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

46 - Eitsu

A/N: It's finally here. The last chapter.

Thanks to everyone who has read all the way to the end. So what's next? I'm planning on finishing off the other three Tales of the Jade Road, then returning to do some rewrites. The stories have only had some basic edits done (and I'm still catching typos), so there's a bit of work there.

There will also be an epilogue, and maybe some extra stories.

If you would like more background on the universe of the story, or want to learn more about some of the other characters, please have a read of the other Tales of the Jade Road - I'm really not the Saviour!, At the Water's Edge, and Ginseng and Yew.

Stay safe, drink some water. See you again in another story!

***

The journey back to Yamato took longer than three days.

But not much longer.

Eitsu ran east, into the cold lands where youkai are more common than people.

The further east, the more the land spoke to her. A harsh land of ice and stone need a god of luck. A god of madness is unavoidable.

She followed the hidden paths, memories of a land bridge that had dissolved in the years before she became conscious. She almost kept running, into the east.

Huge, golden-furred, the red markings on her body gleaming in the dark snowscape, Eitsu was nearly consumed by Kesshinichabe.

At the last moment, she turned south.

As the air warmed, Kesshinichabe fell away from her, and eventually, a little black cat trotted into the outskirts of Soraki.

Even here, winter had its grip tight – snow covered the houses and streets, but could not cover the brilliant blooms of a grove of camellia, shedding pink and red hearts.

Her gaze travelled up, up, up. The tallest camellia stood over twelve metres tall, towering over her metre-tall sisters. The people of Soraki had wound a shimenawa rope around the tree's trunk. Its white and red paper tassels fluttered in the breeze.

Heart-shaped petals drifted around her, settling in the snow.

There was a woman in the high branches. She had long, dark hair that blended with the deep green of the camellia leaves, and a pair of beautiful bright red eyes, red as the flowers.

Seeing Eitsu staring up at her, she jumped down, drifting like a petal herself.

"Hello, little one. Are you alright?"

This exquisitely beautiful woman wore a familiar white yukata patterned with red butterflies. The red sash was shredded, barely holding the robes together. The sleeves brushed the snowy ground as she bent and held her hand out to Eitsu. "Can I pat you?"

She smiled.

Eitsu thought she would die right there and then, with that dazzling, unfamiliar smile driven straight through her heart. Fingers scratched around her cheeks and she melted into them, pressing desperately against those hands that no longer bore any scars.

"What's your name?" the camellia spirit asked. "You can call me Tsubaki."

Why did you keep your face, your hands, your voice, but not your memories?

"Kesshinichabe," Eitsu said.

Is this to teach me a lesson, for leaving you alone so many times?

"Oh, with a name like that, you must be from Chup-tuk."

Yes. And I wandered south, following the warmth to Yamato. And then...