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genericnam · 2 days ago

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The Bronze Tanuki - A BNA Fanfic - Chapter 1 - "Oh to be eternal,"

Ao3 Link

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The Bronze Tanuki. It was a name Shirou had heard before many times in the few weeks he had been in Anima-City. She was said to be a giant shapeshifting goddess, a protector of all Beastmen, a beacon of hope.

So when the raccoon who lived in the same house as him started to get huffy about the fake Bronze Tanuki that had appeared with the rest of her cult, he started to put two and two together.

Michiru was a powerful Beastman, she had to be to work for the mayor on such important missions. She had a proud heart, a kind soul, and a strong moral compass, but she was also extremely childish, talking about how 'adults' acted as if she wasn't a grown up herself. The way that people talked about her was even more confusing, she seemed to have history with some people that no 18 year old girl should have.

Despite her short stature and immature attitude about things in life, Shirou had seen her in action. She fought off elite warriors with ease, seeming to stretch and change to accomodate any injuries she sustained, making her nearly invulnerable. When the scientist had thrown him off of that building, her tail had grown to cover them both, sheilding the definitely-still-a-human from any damage.

Now that he thought about it, her tail didn't have stripes for a moment when the raccoon girl had transformed to catch him.

---

Shirou didn't want to make any hasty assumptions, so he did what he always did, and got sleuthing. He was a detective back in Japan, and a damn good one at that. Where Michiru used her senses and power to get resuls, Shirou had always preferred a more private approach.

The first stop on his journey to determine if his kid roomate was secretely the Beastman goddess was her room. He knew it was an invasion of privacy, but when she had so impulsively locked him in that closet, Shirou could have sworn that there were some suspicious things in there that he recognized in hindsight.

So after picking the lock with his claws, Shirou let himself into Michiru's office. Kuro was out with Michiru, luckily. Otherwise, things would have been much harder for him. Another lock picking later, and he was in her closet.

It didn't take long at all to find what he thought he had seen last time: fur dye, and a lot of it. The dye was the same color as the stripes on her tail, and along side it were all the resources needed to dye one's fur in stripes. Or at least, he assumed it was. Shirou didn't know the first thing about body modification like that.

He dug around a bit more, but the only other thing of note he could find there was a diary. And he was searching for answers, but Shirou wouldn't stoop that low. Not yet anyways. After he thought he had covered his scent, Shirou was out and walking the streets once more.

The once-human was certan he could find someone who knew something. The mayor would definitely know, but even trying to get close to her without Michiru's help would be pointless. The police and his companion clashed too often for them to know anything. They fought on the same side, but she was a bit too bullheaded for their methodical, red tape filled style. It didn't help that her high morals and refusal to take a life didn't help.

The only person who knew a lot in this city, and wasn't too dangerous to seek out or in prison was...

---

"Weasel, I have questions."

"MINK! I. Am. A. MINK!" Marie growled out, her mood immediately soured upon hearing the voice of the nosy wolf she had saved a few weeks ago. The doggy wasn't easy to trick, but always seemed to end up encountering her again, and it was getting on her nerves. Maybe if he was gullible enough to con more than once, she'd be happy to spot him, but she wouldn't be seeing his wallet again in a long time-

"I'm willing to pay for answers."

Marie's eyes shone as she turned around, her posture much friendlier and a glowing smile on her face. "Weeeeellll, why didn't you say so, fluffy?" She said serenely. "You should lead with 'I'm willing to pay' all the time! You might actually make some friends that way! Well, friends other than the Mayor's Trash-Panda."

"That's actually who I want to know about," Shirou held up a neatly folded wad of bills, but kept it just out of reach for even Marie's sly arms. For a newbie, he knew how to keep his cool.

"Are you sure you need my help for that? Michiru's an open book. A little too open if you ask me~ A lot of people love mysterious warriors like that, I could make a killing spreading gossip alone!"

Shirou's eyes narrow. "What kind of gossip?"

"I'm having trouble remembering..." Marie tapped her chin thougtfully, snatching the wad of cash out of mid-air once it was thrown her way. "Oh yes! Now I recall... Apparently, she's been in the city since the day it was built, but she's never gotten any taller, never acted any wiser, never even lost any hair to age! She seems perpetually eighteen. Isn't that strange? She's relatively well known, but unless you know her well, she always stays morphed, makes it almost impossible for anyone to notice that her civilian self even exists, let alone that she's just as unchanging..."

Shirou was silent, turning to leave as quickly as he had appeared.

"Wait!" Marie called, holding in snickers. Michiru would never let her hear the end of it, but the mink was having too much fun now to care about the scoldings from Ms. Goody Two Shoes. "You paid enough for two secrets, so I figure I'll prove that I'm a respectable entrepreneur and give you your change." The mink held up one of the Church of the Bronze Tanuki's necklaces. "From what I hear, the Church's founder used to know her..."

---

Michiru slipped through her window easily, shifting out of her chameleon form to return to normal, heading to her closet to re-apply her stripes before she would try and go out on the town as a normal girl, maybe drag Shirou along with her. The dude was grumpy, and a little bigoted about Beastmen at times, but he was learning, and she couldn't deny she was way too judgemental about his human traits too. Maybe a nice meal he didn't have to pay for would lift his spirits?

And hers too, but that didn't matter as much.

That idea ended pretty quickly when she entered her closet, and smelled his scent all over her paint.

Oh no.

---

Michiru flew through the city, literally. She was normally more secretive, but she didn't have time at the moment. Shirou couldn't know, that would ruin everything! Finally someone who treated her normally, and he was about to ruin it all!

The mayor was nice, but Michiru couldn't be friends with her. The woman was busy, and mature. She saw Michiru as a saviour, a hero, a legend. She was kind, and Michiru would always be loyal to the woman who made Anima-City, but it was a Boss-Employee loyalty, not someone who understood her.

There were only two other people who knew about her secret, and judging by the scents, he had already encountered one of them.

Diving down, Michiru formed talons on her feet, grabbing Marie off of the ground and depositing her onto a rooftop, where the dark skinned hustler didn't even bat an eye. "You could be more polite about that, you know?"

"What did you tell him?" Michiru growled out, fur puffed up and ears back as she growled.

"Oh nothing much, only what he paid me for." Marie fished out some money from her pockets, sticking one tongue out as she already prepared to ditch. "Now if you excuse me, I best be off, but here's a word of advice, old friend~" Michiru groaned at the remark, she had made the mistake of trusting the Mink with private info once, and of course immediately regretted it.

"What?"

"I might check on that foxy ex of yours, Shirou's on his way already!"

---

When Michiru finally made it to the other side of the city, panting and exhausted, she found Shirou and Nazuna already talking. The once-Pop Star turned cult leader and Michiru had already spoken today, and if there was one thing Nazuna could be after they argued, it was petty.

So when Michiru dove headfirst through the window and looked up at Shirou, the look of recognition and veiled fear was one she had seen a hundred times now, every time she had told someone her secret.

"So, you know, huh?"

Shirou only nodded, and though Michiru scowled in Nazuna's direction, though the fox was pointedly ignoring her.

"You know my secret?" Michiru curled up into a ball, noticing she hadn't even repainted her tail before jumping out on this little hunt. Tears flew out of her eternally youthful eyes, which she didn't bother to hide. What was the point now that he knew?

She was always aware that he would find out eventually, that he'd leave in a year or two when he spotted some flaws in her story, but she wasn't ready to say goodbye so soon. Nobody stuck around when they found out...

"You know I'm the Bronze Tanuki?"

--------------------

It was supposed to be a oneshot, but I like the idea enough I'm gonna make it into a little fic. 16 chapters is my current guess, since the chapter titles are based on a poem I wrote that has 16 lines.

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genericnam · 1 day ago

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The Bronze Tanuki - A BNA Fanfic - Chapter 2 - "And never have to haste,"

Ao3 Fic

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Fic also below the cut (GORE TW)

Michiru was just a normal girl, once upon a time. The city of Nirvasyl was her home, and she loved it. She was young, but fresh on her way to a new life of happiness in the city. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed. The inhabitants weren’t used to being so close together, and she had been caught in the crossfire more than once.

But that was a small price to pay for a life free of humans and danger, a civilization where a raccoon like her could have a shelter of her own. One of freedom and of opportunity.

But then the humans came, on the very same day she turned 18.

The only thing she could see was the burning buildings, the fire drowning out the screams of her brethren. Her family was somewhere, maybe she had already ran past them, their bodies too burned to recognize.

Where was Nazuna? Was she alive? Did she manage to get away?

Then, a familiar voice rang over the blaze, Michiru’s ears twitching to hear it better. “Someone, help me!” There she was! Michiru ran after the voice of the fox she had known for so long, tears building in her eyes as she thought about what might happen if she were too late.

The humans wouldn’t hesitate, that much was certain. So Michiru had to be sure she wouldn’t hesitate either.

The raccoon leapt with all her might, shoving Nazuna out of the way of the attacker, and then—

Her blood, dripping into the dirt. She could feel her intestines, or rather, the lack of them. The spear had cut cleanly through her stomach, not having the decency to go out the other end so she could die quickly. Instead, she half stood, half hung, held up by the tool that would make sure her final moments were agony.

“Na…zuna… run…” Michiru forced out, reaching a hand out to shoo away her only friend.

Nazuna looked at Michiru for only a moment, tear filled eyes turning determined as she gave a shaky nod, refusing to look lower than Michiru’s neck, and when the fox ran out of sight, Michiru was thankful for that.

At least Nazuna’s last memory of her wouldn’t be of her guts feeding the soil.

The humans laughed above her, and Michiru scowled. These selfish, arrogant pricks disgusted her. They destroyed her home, killed her family, tried to murder her friend, and then had the gall to laugh!? They were the real beasts, idiotic, bigoted monsters that killed what they didn’t understand.

She had been left to rot, soon to be food for insects and the animals with no ‘human’ form. But Michiru promised herself, if she somehow lived, she would find Nazuna, keep her safe, and then destroy the humans who had dared to ruin this home she had loved so dearly.

But it was little more than fantasy, as she felt herself slide deeper on the spear, opening the wound large enough that she could no longer hold on, letting her insides become her outsides as she died.

—

Michiru awoke to the smell of lingering smoke. Ashes of Nirvasyl all around her. The spear lay beneath her, the tip no longer piercing her body. Looking down at herself, she found no injury whatsoever, save for a scar on her stomach that likely had a counterpart piercing from her back.

She felt no pain, but only confusion. How had she healed?

Standing up, Michiru looked in her shadow, and jumped back in terror as she saw eyes staring at her, at least a thousand of them. They didn’t speak, but she could feel them, and sense who they were.

“You’re… the other beastmen, the ones who didn’t escape. Did you-did you somehow give your lives to me? So that I could fulfill my promise?”

They only continued to look, but Michiru was sure she had gotten it right, she could feel it in her bones.

—

In the coming weeks as she searched for Nazuna (She refused to even accept the possibility that the fox had not escaped), the raccoon had made some shocking discoveries.

For one, she was no longer a raccoon, but instead a tanuki. Her tail had lost its stripes, and her shapeshifting had grown from just morphing between bodies to that of near infinite possibilities. She could be anything she wanted, though the tanuki was her body’s default. She could have the arms of a gorilla, the legs of a cheetah, the ears of a rabbit, heck, she didn’t even need to be a specific animal, a fact that she learned when she used her arms like a lasso to catch and deal with a human who had taken part in the destruction of Nirvasyl.

But she didn’t care much about that, all she wanted was to find Nazuna.

—

Michiru wished she had never found Nazuna…

The fox laid on the ground, blood still warm as it seeped from her throat. She looked exhausted, she must have been running ever since Nirvasyl…

Michiru didn’t know how long ago it was at this point, time felt so strange ever since she had woken up, and she no longer grew tired, so she hardly ever slept, which just messed with her perception of passing hours further.

But time was meaningless if Nazuna was dead! Michiru grabbed her ears, tugging on them till they stretched to have more to pull, why was she getting sidetracked, her best friend was dead! She had to save her! Had to… had to…

Michiru looked at her shadow, the eyes that never blinked, never showed any emotion, only stared at her, a reminder of all the lives lost. “Please, do something! You could bring me back to life, can you help her? I’ll do anything, even if I have to give my soul too! Just let her come back, please…” Michiru sunk to her knees completely, sobbing into her shadow’s unblinking gaze as she reached out with trembling hands to hold Nazuna’s hand. “Please just bring her back!”

The eyes continued to only stare, but there seemed to be a change, as a large portion of the eyes flowed through the spot where Michiru and Nazuna’s shadows touched.

One hundred eyes in total left Michiru’s shadow, adding themselves to Nazuna’s own. Michiru felt herself grow slightly weaker, but her shapeshifting stayed the same, her wounds did not open, and time didn’t seem any less strange, so it seemed the only side effect was now the feeling of exhaustion that rang in her bones from days of running…

It was a small price to pay for the joy in her heart as the cut on Nazuna’s throat closed, and the fox opened her eyes with a gasp.

—

Michiru and Nazuna found that the eyes of their shadows granted them immortality. They never aged a day, always eternally eighteen.

Michiru’s powers were far greater since she had nine-hundred eyes to Nazuna’s one, but both of them were far beyond anything that any human or beastman could do.

Nazuna had inherited some of Michiru’s shapeshifting from the revival, but she didn’t look like herself when she did it. When Nazuna did the rare full morph that they had obtained, she smelled, looked, and sometimes even acted a bit like Michiru. Nazuna's morphing made her a giant tanuki instead of a graceful fox, and Michiru hated it. She wanted things to be normal again, but now they had lost their families, their homes, and their identities. Neither of them were even the same species they once were, and as time went on, things kept changing.

Over the centuries, once they were done hunting down the army that destroyed Nirvasyl, Michiru gained fame for the might of her and Nazuna’s full morph, the Bronze Tanuki became a god of Beastmen that would spread peace and safety to Beastmen whenever she was needed, moving so quickly that there seemed to be two of her!

Michiru was happy to hear the praise and silently bask in the pride and reap the rewards without going wild, she just wanted a normal life, after all. But Nazuna craved the attention. Her dream was to be famous. The term hadn’t existed a thousand years ago, but in the modem era, she had latched onto the concept of a ‘pop idol’. She loved the cheerings of the crowds, and for a time, Michiru let her take credit and stick around as the legendary Bronze Tanuki, but she eventually got tired of it.

The power was seeming to go Nazuna's head, neither of them were meant to live this long, or be capable of this much, and while Michiru never seemed to mature, Nazuna grew up a bit too fast for her own good.

The day they finally clashed was the day that Michiru found out the biggest difference between their powers.

Nazuna was immortal, but not invincible.

Nazuna had a new scar, right next to the one on her neck. One that hadn't healed, to that day.

—

Things were never the same between them.

Sometimes they’d bond for a decade or two, rekindle the friendship, remember that maybe they should try to be friends with the only person who wouldn’t outlive them. But they’d clash again, and Michiru would say something, while Nazuna never said enough, and they wouldn’t see each other for fifty years before it started over again.

Michiru made many friends, and she lost even more of them. Every few years she’d find a new city, a new settlement, a new place to pretend she was normal in, but her friends would notice she never aged, she’d have to explain herself, and then she could say goodbye to her happiness.

The friends who were too kind would try to treat her like the goddess they saw her as, all cordial and polite and devoted, but she didn’t want that. The friends who were just normal would fear her, acting polite, but deep down, they didn’t trust her anymore, knowing the havoc she could wreak.

The worst ones though, reminded her too much of Nazuna. The ones who saw Michiru as an opportunity, being friends with a goddess, a perfect way to become famous, or to make a quick buck.

Michiru always swore she’d never get attached again, but it was always a lie. After the inevitable crashing of her and Nazuna’s latest attempt to date, or to just be friends, or to even just be near each other, she’d seek companionship from someone, anyone she could hopefully find out about, someone who could soothe the ache in her heart and just see her as a normal girl to want to be friends with, no ulterior motives or stupid religion involved.

And of course, anytime she dared think that had happened, humans would ruin it all anyways.

She still refused to go Full Morph ever since she had nearly lost control at that research facility.

This pattern repeated for a thousand years, until she met Shirou.

Michiru had thought that this was going to be another failed century, her latest friend being the mayor, who had been so promising as a child, but once she grew older, had become distant. She was the closest Michiru had to an equal in centuries (other than Nazuna), but it wasn’t what she wanted. The naked mole rat was a coworker these days, not a bestie.

Shirou didn’t seem very promising at first, a human who was turned into a beastman, and who had some less than ideal opinions, all topped with a personality more stern than the mayor herself? It wasn’t great. But they grew on each other. He was a bit sarcastic, a bit cynical, and most of all, he thought she was just a reckless teenager. Powerful,yes, but still a teen. Technically, it was true, she never aged a day past her eighteenth birthday, so she was still about as mature as always. He wasn’t a best friend like Nazuna was, but he filled a hole in her heart she had been missing for a millennium. He felt like a parent, a family member, someone who just… understood, even when he didn’t know what he was supposedly understanding so well.

So forgive her for getting a bit annoyed when a certain lying fox showed up with her cult again, still pretending to be Michiru. Nazuna was going to ruin things, Michiru had to get her to leave, ASAP.

But it hadn’t worked, it was never going to. Nazuna was too stubborn, and Michiru too idealist. Shirou had found out, and now she was doomed to repeat the cycle over again.

—

“So yeah, that’s my story.” Michiru whispered, her voice long gone after all the time she spent explaining things once they were back in the comfort of the Co-op. It was fun while it lasted, but she’d have to find a new place to stay. Jem and Melissa were going to catch on soon anyways, but she was hoping for at least another year…

Shirou, for his part, was silent. He seemed to be contemplating her story, and his poker face was as unmatched as ever. She was good with her senses, but Michiru was never good with expressions, their meanings always evaded her.

The worries were becoming too great, she already knew the outcome, she’d seen it a hundred times over a thousand years. What was the point waiting for the response she knew would come? What was the point? She should just… go now, before he opened his mouth and made it hurt more.

And so she did. It’s not like he could stop her. She made a dive out of the window and sprouted her wings, Kuro struggling to keep up with how fast she moved. “Heh, good ol’ Kuro, always loyal. I know I can always count on you, huh?”

The bird squawked with determination, and Michiru knew he had her back, for as long as his unnatural lifespan lasted. “Atta boy. But… take care of Shirou for me, okay? I don’t need any help right now, but between Nazuna’s meddling, The Family’s corruption, and whatever’s going on with Sylvasta, I need someone I can trust to keep him safe. Warn me if anything bad happens, I just need to find somewhere to hunker down until he gets cured and leaves the city, then things can go back to normal… probably.”

But where would Michiru be hiding? Shirou’s nose was only getting better the more used to his abilities he got, he’d probably surpass her own sense of smell with practice. She needed some place dirty enough to mask her scent.

“Hmmm… I wonder if the Bears still need that miracle pitcher?”

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