Of Foxfire and Cultivation Ch.11 (Patreon)

In the shadows of a distant room, a woman sat completely still, meditating on the wonders of the world. The woman looked to be on the younger side of middle age. Her facial features were regal and beautiful, with porcelain skin and blood-red lips. She wore flowing white robes that barely hinted at the voluptuous body beneath.

The woman took a deep breath, breathing in the Qi of the world and the sensation of connection that she had with her sect. She had founded her organization many years ago, and every time she basked in the connections formed through her efforts, she knew that she had made the right decision.

She had only made one lapse of judgment since she founded the sect. A single dalliance with an unaffiliated cultivator who reminded her of her youth. Of course, that was where the mistake had originated from. For a man who reminded her of her youth had to be as distant, cold, and uncaring as the world had been to her in her younger days.

The heavens must have been watching as she erred that one time. They bestowed upon her a blessing and a curse. She soon found out she was pregnant with the spawn of that aloof man. The child was born safely, and she had given it away to her one-time partner in a moment of grief.

She spent years regretting her decision afterwards. Still, her pride as a cultivator didn’t allow her to immediately return to beg for her daughter back. So she watched. She watched over the child as it grew and as the father fell into darkness. Just as she was about to make her move and reclaim her offspring, fate struck.

A young man appeared at the father and child’s door. He was about the same age as the child, and the two seemed to instantly hit it off. The woman had watched the scene with a bittersweet feeling in her heart. The young man concluded his business with the father and left, but not before promising the woman’s daughter that he would stay in touch.

And the young man stayed true to his promise. Just a few days later, he returned. His second visit would end up flipping the daughter’s life completely upside down, but the mother could only hope that the change was for the better.

After the young man had piqued her interest, the mother would dedicate a significant portion of her time to finding out everything about him. She quickly identified him as a young master. He was the heir to a neighboring supernatural faction. He would make a good match for her daughter, the mother reassured herself.

Eventually though, the mother’s longing to meet her daughter boiled over. After years of no contact, she finally decided to take action. She tasked one of her subordinates within the sect with making contact with them.

The subordinate was one of the higher ranked girls in her sect. Sure, she was a bit misogynistic and closed-minded, but what was the worst that could happen? The girl was completely dedicated to making the mother’s will a reality. Surely she wouldn’t fail in such an important mission…

The woman took another breath, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Enter,” she called.

Her subordinate, the same one she had tasked with contacting her daughter, entered the room. She knelt in front of the mother. Her Qi felt downcast and ashamed. The mother braced herself for bad news.

“This one greets Mistress Yu Long…” the girl said, bowing her head deferentially.

“Rise. You have returned from your mission. Please, tell me what you have to report.”

The young girl flinched, barely gathering herself enough to speak, “This one must regretfully report that she was unsuccessful. Her offer was not well received by the Young Mistress Yu Wu, and the… fox Onari…”

The mother sighed motherly, “And how much of that refusal was based on your own disrespect and closed-mindedness, child?... How bad is the damage?”

The girl flinched again, “... Bad… In fact, this one may have permanently burned the bridge between the sect and the two targets…”

“Come now, surely it can’t be that bad…”

“This one also must report the deaths of the entire team that was assigned for the mission. Based on what this one saw before she fled, they should all be considered dead and unrecoverable.”

Yu Long was quiet for quite a while after that news. When she did speak, it was with a voice filled with resignation, anxiety, and a bit of despair, “I think it’s time for me to handle this personally. Maybe… Just maybe… she’ll listen to the woman that brought her into this world. Maybe… she’ll understand I made a mistake…”

Three days later (Onari age:16 ~one year before canon)

“Onari!?” Suzaku Himejima exclaimed with obvious surprise and joy in her voice.

She had to physically stop herself from immediately running over to give her friend a hug. She glanced at her uncle, Suou. He gave her a nod of permission, and Suzaku hurried over to Onari and Yu Wu. Despite how excited she was to see her friends again, she somehow managed to keep her usual air of dignity.

Of course, Onari disregarded the dignified act entirely. When Suzaku reached him, he scooped her up in his arms and spun her around. Suzaku squeaked, putting up the impression of a struggle against the sudden embrace. It was clear that her heart wasn’t in it though.

Even though they still kept in contact over the phone and internet, this was the first time Suzaku was seeing her first real friend in over a year. She had recently made more friends, in Tobio Ikuse and the rest of his crew, but it wasn’t the same as her relationship with Onari. It always felt like there was some distance between her and them because of her role in the Himejima Clan.

Suou watched Onari and Suzaku’s reunion with stern eyes that hid affection and relief. Over the years of Onari and Suzaku’s friendship, Suou had come to realize that the environment of the clan was ill-suited for raising a young girl such as Suzaku.

The positive impact of her relationship with Onari could not be denied. It had made her more open, not just with Onari, but with Suou as well. Even if he was strict with his niece, he still loved her. And watching her find companionship with someone outside the clan that he actually approved of did wonders to soothe his worries.

Onari laughed as Suzaku beat lightly on his shoulders, “It’s good to see you, Suzaku. Have you been doing your meme homework?”

Suzaku pouted until he let her down, “Your taste in memes is horrible. The only ones I look at anymore are the ones Yu Wu sends me.”

Onari covered his heart and stumbled like he was struck by her words, “Gah!”

Yu Wu smirked smugly, “Another point for this young mistress! What’s the score now, darling? Five to one?”

“Gah!”

“And you only got that one point cause you had just introduced me to Suzaku~”

“Gah! P-Please… my dignity…” Onari pleaded, crawling on the ground and faux begging at this point.

Suzaku snorted, giggling at the couple’s antics. Onari’s chuckles soon joined the giggles, and the smug grin never left Yu Wu’s face. After a couple of seconds, their brief moment of laughter was interrupted by Suou.

“Onari,” Suou greeted, handing over an inch thick folder that made Onari blanche. “This is my yearly report. You may browse it at your own convenience. Suzaku, I believe your lessons have been suddenly canceled for the day. You are free to spend your unexpected freetime at your own discretion.”

Suzaku blinked at the assist that her uncle had seemingly just thrown her way, “... Thank you?”

Suou nodded and left the trio of friends. It was not his place to hound or mingle with the younger generation. He had done all he could to give Suzaku a chance to be a teenager, even if it was only for a day.

“What now?” Suzaku quietly asked herself. She was obviously not used to having freetime.

“Wanna come with us to visit the Grigori?” Onari offered.

“Oh! Yes, that sounds wonderful. I can introduce you to my other friends!”

An odd pang of jealousy struck Onari’s heart when Suzaku mentioned having other friends. He knew it was good for her and that he couldn’t be her only friend forever. Hell, he had been the one to introduce her to Yu Wu. But still, he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous at the prospect.

Feeling Onari’s slight dismay through the bond, Yu Wu responded to Suzaku for him, “We would love to meet your friends. This young mistress will awe them with her magnificence.”

Seeing Suzaku’s bright smile helped put Onari’s jealousy to rest. She was so excited to introduce her to her friends. He realized that she just wanted to share them with her first friend. There was a time and place for being greedy, and Onari decided that this wasn’t that time or place.

Onari returned Suzaku’s smile, “We’ll try and play nice with them. I’ll do my best to keep Yu Wu from getting too out of line.”

“What?! This young mistress is never out of line! She is the very definition of calm and collected!”

Onari gave Yu Wu a long deadpan look, making her shrink in on herself a bit, “This young mistress is sometimes calm and collected…”

Suzaku giggled as Onari rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, let’s just get going. It’s a long teleportation to Tokyo…”

“What part of that teleportation was long?” Suzaku asked curiously.

Onari hummed, pretending to stroke an imaginary sagely beard, “The hours of the little gnomes that work the ticket system.”

“Pure nonsense,” Yu Wu interjected, shaking her head. “That was bad and you should feel bad.”

The trio walked into the high-rise building that they had appeared behind. The lobby they entered was sparsely populated. A buff man stood near the elevator, and a woman sat behind the front desk. The woman was pretty in a way that didn’t draw attention to her looks. Both of the people were instantly identified as Fallen Angels by Onari, Yu Wu, and Suzaku, even if they were hiding their wings for obvious reasons.

“Hello, how can I help yo-... Ah, Miss Himejima,” the woman at the desk greeted politely. “It’s lovely to see you visit again so soon. Shall I inform the usual people that you’ve arrived?”

Suzaku returned the greeting with a polite smile of her own, “Hello again, Christine. Actually, if you wouldn’t mind seeing if you can contact Azazel, that would be very helpful. Tell him that a representative of the Youkai faction is here for their yearly ‘check up’.”

“Yo,” Onari waved casually. “Tell the old man that Onari’s here to educate him on memes.”

The woman, Christine, smirked at his playful disrespect of Azazel. Onari took it as a good sign that the first person someone would talk to wasn’t one of Azazel’s bootlickers. Christine then phoned… someone. Onari wasn’t sure if she was talking to Azazel directly or if she was talking to someone acting as his handler for today.

The distinction turned out not to matter. In a matter of minutes, the trio was invited into the elevator and taken upwards through the building. Onari and Yu Wu both felt as the elevator hit a barrier and transitioned from reality to a pocket dimension, but having been here once before, they ignored it.

The elevator doors eventually opened and they were led down a long hallway. The hallway was longer than the building was wide, but once again, everyone ignored the strange feeling of spatial distortion. The door they ended up at was just one of many. It swung open, revealing four people.

In contrast, Suzaku’s greeting was much less enthusiastic than her earlier reaction to Onari, “Hello, cousin…”

The only woman in the room squealed and rushed to hug Suzaku, “Suza-chan! It’s so good to see you!”

The woman looked to be about 20 years of age. She had long golden hair and sapphire blue eyes. Her figure was slim and curvy in all the right places. She even managed to outshine Suzaku in the breast department. Watching the two titanic pairs of breasts smash against each other put both Onari and Yu Wu into a trance.

“Lavinia, please let her go. She needs to be able to breathe,” said a silver-haired young man who looked to be about Onari and Yu Wu’s age.

The one Suzaku had initially addressed just stood awkwardly off to the side. He had medium-length black hair and pale eyes. Onari could see the familial resemblance to Suzaku in his face.

At first glance, Onari couldn’t say he was impressed. The silver-haired boy at least had an aura of pride and strength that he carried with him. This guy just seemed kind of… meh. Like he was supposed to be special but always fell short of excellence because of his own decisions.

The last person in the room was someone that Onari and Yu Wu were already familiar with. They had only met him once, but it was impossible to forget the Fallen Angel Azazel after you had met him. His aura just never failed to make an impression. He carried this feeling of ancient power that had mellowed out over the years, but was still just as dangerous as the day his creator had breathed life into him.

Azazel grinned when he saw Yu Wu and Onari, “Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite youngsters!... How did you say it again? Ahem. What’s popping, my based buddies?”

“... That was foul. Your mutilation of slang literally made me sick to my stomach…” Yu Wu cringed. Onari immediately nodded his agreement.

“Bah! Whatever, you know I’m cool. I’m hip. I’m down with the youths.”

“If you’re ‘down with the youths’, then I’m socially well-adjusted…” the silver-haired boy said.

Azazel gasped faux-dramatically, “Et tu, Vali?”

Vali ignored his foster father in favor of introducing himself to Yu Wu and Onari, “You two are strong… My name is Vali Lucifer. Fight me…”

Onari and Yu Wu exchanged glances, “Like… both of us?”

“I do not care,” Vali said, shaking his head. “You. What is your name?”

“Onari. Nice to meet you, Vali…” Onari said, extending his hand to Vali.

Vali looked down at the extended hand and took it before nodding, “Likewise… Now we fight…”

Onari shrugged, “Sure, we can fight. Let me just meet the rest of your group first. I’m sure Azazel has somewhere for us to duke it out.”

Seemingly satisfied with Onari’s acceptance, Vali stepped aside, allowing Onari and Yu Wu to introduce themselves to the other young man in the room.

“Hey. I’m Onari and this is Yu Wu. We’re representatives of the Youkai faction. Nice to meet ya.”

“I’m Tobio Ikuse. It is nice to meet you as well, Onari-san. Yu Wu-san. I’m surprised you managed to handle Vali so easily…”

“He’s not the first battle maniac I’ve interacted with, and he certainly won’t be the last… Hell, Yu Wu can get worse than that when she's in the mood,” Onari said, playfully poking Yu Wu in the ribs with his elbow.

Yu Wu turned up her nose haughtily, “This young mistress has no idea what you are referring to. Perhaps you are mistaking this young mistress’ habits for your own.”

“Anyway,” Onari rolled his eyes. “Suzaku called you ‘cousin’ earlier. Are you a member of the Himejima Clan? Why are you with the Grigori?”

Tobio awkwardly chuckled and scratched the back of his head, “That’s kind of a long story. I was exiled from the clan at birth because of my Sacred Gear: Canis Lykaon. It was sealed for a while by my grandmother, but it activated again a couple of years ago. There was a whole incident following that, but I won’t go into that…

“Still, the Grigori ended up helping me, and I transferred to the Nephilim Institute to learn to control my Sacred Gear. Since then, I’ve just been working for the Grigori…”

“Hmm,” Onari hummed, nodding along to Tobio’s story. “How do you like it here?”

“It’s a living. I’m thankful for Azazel and Barakiel for helping me with my Sacred Gear. Really though, what I want from my life is for the supernatural world to leave me alone so I can open a bar and restaurant.”

Onari and Yu Wu scoffed at the same time, “That’s never gonna happen. You have a Longinus. You literally have a god-slaying weapon in your soul. My advice is to just accept that and grow stronger because of it…”

For some reason, Tobio’s awkward laughter and the ignorant ‘Harem-protagonist’ smile on his face invoked a feeling of scorn within Onari. This man was willingly choosing the path of ‘ignorance is bliss’. The utter lack of self-awareness just rubbed Onari the wrong way.

“If you say so, Onari-san,” Tobio said.

Luckily, Onari was saved from showing his disdain by Suzaku and the previously named Lavinia. Suzaku had managed to pry her blonde friend off of her slightly. With her sliver of freedom, she managed to direct Lavinia over to meet Onari and Yu Wu.

“Lavinia? I’d like you to meet my first friends, Onari and Yu Wu,” Suzaku introduced the two.

“Hello!” the bubbly Lavinia exclaimed, waving at the two Dao Companions. “Thank you for taking care of Suza-chan! I’m Lavinia Reni!”

Yu Wu puffed herself up in the way she usually did when she was about to unleash her greatness upon the world, “Hohoho! This young mistress greets you, Lavinia! Your beauty is extraordinary, only surpassed by this young mistress herself! You must join this young mistress to watch the boys fight!”

Lavinia giggled at Yu Wu’s speech for a bit before tilting her head cutely, “Va-kun is fighting again? Against who?”

“Why, he has challenged this one’s darling to a friendly duel, of course! Come, come, I believe they shall be starting any moment now.”

Yu Wu pulled Suzaku and Lavinia along as the group left the room and found an arena. Even Azazel tagged along to see what Onari was actually capable of.

The room was pretty standard for a Grigori sparring arena. The checkerboard flooring and walls could repair itself if it took damage. A small booth protected any spectators from becoming collateral damage. Onari and Vali took up positions on opposite sides of the room.

“Yu Wu, be a dear and count us down,” Onari called.

“3”

“2”

A pair of light blue and white wings appeared behind Vali’s back. Foxfire flickered in and out of existence around Onari. The air began to thrum with Demonic Energy and Qi.

“1!”

At Yu Wu’s signal, Vali burst forward. His feet left the ground as he used his Sacred Gear to propel him toward Onari. He reached Onari in a second.

The instant Vali had started moving, Onari did as well. One of his feet slid back, and his opposite arm came up in front of him. As Vali reached him, he twisted his body, grabbing Vali’s outstretched arm and pivoting on one foot.

In a blur, Vali’s momentum was redirected. The added force from Onari’s throw meant Vali couldn’t react before he slammed into the ground. He skipped along the floor once before he righted himself in mid air.

Onari stood in the same position he had been in when the fight started, having not moved except for the twist of his throw. His stance was low. With his extended arm, he beckoned Vali to come at him again.

There was a whoosh of air. Vali left an afterimage in the place he had just been hovering. Instead of repeating his first attack, Vali stopped on a dime in front of Onari, reaching out to lay his hand on the cultivator.

Solid foxfire rushed up Onari’s arms, forming arm guards that prevented Vali from making direct contact. Vali flared his Demonic Power, trying to dispel the flames. There was a crack as Onari’s still flaming fist crashed against Vali’s chin.

Vali spun with the strike, coming back around with a kick aimed at Onari’s midsection. More flames formed at the point of contact. Vali and Onari both had eager grins on their faces as they began to trade blows.

Red hot adrenaline raced through Vali’s system. It wasn’t often that he got to fight someone who could match him, and it was even unheard of for his equals to be his own age. Onari’s impossibly solid flames that kept him from using Divine Dividing to immediately gain an advantage only added to the thrill.

Onari’s own inner feelings were much calmer. He still took joy from the exchange of strength, but he was more so enjoying the paradoxical inner peace that came from combat for a cultivator. Fighting was the truest way for a cultivator to express the fruits of their labor.

The sensation of exertion, of testing one’s self against a worthy opponent, was just as relaxing as it was exhilarating. Life or death fights were rewarding in their own way (i.e. continuing to live), but there was nothing like a friendly spar to relieve some pent up stress.

Vali flew back, creating a bit of distance between him and Onari. With a wave of his hand, a thick beam of Demonic Energy crackled and screamed towards Onari. Onari drew a quick symbol in the air with his Qi.

An explosion rocked the sparring room. When the Demonic Energy met Onari’s Qi, there was a bright flash of light and smoke. Vali hovered higher above the ground, searching for Onari within the sudden influx of smoke. He saw a blur out of the corner of his eye.

Onari shot at Vali from the smoke cloud. His hands came together in a resounding clap. Two giant palms of foxfire appeared beside Vali, rocketing together to try and sandwich him between them. Vali stretched out both of his arms to meet the palms.

“Divide”

When Vali touched the foxfire palms, Albion’s voice rang out and the palms instantly halved in size. The now more manageable hands still slapped together around Vali, knocking him from the air when they dissipated.

Onari mused on the concept of Division inherent to Vali’s Sacred Gear as he waited for the devil-hybrid to stand. Vali slowly stood, shaking his head.

“Hmm, interesting,” Onari hummed. “Still, I think we should probably wrap this up here. I have a feeling my companion is causing chaos among your group right now…”

“Nngh,” Vali grunted. “... One more round.”

“You know you don’t have a chance of beating me unless you use your Balance Breaker. And I don’t want our friendly fight to get that serious.”

“Nnnngh… Fine… We’ll have a proper rematch when you come back though.”

“I’m looking forward to it. Now let’s go save your friends from Yu Wu. Last time I left her alone like this… Well, let’s just say we’re no longer allowed into the country of Australia…”

Vali deadpanned, “How chaotic do you have to be to get banned from Australia?”

“Training a hit-squad of elite kangaroos is a good start… And the dropbears certainly didn’t help…”

Onari counted the snort that got from Vali as a win. He swung his arm around the silver-haired boy’s shoulder and they started walking to the spectator booth.

“Now, let me tell you the true full story of Yu Wu’s hot girl summer in Australia…”