I made my way across the guild hall for the second time in two days. This time, I had gold coins in my hand and a soon-to-be adventurer. Which is why, when I was stopped by some girl wearing enchanted leather armor with a sword peeking from behind her shoulder, I smiled. “May I help you?” I asked in a sweet tone, unable to hide my ever-widening grin.

“You’re that gal from yesterday, ain’t ya?” she said with a raised eyebrow. “Guild says you ain’t allowed here no more. Take a look over there.”

I glanced where she pointed, and my ears twitched with irritation. Sure enough, on a sign next to the door was a picture of me with “NOT ALLOWED” across the bottom of the paper and an X over my face.

I turned around and said, “That was yesterday! I have the money and a good reason this time!” The woman shook her head and brought her hand to the hilt of her sword—no doubt a threatening gesture. “I’m only gonna tell ya this once: get out, or else.”

“I don’t even see what I did wrong!” I protested, taking a small step back—not out of fear, but because if she attacked, there’d be a blood splatter that wasn’t mine. “All I did was ask a few questions, and I left when I was asked. I never even raised a finger to anyone!”

The woman began to draw her sword. My smile practically cracked my face as she got it less than a quarter of the way out before another voice spoke up.

“Nya! Tama does not understand why we are not allowed here! Tama has done nothing wrong, and you won’t say what Tama’s friend did!” Tama’s voice carried irritation. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that was how she would respond. After all, even if it was a bit manipulative, the guild had literally kicked me out and banned me for asking a few questions. That was unreasonable even to me.

To Tama, that would be extremely unjust, and as expected, she had stepped in to confront the lady.

“This is none of your business, girl!” the adventurer snapped as she drew her blade before turning back to me. “Get out now,” she said in a threatening tone.

I simply shook my head and said, “Are you sure you want to do this? I should warn you: my friend is very strong and doesn’t like bullies.” The woman snorted as she swung her blade at me. “I don’t care about two little runts.”

That was the last sentence she got out before she was no longer in the building. A person-sized hole now stood where part of the wall had been.

The entire room went tense. After a moment, a scream of rage came from the hole, and the woman jumped back through it at an insane speed. She ran at Tama, but Tama seemed entirely unimpressed and simply unsheathed her sword.

Their swords clashed for an instant. Then Tama vanished. Before the girl could react, however, Tama appeared behind her, hand pushed against her back. I only saw a piece of what happened next; it happened too fast for me to see.

One second, the girl was standing there in her leather armor, sword still in the position it had clashed with Tama’s. Then she was naked, with nothing on her body—the only thing she still held was her sword.

Tama appeared in front of her, looking her up and down as the woman slowly realized she was now naked. “Tama doesn’t understand why these girls’ breasts are bigger than Tama’s too!”

I stared, stunned, at the now-naked woman, who dropped her sword and covered herself. Her face went deep red in embarrassment and anger. After a moment, I recovered before snickering at her misfortune. I had warned her, after all.

“Looks like you have other issues to handle, huh?” I said as I stepped forward. “Why don’t we let bygones be bygones? I mean, you saw how fast she undressed you… or did you?” I asked with amusement. The woman’s face went from red to pale white as my words sank in.

I had just pointed out how easily Tama had undressed her before she was able to even react. Like she was not only not a threat but someone to be toyed with like a doll. The taunt clearly worked too, as the girl quietly asked, “Can I have my clothes back?”

I said nothing as Tama spoke.

“Nya! Why do you want those restrictive things back? They only slow you down! Tama removed them so you could go faster and fight Tama better!”

At this point, it was taking every ounce of my energy not to burst out laughing. Tama had done better than I had hoped. The intent got across, even if the results were unexpected. Turning to face the other guild members and speaking loudly, I said, “Does anyone else wish to join the lovely young lady in her current state of undress?”

Three men stood up, drawing their weapons. I couldn’t help myself—I cackled at their stupidity.

I had to give credit to the third guy: he put a shield around himself to prevent his clothes from being removed. That only caused Tama an extra second as she paused, shattered his shield with her Katana, then undressed him anyway.

I made note that despite removing all of their clothes, Tama left their underwear on, whereas she had not for the girl. I would have to ask about that later.

“Why did you leave their underwear on but take mine off!” the girl screamed, her face now changing from fear to a mixture of confusion and anger. At this point, I had lost all subtlety and was now on the floor, my face red with uncontrolled laughter. “Maybe because she likes girls—I don’t know!” I said between wheezes of breath.

“Tama likes girls! Tama likes everyone! But only when they are good and just!” Tama said, causing me to wheeze even harder. At this point, the top four adventurers in the guild were now nude. At least, I assumed they were the top since they had tried to stop us.

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“Yeah, she likes everyone! Besides, wasn’t she just giving you a fair chance at fighting? She removed all of your clothes—it’s entirely possible she thought they didn’t need everything removed!” I said between fits of laughter.

The girl glared at me with hate in her eyes. “If you think having your friend here use some special skill to strip our armor and clothing is going to make us let you back in, you’re dead wrong! I can still fight like this!” To prove her point, she reached down and picked up her sword, getting into a fighting stance while still nude.

I truly had to give her credit: even with red cheeks of embarrassment, she was sticking to her guns. A brave adventurer indeed. “What do you mean, ‘skill’?” Tama asked with a tilted head. “Tama was just using her speed!”

Every single person in the guild stared at Tama in disbelief, including me. That wasn’t even a skill—she was just that fast?! I had assumed it was some ability she had. But if what Tama said was true, she made literal speed demons appear slow.

Tama looked at all of them before shrugging. “Tama doesn’t see the problem? Is it ’cause Tama isn’t naked too?” I quickly spoke up. “No, it’s not that! They’re just amazed at how strong you are.”

I sighed in relief as Tama, who had been removing her underwear, paused. “Oh, so Tama can’t take off her restrictive clothes too? That hardly seems fair!”

The naked woman paused for a moment to look at Tama. She really looked at her before asking a simple question. “Who are you, and why are you defending this fox girl?” Tama stared back at her for a moment before appearing lost in thought, as if it was a question for the ages.

I giggled at her silliness, but otherwise, no one said a word. Finally, she seemed to come to an answer. She jumped up on one of the many tables around the room and, in a loud declarative voice, said, “This girl’s name is Tama! Fully trained and powerful Ninja Warrior. The reason Tama is standing against you is because of your unjust actions against Tama’s friend. Nya!”

Silence filled the room once again at that statement before someone spoke up. “But you are breaking the law by defending her right now!” That made me pause, and I began to worry that might actually make Tama second-guess herself. I opened my mouth to speak, but Tama beat me to it.

“Law? What is a law? If it is what is causing this unfairness, Tama will fight this ‘law’ and defeat it!”

I’m not certain what happened next—it happened so quickly that I only saw the aftermath. A flash of light, a flickering flame, an explosion, and suddenly two people were feet from each other, blade against blade.

I stared in disbelief at the newcomer. For it was a newcomer—I hadn’t even seen them enter. This newcomer was currently clashing blades with Tama, who, based on appearances, was actually struggling. I took a step back as worry began to flood me.

Who was strong enough to fight Tama? No one I had ever met, that was for certain. I began to wonder if I should help Tama. Wait—why would I help her? I should run! The thought crossed my mind once before discarding it. I couldn’t leave her… I just couldn’t.

I raised my hand, and the guild girl, still naked, stepped in my way. “Don’t even try to get between the guild master and her prey. Even I know better than to try that, stupid girl!” The panic from earlier rose. Use me, erase them, do it. I paused. I knew the correct answer was no, but… I… My hand began to fill with void energy.

Before it became substantive, though, there was another clash, and I watched as Tama and the old lady both stopped and looked at each other. The old lady—clearly the guild master—stood around 5’8” and was clearly large and muscular. She had what I could only describe as abs that would make a washboard jealous.

She had long, flowing blonde hair, a pair of wolf ears sat on top of her head, and a tail wagging behind her. The look of hostility from only moments ago disappeared in place of interest. “I know that style of swordsmanship,” the old woman said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper, and yet I heard it like it was whispered in my ears.

“Tama’s sensei is the greatest ninja ever! He taught Tama everything Tama knows!” Tama said defiantly, sword in hand, combat stance ready. But based on the look on her face, she hadn’t been doing so hot. She looked strained and was wincing. This guild master was no joke.

The real detail here that caught me off guard, though, was the mention of Tama’s master. I knew ninjas usually had a sensei or something, but I hadn’t really correlated it until just now. She came from the same forest he lives in; she is also a ninja; she didn’t remove the men’s underwear.

Each thought brought the picture more into focus as I began to realize something extremely important. Eyes shooting wide, I pointed at Tama and said in astonishment, “You’re the great Ninja Swordsman’s apprentice?! As in, THE greatest swordsman to ever live?!”

The guild master snorted. “Greatest swordsman my ass. When I knew that man, the only thing he cared about was his pigs. Everywhere he went, all he talked about was how they worked and acted.” Tama’s ears perked up at that, and with a giggle, she nodded. “Yeah! Sensei was always talking about Sensei’s pigs! He treated them better than Tama sometimes!”

“That doesn’t shock me in the slightest. When I heard he picked himself up a child, I thought he was talking about another pig and dismissed it. But an actual little girl? What was that madman thinking?”

“Tama doesn’t know, but Tama has lived with Sensei for as long as Tama can remember!” Tama sounded excited as she spoke to the guild master. She was now rolling on the balls of her feet, her combat stance gone, the sword in her hand now at her side as she smiled up at the old wolf girl.

At this point, I wasn’t even shocked. Of course Tama would befriend the guild master. Would she have truly done anything else? I rolled my eyes and stepped forward past the girl who had tried to stop me earlier. She was too busy staring at the duo casually chatting, seemingly unable to think clearly enough to respond. “Hi, I am Saki!” I said, walking up to the guild master, who took one look at me and raised an eyebrow.

“A friend of yours, Tama?” she asked, her eyes never leaving me. “Yeah, that’s Saki! She promised to help Tama get an adventurer’s badge so Tama could do quests and help her!”

“I see. Then allow me to introduce myself. I am Matriarch Talia, the Forge of Fire.” My eyes grew round at the name. This old wolf girl was the Forge of Fire? How did I not know that? I prided myself on intel gathering!

“Nya! Sensei mentioned you before! He called you an old coot who was too obsessed with your hammer to ever do real combat!” Tama said with a wide grin on her face. Since my face was already white as snow, it probably wasn’t as obvious as it would’ve been normally, but my skin somehow became paler at Tama’s comment. We are so dead right now, I thought as I panicked. Before I could do anything, though, Matriarch Talia just laughed… hard. Like, really hard—like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard in her life. My tail, which had puffed up at the comment, simply relaxed, and I lost the tension in my body.

“Okay, girls, come with me. I’ll personally get the two of you set up with adventuring badges. As for your Sensei, you tell him when you see him again that I shouldn’t hear that from the pig-fucker!”

Tama apparently thought this was hilarious, as she fell to the floor laughing hysterically, like it was the world’s funniest joke. I simply shook my head and thanked the elements we were both getting badges now. I had been hoping Tama would get one based on her power and strength—now we both were!