Chapter 3:

True Horror

White Parasite


The formerly-human trio yelled out their answers simultaneously, but Luna dismissed them with a single shake of the head:
"We're fighting for the good of humanity!"

"We're fighting for those we love!"

"We're fighting because we had no other choice!"

"You're fighting for the sake of good," the fox finally corrected them as their faces fell and their brown eyes (in Toshifumi's case, formerly-brown) ceased to sparkle with excitement, "and your beloved humanity is what you must fight against with good deeds."

"But why tell us?" Toshifumi huffed again, but his voice choked on the last word. He'd lost his humanity seemingly at random, only to be told humanity was the enemy.

"You are the paragons of humanity itself. The wide-eyed idealists who can follow an ideal blindly without questioning it, but-" Luna's words cut off as Toshifumi squashed a webbed foot over an odd furry tendril that had formed on the left side of Luna's vulpine torso. The fox momentarily glared at the swan with a look that clearly did not define "goodwill" before continuing unflinchingly, "-you still have the ability to not be completely blind to your own free will or individuality, and that's why the orbs and I both appear before you."

"Yeah? Well, at least the orbs are that and nothing else. You, on the other hand-" Toshifumi prodded his flight feathers into the tendril. This caused Luna to halt their explanation, their body elongating and growing until they became a large corporeal fox with two extra mouths on their face, just below the snout, and rows of tentacles coming off both furred flanks.

"Did I ever tell you that even goodwill has its limits?" Luna snarled, the voice clearly becoming female, but Toshifumi had already taken off in fright, leaving Hazuki and Christie to deal with the problem he had caused.

"So let me get this straight," Christie piped up as she jumped on to the fox's back and began to stroke its snout, clearly unfazed, "you're the personification of good intentions?" As she asked this, the gargantuan fox snapped its multiple mouths a few times.

The girl crooned, "I see," as if she understood the creature, stroking it more so that it shrunk and reverted to calm, normal - yet humanoid - Luna.

Hazuki blinked and scratched his head in confusion, the mini top hat on his head waving its frilled fabric as he did so. How did this girl manage to tame this monstrosity?

As he looked out so he could follow Toshifumi's path back home, he spotted a blonde in sunglasses and a trench coat running away.