The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 8: Catfish, Still

My next life as a catfish, I swam until I passed a dark, curved object that my Piri-self recognized as a roof tile. Then I split off from my siblings, staked out that stretch of river as my territory, and measured myself every day. It took a few years, but when I reached one tile in length, I swam off in search of a fishing boat.

This time, Flicker informed me with some asperity, I did indeed grow big enough to provide sufficient monetary value to the fisherman who caught me, and nutritional value to the family that ate me. However – "Piri, you're defeating the point of the karma system. You're not supposed to gain positive karma unless you become a better person!"

I debated arguing that I was becoming a better person – but only for a second. Are you going to report me? I asked instead.

He hesitated for so long that I was about to start panicking when he answered, "No" in a defeated voice. He exhaled and his shoulders slumped. "No, I'm not."

I really appreciate that –

"It's not for your sake, Piri!" he burst out. "It's because there's no point! Yes, I could spend hours filling out paperwork to report that a soul is transgressing the rules, and then spend weeks filling out supplemental paperwork to document my observations, and responding to inquiries from my superiors as aforementioned paperwork makes its way up through the hierarchy...but I already know that in the end, Glitter will conclude that you haven't actually broken any rules and hence can't be punished – but by then she'll have wasted so many departmental resources on this investigation that she'll have to punish someone – and that someone will be me!" He broke off, breathing hard.

His skin flared and dimmed with his breathing rhythm, I noticed. Must be something star sprites did when they got upset. I gave him a moment to return to a steady glow.

Who's Glitter? Have I met her?

Dropping his head into his hands, he muttered something that sounded like "Self-centered as ever" before replying curtly, "Superintendent of Reincarnation. The one who oversees day-to-day operations here."

Oh.

"And you have met her. She was at the front desk in the audience chamber."

Her?! Her name was Glitter???

I remembered that doorwoman clerk – mostly because she'd been the one who revealed Flicker's name – and a less glittery personality I could not imagine. She'd been withered and white-haired, with thin lips and pinched cheeks and fierce eyes, the exact opposite of the Goddess of Life. But the clerks around Glitter had treated her like a queen. In fact, Flicker had addressed her as "honored one," while he saluted gods with a less-exalted-sounding "my lord" or "my lady." Honestly, I was surprised the gods weren't offended.

Most likely because they hadn't noticed yet.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. Your name is Flicker, hers is Glitter, and that clerk in the stairwell was Wink. How are star sprites named anyway?

"How are we named?" Flicker stared at me blankly, as if the question had never occurred to him. "We're not. We...just come into existence knowing our names. How do you know yours?"

Fair enough. Fox spirits all had elegant, poetic names, in keeping with our elegant, poetic natures. When I'd first awakened as a fox, even before I'd learned how to transform into a human, I'd done so with the full knowledge that I was Piri. Flos Piri, or Pear Blossom, to be precise, in reference to the image of a delicate, weeping maiden whose tears resembled the raindrops on the petals of a pure white pear blossom.