Chapter Text
The doors held on tight for what seemed like a millennia. His eyes, so droopy he could barely keep himself standing. For how long he had searched for something to keep his new life stable, he couldn’t believe it had come to this one last resort where he had to jeopardize his mental and physical health even more.
He smacked himself harshly, and took a deep breath, doing whatever it took to wake himself even more. He then grabbed his red suit, and with his polished hand that was dealt to cover up the injuries he had from all his fruitless searching, he adjusted an orange colored tie that had small patterns of leafs on them.
Lights.
They were barely visible to see behind the glass panes, and the rays of light caused him to cringe from how bright they seemed to be. He never was good with light, which was the main reason he had to use glasses, but here he was though, without those lenses, and now consumed by whatever survival skills he had. If he had any, that is.
Camera.
He heard the staff run about, which made him imagine what type of chaos was brewing behind these pair of blockades. It was an interesting feeling. It was also something he had never been used to. Since those he deemed as “colleagues” didn’t invite him to anything. No parties, no get togethers, not even an invite to drink some sake with. He was a lowly nobody, someone that people could trample over without even thinking. People looked down on him, spat on him, hated him.
Action.
That one word made him start walking for the door. Toward a life that he never knew could exist, and somewhere within his heart, he appreciated the fact that he didn’t have to live in the same old life ever again. Away from those that saw him like a little bird. And away from those who saw nothing in him.
He now felt valuable. Needed. And for this Crow Tengu, he could now live life to its fullest from his people. Away from heartless fools.
“OH SON OF A- DAMMIT CHIPPO! DIDN’T I TELL YOU THAT YOU’RE NOT NEEDED HERE!?” a voice boomed aloud, in which every single Tengu within the office looked their way at the source of the voice.
In the middle of an office type room, in which the surrounding walls were made out of wood, desks were in rows with typewriters placed on them, and printers were seen stationed on the very far outskirts of the office room.
The gazes from most of, if not, everyone within the premises belonged to that of Tengu of many statures. Some were that of the Yamabushi Tengu, in which one could only describe them as looking like fearsome warriors, with their appearance resembling that of having red skin, a long red nose, and long brown and black wings resembling that of a bird; a massive bird to be exact.
Yet, they were just mere printers when it came to being a part of the newspaper business.
“Sorry sir! I- It won’t happen-”
“For the love of Tenma, I sent you to get a few things that I needed from my office, and you accidentally brought me the paperwork belonging to the other department!”
Before being abruptly cut off rudely, another voice that sounded rather frail and weakly responded to the first persons barking chide.
Many employees and workers that were a part of the newspaper department continued to gawk at the tense situation that bore fruit for most of the Karasu Tengu. These workers and reporters had the appearance of being humanoid with living skin, black hair, pointy tipped ears, and much like the Yamabushi Tengu, they also adorned similar wings that were much darker in color with their shade of black. These Tengu were usually compared to that of being crows, both in how their wings were feathery, and how they were social Youkai that were extraordinary in spreading misinformation when it came to newspapers.
Every person's eyes were all locked onto two individuals. Actually, scratch that, you might as well say that the entirety of Youkai Mountain may have known it all at this point, as there were some Crow Tengu that even heard some of the ruckus from outside of the open windows as a few reporters already brought their cameras out to take pictures of the scoop burning up even more like a wildfire.
At the center of all the attention, a Karasu Tengu man could be seen shuffling a multitude of papers up into his arms as he struggled to keep track of everything that had spilled from his hands.
Standing right in front of him, an older Karasu Tengu man could be seen looking down on him with the biggest scowl on Earth. One had to imagine what would happen if the drop of a feather hit the floor, and whether it would cause him to pop a vein, or perhaps if a red flag was waved right in front of him, he would exhale fumes of rage and charge at anything in his way. Whatever the case be, he still had some sense of dignity as he was wearing a suit that was protected by a gray jacket, with a white undershirt that he wore with pride, a gray tie that dangled down to his waist in arrogance, gray trousers, and snuggled comfortably on his feet, were two shiny gray shoes that embellished that of high class. And not the regular form of geta shoes that most Tengu wore.
Lastly, on top of his gray hair, was a gray tokin hat. A type of hat that all Tengu wore as a symbol of their status, home, and of course, showing off that they were Tengu in the flesh and light.
“Oh man, looks like Chippo’s going through it again.” a nearby Crow Tengu whispered out of empathy. But no matter how much the Karasu Tengu being ridiculed wanted to believe, he knew that type of voice was one of pity.
Like all the others that would see his daily humiliation.
He was used to it, every single day he was always on the back bone of someone else, and repeatedly was at a loss of having empty hands on the short end of the stick.
“Yeah, but this is just normal protocol at this point, this is like the 5th time the boss has smacked his paperwork outta his hands this time.” a Karasu man hid his breath to make sure the main head honcho in the room didn’t hear him.
“Yeah, you’re right, it’s not like it's really the bosses fault for how terrible Chippo’s work effort is. The guy’s basically fragile as a piece of paper, can’t even carry more than a dozen stacks of documents.” another Crow Tengu snorted.
“He can’t even pick himself up, how pathetic. And he’s supposed to be one of us? What a loser.”
“I know right? He’s honestly lucky that he works under an important superior. Yet, he’s making a mockery of us by looking like an idiot and getting paid a heft ton. I can’t wait for the day where we don’t have to see that useless piece of crap every morning.”
The voices grew into crowds of bated breaths, but they didn’t matter. His life was expendable, wasteful, and tackless.
The young Crow Tengu finished picking up the pieces of paper as the whispers continued, each having equal values of nitpicking at the side of the young man. Their verbal blows hurt like an arrow hitting him, tearing at his flesh and going through his bones. But they were the same, all the damn time.
Chippo, as the man was called, stood up with a slightly slouched back, which made his crow wings look tilted or even broken if looked at in the wrong angle. When he first joined the “Department of Prints” in which Crow Tengu that reported their articles were to be published and printed from their original paperwork, and distributed to the masses, many of his colleagues mistook him as an undercover spy that came from the Human Village to try and discover any secret agendas that the higher ups in Tengu Society were hiding behind their wings.
A big hassle that was, and a part of him feared that he would’ve flunked his 6th job interview as the many Tengu that he passed in the halls would occasionally share suspicious glares at him as he was given a tour around the department by a very stuck up Yamabushi Tengu.
Had it not been for his superior, “Megumu Iizunamaru” cleaning up the big mess and vouching for him, then who knows where he would have been in this current time.
Maybe he would’ve been buried by now, or whatever they did when Tengu died.
Maybe he would’ve been left to rot on the side, like forgettable garbage.
But when it came to them berating him, there were no lies, just truths that had zero consequences except bringing him down.
Chippo stood as still as a window pane, with both of his feet touching together as if he was a soldier listening to a higher up, which in this case, he was, and he hated it, but couldn't do anything against it. He wore brown overalls with a white undershirt underneath that was fitted with a brown bow tie that was slightly ripped on his neck, brown and filthy geta shoes that stained the flooring, messy black hair, had a brown tokin hat, and his most distinguishable feature of all that - if a test was given to every single Tengu on Youkai Mountain, then none would be able to get the question wrong - would be his rectangular shaped glasses that were crooked.
Chippo scrunched half of his face up to make it steady and align on the top of his nose. He also tried his best to make eye contact with the man's gray eyes who was extremely pissed at him, but it was near impossible to do so. So instead, he did the next best thing he could do, and stared past him and at a clock that was on the wall.
It was like watching a fight about to go down… a one sided one to be specific.
“Well, are you just going to stand there like a wimp, or are you gonna apologize?” the older Tengu asked with a raised brow.
The younger man squirmed with a slight panic, and he bowed down to apologize, but he bowed down too greatly, and he hit his face on the stacks of paper he was holding.
"*Muffle* sorr *muffle* si*”
The crowd around laughed at his sorry attempt at an apology. Noticing his mistake, Chippo raised his head up and apologized properly.
“S- Sorry sir! It won’t happen again!”
With a sigh, the old boss dragged a hand down his face from the exhausting mistake, and he turned around and began walking away from the “mistake”.
“Useless bird, go bring those back to building 9, and don’t come back here!” his voice was stale as his attitude.
“A… Am I fired sir?” the young crow asked meekly through his nerdy glasses, still struggling to make eye contact.
The crowd continued with their nasty remarks amongst themselves.
The bossman stopped dead in his tracks, “If I fired you, then Iizunamaru-sama would be all over my back until the day I died. Look, I honestly don’t care if you want to leave or not, since it's not like our business has seen any type of improvement since you joined,” his brow furrowed itself, and he contemplated something, “actually, looking back at it… it would be an extra bonus if you did leave, since I am tired of you messing up my image.” the boss man turned around and smiled.
Many Tengu anticipated the main event to happen. Was four eyes going to get fired? Could they actually get rid of this joy killer? If that actually happens, then going out to get a drink of sake would make the taste even more rewarding.
Chippo frowned, the crowd smiled.
“Actually, scratch that, I just remembered that I signed that contract with Iizunumaru-sama regarding you in the past.” the boss frowned, revealing his saggy age as his cheeks drooped. Just like how the crowd's excitement dropped into major disappointment.
“Tch, I hate our boss so damn much.” a Crow Tengu clicked.
“R- Really, thank you boss, your words mean a lot!” Chippo bowed once again in gratitude.
But his words of thanks were blotted out as the boss continued walking away, “Whatever, just don't let me see your dirty face around here again. In fact, take the next week off or something, and the rest of you, get back to fucking work, and don’t come disturbing me either! Someone stole my pack of cigarettes from my desk last week, and I won’t tolerate break-ins! NOW GET GOING OR I’LL MAKE SURE YOU NEVER GET YOUR PAY AGAIN!”
With that, the crowd watching dispersed with a few “yes sirs” and heavy exhales of anger from the lowly crow not being exiled. Chippo stood back up, and with his arms still holding the stacks of papers, he began walking toward the correct department, only to get bumped into by a few Crow Tengu that “accidentally” didn’t notice him.
As they passed, they snickered at him as Chippo grunted annoyingly, before resuming his walk past all the colleagues that loathed his existence.
“Hey, did you hear about the recent news revolving around Iizunumaru-sama?” a female Crow Tengu said as the gossip started to arise.
“Yeah, I heard that she got herself involved with a god that was weak, and made a deal with her or something.” a male Tengu, who was presumably her boyfriend, said aloud while packing his stuff up.
A Yamabushi Tengu, who was a friend of the two, walked over to them with his own stuff ready, “Yo, you guys wanna come hang out and have sake with the rest of the guys tonight? I’m sure the both of you are dying to cut loose. I swear, that deadbeat boss of ours is a real pain in the ass I tell ya.”
“You said it man, that son of a bitch has no chill. Were the ones working hard, not him.”
“Yeah babe, you’re always working hard non stop every hour, how about it? Let's go get this party started?” the Crow Tengu’s girlfriend hugged his arm.
A door opened as Chippo entered into the office room that was full of now empty seats, since it was late at night, and at this point in time, there really was no work to be had. That is, if cleaning toilets, tables, desks, flooring, cameras, and even the bosses coat rack was considered enough to be paid a stable amount.
The three Tengu in the room stared at Chippo as if he was an intruder trying to steal something. Walking further in, the young man noticed the trio gawking at his direction, before moving onward to get some stuff from his desk. They watched him silently as he made his way to a messy desk. He pulled out a drawer, before taking out a camera of sorts.
After sorting through some things that were given to him by other workers and colleagues as a way to piggyback off his hard working nature that were on top of his desk, Chippo grabbed a hand bag from another drawer, and got ready to leave.
But not before the Crow Tengu that held his significant other hollered out to him from the other side of the room, “Aye, real quick. What’s your name again?”
Chippo looked over at him before he took a single step; and while confused by the sudden words, the four eyed crow responded back appropriately.
“Chippo, Chippo Samishi. Do you need something Denahi-san?” Chippo smiled at them politely.
“Yeah- ugh- whatever, real quick, I’m pretty sure I put some notes on your desk to take a look over some concerns with this morning's ad revenue that came in total from some of the newspapers we took in today.” he walked his girl and himself, alongside his friend behind them towards the rooms door with a haughtily cocky smirk, “Ya see, I ain’t the best with math and calculations, but I’m sure you’re good at it. You do have glasses after all, and guys like you are pretty much good at that, right? I’m sure you can get stuff like that done in no time.” he said with little to no concern in his tone.
Chippo sorted through his bag, before pulling out an envelope, “Ah, yes, but… Denahi-san, didn’t the boss say that he wanted you specifically to go through these analytics… I’m not so sure I am well suited for the task.” the other cowering crow answered back rather hesitantly.
“Huh? Did I stutter pal!? Look, I’m gonna get shit faced drunk, and I deserve it for all the hard work that I go through. You just take care of that, and maybe I won’t have to break your face. And I swear on Lord Tenma himself, if you tell the boss or anyone else about this, your ass is grass. GOT IT!?”
Chippo flinched at the raise in volume, and watched the colleague of his start cooing to his girlfriend, “C’mon babe, let's leave this ugly freak to himself, he’s just gonna ruin the whole mood.”
“Oh babe, you’re so strong.” The couple went through the doorway, with their Yamabushi friend following behind. But before the long nosed Tengu exited, he looked over at the overall wearing young man. His posture was unhealthy - hair untidy - face filthy by sweat - and his geta and tokin were starting to lose even more color.
It was pathetic and pitiful to say the least.
His glasses lenses were also somewhat grimy too, and the sight became too unbearable as the Yamabushi man cringed.
“Ugh, with an appearance like that, you could probably scare the piss out of an Oni or something.”
He flipped off the light switch, and closed the door, not wanting to see the ugly image, and leaving poor old lonesome Chippo in the dark within the once bustling office room. There were no typewriters chittering, nor were there any printers being tapped and worked on.
Just him, and the soft breeze that hit his back from the open windows.
The doorknob clicked, which fazed through him as he knew the remaining Tengu were the ones cleaning, and they must’ve locked the door without even checking to see if there was anyone else in the building.
"*Sigh* I guess I’ll take the windows again, but it’s going to take half an hour just to get back home.”
The sound of feathery wings spreading apart were heard like leaves in the dark, he ran, and jumped out of the window, until flying away in the far distance.
Chippo landed in front of a wooden house that was near a cliff side, a house that was farther away than most Tengu. The young crow looked up behind him to see the obstructed image of the Moon shining from afar high up in the air through a couple of the surroundings forest leafs, before the prickling sensation of the cool wind went through his clothes, and he shivered slightly while walking for his front door.
“Youkai Mountain sure is beautiful… if you weren’t living at the bottom of the mountain itself. And lived on it, and could actually see the beautiful scenery of Gensokyo.”
As Chippo got closer toward the small house that could be mistaken as a tiny hut with a poorly wedged in door, he opened the entrance that creaked and entered, with his geta shoes echoing a little before closing the door behind him.
"Hey Mom, I'm back." he announced his presence.
He began putting his hand bag down on the floor, before taking his geta off and putting them up on a nearby shelf that had its lower part broken in half. While doing so, he heard footsteps coming his way as a warm and soothing voice made itself present like his.
"Mmm, welcome back my dear. How was work today?” a voice all too familiar to me said.
I looked over to the doorway leading to the kitchen, and despite the light behind making it tough to see her appearance clearly, I could still somewhat see a woman with gray hair that wore an apron over a brown sweatshirt that had the pattern of orange leaves that started from the top and fell to the bottom, with dirty black sweatpants that kept her cozy to accompany her. She had pointy ears like me, and I could tell her wings were retracted to minimize the chance of her bumping into the doorway. On top of her head, she wore a brown tokin hat just like me.
She had her arms behind her back, and I could notice her wrinkly smile looking at me. I smiled back, like always, as there was no need to stress her any further than I needed to by looking grumpy and sulking like an underpaid employee, which I was. But I couldn’t afford my own Mom getting more gray hairs than she needed to be.
Grabbing my bag full of paperwork and documents from my colleagues, I walked over to her and gave her a big hug. She returned the gesture like always, and there was no doubt in my mind that things would stay like this forever.
We broke the embrace before telling her how things went on this very “normal” day.
"The same old, same old. Not much happened."
"When you told me you were doing overtime today, I decided that I would make you dinner for you. Since you always make dinner for us everyday, I wanted to change things up for a bit." the elderly Tengu said as she looked over her shoulder to see the kitchen table.
"Aw, thank you Mom, you shouldn't have." I answered back hastefully, but also not so energetic where I sounded ungrateful.
My Mom chuckled, “Come now, before dinner gets cold.”
I felt remotely mesmerized by the plates in front of me. It was incredible to say the least, how one plate could hold so much, but in the end, I guess today wasn’t so bad like all the other normal days I’ve gone through. A part of me even had to wonder if my Mom truly did make most of this, since I don’t remember when was the last time I ever saw food this deluxe looking before.
Were my eyes even deceiving me?
"Itadakimasu!" he exclaimed in pure glee for the momentous first gloriful bite of his life, smacking his chopsticks together a few times in anticipation.
"Oh, by the way, your friend Hatate came to visit earlier this evening, but since you were out doing work until night, she didn't stay for very long."
Ah, so that’s why this food looks so good.
I looked up to my Mom smiling at me as on most occasions, she would mostly let her food cool off for a little while before beginning to eat, a trait I didn’t get, and to be quite frank here, it would usually leave me having blisters within my mouth. But throughout the years since being a little bird in a nest, I learned how to properly control it, even if it does seem rather dangerous at first.
"Oh... really now? Had I known that, I would've taken work on a regular schedule." I took one bite from my ramen bowl, and slurped up some noodles.
"She was quite disappointed that you weren't here today. She even helped me make dinner for you, now isn't that just kind?" she continued on as I continued gulping down the food.
Ever since he was just a little boy with little wings, and even before having been serving under Megumu’s line of work, he had known the female Crow Tengu that specialized in Spirit Photography since way back as a young child before her own Kakashi Spirit News was created. One who had known or seen the two friends could even say they were deeply bonded since childhood by the roots of having aligned goals and trusting each other to great depths.
They would always come to each other's houses every day in every moment of the day, since their parents were friends with each other, which made things easier for them, and play a game of interviewer and interviewee, since it had always been both of their dreams to achieve the greatest newspaper in existence together. They would always tease one another about what the other did wrong as a way to show the other that they wanted attention, and so on and so forth, which lead to Hatate giggling with and at him.
Every day they would go out and see Youkai Mountain, and to some extent, a part of Gensokyo. But since they were so young, they were limited in what they could explore together, so they did the next best thing to substitute for it.
Going out at night behind their parents' back and disturbing the Youkai’s peacetime during night while laughing together.
But sadly… things aged like milk, and throughout the years of them growing up, they talked less and less.
As embarrassing as it was to look back on, Chippo couldn’t get the image of the twin tailed Youkai out of his mind after hearing his own kin mention her while taking a sip of tea while wearing a light pink blush across his face.
"That really is kind of her." I muttered in admiration.
"Have you two kissed yet?" my body and mind lost control as the bombshell of a question hit me harder than I could least expect it.
Chippo spat his tea in surprise by the jarring question, and stained the floor as he choked from the delirious question. "M- MOM! Wh- *cough* wha- what are you *cough* talking about!?"
The Tengu’s mother tilted to the side to see the wooden floor now wet as a puddle with a nonchalant expression, "Oh my, that will be a very tough mess to clean."
"Ahem… M- Mom, you can't be talking about people like that behind their backs. It's very rude, you know? A- And besides, I don’t have feelings for Hatate anymore, remember? The both of us have moved on from all that nonsense in the past, now we're just friends is all, okay? She probably doesn’t even remember that type of stuff from back then."
I huffed out tiredly. As much as I loved my own endearing and youthful mother very much, she can really be a very massive stuck up at times.
Chippo smiled nervously with a red line that crossed his face like a paint brush had swiped him, in addition with his shyness, his mother pouted as she lifted her cup of tea to her face, "Oh please, then what would be the fun in that then? Have you ever heard of the wild stories from Shameimaru before? They're absolutely awe dropping to listen to." After taking a small sip from her delectable beverage, she looked up to see her son leaning on one hand while his arm supported his head weight with a drowsy, but attentive smile, “Especially the ones about the Hakurei Shrine Maiden."
The other crow huffed aloud vigorously as he picked up his cup of tea to drink from again, "No Mom, because once Aya starts talking, she doesn't stop until the story is over. And that means forever."
While taking a few gulps of his drink, his mind wandered off to seeing the infamous Crow Journalist that started the Bunbunmaru Newspaper all those years ago. Aya Shameimaru was her name, a name that he could never forget even if he wanted to.
The reason being due to the fact that she was one of the first ever Tengu to actually show kindness and respect to him when he first joined the new business of being a printer for the Tengu’s reporting departments. At the time, she was as old as an adult, since Tengu lived for a very long time, as well as their bodies. But mentally, Aya was still adjusting to the ropes of Gensokyo and the fantasy land's rules and regulations. But even then, when Chippo had reached the age of twenty, the constant bullying he had suffered as a young boy kept drawing him back to the past whenever he flew out into the terrain of Youkai Mountain, in fear that others would recognize him. Despite how much of an ongoing child he was, and how he often was the louder between him and Hatate, the roles of would later switch up between the two.
Chippo, who was once loud and boisterous, was pushed into being someone silent and timid. Whereas Hatate, who was once timid and more inclined to being inside more than anything, would later become more outgoing and adventurous, even going as far as actually facing people head on in Danmaku to get her newspaper scoops.
A feat that he himself could never imagine being in, as he never was the type to seek out violence. Chippo looked at the ceiling light through the cracks in his square glasses, smiling to himself as he imagined her face, her pigtailed hair, her purple and black skirt, her smile, her flip phone she uses for her work, her- before those thoughts continued any further, he began fuming heavily with a blush.
“What am I doing!? Come on Chippo, you weirdo, get your crap together now, or you’ll never make it in the real world!”
He shook his head, which was luckily not noticed by his mother.
Going back to the topic of the righteous and honest Crow Reporter that once went against the Hakurei Miko, a dangerous thing to do he had to admit. When first meeting Aya, he didn’t really have any expectations, say for the upcoming harassment he would eventually get by her. But through sheer surprise, she was different from the rest. She never judged him for looking so frail - his glasses - wings - weirdly colored clothes - his bow tie - all of those, in the end, weren’t the first things that came to her mind when he first met the eccentric and very uplifting Tengu.
No, not any of those. The first thing she had ever said to him was, “Hello, that’s a pretty unique bow tie you have there, do you mind telling me what material it’s made from? I’m sure I’ll gain many more readers if I start writing about day to day human accessories.”
Despite how monopolizing her words were at first, his first day in his job of being a printer for someone like her really set sail for their friendship. And funnily enough, even he didn’t know Hatate knew who she was already.
I guess her influence is more out there than I imagined, she did a lot of stuff despite having me dragging her down sometimes. Too bad I see her less and less nowadays.
"Hmmm, I wonder if you have kissed her yet?"
Chippo spat his tea out again in quick velocity, hitting the same spot as before. He started to cough roughly as he was not prepared for such an insane late evening.
"M- MOM!!!"
His mother looked at the floor again with a nonchalant face, "Oh my, the floor is certainly going through a tough battle today."
"*Sigh* mom, please just listen to me for one moment-" Chippo took his glasses off as he leaned into his right hand, embarrassed beyond anything measurable in the universe.
The power of the world really had nothing on his late mothers destructive presence.
"Oh, speaking of a battle, Momiji almost had a tough skirmish with that little Ice Fairy this morning, she apparently thought it was a good idea to start practicing her ice magic on some other wild life aside from frogs. I guess she got bored or something."
My pointy ears perked up from hearing another familiar name. Momiji Inubashiri, a White Wolf Tengu, and the person who I can rely on the most when it comes to actually listening to my struggles, since she too knows what it’s like to be under the rigid Tengu system that even I must admit, is really not the greatest thing to ever exist.
She is also an individual who I can respect the most, since I first met her after I had been discharged from my second ever job, due to me being “overworked” or whatever that meant. During that time, I thought maybe it was because I did something wrong during one of my shifts, but looking back on it, it might have been because I looked filthy. Not that I was though, I took proper baths every day, it’s just, I don’t have that many clothes to begin with.
Fortunately enough for me, on that same day, I was assigned to deliver important paper messages sent by the higher ups to the Wolf Youkai that were patrolling the mountain during that time. After it was rudely snatched away from my pockets without me noticing by another Crow Tengu, who at the time, probably did that to get paid more… and they did. I would come empty handed when it came to seeing the first White Wolf Tengu trying to deliver it, but strangely enough, the White Wolf Tengu I saw was playing Dai Shogi with a Kappa, another type of Youkai that roamed the mountain at day.
I was stressed out to the point where I thought I would lose my third job like the last two, and apologized heavily again and again. I thought there was no way of coming back, I thought I would have to come back to my home bearing grave news once more.
And disappoint my parents again since being born.
But, I don’t know why. I don't know what Momiji saw in me to invite me to play some Dai Shogi with her. Maybe it was because she felt pity for me, since she knew what it was like to feel so stressed out by others, or maybe she just felt like it because she was off duty during that time.
Whatever it may have been, I’m glad I was able to gain another friend that I could rely on, a friend that introduced me to Iizunumaru-sama after I told her my big mess of a life. But just like Hatate and Aya, as time went on, I saw her less and less, even though she was the most recent Tengu I have ever made friends with. Even then, I could tell that Kappa back then was a bit annoyed with me disrupting their game with my foolish apologies, and I really felt guilty for it after taking a miserable loss at the Dai Shogi game I had that day.
I’m just glad though, I’ve always heard great news from how good of a protector she was to the mountain, and I’m proud of her for it.
"How do you know that Mom?" I asked about the battle between Momiji and the infamous Ice Fairy that had scrambled brains, before grabbing my cup of tea again.
"Oh, she swung by during one of her breaks from patrolling the mountain. She was quite furious about it... have you kissed her yet?"
His tea spilled again.
"MOM- PLEASE!!!"
"Oh, I wonder if Iizunumaru-sama-"
I got up and slammed the desk before such a nasty thing could even be heard, pushing the chair behind me with a screech, "Okāsan!!"
Chippo panted as he watched his mother cross her arms in offense, and pouted once more.
"Hmph, how very rude, all I want for my own son is to have a very healthy relationship in the future, and who better would it be than my son's multiple friends." she would go on to say.
"When you put it that way, it sounds rather creepy don’t you think!?" I shouted.
"I still stand by it, and no one can stop me! Not even death!!!" she shouted back.
I then saw her shoulders softened up, and she exhaled a heavy breath. I looked down on the table for a moment, contemplating her words. And just like her, I also exhaled a mighty amount of stressed air, pulled my chair in, and sat down.
"Please stop, your blood level is going to go up Mom. I don't want you to hurt yourself." I pleaded softly with her.
"I know my dear, I just want what's best for you."
"I know Mom, I really appreciate it." I responded blatantly.
"I mean it, Chippo.”
I picked up a fork, but before I picked anything off my plate, I was stopped by recognizing the tone in her voice. I knew this form of speech pattern all too well. Way too well.
Chippo looked up to see his mother looking over to something that was on the opposite side of the kitchen. He looked over in the same direction as her with eyes fully knowing what her wrinkly gaze was taking a peep at.
On the counter, a framed picture of an old man holding up a small boy could be seen. He wore a simple white shirt with a black bowtie at his collar. As for the rest of the details, they were all distant memories that Chippo couldn’t remember, he wanted to remember, but no matter how much he forced himself to go back to that same place and same time, he didn’t know the mans face nor voice, it was like an ever looping dream that he had, but every time he woke up, the memories were fuzzy and restless like the waves of water.
“When your Father died of natural causes, I was worried sick in fear of whether I could even raise a child for the first time.”
Chippo felt a lump in his throat form, and his eyes started to water quickly. He always was more subjugated to emotions, a trait that he inherited from his own Father, or so he thought to himself. But what normal son wouldn’t be angry and or sad by the thought of not remembering your own kin that loved you, protected you until the very end?
“Me and him have had many failed attempts at having children, but when we found out about you my son, there was no doubt I would do anything in my power to give you the best life there is.”
He forced himself to drink, this time, there was no absurd comment by his mothers mouth, yet he hoped for it this time. His guilt started to form, his heart began to ache like a weighted boulder being tossed onto his chest. He was a failure, a simple man that had no stable life or job. What type of son was he? To lose so many job occupations, gaining little to nothing but scrap and dirt by the end of a day filled with people who hated him. His own kind hated him, so how could he ever repay the debt he owed to his late Father and now elderly Mother?
Could he even find a way to say sorry for how much he depended on her?
Hatate, Aya, Momiji, they all had incredible and proud goals, dreams that they honed themselves to protect and cherish with pride on their chest, but him?
What they had, he didn't. And what he had, no one had. He was just an unfortunate mess that worked hard for less, and at what cost? Nothing, that's what. And he only dragged his mother down, and for all he knew, she would go on into the afterlife with uncertainty of if her own first born would ever find his true path in life.
People hated him, he lost his close friends, and now, after so many years of guilt filled days, he felt himself get closer and closer
“And you have grown up into a fine young man."
Chippo saw fog through his glasses, the tears almost fell down his cheek. He choked, but in a last ditch effort to not show weakness or make his mother concerned, he pretended to choke on his tea instead of breaking down into a flood of emotions, and repeatedly hit his chest a few times.
"Hehe... thank you mom... that really *sniff* means a lot *cough* *cough* to me.” he looked down at the dirtied floor created by him, even if he was no different from a low tier Tengu that could be compared to a stain on the floor, at least he had one thing in life, “Sorry for making a mess on the floor, I'll make sure to clean it up."
At least he had someone to lend a shoulder on.
"Of course, my dear. Of course." the old woman weakly smiled.