The night she fell

The streets of Tōkyō are bustling, the neon lights lining the streets along the buildings seeming to dull the stars in the sky. Phone screens light up grey faces, reflecting in eyes that have long since lost their own lights as the hordes go about their evening on autopilot. Nothing unexpected ever happens in the heart of Tōkyō. Crime, accidents, someone begging for a few yen, a girl selling flowers, no one senses the shift in the air. That imperceptible crack in the world, like a song missing a note. The tremor that makes the shadows shiver. The fraction of a second the wind holds its breath.

Somewhere on Mount Takao an Onmyōji pauses, lifting his head when he feels a blood-note wail pierce the realm. His hand moving to his talisman like a warrior reaching for his sword. The balance has shifted. He can taste it in the air, the fractures in the barrier between the human realm and the Makai. Something passing through the cracks. Something that bleeds through like a calamity that promises to crawl over every light and consume it.

In the Makai, a Kitsune's keening calls to every corner, the metallic smell accompanies it as silver blood drips to the floor from a spot where one of her tails used to be. "Why? How can you betray me like this?!" The answer doesn't come, in it's place another piercing wail sounds. Another tail severed. She watches as her tail disappears beyond the barrier like the previous one. "Hiyoshi... Please. Don't do this." Her voice is a heart breaking plea that falls on deaf ears. Her cinnamon fur stained with silver. "I need to take them all," the deep voice says from behind the Onikirimaru sword that drips her blood, "stop fighting it Yukari." 

"Where are you sending my tails? I need them back!" Her voice cracks, desperation in every syllable. His orange eyes give nothing away, not a hint of regret or pity as he slices off another tail. Her scream is heart wrenching, but it doesn't reach him. His only reaction a small pause before he sends each tail through the barrier, as if he's calculating. "Please Hiyoshi... I can't take more of this. You watched me grow up, you taught me how to use my tails, now you're killing me!" His finger trace one of her tails that hangs limply, not having the strength to stand proud anymore. "The tail of immortality... I'll leave this one for last. You won't die Yukari." He pets her head so gently that she can't reconcile the soft touch with the creature hacking off pieces of her soul. "I haven't decided you need to die yet."

Her head hangs low against the glowing chains wrapped around her body, her golden eyes barely staying open. Even as another tail is severed, her screams come as little more than a whimper now. "Five down, four to go, little Kitsune." "I can't take it. Please leave me with these. They're harmless. You've stripped most of my power." "Can't do that, Yukari. I have to take all of them." Tears fall over her cheeks, her form somewhere between human and Kitsune now. With each tail lost, she becomes a little more human. "You're supposed to be a guardian. Supposed to protect. How can you watch me bleed?" Her voice is a weak whisper. "I am a guardian. I'll guard your tails." 

The Onmyōji stands in the cold air, his eyes glossed over as his mind traces the slithers entering the human realm. He can feel it. The power slipping from the Makai into the world that's unprepared to handle it. He whispers a prayer with the talisman between his fingers like the only tether to a world about to meet a calamity it hasn't seen in centuries. Even for him, someone that's walked the lines between the human realm and the Makai, the power bleeding through feels suffocating. He can hear the whispered omens in the air, their voices distorted, inaudible as they seem to clash against each other. Something big is coming. He can feel it. He has to end it.

Below the mountains, the streets of Tōkyō continue its organised chaos. The hum of cars, the flicker of neon lights, the sounds of drunken conversations spilling onto the sidewalk. It's almost peaceful in the routine. The sounds of a world unaware. Not sensing how the balance shifts. How the cherry blossom petals seem to tremble just a little more than usual as the flutter down. How the heartbeat of the realm seemed to slow, holding it's breath for what's to come.

As the sun peaks over the horizon, Yukari opens her eyes. Her head pounds like she'd slept through an Earthquake. She's alive. She inspects her limps, how perfectly human they look, and tries her balance without her tails. It takes a moment to steady herself without the weight of her tails to anchor her.

She notices the smell of food stalls first, then the quiet hum of a morning crowd. The screech of breaks creek through her like the sound of the Onikirimaru sinking into her bones. There's something hollow in her now. An empty ache that cries out to what she's lost. She's more human than she's ever been, and that scares her more than the glowing chains of the Makai, more than the Onikirimaru in the hands of the Ho-ō she never expected would hurt her so brutally.

She watches the blooming cherry blossoms, a cat slinking through the grass. It's a sight so ordinary. So mundane. She'd half expected the world to mourn with her. To feel her loss as deeply as she did. She closes her eyes, taking in the warmth of the sun, a shift from the chill of the Makai. She'd survived. How, she doesn't know. But a small smile curves on her lips at the realization. She's made it, and this world doesn't know her yet. Perhaps it never will.