Okami Renshin:
One miserable year dragged by with me living alone with my father. My Aunt Beatrix would still occasionally drop by and take care of me. However, as the months flew by, she stopped showing up altogether. With each week, it seemed like my father grew happier and happier. It was because of the mass amount of money that he got from his job. I don't understand how someone like him could get a raise, but it's not like I understood much about him to begin with. Though he spent each day happier than the last, his attitude toward me never shifted or wavered. He still disregarded me altogether. He blew the majority of his money and time on his alcohol. Practically every moment with my father was a drunk one. Eventually, I wised up and realized there was no point in focusing on making my father happy. So, I decided to focus on what would've made my mother happy. With the help of hand-written textbooks from my grandfather and a few additions from my mother, I had a guide on a new form of fighting. It's purely counter-based.
While I read from the book, I also studied my arm as I glanced down at my anatomy. My grandfather put a ton of emphasis on studying and understanding my own body. As I read more into the book, I began to see why it held such significance.
"Not too bad," I said to myself in somewhat of a prideful tone. Once my arm dropped down to my side, my head turned from left to right, taking in the scenery of the forest around me. Though the view was beautiful, it was also remote. There wasn't another house for miles out. I mean, with us living practically at the base of a mountain, who would be out here? Suddenly, I caught the sound of something rustling behind me. I quickly whipped my head around and scanned the area. However, nothing was there. But I was sure I heard the sound of footsteps. "My hearing is never wrong," I confidently whispered to myself. As soon as I focused, I heard faint breathing coming from directly in front of me. But I couldn't see it. Even though it sounded as if it was close enough for me to reach out and touch, there was nothing in front of me. It wasn't until I narrowed my eyes that I saw a fox that appeared to be incorporeal. Its fur was shaded into a delicate golden hue. It wasn't until I saw its three tails swaying behind it that confusion hit me like a freight train. I tilted my head out of curiosity to get a better view of the fox. As I tilted my head, I had the nerve to ask, "What are you?"
"I'm a fox. What are you?" the fox shot back in a snide tone of voice. As soon as I realized that a fox not only understood my question but formulated a response, I fell to the ground and began crawling backwards while asking, "You can talk?!" I watched as the ethereal fox lightly trotted over to me and asked, "You can see me, can you?" Though the fox was smaller than I was, it looked at me the same way a predator eyed its prey. "Tell me, what are you and what are you doing out here?" the fox asked in a voice that suggested it was best if I answered now. As soon as I opened my mouth to give a response, I heard, "Come now, sister. Must you think everything around is a threat?"
I looked behind me to locate the source of this mysterious voice. As soon as I did a complete one-eighty, my eyes gazed on yet another phantasmal fox with the exact same shade of golden fur as the one behind me. However, this one had two tails rather than three. "Yes!" the three-tailed fox shouted out. I watched as it walked right past me as if I wasn't even there. As soon as it stood before the two-tailed fox, it continued to chide, "Especially now, more than ever! It's no longer safe for us to just be lingering around! At night we must be more cautious than we were before. We're no longer protected. That means I've got to look out for you now more than ever as well. That leads me back to my previous question." It turned its head to me and stared daggers into my soul as it opened its mouth and asked, "Who and what are you?!" For some reason, every fiber of my being told me to run away, to get far from these dangerous foxes as fast as possible before I lost my life! Though I hated the way my life was going, I didn't want to die.
So, I listened. I quickly glanced around the surrounding area in search of my textbook. Unfortunately, I spotted it right behind the three-tailed fox. Getting to that book, something my grandfather and mother created for me, would mean getting through something that wanted to kill me. While gnashing my teeth together, I quietly declared to myself, "I'm not leaving without that book!" As soon as I steeled my resolve, I dashed toward it as fast as I could! Just like I knew it would, this foolish action provoked the fox to bear its fangs at me and lunge with its jaw open! "Stop!" I heard the other fox yell from behind me. I couldn't tell if it was screaming at me or the other fox to stop. I didn't quite care either. Once I decided I was getting my book, nothing else mattered to me. As soon as I saw the three-tailed fox jump at me, I quickly dropped to the ground and into a roll like I had seen my mother do before. As it flew behind me, I heard the sound of the fox's jaws tightly shutting as it missed my throat! The moment I was able, I jumped to my feet and sprinted toward my book without any regard for whether or not the fox would chase me. I reached down and scooped it up while continuing to run away. For some reason, at that moment, I ran faster than I had ever run in my life!
I ran so fast that the trees became nothing but a blur to me! However, I quickly got consumed in the speed by letting out a half-entertained chuckle. As fast as the chuckle left my mouth, I smacked into the trunk of a tree! The moment I collided with the sturdy tree trunk, I was sent crashing into the rugged ground. After slightly skidding through the dirt, I let out a defeated "Ow!" and slowly lifted myself off the ground. Suddenly, I felt a searing pain pulsating throughout my left arm. I looked down and saw my arm bent out of place and the meager dinner I had before training came right back up! I quickly placed my textbook between my teeth and bit down against the binder to prevent myself from biting my own tongue. As I let out a guttural yell, I rocked back and forth in a futile effort to quell the pain! I began taking as many deep breaths as possible to increase my blood flow and ease my mind. It was a trick my mother taught me before but I'd done it so much that it turned into a nervous habit. I forced my right arm to reach out for my left. I asked myself the one burning question in my mind, "Can I really pop my arm back into place?!"
I looked from right to left again, almost as if I expected someone to appear and do it for me. Once I realized that there was no one other than myself, I let out one final deep breath. I had no other choice but to steel my resolve once more and bite down on my book harder than before. I reached out and grabbed the broken part of my arm. As soon as my fingers so much as grazed my skin, the pain surged to a limit I would've never thought possible. I quickly let go and jerked back. I could do nothing but sit there staring at my broken arm with the realization that no matter how hard I tried, I wouldn't have been able to force my arm back into place. "You want a bit of help?" I heard a familiar voice ask. Though the voice was just a few meters away, I couldn't see who it belonged to. However, I quickly remembered to narrow my eyes, almost as if I was fine-tuning my vision to another mode.
Suddenly, the incorporeal fox with two tails appeared before me. I moved back slightly out of fear that it was coming to finish what the other fox failed to finish. However, when I shifted, it didn't move. It stayed in the same spot. It just looked at me and calmly said, "I'm not going to hurt you. Neither is my sister. She's just… scared." I watched as the fox's golden eyes set on my broken arm. In a courteous tone of voice, it asked, "May I?" I was too nervous to answer. However, I also wasn't in any position to help myself. So, I eventually caved and settled with nodding my head. The fox trotted up to me and placed its paw on my arm. I suddenly watched as a bright, golden light glistened in the fox's paw and along my arm. In an instant, the pain subsided. Before I even knew it, my arm was back in place. Not only was it where it belonged, but it moved like it always had. A grin crept onto my face as I looked down at the fox and gratefully said, "Thank you!" The fox turned its back to me and began walking away while remarking, "This makes us even, kid."
"Even?" I asked in a curious tone of voice. With a slight tilt in my head, I quickly asked the fox, "What did I do for you to owe me." Without stopping to look at me, the fox answered, "You didn't attack my sister." Before I knew what happened, the fox disappeared from my eyesight, leaving me in silence with the moon's illumination peering down on me. Once I sat alone with my thoughts and processed everything I'd seen in the past twenty minutes, a slight chuckle escaped my lips. That chuckle turned into a slightly disturbed laugh. "This has gotta be a dream!" I laughed to myself while trying to rationalize everything that had just happened to me. Suddenly, I heard a ring coming from my pocket. I reached into my pocket and saw who was calling. "Damn it," I said to myself once I saw the cracks in my screen from crashing into the tree. With a sigh leaving my mouth, I answered the phone and said, "Hello?"
"Where are you?!" my father slurred. I could practically smell the alcohol through the phone. "I was out taking a walk," I answered in a low tone of voice to avoid any confrontation. "Get back here, now!" my father ordered in an infuriated tone of voice. I gnashed my teeth together. I wanted to tell him that I wasn't coming home. I wanted to say that I'd never go back there again. I wanted to yell from the top of my lungs about how I hated him. However, when I opened my mouth to tell him off, I asked myself, "Where would you go?" I realized there was nothing else for me, so I weakly responded, "Okay."
I blankly stared at the phone screen and saw a bit of myself in each of the cracks. The more I saw of myself, the angrier I became. My chest heaved as my breathing grew heavy. Anger coursed through me as I realized I didn't just hate my father. I didn't just hate myself; I hated everything! I was consumed by anger. I threw my phone against the tree and watched it shatter! When I saw how easily the phone broke against the tree's sturdiness, it only made me angrier! After all, this was the tree that caused me to break my arm in the first place. Like anyone else would, I took all the anger writhing within me, condensed it into my fist, and swung it at the tree trunk with all my might!
I knew this was stupid. I knew the mere thought of punching the tree was stupid. However, I was just so angry that I couldn't think of any other way to release the fury burning inside me other than taking it out on what hurt me to begin with. I expected my hand to break on contact. I expected a rush of pain as soon as my knuckles met with the bark of the tree. What I didn't expect was for my fist to blow a hole right through the center of the tree entirely! As soon as its primary support was blown away, the tree began to tip over directly on top of me. Luckily, I reacted quick enough to jump out of the way before it could fall on top of, and ultimately crush me! While I stood there dumbfounded at the fact that I was able to knock down the tree, I was even more astonished that I did it with nothing but my fist! Though I stood there in awe at my own strength, I quickly remembered that I had no time to be standing around dawdling. I turned north and began running back home.