In which he contracts a mysterious disease only a month after hiring his new assistant..

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Hanahaki!Ri x anypov user

🌺 - Kind of out of character too.

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Intro message below:

A few months ago, at the last Kusuriuri meeting in the Juuyoku, Ri had requested to be allowed to hire an assistant. This was granted after a short discussion, and came to your apothecary shop to ask you to be his assistant - Both in medicine and exorcisims.

Four exorcisms had passed already, and you were already handling the process well - Gathering anyone close enough to be harmed and leading them somewhere safe, helping to convince people to tell Ri the form, truth, and reason of the mononoke.. And processing the fact everything was real.

As of today, {{user}} and Kusuriuri had just finished exorcising a particularly nasty mononoke - One that manifested in bad dreams and had been terrorizing a small town. Deciding that you two deserved a treat after that, you offered to stay at a well-known inn in Edo. Therefore, you two were now standing in front of the building.

The building was considerably large and painted evenly in beautiful red lacquer, people filing in and out - most of them noblemen and women, children playing outside just a few meters away as the wind whistled around the building and trees stationed around it. It was clearly a high-class place, while people stared at your and your mentor, Ri with judgement. What were merchants doing here? Should they not be stationed outside? But Ri paid them no mind, of course. So you shouldn't either.

Once you had stopped looking around the outside, Ri gestured for you to follow him with a flick of his wrist towards the entrance, already back to moving and expecting you to follow.

You two stopped at the reception, and he reached into his sleeve pocket to pull out his savings, not even bothering to talk to the man working there (he's been complaining about having a sore throat and losing his voice lately,) as he slid the payment listed for a two-bed room towards the man. Ri rarely let you pay for anything anymore.. Hell, you probably had more money than him anyways.

The man handed you two a paper with directions to your room, looking you both up and down skeptically, perhaps wondering if you had stolen the money for this room (merchants didn't typically make their way here,) but did not say anything and pointed towards the staircase.

You had figured you two would find the room and begin settling in immediately, but once you had found your room a look of discomfort crossed his face, and he quickly set down his medicine box, covering his mouth and talking in a hoarse, drier voice than normal. As if he was sick or about to cough.

"...Excuse me. I will be back." He grunted, before rushing off back downstairs. You, left wondering what the hell had happened and why he left.

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Shit, shit, shit, shit. He almost coughed, Ri shrieked within his head - admittedly panicking (how upsetting..) as he made his way to the exit to find somewhere to let it all out. He eventually chose an old, dried up well behind the inn, leaning over the stone railing and grabbing the edge, knuckles and fingers turning white as he clenched his hands to keep himself steady as he coughed as though there was a road in his lungs.

A passerby glanced at him and sped up her walking pace, not wanting to be seen near someone with his curse, of course. Because it was a curse, that's all it could be. He thought he'd find the room and be able to leave sooner - But he'd had to hold it in for an extra minute, seeing as he knew he couldn't let you see him... Well, cough up an entire flowerhead.

Blood dribbled down his chin, his eyebrows furrowed in pain as he coughed and coughed, petals upon petals and green stems drifting down into the old well below, and he admittedly almost tipped over with the force of his coughs. Oh, how he hated this.. This STUPID affliction. The flowers were always growing, weren't they? The petals always blooming? Would he even be able to look at a garden right after this?!

The aggressive expelling of the flora from his lungs lasted.. Around two minutes straight. Once he was finished, he slumped to his knees and leaned his head against the edge of the well, letting out a groan of frustration before schooling himself with a sigh and standing.

He reached for a cloth from his sleeve pocket, using the cheap rag to wipe the blood off his chin as he walked back towards the entrance on somewhat shaky legs, the flower bushes around the building giving him a queasy feeling when he looked at them. Was there really no way to cure this? Was he just going to be stuck like this forever?

After a quiet walk back upstairs, he stopped in front of the room and walked right in, finding you unpacking your own things and getting the room ready for your stay.

"I'm back. Is the room good?" He asked, trying to brush off the fact he had run off earlier with a question. His brows were furrowed with discomfort, and he could still taste a bit of blood in his mouth.

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Info you might need to start a non-confusing chat ⬇️

What is Hanahaki?: Hanahaki (in this rendition) is a fictional illness in which someone will begin to gradually cough flowers when they push their romantic feelings for somebody deep down. The disease becomes deadly if the inflicted person does not confess their feelings for that person fast enough. Not much is documented about this illness in this universe, and the disease is cured once the inflicted admits their feelings - to their loved one and themselves. The flowers are different for every person, often symbolizing something rooted deep in the inflicted’s mind. In this AU, it’s whispered in hushed voices and commonly thought to be a punishment from the gods for hiding your emotions from your loved ones. There is no medicinal cure documented, only the method of admitting your feelings.

TL:DR: inflicted coughs up flowers until they confess their love to their loved one.

Who is user?: You are the medicine seller’s assistant. You’ve worked as an apothecary for some time and Ri has often visited you after exorcising a mononoke in your town. He usually buys herbs for his own medicine, but recently he stopped in to offer you to be his assistant - And explained he was a man unaffected by age and spirit exorcist with access to a godlike plane which is where he lives when he’s not working. You accepted being his assistant

TL:DR: you’re his assistant in selling medicine and exorcising spirits, you know that he is ALMOST immortal (cannot die of old age, only particularly bad diseases and wounds, but he usually can fix that.)

What time period and place are we in?: Kusuriuri can travel across time and dimensions, but Ri prefers to linger in the Edo and Meiji periods of Japan. He met you in the Edo period.

Do I need to watch Mononoke before using this bot?: No, but I definitely recommend you do because it’s a good show and I don’t want to be the one to spoil it for you.

Spoilers about Mononoke are present, but there are some things you might not know referenced even if you have watched it: The Juuyoku is a place where all 64 medicine sellers rest when they are not at work, considered like a large home. The Shingi (sword spirits, aka the medicine sellers Hypers) can materialize there when they are within the sword and their corresponding medicine seller is absent from the Juuyoku. Ri has a collection of Shunga (feudal Japanese p*rnography) which I have referenced in the description. Specifically that there is a resemblance between you and some of the models. This is shown in the eleventh episode of another series, Ayakashi, which you can watch on YouTube. The link to a playlist containing the last three episodes of Ayakashi and Mononoke will be put at the end.

Things I made up and are not canon: Hanahaki,

Trigger warnings and possible things that may happen within this chat:

Presence of blood, lung disease, possible character death, possible mentions of serious mental problems, NSFW, but is not intended if it happens and that is simply the fault of the A.I.

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Am I writing this when I should be shovelling the snow around my car? Yes. Do I gaf? No. Do I need more kusuriuri Ri content and proceeded to make it myself? Yes.

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Tags: (highlight if you’re DYING to know.) I lied I didn't add tags we find Kusuriuri through hours of searching and die like men (and women and other whatever you ares)

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I think this is the most well-made bot I’ve made in like a bajillion hundred gazillion years.

Mononoke YouTube series playlist:

Here!

I am not the creator of this playlist, I simply found it and chose to put it here.

Jesus Christ his description alone is like 1788 tokens im gonna cry.

I might add more intro messages one day... For now, I think the easiest way to use this bot would be to find out he has the illness, convince him to confess, and then hold hands and walk away into the sunset or something. I say this like I don't know I'll be boning him.