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Humans are so oblivious. And I'm not talking about the supernatural either. Humans are the only creature that can so completely ignore something that is happening right under there noses. There is a whole underworld of spirit creatures living along side man. Creatures that I had thought only existed in legends and stories are quite real and in an endless war with the human race.
Take the kitsune for example, a group of trickster fox spirits found in Japanese legends. I had thought that was all they were, stories. But, here I am, sitting next to one.
I glanced over at her as I drove, she was smiling and watching the landscape pass as we left the city far behind. I stifled a grin as I imagined her sticking her head out of the window... But, silly as these fox creatures are, I doubted she would do that.
As we drove in silence, I thought about my new companion. An anthropomorphic fox, she stood just over four feet tall. Shaped like a human woman, and just as intelligent as any human I'd ever met.
I was beginning to care for her as well. But I didn't want to impose my feelings on her until she was ready to receive them. The last few years had to have been hard on her, she didn't want to talk about it.
Me; Hantakitsu, The Hunter Fox and a freed kitsune by the name of CrazyFox continued our journey away from human lands. If that was even possible...
Far away, in a different part of the country. A man known to our two travelers looked up from his scrying glass, "Excellent, the End is near. Soon the war will be over, and we will finally banish these pesky spirits back into the either from wince they came!"
"Stop here," CrazyFox's sudden words startled me enough that I did. Looking around, I saw that we were in a small ghost town deep in the desert. There was a sign sitting to one side of the road, as I attempted to read it, CrazyFox jumped out of the car and darted behind a building. Startling myself, I rolled out of my car and peered over the hood, looking for the threat.
I was several moments before I realized she was looking for something, not running from something. I stood and, keeping one eye on CrazyFox--least she find more than she was looking for--moved over to the sign.
The sign was old, most likely put up at the same time as the rest of the town was built. Time had erased the lettering long ago. However, I could still make out a few letters and, with a little bit of work, was able to read it.
It was a name, Johnstown. Under the town name was the standard population count, but the numbers had been scraped off. Intentional destruction, not just the inevitable wasting of Time.
The strangest part of this sign was what was under the population marker. A series of words that, while printed in Latin letters, was not a language that I was familiar with. And there are not many languages that I cannot even identify.
As I was puzzling over what the words were, and copying them into my notebook I always have with me, CrazyFox let out an excited yip. A rather odd sound to tell the truth. I looked up from my conundrum to see her jumping up and down and waving at me to come over.
I made my way across the street, half expecting this excited fox to pull a Lassie and run to me, then back to what she wanted me to see. As I drew closer, I heard the sounds of struggling. I began to run.
Reaching CrazyFox, the sounds were definitely coming from somewhere near her. It wasn't until she pointed out a trap door in the ground that I understood what was going on. Someone had been buried alive.
It took both of us several hours and the use of my car to remove that door. Whoever sealed this shut didn't want it to come open any time soon. As I gunned the engine and sent sand flying everywhere, I wondered at the type of person who would do this. How sick you you have to be?
The sudden release of the door nearly ended my adventure right there as the car jerked toward a pole. Stopping the car and running back to the now open door, I saw that CrazyFox had already pulled the occupant out.
When I got back there, I got another surprise. This was no human, bound and gagged, we had just freed from a shallow grave. It was a tanuki. Yet another creature out of Japanese legends, an anthro badger.
As I stood with my mouth hanging open, CrazyFox had already removed his gag and was working on the bounds when he started to speak. My Japanese is fairly rusty and he was speaking an old dialect, all I got was "thank you very much" and "Hantakitsu" repeated over and over.
"Are you hurt? Is anything broken? Who did this to you?" At my last question he blanched, and began to speak so fast I missed every single word. At times I doubted he was even speaking a language that had been heard by Man.
After he had stopped, CrazyFox spoke a short sentence to him and offered her... paw? to him. I also helped him to stand, he teetered a little before getting his feet--paws?--under him. We helped him into the back seat of my car, I offered him some water that he drank down far to quickly, then passed out.
I looked at CrazyFox, "How did you know he was here?"
She pointed at my notebook, "That is written in Chikushudo, the native language of us spirit creatures. It is... rather rude. But that message was only placed in locations where spirits were 'banished.' I inscribed many of those myself..."
"Oh... What's going to happen to our tanuki friend there?" I looked back at him as we got in the car. He was rather cute, in a freaky jumped-out-of-a-legend-and-into-the-back-of-my-car kind of way.
She looked at me curiously, "How did you know he was a tanuki? Most humans call them badgers."
"Well, I have studied various mythos before and it only makes sense, after all, I'm talking to a kitsune."
She smiled and turned to face the horizon, "Let's go, there are many more towns like this, many more spirits to be freed.
As we drove away, a thought occurred to me, "I thought it was impossible to hold a spirit that didn't want to be held. How do these people 'capture' you guys?"
She was silent for a moment, then spoke. "There are a few substances that can hold us. Did you notice what that door was made out of?"
"Yea, it was iron--oh," I looked at her, "you mean that those stories are true too? That Cold Iron hurts magical creatures? Then how can you be in this car? It's all American Steel."
"Steel isn't Cold Iron. There are only a few places where true Cold Iron can be found. That town once had a mine that produced most of it for The Darkness and their evil works."
I thought for a second, "So that collar that bastard had on you, was that iron or Cold Iron? And do they have more of them?"
"It was enchanted iron, not cold. And yes, they have thousands of them. Each with a spirit's neck inside."
We traveled for a time, stopping at various towns and villages along the way to free trapped spirit creature. We encountered three more tanuki, four Inu--dog spirits, and six Usagi--hare spirits. We also found another kitsune. He--yes, a male kitsune, I'd never know that there were male kitsune... but I guess it makes sense. Anyway, he spoke English, and was rather wary of CrazyFox until she said something to him in Chikushudo, afterward he relaxed a great deal.
Unlike the others, this kitsune elected to travel with us. CrazyFox had me head down a side road, we had left the desert and entered the woods sounding the mountains. It didn't take long for us to run out of road, the road simply dwindled down to little more than a game trail, I stopped the car and looked at CrazyFox, "Well, now what?"
She got out of the car, "now we walk."
"Where are we going anyway?" I asked CrazyFox as the three of us headed into the woods. "Is there someone in these woods?"
"Yes," She didn't look at me, the trail had narrowed to the point where we could only walk single file. "There is a very old spirit who has been trapped since the start of this war. It is time she was freed."
I turned to look at the male walking behind me, "Hello."
He startled when I spoke to him, but recovered after a second. "Hi. You must be Hantakitsu, the one the legends spoke of. It's good that you have come, this war is rather pointless."
"I agree, there is no reason that humans and spirits can't live together. Even if we are very different, all of us share this world." I had to duck under a low branch, when I looked back again, he was grinning.
"I happen to like it here, aside from those who would seek to capture or otherwise harm us, humans are very interesting creatures." He looked at me, "And most of you don't feel that we are a threat."
I chuckled, "Most of us don't know you guys even exist."
He grinned at that, "True. By the way, everyone calls me Foxtrot." He held out a paw.
Stopping to shake his paw I asked him, "How many of the old stories are true?"
He motioned for me to keep walking and said, "Not very many, but more than you would think. A far number of those stories were originally told by a spirit. However, almost all of the stories have a grain of truth in them."
"Most legends do." I thought for a moment, "you said that many of those stories were originally told by spirits? How is that possible? After all you guys can't exactly pass for human, not to be asinine or anything."
"You would be amazed what a hood can do! Not only that, but many humans don't pay attention to anything that isn't happening to them."
I had to smile, "That is very true. It always amazed me how little most people pay attention. Most of humanities problems are caused by people not paying attention!"
He chuckled as CrazyFox stopped just out side of a clearing. I looked over her into the clearing. It wasn't a big clearing, in fact the trees were completely covering it. So that it couldn't be seen from above. The only way to find this place was on foot. In the center of the clearing there was a large tree stump. It looked like it had been hit by lighting and burned a long time ago.
Very slowly, CrazyFox walked into the clearing. I looked around and saw a small sign with a phrase on it. However, this one was different than the others we had seen. It also appeared to be quite old, far older than the others.
As we moved into the clearing, I could feel something watching us. Something that seemed very old. The presence seemed to startle, I have no idea how I knew that, then relax.
CrazyFox looked at the tree stump and began to chant in Chikushudo. I had picked up a few words, but all I could make out were "Ryu" and something about a "time of reckoning." I looked at Foxtrot, he just shook his head and mouthed, "I have no idea."
As CrazyFox continued to chant, the air started to swirl around the clearing, picking up fallen leaves and other debris. A column of light began to spiral up from the stump. The clearing took on a muted golden glow, that was fortunate, because the sun had gone mysteriously absent.
We watched as a shape began to form in the center of the glow. At first it was hard to make out, indistinct and shapeless. However, it didn't take long for it to take on a recognizable form. A long, sinuous lizard-like form began to form within the glow. As I watched, it took on the unmistakable visage of an oriental dragon.
This must be the Ryu that CrazyFox was referring to, I thought to myself, Ryu being the Japanese word for dragon.
The dragon came clearly into focus and opened it's eyes, looking down at the three of us. It seemed to grin then began to speak, "Ah, it is good to be free once more. Thank you, kitsune. I shall not forget this." It's eyes turned to me, "And you must be Hantakitsu, the Hunter Fox. The one legends are made for."
I just stood there, speechless. Something about this creature told me it was very old and very wise. And that it would be a bad idea to interrupt. The dragon turned to look at Foxtrot, "Another kitsune, if I didn't know better, Hanta, I would think you were in trouble. But I digress, after all, what good is a hunter without weapons?"
The creature's eyes flashed and there before me appeared the best set of armor I have ever laid eyes on. "Go ahead, it's yours. Put it on and see how it fits."
I gingerly walked over and began to put on the armor. The first thing I noticed was how light it was, far lighter than even steel. The second was the beautiful workmanship. Who ever crafted this armor did so with allot of care and time.
The last thing that caught my attention as I was putting the armor on was the material, it wasn't steel. Or any other metal I was familiar with for that matter. It was light, flexible, yet I could tell it was very durable.
Under the armor was a helm, forged to look like a fox's head. It almost looked real, I could swear that the ears moved as I picked it up. Placing it on my head, the clearing lit up. I could see as well in the relative gloom of the clearing as I could on a clear day at high noon. The entire suit felt like it had been created for me. It fit like a second skin.
There were two final pieces to this amazing suit of armor, a shield crafted from the same metal as the rest of the suit. On the face of the shield was the image of a snarling fox. An image I'd not expected.
And a sword.
I picked up the sword and drew it from it's sheath, it was a work of art. A katana, or samurai sword, made from the same stuff as the rest of all this, yet so finely crafted it had no weight in my hand as I held it. The blade bore an edge that would have been the envy of even the sharpest modern blade.
I looked up at the dragon, "I cannot accept all this, this is meant for someone great. I am just a man. Not a hero."
"There is a hero inside all of us. We just need to know where to look."
After that the dragon vanished. Foxtrot vanished soon after. CrazyFox insisted on showing me some moves with the katana, even though I already knew how to wield one. It took me a bit to get used to how light the weapon was, but not long.
She also began teaching me Chikushudo, why she wouldn't say, but she was very adamant that I learn the language. It is a very interesting language, a strange mix of feudal Japanese, Latin, and natural sounds that somehow formed into words.
As we continued to drive, I thought about all I had learned. "This will never end, will it? No matter how many spirits we free, the Darkness will still capture more. And I wouldn't be surprised if they found a way to kill spirits for good. Humans are capable of an alarming number of things..."
She stared out the window for a time, I almost wondered if she'd fallen asleep, before responding, "No... Not until the Darkness is brought down will we truly be free. We have to kill the Master."
"Very well, where can he be found?"
"Keep heading north."
