The Nine Tails Saga: Side Stories

Ichiro the Killer

A/N: This story takes place in a universe where Ichiro is a kitsune, and Kumiko is a mortal woman.

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They first met each other in early spring. O-kumi was a girl whose noble birth no longer meant anything after the death of her parents, and Ichiro was a kitsune who had grown tired of living in the shadow of his elders.

He'd sought the cover of the forest to train in peace, but the desperate cries of a young woman had made it impossible. He followed the sound until he came upon a group of bandits laughing and jeering while their leader forced himself on the struggling girl they had captured.

Ichiro flew into a rage and rushed headlong into a fight with the bandits, inflicting wounds so grievous that many of them may as well have been dead when he approached the girl and held out his blood-soaked hand.

"Don't be afraid," he said softly as her large eyes stared at him with awe and fear. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to make sure you're safe..."

The girl swallowed before slowly rising to her feet. Ichiro blinked as it finally occurred to him how beautiful she was. Her skin was smooth and fair, and the mere flutter of her lashes was enough to leave him entranced.

"What are you?" The girl asked while pressing her hand against a nearby tree trunk for support. "No man should be able to fight the way you do."

Ichiro glanced at the bandit whose throat he had torn open earlier. "Something older than you can imagine. Stay by my side, and I will show you wonders aplenty."

"I suppose I have no choice," the girl uttered in resignation after some moments of thought. "There is nowhere else I can go and nothing else to live for."

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Ichiro and O-kumi bonded a little more with each passing day, eventually falling in love with each other. They spent many nights expressing their passion together in bed until it became clear from O-kumi's swelling belly that she was with child. Ichiro felt overjoyed to know that he would soon be a father, yet a part of him also feared that a half-human child would be looked down upon by pure-blooded kitsune.

As a result, Ichiro decided that it would be best to keep the child's identity a secret from the rest of his kind. He spent the coming months anticipating a peaceful life with his wife and their newborn baby, but little did he know the tragedy that would befall him.

O-kumi's health declined more and more until her body could no longer accommodate the offspring within. She went into labor earlier than expected, and her contractions proved so strong that she screamed like a dying animal while blood flowed from between her legs.

Ichiro ran in distress to find the local midwife, but by the time he brought the old woman back to his house, O-kumi had already ceased to move. With a pounding heart, Ichiro trudged across the red floor and took his dying wife in his arms. She barely responded as tears rolled down his face, and he begged her not to give up.

"O-kumi, stay with me, please. I love you..."

"Ichiro, I'm sorry..."

O-kumi's hands fell limp, but Ichiro could not bring himself to let go, even as the midwife tried to pull him away. Eventually, the old woman gave up and left him alone to grieve deep into the night and for much of the following day.

******

Ichiro became cold-hearted for many years afterward. The country of Japan was reunited, and more than two centuries of isolation followed. His seniors, Harue and Sora, ascended to heaven just like the others, leaving him as perhaps the last remaining kitsune on Earth.