"Here you go," Marik said while handing Granny Fox her message bracelet. "Please wait to test the button for the girls until they test theirs to keep it a surprise."

"Did you eat something strange, boy? I thought I heard you tell me 'please', but I must have misheard."

"I'm not THAT much of a miscreant."

"Which button is which, by the way?"

"The marked one should be for Master. You get one message about 2 seconds long every nine hours per button."

"Interesting thing you've come up with."

"Unfortunately it's nowhere near as advanced as...well..."

"Ah. I understand. There's no one here to hear you but your caution is good. So, the other world had even better things in your past life, huh? Interesting."

"Ya. Unfortunately I am absolute garbage as a craftsman in this life, so I doubt I'll be able to get things made that are even close to what that life would have considered outdated even. So, how's Sai doing? I mean, I'll ask her and check her progress myself, sure. I just thought I'd hear her current teacher's opinion."

"Current teacher, huh?"

"Well, I mean, after she completes one more step from the one she's on you kind of have to be left out..."

"Right. I'd say she's ready to move forward, personally. I've been thinking some this past year, you know. You might have been right. That girl is most likely a genius."

"It makes me feel bad to hear you agree with me on that. No, I'm not trying to be snarky here. I mean it as in, well, she keeps thinking that I'm the genius, especially after you told her I'm smart and doing strange things, when all I'm doing is using years of different knowledge than most people have and yet she's still catching up. That's what I mean by feeling bad to hear you agree: it's more of hearing a second opinion from a trusted source."

"I see. Well, she is moving forward in certain ways to reach you. But you seem to be spreading yourself around in more general directions so I wouldn't necessarily say you're stupid. Maybe."

"Speaking of general knowledge. How often do the twins even go out, see civilization, meet people, learn to socialize, or otherwise get to know society in general?"

"They don't. Honestly I wanted to wait until they were ready when they were younger. I had work to do and not enough time to fix that for a while after that. Recently, I've actually tried but both of them refuse any suggestion I bring up and I unfortunately don't have quite enough time to equal how much it would take to convince them and follow through."

"I see. That's not very good. I'll see what I can do about that. These bracelets should actually help a little."

"Hm? I don't think I fully understand but it seems we both agree that they need to start rejoining society in some way so I'll leave them to you for convincing."

"Then before I go, I think I still have that old necklace somewhere to help against light mind attacks and reading. You might want to get another and I'll hand mine over. Also, I'd like you to randomly do some light attacks or something when we meet for the next year or so. It's probably good for me to get in the habit of recognizing such a thing and dealing with it in whatever ways are circumstantially best."

Marik left to go outside and meet the twins. Partway down the stairs he suddenly received a mental attack which his defenses were able to deal. Unfortunately he wasn't able to actually determine where the attack had come from like he had hoped. He knew it was just Granny Fox this time but he would have to try and find a way to trace things like that at some point. He continued on his way and walked out into the courtyard to find it empty of people but with a new addition of some wooden posts with various sticks in them in the ground at a corner area. They looked vaguely similar to the training devices some martial artists in the east from his old world had used. If Sai had come up with that herself, then that was just flat out amazing.

Marik sat down in the shade near the door and began practicing his force claw arcanistry. He wanted to try and get to the point where he could cast it at a moments notice and then drop it again instantly. He was still a ways away from that but that's what practice was for. As he was sitting there practicing, the door flew open and Sai ran out while looking behind her and shouting.

"Hurry up, Kiara. Marik will be here soon and we aren't in our show off positions, yet."

"So you're just showing off every year when I come, huh?"

"Huh? Uh. Oops? Hi, Marik. It's nice weather today, don't you think?"

"Indeed. It seems like a splendid day to get into position where the sunlight will hit just right so you can look good for a certain boy you only see on occasion. Don't you think so, too, Kiara?"

"Umm, yes? Hi? See, Sai, we didn't need to worry that much and he's already here."

"Urgh. We could have been here first if you hadn't slept in late."

"Me sleeping in late has nothing to do with it. You could have started brushing your tail before I woke up, you know."

"Shh. Don't let him know about that part."

"Uh, girls? I'm still right here, you know. I'm not going hate you over personal grooming one way or the other, either. Anyways, it's time for presents. This one is yours and this is yours. They might be a little loose still but they're made so we can grow into them. This one's mine. See these buttons? They're a little hard to press but as soon as you do you have two seconds of message time to whoever the button is for. Like this: can you hear me? Each button can only be used once every nine hours. The marked button is for your master and the other one is for both me and your sister at the same time."

"What if we want to send a message to just you, though," asked Sai as she pointed puppy eyes at him.

"Well, uh. I guess you'd need to just use the spell? It means you'd need something from me."

The sister looked at each other then turned to Marik and spoke at the same time.

""Please give me some hair(cum)!""

"Oi! One of you definitely said something you shouldn't! *sigh* I guess I don't mind giving some hair but I refuse to receive more than one message per day at most. I'll also, obviously, probably not respond."

He reached up above his face with both hands and made sure each was only grabbing one strand of hair before yanking them quickly and holding one out to each girl. Sai immediately ran back inside while staring at her hands as if holding a precious treasure while Kiara held her strand carefully and gently took out a small cloth which she carefully used to start wrapping the hair in. Just before Kiara had finished wrapping it up completely, she seemed to pause and ponder something before sculping a spell and touching the hair. Marik received two messages at the same time.

He could feel the messages against his mental defenses pushing in a strange way as if asking for permission to enter. He could even tell who each of the messages was from. Giving the messages the permission they needed allowed them to come straight to his mind without bothering his defenses at all. Everything worked just like the bracelet tests with his master so he was happy that was working correctly. He would have to wait until they used their bracelets to make sure the bracelets themselves worked, still. The same message came from both of the girls so there wasn't any confusion in hearing it.

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""I love you.""

His heart skipped a beat. He rally hoped that that wouldn't become a daily message. He sighed and decided not to say anything about it since both of them had obviously done it via spell instead of bracelet and thus meant it to be private. Kiara finished wrapping her new treasure before tucking it away in her shirt. Marik was about to suddenly make an exclamation about that when Sai burst out of the door and slammed it shut behind her. Feeling he had missed his chance, he decided to instead ignore it and pretend he hadn't seen anything.

"So, with that out of the way: why don't you two want to go outside and learn what the world is like?"

""Huh?""

The way they tilted their heads at the same time was very cute. They were being very twin-like today, too.

"No, I mean, even I go out to various places all the time. I can't stay hidden away in the forest for the rest of my life, right? Are you planning on hiding in this mansion forever? I mean, if you do then I might still be able to come visit on occasion but it wouldn't even be once a year anymore, you know. If you aren't ready to deal with the outside world and it's people then how would you ever visit me, then?"

"Wait! Kiara might be staying here forever but I plan to go...somewhere..."

"No. Well, yes. I do plan to be here as long as possible but I can't really go outside much because...you know..."

"*sigh* Look. Sai, if you plan to go somewhere then how are you going to do that without knowing what life is like out there? You can't be planning to just jump into society and hope nobody messes with you for it, right? That kind of thing can even make good and nice people become mean and bad people only towards you. Kiara, trying to use...that...as an excuse isn't always going to work. Even staying here will mean eventually you'll meet other people, even if only rarely. It's better to be prepared for all kinds of things, you know. I'm not saying go out into the busiest places in existence and go wild there or anything but just learn to interact some as well as how things work in general. You guys have those bracelets now so if worse comes to worst you can always send emergency messages, right?"

"But I don't know anyone anywhere else."

"Me, neither."

"Well, ya. Until you go out that's going to kind of stay that way. I'm not saying you even have to go get to know specific people but just how people act and do things in general. Think of it like this. What would you do if you suddenly were by yourself at the edge of an unknown town somewhere with no way to talk to me, your master, or your sister? Could you survive? Would you even know who to ask about figuring out what to do much less knowing what to do yourself?"

"Well, what would you do?"

"Hm? Fine. First thing is I'd do is make sure they speak one of the languages I know. If they don't then I'd have to start using gestures that everyone around the world knows. I'd try talking to the gate guard first and if there isn't one then I'd try to politely ask some people on the street closest to the entrance. If I had money on me I might use a small bit as incentive. If it was a place I knew or had been before then I could use that to find my way. If not then I could use my connections with the mercenary guild to try and get some answers or money so that I could have food and a place to sleep that night. Should I keep going? Like I said, even as busy as I am doing all the things I do, I still go out to try and make sure I can at least partially fit into society when I need to."

"Hmm. But..."

"Just think about it for now. If nothing else, some of the times when I go out and it's not for mercenary things then I can see if you two want to go as well."

"Okay..."

"As long as you think about it. Now, is there anything you want to know, Kiara? About things to help your studies and stuff, I mean."

"No. I think I came up something so I'm going to go talk to Master for a bit."

"Well, I won't stop you. Have fun, I guess? So, Sai, I think you're probably getting close to being ready for the next step if you aren't already there. You need to keep up as many sorceries as possible while trying to use spells at the same time."

"Huh? That's it?"

"That's it. It's a fairly easy step compared to the last two but an important one for a few reasons. Most of the reasons you'll have to figure out someday but this is the last step where you can get help from you master."

"Oh. I think I can already do that, though?"

"Then take a little time and get good at it. Like I said, after this you can't get as much help anymore. I can't do sorcery or magic the way you or your master can so any of those small questions you have or demonstrations you need or whatever else you can come up won't be available to you anymore once you say you're ready to move on. I didn't get that kind of chance and I lost a lot more because of it. You're getting the chance, now, so use it to understand as much as you can, okay?"

"Hmm..."

She seemed to be lost in thought for a while before coming to her own conclusion. Marik spent the rest of the time answering her questions and doing what he could to help improve in any way. Kiara came back at some point and sat there in the shade like normal, except instead of watching them she seemed focused on doing something herself. Marik thought to walk to her to see if she needed or wanted help but after the first step she looked up and shooed him away so he stuck helping Sai and only occasionally glancing at Kiara. His master came a little late in the evening, having apparently gotten caught up in his chat with Granny Fox, and opened the portal home for them. Sai returned his goodbye wave but Kiara continued focusing on her own activity and didn't seem to notice him leaving. He stepped through the portal with a sigh and hoped they would both be okay.

----------------------------------------

Marik spent the next two months working on everything he could as hard as he could. He used the time he spent developing spells with his master as rest time. His original plan was to leave when he turned fifteen years old and legally became an adult in most of the countries around the world. He received a message from the girls letting him know they had finally gone out, which he assumed to mean they had gone with Granny Fox to try and get a little used to civilization. He even asked D and Mer to start taking him on a few real jobs if they could instead of just all the small time ones they usually did for training.

He had a strong feeling that the twins would show up for their birthday again and that Sai would demand to go to the next step. He knew it probably wasn't the best thing but he felt both ways about it: he wanted her to move on and be the second arcanist, but he didn't want her to lose most of what she'd been learning and become a target like he would probably be. He took what little time he could to think of every argument to convince her against taking the next step that he could so that neither of them would have regrets if she still chose to do so. He also sent a message via his master to let her know that she should learn any and every spell she could that was similar to anything she could do with her sorcery, especially the ones she liked the most or found the most useful. Losing the sorceries he had worked so hard to develop had been one of the biggest blows for him and he wanted to make sure she had a head start. Then the day before their birthday he sent a simple message to the twins: coming tomorrow morning? They responded with an affirmative so he decided to not plan for anything other than their visit for the day.

When the portal opened and the three foxkin stepped out he actually felt a little nervous while using all of his mirror training to hide it. Granny Fox walked past him while Kiara started to walk forward in their direction. Sai practically ran up to him with a huge smile on her face and sparkles in her eyes.

"I'm here. I'm ready for the next step!"

Marik sighed and glanced back at Granny Fox before looking over at Kiara.

"Kiara, you should probably head inside for now."

"Huh? Why do I-"

"Go inside, girl," Granny Fox's tone left no room for arguments.

Kiara pouted heavily, which was still cute, and went inside. His master followed since he and Marik had already talked some about what might happen. He looked back at Sai and made his face as serious as he could.

"This will be the last chance, Sai. If you continue from here then all your sorcery and magic will be gone."

"I kind of knew that. You didn't try to hide that very well. It's okay, I-"

"No! Listen well, Sai. Do you think you could beat your master or mine if they decided to try and kill you right now? No, right? You have your weapon to help but right now the only chance you would even have against them is the mystical arts you've learned. If you become special like me you will lose that and make a bunch of people like our masters may want to do very bad things to you. Do you remember what happened before you went to live with Granny Fox, even a little? Everything you remember and feel about that time and worse becomes a possibility after this step. You won't even be able to explain to your sister so she can help you. I can try, but there's a good chance that I won't be able to help you either because they'll want to do the same things or worse to me. If you choose not to take that step then you lose nothing and even your future plans about where you want to go or what you want to do will be unchanged. This is really the last chance. If you choose to take that step then you can't decide later that it wasn't what you wanted after all."

Sai started shaking a bit partway through his little speech in fear. She listened intently and he could see she was seriously thinking even past the crazy and impulsiveness she usually had. He didn't say anything as kept his expression as serious as possible and waited to hear what she wanted. Granny Fox stayed silent and watched. Sai finally closed her eyes and as calmly as possible chose her words carefully.

"No. I decided that I wanted to do it the way you do. I want to be with you. I don't want you to be alone. I want to understand you more and know the things you do while feeling what you feel. I'm ready for the next step and I want to do it."

"No regrets?"

"None."

"I tried," he said while looking at Granny Fox.

"I know, boy. I was here. Thank you. That last part almost sounded like a marriage vow, though."

"I noticed something similar. I'd rather wait until I'm at least fifteen and legally an adult, though."

"*sigh* I suppose I should leave you two alone, then. I'll make sure her sister stays with us for now."

Granny Fox turned and walked to the door of the house. She paused once to sigh after opening the door then shook her head and entered, closing the door behind her.