Episode 4

## Why Must You Work on a Day Off!?

**Why Must You Work on a Day Off!?** (なぜ休日に仕事をせねばならんのじゃ！？, *Naze kyūjitsu ni shigoto o senebanaran no ja!?*) is the fourth episode of the *Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san* anime. It aired on May 1, 2019.

## Summary

Senko tries to help Kuroto get up for work on a Sunday, then gets into a bit of a mess with the household appliances.

## Plot

Kuroto returns home (presumably from work) with a thick layer of darkness. As a miserable looking Kuroto walks in, Senko immediately notices the difference in his tone and notes the difference. Senko cheers him up by telling him that tomorrow is his day off: Sunday. To the dismay of Senko and Kuroto, Kuroto announces that he still has to work tomorrow. He cries.

Kuroto prepares himself for bed. Senko is still worried about Kuroto's sleep schedule, worried that it would be the end of him. Kuroto doesn't want her to worry, so he sets his alarm and says that it's fine. Senko has other ideas, he doesn't want Kuroto to be woken up by a shrill alarm. She offers to use her love to wake him up, but Kuroto declines, believing that she wouldn't wake him up. Senko attempts to reassure him, saying that old people know how to wake up. This doesn't reassure Kuroto at all.

In the end, Kuroto leaves Senko to wake him up. Immediately after, Kuroto falls unconscious. With the lights out, Senko walks into Kuroto's bed with her nightgown, placing her tail next to his face. Kuroto instinctively grabs it and strokes it wholeheartedly. Senko notices his wholehearted consent to the tail-fluffing, wishing that he could be like that more often.

Senko wakes up to clear weather, perfect for laundry. After Senko changed from her nightgown, she remembered that she had to wake up Kuroto. She saw his peaceful sleep and calmly woke up him up, perhaps too calmly, as Kuroto barely moved to wake up. Senko continued to persist that he wakes up. Finally, Kuroto spouted a weak: "five more minutes", and Senko agreed.

Senko realized that the mornings made Kuroto weaker and more vulnerable to her pampering. However, before Senko could begin pampering him, Kuroto remembered that he had work today. In an attempt to stop him from getting up, Senko persistently told him that he should continue to sleep, despite the fact that he was required to attend work. Finally, enjoying Kuroto's vulnerable state, Senko returned to bed with him. With loving eyes, Senko proclaimed:

"Here's my tail! You can fluff it all you want!"

Kuroto hugged Senko's tail and fell back asleep. By dusk, Kuroto woke up again and checked his phone, noticing it was too late to go to work. After Senko asks if Kuroto is awake, he remembers his previous predicament: the tail-fluffing and sleeping with Senko in the morning. Attempting to apologize, Kuroto tried to sputter a word but failed. Senko didn't care for an apology, she wanted to pamper Kuroto more, telling him that is the way he should always act. Kuroto hesitated and declined. Senko was confused and wondering why didn't he want to be pampered. Finally, Senko told Kuroto that she would wake him up the next morning, once again to the quick decline of Kuroto. Senko tried to reassure him, saying that she *would* wake him up the next time around. Kuroto continued to decline and started to set his phone alarm, but Senko, using her fox-magic, moved the phone away from him, telling him that he didn't need to rely on it. Finally, after a talk with Senko, Kuroto let her wake him up again. In the end, Kuroto asked to fluff Senko's tail more.

In the kitchen, Senko is heating up a stove with her controlled fox-fire. Kuroto notices it, wondering if Kitsune's don't use stoves. He also remembers the use of fox-fire as a light; Senko just reminisces it as a habit. Kuroto continues to wonder if fox-fire was dangerous, but Senko reassures him that she's been using and controlling fox-fire for everything within the past 800 years...or so she wanted to, hinting to the overuse of machines in the modern day. Senko, not wanting to get out of practice, continues to use her fox-fire, displaying the flame of her burning love. Kuroto is only happy that they're saving on the gas bill.

The rainy season returns, and Kuroto is on his way to work. Noticing the hard rain, Kuroto asks Senko if she can do anything to change the weather. Senko, knowing it wouldn't be easy, began an attempt to stop the rain, but Kuroto interjected, telling her it was a joke. Before he walked out, Kuroto told Senko about the air conditioner on the wall. Senko wasn't sure what it was. Finally, Kuroto walked out.

Senko, at home, tried to use the air conditioner, picking up the A/C remote control and pressing a button, activating it. The air blew from the vane, and Senko felt it, saying it was just like fox-magic. Senko believed that the A/C was simple, so she decided to master it next. Before she attempted to use the A/C, she looked at the vacuum, reminding her of how loud it was. Stating that she'd face her fears, Senko tried to use the vacuum. Turning it on, the loud noises scared her and she threw herself under the covers of the bed, hitting the vacuum with a stick.

Meanwhile, Yasuko, drawing on her tablet, notices the tumult coming from the Kuroto residence.

Finally, the vacuum was shut down. Senko didn't take another chance, she took care of the cleaning herself. However, conflicted in believing Kuroto would call her a useless furball, Senko decided to use the washing machine. Reading the manual, Senko loaded the laundry and poured in the detergent and pressed the "start" button. After a short moment, the washer stopped moving, and Senko saw soap-tattered clothes. In the end, she did the work herself. Finally came the preparation of dinner, in which Senko decided to use the stove. She turned the stove handle and activated the burner. At first, nothing happened, but Senko turned the burner once more, burner clicked, scaring her as a controlled blue flame lit up the stove. Senko noted how well the stove controlled the flame.

Senko continued to use the machines around the house, the refrigerator, and the rice cooker. Allowing the machines to work unattended, Senko decided to make *umeshu*. After making the food, Senko went back into Kuroto's room and tried to turn on the A/C. Picking up the wrong remote, Senko turned the TV on, playing an episode of Little Yoko, Inari Girl. Trying to turn in off, she turned the volume up. As she turned the volume up, the rice cooker began to steam and beep. The A/C continued to blare, and, on accident, Senko bumped into the fan, turning it on the highest settings. The vacuum fell down and turned on, and Senko was surprised.

Yasuko noticed a disturbance again, prompting her to perk up.

Senko, in vain, tried to turn everything off. After time with everything turned on, the master circuit breaker for the apartment popped, turning everything, including the lights, off.

Yasuko, no longer hearing noise, left Senko alone.

Kuroto came back home to the house with no lights on. Senko was huddled in the corner of his room with fox-fire active.

"Sorry, Kuroto. I'm just a giant furball."

Kuroto settled Kuroto down and reset the circuit breaker. Inspecting the house, Kuroto realized the refrigerator was left open. To make up for the time lost in the refrigerator, Senko decided to use the meat for the food today. Opening the freezer, a mass of fried tofu wrapped in plastic fell out. Senko said that they would have to use that as well. Senko was sad that she made Kuroto worry, but he didn't mind it. After all, he enjoyed coming home to Senko's smiling face.

Senko quickly flashbacked to a face of Kuroto in relaxed clothes, outside. Returning to the present, she smiled at Kuroto, indulging himself in her tail.

In the Kitsune Empyrean, Shiro notices Senko and Kuroto. Yozora believes that his darkness may not disappear at the rate Senko is progressing. Finally, Shiro gains consensus:

"I, the great Shiro, will have to pamper him myself!"

## Characters

* Senko
* Kuroto Nakano
* Yasuko Kōenji
* Little Yoko, Inari Girl
* Don Tanukiman
* Nakano's Ancestor (flashback)
* Yozora
* Shiro

## Trivia

* Senko wears reading glasses. (as shown in multiple parts of the episode)
* This episode establishes that fox-magic can control the weather.