Preparation continued apace as John worked on his gauntlet, in between giving Rin new things to ponder. Of course, he had already given her a small lecture on what he remembered of weather mechanics, but he was no expert. She did seem interested to learn about charge differential, though.

"Hey, Rin, I had a question. You said you were tied to storms, right?" John asked, looking up from the latest tiny reinforced tube he had slotted into place.

"Of course, sensei. I can draw on the power of rain, lightning, wind, snow, and ice," Rin proudly stated, casually flipping her hair to the side. "Oh! And the basic techniques that every person should know."

Hmm.

"I don't know the exact words in your language, but do sand-storms or fire-storms count?" John inquired, giving her his full attention. "I mean, I don't know the terms, so maybe they 'count' as they're different in your language, but in mine they're all at least kinda types of storms."

The way Rin's eyes widened like a cat suddenly in a bright room while she froze told him all that he needed to know.

"I guess you don't have those here," he muttered. They probably didn't have any deserts locally, given the climate is very Japan adjacent. If this mythical "Shape of All Things" limits the damage from things like wildfires, there was no way they'd have enough documentation on what blazes do to understand that they formed their own weather systems. "Sand-storms are exactly what they sound like. In areas with lots of sand, I'm talking ri upon ri of distance all around, the harsh winds can pick up enough sand to form massive ground-level clouds. Breathing in sand is obviously not good for you, but they don't usually get strong enough to do much more damage than clogging or burying things. However, if you get sand moving fast enough, it can be used to damage things. Fire-storms are a bit more… special, and harder to explain."

He paused, trying his best to gather his thoughts, and decided to steady himself by tweaking a connection on his gauntlet, the meditative nature of tinkering calming the churning sea of his mind. "Most natural wind, ultimately, comes from the sun. The land gets unevenly heated due to various factors like cloud cover and, what makes up the area getting sun, the topography, and whatnot. The hot areas make the air hot. Most things expand when heated, including air, which makes the hot air rise for the same reason driftwood floats on water. The cold, heavier air rushes in. Thus, wind."

He was pretty sure that was correct, at least. It was an oversimplification, but it wasn't as if he were some sort of climate scientist. Plus, he wasn't entirely sure that this wasn't some sort of flat world rather than a regular planet, given how many eerie ties to mythology it had, so bringing up the Coriolis Effect might give away the game. Thermodynamics felt like a safe bet, though. If they changed, it almost certainly would have killed him on arrival as the laws of physics his body relied on broke down, and even if he survived, half his inventions wouldn't work. Wait, what was he talking about… Right! Firestorms!

"Anyhow, to get to the point, fire is hot, which means hot air goes up, and more air gets sucked in. This can influence the weather a lot, and if the fire is big enough and the conditions are just right, you can get miniature flaming tornadoes! Neat, huh?" John rambled.

Say, Rin hadn't said anything for a while…

John finally looked over, and with how wide her eyes were, you would have thought she had either seen a god or had her student debt erased entirely string free. "Fire can be weather? What about the kami who hold domain over the weather? Do they just move heat around?" Rin hesitantly, almost haltingly asked, like she was hallucinating and testing reality wouldn't suddenly go all mauve on her. Her voice was thin, light, and nearly breathless, while her tail whipped back and forth rapidly behind her.

He may have stepped in something here. He really needed to learn when to shut up.

"I don't know how the kami here do it. I only speak of what happens without magical intervention. Simple laws of the natural world, rather than magic…" John paused, considering what he was doing here. This was dangerous. Would Rin turn against him were she to learn the truth? Honestly, he wasn't sure, even if he suspected she would be calm.

She had a good heart, after all.

The real danger would be in what she let slip.

"Think of magic as exceptions to the natural laws, even if the world is filled with it," he finally explained. "Even if it were absent, things would work fine. Life would go on. If in a different shape. Now, I think I've given you plenty to ponder on. I'll need to get some work done."

That seemed to snap Rin out of her trance, and she quickly nodded before scampering out of the room like an excited child, a broad grin on her face.

Huh.

That would probably need addressing later, actually. The idea of a giddy Rin trying to make a fire tornado… Yeah, he probably shouldn't have done that, even if she was probably too focused to understand the implications of much of what else he said. He wasn't sure the world could handle the chaos if she started busting out even small fire tornadoes.

The Shape of All Things would handle it, wouldn't it? That strange, alien force loomed over him like a guillotine all this time, and he didn't even know it because he had never done anything that would trip it! It could suppress fire, if what Rin said before the near-disaster with the Ofuda was true, but could it do more? He might as well have brushed some leaves aside and found a bear trap underneath.

He had a sneaking suspicion that the way vines rapidly crept up the outer walls of the fort was some part of it, too, somehow trying to reclaim it. Yet, he didn't see such a phenomenon around Broadstream Town. Were there designated areas around the nation for people to live in? If he were to expand, would the consequences get worse? There were too many unanswered questions, and if he asked any of them to Yuki, it would give the game away entirely.

Would she care? Would it change anything between them?

He wasn't sure. But, if he came here from another world, it was likely others did in the past, and there was no way of knowing if those who came before left offworlders with a good reputation.

A knocking on the edge of the doorframe broke him from his trance, and he spun around to behold Yuki leaning on the edge of the door frame.

How much had she heard?

His whole body tensed as she silently walked into the room, sliding the door shut behind her.

The kitsune said nothing, golden eyes looking back toward the door. Waiting. Listening. Not paying attention to him. Her ears were trained straight forward, and her tails unsteadily twitched.

Silence hung heavily over them like a suffocating veil, and it felt like an eternity before she spoke. "You really should be careful what you tell her, John," the kitsuned sighed.

His throat felt tight, and nothing came out when he tried to say that he didn't know what she was talking about. She knew something was up with him. She probably always did, and even that promise not to pry meant nothing in the face of her just overhearing something.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, but there was no hostility in her gaze. No anger. No guardedness. Only concern. "She may be strange, but she's not stupid. She has loyalties beyond you, and you have to assume that everything she learns will make its way back to her masters."

John didn't respond at first. He couldn't. He waited for the other shoe to drop, but Yuki remained quiet. Maybe she didn't know? No. She was clearly waiting somewhere nearby, and her hearing was supernatural. She must have heard everything. Why wasn't she bringing it up?

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Finally, after that torturous muteness, John cleared his throat, finally able to speak once more. "Her masters?" John asked.

"She comes from some sort of clan or other group that had material from a dragon in their vaults, so they likely have some sort of wider political relevance. One day, she will likely be called to return, and her loyalty to them doubtlessly eclipses her loyalty to us. Perhaps she wouldn't bring up your secrets unprompted, but if you become some figure of note, there's no doubt that her family will ask and she will answer," the kitsune sighed, narrowing her eyes. Strutting closer, the kitsune gently placed a hand on his shoulder, making him tense. "Please. Teach her all you wish, but try not to let slip anything you may regret."

"I see," John replied, swallowing dryly. "I'll be more careful."

"See that you are," Yuki said, stepping forward and placing a simple platter of cooked veggies on the bench. Wait, where did that come from? Was he really that distracted? "You missed dinner."

"Have I? I must have lost track of time," he said, his racing heart slowing as Yuki retreated, grabbing a stool for herself and settling nearby. The old wood creaked uneasily under her sheer mass, but held.

She nodded, faintly smiling. "Eat. It's been a long day."

John's laugh was bitter, but genuine nonetheless, more of a short cackle than anything. "Long day? Try a long month. Maybe a long few years. There's so much that I still need to do." At that, he started to look back towards the gauntlet, the magic channels and gates, in place but still not correctly sealed, calling his name like a siren upon the sea.

Yuki scoffed, pulling her seat closer. "You should eat up. You need your strength."

"...A few more minutes?" John asked, but the kitsune only scooted her stool closer in response.

"If you aren't properly rested and fed, the quality of your work will worsen. Then, one of your tools might give out on you at the worst time," the kitsune insisted, but John still hesitated, the internals demanding his attention out of the corner of his eye.

"John. I will feed you by hand if I have to," she cooed.

His head snapped over to Yuki once more. The damned kitsune was smiling, perhaps not maliciously, but with a few too many teeth on display for his liking. A mischievous glint danced in her eyes as she leaned in. She was close, easily within range. He leaned back.

"You wouldn't," he stated.

The kitsune's damn grin only widened, her inhuman array of razor-sharp teeth on full display. "Wouldn't I?" she sweetly purred.

John met her gaze, steeling his will even as his hand's grip threatened to draw blood from his leg. He would stay strong. He would not be bullied like this.

She did not waver, hands sitting politely in her lap even as her muscles tensed, her legs seemingly primed and ready to spring at him to ensure he ate his veggies like some demented dietician.

But if she was being serious, kitsune being fundamentally not entirely human in mentality…

John huffed, looking away and grabbing himself some very lightly cooked spinach before munching on it, placing the platter on his lap so as not to get food in his workspace.

"Thank you," Yuki said, once again politely sitting with a far less malicious aura.

"You weren't really going to, right?' he asked.

Her smile didn't waver.

John cursed to himself in English, angrily muttering before sighing. "Damn it, Yuki. Where did this sense of humour suddenly come from?"

"It was always there. I've merely been holding myself back around you," the kitsune tittered. "Do you remember when we first met, how you asked me to expose my leg?"

"Yes? It wasn't that long ago," he responded, slightly tilting his head to the side. Where the hell was she going with this?

"When you first asked to show you my leg, I thought for a moment you might be some sort of pervert, but then I saw the earnestness in your eyes. I figured you had no idea what you just said, so I was going to ask you if you are so forward with all the women you meet or if I was just special," she casually admitted.

John choked on his own spit so hard that he had to start pounding on his chest. Fuck, he did do that, didn't he? Shit! How the hell didn't he see that? "Oh—oh! Yuki, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—" he began, only to cut himself off as she started laughing.

"John. It's fine. I know you meant nothing by it. Perhaps I would have teased you about it sooner, but you were clearly not in the right mindset to take that well before," she mused, shaking her head.

"And I somehow am now?" he incredulously asked.

"Yes," she simply added.

He huffed, looking away. "So I have a lot more of this in my future, then," he groaned.

"It comes with befriending a kitsune, I'm afraid," she mock-sympathized, voice low and downcast. "Do you think you can handle this burden? I know it's a lot to ask of you."

Grumbling quietly, John turned back to his veggies, quickly picking away at them to get back to his work faster. They were good, albeit simple, fair, something that was perfect right now.

"Thanks," he said after he finished it off a few minutes later, placing the plate to the side. "I do appreciate it."

"It's of no issue," Yuki replied, waving off his praise. "I do have a question, though. The more I think about it, the more it stands out how conventional your kitchen is despite what you have access to, other than your curious heating element. Why?"

Ah.

"Cooking…" he trailed off, trying to unscatter his thoughts. The kitchen imitated one from back home. Was it just nostalgia that kept him rooted to that design? "It is meditative. Calming, sometimes, to do something simple like that. Also, the heat focus cooks things so evenly that it can make the texture feel weird, like looking at someone with a perfectly symmetrical face. It's just not quite right."

Yuki paused, falling deep into thought. "I'd like to try it, at some point."

He shrugged. "Your funeral," he muttered. A moment passed, and he turned back to his work. "Feel free to stay, if you want. I'm going to try and finish this thing up first, then… I'm not sure. I have a few ideas."

"Oh?" she asked, shifting her stool closer to loom over the bench without getting in John's way.

"It's mostly about Kiku, and what's happening around here. Now that we can detect her, we have options. A good example would be that I could make something like my flying disc, but attach a detector that pivots around the area. If I can figure out a way to fly it along a programmed route, I could make something that alerts us when it detects Kiku, and even points a light at her exact location," he explained.

Yuki paused, a gentle frown finding its way onto her muzzle. "You could mount a weapon on it," she plainly stated.

"Could," John responded, wincing, "but I don't think that's a good idea. We don't know exactly how sensitive those things are, or if they could trigger on someone who just happens to have a magical signature close enough to hers."

One moment would be all it took, even if the target acquisition worked perfectly. There was no doubt in John's mind that Kiku would take a shot from a heat ray just fine, and if she were in a crowded market, her ensuing evasion would put countless people in harm's way. Perhaps the Shape of All Things would protect the woods against fire, but would it do anything for artificial structures? He doubted it.

Yuki grimaced. "Point taken," she sniffed.

"I think there are higher priority projects, though, with our timeline… I'm not sure I can produce enough goods to crash what the Nameless have," he admitted. "I've barely even started, and things keep coming up that are higher priority." John gestured to the unfinished gauntlet lying on his workbench. "I need a defence against Kiku, but our original plan to defeat the Nameless gets no closer with every moment we spend. I still have an idea, but…" he trailed off, cringing.

"But what?" Yuki questioned. "If you truly don't think we can weaken the Nameless, this fight will become far more difficult."

"What if we were to replace the coinage, at least temporarily?" John posed. "Most of their hoard is likely in raw coinage, and said hoard's value is based on the local value of items, right? Why not devalue money itself? It will earn us enemies, but if we can mint our own currency and force people to use it temporarily, we might be able to choke them out without too many resources. All we have to do is make moulds, then we can melt whatever material we decide to use with the magi-welder."

Yuki's eyes widened. "Risky. Incredibly illegal, but that could work. That could work well, but first we'd need to get access to Broadstream Town again to enforce it."

"So we need a way to detect and defuse the talismans. Is there any chance they emit their effects in a circular radius?" John inquired, scratching his chin.

"Unfortunately, no." Yuki shook her head sadly. "They could be anywhere within the area of effect, but they only have a limited area, so at least a dozen are doubtlessly involved."

If only he had some way of—Wait. He had a Kiku detector. With some modifications, he could figure out an area scanner. Yeah, yeah! That could work… If only he could get a sample.

That meant he had to deal with the priests.

Yet, it was still a plan, and better than nothing.

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