the true meaning of friendship is not 'enslaving people you bested in a contest'
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The first thing Tsubaki does when she moves to a new town is find all the local shrines. The sacred grounds serve as at least a slight deterrent to some of the nastier things she can see. (No one else can see these things. To them, youkai are just old stories. To her, they are a constant reality.) Tsubaki's moved around a lot since her parents died. She stays with various relatives for six or eight months, until they get tired of her jumping at nothing and talking to thin air. She's a weird girl, an attention seeker, a pathological liar, and the warm feeling of charity will hold up only so long before the weight of her strangeness batters it down. She's... gotten used to it, by now. She doesn't try to make friends, tries to keep to herself, stay quiet, eke out just a little more duration to her current stay.

She's moved to this area quite recently, and so is presently engaged in her customary project. This time is a little more urgent, as the monsters chasing her are angrier than usual, shouting something about a name before chasing after with vicious intent pouring off like a venomous mist. One may forgive Tsubaki, then, for failing to notice the binding rope demarcating the boundary of this small forest shrine until her frantic run causes her to trip over it, sending her tumbling into a fall in front of the shrine and snapping the rope in the process.

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The shrine shivers, a dark mist gathering around it - and a high, ringing voice like the shine of light on a blade laughs and exclaims, 'The barrier is broken! At long last...'

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Oh shit.

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Rattle rattle shake gathering cloud of doom -

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- And the doors pop open, revealing... A lucky cat statue? 

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Huh?

"That's... not what I was expecting."

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A powerful gale rips from the shrine, and the statue vanishes in a cloud of dust - only for a dark shape to emerge from the billowing clouds -

And resolve into a very pudgy calico cat with a near exact resemblance to the statue. "Few would remain unperturbed by the sight of me, impudent human," she says, in that same sultry voice. 

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"A talking maneki-neko is not the worst thing I've seen even today."

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"Pah. My true form is far more graceful and elegant than this paltry shell - and you would do well to fear me. Most with sense would."

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"I'll keep that in mind for whenever you remember where you put your true form."

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She laughs and ambles closer to Tsubaki.

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- Then stills. "What's your name, human?"

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"Tsubaki. Natsume Tsubaki."

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"Natsume, eh? Like Natsume Reiko?"

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"...That was my grandmother's name."

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"Grandmother? Has it really been so long..."

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"Did you know her?"

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"You could say that." She sits in front of Tsubaki, close enough that Tsubaki could touch her if she wanted. 

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She reaches out hesitantly to pet the cat.

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She'll accept pats with a very smug expression on her face. 

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It is a very cat-like cat.

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- And bite. 

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She jerks her hand away.

"Ow!"

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She laughs. "Don't trust so lightly, little girl."

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She glares and flicks the cat on the top of its fat little head.

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- Uwah!

"Ouch! Don't you know your own strength, you impudent human?" the youkai complains, after recovering from a brief stumble. (Most youkai react far more strongly to even lighter touches from Tsubaki, though.)

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