The Next Chapter: 6

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 6: Who's That Vixen?

A girl—a gorgeous girl, a beautiful woman, who he'd never seen before. Kyosuke certainly wasn't expecting to see that when he went to the campus dining hall for lunch on Monday. But see that he did: A tall, voluptuous redhead, with brilliant red hair and fur—the latter adorning some vulpine ears and a big, fluffy tail!

Of course it was too much to expect that he'd seen every woman, or even every fox-girl, living on campus, but he pretty much had to have lunch at this same time every Monday this semester, so surely their schedules should've collided some time before now. And he didn't think he could've missed someone that attractive, especially with that big, brightly-colored tail. Yet there she was! He hurried right over to her, catching up as she stopped to pick up a tray.

"Hellooo there," he said, sliding up next to her. Kyosuke had pitch-black hair and red eyes; he was a little on the short side for a guy (still a few inches taller than the girl though), with a characteristic boyish handsomeness. He had the slight cheat of presently using illusions to hide his foxlike ears and tails from sight, so he just looked like a good-looking guy rather than a kitsune. "I don't think I've seen you around before?"
"Oh? Uh, hi!" she said, giving back a friendly smile. "I am a freshman, so, I guess that makes sense. I'm Jay," she said, offering him the hand that wasn't carrying her tray for him to shake—so he did.
"Kyosuke. Most people give up after the first syllable, though," he joked, and she giggled slightly in response. "I don't suppose I could join you for lunch, maybe?"
"I wouldn't mind," she said. "My roommate might, but she'll get over it."

"Hah, all right then. Lead the way, Jay," he said.

It was impossible to be sure, but Kyo had the immediate sense that he was talking to a 'mundane' fox-girl rather than a fellow kitsune. That was fine by him; it was just that his heritage influenced his tastes in girls enough to really appreciate a big fluffy tail. She led the way to a booth off on a far side of the room, where a short, brunette wolf-girl in shorts and a tank top—presumably her roommate—was waiting.
"Hey, Ed!" Jay greeted her. "This is Kyo—we met in line. You mind if he joins us for lunch?"
"I guess not," she said, sighing slightly. So he sat down with them.

"So...'Ed', huh?"
"What're you gonna say, 'unusual name for a girl'?" she said, anticipating him. "Both of us were recently transformed. Last week we were guys."
"Oooh, interesting. How'd that happen?"
"We joined a sorority," Jay said cheerfully.

"That..sounds more like a 'why' than a 'how'," Kyo admitted.

"The house is enchanted to transform people," Ed explained further.

"Wow, that's...I feel like I would've heard of that at some point. I guess this is a new thing?"

"Apparently.

"Anyway, I'm a comp-sci major. Jay's in music. You?"
"Oh, me? I'm majoring in magic," he said, and savored the brief look of confusion-then-"oh yeah, that's right" in both girls' faces.

"I thought they were kidding when I saw that in the catalog," the wolf-girl said. "Apparently the program's really selective, though?"

"Yes, for now. Experience and-or specific kinds of potential needed. The profs are constantly talking about how to do away with those requirements, you know," Kyo said. "There's only so much you can do, though. Lots of people only have a specific kind of potential to work with, and if there's no one who can teach your kind of magic, it'd be useless to study others."
"That seems like a really closed-minded way to think about it," Ed observed. "Apparently there's a whole theory to this stuff, so...even if someone can't do magic, they could still study it."
"I dunno," Jay said, "that sounds kinda like taking a 'music appreciation' major. What would you even do with that?"

"No, no—Ed's onto something," Kyo said. "If you really knew your stuff, you could probably teach someone how to use a kind of magic that you can't. I'll bring it up with some of them later, maybe."

A little later, about when Ed was taking a sip of her soda, Jay said, "So—are you gonna tell me how the date went yet?" The wolf-girl visibly resisted spitting her drink out, and managed to avoid choking on it too. Maybe Kyo was wrong about Jay's potential for practical jokes, although this did seem accidental.

"It's—there's really nothing to tell. We just..talked for a while."

"But it went well, right?"
"I...I guess."

"L'hoxifel seemed really happy~," Jay observed.

"Huh. Now, that's a demon name, if I've ever heard one," Kyo noted.

"Uh-huh! L'hoxifel is a thumb..uh, something."
"Thumos," Ed said. "In the sorority."
"And you're dating her?"
Ed's face flushed red. "I—we went on one date. Yesterday."

"How long have you known each other?"

"We met late last week," Jay said helpfully. "She gave us a tour of OZK's house."
"Wow, you work fast," Kyo said, grinning. Ed just looked away, folding her ears back in annoyance. Okay, this one was fun to tease, he decided.

For now, he changed the subject slightly. "I suppose you two are, 'human'? That is, only transformed to those part-animal forms?"

"Yep," Jay said.
"The enchantment specifically does things like...that, to avoid 'awakening' people," Ed added.

"Ah. Well—I'm a born and bred kitsune, myself. Two tails, even! I just like to hide it out in public most of the time," he said, dropping the illusion on his ears just long enough for the two of them to get a brief look. "I guess having two at my age isn't that unusual, but my grandma said back in her day you didn't expect your second tail before age a-hundred," he said. "Although—she said that while awarding me my second one, so who knows." He shrugged.

"Do kitsune have a lot of nepotism?" Ed asked.

Was that an English word? "Huh? Nep-what?" Kyo hadn't heard it before.
"Giving your own family an unfair advantage," she clarified. "Like, a powerful one giving his sons or daughters tails much more easily than he would some stranger."

"Hmm, I guess? It's always good to have the favor of someone with lots of tails. But there are limits and rules. Always a stronger fox around to punish you if you grant or gain tails you really can't honestly say were earned," Kyo said. "And at the top, there's the Ruler, and she'll always set things straight 'cause she has to, or else."

Ed had started on her food before the two of them arrived, so she finished a little earlier, and had to get up and run off to class. This left Kyo alone with the redheaded fox-girl. They had some more pleasant conversation, until the kitsune became aware it was about time he had to leave.

"Excuse me if it's too much, but—could I get your number or something?" he asked Jay. "I'd really hate for this to be the only time we meet."
"Oh? Sure! You're fun," she said, smiling beautifully.

"A fox like me can imagine no higher compliment," he said.

---

"Well now, Mary..what do you think?" After leaving the OZK house, the strange pair continued on along the street as if they had elsewhere to be.

"I think it was pretty unrealistic to think some rando freshman would have any idea how the place is enchanted."
"Oh, certainly. On the briefest of reflections, it's quite clear that whatever material components are maintaining both enchantments on that abode would be securely under lock and key. Treated as, at the least, some rather fragile structural components the damaging of which would cause disaster."

"You didn't seem to have that reflection before we came knocking on the door," she observed.
"Even so, I improvised well."
"You went with my improv," she corrected.

"Err—regardless, that isn't quite what I meant. What did you think of the building itself? All of the interior which our kind guide did show us on that tour?"

"It's pretty nice, I guess. I care more about the people than the amenities, though." Mary pulled her phone from the pocket of her hoodie, browsing around on it a little while continuing to walk and talk. "Who even knows what kind of person 'Nancy' is, if she's the one who financed all that stuff?"

"I would suggest: Someone powerful enough to be worth meeting," he said. "For my part, I think that place to be a far more fitting dwelling for a person of my caliber than the quarters I've been staying in so far."

"Uh-huh...what about your roommate? His grades are gonna tank without you around to crib off of."
"I don't see any reason why I can't take him with me. Evidently they are recruiting."

"Uh-huuh. You're kinda leaving the elephant in the room, though?"

"What elephant?" He stopped walking, looking around. "For that matter, what room?"

"I mean what that enchantment you're so interested in will do to you if you join," Mary said, continuing to walk and seeming to entirely ignore his confusion. The celestial caught up quickly enough.

"Oh, that? Hardly worth mentioning. Plenty of my kind try out forms other than the one Sol gave us before very long, if only briefly. If anything, I'm overdue! Besides, I'm certain that I would make the most beautiful of women, sufficient to be the envy of all others."

"Don't expect me to feel that," Mary said.
"What? No, of course, I meant—other other women," he clarified unhelpfully.

"Aaand Kyo?"

"Oh, kitsune love transforming," he said dismissively. "Perhaps he'll even enjoy the practice of figuring out an illusory male form or something."

Mary sighed, putting her phone away. "I guess that settles it, then."
"Settles what?"

"If you and Kyo are joining, then so am I. Three people I can stand beats my catty new roommate any day."

"You mean to say you haven't made peace with her?" he said, surprised. "It's been weeks."
"She hasn't made peace with me. She's lucky I can control myself."
"Ooh, that bad?"

"Yep. Anyway—it's Nancy Tanner. Her family's ultra rich but somehow stays outta the news, mostly. Here's what I could find out..."

---

In Camilla's experience, Nancy had essentially two modes: "on" and "off". She was "on" most of the time, energetically running around, working on things, talking to people. But then she'd apparently spend so much time and energy doing that as to become entirely exhausted, and turn "off". That meant slowly slinking to the nearest comfortable seating (or her bed if her own bedroom was closest) and flopping down onto it, face-up, to silently stare into her phone.

She happened to come into the OZK lounge late Monday afternoon to find Nancy presently "off", lying across one of its many couches. "Hey, Nan," she said, continuing on toward a chair herself.
"Mmh."

From experience, it would be a little while before anything coherent would come out of that mouth. Camilla hadn't come for a conversation anyway; she just had some grinding to do in a game. So she got to work on that, and both of them were silent (apart from the game's noise, which didn't seem to bother Nancy a bit).

After a while, she said, "So, what do you think? Are we gonna get to keep this place?"

"Mmh. Most likely. Still plenty of time. Need...only four now. And two new prospectives already."

"Oh? When'd that happen?"
"Yesterday. Couple of people came to visit, Jay gave 'em a tour."
"Are they nice?"
"Dunno. Haven't met 'em. Jay liked 'em."
"Yooouuu...haven't met them? How'd they know a tour was available?"
"Jay told them." Nancy slowly turned her head to one side to look Camilla's way. "She assumed they had met me, and just seemed so incredibly happy to have done a good job showing them around that I couldn't bear to tell her otherwise."

"Weeellll theeenn...what'd Jay say about these two?"
"Apparently...it's a celestial who's totally full of himself, and a goth chick who claims to have apocalyptic powers."

"..'Kay?"
"Nevertheless, Jay liked them."
"She...might just be the kind of person who likes everyone. Unless they're actively in the process of punching her in the face."

"Oh, I've realized that. Obviously I'll meet the two of them myself, before offering to let them join. But they do, at least, sound, interesting," she said, turning her head upward again.