There was a faint magical buzz that only the exceptionally powerful and skilled could sense to foretell of Yuuki’s arrival. She appeared in the garden of the mansion with Igraine at her side. What greeted them was a large group of kitsune of different ages, and Alice of course, all raising a glass at once.

“Happy Birthday!” They said in unison.

Yuuki smiled warmly in response while Igraine was just perplexed by the size of the gathering. She knew extended family would be there, but there were almost a hundred of them!

When they were all given a glass of champagne and all eyes landed on Yuuki, waiting for her to give a speech.

“I would like to thank you all for attending my birthday, and I hope we will all go our separate ways with fond memories once the celebrations are done. That’s about it, really.” Her semi-formal attitude turned into a smug one. “I’ll try not to scare you like last time.”

This helped ease the attendees as pleasant conversations sprouted. It was an extraordinarily strange time for Igraine. She was taught that kitsune were not very social and preferred to be alone. That was not the case. Not even close. It was simply a case of their long lives changing their perspectives about what would be considered a 'short time alone' to an absurd amount. That, and they typically worked as spies so meeting with each other regularly was made harder by that.

“I missed you, Yuu.” Hanae said as she wrapped her arms around her younger sister. Her younger sister, who was a head taller.

“You never used that nickname before.”

“Yeah, so?” Hanae had a smug aura surrounding her. Before she threw a curious glance at the human. “Hi! I’m Hanae, nice to meet you.” She declared without letting Yuuki go.

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Igraine.” She said as she momentarily lowered her glass before continuing to drink so she wouldn’t have to take part in conversation.

Hanae noticed this as her eyes had a glint of mischief. “So, what’s your favorite thing about her?”

“Fluffy tails.” Came the answer without missing a beat.

“Are you seeing many already? Such a lightweight.” Yuuki was finally let go.

“Wanna bet I can drink more than you, missy?”

“You know you’d lose, you just want an excuse to drink a lot.”

As if to intervene, Yuuki’s tails phased as they once more became nine instead of one. Hanae’s eyes went wide as it was Igraine’s turn to have a smug smile. Alice Aliced in out of nowhere to hug the freshly brushed tails. “So soft.”

Yuuki couldn’t help but sigh as she saw her parents and Eric approach. This was going to be a long day.

“Hello sweetie.” Her mom said as she was already rushing to hug Yuuki. Not resisting, she returned the hug. “It’s been so long, you must tell me everything!”

“That might take a bit too long.” Yuuki replied not completely without emotion.

“We have time! We have time, right?” She shot a glare at her husband, Jack.

“Yes, yes you do.” He answered without flinching.

“You do realize he forbade you from seeing me because he knew you, or other family members, would not stop attempting to help me no matter how fruitless it was.” Yuuki wrapped a few tails Alice wasn’t hugging around her mother.

“Wait, you knew?” Hanae was the one to ask the question as she was currently talking with Igraine on the sidelines.

“Naturally. I was the one who suggested it to him after all.” Yuuki replied matter of factly. Her face was once more blank, as she talked with pure logic. There was a powerful yank on one of her tails that made her flinch slightly and emotion returned to her face. Regret was clearly visible, but so was happiness.

“Well, you’re not going anywhere for awhile, and neither am I.” Her mum declared.

Eric decided to chime in to ease the mood. “Can’t believe you got a girlfriend before me. You gotta teach me some tricks later.” He smiled at Yuuki, who mentally noted down another thing she should do, not realizing it was a joke.

“Is it really a surprise? And I do mean no offense, I just mean… well, come on.” Igraine said as she waved her hand in Yuuki’s general direction.

“Yes, she is rather attractive. Also, she’s sixteen.” Jack said in a friendly yet serious way.

“With all due respect, she can warp time. Her age is whatever she feels like at the moment.” Igraine replied.

“That’s not how it works. Well… maybe. With some restrictions. For example, it has to be a real number greater than zero.”

“Why specify ‘real number’? Are there fake ones?” Eric asked, undisturbed by the rest of what Yuuki just said.

“She means she can’t set her age to be the square root of a negative number.” Alice came to the rescue with a muffled voice. “She forgot she hadn’t given you people lectures yet. It’ll be great, trust me.” Her genuine enthusiasm was a bit hard to notice through the layers of fluff she was speaking through.

--

The party was still going, but Igraine was just watching from the side, letting the people with people skills do their thing. As she was watching, she felt a presence get closer to her. She turned her head to see an aged female kitsune.

“Nice to meet you dear. My name is Abigail.”

“Likewise. My name’s Igraine.” She replied with some unease she couldn’t locate the source of.

“So, what’s your opinion on her?” The kitsune asked with a probing look.

“Well, I’ve never, in all my travels, met a person more messed up than me. Until I met her that is. She’s had horrible things done to her, she’s done horrible things. She wants to be better, but unlike most people who wallow in self pity, she’s actually making progress. Well, I assume you wanted to know about my opinion on her personality, but if you meant her body, I hope you have some time because it will take a while.” Igraine masked her unease as she leaned back and put on a confident front.

“You dislike talking about your emotions.”

“Yes, I’ve noticed. It’s not as bad as it was though. She inspires me to try and be better myself, I guess.”

Abigail’s face finally softened and the unease disappeared. “I wish the best for you both. Truly. I just needed to make sure. I hope you have no hard feelings?”

“None. You do know she can hear us, right?”

“Well, it hardly surprises me at this point.”

Igraine let out a hearty laugh. “She does have that effect, doesn’t she?”

As she finished saying that, a ball of light ascended from where Yuuki was, and when it reached the peak, it exploded in a brilliant flash, turning into more, colored balls, which in turn exploded and turned into more, smaller balls. The process continued, the noise going from bangs to background static before disappearing completely. Once it did, more ascended, although more dim.

“Ah, it seems she’s teaching a spell. We should get closer. Wouldn’t want to miss out.” The kitsune stood up and approached Yuuki, who was surrounded by dozens of family members who she was teaching the firework spell.