A/N: Even while attending a Blazar event, this fic wouldn't leave me alone hahaha

"Keiwa-san, I'm just glad that you're all right."

It felt as if someone had just rung a bell inside of his head.

He couldn't explain why, but when Neon expressed her deepest relief that she was glad that he was healthy... Keiwa couldn't help feeling his heart clenched. Of course, he felt troubled that he made Neon worry when they barely knew each other, but somehow it doesn't feel like it.

Somehow it felt as if he had broken a very close friend's heart in the past—yet, according to Neon... the two of them had never met or known each other. Why did he keep feeling that it wasn't the actual truth?

He sighed.

"That aside, Neon-chan, what about you? Aside from my sister's ramblings about whatever things you've shared on your channel... is there anything else happening in your life? I mean, you must have a reason why you do the things that you did—"

"Ah..." Neon started to say as Keiwa hastily tried to apologise. "No, I mean... It's not that I didn't want to tell you—"

She sighed.

"Since you said that your older sister followed my channel, you should already know that the main reason why I did all that 'non-fiction documentary' about me running away from home was that I wanna find my true love. That perhaps, by streaming my attempts to reach that dream, perhaps I can find that special someone." Keiwa nodded to her to let her continue. Neon shrugged at him.

"But lately, it felt as if something had changed. Not that I didn't want to continue chasing my dreams anymore, but it felt like that person I was desperately looking for was somewhere I could never really reach for." Neon smiled weakly at him. "Even then, I still continued streaming my content nowadays... since THAT had become a very good distraction to me."

Keiwa cocked his head at her as Neon continued. "Well, you heard about what happened to my father. And well, I had very complicated feelings about my parents, so even if I'm still uncomfortable about returning to that 'home'... having to hear all about them on the news was just—"

"I'm sorry," Keiwa started to say, "I didn't mean to make you think about stuff you're not comfortable about—"

Neon just shook her head at home. "Ah no," she smiled weakly. "Actually... I liked talking about things with you. For some reason, I really felt comfortable with you..."

"I'm glad about that."

xxx

Keiwa decided that the next time when he had a day off, he would try to look for the Inari shrine that the girl from the animal clinic told him about. He told Sara about it as well. But before she could allow him to go look for the place, she INSISTED that Keiwa must go there with her accompanying him. She didn't want a repeat of the incident a few months ago when he fainted in some courtyard all by himself (Sara really wouldn't let him forget about that)!

Alas, when the day arrived... Sara couldn't get time off from her own job, since there was an emergency with her colleagues and she had to go help. She really didn't want Keiwa to go out alone with Ace with his frail health... but Keiwa reassured her that he would be fine. He found a bus route that he could use to get to the place, so he shouldn't be over-exerting his strength while trying to find the place. So in the end, Sara had to reluctantly let him go. And she made him promise to call her if he was in any way not feeling well.

Sara really was such a worrywart...

.

So that was how Keiwa ended up sitting by himself with Ace at a bus stop. Because he promised Sara that he would not overtax himself trying to find the hidden Inari shrine while also carrying an injured, full-grown albino fox with him. He really hated the thought of spending any amount of time listening to Sara scolding him endlessly later. Because Sara can really go on and on when she gets agitated.

Hopefully, he wouldn't need to really walk too far from the stop he was supposed to go down to...

.

"Oh! It's you again!"

A familiar voice suddenly spoke to him as Keiwa glanced up from where he was sitting. It was Michinaga... in a construction worker's clothing. He was with another guy... also in the same attire. So both of them were construction workers then?

"Someone you know?" asked the other guy as Michinaga's brushed his friend off.

"No. Just someone I met weeks ago who somehow knew my name..." Michinaga drawled before shooing his friend away. "You go first, Tohru. I wanted to have a word with this guy."

"Oh, sure..." said 'Tohru' as the man left.

.

"So what're you doing here?" Michinaga asked as Keiwa just shrugged at him.

"Waiting for the bus... duh. You think?"

Michinaga just rolled his eyes at him. "Of course, I can see that! Just that I never see you here in the area before—"

Keiwa sighed. "That's because I have no need to go anywhere here in the past, but now I do. Why did you care so much about it? For someone who said they didn't know or even want to care about who I was before, you really cared a lot about me being here—"

Michinaga just blinked at him, stuttering in the process. "W-well... you did claim that you thought that you know me... and you DID call out my name!"

"That's—!" Keiwa cried out before Ace started barking at Michinaga from inside his pet carrier. Michinaga jumped in surprise.

"Eh? Did you have a dog there... it sounded odd—" he started to say as Keiwa just shook his head.

"That's not a dog, idiot. That's a fox. Ace didn't sound weird to me as a fox—!"

Michinaga took another look at Ace as he tried to see him through the see-through opening. When recognition hit him, Michinaga just screamed at the top of his lungs.

"This was your fox? How—?" Michinaga just turned towards Keiwa as he suddenly remembered something. "You... it was YOU! I remembered you now! You're that guy whom this fox had forced me to carry to the hospital! That time... when your sister came to pick you up, we talked a bit with each other! Was that how you know my name?"

Keiwa frowned. Was that how he knew Michinaga's name? Back then, he was still pretty much out of it after having a slight fever.

Wait, what's with these strange coincidences—?

But most particularly...

"What did you mean that Ace made you come to help me?"

xxx

Throughout the bus trip, Keiwa had been staring blankly in front of him in a complete daze.

"What did you mean that Ace had been with me since that far back?"

So... the fact that he found Ace a few days ago, injured... was that not really an accident? Has Ace been following him around without his knowledge all these times? Why? He thought that Ace had been wandering around and got lost in the town... but if Michinaga was telling him the truth, Ace had been watching over him for a very long time!

What kind of fox was Ace actually?

.

He almost jumped out of his wits when the bus driver spoke out to tell him that they reached the stop that he wanted to go to. So after thanking the driver, Keiwa hastily got down from the bus with Ace...

xxx

The note that he received from the front desk girl had been very useful. Because the directions had been written so precisely, it didn't take long for Keiwa to locate the hidden Inari shrine. And contrary to what he imagined, the shrine didn't actually look as old as he'd imagined. The shrine did seem to appear worn out, derelict... but it did show signs that someone had tried to repair the structure. So that should mean... that there should be someone taking care of this small shrine.

And perhaps they could tell him more about Ace... if Ace really did come from around here.

"Umm... pardon me, do you need some help by any chance?"

A soft voice suddenly spoke from behind him as Keiwa turned around to greet the owner of the voice. It was a young woman in a Miko outfit, but it wasn't quite the usual Miko outfit that you normally see in other Shinto or Inari shrines. She was wearing what looked like a cross between a traditional Miko outfit... and a flowy dress. And instead of the usual red and white colour outfit, the 'miko' was dressed in black and white.

And the 'miko' appeared a bit too surprised to see him. She looked like she was almost about to say something to him when she saw him for the first time but then hurriedly clamped her mouth shut. Did she know him somehow?

.

"Umm, I wanted to ask... do you somehow recognise this fox?" Keiwa spoke out as he put down the pet carrier he was holding.

"A... a fox?" she gasped as Keiwa opened the carrier slowly. Ace limped out of the carrier as the young lady immediately recognised it.

"Ace!" she exclaimed as Keiwa gasped in surprise.

"Ace? Was this little guy really called Ace?", Keiwa asked again as the miko gave him the same strange looks again.

"Err... umm, yes. Ace was a sacred fox that used to live in this shrine."

"Oh..." Keiwa gasped.

Part of him had hoped that it wasn't true... part of him had hoped that Ace was just a random wild animal that had suddenly taken a liking to him to have kept following him around for so long. So this was Ace's real home. Does that mean... he has to part with Ace and leave him here?

"Ace was the only cub from a sacred female fox that used to reside here... before she died."

Keiwa felt his heart squeeze when he heard that. So like him, Ace had also lost its parents.

"A-anyway—!" Keiwa hastily forced himself to speak. "I found him injured near my place a few days ago... and I have been taking care of him for a while. So I'm sorry that I didn't take him here any sooner. If I'd known earlier that Ace was from these parts I could've—!"

"Y-You could keep him!" The miko suddenly blurted out.

"Eh?" he gasped. The miko's pale cheeks immediately turned red.

"I-I mean... Ace seemed to have taken a liking to you. And I... I felt that even if you leave him here after this, Ace would still end up looking for you again. And I could see that you really care about him a lot as well..."

Could this be real? Keiwa couldn't help feeling joyful suddenly. Could he really keep Ace? It felt like a dream come true...

But he couldn't just leave again after coming here from so far...

"C-can I... look around here for a bit?" he asked.

The miko suddenly has a gentle look in her eyes.

"Of course... you may."

xxx

They ended up exploring the small hill behind the Inari shrine, as it looked as if it had been well-kept and maintained. Even when it didn't look as if there was any 'gardener' who could've taken care of this place. It was strange. As if there was a supernatural entity here that kept this place in orderly manner...

.

A frog suddenly jumped out on the path in front of them out of the blue. And Ace suddenly dashed out towards the frog—limp et al—before starting to attack the frog with its claws. Ace let out a menacing growl at the frog as if trying to protect him from the frog. The frog did seem to keep trying to hop towards him.

Ace barked at the frog a few more times as Keiwa hastily tried to stop Ace from continuing to maul the poor frog.

"Stop that, Ace. You don't need to keep attacking that poor frog—"

But when Keiwa was about to check on the frog to see if it was all right, Ace breezily jumped over him again and started to kick the frog very far with its good leg. Keiwa couldn't help but let out a helpless sigh.

He glanced back towards Ace before smiling weakly.

"You really hated that frog, didn't you?"

xxx

They managed to pass by an old fox hole where a few small fox statues and a much smaller shrine were erected beside it. He smiled softly at it before glancing towards Ace.

"Is that your old home where you used to live with your mum?" Keiwa asked one-sidedly as he knelt down in front of it to take a closer look.

And suddenly Keiwa felt pulled to check on the inside of the smaller shrine.

Ace right away started to bark at him and tried to make him leave the small shrine alone.

"What is it?" Keiwa asked as he started petting Ace instead and tickling it before Ace started to roll on the ground, demanding more. As if trying to tell Keiwa that he was much more interesting than the small box-like shrine next to him. Keiwa chuckled.

What was it that you're trying to hide...?

.

When Keiwa had distracted Ace enough, he quickly opened the small doors to the smaller shrine. And he saw a number of cylindrical objects with animal symbols on them arranged neatly in a pile. It looked like a pile of toys some child might have hidden it in secret.

But the one object that grabbed his attention more was the two other similar cylindrical objects that seemed to be placed apart from the other animal pieces.

Before Ace could stop him, Keiwa picked up the green one with the tanuki motive before he suddenly froze up.

"A-Ace?" he gasped.

A?N2: Finally Tsumuri made her appearance!