*** Embarrassment and Nobility (Ume POV)***
“Ume, Ume!” I heard Tomo say, as he snapped his fingers.
I jerked back to the present, blushing to find Tomo and Kan-chan peering across the kotatsu at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Shishi but not her expression. I didn’t dare look. What if she had heard me? As embarrassing as that thought was, I pushed it aside; I needed to focus on our present situation.
“I was listening,” I said hastily.
“No, you weren’t,” Tomo corrected me. “You had that look you get when you’re writing stories in your head.”
“Touché,” I laughed. He had me dead to rights. “Did I miss anything important?”
“Just Kan-chan saying the next step is to sacrifice a virgin to Mikawa.”
I blinked and digested that. It took a second to recognize the intended humor.
“Not funny,” I responded, though I was tempted to say, “I’ll miss you, Virgin-kun.” but we had company, so I didn’t.
I heard Shishi cough next to me, and whisper in my ear, “Kan-chan was saying we should go to her temple, and that if I’m willing to renounce Mikawa, they might be able to help us.”
“Are you?” Kan-chan asked.
Her brusqueness threw me off, or maybe I was just still disoriented from my sudden reentry to the world of the aware — and why was Shishi looking at me like that?
I just smiled and hoped the pause didn’t mean she had fallen back under Mikawa’s spell. But she turned back to Kan-chan momentarily and said, “As long as Tomo will let me stay; I belong to Ume now.”
I interrupted, “I don’t own you and neither did Mikawa.”
“Can I stay Tomo-san?” Shishi said, ignoring me. “I don’t want to get between you and Ume, so I need your permission.”
I wanted to say, “Of course he’ll let you,” but had the good sense to be quiet. He didn’t have to and maybe didn’t want to. Then it dawned on me what an impossible situation I’d put Tomo in. If he said no, he couldn’t know if I’d stay, and he must realize if I stayed, our relationship would be strained. But if he felt forced to say “yes,” he would end up resenting me. He was in a no-win situation.
“Tomo,” I said, “if you don’t want her to stay, say so. I’ll figure something out. I’ll pay her back rent or find a cheap place for her. We can work this out.”
Something seemed to snap, and I saw anger on Tomo’s face. “How are you going to fix anything? Pay her rent? Do you even HAVE a job?”
As quickly as the anger came, it passed, and he continued in a tired voice., “You can’t fix this Ume. I can’t fix this.”
There was a sharp click as Kan-chan’s teacup knocked against the pot. It’s impossible to say if it was deliberate, but it got our attention, and we looked at Kan-chan. She carefully put down the teacup, folded her hands, and said, “If Shiro agrees, she can stay with us. Kao is used to keeping unpleasant things out.”
A rush of relief washed over me. “It’s up to you Tomo. I can live with whatever you decide.”
Tomo looked first at me, then at Shishi, and then back again. “She can stay. I’d probably never see you if you were bouncing between households.” He stopped for a moment, then continued, “That’s not why. She can stay. I’ll even try to be friendlier.”
In the next instant, Shishi and I acted simultaneously.
Shishi bowed to Tomo and said, “Thank you. Thank you; I’m in your debt too,” as I wrapped him in a big hug and whispered in his ear, “You really are the best. I’m sorry for putting you through this, but you’re wonderful.”
As I let go, I saw Shishi’s face. A frown had replaced her look of gratitude.
“Yabai,” I thought, “I’ve blown it.” That thought was followed by another, “Oh well, Tomo deserved that, and Shishi will have to get used to it.”
I should have just left it like that. Sometimes it’s best to just cut your losses, but instead, I tried fixing things. I picked up a pack of Shishi’s smokes, shook one out, and offered it to her. It was a clumsy peace offering, but for a moment I thought it had worked when she took it. Then I noticed the half-smoked Camel sitting in the ashtray in front of her. I must look like a prime idiot, an assessment that matched the amused looks on Tomo’s and Kan-chan’s faces.
“Just in case,” I muttered, then louder, “There’s something I need to deal with. You all make plans for going to the temple while, er… I deal, er… with my… Hanayome-shin.”
*** Tomino (Kan-Chan POV) ***
*** トミノ ***
I watched Tomo’s partner, Ume, flee the room to the kitchen. She had my sympathies. I’d feel ridiculous too if I’d made a big deal offering a cigarette that way, only to find out they already had one lit. When I did stuff like that, I wanted to crawl under a table and hide. Never come out. That is, until my Mistress, Shiro, patted my head and told me it was okay.
Shishi, a pretty blue-haired ex-idol, sat across from me and was the reason for the gathering. Simply put, she was cursed, and I had come with my partner Kao to do an exorcism. Kao was gone now, having done all she could for the moment. I had stayed to protect them in the meantime.
Shishi looked concerned. I gathered she was one wing in an unstable poly triangle with Ume at the apex. Unless fate had a hand in their relationship, I didn’t give it good odds of surviving. Shishi would either burn Ume out or Tomo would leave, unable to deal with the presence of an unstable third party.
Tomo sat next to me. A charming transmasc. Tomo seemed the most stable of the trio. He looked mildly amused as he watched Ume’s retreating back, and remarked, “Poor Ume.”
He looked over at Shishi. “Sometimes she has to retreat when she flustered,” he told her.
I wondered if Tomo was the type to rub it in later. I didn’t know him well, but from what I had seen, his humor was sarcastic and rough, so I didn’t know. He seemed nice, so I’d wanted to think he wouldn’t.
His eyes traveled to the kitchen door, to the shrine screen, and then back to Shishi. “I wonder what she is going to say to Hanayome?” As if noticing Shishi’s worried look, he went on, “Don’t worry, she won’t give you up. Ume is dense and impulsive, but kind-hearted and loyal to a fault.”
I approved of his comment. He was going to make good on his promise to be kinder. Maybe I was wrong. They might make it as a polyqule. Kindness went a long way and loyalty seemed to be a strong suit for all of them.
Tomo reminded me of Tomino, a large reddish tosaken that one of our neighbors owned when I was in secondary school. Tomino had been hurt in a dogfight, but was still fierce and loyal to anyone he befriended. Yes, Tomo reminded me a lot of Tomino, and not just because of the name.
It took all of two minutes to make plans for our trip to the temple the next day, and there wasn’t much to do while we waited for Ume to return. We could tell her our plans when she got back.
While I waited, I sat and reminisced about Tomino. He had been a good friend when I didn’t have any others. It had been like fate. The neighbors moved in the day after I had a major fight with my best friend, Sakura.
I vividly remember that fight. I was lying in the sun next to a window pretending I was a cat and Sakura was my mistress. It was a game the two of us played. Sakura’s friend Ayako had stopped by and was whispering to her. I wished Ayako would go away, so I could have Sakura all to myself, so I lay still pretending to be asleep and watched them with slit eyes. The ruse must have worked because their whispering got steadily louder till I heard Sakura say, “She’s so weird. She thinks she’s a cat,” and the two laughed.
I ran out of the house and never went back.
I’d always been a lonely child and having had a friend made being alone even worse. Every day I came home from school, the weight of my isolation crushing me. The neighbor’s dog looked just as lonely. His eyes begged for attention, and I happily complied. It wasn’t long before I spent most of my free time with Tomino.
I want to emphasize how gentle he was by nature. If I was busy, he would even sleep with my sister’s cat. A mean-tempered little Siamese with a crooked tail. One of the few cats that I hated.
One day, when I was coming home from school, Ayako approached with some friends.
“Hey, there’s the cat girl Sakura told me about. — Nyaa, Nyaa, Nyaa.” She called out.
Her friends joined in saying things like “Pretty Neko-chan,” “Koneko want to play?” and “Nyaa,” but they soon were all shouting in chorus “Nyaa, Nyaa, Nyaa,” and laughing.
I turned to flee when I felt Ayako grab my collar and the girls surrounded me. And one by one, they began chanting, “Neko, Neko, Nyaa.” Now that I was trapped, Ayako let go, and the girls started circling me, spinning around me faster and faster. All the time chanting,
“Neko, Neko, Nyaa.”
“Neko, Neko, Nyaa.”
“Neko, Neko, Nyaa.”
All I could do was cower until Ayako stepped out of the circle, proclaiming. “I know a dark basement, where there’re tons of rats for Neko-chan to eat. Poor hungry koneko.”
“Please don’t. I haven’t…” I began but didn’t finish, because at that moment Tomino barreled into the girls, scattering them. In the next second, he was beside me, snarling, threatening any girl that approached us. I’m sure he would have torn them to shreds if they hadn’t backed off. At the time, I would have cheered him on, though now I’m glad he didn’t. Not for the girl’s sake, but I know what happens to dogs that attack humans.
I missed that dog when I went off to college. He was the only thing I regretted leaving behind.
I wondered if Ume knew how lucky she was. I looked between Tomo and Ume’s new girlfriend, the night swallow girl. Tomo was calmly smoking while Shishi puffed nervously, glancing in the direction Ume had gone. Ume must have magic I didn’t see.
I preferred Tomo. Plain, honest, loyal Tomo.
While I had been thinking about Tomino, Ume had come out of the kitchen and gone to the shrine. By listening closely, we could indistinctly hear Ume’s pleading voice and an answering sound of wind and rustling leaves. So Hanayome-shin had decided to respond.
A few minutes passed, and Une came out looking puzzled and was greeted by a chorus of “What did she say?”
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Note: What did Hanayome-shin say?
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Story by Nara Moore
Twitter/X:@nara_moore
Mastodon: sakurajima.moe
WordPress: Josei Yuri and Paranormal Romance
Art by Mai-sensei
Twitter: @Maiisheree
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