The price to trick a nine-tailed fox
Non-Beta version
Disclaimer: I do not own Pet Shop Of Horrors, the characters or anything of the story! Neither have I planned to make money with this in any way!
This is only a fan fiction to amuse myself and who read this story.
Pairings: Jill/ Ten Chan, minor Leon/ Count D and Tetsu/ Chris (older Chris! I am not a pervert!)
Warnings: My bad grammar and spelling, I am native German so please bear with my English and certain scenes in the following story. Bad eating habits of certain species, cursing, death of characters, bloody scenes or scenarios with sexual content not suited for under age minors!
Genre: humor, horror, adventure, romance, mature
Beta reader, No one anymore this chapter is not Beta-read!
Description: The time can hide many events, good and bad ones in one.
I wondered what could have happened if Jill had known the shop from before. This came out of my musings.
Special Note: I lost the will to write for a longer while. In the late, I re-read the manga and found myself captivated once more. My English knowledge was bad when I wrote this, so baaaad! The first chapters are under revision now. I will most likely re-upload them in a while.
Suryallee
Chapter four
Birdsong greeted Jill the next day early in the morning.
What, for once was a calming experience for the woman. The events of the night before came back quickly, to hunt her in the morning hours of the new day. Sitting up, Jill spotted Ten at the foot of her bed on the covers.
The Kitsune looked fast asleep, but Jill being herself, didn't believe him to be truly asleep for a minute.
Still, she rose and went straight to the bathroom. When she came out again, the fox-spirit was gone from her room. Overnight, the shop seems to have provided new cloths for her. Not that Jill did mind, they were lovely. A tightly fitting jeans and a long-sleeved pullover, comfort wear she realized and left it wisely at that.
To reach the front room of the Pet Shop wasn't the problem, to suddenly see the pets again in their human forms, sitting there was one.
Embarrassed, the detective had to accept it that the cats had seemingly become extremely fond of her overnight. She took it with a grace that not many humans would have mustered and soon chatted amicably with one of the cat-women about her work. All the time sitting on the floor, with a plate of ham and eggs in one hand and a fork in the other. Jill often waved it excited in the air to get a point across. She was a person who spoke as well with words as her entire body language when she was excited.
D noted that with amusement. She and his detective were of one mind in this, he knew that all too well.
Then, there were times when Jill suddenly went perfectly still, unmoving even, especially when something was getting her attention.
In those moments, she seemed to be an entirely different person, out of the blue. It was eerie to watch, even for Count D. something, something did not add up with this woman. And he couldn't tell for the life of him what that was! Some animals reacted this way, mostly the carnivores. When seeing a prey, or scenting the air. He had seen that often. Jill wasn't an animal, she was human and never before, he had seen one act as that….it rose his curiosity.
When D told her that he had moved the shop back to LA while she slept, Jill was shocked and glad at the same time.
D had told her after breakfast that Ayoshi was dead. Killed by Ten-Chan actually on behalf of his grandfather, D himself, and Leon too…what gave the woman a shiver down her spine. Jill had not awaited that. She took fast her leave and fleet back to her home to get some peace to think. Under the veiled eyes of Ten, who watched her hug herself on her way home on the sidewalk.
He had spent the morning in the room of the cats, debating the next course of action and negotiating with the elder ones there.
All the pets in the shop currently wanted Jill to be her new owner. No wonder for Ten. She was actually one of the few humans who had gained their approval. Although, none of the exotic ones thought that she would take on one of them ever, since the debacle with Ayoshi. Ten, he just tested the waters with the cats, so to speak. He had a plan, the few problems that came with it; he took care of in that morning. With their approval, all else was rather easy for him to set in motion.
After all, as much the animals wanted her to take them home, the more they wanted her to stay with them in the shop.
Like Leon, she was one of the rare cases were the animals got possessive over a human being. And if an animal did that, they never let go on the matter, and if it killed them. Leon was such a human case. The beasts would never let him leave the shop again. Nor would they let Chris go again. All the most of them all, Tet-Chan. The Taotie would kill everyone who dared to look cross-eyed at his young soon to be mate.
Slowly, inside and outside of the shop.
Tetsu did not tolerate any rival for Chris affections, even the slightest tries of others were meet from him, with viciously defending his territory and future mate. What had in the past ended one time too many with a bloody carped for D to deal with. Not that Chris did react to anyone else as him that was. The young man was sorely focused on Tetsu only.
What seem to please the Taotie immensely.
Animals were possessive of their mates; Ten was not an exception of that rule. Rather the opposite was the fact since his kind was mythical and so, like Tetsu's kin, very rare to begin with. Under the mythical races, it could take hundreds of years for one to choose a final partner. But when decided on one, there was no turning back. They would fight with tooth and claw to get them.
When the clock had begun to tick inside of Ten, the Kitsune wasn't certain, but at one time it had and now his soul had chosen for him without his notice.
Ten mused it had been on the first day he had seen the little girl in the room already, as Tet-Chan did it when Chris kicked him in the stomach. Instinct and nothing more. The instinct that this one was it, that this being was the perfect match for Ten. And since last night, the fox-spirit had made his final decision.
Right under the full moon.
With that, it was final for Ten. No one else would suffice from that moment on. His mind and soul was set on one task from now on, how he could get what he wanted. It was exactly that what he had told the cats and later the elder count and D too. Both Kami had looked oddly at each other and then had shrugged: it wasn't the first time one of their pets had told them thus.
To convince Leon had been a different story.
"You do realize that she will not come anywhere near any Kitsune under a ten mile radius freely ever again in her life after this, yes? Not to mention that I will have your hide as a toilet mat if you hurt her in any way!"
Ten had nodded. He knew that much. Besides that Jill did now know too what her family had not in the past. What he was, what he consumed as food and how dangerous he really was. She wasn't dumb; Jill would do everything in her power to avoid him and his kinfolk. That much was certain as the day. Not to mention that she probably had a hunch how powerful he was in real, quite the difference to Leon who still had only a little knowledge of these things still. What suited Ten just fine.
Or else, Leon would ask Kanan to eat him as a snack, most likely!
Shrugging that thought off, the Kitsune grinned and went to work.
The day went for Jill in a daze. She had too much running through her mind to even notice the hours that ticked by. The enemy who had destroyed her former family and had always loomed in the back of her mind was gone…GONE! He would never again threaten her life or her loved ones. Her cat was avenged by no other as another Kitsune, Ten. The latter gave the woman headaches. She just knew that the underhanded fox would want something in return for that deed done.
No way in hell, that he would simply let that opportunity slide!
It gave her creeps to think about it. Shuddering she finally went to bed. It had no use to think too much about it. It took Jill hours to finally find sleep. The next day she reported on the job and went to work on one of her files to distract herself from further thinking. At the end of the day, she was exhausted, dirty from doing legwork in the too hot city and just glad to go home. The apartment she lived in was small but tidy, with air-condition and a big bath. She loved the bath the most on it.
She took one and fixed herself some food to then crash on her couch to look television for a while.
That was the moment for the bell to ring for the first time.
Outside, stood a delivery boy in his early teens. He brought her a big cake from one of the expensive bakeries in town. Puzzled the woman took it and after looking at it dumbly for a moment, Jill packed it into the fridge. There had been no card with the cake. The boy had told her a nice man had bought it this afternoon. And that he had not seen him. she was still thinking about that when the doorbell rung a second time this evening.
This time it was a book delivery. Since it was already paid for, she could hardly resist.
Inside the wrapper was a book about Japanese folktales. Centering on mystical beasts, Jill felt herself break out into cold sweat when she read the title. She dropped the book like a hot coal. What the hell was going on? Tipping at the book with one toe, she toed it over to the side, then the bell rung again. This time the woman groaned.
What was it now?
Outside was another deliveryman who brought her a bigger package this time.
Mystified and now cautious she let it in to after closing the door again bring it fast outside onto her balcony to let it stand there in the fresh night air for the while. Eying it pensively, she decided to call the Pet Shop to ask D what was going on here. She got Tetsu on the phone who told her that the Kami and Leon were out shopping and that he didn't know either. She hung in and went back to stare at the package on her terrace. Eying the book, she took it and began to read it through to pass time for the while.
At midnight, she had read it through.
Calling it a night, since it was far too late to call D now, she went to bed. Outside the package stood until it was nearly one a clock in the morning before the entire thing suddenly blurred and instead Ten's form appeared on her Balcony. He grinned at her instincts to let the package stay outside. Jill was cleverly avoiding troubles with this. But to keep him out was a bit trickier as any other trouble. It took him no time to open the lock on the glass sliding door to open it and slip inside.
Once there the fox went to work.
The next morning greeted Jill with a surprise. Her bedroom had turned over night into something else. "Gah!" with that exclamation she got up rather quickly after taking in that she suddenly had an Asian styled bedroom. Complete with futon, drawers made of liquored wood and paper tapestries on the traditional colored walls. Even the floor of her room was suddenly laid out with tatami mats!
She had always wanted such a styled room, or better-said Jill spared her money for a house in the border area of Chinatown and the Japanese area that had such a bedroom from what she did know. How had she come here? Now fully confused she looked into the dresser for clothes to wear and found her own ones neatly folded inside. Dressing rather quickly she run out of the slide door into what looked like the hallway of the little house all too well. Jill had been inside the house a few times, since she wanted to buy it.
She was sure it was the house with the traditional styled garden in the back and the in-room garden downstairs.
Downstairs in the kitchen, someone had made pancakes for her Jill found out rather quickly. After searching the entire house and finding no one besides herself, the confused woman sung onto one of the cushions to eat. What else could she do right now? Jill was utterly confused and did not know what to make of this all. The most of her interior of her flat had been moved here too and had been artfully integrated into the one of the house.
Where was misses Tagama anyways?
The old Japanese woman was nowhere to be found. Shouldn't she have said something to the sudden moving of Jill here? When she rose to wash the dishes, Jill noticed a little letter that had been hidden under the porcelain. She nearly dropped the dishes in her surprise. Carefully taking them to the dishwasher, she put them in and set the washer to work then she settled on the low table again and took the letter.
Somehow, she had suddenly a clue what was going on here.
Inside was an ornate letter in fine script. However, she did notice that only on the rim of her conscious, to busy with it to read the thing. The letter was telling her that she was the new owner of the former Tagama estate, including a parking slot outside of the house and a garage in the near in the garage center. Rented for exactly ten years for her to use and paid already in full. It made no sense to Jill.
Who had done that and more so, who had moved her here in her sleep without to wake her?
Both questions were answered in one when she suddenly heard the door to the garden open and Ten slipped inside. For a few seconds she and the fox spirit in human disguise stared at each other then Jill exploded.
"You! That's your entire scheme!"
Ten grinned sheepishly before he ducked the incoming projectile rather fast to avoid being hit by the flying teacup. The cup was followed by the rest of the service rather quickly what had Ten fast desert the room to the living room to hide behind the couch in there. "I can explain it!" he dared to tell her. No avail, Jill was so enraged that she took a broom from the wall closed in the kitchen and climbed onto the settee to bash his head in from above with it.
Gulping Ten was smart and changed swiftly back into his many-tailed form to run the hell out of the house before she got a good hit on him.
The broom went flying after him laden with creative curses of Jill. He made a mad dash behind the cherry tree to hide there for the while. Good thing that he had hidden her handy and that the telephone wasn't working until tomorrow he thought. Or else D would have his hide in less than ten minutes, Ten-Chan knew this much too well. Jill stood in the meanwhile inside the sliding doors to the garden and tried to make out where her wrongdoer was hiding from her wrath.
Armed with a vase and a flowerpot, ready to throw it on Ten's sorry hide once she saw him!
Indeed: hell knew no fury as the wrath of a woman that was furious; he thought dryly to himself and gave a lopsided grin. Hiding in the high grass, he made carefully his way over until he was slightly behind Jill and then pounced. Transforming back into his human form mid-jump he knocked her over right into the set of cushions on the terrace.
Jill did land rather ungracefully in the cushions.
Wrestling her down until he had her wrists pinned next to the head of the furious woman, he finally settled onto her by straddling her midsection to hold the fighting woman down so he could talk with her.
"I really can explain it, Miss Jill." He told her as calmly as Ten could. Gritting his teeth, he took in that she was beyond good and evil right now. Jill was so enraged that she would kill to get free he realized rather fast and so Ten rode it out until Jill was too exhausted to move anymore.
"Have you calmed down now enough to listen?" Jill gave him a glare that could have turned the milk sour but did not respond. Ten gave a sigh. He should have known that she would react to him violently, he mused. After all, she had no point to be friendly to him, or any of his race to begin with it. Most likely, she thought he would want to have something in return for helping her with Ayoshi and did not trust him at any point right now.
Not to mention, that he had simply settled her here without her consent given and with him of all beings to top that.
Another glare was sent into his direction.
Rolling his eyes Ten fixed her eyes with his and trusted his instincts for once. "No, I do not want anything from you for killing that bastard. He was getting on my nerves for more than five centuries now and deserved what he had coming to him, even more since he was warned from Sofu san and me in the past. No, I will not attack you or anyone you care about as he has wanted and done so in the past, nor will I try to kill or devour your soul. And trust me I know that you know enough about my race to know the details too." Here he gave her a fanged grin. Jill stopped to struggle to listen to him, at least for the now she did. "No, I also do not want to fool you or have done so with moving house with you last night." Now this was tricky to explain, Ten thought.
Jill gave him a considering stare. "And what does that mean, pray tell?" She was startled when the male above her suddenly changed again his appearance. Instead of the young man in stylish pants and wife beater, there was now an ageless and young looking being in traditional Japanese clothes. With wildly moving hair he pinned her motionless to the ground with his red eyes. The outfit was complete with hakama and even geta on his feet. Jill had to give, he looked impressive, in either form if she was honest but that wasn't the point here.
She sensed that he was more dangerous in this form as in the other ones of before.
Around Ten the very air seem to have a will of its own out of the sudden, it looked like he was glowing strangely red and the blaze seemed to flow out into the air around and within it. Some strange looking swirls came to life around them both in the early morning air. Glowing red, blue, yellow and bluish-black even, foxfire her mind supplied helpfully, and Jill grimaced slightly. She knew enough to know that this had to be one of his real or true forms to show such signs of power.
What had she expected?
Ten was a nine tail, a Kitsune with the highest number of tails that was reachable for his kin. Each of them showed a different power level and needed a century at least to gain it Jill did know that too. Most likely, he was the most powerful and oldest of his race that was currently living under the sun. This all, the entire show of power around him right now was nothing but a bare minimum of what he was capable, an outward sign of how powerful the Kitsune really was. She still wanted to hit him thought and Jill bared her teeth at the Kitsune. Damned if she showed him her fear now! To her surprise Ten simply grinned back at her, fangs easily visible in the beam, the fox-spirit let go on her hands and moved until he kneeled comfortable next to her prone form. He displayed a grace that Jill would never have and she knew it.
She rose slowly from the cushions to suddenly ball a fist and hit at Ten out of the blue.
Her fist meets only air, no surprise thought. Jill had not thought that she would land a hit anyways. Huffing she heard his laughter around her in the air before he rematerialized unexpectedly to her left this time. In the same position no less, Jill refused to let that get to her too much and crossing her arms, she simply glared at him again.
"Spill already, Kitsune! My patience is at the barest minimum possible already anyways and this all isn't making it easier to deal with you in any way either!" Jill grated out between her grit teeth in her rage. She was at the limit of her endurance with the fox-spirit. The first thing she would do after this was to go to D and give him a piece of her mind about a certain Kitsune and his meddling with her life that much was sure!
"Tenmaru."
"What? I mean what do you mean?" befuddled for a moment about his strange answer Jill gave Ten an equally confused look. The fox-spirit didn't bat an eye at that and simply looked calmly back at Jill. "It is Tenmaru, not Kitsune. Kitsune is my race not my name." He told her calmly again. Jill eyed him warily. Had that three times cursed fox just given her his true name? Impossible! With names came control. Names were power, gave another one command over the person that the name belonged to and Jill did know this. It was one of the ground arguments why no one did know her full name, not even the most of her friends did know it. Leon, he was an exception, he knew her full birth name, but nearly no one else did.
Jill had learned her lection the hard way in the past and thusly hidden her full name ever since then from the knowledge of others.
She narrowed her eyes. "Are you telling me you gave out your true name without precaution to me?" She gave a snort. "Highly unlikely, Fox boy. You, of all beings, should know about the power that true names hold!" Jill told him hotly. His rather unperturbed nod had Jill flabbergasted in no time. Blinking Jill tried to make sense out of this development and failed miserably. Didn't he know that she could order him out of the house now, and to stay away from her with knowing that? He had to! There was no way Ten couldn't know that.
"I do know this well." Ten told the confused female in a serene voice. Leaning his chin on his left hand, he propped his arm up on the low railing of the terrace and looked at Jill evenly. "Actually I do this with a certain purpose in my mind." He told her thoughtfully whilst seemingly staring into space for a moment, and then his red gaze fixed her green one again. His utter unruffled manner made Jill nervous. Ten seemed to be damn sure of himself here and Jill did not like that at all.
"And do not think that you could order me out, this house is as mine as it is yours, Jill. I take it that you know what a rendezvous spot means?" At Jill's gulp and short nod, he nodded in return but more to himself it seemed as to her. "I choose this house to hang around in it for a while and no, I will not easily let go on this manifesting spot that it provides for me in the real world for now. My kin never does, we are possessive of our claimed areas as well as of our possessions in general. I do Not do this, to anger or frighten you, Jill. Despise what you think to know about my race; we do not normally haunt humans like those as that scum Ayoshi did it. Actually, in the origin, my kin was deity like beings as many others too that have become monsters in your mythology with time. Our task was to guard the real deities, to serve them and in some cases, we provided good fortune to the people who respected us in the region where we lived. That changed with time, as well as you know."
He gave Jill a gloomy smile.
For once, Jill questioned herself about what Ten…no, Tenmaru had seen and lived through in his long existence. She knew as much that she could tell that Tenmaru was at least a millennium old. Nine hundred plus years made a damn long time to exist. He was old enough to have lived in those times he spoke about, Jill realized with a sudden sorrow. Still, she thought that he was a jerk most of the time.
"And what has that to do with the other?"
This time his grin was positively cunning. "Oh, nothing much, I assure you. And nothing ill to you either, I swear it by the life of D and I would never betray the trust of the Kami or jest with his life." He heaved a heavy sigh and straightened his position until he sat cross-legged across Jill to look her straight in the beautiful green eyes. His look made her squirm in her spot, it held such an intensity that Jill wasn't used to have directed at her person.
"At first, this was planned as a lection. I wanted to restore our reputation; Ayoshi was scum, the worst sort of it actually. He grew used in powering up his grow through means that are not tolerated or accepted under Kitsune in the slightest. Nor did the Kami tolerate them or encourage them in any way. A contract is a contract, binding on both sides, that much is true, but to go that far and step over certain boundaries is forbidden! And to go after a child… let's say, that is beneath even anything I know a word for."
His gaze shortly turned inwards before he fixed it again at Jill.
"If Sofu D San had listened to my warnings, this all would never have happened. I knew of his tendencies and warned him a several times off. To be honest, I have wanted to have the chance to rip Ayoshi apart for a long, extended while now." The beautiful face twisted into a feral mask of pure hate and bloodlust for a moment. It wasn't a nice view. Animalistic even more than any expression, that Tenmaru had ever shown to Jill before or that she had seen on any other face in the past. Not even Tetsu had ever looked like this before. Dark, sure, sneering, all right, Tetsu did that a lot, especially at Leon but this feral and fiend? Never had Jill seen him look like this!
Why than did she think it fit the fox somehow?
For a moment, Tenmaru looked like the beast that he was, Jill realized. That was why it seems to fit with him. He was nothing remotely human at all. Likewise, both of them did know that fact perfectly well. As fast as the expression had come, it was gone from the face again. Left was only a glitter in the eyes that told Jill to treat very carefully from now on. The Kitsune was up to something and she did not want to end up in the web of the crafty beast in the end.
"It was on the time for me to settle somewhere for a while anyways. One can only life so long in the Shop without to go insane anyways. It is not in my nature to stay at the ship for longer and I have stayed there for a long while already before you were even born. As real as the rooms are in there, as real as my old home is it in there with all the forests and all, it is still not the true thing in the end. And the D's are as possessive as we beasts in a way are. They do not like it for their mythical beasts to room free for too long. They want to keep us safe and protected but forget that we can do that very well by ourselves too. Sometimes I, like the most others too, need to run free for a while."
A hand adorned with claws came shortly up and brushed an errant lock of Jill's blond hair back behind her ear.
At her shudder at his sudden touch, Tenmaru gave her another of his more charismatic grins. Jill just arched a brow at that. "Also, there was a need for me here to satiate. It is still in a way but I am working on that." His words made Jill curios at what he meant with that but wisely she chose not to give in her curiosity for once and kept silent. Only the now both arched brows told Tenmaru that she had caught on his words. "Besides that I am a fairly good house companion, I dare say myself. I will not make a fuss and normally do not hog the bathroom for hours." At Jill's snort, he laughed good-natured.
"Truly not! Well mostly… argh, whatever, in the end you will have the house all to yourself, if that is what is going to happen. I will return to the ship in time anyways. There is no need for this place then any longer. Until then, you will have to life with me being here. Is that acceptable for you?" Jill looked at Tenmaru as she was trying to dissect him. Then the woman turned her gaze inwards and thought hard about what the Kitsune was offering.
D would never allow Tenmaru to trick her Jill knew that too, still she nodded her assent reluctantly under the wide grin of the fox.
So, this house and all was real. But to live with this being would not be easy, that much was true too. He had something in his sleeve, she was sure and he would not let her know it until he was certain that she could not refuse. It wasn't a good feeling or thought but Jill knew that in the end she had no choice in this matter, at least not now.
"Why does my gut feeling tell me to run, Tenmaru?"
His grin at her words was all, slyness and charm in one. "I honestly don't know, Jill. Maybe it tries to tell you to be cautious of me?" She frowned at that. "Don't turn my words around in my mouth, fox-boy. We both know that you have something hidden in your sleeves and I get the feeling it concerns my sanity, so: what is the real point for your holidays? I don't trust you, Tenmaru!"
"That kind of rhymes!" He told Jill under a madly fit of laughter before the Kitsune seem to dissolve into another fit of sniggers. "You are right to not trust me too much, dear Jill." Tenmaru told her with another of his sly grins after a while. Nevertheless, rest assured, your sanity is not what I aim for. I like it clear and witty, as it is, trust at least in that human. What I want, I usually get, Jill. One way or the other, I never had a failure in this and will not have one now." With that, he suddenly stood and looked down at the still doubtful Jill with a pensive look of his own.
"But if you want to know it so badly, you could always ask freely. What you will not do since you know better as to do so. You know that honest knowledge can sometimes be ten times more dangerous as ignorance. Especially in the case when my kin is involved. Trust in this Jill because it is honestly the truth what I tell you now: I will not harm you in any way. I give you my word on this and you should know that with my name known to you that I can only be honest in swearing an oath like that. I will not risk my life on breaking such a spell woven by myself, Jill. After all, I am far older as you think me to be. I have not survived in all my years because I have good looks." He told her with a wink.
With that, Tenmaru vanished into the thin air and with him; the eerily foxfire and red glow vanished too.
He left a brooding Jill behind. Somehow, Jill got the sudden creepy feeling that whatever Tenmaru was up too, it wasn't good for her. Too sure too certain the Kitsune spirit was in his success as it looked to her. A shiver run over her at the thought: what was he up to?
In the corner of the garden, hidden behind a bush the fox form of the Kitsune known as Tenmaru watched her raise and go inside, rubbing her bare arms deeply locked into her thoughts. He knew Jill was trying to solve the puzzle pieces he left her together. She truly was one of a kind, he admiringly thought. Clever, cunning and wise and at the same time, beautiful, hot blooded and dangerous if driven too far and simply alluring to his old, lonely and hungry soul. He liked his snout and lay down in a sunny spot to take a nap.
He had all the time of the world now at his disposal.
She was exactly where he had wanted her to be. Well, not exactly there but this was as good as the other place for the now. Here there were no other tenants to think about and she was alone with him. Jill did not know it yet, but just sitting there with him for over two hours and listening, she had involuntary exposed herself to his powerful aura all the time. To his real powers so to speak and said powers were not something a human being should be exposed to for a longer while without protection. In the shop, she had had it from the Kami before here Jill had none. The entire house and ground was penetrated from his powers like from a cloud of miasma. He had been careful to only cover this area since it suited his needs not to put harm to the other humans around.
It wasn't exactly harm, more an allure, a certain kind of addiction to his presence.
D had used the same way to ease Leon into his presence. Tetsu had done the same to Chris although, that had backfired much to all of their surprise. Chris had a natural defense against it, coming from his gift to see them or better told, what made it possible for him to do so in the first place. The younger Orcrot never lost a word about it, he simply let Tetsu know that he did not need that with him and that was it.
It would work slowly on her and since he knew that she had a certain natural defense too, he was careful not to overdose her into an alarm state like the one Ayoshi had done so in the past. That had been why the other Kitsune had not succeeded to win her over. Tenmaru had solved that out over time with much thinking and testing the waters, so to speak. Her natural suspicion was high and from somewhere in her family Jill got the gift of the second sight, he was certain. For her it worked with highly honed senses to spy the slightest try to subdue her or in the case of her job in having an unnaturally good intuition.
It served her well, Tenmaru knew and made his task much more complicated.
He did not want to simply overwhelm Jill with his powers; he just wanted to ease her fears enough so he could go over to the next state of his plans. The Kitsune did not want a mindless doll; he wanted her to give into his wishes freely and with full consent. If he was anything then it was patient if needed and cunning to boot. It was in his nature to outwit his prey. As he had told Jill, he had all the time of the world to wait her out. One day, eventually Jill would slip in her guard and then Tenmaru would grab the chance and get her.
He could wait.
Yawning, he stretched shortly before he rolled into a tight ball and fell asleep.
Suryallee