A Summoning, Part LIV

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Part LIV
~Empress~

It was a surprise to get back to the dorm room Wednesday evening and find that Logan wasn't there. But it was a much bigger surprise when he finally arrived a while later, sporting the obvious signs of having joined the ranks of the mystical! Two tails, even! Julian had to know what had happened. Had he met a fairy in the woods? Uncovered his mystical bloodline and destiny? Taken a potion from a witch? He was awfully cagey about exactly how the awakening had happened, which only made Julian suspect it had been very special indeed!

It was a somewhat tragic turn that his friend and roommate of nearly three years had all along known Julian's shoulder-length, bright red hair to be matched by the feline ears and tail of a Neko, but had staunchly refused to say so. It was, however, also very impressive, and Julian let him know as much. The Ruler of Foxes should surely appreciate such a feat! Logan only seemed nervous to hear that. All the more mysterious was the fact that 'someone', and he wouldn't say who, had explained quite a bit of what lay beyond the veil right after his awakening, with said explanation supposedly being the very reason for his unexpected tardiness.

Putting the pieces together as he lay excitedly awake in his bed for an extra hour that night, Julian concluded that his friend had found a beautiful princess. Maybe her true-love's kiss had awakened him! Sooner or later, he'd open up about it, and until then, well, Julian was happy enough to continue playing a supporting role.

Ever since he was a kitten, Julian had been a little bit unusual. He concluded quickly that if magic existed, then not every fairy tale could be false. If fairies—the fae—existed, and intervened sometimes in the lives of mortals, then could they not sometimes bless people with a happy ending? If there were actually demons and dragons, then there must really have been some points in history where parties of heroes went on grand adventures to slay the evil ones. And if there was a god of love, then under his purview, true love had to be real.

He'd thought at first to weave stories of his own, but lacked the patience for writing. Singing and acting were much more within Julian's talents, and he found that he greatly enjoyed telling the tales of others in that way. Besides, he thought, maybe he and those he knew could weave a better ending together, out in the real world, than anything a single writer might have the capacity to imagine!

Thursday evening held another surprise. Logan came in around the usual time, but said, "Hey, I'm gonna get up early tomorrow morning."
"I see, I see! Noted. To what do we owe such an early awakening? Are you having breakfast with a—"
"No, I don't have a date. And again, there are exactly zero princesses in America."
"In that case, I may join you for breakfast. But pray tell, could it be a surprise study group? Or, perhaps, you're embracing the nature of your kind, and making the lives of a few lucky mortals a little bit more interesting with a clever trick?"

Logan frowned, his ears folding back. "You are way too good at guessing this stuff. Yeah—a kitsune who did me a favor right after I awakened, like, wants my help with some prank. So, I'm helping, to say thanks. I don't really think I'm gonna enjoy it."
"Ooh, give it a chance, my friend!" Julian said, clapping him on the back. "Just wait 'till you see the gormless expressions on their faces. The confusion! The realization! Hahah."
"I feel like you'd make a better kitsune, if you weren't born a cat-person," Logan pointed out.
"Maybe so, maybe so. But one must play the hand fate deals him! Really now, do try to enjoy yourself," he said with a genuine smile.
"Yeah, whatever." Logan just sort of shrugged. "Anyway, I need to get to my homework now..."

---

Felix—that is, 'Fel'—went back Thursday night to the same place as the Thursday before. She made sure that she put her clothes on properly this time, and that there were no stickers left: A short-sleeved top, thigh-high socks, a short skirt, and—conscious of the risk that posed—some shorts under it. The week before had been fun, and, maybe more importantly, Felix had started feeling somewhat restless since then. Either 'uniting' with his wolf side, or perhaps having what seemed to be a physically younger form to shift to, gave him a bit more pent-up energy than he was used to. Sitting at his desk all day at work wasn't helping, and his older leisure habits weren't doing much for him either. Burning some of it off again was a very attractive prospect.

She went in, and took a brief tour around the place before heading for the dance floor. It was probably too much to hope for that she might run into the two young women from the previous week, but Fel had hoped to at least see some sort of friendly face. She was able to let those thoughts go for a while, just letting loose and not thinking much of anything, but once she'd mostly rid herself of the excess energy and gone to sit down for a drink, a touch of uncertain anxiety crept back in.

Everyone was friendly here...but at the same time, nobody was really paying much attention to anyone they didn't already know. It was an impression she'd had last Thursday too, and—not wanting to intrude on anyone else's fun—she had only really approached Prama out of concern. It would be ridiculous to hope or expect the same kind of encounter to happen tonight...most people here weren't likely to wear themselves out so completely, and it wouldn't be good for them if they did. She slumped forward a little bit, staring into the half-empty glass of drink for a long moment. Was this really what she wanted out of being (or at least acting) 'younger'?

"Helloo~oo there." Fel sat up, her thoughts interrupted by a very deep purr of a voice. Its owner sat down at the opposite side of the table from her, grinning back: A woman with golden eyes, long black hair, and cat ears—plus a matching tail, as a second glance would find. "Say, a face as cute as yours ain't fit for that awful expression. What's got ya down, don't like your drink?" She was around Fel's height, with some good curves that her tight shirt and pants made no effort to hide; her expression was a coy, if not flirtatious, grin.

"Uh, n-no." Seeing that directed her own way made Fel feel flustered more than anything else. "Just uhm..thinking about things," the werewolf said a little lamely.

"Pffheheh..!" The catgirl giggled soflty. "Heck of a place to do your thinkin'! You've gotta loosen up."
"Uh—I was out on the floor a minute ago. Just, needed a break, you know?"

"Oo~oo, really?" She leaned up and forward a little bit, wearing an energetic, eager smile. "Maybe ya know some of these newfangled dances, then. Hey, if you're all rested up, how 'bout teaching me some?"

"Uh..sh..sure." Fel sat up. "Let me just um.." She took a long chug of her drink and set the glass back down, deciding she didn't really need the rest of it. Anyway, she was feeling rested enough by now.

---

Ever since her tail had finished splitting, Graham seemed noticeably bolder and—for lack of a better word—wilder. Damon took a couple of days to realize this, and then just a few minutes to conclude that she liked it. Once they were alone in Damon's room, the catgirl would often take a deep breath and grow up to the large, curvy, strong form she'd taken right when her tail had first split, letting the breath out in what sounded like a slight sigh of relief. Then, usually, she'd shift her arms and hands back to lacking fur, probably finding fully-human hands easier to use a controller with, and maybe not wanting to shed fur into said controller. She'd sit up close to Damon, and spend maybe half the time they were playing games leaning on top of the smaller werewolf, putting an arm around her neck, patting her head...

And then, of course, whether in the 'grown up' form or not, she'd ambush Damon with petting now and then. The wolf-girl had never contemplated it before, but even in the small, cute form Zotha had given her, she seemed to have more physical stamina than the human, boy-Damon had before that full moon happened. At least, it was hard to imagine him keeping up quite so well with Graham back then. But speaking of being male—only on a couple of visits since that one, the Nekomata had shifted Damon's sex to pull him in for another kiss. This was maybe the only way in which Graham seemed to still be restraining herself, limiting it to just a couple of minutes at a time, very occasionally. But it was still enough for Damon to start to learn in that male form the same kind of self-control which Zotha's 'restraint' had enforced for her female one.

Around the middle of Thursday afternoon, the two of them were just chatting on the couch for a moment. "What about this one?" Graham said, waving her free left hand and making the purple glow of her magic pick up a cartridge. Neither of them had to get up this way, which let Graham keep her arm around Damon, and let the wolf-girl just lean into the big catgirl in return.

"Uh, sure. Hey um.."
"Yes?"
"S-so, Onida and Sam are planning on going out for a 'proper date' tomorrow night. I guess that means I'm free at supper time."
"Oh, I see. I could probably whip us something up, if you'd like. And.."

Graham turned her head to look right in Damon's eyes. "I've gotten a little curious, to be honest. Your more wolfish form...is it, taller?"

"Mm-hm."
"Stronger, I presume?"
"Yep. Um—bigger uh." The wolf-girl cupped her chest with a hand briefly. "..You know. Too."

"Heehee. If you don't too much mind—maybe you could show it to me then."

"S-sure! Though, um, I c-can't actually talk when I'm, transformed," she said. "Just make..dog noises."
"Well, I'm pretty sure we can understand each other anyway, eh?" she said, gently patting the top of Damon's head.
"Rrfh..mm-hm."

"Okay, then let's call it a plan for tomorrow. For now—" Graham picked up her controller, and waved a hand to float Damon's up in front of her. "You want player one?"
"Uh, s-sure!"

---

The brunette cutie was the first one Billie tried approaching who satisfied two necessary conditions: One, she looked great; and two, she responded to the approach semi-positively, rather than with outright rejection, a confused look, or an annoyed glare. It seemed like something of a coincidence that she was also one of the few other people in the club with furry ears and a tail, but the now-young woman kind of liked that too. And the blush she'd been wearing since looking the Neko's way got a little brighter when Billie started to get the hang of the strange, jerking dance everyone was doing and used it to get a little closer to her.

This new dance partner gave out after a short while, slumping slightly forward and breathing in heavily. "Whoo~oo!" Billie cheered, then gently took hold of one of the other girl's hands. "Had enough already? Lemme buy ya another drink, huh?" she offered, starting to lead the way over toward the bar.

"Uh, ffh, s-sure.." She didn't seem to know what to do with herself once her hand had been grabbed, other than follow along. Once they were off of the dance floor proper, in a small empty space between there and the bar—well, the catgirl really couldn't help herself! She gently pulled herself up into a close hug, enjoying the feeling of the wolf-girl's chest pressing against her own, and placed a hand on top of her head.
"You're real cute, you know that?" she said, just barely loud enough for animal ears to hear over the music and noise.
"Uh—uhm." The other girl's ears folded back, her face a mixture of surprise and embarrassment.

Billie had mercy enough to let go right away, pulling a foot or so back. "Pfft—heheh..!" Something about this young woman's reactions just made her feel like teasing her, and had her giggling like crazy when it paid off.

The folks that Valoz had pointed her toward were extremely helpful. They seemed to have the whole process streamlined, like they'd gone through it a dozen or more times recently. They gave her an overall rundown of how she was a 'Neko' now, and did a quick magic-based checkup to verify that she was physically young again in basically every way. They told her that to people who couldn't see Bill's new feline parts, she had been 'extremely sick' since last night while her body physically changed due to a 'rare hereditary condition', or something like that...they'd supplied some paperwork to that effect to give her employer, anyway, which was more than good enough. And they'd been kind enough to get her a fresh driver's liscense with the slightly girlier name she'd chosen—all during that same visit. That meant she wasn't going to have any trouble buying drinks tonight!

The wolf-girl sat down and leaned her arm on the counter, dropping her chin into her forearm and huffing for air for a moment. Billie came and took a seat next to her, then ordered a drink that looked good, quickly pulling out and showing that shiny new license to order with. "And one for my friend here, too!" she added.

"Uh—" This made her 'friend' sit up. "I uh, can't actually um.." Whatever her objection was, the bartender was off to make the drinks before she could finish it. She seemed to give up pretty quickly, sinking back to her previous position and continuing to try to catch her breath.

"Sooo~." The catgirl leaned forward onto an elbow, resting her right cheek on that hand to face the wolf-girl with a bright grin. "What's your name, eh? I'm Billie," she said.
She sat up slightly to turn her head Billie's way. "Oh, uh. I-it's Fel," she said after a brief hesitation. "Nice to um. M-meet you I guess."
"Heheh! Yep, I'm pleased as punch to meet someone as pretty as you are!"

"Errm." Fel's brief, flustered stammering was interrupted by the arrival of the drinks. The catgirl downed half her glass in practically one gulp, which made Fel sit up, her ears popping up right. "A-are you sure you should um...?"
"Ahhh~. Don't worry 'bout me," she said, placing it down. "I've got plenty of practice handlin' my drink. Oh—were you tryin' to say you didn't want alcoholic before?" Billie asked, tilting her head slightly with concern. It would be rude to make someone else drink who didn't want to.
"Uh—not exactly. I-I guess just one wouldn't hurt, but—I do need to be careful."

"Alright, alright. I'll get a virgin for ya next time," Billie offered. "I just thought it might help ya relax a little more. That is what you're after, coming here, isn't it?"

Fel had taken a moderate sip of her drink at this point, and paused to wince and cough a little bit. "Uh—that's a lot stronger than I'm used to," she said. "I guess? I'm not really sure what I'm doing here at this point. I've been, uh, feeling restless lately. Needed something to do with that extra energy."
"Oh, you an' me both, Fel!" Billie said. Leaning in a little conspiratorially, she continued at a volume only Fel's wolfish ears would hear: "Would you believe I'm fifty-seven years old? Woke up this morning lookin' like this and feeling like I did in my early twenties. Heheh..!"

The wolf-girl sat up a little. "R-really!? Uh..I guess there were some clues. Magic sure is um..something, huh?"

"Yeah! Couldn't be happier to bump into it, however it did happen," the Neko said, and downed the rest of her glass. Fel took a careful, polite sip of her drink in response, and visibly restrained herself from wincing again.

"It wasn't as nice to me," she said. "Last week, I found out that I'd been a werewolf for months and hadn't even known it. Weird, right?"
"Reee-ally? That seems like the kinda thing a body ought to notice sooner, heheh!"
"Y-yeah, but the whole 'veil' thing messed my memories up or something. Anyway, it's better now, at least."

"Hey, you feeling better? Ready to go out on the floor another round?" Billie asked.
"Um..I guess so."
"Well, don't feel obliged to drink any more of that. I'll get ya something that doesn't burn next time, huh?"
"Yeah, thanks..." The catgirl hopped back onto her feet, and Fel moved to follow. She paused a second with an uncertain look on her face, then picked her glass and downed maybe twice as much as she had in total before then. Billie couldn't help but giggle again as this caused her new friend to have a brief coughing fit. Then they headed back out to dance again.

---

Do you think we could meet up to talk some?

Not long after leaving his meeting with three more experienced kitsune, an angel girl, and a dragon, Logan received a text from Prama. He thought about it for a moment, considering what he had been through and thought through since then, and then shrugged to himself. sure. where, when?

Can't be today, I have work.

ok, so?

I'm off tomorrow. Afternoon? My dorm room maybe?

"Hmm." He considered this location for a long moment. On one hand, a girl asking a guy to meet up in her dorm room—or really, much more so the reverse—would usually raise a lot of red flags...but on the other, they'd already met there once before. Prama probably just wanted privacy, a place she considered 'safe' to talk about anything. They could achieve a decent level of privacy by being in some public area, like one of the less-used benches around campus again, but her strange social anxiety thing would have her worrying about the off chance of someone walking by and causing her to clam up or start stammering again.

Besides, he had superpowers now. Nobody would question his presence in the dorm if he used an illusion of that form he'd been in right after 'awakening'. They certainly hadn't on "her" first visit, anyway. So he answered: sure. exact time tho?

---

Felix drank wine only very rarely, always just one glass, and always with food. He had never actually tested his alcohol tolerance, but even as little as that would usually have him feeling something. There was no telling whether being a werewolf, or the female form itself somehow, might come with some different metabolism that would handle that substance any better or worse than before. But...

She kind of liked the way Billie was looking at her. Talking to her. And that hug had been...nice, if very strange. Realizing that made her want to be at least a little braver, and...that was one of the things a drink was supposed to supply. Maybe it was a mistake, but she told herself that just a little more of the one drink couldn't possibly put her in knock-out, painful-hangover-drunk territory.

Maybe going back out and dancing with the catgirl somehow caused it to take effect faster. She was definitely feeling it by the time they both went out toward a table for another break. And so..just near the table, Fel boldly pulled her new friend into a hug like the one before. "Whoa! Oh, hey there~..." Billie was surprised, but not upset by the gesture, eagerly returning the hug itself. But despite being the one to start it, Fel wasn't really sure how to follow up.
"Uh.."

"H-heheh..mro~owh." The catgirl just grinned across at her and put a hand on her head, stroking some hair on the way to the base of Fel's right ear before rubbing it for a moment.
"R-rfh..!" Okay, now this was getting a little too weird. Fel hurriedly pulled out.

"Awwh. You feeling okay there?"

"Uh, y-yeah. Just...a little unstable," the werewolf said, quickly going and sitting down. Billie came and sat next to her, instead of across from her.

"Pff, you weren't kidding about needing to be careful, huh?"

"R-right. I'm've...never really been able to hold my drink, I guess. Becoming a werewolfffff, I think didn't help."

"Well, I sure wouldn't mind if you were a little bolder. Y'know—it's awful loud in here, and nobody's really looking our way," Billie said with the same coy grin as earlier.
"Uh..y-yeah.." Fel's face was very warm...which probably wasn't just because of the drink.
"Maybe we could go somewhere quieter after, hmmn?" the catgirl purred. "Your place maybe, or mine?"
"Oh! Uh. Um." It finally occurred to Fel what kind of thing Billie seemed to have in mind, and she sat bolt upright, scrambling for a good excuse. "I-I really can't do that. I huh...have work tomorrow. Early—early morning, you know!"

"Heh—well, I guess I gotta work tomorrow, too. Not this Saturday, though. But if I don't know any better..you're more just tryin' ta get away from me, aren't ya? Am I being too much?"
"Uh, well. It's just that I've never—I mean nobody's uhm. A-and this is re, really too fast."
"Hmmnh. Maybe we could just go somewhere for dinner tomorrow night, then? Not so loud, less dancing and more conversation? Action to come afterward, if we wanna?"

The way Billie leaned up toward her with her head tilted slightly as she said that...it was extremely cute. Fel wasn't sure she could say no to that look. Anyway, this offer sounded a lot more reasonable. "Uhm...y-yeah. That'd work, a lh..lot better for me."

"All right, let's call it a date then~. You won't mind giving me your number then, would ya?"
"I-I guess not..."

A little while later, Fel walked outside with Billie next to her. When the door closed behind them and shut out the club's noise, it felt like the whole world had gone suddenly silent. "Hey, Fel—make sure ya have a snack or somethin' before bed," the catgirl advised. "Drink lots of water. Ya need to drive home?"
"Uh, yeah.."
"Be extra careful, then, hear?"
"O-of course. Hey..." She said, just as Billie turning to head off.
"Mm-hmn?" she asked, looking the wolf-girl's way again.
"Did you just...go after the first person you saw, or..?"
"Well, you've got me there. I sure did." Billie stepped a little closer, smiling brightly. "First one I liked...and the second, third, an' so on...but you're still special, Fel."
"Um...how so?"

She teased the wolf-girl's hair a little bit, and giggled softly. "You're the first one to say yes!"

---

I've been holding back on publishing this one for a long while, despite having finished it, because it's kind of part of a "set" with the next two parts...those parts are kind of being written simultaneous to each other. But this one is done, so under the same "push it out the door" feeling as the last couple of BV episodes, I'm publishing it anyway.

Battle Vixens! - 143

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Episode 143: She Hates Me

Emma sat up in the large bed abruptly at the sound of knocking. It wasn't the same sound as the last couple of nights: A different amount of force, a different rhythm. The person at the door of the room she occupied in her dreams was not Amory.

She hopped down, stretched very briefly, and hurried to answer the door. The person on the other end..looked a little bit like Amp after all. She was taller and more mature-looking overall for sure, but the blue eyes and blond hair, and the fur of her ears and singular fluffy tail taking on the latter color as well, besides a great many details about her face and build overall, made her almost look...kind of like the cute girl's "mother". Despite the drastic difference from any previously-known appearance, however, Emma also recognized exactly who she was looking at, and not just from context; the sense of familiarity was just as if this was how she had always looked.

She smiled slightly, but her expression overall seemed almost...a little bit nervous. "Hello there~." Well, the voice was the same, at any rate. "Could I..come in?"

"Yeah, sure!" Emma hurried to take a few steps back. "You look uh—really different!"
"Well...I don't know whether I have a 'true form', but this appearance most closely matches how I looked during my earliest memories," she said with a slight shrug, walking inside. "I tend to use it when I'm not trying to intimidate or impress my audience. You must not be happy to see me, either way."

"Hey, don't be like that! I've wanted to see you again for days! C'mon, let's—sit down somewhere."

Emma gestured emphatically toward a part of the room that had been empty a moment ago. She and Amory had figured out a lot about how this place worked: Expecting a comfy couch and chair to be there more or less caused them to be, so she just hurried over and hopped onto one side of the former.

"Hmmph—how could I say no that?" Her guest went to sink into the chair, slumping back a bit in the process. "I really am surprised, though. You wanted to see me?"
"Yeah, of course! We've been friends for like two years!"
"That wasn't really—"

"I know, I know—Beryl never was real or whatever. But that doesn't mean you didn't enjoy being her, does it? I just can't believe you'd spend so much time and effort being that nice, actually helping people who can't do anything back—if there wasn't something you were getting out of it, yourself. Maybe you are a huge jerk, and hurt a lot of people, but I think...that's not really all you are."

She sat up slightly. "Hah...you might be the only person of your entire world who thinks even that highly of me."

She leaned her head on a hand, with that elbow on the chair's armrest. "..Don't get me wrong. It's not like that was ever by accident. If I wanted to be adored by all the inhabitants of a planet, it'd be all too easy for me. Only ever telling the truth is hardly even a handicap."

"So, what, you made everyone on Earth hate you, on purpose?"
"Of course," she sat up again to nod slightly, folding her hands across her lap. "If I came off as some sort of benevolent goddess, then most of those wielding my power would never stop 'praying' to me. It'd be cute at first, but I could never afford to protect you that way forever. I just..didn't think success at this task would bother me as much as it does. I've been hated by entire universes' worth of people before and hardly felt a thing."

"How many of them did you really meet? Spend a week or two with, let alone over a year?"

She shrugged, "Not too many, I suppose. Hardly ever in a context that wasn't just them demanding things from me."

Emma said, "Well, there's gotta be something in between 'everyone worshiping you' and 'everyone hating you', if like you just—wanted us to grow power of our own instead of using yours."

"But that was the most efficient way. It doesn't really matter how anyone feels, including me, if it gets the right results."

Emma leaned up and forward a little bit. "You've got such an awful way of thinking about things, you know? All 'efficiency' this and 'results' that. There's way more to being around other people than just getting what you want out of it."

"I don't know of any other reason," she said, tilting her head slightly. "If I want to make someone else happy, that's still something I want. And if I must choose between making someone happy or helping them to survive, then surely it's only a matter of whether I like them or not."

"Does that really have to be a choice?"

The Watcher was quiet for a moment, then just shrugged. "Hard to say. Really, I haven't cared at all about whether I make anyone but myself happy until very recently. Even then, I don't fully comprehend why I do...

"I apologized to you for doing to you and your friends what I still feel was right. But not even my closest acquaintance at the moment—you've never met her—would agree that it was. Light certainly doesn't."

"Do you...care a lot about Blake's opinion of you?"
She nodded slowly.
"You said you like her before. But...why?"

"I don't know whether I can really explain it. I've just been fascinated, watching the 'Hero' do her thing, since the very beginning. Such a talent for creative, flexible uses of her power, but such a strange, hard-headed way of looking at things. So willing to forgive even those who would take her life, but holding such a deep hatred under the right circumstances. Besides, she's just so cute when she glares..."

Emma thought about it for a moment. It was easy for her to think of reasons why she liked Amory, although..the point where respect, gratitude, interest and then friendship, turned into attraction, affection, or infatuation...it was hard for her to really draw the line. Maybe her question had been unfair. So, instead of pressing...

"You know...one of Blake's strongest beliefs is that anyone can change. Being a bad person isn't something that you're just, stuck with forever, after it happens. No matter how much bad."

"I know that..." Her expression shifted to a kind of crooked, sad smile. "But even if I somehow became the ideal person, I don't think I'd be able to show her. She told me she never wanted to see me again, last night, and most definitely meant it. And I will not visit someone who won't let me in. Hmmh..." She closed her eyes slightly, still smiling.

"You don't look that upset about it, though. Are you thinking of some way to trick her into talking to you again anyway?"
She opened her eyes again. "No, no—nothing like that, I promise you. It's just..

"Hahah...heheh...For once, I don't have the words—or better, I don't think they exist in your langauge. Pain just...isn't something that comes naturally to me. I don't really comprehend it. Even emotional pain, is brand new to me as an experience. Light hating me and wishing I were dead hurts, it hurts so much—but I'm also fascinated by that feeling itself." She sniffed once, and Emma realized there were about two or three tears coming down her cheeks.

"You haven't heard of 'masochism' before?"
"Pffhahah!" She chuckled. "No, no—it's not that, I swear! I do...I do want it stop, but I also don't want it to end. It's so much easier to just stay the same, and savor it, but a part of me wants to change anyway, and see what happens then."

"Okay...so what makes changing so hard anyway, if you want to?"

She wiped her face on a sleeve, the tears gone as soon as they had appeared. "I have made a great many decisions. Commitments. Promises. I must be fair to everyone, as much as I can. Being 'good', according to Light, means acting immediately just because one person is in trouble, but I have to think about the price of every action in terms of what it will cost billions of others. Worse, I don't have the excuse of not having time to think things through. In under a second, I can compute the consequences of my next action out to at least several decades in most situations. So...even if I truly wish to do something kind for someone, I'm trapped within the many constraints that my own actions have created. In short, being an adult is hard," she said, shrugging.

"Do you regret starting to help people fight those monsters?"
"Never," she answered instantly. "Not one bit." She sighed. "Now and then, I do miss the days when I was only an audience member, sitting back and watching events play out...but I've had my focus drawn to plenty of exciting things I would never have noticed otherwise. And, my time with the people of your world has been another unique experience all its own."

"You know, it doesn't sound like it'd cost you that much to just...get to know the people of some other world. Like, one that's not in danger? You could show up and just talk honestly with people—like, actually honest, not that 'tell only the truth' thing, but not going out of your way to make them hate or love you, either."

"Emma, I legitimately don't know whether I'm capable of that kind of honesty."
"Well—then—you definitely can't figure that out unless you try!"
"Hmm, perhaps not..."

She paused for a moment, looking over at the door, then back Emma's way. "Time here doesn't work exactly the same as in your waking world, but.."
"Are you wondering about Amp? Rowan wanted her help to hold a last-minute meeting thing with a bunch of the other leaders," Emma said.
"That's good..but I did already know that. I was going to say, I've been here for a while as it is. It's...good you're all taking tomorrow seriously. And it's nice to have the opportunity to talk to you again..."

Emma gave her a long look. "There's something you're not saying, isn't there?"
"Well," she shrugged, "I..don't know whether this will be the last time. Obviously I never do, but especially..."

"Tomorrow will be, difficult. Exceedingly so. More than you might expect. For your world, the enemy's usual pattern of behavior was thrown off a little by my interference; its first few strikes were the sort that would have wiped your world out if you had no help. But after that, it began its usual...'strategy', to use the word lightly. A number of probing attacks, with a certain pattern of intensity to them. That's what it does with worlds full of magic, which at least appear to be well-prepared for its assault. After that, a brief pause, and then..."
"And then?"
"It makes its true strike. An all-out assault, you could say. The earlier attacks tend to expose the weaknesses of a world's defenses, widen the cracks that were narrowly present before—often in ways the world's own protectors barely notice or can do little about in so short a time. And then, at this point, those cracks are hit hard enough to shatter everything, if it's possible. The good news is that if this fails, it tends to give up for a while...but if it perceives a serious weakness this time, it will continue to strike at it again and again until the world falls."

"Do we...have a huge weakness like that?"
"I don't believe so. And at least you don't have...

"Well, a world having powerful magic from the start, especially if it's closely concentrated, can be a double-edged sword, is all. We lost such a world recently; its gods made powerful protectors so that their people could live in peace and harmony, but all it took was the enemy swallowing just one of those for the rest to fall like so many dominos. If only more of them had swallowed their pride and accepted my help...

"Your world doesn't have that problem, but as a result, you aren't terribly secure either. Your collective power is just about enough to resist its strike. So I'm su...sssuuu....mmh." She appeared to be unable to finish her sentence. "I mean, I hope you'll make it through this. I, believe you are capable."

"But—you can't actually say you're 'sure' we will."
She nodded slightly. "Sorry. I've...given you all I can afford to. It is your fight now."
"It kinda always was, though, wasn't it?"
She grinned a little wryly. "...Yes. You're right."

Battle Vixens! - 142

First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Episode 142: The Future

No sooner had the news crew packed up and left than a line began to form outside the door. Maybe it was more accurate to call it a crowd instead. Ning leaned back in her seat, sighed, then stood up. The kids had the day off from school, and there was no risk of an attack interrupting things...so there was no better time to take care of this. Still, it was going to be a long day, if every single one of them was here to apply for the job. But delaying any more would only make it all take even longer, so she hopped to her feet and went to let the first person in.

"C'mon in! One at a time, please. Form a line out there, if you don't mind!'

"Uh hi!" The first to enter was short, thin young woman in casual dress. She seemed nervous, excited, and very fidgety.

"Morning. You have a resume?"
"N-no. I just. Tobehonest myfriendskinda pushedmetocome."

"That's fine. Take a seat, and a deep breath, if you don't mind. We'll just do a short interview for now. To begin with...why don't you introduce yourself?"

The fifth was an average-height guy, slightly overweight, wearing glasses. "Do you have any experience working retail?" Ning asked.

"Yeah. I've stocked shelves at a big grocery in my hometown before."
"You have their number? Or location? For a reference, I mean."
"Uh, not on me...honestly, we didn't really part on theee, best of terms..."

Applicant number ten actually brought a resume...although it more closely resembled a kindergartener's art project. Ning couldn't read what much of what she'd handwritten in glittery ink on that pink piece of paper.

"And how are you with kids?"
"Oh, I'm great~. I worked as a babysitter for my mom's friends~," she said.

"Why do you want to work here?"

"Are you kidding? You must meet all kinds of amazing people! Hey, does Light hang out here often?"
Ning said, a little wearily: "Not really..." Number fifteen wasn't looking too promising.

---

April looked over a table covered in fox-masks, eventually picking a couple of them up to inspect more closely. "Impressive work..so many variations. I certainly couldn't have imagined all this from our first couple of phone calls." Setting them down again, she turned to the two men who'd hired her. "Are you certain you're academics and not artists?"

"We didn't directly make these designs," Dr. Bridges said. "There are several artists in our department. But they needed your original ideas to go off of before these started actually working."

"Strange. You couldn't simply mass-produce the same appearance, either?"
"We obviously could. But only the first copy of any specific design is functional," Dr. Brand said. "As if the blasted masks themselves know they're not 'original enough'."

Dr. Bridges adjusted his glasses. "Thankfully, only a slight change is usually needed to fix that...but eventually we run out of working variations for the paint, and have to come up with a different shape."

"This is bound to become a fundamental limit to our output at some point. Unless someone like you can do something about it."

"Goodness. I never expected the limits of creativity to have such a practical consequence," she said.

"Hmmmh." For a moment April closed her eyes, tapping her cheek with her index finger. "Surely we could move on to other sorts of accessories...and we haven't exhausted the potential of hats with just the one, have we?"

"Probably not, but that one was difficult enough to produce," Dr. Brand said. "It would be preferable to use rings, bracelets, watches—something which is not supposed to hide one's original appearance. We received a hint from the Giver to the effect that something like that may allow powers without the need for a change in one's overall appearance."
"It sounds as if you want a jeweler," April said. "I work largely in thread, you know; the masks were already a stretch for me. I suppose it would be impractical to use the likes of shirts or dresses—they'd take too long to put on when needed."

"What about gloves?" Dr. Bridges suggested.

"That, at least, I could produce. Although there is still something of an aspect of covering one's true appearance with those."

Dr. Brand sighed, "We tried gloves before, with no success. I wouldn't be opposed to another attempt, if we weren't in the middle of a crisis."

"Ah—what about..?" Thinking of her conversation with Emma earlier that day, April took off the headband she still had on, presenting it to the researchers. "This is hardly the direction you're asking for, but in the interest of having more variations to pick from..."

They looked at each other as if something terribly obvious had been pointed out to them. "Right..." Dr. Bridges said. "Probably because of the Giver's actions, there is a certain preference for 'animal ears', let's say. We've received a little bit of evidence lately that it's moving away from exclusively foxes..."

"It's an idea, at least," Dr. Brand said, not looking particularly happy (but April was rapidly forming a suspicion that he almost never did). "While there is still an emergency to respond to, we can't afford to be too picky. We will need to hammer out a functional prototype today."

April nodded, putting the headband back on. "I hope it shall not be a surprise to you gentlemen that I have little experience in making these, too. But I am always looking for new challenges, especially now that they're in fashion..."

---

After the conversation with all of the other "Reborn" was over, Simon followed Cynthia out of the room. She turned a couple of random corners to confirm that he was actually trying to stick with her and not just coincidentally going the same direction, and then turned and glared. "You want somethin'?!"

"Oh, well, since you asked—I have a short break, and I thought we could resume our conversation from last night for a minute or two," he said.

"Last night...what, you mean about the colleges? I thought you were done with that stuff once you started talkin' to other folks."

"I gave you some opinions, sure, but then I just got distracted. My main point was: Considering all of the options, where do you think you'd like to go?"

"'To go'?"

"You know, starting mmmh, possibly next fall? I don't think it's quite too late to get some applications in," he said, "especially not for a celebrity."
"Wha—?! I d—! Back up like five steps, would ya?"
"Oookay?" He started literally taking steps backward.
"I don't mean it like that! What're you talkin' about applications in the first place for?!"

"Oh." Simon stopped. "Well, you're obviously an extremely talented artist, so it only seems right to me to find you somewhere you can actually develop those talents. Ideally with the option of making a career out of it, but obviously it's not up to me which way you want to ultimately steer your life."

"You think I, should go to some college somewhere? Me?"
"Sure. You're, what, eighteen or nineteen? That's about the right age for college."
She crossed her arms, glaring. "I can't afford jack."
"There are these wonderful things called scholarships and student loans. The latter are less pleasant, but if you get to be rolling in cash the way I am, they can be dispensed with pretty quickly."

"I ain't got enough schooling. Neither me nor Donny ever graduated, y'know?"

Simon shrugged. "A minor obstruction. A GED isn't that tough to earn."

"You think I'm'onna get a scholarship, with a GED?"

"It could happen! But, really, success is often in large part to do with who you know. And you know me," he said, giving a grand gesture toward his own chest, "And I am good friends with plenty of people in the art world, including the academic side. A couple of phone calls, maybe a visit to show off some of your sketches, and I'm sure I could work something out with..at least most of the less-picky colleges. Besides, that's not even counting the other advantages you have."

"Like what? 'Celebrity'!? You think I oughta use how I'm sorta famous to get accepted over somebody else?"

"Well, obviously. Anyone who aims to get ahead in life should leverage every advantage at their disposal, especially if you think you're at a disadvantage to start with. I don't mean hurting other people, obviously, but the fact that you are miss came-back-from-the-dead Phoenix will carry some weight no matter what. If nothing else, your powers could literally protect campus—if those monsters keep attacking the world for that long, anyway. But, hey, even if not, who knows what else we vixens might be called on to help out with?"

"You...I just don't get how you think."

"It's pretty straightforward," he said with a shrug. "I'm always looking out for number one."
"Then what you wanna help me out for?"
"You're very talented, remember? So if you turn that talent into a career as a famous artist, then I get to be the man who 'discovered' you!" he said, pointing to his own chest proudly with his right thumb. "You mention how very much I helped you in aaaallll your big award speeches. Introduce me to all the movers and shakers you happen to meet. And as a result, my fame and influence grows all the more!" he concluded, spreading his arms out dramatically.

"You think I'd do all that, knowing you only helped me so I would?"

"I don't see any reason to be coy about it, at least. People like you better if they think you're honest, after all. So, what do you say? How about applying to some places for next school year?"

He had an irritating grin on that was probably supposed to be charismatic and winning...no, on second thought, Cynthia decided that this grin was an intentionally annoying one because that would make her respond faster. She just sighed. "I guess I'll think about it."
"Perfect! Think about which college too, while you're at it!" he said. "Maybe do some of your own research on them. Well, I've got to run now, so we'll talk again later!" With that, Simon about-faced and practically sprinted out of sight.

Cynthia paused a long moment, then started off in the direction she'd been going before noticing Simon following her. She realized slowly that he'd done all of that specifically to make her start thinking about it, and now she was, so as far as he was concerned, he'd "won" the conversation. The way he thought was a little less opaque now, but still just as much of a headache for her.

---

After the nineteenth semi-disastrous interview, Ning took a short break to get up, stretch, check on Nadia, and drink some water. Glancing out the window before she let the next one in, it seemed like the crowd had thinned considerably. She could almost make out a coherent line now, and a few of them were even dressed up instead of just wearing casual clothes or worse. Probably a lot of people had just come around to gawk, or (optimistically) to cheer their friends on, and/or egg them into coming in to apply.

Number twenty was already looking better: He had an actual resume, had experience...

"What hours do you think you'll be able to work in a typical week?"
"Uh...let's see..classes are out right now, but with my usual schedule...I guess I'd be free most afternoons? Just not Wednesday, I've got a lab class."
"Weekends?"

"Uhhhmmostly?" he said.

"'Kay then," Ning noted that down. "And—how are you with kids?"
"Prretty bad. I honestly just kinda find it tough to relate to anyone under, like, fifteen."

She nodded. "Got it. Thank you for being honest. I'll call you if I wanna hire you."

Applicant twenty-five came in wearing a proper dress..and a fox-ear headband. "Why don't you introduce yourself?"

"Oh, sure. I'm Maria Faye, senior year but I'm probably gonna need a fifth one at this rate. It's how things go when you switch majors."

No experience..but she expressly wanted to learn how to handle a store, for her future career. So at least she was serious...
"My schedule's pretty rough this semester...I've gotta go to class all day Thursday and Friday. Mornings are open otherwise?"

And she'd never been around any kids...being the youngest of a few siblings. But she was sure it couldn't be 'that hard'...Ning had to restrain herself from shaking her head and/or saying something like 'oh you sweet child, bless your heart'.

The end of the line was visible out the window by number thirty-one. Ning felt like she might be able to get in a lunch by maybe 2:00, and then open the store normally for the rest of the afternoon. This one came wearing a suit, and he was...tall. Huge, broad-shouldered, fit. He had to duck to get into the door, and made the interviewee chair look like it was designed for someone a third his age.

"Mmh, sorry about the chair," Ning said. "You can stand if you want?"
"Nah, I'm used to it," he said, offering her a proper-looking resume.

"Thank you. Now, why don't you introduce yourself?"

"Uh, sure. Gustav Cooper. Lot of people just call me Gus. I'm majoring in theater...kinda. I work in the props department, but I'm actually hoping to be a modern-day blacksmith. Make real swords and stuff, like for ren fairs. Pretty niche, I know."

"Interesting. And—do you have any experience working retail?"
"I'm..not sure it counts, exactly. But I've done a lot of booths at cons and fairs, that kind of thing. Not..you know, a normal store or anything," he shrugged.

"That's fine, if you're open to learning a thing or two. Why do you want to work here?"

"I just thought..you know, some extra money and experience might help. Seems like you're pretty good at managing your own business, financially speaking, so..thought maybe I could pick up a few tips? If you don't mind."

"We'll see. What hours do you think you'll be available to work?"
"It's..a little up in the air. If they need me doing props, I've gotta be at the theater department all day, whether it's the weekend or not. But when I'm done, I get a lot of time free. No classes on Wednesday, not much on Tuesday or Thursday. It's all squeezed into the edges of the week."

"Oo-kay. And: How are you with kids, Gustav?"
"Oh, I'm great! Got some younger cousins who're always begging for piggyback rides. Or they wanna play Lilliput and Gulliver, try to 'knock the giant down' and stuff."

"That sounds nice." Ning stood up and offered him a hand to shake. "Thanks for your time; I'll call you if I wanna hire you."

"Sure. Thank you." While he was walking out (and carefully ducking through the doorway again), she made a quick note that this one was a definite keeper.

"...Next, please!"

---

April took command of a small temporary office—mostly just needing the desk and the chair—and got to work sketching out some designs. After making a few reasonable attempts at animal-ear headbands, she also tried her hand with a few hats, pairs of gloves, and a choker. The numerous back-and-forth exchanges while designing Magus's hat had taught her the sort of designs that were likely to "work" and the sort that definitely wouldn't, but she would struggle terribly if asked to put that comprehension into words.

While she was coincidentally taking a brief stretch break, there was a knock on the door, so she went to answer it. "Ah, Dr. Brand. Something I can help you with?"
"Perhaps. If you wouldn't mind speaking in confidence for a moment?"
"Oh, no trouble at all," she said, heading deeper into the little office again to get out of his way. The aged physicist carefully closed the door behind him, clearly trying to minimize the noise it made, and paused to glance at the desk, and the half-finished sketches upon it.
"I suppose that's going well enough?"
"Yes..I believe I should have something adequate soon," she said. "Although—some of these designs are rather obvious. If they do work, it'd be rather surprising that nobody else has already stumbled upon them."
"That is true, but constructing the object is only the first step of the process. It must be the right kind of object for the rest of the process, which is classified for the moment, to work."

"I see—that does make a bit more sense," she said, nodding.

"Well then...there was something else you wished to discuss?"

"I have a strange question," Dr. Brand said. "Have you had any contact with persons...especially women, whose names sound like some kind of gemstone?"

"I can think of several, off the top of my head," she said with quick nod. "Names like 'Ruby', 'Diamanda', 'Sapphire'...are all fairly common among fashionistas and models, you know. Although I can't say for certain whether those are their legal names."

"Yes, of course," he nodded just slightly. "Have any of these people..said or done something notably strange? I'm not sure how to put it—have they, seemed to demonstrate extraordinary knowledge? Or refused to lie when it clearly would have been beneficial to do so?"

"Hmmn." April tilted her head slightly, thinking. She wasn't really built for intrigue. "I have the feeling...one of us knows something they shouldn't, and I'm not certain which one it is. Oh, well, I'm certain I can trust you to keep something quiet either way. My younger sister Emma—I'm sure you're somewhat acquainted?" Dr. Brand nodded. "She had a roommate by the name of Beryl. I can't say that I ever saw anything unusual from her, but Emma evidently worked out that she was really that person they call 'the Giver'. It was something of a game for Beryl, to see how long it would take her to work it out, and once she did, the game was 'over' and she left for good. Perhaps that is the sort of thing you wanted to know?"

"...It is. Thank you." Maybe April just wasn't used to how he displayed his mood, but Dr. Brand seemed slightly more irritated than usual.
"Is something the matter?"
"Not exactly. I don't really enjoy being led by the nose, but it's only been to our benefit so far." He shook his head. "Thank you; I'll leave you to work."

---

"Mrrr~rrh..."

There was no telling exactly how long "a while" was turning out to be. Emma was entirely too focused on cuddling with and petting the other fox-girl with her on her couch to really keep track of time. And, rather than either of them breaking it off, a sudden noise interrupted this process. Emma yipped loudly, pulling herself partly upright and off of Amp, looking around in a brief panic before fully making sense of what the sound even was.

"..Oh. That's my phone."
"Pffheheh," the blond fox-girl giggled softly.

"Whaat?"
"Cuu~ute."
"Hmph..." Emma pouted a little. "You're one to talk."

They reluctantly and a little slowly disengaged enough for Emma to go retrieve the source of the noise, but unfortunately still quickly enough that she could answer it. "Uh..hello?"

"Hiii! This is Felicity Brown," the woman on the phone said in a chipper tone of voice. "Do I have miss Emma Hayes on the other end there?"
"Uh..yeah?"

"Well! I'm with the Vixen Initiative's research department—or, more specifically, hiring and allocation. As far as I know, you spoke with our psych lead—Dr. Bridges—some time a couple of days ago, about possibly working with us at some point?"
"Uhm...I think I remember a conversation like that." That whole visit to the VI was kind of a blur for Emma, except for meeting the various former-puppet people.

"Well, we would be just as interested as ever to have your help with some things—paid help, I should emphasize, maybe part time? I was asked to call you because, err. While it is for very unfortunate reasons, I'm sure, one of the major obstructions to a normal hiring process at the time has since been uuhh, removed! Yes."

Emma looked over at Amp with a very confused expression, knowing that her giant fox-ears could hear the other end of the conversation. So she explained: "She means, since your identity is publicly known now, it's way easier to legally hire you."

"Oh! Uhhh. You want to hire me? I don't really know how much help I'd actually be with, researching magic, though."

"I've got the wrong area of expertise to argue with you about that, but I can say our research leads at least think you'd be a lot of help. If you find some time to come over, when you're not busy with your studies, or with the giant black monsters. Aaaalso, not all of what our department's engaged in really takes much expertise. I can think of at least one job you'd do twice as fast just from having two bodies to do it with."

"I guess...uhm.." Emma was briefly distracted by trying really hard to read Amp's lips, until she finally discerned the words 'how much'. "How uh..what kind of 'paid' do you mean, exactly?"
"Oh, we're willing to negotiate a pretty generous hourly rate—the VI's doing really well financially, you know, with plenty of donations and other sources of bankrolling. I admit the numbers haven't fully been crunched yet, but I've got some of the paperwork around my office here if you'll give me juust a moment."

"You need to know the actual job description, too," Amp pointed out while they both heard some papers shuffling on the other end of the phone. "They probably wanna meet in person for the paper-signing anyway."
"Uh, y-yeah," Emma said with a small nod after pulling the phone slightly away from her face.

Felicity quoted a 'lowball' estimate of the hourly rate that made Emma's eyes pop. When looked to for advice, Amp said "Up to you, but I'd take it." She eventually agreed to head over and meet with someone to talk about it in the late afternoon, which (she finally looked at her phone to check) would be a couple of hours later. After all, everyone was going to be too busy for this kind of thing tomorrow.

---

After a lunch with Nadia, Ning went shuffling through all of her notes and the fairly small number of resumes that she'd acquired from the forty-something applicants of the day. Most of them were instant rejections, but she was fairly sure there were decent applicants whose available hours could be combined to fill most of the day on most days of the week. Her granddaughter took one of the rejected resumes and started drawing something on it in crayon, which she probably should've stopped—after all, even if she wasn't going to hire that particular person, this was maybe a bit disrespectful. But she'd already started by the time Ning noticed, and this really didn't qualify as misbehavior worth scolding her for, so she just let it go.

After a few minutes, Nadia presented her with the results of her work: A few stick figures with fox-like ears and tails, standing under a smiling sun. "Oh, that's sweet~," she said, patting her granddaughter's head. "Who all is this, dear?"

"That's you, an' Gemma, an' Amp, an' Light." The tails were more or less the right colors for each, and she probably should've guessed Gemma was the one with two tails.

Ning nodded. "Thank you! Now, if you'd like to draw some more, use this paper, hmm?" she said, offering some blank pages.

"A'kay!"

Not everyone Ning intended to hire had said they were good with kids, but babysitting wasn't really going to be their job in the first place. Ideally, Nadia would be in school most of the time they were working anyway. She consolidated her decisions into a short list, with the names and numbers and the weekly hours she expected to get out of them, and then wrote some back-ups on a second piece of paper. Then she gathered everything together—including the resume Nadia had drawn over—with those papers on top, and set them aside. The time to hire would be another day, after she'd had time to really mull it over, and had someone draft out the legal paperwork, come up with a way to train the new hires and possibly introduce them to each other...

But at least she had a plan now.

---

I've had this part mostly written for so long, and then entirely written for a little while, but kept putting off publishing it until I had "more done". Well, no more of that. And I'll publish the next part I've finished, too. This story has been stuck on this day for too long, time to move on, but I admit the next day is going to involve writing a lot of action. Writing action is fun but also uniquely hard; I have to be in the right mood...well, hopefully I can manage it.

Careless Imagination

I know, I know..this is yet another one-off using some generated images. I swear I am working on the long-running stories too, and have a high percentage of some parts of them written, but nothing just feels quite entirely ready to me yet.

---

Congratulations! You are this year's lucky winner!

A package arrived in the mail Monday: A cube-shaped cardboard box with dimensions each around 1 foot. Inside was a short slip of paper, along with the main item taking up all that space: A crystal ball, along with a little stand to help it sit on flat surfaces without rolling around. The inside of the ball seemed dark and misty, with a faintly-glowing substance slowly swirling around inside of it even when it sat perfectly still.

After a brief congratulations, the paper said: Please enjoy the Orb of Desire included in the package along with this message. It contains two (2) full charges to be used however you wish (but read the legal disclaimer on the back!). The Orb of Desire is extremely simple to use: Simply stare into it while imagining exactly the result you want, and (as long as it is within the Orb's capabilities) it will grant your desire. The Orb of Desire can grant many things; the biggest limitation will probably be your own imagination!

Kane spent some time reading the paper and examining the strange object, trying to decide what to do about this situation. After all, he hadn't entered any sort of contest of which he could be a lucky winner. He wondered whether he'd been sent the odd package by mistake, but the package was very clearly labeled with not only his address, but also his full, personal name. There was almost certainly no mistake. And—while the legal disclaimer on the back of the paper did make it pretty clear that someone wouldn't be at fault if he used the item incorrectly—he found it quite impossible to figure out exactly who that 'someone' even supposedly, legally was.

Eventually, Kane did what he usually did when he couldn't figure something out (which he would admit happened fairly often), and called his best friend, one of the smartest people he knew. Eli answered within a couple of rings. "Hey, Kane. What's up?"

"Yo. I got something super weird in the mail, and I can't figure it out. Or, like, what to do with it?" he said. "Maybe you've got some idea."
"Okaaay..what'd you get?" Eli asked.

After a few minutes' conversation explaining the item and giving the gist of the message, Eli sort of sighed into his phone. "Dude, it's probably some kind of scam. You should just throw it out."
"Whaaat? But it's like, a magic thing. I mean it totally looks magical!" he said. "You should see it, man."
"Well that's even worse! If it's magical, it might be like, a physical version of spyware or something. Picking up all the details about you, and your passwords and stuff, so someone can do a scam call. Maybe you should smash it with a hammer first, then throw it out."
"But it said it could grant wishes, though."
"Please, man, like that'd ever be true."

"What about the legal disclaimer?"
"You mean, the one that's too complicated for you to make any sense of? It's probably just literal nonsense, made to look reassuring."

"I dunnooo.."

Eli sighed again. "Look, Kane, you asked me what to do with it, and that's what I would do with it. Like, within ten seconds, if I was their so-called 'lucky winner'. But what you wanna do with it is totally up to you."

"I just think, I'd feel pretty dumb if it really could grant a wish or something, and I didn't even try it out. Like—it doesn't cost anything to try, right?"
"You can never tell with magic, man. Maybe using it sucks up your soul, or in exchange for that wish you owe some witch your firstborn son, or something."

"I can just..not have kids then? I mean, I haven't been on a date in years."
"That was an example," Eli said flatly.

"Okay, okay. I'll be careful, at least."
"I, really, don't know how you can 'be careful' with completely unknown magic stuff, but..good luck, I guess."

After the call, Kane just put the box away in a closet. He figured the orb couldn't spy on him very well from in there, after all, and he had some stuff to do. Besides, it was supposed to only have two uses! If he wanted to test it out with a wish, it had better be a good wish. He needed some time to figure out what he wanted.

It had some limitations, after all. It probably couldn't make him fabulously wealthy, or even summon up the latest game console. Ever since the whole 'unveiling' had happened, Kane had heard of loads of amazing things that magic could do, but they weren't that kind of thing. Well—for wealth, it probably could summon up some gold ingots or gemstones or something, but then he'd have a pretty hard time selling them off without his whole story for how he got them sounding stupidly fishy to the authorities. Ultimately, he went to bed that night still thinking about it.

Kane went to the gym early the next morning; Tuesdays and Thursdays were when he tried to exercise. 'Tried' was very much the operative word; no matter what he did, he seemed to get exhausted pretty quickly. The impressive gut he'd sported more or less since puberty refused to get much smaller. Honestly, when it came to having kids, he'd never even had a girlfriend. It might have been his personality to blame, but he was thought at least he'd have more shots to find someone compatible with him if he was at least sort of attractive. That, rather than any concern for his health, was why he was at the gym sweating and panting his face off in the first place.

And then he was sore all throughout work that day. It was a hectic day, and what part of his mind wasn't focused on his job was instead busy complaining about how sore and stiff he was from the morning workout. Maybe he just wasn't doing it right or something, but he'd followed the advice of dozens of online experts' videos! He'd even tried a protein shake one of them was sponsored by...and given away the rest of the box after his first sip. That stuff tasted awful!

He went home feeling exhausted, and just lay on his couch playing games until bedtime. It wasn't until he was lying in bed, half-asleep, ruminating on how much he hated his day after exercising and how very little it seemed to have been worth it, that those thoughts collided with a memory from the day before. And just like that, he realized—he knew—exactly what he wanted that supposedly-magical orb to do for him.

He woke up the next morning with the idea still in his head. If it really could grant this wish of his, then Thursday morning at the gym would be a very different experience. He just needed to get through the day's work before he'd have time to try it out. But with the thought of maybe, hopefully winding up with a perfect body by the time he went to bed that night in his head, the work day flew by, and he was back home and done with supper before he knew it.

Kane eagerly ran to the closet and sought out the box he'd buried inside, having a momentary panic that he'd imagined its very existence. However, it was waiting right where he'd left it, in a fairly obvious spot that his eyes simply hadn't looked toward at first, so he grabbed it and went to the living room, setting up the stand and the orb on it on the coffee table in front of the couch. Then he re-read the instructions, making sure he was clear on how the orb was meant to be used. Then, setting the paper down, he got ready to do it.

"Stare into it..." Kane muttered to himself, leaning forward. "...While imagining..."

He looked deep into the swirling, cloudy mass inside. Now that he was really staring hard, he felt almost like he was being pulled into it, like the dark clouds were coming out into the room around him, obscuring all sources of light except for the faint glow within the orb itself. He pictured what he wanted: A fit, strong, attractive body. Cute girls looking at him, paying attention to him, admiring his looks. Himself easily lifting weights, running, swimming, and the whole time never getting tired. He also imagined a curvy girl with a huge bust, smiling over at him...!

After he'd concentrated for a long moment, the clouds seemed to part and disappear; the orb he'd been staring into became crystal-clear all of a sudden, the faint glow inside of it suddenly brightening into a brilliant white light erupting out from its entire surface. That glow spread up and forward out of the ball then, rapidly approaching Kane and then blinding him; he felt a distinct heat across the front of his body right when that light seemed to make physical contact. And then, slowly, his vision came back to him, the lighting of the room returning back to normal. The orb, too, looked just as it had at first: A glass ball filled with dark, swirling clouds and a faint glow.

Kane hurriedly stood up and looked down at himself. "Did it work?! Am I...? Huh." He didn't look any different—nor feel any different. Except..that heat he'd felt when the light hit him still seemed to be there, not quite as sharp as it had been initially. It was a warmth that seemed to be spreading from the area of contact out across the rest of his body. "I guess...something's happening?" He stood up, looking around; nothing seemed any different yet.

The warmth soon gave way to a tingling sensation. "H-huh..whoa, that kinda tickles," he muttered, shuddering slightly. It was there only briefly on most of him, but seemed to linger longer all across his head, including his ears, and—a bit more strangely—down between his legs. "U-uhm..?" His first evidence that something was physically changing about his own body was the sight of his deep black hair falling out into view before his eyes, and the feeling of those increasingly long locks making their way down across his cheeks and the back of his neck. "My...hair? Wha—? Urk!"

Just then, Kane's body was caught in a brief spasm. He came out of it into an involuntary stretch, arching his back slightly while reaching his arms farther and farther up into the air. It was like he'd been coiled up and stiff, and was suddenly releasing all that tension at once. "Aah—w-whooaaaah...!" This stretching somehow had a physical effect, and he could actually see his perspective rising. He was growing actually taller! This wasn't exactly what he'd asked for either, but the orb was definitely doing something! Never mind that strange tingling between his legs continuing to grow stronger, nor the feeling of hair falling down onto his shoulders and upper back.

Kane came out of the stretch with a sharp breath, then let it out slowly. "Fffffhhh. Ooh man, that was...mmh..!" All of a sudden, he felt a slight...motion? From the thing between his legs. He realized suddenly that the tingling had been...stimulating it this whole time, and now he was starting to feel the heat of a blush across his cheeks from all of that. "I-I..wha~ah.?" His voice squeaked slightly during that confused cry. But then he felt something in his ears not unlike what his entire body had gone through just a moment earlier. "Agh..w-wha...?" They were...stretching out? Growing? "I-I..wha~ah..?" It felt...nice; the more they grew, the more of them there was to keep on tingling. Kane found himself letting out a strange noise next, a soft "Mrrr~rrr~rrrh...!" in a voice whose pitch audibly rose throughout the whole thing. Then a strangely soft, high, "Aah~!" came out as he felt another motion from down below...no, definitely a tug! Like it was being pulled inward..!

"Wha, wha~at's...w-with my voi~ice?" he asked, only to hear it crack and shift even more. It was starting to sound a lot less like any guy's voice at all. "I-I...aah~!" But he couldn't worry about that too much, as he was suddenly struck by a wave of involuntary tensing all across his body. "Aah, aa~aah..!" His muscles all began to burn, and he felt a strange sort of pressure hitting him all over. The combination of those two feelings had him bending forward, so his eyes caught sight of his belly rapidly shrinking away! "Aah—oo~ooh..!" He could also feel his frame collapsing steadily inward, his shoulders narrowing and his waist trimming itself slimmer. His arms and legs were slimming down too, but also getting stronger..! "Aah, mrr~rrfh..!" With that strange noise, he saw his belly push inward one final time, taking away the last bit of pudge and leaving it completely flat. And then..!

Just as the pressure and tensing eased off, leaving Kane's body slim and fit, he gasped. Another tug from down below...! And this one..just kept going! "W-wha~aah..I, I—mmfh..!" The thing that he was so familiar with down there, which had made him male for his whole life...it was slipping away! "Aa~aah...!" His voice sounded so high and cute...his hair had cascaded out more than halfway down his back by now. He was really...turning into a girl? "N-no, I...aa~aah..!" Why did it feel so nice!?

Before he knew it, Kane's manhood was melting away. He let out a soft, helpless "Mmm~nnnghh...!" as it vanished and was swiftly replaced with its opposite, then she pulled in a high gasp to let out a girly "Aa~aahnn...!" in response to a sudden burst of pleasant, fuzzy feelings from the brand new parts down there. "Mngh, mmfh..!" Her hips were pushing themselves out wider, her butt growing bigger and her thighs thicker...and just like her ears before, something was stretching its way rapidly out from her lower back. "AaAAAaah~...rrrfh!" It was covered in fluffy, soft hairs—fur—and had started wagging back and forth behind her nearly as soon as it had appeared. Those curves finished settling into place just as this new tail reached its full size and length, leaving her nearly completely changed...with only one thing unfinished. However, there was now an increasingly strong resurgence of that earlier tingling all across her still-flat chest.

"Mrrr~rrnh..wah, why'm I...g-girl...aaAA~AH!" Her confused question was interrupted by that tingling progressing into a forward push. Kane's nipples lifted up, growing themselves wider and taller as each one grew a small, sensitive bump up from underneath it. "Aah..o-oo~oh..!" The bumps swelled up and out, quickly growing out into a proper pair of breasts. "Aah..aa~AA~aah..!" Then they kept getting bigger and bigger, making her girly parts erupt in more fuzzy feelings, leaving the rest of her to just helplessly squirm in place as her bust kept on filling out. "Aa~ah...rrfh...mnn~nngh..!" Before she knew it, Kane was welcoming this change, and the feelings that came with it. After all—if she was going to be a girl, why not a curvy, gorgeous one? And why not enjoy it? Finally, there was one last push that must've given her an entire additional cup size at least, making her let out a high, girly "Aa~aaahhnnnNNNnnnhh...!" at one final, strong burst of those nice feelings down between her legs.

"H-ha~aah...ffh..." The new girl cried out softly, feeling satisfied and relieved all at the same time. She looked down at her new form to find her shorts and tank top holding tightly onto her curves—particularly her enormous new breasts, which seemed to be taking up so much of the top's material that it couldn't hide any of her slim belly, which was now covered in some solid abs."I-I...oooh wow. I-I'm super fit! And...a girl? F-fox girl?" she added quickly, curling the fluffy pitch-black tail up in front of her hips for a second to get a look. "I-I-I've gotta...get a good look at this!"

The new girl hurried to her bathroom to get a good look in the mirror, and found a positively gorgeous, tall, strong, curvy girl looking back. Still not entirely sure this was real, she gently lifted up her huge breasts in her hands. A blush and a bright grin spread across her face, and only now she noticed her teeth sporting some longer canines—fangs—and how the color of her eyes had changed from brown to bright red. "Heheee~eeh..!" She could...get used to this!

Dropping her hands again, the fox-girl tilted her head at the mirror. "But why though..? I thought I concentrated pretty hard on being a tall, strong guy. Wait.." It finally hit her: Other than how fit she was, and the furry ears and tail, this curvy, gorgeous body she had now was almost exactly the same as the girl he'd pictured smiling across at him while using the orb! And, just now, in the mirror, that girl had been there smiling over at her. The orb had...more or less tried its best to give her what she'd pictured!

"Oh, wooow...hahah...that's, my bad I guess. It did say to concentrate on exactly what I wanted. We~eell...at least this isn't so bad. I'm just as fit as I wanted to be, and taller too—and I'm super hot! Uhhm."

Kane slowly crossed her arms, frowning slightly and watching her ears droop a bit. "But I guueeess...this might be kinda awkward for tomorrow, though. My clothes won't really fit uh, this look, plus I'm missing something to help me carry these puppies around. Uhhmmm...what c'n I do about...hmm." She dropped her arms again, shrugged, and went back to the living room—to her phone in particular. Since this was an incredibly bizarre situation overall, and she wasn't sure what to do...Kane's first thought was to get some advice.

As things were now, though, just calling wouldn't work very well. Her voice was totally different from before! So...she brought the phone back to the bathroom to take some pictures first. Some proof would go a long way...so she hoped! Then she sent off some texts:

hey eli

remember th weird orb thign?

A moment later, after she'd walked back to the living room and sat down, there was a reply.

Yes, did you get rid of it?

nope

treid it out instead

and

At this point she sent some pictures.

it worked but i messed up my wish a little

soooo

A good minute and a half after she sent the texts, Eli responded not by texting back but by calling. Which was..pretty much what Kane had hoped for.

"Kane, are you seriously telling me that's you!?"

"Uhh, yep. I wanted to call you, but y'know, wasn't totally sure you'd believe me. My voice is totally different, too."
"I've uh..noticed. Just, what. Like, how did you 'mess up a wish' and wind up as a beastgirl?"

"I just wanted to be fit, is all! But, y'know, you're supposed to picture what you want, and I guess I pictured a cute girl a little too well."

"So, what, you want me to help you figure out how to fix this? Just wish yourself back, since that worked so well the first time!"
"No no—the thing is, I kinda like this? Girl part and all," Kane said. "It's just kindaaaa...awkward. For, like, going back to work tomorrow. And stuff."
Eli sighed over the phone again. "Then take a sick daaaay? Get an actual medical exam, because we seriously have no idea what that orb's magic even did? And get whatever you need for the new—like, you know. Stuff."
"You mean the boobs?"

"Yeah, that, and the rest of what comes with being a full-grown adult woman. I can not believe I have to explain this to you."

"I mean—you don't have to, but I do really appreciate it~!" she said. "I guess I'll go ahead and call off work, then. Citing uh...magic shenanigans?"
"You can also just, lie, you know."
"Yeah! Anyway, talk to you later~."

After the phone call, Kane looked over at the orb still sitting on the coffee table. "Hmmh." It was going to be a huge expense, not to mention a big hassle, to buy a bunch of new clothes—underwear and all—for herself, wasn't it? "Hmmmmmh." If the orb could transform a person's body, then...surely it could also change around a few measly clothes? After all, she was pretty sure her shorts and tank top had been a little bit bigger before she'd been transformed.

It was Friday afternoon when she next saw Eli in person again. This wasn't an unusual visit; they pretty much always got together at some point in the weekend to hang out, talk, and play games. The fox-girl eagerly ran off to the front door when one of her fuzzy ears picked up the sound of a car in the driveway, and she had a little bit of fun by making sure to open the door right at the exact moment when Eli's steps had stopped just in front of it so he could ring the doorbell. "Hi the~ere!" she said, enjoying the sight of him jumping slightly in surprise with his hand still half-raised toward the button.
"Uh—hi." Eli paused, looking her up and down for a second. She couldn't blame him, with how stacked she was, and honestly appreciated the attention! She was wearing slightly more than in those pictures she'd sent him: A long, loose t-shirt and some slightly less tight gym shorts that were more comfortable to move around the house in.

"Sooo..it really is you, huh," he concluded after a moment, but his face was slightly red.
"Yeah! Don't I look awesome!?"

"Sure I guess—but uh, I hope you can appreciate how weird it is for me, though."

"Mmh, I guess so. I got plenty of funny looks coming back to work today. But I love it!"

"Good for you, I guess..."

With that, they went inside, the fox-girl's huge fluffy tail wagging out behind her. She was a little disappointed that Eli managed to stay far enough behind that she couldn't 'accidentally' brush him with that tail's tip, but that only meant that he got a full view of her from behind. She turned around once they got to the living room. "I've got the snacks and stuff ready on the table," she said, pointing.
"Yeah, good. Um—wait, is that it?" he asked, gesturing toward the center of the table.
"Huh? Oh, right. Yeah, I, used up the second charge to fix my clothes and stuff," Kane said with a slight shrug. "So now it's just a clear glass ball. I figured it makes a good decoration for the table, riiight?"

"I, dunno about this...I mean, it's still an unknown magic item. Wait—if you didn't buy any clothes, did you even go to the doctor?"
"Yes I went to the doctor! I'm a hundred-percent-healthy, normal fox-girl. Uh, he said something about a kit suing a horse too, I think."
"A wh...he said what?" Eli said, his expression one of extreme confusion.

"He said a kit sued my horse," she repeated. "Or uhh, more like a horse sound. You know?"
"You mean 'neigh'." Eli looked like he was ready to pull his hair out. "You mean, that the doctor said, that you're a kitsune."

"Yeah, that was it!" she said, pointing at him. "He said he could sense it or something, 'cause he's a Neko."

"Kane, a kitsune is a magic fox person. Like, an immortal super trickster with magic powers?"
It was her turn to be confused; she headtilted a bit. "What, really?"

"The doctor. Your doctor. Did not explain this."

"Oh, I just said it was neat 'cause I didn't know what he meant, and I figured it was just some kinda medical term," she said, putting her hands out in a shrug. "Soooo, like, I guess he thought that meant I knew what he meant?"

"Well obviously, he did think you knew what he meant! Do you not comprehend how big of a deal that is?!"

"Not really? I mean...there's tons of magic people we didn't know about before, sooo, if I am one, so what?"
Eli sighed his biggest sigh yet. He took the two or three steps necessary to reach his hands up, put them directly onto Kane's shoulders, and look the fox-girl straight in the eyes. "It means you have literal superpowers. Or, at least, can have them."

Kane took a second or two to react to Eli's words, being somewhat distracted by kind of enjoying him holding onto and looking right at her like that. "Ooooh. Cool! But, like, I dunno how to use any of them, though?"
Eli let go of her so he could facepalm and sigh again. "Yeah, sure. That just means you might use them by accident at some point...but I guess we'll unpack this later. We're here to hang, right? Sooo, let's just do that."
"Okay, great! So—" she launched straight back into what she'd been ready to say before the whole orb-related interruption.

They did hang out after that, and it was about as fun as usual. Well, maybe a little more so; teasing Eli was its own little sort of game. He seemed a little less comfortable sitting close to Kane as a busty girl than he had when they were both guys, so she 'innocently' scooted closer when he wasn't paying attention and waited to see how long it'd take him to notice. Once or twice she reached for some food or drink at the same time as he did so their hands would make 'accidental' physical contact, which had him recoil with a slight, nervous blush and sometimes a muttered apology. Despite how smart he was, Eli never quite seemed to realize she was doing it on purpose.

It was a couple of hours of them playing together before Kane's mind really digested their conversation at the start of the evening. Eli had been exasperated by her lack of understanding that she was, in fact, a magic fox-person now. Even though she didn't have any powers that she actually knew about, she had to admit the possibility was pretty cool. Then again...why was he so upset that she hadn't understood how big of a deal it was? He usually seemed pretty cautious, if not paranoid, about magic stuff, and he could've just kept her in the dark...but instead he really wanted her to know about those supposed 'superpowers', which surely meant...something. Right?

Mulling it over a little more, she thought that perhaps it was because they were friends, and he trusted her with those powers. Even if she wasn't the brightest bulb, he knew she wouldn't use them to hurt him, unlike—say—a complete stranger giving away a mysterious magical orb as a prize. But was that all? After all, if he thought that a kitsune knowing she was magical and learning to use magic powers was a good thing, and he was really upset that she wasn't doing it...

Did that mean he was jealous? Well, no, jealousy didn't seem like the right word for it. They were having a good time together now, after all, and Kane at least knew that that was impossible with the kind of bad vibe that some serious jealousy on Eli's part would've produced. But rather: Did he wish, deep down, that it had been him who'd become a..what were the words he'd used? Right, it was: 'immortal super trickster with magic powers'? That sounded like a way of describing a kitsune that maybe someone who wished they could be one might use...didn't it?

From all of that, Kane finally thought: She didn't want to give up her new looks or anything, but it'd be nice to share the wealth a little bit. Since they were such good friends after all, she kind of wished that, if Eli wanted it, that he could get to be a kitsune too. She began to feel a bit of regret about recklessly using up the orb's second charge so soon when it could do something that was apparently so amazing; she would totally have been willing to use a wish to help Eli out with that. If he could be turned into a cute, busty fox-girl like she had, and thereby get the magical superpowers he wanted...she'd have wished for that, if only the orb still had that second charge. This line of thought distracted her enough to lose the next three rounds in a row against him.

"Man, are you even trying at this point?" He looked over at her.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. Iiiii, got distracted thinking about some stuff," she said.
"Really? What kind of stuff?"
"Uhm. You know, like, private stuff!" she insisted.
"Okaaay. I'll just assume you're coming to grips with how much being suddenly a girl is gonna complicate your life, then," he said.

"Huh? Oh, uh, sure. Something like that," Kane said with a grin and a small shrug. That was totally off base, but who was she to reject a perfectly good excuse? But now that she was looking over at him, she was really picturing how much happier he might be as a kitsune like her.

"That's not very convincing," Eli muttered under his breath—which of course she could hear—as he looked back toward the screen. "Uhh."

""Uhh' what?" she said, still looking at him. He looked around, then back at her again.
"Are you..doing that on purpose?"
"Doing...what?"
"Look around you, doofus!" he said with an emphatic wave. When she did, Kane finally noticed a cloud of black, wispy smoke-like stuff which seemed to have suddenly appeared around her, which was now in the process of surrounding the two of them. It was a rather familiar look, she thought, just like what she'd seen come out of the orb when making her wishes with it.

"Oh, wow. Uh—if I am doing that, I totally have no idea how."
"Great. I knew you should've gotten rid of that orb!" he said, gesturing to the orb (which wasn't really visible through the dark fog). "What even—aack!"

The latest noise came out of him when he looked her way again, and was joined by him putting his arm in the way of his eyes. It took Kane a second to realize that she was actually glowing, the same way that the orb had before doing its work. The first time, its light had gone into her (him at the time); the second time, it had scattered out from the orb, mostly toward her bedroom, to hit and change her clothes. But why was she glowing now? And even more strangely, why wasn't it blinding her?

"Can you not turn that off!?"
"I dunno how I turned it on!" she protested, deciding not to mention all of the similarities she'd noticed so far. They would both find out soon enough whether she was right, anyway. So she just waited a couple of seconds, and then felt...something. She exhaled hard, feeling all of a sudden like she'd put a bunch of effort into some particularly difficult physical task, and at the same time got to see the glow jump off of her body and over to Eli's, silhouetting his form briefly before disappearing altogether. After that, Kane was left huffing for air for a second or two, like she had after her workout Thursday afternoon, which had been significantly more intense than her previous form had been capable of.

"Okay, well, it's off now," Eli was saying, looking around the room. The smoke and the glowing were both gone, leaving things looking pretty much normal for the moment. "So you seriously have no idea what—is something wrong with you?" he interrupted himself, noticing her panting.
"Uh...hff...don't think so. Just feel like I exerted myself or something?" she said. "I'm already mostly over it, though."
"Exerted..then it was you, wasn't it? Using magic is supposed to be physically taxing," he said.

"I don't remember trying to do anything specific, though," she said. "Definitely nothing magical."

"Okay, great, so you did magic by total accident," he concluded. "And now..I feel..weird."

"Uh, like, weird how?" Kane asked. She had no idea how she could've recreated the effects of that orb, but all signs pointed to that having happened. And since the light had gone into Eli, that meant...

"M-my ears...ugh..." he shuddered slightly once, than again a little more violently. "T-tingling...AaaAAH...!" Before Kane's eyes, Eli's beard shortened and thinned, swiftly vanishing away; the hair visible on his upper arms did much the same thing. It took five to ten seconds for her friend to look impossibly clean-shaven. "R-rrgh..!" At the same time, she caught sight of his ears rapidly growing bigger and taller, easily poking their way out past his hair. They were covered in a sort of peach fuzz of bright blue hairs which was filling itself out just as swiftly as his beard was going through the opposite process.

"Aah, aagh...r-rruufffh..!" With his mouth open, she could see his canines growing longer and sharper. The ears rose up to a triangular shape as their fur (since that is what it was) filled the rest of the way out, followed by a swift growth of snowy white fuzz from his inner ears. "Wha~at..the..?!" His voice cracked slightly; the blue coloration of his ears' fur seemed to spread out to the hair they had just pushed through, and that shift spread out to the rest of his hair from there, rapidly recoloring it all to the very same shade of blue. "Aa~ah..r-rrfhh..!" Eli shivered slightly again; the color of his eyes brightened to a golden yellow while a tail pushed its way out from his lower back, curling aside when it hit the couch behind him. It started out as a thin line of blue fur (the same shade as his hair and ears) with some white at the tip, then swiftly puffed out into a big, fluffy pillow of fur. By the time this was done, his hair had grown out enough to frame his face, with the tips of some locks touching his shoulders.

"I-I...m~mmh...K-ka~ane..!" His voice was still cracking and squeaking, its tone shifting bit by bit with each utterance. At this point he was looking over at the fox-girl, and she got a full view of his smooth face with bright blue eyes framed by that soft blue hair, his cheeks starting to redden with a blush; her immediate thought about that sight was how cute it was. "Wha, whaa~aah...aah..!" He slowly pulled his arms around himself in a hug, shivering again, and then began to shrink.

"Aah...aa~aah...m-mrr~rrh..!" Before Kane's eyes, her friend became steadily shorter and slimmer. His shirt tented out around his shoulders as they narrowed down; his arms and legs lost what little muscle tone they had as they slimmed. His already-cute face became softer and rounder in shape, rendering him increasingly adorable—especially since that blush continued to brighten as he further changed. "Mnn~nNNngh...aah, aah, aAAA~AAaa~ah..!" His hair spilled out longer and longer as he became smaller, softer, and cuter all over, until those unkempt, sea-blue tresses started to pool on the couch around him, some making him flinch slightly when they landed on the new tail near its base. "O-oo~ooh..." At the same time as all of this, his voice had steadily lost its masculinity, now beginning to settle itself into a deep, mature, womanly tone—just as Kane noticed that her friend's adam's apple was vanishing away, too.

"Mmh...m-mrrffh...." As the shrinking slowed to a halt, Kane's eyes fluttered shut, his cheeks turning their brightest yet. All of a sudden, his shirt shrank to fit his small, slim form, while his pants made a sudden motion of shrinking, shortening, and softening until they had become a pair of tight blue gym shorts that hid almost none of his now smooth, slim legs. Furthermore, those shorts were fairly tight between his legs—enough for the fox-girl to catch sight of a surprisingly small bulge down there...which was even now, visibly, getting smaller still. "Mnnh...aa~aah..!" Eli gasped, then let out that air in a high-pitched, adorable "Aa~aa~AAAAAA~Aaaahh..!" Despite how deep Eli's voice had been coming out a moment ago, it had quite a range.
But anyway, that cry coincided with one last, visible shrinking of the bulge between Eli's legs, until the shorts could pull completely flat down there. "Aa~aah..!" Another high, cute cry came from her lips now, and Kane got to see the new girl's thighs pushing out thicker, her hips widening...she was starting to get curvy! "O-oh...o~ooh.." Her voice plumbed the depths of its new range again as she shivered, seemingly with delight, and a pair of small bumps pushed themselves out from her chest, lifting that part of her shirt a bit.

"Aah..m-mrr~rrrh..." Soft, low, vulpine churring rumbled through her throat as those bumps began to lift and swell themselves up steadily more...and more...! Kane eagerly wondered just how busty her friend was going to get! "O-oo~ooh...m-mnn~nnh...nn~nn~NNNN~NNNnhh..!" At any rate, the way Eli's ears went low, her tail excitedly whipping around, as she squirmed about in her seat, joined her helpless vocalizations as evidence of just how much she was enjoying the process. "A-ah...m-mrr~rrrh..." She had to be already at least a B cup, Kane thought, silently cheering the new girl's bust on. Then Eli gasped again, and let out a high, cute "AA~AAAAAAA~Aaaahh...!" as her breasts expanded out nearly as much as their entire growth up until that point! Finally she let out a soft, low "Mm~mmhh.." as they gently bounced out into place, completing her change into a short, curvy, adorable fox-girl.

"Aah...mmh.." Eli was still hugging herself tightly at first, and her arms slowly loosened their grip only as her bright yellow eyes gradually opened. "Whuh...wha...?

"WHAAAT!?"

"Uh, so...it looks like yooouuu..turned into a fox-girl?" Kane said slowly, watching Eli pat her upper legs, then her tail, then her breasts, then her face.

"I, noticed!!!" she said, turning to face her friend. Eli was now short enough that looking straight across that way gave her a direct view of only Kane's impressive rack; her face flushed red again as she tilted it upward to try to look her in the face. "Do you have any idea, maybe, why!?"

"Well, like, obviously a magic thing happened? It looked like you kinda enjoyed it, though."
"Th-that's...not! The point!" The smaller fox-girl, not seeming to think about what she was doing, suddenly pounced over Kane's way, her knees landing on the couch as she put her hands on the taller girl's shoulders again. "Did you do this?! On purpose!?"
"Uh—maybe, and no?" Having Eli's adorable face take up most of her view made it even more difficult than usual for Kane to think straight. "I mean like..obviously it came from me, but I definitely didn't mean to?"

"Do you have any idea what happened, or how to undo it!?"
"Weeelll uh.."
"Yes!? What?" Eli's huge, blue-furred ears were twitching distractingly up and down.

"It's just like, the uh..smoky stuff and the light, and the whoosh after that, was a lot like how the orb worked? But it like, came from me instead apparently? So, I guess I did the orb's thing somehow?"
"The orb. That is supposed to grant people's wishes? I didn't wish for this!" Eli said.

"Yoooouu...I guess you didn't. But like, you didn't wanna be a kitsune or anything at all?"

"A kit—maybe? I mean, I'm not gonna pretend it didn't cross my mind how nice it'd be to have magic powers and not have to worry about growing old, but what does that have to do with me turning into a girl!?"

Kane tilted her head. Eli must have read something from that expression that especially disturbed her; her ears drooped, she let go of the bigger girl's shoulders, and rocked backwards so that her butt and feet were both on the couch. "I kinda thought..that was part of the deal?" Kane said finally, which only seemed to confirm her friend's suspicions.

"You thought, that being a kitsune, requires a person to be female," she repeated, emphasizing her words in a way that suggested the thought to be unfathomably nonsensical.

"Well, yeah, that's like...how it worked for me? Like, I didn't even know what a kitsune is until you told me."

Eli exhaled a sort of half-sigh, pulling her arms around her knees to nearly complete a full fetal position. "That, is, true. But I wasn't...I mean I didn't...! Why would what you thought even..no, wait, it was you doing the magic, so...!"

Kane decided to come as clean as possible: "I uuhhh...did kinda catch myself semi-sort of-wishing thaaat, like, if it was what you wanted, that I could've used the orb to help you be a kitsune too?"

"And...you pictured 'kitsune' to mean specifically 'fox-girl'."

"Uh-huh," she nodded, deciding that the fact she was sensing no rage from Eli's general direction was a good sign. "As in like, a busty, cute girl like I am?"

"So..you accidentally, used your power, somehow imitating what the orb normally does, and that transformed me into...what you were picturing," the small fox-girl concluded.

"I guess so?"
"Which..probably means you have no idea how to undo it."
"Nnnope! But, like, if you are a kitsune now, shouldn't you be able to do that too?"
"Not with one tail!' Eli said. "Kitsune aren't just super-powerful at birth! They start out with basically almost nothing, and have to earn tails to get more powerful!"
"Okaaay...but like, I'm sure you could do that? Or we could uh..like, find someone who can transform people for a fee or something, I guess?"
"Y-yeah..." Eli let go of her knees, letting her legs stretch out a little bit—not quite enough for her feet to touch Kane. "I guess so. That's a...sensible solution.."

Now Eli looked slightly disappointed. Even more than any other time she'd seen her friend with an unhappy expression, Kane really wanted to fix that. What came to her as a solution was kind of sideways and strange, and probably really stupid, but she did it anyway. "Uh, you know, Eli...you totally didn't seem like you hated what it felt like, to like, turn into a girl? I mean—I know what that's like."
"W-well.." The smaller girl's face lit up with a blush again. "It wasn't...it certainly wasn't an, entirely unpleasant experience..."

"And I'd say you turned out amazing, you know? I mean, you're curvy and busty and super cute," Kane said, feeling a slight grin and the heat of a blush hitting her own face too.

"Y-yeah...I'm sure I'm at least conventionally attractive..." Eli looked down at her new appearance again for a moment.

Her head popped back up to face Kane again. "Wait—you've totally been flirting with me all night, haven't you?"
"Flirting?" Kane's face got a little bit hotter. "I mean, like, I dunno about that...I just thought it was kinda fun to tease you a little bit.."
"Teasing me, riiight. Like scooting right up close to me when I'm not looking," Eli said, turning herself to face forward on the couch before emphatically pulling partway to her feet to hop over next to Kane—close enough for their hips to nearly touch. "And making sure our hands touch sometimes. A-and messing with your hair and your boobs when you know I'm looking while pretending that you don't know. Hmph." She was making a serious effort—despite their close proximity—to look up past Kane's bust at her face, giving a clear view of some fully red cheeks. "Well—I can tease you, too!"

Eli pounced again, somehow managing to go from sitting next to Kane to sitting on her knees on the couch facing her, so that their faces were nearly right across from each other. "Really, Kane, if y-you like me that much, you should just say something! N-no need to beat around the bush, with how long we've been friends, right?" Her ears were going low (and so were Kane's); her tail had started wagging (and Kane could feel hers doing the same).
"I guess that's right? I mean, you're the smart one, sooo...like.." Kane grinned slightly again, greatly enjoying the adorable, false pout on the other fox-girl's face. "Do you like me? Huh?"
"I..y-yeah!" Eli pounced again, this time throwing her arms around Kane's body instead of just holding her shoulders. This naturally had the effect of squishing her soft, plush breasts right into Kane's even bigger, more solid pair, not to mention bringing their faces extremely close—with maybe an inch or two of room between their noses. "S-so there..!'

Kane's arms wrapped around the smaller girl automatically; her tail went from wagging to quickly curling itself forward in search of the base of Eli's tail. Her hands reached up to feel the soft, warm fur of the small fox-girl's huge blue ears, and she flinched slightly, letting out a soft, high "Yip!" at the sensation of some small, slim fingers brushing their way into her own ears.
"A-aa~ah...mmh..!" Eli jolted, then squirmed, at the feeling of a tail on her tail and then hands on her ears; she leaned forward, pressing her nose hard into the bigger girl's cheek, and Kane eagerly returned this gesture, the two of them beginning to nuzzle each other alongside the petting.

"Mmh...mrr~rrfh..!" Kane hadn't felt this fuzzy sensation in her new, girly parts much at all since the initial transformation; if anything, what she was feeling from Eli's sudden closeness, hugging, and petting was even stronger than that had been.
"O-o~ooh..." The short, curvy girl's voice going all deep and sexy made it even worse. Kane found herself falling back onto the couch until her head landed on the armrest, letting Eli spread herself out on top of her. "Mmh, mm~mmmnn~nnh...!"

"Rrrfh...h-heeehee...!" Kane could now use one hand to stroke the other girl from the top of her head down to her neck, and then all the way down her back, before the fingers finally reached the base of her tail.

"Aa-aah~!" Touching that again made Eli flinch, her voice coming out high and cute, then shiver with delight. Kane was squirming and shuddering just a little bit too, very much enjoying the sensations of a curvy girl's body on top of her own, and really getting into this whole mutual petting thing.

They must have stayed like that for at least half an hour. Well, Kane had no idea how long it was, and Eli probably didn't either, but it felt like a very long, wonderful time. And it was Eli who slowly, gently tamped things down; Kane was still too dazed from enjoyment to do much of anything besides softly churr or cry out and continue gently petting and stroking the other girl, up until finally realizing that Eli had stopped and was trying to pull her head just a little bit away.

"H-haa~aah...hffh..." She didn't mind this at all; it gave her a clear view of Eli's adorable face once again, this time lit with the brightest, reddest blush ever.
"Waah..w-wow...mmh...I-I may be forced t-to..r-rethink..wanting to be a guy again...hfffh.."

"Pffheeehee! Th-that's what you have to say? L-like, wow, I just got to have the best feelings I've had in my life with a gorgeous girl who's also my best friend, sooo like...! I'm pret-ty sure I'm gonna stay a girl too!" Kane said. "Thooo~oough...if you wouldn't mind swapping teams some time, I bet you'd be a cute fox-boy too. And kissing sounds fun.."
"Th-that's getting way ahead of..! I mean..it's silly to even assume we can find a way for me to do that.."
"I'm sure we can figure it out~," Kane said, moving her hand down from Eli's ear to gently stroke her cheek.

"Aah~..!" The response to this touch was about as breathy and high-pitched and cute as Kane could've hoped.

"We can get more tails or whatever later, riight?"

"I...hff...I guess...y-yeah...mrr~rrrh...fhh, for now..l-let's..m~mmh..." Eli's face sank back down onto the bigger girl's, nose-to-cheek again.

"Ooh..? You want more, after all that!?"
"Y-yes...hff...p-please...Kane...mmh..!"

"Pffheehee...! Well, like, you're lucky I do too! Plus I've never had this much stamina before...! C'mere, cutie~..!"
"Aa~aah...o-oo~ooh...c-cute...!"

"Cuu~ute!"

"Yh...you too...K-kane...mrr~rrrh.."

Suffice to say that they eventually wore themselves out, and awoke the next morning still lying on the couch like that. Her own name was the last actual word the big fox-girl remembered Eli saying that night, despite there being at least another full hour before the two of them dropped off.