Tenonaru Hou e - Prologue 1 Pg 1

Night of the Faceless Chirping Plovers

Kusamakura wasn’t sure if he had those things called parents. He gave himself the name Kusamakura. Long ago, he opened a book he had stolen and used the first word he laid eyes on as his name. Kusamakura didn’t even know how he understood words, how he could read, or why he had a general knowledge of the world even though no one had ever taught him. He didn’t have parents or any siblings, but he had a general idea of what family was. He had never asked anyone else, but the others were probably the same. Kusamakura understood that they were just those sort of beings. He a.s.sumed he just naturally existed here, the same way the sky, water and wind all existed in this world. He had never actually confirmed that. He had no way to confirm it.

The beings that lived around Kusamakura kept their distance from him. Split tail ghost cats, foxes, foul smelling large demons, things with eyes all over their body, eyes and ears that existed on their own floating around on the ground or on stones, all of those creatures lived around Kusamakura, but they kept their distance. A long time ago he felt lonely because of that, but he was already used to it by now. Whenever he wanted to be included with the others, he would be pushed away. They would tell him: we never know what you’re thinking, it’s creepy, don’t come near us. What was he thinking? Only that he was lonely.