"You're an interesting specimen," a male voice mused.
Purrcy lifted her head, blinking sleepily. She seemed to be in one of the realms, perhaps spirit or more likely for Earth, the magic realm. That would make sense, she supposed, deciding to assume then that she was being addressed by a magician.
"Spe-ci-men?" She asked innocently and sleepily. The Japanese word seemed familiar, but she'd been speaking English for the last several days and it was a hazy memory that wouldn't come. She sent it through the lexicon she'd built, but she'd have to wait to get the translation.
"High potential, rapid growth, young in comprehension, lacking in much wisdom," that hadn't been a complement at all by his tone, "but old in form. ...What are you really?"
Purrcy didn't have much answer for him. She looked down at herself. "Foxtail?"
He chuckled briefly. She sent out a questing line, wondering who and where he was and just what, since he'd called her out. It put him probably in the range of third tier mage. She sniffed the line as it brought back his magic scent.
It was slightly musty as she supposed experienced magicians would be. Candle wax and the bitter scent of black walnut ink said he was a scribe of the old style - he wrote his own spellbooks then, most likely.
There was another smell that she recognized under the more recent smells of juniper, outside fresh air, and the tang of metal. She held down her reaction as much as she could, looking back up. She couldn't see him, per se, but he had a shadow image he'd chosen to project.
He'd put up with her simple spell, which meant he was willing to observe her for at least a little while. "Your potential is quite a bit higher than your current capacity. How is it that you continue to act above where you should be?"
Purrcy tipped her head wondering how to answer that one. "Can you teach me how to tell what level of capacity one has reached? And perhaps how to measure capacity? I've been completely unable to see those things. I'd like to understand."
"Unconventional."
Purrcy had no idea what that word was and it went into the lexicon as well. The first one came out attached to her conversations with Roderick. That made sense, although it made her a bit nervous to be called a "specimen".
She was quite surprised when the magician actually answered her question, keeping it simplistic. That was useful, if somewhat patronizing, but then her play was exactly that. Always had been. Get whomever might be on the other side to have a skewed vision and incorrect assumptions about who she was and her capabilities.
When the brief lecture was over, the magician said, "Your brethren pulled us all out of that place. Why everyone?"
"We couldn't leave anyone behind. Places like that are trying to destroy the fabric and causing harm to us in the process. ...Why were they so willing to see me die? Surely that wouldn't have helped their experiments?"
"Mmm," he had to ponder that for a bit. "The data after you were there changed for others. Did you modify their system?"
"The code so they wouldn't kill me the first time."
"You forgot to change it back for after." It was a scold. She accepted it as such, bowing her head to him humbly in apology. Not that she could have after, but a delayed repair would have been possible.
"Are you powerful enough to make them all forget? And all of the government of Japan as well, so it can't be remembered any more on the islands?" she asked.
There was some silence, then finally, "No."
"What if I helped you by adding my own power to yours? Could we do it together?" She kept her voice as innocent as she already had been.
There was a sigh that contained a bit of a rueful chuckle. "Really. Why should you want to do that?"
"Because we're at the tipping point. It's time to make them all forget."
The image of the magician sat down cross-legged in front of Purrcy and he rested his chin on his hand. He stared at her for a while then went into lecture mode again.
"Certain people have gone missing. Not many, but a select and very specific few. The most ardent voices against having anything to do with magic experimentation, those who scoffed the loudest when it was even brought up as a possibility. That in itself left an interesting vacuum.
"However, on the other end of the scale, some of those who were the most determined to see that experimentation was going to happen regardless, who had made it their 'life's work', have also gone missing at the same time. Thus the vacuum exists now on both sides of the issue.
"Of course those who followed those voices still remain on either side of the argument and they are concerned. ...Perhaps they didn't care whether you lived or died? You don't seem to have a motive that can be easily ascertained since you acted rather randomly against both sides."
Purrcy blinked. She could follow how that would have been confusing. She was surprised Inari had left it an open mess, though. She put her chin down on her forelegs, thinking about that. "So ...I ask again, why would you want to make everyone forget ...on both sides - again?"
She tilted her head, an ear flopping. "Well ...I've been told to. ...But also," he'd been about to speak, but changed his mind to waiting instead, "because regardless of which side anyone is on the rules say they aren't supposed to know. I suppose ...if you were one who wanted the fabric to be torn and current civilization to be destroyed, then you would leave the knowledge to continue to be spread."
He was nodding. "And..., given that I have a rather good guess as to who you are and where you've come from, it seems to me that you would want to continue what your guild has already started."
Purrcy's head came up and she blinked in surprise. Then she slumped. "No, that was an error of misunderstanding that I would have helped to prevent if I'd been here to watch his footsteps at the beginning. We're trying to repair that damage now."
"Really." He certainly couldn't have been more sarcastic, but then she hadn't been thinking things through very well herself to their full completion.
"Well..., we're all junior and trying our best," she admitted, "but we don't want destruction. The damage done to our own was enough and opened enough eyes that we understand now what wasn't understood at the beginning."
She blinked sadly. "It is hard for those who are young to be disbelieved and to think beyond their immediate needs and desires. The emotions we returned with ...were too overwhelming. The daily fight there was what came back with them.
"It took making the error to realize just how much they had changed and how difficult the transition back home was. They've already chosen to forget so they don't do any more damage into the future, and most of them wanted to come home to begin with so they could forget."
"But not the guild."
"Not initially, no," she sighed. "He was given the charge to see to his assigned goal first. He has already apologized with recognition he could have handled it much better at the beginning."
"Yet it falls to you to correct it?"
Purrcy shrugged. "He's doing his part. We all play the part we are assigned. Such a large repair takes more than a single person." Now she was scolding him mildly.
"It only takes one admission," he said.
She shook her head at him. "No. You should understand human nature enough. It may have fueled the debate, given either side more ammunition, allowed for funding to finally be leaked to the side of experimentation, but it was only a catalyst.
"A single admission at this point will be ignored or scoffed at if they don't want to hear it. The guild still wants to do good things. To make that admission now will prevent that."
"So, ...the continued insistence by others in other places...?"
Purrcy sighed. "Well..., there is that, isn't there?" She pondered on that and her ears turned and her tail flicked and flipped from side to side occasionally. "I can see a resolution, but I would want to confirm it, I think.
"It's complicated by the fact that they all want to tell their stories because they are fantastical and make good movies generally. Some wish to forget they were ever there to begin with ...but others must remember." She rolled her head on what passed for ground in this place and rubbed her muzzle with her foreleg.
Purrcy gave a sigh. It was rather complicated, trying to fix Shiroe's error of requiring the movie to be stated truth. It had been too hard for Earth to have the Adventurers return home, for all the families had wanted their children, lovers, and spouses back.
She finally said, "Give us until the Indian premier. We'll all be there together again and can discuss the final resolution and give it as well, since we'll be in the public eye again." She looked up at him. "And if we need to erase the memories of governments and militaries one more time, will you help us?"
"I believe I already told you I couldn't?"
"And I asked if you could if you received assistance." He shook his head, but she didn't know if it was disbelief in her insistence or negation. "After all, the Caretaker of Japan knows who needs it and how to apply it to the region of his responsibility." He froze and stared at her.
Purrcy just looked at him calmly. It was a guess, but an educated one. "Why did you allow them to take you? And why did you have the desk say you were wanted and also treat you as an enemy? I know why you attacked me in my own place, although I don't appreciate it." Her ear went down in distaste, but she made it stand up again as soon as she could.
As he stayed silent, not sure how to answer her, she considered it further. "Okay. So if it was me, I would have asked them to let us think you were evil as a test. Would we turn you over, or would we keep you and ask you to help us destroy the fabric?
"But I can only see you being there in the first place if you did want to do that and were actually there to help them. So I'm not sure I'm ready to trust you either yet." She pushed up to sitting on her haunches and looked him soberly in the face.
He had also sat upright and faced her with his hands on his thighs. "Tell me why you took out the people on either side that were the strongest."
"Because they weren't people. They were constructs that were created to remove magic from the worlds they came to and send it as energy to their homeworld. They were a parasite and we were asked to remove it, since we'd learned how to over there.
"The balance is maintained, both in a lack of a flood of magic appearing, and in removing both sides of the equation. They all had the same goals: prevent humanity from realizing it even had the potential for magic, and prevent humanity from knowing of their existence.
"The governments knew they were here the same as they knew of the potential for magic. The thing that was pushed out of balance was that the governments decided to act for their own sake in the name of humanity against those they'd had no capacity to fight against before then. Now that they're gone, they don't have that restriction."
Purrcy sighed. "And thus we again look like those who want to destroy the fabric by allowing them to act. However, now is when we are working to rebalance that side of the equation. We've removed the two main experimental facilities on the Archipelago and we go next to the rest around the world.
"I would like to have the answer to the other question be the same resolution to this issue as well; however, the Archmage and I must discuss if it's possible. They may still have to be separate solutions. He sees differently than I do so it takes both of us.
"I wasn't here at the beginning for him to have that balance. Now that I am here, we can both come up with the proper solution. It has helped immensely for you to have come and talked to me. Thank you."
Purrcy tipped her head to the side, then added, "And thus the request for help in erasing it again from the governments and militaries. We're removing the physical evidence. It's the memories we don't know how to properly account for on that scale.
"We realize that it isn't possible to erase every memory. We'd just like to get the most important ones, and we don't have the local experience to know that. The Caretakers do, though." She looked back at him directly and waited. They still didn't have the full answer regardless, so he might have more to teach her.
He finally said, with a little irritation, "I don't know whether to scold you for making me act to clean up the final bit of the mess for you, or praise you for having just sufficient wisdom to understand that if you tried to do it yourselves you'd make an even bigger mess than you already have."
"Well, we are willing to help with what we can do," she said humbly. "We don't really want to cause any further problems."
He sighed. "I'll wait to hear from you, then, and see what you'll do between here and India." Firmly he said, "And I will be watching closely what comes from you there."
She bowed, "I understand."
-:-:-:-:-
Purrcy sighed and rolled over. There were birds chirping in the distance and the air was cool and moist, but warmth was nearby. It felt like the time just after dawn. She opened her eyes and saw what she'd rather expected she might.
There was a grey almost-misty fog around them. There was enough light she could see the surrounding trees and the dirt road they'd parked on in the middle of a shoulder of a mountain. Likely the fog would lift as the sun rose higher in the sky.
The bed of the truck couldn't be said to be comfortable, really, although it was perhaps more comfortable as a fox than a woman. Both felt old this morning.
A hand reached out and grasped Purrcy lightly, then ran up and down her belly, since she'd turned so her back was to Michael. She purred for him, "I'm glad you're awake enough. It's likely better today to tell you before I leave that I have to go to the bathroom."
He pulled her closer to snuggle. "Yes. Quite." It was murmured sleepily. Snuggling was nice, but she really did have to go answer the call of nature. She wiggled out from under his arm and walked to the end of the truck. She lowered herself rather gently to the ground. That wasn't easy in any form this morning. She didn't go far and returned as soon as she was done.
Michael was awake enough at that point to be sitting on the opened tailgate of the truck, sleepily rubbing his hand over his face, then through his hair. He paused to look at his hand. "Hmm... I should have stayed demon. I did before, anyway." He looked down at her. "And you're fox. We're reverse what we were when we went to sleep."
Purrcy shrugged. "Personally, I think our bodies do whatever they want and need to do to get the rest they need while we're sleeping. You were demon for a long time. I suspect you needed to be man. I'd been so worn out as woman it was probably better for me to be fox."
She looked at him helplessly. "I still hurt - or well, ache - everywhere." She gave a baleful look at the back of the truck. Getting back up was going to be more difficult than getting down.
He shook his head at her as he got down from the tailgate. "I can't lift all of you when this way, at least not at that size."
Purrcy considered it, then tried shrinking just a tiny bit. She drew in a soft silent breath. "Well, go to the bathroom and maybe by the time you get back I can be small enough," she said. Generally a smaller size would be better.
She slowly worked at it, each size decrease making her muscles twinge in pain. It seemed to be the result of having all of her muscles under such horrible tension three times in a row like that. Resting between size changes helped. She made it down to the size of a small fox instead of a large one, but was just as happy to not have to go to kit size for Michael to pick her up and get her into the back of the truck.
She settled down there at the end of the truck bed. He climbed up to sit next to her and run his fingers through her fur. Looking around at their most recent impromptu camping location, he said, "I wonder how far they drove? It's not too different from the last place we were at. I'm pretty sure I heard the tires over the blacktop though."
He looked over his shoulder, then got back out and walked around to the driver's side door and opened it. "Oy. Did we get under a sleep spell or did you really drive last night?" he asked, shaking the driver awake.
Stiletto's voice drifted back to Purrcy's ears. "We drove. Another four hours. Figured having recovery time was more important than crashing on the road."
"Good call," Michael said and patted the driver. "Slide over and I'll drive for a bit." He walked back to get Purrcy. She licked him on the chin as he carried her up to the cab, the stubble rough on her tongue in a reverse of what she was used to as a cat. He set her on the driver's seat and patted her head, then headed back to close the tailgate.
Purrcy stepped up into Stiletto's lap, giving him a lick. He rubbed a sleepy hand on her head. "Glad to see you're at least up to come degree. It took me two days to be able to move around again. Take it slow, okay?"
"I'll be okay," she rubbed her head on his. "But I will be very slow for at least that long. The muscles are going to take a long time to heal. A full body heavy-duty sprain isn't easy."
"No, it's not," he agreed.
Gareth was stirring now as well. Stiletto shoved him a bit. "Hey. Mike wants to get back on the road. If we want a pit stop, now's the time." Michael was back at the door and nodded in agreement.
Purrcy got off Stiletto's lap to sit up on the seat and Gareth woke up enough to get his door open. The two stumbled off into the woods and returned fairly quickly soon after. "I'd like at least another two hours," Stiletto requested.
"Sure, if we're on the road that long," Michael answered. "Gareth, hand over enough for me to pick up something for breakfast and pay for gas. The two of you can keep sleeping until we get to someplace we can picnic."
Gareth pulled out some of the money they'd earned for the rescue and retrieval and handed it over, then finished climbing into the truck. Purrcy lay out on both of their laps, head toward Michael so she could talk to him and they got on the road.
"We're near Lake Biwa and Kyoto is close. They've got the main shrine to Inari there on this end, Fushimi Inari shrine if I recall," Stiletto told Michael. "I don't know if you want to stop in there or bypass. That's the other reason I stopped."
Michael gave a nod. "I'll consider it," he said. He looked at Purrcy.
She shrugged. "If I was feeling like walking around like a tourist I'd say yes. I'm sad to be missing all the sightseeing, actually. A hot tub, though..., that I'd love to have help loosen up the muscles."
"The little wooden huts on the side of the road by the mountain streams are those, Mike," Stiletto said. "That's the best place since the pay-for public hot tub bath houses aren't mixed." He gave a worried look to Michael. "At least, I'm gonna assume you're still not calm enough to let her out of your sight."
"Good guess," Michael said, with pursed lips. "I'll keep my eyes open for one." He started the truck - thankfully it did start - and got them pulled out onto the paved road.
Purrcy rested for a while, wishing she could still chat with Shiroe. Her mind wanted to be on the issue of how to get to the real final resolution. She needed to tell him at least the one most important item he needed to know for him to be considering the necessary solution. She finally went hunting Shinkou.
The doberman was on the roof of Log Horizon Systems, watching Naotsugu and Akatsuki practicing their forms. They'd likely be done soon. She looked around the rest of the roof. She was in luck. It was a morning Shiroe had come up to sit and meditate and be close to his friends and companions. She rose to her feet there and padded over to sit in front of Shiroe.
Shiroe looked at Shinkou, then put his hand on her head. "Are you missing them, too, Shinkou?" he asked quietly. The doberman's ears went down and her tail thumped once on the rooftop. She reached out with her nose for Shiroe's chest.
"Shiroe," Purrcy said quietly. "I need to report. We've put a transceiver in her collar. Don't let anyone know I've contacted you, though."
"I won't," he promised, continuing to pet Shinkou's muzzle. She set Shinkou's head in his lap so she could talk to him long enough.
"We have to go with the plan to let the rest look like fiction, convince them all to pull the movies on the grounds of mental health issues for those who had to go through the experience, or disavow without self-suicide. I've been contacted by the final expected group from the repeats. They'll help, if we do that much. I've promised them we'll make it right at the India premier.
"You and I need to discuss before we go public, though. ...There was fall-out from the Overwritten repeat that leaves a hole too big for the governments to not act in their own best interests."
Shiroe pondered that for a moment, then sighed. She licked his hand, sympathetic. "All right. I'll keep working on it. ...Does this mean you've survived?"
"So far," she said, "We're not in the water yet."
Shiroe nodded and put his hand on top of Shinkou's head again. "Please take care of yourself. And, if you can, let me know you're okay later, too."
"If I can," was all she could promise. She licked him one more time, then settled Shinkou back at his feet. The dawn sun was just shining through the buildings around them, the rays of light lighting up the Tokyo air in misty yellow-orange sunbeams.
-:-:-:-:-
Purrcy was being picked up, her legs surrounded by arms. She merely relaxed against the chest of the man carrying her. Her nose had already told her there wasn't anything to worry about. A wooden door squeaked open and they were moving again into enclosed space filled with the smell of warmed water.
"You two can take turns," Michael said over his shoulder. Purrcy was set down on a wooden bench. There was a rustling, then a light splash. "Okay. Hand her over."
This time it was Gareth picking Purrcy up and setting her down slowly into flowing warm and almost hot water. Michael's arms took her and held her again. She wasn't sure she liked being a wet fox any more than a wet cat and she grumbled in her chest just a little, then figured out how to slowly go from complete fox to foxtail that wasn't quite so covered in fur.
It hurt, so she went with the speed that the heat seeped into her muscles and allowed them to relax. It helped that a rather stunned Michael held her closely to him to hide her, and an embarrassed Gareth fled the room before she even got close to losing all the fur she was going to. She half-grumbled, half-laughed at him that he should care that much.
"Purrcy," Michael's voice was worried and his hand ran over her face, pushing her hair back from it, "are you really all here? Are you okay?" She pondered that for a moment, then shook her head. "Gareth go inside and see what's going on." He ordered. Purrcy just continued to lie her head on Michael's shoulder and relax in his arms.
Then she had an idea and reached up her hand for his head. She tugged on one of his fox ears until they appeared, the one in her hand firm, unlike softer and thinner cat ears. Then she attempted to say, [Brain is fuzzy. Like being drunk.]
The ear she was holding turned a bit. "I would say you do seem to be acting drunk, yes. ...The others we retrieved from the hospital had been given something to keep them unconscious. Do you know if you had anything like that given to you? ...Although a delayed reaction seems odd."
[...Withdrawal?]
"Hmm," he leaned back and shifted a little. "I suppose that's possible. I'm not sure what drug would do that ...but it might also be that it's something that enters your bloodstream better as the muscles relax." A frown entered his voice. "This might not be a good idea if that's the case. You'll get more of it faster."
She didn't really care. [So I'll be over it faster?]
"I suppose," he answered wryly. "However it could also do more collateral damage if it goes over a threshold it shouldn't."
Purrcy was not feeling well at all, suddenly - like she was overheated and having cold sweats, and her stomach churned uncomfortably. She reached for the wall he was leaning against and pulled on it. Her body gave the first warnings and he froze slightly, then was moving fast so that he wasn't the target of what was coming up.
"Going to go all the way to having had way too much to drink, eh?" he teased her gently as the heaving couldn't be held down. She gave a miserable nod and had to just let the body do what the body was going to do.
That was painful as well. None of her core muscles wanted to be abused that badly just at the moment, even though they had finally managed to relax some. Purrcy groaned, holding her stomach.
"It's okay," Michael said softly as he kept her from going heads-under the water. He supported her until she was done, then was kind and helped her clean up since she couldn't really move at that moment, although the flowing water had already carried most of the effluence away.
The silent tears didn't stop on their own for a while, but they were more a physical reaction to the pain than anything else. Purrcy floated in partial consciousness for a while again until Michael asked her a question. Her ear turned slightly and he asked it again, "Are you going to finish transforming? Or are you stuck there?"
It hurt her head to think of the answer. [Thought Gareth was going to stay. Wet fur's not fun.]
"Well that's true. How are you feeling now?"
[Headache.]
"I would think so if you're going through symptoms like being drunk." His head turned away. "Gareth, come back in. She's modest enough." The door opened and closed again. "I think being in the heat is only going to make it worse at this point. Come help me get her out."
[Tell them both to get in. They need it, too, and I'm not conscious enough to know what's going on in here anyway.]
"You can talk, though," there was a frown in Michael's voice.
[I can't see. And I can only hear you.]
The two men finished getting her up beside the heated running stream, lying on her side. It was chilly, but it felt good to be cool after a while.
-:-:-:-:-
"Do you think they've done it on purpose to all of them so they couldn't use magic if they got free of the facility?" Gareth asked Michael quietly.
Michael shook his head. There wasn't a way to know yet, although in Purrcy's case they just might have. He lifted her hair out of her face, the white hair as odd as seeing her for the first few times had been.
He gently pried open her eye. He was relieved it wasn't milky. The pupils were tiny slits, though, and like most of her before, were still her fox eyes. The fox eyes were the same color brown as her usual color, they were just large in iris size and pupils that were a bit more almond shaped when opened.
Just as slowly as she'd changed to be more woman, she was now changing again to return to fox. He kissed her while she still had lips and didn't get much of a reaction. "Purrcy?" he asked. He didn't get an answer. He tensed, but at the same time, he knew what she really needed was rest if her body was trying to combat the remnants of a drug.
Gareth hadn't found anything and Stiletto had confirmed that all of her aspects were present in the base realm together. It was a rather effective lock-down, actually, however it had been done.
Michael continued to run his fingers slowly through her fur as she changed slowly. Her skin was hot, but since she'd been in hot water it was hard to tell the reason for sure. Gareth splashed lightly into the water, then gave a soft groan similar to Purrcy's.
Michael had felt about the same, actually. To have the muscles warmed up was nice, but somewhat painful at the beginning. He was relieved he'd not had any other symptoms. He waited just long enough for Gareth to be showing any. When he didn't, Michael had to assume it was something the Japanese military had known about but not the U.S.
"Stiletto, put an illusion of a 'closed for repairs' sign on the door and come in. We need to get back on the road sooner than later."
Stiletto entered and closed the door. He stripped after giving one worried glance at the mostly comatose Purrcy. "Do you want us to stop by the shrine?" he asked, lowering himself gently into the hot water, gritting his teeth at having to have his own tortured muscles suddenly in the heat.
"No," Michael answered. "The one in Kyoto is too popular. It was too hard for her to get as far as she did. We might be able to get by with carrying a fox into a smaller shrine, but not that one, would be my guess. We're headed for one that will give her another day or two to recover first. I'd like to allow that much time before we're seen by too many eyes."
"Easier to hide in crowds," Stiletto reminded him coolly.
Michael shrugged. "Unless you look like this." His hand ran down Purrcy's side again. She was almost back to full fox again.
He grabbed her ear. "Shrink," he ordered. When it didn't look like she'd heard him, he put one hand on her head and the other on her rump and pushed. That seemed to get the message across. Again it was slow. He kept pushing lightly until she was the size he could carry and her current minimum. Then he went back to petting her.
"Does she know what she looks like yet?" Stiletto asked.
"I don't think so," Gareth answered. "It's not like she's been awake to see herself in a mirror anytime since then."
"I told her about her hair going white," Michael said. "But she hadn't turned into fox by that time. I haven't told her anything more yet." A hair color change as woman couldn't help but be a change in color for her fox form.
Purrcy as fox wasn't pure white, but her head was, and down over her back to just past her shoulders. Her front shoulders themselves on the sides were still fox red, and down the backs of those legs. The remainder of her was the same coloration as before, but half her tail, instead of just the tip, was now white. It looked like she'd been bleached at either end.
"Do you think the closer they get to ten-tails, the more white appears?" Stiletto asked another question.
Michael shrugged. "Dunno," Gareth said thoughtfully, "but it would make more sense logically than a sudden change over to white ...except that isn't white at the ten a symbol of being blessed to join Inari in the heavens?"
"Then could it be a sign of being blessed by Inari to live?" Stiletto wondered quietly.
"As good a reason as any, and perhaps better than most," Gareth answered. Michael had to agree with that one.
Michael's turkey minder popped. He'd been in long enough, being in with Purrcy earlier. He only somewhat painfully pulled himself out of the heated spring to sit next to her while he air-dried.
The mountain streams were partially diverted by locals to go through a water heater, then under the little wooden huts. The water flowed just about as fast as the streams themselves, and was returned to the main stream on the down-side of the flow. It was an odd mountain-dwelling-Japanese tradition, but it was nice they had it.
The public bath/hot springs with a daily usage fee were fairly inexpensive, but the hot springs hotels were pricey. They might have to pay for one tonight, though. They would need real beds for Purrcy to get proper rest for healing, and even if relaxing the muscles in hot water made her feel worse from the drug, it would help greatly with the muscle healing.
"Gareth, is there enough to pay for a hot-springs hotel tonight for all of us?" he asked. "Sleeping in a truck another night's not going to be good for us at this point, I think."
"You sure you don't want to take her to a hospital?" Gareth asked, concerned.
Michael shook his head. "When no one knows what went in the first time, no one knows the proper antidote. Sleep and letting the body get rid of it is all they'll be able to prescribe, and she can do that while we're on the road."
"Yeah. We might eat up more than we should, particularly if you want to rent a private party hot-tub," Gareth answered the original question.
"I do," Michael said. "We all need it at least the one more time. The longer we're not found, the more proper healing we should try to do."
They understood. The longer they managed to stay escapees, the more time those looking for them had to find them with proper ability to actually take them out.
-:-:-:-:-
They didn't have too much farther to go to roll into a mountain town that had a couple of restaurants, one small grocery store, and of all things - a thrift shop. Michael pulled up in front of that and Gareth hopped out of the truck and ran in.
Michael continued on to the gas station and refilled the tank on the truck, then went and parked in the grocery store parking lot. He went in and went shopping for things they could cook out. He spoke kindly to the shop owner, letting it slip they were on their way out for a cookout on the beach, and a bit of fishing on the side.
By the time he got back to the truck, Gareth was wearing a fishing hat and a dusty grey jacket. A change of shirt was passed over to Michael. Stiletto had already changed shirts and a light blanket was over the burden of both of their laps. Bags were on the floor at Gareth's feet.
Michael put the groceries in the back of the truck, near the cab, and tied them down - having picked up some rope and fishing line. He had a few extra fish hooks as well. They'd line fish if they did end up by some stream in another night. More protein for Purrcy and the rest of them for muscle repair could only be good. He'd bought a lot of meat and Japanese only bought that much for barbecues. He'd used up everything Gareth had given him between the two purchases.
Passing in bottles of liquid sustenance for the present, he climbed back in and took them just a little farther down and had Gareth go and pick them up some breakfast from the ramen shop. Michael was relieved when Purrcy woke up enough to drink down some of the broth, although she refused anything solid, and was passed out again soon after. That meant she was healing, not dying. He was able to drive the next leg more relaxed after that.
Lunch was at a park that had built-in fire pits. Michael tried to time it close to when he thought Purrcy might wake up again. He really wanted her to eat as much as she could. Stiletto got the fire lit while Gareth fox-sat. They'd brought her over to the fire under illusion as part of the burdens they'd carried for the meal. She was on the ground, wrapped in the blanket, looking like a sleeping dog now.
Michael finished making up the sauce to put on the meat and got the meat out to slice. He was relieved he didn't have to use his demon claws to tear the meat. That was rather unsanitary and a crass way to cook. Instead he reached inside his list and pulled out his survival knife. As long as he had the magic, he'd be most certainly using it to its fullest in this current game - even if it hurt.
There was movement at the blanket a few minutes into his cutting. The nose of the fox-dog turned towards him, sniffing hungrily. "That's a good sign," he said. The other two men turned to look at what he was looking at. An eye opened to look for him. It took a while to focus, and a bit of blinking.
Michael carried three pieces of raw meat over and crouched down in front of Purrcy. She smacked her lips. He handed her one and her delicate fox teeth took it from him and in short order she'd swallowed it down. The other two went down about as fast.
He let her lick his fingers, then patted her on the head. "Let me finish getting it ready and we'll get more in you. I've just gotten started preparing it. If you'd rather have it barbecued you'll need to wait anyway."
Five minutes later, Gareth called to him. "I don't think she cares if it's barbecued or not. Have you got enough to pass some over so she doesn't come take the whole tray?"
Michael looked at them and smiled. Gareth was holding Purrcy down from moving. He picked up the tray of meat and the barbecue sauce and walked over to sit by the fire between Purrcy and Stiletto. "Here you go," he gave Purrcy another piece of meat, then set enough to start on the grill over the flames. He had to feed her one for every four he put out on it. He refused to feed her too fast and she didn't have the patience for anything shorter.
When she was sufficiently satisfied to not attack the tray or the grill, he stopped feeding her. "Do you think you can be ready to be woman in another three or four hours?" he asked her. "I'd like to take you into a hotel with hot-springs tonight. You need a bed and real rest to finish recovering, plus one more soaking for all of us." She sighed and shrugged. Michael glanced around the area, then covered his fox ears with an illusion.
Purrcy started over. [I don't feel like I will be right now, but maybe with the meat and that much more rest it won't be as bad as earlier. It's possible that I'm fox because the drug affects the woman that was injected with it. I may have to go through those withdrawal symptoms a few more times, working up to it.]
"When did they first start?" He'd been wanting to ask that this whole time. "And, is being in lockdown part of the symptoms?"
[I wasn't in lockdown earlier, after we woke up this morning. Sometime between getting back on the road and when you were carrying me from the truck to the hot springs I passed out. By the hot springs all the symptoms were present.]
"So turning into woman didn't cause the symptoms, then." Michael rubbed his chin for a bit, the rough stubble scraping lightly on his palm, then flipped the meat and sauced the cooked side.
Gareth set four old plates out next to the grill as Stiletto passed around bottles of water. He poured part of one of them into a bowl and set it in front of Purrcy. Her ear turned a "thank you" to him as she sniffed it. She lapped at it a little, but she didn't drink much of it.
"Michael, I think you need to tell us your story," Gareth said quietly. "What exactly happened?" Michael glanced at him, then gave a nod. Quietly he explained from the time he'd left them until they'd arrived with the truck at the side of the road.
As the meat came off the grill, Michael paused the story to ask Purrcy if she was full. She allowed as how she would want to taste his barbecue, too. He gave her a portion on her plate and made her wait until it was cool enough to eat before she could taste it.
He only let her have one, not sure what it would do to her. He liked to season with a sauce that would warm up the body but not terribly torture the mouth. He wanted the flavors on the tongue to be useful and interesting, not lost. She politely ate that taste, but refused any more, saying she'd eaten enough, and made Gareth pet her while Michael put the next batch of meat on the grill.
When Michael's telling was done, Gareth nodded. "I experimented here. After this morning I thought the whole way, and it sounds like I was right. I purified the food back at the truck, then this area, and then cast the physical purification on Purrcy that Tetorō would cast on her when she was bedridden. It's because she was so high in the stratosphere to get healed before by the kitsune. Likely she needs to stay up at the higher levels for a while and be brought back down slowly."
Gareth gave a worried look to Michael, "And I don't think she can get to the base form of human until she recovers enough at the higher levels. Really, Mike, I think we need to stick to the stream-side hot-springs for a few more days and nights. If for no other reason than they're running water. Once she can actually get to human form, then she might be ready for a public bath-house. Hahaue, you'd have the washings at the shrine morning and night wouldn't you?"
[Yes,] Purrcy said, tired now that she had food in her.
"But are you sure?" Michael frowned. "She's sleeping."
"She slept then too," Gareth argued. "It's physical sleep while the other forms work - or heal in this case. It was mental sleeping she wasn't allowed then. If she's mentally sleeping now, that's all for the better, although I'm not sure we'd even know."
Michael put a hand on Purrcy's head - the touch warning her for truth. Purrcy turned her head in negation. [Fully sleeping,] she promised. [And I suppose it wouldn't be wrong to be reliving that repeat for a bit, although I don't like it.]
"We'll have to do the purifications, too," Gareth went on. "Otherwise we'll bring her down. I'll purify the truck cab, too. Hopefully that will make the healing go faster.
"Okay," Stiletto complained, glaring a bit at Gareth, "how are you hearing her now, too?"
"Pull out your real fox ears," Gareth said. "She made Mike do it earlier to hear her. She can only talk as a fox right now and only those ears can hear it."
"Oh." Stiletto blinked and it only took him a few seconds to have his ears out, also hidden by illusion.
"Not like she's saying much anyway," Michael grumbled.
"But why only fox? Why does she keep reverting to that?" Stiletto asked.
Gareth shook his head. "I've been wondering that, too. Again, I think it might have something to do with the way she was healed - since it was the foxes who made the request and all that. That, and it's the next higher level up from the physical form. It may be as low as she can get right now, as I said."
"Shouldn't that be easier?" Stiletto asked.
"Not when the base form's the most damaged. The kitsune may have pulled her up into the stratosphere on purpose, keeping her alive through her other higher aspects. The physical level will heal, it's just slower."
"Aren't you using magic to heal her?" Stiletto glared at Gareth.
Gareth hesitated and Michael looked at him, curious too. "It's different here on Earth. We were experimenting with it before, in the lab. Remember, when she was in the hospital and I cast the healing as we understand it? Her fever went down, and the center of magic healed as far as tears and all that, but there was a level of damage that wasn't affected. When she went back for her second scan, the aura was still damaged."
Gareth shifted to lean on a raised knee. "We're not sure if it's because I'm low level compared to her, or if there's a difference that has to account for the aura and magic. I have been casting to heal her, but rest is doing more for her than I am at the moment.
"The purifications do more than physical healing and even spirit healing. We expected the spirit healing to affect the aura but it's rather minimal." He shook his head a little sadly. "It's still more we haven't understood yet, being a house that's not generationally experienced on Earth."
Purrcy's paw came out of her blanket and rested on his foot that was tucked under his knee. [I learned how to tell the levels of potential this time. It's that. You're still low level in everything except cleric. The natural inclination for you is still that the magic wants to shift into the cleric and spirit realms - that is: where your potential is greatest.
[You also have a bonus, as it were, for the purifications. It's not likely magic healing will ever be very strong for you. The physical healing is sufficient if you can do enough to keep me alive. We'll work with what we have. We can only do what we can do where we are.]
Gareth pet her head and the back of her neck gently. Purrcy closed her eyes and turned her head to get more petting. [I also am low in levels. That is my capacity to perform is still low, but my potential in specific areas is very high. I'm not clear if experience or time increases capacity within the potentials, since I couldn't see it before now to experiment. I'll do that when I'm healed again.
[When we reach the maximum potential level within an area, that's as high as we can go. It's similar to how we have "bents", "talents", or "gifts" for some skills over others. I might be able to cook, but never very well - only passably.
[I could study and get it higher, but I will never be a natural five-star cook. So my current level in Cook is low. My potential is higher - but it is much lower than a natural five-star cook's potential ...and level if they found their passion.]
The three men got it. That did make sense for how humans of Earth worked. [Michael, you've got levels in walking now, and your potential is just as high here as there. Something opened that door for you.]
"Yeah, the electroshock therapy did," he admitted, scraping the grill to clean it off now that he was done cooking. "I don't know how much I'll use it, though. I'd rather not have to, honestly."
Purrcy only blinked at him. He twitched slightly, irritated. She rolled her head to lean on Gareth's knee again. [Always your own choice here, Michael.] She gave a deep lung sigh of the four-legged that was settling towards sleep.
Michael grabbed the closer paw. "Why does that make you depressed?" he asked, trying to not get angry since he felt she shouldn't pressure him in that choice.
[Because that's a luxury I will never see,] she answered softly, already nearing sleep.
Michael froze and stared at her, then slumped onto his other hand. His thumb lightly rubbed on her paw. He had to swallow around his emotions. Softly he said, "You know..., we all wanted you to have it again."
He closed his eyes and rolled his head to put his forehead in his hand. "That was the whole goal from the beginning," he whispered. "...Don't say 'never'."