Chapter 140 - A Touch Of Miracles 2

The village where Mina and Ceres lived was only one of many Kitsuna settlements to be found on Saints' Vigil Island. A humble little hamlet called Stone's Throw, where every day passed by looking much the same as the one before it…

That was, until the outworlders appeared.

Noriko had made quite an impact during the brief time she was staying here. 

No one knew who she was or where she'd come from, but she proved to be a capable worker and fit right into Kitsuna society, making many friends before embarking on her mysterious quest.

Hotaru, on the other hand…

"Get off your lazy butt and start pulling some beans!"

Lulu was standing over him, stomping with her hands on her hips as he continued to sit peacefully, beneath the shade of a tree, his eyes closed with a serene expression.

"No...you're all doing just fine without me," he mumbled in reply.

"You'll never grow up if you don't work, moron!" Lulu said and gave a frustrated growl, turning red in the face. "What's wrong with you, huh?! Do you really want to be stuck as a child forever? Don't you ever want to be an adult?!"

Hotaru yawned, "what's so great about being an adult, anyway?"

Lulu scoffed, folding her arms. "You're so clueless, I can only imagine how you survived this long," she said, her anger giving way to a happy vibe. "Everyone knows becoming an adult is important because it means you can do even more for the people you love."

"Yeah?" Hotaru opened one eye, peeking at her.

She gave a dreamy sigh, then, and held the sides of her face with an admiring look as she turned away—all of a sudden focusing her thoughts on something pleasant.

"And once I finally grow to be an adult...I can have children of my own." She sighed again. "Oh, I wonder who my love will be."

"Hah! I feel bad for any man who gets stuck with a huge nag like you," Hotaru teased, prompting her to leer at him as he then gave a perplexed look, adding, "and besides, how're you supposed to find someone to marry in a village filled with only women?"

"Man? Woman? Marry?" Lulu spat. "What are you even talking about?"

Hotaru—thinking her reaction to be quite strange—sat upright, with a new question that had just popped into his head. Something he hadn't even considered before, even though it was staring right at him all along.

It was not an easy question to ask:

"Ermm...how is it that the Kitsuna are able to have children, exactly?"

Lulu puffed up her cheeks. "What!"

The ensuing slap could be heard for miles, causing Mina to glance up from the clothes she was washing in a bucket, outside of the village "wash hut"—seeing Hotaru in the field with Lulu, waving to them.

"Your boy is still refusing to work," Ceres said, suddenly appearing from the shadows in the corner of her eye.

"Gah! Don't sneak up on me like that…"

Ceres continued, "it is only a manner of time until the change starts to occur, as he continues to eat of our cursed crop."

"Mhm." Mina stared off into the distance, smiling sadly. "You know, I almost killed him, myself...thinking he could never adjust to this life." She took up a waterlogged cloth from the wash bucket, ringing it in her hands. "That he would eventually come to feel trapped…hopeless...as I did."

"'Did?'" Ceres questioned, her eyebrows arched. "What changed…?"

Mina suddenly looked straight at Ceres, beaming. "Heh, I thought differently just as soon as I woke up and saw you there." Her wide smile shrank, an earnest look in her sparkling eyes. "Because, if even someone as stubborn as Ceres-kun could change, I believe there's hope for the entire village."

"Maybe, but you're lucky I was the only Yako-nin on guard duty that day. Because any other would've killed you on the spot before you even saw it coming—no questions asked—for what you did."

"I know, I know." She shrugged, giving a sly smirk. "I wasn't being ENTIRELY reckless, you know."

"So then tell me, Mina-san: was it that you were planning to expose the boy to the moon water, so that he would become a Yako-nin?"

"That's right. I wanted him to gain the power to go after his friend."

Ceres was aghast. "You would entrust that much power in the hands of an outworlder you've only just met?" she said. "Don't you know how risky that is!?"

Mina wouldn't answer.

For it was true, she'd only just met Hotaru, but already felt she understood him.

He was humble: keenly aware of his flaws and weaknesses, but strived to make ends meet regardless. His sense of nobility was strong, for one so young, borne out of childlike innocence and naivete. 

It was...refreshing, in a way, for the one hundred and twenty-six year old Kitsuna, who had only grown cynical with time.

She looked out across the magic bean fields, to where Hotaru and Lulu were still bickering like always, giggling to herself; thinking of how there couldn't be a more unlikely pair to ever meet.

Ceres was watching, too, trying to hide her smile.

"It'll only be a few days until Lulu-chan's aging ceremony," she said. "No one's toiled harder in the fields than she does, so it's about time."

Mina's smile abruptly faded to a frown. "I hope it doesn't cause a rift between them."

Ceres glanced at her. "Doubt it—Lulu-chan would miss having someone to boss around, and I get this feeling that the boy gets a secret thrill from being bossed around."

Mina giggled. "They'll make a fine Harmonious Pair, one day."

…

Hotaru's POV:

Gah!

"Someone, help!"

Get this crazy bitch off me!

Lulu-chan is small, but it's like I'm a cockroach under a tennis shoe after she had suddenly pounced, landing on top of me, and began pinning me into the swampy magic bean water.

"Pervert! How DARE you ask a ninety nine-year old girl about something so immodest!"

"Ninety-nine-years old?!"

Glancing around, I saw a crowd of other farmer girls had gathered to watch us; laughing, and whispering amongst themselves…

"I didn't mean it like that—honest!"

"Liar! You're thinking of mating with one of us, aren't you?!"

"AH! No way! I already love Norik—"

Just then, throughout all my squirming and splashing I accidentally kneed her in the legs; causing her to fall forward, flat on top of me—

"Mm!"

In a kiss!

We were both blushing, our eyes wide open in shock.

Admittedly, I've never tasted the inside of a girl's mouth before! Let alone the mouth of a ninety-nine-year-old magic bean farming little fox girl...

Our tongues are twisting. I hear her utter a small moan. Her breath is warm against my face. But why is she not pulling away? Calling me a pervert, a moron? Why does it seem like, instead, she's actually enjoying this? Right now, I'm feeling...

Embarrassed, yet also aroused. Like I'm doing something wrong even though all these farm hands are watching us and not saying a word.

My conscience tells me I shouldn't be enjoying this. But...

She feels so small and light in my arms, as I wrap them awkwardly around her tiny waist—pulling her in, instead of pushing her away—all while I'm freaking out thinking of whether I should be hearing police sirens right about now. 

Because, I mean, even if she IS a 99-year old woman, who happens to be in the body of a little fox girl…

Does that REALLY make it any better?

"Hotaru-san," she whines as she suddenly pulls away from me, her face burning red hot, a string of saliva still forming a weak bridge between hers and mine. "Everybody's watching."

The villagers are laughing; teasing the usually stern and all-business Lulu for becoming so emotional.

Those bastards...

They're insulting MY woman!

…

Mina's POV:

I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but Ceres and I were watching, snickering between ourselves at the scene of Hotaru and Lulu's first kiss in the mud, even while the others were loudly laughing at them.

"They're bonding sooner than I expected."

Ceres hissed through her teeth. "Never thought I'd see Lulu-chan make such a face."

"I know you despise honesty."

Ceres glared at me. "I'm plenty honest!"

"Which is why you've been hiding from me for so long."

"Look...we'll talk about it later."

Here we go again...

"This is the second time you've said that, and I've already been waiting for more than a decade for you to open up to me about what happened that night—your own best friend, from ever since we were kits."

She scoffed. "Mina-san, you didn't see what I saw. And still you're making it sound like talking about my single greatest failure in life should be easy."

"Of course not! But it's only gonna keep tearing you up inside if you don't."

However, it was suddenly disrupted just as we saw Hotaru rise up suddenly, clutching Lulu at his side to face down the ring of mocking farmers that had formed around them.

Ceres and I exchanged glances—

This didn't look good.