After a few minutes of traversing the labyrinthine hallways of the cruise ship, Eva and Gon finally reached an empty lounge area. They had wanted to take the Elevators at first, but as those were crowded by the hundreds of Inaris, and their retinues, currently arriving, they had to settle for trying to find the staircases.

Now, as they settled into a pair of very soft chairs, their ears still filled with the faint noise of hundreds of people arriving, Gon spoke up first. “So how much do you know about magic?”

“Nothing really.” Eva replied, her two tails wiggling excitedly in the limited space they have behind her. “I don’t think anyone living at the Shrine could even tell me much about it.”

“I see.” the male Kitsune replied before pushing one of his hands into his fluffy tail. “I am no master of magic myself, but the basics I shave down well enough.” As he continued, he pulled an elaborate looking scroll out of his tail. “And a lot beyond that you need to figure out yourself anyways.”

Eva, her eyes still focused on the tail that seemed to double as storage, just nodded in response.

Opening the scroll, Gon placed it on the small table between them and began his explanation, referencing his scroll from time to time. “Magic is vast and potentially able to do anything. Which is why everyone, from the mightiest of kami to the lowliest of mortals need to seperate it in various ways. Mortal sorcerers of ages past usually did this by splitting it into how they wanted their magic to act. As wards protecting objects, as immediate displays of power or giving magical aspects to otherwise mundane objects.”

Doing her best to read the, from her perspective upside down, scroll, Eva noticed that Gon had been reciting more or less exactly what was written there so far. Curious to see what he would say next, she leaned back again, careful not to squish her tails.

“But as most youkai have some instinctual, innate magic, we more commonly divide magic based on what we want it to affect. How one goes about this mental categorization is ultimately up to each individual mage, though most tend to adapt something similar to their instructors.”

“So what’s the catch?”

“What do you mean?”

Taking a deep breath Eva elaborates, “In fiction there is always a drawback to using Magic. It taking the same effort as doing it with your own hands, only so much magic to use in a day, or something like that.”

“Ah. Well mortal mages performing magics often suffered headaches, or even death from exhaustion. But as a Kami you won’t need to worry about that unless you attempt truly grand magics like causing an earthquake.” Gon said, waving a hand dismissively at her concerns.

“Of course doing so would have political implications much more important for you than a migraine. My master always grumbles about Amaterasu and Helios' shouting matches when he hears about an eclipse for example.”

Eva, shocked at the amount of power that she allegedly wielded, just nodded slowly.

“Anyways, let’s move on to actually helping you figure out magic.” Gon said, more of his attention on the notes in his scroll then on Eva’s reaction. After rummaging in his tail once more he handed Eva a small box.

“Now take this and focus on that feeling you get of how to deliver it back to me.”

With a short nod Eva took the box, closed her eyes and quickly focused on the mental tug leading her right across the table to Gon.

“Then follow the feeling not to where it leads to, but where it originates from within you.”

As she did so, the female Kitsune soon reached a point where this tugging feeling split into many tiny threads. Focusing on the entirety of those, they seemed to resemble two sets of roots swishing softly from side to side.

“Now imagine the pull not as a mental connection, but as a red line coming out of your brow.”

Eva quickly nodded as she pushed the new mental image onto herself. But when she opened her eyes there was no line to be seen.

Gon, noticing her scowl when she did this, smirked as he finished his instructions. “And finally, suck a bit on the place where the original pull connected to you.

Eva nodded and focused back on the mental image of a pair of root systems. Gently tucking on the point they met, a weird tingly sensation started at the base of her tails. As she increased the mental strength she pulled with, a faint red line began to stretch out from her brow. When the line reached halfway to Gon, a painful pinching coming from her tails led Eva to slightly change her position on the chair as she continued to focus.

Soon the illusionary thread had connected to the other Kitsune, who’s smile mirrored the one that had slowly crept onto her lips.

“That was very good for your first attempt.” He told her, pulling her attention away from working her magic enough that she finally noticed a strange new sensation from her tails. Turning around to look at them, Eva was shocked at the sight of a third tail nestled between her first two. It was about half the size as the others but otherwise looked identical to them.

“Don’t worry.” Gon tried to placate her, “Most Kitsune start growing a new tail as they begin to master magic. It’ll grow as your control of your magic improves. It normally reaches full length once one of the categories you’ll divide magic into comes as instinctual to you as breathing or changing your shape.”

“Ah. So how should I go about that?”

“Well I could describe to you what kinds of magic I separated out so far. But as we’ll probably not meet again if you want to master them yourself, it would be better if you designated your own.” He explained before opening the box Eva was still holding and handing her the empty scroll inside. “The way my teacher had me go about it was to write them down as I think of them so I would not shift the definitions unconsciously. He claimed that while this would impose sharper limits on what I would end up being able to do with each of them, having a clearer image would aid me in mastering them quicker.”

“Does it make a difference in how many schools or categories or whatever I think up?” Eva said as she began to consider what she’d try and subsume the illusion she just did into.

Before responding, Gon opened his own scroll further until he reached the section he had been looking for. After consulting his notes intensely he replied. “Not much. I was told that in the end, those separating magic into broader concepts usually took longer to master any one of them, but would be able to do a lot of different things sooner. Those using narrower definitions grew more skilled in these quicker, but often needed to start over again when learning a new one.”

Nodding to signify her understanding, Eva began to write down her first few ideas for categories down with a pen pulled from her bag.

“And in the end, most people end up with a mixture of them anyways. As often a seemingly narrow concept turns out to be broader than expected, or vice versa.”

“I see. Thank you for the lesson. I hope to-” Sadly, Eva expressign her hope to meet up again sometime was drowned out by an announcement coming from the speaker system.

“As most of our esteemed guests have arrived, we invite all of you to come mingle on the top deck, where drinks and snacks will be provided.”

Putting away the now no longer empty scroll and pen into her bag sitting under the table, she picked it up and got out of her seat.

“Let’s see if we can’t find our way there quicker than we took getting here.” Gon said as he stuffed his things back into his tail.