Comfort Zone

Chapter 1 - Interview

"Suzuka, get the door!"

"On it!"

Suzuka jogged over and pulled the front door of her house open.

A kitsune with seven tails stood in front of the house. She had many similarities to Suzuka's classmate, Harumi, but a much more mature beauty and a calmer demeanour. She wore a Shinto priest's outfit and made it look fashionable, her hair the colour of chocolate and her eyes resembling garnets. Each of her seven tails faded to a cream colour at the tip.

Suzuka felt quite inferior standing near the mature kitsune. Compared to monsters, Suzuka had a very average appearance, with black hair that fell to her shoulders and dark blue eyes. Her curves could be considered above average for a human, but that meant little when all the monsters outclassed her so drastically.

The kitsune slowly scanned Suzuka's body up and down, appraising her. "Are you... Suzuka Youtomi?"

Suzuka gulped, a foreboding feeling building inside her. "I am."

"My name is Fuyumi Komori." She bowed. "I have some questions to ask you about your future plans and your experiences living with monsters. Do you have time?"

"Um, sure," Suzuka replied, still uneasy. "Do you want to come in?"

"Yes, please."

Suzuka's home had a rustic feel to it. Everything was made from roughly cut wood, the floor, walls, and furniture. A few rugs decorated the floor here and there and incandescent lamps provided warm light.

Suzuka led the kitsune into the living room, then prepared and poured tea from a clay kettle for both of them. Fuyumi watched the entire time, making Suzuka feel as if she was being evaluated.

Fuyumi took a sip of the tea, nodded, then pulled out a notepad and pen from her sleeves. "How old are you, Suzuka?"

Suzuka sat down on the sofa across from Fuyumi. "I'll be seventeen in three months."

"Do you get along well with your classmates?"

"Um, I suppose so. We usually keep our distance from each other, but when I do interact with them, they've been nice."

"Is this distance on their part, or on your part?"

"Mostly mine," Suzuka admitted. "I took initiative to put distance between us, and they respected it."

Fuyumi hummed. "And why did you do that?"

Suzuka fidgeted with her fingers. "Well, they're monsters, and they're still getting their qualifications to interact with humans. It would be easy for something to go wrong if I got too close, right?"

Suzuka attended the Vega Monster Habilitation Academy, an all-girls school designed to help relatively humanoid monsters learn how to live and function in human society. Run by mages, it had a wide variety of students. Lamias, demons, kitsune, dryads, succubi, harpies, and so on. Suzuka was the only human student.

Fuyumi's eyes sparkled. She stared at Suzuka, as if she could see into the depths of the human girl's soul. "That's not the full reason is it?"

Suzuka looked away. "Well, no."

Suzuka was pretty convinced that she was gay. Many of the monsters had evolved to be very appealing to humans, such as the sirens, succubi, and kitsune. If Suzuka allowed them to get close, she didn't know if she'd be able to resist.

"Hmm. So, no relationships, then?"

"Considering how many monsters prey on humans, that seems like a bad idea."