Akiha

“Over here!”

“Where?”

“She’s dying, we need a healer!”

The voices were loud.

Scary.

I couldn’t see a thing. My nails scratched against the wood of the box my mother had hid me in.

I had been playing in the room when she rushed in, and picked me up.

“Where’re we going?” I had asked.

“To play hide-and-seek,” She smiled.

I knew she was lying. I could smell her fear, see it in her eyes, but I couldn’t do anything as she hid me in the box and told me to wait there.

“Mom…” I whispered, my eyes watering.

“Who’s there?” One of the voices from earlier called out.

Footsteps drew closer, and suddenly the lid of the box was torn off, my world bright again.

“You’re a pretty one, aren’t you?” The man smiled down at me, shoving paper talismans back into a pouch.

He lowered himself to a knee, then placed his hand on my back. It was big. Suddenly, he pulled me towards him, and I fell against his clothes, wrapped in warm, soft fabric.

“I’m sorry. We couldn’t save your mother.”

My fingers curled up in the man’s kimono, my claws still extended. His blood ran down my arms, but he didn’t even tense up, merely hugging me tighter.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered. “If only we were a little earlier.”

That man was Tsuchimikado Mado.

He brought me to his home afterwards, offering me a place to stay.

“Akiha,” He told me. “While you’re alive, there’ll always be a target on your back. You probably can’t understand what I’m saying because you’re too young, but your lineage is legendary. For that reason, I’ll seal you in a talisman, with the seal set to automatically break when certain conditions are met. Is that fine?”

I only understood part of what he said; that I was a target, and that he could offer me protection.

I nodded. “What do I have to do?”

“Nothing. Just help me watch over your master, will you?”

“Master?”

The man smiled and looked out the window towards the shrine’s courtyard, where a boy was playing with a miko. “Yeah. Tsuchimikado Ren will be your master.”

When I got sealed into the paper fox, I realised I could still send my spirit out in the form of a fox, and though I couldn’t interact with anything, I took every opportunity to be by his side even when he kept my talisman elsewhere, or in the darkness of his pouch.

Through all his training sessions, lessons in school.

I understood soon enough that my master was somebody who had massive responsibilities on his shoulder, and that much was expected of him.

I watched by his side as he failed to manifest his powers time and time again.

I watched by his side as he enrolled in a public school.

I would sit on his table, my head on my paws, watching him as he studied.

I watched by his side as he grew, from a short, excitable boy, into a tall, athletic teenager.

Watched by his side as he found a crush for the first time in middle school, laughed by his side as he joked around, cried by his side as he got heartbroken for the first time.

I watched as he laughed, as he smiled, as he talked to his friends and family, and soon I was starting to feel lonely, prancing around in spiritual form; able to see everything, but able to touch nothing.

I want to meet him properly. I had observed my master long enough to want to be able to talk to him.

Then, the day came where the shrine was attacked.

As I watched beside him as he cried, that was when I realised what his father had meant. Just help me watch over your master, will you?

That day, my dream came true, and I got to meet my master.

But at what cost?

Even as his eyes were still red and his cheeks wet with tears, he had looked down at me and smiled warmly, patting my head.

It was the first time in eleven years I had felt a human’s touch, and he could’ve ignored me, pushed me away, but he had accepted me even while dealing with his own grief.

I’ll protect my master.

For all my days until my death.