The Kurai Kitsune. 暗い狐.
A legend, as old as the Silver Wolf. But… what is it?
This legend is a close secret, with few non-foxes knowing.
The legend goes like this.
The Kurai Kitsune is a black-furred nine-tailed-fox, wielding two obsidian-black katanas. He helps all foxes that are in trouble, and has been doing so for thousands of years. Even longer than the Silver Wolf.
…or that's how it was.
Now, he has stopped, for the past one-hundred years.
Or… has he?
Her name was ジェイド. Jeido. Jade.
She was an orange fox beastman. Twelve years of age, living in Anima City for her whole life… or well, at least her whole known life.
She was a unique pup. She had no family, and had no memories from before she was ten.
She had awoken in a back alley, darkness surrounding her. A flecktarn-urban-camoflague backpack sat next to her. She was morphed, with red blood on her hands and head. She didn't remember much. She didn't… want to.
Now, she wandered the city, lurking in the shadows, always morphed. Always with that backpack on.
She'd checked through it. When she first got it, it had a medkit (which she'd used to patch herself up), some extra clothes, a pocket knife, a phone, and a wallet with some money but nothing else. Now, she had the same, with the addition of a gas mask, a towel, some water, and some snacks.
Jade was on a roof, dressed in a black hoodie and orange shorts. The moon was high and the sun down. Her elbows rested on a ledge as she ate a cereal bar. The busy city below, with its sparkling lights and neon signs intrigued her. She'd never had a normal life.
She watched someone enter a building below. B CO-OP, it said. She looked curiously.
A door unlocked behind her. Someone came out, walking to the roof's ledge and looking around.
Jade was already gone, hopping across rooves and up fire escapes on all fours, a cereal bar hanging out of her mouth as she did so.
She flew over ledges and walls, before finally finding a good spot to sit on a roof and finally finish her snack. She quickly finished it, stuffing the wrapper into a small crack and jumping from building to building again.
Jade looked down, stopping on a building.
Neon signs surrounded the street, with cars passing by on the street. It was beautiful.
…and then came the explosion.
A bright orange light blinded Jade for a few moments as the building adjacent to her exploded. Debris flew in every direction. The entire bottom of the skyscraper was destroyed, and it tipped, spinning in mid-air as it dropped over the road and towards Jade.
She dove to the right, trying to grab onto the building next to her.
A piece of shrapnel hit her hand just as she reached. It went clean through.
Jade screamed, falling to the ground. She landed on her tail—hard.
She opened her eyes. A tanuki and a wolf were running towards her.
Jade quickly got up. She was in an alley, though, and without her right paw, she couldn't do much. She thought of reaching for her knife… too little time, and it wouldn't do much against a wolf no doubt at least twice my age. Maybe the tanuki, though.
"Hold on! We just want to—" the tanuki said, coughing into her shoulder. "—help you!"
Jade held her ground, not moving. Studying them both. Watching. Listening.
She felt something trickle down her paw. Taking a quick glance down, she saw blood falling down her hand, staining and saturating her fur. It was just between her middle and ring pawpads, below her knuckle.
That's… a lot of blood.
Jade looked back, before sitting down against a wall and grabbing her backpack. She took a tourniquet out, putting it on and quickly tightening it. She winced from the pain, but continued until the bleeding stopped. The wolf raised an eyebrow, approaching just behind the tanuki. Jade zipped up her backpack with one hand, putting it back on as the two approached.
"Are you okay? We're here to he—" a cough, "—help."
Jade said nothing. She looked over, before looking down at her lap.
The tanuki slowly approached. And that was when Jade made her move.
One, two, three long and fast strides, and a jump.
She ran almost up a wall, past the tanuki, then over the wolf, jumping and grabbing onto a window sill with one arm. She pulled herself up, jumping onto a fire escape and running to the top.
Jade laid on top of a roof, on some cardboard she'd found. Her hand was now wrapped tightly with bandages, and her tourniquet was applied. She'd also relocated her knife to a holster she'd found on the ground.
This rooftop was nearly a kilometer from the explosion. Firetrucks, ambulances, police cars, all of them were still passing by. Her phone said it was midnight. The explosion had happened around ten, and she'd been out for… well, a very short time. A few minutes? She wasn't sure.
She groaned, unable to sleep, and walked to the railings atop the building. She looked towards the ground, many feet down. This was one of the shorter buildings, but the height still frightened her.
She looked back. There were stairs behind her, that led up to a tall platform, that led down to a basketball court.
Cars drove by. A loud crunch sounded as one ran a red light, getting t-boned as it passed. It didn't look serious; both cars pulled over quickly. She winced, turning back.
For a moment, her face turned to shock, then back to its expressionless normal. She reached for her knife, a black fixed-blade dagger, pulling it out and standing tall and elegantly. In this position, she normally would've been starting a curtsy, but instead her arms crossed across her chest with the knife in a reverse grip. Her hand quivered, aching with hurts, but she could use it, and she could use it well.
Standing in front of her was the wolf from just a few hours before.
"I'll say this once: put down the knife," he said in a gruff tone.
Jade did nothing. She didn't move. She didn't speak. The knife sat, unmoving, unwavering. She was ready to defend herself, but was not threatening.
The wolf was fast, but not fast enough.
He almost jumped, leaping off of the air and attempted to knock the knife out of Jade's hands. In an instant, Jade had rolled to the right, barely dodging the claws of this pup. She spun the knife like a balisong, going back into her elegant position.
The wolf had, instead of hitting his target, hit the railing, and was just now recovering, leaping again.
It was a delicate dance of life-and-death, with Jade carefully dodging every attack, never slicing back, never threatening, carefully observing the patterns and details of this wolf.
Each time, the wolf improvised more and more, but each time, Jade learned his patterns. It was no longer a delicate dance, but a delicate arms race for who could anticipate the other's actions first.
Each tried to outstep the other, each tried to outmaneuver, get an advantage over the other… but all that could be done was simply dodge or attack.
Each was equally skilled. But finally, one slipped… and it was all she needed to run.
One, two, three long jumps and she was up and over the stairs, grabbing onto the railing to redirect herself towards the basketball court. The wolf was hot on her tail now, and she barely dodged a claw-slice by grabbing onto the basketball hoop and flinging herself away.
The wolf had her cornered—literally. She was still in her elegant position, locked into a corner of the railing, next to some stairs.
"I'll tell you one last time, since you're just a kid."
"Drop the knife."
Jade didn't move. Didn't speak. This annoyed the wolf. She simply stood, non-threatening, non-anything.
The wolf lunged, going straight for her hand to try to grab the knife. Jade couldn't react. This was faster than she'd ever seen.
"SHIROU!"
Jade had closed her eyes. And when she opened them…
A misty black figure stood in front of her.
"…Kurai?" Jade said, a whisper. In awe.
…scared.
…terrified.
…crying…?
"SHIROU!"
Another yell brought her out of her trance. The wolf was on the ground, stabbed. Someone—was that the tanuki from before?—ran towards the wolf. The figure kicked the wolf a few feet away, before turning its head towards Jade.
Jade slowly stepped backwards, hitting the railing as she pressed her body against it. Her breathing was hard. She dropped the knife.
The figure disappeared.
All Jade could hear was her own shaky breathing. She couldn't see. Everything… everything… everything… everything… everything…