Please take the time to read the Author's Note at the end. I do not own Kamisama Hajimemashita.


He was not a nine-tailed fox.

From birth, he was white, with violet eyes. Abnormal, even for a wild fox demon.

Only a fox that has lived nine hundred years or more can have white fur and still be considered 'normal'.

He was too young to remember the pity-kindness his family originally bestowed upon him, their frail second son. Children like him—pale children, with light eyes—were often delicate, frequently blind, and sometimes deaf. But he did not seem otherwise deformed—indeed, he was quite beautiful in a strange way. He cried loudly enough, nursed eagerly enough, and seemed to see and hear and smell as well as any other kit. So his mother had kept him.

In any case, they already had an heir, and he—pale, fragile, beautiful—would make a pleasant companion, if perhaps not a capable one. He would be a friend, a blessing. He would be Tomoe.

Which wasn't necessarily bad for the family. It was seldom a strife-less affair in the event that a younger son overshadowed the eldest.

He was too young to remember their surprise when, instead of failing to thrive, he flourished. He was too young to remember, but not too young to perceive their alarm at the strength of his fox-fire, nor the odd looks he received from visitors to the fox mansion.

He was not too young to realize why they stared, or be made uncomfortable by it.

He was not too young to remember when his brother—a stout young fox with acceptable powers for his age—grew angry when he discovered that little Tomoe had managed to cast an illusion on his violet eyes, making them appear a more normal amber. He was not yet old enough to understand that the taunt of 'freak' and the shredded leaf were symptoms of frustration and envy in an older sibling who struggled with enchantments.

He was just old enough to remember the deepening chill of the fox mansion, the resentment and fear that he'd done nothing to deserve.

He was just old enough to remember when his father abandoned him in the mountains with nothing but his name, his natural abilities, and a growing hatred for those who showed him fear.


A/N: Just a drabble, inspired by the debate over Tomoe's eye color. Are they gray, blue, violet, brown, or gold? After doing a tally of Japanese cover illustrations, I realized that most of them depicted him with blue-gray to violet eyes, beating gold by a smidgen . Then I started to wonder, "do white foxes with blue eyes even exist?" After more research, the short answer is 'yes'. The long answer is that, although fur farms breed all sorts of variations,, wild foxes with this coloration are all either albinistic or leucistic (similar to albinism but more flexible and with fewer additional health problems, often misrepresented as 'partial albinism'. Look it up if you're interested, but be prepared to be confused). Then I went digging through kitsune mythology...and, well, here's the result.

Depending on reader response (and if my muse ever deigns to drop in again), I might do more chapters-I feel like there might be a longer story here somewhere. Please review, especially if you spot something...off kilter.

With Love,

~Lanta

P.S. Counter to rumor, not all albinos have pink eyes (though depending on the type of albinism they have, most suffer from vision problems). Depending on how much melanin they are able to produce, humans with albinism may have light blue, gray, pink, or violet (yes, Tomoe violet) eyes. Incidentally, albino red foxes are in the same boat.