undergrounds | Kitsunegari (July catch-all)

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Kitsunegari (July catch-all)

A: After the full moon

Heiji had been lucky to walk away from his run-in with Tal as well as he had -- a werewolf during this particular time of year was even more dangerous than usual. But he was still badly hurting, and he did not yet want to return to the Other Realm, where one of his own kind might see an excellent opportunity to take advantage of his wounds. Nor could he wander the streets as a human slowly bleeding through his clothing.

So instead he limped along quietly in the early hours of the morning in the least energy-intensive form he could. A small black fox, looking for a burrow to hole up in and lick his wounds.

B: You are cordially invited (July 7)

In light of his new title as well as his decision to stay in London for the foreseeable future, Heiji had had a home constructed for himself in Faery -- a little out of the way for his non-fae acquaintances to come visit him, but much less likely to arouse undue interest from any neighbors. It was a Japanese-style house, of course, with a small pond and cherry trees outside the windows.

Now he sat out the steps, sipping at his sake and waiting for company.

C: Fox hunt (Evening in Richmond Park, July 11th-ish)

Hoofbeats sounded in the distance, accompanied by the distant baying of hounds. A flit of red fur through the grass, and then the sounds of the dogs took on a new, excited cast. Panicked and frightened, the young fox ran blindly through the trees. The paths looked the same, the woods were unfamiliar. Meanwhile, the sounds of her pursuit was getting closer...

Heiji ran through the park, looking for any sign, but he'd lost sight of the hunting party. All he had to go on now was the baying of the hounds. There were thousands of foxes in London, and why hadn't she listened to him?

He grimaced as he charged through the grass. "Of all the rotten luck...!"

D: Choose your own adventure :')

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That's a good question and she hopes part of the answer is, 'He is alright with ghosts in the house.'

"My word. Four? That's a lot even for me." She only had two boys but they demanded a lot of time, energy, and discipline from her and Francisco and they wanted to raise a family. Twice the number, family or not, would be rather demanding on anyone else. "There are six in total at your place... Not a lot of time for privacy, I bet."

She sidesteps the best a ghost can sidestep in order to avoid bumping into a passing man who happen to be carrying a baby in his arms. The little girl, peering over his shoulders, seems to notice her and gurgles and waves as they vanish among the others.

It's impossible to hide her smile at that sudden gesture. Clara's forgotten how much she's enjoyed looking after people with a specific goal in mind and little moments like those. The memory of the baby's smile is what spurs her on to ask, "If it isn't strange to suggest: Maybe I could help out in looking after Tsubaki and the others? While they're here so you can still do your chores and tasks in peace. Everyone needs some alone time. You included."

Tsubaki turned and waved a little at the baby, smiling despite the scare she'd just had. Heiji, meanwhile, just looked surprised. "You really want to? I mean, like I said, they're kind of a lot to keep up with. N-not that I'm turnin' ya down. But I know you've got a lot of other people to look out for."

That was the response of someone who didn't want to impose... but actually kind of did. What do with little girls. "It's not so bad now that I got the new place. An apartment would've been way too much."

A few stops and it was time to disembark. By now Tsubaki had demanded to be put down so she could plaster her face to the window and listen to the noise of the train, but when Heiji called, she scampered over and grabbed his hand before looking over at Clara to make sure she was following.

"I have all the time in the world at the rate I'm spooking around," she assures him. "It's not a big deal and I bet the others who I like to look after would be relieved I'm not pestering them as much while I look over Tsubaki and the other girls."

Tsubaki seemed like a nice girl and if she's a relative of Heiji, Clara considers her a friend by association. She'll help the best way she knows how: Watching people over and trying to dissuade them from doing something dangerous.

By the time they had to disembark, Clara is relieved and is quick to follow behind the two from a distance. Thank goodness they finally were getting to somewhere that didn't move as much. Now and then, during the trip, she found herself 'slipping' so to speak. When the train made a stop or went without her being prepared for the jolt, she keeps finding herself skidding (floating) to the back.

She takes some comfort knowing she must have looked a little silly, 'sliding' back into the cart and provided a sliver of entertainment during the ride. But she's happy they're back on solid ground. There are just some places ghosts mix better in. A welcoming residence of a friend happens to be one of them.

Heiji laughed -- spooking around, that tickled him. "Well, in that case, I'd be happy to accept your offer! You can tell me if they start wearin' ya out, though."

During their trip, Tsubaki had made a little game of following Clara back and forth as the train stopped and started, which the other passengers probably regarded as some silly child's game of running to and fro through the aisle. Now she took Heiji's hand as they turned into a street and Heiji opened a door. Through it was not the inside of a building, but a grassy field. There was a sizeable Japanese-style house in the middle of the field, with a small pond.

Another girl about Tsubaki's age was playing with a lightweight ball on the front lawn, bouncing it upon the ground. She was singing what sounded like a child's song:

"Maru take ebisu ni oshi oike
Ane san rokkaku tako nishiki..."

"It's yome san, not ane san," Heiji said, stepping through the door and onto the grass.

Clara makes no attempt to hide her awe as she sees their home. She's seen this type of houses only in pictures -- Tonyo and Maja's travels, Kyle's rough drawings when helping his brother plan a new house. She never thought there would be one in London.

Then again a lot of people never thought someone like her would still be around. There's that.

Upon hearing the singing up ahead, the foreign words catching her attention, Clara's interests become piqued and moves closer to see who it is. She must be one of the cousins of Heiji. She seems like a sweet dear, only trying to enjoy herself. It only makes her more stubborn in seeing them all through during their stay here in the city.

"Hello there." Thinking it's best to give a good impression, she waves in greeting at the girl while staying close to Heiji and Tsubaki to show that she's a friend. "I thought that was lovely song! I never heard of it before though. What is it about, miss?"

The girl turned a bit pink in response to Clara's compliment. "Oh, hello -- it's a song to remember the order of the streets in Kyoto," she said. Her hair was longer than Tsubaki's, and she was dressed in light green. Whatever else she was about to say, however, was cut off as Tsubaki scampered over to the girl and gave her a hug. "Tsubaki...? Where have you been? We were worried about you..."

Heiji turned to Clara. "This is Kiku. And this is Miss Clara. It's kind of a long story, but she's a friend of mine and she found Tsubaki out in London. Hey, are the others around?"

"They're napping," said Kiku, with a note of mild disapproval. Tsk tsk, napping before bedtime. Bad form, everybody else. She looked back at Clara. "Would you like to come in?"

"Hello Kiku! I would love to come inside and meet the rest of your family." She sounds a bit amused since she heard that disapproving tone. That's something she had to deal with before so Kiku has all of her sympathies. "That's such a clever way to remember the streets! I wish I could sing just as well but the most I can do is sing all the bones in the body."

Even then she gets a bit lost after she passes the hip bones. "It's good to hear the others are alright. We had quite an adventure earlier but at least everyone is here together now."

That's the most important thing to remember. It could have been much, much worse if she hadn't run across the young fox girl or they hadn't gotten to that phone in time. Brrr. She hates the maybes of this situation. What awful ways it could have gone down.

"Is there really a song for that?" asked Kiku, forgetting her disapproval in the face of A Song About All The Bones. She did enjoy learning new things, after all.

"Okay, then, everyone in!" said Heiji cheerfully, opening the front door so that the two girls could scamper inside. "Maybe we'll make enough noise to wake the others up while we're at it."

Inside the house was a long hallway, sectioned off at intervals with sliding doors. The floor was hardwood and polished to a high shine. Through one of the doors was a tatami mat room with a low table set up in the center. For some reason, however, the table appeared to be attached to a large, fluffy blanket. Tsubaki sat down and struck her legs under the blanket, bringing its edge up to her chin with a little giggle.

"There is!" Clara tells her as she joins them inside the house, looking around with great interest but keeping in mind that she's talking to someone. It'll be rude to not pay attention towards Kiku. "It's a very funny song that's supposed to help you remember the parts of your body. If you want I can sing a bit of it to see if you'll be interested in learning that."

She moves closer to the table and blinks a bit, wondering if she should try to sit with them too. Should she? Could she?

... It wouldn't hurt to try. Making sure no one would get offended by her attempts, she sits down and tries her best to make sure her limbs don't phase through the furniture or floor. "Oh! Don't be that mean to them, Heiji. I'm sure there's another way to wake them up without having to make a ruckus. Too big of a ruckus at least."

"Can you?" Kiku was obviously interested, judging from the way she leaned forward. "I mean, if it's not too much bother..."

Smiling happily, Tsubaki propped up a corner of the blanket so that Clara could sit down. Then she grabbed the remote on the table and switched on the television. It was showing an episode of Magical Detective Ley Line, which appeared to be about a little girl who ran around with a wand and solved mysteries.

Heiji, meanwhile, propped an elbow up on the table. "Well, if you say so. Or I guess we could leave those introductions for when everyone's already awake."

"I would love to. It'll be a good way for us to pass the time while we wait for the others to wake up."

There are benefits to being a ghost. Things that are useful and things that are just plain fun to do.

Like the fact she can lift a foot up and it'll phase right through the table, trying her best to not block anyone's view of the show going on. (It looks quite familiar too! Probably something one of Magra's friend would watch with her during the weekends.)

She wiggles her for demonstration while she sings the song, doing her best to make her voice sound 'spooky' by trying to sound gruff and deep like she thinks a skeleton would actually sound,

"Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

"The toe bone's connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone,
The ankle bone's connected to the leg bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!"

Tsubaki clapped cheerily as Clara sang, while Kiku tried her very best to look impartial. It was a children's song, after all, and she was Old Enough that she shouldn't make a scene. But between the television and the singing about skeleton bones, it wasn't long before the door to the room opened and two sleepy-looking faces peeked inside.

"Who's singing? Is it a guest?"

Heiji turned around. "Oh, good timing! Clara, this is Sakura and Ume." The two girls nodded in turn, one dressed in pink and the other in violet. "And this is Clara. She's a friend of mine. Found Tsubaki over in Richmond Park."

She stops when she hears the door being opened and the voices of two new people joining them. Remembering her manners, she puts her feet back to place so they weren't going through the table's surface.

"Hello! Sakura, Ume-- It's a pleasure to meet you." She gives a wave and her brightest smile, laughing a bit at herself now that she feels a bit self conscious for being so silly in someone else's home. "I'm sorry! I hope I didn't wake you two up with my singing. I was trying to teach the others here about the bone song."

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Kitsunegari (July catch-all)

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