Later that day, Eva was sitting in her room, windows covered by curtains. Only a single candle sitting on a small wooden plate before the kneeling Kitsune spread light across the room. Not that she saw it with her eyes closed in concentration.

She had been trying to get the flame to do something but flicker peacefully all evening. Losing herself deeper and deeper in concentration, Eva got her first reaction out of the little flame when a loud knock on the door surprised her. As her concentration was violently disrupted, it flared to live, nearly blinding her despite having her eyes mostly closed.

Kurt had not been so lucky, and as her head snapped around to look at the new arrival, she saw him rubbing his eyes.

“Sorry, I did not expect anyone.” Eva said quickly as she made sure nothing had been burned by her sudden surge of pyrokinetics. “And of course it is now that something happens.”

“Next time put a sign up.” Kurt mumbled, annoyance dripping from his tone as his vision seemed to finally clear. “Some kinda ‘Don’t disturb’ at the very least.”

“I’ll try to remember that.” Eva said as she picked up the plate and pulled the curtains open before blowing out the flame, now back to its normal size. “I didn’t expect you to arrive this quickly though.”

“What do you mean ‘quickly’?” Her friend inquired, looking a bit puzzled. “It’s been a couple hours since you asked me to come over to talk about something. Which I am still curious about.”

“Well it’s a couple of things really.” Eva replied as pulled a small folding chair from her wall closet. After setting it up for Kurt, she just turned into a fox and took a seat on her dog bed. Turning around once to find the currently most comfy bit of it.

“Is that so?”

“Ye. First off, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about controlling fire with magic? Been experimenting with that, to limited success.” She flicked one of her tails towards the extinguished candle.

“Not really. You’d probably have had a better chance asking my Sister. She’s been invited to join some Walpurgisnacht celebrations[1], so she might have picked up some things from those friends of hers.

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“Wait like witches dancing on the Blocksberg? They actually do that?”

“Yeah. Tickets are kinda pricey for that particular one though.” Kurt said with a nod.

“Okay, putting away more myths that are actually true.” Eva continued after a deep sigh. “Please keep away from any suspicious cats, especially with forked tails.”

“Hm?” Kurt simply hummed, curiosity clearly peaked.

“Yeah. Apparently Nekomata can drain your energy. And if I assume right from the way the old lady said it, full blooded ones might actually be able to just take a man’s life to fuel their magic.”

“I see. Not sure they mention that in many myths, if any.” he said stroking his beard in thought.

“I wouldn’t know about that. But the guy that was kinda helpful to me has been basically in a coma since yesterday because of a jealous teenaged, crazy quarter-cat girl. And he’ll likely not wake up till the weekend.”

“But he will, right?” Kurt said as he raised her head a bit, before turning the hand to scratch her behind the ear instead of pushing up her muzzle.

“He definitely should, just no one knows for sure when.” Eva explained, ears twitching at the ministrations while her tails moved around sluggishly.

They stayed like that for a few moments, before Eva spoke up again. “Though one last thing, do you have any plans for the weekend yet?”

“Nothing too concrete, why?”

“Well, because of a lot of shit that went down today, the old cat lady offered me to spend an extended weekend at a friend’s Onsen in Noboribetsu.[2] Wanna come? She said bringing a friend wouldn’t be an issue.”

“Well, we’ll need to keep the full moon in mind, but otherwise, sure.” Kurt said with a short nod.

“That was this weekend?” Eva exclaimed, ears stiffening at her surprise.

“Yeah. the night from Friday to Saturday.” Kurt confirmed with another nod.

“Well it is a resort run by and for Youkai, so I am sure we will be able to figure something out.” Eva said, giving the best approximation of a shrug her foxy form could manage.

“Wait, like in Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi?” Kurt replied, eyes wide in surprise.

“Like in what?” Eva mumbled, obviously unfamiliar.

“Ah, Spirited Away.” He quickly replied, remembering to use the name Eva had a better chance to be familiar with this time.[3]

“Oh. Not sure, maybe?”

“Well, we’ll see when we get there I guess.”

“Mhm.”