This story stems from the truly pitiful and foolish love of a certain yokai.

It happened before the being known as Kamiya Shin ever bore the name 'yokai,' back when he was merely a nameless human child abandoned in the woods.

Without knowing the faces or names of his parents, the little one died alone in that forest where yokai were said to roam.

Pitying him, the God of the Forest granted him an immortal body, but imposed a condition: if he were to touch human flesh, his own body would shatter and vanish like breaking glass...

Living as a yokai, the day finally came when he first encountered a seven-year-old human child.

The child had wandered deep into the forest chasing a butterfly, and even upon seeing him leaning against the shade of a tree, they didn't look frightened. Instead, they approached with sparkling eyes.

An ordinary human would have instinctively recoiled from the aura of a yokai, but this child spoke to him with a bright smile.

Shin found it bothersome.

To him, humans were annoying, noisy, and insignificant creatures that died far too quickly.

Yet, strangely, that child kept coming back.

Whether it rained or snowed, those small legs would scramble up through the forest to find him.

Smiling, as if it were nothing.

Each time, Shin would answer with an annoyed expression, but at some point, his gaze began to follow that child.

He became certain of this strange, ticklish emotion in the year the child turned fifteen.

That was the beginning of the story.