The animosity radiating from these two ladies was palpable. It hung in the air between them like something physical, something that could catch fire if either of them so much as breathed wrong.
I had asked for a sensible explanation of what was going on. What I got instead was a barrage of curses launched at each other like verbal artillery, each insult building on the last until the words blurred together into meaningless noise. And somewhere in that mess, the fox lady had said something that made me pause.
’What a very crazy thing to say... as expected of a fox woman!’
Plus she had nine tails. She didn’t literally have nine visible tails, but perhaps she was keeping the rest of the six hidden somewhere. Waiting for the right moment, maybe.
’Maybe she’s the type that gets powerful as her tails appear.’
I observed the exchange while waiting, arranging my expression into something that hopefully looked thoughtful rather than completely lost. The thinking man’s pose. Very dignified.
I wanted to ask the thin lady what exactly the fox lady had done that warranted a death sentence. But I stopped myself before the words could form. This one had made it abundantly clear that she was a War-Prelate of the Iron Covenant, which I believed was another religion. These ones seemed more cultish, though. More... zealous. Given my natural bias against organizations that loved pointing fingers, I didn’t want to hear the fox woman’s sins from the mouth of her persecutor first.
It seemed more sensible to give the sinner a chance to speak of their own sins before asking the prosecution to weigh in. This was mostly because the prosecution was associated with a body that had built its entire livelihood on pointing hypocritical fingers at everyone else while pretending their own hands were clean.
I didn’t really know the people of the Iron Covenant that well, but it didn’t matter. The concept of religion itself was universal. It just knew how to change garments according to culture and region. Different clothes, same skeleton underneath.
I turned to the fox lady and asked:
"And what sin did you commit that this young lady believes is worth punishing you for?"
The fox lady beamed at me.
’Such a bright smile. Glad I took this route.’
The route had nothing to do with favorability, of course. I was being completely unbiased and simply reaping the natural fruit of my wisdom. Pure judicial integrity.
The lady threw her arms over her massive chest in a fold, causing those considerable entities to shift with so much... indescribable elegance and splendor. I kept my eyes fixed firmly on her face. Mostly.
"This slut wanted to kill me because I killed just ten thousand people! Ten thousand, and she’s making such a fuss about it."
I froze in place.
My expression remained carefully blank, but inside, something short-circuited.
’Ten thousand is... just? Of course. Of course she’s crazy. What was I expecting? They’re never right in the head!’
I looked at the fox lady. Turned to the thin lady. Turned back to the fox lady.
She added as I turned to her, her tails swaying with casual amusement, "Let’s put aside the fact that I’m killing ten thousand. How many have they killed, all in the name of wanting to serve justice? What gives them the right to be the distributor of justice?"
’She makes a fair point...’
Not that I was going to say that out loud. I sighed.
"What do you need ten thousand souls for?"
The fox lady looked at me for a long moment, studying my face as if deciding whether I was worth the explanation. Then she answered. Her tails shifted as she spoke, swaying like they had minds of their own.
"Each of my ten tails requires ten thousand souls to awaken. It gets really hard to evolve one’s racial bloodline, you know? And these things take decades, if not centuries of effort. What’s wrong with getting stronger? Why should I be killed simply because I seek power?"
Trust me... I was silent for more than a minute.
’Turns out I’m not the only one who needs to hit the asylum. I should ask her to fix an appointment with me sometime. Who knows, she might be interested in letting me fuck her in the asylum bathroom, and then we can escape later. Fuck while escaping, maybe.’
If I didn’t control my wild thoughts any further, my boner would start making itself obvious.
I sighed again. Despite my undeniably unbiased feelings toward the fox lady, I had to speak the truth. She was twisted.
"You’re very right."
A radiant smile showered upon her face once again.
"I also believe no one should kill you for simply trying to be stronger. No one deserves to die for that..." I paused, letting the words settle before delivering the turn. "But it gets to a point where some things are just wrong."
The smile in her gaze faded. Something dark climbed into its place, something cold and ancient that made the air around us feel heavier. Meanwhile, from my peripheral vision, I caught a small curve forming on the thin lady’s lips behind me.
"By the way," the fox lady said, her voice flat and dangerous now, "doesn’t that make it thirty thousand people you’ve killed so far? To awaken three tails."
"Twenty."
I closed my eyes. Opened them after a breath.
"Twenty thousand lives is not negligible. Even one life is not negligible."
The lady behind me scoffed. I turned to her and said:
"And you have no right to be a punisher when you are guilty of the same offense. How many have your blades felled?"
She opened her mouth and said, her voice coming out calm and measured:
"I have only slaughtered people who deserved it. Wicked men whose absence made the world a better place."
I looked at her with a bit of disgust. More than a bit, actually.
’This is why I hate self-righteous people.’
"And what difference does it make?"
She frowned coldly at me, wanting to say something, but I didn’t let her.
"Whether it is the soul of an evil man or the soul of a good man, a soul is nonetheless a soul. And what would you call your own soul? Your sword is tainted by the blood of many who truly believed themselves to be doing the right thing, just as you believe now." I gestured slightly, a small motion to encompass everything she represented. "Which means someday, you will stand at the end of someone’s blade. Someone who will claim that killing you will make the world a better place. What do you have to say to that?"
She paused. The words seemed lodged somewhere in her throat, unable to escape. Her certainty wavered, just for a moment.
I turned to the fox lady, and my expression toward her twisted with dark irritation.
"But you... you are the worst of all."