Catheri out a long, tired breath, her shoulders sagging uhe weight of the ongoing chaos. With a sharp sigh, she crossed her arms, clearly fed up with Yuki’s antics. "So, someone as a as you should definitely know what those NONO things are, right?" Her crimson eyes flickered toward the roof of the abandoned shrihe very spot where the portal had opehe ohat had let those three cockroaches through. "Tell us about them."

  Yuki simply shrugged, her snow-white eyes drifting zily toward the roof, as if the ao the greatest mystery of the moment was as insignifit as a cloud in the sky.

  "Nnai, what hab catto zy ben bery doing all this tim?" Yuzu asked, her bck fox ears twitg in suspi. She narrowed her eyes at Yuki, her tone dripping with distrust.

  Yuki, looking utterly unfazed, yawned and stretched her arms. "Sleeping?" she replied nontly, her voice the picture of indifference.

  Catherine’s patience, which had been thin to begin with, visibly cracked. Her crimson eyes began to glow ominously, the telltale sign that she was activating one of her skills. "Stop pretending to be clueless," she demanded, her voice sharp. "My identification skill says you’re over a millennium old."

  "Yuzu agree," Yuzu chimed in, her jet-bck eyes suddenly glowing with an eerie light blue. The air around her seemed to shimmer with the iy of her gaze. "Catto bery sus."

  Yuki bli them, utterly unphased by the bined pressure of Catherine and Yuzu. She pulled her hands up to her cheeks in a dramatic, exaggerated gesture, as if realizing something for the first time. "Oh my. I’m over a millennium old?" she said, her voice sweet and almost i.

  I stared at her, pletely baffled. "You... didn’t know that?"

  Yuki tilted her head slightly, her snow-white hair casg around her face. "Nope. I lost almost all of my memories," she replied in a tone so casual it was as if she were talking about fetting her lunch.

  I blinked a few times, still processing what she said. Lost her memories? That expined a lot, but... still, it didn’t seem like she was all that ed about it.

  "So, you’re telling me you’ve fottehing?" I asked, trying to crify.

  Yuki gave me a zy grin, her snow-white eyes glinting. "Pretty much. So, let’s move on to something more fun, shall we?"

  The plete nonce of her answer was enough to make Catherine growl in frustration. "I swear, I’m going to lose my mind dealing with you," she muttered under her breath, her crimsoill glowing faintly with barely-tained exasperation. Catherine’s fiwitched arouaff, the strain of holding onto her patience palpable. “So you’re telling me, you lost your memories?” Her voice was dangerously quiet, like the calm before a storm.

  Yuki, sitting on the worn wooden steps of the shriretched her arms with a zy yawn. “Mhm. All gone~” She tilted her head up, eyes half-lidded, watg the leaves dan the warm breeze.

  Yuzu, standing beside me, narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Her bck fox ears twitched as she tapped a foot against the moss-covered stoiles. “Bery notto trust! Catto lying! Catto always lying!” she decred, her tail puffing up slightly.

  Yuki, pletely unfazed, simply sighed dramatically. “I wish I was. But nope. No memories, no a wisdom, world-ending knowledge. Just me, my instincts, and an unreasonable love for naps.” She flopped backward onto the wooden ptform, letting her arms dangle zily off the edge.

  Catherine’s eyes twitched violently. “So you’re telling me, despite being over a millennium old, you vely don’t remember anything about the NONO creatures?”

  “Yup,” Yuki replied, her tone so casual it almost sounded rehearsed. She reached up, plug a fallen maple leaf from her silver hair before flig it away.

  Catherine visibly steeled herself, inhaling deeply through her he air around her grew heavier as her staff crackled with gathering magic, sparks dang along the surface like embers waiting to ighat’s it. I’m setting you on fire.”

  A soft gust of wind rustled through the trees as I quickly stepped between them, raising my hands in a desperate attempt to keep Catherine from actually itting arson. “Whoa, whoa, let’s not burn anyone just yet!”

  Yuki bli me, her snow-white eyes narrowing slightly before her lips curled into a teasing smile. “Aww, Mashiro~ You do care.” She tilted her head, her cat ears twitg pyfully.

  I rubbed my temple, feeling an oning headache. “I don’t even know how to process yht now.”

  Yuzu huffed, crossing her arms so tightly it looked like she hysically restraining herself. “Fine! But catto still bery sus. No one fets a whole thousand years!”

  Yuki hummed thoughtfully, resting her in her palm. “Well, I did.” Then, as if deg to cause more trouble, she leaned in closer to Yuzu, her voice dropping into a low, pyful whisper. “Though~ if you wanna help me remember… maybe bite a little harder ime?”

  “NYWAAA!!” Yuzu screeched, her face turning a bright crimson as she practically leaped backward as though she’d been burned. “Weird! Catto bery weird!!”

  A flock of birds took off from the treetops at the sound of her outburst, their wings fpping noisily as they disappeared into the sky. I sighed. Catherine groaned. And Yuki? Yuki just smirked, looking utterly satisfied with herself, her tail swishing zily against the wooden floor, clearly enjoying every sed of her chaos.

  “Ah… but there’s this feeling inside me that tells me to wait here. For you.” Yuki suddenly turned her head toward me, her sleepy snow-white eyes briefly sharpening before flig toward the abandoned shrine. “Or at least, that thing.” Then, her gaze shifted once more—this time to the ailed fox resting fortably on top of my head. “And that cutie.”

  The golden afternoon sun cast long, dappled shadows across the abandoned Inari shris preseh tranquil and eerily mysterious. The shriself stood in quiet solitude, its once-vibraates now faded and chipped, the sacred kanji inscriptions barely legible against the worn wood. Stone fox statues, their features softened by time, lihe entraheir silent gazes seeming to watch over us. The st of damp moss and fallen leaves filled the air, mingling with the faint traces of old inse that still lingered from rituals long past.

  The shrine grounds were covered in a thin yer of fallen leaves, some dang in the occasional breeze. The wooden steps leading up to the shrine creaked under even the slightest touch, as if groaning uhe weight of fotten prayers. Beyond the shrihe thick forest loomed, the t cedar trees swayily, whisperis only the wind could uand. Despite the warm glow of the sun filtering through the opy, the shriself carried a lingering chill, as though something unseen was watg from the shadows.

  “Ai?” I asked, gently lifting Ai from my head to get a better look at her. Her tiny eyes blinked up at me, and as if responding to my call, she let out an adorable Yip!

  “Ai…” Yuki muttered, her voiusually soft. “So that’s what her name is…”

  There was something unreadable in her expression, something that made me pause. She wasn’t just repeating Ai’s here was a quiet sense nition, almost like she was recalling something from deep within the fragments of her lost memories.

  Catheriill standing with her arms crossed, furrowed her brow. “What do you mean the shrine is calling for… Mashiro?”

  Yuki simply shrugged, stretg her arms above her head before pointing zily toward me and Yuzu. “No idea, meow. Why don’t you ask the actual fox girls themselves?”

  Yuzu, who had been uncharacteristically silent for the past few moments, met Yuki’s gaze with an unusual seriousness. Then, slowly, she turned her attention toward the shrine, her bck fox ears twitg as if pig up something unseen.

  “Inari Shrine…” Yuzu muttered, her voice g its usual pyful lilt. “Bery important pce. It a pce for bery fox-kin to pray, and…” She hesitated, her blue-bck eyes narrowing slightly. “Bery pce to teleport.”

  A gust of wind rustled the trees, sending a flurry of golden leaves swirling around us like tiny messengers of fate. The shrine, old ahered as it was, suddenly felt alive, as if it had been listening to our versation, waiting for someoo speak those very words.

  Catherine raised an eyebrow. "Teleport? You mean like a portal?"

  Yuzu nodded, her bck fox ears twitg as she looked around the abandoned shrih a newfound seriousness. “Bery fox-kin use shrio go different pce. But… this one, bery broken.” She frowilting her head slightly. “It feel… weird. Not like usual.”

  I gnced back at the worn tate and the crumbling shriructure. Now that Yuzu mentio, there was something strange about the pce. The air felt heavy, like something unseen ressing down on us. The wind that had beely rustling through the trees had goill, leaving behind an eerie silence.

  Yuki, still zily sprawled on the shrine’s wooden floor, traced a finger along one of the old beams, her snow-white eyes flickering with something almost thoughtful. "Maybe it's broken, maybe it's not. Maybe it's waiting."

  "Waiting for what?" I asked, gripping Ai a little tighter.

  Yuki grinned. "Dunno. But whatever it is, I bet it’s gonna be fun~"

  Catherine groaned. "That is not reassuring."

  Yuzu, still staring at the shrine, muttered under her breath, "Bery feel like… something ing."

  A chill ran down my spine. Ai yipped softly in my arms, pressing herself closer to me.

  And then, just as if to prove Yuzu’s point, the wind suddenly roared back to life, swirling around us like an invisible force had been awakehe abandoned shrine, silent for who knows how long, seemed to breathe.