Chapter Text
Rui knew he wasn’t normal.
He was often seen as different, unlike any other children who should be playing outside and calling out their friends. Instead, he spends his time alone with his notebook, writing and drawing and sticking them to the wall with his tiny hands.
His parents think he must have a creative mind, seeing a number of monsters, ghosts, or spirits with a weirdly well-detailed description scribbled down on paper.
“Dear, at this rate, you’re going to be a talented artist.” His mother ruffled his short and wild-looking hair, “I see that your color pens are almost out of ink. Do you want to go to the supply store?”
Rui nodded with a smile on his face, his eyes sparkling with excitement, “Yes, please!” A pause, “Also, can I go to the park later?”
“Of course, but what for?”
Rui beamed, “I want to draw there. There’s a lot of yōkai around.”
Both his mother and father shared the same look of confusion. Ah, that’s right. They can’t see them.
His father cleared his throat, “It’s rude to call people yōkai, Rui.”
With this, Rui lowered his head, hands fidgeting his hair. He mumbled, “Sorry. I’ll be careful with my words.”
His father sighed then smiled, “I swear, you got your mother’s behavior. She kept calling others, even me, a specimen.”
Attempting to lighten the mood, his mother took the bait in a loud manner, “Hey! Scientifically speaking, we’re all specimens!” She looked at Rui and whispered to his ear, “Don’t listen to your dad. He’s the one that keeps mumbling to himself when it comes to making machines.”
“I heard that.”
Rui felt a bubble of happiness form at their squabble and began to laugh. He remembered how his parents laughed with him, how his mother bought new color pens and a set of markers, how his father went to the park to keep him company. This was how they showed their love and Rui didn’t want to ruin it, to look at him so differently like other people. In the end, he kept the ability of being able to see yōkai himself and buried it deep into the ground.
At the age of 8, he began seeing yōkai.
At the age of 13, he was gifted with the power of manipulating them.
It wasn’t as prominent as the shows he watched before, where the protagonist was blessed by the gods because of a prophecy waiting to happen. No, it happened on a random Tuesday when Rui was going home from school.
He stopped by next to a spirit, translucent as they were sticking out of the wall, it almost looked a little bit silly. “Hey there,” He tried to make conversation, but the spirit blatantly ignored him, “Not up for a conversation?”
…No answer.
Out of curiosity, Rui reached out to the spirit and stopped before his hand touched them, waiting for a reaction. The spirit seemed to have felt his intention. Without words shared, they slowly moved their head towards his hand.
Rui smiled at the motion, “You’re like a cat.”
As if to answer him back, the spirit took the form of a cat and meowed. Rui had his eyes widened at the sight, “Amazing.”
But before being able to say more, the cat spirit began to morph around his hand, sinking into his skin as a shiver went down his spine. What just happened? He looked around, the cat was no longer there. Confusion began to cloud his mind as a number of questions piled one after another.
Where was the cat?
Did they just disintegrate?
I didn’t kill them, did I?
So he tried the most likely solution.
“Uh… come out?”
There was only silence.
Rui’s mind began to panic. He didn’t know what else to do and he’s too young to commit animal cruelty! Can you even consider it as animal cruelty if they’re already dead?! But by the law, the punishment for a crime done—
Then there was a meow, that familiar meow. Rui looked down where it came from and saw the cat spirit from earlier. He breathed a sigh of relief, kneeling down to the cat’s level as he petted their head, “You scared me, a bit.”
He was lucky no one else saw him, looking like a fool talking to himself.
Well, maybe fate had other plans as he heard someone clearing their throat behind him. Startled at the sound, he managed to suppress a flinch and turned around. That familiar ash-green hair swayed with the wind, a girl that was almost his height and lived next door. Awkwardness loomed over them.
Rui broke the silence, “Kusanagi-san.”
“Kamishiro-san.”
They just stared at each other. Rui was waiting, hoping for her to look the other way and forget what happened and let them continue their own daily lives. After a full minute without saying anything, Rui gave up and sighed.
“You saw that, didn’t you?” He looked away, he didn’t want to see her expression filled with scorn and disgust, like those other people who were his so-called ‘friends’.
Nene hesitated, “Yeah, I did. Sorry.”
Rui hummed, “Why are you even sorry?”
“…I felt like I was intruding.”
Rui turned to face her again, standing to see her eye-to-eye. She shuffled her feet and played with the hem of her skirt, she didn’t know what else to say. Rui had known her for this.
He didn’t notice when the cat spirit hid from a stranger, but thankfully they did. “I won’t explain anything, you know.”
Nene nodded, “I understand. It looked cool, by the way.”
Now, Rui was surprised at this. “You can see them?”
She nodded again and pointed at the cat spirit who’s now sitting on his shoulder. His mouth gaped, not sure whether to laugh or cry. He finally found someone who could understand yōkai like the way he did. He didn’t know if his face beamed, but judging from Nene’s reaction, then he did.
“Wait, wait. Before you get all excited, I can only see them, not actually do anything like you did.” Nene explained. She let a finger out to touch the cat, only to pass through their body, “See?”
He remembered how his friendship with Nene began after their encounter that day, how he would ramble on about the number of yōkai he absorbed and observed, and Nene would listen and provide her own insights during their meetings every after school.
Life was good, life was simple.
At the age of 21, he woke up from dreaming his memories.
He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, in an attempt to fight off the grogginess filling his mind. He wanted to sleep more, to sleep the whole day off because he was too busy writing down a newfound ghost added in his collection last night. But he can’t because he has to open the café in an hour.
Rui sat up on his bed and stretched as he heard a bone pop. There was a whirring sound to his side, finding a memory demon on his nightstand.
“Little Memoria,” Rui placed a hand, “I’m taking good care of you, yet you want me to sleep forever? How cruel.” This explains the dream he had.
The memory demon was known for bringing people to sleep and dreaming about pleasant memories until they die. For other people, encountering one means death. For Rui, he likes to keep it as a pet.
The memory demon let out its last whir before it disappeared and Rui continued to prepare for the rest of the day.
His apartment was too big for one person, so he let a number of ghosts, demons, and spirits wander around, crawling on the floor, sticking to the walls, and some simply stood there. They were minding their own business, Rui lets them be. In his opinion, they make the place a bit livelier.
The distance between his place and the café was just a floor away. On the last step of the staircase, he spots Nene standing outside the glass door entrance. Walking towards her, he twists the sign to ‘open’ before pulling the door.
“Good morning, Nene. You’re up early.” He wore his casual smile, letting the girl in and closing the door behind them.
“I was standing there for 30 minutes.” Nene deadpanned.
“…Apologies.”
An hour after fixing tables and preparing the ingredients from the storage, customers began coming in with Rui by the counter and Nene to handle their orders. Despite being a Thursday and located at a nearby school, business was slow as usual. Rui had no problems dealing with people today.
Nene placed down two trays, one filled with desserts while the other had a single meal, “This is for Table 6,” she pointed at the dessert, “and this is for Table 1.”
“Got it.”
Rui carried both of the trays and walked out of the counter, a smile plastered on his face as he headed for the first table. “Good morning. Two slices of red velvet cake, yes?”
The two customers nodded and thanked him as he placed down the desserts before saying, “Enjoy your meal!” and moving to the next order.
The table was placed next to the window for the customers to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city. The customer sitting there was staring outside, lost in thought. She had dark purple hair. Rui wondered if it was natural but he wasn’t one to judge, after all.
“Good morning, miss. Here’s your avocado toast and poached eggs for take-out. I hope you enjoy your meal!”
The customer turned around and as Rui went closer, he was almost taken aback.
There was a curse… in her shadow!
She smiled at him, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She’s doing it out of politeness. Rui was fast enough to stop a flinch.
“Thank you.”
With this, Rui couldn’t help but shiver, there was an indescribable coldness at the way she looked at him. He simply nodded before going back to the kitchen. He’s going to tell Nene about this later.
Rui couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off about that girl.
The day ended in a flash and it was already closing time. Both Rui and Nene cleaned everything up and rearranged the chairs back in their proper place. Nene sat down on one of the couches, waiting for Rui to finish placing the desserts in the walk-in fridge. Once he’s done, he leaves two slices for him and Nene, walking to the table she’s sitting at.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Nene started.
“There was this girl today,” He placed down their plates on the table, “and she had a curse with her.”
Nene took a bite of the slice, “Hm… I know carrying curses is not common, but they’re not rare either. What kind of curse did she have?”
“That’s the thing. I have no idea.” Rui placed a hand on his chin, “It had multiple eyes and it was hiding in her shadow. This is the first time I’ve seen it.”
Nene was silent for a moment, slowly chewing on the cake slice she was brought. “Weird. Based on your description, there’s no curse like that in the books. And…” She looked at him with a brow raised, “you want to study it, right?”
With no hesitation, “That’s right!”
“But you can only capture curses that wander around without a host. It’s not our business to meddle with her.”
Rui sighed, “True.”
Nene gave a reassuring smile, “Let the… what are they called again? The curse police or something? Whatever. It’s out of our hands now.”
“You’re right as always, Nene.” He grinned and Nene felt a chill down her spine, “Now, how’s that date with Otori-san?”
The next day came, Rui stifled a yawn as sleep didn’t leave his mind. Once again, he stayed up all night to create theories about the curse yesterday. It can’t be bothered, he inherited his mother’s love for research after all.
Everything seemed normal, even though the girl didn’t come by today. A small number of customers occupied the seats and ate whatever they ordered. The sun wasn’t out and clouds covered the sky, most likely to rain. There was a demon hanging upside down on the ceiling. Nene was tending to the kitchen as usual—
A customer yawned, “I’m getting sleepy.”
Her friend replied, “Me too. Did that schoolwork actually take a toll on us?”
He heard another customer say, “I want to shut my eyes for a bit.”
Then another, “The café won’t mind if I sleep for a bit, right?”
Oh no.
Rui looked up and there was the memory demon with a smug look on its face. His eyes widened, “You little rascal! Get back up there!” He shouted as the customers fell asleep on their seats.
“Hey, what’s the fuss?” Nene walked out of the kitchen, “Oh.”
He knows he can’t summon any yōkai that’s too big or else it might break everything around him. So he went to a nearby broomstick, grabbing it and stepping onto the counter. He swatted the demon out in an attempt to go back up to his room. He shouldn't have let this little demon out in the first place!
Nene can’t help the embarrassment flooding inside despite no one watching.
With everyone too busy doing their own thing, they didn’t hear the chime of the bell as a customer came in.
After a few more swats, Rui successfully managed to get the memory demon out of the café. “There we go.” He breathed out and slowly got off the counter.
“Uh, Rui…?”
“Yes?” He turned back to look at Nene.
She pointed at the door, “I think we’re caught.”
Rui followed her line of sight and felt the world pause.
There stood a man with blonde hair and peach tips, eyeglasses framing his face. His sunset-colored eyes widened at the ceiling where the demon once was, where normal people would blatantly ignore.
But for people like Rui—people who can see them—would most definitely see the curse he was swatting before, sticking upside down in the middle of the café.
“Er… Haha… Hello there, beautiful stranger.” Rui leaned on the counter, placing his head on his palm, “You didn’t see that, right?”
He felt Nene internally face-palm.