GxG 7
The two of us stared at each other wordlessly for a moment, myself still wrapped in a foxtail. Eventually Kunou's mother - Yasaka - decided it was time to move the conversation forwards.
"Well, have anything to say, boy?" thankfully her tone was one of curiosity, not annoyance. I was still dealing with the shock of having a nuclear bomb dangle me in the air and I don't think I could have handled any actual hostility from her. That does not mean I did not panic, regrettably.
"You have very beautiful tails, ma'am." shit. I'm a goner.
"Oh?" she simply arched an eyebrow, "what makes you think so?" she challenged.
If I've learned anything from my past life or my father in my current life, its when a woman uses that tone of voice be prepared for the consequences if you mess up in the next minute. I'm banking on my five year old-ness to save me and going for broke.
"They are soft like clouds and sway like the finest golden wheat fields in the autumn breeze." fuck fuck fuck fuck what was that.
She arched her eyebrow even further, clearly debating between simply squishing me or vaporizing me, before releasing a small snort and looking over to Kunou.
I think she even smiled a little bit.
Kunou meanwhile was currently wiggling furiously in her mother's grasp, mumbling about "put me down" and "You're embarrassing me, mama".
Yasaka cleared her throat, which caused Kunou to cease her wiggling and look over.
"Well, are you going to introduce your friend, Kunou?" Yasaka asked in that tone parents use when they are really telling and not asking.
Kunou visibly perked up, which was really cute when you factor in that we were both still dangling 4 feet in the air and juxtaposed it to her mini tantrum moments ago.
"Ah, this is Nathan. He kicked that nasty kappa right in the balls and then we ran away together!"
Yasaka glanced back at me "He did, did he?" all I could do was nod vigorously before she turned back to Kunou.
Kunou, taking this as a cue to start talking again only to let out an "eep" as her mother reached over and pinched the tip of her ear.
"Language young lady, I believe we talked about this last week during your lessons as well. I don't know where you learned to talk so crassly because it sure wasn't from me." Poor Kunou wilted like a particularly sad flower, groaning out a "yes, mamaaaa."
Yasaka must have decided I wasn't a threat and Kunou wasn't a flight risk as she lowered us back to the ground and unwrapped us from her tails. I didn't even entertain the thought of running.
Just my luck, my first interaction with the supernatural and I meet the condensed power of the sun in shape of a worried mother.
Now both fox girls - kitsune according to Japanese - were looking at me, so it was my time to shine.
"Hello, my name is Nathan. I know this is going to turn into a talk, but I kinda ditched my mom in the crowd to help Kunou. Can we go back to her? Also my parents are uh, er, normal?" The inflection at the end was for the unsaid question 'can you hide your fox traits?'
Yasaka looked at me for a moment, as if judging my worth, before nodding and snapping her fingers. A small pulse of energy was picked up by Lifeforce Sense, and then both Yasaka and Kunou looked like normal humans. As normal as you can while being both sun blonde and clearly Japanese the same time.
Yasaka then took my hand into hers and Kunou's into her other hand and started walking towards my mother, which was weird because I had not said where she was. With the sudden roar of the crowd I noticed what had been bothering me before.
Yasaka had teleported behind me and Kunou in the middle of a crowd, but that crowd had been missing and silent during our little exchange. Reviewing my memories showed that the crowd had been parting around us like and very muffled. A barrier perhaps? Something to ask later.
[LINE BREAK]
A few minutes of walking later we came upon the sight of my panicking mother and my father, who was apparently nearby and was called by my mother.
They both noticed our approach, and my mother who was just worried sick fearing for my life instantly turned near apoplectic. The only thing holding her back from taking me out of this world at the moment was the fact she didn't want to cause a scene in front of the blonde stranger whose hand I was holding.
I did not want to be the first to say anything. I knew I was in so much trouble. I thought it was a calculated risk, but man am I terrible at math. Ironic considering Math makes me a prodigy. Thankfully Yasaka is a saint and saved me.
"You two must be Nathan's parents? You did such a good job raising him, helping my little Kunou." Wow she pulled off a gossiping mom really well.
My father being the only one who understood Japanese responded coolly "We raised him, but I'm not sure we raised him well." he looked straight at me "I trusted you to stay with your mother and help translate. Instead you left her alone in a place she doesn't know the language."
Yeesh, I'm going to be lucky to see tomorrow at this rate.
"Ah, in this case I'm going to have to ask for leniency for your boy. Me and my little Kunou got separated earlier and your wonderful boy helped her after she got cornered by an older gentleman."
Yasaka I could kiss you.
My dad instantly understood what she meant by cornered and his entire body language shifted. He looked at me a lot softer, and I could tell I got downgraded from 'write a will at five years old' to 'a stern talking to for the principal of it'. My mother noticed my dad's shift and asked him what happened.
A short exchange between them in English and she stopped looking like she wanted to kill me and more like she was split between wanting to kill someone else or hugging Kunou.
With that bomb defused my father decided to use the lull in the conversation for introductions.
"Hello Mrs...?" My father asked.
"Yasaka, and this is Kunou." she replied, also realizing she had yet to properly introduce herself as we got sidetracked.
"Mrs. Yasaka, hello. I'm Stanley Meyer and this is my wife, Amy. You've met Nathan." I finally have a last name!
My dad paused for a moment before speaking up again "Is that Yasaka as in Yasaka LLC, the one with the nine tailed fox logo?"
I whipped my head to the side to look up at Yasaka, squinting in accusation as she smoothly replied.
"Yes? I'm the owner but I let the board make the decisions most of the time. Why?"
"The company I'm here to negotiate with is a subsidiary of Yasaka LLC. What a small world we live in." It was a pretty big coincidence, I helped the daughter of the woman who owns the company my dad has to negotiate with.
Even Yasaka thought so too, as she slightly tensed and shot me a side eye, the question obvious. I shook my head a soft 'no, I have no idea who you are' which she seemed to accept and relaxed.
"You guys have a hotel around here, right?" at her sudden question, my dad just nodded, a little confused.
"Great! Since we have such a connection, and as a thanks for your little knight saving my daughter why don't you stay with us while you are in Japan. We have a guest house under the LLC specifically for situations like this" Yasaka explained, and even Kunou perked up at the chance of having a friend stay over.
My dad, recognizing both the social and business benefits of the offer agreed instantly.
"Great, I'll call a driver to pick up your bags and then we can head over."
[LINE BREAK]
By guest house Yasaka meant 'spare mansion'. She explained that this place was usually used for housing important people during meetings and conferences. The mansion was split up into wings, with Kunou and Yasaka going to the 'home' wing to change while we were escorted by the driver into the 'guest' wing.
We met up later in the central area, which had spaces for lounging and socializing, with things like a bar and a pool table. There were actual meeting rooms and other miscellaneous rooms in the central area too. Around the back of the mansion was a large garden that was very well kept and an open air bath. I really wanted to try the bath, it was set up so you could view the garden but anyone in the garden couldn't see you, which was nice.
After the the 5 of us met in central area, the adults were making small talk, with my dad translating for my mom, while me and Kunou were making faces at each other silently. Eventually Yasaka noticed us and giggled in a very refined manner before turning to my parents.
"Its been a long day for everyone. Why don't you two go try the open air bath and I'll watch the two little ones while you're in there."
My dad turned and translated for my mom, to which she turned to Yasaka with a look of pure gratitude and nodded.
"Just take a change of clothes. There's a small changing shack with instructions, since we have so many people who stay here and have never used an open air bath before." She had barely finished explaining before my dad took my mother by the arm and swiftly left the room.
As soon as they had closed the door behind them, Yasaka turned and looked at me still playing with Kunou.
"Ok boy, its time to talk about what happened today."