"You are determined for me to die in the most unimpressive, most mundane way possible." Mafuyu winced while snatching another pricker thorn from his bushy tail. He figured it was probably a bad idea to let Chiyo take the lead to guide them from the ruins. And he was only disastrously correct when the boar triggered every trap under the sun. Least of all a pit of pricker bushes she so graciously decided to drag him in as she fell. "What kind of madman even comes up with a trap on par with death by papercuts...?"
Chiyo snorted and he ignored her response to take in a huge breath of fresh air, gag, then flopped on the grass to bask in the warm sun. The underground ruins had been a treacherous labyrinthine trek of them blindingly fumbling around and nonstop jibber-jabber from his unexpected tag-along. So of course, relief hit him like a wave once the last grand stairway led them out from murky green stones to lush woods and open air.
Mafuyu wasn't quite sure what he'd expected the world to look like. He hadn't really had the time, given the circumstances. And so, the fox curiously focused on his surroundings and not the chatterbox oinking behind him.
It was like looking at the world with the key details inverted; like a waking dream where things were just off enough to notice. The waves of purple grass he'd grown up with were now deep greens mixing with the muddy browns of the ground. There was no perpetual twilight, no second moon bleeding mystical orchids and violets through the sky. The crystalline cliffs could not shine in the sun when they were made of stone solid and gray.
And of course a whiff of the air exposed it to be nearly devoid of magic...
"Goodness, you clam up tighter than a pickle jar sometimes, Fu-Fu."
Mafuyu still had no idea what to do about her, though. Figuring out the double-edged sword following him was like trying to stomp a square peg down a very small, very round hole. On one paw, he agreed to take her up on her offer to help. He had no other idea what to do, and not having his magic just made that worse. On the other paw...
"Why bother? You seem fine doing enough talking for the both of us." Mafuyu said, "And I thought your home was nearby." The fox gazed out at a horizon choked off by trees and overgrowth. Woods as far as the eye could see, like an open-air version of the ruins as he followed the boar.
"Can't really just sashay into this town. At least, not without one of these." Chiyo pulled a key from her bag. It was bronze and pronged on both sides. Like the door down in the ruins, a gentle scent of magic wafted from it, something mechanical like the toy automatons his mistress was so fond of.
The boar literally sank the key into the air when she finally stopped. A flicker of light and a loud click later and the trees around them suddenly melted away. It was a glamour, the fox suspected. A visual trick that traded the trees for a towering terra-cotta gate too high for him to just barely see the top of.
"Not every town can protect itself from demons." Chiyo said, "This barrier is how we do it here." She beckoned for him to follow her through the towering wooden doors that swung open slowly to greet them.
Drakelily was a completely different beast compared to the Sapphire City. King Yama's city was like a starched perfection of alabaster and jeweled blue. Everything moved obsessively and compulsively, like regal clockwork wound extremely tight.
This town dismantled any semblance of clockwork beneath explosive pinks, blinding whites, and an urban planning that turned everything into a terra-cotta nightmare. Sweeping towers and memorials were instead clusters of shops, fountains, and wooden bridges. Cobbled paths snaked wildly through homes of wood and stone, stacked at uneven heights and packed way too close. And petals, pink from the high arching trees planted here and there, fell like snow flurries over the gorgeous, sparkling lake stamped at the heart of it all.
Mafuyu stayed lockstep behind Chiyo. He had to or else risked being swallowed by the claustrophobia of mortal furs around him. They often walked shoulder-to-shoulder, always busy, constantly bustling as if they couldn't stop. He had read once that mortal lifespans were significantly shorter, a dull comparison to the hundreds of years for a yokai, and especially the immortality of a Familiar. He supposed it made it all the more pertinent for everything else to move just as fast to keep up with them.
But perhaps the most jarring thing was that Mafuyu could finally smell some magic...kind of.
It still didn't come from the autumn air, no. Instead, it came from the artificial constructs littering the entire town. Yokai were no strangers to Relics. Magic tools existed in every plane and Mafuyu could easily recall many of his mistress's back in their old cottage home. They were supplements for a yokai; amplifiers to enhance the innate skills they already possessed.
The mortals did not use them as a supplement, though. They were clearly a substitute.
Many vendors stood at stone kilns or iron stoves built within large carts, firing them to life with bellows-like devices. Residents watered potted plants hanging from doors and windows with water pails that never seemed to run dry. Vendors stood before their shops, calling out to customers through funnels that made their voices boom down the cobbled roads. And the loud bellow of boats rattled the horizon as they propelled across the lake without wind, but on massive wheels that churned the water.
Mafuyu's monster nose was going berserk. As subtle as it was, there was no denying the wildly diverse types of magic coming from every device, scrap of clothing, and even the jewelry that everyone possessed. "This is either all fantastically fascinating...." The fox pinched his nose while watching a mortal slip through a shop's self-sliding shoji, "Or fantastically lazy."
"It's what you have to do when you can't use magic—you get Relics made to do it for you." Chiyo stated simply, "Though I figure a mage wouldn't need nor care much for them."
"Yokai commune with the magic around us. We seldom need to force it—"
"And in other news, another wildfire has appeared downtown in Ward Seven. This makes the third in the past few days—"
Mafuyu suddenly shot back. Maybe he yipped. Maybe he even hissed. He wasn't sure because his response to the chattering device...wasn't a practiced one. He didn't even realize he was glaring daggers at the thing until the shopkeeper froze halfway in setting it on the windowsill. The voice coming from the small box was loud and staticky, firing from the wire mesh hole loud enough to set his fur on end.
"You even trap ghosts in your devices? That is a very easy way to get cursed..." The fox mumbled.
"...There ain't no ghosts in a radio. You hit your head down there or somethin'?" Chiyo asked and offered him a closer look. But the fox opted to stay far away from the possessed machinery—one cursed mirror was enough for one day. "Let's go then, Fu-Fu. My shop's not too far from here."
The boar tried pulling off talking and walking backwards at the same time. She failed miserably, tripping over a loose board in the bridge and slamming ass-first into the nearby crowd. They all took a spill, like furry dominos, launching bags and boxes in a clatter all over the ground. And loosing a series of moans and profanities after...
"O-ohh..." A silver-furred mink groaned while shoving from beneath Chiyo. She was clad head to toe in jewelry. All Relics, Mafuyu noted with a knowing sniff. He had no idea what the various rings, bangles, and piercings even did...and a closer whiff told him he probably didn't want to know. The black stones set in them all positively reeked.
"Shit, my bad, Mrs. Kamiya." Chiyo spoke warmly. She started lifting up everyone's boxes as if they were made of paper. When she offered the first stack to the mink, she smiled politely, "You feel oka—"
"Don't!" The mink snatched the boxes away. Too hard and too fast, scattering the contents all over the ground. And when she realized this, she hastily yanked her belongings, pinching them like they would explode. "I-I mean, I'm fine, just stop touching things, Hasegawa..."
There was no skill in the mink's attempt to hide the guarded line her maw fell into. There was no tact at all in the frowns that spread like fire signs amongst the crowd. Especially when they shrank back after the boar offered their belongings back. So instead, she shrugged, set the boxes down, and waved on her walk forward.
"Ya'll have a good'n, then." Chiyo said simply.
The mortal furs stood joined at the hip while giving Chiyo just enough berth to not touch them. Just wide enough to barely scrape the edge of a faux pas. The glares aimed at them were like arrows, notched and ready to strike at all sides. They came tipped with whispers, nondescript but poisonous in their tone. A judgmental poison that dogged their every step over the vast wooden bridge while the two crossed it.
Mafuyu knew this stinging criticism well. And was too aware that none of it was aimed at the actual monster between them.
****************************
Mafuyu was convinced the boar was a con artist. Because Chiyo's shop was nothing like the hype she'd built it up to be along the way.
The store was two stories worth of worn wood, rickety windows, and paint that peeled just enough for the bugs to scuttle beneath. It sat lonely on a hill, a barrier of weeds between it and civilization that gave Mafuyu some non-kosher flashbacks. Cracked windchimes greeted them balefully beneath orchid awnings and splintering balconies. And a sign reading "Bellflower" dangled loose off one end of its chain.
The place was clearly haunted.
"No it ain't!" Chiyo spat and jiggled the door open.
Mafuyu was welcomed by a breath of stale, yet homely air. Past the antiquated foyer and small sitting room, a worn carpet tongued a path into the store proper. Age seeped into the bones of dark wood carefully propping the second floor up over the first. Lavender, and daffodil, and orchid washed over everything else from the faded wallpaper, to the fraying tapestries, to the old floral-shaped lamps hanging from poorly nailed sconces.
"Alright, this isn't a haunted house—it's a hoarder's paradise." The fox tapped his claw on a crystal ball too murky to see through near a shelf. The entire shop was like that: wooden shelves suffocating beneath brittle pots, aged tools, and mounds of yellow parchment that screamed 'junk shop' instead of charm shop. Relics lined every shelf on the first floor, a library of cracked and tarnished fossils from some bygone era. Books with loose pages piled beneath glass bottles and tinctures of all colors, shapes, and sizes. The fox lifted a bowl full of powder to examine it before nestling it back near rows of polished stones that had long lost their luster. Boxes sealed in wax or paper; lanterns and tarnished bells jumbled against the windows—this was what clutter in hell looked like.
"The Bellflower specializes in older charms that are hard to find—it's how my grammy kept things affordable." Chiyo frowned at his comment while flipping the lights behind a worn clerk counter. The chop whirred as it filled with a dim, off-white hue. "She collected most of these from her travels when she was the shop's Proprietor. They're all very rare and very precious."
And probably like her grammy, very dated. But Mafuyu knew better than to light that fuse. "Do you get much business?" He asked instead.
"It used to be more popular. But I reckon it died down a touch since grammy passed..." Chiyo's voice drifted—but only for a moment, quickly wrecking into another statement after, "But now that I'm the Proprietor, this place'll be busier than a kicked hornet's nest when I'm done fixin' her up."
The winter fox nosily thumbed through a stack of papers on the counter. His monster knowledge translated the bold "past due" stamped to death on them easily enough.
"I don't doubt it." Mafuyu said disloyally.
Chiyo's cheeks flushed red before she suddenly ushered the fox upstairs, "You reek like a stale sandwich."
Mafuyu supposed it was the hog's way of clapping back. And while her quip certainly must have punctured him...somewhere, maybe, he couldn't deny how ghastly he probably looked. His fur was an explosion of dirt and smudges, matted to hell and peppered with pricker debris. If he had any emotions to speak of, he imagined they'd mirror Chiyo's stink face.
The second floor of the shop must have been the residential portion. A long hallway lined itself with a few bedroom doors, a kitchen, and a bathroom the boar shoved Mafuyu into. He watched Chiyo pour the water like magic from a spicket just by turning the knob, filling the ceramic basin tub built right in the floor's middle.
"Still care about my shame?" The fox grinned toothily while passing his clothes through the partially cracked door.
"Pffth, you ain't even my type, feller." Chiyo's indignant snorts were chased by her yanking the door shut behind her. This left the fox alone to sink into the hot water, lean up against the edge, and count the periwinkle tiles while his thoughts spilled alongside the dirt.
Had his situation been a routine one, Mafuyu would have approached it the same way he always had for the past half-century: assess the circumstance; pick out the proper emotional beats from memory to manipulate his way to the top; and stand on whoever's shoulders he needed to in order to stay there. That was the lesson his mistress vehemently burned into his every instinct.
But there was nothing normal about this situation. Down here, in a land where magic was sparse, tools were a necessity, and demons lost themselves to corruption, nothing worked the way it should have. And being aware of that made the questions fall too fast and too far out of his control. Enough to spike his pulse with an unwelcome quickness curious in and of itself.
How long had he been down here in the mortal world? The question came from the fox's personal logic, answered by the weak flame sparking to life in his palm. The waning symbol of his deal was a bad one. His time was ticking.
Was there a way to return to Yurei in time to fulfill his deal? That was the question from the monster inside him. Logically that should have been his next move. But where to start? Especially when the familiar scent of hollyhocks attached to his magic was now rapidly waning from his body.
...could he even return to Yurei?
The kitsune's ears twitched. He didn't like this question. It came from somewhere cold and foreign, like a knife to his chest. It twisted with every whiff of his fading magic. It twisted with King Yama's last words. It twisted at Tsuyuki's face in his mind, engulfed in flames, sharp enough to make him grasp his chest—
The gesture shocked him. And Mafuyu suddenly dropped his paw. For a while, the fox blinked down at it, letting the echoes of the moment resonate even as it came and went. Something was very wrong and he needed to fix it fast. "But...where the hell do I even start?"
"You can start by trustin' me."
The walls were pitifully thin. They had to be since Mafuyu could easily hear the hog through the bathroom door. It creaked open a crack, making the fox's ears perk while he leaned over the tub with a practiced grin. "You're being suspiciously creepy right now. You sure I 'ain't your type'?" The boar only ha-rumphed in response to his question. A weak, dismissive noise as she reached in only to plop some linens for him against the wall. All kind gestures, from the offer to the bath. And that bothered him. "You know, I'm almost no different from the demons we ran into, Piggle. Is it okay to be this inviting?"
"I reckon I have a whole shelf of books to use on you if you get ornery." The boar stated simply, then added, "My grammy would have given the same kindness. This shop exists to help furs that don't got magic or can't afford to get none. And her motto is mine now, so don't you fret none."
The fox didn't buy it. That wasn't how things worked. Sure, the boar spoke simply enough. But there was always an angle—something for something. Even if that something was drenched in sweet words and a syrupy Mortal accent.
"I don't take on debts I'm unwilling to pay." Mafuyu said.
There was a pause. A shuffle against the door—perhaps to give herself time to think? And then, the hog said simply, "You are a mage. I figure helpin' you can be step one in breathin' life back into grammy's old shop. And then, I can keep my promise to her."
There. That was much more refreshing. Maybe even respectable in the honesty that chased her words. It was enough to inch that knife out his chest just a bit. Oh sure, he probably couldn't actually trust the boar for shit. But there was something in her reassurance that he didn't realize he could still perceive.
Comfort.
***********************************
Mafuyu scrubbed the dirt and stagnant water from his fur easily enough. His lack of faith in Chiyo, however, stuck to him like glue. He was still all too aware of the waning scent of his magic. And as he sat on the counter, tail twitching in impatient ticks, he watched the boar move around her shop with the attention span of a pebble.
Still, he tried to stretch his patience, even biting back the snark after she nearly drowned him in a hoody of hers that cut off at his knees. He didn't even question when she told him to just sit tight while literally plopping him on the counter like some desk ornament. And he at least didn't inquire about the identical possessed radio she had cranked on while evicting the resident dust bunnies to rummage through every drawer, shelf, and cabinet after. At least, not for the first thirty minutes, anyway...
"You said your shop provides magic to 'non-magic folk'." The fox eyed the chattering radio suspiciously, "But it seems like so does every other shop in town. What makes yours any different?"
"Ours has grit." Chiyo responded, ignoring the fox's faux chuckle, "And the Bellflower charges less for specialty Relics not for everyday livin'." Another dust storm whirled through the air. The boar hacked, launching what looked like a sugar cane from her maw to the wall like a damn spear. The fox took cover behind a hunk of machinery called a cash register.
"Have you tried...I dunno, anything else than what everyone else is doing?" The kitsune asked.
"Grammy left this shop to me." Chiyo retrieved a crooked wooden stick from the drawer. Her expression was a bit unreadable as she ran her hooves across the runes engraved on the surface, "So I wanna' do this the way she did."
"Starting with a fancy stick." Mafuyu blinked.
Chiyo's expression one-eighty-ed into a pride that swelled her chest like a balloon. She displayed the Relic before her, its pure white streamers smattered in dust. "This is a harae my grammy used to use for purification after her trip out east. Iffin' the mirror got you cursed, this'll make you right as rain."
Mafuyu's ears raised attentively, "Alright. So how do we do this?"
Whack!
Mafuyu yipped at the dumbass question that got an equally dumbass response when she cracked the staff over his skull. He whimpered, fell off the counter, and cursed every known and unknown deity there ever was.
"So, how do you feel?" The lift in Chiyo's voice was palpable.
"Like you hit me on the head with a stick like some psychotic—hey!" The kitsune suddenly flung himself over the counter to dodge a flurry of wild swings by the boar.
"Oh quit your bellyachin', I'm trying to help!"
"No! Help me less!"
WHAP!
"Sunnova—!"
Chiyo struck him good. And the fox probably screamed bloody murder behind it until he noticed the pain never actually came this time. The harae glowed, the scent of floral spices and warmth peppering the air around them. A spark of something tickled the fox's chest, as if the magic was reaching to draw something from deep within him—
Until the Relic sparked, snapped, and splintered in a smoking heap on the floor.
"Y-you broke it!" Chiyo shrieked, trying to fit the pieces back like someone's joke jigsaw.
"Or maybe you were just using it wrong?" Mafuyu folded his arms into his sleeves and ignored the boar's comment on how throwable he was. She balefully made a trip back to her cabinet and retrieved a long, purple obi from it. The cloth was patterned with a fish, and smelled about as old as it looked verses being blessed like the shopkeeper insisted.
It ripped the moment she bowed it around Mafuyu's waist.
"O-okay...uhm, how about this one?"
The kitsune barked when she literally dropped a stone figure of a pot-bellied frog on top of his head. The "Buddha", as she called it, crumbled to pieces rather than bringing the balance she claimed. And the boar snorted out of frustration.
"Piggle," Mafuyu said wearily, "Perhaps another strategy—"
"No, I'm gonna fix you with something in this shop, dammit!"
A shudder rippled like an electric jolt through Mafuyu when Chiyo rifled through a case of sharp instruments. His nose wiggled at the air, taking in the shop as a whole. And then sighed, "Look, not to be ungrateful, but nothing in this shop is going to work." The heaviness in his words made the boar pause, but he continued anyway, "Every Relic in this place is beat to hell and devoid of magic for the most part. Your shop is pretty much on par with a live-in museum at this point."
Chiyo didn't respond at first. Hell, she barely acknowledged him as she fished a broom from the closet to sweep up the mess. Every piece rolled into the dustpan with the tenderness of a mother coddling her babies. And she was just as careful placing them in the counter drawer instead of the waste bin.
Up close, the boar's hazelnut and honey perfume clouded the air. It clung to everything in the shop, too, hints and traces from the ceiling to the floor. It was pleasant. And it made the fox's ears flicker curiously when the boar spoke to him in passing back to the broom closet.
"I don't see your fancy-ass ring in any museums, Fu-Fu."
The fox supposed he deserved that. The air between them fell thin for a moment before ricocheting back into its natural staleness when Chiyo gave him a couple of clothespins to peg his sleeves up. A simple gesture. A silent one that made him eye her as he pushed his sleeves back. As if trying to find the angle in everything she did.
"We'll think better on full stomachs." Chiyo started upstairs, gesturing for him to follow. "Let's take a break, Fu-Fu."
***************************
To be a Familiar was to be cursed with a ravenous, never-ending hunger. The feeling was always pure craving without reason; need with no satisfaction in their exchange for mastery over corrupted Abyssal magic. There was no relief in tangible food, which fell tasteless like sandpaper in their maws. Just the temporary reprieve in devouring a soul that was unfathomably fleeting.
So naturally, it was all the more perplexing when the scent of Chiyo's cooking sparked a serious debate over the merits of getting smacked with a spatula again from a second attempt at snacking right out of the pot.
The kitchen was small, all lavender tiles, stainless steel, and a cluster of somewhat unrecognizable kitchenware. Chiyo, however, navigated that clutter like a pro. She was a whirlwind of dicing vegetables; whipping sauces; seasoning fatty cuts of meat with a grace not unlike the royal chefs of the Sapphire City.
"It'll go faster iffin' you helped." The boar called over her shoulder.
"We'll all die of food poisoning if I do." The fox gave a toothy grin from his seat on the countertop. Watching her cook was therapeutic in its own regard anyway. Like watching an artist finally fall into that groove of total concentration to paint something beautiful. It helped tuck away those pesky questions hounding his thoughts for a moment. And it made him wonder how someone that had a better grasp on their emotions would even react to the position he found himself in right now...
"Here," Chiyo plated the food when it was done and set it next to Mafuyu on the counter. He recognized some of it...in a broad sense, anyway. The flakey dark meat smacked of the sea's scent, nestled next to a soy-based something that was cubed, fried, and seasoned to death. An assortment of greens ringed the mound of rice like a necklace in a presentation that was...probably a little too pretty to eat, really.
The monster in him turned its nose up.
Every other part of him made Mafuyu salivate...
"I hope this is okay. I don't know your preferences, but this is all I have." Chiyo said while handing Mafuyu a pair of twin sticks. And when he watched her expertly grapple her food with hers, he sighed inwardly. More eating utensils.
"Well, Familiars usually eat souls." He said simply, "And certainly not with...whatever these are."
"Chopsticks." Chiyo snorted from her seat at a small dining table. And when she noticed there was no snark in his voice this go around, she lifted her brow at him. "Souls—like an actual soul."
"Of course," The fox fumbled around with the chopsticks, flicked one halfway across the room, then just resigned to pick at everything with his claws, "Creatures corrupted by the Abyss survive by feeding off the living. For corrupted yokai, it's souls. I'd imagine it's something similar for your demons too. We usually can't even taste something like this..." The fox nibbled rice off his claws and flicked his whiskers in confusion of how damn good it tasted.
"Sounds like bullshit." The swine shoveled a huge wad of veggies into her maw like she was breathing air, "You talk like you come from a whole 'nother world. I know mages can be a bit full, but you don't gotta' go insultin' us normal folk over it."
Mafuyu stopped mid-bite to gaze at her. Her expression was solid, warm, but clearly skeptical. "Piggle, I'm not mortal. I'm probably decades your senior...though maybe not if we counted mortal years, I guess." He winced when the hot soy cube burned his fingers and had to stab it to death with his remaining chopstick. Years of soul-chomping had clearly done him dirty. "Don't worry about it, though."
"...you sound loony as hell. But humor me, I'm curious now." The boar stated through a gulp of tea that should have scalded her throat.
The fox tapped his cheek with a finger thoughtfully. Were mortals not aware of how the world worked? Or was it just this one? Mafuyu looked at his plate for a moment, then lifted the dark fishy meat up to his face.
"Pretend this tasty whatever-it-is represents the world, Hekigahara. And then treat one world with many parts that know of each other, but can't associate with each other...usually." Mafuyu explained, similar to how his mistress had for him. Except maybe with less snark, less food, and less transfiguring him when he got things wrong.
"There is the Heavenly world—" The fox picked a fishy chunk off and popped it into his maw. It melted soft and savory on his tongue and he nearly squealed in delight, "—The Spirit world—that's where yokai like me are from—" He questioned his reaction while flicking another piece in, "Assiah, the Mortal world we're in now. The Underworld. And finally..." The fox smothered the last piece in rice, shoved it completely into his maw, and felt his taste buds explode, "The place where all corruption is born from, the Abyss."
Chiyo didn't respond at first. She didn't have to. Her dubious frown screamed she was vetting how much of what he said was pure bull. Though as her pink snout flared gently in her thought process, she only asked a solemn question.
"...Iffin' they 'can't associate', then how are you even here, Fu-Fu?"
The fox's eyes wandered up as he nibbled on the end of his chopstick. The question came with a jab to his chest. The twist of the knife that made him too aware of the ring around his neck. Like a bitterness he shouldn't have been able to perceive.
"That would be the 'usually' part." The fox finally said, "My own lack of foresight, for starters. A child-king's pissing contest for sure. And...old magic, from the smell of it." Mafuyu wore the chopstick down with his fangs without realizing or even caring, "Very old. Who knows how many taboos he broke to send me here."
"What makes it taboo?" Chiyo asked.
Mafuyu's gaze settled unabashedly into the hog's, "It disrupts the natural order of things. It damages things. Only magic can freely move between other planes and even that has consequences if—"
The rattling door chimes pierced through the heart of their conversation like an arrow. Movement from downstairs followed, along with a curious call from whoever had shuffled into the foyer. Chiyo sat there for a moment, as if the word 'customer' were a foreign concept to her.
And then, she suddenly bolted from the table, shouting the word like a cannon. She nearly launched Mafuyu from the counter as she thundered down the stairs, throwing her apron back over his face. And the fox expressed no interest in following as he wrangled it off. It wasn't his business. And there were now two lonely plates and a pot of leftovers that needed his company. Though, Mafuyu did keep his ears curiously raised towards the door still...
"Welcome to the...Bellflower?"
Chiyo paused. And the scent suddenly struck Mafuyu's nose with the grace of an assassin's blade: sharp, directly to the point, coming from out of nowhere. The fox set his plate down and found himself now automatically wandering out to the landing. He didn't need to reach the bottom to see what Chiyo was seeing.
The Bellflower didn't just have a customer. It was downright crowded. Furs in black suits spilled in through the foyer like a spilled ink bottle. They silently parted to the sides upon entering in some rehearsed gesture, leaving room up the middle between them. There was something too eerily similar to their sentinel-ish behavior that smacked of a certain dictator the fox knew.
"I've read this book before." Mafuyu said as he stood next to the boar, "This is the part where the mob comes to shake you down over drug money, right?"
"Hush up, I didn't do nothin'!" Chiyo hissed from behind the counter. And then looked up to the one fur that was not driving up the middle of that inky wave like a king.
If Mafuyu had to guess, the tanuki was probably still considered a young adult comparative to other mortals. But the notion was challenged in the sickly way he relied on his wooden cane like a third leg. His taupe fur looked less faded with that dark suit contrasting it so sharply. But there was no hiding the tiredness behind those beet eyes; the sag in his whiskers; the overall 'grandpa' vibes this young mortal was sending out.
The tanuki regarded the two thoughtfully, tipping a tall hat from a head of chocolate headfur.
Mafuyu's nose flickered. Yes, he indeed knew this scent very well. It easily cut through Chiyo's hazelnut fragrance; the age and dust of the shop; the blankness of the air in the Mortal world. The smell rang so true that the fox completely forgot about the beautiful plate of food he left upstairs.
"Good afternoon. I am a chairman from the Tin City Merchant's Guild." The tanuki's voice was deep and proper, confident in spite of his frail appearance, "You may call me Michio Huang."
Mafuyu licked his maw. The fragrance dominated his senses. And the monster in him could only think of one thing.
Finally, a proper meal.