Chapter 197 — Treatment Interrupted

Yuki

“It’s your turn, Yuki-senpai,” Koneko said as she shifted away from Issei.

Issei got up from the bed and let out a groan as he stretched. 

“Thanks, Koneko-chan! I feel great right now!” He said with a smile. 

“…I’m glad, Issei-senpai,” Koneko replied. “But I was only able to repair a small amount of the damage to your life force. It will take healing sessions every week to ensure that you improve and your lifespan is restored.”

“It looks like I’ll be in your care for a while then. Thank you again.”

Koneko nodded to him and then looked at me.

“I’ll need to get changed. Where is the spare robe?” I asked.

“It’s in Issei-senpai’s bathroom,” Koneko said. Then she glanced at the hallway door. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go back to your room for your healing, Yuki-senpai?”

“We are already here,” I said with a shrug. “If Issei makes things weird, then we can kick him out.”

“But it’s my room,” Issei said with a confused look on his face.

“And you can wait outside while we use it,” I replied.

Issei glanced at Koenko and saw he would have no support there.

He sighed.

“Girls aren’t fair…” he muttered.

I rolled my eyes and ignored him.

“Alright, I’m going to get changed,” I said as I stood and started walking to the bathroom.

“…It’s on the hook by the mirror,” Koneko called after me.

I entered the bathroom and immediately found the outfit.

I held it up to inspect it.

It was just like the one Akeno had worn before, and the one Koneko was currently wearing.

It was nearly see-through and looked like it wouldn’t fit.

I shook my head as I set it back down.

I removed my clothes, folding my tracksuit and placing my bra and socks on top of it.

I didn’t mind Issei being in the room while I wore that outfit, but I wasn’t going completely nude under it if I could help it.

Especially since the outfit looked rather short.

I changed into the special garments that Koneko had left out for me, and I found I was right.

The lower end of the robe barely made it to my mid-thigh.

And it was rather tight on my chest and hips.

I knew that my hips were wide due to it being a common trait in Kitsune, because of our tails.

But I had to force the material over my hips as I shimmed into it.

I looked at myself in the mirror. 

The outfit was still opaque, and no one was going to be able to see anything.

But it still clung too tightly to me. 

I sighed before turning back to head to Koneko and Issei.

I’d have to figure out something better for next time.

Or get a larger outfit.

I exited the bathroom and walked back into the bedroom. 

Both Issei and Koneko turned to me as I entered the room. 

Issei’s mouth fell open.

I rolled my eyes.

I expected Koneko to berate him, but when I looked at her, she was staring at me with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

I stopped the frown from forming on my face.

“So, are we ready to start now?” I asked.

Koneko blinked before nodding.

“…Come sit here, Yuki-senpai,” she said, patting the bed next to her. 

I moved to the bed and then to the spot Koneko had asked me to use.

I sat, and she moved to sit in my lap.

She sat facing me and leaned forward, pressing the two of us close together as she leaned her head against my shoulder and wrapped her arms around me.

I moved my arms behind her back to hold her.

“…Just sit still for a moment. I need to concentrate until I get the flow of Ki moving,” Koneko murmured.

I gave an affirmative hum and relaxed as I waited.

 After a while, I could feel my body becoming warmer and my fatigue fading away.

I unconsciously pressed myself closer to Koneko.

Issei was right that this felt great.

“How is it, Yuki-senpai?” Koneko murmured.

“It’s working. I can feel my fatigue leaving me,” I replied.

“When Koneko-chan was healing me, it was hard not to fall asleep,” Issei commented. 

I nodded.

“I’m glad that’s helping you relax. Like Issei-senpai, you’ll need multiple healing sessions to stabilize your life force. It’ll take time, but it will reduce the time needed between your seal releases,” Koneko said.

“Is there anything else we could do to speed the process up?” Issei asked. “Not that I’m not very grateful, but if contact and clothing can affect the efficiency, can anything else?”

“Not with this method,” Koneko replied. “There are other methods that could be used that may be more effective, but I am still learning to use my Senjutsu and won’t be able to do them yet.” I could feel her ears droop as she leaned against me. “If I hadn’t denied my own powers for so long, then I would be much more practiced with Senjutsu and would be able to heal both you and Yuki-senpai more efficiently.”

“It’s fine, Koneko-chan. You had your reasons, and you’ve moved past them and can learn now,” I said as I rubbed her back.

“Yeah! You’re doing your best for us, and that’s all we could ask. If it wasn’t for you, neither of us would get this treatment to help us. And as you said, you're doing the most effective method you can,” Issei said with an encouraging smile.

I paused as I thought for a moment.

“Well, you should be able to do Bouchuujustu, but it’s obvious why you aren’t,” I muttered.

I felt Koneko go still against me.

Issei blinked and looked at me in confusion.

I realized that I should not have brought that up at the moment, but it was too late.

“What’s Bouchuujutsu, and why wouldn’t we try it?” Issei asked.

Koneko sighed before leaning back and giving me an annoyed look.

“…Why did you have to mention that?”

“I was thinking aloud. Though I probably should have kept that to myself,” I said with a small, wry smile. 

“You should have.”

“Uh, guys? What’s the issue? Is it a difficult technique or something?” Issei asked, looking more confused.

“You could say that...” I muttered

Koneko gave me a small glare before turning to Issei.

“It’s another technique that involves Ki transfer.”

Issei looked even more confused.

“That doesn’t explain anything,” he muttered.

Koneko closed her eyes for a moment.

When she opened them, her cheeks were slightly pink.

“Bouchuujutsu is a technique a woman can use to share her Ki directly with a man’s body. It’s.. much more intimate,” Koneko said slowly. “It requires the man and woman… to become one for the technique to work…”

Issei was silent for a moment before his face began to flush.

“Wait. That means that to use that technique, Koneko-chan and I would have to sleep together?!” Issei loudly asked, looking back and forth between Koneko and me.

“Yes, but that’s why I said she wouldn’t use the technique,” I said. “Even if it would be much more effective.”

“…It would also work with Yuki-senpai…” Koneko murmured.

Issei was stunned again.

He glanced between the two of us, and we held each other while scantily dressed.

He wiped away the blood that was beginning to drip from his nose. 

“But you said it was a technique for a man and a woman. So how would it work with the two of you?” He asked.

“Because I’m a Kitsune. And Kitsune women can shapeshift to fill the role of a man when two women are together,” I replied.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that… I know that Nekomata are a female-only race of Youkai, but Kitsune aren’t, so why can Kitsune do that?”

Koneko answered before I could.

“Because of Kitsune mating habits. The more powerful a Kitsune becomes, the lower their ability to have children is. Because of that, female Kitsune have the ability to mate with other females to increase their ability to reproduce. They also become more romantically aggressive and tend to take on multiple partners at once.”

I shot Koneko a look.

She returned my gaze without any expression, but I could tell she was glad to push the topic onto something more awkward about me.

It was fair enough considering I had brought up Bochuujutsu unnecessarily.

“Really? So Yuki-San is going to become kind of like a more lewd and forward Akeno-san?” Issei asked.

I gave him a full look.

I’d tell him not to say that in front of Akeno, but she would probably take it as a compliment. 

“Kitsune’s instincts indeed drive them to seek out mates more and more as they get more tails and grow in power,” I explained. “It’s why my people are associated with seduction. But how much their instincts affect and control them depends on the Kitsune. A three-tailed Kitsune and an eight-tailed Kitsune could both have the same drive and instinctual need to mate.”

“That sounds both difficult and amazing,” Issei said with a distant look on his face. “But you really haven’t acted any different after getting more tails. And you’re already up to five.”

“My instincts have been affecting me more with each tail I get back, but it’s been fairly easy to deal with. I have decent self-control, so it won’t be an issue, I think.”

Koneko gave me an unimpressed look. 

I tilted my head slightly in confusion.

“So when you have all of your tails released, would you act like how you behave when you're using your curse state ability?” Issei asked.

I frowned.

“I hope not. That would be unpleasant.”

If my instincts were pushed into overdrive like they were while I used Malediction’s embrace, it would be very difficult not to act on them.

It was hard just being near the girls of the peerage when I was like that.

I had gotten better at controlling it, but it was always a losing battle.

I shook my head to push those thoughts away. 

I leaned against Koneko as she continued her treatment on me.

The warmth and calm I felt from it made me relax against her more.

I knew enough about Senjutsu to know that she would only be able to stabilize my life force so often, but I would be tempted to ask her to do this just to feel this sensation.

She moved one of her hands along my back, and I leaned my head against hers.

I let out a content sigh.

I could hear a quiet rumble coming from her chest as we sat holding each other.

The comfortable silence lasted a few minutes until Issei spoke again. 

“It’s kind of crazy to think that Yuki-san might start to act more like Buchou and Akeno-san. I was worried that I would have to keep Asia from being influenced by them too much, but now I need to worry about Yuki-san too. Buchou and Akeno are bad enough influences for her already.”

He said as he lay on the bed staring at the ceiling.

He wasn’t exactly wrong that those two were the most forward out of anyone else in the peerage, but I didn’t appreciate being lumped in with them, as I didn’t have any interest in him as they did.

Before I could say anything, a voice called out from behind us.

“Oh? And who am I a bad influence for?”

I jolted in surprise.

I fell backwards, bringing Koenko down with me.

I had been too relaxed and hadn’t heard the door open or Rias walk in.

I landed on my back on the bed, and Koenko landed on top of me, he face landing in my breasts.

“O-oh! B-Buchou! How long have you been there?” Issei stammered out. 

I looked over Koneko and saw Rias and Asia standing in the doorway.

Rias was dangerously smiling at Issei.

There was an ominous aura around her as she stood near the door.

“Why do you sound interested in Yuki acting more like Akeno and me? And how would she be influencing Asia exactly?” She asked in a cold tone.

“N-No, it’s not like that, Buchou!” Issei said, trying to protect himself.

Asia was slightly behind Rias and looked teary-eyed.

“I have to compete with Rias-oneesama and Akeno-san for attention already, and now I’ll have to struggle against Yuki too?… I’m going to be left behind…” Asia said with a sniffle.

“N-No, Asia, that’s not it!” Issei stammered.

Rias took another step into the room.

“And why are you asking about Bouchuujutsu and Kitsune mating while both Koneko and Yuki are practically naked in your bed? The bed we sleep in together every night?”

Issei was shaking in fear as he tried to stammer out an excuse.

Koneko looked back over her shoulder at Rias and froze in place.

Rias’s smile had grown even more menacing as she moved into the room.

“We were just answering questions after I mentioned it as another healing method,” I tried to explain.

Rias’s gaze turned to me

I shivered slightly under its intensity.

“That's rather convenient, isn’t it?” She asked before looking to Koneko. “Koneko-chan, is Ise’s treatment done for today?”

Koneko slowly nodded.

“Good, then you and Yuki-chan can go.”

Koneko immediately sat up and pulled me up with her. 

She started to quickly drag me from the room. 

“Koneko-chan, I need to grab my clothes,” I said as she pulled me.

“Let’s just go back to your room, senpai,” she hurriedly said. 

It will only take a moment,” I tried to protest as she pulled me to the door.

“You don’t need them right now.”

“I’ll need them if I want to train in the morning!”

Koneko ignored me and pulled me out the door and quickly shut it behind us.

She then dragged me across the hall into my own room and finally let go of my hand once my door was closed.

She paused for a moment before locking it as well.

“Was that really necessary, Koenko-chan?” I asked.

“Buchou can be terrifying. You don’t want to stick around and get yourself caught up in that if you can avoid it.”

I sighed as I walked over to my bed and sat on the edge.

While I didn’t mind leaving Issei to deal with Rias’s wrath, I was annoyed that I had left my workout clothes in his bathroom. 

“Fine. But tomorrow you are going over there to get our clothes,” I said.

Koneko nodded.

She walked over and stood in front of me.

We were at eye level as I sat on the edge of my bed.

Her ears twitched once before she spoke again.

“We didn’t finish your treatment before we left,” she said.

“We can finish it now if you’re alright with that. It was rather nice.”

Koneko walked to the side of the bed and shifted the covers down towards the foot of the bed.

I watched with a raised eyebrow.

“Lay down, senpai,” she said, gesturing to the bed.

I scooted backwards in the bed before lying down where she had told me to.

Koneko climbed into bed and maneuvered herself over me while pulling the blanket up onto the back of her shoulders.

She lay down onto me and laid the blanket over both of us.

She pulled a pillow over and laid her head next to mine.

“Are you comfortable, senpai?” She murmured.

“Yes, but I’ll fall asleep like this with you on top of me... I don’t know how I’ll react if I have another nightmare.”

“It’ll be alright, senpai. I’ll move after I’m done with your treatment,” she said before she closed her eyes to concentrate.

I watched her as she focused on beginning the process of moving her Ki.

Her face looked doll-like as she stayed still with her eyes closed.

She was beautiful even if she didn’t think she was as attractive as the other girls in the peerage.

She was always self-conscious around the other girls and seemed to think she wasn’t as attractive as they were due to her smaller frame.

I hoped that she would be able to accept herself as she was.

She deserved to find someone who would let her know how beautiful she truly was.

I let out a content sigh as I felt the warmth of her Ki moving over me.

“I just need to do a little bit more, and then your healing will be done for today,” she quietly said.

I let out a small yawn.

“I’m… I’m not going to be able to stay awake like this, Koenko-chan,” I murmured.

“It’s alright, senpai. Go to sleep.”

I shut my eyes.

“…Good night, Koenko-chan,” I murmured.

She quietly said something back to me, but I couldn’t make it out as I was quickly drifting to sleep.

I felt her shift her head closer to me and her tail curl around my leg as I quickly drifted to sleep.