Of Foxfire and Cultivation Ch. 1 (Patreon)

He opened his eyes, wincing in anticipation of the pain and discomfort he usually experienced. It never came. His blurry surroundings slowly came into focus.

He didn’t recognize anything he saw. He was in a room. The walls were immaculately white. The lights were bright and sterile. The air was uncomfortably cold. The only warmth in the room came from the shockingly familiar embrace he found himself in.

The arms around him fought off the chill, and he realized his body was smaller than it should have been. Like, a lot smaller. So small that he was completely enveloped in the arms that held him.

He looked up to see an impossibly beautiful woman smiling down at him. Her beauty defied description. She wouldn’t have lost against even the world-famous beauties of the Veiled Heart Sect.

Her hair was spun gold, and her skin was flawless clear jade. Her facial features were delicate, yet sultry and seductive. The way her smile shone with joy, fulfillment, and pride warmed his heart. He couldn’t stop himself from reaching his small hands toward her.

The woman’s smile grew brighter. Tears welled up in her eyes. Her finger met his extended hand. A realization struck him as his tiny hand wrapped around her finger.

He was a baby. This woman was his mother. But… how? The last thing he remembered was eating in a restaurant with his younger brother. They had been drinking lightly, commiserating the lack of success in his latest healing session. His brother had raised a toast to future successes.

Someone… Someone had taken offense to that. To the idea that a cripple like him deserved to live at all. His younger brother had defended him, but tensions quickly escalated. The offended cultivator and their sworn brothers outnumbered the two of them.

He had hidden under the table when the fighting started, cursing his inability to help his younger brother. His brother may have been the clan’s heir since he had been diagnosed with crippled meridians and written off as a lost cause, but he still wished he could help him. His brother was fighting on his behalf after all, and that left a bitter, ash-like taste in his mouth.

The offended cultivator eventually peeled off from the fighting, and quickly found his hiding place. The cultivator had laughed, holding him up for his younger brother to see. The last thing he saw as the cultivator’s hand speared through his heart was the horrified and destroyed look on his younger brother’s face.

“My precious boy,” his mother said, interrupting his brooding thoughts. “I already love you so much. Welcome to the world, Onari.”

Fire appeared above Onari’s eyes, drawing a character that he could only assume was his new name. He noticed two fox-like ears atop his mother’s head for the first time. Fluffy tails appeared from behind her to stroke his cheeks. Onari felt his own fox ears twitch at the sensation.

Apparently, he had been reincarnated as some kind of Spirit Beast. Onari found that he didn’t really mind that fact. What was most important to him was that he wasn’t crippled anymore. He could faintly feel the energy of the world flowing in and out of his body with every tiny breath.

He grasped vaguely at the metaphysical thread connecting him to his mother. She gasped and smiled at the feeling. His mother’s soul felt warm and spicy through the link. Like a meal that would warm you up on a chilly day.

She giggled, wiggling the finger that was still within Onari’s grip, “I knew you would be a smart boy. Mommy is so happy to finally meet you face to face.”

Onari let out an involuntary ‘blurbling’ giggle. He had the mind of a young master, even if he was a crippled one, but his newborn body was affecting him more than he had realized. He couldn’t bring himself to hate it though. After the news of his handicap came out, he could count the number of times his old mother had held him on one hand.

He could feel the immediate trauma of his death melting away in the face of his new mother’s joyous smile. The lack of suffocating pain certainly helped his mood as well. Onari finally felt like he could breathe.

‘This is how everyone else lived their lives? This is what I was missing out on?’ Onari thought.

His mother seemed to pick up on his distress, but not the reason why. She soothed him with her tails--yes, tails, as in multiple, Onari noticed-- allowing him to inhale her comforting scent.

“Shh, little Onari. Everything will be okay. Mommy Yasaka is here now,” his mother cooed.

Yasaka’s soothing did wonders on the newborn Onari. He soon found his eyelids growing heavy. His breathing steadied. And just before he fell asleep, he heard someone enter the room.

“Congratulations, Lady Yasaka. He will make a suitable heir. It is a shame about his lack of tails though,” said the mystery voice.

Onari could hear and feel Yasaka’s angry hiss. He couldn’t help but giggle a bit at her protectiveness as sleep finally claimed him. He was more than used to a bit of discrimination, and it would take more than that to get to him now that his cultivation was no longer crippled.

Five years later (Onari: age 5)

Onari found out very quickly that his life was somewhat odd and not what he had expected. Sure, his family was nice. He and his mother had a very high standing in their community, and Yasaka cared for him immensely. But still, his life was kind of lonely.

He didn’t have a father. Or, at least, his sperm donor wasn’t involved in his life at all. His family was just him and Yasaka. And Onari often found himself feeling isolated since his mother was a busy direct subordinate of gods and goddesses.

The other Spirit Beasts, or Youkai as they were called here, were dismissive of Onari. He had been born without the signature tails of a Kitsune. Everyone had been expecting Onari to be another nine-tailed fox like his mother. Instead, he was a no-tailed fox.

Onari paid the rumors and side-glances and disdain no mind though. He could feel that he wasn’t far off from breaking through to the first realm of cultivation, the Initiate’s First Stage. Once he did, he knew he would show all of his doubters and critics how wrong they were about him.

That was another thing. Onari had quickly discovered that this world was very different from his previous world. Cultivation here only existed in the basest of concepts. His tutors had told him stories of high level cultivation masters within the Chinese pantheon, but they seemed to be the exception, not the rule.

This world was also much more advanced. The technological and societal advancements had shocked Onari at first. He was only just getting used to the change. He had to admit though, the internet was a wonderful invention. The amount of time he had spent consuming media or just reading would have already made him a scholar in his old world.

Still, Onari was glad his small family was about to get a bit more color added to it. There was only so much ‘culture’ he could consume before he became a degenerate and started enjoying NTR or something worse. Onari shuddered when he thought about the levels of depravity the internet could truly reach.

Yasaka was pregnant again, and she was rapidly approaching her due date. Once again, she had used a sperm donor. She vehemently refused the idea of another man in her life. She only had room for one man in her heart, Onari.

To say Yasaka was a loving mother would be a drastic understatement. Even with all her duties, she still always made time for Onari whenever she could. She never missed an opportunity to tuck him into bed, share a meal with him, or even just cuddle with him on her lap while she filled out paperwork.

Onari could safely say that he loved his mother and everything she did for him more than anything else in this world. She never looked down on him for his tail ‘disability’. She cared for him, spending time and effort on him that could have gone to the Shinto faction. She did her best to shelter him from the predation, posturing, and politics that came with being the son of a faction leader.

The difference between his mother and the rest of the Shinto faction showed like night and day when Onari thought back on how he was treated by others. Even his mother’s Tengu servants were at best dismissive, and at worst, actually hostile. They knew how to hide their hostility. Yasaka’s famous protective streak made that a necessity.

But hiding their hatred and scorn for Onari just meant his detractors had to grow crafty and subtle. A decently large group within the Shinto faction also disagreed with Onari being Yasaka’s successor. He didn’t mind. He was used to not being the family heir. This would just give him more chances to dote on his new younger sibling.

The due date soon came, and Onari was left alone while his mother was in labor. He knew this was done on purpose. This was the first time an attempt at isolating him actually had an effect on his mindset. He wanted to be with his mother, supporting her, but instead he was in a guarded room on the other side of the facility.

Onari took a shaky breath as the indignation of being kept from his mother in her time of need hit him again. He vowed that someone would pay for this impudence. He channeled his righteous anger at the lack of face he had been given back into his cultivation and meditation.

He was close. He could feel it. His internal Qi suffused his entire body with each cyclic breath he completed. He could feel his Qi start to take in the natural energy of the world and change its nature into his own personal Qi.

This internal Qi and the Qi transformation were the true essential basics of the Initiate's realm. An Initiate was able to feel their own Qi and take in Qi from the outside world without harming themselves. Initiates did not have a central Qi Core at this stage, so their internal Qi was spread throughout the physical body.

The Initiate’s realm was the first step in a cultivator’s journey to surpass the heavens. In Onari’s previous world, it was seen as the bare minimum a person must have achieved to be considered a real cultivator. This also meant the Initiates, especially First Stage Initiates, were at the very bottom of the cultivation food chain.

Almost no one in Onari’s previous world would have celebrated breaking into the First Stage. To celebrate such a simple achievement would be to admit that you found it difficult. This would mean the death of a cultivator’s face if their peers were to find out.

Of course, Onari did not subscribe to that way of thinking. For him, reaching the Initiate’s realm was difficult. It was an achievement. He was a former cripple; someone who was only able to break free of the chains that bound him through literal death and rebirth.

Finally reaching the Initiate’s realm was Onari’s ticket to a true beginning. He may have been late by other cultivators’ standards, but he was finally starting his journey to surpass his cursed mortality.

Unknown to Onari, the trials and tribulations he went through just to reach the First Stage were refining his cultivation in a profound way. He would not yet be a diamond, but the pressure necessary was already there. All he needed was the flames of cultivation to finish his transformation.

Onari’s breathing grew even more steady and smooth. His Qi cycle followed his breath. There was no loud bang or tribulation lightning or anything else that would signify that something had changed. All of a sudden, Onari just instinctively realized that he was now a First Stage Initiate.

To the outside world, it seemed as if nothing had changed. Only a select few individuals noticed the shift in the world’s Natural Laws, Balance, and Fate. In a stroke of profound fortune for Onari, most of the beings who noticed the slight shift didn’t pay it any mind. There were bigger things in the works at the moment.

Onari spent the rest of his isolation learning how to move in sync with his internal Qi. He noticed that his Qi flickered and crackled and sparked like his mother’s Fox-fire as he moved and cycled it. He suspected that his internal Qi was influenced by his Spirit Beast heritage.

Eventually, he was fetched by one of his mother’s subordinates, “Young Master Onari. Your mother has safely given birth to a healthy baby girl. I imagine you would like to see them now?”

The man who came to get me was an older Tengu -- a species of monkey-crow Spirit Beasts -- man named Satoru. Satoru was one of the only people in Yasaka’s retinue who did not resent Onari. Peer pressure made it difficult to show kindness to the young master, but Satoru still found opportunities.

“Thank you, Satoru. I would like that very much. I believe I am more than finished being confined here,” Onari said.

Satoru bowed, skillfully ignoring Onari’s slight frustration with his treatment by the greater Youkai community. His poor treatment was unlikely to change. And if Satoru was being honest, it would probably be getting worse with the birth of the new young mistress.

Satoru turned and led Onari across the facility. As one of the only supernatural hospitals in the Shinto faction, the facility was appropriately massive. Every supernatural human or being in Kyoto and the surrounding area came here when they were sick or injured. Yasaka, as one of the leaders of the Shinto faction, obviously received top quality care.

Onari entered the room and was almost immediately awestruck by what he saw. Yasaka had the same tangible glow that she had had on the day of his birth. The image of his beautiful mother with a little bundle of life in her arms was enough to make Onari’s heart skip a beat.

Yasaka looked up as he slowly approached. Her eyes crinkled in a beaming smile. She beckoned him closer. Onari looked down at the newest addition to his new family.

She was adorable. Onari had had the pleasure of seeing his newborn brother in his previous life. That experience, while happy, made him realize just how ugly babies actually were when they were first born.

He couldn’t bring himself to say the same about his new little sister. She was angelic. Her eyes were closed, but her tiny fox ears still twitched atop her head. Her expression was peaceful, making Onari remember just how good it felt to be held in his mother’s arms right after he had been born.

Onari was relieved to see that she had the tails that he was missing. She wouldn’t have to go through the discrimination and disdain that he did. He reached out to lightly stroke her ears, and she pushed back into his touch.

“She’s… perfect,” Onari whispered.

“She is, isn’t she? Onari, I’d like you to meet Kunou. She’s your little sister now, so please take care of her,” Yasaka replied.

Onari didn’t quite know how to respond to that. Of course he would take care of her! She was his blood. It was never even in question for him. He had already failed his last younger brother, most likely causing him irreparable pain and trauma with Onari’s death. He would not fail again!