I know that it's a weird instance of time within that dimension, but shouldn't we also be asking how fast Kitsune grow up, too? Wouldn't that mess with the presumed years worth of skipped time?
Absolutely, agree. Time travel or a characters body aging rapidly is a nightmare to write imo. Time travel almost never works out the way people want, and usually leads to massive continuity issues. One that stands out to me, with this story is we know that Kiyoko has been trapped in that space for 5 generations. As Komari took over the den 5 Generations ago when everyone presumed Kiyoko died. (Which doesn't even make sense as Keros controls her soul. I'm not exactly sure of all the rules for the communal soul thing, but you're telling me Keros can't track his Kitsune's or tell if their psychical body is gone. What's the purpose of him having their souls then.)
Now, Komari (who was about the same age as Kiyoko before Kiyoko caught trapped, is now older since she existed in normal time) controlling the den for 5 generations would imply time moves very slowly in Kiyoko's den. But, we also know that Kiyoko has an accelerated pregnancy for reasons (
It might be explained somewhere, but I'm not sure why Sex speed up the process) So she can pop baby's out fast. Now this where things get even more fucked because Kinu goes from being a baby to 10 years old really fast. But, because of Rindo we know Kitsune baby's age at a rate similar to humans. So Kinu's rapid age is due to the den. (I'm assuming) This would mean time is not consistent or actually progresses faster than we are lead to believe. But then why isn't Kiyoko getting older. Lets also not forget that we can impregnate Kiyoko multiple times and give Kinu multiple sibling who also age, but Kinu remains 10, Kiyoko remains in her prime, but her siblings age up. (why?)
I think the reason the story is this way is because Tobs hasn't thought about how his time mechanics work, and he just wants to age Kinu up quickly for his angst drama. Fuck rules he wants his story of an independent woman, that don't need daddy or mommy to tell her what to do. This is a bigger issue then the idiotic cumpire situation. As it completely fucks up Kinu and Kiyoko's story. It also fucks with the lore surrounding the other Kitsunes (mostly Komari) It get worse when Keros does free them (I could be wrong here) but I believe Keros deliberately messes with time to age Kinu
and Kiyoko up. Which once again Kiyoko stays mostly the same while the children age up. Kiyoko has essentially existed for 6 or seven generations due to all the time changes. Now Komari maintains a somewhat youthful appearance, but this is due to her being a spirit. (And wanting to actually die) Kiyoko should have died, as we know they only live for 80-150 years by the rules established by the wiki (but that shits out of date so, why am I even using it)
Edit: (No where is this explained in lore to my knowledge, so this is purely a theory) But, if Keros having Kiyoko's soul, he would possibly know she's not dead. And either could have people search for her, or find her himself and rescue her. Thus his reasoning for punishing Komari is largely BS.
Now I know some people are going say a lot of this is just theory, but the reason I'm trying head canon or theorize why things are the way that they are, is because the story has established certain rules, and then breaks those rules. This has lead to me to try and figure out whats going on. My immersion has been broken. This something writers should never lose control of. If the writer wants readers to speculate on topic it needs to be deliberate.
A good example of this comes in the book the Giver
. At the end of the book we have no idea if Jonas has been captured, is sharing a memory with Gabreil, or has died of hypothermia. It's intentionally ambiguous and depending on your personality you can speculate on an ending, due to the rules of the story. What canon you chose is your choice as the story is open ended.
But, here in Tob's writing were given rules, but those rules change at the whim of Tobs, and no longer make any sense, and now nothing surrounding the events is consistent with the lore. This would require a massive rewrite to make it work.
Also if I'm wrong about anything, go ahead and correct me. Even if there are areas we're I messed up, I'd still say much of this stuff is convoluted at the very least.