The Fox and The Boy (Soukoku AU)

Chapter 2

It was a bright sunny morning. Chuuya tightened his eyes when the rays of light seeped through the curtains and onto his face. He whined a little, rolled to the side where his face was not greeted by the sunlight and pull the sheets up to his face leaving only his hair out. His stretched out his left arm and started patting around the floor looking for his phone. When he finally felt his phone, he pulled it under his sheets and checked the time: 9.12am. He sat up with his eyes still shut. He then felt his heart race when he remembered about the incident in the forest. Before he lost consciousness, he felt a pair of hands holding him by his waist, stopping him from a painful fall but who? Who else would roam in such forest? It was impossible that the fox could stand on two feet just to catch him. He pondered a while then remembered the fox was probably not just any forest fox. It has multiple tails; he could not remember how many, but it was definitely unusual. He then had a sudden revelation that what he met was no ordinary fox but the legend, the myth. "Kitsune." He whispered under his breath.

He put weight onto his palms to push himself up only to fall back down when the wound from the wired fence stung. He winced in pain as he held his hand by the wrist and stared at the awful sight of his skin. This time, to prevent himself from using his hands to push himself up, he kneeled and used only his legs muscles to stand. He muttered soft curses under his breath and went straight to the bathroom. After he was done relieving himself, he washed his hands while he bit onto his shirt. He also brushed his teeth and washed his face. Once his hands dried, he applied some aloe vera gel that his guardian would use onto his wounds from time to time. It was cooling and soothing. He rummaged through the medicinal cabinets and found himself a roll of bandages. He carefully wrapped the bandages around his palms so that it was neat and secure.

Chuuya, then brought the roll of bandages and tube of aloe vera with him out the bathroom. When he opened the bathroom door, there stood a tall, beautiful lady. "Kouyou oneesan." Chuuya bowed and walked past her. "Chuuya." The boy stopped in his tracks. His heart was racing. He knew he was in trouble since he came home late. "Oneesan, I can expla- ". Before he could finish the sentence, Kouyou hugged him. "Oneesan...".

She pulled away after a while and gave a long gaze directly into Chuuya's grey eyes. She pushed some of his hair away from his eyes and smiled softly. "Never do that again." She suddenly said. Chuuya knowing exactly what she meant shook his head. "I'm sorry, Neesan. I will do it again." He turned around a walked back into his room. Kouyou was barely there for him so why did it matter whether he was home late or not? All she ever did was work. He knew it was to provide for him, to ensure he would have a good life but being lonely and neglected was not what he wanted. He had nobody to talk to. Even Tachihara is not somebody he could express himself to. Moments later, he heard a door shut close indicating that Kouyou had left, and he was all alone at home.

Chuuya emptied his school bag and stuffed some of his clothes. He went to the kitchen and took some food from the fridge. Kouyou would prepare a lot of food for him and leave it in the fridge. He brought himself a few bottles of water as well because he felt that he might stay longer in that forest this time. He rummaged through some storage boxes and found an old flashlight. It worked at least. He looked in his bag and it was all set. He kept his phone in the bag too. He then left the house and made his way back to the forest. It was a Saturday so there were more people walking about the area. If he were to climb over now, there would be many witnesses and he would get in trouble. He did not want that. He did not want to cause any more problems for Kouyou. He knew well that leaving the house without her knowing was enough to get him in trouble, but he chose to ignore it regardless. It was her fault for working on the weekends as well and did not think he was being serious about 'doing it again'. After about half an hour of pacing back and forth and waiting for the area to clear, Chuuya quickly threw his bag over the fence again. He quickly climbed over the fence as well despite the stinging pain in his hands. Once he was on the other side, he ran deeper in so no one would see him.

Once again, he felt the same peace. He kept walking. It was nice to take breather occasionally. He walked for almost an hour when he finally stopped and sat by a tree. Again, he heard the same rustling pattern coming from the bushes around him. This time he could see some leaves flying about. He was not afraid. Not this time. However, nothing appeared. He was a little disappointed hoping to see the fox again but to no avail. He slumped lower until he was basically just lying down between the roots as he stared towards the sky – or rather just leaves from the big trees. After a while, he then heard some soft crunches of leaves and the snap of twigs breaking. He sat back up and there it was, the white fox – kitsune. It sat with its head tilted. Chuuya slowly stretch his hands to pet it and to his surprised the fox came closer. It leaned its head onto Chuuya's bandaged hands and closed his eyes. "How is this possible?" Chuuya thought. The fox then moves backwards and that was Chuuya noticed it had exactly nine tails in total. Chuuya eyes widened as he whispered, "Tenko." A white nine-tailed fox. Tenko the heavenly fox. Tenko are good kitsune that possesses divine powers. Realising that Chuuya has finally known what it was, it went behind a tree and moments later out came the tall brown-haired boy again.

Interestingly, he was fully clothed. He wore a dark blue sweater over a white buttoned up shirt and a pair of beige pants. He even had shoes! There were some bandages seen from under his collar and some were wrapped up until his palms. He walked back towards Chuuya and smiled. He crouched down and extended his right hand. Chuuya hesitantly shook his hand. "Are you going to eat me afterwards?"

The brown-haired boy looked taken aback by the question.

 "Pardon?" he asked.

"Eat... me- I mean this is a trap, right?" Chuuya stuttered.

The boy only chuckled. "I heard you call me a Tenko. Why would you think I was going to eat you?"

"Don't you all eat humans even if you're the good one?"

"No. I no longer feed on human life force. I'm more surprised that you know which Kitsune I was."

"I- I like reading about yokai. How should I call you?"

"I'd like to believe my name is Dazai. Dazai Osamu."

"Believe?" He heard Dazai hummed questioningly at his question, but he chose to change the topic, "Will you be my friend?"

Dazai only smiled and nodded. He too was a lone fox for 1000 years. He had achieved the rank of a Tenko, gained his ninth tail, he even attained a level of power like a god and yet he was still lonely. He was in fact happy when asked to be somebody's friend, a human friend. "Oh, and you are?" the fox asked. "Nakahara Chuuya." He answered.

"Oya, oya? Let me take you on an adventure!" he then pulled Chuuya by the wrist to hoist him up. Chuuya then quickly grabbed his bag. "Welcome home, Chuuya!" Dazai said happily. Chuuya paused. Home. He was home. He was welcomed. He felt his eyes get watery, but he wiped them dry. He took a deep breath and followed Dazai deeper into the forest.

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A/N: Hello! Glad to see you here again! I hope everyone is doing great and had a nice read :>