Chapter Text
Both monster and human stood opposite each other on the stone balcony, and a soft breeze blowing sakura peddles around the two. The human barely stood upright, their hand gripping their broken and bleeding arm as they looked up at the unhurt kitsune. For a brief moment, the human swore they saw a hint of sadness on the old fox’s face. The sliver of hope died with them as Ceroba raised her staff.
“Bah, you should have seen that one coming buddy. Come on now buddy, this is what, the hundredth? Two hundredth time now? And you were so close. Too bad the fox lady wins again.
As you know Clover, I’m a very patient flower, but this? This is getting tedious. Hmmm, I just had a wonderful idea, why do I need you when I can wait for another human to fall? Oh ho ho, that sounds like a ton more fun than watching you die over and over and over again. You were getting boring anyway. Have a nice rest, buddy .”
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Kanako jolted awake, a cold sweat running down her fur as she brought her hands to clasp her face, the same scene replaying over and over again in her head. Looking around the dim room, the young kitsune grumbled to herself before lying back and trying to drift off to sleep. Not long after she closed her eyes then a soft yellow glow seeped through the flesh of her eyelids. Rubbing her eyes the girl sat up, only to scramble backward at the pure yellow spirit floating in front of her. The silhouette she instantly recognized as a human, the outline of a bandana and cowboy hat sat atop its head. In the middle of the spirit's face sat two golden orbs directly where the eyes would be. Small yellow particles drifted from the ghost, its legs replaced a spectral tail.
Seeing the monster’s reaction, a soft boy’s voice echoed through her mind,
“Can… can you see me?”
Judging by the spirit's giddy attitude, she must have made some affirming motion. The yellow floating mass squealed as it quickly floated closer, its words moving at a mile a minute in her head.
“Oh thank you, god! You don’t know how terrible it has been to watch and not have anyone to talk to, feeling like I will be alone forever and… I’m scaring you, aren’t I?”
At the nod of her head, the spirit slowly floated to the other end of the room, a neon white blush on its face as it awkwardly fiddled with its hat. Taking a moment to collect herself, Kanako slowly crawled out from under the covers of her bed, her head tilted slightly to the side as she tried to decipher just what she was looking at.
“W-who are you?”
Kanako mentally smacked herself for only being able to vocalize that question out of the maelstrom swarming in her head
“Well uh… my name’s Clover and I was… am? Was am a human.”
“A human?!”
Kanako blurted, her eyes widened as her tail started to wag.
“Well, I mean, you do look like them and my dad had plenty of pictures of humans but I… human souls can’t be seen after death, right?”
“No, they can’t, but-”
“So how are you here? Is this a side effect of coming back from falling down? Can I talk to dead people now?!”
Kanako rapid-fired, her questions clearly overwhelming the spirit, a strange sense of unease creeping over her and making her pause.
“Why did-”
“You start to feel uneasy? Well uh… how do I say this? Guess it’s best to just rip off the bandaid, I’m your soul.”
Clover admitted, his nonexistent face grimacing as he saw the befuddled look on the monster’s face.
“What.”
“Yeah… so uhh… from the little bit I know about souls and falling down and all the weird stuff that can happen to monsters, when you got injected with that other soul remnant it kinda… shattered your soul? I don’t know, I’m just going off of what I can remember from Chujin’s tapes-”
“How do you know about those.”
Kanako asked, all emotion leaving her voice as she blankly stared up at Clover.
“Well I… it’s uh… something I don’t want to just drop on you… something for someone else to explain.”
Clover mumbled in reply, his hand finding its way to his arm as he rubbed it nervously, his face downcast,
“Just… I may be justice, but even I couldn’t give the explanation the justice it deserves.”
“That’s just a cop-out and you know it.”
Kanako teased, the heel turn in tone making Clover pause for a second,
“Now, that doesn’t explain why I can see you or why you’re here.”
“Well I was going to before you- never mind. Alright, so your soul kinda shattered, right? Well, I was turned into it. I don’t know how but my soul gave yours its shape and that brought you back to the land of the living. But I guess that’s all in a day's work for justice.”
Clover replied, his hands on his hips as he struck a valiant pose.
Kanako burst out laughing at the sight, her hands gripping her sides as she rolled around giggling like a mad monster on the bed. It took a few minutes and countless annoyed protests from Clover before she had calmed down enough to talk, her voice still carrying a hint of laughter.
“Alright alright, so hehe, my soul was broken and you took its place? So it’s like a video tape, just pop out one and put in another, besides the whole changing things part of course. You’re not going to take over my body or anything like that, right?”
“Can I even do that?”
Clover asked, his head snapping to look at the kitsune who only laughed in return.
“Ahem, what I meant to say was even if I could, I wouldn’t.”
“Do you want to try it?”
Kanako questioned, her tail wagging back and forth as she smiled up at the spirit.
“I mean kinda… i-if you’re ok with it at least.”
“Go for it.”
Kanako cheerfully replied, her arms spread open as she opened her core to the spirit.
Clover hesitated for a second before closing his golden eyes. Time froze for a split second as the spirit disappeared, only for her vision to be overlaid by a golden hue. A strange feeling shot through the monster’s body as her limbs began to move on their own, her hands moving up to her face and fingers flexing shakily as if they hadn’t been used for months. With limbs of jelly, ‘Kanako’ tried to push herself off the bed, only to collapse in a heap on the floor.
“Shoot.”
Clover’s voice bounced around in her mind, the golden hue quickly leaving the kitsune’s eyes as she regained control of her body,
“I-I’m sorry I just wanted to-”
“Hey it’s fine, it’s not like we fell out of a window or anything.”
The fox giggled, her paws flexing as she pushed herself off the ground.
“That was weird.”
“You’re telling me.”
Clover grumbled, his hands shaking as he gingerly messaged his temples,
“Everything felt and smelled so… vibrant… I guess I forgot what it was like to actually be alive.”
“Yeah… it was strange feeling like a passenger in my own body… like I was fal-”
“How about you go back to sleep?”
Clover cut in, his face filled with worry despite the lack of features.
“I'm not a kid you know, I can talk about my falling down.”
“You say that but you’re afraid.”
Clover replied, the words leaving his nonexistent mouth before he could even process what he was saying.
Kanako froze, her ears flattening against her head as she stared at the spirit floating before her, her voice coming out in a confused scoff,
“How… how would you know?”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than she felt a strange anxiety wash over her, mirroring the human spirit's actions as Clover timidly wrung his hands,
“W-well I did tell you I was your soul so-”
“Our emotions are linked.”
Kanako whispered, both human and monster sat in dumbfounded silence for a few minutes before Kanako gulped,
“Well, that uh… that’s kinda freaky. You can’t read my thoughts can you?”
“No, I don’t think I would even want to, it just doesn’t feel right… What about you?”
Kanako thought over Clover’s question for a few seconds, the nightmare of her fighting her mom replaying in her head. Letting out a soft sigh, Kanako shook her head slowly while twiddling her thumbs.
“No, I don’t think so? This is weird, all of this is weird, you’re weird.”
“Rude.”
Clover huffed, his arms crossed over his chest as he puffed out his cheeks.
“Sorry, I just… I’m tired. Can we deal with this in the morning, please?”
Kanako grumbled, her body suddenly feeling like a bag of bricks as she realized just how much this new revelation was taking a toll on her.
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best. I’ll just uh… I don’t know, go back into your soul?”
Clover asked, a breath leaving him as he saw Kanako nod.
Disappearing, Kanako felt a warm feeling in her chest as her soul settled back into place, a soft yawn leaving the Kitsune as she settled back into bed. The girl's eyes fluttered closed as she lay her head back against the pillow, a small part of her mind wanting her to desperately ask more questions despite her body’s protest.
“Clover?”
“Yeah?”
The boy’s voice asked, a soft echo sounding through her mind.
“You’re not… you’re going to be here when I wake up, right?”
“Yeah, at least, I’ll try.”
“Ok.”
Kanako yawned before nuzzling into her pillow,
“I just wanted to be sure.”