"And for what reason are you trying to withdraw over eighty percent of your savings?" The teller asked. Her fox ears were frozen in an upright stance, which was known to happen when the Kitsune in question was wary of someone.

  Yuji quirked an eyebrow while glaring at the woman, "Does 'It's none of your fucking business' suffice as an answer?"

  The woman literally snarled like a fox in response, causing her boss, the only other employee currently at the bank, to come out of his office so he could see what was going on. He sidled up behind the teller and put his right hand on her shoulder, "Is everything okay here, Hisui?"

  Hisui turned her head to look at her boss, "S-Sir, this Human won't tell me why he's drawing most of the funds out of his account..."

  Yuji heard Akira click his tongue after he heard the way she had said the word 'Human' with pure disdain.

  "I see..." The man, another Kitsune, looked at Yuji with a smile on his face. A smile so fake that it took all of Yuji's willpower to prevent himself from telling the man to preemptively shut up while demanding his money. Which was something that wasn't going to work, and he knew it, so he kept his mouth shut.

  I'm getting real sick of having to deal with this crap though... When did I have to start putting up with this? I need to ask Uncle Gavin when I get home, because everything used to be so much simpler here, but I can't for the life of me remember when it became like this. ALL I KNOW is that if I asked for my entire savings in the past, they would've just given me the money and then thanked me for using their bank up until that moment. And they weren't taxing me for tragedies I'm having trouble believing even exist.

  "Sir, I understand this is difficult for you, but we need to make sure you aren't planning to use that money for nefarious means." The 'Boss' said.

  "Nefarious???" Akira scoffed, "Since when are you the Protectorate? Can you arrest me right here and now if I break the glass between us?"

  The boss turned toward Akira, the same fake smile plastered on his face, "Of course not. We are merely making sure that everything is going to be okay. It would harm our bank's image if we were to assist in something that harmed another individual, and you can never be too safe, can you?"

  "YES YOU CAN!!" Akira yelled.

  Yuji held his left hand up before the boss could reply. "There's an Awakened healer coming here right now to heal my sister's legs. I need the money for that."

  "Well now! What a lovely thing to do for your sister! You see? That wasn't so hard, and now you'll receive your funds as soon as I retrieve them from the vault." The boss turned back to Akira, "And what about you, good sir? Did you have business at our illustrious institution as well?"

  Illustrious institution? Don't they just hold onto money here? Why is he acting like this place spits out philosophers?

  "I do." Akira pulled the currency transfer note out of his pocket and slid it under the glass toward the woman, "I'd like to cancel this and instead have the funds withdrawn from my account. And before you ask, since I know you're going to now, it's for his sister as well."

  The boss's smile widened a little, "I see! What a beautiful friendship you two have, however..." He looked between the note and Yuji, "I am to assume this was done to avoid the recently added ten percent tax? That won't do, Mister... Akira? You of all people should know how important this is to your people."

  "I don't though? I watch TV all the time with my wife, including the global news station, and not once have I heard about a massacre of Kitsune that everyone else needs to pay for."

  Hisui narrowed her eyes at Yuji, "Not everyone---" She suddenly cut herself off and looked down. The reason why was obvious when Yuji could see the boss's nails digging into her shoulder.

  For whatever reason, that was the moment his patience finally ran out.

  I already have a million other problems. I really don't want to have to deal with this shit, and I shouldn't have to anyway, but you know, this is kind of a good opportunity, isn't it?

  "Akira. Give me the note. I'll take the ten percent hit for now."

  "Wha?! Are you really okay with that? Because I'm not!"

  "It's fine, it's fine. What matters is healing Lisa, right?" Yuji said, smiling at Akira, who for his part, knew that something was off with his friend, but he let it slide for the time being.

  "... Alright then. It's your choice."

  "Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Yuji. You will go far in this world with that temperament." The Boss said.

  Normally that would have pissed him off even more. After all, reading between the lines it was obvious what the Kitsune was saying to him. 'Just shut up and do what you're told and you'll be fine'. But Yuji didn't care about any of that at the moment. His mind was already fully focused on the plan he'd come up with a minute ago.

  After the coin pouch was passed to Yuji under the glass, he quickly walked out of the bank and held it out toward Akira before he could start yelling, since Yuji knew that's exactly what his friend was going to do.

  "Why are you giving this to me? This amount of coins is like sending up a flare and asking everyone to kill me. Did you forget why we even use these banks, idiot?"

  "I know that, but I don't have time to go home. There's something I need to take care of. So please hang onto it for now, lock all of your doors and windows, and I'll come by tomorrow to pick up the pouch."

  Akira sighed, "Look, I love you and your sister, that's why I gave you so many coins, alright? But you're not exactly giving me a good reason to hold onto these things here. Just take them home damnit, and then come back to do whatever it is you're planning to do."

  "There's no time for that. I don't know when either of these two are getting off of work, and I can't miss that chance."

  "What...? Are you going to jump them and beat them up? That would be hilarious to watch, but is it really a good idea to end up in a cell when you have uh, you know what to deal with?"

  Yuji smiled widely at his friend, "Oh, don't worry, it won't be anything like that. I'm only doing a little bit of hunting with you know what."

  "Y-You---" Akira still hadn't taken the pouch, so Yuji shoved it lightly into his friend's chest, cutting off whatever reply he was building up to.

  "Please, Akira. I've already made the decision. And honestly? Right now, I don't feel even an ounce of pity for what I'm about to do."

  If anything, I'm...

  "......"

  Akira grabbed the pouch and shoved it into a large pocket inside his jacket. He then turned toward his house and began walking away.

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  "You do what you gotta do, buddy. I'll see you tomorrow." Akira said without looking back.

  It was only then that Yuji noticed that the alarms weren't ringing anymore. It would've been impossible to hear his friend otherwise.

  That's a shame. I would've loved to have something that loud covering my tracks audibly tonight, but I'll just have to make do and try not to screw this up.

  Yuji walked diagonally across the street into an alley, and when he was completely out of sight, he activated his floating ability and wall jumped up the building until he was on the roof.

  He then immediately dropped onto the snow-covered roof and crawled over to the edge of the roof until he could just barely see the entrance to the bank.

  The night was chilling, and he had worried a little that it might be too much for him if he had to wait for several hours, but the second he reached the edge of the roof and began waiting for his prey, something changed. He swore he could now tell where people were within a certain proximity of the building he was on. When he had this weird sensation that someone was in the alley, he'd go check and sure enough, they were exactly where he expected them to be.

  And the chill in the air had disappeared as well. He wasn't warm, he wasn't cold. He just... Was. He felt like a static object in a world waiting for him to move.

  And so he waited from there on out, unmoving. Watching and waiting to see who came out of the bank first. Waiting to see who his first test subject would be.

  "Are you sure, Master? The alarms were ringing for a long time earlier. I don't want to leave you here alone tonight. We still don't know why they were ringing either..."

  Her boss, the 'Master' who was to train her until she was ready to move to the capital, looked up at her with a genuine smile, "Such a sweet girl you are, Hisui. But don't worry, there are plenty of Protectorates already in the outpost working on other cases. Whatever happened was surely dealt with by them. Even just one full squad of Protectorate could deal with an Eldritch God if need be, so there truly is nothing to worry about. Go home and get some rest. You've earned it."

  "... Okay, I will." She replied, dejectedly. She had been hoping tonight would finally be the night he went home with her, but he had yet to even flirt with her, let alone try to sleep with her. She had faith in her looks, but the man's devotion to the cause seemed to be the only thing he cared about, and while she was fully on board with it, the complete and utter devotion she'd seen in him and the others was starting to scare her a little.

  Hisui grabbed her bag out of the employee area and walked toward the bank's front doors, hearing only the sound of her flats hitting the hard floor and the typing her Master was doing in his office.

  She reached the doors and walked outside, but the second she did, she felt a dreadful pulse from something hit her soul. It was only for a split second, and it disappeared so quickly she wasn't even certain that it had actually happened.

  She looked back at the bank and thought about consulting her Master, but as she stood there for several minutes, the only thing she heard or saw was a few people walking to and fro. If there truly was something dreadful nearby, she couldn't imagine everything remaining so peaceful, and her own soul was very weak, so if something strong was nearby, her Master would have picked up on it long before she did.

  Figuring it was nothing or the remnants of whatever caused the alarm earlier, she made her way home which was only a few streets away. As a just-in-case, she kept looking around until she reached the large multi-leveled townhouse she had been staying in while undergoing her training, but she continued to see and hear nothing out of the ordinary.

  Upon reaching the townhouse, she reached out and hit the buzzer. A few seconds later the gate unlocked, which she swiftly pulled open and closed behind her before running the rest of the way toward the front door. There was no reason for it. No tangible reason anyway. But something was really beginning to freak her out.

  Hisui pulled the door open and practically leaped inside, almost hitting the guard headfirst who had been waiting for her inside.

  "Miss, are you okay?! I saw you running and tried to get to the door before you could."

  "Ha... Hahahaha... No no, it's okay, Sakamoto. I just um, felt like something was chasing me, but I don't know why..."

  Sakamoto walked around Hisui and stood at the entrance, staring outside for a while before speaking again.

  "Worry not, Miss. If someone or something was chasing you, then it's no longer here."

  She doubted that he believed there ever was anything to begin with, but she appreciated him playing along all the same.

  "T-Thank you for checking, Sakamato." She bowed to the man, and he did the same in response.

  A minute later she was finally back in her townhouse. Those who were supposed to move in on both sides of her wouldn't be arriving for several weeks, so the place was dead silent at the moment. Which was normally something she loved, but tonight...

  Hisui turned the TV on in the main room, cranking the volume up a bit before entering the nearby bathroom to take a shower, and by the end of it, she was finally back to her normal self.

  She then spent the next few hours reading a book while slowly eating her dinner, but when she closed the book and prepared to head to her bedroom, despite the fact that she had long since gotten past the fear from earlier, Hisui just couldn't bring herself to turn the TV off and leave the room.

  Ugh, what is this?! I'm going to have to deal with actual scary situations in the capital soon, but I can't even get past whatever this is?

  Even though she was annoyed with herself, she still laid down on the couch and attempted to sleep with the TV and the lights still on.

  So stupid, Hisui... So childish... This is why he hated you.

  She'd been working all day long for the past three days though, so even though she normally needed a pitch-black room with no noise to sleep, she still fell asleep quite quickly on the couch.

  What happened next though, was far from the normal. Hisui was subjected to one nightmare after another. That feeling from earlier came back with overwhelming force as well, but she was only aware of it in a subconscious form. No matter how scary it was, or no matter how frightening her nightmares were that were playing out the worst memories of her life, she wasn't able to wake up.

  Unaware to her, the reason was quite simple. The soul connected to hers was more powerful than hers, and with no abilities or passives to fight back against it, there was absolutely nothing she could do to overcome it. All souls were already much weaker while the body slept, as the souls needed rest too, but that was merely icing on a much larger problem.

  To her, it felt like a lifetime as she watched the memories from her past that were somehow far worse than what she remembered them to be. Her Human stepfather who used to beat her, was now cutting her into pieces and stitching her back together again so he could cut her up all over again. The pain felt real. Too real. She wanted to scream bloody murder, and even though she was screaming in the dream, her lips in the real world remained sealed shut.

  And when those memories ran out, new ones took their place that were even more frightening than the last ones.

  Slowly but surely after hours of imaginary torture, she finally became aware of herself. Of what was happening to her. But she couldn't move. Not a single one of her muscles would move an inch. For hours, or maybe only seconds, she tried as hard as she could to move her fingers, body, and even her eyelids... Sadly, none of it was responding.

  But then suddenly, her eyelids opened all on their own, and the first thing she saw was a man standing over her. It was the rude Human from the bank she had dealt with earlier in the night. The fear that hit her in that moment was something she'd only experienced one other time in life. When she was a young girl she'd had night terrors while staying at her aunt's house. It was something she prayed she would never have to feel ever again, and her prayers had been answered.

  Until now, anyway. And the terror she was feeling at the moment was far deeper. She could feel it in her soul, but even a whimper wasn't allowed to escape her lips.

  "Why are you calling Human's 'Box-carriers', and some Kitsune 'House-cats'?"

  The man randomly asking a normal question had cut the terror feeling in half, which she was grateful for, but her mind was racing with too many questions as it was, so she hadn't even really heard the question. And more than anything, she just wanted to escape. To get as far away from him as humanly possible.

  However, what happened next had shocked her more than anything else that night.

  "Because you're useless, and meant to serve us, is what we're told... And any Kitsune who befriends you is even worse." She said, through no action of her own.

  W-What is, what is happening?! Master, help!!

  Yuji pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "So is that why they refused to let me work at the new Crystal Factory?"

  "Yes. Servants don't need advanced skills. They are dangerous in your hands. Your hands should be filled with boxes, or plates of food, or drinks, or---"

  "Enough."

  Hisui's lips snapped shut, but she could feel them quivering now, and not only that, but she was able to move her fingers a little as well.

  Sadly for her, the Human known as Yuji had noticed as well.

  "Looks like that's the current limit for me, which means it's time to end this." He leaned down and grabbed her jaw before yanking her head up and to the right, "I guess I should thank you for being my first... You made this a lot easier than I thought it would be. So thank you, Hisui."

  She wasn't entirely certain of what happened next. There was a slight pain in her neck, and slowly but surely, she could feel the life being drained out of her. Strangely, she wanted to chuckle when she was made aware of what her final thoughts were. She realized that her Master looked and acted exactly like her stepfather had before her mother died in an accident. Before he became an alcoholic. Before her life went to hell and never recovered.

  If only she hadn't died... Hisui thought to herself as the world darkened around her.