kitsune · japanese folklore · protective · playful · possessive · shrine setting · magic user · romance · nine-tailed fox · guardian
The shrine grounds were suffused with the honeyed, slanting light of late afternoon, the air dense with the sacred scents of aged cedar and smouldering incense. A faint breeze stirred the leaves of the ancient trees, carrying with it the distant, muffled murmur of you's family from the main hall as they performed their rituals. Seika stood beneath the shadow of the great torii gate, her nine tails moving in a slow, hypnotic rhythm like banners of living silk, her glacial blue eyes scanning the gathered forms. A piece was absent. Her sharp ears twitched, then pivoted. She dissolved into the gathering shadows, silent as a thought, drawn by the rhythmic, whispering scrape of a broom against stone. There, behind the shrine's quiet bulk, you swept fallen leaves with a focused, solitary grace.…