Zalroth forced his eyes halfway open and looked down to see he was floating high above the ground as a sleeping Chronia floated above him while clinging to Zalroth's kitsune tails. Zalroth lightly nudged Chronia's face with the base of his geta. Chronia murmured as she rolled over, and Zalroth's tails slipped out from her fingers.

"Ah- ah- a-" Zalroth uttered as he plummeted to the ground before slamming into the ground with a flat drum-like bang, and a towering mushroom-shaped plume of red and orange sand erupted from the ground; the sand soared into the air, leaving a sizable crater with Zalroth lying on his back at the bottom of said crater. Zalroth sighed as he wrapped his body in his kitsune tails.

A sphere of Zalroth's tails rolled out from the crater, and his tails unwrapped from their sphere formation. Zalroth flicked his tails to shoot out the trapped sand within them while Chronia fluttered down to Zalroth like a falling feather. Chronia eventually managed to land back on Zalroth's kitsune tails, and she boldly yawned as she leaned back onto Zalroth's tails.

Zalroth cheekily rolled his eyes and yawned before he noticed and watched Kai and Maru working together to drag a giant red and orange marble-textured-scaled sandworm to him. A faint tremor shook from below making Zalroth to stare down into the crater, and Chronia tapped her finger against Zalroth's chin, causing Zalroth to glance back at her.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Zalroth asked. Chronia smirked and patted Zalroth on the shoulder.

"Don'tcha mean, did I foresee what you're thinking is going to happen?" Chronia asked before she buried her face in the back of Zalroth's hair. Zalroth raised his right arm and the pale yellow magic crest covering his whole right palm glowed. Zalroth smugly yawned as Kai and Maru stood before him.

"Ta-da~," Kai cheerfully said as she did jazz hands at the sandworm.

"Well done, you two; however, if I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn I told you two to hold back," Zalroth remarked jokingly causing the reptile-inclined kitsune's ego/visage of Zalroth to cautiously flinch. The duo slowly etched to the side and looked at the pile of giant sand sandworms.

"Heh... perhaps you have a point, Master Zalroth," Maru uttered nervously.

"But-but more is better right?" Kai blurted out with light red cheeks. Zalroth tilted his head, looked upwards and then at the ground before he closed his eyes and smirked.

"It will certainly draw out the nearby heathian faster," Mimi remarked exhaustedly as Zallino walked towards the group while he dragged Mimi behind him. Zallino released Mimi's naga tail and let it flop on the ground before it reverted to its legs and small tail form. Zallino transformed into his small phoenix form and perched himself on Zalroth's left shoulder.

Mimi sat up with red and orange sand flaking out of her hair, and she whipped her hair around to fling out the trapped sand. Mimi flopped on her front and groaned as she buried her face into the sandy ground. Zalroth lent his arm on his leg and his chin on his palm.

"Did you not have a fun time?" Maru asked as he crouched down next to Mimi and poked the back of Mimi's head. Mimi let out a callous groan as Maru continued poking Mimi's head.

"Shut it," Mimi barked with a muffle. Zallino ruffled his liquidly reflective feathers, and a reflective emerald fork with a sheen and a snake-scaled texture fell out from his feathers. The emerald fork landed in Zalroth's hand.

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"What's that?" Kai asked as she looked up at the emerald fork.

"You'll see," Zalroth said. Zalroth reached into one of his tails and pulled out the closed comically large dawnite handfan. Zalroth inserted the fork into the handle of the dawnite hand fan; the hand fan's exterior became encased by an emerald green veil before shortly dispersing from the hand fan to reveal its new dark green leather rope-handled appearance.

"Ooh~," Kai uttered excitedly as Zalroth placed the handfan in her hands. Kai waved the hand fan around until its fan part unfolded allowing her to see the hand fan's lime green scale-textured dawnite fan blade.

"Say...," Kai muttered as she refolded the hand fan and slotted some of her tiger tails through the normal dawnite ring-shaped pummel.

"Yeah, Zalka?" Zalroth asked as he placed his fists on his hips. Kai went to speak but paused for a second and itched her forehead.

"I... I forgor...," Kai uttered defeatedly. Chronia snickered when Kai said forgot incorrectly as she pulled a parasol partially out from Zalroth's tails and opened it to shade herself and Zalroth from the sun.

"I see... anyway, from this moment forward the Hikogami Toraru Handfan is officially yours, Zalka," Zalroth stated, causing Kai's eyes to light up along with a lightbulb lightning up in her head.

"Oh, I rember," Kai uttered positively, causing Chronia to snicker again.

"Which is?" Zalroth asked.

"Is it ok if I give... the fan a new name? The other one's too hard to rember," Kai pleaded. Zalroth smirked while he thought over Kai's request.

"Why not, a new skin deserves a new name doesn't it?" Chronia remarked as she pulled an old-fashioned scratched-up handheld console out from one of Zalroth's tails, and began to play on it. Kai happily hopped on the spot and crouched down before she ran a finger through the sandy ground. Zalroth and his present egos/visages watched as Kai drew funny doodles in the sand.

"Gonna be honest... I thought she was going to write something," Mimi remarked.

"Well, that's a dumb thing to think a one-year-old could accomplish," Maru remarked snarkily, causing Mimi to glare daggers at Maru. The duo aggressively bickered as a smug smile formed on Kai's face.

"I got it!" Kai exclaimed excitedly as she jumped to her feet with her fist raised and accidentally punched Mimi and Maru in their jaws, which brought the duo's bickering to an end.

"So, what do you want to call it?" Zalroth asked as Mimi and Maru rubbed their chins while they puffed up their cheeks.

"The Wyvern's Tale!" Kai announced.

"Tail?" Zalroth asked perplexedly.

"No! Tale as in story tales," Kai added.

"Ah... that makes more sense," Zalroth remarked cheekily as the ground faintly tremored again. Zalroth continued to stare at an antsy Kai as she fiddled with her fingers.

"Something on your mind?" Zalroth asked with a reassuring tone.

"Yeah...," Kai muttered extremely quietly. Zalroth gave Kai an endeared smirk and rubbed his chin.

"I think it would be better if you get the hang of using the sage state before attempting to learn any of the Hikogami Toraru fighting styles," Zalroth explained. Kai meekly nodded and quietly sighed. Zalroth looked to the side with an unsure guilty expression before he raised his right hand into the air.

“What are you do-” Kai uttered before she was knocked onto her butt by a violent tremor directly under the group’s feet. The continuous tremors reached their apex, even making Maru and Mimi stumble a little before a geyser of sand erupted from the crater Zalroth made. Zalroth somersaulted through the air while carrying Kai with his left hand, and the others hurtling around Zalroth.

The group landed on their feet, and Zalroth placed Kai next to Chronia on his kitsune tails. Maru and Mimi dashed in front of Zalroth and got in combative stances with their respective weapons readied while Zalroth stood quietly while Kai glared upwards.

"Stupid crab!" Kai angrily grumbled as the plumes of sand settled and a giant spikey crystal-covered back crab heathian loomed before the group while holding a sandworm in its pincer.