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Chapter Text

Dramatis Personae

Art by NollyByNolly

Hoshiko Hirabayashi

A powerful kitsune sorcerer orphaned at a young age and haunted by her past and dark draconic heritage, Hoshiko’s struggles to make sense of her past and future have led her to the Pathfinder Society, and subsequently to answers that clarify and terrify in equal measure. Her companions have done much to ease these burdens, however - none perhaps moreso than her newfound lover Verrik, who has been a source of relentless and unconditional love and support throughout their journeys together. Now wandering her ancestral homeland of Tian Xia alone with Verrik, the two seek answers to their pasts on a quest that may test everything they have - including the very bond that ties them together. Hoshiko may be generous, but she is tired of life’s bullshit and won’t take it lying down anymore.

Verrik (and Kolli)

An iruxi orphaned at such a young age he can’t remember a time before the orphanage, Verrik grew up admiring the Pathfinder Society from a young age and worked diligently to join their ranks. When he was finally close to achieving his dream, his grandfather Kolli suddenly arrived, having tracked him down to find out what happened to his father. Digging into it led to both their fiery deaths; Kolli’s spirit clawed Verrik’s soul from the River of Souls and slammed it back into his body, cementing a connection between them as summoner and eidolon that both are stuck with until the day they die again. Verrik has done his best not to let his death and revival get to him, though later revelations about his fire elemental mother and Kolli’s dogged insistence to drop everything and go back “home” to his clan in Garund have dampened his spirits. He knows where he really wants to be: with Hoshiko, the girl he’s completely head over heels for and who he feels to be the only one who “gets” his whole fucked up family situation (and who Kolli has gotten fairly sick of). However, Verrik has not yet had this relationship tested, and his relative inexperience may lead to difficulties knowing what he really wants when his bond with Hoshiko is finally challenged…

Natsuko Arashiba

Another capable kitsune sorcerer, poised to eventually inherit the leadership of a secretive clan who protect a legendary artifact from those who would wish it harm - at least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Complications with actually keeping said artifact safe have compromised this position, and that’s if she even ends up wanting it in the first place, fascinated as she is with the world beyond anything but her immediate home. She may just find someone who catches that fascination more than anyone she’s ever met before - and if she did, she’d be willing to go to extreme lengths to keep that flame from going out before she has a chance to grasp it…

Chapter Text

Natsuko stared into the puddle at her feet, her fiery orange eyes staring right back at her through the reflection as she absent-mindedly flicked a flame in and out of existence between her fingers. She had been given plenty of time to think tonight - too much time, in fact, and just about every thought she could have possibly had ran through her head at least twice over by now. That was the Arashiba way; fail your people, and be left to stew in it by yourself for a good long while.

She hadn’t even really “failed,” as it were - she had simply gone to attune with the Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames, as all capable of magic in the village did. How was she supposed to know it had become so fragile as of late? She had infused just as much energy as she always did, and this time, of all fucking times, was the one where, instead of reflecting that energy back into her, it exploded into flames and shattered into pieces in her hands. Something had gone wrong before she ever touched it, that much was clear to her - yet the village just refused to understand that, accusing her of somehow destroying it by “overloading” it with primal energy, which was… well, it was absurd. Just utterly asinine. They knew her magical talents - what idiot would believe she would just suddenly forget how to control her power like that?

Her father, apparently. Dumbass.

To make matters even worse, the fragments of the Ruby vanished soon after, stolen in the middle of the night because someone assigned Takumi, of all people, to guard them overnight. Of course the guy that couldn't tell his finger from his ass had the wool pulled over his eyes by whatever petty crook had snuck in the middle of the night… yet she got the blame, somehow. Because she “broke” the stupid gem. By using it like a normal person would.

Natsuko yelled out in frustration and tossed the flame between her fingers into the puddle, watching the surface evaporate into steam before her eyes, flames licking out briefly across the wet grass at the edges before dissipating into the air. Clutching her head in her hands, she looked out the window of the small, simple wooden hut she’d been instructed to sit and “reflect on her failure” in; the day’s rain had died down from its intense downpour earlier, hints of a rainbow forming across the slowly parting clouds. At the very least, the leak in the roof wasn’t relentlessly splashing down water into the middle of the hut anymore.

She checked the position of the sun and frowned. Shouldn’t there have been someone to come get her by now, tell her she was no longer grounded like the child she absolutely fucking wasn’t? Were they waiting for the weather to clear up or something? The hut wasn’t exactly a hike away - surely they could stand a little bit of downpour. If I have to wait another goddamn minute, she thought, I’m just going to leave. If they want to stop me, that’s their problem- I was supposed to be out of here by now, and if they really want to stop the chief’s daughter from walking around her own damn village, they should have come and get me by-

The door creaked loudly open, and Natsuko was tossed violently out of her thoughts, reflexively jerking her head into the wall behind her and hitting it hard.

“Hey! You know how to knock?! I could have-”

“Natsuko. Your father summons you - we have visitors.”

“...oh.”

Since when did they get visitors on a day like this?

“Man, he was not kidding about it warming up around here.”

“I don’t see why he would have been kidding, Ver… but yeah, this is something.”

Hoshiko took a deep breath, sitting in the damp grass beside Verrik as they both absorbed their surroundings; ahead of them, the old white-furred kitsune serving as their guide planted his walking stick into the ground, patiently waiting for them to regain their energy after the long hike up the cold mountain.

Cold until it wasn’t, at least; though snow blanketed every inch of the mountainside on the way up, the winter bringing sizable snowfall to the whole region, the approach to the village of Arashibetsu had steadily grown warmer and warmer with each foot up the mountain they took, the snow thinning and melting around them until they crossed a threshold where snow turned starkly to rain, and a clear border was drawn between the deep cold of winter below and the only slightly chilly, pouring rainfall of spring around the village. Hoshiko kept looking up into the sky, noting the point where snow melted rapidly into the rain slamming against her head - and how that transition point seemed to get higher and higher deeper into what must be the center of the village.

They both knew, intellectually, why that was happening - in the center of the village rested the Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames, an ancient artifact said to have been crafted by Lady Nanbyo long ago to wreak havoc on the world below her, an endless engine of wildfires and volcanic eruptions to burn the land to a crisp. The legends said that Yamatsumi recruited the help of Shizuru to wrest the Ruby from her control, seeking to protect the lands from such needless destruction, and granted it to a remote tribe of kitsune to safeguard for generation upon generation. Over time, the Ruby’s power was transformed and harnessed into something far more controlled, an instrument of strength for those worthy of its gifts to burn away threats to nature and all that is good with the world; as a byproduct of this, its heat would dissipate into the world around it, creating a pocket of warmth and comfort in even the coldest, harshest winter.

While the legends had some degree of debate over their accuracy, what wasn’t up for debate (at least among those with knowledge of the world) was the existence of the Ruby itself, or the kitsune who guarded it still. Remote, secretive, and highly protective of their charge, the Arashiba clan was said to be direct descendents of that guardian tribe, and there was little reason to doubt their story - especially not after feeling the warmth of the Ruby for themselves. They’d been guided here by an Arashiba, in fact - Isanagi, the old kitsune who Hoshiko’s grandfather had directed them to find in Sakakabe, and who had led them on a crushingly long trek across the Minkai wilderness.

Hoshiko shook a bit recalling the trip - Isanagi’s pointed lack of assistance in fending off the monsters and bandits along the way couldn’t be ignored easily. She’d thought it suspicious at first - and frankly she was still pissed about it - but by this point it had become clear his inaction was more of a test than anything else, perhaps seeing if they had what it took to survive on their own for… whatever reason. She’d grown sick of these sorts of “tests” in recent months; no one could just help them for the sake of it, recognize their plights and not decide to put them through even more just to prove a point or “teach” them some lesson they already knew damn well.

She tried to push the resentment back, at least for now. They’d come here with a purpose, and if they were lucky, fulfilling it would be simple enough and they could move on, as they had eventually moved on from Jalmeray before… if they were lucky.

They never really were, were they?

“Hey, Hoshi? You alright?”

Verrik’s voice, soft and concerned, cut through Hoshiko’s train of thought and snapped her back to reality. He was leaning himself up, his coat soaked into the mud and sticking to the ground, though that hardly seemed to bother him right now. His soft, wide eyes focused on Hoshiko, a look of affection and concern that never failed to warm her heart in dark moments.

“Yeah, Ver,” she said, leaning against him and returning that warmth. “Just got caught up thinking about things.”

“The, uh, trip here?” Verrik nestled into her shoulder, wrapping his arm around her. “Yeah, I feel that; even Gramps was getting fed up with that guy just standing there every time we got attacked.”

“‘Fed up’ is… putting it lightly.”

“Hey, I got him to calm down… kinda.”

“At least he stopped threatening to tear him apart.”

They both laughed, leaning further against each other as they looked into each other’s eyes. Kolli wasn’t normally a pleasant topic between them, but times like these, they could at least resonate with the old ghost’s endless frustration. Better than when it’s directed at them, certainly.

But their thoughts didn’t linger on him long; their arms wrapped around each other now, they leaned into each other gently and pressed their lips together. Hoshiko pulled Verrik closer, deepening the kiss as he melted into her arms, their warmth one as their tongues met softly between their lips. She could never get enough of the way Verrik always squirmed and chittered joyfully every time they did this, without fail - he was a chaotic mess at times, but in her arms he was delightfully predictable.

If nothing else, this whole journey across Tian Xia had been a boon to their relationship. They had desperately needed this extended alone time with each other - not a day had gone by without a kiss snuck in-between destinations, not a night had gone by without sleeping in each other’s arms, and their more intimate escapades had grown increasingly bold without the worry of disturbing any adventuring companions. The both of them had often struggled to display their affections in public beyond simple proximity - now Hoshiko found herself occasionally having to remind Verrik that they had to be a little more careful picking where and when to pleasure each other… not that this stopped her from having the occasional bit of bold fun with him anyway, feeling him squirm trying to contain himself as she pulled him into corners and alleyways and pushed him over the edge. She’d be lying if there wasn’t some temptation to engage in that right now, though she knew damn well that would be a rather poor introduction to the Arashibas.

No, the kiss was enough for now - perhaps there’d be time to play with her favorite lizard later, when-

“Ahem.”

When their oh-so-helpful guide wasn’t right there. The two of them quickly pulled away from each other, flustered as they returned their attention to Isanagi, who stood there with the same blank yet judgemental stare as he had possessed the entire trip up here.

“Chief Arashiba has requested your presence urgently.”

Hoshiko blinked - she must have missed Isanagi wandering off at some point. Hadn’t he been standing just off in the distance the whole time? She didn’t remember seeing him move.

“Weren’t you just standing there the whole time?” Verrik said, echoing the thought Hoshiko would rather he had let go. “How did you…?”

“I notified him of your arrival before we ever stepped foot into the village.”

Ah, telepathy, Hoshiko thought.

“Oh, uh, telepathically or something?” Verrik said out loud. “Like with your mind? I’ve done a bit of that, that makes sense, you know, communicating with the chief before you even see him in person. I should figure out how to do that, you know? Someday. Would be nice.”

Isanagi looked at him like he was an idiot, which was… about right, even if Hoshiko felt far more affectionately about that fact.

“Yes. If you would please follow me, there is an urgent matter that requires your attention.”

“Already?” Hoshiko asked. “We just got here - we haven’t even actually entered the village yet, we’ve just been sitting here. What’s going on?”

“Not much I can tell you.” Isanagi started walking, motioning impatiently for the two of them to get up. “Just that it concerns the Ruby.”

“I did not request your presence so I could be yelled at, Natsuko.”

Natsuko scowled at her father, leaning against the stone wall of his chambers as he sat in his chair, giving the same stern, condescending look he always did when he thought she was being a ‘brat’ or whatever the fuck he liked to get on about with her. He was always an unhappy old bastard.

“Come on, dad-”

“Father.”

“Whatever. Father.” She waved her hand dismissively, suppressing the urge to chuckle when his eyes narrowed in response. “You know I’m a better sorcerer than that. How in the hells could I have misjudged my power that bad after, what, the second hundredth time doing this?”

“I don’t know that, Natsuko,” he said, rising from his chair and staring up at her with righteous (to him, anyway) indignation. He was among the shortest of anyone in the village, and she was well within the tallest, but she had to admit that didn’t stop him from being an imposing figure regardless. He barely even had to try to intimidate someone into silence when he was upset.

“You’ve been falling behind in your abilities lately, Natsuko. You and I both know that.”

“Uh, I don’t know that, fath-”

“Quiet, and listen.”

Yep, just like that. She had something of an immunity to his force of will, but she knew better than to interrupt when he was like this - at least, not just yet.

“I don’t know why that is, after you displayed such incredible promise your whole life. To have four tails at your age is no common feat for any kitsune - it took my father decades to reach only six, and if you could hone your abilities as you once had, I would be certain you’d be among the greatest of any Arashiba in history - perhaps of all kitsune, of the world.”

He let out a long sigh, pacing around the room as he stared at the ceiling, shaking his head - a classic ‘oh, woe is my disappointment in you, child’ maneuver from dear old dad.

“Perhaps something has begun to rot your brain since your return from Absalom, because your progress has cratered harder than I’ve ever seen from even our worst pupils. You’ve become sloppy - you nearly burned the temple down just last month because you somehow managed to toss a fireball meant for a training dummy straight into Tsukiyo’s chest. You’re lucky Hitoshi had been practicing his frost spells that day.”

Natsuko scoffed - it hadn’t been her fault her aim went astray. Hitoshi had just been fixing the mistake he made when he crashed into her mid-casting - and ‘almost burned down’? A small fire started in Tsukiyo’s offering tray - and Tsukiyo himself sustained only cosmetic, completely repairable damage, being a fucking stone statue and all. She could not have been the first Arashiba to make that blunder in all these generations.

Which reminded her, she did still need to figure out how to get back at Hitoshi for lying about what happened like that…

“And now the Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames shatters in your hand?” Her father continued. “It seems foolish to think that there is no connection between your recent blunders and this. Your mistake may cost us - no, all of Tian Xia - dearly, child.”

“It’s not the first time this has happened, father.” Natsuko stepped in front of her father, staring down at him with an imitation of that same death glare he was so fond of. It didn’t faze him, of course - never did, but she had to be clear about how she felt. “Even if I miscalculated, you’ve been real clear that the Ruby’s been through far worse before - it barely even exploded! And we’re the only ones who know how to reconstruct it, let alone use it, so we’ve got plenty of time to track the pieces back down before anyone could possibly misuse it.”

“Child, that is the only reason I did not have you exiled for what you did.” Besides being your daughter and all, of course, Natsuko thought, completing the sentence for him. “But because I haven’t, now you get to explain exactly what happened to our guests.”

“Oh yeah, the guests,” Natsuko said, tilting her head. “And I’m sure you’ll let me explain it exactly as I remember it, right?”

“Do not get ‘cute’ about this, Natsuko. You do still have a duty to your village, unless you’ve forgotten that too since your stay in Absalom?”

Natsuko held her tongue - she’d heard enough ranting about Absalom for two lifetimes.

“No, father, I haven’t. Can we go receive our… guests, now?”

Verrik tapped his foot against the floor of the temple, his talons scraping gently into the brown stonework underneath him. The temple was bigger than he was expecting; the village itself had, for all its age, been rather small, and there only seemed to be a hundred, maybe two people in the village at all, yet their temple had enough space to house at least ten different statues of various Tian deities, with plentiful space for offerings and sleeping quarters in each corner of the building.

It was only natural that the meeting hall would prove the largest of all, room enough to have a decent jog along its exquisitely carved walls, etchings of grand infernos and kitsune sorcerers of old doing battle with terrible monsters. Whole histories were embedded into these walls, and from what Hoshiko had been able to discern from them, it almost certainly stretched back thousands upon thousands of years. One could spend an eternity studying and learning from all of these writings, if they were so inclined.

Which was good, cause they’d had basically nothing else to do for awhile now. Verrik could hear every little cough in the hall from every guard and attendant, which didn’t help the tension much. He was expecting a more timely greeting from the chief, given that they were called over on “urgent business” and all, and he couldn’t help but feel like they could have at least had a chance to settle in and absorb the sights a bit beforehand. As it was, there hadn’t been a word from Isanagi or anyone else on the chief’s arrival - just an empty wooden throne and a concerningly empty pedestal by its side.

He glanced over to Hoshiko - she’d been sweating up a storm since they walked in here, the heat having intensified with each step deeper into the temple until it had become like a sweltering summer day. She kept reaching for her waterskin, taking long sips whenever she could, and Verrik found himself wishing he knew a decent way to cool her down. He was good at warming people up, but the other end of the temperature spectrum was… almost inaccessible to him. Best he could do was try and fan her with his hat - not particularly effective, but it was something.

Verrik, though, felt just fine. He wasn’t sure if that was a perk of being a lizard or… well, his mother’s end of things. He preferred the former answer.

“So,” he whispered to Hoshiko, trying to think of conversation to pass the time, “anything else interesting in the wall carvings? Just, uh, anything?”

“N-nothing I can tell, no,” Hoshiko said, taking a deep breath as she gave another cursory glance. “Just more mages and magic and such - you’d probably have to ask… w-wait.”

Hoshiko paused, furrowing her brow as she stared at the northeast corner of the wall. She tilted her head, her jaw slightly agape as she leaned forward to try to get a better look at… whatever it was.

“What’s up?”

“I, uh. Hmm.” She pushed Verrik closer to her, damp fur smudging into his cheek as she pointed out exactly what she was looking at to him. “...tell me what you think that looks like. Quietly.”

Verrik gulped - what had she noticed? Nagoshi, maybe? He focused his gaze on that spot, trying to discern what it actually was that-

“Oh. Oh whoa.”

There, nestled in a small corner, as if embarrassed to even be on the same wall as everything else, was a carving of what seemed to be two kitsune women, one standing behind the other. The one behind was… squeezing the front one’s rather large breasts, who seemed to be responding by leaning forward and opening her mouth in what seemed to be a yell. Verrik gulped again, his cheeks suddenly burning.

“Uh, um, uhhh,” Verrik stuttered, before focusing his eyes back on Hoshiko to re-center himself. “I think… are they having sex or… what?”

Hoshiko blinked, her eyes scanning around the strange carving, probably looking for any hint as to what was actually happening there. It didn’t seem to be helping much, though.

“I can’t tell? It’s in the same style as everything around it, but I can’t help but feel like it’s more… graffiti than anything else.”

Verrik thought about it for a moment - if it were graffiti, why did it look so old? Why hadn’t anyone tried to remove it from the wall? Did they really want… whatever that was just sitting there amongst their sacred history, or whatever?

“W-what’s even happening in that, though?”

“I don’t know!” Hoshiko snapped quietly, clenching her shoulders - then she took another deep breath, relaxing them back down as she exhaled. “S-sorry, I just… too much to think about right now.”

“Okay yeah that makes sense, let’s not think about it. Let’s just… stop looking at it and stop thinking about it. So much.”

They’re fighting, Kolli interjected telepathically before Verrik could actually stop thinking about it. It’s ritual combat, likely as important a moment in their history as any other. The question is, what was this contest fought over?

What? What the fuck? Why? Verrik frowned, trying to make sense of… any of that, really.

If you understood anything about the world, child, you wouldn’t need to ask that, would you?

It looks like something someone would etch inside a public outhouse! What possibly could have actually happened to prompt that carving?

You’ve been deprived of your people’s culture too long, child. This should not be such a difficult concept to grasp, and yet-

Hey, wait, no, what? What does that mean? Huh?

“Verrik!”

Hoshiko tapped him on the shoulder, snapping him back to reality. He turned his gaze back to her, blinking himself back to the waking world.

“Whatever he’s yelling at you about has to wait - the Chief’s finally coming out here.”

‘Yelling,’ huh? Interesting choice of words from her - I am simply educating-

Okay, you heard her, time to can it, Gramps.

Verrik turned his attention fully to the throne ahead of them, trying to put the big-breasted kitsune engaging in ‘ritual combat’ out of his mind. Indeed, as Hoshiko said, the chief was finally stepping out from the other end of the meeting hall - an older white-furred kitsune, looked to be about Katsuo’s age from the look of his fur, dressed in simple orange robes that seemed to conceal a… distressing amount of muscles. Verrik almost didn’t notice that the chief must have been a good few inches shorter than even him - he, somehow, had the presence of a giant in spite of that, intense amber eyes glaring down at them as he took a seat in the throne that was now clearly built for someone far bigger than him. There seemed to be someone else behind him, standing a comfortable distance away from the throne, but whoever they were, they didn’t seem inclined to step out into the light.

“I am Tomatsu Arashiba, current patriarch of the Arashiba clan that has presided over these grounds for generation upon generation.” His voice was like gravel grinding against stone - and it commanded attention. “I follow in the footsteps of my father, his mother before him, her mother before her, her father before her - I could continue, but it would take several days, at least, to explain every step of the family tree that came before, and we have little time for history.”

“I mean, yeah, that makes sense,” Verrik interjected. “Pretty long list of, uh, people. Family.”

Hoshiko tapped his shin harshly, and he yelped - she had already taken a bow, and Verrik now scrambled to do the same, almost tripping over himself in the process.

“Hmm.” Tomatsu tapped his finger against his chin, staring at Verrik. “A strange companion for a child of Nagoshi. An Iruxi, and one not of Tian heritage, so, so far from any place he might call home. Isanagi did not care to describe you in much detail. What brings you here?”

Good question, child.

Shut. It.

“The better question here is why you know who I am,” Hoshiko interjected, tensing up. “I never said I was connected to Nagoshi at all to our guide. How did he figure that out?”

Few in Tian Xia, Minkai especially, were kind to followers of Nagoshi - even if Hoshiko was plainly against Nagoshi, they had been keeping that extra on the down low for their time in Tian Xia. Nagoshi’s name never inspired trust in those who uttered it, and spreading it around casually was a good way to start getting hunted down again by his actual followers.

“He didn’t. I did.” Tomatsu raised himself to his feet, rolling his bulging neck. “He simply gave me the information I needed to make an educated guess as to why a Dark Field kitsune wielding strong arcane magic may be seeking out the Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames - and why that kitsune might behave as if she has secrets to hide.”

“Still seems like quite the leap,” Hoshiko said, keeping herself composed. Verrik could see a twitch of shock in her expression, but if Tomatsu noticed, he didn’t vocalize it.

“It helps that I’ve met your father, too. Enough of a resemblance to seal it for me. You’re lucky Katsuo has made it known his bandit days are over and that his defiance of Lord Nagoshi is open - Isanagi might have taken matters into his own hands, otherwise.”

The old kitsune guide flashed a look towards Hoshiko and Verrik - a glance that solidified the implicit threat. Verrik tried not to think about that.

“That still leaves the question of your traveling companion, and why you two are seeking the Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames. I wish to hear it in your words.” Tomatsu leaned back into his throne, motioning for them to speak.

“Hey, uh.” Verrik cleared his throat. “Didn’t Isanagi say there was urgent business to attend to? What about that? You took, like, half an hour to get here after we showed up.”

Hoshiko elbowed him, and he yelped.

“In due time. First, this.”

Hoshiko sighed, drawing the Hirabayashi No Chokuto from its sheath and presenting it to Tomatsu. Verrik was still a bit amazed by how immaculate it looked now - he still remembered the days when they called her Osi, when that sword was little more than a haunted, damaged piece of junk that she couldn’t get rid of, no matter how much she tried. Now it’d be unthinkable to ever leave it behind.

“We wish to create a connection with the Ruby - we heard from my father that it was a powerful artifact that he had once communed with, and that it had helped him grow a deeper connection with his own power. I’m hoping it might help me draw a deeper connection with this blade, help me communicate with the spirits within it.”

“And your companion?” Tomatsu turned his gaze to Verrik, who shuffled in place awkwardly.

“Uh, kinda the same but without the blade and the spirits, I guess? I figure the Ruby has, like, a primal power to it - there was this time where I became overwhelmed with emotion and, like, exploded into the Plane of Fire where I met my mother, and like, I don’t really want to go back there, but I might have to and it’d be better if I had, like, control over that, you know? So I don’t just, uh… explode into another plane, again. That make sense?”

Tomatsu stared at him, tilting his head with an inscrutable expression. Verrik wondered if it didn’t.

“So… you’re a sorcerer of efreeti origin, then?”

“Uh, well, kinda? It’s a little complicated-”

“Oh shit, you are?”

Verrik blinked, looking for the source of the new voice, and soon realized it was the figure that had been lingering in the back for some time - not that they were lingering much longer, as they ran up the steps to the throne and planted themselves right in front of Tomatsu, who motioned (in vain) to get them to step out of the way.

“Um, yeah, I am, but-” Verrik stammered out, before finally getting a good look at the figure and freezing.

She stood tall, maybe even taller than Hoshiko, and the confident look in her blazing orange eyes arrested him in place. Gleaming white fur bustled out of tight, skimpy red robes, her lightly muscled arms and legs exposed completely - not to mention her distressingly ample cleavage, hanging looser than Verrik was used to seeing. Locks of long silver hair brushed against her cheeks, where fiery orange streaks of fur snaked down across her neck and onto her sides, reappearing across her wide hips like straps of bandoliers that seemed to trace around the borders of her thick posterior. Four large, fluffy tails enveloped her from behind, more orange streaks running along their sides. Her arms folded underneath her bust, pushing it up as she stared right at Verrik inquisitively.

She was gorgeous, and Verrik was not ready for that fact.

“Um. Ummm.” Verrik struggled to compose his thoughts, feeling like a boulder just smacked right into his brain and left him twitching on the side of the road. He glanced nervously at Hoshiko, who was staring at the newcomer herself, though he didn’t get the impression she had quite the same reaction as he did. He turned his gaze back, clearing his throat. “...w-who are you?”

“Natsuko Arashiba, the best damn sorcerer in this village. I think you and I have something in common.” Her voice had an oddly sultry edge to it.

“Oh, uh, okay?” Verrik waved nervously, a sheepish grin on his face. “I’m Verrik. Nice to meet you.”

Chapter Text

Shit, this guy is cute.

Natsuko stared right back at Verrik, absorbing every detail of this strange and dopey lizard that just walked into her life. He looked about her age, maybe a bit younger - she couldn’t tell, exactly, given that she’d never seen a lizardfolk in her entire life before, but he had a demeanor that reminded her of some of her male peers around the village. Only difference was, she actually liked this guy on first glance. He had these beautiful blue eyes, a sheepish yet friendly energy behind them that seemed almost foreign to her these days, and his smile was just pleasant to look at, as clearly awkward as it was. His coat was baggy, ragged, clearly a bit big for him and ran down to just below his knees, and his funny little hat clung snugly to his scalp.

She tried to get a sense of his build underneath the baggy clothes - athletic, certainly, but she could barely tell much else. She couldn’t help but be curious about the details - but there were more important questions to ask.

“So your mother’s an efreet?” She watched him intently - he seemed to recoil a bit at the question, his gaze snapping away from her for a split second.

“Eh, yeah? Don’t, uh, really like talking about it, was just, uh, important. In this context.” His lips scrunched slightly as he looked away, rocking back and forth on his ankles.

Fuck. Bad question to start with, yet it was the one she was most curious about.

“Well,” she said, keeping herself composed, “as far as anyone has been able to tell, the Arashibas got their magic from intermingling with efreeti a long, long time ago. I’ve never actually met someone else from that same kind of lineage.”

“That’s… you know what, happy to help?” Verrik looked back at her, another sheepish and adorable smile adorning his face. “I still don’t really want to get into it, but I don’t think I’ve ever met another person like that, either, so that’s… neat, actually. I think.”

“I don’t really want to interrupt,” interjected the black-furred kitsune standing next to Verrik, giving him a gentle tap on the shoulder, “but we still haven’t really gotten to the point of why we were called here by… your father, I’m guessing?” She tilted her head at Natsuko, who couldn’t help but be a bit annoyed by the gesture.

“Yes, my dearest daughter, the ‘best damn sorcerer in Arashibetsu.” Tomatsu finally interrupted, pushing Natsuko aside somewhat harshly - she growled at him, but as always he seemed to block it out. “Who, unfortunately, is the reason you are not seeing the Ruby before you at this very moment.”

He indicated the empty pedestal behind the throne, the air around the receptacle shimmering like an intense heatwave. Even for the Arashibas, it was not a gentle spot to put one’s hand - even for Natsuko, it had taken some time before she could stand holding the Ruby, and even with it gone, the residual heat was barely any less intense than the real deal.

Though the wide-eyed looks of surprise directed her way by both Verrik and the other girl demanded her more immediate attention.

“Okay, so, first off, it wasn’t really my fault-”

Tomatsu shushed Natsuko with a swipe of his finger, earning him a glare from her - not that he was even looking at her.

“Natsuko will explain the situation, without embellishment or excuses.” He stepped back behind her, falling silent. She could feel his judgmental look burrowing into the back of her head, waiting for but a hint of backtalk to pounce on. Best not to give him the excuse.

She cleared her throat, watching the other two carefully - Verrik looked at her curiously, tapping his clawed toes idly against the stone floor, while the other girl gave her a more… skeptical look, an eyebrow raised as if already questioning her. Natsuko sighed, rubbed between her eyes, and began the version of events as deemed correct by her father:

“I… was communing with the Ruby yesterday, as I normally do. I didn’t think anything would go wrong, but something… did, and it exploded into pieces in my hand as I tried to infuse my power with its own. I was dragged away by my father, and in the chaos, someone snuck in and stole the pieces. We don’t know who it was or where they came from, and, I guess we’ve sent out search parties? We did do that, right, father?”

“Yes.”

“Good, I’ve been… out of the loop. I think that’s about it.” Natsuko cleared her throat, hoping that would be the end of that.

“So, uh,” Verrik said, raising his hand, “why did it break? Has it done that before? Is that, uh, normal? Did something happen to it?”

Or maybe she wasn’t hoping that would be the end of that.

“You know what? Good question.” She stepped down quickly towards Verrik, noting the way he froze up as she approached, shuffling awkwardly in place as she stood towering over him. “After all, I don’t recall doing anything differently than I would normally do, do I? It’s almost like it might have been damaged beforehand, by some hand other than my own.”

“I-I mean, yeah. That would m-make sense, um.” Verrik stammered his words again, rubbing the back of his neck as he clearly tried to look anywhere but at Natsuko’s cleavage - a difficult feat, considering it was currently inches away from his face. “D-did you, uh, look into that? Maybe?”

“Oh, another good question, thank you! Did you, oh dear father?”

Natsuko glanced back at her father, giving him a smarmy grin as his scowl deepened. At least someone was willing to believe her side of things.

“No,” Tomatsu growled. “We check the Ruby’s integrity regularly. It could not have been damaged so much as to shatter at a mere touch, Natsuko. We have talked about this.”

“Oh, I know - just always good to get a second opinion on this sort of thing, father.” She gave the most shit-eating wink she possibly could to her father, barely holding back a laugh as his fists clenched on the armrests of his throne. Let him seethe.

“Regardless,” Tomatsu growled out again before composing himself. “Yes, it has broken before. It is not a common occurrence, but over the generations the Ruby has suffered its share of shatterings. In its current state, however, it is not destructive when broken - those days have long since passed. Unless our thieves possess the knowledge and power to reconstruct it - and all who do are accounted for in this village - then we should not have to worry about it causing calamity. Yet.”

“You know, technically, father, we don’t know if we have a thief or thieves yet - could be a lone actor, after all. Shouldn’t you have-”

“I don’t mean to impose, but could you give us some personal space?”

Natsuko turned to face the soft voice interrupting her at her side, her eyes meeting the black-furred kitsune’s deep blue gaze. They were nearly eye-level with each other, Natsuko only slightly taller than her, but the other kitsune had an undeniable presence to her that now commanded her attention.

“Ah, sorry about that,” Natsuko said, not actually stepping back at all, locking eyes firmly with the other kitsune. “I don’t think I caught your name, actually. You’re one of Lord Nagoshi’s kids?”

“My father is, and I don’t like being defined by that,” she said firmly, eyes narrowing slightly. “My name is Hoshiko Hirabayashi. If you’re going to define me by anything, it should be as the daughter of Katsuo and Aika Hirabayashi.”

“Well, Hoshiko,” Natsuko said, shrugging, still standing face-to-face with her. “I apologize - I know about Lord Nagoshi, but I’ve never heard of your parents before. What else am I supposed to do but go off of what I know?”

“Well, now you know.” Hoshiko crossed her arms, finally stepping back to create the personal space she was asking for - and Verrik followed, shuffling to her side like he was glued to her hip. “It’s good to meet you, Natsuko.”

“Oh, likewise.”

Natsuko put a hand on her hip, taking another look at Hoshiko. She’d overlooked her before in the excitement of meeting Verrik, but that might have been proving to be a mistake. The black-furred kitsune was only just shorter than her, and clearly hardened from what must have been years of adventuring, covered in tattoos across her torso and faint scars across her left arm and nose. Her physique was a little thinner than hers, but again, only just - athletic, lightly muscled, with wide hips and a sizable bust. There was certainly less left to the imagination with her than Verrik - her long coat was wrapped tightly around her waist, and all that stood between the open air and her chest was a mesh top and a cloth wrapped around her bust, with a frankly cute little red choker keeping the top affixed to her neck. To top it all off, she also had four tails - which, for her age, could only mean considerable magic proficiency, likely equal to her own.

She was interesting, that was for sure - a descendent of one of the scariest beings on Golarion, a living legend waiting to rain devastation upon the lands once again, and yet she was just here, like any other kitsune on a pilgrimage to the Ruby might be, sweating intensely in the temple heat, strange companion in tow and all that shit. Natsuko couldn’t help but feel like her presence might be a bit too convenient, given the timing - but that thought was distant compared to what was really on her mind.

No, her thoughts were focused on-

“If you’re done bothering our guests, Natsuko?”

Goddammit.

“Fine, father. Ugh.” She walked away from Verrik and Hoshiko, exhaling sharply as she rejoined Tomatsu next to the throne. “I suppose you want me to go now? Said my part and all that?”

“No. Patience, daughter.”

Natsuko scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Then what am I staying for?”

“Yeah, wait,” Verrik said, scratching his chin. “If the Ruby’s fragments are stolen, then what are we supposed to be doing here? Is this related to, uh, that urgent business we were here for?”

“Relatively astute of you,” Tomatsu said, rising from his throne and looking down at the two guests sternly - Natsuko always wondered if this intimidation shit was just to make him feel taller and more powerful or something, not that the old man really needed that ego boost. “If you are to commune with the Ruby, then by tradition you must contribute something of meaning to this village. In these circumstances, locating the Ruby should be sufficient for both your contributions. I assume you both still wish to see the Ruby?”

“Of course,” Hoshiko said, stepping forward and taking a bow with more formality than Natsuko thought Tomatsu really deserved. “We would be honored to restore the Ruby to its rightful place.”

“And then use it to help, uh, fix our problems and all that. That’ll be good, right? What we came here for and all-”

“Verrik.” Hoshiko shot him a firm glance, prompting Verrik to clear his throat and fall silent with a sheepish smile - Natsuko wished he’d keep talking. Watching her father’s quiet bafflement at this was goddamn refreshing after watching all the stiff, formal, spineless dickheads that liked to make their way up here and kiss Tomatsu’s ass.

“Then, if you wish to help, you’ll need someone who knows the area - and I’m sure Natsuko wouldn’t mind the chance to redeem herself after everything, wouldn’t she?”

Natsuko blinked.

“Wait, I thought I was still-”

“Not if you accompany them and find the Ruby. Unless you’d rather stay here and serve out your punishment?”

She thought for a split second, and then walked down next to Verrik’s side, who stiffened again as she approached - and shook as she put a hand on his shoulder, leaning against him with a smirk.

“Let’s do it, then,” she said, her gaze locking with Hoshiko’s, the black-furred kitsune regarding her with suspicion. For her part, Natsuko simply kept up her smirk. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you two better~”

What is with this girl?

Hoshiko stared at Natsuko, who was currently having a quiet conversation with one of the guards at the temple entrance. Hoshiko couldn’t make out what they were saying, though judging by the guard’s expression, it wasn’t anything he particularly wanted to be dealing with. It seemed like Natsuko got that reaction a lot, judging from earlier, and Hoshiko wondered quietly if it really just had to do with recent events or not.

She couldn’t honestly remember having much experience with other kitsune women of her age at… any point, really. She still wondered what her life would have been like had she and her mother had been able to stay in Tian Xia, live normally - for all she’d done recently to reconnect with her heritage, much of that experience still eluded her, and she couldn’t deny that she had a quiet craving for some actual kitsune friends. They hadn’t quite had an opportunity to explore that on their trip here, much as she’d really like to; they still always had more important matters to focus on. Hoshiko, then, simply had to hope that an opportunity for connection might present itself along the way.

Natsuko’s less than great first impression had not given Hoshiko much confidence that she would finally be that opportunity. It was impossible not to notice how eager she was to meet Verrik… and how cold and almost standoff-ish she was with her. That hadn’t changed since their meeting with Chief Tomatsu - while Hoshiko was trying to find clues as to who might have actually taken the Ruby, Natsuko had spent the entire time trying to make small talk with Verrik, overwhelming him with question after question that even he struggled to keep up with. A simple reminder to both of them about the task at hand had earned Hoshiko a pointed glare from Natsuko, which only intensified when Verrik took the hint and started digging around himself.

Hoshiko certainly had some assumptions she wanted to make about what all that meant - but if Natsuko was going to be accompanying them on this quest, it was best not to assume the worst of their new traveling companion. Not yet, anyway. It wouldn’t be the first time a misunderstanding led to a bad assumption.

At least they had actually found a lead - a black feather, nestled between the bricks of one of the temple’s back windows, and radiating with arcane magic she couldn’t quite discern. It wasn’t much, but if this feather belonged to someone - a tengu, perhaps - then there might be some way to track them directly with a spell. Hoshiko looked at it one more time, then put it back in her bag.

The rain had died down since they first entered the temple, and the smell of damp grass outside could have almost tricked Hoshiko into thinking it had just been a rainy summer evening, were it not for the blinding white of the surface below in the horizon. It was undeniably more pleasant out here than in the oven-like meeting hall, and she couldn’t help but slightly dread going back out into the cold after this.

“Alright, that’s taken care of,” Natsuko said loudly as the guard suddenly hurried off, and she turned to face Hoshiko. “Okay, so. There’s a tengu settlement not too far from here, back down the mountain to the south. If anyone’s gonna know where this feather came from, it’ll be them - the thief might even still be there, if we’re lucky.”

“Oh, that is helpful,” Hoshiko said, blinking in surprise and looking back at the departing guard. “What’s his name? We should thank him, that’s-”

“Huh? What? No, no, that was… something else,” Natsuko said, looking at Hoshiko like she was stupid. “That’s just common knowledge.”

“Hmm.” Hoshiko raised an eyebrow, feeling the annoyance start to creep in again - no, Osi, be patient, she might be just as new to this as you are. “Well, that’s… helpful, still.” Hoshiko elected not to question why it took her this long to bring that up when they’d had the feather for at least half an hour now. “What’s it like there?”

“Eh, tengu-y? I don’t know, I just know it’s the closest tengu settlement there is.”

“Wait, so… you haven’t been there at all?”

“Why would I?” Natsuko scoffed, again looking at Hoshiko like the question was absolutely asinine. “I’ve got better things to do - the priests handle diplomatic duties, not me.”

“I just thought, if it’s so close by here, you would’ve-”

“Would have, what, gone on vacation? Come on, a girl’s got more to see than some random village out in the middle of goddamn nowhere.”

“...like here?” Hoshiko tilted her head, noting the sharp exhale from Natsuko’s nostrils and a twitch in her tails as she put her hands on her hips.

“Yes, like here. Shizuru’s ass, you’re dense. This look like anywhere exciting to you?” She rolled her eyes, another audible scoff escaping her lips.

Hoshiko glanced around the village - lines of small but firmly constructed thatch and bamboo huts stretched out into the distance, decorated in an assortment of heirlooms and trinkets. Small wooden and jade statues of many a Tian god rested on windowsills, and intricately etched torches burned bright in the streets in spite of the heavy rain that had only recently subsided. Villagers walked by, wrapped up in surprisingly normal routines for such a secretive village - they stopped by their neighbors’ homes to make small talk, kept gentle but firm hands on their children to keep them from running off, carefully cleaned debris from what seemed to be a recent windstorm that left several large branches strewn harmlessly about. That damp summer smell mixed with the scent of freshly baked bread from a few houses over, and the concoction wafted into Hoshiko’s nostrils like an assault of nostalgia she wasn’t sure she ever experienced for herself.

“It’s… cozy. Reminds me of my village, back in the Forest of Spirits.”

“Ugh.” Natsuko blew a lock of silver hair out of her eye, then leaned against the threshold of the temple. “Where did Verrik go, anyway?”

Hoshiko sighed - of course that didn’t go anywhere.

“Chamber pot.”

“Still?”

“I guess,” Hoshiko said, shrugging. “I’m not worried, he takes awhile sometimes.” Though usually not this long.

Natsuko stayed silent for a moment, her tails twitching and curling along the temple walls - then she looked at Hoshiko with what seemed to be, for the first time, genuine curiosity.

“How did you two meet, anyway?”

“The Pathfinder Society - we were assigned to the same group awhile back. We didn’t know each other before that, but as time went on, we got to know each other. Opened up.” Hoshiko thought back to those early days, back when she couldn’t remember her name and went by Osi. It was weird, how those memories both felt so distant and yet like they only happened yesterday.

“Ah. So… where’s your group? You guys break up or something?”

“Oh, no, just temporary leave while we handle some important stuff. Once we leave Tian Xia, we’ll be back with them.” Hard not to wonder how they were doing, but if anyone could handle themselves, it was those three.

“And… Verrik.” Natsuko leaned forward, staring intently at her. “What is he to you, exactly? A friend?”

“We’re dating.”

“Ah.”

Hoshiko had stated it plainly. If Natsuko did have any intentions, best to head them off now before things could get complicated.

Natsuko stared at her, her expression difficult to read as she adjusted herself on the wall. Finally, she opened her mouth to speak-

“Sorry about that, guys,” Verrik loudly announced, stumbling past the Tsukiyo statue with the inexplicable burn mark on its chest and out of the temple, planting himself right next to Hoshiko. “Think something, uh, didn’t agree with my stomach earlier. Maybe.”

“Loud enough for the whole village to hear, huh?” Hoshiko remarked, smiling warmly.

“Ah, shit.” Verrik’s cheeks flushed as he scratched the back of his neck.

“That you did.”

“H-Hoshi, come on…”

She pulled him into a hug, and his yelp of surprise quickly melted into a comfortable sigh as he relaxed into her embrace, nestling his head into his favorite spot against her neck. She stroked his back gently, giving him a kiss on the cheek - and looked back at Natsuko.

“Where was that village again?”

Natsuko scrunched her lips, pointedly looking away at the horizon, her arms folded underneath her breasts as she gripped her biceps tightly. She exhaled sharply from her nose, then said with a strangely neutral tone:

“Let me pack, and I’ll take you there.”

Natsuko stared into the roaring campfire she’d set alight, her hands gripped tightly on her thighs as she kicked at the snow underneath her feet. The stump she was sitting on wasn’t particularly comfortable - she cursed herself for not thinking to bring something comfortable to sit on in her bag of holding. She hadn’t exactly been thinking straight when she was packing - that nice Calistrian pillow from the seamstress in Absalom would have done some wonders for her sore ass right about now.

“And they took it! Just took the sword without a fight or anything! You know, I still wonder if they ever realized what happened there, Hoshi…”

Natsuko looked back up at Verrik, still enthusiastically telling story after story about the oh so wonderful times he’d had with Hoshiko over their time knowing each other. Natsuko tried to listen at first, but it got tiring hearing about how great Hoshiko was over, and over, and over. Of course the first interesting, nice guy she had met in forever was taken.

She stared at Hoshiko, who had kept an arm around Verrik ever since they sat down, gently rocking him back and forth and stroking his shoulder. He seemed to rather like being held by her, the way he always gravitated right to her whenever he had any possible moment to do so. He just kept rambling away, nestled into her chest with a big smile on his face - god, it’d be adorable if Natsuko wasn’t so fucking annoyed.

“Hey, you good, Natsuko?”

“Huh?”

She looked up, taking her head out of her hands - Verrik was staring at her, concerned.

“You’ve been, uh, real quiet.” He sounded earnest in his worry, if nothing else.

“I’ve… been listening.”

“I mean, that’s fine, just… normally someone would have something to say by now, you know?” Verrik shifted in Hoshiko’s embrace, who for her part just seemed to be listening patiently. “And you seem, uh, preoccupied?”

“N-no, I’m fine,” Natsuko lied. “That’s… cool. About the sword or whatever.”

An awkward silence hung in the air.

“I, uh, are you sure you were listening? We moved on from that a bit ago…”

“Look, I’m fine, okay?” Natsuko snapped, rubbing her eyes. “Just… I’ll talk about it later, okay?”

“I mean, if you need to get something off your chest, I can listen,” Verrik said, sitting up straight and looking at Natsuko with a serious expression. “I know we just met and all, but, you know, you don’t have to bottle this shit up.”

“If you’re comfortable, of course,” Hoshiko added.

“I’m not.” Natsuko rolled her eyes. “Just… move on. Did either of you pack anything better than rations? I’d rather get something broiling than keep fucking talking about this.”

“Uh, um, not really-”

“Actually, yeah,” Hoshiko interrupted Verrik, her eyes lighting up. “You remember back in Sakakabe, that guy who sold us the ‘box of a million cakes’?”

“Yeah, the one with like, ten? I thought we ran out of those on the way to Arashibetsu.”

“No, there were more than that. Just… needed to pace myself.”

“Ohhh, okay. We got enough for all of us?”

“Plenty.” Hoshiko stood up from the log slowly, ruffling Verrik’s hat with, frankly, sickly sweet affection. “Let me just-”

Natsuko didn’t see whatever it was Hoshiko tripped on, but whatever it was, it did a damn good job at it - she hit the ground with an loud thud, and yelled out in pain as she clutched at her leg.

“Fuck, Hoshi?!” Verrik leapt to his feet, running over to her and picking her up from the ground without a moment’s hesitation. “Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine, Ver,” she grumbled out, grimacing as she leaned against him, holding her leg. “Just… tripped on a rock, or something.”

“Hold on, let me-”

“No, no, w-wait.” Hoshiko gently shoved his glowing hands away before he could cast whatever healing spell he was about to. “I’m going to… treat this the normal way.”

“W-what? Why?” Verrik looked at her with wide-eyed surprise. “We can fix this, like, now.”

“Y-you remember a week ago, when we were attacked by those boars?”

“Yeah, uh, why?”

“You remember when I tried to treat that tusk wound in your side and ended up stabbing the needle right into it?”

“Y-yeah, but you don’t normally mess that up - that was, like, a weird one-off thing…”

“Verrik, it was not a one-off thing. Remember the karina a week before that?”

“Um. Yeah.” Verrik looked away awkwardly, not wanting to meet her gaze for… whatever reason. Interesting.

Hoshiko sighed.

“No, not that. The other thing.”

“Oh!” Verrik snapped back to attention, chuckling nervously. “Yeah, I uh, remember, now.”

“Then you understand why I might want to make sure I don’t want to keep screwing this up. Just let me make sure I’m not out of practice - it’ll only be ten minutes in the tent.”

“I… okay, Hoshi.” Verrik nodded, clearly hesitant but still understanding. “Just let me know if you need me for anything, okay?”

“Of course, Ver,” Hoshiko said, kissing him gently on the lips, which he returned and-

Natsuko looked away. Why was this still stinging? She’d only met Verrik today, only talked to him for so long before it was made clear he and Hoshiko were an item. Surely she’d be able to take this in stride, right? Was she really going to get this upset over a guy she just met today? She was better than this, wasn’t she?

She looked back, watching as Verrik led Hoshiko to their distressingly comfortable looking tent - he helped her in, rummaged around for something, handed it to her, and then walked back out, sitting back on the log and… just sort of leaned on it, watching the tent silently.

Natsuko’s heart raced, in spite of it all. Maybe there was something more to this. She had to try something.

“So,” she said after some hesitation, looking right at Verrik. “Where did you come from, actually? I don’t think you ever said, yet.”

“Oh!” Verrik snapped to attention, sitting up and smiling warmly. “Augustana.”

“Huh. Isn’t that near Absalom?” She sat up out of her slump - it wasn’t exactly the first place she thought of when she heard ‘lizardfolk.’

“Yeah, like a couple days sailing north. Haven’t been there that much, though.”

“Really? I would’ve thought it’d be a regular destination for you; it’s so beautiful there.”

“Maybe, but it ain’t Augustana.” Verrik smiled, looking up into the sky wistfully. “It’s home, you know? I wouldn’t ever give it up for any other city in the world.”

“Really? Nowhere else?” Natsuko genuinely couldn’t imagine feeling that. Home was fucking boring for her.

“Nowhere else,” Verrik said joyfully. “Like, sure, I might not have been born there, but it’s the home I know - I ain’t fucking abandoning it for anywhere.”

“Wait, so, it’s not your homeland?”

Verrik’s smile drooped down as he sighed.

“If I have a homeland, it’s Augustana. Despite what anyone else says.” He leaned back on the log again, tapping his foot on the wood. Which, now that Natsuko thought of it, had plenty of space at the moment.

“Who would ‘anyone else’ be?” She stood and walked over slowly, sitting down next to Verrik’s foot - he paused, leaning up slightly to meet her gaze with a slightly confused look.

“Uh,” he stammered out, clearly hesitant. “Gramps, mostly.”

“‘Gramps’?” She scooted herself closer to him, gently pushing his foot aside as she leaned down over him, coming up to about his waist. “Who is that, exactly?”

“Uh, um.” Verrik shuffled underneath her, gulping - he sat up slightly, meeting her gaze face-to-face. “My, uh, g-grandpa.” He hesitated a moment, his gaze turning down slightly until he was looking right at-

Well now. Natsuko smiled, watching as Verrik’s cheeks flushed a shockingly bright red as his eyes locked onto her cleavage, which, at the moment, was only just barely covered up by her robes, leaving plenty for him to get an eyeful of. Maybe this lizard isn’t such a bust after all.

“Your grandpa?” She asked, her interest in the conversation itself somewhat diminished at this point. “What was he saying?”

“W-well, uh,” Verrik said, exhaling sharply with an awkward chuckle as Natsuko climbed further on top of him, her hips now pinning his legs firmly down on the log by his knees. He instinctively laid himself back down on the log, his breath quickening underneath her. The height difference between them meant that this essentially put them face-to face with each other, a fact she was quick to exploit by locking eyes with him firmly, her breasts squishing and rubbing against his chest as she giggled softly.

“Go on~”

“I-I, uh, he j-just kinda, um, tried to… t-take me back to M-Mwangi…” He stammered every word out, his face beet fucking red as he squirmed underneath her. She traced her hand along his chest, groping at his muscles and finally getting a good feel for them - she wouldn’t have imagined a lizard could have good abs, but what she was feeling through that cloth and those scales didn’t lie. “I-I, uh… w-what are you d-doing, e-exactly?”

“Oh?” She paused, looking back straight into his eyes with a confident smile and batted eyelashes. “This is just how we like to get to know each other in my village~” She exhaled slowly, giggling as he shook from the hot breath blowing across his face. She couldn’t believe how much of a trembling mess Verrik already was - she’d barely even done anything and he was completely, utterly flustered.

“U-uh, N-Natsuko, I s-should really-”

“Please. Call me Nats.”

Verrik gulped, panting heavily as he laid underneath her. He slowly shook his head.

“I-I, uh, d-don’t think I really w-wanna call-”

“Alright, done!”

Fuck.

Natsuko didn’t hesitate - she pulled herself off of Verrik and stood up, brushing herself off and re-adjusting her robes as she hurriedly walked back to the stump she was sitting on. She looked back at Verrik - he was still panting on the log, struggling to sit up and looking at Natsuko with a mixture of confusion and… something. She simply placed a finger to her lips, motioning for him to not say a word.

“See, Ver?” Hoshiko finally walked out of the tent, indicating her leg. “Didn’t have to worry about it - it’s all good as-”

“H-hey, Hoshi?” Verrik said, his voice still trembling, cheeks still flush, knees still shaking as he re-adjusted his coat back onto his shoulders.

“V-Ver? What are you-”

“L-let’s go lay down now, actually. Like, r-right now.”

“...if you’re sure?” Hoshiko looked at him with an eyebrow raised, looking him over carefully. “Are you alright?”

“Hoshi I am just fine, let's go lay down now, cool thanks.”

He rushed into the tent without a moment’s hesitation, tugging at Hoshiko’s shoulder before disappearing into it. Not that it prevented Natsuko from seeing the tent he, himself, was pitching right now.

“Are you… gonna be okay out here?” Hoshiko looked at Natsuko, who simply leaned back and gave a smug smile.

“Oh, I’m gonna be just fine~”

Hoshiko furrowed her brow, narrowing her eyes and taking one more long, examining look at Natsuko. She just kept looking back with that same smile, humming to herself.

“Just… say something if you need it, I guess.”

“Of course. See you in the morning - long day ahead of us~”

And finally, Hoshiko disappeared back into the tent, closing it tightly behind her. Natsuko stood up, stretching before crawling into her own tent, reaching into her bag of holding and taking out her rations, chewing on them idly as she stewed in her own self-satisfaction, reflecting on what had just happened.

Of course it had stung, knowing the two of them were together - because she was the one for him, not her. Hoshiko didn’t see it yet, maybe Verrik didn’t see it yet - but Natsuko saw it, and that was what was important. A kind, funny lizardfolk sorcerer with an efreeti bloodline, of all things, dropped into her lap like this? And he lived so close to Absalom, after everything that had happened there? And he melted like putty in her hands in mere minutes?

That wasn’t just a sign, it was fireworks going off and spelling out ‘this is your lizard,’ and she’d be damned if she was going to let this chance slip by. Hoshiko was just going to have to deal with that.

‘Taken,’ my ass. That lizard is gonna be mine, bitch.

Chapter Text

Hoshiko rolled her shoulders as they trudged through the snow towards the tengu village, still a bit sore from the previous night - and not for the reasons she had been expecting.

She was no stranger to Verrik being needy, and certainly she didn’t have much reason to complain about it - the moment she closed that tent, he’d pulled her into a kiss, having somehow become awfully worked up in the ten minutes she’d been treating her leg. A moment and hastily asked permission later, they had gotten right into it - it was like Verrik was an animal in heat, desperate for her relief. Hoshiko still wasn’t sure if it was more like two or three hours they had spent attending to each other that night.

It had been a very satisfying night, all things told - yet something about it bothered Hoshiko, and Verrik was… still acting weird. He’d stumbled out of the tent almost immediately in the morning, eager to get everyone moving as soon as possible - and when they did, he grew stiffer, less talkative, kept glancing rapidly between her and-

Natsuko. Who also had started acting strange in the span of those ten minutes, come to think of it - a sudden shift from temperamental pouting to this odd satisfaction with herself. Which wasn’t wholly incongruous with her earliest behavior, given the boasting she was prone to earlier, but certainly didn’t line up with how she’d been acting ever since they left the village.

Hoshiko watched Natsuko carefully as she led the way, striding through the snow with a confident spring in her step and a sashay in her hips. The cold didn’t seem to bother her at all - Hoshiko had pulled her coat up and buttoned it up tight, but Natsuko not only didn’t pack any winter clothing, she still wore the same skimpy red robes she had been wearing since they first met. If she was going to get frostbite or anything, it would have happened yesterday.

Hoshiko hadn’t really noticed yesterday, when Natsuko had spent the trip sulking, but it was impossible not to, now that she had gotten awfully chipper.

Hoshiko cleared her throat. If they were going to spend the next few hours walking, she could at least start probing a bit.

“So, Natsuko,” Hoshiko said, keeping her expression neutral. “I should have asked earlier, but you’re not exactly dressed for winter right now.”

“Uh, yeah, and?” Natsuko looked back at her like she was stupid - god, she was starting to get tired of that condescension.

“I’m just wondering how you’re keeping warm - I’ve seen kitsune who are more used to the cold, but even they still need a layer or two.”

Natsuko laughed a bit too much. “Oh, you don’t get it - it’s the fire blood, sweetie. Keeps us warm, even outside the village. You didn’t think about that?”

Hoshiko didn’t have much time to reflect on what the hell she meant by ‘sweetie’ before Verrik interjected, shivering from the cold even at Hoshiko’s side:

“Uh, I m-mean, not exactly working out that way for me, over here.” Verrik chuckled nervously, still rapidly glancing between the two kitsune.

“Well, Verrik, if you’re too cold, we can always huddle up~” Natsuko winked at him, and he flushed, burying his face into Hoshiko’s side.

Hoshiko glared.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, sorry, Hoshiko,” Natsuko said, distinctly not wiping the smug smile off her face. “The offer extends to you too, of course; I shouldn’t exclude anyone, now should I?~” She gave a half-hearted shrug, chuckling.

Hoshiko didn’t respond, intensifying her glare as she pulled Verrik closer in, squishing his face against her side. Natsuko didn’t seem fazed, still smiling at her with a hand on her hips, tilting her head at Hoshiko as if to try and prompt a response.

Whatever was going on, Natsuko sure seemed eager to get close to Verrik again. Hoshiko exhaled - she wasn’t looking forward to having to re-establish that boundary, firmly this time.

“Look, Natsuko, let me make-”

“Hey guys can we talk about the tengu village instead. I think that would be a good idea.”

Verrik interrupted, his voice overly loud and slightly trembling as he chuckled nervously. Natsuko put a hand to her chin, looking at Verrik with (faux?-)curiosity.

“No, actually, Verrik, I think-”

“It would be really cool if we talked about the Ruby and what we’re going to do about it maybe, I am just saying.” Verrik practically yelled - Natsuko froze, seemingly caught off-guard by his insistence.

Hoshiko looked at Verrik, his expression simultaneously blank and a bit crazy-eyed as he stared right at Natsuko, then back at Hoshiko. For a moment, she thought about protesting as well - she couldn’t deny the frustration bubbling inside her - but she had to admit that Verrik did have a point. They had a task at hand, and the more time they spent squabbling now was more time for whoever had stolen the Ruby to get away with it - and more time they had to spend around Natsuko, for that matter.

“Now that you mention it, yes,” Hoshiko said, taking a deep breath. “We should figure out how we’re going to approach this before we walk into the village. If our thief is there, we don’t want to risk scaring him off, or alerting any of his friends.”

Natsuko stared back at her and Verrik, her mouth opening as if to protest - then she loudly, pointedly exhaled, rolled her eyes and kicked at the snow underneath her.

“Fair point, I suppose. You have any bright ideas about that, Hoshiko?”

“Well, if you’re actually listening, I was thinking…”

The tengu village was nestled shortly beyond the edge of the forest at the mountains’ base, where the trees became unusually large and thick for the region, sticking out like a sore thumb around their tinier, thinner counterparts on the horizon. The closer they got to the village, the more apparent it became that there was a reason for this - the large trees were the village, the tengu having built their homes within the carved out trunks of the trees.

It was, naturally, the first thing Verrik had asked about when the guards at the perimeter stopped them; that meant they were learning about all the ways the tengu had harnessed their magic to grow and tend to their tree homes while they were being escorted to their cells, instead of later. Hoshiko had tried to turn the conversation around to why they came here in a desperate attempt to salvage the situation, but no luck - the guards had no intention of letting them go anywhere until they had a chance to check with the ‘roost keeper’ about whether they could be trusted.

Thus, their current circumstances: behind bars in an underground dungeon built into one of those big trees Verrik had been so curious about, thick wooden bars locking them into two very cramped cells where they just had to wait.

Hoshiko would have been a little less annoyed about it if the guards had been so kind as to not throw her into the cell with Natsuko; poor Verrik had to sit by himself in the opposite cell, tapping his claws idly against the bars and staring longingly at Hoshiko. If the guards weren’t willing to listen to their pleas of innocence, they sure weren’t going to listen to any demands to change cell arrangements.

“So - how’s that plan working for you, Hoshiko?” Natsuko jeered from the small bed on the other side of the cell. “So glad we made it - would’ve been a shame if we just got arrested or something, right?”

Hoshiko glared daggers at her, leaning against the bars and brushing hair out of her eyes.

“Technically, we haven’t been able to start on the plan yet - if we’re let free, I don’t see any reason yet we’d have to change it.”

“If.” Natsuko leaned on her elbows, scoffing. “Just saying, if you actually want out, I can make that real easy.” She flicked her wrist, plucking a small flame from the air between her fingers.

“And start a fight? Hell no, we don’t even know if they’re going to keep us here or not - they said they were going to go talk to the roost keeper, and we should just wait until then.”

“Gonna be waiting awhile, sweetie.” Natsuko flicked the flame out of existence, glaring at Hoshiko. “And I’m not gonna be willing to wait like that much longer.”

“Why are you calling me that?” Hoshiko raised an eyebrow - the sarcasm dripping off of every other remark from Natsuko only got more and more grating as time went on.

“Oh, sorry, what would you rather be called?”

“Hoshiko.”

“Eh,” Natsuko muttered, putting her hands behind her head and relaxing into the wall behind her. “Not even Hoshi?”

“Especially not ‘Hoshi.’” Hoshiko wouldn’t have normally minded much, but she didn’t want to entertain whatever game Natsuko was trying to play here.

“Wow. You really need to pull that stick out of your ass, Hoshi.”

The two locked glares with one another, narrowed eyes regarding each other with increasing spite. Hoshiko flexed her hand, imperceptible sparks of electricity crackling around her fingers - she knew better, but she couldn’t help but think about how much easier this would be if she could just get Natsuko to shut up for once-

“Hey, Hoshi?”

Hoshiko snapped out of that thought, gladly turning her attention back to Verrik, who was currently shoving his snout through the bars.

“Yeah, Ver?”

“Uh, you know, I was wondering, uh, um,” and it quickly became apparent to her that Verrik was more looking to distract from the current conversation than anything else.

“What’s up?” She asked, knowing he likely hadn’t even thought of the question yet.

“So, uh, I was thinking about, uh…” He dug his claws into the bars, scratching it very slightly. “Um. You know the… oh, yeah! The, uh, fighting kitsune ladies carved into that temple wall! What was, uh, up… with that?”

Hoshiko blinked. She’d completely forgotten about that in the wake of everything else that had been going on. And really, she kinda wished it had stayed forgotten - if Verrik’s shaky grin was any indication, he also realized what a strange thing to bring up that had ended up being.

“I… yeah, that… was weird?” Hoshiko said hesitantly. “Is there… a reason you-”

“Oh come on,” Natsuko said, rolling her eyes. “Seriously? That’s the time Harumi Arashiba defeated Ren Ishibashi for the right to rule as Chief. You didn’t even ask anyone about that?”

“Wait, that wasn’t graffiti?” Verrik said, his tone a mixture of genuine shock and… was that interest? “There wasn’t anything else like it on the wall that we saw.”

“Cause that was the only time anyone can remember that a contest of superiority was used for anything but settling personal disputes. And Harumi and Ren’s hatred for each other was just that fucking legendary. People have killed each other for less than what those two were willing to absolutely humiliate each other over.”

Hoshiko froze. She’d been half-expecting some sarcastic bullshit to spew out of Natsuko’s mouth - but she sounded completely serious. But… really? About the carving of the two busty kitsune fighting while-

“They were naked, though - and one of them was, uh…” Verrik gulped, flustering himself into silence.

“Absolutely demolishing the other one’s tits? Yeah, they were like that - wasn’t even the craziest thing to happen in that fight, but even the old historians had limits on what they were willing to depict in public art.” Natsuko leaned back casually, chewing on a ration bar that she’d apparently been keeping… somewhere in her robes.

“Uh. Um.” Verrik stammered. Hoshiko glanced over, watching as he nervously and rhythmically tapped his fingers along the bars. “W-what else happened? And w-why were they doing that in the, um, first place?”

“It was thousands of years ago, so the stories have gotten a bit twisted over the years, but, let me think…” Natsuko crossed her legs, scratching her chin as she seemed to earnestly think about this. “Some accounts have Ren smothering Harumi into unconsciousness with her breasts, others say with her ass; most agree that Harumi took her sweet time spanking Ren when she already had her completely at her mercy in the third round; then you have a fringe report that says Ren spent the better part of a week after the fight being led around naked on a leash by Harumi after losing, just so she could make sure there was no ambiguity with who won and who lost. And that’s not even all of it, just the stuff the village historians are willing to agree on are plausible.”

Oh dear god she was completely serious. Hoshiko tried to find any sign of a lie in there, any hint that Natsuko didn’t earnestly believe every single word she was saying - but no, for once Hoshiko couldn’t detect a single drop of sarcasm, a single thing she just said that had to be a joke. Either Natsuko was far crazier than she’d let on, or this was actual Arashibetsu history she was dumping on all of them.

“As for why, that’s also a bit fuzzy, but generally it’s agreed upon that the rivalry between the Arashibas and the Ishibashis was already intense enough as it was - a series of personal insults, a competitive streak extending back through their early lives, and at least a couple affairs with each other’s lovers later, Harumi and Ren both want nothing more than to take every last shred of dignity from each other until they’re groveling at their feet for mercy. Not much else to tell there without, like, going back in time and asking.”

Verrik just stood there, a long silence creeping over him - Hoshiko couldn’t help but follow. This was just too much.

“So.” Verrik started, very hesitantly. “They weren’t, like, doing a-any of that as a, uh… sex thing?”

“Oh no, they fucking hated each other. They were still legit fighting, pummeling each other senseless and grappling and all that shit. Just that they felt the need to completely humiliate each other in the process, and that included sexually.”

“Is that… normal for your people?” Hoshiko finally spoke up, unable to hide the sheer shock and confusion in her voice. Even worse, Natsuko didn’t respond with her usual sarcasm even to her.

“Hasn’t been for a long fucking time, no. This was early days, back when there were clans still bold enough and jealous enough of my ancestors to try and take control of the Ruby. Ren was only one of a fucking lot that tried to take it from us - she was just the only one to do so in the form of a contest of superiority. Those are still around, kinda, but no one follows those old rules anymore - and none of them have ever been that high stakes or intense - it’s all personal disputes without half the drama or… fun. It’s a faux-pas to demand ‘too much’ from the stakes these days, for some dumbass reason. They’d all balk if someone asked for an old-fashioned contest of superiority.”

Of course she thought that sounded fun. Hoshiko had almost forgotten who she was talking to for a moment there.

“I-I mean,” Verrik stammered out again. “Y-yeah, it sounds… cool.” Hoshiko raised an eyebrow, not actually sure how genuine Verrik was about that. “Um. So. Have you ever… done anything like that?”

“Not yet, no.”

“...not yet?” Hoshiko couldn’t help but interject.

“What, dominating someone you hate like that doesn’t appeal to you?” Natsuko’s catty edge returned to her, unfortunately. “It’s a binding thing, too - the combatants agree on the stakes beforehand, and they’re forced by village law to honor the results there-on, no matter how outrageous. You can’t tell me it wouldn’t be satisfying to completely establish your superiority over someone else, right?”

“I- no! That’s insane!”

Hoshiko tried to ignore the quiet little voice inside her saying otherwise.

“Sure you wouldn’t, Hoshi.”

Hoshiko’s mouth opened, ready to fire back - and then the sound of footsteps down the stairs echoed out into the dungeon, two tengu guards dressed in formal armor marching into the room and saying, just a bit too loudly:

“The roost keeper has deemed you no threat - you are free to go, but we will watch you carefully as you remain in our home. Do not treat our hospitality for granted.”

Hoshiko sighed as one of the tengu spoke an incantation she could not decipher, prompting the bars to lower into the ground, leaving only small holes in the wood at their feet. If they were lucky, they could get through the rest of this journey without dwelling on any more bizarre tangents like that.

“The, uh, fighting kitsune ladies carved into that temple wall! What was, uh, up… with that?”

Natsuko couldn’t help but think about why Verrik had elected to bring that up in the moment. Outsiders tended to politely ignore that particular carving, if they even noticed it at all, and anyone who actually grew up in the village had long grown used to seeing it there. When it did become a point of conversation, it usually went one of two ways: moral outrage, or less-than-covert perversion.

And Verrik sure didn’t sound outraged.

“Uh, Hoshi, how much longer is this supposed to take?”

“I’d guess… five more minutes, probably.”

Natsuko glanced back over to the table where the roost keeper’s oracle was in the middle of casting an irritatingly lengthy spell on the feather - Natsuko had been hoping someone would have just been able to tell them where they could find the thief, but annoyingly, Hoshiko’s ‘plan B’ of asking for a magical means of location just had to be the most sensible course of action. The oracle was old - older than anyone else in the village, by far - and if he had ever met the tengu who this feather belonged to, their identity would be revealed to them, no caveats.

Hoshiko, for whatever reason, seemed to be intently watching the ritual, and Verrik stood by her side, mostly watching her. Though his gaze did wander around the room from time to time; across the leaf-strewn flooring, the small wooden statues of what were probably important ancestors of the roost keeper, the beyond-decrepit looking oracle, the large and slouching roost keeper, and-

Natsuko. He couldn’t seem to help but keep looking at her, and she couldn’t help but find ways to tease him in response - a simple wink and a smile, leaning back and stretching her chest out for him, crossing and uncrossing her legs as she shifted around in her chair, anything that gave him something to really look at. Every time, his cheeks would flush red anew, quickly glance away as if looking were a crime, and stare at the wall before slowly returning his gaze to Hoshiko. Occasionally, Hoshiko would glance back at her, and Natsuko would simply tilt her head and smile, relaxing in her chair - Hoshiko would narrow her eyes suspiciously, pull Verrik in just that bit closer to her, and return her attention to the ritual. Rinse, repeat, watch those blue eyes grow increasingly irritated with each repetition.

Natsuko just could not get enough of getting under this bitch’s skin. She had to know Verrik’s eyes weren’t just for her anymore; even if nothing were to come of it, there was something so satisfying in knowing she could get someone riled up like this. It was like gently pushing and pushing on a tower of loose wooden blocks, watching them slowly slide apart, trying not to push too far on one spot until you were ready to see the whole tower collapse in front of you.

For a moment, she wondered what that game was called - a priest of Cayden Cailean had been showing it off at one of the local taverns in Absalom, him and a growing crowd of drunkards repeatedly pushing blocks out of the tower until the point where one of the drunks, inevitably, fumbled and pushed their hand straight through it. The crowd screamed out in joy, the priest set it back up, and it all repeated again and again until every last one of them had passed out wasted on the floor.

How many more could she push out before it all fell apart?

“So that’s like… two minutes now, right?”

“Please let him focus, Verrik.”

Natsuko sighed quietly, kicking her feet into the air as she stared at Verrik and Hoshiko’s backs. Verrik hadn’t glanced over Natsuko’s way for a couple minutes now, his ragged coat obstructing much of his upper and lower body except for his tail, which… it was a nice tail, but she hadn’t quite gotten to see what she really wanted to see from him. She wondered what it would take to get a fuller view.

Hoshiko, meanwhile, was much less of a secret - the inside of the tree was warm enough for her to tie her coat back around her waist, and Natsuko had to admit she had stiff competition from her in the looks department. Even she couldn’t help but stare a bit at the lean muscles of her shoulders, the way her lightning-esque tattoos curved up from around her sides and crossed over her shoulder blades. If nothing else, Natsuko could kinda understand why Verrik seemed so damn obsessed with her.

So how am I going to get him away from her?

Natsuko paused, her mind sticking to that. She hadn’t actually thought that far, had she? She’d been mostly going by her gut instinct so far, doing what felt right, what felt fun - but that wasn’t going to solve the problem, was it? She could steal glances away, rile him up, tease him every which way she could - but what would it actually take to win him for good?

She didn’t have the history with him, didn’t share a guild with him or have any particular excuse to stick around him after this. Once they’d finished their business in Arashibetsu, he and Hoshiko were probably just going to be on their way, and who knows where that would take them? Once this quest was over, that was almost certainly it for any chance she might have with Verrik. Maybe her chance with anyone, considering her luck.

She had to find some way to make him stay, even just a bit longer.

What that actually entailed, however, would have to wait; a sudden flash of light from the table made her jump out of her chair with a yelp, though Verrik’s own scream managed to drown hers out. The oracle stood firm, staring into the newly glowing feathers, wisps of radiant energy forming numerous words in what must have been the tengu language that then seemed to slam into his watery eyeballs, fusing into them until there were none left. He blinked, and handed the feather over to Hoshiko, who had, annoyingly, similarly failed to react much to the burst of light.

“You are… looking… for one lost… from our flock.” The oracle spoke haltingly, his beak trembling with each word, aged feathers looking like they were ready to shake off with each syllable. “His name… Gorou. Indeed… a thief… exiled long ago.”

“Gorou.” The roost keeper clasped his hands together, resting his beak on their combined fist. “Never has there been one more pathetically exiled from our roost. Stole from our ancient records, tried to sell them to a human traveler. In broad daylight. In front of me.” The keeper stood, lifting himself from his simple chair by his ornate wooden cane. “I will not lie; that one such as he can steal such a precious artifact disturbs me greatly. Either he has improved his aptitude for deception and thievery by eons, or the Arashibas have become a joke.”

Hoshiko and Verrik looked back at Natsuko, as if to prompt her to explain. She glared - she didn’t like that Hoshiko almost seemed to be smiling at that.

“Look, Keeper,” Natsuko said, picking herself up and trying to appear composed. “The Ruby just suddenly broke on us - we don’t know how, it just did. If they just let me guard it, maybe this Gorou wouldn’t have had the opportunity to run off with it.” However the fuck he did that in the first place, she added to herself.

“Hmm.” The roost keeper twirled his cane between his feathered fingers, letting it nearly fly out of his grasp several times before finally pointing it at Natsuko, almost as if trying to menace her. “And why, exactly, did they not allow you to guard it? Are you not Tomatsu’s daughter?”

Natsuko froze. Of course she should have realized her father might have taken the time to acquaint himself with his neighbors. She took a deep breath, thinking how she was going to explain-

“Oh, uh, they think she broke it,” Verrik suddenly fucking interjected. “Which, I mean, I don’t think she did, but you know, people like to make assumptions, and she was pretty sure someone else might have like… sabotaged it or just fucked it up before her. You know, just, uh, fumbled it real bad, if it wasn’t intentional. Which it might have been. She didn’t actually do anything wrong, probably, most likely, but they all think she did and… you know, uhhhhh.” Verrik trailed off for a moment. “But really, she didn’t, like, try to break it at the very least, and like I said it was probably already-”

“VERRIK!”

Everyone stared at Natsuko, Verrik in particular looking like a kobold caught in torchlight. Natsuko breathed heavily, her eyes flicking between everyone else as she processed what she’d just done.

“I, uh…” Natsuko stumbled through her words, her brain catching up with her gut. She sighed, trying to put on a smile. “V-Verrik, I’m sorry, and I appreciate you speaking up for me, but I really would like to explain this myself. In my own words. So just, for a moment, be quiet-”

The words clammed up in her mouth the moment Hoshiko started snickering, putting a hand to her mouth in an apparent attempt to contain herself - not that it seemed to do much, given the outright laughter that spilled out of her in mere moments as she clutched at her stomach, her eyes closed shut as she doubled over in amusement. Verrik gave an awkward laugh, clearly confused - behind them, the tengu oracle cracked the one smile they ever saw from him for just the tiniest moment.

Natsuko clenched her fist, waiting for Hoshiko to stop finding amusement in whatever the fuck was so funny to her. It took far longer than Natsuko would have liked.

“O-okay, sorry, k-keep going,” Hoshiko said, still smiling and suppressing remnants of laughter as she looked Natsuko right in the eyes. “L-like you said; in your own words.”

Chapter Text

Gorou, it turned out, was known to keep a schedule to his fencing activities - for all that he’d been exiled from there, his base of operations was only half a day’s walk from the tengu village. He kept up a relatively small-time operation in a nearby cave system, selling stolen goods to a small handful of regular clients, often passing merchant caravans with loose morals. The tengu could have theoretically already dealt with him, had they devoted the time to doing so - but a combination of recent tensions with a nearby hobgoblin settlement and Gorou’s lack of actual impact on the village since his exile apparently made such a takedown simply a very, very low priority.

Natsuko couldn’t help but find that extremely annoying. Bad enough they all thought she was at fault for the thing with the Ruby - if they’d just dealt with the thief operating in the fucking open, she wouldn’t have even had to worry about it being stolen.

At least Verrik had accepted her apology after the fact graciously - he was, after all, only… well, trying to help. It was honestly adorable in a way, at least in retrospect.

Less adorable was Hoshiko still finding that whole thing amusing. She may not have been busting a goddamn gut over it, but Natsuko could still catch her smiling about it - did she just think it was that fucking funny? Or was she just happy to see her get taken down a peg?

Natsuko had had plenty of time to think this through on their way to the cave system, her thoughts still ringing back to Verrik’s fixation on the contest of superiority. She couldn’t help but be curious just how far his curiosity went. She had a feeling there was something more going on there, but she couldn’t be sure just yet.

An inkling of an idea was forming in her mind, but nothing she wanted to act on. Yet.

“Think this is it,” Verrik said as they came up on a large, cavernous entrance sloping deep into the underground, snow melting partway into the cavern’s maw as shifting yellow lights beamed into the cave beyond a turn to the right further up ahead. “I’m… not seeing any sign anyone’s been here recently. Hoshi, should I, uh…?”

Hoshiko shook her head. “We’ll just be careful. If we need him, you can bring him out quickly enough.”

“Hey, uh, who?” Natsuko said, raising an eyebrow. “Who’s ‘him’?”

“Oh, right; Gramps.” Verrik said, like that made any sense.

“‘Gramps?’ Like… the one who was going to take you back to, uh, wherever he was trying to take you back to?”

“Uh, yeah, so basically-”

“I don’t remember you mentioning that, Ver.” Hoshiko said, furrowing her brow. “When did you talk about that?”

Fuck.

Natsuko’s eyes widened; ever since that first night, there hadn’t been a moment where Natsuko and Verrik would have been alone to talk about… anything. Which only left those precious few minutes where Hoshiko was too busy fixing up her leg to notice their little ‘chat.’ Which left little room to bullshit out of it. Which meant the only reasonable explanation was to hew close to the truth.

Which meant that there was absolutely no way Hoshiko wouldn’t connect the dots, cause for all that Natsuko had grown to dislike her, she knew she wasn’t stupid.

If the way Verrik had frozen up was any indication, he was realizing that exact thing. He gulped, took a deep breath, and started speaking:

“Okay, uh, so. Hoshi. I… really should have explained this earlier, but,” Verrik began, and Natsuko knew she couldn’t let him finish. Not just yet, anyway.

“Yeah, we talked about it a little bit while you were treating your leg.” Natsuko interrupted, stepping in-between Verrik and Hoshiko. “We didn’t have much time to talk, of course, given how quickly you got done with that. Very impressive, by the way.”

Natsuko kept a neutral expression, waiting to see how Hoshiko would react. If this was going to happen now, at the very least Natsuko could try and keep this under her control.

“Okay.” Hoshiko narrowed her eyes at Natsuko, folding her arms as she stepped a bit closer. “Funny you mention that night, actually. I seem to remember Verrik being… exhausted.”

“W-well, Hoshi, I-I was trying to say-”

“It was a long day of hiking, and he was cold,” Natsuko interrupted again, stepping closer to Hoshiko, unable to help herself from adopting a coy smile. “Why wouldn’t he be exhausted?”

“And yet he wasn’t when we were all around the fire.” Hoshiko stepped even closer, and Natsuko could feel the edge of her breath blowing across her face, only inches apart from each other. “Which means something exhausted him in the few minutes I was in the tent.”

“Oh, yeah, that is odd,” Natsuko said, scratching her chin and feigning curiosity in the question. “Might have just caught up with him while he was waiting for you - you know how it gets when you’re bored.” She grinned, tilting her head - she could see Hoshiko’s muscles tensing up, her eyes lighting up with an intensity Natsuko hadn’t yet seen from her.

“What did you do?”

Hoshiko’s eyes suddenly seemed to shift - her pupils narrowed into slits and turned a piercing, glowing blue for just a brief moment, enough to make Natsuko’s blood run cold. Her smug superiority faded into the background, replaced with an honest to gods fear that rocked her soul, leaving her shaking as she stepped back - not that Hoshiko let her keep any distance, backing her towards Verrik like a cornered animal.

“I-I didn’t do-”

“What. Did. You. Do.”

Natsuko clenched her fists, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath - she couldn’t let Hoshiko get to her like this, not now of all times. She kept her eyes shut as she spoke, doing her best to keep herself composed:

“What… does it matter what I did?” Natsuko exhaled sharply, trying to let her nerves relax even as she could feel Hoshiko’s gaze still burrowing into her. “You’re the one who walked off and made things harder for yourself.”

“What?” Hoshiko said, with venom.

“Oh, you know, refusing to just heal it with a spell when that would have taken mere seconds, deciding you needed to prove you could do it yourself. If you ask me, that sounds awfully insecure, doesn’t it?”

“What the hell are you getting at?”

Natsuko opened her eyes slowly, taking in Hoshiko’s face again - whether it had been reality or a trick of the mind, her eyes were back to their normal mammalian configuration, though the blue of her eyes was only glowing a little less. She was no less pissed - but the scowl on her face had an edge of defensiveness on it now.

“I’m just saying,” Natsuko said, looking down at Hoshiko. “You’re the one trying to throw accusations around - you feel threatened by something, Hoshi?”

Hoshiko suddenly closed the distance, their bodies now pressing together as she got in Natsuko’s face, teeth bared, eyes wide with rage. Natsuko’s smug smile returned to her as she stared back down at her - it may have only been a slight height difference between them, but Natsuko still appreciated that she was the taller of the two.

“Let me make this as clear as I fucking can - whatever you’re trying to do with Verrik, you are going to stop. If I see you touch him like that, you are going to regret it and it is going to be your fault.”

Hoshiko growled the words out, pressing her nose right to hers as she said it, and Natsuko, for all her outward confidence, still couldn’t deny that Hoshiko was terrifying like this. Still, Natsuko had steeled herself by this point - the only thing to do now was undercut.

“Verrik’s his own man - he can decide what he wants. Is that the right thing to do, deny a man his desires?”

“As if you know what he wants.”

“Oh, I think you’d be surprised.”

Natsuko finally glanced back at Verrik, curious what he would do - the answer seemed to be to stand there, frozen in place, his cheeks completely red as he breathed heavily and stared at them. She couldn’t blame him, seeing how they were - their bodies completely pressed together, breasts pushing right up against each other, their snouts not even inches away as hot, angry breath rolled across their cheeks, making it clear he was the object of their desires in this contest of wills.

It certainly answered Natsuko’s earlier question quite clearly - the guy probably didn’t want to admit it, acknowledge it, but that carving hit a button for him, and that same button was almost certainly getting pushed right now. He’d stopped protesting, and she was certain that wasn’t just because he was so shocked. There was something inside him that wouldn’t mind so much if this kept going, kept escalating until it hit the breaking point; she could see the horror in his brain fighting with the desire in his gut, plain as day on his face.

She wondered if she should escalate this, rip the bandage off and settle this right the fuck now - she couldn’t lie that there wasn’t something stirring in her right now too, a need to put Hoshiko in her place properly, show her who she was really messing with. She clenched her fist, staring into Hoshiko’s rage-filled eyes, wondering if she was thinking the same thing as her-

“Hey! Hey! Who the fuck are you three?!”

Natsuko and Hoshiko both snapped their attention to the gruff voice yelling at them from the snow-capped trees they had just come from - a short tengu, dressed in fine bright green clothing with a dumb fucking feather cap on his head, hands still cupped to his beak to yell. He started approaching, drawing a cheap dagger from his belt and tossing it between his hands.

“Okay, now here’s the rub; unless you three are here to make a purchase, and I know you ain’t cause none of you are on my fucking list, you are early - that is tomorrow and you need to wait. But that don’t fucking matter cause you’re not on my list, so unless you want to get cut, I would strongly… suggest…”

He stopped, his beak agape in horror as the kitsune in front of him stepped forward - Hoshiko’s arm started to crackle with lightning, conducting in terrifying streaks across it like a coil that would fry someone even just touching it. Natsuko flexed her hands, large flames balling into her fists that only grew in size with each passing moment, the snow beneath her melting away quickly. The tengu’s eyes widened in terror - and realization.

“Ah, fuck.”

The two kitsune raised their arms, both of them ready to make Gorou regret waking up this morning - but his own hand was quicker, clutching at a strange rod on his belt and suddenly vanishing before their eyes. Natsuko’s gaze darted around frantically, looking for her target, and Hoshiko seemed to follow suit, her eyes now crackling white with electricity.

“Down in the caves! He time jumped!”

Natsuko turned to face the other new voice - and faltered as she laid eyes upon a very tall, very not solid lizardfolk, clad in robes and a straw hat and shimmering before her eyes. He was old, and pissed, staring into the cavern below with fiery eyes and brandishing burning claws. She didn’t get much more of a look before he dashed down into the caves, chasing the speck that was Gorou - Hoshiko had evidently already given chase ahead of him, lightning cracking past Gorou and onto the far wall of the passage.

“Wha- who-”

“O-oh, uh. Gramps.”

Verrik didn’t elaborate further before following ‘gramps’ down into the caves.

Hoshiko stormed into the large chamber ahead of her, bolts of electricity streaking across her arm as she prepared to unleash blast after blast of lightning in Gorou’s direction. She wasn’t about to let this guy go, not after all the garbage his little thievery had ended up putting her through. She could recognize hints of the environment around her as she dashed through - splashes of cave rivers, a red glow from the ceiling, a strangely fragrant scent that grew stronger and stronger the further in they got - but they were little more than impressions upon her senses. There were exactly two things she could see clearly - that little shit of a tengu, and the most direct path to him.

She had been through enough these last couple days.

Gorou ran for his goddamn life - he’d disappear around corners, still warping ahead every few seconds, but she knew there was no way he’d keep that up. Whatever wand or implement he was using to time jump, there was simply no way it would last long enough to keep him ahead for much longer.

“Get back here!”

Hoshiko glanced to her left - normally, Kolli was an unwelcome sight, but the sheer speed he was running at right now, clearly fueled by Verrik’s link with him, was currently very welcome. He dashed ahead of her, his claws leaving streaks of flame behind him.

“Don’t kill him!” Hoshiko yelled ahead, her voice still trembling with rage. “He’s not getting off that easy!”

“No promises.”

Kolli disappeared behind a corner, and Hoshiko just had to keep running. She had no intention of killing Gorou… but she wasn’t sure she’d lose any sleep over it if he did die. The anger was flowing freely through her, like her very blood rippled and boiled in her veins, and in the back of her mind she wondered if this was just how Kolli felt all the time.

She couldn’t lie - it felt freeing.

Why do they have to be so fucking fast?!

‘Gramps’ had long left Natsuko behind in the dust, and Verrik was slowly catching up with him - he’d lagged behind initially, casting some spell or other that seemed to make the weird ghost run even faster, but he then turned a bracelet on his arm and started running faster than Natsuko could hope to catch up with. She seemed to be keeping speed with Hoshiko, at least, but that just meant that she stayed way behind instead of being completely left in the dust.

At this rate, they’d catch up to Gorou long before she could - and as far as she was concerned, she needed blood most of all here. He had made the situation with the Ruby so much worse - hell, maybe he’d been the one to sabotage it somehow, created that opening to steal it once someone had been unlucky enough to be the one to touch it next.

Maybe he’d been targeting her the whole time - was she followed from Absalom? Had someone taken notice of that whole fiasco back in the markets, decided they needed revenge for… some reason? She couldn’t think of any other reason she, specifically, would be the target of a frame-up like that, but the idea was lining up too perfectly in her head to not make sense. Anyone who had been paying attention at the village would have known she was preparing to commune with the Ruby, which this Gorou fuck must have been doing if he managed to pull this whole stunt off.

…it didn’t have anything to do with Mom, did it? No, no, that didn’t make any sense - Mom hadn’t even-

Natsuko screeched as she tripped over a rock she really should have seen coming, landing face-first in a puddle of water that quickly started to steam as it made contact with her flame-wrapped arm. She quickly picked herself back up, broke back out into a run, cursing to herself as she saw Hoshiko run even further ahead, disappearing behind the next corner.

She couldn’t let this get fucked up - she had to get at Gorou, one way or another.

“No, no, no, get the fuck away from me! It’s not my time, it’s not my time!”

Hoshiko flexed the electricity between her fingers, her fur standing on end - Gorou’s screaming felt loud enough to pierce her eardrums, which could only mean he was close by. Sure enough, that next turn was the last - Kolli had not just caught up to Gorou, but had managed to grab him and throw him to the ground, standing menacingly over him with his claws outstretched. There was only one way forward, a narrow passage that led further down underground - and Kolli was standing right in front of it. Verrik had just about caught up himself, running to the side and seeming to intend a healthy distance between him and Gorou.

Above them, a crudely made banner dangled between stalactites, proudly proclaiming ‘Welcume to Were the Good Stuf is’ with a crude winking face drawn at the end of it. It already seemed to be slipping from one of the stalactites it was hanging by.

“Come on, d-do you want money? Gold?” Gorou crawled away from Kolli, trembling, clutching uselessly at the shattered remnants of his wand. “Please, man, I know you’re a fucking ghost or something, but you g-gotta want something!”

“Look at me,” Hoshiko growled, thrusting her arm towards the ground and letting the lightning strike against the rock with a deafening crack. Gorou screamed, scrambling over himself as he faced her, still ass-first on the ground. “You are going to give us the Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames. Now.”

“H-hey, no, no, no,” Gorou stammered, staring in wide-eyed horror at her. “T-that’s, I, no, you g-gotta understand, t-they’ll kill me if I do.”

“And we wouldn’t?” Hoshiko stepped forward, raising her arm towards him, its shape barely perceptible beneath the storm around it. “Is that the chance you want to take?”

“Come on, Gorou,” Verrik said, approaching slowly, cautiously, one hand extended forward as he kept the other firmly on his staff. “We really do not want to kill you. Seriously.”

“Maybe he doesn’t,” Kolli said, flexing his claws. “I don’t know about myself.”

“Okay, I don’t want you dead. But he’s not going to hurt you unless you-”

“I don’t know about her, for that matter.”

Hoshiko exhaled sharply, still leveling her arm straight at Gorou, who had barely taken his eyes off her, hyper-ventilating harder and harder with each passing moment. Verrik looked at her, his eyes widening, gently reaching a hand out to her distantly. Hoshiko blinked at him, feeling like there was something she was missing.

“Hey, uh, Hoshi,” he said, a sharp note of concern in his voice. “We got him cornered, alright? You don’t need to-”

“Ah, goddammit - better you fucks than them!”

Gorou rushed to his feet, scrambling towards Verrik as he drew his dagger from his belt - and lit up like a lamp as Hoshiko finally unleashed the bolt of lightning right into his chest, collapsing onto the ground without even a chance to scream. Verrik startled out of his stupor, casting what Hoshiko recognized as a stabilize spell on Gorou as he lay there, feathers crackling and smoking, limbs twitching as his tongue hung limply from the side of his beak. Verrik rushed over, pressed his fingers to his neck (after a quick shock from the feathers’ built up static), and sighed.

“Well, he’s breathing.” Verrik sat on the rock floor next to Gorou, shaking his head. “I’ll… tie him up in a moment, I guess.”

“I don’t even know why you were worrying, child,” Kolli said, stepping over Gorou and to Verrik’s side. “If he had died, it would have been his own fault.”

“Ugh, Gramps, come on - we needed him to talk, you weren’t worried about that?”

“She didn’t kill him. I’m not sure what the problem is here.”

“Because I stabilized him!” Verrik snapped - then sighed, composed himself and looked back at Hoshiko. “Not that you did anything wrong - he, uh, was coming at me.”

Hoshiko didn’t respond. She couldn’t. The rage was draining back out of her, and with it came the sudden clarity that said rage hadn’t ever consumed her like that before. She shook her arm, still stinging with the lightning bolt she had kept at the ready for minutes before. Was all this really getting to her this much? That… didn’t seem right. Yet she had so naturally fallen into such blind rage, this need for retribution for things that had been happening for just a couple days now. What had come over her?

“You’re not getting away, you piece of shit!”

Suddenly Natsuko appeared from the chamber entrance, flinging the mass of fire from across her arm - and it went wide, the ball of flame soaring straight into the ceiling and consuming the crude banner above them, burning to a crisp in mere moments as it collapsed slowly to the ground below. Verrik quickly pulled Gorou out of the way of his own sign, leaving it to burn impotently across the rocks for the next few minutes.

Hoshiko stared at Natsuko, who in turn stared blankly at the burning canvas tens of feet in front of her. She blinked, looked at Hoshiko, and frowned.

“You know, you could have waited for me.”

Hoshiko glared, and Kolli sighed.

“Save the fighting for later, before you two forget about the Ruby.”

Gorou’s operation was about as small-time as his reputation suggested - a small handful of crates packed into the corner of the chamber they had stopped him in, a poorly laid out and written ledger detailing various transactions of petty goods for pittances of profits, and a small stockpile of meat in the corner that didn’t look particularly appetizing by this point.

Which only made it all the more jarring to find the fragments of the Ruby laid out so neatly underneath a sheet on the crates. Even shattered, the pieces still gleamed so vibrantly to Natsuko’s eyes - the energy within them was merely separated, not destroyed. She cupped the fragments between her hands, pushing them back together in a shape that vaguely resembled the Ruby’s actual form… and watched them uselessly roll over each other.

“You know that’s not how that works.”

Natsuko gasped involuntarily, whirling around to face ‘gramps’ who, for whatever reason, was sort of just… standing behind her, arms folded. In the distance behind him, she could see Verrik and Hoshiko tying Gorou to his own chair - and talking. Smiling. She couldn’t hear them, couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but all the same Natsuko scowled.

“And stop distracting yourself with your damn obsession.”

Natsuko snapped to attention.

“What?” She narrowed her eyes at ‘gramps’, tilting her head. “The hell does that mean?”

“No distractions. The sooner the Ruby is taken care of, the sooner this is all over.”

Natsuko stared at ‘gramps,’ who mostly just stared back at her with those disconcertingly red eyes - she was starting to get used to the whole ghost thing, but she still didn’t know what to make of this guy. She’d noticed that his chest glowed with a strange symbol of fire, which Verrik now possessed as well, and now that she was thinking about it-

“Ahhh, wait a second - you’re Verrik’s eidolon, aren’t you?” She said, grinning.

“I’m his grandfather.” ‘Gramps’ narrowed his eyes at her in turn.

“And his eidolon - how interesting. I haven’t ever met a summoner before, ‘Gramps’-”

“You will not call me that.”

“And what will I call you?”

“My name is Kolli, and that is the only name you are going to call me.” He stared right into her eyes, and she quietly realized not to test that particular statement. After a moment, he walked over to look at the fragments of the Ruby, inspecting them carefully, tracing his claws gently along their edges.

“Okay, Kolli - still, I’ve heard of summoners, but I don’t remember the last time our village was graced with one.” Natsuko walked up behind him, paying far more attention to him than the Ruby - not like they’d be able to do much of anything with the fragments yet. “I’m curious, how did that all happen? You becoming his eidolon and all.”

“No distractions.”

“Come on, seriously? What are we supposed to talk about? We’re still waiting on Gorou to wake up and you’re-”

“Focusing on the task at hand so I can be done with this.”

Natsuko scoffed - of course the giant ghost lizard had to have a stick shoved up his ass too. Verrik really was the only fun one in the group. Kolli was gathering the fragments in his hands now, apparently keen on… fondling them, for all Natsuko could tell.

“Fine. You can focus on that. I’m going to go over there and see how they’re-”

“No. Distractions.” He suddenly thrust his hands towards her, offering the fragments to her. “Hold these.”

“What? Why? What am I supposed to do with these?” Though she protested, she still ended up holding them in her hands.

“You’re going to hold them together and focus on them. Put them back together.”

“Excuse me? How the fuck are you supposed to know how this works? The priests have to put this back together, not me.” She genuinely couldn’t remember a time where anyone else did.

“Wonderful. You choose now to respect the line between you and something you’re not ‘supposed’ to do.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“No distractions.”

“Stop saying that! Holy shit, stop saying that.” Natsuko shoved her face right up to Kolli’s, glaring him down - he simply reacted with an intensified glare of his own.

“I am not getting into an argument with you; I’ve seen how that works out.”

Natsuko opened her mouth to protest - then thought about what Kolli actually just said.

“Wait, wait, you’ve seen how it ‘works out?’”

Kolli leaned further in, forcing her to retract and step back, and stared right into her eyes.

“I see everything my grandson sees. Everything.”

Natsuko gulped. She got the hint just fine.

“O-okay. Let’s… do whatever the fuck it is you think I can do.” She took a deep breath and pushed the fragments together again, careful to try and get them roughly where they should be. “Is there a reason we should be worrying about this right now?”

“The quicker the Ruby is repaired, the quicker we’ll all be done with this nonsense in Tian Xia.” Kolli traced his claw along the edges of the fragments, the fire reflecting into the gemstone and lighting it up slightly. “You’re not focusing your energy.”

“Fuck’s sake, give me a moment.” How did Verrik even deal with this guy? Was he just like this? “And what do you mean, ‘nonsense?’ You hate this place or something?”

“My grandson has been distracted by the problems of foxes,” and Kolli gave a pointed look to Natsuko, which she really didn’t appreciate, “and has spent far too long ignoring the problems in his homeland to follow his flights of fancy.”

“...Augustana? I thought he was-”

“That is not his ‘homeland’ and he knows it.” Kolli pushed Natsuko’s hands together harshly, earning a pained scowl from her - she wasn’t sure what words to put to the sensation of Kolli’s touch, but it sure wasn’t pleasant. “You’re not focusing.”

“Whatever. Fine.” She rolled her eyes, then closed them and tried to interact with the fragments as though they were whole. “This isn’t going to work anyway.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Oh, you do? You know that? You never answered that, Gramps.”

“Stop. With. The distractions.” Natsuko opened her eyes slightly - there he was, tracing his fingers along the edges again like it was doing anything.

“What is that even supposed to do? I’m focusing my energy and it’s not doing shit.” She exhaled, clumsily mashing the fragments together as she pressed her hands harder together, pumping yet more energy into them.

“Careful, you fool.” Kolli grabbed at her hands, pulling them apart slightly but harshly - Natsuko growled, trying to shove her hands back together, pushing against Kolli. “Just - for gods’ sake, just LISTEN.”

“No, you listen, you old dead sack of-”

“Hey, uh, what are you guys doing?”

Verrik inserted himself between them, leaning his head down with a weirded out look on his face. Kolli exhaled, a shimmering steam visibly shooting out of his nostrils, and he stopped pulling on Natsuko’s hands, though he didn’t let go of them.

“I am trying to get your new friend to help repair the artifact we came for.”

“Wait, I thought we were going to bring it back first and let the village handle that? When did that become an option?” Verrik scratched his head.

“When your eidolon started-”

“No, no, my grandpa. Please don’t just call him that, that’s weird.”

“But-” Natsuko stammered, then sighed. Verrik did have a point. “Okay, s-sorry. Your grandpa decided he suddenly knows how to fix this artifact he’s only just seen for the first time in his… life and that I, somehow, should just know that it’ll work and to let him dictate, to me, the best way to handle something I grew up around.” She glared back at Kolli, who returned in kind.

“Okay. Uh. So.” Verrik cleared his throat, scratching the back of his neck. “Gramps, have you seen the Ruby before?”

“Yes. You have to ask? As if I would be attempting this at all if I did not?”

“What.” Natsuko stared at Kolli, mouth slightly agape. “You couldn’t just fucking say-”

“Okay. Then… what are you exactly trying to do?”

“May I, actually?”

And there she was, fucking Hoshiko coming in to show how fucking smart she was. Natsuko wanted to throw her into a deep pit, maybe a volcano or something.

“Oh yeah, go ahead, Hoshi!” And Verrik just had to be so happy about that. Ugh. Even with everything, she still had him wrapped around her finger. At least Kolli looked as annoyed with this as anything else.

“So, this is sort of a guess on my part, but if Natsuko was able to break it with her magic, then-”

“Wasn’t my fucking fault, Hoshi.”

“Let me finish.” Hoshiko clutched at the bridge of her snout, then continued. “If Natsuko broke it - however unintentionally or potentially caused by previous damage - then it seems like a reasonable assumption that she could fix it with a similar, but opposite, application of her magic. Primal magic can heal as much as it destroys; Verrik has demonstrated that well enough.”

Verrik waved like a teacher just pointed him out and praised him - if nothing else, Natsuko could depend on him to be adorable. She started idly rubbing the fragments together in her hand, the sensation surprisingly pleasant in spite of their haphazardly shattered nature. She could feel them clink and almost squeak together in her grasp.

“So I’m guessing Kolli decided to try and get her to do exactly that… without explaining anything about it.”

“It should have been damn obvious.”

“I mean, I don’t know, maybe it should have been, but-”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Natsuko glared at Hoshiko, squeezing the fragments in one hand now. “I made it really obvious that it wasn’t, you don’t think that means anything?”

“Look, I can’t be sure of that, now can I?” Hoshiko put her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes once-a-fucking-gain at Natsuko. “I can’t be sure of anything with you.”

“Good thing I can be sure you’re a bitch.” She kept squeezing her hand on the fragments, her palm feeling increasingly hot. Hoshiko widened her eyes in anger, leaning in to come face-to-face with her again.

“You want to repeat that?” Hoshiko exhaled sharply, and Natsuko swore she could smell lightning on her breath.

“Yeah, I will - you’re a fucking bitch.” Natsuko pressed her nose against Hoshiko’s, the two of them breathing heavily across each other’s faces. Her hand burned with rage now, flame starting to lick across her knuckles. “I haven’t liked you since the first moment I met you, and it’s only gotten worse with each word out of your fucking mouth.”

“Hey, uh, wait-”

But whatever Verrik’s plea was, it fell on deaf ears.

“You know, I tried to be patient with you, tried to be understanding, but you just keep antagonizing me and I am getting really, really sick of it.” Electricity started to coil up Hoshiko’s arm again, the air between them heating up rapidly. “I was really hoping we could just get through this without anything complicated, and we could have if you weren’t trying to mess it all up!”

“Mess it up? I’m just following my heart here - you’re the one who has a problem with it.”

“Because you’re trying to steal my boyfriend for some fucking reason! I told you we were a thing and yet, and yet that only seemed to encourage you! I don’t even know why you’re doing this!”

“Because you don’t deserve him! I’ve seen the way Ver looks at me - I know what he wants, you just don’t want to give him the chance cause you’re scared.”

“You don’t get to call him that.”

“Oh, that’s cute - you won’t get to call him that when I’m done with him.”

“Shut. Up.”

“Make me.”

By the time Hoshiko was pulling her arm back, her fist crackling with electricity, Natsuko was ready - she raised her own arm, hand now wreathed in flame, ready to very literally beat her to the punch.

“Okay, seriously, can you two please listen-”

But it was too late, and their fists were already flying - right at each other. They’d evidently both seen the other’s strike coming, both dodged in such a way that their blows simply collided with each other, their knuckles slamming together with all the force they could muster-

And exploding, sending everyone present tumbling back violently as smoke enveloped from the point of impact. Natsuko clutched at her fist, biting down the pain from the sudden burst of power that erupted from her palm. Coughing, she rose to her feet and tried to discern what had happened through the billowing smoke.

Slowly, a shining red light shone through the smoke, a familiar hum vibrating through the air. The light suddenly began to suck the smoke into it, clearing the air as the hum intensified, now shaking the cavern chamber around them like a minor earthquake.

“Oh holy fuck that worked,” Natsuko muttered as the last of the smoke vanished into nothingness.

The Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames, just as it was supposed to be - flames dancing around its diamond-like edges, small balls of fire forming around it and exploding into (mostly) harmless infernos that licked at the gem’s edges and the air around them. It looked exactly as it should, except…

Electricity. Intermingling with the flames, zipping from tip to tip around the whole gemstone, the ever-burning flame within the Ruby now occasionally pulsing a distinct blue.

“Did you seriously just fuck the Ruby up? After all that?” Natsuko yelled at Hoshiko, who had been staring in fascination at the Ruby - but quickly turned her attention back to Natsuko.

“Okay, first off, you did that. You literally started that just now. Second of all-”

“Stop arguing and look at it!”

They glanced up at it - and watched in horror as it started to glow, its visage distorting softly at first, then rapidly vibrating in place as the glow intensified.

“Touch it! Just touch it!”

Natsuko didn’t hesitate, and neither did Hoshiko, and neither did Kolli as they all rushed to put their hands on it, the Ruby glowing a blindingly bright red as it emitted an ear-piercing screech - and in an instant, vanished, taking the three of them with it.

Verrik stumbled after them, tripping over himself onto the cave floor as they vanished in front of him. He leapt to his feet, looking around for any sign of them - and realized there wasn’t.

Looking over at Gorou, he took a deep breath, thought about his options; then he clasped his hands together, and re-manifested Kolli.

Chapter Text

Hoshiko could see little else but bright, searing flame, as if she floated in the middle of a tornado of fire. The heat was intense, yet she did not burn - for all the flames licked at her body, they did not harm her, and in fact they felt strangely comforting. She could feel herself moving at high speed through the inferno, as if she were being flung through the universe via catapult.

She didn’t have much time to think about what was happening before the flames pulled away, receding into the edges of her vision as brown stone brick barreled towards her at frightening speed. Her eyes widened, instinctively throwing her arms out in a desperate attempt to cast a feather fall spell before the point of impact-

And the next time she opened her eyes, she was floating gently down feet-first onto the stone flooring of the Arashibetsu temple’s meeting hall, descending from a vortex of flame in the ceiling. As her feet made contact with the floor, she looked around frantically, trying to find any sign of Verrik.

The white-furred kitsune that smacked into the floor shoulder-first was, unfortunately, anything but Verrik. Natsuko groaned in pain, but didn’t look particularly worse for wear as she slowly picked herself up off the ground; Hoshiko realized that the feather fall may not have been really necessary, but at least it spared her some embarrassment. She looked toward the vortex, shielding her eyes from its intense light as she waited for Verrik.

When Kolli smacked into the floor next, she sighed in relief - until he cursed under his breath and frantically reached for his bone necklace and twisted at it, as he always did when he was out of range of Verrik.

“Listen, I don’t have much time - I’ll get us back here as fast as I can, but you need to meet us in the middle. If something happens with that damn bird, my grandson can’t afford to be-”

And then he vanished in a puff of smoke, and the vortex above closed, the Ruby falling and clattering harmlessly onto the stone. Flame and electricity still mixed in its core.

“I need to go back now.” Hoshiko started walking towards the exit of the temple, her mission clear. “I am not letting Verrik-”

“Hold a fucking moment!” Natsuko dusted herself off as she ran in front of Hoshiko, scowling. “You actually think we were done back there? I’m not letting you just walk away like that, we need to settle this.”

“You know what, we are done, Natsuko.” Hoshiko gave Natsuko the death glare in full, glowing eyes and all. “I am going back for Verrik and you are not stopping me.”

“Oh, yeah, just ruin the Ruby and leave before you have to deal with the consequences, yeah, yeah, sure. I’m not done with you, and I am not going to-”

“Verrik is out there, alone, and you’re getting hung up on this?!” Hoshiko shook her head, baffled. “Shouldn’t you care about that, considering all the shit you’ve said to me?”

“I- Well-” Natsuko stammered, the anger in her face fading just slightly as her cheeks flushed red. “...yeah, I care.”

“So maybe we can at least save the arguing over him until after we make sure he’s safe?” Not that Hoshiko really wanted it to resume at all - maybe Natsuko would finally get the hint and stop being so damn weird and awful about this.

“Fine.” Natsuko put her hands on her hips, looking down at Hoshiko with a glare. “But once we find him, you better get out of my way.”

That was probably the best Hoshiko was going to get right now. Once they’d actually reunited, they could worry about getting Natsuko to take the fucking hint already.

“By Tsukiyo’s blade! What happened?”

Hoshiko turned to face Tomatsu as he ran in from behind the throne, staring at the Ruby laying at the ground. He picked it up, rotated it in his hands as his mouth hung open.

“It’s… how did…?” He looked over at Hoshiko and Natsuko, blinking in amazement. “Natsuko, you actually put the Ruby back together yourself? And infused it with another element? That hasn’t happened in… gods, I can’t remember how long. Centuries, maybe a millenia or more. Certainly not since the days of Chief Harumi! And you knew how to use it to return home, without ever needing to be taught! I am truly sorry, dear daughter - I thought you had let your skills atrophy from laziness, but they’re clearly still far beyond any of your peers, hell, even some of your tutors!”

Natsuko stared blankly, making incoherent ‘um’ and ‘uhh’ noises as she stood, frozen in place.

“I’m sure she’d love to explain,” Hoshiko said, kinda hoping that said explanation would never come. “But my partner got left behind when the Ruby took us back, and he could be in great danger. I need to find him before we can finish what we came here for.”

“And… I’m coming. With her.” Natsuko said, clearly still reeling from her father’s praise. “He’s become a very… dear friend to me.”

That you’ve spent a day with and already decided is yours to have alone, Hoshiko added to herself.

“Of course! Any assistance you need, I will provide to the fullest of our ability - you’ve given me far more than our sacred artifact, but you’ve also given my daughter the chance she needed to prove herself far more capable than I ever expected, and for that, I will always be thankful.”

Hoshiko gave a forced smile - Natsuko hadn’t exactly proven anything, but if it meant getting help for Verrik, she wasn’t about to complain.

“Any help you can give, I would be very grateful for,” Hoshiko said, bowing.

“I can give you a guard detachment, scouts, our best sorcerers - anything you need, anything at all.”

“I think it’d be most helpful if-”

“Actually, father,” Natsuko suddenly interrupted, a certain excitement in her voice that Hoshiko couldn’t place. “I’ll be taking along Priestess Megumi, unless she’s so busy that she can’t take a day off from her duties.”

Tomatsu looked at Natsuko, scratching his chin in confusion.

“Megumi…? I don’t deny her capabilities, but she seems an odd choice - she has her duties here, ensuring that the laws of our home remain intact.”

“And would a day’s absence really cause the village to fall into chaos? We haven’t had anything like that happen at all recently - what’s one day going to do?”

“It is still rather strange, Natsuko. She is an arbiter, not a soldier - she certainly could ensure your safety, but it is not her job.”

Hoshiko looked at Natsuko, not liking that she currently had that damn wry smile she seemed to love so much.

“If the thief who stole the Ruby attempts to harm our friend, who better to exact the village’s judgment upon him? She is the ‘voice of our village,’ is she not?”

“It still isn’t her duty to do that, but I will not dissuade you further if you will be so insistent.” Tomatsu sighed, returning to his previous joyful mood. “You have earned yourself some leeway in such things today, after all, and it is not wrong that Megumi’s authority and will is that of all of us. Should the laws of Arashibetsu require enforcement outside our borders, there is none better to make that judgment than her.”

“Thank you, father,” Natsuko said, giving Hoshiko a strange and annoyingly smug look. “You won’t regret it.”

“What about the guards or scouts?” Hoshiko asked, raising her hand. “Are we still bringing them along?”

“Priestess Megumi has the power of a thousand of our guards. If she’s going with you, then it’s better to devote the guards we would have sent to guarding the Ruby. After all, we do not want it being snatched out from under us again, do we?”

“I… suppose that makes sense,” Hoshiko said, not liking how eager Natsuko had been to suggest Megumi. It may have been nothing - perhaps simple over-excitement at being allowed to ask for anyone and anything - but something about the way Natsuko was behaving just seemed off.

Unfortunately, she didn’t exactly have much choice - going off alone to find Verrik would be stupid, and letting Natsuko go alone was a recipe for so many different varieties of disaster that Hoshiko didn’t want to contemplate it. She watched as Natsuko walked out of the meeting hall, swishing her hips side-to-side as she went out of sight to one of the prayer rooms.

What was she planning?

The trek out of the village had only brought them to the base of the mountain before they had to stop for the night - the Ruby had brought them to the temple instantaneously, and it had already been close to evening by the time they had first entered the caves. Even if exhaustion hadn’t been catching up with them by the time they had to make camp, the magic they had expended earlier would have left them in less than ideal condition for any sort of danger they might run into.

Not that it helped Hoshiko’s worries about Verrik. She just had to hope he had found somewhere safe and warm to hole up for the night - and that nothing had happened with Gorou or whoever he had been so afraid of. She really couldn’t depend on either of those things.

At least Megumi hadn’t been nearly as much of a problem as Hoshiko had been fearing - she was an older woman, her white fur turning gray in several small patches across her face, and dressed in very simple, long and flowing robes. She had eight tails, a sure sign of immense magical prowess - Hoshiko could understand why Tomatsu might have thought her presence as overkill. She had a scar across one eye, grey where the other was green, and generally had the look of someone with far more years of experience than even she could have possibly had. Which was to say, there wasn’t a hint of humor in her.

“You will rest now,” she said plainly, her head poking into the tent and looking at Hoshiko and Natsuko. “I will stand watch for the night and talk to you again in the morning.”

“Wait, Priestess,” Natsuko said, looking up from sorting through her bags. “We’re not gonna take shifts? Aren’t you going to get tired-”

“No. I will not.” Megumi looked at Natsuko without a hint of emotion in her eyes. “I will be awake and rested well enough. I will not need rest until much later. You need that rest now, and I will not allow you to risk it. If there is any risk of tomorrow being difficult, I will not allow you to face the day exhausted and tired. If you are not asleep in an hour, I will force the matter.”

“I- But-”

“There will be no argument, Natsuko. You will rest.”

Megumi’s head vanished beyond the tent flap as she closed it from the outside. Hoshiko could see her in shadow from outside the tent, sitting and staring ahead into the night - she would move occasionally, if only to tilt her head one direction or another for a brief moment.

Hoshiko still wondered why Natsuko had insisted on bringing Megumi along - especially if she was going to keep chafing under her like this. Megumi was very clearly in charge around here - Natsuko clearly didn’t get favored treatment just for being the chief’s daughter, even if she tried to act like it sometimes. Was Megumi here just because Natsuko wanted the strongest possible backup? Hoshiko still wasn’t sure of that, and asking Natsuko had gotten her the predictable coy and stand-offish responses.

“You know, I’m not sure why you were complaining,” Hoshiko remarked as she folded her coat onto the tent floor. “Means more sleep for us.”

“I’d really rather she wasn’t fucking falling asleep on us tomorrow.” Natsuko folded out her bedroll, stitched with embroidery that Hoshiko recognized as being patterned after the goddess Calistria - she wondered, briefly, about where that had come from. “Would be inconvenient as hell.”

“If you don’t trust her judgment, why did you ask for her?” Hoshiko asked, again.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Natsuko replied, again.

“I would, actually.”

“Add that to the fucking pile.”

Hoshiko sighed, rubbing her eyes as she slipped beneath the covers of her own bedroll - she wasn’t used to it feeling so empty after all this time. She’d gotten a double-sized one soon after that first night with Verrik, after the wall between their feelings for each other had finally burst and they had made up for so much lost time in the span of a night. It had felt like they might have been rushing at the time; indeed, they slowed it down a bit after that, more nights simply laying together than actually exhausting each other.

Not that Hoshiko had ever minded the rush, the way Verrik would become so needy some nights, clinging to her and doing everything he could to please her. So desperate to please, he’d apologize after he’d made an absolute mess of her - and then be trembling all over again by the time he was done licking his fluids clean from her fur, ready to start the not-so-vicious cycle all over again. Some nights she had to wonder what things would be like if they were both gifted with infinite stamina - they’d probably need to be pulled off each other in the morning, the way they could just keep going at it.

She sighed again, feeling the empty space in her sleeping bag. All the more reason to get him back as soon as possible - and away from Natsuko’s desperate ass.

Hoshiko still couldn’t figure out how Natsuko had become so obsessed with Verrik so quickly - to the point of trying to muscle Hoshiko away from her own boyfriend, like he was ever going to be okay with that. It didn’t help that Verrik seemed to have an unfortunate tendency to clam up whenever he got flustered, which if nothing else Natsuko was a bit too good at. Hoshiko had to admit that it wasn’t exactly confusing why that was; Natsuko had proven a natural command over her sexuality that Hoshiko didn’t see much.

She cursed to herself that she hadn’t gotten a chance to get a clear answer from Verrik about his exact thoughts - she had a pretty good guess, but there was always something that came up to delay the conversation, and unfortunately Verrik himself had gotten rather sheepish about even bringing up Natsuko around her, in the very rare moments that they had gotten to themselves where he wasn’t otherwise… occupied.

Which brought up another question that had yet to get a clear answer - was Verrik… actually fixated on the whole conflict Natsuko had been stoking between them? She’d seen him get flustered before by other people, sure, that wasn’t new and it wasn’t exactly a foreign concept to Hoshiko herself. But there was something about the specific way he froze up whenever Natsuko started getting in her face, started shit-talking her, trying to start a fight. Especially when they were outside the cave, she had never seen his cheeks get that red, never seen him tremble that much, never seen him breathe that hard - and especially not all at once, when no one was touching him at all. Not to mention, him just bringing up that carving again out of nowhere…

That was what was starting to get frustrating about this - whatever was going on with Verrik here, Natsuko had realized it before her, and either she wasn’t above exploiting it or she had gotten lucky that her shitty behavior was stirring something in Verrik.

Hoshiko could trust that Verrik wouldn’t leave her for some woman they’d known for so little time - but that he had a handle on his own desires enough to reign the situation in himself before it got too far, that she was starting to doubt. They’d need to talk about that when they finally had a chance.

Not that any of that mattered if he froze to death by himself - or worse.

Hoshiko sighed. It was warm inside the tent, a magical reprieve from the bitter cold outside - a warmth that Verrik was unlikely to have the good fortune of. She’d just have to hope they found him quickly tomorrow. There wasn’t much else to do at this point. She laid her head back on her pillow, and closed her eyes.

“Mind if I slide in?”

Hoshiko opened her eyes back up, recoiling as she saw Natsuko standing over her, sliding a foot down the empty space of her bedroll.

“What? What the hell are you-”

“I’ll take that a yes.”

Natsuko wasted no time in sliding in next to Hoshiko, the empty space quickly being filled in by the person Hoshiko least wished would. She tried to shove Natsuko away, but there wasn’t any use to it - she just kept pushing through, personal space be damned.

“Get the fuck out of my bedroll.”

“Aw, Hoshi,” Natsuko said, feigning sympathy as she pressed her face up against Hoshiko’s, their bodies pressing together by virtue of lack of space. “I just felt so bad for you, seeing you so lonely. If I didn’t give you some company, you might never get it again.” She tried to look sad, but she couldn’t suppress her giggling.

“What are you trying to do?” Hoshiko scowled, trying to climb herself out of the bedroll - but Natsuko just wrapped an arm around her, pulling her back down as her cheeks flushed. “Are you trying to come onto me? What the hell?”

“Oh, nothing like that, Hoshi, though I’m sure you wished I were.” Natsuko giggled, pulling Hoshiko in closer and tightening her grip, keeping her trapped - Hoshiko tried to push back, but Natsuko kept her right where she wanted her. “After all, you have to wonder what Ver sees in me, don’t you?”

“No, actually, I don’t, because he doesn’t.” Hoshiko tried to raise her arm, grab onto Natsuko’s shoulder and get enough leverage to pull herself away - but Natsuko caught onto her quickly, wrapping both of her arms around Hoshiko’s and keeping them pinned to her sides in a tight hug. “G-get off me!”

“In a moment. I just want to make something clear here.” Natsuko smiled, pressing her snout back directly against Hoshiko’s. “By this time tomorrow, Ver is going to be laying in my bed. He’s going to be pleasing me, and the best you’re going to be able to do is watch as I blow his fucking mind.”

“Like fucking hell he will.”

Hoshiko growled, snapping her jaws at Natsuko, who recoiled away before she could bite down. Natsuko’s gaze turned wide-eyed, her grip slipping off of Hoshiko - giving her just enough space to shove her hand up and grip Natsuko’s neck tightly. Not enough to choke, but enough to make a point.

“You’re not going to do anything like that with him, and you never will.” Natsuko tried to reach her own arm up to wrench the hand off of her neck, but Hoshiko grabbed her by the wrist and squeezed, eliciting a quiet yelp of pain. “He’s in danger, and you’re wasting my time, trying to pretend you have any chance with him while pretending you scare me at all. You are going to drop this before you embarrass yourself any further.”

Hoshiko narrowed her eyes, pushing Natsuko’s snout up until they were face-to-face again, feeling her white fur bunch up painfully in her palm. She held her like that, watching as she shrank back, wide-eyed.

“Tell me you get the point.”

Natsuko just stared at her, still struggling in her grasp. She wriggled, her eyes darting around-

Before she leaned back and pushed as hard as she could with her entire body, rolling Hoshiko over onto her back harshly. She grimaced, her hand slipping from Natsuko’s neck, quickly trying to push her back off - but Natsuko’s hips pinned her own to the tent floor, and she wasted no time in pushing Hoshiko’s arms down to the ground with them, making sure she was completely trapped once more.

“Let me make my point, you bitch.” Natsuko wasn’t smiling anymore - she leaned down, once again face-to-face with Hoshiko as their breath rolled hot across each other’s faces, a fierce look on her face. “You don’t stand a chance against me. If anyone’s going to be walking away embarrassed, it’s you. We will settle this tomorrow, one way or another, and-”

Natsuko’s hands suddenly slipped through empty space where Hoshiko’s arms used to be as a puff of magic blew into her face for just a second - long enough for Hoshiko to sprint out of the bedroll on all fours, having shape-changed into the form of a fox. She ran to the other side of the room, changing back in a split second as she growled at Natsuko.

“I told you to keep your fucking hands off of me.” Hoshiko let lightning crackle between her fingertips as she raised her hand in front of her face, making damn sure Natsuko got a good look at the coursing electricity.

“We were just having a conversation, Hoshi,” Natsuko said, picking herself out of the bedroll and standing back up, staring daggers at Hoshiko. “You scared of something?”

“I think you’re the one scared here, if you’re trying this hard to intimidate me.”

“I’m just making sure you know what’s up ahead of time, is all.” Natsuko started to pace towards Hoshiko - but a quick flick of Hoshiko’s crackling wrist was enough to dissuade her, and she instead stood back, hands behind her back. “Gods’ sake, you’re being difficult.”

“Says the woman who just tried to pin me in my own bed because she can’t handle the thought of not being the biggest asshole in the room for one. Fucking. Minute.”

“Oh, trust me, you’ve got that on lock, Hoshi.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“You’re going to have to make me, you bitch.”

“Do you want to get fried?” Hoshiko flexed the lightning in her fingers against, letting it ball up in her palm. “You have done nothing but test every last bit of my patience for the past two days, and I’d be real happy to make you-”

“Stop.”

Megumi’s head poked into the tent, staring at the two other kitsune with an almost otherworldly sternness.

“Whatever is being argued about in this tent will stop. As the primary enforcer of Arashibetsu law in this group, I will remind you both that any spells cast against each other outside of a formally declared and witnessed duel will be taken as attempted murder and be punished accordingly and harshly.”

“Hey, hey, Priestess,” Natsuko said, holding her hands up and dissipating the fire that had apparently been building in her palm. “We weren’t going to kill each other, come on - you know I-”

“No, actually, Natsuko, I do not know.” Megumi shook her head. “I will also remind you both that we are, presumably, on a mission to rescue someone you both, presumably, care about. I assume that this Verrik would not be happy to learn one of you went and made the other explode. Even if there was no fatal intent, I will not accept random infighting, especially when it may allow the chief’s daughter to come to serious harm - or to cause serious harm.”

Hoshiko stared at Megumi, slowly letting her lightning spark out between her fingers.

“Of course, Priestess. We wouldn’t want a dumb fucking fight to get in the way of ensuring my boyfriend’s survival.” She stood, staring down Natsuko as she brushed herself off and shoved past her to get back to her bedroll. Natsuko glared back at her, but sighed and followed suit, climbing back into her own bedroll.

“I promise, Priestess; no more fighting outside of officially recognized duels.”

“Good.” Megumi started to recede back out of the tent. “If I hear any more noise, there will be appropriate action taken.”

Hoshiko watched Natsuko carefully, making sure she wasn’t about to start anything again. But she just laid there and let out a heavy sigh.

“...didn’t bring you here to be my fucking mom, Megumi,” Natsuko muttered under her breath, just barely audible to Hoshiko. “I’m a grown-ass woman.”

“Could have fooled me,” Hoshiko couldn’t help herself from whispering.

“Oh, shut up,” Natsuko whispered back. “Like you’re not going to be crying for mommy later tomorrow, when I’m done with you.”

“My mother’s dead.”

Natsuko looked back at her, a blank expression on her face as a long silence filled the space between them. Hoshiko glared back, expecting an insult - but Natsuko just sighed and rolled to face the wall of the tent, settling into her bedroll with a loud sigh.

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” she muttered, seemingly to herself, before falling silent for the rest of the night.

Hoshiko exhaled, waiting for Natsuko to be fully settled before she closed her eyes and tried to get back to sleep. At least Megumi would make sure Natsuko didn’t try anything stupid again - but Hoshiko couldn’t stop dwelling on the threats Natsuko kept making, like she was still planning something tomorrow in spite of everything. She had to know Megumi wasn’t going to tolerate that… so what was she thinking?

She shook her head, rolling over in her sleep. Much as all that was bothering her, ultimately her worries had to stay with Verrik. Whatever did or didn’t happen tomorrow, her first priority was making sure he was safe.

Everything else was just a distraction until then.

Chapter Text

It was an eerily quiet journey as they marched back towards the cave system - though it had warmed up slightly since yesterday and the snow had ceased, it was far from warm enough for things to start thawing, and likely wouldn’t be for weeks to come. Last night’s… incident had left Hoshiko less than willing to even acknowledge Natsuko, and if it hadn’t meant traveling completely alone, she would have happily gone the rest of the way without her. Not that she imagined Natsuko would have easily agreed to that, given how obsessed she had become with Verrik - and Hoshiko herself, at this point. She had to wonder what was actually more important to Natsuko; getting with Verrik, or trying to assert some strange dominance over her.

Hoshiko couldn’t see either scenario ending well for Natsuko.

Either way, Megumi’s presence still seemed to be acting as a deterrent to Natsuko’s worst behavior, which Hoshiko found no small relief in. It was easy to ignore Natsuko when her taunts and other annoying bullshit had to be done non-verbally from behind someone who seemed eager to keep things in order. Hoshiko certainly had a much easier time keeping within Megumi’s good side, given that all she really asked was to keep things on-task with finding Verrik and going back to the temple, and Hoshiko needed no convincing to get this done with as fast as possible.

When Hoshiko did glance back over to Natsuko, she’d be met with an ineffective glare - before Natsuko glanced back up at Megumi, exhaled sharply, and rolled her eyes. Megumi’s intervention last night had clearly bothered her, and Hoshiko was all for it.

What she was less enthusiastic about was the fact that they hadn’t run into Verrik at all on their route - Kolli had said he’d get them on the most direct route back to Arashibetsu, and if there was a direct route, this was it. Megumi had even loaned a locate scroll to Hoshiko, just to be absolutely sure that they were heading directly to wherever Verrik was. But there had been no lizardfolk of any kind on their way here - in fact, distressingly little of anything. For all she’d worried about being alone on the way here in case of danger, the sheer uneventfulness of their journey was starting to worry her badly.

By the time they had reached the cavern entrance again, Hoshiko’s heart had sank.

“Shit.” Hoshiko clenched her fist, trying not to let herself assume the worst just yet. “Either we missed him on the way here somehow, or he’s still here.”

“If he’s still here, then we just go in and look for him, right?” Natsuko said, looking confused. “He had to know we were coming anyway - could have just decided to rest in the cave until then. Hell of a lot warmer in there than out here.”

“You heard Kolli - he was going to get Verrik moving directly to the village. Why would he just not do that?” Hoshiko snorted, narrowing her eyes at Natsuko - she didn’t even have the courtesy to take this seriously after all the stunts she’d been pulling.

“Didn’t he die?”

“...what?”

“Kolli, that ghost, he died in front of us, didn’t he? Of course that wouldn’t happen if he died.”

Hoshiko blinked, her brain playing catch-up. Natsuko seemed completely assured in her assumption.

“No. No he didn’t.”

“Well, what happened to him, then? He turned into smoke.”

“He de-manifested because he was too far away from Verrik!” Hoshiko rubbed her eyes. “That’s how that works. Verrik would have re-manifested him the moment he realized he got left behind, because otherwise he’d be alone.”

“I… thought he was alone. Why are we worried, then?” Natsuko raised an eyebrow, like anything about that was a ‘gotcha.’

“Because they’re… they’re kind of the same being. If one falls, so does the other - I thought you knew what a summoner was?”

“I haven’t seen one before!” Natsuko snapped, rolling her eyes. “Okay. Fine. Would have been good to know that earlier.”

“I thought you did!”

“Well guess fucking what, Hoshi, I don’t.” Natsuko threw her arms up into the air, looking at Hoshiko like she was being unreasonable. “Fucking hell, you don’t have to rag on me about it.”

“And you don’t have to keep trying to start shit with me all the time.”

“Well, then you need to-”

“There is a note here, between these rocks.”

Megumi talked over their argument like they weren’t even saying anything, digging out the note in question from the rocks at the threshold of the cavern. Hoshiko shook her head, re-focusing on Megumi and eager not to let Natsuko drag her into any more nonsense. She watched as Megumi unfurled the note, glanced over it - and handed it to Hoshiko.

“Addressed to you.”

Hoshiko froze. Taking a deep breath, she took the note and read it carefully:

To the one known as Hoshiko,

We have your lizard and we know you are coming to retrieve him. We also happen to know that you are worth quite a lot to the right benefactors, in particular a certain Lord Nagoshi. This will be quite simple; either you will allow yourself to be brought forward to this Lord Nagoshi’s people in our custody, or you will say goodbye to your talkative lizard friend. You must understand that we are in need of something valuable to replace the Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames that you so rudely stole from our provider, and it is simple misfortune that you happened to cross us in our moment of need. This does not need to be made complicated when the transaction we propose could not be simpler.

Regards, the Guild of Minkai Fair Trade

Hoshiko threw the note down and screamed.

“They lay a finger on him, they’re dead.” Hoshiko growled the words out, clenching her fist and letting the electricity ride across her arm. Rage consumed every particle of her being, her thoughts clouded with thoughts of nothing more than the complete destruction of whatever assholes decided this was the best use of their time.

“What the hell is the ‘Guild of Minkai Fair Trade’?” Natsuko had picked up the note and started skimming it, her head tilted. “Never heard of them before in my life.”

“Whoever they are, they’re not getting me or taking him.” Hoshiko stared down into the cavern entrance, once again feeling the urge to storm down it, ready to fry any dumb motherfucker that might have been down there.

“So if they’re trying to take you in exchange for him, then that means-”

“Natsuko. if you so much as think about going along with their plan, I’ll-”

“Whoa, whoa, why the fuck would I do that?” Natsuko held her hands up, looking at Hoshiko like she was insane. “I’m just saying, they might be open to taking something of equal value to the Ruby.”

“Oh yeah, let’s just go dig another ancient divine artifact up real quick. I’m sure they’ll be patient enough to wait however fucking long that would take.” Hoshiko rolled her arm, getting ready to rush down the caverns. “I’m going down there and I’m getting Verrik back, whatever it takes.”

“Trust me, I’m not interested in selling you out,” Natsuko said, lighting her arm alight and preparing to follow. “I’m not done with you yet.”

When Hoshiko turned the corner into the chamber where Gorou had been keeping the Ruby, she had been expecting to see… well, more.

The two goons holding Verrik hostage weren’t particularly impressive - one, a human man dressed in fine purple silks with an overly fancy knife strapped to his belt, and the other a human woman in simple leather armor pointing a crossbow at the entrance to the cavern. Neither of them were ready to see a kitsune crackling with lightning across her body barrel into the room, draconic eyes glowing a sharp blue as she brandished her arm right at them.

“Unhand him now.”

They both recoiled, shivering in utter fear as they backed up, the woman frantically shifting her crossbow’s aim to Verrik, who was currently strapped to a chair in the back of the room.

“D-d-don’t come any closer!” The woman stammered out, her aim shaking all over the place. “I d-don’t want to hurt him, but I will!”

“Then let him go!” Hoshiko unleashed a bolt of lightning into the ceiling, quickly re-leveling her aim at the woman as she watched her scramble back into the wall. Behind her, Natsuko ran into the room, aiming at the other captor with the flame burning in her hand.

“Come on now, make this easy on yourselves or you’re going to have to be- oh gods he’s naked.”

“What?” Hoshiko glanced over at Natsuko, confused, still holding the woman at lightning-point.

“Oh fuck, look at his cock.”

Hoshiko’s gaze turned to Verrik, finally getting a good look at him after having been so focused on his captors in her rage - and her jaw dropped.

Verrik sat, tied to a simple triangle shaped wooden chair by various leather straps across his ankles, knees, and arms, with more keeping his arms tied behind the chair, his neck strapped to the chair’s topmost point, and one more through his mouth keeping him gagged - but now that Hoshiko was actually looking, she couldn’t believe she missed his complete lack of clothing. He strained against his binds, muscles flexing uselessly underneath sweat-stained green and yellow scales, his attempts to speak muffled by the belt he was forced to bite down onto. Drool dribbled down across the gag and the sides of his mouth, the only tangible result of his attempts to communicate besides a series of desperate, incoherent groans, his eyes wide and darting between Hoshiko and Natsuko.

And, indeed, his member was plainly visible, fully erect and dribbling pre-cum across its pink, thick and short length. His cheeks were completely flushed red, and Hoshiko could see him desperately trying to push his legs together in an instinctive attempt to cover himself, succeeding only in thrusting his hips against the straps enough to make his length bounce slightly from side to side, the fluid dripping from his tip being flung across his thighs.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HIM?” Hoshiko readied to strike, aiming at the man dressed in the stupid fucking silks as the ball of lightning in her hand grew, like a raging storm within the confines of a sphere.

“W-whoa, whoa, it’s not like that!” The man backed up, clutching his dagger tightly in his hands. “We just m-made sure he wasn’t hiding anything on him, that’s it! No funny business, I swear!”

“Yeah, n-no,” the woman stammered. “We didn’t t-touch him! He w-wasn’t supposed to… do that!”

She frantically motioned to Verrik, still squirming in his binds, moaning into his gag. He threw his head back across the top of the chair, pushing with all his might against the binds with a pathetic, muffled groan. Again, he succeeded only in thrusting his member into the air, making it impossible for anyone in the room not to notice how hard he was throbbing through all of this.

“Verrik.” Hoshiko said, keeping her aim steady at Verrik’s captors. “Did they touch you?”

“We swear, lady, we-”

“LET HIM ANSWER.” Hoshiko raised her arm of lightning into the air, and they took the hint.

Verrik stared wide-eyed at Hoshiko, still wiggling against his binds. He was silent for a few long moments, looking up at the ceiling as if to ponder the question - then shook his head, his cheeks seeming to burn even brighter than they already were.

Hoshiko exhaled slowly - not that it calmed her much.

“You bastards are lucky right now. I would really suggest you not waste that; get out of here, don’t mention a word of this to anyone, and especially don’t even think about contacting Nagoshi or any of his servants. You make that promise now, and you get to leave.”

“B-but, we still need the matter of our payment taken care of here,” said the man, staring at Hoshiko with just not quite enough terror in his eyes. “That Ruby was ours to buy, after all, and neither your friend or Gorou over there have anything nearly as valuable on them, or are worth much of anything to anyone who might be willing to take them off our hands. You, if we understand correctly, are - y-you have to understand, we’re not the only ones in this deal. I would really suggest, er, considering the offer, for everyone’s sake.”

“Oh my gods, you stripped him down too?” Natsuko interjected before Hoshiko had a chance to continue the actual conversation - she glanced back, finally noticed Gorou tied up to the same chair they had left him in, sans clothes just the same as Verrik for some fucking reason. At least there wasn’t as much to see with Verrik - he just stared at them, stock still in his binds with an appropriate amount of terror in his eyes.

“You sure you two aren’t just perverts? I’m not judging, it’s just-”

“There won’t be an offer,” Hoshiko interrupted, not particularly caring to dwell on any more stripping. “Last chance - release him, leave, never speak of this again.”

“W-well, at least you didn’t look behind you,” the man said, taking on a hesitant and still trembling smile as something roared behind them from the entrance to the chamber.

The samurai that strode into the room had clearly only once been human, skeletal hands clutching onto a blade of billowing shadow that it wielded with more grace than an undead ought to have, twirling the blade above the sharp, bull-like horns of its helmet before bringing it back down, pointing it squarely at Hoshiko. Its eyes flashed a smoky purple, its jaw unhinging to let out another unearthly roar.

“Ladies, meet Yuji, the fine captain of our enterprise of Free Trade,” the man yelled, taking on a far more gloating tone. “As you can see, death has not slowed him down one bit - in fact, it freed him of his duties to Minkai, allowed him to pursue his ambitions where life would have kept him tied down. You should hear him at the negotiating table - he can be quite persuasive. We wouldn’t have known of your connection to Lord Nagoshi without him. But I’m afraid he has few words when he’s angry like this. Surrender now, and perhaps the deal can still take place?”

Hoshiko gritted her teeth, swirling her aim around to point directly at ‘Yuji.’ The goons hadn’t worried her - this did, and she was suddenly feeling a lot less sure about her ability to handle this. A quick glance to Natsuko confirmed that she wasn’t exactly enthused about this either, backing up as she too shifted her aim towards Yuji, a distinct horror across her face Hoshiko had never seen before. And a subsequent glance towards Megumi-

Meant that Hoshiko almost missed Yuji suddenly exploding into a bright white light, bursting into a cloud of shadow and dust that promptly blew back out of the chamber and into the corridor they had come out of. Megumi pulled her arm back, holy light receding back into her palm as she turned her attention back to the goons.

Hoshiko found herself almost wishing they didn’t just throw their weapons down and flop onto the ground in surrender after that.

Chapter Text

Tying down the goons didn’t take very long - Hoshiko made sure that the bonds she tied were entirely too tight for any kind of comfort for the finely dressed man. She rifled through his pockets, enough to verify that he didn’t carry anything that would identify him as a direct follower of Nagoshi, which for the moment would also have to be enough to satisfy her worries that he might have been alerted to their location already. That was the absolute last thing she needed right now - thankfully, for once the world seemed slightly merciful. She stuffed some spare cloth into the man’s mouth to serve as a makeshift gag, just in case he knew any magic (not that she was particularly worried about that at this point), and sat down with a heavy sigh.

She had questions swimming through her mind, she couldn’t deny that - what the Guild of Minkai Fair Trade was actually supposed to be, who Verrik’s captors were, how the actual fuck they’d managed to capture Verrik without any apparent signs of harm on him, why they felt the need to strip him down before tying him down to the point of being completely unable to do anything anyway, why they thought Lord Nagoshi’s cult would have rewarded them at all when they almost certainly would have just been executed on the spot, why any of this had to happen in the first place…

But for the moment, she just let herself be relieved that Verrik was safe, at least - in a questionable position, certainly, but she hadn’t seen any reason to believe the goons had done anything more than strip him. His clothes were strewn haphazardly across the crates in the corner, but they didn’t look particularly damaged or anything, least not any more than they usually were. Her mind had raced with all sorts of horrible thoughts on their journey here, getting worse and worse as they got closer and closer. His… predicament was both a thought that had not crossed her mind and significantly less worse than she feared it would be.

She stood up, letting her muscles relax as she turned her attention back to Verrik-

And to Natsuko, leaning over him by his side, whispering throatily into his ear as she slapped his ass.

“Now that's what I wanted to see~” She licked her lips, giving his asscheek another firm thwack with her hand. He gasped into his gag, shivering at the impact as another spurt of pre-cum dribbled down his length, his breath growing increasingly ragged and heavy. Natsuko giggled, rubbing her hand across his rear and giving it a firm squeeze, licking her lips as she watched his tail wriggle and slap itself across the stone floor. “I knew you had to have a nice ass, but this is so much thicker than I was expecting - I can’t believe you hide this behind all those old rags. You need to show this off~” She giggled again, breathing hard into Verrik’s ear as she rolled her hand across Verrik’s hips, squeezing at his thigh scales before snaking her grip closer to his stomach, her fingers tracing a path down to his-

And then Hoshiko’s fist slammed right into her face, sending her reeling to the floor with a yell of pain. Every muscle in Hoshiko’s body had tensed right back up, rage boiling in her gut as she marched over to Natsuko, standing over her with murder in her eyes.

“Don’t. You. Fucking. Dare.”

Natsuko felt her jaw, running a thumb through her mouth as she glared back up at Hoshiko, her other hand clenching into a fist.

“What’s wrong, Hoshi? Can’t handle seeing Ver enjoy my touch?”

“You are taking advantage of him.” Hoshiko leaned down, baring her teeth. “I am so, so fucking sick of you pulling this shit, and it ends now.”

“You know what?” Natsuko crawled back slightly before rising to her feet, meeting Hoshiko’s glare face-to-face. “You’re right. This does end now, because I’m going to make Ver mine.”

Hoshiko let the lightning build up in her hand again.

“You fucking sure you want to try that?”

Natsuko scoffed. “We’re not settling this like that.” She looked back at Megumi, who Hoshiko noticed looked just a bit more done with things than usual, then back at Hoshiko. “Hoshiko Hirabayashi, I, Natsuko Arashiba, am challenging you to a contest of superiority.”

Hoshiko narrowed her eyes, recognizing the term.

“Seriously? Like that goddamn carving?”

“Exactly like that carving. Five rounds, no weapons, no magic, no shape-changing,” Natsuko said, making sure to punctuate that with a poke at Hoshiko’s chest. “Just you and me, fighting with the natural gifts the gods gave us, until one of us gives in or goes down three times.”

Hoshiko raised an eyebrow. “How’s that supposed to settle anything? We’re both sorcerers - why not a magic duel? Are you scared of that?”

“Oh, no, no, no,” Natsuko said, laughing. “I’d destroy you in that too. But I don’t want to hurt you that bad - I want to humiliate you. I want you to know that I could kick your ass however I want, whenever I want, and I’m going to make sure Ver sees every second of it for himself.”

Hoshiko shook her head, baffled that this was what was happening right now. “And what’s making me actually agree to this?”

“Priestess Megumi has witnessed my challenge. If you refuse to meet it, you’re not coming back to Arashibetsu, as made law by Harumi Arashiba all the way back then. Whatever you wanted with the Ruby? You can forget about it.”

Natsuko smirked - she’d clearly been expecting this ever since they left the village yesterday. Hoshiko felt the rage boil further in her; was this really what Megumi had been dragged along for? To ensure Hoshiko wouldn’t just refuse to meet this stupid fucking challenge?

“Is that true?” Hoshiko glanced back at Megumi. “If I refuse her challenge, will I not be allowed back in the village?”

“Yes,” Megumi said with a small sigh. “In all roles, I serve the interests and laws of Arashibetsu. To neglect that duty now would be a grave misstep.”

“Even if doing so would be - and pardon me for saying this - incredibly fucking stupid in practice?” Hoshiko was rather beyond pleasantries at this point. “I thought you were against us getting into dumb fights.”

“I will not neglect my duty to enforce village law in all capacities. The intelligence behind a law is not my judgment to make. Only that it is exercised as it is meant to be. An officially recognized and non-lethal duel is not only well within our law, it is a historical, time-honored tradition.” She took a deep breath, staring at Hoshiko with an implacable expression that she could regardless read as a quiet apology. “The contest of superiority defined our history for generations, and I will not violate its sanctity by pretending I am in any current capacity to amend the code of conduct around it.”

For fuck’s sake.

Hoshiko glared back at Natsuko, crossing her arms. “Okay. Say I agree to this. What happens?”

“Glad you asked,” Natsuko said with an infuriatingly smug grin. “Priestess Megumi will ensure that the contest is conducted fairly and without lasting harm to either of us - physically, anyway. You will declare your stakes if you win, I will declare my stakes if I win, we agree on them, and then we prepare to settle this.” She giggled. “Of course, I should note that the traditional outfit for a contest of superiority is, at most, one’s underwear, and often nothing at all. I’ll leave that decision up to you, however, and I’ll make sure to keep things fair~”

Hoshiko took a deep breath, clenching her fists. She still couldn’t see this as anything more than an absolutely stupid idea, and Megumi’s quiet nod in response to her questioning look was doing absolutely nothing to reassure her. She couldn’t deny the temptation to just throw in the towel on the Ruby, take Verrik out of here, and never think about any of this ever again.

But every time she looked at Natsuko’s infuriating face, she couldn’t deny a need building within her to make this stupid, self-obsessed bitch see what a mistake it was to pull any of this shit, to make Natsuko regret ever trying to mess with her or Verrik. Beating her at her own game would certainly get the message across; Hoshiko imagined it, a defeated Natsuko begging for mercy at her feet, making desperate promises to stay the fuck away from Verrik and never come back. Every stunt she ever pulled, coming back to bite her in the ass as she was humiliated in front of a figure who would certainly have no hesitation in telling the village how badly she embarrassed herself by trying to pick a fight with a woman who had already clawed her way out of more than a few terrible hands dealt to her by fate.

Her brain told her to forget this and move on - but something deep inside her demanded she not leave until Natsuko begged for forgiveness.

“Alright, let’s say this.” Hoshiko locked eyes with Natsuko again, putting her hands on her hips. “If I win, you leave Verrik the fuck alone and stop trying to get with him, and you don’t ever show your face around me again.”

“And if I win, Verrik is mine.” Natsuko grinned, clearly self-assured in her victory. “You don’t get in my way anymore, and you let him have me.”

“If you win, Verrik is yours, if he agrees to that.”

“Pfft. Of course. If I win, he’s mine, ‘if’ he agrees. Which he will, even if your insecure ass can’t see it. You know he wants to see this happen.”

Hoshiko glanced back at Verrik, who had stopped wriggling against his restraints and just stared at her, wide-eyed. Slowly, she moved to undo his gag-

“Nuh uh,” Natsuko said, putting herself between Hoshiko and Verrik and ignoring the scowl she earned for it. “We’re not undoing any of those binds until we’re done here. He’s the prize, after all~” She looked back at Verrik and smirked, eliciting a muffled whimper from the trapped lizard.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Hoshiko said, shoving Natsuko aside. “I just need to ask him a question.”

“Fine. But the gag stays.”

Hoshiko shot another glare at Natsuko. If she needed anything more than a simple yes or no, she would have protested more, but that could wait for now. She turned her attention back to Verrik, looking him right in the eye as she came face-to-face with him.

“Ver,” she whispered. “I need you to be honest with me right now. Do you actually want to see this?”

Verrik gulped, tried to say something through the gag that Hoshiko couldn’t understand. Even in his current predicament, she could still tell he was stumbling through his words with all the starts and stops and sighs of frustration. Finally, he slumped, looking away from Hoshiko as his cheeks managed to grow even redder - he took a deep breath, trembled in place as he looked up at the ceiling, finally looked back at Hoshiko.

And gave a slow, embarrassed nod before looking bashfully away.

Hoshiko sighed. Of course Natsuko had to be right about that - she’d been thinking it too, of course, but having Verrik confirm that himself was… well, at least she’d already been making up her mind. She’d have time to dissect that with him later.

“Okay. Okay.” She patted Verrik on the shoulder, noting the way he shivered even at that slight a touch, and leaned even closer to his ear, saying as quietly as she could: “Let’s make sure I have this right: you want to see me destroy her?”

This nod was far more frantic, accompanied by a cute, muffled little whimper. She chuckled; that told her enough for now.

“We’ll… talk more about this later. See you in a bit, Ver.” She gave Verrik a kiss on the cheek, smiled and stepped away from him.

“Okay, Hoshi, that’s enough of that,” Natsuko said, grabbing Hoshiko by the shoulder and forcefully spinning her around to face her. “Now you know - he can’t wait to see me completely dominate you, can’t he?” She glanced back over to Verrik, who simply stared at her, breathing heavily as he groaned into his gag. She smirked. “That cock doesn’t lie - he’s throbbing even harder now. He might even cum just watching me knock you out~”

“Enough of that.” Hoshiko interjected, shoving her muzzle up against Natsuko’s and forcing her to look at her. “If you’re so eager to get this started, then why don’t we?”

“So that’s a yes, Hoshi?”

“If I win, you stay away from him.”

“And if I win, he’s mine.”

“If he agrees.”

“Sure. If I win, he’s mine, ‘if’ he agrees. If that helps you sleep tonight.”

Their eyes locked together, bodies tensing as they stared each other down.

“Those are the stakes we are agreeing upon?” Megumi said from the other side of the room. She kept her expression composed, neutral.

“Yes,” Hoshiko said. “They are.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Natsuko smirked, chuckling to herself.

Hoshiko glared. This was her last chance to back out before she committed to maybe the dumbest decision of her life.

“I accept your challenge, Natsuko.”

Not that she would have at this point - she wondered if Verrik was really starting to rub off on her.

Natsuko leaned her head back and laughed, absolutely giddy with excitement.

“Oh, I’m going to fucking enjoy hearing you beg for mercy, Hoshi~”

Hoshiko let herself smile. Even if this was the stupidest idea she’d ever agreed to in her life, she could not deny the need deep within her to put Natsuko in her place. There was no way Natsuko knew what she was in for - if she was going to start this shit, the least Hoshiko could do was show her exactly who she was starting shit with. There was no way in hell she was letting this pampered, narcissistic bitch walk all over her.

She chuckled, wondering what Natsuko was even expecting to do against her…

Megumi had wasted no time in setting things up for the contest - as a priestess of Arashibetsu who took her job very, very seriously, she always carried the scrolls and materials necessary to conduct rituals of village law wherever they might need to be enforced. Natsuko had been betting on exactly that when she brought her along - no one in the village could remember a time where Megumi had forgotten anything in her entire life, even the least important minutia imaginable, to the point that other members of the temple would often grow complacent and rely on her knowledge and preparedness at the expense of learning anything themselves.

Natsuko had been in that exact position, in fact - and learned firsthand just how little patience Megumi could have for that kind of laziness. She could get frustrated with how overbearing Megumi could be, but if there was anyone who would be ready at a moment’s notice to oversee everything needed for a type of duel that was, frankly, rare to see anymore even in Arashibetsu’s own borders, it was Megumi.

Because it was Megumi, however, that did mean that Natsuko had basically no means of tipping things in her favor ahead of time. Megumi operated to the letter of the law wherever possible, and even if she did think highly of Natsuko (which she knew for a fact she didn’t), there wouldn’t be any chance in hell of getting her to do anything but conduct the competition as fairly and impartially as possible. Natsuko would almost certainly only have one shot at this, and she couldn’t deny that there was a temptation to find some way to encourage the contest to go her way.

But she knew that would have been a long shot even in the best circumstances. If she wanted Hoshiko to have any chance of respecting the outcome, she had to make sure it was as above-board as possible. Otherwise, Hoshiko might just try and fry her for real after all was said and done - hell, Natsuko couldn’t be entirely sure that wouldn’t still happen. Another reason to have Megumi around; she was a hell of a presence for discouraging takebacks.

And, really, did Natsuko need to tip things in her favor much anyway? She already had the advantage here in so many ways; formal and informal training in hand-to-hand combat, particularly grappling; an existing familiarity with the contest at hand; a burning desire to get something and nothing to lose; and she was just plain sexier, too. She could see it in Verrik’s eyes when he looked at her, the way he squirmed at her very touch; this lizard was desperate for her, and she wasn’t about to let Hoshiko deny him what he really wanted.

Claiming him for herself once and for all would be the best thing to happen to her since Absalom.

In the center of the spacious cavern chamber, Megumi finished drawing a large octagon on the ground in black paint, proceeding to sprinkle bits of cotton and rose inside of it. Once she was finished with that, she lit a torch and held the flame in front of her mouth, speaking a short, quiet prayer before tossing it into the center of the octagon. In moments, the cotton and rose lit up in a brief flare of multicolored flame, shooting towards the ceiling without ever leaving the bounds of the octagon. The flame formed a wall from floor to ceiling, concealing the inside completely - before quickly receding into the floor as if it was never there at all, revealing a perfectly octagonal platform made of what looked to be soft, rose-colored carpet, raised just enough off of the cave floor to offer an even surface. Flecks of cotton and rose petals fluttered in the air above it, never seeming to leave the bounds of the platform.

“This is a spell devised by Harumi Arashiba during her time as village chief,” Megumi began, stepping away from the platform and speaking in a loud, commanding voice. “Within the bounds of this arena, all magic and shape-changing is suppressed - you will not be able to use any of it while within its boundaries, even if you were to try as hard as you possibly could. Additionally, while you are within the arena, all injuries are minimized - you will not be able to make the other person bleed or break their bones, much less attempt to kill them. However, that does not mean pain is suppressed, nor will your bodies not succumb to pain or exhaustion. Even if it cannot kill you, a choke will be just as capable of rendering you exactly as unconscious as it normally would. And even with all this, any genuine attempts to maim or kill each other in spite of these protections will be punished exactly as harshly as it would outside of this arena.”

“No need to get on our asses about this, Priestess,” Natsuko said, rolling her eyes. “I want Hoshi here to be able to savor her loss.”

“Even so, I am obligated to mention this,” Megumi said firmly, just about cutting off whatever Hoshiko was about to retort from the other side of the chamber. She continued. “This spell will last for the next 8 hours - this should be plenty enough to conclude the contest under any circumstance. There will be a maximum of five rounds of combat, and one combatant will need to win three to be declared the victor. A given round will begin after both combatants have declared that they are ready and I have given the signal to begin. A round will only end when one combatant either submits or is knocked unconscious, and no sooner. Between rounds, both combatants will be brought back up to peak fighting conditions, as is my primary duty as priestess. Once a victor is declared, the conditions of their victory will be fulfilled to the letter, as agreed upon by both combatants prior to the contest.

“Unless there are any questions, we are ready to begin this at any time. Once you are ready, step into the arena, disrobe to your preferences, and declare your readiness. After we have begun the first round, neither of you will be allowed to leave the boundaries of the arena until the contest is concluded in full - to ensure this, the boundaries will act as magical barriers once we have begun. This will only be relaxed in case of an emergency. Is that all clear?”

Natsuko and Hoshiko locked eyes with each other from across the room - Natsuko could feel a distinct tension in her gut, a mixture of nerves and excitement as the moment she’d been waiting for finally closed upon her.

“Crystal clear, Priestess,” Natsuko said, grinning.

“Understood,” Hoshiko said, her expression betraying the anger boiling inside her - Natsuko couldn’t get enough of pissing this bitch off.

“Then step into the arena and we will begin when you are ready.”

Natsuko entered the arena first, sashaying her hips as she passed in front of Verrik, winking at him and blowing a kiss from her lips as she made sure she got a very good look at her. He groaned into his drool-soaked gag, trembling as his dick so blatantly throbbed again - she couldn’t wait to finally have at that cute little thing once she was done making a fool out of Hoshiko.

She came to a stop as she reached the edge of the arena, marveling at how wonderfully soft the carpet felt on her bare feet, almost like a firm and comfortable bed in how it seemed to give as she stepped onto it. This spell could certainly have its other uses, once she learned it for herself - but she could worry about that a little later. Perhaps she’d even have a little time to explore those other uses before the day was up; Hoshiko certainly wouldn’t take that long to put away.

Speaking of whom, Hoshiko was only shortly behind her onto the arena - she stopped to share some sort of look between her and Verrik, the two of them nodding at each other quickly before she stepped into the arena, looking at Natsuko with an anger in her eyes that Natsuko almost wanted to call electric.

“Hold onto that anger while you can, Hoshi,” Natsuko said, giggling as she put a hand on her hips and leaned to the side, tilting her head with a smug smile. “You’re going to feel nothing but shame and humiliation for the next hour here.”

“You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into here, Natsuko,” Hoshiko said, rolling her shoulders as she glared daggers at Natsuko. “You could have stopped any time you wanted, but you just had to keep pushing, and I am going to make you regret every little bit of it.”

“Oh, Hoshi, I pushed because I knew it would piss you off. I haven’t liked you since the moment I first saw you, and now I’m going to make you regret not staying out of my way.”

“At least the feeling’s mutual.” Hoshiko rolled her neck, muscles visibly tensing as she cracked her knuckles. “Shouldn’t you be taking that thing off?”

Natsuko laughed, running a hand along the side of her breast, only just barely contained by her tight red robes. “You that eager to let Ver see exactly what he wants?”

“I’m eager to get this over with.”

“If you insist. But I’m warning you, you’re giving up the last bit of protection you had between me and Ver. He’s not going to settle for anything less after this.” She laughed again, relishing the way Hoshiko intensified her glare, balling her fist tightly.

Natsuko didn’t have to do much to undo her robes; one simple knot at the front was all that stood between the world and the goods underneath. She undid it, pulled the front open and let it all fall to her feet, quickly kicking it off to the side of the arena as she posed with a hand on her hip and the other behind her head, stretching herself out to make sure Hoshiko and Verrik got an eyeful of her.

She now wore little more than a lacy set of violet lingerie, decorated in subtle dark floral patterns and less subtle golden embellishments of the symbol of Calistria, one across each cup of her strapless bra and another across the front of her panties. Her bra still only barely contained her large breasts, covering her nipples and little else as fur and flesh threatened to burst out from underneath the lace. Her well-defined abs were on full display now, and she made sure to emphasize them as she traced her hand along her stomach, before tugging gently at the sides of her panties, which clung snugly to her wide hips - and which she made damn sure to show off as a thong to her audience, slowly stretching her ass out towards Verrik as she raised her tails high and rubbed her hand along her thick, nearly completely uncovered cheeks, following the flame-like streaks of orange fur that traced along the edges. There was very little left to the imagination - just enough to make sure whoever was looking couldn’t help but imagine.

Natsuko could still see Verrik clearly, his chair only a short distance away from the arena. He was getting a front-row seat to all of this, and she adored the way his breathing quickened at the sight of her body, the way his cock twitched as she presented her ass in all its glory, the way he froze for just a moment as she winked at him - she was putting on one hell of a show for him, and it was just getting started.

“Are you done?” Hoshiko had her arms crossed, looking at Natsuko with an exasperated expression on her face. Natsuko smirked at her, leaning her chest out just to make sure Hoshiko could see just how much bigger she was.

“You haven’t taken anything off yet, Hoshi. You worried you can’t compare? You know, if you like what you see, you don’t have to hide it.”

“Shut up,” Hoshiko said, untying her coat from around her waist and tossing it to the side of the arena. “I was just making sure you were done.”

Natsuko chuckled, watching as Hoshiko kicked off her sandals, hooked her thumbs into the bands of her pants and pulled down swiftly, revealing a simple but tight pair of red panties as she tossed her pants out of the arena. Natsuko still had to admit Hoshiko wasn’t that far behind her in the looks department - a gorgeous, athletic frame, beautiful dark fur patterned with white tattoos that seemed to snake up and down her whole body. She hadn’t been leaving much to the imagination before with her combination of a mesh tank top with a small red top that only really covered her breasts, but her legs were long, lean and just thick enough in the right places, and her ass was so damn curvy to the point that Natsuko had to wonder if it might have been the reason Verrik gravitated to her in the first place. Natsuko knew she had her beat where it counted - but Hoshiko was absolutely not a slouch, and she had to admit that, in Verrik’s position, she probably wouldn’t have hesitated to go for her either.

And that wasn’t helped by the fact that she quickly went to undo her red top as well, unhooking and unwrapping it before discarding it with all the rest of her stripped off clothing. Her mesh top barely counted for any kind of modesty at this point - it dug gently into her breasts, emphasized her nipples where they might otherwise go unnoticed underneath her thick dark fur, and just generally complimented her form in every way it possibly fucking could. Natsuko kept her composure, but she couldn’t help but tense up as Hoshiko turned to Verrik again and smiled at him as she presented herself to him subtly, letting him get a good long look at her form. Verrik seemed to relax into his chair and let out a muffled sigh that sounded content, even as his body still trembled and his cock let out another visible spurt of pre-cum at the sight of her.

Natsuko let out a grunt of frustration, trying to re-focus herself on the task at hand. Hoshiko might have Verrik still wrapped around her finger now, but Natsuko knew Verrik absolutely wanted to see this fight go down; if luck was on her side, his most treasured memories of Hoshiko wouldn’t be of her beauty or… whatever it was they did together before this, but of her being completely, utterly humiliated by Natsuko tonight, of when Natsuko made it clear just how much better she was than his soon to be former flame.

“Oh, how nice,” Natsuko finally said, punctuating it with an eye roll. “You ready to get this show on the road finally?”

“You sure you don’t want me to keep going?” Hoshiko turned her attention back to Natsuko, giving this fucking annoying smirk like she’d just one-upped her. “I thought you wanted to keep this ‘fair.’” She motioned at Natsuko’s bra, tilting her head.

“I am keeping this fair, Hoshi. If you want to see everything, you’re going to have to fucking earn it.” Natsuko stepped forward, locking eyes firmly with Hoshiko as she felt herself tense up, a need to show this bitch her place burning inside her like an inferno.

“I think I’m ready to put an end to this, Natsuko.”

“Oh, believe me, you won’t be the one ending this, Hoshi.”

“I take it you are declaring yourselves ready to start this contest?” Megumi spoke up from just outside the arena, watching the events in front of her with a stern gaze.

“Yes, I am.” Hoshiko pressed her muzzle against Natsuko’s, the heat between the two of them intensifying to the boiling point.

“You know I am.” Natsuko met Hoshiko with just as much pressure, the two of them breathing heavily into each other’s faces, Natsuko relishing the thought of what she was about to do to her.

“Then I will now make the final preparations.” Megumi waved her hand, and walls of light formed around the arena’s edges, shining for a brief moment like mirrors before turning invisible to their eyes. She stood close to the barrier, watching inside the arena carefully. A short distance away, Verrik sat bound to his chair, his claws digging into the armrests as his erection showed no sign of ending - unable to do anything but watch, his gaze stayed right on the two kitsune about to throw down.

“When I say ‘begin,’ the first round will commence. If you back out now, that will be taken as a forfeit. If there are no further complications…”

Natsuko and Hoshiko’s gazes stayed locked with each other - neither of them intended to back down now, or ever. One way or another, this was going to end tonight. The two tensed up, ready to pounce the moment Megumi said-

“BEGIN!”

Chapter Text

Hoshiko realized the moment the fight began that it might have been a mistake to stand so close to Natsuko - an attempted tackle ended up with stumbling right past a shockingly quick Natsuko, and the firm, painful tug on Hoshiko’s hair sent her stumbling right back into Natsuko’s arms, the white-furred kitsune quickly hooking her right arm around Hoshiko’s as her other hand kept pulling hard on that hair. Hoshiko grimaced, instinctively trying to wrench her arm free, but Natsuko was quick to squeeze tight and yank it back just as hard, sending jolts of pain through her arm that forced a grunt through her gritted teeth.

“Aw, look at that,” Natsuko cooed, yanking on Hoshiko’s hair and forcing her to look right at her smug fucking smile. “Barely even started and you’re already embarrassing yourself.” Before Hoshiko could respond, Natsuko had affixed a grip on the back of her head, pushing down harshly as she continued to pull Hoshiko’s arm back, stretching it painfully behind her back. Hoshiko growled out her pain, feeling herself strain as the two separate but equal forces made her feel like she was being pulled apart at two ends. Natsuko laughed. “You’re just so damn adorable like this, Hoshi~”

Hoshiko grit her teeth, trying not to focus on the pain she was being put through. She’d been hoping to tackle Natsuko down to the ground and start pummeling her senseless, but that clearly hadn’t worked out just yet. Natsuko’s grip was strong, but it wasn’t complete yet, and if she wasn’t in a hurry to wrangle the rest of Hoshiko’s limbs together…

“Come on now, Hoshi, you really gonna-”

Natsuko didn’t get to finish her thought before Hoshiko had hooked her leg underneath her’s, kicking it out from under her just in time for Hoshiko to deliver an elbow to her stomach, knocking the wind out of her with a yelp of pain and forcing her grip on Hoshiko to slip, giving the dark-furred kitsune the opportunity she needed to quickly duck out from under Natsuko and crawl to the other side of the arena. She swirled to face Natsuko as she stood back up, taking a more defensive stance as she tried to shake a bit of the pain out of her arm.

Natsuko stumbled back to her feet, clutching at her abs where Hoshiko had struck with a groan. She didn’t take too long to compose herself, though - soon she was standing tall, glaring at Hoshiko with a hand on her hip as if inviting her to try something. The two circled each other silently for a bit, keeping a respectable gap in-between them as they evaluated their next move.

Hoshiko stayed silent, simply continuing to circle her, seeing if she could get Natsuko to make the first move this time. If she wanted the advantage, she needed to bait. Natsuko’s eyes continued to narrow as they kept playing their game of chicken, and soon enough Hoshiko could see her start to tense up, lowering herself slightly, her arms outstretched and ready to pounce.

“What’s wrong, Hoshi?” Natsuko said, stepping forward slightly as she took on another grin. “Scared to find out how I’m going to make you my bitch?”

“I’m not seeing you make any moves,” Hoshiko said, keeping a careful eye on Natsuko as the white-furred kitsune continued to slowly step ever closer.

“Oh yeah? Watch this, then.”

Natsuko lunged forward, and Hoshiko realized she was aiming to slam her against the arena barrier just quickly enough to step out of the way - and slam herself against Natsuko’s back, tackling her onto the barrier and pressing her tightly against it. Natsuko gasped, trying to push back against Hoshiko, but she was quick to secure her hold, pressing her right arm against the back of Natsuko’s head and shoving her cheek-first against the wall as her other arm grasped around in an attempt to get a hold on Natsuko’s arms.

“F-fuck you!” Natsuko kept trying to shove back against Hoshiko, thrusting her hips against the black-furred kitsune’s in an attempt to gain any kind of leverage, slamming her hands onto the invisible wall she was currently being shoved against and pushing as hard as she could to try and break free with brute force. “You’re not gonna - ah!”

Hoshiko was more than happy to interrupt Natsuko as she reached up and wrenched Natsuko’s left arm firmly behind her, sandwiching it between Natsuko’s own back and Hoshiko’s stomach as she pressed her body flush with the white-furred kitsune, keeping Natsuko’s upper body pinned against the barrier, her breasts squishing against it as if it were glass. Hoshiko shifted her other hand’s grip tightly into Natsuko’s long silver hair, holding her by the scalp as she wrenched her head back in the same manner as Natsuko had done to her earlier.

“I told you, Natsuko, you have no idea what you’re messing with.” Hoshiko growled into Natsuko’s ear, delighting in the way her eyes went wide as she stared back at her. “I’m going to make sure you don’t even think about pulling this shit again.”

With that, Hoshiko slammed the side of Natsuko’s head against the barrier before stepping aside and tossing her by her hair towards the floor, the white-furred kitsune stumbling to her hands and knees as she groaned in pain, shaking her head slowly - just in time for Hoshiko to yank on her hair again, pulling her up to her feet before delivering the beating she’d been craving for awhile now. Hoshiko’s fist met Natsuko’s cheek, a cloud of saliva bursting from her maw as the impact sent her stumbling back again onto her ass - she barely had time to try and stand up before fist met cheek again, knocking her fully onto her back on the carpeted arena floor.

Hoshiko cracked her knuckles - however sore they got, Natsuko was surely feeling it so much worse even with the damage dampening field around them. All Natsuko was really spared from was the taste of iron on her tongue or a lost tooth - Hoshiko could still see her groaning and writhing on the floor, clearly dazed as one hand clutched at her cheek while another grasped for purchase on the cotton around her, wobbling as she tried to push herself back up to her feet.

Not that Hoshiko was about to let her - she let her ass drop hard onto Natsuko’s abdomen, eliciting a heavy gasp from her as Hoshiko sat herself right on top of her, keeping her pinned to the floor as she delivered another fierce blow to Natsuko’s precious face, and another, and another. Natsuko was struggling to deliver any kind of defense, increasingly dazed from each subsequent punch, and Hoshiko wasn’t keen to let up - all the better if this knocked her out here and now, after all. Drool started to coat the cotton at the sides of her mouth, her eyes started to flutter as her breath turned increasingly heavy, and Hoshiko pulled her fist back one more time for what she was certain would be the knockout blow-

And found a well-toned pair of white-furred legs reaching up and pressing themselves against her face, before pulling her down harshly onto the mat, stretching her body out on top of Natsuko’s as they kept her head pinned to the carpet. Natsuko sat up shakily, breathing in heavy gasps as she brought her claws down onto Hoshiko’s exposed stomach and scratched, eliciting a sharp cry of pain from her as they raked across her sensitive stomach. They wouldn’t have been sharp enough to draw blood even if there weren’t a magical field suppressing injury - but they sure hurt like hell, and they still left visible marks as Natsuko dragged them across her so damn slowly.

“I-I’m going to make sure you hurt for that, Hoshi,” Natsuko said, gritting her teeth as she pushed Hoshiko’s face down with her legs, keeping her pinned even as she tried her damnedest to push herself up. “You want to make this stop, you know what you need to say.”

“I am n-not going to give- mmmph!” Hoshiko gritted her teeth as Natsuko dragged those damn claws across her stomach again in one long and slow motion, stopping at her waist to really dig them in at the softest spots of her flesh, inflicting such agonizing pain for so long that Hoshiko couldn’t hold it back anymore and cried out loudly, her back arching as she increasingly struggled to withstand Natsuko’s torturous claws.

“Say it! Say you submit, bitch!” Natsuko leaned in as she continued her assault, her previous smug attitude falling by the wayside and replaced by anger. “I’m not letting you go until you say it.”

Hoshiko trembled, the intense pain clouding her judgment as she tried to endure it for just a little bit longer. There was no way she was ever saying those words, but she couldn’t exactly keep at this much longer. There had to be a way out of this - Natsuko had to still be on her last legs here, and if she could just turn things around for a little bit…

Unsheathing her own claws, she reached up and dug them right into Natsuko’s legs, dragging them down hard and fast across as much of those legs as she could, bits of white fur sticking to her claws as she heard Natsuko gasp sharply in pain - that alone wasn’t enough to get her to stop her assault, however. Hoshiko pulled her own legs up into the air, bringing them up to Natsuko’s face just long enough to slam them right down onto her. Natsuko hit the mat with another sharp gasp, and the simple inability of her arms to reach that far anymore meant that Hoshiko’s suffering was over. She gripped tight onto Natsuko’s ankles, shoved them up until she had the room to sit back up, and quickly rose to her feet, clutching at her waist where Natsuko had spent the better part of a couple minutes clawing at her continuously.

“Get up,” Hoshiko commanded, a need to assert her dominance crawling up deep within her. Natsuko either complied or was already about to stand up anyway - she was still dazed, wobbling on her feet anew as she stared right at Hoshiko, eyes fluttering. “And now, stay down.”

Hoshiko cracked her knuckles one more time, and swiftly delivered that last punch she’d been waiting for, uppercutting Natsuko right across the side of her jaw with all the force she could muster. She couldn’t help but relish the way Natsuko’s eyes went wide one more time as her saliva slammed into the barrier behind her, the way she swiftly collapsed onto the floor, struggled for just a brief moment to push herself back up… before her eyes finally fluttered closed and she slumped down, splayed out on the floor as she went unconscious for the first time tonight.

Hoshiko watched for a careful few moments for any sign of consciousness from her opponent - then leaned down, raiser Natsuko’s arm up, and let it drop back down to the floor. Out cold.

“The first round goes to Hoshiko Hirabayashi!” Megumi declared, marking something down on a scroll of paper before putting it aside as her hands glowed with the very familiar light of healing magic. “The contest will pause for as long as it takes for both of you to be restored to fighting form. Once that is done, the contest resumes as soon as I declare the beginning of the next round.”

Hoshiko let out a deep breath, stretching her shoulders before the next round begun. She really wouldn’t have minded if that were the end of that, but there were still at least two more rounds after this, potentially up to four if she didn’t close this out as soon as she could. But Natsuko, for all the pain she could inflict, had gone down relatively easily this round - so long as Hoshiko kept up the pace, let her rage keep fueling her, Natsuko’s chances were looking delightfully slim.

Glancing off to the side, she re-focused her attention on Verrik. He was staring at her, still as aroused as ever - if maybe not more so. She could recognize that warm, excited smile, even through his makeshift gag. She hadn’t been paying much attention to him during that round, given the need to not let Natsuko gain an unnecessary advantage, but there was something about seeing Verrik this excited to see her give this narcissistic bitch the beatdown she deserved that felt… fucking great, spoke to something deep inside her that was increasingly driving her as the night went on.

As Megumi’s magic temporarily pierced through the barrier and enveloped Natsuko, Hoshiko found herself downright excited to keep putting Natsuko in her place…

Natsuko’s eyes fluttered open, the familiar tingling sensations of healing magic washing over her as she shook herself awake. If it weren’t for the memory of Hoshiko punching her out flooding back to her and the quickly fading aches in her jaw, the soft comfort of the cotton on her back could have fooled her into thinking she might have just woken up from a weird nap.

But she could see Hoshiko looking down at her with folded arms, a confident grin on her lips as she chuckled to herself.

“I can keep doing this all night, Natsuko,” she said, rolling her shoulders as she paced around Natsuko. “You sure you want to bother getting up?”

“Fuck you,” Natsuko said, feeling her own anger boil back up as she rose to her feet, stretching her arms across her chest. “You got lucky, and I am not letting that fucking happen again.”

“I don’t think luck had anything to do with it - I think you’re just not nearly as good at this as you think you are.” Hoshiko chuckled again, a crackle in her eyes as Megumi’s magic worked its way across her. “You wanna keep wasting everyone’s time with this, feel free.”

Natsuko glared, hands balling into fists. “You’re not gonna repeat that last round, Hoshi. I’m not letting you out of my control this time, and you’re gonna feel what it’s like to be made an absolute fucking bitch.”

“You first.”

Natsuko growled - she knew she could have had that first round if she had just kept a better grip on Hoshiko, not let her find ways to slip out and catch her off-guard. Clawing up her stomach had very nearly paid off, and Hoshiko had to know that even with the posturing she was doing now. Natsuko just had to find another way to put the hurt on Hoshiko without letting her even try and get free. She needed to hear her beg for mercy this time.

“Unless there are any objections, round two will begin when I give the signal.” Megumi stood back to attention as she finished healing Hoshiko - the claw marks on both hers and Natsuko’s bodies had faded in the healing process, though Natsuko took no small delight in the faint lines still left across Hoshiko’s stomach. They wouldn’t scar, but it was a nice reminder of how vulnerable she really was. “Prepare as you need to.”

“Trust me, Hoshi,” Natsuko said, stancing herself back into fighting position. “This time you’re going the fuck down.”

Hoshiko didn’t respond, simply taking that same defensive stance she had in the first round. That was fine - Natsuko didn’t need to hear her retort. She just needed to make her regret getting between her and Verrik.

“BEGIN!”

This round didn’t start with a bang - the two kitsune simply circled each other for a bit, each of them trying to find an opening. Hoshiko’s knuckles tightened - she knew she’d only need to get one good hit in to keep Natsuko in line, and she was keen to get that in as soon as possible.

“Come on, bitch, go for it,” Natsuko said, her eyes narrowed on Hoshiko as she kept her arms outstretched. “You gonna waste my time now?”

Hoshiko growled. She could smell the bait on those words; Natsuko wasn’t going to get her to make a move until she was well and ready for it.

“You first.” Hoshiko stopped and stood where she was, watching Natsuko carefully for any telltale twitch of action. Catching her off-guard was always going to be her best bet.

“You scared of coming near me now?” Natsuko stopped as well, keeping a healthy distance from Hoshiko. “Scared you’re gonna have to watch me unload every last drop of Ver’s cum in front of you if you fuck this up?”

“Excuse me?”

“That’s right,” Natsuko said, taking on that fucking smarmy grin she loved so much. “You see him shaking out there - when I’m done with you and have him all to myself, it’s not gonna take me long to milk that cute little cock of his dry. You saw how sensitive he was to my touch - we could be going at it for hours, and there would be nothing you could do about it~”

Hoshiko felt her blood boil, every muscle in her body tensing up as she gritted her teeth.

“You don’t have the right.” She growled the words out, feeling an eagerness to pulverize that face even harder than before.

“Oh, but I will - that’s the whole point of this, Hoshi, you agreed to it.” Natsuko laughed, tilting her head as she put a hand on her hip, seeming to drop out of her fighting stance as she ran her other hand up her abs and onto one of her breasts, squeezing it gently through her too-tight bra. “I wonder if part of you wants to see a better woman have at him - I certainly wouldn’t mind you watching, I’m sure it’d be instructional for you~”

“SHUT. UP.”

Hoshiko leaped forward, almost feral in her rage at this point as she unsheathed her claws and aimed right for Natsuko’s face - the white-furred kitsune stepped back quickly, leaning away as the claws sailed past her face. She leaned forward just as quickly, her arm pulled back to deliver a blow right to Hoshiko’s face - but she was ready for it, ducking and raking her claws upward right across Natsuko’s chest, tearing through the middle of her bra and just barely scratching the side of her breast.

“AH! Y-you bitch!” Natsuko stumbled back quickly, her arms wrapping around her breasts as her bra opened and fell to her sides in a desperate attempt to keep her dignity (as if she had any to begin with, Hoshiko thought to herself). “You’re gonna fucking pay for that!”

Natsuko’s cheeks flushed a deep red underneath her white fur, her bra slipping through her arms and onto the ground as she stepped back further, clutching at where Hoshiko had scratched her. Hoshiko paused in her assault, the sight of Natsuko’s embarrassment cutting through her rage for just a brief moment.

“What, now you’re ashamed to show off how much ‘better’ you are?” Hoshiko chuckled, approaching Natsuko as she continued to back off. “I thought you were so confident in yourself.”

“I had that handmade for me in Absalom!” Natsuko glared at Hoshiko with maybe the most intensity she’d ever seen from her. “As if I didn’t have enough to kick your ass over already!”

Natsuko bared her teeth, finally uncovering her breasts as she lunged at Hoshiko with absolute ferocity. Hoshiko had barely just enough time to react, getting a quick grip on Natsuko’s shoulders and pouncing her back-first onto the mat, the two of them grappling for control as they rolled around in the cotton, rapidly switching who was on top as they grunted heavily. Hoshiko had been hoping to overpower Natsuko, but the white-furred kitsune was proving to have about equal strength with her at the moment. She dared not go for another strike - letting go right now would almost certainly let Natsuko get her into a hold that she absolutely did not need.

She didn’t have to wait too much longer for an actual opportunity to open up - Natsuko had her almost pinned down onto the mat, her hips pressing down hard on Hoshiko’s as she gripped painfully tight onto her shoulders. But Natsuko had misjudged her own opportunity, and she let go of one of Hoshiko’s shoulders as she reared back for a punch right into her face - giving Hoshiko the briefest opportunity to slam her fist right into Natsuko’s abs, knocking the wind out of her with a sharp gasp of pain that left her reeling over long enough for Hoshiko to regain her grip and shove her hard down onto the mat before she could recover.

And that was when the carving snapped back into Hoshiko’s mind, the way one of the kitsune had been depicted squeezing the other one’s breasts enough to cause her to scream out in a wood-carved eternity of agony, and she knew exactly what to do with the opportunity she had inadvertently opened up earlier.

She wasted no time in mashing her hands against Natsuko’s large breasts, gripping around her large pink nipples with enough ferocity to squeeze them like stress balls, and Natsuko screamed out in pain as her white fur and flesh bunched up in Hoshiko’s palms. Hoshiko didn’t relent, digging her claws in as she started to twist as much as she squeezed, relishing in the way Natsuko absolutely did not suppress the agony she felt as her tits took abuse like no one ever had before. Natsuko could barely fight back, her hands instinctively clutching at the carpet for anything to distract her from the vicious nipple twists Hoshiko was inflicting on her - her back arched, her whole body trembling as she kept her eyes shut tight, her yells of pain escaping even as she did her damnedest to grit her teeth through it.

Hoshiko felt an intense sense of satisfaction as she practically tortured Natsuko underneath her, delighting in how quickly she’d gone from self-satisfied taunting to impotent rage to this, assuredly about to submit and beg for mercy at any moment now, just to make it stop. Hoshiko hadn’t ever thought such cruelty would come so naturally to her - but if this woman was just gonna waltz into her life and act like she could just take something so precious to her, that belonged to her, well, she wasn’t exactly about to question where this impulse was coming from… only that it made her feel so damn good.

Good, until the exact moment Natsuko forced her eyes open, screamed out one last time, and slammed her fist into Hoshiko’s face at the exact moment she’d gotten too caught up in her domination to do anything about it. Hoshiko gasped out, her sudden loss of grip leaving her desperately trying to grasp back on to continue inflicting that pain - only for Natsuko to lean up, hook her arms around hers, and pull down hard, wrenching them behind Natsuko’s back as Hoshiko’s face was pulled forcibly into Natsuko’s chest - and right between the tits she’d just been punishing. She tried to pull herself free, but Natsuko’s legs wrapped tightly around her abdomen as she tugged her arms ever harder, and it soon became clear that Hoshiko had nowhere to go but right here, her muzzle enveloped on all sides by white fur and fat tits that Natsuko squeezed tightly around her as she pulled back on Hoshiko’s hands, keeping her from clawing at Natsuko’s back.

“Y-you want to feel these tits so bad, you can suffocate in them, you bitch.”

Natsuko’s threat wasn’t as empty as it sounded - Hoshiko’s attempts at breathing were muffled by mouthfuls of white fur and what felt like an enclosing shell of soft, warm flesh, her mouth and nose completely enveloped in Natsuko’s voluminous chest, barely able to even move her jaw. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the sheer pressure Natsuko was managing to exert on her arms and stomach, pulling and squeezing so tightly that Hoshiko could barely focus on anything but the pain, grunts and groans of pain muffled in those mouthfuls of fur. She tried to wriggle and escape, her legs scrambling for any kind of purchase on the mat enough to throw Natsuko off just enough to even attempt to slip out, but she mostly just succeeded in spinning the both of them around slightly as Natsuko continued to squeeze the life out of her, her arms trembling as they felt like they were brought to the breaking point, the legs constricting her abdomen doing about as much to suffocate her as the tits around her face.

There had to be a way out - Hoshiko wasn’t ever about to let Natsuko make her submit - but she was struggling to find one, and in the meantime the pain in her arms had gotten intense enough that her somewhat dignified groans couldn’t help but morph into involuntary squeals. She wasn’t going to give in, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t succumb eventually.

“Not so tough now, huh? Huh?” Natsuko yelled, laughing as she jerked Hoshiko’s arms around in her grip, intensifying the pain even further. “I don’t even care about making you beg, I just want you out.”

Hoshiko growled in-between the cries of pain, feeling her breath grow shorter - it was now or never, and like hell she was gonna let it be never.

Focusing all her strength in her arms, she pushed back against Natsuko as hard as she could, doing everything she could to brute force herself free. At first, Natsuko’s grip barely budged, keeping her well and trapped as her focus on escaping the hold sapped her attention from trying to hold her breath - she had to break free if she wanted this to not be over in the next few seconds. She relaxed her arm muscles as best she could, letting Natsuko pull them back up, letting her think Hoshiko had finally given up, waited for her to let out another laugh - and then yanked down as hard as she possibly could, finally breaking Natsuko’s iron grip on her arms as the white-furred kitsune failed to see the reversal coming. Hoshiko gripped onto the mat, pushed herself up as quickly as she could and gasped desperately for air, turning herself around in Natsuko’s leg grip as she started to focus on freeing herself from that, trying to squeeze through-

And then Natsuko’s right arm hooked tight around her throat, pulling her right back down on top of Natsuko as her left arm hooked Hoshiko’s back under her control. Hoshiko gagged, desperately reaching up with her free arm to pull and claw at Natsuko’s grip - but the ache in her arms was catching back up to her, and that arm around her throat was choking for real, a vice around her throat that left her able to do little but gag and gasp ineffectively as she writhed in Natsuko’s near-total hold on her.

“Fucking go to sleep already, bitch.”

Hoshiko’s body shook, her brain racking for one last way to escape - but her world started to go dark, her eyes fluttering closed as the extended choke worked its magic, her body going limp in Natsuko’s grip as she fainted on top of her, and a self-satisfied laugh rung in her ear as unconsciousness took her…

Chapter Text

Natsuko gave Hoshiko’s limp form a few more shakes as she kept up her hold a little longer, then slowly released her, letting her roll off of her until she was lying face-down on the mat, knocked out cold. Natsuko stood up, massaging the aches in her breasts, still painfully sore and reddened from Hoshiko’s relentless assault - she smiled, however, planting a foot on top of Hoshiko’s back as she stretched her arms up towards the ceiling, letting herself bask in the victory she just earned.

“The second round goes to Natsuko Arashiba!” Megumi declared from the side of the arena, a declaration that left Natsuko filled with a glee she’d been waiting for since this contest started. She hadn’t gotten her to beg for mercy - not yet, anyway - but seeing her sprawled out on the mat ass-up was plenty satisfying in and of itself, and she couldn’t wait until she won this and got to savor the sight of Hoshiko like this.

Natsuko glanced over to Verrik, winking at him as she made sure her upper body was nice and stretched out for him, her tits in full view as she kept her foot planted right on top of Hoshiko’s back. He squirmed, shaking in his seat as more pre-cum continued to drip down his cock and stain the wood between his hips - if he didn’t blow just watching this, oh, the torrent he’d unleash once she finally got to jerk it all out of him. She rubbed her breasts together slowly, watching him struggle again to push his thighs together as she did. She wondered if it was in spite of or because of how visible the punishment inflicted on them was - the latter, she decided, was just that bit more pleasing to think about.

Even if she’d have to repair that damn bra after all this. She’d done too much and spent too much for it to let it go to waste like that.

“...Natsuko. If you would please take your foot off of Hoshiko and step to the other side of the arena.” Megumi stared blankly at Natsuko, which the younger kitsune couldn’t help but roll her eyes at.

“Is there a rule against this, Priestess?” Natsuko tilted her head at Megumi, who narrowed her eyes very slightly.

“No. But I am asking you politely to make my job a little easier.” Megumi’s voice was firm, commanding and ah goddammit Natsuko was going to listen.

“Fine,” Natsuko said, regretting that she wouldn’t get to rub it in that little bit more when Hoshiko woke up. She stepped to the other side of the arena and waited for Megumi to finish bringing Hoshiko back up.

Which didn’t take long, and neither did Hoshiko as she scrambled to her feet, whirling around to face Natsuko with murder in her eyes, breathing heavily.

“Aw, didn’t like my tits as much as you were hoping?” Natsuko chuckled, cupping her hands under the aforementioned tits. “You got so sleepy there, Hoshi, I was worried~”

“Shut up and let’s go.” Hoshiko’s voice seemed to simmer with more and more rage every time Natsuko heard it - which she couldn’t help but find delightful right now, especially with the relaxing sensations of Megumi’s magic washing over her right now.

“Oh, not even ten seconds awake and you’re so eager to go back to bed.” Natsuko smirked, and on cue Hoshiko’s eyes narrowed even further. “It sure would be nice if you got to sleep through the next few rounds, save yourself the humiliation.”

“Shut. UP.”

“My, someone’s getting real-”

“SHUT. UP.”

Natsuko blinked, a shiver running up her spine for just a brief moment - then she sighed, shaking off whatever that was. The rage was fun, but Hoshiko was starting to get a bit boring to try and needle - hopefully this next win would get her a little less angry, a little more panicked for once. That would be fun to play with. Natsuko glanced down at her breasts, suppressing disappointment that they were still rather visibly red underneath the fur, even if they weren’t so sore anymore; she had to admit, she wasn’t looking forward to the idea of Hoshiko pulling that particular stunt again. Best not to let her have the chance before Natsuko could wrangle her under control again.

“The next round begins on my signal. Are you both ready?”

“Oh, believe me, I am.” Natsuko laughed to herself. Hoshiko just glanced over to Megumi, gave a curt nod, and turned her enraged attention back to Natsuko, looking like she was getting ready to just straight up tear her apart. Natsuko felt her blood run cold for just a moment, but the assurance that she had Hoshiko figured out at this point kept her from panicking too much as she stanced back up into her usual position - she’d get her into that critical chokehold again, and again after that, and then she’d have all the time in the world with that cute little lizard.

“Then - BEGIN!”

So much time, in fact, that her brain had gotten too caught in thoughts of said lizard’s oncoming orgasmic throes to prepare adequately for the furious kitsune now descending upon her, delivering a hard hook right to her face that she really should have seen coming.

Natsuko backed up quickly, holding her arms in front of her face to block the next couple swings from Hoshiko - and giving the black-furred kitsune a clean opening to deliver a brutal blow to her gut, forcing her to double over as she let out a pained gasp, clutching at her aching stomach. Hoshiko didn’t waste any time, stepping quickly behind Natsuko and hooking her arms through the armpits, forcing Natsuko’s arms up as Hoshiko clasped her hands together and pushed them hard against the back of Natsuko’s head, trapping her in a full nelson as she desperately tried to force Hoshiko off of her.

Natsuko grunted through gritted teeth, the painful pressure on her neck making her body shake as she tried to push back against Hoshiko, planting her feet onto the ground firmly and trying to use that leverage for all she could, stretching herself out horizontally as Hoshiko refused to budge, relentlessly shoving down on Natsuko’s head as she growled in her ear.

“No more fooling around, Natsuko - you give, or I break you.”

Natsuko knew that the suppression field in the arena meant that Hoshiko’s threat was emptier than intended - intellectually, anyway. With how much pain Hoshiko was applying right now, it sure felt plausible, and Natsuko wasn’t about to let Hoshiko make her submit like this. Time for a change of tactics.

Natsuko lifted her feet from the floor, curling her legs in the air to make sure Hoshiko had to deal with holding up her full weight - she wasn’t weak by any stretch of the imagination, but suddenly having to hold up an entire woman didn’t help her with keeping the pressure up, let Natsuko tilt in her grasp enough to hook her ankles behind Hoshiko’s and pull, sending her falling ass-first onto the mat and shaking her grasp enough for Natsuko to butt her head back and smack Hoshiko right in the muzzle, dazing her out of the hold and knocking her flat onto the floor.

Natsuko whirled around, shoving her hands down onto Hoshiko’s arms and pinning them firmly to the floor, squeezing her thighs around Hoshiko’s to keep her from squirming her legs out from under her - not that it stopped Hoshiko from grunting and squirming in her grasp, anyway, still looking at Natsuko with rage that seemed more cute than anything right now that Natsuko was thoroughly on top.

“Aw, look at that - can’t just shape-change your way out of this, now can you?” Natsuko chuckled, keeping Hoshiko firmly in control as the black-furred kitsune struggled to do more than wriggle ineffectively in the pin. “Like I told you back then, Ver is gonna be mine and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can try and humiliate me all you want, but you know how this is gonna end. It’d be cute if it weren’t so sad.” She laughed in Hoshiko’s face, the way she scowled so impotently up at her just so damn adorable in light of her helplessness.

“Fuck you,” Hoshiko growled out, leaning her head up closer to Natsuko’s. “I’m not letting you win shit.”

“Aw, bitch thinks she gets to talk,” Natsuko cooed tauntingly, chuckling. “Sounds like someone’s begging for a repeat. Happy to oblige~”

Natsuko leaned herself forward, maintaining the hold as she slid herself up Hoshiko’s body until her tits were level with Hoshiko’s face and then slammed them down on her, enveloping her face between Natsuko’s assets once more. She laughed - she hadn’t really gotten to enjoy this last time, and she was eager to relish it now, rubbing her tits up and down all over Hoshiko’s face as the black-furred kitsune growled and gasped for air between them, the way her hot breath trapped itself in Natsuko’s chest fur quite pleasant now that she had the time to appreciate it.

“There we go, Hoshi - just stay right there and let it be over~”

Natsuko glanced over to Verrik as she massaged her tits on Hoshiko’s face - the poor guy was staring wide-eyed at the sight, breathing so heavily into his gag that she had to imagine he was cursing his bound hands for not letting him really appreciate the beauty of it, the sheer wonder of watching his pathetic little girlfriend about to pass out between another woman’s tits. Natsuko couldn’t help but enjoy it as well - she’d always fantasized about having an excuse to pull out this contest on someone ever since the village elders hesitantly explained it to her all those years ago, and gods the whole thing was beyond thrilling.

In this moment, she had to admit to herself - it wasn’t just the thought of having Verrik to herself after this driving her, it wasn’t just the thought of putting Hoshiko, specifically, in her place for daring to deny Natsuko the chance she deserved. No, there was something more to this, a deep desire within her to just have this opportunity to dominate, to meet someone, anyone supposedly her equal and tear them apart, show them and the world that she wasn’t to be messed with, wasn’t to be told she didn’t deserve to have what she wants, didn’t deserve to be treated as someone worthy of admiration and respect and fear. To be denied something so close to her fingertips, to take that denial and shatter it into a thousand pieces and show the whole fucking world that no, it was what you deserved all along, what fate had in store for you all along in spite of the jealous and the idiotic people of the world deciding that they knew better for you than you yourself did.

What better way to demonstrate how wrong they were than by tearing their pride down, force them to accept that they weren’t actually any better than you, any more deserving of anything than you? Natsuko knew she deserved this after everything, and she was about to make sure Hoshiko had no other option but to accept it.

“You know what, Hoshi?” Natsuko turned her attention back to the kitsune underneath her, giving her one more tight squeeze between her tits. “I’m going to be nice here, give you one last chance to say something before your bedtime.” She slowly raised herself off of Hoshiko’s face, the black-furred kitsune gasping for breath as she was temporarily released from her torment. “If you want to give in, now’s the-”

The teeth that lunged right onto Natsuko’s breast and bit down hard made sure she didn’t finish that sentence with anything but a howling scream. She tightened her grip on Hoshiko’s arms, trying to force her back down, gritting her teeth to suppress the pain for as long as possible, but Hoshiko was simply not backing off - her jaw wasn’t going anywhere, and every passing second was more agonizing than the last. Natsuko had a brief moment of being thankful for the suppression field keeping this from being worse than it was - but then she thought about it a little more and fuck, at least it might end otherwise. As it was, Hoshiko had so quickly turned this from a bit of fun to fucking torture that Natsuko had to start getting desperate, releasing her right hand from Hoshiko’s arm to try and wrench her off somehow -

Which earned her another brutal blow to her stomach, knocking her grip loose enough for Hoshiko to take full advantage and shove her off and oh gods at least the biting was over, even if the bite marks on her breast were so bright red they were like beacons through her fur, flecks of which now dotted Hoshiko’s maw. Hoshiko pushed her down to the floor and Natsuko instinctively reached her arm out to grab onto Hoshiko’s muzzle and keep it shut, fearful of another gnawing session - which meant Hoshiko had the perfect opportunity to slam another punch right into Natsuko’s jaw, prematurely breaking Natsuko’s muzzle grip as Hoshiko laid right on top of Natsuko, brought her arm right across her neck and pushed down with all the weight she could muster, constricting Natsuko’s throat tightly between arm and floor.

“EAT SHIT.” Hoshiko’s eyes glowed a fierce blue, her pupils compressing vertically into a draconic shape as cold terror gripped Natsuko. She tried to force Hoshiko off, tried to claw across her back, tried to roll her off of her - but Hoshiko would not budge, and Natsuko’s strength was fading so fast it might as well have never been there to begin with. She could feel Hoshiko’s mesh top tearing apart underneath her claws, giving way to bare fur and flesh, but even as she flailed them around as best she could, Natsuko’s results were jack and shit, and her vision was darkening fast.

Her eyes glanced over to Verrik one last time before unconsciousness came over her, desperate to look at anything but the terrifying kitsune choking the life out of her - the last thing she saw before passing out was his eyes lighting up, a trembling smile apparent through his gag as he stared with rapt attention, another round of clear fluid dripping down his throbbing cock…

Hoshiko felt Natsuko go limp underneath her, but she didn’t immediately release her pin - she waited, raised the white-furred kitsune’s arm up with her free hand and let it drop to the floor before she let herself relax and stand up, taking a deep breath.

“The winner of this round is Hoshiko Hirabayashi!” Megumi declared from the side of the arena once more. That was two - one more and Hoshiko could wash her hands of this fucking mess.

The rage was subsiding for a moment, enough for her to reflect on what had just happened as she picked specks of saliva-soaked white fur out from between her teeth. Natsuko had basically thrown the round away the moment she let up with the smothering, but that was exactly what was bothering Hoshiko there - she hadn’t been able to break free until Natsuko did the stupid thing, given her the opening to bite down and bite down hard. She’d tried to flex her jaws underneath the weight of Natsuko’s breasts before that, but the lack of space and the pressure Natsuko had been pushing her down with, even with all the taunting and rubbing there just hadn’t been the room or opportunity to sink that bite in.

Without that one lapse on Natsuko’s part, Hoshiko may well have ended up the one splayed out unconscious on the floor right now, in one of the most stupid, humiliating fashions imaginable. At least in the round before she’d forced Natsuko to give her a slightly more dignified finish, and she was willing to bet that Natsuko wasn’t going to try that particular shit again… but Hoshiko knew she couldn’t keep underestimating Natsuko. Not after these last two rounds. Not when victory was dangling right in front of her.

The pain in her back started to catch up with her, the result of Natsuko’s desperate flailing earlier. She reached back, ran a hand along the marks - and realized that Natsuko had turned her top into an open-back, mesh dangling in large strips and leaving her pretty much completely uncovered back there. She groaned - she’d have to get that fixed later, and right now it wouldn’t do her any good to leave anything dangling for Natsuko to grab onto. She unhooked the choker, threw the top off into the corner, and let her upper body breathe free, breasts completely exposed to the world. She didn’t mind much - hell, it was kinda nice not having to worry about it, least for now.

She glanced over to Verrik, who… well, she recognized that relieved smile underneath the gag. He was happy to see her standing there right now, that much she could be sure of, and that took a little bit of the edge off. Even if she couldn’t be entirely sure his arousal was only for her, she could be reasonably certain his heart was with her, at least. She smiled back through her pants of exhaustion, and she could see his muscles relax just that little bit, even if his length wasn’t exactly going down anytime soon.

“G-gods, I am tired of you brutalizing my tits.”

Hoshiko’s happiness vanished in an instant as whipped her gaze back to Natsuko, standing up as the wave of healing magic washed off of her. The teeth marks on her breast had similarly faded with the rest of the marks Hoshiko had given her, but there wouldn’t be any mistaking what they were for a good long while yet.

“And I’m fucking tired of you mashing them into my face.” Hoshiko cracked her knuckles, feeling the aches in them vanish as Megumi turned her magic onto her once more. “Don’t even think of trying that again.”

“Believe me, I’ll do worse.” Natsuko seemed to tremble with anger, muscles tensed up - the fear in her eyes from earlier had vanished, at least for now. “I’m gonna punish you good.”

“Like you’ll even last another round,” Hoshiko scoffed - she may have had her internal doubts, but she wasn’t about to let Natsuko smell any blood in the water. “I’m not letting you pull any shit like that any more.”

“You’re not gonna have a choice, Hoshi. I know what I want now more than ever, and I want you to suffer.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

Hoshiko and Natsuko locked eyes, the tension between like a taut wire ready to be cut with a steak knife. Now more than ever, Hoshiko wished she could just zap Natsuko and be done with this whole fucking thing.

“If you two are ready to begin,” Megumi said, “then so we shall.”

The two of them glanced over to her, nodded, and stanced up once again without another word between them - and for the last time, Hoshiko hoped.

“And again - BEGIN!”

The two kitsune charged right at each other with no hesitation, both of them eager to start things off cleanly in their favor before the other could react - and this time, Natsuko got the upper hand, ducking Hoshiko’s attempt to punch her lights out and tackling her down by the stomach, sending the black-furred kitsune slamming down onto the floor. Natsuko didn’t waste any time, delivering a solid punch to Hoshiko’s stomach that left her gasping in pain - but that wasn’t really what Natsuko was after.

No, she promised Hoshiko ‘worse,’ and by the gods, she was going to get worse.

Natsuko slammed her fist into Hoshiko’s gut again, clawing down her stomach before hooking her fingers into the band of her panties. Before Hoshiko was in any position to react, Natsuko quickly pulled her panties off of her, sliding them down her legs as the white-furred kitsune stood to her feet, hooking her arms around Hoshiko’s ankles and pulling them up into the air as she proudly displayed the red panties to the prone kitsune they used to belong to.

“Look at you, completely exposed to the world,” Natsuko said, laughing as she tossed the panties aside - she could see a flash of red on Hoshiko’s cheeks, underneath that black fur. “You know, when I’m done with you, I might just drag you back to the village looking like this.”

Hoshiko scrambled for purchase on the floor, trying to get some leverage to slip out of Natsuko’s grasp and stand up - but with her legs raised up far enough that her ass hovered off the ground and only her less-than-prehensile tails having any sort of contact with the floor, she wasn’t about to accomplish any sort of kip up. Natsuko chuckled, taking a moment to appreciate Hoshiko’s pink pussy, nestled between tufts of black thigh fur - she really did have such an irritatingly good body, and of course that extended to her privates. Not that Natsuko was about to let that go unpunished.

Natsuko raised her foot up, hovering it just above Hoshiko’s crotch as she let a sinister grin adorn her face, making sure to keep Hoshiko well under control even as she squirmed in her grip. She let the foot dangle there for a bit, until she saw Hoshiko’s eyes widen just that little bit as she realized what fresh hell she was in for - and stomped down hard on that pussy.

The results were instant - Hoshiko’s teeth gritted together, but that wasn’t enough to suppress the loud agonized gasp as her whole body shook, her back arching in pain as her claws dug into the carpet, unable to do anything but let that pain rock her as Natsuko ground her heel cruelly against her privates. Natsuko wasn’t about to let this joyous bit of torture end, giving Hoshiko’s snatch another cruel stomp-and-grind and relishing the way the black-furred kitsune desperately tried to wriggle out of another round of body-rocking pain, her whole form trembling in agony as she failed to suppress another loud, protracted growl of hurt.

“Come on, Hoshi, you can let yourself scream.” Natsuko let out a sinister laugh as she continued her heel grind. “Might as well get this over with before I keep this going and going.”

Natsuko almost found herself disappointed at the thought that this would have to end - there was a thrill to this kind of punishment that she was only just beginning to discover, and she almost wished she’d made this contest seven, nine, maybe even thirteen rounds just to wring as much joy out of this as she could. Maybe once she’d won this (and in this moment, she knew she would), once Hoshiko had gotten desperate enough to challenge Natsuko for the right to Verrik once more, she’d let her try her luck - just to crush her again, and again, and again. The thought of it made butterflies fly around in her stomach - gods, she loved every second of-

And then Hoshiko finally let out a scream - one of rage as she finally twisted her body around, taking advantage of Natsuko’s lapse of attention to throw as much body weight against her as she could and send her crashing down onto her side. Natsuko’s grip slipped off Hoshiko’s ankles, and she quickly tried to scramble to her feet - only for Hoshiko to slam herself down on top of her chest, a naked and beautiful avatar of anger straddling her as fist after fist smashed into her face, a rapid series of brutal punches that hurt like fucking hell and shocked every attempt at thought she had before it could even start. Natsuko tried desperately to put her arms in front of the onslaught, to block something, anything - but Hoshiko was intent on pulverizing her, shoving her arms aside with frightening ease as the black-furred kitsune pummeled her into a helpless, aching daze.

“Stay down.” Hoshiko growled at Natsuko, who currently needed no coaxing, barely able to focus on the words at all as her brain scrambled for sense of any kind. Hoshiko leaned back, reaching down and hooking her fingers into Natsuko’s panties - a ripping sound and sudden release of pressure told Natsuko that her last bit of clothing had been torn right off of her, just before Hoshiko made sure she knew by shoving the lacy, slightly damp remains right against her snout, giving her a deep whiff of her own private scent, slightly sour and slightly sweet and very, very overwhelming to all of her senses.

“H-how dare-”

Natsuko barely managed to eke out the protest, muffled by her own panties, before that damn fist slammed right where she absolutely did not want it, letting out a scream of pain as Hoshiko delivered blow after blow to her sensitive pussy, every muscle in her body tensing up before shaking as the agony radiated outward from her groin. She desperately crossed her legs, trying to mitigate the brutal assault - but Hoshiko simply turned herself around, planting her plump ass right on Natsuko’s face as she forcefully yanked Natsuko’s legs apart with one arm as she continued the cruel, agonizing pounding with the other.

She trembled, trying desperately to get herself up, wishing she could focus on anything but the incredible agony dominating her entire body. It didn’t help one bit that Hoshiko’s body weight was entirely pressed against her face - and that it meant she was getting an noseful of her scent, sickeningly sweet like the line of baker’s stalls in the Absalom markets, as if all those freshly baked pastries were being shoved right into her nose at the same time as she was being repeatedly punched in the pussy. Natsuko wondered very briefly if this bizarre, intense mixture of sensations had anything to do with her thoughts being scrambled from the face beating she had just taken - before another agonizing, body-rocking blow to her pussy left her reeling again and reminded her what was at stake as her yell of pain was muffled between Hoshiko’s cheeks.

She needed to get out of this - she couldn’t let Hoshiko win. As assured as Natsuko had been, she still knew it only took one slip-up at this point for Hoshiko to steal victory from her, and the thought of that pissed her off.

She felt Hoshiko lean down to deliver another brutal punch, and in that moment Natsuko had her opportunity, however faint it was - she leaned her legs up as if crunching, desperately wrapping them around Hoshiko’s head and then pulling down as hard as she could, pushing up against her thighs in the same moment to try and flip her off of Natsuko’s face and onto her back. The release of pressure around her muzzle let her know she’d succeeded, the black-furred kitsune flipping over with a gasp as her back slammed into the carpet, her face still between Natsuko’s thighs. The opportunity couldn’t be wasted - Natsuko quickly sat up, shaking her head to get her senses back in order as she mounted Hoshiko, shifting her thighs down onto her neck as she leaned over and hooked Hoshiko’s legs under her arms one more time, stretching the black-furred kitsune out over herself as Natsuko kept her legs firmly underneath her armpits. She squeezed her thighs tightly around Hoshiko’s neck, relishing the choking gasp that was muffled between her own bare ass cheeks.

“Y-you should have finished me off like this when you had the chance!” Natsuko’s taunting words stumbled out of her mouth, but she was able to keep enough focus to maintain the hold, putting every last bit of pressure she could into choking out Hoshiko between her thighs. “Or maybe you wanted a face full of my ass, huh? Huh? B-better enjoy it while you can, bitch.”

Hoshiko’s jaw flexed, but with Natsuko’s thighs around her neck, the most she could manage was a weak gasp as she brought her claws up into Natsuko’s ass cheeks, trying to claw at them until Natsuko relented - but after what Hoshiko had put her through, Natsuko wasn’t about to let Hoshiko get out that easy. She gritted her teeth, tightening her thighs further around Hoshiko’s neck as she kept her wriggling legs under control, pulling them in tighter so Hoshiko wouldn’t get the opportunity to pull the same stunt she did. She wiggled her hips, tauntingly shoving her ass onto Hoshiko’s face as she felt the black-furred kitsune’s struggling grow weaker and weaker, her attempts to claw and wrench herself free ever slower and more pathetic. Now this was what Natsuko wanted to see, to feel - this was exactly the position Hoshiko deserved to be in, right underneath her, unable to get herself free before Natsuko’s inevitable triumph was secured, and gods if Natsuko wouldn’t pay her weight in gold to experience this thrill over and over.

But soon enough, this particular round had to end, and Hoshiko was fading fast. She let out one last weak, ineffective gasp for air as she slowly slumped onto the floor, her body limp as she slipped into unconsciousness once more underneath the superior kitsune. Natsuko gave her neck a couple more shakes, just to make sure she was good and out cold, then slowly relaxed her thighs and released the legs, letting Hoshiko splay herself out across the floor. Natsuko chuckled - she really was so much more tolerable like this. She looked forward to seeing her like this longer once this was all over.

Natsuko stood herself up, the aches in her groin and face catching up with her as she shook the pain out once more. She glanced at the torn shreds of her panties at the side of the arena - she wasn’t looking forward to getting those replaced, after how much they had cost her. Though, as she turned her attention to the other side of the arena, she realized there was an interesting way to solve this particular problem.

She picked up Hoshiko’s red panties off the floor, the only article of clothing still intact in this arena, and slowly pulled them over her legs, feeling them conform tightly to her rear, snug against her body. They were a bit small for her, but there again was that undeniable thrill creeping up into her gut - she glanced over to Verrik, leaned her ass out in his direction and gave him a slow, sensual shake of her cheeks. His reaction was, again, instant, his claws digging into his chair as he trembled, eyes widened as his hips rose into the air, cock throbbing and dripping like a volcano ready to burst - Natsuko couldn’t help but think about how close she was to feeling the results of this poor lizard’s relentless teasing deep inside her. He was, after all, already in prime riding position tied up like this.

She just had to knock Hoshiko out one more time, and he was hers.

Chapter Text

Hoshiko’s eyes shot open as the healing magic washed over her once again, quickly rising to her feet as her energy returned to her. She let out a growl of rage, wasting no time locking eyes with Natsuko.

“My, oh, my, that’s the sound of someone who knows they’re about to be completely and utterly humiliated,” Natsuko said, a smug smirk across her face once again as she giggled. “Really, you shouldn’t have even bothered getting up.”

The bruises Hoshiko had left across Natsuko’s face had healed up, as usual, and glancing down-

“Why the fuck are you wearing those?”

Natsuko giggled, turning around so Hoshiko could get a full look at her own panties adorning the white-furred kitsune’s ass, clearly far too tight for her, looking as if they were threatening to rip at any moment under the strain.

“Oh, just figured I’d show Ver how much better I wear these - before I give him the time of his life, of course.” She licked her lips, chuckling. “I’ll be kind and let you watch, like I said~”

“I am not arguing this shit with you anymore.” Hoshiko clenched her fists, burning with the need to pummel this arrogant bitch into the ground, her fur standing on end as rage consumed her soul one more time. “I’m ending this.”

“Almost a shame I have to finish you off now - I could keep kicking your ass for hours.” Natsuko rolled her neck, looking at Hoshiko with the worst shit-eating grin she’d ever seen in her life. “But if you want to get knocked out one more time for the road, I’m not about to stop you~”

“This will be the final round of the contest,” Megumi interjected, and Hoshiko could swear there was a hint of relief in her voice. “Whoever wins this round will win the contest, with their conditions being fulfilled as agreed upon. Are you both ready?”

“Of course I am, Pries-”

Natsuko didn’t get to finish the sentence before Hoshiko was tackling her to the ground.

“I- okay. BEGIN!”

Hoshiko knew damn well that this was it - she could not, under any circumstance, even think of letting herself come at this with anything less than 100% of her focus and strength. She’d underestimated Natsuko long enough, and even after she’d gotten it through her head, that still hadn’t stopped Natsuko from taking a round off of her anyway. She had to hit her hard, fast, and without a hint of mercy or slacking - there was absolutely no way she was going to let Natsuko win this, after everything that had happened, after everything that had been said and done, even just in this arena, just in these last few rounds. No matter what happened, no matter what Natsuko did from this point on, she had to go down.

And she wasn’t exactly making it easy - she might have been caught off-guard at first, hitting the floor on her back and unable to keep Hoshiko from mounting on top of her, but Natsuko had recovered quickly, raising her arms to block Hoshiko’s frenzied punches. One snuck through, hitting Natsuko right in the jaw - but that gave her the opportunity to hook her arm around Hoshiko’s as she pulled back for another blow, quickly pulling Hoshiko down to the side and throwing her onto her back as Natsuko stood back to her feet, backing off to keep her distance from Hoshiko as she wiped her mouth.

“You’re not gonna stop me, Hoshi,” Natsuko said, rolling her shoulders as she put her fists up, licking her lips. “Ver is already mine, you just don’t see it yet. You lost him the moment you stepped into this arena, and I’m gonna enjoy beating that through your thick skull.”

Hoshiko scrambled to her feet, putting her fists up as the two of them circled the arena once more. She’d been hoping to keep Natsuko grounded and pound her unconscious into the floor before she had a chance to recover, but it seemed that the last round hadn’t left Natsuko as overconfident and distracted as she might have hoped. No, Hoshiko could see that being so close to victory was only encouraging Natsuko, her movements more energetic than ever as she shuffled in place, bouncing on her feet as she kept her fists held in front of her face. Hoshiko eyed her carefully, watching for her moment to strike.

“He’s not ‘yours’ and he’s never going to be. Delude yourself all you want, I just want to make you pay for all the shit you’ve been pulling.” Hoshiko narrowed her eyes, looking for any sign of Natsuko faltering in her defense.

“Whatever helps you sleep tonight, Hoshi,” Natsuko said, flexing her knuckles but otherwise maintaining her form. “You’re just scared he’s been waiting for me to show you your place this whole time - you see how excited he is. He wants to see me knock you out, and you know it. You’ve known it since you walked into this ring, and you’re just hoping this somehow doesn’t end the way you know it’s going to end. Do you know how ‘delusional’ that is?”

Hoshiko gritted her teeth - she was reasonably sure that Natsuko was, as always, completely full of shit, but gods the thought of her getting away with any of this filled Hoshiko with a righteous anger unlike anything else. Verrik might have been… uncomfortably excited by what was happening, but that surely didn’t mean he was about to upend his every desire in life for this bitch. Not the kind, awkward lizard who’d been so absorbed in his nerves that he didn’t even realize when Hoshiko was trying to let him know the feeling was mutual. Not the sweet soul who had spent night after night gushing out every last feeling he’d ever had about her, again and again, clinging to her all the while like she’d float away from him if he didn’t, who couldn’t wear his heart anywhere but his sleeve even if he tried. No, the idea that he “wanted” to see some random girl he’d just met come out on top over who was, by all accounts, the love of his life - that was delusional.

Which made it all the more frustrating when Hoshiko didn’t realize she had become so distracted by that thought that she didn’t even notice Natsuko’s fist flying into her face until it’d already impacted her jaw with a painful crack, sending her scrambling to her knees as she put her arms around her face to guard against the next blow - only for Natsuko’s foot to slam hard into her gut, doubling her over fully face-first onto the floor as she clutched with a groan at her stomach.

“Aw, look at that, Hoshi laying right where she belongs,” Natsuko said with a cruel laugh, stepping on the back of Hoshiko’s head and pressing her foot down harshly, forcing Hoshiko’s face into the carpet as the white-furred kitsune ground her heel into her. “Underneath her better. If you give up now and kiss it, I might show you some mercy~”

“F-fuck you,” Hoshiko spat out, reaching up to claw at Natsuko’s foot - but she was already pulling her foot away, delivering a harsh kick to Hoshiko’s face that sent her rolling onto her back as she yelped in pain. Before Hoshiko could pull herself up, Natsuko was already mounting on top of her, straddling her chest and pinning her arms down with her knees as the white-furred kitsune cracked her knuckles.

“If you don’t want any mercy, then let’s see how you like having the lights pummeled out of you.”

Natsuko certainly didn’t hold back any of her strength - the first punch dazed Hoshiko enough as it was, and the next ten only heaped on the pain and rattling of her brain. Hoshiko tried to wrench herself free, pushing against Natsuko’s weight on her chest and arms - but blow after painful blow to her face was a hard thing to fight through. Natsuko’s laughing intensified with each punch, licking her lips as she relentlessly pummeled Hoshiko into the floor - the black-furred kitsune struggled to maintain her senses, each blow only making it more difficult to keep her focus on the world around her.

“You enjoying this? Huh? You enjoying being made a bitch out of, Hoshi? Cause there’s more where this is coming from.”

By the time Natsuko was shifting around on top of her, there wasn’t much Hoshiko could manage to do to resist the white-furred kitsune wrapping her thighs around her arm and gripping tightly onto her wrist with both hands. Natsuko’s legs stretched out across Hoshiko’s breasts, pressing her torso down as she began to squeeze and pull painfully on her arm; Hoshiko gritted her teeth, agony coursing through her arm as she tried her best not to let herself scream from the torture Natsuko was putting her through.

“I might not be able to break your arm, Hoshi, but you’re going to fucking wish I did.”

Gasps of agony slipped out through Hoshiko’s teeth as she struggled to gain some leverage with her legs, trying to find any way to force Natsuko off of her, grabbing onto her ankle and digging her claws into it as hard as she could - but whatever was driving Natsuko right now was keeping her from falling prey to something as simple as that. Hoshiko couldn’t tell what that drive was - sheer lust for Verrik? Sadism? Both? Either way, Hoshiko couldn’t believe how difficult Natsuko had become - the absolute pain her arm was in was getting increasingly difficult to power through. There was no way Hoshiko was about to let Natsuko make her submit - but she couldn’t exactly guarantee the sheer pain wouldn’t just make her pass out, and sooner rather than later.

She was desperately trying to think of a way to escape when Natsuko released her of her own volition, rising to her feet as Hoshiko lay there, gasping in exhaustion, her arm still ringing with intense pain. Natsuko didn’t give her much time to rest - she grabbed onto Hoshiko’s hair by her scalp, pulling her up painfully as Natsuko quickly delivered another hard punch to her jaw, dazing the thoughts out of Hoshiko’s mind once more as Natsuko dragged her to the edge of the arena and threw her back down onto the floor.

“Look at how weak you are,” Natsuko cooed, pressing her hand against the back of Hoshiko’s head and pushing her face-first into the floor again as she kneeled down, wedging her knee between Hoshiko’s stomach and the floor, Natsuko’s other hand pulling Hoshiko’s lower body up until her stomach was resting fully on the knee. “You can’t even stop me from doing this.”

Natsuko’s palm suddenly slapped down hard on Hoshiko’s ass cheek, the sting forcing Hoshiko to grit her teeth as her face continued to be ground into the carpet. Her cheeks flushed as the palm pulled back and came down on her rear again, realizing what was happening. Natsuko was straight up spanking her - and making sure Verrik was seeing it as clearly as possible.

“You got quite the ass here, Hoshi,” Natsuko taunted as she gave Hoshiko another cruel spank, sliding her hand away with a giggle. “Shame it’s wasted on you.”

Hoshiko growled, frustrated that she really didn’t have the strength to get out of this right now. Her body ached from the beating she’d taken, and it didn’t take much for Natsuko to be able to keep her pinned down as she drew out each spank as slowly as she could, occasionally squeezing that increasingly sore cheek before raising and releasing it, letting it settle back down with a slight jiggle. Natsuko was clearly indulging herself here again, as she had the last couple rounds she had the advantage - and Hoshiko was getting ever more frustrated that she was getting away with it, able to keep Hoshiko pinned down and nigh-unable to fight back with her other arm.

“This is fun and all, Hoshi, but I really should wrap this up now. I’m gonna make sure you know exactly how excited Ver is to see you lose.” Natsuko slid her knee out from under Hoshiko and grasped onto her hair again, raising her up to her feet and pressing their snouts together as she delivered another painful blow to Hoshiko’s gut, forcing an exhausted gasp out of the black-furred kitsune. “You’re gonna have a front row seat to it”

Natsuko wasted no time in shoving Hoshiko’s face against the wall, pressing her body right up behind hers and making sure Hoshiko’s whole body was sandwiched between her and the wall. Hoshiko tried to shake herself out of her stupor, seeing Verrik come into focus on the other side of the room, staring right at her with wide eyes and an erection still dribbling with pre-cum - just in time for Natsuko to lock her arm around her neck and squeeze with a sinister chuckle.

“Say good night, Hoshi~”

Hoshiko gasped for air, succeeding only in letting out a strained gag as she weakly tried to wrench Natsuko’s arm off of her neck with the one arm she had that wasn’t in massive pain. She still wasn’t anywhere near full strength, and Natsuko was - the arm around her neck was squeezing with all its might, quickly choking the life out of her with little Hoshiko could do. And again, the claws she dug into Natsuko’s arm seemed to do no good at all - she could hear Natsuko suppress a gasp of pain, but she wasn’t faltering in her hold at all, and Hoshiko couldn’t muster the strength to oppose her in any other way.

She could see Verrik, staring at her, unblinking as he futilely tried to clench his thighs together and hide his raging erection. There was a strange desperation in his eyes that Hoshiko couldn’t quite read in her current state. He wasn’t any less hard than before, but, if her assumption was correct, it seemed like it might have been dawning on him that this wasn’t looking to end the way he might have wanted. He had that “oh gods I am so sorry about this” look on his face - at least, far as Hoshiko could tell, through her fluttering eyes and darkening vision.

This wasn’t how it was going to end, was it? She couldn’t escape this, she was realizing as much as her consciousness started to fade - but this wasn’t right. Natsuko didn’t deserve to get what she wanted, yet here she was, in complete control of the situation and quickly putting Hoshiko away, trapping her between her body and the wall and needing only a few more precious seconds until Hoshiko’s world would go black once more. Natsuko had won.

And I’ll just LET her? NO. NO MORE.

Hoshiko’s eyes shot open as the thought raced through her mind, strength suddenly coursing through her body once again like a thunderstorm. Her blood burned beneath her skin.

SHOW HER WHERE SHE BELONGS. MAKE HER REGRET PRETENDING TO HAVE ANY RIGHT TO DOMINATE YOU.

Her pupils narrowed into slits, electricity coursing lightly across her fur as every muscle in her body tensed up. She threw both of her arms up, hooking them into Natsuko’s hold and pulling down hard, yanking her right off of Hoshiko’s neck as the black-furred kitsune gasped for air, swiftly jabbing her elbow into Natsuko’s stomach and shoving her back. Hoshiko whirled around to face a wide-eyed Natsuko, wincing as she scrambled to her feet with one hand clasped to her stomach.

“ENOUGH.”

Hoshiko wasn’t about to let Natsuko get up again, delivering her own swift kick to Natsuko’s face and knocking her down to the floor ass-up as she yelped in pain. Hoshiko reached down, swiftly hooking her claws into her own panties and ripping them right off of Natsuko’s rear, exposing her completely once more to everyone else present. Hoshiko didn’t even particularly care about damaging her own clothing - more important that Natsuko not be allowed to have things her way anymore.

“H-how dare-”

Natsuko’s flustered indignation gave way to a shriek as Hoshiko aimed another devastating kick right to her groin, the white-furred kitsune curling her legs up as she tried to grimace through the pain - before Hoshiko planted her knee firmly on her back, hooking her elbows around Natsuko’s and pulling them back as hard she could, pushing down with her knee and stretching Natsuko out to what must have felt like the breaking point, given the loud, harsh gasp that escaped her lips and the way her whole body seemed to tremble with each second that Hoshiko applied the hold.

“You think you DESERVE him? You think you DESERVE to dominate me, to try and humiliate me like this? You don’t deserve ANYTHING after this!”

Hoshiko’s eyes seemed to crackle with electricity, as if radiating with a similar energy during her most intense bouts of magical power - her voice, though on the surface the same as it ever was, still seemed to be infused with an inherent commanding quality, as if her words were so intrinsically authoritative that going against them would be absurd to think about. She knew the anti-magic field in the arena hadn’t faltered in any way - otherwise her attempt to shock Natsuko in her grasp just now would have worked - but there was something inherent to her that was truly awakening right now, as if stirred to life by desperation and righteous rage at what had been happening tonight, like her very blood called to her to put an end to Natsuko’s bullshit.

She wasn’t in any particular mood to question any of this. Right now, she just wanted to put this bitch where she belonged.

“L-let me go! A-AAH! T-this isn’t fair!” Natsuko struggled to even get the words out at first, the sheer agony of Hoshiko’s hold clearly putting her in a world of hurt, her body shaking as she gasped out increasingly loud groans of pain. She desperately wriggled in Hoshiko’s grasp, panting heavily as she put every bit of strength she had into trying to slip out, trying to wrench herself free of Hoshiko’s tortuous hold any way she could - but the black-furred kitsune only pulled tighter, pressed her knee ever harder against her rival’s back.

“Fair? After you did everything you could to force yourself between me and Verrik? After antagonizing me the whole FUCKING time to get me to agree to this stupid contest? Hoping you’d somehow ‘steal’ Verrik away after only just meeting him? No, if this is how you handle yourself, you don’t DESERVE ‘fair.’”

Natsuko opened her mouth to protest - but Hoshiko had heard enough from her at this point, and in one swift motion slid her hand off of Natsuko’s arm, balled it tight, and slammed it right into her face. Though she quickly released the hold, Hoshiko wasn’t at all done with Natsuko - she grabbed tight onto her hair, straddled her back and held her face up, and slammed a crackling fist right into her face. And again. And again, each time eliciting an increasingly loud yelp of pain, Natsuko’s already pathetic initial attempt to fight back ever more futile as each punch dazed her quicker and quicker, her gaze increasingly unfocused as saliva coated her chin.

“The only thing you deserve is EXACTLY what you’re getting right now - HUMILIATION.”

She threw Natsuko back down onto the floor, watching her struggle to get up, her body trembling as she feebly pushed herself slightly off the floor - before collapsing back down, panting heavily. Hoshiko kneeled down, scooping Natsuko with one arm onto her knee as the other hooked around her neck - Natsuko whimpered, but could only limply flail an arm back at Hoshiko. Hoshiko didn’t waste any more time - she pulled her hand back and slammed it palm-first into Natsuko’s thick ass, eliciting a shocked and exhausted gasp from her as her asscheeks rippled from the impact.

If Natsuko really thought she could get away with indulgent bouts of attempted humiliation without ever receiving it in turn - well, she was in for a very rude awakening.

Hoshiko was far less drawn-out and showboat-y with her spanking - the slaps came hard, fast and relentless. Natsuko gasped and whimpered with each impact, her cheeks flushing as visibly red through her white fur as the soreness of her other cheeks. She didn’t need the assurance of Verrik’s audience, however certain it currently was, to enjoy this - she couldn’t help but smile, seeing Natsuko so rapidly reduced from smug superiority to exhausted embarrassment. The white-furred kitsune could try to wriggle out all she wanted; Hoshiko would just adjust her grip slightly, pull her back in and delight in the little whimpers she’d make as her feeble attempts at escape failed.

“GIVE.”

“N-no…” Natsuko gasped out in-between spanks, shaking in Hoshiko’s powerful grasp. “I-I won’t g-give you t-the satisfaction…! Y-you don’t g-get to do this t-to me…!”

“Then I’m not DONE with you.”

Hoshiko swiftly rolled Natsuko off of her knee, letting her come to a panting rest on her back, her chest rising slowly with each breath as she slowly tried to pick herself back up again - only for Hoshiko to sit right on her face, her muzzle buried deep between the black-furred kitsune’s ass cheeks as Hoshiko leaned down and hooked her arms around Natsuko’s ankles, pulling her legs up into the air before pulling them back behind her. Natsuko yelped out a muffled protest into Hoshiko’s ass, helpless as Hoshiko’s hold strained her legs and practically showed off her plump ass and soft pink pussy to the whole chamber.

“Shut up! If you didn’t want this to happen, you shouldn’t have EVER started this to begin with.”

Hoshiko rubbed her ass across Natsuko’s face, keeping her pinned tight to the floor as she sat down on her with all her weight. Natsuko weakly clawed at her thighs between whimpers and moans, but to no avail - Hoshiko had absolutely no intention of letting Natsuko escape this before she decided it was done. Maybe Natsuko would lose consciousness under there, maybe Hoshiko would decide to finish things off another way - but one way or another, Natsuko was not staying conscious to the end of this. Even if Natsuko finally begged for mercy, all that would earn her would be a bit more humiliation on top of everything else - Hoshiko no longer had any intention of letting Natsuko decide when she was done. Every bit of Hoshiko’s being screamed at her to make Natsuko well and truly regret ever starting this - her blood only burned ever hotter, and hotter, and hotter as she went on with this, and the righteous anger in her soul only intensified with each passing second, almost threatening to burst out of her in an explosion of rage. Natsuko had already pushed her too far before they had even stepped into the arena - everything she had pulled on Hoshiko in this arena had only sealed her fate further.

After these last couple rounds, things finally felt right - no more was Natsuko getting to play at being her better, getting to pretend any of this would work out for her the way she hoped. No; Hoshiko was finally sitting on top of her as she whimpered underneath her, only growing ever weaker with each passing moment as her attempts to fight back became increasingly feeble and pathetic, hands limply slapping against Hoshiko’s thighs as she let out shuddering moans underneath her. Natsuko was nothing to Hoshiko right now, like a plaything to be tossed aside once she was done - had she ever had the right to contest Hoshiko, when she should have so clearly been out of her element from the start, some woman from nowhere that so desperately wanted to pretend to be more important than she ever could or should have been? It really was only right that Hoshiko, who had been forced to make a life out of defying fate’s cruel hand, would be the one to dominate this in the end - what had Natsuko done to deserve victory in this contest, let alone to earn any of the affection she seemed so desperate for from Verrik? Nothing.

“You. Are. NOTHING. Go on - beg for mercy! See if… I… c-care…”

Just as suddenly as it had arrived, that burst of energy and strength vanished - Hoshiko’s eyes returned to normal in the span of a blink, the lightning coursing across her fur sputtering out as every ache and pain in her body that Natsuko had inflicted before returned in a flash. Her vision blurred, her thoughts clouded and dazed once more as the crash hit. She collapsed forward on top of Natsuko, panting heavily as she groaned in pain, unable to keep her hold as Natsuko’s legs crashed back down to the floor. Natsuko’s scent struck her nose, a potent floral fragrance that she’d gotten an unfortunate whiff of last round and which currently seemed to mix with an odd scent that Hoshiko’s dazed mind couldn’t currently place. She could hear Natsuko gasp for air and feel her pant underneath her, free from being Hoshiko’s impromptu seat - Hoshiko tried to pick herself up, but the sudden return of all that pain was a hard thing to power through, and she simply fell right back down between Natsuko’s thighs.

“Y-you bitch…!” Natsuko’s words may have been strained on her breath, and her body was clearly still as battered as ever, but Hoshiko’s sudden lack of resistance gave her the opportunity to shove her off, then roll on top of her, pinning Hoshiko to the floor underneath her weight. “Gonna m-make you pay for what you j-just did…!”

Natsuko’s thighs were around her neck again, and in spite of her exhaustion, the white-furred kitsune sure could still squeeze, and Hoshiko found herself gagging between thick white thighs once more. Hoshiko quickly did the one thing she knew she could do, feeling Natsuko’s own head hover around her ground - she raised her legs up, clasped her own thighs around Natsuko’s neck, and squeezed as hard as she possibly could.

The two kitsune writhed against each other, gagging between each other’s legs as they both relentlessly choked the life out of each other. For as back and forth as the contest had been, as this very round had been, it now had devolved into a very simple battle, almost a coin toss. No amount of athleticism, strategy or surprises mattered now. Locked in mutual headscissor choke holds, both combatants unable to do anything else lest they concede the contest at that very moment, the only thing left to determine the winner was whoever managed to stay conscious long enough to choke out the other.

Hoshiko almost wished she wasn’t so keenly aware of that. It wouldn’t be long before this was all over, and all she could do was try to make sure Natsuko was out cold before she was. Natsuko wasn’t making it easy - those thighs squeezed around her neck hard, and Hoshiko had lost the strength to do much more than futilely try to pry her legs apart with her rapidly fading strength. The only comfort was that Natsuko clearly wasn’t doing any better - Hoshiko could squeeze that neck with as much impunity as Natsuko did her own, even with the claws digging feebly into her thighs.

It wasn’t much comfort at all. The winner had effectively already been decided, and Hoshiko just had to pray it was her.

She could feel herself fading, her eyes fluttering once again as her vision darkened, her desperate gasps for air growing ever weaker. She couldn’t even summon the strength to raise her arms anymore - they fell to her side, nigh-limp as her eyes slowly closed, everything going dark around her as she let out one last futile gag for air…

And then Natsuko went limp on top of her, her thighs sliding off of Hoshiko’s neck as her last gasp filled her lungs, her eyes shooting open as she panted desperately for air. She released her own hold on Natsuko’s neck, shoving her off of her as she stumbled to her feet, completely and utterly exhausted, her body still wracked with aches and pains. She closed her eyes tight, took a deep breath, and looked down at Natsuko; she was splayed out on the carpet and completely exposed, her body covered in bruises as her chest slowly rose up and down, eyes shut tight. Hoshiko nudged her stomach with her foot - she did not stir.

“The winner of this contest is, finally, Hoshiko Hirabayashi!”

Hoshiko let herself fall to the floor, taking deep, quick breaths - to her side, she could hear Verrik yell out, muffled by the gag but still very clearly cheering. She rubbed her neck, wincing at how sore it had become - really, there wasn’t a part of her body that wasn’t aching to hell and back.

She stood back up after a few moments, glanced at Natsuko to make sure she was still out - Megumi seemed to be in no rush to get her back up, thank the gods - and stumbled out of the arena, feeling her magic return to her as she sprinted towards Verrik, laying her hands on her chest and restoring some of her strength back to herself, relief washing over her as much of the aching faded.

She reached Verrik, quickly reached behind his head and undid the belt that had been gagging him for however goddamn long he’d been tied to this chair-

“H-Hoshi, I-”

He didn’t get the chance to finish before she was sitting atop him, her lips planted on his - he gasped, trembled, then returned it in full force. He could still barely move his head, given his bound neck, but Hoshiko leaned in enough to let his tongue lick across the inside of her maw before she met it with her own. He whimpered so goddamned adorably into her mouth, his whole body shaking underneath her weight. Slowly, she pulled away from the kiss, looking directly into his warm - if shaky - gaze.

“No need to talk, Ver,” she said, gently sliding her arms down to his wrists. “Let’s just get you out-”

“W-wait, Hoshi, um…” Verrik said in-between pants, his cheeks burning a fierce red as he squirmed underneath her. “C-could you… b-before you untie me, uh…”

“You’ve been tied up like this for hours, Ver,” Hoshiko said, looking him in the eyes. “This isn’t going to take more than a minute.” But Verrik just whimpered, a halting exhale from his lips.

“Hoshi, I-I am really, r-really close right now.” Verrik had a desperate, ashamed look in his eyes, staring right back at Hoshiko. “I… I kiiinda really need this.”

Hoshiko looked back at him with a warm smile, sliding her hands away from his bound wrists and gripping him by his shoulders, pressing their muzzles together once again. “So… you don’t want to be unbound?”

“U-uh, um, yeaaaah?” Verrik gulped, looking away bashfully - Hoshiko could feel his member resting and throbbing against her waist, his pre-cum starting to soak her fur. “I, uh, a-at least, I d-don’t want to, um, cum b-before, uh-”

Her lips pressed against his again, his stumbling words cut off with a surprised and muffled moan, as it so often happened between them. She shifted herself on top of him, raising her hips until she had aligned herself with his member - and then slammed down, taking in all of him at once as he cried out into her mouth, tensing up and thrusting himself as best he could into her. He still couldn’t exactly move himself much, but that didn’t stop him from trying his hardest to please her, short thrusts back and forth that Hoshiko had to help him along with, gyrating her hips across his as she humped him, delighting in all the ways he squirmed, moaned and whimpered with each thrust. She traced her hands along his chest, squeezing at his soft scales and lean muscle as she licked around his tongue, soon wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug as she worked to pump him dry. She moaned deep into him, caught off-guard by just how worked up she’d become.

Indeed, it didn’t take long before his whole body tensed and he practically screamed into her mouth, thrusting himself as deep as he could as his member throbbed and let loose what may have been the biggest, longest orgasm Hoshiko had ever seen from him, burst after burst of his seed pumping into her as he whimpered into her maw. He trembled with each throb, each spurt of cum that shot up into her almost seeming longer than the last - Hoshiko knew he was pent up, but just how much so still surprised her. She wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to get up from the chair after this.

Finally, however, the last drops of his seed escaped him, and after a brief moment, he collapsed into the chair, panting in utter exhaustion. She parted her lips from his, her hot breath blowing across his face as she took a deep breath, and kissed him on the neck.

“F-fuck, o-okay, ummmm…” Verrik trailed off, barely able to focus his eyes as he blinked rapidly, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he struggled to catch his breath. “I… I-I think I’m g-good. D-do you, um, n-need me to…?”

Hoshiko thought about it for a second, meeting Verrik’s expectant look - then stood up and sat herself on his face, her pussy pressed right up against his lips and smearing his own cum across his chin. He understood her answer immediately, his tongue leaping into action and sliding across her clit, and fuck she always loved this part. Her back arched, pressing her hips harder against Verrik’s face as he drank deep of her, kissing her lower lips as he thrust his tongue deep inside her, massaging her insides eagerly as he licked up as much of the mess he had just made as she could. She had to assist him more than she usually would - normally he’d practically be diving for her groin, hugging her hips as he ate her out to the fullest extent possible. Given his current lack of mobility, she had to take the lead, rubbing herself all over his face as she humped his lips, and… gods, she had to admit she rather liked this, something about Verrik’s powerlessness, his desperate attempts to please in spite of his predicament. If she wanted to just keep him like this a little longer, use him like a toy as she pleased… would he even complain?

“D-don’t stop, Ver - I’m not untying you until y-you’ve finished.”

It sounded a little weird even to her as it came out of her lips - but Verrik’s little muffled whimper as he thrust his tongue even deeper into her indicated that it landed with him. She curled her leg around the back of the chair - the binding around his neck was keeping his tongue from going anywhere but exactly where Hoshiko wanted it to be right now.

Hoshiko could feel how close she’d already become herself, the way her loins burned for release as Verrik cleaned her out so desperately. She needed this after all the bullshit with Natsuko - more than just the pleasure of being with Verrik, the assurance that she hadn’t somehow misgauged his feelings or loyalty, that for all his awkward behavior the last couple days and all of Natsuko’s ham-fisted attempts to take him from her, his actual feelings hadn’t once shifted away from her. It had always seemed a stretch to her, the shit Natsuko spewed about his “real” desires, but she’d be lying if there wasn’t just a hint of doubt, a hint of anxiety that she was wrong and Verrik would be so fickle.

But here he was, the same as ever, enthusiastically servicing her in spite of the strange circumstances that had led to it, and for all that still needed to be said, she knew in her gut that nothing about him or how he felt for her had really changed. Things felt right.

Verrik’s tongue lashed against her clit one last time, and she couldn’t help but arch her back and yell towards the ceiling as she shook, her juices splashing against Verrik’s face as she clenched her thighs around his cheeks, giving him little choice but to drink every last drop he could as fluid slammed into his face and dribbled down his chin. He’d always had a talent for this, and it couldn’t help but feel goddamn transcendent given everything.

“I - ah! - I l-love-”

“Ahem.”

Hoshiko froze, going completely still save for one last burst of her fluids on Verrik’s now similarly still expression. She glanced back to Megumi, who was standing in the threshold of the chamber and holding a small jar of what seemed to be ashes left behind by the skeleton samurai from earlier. She seemed to stare right into the two of them, a stern look across her face.

“You should perhaps… wait on this. We have prisoners to bring to the village, and we have spent enough time here.”

Hoshiko nodded sheepishly - Verrik’s response was muffled, mouth still pressed right up against her privates.

“I am going to ensure that we do not have any unwanted guests before we leave. In the interest of expediency and preventing any more… incidents, I have prepared a teleportation spell within the arena to take us back home. I would recommend retrieving your belongings now, unless you really wish to come back here again.”

With that, Megumi placed the jar on the carpet, a short distance away from the still unconscious Natsuko, and gave Hoshiko and Verrik one more stern look before walking back out of the chamber. Hoshiko took a deep breath and then removed her hips from Verrik’s face, a trail of fluid sticking onto his nose before breaking off and lining his snout and chin.

“W-well, we should… get you free, Ver.” She laughed nervously, her cheeks flushing red underneath her cheek fur as she leaned down and started undoing the rest of his bonds. “We do still need to talk, later-”

“Um. Hoshi.” Verrik stared off behind her, wide-eyed.

“...yes?”

“I… I think they saw all that.”

Hoshiko followed Verrik’s gaze - and her eyes opened just as wide. There right in the corner of the chamber was Gorou, still naked and gagged with his limbs bound tightly together, staring right at them with a raging erection, long and thick and on full display as he writhed on the ground. Only a short distance away from him were the two goons that had tied Verrik up, bound and gagged but thankfully clothed and not visibly aroused - but still very much staring, wide-eyed and cheeks flushed. The two of them looked away the moment they noticed Hoshiko looking, trying desperately to look as if they had been focusing on anything else - Gorou didn’t, though he did noticeably gulp as his eyes locked with Hoshiko’s.

“Ver?”

“Y-yes, Hoshi?”

“Let’s… get going.”

Chapter Text

Natsuko groaned, her whole body aching as she stirred awake, eyes fluttering open as she felt nothing but the soft carpet on her back once more. She tried to push herself up, getting as far as a few inches off the floor before collapsing back down, feeling her arm ache like hell as she tried to leverage herself with it.

“C-come on, Hoshi,” she choked out, rolling onto her front to try and get a better grip on the floor. “I’m n-not done with y-you… ow…”

Slowly, she stood up, stumbling to her feet as she looked around for her rival, blinking rapidly to try and clear her groggy sight - and saw Hoshiko outside the arena, leaning behind Verrik. Natsuko couldn’t tell what she was doing just yet - but she knew one thing.

“G-GET BACK OVER HERE!” Natsuko yelled out, clenching her fists. “You think we’re done?! No! I… I’m gonna-”

“You’re not going to do anything.” Hoshiko let out a long sigh and stood up from behind Verrik; even from here Natsuko could tell she was giving her another one of those damn glares she loved so much. “You lost. It’s over.”

“Oh no, it’s not.” Natsuko stumbled out of the arena, putting her fists up as she approached Hoshiko. “I… I had you! Y-you shouldn’t have been able to-”

“But I did.” Hoshiko crossed her arms, holding something in one hand that Natsuko, frankly, could not care about right now. “The contest is over, and you lost. You want to argue about it, go talk to the priestess. Until then, it’s over, and you’re going to stay away from Verrik, as we agreed on.”

Natsuko growled, breathing heavily. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen - no, no, Hoshiko was supposed to be out cold right now, and she was supposed to finally have Verrik to herself. Hoshiko might have turned the tables for a bit, but by all rights Natsuko was the one who earned that victory.

“I… I challenge you! Another fight, right here, right now! I-if I win, you-”

“No! I’m not doing this shit again, Natsuko. Don’t even try it.”

Natsuko stomped over to Hoshiko, glaring her down face-to-face, rage building up within her gut. She thought about her options for a bit - but only just a bit.

“F-fine! Then I- I’m just gonna make you do it!”

Natsuko pulled her fist back, swinging it right at Hoshiko’s face - but her coordination wasn’t what it should have been, and Hoshiko swiftly stepped out of the way, letting Natsuko stumble right past her. Before she could react, Hoshiko had hooked her other arm behind her back, and Natsuko’s attempt to elbow her in response only allowed the black-furred kitsune to completely restrain both arms. Natsuko grunted, tried to wrench herself free - but then she felt cold leather wrap around her wrists and tighten, binding them together as Hoshiko grabbed onto her hair and yanked her back, her ear a mere inch away from Hoshiko’s mouth as her head was pulled forcibly back.

“Be glad I didn’t just fry you there,” Hoshiko growled into her ear before shoving her forward, letting her stumble to her knees on the cave floor. “You keep pulling this shit and I just might.”

“F-fuck you!” Natsuko said, her cheeks flushing red as she tried desperately to force herself free from the belt binding her wrists together - futilely. “Y-you can’t do this to me! My father won’t-”

“Won’t what?” Hoshiko leaned down over her, crossing her arms under her bust. “You think he’s going to be happy about what you just tried to pull here?”

Natsuko’s eyes widened, stumbling over her words as she looked up at Hoshiko. “I- y-you can’t-”

“We’re leaving. Explain this however you want, I’m not gonna hold back a single detail - and I don’t think Megumi will either.”

Natsuko’s blood ran cold as she froze. She gulped, looking up at the naked kitsune glaring down at her. Her body was still battered from their last round - evidently Megumi hadn’t elected to heal either of them after all was said and done - yet she only looked more powerful than ever. She’d gone fucking insane at the end there, a terrifying presence Natsuko hadn’t ever really felt before, almost like… a dragon? Was that the effect of Lord Nagoshi’s heritage? She hadn’t even really given it that much thought - Nagoshi was the sort of thing her dad worried about, not her, and Hoshiko hadn’t struck her as anyone particularly of note otherwise for most of these last couple days - but sitting here, bound and practically helpless in front of a woman who stood with confidence and power in her demeanor, with that insane surge of strength that had cost Natsuko the match…

Maybe she should have taken that more seriously.

“...y-you better at least let me dress.”

“Yeah, uh,” Verrik suddenly piped up, having just unhooked the binds around his ankles. He stood up shakily, chuckling nervously as he glanced at Hoshiko. “I, um, could go get that for her after I-”

A crack suddenly burst through the room, a bolt of lightning shooting out from Hoshiko’s fingertips and sailing past Natsuko. She yelped, throwing herself face-down onto the floor to dodge it - and then whirled around to see the bolt’s true target once she realized there was no way Hoshiko had been aiming for her if she remained un-fried. Next to the arena where Natsuko had left her robes now lay little more than a freshly smoking pile of ashes, slowly blowing away in the breeze left behind by the bolt’s impact. Natsuko stared, mouth agape, her cheeks flushing deeper as she realized that she was going home exactly like this.

“U-uh, oh.” Verrik stared at the ash pile, then chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. “We could. Do that instead. I guess.”

By the time Hoshiko’s brain caught up with what she just did, Megumi was already walking back into the chamber and right to her. She inhaled sharply, waiting for the inevitable questioning.

“We should hurry,” Megumi said simply, giving only a brief glance to Natsuko, bound and naked on the floor, still in shock. “There is no sign of any other danger nearby, but that does not mean there will not be. Retrieve your belongings and get into the circle.”

Hoshiko sighed, tension relaxing from her muscles. “Yes, of course, Priestess. I’ll-”

“H-hey!” Natsuko exclaimed, standing up and still futilely trying to slip out of the leather binding around her wrists. “You can’t just let her do this to me! She should be the one tied up, not me!”

“Natsuko,” Megumi said, turning around with a sigh. “You do know attempting to attack your opponent after the contest is concluded, and outside of the bounds of the arena at that, is not allowed?”

“I- n-no! She-”

“I will concede that destroying your clothing is… over the line,” and Megumi punctuated that with a piercing look at Hoshiko, who looked away sheepishly, “but Hoshiko was not wrong to ensure you would not attack her further. Whether Chief Arashiba will see it the same way is a different question, and one that will be answered soon enough. I would urge you all to consider carefully how you will explain all this to him.”

“Well, you’re gonna tell him that Hoshiko-”

“I will tell him exactly what I have seen, Natsuko, and no further.” Megumi stared down Natsuko, who seemed to shrink under her gaze. “You may explain the events of the last two days however you feel appropriate, and I will explain the events how I feel appropriate. That will be understood.” With that, she walked away, moving to check on Gorou and the other two prisoners they had acquired.

Natsuko slumped back down onto her knees, a defeated expression crossing her face for a brief moment - before snapping her gaze back to Hoshiko with a glare that couldn’t help but feel impotent, given her current situation.

“Y-you better have a good explanation for dragging me home naked, Hoshi,” Natsuko said, a blush burning underneath her white cheek fur. “My dad’s thrown people into dungeons for less!”

“Yeah - ‘your daughter challenged me to a contest within your village’s laws to try and steal my boyfriend, lost, and decided to try and just attack me afterwards anyway.’” Hoshiko leaned down to meet her gaze face-to-face, glaring her down and watching her blush turn a deeper red. “Anything else I should explain?”

“And you - y-you cheated! Or something!” Natsuko avoided Hoshiko’s gaze, grunting in frustration. “You shouldn’t have been able to do anything magical in there, and yet you got all powerful suddenly when you should have just been about to pass out. How did you get that to work, huh? Couldn’t handle the thought of losing fair and square? I bet you-”

Hoshiko suddenly wrapped her hand around Natsuko’s muzzle, closing it tight as she growled in her face, eyes wide as she buried her gaze right into Natsuko’s. Immediately, Natsuko tensed up, their hot breath washing over each other’s faces again as they breathed heavily against each other.

“Do you need me to make you shut up, Natsuko?” Hoshiko stood up, still holding Natsuko’s mouth shut as she towered over her. “Cause I could either gag you or just knock you out again, and right now the latter is sounding real nice. You want to be dragged back home unconscious now?”

She released her grip on Natsuko, staring her down - for once, Natsuko was silent, simply looking away at a nearby wall as her cheeks continued to burn red.

“There we go - see, you can be a good girl when you want to be.”

Hoshiko finally walked away from Natsuko, heading back to where she had left her clothes before the contest. She gave a glance back, made sure Natsuko wasn’t about to try anything else before the day was through, and started dressing herself again. Her underwear and mesh top were in tatters back in the arena, leaving her going commando underneath her pants as she pulled them back over her hips. She strapped her red top over her breasts once more, feeling a little weird without her usual mesh top to accompany it - she contemplated just going without it until she could get the mesh fixed up, but the more layers in the cold, the better, she decided. She tied her coat back around her waist, and then glanced over to Verrik.

Now that she’d had a moment to actually think about what was going on, she did have to admit - as strange as it was seeing Verrik in the nude outside of their own privacy, and as… forced upon him that lack of clothing had been, there was something enjoyable about seeing him completely bare in public. He was never without that heavy ragged coat or that hat that had been stitched back together about a hundred times over by now, and thus he normally had quite the baggy look to him - but underneath all that was a slender, athletic build with a strong core and a genuine, if strangely awkward, grace to his movements that was hard not to find appealing. Strong arms, well-built legs and… no, Natsuko hadn’t been wrong about his ass, hidden underneath his thick tail as it was. From here, it wasn’t quite so insane that Natsuko had apparently so instantly attracted to him as to try to take him for herself almost immediately… though it was still completely crazy, and Hoshiko was relieved that Natsuko wouldn’t be getting his hands on him again. She’d only be getting this one last look at his body before he pulled his shorts and coat back on - he visibly relaxed, a relieved sigh escaping his lips as he re-dressed himself and put his hat back atop his head. Hoshiko felt her heart melt, a smile forming across his lips - he couldn’t hide how sentimental his coat and hat were to him even if he tried.

He turned back to her, cheeks flushed a bright red as he scratched the back of his neck and waved at her - very visibly trying his damnedest not to stare at the naked kitsune tied up and leaning over the floor, ass raised into the air as she tried to pick up her bag with her teeth. Hoshiko could catch him glancing over Natsuko’s way occasionally and briefly, before forcing his gaze back to Hoshiko and locking it right to her. She sighed - they’d… address that later.

“Okay. So.” Verrik cleared his throat, walking up next to Hoshiko with a nervous laugh - before throwing his arms around her in a big hug, exhaling slowly as he buried his face in her chest. “I think I’m ready to go. F-for real, now.”

Hoshiko chuckled, returning his embrace - he always did manage to feel so warm around her, even being literally cold-blooded as he was. She stroked the back of his neck gently, and he sighed happily as he tightened his hug.

“I think I am too, Ver.”

“Y’know, um, after we do the thing with the Ruby and… all that.”

Hoshiko’s eyes widened as she realized she genuinely almost completely forgot about that.

The teleport back had been awfully quick, all things considered - a brief flash of bright white light as they all gathered into the circle, and there they were in the warm air at the edge of the village, the sun starting to set over the horizon as their feet settled into the somewhat damp grass underneath them. Megumi was dragging Gorou and the other two chumps by herself, and Hoshiko and Verrik were practically clinging to each other at this point, that lizard once again utterly inseparable from that stupid bitch of a kitsune. None of them wasted any time in heading into the village, and presumably into the temple where Natsuko’s father would currently be presiding over some sort of council meeting, blissfully unaware of anything that had just happened over the last couple days.

And Natsuko, for her part, stood still at the edge of the village, realizing that no, they really were just going to make her walk through the village, utterly naked and exposed to everyone’s eyes. She wasn’t any stranger to attention, and normally she’d welcome flustered gazes across her body. But this was different - this was a goddamn walk of shame, a mark of failure that would be difficult to explain reasonably at this point. None of this should have been happening - she’d been angling to kick Hoshiko’s ass for the better part of two days, and yet she’d been robbed of the victory she deserved, had damn well earned at that point. And Hoshiko couldn’t just leave it at that, couldn’t just leave it at humiliating her in the contest with whatever bullshit she’d pulled to make that reversal happen - no, she had to rub it the fuck in and make sure everyone could see how she’d been robbed.

It should have been the other way around - gods, how wonderful it would be if she were the one dragging a defeated, naked Hoshiko through the street, letting every pervert in the village get an eyeful of her as Natsuko boasted about how easy it was (how easy it should have been) to take her down, making sure Hoshiko wouldn’t ever escape the shame of it. And she’d have put a leash on her, oh, how wonderful that would have felt to make sure everyone knew who the bitch was in the equation. And then she’d take Verrik with her to her chambers and enjoy the spoils of her efforts to the fullest fucking extent, and maybe she’d even-

“Natsuko.”

She snapped back to reality, staring right at the face she wanted to see least.

“What?” Natsuko growled at Hoshiko, standing firm and unmoving. “Do I need to be glued to your fucking hip or something? You can wait.”

“You really want me to walk in there without you at all?” Hoshiko crossed her arms, tilting her head at Natsuko with a judgmental look that Natsuko found fucking infuriating right now. “I’m sure your father wouldn’t freak out about his daughter just not being with us.”

“Well, now that you mention it, I think that’d be really funny, and you should go do that while I go find something to cover myself with because you DESTROYED MY FUCKING CLOTHES.”

Hoshiko sighed, rolling her eyes - behind her, Verrik shuffled awkwardly, still trying not to stare at Natsuko. The one person she wouldn’t mind looking at her right now, and he just had to be the one actively avoiding it. Afraid Hoshiko would tear him apart for it, no doubt.

“I’m not walking in there without you to explain yourself,” Hoshiko said, tapping her foot against the grass.

“Well then you’re just gonna have to deal with that, aren’t you?” Natsuko turned around, stepping towards a nearby hut in the opposite direction-

And then the bitch grabbed her hair at the scalp and started marching towards the temple. Natsuko shrieked, instinctively trying to reach for her head - but the damn binds on her wrist held tight, and she could do little else but be literally dragged across the village, her attempts to plant her feet on the ground failing miserably as Hoshiko forcibly brought her along.

The shriek drew attention towards them, attention that had initially been focused on the group of idiots that Megumi had in town but now was squarely on the naked kitsune being dragged across town by the angry woman. Eyes locked onto Natsuko from all around, eyes she recognized as they couldn’t help but stare at her completely exposed body. Her cheeks flushed an intense, fiery red as she desperately crossed her legs and squeezed her thighs together - she wanted to throw her arms across her breasts and cover them up, but that was obviously a no-go. No, she just had to watch as villager after villager watched her get dragged through the street - some looked away in embarrassment, some looked with mere confusion, but others leered, drinking in the sight of her body like she was water for a parched throat. She could see eyes focus on her voluptuous, still slightly bruised breasts, on her groin even as she tried desperately to cover her privates, at every inch of her body, helplessly on display.

“P-pay no attention to this!” Natsuko yelled out, her voice trembling as the humiliation sank deep. “Everything is- i-it’s fine! L-look away!”

But that barely stopped anyone - indeed, it felt like that only got more eyes on her, and in the growing crowd of onlookers she spotted a few faces that she really would rather have not. As Hoshiko dragged her closer and closer to the temple, she could see Takumi’s face in the crowd, that dumbass that had let the fragmented Ruby out of his sight to begin with. Of course he just had to stare right at her, jaw agape as he watched her ass be dragged into the temple proper. And past him was goddamn Hitoshi, the idiot that kept making her look like an idiot in front of her father, and she could hear him loudly utter an “oh whoa” as she passed him by, staring right at her the whole time. On the list of people who deserved to have a look at her naked body, those two ranked near dead-last. Not that she had any choice - Hoshiko was making sure every last person she had a grudge against got to see her humiliated.

At least when they finally entered the temple, there were significantly less eyes to go around in there - there was a reprieve, however brief, and she just had to cherish it for the small window before she was brought before her father. That just meant the dread could well and truly set in beforehand, though, and as she passed the familiar threshold into the central hall, her whole body tensed up as she heard audible gasps ahead of her.

“W-what are you doing with my daughter?!”

And there he was - Natsuko glanced hesitantly towards him, seeing him rise to his feet from his throne as he stared in horror at her. Hoshiko dropped her roughly on the floor, and she slowly rose to her feet. Around them was the village council and, unfortunately, they all had to be the staring types too, twelve pairs of eyes locking eyes onto her as she kept her thighs pressed together. Tomatsu shook himself out of his shock - and looked at Hoshiko with fury in his eyes. Beside her, Verrik shrunk back, gulping.

“What is the meaning of this?! Where are her clothes? Wh-” He sputtered, clenching his fists together before turning his gaze to Megumi, who had the three prisoners dumped unceremoniously at her feet. “Did you allow this?”

“For the time being, yes,” Megumi said just before Natsuko could interject - she grunted in frustration, slumping in place. “She did attempt to attack one of our guests, and notable restraint was shown in simply… well, restraining her from further attempts. As for the clothes, that will fall to Natsuko and our aforementioned guests.”

“Attacked? But-” Tomatsu raised an eyebrow, then rubbed the bridge of his snout and looked at the council members, frustration building in his voice as he noticed who they were all looking at. “We will continue this later. Give us our space - and that goes for the guards as well!”

“But, Chief-”

“Do not question me right now,” Tomatsu snapped at the interrupting guard from the hall’s entrance. Natsuko glanced back - judging by his flushed cheeks, he’d almost certainly been staring right at her ass. “You linger, and we will have to discuss your… indiscretion.”

That was enough for the crowd to clear out, and Natsuko breathed a small sigh of relief for the reprieve from all the goddamn looking. But the tension returned as her father looked back at her, placing a hand in front of himself to, presumably, keep Natsuko’s modesty from his end.

“Attacked, Natsuko? What does she mean, attacked?” Tomatsu looked at Natsuko with confusion, slumping against the back of his throne. “Weren’t you accompanying Hoshiko to rescue this… Verrik, was it?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s me.”

“I was addressing my daughter, lizard,” Tomatsu snapped - before rubbing his snout again and sighing. “But yes, my point stands - were you not there to assist them? What led to you attacking them?”

Natsuko scoffed, flipping her hair out of her face. “Well, dear father, Hoshiko here cheated at a contest of superiority, robbing me of a victory I had earned by somehow using magic - in an anti-magic field that should have stopped any such thing, mind - to overpower me unfairly and claim a dishonorable victory. I disputed that afterwards, and she had the gall to pretend she hadn’t cheated, and she forcibly bound my wrists AND destroyed my clothes on top of that!” Natsuko stomped forward, sharing a glare between herself and Hoshiko before turning her attention back to Tomatsu. “Frankly, I don’t understand why Megumi tolerated any of that!”

Tomatsu scratched his chin, looking suspiciously at Hoshiko - and then at Natsuko, and then back and forth, regarding the both of them with increasing skepticism and bafflement. “Excuse me, a contest of superiority? On a rescue mission? Is… is that why you brought Priestess Megumi? And why?”

“It would seem that was the purpose of bringing me along, yes,” Megumi said plainly.

“Well, you… uh, you see, father-”

“If I may say my piece, Chief Arashiba?” Hoshiko stepped forward, cutting Natsuko off and earning herself a growl from the bound kitsune.

“Father, she’s just gonna-”

“No, no, let her speak, daughter,” Tomatsu said, rubbing his eyes. “She must be heard, even if you find it distasteful for reasons I have yet to be entirely enlightened on.”

“Thank you,” said Hoshiko in the most irritating way Natsuko could have imagined. “I did not get a chance to explain before, and I was going to drop it before things… escalated, but it should be known that Natsuko spent the better part of our journey antagonizing me, specifically, because for some reason, she decided that Verrik would be better off in her company than mine, regardless of what I or he thought. She kept trying to drag me into a fight before we even located the Ruby, and in fact the Ruby was only repaired because she happened to goad me into a fight while she was holding the fragments, and the fragments just so happened to fuse together when our fists and our magic collided at the same time. When we left with the priestess to find Verrik, she continued to antagonize me, and when we finally rescued Verrik - who I should note was being held hostage by bandits before we arrived - she took that time to challenge me to a contest of superiority. I agreed, against my better judgment, and I did nearly lose - but I did not cheat, and I honestly could not explain to you exactly what gave me the strength to win there. After that, Natsuko accused me of cheating, attacked me, and I used one of the binds that the bandits had used on Verrik to restrain Natsuko from attacking me further.”

Tomatsu stared at her, leaning on the throne and tapping his fingers against his temple with a heavy sigh.

“And… the clothes?”

“I… cannot pretend I have an excuse other than spite for that one, no.” Hoshiko sighed, crossing her arms. “I want to say that should illustrate how far Natsuko had pushed things up to that point, but that doesn’t really excuse it, does it?”

“We will worry about that later, I suppose.” Tomatsu sat there quietly for a few agonizing moments, thinking way too hard about something that Natsuko felt really should have solved itself; a classic move on his part. Then, finally, he spoke again. “Is any of that inaccurate, Natsuko?”

“I… not exactly.” Natsuko turned her gaze to a random carving on the wall, her cheeks flushing again. “It’s biased, but it’s basically what happened. I challenged her to fair combat within the laws and traditions of Arashibetsu, and whatever she did disrespected those traditions - Shizuru’s ass, her fur was, like, electrified or something, that’s magic! That shouldn’t be allowed!”

“I didn’t do anything to break the field!” Hoshiko threw her hands up into the air, glaring at Natsuko. “I don’t know what happened exactly, but if it was magic, you think that would have been caught in the anti-magic field cast by the lady with eight tails!”

“So?! That wasn’t natural, so what was it? Huh? You think it would have been fine if I lit up with fire in there and just started burning you or something?”

“I’m sorry, do you remember being electrocuted? Do you think that’s what happened? And you know what, you still nearly won after that, so what are you even-”

“Enough!”

Tomatsu’s voice boomed through the hall, breaking through the argument and forcing their attention back on him. Natsuko grunted - she always hated when he did this.

“Priestess Megumi, I presume you presided over the contest, correct? Would you dispute the results for any reason?”

“I would not. I did not detect any magic use on the part of either combatant, and as far as I am able to determine, everything that happened within the arena adhered to the rules of the contest of superiority to the letter. I do not see any particular reason to believe cheating of any kind occurred.”

“B-but-”

“Natsuko, the priestess’s word is final.” Tomatsu stared down at her, irritation plain on his face. “Without having witnessed it myself - and I cannot pretend that I would have been… comfortable doing so, if I understand the nature of this contest correctly - I will trust her word above all else. You understand her impartiality as well as I do, and I would presume that is the exact reason you requested her presence.”

Natsuko scoffed audibly. “And because she’s extremely powerful.”

“That is not in question, but we both know that’s not why you brought her, is it? For that matter, let us address this: were you really risking the Ruby’s safe return on a romantic dispute?”

“Father, we were always going to get the Ruby!” Natsuko stepped forward again, yelling at Tomatsu as she felt rage boil in her gut. “It’s not your damn business what I do in my personal life!”

“Could have fooled me,” Hoshiko uttered behind her, rolling her eyes like the bitch she was. “Felt like you would have been happy to abandon the search altogether just to start shit with me.”

“O-okay, I really need to say this now-”

“Shut it, Hoshi!” Natsuko snapped, interrupting Verrik before she even realized he started speaking. “You think that tengu would have ever stood up to any of us? I could have roasted him myself if I-”

“Daughter,” Tomatsu interrupted, putting his face in his palm. “If your personal life interferes with your duties to the village, it is my business. As it had with Absalom, as it had with your ‘mother,’ as it does now with whatever feelings you have for this Verrik. You had no right to endanger the Ruby for it, however slim you feel the chances were of it impacting your mission, and that I cannot accept.”

“But…” Natsuko stared at Tomatsu incredulously, her fists tightening behind her. “I fixed the Ruby! I did that! You said yourself, it’s never been infused with another element in a long, long time!” She motioned with her head towards the Ruby of Ten Thousand Flames sitting above Tomatsu’s throne, still burning bright and crackling with internal lightning.

“And yet you have not disputed Hoshiko’s version of events, where that only happened because you were carelessly risking it in the aforementioned romantic dispute! Do you dispute that?”

“I… I mean, it wasn’t exactly like-”

“I have heard enough, Natsuko.” Tomatsu stood to his feet with a heavy, frustrated sigh. “I respect that the Ruby was brought back intact, restored to glories we have not seen in a long time, but with how much you risked not just it, but our guests’ hospitality on your frivolous pursuits of someone you met mere days ago, I have no choice but to force you to think about what you have done. You will spend more time in solitude, and you will contemplate lessons you should have internalized years ago.”

“Y-you can’t-”

“I can. You will follow me and accept your punishment.”

Natsuko slumped onto the floor, gritting her teeth as frustration and shame washed over her like crashing waves. None of this was fair - this wasn’t how it was supposed to go down at all. She was supposed to return triumphant, an adorable lizard at her side as she finally earned some fucking respect from her father - that had been in awfully short supply since Absalom. But here she was, naked, bound, utterly humiliated by a woman she’d met just a couple days ago in so many ways. She even had the gall to rip father’s respect away from her and take it for herself; she was supposed to be the one being humiliated right now, not her.

Natsuko looked at Verrik, the one she’d risked all this for. He finally stared back at her, meeting her eyes with a sympathetic look that she desperately needed right now. It had always been an impulsive decision she’d made here, deciding to pursue this lizard to such an extreme; but it felt like it could have been worth it, so worth it. There was something there, she was sure of it, a chance at a bond that she hadn’t ever been allowed before - and gods, he was still so damn cute. If she hadn’t taken that chance, taken it to such extremes, she felt more certain than ever she’d have never had an honest shot at it before he was already gone.

“Ver…” She took a deep breath, then looked him straight in the eye, baring her soul to him. “I wish we could have had a chance together. Guess that’s… slipped away now, huh?”

Verrik stared back at her for an agonizing moment - then sighed, scratching the back of his neck.

“Uh, Natsuko, I really should have been clear about this sooner, and I tried to be, but, uh… yeah, I don’t think I would have been… all that interested in a relationship with you. Like, I don’t know, if you didn’t do all of that stuff, maybe, like, there could have been, like, something there, but I don’t really, uh, think that would have been romantic, if you get what I mean? We only knew each other for… less than a couple days, I think? Right? So if we did have something, I think it’d be kind of like more of a, uh… hey, wait-”

But Natsuko was already walking out of the hall and out of earshot, dead silent as Tomatsu hurried behind her to lead her to her solitude, grabbing a cloth from a nearby priest to cover her with. She was starting to think maybe she did need to be alone.

Chapter Text

“Yeah, uh, Hoshi, I don’t think I can, like, focus on this in the way I, um, probably should be.”

Hoshiko sighed, letting her hand slip from the Ruby as Verrik had already done. They’d been alone in the chamber for awhile now, attempting to commune with the Ruby as they had come here to do in the first place. Megumi had stuck around briefly to explain the process to them in clear, certain terms - clear enough to make it extremely frustrating that it still wouldn’t work an hour later.

“What are we missing here?” She muttered to herself, staring at the Ruby and watching the flames and lightning mingle together in the center. It was a beautiful thing to look at, now that she’d had the time to sit and appreciate it - but it was feeling like too much time to just look at it. They hadn’t accomplished much else. “We’re following the steps exactly, right? Clear mind, grasp tightly, focus energy directly into the center, let it flow back into you. That’s exactly what we’re doing?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m getting it, yeah,” Verrik said, tapping his foot against the stone floor. “But I’m not even getting it to flow back in, I think, right? Have you gotten that? What does it feel like?”

“I haven’t, Ver. I can focus my energy fine, but it just won’t do anything.” Hoshiko rubbed her eyes, sitting down on the floor and letting her muscles relax. She could still feel some of the aching from earlier at Natsuko’s hands - she was pretty much fine at this point, but those aches probably weren’t going away without a good night’s rest. “So where are we going wrong?”

Verrik sat down next to her, adjusting his hat tighter onto his head as he groaned. “I’m not sure, it’s like…” He trailed off, staring ahead at nothing in particular - Hoshiko recognized this as being equally likely to be “lost in thought” or “head empty,” and she was at least reasonably sure it was the former this time around.

“Something on your mind?”

“Ugh, yeah, I think that might actually be the problem.” Verrik let out a heavy sigh, looking right at Hoshiko with a hesitant gaze. “I… ah, dammit, I think we need to talk.”

Hoshiko met his sigh with her own. The moment he said it, she knew he was right - she was kinda thinking it herself, but she was hoping that they’d be able to have this conversation once they were back on the road. She didn’t really want to have to address this here and now, but such as it was.

“Yeah, I think we do, Ver,” she said, stroking his cheek. He slumped a bit, then laid back fully onto the floor.

“Alright, so… Natsuko.” He glanced up at Hoshiko, and she couldn’t help but sigh, leaning down next to him.

“What about her?”

“I… I don’t know, Hoshi, it’s just… I’m sorry for not, saying anything directly to her earlier. About that whole thing.” He rubbed his scalp through his hat, tapping his foot against the floor still and scraping his claws against the stone. “I should have said something earlier and put a stop to it, but I didn’t.”

“I mean… yeah. Probably.” Hoshiko watched as Verrik groaned and rubbed his face roughly. “She was absolutely taking advantage of you, though - you didn’t exactly start any of that, right?”

“Yeah, but… I should have done something. I tried sometimes, but then it would just keep going, and… oh, jeez…”

“Go on.”

“I… I’m sorry, I… fuck…” Verrik buried his face in his hands, but Hoshiko could see the blush burning across his cheeks.

“Ver, you can say it. I think I have an idea what it is.”

“Okay, fine, I really liked it when you two started fighting over me. There. I said it.” Verrik rolled onto his side, facing away from Hoshiko, face still in his hands. “I’m not proud of it and, man, it’s not an excuse. But any time I tried to say something, it’d just start up between you two and I… I’d just freeze, and I’d just watch with fuckin’ butterflies in my stomach. I felt like a pervert.”

Hoshiko put a hand on Verrik’s shoulder, squeezing it gently; for a brief moment, he tensed up, but then he slowly relaxed and looked back at her with pursed lips and burning cheeks.

“Ver, I kinda figured when you nodded your head in response to ‘do you want to see me fight her.’ You weren’t… subtle about it.”

“Ugh, I know, but still, like… gods, I actually encouraged you to do that! Why would I do that?” Verrik buried his face in Hoshiko’s upper chest, wrapping his arms around her as he let out a little scream into her fur. She started stroking his back slowly, soothing him in her arms.

“You were in a weird situation, Ver - hell, you were already worked up, right? You weren’t thinking straight.”

“O-of course I wasn’t! I… fuck, do we need to talk about that too?”

“I mean… maybe, but it’s not really the point. I’ll just remember that you like being stripped and tied to a chair, for later.”

Verrik squirmed in her embrace, shivering slightly - Hoshiko chuckled, flicking gently at the back of his neck. “Dork.”

“O-okay, um, we should probably keep… talking.”

“Of course,” and Hoshiko continued holding Verrik gently in her arms. “So… you wanted to see me kick Natsuko’s ass. It was weird, sure, but I don’t know that it was wrong, so much.”

“Uhhh, yeah, I did.” Verrik chuckled nervously, shuffling in place. “That was my preference, anyway.”

“...’preference?’” Hoshiko raised an eyebrow, gently moving Verrik’s gaze towards hers. “Is there a… reason you’re phrasing it like that?”

“Um. Maybe. BUT.” Verrik raised a finger, stopping a response that Hoshiko hadn’t even been formulating yet. “I s-should, uh, be clear that doesn’t mean I wanted to see you hurt, or that I was ever thinking about running off with Natsuko even if she did win.”

“But… what does that mean?” Hoshiko narrowed her eyes slightly - she trusted Verrik, but this was still odd to be hearing from him.

“It’s j-just that, uh, the, um, whole thing was really, really hot. The entire fight. Like, I’m not sure I’ve ever, um, felt quite like… that, before in my life. E-every round. Just so, um, high stakes and intense.”

“So, if I’m understanding you, what you’re saying is… you also found it hot when I was losing.”

“...yeaaaaaaaaah.”

“Ver.”

“...yeah?”

“Did you want Natsuko to win?”

Verrik buried himself in her fur and yelled into her once again - then pulled his face back and spoke through hands clasped to his face.

“N-no! Gods, no, no - I always wanted you to win, w-why wouldn’t I? It’s just… I don’t know, my brain and my, uh, loins aren’t always on the same page, you know?”

“So I’ve noticed. But… did you think about what would have happened if Natsuko won?”

“...kinda.”

“Like, fully? You know how she was feeling you up before she challenged me, right?

“Y-yeah…”

“How did you feel about that?”

“Um.” Verrik cleared his throat, exhaling sharply. “I… I’m not sure, a-actually? Like, I was… really worked up, and-”

“Did you like being taken advantage of like that? Like, for real.”

“...c-can I get back to you on that?”

“Ver.”

Hoshiko hoisted Verrik up to meet her face-to-face, giving him a serious look. He gave a nervous, trembling grin in response, shaking in her arms.

“I need you to be honest with me. Did you actually enjoy her doing that to you?”

“I…” Verrik let out another sigh, his face falling. “I-I think I did. I… don’t know how to feel about that, either?”

Hoshiko thought for a moment.

“Even though it was disrespectful as hell?”

“I… ah fuck, it actually might be because of that? I-is that bad? I feel like that m-might be, like… a root cause of all this or s-something?”

“Ver.”

“Y-yes?”

“I just want you to know I respect the honesty, but you might have some things to process here.”

“Ha ha yeeeeeeeeep.”

Verrik embraced her again, and she returned it in kind. He was still shaky and tense, and he clung to her so tightly she wondered if he thought she might drift away if she didn’t.

“D-do you still love me, Hoshi?”

“Of course I do, Ver. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know, just the part where I, uh, admitted to finding it hot when Natsuko was beating you up. And, the rest of, um, what I just said. S-seemed kinda, shaky to admit.”

“Do you feel better about admitting it?”

“Um. I think?”

“And it doesn’t affect how you actually feel for me?”

“Of course it doesn’t, Hoshi.”

“Then you don’t have to fret about it.”

“O-oh, that’s good.”

“Too much, anyway.”

Verrik groaned into her chest fur, but she could feel him relax in her embrace, and she sighed contentedly, softly massaging his back as they lay on the floor, simply enjoying each other’s warmth.

“I love you, Ver.”

“Gods, I love you too, Hoshi.”

She would be lying if she was entirely sure how to take everything Verrik had just said to her - but there would be time to dig into all this later, process it properly. Right now, she just could lay there, comfortable in the assurance that, at least in the immediate aftermath, this whole trainwreck of an excursion hadn’t ultimately done anything worse than perhaps give Verrik a triple threat of sexual awakenings. They’d have time to figure everything out, and Verrik sure as hell wasn’t going anywhere - and neither was she. Once the aches finally went away and she had an opportunity to fix up her shredded clothes, this whole thing would likely become a distant memory, a small bump in their lives and relationship that would, in the end, not amount to much more than that.

Eventually, they both stood up, cleared their minds, grasped the Ruby in unison, poured their energy into it, and let it flow back into them.

Natsuko stared into the damp pile of dirt in the middle of the hut, orange light reflecting off the ground from the tiny flame dancing between her hands. She’d have plenty of time to think tonight, and again tomorrow - she wasn’t sure yet whether it’d be enough, or what direction her thoughts would ultimately take her.

That was the Arashiba way, least how it had been working out for her; get your ass humiliated in front of the whole village, again, and go and have a long fucking think about it. There was something to be said for the intensity of this particular round of humiliation - everything had the opposite of how she wanted, and the worst part was, this time she was starting to think it might actually, for real, have been all her fault.

The Ruby breaking, she knew that hadn’t been her fault - but as she turned this particular trainwreck over in her head, she did have to admit that it had started with her making a conscious choice to get in a cute guy’s pants at any cost. It had felt so damn crucial at the time, and hell, it might have ended up being crucial if she’d stuck the landing - but she hadn’t, much as she still wanted to blame that on Hoshiko’s brand of bullshit, and it had ended with maybe the single most humiliating evening of Natsuko’s life.

Her mind wanted to pull in so many different directions to justify this - fate, misfortune, Hoshiko being a dirty fucking cheater, Hoshiko actually just being better than her, anything - but nothing was quite settling, and no matter how she sliced it, it still came back to that moment in the meeting hall, when Verrik casually brought up his efreet bloodline and prompted her to pay attention to their weird guests, and led her to make the decision to go for it.

Both him and Hoshiko would be long gone from the village by the time she was done in here. She… frankly, she still didn’t want to look at Hoshiko’s stupid fucking face, but there was still a strange pang of regret that they were leaving on this note. Like more than a few opportunities had slipped by with all that had happened.

Maybe it was just regret that Hoshiko was going to walk away from this like nothing had happened.

She leaned back against the hut wall, scratching at the itchy and uncomfortable tunic that her father had dug up for her. It… fit, in the way any large bag would fit a small lunch. Her nice Absalom-stitched clothes had all burned up as a result of a certain someone, and she wasn’t sure when she’d get the opportunity to get them remade. Anything would be better than this-

A knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts.

“Solitude, you fucking idiot! Solitude!” She yelled at whoever was behind the door - she heard a familiar sounding yelp, a muffled ‘fuck, uh, sorry,’ and feet scampering away in loud slaps of mud. She sighed - and then saw something below the door.

A folded up piece of paper, resting on the mud. She rushed over, picked it up before it started getting dirt and mud all over it, and quickly unfolded it:

To Natsuko

Hey this is Verrick just writing to say a couple things before I leave. One no I still do not want to date you but I appreciate the thought but not really the part where you wanted to beat up my girlfriend to do it. This is a more complex thought really but I will not get too deep into the thought. Two I think you could be pretty cool if you stopped trying to beat up other women for their boyfriends or their girlfriends I am not entirely clear on your preference for a reason I will explain later in the note. Three if you are ever in Augustana you should probably avoid me because of the deal you made with Hoshiko when you lost the fight you made her do but the Pathfinders are COOL and you should check them out sometime. Four if you are in Augustana you should leave a note like this for me I think that is okay under the conditions of the fight thing so long as you are not trying to have sex with or date me. Five are you sure you are not attracted to Hoshiko because I am starting to wonder why you wanted to fight her naked and spank her and stuff and not just have a magic duel or something like that. Six this is my last thought but I think you should just ask to have sex with people’s boyfriends or girlfriends next time instead that seems more likely to work out.

From Verrriik

She stared at the note, having to re-read it a few times to make sure she didn’t misread something - most Taldane text she read wasn’t quite… this - but soon enough she could be reasonably certain she didn’t miss anything. She leaned back against the wall, laughing to herself as she put the note to her side. At least there was something to remember this by that didn’t suck complete shit.

She sat, and she thought for a long time about a great many things.