Title: Kitsune no Yume chapter 4
Rating for this chapter PG-13 for some violent imagery
Summary: Is Zuko the next in his family to fall into madness? Or is there something else afoot? Post Sozin's comet.
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The short legged tanuki ran up ahead as Zuko ducked under another low lying branch.
He wished he had his swords to cut through the tangled brush. "Where are we going?"
The tanuki ignored the question for a moment as it scrambled up a tree trunk to get a better view of the way ahead. "Finding Avatar Roku may take some time. You need a weapon. Ah!" With a deep breath, the tanuki leapt from the trunk. Zuko winced violently as he watched the spirit creature inflate its scrotum and parachute to a safe landing near a burrow. Ouch. Azula had always laughed at that part of the story.
The fat furry creature stuffed itself in to a small hole in the burrow, its rear half too plump to fit the remainder of the way. He could hear its muffled voice as it searched for something.
"No. No. No. Yes!" It backed out of the burrow hole with an audible pop. It produced a longbow as well as a quiver full of arrows that couldn't have possibly fit in the tiny space. It set the weapon down and backed away to distance himself from the protective barrier of the omamori.
Zuko fell to his knees to take the simple weapon with reverence. The bow was a yumi, strong, made of bamboo with simple leather thongs keeping the bowstring in place. The quiver held a dozen arrows longer than his arm's length. He stroked the arrows' fletching, made from jet black hawk feathers. As prince, he of course had some rudimentary archery training that all nobility had been required to study.
He had much preferred his dao.
"You didn't have to do all this." He glanced up at the suddenly bashful tanuki.
"For a long time, I've owed a great debt to Avatar Yangchen. It is a small thing for me to help save one of the Avatar's descendants now."
"Thank you," murmured Zuko. He rose and took up the bow and arrows, feeling better to have one tangible thing in this intangible place.
"Don't thank me yet. There is much to be done." The tanuki again bounded up ahead. It paused and cocked its head sideways. Zuko tried to discern what it was listening for. He scanned the tree line for any hint of danger.
She was here.
The fox was a silver blur as she threw herself at the tanuki . She landed on it and raked its fat belly with her claws. "Wretched creature! How dare you help this mortal? He is mine!"
Zuko quickly drew up his newly acquired weapon but couldn't trust himself to take a shot that would not hit the tanuki as well. He could not risk hurting the creature that had helped him and he was no Yu Yan archer.
The tanuki tried to transform in to a snake to slither away only to have the fox bite down on its jugular. The tanuki squealed and returned to its raccoon form, trying to staunch the flow of blood with its hands.
The fox turned her attention back to Zuko, ignoring the tanuki's struggles. On closer inspection it was obvious that the fox had not been doing well. Her coat was patchy and dull, great clumps of fur falling out all along her back. Blood dripped from her muzzle.
"Armed now? No matter," the fox panted. "Your family has bent to my will for generations now. I will see success here as well."
"What?" Zuko involuntarily stepped towards the fox. The fox whimpered as the barrier effect of the omamori touched her, but the tanuki cried out as it brushed that creature as well. Zuko jumped back.
"Sozin's line has been a great source of power to me for a century. Your sister was particularly difficult to deal with. We were allies for a time but her madness trapped me for a time. Her death freed me to move on to you. I could only get to your dreams at first," she taunted. "And now I've come for you.
Flashes of his dreams started to come back to him. You're never going to be alone again. A man paying a visit to a fox. A death sentence for the dragons. A terrible deal made that would cause death and destruction for countless people. That was all real? Zuko's stomach tightened in horror as he tried to wrap his mind around it. His anger began to crest but without his bending he didn't know how to handle it.
The fox closed her eyes and seemed to relish the waves of impotent rage that radiated from him. "You are so much more fun to play with than your father," she said, a chuckle in her voice.
Zuko's vision went white as he again readied the bow, this time taking a shot. The arrow went high missing both spirits by a narrow margin.
The fox sprung into the air and bounded off, her laughter echoing behind her. He drew out another arrow and, hands shaking, let loose another arrow as well as a cry of fury at her departing back. The arrow hit a branch uselessly as she leapt over both, making her escape.
He tried to calm himself. His face contorted with anger, then smoothed as he breathed deeply. He turned back to the bleeding tanuki. He had to help this thing that had helped him. He reached into his tunic and pulled out the omamori. He set it down and moved towards the injured spirit.
"No! Don't!" gasped the tanuki weakly. "She wants you to give up the omamori's protection."
"I can't just sit here and watch you…" Zuko began.
"Die?" It still had the strength to let out a laugh. "Nothing really dies in the spirit world. I'll be back in a century or two… right… as… rain…." The tanuki trailed off, took one final sigh and was still.
Zuko's face twisted up again but he had to press on. He returned the omamori to his tunic, grimly aware that it would no longer affected the tanuki. He touched the furry creature and was surprised to feel it begin to harden in to stone. He gathered up the tiny statue that the spirit had become and made his way back to the burrow. After setting the statue down carefully, on hands and knees, he dug out great handfuls of earth to widen the opening to the burrow. With no words, he gingerly placed the statue within it.
He sighed wearily and shielded his eyes from the light breaking through the canopy above. He settled the bow and arrow quiver across his back and headed towards a break in the forest.
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Sokka frowned as he slumped in the seat he had pulled up next to Iroh. "I can't believe all we're doing is waiting."
Toph shrugged. "What can we do? We can't go over to the spirit world until Twinkletoes gets here." She crossed her arms as she adjusted her position against the window sill.
Katara was studying Iroh's face, a picture of misery. She reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You can't keep blaming yourself for this."
Iroh finally spoke. "I regret deeply that Zuko must suffer for my failures." He reached for a handkerchief and blew his nose loudly. "My family made a deal with the devil long ago and he now has to pay for the evil done by others. "
"The kitsune," Katara guessed. Sokka sat up in his chair to listen.
Iroh nodded. " Sozin had thought to use the kitsune to conquer the other nations without interference from the Avatar. The kitsune used him to relish in death and destruction. He saw no shame in this spirit coaxing the Fire Nation to war. Neither did my father, Azulon. As the crown was passed on, so too was the cursed spirit. When it was my turn, though I was first born I had little desire to take the crown from my father. I kept myself away from the palace as much as I could, throwing myself into battle to stay away at all costs. While I was away the spirit made her choice on which son would be the true successor."
"She picked Ozai?" Katara prompted again.
"Yes," rumbled Iroh. "Ozai had always been ruthless. With the help of the kitsune, he began to lean towards madness. After Ozai became Firelord and I returned from Ba Sing Se, I vowed to try and break the curse." He paused. "I traveled to the spirit world to find a way to destroy the kitsune."
"You what?!?" gasped Sokka as Toph brusquely talked over him to ask "How did you do that?"
"I had the Fire Sages open a gateway for me during a summer solstice. I hoped that would give me more strength to succeed." He looked down at his hands. "It did not."
"I learned much in my time there, but I did not have the proper tools to hunt the kitsune. I returned to the mortal realm and discovered that it had already moved on to Azula." He stretched the handkerchief between his hands. "I could not bear the thought of harming a child." He sniffed loudly. "Now it has moved on to Zuko and I have failed yet again."
"No!" Sokka rose from his chair and pointed a finger at Iroh. "You know Zuko! I bet he's fighting that thing with everything he's got! You can't give up on him!"
Iroh stared stonily at Zuko's sleeping face. "The kitsune is too strong. I must stop this curse once and for all."
Toph's sightless eyes widened as she felt Iroh's heart beat faster with his words. She shoved herself away from the wall, firmly rooting herself to the ground in front of Iroh's chair "What do you think you're going to do, old man?" she said threateningly.
Iroh's face crumbled. "Zuko would never stand for living as a shell, the puppet of another being. If the Avatar cannot help him… "
He drew a ragged breath and started again. "If the kitsune defeats Zuko in the spirit world, then I will destroy them both here in the mortal world."
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A/N: My apologies for stealing so much from Japanese and Chinese mythology. My apologies again if I have butchered anything. The story uses a mishmash of different beliefs. Thanks for playing along.
P.S. Yes the tanuki do in fact have giant magic testicles that children sing about in playground songs.