(Discontinued )
(Work Dated: May 24 2021)
The streets of Shikagami City have a secret.
To save themselves from paying their severe debts with their soul to a Verdish Goddess of the Underworld, a desperate restaurant mascot has to help a Junhic fox...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
You say, "Alright, I trust you to get me out of here. Lead the way."
Instead of exiting your mouth as a smooth strain of words, your command comes out as a shaky plea through your clattering teeth. You find your breaths forming nimbostrati in the chilly winter air. The chill creeps down into your bones, prompting you to slap your arms around yourself to conserve your body heat. A snowflake floats down from the heavens, plasters itself against your cornea and melts. The cold stings your eye and it waters in response, forcing you to bury your face in your sleeves.
"Human, are you alright?" asks the vixen peeking from behind the dry briar. You glimpse it padding forward through your tear-blurred eyes.
You dry your eyes on your coat-sleeves and nod at her. "Y-yeah, I'm okay. L-let's go."
"I've been told that a human's eyes water when they're sad. Why are you sad, human? I apologize for my rudeness, you can go home if you'd just follow me."
"No, it's just. . . something went in my eye, let's go," you say while rubbing said eye and following her into the woods. The vixen is careful to stay within your sight as it pads through the shrubbery and the thick undergrowth. Her paws carry her silently over the layer of fallen leaves carpeting the floor. You find the contradiction fascinating with almost all of the vegetation sporting green foliage. It seems as if the change of seasons didn't matter in this odd forest. The vixen's fluffy tail slides smoothly over rotten logs, over the white-spotted, scarlet toadstools that sprouted from them and under the feathery, green fronds of the ferns. You've never seen trees other than ancient redwoods hit such heights. You gape at the arboreal marvels, while your fingers trace the roughness of their bark surfaces, and the smooth, wetness of the moss growing on them.
Little mushrooms form fairy rings across grassy stretches, and you find yourself being serenaded by invisible frogs. "It's pretty lively in here," you whisper as you hear owls, crickets and lizards pitching in for the performance. Your arms unwrap themselves from your body as you feel the air growing warmer in the direction in which the vixen leads you.
The vixen spins around to check your position.
"Oh they're. . .you're. . . you're baring your teeth at me. I'm sorry, have I angered you?"
"No, this is a smile," you explain again, while pointing at the newly created facial expression, "we humans smile at things we like, and when we're happy. It's a good thing."
"You're happy now?"
"Not exactly," you say and top it off with a shrug. The creature guides you through the woods, a flash of white cutting through the shadows. The sudden change in scent from the mix of damp wooden, floral and fishy smells to that of fresh tea catches you off guard. The atmospheric temperature has risen from bitterly cold to lukewarm. Your hand parts the last of the gigantic sedges in front of you to find the vixen standing before a hot spring.
