Kei’s P.O.V

“You’re telling me I can’t go in because I don’t have a title?!” I snap at a guard and roll my eyes at the fancy gates blocking the entrance to one of the Nobles fancy parties, that I’m dying to get into and turn around marching away and using a paper fan to cool myself off.

They’d let me the heck in if they knew what I really was… one of the few last great Kitsune left~ The amount of struggle proudly wearing that title would save me, if I wasn’t supposed to be dead already.

I narrow my eyes at the crowds of nobles in line, all passing their invitations in, and gaining access, and sigh.

I could steal enough to last me a month from that castle of a house… and pickpocketing is tiring.

I pick a quieter spot on the bustling streets of the town, sitting and propping up my umbrella for shade, then tipping my hat to rest.

I’ve been struggling a lot lately… I don’t like stealing or tricking people, but there’s hardly anyone willing to lend a helping hand these days. It’s hard to get used to. Especially when there was a time where I had pretty much everything, I wouldn’t have hesitated to share, and I appreciated what I had… I didn’t deserve to lose it all and be reduced to a petty thief but here I am.

I lift my ears ever so slightly, hearing an angry high pitched voice, and look up to see some very expensive-looking noblewoman yell at a passerby for ruining her dress, which has probably the tiniest stain, from a strawberry popsicle, the poor kid is eating.

“I’m sorry miss! But you really did walk right into me!” She whines and I roll my eyes, their chaos ruining my so-called quiet spot, and get up, fixing the stain with a small wave of my hand as I walk by and then whistle on my way.

Pickpocketing it is! I walk into a darker alley and shift into my fox form, throwing fast enough of an illusion over it, to make it look like I’m just a weirdly proportioned cat.

Nobody ever notices anyway unless they’re staring pretty hard, then at that point they’ll think somethings pretty off, but I move fast.

I prance out of the Alley hoping some kid doesn’t grab me thinking I’m their lost pet and take me halfway across town… Trust me it’s happened before; then take a steady pace towards the crowd of Nobles.

I guess I don’t feel too bad stealing when it’s from people with greedy energy like that. I wind myself between their legs, snatching small purses with my tail, picking up a hefty pouch of money with my mouth, before bolting off with my goods and finding a secluded spot where I can dump out my findings.

Now trust me, it’s hard to move things around with paws, but it looks a lot less suspicious than how I’d look in a human form. Crouched over a stash of stolen coins and cash under a tree.

I got a stable amount! They’re probably going to an auction in there, so no wonder they brought so much. I manage to nudge all of it into one pouch and connect it to my collar.

Hopefully, people just think I’m a fat cat, someones familiar or something cause my size is closer to a half-grown puppy than a cat at this point.

I trot quickly sticking closely to walls, with a foxish smirk on my face I hope nobody can see and go along with my ears perky and prompt, tail high, and chin up.

Until I practically almost trip over my paws.

An unmistakable energy. Unmistakable in a way I can’t remember at all, but It triggers an overpowering flight response, making me freeze up, and I know it’s something absolutely nightmarish.

I scramble backward into an alleyway, cloaking all of my energy from whatever’s out there, and shift back to my human form, which may not seem like it, but it’s more than 100% the safer option in this type of situation.

Still completely frozen with fear, and time practically freezes as he breezes by.

Evil energy radiating off of him, like scents from a candle, and striking red eyes, sclera and unnatural dark color, and long strikingly white hair, perfectly chopped in a straight slice with the tips darker than coal.

It’s familiar and it’s wrong. It makes me sick to my stomach as he passes by, scanning the area for something unknown and the second he’s 100% out of my vision, I can breathe again

I have no idea what he was, I don’t even know how I’m so sure it’s a he, or how nobody AT ALL seemed to notice the insane amount of sinister energy he just brought into the town… all I know is those plants sure did.

I see the potted plants on every doorstep he’s passed wilting as he goes past them, which just proves how powerful his energy is without the use of any magic, and… maybe he is using magic.

I look directly at the way he’s going, and do a double-take, as something practically glitches in my mind, and it makes him falter too, and I quickly duck back behind the alley as he starts to turn.

He’s hiding something, something big. It’s an illusion clearly, but what the hell could you need to be hiding when your energy is as powerful as that. Stronger than even me… it’s just not right, and it’s a given.

Curiosity really killed the cat…

I get out of the Alley, seeing him making his way through the crowd, and follow at a fast pace, my heart thundering as I do so, I’m not going to follow him, I’m going to pass him and try and get a good look at his face, instead of his side profile which gave nothing good away. It’s just too familiar.

The problem is trying to keep my energy cloaked when my heart rate is out of control and I’m pretty much panicking.

I manage to pick up the pace even more to a slow jog, stalling a little bit while I linger behind people, to avoid my inevident confrontation, before finally sucking it up and jog right past him, cloaking my energy as best I can, and the second I get a good look at him, as I’m glancing over my shoulder my cloak does more than shatter, my two fluffy fox tails appear, my long ears, flattened against my head, practically glowing against the plainness of the town, the foxbeads around my neck ACTUALLY glowing and my family robe decorated with color, and depictions of them through the years.

The point is I’m practically neon in a black and white painting, and I’m horrified because I do know exactly who this person is. I know exactly who they’re looking for, and I’ve popped up like a present with a ribbon wrapped around it.

“NO!!” I scream, the sound resonating around the entire town like the loudest fox call you’ve ever heard, blocking every memory from my mind, as they attempt to come flooding back and take his moment of pure shock to turn back around and take off.

I haven’t run this fast in a decade, and I’m being fueled by pure fear, slippers hardly touching the ground, not having to shove anyone out of my way because of the awe throughout the entire vicinity that a Kitsune has randomly shown up, and it quickly settles in that if someone like me is running… then you should be too.

It’s not seconds before the sky turns a churning dark grayish red color, and have a fleeting thought to maybe try and fight, but shove it away remembering how this went last time… and it wasn’t good.

“Stop.”

He appears right in front of me, making me freeze for good reason, and I flatten my ears, bracing myself to run again. The entire town is frozen silent and a vicious wind whips my hair in my face.

“Kei.”

“Aki,” I whisper harshly back and it brings a sickening smile to his face making me flick my tails anxiously back and forth..

“I don’t know what’s happened… but I got a feeling the other day that you didn’t stay dead.” He says in a mysteriously calm voice looking at the ground, and his eyes dart back up to me and he smiles again.

“But you didn’t stay dead did you? Not like your brother little bird?” His tone twists upward at the end like it finds it amusing, which he clearly does, and I feel my blood literally boil, and the ground around my feet rumbles and grows hot with energy.

“You think it’s so funny huh? How you think you’re gonna trick me with your sick little spells again?” I snap, some of the stones cracking, where my feet are placed and he flinches at the ground.

“Well HAVE A TASTE OF ONE OF MINE FOR ONCE!!”
He can’t have one second to process my attack before I manifest a paper fan in my hand, spreading it and teleport myself on top of a roof, before the ground explodes, showering the vicinity in bricks and fire, and spin around swiftly on my feet prepared for the attack before it happens, holding the fan with one hand up to my face and halfway panicking, my left hand flying out, fire exploding out of my palms and fingertips, blowing him backward, but my attack doesn’t seem to last long as everything clears with seconds in a wave of smoke and I freeze stepping back horrified.

“I think I still can fool you with my tricks… judging by the fact that you just blew up my Illusion, but I’m impressed Kei! It could’ve worked if I was really standing there.” He says and I look at the destroyed part of the square I just blew up, before back at him and don’t hesitate to turn around and shift into my fox form, taking off.

I’m absolutely soaring through the streets bouncing off rooftops until heavier paws slam down onto my back and I let out a cry, slamming into the pavement, which makes my head spin and bite. Latching onto anything and shaking my head furiously to dig my teeth in, which buys me time to triple my size, kicking him off of me and brace myself, as it starts pouring rain and snarl as he gets up.

We’re half the size of the houses now, taking up the road, and I bark, and charge at him, both of us meeting with a wild whip of wind and rain and I manage to slam him onto the ground, but not before he kicks me swiftly into a house, which practically shatters from the force and I whine and stumble off of it, hardly ducking in time where his jaws would’ve snapped shut around my tail, and take a huge inhale as he’s right infront of me before arching my back, swishing both my tails and breathing fire.

Only my fire is met with his red fire, and I concentrate trying to save my breath and turn mine blue, blasting him halfway across town, and swirl around, scampering.

I’m not fighting a fight that I can’t win right now! I scramble over rooftops as fast as I can, causing irreplacable damage to the roofs and the town, absolutely tearing through it, and towards the forest, before shifting back to my human-ishform, standing out way too much, turning back and seeing the clouds hovering over the town miles behind me, and continue sprinting towards the next down, where the energy is just as tense and ignore the sun, sprinting into town, seeing the forest just over the horizon and pant, catching my breath against someones house and feel an overwhelming exhaustion threatening to consume me completely. but take a lazy step, first mistake.

My trick is used against me as the world blows up in my face and scream bloody murder, hardly saving my bones from being broken from the flying marble and cinder blocks.

“FUCK!!” I hardly get myself out of the smoke, stumbling, completely out of energy and he spits outblood, waiting for me practically and pushes his hair back.

“It was a good run for y-”
“Kasai, renta, oya shei.” I hardly have enough energy for the the most extreme spell I know, shoving myself way over the limint, throwing my hand out, twisting it in a circle of smoke and bracing myself before everything explodes outwards, and I hit him this time.

Evrerything a mile through exploding like dynamite, fire blowing up into the air, and filling the air with smoke and broken parts of the town.

Two can play with fire…

I cough, slumping against a wall of a house that’s still standing somehow and cry out from exhaustion, seeing white, as I shift into my fox form and hoping I can make it to the woods, the adrenaline wore off ages ago, so what’s powering my normal sized fox form to jog towards the woods is a mystery, my paws and fur dirty, dragging across the mud, and catching on branches.

Blacking out every couple of seconds my legs aching miserably and open my eyes wider.

Nightime… I collapse shifting back to my human form, and lazily stare at the area around me. Even though it’s dark the forest is lit up with blue light from the trees, and glowing like it’s alive… the kind of blue like the color of my fox beads.

It means it’s enchanted… which means I’m safe… it must've been a strong instinct to get myself here, not even knoowing it existed.

The thing about enchanted forests is that they don’t let chaos in. Like Aki. If he tried to step one foot in here no matter what magic he used, he’d probably get attacked by some dark creature and THAT would take him a while to heal.

I stare in a daze at the sparkling blue pond, that looks like a portal, and sigh wondering what it would feel like to just fall in… and sink to the bottom.

The water bubbles making me think nothing of it for a moment until there seems to be a bang under the surface of the pond, that wakes me up and I shriek and scramble backwards, away from it panting, praying that he didn’t somehow get here, and I’m really going to die, and someones head pops up almost silently.

Eye level first, and whatever the thing is, it’s glaring right at me! I think I might be seeing things until it starts moving closer making me freeze up, and pulls its entire head out of the water, tilting it suspicously and putting his arms up on the rocky bank, and paints a small smile on his face that reminds me of a shark, but it’s what he says that puts me on edge.

“Hi Kei. It’s been a while hasn’t it?” He practically purrs at me, widening his smile and I choke on my words and shake my head.

“I…”