The Aki's Autumnal Morning

Along the road going from the Forest of Magic to the Human Village, a tent was being set up. Two sisters, dressed in red and orange attire, were hard at work setting up their sweet potato stand. Open year-round, the Aki sisters found that their best sales period was during the fall and winter seasons, so they were opening earlier than usual.

As to why the two Goddesses were running a business? Money.

Gods and Yokai never truly needed human things like money and goods, depending on more esoteric things such as faith, fear, and acknowledgement to exist. Humans were very good at sins and desires, always creating new things to taste, new things to play with, and so many things to want. Naturally, money was required for that.

Minoriko Aki, Goddess of Harvest and Soft Joys, was a bit tired from having to attend all the harvest, but running the stall was… well, it wasn’t necessary, but it was fun to run, and more importanly, it was something to do with her sister.

Before the sweet potato stall, it was difficult for the Aki sisters to meet up. While Minoriko dealt with harvests, the more human side of Fall, her elder sister dealt with one of the naturistic aspects of fall, the turning of the leaves. As Goddess of Fall’s Changing Leaves, Shizuha Aki painted the leaves the colors of autumn. The sweet potato stall was a joint effort that allowed them to begin most mornings and all evenings together. While Minoriko did most of the actual business, cooking and selling their baked wares, Shizuha worked on setting the stall up and making things look pretty.

RIght now though, she was working on knitting a scarf with autumnal colors, having long finished the setup of their stand. As Minoriko tended to the brazier, flipping the potatoes as needed, she found herself smiling.

Today looked to be another idle day, one filled with autumn. Just the way the sisters lik--

“HI! Did you see cats!?” a small bakaneko shouted, running up to the stall front in a panic. Slamming both hands onto the countertop, she continued shouting, despite being right in front of the sisters, “Just a whole bunch of cats running by here!?”

The Aki Sisters looked at one another before Minoriko cautiously answered, “Um, yes?”

“Where’d they go?” the cat pleaded, one ear twitching in a panic, jingling the golden ring pierced through it.

“Into the Forest of Magic,” Minoriko pointed, making sure to keep her answers short, concise, and most importantly, polite.

“Oh whiskers,” the small girl lowered her head in despair. Then popping it up, sh pasted on a too-big smile and shouted, “Thank you, leaf lady!”

“That would be my sister actually” Minoriko corrected, “I help with the harvest.”-Then, smiling brightly, she shoved a still steaming bag forward- “Never mind all that, have some sweet potatoes. And be safe out there!”

Grabbing it, the bakaneko smiled at the smell of freshly baked sweet potato and then bowed, “Thank you! And bye!”

The Bakaneko then ran away into the forest, taking strides and bounds that no normal human could possibly do.

When the twin tails of the bakeneko disappeared into the darkness of the magical woods, Minoriko let out a sigh of relief, one echoed by her sister. That was… a dangerous interaction. That had been Chen Yakumo, youngest of the Yakumo Family. Thankfully, that seemed to have been an amenable interaction, and there had been no offense or grudges initiated. Hopefully, the kitten didn’t think that she owed the Aki sisters a debt and had simply taken the simple gift as the simple gift it was meant to be.

Minoriko shuddered at the thought. It would’ve been stressful if Chen had declared she owed a debt to the harvest goddesses, only a little bit better than if Chen had declared enmity with them. Minoriko Aki was just a minor harvest goddess. She did not want to deal with the Yakumo Family in any way. She’d prefer it if the Gap Yokai and her Family completely forgot she existed, actually. Much less anxiety for her. Minoriko was certain Shizuha felt the same.

“Sister, why did you give away your wares?” Shizuha asked, having never stopped knitting her scarf. Minoriko envied her older sister’s composure.

“I don’t know,” Minoriko sighed as she put up the sign declaring the Aki Roadside Sweet Potato Stand open, “While I was trying my best to not offend the Yakumo Family, it also felt like the kitten was going to have a rough day, so I felt that something should be done to help soften it.”

“...Your new aspect manifesting itself?”

“Perhaps, perhaps. I must admit, it is growing on me.” Minoriko sighed, a mixture of ruefulness and amusement mixing together in her exhalation. Her new aspect, Soft Joys, was… well, it was another way for her to accumulate faith and power, so Minoriko couldn’t really complain to the Fool about inadvertently giving her that duty. It was awfully annoying of the Fool to make that mistake over her domains, but the mistake seemed to be coming true and… it was a nice domain to have.

Taking a seat next to her sister, Minoriko raised an eyebrow at the scarf her sister was still working on, “I see that you’re not simply painting leaves anymore though. What are you doing now?”

Shizuha shrugged, not pausing in the clacking of her wooden knitting needles, “My new aspect does feel strange, but… Well, as you said, it is becoming familiar. Painting leaves will forever be my passion, but there’s room in my heart for other simple beauties! In the spirit of my new domain,I’m trying to learn new skills, become something of a… artisan goddess? I’ll never do anything fancy, but that’s the point, eh? Just make things that are simple but fun! I’ve decided to try knitting this fall. Might go for woodcarving next year. For now though...”

Shizuha held up the very long scarf. If one could call a scarf that could wrap up both sister’s entire bodies twice over with more to spare, a scarf. The way the colors blended together, goign through the various burnt colors of autumn was very pretty though.

“What do you think?”

“Very avant-garde,” Minoriko giggled, finding joy that her elder sister was having fun.

“What does that mean?” Shizuha asked, returning to making the scarf even longer.

MInoriko shrugged, “I don’t know. I heard it said at the Mansion’s party the other day, and it sounded fancy.”

“It is a very fancy word.”

“Very,” Minoriko nodded, taking a steamed sweet potato to snack on as they waited for customers. “What are you going to do with it?”

“It’s a bit too long for anything useful, and I really should’ve stopped a while back, but it’s just so fun. I think I’m going to see how long I can make it!”

“Umu. We could always wear one end each!” Minoriko suggested,

“Ooh!” Shizuha clapped excitedly, “A friendship scarf! The longer it is, the more people we can wrap in with it!”

“Avant Garde!” Minoriko Aki, Goddess of Harvest and Soft Joys, exclaimed, taking the finished end and wrapping it around her neck with a smile as she manned the stand.

Smiling back at her beloved sister, Shizuha Aki, Goddess of Fall’s Changing Leaves and Simple Beauties took the middle and wrapped it around her neck before continuing to work on making it longer, before cheering, “Avant Garde!”

It should be noted that while they weren’t using Avant Garde in the intended way, they were certainly fulfilling the spirit quite well. Even if it weren’t, would it have mattered?

Amidst the caterwauling and wailing of the day, the simple pleasure of one another’s company kept the Aki Sisters one of the happy few during the Cat-astrophe to come.