So, did that make sense?

  “I’m sorry Deca… I don’t understand it at all. I might be too stupid to understand this…”

  Don’t be silly!

  Our house had been completed. The lock was in place, nobody could eavesdrop on us or spy on us so we could be ourselves inside. Giana had made the new space livable.

  We would get put to work in 3 days. We had gotten a week, which we spend making our house secure and getting to know the neighborhood. Furthermore, we had made sure to not get too close to other Misha, but we needed to know where to get the best groceries or best materials.

  That greedy soap Misha hadn’t moved and is cutting corners on soap again. Some people just don’t learn… soap and all its fancy derivatives are even more important now, as Giana is a vixen and she takes these things seriously.

  Giana agreed with my ‘Garlic oil’ prank after I told her about it, as cutting corners on soap isn’t funny.

  I was currently teaching Giana on how to read mana runes and synthesize magic like I do but… it seems to be harder that I thought it was. Her tails were still on it.

  This is why I opted for practical classes when I was a teacher in that university. I can currently only give Giana simple magic circles, as anything more complicated can backfire or cause mana to surge and destroy an area.

  There is a reason on why this field is so rare and unpopular, but I thought that our race had a free pass because of our tails. I guess I was wrong.

  “Hey, you haven’t brought this up but… it was originally planned for us to split up and not end up together. Aren’t you upset that I decided to stick to you?”

  Hmm, not really. I more or less expected it. Firstly, vixens often get what they want so if you wanted to stick to me, you would find out somehow and… I was a bit insensitive, as you’re still afraid to be alone, right?

  Giana nodded. She was quite cute when she gets timid like this.

  Anyway, to be successful is to not rely on just 1 plan! It would actually work out worse for me if you didn’t decide to stick to me. Why do you think I managed to finish that collaboration magic so fast?

  “You planned it out beforehand?” Giana asked as her timidness disappeared, and her eye color shifted to pink-purple.

  Uhh, no. i have reason to believe that your charm magic was responsible for that. But while you chicks came here with the goal of lifting the curses on us, I came here to develop my skills further. [Hattrick] needs an upgrade and I need ideas for my Dragonvein flowchart, which I’ve decided to name [Dragoncall], sounds familiar?

  “Oh, our last name! so you’re going to make a Dragonvein version of [Soothing Dragon, Angry Dragon]?” She said as she came closer while leaking charm magic.

  Heyhey, focus! A part will be inspired by [Soothing Dragon, Angry Dragon], as I can’t use healing skills and as [Dragoncall] will be a flowchart it will just be a component. The more ideas I get and the better we get at our new collaboration magic, the more it will benefit. I just don’t know if I will be successful as this planet isn't cooperating and its leyline energy is decreasing…

  “It’s concerning that you’re not bothered by those curses on you but… only one of us needs to have ‘dispelling curses’ as an objective. And we did push it upon you guys so…” Giana messed up a magic circle, and it started to surge.

  I sucked the mana out with frost magic and canceled the skill.

  Be careful with that. Our house will be fine, but all your furniture will get reduced to dust.

  “Ugh, this is so hard, and this is just the basics?” Giana said and tried again. “If this is the basics…doesn’t it make sense that the Misha are taking so long to master [Hattrick]?”

  Well, I would like to think that they have the racial advantage and a better background, but I might be wrong. But I don’t deem myself as special or exceptionally smart, so they should be able to figure it out once they read Azu’s research.

  “You keep talking about that. Would it be easier for me if I study that?”

  Giana had a point. What I tried to teach Giana was a simplified version of Azu’s work, but maybe she needs the source material to understand it better.

  Well let's go get you to study that then.

  “Huh? Ok! Nilah come here!”

  A pink Nilah appeared and Giana petted her. It seems that Nilah attacked Giana after I got put to [Sleep] 4 days ago, and Giana won by flooding Nilah with charm magic. Technically that’s cheating, but we’re all foxes here so that doesn’t matter.

  Do you mind if I get her to spit that out? It affects me every time I turn into Minerva.

  “Ohh, can’t stop thinking about me? How naughty! Thinking about your sister like that!” Giana said as she transformed into Athena. “Go ahead, just tell her that she will get another dose of charm magic if she attacks again.”

  Nilah spat out a pink cloud and became blue again and turned into my hat as I transformed twice.

  Right, we might still have to stay sneaky, as nobody is supposed to be able to enter Azu’s house.

  We hopped on Giana’s staff and flew off toward one of the few destroyed city blocks. I had never bothered learning [Levitate] so Giana was my transportation.

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  “How come that you don’t know so many basic skills? They should be easy for you, right?” Athena asked as she landed in front of the only house standing in this destroyed city block.

  Well, I don’t have a need for most of them between being fast, light and able to use Dragonvein. But it might be worthwhile to learn them one day.

  A quick scan revealed that the coast was clear, so I unlocked Azu’s house with [Azure Spear] and we went inside.

  Still as I’ve left it… I hope she didn’t die or something…

  Giana looked around as I pulled her toward the study room. “This is how she looks like? She could almost pass for a vixen.” She said as she looked at some of Azu’s pictures.

  She behaved similarly, although not completely.

  “Heh, but I’m bigger!” Athena said proudly.

  Of course… you have a racial advantage you’re a flat Misha now though…. Now come here! Sit down and study!

  “Is this how you’re supposed to talk to your older sister?!” She said, as she sat down and started to study Azu’s lifework.

  Well unless you want to stay the dumbest sister then I’d say get to it!

  “Hey! It’s not my fault that I’m not an Oures!”

  Huh what does that have to do with it?

  “Oh, I didn’t tell you, did I? There were 3 big 9t families. The Mikazuki, who had ‘numbers and unity’ as a family trait. 9t often move alone, but they move in groups. Their family was also the largest, number wise. Then there was the Hifan family, which I belong to with ‘Strength, our bodies and competency’ as a family trait, also caused by selective breeding… and then there was the Oures family with ‘Adaptability’ as family trait which manifested them in picking up strange and difficult skills and master them seemingly effortlessly.”

  Giana adjusted her hat. “My toughness and you able to adapt to whatever and using difficult techniques like it’s nothing, proves our identity as a Hifan and Oures. I still don’t understand this rune cluster…”

  Ah… so about what you said, that I might have made the [Hattrick] too difficult?

  “If they were an Oures, they might have already cracked it…”

  Aha.

  I let Giana complete Azu’s research paper and gave her time to digest all of it. “Maybe if I read your research paper?”

  Sure, there is something I need to check, though.

  I thought about Giana’s words as I went to Azu’s mini lab. ‘You make it seem so easy’ is something I’ve often heard. I always thought that what I did was nothing special, but it seemingly was.

  My objective was this strange contraption that made the process of creating skills easier. Giana might have to rely on it for a while, but I don’t understand how it works, not enough for it to aid Giana at least.

  I have an imitation in my dimensional pocket, but I switch to manual mode when it fails me. I looked for schematics, but they were nowhere to be found.

  Guess we’ll have to visit her lab after we get ours.

  “I’m a bit disappointed… I was hoping I could impress you, but I failed…”

  Well not all hope is lost, let’s go back home and have you read my research paper, and then I’ll drill everything I know into you. Hehe, this will be fun.

  I said as I approached Athena. I couldn’t manage to hide my smile as I had a great plan.

  “Uh hey, why do you looks so intimidating? Wait! You can’t treat your Deca like this!”

  I dragged Athena back to our house and mercilessly drilled Azu’s and my research into her.

  “This isn’t tutoring Deca! This is brainwashing!” Giana said, as she was resisting my ‘tutoring’.

  Oh, just like your charm magic! It seems we’re more alike after all!

  An [Illusionary Dagger] cracked open her barriers and another one lodged into her, forcefully injecting some of my knowledge into her.

  “Aaah! My head!” Giana clutched her head and dropped to her knees.

  Her words were painting a different picture than her mana though. Her charm magic was denser than I’ve ever seen. Don’t tell me she’s a masochist…

  You’re almost halfway in the basics, you just need 127 more daggers to get to an acceptable level!

  The end of Giana’s hair started to slowly turn pink. “You know that you won’t get away with this, right?!” I might have to pause this.

  Fine, this is the last one for tonight, this is my last [Illusionary Dagger] for the coming 10 minutes anyway.

  The dagger stabbed Giana and imparted some more of my knowledge. She dropped to the ground and 9 tails shot toward me. I responded by turning her into an ice cube with [Eternal Winter].

  Nilah helped me in dealing with all the charm magic.

  Whew, that was dangerous. It seems she needs more tutoring.

  While Nilah was dealing with that residual charm magic, I started to clean up the mess my ‘tutoring’ had created. I hope Giana has more furniture.

  The next morning came and Giana seemed to have cooled down. Literally and figuratively so, I freed her.

  “Ugh, Deca, you’re so toxic! You’re a monster!”

  Ah so someone wants to sleep on the bed!

  “Noo wait! These beds suck! I miss your tails!”

  I dried her off and gave her what she wanted for the rest of the day to make it up to her. I did tell her that there would be more ‘tutoring’ in the future.

  follow if the story is interesting enough.

  Ayaru Mistflower