The P.E lesson had already started when Shoko returned, catching up with her class. She hurried through getting changed in the empty locker room, and ran out onto the playing fields to join the rest of her class.
Short skirt flying, Shoko raced to catch up. The girls were doing a running race while the boys were practicing baseball. Shoko zipped out to the track, and caught up with the runners, until she hurtled past the finish line only just ahead of the rest.
The P.E teacher blew her whistle.
“Shoko Inarinoko, over here please.”
Shoko bounced over to the teacher, grinning broadly.
“Sorry I’m late, I had to take a friend to the school nurse. I have a note if you need it?”
The teacher, Miss Itō, sighed.
“I see. Very well Shoko, I’ll go over with you afterwards, what I told the other girls before the lesson started, but the important point now is that the proper P.E kit must be worn. Why aren’t you wearing your shorts?”
“Sorry Miss, but I can’t, I don’t have any.”
Miss Ito spoke, a look of slight concern on her face.
“I see, well I have spares in my office, come with me and…”
Shoko shook her head.
“No. you misunderstood me. I can’t wear shorts, so I don’t have any.”
“You.. can’t..? Why not?”
Shoko sighed, and turning round, flipped her skirt up slightly.
“I have a tail. Shorts and panties just don’t fit!”
Miss Ito made slight squeaking sound, and hastily flattened Shoko’s skirt back down. Shoko turned to say something, and saw behind the teacher the baseball field, with a gaggle of young boys all staring in her direction… well, almost all. The batter was lying on the floor with the boys P.E teacher who was the umpire, standing over him. Shoko guessed she’d distracted him at just the wrong moment.
Miss Ito took Shoko by the shoulders and marched her over to the side of the running track, near the changing rooms and gym.
“Shoko! That was highly inappropriate! If you lack the appropriate kit you’ll just have to sit out P.E lessons.”
“B..but Miss Ito, I don’t want to! I mean I’m already a member of the volleyball club and..”
“Well you can’t play like that! If you want to join in you’ll have to wear track suit bottoms and stuff the tail down the leg or something.”
Shoko shook her head.
“I can’t do that either, it hurts and it gets in the way!”
Miss Ito sighed.
“I really should’ve been told about your… special needs, before term started. So we could work something out. I really don’t know what we can do.”
One of the nearby girls, raised a hand. Miss Ito glanced over and raising her voice slightly called out.
“What is it Chihiro?”
“Um.. sorry Miss Ito, I couldn’t help hearing… but I have sewing club after school today and I have my kit in my bag. I can alter a pair to fit Shoko, Miss. I know I can!”
Miss Ito nodded.
“Thank you Chihiro. Shoko, go with her. But make sure you have the full kit with you next lesson.”
Shoko nodded, ears drooping slightly as she sighed.
Chihiro grinned at Shoko and led her back to the changing rooms. Shoko studied the young girl, unusually she had a head of russet red hair and freckles across her pale skin, despite being obviously Japanese.
“Thank you Chihiro, but I don’t think it’s possible to make a pair that fits me. That’s why I wear skirts, my tail is too fluffy to fit in trousers or panties. But thank you for trying.”
“Betcha I can! And it’s ok, I like a challenge. Besides, us fox girls have to stick together!”
Shoko stopped in shock…
“You’re a kitsune?!”
Chihiro laughed, turning as shook her head.
“Oh, oh no, no! I mean… well people like me, with red hair even though we’re not hafu, they call us fox children. Really it comes from the Ainu people, they’re like the native people of Hokkaido and some other islands.”
Shoko hurried a little bit to catch up with Chihiro.
“Oh… I was hoping.. I mean, apart from Rin, who’s my older sibling, and Mother Inari I… I haven’t met any other kitsune.”
Chihiro turned her head to look over her shoulder at Shoko.
“That… I hope don’t mind me saying, but that sounds lonely! I mean, my family is huge! We’ve got relatives everywhere! I have three sisters and a couple of brothers just as home, not counting the oldest pair who are at collage in Kyoto, and my oldest sister who’s married and lives in Toyko. I can’t imagine being the only one… Tell you what, you come home with me after school and I’ll introduce you to everyone and make a few pairs of pantsu and shorts, maybe even some trousers for you! If you ignore the lack of tails and ears, it’ll almost be like we’re an entire family of kitsune!! Sayyy.. what do you normally wear at home anyway?”
Shoko shrugged.
“Miko robes, usually. I do live in a temple, and they had dozens of sets in all different sizes left over after… after all the humans left.”
Chihiro’s voice echoed slightly as they crossed through the gym hall.
“You dress like a shrine maiden, all the time?”
“Mostly… although sometimes in summer I didn’t. Robes are too warm for summer, so I didn’t wear anything much. It never used to matter since there was no-one to see me.”
Once they were in the girls changing rooms, Chihiro retrieved an ordinary pair of stretchy shorts from the box of spare kit the teacher kept in her office, and took out her satchel from her locker. Shoko couldn’t help noticing that unlike the others she’d seen, Chihiro’s leather satchel looked hand-made, and rather better quality too. Chihiro noticed Shoko looking as she sat on a bench and took out a neat canvas roll that proved to contain her sewing kit as she unrolled it beside her. Chihiro smiled proudly as she remarked.
“My brother Isko does leather and canvas work, he made these for me for the new year.”
“Are all your family artisans?”
Chihiro shook her head as she started to unpack spools of thread, a pink tape measure and some other things that Shoko didn’t recognise. Chief of which was something that looked a bit like a large stapler.
“Noo… not really, it’s more a kind of family thing. My father’s a doctor, although he says it sort of counts since he does do surgery which involves sewing people up. Mother cooks, I mean professionally… she works at the big restaurant on the sea front. But yeah, all of us have a hobby at least. Ok, get undressed down to your underthings, and I’ll take your measurements.”
Shoko shook her head as she moved to stand in front of where Chihiro sat on a bench…
“No under things here, can’t wear pantsu, and a bra would be pointless as I’m just a chopping board up top! What’s that thing Chihiro?”
Shoko nodded towards the cream-coloured stapler-like thing.
Chihiro giggled.
“Oh that’s my Singer-chan.. she’s a hand-held sewing machine, and little sister to my big sewing machine at home. And you’re not alone, being flat. Welcome to the ‘no boobs’ club! There’s a few of us in the same boat. Still, as my mamma says, wait a few years, they’ll grow in. She should know, she says she was as flat as me at my age and now she’s ..well..”
Chihiro mimed with her hands cupping the air some way in front of her chest, having put Singer-san down carefully first. Chihiro picked up her tape measure and flipped it around Shoko’s waist pulling her close enough their knees touched.
Shoko sighed nodding and softly remarked mostly to herself..
“Yeah… I only have to wait another couple of decades…”
Chihiro glanced up at Shoko from where she was measuring her waist, only hearing what she’d murmured to herself because they were so close together.
“Decades?”
Shoko nodded slowly, not entirely wanting to have this conversation but now she was, finding herself unwilling to lie.
“Yeah… kitsune live for aaaaages but we grow slowly. I mean, I won’t get my second tail and be an adult for another twenty years, at least! I might just possibly have some development by then.”
Chihiro stared at Shoko for a second or two, wide eyed, before blurting out.
“H.. how old are you?
Shoko sighed.
“Eighty ish.. I lost count a bit… Kitsune live ten times longer than humans at least, so each of our years is ten calendar years. Which means I’ve been ‘eight’ for ten years...I think. I might be off by a a year or two.”
Chihiro shook her head.
“I don’t know if I should be envious of you because you live so long, or commiserate with you because you’re stuck as a little kid for so long! That has to be annoying!”
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Shoko nodded slowly.
“Mm-Hm! It is, no-one takes you seriously when you’re little. Also it’s sad. I have had human friends in the past, but they keep growing up faster and leave me behind.”
Chihiro blinked, and then putting her tape measure down, stood and hugged Shoko, who leaned into the hug as past memories stung her eyes, bringing tears.
It was at that point they both heard the changing room door bang, and pair of giggling, chattering voices suddenly fall silent behind them….
-----------------------------
Outside Jiao had a lot occupying her mind. She had been concerned about where Shoko was and why she was late to class. She’d thought that perhaps the bully from earlier had done something, but that worrisome thought had been laid to rest when Shoko had turned up. Jiao had then almost had heart attack as Shoko flashed the teacher, and coincidentally half the baseball team behind her.
Jiao decided then that she was going to have words with Inari. Goddess or not, she couldn’t get away with letting Shoko run around half naked! Although Jiao admitted to herself that in all fairness, given the long Miko robes she wore, no-one would be any the wiser about her lack of undergarments.
School skirts however, were only about half the length of a miko’s kiribakama, the pleated broad trousers that they wore. Also school skirts didn’t have the open gusset at the back that Shoko’s tail poked through normally, and since her tail tended to be curved up because Shoko was fundamentally a happy person, it had the unfortunate effect of lifting the hem of her school skirt rather, making her habit of not wearing panties more than a little risky.
Jiao nodded to herself. Something had to be done, and since Shoko wouldn’t listen to her or almost anyone else, Jiao decided that she had to be made to understand… and with that thought Jiao decided to talk to Paul-sama instead, since he would understand and could probably get Inari to agree, and Shoko would obey Inari without doubt!
While she rested before the next running race, Jiao considered something else she’d noticed while all the girls were changing together. Everyone had belly buttons, while she didn’t. Thinking back, she’d noticed Shoko’s, when they’d shared a room before. But Shoko was kitsune, and she hadn’t really thought about it. The other girls had pointed out her lack of navel, and Jiao realised she hadn’t had an answer for it, other than it was an oni thing.
Still, it made her feel oddly lacking and self-conscious about her belly. Although, now that she thought about it, both Yuri and Yuko did have navels, while no-one else in the clan had… which made no sense since they were oni!
At that point, Jiao’s train of thought was utterly derailed as a soccer ball bounced off her head. Looking around, rubbing her head, she saw a group of the boys waving at her. She glared in their direction. One of them shouted.
“Hey, sorry about that! It was an accident. Can you kick it back please?”
Jiao didn’t say anything, but instead kicked the ball hard. It rocketed across the grass in a fast, flat arc, hitting the boy square in the chest. With an audible involuntary exhalation, he abruptly sat down, knocked over by the force of the impact., and collapsed backwards to lay flat on his back, wheezing.
The boys stopped what they were doing, and for a moment Jiao thought she was in trouble. But then slowly the boy she’d hit sat back up, grinning.
“Hey, we’re looking for a decent striker, you want to play? You’ve got a heck of a kick!”
Jiao looked around for Miss Ito, to ask her if that was permissible, but not seeing the teacher she made up her own mind. After all, how hard could kicking a ball around be? She did it all the time with the other children back home. Meanwhile, springing to his feet, the boy she’d floored trotted over to where Jiao stood rooted in surprise.
The boy stuck out his hand once he reached where Jiao stood, still mortified at what had happened, numbly she took his hand and shook it.
“Hi, I’m Hiroshi , Kenji Hiroshi. That’s a powerful kick you have.. oh, no hard feelings by the way. I did hit you with it first after all. Sorry about that, it was an accident.”
Hiroshi looked down at Jiao, ruffling his short dark hair in embarrassment even while he was smiling broadly.
Jiao found herself staring up into a pair of warm brown eyes, brimming over in merriment, as if all the world was joke and he was in on the punch-line. Finding her tongue again she spoke.
“Umm.. I’m Jiao. Sorry for hitting you.”
“Did you mean to hit me with the ball?”
Jiao didn’t even have time to think about lying before she found herself saying...
“S..sorry.. yes… wasn’t supposed to be that hard though!”
Hiroshi’s smiled just got broader
“That’s great!”
Jiao blinked.
“I’m sorry, what ?”
“It’s great, means you’ve got good aim as well as power! Would you like to play ball with us? We’re short a man this week, and we need a good striker… Ah, sorry sorry. That’s someone who’s job it is to put the ball in the net, they’re the ‘cannon’ while the rest of the team are defenders and wingers, they’re there to intercept and pass the ball to the striker. Loading the cannon.”
Jiao shrugged, it didn’t look like a game where strength was all that important, she thought.
“Sure, if no one minds.”
Fifteen minutes later, Jiao was sitting on a bench toweling off the sweat from herself, and utterly out of sorts with the world. Soccer didn’t require strength but it did require stamina … which she apparently, had just run out of.
Humans, apparently, might be a weaker than oni, but they just kept on going, long after an oni would’ve dropped from exhaustion. Which Jiao admitted to herself, was also quite a way after she, personally, would be out of energy.
Just at that moment, a voice from behind her sarcastically remarked.
“Enjoying your break, princess?”
Jiao swivelled around to stare up at the person being mean, and at that point all her frustration boiled over.
“No! No I am not enjoying it. At all, not one bit! I am sick of being tired and tired of being sick all the time. I don’t want to be small and frail and weak like I’ve been all my life. I don’t even want to be a princess any more! I don’t care what my clan wants….I...I.. I’ve just had enough of it! I just want to be normal! Is that so bad?!”
The girl standing wide-eyed in front of her, blinking in shock, looked as if something had unexpectedly blown up right in front of her. Which in a way Jiao had.
Without saying a word she sat down next to Jiao, and after a moment spoke.
“Ok… I’m sorry for being mean. I think you’re having a worse day than I am, by the sound of it. Perhaps just the latest in a whole lot more bad days.”
Jiao sighed.
“Sorry, sorry… it’s been… well it’s been a day at least. Not all bad but..”
“Yeah, me too. Um… I’m Aoi. Aoi Notomi. Class 2-1, and president of the soon-to-be-disbanded climbing club, which I only just heard about.”
Jiao sighed.
“Sorry again. I didn’t mean to say all that. I’m Jiao Lǜ shān, of the Rìchūshān oni clan ”
Aoi smiled crookedly.
“Yeah… it did sound like it all just fell out of your mouth. So, you’re really a princess?”
Jiao shrugged.
“Sort of… Tatsuo, my big brother, is our clan leader. Our ‘king’ in the old language. But males aren’t supposed to rule really, not by themselves, so he’s Regent until I’m old enough to take over.”
“Huh. I guess that’s close enough, but I wouldn’t go around saying it if I were you.”
“I don’t. Not usually. It’s something Paul-sama came up with.”
Aoi shrugged.
“Him I’ve heard of. He’s English so I suppose he would think of it like that. Hey...want to come try climbing? Since we’ve got the wall set up we might as well use it while we can. That is, if you’d like to?”
Jiao sighed, and nodded.
“Might as well see… I’ve found out today that oni might be stronger than humans, but not for as long... and I’m not as strong or have as much stamina as a normal oni.”
Aoi looked sideways at her, and after a moment, asked.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s wrong?”
Jiao shook her head.
“Don’t mind… but other than being born too small and too early, I don’t know. I’ve just always been small and frail. I spent the first year of life, I’m told, barely hanging on to life and hardly able to breath.”
Aoi nodded.
“My mother’s a nurse at the big prefecture hospital. She works in neonatal… that’s the ward for babies. Sometimes, when they’re born too early, their lungs aren’t fully grown and they’re sick as a result. I guess that could be the case. That sort of thing doesn’t usually get better until you’re adult, if it ever does… which isn’t always the case. Sorry..”
Jiao shook her head.
“It’s ok… I’m mostly used to it. Just today’s bad. I’d hoped coming to school, being among humans, I wouldn’t be the weakest one any more. I was wrong.”
Aoi laughed slightly.
“Well, you’re in the wrong crowd if that was what you were hoping for! You’d need to be over at the side of the field with the rest of the unathletic team!”
Jiao glanced over at the students who were sitting in the shade of the trees, mostly dressed in tracksuits, in theory waiting between races or for a turn at something…
“That’s… not nice, but not inaccurate.”
Aoi shrugged.
“Everyone can do sports, if they want to, they don’t even need to be good at it as long as they’re having fun. But those people don’t want to even try, they’re lazy. I’m sorry I was mean to you earlier, it’s not your fault. You want to, you just can’t. That’s different. It’s not laziness, it’s being trapped in a body that won’t let you.”
Jiao thought about it a moment. She didn’t entirely agree with Aoi, but she had to admit the tall wiry girl did have a point. She nodded slowly.
“Ok, since we have ten minutes left of PE, maybe I’ll give climbing a look at least. Since as you say you already have a wall set up… although I don’t know what that means.”
Aoi stood up and offered Jiao a hand up, which Jiao gratefully took. Her legs felt leaden stiff while at the same time, wobbly as badly set yokan.
“You can have a look at least. Although now Hakuri isn’t in the club, since she moved schools, her dad won’t lend us the equipment, so the club will have to disband. Can’t be a climbing club without a climbing wall.”
Jiao looked puzzled, but Aoi didn’t explain further until they rounded a corner.
Jiao suddenly understood what Aoi had meant by a climbing wall. There was scaffolding tower with a wall built of wood panels bolted to it, which in turn was covered in coloured blobs of.. something. At the base of the tower was a broad padded mat. It didn’t take much to work out that one was supposed to climb the wall, presumably using the coloured blobs.
Aoi gestured towards the scaffold.
“Ok, that’s a portable climbing wall. The coloured things are hand and foot holds. They bolt onto the wall. Each colour is a different route up the wall, colour coded for difficulty. By moving them around we can make it harder or easier to climb. Climbing requires quite a bit of muscle strength, but unless you’re doing sprints, where the aim is to climb as fast as possible, it’s not about speed so you can rest as long as you can hold on if you need to.”
Jiao nodded, it sounded like climbing might suit her… although the club being disbanded for lack of equipment sounded like a real problem.
“Can I try it please?”
“Well.. we have harnesses and helmets, and you should be ok for a simple climb in ordinary PE kit, although if you’re serious you’d need a different outfit and proper climbing shoes and gloves.”
“Climbing shoes and gloves?”
“They’re for extra grip.”
“Oh… that makes sense. Still, if it’s ok, I can try?”
“Sure, lets get you set up and I’ll show you how myself.”
The remaining part of the double PE lesson, and quite a bit of the recess afterwards, was taken up with Jiao literally learning the ropes of climbing. Aoi turned out to be a good mentor, showing her what to do as she hung by her fingertips from the holds.
In the end, as they both lay on the padded mat, Jiao admitted to Aoi she’d had fun. Aoi smiled sadly.
“Well, at least the club went out on a high note. It’s just a pity you won’t get to do it any more.”
Jiao rolled over, propping herself on an elbow.
“Is there nowhere in town to do this?”
Aoi shook her head.
“No… the person lending us this equipment runs a private sports club the next town over. That’s the nearest place but they’re open to members only. The wall was on loan to the school while his daughter was here. But now she’s going to a private school, he wants it back. I heard from Hakuri that her dad is set against yokai and doesn’t want his daughter going to the same school as them. I guess he won’t lend us equipment either for the same stupid reason.”
Jiao felt a stab of guilt.
“Oh… this is my fault!”
Aoi shook her head.
“No, no.. don’t think that! It’s Hakuri’s father’s fault for being a pig-headed idiot! To use Hakuri’s words. She doesn’t like it either, she even said she was sort of jealous because she wouldn’t meet any yokai and I would, but it is what it is. So we all suffer for his blind prejudice, but he’s rich enough to afford a private school, and our school can’t afford fancy equipment like this, so there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Jiao nodded slowly. Inwardly she decided she would talk to her brother and Paul-sama. Perhaps there was something they could do? But she liked having found a sport she could do as well as a human could! She didn’t want to give it up. She liked Aoi as well, she was rough, and a bit rude, but she was kind at heart and didn’t treat Jiao like she was made of spun glass.