A/N: I'm not sure how many chapters this fic is going to be honestly.. i'll try and stop at 10 chapters since this is only the second fic i attempted to commit to and post. but yeah.. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
"Wow, so many pretty trinkets!" Said one of the tiny spirits in awe, climbing on Yumichika's cart when he arrived to inspect the goods. Yumichika was proud of his day's spending; he got fabric, new tailoring materials, crystals, ribbons and other supplies for his crafting, as well as other non work related items. "Uh-huh. But even better—" Yumichika paused to dig through his cart and then straightening up with a bag of flour in his hands, displaying it to his little companions, "I'm going to be making pie this evening," Yumichika said with a smile, earning him enthusiastic cheers and little hugs from the spirits, "but it'll be your choice of filling, so when I come back, I expect a basket of an element of your choice okay?"
At that the spirits agreed and spread in a haste to gather the missing ingredient despite it being too early. Yumichika chuckled, watching them leave. "You're in a good mood today." Hekma who was observing from behind commented. It wasn't the case when he left this morning. Yumichika answered without turning to face to Hekma, watching the spirits scramble around, "Not really." He admitted. "I just really need this."
Yumichika has dwelled on bothersome matters for as long as he could remember, and it wasn't doing anything for him. So if he were to be bothered either way, he'd rather have the upper hand and give himself something nice to compensate— even if it was something as little as baking a pie.
When Yumichika finally faced Hekma, he exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding while itching the back of his head, "I'll go get some work done now. Make sure the little terrors stay busy." Yumichika said, picking his cart and dragging it inside his home. He emptied the cart, placing food in the fridge and the cupboards, the Incense in another cupboard and his new comb in the bathroom and then taking the rest of his shoppings to his workstation to start working on them.
When the sun was centered in the sky, Yumichika stretched, pulling his arms above his head and arching his back. It was time to head back to the village and Yumichika was just eager to be done with today since tomorrow is his day off and boy did he need it.
Yumichika was on his was down from the mountain in no haste; he wasn't in that much of a hurry to clean up filthy bars. Instead, he observed the trees, the birds, the animals, and then the farmers when he reached the bottom of the mountain.
The farmers were more associated with the spirits than the rest due to them being to close to their territory, and because they've witnessed first-hand what happens when someone tries their luck in trespassing on the Uzla mountain. The farmers just assumed it was because it was the spirits' home, as if to say, the reason those spirits chose to limit themselves on a mountain was for the sake of creating harmony between human souls and spirits. But Yumichika knew it was much more than that.
Yumichika passed the farmers, looking straight ahead and only replying when someone gave him a quick greet, or bow slightly to the older ladies and men who liked to give him free rice and tea when they could spare it. Most of them regarded him as a proud, arrogant oddity and made no effort to hide it. Yumichika didn't mind what they thought of him— it was none of his business anyway. It wasn't much different than his life in the world of the living he concluded— and he wasn't quite sure if that was a coincidence or not.
The way this cleaning job worked; was that Yumichika had to go to an agency and take his schedule for the month, verify his work via a stamp from the bar / pleasure house and then hand in his report by the end of the month to get a new one and so and so. It was a neat arrangement, and it was better than reporting in everyday— that would've been exhausting.
The bars were disgusting, no surprise there. But this one was especially filthy; it smelled like a mix of saliva, booze and urine— Yumichika wasn't very happy when he stepped on the latter, and it was even more degrading that he was now on his knees, cleaning said urine, thankfully it was his last bar for today. Just then, he heard a sound coming from the bar entrance, the sliding doors sliding open swiftly and quite rudely. "Bar doesn't open until six," It was the owner's lazy voice; he probably wasn't even looking up from his shogi. Yumichika could imagine the bastard, playing shogi against himself with a fan in his other hand lazily fanning himself.
"Come on old man, don't deny me my drink." Came the response, the man had a deep voice and the manner in which he spoke was unfamiliar to Yumichika; it was calm and— assured. Much like a parent dealing with a difficult child. Yumichika decided to not get involved and resumed wiping the urine off the floor. Eventually the owner managed to talk the man away and out of his bar and now Yumichika could finally work in peace.
Yumichika wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, finally finished with housekeeping and allowed to leave after getting his report stamped by the bar owner. "Good job Ayasegawa. You clean better than any cleaning worker the agency has ever sent my way." The owner, Falon Fi, said in mock praise. Which did not go amiss by Yumichika, "You should try doing it sometime. Maybe start with yourself." Came Yumichika's collected, snarky comeback.
He tended to show no facial expressions as to not give them any form of satisfaction over him; it helped making everyone know he wasn't the type to just quietly take an insult. Yumichika wanted to leave, he knew the spirits were back home and were very impatient for him to get back. So he made his way to the bar exist and slid the door open— only to be encountered with an usual looking man; the man had blood running down one side of his face and had blood coming out of his nostrils, as well as his mouth. And if that wasn't odd enough, the man had a crazy grin on his face.
Yumichika stood there dumbfounded; the man was looking straight at him, as if waiting for something. "Move it lady." The man said as he pushed Yumichika out of the way and entered the bar. He sounded like the man that came earlier for a drink, Yumichika wanted to go back inside and break the man's arm. He didn't respond well to insult, let alone assault, but he stopped himself deciding to stay out of trouble and not attract any unnecessary attention.
So Yumichika left, playing the incident again in his head, it didn't matter that the man had mistaken him for a woman, most people did. But who had that much blood on their face and smiled like that? Definitely not most people.
"—And then he pushed me out of the way and called me 'lady'." Yumichika said nonchalantly, sitting leaned back against Hekma comfortably while finishing up what remained from his share of pie. The spirits giggled, quite amused by Yumichika's encounter. And that is how the rest of their evening went— Hekma telling stories and Yumichika making little grass crowns for the spirits before making dinner. Eventually, the dark swallowed the mountain, bringing the fireflies to life as well as the lanterns. Which was Yumichika's cue to call it a day and retire to his bed.
The next morning passed in a flash, with Yumichika being finished with his market job, he had no cleaning duty today. So he spent his afternoon getting some tailoring done. And on the hours just before evening, he decided to bring out his portable ofuro so he could have a nice hot bath outside in the open fresh air. Lighting up some candle, some incenses and placing them on the hanging incense burners.
After everything was set Yumichika put his chest-length hair up into a bun and slowly sunk his body into the tub, filled with hot water and relaxing scented oils before placing a rolled up towel on his head to avoid over-heating. Even if it was more for pampering purposes— it was also because he didn't know how else to spend his days off. He usually got some work done, designing and experimenting. But other than that, he had nothing much else to do.
It was only forty minutes into his bath when the distressed calls from the spirits came; one of the more prominent spirits— a tiny raccoon named Pabu, was jumping up and down trying to get Yumichika's attention, the poor creature was out of breath. "What is it Pabu? What's wrong?" the spirits always over-reacted, Yumichika knew that much. But not like this, this seemed urgent, judging from the way the other spirits were all gathering around him as if something frightened them "a h-h-Human Yumi! He's up here!" Pabu stuttered while pointing to the direction of the river. At that Yumichika swiftly made his way out from the tub and grabbed his yukata. How could it be? Weren't the guardians supposed to guard the mountain entrance? Yumichika needed to know what was going on.
Yumichika hurriedly made his way to the river, looking to see where the human was but there was no one in sight. And when he was about to make note of the lack of any other human presence than his own, a slight tug on his yukata diverted his attention to the spirit pointing inside the river. And indeed, there he was, unconscious and passed out in the river.
"What should we do?" "We're not supposed to help him are we?" "He looks hurt real bad, maybe we should-" "NO, we cant. He shouldn't even be here." While the spirits argued, Yumichika looked back to Hekma; waiting for her to tell him what to do. Sure, Yumichika recognized the being— it was the man from the bar. And from what he could tell, this man was trouble and he shouldn't be allowed to stay on this mountain any longer than he already has. But a nod from Hekma made him act otherwise.
He moved to the edge of the river where the man had passed out, half his body was in the running water while the other half was out supported by the man's arm prepped on the river edge. The man was even bloodier than when he last saw him. Yumichika wrapped his arms around the stranger's waist, trying to lift him up from the water; the man was so heavy and much larger than himself. So he tried harder, this time with the help of the spirits— Yumichika was able to drag him all the way back to his cabin where he undressed him, cleaned him and patched him up.