Chapter 5

Kyuu squinted her eyes until they were almost shut. She was going close to 80 kilometres an hour, and she struggled not to wince everytime the wind whipped her hair to her neck. 

Just go there, get to the tree, grab the dagger, and get right back out again. It wasn't going to drag out, and she would be fast, and get home. But the pit of Kyuu's stomach told her otherwise, and her chest was weighed down by the premonition of something she wouldn't enjoy. 

The mist surrounding the temple was so thick, Kyuu almost lost where she was. The area around the temple had been consumed by mist and fog, and Kyuu hopped off the hosoi, looking around in an attempt to find the temple, and therefore the dagger. 

"Hello? Zururi?"

Kyuu called out to the nothingness, hoping she could find or hear the kitsune. Anything to figure out where she was. Even the hosoi seemed panicked, neighing and stomping on the ground as it tried to figure out where Kyuu had led him. 

"Kyuu!"

Kyuu turned, hearing the voice of the cocky kitsune. But he seemed almost in a panic, and his voice was strained, "Here! Come here!"

Kyuu abandoned the hosoi, and came running toward Zururi's voice. Things were getting worse by the second, and she kept running even though she should probably have grabbed the hosoi and gone back from where she had arrived from, though she wasn't totally sure where that was. 

"Oi! Zuri!"

Kyuu relaxed a tiny bit as the sight of the temple breaking from the fog came into view, the big tree also nearing her line of vision. However, the air quality got worse, and she used her sleeve to cover her mouth and nose as she pushed through the fog. 

Zururi surprised her as he grabbed her shoulders, leading her to the base of the tree, "Grab the sword!" he said, pointing at the sword that had been stuck into the ground. Her dagger law askew in front of it. 

The wind picked up now, and howled in her ear. She reached for the dagger but Zururi pushed her into grabbing the sword, and she almost fell back as it came out of the ground in a hard tug. 

"What the hell was that for?"

Kyuu's anger faded for a moment as she caught a good look of Zururi's panicked expression. He gripped her shoulders, kitsune claws desperately digging into her sleeves. His breath was heavy, like he had been rushing. 

"Hurry! I'm sorry I thought we had more time! I should have come sooner, I know, but I didn't think they would come for you!"

He began yanking her to the torii gate, at a surprisingly fast pace. Kyuu hesitated, pulling back slightly. She didn't know what she was getting herself into, and she'd rather go back right around now. 

"DUCK!"

Zururi shoved her into the ground as three kunai came flying towards them. Kyuu then realised what was happening. This was what Zururi was trying to drag her out of, and she felt a little bit grateful he had warned her before she got stabbed. 

Now she did the dragging, staying low and grabbing Zururi's shozoku. 

"Head to the kitsune gate!'

Zururi could only give her minimal amounts of advice, she was much more built than him, and could get the moving done faster. Kitsune gate…the torii gate, right.

Her eyes widened as she saw a glow break through the fog, a beacon of light, something to help pinpoint the location of the big red gate. She squinted, dodging any kunai or other knives that flew her way. She was very much on edge, unaware of where her enemy was. 

She almost gasped as she reached the torii gate. The inside glowed, an abyss in the middle of purples, blacks, and blues. As if a little part of the night sky had been cut out and shoved in the torii gate. 

Zururi stood up, grabbing her sleeve and shoving her in, following soon after, "Hurry up!"

Being in a torii gate for the first time was the most nauseating thing of Kyuu's life. Her kitsune aura being under a seal could not protect her from the feeling of the gate. She could see a purple and colour all around her, and yet she felt like her eyes were squeezed shut. 

She covered her mouth to try to stop herself from retching up her earlier meals, but couldn't really feel anything either. Like if someone repeatedly punched her in the gut and the solar plexus, knocking the air out of her, but she felt like she didn't have any air in her lungs from the beginning.

It felt like a huge hand was wringing her whole body, breaking her bones and spilling her organs out. A circus of pain and nausea. Claws and hands grabbing and crawling and tearing at her skin, pain so great she couldn't feel it.

Like being put in a jar full of honey and being swished around. It wasn't more than a few seconds, but Kyuu swore it was at least five minutes of hell. The samsara of nausea ended as Kyuu was roughly thrown out to rough ground, choking and gagging and gasping for air. 

Zururi patted her on the back, "Yeah, sorry about that. Now that we're back in the Clan of Clashing Waves, hopefully we can break that seal of yours–wait a minute this isn't the Clan…"

Zururi looked up, surveying the surroundings. It was like a cave, a cavern made of forest and trees. Tunnels reached out and away, and there was barely any light. Zururi turned nervously to the kitsune gate, "Something isn't right…this, this gate is supposed to lead to the Clan, w-we need to go back. 

"Not so fast!"

Zururi cried out and Kyuu caught him as a kunai embedded its blade into his shoulder. Kyuu grimaced as she heard the whizz of more kunai, but was surprised as a barrier of light knocked them away. 

Zururi breathed heavily, clutching his bleeding shoulder. He squeezed his eyes shut taking a deep breath, "Hey look, no hard feeling okay?"

He grabbed Kyuu's arm, ripping the sutra beads off and taking the quartz charm in his fist. 

"Hey!"

He suddenly pressed the quartz in his hand right into Kyuu's chest, looking up at her with determined gold eyes.

Kyuu froze, unable to move. It was like time stopped as Zururi pressed harder and harder, nails digging into her chest, as light began shining and clawing its way out of her chest. 

It felt like her heart was being ripped out her chest…in a painless way but she felt a bile rise in her throat as she struggled to resist. Dark lettering in symbols she couldn't understand began coming out of her chest. Ebony darkness spilled from her mouth as she choked on her own power of the seal. 

She began trying to pull away as kitsune ears sprouted from above her head, and she could feel her canines growing just a bit sharper, a tail protruding from behind her, a new extension of her spine. Her fingernails sharpened and her tail writhed as her body struggled to understand what she had become. 

Zururi was almost done, he was so close. He grit his teeth, blood beginning to spill from his mouth and even at the edges of his eyes, replacing the orange eyeliner with sickly shining blood. Crimson tears spilled from the corners of his eyes in thick streams of ruby that blurred his vision carmine and burgundy.

Kyuu was suddenly shoved away as the barrier of light shattered around them, letting the figure lunge towards Zururi, who in the state of almost breaking the seal was absolutely and totally defenceless. 

Kyuu didn't really remember what happened next. It was like the kanibozu fight all over again. Fire suddenly began appearing across her arms, licking around her whole body, spreading its flames everywhere around her.

She couldn't speak as her vision was consumed by flames, and she looked at the palm of her hand as most of it became white hot, burning her skin. Blinding light, fire so bright it had become white in just the palm of her hand. Kyuu could feel the burning. But she held no reaction. She looked up again, as the hooded figure prepared to stab Zururi. 

Kyuu suddenly appeared behind him, reaching out and placing the white-hot fire on the palm of her hand on the figure's shoulder. Her claws melted through his flesh and stayed still as she writhed and spasmed in immeasurable pain. He screamed and cried out, all deaf in Kyuu's ears as his flesh melted away under her touch. 

Fire continued to consume her body as she yanked the kitsune figure away, the fire so hot it removed a chunk of flesh from his shoulder. He screamed and thrashed as Kyuu held him by the neck to the stone. His face was still covered, but so much of him had been burnt Kyuu wasn't sure if his voice was getting quieter, or she just couldn't hear him anymore.

He began melting under Kyuu's touch, and she heard a hissing sound as his body turned to ice, and melted, leaving a puddle of blood-stained ice and a single petal. Kyuu picked up the petal, surprised as it didn't melt or burn under her touch. 

A pain so sharp suddenly consumed her vision and her head. It felt like a lightning bolt had torn through her skull, blitzing and burning her mind. She collapsed to the ground, unable to even cry out as she clutched her head in pain. A pain guttural cry erupted in some sort of growl as black tried to spill from her mouth once more. 

 Fire wrapped around her limbs, carving at their own creator's skin. They tore like beasts into her arms, the skin left behind burnt and slashed. A feral torrent of blind rage, the magic and fire cutting straight into her.

Lacerations of fire spread around her body. Kyuu could only cower as the 20 years of magic struck her again and again, let loose from their sealed prison. Zururi began crawling towards her, trying to reach out his hand. 

"T-the seal! It isn't fully broken!"

He couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and passed out, leaving Kyuu to squeeze her eyes shut as she was forced to bask in the magic forced away for so long. She was on the edge of unconsciousness when she heard footsteps appearing from where she assumed the kitsune gate was. 

"Zururi! O-oh crap! Guys! Quickly!"

The fire crawled down her lungs and clouded her mind, forcing her consciousness to end abruptly as her eyes glazed over. The fire finally began to weaken, taking its last breath as Kyuu's body was left scarred and burnt by her own fire.

****

Yoen stared up at the ceiling, her lips pursed. She looked back at her time during the day, at the temple. Zururi kept talking to Kyuu, and Kyuu seemed like she knew him. They seemed somewhat familiar with each other, but to Yoen they acted like strangers that had never met. 

Fluffy grey hair...a bit of red...a sly smile. 

Yoen rolled every aspect of Zururi around her head, like rolling a candy around in her mouth, trying to figure out the flavour. Except Zururi wasn't any simple flavour, he was an enigma of flavours. So many disguised under a veil of a shozoku. 

There was something familiar about him to her as well. She swore she had heard about him once. She tried to remember any prominent names of priests that she had encountered in her time as a miko. 

But her memories revealed nothing, and she tossed and turned in the midst of her frustration. God, she knew something about him from somewhere, but where!?

She gasped, sitting up suddenly. She turned to her sides and shook Fukai awake with a start. "Fukai!"

He squirmed, confused as to why he had been woken up, "W-what happened?!"

"Fukai! What did the tele-tad that called you before the kanibozu look like?!"

"Huh?"

"Grey with a bit of orange or red right?!"

"Y-yeah, why?"

Yoen jumped out from the mattress, grabbing a jacket and her sharp gold fans, changing faster than she ever had before, "I gotta go!"

Fukai stared blankly as Yoen sped outside, hearing the sound of footfalls as she left the building. Too tired to care, he shrugged and fell back asleep. 

 ****

Hitashi told her Kyuu had headed out, back to go collect her dagger. Yoen held on for deer life as the hosoi sped towards the temple, her eyes squeezed shut. Zururi was the one who called her, which means he definitely had something to do with the kanibozu attack. Yoen had to find Kyuu NOW, and tell her. 

The hosoi suddenly bucked, throwing her off. Yoen cried out and opened her eyes, gasping as her eyes laid full view of the forest. The forest surrounding the temple was alight, burning thick and strong. 

Yoen gagged as the smoke began coming towards her, and she covered her nose and mouth with a cloth from her sleeve, keeping her eyes just barely open so she could see. She slowly made her way a bit deeper into the burning carnage of what was once the forest. 

"Oh? Who's this?"

Yoen squinted as she saw a figure standing in the midst of the flames, now turned towards her. Her eyes widened, this was the guy who must have started the flames. And now he stood unburnt in the middle of it. 

He had long black hair down slightly below his shoulders, and plenty of cloaks obscuring any other part of him. Even the smoke seemed to wrap around him, hiding his figure. 

The aura coming off of him was horrifying, like a sickly cloud of red death surrounding him. Yoen struggled to keep a clear mind as the smoke, as well as her anger, clouded her thinking. 

The figure gave a light-hearted chuckle, "Wow, it's actually my first time seeing a human! A pretty lady one as well~I'm afraid you caught me at the wrong time darling. Oh, actually no one was supposed to see me. But it would be such a shame to see your pretty little face burnt and lifeless, so you owe me one okay? Go back home now."

Yoen coughed, trying to speak, "W-who are you?!"

The figure, his face hidden with a mask, a smile carved into it, stared at her, "An ace up someone's sleeve." he answered simply.

Yoen's legs buckled as the smoke wound its way towards her face, forcing her down. She tried to crawl toward the figure, but her eyelids betrayed her, forcing her thoughts to pause, and she passed out from the smoke. 

 ****

Working in the forge was hard. Kuruso knew it. He had been working in the forges since he was 20, and had not stopped since. His kitsune body was nearing the age of 50, however due to the way kitsune bodies aged, he didn't look far from 30. His kitsune ears were folded as his heavy breathing paused. 

Arashi, one of the very few Daito swords that still existed, forged by the kitsune many thousands of years ago that poured years into their work. A sword so powerful that it had to be split into two, only submitting to those with the strongest auras. 

Kuruso reveled in the steel. It was rusted and very much worse for wear, but once the dirt around the hilt was removed with his EarthKeeping, the brand of the Daito was clear. 

The symbol for nine(Kyu) was carved into all Daito weapons ranging from katanas to maces. It was carved by claw, using a technique no one of the past one thousand years could figure out how to do. 

It was said the most powerful mage, one unnamed, had taken time to curse and bless every sword. They were then hidden away, their power sealed until a vessel strong enough could find it. 

Kuruso scratched his head, brushing his kitsune ears. He was a man of work and had earned himself four tails, leaving his EarthKeeping dojo for the forges. For him to lay eyes on the Arashi was a blessing metalworkers for many hundreds of years begged for. It was now his job to repair this. 

His clan leader had delivered this to him, and demanded he keep it as secret as possible, not allowing anyone near the forge while he was working on it. He obliged, and soon he would be sharpening the sword and taking the years of rust and wear off of it, but not just yet. 

Later he would have to ask a DendroKeeper to make a sheath for it, but he thought he might make that too. Whatever it took for this beauty of a sword to be completed. It would take not only him, but a few other kitsune to complete this work of art. 

Kuruso sighed, setting down the sword. It pained him to see it like this, but what pained him more was the onslaught of orders and swords he had to make. Yes, this new war brewing was pushing them all to the edge, but all the sword-crafting he and all his colleagues had to do might just kill them before the battle. 

"KURO!"

Kuruso jumped, almost knocking the sword away as a young voice burst into the forge. He stood up, brushing soot off of him as the young kitsune ran up, buzzing with excitement. 

"Zuri-kun came back! He's got the kitsune who lived with humans! Well, they're both apparently healing. It's been two weeks and no one told us! Zuri already woke up, but rumour has it the human-kitsune lady still hasn't woken up!"

The little scruffy brown-haired kitsune grabbed Kuruso by the arm, trying to drag the older kitsune out to no avail. He gave a little rough laugh, but was curious as to who this new kitsune was. 

Zururi, 'Zuri' as Hashi, the young kitsune boy called him, was well known as the twin of Hyemi and a LightKeeper with immense sealing powers, his powers more similar to a priest than a kitsune, and his magic focused more on charms and seals. He was well known and not too many people disliked him. 

"Kuro-hurry up! Yae and Hira are already kicking people out!"

Kuruso smirked, brushing some stray soot and ash from his beard, hoping he wasn't leaving a trail of ash as he followed Hashi. Yaw and Hira were the main healers, and there were healing houses scattered around their clan, the Clan of Clashing Waves. 

The building had about the surface area of a two-story house, not too big. It had a spiral tower on the side, leading to the rooftop. However, the structure looked more like a very nicely built wooden hut. It had wooden beams and vines that crawled up its sides. Perfection in imperfection. 

Hira, the short and black-haired head healer, was waving the few people away. The ShadowKeeper healer was known to be the best in the clan, and had practised the art of medicine for many years. 

She shooed away the few kitsune that had tried to gather in front of the doors, but smiled as she saw the ash-dusted Kuro and little Hashi. Her short and tidy black hair and her three kitsune tails, her deep blue eyes, it Kuro blushed a tiny bit. 

"I-"

"Heard the rumours?"

Kuro laughed, "Someone decided to come into the forge to tell me just now."

Hira scruffed up Hashi's hair, sighing, "To be expected. Well, she's not up right now, hasn't been for the past two whole weeks, but Zuri is having quite the time getting beat by younger kitsune at chess."

Hira walked up to Kuro, who was at least a head and a half taller than her, and tapped his nose, using a tendril of shadow to take all the soot and ash, dusting him off in a matter of seconds. 

"You ought to dust yourself off before coming in. You know it's policy, we can't have dusty kitsune near sick patients no matter how jacked they are."

With that, she began leading them up a set of stairs. Hashi eagerly ran up the stairs, way ahead of the two adults. Kuro had to duck as he entered a larger room, nodding his greeting to Zururi. 

The mission had taken quite a bit out of Zururi. He was cheerful, his bright gold eyes happy and shining. However, his grey hair was a bit scruffier as a bandage covered one eye that had been hurt a bit more than the other. He had bandages wrapped around his arms and legs, and a lot near one of his shoulders, but otherwise seemed fine. 

His four kitsune tails and his kitsune ear swished happily as he entertained Hashi, using his LightKeeping to juggle little balls of light. He was wearing a light blue medical gown, with short sleeves and pants. 

"And where's the…girl? The human-kitsune as other people call them."

Hira sighed, "She's a kitsune alright. Some seal placed on her, Zururi got some of it undone but it's gonna need a bigger trigger to fully release. She's in a private room right now, in a coma I can't get her out of. She's doing fine otherwise, but it's the worst case of burn and scarring I have ever seen."

"Does she have a name? So far she's the human-kitsune lady."

Hira smirked, "Good one, but no. Her name is Kyuu Jiatsu, but considering the human background, thats probably not her real last name, that's all I've got on her."

Kuro was a bit surprised, "Raised by humans yet her name is the lucky number nine huh?"

Hira shrugged, "I suppose it is."

Kuro sighed, "I need to head back to the forge soon. So much work to do. I can't believe we're war-bound now. Kishura Empire swooping in to try and ruin everything…if it weren't for that display of brutality, we could have just stayed in peace. But no, someone's got to have it all…"

Hira smiled, patting his shoulder and passing him a package, "Here, some onigiri. Don't overwork yourself lest you become another patient in here!"

Kuro waved as he left, his footsteps emanating as his huge but built body began exiting. Hira stared for a moment as the footfalls stopped, staring in the direction of where Kuro had been a few moments before. 

"W-where am I?"

Hira's eyes widened as Kyuu, clutching her stomach and still wrapped in bandages, managed to open the door, peeking out and asking the question with a very raspy voice. There was clearly a bit of fear and uncertainty in her voice, "How long have I been out?"

Hira walked towards her, ready to lay her back into the bed, "Now, now, back in bed. Two weeks, and welcome to the Clan of Clashing Waves."

Kyuu put up no resistance as Hira hurriedly put her back into the bed, tucking her in like a child, "Rest more dear, it's been a lot."

"Two weeks?!"

Kyuu only now registered how long she had been unconscious. Mira waved dismissively, "I can tell you're not done resting yet. I'll answer everything and anything once you're ready. Have some sleep."

In any other situation, Kyuu would have burst out from the bed and demanded to know what was going on. But her bones felt heavy, and her mind felt like it was weighing her done. She was so tired and shell-shocked she just wanted to lay her head down again, and try to figure out what happened by herself. 

Her dreams decided otherwise. 

****

Kyuu's body felt somehow uncertain. She sat in some paper-drawn dreamscape, staring blankly as paper cut-outs of Daichi, Hitashi, Kai, Yoen and Fukai all pranced around her, even a few hosoi. 

They appeared to be drawn by children, and Kyuu felt a bit sick as she sat in this strange dream-world. Her paper-drawn friends seemed to be talking, but their crayon mouths made only squealing sounds. 

Suddenly, the ground gave way, and Kyuu began falling. She didn't have any sort of reaction, and simply floated as the world around her folded, revealing a dizzying array of bright colours and paper cut-out butterflies. 

Stretchy hands appeared, grabbing paper Kyuu's ears and tails and stretching them, and Kyuu's paper body somehow followed, stretching her like a rubber band. All the while Kyuu didn't do anything, she really couldn't. 

Trapped in some strange realm where the world was nothing but pencil-drawings by little children. The hands let go, and she immediately snapped back, her body turning more fox-like. 

She looked down at her inconsistently-drawn hands, watching as the fingers became more and more pointed, becoming claws. Her tails multiplied, whipping at her back as the thick fur moved of its own accord. 

A scroll clawed out of her chest, unravelling itself in front of her. The scroll went all the way down to the abyss, below where Kyuu had been floating. Strange letters and symbols glowed blue, hopping off the page to surround her. 

The scroll itself began wrapping itself around Kyuu, the one realistic-looking thing surrounding paper-Kyuu, and her vision was overtaken by strange symbols and scrolls, swords and scars, glowing stones and red aura. *