Phillip still found it disorienting to go from sunset in the world he knew, to morning in his new family’s world, just by stepping through a magic gate. He looked back at Sakura, who was still looking a little rough.
Arata, meanwhile breathed a sigh of relief when there was no sign of Sakura’s family waiting for them on the other side of the portal. He dropped his human disguise, as did Sakura. Phillip followed suit, feeling like he was letting go of a breath he’d been holding for hours as his fur and tail came back, and the “clothes” he’d been wearing shrank back to a little green leaf, resting on his forehead.
“Thank you, Arata,” Phillip said. “I was worried I wouldn’t see Patty or Will for a while.”
“No problem, little brother. Now, as for you...” The older fox turned toward Sakura. “Are you feeling alright? What happened to you back there?”
“Well, I was trying to follow you guys without being seen, so I went out the portal at the last possible second, and tried to find some trees to hide behind. But I didn’t expect there wouldn’t be so few trees, just a lot of really small houses.” She turned to Phillip. “Do you know why humans have so many little houses? Why not have one big one like we do?”
“Sakura, focus.”
“Oh yeah, sorry. Anyway, it’s harder to keep an eye on you guys while hiding behind a house. With trees they’re usually pretty close and you can run from one to another quicker, but these houses are spaced out a lot more. I had to wait longer before changing spots, or you guys would have seen me. And while I was waiting, I heard a dog barking behind me. It was yapping and growling constantly, and it wouldn’t stop. If it hadn’t been behind a fence, it would have come right at me!
“Then its owner came around, and said, ‘hey girl, quiet, it’s time for your walk.’ He managed to get the dog on a leash, but the dog kept on barking at me, and he finally noticed me. He apologized and said his dog wasn’t normally like that, and then asked me to go so he could walk his dog. I told him I was gonna need to keep hiding there for a little longer, and he tried to open his gate without letting the dog out, probably to try and shoo me away himself.
“But his dog got loose, and ran straight for me! The puffy white monster chased me over roads and fences, into a little forest, trying to bite at me over and over. I got my disguise’s nice dress ruined!”
“Puffy white monster?” Phillip thought back to the dogs in his neighborhood. “Do you mean old Mr. Parker’s maltese, Dottie?” The dog he remembered had been downright tiny.
“I don’t ask for dogs’ names when they’re chasing me!” Sakura groaned. ”I managed to get far enough ahead of it after a while that I found a creek, and ran across it, so it lost the scent… but I got lost too…”
“How’d you manage to get out?” Phillip asked.
“After I’d been lost for a while, I remembered that my brother told me that moss always grows on the north side of a tree. So I tried to stay to head straight south and see where that got me. Eventually I came to the edge of the forest, and managed to walk around it back to Phillip’s neighborhood, where I kind of recognized things.”
“That’s not true, though,” Arata asaid, cocking an eyebrow. “Moss grows wherever it likes on trees.”
“Oh… I guess I got really lucky, then!”
Arata shook his head. “And stuff like THAT is why one-tailed kits aren’t allowed to leave our demiplane on their own! You got lucky. Who knows what that dog might have done to you if she caught up.”
“Whitney’s a nice dog, though,” Phillip said. “She wouldn’t have done anything. She’s usually shy around kids.”
“Maybe around human kids,” Arata corrected, “but we kitsune have always had trouble with dogs. Something changes about our scent when we’re disguised, and it makes dogs nervous and noisy when we’re lucky, and bitey when we’re not. Trying to hide the scent with magic, or masking it with other smells like perfume just seems to make it worse. And to top it off, they’re crazy resistant to our magic, mom told me you’re better off trying to use mental magic on a dog’s owner than a dog itself.”
Phillip’s head hung low. He’d always liked dogs, and he’d loved sneaking over to Mr. Parker’s to play with Dottie when his foster mother wasn’t paying attention, and now, it sounded like that would be a thing of the past. He’d been so happy about getting a family, he’d barely thought about what he’d be losing.
He thought back to what he’d heard from Aunt Ruki, about sharing his family’s enemies, and the seriousness of it all hit him again. Already, it felt like the time he’d spent with his friends in his old, familiar world had ended too soon.
Arata stepped ahead of them. “We should get back home before anyone notices Sakura’s been gone.”
Once they’d returned to the Kazura Clan’s manor, Phillip saw his mother stepping into the house, with another fox woman, adult-sized despite having only one tail, wearing a maid uniform. He barely held back a scream when said maid turned around to reveal she didn’t have a face.
“Hello, Phillip,” his mother said, “I hope you’ve had a pleasant morning. I apologize I was away so long while you’re still getting used to things, but I had some important business to take care of.”
“It’s alright,” Phillip said, trying to politely ignore the faceless fox woman. “Arata helped me get back to my old home for a little while so I could tell my friends I got adopted.”
“That was nice of him,” she smiled down at her biological son, then looked back to Phillip. “You didn’t tell them you’re a kitsune now, did you?”
Phillip shook his head. “No, Arata warned me not to… Why can’t I tell them, though?”
“Mostly because it’s easier for us if humans think we aren’t real. But I wanted to make sure that they trusted you, and could keep a secret, too. We kitsune have earned a reputation for being tricksters, and a lot of humans that DO know about us stay away because of that. While I don’t think they’d treat you any different, their parents might, so we have to make sure they wouldn’t tell.”
“Right.” Phillip looked off to the side, taking in another reminder that his life was going to be very different from here on.
“Are you ready to meet the rest of your new family?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Well then, let’s go to the rear courtyard, everyone should be waiting there.”
The faceless maid remained in place, cleaning off furniture while Phillip and Arata followed their mother to the rear of the manor. He remembered seeing a lot of kitsune attending his “initiation” ceremony, seated in neat little rows, but out here, with them all spread out, he realized there had to be at least thirty, maybe even forty of them. And he was gonna meet them ALL today?
No, wait, not all of them. Apparently there would be a meeting with the “extended clan” on a later day, too… Phillip’s head was already spinning.
“Phillip!” His father called, giving Phillip a hug. “You finally made it, huh? Come on, let’s meet your relatives.”
His father took him by the hand, and led him into the mass of foxes around the courtyard, starting with what felt like dozens of one tailed-kits like himself, male and female, ranging from infants and toddlers to children about his age. He was introduced to his cousins one after another, their names jumbling up in Phillip’s head like fruits in a blender as he tried his best to take them in.
He was quickly shown his two tailed-relatives next, a mercifully shorter list, if still too long to easily remember. Some were still clearly children, if on the older side, like his brother, others looking like the teenagers he’d seen going through his neighborhood from time to time. There was even a pair of identical twin girls among the younger “teens,” who seemed to move perfectly in sync with each other.
The three tailed foxes were all clearly adults, each one of them already married, their eyes on their spouses or their kits. The four- and five-tailed relatives generally looked a little more self assured, though at the same time Phillip noticed one or two of them didn’t seem to have their partners with them. His aunts and uncles, being much less numerous than his cousins, (while still being over a dozen in total,) were given more time to introduce themselves, some talking about their exploits in trading or the arts. He also met with Ruki again, her husband looking almost more dour than she did.
Next up, he was shown to the smaller group of six, seven, and eight-tailed foxes. He already recognized his Great Uncle Kenji, and vaguely remembered seeing the pudgey, blonde, six tailed kitsune woman that had introduced herself as “your great Auntie Nabiki” before. Her husband,a white-furred, six-tailed male, introduced himself as Sosuke. Phillip’s new grandfather on his mother’s side, a chocolate-brown-furred seven-tailed fox, told Phillip that he was once a ninja, during the last days of the art’s practice. Phillip’s grandparents on his father’s side, a set of eight-tailed, red furred foxes, welcomed him to his new family with a gentle pat on the head.
Finally, Phillip was brought before a lone pair of nine-tailed foxes, a golden-furred male, and a silver-furred female. It was odd, Phillip could tell they looked older than all the others, but they didn’t bear the kind of wrinkles and sags he’d seen in old folks around his neighborhood, they looked healthier than they’d ever been. And despite still being new to magic, he could feel power radiating off them, as their tails gently swayed behind them.
“Greetings, Phillip, and welcome, again, to the family,” the gold-furred kitsune said.
Phillip bowed when his father motioned for him to.
“I am Daiki Kazura,” said the male.
“And I am Aya Kazura,” said the female.
“As heads of the clan, we look forward to watching you grow and prosper.”
"Uh, thanks," Phillip said awkwardly.
“And now that we’ve been properly introduced,”Aya said, “it’s time we finally have that feast we were supposed to have after yesterday’s ceremony.” She gave a sharp whistle, and one of the manor’s doors slid open to reveal a lot of tables, each of which had a tablecloth with a face-like pattern hanging over the sides facing him.
To Phillip's great surprise, they started to move, trotting out into the courtyard like a horse on their strangely flexible legs. The tables moved quickly, yet steadily, none of the dishes or glasses balanced atop of them even appearing to sway. The other foxes all stood in rows, apparently expecting this, and the tables lined up in front of them before coming to rest in a standing position.
“What are these things?” Phillip stammered, looking back to his parents.
“Tsukumogami,” his mother stated. “They’re objects that survived intact for a hundred years and gained spirits of their own. Your uncle Ritsuo has made a business of training them to help out around the house.”
“Is it safe to eat off them?” Phillip asked, remembering his birth parent’s advice about avoiding food that animals had touched.
“My tables pride themselves on their cleanliness!” An orange four tailed fox exclaimed, sitting down in front of one. The table suddenly buckled, and made a whimpering noise. The fox turned to look further down the table, and saw one of the one-tailed kits resting his muddy paws on the tablecloth. “If only SOME of us could teach our kits to do the same.”
“Apologies,” said a three-tailed fox woman, who directed the kit over to a wash basin at the edge of the courtyard. Phillip made sure his own paws were clean before approaching the tables. He noticed that all of the family sat at different tables, each grouped by the number of tails they had, the sole exception being infants being fed by their mothers. He’d hoped to have a seat with his mother or father, or Arata, but, worried he might be breaking some rule he hadn’t been told about, he took his place at one of the tables surrounded by other one-tailed kits.
The sounds of dozens of voices, male and female, adult and child, in a wide range of tones, accents, and mannerisms, all blended together into an indecipherable buzz in his ears. All of his new family members already seemed to know each other so well. How could he possibly break the ice and talk to them? He tried to think of something he could talk about, between bites of beef.
He heard a slight rattling sound, and saw something climbing up on the ends of the table. The other kits smiled as a collection of dolls and puppets, all moving on their own just as the tables had.
The puppets put on tiny masks, and began to act out an old fable, about a human who thought he was too clever to be tricked by any fox, and how he once thought he saw through a fox disguised as a little girl, and tried to warn her parents. When he wasn’t believed, he took matters into his own hands to try and expose her disguise by capturing her and torturing it out of her, but he was caught, and admonished by a monk for his actions. The monk told the man that he would be forgiven if he shaved his head in front of the girl and his parents, and lived the life of a monk himself. The man agreed, and shaved his head in shame. But as he cut off his last hair, the monk, the girl, and her parents, all revealed themselves to be foxes, and ran away with a laugh, even his attempts at torture doing them no harm.
The other kits all laughed at the show. But Phillip couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable. He didn’t think of himself as a bad person… But did the other kitsune think he’d be like the man in that story?
Meanwhile, Auntie Nabiki chatted with Mother Kari, both just barely able to hear each other over the dine of chaos of the massive family gathering (the CLAN gathering would be an ocean of discord by comparison!).
"So are we going to transform Phillip-chan's friends?"
"NO! He needs them right now to keep him stable during his transition."
"I think they're just gonna chain him to his old life."
"We can't make him choose between a new family and the only family he had left. That never works out."
"And what happens when he's just entering his awkward teenage years and old age has begun to ravage them?"
"Then his friends are likely to embrace any blessing we give them, or they'll encourage Phillip to go on living for them."
"You have made Ruki-chan's job a whole lot easier if you'd fixed up Phillip-chan's head while you were making him one of us, and get rid of all those human ideas he has in his head."
Kari glared at her. "... Phillip-chan's wish was for his new family to love HIM! Not who he'd become. He's young. He'll adjust. Right now he's still getting his footing. If we push things, he'll be so terrified at all the changes, he'll run back to the child-care system simply because it's familiar. I want him to be HAPPY here." Kari looked at her new son, confused, awkward, and having no idea what to do surrounded by his new family already with centuries to know each other. "Speaking of which, I better start being a mother to him."
Her table following her, Kari broke ranks (much to the shock of some of her family present) and sat down next to him.
"Hello son."
"Oh! H-hi! ... Mom," Phillip said, obviously still getting used to giving anyone else that title.
"What's on your mind dear?"
"Oh!" Phillip rattled his brain for something, anything, finally he blurted out, "Dinosaurs!"
"Oh... You mean those unintelligent prehistoric dragons that used to exist on your Earth?"
"Y-yeah! ... What do you mean 'my Earth?'"
"Heh," Kari smiled with pride. "Nice to see you're adjusting already. Pay attention to people's words my son. There are those bound to not speak falsely, but can still use a language to their advantage. Yes, 'your earth'. There are in fact many Earths across existence."
"I... I think I saw part of an old TV show that talked about stuff like that," Phillip said.
"Indeed. But please, tell me more, you were thinking about dinosaurs?" Kari asked encouragingly.
“I thought they looked cool, and liked how big they were. The brachiosaurus is my favorite. They could get bigger than some of the houses in my neighborhood.”
“That sounds pretty impressive.” Kari paused. “I heard your cousin Fujio has an interest in extinct Earth creatures."
"Really?"
"Yes really. ... By the way... would you like to see a creature that size for real?"
"You can travel through time?!"
"Uh, no, well, there are some entities out there who are powerful enough to do that but getting their blessing to do such things is near... What I mean is dear, after this party is done, would you like to see a scaled beast as large or bigger than one of your neighbor's houses?"
Phillip's jaw dropped. Then he grinned. "Yes yes yes yes!"
Kari hugged him. "Well, just remind me later and I'll arrange something, but first, how about I formally introduce you to your cousin?"
"Okay!" Phillip nodded, his worries and fears for the moment forgotten.
The banquet was coming to a close, so Phillip and Kari got up, and went to speak with Fujio, who was already on his way back to his room.
The pale-blue two-tailed fox boy smiled as he saw his cousin approaching. “Hey Phillip, what’s up?”
“I heard you liked dinosaurs? I like them too.”
“Oh, neat. Would you like to see my collection?”
“Sure.”
“Come this way!”
Phillip followed the older kit into one of the second floor rooms of the manor. Fujio beamed as Phillip’s eyes lit up at the sight of the kit’s collection of model skeletons lining the shelves.
And he saw a wings-less bird with a huge beak chowing down in a pen in the corner of the room.
"Where's that creature from?" Philip pointed.
"That's a dodo... his name's Cherry. He's from your Earth, grandma got me it as a gift... they're extinct on Earth, the rules say I can't reintroduce the species..."
Phillip startled. "Oh... "
"I wish I could have these skeletons at full size... but mom and dad say they'd take up way too much space."
"... Full size? ... These, these are REAL?"
“Yep!” Fujio beamed with pride. “I’d met a biologist in another clan who was selling off some materials he didn’t need anymore. He’d got them from the human plane, before he realized that the petrification process had removed any trace of spirit or magical energy they might have had when they were alive. It set me back several months ‘allowance, but boy was it worth it! If I ever get a place of my own, someday, I’m gonna undo the shrinking spell and display them full size.”
“Do you have any favorites?” Phillip asked.
“I’ve always been a fan of the Ceratopsidae, myself. Barricading off foes with a wall of horns is a pretty cool strategy.”
Kari watched as the two continued talking. Her son’s integration into the family was off to a good start.