Summary: A kidnapped Tails finds himself far from home, and Sonic and the team must go searching for him. Sally gets to introduce her friends to sushi, and she takes her revenge on a misbehaving Sonic…
Characters in this chapter: Sonic, Antoine, Bunnie, Sally, Nicole, Tails. Non-canon characters in this chapter: Miyuki the Japanese Bobtail
Note1: The 'nyao' sound Miyuki makes is the Japanese sound effect equivalent of 'meow'. I did it just to be cute, so there. You know those lucky cat figures you see in shops or restaurants? They're based off the kind of cat she is. The raising of a paw is to beckon luck or money…or just to be cute, which is more or less what she's doing. Note2: This was originally two separate chapters, but my editor told me to combine them so…I did. :D (See, the first chapter was five pages, but the next two were only three, so she had me combine their awesome powers into six pages.)
Kitsune
by Wingedhippocampus
Chapter 2: Wasabi
"Tails wouldn't have just up and left!" Sonic said tersely, pushing aside debris and calling for the missing fox kit. The team had returned from their mission to find the child gone.
"Keep ze voice down, Soneek, or you will be having ze SWATbots all ovair us!" Antoine hissed after a particularly piercing shout.
"I don't care!" Sonic snapped, his voice taking on an edge of desperation, "I have to find him! He's…he's my lil bro…"
"Oh mah stars," Bunnie put her natural hand to her mouth, eyes wide, "Ya don't think th' SWATbots got 'im?"
Silence prevailed for a moment. If the robotic soldiers had captured Tails, well…it had been hours. The chances that the fox was still flesh were slim to none.
"J-just keep looking!" Sonic said, breaking the heavy silence. "Let's spread out. If we don't spot him in the next ten minutes, I'm going back to kick Robuttnik's tail so hard he won't see straight for a month!"
Sally sighed and took Nicole out of her vest, pressing a few buttons. "Nicole, can you help us at all? Maybe tell us which way the SWATbot might have gone?"
"Scanning, Sally," replied the calm voice of the compact mega computer. "Spectral electronic imaging reveals there has been no SWATbot activity in the immediate area for at least forty-eight hours."
"Ya don't think he got bored an' wandered off? Or maybe got tricked outta hidin'?" Bunnie offered.
"That's not like him," Sally replied, brow furrowing. "Nicole, can you find anything at all?"
"One moment, Sally," Nicole would be silent for a few moments, a barely visible blue light flickering from the edge of the casing, casting phantasmal lines over the ground. "Organic matter found: keratinous biological structure that seems to be a hair."
"Are you sure it's not just his?" Sonic asked, "Or maybe one of ours? What the hell does a hair have to do with anything, anyway?"
"Hair is not a match to familiar entities," Nicole told him almost primly, "As for pertinence, it has been shed in the past few hours, placing the owner in the same location at the same time as the missing boy."
"Okay, so we have a potential culprit," Sally put forth cautiously, "Just what sort of person are we dealing with? Someone allied with Robotnik? Maybe sent to kidnap Tails to draw us into a trap?"
"Possible, Sally, but unlikely," Nicole told her, "The scanned hair matches the fur of a tanuki."
"What ees tah-noo-key?" Antoine asked Nicole, puzzled.
"A tanuki is a raccoon-like creature native to Enjou. They are a rare sight outside of their native land, as they only travel for business. Judging by past behaviors and precedents, the chances that this tanuki was affiliated with Robotnik stands at fifteen percent. Conclusion: Tails is no longer within the Kingdom of Acorn."
"Enjou?" Bunnie gasped, "Ya don't think lil ol' Tails was dragged all th' way back there? It's across th' ocean!"
"More importantly, why would he do that?" Sally mused worriedly. "Why would a foreign creature known for keeping to its home territory trek all the way here to take a child and run back home? This makes no sense. Are there any other missing children in the area, I wonder?"
"Well, what are we sitting around here for?" Sonic cried, "Let's get going! We have to save Tails!"
-------------------------
Tails would awaken far more gently than he'd been put to sleep.
With warm light playing against his face and a soft blanket surrounding him, his first thought was that he was safe at home in his own bed. There was a dull ache in the back of his neck, and he vaguely remembered something striking him there, but it didn't seem important. He opened his eyes slowly - and in that moment, the panic struck him anew. Instead of the familiar, comfortable clutter and rounded shapes he was used to, this room was alien, sparse and full of angles. The kit sat up sharply with a gasp, casting about his surroundings to find that he was most certainly not at home in Knothole. Instead of his four posted bed, he was laying on a thick pallet. Gone was the well-packed dirt floor he was used to, replaced by broad mats of tightly woven rushes. The fox scrambled to his feet, quickly finding the open, wood and paper door and rushing out.
Soft threads of morning light shone down from between the blossom-laden boughs of magnificent cherry trees, their lazily fluttering petals drifting down to a carefully tended koi pond in their midst. He must have been far from home indeed - it seemed to be spring here to his autumn. His fright washed away by fascination, Tails walked slowly towards the water, watching the fat, contented fish glide beneath the blossom-scattered surface. Just beyond the koi was a pair of stone lanterns flanking an incredibly long set of stone steps that vanished beyond the trees.
His curiosity couldn't be contained. He crossed the koi pond's bridge. Where did those steps go? He eyed them a moment, contemplating. There were just so many, it would take far too long to climb them. He flicked those two long, bushy tails that were his namesake, setting them to twirling, one after the other, until they blurred into a shining disc of motion that pulled him off the ground with a scattering of cherry petals.
"Hwaa! You really can fly!"
The exclamation startled him so badly that he lost rhythm before he got anywhere at all and stumbled to the ground, tails bushing up as he snapped his attention to the woman that he hadn't even known was there.
He found himself faced with a pleasantly startled young tricolor cat with brilliant green eyes and just a short scrap of a tail. She was wrapped in something that looked to him like some sort of fancy bath robe.
"What's up there?" he asked, gazing back off towards the stone lanterns, before suddenly remembered himself and his situation. "Wait, who are you?" Tails demanded, taking a cautious step back. "Where am I?"
"That way lies the shrine, you can see it later if you like. My name is Miyuki!" the stranger declared cheerfully, raising a curled paw with a small 'nyao' sound. "You're in the Kitsunebi residence."
"Where are my friends? Why did you hit me?"
"I don't know, you arrived alone. I most certainly didn't hit you, that was Haku, a bounty hunter in our employ. He's already been severely reprimanded, he was supposed to have asked you, not just taken you by force. He can be a little too enthusiastic and, well, direct. We do extend our apologies for that." Miyuki clapped, making a little hop that set the large bell around her neck to jingling. "However, you're here, so let's get to work! The Master wants to see you, but we have to make you presentable first!"
"But wait!" Tails cried as she seized his arm and began to drag him back towards the room he'd wakened from. "What am I doing here? Who is this Master? Hey!"
"Soon, soon!" Miyuki chirped. "Everything you want to know will come soon enough! Now, off with those shoes."
Soon enough, Miyuki'd made Tails what she deemed 'presentable'. This entailed removing his gloves and exchanging his red and white sneakers with soft slippers, (so as not to ruin the delicate tatami, which was apparently what much of the flooring was called) combing his fur, and wrapping him in a blue robe with voluminous sleeves. Then the cat would lead him off down a long hallway, pausing before a large set of sliding lacquered doors. They were slightly ajar, and he could see a few candles breaking the otherwise complete darkness.
"Go on," Miyuki pulled one door open enough for him to enter. "He's expecting you, don't keep him waiting!"
"A-alright." He swallowed, a bit unnerved, as he hesitantly stepped into the heavily shadowed chamber.
-------------------------
It'd taken every last drop of fuel in the biplane to get across the ocean to Enjou. After landing along the shore, Sonic, Sally, Bunnie, and Antoine would begin to follow Nicole's directions to the nearest settlement.
"D'ya think Rotor an' Dulcy'll be alright alone?" Bunnie asked worriedly as they walked through the foliage.
"They can handle themselves, Bunnie, don't worry," Sally reassured her.
"So what's up with this place, anyway?" Sonic grumped, pushing aside a few stalks of bamboo in his path.
"You didn't much pay attention to Rosie's tutoring, did you," Sally rolled her eyes. "This is Enjou. Before Robotnik's takeover, it was on the verge of becoming the most technologically advanced country on Mobius. Of course, that was before Robotnik rounded up all their scientists and roboticized them for his own uses, which is plunging much of the country back into something close to its past feudal period."
"So is that why they want Tails?" Sonic asked, "because they need his brain?"
"Possible, I suppose," she shrugged, pausing at the crest of a wooded hill to gaze out over the sprawling cluster of houses and fields below. Some of the crops and homes seemed to be in the last stages of fire, some ruined entirely, either having burned down or collapsed somehow. Outright smashed, Sally thought.
"What a dump!" Sonic announced.
"Sonic!" Sally reprimanded before lowering her voice thoughtfully. "Something terrible happened here. We should be careful. Come on…"
Once they'd entered the town proper, they could see that despite the destruction, the people living here seemed to be moving on with their daily lives. Children played in the streets, merchants were hawking their wares, and the smell of food was a welcome undertone to the reek of burning fields and domiciles. Sonic found his stomach rumbling.
"D'ya think they have chili dogs here?" he asked hopefully.
"No," Sally smiled, "They have something better. I could stand to get something to eat, too. We'll all think better on our feet if we keep up our strength, come on," she headed off for a small restaurant. Soon enough, they were settled around a low wooden table.
"Don't they have chairs?" Sonic asked, squirming on the floor cushion.
"It's a cultural thing, Sonic, it won't kill you," Sally sighed. A soft-eyed, bovine waitress scurried over to take their order, staring at all of them a moment before hastily asking them something in a language Sonic didn't understand. To his surprise, Sally answered her right back.
"You speak Enjouan?"
"A princess who will eventually be queen will thusly eventually be a diplomat," she replied with a little smile, "I know many languages, Sonic, it comes with the territory of royalty."
"S'long as it gets us some grub, I'm happy!" Bunnie exclaimed. It wasn't be long before they were served bowls of rice, noodle soup, and several colorful looking dishes arranged neatly on plates.
"Sally-girl?" Bunnie asked, frowning at the table, "where's th' silverware?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Bunnie," Sally reached over to put two wooden sticks into the rabbit's right hand. "Here, let me show you how to use chopsticks."
"I can show her, mah princess," Antoine volunteered, "Antoine ees inter-na-see-onal culinary expert!"
"Alright, Antoine."
"What is it?" Sonic asked, poking one of the dishes mistrustfully.
"It's sushi," Sally replied, happily digging into her own plate. "Raw fish over rice."
"Eew! Send it back, tell them to finish cooking it! Then I'll eat it. Maybe."
"At least try it, Sonic, stop being a brat. You should expand your tastes beyond chili dogs, anyway." Sally proceeded to ignore him, enjoying her meal while Antoine and Bunnie got a bit close over their lesson. A few minutes later, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and she looked up at Sonic – who had two noodles sticking out of his nose and a chopstick in each ear. "SONIC!" she snapped, popping him in the back of the head, in the process dislodging his props.
"Ow!" Sonic rubbed at his head. "What was that for?"
"You are embarrassing me!" she hissed, "now eat your food and stop being such a child!"
"I might eat it if I recognized anything as being food!" he complained, "but the only thing I recognize is that scoop of mint ice cream!"
"What?" Sally blinked, confused. "What mint ice cream?"
"That!" Sonic pointed to the large ball of wasabi paste that had come with the sushi.
"Soneek, zat is not-" Antoine began, but Sally gestured for him to keep quiet.
"Oh yes, the dessert!" Sally nodded, her voice taking on an alarmingly sweet tone. "That ice cream is for all of us, Sonic."
"Like hell it is!" Sonic reached across the table to stab the ball with a chopstick. "If that puny thing's all we get, then it's mine!" And with that, he popped it into his mouth and crushed it.
It took a moment to set in, but then it hit. Sonic let out a restaurant-freezing howl of shocked agony, then snapped to his feet and bolted in blurred circles around the table, still screaming. Bunnie, Antoine, and the entire restaurant stared in awe, but Sally calmly continued to eat while the hedgehog ran himself out. He only stopped when his watering eyes blinded him so much that he tripped and fell next to Sally.
"Well?" she asked, leaning over him. Sonic's eyes were red and puffy, his nose was watery and the skin beneath the thinner facial fur was quite red as he gasped and coughed.
"More, please," he wheezed.
To be continued…