Ren had no idea what he had just awakened.
The air around him still shimmered with heat and magic as he stood frozen at the edge of the cracked shrine platform. The girl—or whatever she was—had nine white tails that flicked and waved behind her like smoke touched by moonlight. Her golden eyes glowed with the same fire that had burst from the shrine's lantern moments ago, and she radiated a presence Ren couldn't quite describe. She wasn't human. That much was obvious. But she looked almost like one, aside from the inhuman elegance in the way she moved and the subtle glow clinging to her hair and skin.
"You don't even know what you've done, do you?" she said, her voice calm but edged with amusement. She looked younger than she probably was—appearing maybe sixteen or seventeen, though Ren had a feeling her age was closer to centuries. She stepped closer, her bare feet not making a sound against the old stone floor. "You lit the lantern. You broke the seal. You've called me back."
"I didn't call anyone," Ren said defensively, backing away. "I was just trying to find my grandfather's house. I got lost. I thought that thing was some weird... decoration or something."
The girl's eyes narrowed, her smile slowly fading. "Ignorant or not, the fact remains—you broke the seal. That makes you my contractor."
Ren frowned. "Contractor? What does that even mean?"
"It means," she said, stepping even closer until she stood barely a foot away from him, "that my soul is now linked to yours. Thanks to your blood, your touch, and your very presence, we are bound. Should you die, I vanish with you. If I die, your soul burns in the fallout. Congratulations."
Ren stared at her, trying to decide whether she was insane or if he had finally snapped under the stress of the last few weeks. He felt like he was dreaming—some kind of stress-induced hallucination, maybe—but it all felt too real. The fire. The shrine. Her.
"Okay," he said slowly, raising both hands. "Let's just… calm down for a second. Who the hell are you?"
The girl looked at him as if surprised he had the nerve to ask. "My name is Kiyomi. I am a fox spirit—a kitsune, in your people's tongue. I once served as the guardian of Autumn Hill, before I was betrayed by humans and sealed inside that shrine for over a hundred years."
"A kitsune," Ren repeated, blankly.
Kiyomi nodded. "A being of great power and far more patience than I have left."
"Right," Ren muttered. "So I'm talking to a magical fox lady with nine tails, who says I'm now… soul-linked to her because I touched an old lantern?"
Kiyomi raised an eyebrow. "It's a lot to process, I know. Don't worry. Your mind will catch up eventually—or it'll break. One or the other."
As Ren opened his mouth to speak again, a sound cut through the quiet. Not wind. Not a bird. Something heavier. A wet, dragging sound. Then another. It was coming from the woods behind the shrine.
"What was that?" Ren asked, his voice low.
Kiyomi didn't answer. Her eyes turned toward the forest edge, narrowing.
From the shadows beneath the trees, something crawled forward. No—several somethings. Twisted figures hunched low to the ground, their limbs contorted at impossible angles, eyes glowing with an unnatural red light. Their skin shimmered like oil, and their mouths hung open in silent screams.
"Yokai," Kiyomi said quietly. "They followed the spark when I woke."
The first one let out a horrible shriek as it lunged, its claws stretched forward. Ren stumbled backward, but Kiyomi was faster. With a flick of her wrist, blue fire shot out from her palm, wrapping around the creature's body in a sudden burst of light. The yokai screamed as it dissolved into sparks.
Two more leapt from the trees. Kiyomi spun, her tails whipping outward like blades. Fire erupted from their tips, striking both creatures mid-air and reducing them to ash before they even hit the ground. The temperature dropped sharply, despite the flames, and Ren suddenly felt like he was standing on the edge of a blizzard made of fire and fury.
"You… killed them," Ren said, stunned.
"They weren't alive," Kiyomi replied coldly. "Yokai are spirits twisted by hatred and hunger. They exist only to consume. The moment the seal broke, they caught my scent."
Ren swallowed. His hands were shaking. "And they're going to keep coming?"
Kiyomi nodded once. "They will. Unless we deal with the root of it."
Ren looked around at the woods, at the ruined shrine, at the still-smoking ashes. "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"
"You woke me, Ren Takahashi," Kiyomi said, her voice now low and smooth. "And now, whether you like it or not, you're a part of this."
Ren turned away, running a hand through his hair. He needed time to think. To breathe. But the forest seemed to press in on him, and there was no clear path back down the stairs—only mist, thick and shifting like something alive.
"There's no signal out here," he muttered. "No road. No way out. I'm stuck."
"You're not stuck," Kiyomi said. "You're chosen."
He gave her a sharp look. "I didn't choose anything."
"Destiny rarely waits for consent," she said with a smirk.
Ren glared at her, but he couldn't argue. She'd saved his life. And something about that seal—about this place—felt connected to him. Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was just a nightmare. But he had no way out of it now.
"Fine," he said, exhaling hard. "But if I'm stuck with you, I want answers. Real ones. Starting with how to break this bond."
Kiyomi's smile widened slightly.
"You want to be free of me already? That's a little rude."
"I'm not exactly thrilled about being magically soul-chained to a fox ghost."
"Spirit," she corrected.
"Whatever."
She stepped past him, walking back toward the ruined shrine. The foxfire on the ground was fading, little sparks still drifting into the air like embers. "If you want answers, you'll need to survive long enough to hear them. This is only the beginning, Ren. What you've awakened goes far beyond me—or you."
Ren clenched his fists and followed her, warily watching the trees. He still didn't understand what he had stepped into. But one thing was clear—his life would never go back to normal again.
Not with a girl made of foxfire and secrets walking beside him.