The next afternoon, Touya was launching on one of the seating cushions strewn across his room, engrossed in this week's issue of his favorite shonen magazine. A soft knock on his door drew his attention away from the story he was reading, and prompted him to reply with a simple “Come in.”

The door to his room was carefully slid open by the now revealed Yukiko. She was wearing one of her more casual kimono, albeit slightly ruffled. Also hanging from a repurposed guitar strap was her Shamisen.

“Oh hello Yukiko.” Touya greeted her as he put his magazine down. “How can I help you?” he asked as she quietly closed the door behind her.

“You do know you can talk with me about anything right?” She asked as she kneeled down on one of his spare cushions. The Yuki-Onna then carefully laid her instrument on the ground next to her. “No matter how stupid or serious it might seem.”

“Yeah, and I do.” Touya said evasively, finding the Shamisen had suddenly become much more interesting to look at than his friend.

“Are you?” She probed him carefully. “No recent troubles that you been keeping to yourself?”

“None worth mentioning, no.” He said with a soft shake of his head.

“And what about those not worth mentioning?” Yukiko continued to drill him. Unseen by the Tanuki, a slight frown had begun to creep onto her lips.

“No.” Touya replied hastily, trying his best to sound confident.

“So then why did three genuine assholes terrorizing our neighborhood imply you would snitch on them to Eva?” Yukiko snapped at him. With the Tanuki more than a little surprised at that, she pushed on. “I would wonder if you were in cahoots with them, if they hadn’t insuled you in the same breath. And if these kinds of people think they did you wrong enough to call down the wrath of the Kami on them, HOW IS THAT NOT WORTH MENTIONING!”

“I what how” Touya finally managed to mumble, settling to focus on the last for now. “How did you even find out? I told Kurt not to let you or Eva know!”

“Oh so the random German you met a few months ago is allowed to learn about your problems.” Yukiko snipped, voice growing cold and filled with anger. “But not me? How long have we known each other by now? Two years? Three?”

“It’s not that it’s well you know..”

“No I do not know.” The cold controlling teen countered. “After all you told Kurt not ME.”

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“Because you would just have gotten angry at me or made fun of me.” Touya whined, finally shrinking in on himself in his frustration.

“WHY. What were you doing with them that would be that bad?”

Carefully looking up at the tear stained face of his friend, Touya thought he finally understood why Yukiko was getting so worked up. Taking a deep breath, he finally began to spill. “There’s some Tanuki that began to hang out around here recently. And when they figured out I turned into a girl for a lot of the day to work here at the temple, they decided that it would be hilarious to harass me about it every chance they got.”

“And why did you think you couldn’t tell us?”

“Because, Because” He took a deep breath to steel himself for the inevitable wrath that would come his way after the next words left his mouth. “becauseIagreewiththemtoanextent.”

“Okay, can you please go again. And slower this time please?”

“Well they weren’t wrong. I I’ve been sick of having to pretend to be a girl all day long.” To avoid the clearly inevitable litany of how dare he imply being a girl is bad or something, Touya quickly turned into a steel ingot.

“Have you talked with old Komaki about this?” Yukiko inquired. Patiently waiting for the Tanuki to transform into something with the ability to reply.

“Yes.” Touya finally replied after transforming into a metal statue of a tiny fox. “But he said I should just toughen up and deal with it.”

“Yeah that sounds like him.” Yukiko said with an attempted sage nod. Which was not quite believable with the tear tracks on her cheeks. “But why didn’t you ask me or Eva for help? I am sure we could have dealt with this. Both talking the old tree spirit around and getting rid of the Tanukis.”

“I assumed you’d just accuse me of thinking there’s something wrong with with being a girl and get pissed off.”

“Do you actually think there’s something wrong with being a girl?” Yukiko asked carefully. “Well outside of being forced to be one.”

“No, why would I?”

“So why did you think that would be my first assumption?”

“Well I you know it’s that” he began to mumble, carefully pushing his shonen magazine behind him.

Shaking her head, Yukiko decided to change the topic a bit. “So how about we go get some yakitori and figure out how to convince that old priest he’s stupid and wrong here?”

“So you don’t mind I dislike transforming into a girl?” He asked carefully as he changed back to his usual human form.

“No, why would I?” Yukiko countered as she got up. “I am sure I’d get sick of having to pretend to be a boy over time as well. Doesn’t mean I have an issue with you, or boys in general.”

Getting up as well, Touya hurried after Yukiko, pulling a handkerchief from his pant’s pocket for the Yuki-Onna, to dry her tears before her cheeks iced over.

“So how did you find out if Kurt didn’t tell you.” He asked as he handed the cloth over.

Taking it with a smile, Yukiko began to explain as she dried her cheeks. “Well after Karasuza ran into those Tanuki trying to ruin a young girl's school things, she …”