Night again, and Lila was bored. She made enough clothes to start over with and even made new smithing gloves and a new apron out of some high-quality fire-resistant leather. So, she switched to her [Carpentry] skill.

  While she did not foresee making bows or buildings, it was the superior version of woodworking, and she was familiar with making wooden handles by hand.

  So, she sat outside under the moonlight, carving small statues of the various yokai she saw when she snuck out.

  “Is this supposed to be me?”

  Lila heard a familiar chuckle and groaned.

  “How did you even get in here, Tetsu?”

  As she suspected, she turned and saw the gangster with the physics-defying hair, and he was holding a roughly made wooden statue of him.

  “Had to practice and I was getting tired of carving tengu’s.” Lila said as she held up the statue she was working on, and with a bit of pressure from her thumb, Tetsu watched its head break off.

  He couldn’t help but wince when he saw that. While he was confident that he could beat her in a fight, all she had to do was scream, and the entire palace would descend on him. The worst part was that he didn’t know which she would do.

  “I was over on this side of town and thought I would drop by.” His words were laced with honey as he slid closer to her.

  “Don’t dodge my question. How did you get past Haru’s barrier, and what are you even doing here?”

  “Straight to business, then. Did you really make that dagger you gave to that suiko?”

  ‘Suiko? What’s a suiko? Does he mean that fake kappa?’ She knew who he was talking about, she would never forget someone whom she personally gave one of her own creations to in person.

  In response, Lila just nodded her head.

  “Well, for your second question, I was looking for a blacksmith to make a sword for my little brother. I thought you might want to give it a try. For the first question, it would be easier to show you.” He explained as he offered up his hand. “You up for the job?”

  “What do I get out of it?”

  “How about a chance to move around the city without supervision? Also, a personal favor to cash in when you wish.”

  “If this is a custom job, I would need to meet your brother, and no one would question my methods. Also, no one will be present when I forge it.”

  He didn’t understand the reason for the demands, but he shrugged and accepted them. He wanted to see how good her skills truly were.

  After he agreed, she took his hand, and they turned into shadows. He simply guided her over the wall, and she did not see any disruption in the barrier at all, and she was flabbergasted by this.

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  “How did you do that?”

  “It’s a nurarihyon skill. While it differs slightly for each of us, the fundamentals are the same. I would be more than happy to go into more details over a date.”

  “No.”

  “Worth a shot.”

  He guided her downtown and took her to a forge in his family’s territory, and left her to familiarize herself with it as he sent a messenger to guide his brother there.

  While she familiarized herself with the forge, she also found an ingot that she assumed was the material she was working with. It was emberite.

  Emberite was similar to magisteel in many ways, but it had a natural affinity for fire, hence the name. Though it was rather low ranked among the fire elemental metals out there. She took this as a chance to experiment for the day, she could work with some of the better and rarer materials like infernium.

  With the material in mind and what she knew about Nurarihyons, she decided to enchant an ability crafted from her [Illusion Weaver] skill. She experimented with ideas until there was a knock on the door.

  “Okay, brother, are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  “Patience, Akira. Think of it as my birthday gift for you. It’s not every day you turn thirteen.”

  When they both entered, Lila could see the family resemblance, except the brother's hair was two-toned, black and blue.

  Lila finally understood what Kon meant when she said that most yokai were physically mature when they turned thirteen. She just couldn’t believe it since Tetsu’s brother looked like he was her age.

  ‘Oh, this is going to be great for my mental health.’ She thought to herself, already feeling like a hebephile with what she had to ask to make a blade for him.

  “Akira, this is Lila. She is a friend who has agreed to make your first sword.”

  “Hey~” Lila just waved as a response.

  “Right. This isn’t a prank, right? Why is a dainty Kitsune going to forge a blade?”

  Hearing this made Lila’s eyes turn red as she ground her teeth. She was used to putting up an act for difficult customers when she helped Pops, but like many things, she was struggling to keep herself under control nowadays.

  “Manners, you have no idea how many strings I had to pull just to find her.” Tetsu countered all of Akira’s arguments with this statement and a slap to the back of the head.

  “How did you find me, by the way?” Lila asked as she realized she had never found that out.

  “Trade secret, I’m afraid.”

  His answer got a low growl out of Lila. While Tetsu chuckled at her response, Akira was worried about how Lila was showing a feral side. This went against everything he knew about the proud and stuck-up kitsune.

  “Well, if we are going to get started, I need your brother to take off his shirt for a moment.” Lila struggled to say this as she had to remind herself that Akir was an adult.

  “So, you like younger guys?” Tetsu mocked but ended up getting punched in the face by Lila. “Can’t take a joke.”

  “I need a better idea of his physique, unless you have exact measurements you want for your blade. All I was told was to make you a katana. Besides, yokai have a naturally different physique from humans. I don’t know how different a Nurarihyon is from them, so I need a reference.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Akira snorted as he undid the top of his yukata and grabbed one of the other katanas that were lying around the workshop. Though he did wonder what she meant about making weapons for humans. Yet another question he had to ask Tetsu.

  She watched Akira closely as he swung the blade. Every time he moved, she watched his muscles flex accordingly. Eventually, she had him keep swinging as she had a hand on his back to get a better feel for the muscles. While the results would have been better if she had examined more closely, she felt weird enough by this.

  Tetsu noticed this from Lila’s glances and made a silent promise to get her some alcohol to forget this part, as he rightfully assumed she used to be human, so she would still have some of the cultural differences gnawing at her over this.

  “Okay. Both of you out.” Lila ordered as she was done learning the differences between Nurarihyons and humans and began to enter the design phase of crafting the katana.

  “Didn’t even buy me dinner first.” Akira teased.

  “She’s making you a damn sword.” Tetsu nearly threw Akira out for that statement. “Are you sure I can’t watch?”

  “Trade secrets, I’m afraid.”

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