𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 || 𝘈 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘦 𝘹 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

Chapter One: The Tanuki Finds a Hiding Place

This isn't fun at all.

Gasping for breath, I leaned against a tree and clutched my arm, blood soaking through the sleave of my kimono. I'm sure I lost my pursuer for now, but this scratch is going to give me some trouble if i kept running. I needed to hole down somewhere, just hide and heal for a while. But where?

A furious yowl echoed through the sleeping city behind me, telling me the nekomata* chasing me was angry that I managed to slip through his claws. I shivered at the thought of him catching me and pushed onwards, further into the park.

Sudden barking and a cry for help startled me so badly I darted up the nearest tree. A horrible decision as it turned out, the wound in my arm throbbed and I cursed under my breath.
Looking towards the source of the disturbance, I noticed a small dog barking up a tree a little ways down the path. There was a middle aged looking man up in the branches, cowering from the dog and crying for help.

I chuckled at the scene and almost considered using my metamorphosis* ability to turn into a dog and join in the fun, but another human, a younger girl with long brown hair, approached and shooed the dog away. Besides I had more pressing matters to worry about right now.

However the pain kept me from descending the tree and in a moment it was too late for that anyway, the two humans had sat on the bench near me. I was in no shape to successfully sneak away with them sitting so close, and i had learned from experience that most humans tended to be on higher alert during the nocturnal hours. Nope I decided to wait them out.

This turned out to be an annoying decision. Why oh why do humans have to go through their entire life's sob story in the middle of the night on a park bench under the tree I'm hiding in?! If I had a yen for every time this happened to me, I'd have- well I'd have 2 yen. Which isn't much but it's still odd that it's happened to me twice now.

I was convincing myself to drop a branch in both their heads when the topic of their conversation finally got interesting for me. The male human, who I'm fairly sure isn't actually one, was giving the girl his house. Something about being unable to return and needing someone to look after it.

Ohhoho hello there opportunity

I didn't particularly enjoy being cruel to humans, but I couldn't afford to care right now. If there was an old house previously owned by a most likely inhuman being, there's a chance it could be the perfect hiding place for me. All i had to do was scare the human girl away and it was all mine! Easy!

The man gave the girl a map to his home, and left her with a magically suspicious kiss on her forehead.
Suspicious for me at least, the silly human couldn't sense the spiritual energy if it slapped her in the face.

I tailed the girl for a while, but my injury let her get ahead of me, and I wont lie and say i didn't get distracted by that little dog from earlier. The little canine gave the funniest yelp when I snuck up behind it and startled it into falling into a pond.
Luckily my nose hadn't failed me yet and it certainly won't tonight.

~~~~~~~~

I found the place by morning.
And well, at least I hadn't been let down; the human girl had been sent to an old shrine. I took one look at the place and doubled over in laughter. Shrines like this weren't exactly built to accommodate young humans, and from the looks of it she had already been roped into doing housework by the shrine spirits no doubt looking over the place.
I found her in the dirt on her hands and knees weeding out the yard, and boy she didn't look happy about it.

"Well time for the fun part." I chuckled to myself and produced a leaf from thin air. Placing it on my head my form shifted into a demonic looking yokai with a puff of smoke.
Taking a deep breath and making sure my wound was concealed, I leapt out of the bushes and roared. The girl screamed and spun around, throwing a gardening hoe I didn't know she had at me with a surprising amount of strength.

It hit me square in the jaw and I landed flat on my butt, clutching my smarting face. The human ran at me, still screaming with her eyes screwed shut and wielding a spade.

Well shit this didn't work..

"WAIT HOLD ON!" I shouted, poofing back into my favorite form; mostly human looking with racoon ears and tail, and (h/l) (h/c) hair. A much more human-friendly form.
"SORRY I SCARED YOU I DIDN'T MEAN IT IM SORRY!"

The girl stopped right above me, spade in stabbing position, and glared at me with furious tears in her eyes.
"Oh and who are you? Another bitchy familiar* here to complain about me being the wrong god?! Well news flash I'm just Nanami Momozono and I DONT CARE!!"

I laughed nervously, "Uh hi there, I'm (Y/N) and I'm not a familiar hahah pleaseputdownthespade."

Nanami stared down at me a moment before releasing a loud sigh and kneeling down. She dropped the spade and held out her hand, "Well it's nice to meet you then (Y/N)."

She had a strong gaze for a young human; light brown eyes that made it clear she wouldn't put up with any bullshit. It was then that I noticed the mark on her forehead. The one the not-so-human man had given her yesterday. The mark of a land god.

"Uh," I swallowed nervously and completely ignored her hand, "you wouldn't happen to have a familiar that's gonna jump out and try to rip my arms off would you?"

Nanami tilted her head in confusion, "No, why do you ask?"

"Ah good." I chuckled, "That's usually what happens when I mess with a god. I didn't realize you were one honestly, I thought you were just some human."

Nanami stood up and dusted herself off. "I am just some human." She huffed, "Or that's what I'm supposed to be, just a normal high school girl. But NOO, I had to follow some weird man's map to this rundown shrine looked after by the saltiest fox in existence. And get stuck doing chores for his home after he runs off to throw a temper tantrum!"

I raised an eyebrow and she sighed.
Reaching out a hand to help me up she smiled brightly, "But that's not your fault, sorry for ranting haha."

I accepted her help this time and stood up. She was much younger than I initially thought, really just a highschool kid...

"Are you hungry?" she asked, "I sure am after all that weeding. The shrine spirits don't eat so there wasn't much food here. I had to go shopping this morning just so i wouldn't starve!"
She wandered off inside still talking about food and the shrine.

What an odd girl. She was right though, I was hungry. My injury hurt again, and it was getting difficult to fake being fine, but a full stomach might fix that. Nevermind my original plan, maybe I don't have to kick this human out after all. Living with a god might give me enough time to heal before I was found. I just had to stay on her good side.
How hard could that be?

*Notes for those who need them:
Yokai: A class of supernatural monsters or spirits in Japanese myth.
Tanuki: A racoondog yokai. Usually a joyous creature that enjoys playing tricks on humans.
Kimono: A traditional Japanese garment.
Nekomata: A cat yokai with two tails. Typically evil in nature and will eat and abduct people.
Metamorphosis: In this context it referrs to the tanuki's ability to shapeshift using a magical leaf.
Familiar: In this context it is a spirit bound to serve or guard a deity.