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

[Epilogue]

"We're here!"

"Huh. It's very quaint."

"What do you expect? It's a rural tourist town."

"Can we eat first? I'm starving."

"Wait, Kaori. Let's at least see the tree first before we eat."

Tourists milled around the carpark, wrapped in puffer jackets against the cool spring air. A short stone path led them to a grove of old camellias.

Tsubaki-kami towered above them, the last of the winter blooms shedding heart-shaped petals to the ground below. The paper tassels on the sacred rope around the tree's trunk were tossed in the light breeze. Small stalls sold charms, while a line of people, mostly young woman, waited their turn to greet the giant tree.

"Apparently Tsubaki-kami is over seven hundred years old." The speaker, a young woman with a scholarly air, pushed her glasses back up her nose. "She is one of the oldest camellias in the world."

"You've been researching?" One of her companions, a young man, elbowed her playfully.

"I find this kind of thing fascinating. You know, I found the records of one of my ancestors a month ago, and I couldn't stop reading! All her encounters with yokai and lesser kami... I'm sure she even met the kodama of Tsubaki-kami..."

"Do you really believe all that?"

"I think it's cute," said another young woman, pouncing playfully on the first speaker. "Leave her alone, Kenji. Come on, Mina, tell us more. What's that little shrine there near the tree?"

The shrine in question was a small wayside structure, a hokora. Standing on stilts, its shingle roof barely reached head-height, but it was clearly well maintained, the red paint freshly reapplied. No signs indicated to whom the shrine was dedicated, but a statue of a golden manekineko, smiling and beckoning, sat within. Fallen camellia blossoms were thickly clustered around the base of the cat statue.

Mina adjusted her glasses again, this time unnecessarily. She looked a little flushed. "W...Well, according to the local legends, a cat was regularly seen in the branches of Tsubaki-kami. Those who saw it said that they often experienced luck afterwards."

"So some smart capitalist decided that having a tree that assisted love and a cat that gave luck would make an excellent marketing opportunity?" Kenji said drily.

"You're got no sense of romance." The other woman, Kaori, shook her head disapprovingly. "Let's have a closer look at that hokora."

"I thought you were hungry."

"I've got a box of Pocky."

"How is that enough?"

They lined up for the manekineko shrine, complaining about assignments and gossiping about lecturers and other students from their faculty as they shared the Pocky. When they reached the front of the line, they clapped their hands and bowed three times.

"I wonder why there are camellia flowers offered here," Kaori said, looking at the heap of blossoms. "The camellias are right there already. It seems lazy."

"Well, there must be a reason why the legend says the cat was always in the tree," Mina observed. "Maybe the manekineko liked the camellia. So giving it camellia flowers makes sense."

"You mean they were in love, Jyaa-chan?"

"M-Maybe? I don't know!"

"Are you in love?" Kaori asked the manekineko statue with a smile. "So much you wanted to stay right next to your lover? I hope you're very happy."

"What do you think, Tsu-bo?" Eitsu asked, high up in the branches of Tsubaki-kami, invisible to the humans below. She turned her face to bury it into the bare neck of the kodama beside her, her rough tongue caressing the heart-shaped birthmark on the spirit's neck. "Do you think we're happy?"

Tsubaki shivered under Eitsu's roaming hands. "I'll be unhappy if you keep getting distracted."

Eitsu laughed into her neck. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

"Are you happy though, Eitsu?"

Eitsu, her hand halfway up Tsubaki's thigh, paused at the sudden serious tone. "Why?"

"I still don't remember what happened before. Are you really okay with this?"

"I should be saying that to you." Eitsu kissed Tsubaki's nose. "I did some bad things to you."

"Somehow, I think I did something bad to you too." Tsubaki held Eitsu's face between her hands, searching the kaibyou's golden eyes. "Knowing myself... I must have thought we couldn't keep going the way we were. We had to start anew. I think... I'm a selfish person."

"That makes two of us." Eitsu kissed her, very gently. Tsubaki's lips were as soft as petals. "Thanks."

"... why?"

"Hm. Not telling."

"Eitsu!"

"Should we give those two girls a push?"

The trio of students left the shrine, debating whether to join the line for Tsubaki-kami or to get food first. Kenji kept rolling his eyes at the two women.

A sudden breeze pulled more camellia petals from the tree above, and Mina and Kaori were showered in them. As they dusted themselves off, Kaori noticed a small shape wander right being Mina. "Mina! Don't step back, there's a cat-"

Surprised, Mina jumped forwards instead, straight into Kaori's arms. The little black cat meowed at them as though laughing, and rushed away into the crowd of tourists.

Kaori and Mina stood absolutely still for a moment.

"Mina, there's a petal..." Kaori gently picked a red petal from Mina's dark hair. Kenji sidled inobtrusively away as Mina, blushing almost as bright red as the last camellia blooms, opened her mouth.

"Um! Ka- Kaori! I want to- I need to tell you... Well... I..."

Eitsu appeared back by Tsubaki's side, humanoid once more. Their fingers intertwined. 

"Now then. Where were we?"

***

Chapter notes:

香 (kaori) – fragrance.

健治 (kenji) – health and healing.

咲(mi) – to bloom; (na) – eternal.

じゃあ (jyaa) – 'well', 'so', and -chan being a cute suffix for close female friends. A nickname because Mina seems to say 'well' a lot.

***

And we're done.