CYBERFOX: The Nine Tales of Ayane
An original story by Stella Quetzacotl
First created: July 9, 2000
Last modified: Dec 8, 2000

~~~~~Legal Stuff~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a work of fiction written for entertainment purposes only.  All
characters are the sole property of the author.
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~~~~~Text Conventions~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[This is a character thought]
/This is a voice within a character's head/
*This is emphasized text*
{This is a spell}

	Saka-Chii was built like a human toddler and stood about three-
quarters of a meter high, counting the three large hornlike spikes 
protruding from his skull.  He had webbed hands and feet, tiny sharp-
looking claws on his fingers and toes, and when he grinned his sharp 
ivory teeth flashed.  The whole package was wrapped in green-blue scaly
skin.  [All in all, could be worse,] Ayane decided.
	"Saka-Chii, most powerful of water demons, at your service, 
milady," said Saka-Chii in a terminally annoying voice.  He gave Ayane 
a formal bow.  "Shall we get started?"
	Ayane shook her head.  "Not here," she answered, feeling odd.  
"There are too many valuable things here.  Let's go to the backyard."
	Saka-Chii snorted.  "Valuable things?" he said.  "Loads of old 
junk."
	"That be my ol' junk ye're referin' to," Mr. Morimoto said 
angrily.  "Show some respect, fish."
	"FISH!?" Saka-Chii squealed.  "Why you -"
	Ayane stepped in quickly.  "Um, excuse me?  Sometime today?"  
[What the hell am I saying?] she thought.  [I don't want to fight!]
	Saka-Chii grinned.  "Sure, toots," he said.  "And just because 
you're cute, I'll even fight you in the backyard."
	"Gee, I feel so flattered."

	Blessedly, Mr. Morimoto's backyard was slightly less cluttered 
than his house.  There were a few odd pieces (emphasis on the word 
*odd*) of furniture here and there, but the most plentiful occupant of 
the backyard was weeds.
	Mrs. Mizuka sidled up to Ayane as she was stretching.  
"Transforming from human form to fox form works somewhat like 
transforming from fox to human," she whispered.  "However, there is a 
form in between fox and human, commonly known as mid-form.  I suggest 
you use mid-form for this fight, to use your size to your advantage."
	"How do you get to mid-form?" Ayane whispered back.
	"Imagine yourself with a foxtail," Mrs. Mizuka answered.  "Try 
to get the feeling of stopping in the middle of transformation from 
human to fox.  That is all I know to tell you."  She shrugged, half-
apologetic.  Ayane gave her a sidelong glance, then nodded.
	"Laaaadiies and geeentlemen!" Saka-Chii said, trying to make 
his voice sound like a sports announcer's but not quite succeeding.  
"Iiiin the red corner, the defending champeen, the Wizard of Wet, 
Maestro of Marine, Sahib of the Sea, Dominator of the Deep -"
	A low growl escaped from deep in Mrs. Mizuka's throat.
	"The one and only Saka-Chii!" he finished quickly.  "Aaaand in 
the blue corner, the challenger, the Foxy Wonder - Ketsiru the 
Kitsune!" He spread his skinny arms out wide.
	Ayane rolled her eyes.  "Thanks for the introduction.  Can we 
get this over with?" The butterflies in her stomach had morphed into 
ravenous wolverines somehow.
	Mrs. Mizuka flowed between them.  "Do honor to the customs of 
your species," she intoned formally.  "Begin!" She moved away, and 
suddenly there was nothing but air between Ayane and Saka-Chii's claws.
And everyone knows, air makes poor armor.
	Ayane's fear shook her into alertness, giving her the energy to
do what she never could have done otherwise.  Casting her thoughts back
to her first transformation, she infused this memory into her blood 
while calling up a mental picture of herself with a long, luxurious 
silver fox tail wrapped around her body.  The hair of her arms 
prickled, and her cheeks started to itch as whiskers prepared 
themselves to sprout from them.  Ayane felt her ears flare and stretch,
her tailbone multiplied to become tail*bones*, and with halted breath 
she paused the transformation to check her progress.  The tail was 
there, in all its soft shimmering glory, and her ears felt fuzzy, thin,
and pointed, pretty much like a fox's was supposed to feel like.  When 
she shifted her tongue she could feel short fangs where her canines had
been, and her hands had grown thinner, tanner, tipped with silvery 
curved claws that put her more in mind of a cat than a fox.  Ayane let 
her breath out in a whoosh.  Instinct, as yet a new sensation even more
than her sharpened senses, told her that the change to mid-form was 
complete.
	Out of the corner of her eye Ayane noticed Mrs. Mizuka nodding 
at her, and she smiled shyly.  Then the fight was on.
	Saka-Chii charged Ayane, claws extended to open her skin from 
shoulder to hip.  Ayane set up her Firewall, feeling as if her body was
on autopilot.  Saka-Chii squeaked as he impacted it, almost comically, 
and fell back onto his bottom.  Ayane kept the Firewall strong as she 
could make it and searched herself for other options.  Standing here 
like a brick wall wasn't going to win her any fights.  Sooner or later 
she would have to attack.  As Saka-Chii swiped at her Firewall, testing
for weak spots, Ayane debated simply using her claws against him.  As 
averse as she was to getting her arms (not to mention her blouse) 
scratched up, there didn't seem to be any other choices.  She began to 
shore up her courage to shut down her protection, but before she could 
do so herself, Saka-Chii solved the problem for her.
	The little fish-demon (accuracy of this statement emphasized) 
stood with one hand out and fingers splayed, seven centimeters from the
small of Ayane's back.  His almost-cute form sparked with salty-
smelling energy, then he shouted, "Jellyfish STING!" 
	A bullet with a parachute, a mouthy monster with supple and 
pliant teeth, exploded from Saka-Chii's open palm and slammed into the 
Firewall.  It cracked a fist-sized hole in the egg-shaped tower and 
continued on to splat wetly, electrically, onto Ayane's back.
	Ayane arched her back and shrieked as the Firewall flickered 
out of existence.  Stumbling to one knee, she took deep breaths to keep
herself from crying.  Certainly she'd been hurt worse than this, but 
she'd shed tears then.  Ayane was determined not to now.  She reached 
inside herself, narrowing her thoughts to the task at hand.   Slowly, 
shakily, she got to her feet.  "Jellyfish..." she muttered, shuddering.
Her right hand curled into a fist and silver energy flared up around it
like an Aurora Borealis in miniature.  She pivoted, snapping her arm 
out and opening her clawed hand a mere three inches in front of Saka-
Chii's face.  "CYBER FIRE!"
	Cold silver fire engulfed Saka-Chii's form, reducing what the 
spectators could see of him to a shadow.  He shrieked weakly, once, and
the sound startled Ayane out of her kitsune battle-trance.  Her ears 
twitched apprehensively as the silvery light whirled itself out of 
existence.  
	Saka-Chii lay on the ground, limbs at odd angles, skin smoking.
He did not move.  Ayane felt the hairs on her tail prickling.
	Mrs. Mizuka stepped forward to gaze down at Saka-Chii 
emotionlessly.  "Kitsune magic," she muttered.  "Quite a shock, fish-
demon."
	Ayane opened her mouth to ask if he would be all right, closed 
it, opened it again, closed it again.  Mrs. Mizuka, however, 
understood.  "He'll be all right with water and rest."
	Ayane didn't quite know why she was so concerned about Saka-
Chii.  He was obnoxious, snotty, and had all the maturity of Kei Tamiya
at three years old.  Still, even with the great spikes on his head and 
the ivory claws and teeth, there was something vulnerable about him.  
Ayane had always been sentimental, and she felt... sorry for him, that 
was it.  She felt sorry for Saka-Chii.  He didn't seem to have many 
options as to what he could do with himself.  Bothering Mr. Morimoto 
was one of his few choices in life.
	Ayane's thoughts were interrupted curtly by a tiny, jerking 
motion in Saka-Chii's limbs that she caught at first only out of the 
corner of her eye.  She gulped and knelt to gather the babylike demon 
up in her arms.  His skin was cool and smooth as plastic, and Ayane had
to remind herself that Saka-Chii was a fish, and fish were cold-
blooded.
	Mr. Morimoto led his guests silently to what could have been a 
bedroom had it belonged to anybody but him.  It struck Kiyoshi as a 
storage room with a bed in the middle.  Tamiya was too sulky to notice 
the contents of the room, which was too bad because he might have been 
interested in the intricately crafted katana in one corner.  Mrs. 
Mizuka, as was her habit, noticed everything and said nothing.  Her 
gaze met Mr. Morimoto's, and the air flickered between them.  Ayane was
only focused on Saka-Chii.
	She needn't have worried - even fish-demons are very resilient.
Saka-Chii's eyelids flickered, then popped open to reveal cerulean eyes
 with no pupils that Ayane could see.  He grinned unexpectedly, needle 
teeth flashing.  "Hi, cutie," he squeaked.
	Now that Ayane knew he was all right, her concern transformed 
to disgust.  "Don't give me that crap," she told him sourly.
	"As you wish," the fish-demon said meekly.  Ayane gave him a 
quizzical look - and fox-spirits have the most quizzical expressions in
the known universe.
	"So you've made your choice," Mrs. Mizuka said.  Saka-Chii 
nodded, solemnly for him.
	"What choice?" Ayane demanded impatiently.
	"The choice to attach himself to you, as your servant," Mrs. 
Mizuka answered.  Saka-Chii nodded again, emphatically, grinning.
	"Say *what*?" 
	"Ugh," Tamiya commented.  "I'd hate to be you, Ketsiru."
	"You always know just what to say."  Ayane shivered and pulled 
nervously on the tip of her tail.  "Now, run that by me again, Mrs. 
Mizuka?"
	Mrs. Mizuka rocked back on her heels and half-closed her steel-
gray eyes, going into what Ayane privately called "teacher mode".  
"According to the millennia-old honor code of the spiritworld 
inhabitants, when a spirit is defeated in a battle that he instigated 
merely for the sake of fighting, he or she has a choice to make.  
Commit seppuku - undesirable for the obvious reasons - service to a 
High Temple priest - impossible for one such as Saka-Chii - or 
apprenticeship to the victor.  Saka-Chii has chosen the latter course."
Mrs. Mizuka looked away, gaze floating in space somewhere.  "He can 
redeem his lost honor in this way, by learning to fight under you."  
[Sounds like the bushido code to me,] Ayane thought.  [But then I'm no 
expert.]
	Saka-Chii was sitting up by now.  He latched himself onto 
Ayane, wrapping his surprisingly strong arms around her waist.  "You 
won't begrudge me a place at your side, Ketsiru-sama.  I promise I'll 
be the best, most loyal student ever, obedient and -"
	"Is there any way I can get out of this?"  Ayane gritted.
	Mrs. Mizuka turned cold granite eyes on Ayane.  "You can choose
to kill him."
	"*What*?" Ayane gaped.  "I'm not going to - I mean, I can't -"
	"Only blood or service will wipe out the stain on Saka-Chii's 
honor," Mrs. Mizuka answered in the same impassive voice.  "It is the 
best way."
	Ayane squeaked a protest, then shut her mouth.  Saka-Chii 
stiffened but beyond that was motionless.
	"I can't kill Saka-Chii," Ayane said haltingly.  "Damn.  All 
right.  There's no choice."  Her tail jerked.
	"Whaddya mean, no choice?" Tamiya demanded.  "Give the thing to
me - I'll kill it."
	Saka-Chii yelped and scampered behind Ayane, trembling.  "What?
No!" Ayane protested as the fish-demon peeked out from behind her.
	"Ketsiru, if you don't want it, kill it!  You're a fox spirit!"
Tamiya converted to mid-form and flared his stormy gray tails out like 
yellow-tipped flags.  "You heard Mrs. Mizuka - there's no other way!"
	"Maybe that's the way *you* do it, but that doesn't mean I have
to act like that!  I would rather have him following me around than see
him dead for no good reason." Unbeknownst to her, the fur on Ayane's 
tail was standing up in stiff, straight spikes.  Saka-Chii backed away,
his glassy fish eyes searching for a place to hide.
	"It's for honor.  *His* honor."  Tamiya sounded insulted.  
"That's as good a reason as any."
	"Honor my butt!" Ayane barked.  "I'm not going to kill for a 
concept I don't believe in.  He lives - " her voice dropped into a 
snarl - "and that's final."
	The thunder kitsune and the cyber kitsune stared at each other,
flushed, motionless, the room silent and crackling with nervous energy.
	"Whatever."  Tamiya looked away with a disinterested gaze and 
Ayane knew she'd won.

	Saka-Chii clung tightly to Ayane as Mr. Morimoto fumbled in his
jeans pockets, eventually pulling out a small bronze key.  Tamiya 
unconsciously listed closer to Mrs. Mizuka, and although Mrs. Mizuka 
noticed it she decided not to react.  Kiyoshi tugged on one of her 
curls nervously. 
	Mr. Morimoto slipped the key into the basement doorknob, 
closing his eyes and turning his head away as if he expected the door 
to explode with this act.  Nothing happened that Ayane could sense, 
though, and the old fox turned the knob and opened the door.
	Yellow light flooded the kitchen.  Ayane put an arm in front of
her face to shield her eyes, but then put it down and settled for 
squinting when she saw that Mrs. Mizuka was facing the light without 
cringing.  At first the new fox-spirit saw nothing.  Then the hazy 
shadows of crystalline skyscrapers flickered into being and slowly 
solidified, like a pencil drawing being penned in.  The yellow light 
was still so brilliant that Ayane's eyes hurt.  When she moved them she
could see flashing spots tracking her vision.  Hot knives slashed her 
retinas and she blinked rapidly as the harsh yellow light faded to a 
gentle white glow.
	"Oh -" she gasped.  "It's - beautiful!"
	It was like a fairyland, a metropolis of glimmering glassy 
skyscrapers, with pearly streets under a moon as unbearably bright as 
the sun Ayane was used to.  Every surface swirled with iridescent 
rainbow patterns, like abstract representations of fractals.  
	"It is well enough," Mrs. Mizuka said dismissively.  "Come, let
us go."
	Ayane was about to protest - how could she harbor such an 
irreverent attitude toward this paradise! - but then she remembered 
herself.  Time enough for sightseeing later, Chibi-Aya, she told 
herself, unconsciously using her mother's pet name for her.  "All 
right."  She watched as Mrs. Mizuka stepped through the doorway into 
the moonlit cityscape, then as Kiyoshi followed.  The doorspace rippled
slightly as they stepped through, and Ayane wondered if she'd feel 
anything when she made the step.
	Tamiya shifted himself to mid-form - a sight that Ayane would 
have found hypnotically fascinating had it been anyone but Tamiya - and
crossed into the spiritworld, and then it was Ayane's turn.  She gulped
and took a couple of hesitant steps toward the doorway like a creature 
of prey venturing into the first light of morning.  Her nervousness 
communicated itself to Saka-Chii, who clung even more tightly to 
Ayane's waist.  [Why's he so nervous?]  Ayane wondered idly.  [I'm the 
one who's never been to the spiritworld before.]  She nudged the fish-
demon with her tail, muttering at him gently to let go.  He released 
his death grip on her waist and satisfied himself with clutching a 
handful of her shirt.  [It's now or never,] she told herself, took a 
deep breath, and started to step through.
	"'Ey, Ketsiru!  Wait a sec!"
	Ayane turned, somewhat annoyed that she'd been interrupted so 
close to making the plunge.  "Yes, Mr. Morimoto?"
	Mr. Morimoto was standing at the doorway to his kitchen with 
what looked like a swath of red fur in his arms.  "I wanted t' give 
this t' ye afore ye go," he said, looking a bit embarrassed.  "As a 
thank-ye for clearin' up my, er, problem there."
	"Problem?!" Saka-Chii yelled, bristling.  "I'll show ya 
problem!"
	"Hush," Ayane said, tapping him sharply on the head with a 
finger.  He shut up, cringeing.  She took a step toward Mr. Morimoto.  
"You don't have to thank me, sir.  It's really the least I could do."  
Ayane was surprised to find that she really felt that way, even after 
fighting Saka-Chii.  
	"Still - " Mr. Morimoto shrugged, and before Ayane could 
protest any further he dumped the swath of fur into her arms.
	Ayane yelped and almost dropped it.  "It's - warm!"
	"His tail..." Tamiya's voice was filled with awe.
	"Truly a great gift," Mrs. Mizuka intoned.  "Wear it well, Miss
Ketsiru."
	Ayane stared, not comprehending, but then she understood as the
fur ruffled itself and then turned silver.  "Mr. Morimoto - I..."  She 
started to protest that she couldn't accept such a gift, but Mr. 
Morimoto interrupted her.
	"T'aint that big a gift, Miss Ketsiru," he said, shifting 
uncomfortably.  "I can't use it anymore - this way it's one less 
deadweight on me back."  [Speaking figuratively?] Ayane wondered.  "Ye 
can put it t'good use - n' besides, ye're gonna need it where you're 
goin'."
	Ayane didn't question these words.  "Thank you," she said 
quietly, bowing to him.  The tail sparkled with silver light - what 
Ayane was beginning to recognize as her magic - and faded from her 
arms, to reappear at her tailbone to the left of her first one, which 
moved over on her back a fraction to make room.  She twisted, tails 
flaring out behind her, trying to get a look at this new development.
	"Yaaaay!" Saka-Chii did a happy-dance, toenails clicking on the
linoleum.  "Ketsiru-sama's twice as strong 'n' powerful now!"
	"Saka-Chii..." Ayane growled.  Saka-Chii stopped dancing and 
stood stock-still, blinking.
	"We should go," Mrs. Mizuka called from the doorway.
	"Yes, ma'am," Ayane said.  Nodding once more to Mr. Morimoto, 
she collected Saka-Chii and stepped into the spiritworld.

	Ayane felt nothing stepping through the portal into the 
spiritworld, but when she entered an explosive buzzing sensation 
assaulted her ears.  "Wh- what gives?" she yelped, flinching.
	"That's just your body synchronizing with the spiritworld," 
Kiyoshi explained.  "It'll go away in a few seconds."
	"Gah.  That's weird."  Ayane shook her head as the buzzing 
faded.
	Kiyoshi nodded.  "It took a while for me to get used to it.  
Eventually you don't notice anymore."  She shifted to mid-form in a 
flurry of green-white sparks.  "C'mon, let's go to the Cathedral."
	Something in the way Kiyoshi said the word 'Cathedral' made 
Ayane's fur bristle with reverence.  "Is that where the Council meets?"
	Kiyoshi looked at her friend, surprised.  "It is," Mrs. Mizuka 
said emotionlessly.  She shifted to her fox form.  A small dot of white
fur appeared on her forehead and stretched into a five-pointed star 
like a starfish just waking up.  Beside Ayane, Saka-Chii froze.
	Tamiya's and Kiyoshi's bodies seemed to collapse into their fox
forms.  When Kiyoshi/Denekaze hissed at Ayane, she took the hint and 
claimed her Kaiyo form.  Mrs. Mizuka/Reijori started walking without a 
word, and Denekaze and Tamiya/Hiraiko followed like footmen after some 
visiting dignitary.  Kaiyo gave a fox shrug and trailed after them, 
Saka-Chii toddling after with one hand wrapped firmly around her 
rightmost tail.
	Kaiyo trotted to catch up with Denekaze.  "What gives?" she 
hissed quietly.
	"Huh?"
	"Why are we being so somber?"
	"When Reijori-sama reveals her five-point star," Denekaze 
explained, "it means she's acting as the Representative for her 
element."
	"Meaning?"
	"She's acting as a Council member."
	Kaiyo stopped dead, then galloped to catch up.  "You're 
kidding.  Mrs. Mi - I mean, Reijori-san is, like, a government 
official?"
	"She's one of the thirteen fox-spirits that govern all of us," 
Denekaze answered, her voice dropping lower.  "She just stays in the 
human world to be close to her element - that's why she's called the 
'queen of foriegners'.  You noticed the '-ri' suffix at the end of her 
name?"
	"No.  I mean, I knew it was there, but I didn't know it was a 
suffix."
	"It was added to her name after she became a Council member.  
All of them have it."
	"How come she didn't tell me or anything?"
	Denekaze shrugged.  "Generally, Council members keep a low 
profile.  It's supposed to help them govern better - you know, walking 
among the masses and all that.  There's some element groups who don't 
even know who their Representative is, 'cuz there's so many nine-tails 
in it."
	"Can only a nine-tailed kitsune be a - a Representative?" Kaiyo
asked.
	"Of course," Denekaze answered, looking surprised.  "Nothing 
else can pass the Ordeal."
	"Ordeal?" Kaiyo didn't like the sound of that.
	Denekaze's voice dropped even lower.  "We're not supposed to 
talk about it.  No one really knows what it is.  Some say it's a room 
full of evil spirits, some say it's a gauntlet made out of your own 
magic - "
	"Will you hush?!" Hiraiko hissed.  Denekaze's ears flattened, 
and then she hissed back, wordlessly.  Hiraiko flipped his tails and 
looked away.
	"Don't mind him, Kaiyo," Denekaze muttered.  "He's just mad 
that you're as strong as he is now."
	"Always was," Kaiyo purred, trying to make Denekaze laugh.
	She only succeeded in making her friend smile.  "I meant, in 
magic," Denekaze explained.  "Since you got your second tail, you're as
strong as he is."
	Kaiyo recalled Denekaze's assertions that only a nine-tailed 
fox was strong enough to pass some Ordeal or other and blinked.  "Oh.  
Kitsune get stronger as they get more tails."
	Denekaze nodded, happily.  [She's getting it,] she thought.  
"The most tails you can have is nine, but most kitsune don't live that 
long - average age is seven."
	"Seven *years*?"
	"Seven centuries.  It takes a hundred years for a kitsune to 
grow a new tail on its own."
	Kaiyo craned her head back to look at her new tail.  She 
suddenly had a new respect for Mr. Morimoto.
	Reijori led her charges into the middle of a crystalline plaza 
whose floor looked as if it had been carved from a single sapphire.  
Underneath the glassy ground were flickering shadows of fish, koi carp 
from what Kaiyo could see of their sillouhettes, with luminescent lines
along their sides like those of deep-water fish.  Saka-Chii crouched to
stare down into the depths, a rapt look on his face, and Kaiyo had to 
grab his wrist in her mouth and pull to keep the babylike demon moving.
	The Cathedral itself was just as beautiful, in a more grand and
stately manner.  Seemingly constructed of pearl and ivory, it seemed to
Kaiyo to be at least twenty stories high, consisting of a single huge 
tower built like a lighthouse and five smaller copies of it, barely 
two-thirds the first tower's height.  The five sub-towers were 
equidistant from each other and crowded around the main tower like a 
brood of chicks clamoring for food from its mother.  Bridges suspended 
from the tops of each small tower to the sides of the large one, about 
halfway up the tower's length, swayed gently in the breeze.  All six 
towers were encrusted with intricate ivory carvings that curled around 
the towers' walls like flash-frozen wind.  Kaiyo's neck and eyes 
started to ache from staring up at the shining beacon.
	"Hey, Kaiyo!  Let's go already!" Kaiyo started.  Hiraiko was 
standing at the entrance to the rearing main tower, his fox form 
dwarfed by the dark metal double-doors that were easily ten times his 
height.  Denekaze and Reijori were gone from sight.
	"Oh - right," Kaiyo gulped.  She trotted to catch up to her 
companions, towing Saka-Chii along like a tin can tied to a car's back 
bumper.

Next chapter...
Kaiyo gets her first look at kitsune politics.  Ya just know there's
gonna be trouble.