Chapter 8

For a moment I just stood there, my palm over my face while my two golden tails swished against the back of my head to punish me for wanting to swear. Finally I gathered up the scraps of my shattered composure and asked, "What about the rest of his clothing? Anything strange?" Strange boots could be passed off. Accent too. But I could feel that double edge of my luck just waiting to cut the other way.

Brisid, in that weird dull faced way of hers replied with, "Well, what was left of his clothes was a kind of a weird splotchy green. Like taking a bunch of vegetables and some kelp and tossing it into a pot. Do your tails always do that?"

I suffered through another round of tail boffing, then replied with a, "I could tell you, but you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me." She dared.

The challenge managed to snap me back to my usual self, probably on reflex since it was a fellow warrior doing it. So, tails returning to their gentle swishing vigil behind me I replied with, "He's from another world, and the thing that killed all your monsters didn't actually kill them, but sent them to the world he came from. That man's friends either killed those monsters on the other side, or those monsters decided it was much nicer there, than here, and stayed."

There was a long pause where she just looked at me blankly, then, "So, that thing we found in the jungle is the cause, and it has to go?"

Since I was now resigned do just admitting the Gate had come here, I didn't think about swearing, "Big building, looks kind of like our front porch?" I hooked a thumb towards the Manor and its Greek/roman front vestibule.

"Huh, now that I look. Yeah." She made the first motion with her hands since starting the conversation, and scratched her chin, "How do you know so much?"

"I'm a Kitsune. I'm supposed to be mysterious and wise and stuff." I sighed, "Look... I can't invite you in, since you'd probably scare everyone. But it looks like your first problem is going to be that building in your jungle. No point in bringing monsters there if it's just going to eat them again."

"And you know how to do that?"

"Nope. But if nothing else, we can take a look and try a few things."

We stood there in awkward silence for a moment, then she shrugged and turned to leave, "I'll round up my girls. We're waiting on word from the Ganesha Familia, so... I dunno... whatever..." And she left, sounding like it had just become too complicated to bother with, yet needed to be dealt with.

I started walking back to the Manor, thoughts swirling in my head and trying to organize themselves into some kind of plan, when Gros asked, "Rough day?"

"And it's not even lunch time." I groaned.

"Interesting. Isn't it usually the other way around?" Takemikazuchi was the first person I saw as I entered the Manor. I had one arm over Spot's huge shoulders, and the other over Fen-chan's, and was doing my best to draw some kind of comfort from them. "Something amiss?"

"That Amazon we dealt with? She just described the Gate. It's in the middle of their wildlands." I replied, getting one last ear scroofle in on Spot, then Fen-chan, before pushing them away so they could ...do what ever they wanted. They didn't actually leave though, and just sat down on either side of me like a pair of mismatched Shrine statues, or therapy doggo/foxxos.

Takemikazuchi took advantage of Spot's infinitely scrooflable ears, "Are you certain?"

"She recognized Maki's boots and accent, and described the JSDF's camouflage pattern." I replied, making sure Fen-chan didn't feel left out by scrubbing a hand over his chest, "And the Gate itself, though that sounded like a second hand report than actual witness."

"Very troubling." Takemikazuchi replied, "How will you proceed?" He was never the one to really give advise first, but rather after a plan was in progress.

"Get everyone together and let them know." I replied, "Suppose we'll have to wait for lunch break, since it's still a school day."

Since the Manor didn't have some kind of intercom system (hmm, not a bad idea... no no later!), Takemikazuchi and I had to basically tell everyone we saw, to tell everyone THEY saw, to come to the living room. But, we managed to get everyone informed before lunch break in our school, and into the living room with time to spare.

While I waited, I sat on the couch and just... hugged all my tails. At some point Loaner showed up and curled up next to me, and a moment or two before people started to arrive Sir Skitters had gotten onto the couch to find his usual spot on my shoulder.

This was going to be 'one of those things' that just... got in the way of all the things I wanted to do. To be fair, most of those things were doing fine without me stepping in. Like the railway and road projects. Or the far off merchants who were going to be bringing in lots of new spices and goods that only their lands could grow properly.

But, thanks to my most faithful messenger, and the best spider I never knew I needed, I'd regained my composure just before people started shuffling in. Haruhime might have been the only one who noticed my distress, but if she did she made no mention. She did however pick up Loaner and set him on her lap.

The entire Manor, minus the Amazons, the Ganesha teachers we had 'on staff', and the children (who were being 'supervised' by Fen-chan and Spot) were here and seated now, so I started speaking.

"The Gate is here."

Silence.

"Wait... here? As in-" Welf pointed to his feet, "Here here?"

"Well, no, it's over there," I waved in the direction I thought Telskyura was in, "In Telskyura. One of the JSDF is there too."

"Ohhhh that would explain why the monsters went missing." Delly said.

"Can you trust who told you?" Ryuu asked.

I went over the conversation I had with Brisid and ended with, "Right down to the camouflage they wear."

"Wait... so these are people from your world?" Kaede asked, "And they're here now?"

"But if they opened the Gate in the middle of a nest of monsters..." Bell looked worried... worried about people he had never met...

"Weine?" I motioned with my chin at Bell, and she went to ruffle his hair. "I have no doubt they would survive that kind of thing. I have no idea how well, just that they could."

"They closed the Gate from that Special Region to your home, right? Think they would do it again?" Aisha asked.

Instead of answering I looked to Maki, since she was more of a military otaku than I was. "Sure. We wouldn't leave an enemy at our back any more than they would. If they could close it again, they would."

"This complicates things, does it not?" Mikoto asked, "If this Gate let the monsters out of the deep wilds, there would be no point in bringing more monsters there, just to have them leave again."

"But how can we even deal with it?" Welf asked, "I mean, didn't that Akeno lady say some God or other made the Gate?"

The three Gods in the room looked at each other with varying levels of nervousness. "I believe you should speak with Ouranos." Takemikazuchi said after a moment, "If he is not aware of the problem already, he should be informed."

That made most of us mortal types look a little nervous, except of course the 'new' ones in the room, Maki, Delly and I. Then again, the Children of this world weren't used to the Gods stepping in directly. Where we were from, the Gods stepped in when they pleased, and it was either by asking really nice, or pissing them off really bad, that got them involved at all.

"Hey..." Delly looked at me, "You should tell Akeno too. Maybe they can help?"

I nodded, "The first step however, is 'are we going to get involved'?" I already knew that everyone would say 'yes', but I just needed to hear it just so I wouldn't feel as bad if things went sideways later. And as expected, everyone nodded.

"We might not be able to fix it, but the Amazons need help at the very least." Bell said.

"What about the Gate?" Maki asked, "The JSDF were thinking of destroying it, but... can it be destroyed?"

"What about that... thing that was happening?" Hestia asked, "That 'nothingness'."

"If the Gate is closed, then it shouldn't be a problem..." I said, unsure, "At least, I hope not..." I made a note to myself to look at my beginner level star charts I'd been making. "But yes... we need to do something about that Gate first... And since it hasn't vanished on its own..." Yeah, I was in over my head...

" Mr Fels might have an idea or two?" Bell offered.

"A few people from Kuoh might know a thing or two, or if nothing else, be able to guess." Maki added.

"Suppose we start packing for a trip then?" Ouka chuckled, holding up his hands in mock surrender when people looked at him, "Well, not -me-... I have no interest in becoming an Amazon's plaything. But I mean... if we want to help them, we can't do it sitting here, right?"

Chigusa had latched on to Ouka's arm possessively at the comment, but we all agreed. "Well Ko-san, you did say you wanted to travel." Haruhime patted my arm while I sighed theatrically, "There there, maybe you can build a connection to them as well?"

"Ehh I'm not sure that would work." Aisha, for the first time I could remember, sounded unsure, "If it were possible, it would have happened already."

"Impossible is just something that no one has really had to accomplish before." Delly giggled, "Right?"

After sending a quick message to Ganesha Familia(and a small care package of mint tea for Ganesha Himself for what was probably going to be yet another long stint of sleepless nights), to 'make ready but hold off' going to capture monsters, we finished the rest of the afternoon classes in our school, sent the kids home, and did a little organizing for what might be a long trip.

Being the kind of mildly OCD person I was when it came to being ready for anything, I already had a list of things we might need to put together for a long trip. That left me with a little free time to spend with Haruhime and our children, before I worked up the nerve to start calling people 'on the other side'.

First on the list was Akeno.

We'd been keeping in touch reasonably regularly, and things between us had settled into a comfortable 'best friend from overseas' kind of relationship. Oddly, but not unwelcome, Akeno had become almost everyone's 'best friend from overseas'. She was just that kind of person, even here in the Manor.

"Akeno?" I spoke towards her Tarot. A Ko-steel card about as tall as a DVD case and 2/3 as wide, with a picture of a very pretty lady on it. Dressed in a Miko outfit, she was doing a little twirl in place as if to show off just how good it looked when you didn't wear underwear under it.

After a moment, the surface of the card started to cool down, and the picture started to come to life. Akeno, still a pretty lady but dressed in a women's 'power suit' (think... high class businesswoman who was about to enter a board room meeting), was looking down towards the Tarot on her side. Behind her I could see what looked like a bathroom stall door. It was a super fancy door though, meaning she was probably in the underworld, and not in the 'mortal realm'.

"Ko-san!" She greeted me happily, "This isn't the usual time... or the best time, to be honest." She started to pout at me a little, but just a little.

"We can catch up later then. But this is super important. We've had contact here with the Gate." I said.

"The Gate is there? In Orario? Is..."

"Not here, but in this world. Have it on reasonable authority that a JSDF soldier crossed over this way, while a heap of monsters crossed over that way. Regardless... It's basically wrecked a thousand years of ecosystem, and it's either got to move, or get gone."

"Oh dear..." She replied, "I'm guessing you want to talk to someone who might know more? The only one we know..."

"Yes, if you could maybe mention this to Lord Ajuka? If nothing else, make sure he hasn't starved to death someplace in his lab?"

She giggled, "Yes, I will ask Queen Rias-"

"Queen?"

"Yes, just recently her parents have stepped back, not down mind you, from running the Gremory estates. They wanted to give her and King Issei a little bit of a trial run of being truly in charge of things. If it goes well, then Lord and Lady Gremory will retire someplace. If not, then they will be very disappointed and step up to take over again."

"Trial by fire then. Good. Keep the two of them from getting lazy." I grinned, "Thank you Akeno, I'll keep the Occulus in my pocket or something just in case you do manage to get word to Lord Ajuka."

"Should I call you regardless tonight?"

"Please. The children miss you. They can even say your name properly now."

Super formal suit or not, Akeno still had a Squee moment at the thought of seeing my children. Just a little one though. "Tonight then."

"Good luck."

And I saw her hand move to cover her side of the Tarot, just as my own moved to do the same. Just as my fingers were wrapping around the Tarot to put it away, I felt the smallest of taps on my foot and a little voice in my head.

"I have a message from Shakti, who has found a way to somehow improve her headpats even after being so close to perfect with them."

Loaner was sitting at attention at my feet, and as my eyes settled on him his tail did a little happy flail. This of course prompted me to pick him up and set him down on the desk in front of me. "Go on?"

He took a moment to sit properly again then tap my hand with his paw, and Shakti's voice spoke between my ears, "We will stand by then, and simply make ready for the expidition. Please support us however you are able, and we can hopefully restore some of what our most powerful allies have lost."

I nodded, figuring that this message needed no reply at this time. So, in my usual fashion, I moved my hand up to start giving Loaner his well deserved payment of ear scroofles. He instead moved his head out of the way and poked my hand with his cold nose, "One more."

"Pardon." I said seriously.

He gave me another paw tap, and this time it was Ganesha's 'serious voice' that spoke, "Helping the Amazon will put them in debt to us. This may help your own cause as well, and that of the ones under your care. Thank you for the tea."

I hmm'ed for a moment, then, "You didn't announce him like you usually do?"

This time he didn't shy away from my hand, "His headpats are not worth mentioning." I had to follow his head down as he slumped forward, my thumb and index fingers working on both his ears at once, "You however, Kodori-sama, have a marvellous technique."

"It's not like I can give you money really. So I'm paying you in what I hope is equivalent worth." Even if Loaner was old enough to have known the original Guan Yu, who if you follow history at all, died a little less than two thousand years ago, he was such a down to earth Fox. "You know. I wonder what kind of metal your fur would make."

He tried to open one of his eyes to look at me, but I'd reduced him to a happy puddle on the desk, "If that was an offer to brush me, I would gladly submit to your attentions."

"You're just an attention suck."

"I am. Shamelessly so."

"Well, since you are such an honest messenger, I think I will call for Haruhime to do the honours of attending your coat."

"I suddenly think you have another motive for spoiling me."

"Probably. Consider it repayment for sending you on such a long trip last time. Might have a lot of secret messages to run soon, and well, you're still my best messenger, even with all these little crystal bits all over the place." I looked out of the laboratory door, and simply thought of Haruhime.

"Inari-sama was right. You did need someone like me, even with all your fancy electronics and magic."

"If I ever go back there, I will have to tell her so in person." I smiled, feeling the soul of my wife getting closer to me, her steps on the floor of the Manor's marble floors feeling like tiny feet over my back.

A moment later, she arrived, looking puzzled but still smiling. "Oh, I thought so... Loaner-san as well?"

"My love, Loaner has worked well, and I think he deserves to be brushed. Since I still have to make some calls, if I could ask you to brush him?" I gave Loaner one last pat down his back, then moved aside so Haruhime could collect him, "Save his fur. I haven't actually tried to mix it with metal like everyone elses, so..."

"Did you reach No-chan?" She asked, leaning down to touch her lips to my forehead.

"I did, but it was strictly business. She will call later tonight though, so we can catch up." I replied, "Thank you, both of you."

Haruhime smiled, while Loaner managed to wiggle his tail, and they left the room. Once they were gone, I uncovered one of the original Occulus we owned, connected to the one who made them in the first place, Fels.

He was, by far, the oldest 'mortal' in the world. To be fair, he had 'discarded' his mortality, but in the process he became what most people would call a Lich. An Undead Wizard. He said that he had made the Philosopher's stone in an attempt to achieve immortality, but it was only half successful. He was 'alive', still 'aware' but he lived now as a skeleton.

That didn't stop him from being the best enchanter in the world, and the most scientific mind... Until I showed up at least. He was still an incredible enchanter, but when it came to actual science... well, he didn't have a high school education. Still, he was a brilliant mind and could still think circles around me when it came to magical theory. So much so that he had kept up with Ajuka, one of the oldest Devils left after the great three way war, and the foremost mind in magical pursuit on Earth. At least... when you gave him a cup of coffee. He was... less useful without his coffee.

"Fels?" I called into the Occulus, "Are you there?"

Needing neither food or sleep, Fels was almost always researching things in his underground lab. A lab, I might note, that made mine look like a shoe closet.

The Occulus lit up with a pale blue light, and a hooded face slid into view. "Lady Kodori." He replied, his voice like sand over tile, "Another project? Astrology? Alchemy? Spacial? Or more mundane like your flying ship?"

I considered how to start the topic, but defaulted to, "The Gate is here." I quickly added, "It's appeared near Telskyura, in their wildlands."

Being as magically inclined as he was, I had kept him up to date with that entire situation with the Gate. He shared my view on it too, 'fascinating, but not our problem'. Though, in my case I was happy it wasn't, and he wished it was.

"I see... You are certain?"

"As I can be with an Amazon's second hand report, and a lot of their oldest monsters vanishing. She even described one of the soldiers too." I replied, "Right down to the farmer's accent and camouflage pattern on his clothing."

He paused and considered my words, a leather glove that had been stitched and inscribed with dense runes and glyphs appeared to rub at his shadow obscured chin, "Have you checked your star charts?"

"I will tonight, when it's dark enough. If it's been open for any length of time, we'll know. I mean, unless my charts were badly done... If so, I'll see if I can buy Njord a drink and get a copy at one of his." I glanced back at my telescope, and the simple mirror box that let me project what the telescope saw onto a white page. "Any serious deviations..."

"Yes. It would be devastating for that 'nothingness' to appear here. If something like that touched Orario, or worse, the Tower..." Fels shook his head, "What are your thoughts?"

"If we are to fix the problem in the Amazon wildlands, we need to remove, or move, the Gate. If I had to guess why it's here at all, aside from that one God's sick joke, is that we are 'closer' to them than my old home."

"You mentioned the theory from your friend, and the information she attained." He nodded, "That would mean we are 'tangled' with that world, because of their connection to your old home. Hmm, how would we untangle ourselves then..."

"The only things I can think of are 'destroying' the Gate here, and hoping that untangles us. But if that doesn't work, then if we can 'move' the Gate, we can at least get it out of the wildlands and wait for it to go away on its own."

"And so long as it remains shut, there is no danger of the Nothingness from appearing?"

"So it seems. All the reports say so at least."

"I will try and work on something. How soon are you leaving?" He asked.

"You already know I'm going?"

"You've always run towards the danger in the past. Empirical evidence says you will this time as well." He laughed.

"Can't argue there." I sighed, "Well, I'm pulling in as much information as I can first. If I can, I will put you an Ajuka Sensei in contact, and maybe you two can do what you did with me, except instead of connecting worlds, you can disconnect them." I froze as I thought of 'option C', and had one of my tails boff the back of my head, "Damnit..."

"Another problem?"

"No. The other option is to cross over to the other side, into the Special Region, and ask the God responsible to get off our lawn." My forehead thumped to the desk, "Damn..."

"Sounding hopeless already? Quite unlike you." He laughed.

"It's not that." I groaned, "The Gods there are... irresponsible. They do things on a whim and don't seem to care, so long as it's amusing." I held my head in my hands, "Like waking up an ancient dragon, and not caring that you just wiped out several villages and maybe a third of an entire race while doing it. Because it was 'fun'."

"The red dragon incident then... Yes, that does seem... problematic."

"And the Gods there are spiritual beings, so I can't just... pull their arms off. And that race that was nearly wiped out? They were believers in the God who woke up the dragon." I sighed.

"Fascinating. A completely different set of ethics than our Gods here..."

"Focus."

"Apologies."

"I'll keep you informed. Maybe you can visit or something? The children love your stories.

"I just might. Your children are just as entertaining to be around to me, as I am to them." He moved a hand "If there is nothing else, Lady Kodori?"

"For the moment, I think so." I smiled, "Thank you Fels."

With nothing to do but wait for people to 'return my call', I spent a bit of time with the children. It was mostly just to recharge a little, to gather up some giggles (a measure of happiness around the Manor). Since we had put the Ganesha capture mission on hold for the moment, a majority of the Manor had gone off to either hunt supplies for an upcoming trip to Telskyura, or do some odd jobs. This meant that I could return to the workshop...

And like I'd never left, Welf was still there, hammering away. And in his usual 'serious smith' fashion, he gave me a single look, then went back to focusing on his work. It looked like he was working on a sword of some kind, possibly a replacement for Kaede by the look of it. Hitting level two would mean the need for a tougher blade.

So, I put the metal plate I had left on my anvil back in my furnace (yes, the new manor workshop had a second furnace so we didn't have to share, or do two projects at once!), and instead of turning the magic stone furnace on, I summoned up my Foxfire and filled the enclosed space with a gold laced purple fire. Our 'hot' furnace, made for melting metals, got the same treatment, and I put a bit of iron and a reasonable tuft of golden fur in. Time to make proper masks for everyone.

That evening, we (the Alliance, not the Guests) all got into the living room. Delly, with her ability to use illusion magic, and a little simple science, had gotten our 'cross dimensional' Occulus set up to project like a TV. This basically allowed us all to fit 'on screen' for whomever was on the other end, and in return, see everyone over there at 'life size' instead of looking through an eyeball sized bit of glass.

On the other side of the screen, a literal world away, were Rias, Issei, Akeno, Gasper, and to my relief, Ajuka. And just as we were all getting settled in, Azazel walked into frame, plunking his well dressed rear onto the couch next to Gasper.

I was a little sad that Rias and Issei's child wasn't there, but it was rather late.

"Are we all here then?" I asked, "Say hello?"

Six little voices paused trying to grab the people in the picture, and said "Hello!" A moment later the seventh added, "Akeno!"

This devolved into a bunch of waving, giggles, more shouts of "Akeno!" and amused smiles. Finally Haruhime had to very quietly "Ahem." And there was a sudden roundup of little children being put on laps and given a hug to keep them amused and quiet. For the moment at least.

Everyone on the other end of the call was smiling, or in Issei's case laughing outright, "Wow Sensei. Even at that age their so well behaved."

"Listening gets cookies!" Chie said, "Oh, sorry..."

"Quite the bunch you have there Sensei." Azazel smirked, "And you said they're all like you?"

Hestia answered for me, "If you mean our Children, and Adventurers, yes. But they are all one of a kind."

"Our strengths vary, but we're all strong enough to survive the dungeon. Within reason at least." I said, "We can talk about that another day though. Has Akeno told you, Ajuka Sensei?"

"Yes." He said shortly, "Have you discovered anything else?"

"Not yet. And aside from a very strong bit of evidence, I'm hoping this is just a false alarm and we can go back to it being someone else's problem." I replied.

There was a pause, and everyone started laughing. Except Ajuka and I at least.

"Sensei, you know you've just jinxed it even worse." Rias said.

That got another round of chuckles from all those who knew my 'backhanded' luck. "Yeah, it's going to be a problem. But now we need to deal with it. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone who knows how to deal with something like this."

"Well..." Gasper, still shy sounding, but not nearly as bad as he used to be, paused, waited for a moment to see if anyone would stop him, then continued, "I've gotten a few little readings on the Gate in Japan."

"Our little genius here whipped up a really detailed spell for sneaking about." Azazel said with a grin, "It was so good in fact, we had to make sure to come up with a counter to it, just in case someone else figured it out."

Gasper blushed, but nodded. Ajuka however spoke next, "We still have no way to be one hundred percent sure, but the 'string' theory is holding the strongest still."

"String?" Bell asked.

"Ah, pardon. You haven't explained this?" Ajuka looked at me accusingly.

"I gave them the basics of wormholes." I defended.

"I can build on that." He nodded, "Picture your wormhole being closed on either end, and blocked by a simple door. Between the two points, you've tied a string." He took the majority of us nodding as grounds to continue, "That string has tangled up on something between the two doors. And in this case, that would be your world." He sighed, "Unfortunately, the one who closed the gate has the keys. And to be perfectly honest, we failed to reconnect the worlds as well."

"We as in..." I started.

"Yup." Azazel nodded, "See, before, we had a Gate here, and a Gate there. But now, our Gate is gone. Sure, we still have 'the doorknob', but no door."

"So... the string is attached, but that's not helping?" Welf scrubbed a hand over his head, "Wow Fox, you really are holding back..."

"What of you returning Kodori home?" Takemikazuchi asked.

"In that case, we had help on both sides." Ajuka said, "For the smaller sendings, Delly and your Ganesha set up a Fairy Circle. For the larger one, myself and Fels set up an actual Gate of our own. I won't get into details, but it was a concerted effort."

There was a moment of silence, then Delly asked, "Is there a way to deal with it at all?"

"It would depend on what you wish to do. Are you still set on keeping 'us' away from your world?" Ajuka asked.

"I'd rather not have what happened to the Special Region happen here." I replied.

"It may be unavoidable, to a certain extent. But if you wish to reconnect us to the Special Region, you will have to ask for the Keys." Ajuka explained, "Unfortunately, without being there in person, there is little I can do to help."

Silence descended on the room, but my mind was going through ideas. We had to get to the Gate anyhow, but then what? "If nothing else, can the Gate be moved?" I asked after a moment, "It's current location is... incredibly inconvenient."

"Ah yes, it was mentioned that it's placement in your world may have given the JSDF a little problem." Ajuka said, "Moving it may not be impossible. But I will have to speak with Fels."

"What would you need past that?" I asked.

"At minimum, actual contact with your Gate. Once I know more, then I can say for sure." He said after a moment.

"Seems we're going on a trip then." Aisha said with a shrug, "Hope you know how to make insect repellent, Fox."

"When I return to my labs, I will contact Fels, and hopefully come up with a way to get that information to me. He is quite adept at his craft, and if he has not lost his faculties I suspect it may take two days at most." Ajuka said with confidence.

"High praise from the foremost mind in magic." Azazel chuckled, "I'll be lending a hand too, and so will the kid here." He gave Gasper a headpat, "Maybe we can get things back to how they were, and leave you guys alone."

Issei looked over to Azazel with a puzzled look, "Really? Last time you said you wanted to experiment on her."

Everyone on my side, myself included, gave him the RAISED EYEBROW OF SUSPICION.

The Former Fallen Angel leader tugged at his collar as if he were suddenly too warm, "You saw what just her and that Elf did here. Could you imagine all of them?"

"We'll be in touch." I said before anyone could get too distracted, "Say, where are you guys right now?"

"We're at the Hyoudou residence." Rias said, "Why?"

"Sachiko." I called out.

Akeno 'eep'ed cutely, standing up a little straighter and looking behind her as if someone had just touched her rear. A moment later, Sachiko's green horned black/silver/gold furred fox head peeked over the back of the couch they were all sitting on (except Akeno, who as usual was standing behind her King).

"Who's that?" I pointed to the fox making the happy face on the screen and using the 'lets play a game' tone of voice to get our children's attention.

Everyone looked at me, then the fox, wondering what I was trying to do. But after a moment all the children said, "Sister!"

"That's right." I said proudly, "Sachiko? Give Gasper-" Sachiko's head vanished behind the couch again, then popped up once more behind Gasper, who got a happy cold nose/sniff from my daughter fox spirit. "And Azazel." The happy fox then set Azazel's cheap tie on fire with a puff of emerald green foxfire.

"Hey!" The fallen quickly smothered the fire with his hand, "I was only joking... No sense of humour or what?"

"I'll tell Fels to expect your call." I said over the laughter and Azazel's complaints, "We have some prepping to do."

"Ko-san?" Akeno spoke up.

"I'll set up the Occulus for a... smaller crowd in about an hour." I said, getting a smile from Akeno, Issei and Rias.

NOTES

Nothing cuts the tension like setting someone's tie on fire.

Daeore on Ko-fi for KODORI ARRRRRT! (and donations if you want.)

'Were Too?' on Inkitt, if you want to read my actual book.