Chapter 2. Cursed

Kagome perished through the air and left her ashes on the ground. It's a combination of the color red and blue. Moon spirit saw how Kagome managed to engraved her ashes onto Kira's womb. She knew from the start what her plan was. But she didn't stop and meddle. She just watched as all the other spirits did.

Some of the foxes from different packs escaped from the dreadful place where their descendants, including the greatest one Kagome, lost their lives. Again, some of them. Because nine-tailed foxes almost went extinct. Forest spirit led them to their new home. It's still midnight, so Moon spirit Venus went to land and meet the foxes. She covers the whole area limited to their eyes only. Venus transformed into a human body to conceal her true nature. Nobody is allowed to see her except The One.

"Foxes, hear me out. I am your Goddess, and I need your trust," she said, but Foxes didn't mind her and continued to walk away.

She had no choice, so she floated in front of them. But it wasn't a surprise. For them, it was just a natural phenomenon since they can do the same thing.

"What? Are you trying to impress us?"

"Come on, girl, we can also do things like that," she said and floated as well.

Okay, that's it for Venus. She has a temper, she's arrogant, and doesn't want to get tested. Her eyes turned red and she floated in the middle of all the gumihos. Mountain and forest spirit tried to stop her, but she was just too powerful. So these two just watched her from behind while being invisible to the foxes.

"I swear by the name of all the deities, all foxes will have an innocent but seducing face. No one can ever escape from falling in love with you. But you will have a curse because of Kagome's betrayal for putting you all in danger, including humans," she stopped for a while and gathered all the waters beside her.

"What?! We've been betrayed and instead of pity, we'll receive a punishment?! THAT'S UNFAIR!" Ryujin said, one of the leaders of the fox pack.

"WHATEVER YOU'RE PLANNING IS, PLEASE, DON'T DO THIS TO US!" Jennie, a leader too, said.

Venus shut their mouth using her waters and clouds. Her waters surround the whole fox pack, all of them. Even the ones who are trying to escape from the curse. Her eyes turned blue.

"When the clock hits midnight, you will be able to receive moonlight from me every single night to enhance your powers and become human. But if you receive moonlight at midnight you will become a hideous beast just like what the humans accused you of. You will become as big as a bear, and as hideous as a wild pig. You will obtain those fangs they have. And lastly, you will never trust a girl leader anymore. No worries, you will still behave just like a normal fox every night."

Her eyes turned red as she continued to enchant her curse among the foxes. Each fox received water from Venus to apply her curse, and they became frozen.

"There will be special circumstances for you, foxes. If the night is the full moon, you will become a real beast who will attack everyone. You will make yourself a bad creature, and you will experience this curse for the rest of your life. But don't worry, someone will stop you from turning into one. You will meet her," when she said the last exact words, Kira appeared.

Kira was thrown by the other guardians in Venus' arms. Venus accidentally held her womb with the thought of the fox who will be appointed to end their future sufferings.

"Who are you?" Kira asked.

Konan and Olivia's eyes turned blue.

"In the power of the Moon spirit, I blessed this child to carry the foxes' savior in the future in her womb. I blessed her with my lava," Konan said.

"All forests will be your guide and shelter you. I blessed you with my hand," Olivia said.

Konan and Olivia's hands intertwined and blessed it at Kira's womb. She ended the curse and released foxes from her waters. Venus, with Kira in her arms, teleported to the guardians.

"You lose my momentum to curse! What the hell is wrong with you two?!"

"We can't stop you, but we can get in between. Why won't you just assign their savior right away?" Konan asked.

Venus' eyes turned blue. She was in deep vexation right now and couldn't even find the perfect words to say.

"You didn't know? Even if I didn't appoint Kira's womb, she is already their savior in the first place. Her child will be."

God and Goddess are shocked by what they've heard. They're confused with her words and even have thoughts to believe it.

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked.

"Kagome left a part of her ashes at Kira's womb. She already blessed her with a curse. Now, I don't know how it'll affect Kira's future children," she said.

"What are you guys saying?" young Kira asked.

Moon, Mountain, and Forest spirit's eyes turned blue and erased her memory altogether.

Venus took a deep breath with disappointment on her face. "Next time, just trust me. I didn't turn this powerful without a reason," she said and flew away, leaving Kira at the foxes' nation.

Foxes learned to transform into a human person completely, without a tail this time. That's why human ancestors who talked about their story just became a myth.

Today's descendants of human beings thought it was just an imagination and a little story from their grandparents. Little by little, gumiho's story has gone cold. They took it as an advantage to go out of their comfort zone. From there, a lot of gumiho became rich. None of them stayed poor.

Polo, the traitor human, died. But before he died, he made sure to give his pendant to the next man in their family. That was his protector from the foxes. Its effect is to make gumiho disappear into a human's eyes.

So many years had passed, and Hiroshima was born from the family. Hiro is an intelligent man, who was unluckily born from a poor family. They thought they were cursed. That's because his grandparents kept on saying that thing. Eventually, the following descendants believed him. 

But not for Hiro.

One night, Hiro accidentally lost his way to the woods. It was midnight, and the howling is pretty scary to hear if you're alone in the forest. Even if it's a normal thing to hear, he still gets scared. He wants to run, but he's bleeding. He wished to be saved by someone tonight because he wanted to go home.

Suddenly, a woman who was so beautiful came running to him. I mean, at this place. She ran like she was escaping from the rain but there wasn't one. She's stunning. He's 10 years old, but why does he feel like he likes her already?

"Are you okay kid?" she asked. He mouthed his feet that's bleeding because of the branch he stepped into.

"Can you get me out of here?" he asked.

She smiled and patted his shoulder. "You will. I will heal your wound. Tell me your name," she asked.

"I'm Hiro. How about you?" he asked.

"Close your eyes," she said and that's what he did. "I'm Amaya," she said. From there, he opened his eyes to look at her. But he wished he didn't.

Her hands glow through his veins. In an instant, it was healed. She was shocked to see him with open eyes. But she didn't let him notice and erased his memory.

But little did she know, Hiro has a strong will. He will never be affected by memory erasing.

Amaya teleported somewhere, leaving the kid with a lot of thoughts. She was expecting him to be afraid like all the other humans did. But she was wrong. Instead, he felt so different.***

After so many years, finally, we moved a little less far from the woods.

"Hey! Mom, Dad, look at Mune. He's pestering me again!" I said to Kira and Loki.

Usually, we don't call them honorifics. Only if we have to be sweet towards them.

"It's not me! It's Aya!" Tch. My little sis told me not to tell you this, but she didn't want to face the moonlight tonight just because it's a full moon!

"DON'T CALL ME YOUR LITTLE SIS! YOU'RE JUST 3 MINS OLDER THAN ME!"

"And I loved that three minutes of my life," he said and laughed his ass out.

I hit him with my tail. I just fucking hate this man!

"Oh, you're learning to curse just like humans', huh? LITTLE sis?" Mune said.

Oh god, I forgot foxes could hear your thoughts if it's about you. I just kicked him again. This time, using my feet.

Living for so many years exhausts me.

Suddenly, I heard a rustling sound at the back of our house. And so as for Mune. We looked at each other and talked through our minds to check. We're not yet getting close to it, yet my shoulder abruptly hurts. Mune also did.

"K-Kira..." I called my mother.

"Again?" she said right after responding to my call.

Without having second thoughts, she healed our shoulders at the same time. Her eyes turned blue. "Your burn is getting fatal. Be careful next time or it will be the end," she said and left.

"Tch, Kira still didn't get our story, Mune. How can we be careful of something we didn't know in the first place?" I said.

"Yeah, it's not like we want it. I don't know what happened in the past, but I'm affected! Whatever, Aya, I just want to rest," he said and left me as well. Whatever!

I was planning to go out and wander to the woods, but the rustling sound is bothering my soul! Immediately, I caught him with my own hands.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

He didn't answer, so I looked closely at this young boy. He's so little! I saw him holding a lot of pears!

"Are you a thief? A human thief!" I shouted.

The light from the bulb outside suddenly hit his eyes, and my shoulder began to hurt so bad that I even accidentally let him go. I couldn't recognize him completely.

So I just shouted my lungs out. I can see Mune in my mind, he's just a few inches away from me, and he's hurt.

"Come here beside me," I said only in my mind to get that message to him alone. He responded immediately and went beside me. If we're together, I only feel less pain.

Our eyes turned green. It's unusual. Because when we turned green, it meant we were in excruciating pain.

"Are you okay?" he asked. I nodded as a response and mouthed the little boy.

"He's snatching our pears."

"I'm sorry, okay? But what are you? God! You're a mesmerizing creature. A human? Half-human? With tails? And also, didn't you recognize me?" he asked.

Mune and I looked at each other and instantly did our job to let that little boy forget tonight's incident. I didn't mind his last words. We sent him away as well. To my surprise, our pain suddenly went away...

"What was that? It's new. Our birthmark never got okay until Mom healed us. What kind of sorcery is this?" Mune asked in confusion.

"I don't know. Let it slide, bro. I want to rest. I feel like I became weaker because of him."

It's a full moon. It means we will become hideous creatures again.

"AMAYA! MUNE! DO I HAVE TO SHOUT?!" Kira called for us.

"WHAT?!" I replied.

"Just come here before I even plan to twitch your ears!"

"Kira, leave your daughter alone. This is the perfect night to be crowned Mune. Calm your tails," Loki said to my father. I'm just glad he rescued me.

Argh! How could he remind me of such a thing that I hated to remember at all? I want to be the fox pack leader too. Why does it have to be Mune? Tch. If I only have the power to become a REAL man, I will.

I left the house. I was about to wander to the woods, but then, I bumped into him. Kent, from the delta pack, appeared in front of me. He's still as cute as ever.

"Oh, it was you! Sorry, I didn't bump into you on purpose," he said. But I can't process it.

I didn't reply. Instead, I just stared at him, still amazed.

"H-hey? Haha. Anyway, I should go."

"N-no! U-Uhm, I'm wondering if we could... you know... go out together?" I asked with full confidence.

He smiled. 

Jeez! I get it, your smile is my weakness. Do you really have to show it to me?

"Yes, we should do that. I have something to tell you too," he said. And I could barely breathe!

I was too mesmerized and shocked that he approved, 'cause I didn't even realize that he left!

"Wow, my sister's heart is thumping so fast! KENT! SHE IS AHSS--"

He couldn't talk more 'cause I zipped his mouth already.

"He knew it, dumb."

"DO I HAVE TO SHOUT AND REMIND YOU TO COME HOME, KIDS?!" Mom said and immediately pulled us together inside using her tails.

"It's a full moon! You know it's too dangerous, right? Just... stay here."

Just as expected, they will become a beast, out of themselves, and thirsty for human blood, liver, and intestines. But luckily, they were able to tie themselves up.

"They've been suffering for so many years, Lady Venus. Why can't you just give them their savior already? Does she need to produce a child again?" Konan said.

Venus got so angry and splashed water using her powers.

"You really have no common sense."

"What? So it's my fault now, dear? God. I just want to help foxes. Some of them were attacked by humans because of their beastly nature. No humans are nearby, so foxes' energies were out of stock as well! They're about to get extinct. And you didn't worry a single bit," he replied.

She closed her eyes as she is still meditating herself to answer calmly 'because she was about to burst up in emotions.

"Why can't you just sit and stop meddling in their lives? If they're about to lose their descendants, it will be."

"Don't be absurd, Venus. Just tell us who you appointed to be The One!" Olivia asked.

Venus opened her eyes.

"You met them already."

On the other side of the stage, the Cobalt pack family was about to receive moonlight in the full moon. The two kids are already tied up really tight, but the parents were enchanted by something they couldn't identify to not to put it in time.

"Have you worn your necklaces?" Loki asked.

"Yes, but why won't you tie yourselves as well?"

"There's something on my mind, Aya. Something stopping me," Kira replied.

Those necklaces are bound to help them once they get into a situation that is hard to deal with. Especially if that burn from their shoulder will cause a ruckus to other people. Their parents knew that it isn't just a normal spirit, but they kept it a secret because they think that Mune and Amaya will just be going to be bothered. It'll get more complicated.

"Just try it again, Kira. I don't want to handle another mess," Mune said.

Kira and Loki tie themselves like us.

The moonlight appears. Slowly, we became a beast and started to go insane. I know what I am doing. I can at least record it in my mind despite not having control over my body.

We were biting out of nowhere, thirsty with the humans. Mune and I managed to stay at the chains. But my parents didn't. They managed to escape... outside the woods.