The White Vixen

Café Lumière occupied the ground floor of an Art Deco building in Ginza, wedged between a luxury jewelry store and a contemporary art gallery. The place exuded understated elegance—dark wood paneling, burgundy velvet armchairs, soft lighting filtered through stained-glass windows.
The kind of establishment where a single cup of coffee cost a salaryman’s daily wage.

Aoi followed Rei inside, ignoring her body’s protests. The wounds from the night before had been treated—tight bandages beneath her clothes, painkillers dulling the worst of it—but the speed of her recovery was unsettling.

Rei had barely spoken since the call from this Kuzunoha. His shoulders were tense, jaw clenched. Through the Resonance, Aoi felt a complex swirl of emotions—apprehension, irritation, and something that felt disturbingly close to fear.

Who could frighten a yōkai several centuries old?

She found her answer at the back of the café.

A woman was waiting for them in a private alcove, seated with the effortless grace of an empress upon her throne. She wore a modern kimono of immaculate white, embroidered with pearlescent patterns that seemed to shift when the light brushed over them. Her silver-white hair cascaded over her shoulders like liquid silk. Her face was coldly beautiful and ageless—she could have been twenty-five… or a thousand.

Dark-tinted sunglasses concealed her eyes.

But what struck Aoi most was her presence.

Even without her awakened spiritual senses, she would have felt it. A raw aura of power saturated the air around the woman, so dense it was almost suffocating. Compared to her, Rei’s energy felt like a candle before the sun.

The woman smiled as they approached.

“Rei.” Her voice was a warm purr, almost maternal. “So this is your little protégé.”

Rei sat across from her, stiff as a rod. Aoi took the seat beside him, unable to tear her gaze away from the fascinating creature before her.

“Kuzunoha,” Rei said, the name sounding like a warning. “What do you want?”

Kuzunoha removed her sunglasses.

Her eyes were an iridescent pearlescent pink, luminous like living opals. They settled on Aoi with predatory curiosity.

“Straight to business? No ‘how have you been’? No ‘it’s been a while’?” She sighed theatrically, shaking her head. “Where did your manners go, Rei-chan? Such a disappointing kōhai.”

She burst into laughter—a crystalline sound that made heads turn throughout the café.

She beckoned a waiter over and ordered tea for three without consulting them.

“I’m an independent consultant now, you know,” Kuzunoha said, examining her perfectly manicured nails. “I sell my services to the ultra-wealthy. Protection, curses, information. I also work occasionally with certain governments.” A sideways smile. “Section Nine consults me from time to time, even if they hate admitting it.”

Aoi frowned. “Section Nine?”

“A government organization that monitors yōkai and their activities,” Rei explained reluctantly. “State secret. They’ve existed since the Heian era.”

“And they’re remarkably incompetent,” Kuzunoha added sweetly. “Otherwise, Kageyama’s little project would have been shut down months ago.”

The tea arrived. Kuzunoha poured it herself, her movements hypnotically elegant.

“I have no reason to stop Jin,” she continued softly. “I want to see how all this ends.”

Rei gave a short, humorless laugh.
“You haven’t changed. Indifferent. Curious to the point of indecency.”

Kuzunoha didn’t seem offended. She took a sip of tea, perfectly calm.

“But I can help you,” she said at last. “I know the exact locations of Akane, Tsubasa, and Ren.”

Rei tensed. “And in exchange?”

Kuzunoha’s smile widened.

“In exchange, I want the Resonance.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

“Excuse me?” Rei’s voice dropped dangerously low.

“Not literally, idiot.” Kuzunoha rolled her eyes. “I want to study it. Observe how a human and a yōkai can fuse their powers, their essences.” Her pink eyes gleamed with avid interest. “And see what happens in the end.”

A shiver ran through Aoi. To Kuzunoha, they were nothing more than curiosities to be observed.

“No,” Rei said immediately. “Absolutely not.”

“Rei—”

“I said no.” He half rose from his seat.

“Perhaps your little onmyōji doesn’t share your opinion, darling.”

All eyes turned to Aoi.

She thought fast. Intensely.

Without information, they had no chance of stopping Kageyama. The Festival was approaching. Every hour that passed strengthened the ōyurei. Yuki, Akane, Tsubasa, Ren—four lives hanging over the abyss.

And Kuzunoha had the answers they needed.

“I accept.”

“Aoi!” Rei stared at her, incredulous.

“We don’t have a choice.” She met his gaze, unwavering. “If we want even a chance, we need that information.”

Kuzunoha clapped softly.

“I like this one. She has guts.” Her pink eyes slid over Aoi with newfound appreciation. “Such a shame you’re bound to Rei. Otherwise, I might have made you my little treat…”

The implication was unmistakable. Aoi felt her cheeks heat despite herself.

Rei growled—a sound with nothing human in it.

“Kuzunoha.”

“Oh, relax.” The white fox waved a hand dismissively. “I don’t meddle in other people’s affairs.” She leaned forward. “Now, if you want your information, I’ll need to examine your Resonance. Just a touch. Nothing painful.”

Rei hesitated, jaw clenched. Then, reluctantly, he extended his hand. Aoi did the same.

Kuzunoha took both of their hands in hers.

The contact was electric.

A spiritual shock surged through all three—white, silver, gold. Aoi felt something brush against her essence, probing, examining, dissecting her. It was invasive. Intimate. Almost obscene.

Then it was over.

Kuzunoha opened her eyes—Aoi hadn’t even realized she had closed them—and her expression had changed. No mockery. No playfulness. Only… pure fascination.

“Oh.” Her voice was a whisper. “Oh, this is… beautiful. Truly interesting.”

“What?” Rei demanded tensely. “What did you see?”

Kuzunoha looked at them both, an enigmatic smile on her lips.

“You are changing. That much is certain. Your essences are fusing more deeply with every passing moment.” She tilted her head. “The question is—will you die… or transcend into something new?”

Aoi’s blood ran cold.

“You… you know something. We’re not definitely going to die?”

“Hard to say.” Kuzunoha shook her head. “That’s what makes it so fascinating. The Resonance is a near-mythical phenomenon—there simply aren’t enough precedents to predict the outcome.”

She sat back, resuming her tea as if nothing had happened.

“But I can tell you one thing: natural laws are not immutable. For every rule, there are exceptions.” Her mysterious smile returned. “Who knows? Perhaps you’ll be one of them.”

The silence stretched.

Then Kuzunoha drew an envelope from her kimono and slid it across the table.

“The locations, as promised. Akane is in a recording studio in Shibuya. Tsubasa is in an underground concert venue in Shinjuku. Ren is on an abandoned film set in Odaiba.”

Rei took the envelope warily.

Kuzunoha stood, smoothing her kimono. “You have less than four days before the Festival. After that… even I will leave Tokyo. I’m curious, but not reckless.”

She put her sunglasses back on, concealing her inhuman eyes once more.

“Good luck, Rei-chan. My little onmyōji.” One last smile. “I can’t wait to see how this all ends.”

She left the café, trailing behind her the scent of jasmine and danger.

***

They walked in silence through the streets of Ginza, the envelope weighing in Rei’s pocket like a time bomb.

At last, Aoi spoke.

“What if it’s true? What if we really have a chance to—”

Rei stopped abruptly and turned to her, his golden eyes shining with an emotion she couldn’t quite identify.

“Aoi. Even if it’s true—even if we can transcend instead of dying—we don’t know what that means. We wouldn’t be ourselves anymore. We’d be… something else.”

“We’d be together.”
The words escaped her before she could stop them.

Rei stared at her, mouth slightly open.

The Resonance pulsed between them—warm, alive, terrifying.

Then he looked away.

“We need to focus on the mission. We have an ōyurei to stop.” He started walking again.

Aoi followed, her heart heavy.

They reached an intersection. Rei stopped, pulled out the envelope, and studied the information.

“We’ll have to split up to save time.”

“Split up?” A knot formed in Aoi’s stomach. “But the Resonance—”

“I know.” His voice was tight. “It’s going to hurt. But we don’t have a choice. I’ll go after Akane and Tsubasa. You’ll go get Ren in Odaiba.”

He paused.

“Be careful.”

“…Alright,” she said at last. “We’ll meet again after.”

Rei nodded. He reached out and brushed her cheek—a gesture so brief she might have imagined it.

“Come back to me in one piece.”

Then he turned and disappeared into the Ginza crowd.

Aoi stood still at the crossing, watching his silhouette fade away. The Resonance stretched between them like a thread of gold, growing thinner with every step of distance.

It hurt. Physically.

She wiped away a tear she hadn’t realized had fallen. A melancholic smile curved her lips.

Then she turned and headed toward Odaiba.