#My Wife is Inari the Part-Timer?!

[spenceraverywrites]

Okay, so this is: the base idea for my new ongoing story, My Wife is Inari the Part-Timer?! (私の家内はバイトのお稲荷様ですか?!). I mentioned it in this post recently right...here!

This is actually the incredibly important scene that sets up the entirety of the story: the encounter between Maeda Sanae and Nakahara Komugi, the duotagonists of the romcom that will come. I can’t remember how I got this idea, other than that gods are incredibly human at times, and it’d be nice to portray a quer romance set in Japan. I hope you enjoy a sample of waht’s toe come in the second half of this year!

As a note, this is the unbeta’d version, so it’s what it is: of course, it’ll be cleaned up. I wanted you to have the very original though before anything happened.

Honestly, Nakahara Komugi had come out of a sense of duty that was apparent as Sanae sat next to her.

The older woman clutched her cup, back rigid as she took a small sip. Already, she’d gone through two pints, and was feeling a bit warm, regretfully so, and was trying to keep up appearances. If had been Komugi’s choice though, she’d be at home on her sofa, curled up around a book in silence rather than out at a ba.

But Satou Taichi, the former manager of their division, was finally retiring at 70, and Komugi knew she’d be shame for not coming to this.

“Ah, you want another, Nakahara?” The booming question came from Suzuki Daisuke, a tall, thin man with too round glasses, his bright pink tie loose and crumpled around his neck. His cheeks were just as rosy, a pink flush spread from ear to ear across his nose, and his voice was slurred. He was completely drunk, barely clutching the large, beer bottle he held, halfway tipped to spilling.

Komugi’s smile was pinched, tight at the corners and dim in her eyes, as she replied, “Ah, I’m quite fine. Thank you, Suzuki-san.” She took a sip and held her cup up merrily, widening her smile.

“Ah, have another for Satou! It’s his final day! Live it up a little!” Suzuki filled the cup to the brim, beer threatening to spill over. Rudely, he swigged from the remainder rest of the bottle, flopping back into his chair with a cheerful guffaw as he slung his arm around Satou, gripping his shoulder hard. “Here’s to Satou! Enjoy retirement!”

Everyone quickly raised their cups once more, letting out a group cry, and Komugi went back to nursing her beer as slowly as she could. Beside her, Sanae fidgeted, her coworker’s anxiety steadily making her feel an anxious itch inside. She took a swig of beer for courage and sighed, turning to face Komugi. “Ah, Nakahara-san?” Sanae begin, smiling gently.

“Yeah?” Komugi’s hands clutched her glass tighter.

“Are you okay?” Sanae asked. “It’s been a long day, and I know you don’t often come to office parties, but…” Sanae tucked her chin, and her bangs hung down over her eyes.

“Ah, I’m fine,” Komugi replied. “I just try not to drink much, that’s all. Gotta watch my figure!”

“Oh,” Sanae chirped, tilting her head, eyes bright. “I can’t see why, though. You’re so pretty that you don’t have to care about things like that, though I’m sure you worry like anybody does,” Sanae stated. She took a small sip of her beer.

“Ah, I guess it’s just all the discomfort. You know me: I never come to things like this. I used to be a party girl, but I gave that up. Grew up, I guess you could say,” Komugi replied, eyes flashing mischievously. “I think maybe I realized that I couldn’t just get away with that kind of life for so long.”

“Ah, quiet you?” Sanae teased. “I can’t imagine you going to a party.”

Komugi snorted loudly, light brown eyes twinkling. “Heh, the person we are as an adult is different, you know?” Sanae hummed a reply to Komugi and finish her glass. Before she could ask, Suzuki was flying across the table, filling her cup back up before launching back into loud conversation, hand slapping the tabletop. “I guess I grew to be the kind of person who got tired of parties and liked to indulge in quiet.

“That’s understandable. After all, you’re only human.” She flashed a bright smile and giggled. “We all have things we like to indulge in.”

The noise of the party suddenly rushed back in, filling the spaces around them and for one moment, Komugi felt a shift in her belly. She huffed out a laugh, air whistling out her nose and nodded slowly. “I am, aren’t I?” Komugi replied with a bashful, looking at her cup pensively. She turned it a few times in her hand. “Yeah, it’s alright to enjoy something once in a while, right?”

“Yeah,” Sanae replied. “You always work hard so if you want a drink, then you deserve it!”

Komugi pursed her lips, and without any hesitation, drained the glass of beer. “Another, Suzuki-san!” she called out, and within moments, her cup was filled, and Komugi opted to chug it, going in whole hog. She plucked up a bit of food –farewell parties always meant good food, any they’d all decided to include tender horse meat and a rich platter of different roes and good, sweet tasting rice that night– and lifted her cup. “To us enjoying tonight together,” she said, winking at Sanae. 

“T-To us enjoying tonight together!” Sanae said, and they clacked their cups together and took great, big gulps.

It wasn’t soon after that that Maeda Sanae lost count of how many cups Komugi had then, but within an hour, she was laughing a little too loud and swaying a bit too much despite eating plates of food.

Certainly whatever bits of a partier were left in Komugi were emerging again, bright and vibrant as she rocked back and forth, laughing at everything, face blotchy and shiny from sweat. Sanae had stopped drinking after her third cup of beer and switched to the vast menu of juices, dead set on tasting a bit of everything they offered. She’d been working her way through a cup of blueberry-kiwi juice when suddenly Komugi let out another loud guffaw, tilting towards her.

“Are you okay, Naka-” Sanae caught herself, and cleared her throat, “Komugi-san?”

“I’m wonderful!” Komugi replied, and she drained her glass, pouring a bit into the coworker’s next to her in return for a full cup. She swallowed it like water, and soon had another full cup to her lips. Komugi had always been too busy for office parties or late-night drinking. Yet now, Sanae wondered if this was how she had formerly preferred to drink: all in with no regrets. It was a very different side of Komugi.

This went on for quite a bit more time until Komugi’s accent was thick and she was barely able to hold her chopsticks. In fact, every time she went for the inarizushi, she kept fumbling, though a wicked gleam in her eyes showed intent to get it. Eventually, she plucked it up with her fingers, shoving it into her mouth with a pleased smile, a bit of tofu smeared on her cheek. She seemed all the content drunk until suddenly, her eyes widened.

Gurgle.

It was an audible sound, at least to Sanae, but before she could ask, Komugi jolted to her feet, rocking unsteadily before she clambered past everyone, one hand to her mouth, the other to her stomach. Suzuki let out a loud laugh down the way and called for another round, completely ignoring his coworker and continuing his loud conversation. It wasn’t an uncommon sight, so to speak: enough people often got drunk at parties like this, and Komugi would hopefully return soon enough. But after ten minutes of her absence, Sanae felt worry grow in her gut. “I’m going to go check on Nakahara-san,” Sanae announced to no one in particular, and she made her way to the bathrooms, din of the party fading behind her.

She winded down a long hall past dozens of rooms like their, closed off with office parties. As she walked, she imagined Komugi stumbling down this very hall, most likely more than a bit distressed. She hoped her coworker was okay: she hadn’t assumed that Komugi would become so inebriated, but she wouldn’t chide her for her choice, just be there for her and get her in the next taxi home. Honestly, she was far more worried that her friend wasn’t okay, alone in the bathroom.

Sanae pushed through the curtain in front of the sinks, and saw a bright red door decorated with white flowers. With a creak and a gentle push from Sanae’s hand, it swung in. “Komugi, it’s me,” Sanae announced, voice colored with her worry. “Are you-” Okay stuck in the back of her throat.

In the center of the bathroom, between the stalls and the sinks, sat a woman, back rigid, head tilted just so, beer gone from her hands, sat a woman, her braid undone, hair falling down her back in a long sheet. It wasn’t dark brown like before: no, it was bright and golden, the same color as a field of wheat, and moved slightly as if blown by a gentle breeze. The woman’s eyes weren’t black anymore but a bright gold that was impossibly deep. A set of fox ears twitched from the top of the woman’s head, matching the long, nine tails that snaked from a wide hole in her pants, all twitching slowly back and forth as if bemused, though the spittle on her chin and sharp scent of sick in the sink betrayed resignation more so than the glee of inebriation that had been in those eyes only a few minutes ago.

For a long moment, Sanae just stared, completely shocked, shaking her head at the realization that, of course, she knew the woman sitting there perfectly well. It was none other than Nakahara Komugi though she was markedly different.

Spectral foxes were milling about, brilliant white with ivory snouts and tails. Soft yips filled the bathroom, and for a moment, Sanae felt that she’d left Satou’s farewell party and was somehow in the realm of the gods, though she quickly remembered that nom, this was all too real and right in the middle of a bar. “Oh my god,” Sanae whispered. “Oh. My. God.”

“Yes?” Komugi replied, a drunken smile on her lips. She’d secretly always wanted to use that line, and the chance had come, though she felt downright embarrassed at taking the chance. “Sorry, that’s a horrible joke, isn’t it?”

“What… happened?” Sanae chanced, stepping into the bathroom. She fumbled for a latch on the door and made sure it stuck. She didn’t know what would happen if someone else walked in and saw whatever this was.

“I oopsed.”

“Oopsed?” Sanae asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah, made a mistake. Well… You got me drunk,” Komugi stated. “Ah, well, correction: I decided to willingly get drunk, got stomach sick, came here to throw up, threw up in a sink –that’ll make closing harder, won’t it? – and accidentally let this happen?” She gave a weak chuckle, and her ears flopped down.

“This being…?”

“Channeled enough of the world’s latent mana to shift into my true form instead of keeping my human presence?” Komugi paused and worried her lower lip. “Oh dear.”

“You’re… glowing!”

“Yes, that… typically happens less than now.”

“And t-the foxes!”

“My little part-timers.” Komugi stroked one affectionately, solid fingers digging into the glowing, ghostly fur.

“You… what… Nakahara-san, what-”

“Komugi.” She always corrected Sanae when she was so formal: they’d been friends for years and had long since passed the time for formality. “Honestly though…Inari,” Komugi stated. “As in O-Inari-Kami. Or O-Mikoto-Inari-Kami, because that’s kind of cool sounding right?” She waved a limp wrist, fingers fluttering playfully.

“This isn’t the time for jokes,” Sanae deadpanned. Komugi’s hand stiffened and she curled her fingers, settling her hand back in her lap.

“Right. Guess this is all a bit of a surprise, right? We need to talk, eh?” Komugi chuckled, and her tail twitched a bit bashfully, flicking up to wrap around Sanae’s ankle. “It’s not every day you find out the part-timer is actually a god.” She tossed her hair in that particular and Sane felt a prickle in her belly, but shoved it away: now wasn’t the time to get charmed!

“Talk?!” Sanae squeaked out. She felt the warmth of the tail and shifted, but it tugged her close, almost instinctively. “About… about this?” She waved her hands up and down, panning from the tops of Komugi’s wheat brown ears to the long, winding tail at her ankle. “Yeah, we definitely need to talk!”

“Yeah,” Komugi replied, voice thick. “I mean, I can’t just let you go now that you’ve seen me after all. It could cause all kinds of trouble if you told someone, even by accident. Something has to be done.”

The entire mood in the room shifted as Komugi’s back curved into a gentle arch, hand reaching out to tangle in the fur of a fox. It nuzzled her palm and she smiled, a sharp canine poked from the bottoms of her lip, and a warm breeze gusted in the room, smelling like rice paddies and fresh matcha and a cold stream. Sanae felt her knees knock as her blood ran cold: she had really stepped in it this time, and there seemed to be little way out now. “Oh my god, are you going to kill me Nakahara-san?” she whispered, blood draining from her cheeks.

“Komugi, and no! Oh my god, why would I kill you?” Komugi shot back, eyes wide. Thankfully, she found no reason to joke.

“You made it sound like you were going to silence me!”

“By killing my coworker? That’s illegal and bad for the business! We’re barely selling games now: imagine what would happen if you died!”

“Oh my god, did you really just say that!” Sanae shot back. “This is no time to joke!”

Komugi instantly regretted to sarcastic reply and slumped back onto a mess of foxes, sighing as their tails came up to cradle her head. Her eyes, bright and golden, were hazy with beer, and her smile sleepy. She raised a hand and suddenly, Sanae was tipping forward, falling face first onto Komugi. She let out a surprised squeak and found her cheek pillowed on Komugi’s chest, left hand extended out to catch herself by Komugi’s shoulder.

Komugi’s hair pillowed her as Komugi arranged Sanae, half in her lap, half on the cool tiles of the floor. The smell of sick faded away as the scent of outside grew. An arm came up around her shoulders and pulled drunkenly.

“This okay?”  Komugi whispered, voice low and rough. “Me touching you and all?” Sanae nodded, cheeks flushing red all over again. She wondered in Komugi could hear her heartbeat like this, if they were so close that it was obvious that she was very comfortable. “Good, then I wanna tell you something, okay?”

“What do you want to tell me?” Sanae whispered, and she gulped audibly, shuddering anxiously.

There was a long pause where Komugi just stared, her large, fluffy ears twitching, sharp eyes focused completely on Sanae. Some of the haze cleared and the deep, golden color grew more vivid, and Komugi’s entire countenance changed. Everything about her seemed sharper as if she’d pushed away being drunk and was perfectly fine.

“Maeda Sanae,” she began, voice low. It washed over Sanae, and in that moment, she really saw Komugi, realized she was very much so a god.

“Yeah?” Sanae managed to breathe out. She caught a wife of Komugi’s breath and felt that same wave of wheat was over her, stuffing itself down into her lungs. Instantly, Sanae thought of her home back in Fukushima, the deep scent of countryside making her momentarily hungry for home before she snapped back into the moment, cheeks coloring with embarrassment.

“Y-Yeah?” Sanae changed again. Komugi swayed, pressing her nose to Sanae’s shoulder, hunched over and curled around her. A tail snapped in the air.

“I’m gonna marry you, okay?”

[spenceraverywrites]

Talk wordy to me: New Works in 2017.

So I’m steadily getting my life together after an almost literal year of flux. Now, I finally feel like my new life is back under control, and that I’ve adjusted. Thanks for your patience: it means so much guys. 

That being said, let’s talk about two things I’ve been working on.

The first is a light novel called My Wife is Inari the Part-Timer?! (私の家内はバイトのお稲荷様ですか?!). 

It’s a series of stories that follow the life of the god Inari and her wife, an officer worker named Maeda Sanae. It’s set up to be a romcom with them having to find a balance between Sanae having to become a god and Inari having to relearn how to be human.

The second is a novella called Girl Over The Lateral Horizon.

It’s a story about a girl who, after getting broken up with on the day she was going to propose to her partner, decides to do the next natural thing: sigh up for a next day trip to a new planet to escape from her problems and heal her broken heart. It’s also a romantic comedy, though it’ll be set in a sci-fi world that’s very soft and pastel.

The first will be getting a preview tomorrow, so you have that to look forward to, and expect GOTLH to have a nice teaser Saturday at 8 p.m., JST, right before I cruise out on a vacation. 

Not a long post but hopefully a good enough taste, my darling readers. As always, I’m excited to be bringing content. For now, we’re going to stick to these two things: we’ll talk fanfiction later, especially since I’m really deep into Yuri!!! on ICE and might consider dipping my toes in.