I Never liked you

The morning sun was slowly coming in through the window of Ei's room, the room was beginning to fill with light and even though she had already woken up, Ei still had her eyes closed, trying to imagine how her day would be if she had no obligations today, no one depending on her, no nation waiting, with a sigh Ei opened her eyes and let all the information from the room fill her brain, but something felt strange, on the floor beside the bed, there were papers lying on the floor, pieces of picture frames and broken vases, had someone come into her room while she was sleeping? Ei quickly got up and sat on the bed to look around and look for signs of a break-in, the window was open and Ei never imagined that someone would have the courage to invade Shogun's room, mainly because it was the highest wing of Tenshukaku, when got out of bed and went to the bathroom, it looked like the place had been attacked by a wild beast, mirror broken, clothes torn and scattered on the floor, all the products that Ei uses in his day-to-day spilled and broken on the floor and countertops , Ei picked up his robe lying on the floor there was a strange smell as if someone... had... pissed on it and that's when Ei's brain clicked she looked for any clean clothes she had left and ran through the halls of the house

“Makoto! MA-KO-TOOOO”

Makoto was in the living room sitting at the table drinking tea when the image of Ei, completely disheveled wearing what looked like an orange robe with small images of tanuki dancing appeared, invading the room with the smell of ozone.

“E-Ei? What the...”

“WHERE IS THAT STINKING FOX?

"What? But..."

“She came into my room at night and DESTROYED EVERYTHING IN THERE”

“Oh really? I thought she had spent the whole night sleeping on my foot, before going to sleep she had already curled up there and today when I woke up she was in the same place”

“Makoto, the fox PISSED on my robe, who would come into MY room and pee on MY clothes?”

“Some…pft…tanuki? Perhaps?"

Said the younger sister holding back her laughter with one hand and pointing for her to take a look at herself.

Ei looked down realizing the clothes she had picked up to wear

“Urggg...When I get back, let's take this fox to Saigu for good”

When she turned her back to go back to her room and get some decent clothes, she saw the little fox eating a fried tofu from a small plate, carefree, as if nothing had happened, completely oblivious to the situation. Ei clasped her fingers and flicked a lightning near the fox's tail, which squealed in fright and ran to hide between Makoto's legs.

“Awn Ei, that’s mean!”

“Remember those bath salts you lent me? She broke too

“Oh no ! what a shameless fox!” Said makoto trying to contain the laughter

Ei heard Makoto chuckle as she turned her back and walked back into the room which made her even more angry.

When Ei was in more respectable clothes, Makoto picked up the little fox and put it in a little bag where she could put her head out and breathe, the two sisters went towards the temple and as soon as they arrived the first thing they could see was the sacred Sakura, Makoto walked past her and went straight to meet Saigu at the top of the stairs, but Ei had to stop for a moment and appreciate the tree a little more, the sakura reminded her of the moments when she was a child when Makoto, Saigu and Shino and her played around the tree almost the entire day, but the sacred Sakura also had a special bond with Ei, it was as if she told her the whole story of Inazuma every time she saw her and every time Ei touched the tree she could feel the entire essence of the islands of the nation flowing through the tree directly to her, Ei could even feel Enkanomyia, and that was how she learned that the children of the sun needed rescuing, Ei could feel the shores of the Nakurami island, the winds from the top of the cliff, the electricity that ran in the uninhabitable islands, everything that was alive in Inazuma Ei could feel it and it brought a certain peace to her heart.

Ei breaks her trance when she hears Saigu calling at the top of the temple's stairs. She gives a more relaxed smile, especially after the exchange she can make with the sacred Sakura and goes up towards her friend.

“So I heard you two are adopting a new member of the family.”

“And I already want to give it back, for the love of archons, Saigu do you know what that thing is?”

"She has an electro vision hanging from one of her ears, and if you look closely here on her chest, it has a seal engraved on it, so it's definitely a Kitsune that was sealed in fox form."

Ei looked at the seal on the fox's breastplate as Saigu held it up so they could see

“This seal is from Orobachi, she was probably the one who sealed it in fox form, do you know how to undo the seal or rather, do you know who the sealed Kitsune is?"

Saigu thought for a moment looking at the fox who seemed absent-mindedly playing with the strings of his obi.

“Well, there is a legend in Sangonomyia, of a nine-tailed Kitsune who was the protector of a forest even before Sangonomyia was Sangonomyia, the legend says that when the city emerged from the abyss, the citizens began to rebuild the city by deforesting part of the forest sacred that the Kitsune protected, at first nobody worried much, but when the Kitsune massacred a nearby village, Orobachi ordered that the Kitsune was captured, the legend says that many tried, but that because it was a Kitsune with nine tails it had a power of "charm" that drove all soldiers who tried to madness, it is said that the kitsune itself became intoxicated with its own charm and went on a killing spree, Orobachi had to intervene and captured the Kitsune imprisoning her in her fox form and hiding it in a place where no one would dare look for it.”

Saigu paused again and then continued

"Other legends say that Orobachi sealed Celestia's sacred scriptures in the kitsune in the hope that even after receiving divine punishment, Sangonomyia would still be in possession of the texts."

Ei squeezed the septum with his fingertips in concern.

“These texts, are becoming my millennial headache, how do we discover the truth? Breaking the seal of what could be a psychopathic Kitsune or whatever else Sangonomyia needs to win the war and separate Inazuma as an independent city.”

“Well, the seal is pretty simple to break, just say her name”

The silence between the three of them seems to last forever, until Makoto decides to break the silence first.

“Ei, if the scriptures are inside the Kitsune, we can find a way to get them out and put them in a safer place than Enkanomyia's library, we can seal it in me or you, whatever! I don't think this Kitsune chose this fate."

Ei looked at her trying to think of the best decision

"What if she's a wild Kitsune and starts hurting people?"

“Inazuma has the best defender there is... if she's wild Saigu can teach her how to control her powers, besides, she has electro vision that is only given to those who have a very strong desire for something, maybe she just wanted to protect her home... like we protect ours every day”

"Makoto...I don't know if it's that simple..."

Ei was really conflicted, the decisions she made were never simple decisions of “yes” or “no” everything always brought a catastrophic consequence, sometimes even geographic, how many times had Ei not released Inazuma for weeks of fog and incessant rain simply for deciding to close the city borders? Maybe she should get the fox and return it to Enkanomiya and avoid bringing more problems for her to solve, but on the other hand if Orobachi needed her within the confines of Sangonomyia's, maybe having the Kitsune on her side is what's missing. for an end to this war and finally she can leave Makoto in charge of inazuma and take a long break in Eutamia, the only place where Ei has no obligation to anything .

"You are not alone Ei, if something goes wrong I'll be by your side as always to help you..."

Ei looks at Makoto and her sister reaches out to touch her arm and show her sister her support

“Okay, Saigu what is the name of this rat?”

Saigu takes the pink fox, places it in the middle of the three positioned in the center and speaks “Her name is Yae Miko” The three wait a little longer and the little fox opens its mouth and....

“Achoo!!” - She sneezes a little, but nothing happens, she remains in her fox form and the three friends sitting around her are still disappointed.

“Are you sure this is how it is?”

“I do, but does the almighty Shogun, connoisseur of kistunes suggest something more effective?”

“What if we scrape the seal off her fur?”

"Ei!" “What? Saigu asked for my suggestion”

“Maybe she has been asleep in Enkanomyia for a long time and doesn't know how to get back, I'll have a look at the books here in the temple if I find anything useful, I'll let you know”

After arriving from the temple, Makoto is called upon by the Kamissato clan to organize an inazuma festival,

“Ei, can you watch Miko while I'm gone? After we tried to break the seal I don't think she should be left alone."

“I think between being alone and being with me, she would rather go back into a coma”

“Maybe you just need to be kinder to her and stop scaring her with those electric flicks”

"She destroyed my room, I'm going to throw electric flicks at her from here to eternity"

“Can you try to be a little more gentle?”

“Ok ok ok, good luck on your festival and if you can...bring me some dango milk”

Makoto makes a disgusted face at Ei's request and walks out the door leaving her alone with the fox, they stare at each other for a moment in silence until Ei has an idea, she goes to the kitchen and gets some fried tofu and from a safe biting distance, she takes a piece of tofu and throws it near the fox, who, upon realizing the treat, lifts his ears and eats the piece that was thrown to her, the next piece that Ei throws is a little closer to her and the fox, still attentive, goes towards the tofu, Ei keeps throwing the pieces of fried tofu closer and closer to her until the Kitsune gets so close that she eats the last piece straight from Ei's hands .

“See, I'm not that bad”

Ei says, managing to stroke the fox's head for the first time, which, even though it is suspicious and showing its teeth, allows Ei to touch her. Ei takes another piece of fried tofu and continues to feed the fox small pieces until she gets used to her touch and becomes less skittish. After that, the little fox started to follow Ei around the corners of the house, always trying to hide a little so that Ei wouldn't see her. In the afternoon Ei decided to train in the Tenshukaku arena to try to clear up everything she had to think about today and of course, she took a piece of fried tofu for the fox to follow her down. In the courtyard Ei prepared the test dummies so that he could train with the sword, and the fox watched attentively all the movements she made.

“You know Yae, if you changed back to your human form I could teach you how to use a sword so you could go back to Watatsumi and protect your forest when this is all over”

Ei took a break and wait to see if the fox will react

"Maybe in your human form at least you wouldn't piss in anyone's room"

One more look at the fox, but no reaction yet.

“Look, I get it, sometimes it's wonderful to be in a world of our own with no one interrupting your day just doing the things we like, but Inazuma still needs a general more than a diplomat and that's why I'm the Shogun Regent, maybe your forest is still there and maybe it still needs you to protect it"

Ei looks again, but the fox has his head tilted to the side still without the expected reaction. Ei gives up trying to convince the fox to change back to human form and goes back to what he was doing concentrating on training until it gets dark. When Ei finishes training she takes the fox in her arms and takes it back to Tenshukaku's personal wing and takes a shower to be ready for bed, Makoto still hadn't arrived and Ei imagined that things must be difficult to decide, Ei preferred to fight a hundred battles than having to spend the day deciding which families would participate in the festival and for that she was so grateful to Makoto, at least in Inzamua's political matters she was a thousand times better than Ei, Makoto was friendlier, more sociable and would solve any problem. diplomatic problem with a smile on his face. Ei decided to wait for Makoto in her room reading a book that had been sent to her from mondestat, the wrapped paper was a little wine stained, but the book itself looked intact. Ei put the fox next to her who quickly laid her head in her lap and closed her eyes, she opened the first page and started reading the synopsis:

“A mondestat tale about a princess who was going to marry a prince charming, but the prince was bewitched by an evil witch and turned into a frog, now, only true love's kiss could break the curse and turn the prince human. again"

Ei laughed thinking it was the stupidest book she had ever seen in her life but then she looks at the fox lying on her lap and....

“Ew, no..no no no, I refuse”

But what if...?

Ei puts the book aside and stands on top of the bed holding the fox by the front paws and who looked obviously upset at being woken up, looks deep into her red eyes closes her eyes and kisses the fox right on the tip of the nose .

"Ei? What are you doing?

Ei opens his eyes and sees his sister with her mouth open standing in the bedroom doorway.

"I? I was just... the book... Idiot, it was talking about..., Makoto, don't laugh! It was a stupid thing that I read in the book so I decided to test it on Yae”

After that there was nothing Ei could say that would make Makoto stop laughing.

“My god, how old are you? Nine?"

The sister finally stopped laughing and with her hand on her stomach, she said

“Well, I'll leave you two alone since you've already solved the problems you had with each other. Geez Ei, one day you are going to kill me”

Makoto leaves the room still laughing at her sister. Ei returns the fox to bed and lies down to read mondestat's book. Little by little, Ei falls asleep and before resting on her lap, the fox nestles on Ei's shoulders and the two fall asleep at once.