Chapter Text
*clank!* you bent to pick up your coffee can from the usual vending machine, and continued on the path home, enjoying the view of the sunset dissapearing over the city's buildings. you always felt accomplished after a day of hard work and looked forward to taking in the sights with a drink in your hand on your way home. you passed the local shrine humming to yourself, the last landmark on your route, when something out of the ordinary threw you off and made you stop in your tracks.
"kiiiiiaaaaaaaa!" it sounded like some kind of animal screeching in pain, you jumped back a little and almost dropped your drink from the shock. there was a loud rustling sound that followed along with more animal grunts. immediately you searched the foliage near the shrine worried the shrine owners cat, whom you were close to, was in danger.
you searched the area around the shrine, following the noise. you stopped in your tracks when you found out what had happened. it was a strange brown/reddish animal stuck in a wire cage, it looked like it had its tail clamped down on when it walked in the trap.
'poor weird thing' you quickly tried to pry open the door to get the animals tail loose, it being an old cage helped a lot in opening it, because it stayed open despite its need to spring shut once the bait was tampered with. the real problem was the animal making ugly growls at you ready to fight while scarfing down the food before you could potentially take it from the animal.
it even took a few swipes at you and nicked your hand, but it seemed to pull back nervously once it had seen it hurt you because it stopped once it saw the mark it had made, but kept on with, only with more restrained weird growling. once you were able to release its tail, the cage door reluctantly stayed wide open for it to easily escape. once everything had calmed down,you were able to get a good look at the strange thing.
its ... a dog? … a fox? racoon? you hadnt seen many animals around where you lived aside from cats, no wait i think its a .. ta- tanuki? right? you remembered seeing one in your grade school wildlife book once. this must have been the troublemaker animal thats been stealing from the old couple at the shrine and terrorizing their cat, and you just helped it. … oops?
you came back from your wandering train of thought to examine the thieving tanuki which growled louder at you in response, still in the cage. you realised its tail had been damaged pretty bad by the metal door and was now bleeding. wanting to cover its wound, you brought out your leftovers from lunch to try and call it to you in a soft voice " are you still hungry?"
it did have a bit of a pudge for a stomach. once you showed it your lunchbox it began to move toward your direction out of the cadge, more nervous from how you stared it down. you slowly raised your hands up as it focused more on the food than you. "gotcha!" you made a quick grab at the screeching, unsuspecting animal. "hold still!
-woah it stinks!" did it fart from the shock?? you kept on in your mission to help the creature, but it was terrified for good reason. it seemed to have old scars, new and old, along with the scratched tail from what looked like a previous fight. you only wanted to try and help it more now, and maybe bring it to a vet?
"please hold still, i only want to help you!" you said in a calming voice, tending to its injuries, "did you actually hear me?" you said aloud.
the red tanuki had stopped once you tied its tail up with a hankerchief, looking from the pink flower pattern on its tail to your face, to the cuts you had gotten trying to help it. "does it feel better now?" you smiled softly at it.
the tanukis ears pulled back and it hissed once more at you , an empty threat it seemed , and made a break for the woods. "hmph! that wasnt very cute for the person that helped you out" you smirked, maybe a little cute, as you sat up and continued your path back home. unknown to you, the smelly, round, standoffish animal watched you from a safe distance, not knowing what to make of you or what you did for it.
" (y/n), huh ? " the tanuki read off your hankercheif, muttering to itself. an unnatural smirk appeared on its face.
〜〜〜