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It is way past midnight when Kon stirrs next to him. Like himself, she doesn’t have ‘regular’ sleeping habits. While Kabane can’t find easy rest on soft mattresses, Kon doesn’t bother with blankets and just rolls up like a cat or dog would. The moon shines through the big glass door that almost fills out one of the four sides of the room the Kyoto Police was so generous to provide. Before he went to sleep some hours ago, Kabane had stepped on the balcony behind it to look over the city that Inari couldn’t get a hold on…
Now, some hours later, he finds himself in the bed he shares with Kon on her request. The fox-girl rolls off the bed and tiptoes to the balcony door on all fours, carefully, not wanting to wake him. She realizes a blink of an eye later that Kabane is already awake though when he sits up.
Rubbing some sleep out of his eyes, Kabane says, “What’s wrong, Kon? What’re you doing?”
“Kon woke up because that annoying thing shines.” She points at the moon, some beams reflect on her sharp nail. “So Kon thought she could go for a midnight snack; there’s a park right next to the hotel and lots of pigeons.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Nah, Kon is alright by herself. Sorry, she woke Kabane up… She’ll bring you a pigeon.”
“Alright…” Kabane knows Kon can take care of herself. After all, she used to live in a park back in Tokyo and only had to move after she ate all the pigeons. He doesn’t mind eating pigeons either. The only thing he minds eating are his friends… humans in general. That’s the deep rooted fear that dwells inside of him…
Now that he is awake, Kabane finds it hard to fall asleep again without Kon’s soft purring by his side. Instead of trying, he sits up against the headboard of the bed and stretches his muscles. The bottled water from the fridge is cold as it runs down his throat. Maybe it would have been better to stash it somewhere else? Anyway, now he is even more awake and after a short trip to the restroom, then back to the fridge, Kabane decides to have a midnight snack as well.
The fridge holds some sandwiches in plastic boxes: more than enough for a snack, Kabane decides, unwraps one and starts to munch away. And that wakes the third and final inhabitant of the room: Kaede. Shrunken down in size significantly by the mujina killer, nothing more than a fox in a pet crate at the moment. The mujina might cancel his fire- and transformation abilities but not his keen nose. If there is food around, Kaede knows it. His tail begins to wag, yet he doesn’t make a sound… can’t make a sound through the rope around his snout.
In the past, Kabane didn’t have a problem punching Kaede’s eye right into his brains, but now it seems a little cruel to just sit there and eat while having the kitsune watch. Not that he didn’t feed him before bedtime, Kaede is just such a glutton, he’s already hungry again. The tail wags stronger when Kabane unties the rope around Kaede’s snout; he is already drooling.
“Mmmhh, midnight snack.” He brings out between loud smacking after Kabane carefully shoves a whole sandwich in the eagerly waiting mouth. Without the mujina killer, Kaede could probably swallow a tiny car at once… but for now he’s occupied and happy with the sandwich. “Is it midnight… or is this another snack?”
Kabane just points at the digital clock on the nightstand next to the bed at which Kaede just stares for some moments before asking again. “So, is it midnight?”
“You can’t read the clock?” Admittedly, Kabane had grown up without much knowledge of daily things that weren’t physical labor… but he can read a clock.
“Nope, too many numbers and when there’s more numbers together they have different names, at least that’s what Mr. Akagi told me.”
“It’s already past midnight…” There he is again, Mr. Akagi who took care of most things for Kaede, telling the time was probably one of them. Kabane looks up to the wet wipe container on top of the mujina killer. Kaede hadn’t seemed…. doesn’t seem like someone who cares much about others, but he wanted to keep the wet wipes.
“Where’s the fox-girl I missed out on eating?”
“Her name is Kon. She’s in the park.”
“With the cars?”
“That’s a parking lot.” Kabane knows that he himself is far from being acquainted with many regular things that others consider normal and logical… But Kaede… he is even farther off most of the time. When Kabane found a true reason in his life for the first time it was when Mr. Inugami brought him that light… It had been then when he started to learn more about the world. So what drives something like Kaede? It can’t just be wanting to eat things?
“Kaede, why did you decide to help Lady Inari? I know that Mr. Akagi wanted to live an easier life and Miss Hii wanted a world where her friend could be accepted… But what do you want?”
“Oh, easy! I just want some place where I can do what I want without someone being angry with me. And I want to fuck Lady Inari. I’m not picky, but it has to be her!”
Kabane understands the first part without any problems. ‘Yes, that suits him’ he thinks. But he doesn’t understand the second part at all. “What does ‘fuck’ mean?”
“You don’t know that!? It’s the best thing ever next to eating! It is a bit like eating, you can do it with everyone and it’s super fun!” The way he sounds, happy, enthusiastic, Kabane doesn’t want it, but he feels hooked by the kitsune’s words. It pokes on his curiosity.
“But what is it?” He asks. It feels a little uncomfortable to ask Kaede out of all people -Mr. Inugami must know about the topic as well- but the most immediate source of answer is the kitsune in his basket; and Mr. Inugami is probably fast asleep.
“Like I said, it’s super fun! But Mr. Akagi told me not to say ‘fuck’ all the time. He said it’s called having seppuku… or something like that.” Squinting his eyes in concentration, Kaede tries to remember what exactly Mr. Akagi had told him. “Nope, it’s called seppuku!”
“But what do you do when you’re having seppuku.” Kabane asks again, hoping for more details. It’s not that he sounds urging, he never does but there is a certain desire in him to find out more. “I’ll give you another sandwich if you tell me.”
Since Kaede is the last to decline an offer with food involved, he starts. “So, at first, you have to find someone to do it with. You can do it alone but it’s not so much fun.”
“Anyone or just certain people?”
“Anyone is fine. People you know, people you don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”
“So why did you say it has to be Lady Inari if anyone is just fine.” Kabane asks the fox and interrupts him in his explanation again.
It seems the question comes with some trouble— Kaede’s eyes drift off and focus again as he tries to handle it. “Ehhhm… you know… ehhhhh… uhhhhm.” It goes on like this for a little while. Kabane has effectively yet accidentally fried the kitsune’s brain. Kaede looks like he’s having pain from trying to think… or trying to follow his own thoughts from before.
Finally, his face lights up. “That’s it! It’s because Lady Inari is hot and strong! It’s better with people that are hot… and strong. When they’re strong and I fuck them, it means I’m strong!” After his conclusion, Kaede seems proud of himself.
Now Kabane is even more confused. Could someone become stronger through this seppuku-thing and what does he mean with hot? “Kaede… do you set these people on fire? Is that why they’re hot?”
“No, no, no… the other hot! When you see someone and they smell good and look good and feel good and…” He trails off again “…and you just want to fuck them! That kind of hot!”
Whatever he’s trying to explain, Kabane comes to the conclusion that Kaede is indeed very bad at explaining and that he should really ask Mr. Inugami later or Kon as soon as she’s back. Kon knows many things like when she showed him how to dig holes, so she might know about seppuku. Still, something kept him hooked to Kaede’s words.
“When you say ‘look good’, do you mean pretty people?”
A light flashed in the kitsune’s eyes -both of them their original mix of orange and amber again- and his fluffy ears perked up. “That’s it: ‘pretty’. You get much more excited if it’s pretty people you’re trying to do seppuku with! It still works with anyone though. Now gimme that sandwich!”
No, Kabane has more questions… too many of them and he fears that Kaede won’t make it through all of them. The moody fox might just decide to do something else or worse— Kabane could fry his brain for good. He decides to simply continue and asks. “What happens when you have seppuku?”
Disappointed from not being rewarded with the sandwich but motivated enough to still get it between his teeth somehow, Kaede continues. “At first you have to take off all of your clothes and then do the same with the other person. When you did that, you grab them and shove your tail in or against them!”
“Your tail…?” Kabane regarded Kaede’s long, tri-colored and fluffy tail where it came out of the mujina killer. That couldn’t be right. Not everyone has a tail to do that with. Kaede: tail. Kon: tail. All the other kitsune: tails. The tanuki: tails. But Kabane doesn’t have a tail, neither does Shiki or Akira. “But not everyone can do it then. Not everyone has a tail.”
Kaede sees Kabane’s eyes viewing his tail and he wags it. “Not that tail, the other tail. The boy-tail… on the front!”
Now Kabane is the one who takes a little to understand what the other is talking about and it’s his red pair of eyes that flash with recognition. At least that makes more sense now… at least he thinks it does. So far, all the boys he knows a little better have a boy-tail as Kaede calls it. But…
“But where do you shove it in? You said you shove it in somewhere?” As far as Kabane can imagine it at the moment, he can’t see it happening.
“In the girl of course! Girls don’t have boy-tails, that’s why they’re called girls! And if it’s another guy you just play with both tails!”
“And all of that is fun…?”
“Yes!”
“Shove it in… That doesn’t really sound fun at all.” It sounds more like using force to Kabane and he knows quite well that fun and force almost never go hand in hand.
“When they struggle, you just need to use more force. And when you’re done you can do it again and again. You can even eat the other person if you want!” Kaede eyes the remaining sandwich again and it makes Kabane uncomfortable, so he gives it to him— It’s gone, once more, in just one bite.
All Kabene has found out up to now, it still doesn’t really sit right. It feels like there are several links missing that usually connect all the fragments Kaede has given him. So Kabane asks again for the only voice of reason Kaede has probably ever heard. “Did Mr. Akagi tell you anything else about it?” Worth a try. Mr. Akagi had seemed eccentric, yes, but very accurate and thorough with everything.
Kaede’s face warps once more into its high concentration state as he tries to figure out and sort his memories to put them into words. “Not… really… But Mr. Akagi tells me lots of things. He made me get my hands back and he showed me how I can eat more tanuki. He takes care of everything, that’s why I love him!”
‘Love’: The word resonates with surprising force within Kabane. He recalls the Nekomata and that one human customer… He also recalls that shapeless Kemono who wanted to be that man’s number one. Is wanting to be someone’s number one love? Akira’s words to Shiki ‘born from the love of your human father and your kemono mother. They echo inside.
“That seppuku-thing… I still don’t get it, but it sounds to me like something that’s linked to love.”
“No, I told you it works just fine with anyone.” It is the first time that Kaede sounds a little annoyed with Kabane, so he decides another sandwich might do the trick.
After the third is chewed and swallowed, Kabane asks. “So you loved Mr. Akagi? Did you do seppuku with him?”
Kaede shakes his head… violently and says with a hint of indignation. “No! Mr. Akagi doesn’t like touching others or others touching him… I would’ve done it though, if he asked.”
It is the second time the kitsune’s words stand in contradiction. “But you said you have to use more force if they struggle.” Knowing Kaede’s massive human and kemono form, Kabane assumes he could have easily done exactly that. “But you didn’t… why?”
Kaede’s face doesn’t twist in concentration this time. His eyes don’t spark either— his entire expression goes blank and he freezes up. Kabane lets him. Finally, the kitsune answers. “I- I don’t… know.” He falls back into silence afterwards and boops the wet wipe container with his snout. Without any more attempts to speak and no more questions from Kabane’s side, the boy ties the rope back around Kaede’s snout and crawls back into bed just as Kon enters the room over the balcony again, some feathers on the borrowed pajamas.
“Kon stashed some away for later.” She tells him and after looking at him, she adds. “Is Kabane okay?”
“I don’t know…” He admits. “I have something to think about.” And he thinks about it while drifting back to sleep.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
They’re up early the next morning and meeting in front of the hotel. Kabane has the mujina killer placed in front of him when Shiki and Akira approach.
“How did you sleep after leaving your friends alone for your ‘girlfriend’.” Shiki wants to know, though he isn’t serious about it.
Akira intervenes. “Shiki, Kabane doesn’t think like that.”
Right there, Kabane decides to put his newly learned knowledge into effect. He thinks he knows what Shiki might be alluding to… though he still doesn’t understand it at all. “It’s alright. We didn’t do seppuku.”
“Seppuku!?” Shiki almost shrieks mortified. Do you even know what that is!? Why would you-”
“The thing where you shove the…” Kabane starts explaining everything in detail and Shiki’s expression shifts from surprise to confusion to recognition, back to surprise and finally to anger.
“You filled him with that shit didn’t you?!” He yells at the restrained Kaede and kicks over the mujina killer. “Unbelievable! Well, I won’t be the one to set it right and since Mr. Inugami already got us in trouble with that Raiden-guy he can teach you an extra lesson as soon as we’re done here!” And he drags Kabane over to Mr. Inugami who looks at them with confusion.