2.02: Fangs, Fur, and Fluff“Ahhhhhhhhhhhnnn!”

  Heat flowed through me, a wave so intense my whole body trembled. I felt even wetter than before… somehow impossibly so.

  “... I THOUGHT SO!” a voice bellowed.

  POOF

  “How dare you do this to my master!!!”

  Akuchi materialized midair behind Rui, her fur bristling, her teeth bared. Rui whipped around and fixed her with a death-gre just as Akuchi pounced.

  “Without me to boot!”

  I gasped, dizzy.

  Rui’s fondling had cleared my head more effectively than any of her sps.Akuchi… that was the pee-soaked guy with the round spotted ears. Weird… She had the same ears.

  “There’s a very familiar scent in the air, I note,” Akuchi decred, inhaling dramatically. “Ah, romance! You and I truly are bound together forever.”

  She tried to slip past Rui, but the oni girl pnted herself firmly between us like a little brick wall. Saying that out loud would have gotten me punched.

  “... I’ve got things covered here, baka.” Rui stood firm, hands on her hips. “Go back to Natalia and Ume and tell them that Susu crybaby’s finally awake.”

  “No,” Akuchi cut in, pouting. “I’m not missing out on the action.”

  She poofed again, reappearing scampering across the sink’s counter like an overcaffeinated rabbit.

  Rui was ready.

  Her roundhouse kick connected with a clean, satisfying thud.She shot across the bathroom like a fastball and smacked into the far wall.

  She peeked balefully over the lip of the bathing area.

  Rui and I were still tangled together. I was dazed, totally overwhelmed, my nerves short-circuiting after all of Rui’s fondling of my… my… my…

  Akuchi, now in rabbit form, peeked across the room with a jealous twitch of her ears. She clearly intended to join in regardless. Rui caught sight of her instantly and bristled.

  “Don’t you dare…” Rui warned.

  The mood evaporated on the spot.

  Akuchi and Rui squared off… one furious oni, one furious, horny bunny… both fighting over me while I wobbled in a daze, still reeling from something that I’d never experienced in my whole life. My mind sparked, overloaded.

  The rabbit poofed, swelling upward… its fur rippled as its limbs elongated… and in the next heartbeat the tiny creature was gone, repced by a massive, striped tiger crouched on the tile.

  It leapt at Rui, its fangs bared.

  Rui flinched… but didn’t move from her spot in front of me.

  “Akuchi…” I croaked, barely able to think. “...Please stop! If you hurt Rui-chan I won’t ever forgive you!” I looked at her scary, almost feral eyes, my own eyes far too hazy.

  The tiger skidded to a halt in shock, a massive paw raised…

  No cws were extended.

  Thank Kami…

  …

  I slumped in relief.

  …

  “What’s going on in here?” Ume’s chipper voice chimed as she and Natalia stepped into the bathroom together.

  Her twin tails were gathered in the same simple red ribbons as always, but her frilly bck-and-red dress had been traded for a softer house outfit… a ruffled blouse and a fred skirt. Even so, she still looked every bit like a gothic café idol who’d somehow wandered into a shrine tea house.

  “Oh my…” Natalia murmured, lips pursed, cheeks slightly pink. She seemed entertained.

  The tiger abruptly pouted, gncing at Natalia like a child caught misbehaving.

  Ume sniffed the air delicately…

  And her eyes lit up.

  “Oh!!!!!!!!”

  She blurred forward with true vampiric speed.I yelped and spped my hands over my neck.

  The only thing I could think about at the moment was that word, vampire.

  Ume’s eyes were wide with something that looked very much like bloodlust.

  But instead of biting my jugur…

  She dove straight into my chest just like Rui had.

  “W–Wait—n–nooooooo!” I squealed, my voice cracking.

  I’m not READYYYY!!!

  Her snuggling instantly devolved into the same kind of frantic rubbing Rui had just subjected me to.

  “You smell so good! Oh Kami!” Ume cried, practically drooling, her eyes full of hearts.

  “S–save—nhhh—kyaaaaaaaaaAAA!!! What’s with my—ahhhhhhnnnnn!”

  My voice hit a pitch I didn’t know I could achieve.

  Rui pouted at Ume, her cheeks puffed out. Akuchi hissed, her fur bristling, and stalked off with her tail shing behind her like an angry metronome.

  “There’s no interrupting a vampire when she’s seized by her bloodlust.” Natalia sighed softly. “It’s fortunate that hers manifests in a… retively harmless manner.”

  “Yeah,” Rui muttered. “There was this one time she wouldn’t stop nibbling at my ear.”

  Akuchi hissed again and abruptly poofed back into her tanuki-girl form… her arms crossed, her foot tapping, her expression stormy.

  “I will get my revenge. I swear it.” She gred daggers at Rui. “This is not even remotely over. Why does the little vampire get a pass and you treat me like this?!”

  Rui stuck out her tongue. “Susu is mine! Ume is also mine! Muahahahaha~. Mine~! Mine~! Mine forever~!”

  “...Grrr…” Akuchi seethed, stomping one foot. “Susumu is my master. MINE! Susu is MY husb…” She abruptly stiffened. “Erm… wife.”

  “Your marriage is null and void.” Rui decred, leaning in with a wagging finger right under Akuchi’s nose. “Susu is a completely different person now. She’s Reiko now, if you hadn’t noticed… and Reiko-chan was always, always only mine in her heart! She loved me, and I loved her. Haha, Susu and I are destined for each other. So stop pestering us, you upstart furry!”

  Akuchi’s eyes widened, ignoring her insults “I took her form and acted like her perfectly! That makes her mine too!”

  Rui gasped. “BAKA! You got caught, in case you forgot, nitwit!”Her expression chilled, and she squeezed her fingers into a fist with a cold expression.

  Akuchi’s eyes went wide… she bolted sideways like a startled cat, scampering away.

  “Are we finished?” Natalia asked tiredly, one delicate hand pressed to her forehead.

  …

  “... Yes. Akuchi backed off.” Rui said proudly, thumping her chest. She shot me a possessive grin, a fsh of the oni in her eyes.

  “I didn’t mean that,” Natalia murmured, her bushy white tipped-tail swishing.

  “And she’s way too quick to decre victory!” Akuchi shouted. She poofed again… this time shrinking into a tiny, barely-visible blur of motion with buzzing wings. She’d turned herself into a wasp.

  She shot straight at me.

  Is she going to sting Rui?!

  Natalia moved before any of us blinked. She plucked Akuchi out of the air one-handed.

  “If you sting me, I will bite you in half…” she said calmly. “Now breathe. More than anyone here, you should understand what Susumu is going through. Her mind is clearly fragmented from spiritual fusion.”

  Her nose wrinkled as she gnced at the puddle on the floor.

  “Fragmented?” Akuchi wheezed from inside Natalia’s fist. “Can’t… breathe…”

  Natalia gently opened her hand. “Stay,” she commanded.

  Miraculously… Akuchi froze.

  …

  “I do understand…” the wasp admitted grudgingly. “But why does she get to ravish Master and I must—”

  “Enough,” Natalia sighed. “You of all beings understand her condition, don’t you?”

  Akuchi nodded… somehow… even in wasp form, her tiny mandibles clicking. “When I pyed the part of a waitress to serve dinner st night, I divided into multiple clones. When the service ended, the memories crashed back all at once. It took time to sort them. Eventually one id took dominance. That is what Master faces now.”

  “Well expined.” Natalia smiled warmly at wasp-Akuchi. “Ume, dear… RuiRui. Would you mind stepping out briefly? Susumu needs to be cleaned up before joining us for breakfast.”

  Rui crossed her arms. “I’m not going. I can help. If anyone should help her, it should be me!”

  Ume was still nestled between my breasts . She lifted her head and looked at Rui.“We should do as she says. Susu’s condition is delicate. We need to be considerate.”

  “Look who’s talking!” Rui snapped. “You’re still buried between her boobs!”

  Ume giggled. “Point taken. I couldn’t help it. Susu smells so nice… more than usual.” She sighed dreamily.

  “Yeah…” Rui muttered. “But ask me next time.” She huffed.

  “Why should I?” Ume asked sweetly, clicking her plump lips. “We’re best friends and lovers, aren’t we?”

  Rui’s face turned scarlet.

  “We share everything.”Ume extended a finger and gave her signature fangy grin.

  “Would you two please go to breakfast?” Natalia said with a delicate foot-stamp that somehow radiated authority. “Must I have you both removed?”

  “Why?” all three asked at once.

  “Just do it.”

  Rui eyed Natalia suspiciously. Ume shrugged, gracefully slipping off me.“See you at breakfast, Susu-chan.”

  I blushed so hard my vision swam. Ume always flipped switches in ways I couldn’t predict.

  Ume looked at me, hearts in her eyes again, freezing midstep, grimacing. Rui put a hand on her shoulder and Ume managed to fsh a grin.

  I have to be careful of blushing too furiously. That’s going to be really hard.

  Reluctantly, Akuchi lifted off from Natalia’s palm and buzzed out. Rui lingered, her arms crossed, gring at the others before finally stomping out of the bathroom.

  Natalia exhaled a long, relieved sigh.

  “Now that that’s over…” She looked me over… at my soaked nightgown, my trembling legs, my flushed face… and ughed softly. “You are an absolute mess. You’ll need to learn to defend yourself better than that.”

  I blinked at her bnkly.

  “Why? It was Rui-chan… I could never say…”

  “Could never say no to her?” Natalia chuckled. “I understand. But remember… there will be people you don’t feel affection for who will absolutely take advantage of you the same way if you’re not careful.”

  Her words sank in slowly.

  I hadn’t really thought about it before… but the way our fusion happened, the way the Noh-face yōkai tore down the wall between us…It wasn’t just power we shared.

  It was our identities.

  Pieces of me.Pieces of Reiko.Pieces of whatever the hell a Noh-face actually was.

  All of that mixed together.

  Maybe it could have gone differently. Maybe I could’ve stayed “me,” whatever thatmeant. But then… would that have been better? Worse? Did I even have the right to choose?

  A tremor ran through me as another thought surfaced.

  The effect of pleasure on a woman’s body was… really terrifying.Terrifying and overwhelming and…I swallowed hard, my face burning hotter than ever.

  My underwear was soaked in more than one way.

  Kami…

  Natalia-sama quickly undressed me, positioning me like I was one of her fashion mannequins.

  “This change is very profound,” she murmured thoughtfully. “And while I know this won’t be easy, it may be best for you to start accepting yourself as you are, Susumu.”

  I stared back at her bnkly.

  My brain was still fried from Rui, Ume, and Akuchi’s… attentions.Everything they did felt different now… shockingly different… although being fondled was a retively new experience for me.And I had a feeling I finally understood why.

  “I see…” Natalia-sama said softly. “You’re still in the process of organizing your mind… No, trying to stabilize a singur identity. To help you along, we’ll start with the most direct method.”

  Before I could react, she guided me toward a rge mirror beside the sink… one I somehow hadn’t noticed in all the chaos, my brain so fuzzy.

  My nose began bleeding immediately.

  Staring back at me were…

  Vibrant green eyes with a soft, luminous cast.Flushed, rose-pink cheeks.Long, silky brown hair cascading to my shoulders.A body sculpted far too perfectly. A body too good for me.

  The longer I looked, the redder my cheeks became.

  Two impossibly perfect orbs rose and fell with my breathing… the nipples slightly exaggerated, impossibly perky, standing out.And between my legs… a cleft with a neat tuft of hair cresting it.

  Essentially, the stark absence of anything recognizable to me.

  My throat clicked closed.

  “I… I’ve really become a noh–nuts!” … Was all I managed to say.

  Natalia-sama exhaled hard, covering her face with one hand.“Susumu… honestly…”

  After a moment, she lowered her hand and gave me a wry look.“You’ve physically become Reiko now.” There was a short pause before she continued, “Are you completely certain that you’re still Susumu on the inside?”

  “I… I’m not sure,” I whispered. “But I feel…”

  The words we spoke to each other when we fused rose in my mind unbidden…

  There isn’t anything…Yes… it’s special.But… I love you. I always will. No matter what.No matter what…

  My soft green eyes filled with tears… such a strange sight… while a thin trickle of blood continued to run down my chest from my nose.

  Natalia stepped behind me and gently wiped the blood away from my face and chest.

  “I think your reaction to your body is proof enough of who you truly are.” she said warmly. She wrapped her arms around me from behind in a soft hug, almost accidentally pressing her rge breasts against my back through her dress.

  That didn’t help.

  I panicked in a different, simir way.

  “In other words, if you weren’t Susumu, would you have gotten so aroused at seeing yourself?”

  I squeaked very quietly.

  She smiled against my shoulder.

  “As I thought. But you are now a girl with Susumu in control of that body.”

  I looked at her bnkly but then nodded.

  “This will be one of the hardest parts for you. Learning to look at yourself in the mirror. You did have a little practice, after Reiko gave you her face… But you wore that face less than a week and I doubt that you ever truly confronted the deeper truths that came with it.”

  I nodded, small and shaky.

  “Y-you… win…” Noh-face had whispered at me. “Fool. I lose… for the first time.”

  It ughed… a ugh thin, cracked and broken.

  She had leaned in…

  …and pressed her face to mine.

  Like it was a kiss.

  I spasmed in disgust. I didn’t know that it was her.

  D-D-IS… GUST… ING!!!SO GROSS!DAMN IT YOU CREEPY BASTARD!!!DON’T KISS ME OUT OF NOWHERE!!!

  It pulled back, smiling with a serenity I didn’t understand.

  “I give you… my final treasure… You win… Thank you… Susumu… take back… your humanity… I’m sorry.”

  I fell into a deep depression when I realized I had Reiko-chan’s face after defeating her Noh-form in the tunnel. Even once the despair faded, even once daily life became strangely easier… every smile I received, every door that suddenly opened for me… none of it felt because of who I was.

  It was her face.Her identity.Her everything.

  And she had left all that she was to me to completely break the curse on me since birth.

  But this… now… was different.

  After defeating Mitsuhiko… after fusing with Reiko-chan… I wasn’t just wearing her face again.

  I had woken up in her full body, without knowing it.

  Every curve, every detail, every piece of her… they were now woven into me completely.

  And even with my mind flickering and unstable, even with the fog still settling, I understood one thing with perfect, painful crity...

  This wasn’t an accident.This wasn’t temporary.This was the price she paid to save me.

  This is who I am now. But who is that?

  And I would carry that weight for the rest of my life.