"Hitomu-sama, my received important information from my clones..." Ni informed Shion right after Lazarus' departure. "We have a couple hostiles... should I dispatch my clones to eliminate them all?"
"Huh? W-Wait hold on. Who are these hostiles, and since when did you take notice of them?" The queen inquired.
"Most of them are low leveled humans...They pose no threat, but they're investigating the village you burned."
Shion absorbed this information in her own silence. "Huh... Are they adventurers? The same kind that I met in that undead mine?"
"...I can't say for sure, but based on their conversations... it seems like they were hired... to investigate the area."
Shion kept this in mind, before briefly instructing Ni to "Keep an eye on them, but don't engage them in any way. They mustn't know of our existence, not yet anyway." before heading back to towards the church. "Go show Lazarus-san the way back to our base as well. I have some business to attend to."
"Affirmative..." Ni bowed before disappearing in a puff of smoke, leaving the queen off by her lonesome.
A large sigh was emitted from Shion as she stretched, her weariness increasing as time went on. "Uyaaaann... that was tiresome... I just want to go to sleep already..."
Fatigue was slowly building up on the kitsune queen. The complete expense of her mana had done a number on her stamina, something that she didn't take in mind beforehand. "Ahhh~ Yon-san should still be with that girl, right? Lucia Cromwell, I believe her name was. There's also the matter with those potions, but let's put that on the backburner for now." The queen decided. Talking to herself was something she considered to be normal and she believed it would help stress if she did. "...No one can hear me right? No, Ni-San already made sure I was covered. I think." She couldn't really be sure anymore.
Shion looked around the trees surrounding her. Her heightened senses were slowly being adjusted her level of comfort. So far the only living (or unliving) things stirring was the bugs and wildlife that remained hidden in their nests and burrows. Not even a breeze was flowing through the winds. "Alright, perfect. Now then..."
The queen furled with excitement as she motioned the tuffs of her tails. Her magnificent fluffy tendrils wrapped around between her arms as she started to bury herself in them. "Ahh~ Fluff- Ack! Oh God, the smell!"
Shion immediately was repulsed by the disgusting smell of rot and dried blood. She then realized that her fluff was covered in leftover corpse meat, probably from all the undead she swatted earlier today. While a normal human would consider this to be revolting, a kitsune with a sensitive smell would consider this to be hell. The queen forced herself to swallow down her urge to regurgitate everything in her stomach. "Oh. God. Ahgn..." a hand was on her mouth and nose in an attempt to prevent the incoming weariness.
She succeeded... barely.
"That's disgusting... how come I didn't know of that smell sooner?" Shion struggled to say as she recovered. Her senses were confusing her, it didn't make any sense. She could see, hear, and smell further. Even those senses were much better than a human's, yet she could even sense this? "Urgh... this is annoying."
Then she faced her gaze at her 9 large tails. "So dirty... [Clea- wait, no mana." Another sigh of exhaustion emitted from her as she groaned in vain. "I can't fluff myself damn it!" She stomped the ground beneath her, only making a small crack in the earth as the trees and ferns shifted slightly at the impact. "........"
Reaching into her robes, she pulled out a mana potion. The blue liquid was then swirled around in its vial as Shion examined it. She gripped it in her hand as it shook in much of her own restraint.
"...........I'm I really considering drinking a one-of-a-kind potion to fluff myself?"
The idea grew all the more ridiculous as Shion considered this. She used her other hand to stop herself. "No, that's stupid. But-" she examined her tails. The pointless dilemma consumed her mind as she shouted "Damn it!" before shoving back in her inventory.
Why am I so frustrated?
The queen couldn't make any sense of it, but she was very much in need of something sustainable. A burning desire engulfed her mind as her attention turned towards the chapel. "...Yon-san..." her eyes glinted green as her body broke into a run.
Sooner than she'd expected, she had phased through the barrier and blasted the double doors open, startling those inside. Dust was blasted across the room as Shion stood there at the entrance, breathing heavily.
"AH! H-Hitomu-sama!" Yon-san exclaimed as her conversation with Lucia was interrupted. "Welcome back! I was just ready to inf- WAA!" Like a flash in the water, the queen launched herself on top of the fox maiden thoroughly surprising her and the cyromancer.
"H-Hitomu-sama...? The maiden quietly asked as she was being pressed onto the ground with both her superior's hands locking her arms into place upon the church tiles. "W-What's wrong?"
"Tᴀɪʟs..."
"...I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Tails. I need the tails. I'm sorry."
"W-Wawawawa!"
Soon enough, Yon's six tails were being taken by Shion. Her fluffy tuffs rubbed against her cheeks as she brushed against its softness. "H-Hitomu-sama... Hitomu-saaammaaaaa...!" The fox maiden couldn't contain her reactions as Shion fluffed her. The feeling was complete bliss. A desire was being thoroughly filled within Shion as he nerves were being stimulated by the heavenly tuffs of ecstasy. The Queen's fatigue was slowly fading as escaped sounds echoed throughout the church.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Shion's nerves soon came to appeasement as she comes to realize that she felt re-energized. Each sniff and brush granted her a feeling of a restness she hasn't felt before. Her body was being rejuvenated by each fluff. The queen decided to do it more. Confused mutterings were heard as Shion saw Lucia dumbstruck by her actions. She couldn't care less, she was too busy being in fluffy heaven.
At the end of the exchange, Shion gave a sigh of relief as Yon-San laid upon the tiled floor, exhausted and unmoving. Stretching herself, the queen couldn't have felt any better. However, something felt different. She looked at herself and found that she was covered in an ethereal hue. Her body was absorbing this seemingly abnormal energy. Her sights returned to what she thought was that cause, Yon's tails. The maiden's fluffy tendrils were considerably messy and less fluffy than before and with a lack of spiritual residue that Shion could see. The kitsune queen looked at her palms, slowly coming to a revelation of what this was.
"[Clean]"
Soon the residue transformed into a circle of light as Shion was engulfed in it, slowly cleansing every dirt and grime away from her body and most importantly, her tails.
She pulled one of her own tails to examine it, then back at Yon again. "This... is MP. Oh, of course, mana is stored in the tails! I heard something like that before with kitsune!"
"Ano..." Shion turned towards the mage which muttered that saying. Lucia was still standing in the same place Shion saw her previously. Notes were scattered on the ground as her expression showed signs of great "What was th-"
"Don't worry about it. It's a kitsune thing. Mortals like yourself shouldn't concern yourself with such matters." Shion countered before returning to her thoughts.
It seems I'm able to absorb mana from other kitsune by fluffing their tails. This wasn't a mechanic back in Yggdrasil, but lore-wise it makes sense. How... useful.
Glancing a look back at Yon, Shion felt a tinge of regret. The maiden was totally unconscious due to the immense fluffing she endured. She was completely drained of her MP. A victim of circumstance.
I suppose that also explains why I was so infatuated with tails. I was craving for mana. Yes, that's it. There's absolutely no other underlying motive whatsoever, I promise.
"Anyways, we have adventurers investigating us." I turned to Cromwell. "One of my own are investigating them right now, but at this rate, our base will soon be discovered."
"Ah... right. Other adventurers. I forgot about them." The girl spoke, mostly to herself.
"Wait, you knew about them?"
"Ah! S-Sorry! I forgot to mention, but when an adventurers group doesn't return under a specific amount of time, the Adventurer's Guild usually sends out a second group more capable than the last to make sure everything is alright. We're just a scouting party after all."
"Hah? So there are Adventurer's Guilds? What next, a demon lord?" Shion gave a little chuckle to herself as she thought this. There were many stereotypes like that in the varied isekai novels she read. A Demon Lord. A fearsome being currently putting the world into peril. Typically be a group of adventurers from another world would be sent to defeat it. They would go on a long journey and discover new oddities. Then they would either return to their own world or start a new life in the world they'd fought for. That was how it usually went.
"...You mean the Evil Deities?"
Huh? Wait, those exist?!
Quickly Shion retracted her statement and bowed a little. "Ahah, that was a joke. A tasteless one surely. My apologies. A disaster like that should never be joked upon." Shion replied.
"Ah! Not really!" The mage reacted to the Queen's apology with great squander. "I mean, they aren't really here anymore, not for at least a century. Not since the 13 heroes defeated them all."
Hah? This is news to me. Wait, a century? You mean I was late a hundred years to return home!?
Shion was dumbstruck by the thought, being unable to return home because she was only a century late to the story. She then decided to ignore the matter entirely to reserve all thoughts of sanity. "...Right, anyways back to the matter at hand. Those adventurers, I need to convince them that everything here is fine and resolved. It would be more than troublesome to find out that a Kingdom is investigating us." Shion concluded.
"How are you going to do that- uh... mistress?" Lucia inquired, obviously new to addressing her as such.
"Just call me Hitomu-sama."
"Right! How are you going to do that hitomu-sama?"
"Ah..." the Queen's ears flattened to her sides as she remained still. A hand was latched onto her chin as she thought.
A disguise could work, but do I have any?
Troubled thinking continued until she reached a conclusion.
Oh right, kitsunes can transform! Kinda like doppelgangers. Although...
There was another problem. While Shion had used this feature before, it wasn't really all that useful in Yaggdrasil when players had multiple ways of uncovering your true form. Scrying spells, Truesight, and even certain magical weapons had the feature to revert you into your old form. How a player would accomplish a transformation was by selecting or pre-selecting a base form from a list of creatures they've encountered. Sometimes players made their own creations to transform into, the more complex it was, the more MP it cost. In the past, Yggdrasil was filled with all sorts of abominations players managed to brew when the feature was first released through the new doppelganger race. Limbs were extended for reach, multiple heads were added for more view, even bone structures and hitboxes were implemented horribly into the game's main functions. The outcome was less than favorable, to say the least since all the forms they made were grotesque and terrifying, and some even were able to morph into copyrighted models which rose problems for the Yggdrasil's developers. Ever since then they've added a limit to the number of changes to can make to the base form. It was a weird period. However...
All of this was was done through a menu.
Damn it.
Shion knew she couldn't just go out there in her normal form. If she did then it would probably end up the same gruesome way the first encounter happened. "Sigh... so troublesome. Hey Yon-san, could you explain-" the queen stopped speaking at the sight of her incapacitated body. "O-Oh... I-I'll just call Ni-san then." She awkwardly averted her gaze, before raising 2 fingers to one of her ears.
"[Message]"
[Ah... mistress, you called?]
"Yes, I need you to explain to me how you do transformations."
[Ah... did something happen...?]
"No, well... yes. You see, this world's laws of morphing are much different than the world I'm used to. As a result, I am unable to figure out how to make do with disguises and transforming into a suitable form."
[Oh... You just focus your MP and imagine the form you want to take...]
"It's that easy!?"
[I... think so...]
"Ah... right, thanks then."
[Anytime mistress.]
The call ended, allowing Shion to give her millionth sigh.
"Is it really that easy?" The queen said to herself. She couldn't say for sure, mostly because she hadn't even tried transforming yet. Turning towards the cyromancer she instructed "Lucia-san. Wait outside for me. A teleportation rune is just outside since you cannot cross the barrier around this place.
"T-Teleportation?!" The cyromancer's eyes glinted in great interest as Shion mentioned this. "Can I examine the ley lines inscribed on it-"
"Yes yes, go nuts. Just give me a moment to concentrate by myself."
"R-Right!" Lucia fled the room, slamming the double doors behind her in great enthusiasm and glee.