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seimeinotakaA few warnings before:
This is set in a AU universe and would be a part of several things but my pain doesn't let me continue for a while. As it's AU, it doesn't involve Gudako but an OC. Edit: Thanks to polyphenols for beta-reading this!
“Stop this at once!” The young woman put herself in between the three men, their forms imposing and dreadful, and the bloody whimpering lump behind her feet.
All common sense had flown out the window three seconds before she found herself running and now, in a fraction of second she had realized she had fucked up, badly. The three strangers weren’t surrounding her in such an open field but were positioned at her sides and front, just as if she was against a wall. There was only one place she could go, but running away from them meant leaving her back an easy mark for any of them. To make matters worse, even if she managed to run away, and she was in terrible physical condition and doubted she could outsmart them, doing so would mean leaving the poor creature at their feet. Even trying to pick it up and rushing to wherever she could meant being a sitting, well, squatting duck, and she had no doubts she would be hit the moment she turned around.
And so, Ugagami Seina (宇賀神星成) felt her legs were about to both freeze and crumble, the weirdest sensation of oversaturated jelly holding her up somehow as the men looked at each other with hideous smirks.
“Oh, so a silly young lady came rushing in, right?” The one on her left, the tallest one, leaned forward as he spoke, wearing a grin which made Seina break out in a cold sweat.
“Little bitch came thinkin’ she could play heroine, ruinin’ our harmless fun, guys.” The one on her right was the strongest looking, speaking those words as he casually curled a hand into a fist and slammed it against the other.
“There, there, maybe she wants to participate, I was getting tired of beating that damn thing, you know. Might as well have a small reward.” However, it was the man in front of Seina, the one wearing a calm, almost angelic smile which made Seina’s heart stop in dread, as he held his hands up like a reasonable man, but his words, the cold edge in his voice, held no hope for her. Seina had fucked up, badly, and her mind went blank, unable to think of what she would do.
She swallowed hard, almost feeling as if it was an out of body experience, like a dream. But it was not. These three men took a step closer, and the grass crumpling under their feet brought her back to reality. Unless she did something, no, even if she did something, she was doomed.
The sky roared above them, grey clouds suddenly releasing the water they were holding on to for so long, and soon one drop became a thousand. The raindrops on her skin mixed with the cold sweat which had formed, and Seina no longer felt warmth.
“Hey, cat got your tongue?” The man in the middle snorted, looking so amused as if he was having the time of his life with his new prey. The other two didn’t move, but joined him in his laughter and with every passing second, there was no glimmer of hope. “Well, then, I’ll teach you how to be a good girl.” He stepped out, closer to her, and Seina’s legs didn’t react, only her throat closed, and she could hardly raise her arms above her head. The man raised his hand, like that of an executioner ready to kill.
Suddenly, light flashed across the sky, followed by the sound of thunder.
-
Ugagami Seina looked at the clouds and sighed as the polluted skies had turned into blues. Despite what everyone said, she would miss them, the noisy crowded streets of Roppongi and the neon lights tearing through the darkness as she took the train home. Instead, she would have to embrace the silent nights of this tiny village hidden in between mountains, disconnected from civilization from the looks of it. There was only one road connecting this place with the real world, and Seina didn’t know how her parents expected her to get used to it. Sure, the air was cleaner, and the place was calmer, but there was something else she couldn’t put her finger on, other than the prospect of absolute boredom. Sure, she liked nature but not real nature, full of crickets and cicadas and absolutely nothing else. Just the one she could look at from her comfortable sofa.
“It’ll be for one month,” her father said as he closed the van with the fatality of the grim reaper. And no matter how much Seina complained, how she had planned on going on trips with her friends, like that onsen in Takayama or maybe a wild ride at Comiket, no, Seina was going to visit her relatives in a town which seemed to have no electricity at all.
She loved her grandparents but found that maybe their lifestyle wasn’t akin to hers. More like, it definitely wasn't. And it wasn’t an exaggeration. The house lacked a computer and Seina’s reception had been leaning toward utterly horrible the moment they got inside the mountains. The village was a popular place for older couples and Seina quickly understood why; it was calm and isolated which was like an endless nightmare to her. After unpacking her things and realizing that she was cut off from the world, Seina went to see the village alone. She plugged in her earphones, blasted the music on, at the very least, music was usable despite the dreadful conditions, and she walked without a goal.
Quickly the unpaved road became the norm, perfectly dividing the houses, its outline only traced by some green on the sides. Seina had barely come across anyone, and those who she met gave her an unusual look, given her bright and surprisingly short outfit. It was the norm back at home but it seemed the elderly didn’t take kindly to the latest fashion, her shorts and jacket or her messy ponytail covered with glittering accessories. She really came out of a different place.
Soon, the inside of the town seemed to mesh together, full of the same house design devoid of people, and Seina had found herself lost. She was sure that she had just walked a straight line, but when she tried going back, she couldn’t make sense of her surroundings. Before she knew it, she was reaching the outskirts of the village, where there was a fine line dividing the civilization and the wilderness, a sudden fence of trees which led up to the mountain path with a sea of green trees, as expected of summer. However, it wasn’t this carpet which got her attention, it was the unusually placed building up in the mountain, small from where she was standing. It seemed to shine with the sun, but when she rubbed her eyes, the magic seemed lost.
“Ah, young lady, you must be Ugagami-san’s granddaughter, are you not?” The voice of an elderly woman, one standing next to Seina, brought her back to reality, giving her a scare in the meantime. “You shouldn’t wander too far. There are spirits lurking in the mountains.”
“Spirits?” Seina raised an eyebrow, a perfectly understandable reaction from someone living in the city, in the bright light of rationality. There were no spirits in the world, only those monsters lurking in the shadows, which were to be avoided and were very real and human.
The old woman just stared at Seina and smiled faintly. “You must have lost your way, I’ll help you reach your grandfather’s house.”
Seina nodded, hesitating for a second as she looked back at that building, most likely an old temple, which seemed to hide something. But she quickly brushed those thoughts aside, silly ideas from old people and followed her rescuer back home.
-
The man’s hand didn’t reach Seina’s face, making her opening her eyes as a result. Instead he found that something was holding the man’s arm, something like… another arm?
The air grew colder around them. She turned to her back and found someone standing right behind her and the creature, chills going down her spine because she had missed this fourth stranger, not realizing when he had actually gotten here. From the looks on the other men’s pale frozen-in-terror faces, he didn’t come with them, and instead, they stepped back, slowly.
“Ora! What the fuck do you think you are doing?!” A voice roared, shaking the core of Seina with such force that finally her legs gave in.
The other men froze in place and Seina used this to look at the man who seemed to have stopped her attacker. A behemoth with bright golden hair shining like lighting, covered in heavy gold chains and with his eyes covered in pink shades stood behind her. His arms were so strong Seina thought they could break anything, an impression shared by the other men.
“So?”
The man roared again, but he got no reply as Seina’s attackers quickly turned, running away as if they had seen a ghost. However, there was no way to judge them, for the man reminded her of a demon and Seina shivered in fear realizing that now she was alone with him, even more when he leaned down.
“Hey, are you-”
The man suddenly stopped and in a flash quickly stood up as a sudden pink hue took over his face. Seina cocked her head to the side, as some relief dawned on her and she tried to stand up, legs all wobbly and threatening to collapse at any moment. It took all of her strength to not fall and she could look at the man better. He was tall, way taller than her, she didn’t even reach his shoulders. His eyes were covered with those shades of his, but his face drained of color and soon Seina realized he glanced at her only to avoid her gaze.
“Uh, what?” Seina started, voice half dead in terror and barely kept in check when a faint whimper was audible and soon she dropped whatever she was going to do, and knelt down to the small creature.
The animal was barely breathing, raindrops falling from its slowly rising chest, mixing with the blood it was soaked over. Her lips drew into a thin line and she quickly took off her jacket.
“Hey! Why are you taking off your-!” The man shouted, and if it weren’t for the gravity of the situation, Seina would have thought he was getting flustered over her clothes. However, she paid no attention and laid it on the ground. She then took off her stripped shirt, leaving herself with only a rather short tank top and her shorts.
“We need to take this pup to a vet. He’s gravely hurt and needs help!” Seina looked up, shivering because of the cold drops against her exposed skin. “Do you know of one here? I don’t know my way in this village and I can’t lose time!”
Seina reached to the animal, seemingly a pup, but it growled weakly and she pulled away. “Dammit,” she cursed under her breath as she untied her ribbon. “Hey, lend me a hand. Keep the animal down, I’m going to muzzle it…”
The man was now kneeling next to her, and while he didn’t reply, she could have sworn he was talking to the animal, as the pup didn’t growl when he placed his hand over the pup’s face. However, Seina had no time to waste. She quickly muzzled the pup with her ribbon and with the man’s help, she laid the pup on her jacket and covered it with her shirt, only leaving the pup’s face uncovered.
“Oy, leave it to me,” the man interrupted her as she was trying to carry the makeshift stretcher. “I’ll carry this, you make sure the little fella doesn’t die, got it?”
It was now almost hilarious, the man who looked like a Yakuza capable of breaking an arm in half, was carrying Seina’s jacket with the pup on it leading the way to the vet’s house as Seina struggled keeping up to him, whistling and cooing gently to the pup and always checking that the small animal was still breathing.
When they arrived at the vet, both were drenched already and Seina rushed to slam against the closed door, knocking as hard as she could. “Hey! Doctor! Please, we have an emergency! Open up!” she yelled but there was no reply. However, she couldn’t give up, according to the man, there was only one vet clinic in the village and the pup breathed now with more difficulty. “Hey! Please!” She slammed her fist but the door didn’t open and she felt her world crum-
“Hey, asshole! We got an emergency here! Open up or I’ll tear through the fucking door!”
The man’s voice resounded like the thunder, doors and windows vibrating due to his fierceness, and for a second, Seina thought there was a god in front of her, as her legs threatened to fail her again for a second before she pushed away those silly thoughts. She was about to knock once more but this time, the door opened.
“What are you doing? Haven’t you noticed that the clinic is closed because it’s already late?” A man opened the door, wearing a short lab coat which implied he was the owner, one clearly upset after being yelled at. “Whatever it is, it surely can wa-”
“No, it can’t!” Seina interrupted him and pointed at the man holding the dog. “If you don’t tend to its wounds, it’ll surely die!”
The vet shook his head, frustrated and upset, following Seina’s finger reluctantly. But when his eyes reached the man and the dog, there was a glint of recognition and the vet’s face suddenly went pale, lip quivering so much that Seina had to look at the man to see if she was missing something. The vet didn’t say anything else, however, and just motioned them to enter the clinic. Soon the dog was lying on the examination table, and the vet looked at it closely, while both rescuers were in deep silence.
The vet let out a long sigh. “We need to clean the animal and tend its wounds, but my assistant has al-”
“I can help!” Seina interrupted him, earning glances from both vet and the golden man. “I’m on my second year of Veterinary Medicine. I might not be able to help if the problem needs more experienced hands, but I can do first aid and assist you in all the basics.”
The vet looked at her for a long time before he spoke, “You are Ugagami-san’s granddaughter, are you not? He did tell me you were studying in the capital… Well then, wash yourself properly and take one of the surgical outfits we have in the room to the left. And as for…” The doctor avoided the golden man’s face and quietly added, “I am afraid you will have to wait on the lounge. Please excuse me.”
The last thing Seina saw was the golden man nodding to himself, clothes covered in soil and soaked from the rain. “I get it, I get it. Can’t do much, ya? Save the lil’ buddy, will ya?”
-
It was already past 11 when surgery was over and Seina left the room, taking off the bonnet as she made her way to the waiting room. She had lost track of time, surprised to see the dim moonlight though the curtains. Surely the stranger had already left, Seina had goaded him into helping her and he had no reason to stay. Perhaps he would just come the next day to ask for the re-
A low snore broke Seina off her thoughts. The waiting room was empty, only lit because of one small lamp and on the sofa next to it, the golden man was slumped, probably falling asleep as he waited. The vet, Dr. Shinohara (as she had asked before surgery, figuring it was rude to not present herself and ask for his name), would be pissed if they stayed any longer, as the man wanted to rest already, so Seina came close and nudged his arm gently, but the golden man didn’t move.
“Hey…” she tried, tugging his shirt with more force, “Surgery is over…”
No response.
Seina nudged him more insistently, they really had to go home and she was dead sure her grandparents were going to punish her, not to mention they were still intruding. In that moment, he took her hand.
“Eh.”
Seina froze, because that man’s hand was really warm and he looked so peaceful when sleeping. He was mumbling something in his sleep, she couldn’t make out the words, maybe something about wanting to meet someone again. But something inside Seina made her agitated and she pulled her hand so hard she fell on her butt and pushed the table behind her.
“Hey, whatcha…”
At the very least the man woke up.
The trip back home was quiet, Seina kept yawning as the adrenaline kick had died out and she realized she was exhausted. In between the scare of her life and the surgery, she had already had too much excitement for a lifetime. And that didn’t include the mysterious golden man. He seemed either deep in thought or sleepy, but Seina couldn’t blame him and was surprised and confused that he had shown her the way, as she still had no clue of the layout of the village.
So, when they reached her grandparents’ house Seina stood in front of him and bowed deeply. “Thank you for helping me today. Ah, I believe I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Ugagami Seina, pleased to meet you.”
The man let out a laugh, nodding to himself for some reason Seina couldn’t really understand. His glee was so surprising, and there was something, a faint shine behind him that made her blink and rub her eyes, maybe it was all the stress of the day that was playing tricks on her.
“Nice to meet ya. Call me Golden.”
“Gol-” Seina was about to mention how weird that name was but the door creaking broke her thoughts, turning around to meet the worried faces of her grandparents. “Ah, grandpa, grandma, I’m sorry! This man helped me and, huh?” When Seina turned to present Golden, she realized no one else was outside. She had no time to ponder on it, her grandmother quickly hushed her inside and Seina imagined he had just gone home.
-
The next day, after a long talk with her family, some scolding for not telling them about the sudden incident and the begging of not making things up, Seina rushed to the clinic. First to check on the pup, and second, to get her clothes back. In between tiredness and the sudden adrenaline rush, Seina had forgotten about them and only realized when she had been questioned by her grandmother over her clothing (or lack of) choices. Seina had brought money as well, and certainly Dr. Shinohara seemed more amiable once Seina had paid for the surgery and apologized for the intrusion. She partially expected to see Golden there, but he was nowhere to be found and Dr. Shinohara didn’t seem eager to talk about him either. It could even be said that yesterday Seina was the only one there, from how the vet acted, not even mentioning how he had been made to open the place and insulted to boot. It didn’t seem like he had visited the pup before her either.
Fortunately, the dog seemed to be in good shape, despite the critical condition it had been left in yesterday. While it wasn’t in the clear yet, the pup had passed the night without any difficulties and if it continued recovering, it could be discharged in a week. It even wagged its little tail when Seina was allowed to visit it, though the doctor reminded her she couldn’t move it yet.
Now that it was clean, Seina could see it looked like a Golden Retriever, and she imagined the pup had run away and gotten lost before it was found by the three men. According to Dr. Shinohara, someone in the village had a female Golden Retriever which had pups months ago. While the owner did confirm one was missing, they weren’t really interested in retrieving it and would leave it at the vet so that it could be taken by someone else.
All of this overwhelmed Seina, wondering what would be the fate of the small dog should no one in the village want it. She thought about whether no one in the village really was going to take care of it, so fixated on her worries that she slammed into someone’s back.
“Ora! Pay attention to where ya- Oh, you’re the girl from yesterday… Seina, right?”
Seina had to look up to see she had slammed against the mysterious man from yesterday, Golden, and her face flushed slightly, as she noticed he was standing in the middle of the road and if she had been paying any attention, she would have avoided him (and she couldn’t help but feel surprised he remembered her name, without any honorifics nonetheless).
“Ah, right uh, Golden-san. I didn’t notice when you left yesterday…”
Golden laughed and smirked, “Of course you wouldn’t, entrances and departures are all about the vibe, ya know? Can’t let myself be se-a aha!” Suddenly his face froze as he stopped talking and laughed loudly just to pretend he hadn’t said a thing.
Seina arched an eyebrow at him, obviously not missing this minor slip up. “Can’t be seen by others?” she asked, but Golden laughed even louder and showed no signs of answering her question. “Is that why you didn’t go see the pup?”
“Eh? You went already?” Golden scratched his head, frowning and pouting as if his plans had been ruined. “Then how am I supposed to see the dog…” he muttered to himself.
Now Seina was folding her arms and stared at Golden with cold eyes. “So, you can’t be seen by anyone. What are you? Now that I think of it, Dr. Shinohara and the three assholes who attacked me seemed scared to have seen you.” Seina stepped closer to Golden, who stepped back, suddenly not looking as bright and lively as exactly two seconds ago, sweating bullets with a forced twitching smile.
“A ha ha hah, I don’t know what are you talking about!”
“Huh? Don’t give me that! I can absolutely tell you are hiding something! You probably wanted me to go with you, didn’t you” Seina yelled, now pointing an accusatory finger at a pale-as-a-ghost Golden. “What is your deal-” Then, her eyes wandered to his heavy chains and belt and something hit her. “I see… I see! It all makes sense now! I know your true nature! You’re a-”
“No, I’m not a-”
“Yakuza!” Seina pointed at Golden’s face with the certainty of that terrible defense attorney, protagonist of that popular videogame Seina played.
“…Say what!”
“I should be running away and reporting you to the police, but you did save me so I figure you aren’t a bad guy after all!” Now Seina was nodding to herself as it was Golden who looked at her incredulously. “But of course those punks and the doctor were afraid of you. I don’t know many people who are willing to deal with a Yakuza. Now it all makes sense, of course no one would be called Golden! It’s more like your codename and whatever those things the Yakuza call each other.”
“Ah… ahahaha, you got me there…” Golden muttered, and cleared his throat. “It is all as you say, but you gotta promise you won’t tell a soul! Can’t risk my identity and reputation, you know?”
“Right, right, Golden-san.”
-
“Hey Golden-san….” Seina began after they walked away from the vet clinic. The pup had recovered almost completely, two weeks after it had been treated, and it was now typical of both to see it every day. “Dr. Shinohara won’t keep the dog any longer. Can’t you-”
Golden shook his head and frowned deeply. “Can’t do so. Goldie is-”
“Goldie? Are you kidding me?! You can’t name the dog like-”
“Why not? That dog is GOLDEN. Of course he has to have a-”
“It’s like calling a cat ‘Feline’! Would you name a cat ‘Golden’ too?”
“Of course not, I AM Golden but the cat would be ‘Gold’ so-”
“Then you’ve named the dog, keep him.”
By this point Golden was shaking his head so much that his hair flung and shone with the sunrays, putting his hands in his pockets to drive the point further. “I told you before, I can’t. Besides, why can’t YOU keep him?”
Seina stopped abruptly, so suddenly that Golden hadn’t noticed it at first and had to backtrack.
“I can’t… I can’t leave him with my grandparents here because they don’t like dogs and back at home we aren’t home most of the day, we can’t take care of him.”
“So,” Golden began, arching an eyebrow to try to understand her statements correctly. “If you had someone to take care of Goldie, you’d take him with you?” Both were aware of what would happen if the dog didn’t find a home soon. The vet most likely would put him down.
“That’s one way of putting it. Yeah…” Seina was about to sigh and try to change the subject when she noticed for the first time that someone was looking at them. She had been too into the conversation with Golden to realize that someone was staring, the pierce through your skull kind of staring, and she glanced around.
“What’s wrong?” Golden ask, seemingly unaware of it, and Seina shushed him quietly.
She looked at her side, trying to seem casual and contemplative over the dog’s situation but she lowered her voice so much that Golden had to lean down to listen to her. “I think someone has been following us…”
“WHAT!”
“Lower your voice, dammit!” Seina hollered, louder than Golden followed by the sound of something falling and both turned to see a couple of kids falling flat on their faces, probably surprised to hear yelling or having realized they were caught. “Hey what are you-”
“Begone, demon!” The kids yelled at Seina, waving their hands trying to scare her away.
“What…?”
“Stop bullying the son of the-”
“HEY HEY, STOP, STOP, STOP!” Golden shouted, his voice drowning the kids’ screams and flinging his arms widely, grabbing everyone’s attention. “There’s no demon in here!”
“But this woman is fighting with you! What if she’s Shut-”
“Nope. Nope. Absolutely not!”
In the meantime, Golden began to argue passionately with the two children, shouting in between ridiculous wild gesticulations and Seina wondered if she was stuck with 3 children who ignored her attempts to stop the fight.
“My, my, things got out of hand fast…” The voice of an old woman, vaguely familiar, reached Seina's ears and as she turned she met the person who she had found when she arrived, the one who warned her about spirits. “I knew my grandchildren were wild, but I didn’t believe Sakata Kintoki-sama would be equally loud.” She finished her sentence with a long, drawn sigh and Seina blinked twice.
“H..uh…?”
“Why are you so surprised, young woman? Everyone knows that Sakata-sama lives in this mountain-”
“WHAT THE HELL?!”
-
“I come from the city. We don’t hear A THING about this in school,” Seina muttered as she folded her arms and looked away indignantly, only to be hit lightly on the head with a newspaper.
“What do they teach children these days?” the old woman, Nakawaga, barked as she waved the newspaper. “Didn’t they teach you to respect your elders?!”
“I thought he was a yaku-”
“A yakuza!” Nakagawa waved the newspaper above Seina’s head and Seina dived back so hard she fell backwards with her chair. “Can’t you see the divinity of Sakata-sama?! This is why I hate city dwellers, they all get entangled with their GP3DS and their videophones to see what it’s important. You’ve dishonored the spirit of the mountain and now you should apologize! Back in my days, you would have cut your stomach to atone for your mistakes…” Nakawaga began rambling and Seina thought to herself that she was quite fine living in this age without seppuku, especially for something she didn’t know. Because if they asked anyone, everyone would believe that Gold-no, Sakata Kintoki was a fucking yakuza member. But opening her mouth would mean more punishment so she bit her tongue hard and let the old woman ramble before she was shoved out of her house with the task of finding him and apologizing and letting him decide her fate.
However, no one told her how to exactly find him given that in the arguing and hilarious revelations, Kintoki had disappeared without a trace. So, she had gone throughout the village thrice already, feeling herself being judged for her “city-nerisms” because by now she thought everyone knew about her involvement with Kintoki. She actually tried asking but found that everyone was too worried about upsetting the son of a god to actually be of fucking help. Instead, they would just quietly deny anything while judging her silently and Seina wondered if they actually realized anyone else would feel lonely for this. At the very least she would and she was ready to bail out back to the lively streets of Tokyo where no one really gave a damn.
She thought of the house up in the mountains she had seen once before. Actually, she tried once but once she set foot on the forest, she quickly lost her way and maybe she would begin buying the whole magical spiritual place thing. So she thought of changing her strategy and had snuck in Goldie, begging to the gods her grandparents didn’t realize she was hiding a dog in her room, and after some days of mild preparation, Seina was following Goldie as they stepped in the forest. For some reason, the small Golden Retriever did recognize and understand Seina’s intentions, and he quickly sniffed around leading the way while Seina huffed and was ready to kill something because curse her city-nerisms.
When she reached the something-resembling-a-temple, Seina let herself fall as Goldie happily japed around the place. With her face on the ground, Seina could hear some grumbling from a voice she knew too well, followed by barking, and then loud screaming.
“Goldie! How did you get-”
Sakata Kintoki had been found out.
-
“Hey uh—Golden-san!” Seina uttered, without breath as she struggled to reach where Kintoki was, the man carrying the small pup with the joy of a kindergartener. However, at the sound of her words, Kintoki immediately froze, held the pup and went inside the building, shutting the door.
Seina sighed, breathed deeply, and went to the house. She knocked the door softly as if to not scare a toddler.
No answer.
She knocked louder.
“There’s no one here!”
“Hello, no-one-san, OPEN THE DOOR GOLDEN!”
But there was no response, at least not from a human. She could hear the barking of Goldie and Kintoki shushing him as if telling him to not give them away.
“Fine, then, I won’t be leaving this place until we talk…” Seina said as she sat on the entrance, having last second thoughts of how her words faintly reminisced of something else, and she shook her head furiously.
Of course, she had expected this, so she took out a book from the bag she had been carrying important things to kill time and figured out she could read about mythology as she waited. But Kintoki proved to be stubborn, far more than Seina and Seina was already high on that skill. To make things worse, drops of rain began to fall and Seina had to sit leaning on the door, to cover herself from the incoming rain. She hugged her legs and let out a long sigh, since the sudden downpour would mean she’d have to wait a while before she could go back home, seeing that Kintoki wasn’t talking.
Seeing it futile, Seina just yelled aloud, “Hey, for the record, I didn’t know you were uh whatever you are.” But there was no answer and Seina frowned. “Sorry if I didn’t act with the proper etiquette, that’s never been my forte, Sakata-sama. City girl and all.”
“Golden.”
“Huh?”
“Call me Golden. I don’t hate my name but it’s all about the vibe.”
Now Seina had an ear against the door. “Fine, fine, Golden-san. If you want me to leave, I’ll do but you’ll have to keep the dog or give it back.”
Whatever progress Seina had made, it felt like it was flung out of the mountain as Kintoki didn’t reply. “At least tell me what I did wrong so that I can apologize.”
“Hey, do you give a shit if I’m the son of a god and a demon?” Kintoki’s voice came from the other side of the door, uncharacteristically solemn. “I think that’s fucking amazing, but the people of the village always look at me with fear.”
“Well, I still find it hard to believe.” Seina rested her back against the door. “I mean, I’ve never heard of spirits or anything of the sort back at home. But I don’t think you are a bad person, if that worries you? I think most of the villagers are more worried that they upset you, a lot of folk tales involve the offenders being punished by the gods. So of course no one wants to be killed. But I do think you are really cool, you did save me and Goldie, remember?”
Next thing Seina knew was her falling flat on her back as the door was opened and lost her balance. She lifted her face to see Kintoki, carrying Goldie, looking at her.
“If you don’t mind that I don’t talk at you in the same way the villagers-”
“Nah, I prefer you talk to me the way you do.”
“You’re really a weird one.”
Before long, Seina had brought Kintoki home, to the flabbergasted faces of her grandparents who wondered if their granddaughter had gone mad or if they were going to face divine punishment because of their circumstances of their meeting.
-
“Hey, tomorrow’s the last day of the month.” Kintoki wasn’t looking at her but at the sunset, one which counted the hours left before Seina went back to Tokyo. However, it wasn’t what Kintoki was asking but what he was implying that made Seina sigh.
“In the end, no one wants the dog. I can’t leave Goldie here, so I figure I’ll have a better chance finding him a home in Tokyo.”
“And if you don’t?”
Seina shrugged, trying to dismiss the legitimate worry Kintoki had over Goldie. “I’ll figure it out when that happens. Though I won’t deny I’ll be sad when Goldie has to go. He’s actually a good pup.”
Kintoki didn’t reply and kept looking at the clouds, deep in thought. Seina couldn’t blame him, though. He was as attached to the dog as she was and if Seina found Goldie a home back at Tokyo, today was the last time Kintoki would see the pup. As the son of a god, hidden from villagers, she couldn’t find it anything but sad that once she left, Kintoki would probably be by himself. The people in the village still shied away when they walked by, now that the secret was out, yet no one referred to him in name, only in vague codes. Seina had to wonder if all gods and higher beings were that demanding of respect or if humans were too cowardly in nature. If anything, she hoped Kintoki would at least find a new friend somewhere. She thought of writing letters but she’d have to coax her grandparents to give them to him.
They spent the rest of the night in silent contemplation before they had to bid goodbye. Seina was sure the villagers were relieved she’d go away soon and she thought she’d not be easily welcomed in the future. As Kintoki walked away, nonchalant as ever, Seina wondered if that was the last time he’d see him.
-
Seina had been too busy packing her stuff on the last minute that she spent most of the time in her room filling every box she had. Her parents had been dealing with her grandparents, as they probably told how rude and ill-behaved Seina was, though she didn’t think they’d mention the incident with Kintoki, mainly because Seina’s parents were even worse than her in such subjects. It was part of the reason they moved out of the village in the first place. She did have to wonder what kind of lie the elderly couple had come up with to complain about her behavior AND she had to find out a way to take care of Goldie while she found him a home. As the sound of the closing zipper resounded in her room, Seina couldn’t help but sigh, being reminded of Kintoki. After all, Goldie was as his as he was hers and part of her still felt guilty about taking Goldie away from Kintoki.
But there was nothing she could do, Seina reminded herself as she shoved the suitcase on the trunk and went to sit on the backseat, trying to keep Goldie still, for he had suddenly begun acting restless, wagging his tail and barking happily.
“Shush Goldie, stay still.”
“Don’t keep Goldie all to yourself. Your dad said the trip to Tokyo takes 5 hours, so I get to hold him half of the ride!”
Sakata Kintoki was sitting next to Seina, which made her scream loudly, and she’d have fallen on her butt if she hadn’t been sitting.
“W-wh-what are you doing here?!”
“Well, what do you think?! If you can’t take care of Goldie, I will just go with you and take care of him while I stay at your house. You said you would keep Goldie if you had a way to care for him while you weren’t around.”
“What the hell?! What kind of stupid idea is that?!”
“Excuse you! I thought about it and your parents agreed on it! They found it GOLDEN to house the son of the god of thunder.”
And it was how the son of the god of thunder, Sakata Kintoki went to Tokyo with the Ugagami family.
