A/N: Dedicated to TheFunnyPhoenix, along with my most sincere apologies.

Also, have you guys noticed that both of the Aki sisters have two different character tags on the site? Weird.

Inferior Leaves

Water. A furious stream, rushing downwards, surrounding her on all sides. Despite all its power and rage, Nitori wasn't afraid: the river was like a second home to her, and the kappa could never drown. If anything, the roaring stream was gently rocking her to sleep as at carried her down the mountain.

The problem was, she couldn't remember how she had ended up in the river.

Nitori opened her eyes to verify what she already knew: she was floating on her back, or on her backpack if she wanted to be specific about it. and had been carried far away from her home during her slumber. She didn't panic, however, but remained stationary and enjoyed the ride: The water made her feel happy and relaxed, and she could always fly back later. Right now, it was more pressing to figure out why she was floating down the river like an autumn leaf in the first place.

Let's see now...She hadn't been doing anything out of the ordinary, that she was pretty sure of. Just flying around for fun, trying to come up with new ideas for cool inventions, admiring the river below that she had practically lived in during her childhood. And then...

There had been a human, sporting red and white clothes and a bored glare. And then there had been a fight. And her gadgets had failed. And she had fallen into the river and hit her head on a nasty rock when she went down a waterfall. That had to be it.

It had been a fluke, naturally. The gods of luck were fickle, and if they were on the opposing side, even she could lose. Besides, she hadn't even gone all out on the grumpy human: if she had really wanted to, she could have easily taken her shirikodama and won that way. And of course, she hadn't wanted to fight her at all, really; she had tried to hide, but the human kept chasing after her, undeterred by her optical camouflage suit. What a pain.

The stream around had abated, and she found herself floating in shallow backwater as the river roared on, leaving her behind. Soon, her head touched the muddy riverbank. Now that she was staying put, she noticed something new: a small amount of red liquid, almost without a doubt originating from her, was being mixed into the dark waters around her.

She raised her hand and patted her head, and soon found a small wound on the back of her head, no doubt the source of the flowing blood. It was absolutely trivial, of course, nothing more than a mild annoyance that didn't even hurt, a tiny wound kept open by the surrounding water. A idea flashed in her mind as she lay down again: maybe she could come up with something that would instantly patch up all minor injuries like the her current one? Some sort of artificial skin that could be grafted onto cuts and bruises that would melt into the real skin in a matter of seconds...

"What happened to you?"

Nitori shuddered violently at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. Was it too late to turn on her camouflage suit? But no, it had been damaged in the fight before. She would have to flee.

Or maybe she could just pretend she was dead? Even if the stranger was some lesser youkai that wanted to steal her backpack, the anti-personnel attack ray on it would be triggered the moment she tried to open it without knowing the trick to it, leaving Nitori and her possessions unmolested. And maybe, if the stranger was particularly dumb, Nitori might even be able to steer covertly towards the stream and escape that way.

So, she let her body go limp and let her eyelids droop. It was fine. She had done this before, and not once had anyone discovered her trick. Soon enough, the stranger would give up and walk away to let nature take its course.

Then, an unexpected pair of small hands grabbed her by the shoulders and attempted to drag her out of the river. It remained an attempt, because after only a few inches the automatic defence mechanism Nitori had programmed onto the her dress triggered. The piercing scream of a kappa-made siren filled the air.

The stranger instantly let go and ran away, screaming. She wasn't the only one screaming: Nitori had forgotten just how loud the highest setting of the siren - the default for when she was prone - truly was. She fumbled with her pockets, quickly locating the on/off switch and turning the blasted siren off. The screeching sound died out immediately, leaving nothing but blessed silence and ringing ears in its wake.

Nitori sighed. There was no way the stranger hadn't seen her moving around just now, so Plan B was out. It was time for Plan C, her usual Plan A: hide and escape.

But before she could even sit up, the stranger appeared above her. Nitori froze in place, like a child caught in mischief, her eyes firmly fixed on the stranger. The first then she noticed was the colour red, shortly followed by the notion the person looming above her was wearing a skirt made out of leaves. Leaves were definitely the thing, as the stranger also had red leaves decorating her blonde hair. Her eyes were the colour of autumn and they were giving Nitori a miffed look. All in all, the stranger seemed relatively unremarkable. An autumn youkai of some description? Or perhaps a weak goddess? "What are you doing?" said the stranger, frowning.

Nitori opened her mouth and closed it again, anxiety taking hold. She had already crossed paths with one stranger today. Did she really have to deal with another one?

She took a deep breath. At least this stranger looked like an unimportant weakling. She could do this.

"I'm just resting," she said, forcing her voice to remain level.

"Resting in the river?" A light of understanding flashed in the stranger's eyes. "Oh. A kappa?"

Nitori forced herself not to roll her eyes. Wasn't it obvious? Did she look like a tengu to her?

"Exactly," she said out loud, trying to keep her contempt out of her voice while still conveying that she wanted to be left alone. Today was a bad day, and she had no tolerance for this meddling stranger, whoever she was.

The stranger didn't get the hint. "You're bleeding. Aren't you going to do anything about it?"

Nitori's already thin patience waned. "It's not like it matters."

The stranger must have finally understood her tone, because she said: "I know that. It just looked pretty ugly when I tried to lift you." She paused for a moment. "I'm Shizuha Aki."

Nitori sighed. Whatever. "Nitori Kawashiro. I'm sorry," she nodded her head in Shizuha's direction, "but I'm tired and really feel like being left alone right now."

Shizuha's expression didn't change. "Fine." She moved out of Nitori's sphere of vision, and by the sound of it walked back to sturdy ground, but Nitori could tell she wasn't going to leave the general area. What, was this her turf or something?

Nitori flipped onto her stomach to look at her general surroundings. There wasn't much to look at aside from some trees, roughly half of them green, the other half either red or bare. Shizuha was standing by one of the red trees close by, quietly looking at it. Some fairies in red and yellow frolicked around further into the woods, one of them occasionally floating closer to peek at what Shizuha was up to.

After a long silence, surprising even herself, Nitori asked: "Who are you, anyway?"

"A goddess of autumn leaves," came the reply.

A most minor of minor goddesses, then. Probably a little better than a god of mildew, but not by much.

"Great. That must be a very taxing job." Nitori hadn't meant it to come off quite that sarcastic, but she couldn't help herself.

"It can be, but it's pretty fun. Why are you shaking like that?"

Oh. She had noticed, after all. "If you must know, I'm not very good with people I don't know."

"Oh." A pause. "Sorry about this."

"It's okay. You're not that bad." And in a way, it was true. Now that the initial shock had passed, Shizuha really wasn't making her all that anxious. After the human from earlier she was almost like a breath of fresh air.

"I see." For some reason Shizuha didn't seem pleased to hear this.

A long bout of silence followed. Nitori didn't mind, but there was certain tension coming from Shizuha, like she was debating with herself whether to say something or not.

Finally, Shizuha sighed loudly and turned her back towards Nitori.

"I can tell, by the way."

Nitori frowned. "Tell what?"

"I can tell you think you're better than me."

Nitori paused, but only for an instant. Yes, if she was honest with herself, she did in fact think she was better than this weakling goddess in charge of red leaves of all things, but why on earth would she bring it up? "What do you mean?"

"You think you're hiding your contempt, and you're not doing a very good job at it. And you don't really even care that you're not hiding it, because my opinion doesn't matter to you." Shizuha crossed her arms behind her back and gave Nitori a humourless smirk over her shoulder. "I get the feeling you're the kind of person who thinks she's a better than a lot of people, actually."

Now, Nitori was starting to feel angry. She didn't need to be lectured by this arrogant stranger over something that was none of her business. Who did she think she was, anyway?

"And even if I do," she said, "what business is it of yours?"

Shizuha fell silent and looked at the ground for quite a while.

"I have a sister," she said, still staring into the distance. "She's a harvest goddess, and quite popular all things considered. I mean, she's not very strong, but she works hard and does well enough to manage." A faint smile briefly illuminated her face. "She's preparing for the harvest festival right now, if I'm not mistaken."

Nitori remained silent, so she continued. "Thing is, not long ago I thought I was better than my sister, simply because I was in charge of the most beautiful part of autumn. I thought I was more powerful than her, because I was the most notable god of autumn leaves I knew of, while there were many harvest gods more powerful than her. I believed I was the very best at what I do, while no matter hard she toils, she will never be the greatest of her peers."

"With all due respect, I don't really understand why you're telling me this."

"Why, are you in a hurry?"

Nitori sighed. "Guess not." Lying there on the riverbank with her arms as a cushion for her head, her body half immersed in the chilly, streaming river, was like resting in a pleasant cot. While Shizuha was still a stranger, Nitori was starting to feel almost at home thanks to the river's gentle embrace.

"As I was saying..." Shizuha took the hem of her skirt into her hand and looked at it for a moment before continuing. "That's how I was. But then, last autumn, I was painting the leaves around Human Village and happened to take a glimpse through a window into one of the houses there. Do you know what I saw?"

She painted leaves? Nitori had always assumed that goddesses simply willed things into existence. "Something strange?"

"Not really. It was just a normal human house, only poorer. There was barely any furniture, and most of the little there was looked dusty and unused. There was only one person in the room I was looking into; an shrunken human woman, probably over seventy years old, with liver spots all over her hands. And she was painting on a scroll a picture of one of the trees I had already painted red."

There had to be a point to the story, but Nitori wasn't sure she really cared. Still, she brought herself to ask: "And then?"

"That scroll..." Shizuha paused and closed her eyes for a second. "That scroll, even though the picture wasn't even finished yet, was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. She had gotten the tree just right, and the leaves..." a longer pause, a brief flash of pain, "the leaves in the picture were more beautiful than the leaves on the tree itself."

Nitori raised her eyebrows. "Oh."

"Can you imagine what I felt like?" Shizuha hugged her shoulders. "Painting leaves red is the very reason why I exist. It's all I know, and it's what I do best. And here was this old lady who had mastered my one calling, who had perfected it into a pure art, who despite being a mere human four decades younger than me had surpassed me." She bit her lip. "And even though I will outlive her, I'm not certain I would outdo her. And that's when I realised it." She turned towards Nitori again. "Even if I could outdo her, if a mere mere human could beat me at my one calling, there must be others I can't surpass, deities or youkai or maybe even other humans. Even though this," she gestured at the red trees, "is what I exist for, I will never be the greatest being to exist for this purpose."

Nitori didn't know what to say. She felt sorry for Shizuha despite her earlier rudeness, but didn't know how to articulate it without sounding rude. Eventually, she asked: "Why did you tell me this?"

"Because I see myself in you. You said earlier you're not good with strangers, right?"

"I did," Nitori said warily.

"I know why. It's because you know that some day, one of those strangers will turn out to be better than you at everything that makes you so special. You know that there's someone like that out there, and that if you ever meet them, the foundation you have built all your pride on will crumble. Just knowing there are people smarter and more capable than you somewhere, whether you acknowledge it or not, if one of those people turns out to be a human or what you consider a lesser youkai, well... And that is why you keep telling yourself you're better than those you meet while trying to avoid them."

Nitori's jaw dropped, and she gave Shizuha a blank stare. There was being rude and overly familiar, and then there was this. How could she even respond to that...well, insult?

Eventually, she formulated some kind of a response. "You're wrong, and I don't need to listen to something like that."

Shizuha shrugged. "Take it as you will. If you want to remain in your bubble, I'm not going to force you to out of it." And with that, she turned her back on Nitori and calmly sauntered towards the fairies and the nearest green-leaved tree, a large maple. With a gentle touch, so light her arms barely touched the tree's bark, she embraced the tree as she floated higher towards its branches. Then, with a light stroke, she began painting the first leaf, starting from the stem and moving towards the edges with quick, certain strokes until the entire leaf was covered with the new hue. One of the fairies clapped enthusiastically. She reached for another leaf further away, swiftly and gracefully, half flying and half dancing, and gave it a new coat of red in a matter of moments.

Nitori looked on, quietly simmering with rage. How could anyone be so blunt and nosy, let alone a minor goddess of no real importance? How could she do that, acting like she knew Nitori better than Nitori herself after they had just met, and then just walk away? She didn't particularly like fighting, but even so she was half tempted to walk over and deck the rude goddess.

Still...She had to admit, while she didn't particularly care about autumn leaves unless they were floating down a river, Shizuha was good at what she did. It was only natural, of course, since making red leaves was her raison d'être, but it looked very nice all the same.

She kept watching as Shizuha made her way around the entire tree, painting each individual leaf in turn with the confidence of a master. Finally, when her work was complete, she floated back onto ground, with all the grace and dignity one might expect from a goddess.

And then she less than gracefully gave the tree a sharp kick to make it shed its leaves.

Nitori rolled her eyes.

Well, until the anticlimactic end it had been quite the show. It was funny to think Shizuha unreservedly acknowledged there was a human of all things that was better at this than her. Still, Nitori supposed it made sense in a way. Shizuha was obviously a very weak goddess, and Nitori, especially with all her genius gadgets, could take her on without a doubt. Of course someone like her couldn't be the very best at something.

"You know that some day, one of those strangers will turn out to be better than you at everything that makes you so special."

Nitori shook her head to rid herself of the interrupting thought. It was nonsense. She was shy, that's all. And even if there was a deeper reason for her shyness, there was no way Shizuha would be able to discern it after just five minutes of conversation. Whatever high horse she was on was just that. Nitori had nothing to worry about.

So why, then, was her stomach fluttering like it was? What was with the nagging feeling in the back of her head that kept trying to make its way to the surface?

Without warning, tears burst from her eyes in a violent torrent. Warm drops of water further dampened the riverbank as she let out an uncontrollable sob.

Shizuha turned around at the sound. "What's wrong?"

Nitori ignored her and turned away, wiping her eyes. She heard Shizuha's footsteps apporaching.

"Go away!" she pleaded.

"Is it because of what I said? I didn't mean to make you cry."

"It's not you," Nitori said, and tried to quench the tears with her arm, but they wouldn't stop. "I don't know what it is." She swallowed. "Please, look away!"

She heard Shizuha turn around and sigh quietly. "You know, crying is nothing to be ashamed of."

"I know that." Even so, she didn't want Shizuha to see. Something about crying in front of someone she barely knew tears made her feel vulnerable and scared, and she hated Shizuha for being there to witnessing the tears them as much as she hated herself for shedding them. There was no reason to cry, and yet the hollow feeling wouldn't go away. Even the river wasn't enough to soothe her, and she was starting to feel like the tears would never dry.

Finally, she regained control of her eyes, and the tears faded, leaving her limp and tired. She looked up to see that at the very least Shizuha had listened to her wishes and now stood further up the hill, her gaze averted.

Nitori crawled up from the river and stood up on the bank, pretending to check on her backpack even though she knew it was fine. There was still a lump in her throat, one she couldn't swallow no matter how hard she tried, and the wretched feeling still wouldn't leave her. It gnawed at the edges of her consciousness, clamouring to be set free. Nitori smothered it, but as it kept coming back she bit her lip and ignored it. It would go away.

It had better, at any rate.

She reached inside a pocket in her dress and toyed with the first thing she found in it. It was a concentrated flare, a gadget she had invented ages ago, that with a single button press summoned a tiny, yet bright red light that reached from one side of the Genbu Ravine to another. It had taken her a while to get just right, but once she had made it, all her friends had been duly impressed. Feeling it in her hand now, hearing the ghosts of her friends' praises in her ears, drove the hollow feeling further away, but didn't banish it completely.

She looked up. Shizuha had turned around and was giving her a long, knowing look. But it wasn't an arrogant look, the kind that screams "told you so"; it was quiet, even compassionate.

Nitori hesitated. Half of her just wanted to leave, forget she had ever even met Shizuha and ignore this whole afternoon for the rest of her life. She could easily take to the air and never come back.

Would that make the hollow feeling go away? What would make it disappear, she believed, was the real question. And as much as she wanted to just go and forget, she wasn't at all certain that would do the trick.

What, then, could she do?

She readjusted her backpack and walked to Shizuha. The latter had just finished painting another maple tree red, and was quietly admiring her handiwork.

"It looks good," said Nitori.

Shizuha turned around in surprise. "Thank you. I wasn't expecting you to say that."

Despite how blue she was feeling, Nitori couldn't help but flash a humourless grin at Shizuha. "I could have said that about many of the things you said earlier."

Shizuha had the decency to look embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I should have thought about what I was saying." She fidgeted. "To tell you the truth, I'm not very good with strangers either, and sometimes I cross the line."

"It's fine" Nitori bit her lip. She wasn't going to start crying again, no matter what. "It's just that..." she looked around anxiously to make sure none of the fairies were listening. "How does this feeling go away?"

Shizuha looked away. "I'm not sure I know how you're feeling, but if it's at all like what I felt back then..." She turned her head towards the skies. "It gets worse before it gets better."

"Oh."

Shizuha still wouldn't meet her gaze. Which was fine by Nitori, really, as she wasn't sure she wanted to meet it either just now. "It does get better, though. It really does."

"Okay." She didn't believe in Shizuha's words, not really, but just hearing made her feel a little better.

Shizuha finally kicked the tree in front of her. As it shed its leaves, a lone maple leaf, red and yellow with a touch of brown, slowly floated down to Shizuha's open palm. She looked at it ponderously.

Suddenly, she spoke. "If there's anything I can do to apologise, just tell me."

Nitori looked on as Shizuha let the leaf drop on the ground. She hesitated. There really wasn't anything Shizuha could do, now that she thought about it: even her earlier urge to smack her had dissipated. Would it be rude to turn the offer down? Or maybe...

"Well, could you, maybe..." She felt her shyness return once more. Shizuha looked at her with one eyebrow raised. "Once you paint the leaves further up the stream, could you maybe make sure more of them end up in the river? I like the ones floating down the river the best."

Shizuha didn't smile, but she nodded, and when Nitori started her journey towards home, she grabbed the edges of her leaf skirt and followed her.

THE END