SAKI
Saki was at a loss for words, all that effort wasted! Who even was this girl? She was barely taller then Saki herself at around 5’2”, she had waist long silky smooth royal purple hair and piercing blue eyes. Her skin was a fair color, clearly from one of the water tribes. But what stood out most to Saki was the girls insane skill and strange way of speaking.
At first she was angry, but after a moment an idea began to form in the kitsune’s head. After all, this girl was clearly stronger then those men. They clearly would not have survived the trip. Yes, this was a blessing in disguise Saki thought to herself.
She looked gratefully at the nekojin and put on her most innocent face. Activating her kitsune charm power she began to speak. “Hello Tama was it? I am ever so grateful for your timely rescue, I am not sure what those.” Saki took a moment to feign a shiver before continuing. “thugs would have done to me!”
Saki looked at her waiting for the charm to take effect. However, as she stood there, Tama seemed utterly unaffected by her skill. Inwardly frowning she increased the charm to its limits.
After a moment Tama looked at her puzzled. “Are you constipated? Tama thinks you look constipated. When Tama feels constipated, her sensei would always tell her to have some special juice from the forest berries!”
Saki had no words, Her charm had failed entirely and this girl continues prattling on as if Saki and her had been friends their whole life. Slowly, she shifted her plan. Clearly this girl was insane, but she could still maybe be of use?
Yes, a new idea formed and she held a hand to stop Tama’s continuous prattling. Something about a boar breaking into a chicken coop? “Yes, this is all very fascinating I am certain!” Saki said, trying to feign interest in what she could only describe was pure idiocy to her ears. Like, why would you wrestle a board into a cage?!
“I was wondering if you could help me with a dangerous quest. You are certainly a capable adventurer right?” Tama stared at her for a long moment before asking in a curious tone “What’s an adventurer?”
Saki felt her brain cells dying, Today was not her day.
TAMA
Tama followed Saki through the streets of the town.
Saki had called the town Drestor—what a strange name! Had this town always existed so close to Tama’s forest? She did not know. But it was a fascinating realization.
So many weird and wonderful things. The inhabitants of this place wore strange clothes. Little ones ran around the streets, and many talked to one another. They yelled names of things and numbers Tama did not understand. It was all so new and fresh, and yet—a pang in her heart. The memory of her sensei still stung.
It also felt strangely... familiar.
She couldn’t place why, but it was like she had been somewhere like this before. Which was strange, as all she could ever remember was the forest. It was all she had ever known.
“We are almost there!” Saki called from ahead, bringing Tama back into the present.
Tama looked up to see a large building. On the front were letters sensei had taught her. She had no idea what they said, of course, but they looked pretty.
Saki stopped in front of the building, pointing at the sign above it. “See? Here we are!”
Tama stared blankly at the sign, then looked back at Saki.
After a moment, Saki sighed and facepalmed. “It says Adventurers’ Guild,” she stated simply, offering a kind smile—one that Tama noticed didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Her sensei’s smile had always reached his eyes.
Tama snapped out of it as Saki opened the door and looked back at her expectantly.
“You coming or not?” she asked.
Tama nodded and quickly walked into the building, her hand resting on the hilt of her katana.
SAKI
Saki was having a bad day.
First, her plans with the bandits had backfired spectacularly. Then, the cause of that backfire waltzed up and claimed to be her savior after killing her soon-to-be puppets... er, guards. Yeah. She had worked so hard on that plan—finding the right kind of dirt bags, making sure they were vetted to be easily controlled. She had even charmed the guards to look the other way!
Things had been coming up Autumn.
Then this girl showed up, and all her plans were ruined in one fell swoop.
The worst part? By technicality, the ninja girl had saved her. For all appearances, she was just a helpless little fox girl, and any showing of her true feelings on the matter would out her as the manipulative planner and schemer she was.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Still, this Tama girl could be her ticket. She even had the same skills as the guy she was trying to find.
But first...
Saki sighed as she grabbed Tama’s hand and guided her over to the adventurers’ desk.
“Hi there! We are here to get my friend an adventurer’s license!”
As she spoke, Saki layered the charm on thick, her voice warm and inviting. The woman behind the desk frowned, but as Saki’s magic took effect, her expression softened into a smile.
“I see. Here’s the paperwork to get you started. How will you be paying the fee?”
Saki cursed under her breath before looking back at the woman, pushing her charm even harder.
“It seems we’re out of money,” she said sweetly, her tone soft, almost melodic. “Could you spot us just this once?”
The woman’s eyes began to glaze over, her will bending under Saki’s influence—
“Tama doesn’t see why she would do that!”
The loud statement shattered the moment. The guild lady blinked, confusion replacing her dazed expression.
“What... what is she—”
“Don’t worry, she’s just being silly. Like the good friends we all are.”
Saki pushed harder, internally screaming at Tama for her idiocy. The woman slowly nodded, her eyes beginning to lose focus again.
Tama opened her mouth—
Saki immediately clamped a hand over it, shooting her a death glare.
She turned back to the guild lady, her expression softening into a loving smile. Leaning in, she whispered, “You’re so very pretty. Are those new highlights in your hair?”
The woman’s face lit up in a vacant sort of way. “Why, yes, they are,” she said absentmindedly, reaching for her own purse.
Then Tama licked Saki’s hand.
With a yelp, Saki let go, instantly regretting it. The moment her hand left Tama’s mouth, the cat girl spoke.
“Tama thinks it’s strange the guild lady’s eyes looked weird. Like she isn’t focusing on us! How rude!”
It took every ounce of willpower Saki had not to kill the neko girl and call it a loss.
The only thing stopping her was the memory of Tama killing those six men without batting an eye. A vision flashed through her mind—herself, as a fox, bleeding out on the ground.
She clenched her teeth. It would all be worth it.
TAMA
Saki looked at Tama with an almost pleading expression. Tama didn’t understand why Saki wanted her to be quiet. She had even covered Tama’s mouth. Saki’s hand smelled like nothing—and that made Tama uncomfortable. Everything, literally everything, had a smell. But Saki didn’t. That made her super suspicious.
Still, the strange fox girl had promised to help Tama by signing her up for this adventuring thingy. But the lady at the desk was being super rude. Her eyes kept glazing over like she wasn’t even interested. Also, Saki had just asked her to pay something called a fee for them. Tama thought her question was straightforward—why would the lady, who wasn’t even focusing on them, pay for their fee? Whatever that was.
But Saki was clearly at her wits’ end, and Tama could see it. She had that same look Sensei would give her when he had enough of her shenanigans, as he called them. Tama didn’t think she caused these shenanigans, but Sensei insisted. And he was her Sensei.
Tama decided to go silent, waiting for Saki and the lady to finish talking. The lady didn’t reach for her satchel again, and Saki seemed to almost despair as the two began bargaining. After what felt like an eternity, the lady smiled at Saki. And, like Saki, Tama noticed that her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Tama wondered if smiles reaching eyes was not a normal thing. She had always thought it was a sign of genuine happiness. But here were two people, who seemed to be the best of friends, smiling fake at each other. She frowned at this and wondered what other things she didn’t understand.
After a moment, she waved off the errant thoughts. She didn’t need to understand a lot. Her sword goes swish, her kunai go woosh, and her bombs go boom. That was all Tama had to know!
Saki turned to her, a look of exasperation on her face. Sensei looked like that a lot too.
She wondered if it was her fault. Memories flooded Tama’s mind, and her happy smile dropped a notch as she held back tears. She missed her Sensei. He had been everything to her. The only family she had… right?
More memories flooded in—these ones of a village on fire. Her nightmares. She shook her head viciously, trying to get the horrible thoughts from her mind.
Saki looked at her strangely. "Are you okay?" she asked. Tama simply nodded, not sure what to say. She was strong. She would prove herself to her Sensei!
SAKI
Saki wanted to strangle someone so badly right now. The first person on her list was the purple-haired kitsune standing in front of her. But Saki was nothing if not patient. “I have wonderful news!” the kitsune said with as much false positivity as she could muster. It wasn’t much, and it was clear Tama wasn’t buying it. Tama kept staring at her as though she could see right through her illusions—which was absurd. Saki had been blessed by the forest deity herself! Still, Tama remained immune to her charm. This wouldn’t be easy. At worst, her plans had been delayed. “What’s the news?” Tama asked, curiosity finally overcoming suspicion.
Saki noted that ‘great’ wasn’t part of her response. This was going poorly. “As it turns out, you can’t get an adventurer’s license without paying the fee,” Saki said, trying to sound disappointed but failing miserably. “A real shame, I assure you, but easily rectified!”
Tama raised an eyebrow, and Saki barely resisted the urge to scream that it was all Tama’s fault. “So, what do we have to do?” Tama asked, her curiosity winning out over caution.
Saki felt a moment of triumph as she lured Tama into her trap. She didn’t need charm or illusions—she had this. “It’s quite simple, really,” Saki said with a sweet smile. “We just need to go to a small dungeon and collect a few mushrooms. No big deal at all! We bring them back, and you get your license!”
Tama’s eyes lit up at the mention of a dungeon, and Saki couldn’t help but cackle inwardly—though she made sure it didn’t come across as obvious. Instead, she simply smiled and said, “Then let’s get going shall we?”
TAMA
Tama didn’t know why, but she heard the word dungeon and memories of all the stories her sensei would tell her came flooding back. Her eyes grew round and her heartbeat quickened. She was going to a dungeon. A real dungeon.
Her excitement must have made Saki nervous because she did some weird thing with her face that looked like she was trying to grin and laugh at the same time and covering it up with her weird magic. Tama didn’t know how to feel about the foxkin’s weird magic.
On one paw, it was fascinating to watch as it reacted differently then she did. She also seemed to talk as if Tama could only see the fake Saki? Perhaps it was all part of some master plan. Tama didn’t really care. She was going to a dungeon, a real dungeon.
Still, she had heard from sensei how dangerous they were. But those were for sensei, Tama was the best ever. She is gonna destroy this little dungeon and prove to her sensei she is strong and clever and a bunch of other nice words Tama couldn’t think of right now.
“Nya! Tama is going to a dungeon! Tama can’t wait to fight skeletons and fall into waterfalls and destroy evil goblin tribes!”
Tama dashed out of the door, her hand grasped tightly around the kitsune’s arm, dragging her along. Saki made what sounded like screaming, but Tama was positive she was simply screaming for joy. After all they were going to a dungeon!