Foxfire Barbecue
"Breakfast is ready."
As always, Yuki's cheerful and bright voice echoed throughout the house.
Still half-asleep, her little brothers woke up. Their father, the only adult and the breadwinner of the house, followed after them.
"You're up early again today. Thank you," their father said.
Yuki was a good-natured girl; she took such good care of her family that one would never guess she was only nine, and she was adored by her younger siblings.
One day, Yuki went to the nearby forest to pick wild vegetables. Just as she finished harvesting and was about to head down the mountain, a delicious scent drifted over from somewhere.
"I wonder if there's a small restaurant around here..."
Following the scent, she saw some moving shadows. When she approached to call out to them, Yuki gasped in surprise.
There were several beasts with triangular ears and large mouths filled with long fangs. They seemed to be building a fire and grilling meat and vegetables on a wire rack.
"Foxes!!"
When she let out an involuntary cry, the foxes' slanted eyes glared at Yuki.
"Yuki!"
"Big sister Yuki!"
Her father and siblings were walking around the forest, on the verge of tears. After going out to pick wild vegetables yesterday, Yuki had not returned home.
Perhaps because summer had just begun and the atmosphere was unstable, a light rain was falling even though the sky was blue. The lonely, monotonous melody of raindrops hitting the ground only fueled her father's anxiety.
By the time night had fully fallen, he found a fire lit deep in the forest. Exhausted by worry and fatigue, her father clung to a glimmer of hope and ran toward the source of the fire.
A pale blue fire.
It drifted through the air, light as a feather, and stopped in front of her father's chest. It warmed his chilled body and gently enveloped his heavy, sunken heart.
Those gentle eyes, that carefree smile—everything came back to him. As if speaking to her, her father slowly opened his mouth.
"Welcome home, Yuki."
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