Tama

  When Saki asked me to train her, at first I didn't know how to respond. After all, I haven't senseiI was Tama. But I quickly realized that since sensei wasn't here anymore, Tama had to be sensei.

  It was scary, and I almost declined, but I could never hurt my sensei like that. He trusted me to be his legacy. I found some wolves in the forest and figured they would be a good warm-up for her. But Saki almost died to them, and I began to question just how weak she actually was.

  After healing her, I went to the goblin camp and gathered a small amount of goblins and brought them back with me. Obviously, Saki could definitely take out a bunch of goblins, right? Just in case, I used one of the goblin's crossbow bolts to make her right arm unusable.

  She almost died, and she began glowing purple. She seemed to be very upset, then her face went all calm. I thought she might have given up, so I whispered to her, "Don't fight it, use it!"

  She just stayed there floating for like five minutes. I threw one of the goblins at her, and it was erased the moment it entered Saki's barrier.

  I was impressed by it, but I stayed quiet and waited for her to finish the rest with that purple stuff.

  Instead, she suddenly stopped floating and shifted to her cute fox form. The five-foot one that had cute red eyes and she destroyed the rest of the goblins that way.

  Seeing they were mostly dead, and the remaining ones fled, I quickly hunted and killed the remaining goblins. They weren't supposed to flee, silly goblins.

  Then I decided it was time to train Saki in hand-to-hand combat. I grabbed some sticks and threw one over to her.

  Saki protested at first, but I wasn't having it. She wanted to get stronger, and this was the best way by far!

  I launched myself forward and swung my stick to the left, hitting her arm before jumping to the left. I swung again and hit her right arm.

  I jumped back and held my stick up, beckoning for her to come at me. She growled at me with anger and ran at me, swinging her stick. I smiled and deflected her stick, knocking it out of her hand before hitting her once on each cheek. Then I blinked behind her and poked her in her lower back. Grabbing her tail, I jerked lightly, causing her to stumble back.

  I blinked again and appeared in front of her. She looked at me in horror and grabbed her tail, rubbing it as she glared at me. Her eyes seemed to wander the area as she slowly picked her stick back up.

  I held back a giggle and simply raised an eyebrow the way sensei used to taunt me. It worked magically, and Saki's eye twitched before she sprinted at me again. We repeated the process again and again.

  After the fifth time Saki tried to leave, I blinked in front of her and punched her hard enough to fling her back to the center of the clearing.

  I remembered how much that used to hurt me. I had learned quickly that fleeing was not an option.

  Saki tried to leave multiple times, her excuses and whining getting louder and louder. I ignored her and kept her in the arena for three hours. As sensei would joke, "It's training time, Tama! I've got you for three minutes!" He would hold up three fingers and then laugh while commenting something about someone named Toby and some kind of spider that was a man.

  Saki gave up after a while and started throwing rocks at me. At first I dodged them, but after the fifth one I swung my stick and launched the rocks back at Saki. They hit her all over her body. Those were going to leave bruises.

  She stopped throwing rocks after that and summoned her pink fireball thing. Before she could even throw it, I appeared, grabbed her wrist, and forced a misfire into a tree. I then smacked her hard and said, "No power, skills only!" before blinking twenty feet away and raising my stick. She didn't try that again.

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  Instead, she began to shift to her fox form. The moment she did, I appeared and wrapped her in water chains that began to squeeze. She cried out and tried to break free, but I squeezed harder until she shifted back. Then I let go and stepped back.

  She finally picked up her stick again and swung it at me repeatedly. I dodged, deflected, and maneuvered around the stick. At no point did she even come close to hitting me. I punished her failures by smacking her with my stick in weak areas that she left open.

  This went on for a while until the sun began to set. At that point, I watched as Saki's swings became erratic and her eyes bloodshot. She panted and kept falling forward. We were done for today. She had learned a lot, I hoped. But it would take time.

  When she collapsed onto the ground and stopped moving, I checked to make sure she was still breathing before picking her up. As I did, she shifted into her little fox form, and I hugged her.

  I blinked to the tree branch where I kept her clothes, then blinked out of the forest. I undressed and laid down, putting Saki on my belly before closing my eyes to go to sleep as well.

  The next morning I felt as Saki quietly slid off of me, the patter of her paws as she walked over to her clothes. I held back a giggle as she dragged her clothes away to prevent waking me.

  Memories of me doing that early on when sensei's training was too much flooded me, and I reveled in the memories, knowing that they were just that. I would never get to see my sensei again, but that didn't mean he couldn't live through me and my memories of him.

  I waited for a while to make sure she had time to get dressed before I got up and did the same. I headed into the forest and found a bunny. My dagger made the little guy's death painless, and I made a small campfire and cooked. Before I had taken Saki yesterday morning, I had asked Tera and David to make sure she didn't get rations and had to hunt for her own food.

  As expected, Tera was eager. David seemed to love the idea so much he actually burned our rations in front of me in excitement, stating a true adventurer should live off the land.

  I felt that was... excessive. But it forced Saki to be stronger, and it wasn't like it was hard to find food. I mean, look how easy I found this rabbit!

  After eating the rabbit, I caught a second one. Maybe if Saki hadn't caught her food yet, I could teach her to skin and cook a rabbit!

  I blinked to the edge of the forest, and then again to the outskirts of the camp. I was about to blink again when I noticed a fight between David and Saki.

  Saki was in her red-eyed fox form, and she was trying to wrap her tails around David, who was actively dodging them and trying to get a hit on Saki. I watched as Saki expertly dodged David's punches and smiled.

  I could see it was instinctual. She was subconsciously dodging and blocking areas that I had shown her as weak points yesterday. She was far from perfect, and David got a few good hits in, but she managed to dodge most of his hits.

  I was impressed at her quick learning. It had taken me weeks to be able to dodge one of sensei's attacks... Just the one. He increased training after that.

  I blinked next to Tera. She was on her knees, eyes glazed over as she stared at David and Saki fighting. I watched as Saki tried to create distance and shift back into her Foxkin form, only for David to make her stop and dodge instead.

  Her shift only took a few seconds for her small form, but it was incremental. To reach her red-eyed fox form, it took her almost ten seconds. In a battle, that was life-threatening. She rolled under David's fist and tried to punch David. David took the hit and grabbed Saki. Saki tried to break free but was unable to. David lifted her and threw her hard. Saki went flying.

  As she did, she shifted into her small fox form and landed before dodging into the grass, which at her small size was taller than her. David rushed over, but he couldn't see her now.

  As he was searching, I watched Saki as she managed to sneak around behind him and began to shift. David turned too late and got a mouthful of the pink flame. The effect was immediate, and David began patting at himself aggressively as the fire burned him, but the flames only seemed to grow on him.

  Saki, not losing her chance, expanded her tails and covered them in earth as she wrapped eight of them around his large form. He grabbed her tails and tried to pull them off, but he wasn't strong enough to get more than one off, and she simply put it back on as soon as he reached for another.

  She lifted him in the air and flung him into a boulder, causing the boulder to shatter. Tera stood and began to draw her blade. I didn't feel like dealing with more drama, so I tapped her temple and caught her as she collapsed unconscious. I gently laid her down and continued watching Saki fight with awe. My best friend was amazing.

  That was when it got bad. David stepped out, covered in molten earth armor. He charged Saki. She tried to grab him, but her tails caught fire the moment they made contact, forcing her to withdraw them. She tried to open her mouth, but David reached her first.

  He grabbed her mouth, preventing a pink flame attack, and picked her up. He then threw her straight into the air above him. I froze as I realized what David was about to do.

  David jumped into the air, higher than he had thrown Saki. Saki tried to move but was too slow as David grabbed her midair and threw her down forcefully.

  I winced as Saki hit the ground hard, causing a crater to form under her. I stood worriedly as I looked down at her. She didn't move. I rushed over and checked for a heartbeat.