[Flashback Continues]
"Then why, not at that time?" Yuki asked.
'That's what I said before. You technically was dead when I integrated with you. Just to keep you alive left me in sleep mode. If it wasn't that thing you used to help wake up that copycat, I would still be sleeping, let alone allowing you to use my ability,' the Eagle said.
"I see. I guess thanks for saving me?" Yuki said wryly, finally knowing how his body didn't die from the splash in the sea.
'No problem,' the Eagle nodded and looked at Snake. 'So you will stay here until you find a host?'
'Oh, I already found him. I just came to see Yuki and hitch a ride,' the Snake replied.
'And who exactly is this one?' the Eagle asked, surprised. 'It's actually that little Fox before?'
"Eh? You mean my mother?" Yuki exclaimed.
'Now this is interesting, Abyss Fox gave birth to a copycat?' Snake murmured to herself.
'No, her instinct is actually Night Fox?' Yuki commented.
'Ha, no. It's Abyss Fox, and it's far from the small Night Fox. Or else, you think it's easy to slip through the shadow realm without any psychological pressure? It not that easy,' the Snake smirked.
"Well, I guess you're the older, the wiser," Yuki said with a smirk, but that earned him a hiss and sharp slap on the back of his head.
"Oh, right! Do you know the origin of Flora?" Yuki asked curiously, as he had the chance.
'Oh, that. It's actually Life, the last or youngest Embryo and it controls the Life concept. The "Flora" in your mouth is actually the first and only host she took, and it was hidden in the Bermuda Triangle,' Snake said.
'And don't look at the large size. Its original size didn't differ much from Japan's small islands. But as time passed, it grew until it becomes colossal with moving ability.'
"Eh," Yuki stopped, and then gears in his mind started to click before he chuckled wryly. "Something big is coming, right?"
'Oh, why do you think so?' Snake said, as a matter of fact, their simultaneous appearance along with their little sister's host surfacing, has a great deal of meaning.
'Well, from your talk, I sense that your appearances are not coincidence. Last month, we got four readings of high-level unknown energy around the world, and that's what brought me here.'
Snake nodded in amusement. 'Yeah, but it's still 'out of your pay grade,' as you humans say, for now.'
'And your time here is almost up, so any last question?' the Eagle asked.
'Don't give me that swift change in talk,' Yuki sighed. 'To point out, is it something to do with extraterrestrials?'
'Extra... what?' the Snake murmured, not understanding the term.
'Term used by scientists to describe all the life forms that originate from outer space,' Eagle explained and gave Yuki a deep look. 'I guess you're that smart, I almost forgot that. And yeah, you're spot on.'
"Great, now my do-list just grew," with a sigh, he said, but what surprised the pair of old beings was he gave the opposite feeling of what he showed: excitement.
'This is interesting,' Snake thought. Looking at the Eagle who gave a prideful nod. As most humans, like it or not, will show instinctive fear of the unknown, and the very concept of someone excited at facing the unknown is something hard to get by.
'If no questions remain, off you go, and don't forget to call Third when you're in private space,' and soon as the word fall, Yuki opened his eyes back in the deep sea in his Shark Avatar.
....End Flashback.
After deep silence in the room, Yuki stretched his hand to his mother and handed the Snake to her.
"And how am I supposed to talk to her?" Anna questioned Yuki, as she knew his intent, and her voice had some resentment in it.
"Hold on, Yuki, let's first finish our talk," Wanda stopped him. "I mean, just the info we got is something crazy. Are we expecting an alien invasion now?"
'Whoa, Yuki did confirm it has something to do with aliens, but never said it's an invasion,' the Snake said.
"Exactly. So, all we need to do is keep our eyes up, until we figure out what we're dealing with." Yuki nodded, but he didn't get an answer. He looked at the ladies. "What?"
"Nothing, just that I watched the snake slithering and you answered. You understand snakes now?" Wanda said.
'Oh, right, there is that,' Third (the Snake) remembered. 'You have one hell of ears. Normally, only a host or can get what we talk about.'
Looking at the snake before he translated what she told him before.
'And honestly, since we now have an idea of what we had in hand, let's start with sending satellites and drones out. Then, let's see if we can advance our weaponry and energy.' Yuki tought forming a plan.
"I guess that's all we can do," Wanda said and standed up, picking up a beer. "Now this is settled, I will go have some rest and let you two at it."
Slipping closer to the door, she turned. "Oh, thanks for the Flora info. Now I have something to spoil for hubby," leaving this bomb, she slipped from the office.
With wide eyes, Yuki looked at his mother. "Wanda is married? Who is the unlucky man?"
Out of nowhere, a beer bottle came flying from the still open door.
"You will meet him later, but I know for sure Wanda will have her fun tonight," Anna said with a mischievous voice.
"Okay, too much info!" Yuki rolled his eyes. "Now, Third, this is my mother, Anna Alexander, known as the Iron Lady, or the Night Fox."
"Hello. Although I don't understand you, I hope we get along," Anna said, smiling. Although it was an unknown being, all she needed was Yuki's confirmation to know that this being don't hold any ill intent.
Since a young age, Yuki got this gift to figure out the true nature of humans and animals alike.
Third and Anna looked at each other until the Snake slithered and wrapped around her forearm, then pressing their foreheads together.
Soon the snake disappeared in a fading light and was absorbed into Anna's body. The latter's aura flared like ink seeping from her, but it flowed around calmly. Soon the color got deeper and deeper and it gained sparkling purple particles hiding her completly.
Soon her aura became more unique with ink black tinted with purple sparks like little stars in the vast galaxy. Seconds later, a pair of black fox ears with purple tips appeared on her head. Behind her, tails started to spout one by one until the 10th appeared.
Soon the oppressing aura disappeared along with the ears and tails, but Anna still had eyes shut.
Seeing the critical phase passed, he got to the balcony to have a smoke—this was probably the weirdest thing of ALL the things that happened to him, he got into smooking herbs.
Thanks to his high-end Instinct level, his mind, sense, and concentration are always at their peak, ready for battle. making it hard to relax, and there is no natural counter to it.
So, he goes back to old herbal treatments to relax the nerve, if you catch the drift.
Surprisingly, his mother didn't stop him. Hell, sometimes he will find his stash disappeared, or she will snatch his lit-up joint with the "you're using this on my property, pay tax" excuse.
Anyway, after taking his smoke, somehow the sea below felt tempting, so he picked his mask and just jumped down, not minding the height.
Sadly for him, a pair of eyes on the side balcony was watching him from the moment he got from the door.
With a splash, he got under, and to his surprise, there were already whales and many species gathering, despite yesterday's noise here. Swimming around for a while, he noticed someone sitting in a passenger below water.
Coming closer, he noticed the pair of mother and daughter sitting there.
the small Miying looking at him with excitement, as the speed and moment he moving with was impossible to a normal human. And with how the whales and sea species show closeness to him, she felt like seeing an Aquarum show.
The mother on the other side was on her tablet, monitoring the sea creatures around, before Yuki splashed on water. And with every second he passed, she felt like she was far from the science she knew, noticing the shark gills on the sides of his neck.
Coming closer, he waved at them and they did the same before little Miying pointed at something. Yuki smiled and pointed at the tablet. They both looked to find a message: 'I can hear you just talk.'
"Really!" Jumping in her place, Miying came closer to the glass. "Can you turn into a whale?"
Yuki smiled at the imagination and shook his head, pointing at a message: "I can't."
"Eh? Then, hmm, can you turn to an Eagle like before? I want to see, please?" she asked after reading his answer and gave him puppy eyes.
"Guh," Yuki let out a groan before noticing her mother trying to reproach her before Yuki fell to her puppy eyes and cute action.
"Look like you're weak to those eyes too?" a message piped in the tablet, letting her laugh.
"I wish I could, but I am not allowed to do it, or I will get into trouble," Yuki said. As even if there was no rule restriction, he won't shift to full form as the energy wave he emits could and will kill a child just from closer contact.
"Uhh, really? Will Mama Fox punish you?" Miying asked with a tilted head.
"Mama Fox? Who calls her that?" Yuki let out a small laugh and answered in message: "You could say that. But how about I show you something else?"
After getting a nod, he swam away and used his new discovered ability to control marine creatures, ordering the 3 small whales to swim behind him.
And while swimming around, they did a couple of flips and cool moves around the passengers and lights.
Miying looked at her excited daughter laughing and clapping her hand with a smile of relief.
As a matter of fact, having the little girl being here in this time was actually her way to try getting closer to her daughter.
As between her problematic relationship with the father and packed work time, she found her daughter slipping and becoming a stranger, to the point where she noticed the little girl showing a maturity beyond her age.
Thankfully, the accident was passed safely, and it surprisingly did a great job in strengthening her relation with not only her young daughter but also the older one.
Looking at the boy outside the window, she couldn't help but smirk, remembering their true gain from this time: now Mana-1, officially an outer research facility under the Sky Guild renamed 'Sea Gate.'