The Next

The noises coming from downstairs woke me up. After getting up, I looked around and realized that I was alone in the room. Next to me, the futon where Tamamo had been sleeping was empty, but the sounds coming from downstairs told me where she actually was.

"No, wait, don't add water to the boiling oil!"

"Ah! It's on fire! Help! Help!"

"Put the lid back on the pot, that will put out the fire!"

My mother was in the kitchen with Tamamo, apparently trying to teach her how to cook, which made the place quite noisy. It was like going back in time to the days when I was happy and didn't know it, when I was young and getting ready for school, with my mother preparing breakfast, my father getting ready for work, and my siblings trying to watch cartoons on TV. Fond memories of a much simpler life. But even though I didn't want to disturb them and break the atmosphere with my presence, I had no choice because I was starving.

"Good morning," I greeted as I entered the kitchen.

"Oh Goshujin-sama, good morning."
"I'm almost done with breakfast."
"Give me a moment and it will be ready to serve!"

"No, Tamamo, wait!"
"Turning up the heat won't make it cook faster!" I heard my mother say worriedly.

"Tamamo is using the kitchen?"
"Did she have any problems?"
"Does she even know how a modern kitchen works?"

"Don't worry, I'm watching and teaching her."
"Tamamo wanted to make breakfast herself, so I thought I'd show her how to cook in the present."
"It's touching to see her working so diligently and determinedly, even though she knows almost nothing."
"It goes much better after the third try."

"Third?"

"Besides, if I teach her to cook well and serve customers, I could ask her to work in the coffee shop!"
"Very well!"
"It's ready to serve!"

Both Tama and my mother came out of the kitchen with a plate and some cups of coffee and a cup of hot chocolate. When they put them on the table, I could finally see what they were doing. They were just sandwiches, about three of them well made, another three, well, let's just say you could tell at a glance which ones Tama made. But no matter that I had to eat the two she made, I was happy for the food.

"It's quite simple to make, but that's what makes it tasty."
"You were right, food tastes much better with someone else..." I said without thinking.

"Hey, are you crying?"
"Is it because of the nightmare yesterday?" Tamamo asked me.

"Huh? Oh no, no."
"Well, it seems a little, but it's from happiness."
"This all feels like a little dream come true that I didn't know I had."
"To be in a peaceful place again, with my mother.
"With homemade food on the table, with my family, in peace."
"......"
"Yes, it feels like the war is finally over for me, that all those bad times and sorrows were for something more than just suffering."

"Come here!"
"At times like this, the best thing is a hug!" my wife replied.

She approached me and did just that, hugging me and holding me for a moment. Then my mother came back to speak.

"It's good to see you with us again, Cesar."
"It's a shame that Maria isn't here with us right now."
"She is currently in the hospital for a regular checkup because of her illness."
"From what you've told me, it's your doing that she's improved so much."
"I think words of gratitude are unnecessary, but let me say it again."
"Thank you, Cesar, thanks to your help, Maria's illness has been cured."
"Along with her, you've also taken a great burden off my shoulders.
"You have my sincere thanks," my mother said, speaking from the heart.

"So Maria is back in the hospital?"
"What did they tell her?" I asked.

"It's just a scheduled check-up."
"The doctors still can't believe that Maria has healed perfectly in the last nine months."
"They keep calling it a miracle, which apparently turned out to be true."
"They check that everything is fine and that there are no side effects or anything like that."
"The poor girl has only slept at home for two days since it was finished," my mother mentioned.

"Hey, now that you mention it, why did you move here?"
"I mean, I heard you wanted a cafe, and I'm glad you finally got your dream."
"But I mean the part about moving to Japan, why?"
"Isn't it easier to open the cafe at home, I mean?"

"Oh, well, I had several reasons, so I can't give just one." My mother began to speak, reminiscing a bit.
"The main reason could be that I didn't really know that your sister Maria had been saved."
"Just yesterday I didn't know that things like magic, spirits or gods existed."
"I didn't really know if Maria's illness would come back after a while, so I thought about at least living near the hospital that treated her."
"Besides, there was Saeko, the girl who was at the cafe yesterday."
"She's a very good friend of mine; she helped me a lot when I came to visit Maria."
"Once she even let me stay at her house during an emergency when Maria was in critical condition."
"She worked in a cafe near the hospital, so I saw her every time I came."
"She was the one who gradually taught me how to run a café and what to do."
"When I told her about my dream of having my own cafe, she was the one who offered to help me make it happen."
"Of course, I couldn't be so selfish as to ask her to move to another country just to do me a favor."
"......"
"Besides, there's still my job with the Alliance."
"Now that the war is over, I wanted to do something different and more peaceful than leading troops or finding supplies for some general at the last second."
"It seems that the Japanese government has mentioned that they might want to join the Alliance as well, and for now, I'm around to negotiate with them if the opportunity arises."
"......"
"Lastly, I heard that Damien Raven didn't take it very well that I took the Valkyria project from him, so I wanted to ask some questions here now that they've just opened a new branch after losing the one in Oslo."

"Wow, that's a lot of things going on in your life."
"You must be very busy all the time."

"It's not a big deal, like I said."
"It's more like a part-time job while I get things set up with my cafe."
"......"
"......"

My mother stopped talking and stared at me; you could tell exactly what she was thinking as she looked at my poorly concealed chest.

"So, how much longer are you going to wait to ask me why I have boobs now?"

"I don't know how to feel when my son is beating me on something like that."
"Excuse me for asking this in a very blunt way, but how much longer are you going to be a fox girl, Cesar?"

"......."
"The thing is... ....."
"Well, with what happened to ....."
"An approximation of ......."
"......."
"Forever?"
"I'm sorry.... I... don't..."

But my mother came to me and hugged me lovingly, in a way I probably hadn't felt even as a child.

"No, it's okay, it doesn't matter."
"The important thing is that you're here."
"That's more than enough."
"......"
"You did well to come back."
"......."
"Although if you had been born a girl, you would now be the one called Maria Celeste instead of your sister."

"Yeah, I've heard a million times how you wanted a daughter and it didn't happen, that first it was me and then Leon and then finally Maria came and blah blah blah."

"Just saying."
"......"
"....."
"Cesar, can I talk about something more serious?"
"It's about your sister."

"All right, what happened?"

"You see, Maria, as you know, is now quite healthy thanks to you, and I'm very happy about that."
"That's great, of course, but it's time to move on."
"Since her health has been much better lately, I thought maybe it's time for her to go to school."
"You know, like a normal girl, she's already a young girl, but because of her problems, she's never been in a classroom and all that."
"So, as her mother, I want her to experience the normal life that she has missed so far."
"As a matter of fact, there's already a school I want her to attend. I have almost all the paperwork ready."
"It's Amari High School in Aoyama-Itchome."
"Even though the school year is about to end, they told me that since Maria's case is special, it would be no problem for her to start before the next school year begins so that she can adjust to the environment."
"She was very excited about the news before she went to the hospital for her check-up.

"That's really good, it sounds good to me."
"If she agrees, I don't see why there should be a problem."

"......."
"The thing is, I'm still a little nervous about it."
"I mean, she hasn't socialized much with people outside of her doctors."
"So I was thinking of offering her a little more help than usual.
"To make sure she's okay at school, without any problems."

"Okay, I understand, it's normal."
"It's important that we as a family help her in any way we can."
"But for some reason, I feel like you're about to ask me something very ridiculous."

My mother took a mirror from a nearby table and held it up to me with a mocking smile, or maybe a sincere one, or maybe she had a stomach ache.

"Take a look at yourself, now that you're a young and pretty girl again."
"Without a doubt, you look like someone who should go to school."

"Wait, what?"
"You don't expect me to go through that again!"
"I barely survived the first time, I can't go through the same trauma twice!"

"Please! I'm begging you!"
"I would feel much safer if I knew that her brother was supporting her at school."
"It will help her a lot to adjust to school life."

"Look at me for a moment! I have a fox tail and ears!"
"Do you think they won't make fun of me?"
"I still feel bad about the first time, even though I was a normal person then."
"Don't think I've forgotten the shit you pulled at the graduation party and the photos you took!"

"Please do this for your sister!"
"Please!"
"I'm begging you as your mother, desperate for help!"

My mother bowed her head in front of me, she was really asking me something out of the ordinary. Tamamo seemed surprised to see my mother begging me to make a fool of myself to save my sister, and she also looked at me with pity to persuade me, including the tender look of a pet to break my soul.

"'Agh, all right, but it will only be for a while.'"
"I don't want to have to fight again to get into the university and all that."
"It didn't go well the first time, it didn't go well the second time, and it won't go well the third time."
"....."
"Also, I need you to make me an ID."
"I don't know if you noticed, but I've shrunk and changed race."

"!!!!"
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Don't worry, I can handle it."
"I'll have your ID and a uniform ready for you tomorrow!"

"Wait a minute, tomorrow?"
"Isn't that too soon? Where are you going to get that?"

"Job perks."
"I have someone inside the school, someone I placed as a teacher."
"She's a friend who took on the job of infiltrating the school to keep an eye on Maria."
"It's better to have more people making sure she's okay."

"Are you running an ultra-secret spy operation just to help Maria?"
"You know what, better not answer that."
"Maybe the answer's worse than the question."

"School? That sounds like fun!"
"Can I go too?" Tamamo asked curiously.

"Oh, sure! Of course!"
"The more the merrier!" my mother said cheerfully, not thinking much about the consequences of bringing an evil goddess to a school.

"Don't you want to think this through a little more?"
"Just yesterday you thought we had kidnapped people inside the TV."

"While we're at it, before I ask you to make them fake IDs."
"Do you have any names you want to use?"
"Any suggestions on what your name should be from now on, Cesar?"

"Just use Elise, it's easier and faster at this point."

"I want to keep calling myself Tamamo-no-mae!"
"I like this name too much to change it!"
"Besides, I want people to like me as I really am."

"I don't want to bother with your name."
"But don't you think that using Tamamo-no-mae, being Tamamo-no-mae, is a little too direct?"

After talking for a while, we finally decided to leave the task of our new names to my mother, since she was the one who would have to figure out how to forge all that anyway. I was sure she would know what would work and what wouldn't. After she made those phone calls, we went shopping again in town, trying to get various things for the house and what we would need to live, from some clothes, to a top of the line gaming computer with the highest specs for simple tasks, to dog hair brushes. I don't know what was more embarrassing, when the clerks saw us and asked if it was for us, or when Tama said yes. Walking around town with Tamamo was really fun, having to explain everything to her and how she was impressed by almost everything in the modern age.