Chapter 7

The scryglass turned blood red, then black. 

Zururi felt blood in his mouth as he stumbled away, clutching his throat as he was unable to even cry out. He shuddered as his back slid against the wall, and he fell to the ground. 

He choked and shuddered, clutching his throat as blood curdled in the back of his throat. His breath was choppy and it took him several minutes for him to calm down and the pain to subside where he could finally breathe again. 

The Honaq Petal he had been using looked as if it had been soaked in one's blood, and it lay ominously on the ground with a faint black-red aura. He wiped blood from near his mouth with his trembling hand as his gold eyes flashed grey in fear. 

He stumbled up, staggering towards the door. The moment he entered the bathroom he fell once more, and his pitiful lunch came flying out his throat, burning his windpipe. He retched once more into the wooden bucket, sweat beading down his face. 

He finally relaxed, slumping against the wall, trying not to retch once more. A migraine teased at the corner of his vision, and he clutched his face in pain. What was under Kyuu's seal?

Whatever it was, it was strong enough to almost incapacitate him, someone who specialised in seals and scrys. He had only been poking at the entrance to the cave too. He wasn't trying to replicate the combination, or trying to break the seal again. He was just trying to figure out what was underneath. 

If that was the reaction, peeking under the cover could have killed an inexperienced LightKeeper had they tried what he did. He looked down at his other hand, steading himself. After this…there was no way he would be able to unlock that seal. 

Should he even tell Kyuu? Was it worth it to unleash whatever was under there? Zururi gulped, standing back up, flicking the switch which sparked a light, turning the contents of his stomach that he had barfed out into nothing but smelly dust and ash. 

Kyuu would have to unlock that seal whether either of them liked it or not. Well, enough that she could unleash the full extent of her Keeping abilities. She'd never reach anywhere close to the power she would have. And if this war really was going to happen, they would need her at her fullest. 

Zururi flicked his ear and swished his tail, steadying his glare. He left the small room and went back to his little healer's den bed. 

Crap, I forgot. 

He crept back into Kyuu's room, using his LightKeeping to guide the bloody-looking petal away. He stuffed it back into the drawer and prayed once more nothing would happen. He squeezed his eyes shut, lying down in the bed. 

It couldn't be that bad. Kyuu could transition into the kitsune world fast enough. She was smart enough, she would understand. 

Probably. 

 ****

"A kitsune has their normal form, a fox form, and one where they disguise themselves with magic, usually concealing their ears and tails in order to appear human."

Kyuu scowled as Hyemi and Zururi gave her, "A Very Condensed Guide on Kitsune."

She took a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. Some fever dream this was. She felt very uncomfortable in her body. She felt like squirming as she felt two tails brush behind her and as she sat in a small wooden desk, uncomfortably flicking her ginger kitsune ears. 

Splash!

"HEY!"

Kyuu sputtered as Hyemi giggled, happy that her splash had hit its mark. She produced another small bubble of water above her palm, smugly looking over at Kyuu who glared at her. 

Kyuu stood up from the small desk, producing a tiny flame in her fit of anger. She leaped towards Hyemi, throwing the little ball of flame half-heartedly. Hyemi fell under her weight, but the flame ended up setting Zururi's paper fan alight instead. 

Hyemi flushed but grinned as Kyuu had her pinned to the floor. Not for long. In a poof, Hyemi had turned into a grey-blue fox, squirming under Kyuu's grasp with ease, before returning to a kitsune. 

Kyuu fell on her face with a thump, picking herself back up angrily. 

Zururi, who had finally stopped the fire on his head, cleared his throat, "We still need to teach Kyuu about the Keeping types, the dojos, oh lord, we have a lot to do. Alrighty, Keeping types first."

Kyuu sat back down, her mind hoping to drift away before she had to listen to all this. 

"There are nine total Keeping Types. FireKeeping, WaterKeeping, LightKeeping, ShadowKeeping, AirKeeping, DendroKeeping, EarthKeeping, IceKeeping, and LightningKeeping. Every kitsune has a Keeping Type, no matter what. Most kitsune raised in the average manner grow up to have about two tails, so they can do very little with their magic."

Kyuu scowled. She was in that two-tailed rank. Back with the humans, she was pretty strong. Now she was about as powerful as a kitsune kit.

"We have ranks based on the amount of tails. They follow orders from one to nine. Nine has never been obtained before, in fact the only one here with six is the clan leader, Briar, with six. She's lived for 400 years though. Right, and kitsune have indefinite lifespans, but can still die and whatnot. Once you're older than I think 100, you can kind of choose to slip away peacefully. I wouldn't know. Right, back to the ranks, all used in dojos;"

"First, Ichitsunne, one tail. Nitsunne, two tails. Santsunne, three tails. Yontsunne, four tails. Gotsunne, five tails. Rokutsunne, six tails. Natsunne, seven tails. Hachsunne, eight tails. And finally, Kyutsunne, nine tails. Hey! 'Kyu', like, y'know, nine! Even if your name has an extra 'u' in it, it's lucky! Isn't that cool?!"

Hyemi shoved Zururi aside."So lucky! You know the unlucky number is 10. One over nine, because nine is the perfect, lucky number! I'm so glad I can teach someone all this stuff!"

Zururi summoned a beam of white light-like magic, and Hyemi snarled as it began dragging her away on the ground. Kyuu and Zururi watched as Hyemi snarled and tangled with the rope of light. 

He rolled his eyes. Zururi was wearing a dark blue, almost black, undershirt with baggy white hakama and white, embroidered with light yellow and gold, silk jacket with long sleeves. He also had one golden bell earring, and one small bead embedded into his earlobe, additionally with toeless ninja shoes. 

Hyemi, getting up from her scuffle with the magic-light-rope Zururi had thrown at her, brushed her long-sleeved cropped sweatshirt, a dull light blue. Its sleeves were huge and over-sized, easily going past Hyemi's fingertips. It honestly resembled the top of a kimono more. It also had a collar too big, resembling a turtleneck. She also had an undershirt underneath, and her legs were covered by grey-blue socks, black combat boots, and had cut her dark-grey hakama to shorts. Both her and Zururi merrily sported their eyeliner, a light peach for Hyemi, and red-gold for Zururi. 

Kyuu felt very boring compared to the twins. She had dark grey hakama that stopped at her shins, toeless black ninja boots, a black undershirt, white and a dark red, slightly cropped, haori. In addition, she had grown another 10 cm after part of her seal had broken, making her the tallest in the room. 

"Anyways…you'll join the fire dojo since you're a FireKeeper and all that. We'll figure out a way to break that seal of yours so you can actually do good magic. I hope you don't have any more questions, but if you do, ask me later. Come on, let's get going."

Kyuu began begrudgingly following Zururi. 

****

"Meet Migotono-dono, master of the fire dojo!"

Kyuu sat cross-legged in front of the old kitsune. He had light almond skin and thick grey hair, his eyes showing he had lived well beyond what Kyuu would guess. He wore deep red robes and had five tails behind him, the fur a red-ocher colour. 

Kyuu had a cross-legged scowl as Zururi waved, blinking away to wherever. Migotono only chuckled, spinning a long, thick black smoking pipe on a claw. 

"Ah…Kyuu. It's nice to meet you. Word has already spread of the kitsune raised by humans, unknowing about her true power. I can see great power and potential in you, however it is kept back by the seal. By the time you can graduate, hopefully you will have mastered all there is in FireKeeping. You are very lucky, born with that name, and even more so that you are a FireKeeper. We aren't the rarest, but because of how hard it is to master, most talent goes to waste. Let's see your current capabilities."

Migotono opened up his fist, and suddenly sent a torrent of little orange flames flying towards Kyuu. 

"What the-WHAT ARE YOU DOING OLD MAN?!"

Kyuu had to do acrobatics she didn't think was possible as she had to dodge the fireballs, trying not to singe her hair or her clothes. When the torrent was finally over, there was a close-eyed smiling Migotono and a burnt Kyuu. 

"What was that?!"

Migotono laughed a bit, "I wasn't putting very much aura and magic through those, you should have been able to catch them and throw them right back. Come on, at least produce a flame for me."

Kyuu scowled, sitting back down, now a bit further away. She lifted out her palm, trying with all her might to make a flame appear. 

And it did. 

A flame did appear. 

Kyuu felt a bit embarrassed as the only thing that came from her palm was a fireball barely larger than a candle. She hurriedly put out the pathetic and meekly flame, closing her hand into a fist, trying to hide her frustration. 

Migotono nodded, "It's alright. This is expected-"

"Goddamit," Kyuu snarled, "I didn't want to do this stupid magic-kitsune thing anyways. Maybe there's a reason I stayed with the humans this whole time. I hate this stupid magic thing."

Kyuu got up and stormed off. She was really ticked off. Her fists were balled up and she knew she was acting like a child. She was going to grab the nearest katana and train with that instead, instead of breaking some stupid seal that clearly wanted to stay sealed. 

Not bothering to look behind her, she left the bamboo and wood walls of the dojo, slamming the door behind her. Now outside, she found a secluded training area, finding a rack of some random katanas. 

She picked one up, surprised at how comfortable it felt in her hand. These were good quality, by human standards at least. Sounded plausible. FireKeepers probably had much more control over flame and temperature than normal humans. Or EarthKeepers–wait no, Kyuu wasn't really listening to Zururi so she didn't really know too much about them. Probably not important though. Kyuu didn't know much more about forging either. 

"Uh…who are you?"

Kyuu turned around to see a dirty-blonde haired guy behind her, wearing the exact same outfit as her. He had a few freckles and a small scar across the bridge of his nose, four tails, and striking green eyes. He also had a sword by his side. 

"I'm…Kyuu. I'm new here, so I thought I would just grab a sword and train or something. Mostly because I didn't want to talk about magic to the old guy trainer."

He gasped, "Woah! You're the human-kitsune! And by the way, that 'old man' is my great-great grandfather and also the master of this dojo. He's the one who taught me and I'm already a Yontsunne!"

Kyuu struggled not to roll her eyes, "Jeez, what's with the nickname. I already told you mine, quit calling me human-kitsune. I'm supposed to say I'm not less kitsune than you, but to be honest, with the seal on me that sums it up pretty well."

The guy unsheathed his sword, "My name is Hokiri! I'm the best FireKeeper in this dojo, and the heir to said dojo! When Migotono-sama retires, I will be the new master!"

"If you're the best FireKeeper here, I guess the situation is pretty bad."

"What was that I just heard?!"

Kyuu shrugged but flashed a smug smile, "Nothing fire-boy. Hm, when this stupid seal breaks I bet I'll totally beat the crap out of you."

Hokiri fumed, baring his teeth, "Is that a challenge?!"

Kyuu shrugged, grinning, "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't."

He crossed his arms, clearly livid, "That's a lot of crap coming from a Nitsunne. Who was raised by humans."

Kyuu rolled her eyes, "Humans were more interesting than this."

She grabbed her sword, preparing to train against the boring straw, bamboo, and wood dummies in front of her. There was a bit of uncertainty as she gripped the sword. It wasn't her usual sword, and it felt too off in her hands. It didn't belong there, but it's what she had to work with. 

Shick.

Kyuu startled even herself as three of the heads came off, rolling onto the ground. This was a lot more than she could do as a 'human'. She sheathed the sword again, turning as she heard Hokori's voice once more. 

"Damn. Expected though. It's common knowledge for actual kitsune, but humans are way weaker than us. We have generally taller figures, denser muscle, and denser bones. Above them in any way. That's why you're probably surprising yourself and all."

"Oh. Maybe that's why I was better than a lot of my friends back in the corps. Or maybe they were just weak and I spent too much time training."

Kyuu muttered to herself, pleased with this new fact. Being a kitsune annoyed her, flipped her whole view of the world. But now she could light candles and she had an extra physical buffer. 

"Don't get too ahead of yourself though," Hokori reminded her, "We all have this. You don't have any advantage here."

Fuck off…

Hokori unsheathed his sword, walking beside her now. In a flash, the sword was alight in orange flames, even purples, yellows, and blues swirled and glowed around the sword, and Hokori smirked as Kyuu was unable to hide her astonishment. 

It…it was brilliant, magnificent, palatial even. 

In a single slash, half the dummies fell to the ground, everything above their torsos rolling to the ground, charred at the slash line. The straw and wood on the ground smoked, the fire ghosting away in a few streaks of yellow. 

Kyuu had a look at his smug face and flushed, glaring away. She didn't want to tell him, but the display of power had blown her mind to a degree she didn't think it would be blown. 

"Well? What can you do with your fire, Nitsunne?"

Kyuu glared and bore her teeth as she faced off with Hokori, but she sighed, turning away. The most she could do was light a candle, and she sure couldnt hold one up to Hokori's power level yet. 

"Godammit. It won't take me too long. Watch your ass, because I'll kick it one day. Soon."

He shrugged, sheathing his sword, "I'll be waiting!"

 ****

Goddammit. Stupid. Stupid Hokiri. Stupid old-man-kitsune-guy. Stupid Zururi!

Kyuu walked on some dirt and sandy path, bonsai trees and small ponds beside the ground she walked on. After arguing with Hokiri for a while, she had gone back around and aimlessly walked nearby a healing house, some sort of trauma-centre for long term patients. She saw Ichitsunne and Nitsunne nurses help elderly and young patients, ranging from all ages. 

But now that there's going to be a war, there will be many more patients. 

The thought made her shudder a bit. She had been with the kitsune for…

Kyuu stopped in her tracks. 

She hadn't even asked the date!

Her ears shot up with her tail as she hurried into one of the wooden rooms, sliding open the bamboo doors. The people inside, a small kitsune child, and a nurse with fluffy light brown hair turned towards her in surprise. 

"Hi–um, what's the date?"

Kyuu felt very awkward but her epiphany of stupidity made her ask anyway. The small kitsune child had dark red hair and choppy red bangs, dark green eyes and a curious but otherwise emotionless face. 

"Uh–October 19?"

The short, brown-haired kitsune nurse stammered. She had been in the middle of bringing soup to the child. Her right hand was holding the white bowl, and the left was hovering above it, the soup rising and falling where the fingertips commanded them to. A WaterKeeper. 

October 19. 

When she went back to the shrine to get the dagger, it had been…

September 26. 

Kyuu's birthday was October 10. 

Kyuu was deep in thought, and was calculating various different dates as the nurse and the child continued to watch her. It had been almost 20 days since she had last been with humans. So she had been knocked out for at least two weeks. 

"M-miss do you need something-?"

The nurse asked, trying to politely get the random lady out of the room. Her dark brown ears flicked and her two tails swished as she set the bowl down to walk over to Kyuu, still stuck in her empty-minded stare. 

She shook her head, turning to leave, offering a wave right before she did. 

"Thanks! I'm Kyuu, bye!"

 ****

SLAM!

Zururi felt the blood rush out of his system and his skin pale, as the door behind him slid so hard he heard the crack of wood as it snapped under the force. He was wearing a white-grey-gold shozoku, preparing to do priest-y activities for the day. In his hand, he had a cup of tea. 

"Zururi!"

He groaned quietly, slowly turning around, leaning on the table behind him. The floor had bamboo mats on it, and some prepared incense for burning. Light peeked through the reed windows, dotting the room with light. 

"Yes…?"

"Why didn't you tell me I have been missing from human society for almost 20 days, not tell me the date, and not mention I was out for like, what–two weeks!?"

He sighed, "I did say you were out for like two weeks actually. I'm sorry, you didn't ask and we have been pretty busy actually. It's October 19 right now. Anything else?"

Kyuu deflated, sitting down on one of the cushions on the ground, "Aw man, I missed my 26th birthday! I'm almost 30, I can't waste so much time like this! Zururi, I need to break this stupid seal so I can go beat a show-off!"

Zururi's eyes widened momentarily. Kyuu had just had her birthday? A smug smirk peaked onto his face as he looked down at Kyuu, "My birthday is on July 22…which means I'm older than you!"

He pointed down at her, a huge grin on his face, "From this point on, you shall call me Zururi-senpai, and I can go ahead and call you Kyuu-chan-OOF!"

Kyuu punched him in the solar plexus, sending him gasping for air on the ground. She grabbed the cup of tea and stared down at him with an agitated look, baring her teeth, "Don't get ahead of yourself, bastard."

Like the first time I met her…

"Ok, ok, that was a joke. I'll tell Hyemi to get you something for your birthday then! Wait a minute, I sent you to Migotono a while back, did he let you go already?"

Kyuu laughed sheepishly, remembering how she had childishly stormed out on him, "Uh…about that. I sort of walked out on him, and then argued for a half hour with some Hokori guy. Whoops…"

"What?! That was important! How are you going to master FireKeeping if you refuse to speak to the master!"

"I figure I'd just…not."

"Kyuu," Zururi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "FireKeepers aren't all that common, and we need the few we do have, to get their crap together and defend their land! I'm not saying this is some Fire-Keeper dominated industry, but considering your existing strength, you should be able to pull yourself together!"

Kyuu crossed her arms, "First of all, I'm homeless and therefore have no land to protect, second of all, I'm a strong, independent woman, and don't need to be bossed around-"

"We all know you're a hermaphrodite, Kyuu. You can't hide this forever."

Kyuu lunged, grabbing the front of his shozoku and pulling his face up to hers, fuming.

"How dare you! No respect whatsoever! You know how hurtful that term is?! Humans were much more polite. I am no less a woman than someone like Hyemi."

Zururi gently pulled back her haori top, showing the very much male chest underneath the undershirt, "Sorry for calling you that, but like, it's sort of true. Yeah, you are a woman though. As far as the nurse told me, just the chest is male, right?"

Kyuu slammed Zururi's head into the floor and dusted herself off, clearing her throat, "Whatever. Do kitsune have anything better to do? I figure I'd just walk somewhere and practice lighting candles."

Zururi shuddered as he picked himself from off the floor, trying to breathe again. As he reinflated, he slowly stood up. 

"You. Are going to learn and master FireKeeping. And. You. Will go. Apologise to Migotono-dono. And practise your. FireKeeping. Or…"

Zururi paused as he searched for some valuable threat that would affect Kyuu, "Or. I will ask to put you in the same class as little Ichitsunne children. A 26 year-old kitsune, in a room full of tiny, one-tailed, children."

"You wouldn't…"

"You wanna try?"

"Fine!"