Chapter 22: Stone Tail

The last strip of stone fell from the fox's tail and rang on the floor.

It bounced once, rolled across the boards and stopped against Hakuro's polished shoe.

He looked down at it.

Above the door, the wooden fox swung gently on its nail, and its tail was no longer grey.

It was pale, honey-coloured cedar, carved with a hundred fine hairs, with a tip that looked as if it had been dipped in gold.

The whole shop sighed.

"It's finished," Tsukumo breathed. "It's all come off!"

"So it has," Kuzunoha said.

Her voice was steady, and her hand in Haruna's was cool.

Haruna slipped the thermometer under her ear without asking, and nobody laughed.

"Thirty-six point eight," she said, loud enough for the room.

A cheer went up that shook the lanterns.

Hakuro did not wait to hear it.

His shoulders hunched, and his grey sleeves slid back, and where his hands had been there were long, thin, bony wings.

He gave one hoarse cry, shoved through the door and took off down the alley in a clatter of feathers.

The young tanuki, left alone on the mat, wrapped his arms around his tail and burst into tears.

Natsuki, who had a soft spot she would never admit to, crouched down and put her scarf round him.

"Come on," she said gruffly. "You can sit in the kitchen. Tsukumo, put the kettle on."

"For him?"

"For him. He didn't pick his boss."

The clients drifted out in the hours after that, stopping to touch Kuzunoha's sleeve or press a small gift into Haruna's palm.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My New Boss at the Yokai Pharmacy Is a Fox Who Cannot Lie from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.