13 Deadly Deals

Departure 8: Corruption

      "Fu-Fu, some help would be nice right now!"

      A cramped closet wasn't the worst place Mafuyu had ever slept in. It beat the underside of a prison bench. It even beat whatever room corner his mistress had privileged him to sleep in for the night, too. And while its four walls of overstuffed shelves held all the structural soundness of a paper card house, one of those walls had a door. And that meant he was finally able to get a moment to himself.

      "Paws off my merch, ya' idgit—Fu-Fu, assistance!"

      Sort of. The walls of the Bellflower were pitifully thin. So of course, the boar's snores through the night and now incessant wailing that morning made for a very annoying alarm bell shredding right through his sleep.

      The fox sighed as he turned over in the lumpy futon beneath him. Mafuyu had never wanted to spend the night. His fatigued body, however, was not on the same page as his hyperactive brain. Even as he'd drifted to sleep the night before, Mafuyu turned Michio's card in his fingers then just as he did now.

      One day down. About two days left, he thought. King Yama declared he could never go back. Lady Sugu told him to make peace with that. But as the fox examined the gold lettering on the laminated business card, his expression slowly fell into a serious frown. Neither of those realities were good options. And he'd undermine them in whatever morally gray ways he had to...

      "Fu-Fu, code red, consarn it! I can't do this by myself—" Mafuyu's hole-punched ears flickered indifferently to the commotion from downstairs. It had been going on for a while. A series of bangs, shouts, and crashes that would have awoken the neighbors if Chiyo had any. But this was her shop, not his. And Mafuyu's focus was better served to the card in his paws. Michio's offer was clearly bait. And biting was becoming more a viable option by the second—

      "They're stealing the coffee pot!"

       The fox's head whipped back to the door. And then to the empty mug Chiyo let him borrow the night before. The boar had side-eyed his late-night java runs, having clearly underestimated his addiction. Clearly so did he as he snatched up both the mug and borrowed hoodie, then proceed downstairs to the mess he was about to throw himself in.

      "Piggle," Mafuyu shrugged the oversized shirt on as he waltzed down to the center landing, "Before we dive into your shenaniganry, let's chat about how eardrums are non-negotiable organs—" The fox suddenly stopped and blinked, "...oh dear."

      Mafuyu's brain wasn't sure how to puzzle out the scene before him. He expected some customer breaking her cheap merchandise as when he'd first arrived. He didn't expect half a dozen uniformed furs crumpled in the fetal position while the other half looked ready to beat feet back outside. They were very official-looking; all pressed in long, elegant suit-jackets and dark slacks. Their acid green ties were all branded with a bright logo of three interlocked paws that Mafuyu could see from the stairs.

      "You ain't slick, feller!" Chiyo snorted and sniped a suit going for a vase in the side with a dictionary. He yelped, joining his comrades on the ground along with all the other cracked Relics they must have failed to pilfer from Chiyo's shop. Mafuyu looked from the boar ready to defend her merchandise with her cookbook, to the groaning officials rolling across the floor, to his empty coffee mug. Then sighed.

      "No. Truly too early for this shit."

      "Fu-Fu, get back here—I'm clearly being robbed!" Chiyo's indignant squeal halted the winter fox's retreat to his closet and he looked out to the furs she nearly knee-capped via hardbacks.