Carpool

"You!!"

"Me?"

"You did this to me, didn't you?" I growl at her.

"Did what? Say, let's find a better place to talk. I doubt you really want to stay cooped up in a literal dumpster, right?" She seems so... amused, even despite the present situation. What a weirdo.

"What kind of place are you thinking of, exactly?"

She grins, jingling the keys in her hand-- my car keys.

"You're kidding."

"You've gotta lay low, right? I've heard the radio. They're gonna set up checkpoints and patrols-- standard procedure, as you told me last night." She's smirking.

How the hell am I supposed to trust her? She poisoned me last night. What's to say she's not going to kill me? ...No, wait. She wouldn't need to do that. There's a city-wide search, on my ass. And, especially if the cops are smart and account for how dangerous I am, now that we're on opposite sides, they're not exactly going to send pencil-pushers like Nakayama or Kobayashi.

"Fine." I've got no better options, here.

"Cool. Just lay low until you hear the car horn's ban-baaan. I'll leave the back door open for you to hop in and lie down as flat as you can." She gives a toying salute before heading off-- dropping the lid onto my head.

What the hell have I gotten myself into, accepting help from a tanuki? Especially one who tried to kill me. I feel like I'm in some kind of obscene nightmare that I've yet to wake up from. ...The scorch marks on my tail act as a reminder that I'm wide awake, however.

ban-baaan

There's my car. Time to place my life in her hands, I guess.

I quickly throw myself out of the dumpster, brushing off as much refuse as I can while sprinting for the passenger doors. After flinging the door open, I jump in, closing the door behind me before dropping to the bottom of the car, making myself as inconspicuous as possible.

...Ah, there's that weird lumpy feeling I'd felt before, again. It's me lying on my tail. That makes sense. Wait, only one tail? Weird.

"So, where can I take ya?" Bunko asks teasingly, interrupting my thoughts.

"To a private place where I can strangle you."

"The theatre it is, then! I hear they put on a lovely show this time of year." Ignoring me, putting the car into drive and setting out.

"Why are you helping me, exactly...?"

"I always help out my fellow yokai."

"Even one that's actively killed several others?"

For once, she doesn't immediately respond. The silence, though deafening, feels like a relief.

"I'm not a good person, you know." I add, laying on the pressure. "You'll probably make an enemy of your friends and fellow yokai if you seriously try to keep harboring me like this." I don't know why I'm doing this to her. Maybe there's a part of me that wants to make sure she knows what she's truly getting herself into.

"W-well..." She mulls it over, her confidence having seemingly depleted into that kind of nervousness I'd seen when I thought she was just a rookie officer. Maybe she's really as green as she made herself out to be.

For a while, it doesn't seem like she's even going to respond. I try to make as much peace as I can in that time, appreciating the quiet as much as I can. Which, as you'd probably expect, isn't much.

Then, after driving out for some time, she stammers, before mustering up a response. "People can change." Her voice wavers as she says it. Maybe she just realized who exactly she's in the presence of. "B-besides, I'm not exactly a saint, myself."

"I suppose that's true, but do you really think that applies to me? Once you change me back, I'm not going to lie and say I won't try and kill you."

"Change you back?" She seems genuinely confused by that part.

"Uh, yeah? Whatever you slipped into my drink. Made me a woman, made me a kitsune?"

She pulls the car off to the side, turning to face me. She eyes me up, squinting her eyes.

"You mean you weren't already a woman?"

I open my mouth, flapping it a few times as I'm dumbfounded by her question.

"N-no...?"

"Had me fooled." She looks down to my chest, cringing for a moment.

"What?"

"Y- hmm..." She taps her chin, pondering. "How do I put this?"

"Just lay it on me."

"You've got bigger tits than me." She grimaces, jealous.

"W-wh... what?!" I instinctively cover my face, b-blushing so deeply that if I was a street, I'd for certain be host to countless illicit businesses. She's... she's not wrong. She's not wrong at all and I genuinely don't know how to feel about that.

I need to deflect, quick. "B-back on topic here, back on topic here...!!" I wave my arm to shoo her off. "Back to driving, too!"

She chuckles, seemingly also harboring a blush of her own, before moving to put the car back into drive. "I'll admit, though. I don't really know what you mean about me making you a kitsune."

"You're kidding me."

"Nope!"

"You can s-see my tits. They weren't there before. Same with the tail and ears."

"I'm not blind, DUSK-chan."

"Had me fooled."

She sticks her tongue out at me. "It's not like I'm unaware of how different you are since I saw you last. It's more that I'd just figured you were hiding your true nature from your co-workers for whatever reason."

"Why the hell would I be killing my own people?"

"Hell if I know. Why would I have a potion that turns you into a busty kitsune?"

"S-stop bringing up my tits...!!"

"You wanted me to lay it on you." She pulls the car into an alleyway. "We're here, by the way~ It'll be a bit of a walk, but we shouldn't be seen by anyone, I don't think."

"No, hold on. What the hell did you slip into my drink last night, then?"

She tilts her head, seemingly trying to recall. "Ground up hemlock, I think. Iunno, I got it from Rinrin-- I don't ask where she gets her goods. What, did you expect it to be foxglove, or something?" She chuckles, amused at her own pun.

Wait... hemlock??

I lock up.

So she actually was trying to kill me...?