There was a loud ringing sound...
It was so loud...
Why didn't anyone turn it off?
And then Keiwa felt something wet on his face.
.
"I'm up... I'm UP!" exclaimed Keiwa as he shot up from his bed, his head still feeling foggy.
Keiwa blindly felt for his alarm clock and turned it off before fixing his messed-up hair. He chuckled to himself. It seemed he now had a much more effective 'alarm clock' than his current one. Ace started barking at him urgently as Keiwa squinted his eyes at his alarm clock.
Ah. He still has a good five hours before his doctor's appointment. So that should give him enough time to take a short detour to a vet nearby.
But wait...
Last night for some reason, Ace had somehow healed his wounds. Was that a dream?
Keiwa stared down at his hand. No... it wasn't a dream, there's not even a hint of a scar that he had burned his hand by touching the side of a hot frying pan.
So does that mean that Ace was not just an ordinary white fox?
Keiwa tried to get up from the bed, but suddenly there was a stabbing pain in his heart as he threw himself back on the bed.
That sudden movement caught the white fox's attention as Ace turned around to see Keiwa being in pain. Ace immediately bounded towards Keiwa as it started to bark aloud frantically. It also wondered where Sara was as well, and why didn't she come over to check on Keiwa.
.
Keiwa opened one eye from where he was lying as he saw Ace becoming so alarmed that he had collapsed. Ace looked so worried... he thought that this trick only works on dogs...
But don't foxes also belong in the same family as dogs? Also racoon-dogs...
Keiwa then suddenly sat back up, to Ace's surprise.
"Fooled ya!", he quipped as the white fox in front of him suddenly made a menacing growl and started to bite on Keiwa's hand! But as much as Ace seemed to make a motion that it was trying to bite off his hand, the fox's teeth barely grazed his skin. Ace was almost very gentle with him, gnawing on his hand without actually being forceful about it. Keiwa frowned.
Was Ace... MAD at him? For playing dead?
.
Keiwa slowly wrapped his arm around Ace's neck. As if understanding the gesture, Ace released his hand.
"I'm sorry. That was a BAD prank."
xxx
Keiwa used an old pet carrier Sara still kept in their house, despite them never keeping any pets at home. It originally belonged to her friend Chitose, but then after getting a new one after her Maine Coon cat had outgrown the carrier... Chitose-san just left the old one to his sister for no reason!
Well, at least now he had a use for the carrier... because he couldn't imagine carrying Ace around out in the open all over the town.
Hopefully, the people at the vet don't make too much fuss over Ace...
.
The girl manning the front desk at the animal clinic he went to certainly got the surprise of her life! But then again, who wouldn't be surprised to see a full-grown white fox being brought out to your workspace? It's not your typical house pet after all...
"You see... I found this guy following me on my way home yesterday—" Keiwa started to explain before carefully bringing the girl's attention to Ace's injured hind leg. The girl let out a loud cry when Keiwa untied the cloth he used to cover the injured leg. "And then I noticed that it was hurt..."
It still puzzled him. After the incident from the other night, he went to check the wounded hind leg to see if the gash had healed. It didn't. In fact, it looked like the injury got even worse—well, with Ace jumping up and around the house and his room with still a lot of excess energy abound, he wouldn't be surprised if the injury got worse.
It still doesn't explain why Ace could heal his wound though...
But well, at least he had an actual reason to bring Ace to this place.
And as much as he told Sara that he'll find out where Ace might have come from and maybe return him back to his home, Keiwa couldn't help feeling reluctant to part with Ace. But there's no way that he could keep Ace with him... right?
.
The girl called over another doctor who came to check on Ace's leg. Thankfully, the doctor said that he could treat the cut without much problem. It didn't look like there was any infection to the injury too...
Keiwa let out a long sigh of relief.
"Anyway, Doctor... can you think of any place where this fox might have come from?"
The man in front of him just let out a long puff of air as he started to think about it. He shrugged.
"Beats me. I wasn't aware that there was anywhere around this town where a small population of foxes could've made their nest there. And this one... well, it was already hard to see normal foxes showing themselves out of their usual habitat but to see an albino fox—? That's even rarer!"
Keiwa frowned at the doctor. "This guy was an albino? Was it THAT rare to find foxes like him?"
The doctor nodded. "Yes, and they usually don't live too long... because of their differences compared to the other normal foxes—"
"Oh... really? That's terrible..." gasped Keiwa softly as he unconsciously run his fingers over Ace's back.
The doctor just shrugged.
"But don't worry about this guy, we'll take care of him as best as we can!" the doctor reassured him again as Keiwa smiled and bowed at him.
"Thank you! I'm grateful for the help!"
.
"Umm..."
Keiwa glanced back up again as he looked at the front desk girl again. Despite the situation, he still needed to fill in the documentation for Ace so Ace was 'technically' his pet at the moment. So was there anything else that the girl needed from him—?
"What is it?"
The girl bit her lips. "This might be nothing... but you might try to ask the people at the Inari shrine nearby about this fox. They might know something."
Keiwa gasped at her in surprise. "Inari shrine? There was an Inari shrine in this town? I didn't know about that!"
The girl shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised, it was not really that well known much... compared to the other big and popular ones. And the shrine was very old... and quite hidden from view." She sighed. "If you haven't been looking for it, you wouldn't have known that the shrine existed."
"Oh, thank you..." Keiwa exclaimed, before giving her Ace's form. "I'll check the place out after this..."
"I'll write the directions to the shrine for you, or else you might just end up getting lost."
xxx
Ace let out a soft whine as Keiwa was about to leave.
"I'll be back later to pick you up. Just after I check with my own doctor. Don't be too scared here, okay? The people here will take care of you for a while..."
Ace continued to let out a long whine even as he walked out of the animal clinic, so much so that he even felt bad for Ace.
But this was an important step for him. Him and Ace. He'll find out where Ace had come from. And afterwards...
Well, afterwards... they'll figure that out later.
A/N: Haha. I'm trying my best not to leak any elements of angst in this fic. But since this fic really did come from RK, well... the angst would make a comeback eventually. But not now 😃
