Kitsune in the Shadows

Chapter 12 – A Sister’s Frustrations

[Ellaria POV]

“I’m glad that she has finally found some decent people.”

…

“Only took seven years…”

I was just finishing looking through the little kitsune’s day. Ever since that incident, I’ve made it part of my routine to check in on her at least once a day, just hoping that something would change. After all this time, there was finally some good news.

Maybe with this, my sister will…

I was so worried that she would go on a rampage as soon as she found out what had happened to the poor kitsune, but she never did.

The spirit that I had left with my sister came and got me as soon as she woke up, and of course, I went over to her as soon as I could, expecting the worst, but in the five years since…

…

“It’s about time for me to go and visit again anyway.”

I got rid of the panel that was showing the little kitsune’s day before getting up and making my way over to my sister’s domain.

As soon as I got there, I made my way over to the door in the back of the main room and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.

Still locked…

“Sister, isn’t it time for you to come out yet?” I called out, hoping for some kind of a response; but no sound came from the other side of the door.

It has been like this ever since she woke up; she has just refused to come out or even just talk. The only saving grace is that she hasn’t stopped me from entering her domain altogether; I’ve just had to hope that it meant she was at least willing to hear me out.

I sat down on the floor with my back against the door.

…

“I know you’ve been watching that little kitsune.”

…

“You saw the good news, right?”

…

“She’s found herself some good people.”

…

“If you’re worried, I can vouch for them myself.”

…

“I’ve been following that purple-haired one for a little while now.”

…

Is it just not good enough?…

…

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“Look, Ovia… I get that you’re upset, but you didn’t do anything wrong.”

…

“No…” A barely audible voice came from behind the door.

Finally!

A tear started to well up in my eye, but I held it in. Right now, what I needed to do was help her come out again.

“Come on, if you’re going to argue with me, at least open the door and do it properly…”

Not good enough?

I’ve been here at least once every month since she woke up. I had really hoped that with this good news, she would at least be willing to come out for a bit. She even responded to me for the first time since she locked herself away, unless that was just me hearing things in an attempt to keep my hopes up.

…

What’s it going to take?

…

Thinking that she still wasn’t going to come out this time, I started to get up off the floor. However, as I grasped at the door handle for support, I started to fall backwards.

“Huh?”

I managed to steady myself before falling over, but that wasn’t important.

The door!

It’s opened!

It actually opened!

I made my way into the room as quickly as I could, just in case my sister changed her mind.

Looking around the room, it didn’t take long to find her. In the corner of the room was a dishevelled mass of black fluff, sitting on the floor, hugging her knees against her chest, staring intently at a panel showing a certain white-haired kitsune sleeping.

Come on, you should take better care of yourself…

Rather than trying to get her to move from where she had set, I made my way over and sat down on the floor next to her.

“So, what were you saying to me before.”

“…”

“Fine, I’ll just have to tell you again then, It’s not you-”

“NO!” My sister interrupted.

“…”

She startled me with her response. I wanted to correct her, but no words came out.

“It is my fault… It’s all my fault...”

“…”

“If I hadn’t given her that stupid blessing… She wouldn’t have gone there that day… She wouldn’t have had to go through that…”

She continued on like that for a while, although it was impossible to make out what she was saying as she had started crying very loudly.

…

Once she had eventually calmed down a bit, I pulled her closer and hugged her.

“Stop beating yourself up about it. You know that it wasn’t your fault.”

“Mmph!”

She tried to argue with me again, but I just pulled her head further into my chest so she couldn’t get any words out.

“That little kitsune hasn’t even blamed you for what happened back then.”

“…”

She stopped resisting immediately after I said that.

She definitely already knew that herself. She probably hasn’t done anything but watch her since she woke up.

Seeing an opportunity, I tried to run my fingers through my sister’s tails, but they got caught on something almost instantly.

“It really has been a while since you took care of yourself, hasn’t it?”

“Mhmm.”

I responded by letting out a long sigh.

“Where do you keep your brushes?”

My sister pointed over to a box up against the wall. I pulled the box over to us and took out one of the brushes.

“Let’s get started then.”

“Mhmm.”

After separating her tails, something jumped out to me. Inside of her tails, there were a few things that were not supposed to be there.

“Sister… you could have at least taken the plushies out of your tails.”

“…”

I got started trying to remove one of them, but it wouldn’t leave the tail’s fluffy embrace. It was almost as if the plushie had become part of her tail.

“Even you have to admit that this is a bit ridiculous.”

“…”

Since it was clearly going to take a while, I just continued trying to slowly untangle each of the plushies from the tails one at a time, following up with a thorough brushing.

“So, now can I ask you some questions?”

“…Mhm”

“So, how are you doing?”

“…”

I guess she wasn’t expecting such a mundane question.

“Fine…”

“Is that true? I didn’t know that this is what Ovia being fine looked like.”

“…”

“Alright then, let’s try something you might be more interested in. Why did you never talk to the little kitsune the last few years?”

“…”

“I know you want to,” I said as I finished with her first tail.

“I don’t deserve to… I couldn’t help her…”

“Well, that might be how you feel, but what about her? Do you think she thinks of you that way?”

My sister didn’t reply. Instead, she brought one of her tails around in front of her and buried her face in it.

“Come on, I was working on that one!”

“…”

I decided it wasn’t worth fighting over which tail was being cleaned, so I pulled a different tail into my lap.

“Well, you probably couldn’t talk the way you are now anyway.”

“What! Why?!” She blurted out.

“Just look at yourself! You can’t show this to her.”

“…”

Was that too much too soon?

“…pass…” My sister muttered under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Pass me a brush!” She shouted in response.

A small chuckle escaped my lips as I handed her a brush, and she started working on the tail she had taken from me.

It’s good to see you excited like this again.

After that, we spent a while in silence, just focusing on cleaning up her tails. It was not a quick endeavour.

Once we had finally removed all of the plushies and my sister’s tails at least looked presentable a great idea came into my head.

“I just don’t think this is good enough…”

“What?! What else do I need to do!”

“We should really do a full deep clean. It has been five years, after all…”

“Fine, I’ll do it!”

Once again, I let out a chuckle.

I knew my cute sister was still in there.

“Alright, I guess that means you should come with me back to my domain. Then we can set something up.”

My sister shot up from the floor as soon as those words left my lips.

“What are you waiting for?”

I got myself up off the floor and linked arms with my sister, thinking that I was going to be the one pulling her all the way to my domain. But to my pleasant surprise, she was the one who dragged me along.

It took a few years, but at least she’s still willing to try.