Chapter 25 - Domestic Abuse

-Some time ago-

"How many agents do we have inside? What is the outlay?" a powerfully echoing female voice asked.

"No agents of any consequence. The city may not be moving anywhere near the amount of coin that Alnor or Teremir do, but the place is rich beyond anything I've ever seen. I must have seen at least four hundred different men in the three days that I spent there...it was beyond belief."

"They've outright rejected any attempt to negotiate for trade rights. Blacklist? Regicide? How do we take our piece of these riches?" the initial voice asked, growing more curious despite her escalating annoyance.

"Quite honestly, we don't. The leader is incorruptible and far beyond anything we'd be equipped to handle conventionally. The few contacts we have that could depose her are untrustworthy...and that is being extremely generous. We simply don't have anything they want and the chances of that changing grow less likely by the day."

For the first time since their conversation began, the senior among the two of them let slip some outward sign of her emotion, her lips curling into a slight frown. "Did we not finance a great deal of the construction? If memory serves as it should, we were not generous with the rates. Someone should have long ago fallen into our pocket."

"There was such an individual, but her debt was repaid in less than ten years. We have no leverage with them, no agents, and no opening in the foreseeable future to change that."

Her eyes closing in thought a moment, the leader sat in utterly breathless silence for several minutes as she pondered over how to proceed. Her eyes finally opened in an assured determination as she asked a final question of her subordinate. "If they were to continue as they have, who would benefit?"

"I…" the subordinate hesitated, reluctant to giver her answer. "Everyone. With how many humans they've been able to cultivate, willingly I might add, it would only be a matter of time before every mamono on the island could potentially have her own mate. If their techniques were to spread...its possible-likely even-that none of us would ever truly want for anything again."

Nodding, the leader responded without evident emotion. "It is unfortunate, then, that such a world is not to be. The Regard will have its due. If we cannot have it, we will destroy whatever withholds it. Summon the rest of the council and prepare to send out the missives. Something has been missed, and my eyes will find it."

-

"Son of a bitch," I found myself wanting to say as I started to come awake after yet another unplanned slumber. Choosing to remain silent may have been the correct call as I made out the voices coming into focus around me. Far too curious to let this opportunity pass, I simply left my eyes closed and listened.

"The man gets around, sure," I heard Zee's voice remark almost amused before adding, "Didn't both of you know that when you got involved with him?"

"I didn't!" I heard Karisa exclaim defensively. "Honestly though...a lot of the time from when that fox spirit was possessing me is still a bit fuzzy."

"We're getting off topic again. Look, what did you and Del do to him right after you found him in that graveyard?" Meryl asked impatiently, the obvious concern in her voice making me want to smile at how indelicately she chose to express her emotions.

I heard what sounded like a stamping foot before Karisa answered back, "I didn't do anything! I made the deal with Del to share him and then she put him straight into some sort of trance. Then she sent me off to gather as much of that damn unicorn horn as I could."

Meryl countered doubtfully, "You didn't know what it was for? And you didn't even ask?"

"Don't start with me today, Meryl. You have no idea how scary Del was back then. By the time I got back a few days later, she'd already put his body back together somehow. There weren't even any scars. I'd already spent everything I had and then some, and he looked a lot better so…" Karisa trailed off as though even the situation she was describing was somehow a happy memory.

Holding to task, Meryl continued, "So he smelled like death after you came back the first time?"

With a frustrated sigh, Karisa answered back in a way that suggested this wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation. "You aren't listening. Look, I know it isn't helping that I can only half-remember it, but I know he smelled exactly the same as when he first fell into my cart."

"What about now?" Zee asked, aiming for clarity. "Do you smell death on him now?"

Sighing again with the accompanying sound of her ruffling her own hair in frustration, Karisa answered. "Would you both listen?! The only thing that smells any different at all is whatever he picked up from his demonic...self, I guess, and that Ryu's blood. Everything that isn't human on him smells exactly the same as it always has! I know because it reminds me of that damn scent I picked up after…"

This must have been a new development as Meryl pressed back in right as Karisa had begun to trail off. "After what?"

"Ajora's wedding...when I killed you, Kaeli, and Yuki," Karisa added with some hesitation.

"Uh...Ris?" Meryl intoned in confusion, clearly not dead.

Just by her breathing, I could tell that Karisa was still upset as she spoke again. "I'm not an idiot, Meryl. I know it was an illusion, but I just realized...I have no idea what actually happened at that wedding."

With a slightly nervous chuckle, Meryl replied, "I'm...uh...more than a little rough on that one myself."

"But I've never been able to trick you with any of my glamours," Karisa started back in an assured disbelief.

With the sound and slight shaking of the bed caused by what I assumed was a pleasing foxy tush landing nearby, Meryl answered back with no small amount of regret in her voice. "Ajora's glamours are the only ones that have ever fooled me. Anyway, I'll tell you what I know, but you aren't going to be happy about it and it isn't going to help bring the pieces of this any closer together."

Meryl took a large breath as I felt the slight breeze from her fluffy tail nervously passing by me.

"Kaeli and I were already drunk before the whole thing started. We'd managed to swipe a few of those thousand-gold bottles Ajora was saving to try and impress the really important guests. Tasted like holstaur piss, by the way.

Anyway, we were so shit-faced that we completely forgot what time we were supposed to show up to get dressed and...we figured it was a better idea to show up early than late, right? We snuck in the back and saw Ajora, calm as you please, railing Gabriel hard enough to have his teeth clicking on every thrust while she was having a normal chat with some pale bitch. Vampire, maybe...some kind of undead. She was wearing one of those stupid Violaceous Regard pendants that some of the Teremir moneychangers wear."

With some hesitance now evident in her voice, Karisa asked, "So what were they talking about?"

I felt Meryl's tail starting to almost slap at my legs in trepidation or embarrassment-I couldn't be sure. "Maybe Kaels would know, but I wasn't...uh...paying attention."

The bed shook slightly from what had have been a kick as Karisa angrily replied, "Oh, that's just fantastic. So you were too busy jilling off to hear anything useful. Perfect."

"Piss off!" Meryl shot back. "If I had heard anything, I'd have probably gotten exiled like Kaeli. All I can really say is that I never saw Ajora as pissed as she was that day, and it wasn't at me or Kaeli. Even after she put her smiling face on afterwards, I could tell she wasn't over whatever they talked about.

After that, the alcohol really started kicking in, but it was just a normal wedding...I heard. I was passed out in a closet for most of it. I came around for the reception and I seem to remember that being sort of fun. Ixi kept 'accidentally' running into Gabriel and he was holding his ass every time he had to stand up," Meryl finished with a small giggle.

Karisa's temper apparently only growing hotter, she angrily chided Meryl. "And now this. I swear, Meryl…you're the one who told me never to deal with anyone out of Teremir!"

The bed shook a bit as Meryl jumped back to her feet. "Oh, because random Kaori priestesses are so much better? Look, can we both just admit that sense goes out the window when he is involved?"

"So you're admitting it is him," Karisa quietly threw back, her tone obviously antagonizing.

"Don't start this again-you know what I meant. He doesn't even know you."

"That's utter bullshit and you know it! He knew his daughters, Meryl!" Karisa loudly criticized.

Meryl's voice grew cold while it was blatantly obvious that there was a growing fire driving her temper. "Risa, we're not having this fight again. His memory isn't just lost-it's sealed. On top of that, he had sex with your husband. Hell, he never bathes...you can probably still smell the futa cum on him."

Her tone making it sound like she was attempting to take the sympathetic road here, Karisa exclaimed, "Damn it, Meryl. Why didn't you just tell me he was your first? We could have figured something out."

My foxy companion wasn't having any of that and coldly argued back. "Don't try to change the subject. This is different and I want you to admit it. Your husband is a demon and this is my mate."

"If you're going to be a bitch about it then I won't rescind the bounty and I'll get to keep him for a few years while the courts sort this all out," Karisa challenged with no small amount of anger in her own voice.

"Just try it, girlie. I'll beat your ass right here!" Meryl shouted back.

"I don't have to put up with this. This is my house! I'm calling the watch," I heard Karisa loudly proclaim as I heard her steps taking her away from me.

Meryl stomped on the floor loudly and quietly growled. "Leave it to the crybaby to go cockatrice and run off to tattle. Why not tell mother while you're at it? It's a good thing Delilah was around all this time or he'd probably be long dead. At least she can actually do shit herself!"

"Why are you always like this?!" Karisa screamed back, her voice cracking and uneven.

"Oh, here we go with the waterworks. I don't even know why I try with you," Meryl taunted derisively.

Having heard the vast majority of this conversation and it's quick escalation, I had to almost shake my head as I forced myself to remember that these two were sisters. Despite what might be happening at first glance, there was a lot more going on below the surface between these two. Thinking of the many fights I'd had with my own sister, it was clear enough to me that they cared a great deal about each other-enough to fight in the first place. But...leave it to loved ones to know exactly how to hurt us the most.

Startling me from my task at pretending to still be asleep, I heard Lorelei's voice ask, far closer to me than I expected, "Why...father...quiet?"

Her voice smiling as she spoke with certainty, Zee answered, "Because he's awake, girl."

Damn it, Zee.

Floundering motionless amidst the deafening silence for several moments as the sensation of several palpable stares burned into me like the morning sun through dissipating fog, I finally opened my eyes to see Karisa and Meryl looking extremely embarrassed at the foot of the bed as Azalea looked on from a chair across the room, her kiseru firmly in hand as smoke trailed from it, lazily reaching upward. On the bed near me, I saw Lorelei playing with the strangely quiet twin girls, using her severed arm like a toy to tease the pair of them.

"We need to talk," Meryl and Karisa suddenly exclaimed together.

For the first time since the exchange began, I had a real chance to consider some of my own thoughts on this whole situation. I know I didn't like the two sisters fighting, and certainly not over me...or any reasonable facsimile.

In their anger, the girls had also managed to completely ignore that there was a very real potential threat out there-and I seriously doubted that the vengeance of the "corpse throne" couldn't have cared less about which of these girls had a rightful claim on my wedding tackle. A quick look at Zee verified my additional assumption that the salamander had probably been getting very little sleep in trying to remain vigilant to protect all of us-me. That may have bothered me the most.

Sitting up on the large, comfortable bed, I finally spoke. "You guys seem to be doing just fine without me. This is just an idea, but has anyone here thought to give a shit about what I might want?"

Almost immediately after I'd finished my question, Lorelei opened her mouth to answer before Zee deftly intervened. "Come on, bring your arm and let's take your sisters to give these three some privacy."

Azalea never ceased to surprise me with how damn perceptive she was. I supposed it had to make sense when considering the way she fought, but who knew that she could also be so aware of the dangers of a conversational battlefield?

Despite trying to appear coolly detached from the high emotional benchmark within the room, I couldn't help but snort in a moment of laughter as I imagined Lorelei volunteering to 'give a shit about what I might want'. Once the thought had taken root, it was pointless to try and remain angry.

Sighing, I crossed my legs into a half-lotus and looked up at the worried faces of the two Panna sisters. "First of all...stop fighting. You both know there's a lot more going on than this love...uh...hexahedron.

"But you have to admit-" Meryl started, making me wonder when I somehow became the parent in the argument.

I cut in before my foxy companion could even present what was probably a ridiculously childish argument. "Don't even think about it, either of you. Meryl, you know how I feel so please just back off on this for now. And Karisa, we need to-"

"Risa is fine, please. It's bad enough I have to listen to you talking to me like a stranger," the stripey-tailed of the two sisters requested.

Nodding my head, I stood up on more or less rested legs and gestured to the door. "Meryl, I need you to do me a huge favor while I head to the market with your sister."

"With my-Hold on, Joe! You aren't seriously-"

Stomping my foot (and instantly regretting said action upon the solid marble floor) to cut her off, I took three large strides towards Meryl's quickly crumbling facade and placed a lingering kiss upon her lips.

"You trust me?" I asked plainly, looking into her eyes as she rocked back on her feet a bit.

"I...uh-yes," she answered, quite a bit more timidly than she'd been throughout the conversation until this point.

"Then that's all that matters," I offered with a smile. "So about this favor-I don't care what you have to do, but make sure Zee gets some fucking sleep. I don't know how long I was out, but she looks like she's been up at least that long and she hasn't really had any real sleep since...well...since I met her. As for the rest...well...I haven't gotten that far yet, but I definitely need to take care of some things at the market, okay?"

Meryl simply nodded, her eyes doubtfully lingering on Risa for several moments. "Fine, just...be careful-both of you."

Glad I was already dressed in some admittedly comfortable robe-like clothes, I grabbed Risa's hand and dragged her from the room before her almost triumphant look could bear any sort of damning conversational fruit.

Coming down the stairs, I could hear Zee's voice from further inside the modest home and found her with Lorelei and the two young twins on a sort of veranda looking toward the east.

"Hey Zee, we're heading into the market but we'll be back soon. Get some sleep while we're gone, Meryl's going to make sure you aren't disturbed," I called out.

"Hold on there," Azalea called back as she stepped back into the house, relief and worry fighting for dominance in her eyes. "I've already let you get taken twice on my watch and I wouldn't know the first thing about tracking you down in a city like this."

I could tell that, despite an obvious desire to sleep, the last thing Zee wanted to do was take a chance on me being thrust into danger again. My mind still running a thousand miles a minute trying to put things together, what I hoped was the right answer for this situation sprung to my lips.

"This is also part of my plan to win our duel, but if you really think you need the advantage…"

Unable to muster a frown amidst all the smile that had just bloomed, Zee knew she had no choice but to agree. "That mouth is going to get you into some serious trouble one of these days."

Smiling as I made for the foyer, I turned back and winked. "Oh, this mouth is going to cause the sort of trouble you haven't ever even dreamed about."

"Be back before sundown or I'm coming out after you...and neither you, Meryl, or Karisa is going to be able to talk down the city watch after what I'll do if I have to search for you," Zee answered almost assuredly enough to hide her slight blush.

With a quick stop to fetch my weapons from Meryl's wagon while the increasingly dumbfounded Risa simply followed, we made our way out onto the street...where I very nearly threw up my hands in surrender at the sudden realization that I no idea which way to go to find the market. That seemed a bit strange, suggesting that whatever memories had been taken must have somehow been tied in with the market to a substantial degree.

Her eyes searching me for something I wasn't sure she'd ever be able to find, Risa spoke quietly, pointing south. "It's that way to the general market. What...did you need to do there?"

Moving off at a brisk but calmer pace, I looked back to the dazed raccoon girl as she kept a weak grip upon my hand. Seeing her in the sunlight made it patently obvious that she was related to Meryl. I seemed to remember something about some sort of monster that could spawn children of different species, but I couldn't quite bring it from the tip of my tongue to full remembrance. Those bright emerald eyes couldn't have been more clear in telling of their relation, however, and they certainly weren't making things any easier.

"I need to see a blacksmith...a really good one," I began, turning my eyes back to the city street ahead of me. "But I really needed to talk to you as well. I'm sure you probably want to ask me some questions too, so...if you'll help me find a smith that can take care of a certain job for me, I'll truthfully answer any question you could possibly want to ask me."

"Oh, is that all?" she asked.

I was ready to throw off her hand and turn back to her in frustrated anger before it registered that she wasn't trying to be sarcastic. That just made me more worried that she'd accept my other request of her without a fight. If she was in a fragile state, I was going to end up paying for all this later, and I wasn't too keen to volunteer for the illusionary wringer again after barely surviving Cecily's funhouse with my sanity intact.

"I might...ah...also need to borrow some gold. Meryl should be good for it though."

"Fine," she said simply, her voice and expression speaking volumes in a language I simply couldn't read. "We'll head to Kenzie One-Eye's place-two blocks from the harbor, just off the market square. I hear she's one of the best metalworkers in the city."

The more I wandered through the well-kept streets of this side of the city, the more everything seemed so...familiar. It wasn't like I really recognized anything, but it was as if my feet remembered the uneven lay of the cobbled stone on the stretch between Risa's home and the market. I wondered how many times I might have made this trip in the life...before.

With minimal guidance from Risa, we made it to Kenzie One-Eye's Magnificent Metalworks. Fully expecting a giant cyclops to be manning the forge within, what greeted us instead was very nearly the opposite.

With the glow of the forge beyond, I saw a positively tiny woman that looked more likely to have gotten lost in this shop on the way to a candy store than to be masterfully working the forge. Like the measured ticking of a clock and the resounding volume of church bells at a joyous wedding, the diminutive figure brought a hammer nearly as large as her own body thundering down upon an anvil with metronomic precision. Each time the massive implement struck the metal beneath, I felt a wholly unexpected shiver run through me.

Tickled by the unexpected sight and the vibrations that kept reverberating through me, I unintentionally let slip a small giggle, covering my mouth a moment later to hold back anything more.

Her pace not slowing or changing in the slightest, the tiny girl shouted back at me between the resounding impacts of her hammer. "That better have been a cough or whatever you want crafted is going to cost more than just gold."

"No, it's that-" I began before another impact sent that strange shiver through me again. "Every time you...bring your hammer down it...makes me feel...weird."

"Aye, I suppose this isn't simple iron. Hold on to your balls then and I'll be with you in a moment," she said without turning her gaze from her current project.

Looking all around the shop, I didn't see much in the way of display pieces. The few items that were displayed seemed to be mundane, or humbly unassuming. While I worried if this extremely petite woman would be able to handle the request I had, I couldn't help but smile at the thought that this smith was more proud of peacetime implements such as plow blades and gardening shears than of the sort that cut down life.

Snapping me forcefully from my contemplation, I barely even noticed that the steady impacts had ceased and the tiny woman stood before Risa and I. "Well if it isn't the king of all whores 'imself, down amongst the unwashed. What ever can Kenzie do fer you today...majesty?"

Hearing those words in her lilting, but not too thick, Irish-sounding brogue, I couldn't tell if I was being insulted or praised, and her slightly gruff demeanor wasn't making the decoding process any easier. I figured it was best just to keep to business if possible.

"I need you to look at this sword...and tell me if you can make me an exact duplicate. Well...almost exact."

Electing to hand her the sheathed weapon rather than risk placing it potentially out of her reach on the dangerously high countertop, I watched as she closed an eye and looked the blade over, giving a low whistle as she did so. "Fine a blade as I've seen in an age. Why's a blatherskite like you want to make such a dangerously pretty girl jealous?"

I frowned a bit as she fawned over the fine weapon Zee had given me, looking like she wanted to sing it a lullaby. "Can you do it? It's got to look exactly like this one, but-"

The dwarf looked back at me angrily and slid Tizona back into the sheath. "Aye, I can do it, but I don' like making weapons. You don't look completely daft, so tell me why...and if I like the reason we can talk about price."

"Well…" I began as I started to explain exactly what I wanted and why, my betraying smile only seeming to make Kenzie more interested.

-

Nearly two hours later, Risa and I walked out of the smithy, one of us considerably lighter for want of the many coins left behind.

So far, Risa had said little and looked as though her thoughts were far beyond the city walls. To look at her, it was hard to believe that a girl so beautifully toned and slender could have already had two children. I saw the barest hint of a smile when she caught me admiring her before I quickly looked away, my brain being less than kind with the sorts of teasing fantasies it conjured.

Shaking off most of the more impure thoughts, I gently grabbed Risa's hand again and made to start leading her home, "Thanks for spotting me that gold, by the way. Now, about what I was-"

Pulling her hand away from me and covering her face, Risa suddenly cut me off as she began to cry softly. "What do you even want with me? You really don't know me, do you?"

I sighed at what was probably my own idiocy and slowly turned back to the grieving woman, wondering how many times the other me had made this woman cry. "Ka-I mean...uh...Risa? I'm...really sorry about all this, but we do need to talk."

Ouch...who'd have ever thought I'd ever utter that kiss of death to any good mood?

Most of her face still covered, she shook her head and looked up at me with those hauntingly familiar eyes. "Answer my question, Joe. Do you...know who I am?"

I leaned against the entrance to a nearby alleyway and swallowed hard before answering, not wanting to cause any more damage but determined to be honest with her. "Not in the way you imagine I should. But...that's part of what I wanted to talk to you about."

Looking up into the sky she shook her head fiercely. "Am I really so easy to just forget? What about your children, Joe?" She then leveled a hopeful gaze upon me and continued. "I saw it in your eyes! You looked just like you did the first time you saw them! You can't tell me-"

I held up a hand to stop her, but didn't attempt to look away from those beautiful green eyes. "You're probably right, Risa. Look...I'm not very good with words at times like this, but what I've decided after meeting you, Delilah, and...well...'me', is that it's more likely that I had to forget you. I'd never walk away from someone I loved unless it was to protect them...or what I think must have happened here. The witch that did this to me told me that I chose to give up my memories...and after seeing that there was another me out there already living that life…"

Her eyes still wet with tears, but now shining with a glint of understanding, she began to nod slowly, "This...would be a lot easier if I didn't believe you, or if I hadn't been listening to you for so long that this all makes perfect sense to me." She then smiled as she dried her eyes. "You're so unintentionally sweet sometimes that I have to wonder if you do it on purpose."

Seeing how quickly she turned her mood around was a bit of a shock that threw me right off my guard. "That was sweet? I...sort of thought you'd hit me again."

Her smile turned to a smirk as she punched me in the arm. "Happy?" Taking a deep breath, she then took a step back away from me. "And I guess…no-nevermind."

With her look turning almost devious as she trailed off, I tried to probe a bit into what she was actually thinking. "Wait. You guess...what, exactly?"

She sighed wistfully as she leaned against the building across the small alley from me, looking back at me as she crossed her arms. "First...I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea about me from my fighting with Meryl. But, what I was going to say is that...even though we sort of shared you before, I know Meryl would never let you wander too far from her side now. I get it...and it's hard to blame her, knowing the sort of choices you'd probably make without her telling you what to do..."

Ouch! Was that payback for me having said "we have to talk" moments before?

There were really only two possibilities here to explain why Risa seemed to be suddenly insulting me. Either she didn't really know me at all...or she knew me far far too well. Those would be thoughts to keep me company later, as the greater measure of reason made to sneak its way out a nearby window.

"Hey! I've made plenty of good decisions without her. I just...happen to like her. Is there some sort of problem with that?" I challenged, realizing that something seemed to have changed in Risa's demeanor, but was completely clueless as to what.

She waved her hands in front of herself defensively. "Whoa, I didn't mean to offend you. You're probably right...Meryl is certainly known to exaggerate. I mean...you don't look like a 'simpering cunt puppet' to me, but you do seem a bit more...passive than I remember…"

That struck a nerve in a large way. Ignoring that even if Meryl really had said such a thing, I doubt she would have told her sister about it...probably.

I was the one that had to do almost all the work while the bitch-tastic mopey version of me waxed emotional about poor choices while his own life force was fading. If It hadn't been for me, there'd have been a lot more tears at the Panna family reunion.

It...can be excruciatingly painful to be smart enough to know the correct choice to make in a given situation but incomprehensibly stupid enough to see that choice and take the left hand path instead. It wouldn't take hindsight to see how wrong it all was about to go.

"Are you shitting me?! If I hadn't been there, he'd probably already be dead! Even after I explained what was going on, he just wanted to go back to sleep. You think that I am more passive than...than that?"

This time she took a step forward with a challenging scowl on her face. "Cut the shit, Joseph. You're staring at a woman that wants you more than anyone else alive, my sister included, and rather than do what I know you want to do, you're going to mewl like a chained cat and then dash back under Meryl's skirt to hide, aren't you?"

"That doesn't even-" I tried to argue, growing even angrier as she continued to simply shake her head.

"You're willing to fight Azalea to prove to her that you aren't a complete tool, right? Fine, big boy-fight me right here and prove the same thing. No tricks, no illusions, and I'm nowhere near as good as Zee on her worst day. If you're even half the man you're pretending to be, you should have no problem beating me-just like always," she taunted, her eyes almost glowing in suppressed...fury?

Risa was nowhere near as big as Azalea and was built even more slender than her sister. My first thought was to argue that Meryl would kick my ass if I ended up beating her sister down on the streets of Alnor. Risa, perhaps by design, had already smothered that argument with her claim that I was incapable of making a decision without Meryl.

The only right answer was to walk away. To move forward was to mire myself even further in the deepening quicksand about my feet. What I should have done was make an excuse, pretend to get upset, storm off, and then talk to Meryl about all of it.

I'm sure what I did instead was at least more amusing to watch.

"Fine! If you want a fight, you're damn well going to get one," I called out, striding deeper into the alleyway and around a corner to a junction that left enough room to move while also being invisible from the main street. "But you're telling Meryl you walked into a door when we-"

I didn't get to finish my sentence as something large and heavy hit me in the back of the head before thumping to the ground at my feet with the sound of jingling coins. Being hit in the head with her pouch started to give me a headache...and not from the impact. I shook it off, however, as I focused back in on the suddenly daunting task before me.

Turning quickly, I barely had time to react to the onrushing blur of pissed danuki hand, clenched in a fist, heading straight for my face.

My reflexes not nearly as rusty as when I'd first begun training with Zee, I still only managed to just barely avoid the full impact of her punch, managing to take a painful glancing blow to the side of my head. At least I was no longer at all concerned about hitting a girl, least of all one that was probably as strong as I was and quite a bit more nimble.

Stepping wide to regain my balance, she drew her unclenched hand back towards her, raking across my shoulder with her long fingernails as she did so, digging painfully into my left shoulder proper as her other hand moved to grab my right.

By the grace of...well...whoever might have been watching, Risa was not at all a skilled fighter and I'd handled this grab about a thousand times before. Before her other hand could reach me, I had grabbed and twisted free the hand already on me while sidestepping and pushing up hard at her elbow, nearly throwing her into the nearby wall. Worried that she might have been hurt as she hit the building face-first, I extended an arm to indicate that we'd done enough.

That would go down on the list of as just one of the many mistakes I made that day.

The impact of Risa's face with the wall didn't even slow her down a single step as she turned to grab my outstretched arm and yanked me off balanced to then powerfully throw me to the ground. There may not have been any finesse or technique, but she was too fast and strong to even attempt to resist, leaving me to do nothing more than try to make sure I didn't fall too hard upon the stone below.

The cobblestones of the the alleyway were far from forgiving as they welcomed me down amongst them, but being thrown to the ground during my daily ass beatings with Zee almost made this feel like home. It was certainly the position from which I had the most recent experience fighting.

With an almost feral growl, Risa dove onto me in what seemed like an attempt to pin me. At the cost of several more drops of blood at the points of her talon-like fingernails, I was able to catch her on my arms and a knee that she took right in the stomach. Even though the impact looked like it might have dazed her, I wasn't taking chances again.

Using the rest of her momentum, I rolled off to the side with her and brought her down onto the cobbles of the alley, quickly rolling on top of her. Still quicker than I, she pulled me down and continued the motion in an attempt to reassert herself, but not before I managed to bring my elbow across her face in the process, stunning her enough to keep her from rolling back on top of me and leaving me on the ground next to her.

Already moving to leap to my feet to try and endure her next onslaught, she caught my robes in her hand, leaving me looking directly into her eyes, the already swelling spots on her forehead and cheek only adding to the fierce look in her eyes.

Perspective is everything. It was hard to say that what I did next was a mistake, though I was certain to be paying for it as though it was.

With the fire in her eyes not dimmed in the slightest, I peeled her grasping hand from my clothing and moved to pin her hands to the ground, somehow managing the feat before she was able to fully react. Pressed against her inhumanly warm body with her hands held above her head, her breath coming hot upon my face as she wore a mask of fury, I threw myself violently against her...and kissed her.

My lips were upon hers for at least a full second before she slapped me hard enough to push my face away. It wasn't the closed fist I was expecting so maybe…

I quickly recovered and attacked again in similar fashion.

The alarm that this had all been too easy suddenly loud enough to hear but now too far away to reach, she didn't hesitate for even a moment at my second attempt, throwing off my grip on her arms, she threw her arms around me and frantically returned my kiss, growling slightly as she then easily rolled me onto my back.

"You lose," she said with a feral glint in her eye.

"That's what you think," I countered, reaching for the only pressure point I could imagine might give me an advantage against a sexually enraged predator.

My sudden move to grab for her crotch was rewarded by her weakening almost immediately and allowing me to push her back onto the ground, the two of us rolling into a stack of wooden crates that loudly clattered and fell around us as I kissed her again, now tearing her clothes off like a man possessed.

Keeping my knee to the ground between her legs prevented her from rolling back over as I leaned forward to grind my leg into the heat of her already waiting sex, hiding desperate beneath her clothes. She had the advantage in having been able to pull me more quickly out of my blood-stained robes before I was able to completely tear her own clothing asunder. It was only a moment, however, before I managed to tear away the last concealing resistance of her attire.

"You think this is...ahhh...going to prove anything?" she moaned as my hand took up the task of mercilessly teasing her already engorged clitoris as my mouth captured one of the nipples crowning her modestly petite breasts.

In answer to her taunt, I bit down-not enough to hurt her, but enough to remind her of the position in which I had her. Even if this had been her plan all along, this was still a fight...of sorts, and she'd made herself vulnerable. I'd have been a fool to avoid taking every advantage, right?

My action blessed with the reward of another growling moan from the squirming Risa, her fingernails dug yet again into my skin as one hand blazed crimson roads down my supporting arm as the other shot between us to indelicately wrap around what she'd probably had in mind all day.

"You even know how to use that th-" she began before I silenced her with another violent kiss.

Biting her lower lip as I roughly continued to tease her, I didn't give her another chance at a retort before I threw my weight against her, using my already positioned hand to find my target as my rampant erection sluiced it's way into her, not stopping until I could go no further.

I tried and failed to hold back my own gasp of pleased excitement to feel her shivering passage welcoming me so completely as her mouth dropped open, her eyes fluttering in shock as she stared back at me.

The satisfaction of my initial task sustained me for only a handful of heartbeats before I levered myself up over her and began grinding my hips against the insatiable raccoon girl. After several minutes of teasing against her crumbling resistance, I pulled back further and hooked my arms behind her knees before powerfully pushing forward again, leaving her in an utterly helpless position beneath me-not that she looked to be entertaining any thoughts of escape now. If she wanted this so badly, then I wasn't about to be gentle now.

I gave her only a few seconds to appreciate the moment as her skin flushed scarlet, half in embarrassment and half in a rapidly growing desire.

Not about to let her off the hook for allowing herself to be put into such a position, I wheeled back a bit and then began to fiercely drive into her innermost reaches, colliding repeatedly with the entrance to her womb. As my thrusts grew more forceful upon each entry, she began to gasp and yip in an ecstasy that very quickly overwhelmed her. Long before I was anywhere near my limits, she cut loose in a howling screamed as her body shook in the throes of a powerful orgasm, her breath hissing through clenched teeth as I continued to move with the same ferocious intensity.

While her fingers dug even more deeply into my arms, the pain was thankfully tempered by the convulsively shuddering silken vice that grasped at me in repeatedly vain attempts to halt my pounding invasion. Her head tossed side to side against the hard stone as her cries of joy escalated in the grip of the ecstatic overdose she was weathering.

As the frenzied grip of her voracious cunt intensified, the sounds of our act set off a lewd symphony as the fleshy impact of every plunge into sodden gash was answered in echoes that reverberated through the dirty alleyway. The rising pitch of her voice was like the choir singing to accompany the crescendo of the movement.

My resistance starting to collapse completely, I tightly gripped her thighs where I held them and began to savagely spear myself into her as her eyes searched and stared, but saw nothing beyond the felicitous rapture that ravaged her consciousness.

Just as I neared release, I heard her whimper in broken whispers amidst her cries, the force of each penetrative impact knocking the wind from her. "Y-you...should...n-not inside...I'm-"

Some part of me probably heard and understood exactly what she was trying to say, but the rest of me-and certainly the part that had the helm of this ship-chose to rely on mystical birth control and the state of our unresolved conflict to make the choice on how to proceed.

With her body having gone as limp as a ragdoll beneath me, it would have been difficult to move away in the first place, but the sensations that followed in the next moments made me regret not throwing every ounce of my willpower into the act of trying to do so.

Starting with a familiar tingling shiver that shot up my spine, I groaned in desperation as the wave of my climax passed over me like a paralyzing touch...just before it was accompanied with what felt like a bolt from the heavens themselves, the foreign electricity tearing through me, sending me into shivering spasms of blinding ecstasy. As my boiling seed spilled into the helplessly insensate Risa, her eyes shot open completely before taking on glazed-over look full of inscrutably mixed emotions.

Her hands went flat against my chest, as if she was trying to push me away, but made no effort to expend the strength to do so. Feeling the touch of my release seemed to set her off again...in a way. As she cried out again, her hands then began desperately trying to pull me close to her.

With most of my energy expended along with any anger I might still have had, I released her legs and collapsed atop her, her arms coming around quickly to envelop me in an embrace as my body spent the remainder of itself within her.

It wasn't until that moment that I realized what actually seemed different about her before and the entire time we were fighting-it looked as if her tail had vanished. Couple with the look of exhausted satisfaction on her face, I knew in that moment that she was hiding any number of things.

Expending a monumental effort to do so, I pushed myself up slightly and looked down at her, most certainly appearing quite angry. "Where is your tail?"

She shook her head and refused to meet my gaze as she turned her head away. "It's...you wouldn't understand"

"So this was all just-" I began angrily before she cut me off by dropping her illusive facade completely, her form returning to the one I had seen at the house.

Her face looked no less wounded from our struggle, but her eyes were dark and glistening with tears. "I needed to know...I'm sorry, Joe."

She then pushed me off of her as gently as she could and then silently set about attempting to get the two of us looking at least presentable enough to make it through the streets of the city.

I was angry in a way I couldn't really explain for so many varying reasons. While it wasn't upsetting that she'd so easily been able to get me into this position, the fact that she felt she needed to deceive me hurt. On top of that, I was feeling guilty beyond what I thought possible for the wounds on her face-one of which looked like it could easily turn into a black eye.

"Look, Risa...I just don't even-" I began before she placed a finger to my lips.

"I'll...take the blame for this. You don't have to tell Meryl. It was my fault anyway," she offered as she tried in vain to hold her clothes together in a way that did anything but make it more obvious how badly they'd been torn.

"That's not what I'm worried about-I'm going to tell Meryl, but this...makes me wonder if you really do know me. If you'd just been honest in the first place…"

She snapped back at me almost immediately, "No! Don't you dare say that to me. You aren't allowed to say that! Choosing to forget everything we've been through is the same as lying, Joe!"

I didn't see it that way at all, but then...I wasn't in a position to be staring down someone that was supposed to love me but had forgotten all about it.

"If you know me, then you have to know that making a choice to forget was…" I hesitated, not having any emotional reference point from which to continue with Risa. "This hasn't been easy for me. I tried to avoid anything that might remind me of my old life because I couldn't even be sure that it was really me. What if the things I'd been through in that other life had changed me and I wasn't that person anymore? I wanted to just move on, but my old life keeps grasping at me from the darkness, even though I know there's another me that's supposed to be living it."

Getting to her feet, the young Risa took a deep breath and looked down at me, now with eyes of endless sympathy. "I'm sorry, Joe...but you are you. Maybe you're in a bit better-well...a lot better shape, your hair is way too long, and you look like you only stumble into a razor once every other week in a dark room...but all of the things that matter are exactly the same. This isn't easy for me either, but circumstance has made my perfect husband into a terrible father...and seeing you makes me feel like the lords made this happen to give that man another chance to make things right."

"You know I can't-"

She cut me off with a frown. "I know." Her expression then shifted into a weak smile, "Let's just call it even on the deception. You did fuck my husband, after all...and I bet he was just tickled about that. But you'd better not hurt my sister. She's a lot more delicate than she wants everyone else to think. So you'd better be careful, Joe. You fell in love with me once and if my husband didn't consider it cheating to sleep with you, then neither will I."

Turning away slightly I winced at the thought of any more painful encounters like the one I'd just experienced. "So...what, you're going to try to make me fuck up?"

Rubbing her chin as a genuine smile returned, she gently grabbed my hand and began leading me back to her home. "I guess when you put it that way it sounds a bit cruel, doesn't it? Good. You might not be my husband, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if Del and I kept you locked in the basement while we bring him around on using the rest of his...parts to full effect."

"Are you being serious?" I asked, not able to read her expression at all.

In answer, she softly slapped her fluffy tail against my face as she continued to walk. "Oh, only if things don't...work out with Meryl. She thinks I don't know about all the times she's stuck up for me, and just because she makes me want to tear her face off most of the time doesn't mean I'd ever let any man get away with hurting her."

"Well, I'm not going to tell you I'm in love with her-I haven't known her that long. What I do know about her is that she risked her life to save me on multiple occasions, she's beautiful, passionate...and probably going to kick my ass when she finds out about this." I hesitated a moment as I thought things over a bit before adding, "Eh, it was just sex, right?"

Quickly turning away from me as she continued to lead me by the hand, Risa seemed to shiver slightly as she quietly answered back, "Yeah, that's...all it was."

-

Making our way in the door just before sundown, I half-expected Zee to be in a sprinter's starting pose ready to burst out into the street looking for me. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find her sleeping comfortably on the large sofa within the study.

One down.

I could hear Meryl upstairs, her voice's normal brashness drowned out by the sweetness of the dulcet words of a lullaby she was now singing to the young twins. It hadn't occurred to me until that moment that Meryl would be the type of person to ever want children...but the thought made me realize that there was a lot more I wanted to learn about the fiery vixen.

While Risa left me high and dry on the staircase, scurrying off to prepare dinner (she claimed), I pondered over how to explain everything to my beautiful fox-tailed companion. Figuring that tearing off the bandage as quickly as possible would be the most painless, I quietly walked into the room to see Meryl finishing the task of putting the twins down to sleep.

Tiptoeing over to me, she smiled somewhat cryptically in the darkened room and whispered, "I got the bath ready. Everything okay?"

Rather in the mood to suddenly dive out the window than speak, I was determined to remain firm in my resolve. Certain she could probably smell the sex on me anyway, I leaned in and whispered back, "That'll have to be your call...I had sex with your sister and it wasn't against my will."

She didn't blink as she led me from the room silently, closing the door behind her as I flinched in expectation of what I thought she was going to say. Her expression neutral, she looked me directly in the eye and asked, "And?"

"That's it. I mean...I took care of my business at the market too."

"I mean...do you feel any different, Joe?"

I was getting more desperate to know what she was thinking as she continued to assault me with her blank expression. All I could do was be honest. "I didn't know you had such a beautiful singing voice," I began, instantly realizing that it might have sounded like I was trying to soften a coming blow. "I understand her a bit better, but...I still feel the same way I did before we left. Are you...okay with that?"

"Go take a bath," she began as she headed down the stairs, leaving me in painful suspense before she thankfully turned back to add with a wicked smile, "You were honest...so I'll decide how I feel based on how long you can last with me tonight, my filthy little homewrecker."

Damn, but Meryl knew how to get me worked up like nobody I'd ever met, sending me from a fearful dreading suspense around to a smouldering aroused anticipation in the span of a few seconds.

I slipped into the bath minutes later, hissing as the heat made every single one of the scratches I'd gotten earlier ache in a throbbing testament to the ill-conceived actions I'd taken. Feeling a sense of real relaxation for the first time in a long while, though, I found myself unable to even think about our worrying situation as thoughts of the adorably sexy Meryl took hold.

I'm sure if I lasted until morning she wouldn't be pissed...right?