Work Text:
“Sensei, sensei I’m sorry!” Yusuke sobs as Madarame drags him down into the basement. Despite all his best efforts, he still sprouted ears and a tail, and that probably means he’s going to be stuck as a fox again soon.
But sensei doesn’t want him disturbing the guests or the other pupils and told him if he couldn’t get it under control he’d have to take drastic measures.
Now Yusuke finally understands what that is as he’s dragged into a small room and thrown into some sort of crate that he just barely fits in.
“As long as you act like a beast, you will be treated like one,” Madarame says. “Now you will stay there until you can be normal.”
“I-I’m sorry! I’m trying!” Yusuke sobs, but Madarame is already at the door.
Yusuke curls up into a ball and tries to make himself as small as possible to fit in the cage.
He needs to be a good, normal, boy for sensei, not a savage, wild, fox.
Good boy, not a bad fox.
Good boy, not a bad fox
Good boy, not a bad fox.
The more Yusuke repeats that and focuses on forcing the fox part back into himself, the more it hurts, but eventually he thinks he does it.
He’s tired and sore, but he managed to not turn into a fox.
After that night all Yusuke has to do if he doesn’t want to transform is think about the cage and the dark and force himself to stay normal.
God. Zenkichi’s gone too long without shifting. Sure, he took the time to do it in the comfort of his own room while they stopped in Kyoto, but he didn’t really get to stretch his legs.
One of the downsides of being a werewolf in Japan, people notice if a random wolf is suddenly wandering around.
But since there’s the abandoned facility in Okinawa, he can walk around without having to worry about being seen.
It’s not all fun and games though, he is hoping to actually do some more investigating before they leave.
He doesn’t want to arrest the kids, so if he can just find some irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Madice or Konoe, then he and Kaburagi will have something to work with.
Slinking in through a gap in the fence, he looks around the perimeter of the facility.
So far, so good, if he can just gain access to a lab or something, he can—
A white blur darts past Zenkichi, and he whips his head over to spot a white fox heading towards the woods.
Considering arctic foxes aren’t native to Okinawa and they don’t usually have white fur in the summer, Zenkichi’s pretty secure in assuming this is a werefox.
He chases after and being much larger catches up quickly, but it’s pretty obvious this is just a kit. It must be a little kid or something.
One that stops, so Zenkichi carefully picks them up by the scruff with his mouth.
The fox wriggles a bit before starting to turn back. Zenkichi lets them go and starts transforming too, and soon he’s face to face with Kitagawa who for some reason stops part of the way and keeps his tail.
Kitagawa looks up at Inspector Hasegawa. “Please don’t tell the others,” Kitagawa says quickly, tail tense.
Zenkichi blinks at him. “What?” Kitagawa’s not usually this… jittery.
“T-the others, they don’t know about my condition and they can’t find out.”
Wow. That’s. A lot to unpack.
“Ok, ok back up. I guess first of all, why don’t you want to tell your friends? You enter people’s hearts and steal their desires and your group includes a talking cat and a sentient AI.”
Kitagawa bites his lip. “Th-this is worse. I can’t control it.”
“Ok, second thing, what do you mean by condition? Being a werefox isn’t any more of a condition than being human is, it’s just what you are.”
“It always causes problems.”
“Kitagawa, I don’t know how to break it to you but any problems you have are probably because you don’t transform enough. Your fox self is underdeveloped.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Ok so traditionally you shift into your animal form as you grow up, and your animal form grows alongside you. Now foxes and wolves still differ a bit but considering your fox form, you can’t have shifted since you were a child. At least not very much.”
“No,” Kitagawa says.
“Which brings me to the follow up: DOESN’T THAT HURT?”
“Only a little, I’ve gotten used to it.”
Zenkichi sighs. “Ok, I won’t tell the others, but I want you to tell me why you transformed today if you don’t do it often.”
“In the jail… there were these shipping crates. A guard was coming by and Ann pulled me into one to hide, and it reminded me of when Madarame would lock me in a cage when I was younger and didn’t have as much control, and I had to stay there until I could get back to normal. Overnight I had nightmares about it and I felt like I was going to explode if I didn’t transform.”
Zenkichi bites back a growl.
“I promise you, you didn’t do anything to deserve that,” Zenkichi says.
“I… was wild.”
“Sure, did you run around? Chew on people’s shoes and socks? Steal things and keep them in a little pile?” Zenkichi asks.
Kitagawa nods.
“Akane did the same things. Trust me, keeping a baby wolf contained is a lot harder than you’d think. But you’ll be able to deal with those instincts the more time you spend shifted.”
“You… really know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course.”
“I didn’t realize there were others,” Kitagawa admits.
“Tons. Us canines are pretty close knit and try to keep in touch, but there are all kinds of werecreatures. The werehawks are real pieces of work.”
“Do you know other werefoxes then?”
Oh Zenkichi knows several who will want to rip Madarame’s face off.
“Yeah! My boss is one.”
Kitagawa makes a face like he just ate something sour. “So another police officer?”
“Well, yes but she’s not— she keeps an eye out for her own.”
Kitagawa doesn’t seem impressed.
“I also know others who are not police officers,” Zenkichi says.
“Can I meet them?”
“Yeah. But first, your friends are probably wondering where you are. You going to tell them?”
“I… I’m not ready for that.”
“Yeah, ok. Whatever you need, kid.” Zenkichi says. “But you should probably tuck that tail in first then.”