My body felt alive with power. It was like there a great fire within me that didn't do me any harm, but I could feel it burning there nonetheless. It was an amazing amount of power, power that I'd never thought I'd ever wield. Yet, I never figured I'd have the spirits of dead Kitsune pumped into me by some sort of dark ritual. I could look out over the room and again saw the large glass tube that Saul and his partner had been storing the spirits in. When I'd first seen it, it glowed with light and power and I had seen a swirl of energy in it. Now it was empty. There was no light in it and now power. That had all gone into me, and I could remember seeing blurry images of the spirits of Kitsune moving into my body and a glow of energy beginning to wrap itself around me as I transformed. This was especially true when I began to feel my tails grow behind me, one at a time.
For the moment, I was focused on Saul and his partner. The two of them as part of their own plans had killed Kitsune, stolen their spirits, and had likely brainwashed my own parents to set up all that had happened. I didn't know how powerful they were, exactly, but it was clear that they were weaker than I was. They'd gone to great lengths to turn me into a nine tailed Kitsune, and giving me power beyond belief. They weren't a threat to me, and they had to face justice for what they had done.
"How... how can this be... you serve us...!" the first wizard stammered, "we cast the spell to control you..."
"You misjudged the spell on my mind," I gave a confident smile, "My wife didn't cast a spell that would teach me Japanese. She cast a spell that linked my mind to hers, allowing me to draw on her knowledge of Japanese and magic..."
I flexed one hand and a ball of flame appeared above my palm. I then clinched a fist and it vanished.
"You'll only be able to cast the spells a two tail can cast that way," Saul pointed out.
"But I can throw A LOT more power that way," I answered, "and am more advanced than I figure you'd figured I'd be with regard to magic..."
The two wizards backed away along the wall of the cave, fear evident in their faces. They were both recognizing that their plans had come to bite them in the butt. I figured they expected to have to train me in magic after my transformation. I might still need some of that, but I figured that would come from another Nine Tail.
"And the two of you are criminals, and you cannot justify the murders and spiritual desecration of Kitsune spirits," I told them flatly, "and as a Nine Tail... I suppose it will be my responsibility to see to your punishment for your crimes against what are now my fellows..."
Small balls of flame erupted above my nine tails as they swayed and swirled behind me. Much of that was my own adaptations to the fact that I had nine tails and different muscle groups and using my link with Keru to know how she moved her own two tails. Each one gained a bit of extra brightness as I began to list the specific punishments.
"The real question is what exactly shall I do to punish you," I mused with a smile, "I could obviously just kill you with fire or some other gruesome way... but no... that'd be messy and unlike you, I'm not a killer. Maybe I could do to you what you wanted to do to me... brainwash you and leave you as a mindless slave with a smile, but then your own magic might protect your minds, just as my link with Keru protected me. Maybe I could lobotomize you and leave you without any control over your own magic... it'd be there, but you could never touch it. Maybe I could seal you away in your own cave and make it impossible for you to escape. Your own liar will be your prison, but then I'd have to commonly come to feed you and make sure you don't lack for want of comforts... and I still have a life to live in the mortal world that I won't be giving up as a Kitsune. Maybe I could do to you what you did to so many dead Kitsune spirits... drain your magic from you and give it to someone who won't abuse it, it'd be like lobotomizing you, but this time you wouldn't have any power... but then that might be a bit advanced for the moment. Maybe I could just hand you over to the Council. But then if you're right and they aren't a government, then they might just let you go without doing anything. Maybe I could turn you into mundane foxes... a male and female... you'd have now power and would live out your lives as pets for me and Keru. Maybe I could just expose you for what you are to the Kitsune families that you stole spirits from and let them have vigilante justice against you... I'm sure sure they'll be quite willing to make you suffer for what you've done. Maybe I'd turn you into anthropomorphic foxes... you wouldn't have any power, but you'd look like the very thing you wanted to enslave. You'd then punish yourselves."
"I like the pet idea," Keru spoke to me through our link, "they'd be under constant supervision and they'd have to be with beings they've claimed they hate. Perfect justice."
"That's what you'd want, Keru?" I asked her.
"Yes," Keru answered.
You looked to the two of them, smiled, "I think you'll be pets for Keru and I..."
"NO!" Saul roared desperately and threw a blast of lightning at me.
I dodged and sent the balls of flame floating above my tails at both of them. The fire rapidly burned off their clothes but did them no bodily harm. Both Saul and his partner cowered there, but were now more focused covering up their own nudity than fighting me. I then began to look through Keru's mind and found the spells I'd need. First I pointed to Saul.
"Now, wizard known as Saul, take the name Salma, and become a woman before all," I stated calmly.
"What...?" Saul gasped and then began to cringe in pain.
The man pulled away his hands as his penis began to shrink. It grew shorter and shorter, as it did so, his hips began to flare slowly outward and folds of skin began to form the lining of a woman's genitals. Once they were formed, his testicles began to shrink and draw up into him. Saul began to scream "no" and clutch at his equipment even as it shrank and changed to become the reproductive organs of a woman. Even as he did this, he lost his body hair and his arms and legs become smaller and daintier. His hands shrank down. His face began to become softer and more feminine. His eyelashes grew longer and his eyebrows less bushy. His hair began to grow longer, and didn't stop until brushed his shoulders.
"No!" Saul screamed, and then gasped when he realized that his voice was higher. His Adam's Apple was gone.
By this time, his penis had shrunk down and essentially split with part becoming a clitoris while the other part becoming a separate urethra inside her vagina. Her testicles had pulled inside her and became her ovaries inside her body.
"You're almost halfway there to your final form, Salma," I told her.
Her partner only glanced to me and looked over to Salma as her chest pushed out into two B cup breasts with pert pink nipples. Salma began to cry, as if she couldn't continue fighting.
"This is unfair!" the first wizard protested.
"And murdering and poisoning Kitsune, and likely intending to kill even more, desecrating the shrines to their ancestors, duping ghosts who likely only want to go into the afterlife into doing your busy work, brainwashing my parents to help you in your plan is fair?" I asked back, "You are being punished for crimes committed. Be grateful that you will be cared for, fed, and kept comfortable. I could easily kill you both. Surely you sense that..."
The first wizard looked down. To a degree he was defiant, but was still afraid and embarrassed by his failure. I then raised one arm at both of them.
"Wizards vile and a pox, lose your powers, and live, as a mundane fox," I stated and cast the next spell.
Both stood their for a moment, but soon gripped themselves as their changes began. A metallic bluish colored fur began to grow all over Salma's body, which was highlighted by white and black fur as well. She was becoming a Platinum Fox, a color mutation of the Red Fox species. Silver fur began to grow on her partner. He was becoming another color mutation of the Red Fox, a Silver Fox. They both began to shrink down. Salma's breasts shrank and pulled flat against her chest and a row of additional nipples formed down her stomach, to befit a typical mundane Vixen. As they shrank, I watched the human magic that the two wizards wielded began to separate from them as they became more and more inhuman. The power drifted out of them and dissipated like a cloud. As their powers vanished, their ears became triangular and moved to the top of their heads. Short claws grew on the hands and feet, which were rapidly becoming the paws of a mundane fox.
"Please.. we're sorry... we... we...wark ark... yip!" Salma began as her face pushed forward into the pointed muzzle of a fox and her voice box changed, leaving giving a few short barks that the Red Fox made.
By this time the two had shrunk down to the size of Red Foxes and stood on four legs in the way mundane foxes did. They no longer had any power, and I could sense that they had no power. Then, completing their transformation, the long fluffy tails common to foxes grew out from the end of their spines and they looked up at him with the rather cat-like eyes that the Red Fox had. The only thing that differentiated them from normal Red Foxes were the fact that both of them were different color mutations. Salma was a platinum color mutation while the other, who I decided to call "Dawg" was a silver color mutation. Both of them acted like mundane foxes... like mundane pet foxes.
"See... you both look much better now and you'll be cared for," I said to them, "but now..."
I looked down at my own furry body. Unlike Keru, who was largely had bluish fur, my fur seemed to match the coloration of the mundane Red Fox. My belly was white, as was a noticeable sheath, which likely contained my own penis. My hands and forearms were were covered in black fur, as were my digitigrade feet. The back of my ears was black while the inside of my ears had white fur. This rest of me was a red-brown color with the exception of the tips of my nine tails. They were also white. I figured I looked rather attractive, but also knew that I couldn't go around naked. Keru didn't go around naked. She hadn't at my apartment in the mortal realm. She hadn't here in the magical real and had even told me that I would be expected to follow several formal codes. Though, when she told met that, I don't think there was the idea that my body would destroy my clothing when changing into a Kitsune.
"Now I need clothes that will fit me," I said aloud to the two mundane foxes at my feet.
"Oh... I don't know," Keru's voice spoke from behind me, "I am enjoying the view..."
I turned to see her standing there with three other Nine Tails standing behind her. I actually yipped and hid myself behind my newly grown tails.
"Please forgive my nudity, Councilors," I spoke to them, remember Keru's lessons about being respectful.
"It is no problem, Councilor," the first of the three Nine Tails spoke, "transformations into Kitsune generally do not treat human clothing well..."
"Councilor..." I blinked, "I'm not..."
"You are a Nine Tail now, by rule you are automatically a member of our Council and will be expected to vote on our matters," the second Nine Tail answered, "and your wife has told us about your work and life in the mortal world... we will provide you with the proper orbs and talismans that will allow you to participate when you are at home and so you do not need to spend all your time in the Magical Realm."
"But... I'm only a Nine Tail because of what those two wizards did... stealing the spirits of Kitsune that had died... I... I don't think I truly deserve such an honor, Councilors," I said to them.
"But you were not part of their plot, merely a victim of it," the third Nine Tail spoke, "and you've worked to help your wife in trying to track these criminals down. That displays a sense of justice and fairness that all Kitsune should have. Pranks may be fun... but they should never cost anyone their lives or cause a permanent inconvenience. It may have taken us time to fully realize this, but it is not as if we never knew about justice or being fair. You've stood by your wife when you had no real reason to do so. You willingly gave up your independence to link your mind to hers. You've done much for us. I would say that you are worthy of being Kitsune and thus being a Nine Tail. The only difference between your transformation and the standard transformation is that these two poured far more power into you so that when you absorbed it and began to produce your own Kitsune magic, it was so strong that you would be a Nine Tail to contain the power that you now have..."
"What about the spirits... is there anyway I can return them to the shrines they were stolen from?" I asked.
All three Nine Tails looked down.
"I am afraid not, based on what you and Keru uncovered and found... these wizards bonded those spirits to you so that you would absorb their power from them, and you did absorb the powers that say with a Kitsune's spirit when and if it dies, but once you began to produce your own Kitsune magic, that accelerated the absorption and essentially annihilated the spirits the wizards used," the first Nine Tails spoke solemnly and sadly, "there is nothing that can be done to restore the shrines the wizards desecrated."
"I'm sorry," I said slowly, "Councilors..."
"You have nothing to be sorry for," the second Nine Tail assured me, and flicked his wrist. There was a brief flash of light around me, and to my surprise I found myself rather ornate robes that matched the three Nine Tails in front of me. It was complete with an opening in the back that allowed my own tails to stand freely behind me. Once I realized that I was clothed again, I moved my tails back so that I wasn't hiding behind them.
"The real criminals in all of this were these two," the first Nine Tail spoke as she moved to approach Dawg and Salma, "and given their opinions about us, I believe you chose a rather fitting punishment. Wanting us to be their pets... instead they will be yours..."
I nodded, "It might still be a good idea to try and talk with the other sentient creatures of the magical realm... give everyone a chance vote on what magics can or cannot be used. They may have had legitimate concerns at one point and took it too far."
"We will consider that at our next meeting," the first Nine Tail answered, "but for now, I believe it would best that you and your wife and your pets return to her family's palace to set your affairs here in the magical realm in order... such as either getting a new palace built at the spot where the gate to your home in the mortal realm is or moving Keru's family palace to that point... deciding on whether or not you'll have your shrine in the Magical Realm or the Mortal Realm... and perhaps to give you time to be a married couple."
Keru came up to me and then hugged me, resting her head on my shoulder. I calmly hugged her back. We had come through a lot since all of this began. Wondering why we had been set up to wed and wanting to figure out why. Finding out that things were far bigger than we had first imagined and having to stop two crazy wizards and then realizing that despite how little we truly knew each other we had displayed qualities that and made us both fall in love. Thinking back on that, I actually gave a short laugh.
"What is it?" Keru asked me.
"Remember how all this started how you thought your parents had set you up with a Nine Tail and got me?" I asked her.
"Yes," Keru answered, "and now... I suppose... I got both."
"Ironic isn't it?" I asked her.
"I suppose," Keru laughed back.
We hugged again. When we released, I looked up to the Nine Tails that were still there.
"Tomorrow," the first Nine Tail spoke, "you will begin formal training. You may instinctively know what spells Keru can cast thanks to your link, but she is still only a two tail and can't perform the more complex spells that you can cast now as a nine tail. A member of the Council will be with you to train you in controlling and casting these spells and thus allow you to control your own magic."
"Of course, Councilor," I acknowledged her, "How long will that take, I'm afraid I only got six weeks paid vacation?"
"If you focus, you can probably manage it in the time you have," the first Nine Tail answered, "at least manage enough that you can then practice on your own."