#manga plot

One day, Suzume was daydreaming a little too much and slipped down a hill only to land in the sewage ditch at the bottom, covered in mud and water.

“Oh come on!” she cried, standing up and finding herself completely soaked. She pulled herself out of the small creek and sat on the grass, taking off her shoes and socks to wring out the water them and removing her school jacket so it could dry as well. She sighed but glanced up at the sky and realized that today was actually a good day for this to happen. The weather was fine, not a cloud in sight, so she might as well enjoy the warmth while drying off. She lay back in the grass and smiled, sleepiness washed over her and she closed her eyes.

She opened them only when she felt something touch her shoulder.

She opened her eyes to see a young man sitting beside her. She sat up and noticed that he, presumably, had put a jacket across her as she slept and now sat watching the creek below. What she noticed next was that the boy wasn’t wearing a shirt, only baggy pants that seemed to be made of thick velvet. 

He turned on seeing her move then blushed deeply. “E-excuse me, I saw you lying there and I thought it was odd. Not that you’re odd, I mean, that you were by yourself sleeping here…I would have taken you home but we’ve only just met and…”

Suzume blinked, bewildered by this boy’s olden form of speech despite his strange look. The boy looked down then blushed again and rubbed his head which had a green mohawk and a long ponytail, down to his shoulders, “Sorry for you having to see me like this when we’ve only just met, I didn’t want you to catch a cold…” he sneezed suddenly and rubbed his nose with his finger. “Darn spring allergies.”

Suzume nodded and handed him back his coat, “That’s nice of you,” she said.

Suddenly there was a loud crack and a ball of blue fire fell from above them. Suzume jumped back with a scream as it landed just between them. The boy looked up with a squint then smiled.

“You sly fox!” he yelled, standing up. “Come out you coward!”

From the bridge above them down leapt Kitsu who landed, posed and ready to fight with a large grin, the first Suzume had ever seen. “Who’re you calling a coward, Ryuu? You’re the one who disappeared on me! I’ve been looking for you for ages!”

“Really? Then that shows how stupid you are! You haven’t been able to find me for 2 months—and I’ve lived in the same town as you!”

“Excuse me,” Suzume spoke up. She thought the two would ignore her in the usual style of animes, but was surprised when both turned then suddenly bowed.

“Forgive us,” Kitsu said.

“We’ve been rude,” the other, Ryuu, agreed. “I haven’t even introduced myself.” He strapped his jacket around his neck and smiled presently. “I am Jia Ryuunosuke of the Jia clan of China. Kitsune is my servant and best friend.”

“Clan?” Suzume said with an astonished look.

“Yes,” Kitsune continued with a laugh. “He tends to give me a hard time though, making my job very difficult.”

“So, you’ve been looking for him while going to school here?” she furthered. Kitsune nodded. “But this is such a small town, how did I not see Ryuunosuke-kun until now?”

Kitsune blinked, “I-I don’t know.”

“It’s the water,” Ryuunosuke gestured to the sewage ditch. “I was hiding under a spell of invisibility. But I became bored with hide and seek and decided to uncover myself to a few people, you just happened to be one of them.”

“Ryuu, you know that it’s not a good idea…” Ryuunosuke pushed Kitsune who immediately retaliated with a swing of the fist.

“You’re rusty!” he snickered as he easily dodged the pass.

“Really?” before she could even see his fist, Kitsune swung again and connected with Ryuunosuke’s chest, the other let out a cough, but landed a short ways away on his feet.

“Soft! It felt like a kitten paw!” he taunted bouncing back a forth. These boys had transitioned from conversation to fight in 0.2 seconds, a new record according to her. But both as they attacked each other were lightning fast. What surprised her was that even though Ryuunosuke was fast, Kitsune was faster and he landed almost every hit but Ryuunosuke seemed practically un-phased. Then Ryuunosuke suddenly leapt away, landing lightly on his feet again, then proceeded to sit down. He had some bruises and scrapes from the short scrap, but he didn’t seem to be breathing too hard.

“I think you’re the one who’s a little slow,” Kitsune scoffed falling back with a thud on the grass. He was breathing hard but apparently more from excitement than from work.

Suzume suddenly came to the realization that she he become the main character of a show. Stuck between two beautiful, amazing guys, she would have to choose between them, though Kitsune already had preference. But at this point, both actually looked like huge dorks. Even Kitsune’s aura of “cool” had vanished upon seeing his friend. “Ah, that was a good work out.” Kitsune laughed. He glanced across at Ryuunosuke who hadn’t moved and now had his eyes closed. Suzume looked at him with worry.

“Is he okay?” she asked.

“He’s…fine.” Kitsune blinked a few times then crawled over to Ryuunosuke’s side. “You okay?” he poked his cheek then turned as white as a sheet. “Something’s wrong.”

Suzume clambered over to his side. “Did you hit him too hard?” Kitsune shook his head.

“At least I don’t think I did. He’s always been able to take my hardest punches without flinching.” He turned to her. “I don’t have a place to take him to. Where should we go?”

“To the hospital, maybe?” Suzume responded logically.

“I can promise you, nothing they have there can help him,” he glanced at Ryuunosuke. “You see, he can fix his own injuries—he can heal himself. It’s part of being in the Jia clan. They’re all descended form a people who lived amongst dragons. The dragon has the natural ability to heal itself of almost any wound. They taught this to the Jia clan so they could heal themselves likewise. The fact that he can’t heal himself means that there is something very wrong.”

“Well where do we take him?”

“I’m glad you asked…”

…

“How did I get stuck with him?” Suzume sighed, she now piggy-backed the fainted boy, disguised cleverly as a girl, back to her house. She recalled Kitsune’s words: “I don’t have a place to put him. I disguise myself as a fox and sleep wherever I want, so it won’t work. I’ll disguise him as a girl and you take him home and say you found him passed out at school or something. I’ll go find help and be right back.”

“What if he wakes up in my room huh? What’m I supposed to do then??” she sighed and walked into her house. “I’m home!” she called. He older brother and younger sister ran into to meet her and both stopped in surprise upon seeing her carrying a “friend from school.”

“Shouldn’t you take her to the hospital?” her younger sister commented.

To herself, “You’d think so, right?” and aloud, “well, she’s going to be home alone tonight and so when she passed out I thought I might take care of her, it’s only the tree of us anyway, what’s another mouth to feed?”

Her brother nodded and smiled. “It’s your turn to make supper anyway.”

“I’ll take Ryuuno…(forgive me Ryuunosuke-kun) Ryuu-chan to my room then come right down to make supper.”

“’Kay!” both chimed. She climbed the stairs with determination, inwardly glad that they had bought her cover story. She placed Ryuunosuke on her bed and pulled out a futon and some sheets. After setting everything up, she moved him to the bed and covered him up. She left on her lamp-light and wrote in expo marker on the mirror in case he woke up.

She fixed a quick curry and rice, spicy, the way her brother and sister liked it, and mild, the way she liked it, then took some up after supper to check on Ryuunosuke. He seemed to have acquired a fever so she quickly went and made up a cool cloth for his head. She was getting more worried about him and hopped that Kitsune would hurry up and bring help.

Suzume let her sibling take their baths first so she could keep an eye on Ryuunosuke. She knew if Ryuunosuke was sick for a long time, she couldn’t keep her siblings from knowing he was a guy—she just wondered when the right time to tell them was. She and her siblings also had a pact never to keep secrets, at least of importance, from one another unless it was something very, very personal. So she decided to tell them after her brother finished his bath.

She went into the living room, “Isamu, Atsuko, I wanted to tell you about Ryuu-chan.”

“What about her? Is she okay?” Astuko asked sweetly.

Suzume looked at Isamu, “I really don’t want you to freak out when I tell you this,” Isamu gave a confused look. “Ryuu-chan, or rather, Ryuunosuke-kun is a guy, not a girl at all.”

The frown increased on Isamu’s lips and eyebrows. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

“I didn’t know how long he was going to have to stay with us. he’s really sick and getting worse. He has a friend, Kitsune, whom I’m waiting for, because he’s going to find someone to help Ryunoskue-kun. I don’t know much about either of them, Kitsune’s in my class though, but I somehow need to help him. I’m sorry for hiding it from you.”

Atsuko smiled, “I could taste it in your curry that something was wrong. How can we help?”

Suzume glanced at Isamu whose frown had decreased upon some explanation. “I always knew you were the type to get mixed up in something like this. I want a full explanation when he gets better.”

“Believe me, Isamu, I do too,” Suzume agreed. “Now, if I get a bowl of water, can you sponge off his back?”

The small family broke into action. Ryuunosuke was moved into the living room after being sponged where everyone could keep an eye on his progress. They watched him until 10, then retired themselves to their beds. Every couple of hours Suzume, who couldn’t sleep, heard her brother slip into the room to check on the patient. He had trained to be a nurse, but after they lost their parents, he took on part-time jobs to keep the family afloat. At about five o’clock in the morning, there was a quiet knock at the door. Isamu shuffled down to open it and see who it was, Suzume slipped out just behind him and sat at the top of the stairs. It was Kitsune.

“Sorry for calling so late at night, is there a Suzume-san here?” Suzume slid down the stairs and stood by her brother’s side.

“It’s okay, Kitsune-kun, my brother knows the situation with Ryuunosuke. He’s a nurse so he has been taking care of him. He’s in the living room.

Kitsune smiled at Isamu then followed the two into the room. “I couldn’t bring anyone,” he explained as they all knelt beside the sleeping boy, “But I found something that might help hold him over until I can go home and get someone.” He held out a bag and placed it in Suzume’s hands. “This is Red Dragon Powder. The people of the Jia clan sometimes couldn’t heal themselves completely, especially when they were very young or very old, so they found this stone in the caves of the dragons and ground it up and gave it to them as a tea with other herbs in it. This gave them strength to hold out until a dragon or a master healer could see them, sometimes they even healed themselves.”

“I’ll make the tea,” Suzume said standing and taking the bag into the kitchen.

“Don’t use all of it!” Kitsune whispered, “It’s very strong so only a little is necessary. Plus if this happens again it would be good to have some left over.”

She went into the kitchen and started boiling some water for the tea. She overheard the two boy’s conversation.

“Where did you get that powder?” Isamu asked.

“From a shop around the corner,” Kitsune replied, “I was looking for one everywhere when I realized I couldn’t get home in time.”

“Then why did it take you until 5 in the morning to get this and bring it back?”

“Well, you see, I’m a little bad with directions…”

“So you wandered around until you found the shop then wandered until you found this house? How did you even find it?”

“My family has been servants to the Jia family for generations. We sort of have an innate sense to find our masters. And well, while I knew where he was, I didn’t know how to get there…”

“Ah.”

“Also,” Kitsune continued after a moment, “Ryuu had an invisibility spell on, how could you all see him?”

Suzume didn’t hear her brother responded. Apparently he didn’t know either. Nor did Suzume know herself, somehow Ryuunosuke was visible even to those who didn’t fall in the water.

The water had come to a boil so Suzume took a pinch of the Red Dragon Powder, and a few herbs and fixed the tea. She went back into the room and set the cup next to Ryuunosuke’s head. “So how do we get him to drink it without it spilling everywhere?” She asked looking between the two.

Kitsune and Isamu glanced at each other and both shrugged. “How do we?”

“Just try and pour it into his mouth,” Kitsune suggested.

“He’ll choke and it’ll spill everywhere,” Suzume replied. “We don’t want it to knock over. Or spill it everywhere.”

“Give it mouth-to-mouth?” Isamu suggested.

“Who would be the one to do it?” Suzume asked with a nervous frown.

“Well, his loyal servant and friend could.” Kitsune shook his head quickly.

“I love Ryuunosuke as a brother, but not enough to do that.”

“Then Suzu-chan,” Isamu turned to her. “Generally I wouldn’t’ like to say this but, it might be up to you.”

“Idiots! I just met him! how could I give him mouth-to-mouth huh? That’s ridiculous! It’s almost the same as kissing him!” she crossed her arms and vehemently shook her head. “Anyway, let’s sit him up and try to pour it into his mouth. Maybe it’ll work better than we think.”

Isamu propped Ryuunosuke’s head on his arm and tried to pour the tea into his mouth. He couldn’t aim it, so it didn’t work. “Suzume, it’s your turn.”

Suzume blushed deeply, but still felt bad for him, so she took some of the tea in her mouth then pressed her lips to his. She felt tears well up, mostly with anger, as she wiped away the remainder of the liquid from her lips. “I’m never doing that again. This is a one-time thing.” She shot glares at the two and sniffled, “And you’re not going to tell anyone about this. Got it?” Kitsune nodded quickly and her brother laughed.

“Why would I tell that my sister goes around kissing random guys to someone? It could be taken very badly!”

Suzume was going to retaliate when they all saw movement from Ryuunosuke. They all became quiet and watched him. He opened his eyes slowly and they seemed to adjust to the dark room. He turned his head and looked at each in turn then his eyes fell upon Suzume.

“Y-you save me,” he murmured. He took a deep breath then smiled. “I have reason to live now…” and he sunk back into a peaceful sleep.

Suzume blinked with blatant confusion then as she began to understand the words she blushed deeply. She turned to Kitsune and demanded justification.

“I don’t know!” he said waving his hands innocently. “There’s a lot of things I still don’t know about Ryuu and the Jia clan! But I know that he wouldn’t say something like that just to embarrass you! I promise!”

She released his collar then stood. She sighed in a tired way, then announced that she was going back to bed. She climbed the stairs then collapsed in her bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

…

Suzume woke up the next morning to the smell of breakfast. She tottered down the stairs still feeling strangely sleepy, then sat at the kitchen table. She was glad it was a Saturday. She glanced up as Atsuko placed a plate and served her food. Across from her she saw Ryuunosuke and beside him was Kitsune, both eating breakfast already. It took her a moment to register why they were there then it all came back to her. She jumped back out of the chair and stared at Ryuunosuke. “You’re up!”

“Yes, thanks to you,” he smiled pleasantly. “I’ve made a full recovery over night!”

“How?” she asked.

“The tea you gave me and the contract you made with me.”

Suzume didn’t like where this conversation was going. “I didn’t make a contract with you.”

“Yes, you did. Contracts are binding and in the Jia clan, contracts between men and women are sealed with a kiss.”

“I didn’t kiss you! I was giving you the tea…I couldn’t do it any other way!”

“And that’s the other portion of it!” he said after another bite. “by saving my life you enforced the contract. It’s impossible to break now!”

Suzume pressed her finger to her temple with thought and after a moment sat back down in her seat with the same look. “So what kind of contract are we talking about here? Marriage? School? Company? Clan?”

“Service,” he replied. “I am now indebted to you.”

Kitsune’s eyes widened. “How can the inheritor of the Jia clan be in service to someone?”

“Not just someone,” Ryuunosuke corrected. “To this family and specifically to…I don’t even know your name! how stupid of me!”

“Fukumoto Suzume. Oh and my brother is Isamu and my sister is Atsuko.”

“Fukumoto…I knew it.” Ryuunosuke’s eyes glimmered with excitement. “I could tell from when I saw you that you had royal blood.”

“Well, back in the feudalist time my family owned a large estate in China then moved to Japan and became workers. They gave up their royal lineage,” Suzume informed him. “That was so long ago I doubt there would be any family history…”

“No, there is!” Kitsune chimed in. “I recall this from when I was young, my father said that while the Jia family was considered royalty by themselves, the Fukumoto clan was considered the “princess clan” to them.”

“Meaning…?”

“You know in old stories the dragon always kidnapped and guarded the princess until a worthy night could slay the dragon?” Ryuunosuke elaborated, “The Fukumoto clan was a clan that the Jia clan protected for a past favor done for them. The Jia clan guarded the Fukumoto clan for generations and were only subject to them and fought wars on their behalf with other clans.”

“When the Fukumoto clan came to Japan and changed their name, we decided to become servants and normal citizens,” Suzume added. “What happened to the Jia clan?”

“They followed them but kept the same name. But soon they re-grouped after seeing that the Fukumoto family wouldn’t come back to power and have continued to be a royal family with Kitsune’s clan beside them.”

“What’s Kitsune-kun’s family name?” Astuko wondered.

“It’s Kitsune. My family may be clever,” he shook his head, “but they’re not very good at coming up with names.”

“So your name is Kitsune Kistune?” Isamu concluded.

He nodded then sighed. “Someday we’ll get our act together…I hope.”

“So does this all wrap around to say, ‘the reason I came to this town is to look for someone in the Fukumoto clan to serve because it gives my clan meaning to life and having found you I can now live happily serving you?’ or something like that?” Suzume said with great sarcasm.

“Almost,” Ryuunosuke complimented. “Mostly I was looking for a better bride because my family had gotten weaker from bad marriages with normal humans. Now that I’ve found you, however, I can start strengthening the clan!”

“This doesn’t mean I have to marry you, does it?” Suzume grimaced.

“No! not at all, in fact, I’m already engaged to someone…ugh.” He grunted and stuck out his tongue. “Not to say that I am happy with the decision, that’s why I was looking for a bride... But now that I can serve you, my clan and I have purpose! We’ve been wandering around so long without a goal that our clan has gone to nothing. But we can serve you and your family now!”

“We’ve been doing just fine,” Suzume informed him. “We don’t need any servants. Besides I’d hate to start using your power then begin abusing it.”

“Spoken like a true Fukumoto!” Ryuunosuke said clapping his hands. “There are still many things that you need to be informed of regarding this. I should also introduce you all to my family! They’ll be glad to see you after so long!”