Eitsu's Nine Lives (永津の九生) [yuri/GL yokai reincarnation story]

2 - Obanashi

CW: A little bit of horror

***

She dreamt of a shrine.

She was perched on the altar, looking out from the small shrine onto a town street. The altar was covered in offerings, and someone, a child, was arranging them reverently. Beyond the doors of the shrine, a bustling market was in full swing, although Eitsu couldn't see any details, more an impression of busyness and trade.

"Tennai-sama, would you like to lie on this cloth? Feel it, it's very soft."

Eitsu's whiskers twitched with amusement. Tennai-sama? This kid...

"Put it here, brat." Eitsu's voice came out in a low growl. The child laid out a bolt of bright fine cotton and Eitsu stepped onto it, her golden paws catching the few sunrays that angled into the shrine.

The boy? Girl? extracted a jewelled brush and carefully groomed Eitsu's long fur. They rubbed loose cat hair between their fingers. "Tennai-sama, may I keep this?"

"My fur?"

"That's right, Tennai-sama."

"... what's your name again, kid?"

"I don't have one, Tennai-sama."

"Hmph. Yeah, keep the fur, I don't need it."

"Thank you, Tennai-sama." The voice was oddly muffled.

Eitsu turned her golden eyes on the child. The sight made her fur stand on end.

Surrounded by a swirling miasma, the child had the fur in their huge, gaping mouth, almost splitting the face from ear to ear. It munched hungrily at the golden strands, empty sockets where the eyes should have been. Then the fur was gone, but the mouth opened again.

"Eitsu-sama... I'm so hungry..."

A birthmark, incongruously shaped like a heart, burned like a brand on the creature's neck. Eitsu licked her lips apprehensively and arched her back. She hissed at the tendrils of dark smoke reaching out towards her.

"Eitsu-sama... Eitsu-sama..."

She woke with a start, drenched in sweat.

*

The problem with the 'respectable' ones, Eitsu thought, was that they get cold feet quickly.

And then she thought, how did I know that?

Eitsu was sat by the roadside outside the town, flipping a copper coin from the small pouch at her new belt. That morning, her benefactor had fed and clothed her, and sent her politely on her way with the small bag of coins. Eitsu idly wondered why she was being shipped out so quickly – Did that ojisan sense I'm not human? Did he get get an unfortunate case of sudden morality? Perhaps a wife? 

Well, that's not a problem. Just get her to join in.

- but shrugged philosophically and put it all to the back of her mind, along with her other specific trouble, as an ox-drawn cart came trundling up the road towards her. She waved down the driver and hopped nimbly aboard.

"Where are you headed, ojiisan?"

"To a small village near the city, young traveller."

"Which city is that?"

The old man driving the cart surveyed Eitsu seriously under his impressive eyebrows. "Obanashi, of course. Are you playing games?"

"Sorry, sorry. I was fooling around. Of course Obanashi. What's new there? I haven't been for a while."