"Most kitsune tend to pass away in less than a couple of years after gaining a sixth tail. Nine tailed kitsune were a thing of myth, and are at the very least considered demigods. Most known nine-tailed kitsune were known deities like the Tenko, though any kitsune with nine tails might be able to ascend to godhood at that point. In theory, at least. Other than that I've heard that kitsune with seven tails are able to levitate, cast complex illusions, turn into a fox for a short amount of time, as well as use Kawarimi without problems."

"Kawarimi?" Herta asked.

"A log substitute." Ayane explained. "A burst of smoke is created, and the person casting the skill will instantly flee the scene. When the smoke clears something will be in the place the caster once was—this is called a 'substitute' and it's usually a block of wood. Useful as it sounds, the drawback is too great to be worth the risk: It uses all of the caster's mana and causes a temporary connection to the substitute for around half a day— meaning that any attack done towards the substitute will harm the caster for that period of time. As far as I'm aware both kitsune and tanuki can use Kawarimi, but it's not a common skill to see in action for these reasons."

You talked with your fox about these matters and more, getting some more insight into the special magics kitsune had. Apparently fox fire had some unique spiritual properties, affecting spirits and 'burning away' corrupted creatures, which explained how it did so well against Oghlurk.

The subject ended up touching Ayane's history with her tails.

"I obtained my second tail when I was a young woman. I was slumbering, so the exact moment eludes me. But I recall that it happened after a difficult day of mastering my Fox Flame powers, both to impress my parents and disparage my sister in front of Eisho." She gave a nostalgic smile, but that soon became a frown with her next words. "I don't know when I obtained my third tail, but it happened around the time I had fallen into the depths of my own sorrow, so long ago...

"The years melted into each other as I hid underneath my father's roof. Upon one of the rare occasions I stepped out of my room, my father mentioned that I had another tail — I didn't even notice it was there." For a moment her eyes became empty. She shook her head, sighed, and regained her composure. "I wish to believe that I obtained my third tail at the news of my mother's death, or perhaps when I mentally decided to slowly rise out of my spiral of self-destruction. But it's just as likely that it was merely a product of old age."

"Ayane..." You embraced her, giving her a soft kiss.

"Master, do not worry." Ayane gave a genuine smile. "Those days are far behind me thanks to you, my love. You've been here to warm my heart, give me hope, making me dare to believe in a brighter future." In her gaze there was strength and her words carried an absoluteness to them.

Our kits flock to us,
Their first spring, smiles are plenty,
It's a gentle dream.

—

The talisman is one I took a second to recognize. Aya used a similar talisman to destroy my cage of silver in scarlet red flames, and those same flames had devoured the walls of the Fake Shrine. Chen’s dissipates in a deep blue, her little—pale, dying—hand holding it like a lifeline; her pupils had disappeared beneath shut, trembling eyelids; heaving of the chest furthered the downpour of darkened blood, bloodshot eyes sprawling in increasing number, tearing down her small frame as they emerged at random, the Gap not working as it should and bringing with its wide stares more wounds. One peeled the skin under her right eye, and it bled profusely. The world felt stagnant as I soaked in every single detail of a slow, painful death.

Tears mixed with the blood, and I glared at Reimu, her teeth grinding and flesh quaking like a pulled bowstring, tears thick and falling as that legendary fury I’ve seen in my every nightmare took hold and erased the woman underneath it. In that split second, whatever redemption Reimu sought had vanished, and murder poised—

It was the first time I found sanctuary in her rage.

—“YUKARI!” Her scream was guttural and strangled, a thing of pity and fear, yet one that I welcomed wholly as her arm rescinded and clenched the Gohei tight to the sound of breaking wood, splinters digging deep into her palm.

My own tears did not surprise me. The Hakurei miko let go of Chen and I held the bakeneko in my arms, alone, her frame throbbing with frailty. Her twin tails had frozen up, her limp body withered away and got smaller and smaller, and my stomach churned violently at the hole and the Gaps gushing from it.

Hugging her to me, I prayed that the rage Reimu washed herself with, massive wings flaring like ruffled edges of a glacier about to be snapped, would bring about the end.

That after she’s decreed her rage, this war ends.

“… Kill her… please…” I beg my ex-wife.

Yukari’s purple eyes flooded mine.

She receives spite.

May her heart be shattered to pieces.

Her purple eyes well with tears.

Reimu is gone in a sizzling of the air that fills my lungs and threatens to explode them, and in my peripheral vision Hana lunged too, her eyes until then glued to the dying cat, unreadable to her Father a second time since her birth—the first, she’d killed and moved on as if merely dusting her clothes—; Okina moved too, a hiss of pain the only thing I detected before the Underground was alight with purple, bristling lightning that boomed so strongly and close my maimed eardrums felt like about to burst. Backdoors sprung up, but they were all… closed? The thick purple electricity bounced off them harmlessly and hit the wet gravel, cooking it into glass.

I had moved my back to the war, as if shielding Chen from it. It’d mean nothing. “H-Hold on, you two!” The Sage of Backdoors yelled at us, my eyes growing huge with the blanket of vertical lightning that’d formed above and around the Nuclear Lake. The eerie silence meant that if the Sage of Backdoors were a moment too late, the pulsar would’ve killed me.

… Yukari doesn’t care. Not anymore.

Her love is dead.

For a brief second, I permit myself to be glad; then, the faint heartbeat of a dying body pressed against mine brings me back to reality, and I rush towards the Sage of Backdoors, ignoring the wounds across my body and the burning of my broken arms. “YOU NEED TO TAKE US AWAY! C-CHEN CAN BE SAVED!” I shouted at the woman holding off something so beyond my comprehension it lost all sense, all possibility. It’s just raw power. A simple man would never understand godhood.

A simple man doesn’t belong in Gensokyo.

“… Y-Yukari did something to my power—when she used the red blade on my backdoors, they’ve… closed,” she grunts, eyes on the backdoors that protect us from the surge of electricity. Though not one sound echoes, in the distance shadows dance over the purple and white coalesced energy, and in my veins—my skin—I feel Reimu’s wrath.

But that doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter.

The sound of opening Gaps continues, a haunting lullaby.

“… S-She’s going to die…” I mumble, hopelessness gnawing, as it does. Gaps spread over my reddened jinbe, and Chen whimpers, pale like a ghost. I watch it all like a hawk, yet my heart urges my eyes to look away—anywhere but the source of many memories—laughter, spiders, crochet—, to not commit her death to memory. It’d destroy me, I know.

Another consequence of this war.

Of Gensokyo.

All the Sage of Backdoors gives me is a sad look.

The purple light paints her tiny frame, the Gaps gaze as if confused, and though these knees of mine have buckled, I hold Chen.

I would always hold her.

Even in the end.

Another voice joins the lullaby of emerging, bloodshot Gaps.

Chen’s eyes flutter open, debilitated. Words choke my throat. “Ran-sama…?” She gurgles, barely a whisper.

And a most gentle hand falls on my shoulder.