A Summoning, Part LIII

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Part LIII
~Hermit~

Bill sat up slowly in bed, lifting her legs a bit to free her tail along the way and felt the weight of some long, soft tresses of deep black hair falling about halfway down her back. The strange occurrences of the day before paled in comparison to that dream, followed by waking up in a body which seemed in every possible way to match the description "young woman". Still unsure whether any of this was even real, or if that strange dream was simply continuing, she obeyed an instinctive need to stretch, first reaching up toward the ceiling and then slowly arching herself backwards. "Mrr~rrh." A low purr rumbled in her throat as she slowly realized that her present posture could be the envy of some yoga experts. Then she pulled herself around and dropped off of the bed onto her feet. This...was feeling more real by the second, as the sunlight coming in through her bedroom window took away her lingering drowsiness.

"Pffh...heheh.." She turned her head downward to get a realy good look at herself, bringing her hands around to feel. "Well, ain't this a pretty big surprise. There's really nothin' down there...those are some real nice legs, though." She seemed to have retained all of the strength she'd had as an older man, which presented as some fairly solid muscle tone here and there. "And just look at these curves..and these knockers! Whoo! Not to mention...all this haaaiir...!" At this point her right hand made it up into those locks to brush through them. This was all, definitely, very much real.

"I believe I really do like this. Pretty odd, though—I must be half a foot shorter 'r more. Not to mention this tail..." At her command, it came around in front of her, landing in the palm of a hand and sliding down across it. "Mrr~rrh. Guess I really am part kitty cat or somethin'. I oughta get a good look at all this in a mirror!"

Feeling younger and more energetic than she had at any point the previous day—or, maybe the previous three to four decades—she scampered off to the bathroom to admire herself in the mirror, giving a few quick poses and feeling up certain parts of herself again with some light giggling. This was where she realized that her eyes had turned a bright, golden yellow, and some of her teeth had grown a little longer and sharper, becoming some feline fangs. A body this nice...well, it was hard to say if she could actually attract a woman like this, but it'd certainly attract someone anyway!

"Hmm." The catgirl slowly dropped her arms back to the sides. If this was real, that was wonderful, but it also introduced a lot of complications. Nobody who know 'Bill' would ever recognize the young, beautiful feline lady in the mirror as the same person! But then it occurred to her that the nice woman who'd helped her out the day before, with buying jeans...also sported the exact same sort of kitty ears and tail as herself. How she hadn't noticed them then was beyond her, but they'd definitely been there! So...she could fill out a sick-leave form online with the university, then head to the shop and hope to run into that person, who might know something about what she should do. Or, at least, might have some chance of believing her story.

That posed another minor issue, of course: Bill certainly couldn't go outside wearing only underwear and a shirt! She turned and headed for the chest of drawers in her bedroom, thinking to just make creative use of an oversized t-shirt and a belt to at least get decent, and found another surprise. The first t-shirt she pulled out...had shrunk! It was the same design and everything, but seemed perfectly sized for her new form. Looking deeper, she found shorts and—somehow—skirts that seemed made to fit her, too! There were entire dresses in her closet! And finally turning her attention to the underwear drawer, all of the male-fit undergarments had been replaced by lingerie not unlike what she had on now..plus plenty of bras that a quick little test seemed to suggest were fitted to her new bosom. So..that was at least one complication that her new looks created, which seemed to have somehow solved itself!

She could question how or why that had happened later, though. For the moment, the catgirl went off to the computer to file her sick day, deciding at the same time that a quick shower and breakfast could also precede heading out to try and find that mystery woman who might have some idea of what she could do to keep her job and identity in the wake of this drastic change to her appearance.

---

"Heey Jack."
"Uh—whoa! Hi." It took the werewolf a second to recognize the person who'd suddenly approached him out in the campus courtyards. The body, clothes, and face were the same, but his hair was a big floof out to his shoulders, and blue, his eyes were red, and he had the ears and tail—two matching tails—of a fox. "Llllogan?"
"Yeah, it's me." He sighed. "Look, I've already been through this with my roommate, so—I'm gonna try to speedrun this part. Late yesterday afternoon, I 'awoke'" (he used his fingers for airquotes with this word) "as a kitsune. Someone who was around to see it happen helped read me in on all this...magic and veil stuff. But, man—I already knew you had furry ears and a tail. I just had no idea why."

"Wha—really? Uh, how long—?"
"Since we've met." He crossed his arms. "I've been able to see this stuff since freshman year."

"Oh wow. Uh, I can't imagine. I mean—I've been, you know, a werewolf my whole life. Dude, I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine." He dropped his arms again. "I mean—I think I get it. It's supposed to be really important to keep this veil thing up, so, it's not like you had a choice. Aaaand I guess I did a pretty good job of hiding what I knew, too. So, look—let's put this behind us, and help me feel a little less weird and awkward about it. I just—have a tail now, and I guess some kind of fox superpowers."
"Okay, uh, sure."

"C'mon, let's walk and talk. I'm hungry."
"Oh, yeah—me too, dude." Logan led the way toward the cafeteria; that was where Jack had been headed himself.

"I'm a little curious about something, though, since that is out in the open now.."
"Oh, yeah, what?"
"I swear I'm not asking this to make fun of you—I've got some, uh, follow-up questions, is all. Your hot date last week...did she turn you into a girl?"

"Uh." Being asked flat-out like that, and being a terrible liar in the first place, Jack hesitated only briefly before deciding that honesty made the most sense. "Kiiindaaa? I mean, it's more—like, there's more to it than that. Like, she's an alchemist—you, know—"
"I know what an alchemist is, yeah. Makes magic potions and stuff."
"Right. So—she had this really specific one she wanted someone to test, and agreed to pay for a dinner..or, maybe more than one, if I did it. This potion, uh..like, you know how werewolves can change between a 'human' and 'wolf' form, right?"
"Let's just assume I understand that," he said with a slight nod.

"Yeah. It—lets a werewolf go between male and female the same way. Pretty much."

"So, you spent the date in that girl form...to, help test this potion?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Make sure it's stable and...stuff."
"Did you..enjoy the date that way?"

"Well, it wasn't any worse. I mean—she wasn't any less gorgeous. Or dominant, or...uh." He could feel a slight blush coming on when he thought about all of the physical contact...and the petting at the end!

"I guess I mean...being turned into a girl is, weird, right?"
"Yeah. Super weird. But..."
"You had to, because you were testing that potion? Or, you wanted to because she wanted you to?"
"I dunno. Maybe something like that. I'd have to say...by the end of the date, it wasn't so bad."

"You have another one coming up, right?"
"Oh, yeah, uh—this Friday, so—tomorrow," he said, needing a second to realize it was that soon already.

"Think she'll want you to be a girl for that one too?"
"I dunno? I kinda hope not."

"Have you..turned into a girl, since the date?"
"Uh. Yeah. Couple times. In my dorm room. You know, just—back and forth. I'd feel pretty dumb if she asks me whether it's still working the same and I've got no answer 'cause I never tested."

"Yeah, makes sense. Sorry for the weird questions."

"Uh, it's fine." It seemed like Logan had gotten whatever he wanted out of them anyway. "I mean—there must be a ton of stuff like that, that magic comes with, that seems super weird to you!"

"Yeah, man. I mean like—actual, literal gods that people can just, talk to?! Apparently fox people get to elect one, too..."

---

Thursday after sunset, Jess knocked on Prama's dorm room door. "It's me," she said after a second with no answer.
"Oh. Come in."

While she had officially changed roommates, Jess had 'conveniently' forgotten to return the key to her previous room—which was now Prama's alone. The little genius was fine with this, as it saved her the inconvenience of actually going to the door. So Zotha's high priestess let herself in, shutting the door behind her. Prama was sitting on her knees on the bed, arms around one of her stuffed animals, her head peeking past the top of it to see the portable console she was playing.

"What's up? News? Official business?"
"Uh, not really. I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"Well, I'm perfectly fine. No homework or studying left to do right now. Just finished a shift of alchemy." Aside from a brief glance or two toward Jess, her eyes were still glued to the game's screen.
Jess crossed the room to go sit in the computer chair. "You know, your answers get shorter and blunter when you're in a bad mood. Did you dislike last week's excursion that much?"
"Huh? No, I nearly forgot that happened. It was fun, actually."

"You want to go again?"
"I guess..but, not tonight."

She counted out fifteen seconds for her former roommate to say something else, then said, "You know I really do want to help out, right? I guess I can't blame you if you don't trust me these days."
"Don't start getting histrionic. We all get it—Zotha changed you into a nice and wonderful person, and Riana was always good, and Cameron's as clueless as ever, and Anika has no more of a backbone than before, despite her spine extending into no less than four separate tails now. So we're all alignment-good now."

"I think the intelligence you traded for has you smarter than me these days. I can't quite follow your point," Jess said. This was about half a lie, but Prama would feel better if she expressed her frustration properly instead of having someone else infer it.

The bespectacled girl sighed, pausing her game and lowering it slowly, turning her eyes Jess's way with a familiar, annoyed expression that said 'I'm onto you, but playing along anyway.' "I met someone new last Friday. Guy by the name of Logan. Anika told me this guy could awaken as a kitsune, so I thought I'd 'help him along'. The awakening turned him into a girl, and Anika helped her turn back."
"I'm following you so far," she said with a slight nod.

"She was obviously uncomfortable being a girl, and relieved to be back to normal. But I liked her that way, and felt disappointed when he'd turned back."

"Okay..?" Jess shrugged slightly.

Prama set her console down next to her. "...You remember what I wanted, back when you and Zotha were granting everyone's wishes."
"Certainly. Are you..disappointed with the results, after these past few weeks?"
"Hardly. But—maybe because of it, I can see beyond myself a little bit better than before. Only, all that's helped me do is realize that I'm fundamentally, immutably selfish.

"I wanted to feel one of Logan's tails, and I guess I bullied her into letting me do it. It was..it felt as nice as I thought it would." She ran a hand up and down the stuffed animal she was still hugging, then closed that hand around one side of it, moving her other hand to grab the other side. "When I really thought about it afterward, the reason I was disappointed she changed back, was because I thought it was a shame to lose someone—more like something—so cute and fluffy. Like she was mine in the first place to be losing." Prama's grip grew steadily tighter as she spoke, and at this point she lifted it up a couple of inches. "Ridiculous!" And in a surprising show of strength, she threw it across the room, making it hit the wall opposite the bed with a light thunk.

Jess turned her head toward the stuffed animal as it lightly landed on the floor, bouncing just once. Maybe throwing it across the room didn't require that much strength after all. Then she slowly turned back Prama's way to find her friend with her glasses off, wiping a few tears from her eyes with a sleeve. "Awwh, Prama...you're not so bad. Realizing there's something rotten about yourself is a step in the right direction! If you know what you want changed, then you can work to change it, right?"

"I have no idea how. My mind works how it works."
"I can at least try to help you. But, in the first place—what's so horrible about being selfish?"

Prama sniffed, visibly willing herself to stop crying so she could put her glasses on and glare back at Jess, hard.

"You need me. To explain that. To you?"

"I mean, obviously there is such a thing as taking it too far...but in the very first place, you said you wanted 'everyone you care about well taken care of'—wasn't that it? Caring about even a few other people, and wanting them to have better lives, is a much better form of selfishness than I had. And you're no 'spoiled-brat' type of selfish, either. You could easily get a steady supply of money and stuff from Zotha and me, but instead you want to earn everything by your own efforts, and even give something back. You even frowned at me every time I presented you with a little gift lately, just out of a sense of friendship."

Prama sighed. "That's just—I want to be self-reliant. I don't even trust you, or our wonderful goddess, to give me the things I want forever."
"You can't tell me you don't enjoy learning new things, and applying that knowledge."
"Yeah, sure. So—I do it because I like to."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that! As long as what you 'like to do' benefits other people, or at least doesn't harm them. There's nothing wrong at all with a little bit of mutual benefit."

Jess hopped off of the chair, went and picked up the stuffed animal, then brought it back over to the bed, placing it in front of Prama. "There's no need to be so hard on yourself. Just be honest."

Prama stared her down for a long moment, then sighed. "You still have the same way with words. And I can hardly keep a pity party up with you looking at me like that. Fine, honesty."

"Now tell me: Do you like Logan? As a girl, as a boy, whichever?"
"Uh. I don't know." She blushed, but shrugged forcefully.

"You wanted to feel one of her tails. Are they less fluffy as a man?"
"Nope."

"Well, then, you can be honest with him. Tell him what you told me, apologize if you have to. We've gotten to know quite a few people with fuzzy ears and tails lately, you know—maybe he actually enjoyed it, a little tiny bit?"

Prama's blush grew a little brighter. "Er—maybe. I guess it'd be better than making things more awkward between us. I still..want his help with my business idea. Mutual benefit—right." She nodded, slowly, leaning forward to pick up the stuffed animal into a hug again. "He'd make plenty of money too, if everything works out the way I've planned it..."

Jess smiled. "That's the spirit!"

---

Valoz came to the front of her business to open it, and found a potential customer already waiting outside: A pretty, dark-haired Neko girl wearing tight jeans and a t-shirt. "Hey, come on in. We're just now opening," she said, pulling the door opening and gesturing to come inside. "Not all of our workers are ready quite yet, but I can help you out if you need anything."

The catgirl regarded Valoz with a long stare that the Mammon had grown somewhat used to over the past few weeks—since that new goddess Zotha's ascension. She was pretty sure she knew what it meant by now, but let the other party make the first move. "Er, sorry. Ain't seen nobody living with blue skin before," she said, finally heading through the offered door. "Don't mean to be rude."
"Oh, that's all right. I'm the manager here, so—I'm in my office pretty often."
"Well, in that case—don't suppose you know of a lady who works for you, by the name of Graham? Kitty ears like mine, but white? Two tails?"
"I certainly do know who you mean, but if you're looking for her specifically, I'm afraid this is a day off for her," Valoz said. Thinking about it, this girl had the aura of that freshly-empowered Nekomata's magic practically seeping off of her.

The dark-haired Neko looked only briefly disappointed, before visibly getting an idea. "Oh, well—I suppose you might be able to help me all the same," she said. "Erh, how do I put this—I came in here yesterday to buy some jeans. This pair to be specific, actually," she said, gesturing to what she was wearing. "They fit me fine yesterday, and now they still fit me. Even though I seem to be some twenty or thirty years younger than I was..and of the opposite, ehh, persuasion?"

"I see...and I guess your tail must be an equally new addition?" Valoz said, and received a quick nod in response. There was a slight tendency for powerful foxes and cats to want to make 'more' of themselves out of unsuspecting humans...really, she wasn't certain if it was intentional or some kind of sneaky instinct one wasn't even aware of. Demons certainly didn't do this kind of thing! Whatever the case...this wasn't a problem she had to solve herself. "I can point you the right way, then. It might be tricky to change you back—that fur of yours is especially here to stay, I'm afraid—but there are some folks whose job it is to help people in situations like yours." While she spoke, she smoothly produced one of her own business cards and a pen, then scribbled an address and phone number onto a part intentionally left blank, pointing to it with a finger as she held it in front of the catgirl.

"I see...well, I can't say I'm disappointed if all this is here to stay," the Neko said with a bright grin. She gently took the offered card, staring at the part Valoz had written for a moment. "It'd just be awful inconvenient if I lost my job or liscense or such to it."
"Right, that's exactly the sort of thing they can help you with. It'll be best if you go to them as soon as you can," Valoz said. "Afterward, though—I hope you'll consider our store for any new clothes you need. We have a wide variety of options that support the presence of tails, horns, wings, and so on, which not every store knows how to accommodate."
"Ah, well, sure will. I appreciate it, miss Valoz," the catgirl said with a nod, turning and heading out.

The Mammon wasn't one to be disappointed by a lack of instant profit. At the very least, that now-young woman might feel a small pang of gratitude from the people who pointed her the same way...and, perhaps she had some unconscious understanding that it was Graham who had helped awaken her. If she regarded the new form as entirely a blessing, then surely she'd be back later, even if she didn't need any new clothes.

---

"So..I guess this must be the right place." Logan looked around at the group of people who, with his addition, threatened to overcrowd the little meeting room in the library. Anika was there 'wearing' the same very convincing illusion as their first meeting, plus two other kitsune, a tall guy with dark green hair and creepy lizard eyes, and a short girl with white hair and conspicuous feathered wings.

"That's right. Everyone, this is Logan," 'Andrew' said, gesturing. "Recently-awakened kitsune."
"Aww, you got to start with two? I just earned my second one a couple of weeks ago!" said the one obviously-female kitsune present.

"Some people just have more potential than others," the dark-haired one said gently. "Think about it this way: He didn't earn his first one until just now. Hey, I'm Steph," he added, offering Logan a hand to shake. "I hear you were stuck half-under the veil, too. Must've been a little rough."
"Yeah...you could put it that way," he said, taking the handshake. "Anyway—I just wanna be clear about this: I don't really get the appeal of messing with people, but Andrew helped me out, so I'm repaying the favor. When uh..I first 'awoke' or whatever, it turned me into a girl for some reason, and he helped me turn back."

"I know how that is," the green-haired guy said. "I'm Thomas, this is Stella," he added, gesturing to the girl with the wings, who gave an honest-to-goodness curtsy Logan's way. "Hey, why does that happen, anyway?" he went on to ask her.

"There can be a number of different reasons," the winged girl said. "In your case and mine, it's likely due to lady Zotha's involvement more than anything else. But more generally, it could have to do with one's subconscious, personal desires, or ancestry. Perhaps your kitsune descendants are all on your mother's side?" she suggested to Logan, tilting her head slightly.

"Uh, how would that even work? Like, my X chromosome specifically is part fox or something? Complete with encoding for light blue hair and red eyes?"

"The creation of one's soul involves those of both parents," Stella said, with the air of an experienced expert on the subject. "In that way, one's soul contains information about one's ancestry for quite a long way back—similar to one's DNA. Actually, it's more robust, since transformative magic can always alter DNA. However, any individual person can only be one thing at a time—there are no 'half-demons', or 'half-kitsune', or such."

"Uh, so—you're a 'celestial', right?" Logan asked. "Like, an angel person?" Stella nodded. "But, no halo?"
"Oh, I can have a halo if I want," she said, gesturing gently above her head to make a golden ring of glowing light appear there. "It's an easy enough illusion to make." The halo disappeared again.

"So, what if a celestial and a demon had a kid?"

"The child would most likely be either a human or demon."

"Wait, so, never another celestial?" Thomas asked.

"Oh, no," she said, shaking her head lightly. "Well, there are a few kinds of people who are 'celestial' in nature, with strong talents for that kind of magic—but 'true' celestials such as myself, with wings and intrinsic armaments, cannot be born. We are only created directly by Sol. Even two of my kind would only ever have a human child—or, in very rare cases, the child could awaken into something else in the womb or during birth, I suppose."

"Uh, okay, this is all really fascinating, but we're getting off track," Steph said. "So Andrew explained what we're trying to do, right Logan?"
"Basically—swap two buildings by changing their signs, and making portals that go between them. I assume this is perfectly safe?"
"Yeah. That was my condition for helping," Thomas said. "After the mess that rain caused..."

"The rain...wait, you mean on April fool's day?" Logan asked. "Was that you guys?"

"Just us three," Steph clarified, gesturing to herself and the two fox-people who weren't Logan. "And we only made it rain. The Ruler was the one with the bright idea to have the rain transform people with weak magic resistances."

"You're talking about the 'ruler of foxes', right? Like, the god?"

Steph nodded, "That's the one."
"She thought it'd 'help' Zotha," Anika added. "Or just wanted to give her some extra messes to clean up."

"Suuure, okay.

"Anyway—how, exactly, am I supposed to help with this? I've barely figured out how to do basic illusions at this point."
"Oh, that part is simple," Steph said. "Once we're all together on the day of the prank, and as long as you're willing, I just do a channeling spell so everyone present can donate magic to Andrew to help fuel the effect. It'll involve a lot of sitting around, and probably be slightly tiring having your power spent for a while like that. The method I'm using will stop pulling from you before it'd risk doing any harm. For a newbie like you, 'stretching' your power a little bit like that might even help you get a better feel for it."

"That's great, I guess. At least it'll help Andrew out, anyway."
"Right," 'Andrew' said, nodding. "A little more progress toward that tail."

"So—originally, this meeting was to decide on a day," Thomas said. "Now that the introduction's done, I guess we can still do that?"
"Yeah, of course," Steph said. "Everyone free tomorrow, early to mid-morning? Or at least, got a class you can survive skipping?"

After some brief discussion, they had a time and place hammered out. Steph seemed to have done his research, or just been lucky, to pick a Friday, since everyone could seemingly make it then. He and Andrew had scouted out an ideal location too, somewhere behind the two buildings to be 'swapped'.

On their way out, Logan decided to satisfy a small bit of curiosity he'd felt since meeting everyone. "So, uh, Thomas..."
"Yeah?" The green-haired guy was very tall, enough that even though Logan was back to his original height, he still had to tilt his head down to look the kitsune in the eyes.

"I'm, still really new to this stuff, so I dunno if it's offensive to ask, but...what are you, exactly?"
"Oh, Andrew didn't say? I'm a dragon," he said with a slight shrug. "Earth dragon, specifically. Guess it'd be more obvious if I wasn't practicing maintaining a 'human' form right now. Y'know, without the wings or tail. Or horns."
"Oooooh. Okay." Prama had told Logan that dragons were very rare, and he had the impression they were also extraordinarily, scarily powerful. "Cool. See ya."

---

So, both images of Bill's catgirl form were generated. I was impressed at how relatively easy it was to take an "almost there" image I had for the standing one in this part, which had a couple of details wrong, and just...have it fix those details.

A Summoning, Part LII

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Part LII
~Moon~

Prama began leading the way toward her dorm room. "You know how cults generally work, right?"
"I guess..?"

"What I mean is: They promise to solve all your problems, grant your wishes, make the world the way you want it to be—as long as you'll obey the leader without question. Ours pretty much operated that way. That promise might sound ridiculous when I say it, but Jerod's always been an extremely persuasive person, especially one-on-one."

"It doesn't sound like you ever bought it, though," the fox-girl said.

"Of course not. I always assumed that he had some way to make money off of the whole thing. At some point we'd bail with a bunch of people's cash or stuff. Or else, it'd turn into a more extreme version of a fraternity, where those of us on top could always count on the lower-ranking members to be our minions throughout life—something like that. I never imagined he really wanted to summon an actual demon lord. And I couldn't exactly say no when it was time to grab one of our former members and do the summoning ritual...around that time, I was mentally rehearsing a plea bargain in case Zeke pressed charges."

"But instead...what, you actually did summon a demon?"
"No, we succeeded in something way more absurd, and accidentally ascended Zeke to godhood. So—that's Zotha, our leader now. She took over by actually sitting every one of us members down, asking what we wanted out of the whole cult thing, and then actually granting those wishes. Starting with Jess, formerly Jerod."

Logan stopped walking about halfway into the second sentence, her head tilting hard, and Prama stopped at this point and turned around. "Something wrong?"
"Do people get ascended to godhood often?"
"Uh, no. Actually there's not very many of them, and the old ones were pretty surprised overall with Zotha. They've calmed down considerably since then...I've deduced that it's probably because they're actually more worried about something else. They don't seem to want to tell her what it is—maybe another, much worse god appeared, or something?"

The fox-girl sighed, then hurried to catch up again. "Who are these other gods, then?"
"Well, you have Sol and La Lune, of the sun and moon respectively; the god of love, who has like a dozen names or something; Bastet, goddess of dreams and apparently motherhood or parenthood; Ouroboros, a dragon god of greed and cycles. Aaand...the one you might want to worry about is the Ruler of Foxes. Apparently Kitsune were a type of demon a long time ago, but made some kind of agreement with the gods' help, so now they 'elect' one of their kind to fill the role of keeping a set of rules, and this somehow filters out the demonic part of their nature."
"You're telling me that demons are real, too."

"Right, of course," she nodded.

"So you guys tried to get a demon, and even though those exist, you got a goddess instead?"
"Also correct. But that might have to do with the fact that the way we were trying to summon a demon is absolutely nothing like how one would actually do it."

"So how do we vote for this 'ruler', exactly?"

"I don't know..I think only nine-tailed Kitsune are involved, actually? But anyway, the person filling that role right now seems to have been the Ruler since at least a few centuries ago, so I guess whoever does have the right to vote thinks she's doing a good job for now."
"And what are these rules I need to live under now?"

"Well...kitsune are generally known as tricksters. If there was a properly written-out list of rules, the first thing everyone would do is dig for loopholes. But some of it is apparently instinctual, and it seems like most of the really important violations have to do with 'cheating' to get more tails, or granting someone a tail who doesn't 'deserve' it."

"I guess nine is the maximum number of tails?" Logan asked, being at least vaugely aware of the relevant mythology.

"Right. Anyone with three more tails than you have can grant you another if you 'deserve' it. But that also means that if you have seven or eight, only the Ruler can decide whether you've earned the last two."

"Uh, so...the person who's elected by nine-tailed kitsune, gets to decide who 'deserves' to be a nine-tailed kitsune?"

"It's a little more complicated than that. The Ruler has to enforce the rules fairly and accurately, or else. So if the rules say you've done enough to get nine tails, she can't decide not to grant them."

At this point, they reached the dorm building, and Prama led the way up some stairs and down a hall before using a key to get them inside the room. "Well, here we are," she said, holding the door open and gesturing. Logan had to be very conscious of her tails to keep them from brushing across the other girl on her way through the narrow door. Once both of them were inside, Prama shut the door and turned on the light.

"Huh..." Looking around the room, Logan found a slight surprise.

"What?"
"It's just—this looks, I guess, a little cuter than I'd expect for someone who was male less than a month ago." There were dozens of stuffed animals all over the room, including a couple of especially large ones occupying most of the bed.

"Oh, well..." Looking at her, the fox-girl found Prama's cheeks slightly red for maybe the second or third time since they'd met. "Not long after I was changed, I found myself staring longingly through some store windows at them. I, made the mistake of telling Jess about it, and she started buying them for me—I guess half as an apology for going off to room with Zotha instead or something. I could only convince her to stop by saying I was running out of space here."

"Does that mean...that your mind was messed with somehow, when you turned into a girl?"

"Yeah. I mean—I asked for that. Like I said, Zotha was granting wishes, and I wanted to be a genius. That obviously involves messing with my mind, and she couldn't quite grant it for nothing, so I was willing to trade social confidence and, I guess you could say 'masculinity' to some extent, for that. The former is something I'm working to regain, but...I don't actually mind liking cute things," she said, shrugging. "Anyway, that's all very particular to me."

Despite this assurance, Logan was still a little worried about herself. She couldn't imagine ambushing Prama with a hug before she'd been turned into a fox-girl, but it had felt so natural that it had been nearly automatic after. And...being shorter and smaller with a high voice, having breasts, furry ears, and two tails...were all strange things about her present appearance that seemed to have already faded into the back of her mind unless she was actively thinking about it. "Uh, you—you said you know some people who can 'fix' this, right?" she asked, poking her chest with an index finger.
"Uh, right—there's a few ways, actually. I could buy a potion...but that'd be expensive, and take until tomorrow for me to do. Obviously Zotha could do it, or Jess by borrowing her power...hmmh." She tapped a finger on her chin a couple of times, then put that hand in front of her with that finger pointing upward. "No, you know what? This is Anika's fault for telling me you were close to awakening. So she can fix this. That's another of our leading members—wanted eternal youth, and Zotha made him a Kitsune to accomplish that. She's got four tails, but the Ruler cursed her for 'cheating' to get so many. At any rate, that's definitely enough power to transform you back to male, if you want it."

"Is this curse um...transferrable? Or anything?"
"Oh, no—it's very specifically her curse. You've got nothing to worry about there."

"That's...good."

"Um, anyway—we're just standing around awkwardly here. You want the desk chair? I can take the bed," Prama said, gesturing to each in turn. "I guess I'll call Anika to come help us out, and then..tell you anything else you wanna know, about Kitsune or magic stuff in general. I've had a chance to learn a pretty good bit of it over the past couple of weeks."
"Uh, sure."

---

Bill entered one of his usual haunts, went past the host to go sit at the bar, and ordered his usual. Even though the bartender served him fairly often, he sort of stared at Bill for a second or two before recognizing him. He laughed it off, saying, "Them beauty treatments must be workin'!" But this made it clear that Bill wasn't the only one who'd noticed something different going on with his hair. He laughed along, chatted with the other people sitting at the bar, ate and drank to his heart's content—finding that he had a little more of an appetite than usual, and ordering a dessert to help with that. Then he headed out to his car and drove home.

The rear-view mirror of his car wasn't ideal for examining his own appearance, so he decided to get a much better look in the bathroom mirror before getting started on his clothes. When he got there and looked, he found quite a shock. He jumped slightly at the sight in the mirror, paused to stare at it for a long time, then brought up his hands to try to feel for whether or not what he was seeing was really there—or if he was somehow hallucinating.

"Well I'll be...!" A full head of hair—dark hair, deep black like it had been when he was young, except for a few stray bits of gray here and there. It was a little bit thin right where he'd first started balding, but it was pretty much all there. The hair alone wasn't all, however; Bill's complexion overall looked noticeably more vibrant, his face sporting less wrinkles and worry lines than he'd grown used to seeing. Running his hands through that hair and all over his face found no contradiction with what he was seeing, either. "Somethin' real unusual is happening...but I'm not complaining. Hahaha!" He smiled at the man in the mirror, realizing that he'd felt younger too, decidedly more energetic, back at the bar. No part of him even seemed to be sore from the day's work!

Whatever was happening, he still needed clothes tomorrow. So he turned away from the mirror and went off to take care of the laundry. As he continued his work, he ran a hand through his hair periodically, and seemed to find it more full and voluminous than before a couple of times. He glanced in the mirror again a while later, and couldn't spot a single gray hair. The wrinkles seemed to have all but faded out too, leaving him looking like he had somewhere in his early thirties.

Bill went to work folding laundry a little while later. About midway through the task, he caught himself yawning for the fifth or sixth time. "Hoo-wee...guess I did work pretty hard today," he commented, hurrying to get the rest of it done and put away. "S'pose I could turn in early for the night..." This was punctuated with another involuntary yawn, so seemingly his body agreed.

By the time he finished his work, Bill found his eyelids rather heavy. In contrast to the sudden, inexplicable burst of youth and energy he'd increasingly felt all afternoon, his body seemed to have grown desperately tired all of a sudden, to the point where it felt like he might fall asleep where he stood if he wasn't careful. So he didn't bother fully changing clothes, instead just discarding everything but his boxers and shirt before collapsing into the bed and pulling the covers up across his body. He drifted off to sleep within only a few seconds of his head hitting the pillow.

---

"Well, there are werewolves—the person teaching me alchemy is one of those. Then there are celestials—basically angel people, complete with big feathery wings—neko, or cat people basically, Rabbits—capital 'R', but pretty much what it sounds like, rabbit people—I think oni and tanuki are real too. Oh, and dragons for sure—they're very, very powerful, but also extremely rare apparently. I know we covered demons existing before; do I need to go into all the varieties they come in?"
"Not really...uh." Logan had been watching Prama for the past minute or so, and had finally come to the realization that the odd motion of her eyes was actually matching that of Logan's own tails. She would watch one for a while, and then switch to staring at the other.

"Is something wrong?"
"Well, you're—kinda staring at my tails, aren't you?"

"Oh." The bespectacled girl blushed slightly, and nervously adjusted her glasses. "Sorry, it's just—I know you're not doing it on purpose, but that rhythmic movement back and forth..it's a little hypnotic. Aaaand part of me really wants to know what one feels like—they look exceedingly soft and warm."

Logan returned a skeptical look, bringing one of the tails up into her own lap for a second to look at and place a hand on. "...They're blue. Like, ice blue?" But it was quite soft, she noted as she let it free to go back behind her.

"That doesn't keep them from looking warm, with all that fluff...but, sorry—of course I wouldn't just grab any body part of someone else without permission."

Logan glanced over at one of the large stuffed animals occupying the bed with her. Prama would probably never admit to it—because it would feel like a very strange statement, if not an insult—but whatever part of her had started really wanting those things was likely the same one responsible for wanting to feel the fox-girl's tails. The expression she made when talking about how warm and fluffy they were was softer than her usual one, especially with the slight redness of her cheeks. What did it feel like for someone to touch one of her tails, anyway? She knew what it felt like to put her own hand on one of them now, but that was pretty different.

The Kitsune pulled her other tail up into her own lap, keeping it still. "Uh...here. You really wanna know what it feels like?"
"Er." Prama blushed a little brighter. Yes..expressions like that one made her look much cuter than usual, which was already cute enough. "Are you, sure you're okay with that?"
"Yeah, I guess. Just, like, run your hand up and down it a little. Gently. I am a little curious what that feels like myself."

"Well, if you're absolutely certain..." She got up, coming close enough to reach, and then gently ran a hand from as close to the base as she could reach over to the tail's tip.

"Mmh." Logan had been right about this feeling different from her own hand! Her tail spasmed slightly, the rest of her body following in a slight jolt, at the first touch; it was surprising even though she'd seen the hand coming, and somehow this seemed to enhance the sensitivity, like it was emphasizing just how close the nerves of that tail were to her spine. After that first jolt, however, the rest of the feeling of the hand brushing down her tail was oddly...pleasant. Calming, maybe?

Prama brought her hand back the other way along the tail, and Logan felt herself physically untense just slightly. This was pretty nice, actually. Maybe she'd been missing out all her life until now, not having a tail or someone to pet it. She gradually relaxed a little more, feeling the stress that had come on since transforming—maybe even some of the undercurrent she'd been dealing with since first seeing someone else with a tail—easing off, just for the moment.

She didn't really notice her ears lowering, or her other tail moving back and forth a little faster, until both of them were startled by a noise from Logan's throat. "Mrr~rrh." She jerked upright again suddenly, feeling her face grow warm with a blush, and Prama quickly took her hand off to let the freed tail quickly go back behind the kitsune, then took a couple of steps back.

"Uh, sorry—I guess I got carried away," she said, still blushing adorably.

"Er—no, it's fine. You, only did what I asked. A-anyway, it felt..good, I guess. Just, weird still! A-and really weird I just started making, what—some kind of fox noise?"

"I understand being part-animal can unavoidably come with some slight, err, animal instincts," Prama said, nodding.

"But, either way—I guess you were enjoying it too." Logan felt a tiny bit of unaccountable pride at the idea of someone else finding her tails pleasant to the touch.

"Err—if I'm being really honest, it was an exercise in self-control to not just, bury my face in that fluff." Prama had on the best version of that soft, cute expression for just a moment, before seeming to realize she'd fully admitted that out loud. "Um! N-not that I'd actually do that!"
"R-right..."

They remained in the same positions in silence for an awkward several seconds—Logan sitting there and Prama standing not far off—and the kitsune started to feel another urge to hug the other girl coming on. But before that could develop too fully, both of them were startled by a knock on the door.

"Hello, Prama? You in there?" said what sounded like a guy's voice from outside.
"Uh, y-yep! Coming in a second," she said, and hurried toward the door.

"What, did I interrupt something?" the visitor asked with a slight chuckle in his voice.

"Nope, we were just talking." She opened the door and gestured inside. "So—Anika, this is Logan," she said, pointing. "Like I said, the awakening did some things to his appearance."
"Anika?" the visitor repeated, coming inside. He looked like a fairly average guy, except for obviously sporting fox ears and a tail (just one?), like Logan did.

"Yes—I already told her about that, so you can drop the illusions in here." Prama's tone of voice sounded more like a command than granting permission.

"Fiiine." After a sigh, Anika's appearance suddenly, abruptly changed to that of a curvy girl with very long, snowy white hair. Logan perceived only as this shift happened that what she'd been seeing before was a very expertly-crafted illusion, but possibly something she could imitate with enough effort. "Yeees, this is what I 'really' look like," she said, in a now-obviously-female voice, to Logan, seeming to interpret the two-tailed kistune's staring as meaning something specific. "At least until I earn another tail and get rid of this stupid curse."

"Oh—I see," Logan said. Prama hadn't said exactly what her friend's curse was, but this one did seem pretty bad. Would it make her sympathetic to Logan's present problem, or spiteful that she could be turned back? "S-so uh..you, wouldn't mind helping me turn back into a guy, would you?"
"No, it's fine. Done it before," Anika said with a slight shrug. "Let me know when you're ready. I guess I should fix your clothes too—a guy wearing that would look pretty bizarre."

"Uh.." The blue-haired fox-girl took a second to look down at her clothes, suddenly remembering that they weren't something she usually wore. Yet another thing about this new appearance that had faded into the background. "R-right. This was a t-shirt and pants before, you know."
"I can do that too. Ready?"
"Um. Sure?"
"Here you go, then."

Anika gave a slight wave of her hand vaguely in Logan's direction, and the two-tailed kitsune immediately felt an immense pressure—the other fox-girl's power. She could try to resist it, but it felt like far too much to do more than struggle uselessly against. Prama had said that kitsune gain more power with more tails, which presumably made Anika twice as powerful as Logan was right now. Regardless, she knew what this was supposed to be doing, so she didn't resist it.

"Aah—mm~rrrh...!" There was some pushing and stretching. Logan's recently-gained breasts and curves flattened out, her body quickly growing taller as her clothes shuffled around on her. "O~ooh..mm~mmh..!" Her voice deepend back towards a more familiar male tone, and then, finally, there was that push as Logan actually did turn back into a man. He gasped slightly, and panted briefly as the change completed, his body settling back into more or less the build he'd had that morning. Except—of course, his tails were still there, and the fur on his ears, and his hair hadn't gotten any shorter or less blue. "...Phew." He got up.

"Thanks, seriously. I guess you know, but that was really weird for me."
"No problem. But if you really wanna thank me..." Anika paused, and shook her head slightly. "No—don't think of it as that, but more of an offer. A couple of other kitsune are working on a big prank with me, could always use another hand. It wouldn't take much effort or thought on your part at this point, and it'd help me make progress toward that tail I need."
"Uhh, maybe?" Prama had explained that kitsune were all about pulling pranks, and could earn tails that way, but he hadn't expected to be pulled into that the very instant he met another one.

"Well, I can explain it later if you'd like; Prama's got my number. Just don't take too long to decide."

"Uh—right." Reminded of her presence, Logan looked back at Prama again. She looked so small from all the way up here...and her expression betrayed a tiny bit of disappointment that she was probably trying to hide. "Hey, uh, thanks to you too, Prama. Seriously. It's...a huge relief to actually get an explanation for all this. I guess being a kitsune won't be too bad, either."
"Uhm." She blushed slightly again. "S-sure, no problem. If you need some more help with your homework, I'll be available." Then, addressing Anika, she said, "I pretty much told him all about how to be a kitsune, but I guess you could help fill in anything I missed?"

"Yeah, sure."

---

Bill had a very strange dream. It was just an unfamiliar woman's voice saying: "You sure you want this? Oh...you really do." The voice sighed slightly. "Well, fine then."

That seemed like the end of the dream at first; he felt fully awake and aware, but he opened his eyes to find that he was standing up, and didn't feel properly sleepy the way someone should right after awakening. The area around him was dimly lit and sort of nondescript; he didn't have much time to try to take it in or make sense of it anyway.

He had "woken up" to a feeling of warmth, something wrapping around his body. It was pleasant, gentle yet firm, and curiously reminded him of a mother's embrace. It rapidly grew stronger in the brief time it took him to open his eyes and start to notice what was happening, and then he shuddered as the warmth gave him a spurt of fuzzy tingles all over. He turned his head downward, and felt long hair falling down all around his face as if it had been precariously stacked atop his head a moment earlier. He witnessed the effect of the tingling on his arms, legs, and what his shirt let him see of his chest, as his body hair visibly thinned and shortened, vanishing away in each of those areas. At the same time, he could feel the locks from the top of his head trickling farther downward, starting to touch his shoulders.

"Aah..!" The warmth surrounding Bill took on a sense of pressing and squeezing—not unpleasant, but slightly startling, making him jump and softly cry out just once. This, too, had an obvious effect on his appearance: Before his eyes, his belly sucked itself in, turning from pudgy to flat; his arms and legs pulled themselves slimmer; his frame collapsed inward, his shoulders narrowing. Even though the 'place' he was in was sort of vague and blurry, looking up and around him briefly gave him the clear sense that everything was rising quickly upward. He was getting smaller and smaller...! And it felt nice!

"O-oh..mmh, m~mh, mm~mmh.." His shirt fell loosely around his collapsing frame as his voice came out in some more soft mumbling, its tone shifting with each utterance. "Aa~aah..." He could hear the masculinity vanishing from it, and the pressing, squeezing warmth seemed to be pushing it out of his body, too. He was getting smaller and softer—cuter! His heart raced as this realization began to hit him, his face warming with a blush; the fuzzy, tingly feeling faded off from most places now, but grew stronger between his legs, driving some excitement down there even as he felt that part of him noticeably shrinking.

The weight of Bill's hair gently slid its way out to halfway down his back. The squeezing eased off, his body's shrinking slowing to a halt, and he was left still feeling soft and fuzzy, and even more excited than before. "O-o~oh..mmh, mm~mMMmh..!" A low, yet very feminine alto rumbled through his throat as the tingling between his legs progressed into a sort of slipping sensation. At the same time...his ears erupted in a sharp burst of fuzzy tingles, and began stretching outward and upward, easily pushing their way past his hair as they grew. "M-mrh..mro~owh..!" The noises from his mouth changed slightly in response to this, becoming decidedly more...feline?

"A-aah..!" The slipping between Bill's legs gave way to a sharp tug, and a high, soft cry came out from his throat in reponse to this. "Aah, aa~aah..!" Another couple of tugs were accompanied by a sudden rush of tingling, stretching feelings out from the base of his spine, as a tail began to make its way out to match his big, fuzzy ears. "M-mewh~!" A high, cute kitty noise came out with the next tug, and then: "M-mr~rrOO~OOO~WWHHhh...!" Bill felt the last of his manhood melting away, a deeply, intensely pleasant feeling that made his whole body weave and wriggle around!

"M-mm~mmhh..o-o~ooh...!" This was followed immediately by a very pleasant, fuzzy feeling down between her legs, as the new girl felt several more things changing at once. Her hips pressed out, her bottom growing larger and softer, and her thighs puffed out thicker, too. At the same time, her underwear pulled rapidly tighter, its material softening as its leggings vanished and it pulled snug and flat down between her legs.

"M-mrr~rrrRRR~RRrrrh...!" She let out a deep, satisfied purr as her shirt shrank, splitting itself apart straight down the middle, and—more importantly—she felt her nipples raising themselves up taller and wider, then pulling themselves forward, driving the growth of a bump from underneath each of them. "M-mewh..! O-o~ooh...!" Those bumps grew out bigger and fuller, rapidly blossoming out into a full pair of breasts, and giving her more fuzzy, girly feelings down between her legs the entire time! "A-aa~aah...mrr~rrrh..!" Finally, with one last little push, the new girl's breasts settled out to their full size, a nice match for the rest of her body's gentle curves.

She was left panting in place for just a moment, and then slowly found herself collapsing backwards, falling through air that seemed to have been solid ground a moment ago, and then landing softly, gently onto a bed...

"M-mrrh..?" Bill woke up from the strange dream to the warmth of the early-morning sun on his(?) face, and confronted a brief sense of disorientation. His body...her body suddenly felt awfully strange. Some tiny, soft underwear was pulled close between her legs, making the lack of a familiar thing down there extremely obvious; the weight of her covers pressed down on some quite unfamiliar curves. Not to mention, her ears were fuzzy and mobile, as was a brand new appendage coming out from behind her lower back and partly pinned beneath her upper legs. "M-mh..?" And the low, womanly voice coming from her throat was odd, too.

She quickly tossed the covers off of herself, then wriggled around slightly in the struggle to fully wake up before trying to open her eyes. "M-mewwh...hooowaa~aaah.." She made a very feline sound first, then yawned, starting to stretch herself out..starting to remember the dream she'd just had.

A Summoning, Part LI

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---

Part LI
~Hanged Man~

Prama looked at the green, slightly-glowing potion in the water bottle, and thought about the events of the previous Thursday night. Does this make me a hypocrite? she wondered briefly, before shrugging. Doesn't matter, I'm doing it anyway.

Over the past couple of tutoring sessions, she'd observed that Logan liked to drink bottles of those sporty drinks that were supposed to replenish people's electrolytes, but which also had ridiculous neon-glow colors and were probably as full of sugar as any soda could ever hope to be. So she bought one from a vending machine with a greenish color that was a close enough match, and now—late Tuesday night in her room—she did a little bit of what people unaware of magic might sarcastically call "alchemy." She dumped around one-quarter of the drink's volume out into the sink, then replaced that with the magic-refill potion, and then tightly closed the drink's cap. It might taste a little bit weaker this way—she knew the potion itself tasted like slightly sweetened water—but not strange enough to draw any real suspicion.

The idea was very simple: This amount of potion would be more than enough to fully recharge a relatively average magic-user. The typical effect would be that person feeling a slight rush as the overflow naturally and harmlessly left them. But—if her theory was right—anyone sufficiently close to awakening as, say, a Kitsune, would find that overflow directed into helping complete that near-awakening into a full one. Even most people with some sort of potential wouldn't actually have this happen; a person would need to be only a short time away from inevitably and naturally awakening all on their own for this particular method to work. Anika had said Logan was 'extremely close', however, so Prama was pretty sure he fit the latter category.

If anything, she was saving him the inconvenience of awakening in a more public location, and/or when nobody was around who knew anything about the veil or could help him make sense of what had just happened. Or, if it didn't work, then she'd know Anika had been wrong or lying or that 'extremely close' didn't mean what Prama had thought it meant. In that case, she'd provided him with a free drink, and if she thought it worth the trouble to try again with a different potion later, he'd be even less suspicious then. At any rate, this quarter-potion drink wasn't capable of doing any harm—or at least, not any more than something composed entirely of the original sports drink would've been.

---

From overhearing the students' chatter as they walked the campus sidewalks and lawns, and even the occasional chat between faculty or staff, one could get the impression that absolutely everyone was happy with the results of the strange prank that had coincided with a rainstorm on April 1. However, there was one group of people who were not happy at all, and wished among themselves that someone would catch whoever was responsible and, at the very list, bill them. That group would be those who had to clean up the mess.

The flags, banners, and posters on the corkboards weren't really a problem; they was mostly taken care of by the students themselves, with so many deciding to take them down to keep as souvenirs. Erasing chalkboards and whiteboards was no difficulty at all, and usually the responsibility of whoever was teaching a class in that room first. However, the custodial staff still found plenty of scraps and other bits of mess all over the place, and the most longstanding mess was the one which the groundskeepers had to deal with.

Bill came back from his lunch break, which he had spent most of purchasing some fresh jeans, to a report that still more of those accursed flags had been discovered. They were evidently supposed to have popped up during the rainstorm, but several of them hadn't—and when it wasn't the automatic sprinkler systems setting them off, it was a small batch of them all in one area popping out of the ground at once, usually startling or tripping someone in the area. And then they had to get out the shovels and look very carefully around for any more of those little holes that indicated the presence of an unpopped flag.

As one of the lead groundskeepers, it had been Bill's responsibility for the last week-and-a-half or so to go wherever a new flag was reported, verify that it was one of the originals that had been buried in the ground rather than some imitation stuck shallowly in from above (because a few students were doing that too!), and then go help them look around and dig them out. He'd ruined one of his few good pairs of jeans working the shovel to try to get one of them out just a couple of days ago.

Well, Bill was proud that he worked for his pay, so as soon as he got the report, he took a company golf cart out to the site, had a quick look around, pointed out a few little divots that needed to be dug out for flags, and then cursed alongside the younger, lower-ranking groundskeepers as they all got shovels out of the back of the cart to start digging away. One of them asked if he was getting too old for this kind of work, and he just laughed. "I ain't too old 'till I get a heart attack!" he said, making the first strike into the earth.

The flags weren't all that deep. Digging out just a little bit of ground really wasn't that much work. The real pain was what came after: Putting the earth back like it was, making it level, replanting fiddly little patches of grass, and doing everything they could to ensure the scars on the lawn would no longer show. As they got through step one of that process, Bill actually felt a little less tired and sore than usual. Maybe all the digging he'd been doing since April fool's day counted for exercise, he thought. Whatever the case, he kept on going, doing the work alongside his juniors.

About an hour and half later, they were done. Usually all of the bending over that was involved in this part of the job had him well and truly out of breath by this point, but Bill was actually feeling better than when he'd started. Not one to question a blessing, he told the other guys that they'd done a great job, got the cart all loaded up again, hopped back into it, and then started driving it back to where it belonged.

Thankfully, the rest of that day was fox-flag free. Bill got to go back to his more routine kind of work, which was a little bit less physically demanding. He usually hit a wall of exhaustion around an hour before quitting time, but today seemed to be an especially good day for him. He could swear he was less tired by that time than he'd been when he left for lunch—shoveling up the flags and all!

On his way out from work, an office worker he said hi to nearly every morning asked him if he'd started using that "touch of gray" stuff on his hair, and he laughed—thinking she'd been joking. But when he got to his car and glanced in the rear-view mirror, he had a slight shock. His hair did look a lot darker than usual, and maybe a little bit more full, the bald patch not as big. He shook his head—it had to be a trick of the light. Bill possessed the unfortunate sort of genetics that made a man start balding by age forty, and he knew that balding didn't work in reverse. Anyway, he had more important things to worry about, like heading off to get a drink and some food, and then back home to launder his clothes, including the day's purchases.

It'd be nice, though, he thought—if he really could be ten, twenty, thirty years younger. That really would be something wonderful!

---

Prama had arranged to meet with Logan on Wednesday afternoon to receive his "payment" of demonstrating his skills. She'd suggested that they could meet outside this time, since the weather was nice and all he was doing was showing her a mock-up website on his laptop. So she sat next to him on a bench in a relatively isolated space between two of the campus buildings, letting him go through the pages in order.

"So, this is the 'store'," he said, pointing. "I know, the items make no sense and the prices are ridiculous—I was just messing around."
"That's fine. Would you know how to actually make a real online store functional? Secure? Anything like that?"
"Uhh, well, I'm familiar with what companies you'd want to buy those services from," he said, shrugging. "I am seriously not a security expert, but I know enough to know who's got a good reputation."

"That's helpful. It's good to admit what you don't know or can't do, right?" she said, half-repeating some advice from their tutoring.

"Hah, yeah.."

She could tell: He still wasn't sure whether she was attracted to him or not. She'd sat next to him to help him with his math earlier, but in a separate chair; now the bench was only wide enough to allow a slightly respectful distance between them, which she maintained. Maybe Logan was attracted to her, maybe not—but his level of uncertainty about her intentions was hopefully enough to distract him that little bit more.

"I guess these are just stock images, but—if you needed to, you could take pictures of a product, right? Or make some kind of graphic to represent them?"
"Yeah, sure. I'm not a full-blown graphic artist, but I know how to work a photoshop," he said with a shrug.
"What about making a form for text to go into? So just the owner of the website can read it after, or reply to."
"Uuhh, I think that'd be easiest to make as an email thing," he said, shrugging. "You know, you can make a form where you put in your address, type your message, and then the website is configured so that message shows up as an email from that address, to whoever. And that way you can reply directly to.." He paused, clearing his throat softly. "Ah, sorry."

"It's fine, I've had you doing a lot of talking," Prama said. "Hang on.."

She bent over, digging around in her backpack for a moment, and produced the bottle she'd prepared the night before. "A machine gave me this the other day when I asked for bottled water..you want it?" she said, partially opening the top before he could see whether it had still been sealed or not, then offering it over toward him.
"Uh..." Logan looked from the drink to her for a second or two, just long enough for her to wonder whether she was onto him, but then he said, "Sure," and took the drink, chugging some of it before closing it and setting it down again. "Anyway, mostly with a form like that you need to be careful about injection, uh...stuff. Like, people entering commands for the website to do nasty things as their message, and for some reason it obeys them? More security stuff I don't really get all that well, but there's some standard tools that're supposed to filter all of that out for you too."
"It seems like a lot of web development is taking and using things other people built," she observed.

"Yeah, kinda. I get the impression sometimes that that's basically how you do any software, in the modern day."

"Well, there's no reason to fix what isn't broken, I guess," she said.

Watching him during this exchange, Prama didn't really see anything happening. Definitely no fox ears sprouting, at least. But Logan huffed out some air at this point, and grabbed the front collar of his shirt, flapping it a little bit to fan his torso. "Hooh..sorry, feels like it's gotten a little hotter out," he said.

Prama didn't feel any difference in temperature at all, but said "Yeah," kind of noncommittally, watching him reach for the bottle and take another long chug of it. If his first swig hadn't given him enough potion to overflow his magic, this one definitely did.

"Aah," he let out after the drink, sounding relieved. "Uh, anyway, I'm trying to stay up-to-date with the latest..uh...the..." He trailed off, looking distracted.

"Logan? Are you okay?" she asked.

"Uh..I-I dunno, I still feel hot..and kinda weird." He bent well forward to set his laptop down on the ground, sat back up, and put his hand up to his forehead for a moment to feel for a fever. "Uh..ugh.." He dropped the hand, shivering slightly, and Prama caught sight of the first visible sign that he was awakening: The color of his hair shifted to a bright shade of blue, seemingly as a wave coming out from its roots to its tips which went beyond the locks' original lengths, making them grow a few inches longer to accommodate this new color's needs.

"Ah..I...urgh.." Logan squirmed in place, panting softly, as his hair slowly grew out a little bit longer still. However, a more notable change began a second later, as his facial hair vanished away, and his ears, now sporting a few patches of light-blue hairs on them, started to poke out past that growing hair. He looked over at Prama, bringing a slightly-shaking hand up to touch some light blue hairs that were now framing his face at the sides, and said, "Uh..g-got a weird question. Are m-my ears...uh..?" Prama just nodded in reply. "Oh..g-great...hffh.."

At this point he gasped, then let out the air in a distressed "Aa—aagh...!" This came with Logan's body suddenly shrinking, losing at least half a foot of height all in one go. His frame collapsed inward, his arms visibly thinning and his pants loosening around his legs as they did the same; his face visibly shrank and softened into a rounder, cuter shape that fit much better with the longer locks of hair surrounding it. Then he shuddered, struggled as if against some invisible restraints, and began shrinking again, more slowly and steadily this time. "Aah, aa~aah.." His voice cracked and squeaked, its pitch shifting upward as his Adam's apple started disappearing from his neck. This whole time, his ears were still slowly growing bigger, the hairs taking over more and more of their surface and becoming more proper fur.

"Aaa~aah...m-mnngh...!" As his ears finished growing out into two big, fluffy vulpine triangles, their fur the same color as his hair other than their inner fluff and tips begin white, Logan's shrinking finally slowed to a halt, leaving him a very slender guy with narrow shoulders and slim arms and legs, and only a few inches taller than Prama was herself. "U-ugh...wh-wha~aat..?" His face flushed red as his voice refused to come out in anything lower than a high, barely-male tenor tone. She could see the color of his eyes slowly brightening from brown to red as he squirmed around in place a little, trying to pull his now-oversized shirt back onto a shoulder it had slipped off of, only for it to slide off of the other one. "I-I...a-agh..!"

The issue of his clothes seemed momentarily forgotten as he suddenly hugged himself tight. "Mrrrh—yip!" A high, soft animal-like noise emerged from his lips at the same time as a tail shoved itself out from his lower back, easily finding its way out between the bottom of his shirt and the top of his pants. It was colored the same as his hair and ears, with a much lighter blue on its back fifth or so, and it rapidly grew longer and fluffier now that it was out into view. At the same time, Logan shuddered one more time, his blush growing brighter, and let out a high, soft "M-mrr~rrr~rrh...!" Then it was "Ah—aah—AAH!" with the last one coming out in a voice too high for any male vocal chords. Prama judged by what happened next that this was the point where Logan's sex changed.

"M-mmnh..!" Her tail finished growing out to its full size as she squirmed her upper legs against each other, then nervously pulled the top of her pants and underwear up to look—probably forgetting entirely that she had an audience. "I-it's..I-I'm..mmh..w-wah!" No sooner had she let go of the pants than there was a sudden puff of blue smoke around her entire body, startling both her and Prama. The smoke instantly replaced Logan's ill-fitting shirt with a kind of kimono-dress-thing, white with dark blue trim, complete with a blue sash around her waist that was tied into a big ribbon on the back. Said dress barely covered down to her upper thighs, and the smoke had left her with apparently no pants, so her slim, smooth legs were completely exposed by this wardrobe change.

"W-wha..!?" Another tail sprouted from the fox-girl's back at this point, and her eyes fluttered shut. "A-aah..m-mngh.." Her hips and thighs visibly pushed out a little thicker, and a pair of small bumps pushed out the part of her new outfit above the sash. "M-mrr~rrh..." Her ears lowered, pointing out to either side; both the full-grown tail and the one that was still on its way out wagged back and forth; and her blush shone its brightest yet. "A-a~aah..m-mrrr~rrrrh..." Logan's voice deepened ever-so-slightly, leaving it a little deeper and more mature-sounding than Prama's was. "Mngh..a-aa~aah..." Her small bust slowly, steadily grew out bigger and bigger, at the same time as her second tail steadily grew longer and fluffier. The two seemed almost linked to each other, and, indeed, appeared to finish growing at the same time. "Mrrh..o~ooh.." Logan slowly untensed as her mid-sized bosom bounced gently into place, her second tail now a perfect match for the first one. For a second or two, she breathed in and out, looking calm and, perhaps, satisfied.

This calm did not last very long. She blinked her eyes open, looked down at herself for a second or two, and then her ears popped straight upright and she jumped off of the bench. "Wha—wha..!?" Her hands hurried down to make a vain effort to pull the hem of the dress lower; the enormous sleeves around her arms wound up covering her legs better than it did.
"Uh, Logan, waaait a second—don't panic," Prama said, quickly dropping to her feet herself.
"What did you put in my drink?!"

"Uh—what do you—?"
"Don't play dumb with me!!!" She went and violently grabbed the bottle in one hand, pointing at it with the other. "You gave me a drink, and then I turned into—what!?—A fox girl?! I know what correlation is!"

"Okay, okay! There was something in it, but..that result was still very unexpected," Prama said, resisting the urge to mention causation. "Could you lower your voice a little please?"
"Fine—fine!" she said, the second one coming out as an extremely emphatic near-whisper. "So what was it supposed to do, turn me into a frog or something?!" this question came with her emphatically throwing the bottle backwards over her shoulder.

"No, it's—that kind of potion doesn't even do much of anything usually," Prama said.

"Potion!?!?" Logan hissed, waving her arms up and down excitedly.

"Oh, whoops—uh, one thing at a time.

"Look—you're a Kitsune. You know, a fox spirit?"
"Is that how it works? Have I always been one and just didn't know it?"

"Well, no—but you were already really close to becoming one, and the potion helped. I, don't actually know why you turned into a girl Kitsune exactly, but the potion didn't do that."
"Wha—then what did!?"

Prama crossed her arms, trying to think quickly. "Uuhh, well, magic awakenings like that come with a brief burst of power for the person being awakened. Some physical changes happening—beyond the necessary, like a Kitsune having fox ears and a tail—aren't that unusual. So, logically, the only power that could've done that part was your own."

"Why would I do that!?" she said, trying to use her hands to point at herself, bumping both of them into her new breasts, and quickly pulling them back off them, her face flushing red again.

"I don't know..I'm not saying it was necessarily your conscious will or anything," Prama said with a shrug. "But anyway—I do know some people who can fix that, actually."

"That's great I guess, but—whyyyy did you want to 'help me' 'awaken' as a 'Kitsune'," she said, making deliberate air-quotes with each phrase, "in the first place!?"

"I..thought it'd be the easiest way to help you come out from the veil," Prama said.

"Is that what it's called? People having weird traits like fur and wings, and magic obviously existing, and nobody talking about it?"

"I..guess that's one way to put it," Prama said.
"I already knew about that!!!" the blue-haired fox-girl shouted again, flapping her arms excitedly enough for the gigantic sleeves they were in to produce a gust of wind.

"Oh. But you—" Prama paused, engaging her genius mind for a moment. From Logan's apparent ignorance about the details of magic, and the way she had just described her own experience of the world... "Wait, do you mean to say that you noticed magic was real, but never asked anyone about it once you did?"

"Only for three years! What was I supposed to say? 'Hey man, why do you have a tail?'" she said in as low a tone of voice as she could manage, trying to imitate how her male voice had sounded. "I'd look crazy, and for all I knew someone would lock me up or kill me for knowing too much!"

"Uh, well, the veil doesn't work like that. Don't you think you'd hear of a lot more 'mysterious disappearances' if it did?" Prama said.

"I don't know! HowamIsupposedto know!?"

"Ssshh! I understand you're freaked out, but you're being really loud again. Uh, look—you did get two tails, and Kitsune are more powerful with more tails, so you should be able to just make both of us invisible and inaudible, and then you can yell at me all you want."
"How do I do that?"
Prama shrugged. "I don't know, but apparently things like illusions are supposed to come naturally. Feel for it, I guess?"
"Feel for...hmngh." Logan crossed her arms, making a visible effort to concentrate, and then in a puff of blue smoke, she vanished.

"Uh, that worked—I can't see you," Prama said. "Or—hear you, if you're saying anything right now."
The fox-girl reappeared in another puff of blue smoke. "Okay, so—"
"Just do both of us this time?"

"Yeah, okay. I'll just...uh." She made a vague gesture Prama's way, and this time the puff of blue smoke appeared around both of them, but with no effect that Prama could actually perceive. "..Did that work?"
"It should have if it felt the same for you, but I can't actually tell. I guess we'll know if you start yelling again and someone comes along to check on us."

Logan grabbed her ears in her hands and pulled them upward. "Aauuugh this is so weird! I guess it's nice you know someone who can at least make me a guy again, but I guess I'm just stuck with having fur for the rest of my life!?"

"Well, I think Kitsune can actually 'hide' those parts...I'm not sure whether you still feel like the fur is there or not," Prama said, while Logan let go of her ears, dropped her hands, and visibly took a few deep breaths to try to calm herself down.

"I-it's , I guess I can get used to it when apparently so many other people do. I-it's not all bad, if it apparently comes with superpowers..but how do you know all this stuff anyway?"

"Well, one of my friends is a Kitsune," Prama said. "Also—I guess you're not planning on staying that way, but I do know from experience what it's like to be, er, newly female."

"Oh, yeah—'cause you were part of that cult, right?" the fox-girl said, pointing at her for a second. "I guess you're one of the people who changed because of that. No wonder you were acting kind of weird for a girl."

"No, that's just how I am. And I wasn't just part of the cult, I was one of its leaders. In fact, the main guy was my roommate, and also happens to be one of those rich friends I said I have? Well, the new leader basically changed everything about most of us." Prama sighed. "Now we're all supposed to be nice and good like her. But I guess I'm not very capable of being 'good'. I'm just as selfish as ever, and can't even think about doing anything that won't personally benefit me."

Prama caught sight of Logan watching her with a slightly tilted head as she turned her own face away, feeling an unexpected formation of some tears in her eyes. She sniffed, and then: "Wah—!"

Suddenly, and very unexpectedly, the blue-haired Kitsune had come up and grabbed her into a hug. "U-uh..wh-what're you..?!"

"I don't know! Y-you looked really sad, and I just..u-um.." Logan paused to try to explain herself better, but instead realized something aloud at the same time as the other girl: "Y-you're hugging me back..t-this feels really weird as a girl..!"

"Um..s-sorry.." Prama let go. The sensation of the fox-girl's body against hers was nice, and a part of her actually wanted to touch the fluffy, warm-and-soft-looking fur of her ears, or even one of those tails, but she knew better. Logan gently let go of her and hopped a couple of steps back, her face entirely red again.

"N-no, it's fine. I mean, that was me, even if I don't really know why? Some kind of uh, fox-person thing, you think?"
"I uh..probably not..."

"A-a-anyway! I don't think you're that bad. You decided to help me out as soon as you thought I had a problem, right? And, you really didn't expect 'awakening' me to go like this," she said, pointing at her bust with one index finger.

"I didn't, but—the only reason I wanted to help you was to advance my own plans. Which, included needing you out of the veil to do it..."
"Still! You are the first person out of all of the..magic, whatever, stuff, people I know...to actually even try to tell me what's been going on! You have no idea how much of a relief it is to know I wasn't going crazy! A-and, I mean..superpowers, right? Maybe you can tell me a little more of what you know about that? Or uh, magic stuff in general..?"

Prama took her glasses off and wiped a few leftover tears off of her face with a sleeve. "Sure—I don't mind. I can..explain what I wanted your skills for while I'm at it, and...it's up to you if you want to help me or not with that. But—maybe not somewhere so public. I uh..don't actually have a roommate right now, so we could just use my dorm room?"
"Uh.." Logan hesitated briefly, blushing again, but then nodded. "Sure..that's fine. After that, maybe you can call someone to turn me back into a guy..."
"Right, of course," Prama nodded, although a part of her thought that it would be a huge shame...

---

Yes, another generated image. I did do a tiny bit of actual editing to this one; one of the teeth had a weird vertical line going through it, so I removed that. Otherwise, I'm still amazed that an image this good showed up.