Little Fox in Big Trouble

Three

I was still grumbling under my breath several minutes after disconnecting the call when Troy settled down on the couch next to me, “So, did talking to your mom help?” He asked with one eyebrow raised in a sardonic fashion.

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “I mean, what she said is crazy, right?”

“Er.., well, you’d have to tell me what she said. I couldn’t hear her,” he reminded me.

“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry.” I was silent for a moment as I struggled to find a less insane way to explain what my mother had just told me. I didn’t really want him to think we were both completely out of touch with reality. “Okay, so… my mom believes in things that most people don’t, okay.”

“Uh-huh,” he encouraged. There was more than a small hint of amusement in his voice.

“So, she says that I have ‘abilities’ and ‘gifts’ that I can use to find my roommate, and your sister.”

"What kind of 'abilities' and 'gifts'?” He asked, air quotes and all.

I chuckled. “I’m not sure, really. Visions, for one, but other things, too. See, she says that I am close to the Inari, which are the gods that she believes in, because I’m…, well, she says I’m a kitsune.” That last part stuck in my throat. I was sure this guy was going to think he followed a crazy person home and run for the hills. I couldn’t help wringing my hands as I waited for him to get up and bolt from the apartment.

“A kitsune?” He asked, as his eyebrows drew together, “What, exactly, is a kitsune?”

“Honestly, I’m not even entirely sure.” I shook my head and parted my hands in a helpless gesture. “I know that they are fox demons- no, not demons. They’re fox spirits, I guess. Nine tailed foxes, in some stories, though only the most powerful kitsune have all nine tails. I think. They can be tricksters; I know that.” I sighed again, “Really, I pretty much got everything I know about them from anime.”

“Right, there's a pokemon. Anyway, if according to your mom, you are one, does that mean she is too?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Then, why didn’t she teach you anything about them, or about these abilities you’re supposed to have?”

“She hasn’t really been around since I was little,” I explained. “Her and my dad split up and he got full custody. Mom moved to Japan before I was ten.”

“Oh man, I’m sorry. That's rough.” Troy replied.

“No, it’s okay. I get why she did it. I mean, my mom’s always been a little eccentric. Even as a kid I knew that. My dad, he used to get so angry with her when she would tell me about her gods or whatever. When I started having the dreams, I told my mom about them. That’s how I knew she would know what I was talking about. I remember that she believed me and told me that she had dreams like that, too. My dad lost it, he told her that he wouldn’t let her fill my head with such nonsense. That’s when he really started trying to keep her away from me.”

“That sounds awful.”

“Yea, I don’t know. They both love me, and I know that. I always did. They just couldn’t agree on anything, especially me. Anyway, my dad won, and my mom eventually went to Japan where she could be closer to the things she believes and the culture she loves. She’s tried to talk me into visiting since I turned 18, but…” I trailed off, realizing I was starting to babble.

“I understand,” Troy nudged me with his shoulder. “All families are a little messy, right? I mean, you should've been there for dinner the night my sister told our parents that her prom date's name was Katherine."

“I guess so,” I smiled, weakly.

After a few awkward seconds in silence, Troy brought us back to the situation at hand. “So then, what’s the plan? If you have some kind of gifts that mean you can find the girls that have disappeared, and I’m definitely not going to sit back and let you go it alone, then we need to figure out where to start.”

"Right. Yeah. So, we’ll do this together. I, uh, I guess we need to, um..” I had no idea.

Troy chuckled, “I think first we need to find out more about these powers of yours.”

“You actually believe her?” I questioned.

“I figure it this way, tons of people believe in these things, right? And your mom seems pretty convinced that it’s real. Not to mention, if you saw what you said you saw, then that proves you can do something that most of us can’t, right?”

“I don’t know. I mean, even if I have visions, a lot of people say they have visions, right? It doesn’t mean that I can do anything else.” I argued. I wasn’t even sure if I was arguing because I didn’t believe it or because I simply didn’t want to be something not human. Weren’t most of the kitsune stories about a fox masquerading as a woman and marrying a human male that had no idea she wasn’t human? If I’m kitsune, is that what my mom did? I was starting to feel a little nauseated by the whole thing, really. It had been an extremely long day, and it wasn’t even noon.

“Sure. Maybe you’re just psychic. Maybe you just have visions. Maybe, it was just a weird dream that doesn’t mean anything at all. But, the only way to know for sure is to find out what you’re supposed to be able to do and see if you can do it, right?”

“I guess, but how do we even find that out? I seriously doubt the library on campus has a How to Use Magic for the Beginner Kitsune book in the reference section.” I said, reasonably.

Troy chuckled under his breath, “Well, s**t,” he said, “there goes that plan. Do you think they'll have Kitsune for Dummies?"

I rolled my eyes and made a show of rubbing my temples as if he was giving me a headache. “Thanks for all your help.”

“Let’s start with the most obvious search route. The internet. I bet we can find some information about what kitsune were believed to do there. It’s as good a start as any.” He told me as he dramatically cracked his knuckles in a ‘let’s get to work’ display.

It did make sense to search the internet, I suppose, but it seemed so incongruent. I mean, searching the internet to find out if I’m actually a creature from Japanese folklore? I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped from between my lips. At Troy’s baffled expression, the giggle turned into real laughter. I gripped my sides as I felt the muscles tense and laughed until I couldn’t breathe.

“Oh, lord. She’s cracked.” He was still looking a bit confused when I got myself under control.

I shook my head at him and nearly lost it all over again before I could explain. “I’m sorry, it’s just that today has been just completely bonkers.” I told him, still suppressing giggles.

“Bonkers, huh?” He smiled.

My heart skipped a beat at that smile, and for the first time, I really took a moment to look at the guy sitting next to me on my second-hand couch. He was absolutely stunning. That smile reached all the way to his eyes, which weren’t just green. They were the perfect green of an emerald except for one section, about a third of his left eye, that was a clear blue. My breath hitched, as I watched his tongue dart out to wet the perfect Cupid’s bow of his lip, and I quickly flicked my eyes back up to his. He was watching me, too; a dazed kind of expression on his face.

Abruptly, Troy lunged from the couch and grabbed a satchel off the side table, that I hadn’t even noticed he had been carrying. He pulled his laptop out and booted it up as he sat back down beside me. “Let’s get started, shall we?” He asked with a grin.

“Okay,” I said, brightened by his eagerness and nonchalance at my possibly being some non-human entity from Japan. I scooted a little closer so I could see his screen, as he pulled up a search engine and typed “kitsune.” I may have scooted just a bit closer than necessary so I could soak in the warmth that radiated from his skin and breathe in his cedar and citrus scent. My gods, he smelled good. It was another minute before I could reign in my horrendously insensitive hormones and bring my focus back to the screen in front of me. It looked like he was skimming a Wikipedia page about kitsune that described them as yokai, which appeared to be a broad term used to describe a variety of magical creatures ranging from spirits to demons. That was not especially helpful.

"Maybe we should be reading manga. it might be more informative," I suggested. Then, I sighed, reluctantly pulled myself away from Troy, and went to get my own laptop so I could search as well. We were still searching, with little progress and a few jotted notes in a hot pink composition book, when my stomach rumbled loudly enough to draw Troy’s attention.

He raised an eyebrow and asked, “hungry?”

“Yea, I guess I haven’t eaten anything, today.” I confessed. “I’m going to order a pizza; any toppings you prefer?”

“No pineapples, no mushrooms. Anything else I can eat.” He replied without looking up from his laptop again.

I ordered online and went back to searching. Unsurprisingly, the majority of search results were about trading card games, anime, and the like. My eyes were starting to hurt by the time I heard the doorbell ring.

“I got it,” Troy said as he leapt from the couch and strode to the door.

“Wait, I still have to pay, I didn’t use my credit card.” I told him as I set my feet on the floor to get up.

“I got it,” he repeated, and opened the door.