My Journey with the Demon King

18 - Shiro

A/N:

I don't usually do this because I feel it breaks up the story flow, but that's just me. First off, let me say THANK YOU! Thank you for reading my story and leaving a review. It means so much to me. It helps me write so much faster.  But on to why I have this here, please be warned, this is a little long.

This chapter has a lot of terminology and I wanted to put this here to be at least a little less confusing. Unfortunately, with the way the Japanese language works, I had some trouble finding the correct terms for 'witch' and 'wizard' that meant how I wanted them to. I wanted the good, 'white-witch' type aspect, but that is very hard to accomplish with the Japanese language when you know none of it. So, instead I went with miko (Priestess) and shinshoku (Priest). This helps show the aspect of a good magic user of each gender, so to speak. I know it's not technically correct, but I felt it was better than what I was originally going to go with. Tsukimono-suji (Hereditary-witches') were usually fox-employers in ancient Japan. They, along with snake-employers, where the most common type of 'witch' in ancient Japan. As well, for those of you who do not know:

Kami is, essentially, the spirit or essence of all things. From landscapes, to forces of nature, to beings, to even the very qualities of people or other beings were all considered kami and are worshiped in the Shinto religion, which is very big in Japan. Yokai is the name for a class of monster in Japan. These can be spirits, demons, and just about everything else in Japan. Usually, if you could think it, something that had any sort of supernatural abilities had at least two sides to itself. A good, kami-based aspect and the bad yokai-based aspect.

As such, the kitsune (fox), had two aspects to itself. The good aspect were messengers of the Shinto god Inari. The bad were tricksters, from small pranks to very harmful or life-threatening ones. Inugmai (literally 'dog god') were the same. They could be seen as servants of Onmyoji (think of them like a Japanese exorcist) and kami. But just as easily they could be revenge-driven, black-magic wielding yokai. Tengu ('literally heavenly dog'), despite their name, were most often depicted as a crow, often mixed with a human body. They were Shinto kami, protectors and guardians of forests and mountains. Their yokai aspect was most often seen as demons and harbingers of war. Okay, that's it! No more Japanese lesson. Back to the story! Sorry, again, but I felt this was important to understand.

I didn't even have any time to respond before something else happened that left me stunned. The fox glowed briefly, a brilliant white. As I watched, squinting my eyes against the bright light, it grew and stretched out. When it finally dimmed, what was left behind was a...young boy? All of this happened in the space of three seconds.

The boy looked about four years old. Zane's hand had been forced to lower with the appearance of the boy and now his hand was holding the back of the boy's neck. Besides a very thin looking loincloth, the boy was naked. His ribs reflected how he had appeared as a fox, a few seconds before. I could count every single one of his ribs with how thin and malnourished he was. His skin was pale ivory, with a very light covering of white...fur? Poking out from his lower back was a short fox tail, which was almost completely white, except for a black tip.

My eyes moved from his pale skin to his bright, contrasting hair. It was white and cut close to his head, with one streak of red-brown along the left side of his hair and one black along the right. His eyes were dark blue, the color of a midnight sky, just as they were as a fox. Even though his irises were quite the human color, the rest of his eyes were not, the pupils still had the shape of a fox. The fox-boy's eyes were burning in rage and...panic?

"I am not a pet!" he growled out. His voice was slightly high-pitch, just what you would expect from a four-year-old. But his pronunciation and vocabulary was much older and more mature than a four-year-old. "How...how dare a human say I am a pet!" He turned his burning blue eyes on me. His gaze took me in. He blinked, before shaking his head and turning it back to Zane. "I refuse to uphold the agreement," he muttered, crossing his arms. "Release me."