Never Again (Soukoku)

Captured

The moon in the dark blue sky and it bathed the earth with it's luminous glow. Leaves dancing in the cool night wind. As Dazai's eyes flickered open, memories from the previous day slowly came back to him as he tried to sit up but ended up laying back down on the bed. The first thing that caught his eyes were colourful bottle and jars decorating the wooden self. Was it poison? Dazai started getting anxious when he thought of the few thousand ways and reasons why he was still alive. That was until he heard the door creak open. Dazai watched as a shadow casted itself on the wooden floor. "Great, you're awake!" A blonde exclaimed, thrilled. Her hair tired to a bun. Holding a glass of purple fluid, she didn't waste a second to get to Dazai's side and check on him. "I rather you not move that much, your wound may open again. The lady pointed to Dazai's stomach as she went to put the glass on the nightstand. Dazai frowned as he sat up with the help of the lady, who introduced herself as Higuchi.

It took some time for Dazai to realise but he noticed habits of Higuchi he spoke up after a while. "you're a Kitsune right?" Higuchi's eyes widened as she turned around slowly and looked like she wanted to say something but nothing came out. Under Dazai's curious stare, Higuchi huffed as she nodded. "I'm a lone kitsune..." Her tone, sad. Upon hearing that, Dazai quickly bowed his head as if apologising. Lone Kitsune's are Kitsunes who were banned from the tribe beacause they did too many sins or when your skills are powerful. The leader of the Kitsune tribe must have thought that Higuchi's skill and kitsune powers were too powerful to be called safe in their tribe and must have banned her. It seems that Higuchi got banned because of her skills. Dazai couldn't even sense any kitsune aura from Higuchi, that was evidence that she could hide her aura and make an illusion and convince Dazai that she was a human. Despite that, Dazai still guessed right and that surprised Higuchi. She fooled every human and never failed in tricking them easily. "How...did you know?" Higuchi asked, her voice soft and gentle. Dazai glanced over at Higuchi and sensed fear in her voice. He knew why she was so reluctant to tell him she was a lone kitsune. Lone kitsunes are discriminated by other kitsunes. They were treated like an odd one out. Dazai didn't like the way of banning kitsunes just because their skills are are stronger and they had the knowledge to learn without practise. They don't even know whether they would do it for good bad. However, Dazai wasn't the leader so he had no say in this. "I saw the way the bandages were wrapped. Our tribe teaches every kitsune how to do simple first aid and we have a specific way of how we tie the last loop of the bandages." Higuchi gave an understanding nod and placed a cup of water on the nightstand for Dazai to drink if needed.

"After I got banned from the tribe, I ventured on my own and lived in this hut a random human abandoned. I focused on manfesting my healing powers for the first few months. Afterwards, I thought instead of using my powers, I started using ingredients from the nearby forest and made medicine. Some succedded and the rest are still being tested. I test my medicine on injured animals. I find a lot of them aorund here. I was out and about, trying to find more new ingredients and found you on the ground, slowly bleeding out. No worries, your wound isn't deep. After a few days, you can start traveling again." Dazai hummed in response as he took a sip from the glass. "What's your name? You look familiar." Higuchi continued to avoid the awkward silence. Dazai gave Higuchi a 'are you sure you want to know?' Look and after seeing the nodding lady, he sighed, "Dazai Osamu. Son of the leader of the Kitsune tribe..." his voice was monotone. Higuchi took a while to process what she just heard before kneeling down and bowing her head respectfully. "I"m sorry for my causality." Her voice in a pleasing way. Dazai sat up straight as he reached his hand out to stop her but sighed once more. "I don't really care about my role in the tribe. Lift your head." Higuchi did as so but Dazai noticed her being tense. He took the chance to ask about a certain tengu who stabbed him and flew away. "Um..just to ask but did your see a tengu fly by?" Higuchi sat on a chair next to the bed and used her right hand to surpport her head. She looked up at the dealing as if she was thinking hard. Dazai waited patiently and Higuchi lifted her head and replied with worry lacing her words, "Now that you bring it up, there was a tengu, he hid his wings but I saw through it. He was walking past my hut and I saw him going to a direction where the Tengu hunters are at. I'm worried his wings would be plucked out by the hunters..." Upon hearing that, Dazai face palmed himself as he slowly got up from the bed and wore his coat which was hanging on a hook nearby. "Where are you going. Your injury!" Higuchi hastily got up and stopped Dazai from exiting. Dazai smiled slightly, "That Tengu is my fiancé and if he dies I think I'll actually suicide." Higuchi stood rooted tot he ground upon hearing the word, 'fiancé', she hasn't met any couple which consists of a Kitsune and a tengu before si it took her off guard. Slowly but hesitantly moving out of the way, she went to her table and grabbed a few supplies and gave it to Dazai asking him to use it if needed. "Your dagger is inside. Please have a safe journey." Higuchi did a respectful bow before sending Dazai off. Hiding his tails and ears, Dazai used his hand to comb through his hair as he set off down the path. "Dazai-san!" ,Dazai glanced over his shoulder, "Use the medicine, it heals any wound!" Dazai nodded while grinning. He could only hope now that Chuuya wasn't wingless when he finds him.

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Chuuya was currently dodging all kinds of attacks from Tengu hunters on the ground. He swore that he saw some climbing the trees to get higher above ground. Chuuya's biggest mistake was that he wasn't aware of his surroundings when he is focusing on attacks from the front. In a blink of an eye, he heard a click, a grappling hook was shot out of it's barrel and it caught Chuuya's leg. Chuuya mentally cursed as rope wrapped itself around his leg and Chuuya was pulled down. Hitting the forest ground with a thud, Chuuya groaned as the hunters pointed whatever sharp objects they had at him. Chuuya was thinking of keeping his wings but decided against it when one of the hunters stomped on his wings which made Chuuya yelp in pain. Tying Chuuya up with rope and taking his katana away, they roughly pushed Chuuya to move forward. Chuuya was born stubborn and he rather die then to get his feathers plucked out by mere humans. He did that move from his spot. His persistent but stubborn behaviour made the humans click their tongue in frustration as the resorted to drugs as they violently covered Chuuya's mouth with a cloth. Chuuya struggled as he moved away to not breathe in the toxic fumes but to no avail as the hunters gripped him tightly to refrain him from moving too much. The drug worked after a few seconds as Chuuya felt his eye lids become heavy as they slowly closed despite his effort to keep it often and he knocked out. The hunters grinned evilly as they carried Chuuya back to their base.