Chapter Text
“Get back here, thief!”
You quickly dodged another fireball that was meant to hit you in the back. The blazing orb of light flew inches away from your body and hit the wall nearby, creating a burst of bright tongues of flames, which then quickly faded, leaving a charred black spot on the surface.
“Woah! That was a close call!” You thought, while kept running, ignoring the screams of the man, who was trying to cast another spell in an attempt to hit you. Unfortunately for him, his aim wasn’t good at all and you managed to avoid another shot.
Since your pursuer wasn’t an athlete either, pretty soon he was out of breath, letting you escape with stolen goods. Watching as a thief was getting away, he cursed through clenched teeth and threw his hat in front of himself, overwhelmed with dismay.
Meanwhile you, despite knowing that there’s no one was chasing you anymore, decided not to stop yet, until you reached suburbs of the city. You hid in an old abandoned building and, finally feeling safe, took out from rugged jacked a loaf of bread you successfully stole from the bakery. Without any hesitation, you sank your teeth into a still-warm pastry and ripped a big piece of it. Because of strong hunger, it was hard to force yourself chew the bitten piece at least a few times instead of just swallowing it whole right away. After all, it’s been days since you managed to steal some proper food from the last time so this bread was like a blessing after days of eating leftovers from the dumpsters.
After finishing half of the loaf, you felt thirsty. Almost on instinct level, you reached for an old flask, that was always tied to your belt. It was rugged and had some cracks, which, although, you always could repair successfully. You flipped the cap with your thumb and were about to fill your overdried throat with water, but…
It was empty.
“Huh?” You shook the vessel in disbelief. You just realized that it felt too light. But you could swear you filled it with water just this morning! There had to be at least some left.
You looked inside the flask and saw the exact reason why you ran out of the water so fast.
There was a big hole in the bottom.
“When did I...” You quickly examined the body and found out that the hole was besieged with burnt edges. Looks like that guy’s aim was maybe a bit better that you expected.
“Oh, son of a bitch!” You exclaimed in annoyance.
Besides feeling annoyed, you tried to calm yourself down. It wasn’t the first time this thing was broken, right? Just need to take a closer look. Then, perhaps, find some wood to close the hole, grease it with gum and…
CRACK!
And it fell apart. Right in your hands. Great, just great.
Come to think of it you had that coming: this flask was repaired so many countless times so it was a miracle that it broke just now.
With a sad sigh, you tossed the now-piece-of-junk away. You needed to find a replacement, and the faster – the better. You looked through the window and saw the lights starting to flare up in the centre of the town: the evening bazaar was about to open. Perhaps, you should give a try for you like for another robbery today?
The evening bazaars were not part of everyday routine in the city: they usually are held during national holidays in the kingdom or even local events that were tied to the history of the town. You didn’t care about them, though. The bazaars were the source of food and supplies you could get in the crowds of people who were too busy to pay any attention to your existence, and that’s the only thing that mattered.
So, you were walking around, folding your rugged cloak about yourself and putting the hood over your head. You moved from stores to stands, from stands to merchants, who were drumming up the citizens. You saw a huge choice of the flasks on counters, yet almost every single one had a flaw: too big, too small, too colourful, too heavy, not solid enough…
Oh, wait.
Suddenly something catches your eye: a flask made of calabash painted red and white. Not too small, nor too big. Just the perfect size.
But there was one problem: the desired item was tied to clothes of a merchant. Despite not being a talkative person and usually avoiding contacts, you quickly recognized who it was, just the moment you managed to catch a glimpse of a person’s face: it was the white kitsune. You’ve seen this man from time to time. For some reason, he preferred to appear here during evening bazaars in this city. You never targeted him for robbery before: mostly because you never were interested in magical seeds or other magic-related stuff since your main objective was to get some food to just survive another day. But there was also another reason for you to avoid the fox man: you couldn’t help, but feel, perhaps a bit, afraid to deal with the youkai. Years of surviving in the streets taught you how to deal with people and get away from them without any confrontation, but the youkai… You didn’t know what to expect from being made out of magic. But maybe your fears were a bit exaggerated?
As you were watching the kitsune, you noticed one thing: he was talking with customers, while being alone. Hmm, wasn’t there a cat-girl that was always hanging around him? Wonder where she could’ ve- “Seen something you’d like to purchase, nyan?”
“A-ah!” you jumped in surprise when the mentioned girl appeared out of nowhere right behind you. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” you glared back at her.
“He-heh, sorry! You’ve just been staring at Sensei for some time. I thought that you’re interested in our stuff.”
“If I was, I could’ve just come and asked myself, then!” you grumbled, and walked away, leaving the yokai standing alone, confused.
“How rude!” She huffed, folding her arms.
When you got far away enough, you hid near the bazaar’s stands so you could come up with a plan to snatch the flask. The fox man could be distracted by customers, but the girl youkai was a problem. Then you just need something that will catch their attention, or even the whole bazaar’s. Something like a little… diversion.
You gave an observing look to the line of stands nearby: on the other end of it, a woman was selling yarn. It took a couple of minutes before you finally knew what you had to do. With help of your stealth skills, you snuck under the counters without anyone noticing and swiftly reached the stand with yarn, avoiding bumping into people’s feet. When you reached the needed stand, you started to search for a gap between the planks of the countertop. It took mere seconds to find what you needed: a little hole with a ball of yarn just above it. Perfect! You took out your little handmade knife. It couldn’t cut through solid materials like wood, but it was sharp enough to deal with the fabric. So, you cut the yarn and then grabbed a tread from it. Now all you needed is to stretch it out through the entire row of stands. You started moving back, but this time you were carefully wrapping the thread of yarn around merchants and salesmen’s legs, along with counters. You specifically let the ropes a bit loose, so people wouldn’t notice what was happening at their feet. Soon you got back to the beginning of the row. Now onto the final draft to trigger the chain reaction. On your way back you grabbed a random shiny medallion from one of the counters. Then you hid in the shadow and when you noticed someone passing by, you quickly dropped the trinket into their pocket. And, by some coincidence, you did it right in time.
“What the-? Where’s the medallion?!”
“Calm down, old man! You probably just sold it and forgot about it.”
“No, it was just there, I swear it!”
Now was the time to start the diversion.
You pointed at the man on whom you planted the stolen jewellery and screamed:
“It’s him! That guy! I saw him stealing the medallion!”
Citizens and merchants turned to the poor confused young lad’s direction and the crowd started gathering around him. People were murmuring and exchanging glances. Meanwhile, you moved into another spot and looked for the white kitsune. You saw him not far. He didn’t blend with people mass, but the ruckus sure caught his and his cat companion’s attention. As for the lad, he realized what was going and tried to explain himself.
“What? Wait! I didn’t steal anything!” he said, looking at the crowd around him.
“Then shows us what’s in your pockets!”
“Okay, I will. I’m sure in my innocence and I’ll prove it to you all!”
The guy you accused of robbery, started to rummage in pockets of his jacket. Suddenly he takes out the medallion.
“Huh? How did it get here?” he murmured to himself
“It’s the lost medallion!” someone exclaimed from the crowd.
“So, he’s the thief!”
“N-no! I don’t know how it got there! Please, believe me!”
“Don’t let him go! Call the guards!”
You bit your lip, feeling sorry for the guy. Setting up someone like this wasn’t your usual style, despite being a thief. You had to somehow fix the situation and still finish the diversion plan. At the last moment, you came up with the solution. It was risky, but hey, your entire life was like that for years, you don’t have much to lose. If you’re an outlaw at least don’t drag others into this.
“Hey! Wait! Maybe it’s not the trinket we’re searching for! Call the merchant! He’s the one who should tell if it’s his” you exclaimed.
The crowd started murmuring again.
“What? Isn’t that a bit absurd?”
“Well, come think of it, he really should recognize his own stuff, shouldn’t he?”
“Right! Call the jewellery seller!”
“I’m comin’ already!” the old man answered.
As he was about to leave the counter, he noticed that something was preventing him from leaving the counter.
“God damn it! What mockery is this?! I’m stuck!”
“I’ll help!” another seller said, rushing to the man.
Finally, the main part of the plan came into action. Who would’ve thought that the strength of two people was enough to cause the entire row of stands came crashing down? The question was rhetorical.
“AAAH!!”
“Somebody, help!”
“What the hell was that?!”
“Is that a rope?”
Now everyone quickly forgot about the robbery and rushed to help the merchants who were caught in the rubble of wood, cloth and their own goods they were selling. And, as you planned. The youkai was among those people. Now was your chance! You start to move through the crowd towards the fox man. You prepared the knife and when you reached his belt…
SNAP!
The flask was finally in your hands. But as you were about to hide it under the clothing, you felt something. You raised your head and your (y/e/c) eyes met with dark ones of the kitsune. He blinked, seemed to be puzzled a bit, processing what he was seeing. You too, completely froze in one place, unable to avert your gaze from the face, pale as snow. Despite feeling a creeping fear from the realization that you’ve been caught red-handed, you found that there was something… attractive in youkai’s face?
“Hey, what are you-“
The sound of kitsune’s voice snapped back into reality. About time! Now you had to do the best thing you could.
Run.
In a matter of seconds, you turned around and dashed away from the white youkai, manoeuvring among the people in the crowd. You heard him calling you from behind. Even though you hid the vessel under your rugged coat immediately after you got it off youkai’s belt and blended with the townsfolk, his voice made you subconsciously move faster. You heard hid him saying something else, maybe even screaming, but it didn’t matter. You just kept running and running, as usual, not daring to look back. It was a typical habit that you developed due to living in the streets for years. Yet you couldn’t help but feel that despite not being pursued, you were watched.
Once again, you reached the suburbs and finally could catch your breath. You sat under an old tree to take a rest. That was quite a run! Strangely you can’t remember running like this in the past at all. Like the wind itself was helping you getting away. You decided to take a look at the flask. Now that you held it in your hands, you could examine it much better. As you guessed, it was made of dried pumpkin bottle. The body was painted white with an interesting mark painted with red on the top part of it. Guess it was clan marking or something? But there was also another thing in flask’s design that has caught your attention: a curious pattern of foxes that was encircled the bottle. The pattern wasn’t just painted over the white layer. The foxes were carved on the bottle at first and just then the paint was used.
Overall, the flask was beautiful. Maybe a bit too beautiful. Knowing your habit to always carry the flask tied to your belt, using this bottle with such prominent design would draw unwanted attention to you. Well, it wasn’t a big problem, though: just needed to wrap some rug around it, leaving the neck open for drinking.
Speaking of, you still were thirsty. Even much more after all this running. Fortunately, there was a river nearby so you decided to give the stolen flask a try. You came closer to the water stream and drowned the bottle in it, filling the vessel with water. Then you pressed the neck of it against your lips and started drinking greedily.
“Ha-a-ah…” You wiped your lips with the back of your hand after drinking. God the water taste so good, although a bit odd for some reason.
“So, you’re not just a cad, but also a thief, huh?”
You jumped when you heard the familiar voice from above. You looked back at the old tree and saw the cat youkai sitting on a branch, playing with a fish-shaped knife.
Your surprised look was quickly changed with an annoyed one.
“You again? I don’t have time for you”
“Ah, don’t worry, nya!” the cat girl smirked “I won’t take much of your time. Just give back uncle’s flask and I won’t have to fight you, ‘kay?”
“Like I would give it back! Do you know how hard it was to steal it?”
“Guess you prefer to play cat and mouse!” the youkai jumped from the tree and landed right in front of you “Alright then!”
Without any other words, you quickly sprinted away from her. Truth be told, you were actually tired after a robbery in the bazaar, but luckily, some water had given you some strength for another run. You rushed towards small woodland. Cat and mouse, she said? Heh, let’s see if this cat could catch you in your field! You just needed to reach the trees and loop around until you get that youkai out of your tail.
In mere minutes you reached the woodland. But, to your dismay, the catgirl didn’t even think of leaving you alone. From the ground, you both moved to branches of trees and the chase continued there. You realized that you’ve started to feel weaker with every leap. This was bad, really bad!
“What’s wrong?” you heard youkai’s voice “Getting tired, nya?”
Damn it! That cocky-! Okay, calm down! Focus! You need to come up with something and now!
Suddenly you felt a sudden urge to face your pursuer. The next moment you turned around, you saw her leaping right at you. Her hood with a drawing of a cat’s eye lifted a bit and you saw her red eyes.
“Gotcha!”
“A-ah!”
You instinctively covered your face with hands and squeezed your eyes shut, prepared for an impact.
But what happened next wasn’t expected by anyone of you. A sudden strong gust of wind appeared right between you two and the next moment you and the girl youkai were thrown in different directions.
“WHOAAAAH!”
“MEOOOOW!”
You fell on the ground and heard the cat girl falling nearby. You had no idea what happened, but realized one thing: you must use this moment to hide.
Before she even managed to get up, you rolled yourself into a small hole that was next to you and buried yourself under the dirt and leaves. Soon you heard how the youkai approached your hiding place. You held your breath, trying to stay still as possible. Meanwhile, the girl was looking around. She searched for you around for some time (which felt like an eternity to you), then you heard her voice:
“Mrooow! And where did that kid go? I can’t believe I lost them! It’s getting really dark though… Uncle Izuna is probably worried. I must go back.”
And then she ran away. You stayed in the hole for some time even after you stopped hearing youkai’s footsteps. When you were sure that you’re alone, you finally got up, shaking off the dirt. That was one hell of a chase, you’d say! You took out the stolen flask and inspected it to see if it was damaged. You noticed that it wasn’t cracked anywhere and let out a sigh of relief. Now you could finally go to your hideout without (you hope, at least), any other adventures.
The bazaar was closed and almost all people and merchants already went either home or to someplace they were staying overnight before moving to the next city in the morning. Izuna stayed on the city’s main square, waiting for his friend. Nekomata disappeared right after the incident with the shopping stores when he saw a street thief stealing his flask. Even though he could rush after you, he decided to stay and help clean the mess, yet regretted that he didn’t follow a member of his tribe. Neko was sure a smart girl and knew the local streets and suburbs, yet the kitsune couldn’t help but still feel a bit worried.
“Uncle Izuna!”
Fox man’s ears perked when he heard cat youkai’s voice. The next moment he saw Nekomata running towards him, panting and covered in dirt.
“Neko! Sweetie, where you’ve been?”
“I-“ Nekomata tried to answer, but was almost out of breath “I was chasing the thief that stole your flask and tried to get it back… But I couldn’t… I’m sorry, I had to…I should’ ve-!”
“Hey, easy there!” Izuna stopped her “You need to catch your breath! Give yourself a break.”
The younger youkai gave a nod and followed kitsune’s advice. When she managed to regain control of her breath, she told Izuna everything about how she chased you to the suburbs and lost in the woodlands.
“I think they have a talent for wind magic. Although it seems like they lack control over it. That gust of wind they summoned send us both flying like we were maple leaves!”
“Wind magic?” Izuna tapped his chin “That’s curious. There are not many humans who could cast spells of this element.”
“Curious or not, I’m still mad at them!” Nekomata huffed, folding her arms. “I should’ve attacked them when they were drinking from the flask.”
Izuna’s eyes widened.
“Wait, you saw them drinking from it?”
“Yeah! Sipping the water out of it like they owned that thing!” the cat youkai huffed angrily, but then she noticed kitsune’s worried look “Sensei?”
“This is bad… Really, really bad…” he rubbed his temple “Poor fella is sure gonna have one hell of a morning tomorrow…”
“Why are you worried about them all of a sudden?” Nekomata tilted her head in curiosity.
“I’ll explain when we get back home. But we should go back tomorrow here in the morning and wait.
“Just wait?” the cat youkai stared back at the albino, dumbfounded. “For what? Do you expect them to bring us the flask themselves?”
The kitsune smiled at her cunningly “Exactly!”
Meanwhile, you reached your little hideout absolutely powerless. Finally, this chase was over! Unfortunately, you weren't feeling so good. It felt like your entire body was burning and itchy. Were you getting sick? Guess that's what you get running around in chilly evenings when your clothes are nothing but rugs wrapped around your body. Anyway, you couldn't allow yourself any medicine. Perhaps after a good nap, you'll feel better? Not that you have any other options. Somehow you managed to drag your body to a pile of rugs and hay, which were your bed, and fell atop of them, passing out immediately.