"You..." Onee-sama pointed toward Gold, who stood stiffly in the corner. "Consider yourself finished. Your punishment will be unlike the others."
"Wha—?!" Gold trembled, her voice rising in panic. "Wh... why do you hate me so much?! I'm your sister at the end of the day!"
"Do not make me start listing all your criminal activities, young lady," Onee-sama glared at her, her eyes sharp and unrelenting. "It is precisely because you are a sister of mine that I refuse to stand by and watch you grow into an utter fool."
Gold puckered her lips and folded her arms in frustration as Onee-sama turned her attention toward Green.
"I can already tell this is not legal," Onee-sama began, blinking lazily as if weary of the nonsense. "So do not resist... my..."
Her voice trailed off, and her cheeks suddenly flushed a deep crimson.
She had snatched the bundle of fabrics from Green's grasp and peeked into the sack.
"Mhm? What seems to be the matter?" Tamayō stepped closer, curious to see what could possibly make the mighty Onee-sama flustered. But the moment she looked inside, her face turned beet red as well.
"H-how? I mean, why? Who—" Onee-sama's composure shattered as she stared in disbelief. "These are... erotic undergarments... Wait a moment—why do you even know what these are? And how in the world did you get them?"
Green, visibly nervous and embarrassed, fidgeted with her thumbs as if they could save her from judgment.
"I... I'll confess," she finally stammered, her voice trembling. "Just please, don't look at me like that."
"I'm listening," Onee-sama said, dropping the undergarments as though they burned her fingers.
"So... Gold introduced me to this book—"
"TRAITOR!" Gold snapped her head toward the shy Green, her eyes wide in betrayal.
"—And she asked me if I could access the texts inside," Green continued meekly, avoiding eye contact. "Naturally, it was sealed even from me, so I decided to ask the Empress for permission to unlock it."
"Eh?" For the first time in ages, Onee-sama's face contorted into genuine disbelief. Her eyes were wide, her mouth agape, and her entire posture frozen in hilarious shock. "And... she agreed?"
"Hm? Yes. She's my friend."
"...Eh?" Onee-sama blinked rapidly, trembling as she staggered a step backward, utterly at a loss for words.
'I don't understand...' she thought frantically. 'Green has been speaking with the Empress herself?'
Her confusion was entirely justified. The Empress was no ordinary being. She was the one who managed the affairs of the Supreme Lord himself—a figure so revered that her existence was often considered mythical.
Some even whispered that she was merely one of the Supreme Lord's many personalities that had gained a mind of its own.
The Empress was rarely seen and almost never spoke directly to anyone. When she did, her words came as distant messages—mystical prophecies more than conversations.
'And yet... why does Green, of all people, have such direct contact with her?' Onee-sama's mind raced. 'That level of privilege belongs only to Domain Lords like Haha-ue herself. Even I must worship for hours in the Fenrir shrine before my requests are acknowledged!'
Green, on the other hand, tilted her head in genuine confusion.
"Huh? Are you acting?" she asked innocently, then turned to Tamayō. "Shouldn't she already know by now?"
Onee-sama's neck snapped toward her mother, her eyes filled with both demand and disbelief.
"Answers! I need answers!" she cried in near desperation.
"Fine, fine," Tamayō sighed, waving her hand in a calming gesture. "I suppose it is high time I revealed the truth."
Her playful expression disappeared at once, replaced by a grave seriousness. She locked eyes with Onee-sama, her tone now carrying weight and sorrow.
"I told the green one not to say anything," Tamayō said quietly. "I wanted to deliver the news myself. But in the end, I faltered... I lost heart."
"Hm? Why?" Onee-sama asked, her brows tightening.
Tamayō let out a long breath before answering. "...It was a very difficult time for the green one. I feared that if the truth was revealed too soon, her trauma might worsen beyond control."
Onee-sama's fists clenched tightly as her brows furrowed in fury.
"Right now, Haha-ue," she muttered in a low voice, "I am angry. Green is our family. If there was a matter grave enough to traumatize her, then we all had the right to kno—"
"Hush, and allow me to enlighten you," Tamayō interrupted firmly. "Take a seat. You too, golden one. What I am about to share with you will leave a bad taste in your mouths..."
***
It happened some shadow years ago, not too long after all of you were born.
"You realize, Green, that you possess one of the most dangerous abilities in the entire Shadow Realm?" You told the green one with that calm authority only she could wield.
You were both quite far away from the palace, training your abilities in seclusion where your power would not endanger anyone.
The focus that day was on the green one's ability over time, which she found extremely difficult to control during the early stages of her infancy.
As always, you were quite strict with her, your tone leaving no room for leniency. "Haha-ue is a being of divine status, and we are her children," you said, your expression composed and firm. "We must learn our abilities to their peaks, understood?"
"Hai, Onee-sama!" she responded with such enthusiasm that her voice almost echoed across the silent field.
Among all the kitsunes, the green one loved you the most. Everything she did then was driven by a single desire: to please you and to hear you praise her efforts.
She was a wonderful, bright little angel—always at your side, following close behind like a faithful spirit who saw you as her world.
Much like how the blue one clings to the silver, the green one was inseparable from you, almost as if she were your shadow made living.
So, the moment you left to run some errands, she made a decision of her own. In her mind, it was a simple one: she wanted to impress you, to make you proud beyond measure. But that desire, innocent as it was, led to a grave mistake—one she regretted immediately.
She sat upon the grass for hours on end, unmoving, her eyes closed as she meditated and let the essence of the realm pass through her body.
She focused her senses entirely on the unique rhythm of "time" that pulsed through the Shadow Realm, tracing its current as one might trace the flow of a river with bare hands. And then, through that deep focus, she felt it. She realized that time itself was not just a passing phenomenon but an energy—a tangible current that could be touched and directed.
That discovery filled her with joy so profound that she nearly laughed aloud. It changed the way she saw her gift entirely. With this new understanding, she no longer needed to command time like an external force. Instead, she could bend it to her will as though handling a physical object within her grasp.
What tremendous progress this was, and achieved in such a short span—it was nothing short of extraordinary.
Encouraged by her revelation, the green one decided it was the perfect moment to attempt something daring: to freeze time itself using this newfound perspective.
Ordinarily, she could halt time only within a small capsule or confined space, a limited sphere that matched the reach of her imagination. That was as far as her understanding had ever gone.
But now, imagination seemed almost secondary. Her perception of time had changed—it was no longer a vague concept but something alive, something she could hold and mold as naturally as breathing.
And with that confidence, she attempted what no one else would have dared. She moved to freeze the entire Shadow Realm. It was a foolish thought, born from innocence and wonder rather than arrogance, but still a dangerous one for someone so inexperienced.
She could feel the current of time flowing through her body like a soft and endless breeze. Slowly, she raised her hand and enclosed her palm, sealing her fingers gently as if cradling the very air. And in that instant, she halted everything.
Sound vanished. Light dimmed. Reality itself ceased to move. The entire Shadow Realm, vast and immeasurable—spanning distances that defied all understanding—froze in absolute stillness.
She had done it. She had frozen time across a realm so large that even its boundaries were uncertain, perhaps infinite.
But then, the realization came. Now that time rested in her hands, she felt the full weight of it. It was impossibly heavy. Her shoulders tensed, her arms trembled, and sweat rolled down her face as if she were holding a celestial body within her palms.
The burden pressed upon her until her breathing faltered. It truly felt as though she held a planet—or perhaps several—within her small, fragile hands.
Panic began to set in. She knew the danger of her position. If she released time carelessly, the entire realm could collapse into chaos and destruction. Yet, if she continued holding it as she was, her body would not survive the strain.
She was caught between two dooms, and she understood that clearly. That knowledge only deepened her panic.
Her composure began to crumble. Cracks appeared in the atmosphere; the sky rippled and split like glass under pressure.
Light and darkness began to battle for dominance, each struggling to devour the other. The realm itself seemed to groan in protest.
And then, realization struck her like lightning. "I... I don't know how to release it!" she gasped in horror.
Her fingers began to bend backward from the tips, snapping one by one like brittle sticks under too much weight.
Blood trickled from her eyes and nose, her face pale with agony. Even a single wrong sigh, a single uneven breath, could have been enough to unravel reality completely.
Meanwhile, since time and reality had both been frozen, it was nearly impossible for myself and the other Lords to identify the cause of the disturbance. I remember suspecting the Empress, for only she, Shizuka, and I—when I am fused with all my children—possess the strength to perform something so unnatural.
"No!" she cried out as time slipped from her shattered fingers and broke apart like glass.
The cracks in the sky widened in a frenzy. The ground rumbled violently, the heavens wobbled like a loose feather caught in a storm, and the entire world flipped again and again between day and night, between thunder and winter.
Then, like a vision unfolding before her eyes, the green one saw everything she had done. The Specter Wolves turned to stone, to ash, and finally to mist, disappearing completely from existence. The realm itself was unraveling before her eyes.
She was not destroying it through magic power, but through the collapse of time itself—by pulling the lever too far in one direction, a lever she could no longer push back. She had no power to reverse what she had begun.
"Green!" Your voice echoed from a distance, resounding across the trembling horizon as you and the others ran toward the green one.
The red one, who was in charge of manipulating reality, had not yet developed the full extent of her power at that time. Even if she had, the destruction engulfing the realm was far too great; she would never have been able to save much of anything. The realm itself was falling apart, fragment by fragment, its foundations dissolving into nothingness.
And because of her close connection to reality's structure, the red one was the first to vanish, her form turning into faint red ashes that scattered into the wind. Then followed the brown, then the white, and soon there was no one left but you and the gold one.
The gold one was gasping heavily, her breath coming out in short, panicked bursts as her hands and face began to dissolve into particles of fading light.
"O... Onee-sama, help m—" she tried to cry out, but before her plea could reach its end, her existence was erased completely.
Without wasting a moment, you sprinted toward the trembling green one. On her chest, a deep, swirling energy of dark green was pouring outward uncontrollably, spilling like liquid shadow.
It was the manifestation of her power crumbling reality itself, and she had no understanding of how to stop it.
"Onee-sama, I'm sorry!" she sobbed uncontrollably, tears running down her face. "I was trying to be strong, and I made a mistake! I killed my siblings! I'm killing everyone!"
"Shhhh! Do not say such things!" You cupped her cheeks with both hands, forcing her panicked eyes to meet yours. "You just need to calm yourself and turn everything back the way it was. You can do it, can't you?"
"I... I'm trying!" the green one whimpered, her trembling fingers weaving uncertainly through the air as she tried to grasp the energy. But her voice broke when she felt its weight. "It's too much... It's too heavy now!"
"It's alright! It's completely fine, I'm right here with you," you said with steady calm, though your eyes flickered toward the unstable energy on her chest. "Allow me to lend you a hand."