"Care to repeat that?" Solus asked unamusedly, crossing his arms as he stood at the entrance of Inaka's shrine room. Inaka huffed defiantly, mentally denying that Solus could be hard of hearing but reluctantly sighed as she crossed her arms in a pout.

"I said. Nebulous confirmed the multiple spots around Aioniotita that contain high levels of spirited chakra, which popped up recently, for me. I want you to go deal with them, duh," Inaka stated boldly while flicking her hair before slowly raising a multi-fruit/berry muffin to her mouth and taking a bite out of it, her fiercely exhausted eyes never leaving Solus.

"Like right now?" Tsarina asked with a mild amount of excitement but mostly exhaustion at the thought of more activities at the end of a school day.

"Given that Nebulous said the different locations would form into yokai at different times, I would say it's not necessary and I'll mentally telegraph you when one is going to form, ok?" Inaka explained, telegraphing the info to the trio with such clarity it made Nebula narrow her eyes in extreme suspicion.

"What did you do with the real Inaka?" Nebula grumbled as she fully emerged from Solus' tails, plopping her crossed arms on top of Solus' head and the side of her head on her arms. Not enjoying the implication of being called lazy, Inaka pouted and quietly huffed as she stuffed the whole muffin in her mouth.

"For your info, I'm only lazing about for six hours, sleeping for twelve, and eating food for four hours a day; so that's two hours where I'm working," Inaka stated boastfully with a slight muffle from the muffin, a prideful ear to ear toothy grin adorning her face as the trio unamusedly stared at Inaka with Solus' stare teetering on a fed up glare.

"Is bragging about being lazy something to be proud of?" Solus asked, his tone radiating annoyance and a hint of snark which Inaka picked up on. Like a regulated clockwork device, Inaka's grin snapped to a perfectly straight neutral expression, oozing a chilling apathetic sensation which was only amplified by the callous glint adorning Inaka's overbearing glare as she floated towards Solus' face. Almost on instinct, Solus moved his head back slightly, feeling the thin hairs of Inaka's face brush against him and the sharp slicing sensation that came with it.

"I'm not lazy because I have a lot of free time; I have a lot of free time because I'm effective at my job, brat. You best remember that," Inaka ordered, her voice uncharacteristically deep and mature to the point the group questioned if it was forced. Her voice drummed in Solus' ears, sending shivers through his and the spirits' spines as the flip in demeanour from Inaka caught them off guard. Without another word, Inaka turned on her heel in the air and fluttered back into her shrine, her comically large basket in tow as she closed the door behind her without as much as a creek.

"... how unexpected," Tsarina mumbled, cradling Oshi in her lap as he led down with his arms crossed in an X and his trashcan lid hat over his head.

"No kidding...," Solus muttered in mild shock, wondering why she only acts her age at the most irregular of provocations. He could only respond with a pitiful sigh as he raised his hand over his head and offered the box in his hand to Nebula while he added, "... and to think it was all cause because she wanted to give you a present a week in advance.". Nebula's face turned slightly red and weakly nodded as she defensively coiled her arms around the forearm-sized box wrapped in a blue wrapping paper covered in stars.

"Wait it's Nebula's birthday next week?" Tsarina blurted out, her face showing more shock than when Inaka became serious.

"Actually, it's both of ours," Nebula mumbled sheepishly as she stowed the present in Solus' tails, causing Tsarina to raise an eyebrow at her actions.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Tsarina asked, mentioning she'd never be able to resist opening a present even if her life depended on it. Nebula went to speak but her face abruptly soured into a nasty frown, finding it hard to focus on her words as she threw her arms on her back and faceplanted into Solus' tails. At hearing Nebula's pained groans, Zalroth mentally sighed in resignation, knowing he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight as he walked towards the Sakamoto residence.

"What's wrong with Nebula?" Tsarina asked puzzledly, poking her head beside Solus as she floated next to him.

"Something you won't have to experience... hopefully," Solus retorted, leaving Tsarina befuddled as she fluttered back to Nebula's side and placed Zu on Nebula's back. Zu swiftly wrapped her legs around Nebula's back before beginning to glow, leading Nebula's sour scowl to melt into a content grin at an unnaturally swift speed.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Soothing Hugs... and it alleviates pain in anyone they hug; Kinda crazy an actual spider has an Azure Ability right, Sol?" the telepathic voice of Kyoshina remarked while Solmeuetzo asked if she was talking to him or Solus, leading to her facepalming and rhetorically asking Solmeuetzo why she'd be so chummy with anyone other than him.

Later that night, Solus led on his futon with his kitsune tails sprawled out across the floor like a mat as Tsarina, Oshi, Lola, and Kusana had the tails wrapped around them like a sleeping bag; Inaka on the other hand had completely wrapped herself like a mummy with the tail she was claiming. Solus sighed, resigning himself to a sleepless night and closed his eyes to mull over the impending cause of his sleeplessness as two imposing shadows crept over his head, accompanied by Nebula's poutful murmurs.

"Yeah-yeah, I'll get to the massaging in a sec, just give me a sec, Nebi," Solus muttered exhaustedly while rubbing his face and flexing his fingers until they clicked. While Solus continued to build up his mental resolve, Nebula patiently sat positioned next to the top of Solus' head, her glowing eyes piercing through the dark of the room to reach Solus' face; with her silence, a forebodingly sinister grin crawled up her face, the onslaught of her desire to descend on Solus almost bursting at the seams but only held back by the single thought of Solus not talking to her for doing such things in the presence of Lola and Co.

"Soon...," Nebula muttered quietly, making Solus open one of his eyes and sit up in bewilderment.

"Pardon?" Solus asked as he turned around to Nebula, her expression back to normal without a hint of her prior emotion. Nebula tilted her head and puzzledly stared at Solus in silence, leading Solus to scratch his head in confusion while wondering if he was hearing things.

The next day, Lumina let out a hearty yawn, her eyes baggy with exhaustion, and wondered why Metsu had to be so loud when playing video games all night as she stepped out of her bedroom. But counting her blessing, Lumina gently pulled at her face, thankful for it being the weekend and not a school day. She closed the door behind herself before dragging her slipper-covered feet across the wooden floorboards as she made her way to Solus' room.

"Oi, dork, are you up?" Lumina grumbled groggily, stomping her foot against the floor as an alternative to knocking. She crossed her arms, her faint temper failing to simmer and waited as footsteps gradually approached from the other side of the bedroom door. The shoji door rattled, jostling up and down as a small hand lightly pressed against the paper part of the door, forming a handprint as the grumbling voice of the short figure behind the door struggled to find the nonexistent door handle.

"It's a sliding door, Lola," Lumina started with mild amusement on her face at seeing such a poor attempt to operate the door. With a few more pointers from Lumina, Lola managed to find the groove in the door, requiring her to prop herself up with her two kitsune tails to reach the groove; she slid the door open enough to satisfy Lumina's requirements to count as being let in before she slapped the door fully open, sending Lola flying in the process. Despite her initial temper, any fury Lumina might have festered instantly evaporated the second she locked her gaze on the sight before her and collapsed to her knees in utter shock.

"No... No!!!" Lumina exclaimed in aquish, startling Tsarina, Oshi, and Kusana awake into a frenzy as Inaka poked her head into the room with an unamused frown.

"What's with the shouting?" Camellia asked puzzledly as she poked her head into the situation with a sleeping Metsu tangled up in her unkempt hair. Camellia gazed into Solus' room and cast her puzzled stare across the room before noticing the lack of Solus or even Nebula.

"She's in distress because she cannot process not being able to wake me up in the morning," Solus mumbled deflatedly.

"What an odd thing to get... hung up on," Camellia remarked, briefly losing track of her sentence as she saw the exhaustedly piercing dullness in Solus' eyes. She jumped back slightly from the oddly imposing sensation imparted in her from Solus. However, the sensation was drowned out as she noticed Solus' eyes weren't their usual blond; instead, his eyes were a dark royal blue, puzzling Camellia as she wondered why he would be wearing coloured eye contact lenses. Camellia glanced down, widening her eyes in surprised amusement at seeing Solus in his and Nebula's armatized state.

"Was there a yokai or something?" Camellia asked with a happy grin on her face at being able to see Solus' armatized kimono up close. Solus heavily inhaled before letting it out in a pitiful whimper, finding the events that led to his situation both draining and beyond words.

"if only.".

"Then why did-?". Not allowing her to start her question fully, Solus threw his hand up to cut Camellia off, not wanting her to complicate things even further for him by letting her instigate or provoke Nebula with even the smallest thing.

"For everyone's sake, I suggest you just act like I've not been in this form for the past nine hours," Solus stated sternly, only lowering his hand when Camellia nodded in understanding.

From outside and with a clear view into the house, Eusia smugly sat atop a Torri gate, playfully kicking her legs around with her long cat tail swaying in tune to her whistling. Eusia surveyed her surroundings, eventually stopping as she spotted Solus through a window. Eusia fell to her side and led on her belly, her intrigue peaked, and she watched Solus begin cooking breakfast, leading Eusia to flick her catty tail as she cheekily considered trolling Inaka by stealing her breakfast again.