A long time had passed, countless days Ishmael spent floating at sea, when his boat finally bumps into land. In the year 611 BC, over a millennium before Japan had become a country, Ishmael landed on one of its shores. In a place that would later be known as Kyotango, Ishmael stepped onto these shores after many weeks of drifting at sea, mostly sleeping. "Surely this should be quiet enough a place as any" Ishmael says to himself. Everywhere he looked was just forests and hills. He traveled for days, without running into any other gods, and very few humans. However, he managed to stay hidden enough, shifting into the shape of other animals to slip past the human civilizations as he went. Eventually. He came into the heart of Kyoto, Mt Inari. Though at this time, was bare and showed no sign of human life near the top. It strangely reminded him of Mt Olympus, back in Greece. "Well, it doesn't look like it has any occupants, so I'll just lay here and make myself at home" Ishmael says as he takes a deep breath and begins walking up the short mountain. As he climbs, he finds many families of foxes that watch as he goes by. Not long after beginning his journey, he noticed that more and more foxes began following him as he continued further up the mountain.
Eventually, Ishmael stops walking, turns around to face the foxes following behind him, and crouches onto one knee and reaches out towards the foxes as if he were trying to pet one of them. However, they all remained a safe distance from him, and wouldn't get as near as to let him touch any of them. But still showed more curiosity than fear as their eyes remained locked on him without showing any signs of attacking nor fleeing. Ishmael sighs, then says "I'm not one of you" but the foxes just keep staring at him. "Great, I guess my time I spent alone has driven me mad enough to start talking to animals... I can't even talk to animals". The foxes remained staring in confusion at Ishmael. "I can't understand you and you almost definitely can't understand what I'm saying... can you?". The foxes, however, never replied. "Yeah, thought so. Shit, I know animals can't talk. Why am I even bothering?". Ishmael turned around and continued his journey up the mountain. The foxes resumed following him in an orderly formation, following right behind his many tails Ishmael never bothered to hide.
After a few hours, Ishmael had nearly reached the top. By this time, it seemed like a whole army of foxes were following behind Ishmael. He was slowly getting irritated by it. He suddenly came to a halt and turned, saying "What do you want from me!?". However, the foxes never wavered nor answered. "I can't provide anything for you, I'm just some... useless creation from a selfish god bent on revenge. I'm nothing more than... than a monster... you're better off getting far, far away from me...". Yet, the foxes still remained with him. "Heh" Ishmael says to himself as he turns around and begins walking again. "Suit yourself, I guess... but sticking around me is never a good idea. Why would anyone want to be around a monster anyways?". Suddenly, Ishmael picks up a scent of something. He sniffs deeply and exhales slowly. "Smells like rain" he says to himself. "Should probably get somewhere safe soon before I get stuck in the rain and have to spend the next day walking back down the mountain just to find a suitable bath...".
Eventually, Ishmael reaches the top of this mountain, and lays down on the ground, exhausted. He stares up at the sky as his body starts falling asleep on him unwillingly, when he suddenly feels a single drop of rain on his face. "Oh... right" he says to himself. "I forgot about the rain". Ishmael stands up and uses magic to pull in dirt and rock from the surrounding area to make a stone tent for himself. Before the tent closed, Ishmael froze and noticed the foxes were still following him, and standing out in the open when they should've been taking shelter from the rain. Ishmael stops the stone tent from closing and looks out to all the foxes with a sense of guilt. Eventually, his stone tent melds back into the earth as he says "Alright, come here. I can't just leave you all out here". There, at the top of the mountain, Ishmael used magic to pull a thick sheet of rock over a large area as he simultaneously pushes the earth in below them, making a cave into the mountain. He kept using up more and more magic to make the cave bigger and bigger, taking the earth from under his own feet to make the walls of the cave. When he finished, the mouth of the cave slanted so any water inside the cave would run outside instead of staying in the cave. He turned around to see the foxes still staring at him, however, the rain just started to pour and Ishmael remained outside with the foxes as it rained. "Well?" Ishmael asks. "Don't just sit around, get in. You're all going to get sick if you don't move it". To Ishmael's surprise, the foxes actually listened and walked inside the cave. The foxes seemed to line the walls of the cave until after Ishmael went to lay down in the middle of the cave. Suddenly, all of the foxes gathered around and on top of Ishmael and began sleeping on him as his body began to fall asleep on him once more. "Are you guys trying to keep me warm, or are you only surrounding me because I'm keeping you warm?" Ishmael asks in an irritated voice. He waited for a moment as if waiting for an answer before he finally asks "No? We're suddenly going to decide that we once again can't understand what Ishmael is saying, even though I swear you all just understood what I said a minute ago?". Ishmael waited again before finally sighing and saying "Whatever... I guess it still beats Mt Olympus".
The next morning, Ishmael woke up from a bright beam of light peering in through the mouth of the cave. As he slowly opened his eyes, he saw a bright and glowing white fox standing on his chest and staring directly down at him in disapproval. Ishmael flinched from the searing brightness burning his eyes and blinked. When he opened his eyes, the white fox was gone, but now there was a slender woman with long white hair standing over him, her hands on her hips, staring down at Ishmael in disapproval. "Who the hell are you?" She asks.
Ishmael rolls over onto his stomach and waves his hand lazily back at the woman. "Close the cave door, I need more sleep" Ishmael replies.
The woman stomps her right foot directly onto Ishmael's left asscheek and shouts "Explain!".
"Explain what?" Ishmael asks. "I found a cave, I sleep in the cave".
"There was no cave" the woman says. "There was no cave! There was no cave! Where did this cave come from! You better fix it!".
"What do you mean there was no cave?" Ishmael asks with a short laugh. "Clearly there is a cave, right here" Ishmael says as he points up. "See? We call this a cave where I come from. They happen naturally, when a-".
Suddenly, Ishmael's explanation is stopped short from the woman repeatedly stomping on his ass in irritation. "I know where caves come from! This one isn't natural! I know you're not a human! Who are you?".
"Oh, you know I'm not human?" Ishmael asks as he sits up. "What gave that away? Was it my big ass ears, my nine tails, or- or, how about my fur color ? Which one gave it away?".
"You now have five seconds to get out of this cave and fix it, or my foot will permanently become a part of your ass!" The woman hisses.
"No" Ishmael replies as he lays back down. The foxes all rush out of the cave and clear the entrance as the woman walks around to the other side of Ishmael as to face the entrance. She winds up her foot and with one loud thud, Ishmael was sent flying out of the cave and rolling violently across the ground. "Ow! What the hell?".
"I don't want someone else living on my home!" The woman shouts. "This mountain already has an owner! Me! Beat it!". The foxes surround Ishmael and begin licking him in sympathy. "Wait, why are..." the woman begins to ask. "My messengers... like you? A god? They like a god that isn't me?".
"I'm not a damn god..." Ishmael replies. "I guess that also rules off the possibility of you being a human".
"My name is Inari" the woman says.
"And I" Ishmael replies, "didn't ask".
"Look here, you stubborn ass!" Inari says, then pauses. "... if you're not a god, and you're not a beast... what exactly are you?".
"No, you were right on the second guess" Ishmael says. "I'm a beast".
"Beasts don't talk" Inari says with her arms crossed.
"And civilized creations aren't made solely for the purpose of murdering gods, so..." Ishmael replies, then freezes and looks up at Inari who grew frightened.
"What... do you mean?" Inari asks.
"God Slayer" Ishmael says, feeling guilty. "That's what they call us. It doesn't mean I go around killing every god I see, but it does mean that I was created for the sole purpose of exacting someone else's revenge".
"By they" Inari asks, "whom do you mean?".
"The gods of Greece" Ishmael says. "There's only two of us God Slayers. Me and my brother Naris. We were created by Gaia- are you happy now?" Ishmael asks as he stands up and dusts off his body. "My name is Ishmael, by the way".
"I'm Inari!" Inari says again. "Goddess of rice and fertility".
"I'm... I dunno, I guess you can call me a nine tailed fox" Ishmael says. "God slayer, and master of shapeshifting".
"What the hell is shapeshifting?" Inari asks.
"What the hell is rice?" Ishmael asks.
"I'll explain rice later" Inari says. "First things first, I've never shared this mountain with anyone".
"Duly noted" Ishmael replies.
"Or rather, this is kinda the only place I could go to that's... far enough from everything else, where I could still help nature" Inari continues. "You see,
I'm a weak god... I have pretty much had to run and hide from the other gods all this time so that I could remain safe".
"You could've fooled me... and my ass" Ishmael says.
"Sorry for being violent... I knew you weren't from around here, so I had to take advantage of the fact that you didn't know I was weak to keep you from attempting a full take over of my land. I was hoping to scare you off..." Inari says. "Let me show you something" Inari says as she takes Ishmael's hand and drags him to the edge of the mountain. "You see all those tiny villages down there?" She asks. "They're hard to see because there's so few humans in these lands, but you can tell where they are because of where the trees have been cut down. I help this place and its ecosystem by giving good crops to the nearby villages and maintaining the wildlife in these forests. This is where I stay watch over them all, and I use these foxes as messengers to help the humans".
"Right, but if you live here" Ishmael asks, "then why are you so opposed to having a cave here? Wouldn't it be better to live inside of a shelter, not outside of one? Also, why use messengers? Can't you just... go down there and help them more directly? Why take the extra steps for a less effective method?".
"I've already told you" Inari replies, "I'm a weak goddess. If another god, like Raijin, found me and decided it'd be fun to add killing me to their schedule for today, I'd be screwed. A cave here would be a dead giveaway. Plus, many other gods are too lazy to settle down at any one place and shift from shelter to shelter, killing anyone who've previously occupied it, or at least punishing them for fun. As for the messengers, what makes you think I can afford exposing myself like that under those conditions? It would be suicide".
"Well then, answer me this" Ishmael says as he crosses his arms. "How do you expect to get anything substantial done without taking a few risks? Those civilizations down there won't grow, the forests won't remain stable, and the ecosystem will eventually systematically collapse because you're abusing your job! Could you really live with that?". Inari pauses for a moment, her face still and lost in thought. "Uh, Inari?" Ishmael asks.
"No, no... you're right" Inari replies. "I can't help enough, even with my messengers. As great of a job as they've been doing for me, I'm afraid I'm the one making this all harder than it needs to be".
"No, wait... hold on" Ishmael says.
"I just... don't know what to do" Inari says. "I can't be the goddess that this place needs. If I can't get stronger then I'm afraid it'll even cost my messengers their lives".
Ishmael paused for a moment, then said "So, let me get this straight. Your biggest fear is having to fight another god?".
"Yeah, sounds about right" Inari says. "If I ever got caught in a battle with another god, I'd be dead for sure".
"And you're really going to say that when you're in the presence of a god killing machine?" Ishmael asks. Inari freezes, then looks up at Ishmael with surprise and hope in her eyes. "I do hate most gods, but you... I think I can strangely tolerate. And I do still have a love for nature, so I can see why this is important. What do you say we make a deal?".
Inari begins to cry and laugh at the same time. "A deal between a goddess and a nine tailed fox?".
"I told you, I'm a god slayer" Ishmael says as he holds out his hand for a handshake.
"It's a deal!" Inari says excitedly.
As they shake hands, Ishmael says "Then the cave stays".
Inari hits Ishmael over the top of the head and says "At least move it somewhere else that's more discreet. I may have you, but I'm still not looking for trouble, you ass!".
"Okay, geez, fine!" Ishmael says.
Ishmael melds the cave back into the ground and tries to reshape the earth the way it was as best as he could. The mountain went back to looking as it did before, but there was now a large patch of grass missing from where the cave used to be. Ishmael followed Inari a little ways down the other side of the mountain where they could make a shelter as the foxes followed behind them. This was the start of a relationship that lasted beyond a lifetime.