Mia looked at the cat-girl with a fox tail in front of her, inanely frustrated by the request.

"...And WHY do I have to help you here? Aren't YOU the expert on transformation?"

The cat-girl, Shiori, almost instantly took an embarrassed pose, looking very carefully at the ground.

"Um... I messed up again... I meant to turn myself into a fox-girl but..."

Mia sighed in frustration again. Why was it that everyone always came to her whenever they wound up with some weird naturally incurable problem? It took her all of four seconds to realize the reason why, staring at the bizarre mixture of concoctions that filled her room. 

Oh, right...  she reminded herself, looking at the concoction she had been working on for a few years now. She was the only one with enough materials and skill to do... pretty much anything, really. Though she STILL didn't know how exactly that managed to get out.

"Why did you want to turn into a fox-girl anyways? It's not like there looks to be an indication of any more of those incubii any time soon, judging by the way Miss Tazuka's been acting."

...All right, so that was a bit of a lie. Ai Tazuka had locked herself in her room, paranoid about being near any blood, but then, that was usual for her. Only Miss Sorizawa and perhaps Touji could even come close to her without her flipping out, really.

Shiori blushed slightly, and revealed her plan.

"Well, I heard from someone that Touji really likes foxes, and I thought it'd really get his attention if I turned myself into a fox-girl..."

Mia sighed, allowing her memories to take her over.

"Touji likes foxes, huh..."

*****

It wasn't unusual for children to have disturbing, almost psychotic bursts of cruelty. They ripped wings from flies, they sent ants aflame with magnifying glasses, that sort of thing, all the time. Even in supposedly "nicer" places like Japan, there wasn't any safe haven for those poor animals too weak to defend themselves from their wrath. This wasn't really any different.

The bleeding fox was kicked over by another one of the kids, who seemed to laugh as it whimpered and tried to get up. It was a kit really, which must have strayed to far from its parents... Of course, in the real world, the parents didn't miraculously appear out of nowhere to save their dying child. Perhaps, its parents were already dead, killed by anything from being hit by a car, to potentially winding up in some sort of trap. Of course, there was no real way to guess either way. Their actions disgusted her on some unexplainable level, as though something inside her screamed that all life is equal, no matter how big or small it is.

The fourteen year old pushed her way into the throng of boys, glaring them away as she picked up the poor creature. Admittedly, if the boys wanted to, they could probably add her to the beating they were giving, but there was something about her eyes that told them that if they came any closer, they would suffer. They didn't know HOW they would suffer, but it was enough to break down even the strongest child's mind. As the boys ran away from her, she turned once again to the fox, carefully tending its wounds.

*****

A sixteen-year-old blonde girl simply sat nearby, watching the fox wander through the grass, seemingly aimlessly. Just knowing that it had kept healthy after this long gave her a bit of happiness. She never did manage to find the kit's parents, and as such had been raising it, allowing it to wander in safe areas. Of course, she was alone in this joy, but to her at least, that didn't really matter. So long as the fox was able to be happy...

The fox quickly pushed against her leg, getting her attention. She carefully picked up the kit, treating it as though she were its mother.

"Oh, you're ready to head home then, Kuzunoha?" As soon as she finished talking to it, someone else spoke up.

"Oh, so its name is Kuzunoha, is it?" Mia snapped her head towards the intruder into their world, taking in the newcomer's presence. With black hair and blue eyes, he seemed to hold the presence of a typical, slightly timid Japanese male. Of course, it could well have been an act. Mia kept her guard up, especially guarding the fox most of all. The boy in turn shook his head and spoke to her.

"Oh no, don't worry, I'm not going to hurt it or anything. In fact, I'd almost say it led me to you."

Mia simply narrowed her eyes, and brought her head to face the fox.

"Is this true, Kuzunoha?" Of course, it's arguable whether or not the fox could actually understand, but its response was a self-satisfied cry of "Kon!", before closing its eyes in contentment. The boy simply smiled and continued speaking to Mia.

"See? Kuzunoha's just agreed with me. I'm Touji... Touji Jikou. It's nice to meet you." Mia smiled slightly, and introduced herself as well.

*****

It seemed that indeed, Kuzunoha had an innate ability to tell which people got along well together. The two had been taking care of the fox together for over two years now. Of course, these days, the fox had to practically attack them to get their attention away from each other's conversations, but it was all well and good from Mia's point of view. The fox ultimately had to be reintegrated into its own society eventually anyways... and now that it was much less dependent of Mia, it was pretty much free to run away whenever it liked. However, it stayed, probably because it seemed to like Mia and Touji.

Today's conversation was actually on their plans once they graduated. At this point, Touji was the one in charge of the conversation.

"So, you're planning on becoming a veterinarian?" Mia smiled and nodded, before responding herself.

"Yes... I'd like to be able to take care of as many animals as I can... What about you, Touji? Have you made a decision yourself yet?" Touji simply shook his head.

"No, I still don't have any idea what I'm going to do... guess being around Natoko's finally starting to rub off on me, huh?" Natoko was a childhood friend of Touji's. In particular, she herself was actually planning on attending some sort of "Magic School"... what a joke. Magic didn't exist at all, in Mia's opinion. Almost all of it had a scientific explanation, which most people seemed to be unable to catch.

To be honest, Mia didn't actually like Natoko very much. Natoko seemed to have a belief that Touji was in some way her property, and as such flipped out whenever she caught Touji talking to someone female. Somehow though, Touji remained ignorant to Natoko's slight power trip, despite the near impossibility of that, in her opinion. Mia admitted that Touji more often than not came off more than a little ignorant, but he was a good conversationalist just the same.

"Hey, where's that fox going?" Some random person shouted, pointing to a fox which had quickly hopped from the grass onto a nearby road, exploring it for the first time. Mia and Touji instantly turned to look, as a car barrelled down towards it. For the first time since Mia met him, Touji cursed, then quickly charged towards the fox, attempting to gather it off the road. However, all that resulted from this was two bloody bodies, lying on the edge of the road.

*****

Mia shook off the memory of when she first became aware of her powers, willing herself to not remember the pain that followed. She turned to face Shiori, who was worriedly looking at her... of course, Shiori wasn't paying enough attention at the time, and fell over, giving Mia barely enough time to dodge as the cat-girl came crashing into the ground.

Mia, wanting to get this over as quickly as possible, spoke to Shiori, even as the cat-girl dragged herself up.

"So, you want my help so that you can get those cat-ears and such turned into fox parts, correct?" The cat-girl excitedly nodded her head in response. Mia sighed inwardly, helping Shiori up.

"All right, let's get you some fox-ears, shall we?" Mia said to her, thinking to herself. It would be just as well if Shiori got Touji anyways... it's not like he remembered her anyways.