Keeping a Kitsune Ch. 02

"God, you're really treating her like a person, aren't you?"

"She is a person, Amy. Just not a human one."

"Who are you and what have you done with Jason Wiggins?"

"Hey, I think you of all people would have some sympathy for her situation."

"What, because I'm black? That's got nothing to do with it, Jason. She's not a person. I'm offended that you would compare a fox spirit to the generations of suffering African-Americans went through. And don't go all fucking high and mighty on me when you broke her leg with a bear trap and sent me a video of her wearing your pearl necklace. Yeah, I saw that. God, white people! My mothers warned me about dating white men, and I should have listened to them!"

"Okay, shit, sorry, it was a bad analogy. I shouldn't have said that. For what it's worth, I'm feeling pretty shitty about what I've done to her so far, but I'm responsible for her now and I'm trying to make the best of it."

I kept my voice as low as I could, hoping Amy would catch the hint that Chiyo was just on the other side of the room. She either didn't catch the hint or didn't care. Amy's eyes went wide as she stared at me.

"Oh my God. Jason Wiggins, you are falling for her! I don't know whether I should rejoice that human women are going to be spared your attentions for a little while, or sit her down and warn her about how you're going to worm your way into her affections and then break her heart."

"Holy shit, Amy, please don't. Yeah, I've got a crush on her - she's impossibly cute. But this isn't a typical Wiggins girlfriend situation. I know it can't last; she doesn't belong here with humans. Some complicated shit came up after I got off the phone with you that I have to take care of, but once I get that solved I'm going to try and figure out a way to release her back into the wild where she belongs. I don't have any idea how, but it's the right thing to do. The absolute last thing she needs is me trying to be her boyfriend."

"On that we agree. Just keep repeating that last sentence to yourself every night while you fall asleep." Amy poked me hard in the chest to emphasize the point.

I managed to get away with only a bit more lecturing, mainly because she had an actual patient due in a few minutes. We rolled Chiyo back out to my SUV and got her buckled in, then Amy took the wheelchair back in. Before she closed the door, she pointed at her eyes then at me, mouthing "I'm watching you" as she disappeared.

I groaned and banged my head against the steering wheel. Still slumped over, I sighed. "Did you hear that whole conversation?"

"Yes. I know you were trying to have a private conversation, so I can pretend I didn't hear if you want me to." Chiyo shifted slightly in her seat.

I sighed but didn't look up. "No, don't worry about it. It happened, you heard it; no sense in pretending. Um, when I told her I was going to try and set you free, I meant it. I guess I was thinking about it in the back of my mind last night while I was working. I still can't promise anything because I don't know if it's possible, but I am going to try. Assuming we can even get your pearl back. God, I've really made a mess of things, Chiyo. I'm sorry."

I felt a small hand tentatively rest on my shoulder. "It's okay, Jason. I mean, not really. Nothing's okay at all. But, um, I'm glad you're sorry, and I'm glad you're going to try. Maybe I can help? I know I'm kind of dumb, but if you think of something I can do, let me know?"

Wow, talk about sad. I was getting consoled by my victim. Time to stop the pity party and man up, Jason. I took a deep breath and sat up. Turning to face Chiyo, I reached out and took the hand she had on my shoulder and pulled it down to rest between us, lacing my fingers through hers.

"Chiyo honey, you're not dumb. Don't ever say that. You're young and a little naïve and you're in the middle of a strange human world that you don't know anything about, but you're not dumb. We'll work together on this and get it fixed. Thank you for believing in me enough to offer to help. In fact, there's something you can do right now that will help."

I pulled out my phone and called up the slideshow from my first crawler's run.

"These are some photos that I had my computer find on the internet. They're all people who have access to the same type of car that Kylie was driving. I want you to look at each photo and see if it's Kylie - the computer can't do that, because we don't have a photo of Kylie that it can look at and compare. There's, um, 237 photos on this list. I already went through about fifty of them while I was making breakfast. It's an easy program to work - if it's not Kylie, you swipe down, like this. If you think it might be Kylie but you're not sure, because of the light or the angle or something, you swipe up, like this. If you're sure it's Kylie, you yell and jump up and down, because that means we have a lead on that bitch and we're a big step closer to getting your pearl back."

"I figure we've got two stops to make on the way back home. I need to drive through a pharmacy and get the pain pills for you that Dr. Washington prescribed, and then I thought we could do a little light clothes shopping. While I'm driving, you can go through the rest of the photos. Don't worry if they're all not her - that's just part of the job, we go through a lot of negatives before we hit the positive. You okay with that?"

"Yeah, I can do that." Chiyo looked like she was going to say something more, but she didn't. I didn't push.

"Okay, before we get started I'm going to make a quick phone call. Let me see the phone for a minute."

I called my lawyer again. His secretary had me wait on hold for about five minutes because he was on the other line, but I got through eventually. He told me that he had most of the procedures for filing my ownership claim on Chiyo ready, and was just waiting on his paralegal to track down the last form before sending them over.

"Ken, that's fantastic. But I actually need some more broad-ranging counsel on this. I'm not 100% sure that filing the claim is the best move I can make here. Is your law school buddy an expert on Kitsune law?"

"It depends on what you mean by expert. He got an A in non-human property law, and there were only about five people in our class who bothered to take the course, so he's probably top 10% in the AOZ if that's good enough for you. It's not really a field that sees a lot of cases these days. You're the client, but can I ask why you're considering not filing the claim?"

"It's . . . complicated. And I'm not sure exactly what questions to ask, which is why I'm really looking for expert advice. I know it's a big favor, but do you think you could set up a secure video conference with me, you and him?"

"I can try. I'm running these forms for you gratis as your corporate counsel, since you guys are one of our best clients and you're my poker buddy. My friend's at a different firm, so he's probably going to want to bill you for a consultation. Is this going on the corporate account?"

"No, me personally. Go ahead and bill your time for the call and anything Kitsune related that you do for me going forward to me personally too. I'm in kind of a weird situation here, and I don't want to accidentally get the company involved in my personal affairs."

"Are you in trouble, Jason?"

"I don't think so. Or if I am, it's solvable trouble. Just need some legal counsel. But the earlier you can get that call set up, the better. I'm on vacation through next Tuesday, so don't worry about my availability. If you and your buddy can get on the screen, give me thirty minutes heads up and I'll be ready."

"Alright Ender. I'll let you know as soon as I can get it set up. Remember, the enemy's gate is down."

"Fuck you. Thanks buddy."

I hung up. I hate that nickname and Ken knows it. Just because my last name is Wiggins, Rob at work started calling me Ender. Half the company joined in and it spread to poker night where Ken picked it up. I finally gave in and read the book last year. I admit it's a good book, but I still hate the nickname.

"Ender?" Chiyo was watching me, one eyebrow raised.

"Don't ask. And please don't ever call me that. You really heard both sides of that conversation even though I wasn't on speaker?"

"Yes?"

"Okay, just so you know, I think your hearing is probably a lot sharper than a human's. Not sure if that'll ever be useful, but something to keep in mind. Try to not let anyone but me catch on, if you can. You might be able to hear something useful at some point if someone doesn't think you can hear them."

"Okay." She looked a little nervous.

"Don't worry about it too much; you don't need to try and be a super spy. It's just something to keep in mind if it ever comes up. Here's the photos, go ahead and start working on them."

Chiyo was quiet as I drove, working her way through the photos. Driving didn't take up much attention, so I got to meditate on how much of a scumbag I was. Amy's casual dismissal of Chiyo's suffering as irrelevant just made think about how I'd felt the same way before Kylie shocked some sense into me. I was a terrible, terrible person. I got the prescription filled at a drive-thru pharmacy, then had to borrow my phone again from Chiyo so I could do a search for clothing stores.

I wanted some place low-class enough where we could shop with Chiyo on crutches, barefoot, and just wearing a jersey; but also high class enough that we wouldn't get mugged. I found a used clothes store on the way home that looked like it would fit the bill - someplace that actual people on a budget shopped at, not just hipsters.

I wasn't sure how enthusiastic Chiyo would be about clothes shopping, since she hated wearing my clothes. It turned out that she was a total girl about it - she loved clothes, she just didn't like my clothes. In the end I was able to keep her purchases to a minimum by telling her that this was just a quick stop to make sure she had some outfits she could wear when we went out, and promising to take her out for a real wardrobe later.

Chiyo had interesting ideas about human clothing. She didn't get the concept of underwear and didn't want to buy any. Her breasts were small enough that she didn't need a bra for support, and I'm a guy, so I let her get away with not buying any bras. I was really tempted to let her skip panties too, but I made her pick out three pairs just for the sake of basic decency when leaving the apartment.

Her favorites when it came to clothes were all bright colors or pastel shades. When it came to the fit, she liked either skin tight or super loose and flowing, nothing in between. One of her big priorities was clothes that didn't pinch her tails; since one of my big priorities was clothes that could conceal her tails, we ended up compromising. She got four tight tops in various styles that she could combine with loose skirts with high waists, and some tight skirts with low waists that she could combine with long flowing tops that hung down over her tails. We agreed that pants could wait until after her cast was off.

I trailed around behind her as she shopped, carrying things since she couldn't with her crutches. Crutches that she needed because I'd broken her leg in a bear trap. Who does that to another person? A monster, that's who; I was a monster. A terrible monster and I deserved to go clothes shopping with a girl without complaining, as a tiny part of my penance.

She wore one of her new outfits out of the store - strappy white sandal on the foot that didn't have a cast, knee-length tight skirt in light blue, and a bright red long-sleeved blouse with lace and ribbons at the throat that buttoned down the front and fell down over her tails in the back when she wore it untucked. Oh, and a pair of pink panties - I could tell that because the green panties and the yellow ones were in the shopping bag. I'm not sure how another girl would judge it style-wise, but I thought it was a pretty damn cute outfit. Then I felt guilty for thinking about Chiyo as a sex object.

Once we got in the car and her shopping high faded, it became apparent that Chiyo's leg was hurting pretty badly. She'd insisted on stomping around the store in her new crutches as aggressively as she could, and she was paying for it now. The Ibuprofen from breakfast had also worn off by this point. I got us home as fast as I could without flagrantly breaking traffic laws, and insisted on carrying her from the car to my door.

I got her settled onto one of my couches with her foot elevated, then opened up her new Kitsune-approved pain pills and gave her two of them with a glass of water. She whimpered and curled up on her side after she swallowed them.

"Do you want a blanket? Some hot chocolate or something?" Her pain was my fault, I kept reminding myself. Anything I could do to help mitigate it was just a tiny repayment on the giant debt of guilt I was carrying.

"Those both sound good. Could I have the phone too? I think I'm almost done with the pictures."

"The pictures can wait until you're feeling better."

"No, I want to be doing something. I want to help. This is to get my pearl back, after all."

"Okay, here you go. Here's a blanket too - I'll go boil some water for the hot chocolate."

I paced around while the water boiled, then made up the best cup of hot chocolate I could, with lots of mini marshmallows and some whipped cream on top. I'd already picked up on the fact that Chiyo had a major sweet tooth.

She liked it quite a bit, declaring it the perfect thing for treating a broken leg. After she'd had a few sips she went back to swiping photos industriously. I dropped into a chair across from her and stewed in my guilt. Eventually I looked up on hearing my name.

"Yes?"

"That was the second time I called your name, Jason. I'm done with the photos. Three maybes, all the rest no."

"Alright. I can look for other photos of the maybes online and we'll sit down and look at them together. Let me take the program and transfer it back to my main computer."

"Jason. Wait."

"Yes Chiyo?"

"You've been acting different than normal since we left Dr. Washington's place, and it's getting worse. What's wrong?"

"Isn't a good thing if I'm acting differently from normal? The normal me that you're used to is an asshole who kidnapped you, broke your leg, and raped you. The more I think about it, the more I realize how terribly I've treated you. Talking to Amy made it worse - I treated her badly in the past and she's a better person than I am, but the way she didn't even think of you as a person and didn't seem bothered by what I've done to you . . . it just makes me feel even worse about what I did to you the more I think about it."

Chiyo frowned. She sat up with an effort, wincing as she moved her leg. "Come sit over here."

"Are you sure you want me near you?"

She rolled her eyes at me. "Yes, I'm sure."

Okay, sure. If that's what she wanted, how could I refuse her? I settled in next to her on the couch, keeping a few inches between us.

"Jason, I'm happy you feel bad about what you did to me. But I don't like this version of you that's all sad and cringing. I want the old Jason back."

"I'm sorry, Chiyo. I'll try to be more cheerful. But you don't need the old Jason. The old Jason hurt you."

"Aaargh! You're not listening. Or I'm not saying it right."

"You can say it again, I'll wait."

"This isn't fair!"

"No, it absolutely isn't, and I'm so sorry about that."

"That's not what I'm talking about, you stupid human!" Chiyo threw my phone, bouncing it off my head.

"Ow! Ok, I guess I deserved that." I winced and rubbed my head.

"Stop apologizing with every sentence!"

"Okay, okay!" I was starting to get a little pissed - I hate irrational girl arguments where you're supposed to read their minds. Still, I reminded myself that I deserved her abuse.

"What do I have to do fix you? Do you want to fuck?"

"What? No!" A small part of my mind realized that might have been the first time I'd ever turned down a cute girl offering sex. At the same time, it was honest - in my current guilt overload, thinking about fucking Chiyo meant remembering raping her. And that was not boner inducing.

"Shit, shit, shit. I can't do this. I shouldn't have to do this." She started sniffling, her eyes tearing up and her face getting red and blotchy.

"No, crap, Chiyo, don't cry. Or, I guess, cry if you need to? Um, do you want to lean on my shoulder?"

"Stupid, stupid human. Why won't you understand?" Chiyo slapped me in the face.

I rocked back, stunned. She'd turned her shoulder and really wound up that slap. The whole side of my face stung. Still, I could handle this. I'd earned a few slaps from women in my time. The one from Amy after she'd caught me with her sister Libby had been a hell of lot harder the one Chiyo just gave me. I rubbed my face and grimaced.

"Okay, if that helps, let it all out."

Chiyo slapped me again, harder. Then she slapped me on the other cheek. Then I guess she decided her left hand didn't deliver the blow with enough force, so she wound up with the right again and really gave it to me. My head snapped around with the force of the impact on that one. It hurt like a son of a bitch.

I took a deep breath and turned to tell her that was enough, and she punched me in the nose. She went for another slap, but I decided I'd taken enough abuse and grabbed her wrist. She instantly went for a slap with the other hand, so I grabbed that wrist too. Then the crazy bitch head butted me, her forehead slamming right into my already damaged nose.

I roared in fury and went on the offensive. I pinned her down with my greater weight, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand, my forearm holding her chest down, my hips pinning hers.

"Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with you Chiyo?"

She grinned up at me, her face inches below mine. "Oh good, I think I fixed you. If that hadn't done it I didn't know what else to try."

I stared down at her in total confusion. The poor girl's mind had snapped from her suffering: that was the only reasonable explanation. She just kept grinning.

"Don't you see, Jason? We have a big problem that we need to solve. I need you to do it, not sit around being mopey. Sad Jason isn't going to fix this. I need the Jason who buys bear traps. I need Master, if we're going to fix this."

Then I finally got what she'd been trying to say earlier. She'd done a monumentally shitty job communicating it, but I also hadn't been ready to listen. Maybe she could have gotten it across with words if she'd kept trying or was better at it, but maybe I needed to get hit enough that my anger kicked me out of my guilt. Either way, she was right. Moping wasn't going to help. Also, it wasn't me. Yes, I'd done something horrible to her; the answer wasn't to wait on her hand and foot and pamper her - the answer was to make right what I'd done wrong. And, okay, pamper her a little bit.

As I had this epiphany, a giant drop of blood fell off the tip of my nose and splashed onto Chiyo's face. I couldn't help it; I let go of her and fell back laughing. It just looked so ridiculous, her pinned there grinning up at me and then *splash* blood everywhere. She started laughing too, and we both kind of lost it for a little bit. It wasn't really that funny, but we were both kind of messed up emotionally, and laughter ended up being the release valve.

I regained my senses first, if only because my bloody nose was getting in the way of laughing. I staggered off to the bathroom and did what I could to staunch the bleeding. Dealing with a bloody nose sucks. I came back out with a washcloth in my hand. Chiyo grinned when she saw it.

"Oh, thanks. I wanted to clean the blood off, but I didn't want to use my new blouse to do it, and I thought you might get mad if I used your couch cushions."