Chapter 9: Chapter 9

The next act was boring, when she woke. Sure, the graphics were great - it had changed the scenery entirely, she was in some hospital stroke infirmary stroke health place, laid up in a bed with a machine that went ‘ping’ attached to her - but, there was nothing going on. It was another case of great graphics, terrible gameplay. Why brains thought that was anything approaching a good idea, she would never know. But, lacking any sort of binding in this new and vivid 3d hallucination, she slowly sat up in the bed. Stupid brain even added in her bodily woes. She wasn’t feeling the dull roar of constant pain, but her entire body ached, felt exhausted like a fifty mile run followed by three hours of intimate attention in bed with a very greedy lover. Except she didn’t have the satisfaction of those three hours. She felt cheated. Bloody brain, why not give her something nice to watch.

As if on cue, a cute girl in a pink uniform walked through the door, and saw Kiko awake, so came over.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, her voice soft, and as easy on the ears as her appearance was on the eyes. Speaking of, her eyes were crazy. Pure white orbs without any features in them at all. Incredibly pale skin, pure white hair, eyebrows blending into her tundra-esque skin as they were exactly the same hue. She was like a large clump of snow had come together and put on a pink nurse’s uniform. Not that Kiko was complaining, this was much better.
“Well, let’s get started. Not sure how long this is going to last. Knife through the thigh has been known to throw off my concentration, and this looks pretty cocentrational” she slowly reached out her hand to pull the girl in, but there was no strength in any part of her body and the advances were easily rejected.
“Tip for the future. Kitsunes have been known to have hallucinations in times of great physical or mental duress. But the eyes of those your mind crafts have a warm golden colour, without exception. Nobody really knows why. The one person that seems to have understood is tight lipped with his knowledge. Which is a shock for him because usually he loves to talk, and boast, and brag” The nurse’s voice was like honey to Kiko, such that she wasn’t really hearing what was being said. Just the tone, the voice, the beauty of it. However, as much as she might not have been hearing it, Mr Brain was doing overtime at the office and was surrounded by mugs of coffee, since her eyes snapped to the girl upon registering the information.

“So…if, hypothetically, a person had eyes that were like deep dark pits that were scary and beautiful at the same time, they wouldn’t be part of that rule?” Kiko put in. Testing the waters, so to speak.
“Sounds like you met a very interesting person. But you are right, he would not be a hallucination. He was real, as I am real. As, unfortunately, is everything that happened to you. You were a mess, to the point they called me in. Your physical state has been altered, so it may come as a shock to you when you see a mirror” The nurse warned, before handing over said mirror. Kiko just stared for a moment, trying to comprehend the idea that everything had happened. She could imagine the state she was in right now, something that would never be considered attractive if she were to show herself off. A self-conscious fear gripped her tightly, but then let go, her Kitsune mentality splitting the trauma up into bite sized chunks. So she looked in the hand mirror, and was certainly surprised by what she saw there.

Her left eye had become identical to the girl in front of her, and her hair had a relatively thick streak through it, also the same colour as the girl. Her skin had taken on the same pale colourings, and a stray thought drove her to check if downstairs had the wallpaper changed, but it was covered by the gown, and she found it a bit coarse to strip naked to see those hairs down there.
“Ok. So. I’m really pale, my hair is dyed, and have a weird eye” she muttered. As if saying it would help her reconcile. It didn’t.
“And you are not dead. Best change, in my opinion” The snow-girl quipped, smirking softly as she looked at a clipboard and then wrote something too fast and without proper rhythm to be anything more than a scrawled mess.
“I’m guessing I’m locked in this bed for, ever? Legs broken or some such” Kiko muttered, laying back on the pillows. It was about par for the course, really. However, the comment seemed to annoy the pale girl.
“If I couldn’t heal a pair of broken legs, then I would not be worth anything, now would I? Honestly….” She shook her head and wrote more, even making swirly motions far too much for any manner of writing she had ever heard about. “Now the runes are a different matter. Self-fed by the time I got to them. Unfortunately, removing them would also kill you. And you dying was literally the exact opposite of my plan, so they are there to stay” She finished, before turning and walking out, still clearly offended by the quip about broken legs. Kiko didn’t even get a chance to apologise. Which kind of sucked but then those kind of people were highly strung, and anything could set her off. It was only a matter of time.

However, as if waiting outside for the nurse to leave, Queenie came in a few seconds and smiled softly at Kiko.
“Hey. How are you feeling?” She asked. Kiko decided it would be a great idea to swing her legs over the side of the bed and get up, but the rest of her body had other plans, and she promptly collapsed as her knees buckled without any fight. Queenie darted forward and managed to caught Kiko before she hit the ground, and then carted her back into the bed.
“Honestly, life with you is a constant rollercoaster. Any chance you can give me a day off?” She teased, letting Kiko tuck herself in and then glaring at Bruyn as she came in as well. The two exchanged an aggressive look, like a lion and a cheetah both after the same antelope.
“So, who was the nurse that came in?” Kiko asked, trying to defuse the tension. They still glared a bit, but eventually conceded and Bruyn let Queenie speak.
“That was Shiro. A Kitsune from a clan with a unique power. They are sort after all over the world for their ability to heal any injury short of death. The price, is implanting parts of their own appearance on the patient, in proportion to how much has been healed by them. Nothing detrimental, eyes still see, arms still work. They just stand out” She finished as Kiko stroked her eyebrow.
“They certainly stand out. Dam. Better get used to the spotlight, huh?” Kiko asked rhetorically. Her appearance wasn’t exactly common place now. Shiro was crazy cool, but she had a whole theme that fit her. Kiko was some crazy half-girl with the ‘Shiro parts’ contrasting incredibly with her ‘Kiko parts’.
“Also your mother’s clan is here. They want to see you when you are able to go to them. Very haughty creatures, they won’t come to you. And rather superstitious as well. If anyone that is not a healer enters a place of healing, then they bring calamity upon it. I guess it keeps the kids out of the doctor’s tent, or whatever, but we are civilized here” Queenie finished the last bit in a mutter, before looking to Kiko and smiling softly.
“Get some rest. Me and Bruyn will work something out between us” She suddenly announced, looking to the Draugr girl.
“Do I get no say in this?” Kiko asked the two, her snow-white eyebrows raised.

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“Nope” came the reply, from both of them at once. Clearly outmatched, there was nothing left to do about it, other than go back to sleep and let those two play with the strings of her life. She’d clonk them both over the head later or something. Sleep came quick, and easy. Not surprising considering how tired she was.

By the time she woke up again, there was no more light coming through the windows, and instead the lights in the celling lit the room. Feeling hungry and more stable than before, Kiko got out of bed – managing to stay on her feet this time – and headed for the door, pulling it open and looking around. She wandered for a few seconds, before shuddering as if something cold had just run through her.
“Good to see you up and about, Miss Ator. Generally, patients stay in their bed until discharged, however” Lysaida spoke. It took Kiko a few seconds to remember that the woman could walk through shadows, but when she did she looked behind her and gave a shy sort of smile.
“Sorry, Miss. Ma’am. Milady…how do I even refer to you?” Kiko asked, the uncertainly melting away her subdued tone.

“Any of the above is fine. You can also call me Colonel, or Mizia if you wish” Lysaida advised, to which Kiko nodded.
“Miss Mizia. Sorry. I just, can’t sit in a bed all day. I’m an active kind of girl. Also, considerably hungrier than when I last woke up” Kiko replied. Then a tingling feeling came from behind her, and she looked at the tail, that had curved around her shoulder so she could look at it. “Need something, Tail?” She asked. Clearly she was going mad if she was talking to parts of her own body, but Lysaida didn’t seem to react to it in a negative way.
“See you have matured. Keeping Kitsunes in the sick bed is always a nightmare. If you think you can get dressed, I’ll take you to the cantina. Should still be something around” Lysaida offered. Kiko nodded and followed Lysaida back to the office, and then to a wardrobe filled with identical uniforms. “The field can be dangerous. Even training has been known to cause a few injuries. So we have spare uniforms on hand just in case” She explained, taking one off the hook and handing it to Kiko, who retracted her tail, stripped out of her gown, and then paused.

Looking down at her body, she could see the scars the knife had left. They looked as if she had had them for years, but were still predominant scars all across her body. Most on her torso, but some on her thighs, and a few on her shoulders. And the brand was still there as well, something that elected a scoff of disdain from Lysaida.
“Keep that brand covered up, Kiko. Don’t let anyone see it” She warned, a very serious tone to her voice, which made Kiko stare in askance. “It’s the brand of an Arkavian slave. Anyone who sees that and knows what it is will probably try to ship you back as an escaped slave, there is a standing bounty on all escaped slaves and nobody stops to ask questions, so it has become a favoured method of torture in the underworld. Arkavia doesn’t care, it just gets all the more slaves because of this practice. And I’d rather not lose you to some perverted, fat fuck. So try not to wear anything that shows off your gut, ok?” She suggested, making it obvious that while it was technically a choice, there was only one sane outcome. So, Kiko took that sane outcome and nodded, donning her uniform and making sure the shirt was tucked into the skirt so it wouldn’t flash off the slave brand accidentally. She was glad for the long sleeved nature of the uniform, as it hid the deep, vicious – albeit faded – cuts in her arms. With her dressing completed, she nodded, straightened her cap in a minute fashion, and then nodded.

“Ok. Fully dressed. Probably going to need trousers though. This skirt shows off my legs” She muttered, the scar-sigils on her legs were on show, and they embarrassed her. Every time she saw them, she could hear the man’s laughter, and her own screams. While her Kitsune mentality dealt with the psychological burden, she could still hear it. Lysaida bit her lip softly and thought.
“Skirt’s part of the uniform, but I can sort out some opaque leggings if you want. You got something that would suit that?” Lysaida asked. Kiko nodded, and then the woman got on some sort of communication earbud thing, so Kiko quickly put in before she could speak.
“Can you send someone other than Queenie? Or Bruyn? I don’t want to add more fuel to that fire without means to put you out”. Lysaida gave an amused smile before nodding and talking to someone on the other end, sorting someone out to go to her house and grab the leggings. “I would offer the key, but you people probably don’t really care about doors, aye?” Kiko intoned, shaking her head softly.
If Lysaida was a lesser woman, she’d probably be blushing, but that was not something she ever did.

“Well, you know, I needed to get in and I couldn’t really use the door because you locked it. If you’d just not keep us out then we wouldn’t have to break in” Lysaida was quite the tease it seemed, when you got down to it. Or when she wasn’t in a formal situation. Kiko decided not to say anything and just follow her to the cantina. A few people were hanging around there, but for the most part it was as she expected for being at night. She had a feeling it was pretty late as well.
“Any preference?” Lysaida asked. Not feeling like talking, more wanting to just sit down and brood for a while, Kiko shook her head and took a seat, to get some much needed brooding done. The whole thing, Kitsune mentality or not, was harrowing, even thinking about it, remembering it. The scars had faded but they belied how soon it was that she had been rescued. Probably. She could have been in that bed for a long time before she woke up, and a long time again before she actually got out of it. And her torturer was dead. She had no avenue of revenge now, he got himself killed by that guy with the wings. It was all a frigging mess, much like herself. However, despite the fact that she never wanted to go anywhere near that place, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to be there because there was something important in that warehouse. Something deep, and personal, that belonged to her. They stole her uniform, sure, but that hadn’t been hers more than a day so it didn’t feel like it was hers. This strange thing was like something that had been around her entire life. Maybe even longer.

But before she could continue down that train of thought and wonder how something could be hers for longer than she had been alive, Lysaida returned with food. At this moment she didn’t really care what it was, and just devoured whatever was in front of her voraciously. Once it was done, she felt she could eat that again, but didn’t want to say anything because that would be greedy. Half way through her own meal, Lysaida smiled at what must have been a look in Kiko’s eyes.
“Still hungry, huh? Don’t worry, it’s a Kitsune thing. You’ll be noticing a lot of things that come under ‘Kitsune thing’ in the future. Your body, however it does it, can store up to three times its own weight in food in case of an emergency situation were no nutrition can be found. You’ll be able to deal with the feeling of perpetual hunger when you have more control over your abilities, but right now, there is nothing you can really do about it, I’m afraid” Lysaida explained. “Except for eating three times your body weight in food. But that’s hardly lady-like, now is it?” She finished with a tease before getting back to her own food. It was awkward, to watch and do nothing because she had demolished her own food so quickly, and so she looked around. But there was nothing interesting, and so she looked within. That, was very interesting.

Her tail, even when kept within her, was something she could feel. A soft warmth inside her, comforting and making her wish she could hug her own tail. But that would require some serious contortionism and was down the road of doubtfulness. Apparently there was a lot of Kitsune magic she could do with it, but that seemed to be something she needed an instructor for, because she hadn’t the foggiest where to even begin with that one. Best to ask for help than dive head first and run afoul of the rules and limitations of her Kitsune magic. Maybe she could make some sort of happiness beam, focusing that warmth she could feel to the tip and then extruding it to make someone feel better than they currently where. The tingle signifying her tail sprouting ran through her body, and then the thought of the happiness beam seemed to be becoming reality. The warmth was trailing through her tail and gathering at the tip, making the fur look like it was made of fire. The effects were beautiful, but they dispersed quickly, despite Kiko’s attempts to keep them coherent.
“The dinner table is not considered the best place to practice your mass destruction technique, Kiko” Lysaida put in. Kiko stared for a few seconds, before shaking her head. The fire made it look suspicious, but it was not anything destructive.

“I was just trying to share the warmth I felt when I focused on the concept of my tail. I wanted to share that warmth with other people so I could help when they are feeling down” She explained. Lysaida smiled, really enjoying the girl’s motivation, and really not enjoying having to be the one that was going to crush her dreams.
“That warmth you feel isn’t an emotional happiness thing. It’s quite literally burn-your-house-down warmth that can be shot out of a coherent beam at the tip of your tail. It’s called Fox Fire. Most well-known and well-used trick in the Kitsune arsenal” She saw sadness in Kiko’s eyes, and felt bad, but it was better than her blasting a hole through something, or someone, as she continued to try.
“Wow. My race really doesn’t do hugs, does it?” She asked, looking at herself with the same look a person coming to understand the exact function of a gun.
“The Great War was not a time for hugs, unfortunately. It was a time for…well, the opposite of hugs, really. And the mods that were done to increase survival and victory rates will never be removed. Despite your feelings towards it, the Kitsune are a race of warriors” She gave Kiko what sounded like a warning and a commiseration at the same time. She shrugged off both and stood up, still not entirely stable on her legs, but much better than she was when she got up.
“I’m going to retire. Thank you for coming to get me, Miss Mizia. It was appreciated to get out of there while I was still-” she paused for a moment, about to say ‘sane’ but it was hard to really joke about that considering. “- on the right side of not tearing everything apart” she finished. Lysaida caught the pause, and knew what was meant to go there, but said nothing, only nodded and allowed Kiko to go on her way. That way led her straight to Queenie’s room, where she hoped to find the girl. No such luck, unfortunately. And since there was only one bed, she had little choice on where to bed down for the night. Letting out a soft sigh, and relegating herself to getting woken by an over friendly – or over protective when she saw the scars – Queenie, Kiko stripped down, found the attached bathroom, and did her night time hygiene, before slipping into bed. She was more tired than she thought, probably still not fully recovered, because sleep came fast and dreamless, and she was thankful for the latter. She couldn’t handle the cackling of the man and the screaming of her, the smell of blood and the flash of knife. Not now.

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