2. Catching Firefox, Chapter 3

And after the young master ate all the candy and all the zombie heads were bashed in, they finally arrived at the Hut of the Fox. It was a rather small hut, unlike what they all expected. Cozy lights were shimmering through the windows and they concluded that someone must be residing in the hut. Carefully the young master opened the door. There was not much on the inside. A table, a chair, a lamp hanging from the ceiling and an old woman with oriental features sitting in the middle of the room. Her hands were folded on the table. It appeared she was expecting the visitors.

“What brings you here, young travelers? Shouldn’t you be in school?” the old woman asked.

“We came to seek your help,” the fox-spirit said. The woman didn’t look surprised at all. “So it is time,” she simply said and stood up from her wooden chair.

“My name is Hitomi, I am a fox-spirit as well, but my powers are far beyond this young man’s,” she said as she came walking towards us.

“So you can help us stop the werewolves?” I asked full of hope. Hitomi looked at me for about a minute. I am not sure if it was a minute but it seemed like a very long time to me. By far longer than necessary.

“No, but I know what you must do,” she finally said. Apparently that was just how it was going to be. Just traveling from one wisecracker to the other and no one was actually going to help us. I just stood there and stared at her, not being able to say anything.

“So tell us, what do we have to do?” the fox-spirit asked. He needed to ask that because no one was going to say anything.

“You have to travel to Japan to find the true Firefox. Only he can help you. You have to get his Sword of Forgiveness. It is made of silver and meant to slay wolves,” Hitomi explained.

“Wait, so you’re not actually the Firefox?” I asked surprised by this new information.

“That was also a lie,” the fox-spirit confessed. Somehow I wanted to say something rude but then I just sighed. It seemed pointless at this rate.

“I am actually a very low-ranked spiritual being. They simply call me the Explorer. I just thought I could finally be of use to someone. Besides the rank of Firefox isn’t that high either. He just experimented with fire a lot and kind of stitched his powers together in a bricolage kind of fashion,” he further explained.

“Let’s not get cheeky, Sora” Hitomi interrupted him. “The Firefox is very powerful, he can help you with the Sword of Forgiveness,” she added. Forgiveness was the last thing on my mind. But if there was a sword especially designed to slay a werewolf I was obviously willing to make use of it.

“There is one more thing I wanted to ask,” Cassandra suddenly spoke up. “If you are both from Japan, how come you are speaking in English with each other?” It was indeed a legitimate question. It wasn’t even sarcastic this time.

“That is because I am in fact from Korea,” Hitomi truthfully answered.

“But your name isn’t Korean,” I remarked. I was pretty sure that I had heard some Korean names before and they sounded different.

“I changed it,” Hitomi responded.

“Why?” Cassandra asked.

“To fit this character. You see, the world we live in just loves stereotypes.”

“I hear you. That’s what I am saying all the time,” I said. Everyone agreed but no one wanted to change anything about it.

It appears to be time to explain the myth of the Yellow Peril. When Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, once woke up in a cold sweat at three o'clock in the morning, trying to shake off one of his opium-induced nightmares, his trembling hands slowly reaching for the valium, he had a vision. A vision of great peril, namely the Yellow Peril, his manifested fear of everything Asian. It remains unclear if it was the senility or the opium that formed the vision but he nevertheless saw it as an important vision and went on to create a painting out of it. The painting featured the archangel Michael, who supposedly represented Germany, leading the other nations of Europe all of whom were depicted as women, presumably to war. At the far right corner of the painting a smiling Buddha could be seen rising sinisterly from the shadows. “Peoples of Europe, protect your vaginas!” was the alluring title of the painting. You might wonder why anyone would paint such a ridiculous painting, but those were hard times where aristocrats had to be imaginative with their irrational fears. The painting was mass-produced and Wilhelm decided to send out copies as Christmas presents. Otto Von Bismarck received one such copy, he didn’t really understand what it was all about but he hung the painting on his wall anyway. But as we know, not everyone can be this respectful. After all it was disrespect that led to all this. Through the popularity of the painting the idea of the Yellow Peril was born. It started with fear but that fear was soon turned into hate. And thus racial stereotypes were born; a mix of fear, disrespect and probably opium-induced nightmares.