"I promise, I'm not starving. But thank you." Kairi's interpretation of that was that Youkai, or maybe just Koishi's subspecies, could cast spells straight out of their body's energy if they ran out of regular mana reserves. Which was both theoretically very useful, and also outright terrifying.

She'd have to make certain Koishi didn't do that. Unwrapping the taffy and popping it into her mouth, Kairi stroked the girl's arm gently to reassure her. She made no effort to convince her to leave her shoulders as she grabbed a bottle of water from a cooler and moved to sit down.