Always keep solids and liquids separate, and yes, I’m talking about your excrement. It’s not a pleasant part of life, but it is a necessary part. Greens, those things that tend to stink and may or may not actually be green, are to be separated and mixed equally with browns, those things such as dried grass or wood shavings. Let sit for a year if the browns are of any of the humanoid races. See the composting section for more specifics.

- Kuya Tio on Avoiding Horrible Homestead Happenings, Kuya Tio’s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.

My date with Kaori hadn't gone quite as well as I might have hoped, but we didn't exactly leave on bad terms either. Essentially, the whole situation boiled down to her really wanting children, and it's just not something I could give her. Had she been any other race or had I been a Kitsune, this would not be a problem. That's just how the world worked, I guess. Theoretically, there were other nations where people didn't live in large multiracial communities. It was hard to consider a place where it was only human or only Kitsune or only Akumajin. Until I ever actually went to one of those places, which I probably won't, my belief in their existence shall remain only theoretical.

The rest of the week progressed normally, at least until I found myself weeding Saito's rice patties with Wei Lin. That of course, was in the normal routine, and while Wei Lin had been awkward and somewhat distant recently, today marked a slight exception where she was also rather angry. I, of course, made the time-tested mistake of asking Wei Lin if she was okay, and she, of course, did the time-tested response of, "I'm fine." I might not have had a lot of experience with actual relationships, but even I knew, as well as practically every man on the face of the world, if a woman tells you that she is fine, specifically using the word 'fine', then she is most definitely not “fine”. She could have said, "okay," "all right," "angry," "I will be fine eventually," "I will be fine," or "I'll get over it." But she used the word, the single word, 'fine'.

We worked for probably another ten minutes before I stopped pulling weeds and made the stupid mistake of asking, "So what's wrong?" She took a moment to straighten, took a large deep breath, turned to me, pointed her weed-filled hand at me accusatively, and said, "You slept with Kaori."

My brain seized up, dumbfounded. Firstly, I had not slept with Kaori. Secondly, if I did, how would she have known? And thirdly, why the hell would it matter to her? I must have stood there confused as to which one of these things I should probably bring up first a bit too long as Wei Lin seemed to take that as me admitting guilt.

"Why?" She demanded as if I had to explain why to her because I had somehow betrayed her.

“I didn't sleep with Kaori,” I said honestly.

"Horseshit!" Wei Lin yelled. She flailed her arms around, and stormed off back towards her house, leaving me with the rest of the weeding.

What the actual hell?

There were far too many things for me to do before I could go head off into town and talk to Kaori about whatever the hell was going on. I had to finish the weeding and work on the rice paddies. The next day I had to work in the village on those rice paddies. The following day, which I had opened, and honestly, I had to go into town and get food anyway, since I was cooking for myself. I walked the distance to Sharinzhen Proper, still confused and having thought over the whole situation for a solid two days. The things going through my head were probably a lot worse than what was actually going on. As if to complement my confused state, the sky above me was gray and cloudy, and it didn't seem like it knew if it wanted to rain or to clear up.

In town, I made my way to the tea house/restaurant that was Kaori's father's place and walked in a little bit more confused because I didn’t actually want to sit down and order something. I just wanted to see Kaori and clear this up. One of the girls in a green dress whistled, though clearly not to me. Following gestures, I realized she was getting Kaori's attention and pointing my way. Kaori seemed to wince, her ears going flat to her head as she gestured for me to wait a minute. I stood off by the door as she finished with her customers.

"Hey," she said without the customary poke in the side.

"Hey," I replied.

"Uh, let's talk out back. Okay?"

We walked around the side of the building with each other into the alleyway. I was honestly getting quite familiar with this alley.

“I'm really sorry," she started. "I was explaining how our date went to some friends. Something got taken out of context, and one of them, I think it was Luli, thought we slept together. Normally, this would not be an issue. However, you're the new guy our own age and apparently, there's a lot of girls who are kind of upset that you might have already found somebody."

"So this is just a, a misunderstanding?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"So I should probably talk to your father," I suggested.

Her expression changed to one of surprise, her ears going wide. "My dad, why?"

"Well, there's a rumor going around that I had sex with his daughter. So I should probably clear that up."

"Oh, that's not a problem."

"Are you sure? Is it a problem if I talk to him anyway?"

"I suppose not. Do you want me to go get him?"

"I honestly think that would be the right thing to do."

"Ok."

Kaori seemed unsure, but went to fetch the man anyway.

It wasn't long before the three of us were standing out in the alleyway in a rough triangle, like some sort of three-way standoff.

"Hello, sir. My name is Yuji Han. I went on a date last week with your daughter. Nothing happened, but through some sort of misunderstanding, there is now a rumor that I slept with her. I did not sleep with her, and I apologize if the rumor causes you any problems." I said, rather nervously.

Kaori's father didn't say anything. He just stood there wearing a stained apron and wiping his hands off on a dish towel. His narrow eyes seemed to stare straight through me. His fox-like ears, which normally showed a lot of expression on kitsune, hadn't so much as twitched. He stood considerably shorter than me, and yet I felt so very small. I was just about to say something again to break the silence when he gave a small throat clearing noise and said, "I know." His eyes snapped over to Kaori, and he nodded once before turning and going through the door back into his restaurant.

"Uh?" I questioned.

"Well," Kaori started, "If you had intended to get his permission to court me, I think you just succeeded."

"What?" I was once again lost, feeling like I had no damn idea what was going on. I don't know if city people like me just thought differently than the people on the edge of the empire, or if I was just stupid.

"I'm pretty sure that was approval," Kaori said.

"To court you?" I asked.

"Yeah, why not? No other guy would try to clear up a rumor like that with him."

"Why not?"

Kaori shrugged. "Well, there's no taboo."

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"Taboo?" Now I was really confused.

"Yeah, I'm Kitsune. There's no taboo.”

“Taboo for what?"

"Sex with non-Kitsune."

"Oh," I said, just to acknowledge that I heard and basically understood her. "Oh," I said again in a lower tone as it hit me as to why the other Kitsune girls seemed to be lining up for sex. "Ohhhhh," I said once more as literally every interaction I've had with Kitsune, particularly women, popped into place and made perfect sense. Apparently, I was indeed stupid.

Kaori laughed, a musical sound that ended with multiple snorts. "I am so glad I got to see that register. Your expression was delicious."

"Ok. Just so I get this straight. If I go around and screw all the Kitsune girls in town, I'm a slut who likes fluffy tails and something or whatever. And if you screw people who are not Kitsune, you're not a slut?" I tried to clarify.

"No, I'm still a slut, just not to other Kitsune," Kaori responded.

"That's weird," I remarked.

"Ok. Here's a question. Was your first girl Kitsune?" she asked.

"Miku, yeah," I replied.

"Mine was an Oni-Sen." She lifted both hands in front of her like she was holding metal bars or possibly Oni-Sen horns and lowered them down towards her inner thighs while wearing a shit eating grin.

I laughed.

Kaori laughed.

Kaori's mother laughed.

Kaori screamed, "Mom!"

I laughed harder.

"Oh, would that be the woodsman's boy, Hong Su?" Kaori's mother asked with her vulpine grin plastered across her face. She patted her daughter on her head and ruffled Kaori's hair as she walked past. The woman gave me a wink before following her husband into the shop. Kaori was flushed, her tan skin darker than normal, and her ears were pressed down as far as they could go.

"Hong Su, any relation to Ling Su?" I asked.

"That would be his sister. You know her?"

"Met her briefly at the festival."

"She's cute. You could do worse."

We stood around in the alleyway for a little bit, not saying anything as Kaori looked nervously at the door. "So, what are you doing now?" she asked.

"Well, I'm gonna pick up some food so I can make dinner. Then I guess I'm gonna head home."

"Wanna hang out?"

"Sounds good to me."

"I just got to change. Be right back."

"We can make some Giniling. That's pretty quick and easy. And I wouldn't mind testing out your brand new Kalan," Kaori said as we strolled through the market picking out vegetables, primarily potatoes. It was one of those things I should probably pick up a bunch of. Though we only had a few more months and mine might be actually good to dig up. Kaori had changed from her green Ao Dai dress uniform to a simple shirt and skirt that made her look every bit the peasant. It honestly worked for her.

"Works for me. Then I don't have to make breakfast in the morning either," I finished dickering with the people in the market, and we set off over the bridge and to Sharinzhen-4.

"So, what's your goal now? Now that you have a house, I mean," she asked.

"Well, the goal was to set up a homestead, build a house, get the garden going, make sure I can feed and clothe myself through winter. And then, once I knew I was gonna be successful at that, to find a good wife. That was kind of my dad's advice, but at this point, I think the whole 'find a good wife' thing is flawed logic."

"How so?" she asked.

"Well, if you happen to find somebody you like who also makes a good wife, then you're good. The problem is, at least as far as I have found so far, that everybody who makes a good wife is not necessarily the person I’d wanna always be around. I've had several guys tell me about how good of a wife their daughters would make, and in some cases, the girls were way too damn young, like, creepy too young. I had another girl who was supposed to be a great wife, and I wanted to punch her the moment she opened her mouth."

“Tung-Mei.” Kaori interjected.

"Yeah, thank you for saving me from that one. Where was I? Oh yeah. Take, uh, Wei Lin's sister Yoko, for example. No one can argue that she wouldn't be good wife material. She's a great cook and she's good with kids. As far as I know, she does all the cooking, cleaning, and sewing. To be fair, I don't know much about her, but she comes with the whole, somebody else's wife and has children thing. Assuming Shinichi is dead and assuming we weren't at a deficit of men here, would anybody pick Yoko over someone they found more interesting just because she would make a good wife?"

"Sure, but again, she does have children and is still technically married unless you know whether or not Shinichi is still alive."

I shook my head. "My guess is he's not, but I'm gonna stay out of that. So look at Wei Lin then, as far as I can tell, she cooks, cleans, does all the gardening work, all the other wifely duty stuff. I don't particularly know if she's good with children, but probably is. So there you have a girl who is good wife material."

"She's pretty too," Kaori added.

"Sure, but I unfortunately have the, uh, mental image of her being fourteen."

"How old is she?”

"She's like nineteen or twenty, but I don't know, I met her when she was sick, and she just seemed like a small child, and I just, you know, I just haven't gotten the image out of my head. Anyway, the point was I've spent a lot of time with Wei Lin, and while I like her in general as a person, I never think, 'Oh, yay, I get to be around Wei Lin.' She is good wife material. Just not really a partner. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, I think so. So who's someone you like being around?"

"Well, I liked Lia."

Kaori laughed.

"Yep. Obviously that's not gonna work out. But she's interesting. She's fun to be around. So she would make a better partner. However, I could not for the life of me picture her cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children. Not good wife material. Good person, but not a good wife."

"Yeah, I get it. So, the problem is you need to find somebody who is a good partner and also happens to be good or at least reasonable at the domestic stuff."

"Essentially, yes."

"Chui." Kaori said.

I had to stop and think about where I heard the name before. It sounded very familiar. "Number three?"

"Number three?"

"Uh, the girl who is number three in line to sleep with me at the festival."

"Yeah, her. She seems to like you. She's got most of those good wifely qualities. She's very attractive. She's fun to be around, and she's kind of an amateur seamstress which fits right into your whole little work a lot and stuff."

"I'm sensing a 'but.'"

"But... she seems to have it in her head that you and I are magically going to end up together, and she doesn't want to screw it up for me."

"Sounds like a good friend."

"Yeah, the best, I think."

"What about the other kitsune girls?"

"Luli is kind of on the amateur side of my cousin's stuff. Basically, she's just a nympho. Izumi, well, she had a lot to drink. She gets like that. Yumiko isn't really interested in anybody. And Chie and Koko have got something worked out with Huan, and the three of them are pooling their resources together to move to some place where polygamy is legal."

"Wait, polygamy isn’t legal?"

"Not for us peons."

Well that made sense. Obviously, the samurai lords and higher-ups would be legally allowed to have more than one wife. “So is it polygamy or polyamory?"

"What's polyamory?"

"Is it that both girls are just with Huan or are they with Huan and each other as well?"

"I think it's just polygamy. But I didn't know there was a third option. How does that work?"

"You mean legally? I don't know, call it polygamy and just look the other way."

"Huh?"

"Ok. So Lia’s out," Kaori said, getting back to the original topic. "But I think another option would be to go with somebody that you liked and just made enough money that you could hire someone like Yoko to do your cooking and cleaning."

"Well, there's a thought. She could use the disposable income, and it's not like she lives far away."

"Right. So you can focus on finding someone you actually like and just outsource the whole wife stuff."

"Sure. Doesn't really help me with the whole Lia thing. Oh, hey, I got a question for you. Can you cook?"

Kaori laughed. "Not as well as my dad."

We both laughed and continued walking towards Sharinzhen-4, discussing the merits of various girls in a way far more like guys would than a guy and the girl I had tried to date a week ago. I always thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Kaori and realized far too late that most of the things I liked about Lia were things I attributed to Kaori as well.

I’d considered myself lucky if I could find a girl like her in this town, preferably without a tail. I liked the horns; I was kind of into the horns. But the tail and ears of a kitsune, I think it was a little too dog-like for me.

Once we arrived at my house, we set to work, cleaning and chopping up the vegetables, laughing and chatting about a whole lot of nothing as we turned meat, potatoes, and carrots into a dish to be served with rice. My new Kalan worked great. I'd have to remember to thank Saito again. We had dinner on the wood floor of my still very barren house and continued shooting the shit for a while longer.

At some point, just like last time, Kaori and I found ourselves pressed into each other, lips pressed together, tongues dancing, hands groping. This wasn't a date. There was no question of whether or not we were going to end up together. We were not, and without the expectation, there were no questions to kill the mood.

Kaori was soft and warm and sweet. Utterly delicious.

Again, I walked Kaori back to the town proper, though this time, it was far more cheerful, and the vibrant teasing nature continued all the way to her door. We said our goodbyes, and I headed home. I tried to ignore the twisting knot in my stomach. We had decided for certain that we were not going to end up together, and I kind of resented that certainty.