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

29 - Kinhama

A/N: This will be the last chapter of Eitsu's Nine Lives for this year. What, why? I hear you ask. Well, maybe you didn't. I'm going to rationalise to make myself feel better anyway. This time of year is a time for me to spend with my family (and it's especially important for me to do so this year, for various reasons). Also, I'm moving house, again, which is an excellent thing to do when everything shuts down for the public holidays so I am unable to get a moving van, get electricity connected, etc. etc. Well done me.

Anyway, I'm having a break until Monday January 8. If you're looking for more Tales of the Jade Road goodness, please consider checking out my other stories. No, there is no smut in them, and yes, only one of them is GL (and they still haven't got together yet, dammit), but if you'd like more world-building, want to know what happened to Miss Fen and Chun Zeyi, Jyun Sou Jyut and the Necromancer, or want some of the history of Hanasan/Mount Faa/Mount Hua, you'll get plenty of that.

Please drop some favourites if you're enjoying the story so far. I'll see you in the new year with a whole heap more chapters. We should be coming to the end of this arc soon, and then... well, let's say I've been consuming a lot of horror media in preparation for what's coming up. Happy holidays!

***

The trio wandered northwards, their steps punctuated by yawns. Ayame was practically asleep on her feet, and Eitsu might as well have been sleepwalking.

"Why do you look the same as usual?" Eitsu grumbled, squinting at Tsubaki.

"Dead inside?"

"Gorgeous as always, my dear."

"It's because I don't usually sleep anyway."

At the Hour of the Ox, when the world was at its most silent, with only the sound of rain, or insects, or wind, or the faint, faint whisper of falling snow, Eitsu would wake in cat form or human form, and find Tsubaki at the window, staring into the night. How many lives had it been? This life, her seventh life, her sixth...

She stumbled sleepily against Tsubaki, nuzzling her hair. "If you can't sleep in the future, just wake me up, okay? I'll help you get back to sleep."

"Is that a euphemism?"

"Could be."

Ayame tripped on a small rock and stumbled.

"There's a ryokan near here," Tsubaki sighed. "I've performed there before too, so they might give us a room in exchange for a performance."

Eitsu and Ayame complained incoherently about the unfairness of making Tsubaki work, but the dancer ignored them, pulling them both along until they found the inn.

The next thing Eitsu knew, she was waking up tangled in a summer futon. A host of glass fuurin sang from the eaves.

"Hungry?" Tsubaki was elegantly seated by a low table, her chopsticks lifting cold noodles. Eitsu tiptoed over the still-sleeping Ayame to join the dancer at the table, receiving her own noodles and a cup of cold barley tea, drops of condensation beading on the outside.

"How long...?"

"Most of the day."

A muddled nod greeted this news. Eitsu slowly sucked up noodles, occasionally forgetting what she was doing. She spent a few moments staring into her bowl as if divining the future from its contents. "Hey Tsu-bo, do you remember where you were born?"

"No. Do you?"

"Nope." She traced her finger from one drop of condensation to another on the surface of the cup, guiding the drops to join and swell, racing to the table. "But I think it was the north."