The Next Chapter: 25

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 25: Who's That Knocking on the Door?

"So uh..."
"Yeah?"

Ed and Jay were sitting across the table from L'hoxifel and Kyosuke, respectively. Even though he'd agreed to this 'double date' thing, it still felt slightly awkward to have an audience to their conversation. The demon-girl gave him an encouraging smile, though, and he went on: "I got a reply back to my email. She didn't have any problem sending me the code for the 'vixen society' app, but also mentioned it probably won't work on anything anymore. Also—apparently I'm the first person to ask who isn't some kind of security researcher."

"Pfft. I can see that," L'hoxifel said. "Magic is a pretty big attack surface if nothing's shielded against it. Some harmless-ish pranks are one thing..." She paused, looking Jay's way. "You know, you're kinda making him nervous there."

Ed's roommate had been leaning her elbows on the table, hands on her cheeks, just staring happily across at the kitsune, with her tail swishing back and forth. Kyo definitely seemed uncertain and fidgety, and his cheeks were a little red. She sat up. "Sorry~. I was just thinking about how cute Kyo wa—uh, is," she said.

"You should really tone it down a little," Ed said. "I think you're gonna scare him off."

"I-it's not like that," Kyo protested.
"It's okay, I know I can be a little thick sometimes," Jay admitted. "If I'm ever coming on too strong, you can just tell me, and I'll back off."
"Sure...thanks," he said, nodding and looking a little relieved after all.

"He is cute, though~," L'hoxifel said quickly.

"Soo—what's this code like?" Jay asked.

"Com-plete-ly unreadable nonsense. I've seen code written with only tabs and spaces that was more understandable. All the variable names and comments are total unicode barf, like someone held alt and tapped numpad keys until they got a symbol they thought looked pretty. Some of what I could sort of understand would only work if it was self-modifying code, but the language it's written in won't even let you do that."

"And, this program was made by some kitsune to let them channel magic?" Kyo asked.
"I dunno if they wrote it, but supposedly that's how it was used, yeah."

"Maybe they used magic to modify the code while it was running, then?"

"How would you do that? Look, 'running code' consists of a bunch of small, very specific electrical signals inside of a processor. Can magic precisely control electricity, like to the quantum level?"

"Not...that I know of. Hmm." Kyosuke rubbed his cheek for a moment.

"Maybe that's backwards, then. Magic doesn't modify the code, but the code acts like a ritual to 'program' some magic, and then the magic does stuff that looks like code?"

"That sounds even less plausible," L'hoxifel said. "How would you source the magic? I don't think ambient magic would be enough to do much, plus it'd be really noticeable to anyone nearby with the right senses if you started sucking that up into someone's phone. From what I could find, there wasn't anything obviously special about the phones running the app unless it was being actively used to channel magic at someone."

"Well, if you wanna use magic as a program, and you're gonna channel magic to the phone anyway, why not use that magic?" Jay said.

The other three at the table paused, looking at her. "What?" she tilted her head. "Is that stupid?"

"It's..probably right, actually," Kyosuke said.

"The 'front face' of the app was just a text-chat with the kitsune who made it, one of them a nine-tails," L'hoxifel added. "It'd be trivial for just one or two of the more powerful 'members' to pump a little bit of magic through all the time to make it work, and then put a lot more through when they wanted to actually accomplish something."

"There's different code for the 'server' and the 'client'," Ed said. "A lot of it is copied, but there are some differences—just not anything I can make sense of. I think some of the insane bit-shifting that looks like it's not doing anything is what doesn't work anymore, in newer phone firmwares. No computer scientist would have a clue how to make a program not 'channel magic', but I guess that part of the code might've been essential for it to do that?"

"In that case—you'd need to figure out what the bit shifting is, exactly," said the demon-girl. "Maybe someone who understands ritual magic could figure out how it translates, and give you back the 'code' it would've run."

Ed sighed. "That's gonna take me forever to work out. But I guess it's a start."

---

After getting all of their new clothes and other necessities put away, Fritz's little group headed for OZK's dining room for some lunch. Hendrix said, "By the way Gi—uh...what was it again?"

"Vanilla~! Gio's still fine, though," The catgirl said, shrugging.

"Cool. How d'you keep your tail from..." She lifted a napkin with one hand, using the index finger of the other to gently flip half of it upward.
"Oh, that? It's pretty easy, you just don't let the tail go that way. The clothes for people with tails even have extra holes if they need 'em," she said.

"You...inspect a lot of dresses in the store?" Fritz asked.
"No, no—L'hoxifel told me. I guess it's way more awkward for her, having wings too. Plus—like—how d'you keep a pair of horns from breaking every top you put on?"

"Lots of practice, I'd assume," Sasha said. Her own ears, soft though they were, were big enough to provide some experience with that kind of difficulty.

Nancy entered, quietly continuing on to the kitchen, as their conversation continued. Fritz said, "I guess it's nice to've gone with someone who had some empathy for the situation, at least..."

"You'd never know it, though," Sasha replied.

"How long d'you think it takes for someone who was transformed to be basically indistinguishable?" she continued.

Sasha and Hendrix looked at each other briefly, then at the catgirl. Finally, at exactly the same time, they said: "Five minutes."

"Whaaat? I'm still nowhere near used to any of this," Vanilla protested.

Coming back out with a plate of food, Nancy interjected: "Oh, did L'hoxifel tell you all she used to be a guy, too?"
"Uh-huh," Vanilla said, the others nodding.

"Still giving people that story...I guess, the way OZK's membership's wound up so far, it doesn't hurt one fit in," she said with a slightly exaggerated shrug.

"Are you...saying she wasn't originally male?" Fritz asked.
"Oh, no—I couldn't possibly tell you one way or the other," she said. "I didn't meet her 'till college. I guess Camilla might actually know." With that, she continued out of the room to, presumably, eat her meal elsewhere.

"...Okay, is there some good reason she felt a need to make it sound all suspicious?" Hendrix asked after a moment.

"I dunno. Little weird, though," Sasha agreed.

"Maybe she just feels left out?" the catgirl suggested. "Ooh, you should use your magic to turn her into a guy!"

"Uhh, no," Fritz said with a glare, the others giving her some similar, if milder, disapproving looks.

"Whaat? What's the use of having crazy powers if you never use them?!"

---

"You wanna try some of this, Eddy?" L'hoxifel offered.
"Uh, sure.." He reached across the table with his fork to try a little of her food. "You can..I could cut you off some of mine if you want?"
"It does look good~," she said, smiling.

"Ooh, yeah! Ed and L'hoxifel are using pet names," Jay observed. "Do you wanna do that?"
Kyo paused, his face flushing and his hand with a fry in it hovering halfway off the plate. "Errm. Y'know—there's a thing I might call you anyway. If I'm not careful."
"Huh?" The redheaded fox-girl tilted her head slightly, then caught on after a moment's pause. "Oooh, yeah, the whole 'master' thing!"

"Uh—what?" Ed asked; L'hoxifel giggled slightly.
"It's—uh—a kitsune thing," Kyo tried to explain.

"I can tell you later if you want," the demon-girl added. "Anyway—nicknames like that aren't for everyone, and I guess 'Jay' and 'Kyo' already can't get much shorter."

"Hmm..what about 'kyo-kun'? 'Kyo-chan'?" Jay suggested. "That could be cute, right?"
"Uh. Yeah," he nodded slowly. "I guess I could get used to that. Little weird when that's almost a normal way to address me in my native language, buut, I'm familiar enough with weeaboo culture to give it a pass."

---

After lunch, Rob and Camilla sat in the lounge, both of them playing games while sitting side-by-side on the couch. "Hey. Th'Rockruff I just caught has perfect IV's."

"No way, it does not."
"Well, you explain these stats, then," she said, waving her screen across at him.

"...That's level seven, not five."

"Oh. Well, at least I can get dusk form..."

He sat up slightly, his catlike ears twitching. "Something wrong?"
"Eh. Just the doorbell."

"Well. You know the rules." Those being: Whoever heard the doorbell first had to get it.
"Totally unfair to people with cat ears..." He got up anyway, setting his console down to go see who it was.

The doorbell didn't go off a second time; whoever was waiting for him to slowly walk to the front door was either patient, or had already given up and left. It turned out to be the former: A guy a little on the tall side, dressed professionally, with shoulder-length pitch black hair and bright, piercing red eyes. "Hello there," he said calmly, his expression mild and friendly. Nonetheless, something about those eyes made Rob not want to look directly into them. "Is Nancy about?"
"Uh—yeah. I think," he said. At least, he hadn't heard her leave since the last time his feline ears had heard her voice in a hallway. "I can go get her, but—in case she wants to know—who's asking?"

"Just her dear sweet elder brother," he said. That would make him...Richard Tanner, "Rich" for short.

"Oh. All right."

He felt a slight sense of relief after turning around to go get her. Was it because he knew who this was—from hearing Nancy and Camilla talk about him a few times—or because he didn't have to try to look into those eyes anymore? It was hard to be certain. Either way, once he delivered the message, he could get back to his girlfriend and his game.

"...What." Nancy's expression when he told her was uncharacteristically dark.

"Uh, I said—"

"I heard what you said. I—just—what in the name of seven distinct deities is he doing here!?" she demanded, not really of Rob but more of the universe in general. "Uuurrrghh...!" She stormed out of her bedroom door, nearly bowling him over in the process, and on toward the front door.

Well, now Rob was kind of curious. It had never really seemed like Nancy disliked her brother particularly; if anything, they all had reason to be grateful to him for putting up a lot of the funding—and commissioning some of the expertise—to have the new house built. He knew how siblings could be sometimes, but this reaction still seemed a little extreme. So he decided to follow at enough of a distance to be around a corner, where his kitty ears could still pretty much pick up any non-whispered conversation.

"Hello, sister dear."

"What. Do you. Want." She was still audibly seething.

"Well, since some business of mine took me nearby, I thought it might be a fine opportunity to look in on my investment. You know, see how the new chapter's doing and all."
"This...isn't really a good time for a tour," she said, seeming to recover at least a mask of civility. "Most of our members are out doing stuff, for one thing."

"But of course. I'm sure it would be much better for me to visit this evening, while you're all deciding on a provisional, initial Grand Council."
"Wha—how—!?"

Richard chuckled softly. "Well—a certain mage told me your population was on the rise, and Ursa shared a little video you recorded that confirmed you were approaching a certain sort of critical mass. Obviously both of them were just as concerned as I am that our fair sorority's major traditions are upheld, or at least rejected with intention rather than due to ignorance. I know full well how you prefer to work from backstage rather than being up front, and there's no better time to take care of official business than a Saturday night, is there?"

Nancy audibly took a long, deep breath, but didn't seem to come out of it any calmer than before. "You said. Very clearly. That we would be independent. That there would be no effort to exert control over the new chapter. That was, as far as I remember, your idea."

"Oh, of course. I don't intend to give any orders at all—just some information. History. Advice, at worst."
"You know what happens when you give 'advice', dear brother. Especially to people who don't know you!"

"Well, if you'd prefer I sit in another room and have someone else relay my words, that could be arranged."

"You're not about to tell me Gerar is in town too." That would be...Richard's girlfriend, who Rob had heard was a dragon. A literal one.

"Oh, no, of course not. Though perhaps you, or one of the other members, or even your faculty advisor could serve the role?"

"…Aaauuugh. Never mind! Fine, you can tell them whatever you want, after making it extremely clear they don't have to follow any of it."

"I have no objection to that. I'm glad we could come to an agreement."

Rob felt like he'd been nosy enough at about this point, and that Camilla might be wondering what was taking so long, so he headed back to the lounge.

"Who was it?" she asked, of course.

"Nancy's brother."
"Rich?"
"Yeah. He wanted to talk to her...something about a 'grand council'?"
"Oooh, yeah. That's what the meeting tonight's gonna be about."

"You, uh, already knew that?"
"Well. Like. I was pretty sure. Nancy totally does not want to be in charge, after all. It's all in the charter, too. You...did read that before signing up, right?"

"As I remember it, I was a little too concerned with not being stuck as a catgirl at the time," he pointed out.

"Well. Don't worry, it's no big deal. I don't think you'll be elected anyway—unless you wanna. I mean, I could nominate you."
"No thanks."

"In that case...maybe you could nominate me? It might be fun, being semi-in-charge..."

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Slightly awkward transitional chapter leading in to what I hope will be a pretty fun one...