1.26: Chew ToyWhen we left Natalia-sama’s store, I felt utterly ridiculous. She led us to her compact little car, decorated head-to-toe with advertisements from her atelier… just like how she’d pstered my butt with her logo. I was certain she’d never pass up an opportunity for publicity. She would do anything to succeed.

  Well… anything morally acceptable. I couldn’t imagine her doing anything evil. She radiated pure warmth. As Rickey had said, she was like the sun itself.

  She drove us uphill through several narrow streets while bsting American music through the stereo. Loud, punchy, hyper-aggressive beats thudded through the car. I couldn’t understand a single word of the lyrics, only that the singers sounded furious and the drums wanted to demolish my spine.

  Still… I seldom got to ride in cars like this. I found myself enjoying the rocking motion despite Natalia-sama’s truly catastrophic taste in music.

  She finally pulled up in front of a rge rectangur warehouse. Turning off the engine, she looked back with a proud smile. “This, my friends, is where I keep my surplus merchandise. Orders are filled at the shop, but when demand outpaces supply, I come here to restock.”

  “We know you’re a logistics genius, Natalia,” Rui said with a raised brow. “Do we really need a full TED Talk about your warehouse management?”

  “No, not at all. I just love talking about my work.” Natalia-sama flushed adorably.

  “It’s very fascinating, Natalia-sama!” I leapt in to defend her.

  Rui sweatdropped. “Tell him more about how to run a business ter. We’re short on time.”

  I smiled awkwardly. I wanted to tell Natalia I genuinely found what she had to say interesting… but I couldn’t find the words.

  “Oh, I absolutely will,” Natalia promised. “What we’re doing here will help you.”

  She exited the car with a smooth, almost royal grace, like she’d dismounted a horse rather than stepped out of a vehicle. I followed, lifting the tch so Rui could climb out of the backseat. We’d argued earlier about who would ride shotgun, but Natalia-sama insisted that Rui sit in the back so that all our rides would be the most comfortable.

  We followed her toward the warehouse entrance. As she approached, she produced her keys… and I noticed the small kitsune keychain dangling cutely from the ring, the same kind that was hanging off her office at the atelier’s doorknob.

  “This building holds more than clothing,” she said lightly, unlocking the door. “It’s convenient for… various purposes.”

  She pushed the doors open. Bright overhead lights flickered to life in a ripple down the ceiling. Crates and racks filled with neatly wrapped inventory lined the space. There were many more outfits here, tightly wrapped in pstic. Massive stacks of boxes organized on enormous shelves. There was more product here than I’d ever seen in my life.

  But the center of the warehouse was cleared… one enormous open area.

  “Please be careful,” Natalia said cheerfully. “Whatever you break, you pay for.”

  Rui snorted.

  Natalia pointed toward the open area. “Rui-chan, pull up a chair… Make sure it’s outside the circle, please. You’re not to get involved.”

  “What are you pnning to do to him, exactly?” Rui asked with an amused smirk.

  Natalia-sama winked. “We’re going to see what Susumu-san is made of.”

  My stomach dropped.The IV bag in Natalia’s office fshed through my mind.Visions of surgical tools and clinical dissection danced before my eyes.

  What Susumu is made of???

  WAS SHE PLANNING TO AUTOPSY ME ALIVE?!

  Rui seemed delighted. “Yeah, I’m curious too.”

  That made it worse.

  I scanned the warehouse desperately for a hiding spot. There were plenty thankfully… or more accurately ominously… thanks to all the stacked crates. Rui dragged a chair over, straddling it backwards like a delinquent schoolgirl ready to watch the show.

  Natalia-sama never looked away from me. “To stand a chance against a full noh-face, you must learn to control your spiritual abilities. You’ve used them instinctively so far. I’m sure that you’ve noticed that. Now you must use them… intentionally.”

  I shifted uneasily. My gaze flicked to Rui. She shrugged dramatically.

  “Please look at me,” Natalia said.

  I snapped to attention as though answering a drill sergeant.

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  She continued, “Reach deep within. You’ve touched this power before, but you never had control. For a full yokai like me, the process differs slightly… maintaining human form means compressing and concealing ourselves. You possess simir abilities even now… though in your case, your blood suppresses your full potential. When your human blood is gone, the final shift will complete.”

  She smiled gently. “Noh-face possess many skills, but few can maintain disguises for long without stolen faces.”

  I swallowed. Somehow that made perfect sense… and made me want to cry.

  “Oh, don’t look so doubtful,” Natalia-sama ughed. “I can see every emotion in your aura.”

  I was both comforted and deeply armed.

  Suddenly, something around her began to glow.It was a warm shimmer… a golden ripple of spiritual power.

  An aura… brilliant and beautiful.

  Her form blurred.

  Her graceful human features melted into something more bestial, wilder, more primal. Her face elongated into a fox’s muzzle. Her skin vanished beneath yers of thick golden fur. Her body expanded upward, outward… growing massive enough that I felt certain she could swallow me whole.

  One tail sprouted.

  Then another.

  Then another…

  Until nine magnificent tails fanned around her like a living sunburst.

  My noh-eyes bulged like dumplings.

  I fell to my knees as the colossal nine-tailed kitsune towered above me.

  Her voice thundered inside my mind, not aloud:

  Susumu. Were you watching carefully?Now reach deep inside.Release your restraints. Break your chains.Fear is natural. But you must learn to control it.Mortals waste their spiritual strength. Yokai do not.Our abilities appear magical only to those who cannot wield them.But do not mistake power for intelligence… Many yokai are actually dreadfully stupid.

  She ughed. A psychic ugh. A titanic, resonant sound that filled the whole warehouse.

  I tried to obey.I truly did.I closed my noh-eyes, reaching inward…

  …but the memory of Noh-face surged up and crushed me.

  My entire body locked.My legs trembled so much the warehouse floor vibrated.

  I couldn’t move.I couldn’t breathe.I couldn’t do anything except drowning in terror.

  Rui’s giggle cut through the silence.

  “Oh ho! His knees are knocking! He’s gonna pee all over his costume!”

  My terror deepened.But then anger ignited beneath it… like a tiny fme trapped under an ocean.

  “Hmmm…” Rui mused loudly. “Noh-nuts is too dangerous. He’ll show me those again if I provoke him. Maybe I’ll just use noh-brains… or noh-guts. Ohhh, Susumu… Whatever should I do?”

  I clenched my fists but remained frozen.

  Natalia-sama rumbled thoughtfully. “Although it’s not my preferred method… but Rui-chan, I think that you’re onto something.”

  “ONTO—?!” I squeaked.

  Why was she suddenly praising Rui’s ragging on me?!

  Why?!

  Before I could protest, something massive and warm enveloped me. It was…

  A wave of fur.A rush of hot breath.A looming shadow.

  I stared upward just in time to see an enormous fox muzzle descend on me.

  She wouldn’t actually eat me, right? Right?!

  CHOMP.

  Her jaws closed around me.

  I was too slow to react.

  I was too terrified to scream.

  And too stunned to run.

  I was caught… utterly helpless… dangling like a chew toy in the mouth of a nine-tailed kitsune.

  Relwing