Because It's Cute

Asura and Xia hid behind a boulder and observed their surroundings. When they made sure everything was safe, they crouched down and started developing an action plan.

Asura grabbed some nearby grass and started using Spirit Energy to extract juice from the grass stalks, which released a pleasant smell.

Xia observed with slightly confused expression until she heard Asura's laugh.

Asura: "Come here."

Xia didn't understand what he wanted to do but still came closer to him. Although she often told herself that she didn't trust this little devil, when she wasn't aware of it, she actually trusted him even more than herself. As soon as she was within his hands' reach, all the extracted juice from the grass quickly ended up on various parts of her body.

Xia: "Wa-wa-what are you doing?!"

Asura showed a 'shh' gesture with his finger and whispered in her ear: "You can chose what you want to smell like. Either flowers, grass, blood from some animal we kill or anything you think of. The only important thing is for us to mask our smell."

Xia: "Eh... why?"

Asura: "If you want to leave behind a smell of a human... or whatever the hell we are, then we naturally don't need to do this. But considering how sharp our own senses are, I'd say beasts have even sharper senses, mostly smell."

Xia: "OH! I see... I didn't think of that."

Asura: "Then you know why we need to smell like grass now, do you?"

Xia: "Yeah, there was a saying of your human hunters on Earth. It goes something along the lines of "Become one with your surroundings, wherever you are, whenever possible", isn't it?"

Asura nodded with satisfaction and ruffled Xia's hair while applying more extracted juice at the same time. When he saw the pure white hair covered in shiny pale green liquid, he made a comical pose as if his heart was hurting, followed by an "Aghhh!" sound.

Xia: "What... what is it? Why are you looking at me with those pitiful eyes?"

Asura: "Ah... how it pains me to sully such a perfect silky hair, yet I am forced to. Heavens truly are unkind!"

Xia: "Oy! This has nothing to do with heavens. Don't blame others for your evil deeds! What? Will you say in the future heavens are unkind when I become pregnant with our child?"

Asura stared blankly at Xia without saying anything, which made her realize what she blurted out without thinking. She caught both of them unprepared with that one.

Asura: "Bahahaha... you truly are something else."

Xia's cheeks and ears turned fully red out of embarrassment as she blessed Asura's ears with a cute "Hmph!".

His lips came to her aid as the two started their usual calming routine once again. After a few minutes, they finally stopped.

Asura touched his lips gently, fully savoring the taste with a content expression of approval.

Xia: "This is becoming more and more dangerous. If we continue like this, we will never leave this forest..."

Asura: "Meh. What's the problem with relaxing a little. It's not like we'll have the opportunity to do this when we become brother and sister in front of others, so we may as well use this chance, right?"

Xia: "... ah, whatever. I give up."

Asura: "Hehe. Anyway, help me out with the grass."

Xia: "Sure, but I'll be the one to apply it on you!"

Asura smirked: "Aiyo, sure thing."

The two carefully handled the grass juice as it was hard to extract, despite so much grass being around them. At first, they were careful and patient but then they started fooling around and rolling on the grass like small animals playing with each other.

In the middle of their wrestling contest, a white light shone from the position of Asura's heart and a small fox ran out, silently joining them.

Xia felt something furry brush against her leg, and as usually goes with little girls and panic...

Xia: "Wa-wait! Time-out! Something brushed against my leg."

Asura released Xia's hand from his clutch and turned his head around, only to find a familiar little fox looking at two of them with excited expression as its tail waved around.

Asura: "Ah, I forgot about you! Come here, little cutie."

To Xia's amazement, the fox actually jumped in Asura's hands and he started rubbing her furry head against his cheeks while commenting: "Hnnn, how soft!"

Xia: "U..um... do you... know that thing?"

Asura: "I actually forgot to tell you about this. When I first woke up, it had scratched my finger and then asked me to put some of my blood on its forehead. After that, it turned into a bright ray of light and merged with me. I guess it became my contracted beast or something like that."

Xia: "HUH?! You actually accepted a contracted beast so easily???"

Asura looked at surprised Xia with confusion: "Is it wrong?"

Seeing the confused look in his eyes, Xia held her head as if she was looking at a dumb kid spouting some nonsense.

Xia: "Do you know that you can only have one contracted beast in your life?"

Asura calmly answered: "I guess so, yeah. I was expecting it to be that way, why?"

Xia: "And you took that little thing as your contracted beast?"

Asura: "... yeah. Is there a problem with that?"

Xia: "Of course there is!"

Asura: "Eeh? Why?"

Xia: "What do you mean why? With our bloodlines we can have Divine Beasts as contracted beasts, why would you take a small fox as a contracted beast? It's so weak!"

Asura: "Ah, that's what you mean. I don't really mind that it's weak, because it's cute!"

Xia: "So... you took it as your contracted beast because... it's cute?"

Asura nodded: "Yeah, and it's suuuuper fluffy as well!"

Xia: "..."

He looked at the fox with curiosity in his eyes, and was surprised to find that fox seemed slightly dissatisfied with Xia, as if it understood that Xia was berating it.

Asura: "Hey, I think this little cutie hates you for calling it weak."

Xia: "As if. If it was intelligent from that age, then that could only mean it's a ..."

Asura noticed the silence and sent a questioning look to Xia.

Xia: "D-did you say... that fox... told you to... put a drop of blood on its head?!"

Asura found her bewildered expression funny and giggled a little as he continued cuddling the cute fox that seemed to relax, as if it could feel that Asura didn't mind that it became his contracted beast despite it being so small and weak.

Asura: "Yeah, what's wrong?"

Xia: "H-how exactly did it.... 'tell' you?"

Asura: "Hm? Oh, that. Well, something like this."

Asura put down the fox in front of him, extended his index finger and said: "Little cutie, can you pretend that you want my blood again like before. Here, imagine this finger has blood on it."

The fox nodded its little head and then booped his finger with its nose a few times, after which it used its front paw to touch its own forehead.

Then both, the fox and Asura turned their head toward Xia, as if saying "Like that".

Xia looked at the conversation between the human and a fox as if she was seeing something out of this world. She couldn't believe her eyes.

Xia: "I can't believe this..."

Asura: "Is something wrong with this fox?"

Xia: "T... that thing... I-I think that thing is actually a Divine Beast of some sort, since only those kinds of beasts can understand humans and have intelligence from very early on in their childhood."

Asura showed a surprised expression and then looked at the fox, whose head moved at the same time and turned to him.

Asura: "Hey, little cutie, are you a Divine Beast?"

The fox looked to the ground as if it was thinking and after a few seconds looked at Asura again and nodded.

Asura: "Damn. Do you know why you were near me when I woke up?"

The fox nodded once again as its tail started swinging around rapidly, showing how excited it was.

Xia followed the fox's tail with her eyes, unable to accept the situation just like that.

Asura looked at Xia and asked: "Anyway, what's a Divine Beast?"

Xia: "Haaa... a Divine Beast is usually a beast that has developed its intelligence to a near-human degree and has a potential to break the limits of this world and transcend, however that potential is only potential in the end. Whether the Divine Beast can or can't truly become a Deity depends on its own strength, and more than anything else, fate."

Asura's brows furrowed: "Fate?"

Xia: "Yeah. Most of the Divine Beasts end up as pets of the powerful, eternally under their control with no real freedom. Those who control them would never allow them to break through the limits and become a Deity, because all that Beast Blood can be used for cultivation, hence why Divine Beasts are very pricey, and mostly unobtainable if you don't have any connections... This encounter can be regarded only as pure luck."

Asura's eyes showed some expectation as he excitedly turned to the fox and asked: "Can you talk?"

The fox firmly shook its head. It would be too strange if it could even talk at its age.

Asura: "Ah, man, I wish you could talk so you can tell me how you ended up there... Meh, neverm---"

He was cut off in the middle of his sentence when a surge of information flowed into his head, a familiar feeling hidden in it.