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"I don't want to, Erra. What's the point?"

"The point is to have you blend in. Now put them on, Kei."

Kei quietly took the faux fox ears mounted on a headband and slipped them on, looking down at the ground as she did so. "I don't like them."

"I don't care. Now that your mother's gone you don't really have anyone to protect you. You have to try to fit in here if you don't want granny to kick you out." Erra was upset, her tail lashing from side to side and one ear twitching in irritation towards her little cousin.

"Don't care. Don't want to be here." Kei's little face scrunched up slightly, but remarkably she didn't cry. That wasn't too unusual; Kei was rather serious for a five year old child. The only time Erra really had seen the tiny human cry was at her mother's cremation, and even then it had only been silent tears tracking down her cheeks. It was quite unlike other humans she'd known, who seemed to always wear their hearts on their sleeves and turn any little incident into the Drama of the Year.

"It's a privilege to be here at the Kitsu Shrine," Erra reminded her. "Your mother was lucky to be taken back in after she left and had you with another human; she was lucky to have stayed here after granny adopted her. Humans aren't welcome here, you know that. The only thing that kept you safe here was your mother." Kei still said nothing, looking at the ground, but her eyes had become distant, cold. With a sigh Erra knelt down to the girl's level and tilted her chin up so they looked eye to eye. "Don't you want to be a shrine maiden, like your mother? Don't you want to learn to be a kunoichi like her too?"

"I'm never going to be accepted here, no matter how hard I try. I'm never going to be accepted in the human world, either. What's the point of trying to live in either world?" Erra shuffled back slightly, unnerved by the cold, adult speech coming from the child's mouth and the hard, cold look in her eyes. She really thought she had nothing left to live for, and that scared Erra more than she could say. As harsh as she had been with her, Erra loved her little cousin and wanted to see her happy again. "I should leave and never come back. I'll only cause more trouble no matter where I stay."

"You'll do nothing of the sort," Erra snapped at her, pushing her down so she knelt on the ground before her. "Why do you think your mother brought you back here? She knew you wouldn't have a normal life wherever you lived, but at least here you can learn skills that will help you. Here, you have a chance of being accepted. And here is where your family is. Including me." Her voice softened at the last sentence, and that caused Kei to look at her with calculating eyes. "Stay with me, Kei. I'll help you through this...but you have to trust me."

Kei looked at her for a few moments more, and each second felt like an unnerving eternity to Erra. The girl had grown up too fast, and it reflected so much in her eyes; no warmth, no childlike innocence. Finally she looked down and shrugged, and Erra figured that was the best she was going to get out of the girl, at least for now.

"I'm glad you're listening to reason. You have training in an hour and shrine duties after that. I expect to see you in the dojo, ready to go." Erra stood up then, not watching for any response from her cousin, and turned to leave. She was being harsh, she knew that, but she also knew it was the only thing her little cousin would listen to at that moment. She knew because she'd been much the same way after her own mother died.

As she exited her home she passed by her little brother, Satoshi, who had been peeking in nervously at the entire exchange but now looked like he was trying to act nonchalant about the whole thing. He was only a few years older than Kei; they'd become fast friends when Kei's mother came back to the village with her. "Oh, hi Erra," he said casually, as if running into her was a surprise. She hid a chuckle and ruffled his hair.

"Go on inside. You two can play before training today." He nodded at her, not even acknowledging that she knew that he was spying on them, and entered the house quickly. Out of curiosity, she took up her little brother's post and peeked in on them.

"Hey, Kei. There's still an hour before training. Do you want to go by the pond for a little bit?" Kei didn't respond immediately, and for a moment Erra wondered if the little girl had been too badly damaged by her mother's death and her own words to even acknowledge her best friend. But, eventually, she did look up into Satoshi's eager face.

"Sure. That sounds nice." Kei stood, accepting Satoshi's hand, and gave her friend the slightest of grins.

"Cool." Satoshi took a step away, but then stepped back and rubbed one of Kei's fake ears gently. "I like the ears, Kei. You really look good with them." Kei's embarrassed giggle was the best music to Erra's ears, and she knew that her cousin would heal.