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It seemed that I was to love. No matter what I wished otherwise, my heart had been stolen. And not by just any women, no. A real foxy lady had captured my heart. Literally.
I had fallen in love with a kitsune. A fox spirit. Appearing in Japanese folk lore, they are a group of tricksters who love to play pranks on humans. A few humans decided that they were going to "do" something about this.
It started off innocently enough. A group of people who could see these spirits, even when they didn't want to be seen, got together and found a way to stop the pranks.
But then someone took it too far. He found that he could regain his own life by stealing energy from spirits and he kept them around to continue to syphon off their energy.
Others became interested in this process as well, he began to capture and sell various spirits to other men, to be used as they saw fit. Very few could master the skill of draining energy for there own use, but they still found ways of abusing and demeaning those enslaved spirits.
Naturally, the other spirits couldn't sit idly by and watch as there fellows were treated as little better than beasts. A war started. And war raged.
Spirit creatures are very good at remaining unseen. Humans are not. Eventually the war broke out on mortal lands. Some of the more violent spirits decided that, because they could not get at their true target, they would go after normal humans. Mostly, these were dragons. That is where the legends of evil dragons came from.
After a time, these rouge dragons were captured by some kind of "Spirit Council" and dealt with. After that the war returned to the shadows, unknown to the humans.
I had found all this out from the Ryu who had gifted me with the armor, sword and shield. CrazyFox and I had decided that the only way to end this war was to take out the ringleader. The very man who had not only captured CrazyFox in the first place, but also the original wizard. The one who had first discovered how to bind spirits.
We were going to kill him.
How, I hadn't a clue.
The journey back into the city was far less eventful than the trip out. On the way out, we had been bouncing all across the landscape, finding and freeing trapped and forgotten spirits. Now we were on a mission.
I returned to my house, a place so familiar to me, yet it seemed a different life. There were old memories here, things that had been so important to me then, meant nothing now.
I thought for a moment about the last time I had fallen in love. A beautiful girl had captured my heart. We dated for a time, before I knew that she was the one. I bought a ring, a pair actually. And drove to her house.
As I approached her home, I noticed an unusual number of emergency vehicles in the area. The seemed to be centered on her street. On her house.
I pulled up to the street, just in time to hear a gunshot ring out. The police that had been just standing there suddenly rushed forward, into the house. I didn't need to see anymore. Somehow I knew, she was dead.
I drove home in shock. How could she dead? We were to spend the rest of our lives together. It was then, in a brief moment of madness, I decided, if we could not be together in life. Then, in death, we would never part.
I placed my wedding band on my right hand, and committed suicide. Or tried anyway.
As my life left me, I stared into the pool of crimson forming in the sink, and I saw her face. A woman, somehow I knew she was bound. Somehow I knew that she was the one I was destined for.
I awoke in a hospital bed. Several months later, and many shrink visits later, I was deemed fit enough to rejoin the world. It was then I joined the army.
Soon after that, my little adventure here started up.
I was jolted out of my memories by a soft knock. CrazyFox was watching me, "You have a tangled past do you not?"
"More that you would care to hear."
She seemed saddened by that, "I am forever in your debt for freeing me. But each moment that we waste, The Dark grows stronger. If we are to act, it must be now. Before their forces can be mustered."
"I agree." I hesitated before asking, "do you know where we can find the Master?"
"Yes. He is not far. Let us go."
I donned the armor, and followed CrazyFox to the lair of the beast.
I was a short walk, he and I lived in the same subdivision. His house was a nondescript double story house. Two car garage, a well maintained yard out front. Had I not been led here, I never would have even suspected that within lived a madman.
I puzzled for a moment on how to enter, when CrazyFox managed to pick the lock and opened the door. As I crossed the threshold, I felt a soft tingle, like I had held my arm too close to a TV, only over my whole body.
CrazyFox must have felt it as well, she looked at me and said, "He will know we are here. We must be quick, his lab is in the basement."
Down a hall, through another door, a set of stairs, to one more door. As I drew close to this door, I felt evil rising off it like heat from a grill. I reached for the knob, and the door opened of it's own accord.
On the other side was a room that I can only describe as sadistic. Every imaginable piece of torture equipment was here, and all of it had blood on it.
In the center of the room was a man. Middle-aged, nondescript, the kind of person who you would never even see. Not someone worth a second look. As we entered--myself first, holding my blade before me--he grinned and spoke, "Ah, at long last the time has come. The final showdown between the Kitsune and The Dark. I can see that you are a man who knows how to use that. And I know that, were we to fight, neither of us would win. So I will offer you a deal, return the creature to me, and I will let you go free."
"Return her? How can I return that which I do not posses? And even if she were to rejoin you, you would only resume her torture, as well as continue to torture other creatures that do not deserve it. We may be evenly matched. I may die in this combat, but I will fight you till my dying breath. I will curse you with my last gasp. You owe a great deal to these creatures. I am here to collect." With that I took my stance, and prepared to fight.
He raised his hand, a dull glow began to form at his palm. Within seconds it was too bright to look at. "Very well then. If you will not give her to me, then I will take her."
It was almost too late I realized that his attack was not meant for me. At the last moment, he fired a bolt of energy at CrazyFox. The racing sphere of who-knows-what was faster than my eye could follow. I leapt anyway.
CrazyFox watched as the spell--meant for her, meant to once again bind her into the service of this foul man--was intercepted by Hantakitsu. Faster than she thought humans could move, he threw himself into the spell. A blinding flash of light filled the entire room.
His lifeless body hit the ground at her feet.
She looked up at the Master, tears streaming down her face, as she knelt to him. She placed her paw on his chest, knelt over his face and whispered in his ear, "We are meant to be. Together in eternity. I will find you, I will repay my debt to you by freeing you. I will. I love you."
She vanished, taking his body with her.
Neither CrazyFox, nor Hantakitsu were ever seen again.
Still the war rages.
