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A lucky god. Why, one of the luckiest, and on the day of his birth, this was very true. He was born, yes, but he was born miraculously with no bones. And yet, he was alive. Even after his parents argued over him about how he’d never survive and how he’ll “die eventually and probably soon”, and tossed out, he still lived. He lived for a while. He lived for a long time, managed to learn how to properly function… and then found out he had younger siblings.
Three baby siblings, Amaterasu, Susanoo, and Tsukuyomi. How lucky of an older brother he was. Three baby siblings he had to take care of, with Izanagi and Izanami nowhere to be found!
How lucky Ebisu was, how luck to have such amazing parents!
How lucky he was to be left alone to cry in his room as he watched his baby sister scramble around, trying to be a good leader. Lead all of the gods she was in charge of, having to deal with the impossible task. It was easy for their parents, there were less gods and less humans and less youkai. Of course it was easier.
But, as time went on, it became harder, and harder, and just so much harder . So she needed someone to talk to, someone to listen to her frustrations.
And who better than her older brother?
Well, it was a tad incorrect to say she ever “talked” or he ever “listened”. It was more like Ebisu was meant to sit there and jus take every insult and yell and shout and complaint she hurled at him. She was stressed, of course she was! And what a good and lucky brother Ebisu was that he could take everything she hurled at him. He knew it wasn’t directed towards him.
“Why?! Why, Ebisu?!” She grabbed his kimono and shook him hard.
Though, he had trained to be stronger and tougher, it wasn’t like he could take all hits and such from a god who was born with the strength of a god.
“Ah– agh–! Ama– ha-hang on–!”
“I hate it! I hate it, I hate them, I hate you! Ugh, I hate you so much, you suck, you’re terrible!” She began smacking him now. She slapped his face, punched his chest, kicked him hard. All of those attacks and more where directed towards him .
Now, it was easy to separate himself from her verbal attacks previous times. She would shout about different gods, she’d mention them by name and allude to whom she was frustrated with that day. However… she said “you”. She was saying she hated Ebisu .
“I hate you! I hate you, Ebisu! You’re the worst, you’re terrible, I hate you!”
At some point she stopped and threw him to the ground. She panted heavily and glared down at him. Normally, normally, she’d apologize for making him listen. But, today, she simply stormed out of his room.
She left Ebisu there on the ground, holding his arms and chest. How lucky Ebisu was to have such a diligent leader and expressive sister! Some people would go their lives trying to be close to their siblings and never succeed, but he barely needed to try! Very lucky, Ebisu, very lucky!
He eventually left his room, going down to the human realm to avoid his lovely, wonderful baby sister. She needed her time and he needed his, so he went down to a dock to go fishing. Whenever he fished, it always cleared his mind. He was able to think about his lovely baby sister, his wonderful baby brothers, and a ton of incredible gods he works with.
“...I love my life.”
What a lucky life.
He hadn’t recalled asking any of his siblings or ever mentioning anything that would require this… but he was given a bodyguard. Some god of luck (as if Ebisu needed more luck. He was the luckiest on takamagahara! He had the luckiest life!) was assigned to him and he spent most of his days simply… staring at Ebisu.
“...Is there something on my kimono?” The shorter man huffed out, chuckling quietly.
“I am simply keeping my eyes on you as I have been instructed to do.” The man simply nodded.
Ebisu scoffed and shook his head softly. How lucky he was… how lucky it was to have siblings that cared about your wellbeing. How lucky one was to ignore hearing his siblings talk to his new bodyguard about the reason for his hiring being that day. How lucky it was to be able to forget how many times you’ve been put in danger because of one thing or another.
How lucky!
He simply brushed the man off and prepared to go down to the human realm. But, as he was about to leave, he turned and saw the man was following him. He gave him a smile and tilted his head, humming confusedly.
“...Where are you going?”
“My job is to watch over you, Sir. So, I am going to go down with you to watch over you.” He nodded at Ebisu.
“...I don’t… I don’t need a bodyguard down in the human realm. If there are demons or youkai, I can take care of them. And my sister won’t be around–”
…Oh, how lucky Ebisu was. How lucky he was, and yet… and yet sometimes luck worked a tad too much in his favor. Because luckily in his favor, his bodyguard heard him.
“So… you are aware as to why I was hired?”
“...It was a tad obvious.” He shrugged. “I’ve only been injured by one god.”
The bodyguard watched him for a moment. “...I have still been assigned to protect you.” He began to step toward him. “So, I will be joining you. If you will please allow me to–”
How lucky Ebisu was to be born a god! How lucky to not only be born a god, but to be born a god from Izanagi and Izanami! Yes, he was born weaker than every other god, but he was still a god, a major one too! How lucky…
How lucky of him to be able to throw a punch when necessary.
He sent the bodyguard flying across the room in a small fit of anger and frustration and he gasped. When he looked down at his hand, his knuckles were bruised and he looked back at the bodyguard. He quickly rushed over to him and knelt down to check on him.
“I–I’m so sorry! I can’t– I hadn’t realized– I really didn’t mean to!”
He tried patting his face to wake up, but the other god wouldn’t wake. Ebisu quickly pressed his ear against his chest, sighing a breath of relief when he heard a heartbeat. He slowly sat and watched him for a moment, seeing his chest slowly rise and fall. Rise and fall. Rise… and fall. Rise… tried to fall, but kept rising. And then his arms started shaking then his legs, before they were pinned. Now it was just his arms. Chest attempted to rise, but struggled, just as he started coughing. Coughed more and more, and tried to scratch at his neck. But… his hands slowed, his chest stopped its attempts to rise and his body went slack.
How lucky… how lucky that Ebisu had his luck, his strength, and his ability to hide his true emotions.
The bodyguard never saw it coming.
The bodyguard never saw it coming.
“Ah… ah… okay…”
He picked up the bodyguard and began dragging him through his room. He knew that if he got to the balcony quickly, he’d still have enough blood that would be able to make it a staged… accident. All he needed was to bring him over, wait for a few gods to pass– oh, there goes Inari and Takeminakata. And over the bodyguard went. And the screams from below meant his body hit the mark. And all he had to do was nail the leaning over the balcony with a shocked expression.
How lucky Ebisu was to get away with murdering a lesser god.
He was assigned a new guard soon enough. He didn’t really care too much, he sort of accepted it at this point. But he also… he also wished to try not to kill this one, no matter how much he got frustrated with him.
How lucky Ebisu was to be able to somewhat control his murderous desires! He was somewhat better than his younger brother, however. He recalled seeing Amaterasu beat him senseless due to some incident involving another god… though, Ebisu was unsure of the details.
“Sir, I was wondering… would be willing to inform me as to why I am a replacement?”
He looked over at the new bodyguard and gave him an easy smile. “We got into a small argument, he backed away from me and fell over that balcony. …Unfortunately, he passed away from his fall.” He hummed. “Lower gods can’t take that kind of hit, so be careful when you’re near a balcony~” He chuckled softy at the memory.
The bodyguard simply shook his head. “I see.”
It was silent. Ebisu never liked silence… silence usually meant he was alone. Or people were dead. One or the other, it was never good. Silence never meant anything good. He stood and wordlessly stepped over to the balcony and watched over it. Takamagahara was bustling like usual. Gods talking and chatting about various things, the splashing of fountains and giggles of the younger, lower gods.
“Hahhh… haha… everyone’s all happy, aren’t they?”
“Are you not, sir?”
“...Of course I’m happy. I’m the luckiest god in heaven, why would I not be?”
The bodyguard watched him before walking to the door. “I will be guarding your room if that’s okay.”
“Yes, yes, it is.”
He heard the door click and sighed. He wasn’t sure if the bodyguard suspected him but to be frank, he didn’t terribly care if he did think that Ebisu was the cause of the former bodyguard’s death. He huffed quietly before smiling to himself. His baby siblings would finally, finally , have a slight reprieve. At least, Susanoo would. He was set to begin schooling in the heavens– well, high school.
Quite a joyous day! How lucky that Ebisu was to have such a smart and determined little brother that was excited and eager to go through his proper schooling! Ebisu needed to remember to bring a charm to him (Susanoo had apparently given his last charm away to a high schooler when he was a child), so that he’d have good luck throughout his years!
How lucky Susanoo was to have a brother as nice and kind as him!
“Ahhh… Mii-kun! You’re always so cute whenever you want to do something and you set your mind to it!” He picked up a charm and kissed it gently. “You’ll do great…” He softly whisperd to the charm before setting it back down.
Yes, yes, Susanoo would accomplish something no one had ever done!
And that was… having Ebisu look at him in such terror and fear… he hadn’t even looked at Amaterasu like this while she was beating him.
“I–... I don’t–...”
Everyone was stunned, stuck staring at the body on the ground. He looked up at Susanoo, who was simply staring at Amaterasu.
“...Mikoto. With me. Now.”
She stormed off and Susanoo followed after her quickly. Ebisu watched them and his eyes trailed back down to the ground and saw the charm under the limp body. He watched it for a moment before a smile began to crack upon his face.
How lucky… how lucky he was to have a brother who cared so much about the charm that it didn’t separate from his personage until this… awful moment. This terrible, heart-wrenching moment.
What a lucky older brother.
—
“Aha… where did you say you sent him?”
Ebisu felt heat boiling up in his head and hhe leveled a glare at his baby sister who simply sat at her desk, seemingly not caring about the information she just told him. She gave him a bored look and rested her head on her hand.
“I sent him to a high school for youkai. It’s for his own good, at least the gods won’t get pissed if he accidently harms or kills a student from their school, but I have to listen to it for days on end if it’s one of–”
He grabbed her kimono and pulled her up, giving her a wide smile.
“Why would you ever , in your right mind send him to a school with those things ?!”
She glared at him and shoved him away. “Ebisu, I don’t recall you being the head of Takamagahara. And besides, would you rather him at a human school, where if he did something similar he would likely get kicked out?!” She stepped on the desk before dropping down to back him out of the room. “We do not need a repeat of that Kyoto God!”
She eventually shoved him out and slammed the door on his face. He stared at it and huffed.
How lucky he was to have a sister that was transparent to him for why she made the decisions she made. How lucky he was to have a brother that was… eager to learn from other types of people, even if Ebisu didn’t agree.
How lucky, how lucky indeed.
…What a lucky life Ebisu had. A lucky life that he always loved and enjoyed.