Ink Stained With Blood (Yokai!Ichimatsu x Reader)

Chapter 13

The monstrous screeches and yells faded behind me as I ran deeper into the snowy woods, the sunlight beating down on the white snow underneath my feet. The cold air hurt to breathe but I pressed on as far as I could run, following the tracks that Jyushimatsu had left.

Stumbling over a fallen tree limb, I righted myself before leaning against a gnarled tree for support, catching my breath in the cold.

This was insane.

Here I was, chasing a yokai in the forest while my fiancé was being held off by one of his brothers. My hand trembled as it slowly reached back towards the bow of my sash, my fingertips pressing against the once soft material as they felt out the slim wooden shaft of the fude brush. Shaking my head to some unspoken thought, I pulled my hand away from the pouch tucked inside the sash and kept running along the tracks that had been left recently.

"Jyushimatsu!" I called out into the quiet forest, rounding a larger tree before seeing the man from the cave standing still in the middle of some kind of clearing, his vivid blue eyes locked onto me as I slowed down to catch my breath, "It's...Ichimatsu. He's not himself..."

I tried to raise an arm to point towards where I had come from, but couldn't muster the strength as my lungs cried out in pain from sucking in the cold air. The only sound came from me within the clearing, prompting me to look up at where Jyushimatsu stood.

He hadn't even moved from the spot, his eyes still on me.

"You wish for me to interfere?"

"I--" Cutting myself off, I took a deep breath as Choromatsu's words came to mind, "I need your help, Jyushimatsu."

The inugami stayed silent as he stood tall, his hues never leaving mine.

"I need you to help Choromatsu calm Ichimatsu down," The large swath of cloth over his lower face made looking at the brother unnerving, but I pressed on, "He said that you were my inugami, and doing this favor would make me happy."

Jyushimatsu quietly closed the distance between us in just a few strides, his intense gaze focused on my own hues. The hunting bow that was clutched in his left hand had been slung over his shoulder while he moved, leaving both of his hands free as he held them out to me with his palms facing the sky.

I cautiously lay my hands in his before he gently closed his fingers over them.

"I will do this for my master."

Without warning, Jyushimatsu pulled me close as his form shifted into something larger, some kind of fur spreading from his gloves to his arms and shoulders. I kept my eyes closed as my hands clung to the fur, feeling him move me onto his back before the wind immediately picked up speed, its chill winter fingers tugging at my hair and clothes.

The movement underneath me mimicked an animal running at full speed, curiosity urging me to open my eyes and look.

I hesitantly obliged, seeing whitish fur along Jyushimatsu's back as he had shifted to run on all four limbs. My fingers tightened their grip as I lifted my head, seeing a large pair of dog ears pinned back as a heavy exhale accompanied a large waft of hot air as the creature underneath me ran. The fur extended from the ears down past me to end in a long length of tail that seemed to be ethereal in appearance, the latter part of it trailing off into dark smoke.

There were shreds of clothing still clinging to the creature, drawing my attention that despite the physical change in appearance, Jyushimatsu was still the same size as he normally was. A large twisted rope clung to his waist as the end trailed down by his tail and disappeared with the same ghostly trait.

"Jyushimatsu...?"

One of the ears flicked back towards me, the only indication that he had heard my quiet question.