“Why? I don’t think we’ve even been properly introduced.” Eva replies to the younger woman standing before her.

Completely ignoring Eva’s question, Kuroko continued, her eyes narrowing as her voice rose a bit. “I am curious. What did you do to my Grandmother and our employees?”

“What?” Eva simply exclaimed, the allegations coming completely out of left field for her.

“You are just some gaijin, and still, you get taught grandmother’s secrets, and even after I got rid of the one guy giving you the time of day, people were still willing to help you out.”[1] She shouted accusingly. As she worked herself into an angry frenzy, translucent purple flames began to lick out from the corners of her eyes.

“Maybe they just aren’t as xenophobic as you?” Eva replied in a low voice, though still backing off a bit as the room was tinted by the flames around Kuroko’s eyes.

“So what? Grandmother still chose you over me. WHY?” As her rage deepened, motes of fire drifting from the flames around her eyes began to drift around Kuroko.

“You’d need to ask her that.” Eva suggested just before her back hit the lockers behind her.

Which quickly turned out to have been the wrong thing to say as Kuroko just roars as the motes of fire surrounding her coalesce into a pair of translucent cat ears and a forked cat tail. “I’ll just get rid of you. Then she’ll have to teach me.” The young japanese shouts as she sends a gout of flame towards Eva with a flick of her wrist. Taking Eva by surprise, the Kitsune barely dodged, still getting the elbow of her jacket singed.

A punch sent a ball of fire the size of her torso hurling towards Eva. Which she barely evaded by turning into a fox, only getting the tips of her tails singed. As Kuroko flicked another gout of flame towards Eva, the Kitsune realized she’d need to think of something soon. Gritting her teeth as she ended up getting singed by this bout of flame, she focused as she began to bob and weave, leaving a trail of illusory fog in her wake. As the illusion spread to cover the whole room, she hoped it would allow her to slip past the young pyromaniac and escape.

Waiting for a few moments filled with random flashes of purple flame illuminating the fog, she ended up realizing that Kuroko was not moving from the door. Not wanting to risk being hit by the enraged girl's attacks, she did not dare close on her. Waiting out this stalemate for now, she soon found Kuroko’s presence, for a lack of a better term, fade as the bouts of flame grew smaller and smaller, until the soft purple illumination to the fog faded entirely. Giving it another few seconds to be safe, when no more fiery attacks came, Eva decided to make a break for it. Running past her adversary, Eva barreled into the door with all the force the body of a small magical vulpine can manage.

“Gotcha” was all she heard as she tumbled into the next room, followed by a gout of purple flames. Just as this ball of burning hot pain was about to catch up with her, Eva was yanked to the side by an unseen force, moving her out of the way at the last second.

As she was turned around, she noticed that her attacker was hoisted up and immobilized in a similar fashion.

“What is the meaning of this?” The stern voice of Ayami quietly drifted towards them from the side as the elderly cat Youkai stepped in between them.

Seeing as there was nothing to gain from keeping it up further Eva let her illusion dissolve. As the charred walls and lockers came into view in the changing room, Ayami’s face twisted into a scowl. “Who of you tried to burn down my house?”

“Kuroko,” Eva replied. “Blamed me for people being friendly and began slinging fire around.”

“Don’t listen to her.” the younger woman shouted immediately. “She’s a Kitsune, of course she threw around all the fire.”

“I see.” Ayami said as her eyes slowly drifted from Eva towards her granddaughter. “So if you speak the truth, why would she have done that now?”

“She’s a stupid Gaijin, who knows why they do anything.”

“Even the most twisted of demons and gods usually have a reason for what they do. In all my years, the only ones doing things for no discernible reason are kids and teenagers who don’t know what they are doing.” Ayami coldly stated as she glared at her granddaughter. The hint of wetness in her eyes made Eva wonder if she wasn’t actually more disappointed than angry. “We’ll speak about this, and what you did to poor Asahi later.” She then turned to face Eva as Kuroko was dragged through the air as if carried by an enormous unseen cat.

“I am deeply sorry for what my family has tried to do to you. Of course I will not force you to work in the same brewery as her anymore, your debt is repaid.” The elderly Youkai set Eva down on the floor, before kneeling down before her and bowing down till her head touched the floor.[2]

“I beg you to forgive my family for this transgression. If it pleases you, I will have our first half dozen barrels of sake sent to your shrine as penance.”

Eva, a bit overwhelmed by this exaggerated gesture, especially from the person that just saved her life, took a few moments to gather her wits. After a few deep breaths she replied. “You don’t need to go that far, you just saved my life.”

“No. I insist, my flesh and blood tried to cause that harm in the first place, in my own home. While you were one of my workers no less.” Ayami continued, not raising her head even the tiniest bit.

Eva, with a short sigh, responded calmly. “In that case, just one barrel would be more than enough. I was curious to taste the sake I helped make anyways.”

Somehow managing to nod before she stood up, Ayami looked Eva in the eyes. “Thank you.”

“Can I still work here the rest of the week though?” Eva asked, scratching herself behind the ear nervously with her hindleg. “I did reschedule a lot of things to make the time, and I would love to learn even more of how you all brew sake here.”

“I will think about it. But do please at least take this afternoon off. You will need some time to recover from this. Come a bit early tomorrow, and we can try to work out a new agreement.”

Replying just with a nod, Eva quickly went into the room to pick up her lightly singed bag, before vanishing from sight as she began to make her way home.