To Laura's big surprise, over the next couple of months nothing happened on the supernatural side of things. While it did cause her to be on edge around doors after three weeks, it did allow her to focus more time on other things.
Which was contrasted by the workload the professors put the students under during that same time. And on top of more homework than the German had been assigned in college up to now combined, she also had to make headway with her jet engine project.
As it turned out there was a lot more to do than weld together a casing and some fans in the right dimensions. Even with everything else, the fuel lines and tank, the control circuitry and all the other odds and ends, assembling it into a working engine proved to be the work of weeks.
But with everything prepared for a first testrun on sunday, this friday the only thing Laura had to worry about was the examination for her 6th Kyu. The fact that her test would happen at the start of this week's practice, before the watchful eyes of everyone else, did little to help her nerves.
To her surprise it was over rather quickly, first she had been told to demonstrate a number of basic exercises she had been practicing since her first day of Kendo. After that were the first few forms of the kata she had been taught. Only a handful of moments later, she was being congratulated by the sensei and a handful of others, amongst them Daiki, before she kneeled down with the others to watch the examinations for the higher kyus.
In the end there was only half an hour of actual practice that friday after everyone passed their tests.
A few hours later, just about all of them were celebrating in town, although most had broken into smaller groups to hit their favourite bars, most of which were not quite big enough to accommodate every member of the Kendo club.
The second most important event of Laura's weekend came on saturday though. Getting up early in the morning, Laura got ready to take a trip she had only taken a couple of times. Packing her backpack with some drinks and snacks for lunch the Kitsune grabbed Takeko and made her way through town, stopping at Akiko's for a light breakfast.
About thirty minutes later the two spirits arrived at the door they always used to travel to Inuka's hut. They entered the Yuki Onna's home to the surprising sight of her naked back.
Covering Takeko's eyes with one of her tails, Laura ushered him backwards out of the door alongside her. "Ah sorry to interrupt, we'll wait outside." She said as she closed the door after the two of them.
"I did not expect you two this early" Inuka said as she stepped out of her hut a short while later.
"Ah well it's kind of my fault" Laura began to explain, scratching behind her left ear nervously. "I was looking to get the most out of this day of training, so I ended up dragging Takeko out as early as I could."
"Is that so? Why do you suddenly want to practice more with your magic?" The Yuki Onna inquired curiously, setting down the armfull of paper and dry twigs she had carried out of her hut.
"I'll be running a jet engine I put together tomorrow, and I am kind of afraid of it all blowing up in my face and spewing fire everywhere." The Kitsune replied, her tails hanging a bit limp, slowly drifting from side to side.
"Jet engine?" Inuka mumbled, puzzled by the, to her, strange words. Shaking her head she decided to move on to the bits she had understood. "Well that at least explains why you asked me to gather some kindling for today. There are two ways you should be able to stop flames. One would be to try and control all the flames like you do with those you conjure yourself. This is quite taxing and requires a lot of concentration. Which is why I would suggest focusing on the second option a Kitsune like you should have: Creating a barrier or seal containing a barrier."
"How?" was Laura's immediate outburst, followed by, "What do you mean I should be able to do this?"
"Well" the Yuki Onna began as she gathered some of the wood she had brought out into an unlit campfire. "So far you started using all the magic you know by accident. Which got me thinking, what if Onyu did something to you when you became a Kitsune. After all very very few Kitsune reach their ninth tail, so you starting out with all of them is already strange."
Lost in thought over these words, Laura was unresponsive for a while, leaning back against a tree and her tails as she was. In her mind the thoughts and 'what if's chased each other round and round until a sharp pain at the end of two of her tails brought her back to full consciousness.
Looking down she saw Takeko biting down on her tails. As she was about to complain, he noticed her reaction and let go.
"Sorry for that, but you weren't reacting to anything else." the Tanuki apologized.
"It's alright I guess." Laura replied after taking a couple deep breaths. "Kind of got lost in my panic and confusion."
"Well then let us check if you can do it and just haven't yet, or if there is something going on, shall we?" Inuka suggested and, after getting a unsure nod from Laura in response, the Yuki Onna continued. "Okay, just a word of warning, I can't create barriers myself, so this is all based on what I have heard over the centuries. Sadly there is little to guide you for visualizing a barrier if you have never seen one before."
Seeing the confused look on the Kitsune's face, Inuka gave a soft smile before she continued. "But I think if you try to focus on the mental image of a piece of glass you might get close enough for now."
After another unsure nod, Laura closed her eyes and began to focus on something between the Pane of glass Inuka suggested and the countless interpretations of barriers and force fields she had seen in anime and movies before.
Just as Takeko and Inuka noticed a strangely flat shimmer in the air, Laura recoiled back from a headache akin to someone driving shards of the glass she had been focusing on through her brow. With a loud shout the Kitsune grabbed her head and fell to the side, hoping the pain would vanish soon.
"Well this might just explain why you haven't created barriers so far, or turned into an actual fox and back. And I would suggest not trying to work on seals until we find out what's exactly going on." Inuka suggested once Laura looked a bit better.
"Yeah, better be safe than sorry." the German concurred. "So back to that harder first option I guess."
"Indeed." Inuka replied, waving towards the still unlit campfire. "If you would be so kind as to light the fire."
Standing back up Laura nodded firmly before igniting the campfire with a flicker of her thoughts. Moments later a nice fire was burning in the middle of the small clearing and Inuka pulled out a small burning stick.
"So first I want you to try and stop tflame from consuming any more of this branch." Inuka instructed the Kitsune as she gave her the burning wood.
Taking the branch form the older spirit, Laura gave it her best try to slow the fire, with only marginal success before she had to drop the twig a few minutes laters before it burned her hands.
"Again" Inuka commanded as she handed out another piece of burning wood.
After a couple dozen tries Laura had finally managed to control the natural flame enough to keep it burning the wood to the point she needed to drop it. Once she had repeated this feat a few times in succession, Inuka moved on to throwing burning wood chips at Laura, which she had to dodge until she finally managed to stop the flames flying towards her.
"Well this will have to do for now." Inuka commented hours of practice later. "I'll try to look into what's going on with that magic of yours, but for now you two better head home."
With a series of thanks and goodbyes, Laura and Takeko indeed made their way through Inuka's home to the normal world, where they noticed it as already late afternoon as they descended the mountain.