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“Achoo!” The head shrine maiden of the Grand Narukami Shrine let out another sneeze as she brought her hand to her nose reflexively. All of the wishes she had collected previously had fallen on the floor and she sighed as she bent down to pick them up again. This wasn’t the first time that this had happened this morning, which was strange. Yae Miko had lived over hundreds and hundreds of years. She witnessed civilizations grow and collapse, saw trees grow from small stumps to large giants and had lost countless of her shrine maidens over all of those years. But never once had she gotten sick. She was a kitsune after all, a fox spirit. She wasn’t a regular mortal, none of those silly germs or viruses had ever hurt her. They had destroyed and ended lives, they had taken from her those she loved the most, but never had they hurt her, never had they been able to touch her.
As she was gathering all the wishes from the ground, a shadow entered her field of vision. The footsteps accompanying it were light and controlled.
“Miko? What in the heavens are you doing?”
The shrine maiden lifted her head to meet that of Ei, her face was calm today, no nightmares must have plagued her last night. But as the Archon took in her appearance, the calmness on her face turned into a frown.
“Are you… well, Miko?” She still stood above her, her hand brushing over her chin as if she was thinking deeply.
“Of course I am well Ei. How silly of you to think I am not. You do know me, right?” She teased as she looked up at her friend. She just had to ignore how incredibly stuffy her nose was. Was this what humans called a cold? No no, it couldn’t be. Maybe it was just a little too cold outside, maybe that’s why her nose felt so weird.
“I know you Miko, which is why I asked you in the first place. But you’re always so incredibly stubborn.” Ei walked to her, and offered her a hand to get up, “You should take a look at yourself in the mirror Miko, you don’t look like your usual self.”
Miko pushed her hand away and got up by herself from her crouched position, “Tsk-tsk, do you even hear yourself Ei?”
“I really think you should-”
“Achoo!”
“lie down…”
“Nonsense.”
“You never sneeze Miko.”
“You don’t either.”
“This isn’t about me Miko, I’m not the one sneezing right now.”
“You’re missing out, truly Ei, you need to learn how to let go and live a little.” Miko laughed, but Ei didn’t look amused.
“It doesn’t look very enjoyable.”
“How can you tell, it’s not like you’ve ever- Achoo!”
“You insolent creature! I’m taking you inside at once. You shouldn’t be out in this cold any longer.” Ei grabbed her arm and pulled her inside the shrine. She was clearly done listening to any of Miko’s excuses. Miko knew that it would be unwise to resist. As a fox spirit she was strong, but the Electro Archon was many times stronger than she was. She would never have been able to resist, and it would have incredibly embarrassing to lose that battle.
“You are going to lie in bed,” Ei said as she pulled her up the stairs, “and you are going to rest, and I am going to get a doctor for you, or a mage, or anyone who can tell me why my favorite kitsune who shouldn’t be able to get sick is sneezing.”
“So bossy,” Miko laughed, “I didn’t know you had it in you. To your people you are always so stern Ei, but too me….”
“I am taking care of you, Miko, that’s different.” Ei said as she gave Miko a final push into her bedroom.
“I can take care of myself Ei, you know that.” She said as she pulled her hand free.
“I- Miko-” she sighed, not being able to get her words of worry out. It was like her mouth got locked close every time she wanted to say how much she worried and cared about the kitsune in front of her.
“Tsk, pathetic. Now you can’t even finish your sentences.” Miko snarled, feeling incredibly irritated at her friend's inability to just let her be. But as she saw the desperation growing on her friend's face, she felt bad. She wasn’t normally this cranky, not to Ei at least. Ei was her friend, Ei was the one person who never loved herself enough, so Miko needed to love Ei for her. She didn’t know what it was that had made her so irritable… She just knew that her nose felt stuffy, and that her head hurt and that her thoughts were cloudy and that- Wait… This wasn’t normal was it?
“I’m sorry Ei, I don’t know what came over me. Maybe you are right. Maybe I am not well.” She said as she plopped down on her bed.
“You need to rest Miko. Just…” Raiden turned her head away from her and looked out of the window. When she spoke again, her voice was softer: “Just let me take care of you, for once.”
Yae Miko laid down and let her eyes close almost immediately. Before she fully passed out she turned her eye on Ei once more and said: “I will Ei, for once. Only this once.” Then her eyes fell fully closed.
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When Ei turned to her friend once more she saw that she had fallen asleep. This was nothing like her. She never slept during the day. But then again, Miko never got sick either. Something was wrong, it had to be! She didn’t want to leave the kitsune alone, but she had to get help somehow. There had to be someone right, someone who would know what was going on? Ei had never heard of a kitsune getting sick. Only humans ever got sick, it wasn’t something that affected kitsunes. Ei took a brief look at her friend, before she ran out of the room. She nearly ran into a shrine maiden, but a shrill scream stopped her in her tracks. When the shrine maiden looked up and saw the Archon she let out a shocked gasp. She bowed her head and apologized, still slightly out of breath she said: “I am so, so sorry. I- I didn’t see you walking there. I hadn’t meant to run into you.” The voice of the girl was trembling and Ei felt sorry to have evoked such a feeling of terror in the shrine maiden.
“Hush child. I was in a hurry and I wasn’t paying attention. But now that you’re here, I need your help. I need you to fetch Dr. Baizhu for me, he should be staying at the Kamisato Estate. Tell him that he needs to come here at once, that the Electro Archon herself has summoned him. Can you do that for me?”
The girl nodded anxiously before sprinting off the stairs and out of the door.
As Ei turned around and headed back to Miko’s room she could only hope that the doctor would hurry.
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“You called for me?” A friendly male voice pulled her out of her thoughts. Her heart finally seemed to calm down a little when she spotted Baizhu. She hadn’t often talked to the man, but she had heard good things about his pharmacy. If there was anyone who might be able to figure out what was wrong with Miko, it was him.
“That is correct. My head shrine maiden here has fallen ill, even though she is a kitsune. I thought it was quite peculiar. Maybe you know what is wrong?” She pointed at Miko, her arm straight and stable. Nothing in her outward appearance pointed to the whirlwind of anxiety she felt inside. What if Miko was dying? Kitsune’s could die, could they not? What if this was the sign that she was getting weaker, that after all of these years they had spent together her strength was waning? That couldn’t happen, that wasn’t allowed to happen! There were so many things that Ei still wanted to say to her. She wasn’t good with feelings, or with words really most of the time, but she needed Miko to know how much she cared about her. She needed Miko to know that she had been the only thing keeping her together all of these years. She needed-
“Miss Archon…” someone hissed, “You should really stop pacing so much. Dr. Baizhu here might not be the smartest of the bunch, but at least he knows what he’s doing.”
Ei looked up and saw a snake staring at her. The creature was wrapped around the doctor's neck, who was now analyzing her friend.
“I’m not pacing.”
“Tsk, do you hear that Baizhu? She said she was not pacing while I clearly saw her doing it with my own two eyes.
“Stop teasing her Changsheng, she’s just worried.”
“Okay then.” The snake hissed, “I’ll be nice, for now.”
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“It appears your friend has been infected by a magical sort of virus. It’s not very well known since it only really occurs every 700 years, but she is in no mortal danger. She will likely get some symptoms similar to the ones a human might get when they have the flu, but they shouldn’t last more than a week. Just make sure that she rests plenty and stays hydrated.”
Ei let out a sigh of relief as she heard the good news. Miko was okay, she was just sick, she was not dying. Her friend would not leave this world before she could tell her how much she cared about her.
“Thank you dr. Baizhu, that’s very comforting to hear.”
“Just make sure she stays in bed for the next few days and then it should all be fine.” The doctor said as he walked out of the room.
“I will. doctor, thank you.”
Baizhu closed the door rather roughly, likely by accident, but when Ei turned to Miko again she saw her eyes flutter open.
“Ei? Why is it so hot in here?”
“You are sick Miko. The doctor was just here. He said you have a magical type of virus, but it’s nothing too dangerous so don’t worry too much. You should be fine within a week or so.”
“Then I have to get up! There is so much to do! I have to go to the publishing house for the new novel we are bringing out this week and I still need to do the laundry.” Miko was about to get up, but Ei’s arm stopped her.
“No Miko.” Her voice was stern. To a stranger it would have sounded cold, but to Miko it sounded caring. She knew that Ei was only stern with her when she thought it was important. “You need to rest Miko, doctor’s orders. I will send someone to the publishing house and as for your laundry, I’ll do it myself.”
That made Miko scoff, “You? Do the laundry? Don’t make me laugh.”
“I have ruled over a nation and I have fought against gods. Of course I can do something as simple as laundry.”
“Have you ever actually done laundry, Ei?”
“No, but that won’t stop me. How hard can it be? If I have gone through all of these hardships then I can go through this challenge as well.”
“Whatever you say Ei. But if my clothes are ruined you are paying for new ones.”
“That won’t happen.” Ei said as she walked to the basket with dirty clothes which was set against the bathroom door, “Now you need to rest and I will check up with you once I’m done with your laundry. Something I will do, successfully.”
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It appeared that Ei had greatly underestimated how hard doing the laundry would actually be. First she had chosen the wrong soap. Apparently not every soap could be put in the laundry machine, something she only found out 5 minutes after she put it in when the suds started to increase number until they spilled out of the machine. She had to rinse all Miko’s clothing with water again and put the machine on a cleaning cycle, something one of the shrine maidens had done for her after she saw Ei struggling with the machine, before she could wash again. The second time she had used the right soap, only because the shrine maiden mentioned before had pointed out to her that she had to use the soap from the green container. But after 30 minutes she saw that Miko’s flawless white robes had turned an odd shade of pink? That couldn’t be good, right? Luckily Miko’s red robes were still looking as good as ever and Ei couldn’t figure out what could have caused such a drastic colour change to happen to her friend's gowns. Had she done something wrong again? Whatever it was, she needed this machine to stop as soon as possible, before the red gowns turned pink as well. Miko looked fantastic in pink, but she didn’t think her friend would appreciate the loss of her white gowns as much. Only Ei couldn’t figure out how to turn the machine off. She had pushed on nearly every button, but it had only made the machine spin faster. She did the only thing she thought would help the situation and decided to use her elemental power. If she put enough electricity in the machine, it would shut down eventually, she knew that much, she was the Electro Archon after all. Now the good news was that it had indeed shut down the machine. The bad news was that the machine was on fire. And not only that, the fire had spread to Miko’s clothes as well. Ei screwed up, and not just a little bit. She knew Miko thought that she wouldn’t be able to do the laundry, and she had been right, but she was sure that Miko didn’t expect her to mess up this badly. She ran towards the nearest bucket she could find and took water from the pond to throw onto the washing machine. Somehow that did work, but Miko’s clothes were now pink and singed and in the process of fetching water Ei had spilled half the bucket on her own clothing. This truly could not have gone worse.
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“Miko?” Ei said as she stepped in the door opening of the kitsune’s room. Her posture was slumped and she had the look of defeat on her face.
“Whatever happened to you dear Ei? Were you in a fight?” Miko teased.
“You were right.”
“I was? How peculiar of you to admit such a thing. It is truly unbecoming of you.”
“I’m afraid your robes haven’t survived the laundry.”
“Whatever did you do, Ei? Did you not sort the robes by colours? If you wanted me to wear more pink you could’ve just told me.”
“Well… I didn’t do that either.”
“Either? Whatever happened?”
“I set the machine on fire.”
Yae Miko looked perplexed. Sure she had expected that things wouldn’t go entirely right, but she hadn’t expected the machine to burn down, “Do I even want to know?”
Ei shook her head, “It is of no concern to you, you should rest.” She sighed. She felt guilty about ruining her friends' clothes. She had wanted to make Miko feel better by helping her, but instead she had made everything worse. She was a terrible friend.
“Ei? You’re doing that thing again.”
“What thing?”
“You’re frowning. You only do that when you’re worried about something. If you feel bad about my clothes, please don’t. I have enough lying around in this shrine, it isn’t a problem. On the contrary, I thought the story was quite entertaining.” She smiled at her friend, “I know you meant well Ei, you always do.”
“I will pay for the clothing.”
“That isn’t necessary. I was only teasing you earlier. Now come here, I’m cold and these blankets aren’t nearly warm enough.” Miko held up the blankets so that Ei could climb in next to her. Ei wasn’t a touchy type of person and she didn’t really ever hug anyone besides Miko, and even that wasn’t a common occurrence. But Miko knew how much comfort Ei could find in a hug. Every time when she saw her frown again she would touch her shoulder and feel just a bit of the tension seep out of the Archon’s body. She had to admit that she was indeed a bit chilly, maybe the side effect of something the humans called a ‘fever’, but this hug was as much for Ei as it was for her.
Ei slowly walked to her friend. She didn’t really feel like she deserved to lie there next to Miko. She had only made everything worse. Why would she then get something good in return? Miko’s hugs were always soft and warm, and when was close to her friend she could always smell the comforting scent of the sakura blossoms. Still, she didn’t want to withhold herself from this request because she knew that it was for Miko, not for her. And as she climbed in beside Miko and put her arms around her friends she reminded herself that she didn’t deserve this hug, but Miko did.
“That’s more like it.” Miko said softly, relaxing in Ei’s arms, “You should rest for a while too Ei, that washing machine adventure must have made you feel exhausted.” When Miko felt her friend tense at the word ‘washing machine’ she turned around to face her, “I’m not angry Ei, not even a little bit. There is no one else that I would want to lie beside me now, no one else I would go to for warmth but you. Let go of your worries, everything is alright.”
Ei’s eyes locked on hers, her mouth was shaking slightly, but Miko felt the tension slowly leave Ei’s body. They stared at each other in silence for a few minutes, Miko slowly stroked Ei’s hair while her breathing calmed down. Then the quiet was broken by a flood of words leaving Ei’s lips: “I’m sorry Miko, I just- I was so afraid that you would just leave me, that this sickness would take you and that I would never be able to show you how much you matter to me. You know I’m not good with words, and I never have been, but I need you to know that there is no other person in this world that I care about as much as you. This whole world could burn and it wouldn’t matter to me as long as you were still here. I- Miko, I can’t live without you.” Ei’s eyes started to tear up as she spoke. The tears drops falling down her cheeks unto Miko’s hand, who shivered at the contact. The kitsune wiped her tears away with the most intimate type of care before she spoke: “Don’t cry Ei, I’m alright. And I won’t be leaving you any time soon.” She laughed softly, but then her voice turned more vulnerable, more intimate: “And just so you know, I wouldn’t be able to live without you too.”