The fox hadn’t been the only strange thing about the day. The fox attack had merely been the cherry on the top after being almost killed by a katana-wielding maniac. “What about the other guy? You said he was tengu.”
“Yes, his name is Sho. He’s the second in command to Katsu, the leader of the tengu. It was clever of you to throw him in the water. He would have had to wait to dry off before he could fly off and get back up.” She wouldn’t have called it clever, but it had kept her alive. She had struggled to stay alive fighting against one of them, she doubted she would have lasted a moment if more had attacked her.
“You make him sound like he’s part of some army group.”
She knew a little about tengu as one of her favourite authors had written about them but other than the fictional characters, she wasn’t familiar with their history.
Haku straightened up the kitchen as he spoke even though there was little to do. She recognised them for the nervous actions they were. “The tengu like to fight. They tend to be in groups as well. You were lucky there was only one of them.” She was glad as well that she had only faced one sword-swinging nut job as she had nearly died.
Finished with his tidying, he went to a carved box and pulled the naginata pencil out and laid it on the table. “Tell me about this.” His tone full of serious undertones that had her glancing at his face to see if she could identify what was bothering him. There were no clues there.
Tempted to pick up the naginata, she resisted as she thought about the transforming weapon suddenly expanding and knocking over things in the immaculate kitchen. She must have left it in the bathroom the night before. It had certainly come in handy against the tengu, but she had mixed feelings about it. Not that it was a weapon. She liked authentic weapons. They brought out a graceful peace in her when she could use them. No, instead, it was the whole magical thing. If it were real, everything in her world was completely wrong, and she wasn’t ready to face that with a smile and a skip in her step.
Taking another bite of the toast, she thought about kitsune and tengu being real. She grew up in a country that had roads rerouted because of mythical water monsters, so she knew that belief was sometimes stronger than reality, but she didn’t think that was the case here. Certainly, Haku’s ability to take away her pain had been very real.
She remembered where she had heard his name before. As a fan of Miyazaki, she should have picked it up sooner, but she could blame the shock and pain of the night before. His having a name of a fictional character didn’t help with settling her world view at the moment. Thinking back to when she bought the pencil come naginata, she wondered if there had been any signs it had been magical.
“Some lady sold it to me. I bought a few. Wait, are the others magical as well?” Her world tilted drastically though it had nothing to do with her injuries. Panic niggled on the edge of her emotions. She had known she was going too fast, but it had her flipping her stomach over just to contemplate it. Taking a deep breath, she grounded herself.
The other pencils were in her room sitting on the side table with the other things retrieved from her jacket. They hadn’t transformed in the middle of the night. Though maybe it was only when she was attacked by magical creatures that the things even bothered to transform.
“No, only this one. It’s sacred,” he reassured her. Though, to be honest, one magic pencil was enough for her.
“I didn’t know there were any sacred naginata.” She only knew a handful of the famous blades and that was only because she had roomed with a weapon’s geek in Japan.
“That is among the humans. The yokai have their own stories and traditions.” His tone was filled with years of oppression and degradation of his people. She knew a little about how the Japanese had been treated by the western world after their diaspora. After world war that had only turned more dangerous. Adding on the fact he was a yokai probably made that persecution even more deadly. That didn’t mean he had to take it out on her. She hadn’t been one of the people to steal his land and throw his people into prisons just because they looked different.
“Sorry for being ignorant,” she drawled sarcastically. Feeling defensive, she pulled her plate a little further away from him and closer to herself.
He frowned but continued with his questioning, “Did you know what it was?”
She played with a few crumbs on the counter that had escaped and placed them on the plate before she answered. “No, I thought it was a pencil. You saw the other pencils. I like the novelty ones, and these were unique, so I bought them. That is the end of the story.”
He nodded sagely though she wasn’t sure if he truly believed her. He urged her to tell her story with a motion of his hand. “Then the tengu attacked you when you were on the bridge alone. He called you a thief.” That wasn’t a question, and she finished off another slice. Feeling more solid, she went to the fridge to see if there was fruit juice.
Inside the fridge, everything was organised by labels on the shelves. Bottles lined up and leftover food in stackable and colour-coordinated containers stood like soldiers at attention. Shaking off her surprise at the organizational system, she studied the labels to reveal the location of the fruit juice. She was in luck when she found a half carton of orange juice tucked in next to the milk. She poured herself a cup and returned to her seat.
Haku watched her as she did this but didn’t comment on her being so comfortable in his kitchen or that she was avoiding discussing the tengu’s attack. She wasn’t ready to accept all the other magical things. Besides, she hadn’t thought twice about wandering in his kitchen. He had carried her while she bled all over him. That was more than enough to be on more friendly terms. She didn’t want to explain that she needed to do something normal so her brain could wrap itself around the change in worldview he was asking of her.
He motioned to the naginata and asked with some gentleness to his voice. “Then how did you know how to bind it to you?”
That surprised her enough to blurt out. “Bind? I didn’t do that.” That sounded permanent and something magical. She wasn’t sure what part bothered her the most.
He caught her hand which had her tugging it back. Ignoring her attempt to retrieve her hand, he flipped it over to reveal the small cut on the fleshy part at the base of her thumb. “You bound it to you. You can make it do anything you like. Call it and see.”
He let go of her hand. She hunched over, unhappy that he had manhandled her. But she was also curious. Running a thumb over the small cut, she was thoughtful. The magical stuff freaked her out but like when she was about to go into a freestyle fight. Adrenaline and nerves fighting against each other and tugging her in two directions. That was the magic. It was interesting, but it changed everything, and that scared her.
Curious, she called the naginata like she would a pet. “Come here, nagi-nagi-nata.” Holding her hand out, she wriggled her fingers. She didn’t expect it to do anything so when the silver writing flashed white and flew into her hand, it had her recoiling backwards. It expanded to its full size the moment it touched her palm.
Her shock had her rocking on the chair, and she almost fell over. Convinced it was a dream, she stared at the naginata, but there was no denying this was real. Her fingers tightened around the shaft.
“This is a problem.” She didn’t take her eyes off the staff. She could see the writing was kanji, but she didn’t know nearly enough Japanese to be able to make out what the words meant.
Perplexed, he asked, “Why? You now possess a powerful weapon.”
She glanced up, but he was looking at the naginata and not at her; she couldn’t read his emotions on his face. She shook the naginata, hoping he would pay more attention to her than the weapon. “That is the problem. I now possess a powerful weapon. People will want it. Your people will want it.” She slapped it onto the counter and winced at the sharp crack the wood made.
He shrugged nonchalant about the whole thing. “You can use it to fight them off.”
He
r nose wrinkled; she wasn’t a fighter. If those old sparring contests when she was in school were any indication, she was on a quick trip to deadsville. She was also aware of most people’s prejudices. Just because she wasn’t one of them, she would suddenly be unworthy of the weapon. It wasn’t like she could wave some magic stick and become a yokai.
“What about the other yokai? I’m assuming some of them have powers of their own.” She didn’t want to think of her odds against a magical being. Even as a fox, she hadn’t been very effective against Haku. And he had been the size of a fat tom cat on steroids.
Haku winced. “There are some of us who are powerful.” She raised an eyebrow and he added, “And they will want the naginata for themselves.”
Pursing her lips. “Your people don’t like it that a mere little old human has the weapon that should be held by a yokai. And I’ll probably have people like that tengu hunting me for the naginata.” He didn’t disagree with her. So at least with the yokai, they had humanlike motivations. That she could work with. “Tell me more about this bond with the naginata. Can it be dangerous?”
“The bond won’t harm you. But it can still be dangerous to you. Not because of the bond itself but the easiest way to break the bond is for you to die,” his voice serious and his brow furrowed.
“Oh, I’m definitely dead,” her voice pained.
“We need to break the bond, otherwise we cannot return it to its rightful owner,” he said with conviction. At least he was coming around to her way of thinking.
“And just who is the rightful owner?” She tilted the naginata to study it closer.
“Inari, last I heard.” Kiera had visited enough shrines in Japan to know Inari, a goddess of rice, had significant influence in Japan, whose lives revolved around rice. Here in Canada, she doubted the goddess had nearly as much power.
She speculated about Haku and his powers.
So far, he had been able to heal her and keep away pain so maybe he had some other kitsune trick up his sleeve. And of course he could turn into a fox.
It wasn’t like she wanted the naginata, certainly not a magical naginata. It made sense to give it back to Inari and leave any issues with her. Kiera caressed the carved kanji. It was a very fine weapon. She had always liked the pole weapons when most of the others in her club had favoured swords of one kind or another. But this naginata came with a cost she wasn’t willing to pay. “Fine, do you know how to break the bond, preferably without killing me?”
“There are a few things I can try. If you are willing.” He didn’t sound as confident or sure as she would expect. Then she remembered that he liked her and without the naginata, there really wasn’t any reason for her to stick around.
“If I give this back, I’m less likely to be attacked by random strangers, right?” The dying part of breaking the bond was the part she wanted to avoid the most. It was probably the easiest way for the other yokai to take it from her but the most inconvenient to her.
“Yes, exactly. And they will not just incapacitate you to take it away. They will kill you.” She had gotten to that conclusion already.
“Then I’m all for trying to figure out how to give this back.” Placing the naginata on the counter, it shrank back to the size of a pencil.
She muttered to herself, “Useful.” As she didn’t think she could hide a five-foot pole in her jacket or get it on airlines, and that would put a serious kink in her current plans.
She tapped the counter, thinking. If they couldn’t solve the problem of her being bonded to the naginata, she would be forever chased around for it. Or she could find allies amongst the yokai. She couldn’t believe she was even contemplating asking mythical creatures to help her not get killed by a bunch of other mythical creatures.
Since Haku had carried her to his home to heal her, she knew he was open to helping her. She had only briefly seen him as a fox when he had attacked, and she was already in shock at that stage. She hadn’t seen the other guy at all as a bird, though she assumed that was how he managed to sneak up on her on a long bridge devoid of people. For a moment, she wondered if she was being scammed. At some stage, it would be revealed this was some elaborate trick for a show.
She looked up and asked, “So, what do you look like as a fox? Because let’s be honest, I wasn’t in any shape to take notice.” It was easier than thinking of the risk to her life. Besides, she was sizing him up as a protector against others if she was stuck as guardian of the naginata for any length of time.
When he didn’t answer, she added, “I bet you are cute.”
He sighed. Surely, it wasn’t hard. From what she knew about kitsune and their change was that it was magic. They were supposed to be foxes first and staying in human shape was the hard part. Not like stories of werewolves that had bones snapping and skin peeling. He moved away from the table and then there was a fox sitting on the floor. His front paws set in front of him, close together.
Not very tall, he was a very cute fox. Two tails slapped the ground. He wasn’t a happy fox though. She went to her knees and buried her hands in his fur. He was smaller than most of the farm dogs, but he was bigger than she had expected from foxes. Probably bigger than a red fox. His fur was fiery red, and his tail sparked with flames. They snuffed out as he settled his tails on the ground, but she could still smell burnt ozone. There was no smell of burnt fur, so he was fireproof as well as fiery.
“Aww, you are gorgeous.” She scratched in his ruff and gathered him in close. His wet nose briefly touched the side of her neck which had her flinching away. Taking that as a sign to study him closer, she leaned around him to check out the double tails.
According to legend, that would mean he was two hundred years old. That had her rocking back on her heels. “Are you really, really old? Like two hundred years old, really, really old?”
He returned to a human form and offered her a hand. She accepted it and rose with his assistance. Aware of how close she was to him with her nose level with his chest. She had to tilt her head back to catch his eye. But he wasn’t looking at her. He had his eyes off to the side.
He said, “Two hundred and forty-two.” Really old then.
“And Akari? Just how old is she.” If he would answer her nosy questions, she would ask them all.
“She has only just taken her human form. Both of our parents were kitsune, so we are both full-blooded. Part-human kitsune start with a human form.” She knew enough about the stories to guess Akari was barely a hundred years old. That was young for a kitsune, but it seemed ancient to her.
“Form?” she asked, hoping he would fill in with some detail.
“Yes, we are foxes until we are at least a hundred. Then we can master our shape.” She lifted his hand that was still in her own.
“But you are human. I can feel you.” This wasn’t just magic. She should feel fur if it was just an illusion like the stories said.
“And we can breed with humans,” he added significantly.
She flushed but didn’t drop his hand. “Is it just magic then?”
“Is that too hard to accept?” His voice turned soft. And when she looked up, his eyes were on her face. She dropped her eyes.
“Yes.” She let go of his hand. She had to think about this. This world she found herself in. Before she could find somewhere to hide and think about it, Akari came in waving a piece of paper. “Have you seen this?”
Haku said facetiously, “A trifle difficult with you waving it around like that.” She slapped it to the counter and paced the space between the couch and the counter in the kitchen.
Haku took his time to read the letter and stated, “You aren’t a cheat.”
“I know,” Akari growled. Being a completely nosey person, Kiera glanced over and read the writing upside down. It was from a university and was about someone accusing her of cheating on her last exam.
Akari smoothed her hands over her clothes. Clearly agitated. “What am I going to do? I can’t get kicked out. It will prove to Eiji that he
was right.” Now who was Eiji? He sounded like someone important, but she didn’t want to ask and maybe distract them from their heated discussion.
“Forget Eiji, he isn’t important,” his tone gentle though Kiera didn’t think it would do anything to calm down Akari.
Akari stopped pacing. “That isn’t what you said when Mom and Dad died.” Wow, that was a story she wanted to hear. Since there was merely upset over the allegations, she assumed the death of the parents was some distance in the past. Kiera’s father had only died a year and a bit before, and she wasn’t at a point where she could talk to strangers about it. Though she had spoken to her cousin. That had been when she had left New Zealand to travel.
“You were a fox still.” Definitely a while ago then.
“I’m still a fox, and I remember what you said then. I wasn’t stupid, just young.” Now Kiera wanted to know who Eiji was that he could hold power over these two who seemed to be financially sound and had each other. And of course were magic. Didn’t that trump everything?
“I never said you were stupid,” Haku said in a long-suffering voice.
Kiera could see this descending into an argument, so she said, “Why don’t you ask for a review? Do the test in front of them or verbally. Surely you can’t cheat that way. Then they will see you know this stuff and that you wouldn’t need to cheat.”
There was a tense silence from the two, and she wondered if she had overstepped by giving advice. Haku raised an eyebrow and asked, “What about that?”
Akari wrinkled her nose and said, “Fine.” And stormed out.
Kiera asked, “Does she not like me?”
Zero Foxes Given Page 4
