Eons ago, there was a little shrine in the middle of the woods of the mountains. Monthly, villagers from the valley would come up to give their offerings. In times of peril, some would come to pray, to pray to the enshrined wolf deity.

The wolf god went by many titles, but her name seemed to have long been forgotten. Kumi was her name, and it truthfully suited her very well. Her sharp black eyes, long, dark hair, the pair of black wolf ears placed upon her head, and her beautiful wolf tail went to show the second kanji in her name as well as her nature. And then, there was eternity.

Still, with eternity came boredom. Kumi was alone as well.

Lonely and bored, the god often felt empty. The other gods rarely visited, plagued with their own worshippers who hoped for miracles. The valley-villagers who begged of Kumi were as if they weren’t there. She just wanted a friend, someone to talk to. Kumi didn’t particularly care if she disappeared due to lack of faith at the time, yet the benevolent wolf continued to grant their prayers for good harvest and protection as she only could do.

So decades, maybe even centuries, passed just like that.

Yet at one time, there was a little girl with cute round-cheeks and bright eyes. Her name was Kizaki Yuria. She was just another one from the village below.

She’d play in the mountains, find berries to eat, and do lots of worrying feats. Well, in the end Yuria was safe-mainly because Kumi was there. Yuria was a fun girl-human-who Kumi found to be endearing. Whether or not Yuria really could see or hear the god, she would talk and chat with Kumi.

“Kuuchan, today, Juri-tan kissed Rena-chan. Rena-chan got really mad and exploded. Hehe…,” she would say as she looked directly at the wolf’s eyes.

Sometimes the conversations would seem one-sided, but when the god replied, interestingly enough, Yuria seemed to have heard. Kumi didn’t feel lonely for the first time in a few hundred years.

But, the girl soon stopped coming to play. Well, that wasn’t strange. It was probably that her family wanted to marry her off to someone, but if she kept coming up, she wasn’t going to be considered feminine. Kumi thought that Yuria was cute enough, but no one ever listened to the god, besides Yuria.

The god felt lonely. The god felt lonesome even though time went faster for her than humans.

One day, the girl came back, already in her teens.

“Yuria~ do you want to play today?”

“Kuuchan, I’m too busy to play today,” the mortal girl pouted and said, “I……want money.”

The god pondered and smiled, “Hmm, I don’t have any money. But, ah, aren’t wolf tails popular around the eccentric wealthy? Just wait a second.”

Yuria waited. Kumi then returned, all the blood washed away. She handed over a majestic night-colored tail. She tugged at Yuria’s cheek and gave Yuria a peck on the forehead.

“Sell it in the market or something,” Kumi grinned, speaking like a friend, a god, and a mother, “Don’t get ripped off.”

The human girl let out a little pout and a smile in return. Then, she ran off. Still, the god was happy. The god hoped that Yuria would come back soon and they could talk and play together again.

Kumi waited and waited, but Yuria didn’t come back so soon. It felt the same as that eternity alone.

“Kuuchan…,” cried the girl after arriving, yet another two years later, in front of the shrine that bound the wolf.

Kumi worriedly asked, “Y-Yuria, what’s wrong?”

In response, Yuria let out tears and sobbed, “I don’t want to marry him…Kuuchan…because I-”

Kumi didn’t really understand, but she kind of got that people were trying to force her to love someone she didn’t. That didn’t sound good. And she felt the aura of something that didn’t feel all that pleasing.

“Yuria, what are you doing up here? Let’s go back to be wed,” said the uncouth looking man who wore riches.

A few villagers were there as well. A sense of intimidation filled the air. Yuria was crying; Kumi didn’t like that. Still, gods were supposed to leave petty matters like this alone. The wolf tried to hold back. Still, when a harsh hand roughly grabbed her friend’s hand, Kumi couldn’t help it.

Kind of impulsive as she was, not thinking much about herself or it seemed, Kumi broke the rules. She unleashed herself from the shrine and appeared right in front of the mortals for no good reason in the eyes of the head gods. As a wolf of darkness without a tail, black eyes glazed with anger, she growled in her non-human form.

After being responded with a defiant glare and a harsh tug at Yuria’s arm, Kumi had enough. Simply putting it, there was a good amount of blood. The man was torn apart-though unfortunately the god wasn’t exactly supposed to do that.

The other villagers ran away in terror right afterwards. Yuria was looking at her with shaking eyes. And Kumi was sad. She whispered her apologies and turned away and disappeared off to her realm.

So, the wolf deity didn’t see Yuria again for a long time.

The head god punished Kumi and locked her away for a century. It was a long time and Kumi was lonely. It might not have felt that long for someone who was eternal, but it was a long time of isolation.

When she could take up her role again, let’s just say that the wolf said no quite bluntly without reading the mood. When asked why, she answered in a matter-of-fact tone. It should’ve been obvious it seemed. It was as lonely down there as it was in a hole alone.

Humans didn’t particularly have long lifespans. Yuria was probably dead, and Yuria was probably terrified of her. Kumi was aware, but she went ahead and decided to go roam the Underworld anyways.

Anyways, Kumi was lonely. In the end, even though basically no one else knew her name, even though she had hundreds of titles, despite everything she was labeled as, she was just Kumi, a person looking for companionship-not even a god.

She spent years roaming around. It was lonesome.

One day, she heard a familiar voice, “Kuuchan?”

Kumi slipped out a name as she looked with eyes showing fear, the fear of rejection, “Yuria?”

The girl let out a question, “…Are you scared of me or something?”

The wolf shook her head and looked on with somewhat sad eyes, “No…it’s just that, do you hate me?”

“Not at all…,” Yuria facepalmed and grasped Kumi’s hand tightly as she firmly said, “Rather, you idiot, I wanted to say thank you and sorry all this time.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey, what are you saying….? Ugh, whatever,” Yuria let out a slight sigh with a slight smile, “…let’s talk about what we’ve done all this time. We have forever after all.”

“Yups.”

And Kumi was happy.