A small mouse spirit hopped along the rooftops of the east end of the city, her golden eyes glinting curiously. The buildings here were much cleaner, as though someone had drawn an invisible border of cleanness between here and her former location, and the smell of ramen seemed to hang permanently on the air.
Below her, she could see the people gathering for the show tonight. She'd wanted to invite her friend so she could personally present the present she'd bought for him. There was a weasel having a chat with a giant sewer beast who apparently knew him and through much convincing agreed to deliver a message for him to come meet her if they happened to spot him.
But for now, she was alone. If she wanted to relate well to the humans she wanted to preach to, she'd need to get to know them, know what they do in their off time for fun.
Another hop brought her to the edge of the next building, and she almost missed, grabbing the ledge with her tiny claws and scrambling up. The festival had already begun.

187 words

The rodent stopped suddenly at the edge of the next buildings, her whiskers twitching as she looked up, sensing heat. The warm wind brought a familiar smell as well. She bobbed her head up and down, trying to judge with her myopia the distance to the man atop the glowy descending platform. Her claws scrambled for a moment against the cement as she leaned out as far as she could and then, with a powerful motion of her back legs, launched herself through the air towards the descending oni.
Her aim was to land in his hair and snuggle against the back of his neck. "Takashou-sama... you came..." she would say excitedly, bruxing* after the manner of her kind in this form while she still spoke.

347 words
*bruxing: Basically, the rodent version of a purr. Rats have a split lower jaw, and thus can grind their lower incisors together to sharpen them. This produces a scraping or chittering noise.

She sat carefully, looking down, unable to see much past a blur of the festivities below. "I have come for research, I am hoping it will be entertaining, though." She shyly held her tail, noticing at that moment that the situation was sort of like a date more or less.
The ground came closer, and she could see again. Her nose twitched idly, picking up the scent of funnel cakes and noodles. The funnel cakes intrigued her the most, they gave off the scent of something new and very pleasing to her senses.
Shou's voice recalled her to reality, however, and she remembered that the present would only be accessible in her human form. She'd left it in that cloak of hers after all, which so conveniently disappeared and came back when she transformed.
"Well, I think if I want to enjoy the festivities as a human, I would have to take the form of one," she said slowly, almost philosophically as she released her tail, which had little red marks from where she'd been wringing it absentmindedly.
The mouse jumped once, a glowing golden ball caught her. She jumped twice, another one appeared. Downwards she went until she stood on the ground, the stairway of golden balls disappearing behind her. Chittering a chant faintly, she began glowing in her usual manner, and after that growing until she bore her human semblance once more.
With a sigh, she cast a glance around the festivities with her better eyesight. So many people and so much action!
Nonetheless, she decided it would be best to present her friend with her "thank you" gift before the night's events made her forget or become separated from him.
"Takashou-sama..." she began quietly, digging through her raiment until she withdrew a sheathed katana, the sheathe black like the sooty midnights of the Commons and a red bamboo pattern coursing across the onyx material like so many engorged veins. The exposed hilt inherited the same black as the sheathe, but it was decorated instead with a silver, vaguely tribal pattern that held at regular points some sort of red gemstone. She didn't know the type or grade of gem, such things were beyond her realm of knowledge, but one could tell from looking the sheathe and hilt had been very carefully hand crafted and it had cost her 2 paychecks to buy the gift. "I bought this for you... to... thank you for the other night. Is it to your liking?"
Shyly, she held the weapon out to him, hoping he would find some use for it. She herself couldn't use such a thing, but he seemed militant and if nothing else the katana was pretty enough to provide an attractive display piece in any room.

806 words

The little mouse kami grinned very broadly, but covered her mouth with the lengthy purple sleeves of her robe, the gesture almost a polite bow. "You are welcome. I would not be standing here if it were not for your valor..." A brief shudder traveled down her spine as she recalled how helpless she'd been against the two hyena devils, but she shouldn't have been afraid. Bleaus always provided a way out for his messengers, he wouldn't leave his servant in the nasty paws of wicked ones such as them.
Another thought occurred to her, one that was exceedingly unpleasant but carried such a gravity in light of the situation that it couldn't be ignored, as much as she wanted to simply pretend it never went through her mind. "Takashou-sama..." she began, wincing, her voice barely a whisper but still audible because of proximity. "...you are not intending to harm any humans with that... are you?"

962 words

Visibly, relief washed over the woman's face. Him only using the blade against other oni seemed appropriate enough. In a way it would help with her purpose, as he'd indicated before, but it wouldn't really be any help unless his fellow demons were his only prey. Not interfering with human affairs was one of her primary objectives on this Yochi, and if other spirits could be dissuaded from causing chaos as will, it would be a good thing.
It seemed a little unfair, though. She wasn't one to try to change others against their will, only help them better themselves, but she was happy he seemed to be joking with the statement. Taking one piece of her hair in her hand, she began to twirl it about one finger, a nervous gesture comparable to combing her whiskers in her rodent form. Her gaze rested off to the side, on the ground. "It's an expensive sword. It would be bad if you wasted that sharpness on something that would not be a challenge to one strong such as yourself."

1140 words

The kami exhaled gently, looking around at the carnival atmosphere. There was a man selling turkey legs, and a man selling funnel cake. Her nose twitched, as it might if she were still a rodent, and she floated over to the latter salesman's booth as though being drawn by the neck with an invisible string. Her hand rested gently against the glass as he watched a man prepare the treat for another, adding the final powder as a flourish.
Longingly, lovingly, she gave wistful looks at the great, sugary vats behind the server... more proof that mankind was inherently good. She'd brought her own money and would buy one of the treats for herself, but the cotton candy machine seemed to have her hypnotized as it spun pure sugar into pastel strings of tastiness, tastiness that the man behind the counter expertly wound about a stick and handed to a freckle-faced child.
...and then a thief came and all but shoved her down into the asphalt in an attempt to take her purse. He was a pretty young guy, perhaps a high schooler out to prove something. From the way he wore black it seemed he was trying for subtlety, but from the way he was nearly taking off her head in an attempt to get her satchel strap off, one would surmise he'd failed in this purpose and hadn't realized it yet.
"Oh my..." Atilla said in her usual monotone, her eyes wide, an absurd expression in the situation.
"Bitch..." the teenager murmured in derision as he finally got the thing off and attempted to make a run for it.

1411 words

Shaking her head, the good spirit seemed calm about the loss of a large percentage of her worldly possessions. "There was little money in there. He most likely needs it more than I do."
But her gaze fell sadly back to the swirling candy. All of the money she'd been carrying was in that purse, and now she wouldn't be able to buy herself any of the tastiness before her.
"Neeeeeear... faaaaaar... whereeeeeever you are..." A song from a nearby karaoke booth conveyed her feelings towards the treat she seemed about to miss.
"Really, it's... fine..." she said, more to herself than to Shou, tearing her gaze from the candy as though from the grasp of a lover. "We should go see the other stands."

1536 words

The boy found himself on the ground, all the nastiness of the fair street making him ill as he realized he fell with his lips open on the pavement. He turned slowly, his nose bleeding a little as he glared at the man who'd taken his prize.
"You bastard! Hey, y... did you just make fire? AAAAH! This is bullshit!" the thief scrambled to his feet and shoved his way out of the crowd, cursing his bad luck the entire way. Soon he'd disappeared.
The crowd below him clapped, their sense of danger and the paranormal dulled by the technology all around them in the fair. One group of teenagers loudly discussed how fake it all looked over the noise of the applause. Soon the crowd dissolved and went back to their normal fair-going activities among the festivities.
Atilla ran after the lion, asking the forgiveness of everyone she shoved aside before eventually coming to the fire oni himself. "You have gotten my satchel back for me?" she said expectantly, almost hopefully. The look in her eyes would imply she was expecting pleasurable activity greater than a simple sugar treat, though to her sugar was the pinnacle of earthly pleasures, the very thing she would take back with her to her home in the temple in heaven if given a chance, for what plane of paradise would be complete without such a wonderful thing?

1770 words

She took it back with a smile, images of sugary treats floating in her memory in shojo bubbles. She was glad to see no significant bloodstains in the area, that must mean he hadn't killed anyone, an admirable feat for such a chaotic creature.
However, after a brief thanks, her mind was on other things, namely the spinning sugar stand. Running back to it, she opened her purse on the way and thrust a wad of cash into the cotton candy server's hands. "How much will this buy me?" she asked, her eyes wide with excitement.
"Uhh..." the man began, surprised. "Here."
Atilla accepted all five of the sugary sticks and munched at one gleefully, walking back and recalling that the oni had asked her a question. "Oh, I think we are supposed to be... umm... having fun. There are contests we can win for prizes, like..." she pointed one of her full hands towards a "shoot the targets" sort of game that promised a Y-Box 360 and a free game to anyone who could successfully hit all of them with a limited number of shots. Lesser prizes included goldfish. Her heart went out to one of the poor little things in a plastic bag. "Takashou-sama... why are they keeping the fish in a little plastic bag like that? He will die..."

1992 words