Sunderance: Chapter 14 - Kitsunetsuki Part 2 (Patreon)

    Soft spoken, not entirely because the voice came from behind the deep purple scarf that he wore wrapped around his and over his muzzle. Nick said nothing in reply as the rabbit reached up to pull the scarf away from his muzzle, though he knew exactly what 'she' he was referring to. Cold blue met calm green in silence, considering each other for a long moment before he moved the baton behind his back, this time sliding it into its sheath as he started to wander the lot. His eyes never left the bunny.

    “So, what do you want here, Jack?” he said at length, taking the time to smooth and adjust the lines of his suit with a few quick tugs.

    “How did you know about the hologram?” came the reply, the voice delivering it as pointed as the blade in his paw.

    “You mean, why didn’t I think you were some ghost or demon?” He gave a short shrug in reply as he stopped next to one of the dead wolves and the SMG that was still strapped to the wolf’s shoulder. “I don’t believe in them. I smelled scent mask when you first came close, felt you breathing. You were solid enough.”

    “I wasn’t talking about that. It’s not meant to make me seem like a ghost,” was the reply, one that Nick noted came a with an undertone of impatience under the overwhelming calm. “I meant: how did you know where to hit me to damage it?”

    “Oh, I didn’t,” he admitted, his tail flicking behind him lightly as he studied the prey in front of him with rapt curiosity. He couldn’t see any damage to the suit itself, which meant there was likely some sort of underlying technology in the fabric itself. He could only assume that he must have hit something vital. “Blind luck? I didn’t even know personal holograms existed to that extent, though it explains how you are in Zootopia.”

    “They don’t,” was the only reply, one that was followed by a few beats of silence before Nick decided it was his turn to speak again.

    “Why did Neveen send you?”

    Even saying the name caused a little clench in his chest, though it was nothing unfamiliar to him. He had not spoken the name aloud in years now, even if it ran through his mind every day, as did the face of the vixen attached to it. The play of a frown over Jack’s muzzle was not a surprise to him. While he hadn’t spoken to her, he knew very well that she had gone to great length to bury that name.

    “It would be in everyone’s best interest if you referred to her as The Administrator,” he said, his long ears twitching and radaring for a moment towards a distant sound. “Or Kyubi, if you’re feeling bold.”

    “Oh, right,” Nick said with no attempt at all to hide the sarcasm in his voice, placing one paw over his chest as a look of snarky irritation crossed his muzzle. “I would never endanger her pretend identity. So, why did Neveen send you?”

    Rather than annoyance or anger, he noted that the eyes of the bunny went from cold to ice as his ears dropped back for a moment. He felt another little tingle down his spine, the sort of thing that warned of danger, but he expected if this ‘Jack’ had been sent to kill him, then they would not be having a conversation. The ice remained, however, when the reply came. “She wishes to extend an invitation. She wants a meeting, as she worded it, to discuss why you have returned to help the lawyer. She wants to meet at the Apex of the Tower in two days.”

    “I never went anywhere,” he muttered under his breath, reaching up to rub one paw down the length of his muzzle without taking his eyes off the rabbit. Eyes that narrowed suddenly when an idea struck that made him sick to his stomach. “Wait. She never expected anyone to help Judy, did she? So, what? She expected her to come to Zootopia to die?”

    “Of course not,” was the instant reply, one which held the first note of amusement from the male. “She had every intention of protecting Miss Hopps.”

    A little more than a tickle this time. A full shiver ran down his spine at the tone and the implication that came with it. If any individual mammal in the city would have been capable of protecting her, he had no doubt that it would have been someone with a reputation like Yurei. Having been given a small taste of those skills himself, he had no doubt that it very easily could have been done. An open display of sovereign protection wouldn’t have worked, after all. It would have to be done in secret, in silence, and with the last mammal anyone would expect. Another bunny would have been perfect. He had to fight to desire to grind his teeth as he placed his paws on his hips.

    “So, was this some sort of test, then?” he asked, finding himself wishing he had punched the baton through the annoying rabbit’s chest. “You were the one who was supposed to protect her, so you wanted to see how the competition measured up?”

    “Competition?” The tone remained amused even as the bunny drew himself up a bit and started to move for the first time since his hologram had been disabled. Nick felt that the bunny moved with the easy confidence of someone who didn’t care that he had been exposed. At the same time, the fact that he still held the knife told an entirely different story. “You think highly of yourself, given where that cut could have landed.”

    “Oh, so you do have some emotion tucked away in that suit,” Nick said, moving parallel to the bunny now as they started to circle each other. “Tell me how that sarcasm works for you while you nurse those broken ribs. And you still haven’t answered my question.”

    The amused shimmer in blue eyes dimmed a fraction, an almost petty feeling of victory allowing him to grin viciously when the rabbit reached up to rub almost unconsciously at his ribs as they circled each other.

    “Yes,” came the reply, which at this point was no surprise to him. They both came to a stop not far from each other, the fox looking down at the bunny while he tried to decide which one of them was the predator and which one was prey. “Though it would have made little difference in the long-term outcome. It is clear at this point that Miss. Hopps trusts you to protect her…”

    “Trust might be a strong word,” he muttered under his breath.

    “…and even though I am, shall we say, closer to home for her,” Jack continued as if there had been no interruption, “it is doubtful that she would appreciate an offer of a new protector since you have proven effective enough.”

    “I somehow feel like I’ve just been insulted,” Nick said, his expression shifting to a bored sort of annoyance for a moment before he shrugged slightly. “If I were to believe you, this does clear up a few questions I have had for her.”

    “If you accept the invitation, I am sure you will have all the answers you need.”

    The bunny now took a few steps away, though his eyes never left those of the fox. Finally, he turned the long knife in his paw and moved to sheathe it, allowing Nick his first real chance to have a look at it. The metal was dark gray, marked with inconsistent waves that seemed to run the length of the blade. An old metal working technique. Durable, expensive, and despite the deceptively simple hilt clearly not a simple throw-away weapon.

    “All the answers I need, but not all of the answers I want, I presume,” he replied as he committed the apparent length and craftsmanship to memory.

    “Isn’t that the way of these things?”

    “Yes, I suppose it is,” he said, resigned to the reality of it. A meeting with her was a step, to be sure. A step that he had not expected, one that he was not even sure he deserved, but it was one that he would take. If nothing else, it would allow him to spell out his intentions to protect Judy. When his eyes returned to the bunny, he watched with a slight tilt in his head as the scarf was pulled up over his muzzle again. An interesting thing, he considered, because it would do little to hide the fact that everything about the male screamed ‘bunny.’ “Did she send the tiger?”

    “There was no need for her to send anyone,” he replied, slim shoulder rising and falling in a simple motion of disinterest. “A bunny in Zootopia. Someone was bound to try something.”

    “At which point you would have swooped in to save the day,” Nick added, his tail twitching slightly as he glanced towards the still open door leading into the DMV. “What if she had refused to accept your help?”

    “I don’t see why it matters,” the rabbit said, his tone taking on a slight edge that amused Nick to no end. Obviously, he was not used to long conversations. “But I was to convince her by any means at my disposal.”

    “Including seduction?” he said, feeling his amusement rise further when the face of the other male darkened slightly before he gave a curt nod. The sharpness of the motion, as well as the information, had a light chuckle escaping him, a sound which had blue eyes focusing on him again.

    “That amuses you?”

    “Only slightly,” he admitted, then allowed a wide, long-toothed grin to spread over his muzzle the likes of which caused even this bunny’s eyes to dart down to the exposed canines. “I just happen to know that you’re not her type.”