Idiot's Writing Stuff

where I post stuff I write.

[smallbeefwrites]

Day 26 - Pirate

(Ao3 link)

Kawauso was playing pirate with the children at the playground. It was working well so far, he played until evening, befriended the children, and when the last one was about to leave with their parents, they'd notice there was no one there for the last little boy, and he'd be fed. Oh, there'd be fretting about absent parents, but after the fifth call to the police everyone had just collectively adopted him.

It was nice, but it would have to end eventually. He'd already decided, when the human foster system got involved, he'd leave. But for now, he'd play pirate.

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 25 - Vibrant

(Ao3 link)

Something about Yumeko really seemed to draw yokai in, they just never seemed to leave her alone. There were yokai bothering on the way two and from school, yokai bothering her on school trips, when she was out in town, and even at school or at home.

Maybe she had a really vibrant aura or something? Anyway, she was lucky it was mainly the friendly ones (and Nezumi-Otoko, the creep), but the number of times she'd nearly been eaten or had her soul stolen was getting out of hand. She'd demand they leave her alone, but then she'd miss Kitaro.

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 24 - Guard

(Ao3 link)

Sunakake-Babaa had recently found herself in need of a guard for her sake. But it wasn't due to the usual suspect, for once, Konaki-Jiji was behaving himself and drinking his own stocks rather than hers. No, instead, it seemed she had something of an otter problem of all things. In completely uncharacteristic behaviour, Kawauso was breaking into her apartment and stealing her sake.

She was honestly worried about the lying otter, such a departure from typical behaviour was never a good sign in yokai. It could mean an impostor, or possession, or he was being manipulated. Regardless, it was concerning.

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 23 - Meet

(Ao3 link)

Yuko was in her forties now. She had been in her thirties when the world nearly ended. Everyone else had forgotten, in the years since, but she remembered. She hadn't been expecting to meet anyone else who remembered.

Mana was twenty-six and had only gotten back her precious memories of Kitaro and his friends the year beforehand. That did, unfortunately, mean she remembered how Kitaro had been destroyed in front of her and how the world had nearly ended. No one else remembered that, it seemed, she thought she would go insane at this rate. And then she met Yuko.

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 22 - Baker

(Ao3 link)

There was something fishy about the baker at the bakery Neko-Musume found her latest job: he was plagued by Binbo-Gami. The bakery itself was fine, for the most part: the customers were relatively few, but there had been enough for the owners to afford to employ Neko-Musume, at least on a temporary basis. It was specifically only the baker, the owner's nephew, who was the issue.

It was always hard to tell in these cases: was the Binbo-Gami's latest victim just an unfortunate sod, or did the poverty god decide the person deserved poverty? She supposed she should just ask.

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Day 21 - Friend

(Ao3 link)

Neko-Musume thought she would never understand how Kitaro could be friends with that stinking, back-stabbing, no-good swindler Nezumi-Otoko. The rat had near nothing in terms of redeeming qualities, and the few times he did pull through and help out were no-where near enough to make up for it. Yet Kitaro choose the repugnant rat as his best friend.

She had to admit, though, some of it might have been jealousy.

Or maybe it wasn't, maybe Kitaro really did have the most awful taste in people possible and deserved to be judged for it.

And she liked this hopeless fool, somehow.

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 20 - Paper

(Ao3 link)

All it took was a flimsy piece of paper. Just a small rectangle, slapped onto a rock or jar or whatever else, just so long as it had the spell, had the intent, the whatever-it-was that made it work, Mana didn't exactly know. But that's all it took to keep the yokai sealed away. That's all that had been holding back the vampire tree, or preventing the tanuki from taking over Japan.

It was terrifying to think about, sometimes. It wasn't exactly difficult for someone to just peel the paper off, to knock the seal open, Charatomi proved that much.

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 19 - Artist

(Ao3 link)

Hiderigami was an artist. He was a proud artist, he was proud of his works and of how much joy they brought to people. But he was also very shy. He was happy to present his works to the world. Himself? Not so much. He didn't want his fan base to run terrified away from him, he knew he wasn't a pretty sight and he was worried that his looks would undermine the joy of his work.

Which was why he was terrified of the book signing and interview his editor had just sprung on him. That was just cruel!

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 18 - Sports

(Ao3 link)

The graveyard sports festival was about to get underway and Kitaro wanted a break. His father wouldn't shut up about motivation, fun and youthful vigour, and Kitaro just wanted to go to the hot springs and relax at this point. He was fed up. He knew that, at just a handful of decades old, Kitaro was young by yokai standards, but that didn't mean he wanted to burn himself out over a sports festival.

Maybe he wouldn't mind so much if his father wasn't so gung-ho about it all, it was more exhausting than the festival itself would be, honestly.

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Day 17 - Loop

(Ao3 link)

Neko-Musume had lived the worst day of her life an uncountable number of times now. She didn't think she would ever be able to watch those old Marilyn Monroe movies again without having a violent reaction to the actress, all thanks to that lookalike vampire and her husband. It had been awful. Everyone turning into vampires, her and Medama-Oyaji being the only ones left, the old eyeball dying in her hands at the end of every loop in order to send her back, not being able to tell anyone…

Worst of all was loosing Kitaro over and over and over.

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 16 - Scientist

(Ao3 link)

Mizuki wasn't a scientist, but he knew that people weren't supposed to still be alive after they died. He hadn't thought much of it when he first saw it happen, on the battlefields of the pacific, but seeing this person now, perched up in a hospital bed offering tea whilst machines blared that the person should be dead? He had no choice to believe it was happening.

Whatever was causing this was incredible, it could do so much good! Mizuki had to admit he was intrigued. And, well, the recent news from the suppliers meant he might have a chance…

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Day 15 - History

(Ao3 link)

History always seemed to repeat itself: Nezumi-Otoko would start a scheme and get a little money, Nezumi-Otoko would get too ambitious with his new-found income stream, and then Nezumi-Otoko would bumble it all and land right back in the bins he started in. Kitaro-chan would be involved in his downfall sometimes, which was totally not what a best friend should do, but the brat could be forgiven, mostly, because Nezumi-Otoko did betray him for cash frequently.

But in the end, it would all repeat. Such was the nature of yokai, after all, stories repeated as long as they were remembered.

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Day 14 - Gods

(Ao3 link)

There were so many yokai strong enough that they may as well be gods. Not actual gods, but strong enough. Tofu-Kozo wasn't one of them. He was simply a yokai who carried tofu. He didn't mind that, though, he was what he was and he didn't want to be anything else. That didn't stop him admiring those yokai who were strong like that, though. Or, at least, those that were strong but didn't hurt anyone with that strength without cause.

Like Kitaro, who would make the stronger yokai stop pushing Tofu-Kozo around, and catch his tofu when he dropped it.

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Day 13 - Weapon

(Ao3 link)

Knowledge was a fantastic weapon. So was a good set of claws, but in Neko-Musume's opinion, both were equally as important. It was easier to scratch someone's eyes out if you knew what made them tick.

Which is why she spent just as much time building her information network of street cats and strays as she did tending to her claws.

The latest fruits of that labour were that Nezumi-Otoko had got himself in trouble with a loan shark, she could have fun with this! It had been some time since his face had last made acquaintance with her claws.

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Day 12 - Gone

(Ao3 link)

The ripe persimmons from the tree in her garden were gone. She had been looking forwards to sharing the fruits with her grandchildren, and they were gone. She just knew it had to be one of the neighbourhood kids, getting up to mischief and stealing people's fruits from the trees in their gardens. So she set out on her warpath, armed with a handbag and a walking stick, to work out who stole them and make them apologise. If only they'd asked, she would've been happy to share.

She never did hear the the ominous chuckle from below the tree.

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[smallbeefwrites]

Day 11 - Modern

(Ao3 link)

Sunekosuri was really struggling in her small village in these modern times. It wasn't always a small village, it used to be a bustling town with more than enough people for her to sustain herself without negatively impacting any one person's lifespan too much. But now there was just a small spattering of old folk who kept dying. She didn't want to hurt these people, they were all really kind and had given her a name and kept trying to feed her normal cat food.

She supposed it was time for her to find her way to a big city.

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Day 10 - Exile

(Ao3 link)

He probably wouldn't admit it to any of his human friends, but Kitaro really did enjoy when he got to help exile someone to hell. He had a vindictive streak a mile wide and he didn't get to exercise it often. He couldn't help but enjoy the mounting dread and desperation in their expressions as they realised where they were going and that their was no way out.

Of course, he could still inflict lesser forms of terror upon humans all he liked, but that was temporary, or the grudges weren't his to carry through, it just wasn't the same.

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