Zashiki-Warashi by kaoruhana

Chapter 1

Written for the Season's of Anime Exchange's Trope Bingo!<br />
Trope(s) Chosen: Free Prompt: Modern AU/ Aged down AU/Childhood AU<br />
Word Count: 2,531

Ninohe is a real town.  (Follow the link). 
And a  Zashiki-Warashi is a small spirit said to live in Japanese homes and bless them.  (Again, follow the link if you'd like to see where I got the information from).  
Inspired by: The Forgettable Fox's "A New Leash on Life."  

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Ninohe was a town; not too sleepy to be called a village, but still tiny compared to the capital Tokyo.  Nestled in the mountains of Tohoku, it was often covered in snow in the colder months, and the people living there huddled warm in their homes on those cold winter nights.  But, located as it was, it was tucked away and protected, a little slice of Tohoku that was preserved by its people.  And these people believed in legends and myths, had folklore that spanned through the centuries, told orally from one generation to the next.  

Sesshomaru didn’t know all that when he arrived.  He was still young, only five or so years of age, and his face was pressed against the glass, small hands leaving frosty imprints as the train pulled into the station.  He had been that way since they had started traveling through the mountains, eyes wide with curiosity as he took in the sights around him.  His mother smiled at him, pleased to see her boy so happy, happier than he had been in a while.  

Happier now, as they pulled into Ninohe, than he ever had been in Tokyo.  

They had left that city, and all of the memories with it, behind.  She was bringing them to the countryside, away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, away from her ex-husband’s new family, away from the house that she had once thought of as home.  Sesshomaru, she thought,  would do better here, raised in an environment that she was familiar with, raised the same way she had been: with love and acceptance and a deep seated appreciation for tradition.  

Besides her aging grandfather needed the help, needed someone to help take care of him.  

The train pulled into the station and Hastumomo turned her attention to the screens near the door, displaying the time and the weather, and the station they were at.  

“Seshsomaru,” she called to her son, “come here and away from the window.  We’ll need to leave the train soon.”  Sesshomaru pulled away from the glass, looking back at her.  Then, nodding, he walked over, climbing onto the seat next to her and waiting to see what she would say.  But Hatsumomo stayed silent, and Sesshomaru, after a full thirty seconds of waiting, couldn’t take it anymore.  

“ Kaa-san, what are we doing?”  

Hatsumomo smiled fondly at him, running  a hand over his hair, hiding a laugh when he pouted and pushed it away.  “We’re waiting for the conductor to come get us when the train stops.”  

Sesshomaru looked out towards the window again.  “Is that now?”  

“Very soon, yes.”  Hatsumomo told him.  

Seshsomaru nodded, kicking his feet and staring at the window again.  He was the first to stand when the train came to a full stop at the station minutes later, pulling at his mother’s hand to get her to go along with him.  The conductor who came by smiled down at the duo, helping Hatsumomo with her luggage and escorting Sesshomaru, much to his displeasure, by the hand and out the train doors.  

Ninohe’s train station was like many others.  It wasn’t as busy as the ones in Tokyo, with their ever present series of trains coming to and fro.  But, it was still a large enough space for a child to explore with his eyes.  

“Come now Sesshomaru.”  His mother called, hands held tight around the two large suitcases she was pushing.  “Let’s go outside where we can find a taxi.”  

He followed dutifully after his mother, head still glancing this way and that, eyes moving over the sights around him.  An elderly man was leaning on a cane over there, a man in a suit was reading a newspaper on the nearby bench, and there were two little girls--much younger than him so they had to have been babies--holding their mothers hand while playing with their dolls.  So focused was he on the scenery, that he nearly missed seeing his mother leave through the front doors.  He jogged to catch up with her, and the two stepped outside, into the cold air of an early Spring day in Ninohe.  

They found a taxi soon after, climbing into it, his mother rattling off directions to her grandfather’s house.  Sesshomaru resumed kicking his legs, this time, his face pressed against the glass of the taxi, as it wound its way through the smaller lanes of Ninohe and towards the house they would now live in.  

The house was nestled near the base of one of the mountains, large fields surrounding it, and a dirt path leading to the main door.  He removed himself from the taxi at his mother’s urging, clambering to look over the edge of the road and down into the fields below.  There was still snow here, unlike Tokyo, and despite his pink cheeks and frozen fingers, a part of him wanted to explore and see what was lurking underneath it all.  

“Sesshomaru!”  His mother called him again.  

He turned, running across the road towards his mother who was now standing at the gate near the house’s entrance.  The cab driver drove off leaving him alone with her.  

She gave him another smile, though this one seemed a bit more forced than the earlier ones, and led the way up the walkway to their new house.  

A whole two days later, Seshsomaru wasn’t sure what to make of their new lodgings.  The house was big--much much bigger than their apartment in Tokyo--and it had taken him an entire day to explore!  There was so much to see too!  His ojii-sama had taken him outside just this morning, explaining that the fields surrounding their house would soon be planted with rice--the same rice that Sesshomaru ate in his bowl--and Sesshomaru had stared in awe.  His ojii-sama had told him that he could even help the farmhands who would come by later.  

But while all of that was neat and amazing, he didn’t know if he necessarily liked anything else about Ninohe.  Unlike Tokyo, where the apartment they lived in had numerous small families with children he could play with, in Ninohe he was alone.  It got tiring playing with his own racecars after a while, and he said as much to his mother who had simply told him they’d find some friends for him soon.  

He really hoped they would.  It was getting really boring having to play alone.  

He thought of all this as he made his way down the hall, the large upstairs hall that housed the house’s four bedrooms.  He hadn’t explored these rooms yesterday, not feeling the need to, but since he was bored, he was walking down the halls anyway, inquisitive mind needing to know what was there.  

The door next to his own bedroom was slightly open, and he padded towards it on sock-clad feet, small hands pushing the shoji door open wider to slip through.  

He frowned as he looked around, seeing that the room was set up for a child.  There were picture books in a corner, and a whole array of toys in another.  A small futon--just like his--was rolled up against the wall, a childish comforter sitting on top of it.  

There was another child here!  

He ran down the stairs, nearly slipping once or twice, the racecar he was playing with earlier held tight in his hands.  His entrance into the kitchen had his mother scolding him, but he ignored her words as he made his way over to the other occupant.  

“Ojii-sama,” he asked breathlessly, “is there another kid here?”  

His great-grandfather furrowed his eyes for a moment before his face softened, and he nodded.  

“Ah, you’ve seen the room of the zashiki-warashi .”  

“Who?”  Sesshomaru asked, clambering onto the cushions of the low table in the dining area.  He placed small hands on the table, using them to lean his body forward to hear the man better, the race car now discarded on the floor next to him.  

“The zashiki-warashi, child.”  His grandfather explained.  “They are little spirits, living in our home and blessing us with good fortune.”  

Sesshomaru leaned back, thinking on the older man’s words thoughtfully.  He looked over at his mother who was busy cooking at the stove and then at his great grandfather again.  

“Do you think it’ll play with me?”  He asked eagerly, desperate for a playmate.  

His ojii-sama laughed, the sound warm and soothing.  “Why don’t you ask, Sesshomaru?”  

And so Seshomaru did, for two whole days.  On the morning of the third, he came to breakfast grumpy, displeased with the way things were going.  

“What is it?”  His mother asked, seeing his frown.  “Did you have a bad dream last night?”  

Seshsomaru shook his head, picking at the grains of rice that he had been so eager to see planted earlier that week. “The spirit doesn’t want to play with me.”  He told her sadly.  

“Perhaps it’s shy.”  His mother offered, reaching over to poke his head.  He grumbled, but let out a small smile at her actions nonetheless.  “Give it some time.”  She advised him.  “I’m sure you’ll find them soon.”  

Soon it seemed was that very afternoon.  

Sesshomaru was in the room again, reading one of the books that was there, when a small, shy, girly voice spoke up next to him.  

“Who are you?  Why are you here?”  

Spooked, he screamed, tumbling onto his behind, the book flying and unintentionally hitting the girl in the face.  She scowled, swatting it away, and crossed her arms.  Clad in a small child’s kimono, and really no more than a small child herself, she was quite adorable to look at.  And would have been for any adult who saw her.  

But for Sesshomaru, her cute appearance was not the most important thing.  

Her status as a potential playmate was.  

He introduced himself, explaining that he had moved from Tokyo--a place that the spirit girl had never heard of--and telling her all about how he was lonely.  That was enough for her it seemed and the two hit it off, becoming fast friends.  

That night, Sesshomaru told his mother and ojii-sama all about the spirit girl--Kagome as she wanted to be called--and how he was going to play with her forever.  

His mother smiled hesitatingly, unsure about the new companion, but his great grandfather grinned, reaching over and ruffling his hair.  

“Make sure you’re a good friend to her Sesshomaru.”  He told him.  “And she’ll take care of all of us.”  

And so the days went and time flowed by.  Sesshomaru grew to enjoy life in Ninohe.  The school he went to was fun, and he excelled at his studies becoming the school’s star pupil.  He went to play soccer with the neighborhood kids in the Summer, later coming to chase fireflies and cicadas and watch the frogs hop their way across the endless fields, Kagome by his side.  

And when he came home, no matter how tired he was after long school days in the Winter, he would go upstairs, to the room that was Kagome’s, and play with her there.  

One Summer day, a full year after his arrival, she lamented to him that she would never get to experience the things that he had, the things that he did.  He frowned at her words, thoughtfully, and over dinner asked his mother a pertinent question.  

“Can Kagome come to school with me in the Fall?”  

Hatsumomo frowned at him and placed her chopsticks down.  “Sesshomaru,”  she told him, “Kagome is not a human child.  She cannot go to school.”  

Sesshomaru didn’t like her answer, and told Kagome as such on their next playdate.  They discussed the issue at length, over long hours spent running in the fields, chasing frogs and fireflies and the kitsunebi dotting the countryside.  

Finally, she told him she could be invisible, to all but him if she so wished, and they agreed that she could accompany him to school that way.  

He liked it and the two agreed on their plan.  

Kagome enjoyed the school, and the tiny little humans that were in it.  She learned with Sesshomaru, her kanji becoming more modernized, her curiosity piqued at the little bentos and snacks that the kids brought with them to school.  

Eventually though, she grew bored of the school.  Her life had been spent exploring the house, helping his mother and grandfather, and exploring the fields to say hello to the other supernatural beings that lived in the area.  

She soon left him to his schooling, claiming that she didn’t understand the humans and their strange ways of educating their children.  

And so time passed.  

Eventually Sesshomaru grew older, as did his great grandfather.  

The old man passed away when Sesshomaru was ten, on a cold Winter’s day, and a part of Sesshomaru’s childhood died with him.  

And life moved on.  

Sesshomaru grew older, entered harder schools, spent more time studying and less playing, leaving Kagome behind.  She cheered him on from the side, always waiting, always watching, eager for the day Sesshomaru would come back to play with her.  

And then he left after high school to go to Tokyo to study.  He didn’t even say goodbye to her, leaving her alone in that room with the childish toys and picture books.  

She remained though, a small part of her holding onto the belief that he would return, that someone small and playful--a child--would grace the halls of this house again.  She helped Hatsumomo-san who sometimes felt pains in her knees and backs as she grew older, she ran around with the fireflies on sultry Summer evenings, danced among the kitsunebi in the Fall. 

And she waited and she waited.  

And then one day, on a Spring day much like the one when she had met Sesshomaru for the first time, she saw him again.  

He was older now, and quite tall compared to her.  He no longer noticed her, believing her to have been a figment of his childish imagination.  But, with him he brought a child--his daughter Rin--who was just as playful and inquisitive as he had been.  

It was Rin who found her room this time, chubby hands pushing open the shoji to a room that was dusty with disuse.  She fell in love with the picture books, hugged and named all the dolls, and shared her finds with her family at dinner that night.  

“Who’s room is that?”  She asked her father.  

Her father frowned, but her grandmother smiled.  “Ah, you’ve seen the room of the zashiki-warashi .”  She told Rin, echoing the words of her own grandfather from years ago.  

And after a conversation, so similar to the one between Sesshomaru and his Ojii-sama years ago, Rin sat back on her heels, fingers tapping the table.  

“Do you think it will be my friend?”  She asked Sesshomaru, eyes bright and curious.  

Before Sesshomaru could answer, Hatsumomo did for him.  

“Why don’t you ask, Rin?” 

And Kagome, who had watched and waited and watched and waited, smiled from the corner, happy to have a playmate again.  

* * * * * 

A/N: Written over the course of an afternoon which is why I didn't do more research.