Finding a Fox at the School Trip

The days of the trip flew by quickly for Mamoru. The typical activities flashed by, and though Yamiko and his friends tried to pull him into the activities, he stayed on the edge doing his best to talk to the faux substitute, Yuto.

“You sure you don’t want to spend time with your friends, you won’t be seeing them for a while,” the giant white-haired man said as he lay in the grass under a tree and chewed on a straw.

He’s right you know, you haven’t done anything fun! I want to see what modern students do on trips!

“You still have yet to tell me what this training will be,” Mamoru said back. He leaned back against the tree and pushed his red hair away from his face.

The man sighed and hoped up.

“I’m going to do another scouting round.” Through the trip he had frequently marched around the campsite in order to make sure Suba hadn’t found them. Days later, Mamoru was starting to feel sure that they were plenty safe out in the middle of nowhere. If anything, it felt like Yuto was trying to stall, perhaps not planning to train them so thoroughly in combat as he had hoped. Maybe Mirai saw how weak of an asset he was and decided to just hide them away anyway.

You can never be too safe! Hikari chimed in. Her usual candor seemed to have returned in the days since they both witnessed her past, but the high school boy couldn’t help but feel like she was still forcing it. He didn’t press it and simply waved Yuto goodbye.

Seemingly as if waiting for the chaperone to leave, Yamiko skipped up and grabbed Mamoru in a hug. He didn’t bother to resist; the girl just tried harder the next time if he did.

“Like, you have got to see this! Come one!” She grabbed his hand and pulled Mamoru. He held firm. “Come on, one of girls did a test of courage last night, and like is saying she found an old temple in the woods, we are totally going to check it out!”

“Yamiko, we should be resting in preparation for whatever training Yuto has in mind.”

An old temple sounded interesting. There was even a possibility of finding something useful if they went. Mamoru felt a tug at his heart along with the tug of Yamiko on his arm and gave in, following the girl and the crowd of students onto the trail. Several minutes of walking soon turned to hours until the girl leading them was called a liar and everyone split off into other directions.

“Ah. Like, I thought that would be something cool.”

Mamoru was about to give up when the princess’ spoke up.

Wait, I sense something magic. I think it’s a barrier.

“A barrier?”

Yamiko’s eyes lit up. “I totally didn’t think of that!” She closed her eyes and began to wave her hands around in front of her while pacing the forest path.

It’s like the field the woman with the yuki-onna used, but stronger, it sets apart a space separate from the rest so those outside can’t access it. Unless someone can break in, but finding one is tough, you’d have to have sufficient magic intuition to be able to interact with it.

Yamiko appeared to run into an invisible wall. “Owwy.”

Or be a dimwit with luck.

“Did you find it?”

“I did,” she pressed against the air like a mime would, “but it’s a tough one. I won’t be able to break through.”

Things were getting interesting for Mamoru at least, maybe there would be something useful they could find. Perhaps even something that could convince Mirai to bring them back and not take them out of the fight to ‘train’.

He wasn’t sure it would work, but after a quick check no one else was around, he pulled the sword from his kendo bag and told Yamiko to back up. A fiery wind slash cut into the empty air, and with it the trees in front of them were replaced by an old stone structure.

Yamiko and Mamoru exchanged looks. A sudden force, like an invisible hand, grabbed them both and pulled them into the darkness of the old stone building. They were pulled down far past what Mamoru could imagine and were dumped onto the ground with a thud.

Yamiko frantically began to wipe her hands off with baby wipes, where she was carrying them, Mamoru did not know. He looked around the room. It was a circular space, with stone carved images going around the room. Foxes seemed to be the main motif as they weaved and bobbed around human images.

“Who hast disturbed my slumber?” A booming voice seemed to fill the room. It made both high schoolers jump. Mamoru held his blade up and scanned the space. “Thou brings a cursed weapon before me? Shameful.”

It seems you angered the occupant. Try putting your blade down for now, I sense… magic so potent I would think it fake if I wasn’t here.

Mamoru lowered his blade, but still held it tight.

“Who are you?”

“I am she who hast lived eons watching over this land. She who hast cast down many unwelcome visitors.”

“Eons? Ew. She’s like some hag.”

Please smack the witch and tell her to shut up.

“Eons?” Mamoru’s mind shot to the resistance. “Then are you familiar with the mage Marlin?”

A pause filled the space before the voice replied.

“What relation would you have to the Lady Marlin?”

“We are looking for her, do you know where she might be?”

Another pause. Mamoru took the time to scan the space. Some of the stone carvings on the wall had changed since he last looked, and a couple seconds he realized the whole room was slowly moving like it was made of millions of large amoebas.

“I have no reason to answer thy question, if thou does not wish to perish, I will grant safe passage. That is, if thou can best me in a simple game of riddles.”

Mamoru looked at Yamiko and she shrugged.

“Very well, ask your riddles.”

“I walk on four legs in the morning, two legs in the day, and three legs in the afternoon, what am I?”

“Man,” Mamoru answered quickly.

“Ahk!” the voice made a sound like clearing her throat. “Thou did well to solve that, and so quickly too. Very well, another one then. I run but never walk, I have a mouth but never talk-”

“A river.”

“Ahk! How does doth thou know the answer so quickly?”

They were old riddles, the sorts that have been around forever, that everyone knew. Even as she asked several more, Mamoru knew the answers right away. Eventually the voice was accompanied with the sound of rustling paper and a worried tone.

“Then thou shalt answer this, an original I produced just a mere two hundred years ago. Ahem. Thou approaches a fork in the woods, where identical sisters stand before each way. One tells the truth and the other only lies. Beyo-”

“You ask one what her sister would say it is and do the opposite.”

Rustling papers gave way to something being thrown against the wall. The room started to break apart in a slow psychedelic display until it fully melted into a large stone chamber. Mamoru and Yamiko stood in the middle, and the far wall had a long unrolled scroll laying across the floor. In the front of the room, a throne sat between two large fox statues, on the throne sat a girl in an ornate red kimono. Her hair was long, charcol, and seemed to defy gravity as it flowed out as it went down. Two orange fox ears sat atop her head, and a bushy tail was tucked neatly at her side.

She glared at Mamoru with green eyes.

“OMG! She’s adorable!” Yamiko unhelpfully added.

How soft do you think all that fluff is?

Mamoru closed his eyes and shook his head. He stared back at the fox.

“If I’ve beaten all your riddles, then why don’t you tell me something I want to know now?”

She crossed one leg over the other and shifted in her seat.

“Ask thy questions.”