Within the sanctuary of the Toshiyuki family, the dwelling place of the fox spirit clan, in a dimension no human could ever touch, certain beings watched over everything unfolding below.
People called them fox spirits.
They had lived for a very, very long time.
So long that they could no longer recall exactly how many years had passed. All they remembered was that, at the very beginning, they had been nothing more than an ordinary fox.
Then humans came.
Those two-legged creatures, fragile as reeds in the wind, and yet possessed of behaviors and powers beyond comprehension. They made offerings, they prayed, they laid food upon stones, and with reverent voices they called out to them as Great Fox Spirits.
They began to accept those offerings. They began to answer those prayers.
They began to bear names, to hold divine rank, to possess shrines of their own.
Humans needed them, just as they needed humans.
That bond between god and man, that cycle of faith and protection — it was what let an ordinary fox become a deity... No, was it truly ordinary to begin with, if it could become divine at all?
They watched humanity grow from scattered villages into towns, and from towns into cities.
They watched them raise taller buildings, drive faster cars — and then watched them slowly forget those ancient bonds.
Faith drained away. Offerings dwindled.
Those who had once prayed with devotion now placed their trust in money, in power, in technology, rather than in the gods of the mountains and fields.
And yet they still needed power. So in a world where faith was fading, how were they to sustain their strength?
Exactly — through those women bound to them, bound to their Toshiyuki family.
Those women, whose blood must be beloved of heaven and earth and stars. Should our clan obtain the blood and soul of such a woman, we shall surely flourish all the more.
Choosing a fitting offering is likewise the duty of the family head.
Those mortal women who became fox brides — it would grant them protection, and let their families prosper and flourish.
And in exchange, their faith, their life force, and the bond forged between them and it, would become the sustenance of its continued existence.
A fair exchange.
An equal trade.
They never believed they had done anything wrong.
Didn't humans trade too? Money for grain, labor for wages, faith for protection — how was this any different?
They were simply stronger than humans. Older than humans.
That was all.
And now—
They watched the main hall that the silver giant had intruded upon.
Those humans were trembling.
Those humans who had received the fox spirit clan's power now shivered like startled ants.
They had once boasted before them of the Toshiyuki family's schemes, bragged of human wisdom and human strength.
But now that true power had descended, all that remained of them was fear.
Ridiculous! Pathetic!
Their gaze turned to the silver giant.
Light! Pure light!
That light made them instinctively uneasy — not from hostility, but because the source of that radiance was utterly different from the foundation of their own existence.
It was not a god that humans worshipped, but the light of humanity itself, blooming from human conviction — a nature similar to, yet wholly unlike, their own, which fed by stealing human faith.
"Ultraseven..."
The fox spirit murmured to itself, its voice echoing through the dimension it inhabited, unheard by any human.
Giant of Light. Guardian of humanity. Hero of humanity.
They had heard that name before — in human prayers, in the whispers of believers.
Only, they had never paid it any mind, dismissing it as nothing more than a fantasy born from some special-effects drama. Had that fantasy not been standing right before its eyes, it would not have even recalled such a concept existed.
How laughable!
Clearly a thing born of childish make-believe — and yet that light, that oppressive presence, those eyes, all told it one thing.
This was not something to be brushed aside lightly.
That being who loved human life, that so-called embodiment of justice, of guardianship — it was absolutely not something to be dismissed with a few words.
Among beings that transcended human understanding, only strength could serve as the language of dialogue!
The fox spirit's gaze settled upon Tsuneki Hisayuki.
A seven-tailed crimson fox — it narrowed its eyes, and its will began to sink downward.
From the dimension it occupied, it slowly descended into Tsuneki Hisayuki's body.
BOOM—!!!
A blazing crimson light erupted violently from within Tsuneki Hisayuki's body!
That light was scorching and malevolent, carrying some ancient, savage power that swept across the entire main hall.
The whole hall, the whole shrine, the whole mountain — all of it dissolved within that crimson radiance.
In its place rose an entirely different world.
Hinako Shimizu lowered her head.
Beneath her feet lay a sheet of water.
The water's surface was still as a mirror, glowing with a faint, dim light. Her silver feet rested upon it without stirring so much as a ripple.
She looked up and around. Boundless darkness surrounded her.
No sky, no ground, no mountain, no jingū. Only this lake of unknown origin, and this darkness leading to nowhere she could name.
Something was taking shape within the darkness.
The crimson light gradually gathered, condensed, and coalesced into a massive silhouette.
It stood upon the lake's surface across from her, facing the silver giant from a distance.
It was a fox.
A fox whose entire body was covered in fur the color of blazing fire.
Its body stood over ten meters tall — not as large as the Giant of Light, but a colossal beast nonetheless.
Seven thick tails swayed slowly behind it, each cloaked in dense red fur, their tips streaked with gold, like flames flickering in the darkness. A soiled ribbon coiled around its body, floating in midair — the symbol of divinity.
And the beast's vertical, fire-colored pupils were now fixed unblinkingly on the silver giant across from it.
Hinako Shimizu stared at the fox's face, her expression turning grave.
There was no trace of Tsuneki Hisayuki left on that face — only the ferocity of a beast, the majesty of a god.
A Divine Descent? Or something else entirely.
Hinako Shimizu didn't know. So she asked outright.
"What are you? A fox spirit? Hisayuki?"
"I'm simply a man who fell in love with you that day, who wished to marry you, and who swore to give you happiness."
The seven-tailed crimson fox paced slowly before the silver giant, answering in a hoarse voice.
"Hinako! I will make you mine!"
Gazing at the silver giant, the seven-tailed crimson fox declared its will to Hinako Shimizu in a tone both resolute and obsessive.
"...Hisayuki? Are you Hisayuki, or are you the fox spirit?"
Faced with these words, Hinako Shimizu found herself at a loss.
Tsuneki Hisayuki? The man in human form was undoubtedly Tsuneki Hisayuki. But was the seven-tailed crimson fox before her still truly him?
"I am the fox spirit, and I am also Hisayuki — the very same being who forged a bond with you in your youth. Do not doubt my love for you, Hinako."
The seven-tailed crimson fox spoke to Hinako Shimizu in a deep, resonant tone.
The human named Tsuneki Hisayuki was him. One of the fox spirits worshipped by the Toshiyuki family was also it. And it was also the very same little fox that Hinako Shimizu had helped when she was a child.
However, as a fox spirit, only by attaching itself spiritually to a human body could it move freely within human society — and only within that spiritual domain could it truly unleash its full power.
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