July 3rd, Kyoto
*Aoki Yamamoto Pov*
The streets were filled with lively people all enjoying the atmosphere. It was the first week of the Gion Matsuri festival, a time once meant to ward off evil deities and purify the whole off Japan, but now is a celebration of history and culture.
Not that I thought it could actually ward off anything, after all I've seen more youkai walking around in the past hour than I usually see in a week. And most of them seemed to be enjoying themselves even more than the humans. Of course no one else seemed to notice, they never did.
But I had long since learned how to pretend not to notice as well, even if there were some close calls at the beginning. When I had first began noticing strange things I would sometimes get caught staring at them for a little to long, or maybe I would get scared when something like an oni appeared, though the one that was hardest to hold back was looking at their true bodies when they were there, even when they were ten feet tall or had a face on their chest instead of their head.
Just then I noticed an extremely large man walking next to me and felt the sudden urge to step to the side. I don't know exactly what type of youkai it is because my eye level was only at about the level of its mid thigh and looking up to try and identify it would be obvious so I just followed along with everybody else and stepped to the side.
I still don't understand they choose to go around while being so large. I've seen so many of them change size before, like when they want to enter a building or walk through an alley way. There has even been some who were walking around looking like an animal, before changing to a humanoid body, or even becoming straight up humans so they could pick something up with their hands.
But then again if I can't even understand how I began seeing them I'll probably never understand most things about them. Thinking about that I couldn't help but sigh, as I once again began walking down the street. There had been times when I had considered trying to talk to them, but when remembering how I began seeing them and the strange things I could do, there was too much of a risk involved for me to just walk up to them and say, 'Hey nice to meet you, my name is Aoki Yamamoto. Can you tell me about why no one else notices that you're not human, oh also teach what this weird blue gauntlet that I can summon is, thanks!'
Just thinking about it made me start laughing out loud, drawing some strange glances from the people passing me before they just decided to ignore. Snapping out of my musings I decided to just focus on enjoying the festival, and maybe observing any new youkai I come across. Even if I can't ask them directly, with how many of them seem to enjoy festivals I should at least learn something new!
With that goal in mind I continued on my way, occasionally I would notice some abura-akago hovering around festival lamps, along with some kappa pulling pranks at some of the stalls. The only slightly interesting thing was the tanuki that were running some games that were almost definitely rigged, that was until I saw a some of delinquent looking teenagers acting strange.
Seeing their weird gazes I followed their eyes and finally saw something new, right there walking innocently down the street was a young blonde who looked to be only ten, only two years younger than me. Of course just seeing a cute girl wouldn't distract me from my mission, no this girl was something else entirely, dressed in a cute miko outfit she had fox ears and nine big fluffy fox tails.
It was a nine-tailed kitsune, I had finally found something different new. Sure I had seen kitsune before, but they at most had three tails. And this one was just wandering around with no worries in sight eating some cotton candy.
That's when I remembered the gang of people who looked like they were in high school following her around and started getting a little nervous, she looked so young and there didn't seem to be any other youkai of any type nearby. 'There's nothing to worry about, she's a youkai for all you know she's a hag who will can turn them into ash with a thought.' I thought, trying to talk myself out of doing something stupid. But I was stupid, even if youkai aged differently, or could choose how they look, the way she acted couldn't be described as anything other than childlike, so I followed her and the group of shady men.
'This is so stupid, you always try so hard to not get noticed by them. Yet here you are, tailing the most unique youkai you've ever seen in such an obvious way.' I berated myself in my head, just then the young girls ears suddenly perked up like a dogs, and turned to start walking into a dark alley right off of the street, rushing with sparkling eyes as she held the hem of her long skirt.
Seeing the young men turn into the alley following her made me finally steel my resolve as I ran straight into the alley right after them, summoning my strange glove in order to increase my strength I began to yell to get their attention, "Leave her alo-" as I was talking I noticed that the men were already on the ground and immediately felt a soft touch in between my shoulder blades before everything went black.
*3rd person Pov*
"Hey was it just me or did he seem like he wasn't trying to attack the young miss, and it looks like he has a sacred gear too." The Guard who just knocked out Aoki said as he looked at the boy with laying on the ground.
The other guard while rubbing his beak with one of his hands, "Great, now we have to bring him to the shrine."
*Aoki Pov*
As I came to the first thing I noticed was the unfamiliar wooden ceiling, and that alone was enough to make me alert as I sat up as fast as I could while scanning the area. What I saw did not help my anxiety at all, it was a very beautiful traditional room, nothing too special except for how old it seemed.
The anxiety inducing part was the women sitting in seiza at the door of the room looking at me. Another kitsune, though this time instead of an adorable, blonde, nine-tailed child, it was a mature ginger haired women with five tails in a modest kimono. Realizing there was nothing I could do I tried to steady my breathing as best I could.
"It is good to see you awake and well," the ginger haired kitsune said, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience but Yasaka-sama is expecting you in ten minutes so please calm yourself, you have five minutes before we leave." The woman dropped a huge bomb on me immediately that definitly did not help me calm down.
"Yasaka-sama?" Was the only thing I managed to get out after a few deep breaths.
"Yes, she is the mother of that Kunou-sama, the young lady you followed earlier."
Hearing that accusation immediately made me afraid of what they thought had happened so I quickly said, "I wasn't following her! I was following the shady guys who were following her!" I practically shouted hoping there would be no misunderstanding.
"Don't worry," she placated me, "Yasaka-sama already heard what happened from the guards she just wants to speak with you personally."
The clarification was what finally allowed me to relax a little, but the thoughts racing through my head made the remaining time pass before I even realized it and it wasn't long before she told me, "Now that your fine it's time to go see Yasaka-sama, make sure to be respectful she's the leader of all of the youkai in Kyoto."
The journey to our destination was only a short, three minute, stroll out of the building I was in and through the gravel trail in the courtyard of whatever compound I was in, but it was probably the most wonderous thing I had ever seen. There were dozens of youkai here, some who looked to work here and others who just seemed to be loitering around, but all of them were amazing. I saw at least five new species on that short walk.
I was tempted by all the new sights and almost went exploring on my own, at least until the reality set in an I remembered where I was and who I was with. When that came back to me I wisely decided to stay with my guide who was walking with a purpose. She eventually led me to the entrance of the biggest building I had seen yet, a gorgeous shrine with doors at least fifteen feet tall.
Following her through the doors that opened on their own and down a long corridor with rooms on each side of it until we reached the end of it, where another set of much more reasonably sized doors were located. We just stood there, not knocking, announcing ourselves, or any similar action. As I just waiting, too nervous to ask anything, the door eventually opened showing a room that seemed even bigger than the building did from the outside.
Taking a deep breath I walked into the building along with my guide and as we walked deeper into the room the walls behind us and on the side shrunk to make the room smaller. In the room waiting at the end there were only three people, a tengu standing on the right side of the throne we were walking towards, the young girl from the festival, Kunou, standing on the left side, and sitting on the throne a women more beautiful than anyone else I'd ever seen, wearing a tight yellow kimono that didn't cover her shoulders left little to the imagination and with the same beautiful tails and ears as her daughter. Seeing her made me so starstruck that I stopped in my steps, 'She's definitely a fox.'