Chapter 29 Greenhorn Information Broker

When Willow left through the same back door by herself, she followed the path she had been through before. Akira, who had been curious the entire time, said nothing as she found a small bike place and used quite a bit of money of her remaining allowance to buy an old bike. It was rusty but would serve its purpose well. She wanted to get away from there quickly and left on the bicycle without a second thought.

After leaving the place, she knew better than to stay there and took out a pill she had stuffed into her pocket before throwing it into her mouth. The pill was half the size of a digit of her thumb and was bitter as hell!

However, the outer coating of the shining brown pill didn't allow her body to absorb the contents of the pill without cracking it. She dreamt back to the easy life of swallowing pills with ease. The only time she ever suffered under medication was the bitterness of herbal medicine fluid when she visited Guiyang and fell ill thanks to her allergy reaction to the waters where the fish she consumed swam in initially.

Now here she was again in a new body and gnashing on a more concentrated version of that fluid medicine. She had one back at her teacher's place. It wasn't like she couldn't spat it back out, but, the moment she did, she was smacked on her bare shin with the end of his cane. Something about her being a spoiled child or that good medicine was bitter medicine, or was it the other way around?

Didn't help that she continued to spat out her medicine three times after making it that her shin was starting to bruise, especially since she was wearing a long skirt after such a long time. It was only after entering a quiet park by the river that she set her new bike next to a bike in the area of trees and sat down next to it.

Despite the chaos of the city, the small park remains untouched by the commotions aside from the litters amongst the grass and the plastic bags. The grass have grown long and provided rather nice shelter for the Little Aki. As the fox laid on the grass with a yawn, Willow asked, "So, are you able to change the appearance of anyone other than yourself?"

He turned to her, "You want to make use of my abilities?"

"That's a harsh way of putting it." Willow shrugged, "If it's too inconvenient, then don't."

"Who says I can't?" The fox stared at her with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Will you do it for me, though?" Willow inquired.

"That depends what you plan to do?" He responded.

"Two servings of tofu." Willow responded.

"Hell no!" The fox scowled, "Fried tofu is great and all, but do you really expect me to continue eating stinky tofu all day?!"

That's true. Willow agreed with him after seeing his reaction to stinky tofu this morning. If it was like this, then she'll have to find a food vendor that actually sells fried tofu. It was a hassle to make them herself, after all.

"Then, you want me to make you fried tofu?" Willow shook her head, "Do you see me as a magician too? Is there any good food stalls here? You have no choice but to wait till we return home by the end of the three week period. Unless you plan to forcefully break the contract over food?"

"Do you take me as a dog?" The fox glared at her.

"Then, a cat?" Willow corrected, "You favor fried tofu over stinky tofu so easily even though they're both fried tofu in the end."

Akira's ears perked up and gave an audible growl of warning when he heard her words, but, in his chest, he felt as though he had just paved a road of humiliation ahead of him with the contract he forged with such a daring and reckless girl. Though he was bored, why is it that his mistress just had to be someone like her over these hundreds of years who knew only how to ridicule her familiars with words and annoy him?

Willow sighed, "Look. If you want fried tofu so badly, you'll have to wait for three weeks after I return. I'll have to purchase ingredients for it and time. You can't expect me to know that I'd form a contract with you so quickly before I left."

It was the truth, after all. Following this silly fox's instruction, they had exchanged the knowledge of names and some minor details about themselves without the need for more words. Willow had felt that the feeling was a little unusual, especially when she suddenly felt as though she was satisfied with some sort of outcome on the eventless late morning.

So, when she thought about the fox's attitude and their exchange, she recalled an event that usually occurs in stories and pulled out some of her books. It took her the whole hour or two after they left that hostel that she found the details pertaining to what she had been looking for. It would seem that the fox let her follow a short procedure of contract where he offered it rather than the human master or mistress.

When the spirit does it, the process becomes shorter than a normal contract procedure offered by the human contractor. Just giving each other their full names and touch their magic was enough to complete the contract the spirit initiated where the usual contract requires more verbal words. Even when it had been partly her consequence to have let herself loose and follow along with that foolish fox's lead, he can't blame her for a contract he started without notice. If he had, she'd definitely have prepared some bai-.

Ah, no. She'd have prepared some food for the little guy. Willow thought for a bit before speaking again, "Then, if you help me, I'll make you a week worth of fried tofu."

This time, the fox stared at her curiously, "You swear to make me good fried tofu for a week?"

"A week worth." She responded.

"Fine." The fox sat up.

"Oh, before you use it on me." Willow spoke as she pointed up to the trees, "I want to see you use it on him, first."

"That's easy." The fox yawned.

It was then that something fell right onto Willow's lap in a bundle brown and gray fluff. The bundle snapped open its eyes and hopped back up glancing around its surroundings before it opened its mouth, "What the hell was that for?!"

"So you won't get caught so easily." Willow responded with a smirk, "And, I wanted to see how he would change you."

"You evil monster!" The former raven scowled as he fanned out his wings, "Look at what you did to my beautiful appearance! For god's sake, I'm a freaking mockingbird!"

"It's not good on him, Akira." Willow nodded in agreement.

"Finally!" The raven sqawked in relief seeing that Willow wasn't going to put up an argument.

"He'll stand out in these parts of China." Willow reasoned as she shook her head in disappointment, "He doesn't even know how to mock others properly. Turn him into the most common bird you can think of. Yes, that one of your mind right now."

"What?!" The raven stared at her in shock as he heard her insults to his pitiful little heart.

The fox immediately flicked his tail and the visual appearance of the plump mockingbird morphed into that of a plain, gray bird. When the raven tried to move, he couldn't help but bob his head in rhythm to his own steps by his orange feet. He spread out his wings and saw white fluff and black specks as he felt that he could molt from disbelief and was brought back again with a cold shower that made his spine shiver.

"Satisfied?" Akira asked with a huff.

"It's good." Willow nodded in approval, "This way, he can't pick up a boat ton of suspicions than he was as a raven."

"How could you..." The bird bemoaned as the knowledge finally soaked into his mind and he sqawked in despair, "Lady Willow! You just turned your father's messenger into a common pigeon! Oh, how am I to face his lord now?!"

"Hm?" Willow tapped his head with a finger as he tried to bite her finger, "But, I'm helping you."

"How is this helping me?!"

"You're job is to keep a low profile and watch over me while you pass on my father's messages." Willow clarified with a knowing nod, "If that's the case, then you being a raven will catch too many eyes later. It's better to be a pigeon if that was the case. Therefore, I'm helping you, aren't I?"

"That's... not wrong..."

For once, he felt that what she had said made sense and could hardly think of a way to rebuke her.