There was an uncomfortable feeling, the blaring sun on closed eyes.

His eyes shuddered open as he stared at the sun overhead. He quickly sat up, taking in his surroundings, not recognizing where he was.

He was in an alleyway, there were a few dumpsters nearby and every so often he heard a person walking by. Laughter and speech could be heard in the same direction as people walked down the street.

'Where am I, how did I end up here?' The questions resounding in his head as he couldn't seem to recall.

There was a burst of pain, not just in his head but also in his chest. He placed his hand over his heart, it almost felt like he was stabbed, yet there was no wound.

He calmed down some-what, hysteria would not help him in this circumstance. He calmed his mind, not wanting his thoughts to jump around and bring about that splitting pain again. He would start slow. His name and identity….

His face went blank.

"….who am I?" He whispered, slightly trembling.

A bit of panic set in, he didn't know who he was, where he was, or why he was there.

Even his 'knowledge' felt weird, it felt like someone had just implanted it in his head, like he read about the things he knew rather than experiencing them.

It took a few minutes for the mini-panic attack to subside.

'Calm down' He kept shouting in his mind.

First thing first, he needed to make sure he was unharmed, common sense would dictate that memory loss the side effect of head trauma. But feeling around his head, he couldn't find any wounds, nor any other oddities with his body.

He looked down at the clothes he was wearing, he knew the names of the designs, the brands but it felt odd, like it wasn't something he was used to wearing.

His 'knowledge' of the world once again coming to the forefront of his mind, and again the same feeling.

Eventually, he stumbled out of the alleyway, looking a bit worse for wear.

He noticed a few glances his way, he probably looked like a mess, but he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment.

He looked around and saw a shop with a large glass display on the store front.

As he walked over he stared at his reflection.

'Maybe that's why they were staring.'

The nationality of the populous didn't go unnoticed, he was in an Asian country and was assuming he was a foreigner.

Blonde hair, green eyes. He stood out like a sore thumb.

The sudden realization flashed through his mind, he could read the language, that should mean he wasn't here by accident. There was a reason he came here, an objective that maybe if he found it could unlock his memories or atleast figure out who he was.

There was the thought to go to the authorities…. except he had no identification or really any thing except the clothes on his back. He wasn't sure how they would treat someone in his situation, and he wasn't too keen on them simple dumping him somewhere due to the hassle and forgetting about him.

He pushed such an option away for a last resort. There was a thought that he may be able to find an embassy somewhere, guessing by his looks he would say he was from the west and he felt like his native language was English. There was just the issue of figuring out which English-speaking country he originated from and that wasn't even considering the fact that there may not be an embassy in this city, he didn't even know what this city was.

While he was mentally planning the next move, his thoughts came to a halt.

A child walked by, unnoticed by everyone.

Not strange in of itself except he could see something flickering. The outline of tails and fox ears, they were there then gone and there again. Like an illusion, when he focused on them, they were gone, but out of the corner of his eyes, he could see their outline.

Something was wrong. It was both natural and unnatural to him.

A voice in the back of his head was telling it that it was something that he shouldn't see but another part of him found it nostalgic.

'Not Human'.

She didn't even give him a glance as she continued onward.

He hesitantly followed.

The more he stared, the more her features began to solidify in his vision. Eventually he could see them, fox ears and nine bushy tails swinging around, yet no one except him noticed.

She continued for a couple blocks until she turned down an empty alley way.

He waited a moment before turning down it as well. As soon as he turned the corner, a petite hand reached out, grabbing him by the collar, and threw him a bit further in.

His vision turned upside down as he was flung forward, landing on his back. He turned his head upward to see the little fox girl standing above him.

She did not look happy.

Their eyes met for a moment as he hastily stood back up and stepped away, a bit of fear shown on his face. He was thrown around like a ragdoll. Unnatural strength doesn't correlate to body size.

Not human.

"You were following us, why?" The girl finally spoke.

"I…..um…." The word didn't come out as he had planned.

"Are you one of those that likes children?" The girl said with clear disgust in her voice. "Mother told me about your kind, I did not think such depravity actually existed."

"…" He was speechless as he realized what she was talking about. It took him a moment to calm down. " I AM NOT A PEDOPHILE."

She crossed her arms and stared at him, the look in her eyes conveyed her thoughts perfectly, she did not believe him.

"I…was just curious, I saw the tails and ears and didn't know what was going on."

Her expression changed, from disgust to something akin to surprise. Her stance changed, she was on guard now. "You saw through our illusion."

It wasn't a question but a statement of fact.

"Are you one of mother's spies? Did you notice us and wanted to bring us back, or are you one of those rogues? We will not leave without a fight."

Her hand lit up in a strange fire as she held it ready to attack him.

"woah woah!" The amnesiac yelled before scuttling back. "I don't know who or what you are!"

The fire in her hand dissipated as she walked closed, her face an inch away from his as she inspected him.

"You are human." A bit of disbelief in her voice. "A human saw through our illusion. Are you a magician!?"

"I – I don't know." He answered hastily.

"Is this a trick? We'll have you know we are a kitsune, a human is a thousand years too early to try and trick us." She had a sneer on her face as she looked at him again, murmuring things about magicians in her territory without permission. "Which organization do you belong to, magician?"

"I don't know, I woke up not that long ago without any memory."

She eyed him up and down again before nodding slightly. "We shall believe you for now, mother told us that human magicians are all arrogant, they would never act so pathetically unless something was wrong."

He realized he was being insulted by a child, but he also was happy that the fox-girl deemed it unnecessary to throw magic fire at him.

She turned around and began to leave as she got a dozen yards away, she suddenly turned around and stared at him. "Well, follow along. We had a special day planned and it shall not be undone because of some incompetent magician."

"What?" He blurted out in response.

"No memory and slow." She sighed. "We cannot leave an unknown magician unattended in our territory. You shall have the privilege of accompanying us as we spend our special day."

At the mentions of the supernatural he had two reoccurring thoughts, 'Magic was real?!' and 'Of Course magic is real.' Two contradictory thoughts that he both felt were genuine. He was rationalizing that the supernatural was hidden from public view and that perhaps his memories were screwed up as he kept two separate identities and they were just conflicting with one another when his mind was a mess.

He could pick up the hidden subtext to what the girl said, she mentioned an illusion and her hand radiated a flame that couldn't be natural. To see was to believe and something within him wasn't averse to the idea of magic even if a part of him was saying it wasn't real.

For now, he would trust what he saw. His mind was a wreck, that was for certain so living in the here and now he would follow this little fox girl. He was in 'her' territory from what it sounded like, that meant more of her people or followers that could potential have a lead to his identity.

He had no other alternatives, so he followed.

She casually led him down the street before stopping and looking around every so often. It was clear from the look in her eyes that she was excited to be out and about.

He was curious what her 'special day' was until they finally arrived at her destination of choice. He could practically see the stars in her eyes as she looked at the store.

Candy Castle.

A large store in the shape of a small castle. Lots of kids running around with exasperated adults just rolling their eyes.

She ran across the street without even looking as she charged straight inside.

He joined not long after, it was honestly quite a big store to be dedicated only to sweets. There was a blur of movement as her tails were swishing around. It took him merely moments to catch up with her, yet she already had bags full.

With a sigh, he walked over as he noticed she was starting to have trouble carrying everything. "If I'm stuck with you today, I may as well lend a hand."

"Hmm, We suppose you aren't as lowly as originally suspected, helping this Princess of your own volition." She stated as she handed over the bags.

'This is going to be exhausting' He mentally said as he just projected a smile.

It took longer than it should have for the little fox girl to finally finish her 'shopping'.

The cashier eyed him oddly as they started everything up to be scanned. "Quite a lot of candy….."

The little fox huffed. "We saved our allowance, Mother said we are allowed to spend it on whatever we want."

The cashier looked down at the little girl then back at the blonde.

He just smiled awkwardly as the little fox payed for the purchase from her purse.

They walked for a little bit before finding a nice outdoor seating area where the little girl was content to plop down and start digging in.

The amnesiac looked at the girl, she was rather cute. There was a part of him that wanted to rub her little ears, but considering she could quite easily throw him around, he decided to push such thoughts down.

"What?" She asked, noticing his gaze.

"I'm surprised you aren't stuffing your cheeks."

She let out a 'hmmph'. "We are not stupid, eating that much will upset our tummy."

He couldn't help but smile as she answered. When she slipped out of her little 'princess' façade, she was just adorable.

"We are impressed with your translation spell." She said idlily.

"Huh?"

"Most magicians don't bother with a proper one and it messes up with honorifics."

"….I'm not using any magic." He replied absentmindedly.

She let out a snort. "We noticed your mouth not matching up with the words you spoke, you cannot hide it from us."

It took him an embarrassingly long time to realize that, to him, she was speaking English. Not to mention all the random people walking by and the cashier.

"I never did ask for your name." He said after a moment of silence. There was no point idling on his circumstance right now, he would get a better idea of what was going on when the girl finished her errands.

"It is polite to introduce yourself first."

"I don't remember my name….I suppose I could just use the generic name given to amnesiacs in the west. Call me John Doe for now, I guess."

"Very well, We are called Kunou, but you shall refer to us as Princess."

"What exactly are you the princess of?"

"We shall not take it as an insult this time since you do not remember, but we will not forgive you if you don't remember from now on. We are the princess of the Kyoto Youk—"

Her words were cut off abruptly as she stood up and looked around, slightly in panic.

All around them the people that were going about their business all got up and started to walk away.

"Well, well…what do we have here?" A voice called out as all the people had finally left.

The figure walked forward, wearing traditional Japanese clothing with a blade at his hip.

"The little Kitsune Princess out and about without any guards." The man said with a grin, his mouth widening unnaturally, and his teeth all razor sharp.

Danger.

Not human, enemy, danger.

The thoughts echoed in his head. His instincts were screaming at him to run away.

The creature didn't even give him a glance, his eyes settling solely on the little fox.

"Tell me little Kyuubi no Kitsune, did you sneak out again? I heard that your mother often has to send guards out to find you."

"What we do is none of your concern, leave our presence you smell of blood and death." She shouted.

"You know…I've always wondered what one of your species tastes like…since there are only two of you in existence, I think it will be quite the delicacy."

As the words left his mouth, the girl's eyes widened, and her hands ignited. "FOX FIRE" She roared as the ball of flames were thrown at the creature.

He merely swat them away, not even given them a second look. "What weak fox fire, I've seen one-tailed kitsune with more powerful fire."

Surprisingly, the little girl stepped infront of John as she glanced at him. "…..Please leave, you will only distract us."

John wasn't familiar with the hidden world, but even he could tell how severely the creature outmatched her.

He didn't get a chance to respond as the creature disappeared from the spot he was standing, moving at speeds untraceable to the human eyes. He was now infront of the little girl, clawed hand reached out for her neck.

Her eyes widened, her hands ignited with fire again but right as the claw was about to clasp shut, her collar was tugged backwards, pulling her with it.

Both the girl and the creature looked up at the man in surprise.

Even John didn't realize his arm moved until they all came to a stop.

"…..I thought you were just a normal human." The thing finally spoke. As he finished, a foot suddenly shot out, connecting with his stomach.

The amnesiac was sent hurling back into a nearby wall, blood expunging from his mouth.

"JOHN" The little princess cried out.

The creature drew his blade with a big toothy grin. The blade was chipped and worn, seeing more use than one would normally assume if the dried blood was any indication.

He went crashing against the wall, blood spitting out as he bounced off, leaving a large dent.

He could hear her call him. He barely knew her, she was rather arrogant and somewhat annoying if he was being honest…yet she was just an innocent child.

That thing wanted to eat her.

He felt something stir deep down, a want to protect. He didn't know what burdens she bared to have to wear such a façade all the time. He saw it slip every so often, but she quickly shut it away. It was something….he was familiar with. He couldn't help but empathize.

Despite the pain that was flaring up, he was calm.

A mask of emotionlessness overcame him.

One broken rib, two cracked.

Internal bleeding – minimal.

Head trauma – possible concussion.

Right shoulder - dislocated.

He stood up; an action that didn't go unnoticed.

"Oho, you're still alive? Well I supposed I could play with you a bit, a little workout before my meal~"

Single edged blade, eastern origin, roughly three feet in length.

No upkeep, needs a cleaning and sharpening. Amateur swordsman.

He walked, slowly, each step the same measured pace.

The creature swung his blade.

Right arm muscles tensing, no lower body support, casual swing – overreliance on physical strength.

John brought his left arm up, clutching his muscles as tight as he could as the blade sunk into his flesh and hitting his forearm. He could feel the blade sink deep and hit his bone and dig into it before stopping.

Unnaturally sharp, targets physical defenses may be beyond me, acquire blade.

The creature looked at him at surprise again, before he could speak the blonde spit out the blood that was stuck in his throat towards his eyes.

The action catching the creature off guard. The instinctual movement to use his hand to wipe away the liquid in his eyes was caught with a shoulder check.

The blonde used his body to push into him and with his free hand, he grabbed the index finger on that hand that was holding the blade and pulled it back until he heard the cracking of bone.

The creature let out a hiss in pain as he dropped the blade.

John grabbed the blade before it hit the ground, not losing this opportunity he thrust it towards the creature's heart.

As the blade went through him without much resistance, the accumulated stress and pain finally set in as John collapsed to his knees and began to cough up blood again.

The creature cursed and shouted; the pain he was experiencing was known to all in the vicinity. With an inhuman roar, he pulled the blade out of his chest, the gushing of blood accompanying it.

"A human almost killed me…" He said in disbelief.

"A PATHETIC HUMAN ALMOST KILLED ME!?" He roared again.

His body began to distort, his limbs elongated, his eyes turned serpentine. His body looked more snake then humanoid after a moment.

"I WILL DEVOUR YOU"

It's jaw opened, it widened, wanting to swallow him whole.

Before it could lower its massive mouth onto the human, something happened.

Their eyes met only briefly.

And for a moment, the snake-man tensed.

Fear crawling up his spine, a primordial fear.

Because in that particular moment, it felt like a gigantic red dragon was bearing down on him.

John's eyes turned heavy as they started to shut against his will. Solace came in the form of spears raining down on the creature, he finally fell over – unconscious.