Kusuriuri and the Inn Keeper: ろくろ首 (Rokurokubi) — Kusuriuri x gn!reader
Chapter 3 The medicine seller reveals everything
word count: 2.6k
warnings: three part series! graphic details (blood, wounds, lifeless body, knife/razor, family grieving; can be skipped by ignoring the italicised paragraphs) cursing
a/n: thank you SO MUCH for following along with this series!!! everyone's kind words warmed my heart and kept me going throughout the writing of this fic and i hope you enjoy the last part of this story <333
m.list | chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | bonus chapter
“Breathe.”
You felt the strong grip of Kusuriuri’s fingers on your shoulder, trying to ground you into place.
Head felt too fuzzy. Lungs were not quite working. Mouth gasped for air.
Your heart felt as though it was gripped by a hand squeezed in unsteady rhythms to dictate your pulse.
You tightly shut your eyes. Everything came into view once more.
The blood trickling down from your aunt’s throat and her husband’s neck.
The stench of iron in the air.
The sensation of her skin turning cold against your fingertips when you cradled her face and wept for eternity.
The singing of crows outside to announce the deaths.
Shadows crept up to every corner of the room that once two lives lived in, the moon darkening under the cover of the clouds. You felt the drop in temperature as you cried
You cried beside her body.
You cried with your face buried in her stomach.
You cried at the foot of the mound of dirt piled up that hidden your aunt’s body.
You stared lifelessly as you watched her husband, laid across a stretcher, be taken away. His eyes were still open, opaque orbs staring right back at you as it passed by your side—judegemental and disgusted.
“I… ca…n’t…”
Ring…!
You clutched onto his kimono, tightening your hold whenever your lungs expanded too much, never contracting back, but trying to greedily suck more air.
“Your aunt’s murder has already passed… there is nothing to do but look forward, and breathe.”
A loud gasp echoed as you sucked in the cool night air. Though tears still trailed freely down your cheeks, making your lashes heavier by each blink of your eye, your chest started breathing properly.
Ring, ring, ring, ring—!
Kusuriuri’s eyes widened. Snatching his sword, he stood up and faced up at the ceiling, shielding you away from the talismans blinking open to stare down at the two of you.
His eyes turned into slits into a glare at the wisps of black smoke that seemed to crawl between the talismans—faint, but definitely there. “The Mononoke… seems to be, focused on… you.”
You started heaving, picking up its speed as a shiver ran down you at the smoke. A trickle of warm tears left your eyes. “I-I thought”—gasp—“it was focused”—gasp—“on-on the room itself…!”
A steady, strong hand held onto your shoulder, making you look up at him with a hitch of your breath. You gripped onto his hand, shutting your eyes tightly until you could shallowly inhale and exhale.
“The only thing we need to kill the Mononoke is to gain the reason,” he said, voice tight. “What do you know?”
“I don’t… I don’t know…” you said, hiccups bubbling out of your throat as it joined your cries. “C-Can’t it not be the fact that she resented her husband?”
“But he had already taken his own life. It doesn’t explain why she would also be attacking you.”
“I-I’m sorry… I don’t know. I don’t know…”
Slowly, you crumbled further to the ground, hands tightly grasping around your head and forehead touching the floor. The surface of your thighs pressed suffocatingly against your chest that shook with effort whenever a heartbroken sob forced its way out of your stomach.
“Why did he kill her?”
Kusuriuri jolted in alarm as he sensed a presence behind. Turning around, a snaking figure slithered out of the talismans placed across the wall, just behind you—heading towards you.
“Miss!”
The first thing that you noted when you woke up was the sunlight basking over your closed eyes, making your blind vision tint with an orange hue. Slowly, your eyes blinked up and stared up at the ceiling, lightened up in a comforting glow.
Your brows furrowed at the tight, painful sensation at the edge of your jaw, tenderly unclenching your teeth to feel the ache properly.
Inhaling… exhaling…
Rubbing the tightness of your muscle at your sides to loosen the soreness, your head slowly tilted to the side to see the rest of your room.
A single cup of tea was placed beside your head, a line of white steam streaming upwards towards the ceiling. You avoided your gaze from trailing up along with it, and slowly braced a heavy arm beside you to raise yourself up.
“You’re awake.”
You flinched. Immediately, raising your gaze, you found the medicine seller seated in front of you, poised and almost leisurely, fingers gingerly settled over a cup of warm tea.
“How… How am I alive?”
“On your back,” he answered, bringing his cup towards his lips. “I placed a talisman last night… when I visited you.”
“Oh… I didn’t realise it being there,” you murmured, grazing your fingers across the paper.
“Fortunately the Mononoke was… weakened by the barrier of the room. A single talisman, was enough to protect you.” The tip of his lips suddenly curved upward, eyes thinning slyly. “And, well… you were too… preoccupied, to notice being there.”
Your cheeks immediately heated up at his words, remembering the smell of his incense and herbs by your bedroom door, the way he pulled you closer by resting his hand on your back. Mouth jutting out slightly in a pout, the coldness in your limbs started to warm up with the rush of blood.
“I wasn’t—”
“You were quite… red in the face, too.” His teeth showed as his smile widened, the sharp canine glinting under the faint sunlight from the open window. “How… cute.”
An indignant sound escaped your throat and you abruptly stood up. “I’m going to get some more water from the well.”
He leisurely stood up as well, taking his wooden carrier. “Then I will also. It is possible for the Mononoke… to appear in daylight.”
“Right, I almost forgot…”
He slowly walked towards you, footsteps almost muffled and silent with his careful strides. Then, a hand reached out, delicately facing up towards you, just right above your stomach.
Your eyes widened slowly, meeting his gaze. His mouth curled into a small smile.
Pulse racing, you bit the inside of your lip to stop them from forming the same curve he adorned on his handsome face, finding it harder from the way your stomach was violently fluttering. Tentatively, you slowly clasped your hand over his. The coolness of his skin contrasted with the warmth that flooded throughout your body from your fluster moments ago.
As Kusuriuri led the two of you out of your room and walked across the hallway to leave the inn, you came to a halt in front of the entrance door. You quickly pulled a drawer, retrieving a key, and raised a silent brow when you saw him delicately holding the heavy lock of the door, caressing the keyhole with his thumb.
“How… uncommon to have a lock.”
He tilted it to the side to look closer.
“Yes, it is,” you agreed, taking the weight of the lock from him.
“I did not… realise you had one yesterday…” He looked at you. “Why, would you have a lock?”
“My aunt… she had noctambulism. It was to prevent her from accidentally wandering outside.”
He tilted his head. “Noctambulism?”
The hand that held the key paused its movement in unlocking the metal. Meeting his gaze, you nodded slowly. “Yes. For around three moons before…”
Click.
The soft sound of the lock opening echoed in the air between the two of you, and you carefully placed the key back to the drawer.
“We did everything. We went to a temple for an exorcist, we burned incense in her room… none of it worked. But we didn’t want the village to persecute her so… we got a lock.”
Your thumb ran over the metal, the rough texture of rust poking your skin.
“I’m a light sleeper, so I woke up whenever she started to roam around the inn, and guided her back… though most of the time her”—you swallowed thickly—“her husband stopped her before she could leave the room…”
He nodded, eyes narrowing. “I see.”
Moonlight obscured, the room was darker than the night prior. The warm glow of the lamp was the only thing making the medicine seller visible to you. He sat beside you, facing you, as you did the same on your futon. Your entire body burned at the weight of his gaze on you, so close that you wondered if he could hear the frantic beat of your heart.
But you finally cleared your throat, peered up at the talismans on the ceiling, and met his blue eyes that appeared orange under the reflection of the light. Hesitant, you asked softly, “Do you think my aunt resents me?”
He tilted his head. “Why would she?”
“The Mononoke… it’s targeting me, no?”
Kusuriuri stayed silent for a moment before he spoke once more. “When did… the sleep paralysis start?”
Your brows raised for a moment at the question, but you cleared your throat.
“About two moons ago,” you murmured, fidgeting your fingers. “It was when the first customer came since I restarted the business… None came after though.”
“Who was it?”
“A man. I know nothing more than the fact that he was a traveller.”
“…And?”
“The night that he stayed at the inn was when I first started experiencing sleep paralysis.”
You paused. Furrowing your brows, your lips tugged down to a frown at the memory.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, just…”
…Ring.
“That customer was gone by the morning.” Biting your lower lip, you felt your limbs start to shake. “I-I thought he simply left, but—”
“He was killed,” Kusuriuri finished. “By the Mononoke.”
Clink!
Kusuriuri leaned in, forehead just barely touching against yours before placing his hand on top of your knuckles, thumb reverently caressing your skin.
“On the day of the incident, was there anything… wrong with her husband?”
Ignoring the violent flutter of your heart, you bit the inside of your cheek. “I… I really don’t know.”
Ring ring ring ring ring!!
The two of you looked up at the ceiling.
Feeling the blood rush out of your face, you screamed.
A pair of eyes stared back at you, glinting bright yellow, and below it a mouth inhumanely large curled into a deep sorrowful frown, framed by long dishevelled hair and you realised with a startle that the head was reaching towards the two of you by a long tail of limb—a neck—slithering like a snake trailing down from above.
Through the tears that welled up from fear, you recognised its mouth moving.
“You… insi…dious bitch…”
“I… kill… you before you… curse… us…”
The sound was deep and monstrous, a strained growl forced out of its soul through a parched throat—but you recognised that timbre of the voice.
It was your aunt.
But it didn’t sound like your aunt. She never spoke like that.
Because layered beneath her voice, it was the sound of her husband.
Suddenly, the Mononoke’s head shot down.
Kusuriuri’s eyes widened and he immediately wrapped his arms around you, a hand coming to grab the back of your head to have your face burrow his chest to hide you away from the Mononoke.
But before he could shield you away, a scream tore out of your throat at the sight of the head snaking down and stopping with a snap right in front of you, just above his shoulder.
You locked eyes with it.
Time seemed to slow.
The room was dark.
Her husband stared back at you with a snarl. Even without the moonlight, the darkness revealed his eyes blazing with fury and disgust.
Your cheek stung, tasting blood when your tongue flicked against the rough edge of the muscle that tore open in a wound.
“You insidious bitch!” he hissed. Upon raising his hand, you inhaled sharply in fear at the sight of a razor. “I’ll kill you before you curse us—!”
Your hands flew to the front of your face, and your breath hitched when you saw the moonlight finally illuminated your surroundings. The hand staring back at you was older… wrinkled from age and spotted from sunburn.
The scream you let out wasn’t yours as well, as his hand tugged your wrist away from your face and the glint of the razor plunged towards you.
When you blinked open your eyes, you were met with the sight of Kusuriuri staring down at you with a deep furrow between his brows. As he saw you regain consciousness, you felt his hands holding you loosen in its grip.
From over Kusuriuri’s figure, you watched as the long neck almost covered the ceiling.
The Mononoke spoke your name. Soft and sad.
“I won’t… let you… die like me.”
The yellow eyes and frown blurred as a tear rolled down your cheek. An anguished sob tore out deep from your chest, stripped bare and broken. You cried out for your aunt, gasping for air as you wept.
“The fear…” Kusuriuri murmured, holding out the sword up at the Mononoke, an arm holding you against him. “Made your aunt merge with the ayakashi. By scaring humans in the night… she felt as though she regained control over her own body and situation. That is the reason.”
The head of the Mononoke swayed, circling the two of you across the ceiling.
Clink.
“Shape, truth, reason… assembled thus, I hereby release the sword!”
"Release!"
The clutters of Kusuriuri’s hands roaming the drawers of his wooden carrier joined the chorus of birds chirping outside, alongside the softest patter of rain.
“What are you searching for?” you asked, a tray held in front of you. Settling beside him, you shifted your legs to a comfortable position to sit and placed a warm cup of tea for the two of you. Your shoulders brushed with his, close enough for you to peer into the drawer.
Kusuriuri didn’t reply for a moment until he found what he was searching for and looked back at you. “A charm.”
You tilted your head to the side, slightly amused. “I didn’t know medicine sellers give out charms.”
He chuckled quietly before leaning in. Your breath gently hitched at the proximity, taking in the bitter yet aromatic incense that enveloped him constantly and comfortingly. There was a slight shuffle and a short moment of discomfort in your hair. Reaching behind you when he pulled back, you touched a smooth sphere. A hairpin.
Surprised, you looked up at him. “Is this…”
His eyes sparkled with mirth, a sly smirk on his lips. “Who… knows?”
Your lips parted, bewildered, before you couldn’t help the small giggle tumbling out of you, cheeks flushing bashfully.
As he handed you a mirror to admire properly, he caressed a hair away from your face and murmured softly. “I believe, your aunt… was protecting you.”
Eyes widening, they snapped back at him in surprise. “Protecting me?”
“It was targeting me,” he said. “Not you.”
“But… why would she scare me in my sleep? Why did I have sleep paralysis?”
His eyes were soft as his fingertips trailed across your jaw and tilted your face up a little. “I think she was simply… watching over you.”
A small, sad smile graced your lips, eyes feeling hot as you recalled the Mononoke’s last words. “That… That sounds like her.”
Silence lingering tenderly, the two of you gradually finished your tea and stood up. You watched him sling his wooden carrier behind his back and take a single step towards the door.
“Would you…” You swallowed thickly before giving him a small hopeful smile. “Would you come back?”
He looked back at you. The purple lip paint on his mouth curled higher, eyes thinning as a smile formed on his face, the blue hue sparkling under the sunlight.
“When I need to rest… I shall visit you again.”
You chuckled, warmth filling your entire body as you beamed up at him gently. “I’ll be waiting.”
Kusuriuri smiled back at you, resting his hand on your cheek.
