Foxfire
Hiro identifies his family name as X or ____ in the story because he is the last son of the family of an organized crime unit (yakuza) operating out of the Kaihanshin Prefecture. While in instances such as the Kobe earthquake of 1995, the yakuza have shown to be uncharacteristically helpful to what Hiro's father called “the people of the day”, who were not to unnecessarily have their lives ruined by “the people of the night”. Hiro himself could only hope that his father's coworkers would leave his family alone after his death- even though his grandfather was also yakuza. Hiro just wants to live an ordinary, boring life as an accountant.
Sadly, this was not to be and not only because of the level of organized crime. When Hiro is kidnapped, tied to a chair in some lonely warehouse and threatened for information about Foxfire, he takes it as a sign that the legacy of crime did not die with his father. Hiro is rescued by a red-haired Japanese woman who, to his dismay, reveals herself to be a hitwoman on an unconventional mission. She, too, is considered yakuza, but she no longer has any actual family or people who truly knew her family. Hiro is confused, because if that were the case with him, then the last thing that he would ever want to do is continue the distasteful line of business so that he couldn't even ever go to the police to sort out. The strange woman, Akane, accompanies him home where she is introduced to his mother and sister (Masuyo and Eri, who appear to know Akane very well). Akane pledges to be Hiro's bodyguard until the Foxfire is destroyed. Masuyo warns her that she and Eri might disappear for a while, but to know that they will both be safe and they love him. If they were entering some kind of witness protection program Hiro wants to know why he cannot join them.
In any case, Hiro takes a leave from work to move to another apartment. Akane moves in with him. He notices her habit of eating several small meals a day and they hash out their cover story. Akane doesn't mind Hiro calling her his girlfriend and, when she follows Hiro to work and the security guards make her wait outside, Hiro's co-workers warn him that she's using him for his money if she just sits there all day waiting for him because she doesn't have anything else to do. One day, he comes out from work and sees that Akane is feeding a pair of foxes.
When they return to Hiro's apartment, a bald man in a black suit is waiting for them. His eyes are in his own hands. Akane turns into a fox made out of fire, setting the eyeless man on fire and evacuating the entire building.
As Hiro tries to get his bearings, Akane explains to him that beings from Japanese folklore are very real. However, for the most part, they stayed in a world of their own. Some of the more mischievous creatures, who had great power, would use that power to take mostly-human form and walk among people. However, they never forgot exactly what they were. However, to keep it secretive, they needed to go underground. What she did not expect was that it was not only the werefoxes that intermingled with other “underground” organized people like the very human yakuza. The tenome—the eyeless man—was one such being. His eyes did not only see the mundane, which may be what they sent him to find—information about the Foxfire that the yakuza suspected Hiro knew—but the tenome saw that Akane herself had Foxfire.
Hiro wonders how he even got involved in a supernatural underground and Akane tells Hiro that his father was a descendant of the werefoxes who remained in the city and modern world. Hiro's mother was part werefox and was in on the secret, but because Hiro's father was such a disappointment to the foxes and because only the women of the line can show the shape-shifting habit, they decided to keep it a secret from Hiiro. His fox blood was diluted enough that not only would he remain fully human and not pass on any shape-shifting but he would have lived as a full human, despite his history.
Akane herself is a full-blooded werefox. This means that she can shape-shift, but she also has the burden of foxfire. In fact, she is the only one in the city who has this burden now that all the pure werefoxes are gone.
When Hiro asks what foxfire is, Akane says that he is honestly safer with not knowing. Hiro doubts this, considering that he was not only threatened in a warehouse because of foxfire by mooks, but also threatened by a horrible creature that has eyes where it should not be.
Akane says that foxfire is the power of a werefox to keep back the sea dragons that cause tidal waves. She was supposed to meet secretly with the sea dragon to negotiate the sea dragon going somewhere else instead of bringing a tidal wave to their shores. If her fire was not strong enough, then the dragon would win and flood the city. The yakuza wanted more information about Foxfire because they thought they could control its power or worse—interfere with fire-water elemental negotiations.
When Hiro is at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, he and Akane are confronted by yakuza. Akane tears the veil between the worlds to welcome the sea dragon. The sea dragon tells Akane that her fire is too low to prevent the passage of the sea where it will go. And besides, the sea dragon sees into the souls of the people behind her, the sort of humans that she would save, and he sees only ignorance and the supreme reign of malice. Akane says that she would risk ending her life, quenching her flames in seawater and leaving the world with organized criminals if it meant that somebody as lovable as Hiro would live.
The yakuza agents witness the entire exchange, and realize that they are in over their heads. When Hiro breaks away from them and gets between Akane and the sea dragon, the sea dragon sees that Hiro has fire in his heart as well. The sea dragon decides not to contest it and returns behind the veil, back to his watery world.
CHAPTERS:
Chapter one: Hiro has been kidnapped and tied up in what looks like an empty warehouse with criminal mooks threatening him for what he knows. He pleads that he's only an accountant, whereas the mooks are convinced that Hiro knows something because his father was a yakuza member, like they are. They want to know about “kitsunabe”—Foxfire. Hiro can only answer what he knows of the folktales that he learned as a child. Unsatisfied with his answer, the mooks are ready to torture him.
Chapter two: A strange red-haired Japanese woman overpowers the mooks (without magical fire), frees Hiro, and accompanies him home. She introduces herself as Akane, a hitwoman for a rival yakuza family (but she is not there to kill Hiro.) Hiro and Akane return to Hiro's home and talk about their childhood. Hiro grows to like Akane, despite that he is frazzled and very unsure if he can trust her. They return to Hiro's home where Akane has some cryptic exchanges with Hiro's mother and sister.
Chapter three: Akane and Hiro move in together so that Akane can continue to protect Hiro. Akane has a separate concern that has to do with the time of the year or just some important unspecified time that she simply knows is approaching. At that time, Hiro will no longer have to fear being tortured for information on the foxfire because the foxfire will be gone.
Chapter four: Hiro begins to notice fox-like oddities in Akane. As for Akane, she likes to go out and explore and adventure for fun and take Hiro with her to restaurants and hot springs (she is very unabashed about her body, which clues Hiro in to that Akane was not raised like normal people.)
Chapter five: Just as Hiro and Akane become comfortable with one another, yakuza mooks send more threats—one being the paranormal eerie Tenome. Akane defeats the Tenome with her magic foxfire skills, which she was supposed to be saving for a negotiation with a sea dragon.
Chapter six: Akane explains the otherworld and underground relations to Hiro. She tells how Hiro's own father just so happened to crossover between the two, which was a dishonor and disappointment among the other foxes who wanted to be a part of the human-dominated “real” world while still being safe from intermingling.
Chapter seven: Akane takes Hiro with her to confront the sea dragon, in full view of the other yakuza mooks. The combined Foxfire of Akane and Hiro persuade the sea dragon not to flood the Kaihanshen Prefecture. Despite Akane's fire almost being spent, she survives the negotiation (when she was expecting not to) and the yakuza agree to leave the paranormal world alone.
SETTING:
The Kaihanshin Prefecture is the second most popular city in Japan next to the country's own capital, Tokyo. Without competition, it meshes the metropolitan Osaka city region with the “old” Japan of charming traditional Kyoto and the city for which the world-famous Kobe beef is named (although the actual beef-raising is done in the more rural areas of the same prefecture of which Kobe is a part of). Also, that same district is famous for its hot springs.
The werefoxes, or Kitsune, are intermediaries between the “real” world, and the Japanese otherworld. Dragons and strange demons from folklore often challenge the Kitsune as guardians and gatekeepers between the worlds.
CHARACTERS:
Hiro (Anonymous)
Age: 26 Height 5'7” Hair: black, straight Eyes: dark brown
Gender: Male Build: skinny
Hiro is an average boring person. He seeks to distance himself from anything exciting in life and has even held a great disinterest in romance. He seeks roles in the world that he can fulfill rather than fight for and pursue his passions.
Eri (Anonymous)
Age: 22 Height: 5'04” Hair: black, straight, very long Eyes: dark brown
Gender: Female Build: slender, wispy, slight
Eri is Hiro's younger sister.
Masuyo (Anonymous)
Age: 45 Height: 5'00” Hair: short, artificially made wavy and black Eyes: dark brown
Gender: Female Build: once-voluptuous, now rather saggy and dumpy
Masuyo is Hiro's mother.
Akane Kitsune
Age: 25 Height 5'5” Hair: black, straight Eyes: amber-yellow
Gender: Female Build: voluptuous, athletic
Akane is a hitwoman and bodyguard, from a long line of Kitsune—legendary Japanese werefoxes. She has the power to wield divine fire that might become actual physical fire, but is a gift intended to deter ancient sea dragons. She is sassy, forward, and even violent when it calls for it, but she is loyal to her family tradition and has enough of a moral core without brooding.
Tenome
Age ?? Height 6'0” Hair: none (shaved head) Eyes: grey and located on the palms of his hand
Gender: Male (most likely) Build: skinny
This tenome wears a black suit. His eyes can see the paranormal nature of things, which was why the yakuza who recruited him often send him to spy.
The Sea Dragon
Age ??? Height: tall Hair: non-applicable Eyes: blue
Gender: Male (most likely) Build: serpentine
The spirit of the sea dragon comes before a great storm or tidal wave. To deter his path means to avert natural disaster.