The fog tightened around Toji like a cage.
While he stood frozen in fear, a voice echoed through the mist.
"You look just like your father."
Toji flinched. The voice was smooth, calm-yet heavy with something old and bitter. He turned slowly, heart pounding. His father had no friends. They lived alone. Isolated. No one came to visit.
"Didn't he tell you about me?" the voice echoed again, closer this time.
"Who are you?!" Toji shouted, trying to sound braver than he felt.
The fog shifted.
Suddenly the voice was right beside his ear.
"Your father and I have a very long history."
The air grew colder.
"After wiping out my entire family, he thought he could settle down and have one of his own. So naive... acting like nothing ever happened."
The fog trembled, and a tall silhouette began forming within it.
"I was only a cub," she continued, her voice sharpening, "watching him slaughter my family with his blades. Praised by the villagers. Called righteous. A hero."
A pair of glowing eyes opened in the mist.
"We were living peacefully. Alone. Just like you. And your father destroyed it all."
"My father would never do something like that!" Toji shouted, gripping his dagger. "He's a good person!"
"Oh really?" the voice replied softly.
"Is that what you think?"
The fog parted.
She stepped forward.
Tall. Elegant. Terrifyingly calm. Nine massive tails swayed behind her, cutting through the mist like living shadows. Her eyes burned-not wild, but controlled. Ancient.
"He hasn't told you his story," she said. "I've watched you grow. You're just like him. Naive. Arrogant. Believing violence solves everything."
Her gaze flicked to his dagger.
"Killing innocent creatures. Selling their skins. Displeasing nature. And you call that righteous?"
Toji opened his mouth-
But no words came.
Doubt struck deeper than fear ever had.
"I didn't think so," she whispered.
Her tails flared.
"All that remains now... is to erase his bloodline."
She vanished.
The fog exploded outward as she reappeared in front of Toji, claws slashing toward him-
CLANG!
Steel met claw.
Sparks burst in the white air.
Toji's father stood between them, knife locked against her strike, boots digging into the snow as the ground cracked beneath the force.
"You should have stayed hidden," his father growled.
The fox woman's lips curved into a cold smile.
"And miss this reunion?"
She twisted, her tails whipping forward like spears. One struck the ground, sending snow flying. Another wrapped toward his father's leg, but he sliced through it-it dissolved into smoke and reformed instantly.
Toji stumbled backward as the air around them warped.
His father lunged first-fast, precise. His blade aimed for her neck.
She leaned back effortlessly, her movements almost graceful. One claw raked across his father's shoulder, tearing through fur and drawing blood that stained the snow dark red.
The forest shook.
Trees splintered as her tails slammed into trunks. Snow erupted in waves. His father rolled, coming up with a second blade drawn from his waist.
They circled.
Hunter.
And hunted.
She moved like wind. He moved like steel.
Their weapons clashed again and again, metal screaming against claw, sparks flashing in the fog. Each strike sent shockwaves through the clearing.
Toji could only watch.
For the first time in his life, he saw his father not as a protector-
But as a warrior with a past.
And the woman fighting him not as a monster-
But as someone who had lost everything.
Then her eyes flicked past his father-
To Toji.
And she smiled.