Eva was outside on the shrine grounds in the frigid early morning air on Friday. Having drawn the short stick in shift scheduling once again, the Kitsune was glad she had mastered her new found pyrokinesis enough to stay warm without any sign how she was doing so while she swept her broom across the small paths to keep them clear for visitors.

Thus instead of shivering, she did her work with a faint smile, though it failed to reach her tired eyes due to the early hour. Being not quite awake yet, Eva nearly missed Yujiro walking up to her, until he greeted her.

“Morning Eva.” He said cheerfully, but sounded just barely more awake than herself.

“Oh. Moooorning.” Eva said, interrupting herself with a half yawn. “Quite early for you.”

“Yeah.” He agreed with a sigh. “But my usual buyer is ill, so off to the fish market it is for me.”

“Well Best of luck. Get some of that fresh fish.”

“Thanks. Oh, before I forget.” Yujiro replied with a snap of his fingers, “Hanako asked me to let you guys know she won’t be able to make it tonight.”

“Nothing serious happened to her I hope?”

“No, no. Just her new position being more demanding.”

“Ah well tell her I said good luck with that then.” Eva replied before having to suppress another yawn.

With a friendly wave, he moved on for his morning prayer, while Eva continued to sweep the paths.

Soon after though, she heard grumbling coming from a nearby tree. Moving to investigate, she saw a rather drunk Ratatoskr, holding a letter and rambling utterly incoherently. In at least two different languages.

Taking the letter before he did something stupid with it, Eva was very surprised to see it addressed to herself. Moving closer to one of the lanterns lighting the path so she could read it, Eva carefully opened the envelope and began to read.

Dear Fräulein Mayer,

There are a few topics I need to talk to you about in person. Thus I would like to invite you to a nice private lunch in Roppongi’s RyuGin this sunday afternoon. I would advise you dress the part, but as long as you show the staff this letter, they will escort you to the private room I reserved.

While I hope this reaches you in time to not disrupt any plans you may have made already, I sadly know Ratatoskr better than that. If he was too late, do give him a few good slaps, and tell him to let me know, so other arrangements can be made.

Odinson

Post Scriptum: Do feel free to bring your part time furry boyfriend.

Post Post Scriptum: While I wished I could have written to you in your native German, as others need to understand this while reading, I choose to default to English instead.

‘Okay, that’s unusual.’ The Kitsune thought to herself, ‘Better have Komaki check this over when he gets out of bed.’

~~~

“Really should have sent us an email or something sooner.” Kurt grumbled as he stood up and left the small auditorium his first class of the day should have taken place in. Just a few moments ago, a member of staff had come in to let them all know their professor had called in sick that day. As this lecture would have filled most of his day until noon, Kurt found himself at a loss as to what to do with his day.

Deciding to see if Eva had any ideas, he decided to give her a Call.

“AH Kurt, I thought you had class right now?” was the first thing he heard the moment she picked up.

“Well that’s why I am calling. Prof is sick, so I am unexpectedly free till noon.” He replied with a sigh. “I hoped you might want to kill those four or so hours together.”

“Well, there’s something I’d need to talk with you about as it turns out. So you mind heading over to the shrine? We can talk more there.”

“Of-of course.” Kurt replied, slightly unsure what exactly Eva would have to talk about.

“Great, see you soon.” She said before hanging up on him.

Letting out a deep sigh at the lost chance to ask for more details, Kurt made his way to the nearest underground station.

It took quite a while without Eva’s short cuts, but Kurt finally was turning the second to last corner before he’d reach his destination. But just as he stepped into the alleyway, something seemed off to him. Not one to ignore a gut feeling like this, he stopped and took in his surroundings.

Nothing looked out of place at first glance, with a few empty garbage collection spaces for the nearby houses that only held some empty glass bottles and a few bikes and motorcycles being all that was in view.

But to his nose, the scene was something else completely. Most smells were just what one would expect. The dogs living here and their urine on various spots along the alley. A faint smell of a strange mix of beverages from the bottles.

What did stand out though, was the lack of gasoline in the air considering there were three motorcycles around him. Giving it another few sniffs, Kurt slowly realized that what he had thought to be dogs at first reminded him faintly of Touya. Except for having peed everywhere. More telling than that, was how this smell clung to the motorcycles.

“Don’t know what you are up to, but the gig’s up.” Kurt mumbled, loud enough for a Tanuki to hear, but hopefully too quiet for any humans around to overhear.

Getting no response, Kurt carefully made his way down the alley, giving each of the disguised Tanuki a stern glare as he walked past them.

Once past them, he hastened his pace to finally find out what Eva had to talk about with him.