𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟐

"𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘱𝘰 𝘥𝘪 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 "

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╰┈˚ · ° .   HAVING AN AFTERNOON WHERE  we could relax was not something possible in Beacon Hill apparently.

I was in the middle of drawing Alec, shading the portrait, defining his curl, putting much attention to keep his grin as realistic as possible. My boyfriend was lying next to me on the couch, eyes half lidded, focused on the show playing on the screen of the tv as he thoughtlessly brushed his fingers on the skin of thighs.

But the calm afternoon was put to a stop when my phone rang.

Scott's voice was frenetic on the other hand, filled with panic but I got enough to understand that he needed me to bring something to school. And to do it as fast as I could because it was an emergency.

"And here I thought that we could just pass the afternoon together and cuddle." Alec grumbled as we sped with his bike to school. He was very annoyed at the interruption.

"We will have another day." I told him before thinking more about it and adding, "Probably."

The scoff that he let out shook his back, tha sound traveling to me behind him. I squeezed my arms tighter against him, placing my helmet covered head against the leather jacket that he had worn.

Alec survived on physical touch, it was his most prominent trait of his love language.

"I love you." I murmured knowing that he could hear me with his super hearing even above the sound of his bike speeding over the asphalted ground.

The effects were almost immediate. He relaxed under my touch, his anger softened. One of his hands left the steering of his motorbike for a second, just enough to squeeze my hand before returning. "I love you more, little witch. But I would love to spend some time with you without having to run head first to every supernatural drama."

"Me too." I whispered, very aware of my desires that matched his own.

Our conversation was cut short when the school loomed before us. We ran straight to the History class, where professor Yukimura was kneeled on the floor, hardly breathing. His wife was next to him, concern merring her features. Pacing back and forth with a quite old looking katana in hand was Kira, and Scott wasn't that far away from her.

"Did you bring it?" Noshiko asked as soon as she saw me.

"Yeah, yeah." I replied, quickly handing the glass jar to the woman.

"What is it?" Kira asked her mother as the woman fed his husband the mushroom.

"It's Reishi." I told her.

Kira wasn't very happy with the answer, "You're not seriously giving

dad magic mushrooms?"

Mr. Yukimura started to cough when the reishi mushroom began to have an effect on him. He choked and his body convulsed before on a white napkin he spat a fly drenched in black blood.

That was actually very gross to see, and the grimace that appeared on Alec's face spoke of it.

"Are you okay?" Mrs. Yukimura asked her husband who nodded as he leaned on his desk catching his breath.

"Stiles did this?" Scott asked, heartbreak showing on his features.

"He wanted the last Kaiken." Noshiko explained. She showed us a dagger made entirely with black material.

"It's your tail." I said in wonder. The energy coming from it was nothing like I had ever experienced before.

"Yes." The older Kitsune nodded. "I've kept this near me ever

since your friend disappeared."

"Mom, you need to talk to us about everything."

Scott gave the woman a photo, in gray color, quite old. Two people were in there, a woman that much resembled Kira and an American soldier.

"Where did you get this?" Noshiko asked, taken aback by the picture.

"Is it grandma?" Kira asked her pushing for answers.

"No." She replied, "It's me."

"If that's you, then you'd have to be like 90 years old." Scott said.

"Closer to 900." Corrected Mrs. Yukimura.

"You definitely aged pretty well in my opinion." Alec's comment earned a small grin from the woman and a cheeky wink from me but quite a few glances from Scott and Mr. Yukimura. Kira just stayed frozen.

"Okay, sure. Why not?" She said in disbelief, "Dad, how old are you?"

"43." The man replied, "But I've been told I look mid-30s."

The atmosphere changed, seriousness falling again as Kira gave her mother the old katana.

"The blade was shattered the last time it was used." The older Kitsune said, titling the broken pieces of the weapon on top of the wooden desk.

"When was that?"

"1943. Against a Nogitsune."

The news took us by surprise. "All this, it's all happened before, hasn't it?" Scott asked her.

"Yes."

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." A very typical answer that you would expect from an History teacher.

"Where did it come from?" Kira asked her parents.

"It was an internment camp during World War II. In Oak Creek. Not too far from here."

"Hold on." I stopped the woman, looking at her husband as I spoke next. "You told Allison, Sebastian and I that there was no internment

camp at Oak Creek."

"Allison's family has a certain history of violence. I didn't know if she could be trusted." He simply replied. "There was a camp, yes. But all the records were erased."

"They covered it up."

"When I was a grad student, my passion project, actually more like

an obsession, was trying to dig up the truth on Oak Creek." The man took from the drawer of his desk a notebook, showing us various photos. He then looked at her daughter, "It's how I met your mother, Kira."

I couldn't help but speak my opinion, "You knew what we were fighting against and you still withheld very vital information that got a lot of people killed. I don't think you are in the position to judge Allison's family here. " I was salty about the lie. We could have used the truth. We could have saved people, helped Stiles before the Nogitsune completely possessed him.

The two adults, though, didn't seem to be very sorry about it, so when the next question was asked, they just replied as if I had never spoken.

"So, where did the Nogitsune come from?" Kira asked.

"Isn't it obvious yet? It came from me." Noshiko replied.

The older Kitsune began telling us of her past, of her time at Oak Creek, of how she stole from the soldiers for her people, how she passed her days in the Oak Creek camp. Of the woman who had headaches once a month and played the game of GO. I was starting to think that she was just stalling, to be honest.

The Yukimura woman rearranged the katana's pieces, she looked at her daughter for what she had to say next.

"Kira, I need your help on this. There isn't much time. And this is something that needs to be done in the daylight." She pleaded.

But Kira was too angry to listen. "Not until you tell us everything."

"Tell them, Noshiko." Mr. Yukimura siad. "Tell them what they need to know."

Noshiko clenched her jaw, hardened her face. "Wolves and foxes

tend not to get along." She looked between her daughter and Scott. "Not just in fables and stories."

"But allies, however unlikely, should be welcomed." The man said contradicting her wife's words. "Especially in times of war."

And so the woman continued with her story. This time, it was the story of her love with an American medic soldier, the one that was in the photo.

"Okay, stop. Just stop." Kira interrupted her mother, "We don't want to hear your Casablanca story. We wanna know how to save Stiles."

"I'm trying to tell you."

"No, you're trying to stall." Alec corrected her. He had made himself comfortable by leaning back on a desk, and not letting me out of his grasp, he had dragged me until I was standing between his legs trapped between his arms.

"Thank god I'm not the only one thinking it. This really feels like stalling." I said, the last comment directed at Noshiko.

"When the sun goes down, the Oni are gonna come after him again, aren't they?" Scott asked already aware of the answer.

"Your friend's gone, Scott." Mr. Yukimura spoke.

"I don't think you know that for sure." The alpha shook his head, convinced of his own words. "You brought the Oni. Can you call them off?"

"It's not his fault."

"Stiles may be your best friend. He might be like a brother to you. But he is Nogitsune now." Noshiko stated, voice hard and filled with anger. "He is void."

"Can you call them off or not?" Alec spoke again, he asked his question like he couldn't care less, and to be honest, I didn't know if he really did. But I did, we needed to save Stiles. Not kill him.

"Can you?" I asked matching the woman's hardness.

"When you hear the rest of the story, you won't want me to." Noshiko took a breath before restarting her story. Nostalgia and sadness creeping into her eyes. "Rhys and I found ways to see each other. Sometimes at the barracks. Sometimes in the bunkers where they parked military vehicles. He was being transferred to north Africa in a few weeks. I was teaching him some French until we saw something. We watched Merrick and Hayes talking with the camp doctor. They were whispering, talking quickly."

Mr. Yukimura's eyes widened when they landed on his wife's hand. The woman had held a piece of the broken sword in her hand, but she had tightened the grip too much from all the emotions that rose with the memories, making her skin split until blood dripped down. "Noshiko."

"Mom, what are you doing?" Worried for her mother's health the young kitsune asked, but the older woman just let the piece fall from her hand, accepting her husband's napkin to clean the blood off unaffected by the wound. "How did you do that?" Asked Kira seeing her mother's hand completely healed.

"It's one of our talents." She replied, smiling down at her. "Something you'll learn, Kira. You should've noticed by now that you never get sick. Ever. You'll never experience something as simple as a common cold. Something as bad as the flu." Her voice started to tremble slightly as she continued. "Or something like pneumonia."

The story continued with the epidemic of Pneumonia that hit the Oak Creek camp, killing many people there. And there weren't enough antibiotics since the doctor was selling them.

"I had realized the mistake I had made by speaking too soon. I wasn't helping anyone. I was inciting a riot. I yelled for them to stop. But so many people were sick. And so many were dying. I'd never seen anger like that. It was a living, breathing thing." Her voice broke. "Now I knew why Satomi

was always trying to keep quiet. Why she got migraines once a month, and why she was always at the game of go. It kept her calm."

"She was bitten." Scott said, realizing what Satomi actually was.

"Bitten werewolves have a harder time suppressing their anger. One unexpected flare-up and they could lose all control." As she spoke her eyes were trained on Scott, like she was speaking directly at him. He, after all, was a bitten werewolf. "She killed him. She killed Rhys."

I winced at her words, at the pain in her voice I couldn't help but nestling further into my boyfriend's hold as he left kisses on my temple and holding me tighter to him, like I would disappear at any second.

As the story continued, explaining the gunshots on the crowd, on her, Noshiko started to place all the little pieces of the katana in the exact order.

"The gunfire nearly killed me. I don't know how many bullets made their way into my body, but I fought every one of them. It left my body so weak, my heartbeat so slow it appeared as though I was dead. But even then I was still better off than Rhys. His screams could be heard throughout Eichen House, echoing through every room, every hallway. He died in agony. The doctor, it seems, had also sold the morphine. Merrick and Hayes were given the task of getting rid of all the bodies, both American and Japanese-American. They were transferring Dr. Liston out as well, stationing him somewhere else. They were covering it up. The doctor, Merrick, Hayes, and all of the others. They were gonna get away with murder. By chance, I guess, Rhys' body had been put next to mine. I wanted the soldiers and the administration of the camp to be punished for their crime. But I knew the clock was ticking. I was going to lose my chance. They were going to burn me with the others. I couldn't fight back with my body weakened and still healing. I could barely move. I was going to die. With time slipping through my fingers, I knew I was making a terrible decision. But I could not die knowing they would get away. So I called out to our ancestors for Kitsune-tsuki. Possession by a fox spirit. For a powerful Nogitsune, one that feeds off chaos, strife and pain, to take control of my weakened body, Imbue it with power and use it as a weapon. But calling on a trickster spirit is a dangerous thing. They can have a very dark sense of humor. Because while the Nogitsune did come to possess someone, it wasn't me."

"Rhys." I whispered, earning a nod from the woman.

I had to be honest, the story that Noshiko was telling was one of more heartbreaks that I had expected. She had lost almost all her people, her lover, almost herself. And for what? Money?

"What happened then?" Asked Scott.

"My body was beginning to heal." Noshiko's tone turned of steel once again, anger infusing it. "And I managed to pull myself up from the ground. But it was too late."

"What did it do?"

"It brought chaos, strife and more pain than you can imagine. I had to find him. I had to stop him."

The sunset was approaching soon, not much time remained. We all crowded around the desk, the sword in pieces in front of all of us. "Kira, hurry. Night is coming."

Kira nodded her head. "What do I need to do?"

"Coup de foudre. The literal translation is 'a bolt of lightning.' In French, it can also mean 'love at first sight.' " The way the young kitsune's eyes fell on Scott as his own landed on her was not much of a surprise.

"In italian we call it, 'Colpo di fulmine'." Alec said, eyes gazing at the side of my face. It caused a smile to form on my features because we were definitely not the definition of that. Then, tough, he focused on Scott slapping the alpha on the arm "My girl shot me with a real lightning that she summoned with her magic-"

Romantic moment done, I guess. "For fuck sakes. Again with that? And by the way it was entirely your fault. You were getting on my nerves." I scoffed, crossing my arms on my chest.

Ignoring me, Alec continued what he was saying. "Let's hope yours gives you a more figurite one, alright?"

At least it made the alpha smile a bit. "You shot him with a real bolt of lightning? Like one from the sky?" He asked me with mirth.

"He's always been a piece of shit that loved to rile me up." I replied with a shrug.

"Well, a bolt of lightning happens to be exactly what we need right now, actually." Noshiko said with a softer smile than anyone I had ever seen her make before.

"For what?"

"Excising the Nogitsune from Rhys' body shattered the katana. But you can put it back together."

"Why don't you just do it yourself?" Kira asked her mother.

"Because she is not a thunder Kitsune like you." I replied. Her aura was different from Kira's.

"Do you trust me?" The mother asked her daughter.

"I just found out you're 900 years old. I don't think I'm ever gonna trust you again."

"Trust me on this."

Noshiko placed Kira's hand on top of the shattered Katana. A second, two passed before from Kira's hands, lightning escaped, the energy covering the swords as it slowly began to reform until it was completely new.

Mrs. Yukimura extended the Katana to her daughter. "Go ahead. It's yours now."

"What if I don't want it?"

"You need it." Replied the woman. She threw it at the younger Kitsune, and as a reflex, Kira twirled the katana, using it as if she had already learned how to. "You see? It gives you balance. My power is yours now, Kira. If the Oni can't stop Stiles, you have to. The same as I did. And maybe seek out a wolf to help you."

"You didn't tell us anything." Scott said.

"You want to save Stiles? Kill him. That's the only way." She told him.

"Do you agree with this?"

"Sometimes, history does repeat itself, Scott." The teacher said.

"Only if you don't learn."

"But sometimes even then, fate conspires against you."

All of the phones of us teenagers pinged at the same with a message from Allison telling us to go to Derek's loft.

Scott clenched his jaw, "There's a way to save him. There has to be." And then he walked out.

I gave a nod to the adults before Alec and I followed after Scott.

"You know, she did something that I could never do." Alec said, stopping me from walking any further. I furrowed my brows not understanding what he was talking about. "If what happened to Rhys had happened to you..." He said, whispering the words against my lips, "I would have let the Nogitsune stay free and kill whoever he wanted. I wouldn't have cared about stopping him. I would've let the word be drenched in blood and death."

And those were the most disturbing and romantic words that he had ever spoken to me.

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!!

You guys, I had the interaction of the 'love at first sight' in italian scene in my mind since I was writing season 2.

I hope that yo enjoyed this chapter!!

Other three chapters until the end of season 3 and the end of Book 1!!!!

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Tuesday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾