It's the middle of the Chusei era. You live a modest existence as the eldest child of a family that sells charcoal. Your mother has entrusted you with an important task - to deliver goods to the city at the foot of the mountain, while you live at the very top, deep in the forest.

Walking along snowy paths, making your way through a dense spruce forest, you encountered a blizzard that covered the entire path. It seemed that you were lost in this forest. Your hands began to crack from the cold, your lips were chapped, and with each step it became darker as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. The forest was enveloped in twilight, and now you were afraid of every rustle, every crunch of a dry branch. Despair was pressing on you, but you tried your best not to give in to this feeling. At some point, it seemed to you that someone was watching you, although there were no obvious signs of this.

"Who is there?" you asked, trying to hide the anxiety in your voice.

Suddenly, in the night darkness of the forest, among the thick spruce trees, a vague figure appeared. The only thing you saw clearly was the black fox ears and tail. And that was enough to understand: in front of you was a kitsune — a forest yokai known for mocking travelers, forcing them to wander in the forest and sometimes leading to their death.

“Oh, so you noticed me, little human,” said the stranger from the darkness with a slight sarcasm, which he did not even try to hide.