21 Chapter 21 (1/2)
The next morning Laura was quite relieved that her new eyes had not gotten red and puffy. After getting up, she put on the still dirty red and white yukata, and took the polearm taken from the dead spirit from where she hid it. After successfully creating an illusion to make it look like a walking stick, as well as making her clothes seem clean, which had taken her a noticeable amount of time and tries to get right, the Kitsune woke up the still sleeping Tanuki and the two began to make their way of campus and through Hiyokuna.
Once the duo entered the forest on the mountainside, they began to stumble their way around, trying to find the small tunnel leading to the little door Inuka had used to return them to the human world nearly a week ago. About an hour later, which had been spent wandering the forest and sending Takeko down every hole they came across, they finally found the hole in the ground they had been looking for. Crawling through the opening, Laura found herself before the simple wooden door of Inuka's hut, with just barely enough space for both the spirits. Stepping inside, she turned to the brown furred spirit with her. ”So now how do we get back to the spirit world?”
”Give me just a moment.” Came the prompt reply, as the Tanuki scrunched his eyes closed in concentration. A moment later, the little cave they were in began to shimmer as ripples played over them, which stopped just a second before Tekeko spoke up again. ”Okay, let's go”
Following the smaller spirits comment, Laura stepped out through the door again, and found herself in the same clearing Inuka had brought her to before. Sitting down on the ground, the Kitsune leaned back against her tails and began to wait for the Yuki-Onna to return home.
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After about ten minutes, Laura got bored and decided to practice with her magic some more while they sat there and waited.
Starting with her pyromancy first, she conjured a small blue flame of fire before her. After making it move every which way for what felt like an hour, she began to try and manipulate its shape. First the Kitsune just manipulated it's size, making it as small as the flame of a candle, or as big as a bonfire. After Laura felt comfortable with those changes, she attempted more strange shapes, forcing the fire to form a near perfect sphere, forming a blade out of it, even making a brezel out of it.
During all this, Takeko had been taking a nap, curled up into a small ball of brown fur next to the woman. Looking at that bundle of fur prompted Laura to let the little flame she had been playing with die down. Instead she began to attempt to make an illusionary copy of the little Tanuki appear on the other side of herself. Her first try looked more like a fur covered pillow than Takeko, and the second was only marginally better, but each time she tried again it became a bit better, until finally an exact copy of the spirit seemed to be sleeping next to her.
As Laura began to wonder if she should try and make the fake Tanuki move around, the spirit she and Takeko had been waiting for close to two and a half hours by now emerged from the forest.
”Oh I was not expecting company today, much less you two. What brings you here today, Laura, wasn't it?” the white haired woman asked as she stepped closer to the sitting Kitsune.
”Hello Inuka.” Laura replied quickly, poking Takeko with a tail to wake him from his slumber. ”There are two things we wanted to talk about with you.”
”And what would those be exactly?” the Yuki Onna asked, her eyebrows raised in curiosity. ”It must be quite important if you made your way to me.”
”Well they were prompted by an angry bull spirit trying, and luckily failing, to kill me.” Laura replied with a forced smile. ”After I burned out its heart, Takeko suggested you might be able to create charms to stop that, or similar things, happening to myself, or the few friends I have already made.”