A streak of red-orange fur zipped through the underbrush, barely disturbing the vibrant carpet of fallen leaves that had begun to cover the forest floor. The maple trees overhead shone with the same bright red and orange, as if the entire mountainside was alight with supernatural fire.

Chasing after the blur of orange came a larger creature, with pale fur the color of a dusting of snow on a sandy beach. The pursuer lacked the grace and agility of her quarry, but she made up for it in raw power. Muscles pumped beneath her short fur, and she panted hard as she leapt over log and ravine.

She burst through a low shrub and found herself in a picturesque clearing of short grasses and fading wildflowers, untouched by humanity. In the middle, perched on a fallen log and looking frustratingly regal, was a fox. I had bright orange fur that faded to ashy black on the tip of its ears and tails. The tails unfurled like a nine-petaled lotus, and the fox grinned.

Inu didn't take the time to grin back. She barrelled forward and leapt at the smaller beast, hoping to tackle it from its throne.

Inara was too fast, of course, and she took off running again. She went south and vanished into the sunset-orange forest, making use of a natural camouflage that lasted just a few short weeks each year.

Thankfully, Inu had senses far stronger than her eyes. Her ears were supernaturally keen, and after thirty years together, she knew Inara's scent more deeply than anything else on earth. So many days chasing each other through nature, so many nights together beneath the sheets.

She followed that scent like a beacon, like a leash pulling her toward her destiny. And soon she would reach that destiny. Soon she would…

Inu's train of thought crashed to a halt as she emerged into the shrine's clearing and witnessed an unexpected and very welcome sight. Inara had stopped and waited, ears perked and alert with a wide smile on her flushed face. She had transformed back to her humanoid form, and she stood tall with her feet planted wide. And she was completely nude.

The chase was always wonderful, but it was nothing compared to the catch. Inu pushed off hard with her back legs and leapt into the air, then transformed mid-jump. In a puff of smoke and magic, Inu returned to her human shape, arms and legs open to grab Inara.

Inara half-caught, half-collided with her and toppled backwards onto a soft blanket that just happened to be unfurled there, like a picnic in progress. A picnic lunch had indeed been planned, but it could wait.

"Gotcha," Inu breathed, straddling the goddess on hands and knees, staring down into Inara's golden eyes.

"Only because… I stopped… for you," Inara panted back. Despite her snark, she couldn't hide how winded she was. For all her godlike power, Inara never could match Inu's stamina.

"Oh, really?" Inu asked, bringing her lips to Inara's neck, where droplets of sweat had left small tracks on their journey toward the Earth. She placed a single gentle kiss near Inara's collarbone, then opened wide and bit down on her shoulder.

It wasn't a hard bite, but it wasn't soft either. In any case, Inara moaned and squirmed beneath Inu's naked body, firmly pinned down and at Inu's mercy.

The bite became a kiss, and one kiss became a flurry as Inu covered the panting goddess with affection. Inara returned the sentiment as best she could, her lips finding brief purchase on lips and neck and breasts. Things continued to heat up, fighting against the chilly fall air, until…

"Boss… I thought you knew better than this."

Inu and Inara were too occupied to look up at Hebi, but Inara did pull her lips away from Inu's just long enough to say, "Than what?"

Hebi let out a long sigh, then sternly said, "I had foolishly expected a goddess of a public-facing shrine to avoid public indecency. We get daily visitors now, at a volume that is sure to increase with the turning of the leaves. What if someone saw you?"

Inara waved a hand and the entire area around the picnic blanket shimmered. Within a second, it looked and sounded like an empty field, at least to mortal eyes and ears.

Hebi huffed and pivoted on one foot. "Have it your way, Boss, but remember the trouble it caused poor Akari the last time you had to mess with human memories."

"Should we take this inside?" Inu whispered, her hips still moving against Inara.

Inara hesitated, tangled in genuine concern. Then she shook her head. "Nah. We're hidden now. But… help me be more careful next time."

"Of course," Inu answered, ever loyal. And she sealed her commitment with a wild kiss.

The mood around the shrine grew more and more tense as the afternoon went on, as the sun approached the horizon, and as Akari slept through another family dinner. Inara had predicted that Akari would wake up that evening, but the vision gave no indication of exactly when.

And it was entirely possible that the vision was wrong, or that someone had inadvertently taken an action that changed that future. When Inara kissed Akari on the forehead, had it extended her sleep somehow? Was the constant support at her bedside actually slowing her recovery?

"Work must go on," Hebi lectured. "Whether she wakes up tonight or in a week, we have responsibilities." She tapped a pen on the antique desk that occupied the corner of Inara's bedroom. The surface of the desk was covered in paperwork and printouts, bills and receipts, and Hebi's trusty laptop. "For example, some types of fundraising are subject to the human tax system, and that means we have to submit reports to prove that our efforts are exempt."

Hebi paused, then added, "But I must admit that this is rather therapeutic for me. Documenting known truths, no matter how mundane, always reduces my stress about the unknown." Inara didn't respond, but that was fine; Hebi had just been musing aloud while she worked.

"And for you," she told Inara, "some quiet introspection might be what you need, both for the stress and to get a handle on that wild side of yours." She clicked her tongue in disapproval. "I still can't believe you and Inu transformed and started screwing in plain sight of the front steps. You forgot to hide your presence and it was loud enough for me to hear in my workshop, so a visiting worshipper would certainly have noticed."

"Mmm mmnhhmm!"

"Shhh, my pet. I said quiet introspection." She turned and glared at Inara. "Unless you truly mean to contest my understanding of the situation?" Her tone was soft, but there was a threat buried within. A threat that Inara's bonds could be tightened, that her sensory deprivation could be deepened.

Inara went silent, though the ropes that suspended her from the ceiling did creak a little as she settled back down. She was dressed in gorgeous lavender silk lingerie, blindfolded and gagged, and wrapped in an elegant web of red rope that both restrained and supported her. It limited her body and freed her mind.

Hebi turned back to her paperwork and laptop. "Good girl. Now give me a couple more hours with these tax forms and I'll give you a reward for good behavior."

The ropes creaked again as Inara squirmed and her breath grew a bit heavier, but she was otherwise quiet. Soon the only sounds were the tapping of keys and the shuffling of paper. But once all the forms were filled out and sent off, new and wonderful sounds would fill the room. Hebi was looking forward to it.

Akari slept. And she dreamed.

She saw impossibilities and nonsense, just the scrambled influences and fantasies that fueled the subconscious and created normal dreams. And she saw scenes so realistic, so lifelike, that she temporarily believed they were real life, convinced that everything she'd experienced before, all her time at the shrine, had been the dream.

And she saw the future. There were futures that were mutually exclusive, visions of a summer festival in full swing and of the same festival being canceled due to a typhoon. There were distant and remote possibilities, chains of interconnected events forging toward some distant end, each moment building upon the previous in a way that allowed no room for change, no allowance for even the slightest drift, lest the entire path vanish into impossibility.

But some visions, the ones that seemed the most important, they showed her futures that tugged at her very soul. She saw possibility flow like a river that reached a flatland and spread out, forking once, twice, a dozen times at the mercy of the landscape, only for every branch to eventually empty into the very same ocean, to reach the same shared destiny. She intuitively understood that some fates were inevitable, that mortals could make a million decisions, split their personal river from the path of least resistance over and over again, and still fail to avoid the single unalterable destiny that awaited them at the end of every possible path.

For the vast majority of humanity, one such destiny was death. They could avoid it for years, take their time on long looping paths while others raced headlong toward it, but they eventually reached it all the same.

And for Akari, another unchangeable destiny was Inara. Akari saw a thousand of her own lifetimes, each quickly fading from her memory like water between her fingers, but each ending the same way. One way or another, no matter what path she took in her life, Akari would eventually return to Inara. They were forever entwined now, bound together by whatever mysterious rules a 'chosen one' was held to. But Akari didn't mind it. It was comforting knowing that Inara would forever be a constant in her life, as close to a soulmate as she could imagine.

One other vision stood out among the rest, not due to its importance, but its strangeness. It was perfectly realistic and believable in every way, spare one.

Akari saw familiar Shinjō storefronts, even the familiar faces of shopkeepers and acquaintances. She witnessed a large meeting between a dozen store managers and several police officers. She heard complaints about a dramatic rise in shoplifting, and theories about the perpetrators.

"It's those dang high school kids. They have too much free time. Why, in my day—"

"No, this is obviously too sophisticated for kids to pull off. They keep sabotaging our security cameras, after all. I bet it's the yakuza, setting the stage for a takeover. They'll be coming for 'protection' money soon, mark my words!"

"I doubt the yakuza are swiping cheap jewelry and lingerie. It's some young thugs, scoring free gifts for their girlfriends. That's why we need the police to take action."

The reality of it, or at least the reality that Akari's vision predicted, was far stranger. A small deer, brown with white spots and standing about two feet tall at the shoulder, walked through the open front door of a clothing store. It went straight to a display of winter coats, grabbed not one but two coats in its mouth, then bolted. It fled right out the door and vanished into the alleyway between shops before anyone had even noticed it.

"She's coming around."

"Right on schedule."

"You're giving your vision way too much credit. If it had bothered to show you, I dunno, a clock, it woulda saved me a shitload of stress."

"Shut it, Neko. Now's not the time."

"Don't be mean, Usagi."

That voice had been Akari's own, but it sounded so far away, so faint and raspy and weak.

"Get her some water. She's parched."

Inara's voice. It's wonderful to hear it again after all this time. Wait, how long has it been? It felt like years.

"Here. I brought a bottle with me."

Inu. Of course she'd know to bring water. Gotta stay hydrated to stay fit.

The first drop was lovely. She wanted to chug the rest, but it was being poured into her mouth in a frustratingly slow trickle. Even that made her cough.

Her eyes opened, and her family surrounded her, wearing both concern and relief plain on their faces. They all looked the same as she remembered, but that wasn't as useful a measurement of time as she'd hoped, since spirits don't age.

"Sorry, everyone. How long was I out?"

"Six years," Neko answered.

Inu immediately punched her in the arm and clarified, "No, it was closer to 48 hours."

"Only two days…" Akari mumbled. "But I saw so much."

Inara put a gentle hand on Akari's shoulder. "And you can tell us about what you saw whenever you're ready. No pressure if you need more time."

"I don't remember the specifics anymore. Just the lessons. I think I understand destiny now, and what being a 'chosen one' does to it." She smiled up at Inara. "I'm with you for the long haul now, aren't I?"

Inara smiled back. "I wouldn't have it any other way."