The Fox Goddess



But all of her warnings were rendered useless because all of them had already arrived in front of her. As if they didn't hear her words, all of them rushed towards her and gave her a tight hug which made all of them fall to the ground. When she saw all of this, Yuki sighed in relief for a moment and let herself fall to the ground while keeping all of them safe from the fall. At this moment, Yuki didn't care about if the floor was dirty and she would get some dirt on her body, she only cared about the five people that were hugging her body tightly while their bodies were shaking in fear as if they were afraid that she would disappear if they let go.

"I'm sorry… It took me so long to save all of you…" Yuki's voice shake which was very rare for her began to apologize and when all of them heard Yuki apologizing, they were about to protest when Yuki made them quiet.

"No, don't say anything more. This is my fault, I shouldn't have left all of you in the Villa without any protection left to all of you. If I had put a stronger barrier and even left some bunch of guards for you, I might have slowed the invaders' time for me to get back and kill all of them." Yuki said in regret as she lowered her head slightly and didn't make eye contact with any of them. She already knew what all of them were about to say when she apologized to all of them and stopped them before they even could say what they were about to say. The moment she remembers what happened a few days ago just made her heart shatter, especially when she remembered their appearances when they were taken as prisoners by the Royal Destruction. Just that memory makes her blood boil once again and makes her want to seek revenge again even though all of the people that were involved in that died already.

"I know that all of you have experienced horrible things there… And if I'm going, to be honest here, I don't really know how to make things any better. I don't know how to comfort you, but I'll try my best to help all of you out. Just tell me what you need, I don't care what it is, or how hard it is." Yuki said in a somewhat resolved voice and she meant every word that she said. For her, it doesn't matter what kind of request they would make, even if they said that they want to be separate from her. If it means them being happy and safe, she would not hesitate to throw away her selfish desires of keeping them by her side and let them go.

"Yuki… Actually, we want one thing, and that is you. We don't want anything in this world but your company and comfort. If we can be selfish and say that we want to stick by your side even in dangerous situations, will you allow us? Because we don't want to be separated from you again. What we want is for you to never leave us again… can you make it happen?" Fumiko was the one who said this to Yuki, her words were the same as the other 4. They don't want anything other than Yuki, her company, comfort, and love was enough for all of them to be happy.

"Is that what you really want?" Yuki asked just to be sure, but deep inside her heart, she felt extremely nervous thinking that her ears might just be playing with her or that she was merely in an illusion that she would soon wake up.

"Yes, Mother. That's the only thing that we want." Aika held Yuki's hands and placed them on top of her head before hugging her body once again.

"I see… I will definitely make that promise a reality. I will never again leave all of you. Unless all of you decide to leave me or that I die…" Yuki said with a smile, but she didn't say that last sentence aloud and only said it in bitterness in her own mind. That thought of someday they might leave her still haunts her, and whenever she thinks of this, she begins to think that it was maybe better if she was all alone. Because that way, she can never be hurt once again emotionally.

"It's a promise, okay? You will never leave us." Anna clutched her other hand and kissed it before she closed her eyes.

"Yeah, definitely. It's a promise." Yuki forced out a smile and it all seemed natural to all of them to the point that they failed to see the pain behind that smile. That is just how Yuki is now, she doesn't want to connect with people anymore because of the scars that she has gotten. She now thinks that connecting with people is useless because, at some point, they are going to leave you all alone, so what is the point if that's going to be the outcome? For her, love is simply an illusion, and she isn't even sure if the feelings that she has is love or not. It was wrong for her to think about it because it makes her feelings for them fake since she isn't even sure of herself. Her emotions had long died when she was put in the orphanage. This is the reason why she doesn't fully attach herself to a person, the same thing goes for Kurokami, Fumiko, her parents, and even her daughters. Because she knows there is that day that they would leave her just like what the others did to her in the past.

"Come on now, let's get all of you back to bed. You still need to rest." Yuki gently stood up so that she wouldn't hurt any of them and when she was ready, she was about to take Anna in her arms when she saw her unconsciously shiver when she touched her body, and seeing this made her mind fill with endless murderous intent once more. She's all very familiar with that kind of reaction since that's the reaction that shows when a person was tortured to a certain degree, the kind of torture that is embedded deep inside their mind. This didn't happen when Anna was in the hands of the Gods of the Mortal Realm which means that she was still pretty strong to not have any trauma, but this time it tells her that they did something extreme to her.

She has already taken a closer look at their body to see if some 'things' happened to them while they were kept in prison, something that is worse than torture. But she was glad to see that it didn't happen to any of them, but it seems that even if it didn't happen to any of them, something still happened that made Anna react like that. And it points to the time when she saw her naked while being chained up. She's going to do whatever it takes for her to know what happened on those two days that they were imprisoned, so she ignored it for now and acted as if she didn't see it, and in response when Anna saw that Yuki didn't seem to find it weird when she shivered, she sighed in relief before taking a deep breath.

"Thank you…" Once she was laid down in bed, Yuki did it four more times and found that it was only Anna who showed such a reaction.

"I'll make all of you food, so just wait here." Yuki gave all of them a peck on the forehead before she left the room and began to walk away, and when she was finally far enough. She called Ciny and Diana over and tasked them with something.

"Since all of you are making some good progressions, I have a task for you. I don't care what you need to do to get the information I want, just do it. I give you the full authority to use everything we have to get the information." Yuki said in a deep and cold voice and hearing the voice made the two remember how sinister she could truly be. They even remember her torturing someone in the worst way possible to make him talk, that person was even a top Assassin that was trained to never talk, but within just one day. He lost his mind and told everything because of what he experienced.

"Yes, Master!" Both of them said in unison as they waited for Yuki to give the person's name so they could find him.

"No need to find the person, they are already here," Yuki said and in a snap of a finger, she revived Asami and her husband, Andrew.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.