When he woke up in the morning, she was still there, lying on the bed. Luckily his roommate was likely to be drunk in a gutter somewhere or he’d never hear the end of it, “A girl on your bed? What you do last night buddy!” or something like that. He crawled up to the lofted bed and took the bandage off. It appeared to be a simple scrape, but he would keep disinfecting it just to be safe. Just then she woke up and quickly grabbed the hand that was disinfecting the wound. Her eyes looked dangerous to the point of being almost unsettling.

“I’m just disinfecting.”

He barely got the words out, but it seemed that she understood. Her eyes softened, and she let go of his arm. Once he finished with the bandage, he placed his forehead against hers to check her temperature. This kind of threw her off guard though, and she backed away from him.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Checking your temperature.”

“That’s how you humans do that?”

“That’s how I was taught at least.”

“Oh. You know, I’m not human. Youkai only get sick if there is miasma on a weapon or in the air near them.”

“Was there no miasma in his tongue then?”

“No. It’s just a scrape.”

“Good, I can stop worrying about infection then.”

“Worrying…”

“I’d better get to class, it’s Friday so there’s bound to be tests.”

He gathered his things, got her a glass of water, and left. Once she heard the lock of the door she sat up in bed.

"Why would he do that… He’ll be tired since I’m not there with him too..."

It had been a long time since someone had even done that much for her. Normally when she got a cut in the forest or twisted an ankle she had to crawl somewhere and wait out the injury, but him? She didn’t even ask for his help and he was on the job. She wasn’t angry about it, just surprised and possibly a little hopeful that the treatment would continue.

She looked around at the room. He’d slept in that hard looking chair because she’d gotten hurt? Who would do that anyways... She didn’t know much about him, and yet she’d literally been attached to him physically for almost a decade. Ever since that stupid bear had almost killed him. She thought a moon bear would be easy to take down, but she was too arrogant. Perhaps she would try to get to know him just a little bit. What harm could it make, she was going to be disconnected from him anyways fairly soon. Laying back down, Oku felt her cheek where the bandage was. It stung a little, but that was hard to know if it was from her flushed face or the scratch.

Once the injury had healed, she returned to classes with him. She wasn’t nearly as cold towards him as before, and he’d wondered what had happened. Lawrence thought that she may have just been growing used to him but she still wanted to go back to the forest as soon as possible. Maybe she realized that their time together would only be as unpleasant as she made it. He wasn’t all that sure, but with only a couple of months left winter was fast approaching.

One of those cool fall days, Lawrence noticed a small Youkai trying to jump onto a statue near the design building. He walked up to it and sat down. He’d really enjoyed getting to see that memory the frog had showed him, and if this was an easy enough request he may be able to get another one. Trying not to seem like a lunatic, he brought his phone up to his face and acted as if he was talking into it, but instead talked to the Youkai. It was definitely hard talking to something only he could see...

“Is something wrong? Yes I’m talking to the Youkai in front of me.”

“You can see me?”

“I can, now what’s the matter?”

“I need to get to the highest place, so I can call to the wind for my beloved Kūki!”

“You think this statue is the tallest place?”

“The tallest place I can reach…”

He looked at the water tower.

“Come back here around ten at night, I’ll help you.”

“You will?”

“Yes, I’m sure you’ll see Kūki again.”

He returned to his dorm, and drank down another energy drink so that Oku could materialize. A few minutes later she was there, and transformed into a human. Lawrence threw her another set of clothes and she put them on with a huff.

“By the way, I’m going to campus. I’ll be back later.”

“Not without me you aren’t.”

“Why not?”

She popped her head through the shirt.

“I'm not going to sit here bored in a tiny dorm room...”

“Fair enough.”

When they arrived back at the statue, the small Youkai was there. It waved to them. Now that he looked at it more closely it appeared to be a mouse, tiny with a small nose that sniffed the air. He hadn’t really been able to look at it earlier for the obvious reason of apparent lunacy in the presence of his classmates.  

“Hello young mister! You’ll really help me?”

“Of course, I came back after all didn’t I?”

Oku looked a little stunned, but he walked right past her to the water tower. As far as he knew, this was the tallest structure in town. If it didn’t work here, he didn’t know where it would, whatever it was. Now that he thought about it he had no idea what they were there to do in the first place.

“What are we doing again?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“We need to find my beloved!”

“By climbing up a water tower?”

“If we call her name into the wind, she’ll come. Just like always!”

He shrugged and put his backpack down on the ground. Lawrence didn’t really expect the tiny guy to climb the ladder all by himself after all.

“Here, get in my backpack.”

“My name is Toppū if you were wondering young mister!”

“Oh, well Toppū, you’ll be seeing your beloved very soon.”

The Youkai smiled at this, and snuggled down in his pack. Lawrence began the long climb to the very top of the water tower and once he arrived there, the small youkai began to shout her name.

“Kūki! Kūki!”

Lawrence began to shout as well, and soon the wind began to pick up. Yet still they shouted, until they were both holding onto the railing for dear life. Finally, both shouting at once, the wind immediately stopped and they both laid upon the metal of the water tower. From the heavens came another small Youkai, which looked almost exactly the same as Toppū, but with long hair and a slightly more feminine face.

“Toppū!”

“Kūki!”

They embraced, and were absolutely delighted.

“Sir! It worked!”

“Yeah, great job!”

Toppū motioned for Lawrence to pick him up, and his finger began to glow. Lawrence brought the small Youkai to his forehead.

In the memory, Lawrence saw the both of them together, holding hands as they brushed the soft grasses with the wind. He saw the world from above, their soft warm winds caressing the leaves of trees, the faces of humans and Youkai alike. Their winds were delicate and warm, tender and loving. Not only that. They were always together. They loved each other, so they stayed together. They were made for each other. To bring warm winds to the world was their call, and they did it together.

“My gift to you is the memory of the winds young mister. Though some of it may be harsh, we bring a soft warm wind. I hope that you enjoy our winds, young mister.”

Suddenly he was back in the cold, on the water tower. A wind caressed his cheek, and everything was still.

“Are you done up there yet?”

He got shocked back into reality, and started down the ladder. Seeing the memories was a strange payment for the simple help of calling out into the wind. There was nothing else for the Youkai to give though, unless he wanted unlimited amounts of sake. They seemed to have that by the boatload, how they made it was still a mystery though. When he got to the ground again, he asked Oku about showing memories as payment for help. He was also glad that he felt so much more athletic, thanks to Oku being around, as her presence eliminated his exhaustion. She was like a walking charger!

“A lot of Youkai do it. We live pretty long lives you know, we have many memories, but good memories are a bit different. Where a god of stone may sit in a forest for millennia, that may be literally the only thing that ever happens to him. He may never have one visitor, never see the ocean, never experience any sort of feelings. Stoic, alone in the forest. Throughout the thousands of years alone in that forest, he may actually meet someone. This may be the only Youkai or human he will ever have any interaction with, a treasured memory. For them to let you see that is truly a payment worth receiving.”

He didn’t expect to get such a good answer, but it was true. Spending so much time alone to only have one visitor would be terrible, but finding others to share that memory with would be amazing.

“Let’s… go back.”

She shrugged and bundled up her fur. It was rather cold for the middle of Fall. Trees had only begun to shed their leaves but soon it would be a winter wonderland. And sooner than later he would be making the trek back to that forest.

Oku had never been to a supermarket before. Honestly, Lawrence didn’t really think she’d ever been in a store. As they walked through the aisles she looked around nervously and picked a few things up, sniffing them. Lawrence picked up a box of crackers and put it in his cart, which surprised her.

“You can just take whatever you want?!”

“Yeah, but you have to pay for it later so I’d better not see you taking things… I really don’t want to get in trouble with the police so early in the semester.”

“Do you think I’m some sort of thief? Now that I know you have to pay for it I would never steal.”

“Alright, just making sure.”

He finished picking things up from the snack food aisle and moved to the checkout. The one good thing about living in the dorms was that buying groceries wasn’t really needed. You could get snack food and drinks, but the school provided a meal plan that allowed a certain amount of meals. This way he could go to the eating area in the spiral and get a nice meal without spending a fortune. That was really the only upside of the dorms.

Once he’d thanked the cashier they left, Oku trailing behind him and marveling once again at the strange doors which opened up when you went near them. She then caught up to him and chuckled, pointing back to the sliding doors.

“Those things are amazing, how do they know when you are near them?”

“They have a sensor on them which detects movement, so they open when the sensor sees something.”

“It can see? Then where are it’s eyes?”

“I just said the sensor… the sensor is like the eye. That way it knows when someone needs in.”

“Oh, you humans have really improved since I last went into a city like this.”

“Didn’t you say you’ve been to parties using my energy…”

“Well yes, but some deplorable men simply brought me to a house where there were drinks and music playing. And a lot of people dancing on strange vertical metal poles.”

“Some weirdo’s brought you to a strip club?!”

“Hmm? Is that like a supermarket?”

“Not at all, what were the girls wearing there?”

“Their clothing was fairly skimpy, why?”

Yep, she’d been picked up by some weird guys and brought to a strip club. Using his energy. This would probably be a good time to find out what else she’d done…

“Anyways… did you go to any other parties?”

“One of the guys invited me to a… keg? Keg party?”

He groaned, thinking about her using his daily energy on some stupid keg party in the nearest fraternity. If anything, he was just glad that the guys that had seemingly picked her up at least didn’t make any moves on her. Not that he was scared for her, there would simply be some unexplained killings is all. He looked at the ground, wondering how long she’d been up to this sort of thing. Probably not all that long to be honest, she’d been regaining power, but was only now able to sustain a human form thanks to the drink. Maintaining a Youkai form using his energy was probably pretty hard too, but he could at least understand wanting to get out and walk around after being locked inside of a box for so long. The box being his body of course. While he thought, Oku looked over at him and pinched the back of his neck playfully.

“Thinking so hard is going to give you wrinkles you know. Oh, and you almost stepped in that hole back there.”

Indeed, her pinch had stopped him from stepping in a large pothole in the sidewalk a few steps behind him.

“Thanks, yeah maybe I shouldn’t think so much.”

“Oh come on, thinking is your most attractive quality!”

“You mean I don’t have anything else?!”

“Well you aren’t… that ugly. You’re decently helpful and you seem to care about Youkai, though that’s probably just a positive quality to me.”

She smiled, Lawrence quickly following suit.

“And you’re decently cute, you seem to be able to talk to people, and you try to help me conserve my energy which means you must be at least a little caring. Though that last one is likely to be just positive to me.”

“Oh ha ha, having no available energy for yourself to use is pretty rough you know.”

She playfully crossed her arms and looked back at him, waiting for a response. He sighed out put forward an empty hand, which she looked at.

“Alright fine, have some of my energy then if you really need it.”

He placed the invisible object in her hand and she smiled.

“The whole caring about Youkai quality about you is nice, you know?”

“Well you’re the only one I really have to worry about you know.”

“Y-you don’t need to worry about me. You should be worrying about some evil Youkai eating you, a helpless human.”

“But I have you to protect me o’ savior!”