Coukd you write a scene of how the kusuriuris (seperate) met reader? Of that's ok ofc,
Its my first time requesting soo , anyway. Love your fics!
IM GLAD YOU ENJOED THEM!!!
thanks for the req!!
New journey, new faces
He doesn't know what was about you. You were a simple human like the ones he came across all eh time. How did you manage to get in his head??
Gn reader!! The meetings aren't stable so they most likely won't be mentioned in other fics-
Ri
He probably like just appeared in the building you lived in kne day, talking about mononokes and side eyeing everyone on sight.
Though his eyes on you lingered a moment too long. Just a blink of an eye more...
The next few days. You can be sure this man cooked everyone on the building left and right. And not even with his words. Dude does it with his eyes.
But when he comes to you... favoritism plays. Words kinder, eyes lingering a bit too much
He knows how to flirtatious, how to charm someone so he probably did his shenanigans and you two were mostly side by side the whole time before mononoke was gone.
That mononoke couldn't even get close to you lol, ri was always there
Might kiss your hand like a gentleman again if it weren't for the old lady screaming "inappropriate!!" To his ear
Kon
Ngl i think he might kicked down your door when you two first met.
IN HIS DEFENCE he was chasing a mononoke!!! He didn't know he would fell to heaven~
He was serious and glaring around for a second, and the next when his eyes landed on you, he was like a proper gentleman, charming smile, putting up on his best flirts before he waved back at you right before he was back to running after the mononoke
He comes back to apologise later, and manages to get you two talking for HOURS.
He is very respectable though, looking genuinely curious and enthusiastic when you speak. He is smiling genuinely lol
He especially checks up on where you are everytime he senses the mononoke. Sending it away with no fail everytime it's too close for comfort.
You can't prove it but there's a tail wagging behind him whenever you say he could stay to talk
Trust me on this... both of them does little dances to offer you being their mate– you don't understand it but both of them so proud of their little declaration before going on about their day like nothing happened!
Kusuriuri and the Inn Keeper: ろくろ首 (Rokurokubi) — Kusuriuri x gn!reader
Chapter 2 The strange medicine seller searches through the inn
word count: 2k
warnings: three part series! kind of slow burn, mention of a relative's death, slightly graphic details of death (mention of blood, wound, lifeless body, knife/razor; can be skipped by ignoring the italicised paragraphs)
a/n: i'm so sorry for taking such a long time for this part, but thank you so so much for enjoying my fic! i really didn't expect this much love, and i really hope you enjoy!!
m.list | chapter one | chapter two | next chapter
“Is it wise to stay in this room?”
Your voice was calmer and levelled, the thud of your heart beat was still a little stronger than you liked, but the rhythm was steady.
The hands on your lap fisted gently as you looked at the medicine seller sitting across from you, only a paper lantern placed at the centre of everything. The light illuminated his sharp features, highlighting the smile he was giving you.
“Well… I do need to kill the Mononoke…”
“Is it not unsafe to stay here?”
“The barrier would… protect us.”
You hummed, staring at the blank ink of the talismans.
“You are…” You raised a brow at him at his pause, at the way he observed you with that sparkle of amusement that he seemed to hold dearly when talking to you. “…Quite calm now.”
“Well… everything feels so ridiculous now,” you sighed softly.
“Ridiculous…” he murmured, repeating your words. He chuckled at that, slow and deliberate.
He glanced up at the corner of the ceiling, watching the eyes morph into existence in the talisman, blinked close, yet dispersed back into blankness. You followed his eyes as well, shivering at the sight, but you simply straightened up when his next words echoed in the small room.
“Tell me about… your aunt.”
You hesitated, clenching your hands into fists that felt too clammy against your fingers.
“What exactly would you like to know?”
A shadow passed over the room, the moonlight covered by the grey clouds above the inn.
“Her death… at first, perhaps.” His eyes narrowed, though the smile remained. “How did she… die?”
You swallowed thickly. “She was…”
Another pause.
“She was murdered.”
Ring.
“By who?”
Your chest heaved, the steady rhythm increasing as you inhaled… and exhaled, inhaled… exhaled, inhaled and exhaled, inhaled, exhaled—
Ring… ring… ring…
Kusuriuri glanced once more at the ceiling, this time the talismans snapping open its eyes, enveloped in its bright red colour. Slowly, he placed his focus on you once more, smile vanishing at the warm hue of the lamp’s light reflecting the perspiration on your temple, at the light in your eyes dimmed as you kept your gaze on the floor.
“…Her husband.”
Your hand shot out to support yourself, grounding it on the wooden surface that felt too warm under your touch as you looked up at him. The heaving of your chest slowly evening out.
“My aunt was killed by her husband.”
Clank, clank, clank…
You jolted, a heavy thud of your heart ringing in your ear. Your eyes zoomed in on the pairs of sabres and rows of teeth shaking, the mouth desperately wanting to be clenched shut as its pupils flickered around madly. Kusuriuri quickly took it out from the cushioned box, clutching it tightly as he looked up at the ceiling, observing the scale tilting towards the centre.
“Ho…? ‘Husband’… not, your uncle?”
“Well… they were remarried…” you murmured, fidgeting with your fingers. “Quite recently. I was yet to be comfortable calling him my uncle.”
As your focus trailed back towards him, you let out a small yelp when you realised he was seated right in front of you, sword on his lap, staring right at you. The ringing of his scale subsided, yet they were still all directed towards the centre of the ceiling, and the talismans glowed with its eyes widely opened.
His head tilted to the side story, eyes thinning as he stared at your nails peeling layers of skin off of your cuticles. He slowly placed a hand over yours, fingers wrapping around your cold touch. “How… did she die?”
Blood. Your screams. Lifeless eyes.
Petrified to the spot, your hands started to shake, tears welling hotly that burned painfully.
“I-I don’t know…” you whispered, clenching your eyes shut. “There was just… there was just so much blood, I-I couldn’t—”
A soft gasp escaped from your lips when you felt cool hands press against your cheeks, cradling your face, making you open your eyes to look up at Kusuriuri who watched you with an unreadable expression. His thumb caressed the tears away, almost methodologically—starting from the tip of your eyes, right under your lower lashes, and finally at the dark bags underneath your eyes.
You tightened your hold on his kimono and in response, his fingers delicately rested at the back of your head to pull you closer until your forehead touched his chest. You let the steady rhythm of his heartbeat and the patting of his hand on your back calm you.
“I’m sorry,” you whispered softly.
“There’s no need to, worry about me…” He placed a finger under your chin, featherlight, to tilt your head up at him. “But I’m afraid, the Mononoke won’t… wait for you.”
Ring, ring, ring, ring…
“I thought the barrier would protect us!” you hissed, panic making your words shake at the edge.
“The Mononoke is… stronger, then expected,” he said, narrowing his eyes up at the incoming threat.
The talisman broke at the centre and the shadow reached out to the two of you, wispy black smoke swirling to form a shape, almost like a head with an elongated neck.
You flinched at the sight, holding him tighter.
Immediately, Kusuriuri faced his palm towards the broken barrier and his talismans dispatched, rows of it covering the broken spot. Your heart raced as you watched the paper turn bright red in an instant, changing its colour in waves—the Mononoke was circling around the ceiling.
“It is not safe to stay here,” he said, helping you up. “The Mononoke is focused on this room.”
Standing up on weak legs, you asked, “Then where to?”
“I need the Truth and Reason.” He met your eyes, and your heart fluttered at the intensity of his gaze. “I need you to lead me to your aunt’s room.”
You felt the blood rush away from your face at his words, taking a surprised step back. In response, he took a step forward, his hand on your back insistently heavy.
“I-I can’t…”
“We have to.” He took another step forward until your chests touched, so close that you distantly smelt the bitter herbs and incense once more. “Fear will take you nowhere.”
You pressed yourself close against Kusuriuri’s side, clutching onto his kimono sleeve with one hand, and the other squeezed his palm that he lent to you. If it weren’t for your fearful frantic heartbeat numbing your senses, your heart would have fluttered for the way his cool hand felt warmer against your cold ones, his callouses gripping onto your softer ones to remind you of his presence. Glancing up at him, you saw the lamp illuminate his pale skin and sharp features, admiring the way his blue eyes was set forward in great focus.
Tearing your gaze away from him, you looked around the hallway, noticing the lines of talismans around the walls and ceiling.
“Please take them off by yourself,” you muttered, tugging at his sleeve slightly.
He chuckled softly. “Your concern is my talismans, on your walls?”
A faint blush bloomed on your cheeks. “I need something else on my mind.”
“Is it no longer, ridiculous?”
Feeling your face heat up too warm to your liking, you didn’t reply to him and instead pressed a little more closer to him, hiding behind his shoulder.
He let out a snickering huff before snapping his eyes towards the ceiling. The talisman’s colour swished like a wave, going back and forth above the two of you. His hand around you tightened.
“Run!”
Gasping, you followed after him. Your footsteps were frenzied but seeing the wooden plank across the door, you ran ahead of him slightly, hand still intact with his, and removed it off of the hook, and slid it open. The two of you entered the room, and Kusuriuri closed it shut, dispatching another row of talismans until it covered every surface of the room—the walls, ceilings, floors.
You crumbled to the ground beside him, the fear and shock of the event making your limbs shaky and weak, but most of all, at the familiar sets of furniture around the very room that causes your throat to clog up and goosebumps to rise on your skin.
Kusuriuri crouched beside you, his hand on your back, the other cradling your jaw as he tilted your face up at him. “Are you all right?”
Nodding with a frail set of breaths, you swallowed the vile down and steadied yourself by placing your hands on his shoulders. Leaning in, you closed your eyes and rested your head against his chest—inhaling, exhaling—to try to calm yourself.
Meanwhile, Kusuriuri looked around the room, only lit by the small, single lamp beside him. It seemed like it was the biggest room, with minimal furniture. At the centre, two futons were still spread across the floor. Clean. No trace of blood. And most of all, the room smelled like fresh rain from the morning, the sweetness still lingering in the air.
Feeling you shift, he watched you carefully lean away from him, hands lowering from their clutch on his kimono.
“Do you… change the air, quite often?”
“Every day, at the hour of the sheep,” you answered, eyes avoiding the futon.
“Do you enter this room any other time?”
You shook your head.
He slowly sat properly next to you, coming close to your body. His hand still rested on your back as he guided you so that the two of you were facing your backs in the centre of the room, and noticing your hand fidgeting nervously, he wrapped his own one around yours once more, face inching closer as though to wipe away any invisible presence you feel in this room.
“Tell me exactly how she died,” he said, voice soft yet firm, coaxing you to open up.
You sucked in a breath, meeting his eyes, chest soft heaving as another surge of anxiety and panic rushed in. His cool hands gripped tighter around yours, grounding you.
“To kill the Mononoke.”
“To kill the Mononoke,” you repeated, nodding absentmindedly. You looked up at him from under your lashes, fingers trailing up towards his skin slightly, feeling him shiver slightly—the inhumane man feeling human under your touch. “You’ll be there, right?”
Kusuriuri’s eyes widened slightly but he returned the nod. “I will.”
Taking a deep breath, then out, you straightened up and finally let your eyes land onto the futon.
“It was midnight, and I woke up because of a scream…”
Blurry vision welcomed you, the moonlight bright that night. Your mind was still groggy, and couldn’t wrap around the scream properly.
Thunk!
The muffled yet loud sound jolted you fully awake, and you sprung up from your futon, frantically looking around the corners of your room. Quickly lighting up a lantern, you ran out of the room towards where you thought the noise came from. Standing in front of the door to your aunt’s and her husband’s room, you knocked on the wood rapidly.
“Auntie?” you called out, loud and full of worry. “Are you okay? Did you hear the noise?”
Silence.
You felt your breathing become erratic, lungs not filled out completely with air, hand shaking. Choking on a sob, you opened the door carefully, vision becoming blurry once more as hot tears started to fill in.
The blood was everywhere. Spreading across the thin sheet and seeping into the wooden floor beneath, trickling to every crevice.
Imperceptibly you heard your own footsteps as you approached the lifeless bodies. Faintly, you heard your own knees hit the floor as you crouched next to the lifeless bodies. Slowly, you felt the warm blood puddle around your own legs as you stared at the deep blooming camellia on your aunt’s throat.
The sharp metal of the razor that seemed to have pierced her throat was lodged at the side of her husband’s neck, his hand still ghastly wrapped around the hilt.
Clearly, you felt your own throat reverberate as you screamed, tears cascading in waterfalls as you burrowed your face into your hands.
Kusuriuri cradled your face with both hands, thumbs caressing the tears away that flowed too much. His brows furrowed deeply at the translucent sound of the bell on his scales that echoed in the room.
“The truth has been gained.”
Clink.
the hour of the sheep (hitsuji-no-koku; 未の刻) refers to midday (2:00~3:00 pm), opposite to the third quarter of the Hour of the Ox. Changing the room's air during that time is believed to be the best time to wash out the bad energy due to the strong yang (陽) energy.
It could be a scenario where Reader was the Kusuriuri's assistant for a while, and after years of working together, the Kusuriuri suddenly think something like, "Yeah, I should marry them," and they do.
Sorry if it's not clear; English isn't my first language, and I'm using the translator.
Dw!
I hope i understood correctly!!
Yeah... thats my idiot
Yeah they could be reckless... and stupid sometimes. But they are my stupid
As soon as I saw the req I was reminded by this meme lol
Gn reader! Reader is mentioned to done stupid or reckless things!
Ri
It's not really an unusual sight to see him watching you with amusement. There's no words. Just judgemental glares and sassy remarks here and there whenever you mention wanting to do something reckless or 'stupid in his books
Those being things he knows humans can't handle.
It probably happened when you were doing something reckless again. And he was just watching you from the side with both curious and knowing eyes.
He don't understand why you do such things, even himself doesn't consider most of the things you do as amusing!
But for the first time you took him by the suprise when you returned with a trinket of a gift for him!
Him out of everyone??? Well– yes it was known couples gave eachother gifts but he hadn't expected you to do something reckless just to get something for him
Even if you can't see it, you were sure just for a single second ears perked on his head while he carefully inspected the trinket, eyes just ever so slightly widen. His voice faltered just for a single second.... Before turning to scold you like nothing happened.
But next day, you can find that little trinket carefully placed in a drawer of his box. A drawer full of the things either you gave or you both bought together with a small box that wasn't there yesterday....
Kon
Unlike ri, its an usual sight for kon to follow you around with curious eyes. It's like a little game going with himself whenever you get that mischievous glint in your eyes that meant trouble.
He tries to guess what you are planning, where you are going, which thing that took your attention. And he gets a lot of them right, so much so that a few times it actually bored you–
In rare moments that he doesn't join you in your little troubles, or ones he couldnt guess it right; he likes to follow you around with curious eyes as if he is watching a theatre unfold.
He is always just a step behind you and maybe from his own experience, but he always knows whenever your recklessness can brought you trouble.
Like how it happened.
You were out. Climbing a tree to look at a small nest you spotted. Unaware of the approaching and understandably angry mother. It took you by suprise when the angry mama bird attacked you, flapping her wings to your face while screeching angrily. So you jumped.
Without a thought, or fear.
Of course kon was there to catch you even if your fearless act caused him to freeze for a moment.
After that it was unusually quiet the way back to tavern you both stayed. Back in the room, kon was silent. Too silent. Yet it was him who broke the silence first. Asking why you were so careless. How could you just jump without fear? Didn't you value yourself or him at all?
So image how his face lights back up with colour when you say with a smile that you werent scared cause you knew he would be there!
For the first time you can see the blush crept up to tips of his ears before he is returned to his teasing and flirtatious self.
But just a day later, it was odd that he entered a jewellery store on the way to the next mononoke...
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
“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.
