Chapter 20 : Taking the Bait

The road is easy, I encounter no one, running at full speed at first and getting back to walking normally as I have a hard time to breath, I focus on my objective and soon rather than late enter's the witch's shop where I had my first job, there was no one inside until I heard a noise.

"Who's there !?"

5 witches came to see mee, all of different sizes, all of them wearing black hats, wands in hands, ready to cast their sorcery on me.

"Where is your eldest sister ?"

"If you don't want to buy anything from us, leave now." said the one on the middle.

"Wait sisters ! She is that same kitsune we had seen on our expedition." claims the one in the right corner.

"Now that you talk about it... That reminds me that she on the drawing had purple hair."

"And her ears are the same !" the others says in sync.

The witch on the middle lowers her wand and so does the other four, they don't reveal their faces to me keeping their hat on.

"Our sister left today."

"Where did she go ?" I demand, my ears moving on their own out of my anger.

The one with saphyr hair walks towards me and waves her hand, talking to me in a soft voice.

"Néhel went to the..." her lips doesn't match, she says something more but can't tell what.

"Could one of you help me save my friend ? She has panda ears."

"Didn't see anyone like that around. But I'll help you find her." replies the one at the left corner.

"I was told that she was abducted by the Blacksoul."

"Them again !? In that case, come !"

The two sisters left the shop with me and a broom happened to show up, they both sit in that thing that would definitely hurt my butt.

"I'm not riding this."

"You have a fastest way to travel ?"

I do ride in it, being at the back and getting a grip on the shoulders of the one sitting in front of me, my ass is irritated and the broom is flying very high in the sky and the witches do not feel the pain I do feel.

"You look quite young for a kitsune. What's your secret ?" asks the one being on top.

"I'm only 15."

"Impressive."

"No I'm not, I just wanted to live a peaceful life."

"Just like me and Haruka."

"Will you mind if I go berserk ?"

"Both of us will, don't even try to kill. Just enjoy the blue sky."

"A wonderful view ! It's a wonderful wonderful view to be happy !" she sings.

The one who is at command makes the broom do rotation to have fun, that girl is so energetic and putting all her might into having fun that I get a nausea.

"Please stop !"

"We are just getting started." she smiles, I can feel it.

I close my eyes and look into the future, my own future, it feels like time stops whenever I use this ability, I used it to stop being toyed with for the sake of having fun in the sky, I really attend to serious matters.

A dark place, a witch with long black hair is holding Olivia, ready to kill her and throws her at me, leaving in a laugh, the most sadistic laugh I've ever heard in my entire lifetime. I can see myself sleeping in a strange purple liquid, inside of an aquarium, everything becomes blurry and the witch approaches me, using other liquids to experiment on me, like I was a lab rat.

"You scaredy cat, you fell right into my trap."

I didn't understand what she meant and left that moment, going back to this broom adventure, it takes only 15 minutes to reach the place they talked to me about, I think I got airsick because of it, my butt hurts and we descend of the broom, we enter the forest with these two protecting me.

"Let's take our time, the Blacksoul are not friendly with anyone." that girl with red hair demands.

"The little girl I captured was."

"You should have told us that sooner !" said the one I don't know the name of.

"Why is that ? You're scared of a little girl that has been friendly with a whole kingdom ?"

"They are bad people, it's their instincts to be like that. They just use them as chessboard pieces."

"Then why do you want them to live ?"

"It's our mother's wish." they both answer.

How annoying of that mother to let such dangerous being live freely, but it also makes me ask something I am a little curious about.

"Do they have a mother ?"

"I guess Néhel is like their mother even if she considers them as failed products." says the energetic one.

"Explain to me !"

"That's not something we can do. We might be wrong about that, it's just speculation. The entrance is under the biggest tree of 500 meters tall."

We go there, under that middle tree that is the entrance of where lives a Blacksoul witch, we go down the 99 stairs and reach a place enlightened by torches on fire, the walls or made out of brick and there is only one way to go and it is to move forward. Twins are at the end, short blue hair with green eyes, keeping the door, but they don't move, I touch them and they are just dolls.

"Behind you intruders of the Whiteheart Family and the World Reaper."

The feminine voices behind us were nowhere to be seen before, I even had look at the top, they pronounced words I couldn't understand from the witch language and we got our legs frozen to the ground.

"Now be nice girls, Camilla has been craving for a kitsune ever since she heard the news."

"That's right, Mistress Camilla longed for such a rare specimen to show up."

My guardians if I can call them like that used their wands and muttered words I couldn't understand, before I could turn around, a strong wind pushed the two invisible girls that shared the same body, same clothes and same voice finally being revealed and they scream.

"Make them shut up." I order them.

"We didn't learn that yet."

My two friendly witches instead use a spell that makes the twins levitate and put them outside, they hide their wands once it done and when I finally open the door, the voice of someone reaches our ears as she is clapping, sitting on a throne at the top of this gloomy room. Where dolls of all races except mine are displayed, the walls are covered with them and that's when I look up to that witch, with her long black hair with a voluptous body that would make any guy go insane, I just have to think of that stupid cat to know it.

The witch sitting on the throne decorated with black spines is most importantly holding Olivia by the hair while looking at me with a friendly smile, it irritates me to see that.

"Oho ? Did I make you mad ? Allow me to introduce myself, I'm the Queen of Wisdom and the girl I'm about to kill is about to die. Unless..."

"Unless what !?"

"Don't play that game with her." red hair tells me.

"Haruka Haruka Haruka, that is not very Whiteheart."

"I couldn't care less what you think of me."

"Give Olivia back !" shouts the energetic girl.

I get slapped out of nowhere, no one even moved and someone even shuffled in all my ears, it makes me shiver and my tail keeps wagging, with a little effort I can hear that soothing voice that is the same as that so called Queen of Wisdom, my body moves on it's own and the other two next to me are tied up to their broom against the ground with some web threads, their wands gone from their hands, they magically disappeared.

"Here is the deal my little kitsune, I kill Olivia and you become my doll. It's a win win situation."

"Go to hell."

"What do you mean" Go to hell ? "I am Hell. I'll turn you into a powerless human fufufu."

"Free Olivia at once ! And don't kill me, I'm worth much more than her."

"I couldn't care less about your worth. You've seen my dolls, you've yearned for it. It is Fate that we've met today Sanaë, it's all for world's balance that I can have so many preys."

"Let Olivia go."

"I will, I will let all witnesses go once I'm done with you. I'll even be nice and translate the witch's language for you. Within the time being, all that share bonds with the Queen of Wisdom shall see the greatness of what is about to come."

That same witch casted a spell on me without me noticing, the more I heard her voice the hornier I'd become, I resisted with all my heart to what she is planning with me, she somehow appears in front of me while at the same being on the throne like an illusion and I try to use my magic but I can't, the fire didn't come from my hands, I even feel tickles on my armpits and even my arms and legs.

"Enough of the fun." she says in a serious tone, her hand on my chin. "If you want her to live with all her body left, go inside that aquarium."

"But I can't breathe under water !" I shout in fear.

"You should obey." comments the two useless witches.

The one on the throne throws Olivia at me, she is awake and can't even make any sound with her mouth, the witch without hat leaving in a laugh, the most sadistic laugh I've ever heard in my entire lifetime. And she forces me to go inside an aquarium if I want Olivia to live so I go inside of that giant box of water, that Camilla closes the box once I'm inside and enjoys seeing me in this state, the longer I stay the less I breath, I suffocate, not having any air to use as oxygen, that's when I probably am in a deep sleep.

I can see myself sleeping in a strange purple liquid, inside of an aquarium, everything becomes blurry and the witch approaches me, using other liquids to experiment on me, like I was a lab rat, that's what happens while the others watch, I'm aware of what happens to my body even while asleep and this voice gives me hope, the voice of that same sadist. I scream when my tail gets completely decimated by a powerful and accurate blast of destructive magic and then... my kitsune ears, my most precious ears, she torned them apart like paper.

"You scaredy cat, you fell right into my trap."

I don't know what happens next as I lose myself into a dream, a dream that feels too real, living once again at that time of peace when my parents were still alive, when everyone lived happily like in the fairy tales my mother told me, I am so happy that I've cried, I've cried so much and my brother couldn't understand when I hold him so tight within my hug, they all are within my grasp, I can show them how much I loved them.