“You have gotta be kidding me, dude! This whole thing was your idea!”
Two young men sat at one of the small restaurants close to the inn’s main guesthouse, enjoying a quick snack of chilled noodles and tea in the noon sun. Well, ‘enjoying’ might be a strong word for it; while the food was delicious, neither of them seemed particularly at ease despite the tranquil setting of the mountain inn.
“Look, this is a lot to take in! Magic and transformations and… and these weird animal people!?” Robin sighed, brushing his smooth hair out of his eyes in frustration, then blushing when he caught the kitsune chef of the restaurant raising an eyebrow at his comment. “...No offense mean, sir. The food’s fantastic, by the way.”
“None taken,” the kitsune replied airily before returning to his work.
“Totally rude, man,” Beau teased as he shoved another bite of noodles into his mouth before continuing to talk with his mouth stuffed. “I mean, these people gave us a free vacation and they’re letting us play around with all kinds of magical toys? Win-win, right? So why are you sitting in here eating food instead of… I dunno, having fun?”
“Correction. They gave me a free vacation. I just decided to invite you as my plus one,” Robin shot back. “And chew your food before talking to be about being rude…”
Only a few hours earlier, before they had been let in on the secrets of the Shinden resort, Robin and Beau’s positions had been entirely reversed; the usually reserved Robin being almost beside himself with excitement at getting a chance to relax and unwind at a traditional Japanese inn, while Beau was merely playing along and humoring his good friend’s fervor. However, as soon as the their guides had pulled back the curtain at just how different Shinden was from any other resort they had ever heard of, Robin was struck with a great apprehension at how to proceed and Beau instantly began to think of the exciting possibilities the situation offered them.
Opposites attract, it is often said, and these two illustrated that maxim to a tee. After meeting on the first day of college, the two had instantly hit it off despite seemingly sharing very little in common. Shy, quiet Robin liked a good book or a movie and a mug of tea while the ever-energetic Beau could be found at the college gym whenever he had the free time. Yet, their contrasting natures seemed to fit together like yin and yang, with Robin’s cautious nature tempering some of Beau’s reckless plans, while Beau’s outgoing and adventurous attitude toward life helped his friend to step outside his comfort zone and enjoy many of the parties and other college events that he would have otherwise passed on. And, yes, they did have their occasional fights, but they both knew each other well enough to never let things get out of hand and ruin their close friendship.
Unfortunately (for Robin, at least), there was one very important place where they differed that was an occasional frustration; Robin was gay while Beau was… not. Or rather, Beau never really gave any indication what he was, but at the very least the jock had never picked up on the fact that Robin had harbored a crush on him since they day they had met. After numerous failed attempts to get through, Robin decided it wasn’t really worth his time to pursue the matter, and the two young men had been the best of friends ever since, though certainly not without having the occasional spats or arguments…
“Dude, fine! If you wanna sit around here, you just go ahead and do it!” Beau finally sighed. “I’m gonna find so many fuckin’ amulets and other stuff that they’re gonna give me diploma or something!”
“Gotta catch ‘em all, right?” Robin joked, amused at how easy it was to get his friend worked up over something so simple. “Maybe they even have an app that’ll show you where to look? ‘Shinden GO’?”
“...Man, I got no clue what you’re talking about. ‘Sides, I already checked, and the cell reception up here is dogshit,” Beau replied as he stood up and stomped out the door to the restaurant. “Thanks for the food, fox dude!”
“Thank you! Enjoy your stay!” the kitsune called after him, idly rolling out some dough for a fresh batch of soba. After watching the chef at work for a bit, Robin’s apprehension about the resort began to subside, and he had to admit that there was something rather exciting about the opportunities being offered to them by the resort’s management. After all, anyone could go on a vacation to Japan and enjoy the great food, splendid scenery, and unique culture, but to also be given a chance to learn what it was like to be an animal or another magical creature?
I was just having cold feet about all this… Nothing’s worse than a spoilsport when you’re on a vacation with friends, Robin thought to himself as he stood up and left the restaurant. But, Beau’s a reckless idiot, so I’d better find him before he gets himself into trouble...
Outside, however, he could see no sign of his friend. The streets and alleys between the various buildings in the resort were an effective maze, and even though it had only been a few minutes since Beau had ditched his friend to look for adventure, he had already vanished down one of the narrow streets.
“Well, shit. Serves me right for being such a grouch, but… shit,” Robin groaned. “I can already see it… He’s gonna cause some kinda problem and get hauled back to the hotel in the middle of the night… Just like what happened in Miami during spring break a few years ago…”
Robin fretted and paced around the main square of the resort, not noticing the commotion coming from a few blocks down the street. With a burst of wind, a figure fired out of the front door of a local shop and dashed down the road, weaving through the crowd so quickly that they appeared like nothing more than a blur.
That is, until that figure tripped on a loose cobblestone and tumbled through the air, slamming into Robin directly in the chest and knocking the wind out of him. In a daze, the young man looked up to get a better glimpse at whoever had knocked him flat on his ass, but whoever they were they wore a dark scarf wrapped around their face, leaving only a small bit of their eyes exposed. Deep, black eyes like polished marbles, with a bit of brownish-red fur around them.
“Who the…?” Robin gasped, struggling for breath thanks to the person still laying directly on top of him. Still weak from lack of breath, he could only gaze into those only eyes, and whoever this odd person was they didn’t seem in too much of a hurry to escape at the moment…
“The thief went that way! After him!” a cry came up from down the street, instantly taking both of them out of their stupor. Two tall dog-like men were pushing their way through the crowd in their direction, and Robin’s mysterious assailant began to curse in rapid-fire Japanese, in a high, drawling yet distinctly masculine voice.
“Kuso, satsura ne…” he growled, glancing back and forth around the village square for a way to escape. Finally, he looked back at Robin, and Robin could just barely see the corners of the man’s mouth turn up into a smile beneath the black veil he wore. “Hey there, good looking. Mind giving me a hand with something?”
Without waiting for a response, Robin felt the man’s small, soft, and fuzzy hand stuff itself down the front of his pants, eliciting a yelp of surprise before he felt something smooth and slightly weighty get wedged into the waistband of his jeans.
“Do me a solid and keep that thing safe for me, okay? I’ll be back to retrieve it later… Don’t look for me, I’ll find you,” the other man said smoothly. Then, almost as if it were a second thought, he lifted the black veil the tiniest bit to reveal the pointed, furry snout and needle-like teeth of a humanoid weasel before leaning in and planting a quick kiss on Robin’s cheek. “It’s a promise then? You wouldn’t rat on a sweet guy like me, right? Good! Consider it a date!”
Robin felt his heart racing in his chest at the sudden violation of his personal space, but he was still too breathless to muster even the slightest response in protest. Without nothing more than a cheeky grin and a wink, the weasel pulled his scarf back down and leaping up to his feet and looking around. Suddenly, a slight breeze began to blow through the street, ruffling Robin’s hair and making the weasel’s loose garments flutter in the wind.
“People of Shinden, listen up! Sleep with one eye open, for I have arrived!” he announced dramatically to the villagers and tourists that had gathered to investigate the commotion. “It is I, Kaze of the Wind, master thief and mastermind of th-”
“There he is! Get him!”, one the dog-like guards shouted from down the street, instantly deflating the weasel’s self-important speech and making him hiss angrily.
“Yarou, what’s the big idea, huh!? Ain’t ‘ya got even the slightest sense for the dramatic! Yeesh…” ‘Kaze’ spat back. “Well, that’s ruins my mood. I’m outta here, peace out. And I’ll see you later, handsome.”
With a final wink, the weasel leapt high into the air, his long tail waving in the light breeze. At the peak of his jump, the wind suddenly picked up into a strong gale and quite literally carried the thief away like a kite, with his high-pitched laugh echoing through the entire resort as he vanished into a dark speck in the distance.
The streets were silent as his laughter finally vanished, with nobody quite sure what exactly they had witnessed. The two dogs finally caught up to where Robin was laying in the street and carefully helped him back to his feet. Up close, he could see that they looked like a cross between a dog and a lion, with smooth brown fur and long, flowing manes of flame-red fur around their necks and peeking out from front of their robes. Each man was nearly two meters tall and with powerful, broad, and muscular bodies, and out of the corner of his eye Robin could see a small sword sheathed at their hip. Everything about them, from their powerful bodies to their authoritative attitudes, told Robin immediately that these were some sort of police officers for the resort.
“Sheriff Rai, at your service,” the first lion-dog replied tersely, glancing off into the distance where the thief had escaped to just seconds earlier. “Did that man harm you in any way? If so, may be escort you to the resort infirmary for medical attention?”
“N-no, I’m fine…” Robin stammered, feeling the slight weight of whatever object the thief had left him with. “What the hell just happened? Who was that guy?”
“Well, if you trust what he said, he’s just some thief. And a kamaitachi by the looks of things. I'd always heard that tribe of youkai were dangerous, but he seemed like a total joke,” the second lion-dog scoffed. “Broke into an antique store down the road, but i seems like the owner chased him off before he could take anything…”
“That’s enough, Officer Jin,” the sheriff said quietly, noticing the surrounding tourists leaning in for a listen. “In any case, he’s gone and it’s very unlikely that he’ll be back. We’d like to make it very clear that there will not be a crime problem for our guests here at the resort during our opening season…”
“Huh? Yeah, whatever you say, man,” Robin said nervously. Suddenly, the object (clearly stolen) stuffed in his waistband felt like it weighed a ton. Why the hell don’t I just hand this thing over to the cops? It’s not my fucking problem, he thought frantically, yet for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. Every time he did, he could only think of the deep, dark eyes of the thief and feel the light touch of his kiss on his cheek. Was he being manipulated by a criminal? Sure. Obviously. But that didn’t make it any easier to stab the guy in the back.
“Well, I’m glad you’re safe, sir. Now, we’ve got a thief to catch! Let’s go, Officer Jin!” Sheriff Rai barked, and the two lion-dogs dashed off down the road, desperate to pick up the trail of the so-called ‘Master Thief’.
As soon as he felt it was safe, Robin ducked into a darkened alley and pulled the object that the weasel-man calling himself ‘Kaze’ had burdened him with out from his waistband. Holding it up, he saw that it was a small dagger held inside a black enameled sheath, with hundreds of tiny Japanese characters engraved into the sheath and inlaid with gold and silver bands.
Shit… This thing’s gotta be worth a fortune! Robin thought to himself as he looked at the object with awe. No wonder that guy wanted to steal it…
With a quick tug, Robin pulled the sheath away from the blade, revealing the razor-sharp weapon inside. Without thinking, he ran the tip of his finger over the dagger’s blade, instantly drawing a line of blood across his fingertip.
“Ouch! Damn it!” he spat, instantly feeling like an idiot as he sucked on the cut to slow the bleeding. He immediately resheathed the stolen dagger and hurriedly stuffed it into one of his pockets, completely at a loss as to what to do with it. “That’s the kind of shit I’d expect Beau to do… Wait, I totally forgot about him! God, if he hears about this, there’s no way he’ll ever let me forget it...”