“Harue?” James exclaimed. “You’re part of the Black Dragons?”

  “What?” Harue looked surprised. “No. Are you saying that because of Kana, here?”

  “Um, well…” James trailed off, unsure what to say.

  “Just because Kana happens to be a black dragon, doesn’t mean she’s in a criminal organisation. That’s racist.” Harue looked upwards and called to Kana. “Are you coming down?”

  “That’s Kana?” Mitsue said with a much higher pitch than normal.

  “But you— she—was at the fight!” James said at almost the same time. “Attacking us!”

  “I was as well,” Harue told him, “I’m just a little more subtle than Muggins, here. We were attacking the guys in black! Coming to your rescue! If you hadn’t taken off in the helicopter, you would have been around to see us wipe the floor with those guys.”

  The black dragon descended, seeming to dive right into the ground. It only took a second, but James could see it wasn’t passing through the ground. Rather, it folded in on itself, as if it were made of paper. When the tail was just five feet from the ground, the dragon disappeared, leaving Kana standing there.

  James made a high-pitched eep and turned his back. Their respective positions allowed him to keep Harue in view while decidedly not looking at Kana.

  Harue glanced casually over at Kana.

  “Clothes, Kana,” she said.

  “This is a hot spring,” Kana said. “Clothes are not worn at hot springs.”

  Harue looked over at the steaming pools, then back at James. He could tell the moment she decided to have some fun with it by the way her grin got wider.

  “That’s a fine point, well made, Kana,” she agreed. “I can’t argue with it.”

  “That’s not proper decorum, Kana!” Suki interjected. “You can’t be naked when there are boys around!”

  “Japanese mores around… nudity are less… restrictive than Western norms,” Mitsue said. He seemed to be having trouble speaking, but since he was closer to Kana, James couldn’t look without getting into trouble. “If… Kana-sama wishes to… bathe with the rest of us… I see no reason to refuse.”

  “Mixed bathing is only permitted in establishments that predate the introduction of the law in question,” Suki said primly. “This is not an establishment. It is a hole in the ground.”

  Mitsue gave a long and mournful sigh.

  The girls decided they did want to have a bath. The boys were relegated behind a brush screen that Mitsue had intended to use for camouflage. They were close enough to have a conversation with the girls, which meant they were close enough to hear the girls.

  “Aw, you made your tails go away,” Suki complained. “I wanted to wash them.”

  “They are such a pain to get dry,” Harue told her. “I don’t want to even think about getting them wet without an electric hair dryer available. I’ll let you play with them later, though, if I can feel your boobs now.”

  “Done,” Suki said quickly. Then she giggled, and James felt his face go red.

  “Mine are bigger,” Kana stated confidently.

  “Sure, but hers are so soft,” Harue gushed. “That’s what the boys like, you know. Don’t they, James?”

  James didn’t answer, too intent on keeping his thoughts under control as Suki squealed.

  “I didn’t say you could touch them!”

  “It would not have done to stare,” Mitsue muttered, “So I couldn’t get a good look… but she is magnificent, James.”

  James blushed some more. He hadn’t looked, but there had been a moment before he turned around…

  “I thought you were in love with Midoriko?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

  Mitsue sighed again. “I am very confused,” he confessed.

  “Harue!” James called, desperately snatching at a distraction from thinking what the sudden escalation of splashing could mean, “How did you find us, anyway?”

  “Kana found this place when she was hunting,” Harue said. “When Toei was going on about how your helicopter had crashed, we volunteered to look for you. Checking here was her first suggestion.”

  “Prey always returns to its den,” Kana said with satisfaction.

  “Yeah,” Harue said. James could hear her roll her eyes. “That’s exactly how you should phrase that sentiment to appear more human. Oh! You should call the Professor to let him know you’re okay.”

  “I don’t have his number, but I can call the school…” James said.

  “Operational security, remember?” Mitsue interrupted. “The call could be intercepted.”

  “Don’t worry about it, use my phone,” Harue said. There was a short pause, and then Harue’s hand poked around the screen, holding her fox phone.

  “Why are its ears twitching?” James said, taking the phone uncertainly. The screen said that it was already connecting to Professor Toei

  “Cause they itch?” Harue said. The screen creaked as she leaned against it. James was suddenly certain that she hadn’t bothered with a towel. He focused on the phone.

  “Hello? Kuzahana-san?” Professor Toei said.

  “Uh, hi Professor Toei,” James said. “We all got out okay.”

  “The pilot,” Mitsue reminded him.

  “Oh, yeah.” James's heart sank, while his stomach seemed to rise to meet it. “Uh, the pilot he didn’t… he…”

  “I understand, James. But the rest of you are uninjured?”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Some scrapes and bruises. Suki got knocked unconscious—”

  “I will be fine!” Suki called out.

  “But we’re fine. We should make it back to school in an hour or so?”

  “That’s great,” the professor said. He sounded relieved. “We have a lot to take care of here, so I’ll meet up with you all tomorrow morning, then. Take care.”

  “Uh, yeah, bye.” James handed the phone back to Harue’s hand. She giggled, for no apparent reason, and headed back to the bath.

  “So are you going to explain, now?” James asked. The baths were over, and everyone was dressed again. Harue had manifested her tails again, and Suki was stroking one as if it were a pet cat.

  “What’s to explain?” Harue asked, “I’m a fox and Kana’s a dragon. It’s not exactly a secret, but try not to go blabbing to the national media.”

  “You’re not in hiding from the government or something?”

  “Some of the government knows about us,” Harue said. She cocked her head and thought about what she had said. “Maybe it would be more accurate to say that the government would prefer not to acknowledge the existence of spirit creatures, but specific parts have no choice.”

  “The police?” James guessed. “Wait, that’s the Japanese government, what about the American one?”

  Harue shrugged. “Some of the police,” she said. “I don’t know what the Americans think. I’m sure they’re busy with their own weirdness. We don’t have a monopoly on it in Japan.”

  “What about the Ozu sisters?” James asked. “If they are sisters. Shion was abnormally strong, and Kanon had electricity coming off her hands.”

  “The sisters are probably cyborgs or robots of some kind,” Suki said. “That’s the sort of technology that Kotodama Heavy Industries develops.”

  “A robot?” James said. He waited for an incredulous denial to well up, but it didn’t happen. Perhaps his sense of what was possible had died recently.

  “That would explain Shion’s strength and Kanon’s electrical powers, I suppose,” Mitsue said thoughtfully. “I haven’t heard of such technology being available, though. How did you recognise it?”

  “It’s their eyes,” Suki said. “If you know what you’re looking at, you can see… sort of a crystalline texture to the irises? I’m not sure how available it is. I had the opportunity to, um, examine some prototypes.”

  Suki looked embarrassed as Mitsue stared at her. “How did you—” he started to say.

  “I don’t really want to talk about it,” Suki said.

  “If— If she were a robot, she wouldn’t have a soul, would she?” James asked, carefully not looking at Suki. “Does she have a soul?”

  “Of course, a robot would have a soul,” Harue said. “What part of ‘everything has a soul’ didn’t you understand? And yeah, Shion and Kanon have souls. I would have noticed if they didn’t.”

  “They are abnormally weak, though,” Kana interjected. “Much weaker than human souls.”

  She gave Harue a superior smile. “You should have noticed that, as well.”

  “Yeah, well, forgive me,” Harue said, smirking back, “I don’t spend my time evaluating which of the people I live with would make the best snack.”

  “Why are you all looking at me like that?” Kana said into the uncomfortable silence that followed. “I already agreed not to eat you, or any humans on this island.”

  “Right…” James said slowly. “Let’s… move on from that, because I have a lot of questions about everything. Robots have souls?”

  “In Shinto,” Mitsue said, “Everything, even rocks, trees and water all carry at least some fragment of a soul.”

  Harue pointed at him. “Yeah, that. So all the parts of the robot would have a soul, and when they’re put together, they would form… something larger. I’m not sure, I’ve never seen a robot. But it would, probably, be weaker than a human soul.”

  “Then…” James said, finally looking at Suki.

  “I am not a robot,” she said quickly.

  “Damn straight you’re not,” Harue said. “You’re unprecedented. And not just unprecedentedly boobalicious!”

  “What about a cyborg?” Mitsue asked while both Suki and James blushed furiously. “Would they have a weaker soul?”

  “Maybe?” Harue said. “Losing parts of your body should weaken your soul, at least temporarily. I’m not terribly familiar with lopped-off limbs either, though.”

  “Wait, though,” James said, recovering his composure. “If robots have souls, then… what are souls? What do they do?”

  Harue shrugged. “I dunno,” she said. “Human souls make Ki, if that helps. Not just humans, actually. Trees and animals as well.”

  “Um… Ki?” James asked.

  “It’s got lots of names,” Harue told him. “Qi, Essence, Mana, Prana… It’s a thing that does magic.”

  “And my soul makes it?” James asked. “But I can’t do magic.”

  “Humans are bad at using Ki, but some manage it,” Harue said, pointing at Mitsue. “As for you, you can glow green, which is more than most humans can manage.”

  “He blocked that attack too, back at the other island,” Suki said. “It saved us all.”

  “I don’t—I don’t think that was me doing that,” James protested. “I don’t know how it happened.”

  “Just because you don’t know how you did something, doesn’t mean you didn’t do it,” Harue said. “You know how to pump your blood around?”

  “I suppose not,” James admitted. “But… people like you can use Ki more easily?”

  “Ayakashi like Kana and I,” Harue said. “We live with Ki. It sustains us, it flows through our veins, and we can use it for magic as well.”

  “But you don’t make it so… you have to get it from humans,” James said slowly. “Do I want to know how?”

  “There are lots of ways!” Harue exclaimed. “For one, you humans are so full of Ki that you just shed it. Practitioners like Mitsue learn to hold onto their Ki, so they can do things with it, but the rest of you are just giving off delicious Ki all the time.”

  “Then why…” James asked, glancing at Kana.

  “It’s very diffuse,” Harue said. “You can’t get much out of it. Not enough to sustain a big spirit like Kana, or even a little spirit like me. There are ways to increase the efficiency, of course. The closer you get to a human, the more of his shed Ki you can absorb.”

  “Japanese literature is full of tales of mischievous kitsune who sleep with men, draining the life out of them,” Mitsue said. “Is this what you refer to?”

  “That’s the next level,” Harue said. “Just resting next to a man is one thing, but if you… ah… sleep with him, you get a gift of his bodily fluids and a connection. With that, you can suck out the Ki that he’s not shedding.”

  “And he dies,” Mitsue said flatly.

  “He doesn’t have to,” Harue said. “A single round isn’t going to hurt anyone; humans are constantly generating Ki. It’s not hard, though, to keep a man going until he’s all used up, as it were. At least he dies happy.”

  “Is that what you do?” Suki asked. “Have you killed anyone that way?”

  Harue gave her a look. “Most kitsune just sip. A few prefer to drain their victims dry, and a few even eat them up. That’s wasteful, though.”

  “It is efficient,” Kana objected. “Every drop of Ki is collected that way.”

  “Except for every drop that he would have made in the years after that,” Harue countered. “But to answer your question, Suki, no. My family doesn’t do that. We found another way.”

  “And what way is that?” Mitsue asked.

  Harue smiled smugly. “We’re the good foxes,” she said. “We found a god to serve.”

  Mitsue frowned. “There are fox spirits said to serve Inari-kami,” he said. “But your temple…”

  “Yeah,” Harue said. “The legend says that we used to work for Inari-kami. But Hachiman-kami was visiting once and became enamoured of the beautiful fox girl servants. So he made a bet with Inari, won it, and got some foxes for himself.”

  “You say that like the gods are real,” James said.

  “Of course they’re real,” Harue replied. “Who do you think I’m getting married to?”

  “To Hachiman-kami?” Mitsue said incredulously. “To a god?”

  “It’s no big deal,” Harue told him. “It’s part of the duties of his priestesses. We become his brides and we… keep him occupied.”

  “You mean you’re… he’s always…” James couldn’t finish his sentence.

  “Having sex, yes,” Harue said, smirking at his discomfiture. “The duty is shared, so there’s a roster, shifts, that sort of thing.”

  “He’s… active twenty-four hours a day?” Mitsue said carefully.

  “Pretty much,” Harue said. “Gods don’t sleep much. And you don’t want the God of War wandering about, starting conflicts and such. Especially these days.”

  “I can’t get my head around this,” James complained. “Are you saying that World War III has been held off because the God of War doesn’t ever get out of bed?”

  “Hmm, I don’t think so,” Harue said. “He’s just the local god, after all. I can’t say I know how it works, though, so maybe?”

  “And what does this have to do with how you collect Ki?”

  “Oh, that’s simple. Since we’re contracted to a God, we get paid with divine Ki.”

  “You just get given Ki?” Kana said, outraged. “You don’t fight for it?”

  “Nope!” Harue said gleefully. “Just a tiny portion of Divine Essence sustains us, making sure that we don’t need to absorb, collect or steal any more from any other source.”

  “You don’t need to,” Mitsue said. “That doesn’t seem to imply that you cannot take from any other sources.”

  Harue giggled. “That’s very true,” she said. “My needs are taken care of, but I can enjoy a snack now and then.”