When Reika entered the Kitsune temple the next morning, she was already expected.
Lady Tamamo sat behind her desk and slowly lifted her gaze from the papers in front of her.
A faint smile brushed across her lips.
"Oh? If my nose is correct, you're coming straight from your meeting with Oda."
Her golden eyes rested calmly on Reika.
"You two were apparently enjoying yourselves until late in the morning. His scent is still all over your body."
Reika immediately lowered her head.
"Yes, Lady Tamamo. As you wished, I have completely drawn him under my spell."
Her voice remained calm, though there was a trace of pride in it.
"It was easy for me to rekindle his desire for me."
Tamamo nodded slowly.
"Good."
She folded her hands calmly together.
"Then I now have a task of great importance for you."
Reika lifted her gaze slightly.
Tamamo's voice grew colder.
"You will stay at Oda's side and find out which humans can still see us despite our illusions."
For a moment, silence filled the room.
"And you will find out where their villages lie."
Reika's expression grew more serious.
Tamamo leaned back slightly.
"When the time is right, we will kill them."
Reika lowered her head again.
"As you wish, Lady Tamamo."
She hesitated for a moment.
Then she asked quietly,
"Lady ... does that mean I may live at his side?"
For the first time, Tamamo's gaze softened again.
"That is exactly what it means."
A faint smile touched her lips.
"And if you wish, you may even bring Oda into our clanland so that he can meet his child."
Then her voice turned firm again at once.
"But she will not leave the clanland."
Reika's eyes widened slightly.
"Thank you, Lady Tamamo."
A short while later, Reika sat across from her grandmother Akio in another room of the temple.
The warm light of the midday sun fell through the wooden walls and bathed the room in a gentle glow.
"How are you, my granddaughter?"
Reika tried to avoid the questioning look in her grandmother's eyes.
"My heart hurts."
Her fingers tightened slightly in her lap.
"Lady Tamamo's order pains me. I want to spend as many summers as possible with Oda."
Akio handed her a cup of tea.
Its fragrance rose slowly through the quiet room.
"My little vixen ... I understand."
Her voice was calm, almost tenderly weary.
"You are still young. Only two hundred years old."
A faint smile touched her lips.
"Even I once lost my heart to a human, long ago."
Reika slowly lifted her gaze.
Akio looked down into the cup in her hands.
"Their lives are so short."
Then she looked at her granddaughter again.
"So my advice is simple: enjoy the time you still have with him. And at the same time, fulfill the task Tamamo has given you."
Her voice grew a little softer.
"Because there is one thing you must understand ..."
She brushed her fingers along the rim of her cup.
"For our kind, such happiness is almost always only a dream that fades far too quickly."
Reika's hands tightened around the warm cup.
"Grandmother ... is there no path that could lead me to a happy ending?"
Akio saw the hopelessness in her granddaughter's eyes.
And for a moment, her own gaze looked very old.
"There is a way."
Reika's breath caught.
"But if you choose it, you will die the very moment your beloved dies."
The room fell silent.
"There is a technique with which you can bind your life force to another person."
Akio's voice remained calm, but her words were heavy.
"If that person dies, your own life force will fade as well."
Reika's eyes widened.
Akio looked at her for a long moment.
"But if you choose that path, there is no turning back."
Then her voice softened.
"And do you truly wish to leave your daughter behind?"
A shadow passed over Reika's face.
"The clan would look after her. Of that I have no doubt."
Akio tilted her head slightly.
"But the clan is not you."
At that moment, there was a knock at the door.
The temple physician entered and brought Akio her medicine.
Akio accepted it and looked at it for a quiet moment.
Sometimes I feel as though I grow weaker whenever I take this medicine.
But she pushed the thought aside at once.
It must be only my imagination.
At length, Akio opened a small chest and took out a scroll.
She carefully placed it on the table in front of Reika.
"The technique is written down in this scroll."
Her eyes rested on her granddaughter with grave seriousness.
"But think carefully, my little vixen."
In front of a house in the clanland of the Kitsune, a six-tailed kitsune sat in the snow.
The scroll her grandmother had given her lay in her lap.
That something like this is even possible ...
that one can bind one's life force to that of another so easily ... who would have thought it?
The wind played with her black hair.
Soft footsteps crunched in the snow.
A small kitsune approached her.
She had five tails.
"Mum, I'm back. Etiquette class is over. Today Lady Shizuka was our teacher."
Reika lifted her gaze and looked at her little sun.
A soft smile appeared on her face.
"Nozomi ... I hope you paid close attention."
Then she gestured to the spot beside her.
"Come. Sit with me."
Nozomi immediately sank down into the snow beside her mother and looked at her curiously.
"What is it, Mother?"
Reika swallowed hard and slowly closed the scroll in her lap.
"I want to introduce you to your father tomorrow."
Nozomi's eyes grew wide.
"Really?"
Reika nodded slowly.
"Yes, my little vixen."
She gently stroked her daughter's ears and watched them twitch lightly with joy.
For a moment, she fell silent.
Then her expression grew more serious.
"But there is something else."
Reika took Nozomi's little hand in her own.
"Nozomi ... I am going to leave the clan."
Nozomi blinked in surprise.
Reika's voice grew quieter.
"Would you forgive me if I went in search of my own happiness?"
Nozomi tilted her head.
Her fox ears twitched softly.
Then she smiled in that simple, bright way only children can.
"Mother ... everyone should be happy."
She moved a little closer to Reika.
"Isn't that the meaning of life?"
As Oda was led through the clanland of the Kitsune, he once again felt desire stirring within him.
This must be holy ground for every man.
Everywhere his gaze fell, he saw a beauty far beyond anything he had ever seen in the ordinary streets of humans.
Fortunately, Reika had helped ease the desire this place awakened in him.
She guided him calmly through the streets of the clanland.
Her six tails swayed lightly behind her.
With every step, the memories of the last two nights grew stronger within him.
How he had touched her tails.
How she had trembled beneath his hands.
How completely he had lost himself in her.
Oda gave a slight shake of his head to drive the memories away just as Reika finally stopped in front of a house.
Slowly, she turned to face him.
"My lord," she said quietly.
"This is where I live."
For a brief moment, she lowered her gaze.
Then she raised it again.
"And my daughter Nozomi lives here as well."
When Oda followed Reika inside, a small kitsune was seated in the entrance hall.
She had five tails and long black hair tied up neatly.
Her elegant kimono was of a quality that even the highest ladies of the imperial court could scarcely have afforded.
The fine fabric was decorated with small kitsune motifs.
Although Nozomi was still young, one could already tell that one day she would become at least as beautiful as her mother.
When she saw Oda, she rose calmly to her feet.
"Welcome, Father."
In that moment, a warmth unlike anything he had ever felt in his life flowed through Oda.
Until now, he had never had children.
And every time his thoughts had drifted in that direction, they had inevitably turned to Reika.
Back then, he had wanted to buy her freedom from the House of the Kitsune and make her his wife.
Slowly, Oda bowed before Nozomi.
"My name is Oda Nobunaga. I am your father."
His voice sounded steadier than he felt.
"I hope your mother has already told you that I intend to marry her."
For a moment, he even smiled faintly.
"And I hope you can forgive me for only now taking responsibility for both of you."
Reika's eyes widened.
What ...?
He hasn't even asked me yet.
At once, a flush rose all the way to her hairline.
Nozomi, on the other hand, could no longer contain her joy.
With a bright cry, she sprang toward her father and pressed herself against him, trying to take his scent deep into herself so that she would never forget it again.
All at once, Nozomi understood that her mother truly wanted to be with her father.
To Nozomi, that simply felt right.
Oda gently stroked Nozomi's fox ears.
She immediately began to purr softly.