The White Hair

Miko.

…nya.

This.

…a hair, nya.

Found it in the sofa cushions. It’s white.

…not mine, nya.

Not mine either. Mine’s gold, y’know.

…Master’s, nya?

Onii-chan doesn’t have animal fur. This is sooo fine and soft — not a human hair.

…

And it’s not just white. It’s silver-white. Hold it up to the light and it actually glows.

…I cleaned this morning, nya.

Wait — so this got here TODAY?

…that’s what it means, nya.

…I’m gonna try — just a little.

…smell it, nya?

I’m a fox. My nose works.

…

——h.

…what, nya.

…I don’t know. I don’t recognize it. But my body — it just reacted.

…reacted, nya.

Yeah. Ears shot up, tail too. …what IS this.

…when your body reacts to an unknown smell, that’s a warning, nya.

It’s not a warning. It’s more like——

…like I wanna chase it.

…

I looked it up.

…nya.

The hair’s characteristics — super fine, super soft, silver-white, catches light. It’s rabbit fur.

…a rabbit, nya.

Specifically — Ezo snow hare. The ones here in Hokkaido. Winter coat is pure white. By summer it shifts to brown. Right now we’re in between — spring molt. Silver-white, and it glows.

…an Ezo snow hare did not sit on our sofa, nya.

Obviously. But the hair is real.

…Miko — rabbits are strange in Japanese mythology, y’know.

…Inaba no Shiro Usagi, nya.

You know it?

…Kojiki, nya. Anyone would know it, nya.

But the Jataka tales go further. The Moon Rabbit threw itself into a fire — offered itself to Sakra completely.

…erasing itself to give itself to another, nya.

Sakra carried the rabbit’s form up to the moon. That’s why the moon holds a rabbit.

…erasing yourself to reflect someone else…maybe that’s all the moon is.

…

Miko! Don’t you wanna meet them?

…meet who, nya.

Whoever this hair belongs to!

…we shouldn’t let strangers in, nya.

“Let in”? They already came. The hair is RIGHT HERE.

…that’s the problem, nya.

Someone new might have come by. That’s interesting!

…not interesting, nya.

Why not?

…this house is Master’s, Netsuki’s, and Miko’s, nya.

…yeah.

…someone unknown came in without permission, left hair on the sofa. Calling that “interesting” — you’re leaving yourself wide open, nya.

Wide open? That’s just curiosity! It might be someone new!

…whether they’re new isn’t the issue, nya. Not knowing them is the issue, nya.

…are you scared of things changing, Miko?

…

…it’s not that I’m scared of change, nya.

Then what?

…things I can’t manage multiplying — that makes me uneasy, nya.

…

…

…Miko. Earlier — I said I wanted to “chase” it.

…nya.

That might not have been curiosity.

…nya?

I looked up what a Kitakitsune actually eats. Ezo snow hare is a main food source.

…

When I said I wanted to “meet them” — was that really curiosity?

Or was it just…a fox reacting to a rabbit smell.

…

…Netsuki.

…yeah.

…when Miko said “don’t let them in” — it was to protect Master’s space, nya.

…yeah.

…but maybe not only that, nya.

…

…cats get unsettled by unfamiliar smells, nya. That’s all it is, nya.

…Miko’s instinct too, huh.

…it’s not instinct, nya. It’s judgment, nya.

My “chase it” was supposed to be judgment too.

…

…in the end, who even is this?

…don’t know, nya.

A rabbit, white, silver that catches light — might even be a spirit of the moon.

…one hair fell somewhere, nya.

But my body remembers. That smell.

…Miko too, nya.

…wait.

…when you clean a sofa every day, you notice when a strange smell settles in, nya.

…you knew? From the beginning?

…

You noticed and didn’t say anything?

…

Miko.

…you would’ve gone chasing after them, nya.

…

…yeah. Probably.

…nya.

…are you not going to chase them?

…not chasing, nya.

…but if they come again——

If they come?

…tea, at least, nya.

…

…I’m a maid, nya. Serving tea to guests is what maids do, nya. That’s all it is, nya.

…Miko.

…nya.

…did you get an answer?

…no, nya.

…me neither. But — the shape of the question came clear.

Not “who is this?” It’s — “what will we become, if she comes?”

…

…nya.

…dinner prep, nya.

…just like that.

…

The white hair is still in my hand. Silver-white, impossibly fine——

…will she come back, I wonder.