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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 48, Written May 2012

===

Chapter 48 - Verdict

The nine kitsune of the tribunal considered what they had heard, and discussed the case both for and against Murakami Kira, telepathically between each other. Asha and Kira could not listen to their deliberations.

After several minutes, the central kitsune, Lady Mariko, seemed to be weighing Kira's star ball in her hand, as if gazing directly at this fragment of Kira's soul could give her further insight into the nogitsune's capabilities and intentions. Perhaps it could. She looked at Kira with her azure blue eyes, and said, "We have decided to accept that you believed yourself to have a right to enter Japan, despite your knowledge of the Shogun's edicts banning foreigners from coming to our shores. Your argument that you were born to a Japanese citizen prior to the ban has some merit, though you have not really proven that your mother was a citizen of Japan when you were born, or prior to the ban being enacted. You have only the assumption that she was Japanese herself, because she was a kitsune. Yet you are a kitsune yourself, and were not born in our kingdom. The same may have been true of your mother. You appear not to know why she was in foreign lands when she encountered your father. She might herself have been banished from our lands."

"NO!" Kira said emphatically. "I do know why she left her homeland! She told me that a Human stole her star ball, and using that to control her, he took her far to the west, and sold her! He forced her to remain in her feral two-tailed fox form, and sold her to a mage. She was forced to serve that mage, because he then possessed her star ball. She was sold again and again, and forced to serve her captors. It was my father who freed her from her slavery to a succession of Human mages, and restored her star ball to her. And after my father gave my mother back her star ball, he walked away, seeking no reward. She was grateful to him, and that is why she stayed with him there, and married him."

"Wait..." Lady Mariko said, "How many tails did you say she had as a captive?"

"Two, my Lady," Kira replied. "After my mother died, I wrote down exactly every story she had ever told me about herself. I am quite certain she said she had two tails when she was enslaved by those mages."

"But you told the priest that your mother had three tails?" Mariko asked.

"Yes. In my lifetime, the few times I saw her fox form, she always had three tails," Kira replied. "Is that any wonder? I learned from the priests that a kitsune gains a tail each hundred years."

"It may be, yes," Lady Mariko replied. "And you said that when she died, your mother fell rapidly before her opponents? She didn't kill them?"

"To the best of my knowledge, my mother knew no harmful spells, and knew nothing of fighting," Kira replied. "She threw herself in the path of the ones pursuing me, and tried to slow them down by forcing them to kill her first. But she was helpless against them. I never understood her actions. Why would she allow herself to die, without attacking those who attacked her, and threatened her own child?"

"Quite possibly because she could not do so, without abandoning the fragile ties she still had with Inari," Lady Mariko said. "You see, there are only two ways for kitsune to gain a new tail. Among the zenko, the good kitsune who serve Inari, you gain a new tail as a blessing from Inari, for a hundred years of faithful service to the kami. Without a shrine of Inari to pray at and Inari priests to give her guidance and direction, your mother's only way to remain in Inari's favor would be to live a very pure life, while aiding others frequently. A nogitsune, on the other hand, can only gain a new tail once each century by performing a dark ritual that involves slaying ten innocent victims, and consuming their hearts. If your mother was incapable of slaying even one person who was trying to kill her and her child, then it is inconceivable that she could have performed the nogitsune dark ritual for gaining a new tail, and increasing her power and lifespan. She could only have gained her third tail by remaining in Inari's favor, as a blessing from the kami that the zenko kitsune are sworn to serve."

"I have heard rumors of that dark ritual," Kira admitted. "In China, they believe that is how a huli jing, their form of kitsune, gains a new tail."

"Most of the huli jing in China are outcasts from our society, kitsune who were banished from Japan. Hence most of them are nogitsune," Lady Mariko stated. "But it seems that your mother did try to remain in Inari's favor after leaving Japan, and did so well enough to gain one additional tail. By this we can accept that she was zenko, and in Inari's favor. This is a point in your favor."

The tribunal conferred among themselves again, and this time their deliberations took longer. Finally Lady Mariko asked, "I have one last question for you, Murakami Kira. Do you think that you have found that which you sought in coming here? Or is there more that compels you to remain in our land?"

Kira thought about this carefully, and then replied, "The priests of Inari seem to have been most generous to me, in their instruction about the Kitsune. I have also learned a great deal about the people of Japan, and the civilization here. What I have not yet learned are some basic truths about myself. There does not seem to be a lot of information about the capabilities of a half-kitsune, on the rare occasions when they are born. Clearly I have many kitsune abilities - some of which I did not consciously know I possessed. For example, I found almost by accident I could breathe fire as an instinctive ability. The one thing I do not know, and still wish to know, is how long I might possibly live, because of my mixed heritage. Can you tell me the answer to that question? If you can give me that answer, I would be content to leave this land, if I am unwelcome here."

"I cannot clearly see your life thread," Lady Mariko replied. "But I do sense a long life ahead of you. Sadly, I cannot say with any certainty that it will be a happy life. You must make your own choices, and already have made some rather dire choices, and must endure the consequences of those choices. But if you fear that you will perish in a mere fifty or even one hundred years, you may be assured that this is unlikely to be your fate."

"Well then... perhaps I can make this easy for all of us," Kira replied. "I think that I have found out most of what I came here for. Those things that I could continue to learn here are primarily open to me only if I commit my life to the service of Inari, and I am not ready to do that. So I am willing to leave, peacefully, if you will permit me to do so. I am willing to make a graceful exit from the life of Murikami Jiro, and then leave this island, until such time as I can return as a welcome visitor, if that should ever happen. I do not think that my staying here, at this time, is in anyone's best interests. Do you agree?"

Lady Mariko looked at her companions, and nodded. "That is acceptable, yes. Our judgment is that you shall be banished from our land while the Shogun's ban on foreign visitors and on Japanese natives leaving Japan remains in effect, but you wil not be harmed for having come here when you thought you had a right to do so. We will assist you in leaving the identity of Murakami Kira behind, in a way that does not greatly disrupt the life of your husband, or the court of the Shogun. You are acknowledged by us as being of the kitsune, and born to a mother who was zenko. But because you refuse to accept service with Inari yourself, your magical abilities make you too dangerous a force to allow you to remain among us. As the sailors from foreign nations would say, you are a 'loose cannon', and a danger to those around you, if something should cause you to use your abilities rashly. Personally, I would have wished that you would accept Inari, and accept the training that we could provide to you. That path will remain open to you, should you prove both willing and worthy of it. But for now, you have made your choice, to seek another fate. You have three months to leave Japan. Until you do, you will be watched most carefully. This tribunal is ended."

"So may I have my star ball back now?" Kira asked.

"It will be returned to you when you are ready to leave our shores, and are on your way," Lady Mariko stated. "Until that time, I will keep it safe for you. As it will be in the celestial realm with me, it will essentially never be far from you, and you will not be harmed by it being kept apart from you. Farewell."

===

There was a brief moment of disorientation, and suddenly Kira, Asha and the Inari priest were back at the temple of Inari, in Edo. Asha was back in her black vixen form, and Kira, Asha and the priest each only had one visible tail.

"Mistress? What just happened?" Asha asked. "You summoned me, and I came. I can sense that time has passed since then, yet I recall nothing?"

"You served me as I needed you to do, in a realm that would normally be closed to you," Kira replied. "I can explain it to you later. For now, what you need to know is that the time has come for us to leave. We have much to do."

"Come to me when you have your plans established, but before you act," the priest said, as he led them out of the temple. "Assuming that we approve of your plan, we will aid you as best we can. And thank you, for making this a fairly amicable situation."

"There is little to thank me for," KIra replied. "It never was in my best interests to cause trouble here. And while that nine-tail has my star ball, I have no choice but to proceed as agreed."

===

In Edo, Kira's life resumed its former routine. Each week she went to the Inari shrine and prayed. Each day at home, she was a fine and respectable wife for her husband.

Seven weeks after Kira's trip to Kyoto, Murakami Jiro was with his wife Kira and her maid Keiko in the marketplace, where she had insisted on taking him to see some fine silk that she had seen the other day. As they examined the silk cloth, there was a sudden shout from behind them, and the sound if a terrified horse. A dozen witnesses, including her husband, watched in horror as the heavily laden wagon tipped, out of control, and two huge barrels of sake tumbled from the bed of the wagon, falling on Murakami Kira and her maid, Keiko, and crushing both vixens to death instantly. It took four strong men to remove the shattered barrels and recover their mangled bodies.

A later investigation found that the horse had been frightened by some small feral creature that had darted between its legs, causing it to rear up in terror, and upsetting the cart, whose barrels were not tied down, because the merchant operating the delivery wagon was getting ready to offload the wagon. A most unfortunate accident, but clearly nothing more than that.

The body of Murakami Kira was cremated several days after her death, with the full honors due to one of her station. The Shogun sent a personal representative to the funeral, to offer his condolences over the young girl's tragic passing. The maid who had died beside her mistress, trying to shield her mistress from disaster with her own body, was cremated with her.

===

After the funeral rites had been performed, the old Shinto priest, who had come all the way from the Inari shrine in Kyoto for the ceremony, went into a tea house for some refreshment. He sat at a table with two young male Samurai, and they ordered tea for the three of them.

"That was nicely done, I must say," the old priest said quietly. "The witnesses all were certain of what they saw, and no one realized that you and your familiar had stepped aside, leaving an illusion in your places, before the horse was terrified and the barrels fell. And since it was the kitsune who investigated for any possible magical cause for that 'tragic accident' we did not report the faint lingering traces of illusion, fear and compulsion spells. But what truly amazed me was that everyone believed the mangled cloth dolls that had been inside the barrels were your corpses."

"I had everyone who would touch the dolls under my control before I released the illusion and fear spells. Jiro himself only was affected by the illusions that I cast, and a simple suggestion planted in his mind earlier that it was unlucky to touch a corpse of someone killed in an unusual accident," Ichitama replied. "After that, it was a simple matter of maintaining the illusion that lifeless cloth dolls were lifeless corpses, and allowing only people under my control to get close to the remains before the cremation. I have maintained much larger and more terrifying illusions, before much larger groups of witnesses. Shall we go? I believe our travels will take us next to Kyoto. We could help to escort you there safely. Come along, Kuro."

===

After collecting her star ball back from Lady Mariko in Kyoto, Ichitama and Kuro were taken to a small fishing village, and told to row straight out into the sea.

"No one here will remember that you came here, or that a boat is missing," the old kitsune priest said as they prepared to leave. "There is a foreign ship at sea out there, not far from the barrier. Once you are through the barrier, you can use your illusion and compulsion spells to convince them to take you aboard, and return you to China. Goodbye, and good luck to you."

===

On the twentieth of November, Sarina and Ashley stepped out of a portal onto the summit of Victoria Peak, in Hong Kong.

"Can you find him?" Ashley asked. "It has been nine months. Lu Chen could be anywhere by now."

Sarina concentrated, and said confidently, "He is still here, in Hong Kong. I just touched his mind. He will join us by sunrise."

"So, what do we do next? Return to that old letch in England?" Ashley asked.

"I don't see why not. Lord Pennington will welcome us, and if we stay there until he dies, I can collect his inheritance before we move on. Besides, they have some very good libraries in England, and I have more research to do now." Sarina said.