anko3455
雨のち晴れのち After Rain, After Sunshine
Summary by platina
The author explains that for yukkuris, rain is a terrible calamity. If they get soaked, they're immobilized and can only sit there until they die, and particularly heavy raindrops can break their skin.
On a sunny morning after a rainy day and night, a family of stray yukkuris in the park boast about how strong they are, defeating the uneasy rain that must be jealous of them.
Father Marisa declares that she'll take the day off from hunting and stay home to play with the children. Actually, even though the family is all out of food, she wants to take it easy because she was frightened and uneasy while it was raining the previous day.
The family goes outside to happily play in the sunshine. They believe it will never rain again because they're such easy yukkuris. Little Reimu looks up at the beautiful clear blue sky and decides she wants to claim the whole sky as her own. She's thinking so hard about how to do that, she absent-mindedly wanders into a puddle and doesn't realize it until her family starts screaming at her in a panic.
Panicking, Reimu starts to "drown" in the water that barely covers her bottom when she's standing upright. She rolls over and starts splashing water on her face. Father Marisa also loses any semblance of good sense, crushing her hat under her as she jumps into the shallow puddle and trying to "paddle" with a stick when she's not even floating.
Father Marisa isn't moving forward. Mother Reimu and little Marisa are just flailing and shouting. As little Reimu begins to fall apart, she hurls abuse at her family, calling them trash for not rescuing her. She dies wishing she could live, take it easy more, and punish her family.
Her family cries and cries, wallowing in self-pity. Instead of blaming themselves, they tell each other that they all tried their best.
While they're crying, a human comes up and asks what's going on. They sob and wail, playing the role of tragic heroine. The human clarifies, "What are you doing in that puddle?" They look around--they're all in the shallow puddle, too. Little Reimu's remains are close enough that Father Marisa could have reached her in a single hop.
A drop of water strikes the human's face. The sky has clouded over and it's beginning to rain again. Taking out his umbrella, the human looks at the yukkuri family panicking as they realize their situation, decides he's not really interested, and leaves.
It starts to rain heavily. It pours and pours, setting a new record and killing most of the yukkuris in the region, almost as if in response to something certain yukkuris said.
The yukkuri family is never seen again.