Spring Day

"Did I make it too late?" Haruka thought aloud, her pace quickening towards the shrine of love and relationships.

"I can't believe I woke up late, the shrine is sure bustling with people at this rate..."

Her pace increased, as she climbed up the gentle slope, past the huge torii.

The snow had stopped falling a long time ago already, however, it was still the reminiscence of the winter chills from time to time. Haruka cursed herself for forgetting to bring out a scarf before she left home.

Thankfully, by the time Haruka reached the shrine, it wasn't too crowded.

A smell caught the yōkai's attention. It was faint but familiar.

Kurei slows his fanning wrist down to a stop, trying to concentrate on the sudden distraction. He was atop a large tree branch, watching the worshippers file in and out of the shrine, receiving blessings and sending offerings to the shrine.

There was mostly women and couples, as well as pregnant ladies.

However out of the crowd, only one caught Kurei's eye. Kurei jumped off the branch, still maintaining the distance from the crowd even though no one could see entities, let alone a yōkai unless he presents himself willingly.

As Haruka moved further into the shrine towards Kurei's direction, her scent became even stronger, at least to Kurei, for it somehow reminded him of 500 years ago.

Kurei bit his tongue, trying to shake off from the trance as he continued to watch the adolescent human girl pull out a 5 yen coin from a coin purse decorated with different onigiri designs.

As Haruka was about to make a wish, she shivered, commenting about something along the lines of spring arriving but it still had the cold of the winter. Just as she was about to toss the coin, a sneeze ended up churning out of her, causing her to drop the coin as it hit the pebble ground.

As she was about to pick up the coin, a pair of long, pale, slim fingers picked up the 5 yen coin.

Haruka glanced up, wondering who picked her coin up.

Kurei didn't know what the heck he was doing. His eyes subconsciously followed the young girl, eyeing her every move, the way she exhaled into her palms, rubbing them to generate heat, the way she turned to her school bag that slung on her shoulder, digging for what felt like eternity only to pull out a really stupid looking coin purse, pulling out a small 5 yen coin and dropping it onto the ground when she suddenly sneezed out of nowhere.

Somehow, the Fox demon ended up in front of her, picking up the coin for her, meeting her curious eyes, how her a sudden cool breeze caused a few strands of her hair to sway gently.

Her lips were partially shut, both her top and bottom lip glazed with a peach coloured lip colour, and her caramel eyes widened, seemingly in confusion. But the worse part was the /smell/. The smell of this human girl had such a disturbingly familiar ring to it.

Everything was as if it was in slow motion.

Haruka stared at the strange man with weird animal ears for a split second before the 5 yen coin was deposited back into her small palm.

'Was he a cosplayer or something?'

"Thank you", Haruka managed to blurt out, curling her fingers around the coin.

"You're welcome, Miss", the strange male replied.

Haruka flashed a small smile, preparing to make her way further in, however, before she could, the male suddenly reached up to the very furry scarf, if it was even called a scarf considering how furry it was, removed it from his shoulders, and wrapped it around Haruka instead.

Yes, the scarf he covered Haruka with was as fluffy as it looked, and radiated warmth to her neck as well to her shoulders. A faint scent of Sakura incense also radiated from the scarf, strangely calming her beating heart.

"Keep yourself warm", Kurei mentioned, having no idea why he just did that for. He stared down at the petite girl who buried her nose into the fluffy scarf simply to avoid his gaze. She bowed politely before making a turn back, and out of the shrine, leaving Kurei to stare after her, somehow enchanted.

Shirt fluttered beside the seemingly trance-stricken ayakashi, whispering in his ear, "are you sure it's alright to show yourself to a mortal like her?"

Kurei cleared his throat as he fluttered his fan open once more, the sound of the bell on his braided bracelet tinkled against the crescent pendant just beside it.

"It's fine. I believe she'll come back with my scarf. When she does, I'll simply hypnotise her", he replied calmly, staring far past the entrance of the shrine.

A peach blossom petal floated into Haruka's line of vision, causing her to slow down.

"Ah it's blooming", she exclaimed, as she watched the peach blossoms surround the skies, falling daintily onto the ground, as well as landing onto her hair and her palms as she opened them.