The week flew by like a dream, allowing Sora to spend personal time with her daughter and catch up on all the pop-culture things she’d missed since leaving Earth; her j-dramas were completely caught up, and some of the twists had her bawling or cheering.

Emilia was even getting into them, but it helped when the Realm translated Japanese to English—her only known language—yet did it really matter when she could use magic to act as an intermediary?

Unfortunately, her Vampire Diaries marathon had been less than she thought due to having more time with her daughter than expected, but the trade-off was well worth the wait; she wanted to keep Emilia away from more violent dramas for as long as she could.

Years had passed on Earth in their absence after something fundamental changed in the omniverse they resided in; apparently, it had to do with the ripple effect that their Vulpes Realm had on it.

In the silent moments she had alone during the last seven days, she was able to ponder certain things.

All her bullies had moved on with their lives, branching out into society to follow their own paths—only those who had werewolf blood had been abducted by the organization.

The hotel she’d grown up in had been put in a trust and paid for, so she expected it was still vacant. White showed her all the damage done to it by Devin had been repaired—the hotel wasn’t going to let that depreciate its value, and there were standing agreements her father made to upkeep the place.

Sora wondered if it would be a good idea to go back one last time to show Emilia where her mother had grown up; she didn’t want to lose it, but the real attachment she had was the Miami environment.

Ron and Howie weren’t there anymore, having vanished after the organization swept the city and rounded up all the monsters, but Sora had no doubt her friends and their partners were doing well—Stephanie was there, after all—and the gorgeous blue Celestial had likely given birth to her son by now.

She hoped she could see Stephanie again at some point; she didn’t care much for the feelings of the 1st Generation Founders regarding whatever Celestials were or staying in their Existence illegally or whatever—the giantess was the first creature she met to give her a foundation and confidence to reach this point.

Sora had faith the woman was doing well, and it brought back the realization of just how much had happened; it felt like a lifetime—like it should have been a lifetime.

Daisy should be in a better place, too, which made her happy to think about all the people’s lives she’d touched; all the trouble was worth it, and the feelings Howie sent her left a lasting impression she’d never forget.

The storms they’d weathered had left a tapestry of images in her mind and emotions in her heart for her to reflect on. She smiled; it was those times that allowed her to enjoy times of peace like this, with her daughter cuddled up on her chest in fox form.

A thousand rising suns seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, yet time lost a lot of meaning after learning how fluid and variant it could be; now, here she was with her daughter, basically the princess of this entire Realm of vulpes.

She used to be a stuttering, terrified, and angry teenage girl that had trouble reconciling all the unfair twists in her life. Now, she knew her family—had a little family of her own—and it warmed her heart knowing just how much they cared for her.

Sisters, aunts, friends, a daughter, and so much more; it was so lovely being able to talk to Mary, Ashley, and Alice, among everyone else she’d helped throughout the crises that had kept them on the edge of their seats.

Sora sort of felt like an old woman, which made her giggle, and there were so many more things to come; her goal was to have a complete family, and she could actually see it coming about now—all she had to do was soldier on through the rolling thunder.

Fingers stroking her daughter’s fluffy, rising-and-falling side as she slept, Sora had made note of every toss and turn the girl had made through the night. On this Saturday morning, she let her daughter sleep in, enjoying the last little bit she had to let the world skate by.

She smiled when Emilia’s face scrunched up with a low groan at her mother’s gentle strokes, re-settling in; being able to wake up to her pretty daughter’s sleeping face was more emotional than Sora expected—still, good things never lasted forever.

Shivers tingled down her spine as she puffed out a long sigh, hoping she was making the right decision in letting her daughter move to the next stage; Mary and the others had returned to their own lives earlier that week, leaving the house quiet again—well, except when Emi was up.

Most people let her rest, only coming in every other day to show they were thinking about her and keeping her company between drama breaks.

Wendy and Kari were training pretty hard together, and Vix-chu joined her brown-haired book of a master to grow stronger, which Sora was all for getting rid of the annoying fox.

Sora looked forward to seeing their progress later today.

Eyia had joined her for a few hours, but the dramas confused her, and even Jin—the training junky—took time off to spend time with her; it felt more like the 2nd Gen Dragon Founder was attending a funeral, though, with how agitated she was.

Apparently, she’d hit a wall in her training, but Eyia said she was getting close to her birthday, which was the real issue; something big was supposed to happen to her that related to her mother, and she was scared—not that the oddly prideful—and yet not—dragon would ever admit.

Sora was surprised Jin’s birthday hadn’t happened yet after she’d gone full circle for a birthday, and Emilia’s was coming up soon, but Jin’s timeline seemed to have its own internal clock that didn’t conform to this omniverse.

Sora would rather not spend time thinking about it too much, but she could understand the frustration of being powerless, though, and wanted to help Jin if she could.

Mofupsi had been so distant that Sora wondered if she was even her slave or not because the woman had done nothing but explore her desire magic since waking; their mother showed Mofupsi something that had kept her away for safety, apparently.

Sora had so much to catch up on, but that was kind of the story of being sick; life moved on while you lay in bed dying.

Closing her eyes, Sora made her first Null-Void body double—she got the idea from a drama—and had it throw on a blue dress to not cook breakfast naked. She had to specify who was the clone or not, unable to split her consciousness between them yet. It worked! Her first experiment of the week.

She sent it downstairs to start making cinnamon buns for when Tola and White would show up as she’d asked; it was time for the next step.

The sun was rising into the sky, and more than an hour passed from their typical waking schedule before her daughter stretched out and floated up with a yawn; Sora managed to get the dough rising and move to the next steps downstairs—it was easy when the clone followed instructions like a robot.

“Morning, Mom… Feeling better?”

“Morning!” she chimed, scooting to the headboard to ease out her own muscles now that she wasn’t trapped. “Way better. Sleep well?”

“Uh-huh… I guess. Ugh, did I drool on you?” she groaned, noticing the stains on Sora’s gown.

“I think it’s cute.”

“Weirdo,” she snickered, transforming into her human form to pull back her hair and craft a magical tie around it. “The door’s open… Cinnabun?! I knew it!”

Sora grinned and held up a thumbs up before slipping on her daughter’s pendant and mother’s bracelet; it was only a matter of time before she smelled the mixed ingredients and rising dough. “Cinnabun Saturday!”

“Cinnabun Saturday!” Emi cheered, floating downstairs to check the progress as Sora slunk after her; it felt good to walk on occasion, but sometimes it did make her feel like an old lady.

Leaning against the side of the door with a playful smile, she watched her daughter’s furrowed eyebrows upon glancing between her two mothers.

“When… did you learn how to make a body double—which one’s you?”

“Ooh—can’t tell who your mother is? I’m hurt, Em!”

“Humph. I know—do you know?!”

Sora rolled her eyes and smirked. “Typical teenage answer; of course, I’d know.”

“But do you?” Emilia challenged, trying, unsuccessfully, to get her to give her the answer. “Oh, and do you really feel better—you look like you feel better? You can even make a double.”

“Mhm! And I’m going to go take a shower.”

Swapping consciousness to her double cooking, Sora turned to wink at her daughter while ordering her other one up to the bathroom; the trap was in motion.

“Smothered in frosting?”

“Wha… You can talk with both clones?! Wait… is there a third somewhere?” she suspiciously asked, darting upstairs to look in all the rooms as if this was a game. “Totally smothered! Are you in here… I know you’re tricking me, Mom! You’ve been tricking me all week! Wait, illusions? Did you get your vulpes powers back?”

“Hehe. Who knows—can you sense my magic?”

“No… it has to be your Null-Void powers.”

“Hmm. Maybe. By the way, I asked White and Tola to come over today,” she absently commented while putting the big four rolls into the heated oven.

She could imagine her daughter’s ears standing straight up at the news, and it didn’t take long for her to fly back into the kitchen. “When?! I haven’t taken a shower yet—and your big tails are hogging it—you did that on purpose!”

“Just do a quick bit of magic,” Sora giggled. “Haven’t you been bragging how good you are now—aren’t you even better than I was before losing it?”

It was her daughter’s turn to roll her eyes. “Just make a new body, Mom! It’s not the same—it’s about mood, silly!”

“More like repetition.”

“Tomato, tomato,” she huffed, differentiating the a in the words. “When are they going to be here—uh, wait a minute—you’re making four cinnabuns?! They’re going to be here soon—I can’t believe you didn’t tell me so I could get ready—not cool, Mom! I can’t look—ugh, like this in front of my teachers!”

Sora chuckled as her daughter ran upstairs, asking the Realm to add a second bathroom for her while opening the original to stick her tongue out at her, curtain drawn but able to hear her growl.

“I win!” Sora sang.

“Humph!” Emilia slammed it shut, but Sora’s hum made her daughter pause halfway into the new room.

“What if I’m just making an extra one for us today?”

“No way!” Emilia returned from upstairs, making Sora’s ears shift to the left. “You’re doing this to say I spend too much time in the shower!”

“Boo-hoo… I don’t get time with you if you spend an hour showering!” Sora playfully returned. “What do you even do in there for an hour—are you practicing makeup again—I said I could help…”

“Let me do my own thing, Mom; I want chocolate syrup on mine, too—with nuts!”

Sora giggled and leaned against the counter to fold her arms while examining the mess she needed to clean; Emilia could get everything hopping with a snap of her finger—desire magic was so convenient, and she couldn’t wait to balance her father’s side out to tap into that aspect again.

Still, she enjoyed the slow pace of handwashing the utensils and the repetition of creating something with her bare hands; there was something about enjoying the normal routine of cooking.

Finishing up the dishes by the time the meal was finished, Sora had her showering-double redress in shorts and a tank top before exiting. She swapped consciousnesses with her dolled-up copy, releasing the clone that had done most of the cooking to finish everything up; their guests would arrive shortly.

She used her chakram to transport the cooking clone’s dress to her bed and sat down, waiting a minute for Emilia to exit the shower at a sprint for her room.

“Forget clothes?”

“It’s your fault!” she shouted back. “They aren’t here… shoot!”

A knock came at the door.

“Stall them, Mom!”

“Hehe. I was the one who invited them,” Sora mused, getting up to let them in. “Morning.”

Tola waved with a cheery smile, holding up the bottle of milk she’d brought, and White returned Sora’s greeting. “Morning. You seem to be faring well.”

Sora stepped aside for them to enter, gesturing to the kitchen. “Nice. We were out of milk, and I’m as good as new. I just finished up the food, but Em’s running slow.”

“Am not!” Emilia called down from her cracked door; she likely left it open so the noise cancelation wouldn’t activate, not trusting her. “You didn’t tell me until like… forty minutes ago!”

“Forty minutes?” Tola whispered, looking confused as to why it would take so long to get ready.

Sora giggled and shrugged, shutting the door behind them. “She’s been using illusions to test out different looks in the mirror; I bet she’s doing the same in her room right now.”

“Not cool, Mom! I totally know what I’m going to wear—I’m coming down now!”

“Fantastic! I just finished breakfast.”

White wore a simple t-shirt and skinny jeans—likely taking fashion advice from Emilia—with sneakers, wrist, and necklace accessories.

Tola had a green spaghetti strap shirt and yellow shorts on, sliding off her sandals by the door with White; Sora wasn’t sure the fashion totally fit, but she could look good in anything, and, once again, it was likely Emilia’s evolving tastes.

Guiding them to their seats, it didn’t take long for Emilia to come jogging down in a white and yellow flowery top and white shorts. “See! I’m not slow, Mom—I was actually pretty fast today—huu! They look sooo good!” she squealed, forgetting everything as Sora took out the gooey, caramelized buns.

“Right? I’ve been slaving all morning on them.”

“Way to make me feel guilty, Mom…” she huffed, flicking her tails to the left while situating on a stool beside Tola at the bar. “The chocolate syrup—never mind, I got it,” she mumbled, using her magic to draw it out of the cupboard. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Hehe. Uh-huh.”

Tola had yet to experience the full experience since Sora had been perfecting this dish over the weeks. “It looks… like the cinnamon toast, but smells… even sweeter?”

“Soo sweet!” Emilia licked her lips in anticipation, eyeing the swirling dessert like a hungry lioness, ready to pounce.

Sora moved behind her daughter to quickly braid her hair since she’d been in a rush. “Brush and bow?”

“Thanks, Mom,” she chimed, creating the objects while digging in; Tola and White smiled as they began to eat. “Sooo good! I think this is the best batch yet, Mom.”

“I’m glad. Alright… there we go.” she calmly said, sitting down to begin cutting up her own pastry into bite-sized pieces. “So… White, Tola, I asked you over to say… I’d like Emilia to start learning more offensive magic that she can practice against me in the training room.”

“Ack!” her daughter choked, coughing a few times. “R-Really, Mom?! I can learn how to do all the fancy stuff like fireballs and ice bolts?”

Sora gave her a side-long, knowing look that made Emilia’s ears pull back in guilt. “I know you’ve already been testing out the simple stuff like that with Luna and Rayla.”

“I-It was my idea! I just… we were talking during our sleepovers and…”

“Hehe. It’s okay, Emi. I get it. You need to learn how to defend yourself, and I’d like you to focus on that—defense—and especially teleportation magic.”

Tola hummed, cheeks flushed with joy while eating the magical buns. “It isn’t so simple, Sora; it will still be some time before she is capable of moving through the weave.”

“Aww… I’ve been doing so good, though. Can I split a mountain like Auntie Mofupsi?! I wanna do cool stuff like that.”

White chuckled. “We walk before we run, Little Princess. Your mother wishes for us to begin work on more defensive methods, so… heh, we will focus more on trickery. Wouldn’t it be fun to learn magic that can fool your mother?”

It was Sora’s time to choke. “W-What?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Emilia squealed.

Laughing between bites and discussing various things Sora would like her daughter to learn, including enhancement magic to support or heal, they finished breakfast, and she let the two leave on a date.

Well, it wasn’t an official date, but it may as well be; White was getting desperate to make the woman break before the three-month test period was over—tomorrow, Tola would have hit another completion date—it had been 8 weeks since they started this challenge, and 3 months was 13 weeks; five to go.

Good luck, Tola!

Letting them go, she smiled from the island bar, resting her head on the back of her hands while watching her daughter clean up their dishes; she wanted to help, and Sora was happy to let her.

“What do you think about joining me a few days in the week to show me everything you’ve learned?”

“I can really come with you to work?” she asked, excitement in her voice.

“Work,” Sora giggled. “I wouldn’t really call it that, but I suppose that works. Yeah. We only have so much time to get ready, and… you know we’ll need to leave the Vulpes Realm in a few months?”

Emilia didn’t respond for several seconds as she washed the plate by hand, looking at the water collecting into the magical drain. “…I know.”

Sora knew it would be hard for her daughter, but they couldn’t remain here forever; Emilia dropped a bomb that she hadn’t expected, though.

“What about after we return Auntie Jin’s orb thingy—what then?”

“Hmm. Honestly, I don’t know,” Sora sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. “Maybe we come back, or something else comes up, but I can’t say for sure. I know it’s not really an answer…” she trailed off, but after a few more seconds, Emilia surprised her again.

“It’s okay, Mom,” she said, turning off the water and turning to smile at her. “I’m just happy so long as I’m with you. Thanks for not leaving me.”

“Of course… what about leaving Rayla and Luna?”

“Mmh… yeah, it’s going to be hard,” she mumbled, rubbing her arm. “I love my friends, but they’ll be here when I come back… I… I don’t know if you will, though.”

Tingles shot down Sora’s arms as she hung her head and rubbed between her eyes. “Oh, Em… I’m sorry I made you worry.”

Her daughter floated around to hug her. “I love you, Mom. I know you’re strong—super strong… but you can still get sick… get hurt, and I want to be here for you—like this week! I want to bring you soup, watch dramas, and cheer you up when you’re feeling down.”

Pulling her in, Sora let a few tears fall onto her daughter’s head. “I’d love that, Em… We just gotta keep moving forward, huh?”

“Mhm! Umm… so what are we going to do today?”

Drawing away, Sora brushed away her tears and cleared her throat. “I’m going to go check on your aunts and catch up on things. Why don’t you do the same with Rayla and Luna; aren’t they doing something with soccer today?”

“Yeah! Auntie Kari showed them all the rules, and they’re picking teams from some of the local kids.”

“Alright. Why don’t you go join them, and I’ll come to watch later—sound good?”

“When?”

Sora stroked her daughter’s head, smiling down at her eight wagging tails. “Not too long; I just want to see what Kari and Wendy are up to.”

“Okay. See you soon, Mom!”

Emilia promptly jogged upstairs to get a hat from her collection and snatch her soccer cleats, and Sora had the Realm teleport her to Kari and Wendy.

She lifted an eyebrow when blackness surrounded her, and, looking around outer space, she noticed damage to the moon-like objects around them and an enormous dragon floating in the distance, battling a shadow wolf.

Well, seems Wendy learned how to grow her… Vix-chu?!

The building-sized fox was firing lasers of Null-Void out of his tail, drawing away new shadow wolves—a squad of over ten—but it didn’t take long for her presence to be noticed.

All the shadowy creatures collected into a single, twenty-meter-tall wolf that became her black-haired friend, and a shooting star shot around a red planet to stop in front of her—Wendy’s book forming her body.

Chest heaving, Wendy coughed, looking as if she’d taken damage by the state of her cover, but there was a smile on her face. “S-Sora! Hehe… I, uh… didn’t expect to see you today.”

Kari showed up soon after, shifting through Existence—at least halfway reaching her—and Sora’s stomach shook with laughter as the wolf cursed, looking down at her half-missing body.

“Pfft! Nice! I see that’s a work in progress.”

“Dammit! It only happens when I break concentration…” she grumbled, grunting as she tried to push herself through the tight tube she’d seemed to squeeze through. “It’s… so much harder than Wendy’s… stupid Null-Void teleport—there!”

“Hehe.” Wendy’s super-puffy brown tail weaved back and forth. “I’ve been learning all sorts of fun things, trying to copy everything I’ve seen you do, Sora. You know I can sacrifice a page to teleport places? It’s pretty cool!”

Sora thought it was a bit limited, but then again, she did require her chakram to be in a location. Although, Wendy didn’t know about her discovery regarding slurping up Existence threads to teleport things into her belly.

“Wow. Looks like you’ve both been making huge progress! I can’t wait to do another battle to see what’s up with these… Uh…”

They all turned to see a shockwave ripple through the red planet, fracturing it to begin crumbling into massive chunks.

“Shoot,” Wendy puffed out a long sigh, motioning to Kedragor. “Go grab Rita… she’s still in fight-mode.”

“Rita did that?” Sora mumbled; the planet was more a small moon, but they were talking about the tiny, timid Null-Void fairy here.

Kari snickered, adjusting her ripped clothing. “Rita’s a little hornet—she kind of flies into this terrified, kill everything trance and just goes off.”

“Yeah…” Wendy hissed, scratching the back of her head. “Rita isn’t really… in control when she fights—she kind of shuts out all thought to not get scared and run, which… makes her, yeah, a hornet, stinging everything.”

“Doesn’t last long, though,” Kari commented, rolling around her neck. “Oh—you don’t need to worry about my Shadow Essence, either. I learned that so long as I disconnect from the ‘hive mind,’ then it’s more or less like your desire magic… just a bit more, eh, volatile.”

“Meaning?” Sora asked with interest, finding it amusing that they were just casually having a conversation in the middle of open space; they certainly had grown so much stronger.

“She explodes,” Wendy groaned, rubbing her book cover. “It hurts… a lot—worse than when she bites.”

“Don’t!” Kari warned at Sora’s smirk.

“Don’t need to. Hehe. Barks for itself.”

“Ugh… I’m working on it,” she growled as Wendy giggled with Sora.

“Sounds good. You two up for a break to watch Emi play some soccer?”

Kari’s ears perked up. “Sure! I should probably shower first, though. Feeling better?”

“Yup!”

Wendy gave her a dubious glance over, centering on her still discolored chakram. “Don’t go too hard. You still need to ease back into training.”

“Woah…”

“What?” her sister asked, glancing at Kari, who shrugged in return.

“Nothing,” Sora hummed, studying the brown-haired girl as her pets circled to her back. “You just… seem a lot different. How much time has passed in this week… wait—six weeks?”

“Mmh…” Kari tilted her head left and right. “About that.”

“Ugh…”

“Feeling like Emi?” Wendy grinned, floating over to nudge her. “Miss a lot in a week, huh?”

“Tell me about it. Alright, welp-haaa, let’s go cheer on my daughter! I need to cherish these moments while they last because she won’t be a little girl for much longer.”

“Sounds good,” Kari grunted, stretching her arms high over her head. “I’ll meet you there after cleaning up.”

“Ditto,” Wendy nodded, motioning at the Null-Void cloud obscuring her bust and hips. “I kind of lost my clothes.”

Kari waved and vanished, leaving Sora to eye her sister’s new fashion. “No kidding… I never thought of going with the whole cloud look… kind of works, huh?”

“Unless there is a breeze,” she mumbled, cheeks darkening and glancing to the left. “It’s pretty easy to blow aw—NO!”

“Hehe. Okay, okay!” Sora giggled, letting go of the stream of Null-Void she had prepared. “See you at the field?”

“See you there. I’d hug you, but…”

Sora nodded as Wendy gestured at her clothless body. “Sounds good. I would have made you a cinnabun if I knew you were going to head back to the house.”

“No!” she cried. “I missed Cinnabun Saturday!”

“Haha. I’ll make you one tonight.”

“Score! See you there.”

After Wendy teleported out with her pets, Sora glanced around the damaged solar system the two created for their battle; maybe they could be ready to face Jin’s family in the next two years if they kept on this trend.

She left the area to spend the rest of her day-off with her daughter, sister, and friend. Seeing what Eyia and Jin had been up to would come soon, which should be fun.