What Makes A Family
G Rated, platonic NemoHaul, youkai AU. Nemoto is a lonely satori that lives in the mountain, but one day he meets a lonely karasutengu named Chisaki. 2.5k words of wholesome youkai friendship.
Written for @myyoukaiparade!
It’s fall, and the season paints the trees in many shades of red, yellow and orange. Even if Nemoto’s steps are light, he can still hear the leaves crushing beneath his feet alongside the gentle breeze flowing around, making them dance.
The mountain path he’s standing on right now is old and almost nobody uses it anymore. Years ago, the satori used to hide near it and amuse himself with the thoughts he could hear, filling his head with voices different from his own. Sometimes, he played pranks on them for fun, always having a laugh at how the humans would run away from him, screaming and sometimes even crying.
Whenever he got hungry, he could count on the path to find wandering prey and feast on their meat for days. It was nice and simple, much like how life used to be in the countryside when he was nothing but a young wandering youkai, still learning about the world and the many creatures that it holds.
At least that’s how it used to be when he was younger. However, that was decades, perhaps centuries ago; the youkai isn’t sure, finding it hard to remember exact dates when he just got used to being alive for such a long time. Nowadays, humans barely come anymore, especially after they made a new path closer to the mountain base, forcing him to almost expose himself far too much for his own comfort whenever the desire to hunt shows up.
When the moon comes out, Nemoto watches the city lights from afar, yellow dots that look like fallen starlight, as he thinks about how easy it must be for urban youkai.
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