Tatsuyo

Onetail. A title, not a name. An insult. A constant reminder of what she is and what she's lost.

By all appearances Tatsuyo is your common fox maiden. Well, perhaps common is too harsh. She is a beautiful fox maiden, which is generally enough to draw curious and appreciative glances from passers by. A young woman who appears still shy of thirty summers, Tatsuyo stands at a tidy 5'5 and weighs a healthy 134 lbs. She's been blessed with a blushingly topheavy hourglass figure and dresses in a manner to accentuate her curves. Her ample bosom threatens to spill forth from the low cut kimono which clings neatly to her trim tummy and shapely hips, secured by a tightly clasped sash. The long, shimmering strands of her silvery hair reach all the way to her calves yet are perfecly brushed and untangled, a lovely compliment to the luxurious silken fur of her thick vulpine tail.

She may not always appear in her natural state, for Tatsuyo is a skilled illusionist. At times she may appear human or as an ordinary fox. When interacting with 'lesser creatures' she wears many guises and takes many names. She is a vain, selfish, and salacious woman. People are viewed as mere pawns to Tatsuyo, valued only as objects for her entertainment or as potential meals. She has mothered many kits yet has no family to speak of. A lonely life, perhaps, but this is the nature of her kind.

Tatsuyo is, in truth, a Kitsune. She had formerly been known as Tatsuyo Seventails, a being of considerable power and a dangerous reputation throughout the wide territory of her claimed hunting grounds. Yet the single tail she now sports is not an illusion - her other six tails have been stolen away, her spiritual power drained to feed the lusty appetites of a demoness. Her life was spared, though she is a fraction of her previous self. And so she hunts with renewed urgency, desperate to regain her lost tails.

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Regarding Kitsune:

Tatsuyo's breed of Kitsune are, above all else, tricksters and predators. They regard common folk as either toys for their own amusement or mere prey. They hunger for spiritual essense – the driving motivation for all Eastern Kitsune is the desire to obtain more tails and eventually ascend to the level of ninetail. To grow more tails they must devour beings with sufficient spiritual essense. The essense needed for each new tail increases exponentially, and thus they must target ever more dangerous prey. No risk, no reward. Prey lacking in significant spiritual power are still taken from time to time to provide nourishment, but are regarded with about as much concern as a ham sandwich.

A Kitsune's power is measured by the count of their tails. Tails are acquired by consuming beings with spiritual or magical energy. All Kitsune, even a onetailed kit, are naturally proficient with illusionary magic. This gift becomes more powerful as spiritual energy is gained and tails are earned. A ninetail is, by all reasonable measure, practically a god. Their illusions bend reality itself. Thankfully they are seldom encountered. They are exceedingly rare and reclusive, often losing interest in the 'real' world and instead favoring a reality of their own making.

Being reduced to a onetail, Tatsuyo has lost most of her magical power. This is especially problematic as she had grown quite dependant on her considerable abilities. Hunting is far more challenging when one must rely upon one's wit and physical capabilities. She is sorely out of practice with the hunting tecniques used by kits, but must learn and adapt if she wishes to survive.

Her appetite and predatory potential is limitless. She is capable of ingesting anything with spiritual essence, regardless of it's size. If she can get the smallest portion of a creature past her lips she is capable of swallowing them down completely, physics be damned. Her kind's unique spiritual nature grants her unusual control over the spacial nature of her digestive tract. She can comfortably fit the largest of creatures inside her while outwardly appearing merely severely bloated or moderately pregnant, should she so desire. It is a miserably tight, squishy experience for her victims... but being eaten isn't supposed to be fun. Additionally, she is capable of consuming spirits and other beings lacking corporeal form, her tummy being equally effective at containing them. Worse still, death is not necessarily the end for her victims - those with sufficient spiritual energy can be absorbed into her own soul.

Now, just because she is capable of eating dragons or giants doesn't make it easy. She would still need to subdue them somehow, or keep them from simply killing her should she try. But she is theoretically capable, nontheless. There is one surprising drawback to this unusual property regarding Kitsune – it is a two way street. Her own body is as spiritual as it is physical, and is capable of being consumed by anything that might try should she be unable to otherwise fend them off. To make matters worse the flavor of a Kitsune is said to be unmatched in this world, sweetened by each of their previous meals. Kitsune in the past have foolishly met their end in some rather unlikely predators. Needless to say, she is cautious to keep this from happening to her.

Her people are not fond of meeting fellow Kitsune. Cannibalism is a very real danger during such encounters, as consuming a fellow Kitsune is an incredibly efficient method of gaining tails. Thankfully, they do not need to mate with each other so interaction is typically avoided. Males of her species are sterile while women produce Kitsune offspring with any partner they choose. Raising children interferes with hunting, sadly, so said children are often abandoned in the woods. Most become easy prey for the local wildlife, including opportunistic rodents and deer whom find them before traditional predators. Such a start ensures that her kind are quite rare, and survivors are truly the pick of the litter.

Time passes by differently for Kitsune than for most. One's lifespan is determined by their collected spiritual power and they progress in age accordingly. Young onetailed kits grow far more swiftly than human children, though this progress slows as they hunt and add additional tails. You can tell a Kitsune's predatory appitutude by judging their apparent youth against their number of tails. A youthful four tail has been more successful than a middle aged five tail, for example. A Kitsune's aging stops completely upon obtaining their ninth tail, by which point their glamour is powerful enough to make physical appearance a moot point regardless.

What does this mean for Tatsuyo? Well, for one, being a onetail of such age is unheard of and a tremendous embarassment. Worse than the shame, however, is the sense of urgency this has forced upon her. Time is her enemy as she once again experiences the fleeting pace of youth. She may make foolish decisions and take unnessessary risks as a result.

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Some time has passed since Tatsuyo's misfortune. She has hunted successfully these past few months, claiming enough worthy meals to reclaim several of her lost tails. Though still quite far from her former seventailed status she has proven to be a formidable huntress and should not be taken lightly. Underestimate her and you may very well end up as her newest tail!


Not a fan of fluffiness? You monster! Here's where I keep the alternatives. Vailyss