Aunt achieved.

Kiras perspective:

It took a while before Inari had calmed down enough to let Kira have her quiet back.

It wasn't that Kira wasn't happy for the company, or disliked either Inari or Chaos, although she would be lying if she said she wasn't just a tiny bit frustrated with the stunt chaos had pulled on her, it wasn't exactly nice to have someone as powerful as her scare the living daylight out of you, watching you struggle to try to get out of a situation that never existed outside of your own mind, yeah ... as it stood Kira had effectively made a fool out of herself.

While Kira was still completely lost in her own thoughts had Chaos snuck up behind her, and caused Kira to give out a big "squiick" as Chaos had picked her up and was hugging the living daylight out of her.

"I'm sorry Kira but you have to understand my own kids grew up so long ago and your disgruntled facial expression made you just too adorable for me to resist, you are kind of lucky I know Inari is watching and I know my manners or I would totally have been fluffing your and tail while at it, but I am aware that is slightly taboo

but being greedy and claiming you as my niece..."

Chaos stopped mid sentence turned Kira around in her hands and went to a nearby wall and sat down, placing Kira in her lap, and gently started stroking Kiras hair between the ears.

The sensation was quite surprising, hell she had just been picked up like a toddler, but before she could even think of complaining her chest started to rumble with a noise extremely similar to a purr, wait was she a cat? could foxes even purr?

Kiras mind got all muddled but she could feel herself physically relaxing more by the second while giving into the satisfying feeling.

Kira hadn't quite realised how much tension she had built up in the time here, especially with Chaos so called prank, she had barely gotten over her own breakdown before she had been immediately thrown into more stress, Kira didn't consider herself mentally weak, but she had to admit she had been reaching for her limits, and she needed this much more than she had realised, normally would Kira simply have secluded herself with a book or video games to mentally unwind, having someone do this to her, was foreign, but it still felt extremely nice, and it didn't take long before Kira fell asleep still purring in satisfaction.

@@@@

Chaos perspective:

####

That poor thing, had almost immediately fallen asleep in her arms, Chaos couldn't help but question if she had been too harsh by not letting Kira know immediately that she wasn't a threat.

Sadly it had to be done, they had both agreed to do it, to see if it would prompt Kira to call to Inari for help re-establishing their connection.

Unfortunately that never happened instead, had Kira tried to do the best she could alone.

if Chaos disregarded the fact that Kiras tail and ears had given her insecurity and fear away immediately, had her manner of speech and vocal inflection been impressive. being capable of hiding your such a degree of fear from your voice was definitely not a skill a kid her age should have, even including her 27 years of memories from her former realm.

The fact that Kira had attempted to stand up to her, and pry her for information while she didn't budge once, had initially thrown Chaos off, especially made stranger as it had been obvious just how afraid she was.

it made Chaos extremely proud, to see Kira stand up to her, but also a bit worried, you don't learn to stand up to someone where every instinct is screaming at you that you don't stand a chance and should run away, without a reason behind it.

More concerning was it that Kira hadn't once even considered actively calling for help, Kira had immediately been trying to shoulder the threat herself and that in particular left Chaos questioning just what Kira had experienced in the other realm.

Humans could indeed be cruel but what would give anyone the ability to disregard self preservation and instincts to such a degree, especially remove anyone's instinctive reliance on calling onto their protector to help them, could only indicate that she likely never had anyone to fill that role.

That Kira neither called for help or ran away like one normally would, was something that bothered Chaos, and she planned to take it up with Inari, it was very apparent that while Kiras soul had been extremely strong, had she not left her time at the broken realm without scars, and it was now their responsibility to try to nurture her back to what would be a much healthier state of mind.

Both Inari and Chaos had been watching as Kira entered the shrine and broke down crying huddled up in a corner, Chaos had barely been able to stop Inari from rushing trough the portal immediately regardless of consequences, who would have thought that Inari, the individual who had never acted on emotion would become quite the mother hen willing to act before thinkingz the second it was related to her daughter, if nothing else it likely showed just how much Kira meant to her.

Chaos sat there still stroking Kiras head while deep in thought. It was hard not to be tempted as it was extremely clear to her what Inari had seen in Kira, she was extremely strong, but also wounded, Chaos felt a strong desire to protect Kira and shield her from the worldit, and it would have been a simple act of just getting up and taking Kira with her, and she had to admit small part of her was tempted to do just that.

however Chaos also knew she would never be capable of forgiving herself for taking Kira away from Inari, hence she accepted that her role in Kiras life would be that of an Aunt and not a Mother, while it was a bitter pill for her to swallow did she also realise that it was for the best.

After all never had she seen anyone resemble each other so completely, not just in looks but also personality, the seed would help that process along but only to a certain degree based on capacity and compatibility.

Kira hadn't just been a strong soul but her personality and values had been such a close match with Inari that it was astonishing especially given just how rare it was to find strong enough souls with the capacity alone.

This meant most of the stronger divine beings opted to overlook compatibility, even her own children while much higher compatibility with her than most of the others had with their Kin was only given Chaos had been strong enough to allow herself to be more picky, and that was still not remotely comparable.

The odds of Inari discovering Kira had to be astronomically low, and for that reason was hard not to be just a tiny bit jealous, not that Chaos thought any less of her own children because of it, and it was likely also this fact that helped her gain more self control in regards to accepting she didn't have the claim to Kira in that way.

After Chaos initial discovery of Kira had she left Inari to her own devices to pay a visit to an old friend who went by the name hephiestus, he was technically a great nephew or something along those lines but when you live for the duration she had and your children have children and their children have more children your extended family kind of grow to a point where you don't really consider it immediate family relation anymore, hence relationships beyond a certain point had less to do with family. Hephaestus had been kicked out of his parents realm due to their vain perception of beauty and obsession with power, Chaos personally was not very fond of zeus but ultimately it was not her lot to raise him. They had considered Hephaestus a black spot due to a slight deformity, his compatibility with the seed had been low and so had his capacity, Hera had ignored this and provided him her seeds anyway.

It was a miracle he survived at all unfortunately though as a result had he gained some slight physical alterations that wasn't all that positive, Chaos hadn't minded the slightest as he had been a sweet kid and his passion for crafting and smithing had lead to some impressive work. Chaos had ended up granting him a permanent residence in her own realm, for the most part had he preferred keeping to himself just being allowed to hone his smiting, and other various crafts over time seemed to make him happy, and Chaos decided to indulge him.

While occasionally visiting him and making sure he had everything he wanted for his craft and everything else was well had Chaos grown something akin to a friendship with him.

Hephaestus however still felt indebted to Chaos back for taking him in and had always been trying to pay her back for her kindness, which meant when she entered his abode this time and asked if he could help her out with a gift for a new adopted niece had he been more than happy to oblige, it would be an understatement to say they were anything less than master pieces, you wouldn't have thought such a burly man was capable of crafting such feminine gifts, but he had.

Feeling Kira slowly stirring in her arms, she corrected her position and allowed Kira to continue sleeping on her lap.

She had a bit more time than she initially had expected it was quite obvious to see just how exhausted Kira had been so she employed a little trick Chronos had come up with to dilate the time inside of the shrine room, this way the young one outside likely wouldn't go too much out of her good skin while waiting, after that she went ahead and opened a mental communication link with Inari.

#####

Inaris perspective.

#####

Inari had been going absolutely sick with jealousy while watching Chaos pick up Kira hugging her and afterward placing Kira in her lap, she herself had been trying to keep a respectful distance to Kira as to allow her time to accept her and not overwhelm her, while Chaos had just gone in there being all hands on.

Inari wasn't truly angry as she knew very well that it was needed, they had both watched Kira curl up and cry to herself the moment she had thought she was alone, it had been heart breaking to watch, and while she could only guess, was the most obvious reason that she had been overwhelmed, the fact that Kira had just been ripped out of her former life, placed with strangers and being told to adapt on the fly, and just to make it even worse had she been struggling with rejection of the seed which had been extremely dangerous, while Inari didn't know what Kira had done in her personal mindspace could she only sigh in relief as she saw her back awake and with a lot more health and control of her power, than she had displayed earlier.

However the fact that Kira had kept the connection to her blocked had bothered her, and not sure if she had control enough to undo it on purpose had she deviced the plan with Chaos to give her a little scare to hopefully cause her to call for help, that had however..... never happened. Inari thought back to her observation of Kira back in the lost realm "Earth",

and quite quickly had Inari realised her mistake, never once had she seen Kira rely on anyone, regardless of situation, even during her video games had she been blaming herself for group efforts even when the fault didn't lie with her.

"Hey dear, can you hear me?"

Inari got broken out of her thoughts by Chaos voice, looking back into the scrying pool now seeing Chaos with Kira sleeping on her lap she replied back.

"Indeed I can, are you per chance contacting me right now just to further increase my jealousy of the situation you are in?".

"Heh, as much I would have to admit I would love to steal her away is she 100% your kin, that does however not mean I won't steal some guilty pleasures in the place as her newly adopted aunt, it's not my fault you have likely been too shy to share any skinship with the poor thing, It was extremely obvious that she needed it."

Chaos reply, hit Inari hard, she knew Chaos had never been the one to hold back on words even if they were harsh, but that did not soften the mental blow.

"You have more experience with parenthood than I have, honestly I was afraid of drivig her away from me by being too forceful, to both of us is she just a child but in her former life was she considered an adult, and I was simply afraid she would find it displeasing, hence I have been trying to respect show respect and let her initiate.

but you are right, she is a child and it seems that she never had anyone in her life to provide her any physical comfort, we both saw it, she only let herself break down the moment she thought she was alone and nobody could see her, and not once regardless how clear her fear was when you were pressuring her did she call for my help, I might fear that maybe she doesn't trust me to be there for her should she ever call?"

it took a while with complete silence before Chaos replied back.

"I don't think you're quite right about the last thing, her seed is merging at an impressive rate i can literally see and feel it right here while she is sleeping, I suspect it would be more correct to assume you're the first person she ever felt she could trust to do exactly that hence it was such a foreign thing to her that she never once considered asking in the first place.

Ingrained habits doesn't just change at the snap of a finger, however that leads me to worry exactly what did she go trough in the lost realm to not even consider calling for out for a single person, She knows that little follower of hers is right outside the door and she could likely easily have used both the little one and your head shrine priest to try to stall me while she hoped you would notice the commotion, especially if your head priest was affected, but it never once hit her to either rely nor use anyone, which is extremely odd considering she spent her last life as a human.

The soul might have grown incompatible with the human nature but most would atleast have picked that up, as it is very much human 101.

Even most who ascended into my clan never truly left behind their human ways even those born into the clan by flesh and blood would often come to pick up certain aspects, Kira have been your kin for nothing more than a few days yet she is not remotely acting like what would be expected."

Chaos had brought up some valid points even though her soul had grown apart from the human race didn't mean that living amongst them

shouldn't atleast have influenced her a tiny bit.

"I think you're right Chaos, but trough observing her and what I've seen, the only conclusion I can come to is something must have happened in her past to cause her to actively reject those aspects of humanity. Likely the self same thing causing her to never rely on anyone but herself, i saw how she related with cubs she took care of at the place of her work and if their lives is any indicator of her past, and depending on how common that is amongst humanity would I like to put the vote forward to end the lost realm as the majority of beings there are suffering and just trying to survive, rather than living.

What I managed to observe was that few people in power with extreme corrupted souls lived like they could have anything they ever needed, but the vast majority of humans was instead doing their best just to make ends meet, the corruption of many souls have grown extreme, I would like to discuss this subject in more detail after the next purge and see how much that improves the overall living standard, because as it is, can I not condone keeping a race trapped in a realm that is closer to torture than a life, for those living there.

an aspect I noticed was the humans currently living there have managed to employ extreme creativity and effort into creating mediums that help people forget their existence, often trough letting them escape into fictional books, living pictures telling stories and their final creation interactive moving pictures they can control and pretend to be a part of and even that is getting to the point that they are putting on helmets that let them feel like they are inside of the worlds they create in the living pictures. Their system is still primitive and we could do a better job with magic, but the fact that the desire they hold to escape their current life is at degree that they will go that far should be noted, hopefully the next purge will help but I want that brought up in the meeting next time we are to discuss the lost realm, as I personally believe this is a strong sign of just how unhealthy the living standard is for the average inhabitants."