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It was a country of beasts, and everyone knew it. Oh, humans were living in smaller villages, and technically another country ruled over them, but nobody really bothered them.
Nobody wanted to mess with the country full of cursed beings, and the ancient magic protecting them.
Not like Minoru felt like some ancient magic was helping him for that matter. Goblins were not societal creatures, most of them were way too grumpy to stick around with their own kind, and most of them hid away from other creatures too, hiding away. Some may have done that because of shame, others maybe because they were genuinely that antisocial and unpleasant.
For Minoru, he wasn’t sure which category he was fitting in, but he realised one more thing - that even besides the internal reasons of why most goblins would hide away, there were a lot of external reasons. Namely that most people or creatures did not want to associate with goblins, at all. He had learnt it the hard way, especially that time when he got thrown into the swamp, until a being made of light pulled him out.
Wasn’t one of Minoru’s finest moments.
So, alright. He was never around other people - humans or otherwise a lot. But what he had seen, especially of female creatues? He liked that. A lot, so maybe, just maybe…
Oh, who was he kidding.
Who would lower her standards for a goblin?
Most people didn’t even want to look at him, let alone touch him. Sure, there were goblins who looked worse than him - he still had a somewhat human-ish face, but he was still obviously not human, and the sticky substance he could produce definitely was not a turn on for anyone Minoru had ever met.
So, there was basically no one willing to hang out with Minoru.
Well… almost no one.
-
“Yooooo, here you are! Been looking for you!”
A flash of light registered in the corner of Minoru’s eyes, and then he was tackled. Electricity ran under his skin, as four paws pressed him down - it wasn’t even the creature’s weight, as he was only a weasel, a weasel glowing blue and yellow and white, but it was the force and speed he arrived with.
Also, electricity.
“Denki, we had talked about this!”
“Whoops, human form. My bad.”
“No, that’s not what I--- argh!”
Too late, as Denki turned into a human’s form, grinning, his hair blonde with a lightning bolt on it, and electric currents still running around his body.
Also, he was still sitting on Minoru.
“...no, I did not mean the form one, I meant the boundaries part. Stop tackling me!”
“Whoops. Sorry.”
Denki was a raiju - a being made from pure lightning, a force of nature itself. Minoru knew that their animal forms could take many shapes - most common were wolves or dogs. He heard about fox raiju as well, who would get awfully offended if mistaken for kitsune, and vice versa.
Luckily though, Denki’s animal form was of a weasel. Unluckily though, he had issues with boundaries.
How did Minoru befriend Denki was a mystery for the ages - the raiju literally bumped into him one day, and somehow he kept coming back. He was a being made of a natural phenomenon, he wasn’t about to stay in one place for long, and he moved much faster than Minoru did either way.
“Hey, hey, wanna go visit Kyoka?”
“Last time we did, she threatened to scream at us. You know what she means when she screams.”
“She says that all the time though! She never did that, so I guess that’s a win!” Denki was grinning, and sparks were dancing around his smile. “So, you coming, right? It’s been a while she’s been surely missing us.”
And the other one who would sometimes put up with Minoru’s ass…
-
Kyoka was a banshee.
Nobody really knew where did banshee came from, but then again, did anyone knew anything about any creature living in these cursed lands?
But banshee would get attached to families, living with them, often helping out around the house. But also, their scream would surely mark the death of someone who hears it.
Nobody knows who, everybody who hears it is a potential candidate.
Minoru sometimes wondered if people would be happy to have a banshee around all the time.
“I am not screaming” Kyoka said once, frowning. “And I’m helping out. I’m part of the community here, you know, unlike you freeloaders. You just come in to bother people sometimes.”
People were still dying, but that was different. Banshee don’t scream all the time when someone dies - but when they do scream, someone definitely dies.
First time they met, Kyoka kicked Minoru off the porch, and threw a bucket of water at Denki, which made him shock himself somehow (seriously, man, you are a being made of lightning how does that even work, Minoru would wonder a lot about that).
Later though, she just mostly would look at them in a tired way, tease them, and rope them into helping out with the chores.
Well, mostly Denki.
“No offense” Kyoka said to Minoru, shaking her head. “But you are sticky. The mistress of the house would not be happy to have you inside. But I guess uh, you can help outside?”
So he did, because Kyoka was scary, with her black hair and weird face markings, and way-too-pale skin. She was still beautiful, but the way she moved, there was some otherworldy light surrounding her - the kind that Denki and Minoru didn’t have, despite also not being human.
Kyoka was just in a different league altogether, compared to them.
-
He wasn’t actually sure when did that became an actual thing - Minoru would walk around, travel nearby, until Denki flashes to him, and drags him back to the town where Kyoka lived. Denki of course was almost constantly on the move, which was predictable for someone naturally unpredictable as him, but he always circled back.
Minoru knew what was going on, he was not stupid.
He would realise the way Denki would outright sparkle more and more, electric sparks flying around him, whenever he would talk to Kyoka, his bright smile, and the way Kyoka looked very tired of Denki’s bullshit most of the time, but there was an undeniable fond smile on her lips, the way she would tease him.
Yeah, Minoru wasn’t stupid.
What he did not get though, was that why was Denki dragging him along. Why did he need Minoru there? It made no sense, Minoru knew that if it were him that Kyoka or someone that pretty was interested in, he wouldn’t have wanted anyone there to bother them. But Denki? Denki would jump in every time, sparkles dancing around him, as he excitedly would ask Minoru to go with him.
And Minoru would go every time.
He wondered that maybe he should say no, to actually travel further away, meet more people, see more things, so maybe he would actually have a chance of finding someone with a weird goblin fetish or something, but he never said no to Denki, he always went with him to see Kyoka.
Maybe Minoru just simply didn’t want to let the two beings who actually put up with him for an extended time out of his reach.
-
Minoru himself almost never interacted with the humans Kyoka had bonded with. Once he asked Denki what they were like, and he just shrugged, saying that they usually avoided him too, which confused Minoru - he got why they would avoid him, people would stay away from goblins after all, but Denki? Sure, he was a being made of a natural hellfire, but he was nice looking, like, objectively so, and everything.
Humans were weird.
Until… the incident happened.
It was hard to recall what happened - it was raining, yes, but it wasn’t that terrifying. But then Denki was standing in front of the house, and he started glowing, and Minoru realised the incoming disaster moments before it happened.
“Denk--” Kyoka also started, starting forward, and so did Minoru.
Then the lightning struck.
-
It was almost like Denki’s presence had pulled down the lightning from the sky, and the electricity erupted from his body. Minoru yanked Kyoka back, which made her fall, but this way it was his, much more sturdier skin that got hit by the lightning, which was still painful.
The lightning ran through the town from Denki’s body - there were sparks everywhere, and also fires, and it wasn’t stopping.
Then Kyoka screamed, and Minoru passed out.
-
“They are monsters, after all.”
“Why did we ever let them be around here?”
“Because we were afraid of offending them”
“Well, look at what good it did for us! Everything is destroyed!”
“And worst of all, the banshee screamed. We all know what it means!”
“We were doomed the moment our family started to get haunted by that banshee. I’m sorry it is our fault.”
“It is not. It’s the monsters’ fault.”
“They would want to rebuild.”
“As if! That’s the last thing we need. Didn’t these monsters mess up our life enough?”
-
They left after that, and neither of them were talking. Minoru didn’t even look up at the others, but he knew Denki was shaking on one of his sides in weasel form, and Kyoka didn’t open her mouth since her scream.
Minoru kept expecting for the two to leave him behind, and all the fun would be gone, and he would never meet them again.
They still walked together.
Minoru didn’t understand why, but they were there, they were still together, although none of them talked.
Until one night, when they stopped, Denki curled up, and Kyoka grabbed his wrist, and gestured with her head towards Denki.
“...huh?”
Kyoka looked at him, annoyed, and then gestured with her head again.
“...why don’t you talk to him if you want to? I mean… I don’t know what to say.”
She looked down, guilty, and shook her head, slowly.
Minoru sighed.
“Fine.”
-
“It’s… look, I can’t say it’s not your fault, because you kinda lost control. Which you need, you know” Minoru was rambling, and he could feel Kyoka’s glare at the back of his head. Not the best way to cheer Denki up. “But, you can’t really stay as a weasel forever, you know.”
Denki didn’t react at first, he just slowly crept forward, and settled into Minoru’s lap, curling up, and Minoru felt the tiny sparkles around his fur, and he sighed. And then Kyoka was there, putting a hand on his shoulder, encouragingly.
They fell asleep like that, Denki in Minoru’s lap, and Kyoka curled up next to him, holding Minoru’s hand, and Minoru officially lost track of what was happening.
But when he himself woke up, Denki was in human form, completely wrapped around both Minoru and Kyoka, and all Minoru knew that this should have felt more weird than it did.
-
Denki and Kyoka still didn’t talk, and Minoru wasn’t a fan of talking all alone, so they often still walked in silence, and Denki wasn’t running around that wildly anymore, and maybe that was a good thing, but the silence wasn’t.
But when they found a small pond, and Minoru watched Kyoka and Denki playfully splash each other, and grinning ear-to-ear, he secretly swore he would make sure they would talk again soon.
Because maybe even monsters deserved to be happy, in the end.