Kurotsukihime

By a small moonlit lake surrounded by meadows of flowers and an impenetrable wall of large trees, lay a pure white majestic fox with a humanoid form. Long white hair and tall ears. Eyes gently shut, sleeping underneath the full moons clear, twinkling sky. Long Finger nails, same color as her eyelashes. Eight bushy tails lay on soft grass and wrapped around her body acting as a blanket. Loose white clothes blend in with her tail, covering her entire body while being wrapped loosely with a useless sash along her waist.

A wave of darkness raced across her luminescent lake and was gone in an instant. Mitsuki’s silver eyes shot open, looking for her moon, but all she could find was a black mass. Staring in horror, she’s overcome by a moment of shock and despair. Immediately overcoming the darkness futilely trying to tear at her mind, she dashed through the forest at incredible, inhuman speed upon realization of what is happening.

Images flooded Mitsuki’s mind, pieces of the moon, children, locations. Mitsuki knew what she now had to do. She headed for that first piece which contained the moon herself in a nearby village. On the way, a giant being that gave off a feeling of nothing, but emptiness started to pull itself out of the darkness engulfing the unyielding moon. It struggled to free itself, slowly a head started to emerge.

Knowing there wasn’t much time left, Mitsuki sped as fast as she could. She finally found a medium sized, poor village which had a piece of the moon. The birth was complete, but that giant monstrosity had already pulled its face out of the dark sea. The moment it did, a sad, terrifying, hatred filled roar resounded across the entire planet. It drained what was left of humanities spirit, no hope for the future, for humanity, or the world. Every living entity on the planet heard this and those weaker of will, were taken first. It started to change them. They turned into something else... Unexplainable, but easilly defined. Minions of the darkness.

Mitsuki, knowing she was to late finding the other two pieces, rushed into the childs room. The mother was already transformed into a minion of darkness right as the child left her body. Her cries didn’t sound like cries though, instead they seemed to sing against the overwhelming, engulfing, consuming roar. Destroying the monster with slashing claws, she grabbed the child and ran to the next moon piece.

Mitsuki found the village of the moons piece. The town was lined with wooden buildings, some a few stories high, but also filled with minions of darkness. Those not already turned, were being helplessly slaughtered by their friends and family who were taken by the dark. As she surveyed the area, all she saw was interference with her search, rotting buildings, filth laying about and ragged clothes these shabby people wore. She saw the child being carried away by a human girl through the treeline away from that village. Being chased and slashed by a legion of smaller minions who could’ve once been children which were possibly her friends. She was constantly slowed down, but showed enough skill to avoid lethal wounds and even slay any that got to close.

Mitsuki charged in, destroying all minions chasing her. Covered in blood, she gave off the presence of a valiant warrior even while being so tiny. Collapsing from serious wounds, she looked up at Mitsuki. Knowing death was near, she held the child out to Mitsuki. As Mitsuki took the child the young girl said, “The village is gone and I don’t know how many if any villagers survived. I just barely, managed to grab him and run. I wasn’t strong enough to protect him on my own and even abandoned her... He means everything to me, but I entrust him to you... Fox... I refuse to let the monsters take him. Take care of him in my stead, that’s my dying wish to you.” Mitsuki having no time for a reply took the second child and headed for the third piece, but with a slight movement of her hands before leaving, moonlight glowed from the small girls wounds. The tiny sanguine warrior watched the graceful fox as she left, accepted death and quietly passed out, laying peacefully against a blood smeared tree.

Deep in the forest, far away from any civilization, the final moonpiece resided in a single, lonesome cabin.. When Mitsuki arrived, a minion of darkness was battling a rugged man, with stubble and skin showing signs of age. Covered in blood, his attacks were predictable, but with experienced and skillful execution. As Mitsuki was about to destroy the minion, his lengthy and arduous battle closed to an end when he hesitantly landed the killing blow.

The warrior riddled with shallow cuts and minor bruises, didn’t have any serious injuries, but almost gasping for breath, collapsed to his knees. Bellowing a painful roar of agony; not from physical stress, but because of what he had just done.

Mitsuki, having no time nor care for being considerate, asks what happened to the child. Surprised, he looks up to see a graceful, white fox woman donning a serious expression. Getting back to his feet as if the previous battle never happened, he raised his sword to Mitsuki.

Mitsuki says, “You know why I have come, dont you?” Looking to the sky, his eyes then slowly drifted to where the beautiful moon used to be. He sighed, then limply pointed his sword toward an expensive cottage.

Mitsuki leaped into the previously undamaged cottage, not bothering to use the door and picked up the third child from a crib carved with love. Knowing time has almost run out, the giant was now out of the darkness up to its chest. In a large clearing where the cottage was, she held up the children with three of her nine tails and clasped her hands together in prayer.

“O goddess of the moon, Aegis against the darkness, Mother of gaia. Forgive your children who ask you to perform a duet with the darkness. Grant your compassionate light to we who have forsaken you. Illuminate the infinite cosmos scattered across your clear sky with absolution.” The child with the third moon piece glowed bright. The darkness that consumed the sky vanished and was replaced with a more yearning darkness filled with countless comforting stars.

“The lake within our psyche turned black, with the monster inside there is nowhere we can hide. We can’t break free from the demons in our eyes. Sing your song of tranquility, fill our spirit with serenity, cast an enchantment of your benevolent gravitation. Lost in our own madness, purge the darkness from our hearts.” The child with the second moon piece glowed bright. Minions of the darkness all across the world were drowned in light and returned to their original forms.

“Harmonize insanity, compel neurosis into a barrier of empathy. Radiate your clarity upon the bastion of malevolence. Be our bulwark and emanate your brilliance, become our beacon against the ceaseless despair. Perform your celestial light of starfall, shine your pure empyrean light of effulgence to coalesce and nullify the void. Please grant one more. My final wish. Starlight Aurora!” The child with yuzuki, the moon herself inside her, glowed bright. Mitsuki brought the tips of her tails together above her head. A beam of pure moonlight erupted from the tips, and shot towards the roaring colossus sticking out of her moon.

The giant of darkness was bathed in moonlight and was slowly forced back inside the black mass that used to be Yuzuki. Unable to continue his dreadful spell, their roar ceased. Focusing all of it’s strength into pushing back the moonlight, Mitsuki would not surrender and used every ounce of her power to seal the darkness inside Yuzuki. She then used the moonlight to pierce through and also purge the black mass. Sealing the black mass inside the core of the moon, Yuzuki shone bright again and was returned to her original state.

Preventing the darkness from consuming their world, nearly losing conciousness, Mitsuki fell to her knees. Regaining some strength to stand, she looked for the warrior to return the child, but he was nowhere to be found. Mitsuki says to those three new lights of hope, “With nobody to raise you three, I will take responsibility and guide your paths.” Looking at the child with the moon inside her, “But you. You are the only one that can save this world from the darkness. I have only temporarilly sealed the dark, but you can permanently save this world from the void. Whether these other two boys will aid you is up to them. I have drained every drop of power from the moon’s pieces. Only their own strength will be able to support you.”