Healing and mending

Morning had soon come, with the glorious shining sun awakening from its slumber. The orb of fire rose across the horizon, while the pale moon set, signalling the start of a new day. Many beast creatures woke up after a night of rest, all except Miko, who has yet to sleep. Miko was still carefully absorbing the wisps of energy from the night before, with absolute concentration. The forest seemed like it had mostly recovered from the tribulation storm, with just slight burn marks on the ground. After all, with dense spiritual energy in the forest area, they could recover much faster.

"She has to be here! I swear, I heard a tribulation storm last night!" A voice rang out from the distance.

"Why does she always rush into this kind of dangerous things!" Another voice complained.

"Ugh, shut it! It's not like you can protect her from the tribulation anyway! Otherwise you might get hit or distract her!" A third voice silenced the two. Of course, they came from none other than Miru, Ryo, and Asura.

The three of them swiftly arrived at the scene, to see a small, pink fox sitting on the ground, absorbing the thin, white wisps around her. Cuts and burns covered her body, but she still seemed to be going strong.

"Well, at least we could protect her from stray beasts in the area! Fox spirits aren't the only beasts or spirits in this forest! She's defenceless in this state!" Miru exclaimed.

The white wisps surrounding the fox's body dulled in an instant, signalling that Miko was almost done. The wisps gradually faded, as Miko's eyes fluttered open, revealing her tired, pink eyes. Miru instantly picked her up, examining her body. He clicked his tongue in irritation,"Tsk! Miko, how could you not tell us you were undergoing tribulation! We could at least protect you while you were condensing a core!" Miko could only whimper in response, as if to say she was sorry.

"You guys go ahead first, I'll bring her back. Most likely, I'll be staying home the whole day," Miru shook his head. Carrying Miko in his arms, they headed back to her tree.

Back in her tree, Miru transfered her some energy, so she could turn back into her human form at least. Miko did just that, her body growing bigger in a puff of light, while a white garment clothed her body. It was just like the yukata from yesterday, this time pure white as she was out of energy.

"Sit," Miru commanded. Miko followed and crossed her legs on the wooden floor, right in front of Miru. Both of them circulated the energy within them, but Miru placed his hands on her back, to transfer his energy to her. Miko instantly felt her body more rejuvinated, although it wasn't by much. She absorbed the energy given to her, and slowly used it to fill some of her magic core, while she used the remaining to heal her wounds.

By the afternoon, most of Miko's wounds have healed. The scrapes on her hands and knees have recovered, as well as the cut on her cheek. The burns from the lightning bolts have significantly lightned, and will recover by themselves gradually, within the next week at worst.

"Your energy and condition should be more stabalised now. Don't over exert youself for awhile and cultivate properly. Although, you managed to ascend rather quickly..." Miru commented.

"Probably because I have only reset my powers, so I can still get it back rather quickly as my body may be more atuned to higher energy..." Miko responded.

Miru furrowed his eyebrows, remembering why his sister had to go through all this in the first place to begin with. It was all because of a certain human who seduced her. It was ironic, really. A fox spirit was supposed to be one of the most beautiful spirits, capable of bewitching both humans and even their own kind if they had extremely strong charisma. Yet, this time, it was a fox bewitched by a human, who was neither powerful or strong in anyway.

"Tell me, how did you guys meet? How did you grow to like him?" Miru asked.

"Huh?" Miko asked in confusion.

"Takei."

Miko wondered if this was some sort of trap with no way to answer. Still, she calmly collected herself and explained.

"Back then, I was a fox with four tails. It seems like now everyone has grown stronger, except me. You, Asura and Ryo have six tails now, but it seems that I am the only one who lost my tails. I seem to have restarted in age and power. But back then, when I was stronger, I was curious about the mortal life there. I did see a few humans entering the border of our forests, but I was still interested in life on the other side. So I traveled over without your knowlege, since you and Ryo are always busy with cultivation, and Asura was always busy with her herb and alchemy shop. When I went there, it was a novel experience. They led a totally different life from us. The people there had a rich culture, and were kind and friendly to each other. I met Takei at one of the shops, during one of the spirit festivals. A shame I don't see them anymore, even though it happened then at this time of the year. I was trying new food when he accidentally bumped into me, causing me to drop what I was holding. I still remember... it was dango..."

"Interesting," Miru said, smiling. It was weird, considering he never smiled when it was anything related to Takei.

"After that, he apologised and decided to treat me to some food. Thats how we met, and we just started seeing each other more often. Eventually, we fell in love. However, it was not a peaceful and smooth sailing relationship. He had many ex lovers, and many debts to settle. But, he remained steadfast and loyal. He said that he may have been frivolus before, and gotten himself into many debts, but he realised it was because he just craved love. It didn't matter which form it was, as long as it could make up for what his parents lacked. I gave him a new outlook on life... After that, he ended things with all the people in his past relationships, and worked hard using good means to earn money and settle his debts. I helped him out too."

"Did he ever know you were a fox?" Miru asked, still maintaining his seemingly cheerful smile. It was getting creepy.

"Eventually, I revealed it to him. On the night of the harvest moon, I was cultivating in someplace far from the forest. We had to travel out of town for awhile due to new job of starting a business, which meant he needed to meet other people. But since it was the harvest moon, I figured he wouldn't be back so early since humans usually liked to perform rituals and ask for blessings for better crop yield in the festival which usually lasted late into the night. However, he came back early and saw me. He nearly got a fright, until I explained to him. Like you guys, I wondered if he would accept me, seeing I wasn't human. However, he didn't care about that one bit. What he cared about was that both our feelings remained the same. We were both happy for a long time, until the war..."

"I remember. We were trying to stop you from going to his rescue. Afterall, we were not supposed to meddle with humans excessively by the heavenly rule. We had to follow their rules."

"Mhm. I don't know what happened or why it did, but a war waged out between the humans then. He was killed by the enemy, and... I put my fox marble in him to be able to find him when he reincarnates..."

Miru tried as much as possible to stop his face from contorting in anger. "I... see. The war happened because humans from other lands were jealous of the king from this land a hundred and twenty years ago. This land had rich resources, fertile land, forests for wood, and beasts to hunt for materials. As such, they attacked. Unfortunately, they won, and are currently ruling this land. As they say, history is changed by the victors. All the history books there now are likely changed to portray them more positively. Now, what is happening is that humans see beasts in this forest as game, resources, or fun. We have completely lost the dignity and pride from before. Almost half the humans in this land are cultivators now than before, but they send their weakest ones to live near the forest so that if we ever planned a sneak attack, it was not the powerful that would be injured. After their takeover, we lost a third of our forest. Half of the spirit beasts were killed on land, although I am unsure of those living in the waters. Our number managed to bounce back a little, although not like before. This was why we beasts had to settle and form villages, going against some of our solitary natures. Do you now see why everyone hates it when you mention that human?" Miru asked.

Miko had not thought about this. This was why she had found it a little weird going to a restaurant owned in the forest by foxes when whether divine or not, foxes were solitary beings, only living in small groups. Back then, she merely passed it off as beasts trying to live more in a humanly way due to their increasing influence after connecting the dots. Well, she connected them wrong.

"Yes, it was his fault for being human, but that is a fact that he can never change. The action of one human does not represent the entire civillisation, but the entire civillisation cannot represent one human either."

"Very well," Miru answered. Miko widened her eyes in shock. She expected him to be mad, but he was understanding. Does that mean that she could convince the others too?