A bone-chilling roar echoed through Kyoto last night, alarming the supernatural beings who lived there. All the while, the humans didn’t seem to notice. It was just as though a particularly harsh winter wind howled through the city.

Like some kind of abomination being cast into the pits of hell, the sound that reverberated through the night was like a bitter squall that seeped right into a person’s body. What’s more, the sound surely came from a person. Only a person could utter a cry so sad as to make someone fall to their knees.

The sound seared itself into Haru’s memory. It was haunting and anguished, far more than Haru ever thought someone could utter. It made him sad to think that there were things out there that could experience such melancholy, when his life had been so beautiful, so sheltered, so vibrant and full of life.

Sadness like that wasn’t something he’d ever experienced before.

Haru felt an ache in his chest as he remembered the sound. He crouched down over a small bed of earth in front of a large cherry blossom tree. He waved a hand over the bald patch there, frowning. Magic began to pour out of his palms right onto the soft, loam soil, and slowly bits of grass began to erupt from the ground.

Then, Haru smiled. Maybe this would take his mind off the unsettling news.

“You really do favor that tree, don’t you, Haru?”

The young man blinked. He turned to see the flickering image of his grandfather standing nearby, and he nodded in reply. It was almost hard to see the man through the cover of darkness in the night, but the soft, translucent light emitted by his grandfather’s projection most certainly helped.

Haru’s grandfather was a stalwart man who stood with his back straight even though he braced much of his weight onto a gnarled, wooden cane he held with one hand. His graying hair was still mostly black rather than white, noting his relative physical youth. But most important of all was the magical flicker in the man’s otherwise translucent body, which showed that he was just an astral projection.

“When this blooms in spring, even if only for a little while, it lets out the most vibrant pink of all of our cherry blossom trees,” Haru answered.

His grandfather raised an eyebrow. Tilting his head slightly, he gestured over to his grandson. “Is that why you’re letting weeds grow around it now?”

Haru blinked as he looked down. His magic was still pouring out, his palms still extended. “Oh, crap!”

Haru retracted his arms, letting the flow of magic cease. At the base of the tree now stood some rather wonky looking weeds wrapping around its base. Haru frowned. He’d been distracted! And though he wanted to make that little patch pretty, it pained him to have to cull the plants that now grew there. He’d never been able to withstand seeing things in pain, or dying. Even weeds.

Haru’s grandfather chuckled. He leaned on his cane, leaning his body forward a bit as he gazed at his grandson in amusement. “I’m sure the city will send someone to help trim your mess, my dear.”

He slowly stood up, puffing his cheeks in annoyance. He put both his hands on his hips, trying to look much bigger than he actually was. He had no doubt he was failing. “Did you need something, grandpa?”

Haru’s grandfather shook his head, but quickly the soft expression on his face turned into one of seriousness. “I projected myself merely to tell you to keep yourself safe today. They say a beast was spotted close to the Kamo River last night. You should be wary about staying out there alone.”

Haru nodded. “I know, grandpa. I heard it last night.”

“Technically, you shouldn’t be in too much danger considering how far you are from the city center. As one of the guardian kami of the area, the woods will protect you,” his grandfather explained, gesturing all around them. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry. There are rumors of Lady Himiko being gravely wounded. Whether or not that is the case, it’s not completely safe, and no one knows if Oda is planning a hostile takeover.”

Now, that was a shock. Lady Himiko had been a kind protector of Kyoto’s supernatural world for a long time. Ever since Haru could remember, Lady Himiko had been handling the protection of Kyoto’s underbelly, helping out the kami that were losing their homes due to modernization, and helping adapt the yokai to become less of a danger to humans than they were before.

“Do they know who did it, grandpa?” Haru asked. His grandfather shook his head in response, his frown grave.

“No, and that’s why you must be careful. The mountain priestess says there are dark days to come. Let the woods protect you, and make sure you don’t wander too close to the city. You don’t know what sort of creature is out there. Be careful, okay?”

“I will, grandpa. I won’t venture into the city. I promise,” Haru said.

His grandfather stared at him blankly, raising his eyebrow. “That’s a lie, my dear grandson, but I won’t fault you for it. Just promise me you’ll be careful, and don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

Haru smiled. “You know me too well, grandpa.”

“Almost too well, you mischievous runt. Go on. You’re kami of the woods. Tend to your home and like I said, be careful.”

The projection of Haru’s grandfather faded in a little bloom of magic.

Haru shook his head. He and his grandfather often talked like that, even though the older man lived hundreds of miles away. As an accomplished kami himself, who had lived hundreds of years in contrast to Haru’s own twenty years of life, Seiji, his grandfather, spent much of his time making sure all of his grandchildren were safe and taken care of even though Seiji lived in a quaint mountaintop protecting an old village shrine and its priestess.

In contrast, Haru lived alone. Well, not really alone, he had roommates, or work acquaintances. Whatever they were called, he had the company of a few friends to keep him safe and sane in this little sanctuary he lived in. Secluded in a private plot of land, the woods Haru lived in was far too small to be a forest, but far too big to just be a copse of trees in someone’s backyard.

Besides, he lived right next to a Shinto temple himself. Most kami did.

Haru started walking past his favorite tree and deeper into the woods when he heard the sound of a dog barking. The noise immediately brought a smile to his face.

“Momo!”

 And there a tiny little ball of energy came bounding down the trail. Reaching only mid-shin to Haru—who stood at a petite five foot three—Momo the dog was a beagle with long, floppy ears, a handsome face, and stubby legs. It was any wonder he ran as fast as he did, because he was barking excitedly and bounding whole feet in long, large leaps until he stood right by Haru’s legs, jumping up and down and yipping in wild, reckless abandon.

“Calm down, Momo. What is it?” Haru asked.

The dog yipped and looked up at him.

He wished he could talk to Momo. Other kami could, though they were often ones in charge of animals rather than forests and trees. Haru could get a feel for what his trusty friend was trying to say, though, because the canine companion nudged him on the shin before running off back towards the trail.

Haru whispered a few arcane words, feeling his body dissolve into a tiny ball of shimmering light. Ethereal and small, emitting a soft pulse of warmth, Haru could travel for longer distances, and faster, this way. He easily caught up to Momo and flew right alongside his companion as they traveled down the path.

What could have his friend in such a fit?

Momo scampered off, zigzagging through the woods like a bat out of hell. There was clearly some trail the dog was following, and Haru didn’t know exactly what it was. He’d never seen the dog this alarmed before, so he did his best to make sure his pace was the same as his

As soon as his furry friend skidded to a halt in front of a particular tree underneath particularly dense foliage, and when Haru finally shimmered back into a corporeal form, he gasped in surprise at what lay before him.

A large, fair-skinned man was lying prone on the ground, dirty and wounded.

A naked man.

Now, he didn’t need that much light to see when a naked musclebound stranger was right in front of him.

Haru was no pervert, but he couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed at the body of the man before him. Lying down on his back, this stranger, this foreigner, was naked as the day he was born. His muscles were large and sinewy, and his arms were probably as large as melons, maybe larger! He had long blond hair that lay messily around his chiseled face. His eyelashes were long, perhaps the most delicate part of his body. A day’s beard grew on his face, although Haru had never seen someone as grizzled and hairy as the man before him.

His chest was so big and broad, and it was like someone had decided to grow a rug right on top of a man’s body! Haru looked down at his own chest, only loosely covered by the silk robes he wore. There was no doubt about it—the unconscious man was definitely handsome and rugged to the extreme.

Haru felt a heated blush spread on his cheeks. Why was he looking at this man so intently?

Momo yipped at him. Haru turned to look down at the dog.

“Just what do you propose we do with him? I can’t carry him back to the temple with me,” Haru said, placing both his hands on his hips.

Momo yipped again, as if in reply.

Haru rolled his eyes. He knew he couldn’t understand his beagle buddy, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try! “You’re not the one who’s going to be lugging this guy back home. We’re twenty minutes away if we walk!”

Yet again, his friend barked.

Haru looked at the naked man, trying very hard not to look at that part of him. But it was very prominent, because the way the man was splayed on the ground was so that Haru was basically in between his legs, and the first thing he saw was the very girthy thing staring him right in the face, surrounded by a dense foliage of hair probably thicker than the woods he was in charge of protecting.

Then again, his only real point of comparison was himself and the other men he saw in the public bathhouses. Japanese men just weren’t usually as hairy as this foreigner.

Haru looked around up at the trees, back down to Momo, then the prone man on the ground.

The stranger stirred, and Haru stepped back out of self-preservation. After a moment of making sure the man was still unconscious, Haru sighed in relief.

He didn’t want the guy to get the wrong idea, but he most certainly didn’t want to leave the guy here! Haru looked down at the man to see little cuts, bruises, and dried blood dotting his extremities and parts of his body. He had a large gash on his side, and there were slashes and cuts all across his sinewy shoulders. The worst thing was the cuts on his feet. Did this guy walk through glass before fainting in his woods?

The kami frowned. Momo growled and yipped at Haru once more.

“Alright, alright,” Haru said, shaking his head. “I concede. You’re right! Let’s take him to the temple. Maybe Kaguya can find some way to help him.”

Momo looked up at Haru, and he could’ve sworn there was a glint of acknowledgement there. Maybe the fact that the beagle had stopped barking as soon as Haru said he was going to help take care of the man was a clue, too.

Sometimes I think this dog is smarter than I am.

Haru closed his eyes and clasped his hands together real tight. He channeled his powers into a single thought that he kept chanting over and over.

Please help me lift this man up. Please help me lift this man up.

Those words rang over and over in his head. A soft, gentle wind started to blow, and Haru could hear the rustling in the trees. When he extended his hands, he saw vines and grass, along with bunches of flowers and weeds begin to curl up from the ground right underneath the musclebound stranger. And even though eventually they broke off from the ground, a whole cradle of nature and life wrapped itself around the foreigner and started to lift him up, swaddling him in a soft bed of verdant growth. Slowly, the large man started being carried off, floating in the direction of the nearby Shinto temple.

Haru smiled. Sometimes being a kami was a good thing. There was never going to be any way he was going to be able to physically carry that goliath back home with him.

But now, he had a chance to tend to those wounds.

This time, Haru and Momo were able to walk back to the temple, floating stranger in tow. Just like Haru’s grandfather said, the woods protected him and heeded his requests. He was, after all, its guardian and caretaker.

Well, sure, he worked with the priestess of the shrine nearby so he wasn’t technically the only guardian and caretaker of the woods, but the two of them were more like work partners! They helped each other out. Which was why Haru was sure that the priestess would help him with this.

Right?

He had no time to second guess himself, because the twenty-minute walk had been nothing in the face of Haru’s persistence. The torii gates of the temple soon loomed before them, and right in front of the wide, red, rectangular archway was Haru’s so-called work partner, the priestess of the shrine.

Haru immediately bowed in front of the gates. It was tradition, after all.

Momo barked happily, bouncing right up to the woman as she leaned on the large broom she was holding to sweep up some of the dead leaves to the side of the gate. She raised an eyebrow at Haru.

“Kaguya,” Haru greeted, giving the woman a little wave. “We found this stranger in the woods. I didn’t know what to do with him, but I didn’t want to leave him there. He looks wounded.”

Kaguya placed a hand on her hip. “I knew it. The divining fire told me something strange would happen today, and I just knew it was going to be because of you, my dear. I was worried the fire was wrong, since you’d been acting normal all day.” She looked at her watch. “The time now is…eleven fifty-five. Well, the gods certainly have a sense of humor.”

Haru winced. “Is that a bad thing?”

The priestess chuckled. “No, not at all. It would be dreadfully boring here without the excitement you bring. Besides, we don’t get many visitors so this is a welcome diversion. Come inside and bring your friend with you before someone sees you wielding magic again, you dummy!”

“It’s almost midnight. Who’s going to come here?”

Haru smiled. Kaguya was always so nice to him. She was like a big sister to him ever since they started tending to the shrine and its surrounding temple grounds together.

“Did you find him like this?” Kaguya asked. “You’re lucky I’m not some blushing, babbling maiden like some of the younger priestesses in the other shrines. Otherwise the sight of a naked man might just upset me.”

Haru nodded. “Mm-hmm, yes. I’m thankful that you’re a lot more wizened compared to your peers.” He grinned widely at Kaguya, who gave him a playful swat on the shoulder. Haru laughed before he continued. “As for Mister Naked over here, he was splayed out and wounded. Something tells me he’s been traveling quite a bit.”

Kaguya tilted her head. “And what tells you that?”

“His feet,” Haru answered, gesturing over to that specific part of the prone man floating beside him. “If you took a look at them, they’re in bad shape. Not really bad shape, but you know—“

“Yes, yes, I get it. He’s probably not fully human, either, because those wounds are knitting themselves closed as we speak.” Kaguya gestured over to the cuts. “We might not actually need to do much, after all.”

Still, it didn’t take long for them to enter the little square residence they all lived in. The cocoon of vegetation slowly brought the man down onto the futon below, before disappearing in a little sparkle of magic.

Haru immediately strode into the room, pulling on the blanket to immediately cover up the strange man. There was a moment where he moved his hand out to gently tuck a loose strand of the man’s hair back behind his ear. He looked down into the unconscious visage before him, and Haru blinked.

What was that uncomfortable warmth he felt in his chest, all of a sudden?

He didn’t have time to think about that. Haru turned to his friend. “I’ll get a washcloth and some warm water. Maybe we can clean him up a little bit.”

Kaguya leaned against the doorway as she watched Haru fuss. Her eyes flickered for just a fraction of a second, the telltale glow of magic suddenly appearing in her eyes and disappearing almost as quickly as it had come. She gave a little shrug. “Let me get that for you. By the looks of things, he may not need our help after all. I expect his wounds to heal by tomorrow evening. By the way, make sure you don’t open the doors to the private garden anytime soon.” She gestured over to the set of doors opposite them. “Your guest is a vampire.”

Haru blinked. His eyebrows furrowed and he pouted. “You don’t think he’ll eat me, do you?”

Kaguya shrugged once more as she stepped away from the sliding door. “Who can say? I’m betting I’m in more danger than you are. You’re not exactly human.”

That was true. Of the both of them, Kaguya was the mortal. She had divining powers, true, and she was pretty good at playing doctor and using her magic to help heal others, but she would grow old and die much faster than Haru.

Left alone to his own devices, Haru reached forward until he was caressing the foreigner’s hair once more. He’d never seen blond hair before, or someone this pale. Then again, he’d never really seen much outside of his home with his grandparents, and here at the shrine. They were so different, and yet so the same. Whenever Haru looked at himself in the mirror, he didn’t see someone as physically strong as this.

In fact, he was kind of waifish and thin. That’s what Kaguya said, anyway.

Momo slowly walked on over to Haru, pressing his cheek against the kami’s leg. Haru looked down at the beagle, who was staring up at him with some kind of inscrutable intent.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Haru asked, as though he was waiting for the dog to answer back.

Instead, Momo blinked and looked up at him expectantly.

“I’m definitely not invading this man’s personal space, and I most certainly do not think he’s attractive! I’m just trying to take care of him until he wakes up. That’s the neighborly thing to do,” Haru snapped. “It’s like taking care of a foreigner is such a bad thing, Momo! We’re just trying to be hospitable and friendly.”

Momo stared up at him. Haru gasped in fake shock.

There was a brief silence between them.

“Even if I was attracted to him, would that be such a bad thing?” Haru hedged. “Being attracted to someone isn’t illegal, you know.”

Momo looked up into Haru’s eyes with his infinitesimal canine knowledge, and Haru sighed.

“You’re right, I’m being silly. Being attracted to someone and acting on it are two very different things, right? And I’m supposed to look after him, not touch him inappropriately when he isn’t a consenting adult. He’s unconscious, for crying out loud! I’m in full control of my faculties. I need to get a grip. It’s not funny to be on the receiving end of someone touching you when you don’t acquiesce. You know, I think there needs to be a conversation about consent in the world today, and—”

“Are you trying to have an intellectual conversation with the dog, Haru?”

Haru let out a surprised little shriek as he turned to look at Kaguya, who was holding a basin against her hip and one arm, and a washcloth in the other. “You almost killed me!” Haru exclaimed.

Kaguya grinned and raised her eyebrow. “You’re immortal. Being startled won’t kill you.”

Haru pouted. He tugged on his sleeves and nervously patted himself down before looking up at Kaguya. “Momo just reminded me that I should be more helpful to our guest,” he lied.

Kaguya stared at Haru for a few moments, slowly raising her eyebrow. “He’s unconscious. How much more helpful can you be in his current state?”

“I don’t know! But I can be more helpful somehow!”

Kaguya shook her head. “Clean him up and disinfect his wounds. I put some alcohol into the warm water. It might work, it might not, since I don’t exactly know how to help a vampire out except in the obvious way, but it’s better than doing nothing, right?”

Haru nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

“At this point, I’m sure our guest just wants something to change into when he wakes up, and to not smell like he does now,” Kaguya muttered underneath her breath. She extended the basin and the washcloth at Haru. “Here, you take care of him, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t make a dinner out of any of us.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Haru said. Would he?

Kaguya shook her head. “We don’t know for sure. I’m just being safe for all of us here.” She then paused. “And if he wakes up, maybe make sure you don’t get yourself eaten by the vampire, okay?”

As she left the room, Haru turned to look back at the prone body lying down before him and started at his task of cleaning the stranger up with broad, but slow strokes.

“Maybe he won’t be so bad,” Haru said. “Nobody this handsome could be a bad person, right, Momo?”

He turned toward his trusty dog. Momo stared up at him, and his tail began to wag.

Haru sighed, and turned back to the stranger.

That’s when he noticed that the man’s eyes were staring right up into his.