Beware Kitsune!

Three samurai leaned forward in hushed tones over a table at Takagi's Noodle Shop. The square wooden cups of sake had been heavily used, absorbed by their grief. As usual, Takagi's was bustling that evening but the high-ranking men were not disturbed by the surrounding patrons - especially with such serious looks on the faces of these three. Something was not right in the Owari clan.

"I admit it. Something is wrong with Tashima. I did not want to see it, but after today I have to say he's no longer one of us.

"I've been telling you! Ever since the Osaka trip! Something happened."

"But Nakamura found nothing when we sent him! He retraced every step."

"That was two months after Tashima. The trail was cold by then. Whatever incident occurred is lost to the four winds."

Their ruminations were drenched in the sorrow of a lost friendship. Tashima's ready wit had made him a hero to the other three. Many generations removed from the unification of Japan and the time of war, boredom was an enemy difficult to slay, of which Tashima was a hearty fighter. Rituals and ceremonies came and went, but the long drawn out days lingered on, stifled by political intrigues that flowed from the Shogun down to the clans. Being unambitious and apolitical gave the group an air of freedom they relished in these stagnant times.

But now Tashima was one of them, the plotters and seekers of power; men who rotted from within. Maru's beheading proved today it once and for all.

"Suspicious" was the word that kept coming up after Tashima's return from Osaka. "He's suspicious of everyone," grumbled his colleagues. It was if he walked down the street with one eye looking over his shoulder. Had he made an enemy on his trip? Who would dare attack a clan member in Edo, the Shogun's capital? No one understood what had to be a baseless fear on Tashima's part.

Paired with this new fear came a lust for power. Like a seeping dam it started slowly then burst forth amid Tashima's naked power grabs. The very people he previously so piercingly mocked became his courted allies. Tashima turned his wit on anyone who got in his way, cruel and unjust in his words to please to the elders' ears. An honest clan was hard to find in Tokugawa era Japan and Owari was no exception as their leader craved flattery with a constant hunger.

Tashima framed Maru in order to take his place. It was an open secret. Apparently the elders' gave their blessing for Tashima's treachery, telling him to find a pretext for Maru's removal. With this act, Tashima's transformation was complete.

The old Tashima was sorely missed by the three grieving samurai at the noodle shop. Frustration, anger, sorrow oscillated through them like a roller coaster in an endless loop. They wanted to save him, to curse him, to let him go - then repeated the cycle of emotions.

"It does not matter what happened in Osaka! That was six months ago. He's lost to us."

"But if we knew we might save him!"

"He will never speak. A demon took his soul along the trail. Perhaps a sly fox swindled him, and it's the fox's foul soul that has taken over."

It was with no pleasure Tashima's former friends began to refer to him as "Kitsune" [The Fox Spirit] behind his back. The name gave a rationale to his sordid ways, an explanation that could be understood. These things happen, they mused, however painful the outcome. Still, a gnawing nagging feeling remained that the fox was not done. His mayhem was leading to meifumadō, the demon path to hell. It's one thing to hear of a Kitsune taking possession, but to see it with one's own eyes!

The hushed tones of the samurai that night were part of a larger "quieting" in the clan. Kitsune were greatly feared for their cunning and wiliness and to underestimate one could prove fatal. But how to defeat one? No one knew. In helpless awe, the clan warriors observed Tashima's ascent. The elder's encouraged the Kitsune talk as they felt that increased their power - even as they failed to realize the fox was coming for them too. The next few years saw terror go unchecked, no recourse found in either man or nature.

Tashima's old gang had moved long passed dejection to resignation.

"How cruel the ways of nature! One minute a man, the next minute a fox."

"But Tashima was smart! Would take an exceptionally tricky fox to get the best of him."

"But look how clever this fox has been! He's unstoppable in his rampage, making wild accusations against everyone, no matter how false. Everyone sides with him even though they know better. This is an exceptionally cunning beast."

As time passed, Tashima's voice became the loudest in the clan, even over the leader (who also deferred to him in fear). With palms facing each other, he made the fox's gestures as he spoke, moving them in and out as he summoned hell's energies straight from the river Styx. With this, no matter how false his words, no one could refute them and survive. Any accusation - or any praise - could be leveled at any time. The worst and the weakest defended Tashima vociferously so that they may gain the fox's favor even as the flow of banishments and beheadings wrought the most outrageous evils never before seen in the thousand year history of the clan. It all seemed to happen in the blink of eye.

When Tashima was made leader, wild celebrations were had as the Owari had changed from a clan to a cult. They'd assumed an arrogance, a supposed superiority, over rival clans who stupidly clung to a sense of reality. The fox clan had mastered truth, they claimed. The Owari had become the talk of Edo - though to the disgust as many who despised them as followed them. Then the Shogun announced an upcoming mandatory meeting of all clan leaders at historic Osaka castle.

"I'm doomed!" cursed Tashima to his closest confidants.

Even as chief accuser of conspiracies, Tashima was also chief conspirator. His eager sycophants asked what they could do to help to prevent his fall from power.

"Find Sozoku The Rat in Osaka! Find him at all costs and kill him!"

Sozoku the Rat was a legendary drunkard and swordsman of Osaka. Unlike a regular man, drink increased Sozoku's skill - even he not remembering the feats he executed while drunk. But he was also notoriously unaccepting of fools and loudmouths he came across. And Tashima had been such a loudmouth.

As a young cocky samurai sent on an important errand for the clan, Tashima loved testing his rapier wit in a city he dearly wanted to impress. In practice, his swordplay was exemplary but he was untested, never having been forced to face himself. Riding this was wave of invincibility, he dueled Sozoku in a battle of wits at the legendary Shimada Shoten sake bar. Tashima won this battle however not realizing it would lead to a further battle - of swords. With a surrounding and knowing crowd, Sozoku displayed the bedazzling skill he'd use to "slice the topknot off" Tashima's head. Had that had happened Tashima would have been disgraced for life and his family name ruined. His mouth had written a check he could not pay.

Facing certain ruin - and a bloated bladder of drink - a puddle formed at his feet much to the amusement of numerous onlookers who quickly dubbed him "Hakama ki" [Yellow Pants]. Tashima ran as a scalded cat deep into the night, having failed to face himself, never to trust again. If only he'd hadn't been so cocky! If only...if only...if only...

Naturally, this was not the tale Tashima told his inner group. He slandered Sozoku as a born liar who'd say "the nastiest of things for no reason" and he hated Tashima for having bested him in both "sword and word." Incensed and outraged, Kitsune followers swore to avenge him, their lives had meaning. The Fox smiled.

Unfortunately, as a worshiper of incompetence and a having a perpetual need for adoration, Tashima had only the the clumsiest of fools close to him. Blindly rushing to Osaka guns in hand, five assassins shot down Sozoku - and all five were promptly arrested. Having incredibly failed to remove the Owari insignia before committing their crime, a trial was demanded of Tashima to explain his men's actions. The Kitsune knew only one playbook.

"It's a hoax! These accusations are lies made by my enemies! I barely know those five men. What are their names again? Someone told me but I forgot. The facts are lying to you all!"

The Shogun tribunal was the buzz of Edo. While the Kitsune was vehemently decrying the process as "rigged", he maniacally did his best to rig it in his favor, offering huge bribes to the corrupt judges of his fate. While many of his detractors we sure the truth would doom The Fox at last, he manged to stave off revelation on the back of the weakness of his fellow man. The Fox rejoiced in his triumph of evil under the sun, safely harbored in Nippon's downward spiral ending in two atomic explosions to jolt them back to reality.

CODA: Two centuries later in a land far, far away, a corrupt but successful businessman spawned a child. The boy had dyslexia, an undiagnosed condition for the time. He did poorly in school, as would be expected, wrongly feeling himself inferior to his classmates. These Sozoku moments of embarrassment he felt he had to hide at all cost. Forever trying to live up to his father, he dedicated his life to creating an illusion of success for himself. Though wanting to be a successful businessman as his highest goal, he bankrupted six companies in a row - yet sill refused to admit his failures. He turned to the only type who'd consort with him: criminals. In crime he found his calling - but even more need to cover up!

He too ascended to be leader of his country, ruining countless lives, putting blood on his hands, doing irreparable harm to the planet, waging war on reality itself. And once again, out of the smallest of incidents, the greatest of tragedies can come.