It had taken less than a week for Tomoko to get return post on her letter back home - a letter to her father ('I will come home soon'), a letter to the twins ('You will have to show me your tails when I get home!'), and a letter to her mother.

Only her mother had written her back with concern upon hearing her daughter's current plight. The letter had actually been much shorter than Tomoko had even expected it to be and it contained barely a paragraph.

'I will talk to my father then come see you, Tomoko dear. Try to keep your ball of stars from further damage until I can come visit - I will see you soon.'

That sort of response only made Tomoko more concerned for her 'condition', and every day she checked that crack in her face, touching it gingerly and wincing when a piece cracked off. She kept every piece that tried to flake off of either her or the ball of stars and kept them wrapped up in a piece of linen that she'd..appropriated. She felt bad, but she'd really needed something gentle to keep such important things stored in until mother came to visit.


It was nearly two weeks before she did.

Tomoko had been working on homework when a very gentle tap came on her door. It was as if it was meant to tease her sensitive nature and she moved to the door in less than three steps, cracking the door open carefully as she peered outside.

A fox shaped flame sat outside of her door, the blue of the flames familiar to her (as she saw it every time she sat down to brush her tails). "I'm here waiting for you. Please come to the gates." it spoke before vanishing. Tomoko barely took the time to pull on her boots, put Mononoke on a leash, and grab the bundle of broken shards before she scurried out the door.

Mononoke wasn't having any of the leash walking until he saw the figure standing by the gate that Tomoko was half jogging to, making the bakekitsune break out into a full run that nearly tugged the little kitsune along with him. Everybody was always thrilled to see momma after all.

Nemu stood at the gate patiently, crouching down to pat the excited Mononoke when he had drawn close enough to nearly jump up her leg, pawing at her and keening like a child who had not been home in some time (which was true. The last time Tomoko had gone home she had not taken any of the 'kids' with her). "Hello, Mononoke. Have you been a good boy and taken care of my little Tomoko?" she asked as she stroked his back. Tomoko had known it was a good idea to bring him along - Mom had always been his favorite.

"He's been really good, Hahaue." Tomoko answered for him, unclipping the leash and hanging it over her arm. Nemu looked up to her daughter, smiling briefly at the answer, before the concern she'd already expressed became even more clear. Standing, Nemu reached out and carefully touching her daughter's face, keeping her fingers away from the cracking, but looking visibly disturbed by it.

"Hoshinotsune...." she murmured and Tomoko blushed. "Hahaue...." she murmured embarassedly, "Don't call me that in public please...people might...." Nemu smiled and pulled her daughter into a light embrace. "Of course." It wasn't that Tomoko didn't like her true name, but rather she still had a fear that was related to anybody else learning it. Names were power - and she had none to give in exchange for freedom if it came to that.

After a brief embrace, broken up by the ever so pleading Mononoke who wished for more of Nemu's attention, Nemu took another moment to look at the crack in her daughter's face. "Now, how did this happen, dear?" she inquired. Tomoko frowned a bit, hand resting on the parcel she nested in the crook of her arm. "Broke my ball of stars..." she murmured. Nemu frowned. "So you told me, dear. But that isn't what I was asking. How did you manage to break it?" she repeated, being a bit more to-the-point with her inquiry this time.

Tomoko frowned further. "I don't know..... it just....broke." It was a very weak attempt to not get anybody in trouble, and fortunately Nemu didn't press the subject into too much of specifics. "Alright then, Tomoko. I don't think we need to know in order to fix it, anyways." she smiled. Tomoko breathed a sigh of relief. Last thing she needed to do was get a professor in trouble with her mother.

She could just see the exchange already. It mostly involved Rengath probably regretting every decision he made in his life against the power of ultra-mom. Well, Tomoko thought she was ultra-mom anyways.

Placing a head on her daughter's head, Nemu motioned with the other for the trio to start walking. Mononoke was more than happy to go anywhere that Nemu did. Tomoko trailed alongside her mother, making small talk between them - Did Ai and Yu come along? How are things back home? Any news I should know about? Have the twins gotten their third tails yet? No they didn't. Things are fine, territorial disputes are the same as they were when you last were home. Ai's tails are starting to split, Yu's aren't yet - It was all rather mundane, but it was nice to hear about things from home. The young couple who had married in the last summer she'd been home had decided to start a family and now had a little boil of their own - a nice little orange and white boy.

"It was fortunate that their first was safe...." Nemu mentioned underneath her breath and Tomoko's brows furrowed together with concern. She knew what the implication was. She knew exactly what her mother was saying.

'Safe'.

Meaning they didn't need to pass through the chasm and go into the ocean like the 'Corrupted' ones did. It made her heart hurt a little bit to imagine all those little children.....

Tomoko tried to put it out of her mind.

"What did they name him?" she asked instead. Nemu smiled. "They named him Kouji." she replied and Tomoko beamed. She always thought that was a nice sounding name. Tomoko made a note out loud to stop somewhere while they were out and pick up a gift for the new child to send home with her mother - the young couple had been very nice to her as long as she'd known them, so it would be her way of showing appreciation and celebration for them because she hadn't been there at the reveal of the child.

Their walking wound through town, and the trio would stop every now and then in front of a window to peer inside, Tomoko smiling all the while as she looked inside.

"Let's get lunch together, dear." Nemu suggested when they were passing by a rather nice looking little cafe, and Tomoko was more than happy with the suggestion, even going as far as to pay for the meal herself. She wanted to show her mother how grown up she was now, after all, babysitting on weekends and earning some extra spending money here and there. Nemu paid for dessert, however, and it was while they were enjoying it that she brought up the reason for her visit.

"Tomoko. I'm going to need you to go visit my home if you want to repair your ball of stars." Nemu said matter of factly. Tomoko's ears drooped. "But I've never been to...." Nemu placed her hand over her daughter's and smiled, "I know, dear."


Tomoko took several deep breaths to try and relax at the idea of going somewhere so... far away. Nemu just left her hand on top of her daughter's until she was done having her small panic attack, setting a small saucer of water under the table for Mononoke, who happily lapped it up at her feet.

"So...where would I need to go, Hahaue?" she inquired, fidgeting a bit. Nemu patted her daughter's hand one last time before retracting her own hand back to her side of the table. "Well, I'll get you a map, of course, but you'll need to go west and north to a place of snow and dead trees." Nemu explained. Tomoko stared at her mother in surprise. "You must have had quite a time adapting to home if you came from that!" she gasped and Nemu laughed a bit.

"But it was nice and it is how my clan survived." Nemu replied.

As she finished her ice cream, Tomoko couldn't help but imagine a snowy landscape with the husks of trees scattered across it with little snowy dens beneath the earth warmed by carefully controlled fires, the water dripping off the ceilings collected to drink or cook with, families sleeping in the same room to stay warm. Just thinking about it made her smile, and once she finished her dessert and let Mononoke lap up the leftover milky liquid at the bottom of the bowl, they were up again to go on a search for a map.

Fortunately for the pair, there was a shop that specialized in travel goods, and a slightly not-so-out-of-date map was amongst those things that could be acquired. All Nemu needed to check was if the region she needed was on it before she paid the 2 seeds for the piece of paper and headed out with her daughter, unfolding the map and showing it to her.

"It's this area right here." she explained, pressing her finger to it gently. "You'll go here, but I won't be able to help you find the clan. They are well hidden and only with a lot of luck and some hard work will you come across them - I've told Chichiue," Tomoko tilted her head at her mother and Nemu clarified, "my Chichiue to expect you, Tomoko. So they shouldn't have it masked too badly. You're good with illusions. I know you'll see through their shield even if you have to work really hard to pull through it."

Tomoko preened under the compliment. It was really hard to tell sometimes if she sparkled on her own or not.

Nemu smiled, "Now. We have one last stop I want to make before I take you back to school, alright?" Tomoko nodded, taking the map from her mother and looking at the island she'd denoted on the map. She briefly traced her finger over it, leaving an impression of a black circle.

As they walked, Tomoko took note of the buildings she had passed by a few times on her way to babysitting jobs, pondering why they were walking so far into a residential district. She tried to take note of addresses and familiar landscapes, pondering where it was they were going - who her mother knew out in that area.

After some time, they came upon a little house that Tomoko couldn't help but think was entirely normal. Nothing about it stood out in particular - from it's plain bricks, to the slightly unkept brown painted picket fence, grass that looked like it hadn't been cut in a week and the little rickety swing set she could hear in the backyard.

"Does a friend of yours live here?" she asked, and Nemu patted her daughter on the head, walking towards the door. A minipet barked through the window when it spotted the pair, and the front door opened, an older woman - A sea spirit of some sort, Tomoko guessed - stepping out onto the front porch and holding her arms out towards Nemu.

"Nemian!" she greeted and Nemu smiled, putting one finger to her lips. "Names, Europa." she cautioned, the the woman laughed, throwing a long braid of kelp over her shoulder. "He's going to be excited to see you, it has been som- Oh! Who is this?" Europa looked past Nemu to Tomoko, who stood looking like an awkward deer in the headlights. Nemu smiled. "This is my eldest. She saw the beginning, but I think.....that she's ready to know how it ended."

Tomoko looked to Nemu, then to Europa who smiled knowingly. "Of course. She does have a gentle air about her, unlike that husband of yours." Nemu frowned. "Well, we can't get everything we want, unfortunately." Tomoko looked back to her mother, ears perking up and looking very surprised. "Well! It never surprises me to hear you say that. Come in, come in. I'll call him in."

Europa waved them both into the house. As she stepped in, Tomoko couldn't help but suddenly feel overwhelmed by the amount of blue and green inside of the house, strange little fish seeming to swim through the air on their own. Tomoko reached out to touch one, and Nemu quietly chided her 'Don't touch things that aren't yours, Tomoko.' she warned. Tomoko frowned. "But they're not even real..." She could feel the magic coming off of them - the intangibility. They looked solid, but they felt....off.

"Wait here for a moment." Europa left them sitting in the living room, Tomoko remaining standing and growing more and more anxious, even in the presence of her mother who sat calmly, Mononoke jumping up into her lap and curling up there as the older kitsune stroked his back affectionately.


"Okaasan!"

Tomoko's ears suddenly perked straight up at the sound of the little voice, looking to her mother, then to the doorway. Okaasan? Were they here to meet Europa's child?

All too quickly a little child - no older than 5 Tomoko would have guessed - came running into the room, and Tomoko couldn't stop staring at him, looking shocked the entire time. It wasn't that he was shoeless or that he was wearing a yukata that was short enough to let him scrape his knees. It wasn't even that he was filthy looking like he'd been playing in the dirt.

It was the vibrant blue mop of hair on his head, and the two tails that followed him - one of which she could already see was splitting into a third. It was the dark circular chalkram that decorated his brow. His bright purple eyes.

It was that the little blue kitsune threw himself over Mononoke and into his mother's arms.

"Kamui." Nemu smiled, embracing the boy, and Tomoko looked from him, then up to her mother, eyes wide. "Hahaue....." she bit her lower lip. "Is..is that...?"

The little boy looked to Tomoko, ears twitching curiously. "Okaasan?" He didn't finish asking his question, and Nemu smiled, beckoning Tomoko over to him. "Kamui. This is Tomoko." she introduced. "Remember, I told you about Tomoko?" Tomoko stood still as the little boy stared up at her, eyes wide with surprise before the biggest smile came over his face and he threw himself against her as well.

"Tomo-chan! Okaasan told me she'd bring you to see me soon! Why did you wait so long to come see me?" he asked, and Tomoko looked to her mother. "I...I didn't know where you lived...." she answered awkwardly, and Kamui pouted. "Well now you do! So you'll have to come see me lots now, okay? Auntie Europa says she has to go away soon and I'm going to be lonely...."

Tomoko looked to her mother again and Nemu just mouthed 'Nanashi'. Tomoko's ears perked up again. Nanashi? She could see the resemblance, but - "Europa has been taking care of him because home isn't safe, Tomoko." she explained and Tomoko looked to the woman standing in the doorway, smiling.

"So will you come see me lots?" the boy asked and Tomoko nodded slowly. "Of course I will, Kamuchan." she answered, and his eyes lit up with excitement. "Nobody has called me Kamuchan before!" he beamed and Tomoko felt her heart turning to mush. There was so much conflict in her mind, but she couldn't help but feel relieved.

She'd get the full story out of her mother later, because once the boy ran to get his crayons, Tomoko couldn't help but sit on the floor with him to color. She had 15 years of a little brother to get to know.