A Girl's Time in Naruki [OPEN, ND/NM]

It was decided that the three would capture the baby fox, again. The worker had finished ringing them up before going to lock the doors and switch the sign to say that the place was temporarily closed. The worker had gone to the break room and returned with a few strips of chicken from her salad, which would serve as bait. A ladder was also provided so they could tie a string from the roof to the bag that, when pulled, would close the trap and keep the small creature inside. Mitsuoki had taken a spot that was reasonably far out of the way and the cashier had gone with him. Shiro was given the string to pull and reminded by the cashier that it might take a while for it to take the bait, if it takes it at all.

With the lights off and everyone waiting for the fox to go in the trap, skittering could be heard from time to time. Mitsuoki continued peeking over the counter to keep an eye on the bag, waiting for the tiny thing to enter it. Once it was in and Shiro had pulled the string, Mitsuoki would vault over the counter and make his way over to the bag to look inside. "This is a fox?" he would ask while looking down at the extremely tiny, furry and cute animal. As expected, it would be extremely scared and having Mitsuoki, who was considerably larger than it was, peeking over it just after it was capture wasn't helping anything. "It is quite cute... We should make haste to reunite it with its family." he said shortly after.

Mitsuoki had blinked a couple times while looking at Shiro with somewhat inquisitive eyes when she had asked if he truly didn't know what vixens were. She had quickly switched focus to the fox, questioning if it had a family at all. Her logic had been explained, as she saw an issue with the fact that there was a random baby animal, inside a human store, seeking shelter. The two had agreed on the notion that they should at least try and find its family, and Shiro had gone to thank the clerk and grab their items. "Shiro, if I may, I believe it would be best to leave our items here for the time being." He looked to the clerk and said "If it is not too great an inconvenience." The clerk had offered to store their items in the back room, where only she was able to gain access to. Mitsuoki had opted to leave his blankets in there and would not judge Shiro at all if she decided to keep her clothes on hand.

Mitsuoki was quite insistent on holding the bag with the fox in it and carried it from the bottom, like a box. Occasionally while walking, he would look down to see the small animal trying its best to keep its balance. While Mitsuoki had virtually no expression on the outside, one could easily draw a smiley face on him and it would not be that far from the reality of the situation. "I did not wish to say this in the store, Shiro; but, I do not know much of the fauna of your world. I am well acquainted with commonplace animals such as cats, dogs, avians, and certain rodent sub species... but I do not actively take time to learn all of what there is- not even in the soul society." he said.

When they arrived at the park, Shiro had helped Mitsuoki in searching nearby locations for signs of foxes. Mitsuoki was looking for anything that looked like it belonged to an animal, that he could use to begin tracking it down. Neither had found any signs of appropriate life and Shiro had taken a seat at a bench. Mitsuoki had taken a seat next to her, giving her a reasonably amount of room so as to not invade her personal space. She had asked if he thought the fox would be okay if we let it go, to which Mitsuoki said "I do not wish to do that." He looked in the bag and his eyes had softened greatly while staring at the fox that was looking back up at him. "I can understand if you wish to leave, Shiro. I will linger and continue searching." he said in a much less cold tone than usual.

Mitsuoki put his hand in the bag and heard a distinct growling that was adorably high pitched and completely non threatening. Suddenly, he felt something latch onto his finger and when he pulled his hand out the bag with a curious expression, the fox pup was attached. The fox let go and began choking on how bad the gigai's skin tasted, or rather, that it didn't taste how it had expected. It was likely expecting a fleshy taste, but instead, got a very synthetic one. "I apologize, little creature. I did not expect to be made into a snack, so I did not get the model with flavored flesh." Mitsuoki said, naturally joking about such a gigai existing. The fox made its way to a nearby faucet that people commonly used for their pets to get a quick drink and children to wash their hands, and began licking the end of the tap. Mitsuoki gently pushed it back a bit and turned the faucet on, holding it there to let the animal wash its mouth. The fox had growled at him before hesitantly sticking its snout in the water and letting it run over its teeth and tongue to get the distinctly terrible flavor out of its mouth.

Mitsuoki let it finish before grabbing it by the scruff of its neck and lifting it, growling and ruffling its tail. He held his other hand out and took a seat again, next to Shiro if she was still there. "You are a noisy one, are you not?" he said while looking at it. The fox was so incredibly small that it could fit perfectly on his hand, but was old enough to know how to defend itself, though, lacked the jaw strength to do so effectively. It was clearly the runt of the litter, which was a concept that Mitsuoki didn't know about when it came to other animals. "You are alone... where are your parents, tiny one?" he asked in rhetoric. Mitsuoki raised his free hand over the animal's head, ignoring the warning growl it was giving, and began running two of his fingers across the top of its head. Slowly, the growling was replaced by silence and the fox's ears had lowered and it looked down at Mitsuoki's palm sadly. "Do not be concerned. I will aid you, if it is within my capabilities." It was as though the fox actually understood him. Its ears slightly perked up, but not by much, and its tail had made a single swishing motion while it looked at him with a fearful expression. "Alright, let us begin again." he said and stood up, beginning to head back towards the store they just left. If Shiro was present, he would say "I, too find it strange that this one was inside a store, and not the streets. It is possible that its parents were taking shelter in the back alley. If that is so, she may be able to track them from there."

Mitsuoki and Shiro had went to the back alley with the fox being held in his hand. When they arrived, the fox's ears stood up and it began sniffing the air. "It seems that she recognizes the area." Mitsuoki said before lowering his hand to the ground to let the fox move around and get a better lock on the proper scent. She moved around, sniffing things here and there before moving to new spots. Meanwhile, Mitsuoki had questioned if he should ask her about her activities in Hueco Mundo. He slowly followed behind the fox while pondering the idea. She was acquainted with Theoclese, but he was unsure of the nature of their relationship; and, more importantly, he and Theoclese were nothing more than acquaintances at the most. He didn't trust Theoclese, but at the same time he didn't have any reasons to distrust him to the point of hostility. He was wary of the arrancar, but also respected him and treated the man the same as he treated the other kidoshu members. So, he couldn't really bring it up and claim to be his friend as a way of starting a conversation about it...

The fox had exited the alley and went out to the sidewalk with Mitsuoki following closely behind, keeping an eye on her. Luckily, there weren't many people around as of yet. Around the corner, over a fence and through someone's backyard, to some place a kilometer away she went. Mitsuoki had no issues with following, the thorn bush behind the fence was a bit of an inconvenience, but he was able to push off the fence to get past that.

The fox had lead them to a woodland area with a great deal of bushes, shade, and places for foxes to make their dens that were well hidden. The baby fox had ran into a hole under a tree and immediately ran out, yelping at another fox that was snapping at it. Two more foxes came out that were noticeably bigger than her, each growling at her. She backed up and lowered her ears before slowly approaching the much larger, female one. It grabbed her by the back of her neck with its teeth and moved her further back, dropping her ungracefully before turning her back and going back in the hole. The fox had laid down with its ears flat and began whimpering, and Mitsuoki looked at it with a soft expression. "You were too weak to be accepted... and so, you were cast out." he said in a disheartened tone. He knew that pain. There was only two people who accepted him when he was weak, and even now that he's stronger, that weakness he had is his legacy, so many still reject him. "I understand now why you were in that store; but, it will lead to your death. Many humans are cruel, and the city is the easiest place to find them. Do all you can to survive, young fox." Mitsuoki looked to Shiro and said that they should return to the store to grab their stuff, and that there was nothing more they could do.

With a sullen expression, Mitsuoki said "I assure you, I am not trying to be cruel." Mitsuoki turned away from the fox and said "I know how she feels. I am among the weakest of my peers. An adjective constantly used to describe me is 'useless' and 'out of place' because I'm not nearly as good at kido as the others. In any other unit, not being good with kido is fine. But my "squad" is the Kido Corps, it's our specialization. I have no other squad to go to. None of them have use for me because of my current reputation; so, I am stuck. But I cannot help her any further. There are times where we must abandon our--"

Mitsuoki stopped talking when he felt the fox standing on his foot before taking a seat and looking up at him with large, blue eyes. He looked down with his eyebrow twitching. "I cannot help you, little, cute thing." he forced himself to say. The fox's ears were lowered and it continued looking at him. His eye began twitching along with his eyebrow and it was clear that he was having a moral struggle.

Akatsuki: "You should take it in."
Tasogare: "No, you should- Did you just say something I would tell him to do?"
Akatsuki: "It's adorable Ta-chaaan! I can't tell him to kill thaaat!!!"
Both Spirits: "Take the fox in."

Mitsuoki was trying to battle the fact that his mind and both of his spirits, for the first time in history, were all on the same page. However, there were many moral issues with taking a living creature and spiritualizing it just for the sake of making it a pet. There were issues with soul reapers owning pets. There were issues with his roommates all being snitches. Mitsuoki bent over and picked up the fox, holding it against his chest with one arm. "I will think more on how to proceed while we venture to retrieve our belongings." he said in a slightly annoyed tone. The source of his annoyance was the fact that he and his spirits were in agreeance, and for once, he was honestly contemplating going with the clearly wrong choice. "While I'm thinking about it... Shiro, you addressed her as a male several times. This fox is female. " he said. If Shiro had asked if he was sure, he would inform her that the fox was clearly a mammal, and was lacking two very important reproduction growths on her lower anterior section, between her thighs.

In the doorway with fox and bags in hand, Mitsuoki paused at the sound of her words. They were slower than normal and contained a degree of caution. It would seem that Theoclese hadn't told Shiro of his activities outside of Hueco Mundo. Mitsuoki could also tell from her degree of caution that he had obviously told her to avoid showing connections to the world of hollows, or something similar, since she had tried to play coy when Mitsuoki commented on it. It would seem that his next choice of words would determine whether the store would become a battleground or he would be able to leave peacefully. That is, they would if he didn't take time to create a very specific set of kido. "You can relax, Shiro." he said calmly, with not a single drop of fear in his tone. "I knew where you came from and who you are acquainted with because of the spirit energy still on your clothes from being around them so much... That, and I saw your arrival. Were he and I on negative terms with each other, we would not be here. Regardless, it seems I have worn out my welcome. Begone from here, and extinguish my flame-" just like that, Mitsuoki, the fox, and the bags had all disappeared entirely in a puff of light blue spirit particles. In his room, Mitsuoki appeared saying "Bakido twenty, Twenty One- Vanish and Mass Vanish." to complete the casting of the two spells.