A/N: Anyone thought that it'll be smooth sailing once Ace regains all of his nine-tails like in the mythical nine-tailed fox stories? Nah... he'll get some of those tails, all right. But it won't happen without a price. [laughs evilly]
Three chapters in one day, yeah... it'll be one of those days (actually I posted chapter 5 on AO3 yesterday, but I only revised it properly today.)
Win and Tsumuri looked up as they heard the sounds of more footsteps coming towards their direction. Michinaga immediately got on his feet and rushed over to help Neon lead Keiwa over towards them.
"How're you doing, Tycoon?" asked the younger former buffalo rider as Michinaga caught his arm to help him walk. Keiwa just waved the concerns aside.
Keiwa shrugged at him. "I'm fine, sorry if I alarmed you earlier when I fainted without warning—"
Michinaga just made the ugliest face he could ever make at Keiwa. "ALARMED me, you say? Dude, you just scared the shit outta me... seriously! Don't ever do that again!", said Michinaga again as he tried his best not to scream at the former tanuki rider.
"And what did you mean that you're fine, Keiwa?" exclaimed Neon as she still supported Keiwa's weight on his other side. "You barely can walk straight even with me helping you stand!"
Keiwa just nodded at her without a word before nodding and bowing towards Win and Tsumuri. And then his attention turned towards the medium-sized albino fox hiding behind Tsumuri's long skirt.
"Ace—!"
.
Ace started barking at Keiwa the moment the latter tried to approach the fox. Keiwa sighed again. "Ace... I scared you a lot earlier, isn't it? I'm sorry. I was taken off-guard when those kids shoved me towards the street without warning." Keiwa took a long breath as he stepped closer towards the albino fox. "As you can see, I'm all right now."
And true enough, Keiwa was able to walk towards Ace without needing Neon or Michinaga to help him. Yet Ace still continued to bark at Keiwa again while the rest of the people inside the garage were left guessing at what the two were talking about.
Keiwa just shook his head at the fox. "Ace, it's not a sure thing that things will happen the way you thought it could be. Come on, let's go home?"
Suddenly Ace's three tails started to stand up and the albino fox began to growl and shriek and bared its fangs towards Keiwa. Win just shook his head at the sight as he and Tsumuri backed away to join Michinaga and Neon.
"That's what happened earlier. When Ace started to cry loudly over something, I suggested that we all head together to your place to check on you. And then Ace started to do that—"
Keiwa turned around to look at Win before nodding his head. "I see. Sorry about that." He turned back to look at Ace once again.
"It was because he was scared. He was scared that something terrible will happen to me if he started to regain all of his powers and nine tails—"
Neon frowned as Keiwa finished speaking. "Something terrible? What did you mean by that, Keiwa?"
"It means that I might die... or never wake up again the next time I fell into a deep sleep," explained Keiwa again without much inflection in his voice. Ignoring the sounds of surprised and shocked gasps behind him, Keiwa knelt in front of Ace.
"Nothing like that should happen to me, Ace. I trust you—" Keiwa suddenly shook his head. "—no, I want to trust you. You'll figure out a way to overcome this situation. So Ace... can we go home now?", he asked again as Keiwa reached out to touch Ace's head.
And then Ace swatted Keiwa's hand aside and several droplets of blood fell onto the floor!
Keiwa winced, as he pulled back his right arm... now bloodied as there was now a long gash on the back of Keiwa's right hand, in between his forefinger and down to his wrist. Ace was even surprised that he hurt Keiwa THAT much, but the fox didn't make a move towards the man despite that.
"I see..." Keiwa said slowly as he got back on his feet. "You really didn't want to come back with me. Very well—" he said as Keiwa turned around to leave...
"Wait a sec—!" Win cried out as he ran over to him carrying a box of first aid kit. He immediately pulled Keiwa to the side to try to stop the bleeding on Keiwa's right hand. "We can't just let that wound be. Especially to someone as fragile as you right now..."
xxx
"We'll escort him home..."
Keiwa let out another sigh as he glanced sideway towards the two people accompanying him from both sides. He chuckled mirthlessly. "Guys... Neon-chan, Miichi... I told you that I can go back by myself. You guys can already head back to your homes already! We're almost in front of the main building, I can practically walk up to the apartment with my eyes closed!"
Michinaga shook his head. "Nope. I don't want to hear next time that you end up dead in some news segment on the television or something—!"
"I want to make sure that you really arrived at your doorsteps safely, Keiwa!" exclaimed Neon as she puffed her cheeks in anger. "You DID promise Sara-san that you'll get back home safely!"
Keiwa nodded his head before turning around towards his two friends. "Hai, hai... and now we arrived in front of the apartment already. I should be fine from here. I'll just take the staircase up to the second floor—and you guys should already know where the apartment I lived with my sister is located."
"Yeah—" sighed Miichi, as he turned away from Keiwa, acting as if he hadn't been worried sick about Keiwa. "You'd definitely be able to reach home by yourself from here on!"
Keiwa chuckled at the show of aloofness. He turned his back from Neon and Michinaga before wincing slightly as he clutched his chest.
.
Neon slapped Michinaga's arm playfully before laughing. "You're really such a big tsundere, Miichi. I really wouldn't have believed that you'd turn out to be this kind of person back then when I first met you."
"Shut up... enough teasing me. And back then I DID put up an act in front of you guys when I acted like I wanna tie you along with that Da·Paan. Because that guy insisted that we made a big show about it."
Neon nodded again at him. "Sure... sure, I've already forgotten about that—" she started to say before both of them heard a loud sound behind them.
The two of them turned around as both of them started to cry out—!
xxx
Ace's ears suddenly shot up as if he had sensed something happening from afar...
.
"—seriously, I did not expect that things would escalate like this..." Win started to say as Tsumuri turned around to check on Ace.
"Ace-sama?" she called out as she barely caught the white fox running out of the garage. Both Win and Tsumuri looked at each other as they reached a mutual understanding.
"You'd think Ace sensed something happening to Keiwa-kun somehow?" asked Win as Tsumuri nodded. "Fine, wait outside... I'll take my bike out, it'll be faster to chase the fox with that—!"
.
Ace looked around the surroundings as he tried to identify the familiar landmarks that he used to see when he took the bus with Keiwa to reach home. Or more like, he tried to retrace the path that he and Buffa took earlier to go to PunkJack's garage from Keiwa's place. And eventually, he recognized a familiar road as Ace sped more towards the direction he knows will lead to Keiwa's apartment with Sara-san. And he could hear the sounds of a bike, following him from behind. That must be PunkJack with his sister. Good then. In case he lost his way he should be able to depend on them to lead the way... since his sister should also know where Keiwa lived with his sister...
As Ace continued to run on his four legs, he started to feel static gathering around every fibre of his white and red fur. And if there were more shadows trailing down from behind him Ace could care any less about it.
Because all that mattered now was for him to rush back to Keiwa's side...
He better get there as fast as possible before it was too late—!
xxx
"Tycoon! Hey, buddy... wake up already!"
"Keiwa! Wake up!"
As Michinaga and Neon tried in vain to wake their unconscious friend, there was a sudden ball of light speeding up towards him—and pushed Michinaga cleanly to the side. And before Keiwa's unconscious body could fall onto the hard gravel, a pair of slender arms caught him before pressing Keiwa's tightly against their chest. Neon glanced up towards the figure in front of her as the ball of light started to form a humanoid form before revealing itself to be Ace as a human.
Well... somewhat human, as Neon could still see a pair of red fox ears on top of Ace's 'normal' human ears.
Almost at the same time, Win and Tsumuri arrived in front of the place on a bike.
.
Crystal tears kept falling from Ace's eyes as he cradled Keiwa's body in his arms.
"Keiwa... wake up! I'm sorry!" he continued to cry before shaking Keiwa gently. "I didn't mean what I said earlier, just please open your eyes! Please, Keiwa!"
Yet no matter how much Ace had begged him to, Keiwa wouldn't open his eyes...
A/N2: I'm really making the Weather Hearts' garage the team's de facto headquarters in this series www
Aaa... I wish someone could draw the last scene since I couldn't quite grasp the image clearly inside my head. But just imagine Ace's appearance during the Buffa HBV. Haha, did you think it wouldn't be this soon before Ace could return to become human?