Two of the Same Kind - The Fox and the Wolf

02. Misfits

"Wheew, I haven't been this mad for ..." she pauses, trying to think back to when she last had one of her usual fits. However the number of weeks passed since then lets her frown. „... for... like... two weeks..." Rana admits meekly and sighs in exhaustion while slumping onto her futon.

She lies on her back and stares absentmindedly at the ceiling, wearing only her underwear which consists of a sarashi-cloth wrapped around her breasts and black hot pants. Her dripping wet clothes are hanging on the drying rack at the end of the room.

Only moments ago she finished the arduous task of cleaning her blood- and dirt-stained miko attire, which has been the visual proof of this afternoon's quarrel with the werewolf from Loki Familia.

On the other futon, next to her's, a blonde renard girl is lying on her stomach, deeply immersed in a book. Her blonde tail sways slowly from side to side.

"Hmm, indeed. Recently, Sora-dono only ever puts you on front yard duty when she gets tired of your nagging about the dungeon... which hasn't been too little either." the blonde confirms somewhat absentmindedly but with a soft and friendly voice.

The gentle voice belongs to Haruhime - the only other renard girl within Amaterasu Familia. She was among the first who joined the sun goddess seven years ago. Needless to say, she did leave Hestia Familia on good terms, as all of her former Familia members supported her when she expressed that she wanted to become a shrine maiden in order to hone her magic skills.

Rana rolls over to face her fellow kin in the next bed. Upon seeing Haruhime's ever so soothing but naive smile, her face darkens.
...ugh, Haruhime, don't speak so lightly of my recent punishments... hell, even if she insults someone by accident one simply can't be angry with her... how can anyone even be this endearing!? ... if she was more like me, it would be considerably easier to hate her...

Still looking at Haruhime's kind face, her last thought starts to weigh on her conscience.

... ok, that was mean... let's just say it would be a lot easier to keep my distance... yeah... that's better...

"..."

Rana remains silent as she stares at her Familia member.
Gaaah, goodness! She is simply the archetype of a renard! She's calm, collected and capable of some crazy-ass powerful magic spells... Honestly I don't know what's more impressive: the fact that she developed a powerful spell like 'Uchide no Kozuchi' all by herself, or that she's actually earning our Familia a fortune after Amaterasu managed to store fragments of that spell in sellable potions...

"..."

I even heard that her former goddess and that brown haired pallum showed up at our door shortly after they learned that we make a living selling those potions alone... Well, sucks to be you, Hestia Familia. I bet they kicked themselves after they got the gate from Amaterasu without their demands for compensation being met... Honestly, that Amaterasu can be quite a beast sometimes... Well at least that bitch was generous enough to give Hestia Familia the permission to take Haruhime with them on their expeditions from time to time.... the renard girl rambles in her thoughts while observing the blonde.

Seven years ago, after Amaterasu came to Orario and took the lead in restructuring the old pleasure quarter, the sun goddess decided to make a living by selling magical enhancements for weapons and items. Therefore, since then, her Familia only accepted unmarried young women who excel in their affinity for holy magic. All her children are trained as shrine maidens, known as mikos, and their training is focused on developing spells that can improve certain stats or abilities of an item or weapon.

Rana frowns and continues her internal monolog.

As if the existence of Haruhime's magic wasn't outrageous enough but with these potions, it's as if any jackass running around gets a free pass to cheat... Well that is, if they are rich enough. Items containing Haruhime's magic are by far the most expensive our Familia has to offer... no wonder her former goddess got mad at Amaterasu... If it was me, I probably would've killed that haughty sun goddess right away... Honestly, she doesn't even need that much money... Whereas rumors say that Hestia Familia is still having debts from hell at Hephaistos' place ...