and he is sure the tanuki is hungry as well. Who knows how long it's been since it had anything to eat?
Looking through the cabinets though, he wonders. What do tanuki eat, anyway?
His hand brushes against a can of green beans he's had for a while but had yet to use. Will a tanuki eat this? He wonders.
He opens it and pours the can's contents into a small bowl setting it onto the table beside the tanuki. He gets a bowl from the cabinet above the stove and fills it up with water. Setting it on the side table, he brings his attention to the tanuki, who seems to have fallen asleep. He smiles lightly, glad the animal has managed to rest for a while.
Nudging the tanuki's nose, he pushes the bowl of food into his face. "Come on, wake up little guy, you gotta eat!"
The tanuki lets out a low whine, trying to avoid Eijun's hands by turning its head to the side. It turns it's head up to face Eijun instead, giving a weak glare. Eijun huffs. He may be a bit intimidating, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have good intentions.
"Hey! Don't give me that look, I'm helping you. You gotta be hungry." Eijun holds the bowl towards the tanuki.
Eventually the animal must realize what's in the bowl, for it reaches over with its non-injured paw and brings some of the green beans to its mouth. Watching the animal eat, Eijun can see it's eyes clear up. Is that even possible to tell in an animal? But Eijun is happy that the animal seems to be doing better and smiles to himself.
"When you get done with that, you can go back to sleep," Eijun tells the animal. Noticing the time, Eijun thinks that he should be getting ready to go to sleep now himself. Especially if he has to bring the animal to Kuramochi to get it checked out. Nodding to himself, he starts to do that. He decides that he'll sleep down in the living room tonight. He doesn't want to move the injured animal more than he needs to and wants to be near it invade anything happens tonight.
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Miyuki doesn't know what to make of this man. While it was nice and he will be eternally grateful that he released him from the trap, what in God's name made the man think it would be a good idea to carry Miyuki to his house?
Eventually though the injuries on his legs cause a haze of pain to settle over his mind, he is vaguely aware of this strange man treating his injuries and petting him like a dog. Did this man think he was a dog? He wasn't.
Once he is fed though, man he was starving, he becomes much more aware of what is going on and his surroundings. The house is small, one story it looks like. With a small living room, kitchen, and some bedrooms in the back. After the man gave him some food. He leaves Miyuki to go to sleep. Miyuki watches as the man goes back to the kitchen to eat some food himself before he gets ready for bed. And it looks like he is going to be sleeping on the couch next to where Miyuki is laying down.
Miyuki watches as the man falls asleep. He debates if he should move, try to get out of here. The last time he tried moving anywhere his body was put under really intense pain.
But if Miyuki knows one thing, he knows he has to find a way out of here. Miyuki knows from experience he isn't good at controlling how his body shifts when he's injured. Plus, he knows Nabe must be seriously growing worried that Miyuki hasn't come home yet. So, preparing himself, Miyuki slowly gets up to check his surroundings. Mainly the doors leading outside.
It takes him a while to walk over to the front door they came in from. Even though his legs are nice, clean and bandaged, it hurts like hell to walk. He gets there to find it closed, which he probably should have expected. But the handle is low enough that if he stretched he should be able to reach it.
Quietly, not to wake the sleeping man nearby, he reaches up. It's locked. He should have expected that. Now how else can he get out of here.
Then, Miyuki spies the window on the wall between the kitchen and living room. This guy might have locked the front door, but the windows might give him a last chance of escape. Struggling over to the table below the window, Miyuki uses one of the chairs to climb up and stand above it. These injuries are really hindering his movements. That climb should have been nothing for him
He nudges the bottom of the window and finds that it's unlocked. Great!
Through the glass, he sees large snowflakes dropping down from the sky. A snowstorm must have come through. He didn't see that on the last check he did of the weather, but hey, that was at least two days ago, his mind was focused on completely different topics back then. Like that stupid traffic design project.
He opens the window just enough to squeeze his body through and jumps to the ground below. The jump down is farther then he expected, but he didn't see that the house was built on a hill.
No matter though, he didn't get any more injured than he already was. And the couple inches of snow that had already accumulated on the ground had cushioned his fall. The only thing that sucks about leaving is that he's back in the harsh cold of the night before. He really hopes he can get back to his apartment soon, he doesn't want to spend another night in these cold temperatures.
Now he can't change back into his human form right now, running around as a naked man would surely get him into trouble. And it's night time, so a tanuki running around the streets wouldn't be that unexpected. But as he rounds the side of the house to reach the street he finds a fence. It's a good six or seven feet tall and the nice flat wood paneling makes it impossible for him to climb up, at least in this injured state.
It looks like he'll have to face the biting cold on his human skin if only for the time it takes to open the gate. Only when he tries to change forms, he comes into a major problem.
Why can't I shift back?
He tries again and again. Rips off the bandages tied around his arms. Thinks over the reasons why he can't change. And comes up blank. It's not his injuries that are stopping him. He's had many bad injuries when he was a kid, broken bones, stitches, you name it. And while he was highly advised not to shift then, it didn't stop him. So why can't he change now?
Whatever the reason, he will have to figure it out later. Right now he needs a way past this fence. Since he can't go over, he will try to go under. Although with it being the dead of winter in the middle of a blizzard, he finds the ground to be frozen solid as he tries to use his one good paw to dig up the dirt.
He eventually has to stop when he feels the paw hurting. It would do good to pave no good limbs of use.
He looks around his surroundings. The snow has really started falling now. Depth coming up to about his head. These conditions are certainly worse than last night. If he doesn't get out of them, he won't survive.
He looks back up at the window. It's still open. If he can get up there somehow he can get back inside. But how? Looking around, he can't see anything that would help him, even if he is able to move it, which he doubts he'd be able to. It doesn't help that the front door of the house is on the other side of the fence.
Now his paws are starting to hurt from the cold air. This really wasn't good. He makes his way back to the window and tries to climb up the wall. He quickly finds it's impossible, what with his hurt legs and numbing appendages.
It looks like he will need the help of that man if he wants to get to warmth again. Although he's sure that by this point the man is fast asleep. And if climbing out of the window told Miyuki anything, that man can sleep like a rock.
Although he is really loath to do so, Miyuki knows that his only hope of getting back somewhere warm is the guy sleeping inside. So, he starts to bark up at the window, hoping the man will hear him.
After a couple minutes, Miyuki stops when he begins to hear loud barking from a dog nearby. He looks around but doesn't see anything. What was that? Is there something outside? He certainly hopes not, there is no way he'd be able to defend himself if something came over.
After a couple seconds, the barking stops. Miyuki starts up again, trying to wake the man inside. But after only making one or two yaps, the loud barking from nearby starts up again. Hearing it again, it sounds like a dog. Probably a pet of one of the neighbors. And although Miyuki wishes he can rely on the other dog's barking to wake the man inside, his body is quickly growing colder than before, and his eyelids are growing heavy.