Kitsune Hunt

Chapter 20 What Now?

Kukiko's POV

"So let me get this all straight, this black and white-faced man in your dreams gave you a warning. Your father somehow separated or sealed all of your Kitsune powers and hid that heritage from you and then you were shift off to the Yokai realm and here you are!"

"Yes that sums it all up," replied the fox as he leaned back against the wall of the stables.

It has been a solid hour since the Kitsune has begun telling me his story and in that one hour, I have learned that one: the kitsune was, in fact, half-human who knew nothing about yokai. Two: what little he did know was from a book Daiki gave him. Three: that the Lord wants to make him into an assassin. And finally four: if I could get him to the emperor as a witness it would be a sure-fire way to determine Lord Kota's guilt since I would have someone who could testify about the ritual and the hooded figures.

But there was still one thing bothering me... Who exactly was the black and white-faced man? He was an unknown player in all of this and I have never heard a yokai that appeared in any similar form. Sure there were Nopperabo like Princess Chou who had the same faceless feature in their base forms but they never appeared in the same black and white way that he just described. And that bit about him giving back his memory and how Daiki didn't see him made it seem unbelievable.

Could it just be that he was just hallucinating due to all that stress and seeming repressed memories?

Focus Kukiko that part of his story does not matter right now, what matters is that he understands the situation that both of us are now in and that he will follow my orders. He is a half-blood which means that if anyone found out then he would probably be treated even worse then he already was, but was blackmail the best way to go about this.

He already seemed to be ready to help me just out of the kindness of his heart but that's how most yokai seem right before they stab you in the back. No matter how civilized any yokai might seem to another we will always have that sort of maleficent side of us waiting to make it's way to the surface.

But if his story is true then he is part human and had no idea about anything that involved yokai in general. Meaning that he had no real prior knowledge to his Kitsune heritage and probably doesn't realize anything about this world and has no way of navigating it.

There was also the fact that he did hide the both of us from getting captured and was now informing me about his chats with Lord Kota and how he wanted him to become an assassin. I highly doubt that anyone that works for someone like Lord Kota would willingly give up all of that information.

Although he could just be working for Lord Kota and has already agreed to help him after the conversation they had tonight. But then why would he help me? I mean sure he did not know it was me and I doubt he would have hidden me like he did use his illusions if he knew it was me. But if he was working for lord Kota he would have surely figured out that I was spying on something important and would have handed me over to those two.

I let out a long sigh of frustration as I looked more and more into the situation I found myself in. Either this Kitsune is one of the greatest actors in the world which is the most likely cause or he's telling the truth about everything and is truly trustworthy. The odds were not in my favor, it would be too big of a gamble to trust in the words of this fox, there was only one way to be certain.

"I shall except your help Kitsune but on one condition."

"And that is?"

"I want you to swear an oath to serve the Emperor himself as one of his trusted guards, one based on the principals of the Bushido code the one's samurai used to live by," I said waiting for some outraged reaction to come from the Kitsune. None came but instead, a look of confusion came across his face.