The First Memory

December 23rd

It was 3 days before Christmas for the folks in Star Fox. It was 9 a.m in the morning. Fox and Krystal slept inside the same room and both awakened to an odd noise. Thump! They heard something hitting the roof and then into the snow. Krystal was quite intrigued but also scared. "Fox? What was that?"

"I don't know dear, I'll go check it out." Fox tied his robe on and put on slippers. He left his room and saw that Marcus was the first to awaken. He had a strange look on his face. "Dad, what was that loud thumping noise I heard outside?"

"Well, Marcus, I'm going to have a look to see." Fox walked down the hallway to the front door. As he arrived he opened it up the front door and walked out. It was freezing cold outside for Fox as he shivered to keep warm. At the same time, it was snowing lightly. He saw someone hit the pile of snow in front of his yard. Strangely enough, it was a human with red fox ears. Fox has never seen a human or a human with fox ears. The human's ears were on top of his head and black colored hair. Fox quickly ran over to see if it was conscious.

The human barely had a pulse but his temperature was also drastically decreasing. "Oh gods, he's freezing to death!" Fox carried the human and brought him inside the house. He placed the human next to the fireplace and lit it up. "Krystal! I need your help!" Krystal rushed out of the room. Fox covered the cold human with blankets to warm his temperature back up.

"Krys, I need you to warm him up while I set up the fire." Fox was taking way too long with the fireplace.

"This cannot wait any longer, Fox". Krystal tried her hardest with her magic. "Fire!" She quickly lit up the fireplace. The human was slowly warming back up. Fox exhaled in relief, "Thank goodness for your magic, Krystal." The human's body was slowly thawing out.

"Get some more blankets, Krystal," Fox said.

"I'm on it." The two didn't want an innocent life to disappear in front of their eyes. Krystal wrapped up more blankets around the human. He was covered in blankets and had a stable temperature. He was finally able to talk.

"T-thank you," he spoke weakly and fell back to sleep. Fox made sure the fire was still going to keep the human warm.

Marcus came from the halls to check on Fox and Krystal. "Mother, Father, what is happening?"

Krystal spoke to Marcus. "It so happens that those myths about humans are actually true."

Fox answered back with a rebuttal. "If he is human, what about his ears. It's just like our own, fox ears." The human had red fox ears. They couldn't determine his species type. They assumed he was both human and fox. But it would be impossible as no one has ever encountered a human before. "Should we call for help?" Fox asked Krystal.

"I guess so, we don't have a clue as to what's going on."

Fox grabbed his cell phone and called for Slippy. Ring! Ring! Slippy answered his cellphone. "Good morning, Fox."

"Hey Slip, can you come down to my house immediately. Sorry to bother you and waste your time but this is really important."

"Ah, no problem, Fox. What's the problem?"

Fox sighed. "Krystal and I cannot identify the species of this person. It's either a human or a fox because of its ears."

"A human with fox ears, where have I heard this before? I'll be there shortly within an hour and I'll check on it."

"Alright thanks, Slippy." Fox hung up the phone.

An hour later,

Slippy and his wife, Amanda arrived at their house. "Hiya Fox, Krystal, and Marcus." They both greeted them all at once.

"Hey, Slippy and Amanda. So this is something crazy, come check him out for us." Fox explained about the human. Slippy and Amanda entered their household. Both toads witnessed the human with fox ears. He was sitting next to the fireplace warming his body up. Slippy couldn't believe his eyes. He pulled up a mythology database to identify the species. Slippy read the one about a kitsune.

"It says here that a human with fox ears is most likely a kitsune. A kitsune is a mythical creature that is capable of transforming into a fox species or into a human." Slippy mentioned that he knew humans were real, but a kitsune? That was is one rare sight to see with your own eyes.

"I don't understand," Krystal said. "How could something like this appear here in our world?"

Amanda answered back. "We just have to ask him ourselves." Amanda walked closer to the kitsune. "Excuse me, sir, can you tell us your name." She took the initiative to ask away if it were to get closer to their desired answer.

"Hello there, ma'am. My name is Kuro and what is your name?" He shook Amanda's hand and bow to her and towards the team as his polite manner.

"My name is Amanda Toad," she pointed towards Slippy, "That is Slippy, my husband." Slippy waved to Kuro. Then she pointed towards Fox, Krystal and Marcus. "Those two lovely foxes are Fox and Krystal McCloud and their son is Marcus McCloud."

"Ahh, nice to meet you guys." Kuro walked over to Fox. "I'm forever in your debt, thank you, Fox McCloud. You saved me from my impending doom from the cold frigid weather."

"It was nothing," Fox scratched his head. "Not to be rude, but where did you come from. Kuro was ever yet confused.

Kuro shrugged his shoulders. "I do not remember anything about my arrival. I must have forgotten everything before this day." It must be amnesia that has struck his mind. Kuro looked around the living room. Everything was decorated for the Christmas season. "Is it that time of the year, Christmas?" Kuro exclaimed about how much he loved Christmas.

Fox answered back. "Well, of course, Kuro." Kuro stood up and remove the blankets he had on to reveal his body. For a kitsune, he had multiple tails. Everyone saw three red colored tails behind him. Everyone looked at him very surprised and confused. Kuro stretched his body and also looked back in a confused gesture.

"Is there something bothering you guys?" Kuro asked as he wagged his three tails to warm them up. Fox looked at his tail and looked back. "How do you have so many tails?"

Slippy reread the mythology database again for kitsune. "A kitsune can have up to 9 tails, with each tail representing higher wisdom." Slippy continued reading about the age with the tails. "Each tail represents a hundred years of age." It was given that Kuro is at least 3 hundred years in age.

"I am pretty old you know, but I still look pretty young. I can also transform between human and fox. You guys want to see?" Despite not remembering his past, Kuro surely does remember his own powers. Everyone nodded in agreement, they wanted to see how his other form looked like. Kuro jumped and flipped into the air as his body glowed with a bright light. He landed back on the carpet floor with a brand new look.

Kuro was taller than Krystal but a bit shorter than Fox's height. "Here's my fox form, you guys." It was a surprise to see him in his human clothing despite being a different form. Kuro stood as a bipedal fox. At least his clothing was still intact. "That's odd, I'm usually on all fours, but this world's strange aura prevents that." It was strange that Kuro said that but that didn't matter right now.

Fox had a question for Kuro. "How come you remember this but not about your past?"

"I can only remember my powers, Fox." On Kuro's neck was his necklace that allowed his transformation. It was a red gemstone that glows whenever Kuro activates a certain something. "I do wish to have my memory return back to me. I don't know what I can do without it." Suddenly there was a doorbell ring from the front door.

"Let me check who that is," Fox said running to the door. "Coming!" Fox opened the door. Two strange masked men were armed with guns stood outside the door.

One of them shouted aggressively toward Fox as he aims his gun. "Hands In the air, this is a robbery!" Fox backed away slowly and stood in front of Krystal and Marcus to guard them.

"What are you guys doing?" Fox exclaimed.

"Nothing, we just hear to steal all your precious items. Now I want everyone to line up against the wall, all of you." Everyone had to listen and they lined up. All except for one, Kuro wasn't in sight. Marcus started to feel terrified. "Mother, I'm scared..." Krystal reassured Marcus to try and calm him down. She also noticed Kuro was missing but sensed his presence. "Where is he?" Krystal was able to track his location with her telepathy. Kuro was hiding in plain sight behind the couch and move swiftly and silently in his fox form. Krystal began to laugh maliciously to distract the armed robbers. It was to help Kuro with his counterattack strategy.

"What's so funny you little bitch." The first raider pointed at Krystal.

"It's the fact that you forgot one more person, Now Kuro!" On her command, Kuro jumped from hiding and dropped kick the first raider. The second raider tried to shoot Kuro but was unable to fire as Kuro was holding the first raider by his throat and shielding himself. The second raider had two choices, risk shooting his friend to shoot Kuro, or give up and drop the gun. Kuro reverted back to human form.

"What? A human?" The second guy exclaimed. "What's he doing here on Corneria?"

Kuro threw the first raider at the second raider. They both dropped their guns from strong impact. "Don't address me by those freaks, I'm a full born kitsune." Kuro picked up their guns and unloaded them. "Kitsune are smart and stronger than most people." He kicked both robbers in their stomachs. "Next time you mess with these folks, your lives will be mine." Fox got up and dialed for the cops.

"Alright, the police is on there way here, thanks a lot, Kuro." Fox, Slippy and Amanda thanked the kitsune for his brave act. Kuro commended Krystal for her smart thinking on the distraction. She was brave and yet so smart to even notice Kuro went missing. "You should thank Krystal for the nice distraction. Hmm, and how did you know where I was?"

Krystal acknowledged his compliment. "Thanks and I used my telepathy to detect your location. You see, I came from a world named Cerinia, the world of psionic powers." Kuro was surprised to see something like that actually exist.

His red eyes suddenly started to glowed mysteriously. "I see my first memory now." Krystal tapped into his mind to get a clue of his past. This is what she saw along with Kuro's vision.

A world full of kitsunes that were either fox or in human form. They were able to transform into a human with ease and deceit. Kuro was standing among his younger friends and family as a kitsune. He was tasked with guarding the younglings against danger. They lived in a world called, Kit, and it was a peaceful world until suddenly they were attacked. They were attacked by real humans who only wanted to steal their power for greed. Kitsunes were known for their wisdom and power as they aged. Kuro saw his other guardian friends being killed defending the citizens. It was also really easy for the humans to identify the kitsunes apart from their own by the foxy ears and tails.

"Those damn humans, who do they think they are?" Kuro took form into his fox form and fought back. He mainly prioritized and killed the humans who were attacking the younger folk. There were too many to take out on his own, his allies were decimated from the human's high technology. They had powerful weapons that quickly took out everything in sight. Kuro's new task was to save as many people as possible. He constantly changed his form from fox to human and human to fox. It started to take a major toll on his stamina and Kuro started to feel weaker. One of the humans spotted Kuro as he tried to escape with the last youngling. Kuro rushed over to the portal with the young kit and had him teleported out the world. It wasn't until Kuro tried to finally escape before getting knocked unconscious by a blunt object.

The memory ended there for Krystal as she could no longer see anything else. Krystal saw tears falling out Kuro's red eyes, it was a nightmare he remembered from that tragic day. "Kuro?" She called out.

Kuro's only words were, "I'm sorry." He couldn't contain his agony and had a deathly scream. It was a nightmare to remember. All of his friends had died, and his homeworld disappeared. Marcus felt bad for the poor guy. The young Marcus walked towards Kuro. He hugged Kuro to calm him down, just like when Krystal does to Marcus.

"It's okay, Mr. Kuro. There's no need to be sad anymore." Marcus' words were actually starting to calm Kuro's heart down. Kuro started to feel happier with Marcus' care. "We can always be friends, right?"

Kuro patted Marcus on his head. "Thanks young one, I really needed that hug to calm down." Krystal was proud of Marcus' kindness towards Kuro. "I guess this begins a fresh new memory."

Sealies: Happy Holidays you guys! This story will talk about a kitsune named Kuro as he regains his forgotten memories through the holiday spirit from Star Fox. There will be a chapter everyday until the 25th which is the last chapter day.