Disgruntled Hiroshi was cooking up a meal with paper stuffed into his nose, as Olivia was cleaning up any blood on the floor.

  "You sure you are fine?" Nata thought out loud, as she was relaxing by dinner table with Julia.

  "Yes, no need to remind me. It is already embarrassing to trip on my shoes right at the doorstep" Hiroshi mumbled under his annoyance.

  Olivia shortly came in with bloody cloth, and rinsed it off at the faucet before joining the duo, before asking "How did the visit go?"

  "Nothing much, but there will be some activity tomorrow. I was considering going out to get some furniture so you can have a proper room at last, and Sophia will be coming by. Also on friday, Olivia, you will be having a literacy test." He explained.

  Olivia felt slightly pressured by the prospects, while Nata was happily considering what they should get, especially remembering at the prospect of him willing to get her some gardening stuff.

  "Oh, by the way, Nata?" Hiroshi spoke up, taking her off guard. "yeah?"

  "Have you had happen to see these kind of crystals when staying with Vaska." as he pulled up an image of mana crystals he took when at the museum

  "No, not really, but they do look pretty." She admitted, as hiroshi calmly proceeded to text Edith "0" as with it, returned to cooking

  Thankfully for now, they got plenty of time to prepare.

  Before mid-day, they arrived at the furniture store, and before Hiroshi could consider their search, Nata was already running ahead, forcing him to chase after as Julia and Olivia were left to look around together, even if both didn't exactly enjoy the prospect.

  Nata was quick to look for and find the summer section, with all of the lounges, umbrellas and home garden gear, with Hiroshi barely able to catch her hand before she could run any further.

  "cool it down, Nata." He spoke out in hopes to get her stop her rush with attempts to catch his breath, and fortunately she got handle of herself.

  "Sorry." Nata muttered, clearly seeing the trouble she put on him already, as he calmly put his hand on her head and ruffled her hair in a pat, "I know, just try to control yourself."

  As things calmed down with them, and they went to search the garden section, Olivia and Julia were left together, look for their own stuff.

  "Well, isn't that perfect." Julia noted in sarcastic tone, as she was left to look around the store, as Olivia was left anxiously following her while looking as well.

  It didn't take long until Julia took note of the anxious moth, and clearly not enjoying having the drag her along by herself, she quickly pointed out the work-station section.

  "I will go check out some for a desk. Feel free to do... whatever." Julia muttered, before starting to head out, leaving Olivia stress on her own.

  Slowly pushing her head more into her fluffy mane, she started to feel guilty for being so passive, not willing to join Hiroshi and Nata, and now even feeling less scared of being with Julia, but more ashamed to be more like an pushover.

  "Spiacere." She muttered under her breath, trying to calm herself as she could feel agonizing thoughts come to her head, before getting surprised and spooked to hear "You are Olivia, right?" coming right behind him.

  In worry, she turned to see a man she hasn't seen before, but could note the tamers uniform, as he spoke up. "Name's Azhar. I was hoping to see all of you together." as he offered his hand out in greeting.

  Hearing it was friend of Hiroshi's that he was expecting, she started to feel calmer as she shakily shook his hand. "Nice to meet you. Yeah... I... I was left behind by accident."

  Azhar made to look around, spotting Julia far off, and the other two nowhere to be seen, he could do nothing but guess what happened, as he kept the calm air. "No you weren't. You need some alone time sometimes."

  Olivia took in the comfort he brought in, as he decided to take the lead with her, heading to check out a good bed for her.

  "You know, I have a lovely woman helping me deal with three foster kittens, and that is already stressful on daily basis." Azhar noted, happily explaining his situation, in hopes Olivia could find something comforting in it.

  "And even with that stress, seeing them grow up is something you cannot live without, and saying goodbye. It's like a stab wound straight on the heart." Azhar continued, getting a warm smile showing, before shortly arriving at the bed section, with plenty of frames to pick from.

  "You may be alone for a single minute, I assure you, you are still in minds of those who care about you." he finished, as Olivia slowly absorbed his words. She couldn't fully imagine it, but there was certain reassurance in it.

  "Thanks... thanks for helping." Olivia muttered under her breath, as Azhar was quick to respond. "No problem. Now let's get you a comfortable bed, so you don't need to snuggle with that flufball each night," with a light laugh under his voice, amused and pleased to hear her gratitude.

  "Oh, these no doubts would be good for lettuce, onions, carrots and even some spices." Nata happily spoke, as she inspected planter boxes, as well nearby seeds interesting her in all kind of selection they had.

  "Well, you gotta remember the seasons they grow in as well." Hiroshi commented on top, enjoying the energetic cloud going around looking at all of the options and what exactly they should get, as he put tight budget on her.

  But as he brought up seasons, his mind wandered on time, and stuff to come in recent time... "Crap, I completely forgot." Hiroshi quickly yelped in shock of having forgotten, to which Nata gave a curious look.

  "Summer vacation will be in a month. And we didn't have much chance to negotiate on plans for that."

  Nata's tail started to wag harder than prospect what to do for vacation, as her thoughts wandered, as she spoke out loud "Well, I'd like we would visit somewhere else than Elmspring. Russia is no go, not sure how Olivia would feel about visiting there or returning to her home countries as well, and Julia... well... she is a zombie, so I doubt she cares where she goes... Why don't we go see your home, Hiro?"

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Wait, like, go visit japan?" Hiroshi tried to affirm, to which Nata gave enthusiastic head nodding.

  He felt lightly pressured by the prospect, especially on how many things he would be returning on. "I am not sure that's a great ide-"

  "Go" came voice to his mind, and he could sense it was a message from Oiwa, if only it didn't come with the headache as well.

  Nata got slightly worried, seeing him cringe in pain for short moment, before he calmed down and answered. "I will think about it. I cannot promise it, but I will talk with others."

  Nata gave a small cheer at the idea, before returning to taking hard considerations on garden utilities.

  'Better not be selfish about agreeing.' He thought to himself, in hopes Oiwa heard his thoughts, as they returned to pick up stuff.

  "Easier than he seemed to make it." Julia muttered, having picked out a cheap table and chair, enough for a computer desk for herself and no doubts within budget limits.

  "Well, who do we have here." came familiar voice, and to Julia's displeasure, got faceful of german shepherd weredog.

  "Someone you shouldn't mess with." commented Julia, taking couple steps back from Ingolf's advances onto her.

  "Come on, don't be so mean. Surely you could give someone a chance." Ingold said with a smirk, yet it was clear sign of pleading for a chance, as Julia was left to sigh in disappointment.

  "I have more than hundred reason why not, so leave me be." Julia commented with a annoyed glare, to which Ingold, in disappointed, decided to hear her out and back down.

  Moving on from clear no chance, It didn't take long for Ingolf to return with Azhar, and eventually Hiroshi and Nata coming back together.

  Nata still felt slightly awkward with Azhar, but much more comfortable compared to previous time.

  As after Julia joined the group, and furniture selections were made, with the trio of girls agreed to it, Hiroshi paid and men got into work as Julia pitched in as well, carrying the stuff to the car.

  Quick and stuffed ride, they arrived at Hiroshi's place, and as they are getting last of the boxes moved to the room, Azhar's phone started to ring.

  "Damn. Gotta keep it short for today." Azhar commented, as he saw who was calling, as Ingolf happily spoke up. "I don't mind walking home today, Azzy."

  With the calm conflict over, Azhar was quick to say his byes, as he drove off, leaving rest of the crew with the furniture and decor to deal with.

  An hour passes, Hiroshi focused on cooking, with Ingolf with the girls dealing with making the room be fit, and to his attempts to be cordial, ends up only doing the heavy lifting of moving everything in place until the girls were satisfied, as they put together the furniture fast.

  "Dinner's ready." Hiroshi shouted, and to no surprise, he got to see Nata rush in, before Olivia and Julia calmly joined in, with exhausted Ingolf dragging his feet.

  But thanks to Hiroshi, even his exhausted mood got turned around, as warm meal was offered on plate, with steak, sauce and taters.

  As they are enjoying their meals, they heard a doorbell ring, so leaving his plate for a moment, Hiroshi went to check who it was.

  Upon door opening, yet another familiar face appeared, smelling the air coming from inside. "Seems I arrived at a good time." Sophia commented, as she was carrying a backpack full of stuff.

  "You did. I was about to have some leftovers, but you can have some, if you want." Hiroshi offered, as he let her in, as he headed back into the kitchen to continue his meal.

  "No need, we already had a deal on that account." She reminded him, following him in with greetings to the others.

  "Didn't expect to see you here, miss Spanos." Ingolf spoke in surprise, but got dull stare back, as she replied "Don't try playing cordial with me. We already went through this."

  Ingolf's ears and tail slumped down in disappointment, as he returned to his meal, as Nata and Olivia gave curious looks at the backpack she was carrying.

  As Sophia caught their stares, she took it off and put it by Julia's seat. "No need to worry, these are for her."

  Stares quickly turned to Julia, as she froze for a moment from the attention.

  "What?" She questioned them. "I will be coaching Hiroshi."

  "In what? I didn't agree into anything." He quickly spoke up in protest, but Julia gave him a smirk, as she happily answered with "First time?"

  Hiroshi was left annoyed at the prospect, but he couldn't decline it either without knowing what she had planned.

  "Anyways, Ingy, I think you can go after the meal. I am sure we can get the room in shape by ourself." Hiroshi made clear to him, as Ingolf just gave a small nod in understanding.

  Meal finished, and room being partially finished, they headed to backyard, that was pretty empty for now before Nata getting her planter boxes put around the spot, as Sophia took Nata and Olivia to one side, with Julia taking Hiroshi to other.

  "Alright, Olivia, we will start with your training." Sophia commented, as in a short moment, webbed wings sprouted behind her, shaped partially similarly, except Olivia's was fluffy with fur like her mane, with black dots and white background.

  She went on demonstrating on stretching the wings, and some movement to start with, which was easy for Sophia, but Olivia was clearly having hard time moving her wings.

  Nata happily cheered her on, as workout routine was made for Olivia, and Sophia made sure the technique was good as possible.

  Meanwhile on the other side of the lawn, Julia carried backpack with her, as Hiroshi was left to question what she had planned.

  "I hope you are ready for a fight." Julia noted with a smirk, as she dug out protection gear from the backpack, a full chest, arm and head protection, even teeth guards just in case, and threw them to Hiroshi.

  "Put them on, and after that, try to get a single punch on me." She noted in smug grin, as she waited him to put the gear on.

  Hiroshi was left in shock for a moment on such command, but quickly realized what she was getting at, as it was clear continuation from yesterday's talk.

  "Fine by me, then." As with light trouble, he put the gear on, making him feel stuffy but at least protected, as taking a stance against Julia who was awaiting happily.

  With hopes to finish her complaining on his ability to guard the fosters, he went to give a strong right hook, but to his dismay, Julia easily parried his blow, and returned with a heavy gutshot.

  He coughed out in surprise, as even with the gear, her punch didn't feel light at all. "Don't go easy on me just because I am a girl." Julia taunted with a smirk, as Hiroshi tried to get his composure to continue the fight.

  "Oh, you asked for it." He groaned in annoyance, as their hand on hand fight started, meanwhile Olivia was starting to get the rhythm, at which point Sophia could ease her focus from her to Nata, that was happily encouraging the moth.

  "Alright, Nata. I hope you are ready." Sophia commented, which quickly took Nata out of the moment and look at the vampire with light dismay, knowing what was up.

  "I am not sure." She replied, clearly fearful to start her training.

  "Listen, I know you have bad memories with use of magic, but trust me, it is much more useful than just to cause harm and trouble." Sophia comforted, as she slowly sat her down on the grass cross-legged.

  "We will just train to get control of your mana to start off. Nothing more than some meditation." Sophia kept comforting, as she sat across from her, as she started to display what to do.

  "This technique has existed for thousands of years. Just close your eyes, breath calmly, and get a feeling of your body's core. Keep calm and you shouldn't lose control." Sophia guided her, as they started their training.

  Things went calm for good while, Olivia starting to get better control of her wings, even slowly able to wrap them fully around herself, Nata was having time to calm herself, before slowly started to get a feeling that she was getting hang of things, and a full grown man thrown across the lawn.

  Trio of the girls jumped in surprise, as they saw Hiroshi splayed down on the dirt, exhausted, sweaty and mildly bruised, as Julia calmly huffed across the lawn. "You gotta do better than that." shouted across it.

  Nata was quick to rush to his side, shortly followed by Olivia, fearful to join in the scenario. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Nata questioned quickly, as she helped him get a comfortable spot on the ground.

  "Yes... Just... Exhausted." He spoke between his panting for some air, as Julia calmly approached.

  Nata lightly growled at Julia, as Olivia made sure to keep safe distance from her, as Sophia calmly sighed at the display, but knew they had done plenty enough already. "How about we take a rest, as you two can continue on training on your own time." Sophia commented to Nata and Olivia, as she gave a look at Julia, who got the message.

  "Fine. I will handle him more carefully." Julia muttered, as Sophia calmly picked up Hiroshi and carried him inside. "I will make sure he will be fine. No need to worry."

  With Nata and Olivia left uncomfortable with troubled Hiroshi, Julia calmly headed back inside to continue with the furniture, to which Nata quickly joined just to keep an eye on her just in case, and Olivia was left to follow with hopes of being able to assist and not end up in a bad side of anyone.