Kitsune!Japan x Reader - Protection Ch.1

Kitsune!Japan x Reader – Protection Ch.1

The forest was full of special characters. All of the people and animals living there had unique powers. There were one or two snakemen, a few werewolves, one or two stray mages, and even a vampire. You thought you had met everyone in the forest after coming to visit nearly every day for the past few years, but one day you were asked about someone else. You had been spending time with Arthur, one of the first snakemen…

“Hey, (f/n), did you meet everyone? It ssseemsss that sssomeone needsss to be graccced with your friendship,” he told you. “You are the only human who hasss accepted usss. Without you, we would all be gone. I think he isss about to give up.”

“Who’s this he? I thought I had met all of you, Arthur,” you replied, looking up from helping him pull dead leaves and muck from his scales.

“Kiku, one of the kitsssune,” he replied absently. His forked tongue flicked out quickly to taste the air. Maybe something was coming?

Definitely something coming. Arthur plucked you up and slithered his way into the back of his cave, the darkest part. Voices echoed through the cave and got louder. You recognized the twin werewolves, Lovino and Feliciano, and their friend Ludwig, also a werewolf. Along with them was the voice of the dragon spirit Yao and several others you didn’t recognize.

Arthur let out a sigh. “It’sss okay. It’sss jussst them,” he whispered to you.

Arthur began to slither forwad, gesturing for you to slowly follow him. You stayed close to the end of his tail.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” he said once his torso was out of the cave. They all replied with hellos, Feliciano’s greeting shakier than the rest. You waited inside the darkness of the cave for someone to catch your scent. With the werewolves there, it was inevitable.

“I smell (f/n). Is she with you, snake bastard?” Lovino asked. And there it was. “You better not have eaten her!”

“Afternoon, guys,” you said, stepping into the light. You squinted in the brightness of the forest light, and you smiled once your eyes adjusted. The group all said hello to you.

Behind the group of people you already knew were six others. One of them was jumping up and down, trying to see you. The others seemed uninterested or distracted in one way or another. You tilted your head to the side and blinked at them. The others parted so you could see them.

The one who was jumping up and down gasped overdramatically. “She’s human!” he cried.

“Yes, we know. She won’t hurt us,” Yao said impatiently. Arthur moved more in front of you than he had been before, and he curled his tail in a protective coil around you.

“Hi. My name’s (f/n). Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I’ve been visiting this forest for years and have never told a soul. It’s alright,” you said with a bow of your head as you stepped over Arthur’s tail.

“Ohhh! All right! I’m Yong Soo, da ze!” the boy cried before launching himself at you. His hands were heading right for your chest. You sidestepped him so he landed face-first in Arthur’s cave. You giggled.

“I should introduce the others. That is Yong Soo. He is a mage. Mei here is a cait sith. Leon is a fenghuang, similar to the western phoenix. Lien is a turtle spirit. Cheng is a crane spirit. Kiku there in the back is a kitsune, which is a Japanese fox spirit,” Yao explained.

Yong Soo had short brown hair and a weird cowlick sticking up. It had a face of its own, probably a result of his magic. His hanbok was stained brown from the fall. Mei was a beautiful girl with long brown hair and matching eyes. There were pink flowers in her hair beneath twitching cat ears, and her pink quipao fluttered in the breeze to show off a tail that was split at the end. Leon looked pretty normal in his duangua, with slightly long and choppy dark brown hair and brown eyes, but the air around him seemed to be on fire. Lien was a beautiful woman in a green ao dai with a brown ponytail and honey-colored eyes, and she seemed to have the wisdom of hundreds of years. She looked so calming. Cheng was very tall, with brown hair and combed-over bangs. His golden eyes were slightly hidden behind rectangular glasses, and his simple changshan nearly reached the ground. He was balanced on one foot and held a golden paper fan.

Kiku seemed to be hiding behind the others. He had expressionless brown eyes and short black hair. A fluffy white fox tail swished behind him, and a matching pair of ears on his head was slightly flattened. He was looking down, refusing to make eye contact with you. He had on a Japanese jacket, white with blue trim and huge sleevs, over blue pants tucked into a pair of long socks, and a pair of traditional sandals on his feet. In his hand was a Japanese paper lantern.

You tilted your head to the side a little. The others had all at least acknowledged you being there. Why hadn’t he? Was he just shy? Or was he afraid? You took a few steps closer to him, and you stopped at what you felt was a safe distance.

“Hi. It’s nice to meet you,” you said. You wiped your hands on your already dirty dress and smiled at the man.

Kiku looked up at you through his bangs. His eyes were on the ground again quickly. Then you heard giggling. You looked down to see a face had appeared on his lantern. The giggling escalated into gales of laughter before the lantern finally calmed down enough to speak.

“He won’t talk to you. Not like this,” it said between gasps and occasional giggles. “There’s no way!”

You looked back up at Kiku, who was extremely embarrassed. A small smile pulled at your lips as you looked at him.

“No need to be scared or shy. I won’t do anything to you. I promise,” you told Kiku. “Can you look at me?”

Hesitantly Kiku looked up at you. He was so cute! You smiled at him again. Kiku was just shy. Of course, he had good reason to be. You were human. Normally humans were scared of creatures like him if they saw him.

“I- It is very nice to meet you… (f/n)-san…” he whispered with a bow. You returned the bow.

“Likewise.” You looked up at the sky to see it was turning orange. “It’s getting late. I should go back home. It was nice to see you guys again.” You turned to the people you just met. “It was very nice to meet you all. Hopefully the next time we meet I won’t have to leave so soon.”

You turned around and began walking back to your house near the edge of the forest. The others began heading back to their homes in the forest. Just when you thought they were all gone, footsteps began crunching through the leaves and twigs on the ground. You turned around to see a white fox holding a lantern running after you, panting.

“Will you be back tomorrow?” Kiku asked when he had caught up to you and had changed back into his human form.

“Yes. Oh, I almost forgot. If I say I’m coming back but I don’t before noon, my house is the cabin closest to the edge of the forest in this direction, the one with the (favorite flower) bushes in front and the (color) curtains. Check the back door for a note. Usually I’ll leave one stuck in the doorjamb if I had to go into work on short notice, okay?” you told him with a smile.

“H- Hai!” he said. You saw a small smile on his face before he turned to go back into the forest.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kiku,” you said quietly. His ears twitched as he glanced back at you a little bit, before he ran back to the others.

Kiku knew all about the prophecy. Kiku knew that a female human would be the one to save them all from doom and destruction. He knew that she would be a very special person. What he didn’t know was that he and that girl were destined to fall into a cursed and forbidden love, and he didn’t know that he and the girl to save them had just met each other.