Chapter 2- Prelude to the Rising

I’m SOOO sorry guys, I honestly thought I could put out a bit more in  shorter time but AP Exams have flanked me and shown me my place in the world. I don’t plan on being so morbidly off schedule again but for the next few weeks its gonna be hard to promise I won’t.

Anywho, this is the latest chapter of Youko Advent, more characters, more setting, less questions answered~ A Fiesta of emotional backdrops that you all so dearly love.

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“What is justice?”  The man in front of me shouts in his usual “filled-to-the-brim-with-passion” tone,  his disgust with me was hardly noticeable over his generally grim  visage. A tall, stout man with hair of braided fire, fox ears drooping over his head as if to say that the exertion from standing up isn’t worth the result. His body is built as strong as his namesake, Tera, implies. He’s been my martial arts instructor for the past two years due to an order from the “brass.”

 

“Doing what is right for the greater good and protecting the weak,” I reply the same as always, with a heart full of conviction and my face bracing for the impact that was sure to come.

 

“You Idiot, the only REAL justice is strength, what’s the use of trying to protect the weak if you yourself are weak? What gives you the right to fight for the greater good when that very notion is set by those in power, the mighty!?” My teacher shakes his head, he always does, we have this same conversation each day, the same stupid back and forth.

Yeah, it must have all started on that day five years ago, the day I became the clan’s most notable failure in our three centuries of existence. The ONLY Foxkin in history to be born without a single tail, and of all things he, or rather I, just had to be born as a Moonlit God Chaser, the most respected clan of Foxkin, the direct descendants of the God of Canines, Kasha. Well, that’s not entirely true, there have been cases of children born from fox-clans and not having any tails, but among all of them not even ONE was actually born INTO a fox-clan, in other words the children born without tails weren’t foxes in the first place

 

These five years of my reborn life can be described perfectly by the saying “hushed tones, loud children.” While it is true that for the most part adults paid me no mind, that doesn’t mean that they had no opinions on me. What the parents couldn’t say in public their children certainly would, “You’re nothing but a worthless mutt.” “Useless child of a lesser demon.” and the ever original “Trash.” Constant verbal assaults like this would have crippled the mind of any ordinary child, but I’m not an ordinary child. I know that all they’re doing is goading me, and since I’m too weak to fight back on equal terms, I’ll just wait until I am strong enough.

 

“Rune,” my teacher shouts to me, forcing me to attention, “today we’ll practice using spears.” He finishes curtly, adhering strictly to the unspoken law that warriors conversed solely with their blades, which would make a lot of sense if he wasn’t the martial arts instructor of myself, Rune Lyfen, the five year old.

The blade whistles boldly past my ear, “HALF A STEP TO THE LEFT AND I WOULD’VE CLEAVED YOUR HEAD OFF WHEREAREYOUREYES,” Tera shouts, not halting the flow of his spear. Short range, mid-range, long-range are all his to command, if an area could be passed on the blade’s endless revolution then it is his to control. I am part of his sphere of influence, just a millimeter too far, just a breathe to quick, and I’ll die. The worst part of this was that his excellent control of the weapon means that I’ll suffer before I get any real injuries.

 

I swing wide, revealing a gap in my stance, which he easily takes as an opportunity to strike. A stab. I saw the strike coming, I begged for it, I knew the timing of this strike, Teacher’s all out thrust. I dig my pivot foot into the ground, tucking my own spear into my side, side stepping into his strike. With just a glance he understands my tactic, calling out his tails, four blazing red apparitions, from his Astral Haven in an instantaneous flash of Azure light. Two were used to cover my eyes, leaving me blind as his other two wrap around my legs like snakes and trap my movements. One. Two. Three strikes from his spear, a stab to the gut, and two strikes to the side with force enough to shake my bones. Unable to take the pain I slowly felt my consciousness fade.

The faint scent of flowering quince, sweet, flowery, wispy wafts through my mind, the complete overhaul of thoughts in this soundless horizon engulf my mind. Light scatters, in the darkness I see a scene, a memory of time passed. That day, five long years ago, where the useless I was became a slave to the whims of others in this life as well. Those thin floors in the spacious 14 tatami room, the five “Kitsune Elders,” my mother, and I.  An out of body recollection.

 

“Dost thou breach our proud lineage with the blood of a MUTT!?” The “Elder” farthest away from us raised her voice. Based solely on appearance she would appear to be the last person one would normally associate with the term “elder,” she was at most 130 cm tall (4’3”) with starlight silver hair, her bangs were pulled off to the side of her head, framing it like a tiara as the rest of her luscious locks fell past the small of her delicate back. Her eyes raised a furious lilac trail matched with the intensity of her ear’s frantic flickering of anger. If she didn’t seem utterly furious or if she didn’t speak in an extremely outdated tongue, I’d have seen her as nothing more than a little girl.

 

My mother was quiet with indignance, the air around her grew cold forming frosty mist but in an instant returned to its natural state. “You will not harm my child,” was written plainly on her face.

 

“Umi, thou shan’t cover thy disgrace with this mask of ineptitude,” she spoke once more, this time the annoyance that stained her voice earlier seemed to radiate from her entire body, a dazzling gleam of light erupted from her body, in the time it took for me to take even a single breath eight glamorous steel colored tails with tips of fine gold were visible behind her.

 

“Thou hast left us cursed with a forwardness the likes of which death clears not.  We cannot have such a pitiful youth represent us, nay, or thy clan’s seventeen century long rule over this land hast been scattered to the wind. Such would give light only to a lack of power. What say thou doest? For tis not impossible for us, now, to hold a claim over this dominion? And though we  We cannot have such a pitiful child represent us, nay for so long, the competition is but fifteen short revolutions from now. ” The elder looked at me for a moment bridled with rage so hot her gaze threatened to turn me to ash.

 

“Elder Shiki, perhaps you are looking at this problem from the wrong direction; that child, Rune, doesn’t have any tails, but isn’t it true that our tails in themselves are mere supplementum to our mystical abilities? It is still possible for him to fight in the upcoming competition.” A second elder spoke up, among all of the people I’d seen since having been born, he was the most befitting of the term “fox.” He was a generally young looking man, the kind that wouldn’t look out of the ordinary at a college campus, like the other four elders he had a head full of silver hair and eyes that were a piercing violet, but unlike the others whose expressions were a mix calm judgement and solemn sternness he alone had a smile on his face,  the delighted eyes of a child flashed remarkably on him.

 

“Oh, and how is this disgrace going to lead us to victory?” The elder seated towards the middle of the group raised his voice, he was the eldest looking by far, what was glittering silver hair on the four others was a bleached white on him. Unlike the others whose bodies favored sleekness, his body was a hulking mass of muscle, expertly crafted from what could have been eons of training and experience.

 

“It’s quite simple Boqin… we engrave battle into his very body.”

 

The air around my mother shimmered as she summoned her tails and unconsciously used them to cover me. The corner of her eyes showed a sapphire tear but it was hidden behind the sternness of her features as he continued.

 

“Ah, rest, Umi, you know this is for the best, don’t you?” His voice was a light, provoking jeer, a voice strewn with lies and yet held just enough truth for one to be unable to claim him a liar in earnest.

 

The vision faded, the rewound time vanishing cracks in history becoming full.

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