A New Friend

Ironically "shelter" ended up being a cave at the base of the cliff I'd contemplated jumping from. I was glad I hadn't; the fall would have a hundred percent killed me. Plus the previous occupant had been a massive, grey bear. Too bad I had found my isekai cheat power. Or more precisely, familiar.

Yahime hadn't changed since becoming my familiar. The most noticeable difference was that her name and stats now appeared on my status screen though her information was plagued with ???. Even her max health and mana were questioned out and there was a permanent tenth of her health bar missing. There were no status effects that explained the phenomenon and as much as it irked me there was nothing I could.

The other change had been our interactions. She still couldn't talk, but our pact had given me the ability to vaguely sense her feelings. It was still guess work, though. For all I knew she was silently protesting my every request.

"This is a lot harder than I thought it'd be…" I grumbled. I'd been drilling a stick into a piece of wood for at least an hour trying to make a fire and I hadn't even created an ember. I wondered if it was even possible. "This would be so easy if I had a lighter."

Yahime merely stared.

"Good talk," I grumbled some more. I fell back onto the soft bear pelt lying on the floor. I'd done my best to scrape all the gunk from the underside with my improvised Seele tooth knife, but like the skin the results had been questionable. I'd inferred the name of the canines based on how the tooth had shown up in my inventory.

"But what now? I've got all this bear meat and no way to cook it. I can't eat it raw can I?" My stomach growled angrily in response and my mouth moistened. "It'd be like bear sushi, right?"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

I jumped at the unfamiliar voice, rolling over and struggling like a toddler to my feet. Why hadn't Yahime alerted me that someone was there?

"Who's there?" I demanded. I gripped the branch I'd been using as a staff and held it at the ready. If it was a bandit, I wasn't going down without a fight.

"Just a concerned traveler about to watch a human make the worst decision of their life."

There was an androgyny to the speaker's voice that made it impossible for me to tell whether they were a man or a woman, though either way they sounded younger, like a teenager or fresh twenties. I looked at Yahime who stood blended into the shadow of the cave and disinterested in the whole situation, putting me at ease. The fact she hadn't rushed the person meant they were at least not overtly hostile.

"Then why don't you come in and educate me." I kept my stick readied and only relaxed it when the speaker walked in.

They were petite, at best a hundred and forty five centimeters tall and wore a pristine all white Miko outfit with silver accents. Her hair was a burnt-orange mane with a storm-grey under layer that reminded me of something a kabuki actor might have.

"Well you're quite the mess," they said as they assessed me with their narrow ocean blue eyes. "Now I can see why you were willing to eat that garbage raw."

My cheeks flushed in anger and embarrassment. Who were they to call the meat I'd, well at least with Yahime's help, earned? Still, I couldn't deny the aura of authority they held, even as they walked closer completely ignoring my shoddy weapon.

"It's pretty rude to come into someone's home slinging insults," I said. "If you don't have any business with me, I'd like you to leave."

"Hold your horses," the person said , waving their hand. Then, with a snap of their fingers a blue flame appeared and they used it to light the fire I'd spent hours struggling with. "There. Now you can at least cook some of the parasites out."

Parasites?! My stomach lurched. I hadn't even considered that wild animal meat might be riddled with parasites! Just thinking about it made me want to throw the entirety of the meat away.

"T-Thanks… I hadn't considered…"

"I figured," they shrugged. "You seem out of your element. Like, what's with the rags? You've got perfectly…" They examined the bear pelt and Seele skins I'd tried to scrape and wrinkled their nose. "You've got skins for new clothes."

"I'm working on it. Now did you have something you wanted? Otherwise I'll have to ask you to leave."

For a moment, their air of confidence disappeared, replaced with distress.

"I'm sorry," they muttered. "You're right, I was a bit rude when I'm the one who needs a favor."

"Well you can start with your name."

"Bixey," they said. "You?"

"Ky—" I stopped. There was no doubt that I'd retained my identity as Kyomi Yozora, but did inhabiting Aurelie's body mean I should take her identity? "I'm Aurelie."

"Aurelie? Like the human killer everyone is looking for?"

I shook my head, instantly regretting my decision. I hadn't realized I was still being hunted.

"No!" The denial slips out before I can think. "I mean, I don't really know who you're talking about. If it's confusing you can just call me Kyomi."

Cold blue eyes narrowed trying to dissect me. Then they gave a broad smile that revealed canines too long and pointed to be human.

"Nice to meet you, Kyomi. Now can I ask that favor of you?"

I glanced at Yahime who was nearly invisible in the rear of the cave. She stared at me and Bixey and the longer she did the more my skin started to crawl.

"Sure. What's the favor."

Another beaming smile. "I'm looking for a place to hide out to throw some humans off my trail. I've got a bit of a lead on them and I'm hoping they'll pass me by if I keep low. It'll only be for a night or two."

Humans?

"If there are people after you, how do I know you're not a murderer or something?"

They frowned. "Do I look like a murder to you? They're just pissed I sold them some talismans they were too stupid to know how to use."

"It sounds like you scammed them."

"I did not! It's because they didn't follow my instructions on how to put them up! Now their crops are ruined and they want to blame me!"

Things like that happened a lot at work, so maybe they're telling the truth. My coworkers would steal my reports all the time and then get angry at me when they couldn't explain them to management properly. Good to know there's trashy people in every world.

"Fine. You can stay, but only if you help out."

"I figured you'd say that," the fluffy haired priest laughed. "But before anything else, let's get you some proper clothes. Take those off for me."

My face reddened and I turned away. There was no way I was going to strip in front of them!

"What's with that face? We're both girls so stop making a fuss."

"You're a girl?" My thoughts slipped out before I could stop them and suddenly the cave was glowing in a bright blue light. A dozen blue spheres of fire floated behind Bixey's back and her eye was twitching. I must have hit a nerve.

"Yes I'm a girl!" she yelled. "Now hurry up and strip before I burn the damn clothes off you!"

Relaxing a bit, I did as she said and before the last shred of rags touched the floor I found myself wearing an outfit identical to Bixey's. It was a bit small, but a stark improvement over dirty rags. Then a pop-up.

FOX ROBE

INCREASED FIRE AND MAGIC RESISTANCE.

An icon of a generic fantasy shirt appeared under what I'd deduced was my debuff list.

SMALL CLOTHES

RESISTANCE BONUSES GAINED BY EQUIPPED ARMOR ARE REDUCED.

I wanted to punch the window. The debuff didn't completely cancel out the robes benefits, but it was annoying to hit another snag. Why couldn't anything just work?

"Much better! You look almost as good as I do. Almost."

I rolled my eyes at Bixey's double edged compliment and used my Seele fang knife to slice some bear meat. My stomach was tight and I was so hungry I wanted to vomit.

"Gods! You really don't know what you're doing!"

Before I could argue Bixey pushed past me and I watched wide-eyed as her pointed fingernails grew. Then with a few swipes of her newly grown claws, she butchered the meat into expertly cut identical portions and plopped one in my hand.

"Now let's get cookin!"

95:12:11