32 Toward Mir! Again!

The night was long, and Hina sat there comfortably, watching the two men laugh and drink and get along, have fun; it was a wild experience, truly.

"So, Aerendyl..." Akihiro angled his head slowly. "Are you just... at Hina's beck and call? Some kind of servant?"

"Hm? Oh, no..." Aerendyl suddenly sobered, glancing Hina's way. "In fact, it's about time for me to begin sitting back, and let Hina carve her own path going forth. I have a part to play in things yet, but it's going to be some time before I'm needed... as for me showing up just now, I promised to fish her out of here when she's ready, given that she can't yet open her own rifts."

"The rift... that's a bit like a portal, then? Wormhole, whatever?"

"Indeed," Aerendyl agreed, raising his glass to his lips. It was odd, Hina thought; he might have been on his tenth or eleventh glass by now, yet he showed no signs whatsoever of being intoxicated. Were angels immune to alcohol? "Now, though, Hina is planning on headed to Underland when she returns for a lovely tour; and there are some plans in store for you there, Hina, but they aren't my plans, not any more. Time to let you out from under my wing, hm~?" He was laughing, but there was something almost melancholic in his sapphire eyes.

"Aerendyl... are you, worried about me?"

"I told you, Hina. You might be a god on Earth, but from here on, you're going to meet many who are your equal or your superior. Of course I'm a bit worried... but you've overcome worse, and I hope that this will always be the case. In my eyes, you're a friend borderline younger sibling now, so of course I'm worried, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I need to be."

"Well, quite a turn around. You're an enigma, Aerendyl, but thank you," Hina replied softly, yawning. Akihiro was watching them raptly, apparently happy just to be observing, and after a moment or four of silence, the curly-haired angel was the one to speak again.

"Hina, call me stupid if you wish, but Inari is a god, and I don't know; what business did he have with you, exactly?"

"Ah...?" Hina thought for a moment, then withdrew kitsune's fang, as well as the polished cherry flute she'd been gifted, which would supposedly call five high-ranked kitsune as a personal task force... she hadn't used it, but nor had she let it off her person since she'd gotten it. Sometimes she thought she'd left it behind only to realize she'd unconsciously jammed it into a bag or pocket. "He wanted an alliance. He gave me this dagger, to symbolize our partnership, a sign of status... and supposedly this flute will call a few kitsune for me to command, should I need to for some reason... but I haven't blown it yet."

"Is that a fact...?" Aerendyl was leaning forward, and so too was Akihiro, both the men seeming to be highly curious. "Would you try it now?"

"I must admit, I'm dying of curiosity as well," Akihiro agreed. "Hina, would you?"

"Er, I guess." The badger girl shrugged, raising the flute to her lips. "I don't know how to blow this thing, but..." She tried, and as she did, the room filled with both a beautifully haunting melody she could never have produced on her own... and gray smoke. When it cleared, there were five kitsune, as promised, two men and three women, Ayame closest to Hina. They knelt, hair white, red, brown, black and blonde, a veritable rainbow of fox spirits.

"Hina-chan," Ayame spoke softly, raising her head with a playful smile. "I believe our last encounter was under a bit more... interesting circumstances, but using the flute to see how it works was inevitable." She stood, bowing respectfully. "These are...?"

"Aerendyl, and Akihiro, my father." Hina looked back to the two men who'd already been present as the last of the smoke cleared, but Akihiro was blinking softly, confused. "Dad, are you alright?"

"I feel... different, I don't know how to explain it."

"Well, yes, that was the plan," Aerendyl answered with a sheepish grin. "You see, summoning five kitsune is a massive surge of magical energy, as I'm sure you can guess- especially ones with multiple tails. Akihiro, good man, you're currently stewing in enough magical energy to turn into a nuclear missile... idea being that humans can't visit other worlds the same way as an angel without being torn into a billion molecules and each of those repeating the process. Imbued with magic like this, you'll be able to make the trip just fine, but on its own, it won't change your life, only strengthen your body."

"I see..." Akihiro flexed his fingers, seemingly lost in thought. "Well, I don't feel much different, that's true."

"I see," Ayame murmured softly, smirking and casting her eyes to Aerendyl. She seemed much less serious than last time, though still reserved- perhaps an effect of NOT being within a hundred metres of her master. "Well, Hina-chan, I am Ayame as you know. These..." She stepped aside, flourishing her hand to the other kitsune, who still knelt. "These are less important foxes, and as such they are nameless save to friends. You may refer to them as Ichi, Ni, San, and Yon, unless you see reason for other dubbing." She simply counted to four in Japanese for the other foxes' names.

"Alright, then," Badger Girl sighed quietly, suddenly feeling very, very tired. What time was it, now...? The clock on the wall read as five in the morning. "Well, Ayame, it's good to see you again, I hope there's no hard feelings."

"Absolutely not. Shall we be going, until you need us? Do not fret, we live our lives as normal away from you, simply that we are now kept out of combat, lest you need us midway- we may be borrowed help, but not slaves."

"Good, I hadn't thought of that, but- g-good." Hina blinked rapidly, thinking. "Yes, I'll call you again, we should probably practice working as a team."

"I agree," Ayame murmured, and one by one, the kitsune winked out of existence as though they'd never been present, leaving the original three alone and together.

"Well then," Akihiro chuckled. "That was interesting, though not as significant as I'd imagined. Though, Aerendyl, Hina; if I'm stewing in magic as you said, does that mean I could USE it?"

"Only one way to find out," Aerendyl smirked. "Why don't you try showing him a basic trick or two, Hina?"

"Hm..." The Fell Hero thought for a moment, smirking. "When I began learning magic, the first trick I learned- well, it could end up saving your life one day, who knows."

~~~

Aerendyl actually ended up sleeping over, passed out on the couch, but curled up and refined. Come morning, Akihiro was delighted to learn that he could, in fact, learn basic spellcraft, though for now it was nothing more than lifting small objects and breathing warm air.

Hina woke up... in her old bed, and blinked slowly, staring up at the ceiling for a while and letting her mind rest. No worries, no demons, no sickness... only warm blanket, and soft mattress. When she did eventually stand up and pull her clothing back on, her eyes fixated on something sitting on her end table... a small silk choker left by Aika, shortly before Hinata became Hina. Grabbing the choker, she pocketed it and left the room.

"Good morning, Hina!" Her father laughed as she entered the room, his eyes those of an excited young man... and he laid a mug of hot, sweet coffee on the table with a plate of rice and egg. "After you headed to bed, Aerendyl suggested that, given you're willing, we go to... he called it the Mirian Capitol, and said it would be a good place for me to have that tour."

"Oh? No, I'm not opposed... I wanted time with you, but it doesn't necessarily have to be here." Hina sat down at the island, smiling. "Thanks for the food... itadakimasu..." She'd almost forgotten that word, and smiled sleepily, happily as she rested her hands together. Roughly translated, it was a thanks for the meal.

"Also, Hina... I called Aika's parents. Your story sounds unbelievable, yes, and I doubted they'd listen to me... and they did scream, get angry, call it a sick joke and hang up. I just wanted to try, you know?" Akihiro suddenly looked as a child wanting to be told it did nothing wrong, it's all okay.

"Thank you," Badger Girl answered softly, slowly pulling her hair into a ponytail and sipping the coffee before picking up her fork. "Next time, I'll just bring Nao with me, so that she can do some convincing too. The important thing is that... unless we're somehow wrong, she IS alive. But Haruto said something about her seeming more like she was thrown in than fell in, and Nao, looks like Aika... summoning is supposed to keep your appearance, supposedly mine went the most wrong of all ten, given how I ended up. I never would have gotten so powerful if not for the racists trying to kill me, though."

"Can you... explain that?" He seemed innocently curious, confused.

"Well, people were rallying behind me in Mir. There's a long history of summoned heroes in that world, but almost all of them were human men, and then I came along, a beast-man, a female and still a hero. The King, of the country who did the summoning. He had me infected with some sort of demonic virus; he thought if he turned me into a demon, the people who supported me would be the ones forced to kill me, and I wouldn't die as a martyr... but the angels and Mir's royalty cooperated to get me into that King's capitol when I finally became fully demon, and I... rampaged. It's what they wanted; not to turn me, but to take advantage of the situation for sure. I was left with some remaining abilities from that, apparently it went on too long and the demon's blood fused with my DNA... or something. Either way, I'm nothing like I was then; when I was rampaging, I could have been world-ending, given the time.

"I see..." Akihiro sighed quietly, nodding. "Well, is this an 'all's well that ends well', moment?"

"It is, dad. So, let's eat!"