It takes about fifteen minutes to walk to Burwood, while I listen to an audio book. “The First Tail”, Taniko Williams. All about a kitsune alchemist…
For now, I’m walking sans illusions, relying on my hoody and long skirt for concealment. This time of day some of the schools release students for lunch, and in case the police decide I’m truancy material, well, my age is close enough to 15 that I may pass, and if not I can slap on my “old me” illusion.
I head up the escalators to the food court. I check the time on my tablet; I have a few minutes to spare. I duck over to the Chinese place and get a small serving of mabu tofu with rice, put it on a tray, then head out to the balcony.
Kevin is there, looking around. I’m glad to see he’s already grabbed his own lunch, a pork roll.
I walk up behind him and then, after a quick look around, apply my “old me” illusion and tap him on the shoulder. He starts, then twists around to see me and grins in greeting.
Seeing me holding my food, he makes no attempt to shake hands, although he does look a little puzzled. That’s fair enough, my hands are DOWN HERE but the illusion’s hands are UP THERE so there’s a slight shimmer around the tray.
I smile myself and work my way around to the seat opposite him, and greet him in my best-effort older-me voice. His brow furrows at the sound.
“Right,” I say, “My voice is part of what I wanted to talk about. To be honest it’s probably the least important thing.
“Before we go on, please make sure you’re not holding anything you might break if you drop it.”
Doesn’t seem to be anything.
“Right. You’re going to find this pretty shocking. The situation is complicated; before you get too worried, I’ll just say that this is something I’m actually pretty happy about.
“OK, three, two, one, and…”
I drop the illusion and flip back my hoody.
Kevin’s eyes open in shock.
“So,” I continue, “The Japanese deity Inari Okami apparently has a habit of adopting occasional visitors to her temple, and I have the honour of having been selected.
“I’m still me, not some sort of impostor, and yes, I do now look like a fourteen-year-old girl. In most ways I might as well be a fourteen-year-old girl, although obviously I retain my memories.
“And as you probably noticed, I’m no longer entirely human. In addition to the ears, I have…” wrestling up the long skirt so I can pull out my tail, “this pleasantly fluffy appendage. There’s also a few neat tricks I can do as part of my now-kitsune heritage.”
Kevin’s shock is starting to clear, gradually replaced by inquisitiveness.
I continue.
“As I mentioned earlier, I’m actually quite happy about this for a number of very good reasons. The one you may be most concerned about, my gender, is actually one of the things I like most. Additionally, it now seems I have an entirely new and separate family of fellow kitsune, not least of which is Inari, who is… word fail me. She is my second mother, who has granted my heart’s desire.”
Kevin seems a little shell-shocked. It’s not every day you run into something out of mythology. He takes a breath and visibly focuses.
Kevin waits a beat for me to continue, then interjects “So how did this happen?”
“I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to tell you,” I reply, “but basically it’s something of a random lottery with some special conditions attached. It has to do with visiting Inari’s temple some years ago, but while that’s necessary it’s just a part of the picture.”
“So,” Kevin asks, “What will you be doing next? Why did you want to talk today? Does this mean you’ll be resigning?”
“For now, I’ll keep working as usual. I wanted to talk to you today partly so you would realise what was going on with any oddities with my online presence in Slack and Zoom, and partly because, to be honest… I just wanted to talk to somebody about it. You wouldn’t believe how exciting I’m finding this. Physical aspects aside, I can now actually do a little bit of actual magic! You saw a bit of it with the illusion earlier, but that’s just part of it.
“I do have a meeting at the Japanese embassy tonight. I’m not entirely sure what that’s all about. If you don’t hear from me on Monday, you’ll know who to ask, but from what I can tell they were, on the whole, fairly… benign, I supposed you could say.”
“Can I see some magic?”
“Sure. Look up.” Kevin finds my little raincloud illusion parked above his head, complete with occasional lightning flashes. His eyes widen.
I notice a couple a few tables away staring. ”Testing some special effects!” I yell out to them, waving my arms around.
“There’s also this,” I say, then form a tiny blue flame on top of one finger. “Supposedly, different kitsune get other magics, but I don’t know yet what mine might be. I’m hoping to find out at the embassy.”
After a couple more demonstrations we finish up and I ask what he would suggest concerning how, or even if, we open this up to the team. I think we need to tell Bob; normally I would have told him first, but he lives a little too far away for a lunchtime meeting to be practicable, and digitally faking another face is too easy to do.
That night, as soon as we’re done with shift handover, I hurry to Strathfield Station and catch the next service to the CBD. I consider catching the light rail from Central, but it seems likely that the extra time taken in making the connection will more than exceed the time saved by a shorter walk from the station to our destination.
I travel in my incognito hoody form, with long skirt to hide my tail, but a small illusion to reduce the prominence of my ears; this is rush hour, and the disagreement between looking like a older guy with none of the physical presence is bound to draw attention. I’m also worried about the illusion collapsing at the wrong time.
Unfortunately, this is basically rush hour, although the bulk of passengers are traveling in the opposite direction, so crowding is relatively mild.
I have the option of switching to a tram at Town Hall station which will get me a bit closer to the embassy on O’Connell St, but instead I stay on the train until Wynyard to avoid the overhead of an additional connection. Hopping off the train at Wynyard, I take the pedestrian underpass to go under George St then head up towards the embassy.
As I walk up to the building, I see a petite young Japanese woman in a grey dress skirt standing to one side of the door, looking around for somebody; presumably that would be me. She bows slightly as I approach, and I do the same. “Konbanwa” she says politely, which I return with my mangled accent. She looks a little puzzled for a moment, then gestures to me to accompany her as he uses her pass to enter the building.
We walk into the consulate, clearly operating on a skeleton staff at the moment, and walk into a room at the rear. I’m a little bemused to see paper talismans placed on each wall.
A distinguished-looking man in his early fifties bows to me, which seems to catch the woman who had accompanied me by surprise. After a moment, I return the bow in equal degree. Tanaka asks my escort to leave the room; I recognise his voice from this morning’s call, but he introduces himself once more.
“Geona-sama,” – I smile briefly to hear myself recognised under my true name – “we are honoured by the presence of a representative of Inari Okami-sama. Our senior embassy staff are briefed on these situations; I realise while you may be uncomfortable with the deference you will be shown, please realise you now stand in the stead of one of the most revered Okami of the Japanese people.
“We are here to assist you in… adapting to your new circumstances. While you are not living in the Home Islands, you also stand to some degree in the stead of the nihonjin and we humbly entreat you to consider this in your future actions.
“These things said, let us address some additional matters.
“The first thing we wish to do is to determine the magical proficiencies granted to you by Inari-sama. These vary a great deal between people, even between kitsune. Fortunately, the methods for determining these are well-developed.”
Tanaka-san brings out a compact device, about the size and shape of a shoebox. The left-hand size of the top holds an OLED digital display, although I cannot read it as the text is entirely in Japanese.
The right side of the top of the device holds what looks like a paper talisman, but as I see the symbol on the talisman change, I realise it’s actually an e-ink display on a flexible substrate.
“Please place your right hand on the talisman,” Tanaka-san requests, “and push your magical power into it. If you are unsure how to do this… I cannot advise you; if need be we can call for experts in Tokyo, but -“
I interrupt him with a raised hand. “Please, there is no need. What sort of otaku” – Tanaka winces at the word; otaku is not a compliment in Japan – “would I be if I hadn’t experimented with my magic as soon as the note you sent me advised me?”
Placing my hand on the talisman, I push soul energy into the machine. The talisman cycles through several kanji; each time it changes, it seems to drain me a little. After a dozen or so symbols, it stops and the machine beeps.
Tanaka looks at the display and glances at me; I shake my head to indicate I can’t read it. He continues.
“You have the expected proficiencies in illusion and fire; this is seen in all kitsune. You also have proficiencies in life and lightning. Life is fairly common amongst kitsune due to Inari-okami-sama’s authority over the harvest. Lightning is less so.”
“Illusion magic is as you might expect; it projects illusions of light and sound for others to perceive. This includes a small mental component to fool the mind as well as they eye. You will find that the effect is somewhat limited initially when dealing with electronic devices as they are not subject to the mental component. Electronic cameras will often show your true image. This will become common as your facility with the magic strengthens.
“As the letter you received advised, for now the duration of your illusions is limited, so be careful depending on them; as touch is unaffected, until the mental component can be reinforced, people touching your illusions may find the effect broken.
“We are aware that kitsune have a loving for mischief and illusions are probably your most powerful tool in this regard. However, please don’t go too far in pranking others.” He looks slightly resigned as he glances behind himself at the fix tail which has mysteriously attached itself to him.
“Your second proficiency is with fire. Kitsune flames not quite the same as mundane flames; you can draw in and absorb such flames, as your flames are ascendant over them, within certain limitations. Your fire also has a purifying component, and they will not harm those to whom you wish no harm.
“Your third proficiency is with Life magic. This bears directly on Inari-sama’s authority as a goddess of the harvest, but it can also be used for healing, as well as for accelerating growth. Life magic is not always a boon; it can also accelerate infections or cause rampant growth if drawn upon to do so.
“Your final proficiency is with lightning. While this remains rare amongst kitsune, we have found it is becoming more common in the last fifty years or so as people are increasingly surrounded by electricity and electromagnetic radiation. Your proficiency here is unusually strong.
“There are other proficiencies for which you bear slight traces. These are not strong enough to be particularly useful but are not entirely useless.
“Your water proficiency is slight, enough perhaps to create a cup full of water.
“Your air proficiency is enough to cause a small, localised breeze.
“You seem to be entirely lacking in earth, metal, death and chaos proficiencies.
“Lacking Earth is unusual. You would have to have spent the bulk of your life elevated away from the ground. Inari’s role as goddess of the harvest usually ensure kitsune have some draw to earth magic; this does not seem to be true in your case.
“Metal proficiency is quite common in modern times due to the widespread use of metals in everyday life. However, metal is subsidiary to earth, which is likely why you are lacking in that respect.
“Death is opposed to life so this is expected; lacking chaos is also common. While some may think kitsune to be agents of chaos due to your inclination to prank others, the pranks are almost always benign, and Inari-sama is herself a powerful force for good and order.”
I quietly absorb this information and think of how it may be used before Tanaka interrupts me.
“Let’s move into my office.”