Finding where the little fox is supposed to be isn't hard.

I have a map, and a schedule after all.

Unfortunately, I'm not the first one to find her. The classroom she's supposed to be in is made of polished wood, antique furniture, and rice paper windows that match the hallways outside. What doesn't match is the state of the room, wall hangings pulled down, desks overturned, several chairs smashed, and small char marks where something hot, like foxfire, had impacted the polished wooden walls and floor. The tutor, a kind of Japanese spirit known for handing out information on dark mystic influences, has been cut apart and left in a puddle of blood on the floor.

The blood is still fresh though, so they hadn't died too long ago. So the kidnappers can't have gotten too far. I step out of the classroom, and start down the hallway. The kidnappers haven't gone the direction I'd come from, so they had to have left the other way.

The problem would come when I have more than two directions to choose from.

I jog down the hallway, looking for any more signs that the kidnappers and little kitsune had come this way, and quickly enough that problem appeared. The hallway I'm in dead ends into a T intersection. I grit my teeth in frustration, every moment I'm delayed makes finding the little fox that much less likely.

My first attempt to figure out which way to go is sniffing the air. Though I can smell fear, anger, feathers, something I recognize from the throne room which I assume is fox, and something else I don't recognize, I still haven't figured out how dogs can get direction out of this mess.

Listening is my second try, but I can't hear anything either, which doesn't honestly surprise me.

That would have been too easy.

Finally, without much hope, I check my mana senses. A moment later a small smile curls my lips, and I head a few feet down the left hallway. I don't sense anything about Kunou or her kidnappers, but I do sense something else that will probably help.

The walls of the palace are covered with decorations. Portraits, paintings, wall hangings, and the occasional antique chair or bench, among other things line the hallways and fill almost every room. What has attracted my attention is a mirror. For some reason, in Japan there's a phenomenon where inanimate objects could, through a process that as far as I know nobody understood, gather mana, magic, whatever happens to be the energy of choice. When they gather enough, these objects would gain sentience and some minor shapeshifting. They would grow eyes, move independently, some could even communicate. Most are kinda cute, but there are also some that delight in ruining your day, one way or another.

This mirror has way too much mana to be just a simple object. Usually nobody thinks about the furniture when they're trying to hide, hopefully that's true this time as well, and just maybe the little spirits will come through for me again.

After standing in front of the mirror for a moment, my reflection reaches up and pulls down the hood and mask of her armor. Under the hood is my face, if I had horns, tusks, red skin, and generally looked mildly horrifying.

I smile, "Good one." I tell my reflection, "Kind of a cliche though."

My reflection narrows its eyes at me.

The horns and tusks retract, and the reflection's skin tone goes from a bright blood red, to a deathly pale. All my hair falls out, which is the most alarming thing I've seen so far, I like my hair, and is replaced by a grid of pins that covers my head and face.

I shrug, "Never saw that one."

My reflection snaps her fingers in disappointment.

"Sorry, look I'd love to stay and play with you for a while, but I'm in a hurry. Kunou, Yasaka's kid, has been kidnapped..."

My reflection slaps both hands to her cheeks, and all the flesh on her face rots away to expose bone, as her jaw unhinges into a horrifying scream.

"Yeah, exactly. I need to catch up to them, did you see them go by here? There would have been at least one Tengu, probably a guard, and something else with her."

My reflection snaps back to normal, and taps her bottom lip thinking for a moment. Then her hair grows even longer than mine, and stringy, hanging in lank clumps covering her face. She reaches down out of sight, and picks up a struggling sack, throws it over her shoulder, and starts pretending to walk to the right.

I grin, "They have her in a sack and headed that way?" I double check, and point down the turn of the intersection of hallways I hadn't taken.

My reflection nods.

"Thanks little friend."

My image in the mirror snaps back to the red skinned, horned and tusked look, and glares at me, planting her fists on her hips.

"Sorry, I guess while you're reflecting me you're not really little are you?"

My reflection nods satisfied and shoos me off.

That was a nice mirror.

...My life took a very strange turn somewhere, for that to be a completely reasonable sentence.

###

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are a lot of little spirits in the Yokai palace. Most of them have heard of me, and are helpful, like the spirit that looks like a little boy with a bright red face and a bowl cut. He was hiding in a linen closet, and I needed to promise him a bowl of milk to get him to stop giggling and throwing rice at me and answer my questions. That's about par for the course with the more mercurial little spirits, though.

The talking paper lantern that looked like a disembodied head was less helpful. I resorted to threatening to dunk him in a nearby pond, to get him to stop hitting on me long enough to tell me what he'd seen.

That ends up being the last bit of direction I need, though.

The directions the little spirits give me leads outside, the lantern is hanging on the outside of an exposed wooden walkway that faces out onto the palace gardens. The morning sun cast everything in an ethereal light, making the trees, lawns, water features and flower beds look peaceful and idyllic.

I would have believed the image presented, except that the lantern, once I managed to drag answers out of him, pointed me out into the gardens as the direction Kunou has been taken. So I start off down the garden paths, trying to find a good compromise between haste and caution. Kunou is still moving away from me, but out in the open there are a lot more choices as to where they might have gone. Taking off at a dead sprint in the wrong direction would be at least as bad as never catching up to them. My hearing though, in the more open environment, makes the entire concern moot.

Foxes, kits especially, can make the most god awful screeching noise imaginable. In terms of cringe factor, it's right up there with pissed off cockatoos and nails on a chalkboard. It also carries fairly well, and makes said fox really easy to find.

I start hearing the noise moments after the palace, and the annoying lantern, are out of sight, and immediately take off after the sound at a sprint. I hurtle over a row of rose bushes, and nearly lose my footing on the gravel path that's on the other side. Another leap takes me over a stream alongside the path, and lands me in a well cared for flower bed. I cringe momentarily, hearing my mother's voice in my head telling me off as I run through the delicate decorative flowers, no doubt trampling an unknowable number of plants as I go.

It's all worth it though when I vault over a hedge, and land in an open field of grass surrounded by more flower beds, rows of cherry trees, and an open pagoda on the far side of the well manicured lawn.

Halfway across the field is exactly what I'm looking for. A Tengu guard in armor, walking alongside a hunched figure carrying a sack. The figure holding the sack is dressed in a brief shift made of rags, their hair is long and lank, falling in long greasy ropes that cover most of their face. Their nose is large and bulbous, splitting the curtain of oily hair enough to expose the glint of eye shine, and a wide mouth full of rotted crooked teeth framed by dry cracked lips. They're large, but even so their arms and legs are long all out of proportion to their size. When they stop moving, their knees are even with the top of their head and when they walk their legs never fully straighten giving them an oddly smooth gait. Their arms are at least as long, and covered in ash grey flesh that seems to have the consistency of old leather.

I'm not exactly subtle coming over the hedge, both of the Yokai turn to look at me as I land. I start towards them as soon as my feet hit the ground, anger radiating from every step. The long limbed one with the thrashing sack looks down at the Tengu, and points at me with a long finger tipped by a thick, jagged, yellow nail and makes a bubbling warble that apparently doesn't mean anything, since all I hear is noise.

The Tengu seems to extract some meaning from it though, and steps forward murmuring, "Yeah, I got it. Just keep going," to their partner, before raising their voice to talk to me, "I don't suppose I could convince you to just walk away, and pretend you didn't see anything?"

"HELP!" the sack screams while continuing to thrash, "My mommy is gonna set you all on fire! Let me go!"

I don't bother breaking stride, and the Tengu sighs, "Yeah, I didn't think so." The other Yokai turns back the direction they were heading, and keeps going. The traitor guard draws their sword, and sets themselves to fight me.

A fight which I'm not very enthusiastic about.

I'd barely won my last fight with a Tengu, and then only because they hadn't found a way through my armor. Flinging them for distance won't work, there are no convenient walls to slam them into, and just tossing them away only delays the problem. Launching them up won't work either, Tengu have wings so the fall probably wouldn't bother them. The more uncertain terrain will probably lead to the guard being more aware of their footing, so I'm not sure how well my 'yanking on their foot' trick will work here.

Fortunately I've trained in a lot of different styles of combat, I just need to pick one where sword skill matters less, and my advantages matter more.

I break into a sprint, and a few yards away from them I appear to vanish, I'm not here.

My disappearance throws the guard. I can't really focus enough to try and hit someone while also being invisible, so I don't. Instead I just don't stop. Right before I run into them, I snap my mental bow string, dropping my glamor, and pull their back foot out to the side.

The Tengu guard stands maybe five foot five, and weighs, I guess a hundred and sixty pounds. Maybe less given how birds work. They're wearing full body armor, made out of next generation ultra light super materials, that are probably enchanted to be even lighter, so they can fly with it.

I, on the other hand, am six feet and three inches of troll bone and muscle, wearing full plate armor, made out of fae metal that's enchanted to only be light to me, and by the time I reach the Tengu if I'm not going freeway speeds I'm close.

I drop my shoulder, letting the guard's sword scrape across my pauldron. It speaks to how ridiculous Tengu are, with only seconds to respond the guard starts trying to move to the side, recover their footing, and counter attack.

Not that it matters.

I hit the Tengu like the proverbial truck. A wet popping sound I recognize as breaking ribs fills my ears as I manage to lift and carry the Tengu a good three steps, before both of us crash to the ground. My tackle is sloppy as hell, my shoulder is nowhere near their solar plexus, which is where it should have been. Instead I land on my side next to them. Before I even finish hitting the ground, I'm scrambling for the other prone figure landing next to me.

I get to them first, likely due to their ribs having made a sound like popcorn not moments ago.

I fling myself into a mounted position, and fire four punches into the Tengu's face like falling hammers. This seems to shock them into action, which is not the intended effect. They kept a hold of their sword through all of this, which is impressive really, and manage to half flail, half swing it, one armed, at my head.

It would have just bounced off my hood, but I block it forearm to forearm. Smoothly wrapping my arm around theirs, I roll to that side slinging a leg over their head landing them in a text book arm bar. A flex of my body, and their sword arm snaps at the elbow. Using the broken arm as a lever I roll the guard onto their stomach, and planted a foot on their back. With a jerk their shoulder pops out of its socket, finally making them drop their sword.

I hesitate for a moment. Chances are that if I leave the guard like this, they'll grab their sword, and come after me left handed. Which is a fight I'll probably still lose.

Fuck it, they're all going to be executed anyway.

I pull my athame free, and drive it into the back of the guards neck, through the gap between their helmet and the collar of their armor. Making sure in that moment I focus on the Tengu's sword talent.

The athame flares to life, the guard's talent is ripped free and flows along my tattoos to settle in my soul. I don't really have time to think about what I'd just gained through, talent won't make much of a difference immediately anyway.

I look up from the fresh corpse, just in time to see the sack Kunou is trapped in vanish around the pagoda at the edge of the gardens. I ruin the lawn by digging my foot into the soft ground, and using it like a sprinter's block to take off after them.

###

Coming around the pagoda, I'm confronted with a tree line that's presence seems off to me in a way I'm not going to bother analyzing at the moment. The kid is more important. With that thought I plunged into the Yokai forest for the second time, and for the first time without a guide.

I noted earlier that the Yokai forest, for all that they've tried, isn't nearly as eldritch or confusing as Faerie is. Trying to find my way through the trees though, it becomes abundantly clear that Faerie is a really high bar, and 'not as confusing as Faerie' still leaves plenty of room to really screw with somebody.

The sun is well in the sky, the day having solidly moved to mid morning. There's no mist, or deep shadows, only sun dappled ground and the soft sound of birds. Which doesn't stop the forest from being profoundly unnerving anyway. How it manages that I have no idea, but my bet would be that it has something to do with how the manipulation of space in the forest messes with my bat granted sonar. Nothing really matches up with what my eyes are telling me. Distances change without warning, and moving in a direction doesn't always mean you've actually moved in that direction.

I'm just glad it doesn't leave me carsick.

Still, I pursue the kidnapper through the trees, through a combination of tracking where the bird song isn't, and following their scent trail. I still can't track like the bloodhound, I took my sense of smell from, but any time the smell of panicked fox disappears I know that I've missed something, so I can double back and try again.

It works.

Mostly.

Enough.

At least it does until the trees abruptly stop. In front of me is a well lit clearing full of long grass, wild flowers, and the occasional large rock. It vaguely reminds me of the 'clearing' I found the Sidhe in, a thought that leads to me suppressing a shudder.

Focus on now, Ericka.

In the center of all of this is a very dead tree. The tree had been struck by lightning at some point, and since then all of its branches have been broken off. Now it's a single straight skeletal finger pointing towards the sky, the grey color of truly old, dead wood.

Hanging from one of the branch stubs is what looks like a rough spun brown sack. The sack thrashes and screams, "Mommy! Mommy help! I want to go home!"

Hearing the little girl begging for her mother is honestly heart wrenching. Which is why I hold very still, and make no moves towards the obvious bait. Apparently the bag man... woman... monster thing... Yokai, has decided that they won't be able to get away from me. Which is gratifying, I didn't think that I'd managed to stay that close to them. So instead, they're going to try and bait me into rushing into what's definitely an ambush. Hell, for all I know Kunou isn't even really in that sack. I don't recognize the thing that ran off with her, I have no idea what powers it might have.

I'll just have to trust my senses, and do what I can to screw with their plan.

I pull my glamor around me, and vanished from the world. I won't be able to keep it up once I do something with the sack, but maybe my appearing out of nowhere will throw my opponent somehow. And really, I'm about to get into a fight, I'm particularly concerned about how much mana I'm burning to stay out of sight.

I make a beeline for the tree and the sack, trusting my glamor to cover up any incidental evidence of my presence. I do a lap of the dead tree, just to make sure that there isn't anything waiting for me on the other side, or a bear trap right under the sack or something.

There isn't.

There isn't anything to indicate that what I'm looking at is anything other than what it looked like, which honestly makes me even more nervous. There's a trap here somewhere but I can't see it.

Yet.

Still I run out of places to look, and my glamor isn't going to last much longer.

I pull my athame and, while keeping an ear on my surroundings, cut the sack down. It hits the ground with a thump and squeak, and it only takes me another moment to pull the sack open to reveal a miserable looking tear stained face.

The little girl is nine or ten years old at the most, younger than I thought she was. She's dressed in the shrine maiden get up that she'd been wearing in the picture of her I saw in Cao Cao's warehouse. Giant blond fox ears had drooped out to either side of her head, and she stares up at me with huge golden tear filled eyes. The two together paint the perfect image of the world's saddest fox kit.

Which is fair, she has just been kidnapped.

"You're not mommy." Brilliant deduction, tiny child.

"No, I'm not." I reach down and lift her to her feet, then straighten as she stares up at me with suspicious eyes.

"Then who are you?" She demands, doing her best to not look like the scared child she is. It's kinda cute.

"My name's Ericka. I was in a meeting with your mother when all of this kicked off. I had the easiest time getting here so I came for you." The girl doesn't seem convinced, but I'm honestly not paying that much attention to her.

Behind me, one of the rocks I noticed earlier stands up and turns into the lanky, long limbed kidnapper I've been chasing. They somehow managed to make themselves indistinguishable from the rest of the stones littered around, a trick I'd love to have explained to me. They were probably hiding there intending to ambush me when I rushed to rescue Kunou.

Now though, they have to deal with both me, and their target free and mobile.

I refocus on the girl in front of me. Whatever else she is, the girl isn't oblivious. She's staring past me at her kidnapper monster, her eyes wide and body trembling.

"Hey, kid." I softly try to get her attention, but she seems completely out of it, "Kunou." I try again, and still get nothing. With a sigh, I step in between the girl and the Yokai that's slowly and quietly stalking towards us, trying to make the motion look casual. Apparently they're unaware that they've already been made, and I'd like to keep it that way. With my body blocking the kit's view of the kidnapper, her eyes snapped up to... to the empty hood talking to her. My armor is all kinds of awesome, but it's not really great for public relations. Normally I'd lower the hood, or at least the mask, to try and set her at ease, but right now though I have an enemy 'sneaking' up behind me. I'm not about to take my 'helmet' off. The kid is just going to have to deal, "Can you navigate the forest on your own?"

She nods, and whispers, "Yes."

"Good. I'm going to keep that thing busy. When I've got it good and occupied, you go around the fight and make your way back to the palace. Once you get there, hide. Hide and don't stop hiding for anybody but me, your mom, or Mia. You know who that is right?"

Mia seems to know the girl personally, so I'm hoping that it isn't just from some kind of, watching from afar body guarding thing, and they've actually interacted.

Gratifyingly the girl nods, "Yes." She keeps her voice low, which all things considered is probably a good idea.

I nod and move around the girl and step up to the tree. With a loud crack I kick the base of the tree, knocking it's remaining long dead roots somewhat loose in the ground. Female trolls, tend to settle any arguments they might have, by ripping trees out of the ground and bludgeoning each other with them. I'm not twelve feet tall, thankfully, and so not really as strong as a troll, yet. I can manage a tree that's been dead for a while though.

And really, I've been wanting to do something like this since I got my strength.

I dig my gauntleted fingers into the dry wood, and with a heave I pull the dead tree out of the loosened ground, holding it over my head. Turning I face the kidnapper Yokai, who's shocked expression is visible even through their curtain of greasy hair. With a shout of effort I throw the tree at them.

The tree flys a good three or four yards, before hitting the ground and bouncing. Having largely been reduced to a straight pole the tree rolls quite well. The Yokai, despite seeming shocked at my action, takes it largely in stride. They unfolded their long legs, straighten their back, and launch themselves upward over my arboreal missile.

I was hoping that the tree would hit them, but I'm not really counting on it.

A quickly drawn back mental bow string launches the already airborne Yokai back into the tree line. I pause long enough to look back down at Kunou, "Wait until I find them and start the fight. Give it a count of ten for me to really get their attention then...?"

"I run back to the palace and hide and don't come out for anybody but Mia or Mom."

I notice she hadn't said she'd come out for me, but I can't really fault her for that, "Good enough." There's a crash as the tree I threw hits the tree line quite literally.

It's a good enough starting bell for me.

I sprint in the direction I launched the Yokai in, and moments later fling myself over my arboreal projectile, and into the trees. I can see where the Yokai landed easily enough, several broken branches and a shallow furrow carved into the loam show that clearly.

Of the Yokai itself though, I can't see a thing. Which isn't to say it's successfully hiding. Whatever else this particular monster is, it's an ambush predator. So far every time it's been forced into a confrontation, it's tried to strike at me from hiding. The ambush in the clearing would have worked, if not for my own invisibility and paranoia. However, whatever the Yokai evolved to hunt, humans at a bet, must be significantly sight dominant. Because, while I can't see her, my ears had absolutely no problem tracking her.

Also, body shape says, definitely female.

Also also, I really wish brain bleach was a thing.

So glad I don't have a perfect memory... yet...

Note to self, add perfect memory to the list later.

The Yokai is darting from tree to tree staying in my blind spots, of which, thanks to my hood, I have many. I move carefully to the end of the Yokai's landing scar, which coincidentally also moves me into her ambush zone.

As I reach the end of the line of churned earth, thick yellow nails slam into my hood with, judging from the amount of mana I gain, sufficient force to puncture a more conventional armor. The thin cloth of my hood doesn't even twitch though, and I draw and swing Sclamhaire faster than I ever have before... and still managed to miss.

The Yokai hasn't actually moved from behind it's cover. It's freakishly long arm reached around the tree without it having to move, and retracted just as quickly. I lung at the tree the kidnapper is hiding behind, swinging Sclamhaire horizontally with both hands. My wonderful sword slides through the aged wood with no resistance, and a snap of telekinesis sends the Yokai's cover crashing down on her.

The Yokai flings herself sideways, only just dodging the falling tree.

Her dodge is an awkward thing of flailing over large limbs that slow her down enough that I manage to keep her in sight. I vault on top of the newly fallen log just in time to see her scrambling to her feet. Disturbingly long limbs fly every which way, before with great effort she manages to gain traction enough to start trying to run with a surprisingly effective quadrupedal gait. Her arms and legs are actually about the right lengths to pull it off.

Her attempt at running works better than I hoped, her loping four legged gait putting distance between us at a distressingly rapid pace. If she gets too far away from me in this forest, she'll be gone, and I'll never find her again. Between how magic twists space, and illusions twist the senses, I'm honestly surprised that I don't get lost turning around.

So I have to catch her now.

I can jump just shy of two stories straight up with a running start, and a good bit further horizontally. Most of the time this isn't useful for anything but bragging rights. Now though, this combined with previous parkour experience comes to my rescue.

I launch myself off the tree I'd just cut down to another that's still standing. I hit the trunk with a thump, shaking leaves from the branches with the impact. One leg curls under me, absorbing most of the impact, and I quickly push off again towards another tree. Then another, and another. I ricochet between the trees like a demented heavily armed pinball, quickly catching up, then getting in front of the fleeing Yokai. As soon as I manage to get ahead of her, I drop from the tree, following my sword to the ground.

The Yokai screams, flinging a dark almost black blood everywhere. Sclamhaire shears through her right arm and takes the limb clean off. She collapses to the ground, her legs giving out from the pain, clutching her shoulder, howling, and trying to scramble away from me. Two strides eliminate the space that she puts between us, and a quick kick flips her onto her back. I plant an armored boot on her chest to keep her still as I raised Sclamhaire to cut down and finish it all, and hesitated.

The Yokai is beaten, maimed, and not really capable of threatening anybody for at least the next few minutes. Arguably she was never a threat to me at all. She doesn't have anything I want to take that I know of, and unlike the guard earlier, leaving her alive won't just be giving her the opportunity to sneak up behind me later.

Mia would probably appreciate somebody to interrogate anyway.

So instead of taking her head, I press the flat of my blade against her stump, and Sclamhaire sucks the heat out of the wound, freezing and cauterizing it. With a sigh I step off of her and grab an ankle. Everything taken care of, all that's left is finding my way out of the forest, dragging my prisoner along behind me.

Just because I decided not to kill her, doesn't mean I had to be nice to her.

###

It takes me almost an hour to find my way back out of the forest, and I only manage it then because some adorable little Japanese tree spirit with a head like a maraca leads me out. I'm pretty sure that my prisoner passed out a while ago, or at least she stopped moving on her own or swearing at me. I'll take that and be glad.

The little spirit delivers me back to the garden I left from... and now that I have a moment to think about it, doesn't the palace have walls around it? How the hell had I gotten back into the forest without going through them?

The only thing I can think of, is that the kidnappers thought that they'd have trouble getting through the wall with Kunou in tow. So had found, or created, some way around the walls and I just managed to slip through after them.

Something to figure out later.

Only moments after I got back into the palace garden, I'm confronted by a gold colored nine tailed fox the size of a double decker bus. I stop and wait for the giant fox to come to me, trying to look as non-threatening, and as unappetizing, as possible.

That fox is really big.

Not quite stalking, but definitely approaching with intent. Her head is lowered, and her ears are pinned, though she isn't growling which is good. The stiff legged walk though, and the writhing tails are less so. I decide to cut the conversation short, and heave my prisoner forward, tossing her at Yasaka's feet.

The giant fox looks down at the Yokai I'd just tossed her, her ears rotating from pinned, to flopped out to the side. Then pointed forward at me as she looks up again.

"What's this?" Yasaka's voice as a giant fox sounds exactly like it does when she's a more human shaped woman. Which is honestly unnerving, hearing that gentle and extremely sultry voice coming from a set of jaws that could eat me in a single bite.

Two at most.

I sigh feeling exhausted from the day. It isn't even noon yet! "That one had your kid in a sack and was making for the forest. Actually got into it, without going through the walls somehow..."

Yasaka looks down at the Yokai, and growls low in her throat. The sound is deep enough to make the air tremble slightly, before looking back at me, "Where is Kunou-chan?"

I sigh again, "I'm not sure. I couldn't fight her," I wave at the Yokai at Yasaka's feet, "and keep the kit safe at the same time. At least not with any degree of confidence. I told her to wait for me to engage, count to ten and then make a break around the fight for the palace, and to hide once she got here. If you give me a flat, and solid, place to work I can find her for you pretty quick."

Yasaka studies me carefully, and I helpfully pull down my face mask and hood again. Her scrutiny is a lot more thorough, and less angry, than it'd been in her throne room.

Something I chose to take as a good sign.

Eventually satisfied by whatever she's found, the giant fox nods, "Do so. Then, afterwards, I may owe you an apology Rhostana-San. We can settle that and what else brought you here, then."

I bow as properly as I can manage to the giant, and cautiously more friendly, fox, and get ready to start trying to find the little fox.

Again.