"No more drinking contests."
Kyuu doused her face in ice-cold water, washing her face to wake herself up. She never consumed alcohol except that one time five years back, and she'd forgotten what a hangover felt like.
Changing in order to start the day, Kyuu quickly put on her usual black undershirt. She rummaged around in her closet and pulled out a deep blue shirt, and grabbed her dark red haori. Other than that, she had some toeless boots that went just above her shins, and dark blue hakama.
She stretched once more, heading out. Kyuu didn't plan to do anything much today, considering Hokiri wasn't faring much better and she was.
Sliding another door to enter the courtyard, Kyuu exited the, trying to make her way to get some food. The Fire Dojo would have a room where all the students had meals, so she'd figure something out there.
When she opened the door, Hokiri was already there, chowing down on a thick slice of bread, having lathered some … honey, butter, cinnamon, and multiple jams. The jam was dripping down onto the plate.
Hokiri didn't look too well. He was slumped in his seat, and he had huge grey-black eye bags. This was amplified by the fact he was wearing just a stained grey muscle-shirt, the red haori of the fire dojo, and black hakama, random sandals clearly having been put on in a rush.
Kyuu raised an eyebrow at him, "Seems it hit harder for you than me, huh?"
"Hangover bread."*
Hokiri took another small bite and chewed, grimacing. He shook his head, now looking considerably better. "Yeah, it just takes some bread to wake me up. It's not that bad, don't worry. I think it'll just take me a bath or an hour in a sauna to fully recover. What are your plans for today?"
_____
*Kick Back!
Before Kyuu could answer, there was shuffling behind her. The two looked behind Kyuu to see Aki putting tremendous effort into sliding open the door. He was wearing light blue yukata with a black obi, a dark sash of fabric from below his armpits to his hips.
"Kyuu! Auntie is busy, so you gotta take me to the forest!"
Aki buzzed around the room. Someone had put his dark red hair in a man-bun with choppy bangs. He had a small stick in his hands and swung it around like a sword playfully. Kyuu figured this burst wouldn't last too long.
"You sure? I still need breakfast, you know. I just woke up. Do you want Hyemi to take you?"
Aki shook his head, tugging at her haori, "No! Come on, let's go!"
Kyuu slowly took his hand off her haori, petting his head and kitsune ears, "Not right now, bud. At least after I eat breakfast."
Aki huffed and puffed, stomping a few times before running to the door, and again, using a lot of effort to open it enough for him to slip through, as it had shut the first time he opened it. Kyuu shook her head as she heard the clamour of his tiny feet slowly disappear.
Hokiri chuckled, "He's a busy fox, Kyuu, you can't disturb his schedule like that."
Kyuu rolled her eyes, "Yeah, sure. Now I definitely don't need Hangover Bread. Does this place have something sweet?"
****
Kyuu wiped her mouth with her sleeve as she finished up her breakfast. She had to rinse it down with a cup of water, the sugary sweetness still lingering in her mouth. Kyuu had eaten a sweet banana-bread dish, Sara-De-Sato. Kyuu had a sweet tooth sometimes, she really had to admit it.
Kyuu flicked her ear as Hokori re-entered the room, looking better than before but clearly not at his best. He now wore a black muscle shirt and navy-blue sweatpants. His four tails were brown-blonde and had white tips.
"Have you seen Aki?"
"Hm?" Kyuu put down the wood plate, "No. Why do you ask?"
Hokiri looked the slightest bit uneasy, "Haven't seen him since he ran off. He said 'Auntie was busy' … where do you think he went?"
An uneasy feeling bloomed in Kyuu's chest, and she fiddled with the cloth of her dark red haori, "Do … you think he ran off to the forest … ?"
Hokiri frowned, "Should we ask around?"
Kyuu hastily wiped her hands on a small towel, heading to the door, "He's my responsibility in a way. I'll just pop into the woods near the dojo. He always goes to the wood that borders the big river and the other clans, so I'm leaving. Go ahead and ask around."
Hokiri opened his mouth to say something but sighed, watching as Kyuu made her hasty leave from the room. He flicked his ear, still uneasy. Something felt very, very wrong and he didn't know what.
****
The wood near the west side of the Clan of Clashing Waves was thick. The trees averaged around 15 metres, and suffered from crown shyness. Ansenkuu's Kuran trees. The nature of the atmosphere and life around it had a very strange effect on trees. All trees stayed the same no matter what season it was. Sakura trees were always blooming, kuran trees always had warm green hand-sized leafs with not much else.
"Aki-chan?"
Kyuu tentatively called out to the woods. Her thin hair softly blew to the side, strands of vermillion being brushed by the wind. She steadied herself when there was no answer. The forest lacked its usual ambience. Nothing but the empty sound of wind. But she could tell the forest was not empty.
She had no real idea where to look either. The forest was vast. There wasn't real danger. Worst case scenario she'd run into a pack of burcas. The pig-like creatures might charge at her. Her hand brushed against her side. Maybe she should've brought her sword.
Kyuu shook her head, and her uncertain thoughts away. Aki couldn't have wandered far. He was an ailing child who ran out of energy easily. There was no way he had gotten far enough Kyuu couldn't find him. She started walking again, feeling a bit more confident now.
"Aki-!"
An ear-splitting scream shot through the air, followed by some sort of high pitched frequency. In a single tick, Kyuu had flattened her kitsune ears, eyes shut and her teeth gnashing as the sound slammed through her mind.
Kyuu almost collapsed when the sound stopped, her eyes widening. Aki. The noise was from deeper in the woods. She was going to bolt, to run right into the forest. But she hesitated, summoning her tele-tad.
She paused before calling.
"Zururi?"
"Hm-? Hi Kyuu! What's up?"
"Aki is missing. I heard a scream and some loud high-pitched noise. I'm about to call Hokiri. Get someone here, I'm going there right now. Have people right behind me. I have no idea what the hell it is though."
"Wha-Kyuu!"
Kyuu hung up, immediately calling Hokiri.
"Hokiri. Aki ran off, and I heard a scream in the woods. I'm not waiting for your hung-over ass to get here, so I'm going in there, and there better be people following me for backup."
"Wha-"
Kyuu hung up even faster. She made a finger-snapping gesture, and without any sound, the tele-tad disappeared. Clenching her fist, she lingered before speeding off. Kyuu ran through the forest, her hair whipping behind her as she ran deeper into the forest.
The geography around the kitsune was a bit complicated, and Kyuu didn't understand a lot of it. The thick Ansenkuu woods helped with political borders though. To put it in perspective, the humans had about 200 kilometres from the top to the bottom. The land was shaped a bit like a circle, cuddled by the 'wall'. Behind the wall was a thick wood and then the Clan of Clashing Waves, Kyuu's clan. They had a wide peninsula that connected to the ocean and many kitsune lived there. Huh, the one time Zururi's document serves purpose.
The Clan of Clashing waves was about 400 kilometres from one end to the other, and about 200 kilometres wide. It was a bit curved as well, and half-way enveloped the 'wall'. Behind that was some sort of no-man's land, a peaceful meeting place for the rest of the clans. It was a random squiggly-oval shape. Kyuu couldn't understand why but she guessed they didn't bother to change it because of the thick wood around it. It was a bit smaller than the human's land.
After that Kyuu didn't understand much else. She knew she was heading in the woods right between the Clan of Swirling Skies and the peace place. Behind the Clan of Swirling Skies was…Clan of Rumbling Earth and Clan of Entwined Roots…or something of the sort Kyuu couldn't remember. The coast that bordered on the Clan of Clashing Wave and the peace place was huge and long, and touched with the Clan of Entwined Roots (or whatever that place was called) and across that was the Kishura Empire. Again, Kyuu wasn't one for borders and politics.
"Aki!"
Kyuu had to pause for a moment to catch her breath, hoping to hear something that would assure her she wasn't running in the very wrong direction. Her heart crumpled a bit as she was left in deafening silence.
"Aki!"
Kyuu ran through the forest once more, her dark red haori blowing in the wind as desperation kept her running. Every second of silence further swelled her emotions. Her chest was getting tighter, like her ribs were constricting on her lungs and heart.
She suddenly got deja vu. She remembered sprinting through the forest back when she was a human. Running to the temple in search of her dagger, being trapped by the fog. The thick miasma that drove her along with Zururi into a Kitsune Gate, only for her seal to be partially liberated from its decades of capture.
She slowed once more as she felt something…she looked up as the further she went the less the trees had crown shyness, the topmost parts of the tree now preferring to entwine and make a thick roof above her. It closed her in, the silence clawing at her ears.
And there it was. The stench of blood. The astringent, caustic, pungent smell of iron wafted through the air like a thick and awful smelling miasma that coated each leaf and bush around her.
Kyuu covered her mouth and nose as the stench overwhelmed her for a moment.
"A-Aki-!"
As Kyuu closed her eyes and broke through another bunch of trees to find a clearing, her heart fell into her stomach and crumbled. Her lungs fully deflated and her ribs crushed her heart. Her intestines wove themselves in knots, and her nerves all pulled towards her centre.
"Y-Yae … ?"
Kyuu was horrified. Her face contorted into an expression of one unable to comprehend what had happened. She was too horrified to speak, futile gasps escaping out of her throat as her eyes were forced to look upon the atrocity of a scene in front of her.
Yae, the blind kitsune healer. A four-tailed IceKeeping healer, appearing to be in her twenties. She had pale skin, her eyes clouded with blindness. Her platinum blue hair water-falled down her back and fell over her face in soft curtain bangs. Light lips and a dusting of freckles. A thin but full body. Light blue fur on her tails and ears. And finally, a dark blue yukata with a dark grey obi and white tabi and black zori.
She was on her knees, the dark blue yukata stained with fresh blood. In fact the only things that disrupted her serene blues were crimson, thick drops and splashes of blood on her face, hands, clothes, hair.
Yae held Aki in her arms. Aki's dark crimson hair was bloody. His tiny body was curled in Yae's bloody arms. His light blue yukata was stained with his own blood. It came from his mouth, slightly agape in nothing but searing pain. His usually cheerful eyes were dull and glossed over. It was clear he was clinging onto life.
Yae turned towards Kyuu, a calm smile on her face, unfazed by the atrocities before her. Her blind eyes somehow appeared to look straight through Kyuu, as if she were never truly blind at all.
"Wh-what…what is this?"
Kyuu had to tense all her muscles so as to not collapse in that instant.
Yae gave her an eerie smile, laying the barely breathing Aki onto her lap. She brushed away a few wisps of dark hair from his face, only further smearing the blood.
"Kyuu … you seem so fearful … why?"
"Yae … what have you done?"
Kyuu choked the last part out, tears only stopped by the bedazzling confusion and anger that threatened to rip through her lungs.
Yae gave her a tranquil smile, offering a hand out to her. Her glassy eyes filled with something vile. A wickedness that should not have existed within them. Thick purple colour replaced the glassy blue, like blood entering water, Yae's eyes still lacking a black pupil.
"Join me, Kyuu."
If Kyuu hadn't moved out of the way she would have been skewered through the heart. A huge icicle struck from out of the ground. Kyuu could barely move, but years of reflexes saved her life … most of it at least.
Kyuu bent back and to the left as she tried to move out of the way but she couldn't get fully out of the way. The icicle sheared up, starting from above Kyuu's side, ripping flesh and skin from her collarbone and jaw. It struck so fast the gash took up almost all the space on Kyuu's right cheek.
Kyuu fell back. The only thing stopping her fall to the ground was an unlucky tree she slumped over, her haori ripping. She put her hand to her face and as it came away, it came with a spread of her own glistening ruby blood.
Yae laughed softly, setting the limp body of Aki down on the grass and standing up, brushing non-existing dirt off her dark yukata. Something was wrong with her movements. It was erratic, like a puppet being pulled by strings somehow. But her attacks were fluid and powerful.
"Kyuu! Join me!"
Yae spread her arms open and stared down at Kyuu with a wicked look in her dull eyes.
"Please … accept the fate I have been given permission to grant! Your worries need not continue. Allow your soul to return to the heavenly planes. The world will run its course without you. Your story need not be acted out."
Kyuu was breathing heavily. The moment the icicle had struck her instinct had turned mostly animal. Kitsune could be seen as the peak between a transformation from human to fox. All kitsune could disguise themselves as humans, and turn into foxes. This also meant every kitsune had some small level of animalistic instincts. And right now, as Kyuu's mind could not understand what was happening, her instincts had taken over.
Her gold eyes' pupils had dilated, and her canines slightly more pointed, gasping ragged breaths. Her right hand, claws extended, hovered above the bleeding gash on her cheek, not pressing on the wound, but just barely touching it with their fingertips.
"I have almost bested you in a single blow! You have regressed to your most wild instincts in order to survive. Your magic is pathetic for someone even two times younger than you! Rest… in peace."
Small shards of ice, each of them about 6 cm long, appeared in the air around Yae's head and shoulders. They hovered there, glistening like sharp diamonds. Yae pointed at Kyuu, the same blind wickedness in her eyes.
The few dozen shards shot like bullets towards Kyuu. They seemed to tear through the air itself. If you had grabbed the ice, you could probably have snapped it in half in the palm of your hand. However, at the intense speed and magic that these shards of ice had, it would have the same lethal level as a dozen or so throwing knives.
Kyuu couldn't dodge all those shards. It still would have been hard before losing blood and watching Aki suffer at the hands of Yae. Her instincts forced her body to move. She managed to get most of her body behind the tree she had slumped on.
The shards shot into the tree bark, and Kyuu cried out in pain as they struck her left shoulder and arm, a gutteral and anamalistic sound. In addition, they had pierced her tail many times. A kitsune's tail had the most nerves in it. The whole tail was practically made of nerves.
Kyuu ducked, her system so overloaded with pain and confusion, she couldn't really feel any more excruciating pain. She looked down and her vision blurred as blood pooled beneath her.
A moment later, the top half of the tree was blown off, and crashed a few metres in front of Kyuu. She scrambled forward to dodge another attack from Yae, slumping as she went almost fully limp, leaning on another tree.
She coughed, tasting her own bitter blood as it spilled from her mouth. Kyuu looked down as well. She had only been stationary for a few moments, and blood was already pooling. She looked down apon her ruby reflection.
"Why do you fight so hard for your story to be written?"
Yae sighed dramatically, pretending to languish in Kyuu's foolhardy stubbornness, when really she was enjoying the fight, leaned all towards her favour. Kyuu was literally powerless, her magic was pathetic, she was without her sword, and bleeding out.
"What's funny is that you are so similar to that little boy, Aki. Only … I'll let you watch him die. His play barely started, but it was so low budget, I don't even think anyone will give a shit if it ends."
An icicle flew towards Aki. If it hit, it would completely destroy his heart. Even if he was already dead–no, he wasn't. He was hurt enough and Kyuu would not let that icicle destroy his last heartbeats.
Blood gushed out from Kyuu's battered body as the icicle embedded itself into her right shoulder, sticking out the other end. Kyuu gave half a guttural cry of pain as another, slightly smaller icicle went right through her gut.
Her legs buckled and her body fell to the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut and whipped around, kneeling with her back turned to Yae. Because all that mattered at that one moment was Aki.
Kyuu's fiery-red hair, stained with blood, fell onto her back, liberated from its usual position, crowning her head in a fiery high-ponytail, now cascading down her back in subtle waves. She couldn't feel anything anymore, but she felt a single tear roll down her cheek as the world blurred around her.
She sluggishly looked over Aki's unmoving body. His green eyes flickered open, the tiniest sign of life. He smiled, just barely staying awake…
"Thank you, Kyuu."
His final smile.
Kyuu felt his tiny body go limp under her hands. The blood that kept one eye from opening and that spilled out of his mouth was too much. Aki's green eyes twinkled one last time, and he merrily showed Kyuu his canines, just growing in, much later than a kitsune kit his age.
The curtains closed.
The final note played.
The last card drawn.
Aki was dead.
He had barely lived five years before his life had been violently torn away from him in a manner most didn't wish upon their enemies. It was gut-wrenching and soul crushing in a way that even the most heartless people would pity.
Unbeknownst to Kyuu. dark lettering was spilling out her chest. The final seams of the seal that had bound the true extent of her magic for so long was coming undone. The strange, unreadable characters disappeared and fire glowed below Kyuu. But this time it did not ravage over her, burning her skin and scarring her mind. It bent to her will.
Yae smiled and gave a soft but wicked laugh as Kyuu staggered up, back turning to her. It would be seconds until she was done. Kyuu looked like she was halfway to the other side already, prepared to see Aki to the afterlife before she was hopefully sent to burn in hell.
Kyuu's fist and lower left arm burned. The fire was a blinding white, and lighter yellow and orange outlined the silhouette of her hand. She slowly turned around, a glare so harsh it could melt ice with just a glance. She clenched her fiery fist.
"Here's your spotlight you so desperately want."
The fist shot right through Yae's chest.
And Yae's body erupted into fire.
Kyuu, riddled with holes, watched with a glaring, but otherwise emotionless face as Yae's pale skin, light hair, and blue outfit turned bright orange and red, her skin turning blinding white as she screamed in guttural agony, her mouth open. However, the roaring of the fire that combusted her body silenced her screams. The bit of the sun's light that could filter in through the trees became dark, and night suddenly fell unto day. A large part of the canopy above them had been burnt to ash.
That smell. As Yae began withering away, Kyuu's nose could pick up the cold and rotting smell…of the same ice-puppet-kitsune-thing that had attacked her and Zururi on the way to the clan.
With the strength of the fire, Yae was literally melting. Her body turned briefly into a cloudy blue, then began melting before very quickly evaporating. She was not human, nor kitsune. A puppet. How long had she been in this clan? And why go after a child, of all people?
As the last bit of Yae disappeared, Kyuu looked down at her white-hot burning fist. Her eyes had turned grey, and she did not shake, cry out, or barely even move, despite appearing to be at the brink of death, given her bloody state.
She opened her fist and let the fire dissipate. Behind her, three more tails glowed, fluffing out and turning Kyuu into a Gotsunne, a five-tailed kitsune. The orange tails brushed against the bloody ground, already tainted and soiled with red.
Kyuu stood bloodied for a moment as power coursed through her. She turned around, crouching to pick up the pathetic little body of the boy. Her eyes did not weep; her throat did not choke. She simply picked him up and began walking.
****
"Ow!"
Zururi and Hokiri ran right into each other and both cried out as their foreheads met. Hokiri rubbed the red spot on his forehead and his eyes widened as he saw Zururi do the same.
"Zururi-"
"Did you get a freaky call from Kyuu?!"
"Yes!"
The two men both had a worried look on their faces as they summoned their respective tele-tad, the upright and glowing tadpole looking device chirping as a greeting.
"Aren't we supposed to get someone?"
Zururi raised an eyebrow and put his hand on Hokiri's shoulder as Hokiri began hastily walking in the direction she had previously set his sights on, the forest Kyuu must have gone to in order to track down Aki.
Hokiri rolled his eyes, drawing his blade to show Zururi, "Oh please, these are kitsune woods. Whatever's in there can't beat the two of us."
"Kyuu's also going to be there so it's three of us."
Hokiri rolled his eyes once more, turning and beginning to speed up once again as they charged into the depths of the woods, "She's a Nitsunne, she really can't help in a fight. Come on, be a man Zururi. Face whatever's in there!"
Hokiri hyped Zururi up as they sped through the forest. Suddenly, Zururi came to a sudden stop as a lock of horror crawled onto his face. He turned pale and a little bit purple, his eyes widening and his body trembling in horror.
Hokiri's eyebrow furrowed in confusion, and he felt a bit nervous as he skidded to a stop, his body facing Zururi. He felt a bad feeling stirring deeply in his gut.
"W-what is it?"
Zururi's body trembled as he pointed to behind Hokiri.
Hokiri's body went very still and cold as he slowly turned around.
A zombie.
Or…something that should not be alive. Hokiri felt like he was going to throw up as the bloody and gorey mess slowly walked towards him from the near distance, clutching something in its arms.
"Hokiri!"
"What the hell is that?!"
"It's Kyuu!"
Hokiri whipped his head back to the figure…and Zururi was right. It should have been Kyuu. Except Kyuu was alive, determined, feisty, someone who annoyed Hokiri a lot, ready to pick a fight and always full of some sort of feeling.
Grey eyes, hair let down an absolute solemn and emotionless look on her face, except for maybe bitterness and disappointment. There was a hole thrown her shoulder, blood all over her, a huge gash that tore into the skin of her cheek.
And in her arms.
Aki.
The world swirled around Hokiri. This wasn't real. It couldn't be. Not even an hour ago he had been having a conversation with Kyuu, as fiery and determined as she usually was. Aki getting playfully mad at Kyuu in a little-kit way that most people adored.
Kyuu's dull eyes seemingly didn't register nor recognize them as she began walking past the two men. She truly looked like she was dead. She didn't act alive either.
"K-Kyuu."
Barely able to speak, Zururi clutched onto Kyuu's bloody shoulder, and she stopped and turned around.
"What…happened?"
"He's dead, Zururi."
"What?"
"Aki. Is. Dead."