Joelle walked through the door of her hotel room. "Hi, Kristi!" she called. "I'm back."
Kristi approached Joelle naked in her werevixen form and hugged her. "Welcome back! Where did you vanish to, anyway?"
"I snuck into the high school and had a chat with Ellie, Harper, Beck, and Brianna," Joelle answered.
"You really shouldn't have done that," Kristi chided. "You could've been mistaken for some kind of pervert or school shooter."
"I know," Joelle said, "Good thing my buttload of facial piercings and my punky hairdo makes me look like a teen." She pointed at the metal studs dotting her face and at her choppy neon blue pixie cut. "Still dumb of me, though, I guess. But I'm just so excited about the trip!"
Kristi smiled. "Same here! I'm so tired of this flat belly." She patted her slender, waspy stomach for effect. "I haven't been able to do a camshow in about a month, you know. I bet my fans are all desperate to see jellyvixen698 show off her doughy body again."
"I know I am," Joelle smiled.
"Well, I need to have a doughy body again if that's ever going to happen," Kristi said, kneading her belly fur. "Good thing Kyūri-sensei knows how to give this vixen some jelly!"
"Just don't stream your camshow from his heya," Joelle cautioned. "Kappas value politeness, and that'd be kinda disrespectful, I think."
"Agreed," Kristi nodded. "Don't worry, I'm bringing lots of werefox inhibitor potion to keep me from doing stupid stunts like that. I'm also eager to learn sumo. I've always wanted to take up a sport, but I was worried that'd burn off all my lovely, jiggly fat. Well, here's the solution! Sumo will GIVE me lovely, jiggly fat! Think I'll be any good?"
Joelle gave Kristi a kiss. "I'm certain."
"Thanks," Kristi smiled. "I'm also really interested in meeting yokai, especially kitsune. I hear they're like werefoxes, but with magic and without the chaotic instincts."
"Mostly without the chaotic instincts," Joelle corrected. "The yako, or nogitsune, subspecies is just as wild and mischievous as Western werefoxes."
"Been reading up on yokai, have we?" Kristi chuckled.
"Brianna Dixon borrowed this book about them from Morgana," Joelle explained. "I honestly had no idea that there were so many fucking breeds of yokai! Did you know there's a yokai that's basically a sentient paper lantern with a face?"
"Weird," Kristi agreed.
"It gets worse, though," Joelle cautioned. "Ever heard of an inugami? It's a kind of dog spirit, and they're not too fond of humans like me."
"That's a shame," said Kristi.
"Well, they've got their reasons," Joelle explained. "You see, inugami are created by evil Japanese witches and wizards, and the method is fucked up. First, the witch finds a starving dog and beheads it. Then she buries the head at a busy crossroads. After a while, all the human feet trampling on top of its burial place and the magical energies of the crossroads enrages the dead dog until it transforms into a spirit. The witch usually comes back for the head, bakes it, dries it, and enshrines it in a bowl as some kind of gross totem. If she does that, the inugami has to serve her as long as she possesses the totem. If the witch forgets to retrieve the buried head or she ever loses the totem, the inugami's free. Happy nightmares, right?"
"Yikes," Kristi winced, her fox ears twitching violently.
"And that's just a yokai with a creepy backstory!" Joelle went on. "Some of those guys are really scary. Like the jorogumo, a spider-woman who pretends to be human to lure in men, bewitches them, and then traps them in her webs for food. On that arachnid note, there's the ushi-oni: half-spider, half-bull, all horrible. Or how about the odokuro? Huge, angry skeletons created from the collected anger of hordes of people who died in battles and famines and crap! Naturally, they're man-eaters, too. Even some kappas can be pretty nasty, trying to drown or rape humans, or even pulling out their life force through their asses. Yeah, other kappas consider those guys criminals and outlaws, but still!"
"Are you saying you don't want to go to Japan, Joelle?" Kristi asked disappointedly.
"No way!" Joelle answered. "I go where you go, Kristi, and some of those yokai sound really cool. Tanuki are apparently a lot of fun. I do think it's probably safer if I don't stay human for long. There's just too many yokai breeds that don't like humans (like the inugami and the bakeneko), and I could use some extra power if we ever have to fight something crazy like an odokuro."
Kristi smiled. It would be pretty sexy watching Joelle transform into some kind of mythical creature. "Cool! What do you wanna be, sweetie?"
Joelle thought about it. "Hmm. I could always become a werehyena like Ellie, Harper, Beck, and Brianna. Having a dick would be fun, I think."
"That reminds me!" Kristi chirped excitedly. "If I join Kyūri's heya, I need to grow a dick, don't I? I get to be a herm! This is going to be the awesomest experience ever!"
"I might also become a werevixen to match you," Joelle went on. "You'd have to share your inhibitor potions, though."
"That's assuming I stay a werevixen," Kristi grinned. "I'm seriously thinking about upgrading to a kitsune. They sound seriously cool!"
"Hey, I could be a kitsune, too!" Joelle said. "Or maybe a tanuki. Their big balls'd be fun to play with. Then there's tengu. They're a race of magical bird-person warriors. Ooh, how about oni? I bet I'd look badass as a muscular, red-skinned giantess with horns! But I'm not turning into a jorogumo under any circumstances! I told Ellie as much while we were reading."
Kristi gave Joelle a lick with her vulpine tongue, enjoying the feel of cool metal on said tongue as it brushed over the barbell of Joelle's cheek piercing. "Whatever you pick, I'm sure you'll be beautiful. After all, you already are."
"Thanks," Joelle said. She hugged Kristi, slightly disappointed by the ease with which her arms reached all the way around Kristi's now-slim waist. There was so much less Kristi to cuddle these days. "And if you're this beautiful as a skinny werevixen, imagine how gorgeous you'll look as a fat kitsune!"
Kristi began playfully unbuttoning Joelle's jeans. "We're actually going to find out tomorrow!"