“You going to let me in to talk about this?” Eva inquired after a few seconds of stunned silence.

“Ah yes, of course.” Kurt said before he scrambled to open the door and let the Kitsune in. “So you are a Fox, I was wondering why you smelled like one since lunch on monday.”

“Yes.” Eva admitted as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her, carefully moving her tails out of the way so she wouldn’t catch any of them in a door. Again. “Though it all just started about a week ago.”

“And you jumped onto my balcony why?” Kurt inquired, arms crossed before his chest.

“Because I've got a delivery for you.” she explained, holding out the package for him.

“Which you didn’t deliver through the front door why?” Kurt continued to inquire as he grabbed it and sat down on the tatami floor.

“Because the last time I tried to deliver something I spooked a group of Kappa. And A Kitsune in broad daylight would just be too suspicious.”

“Uhu” Kurt mumbled, not believing her as he focused on the package. While he opened it Eva looked around. Most of Kurt’s belongings had yet to be unpacked judging by the amount of Boxes standing around. The few things that were unpacked, a Laptop, some folded up piece of fabric, needles and embroidery thread, a small calendar and some stationary, filled a small table sitting at the center of the room.

“So why are you delivering things?” Kurt asked, tearing her attention away from his belongings.

“You remember the first night we went out to drink here in Tokyo?”

“Not much of it, why?” He wondered, putting the contents of the delivery down on the small table.

“Well on my way home, I picked up a dying fox goddess. Not that I knew about that at the time.” Eva began to explain, her gaze dropping to the floor, ears and tails drooping down. “No, I couldn’t actually do anything for her, drunk as I was.” She preempted the most likely question. “She felt inheriting her position and obligations an adequate reward for my efforts though, so here I am.”

“Huh, that’s not what I was expecting.” Kurt admitted as he looked up at her.

“Then how do you think people turn into foxes?” The Kitsune inquired, slowly raising her head to look at her friend again.

“Well I assumed I just missed the foxy smell on the plane amidst all the other people.” Kurt admitted with shrug. “Though now that you do ask, I kind of want to find out how it’s portrayed in legends, if at all.” He continued while starting his laptop.

“Sure.” Eva replied, her left ear giving a little flick. “Well I’ll guess I leave you to it then, see you soon.”

“Ah wait, mind delivering this for me?” Kurt asked as he scrambled to write a short reply, folding it and sealing it with a piece of tape.

“Who is it for?” Eva inquired. “I’ll not take a letter to Europe any time soon.”

“Ah no worries about that, Dad said Ratatoskr would stay in Japan for a bit.”

Eva, all emotion drained from her face, took the message and stood up. “It seems I have someone to talk to, so I’ll be on my way.”

With her tails rising stiffly behind her, the young Kitsune moved towards the door she entered through.

“You sure you don’t want to use the front door?”

“Yes, It’ll be quicker this way.” Eva said, before stepping outside and returning to the ground the same way she climbed up.

Half an hour, and another trip across the foxroad, later Eva was back at Mumeikitsune. Walking across the ground, she waved to Toya in passing. With the young Tanuki preoccupied talking to a couple of, presumably, tourists, Eva decided to just move on for now. Despite keeping a lookout for him, she did no see the lazy rodent she was after. Stepping inside the house, her boots dissolved before her now bare feet touched the tatami mats.

At first glance, the main room seemed to be empty. Which wasn’t really a surprise this time in the afternoon. Komaki usually took a nap in his tree around this time of day. Yukiko was at some practice or other, playing the shamisen, dancing, holding a tea ceremony, or something Eva had yet to learn about. And Toya was tending to the shrine grounds and visitors. Normally Eva would head to her room and study until Toya needed her to take over so he could prepare dinner for everyone.

Today however, she instead searched for a certain mythological squirrel. Though she couldn’t find him anywhere, the letter from Kurt still lead nowhere but to Mumeikitsune, which meant waiting for Ratatoskr right where she was, was the best way to deliver it.

Over the hours she spent waiting, first while trying to study, then taking over for Toya, Eva’s ire at the norse deity, if that even was the right thing to call him, slightly fizzled out. As she began to make her way back inside for dinner though, the Kitsune saw a very drunk squirrel fall out of the one actual tree they had. Seeing the tiny wine stained Toga he was wearing reignited her anger easily. As she stomped over, her eyes looked as if they were to burst into flame at any moment. She grabbed the small animal by the neck and held him up to her eye level.

“You lazy little bastard.” Eva greeted him as she began to return inside.

“Hey you la-lame vixen.”

“I got a letter for you. From the guy I took your package to. Who Lives right next to half a dozen trees.”

“Oh good, gimme.” Ratatoskr said stretching out one of his tiny paws towards the Kitsune, who held the piece of paper she had gotten from Kurt just outside his reach.

“First you tell me why you couldn’t deliver it yourself and instead wasted my time with it.”

“Well I don’t know where he lives. And it’s your duty isn’t it? Oh and of course I couldn’t miss a party organized by a god of wine.”

Taking a deep breath, Eva simply dropped the squirrel and the letter in front of the door. “I’m supposed to be a messenger of Inari, not your personal mail carrier.”

“Ah shit, an here I hoped you could deliver something else for me on saturday.”

“Why saturday?” Eva inquired as she stopped and turned around, her red hakama flaring to the side at the sudden movement.

“Because that’s when this month’s full moon is.”