My muscles protest with every swing as I chop wood for the cooking fire. This time, I have an axe—unlike yesterday when the tengu servants played a trick. Bastards. They even tattled, saying I used my sword to fell a tree a few days ago. Should’ve used only magic for the task.

As punishment, I had to read translations of the Heart and Diamond Sutras aloud three times, scrub every floor of the twenty plus building estate with a rag—pushing it with my hands while running it across the floor, and then promise that I’d never use my sword for such a low task again. My back and neck hurt so much I could have sworn I was eighty-years-old. Aunt Hisako wasn’t this harsh when I used her sewing scissors for paper!

Soujou-sensei freed me from most chores to focus on my training. At this rate, I’ll build awesome core muscles from chopping wood several times a day and the constant exercises and sword drills he makes me do! Fast draw and cut techniques, stretches for limberness, a host of torturous push-up and lunge versions, and the list goes on.

Maybe Su-chan will notice a difference when I see her again. Wish she was here.

The top of Mount Kurama overlooks the forested valley cradling the Anba River. I could stare at the breathtaking view forever. But movement in the sky makes me shield my eyes from the sun and squint until the object comes into focus.

A falcon tengu dives from the clouds toward the estate at a blinding speed, chittering a shrill warning as he homes in on Soujou-bou’s garden path. His massive wings spring out from a tucked position, extending with a whoosh, louder than a parachute opening.

Fallen leaves swirl as they’re tossed off the path. Then, tucking his wings back in, he lands at a run, not missing a beat. He bounds, with kimono sleeves flapping in his wake, into the master’s sitting room. The shoji doors are wide open to view the courtyard garden.

To fly like that. How many others have witnessed the tengu grace, not just their trickster side? Tearing my eyes away with a shake of my head and one last swing, I bury the axe in the woodblock and follow to see what the commotion’s about.

Inside, the tengu kneels as he reports to his master in a grating, scratchy voice. “My Lord, Ibaraki Douji leads an oni horde. They’ve reached the base of the mountain. She was screaming ‘Death to the kitsune.’ We estimate the horde to be four hundred strong.”

Shit. She followed the Date pair. I’ll help defend my master’s estate. Will even Soujou-bou, the old priest, have to fight?

“Light the flares! Sound the alarm!” Soujou-bou shouts.

The messenger strikes a gong that sends a thrum reverberating through the vicinity and spurring all around to action. So I move out of the way to keep from being trampled. With deafening pops, portals form in every direction.

Taking his swords from their perch, Soujou-bou shouts, “Kumagai, prepare my armor! Zumi, gather the troops!”

In a softer tone, he says to me, “This is the reason I don’t allow portals to be created just anywhere on my land. It allows my troops from across the country to arrive in an instant. Each province’s portal has an assigned location, so there’s no worry about overlap and losing soldiers to the void. Newcomers don’t know the open areas.”

Meanwhile, the sky fills with a cacophony of beating black and brown wings, caws, shrieks, and whistles from tengu that barrel down en masse. Did the intruders think taking Soujou-bou’s lands would be easy? Guess again!

Energy thrums through my veins as I force myself to be still and wait for orders.

Aunt Hisako skitters from the house to my side. “I heard the summons. What’s happening?”

“Invasion. You ok for ki?” My hand hovers over her fur, ready to share my life force.

But she holds up a paw. “Keep it. You’ll need what you have.”

“Kitsune-kind, go, now!” Soujou-bou barks at us.

Pressing my hands together before me in my bow, I volunteer. “Master, let me help defend your home.”

“Protect your aunt in her weakened state, at all costs. Ibaraki will focus on both clans of your family when she realizes how many kitsune are here. My people will buy you time,” Soujou-bou says, then directs his captains to hold the gate.

“Understood, sir!”

Grandma Miwa arrives. Her head whips around to Aunt Hisako. “What do you mean, weakened state? I saw you low on ki, but…”

Aunt Hisako won’t meet her gaze as we retreat inside, with Soujou-bou and his retainers hot on our heels. She gives the unvarnished truth. “Sari stole my hoshi no tama and broke it, leaving me magically crippled.”

Gasping, Grandma Miwa hangs her head as a tengu servant rushes in with Soujou-bou’s armor. In a glowing blur, the bird-man servant helps his master into the many pieces. Black and brown feathered soldiers open the house’s sliding doors and line up the troops outside.

While Soujou-bou puts his helmet on and casts a spell to tie the laces, he barks, “Umeji-kun, I suspend the restriction on you. Create a portal out of sight and get your family to safety. Keep your destination secret.”

“We don’t need your protection, yakuza.” Hoji sticks his nose in the air, then turns to the others. “Mother, let us leave.”

Instead, Grandma Miwa slaps the top of his head with a forepaw. “Baka.”

From outside, the chaos of thunder, the clashing of swords, and continual pops from new portals forming makes my muscles twitch.

“Kami-sama, protect us. They’re using an anti-magic battering ram.” Aunt Hisako’s voice turns tight and my mouth goes dry as a desert, just like it did those years ago in the surprise attack on the Hiragi clan yakuza headquarters.

Soujou-bou and his servants stride through the hall toward the outside. His barked “Now, boy!” enhances the purposeful presence he emanates.

We double time it to an interior room. “Create cover for us.” Thinking better of commanding my elders, I add, “Please,” as I gather my ki.

With their agreement, I whisper a word of kotodama and scribe a glowing blue circle in the air that sizzles with sparks. My aunt’s family den lies just beyond the hole and a shimmer around us grows as the fox pair provides the illusion of an empty room.

My aunt and great grandmother jump through. But when we hear my master’s war-cry, Hoji dashes off. Swearing, I close the portal despite the Nakamura clan’s protests and at a dead run, I draw my sword.

“Umeji, get the foxes out of here!” Soujou-bou’s voice booms from above as his massive wings beat and fling dirt and leaves.

“On it, Master!” Bailing off the veranda in a ki enhanced leap, I belt out a kiai to sail over Hoji and slash the oni running at him in half.

“I had him, yakuza!” Hoji howls and points to the host of ash piles around him as his sword hovers, shimmering in the air above his fox form. “To avenge my family!” He switches to a human guise and dashes toward the fray.

The stench permeating from the wave of red, green, and blue oni invaders rushing the gates fills the air with a sickly green haze that almost causes me to lose my breakfast. So, I improvise a spell to eliminate the nausea still roiling my stomach.

Hoji’s face, sharply planed and framed in glasses, is a grim mask. His jeans, Doc Martins, and blue wool pea coat will keep him warm while I shiver in just a button-up shirt.

Next, an oni archer takes aim at the idiot kitsune, so I incant a shield around us both.

“Back off or you become the enemy, too!” Hoji growls.

The archer’s movement blurs. Our defense falls when a second arrow hits the spell wall. Screaming as the arrow pierces his shoulder blade through to the other side, Hoji collapses.

I manage a stronger shield and drop to his side. Tengu warriors carrying axes and pikes flock to form a shield wall between us and the oni.

A deafening, scratchy voice calls out. “Don’t bother denying that the Date clan is sheltering here. Surrender the kitsune, and we will cease our fight!”

“Ibaraki, get your filthy oni off my land!” Soujou-bou’s voice rings clear above the din.

“One hundred pieces of gold for every kitsune head laid at my feet!” the leader volleys. Bass voiced cheers erupt and echo around us like a tsunami rushing in and crashing over everything in the way.

Can we get Hoji outta here?

He spits, “See what your inexperience in battle caused!”

So, I mutter, “The point is getting you to safety and healing. Your kind’s in danger, not mine.”

“They killed my father and sisters!” The stubborn idiot struggles to get up, but a rain of arrows glances off the barrier as he winces and tries to get up for another charge. “I didn’t ask for your help, whelp.”

Arrogant ass! Placing my sword under his chin, I say a word of kotodama to extinguish his human disguise so he’ll be lighter to carry.

Defiantly, he shoves aside the blade and scoops up his sword in his jaws. In response, I incant a field around him to keep the embedded arrow from hitting anything as I grab the scruff of his neck. His curses ring out as he tries to break free.

As if things couldn’t get worse, a shrill female’s shout makes me turn my head. “The Date family will pay! There’s one over there!” A green skinned, stringy-haired figure in a vibrant kimono raises a metal hand to point at Hoji and me, alerting the entire army as it pours through the gates. Fuckin’ peachy.

We make it inside the main house. My legs tremble, but I steady myself to scribe an arc in the air. Picturing the alley close to a city park that I used to visit, I create a portal, then stumble into the bustling cityscape before closing the gate behind us.

Panting and wincing with each breath, he growls through gritted teeth. “Couldn’t create a portal all the way to your clan’s den this time?”

You little shit. “Didn’t want them to follow us. We’re in Tokyo, a hell of a lot farther! Shut the fuck up so I can concentrate on getting us back.”

But my hand goes numb as I grab a fistful of his fur. What the? Energy is being sucked out fast. “I hope to the kami I have enough ki to do this again!”

Deflated, he coughs up blood, spattering the ground in a waste of life giving paint. “You didn’t do things the honorable way.” Every rise of his chest causes the muscles around the arrow to tighten, stretching the skin around the puncture.

Resting a moment allows my breathing to slow. “My master said to get you out of there.”

“Let me die here.”

“Not on my watch. There are so few of your kind. Your job is to find a mate and have lots of babies to re-establish the numbers of kitsune. Soujou-sama wouldn’t have said to get you out of there otherwise.” Despite the bravado, my legs threaten to give out. “Ki’s draining too fast.”

He shoves his phone toward me with his canine nose, as he says, “Use the energy from this to create a portal.”

“What?”

“Fine, give me energy to do it. Just hold it up for facial recognition.”

When I comply, he hits a speed dial setting, creating a yellow portal. But it twitches and freezes like a program glitch. I drag us through to a tatami mat room with a sunken hearth, a den I know well.

Hoji shudders as blood oozes from his mouth. Easing him to his good side, I back off as the Nakamura clan crowds in with Grandma Miwa.

“That portal didn’t seem stable,” I croak.

“It wasn’t. We didn’t have a choice,” Hoji whispers between coughs. “I never thought I’d step foot in this den. Our clans were enemies from before I was born.”

Next, Great Uncle Nobu uses a spell to create a glowing knife and slices away the blood-soaked fur to investigate the wound as Hoji’s breaths turn shallow. Behind me, a squeak precedes quick barefoot slaps on the floor. Suzuki Soujirou—Jiro as he’s called now—asks, “The fox isn’t d-dead, is he?”

“His ki pulse is erratic. All the ki I pour into him dissipates.” Great Uncle Nobu’s voice waivers. Suddenly, he shouts, “Stay with us, Date Hoji. Look at me!”

Poor Jiro collapses and crab-crawl skitters backward. “D-d-date?!”

Hoji’s eyes fly open and flick to Great Uncle Nobu’s, but don’t stay there.

When I squeeze Jiro’s shoulder, I whisper, “Not the one who hurt you.” Anything else I can do?

Nakamura Asako, Aunt Hisako’s mother, fetches paper, brush and ink with lightning speed. Her writing sloshes ink onto the tatami mat floor. The black stain and that of Hoji’s blood will never come out.

She asks, “Tatsuya-kun, how long has he had the arrow in him?”

“Less than 10 minutes?”

Then she drapes an ofuda charm on Hoji’s neck, as close as she can get to the wound. “This should help stabilize him.”

But the paper only sizzles out of existence.

Grandma Miwa howls, “Not you, too, Hoji!”

“Miwa-san, tell us what’s happening,” Great Uncle Nobu says.

“It’s…” She heaves in a breath, “…like a bomb. The kind that killed both Sari and my husband. I don’t know if there’s enough time to dismantle it.”

Su-chan kneels beside us, laying her hands on Hoji’s shoulder. “I’ll buy him time.” She snaps, “What are you all waiting for? My ki pool will last maybe five minutes!”

Then the gentle scent of Su-chan’s cherry blossom perfume hits, reminding me of how she kept me sane during the craziness in Nonogawa. Why did my first time seeing her in days have to be one I can’t just scoop her up in my arms? Damn you, Hoji.

Grandma Miwa says, “Don’t give him too much. Let it dribble in. You’ll last longer and the bomb won’t reach capacity as quickly. It’s about 80 percent full.” Her hands shake as she grips the arrow and mutters words too fast to understand.

Meanwhile, Hoji struggles to breathe, and each jolt sends a fresh wave of agony through him. Grandma Miwa rasps, “Almost there.”

“His ki pulse is erratic! We’ve got to remove it now!” Great Uncle Nobu hisses.

So, Grandma Miwa utters a word to slice off the end of the arrow and slumps. “It’s disarmed.”

Did it steal her ki, too?

Great Uncle Nobu sheds his button-up shirt, wads it up and stuffs it into Hoji’s mouth. This is gonna be bad. I can’t tear myself away from the grizzly scene, but I pull Jiro into my side and cover his eyes.

“Asako. Miwa-san. You hold Hoji still while I pull it through because we can’t remove it via magic. The directional burrs mean it has to come through the front,” Great Uncle Nobu says, and everyone’s hands press and clamp down on Hoji to hold him on his side. “Ohno-chan, keep feeding him ki, even if his pulse stops. Do you understand?”

Su-chan gives a definitive nod.

“Ready?” my uncle asks.

Uncle Nobu shoves Hoji with one hand while he yanks with the other. The arrow jerks through halfway, with its burrs dragging through already angry flesh before it stops in what must be Hoji’s lung. Hoji cries out and bites through several layers of the shirt.

Nobu soothes, “Sorry. Once more and we’ll have it.”

The second yank makes the young fox jerk and Great Aunt Asako puts an ofuda over both sides and affixes it with first aid tape. Hoji shivers, whimpering.

Next, Great Aunt Asako steps into her matriarch role like a battle field general ordering troops. “Energy isn’t draining from him anymore, but he isn’t out of danger yet. Jiro, fetch a futon and blankets for Hoji. Hisako, warm stones in the hearth.”

Aunt Hisako scrambles to fetch rocks from the garden.

Without pause, Great Aunt Asako continues the string of commands. “Tatsuya, please fetch the kappa healer at the base of the mountain. Suzu, help my other daughters prep the bedrooms for our guests and be sure to prime the pump.” Her directions continue to everyone in the house.

The kappa isn’t at the pond. Waiting in the cold for an hour puts me in a sour mood, but he says he’ll be by after gathering supplies. Thankfully, my great aunt has warm food ready to feed us all.

Afterward, I check on Hoji and lift the corner of the talisman covering his wound. His eyes open, so I ask. “Can I get you anything? Water? Pain meds?”

“If I close my eyes, will someone else be there instead?” he asks. Trying it doesn’t work. “Food. Pain meds. Strong ones if they’ll let me have them.” He takes a shaking breath. “I was an ass.”

Sure was. But his family’s murderers were at the gate. I’d have been in a rage, too. So, I shrug it off.

Grandma Miwa pads over. “Son, how do you feel?”

“Like shit.”

She chuckles as she pats his shoulder. “That’s to be expected. Count yourself lucky to have survived a ki well destructor. Hisako-san says all yokai courts banned them.”

“Can I get a bath?”

“After we get some food in you, a cool bath would be good.”

“A hot one?”

“Not yet. That open wound has to finish healing. We focused on your ki well and lung first. Nobu-san didn’t feel we could do more without shocking your system. Hopefully, the kappa will arrive soon for a professional opinion. After the wound closes, a hot bath should do wonders to help you recover mobility in that arm.”

Great Uncle Nobu peeks in. Since Hoji is awake, Nobu changes the bandages and helps Hoji to the sunken hearth. Because of the chill in the room, I drop a blanket from the futon over the fox’s shoulders. Warm rays pour through the skylight above and Hoji’s head tilts back to take it in as he whispers, “I shouldn’t have lived to see the sun again.”

Zipping off to the kitchen, I return with a bowl of miso soup, a cup of tea, and a funky black paste that makes me wonder what dead thing got dragged through it. I say, “Eat this. If you finish it, your mother says you can have something heavier. The salve is the strongest pain killer they’ll let you have until the kappa arrives. Lay down and let me apply it.”

“Can it wait until after I eat? That stuff…” Hoji’s nose wrinkles.

“Uh, sure.”

Grandma Miwa chuckles as she pads in. “You’re feeling better.”

A few sips of the hot tea perk Hoji up. The miso soup is simple, just a fish and soybean paste broth with diced tofu, seaweed strips, and scallions. But as soon as his tongue touches the salty umami, he wolfs it down as if he’d not eaten for a week.

“Ready for more?” Grandma Miwa asks.

“Please.”

“Tatsuya-kun, if you would be so kind. I’ll administer the pain killer while you fetch the rest of lunch for Hoji.”

Along the way, questions assault me. How many times will Date Sari’s sins haunt us? What if the League can’t stop Ibaraki before she wipes out the kitsune? What if…

‘The what ifs do you no good’ Aunt Hisako likes to say. Deal with the problem at hand.

A tray of various foods known for their health benefits sits on the counter as Aunt Hisako dries her hands after washing the dishes and asks, “What’s on your mind, Tatsuya?”

“The ki bombs are how Ibaraki is taking out entire kitsune families, right? So, how do we stop them?”

For a moment, her mouth twists to the side. “Magic itself may not be sufficient. One of those arrows can suck spells dry, allowing for another to penetrate a defense.”

“How hard do you think they are to manufacture?”

“I’ll have to consult the archives to be sure. They’d be costly to make—as in, more ki than the average yokai has. But the real question is, how are they made?”

A few hours later, the blare of multiple, high-pitched, tea kettle whistles makes us all jump. Great Aunt Asako murmurs a vision spell and, in a hollow voice, says, “Intruders at the edge of the property. Hisako, gather everyone. Tell them to bring only what they can grab in five seconds.”

Su-chan scampers off to fetch Chou, her semi-sapient pet slime, and her bag of potions. I snag my sword and the book of myths from my dad and throw on my shoes and coat.

Before everyone gathers, another whistle blasts our ears. Great Aunt Asako shudders. “They’ve found the den.”

They traced us?

Great Uncle Nobu and Great Aunt Asako shove ki into today’s healing spell to patch Hoji up as best they can, then they scramble for their weapons. I tuck my sword and Hoji’s into my belt.

Hoji says sadly, “Too bad I can’t grab the research notes.”

Just then, Grandma Miwa scurries in. “I have them.”

When everyone is in the room, Aunt Hisako’s brows furrow in concentration. “Everyone but Tatsuya, create a portal to a place as far as you can. We have to redirect the intruders.”

Great Uncle Nobu, in human form, tucks Hoji under one arm and grasps a polearm in another.

“Suzu-chan, please lend me ki. Your pool is the greatest of us all.” Aunt Hisako says as she holds out her palm. So Su-chan claps her hand into the outstretched one. “Thank you.” My aunt slaps a portal talisman in the air, and she scribes a long series of circles around it. A flick at the talisman makes the portal duplicate, expanding out like a magician’s card trick.

Woah.

“Miwa-san, please be the battery for Tatsuya and his on-the-fly training.”

My great grandmother nods and sends a rush of sunshine warmth into me.

“The enemy’s been tracking our every move and tracing our portals. That’s a tremendous skill not even I can manage. To counter, we’ll wipe out the trackers,” Aunt Hisako says.

When she finishes the spell, she collapses. A corridor made up of over twenty portals opens to a river, then an alley, and finally a cabin. “Suzu-chan, carry me. I don’t have the energy. Mother, Father, please provide cover for us. Jiro-kun, as soon as all of us are through the fifth portal, you will close them behind us. But only that one and those after it. Tatsuya and I will monitor the others so we can catch as many of the intruders in the in-between as we can. Do you understand?”

Jiro’s mother, Chiyo, grimaces at the thought of her middle school-aged son having to help in the group’s escape. While I agree with her, I know he can do this.

So Jiro nods. “Fifth portal.”

“Enemy at the front door,” Great Aunt Asako says with a quaver in her voice when there’s another whistle.

Deftly, Su-chan scoops up Aunt Hisako and adjusts the strap of her potions duffle. Chou clings to the bag but holds out grabby hands toward me.

Before I can respond to the pet slime, Aunt Hisako says, “Tatsuya, I’ll create a mental link with you so you can see how the spells work. You and I will be last through.” She heaves in a breath. “Everyone, go with my parents into the portals they enter. Now!”

So Great Aunt Asako and Great Uncle Nobu race through the portal line toward a shrine. Everyone follows, hot on their heels. Behind us, crashes and wood splintering precede the shouting, thuds, and slaps of heavy bare feet on the floors of the genkan entry.

My heart sinks at the violation of the Nakamura clan den. It felt like home.

“Shield, Mother!” Aunt Hisako barks.

“T-two, three, f-four...” Jiro waits for Su-chan and me to pass before closing the fifth portal.

It doesn’t stop after that; our group moves as one.

“Father, open a new portal corridor!” Aunt Hisako shouts as the eighth closes. “Tatsuya, can you feel the dozen piling through the first portals? Let the next one go fuzzy around the edges, then release it just as they step through. If we’re lucky, we’ll catch them in the void between. And I doubt the regular oni troops can manage the magic.”

“We’ve doomed them.” I shudder but obey and head for the tenth portal. Then my footsteps falter and Grandma Miwa shifts to human form so she can put an arm around my waist.

“Better them than us,” Aunt Hisako growls.

Pressure grows around us so heavy in my head it’s hard to think.

“Protect your ears!” Aunt Hisako shouts and whispers a spell as she leads us through another set of openings.

Just then, a sonic boom tears through the closed portal behind us. The blast whooshes past and we close three more gates on the pursuers.

“Father! Another portal corridor. Now! I’ll choose our final destination!”

I can still hear her? How? I didn’t have the ki to enact the spell to shield my ears.

When Jiro tugs at my arm, blood runs down the sides of his face and nose. Aw shit, he protected me.

“Tatsuya, can you sense the power building behind us again?” Aunt Hisako asks.

“It’s weaker this time.”

“You’re going to disperse it before they can use it. You don’t have a seal for full access to League powers, but your connection as a student should be enough. Mother, give us your strongest shield. The rest of you run like hell to the last gate!”

“Come on!” Jiro tugs at his mom’s hand. She has a tear-stained face and furrowed brows—does it mean she’s had to flee like this before?

So Grandma Miwa and I settle into fighting stances, though I’m a little unsteady. She slaps my leg with another ki infusion. With Aunt Hisako tucked under one arm, Su-chan joins us.

Through the mental link, Aunt Hisako says, ‘Imagine the power on the other side of the previous portals as a ball that keeps growing smaller. Focus on this and imagine it exploding like a supernova.’

I draw ki from my well and press my hands together, picturing everything on the other side of the portal compressing into the center of that glowing ball of power, and I hold the image of an atomic blast.

Heat fills my ki well, scorching my insides. But I keep pushing down on that power. The magic scrabbles for a handhold, screaming to be released.

When I sway, Grandma Miwa puts an arm around my waist again and more bonfire-like ki flows in. Aunt Hisako and I press harder until the magic squeezes into a centimeter-sized cube.

“Now!” Aunt Hisako screams.

The release knocks the four of us back several meters. Blinding light sears my retinas. The shock wave ripples past the barrier, flinging us toward the last portal. But Grandma Miwa’s shield keeps me from being buffeted around.

Another flutter of doors appears, and a mirror-like shift bends everything in a wavy mirage. Tugging us through the door, Aunt Hisako allows the illusion to engulf everything behind us with a flash as we tumble through the last portal.

Aunt Hisako rasps, “Summer home, Father. I’ll erase any trace of our portal there.”

When Aunt Hisako, Grandma Miwa, Su-chan and I step through to solid ground at last, we collapse in the snow, spent. The refreshing cold seeps through my coat and pants.

I gasp in the country air. That was some crazy magic back there. I’ll be learning that? Fuckin’ cool.

Shoving herself to her four feet, Aunt Hisako wobbles and whispers something I don’t understand. She whips her tails, and the air glows where the portal had been. “Shield your eyes!” she shouts.

White-hot flames engulf the area, and I put my hand over my face before the air crackles and the scent of ozone permeates the area.

“How did you do that?” Hoji’s eyes are wide as he lays in the snow beside me. “It shouldn’t be possible.”

Su-chan picks up Aunt Hisako, who collapsed. Meanwhile, Great Uncle Nobu and Great Aunt Asako scurry to place wards around the property.

I ask, “Aunt, could that blast have killed whoever was dogging us?”

“Possible, but not likely. They were more powerful than most yokai I’ve encountered. It would have killed a lesser oni. Any who survived won’t be happy with us.”

Gently, Su-chan squeezes my hand. “That was insane.”

“Bat-shit crazy. I can’t believe we survived.” My hand wipes over my face.

All of a sudden, Aunt Hisako laughs. “I haven’t had to use that kind of spell in decades. Japan’s been relatively peaceful. Speaking of…Miwa-san. Suzu-chan. Thank you for lending ki to Tatsuya and me. We couldn’t have pulled that off without your help. I’m watching you closely, Su-chan. Your talent is incredible.”

My girlfriend just shuffles her feet.

After a moment, my aunt sighs. “I don’t want to waste energy for a seal. So, know that what you just saw is not to be spoken of. Ever.”

Hoji’s eyes go wide. “That means you’re a G…”

In a flash, her tail flies up to his mouth. “I meant no speaking of what you think that means. At all! How else do you think I got my nine-tails when I’m only a few centuries old?”

Unable to pick his mouth up off the floor, Hoji gapes before shaking his head to clear it. “That means you have the experience of one who lived over a thousand years!”

Grandma Miwa whispers, “And the wisdom to match.”

Next, I offer my great grandmother and Su-chan a hand up before carrying the still awed Hoji inside. Have we done everything we can to keep everyone, especially the kitsune, safe?