A Sour Hunt

[Tsukiko]

((closed to Hikari Angel))

Tsukiko looked inquisitively at the bounty board as she nibbled on kabob and flicked her tail. The vixen needed to adventure, to make the world a better place and eat without running home to mom. A bounty was a great way for all three since the men were wanted criminals. One man in particular stood out as he was much prettier than the others and he had several murders under his belt. He was too big a fish for this girl. Tsukiko took another bite of her food before leaving the board.

Then she saw him. The scarred pretty boy was right there. “Is he an idiot?” The vixen asked herself in a whisper. Her mind worked as she watched the man waltz through the crowd like nothing was happening and even buying some food. Could she take the murderer? He had killed a noble family and that was including the guards. Then Tsukiko considered her own skills, she was a really good swordswoman and had fox magic. Sure she was in her red kimono and not her ninja armor but still that wasn’t much of a bother, The armor didn’t cover much anyway.

With that the vixen made up her mind. “Hey you!” The kitsune cried out at the man. “Billy the Blade! Give your self up!” Tsu yelled as she went forward starting a scene. The crowd parted with many staring at Tsukiko and a few of them getting as far as possible from the murdering kid. He was dressed in black and smiling.

“You should have stayed at home. There’s no way a girl like you could do anything.” The kid made his advance with fluid motions and reached for a hidden knife. The tailed girl hardly had a chance as he made a swipe at her throat.

Tsu smiled widely at the attack. It was quick but high made to be lethal against someone who didn’t know any better but the vixen was a skilled fighter. She stepped back and ducked to avoid the blade and then kicked the knife out of his hand. The kid was dumbfounded that his attack was so easily swatted away. A few youths made a wolf whistle at the display for glimpse that a high kick gave while others cheered. The kunoichi fox went to draw her blades but the man was quick to run.

“Hey Wait!” Tsu yelled as she made chase. “You’re only making it harder!” The girl had to dodge a few observers as she made chase but the kid seemed to be much better at using the crowd to his advantage as he ran and even though Tsu jumped over one pair of humans she seemed to have lost the kid in the air. But still she ran trying to find her prey.

[HikariAngel]

Meanwhile, on the other side of town…

A plethora of banners hung tall between opposing buildings. Housewives leaned out two and three-story windows, waving handkerchiefs at the people passing down below. Cacophonous music echoed from somewhere off in the distance, a ragtag jumble of pipes, brass, and percussion that heralded the opening ceremonies of a three-day festival. There was no momentous historical occasion to celebrate, no great victory to remember. This was simply a festival for the sake of having a festival, and the festivities were out in full force.

A delegation of Nekojin from the Akashiman province paraded through the streets clad in vibrant kimonos. Men and women alike wore the ceremonial garbs, though the brilliant colors were far more pronounced on the females. Tabby, bicolor, blues, calico, and many other breeds of catfolk paraded through the broad roads, showing off their natural agility and “subtle” beauties. It was somewhere in the middle of the rainbow crowd that one certain catgirl walked, doing her best to act like she belonged with the rest of them.

Someone had been generous enough to give the silver-haired girl a pink kimono with shimmering white floral prints cascading around the beautiful garment. Her dark-grey tipped ears flitted in every direction at once, catching bits and pieces of random conversations that made absolutely no sense out of context. Her oh-so-comfortable boots were packed away in the small pink rucksack slung around her waist. Also packed away were her normal clothes and jacket, though she didn’t mind the change.

<“Where did you come from, lovely lady?”> A rather handsome tomcat asked from somewhere nearby. It took a moment to realize what he said simply because she wasn’t used to hearing her native felin tongue directed at her.

<“I’m not sure. They picked me up, handed me this kimono, and here I am now.”> She located the male who spoke to her while she replied from the grin he was wearing. Something was running through his mind, but there was no way Monica would every figure out what it was.

<“Why don’t we get away from this ruckus? I know an inn nearby. Just follow me!”>


<“An Inn? Okay.>

The two broke away from the main group and headed down a rather well-kept alley. The side-street had far less decorum than the main roads, but the ambience of the festival was still tangible even a maze of turns later. The younger catgirl started to get cautious when the music and noise died down to an almost inaudible level. Where was he taking her?

<“Here we are. Nobody will bother us this far out.”>

<“Wha- what are you doing?”>

The tomcat smiled a knowing smile and pulled the top of his kimono apart to reveal a bare muscular torso and arms. The narrow obi around his waist was all that kept the whole of his attire from falling to the ground, and judging from where his hands were moving to, that wouldn’t be a hindrance much longer.

<“What do you mean ‘what am I doing?’? You agreed to this when you followed me all the way out here. I asked you out, and you agreed.”>

<“I didn’t agree to this! I don’t even know you!”>

Before he had a chance to so anything else, Monica was gone. Ever-thankful for her strong legs, she turned in random directions for at least ten minutes before she saw a large road ahead. A man ran by the alley entrance, only looking for a moment at her before redoubling his effort to run. The catgirl looked over her shoulder to double-check that she hadn’t been followed. The man who wanted to… to… do that to her was nowhere in sight. The festival was out of the catgirl’s mind; she didn’t even know where in the city she was.

Also out of her sight was one particular kitsune. Still running while looking backward, the catgirl turned her head to look where she was going just in time to recognize an impending collision.

“Mya nyoooooooooooooooo!”

That is to say, she yelled “Watch oooooooooooout!” Of course, anyone who has ever heard such a shout knows that it is equally pointless to give a warning cry or try to move. The collision was quite grand; a speeding catgirl plowing squarely into a sprinting kitsune, sending them both flying and tumbling along the ground. Aside from a slight bit of bruising, Monica realized that she was relatively unharmed. She didn’t understand how the ground had suddenly gone so soft, though… the thought to look down never occurred to her. Never mind the fact that she didn’t realize she was sitting on her collision-target’s chest…

[Tsukiko]

Tsukiko was in the hunting spirit, and she had got a trace of her prey once more. The Murderer was running into an alley way too likely to try to get up to roof top or take another street. The vixen smiled as she dodged some girls shopping for spices and around a few talking fencers. Much of the crowd watched and stayed out of her way but then came a yell from a cat girl in a pink kimono. But the yell was too late for when Tsu saw the young woman there was no time even for her reflexes. The two collided and Tsu fell to the hard street. For one moment everything was black with a night of dancing green and purple stars before the world came into view. The stars were still there and she had trouble breathing. The vixen’s but hurt and she tired to give up but there was a dead weight stopping her.

“Could you please get off?” Tsu asked as her tail painfully and thankfully the kitty girl listened and got off. Tsu didn’t want to stand and merely sat up. The crowd was gawking and some were laughing.

Comments like “Damn furries don’t know where they’re going,” “How can they be so dumb to run around like that, ” and “Did you get a look under that tail” rung in Tsukiko’s ears. The vixen’s face turned red as she perked her ears and looked around. Her prey was long gone.

“Ow, that hurt. Next time, be more careful.” The kitsune looked at the cat girl. She had a pink kimono, an omen of death. Was she with the assassin? Tsu looked but decided she probably wasn’t. “I was hunting a dangerous man and he got away.” The girl whined as she rubbed the back of her head. No permanent damage though she felt several bruises and her tail was stiff. The vixen moaned forgetting she wasn’t being terribly polite and it was half her fault.

[HikariAngel]

It was only when the soft thing underneath the catgirl moved that she realized what she was sitting on. Glancing down, Monica gasped and sprang up from atop the other animal-eared woman. A twinge of intrinsic fear spiked through her system. Not another Nekojin, it seemed, but… fox ears… a kitsune?

“I’msosorryIdidn’tmeanitpleasedon’tkillme!”

And that is how Monica dealt with imminent fear: she pleaded for her life. She did comply with the unfortunate kitsune’s request to get off of her, however, once it was clear that the other woman wasn’t going to kill her. Her ears twitched as the random comments finally registered in her head and her tail flicked back and forth irritably.

“Hey!” She yelled at the half-circle of gawkers, “I’m the dumb one who ran into her!”

Wait… did she just say that? Yes, she did. Color flushed across her face at the realization that she opened her mouth again without thinking. At least her kimono was designed to have a tail-hole and not reveal anything indecent if her tail did rise up for some reason.

“The dangerous man you were hunting… was he the one who ran by just before I… you know… ran into you?”

[Tsukiko]

Tsukiko felt bad when the cat girl was begging for her life. Sure the vixen wasn’t the least bit happy that her prey had escaped her grasp due to the accident but she never thought even for a moment about killing the girl. Sure the samurai of Akashima were famed for killing peasants that “insulted” them and getting away with it. And Tsu was even part samurai but she was a bastard with foreign blood in her as well. Not to mention she would never kill an innocent unless that said innocent tried to kill her first.

The kitty girl was very cute in her pink kimono and she always kept moving and was very excited and even gave a silly reply to the men that twitted them and took all the blame. It caused the vixen to cock her head at the queen and wonder about the woman.

“Really it’s all right. I don’t think you were on his side.” The fox girl stood up and stretched her bruised legs and straitened her kimono. The hunt seemed to be at an end. “Yeah he did just run by but I lost him. He could be anywhere now.” The kitsune spoke lowly.

Things were not good now. Tsu had a feeling that her rushing and screwing up the chase was not a good sign. Billy the Blade was a low life and a killer and now that he was away and hidden he might turn out to be the hunter.

“Oh no!” Tsukiko yelped as she danced in worry when she realized that the killer would probably take out his vengeance. “I really think I pissed him off, and he’s going to kill me.” She didn’t know where he could be at all. “I really messed up. We have to find him!” The vixen looked to the cat girl. The fox girl’s tail swung about in a puffed up panic. “If I don’t catch him, he’ll be after my tail.”

Tsu had done it. She had to take the opportunity in front of her even though she wasn’t ready. She had gone off without a plan and now had a killer on the loose that would likely be after her head. She had to hunt him if she didn’t want to be hunted.

[HikariAngel]

The catgirl’s shoulders dropped lightly as she heaved a sigh of relief. So the fox lady wasn’t going to hurt her after all. Her tail swished slowly behind her as rose-colored irises finally stopped flitting from one amused or angry face to another. The crowd, sensing that nothing more would come from watching the two humanoid creatures, slowly went back to whatever they had been doing prior to the crash.

“Why is he going to kill you? Why is he a dangerous man?”

Ears slightly darker than the rest of her hair twitched in subtle anticipation as she asked her questions, voicing both subtle concern and a bit of anticipation that her somber words failed to convey. Truth be told, she was worried for this stranger’s sake. The only problem was the fact that it was difficult to really worry about a stranger, but that was easily remedied. Shifting her attitude once more, the catgirl smiled wide and clasped her hands behind her back before bowing from the waist.

“My name’s Monica, what’s yours?”

Straightening back up, her grin faded slightly into something actually resembling seriousness for once. Now that her half was done, the pretty fox-lady was a close friend in Monica’s somewhat distorted worldview. That meant she was obligated to help the other woman in whatever situation her clumsiness had caused.

“Since it’s my fault you lost track of him, would you mind if I helped you find him? It’s the least I could do.”

[Tsukiko]

Tsukiko heard the girl ask why the man would kill her. It was probably a good question and the answer was easy. “Because he knows me as a bounty hunter that’s after him. The guy’s wanted for murder and I’m sure he’ll kill me just to be sure I won’t go after him. Heck he might kill anyone that witnessed this mess.” Tsu said grimly as she felt her body go limp with resignation.

Then the cat girl introduced her self with a smile that seemed to brighten up the vixen’s life a little. “I’m Doji Tsukiko, ronin swordswoman.” The fox girl bowed a bit and matched the smile even though there was a grim feeling in her heart.

One shining point was the queen offering her support was nice. “Oh you don’t have to. I’ll hunt this man down one way or another and I don’t want you in danger either.”

Tsu fixed her blades so they could be drawn easier and then thought again. Despite the accident that the girl had caused just moments earlier she seemed to have an agile stance and probably could do all kinds of things if paying attention. There was something special about her and the fox girl was sure. “But if you really want to help I won’t mind. I’m really sure that your help will make taking him down much easier.” The vixen smiled back and hoped she was right about the cat girl.

“Now we just have to find the killer. That’s the hardest part.” Tsu thought as she relaxed her form a bit. “I don’t suppose you saw the direction he went?”