After taking down some thugs from a dangerous crime organization, Renho returns to her favourite tavern to enjoy some drink and think about her next move. However, it seems the danger has followed her back to the tavern and gotten someone in danger. It seems her work is never truly done.

Commission for  ElectricGiga

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Renho’s white fur sparkled like snow as she skipped over the reflective surface of a gentle stream, body moving across it with grace as the kitsune danced upon the ripples of every step she took. When she reached the other side, she took a moment to stretch out her arms and fluffed her tails before walking over to the inn on the other side of the stream.
“Ah, there you are Renho, nice to see your fuzzy mug around here,” a ysoki said from behind the bar. The tiny ratfolk barely was tall enough to be seen from behind his station, but he was loud enough she probably would’ve heard him from the other side of the stream.
The kitsune took a seat on a stool and leaned over the bar to look at the ysoki behind it. “Nice to see you too, Tuda,” Renho said with a smile. The ysoki’s whiskers twitched as he looked up at her with beady black eyes and a crooked smile.
“What can I get you? Ale, tea, wine?” Tuda said in a flurry of words.
“Best wine you got, I feel like celebrating today,” Renho said as she relaxed on the bar.
“Oh? Celebration? And what may that be for? Bounty, quest, great finds!?”
“Well,” Renho leaned forwards and lowered her voice despite no one else being around at this time of the day, “I took down a few Golden League members and I don’t think they were too happy about that,” she whispered with a snicker. Tuda shook his head and stamped his foot before grabbing a bottle of wine from underneath the bar and placed it atop.
“You get into too much trouble, Renho! The Golden League aren’t some silly bandits. Naughty! But…” he moved the wine bottle closer until the tip of the bottle touched her snout, “I can appreciate the gusto.”
“I’ll take that as a job well done in that case,” she said. Renho then popped open the cork on the wine bottle and downed the entire thing in a single go, slamming it onto the bar afterwards. Then, she gave her belly a firm slap, plump from obvious continuous indulgence over the years. “That always hits the spot. Two gold, right?”
“That’s it, yes, two gold!” Tuda said. He put up his paws, making a grabbing motion as he awaited his payment. Renho fumbled through her bag and pulled out two gold plus some, and placed it into Tuda’s palm who quickly squirreled it away into a sack hanging on his waist by his apron. Renho then leaned back, adjusting her gi, altered to let most of her upper body hang out with her chest wrapped with bandages, and sighed.
“What is it? Something have you down?”
“Well, you’re not wrong in saying attacking the Golden League isn’t exactly what most would call a wise choice.”
“Mmm, yes, I am right on many things,” Tuda explained as he stood on the tips of his toes cleaning the bar.
“That means I need a plan of action to follow up. You don’t just throw out one punch, you need to hit them with a combo if you want a knockout,” Renho continued.
“And you know plenty of knockouts. Whether that’s your foes or love of the drink,” Tuda commented.
“Hey now! Swaying around like a drunkard is my whole style. Sometimes you need a little experience to just, uh, know exactly how to do that?” she said in defense.
“You have many experiences then,” Tuda laughed. Renho then shot the ysoki a death glare and his prim brown fur stood on its ends as he looked around and then laughed awkwardly.
“Wine is good, alright,” she said at last as she leaned back again. “But yes, going to need a plan of–” and before she could finish that thought, a yelp could be heard from outside.
“You! Where’s the fox girl!” a voice shouted outside.
“I-I don’t know, I just got here!” a voice stuttered in reply. Both Renho and Tuda then looked at each other, then back towards the door outside.
“Well I think I have my answer!” Renho said with gusto.
“Please don’t get hurt,” Tuda asked.
“No promises, rat boy.” Renho’s tails then curled up and disappeared and her snout receded into her face, as fur gave way to skin and white hair grew from her scalp, curling at the end of each strand.
“I will never get used to that,” Tuda sighed.
“Trust me, no one does,” the now human Renho said as she jumped out of her seat and cracked her knuckles. “And that’s exactly what I count on.”
Renho then walked through the bar with a swaying gait and shot Tuda a wink before drunkenly slamming her body through the door and stumbling outside into the arguing of two human men in black gi holding scarlet ropes, looking as if they’d been drenched in blood. Cowering before then was a tengu that made them look like oni, oni who she was now interrupting the hunt of. A xun and some lackeys Renho figured, an assassin from the Golden League, top tier, but still nothing she couldn’t handle.
The pretend drunk then looked at both of them with a droopy look and simply said, “What’s hanging big boys?”
A phrase that was ripped apart by disgruntled sneers from the thugs before Renho.
“Get lost drunk, you’re interrupting League business,” one of the men said.
“I-I’d listen to them, just leave them alone,” the tengu muttered.
“Shut up!” another yelled at him.
“O-Okay!” the tengu replied. He ruffled his inky black feathers and turned his beak to the ground as he tried not to look at anyone present in this altercation.
“League busssssinesss, ay?!” Renho said loudly.
“Unless you know the location of the fox woman who attacked our men, then I suggest you get going before your face meets dirt,” one man said with a slap of the rope across the ground.
“I mayyyy knowing sssssomeone,” Renho slurred.
“You do?! Tell us! Now!” the xun demanded. Renho’s lips curled into a smile.
“As you wish,” she bowed.
Fur poofed out of her flesh like a sudden storm and carpets of tails unfurled from her back as she took back on her kitsune form and kicked the xun in the chest as swift as the wind, sending him stumbling back.
“You! You tricked us!” the xun growled.
“You must have rice for brains if you didn’t see through that,” Renho howled with laughter. The other Golden League members looked at the xun and couldn’t help but snickering as well.
“She isn’t wrong boss, she did get one up on you pretty good, one mentioned,” with a playful jab. The xun responded by taking his scarlet rope and wrapping it around his subordinate’s neck as he kicked him in the back and began choking him in a fit of rage. Once he passed out from a lack of oxygen, he loosened the noose and looked at the other member travelling with him.
“Are you going to make jokes too or shall you help me put this animal in her place?” the xun asked menacingly.
“N-Not at all!” he responded as he looked at his ally upon the ground.
“Good,” the xun said plainly as he turned his gaze back to Renho.
“I take it you’re the boss of these ragtag group of idiots?” Renho said as she looked at the last two standing.
“I’m responsible for making sure they stay in line, and I’ll make sure you do too for that blow,” the xun told her.
“Then I know who to take out.” She then looked back at the tengu, “I’d run inside for this,” she winked. The tengu nodded his head quickly and rushed inside, leaving just Renho against two members of the Golden League.
The boss immediately rushed her with his rope ready to wrap her up while the other man went in for a flank at her side. As the rope came in, she swayed away to the side and put her foot out, tripping him right into his subordinate while she remained unscathed. Both tumbled to the ground, but quickly got up, looking even angrier than before.
“Be careful where you step, men. Don’t want to make fools of yourselves, do you?” Renho teased.
The boss howled as he whirled his rope around and swung it at Renho, who slipped right under and grabbed it the end, swinging with it right back to the xun’s face as she punched him right in the side before tumbling behind him. The other Golden League member was waiting for her, however, and quickly unsheathed a knife, swinging it wildly at Renho. The kitsune danced around the blade with swaying steps and right when she saw an opening, frightened an attack then swept under his legs, knocking him to the ground with a thunk that made the earth crack.
“One down, one to go!”
“I will not let you get away with this! No one makes a fool of the League!” the xun asserted.
“I think you’ve done that well enough yourself,” Renho smirked. Renho rushed forward with unnatural grace, stepping on the air like it was solid, and then made one final leap as she came down with one leg stretched forward and struck the xun right on the head as she leaped right off of his body and sent him a few feet through the dirt. As Renho landed, she took a bow as if just finishing a performance. The xun’s grip upon his rope then grew slack and she dropped it and his body went limp, only standing due to a third of his body being encased in earth.
“Two points for Renho, zero for the Golden League,” she smiled. She then took the rope and wrapped up the xun’s hands and legs, then followed suit for the other two.
Leaning out of the door and giving the defeated Golden League members a leering look, the tengu then turned his gaze to Renho, then back down to the criminals, then back to Renho. “Y-You defeated them?” the tengu murmured.
“Did you have any doubts?” Renho said with a piercing glare.
“Well, um, eh, yes? Not just anyone beats up the Golden League and lives to tell the tale,” the tengu said.
“I’m not just anyone,” Renho said. She walked over to the door and ruffled his feathers with a playful rubbing on the head and entered inside.
“Renho! You’re alive! I knew you’d do it, you’re very good at this, very good, yes! The best even!” Tuda shouted from atop a table.
“I’m glad someone has faith in me,” Renho said with a smiling glance back at the tengu. He awkwardly adjusted his free flowing lapis coloured robe and tapped his talon anxiously upon the floor. “What’s your name, blue bird?” Renho finally asked as she took a seat at the table. She patted a seat next to her in offering and asked Tuda for drinks for two.
“Uh, I’m Uso, Uso Uyo,” he said as he took a seat.
“Nice name, flows of the tongue, always a fan of that. I’m Renho by the way and that there is Tuda,” she said as she pointed over at the ysoki. Tuda jumped up on a stool and placed the drinks on the table.
“Fine wines for the both of you! On the house!” he squeaked.
“Put it on your head and it’d be on the mouse,” Renho laughed.
“I am a ysoki! Not a mouse!” Tuda grumbled as he hoped back down.
“So, Uso, can I call you Uso?”
“Yes, that is fine, Ms. Renho,” Uso replied as he took a sip of wine.
“Oooh, ms, how formal. Anyway, Uso, you alright? Those thugs hurt you?” Renho asked. She looked up and down, scanning his body for any bruises.
“Yes, I am fine, just a little spooked. I could barely utter an incantation for my spells,” Uso explained.
“Ah, you’re a spellcaster! Wizard? You seem like a wizard sort of guy,” Renho asked as she downed the entire glass of wine.
“Yes, I studied at a school not too far away. I practice civic wizardry, building with magic or destroying if need be. I hoped to get some skill in the field, but I find I’m still ill-prepared for that.”
“Well, Uso, I have a proposition. I still need to take down the few other Golden League cells around here and you seem like you need that practice, so what do you say? Adventuring party?”
“Uh… er, well the Golden League is a very dangerous organization and as much as it’d be good for me, I–”
“Great! Then party it is! You’ll get your experience and I’ll get some support… if uh, I need it!” Renho said as she brought Uso close as she wrapped her arm around him. She pressed Uso right into her plump figure with surprising strength as the tengu awkwardly laughed.
“I-I guess it is,” Uso said.
“We leave at dawn, but for now, rest up! Or drink up! I know what I’m going to do,” Renho said as she yelled for Tuda.