Keiko woke up to the sound of Hisa glaring out the window. The kitsune’s face was plastered in anger.
“What’s going on, Hisa?” Keiko asked.
She answered, “I think I saw an asshole out there, sis.”
“An asshole?” That confused her. “Is it someone you know?”
“I don’t need to know them to know that they’re an asshole,” Hisa said.
Keiko sighed, “Could you please explain?”
“There might be a tanuki here.”
“A tanuki? Oh, right, I heard that kitsune and tanuki don’t get alone.”
“We hate those assholes. They’re always cheating people out of their money and fighting with us,” Hisa stated.
“The tanuki might be working with our enemies,” Keiko said.
“We should kill it even if it isn’t,” the kitsune replied. “Never trust a tanuki, ever.”
“Even if we can’t trust it, that’s no reason to kill it if it isn’t an enemy.”
“But if we killed it, there’d be one less tanuki in the world,” Hisa stated.
“We’re not killing it if it isn’t an enemy!” Keiko stomped her foot on the floor, the sound of the impact echoing through the room. “Erik and his vampires are bloodthirsty enough already! Don’t get like that too!”
“Okay, okay, I won’t,” the kitsune assured her as worry overtook her face. “Do you need to talk to Haru, sis?”
“I talked to him last night, and…I’m just stressed out from everything. Honestly, I really, really, really want to let out all my stress.”
Hisa smirked, “Oh, I got it, sis. You want to have sex with Haru.”
Keiko threw a pillow into her face. Hisa recoiled from the impact before throwing the pillow to the floor.
“Hey, what was that for?” she asked.
“You shouldn’t just say something like that. I shouldn’t have reacted that way, but you need to learn more about human culture.”
“Alright, fine, I won’t talk about sex,” Hisa said. “Then you must want to punch something, right? That gets rid of stress.”
“Yes. I want to beat the crap out of something, but I’m not sure if that’s me or if I’m changing because I’m part non-human. What if Haru-kun and Erik were wrong?” Keiko questioned.
The kitsune replied, “Haru knows more about any of us, and Erik has more experience. I mean, I’m a hundred, but he’s over a thousand. You can trust them, sis.”
She nodded, “I hope you’re right, Hisa.”
In another part of the house, Haru was standing at a window, looking out over the streets. People were walking around, having conversations, going to lunch, and doing various other things. This made Haru’s eye twitch. Anger swelled inside of him.
Haru stepped away from the window and went to get breakfast. He opened the refrigerator and found that there was nothing there.
“What the hell? There was plenty of food last night.”
“There was,” Beauregard rested his head on a table. “But then that there kitsune got hungry. That girl ain’t right, I say. She ate everything there and didn’t gain a single pound from it.”
“Supernatural creatures can be like that,” Haru walked to the door, not looking forward to what was about to happen. “I’m going to get food. I won’t go too far away.”
He stepped outside, a wave of heat washing over him. Sunlight blasted into Haru’s eyes as he walked to the nearest Fat Franny’s Fabulous Fun Fruitful Fast Food. It was commonly known as the restaurant chain with a far too long name.
Relieving coolness flowed across Haru as he walked through the doors. The employee working the register glared at him. Haru gulped, realizing that he probably should have asked Keiko to get food.
“I’ve come too far,” he thought. “There’s no turning back now.”
Haru stepped forward before realizing something.
“What the hell was I thinking? I can literally just turn back.”
He did exactly that, leaving the restaurant.
Outside, Haru saw a street vendor who was selling handheld fans to tourists. Haru paused to look.
“My curse will affect this, but Keiko-chan might like a fan. She wants to be more feminine. One of those fans could make her look like a court lady. I should get her one.”
He walked over to the vendor, earning a glare from him.
“What the hell do you want?” the vendor asked.
Haru answered, “I just want to buy a fan.”
“I’m not selling one to you.”
“It’s not for me,” he said. “It’s for my girlfriend.”
A contemplative look crossed the vendor’s face. He nodded.
“I think I have one for you. Girls love this fan.”
“Thanks. I’ll buy it,” Haru was suspicious, so he quickly prodded it with his magical senses.
Nothing was wrong, so he bought the fan and went back.
In their base, Keiko glared at Hisa.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” she asked.
The kitsune answered, “Sorry that I ate everything.”
“You should be fine,” Beauregard stated. “That boy went out to get food.”
“Haru-kun went out? But he has that curse on him,” Keiko pointed out.
Haru stepped inside, “I know, Keiko-chan, that’s why I went back. I didn’t get food, but I got something for you.”
He handed her the fan, and she examined it.
Keiko smiled, “Thanks, Haru-kun. This is a nice war fan. It doesn’t have a blade, but it’s still in the style of one.”
“You’re welcome, Keiko-chan,” Haru smiled while thinking. “It was sabotage after all! I’ll curse that bastard!”
“Do you like war fans?” Hisa looked at it over Keiko’s shoulder.
“I do,” she replied. “Nothing says grace and strength like a war fan. I like kanabos the best for their power and naginatas for their femininity, but war fans have an aspect to them neither of those do.”
Relief flowed through Haru. He was glad that Keiko ended up liking his gift.
“I’m still mad at the guy who sold me this, but I won’t curse him. We have more important things to focus on anyway.”
“If you’re done talking about weapons,” Erik walked in. “Not that you should ever be done talking about weapons, I have plans for tonight that we’ll need to discuss.”
“Can we wait until we get something to eat?” Haru asked.
The vampire said, “Don’t we have plenty of food?”
“Don’t ask,” Beauregard sighed.
Erik shrugged, “These plans won’t take long to explain. They’re pretty simple.”
“What are they?” Hisa asked. “I want to get to some hella awesome fighting.”
“Let’s start out with the facts. We’re up against an unknown number of enemies, a mixture of yokai and other beings, and we’re outnumbered. We have the advantage that they know nothing about us, but they’re probably more cautious after losing one of their own. We could pick them off one by one; however, that’d give them the opportunity to try something. Our best option is to lure them into a trap.”
Keiko wondered, “How are we going to do that?”
“I’m glad you asked,” Erik smiled. “You are a key part of it.”
She blinked in shock, “I am?”
“Yes. Even if it isn’t active at the moment, you have yokai blood in you. With a bit of your own blood, I can create a full bit of yokai blood and leave it in a trail to make them think one of their own was injured.”
“You can do that?” Beauregard jumped so high that he banged is head against the ceiling.
Lenora was shocked too, “I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell us?”
“You mean aside from you having two brain cells combined?” Erik shrugged. “I didn’t feel like it.”
Ved'ma Story 