Volume 16 - The Mountain, Chapter 119 - On the Trail

"Haru, can you pass me that wrench?" Yuisu said, pointing toward the tool she needed to finish attaching a wooden beam to a short fence post. It was leaned against the previous post in the line and within a wing's reach of where Haru stood.

Haru didn't respond. She was too focused on something in the distance. Her eyes were glued on a small white object in the underbrush to the north of the hot spring construction site.

"Hello? Haru!" Yuisu called. She was really trying to not get too snippy, but this was far from the first time Haru had been distracted by the local wildlife. "I need you here with me, Haru. We've got a lot of work to do."

Haru and Yuisu were the only ones working on the inn expansion project that afternoon. Mara had lost interest in the project after she finished the brick path, and since a bored Mara was worse than nothing, Yuisu had thanked her and sent her inside. Aluru was still willing to help, but she'd met a new girl the night before and Yuisu hadn't seen root nor petal of her since.

There was also Mister Satoru, the contractor who had been handling all the spring-specific work, but he was taking a day off while he waited on some materials to arrive for sealing the bottom of the pool.

As Haru came back to reality, she shook her head and blinked her big golden eyes. She smiled shyly at her girlfriend and said, "Sorry, Yuisu. What were you saying?"

After a long sigh, Yuisu said, "Can you pass me that wrench?"

Haru followed Yuisu's pointing arm to the tool in question. She bent down and grabbed it, having to squeeze pretty hard to keep the smooth metal from slipping through her feathery grip. Then she skipped over to where Yuisu was holding a crossbeam in place against a fence post. The pathway's handrail was really starting to take shape.

"Here you go. Sorry about that."

Yuisu smiled and took the wrench. "It's alright." She threaded a large nut onto the bolt that ran through the fence post and crossbeam, then remarked, "Was it that rabbit again? The white one?"

Haru nodded energetically. "Yeah. I just don't understand how it has a white coat in the summer. I mean, my feathers are always white, but rabbits and hares change color with the season. They have to, to stay hidden from predators."

"Like you?" Yuisu said with a teasing grin.

"Yeah! If it was brown like it's supposed to be, it wouldn't keep catching my eye and distracting me. The dumb thing doesn't even seem to realize I'm a threat, since it keeps hanging around."

As Yuisu used the wrench to tighten the board down, she remarked, "Well, maybe you aren't a threat. It's not like you've been able to catch it."

Haru's face went deadly serious and Yuisu immediately knew she'd messed up. Now Haru's pride was on the line.

Oops, Yuisu thought as Haru turned purposefully away.

Haru spread her wings wide, then said, "Sorry, Yuisu. I have to go catch a certain rabbit. I'll make it up to you later."

With that brief apology, the raptor harpy launched straight up into the air and disappeared into the bright sky. Yuisu had half expected her to beeline for where the rabbit had been sitting in the bushes, but Haru could never have kept up with it in that dense underbrush. She needed the element of surprise and the advantage of height to catch that prey.

With yet another sigh, Yuisu mumbled to herself, "And just like that, I'm doing all the work alone again."

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Haru tracked the rabbit for hours all over the mountain, but its scent was strongest around the main house and the cabins. She suspected it had approached the hot spring too, but the sulfur scent of the spring interfered with her tracking. It seemed to like to hang around the buildings, but its home was likely somewhere else further from people.

She followed a particularly promising trail as far as the toppled landmark tree, but then it went underground. Haru could track by sight, smell, and sound, but those were little help at following subterranean tunnels. The tunnel didn't smell fresh enough to be the rabbit's burrow, so she resumed her search back near the inn for several more hours.

After midnight, a dejected Haru stumbled into her and Yuisu's bedroom, mumbling under her breath about the rabbit.

Yuisu had been asleep, but Haru's voice awoke her. She lifted the blanket and beckoned Haru to bed, then asked, "Any luck?"

Haru stripped and climbed into bed naked, not because she had erotic plans, but because she was too exhausted to bother with nightclothes. She flopped down and buried her face between some pillows, then finally answered in a muffled voice, "No. But I think I found its den while it wasn't there, so I blocked the entrance with a rock. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can catch it before it finds or makes a new den."

Yuisu wanted to ask Haru to give up on her silly chase, but she couldn't think of a way to do it without hurting Haru's pride. I guess I'll just wait it out. She'll catch it eventually, and it's not like the new hot spring is under a deadline. She reached over and massaged the tense spot between Haru's powerful shoulders and said, "You'll catch it soon. Maybe tomorrow."

As her muscles loosened, Haru moaned, "Maybe. I hope so." The massage washed away her tension and her frustration. Within another minute, she was asleep and dreaming of standing victorious over that obnoxious white rabbit.

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The next morning proved both frustrating and puzzling. Haru returned to the den to find the large rock had been moved aside, leaving the rabbit-sized hole wide open.

"What the hell?" she muttered as she landed in the clearing. "There's no way a rabbit could move that thing."

She swept the area for clues to what had happened, and finally found a big one. In the soft dirt next to the moved rock, there were two rabbit-like footprints, but they were much too large to be from the rabbit she'd been tracking.

Something's going on, and I plan to figure it out. She made a show of flying away in the direction of the house, then doubled back and sneakily landed in a large tree. It was just near enough to see the burrow, but downwind and out of hearing range. Then she watched.

As she waited, her mind entered the zen-like state of a focused predator. Time breezed by, but her eyes never wandered from the burrow. She was prepared to wait as long as it took.

After several hours, her patience was rewarded when a small white rabbit emerged from the burrow. It sniffed at the air cautiously, then hopped off toward a nearby meadow, presumably searching for something to eat.

Haru waited until the rabbit was smack dab in the middle of that field, totally open to the sky, then she attacked. She launched into the air above the meadow, then dove straight down at great speed. She would normally swoop in at an angle to make a graceful exit with her prey, but she didn't want to risk letting that unusually wily rabbit escape.

Haru hit the ground talon-first with a loud WUMP and a puff of dirt and wild grass. When she stood up and looked down at her prey, she saw something she hadn't expected at all.

Where there should have been a small white rabbit pinned underneath her talon, there was a full-size woman, pinned by the upper arm. She was lying face down in the grass, and she was wearing a short red skirt and a loose white top, similar to a traditional shrine maiden's attire.

"What the hell?" Haru said for the second time that day. She was totally baffled by the strange situation. It wasn't until she noticed the woman's ears that things started to make sense; they were long and white, just like a rabbit. In fact, she also had a small fluffy tail sticking out of the back of her skirt and big furry paws instead of human hands and feet.

Still pinned to the ground, the woman shouted, "Alright! You caught me, but I'm not a rabbit. Stop trying to eat me!"

Haru had already left predator mode, but now she switched into police officer mode. She dropped to one knee, grabbed the rabbit woman's arms, and wrenched them behind her back.

Then Haru said, "You are trespassing on private property and you appear to be a liminal without a host or your registration papers. I am putting you under citizen's arrest until the Exchange Program authorities can arrive."

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"—and maybe someone in here will listen to me!" The agitated voice came from the back door and carried down the hall to the kitchen. "I'm not an exchange program homestay. I barely even know what that is!"

"A likely story," Haru grumbled. "I'll let the authorities handle verifying your claims."

Yuisu heard the commotion and ran from the kitchen to the back door. She slid to a stop at the sight of an unfamiliar woman with white hair and paws, wearing a red and white shrine maiden outfit. Yuisu's first thought was that she was an inn guest, or maybe a friend of a guest. Whoever she was, the woman did not look happy at all.

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"Uh, what's going on?" Yuisu asked.

Haru pushed the woman forward so she could close the door behind her. She was having a hard time keeping a grip on the woman's wrists with just one wing. Then she looked at Yuisu and answered, "I caught this liminal trespassing on your property. She seems to be able to disguise herself as a white rabbit, the very same one that's been hanging around our construction site. I think she's been spying on us, but I have no idea what she could be planning, or who she's working for."

Even Yuisu had to raise an eyebrow at that story. She'd never heard of a liminal that could transform into a regular-sized rabbit, and she was pretty sure there weren't any shadowy organizations interested in the Mountain Lily Inn's nonexistent corporate secrets.

"Uh, huh…" she said. "I'm sure this is just some sort of misunderstanding. Let's all go sit down in the living room and talk this out." She saw the disapproving scowl on Haru's face and added, "And I'll call Agent Will and ask him to come up straight away."

Haru's expression softened and she nodded, then started pushing her prisoner toward the living room. When they reached the middle of the room, surrounded by the L-shaped couch and other chairs, Haru stopped.

In an intimidating growl, she said, "If you promise not to try anything, I'll let go of your wrists." In reality, her thumb was incredibly sore from holding the woman's wrists, and Haru didn't think she could fight back in such an awkward stance anyway, if the bunny-girl did try something.

The woman nodded, so Haru let her go, then stood guard in the gap between the couch and the hallway.

The rabbit woman sat down on the couch and crossed her arms in a huff. Despite her grouchy expression, she was quite cute, with wide red eyes, ruffled white hair, and an adorable ever-wiggling nose. Her short skirt also showed off her long and amazingly toned legs.

Yuisu arrived shortly after, her cell phone in hand. She sat down in a rocking chair and said, "Agent Will said he's on his way. I tried to explain my understanding of the situation, but I don't think he got it."

The rabbit woman took the opportunity to say, "Of course not. This bird-lady's explanation was all wrong! I'm not a 'liminal', whatever that is. I'm a mountain spirit, and I'm not trespassing. If anything, you all are!"

Yuisu blinked a few times as she tried to process that, then finally said, "Uh, let's just start fresh. I'm Yuisu. What's your name?"

"Hakuto," the woman answered in a snippy tone.

"It's nice to meet you, Hakuto. You said you're not a liminal, and that you're a mountain spirit. What do you mean by that?" Yuisu said. She kept her voice calm and gentle. Unlike Haru, Yuisu knew when to apply diplomacy.

Hakuto said, "I'm a spirit, well, the spirit of this mountain. I protect it and help its forests and wildlife grow. Are you not a follower of the Shinto ways? Surely you know about this."

Yuisu shook her head. "I don't actually know much about religious things. My only exposure was visiting a shrine on New Year's' Eve as a kid, but I think that's a Buddhist thing, not Shinto."

Hakuto frowned and sighed. "I guess the old ways truly are dying out." Then her expression returned to an angry pout. "Not that I care. They weren't even my ways until I got stuck with them."

"Huh?" Yuisu leaned closer. "What do you mean?"

"I wasn't always a mountain spirit. I used to be what your myths call an 'Inaba Hare', a rabbit spirit that roamed the land, helping other spirits and gods find their way. But a few hundred years ago I wandered onto this mountain and encountered its mountain god, an ancient and crafty Tengu."

Hakuto uncrossed her arms and idly plucked at her short skirt. It seemed she was embarrassed by the next part of her story. "He asked if I wanted to become a god, possessing all the power of a mountain and its fiery heart. I foolishly said yes. Before I knew it, I was stuck on this mountain as its guardian spirit, and that old Tengu was off causing trouble around Japan, free as a bird."

Haru leaned against the couch's armrest and said, "So, assuming we believe your story, why haven't we seen you around before? Yuisu and I have lived here almost two years, and her uncle lived here for decades before that."

"The earthquake!" Yuisu blurted before Hakuto could answer. When Haru threw a confused glance her way, Yuisu explained, "That old woman said that the earthquake last month could have been a mountain god awakening." Then she looked at Hakuto and asked, "Is that correct?"

Hakuto nodded, sending her long ears flopping. "That's right. I woke up last month because of all the noise you all were making."

"Noise?" Yuisu asked, confused. "We only started this construction after the earthquake."

"Not that kind of noise. I guess energy would be a better word for it. It's all the lovemaking going on here, at all hours of day and night. I swear, you people are…"

"Like rabbits?" Haru teased with a mischievous grin.

Hakuto just glared at that, then added, "At least it isn't actually loud like that other spirit's mountain." She pointed a paw west, to where Ski Lodge Kobold was being built across the valley. "I can hear the construction from here, so I have no idea how that god hasn't woken up yet."

Haru's grin widened and she said, "Can you hear it because of your mountain spirit powers? Or because of your huge bunny ears?" It seemed Haru was really enjoying antagonizing Hakuto.

Hakuto didn't dignify that with a response. Instead, she spoke to Yuisu. "Do you believe me now?"

Yuisu nodded and said, "Yes, I think so, but there's a lot I still don't understand. Why were you asleep for so long?"

Secretly, Hakuto was enjoying having someone to talk to, so she was eager to answer. "I hated being cooped up here and I wanted to pass the job off to another spirit. I waited and waited, but this mountain is very remote and has no shrines, so none ever came. I hibernated most of the time. After well over 100 years, I finally sensed a spirit nearby, but it was just the spirit of a dying man, passing on."

With a smile on her face, she said, "We spoke a while, but he was a kind man who was at peace with his death. I couldn't bring myself to dump my burden on Ichiro."

"Ichiro?!" Yuisu blurted. "Did you say Ichiro? That's my uncle!"

Hakuto nodded and moved to speak, but Haru cut in, "That means you were awake just two years ago."

Hakuto glared at Haru again for interrupting. "Yes. I went back to sleep after that, expecting to sleep away the years for a century or two. I was barely asleep when you all and your constant"—her face took on a look of annoyance and mild aversion—"sexual acts woke me up."

That got Yuisu's attention. "What's wrong with sex? Everyone does it, and it's necessary for reproduction." She decided not to mention that most of the sex happening at the inn wasn't done with reproduction in mind. Or even capable of it, considering all the lesbians.

Hakuto looked offended and her tiny eyebrows furrowed. "No, not everyone does it, nor does everyone need it. Most spirits are immortal, and very few of them choose to breed. I have no interest in sex at all."

After a moment of stiff silence, Yuisu ventured, "Are you asexual? It's fine if you are. I mean, Haru and I are homosexual, so we're not going to shun you for being different from the norm."

"Asexual…" Hakuto said the word cautiously, like she was trying it on for size. She hadn't heard the word before, like most other modern words, but she could infer its meaning. "Yeah, I guess that's right."

Haru swept her gaze up and down Hakuto's body, lingering on her bare and highly attractive legs. "Then what's with the revealing skirt? Don't those shrine maiden getups normally have long skirts?"

Hakuto forcefully replied, "A long skirt would get in the way of my movement." Then her voice got quieter and she added, "And I like my legs. They are strong and reliable. Am I not allowed to be proud of them?"

"You're absolutely allowed to be proud of them," said a man's voice from the hallway. It was Agent Will, who had apparently let himself inside. He wore his typical black suit and black sunglasses, looking very much the part of 'mysterious government agent'.

He smiled and greeted Haru and Yuisu, then he sat down in a chair near Hakuto and introduced himself. "I'm Agent Will and I work for the Interspecies Exchange Program. We help liminals and humans get along, now that liminals like you have revealed themselves to humanity."

Yuisu piped in, "Uh, I'm not sure Hakuto is a liminal at all. She's a mountain spirit, and she was an Inaba Hare before that."

Agent Will ran a hand over his slicked back hair and chuckled. "Oh, she's definitely a liminal. It's a very broad term. She's not even the Program's first mountain spirit or Inaba Hare."

He noticed Yuisu's puzzled expression and explained, "Some liminals are just more supernatural than others. Haru's on the natural end of the spectrum, while spirits and ghosts are on the other. The natural species were much easier for humanity to accept, and also had a harder time hiding from humanity, so they were the first to integrate. But the supernatural ones are slowly revealing themselves and joining the Program."

Yuisu seemed satisfied with the explanation, so Agent Will turned and addressed Hakuto. "Your name is Hakuto, yes?"

She nodded cautiously.

Agent Will cheerfully continued, "The Exchange Program is mostly meant for liminals that are visiting from hidden or distant lands, but we do have systems in place for liminals like yourself that were already here. Hakuto, I'd like to extend an invitation to you to join our program. We'll provide you with the resources and guidance to interact safely with humanity and you don't need to do anything in return. The Program is in service of all of Japan's people, human and not."

Hakuto wiggled her nose in thought for a moment, then stared out the window at the tree-covered hillside. After so long that Agent Will was worried she'd zoned out, Hakuto finally said, "Can I wait to make my decision? I'm not used to things moving so quickly."

Agent Will chuckled again and nodded. "Of course. Take all the time you need, and you are free to say no. You were here first and you've committed no offense, so I have no authority to force you into this." Then he stood and gave a slight bow and said, "Just have Yuisu call me when you have your answer, or if you have any questions. It was nice to meet you, Hakuto."

With a respectable air about him, he turned and left the room. Yuisu smiled at how responsible he could be when he felt like it.

Then he peeked back around the corner and said, "Oh, Haru, your mom says hi. And that you should call her more." He knew that Haru was embarrassed by his romantic relationship with her mother, but he loved to bring it up all the same. Then he waved, said 'Seeya!' and left for real.

As Haru's pointed ears flushed red, Yuisu smiled at Hakuto and said, "Let me know if there's anything I can do for you. This mountain is your home too, so I'd like to offer you my hospitality."

Shyly, Hakuto said, "I'd actually like to bathe in the hot spring. It looks so nice, and I kept wanting to sneak in when no one was around, but I never worked up the nerve."

Haru said, "I found your tracks around the spring. I figured you'd just been perving on us."

Yuisu gave her unusually snarky girlfriend a stern look and said, "Haru, give her a little more respect, please." Then she turned back to Hakuto and said, "You're welcome to use the hot spring any time. Well, almost any time. A couple hours a day are reserved for male-only bathing. Make sure to check the schedule."

Then she added, "Actually, it's female-only right now, and I could use a soak after all my construction work today. Want to join me and chat?"

After Hakuto nodded, Yuisu offered a hand and helped her rise from the couch, then walked her toward the changing room.

Hakuto was surprised to be so quickly welcomed by a human, and treated as an equal. She was used to humans either fearing or worshipping spirits like her, but she supposed all the liminals around were proof that Yuisu was more welcoming than most people.

Haru fought off a twinge of jealousy as she followed along. It wasn't a hard battle, given Hakuto's asexuality. The bigger fight would be overcoming her instinctual desire to antagonize the rabbit-like woman. For now, she thought she could keep it down to gentle teasing.