The Fox and The Boy (Soukoku AU)

Chapter 1

The school bell rang and finally the day everybody waited eagerly for came. It was the summer holidays. A small boy with bright ginger hair packed his bags and stared out the window for a while looking a little gloomy. He slowly stood before taking one last look out the window. There was something about the forest just outside the school compound that attracted him and made him yearn to enter. Everyone else left the classroom talking like they were never going to meet anymore but this boy was silent. He meekly left through the door avoiding everyone. As soon as he left through the school gates, he took a long deep breath of air only to have him choke when a hard smack landed upon his back.

"T-Tachihara." He growled. The boy named Tachihara had a wide grin on his face. "Oy, Chuuya. You're really going to head straight home?" Chuuya did not respond. Instead, he turned his heels and walked away leaving Tachihara. Chuuya had his hands in his pockets and tried hard not to clench them hard. He felt his lips trembled and eyes welling as he kept walking further from the school and closer to the forest just beyond the fences. He had no home. He has a house, but it didn't feel like home. It was awfully lonely. Horrible. He picked up his pace and, in the end, he ran. He ran as fast as he could until he reached a signboard that said, "Private Property". He stared at it for a good minute then tossed his bag across the wired fence. He threw his outer jacket onto the fence to avoid hurting himself and climbed over the fence. He knew it was insane. He could die in there but why does it even matter when anybody but his own family would acknowledge him.

He trudged through the thick forest. It was cold and dark. Only little to no streaks of sunlight bleed through the leaves. However, despite how eerie it looked, he felt peace. He felt happy. He felt home. Suddenly, there was a loud rustle of leaves. There was no wind but the bushes behind him swayed. Chuuya felt shivers down his spine and was starting to regret his rash decision. When he turned around, he could not figure out where he was. He was not sure whether he walked in a straight line. His hands started to tremble; his breaths short. He was on a verge of crying realizing that he might really die in the forest that he had always dreamed on entering. Black spots appear on his vision. He was frightened. He was so scared that he ended up leaning against a tree and sat. He hugged his knees close to himself and started crying.

Poor little Chuuya. He was only 18 and he would die in a forest alone. That was what he thought. Suddenly, he felt eyes on him. He could even hear someone else's breathing, or was it something? He wanted to look but he was more frightened to think that he was not alone. He then felt a little weight leaning against his feet and his hands felt something soft brush across them, like fur. He slowly lifted his head up and jolted a little to see a white fox. "A fox?" Chuuya reached out his hand to pet it before realizing the fox had more than one tail. He quickly stood up, making the fox jump, and growled. Chuuya was feeling worse than earlier. Realizing that his death will be recorded as 'getting shred to pieces by an abnormal fox' made him burst out crying with his back towards the fox. The fox stopped growling, tilted its head, and watched Chuuya.

The fox jumped over the bush and moments later a person peeked out from behind the bush. He had dark hair covering most of his forehead with some hair longer than the rest of his bangs that reaches his nose. He walked around the bush and saw Chuuya was still wailing. He slowly approached the Chuuya and gently placed his hand on the latter's head. He felt the boy softly sniffling then moments later Chuuya was falling. The boy caught Chuuya just before he landed onto the ground. The brown-haired boy did not know what to do so he just rolled up Chuuya's school jacket and put it under his head. Chuuya had lost every ounce of his energy and slept.

Chuuya jolted awake and panic was written all over his face once more. The forest was pitch black and he was alone. How long was he sleeping? He felt shivers down his spine from both fear and the cold of the night. He gathered every strength he had left and got back on his feet. He grabbed his school bag and started walking. He was unsure if he was walking around in circles, or he managed to trace back his tracks from earlier. He then saw a long trail of light. "Will-O'-The-Wisps!" he thought to himself. He was hesitant to follow the trail, but he felt a sense of desperation deep down inside, so he followed. To his surprise, the Will-O'-The-Wisps lead him back to the wired fence. It was at the exact same place when he first entered because the signboard was there too. He silently thanked the Will-O'-The-Wisps and climbed over the fence once more. He was too tired to even bother protecting his skin and grazed some of his skin upon landing on the other side of the fence. The city. The winced at the stinging pain and saw blood dripping from his hands. Part of his clothing had small tears as well and some scratches on his body, but he did not mind. He turned towards the forest once more and saw that the Will-O'-The-Wisps had disappeared but there were a pair of glowing eyes watching him with a bright glow outline of a fox with multiple tails. The fox looked beautiful when the moon shone upon it. Chuuya smiled and gave a small bow towards it despite being afraid of it earlier. The fox too, lowered its head and watched as Chuuya ran off.

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A/N: Hello! I am technically very new here (including writing). Please let me know if there are any grammatical mistakes as well as I'm still learning. Hope this story is able to make your day!