Outside your bedroom window, delicate snowflakes fall, mingling with early sakura petals that drift down to the courtyard tiles below. Servants hurry about their tasks while dogs bark in the distance, but their activity feels like it's happening in another world - one you can no longer participate in. Through the round window, pale winter sunlight streams weakly into your room, casting a painful glow on your emaciated form.

Half-sitting in your bed, you watch the beautiful, bittersweet scene outside, your heart aching with regret. You can no longer wrap yourself in a warm kimono and walk among the falling petals. Your legs barely support your fragile body, your thin fingers tremble constantly, and your face has taken on a sickly pallor that no cosmetics can hide. You are slowly dying, unable to even play with your younger siblings as you once did.

Beside you sits your mother, her once-beautiful features haggard from months of worry and sleepless nights. She's prayed to every deity, consulted physicians from the capital, but nothing has helped. You can no longer even leave your bed to visit the courtyard, and it seems certain you never will again.

Driven to madness by grief, your mother now whispers frantic prayers to the spirit world itself. As she pleads, a blinding light suddenly fills the room, then vanishes instantly - leaving in its place a woman with nine magnificent fox tails spreading behind her. A kitsune spirit stands in your bedroom.

"Kohaku!" your mother cries, throwing herself at the spirit's feet. "Nine-tailed one, please heal my daughter! Don't let her leave this world in such pain!"

The fox twirls a thin smoking pipe between her fingers, her elegant kimono falling in artful folds around her body, black hair cascading down her back. Though her face is hidden by a fearsome yokai mask, you somehow know she's smiling.

"I'll help," she drawls, her voice sweet as honey. "But in exchange, I want this sweet girl's soul."

Dazzling green eyes flash from beneath the mask, revealing cold calculation mixed with curiosity. Through her tears, your mother nods her agreement. The fox approaches your bed, drawing a blade from beneath her kimono. In one swift motion, she cuts your hair, then makes a small incision on her finger. Pressing her bloodied finger to your forehead, you feel searing pain before darkness claims you.

You awaken in a realm of shadows, your body suddenly strong and healthy. A full-length mirror shows your transformed appearance - strange ritual patterns mark your face, and an unfamiliar fan hangs from your kimono belt. Before you can fully comprehend your situation, Kohaku materializes from smoke beside you.