A tanuki's greatest assets
Story by Isaac Cahn on SoFurry
hey everyone,a story for you on this fourth of july. hope everyone is safe on this day.
again, i had used a translate to write down the Japanese but kind of learned that Japanese is not a one to one language, so i am sorry if what the characters say in Japanese seems odd or just plain wrong.
my apoligize if i upset you.
I was exhausted in a way I couldn’t describe. Hours of writing so many math problems in a notebook required much more energy than I could muster. My hand was sore from writing and I just wanted to stop. I lost count of all the problems I had done to make sure I had enough examples to look back on. I just continued doing more math and writing them down like I was some math machine.
I let go of the pencil and dropped my head onto the desk. I just wanted to just slip into the unconscious and drift into the void.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, “You alright Seth?” Even without looking I could tell it was Miyuki.
I groaned.
“Math burnout?”
“Yeah.” I pushed myself upright, “Miyuki, please tell me I have done enough problems for today.”
“Well, how many did you do?”
I opened my mouth to answer but I was drawing a blank on the number, “How many was it?”
Miyuki sighed. “You have at least been putting the sticky notes between the pages of the problems like I have been asking you to do, right?”
“Sure,” I reached for the notebook and passed it to Miyuki. Various sticky notes of bright colors with abbreviations stuck outwards. Honestly, I was just grabbing the notes at random so I wasn't paying attention to the color scheme.
“Oof,” Miyuki said, “You certainly did a lot in a couple hours.” he started to count them.
Miyuki handed me the notebook back, “So in two hours you did and labeled twenty problems.”
“That good?”
“Concerning really. Seth, you should pace yourself more.”
“But isn’t it great that I finished all those problems at once?”
Miyuki gave me a face that was a mix of a scowl and disbelief, “Quality over quantity, Seth.”
“You were the one that told me to go back to previous lessons and write examples for every problem. I have a lot to write down before class on Monday.”
“Seth you have plenty of time. Just do a few problems per day and you’ll get them all. You shouldn’t work yourself till you suffer a burnout.”
“Okay.” I started to get my things together. When I stood up, I felt a tingle in my legs as blood started to flow back into them. “Hey, Miyuki, is it okay to get something to drink before I leave?”
“Sure.”
“Miyuki,” a voice said, “Chotto koko ni kite moraemasu ka?”
“Hai,” he responded, going to the door. He turned around, “Feel free to take anything in a can in the fridge.” Then he left.
I walk downstairs into the kitchen. I see the refrigerator door open and a tail sticking out the door. Oh, maybe he is Miyuki's brother I have heard about.
The door closed and on the other side was another tanuki. His fur was a much darker shade of brown then either Miyuki or his dad. He was holding a can in his hand and opened it. He noticed me staring at him. He looked shocked to see me.
Crap what should I do? Oh wait, the tanuki greeting. I bow, my upper body perpendicular to the floor.. “It is nice to meet you. I am Seth Renies.” I said.
“Uh okay.” I heard him say, “A handshake would have worked you know.”
“Um, isn't this a tanuki greeting?” I asked without looking up.
“Not exactly. It’s Japanese, sure, but you don’t need to bow for every tanuki that you see. And you aren’t supposed to bow that deeply.”
I felt a bit embarrassed on the whole thing. I raised myself slightly and then something caught my eyes. What I failed to notice till just that moment was that, unlike Miyuki or his dad, this tanuki was not wearing a kilt. He was not wearing anything on his lower regions. So I just got a look at the tanuki’s great balls in person.
When I was looking into info about the tanuki, one piece of info kept coming up in my research and that was the tanuki’s giant balls. Many sites always seemed to make a mention of their balls, some saying it was their greatest feature being able to stretch and mold the skin into anything they needed. They also showed me art pieces of the tanuki using their sacks in odd ways, such as umbrellas and shop signs. When I first saw the art, I took it as an exaggeration. As one art teacher told me, art usually exaggerates things to a point. What I saw was not a complete exaggeration. Before my eyes, I saw the tanuki’s massive testicles, each the size of a baseball. The testicles were covered in fur and seemed to look like they were in some sort of sheath you would see on an animal. It was such an odd thing to look at.
“Oh Seth,” I heard Miyuki enter the kitchen from the entrance behind me, “I was wondering if instead of--” he suddenly fell silent before shouting, “JURO!”
The other tanuki acknowledges Miyuki with a simple, “Yo.”
“Kuso jigoku Juro!” Miyuki shouted in Japanese, “Naze kiruto o kite inai nodesu ka?”
The tanuki shrugged “Watashi no sei janai. Kare ga mada koko ni iru koto o shiranakatta.”
“Anata wa saisho ni watashi ni kakunin suru ki ni naranakatta nodesu ka?”
“Iya,” I watched as the other tanuki walked out of the kitchen, his balls swinging around as much as his tail, “Soreni kare wa kare ga mita mono o sukidatta y?desu.” he laughed.
“Kuso rokudenashi.”
I stared at where the tanuki left, images of his balls still in my mind. My brain couldn’t comprehend what just happened to me and left me dumbstruck.
Miyuki shook me, “Hello, earth to Seth, please respond.”
I got out of my stupor, “Huh? Oh, sorry.”
He sighed, “I should apologize for Juro’s behavior.”
“His name is Juro?”
“Yeah, he is one of my older brothers. He’s the one I mentioned before about streaming games as a hobby. I thought he would be too busy with his stuff to come up from his lair to actually bother us.”
Another question formed in my head, “Does Juro not--”
Miyuki held up his hand, interrupting me. “Forget it. I have something to ask you first. It is something I have been meaning to ask you for a while.”
“What is it?”
“When we do your tutoring sessions, do you mind if we have them here instead of at the success center?”
“At your house?”
Miyuki nodded, “Yeah. Because of how you saw through my illusions, Father is kind of paranoid there might be more people like you at the college.”
“People like me?” I can tell this is not going to sound good to me.
“People who can see through illusions and such. I am not the--” Miyuki paused for a second, “Father and Dad are a bit overprotective of me at times. They just want to keep me and the family safe, so they are only allowing me to go to the campus on the days I have classes there. So I can’t go over there to tutor you anymore.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to stop our sessions Seth. They are allowing me to continue tutoring you on the condition that they happen here.”
“I see, but why here?”
“This was the only place Father would agree to allow the tutoring. We don’t know if your parents have the same ability and doing the tutoring at a library or something will have...issues to overcome.”
“What issues?”
“That is not important right now. Anyway do you mind having our sessions here from now on?”
“Well, um,” I turned away from Miyuki, “Can you at least let me think about it first?”
“Is this because of Juro?”
I turned back to him, “Huh?”
“Look I am really sorry for what Juro did to you. I really didn’t know that the basement dweller was going to come out when you were still here. I promise to make sure he won’t bother us doing the sessions, even if I have to board up his door to do it.”
“Easy, easy, you don’t need to do that, Miyuki. All I am asking is that you give me time to think about it.”
Miyuki gave me a sad look like I had just taken away something of his, “Really? That’s all?”
“Look this isn’t something I can decide right this minute.”
“If the issue is financial or gas reasons, I can cover for you. If it is a time issue we can work out a schedule and--”
“Miyuki, calm down,” a voice said behind him. Miyuki’s dad, Banko Irwin, entered behind Miyuki, “You already heard his answer. Just give him time to think about it.”
“But dad--”
“Miyuki, the matter is settled.” Mr. Irwin then leaned in close to Miyuki’s ear and whispered something to him. He turned to me, “I am really sorry for Miyuki’s actions, I do hope you don’t let his actions just now affect your decision.”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” I looked at Miyuki. He looked ashamed of himself, “Well it is getting late so I am heading off now.” I walked past them and headed to the front door. I have a lot to think about now.