A/N: Lol here goes nothing. The last part was just someone tryna being cheesy. I end up writing the rest of it on the fly within ten minutes. 😃😃😃
Win let out a long sigh as he watched Keiwa affectionately pressing his face onto Ace's furry back and hugging the albino fox happily. And Ace returned the gesture by trying to groom Keiwa's messy hair to be a bit neater and licking the side of Keiwa's cheek. Michinaga just silently cringed at them, muttering about some unnecessary PDAs. Neon just smiled at them wistfully as she eyed the two being so sweet with each other.
Win exchanged glances with Tsumuri, before turning towards Keiwa with worry. "Anyway, as much as I think that we shouldn't worry too much about Ace gaining... or regaining his tails—because that might mean that there's a possibility for us to find a way to restore his body to being a human—we shouldn't also stop being cautious over this new development."
Keiwa looked back at the man as Ace continued nibbling at his ears acting as if the current conversation didn't involve him. "What do you mean?" asked Keiwa as Wn shrugged.
"I mean, it may not be a great coincidence that Ace only started regaining his powers or tails right now. Considering how for the past few months, nothing much had happened to him despite how long Tsumu-chan had been praying for Ace to turn back to normal. Yet now, there was an unexpected change." Win shrugged. "From what I can see, there's only one explanation to all of this—"
Everyone turned their heads to look at Win (including Ace) as Win kept staring straight at Keiwa.
"You, Keiwa-kun."
Keiwa blinked at him in confusion. "M-me?"
Win nodded, as now everyone's attention was locked on Keiwa. "All of this began once Ace started living with you—", Win suddenly turned towards Neon. "Didn't you mention it the other day, little Miss? How it was strange that Keiwa seemed to be able to recognise us even before he properly regained his memories about the DesiGra?"
"Oh... yeah," gasped Neon as Michinaga narrowed his eyes even more in Keiwa's direction. Though he might actually be staring at Ace, at the moment.
"And anyway... Keiwa. Didn't you mention yesterday that you got some random flashes about Ace?"
Ace's ears immediately picked up on that statement, as the fox got out of Keiwa's lap and stared at the former tanuki rider worriedly.
Keiwa just shrugged at them. "I'm not really sure what it was actually about... honestly. It was just a few more flashes of memories... from when Ace turned into a fox in front of me at the hospital." He shook his head slowly. "But even now if I want to recall it back, the memories still ended up hazy. I'm not even sure if I could even recall it again correctly..."
.
"That said, Keiwa..." Neon suddenly spoke out, before inspecting the big pet carrier Keiwa brought over. "Are you sure Ace was fine being cooped up in here when you take him outside? It seemed pretty 'small' for him."
Keiwa raised an eyebrow at her. "Huh—? But the size had been fine when I took him to the vet last time." He turned his attention towards Ace. "Unless in the past week and a half, you've gotten fat with all the jerkies and tofu and all sort of things we've been feeding you all this time—aah!" Keiwa squeaked as Ace nipped his right ear suddenly.
Keiwa flinched, a slight bit ticklish as Ace kept nipping on his ears before glancing back towards Neon. "Though to be honest, I did plan to just get a pet harness for him so that Ace could put it on when we go out—so that people won't think that he was just a stray—once Ace's leg was healed. But with the situation with his tail right now..."
"Ace was hurt?" exclaimed Neon and Win at the same time as Miichi acted as if he didn't care about it (but actually he did).
Keiwa nodded as he grabbed Ace into his arms again before showing the others Ace's bandaged hind leg. "Come to think about it," he spoke again as Keiwa cocked his head to the side, "...since it's been more than a week already, I should go back to the vet to check if Ace's injury had healed so that we could remove the bandage as well. But the tails though—"
"Can't Ace just hide his other tail though? Or make it not visible?" mused Neon loudly as Keiwa shrugged.
"I dunno..." he muttered softly before looking at Ace. "Can you do that?" he asked before looking at Win and Micchi and Neon and Tsumuri, without waiting for Ace to answer. "I remembered how last time Ace could heal my wound just by licking on them but for some reason, he couldn't heal his own wounds. But I'm not sure if he had any other abilities... or can you try that now, Ace?"
The fox just looked at him unsure before Ace placed a paw over Keiwa's arm. "I could try... I mean, back then... I didn't even [know] that I could heal your wound when you got hurt that one time. I just [wanted] to make you feel better."
Keiwa nodded his head in understanding. "I see... and thank you, Ace. Even when I didn't quite remember you properly that time."
"What's he barking about?" Miichi suddenly cut in as Neon and Win just hissed at him. Keiwa just ignored them as he gently patted Ace's head as the fox closed its eyes to concentrate.
After a while, Ace started to shiver suddenly... and the furs on its body continued to ruffle as the tremors slowly reached down towards the base of Ace's tails. And even as Ace started to shake his tails slowly, one of the tails started to shimmer into nothing... and within a few moments, Ace's second tail had now disappeared!
Ace opened up one eye, as he glanced up towards Keiwa. "Did that work?"
Win let out a whistle as Michinaga shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe what I'm seeing!"
"You did it, Ace-sama!" exclaimed Neon as she started to grab Ace's paw and danced with him.
The former cat rider then started grinning at Keiwa. "I guess that means we'll head to the vet after this?"
Keiwa just laughed helplessly against that unbridled cheerfulness.
"I suppose that's the next plan now."
xxx
"Let's see if the wound is healed..." said the doctor at the animal clinic as he spared a brief glance towards the rest of Keiwa's entourage. The man grinned. "I see that you brought more friends with you today."
Keiwa snorted at the man as he glanced at the group of people waiting in front of the counter. "Well, Ace gained quite some fans in the past few days—"
The doctor smiled as he carefully cut the bandage open before nodding to himself. "Ah, good... looks like the leg already healed nicely. Let me remove some of the remaining sutures... and adhesive from Ace's fur and that's practically it."
Keiwa nodded at the man as Neon suddenly pushed him aside. "Ne, sensei... does this clinic also sells any pet stuff like a harness or anything?"
The man glanced up at her while trying to wet some of the dried adhesives on Ace's leg. "Oh, we do. Just go ask Reiko-san at the counter —"
"Yay!" exclaimed Neon as she ran back out to the front of the clinic...
.
CLICK!
Neon grinned as she inspected her handiwork. The pet harness fitted Ace so snugly!
"How'd you like the new harness, Ace-sama?"
Ace started barking a few times as Keiwa shrugged at her. "I guess he's fine with it since at least now he could walk around freely. But you don't really have to buy that for us, Neon."
Neon just shook her head at him. "It's fine... and this had been a fun trip, to be honest. Right, guys?" she exclaimed, before looking back to the two other men behind her. (Tsumuri went back to the shrine after they decided to escort Keiwa and Ace to the local vet.)
Win started to giggle by himself as Michinaga just turned his head elsewhere.
"Not really—" quipped Miichi as that prompted Ace to start chasing Michinaga again to nip his ankles happily.
"Ah, no... Ace—!" Keiwa exclaimed before helping Neon to her feet. And soon after, Keiwa, Neon and Win also joined the chase as they tried to stop a really mischievous fox from bullying another of their friend...
xxx
So, as the story goes...
...there was a lone white fox. One day, the young fox had lost its mother... and journeyed long across different lifetimes to find her. Near the end of its journey, the fox met a tanuki, a bull, a cat and a pumpkin bear king. And along the way, all of them were met with many obstacles and heartache.
The young fox finally found its mother, yet the mother had to leave him so soon. So the young fox tried to instead do something to make his new friends happy. But in doing so, one of its dear friends... a tanuki become gravely hurt.
Thus the young fox made a small prayer to save the tanuki, even if it meant that they would never see or remember each other again. Yet one day the young fox and tanuki met each other again...
And the lonesome fox was no longer alone.
A/N2: Hehe. The End. For now.
Until the next arc of the TanuKitsune series...
