"Chirp, chirp~"
The little fox struggled.
Its fluffy pink paw pressed straight against Lin Mo's face—
no, not his face—right over his eyes.
"Alright, alright~ I won't look, I won't look~"
Her overreaction startled Lin Mo.
When he looked back at the little creature again, he noticed that it was glaring at him with a deeply aggrieved expression.
"Oh? That's such a human-like look!"
Lin Mo was amazed.
"Back in Inazuma, that little fox always used to look at me like this too, didn't she?"
Those words made the pink fox freeze.
"Back then… that little fox in Inazuma…"
"Saigu… you actually… still remember those days!"
At that moment, Yae Miko wanted nothing more than to transform back into human form and reunite with Lin Mo.
But just as she came back to her senses—
Lin Mo's face suddenly filled her vision, rapidly closing in.
"Wait! Saigu, what are you doing?!"
Yae Miko panicked so badly that she completely forgot she was still in a fox's body.
The anxious words she tried to shout all turned into cute little "chirp chirp~" sounds.
Of course, that did nothing to stop Lin Mo from leaning even closer.
If anything, it only made him more excited.
"Hiss—!"
"This little one smells so good~!"
Lin Mo immersed himself in the scent of the fox, breathing her in deeply.
From her tiny head, all the way down to her fluffy little belly.
The soft, cloudlike touch.
The faint scent of cherry blossoms.
It was intoxicating.
Lin Mo's bold behavior sent Yae Miko's mind straight into blank mode.
She wasn't some ignorant little fox anymore!
She had already taken human form long ago!
She knew what propriety between men and women was!!
"Wow! You're way too fragrant, little one~!"
Lin Mo sighed in admiration as he continued sniffing her.
"That little fox back in Inazuma didn't smell nearly this nice."
"I remember foxes having that… distinct musky odor."
"After smelling it once back then, I never wanted to again~"
"So how did you manage to smell this good?"
…
Yae Miko: !!!
Who are you calling smelly?!
The little fox immediately shoved Lin Mo's face away with her fluffy paws!
After thousands of years, she finally understood.
Why the Saigu who had once doted on her so much had suddenly grown less affectionate one day.
She could still feel his fondness for her—
but she was certain that from that day on, something intimate between them had disappeared.
That realization had left Yae Miko heartbroken for a very long time.
She couldn't help but wonder what it was that had caused Saigu to distance himself from her.
From that day onward, the little fox began carefully observing Saigu's preferences.
She noticed that those closest to him were always beautiful young women in human form.
For example, the twin sisters Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei.
Or the oni clan leader, Chiyo Mikoshi.
Or Lady Kitsune Saiguu, who carried the bloodline of the Hakushin clan among the foxes.
Every single one of them was, without exception, a peerless beauty of their era.
And so, Yae Miko began to look forward to something.
She longed for the day she could take human form herself—
to transform into a beautiful young woman just like them, and once more earn Saigu's closeness.
Even before she had learned to transform, she began imitating them—
learning their language, copying their mannerisms.
Then one day, Saigu said to Kitsune Saiguu:
"Saiguu, how can you be a fox and still smell so nice~?"
From that day on,
Yae Miko bathed every single day beneath the Sacred Sakura Tree, soaking herself in water filled with fallen cherry blossoms.
…
Thinking of her old companions.
Remembering those distant days.
Yae Miko couldn't help but drift back to the time when she first met Saigu.
The fox clan had many branches.
For example, the white foxes that lived in Hakushin Plains—
Lady Kitsune Saiguu's Hakushin clan—were the most noble lineage among Inazuma's foxes.
But Inazuma didn't consist solely of the snow-white Hakushin foxes.
There were also many foxes with vivid, fiery red fur.
Yet no matter the clan,
her pink fur made her an outcast—someone who never quite belonged.
When the white foxes enjoyed offerings,
she had no right to partake.
She could only watch from afar as they devoured sweet fruits and tore into fragrant roasted meat.
When the red foxes went hunting,
they never took her along—this seemingly frail pink female fox.
From the moment she could remember things,
it felt as though she had already been abandoned by everyone, living alone in Hakushin Plains.
She survived on the leftovers of the white foxes' offerings.
On animal entrails the red foxes deemed beneath them.
At first, she could barely get by.
But as the fox population grew, leftovers became scarce.
Even the white foxes sometimes didn't have enough to eat themselves.
The once barely edible entrails became nothing but a dream.
The red foxes, living in the wild, reproduced far faster than the white foxes.
Forget entrails—
even leftover bones were licked clean.
With prolonged starvation, Yae Miko's body grew thinner and weaker by the day.
Hunting? That was impossible.
The hunting grounds belonged to the red foxes, and she wasn't even allowed near them.
Gradually, her gaze turned toward Inazuma City.
Humans lived there, didn't they?
Would there be food scraps thrown away by humans?
With that thought, she gathered her courage and cautiously approached the human city.
Her memories led her to the day she met Saigu.
That day, a heavy rain poured over Inazuma.
"Where did this wild fox come from?! How dare you steal my chicken! Get lost! Get out of here!!!"
Bang!
Yae Miko was kicked hard, sent flying and tumbling down the stone steps.
She tried to get up and flee.
But years of hunger, combined with the pain of that brutal kick, left her unable to rise on the rain-slick steps.
"Steal…"
Yae Miko didn't even know what that word meant.
She was just hungry.
She had seen that plump bird and pounced without thinking.
Then she was beaten, and kicked more than ten meters away.
Her face pressed against the icy stone steps as rain splashed before her eyes, the cold soaking into her body.
Her consciousness… slowly began to fade.
"So hungry… it hurts so much…"
"I… I don't want to die…"
The weak chirping cries of the little pink fox were filled with sorrow and helplessness.
"Huh? Why is there a fox in the city?"
"And it's pink! So cute~!"
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T/N:
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