Unexpected Tutoring (Fox)

Nina chuckled and nodded "of course! I might not be a qualified teacher but I can try my best" she said as she stood up, creating a clone to tend the counter as she opened a hatch and let Fox behind the counter. She would lead him upstairs to her living area and grabbed a pen and pad of paper as well as her tablet. If he was ready, she would begin teaching him simple words at first, cat, dog, fox, chair, table, etc. just little words, showing him the Japanese word for them and then teaching him the English for it, letting him use the paper pad to write down the words.

Fox followed Nina, noticing that she seemed to have a few tricks he lacked... namely creating a duplicate of herself to keep an eye on things. That seemed rather useful. Still he wasn't here to learn new tricks like that, doubting he even could. No, now that Nina had offered he was here to learn how to read this weird new language he found himself able to speak after gaining his freedom from the statue.

When they settled down upstairs Fox sat down with his tails fanned out behind him, making him look even fluffier than usual. He was eager to learn and watched as Nina started to write out a few simple words. Thankfully he was fluent in Japanese so he had something to compare things to when looking at the written examples, making things move along a little more easily. Still it was slow going even on small words as the characters just seemed weird and wrong to Fox.

Nina would continue to teach him the best she could, she would teach him the same way her mother taught her, having been taught both English and Japanese by her mother. She would be calm and patient with him as she knew how different the languages were, but she would try come up with little rhymes for him to remember, she even sent another clone out to go make them some cookies.

It was a little odd just how quickly Nina had agreed to help Fox learn how to read English. At least most would have thought it odd, to Fox it was just a really nice fellow Kitsune giving him a hand. He was quite grateful all the same and concentrated hard as he worked on trying to learn how to read and write English. At the very least he could sign his name in both English and Japanese now, which greatly encouraged him. Even so it was still really hard and after awhile he let out a groan of frustration and laid his head on the table.

"Why is this so haaaaaaaard?" Fox asked, more to himself than Nina at this point. It was obvious that Fox was more than ready for a break, no matter how eager he'd been when they first started their impromptu tutoring session.

Nina would just smile gently at him "it's okay, there's no rush to fully learn everything, it'll take time, you just have to be patient" she said as the clone came in with some warm oat cookies, fresh from the oven with some lacto-free milk for them both, the clone then poofing once it had served it's purpose "let's take a break for now, no point in overworking yourself" she said.

Fox let out a little sigh as Nina spoke. He felt like there was a rush, not from Nina no, but from himself. After all he was supposed to be smarter since he was older! Of course when most of his life was stuck in a tiny magical prison that did tend to stunt one's mental growth, not that Fox really realized that. All he knew was that he felt like he needed to catch up on everything, feeling like the world was trying to move on without him even though he was back in it.

Those thoughts, thankfully, evaporated as the smell of fresh cookies washed over him. Instantly it perked the little purple Kitsune up. As Nina said they should take a break he nodded in agreement before reaching out to taste a cookie.

"These are good." He said after swallowing his first bite, his tails starting to wag a bit once again. If Nina wanted to ask him anything, now was probably as good a chance as ever for her to do so.

Nina would smile at him when Fox said that the cookies were good "thanks, so where do you come from? I've never actually seen a purple furred kitsune before, let alone one that is more fox-like" she said as she took a sip of the milk.

"Oh me? My clan is from Japan, though I haven't been there in a long time." It seemed there was more to that story, but Fox didn't seem to want to talk more on that point. Instead he went ahead and explained why she'd probably never seen another Kitsune quite like him before.

"Well, my fur color is rather rare according to what my parents said. My dad's fur was all reddish orange and my mom's was white. But I can't believe you've never seen another Kitsune like me though... oh wait! Maybe it's because I'm a pure-blooded Kitsune. My parents said that sometimes Kitsune fall in love with humans and the children have more human characteristics. I guess one of your ancestors fell in love with a human somewhere along the line." Fox said, just stating things as he saw them. He didn't have anything against falling in love with humans, as he knew there were some good ones. It was just the general population of humans that still somewhat terrified him.

Nina nodded "well yeah, my mum says my father was a drunk, and a one night stand, some guy she found in a bar, the kitsune world I knew was one that only has females, I was told that male kitsunes were super rare, so human males were the only option for kitsune babies" she told him, it was interesting to hear about a different world.

Fox was a little startled to hear Nina say such things about her father, apparently not even having met the fellow. That didn't sound at all like love, not in the least!

"Er, well... that's... interesting. I knew that males of our kind were a bit more uncommon, but I didn't think we were rare. Last time I heard there was supposed to be like one male for every three females of our kind. My dad used to joke and say that I'd have my pick of the litter when it came to choosing a mate." Fox said, letting out a little laugh. The laugh was a little sad though, mostly as he didn't even know if his parents were even alive anymore. He was pretty sure they must be dead though, there was no way they could still be alive if he'd had to wait so long to get out of his little jade prison. No, they would have freed him a long time ago if they were still alive.

Nina shrugged "one male for every three, I was taught more like 'one male will be born every millennia' or whatever" she said, she took a bite of her cookie and smiled "eh, doesn't matter, I met a really nice guy anyway, and he's a meta-human, so we'll see how that turns out" she said cheerily, trying to change the subject somewhat.

When said it was more like one male every millennia Fox wasn't sure what to make of that. Had things changed that much during the time he was stuck in the statue? It was certainly possible. As if to remind himself of how much time had passed he looked behind himself and counted his tails again. Yep, nine... as always ever since he'd come out of that statue. He knew he'd only had one when he went in... so at least 800 years had to have passed, probably even longer than that though.

"So much has changed..." He mumbled, though keen Kitsune ears would easily be able to make out his words.

Nina's ears would flick as she heard his mumble "since when? Have you been away for a while?" she asked curiously.

"Oh?" Fox was caught slightly off guard, forgetting for a moment that Nina's hearing would be just as acute as his own.

"Well, I guess I have been away for awhile. Some mean humans thought I was a demon, so they trapped me inside this tiny jade statue for a long time. I used to only have one tail back then, but when I got out I have nine now... and everything is just so weird and confusing." Fox stated, being rather open with Nina. She was a fellow Kitsune after all, which meant Fox instantly trusted her and so he was more open as well.

Nina couldn't help but frown a little "that must have been really difficult to deal with, if you need any help, with anything, just let me know alright, I even have a spare room you can use if you need somewhere to stay" she offered, for him to be locked up for such a long time, it was sad.