Chapter 189– Fox Form And The Fifth Tail

Yuki

“You won’t turn into a fox? Why not, Yuki-san?” Issei asked.

He and the others looked confused.

There was no real reason to avoid telling them.

“Because of what my seals have done to my true form,” I answered.

“Uh... what do you meanby  your true form?” Issei asked, looking even more confused than before.

I noticed Asia, Gasper-kun, and Irina looked confused too.

Koneko answered for me.

“Kitsune are fox spirits. The human form they take isn’t their natural state. They’re actually foxes that can transform into people. Not the other way around.”

I nodded.

“Koneko-chan is correct. And because the seals placed on me were designed with the Evil Piece system and my shapeshifting in mind, they’re placed on my soul, not my body,” I explained. 

“That’s awful…” Asia muttered.

“But what does that mean for your true form?” Rias asked

I glanced around the room.

Azazel-sensei was the only one who seemed to have figured it out.

His grin had disappeared from his face.

“After they were placed on me, when I tried to change into a fox, it wouldn’t work right,” I replied. “The seals interfered with the magic needed to form my body, like how they interfere with my spells and strength. That caused my body to form wrongly when I entered my true form. My body as a fox would be misshapen and broken. It would be excruciating, so I would immediately change back. Because my true form was essentially unusable, I didn’t use it for years.”

“That’s horrible!” Irina shouted, tears in her eyes. “I’ve only just gotten my wings, but I couldn’t imagine being unable to bring them out now that I have them. I’ve only learned bits and pieces of your past, Yuki-san, but from what I’ve learned, you’ve lived a hard life. I’ll pray for you and that your life within Rias-san’s peerage will continue to be happy! The Lord would have seen your suffering and understood that you needed peace! I’ll pray for Michael-sama’s guidance and protection over you!”

“Thank you, Irina. You don’t need to pray for me, though. I’m quiet all right now.”

She had already lowered her head and started to pray quietly.

“You said you hadn’t used it for years. Does that mean you’ve changed into your fix form recently? Did the seals being removed help?” Akeno asked.

“It did, but not enough,” I said with a sigh.

I realized that I was holding Koneko tighter to myself than I had realized as she still sat on my lap.

I relaxed my arm around her.

She placed a hand on my arm and gave me a small squeeze as she leaned back into me.

“After Rias released a seal during the Rating Game against Riser, I tried to change into a fox in my room in the old school building,” I continued. “It wasn’t as bad as normal, but my body was still misfigured and wrong. I haven’t tried it again since then.”

“…Would you want to try again now? If you’re alright with it, senpai.” Koneko said from my lap.

I shook my head.

“I can test it later on my own. If it goes wrong, I’d rather not make all of you see that, and I don’t want to have to clean blood off of these seats.”

“B-B-Blood?!” Gasper-kun shrieked.

“What do you mean, Yuki?” Rias asked with concern.

“When I change, sometimes limbs or other parts of my body are damaged. The first time I tried to shift after I had my first set of seals placed on me, I almost died from it.”

I felt Koneko hug my arm to her chest.

Akeno’s smile was missing from her face.

Yuuto was frowning faintly as she watched me.

“I-I-I’m sorry for bringing it u-up, Y-Yuki-senpai,” Gasper-kun said quietly. “I-If I had known, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

I smiled softly at him.

“You didn’t know, and it’s not your fault, Gasper-kun. It was bound to get brought up eventually. It’s surprising it took this long, honestly.”

“It’s still quite awful, Yuki. Hopefully you’re able to regain the ability to safely shift to your true form soon,” Xenovia said.

“With my fifth tail back, I might try again,” I said.

“If you’re going to try, I want to be there!” Asia said with tears in her eyes.

“That’s not necess—“

“No!” She shouted, cutting me off. “I-I’m not letting you h-hurt yourself more than necessary, Yuki! Your recent training h-has been bad enough.”

It was silent for a moment after her outburst.

“Alright, Asia. When I test it, I’ll make sure you are there,” I said after a moment.

“Good.” She said with a nod.

“I’m sure all of us would be more relaxed if you had Asia with you just in case,” Rias said.

Koneko and Gasper-kun both nodded.

“You could also wait until the rest of your seals have been removed before you use your fox form again,” Yuuto suggested.

“Yeah! After the last one, you finally look healthy now, so there shouldn’t be many more, right?” Issei asked. “How many do you have left, Yuki-san?”

“I don’t know.”

The room went silent again.

I looked down at the top of Koneko’s head rather than at the others.

“Uh, what do you mean you don’t know? You had three removed so far, so you should know how many more there are, right?” Issei asked.

“I would assume that you and Rias would both be aware,” Xenovia said. “Can you not determine it each time one is removed?”

I shook my head.

“The seals placed on me aren’t uniform or neat. They were not all done by the same person or at the same time. When Rias removed a seal from me, she was removing a layer of them. She breaks multiple interwoven seals at a time until I reach a point where enough has been broken away for a portion of my strength to return.”

“Whenever I remove a seal from Yuki, it’s less like inserting a key into a door and unlocking it, and more like pulling a thread out of a pile of twisted and interwoven strings,” Rias said. “There are parts of other seals that are interconnected and built on top of one another. Some are stronger, and some are fragile. It’s a mess, to put it bluntly.”

“That’s why I get a tail or tails each time. A Kitsune’s strength is directly related to the number of tails they possess. So when Rias releases my seals, it removes a layer of them that have been placed over me. And I can’t tell how many there are exactly. My first [King] had multiple powerful seals placed on me. Some of my other [Kings] after that would have seals added to ensure I was easy to control.” I looked up at the others in the room. “So I can’t tell you how many more I have. I don’t even know how many more tails I have. I had five when I was first reincarnated as a Devil. That's likely why my body is healthy again, now that I’m back to where I was before I was first sealed.”

I felt tired just talking about it.

That even knowing my number of tails had been taken from me.

Koneko seemed to notice my mood.

“…You’ll get them back, Yuki-senpai. We will make sure all of those deals are removed.”

“We will,” Rias said firmly. “And Onii-sama informed me that almost all of the restrictions he first placed on removing your seals are gone. We only need to inform him before I remove another. I’d imagine that even that will be removed as a requirement eventually.”

“That’s great, Buchou!” Issei said energetically. “Yuki-san just got one of her tails unsealed, and now she could get another one soon!”

“…She has to wait until her body is ready for it. Yuki-senpai’s life force is disrupted whenever her seals are removed. That’s why she has to wait for her body to be ready to release another one,” Koneko said. “But I’ve been practicing my Senjutsu more and should be able to help her to recover more quickly now. And I’ll be able to heal the life force that Issei-senpai lost from his Juggernaut Drive.”

“Really? That’s amazing, Koneko-chan! I really want to be able to live longer.” Issei said, looking relieved.

“That’s great, Koneko-chan! Your powers are amazing!” Irina cheered.

“Thank you Koneko. You’ll be able to greatly help Ise and Yuki.” Rias added with a warm smile.

“That would mean a lot to me, Koneko-chan. Thank you,” I murmured near her ear.

Her face flushed, but she kept her face expressionless.

“…It’s nothing. You’re welcome.”

Her tail was practically wagging as she tried to look cool and calm.

“You should try to talk to Odin the next time he is around, Yuki,” Azazel-sensei said, as he leaned against the wall near the door. “He seemed to take an interest in you after running into your group during the Khaos Brigade attack,” he paused. “At least more interest than he normally would for a beautiful young girl.”

Rias shook her head and muttered something to herself.

“I get that I’m not the best person to say it, but that geezer is a perv,” Issei said.

I nodded.

After my first impression of him happened while he was lifting Akeno’s skirt, I didn’t like him.

“You’re not wrong. That geezer likes to bother young women, but his ability with magic is legendary. Especially with that eye of his,” Azazel-sensei said

He wasn’t wrong.

Odin-sama had explained how after trading his eye away, he had gained knowledge of all kinds of magic.

He might be able to help with my seals, or at least see through them and tell me how many releases are left.

“But sensei, when will we see that geezer next? It’s not like we will come in contact with him often, right?” Issei asked.

Azazel-sensei grinned at us. 

“Well, I’m going to get going for now. See you, kids, after school tomorrow,” he said as he walked out the door with a wave.

It was quiet for a moment after he left.

“That can’t be good…” Issei muttered.

“Moving to a much more interesting, but still relevant topic,” Akeno said.  Yuki-chan, you never told us what your new tail does. You mentioned it could manipulate people with your voice, but that was all,” she said, smiling teasingly. “I think you should give us a demonstration.”

I gave her an unimpressed look.

“While I don’t know about a demonstration, I do think it would be a good idea to at least let us know what your ability does,” Rias said. “And you said you weren’t confident in using it yet, correct?”

“That’s right, Buchou. I only had my fifth tail for a short while before I became a Devil and was then sealed, so I am not well practiced with its ability,” I replied. “The ability is called Dream’s Voice. It allows me to influence and manipulate those who hear my voice. Its effect depends on the target's willpower and mental strength. But the longer one is affected by it, the more potent its effect becomes.”

“That sounds very interesting indeed, Yuki-chan. Now I really want to see a demonstration,” Akeno said with a mischievous smile.

“I don’t have much control over it yet, and if I try to do anything more than something simple, it may cause someone to act unexpectedly, or not at all,” I said.

“Well, we can just keep things simple. Plus, testing it with everyone present would be for the best, right?” Akeno continued.

“That does make sense,” Issei muttered.

I shot him a look.

“You said that everyone who hears your voice can be influenced, right?” Rias asked.

“Yes. I can target a single individual, or try to affect multiple targets, but anyone who can hear me will still be partially affected. It could cause someone to get distracted or become dazed, even if I wasn’t trying to affect them.” I replied.

Rias sighed.

“Akeno does have a point, even if she is just trying to start something. If you're comfortable with it, Yuki, then you could show us what the ability does. So that we better understand its effects.”

I looked around the room and saw that everyone seemed curious.

No one seemed concerned or scared at the idea that I could manipulate and control them if I wanted.

I wasn’t certain that this was the best idea, but seeing how calm they were was enough for me.

I nodded to Rias. 

I could show them my new ability.

The reasoning of safety and understanding were good enough reasons to look past Akeno’s obvious attempts at entertaining herself.

I let Koneko off of my lap and stood.

I moved to the front of the room and stood by the screen, facing everyone else.

“I’ll need a chair and someone to volunteer as a test dummy,” I said to the group. 

“I’ll get a chair!” Irina said excitedly as she jumped up and ran out of the room. 

“I’ll let all of you give me suggestions for what I should get my test dummy to do. So, are there any volunteers? This was your idea, Akeno-san,” I said.

“Well, yes, but both Ise-kun and Rias agreed with me. But I think Ise-kun should go first,” Akeno said.

“…I agree,” Koneko said.

“It would be fun to get Ise-san to do something silly…”

“What?! Why me?!” Issei shouted as he looked around in surprise.

“Here’s the chair!” Irina shouted as she ran back into the room.

“So does anyone else want to volunteer, or will Ise be the test subject?” Rias asked.

“I didn’t volunteer for this!” Issei cried out. 

No one else spoke up.

Issei hung his head.

“Fine. Just don’t make me do anything embarrassing.” Issei said as he walked to the front of the room and sat in the chair Irina had set next to me.

I looked at the rest of the group. 

“So, my Dreams Voice ability works better on those with less will or resistance to being manipulated. There are some things that improve its power, such as duration exposed, being relaxed or off guard, and other factors that reduce their instinctive resistance. Or at least, that’s what I believe. Now, everyone should give me a suggestion, and I’ll pick one to use on Issei-san.”

“A-A handstand!” Asia quickly said.

“Ooh! Singing a hymn!” Irina said.

“Irina-san, Ise-san and the rest of us can’t sing or hear hymns without getting hurt as Devils,” Asia said.

“My bad, I forgot! Umm… ooh! Have him do my math homework!”

“Have Ise-kun take off his pants off,” Akeno said with a smirk.

I shot her a short glare. 

“What? We need to see different things you could make him do.” She said with a smile. 

I rolled my eyes and looked to Gasper-kun next.

“U-umm, dancing?” He said uncertainly.

“Tell me that I can keep Ascalon,” Xenovia said.

“Hey!” Issei shouted.

I ignored him and looked at Koneko, Yuuto, and Rias.

“…Giving me one thousand yen,” Koneko said

“Buchou! I’m going to be robbed!”

“…Pervert tax,” Koneko replied casually. 

“It’ll be fine, Ise. For my suggestion, I’d like Ise to tell Akeno that I am his favorite,” Rias said.

“Ara. It’s rude to spread lies, Rias.” Akeno said, narrowing her eyes at Rias.

I moved on and looked at Yuuto for the last suggestion.

“Have Ise-kun take off his shirt,” Yuuto said

I raised an eyebrow at her.

“W-We are supposed to have him do things he normally wouldn’t, right?” She quickly said.

“…Yuuto-senpai is becoming lewd.”

Yuuto turned red.

“It was just a suggestion!”

“Right,” I said before turning to Issei.

It seemed like more than one person had decided to take advantage of the opportunity presented to them.

“Well, are you ready, Issei-san?” I asked.

“You’re not going to do all of their suggestions, right? I don’t want to give Xenovia my sword, and I’ll end up doing Irina’s homework in my underwear…” Issei said, looking concerned.

“Don’t worry, Issei-san. I won’t be doing any of the more strange requests. And I don’t think I can get you to do something as complicated as homework. At least not yet.”

He let out a sigh of relief.

“Thanks, Yuki-san.”

I nodded.

I was still definitely going to mess with him.

For making me be associated with the Oppai Dragon, he deserved at least a little grief.

“This will take a moment to get started,” I said to everyone. “I‘ll need to expose him to my ability for a while before I’m able to control him.”

I turned back to Issei.

“So, you’re ready, Issei-san?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so.” He replied.

I moved to stand behind him and leaned down so I could speak close to his ear.

“Good. Let’s begin.”