Flirting with the Fox
狐といちゃつく

Ulyana Volkoff

 

  “You know…”

 

      Park Jimin's voice was harsh and his tone was coming out cold. "Maybe I would be fine with all the traveling if the person with me was less of a ."

 

      "Maybe I would be less of a if you hadn't left the canteen back in the hostel, you moron," Suga retorted without an ounce of humor in his tone as he knocked the branches out of his way as he continued to hike up the mountain.

 

      "How is that my fault?" Jimin argued.

                          

      "You're joking right?" Suga retorted before muttering a curse towards his friend and adjusting the straps to his backpack. "Whatever. Just take out the GPS. I don't know where the we are."

 

      At that, Jimin paused and turned his head slightly towards Suga who looked to be picking a fight with nature itself. His Adidas were soaked to the brim with mud and dirt and his skintight pants limited his mobility.

 

      Jimin had told his friend before they left that the outfit wasn't good for hiking but all he got in return was, " you it's my outfit."

 

      "GPS?" Jimin asked as he sheepishly adjusted his buckles of his vest. The nervous fidgeting was something Suga caught onto and immediately Suga’s back straightened.

 

      "You can't be serious," Suga exclaimed.

 

      "I thought you had it," came Jimin’s weak defense, and his attempt to pacify his friend only seemed to make the flare of annoyance in Suga’s bright brown eyes spike.

 

      "Did you drop it?" 

      Jimin didn't know how to answer Suga’s question properly so he settled on a different way to appease him, "you know, one day we are going to look back on this and laugh."

 

      "Well, that day we will still be in this forest on this stupid mountain because I for sure don't know how to get out," Suga muttered as he ran his fingers through his dark hair.

 

      "You look stressed," Jimin commented with a sheepish smile.

 

      "I'm going to kill you," came Suga’s retort.

 

      "It couldn't have fallen far considering we had it at the beginning of this trip." Jimin said as he opened his bag and searched through his things. All he saw was a packet of snacks, his cellphone with no signal, matches, his notebook, his Scooby Doo pen, and a flashlight. No GPS and no map.

 

      Suga frowned as he looked over Jimin's shoulder and stared into the contents of his backpack. "You even lost the map? How did you lose the map?"

 

      "Well, I’m not Dora the Explorer. There's only one explanation," Jimin began as he stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder. "It's the ghost of the mountain."

 

      "I am literally ten seconds away from making you the ghost of this mountain."

       "Okay, maybe we should split up and search for clues?" Jimin suggested and Suga nearly growled his way before the sound of a twig breaking made him jump.

 

       "Oh my God. Enough with Scooby Doo already," he retorted and glanced over to the darkening trees. "Let’s just follow the trail and hope for the best." He stood up straighter and glanced at the ground, only to find the trail was in fact missing. 

 

      "I have some bad news," Jimin stated sheepishly. 

 

      "I just want to go back to Seoul already," Suga whined stomping the ground and trying to control the frustration that bubbled in his chest. 

 

      "Okay bro, silver lining?" Jimin began, already sensing that his friend was about to throw a fit. "We have more time to study the mountain."

 

      " the mountain," Suga muttered, and the moment his curse rang, a gust of wind nearly knocked him off balance. For a moment something resembling a whispering murmur floated in between them and Jimin gnawed on his bottom lip. 

 

       "Maybe we shouldn't curse the mountain," Jimin had read up on the gods that dwelled in these trees and the spirits that haunted them. Spirits and Japanese gods always interested him, so he was the first one to choose Japanese spirits as the subject for his report. Suga would have been just as happy to base it off Geisha or ramen, but Jimin wanted something more exciting. 

 

      But maybe it would be safer to hole up in a restaurant slurping ramen and writing about its history. If only Jimin could be satisfied with the simple life.

 

      Go big or go home, he thought with a bitter frown.

 

      "I will curse this mountain however I please. Thanks," Suga replied as he walked near the overhead of trees and mossy green bushes. There weren't any forests in Seoul so watching the enclave of branches form a dome around their heads and block out the light from the sun was quite the sight. Although, Suga hardly cared for sights as all he wanted to do was get back home and cry over his soiled shoes, caked in mud.

 

      “In the depths of Aokigahara rested the spirits of its victims: yūrei. Suicide has become increasingly more common in later years to the point where annual extractions are performed by volunteers to rid the forest of the bod-”

 

      “That’s our paper?” Suga interrupted and Jimin glanced over with a shrug. “You memorized it?” At that moment, a strong gust of wind nearly knocked Suga off balance, causing a shiver to run up his spine.

 

      “My intelligence gives me the chills too,” Jimin commented with a wry grin, but Suga wasn’t looking in his direction.

 

      “Did you see that?” Suga asked, glancing in between dense trees to where he saw a small shake of the bushes. His gaze was focused on the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen. If he didn’t know any better, he could even go as far as to say that they glowed.

 

      “See what?” Jimin glanced to his friend, finding the boy had frozen in what looked to be fear. “Did you see a squirrel?” Perhaps taking a jib at Suga’s fear was a low blow.

 

      “ you,” Suga retorted with a snap, breaking out of his stupor to spit venom at his friend. However he was rethinking his choice in acquaintances at the moment. By the time he looked back towards the bush, the bright blue eyes were gone.

 

      Jimin seemed to catch onto the general area that the tree had rested, and his eyes ran over the bushes and the long tree with a pout. "Does that tree kind of look like a wiener to you?" Jimin asked and Suga turned his head towards his friend before looking back at the tree.

 

      "Not really." Suga replied.

 

      Jimin towards the tree with four long strides. "No it is. This would be the shaft," to aid his purpose he pointed up and down the tree trunk and then he motioned towards the two bushes parallel.

 

      He didn't get a chance to further his argument to lighten the mood when his foot slipped and he fell back towards the enclave of the hill.

           

      My last words are going to be a joke Jimin thought with a final muse as he rolled down the hill and his heart lurched with it. The branches and roots thrashed his body around and it felt like an eternity until a tree broke his momentum in the most painful way possible. He glanced down at his hands, finding they were red and covered in tiny scratches, seeping with blood. His eyes darted around, finding the bottom of the hill looked exactly like the top and the tree that he now rested near resembled a just as much as the one on top.

 

      His brain was blaring in the confines of his skull and if he focuses he could have sworn he saw stars. He staggered up and fell back down with a curse. The last thing he wanted to be trapped without the ability to walk in a haunted mountain.

 

      He neither heard nor saw Suga, which was odd, as he couldn't have fallen far. He attempted once more to stand only to fall back down to his sitting position. Mostly it was his head—swirling in his head like a smoothie—that kept him from getting back up. "Oi," he shouted, hoping his friend would hear him. The loud sound of his own voice made the pain in his skull worsen. "Help. I've fallen and I can't get up!"

 

      Nothing? Jimin thought with a frown. He leaned his back up against the shaft of the tree with a sigh. He closed his eyes and wished he had chosen ramen as his assignment or he wished that he could have Googled everything and cited his sources instead of choosing to 'live off the land'. It's all fun and games until the facts come clear that the land .

     

      He was shook from his wallowing of self-pity when a slight brush of something scooted against his leg. He cracked open his eyes and immediately scooted his back into the tree at the sight of a snow white fox, with its teeth out in a near threatening manner at Jimin's abrupt movement.

 

      When he pressed his hand back he felt something smooth like stone brush against his palm. He glanced behind him and saw that his fingers were inside the empty eye socket of a human skull while his palm cupped the skinless face.

 

      His heart rate spiked so abruptly that it physically winded him and by the time he turned his glance towards the grinning fox, it was right in his face. He could just barely make out the scent of flowers on the fox's fur. Its claws dug into his legs before it blinked and tilted its head to the side.

 

      It felt like an eternity passed with that fox's stare so close to his face before it finally backed away with calm grace. He was surprised of the animal so close. Foxes were known to be rather skittish and they were the first to run from a threat. Of course, he doubted he was very threatening after his obvious fall down the hill and not knowing where he was in the first place. For all he knew, he could be in Mount Fuji by now, but he doubted it immensely.

 

      He tried to inch away from the skull—likely with a body attached—without causing the fox to bite him. That was the last thing he wanted in life: finding a skull of a likely suicide victim (hopefully not a murder) and then catching rabies from a fox. This would have never happened if he had chosen hot Geisha girls like Suga had wanted.

 

      He slowly held out his hand near the fox's face. The pure white fur blanketed his palm after the fox sniffed his hand. "You come here often?" he mumbled, taking a long look into the fox's nearly human eyes. He had never seen a blue so bright and they held a white sparkle that looked like clouds.

 

      At his humorous question, the fox only tilted its head to the side. Jimin decided he was quite done with the creepy stare and he motioned to open his bag. Immediately the fox sprung back like it was struck. It barred its teeth, causing Jimin to lean back in defense.

 

      After the slow stand off, Jimin lifted some Jerky from his bag and ripped open the plastic. Almost immediately the fox's nose twitched and it leaned toward him calmly with its eyes on the beef strip that Jimin pulled from the plastic bag.

 

      "You want this?" he asked and the fox motioned closer. This time it was a threatening step as it growled. Jimin jumped and tossed the beef towards the animal, who caught it in its jaw and swallowed. "You're kind of a ."

 

      The fox gnashed its jaws in a quick snap, causing Jimin to throw another piece of beef. This time he threw it farther, that way the fox would give him some personal space to disinfect his wound and sanitize his hands after touching the skeleton. “Suga…” Jimin muttered.

 

      It gave Jimin a growl of anger and didn’t so much as move, but after a moment of grinding its teeth, it let go of pride and dashed towards the food. In the meantime, he slipped the package of food into his jacket pocket and grabbed the medical kit from his bag. His cellphone still remained signal-less and he cursed Samsung to hell.

 

      "I should have chosen ramen," He mumbled after he bandaged his hands. The moment he made a motion to stand, he felt teeth rip through his jacket pocket where he had stashed the jerky.

 

      He didn't even have time to complain as the fox shredded through his clothing and dashed off with the plastic bag in between its teeth.

 

      "Yah,” he exclaimed, but the fox didn’t so much as pause, “Get back here you .” Of course, the fox just ran away. He limped towards the bushes where the fox had disappeared and he felt a shooting pain rush up his leg and through his back.

 

      It was foolish to get so worked up over a pest, and he realized that the moment he took a couple steps past the look alike trees of mossy green. Jimin let out a slight prayer to not find any more bodies now that he was on his own. He sighed, glancing down at his bandaged palms with a simple frown.

 

      Just as he moved to take a seat and rest, the sound of the bushes shaking made him freeze. He straightened his back but his eyes widened as he caught sight of slim and pale legs. It took him a moment longer to run his eyes up the legs to see they were attached to a girl.

 

      The girl was pretty—in fact he'd go as far as to say she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen—but that wasn't what drew in his attention. It was her eyes. They were the brightest blue with a coy edge to the way they narrowed.

 

      He'd go as far as to say they were the eyes of that douchebag fox. In her hands was the bag of jerky that the fox had stolen from him. She raised one to her lips and took a tiny bite. She then proceeded to swallow it whole as if she didn’t know how to chew or as if it was to be her last meal.

 

      She tilted her head the same way that fox had and Jimin's eyes widened. He shook his head, fighting off stupid thoughts.

 

      "Are you lost?" she asked, taking a small animal like step forward. Oddly enough, every step he took he heard the crunching of tree branches and twigs from underneath him, but when she moved it didn't make so much as a snap. "Are you lost?" she repeated when he didn't answer.

 

      He noticed that she didn't have any hiking gear and her clothes were much too clean and the white of her dress nearly blinded him. Jimin's sense of direction wasn't perfect, but he knew enough to recognize that they were at least halfway in the forest of Aokigahara. There was no way a person could get this far without the tiniest bit of dirt or exhaustion on their face.

 

      "Are you lost?" she asked again, this time a moment of frustration seeped into her voice and he furrowed his brows.

 

      "No. I'm fine, thank you," he finally answered in Korean and he noticed her head tilted to the side and he swiftly realized that this woman was—of course—Japanese. He repeated his reply in Japanese, before deciding that this girl gave him goosebumps and he wanted to leave. A part of him pondered if she was a ghost of one of the many victims of suicide that took place on this mountain. Another part of him knew that believing in ghosts was stupid and that he needed to grow up.

 

      "You are fine?" she asked, and he finally noticed that her feet were bare as they glided over the leaves and twigs that folded over the forest floor. He took a step back as she invaded his personal space.

 

      "Easy there Pocahontas," he stated in a rush as he nearly fell backwards as a painful spike shot through his spine. 

       She paused and he was beginning to wonder if the girl ever blinked. "Po-ca-hon-tas? What is that? Is that a type of food?"

 

      It was either Jimin's Japanese was rusty or this girl was a moron. Perhaps it was both. "What? No it-"

 

      There was a brief glimmer of emotion in her eyes as she finally blinked. The beef jerky from the plastic bag was devoured and she tossed it to the ground. He decided that if she didn't mind littering, then she probably wasn't about to sing him “Colors of the Wind”.

 

      "Is this Pocahontas edible?" she asked and Jimin decided this girl was indeed a moron.

 

      But he would probably watch her version of the beloved Disney movie. "No. Pocahontas is a person. A girl."

 

      "People are edible," she informed him as if he were a student in a classroom.

 

      "Who are you exactly?" he asked, dodging her weird and informative comment.

 

      She hesitated as if she had no idea what her own name was and her lack of an answer left him at a loss. She seemed very reluctant to give him her name, but he focused more on the fact that despite her only being centimeters from his face, he couldn’t feel her breathe.

 

     “I am Yona,” she whispered and Jimin wondered briefly dead people ever forgot their own name. She frowned. “You think I am a yūrei?” Her lips parted with a mocking smile. “Perhaps jibakurei? A Onryō?” Her mention of different classes of vengeful spirits didn’t soothe his headache or his heartbeat,

 

     A spirit that stole my jerky, Jimin thought and she frowned again, can ghosts eat?

 

     He took a step away from her and she tilted her head to the side, nearly confused before she smiled. It was an odd, cat-like smile that made him wonder what she found so funny. “You are afraid?” she asked and she glanced behind him towards the ground where the human skull had rested.

 

     He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping she’d disappear once he reopened them. His fists were squeezed tight and by the time he built up the courage to open his eyes again, he found that she was gone. He let out a sigh of relief, ready to write her off as the affects of a concussion. He turned around and nearly jumped out of his skin when he came face to face with the human skull that she held easily and without fear.

 

     “You are afraid of bones?” she asked with a slowly growing smile as she lowered the skull. “They will not hurt you, but if you are so afraid, then why do you not just put them to rest? Yūrei are harmless if they have the proper rituals.”

 

     Jimin’s attention was immediately grabbed and he glanced towards Yona with a frown, “do what now?”

 

     She gently placed the bone back down, and he noticed that there was no dust on her hands. His still had specs of dust on his fingers while hers remained smooth and clean. He was next to a spirit. If he narrowed his eyes, she even resembled that dead chick from Ju-on. His heart froze in horror, but she didn’t say anything. He still felt like she was a mind reader and he watched carefully as she held her hands over the bones. Her lips murmured something in Japanese so quickly that he didn’t hear it. The strands of dark hair cupped her cheeks and fell over her shoulders, shadowing her eyes.

 

     “It is a sutra,” she finally said, holding out her hand with a smile. “We have to lay the bones to rest, otherwise their spirit will haunt this forest forever,” she whispered and he nearly got lost in the call of her eyes. They twinkled and danced like the stars or a galloping horse, “I would not wish such a fate on anything.”

 

     The way she said it sounded nearly sad, and it pulled his strings causing him to drop to his knees in front of her. “What would you have me do?” he asked and her lips twitched as she held out her palm. He only stared at it, wondering if his hand would slip right through at the contact.

 

     “It is rather simple,” she said with a gentle smile as he placed his hand in hers. The feeling of her skin was oddly cold, as if he were running his fingertips against a cold mirror or she had dunked her hands into a bucket of ice. “I’m taking your energy and channeling it into the bones. It will draw the spirit, its reikon, back here so we can purify it.”

 

     Jimin balked, “is that Buddhism?”

 

     She raised her brow, and opened her lips to reply before closing and standing up, “the ritual is complete and the bones are laid to rest.”

 

     “Shouldn’t they be buried?” Jimin asked, watching as Yona tilted her head to the side.

 

     “The soul is laid to rest. Whatever happens to the bones does not matter. The ritual separated it from its resting place and allowed it to move on,” Yona made a swift motion to kneel down and ghost her fingers over the bones. Jimin could only watch as she carefully kept herself from actually touching it and he again the idea that she was just the reikon of a girl who died in these woods crossed his mind. He wondered if it had been gruesome or perhaps she, like many other victims, had hung herself on the strong branches. He began to wonder if somewhere in this forest, her body had turned into nothing but bones in the dirt of this forest.

 

     “Move on where?” Jimin asked and he began to ponder the irony of a religious debate with a spirit.

 

     “Why ask me that? I am stuck here,” Yona whispered and Jimin’s brows furrowed.

 

     “No one is stuck anywhere,” he replied and she smiled. He noticed that her smile was rather cute, nearly innocent and childlike. It was odd to consider this unnatural being as a child, since her dialect was like that of an old woman.

 

     “It is a rather nice thought, but everyone is stuck somewhere,” she dragged her finger over the dirt, but he began to notice that her movements didn’t make so much as a scratch in the ground. He felt a shiver go down his spine as he tried to ignore the sweat dripping down his the back of his neck. “Are you not stuck in this forest right now?”

 

     “Lost and stuck aren’t the same things,” Jimin’s reply was simple, meeting her gaze with a frown.

 

     “Is it not?” her reply came just as swift. “I have been lost in this forest for years, condemned to watch souls haunt these trees, children hang themselves from branches, and idiots lose their way from trails.”

 

     “Take it easy on us idiots. You did lay these bones to rest with the help one,” Jimin replied and she tilted her head to the side.

 

     “You speak the truth…I could not have done it without you,” her comment almost sounded sad, “I know the sutras by heart, but I have no spirit energy to spare. I had just enough to touch you. I have not touched anything in years…or tasted food on my tongue. By now you must realize I am not quite…”

 

     “Alive?” Jimin quipped.

 

     She let out another childish giggle. “If you want to put it bluntly. I use what I can to allow you to see me. I know every sutra by heart. Every spell and every kanji to exorcise the dead and the demons,” he shivered at her casual mention of a demon, “but I still cannot lay myself to rest.”

 

     “Why not?”

 

     Yona stood so abruptly that Jimin nearly fell back. He wasn’t exactly sure how to react, since he was talking to a ghost—that so obviously wasn’t an everyday occurrence—but obviously Yona wasn’t exactly normal. “I can’t go near my bones. They’ve been locked in the temple for the last eight hundred years.”

 

     “E-Eight hundred…” Jimin whispered, trying to control the urge to tremble.

 

     “Do I scare you?” her face was near his in an instant, nearly causing him to crawl away in fright.

 

     “No. Why would you think that?” Jimin asked.

 

     “Perhaps because you are shaking. Is that the normal response?” she asked, and he noticed that her eyes looked more fox like than ever.

 

     “No. Obviously you’re kind of creeping me out?” he said, slowly realizing how it sounded like a question.

 

     She knelt down next to him, wrapping her arms around her knees and tilting her head to the side. “Why? Even if we wanted to physically harm you we couldn’t. Spirits are nothing more than left over energy, filled with regret and self-loathing…it would take so much hate to interact…so much envy, jealousy, lust…emotion.”

 

     “You know, on a scale of one to ten, that comment helped me relax zero,” he replied and she let out a giggle as she stood up in one motion.

 

     “Would you like me to lead you back to the trail, lost boy?” She asked and he glanced up toward this woman with a slowly growing smile. She had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, and he was certain that he could stare at them forever if she let him. Perhaps she had cast a spell on him, but when he looked at the lonely lull of her eyes he couldn’t be bothered enough to care.

 

     “Instead of that, how about I get your bones. I am pretty sure I can enter temples,” he said and she grinned. He found that he liked when she smiled, it was bright enough to light up her entire face.

 

     “You mean it?” she asked, throwing her arms around his neck. It was odd that at random moments she could touch him and make him feel like she was a regular girl. He wondered what would happen if the energy she spoke of were to run out. Would she disappear like the gas in a car? For some reason, he didn’t want her to disappear. But other times, when he lost sight of her eyes, he just wanted to be back in his bed telling himself it was just a nightmare.

 

     “I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it,” he said in reply as she let him go, her smile gone from her face.

 

     “You made a promise and you have to keep it now,” she whispered, and he attempted to filter the fear from his face when she spoke. Her expression was completely different from the way she smiled earlier. It was as if the twinkle in her eyes completely was blown out like the candles on a birthday cake. “You have to say it.”

 

     “I promise to free you,” he said, less because she asked and more because of the threatening look in her eyes.

 

     The smile returned and she stood, “then lets go.”

 

     “My leg, it’s kind of sore,” he admitted as he stood. By now, she was nearly bouncing off her feet and he felt kind of guilty to admit it, but he had his doubts that he could make it the whole way.

 

     “You can’t walk?” her smile disappeared, making the guilt fester until it practically over flowed from his chest.

 

     “I’ll be fine,” he finally stated and like magic, her happiness reappeared.

 

     “Then lets go, the temple is just that way,” she said pointing in the opposite direction from the cliff he had fallen down. It was odd, it felt like something was up there waiting for him, but he didn’t have it in him to remember what that something was when he followed after her.

 

     Yona didn’t look to care that he was limping to catch up, but he noticed that when he began to fall behind she would slow down to give him time to regain his pace. The forest was so dense and the trees made it hard to see where she would disappear when she got too far.

 

     “How did you die?” he found himself asking after five long minutes of silence. He soon realized that the morbid question he had chosen was not a good conversation starter. It wasn’t like he knew how to talk to a ghost anyway.

 

     “I fell in love with the wrong person,” came her answer.

 

     “How does falling in love cause that?” he couldn’t stop himself from asking, and he began to wish he had the tact to not question such a personal conversation starter. She slowed to let him catch up.

 

     “Love uncontrollable…I lived on this mountain for years alone for that reason,” she replied.

 

     “Why would you live here?” questioned Jimin as his brows began to furrow, not imaging anyone would want to live in a haunted forest except foxes and bugs. She didn’t seem to mind his questions, but it was hard to tell because all he could see was her back.

 

     “It wasn’t always crowded with bones,” she said in reply and her voice sounded far away. Her words sounded as sweet as sugar, and yet it also came off with a melancholy that he felt in his chest. “It was once peaceful and quiet. People didn’t come here and it is said that the ones that couldn’t stay long.”

 

     “What do you mean by that?” his question was followed by the sound of him gulping and deciding that the only ghosts he ever wanted to deal with were the fake ones in Scooby Doo.

 

     “There used to be a spirit that protected this mountain,” Yona said with a smile as she turned her head towards him. Once more the shape of her eyes reminded him of a fox. “It was a powerful zenko.”

 

     “What is a zenko?” He asked, finding that his knowledge of Japanese had never taught him that word. Yona’s lips spread out until she was grinning.

 

     “A zenko is a fox associated with the god Inari,” Yona said, and he tried not to watch how she walked, knowing that it would only make him nervous at the lack of footprints or so much as a broken strand of grass. Jimin tried to get feeling back into his leg. He had his suspicions that he’d never make his way back.

 

     “Was it evil?” Jimin’s question made her stop, which was odd as she had seemed so eager to move forward. She finally began to turn her head towards him and when he caught sight of her eyes, all doubt slipped from his chest.

 

     “Neither good nor evil,” Yona said with a frown. “It just did what it wanted. Is that evil?”

 

     “Where did it go?” he questioned made her smile.

 

     “Not far,” she said with a growing grin that made Jimin want to run. Slowly, her smile began to disappear “The temple. It isn’t far.”

 

     She turned back around and kept walking forward. Jimin, reluctant at first, decided there wasn’t much options for him but to keep moving forward. He didn’t know what was behind him and while Yona scared him, at least he could say he sort of knew her. “Are gods real?” Jimin asked, figuring that there was no better a person to ask than a ghost. Also, he wanted to hear her voice, just to assure him that she wasn’t going to disappear.

 

     “They were once known to appear in every puddle to every tree,” Yona murmured. “I am not so sure anymore.”

 

     “Where would they go?” he asked, but he never got his answer as Yona jumped in excitement.

 

     “There it is,” she said, rushing forward through the bushes. Her face pushed through the branches of dense trees and disappeared through the thick bark as if it was never there.

 

     “Hold up,” he exclaimed after her, limping in attempts to catch up to where she disappeared. He used his hands to move aside the branches of trees before he finally saw an outline of her hair through the leaves. The temple was surrounded in lush green grass with bamboo wood that looked inviting and yet she stared at it from afar like it was poison.

 

     “Why can’t you go inside again?” he asked, finding that she stood a good distance away from the closed doors. She glanced at him for a hauntingly long moment before smiling.

 

     “You promised to free me,” she stated, and in moments her body disappeared. He glanced around, trying to find the slightest glimmer of her hair or the shine of her smile. No matter where he looked, he just saw trees and that temple.

 

     His leg throbbed and for a moment his memory rushed back to him and he remembered his friend who was likely looking for him, scouring the forest for him. But the moment he glanced at the temple, Suga was forgotten and he took a step forward.

 

     He made a promise and he could feel his spoken words hammer in his chest.

 

     The closer he walked, the more he heard the sound of his own heart’s palpitation pound in his ears. His leg was likely swollen by now, but he didn’t care as he passed through the torī gate, which was tarnished with chipped red paint. It looked to have been carved skillfully, but now it looked like the slightest motion could break it apart.

 

     He noticed his hands were shaking when he stepped up the brown stairs and neared the shojī doors, which he was amazed were still in such good condition. He tried to control the pumping of his heart when he neared his hands to slide open the paper doors, and when he did, the first thing he noticed was a small shrine, filled with statues of foxes. Yona’s mention of the zenko wasn’t forgotten and it lingered in whispers in his head.

 

     The inside was slightly dusty, but before he could inspect the shrine any further, he was broken from his stupor by a girl’s voice.

 

     The moment she spoke, the beautiful and undamaged shrine, the garden of grass and flowers outside disappeared like an illusion or a shattered mirror. Instead of the bright green grass, he saw nearly a perfect circle of dirt surrounded the shrine. It was as if grass couldn’t grow near the temple.

 

     The paper doors were ripped as if claws had scratched right through it.

 

     “You promised to free me,” the girl spoke, and all pure innocence disappeared from her voice. He turned around and came face to face with ‘Yona’. Her foxlike mirth disappeared and all there was left in her eyes were blown out candles and nothingness.

 

     He fell back and his hands make indents in the dust on the chipped wood. He couldn’t focus on the splinters or the fact that the fall had seriously ed up his leg. He could only stare at her bright white tails that were visible from behind her head.

 

     “M-Monster,” he muttered, and he half hoped she’d be like a villain from Scooby Doo and tear off her fake tails. Maybe she’d lament and curse that she would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those rotten kids and their dumb dog.

 

     “Monster?” she asked, knelling over and pressing her hand against his cheek. He tried to flinch away as her long nails suddenly sharpened and cut across his skin. It felt more real than any of Yona’s previous touches. “You say such cruel things after promising to free me. I should eat you for that.”

 

     He shivered at how serious the murderous glint in her eyes had shined. Her seven tails merged together until there was one. Only then did she rest her weight on the back of her calves so she could stare at him face to face.

 

     “You can calm down,” she whispered, the murderous edge to her eyes disappeared until he was once more staring at the Yona he had thought he knew.

 

     “I don’t think I can,” he muttered, trying to scoot away from her. But in moments, he noticed that her bright blue eyes had in fact calmed him down until all he could feel was the lure of her irises. “You wouldn’t actually eat me, would you?”

 

     She smiled, “No. Not all of you. Just your heart and liver. I’ll leave the rest for the rodents.” The way she said it so casually brought a spike of fear through his bloodstream. “Calm down. I’m not going to eat you. There’s time for that later.”

 

     He gulped, wondering if he could outrun her and escape through the open shōji doors.

 

     “If you so much as move a muscle, I’ll sink my teeth through that muscle,” she threatened and all fight evaporated out of his pores.

 

     “Okay. So if I ‘free’ you, will you let me go?” he asked.

 

     She tilted her head to the side. “I suppose I could do that.”

 

     “Okay. You promise?” he held out his pinkie, but she only stared at it as she hugged her knees to her chest.

 

     “I don’t understand, are you offering me a snack?” she asked, and his eyes widened. “Fingers are bland and tasteless.”

 

     “No,” he shouted, snatching back his hand. “It’s called a pinkie swear. It’s where we interlock pinkies.”

 

     She tilted her head the side again before lifting up her hand, “If I lock my pinkie with yours, how would that stop you from betraying me? How would that stop me from betraying you?”

 

     He was at a loss for words, and he slowly began to lose hope of living after this.

 

     “If you help me, I promise not to eat you,” she said, tangling her pinkie with his. Her skin was soft and it calmed his racing heart.

 

     “Thanks. I’d like to die with my liver and heart in tact,” Jimin replied.

 

     “You will die with your body parts in tact,” she agreed, and he shivered at the way she worded it.

 

     “How do I free you?” He asked, trying to change the subject and get everything over with so he could eat ten bowls of ramen and chug a bottle of soju.

 

     “Bring me a tree sapling,” she said as she stood.

 

     “That’s it?” Jimin asked and her face contorted in amusement. “Yona…doesn’t that seem too simple. Why couldn’t you do that yourself? You pretended to be a ghost out in the forest. I even saw you eat my food.”

 

     She stood in a swift motion that caused him to fall back. She didn’t attack him like he thought she would and instead she pointed to the door. He followed her gaze with a frown. On the door rested a rectangular ofuda, a paper talisman with kanji written in red script. Oh god is that blood? Jimin thought with wide eyes.

 

     “It’s a seal…a curse that keeps me in in this cage,” she explained and as she spoke he noticed the surrounding wall around the seal was chipped and scratched. The paper, however, was untouched.

 

     “You’re not trapped…” Jimin commented with a frown. “I saw you. I felt you. You could even eat.”

 

     “A spirit,” Yona spat, kneeling down next to him. “An illusion. A flicker and a lie. I can separate my energy, but physically I am trapped. I am starving and I am caged.”

 

     Just as Jimin stood up, ignoring the swelling in his leg, he asked, “was there anything you told me that was true? Is Yona even your name?”

 

     “No. Names hold power over Kitsune. Everything was a lie to get you here. Now bring me a sapling or a root or anything that can grow and live.”

 

     “How do you know I will come back?” He asked.

 

     “Because you hobbled through the forest on a wounded leg just to help out a ghost that you only just met,” she said slowly, and the murderous intent disappeared from her face. “And you promised. Don’t forget. I am trapped, but my spirit has just enough energy to become the noose around your neck.”

 

     I-Is she threatening to kill me over a promise? Jimin’s heartbeat raged and he stood up without warning and exited the shrine doors. He could feel her stare on his back, and a part of him thought about just running away, but he knew on his leg he would never get far.

 

     I’ve seen enough horror movies to know not to piss off a demon…

 

     “Aish…where’s a Scooby Snack when you need it,” Jimin wondered as he exited the red torī gate.

 

     A mere twenty minutes passed by when he brought back a small root, cradled in his palms. It was a juniper bonsai tree, and its stems were full and beautiful. The root was filthy, covered in filth with thin roots embedded with clusters of wet dirt. She took one look at it before she pointed to the middle of the circle of dead earth that surrounded the temple. “There,” she said, pointing to the area of dirt next to the temple opening. “I can not plant it. I cannot step out of the temple. I can not leave.”

 

     Jimin let out a reluctant sigh before he knelt down on the ground. “Am I expected to scoop this out with my hands? I’ve never planted anything in my life.”

 

     “Have you ever met a rabid fox?” Her threat came in rumbles from her chest, and the light in her eyes that had once twinkled then died.

 

     He picked up a stick from the ground with a quick motion and poked at the dirt. “How does planting something help you anyway?”

 

     “I can’t break the seal and leave this place. All I can do is find ways around it. As long as there is something living, rooted here, then I’m free,” she explained, glancing at him. “I used so much of my energy to talk to you. Hurry up.”

 

     “Why did you choose me?” Jimin asked and she sunk to the ground, laying her back against the opening of the doors. Her eyes darted to the corners, watching as he tore apart the ground to make room for the small bonsai tree.

 

     “I wanted your friend…he seemed easy to get here, but then you fell down the cliff…” She slightly smiled. “You hurt your leg…it all seemed to tie together like fate.”

 

     “You saw that? Yeah…that’s not humiliating at all.” Jimin sighed out an embarrassed breath. “Why did you appear as a fox?”

 

     “It’s my true form…it’s much easier to create. I wanted to know if you could run away,” she answered in murmur. From the way she stared at the seals that covered the shrine and the claw marks that decorated the wood, he wondered when she had lost the will to fight.

 

      “People come to this mountain everyday…how are you still trapped,” Jimin’s question didn’t make her so much as glance his way.

 

     “I have one chance for this... I took it on you. People who care little for their own life don’t usually care about another. I took a chance…now hurry. I’m starving…”

 

     Jimin shivered at the idea of her diet, and he prayed that she was an honorable fox. He slowly hovered the root over the crappy hole he dug and met her eyes. “If I do this…you promise you won’t eat me.”

 

     “I promise.”

 

     Her eyes were as genuine as he had ever seen from a person, or in her case, thing. And so he placed the root into the ground and covered the plant’s tiny roots with dirt.

 

     Right when he glanced up, she was in front of him with a placid expression and wide-open eyes.

 

     “Y-You promised,” he muttered and he noticed her lips curve.

 

     “I pinkie swore,” she agreed with a wry smile.

 

     “That’s a binding contract, I can sue,” he warned, feeling beads of sweat run down his neck.

 

     She raised a single brow, before she ran her fingers over the bonsai tree. She looked amazed when she felt the leaves brush over her skin and when she glanced back into his eyes, she smiled. It was genuine and he was certain it would taste like peaches.

 

     “Thank you,” she whispered.

 

     “What’s your real name?”

 

     “Katsura,” she said slowly before she grabbed his hand. He watched every action,  and he was nearly afraid she was going to turn around a take a bite from his flesh. She never did. Instead, she locked her pinkie with his and held it up so it was at eye level. “Thank you for keeping your promise.”

 

     He didn’t get a chance to reply before she brushed her lips across his forehead and disappeared like smoke into the shape of a small white fox. It darted into the trees, past the red torī gate.

 

●▬Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ▬●

 

      Behind an old and run down Shinto temple was where she was sealed. An eternity of nothing to do was more boring than it was pathetic.

 

      "Why are you doing this?" She remembered asking so many centuries ago. Perhaps it was a question that mattered a century ago or the century before that, but it didn't matter now. She knew the answer in its more literal sense.

 

      She could barely remember the name of the human that had sealed her. She could not remember his face or the taste of his tongue or the feel of his lips. She could not remember the way his voice would crack when he pressed his palm against her cheek.

 

      There were a couple things Katsura did remember, but sometimes it was better to stare up into the stars through the windows of the Shinto temple and just dream of something else so far away and distant. But of course, she could no longer dream.

     

      Katsura held her tongue from incoherent curses. She hardly remembered what her own voice sounded like. Maybe it was light and whimsical like that of a harp? Maybe it was shrill and annoying like that of a harpy?

 

      Animals never passed by the window for long. Her aura would fry their wings. Their bones rotted the ground before it became common for nothing to approach.

There was only dead earth around the temple. In the distance, she could see the grass that she could never touch. The mountain of Aokigahara was luscious and beautiful. It had once been her mountain so long ago, now the only part of it that was hers was dead and man made.

 

      If only she could reach out from the window and touch the trees again. If only she could feel the wind on her cheeks and the leaves brush against her skin.

 

If only…