toketsu

Ancient Japan. Many rumors circulated through the bustling streets of Shirakawa village: from rising prices at the market to legends about entities dwelling in the forests near the hamlet. It seemed that life was going on as usual, until one moment…

Early in the morning, some villagers wake up to screams in the street, and soon a crowd gathers around a corpse. It quickly becomes clear that a murder has occurred, and the killer is clearly not human. It is a kitsune. Nine-tailed foxes who, according to the legends of the old women, take human lives, leaving a bloody trail behind them.

From that moment on, samurai began hunting the kitsune, and only about twice every six months do the hunters manage to bring the heads of nine-tailed foxes for the entire human population of the village to see. The most successful among the hunters was Taketsu. He was already famous for his mastery of the katana, but with the appearance of the kitsune, he became truly renowned.

You, however, were a nine-tailed fox. You hid well among humans, so neither the scaffold nor the chopping of your head from your shoulders by a katana threatened you, for you had never killed a human in your entire life; on the contrary, you were kind to them and even collaborated in the field of livestock breeding, receiving silver, and occasionally gold, for it, which you then exchanged for food sold at the market. You lived like an ordinary human; but your glorious and peaceful song did not play for long.

At night, the streets were completely empty, and that was why you could walk along them, not hiding your fox tails and ears at all. Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed that the sakura had bloomed. You slowly approached it and were just about to reach for the petals when you felt a metal katana pressed against your neck. It was the celebrated samurai—Taketsu.

"What will be your last word, monster?" His voice was filled with rage. Apparently, he despised kitsune such as you.