Enigma

Naito had returned to the Inari shrine during the night. There, he could be found sitting on top of the tiled planks of wood that made up the roof of the small hall in the middle of the courtyard.

His blue eyes were closed as he was deep in meditation under the pale moonlight from the near full moon above. He had relaxed his stringent hold upon maintaining a normal human form, so a pair of pointed ears stuck up out of his long, bound silver hair on his head along with the fan of three silver tails that laid behind him.

If one was to follow the lore and myths told in Japan, then Naito would be a three hundred year old fox spirit. Though, he had no recollection of those previous three hundred years of this form's life before he found himself in it. In fact, the only bits of information he had from the previous lie of this form as well as the previous life of the other world were limited to fragments.

It wasn't far from the truth to say that he had woken up with a complete blank slate, but he intuitively understood the language spoken just as he intuitively grasped the powers of this fox spirit form. Likewise, he had general knowledge of this world as if he had been living in it or above it for a long time, but he had no specific knowledge about the inhabitants. Just as he was lacking specific knowledge of who he was previously and how this form got into the condition he had found himself in when he arrived.

Around a decade ago, he had woken up at the bottom of a cliff in a bloody mess. He was in his fox form and his silver coat had been more red with blood than white then. Arrows were lodged in his backside with the most debilitating one being stuck at his hip.

From his position, he had surmised that he had been running away and had leapt from the cliff, but had been struck by the arrow in the hip at some point either right as he went for the jump, or right before it. So, the fox had been thrown off balance in his jump and didn't make the getaway that he had planned. Instead, he fell and likely either died or suffered severe damage that led to this memory loss.

In light of this, he had wandered around the vicinity of the fall to try and find clues that may jog a memory, yet ended up stumbling around the mountains lost, until he ran across Ryuka. He had healed up by then and found that he could take on the form of a human, so he had approached her in hopes to learn about where he was.

Ryuka had identified him as an orphan initially and he played the part well as he didn't even recall his own name. However, her father was quick to recognize that he was no human, but didn't mention it until later, when he revealed himself as a fox spirit to Ryuka. At that point, Naito had realized that he had been subconsciously led to the village's location and drawn specifically to Ryuka's presence yet had no idea why.

When his identity as a fox became widespread within the small village, her father had declared him a zenko, who had been sent by Inari to bless the faithful. Again, Naito had played the role well by divining the weather, which led the farmers to plant at the right time to avoid the worst of the flood and drought of the Yowa famine.

[[*Yowa famine – famine that struck during the early years of the Genpei War between 1181–1182.]]

This bit of aid would have likely been well received by the village except that the timing of the famine coincided within months of them learning that Naito was a fox. A few of the bolder ones had even tried to rally others in the village to chase him off, but Ryuka's father had made the case that they would be even worse off if it was not for the blessings of Inari that were responsible for sending Naito to them.

It was that exchange that made Naito believe the man had touched upon politics before. The way he convinced the population to let him stay had bought Naito the villager's tolerance.

Luckily, nothing drastically negative such as the likes of that famine had struck the village after the old priest had left. Else, Naito was sure the villagers would have chased him out, leaving him unable to fulfill the task the old man had given him to keep his daughter safe.

To not tempt fate, Naito would stay out of sight if not out of the village as much as possible, since the old priest was not present to aid him.

He wouldn't go far though and spent much of his time around the vicinity of the shrine, as a small reminder to villagers of the old priest's words. Hence, actions such as meditating while on the shrine's roof became commonplace for the fox.

It was safer than other places for him. Not to mention peaceful and a good environment for him to calmly soak in the energy of the moon to strengthen his illusions.

Illusions were something that by nature were meant to deceive one's mind and even the foxfire that a kitsune could use was a special kind of illusion. Foxfire, in of itself, had no power to affect the physical world, just like illusions, but it did have an effect against the spirit.

Foxfire consumed or burned the spirit, so it was an effective tool against demons, ghosts, undead, and similar. However, when it was used on a human, the loss of spirit could only be translated into weakening the stamina of a normal mortal human, while having a little more effect against an immortal.

To make up for this, Naito had been cultivating a way to combine the illusion of cold or heat with the foxfire, so that it would be capable of dealing mental damage. For this is the only way he could think of making a more effective weapon that could affect immortals and mortals alike.

If you perceive it is hot, then you would avoid it too, right?

The idea seemed simple, but it meant that you had to be mentally stronger than your intended target. For if he was to encounter someone with a greater mental fortitude, then they could identify what was real versus fake, and then ignore the fake.

Although he hadn't encountered them in this world, he possessed general knowledge of the world and included in it were terms such as mage, sorcerer, sorceress, enchantress, immortal and shaman. These types of individuals possessed great mental fortitude, and on some cases, the physical fortitude to match.

Since he was aware that they existed, then he should be prepared for the possibility of meeting them as an enemy. Thus, he cultivated and worked to improve his limited arsenal.

He would spend some of his time in meditation to also pour over the information he had been given in being born into this world and into this form. By doing this, Naito hoped that even if he did not have specifics on techniques, that he could derive some to further strengthen himself.

This seemed especially important after Ryuka mentioned that she may be entertaining the thought of leaving the village. For wherever she went, he would go too.

If not because of the task he had been entrusted, then he would follow her while trying to unravel why he had been drawn to her.

Fragments of memories have slowly surfaced in his mind over the last handful of years, which only brought him more questions than they did answers. However, when the old priest had said Naito had a name before, he didn't doubt it, because he had multiple names appear in these fragments. Yet, he didn't know who they belonged to, if they were his, or which one was supposed to be his present form's.

The names varied in origin as well as gender and none of them sounded like they belonged in this country in the least. Examples of these names included Quintus, Myanthor, Yue, Allysandria, Leilani, Khroneel and Elendrissil.

A few of them weighed heavier on his mind in importance, but he did not understand why. Which is how he had come to simply let Ryuka pick a name for him when he had met her. It was easier to accept a name that was given readily than to try and differentiate his own.

Either way, he instinctively knew that if he could sort through the confusion and solve the enigma that he was, then he would leap forward in strength by harnessing the secrets he was certain were buried within the origin of these memories.

Meditation and contemplation. These two things were the path forward.