Now now don't intimidate the guests, that's even ruder!

Not when you're a kaiju kitsunegami. It sorta comes with the territory. He expects Roko to return his politeness - and he will be very angry if he does not. It's generally a bad idea to piss off a god when you're just a mid-level spirit, and a modelocked one at that!

I personally think that's a terrible way to try to get respect, but that's just me.

Normally, they don't go straight for extreme intimidation, no. But not all kami are friendly, if you know some Japanese folklore, and they are trespassing on his territory without so much as making an offering at his beach shrine. That's why I say this doesn't bode well at all. There's been something off about all the demigods in this world, but this one easily beats them all. Not angering the mad god would be a good start.

Not really their fault, they just escaped the clutches of a psychotic siren. Not sure how they're getting out of this though.

Well, hopefully Roko's emphasis on "can't" will be met with the question of why, rather than with violence. I know if I were showing exactly how easily I could destroy someone and they said they couldn't do what I want them to do, I would want to know the reason.

The big kitsunegami seems to at least pay lip service to the rules of etiquette, and if Roko explains he is not trying to insult him or be rude, but is in fact modelocked because he lost his body... if I were him I would be more intrigued than insulted. But who knows with this Kaiju?

Realm of the mad god? Is his name Oryx? (I'm sorry for the bad joke; your comment reminded me of that game. )

That may not be far off considering the state of the other demigods and deities of this world.

yep, I see 8 but I might be miscounting

I don't think you are. And that raises a very interesting question that another commenter brought up - did Vesta steal one of his tails? If so, the level of danger they are in just shot up another 10 notches, considering one of them is Vesta's daughter and another is the one that tried to steal that very tail for himself!

Vesta didn’t steal his tail and Roko didn’t try to get it for himself. If I remember correctly. The tail was a more vibrant orange than a yellow like roko or white and red like him.

Basically there is a fourth not yet known sune that lost a tail.

I just checked. It was definitely grey.

Oh… yea, but it doesn’t have a red tip… so either that was taken when that sune was younger. Or it is still the tail of a fourth unknown sune.

Run away! Or in this case swim away!

"Come now. don't be shy...STEP INTO THE LIGHT."

NOW Masutā is acting like a proper kami. He gave his kin a proper bow of respect, and he expects that in return. And he looks like a Kyūbi-no-kitsune would -- not just some minor spirit, but a full on God. No matter the power differential, when one kami greets another, they are expected to have good manners!

*Puts on his weeaboo hat*

Virmir really did his homework. This is Japanese culture - manners, etiquette, and social hierarchy are everything to the Japanese, to the point where they rarely will state a problem directly, but leave enough of a pregnant hint the other party will get it. Roko-san is doing the only thing he can - telling the Kyodaina kitsune no kaibutsu that he's modelocked and not actually disguised. Such an Idainaru kitsune-shin might be able to help him...

... but somehow, I don't think that's going to be what this kami is inclined to do.

DOES NOT BODE WELL.

If Indiana Jones taught me anything, stepping into the light gets you mass-shanked by spikes.

Considering the original line comes from Smaug in The Hobbit, it's a whole lot more threatening than a punji trap.

And "Smaug" may not be the worst analogy for the monster they are now facing.

It's hot

Oh, he does have eight tails. Nine tails would have fit better given the previous appearance of his aura

I'm seriously beginning to think that one of them was stolen from him - by Vesta. Not my idea, but now it makes a whole lot of sense... and it would mean they are right up s**t creek with no paddle. One of these is Vesta's daughter. The other is the one that tried to steal his missing tail for himself. Hoo boy.

Oh thank god. He’s got 8 tails, not 9

Iiiii don't think that's really gonna matter much. Especially if, as above, one of those nine tails was stolen. Seeing such a monster with only eight tails is, to quote Chef Skinner, "Highly suspect!"

ya the 9th most likely got stolen

"Oh no he's Hot!"

still only counting 8 here

... OH CRAP THE TAIL IN THE ORB WAS HIS

That’s possible, but there’s no red tip on the tail in the orb. If it really IS his tail in the orb, it would have been taken “before” this Master received his second or third tail. If the Quetz Queen really *did* use the orb on him, it’s doubtful that someone so elitist would limit themselves to taking just one of nine, especially if she took it for the same reason and/or purpose she took Brand’s wings.

On that note, is there some unspoken “Law of Nature” that kitsunes can only “have” up to 9 tails total in their lifetime? If so, and that really was the Master’s tail in the orb, wouldn’t that mean the Master is a “full-fledged” kitsune? Although, I’m not sure if having additional tails grants power to the fox, or is it really just a symbol of the kitsune’s power/growth?

Well, the reason the kyūbi-no-kitsune, the Fox of Nine Tails, exists in Shinto lore is because the number nine has very special significance in the Shinto religion. It symbolizes purity the way the number seven symbolizes luck to us. So the kyūbi-no-kitsune isn't just at the peak of their power, they also are the most pure of the kitsune, the most mature. And it takes thousands of years to achieve such purity. It's somewhat hard to explain all the implications, even for a weeaboo like me.

That being said, this is Virmir's world, so there's no reason why a 10-tailed kitsune couldn't exist. But if that monster is actually a Yao no kitsune (The Fox of Eight Tails) - I shudder to think what sort of horrorbeast he'd be if he had the full set.

Explain both to us, weeaboo.

I've a Japanese brother-in-law and know several people from the country (though I've never yet gotten to visit it). I have a couple of kami characters of my own and wanted to make them as true to their Shinto roots as possible. Blame Miyazaki for getting me interested in Japanese folklore and history.

Would YOU want to stand before an omniscient, kaiju-sized fox god who, without even raising his voice, told you in no uncertain terms, "DON'T BE RUDE." ?

I full know what weeaboo means, and call myself it out of pure self-depreciation. I'm just a baka gaijin trying not to be too ignorant.

I just very much like that Virmir has an excellent grasp of the real folklore behind the kitsunegami and not just the popular American version. A full powered kitsune is fucking terrifying if you get on their bad side, and missing a tail wouldn't make them one jot less powerful.

Well, our group of adventurers will have some tails to tell after this.

*sprays you with the water bottle* No! Bad pun!

That's when you know that they're probably evil.

... You know what to do. But not right now. Ambush them.

or very mad their 9th tail was stolen

One might question your upbringing.

Someone isn't afraid to show their true colors.

This isn't going to end well, is it?

Considering all the fun demigods they've dealt with up to this point, I would suspect, no, it isn't. This fire-elemental fox monstrosity makes Dime Store Ursula look like a Sunday church picnic.

Darya was only just an appetizer, now we have ourselves the "main dish".

A thought occurs to me:
What if that tail stored in the eye isn't this kitsune's...
But he still learns of it.
Would he then desire it for himself to gain another tail and more power.
(also suddenly I really want Brain and Saida to lose their memory just like Miyo, so that they wake up with no memory of being body swapped, just to see how they react)

I quickly realized after reading through all of it till now, that the tail we saw in the "inventory" of the orb. There was a tail, that looked like a Kitsune tail. It wasn't exactly the same color from what I remember, but what if they're missing a tail because of the quetz. And thats why they're not welcome here. That does also make me wonder, what ever happened to that tail after our balloon boy essentially messed up the ritual and tried to pounce it.

I wonder if Roko's 'can't showing' is because he's dead and can't present as a live body before the Kitsune, or because if he does pop out of the balloon the reapers will appear and attack him.

Like what counts as hiding and is Roko still a Kitsune anymore?

This is all IMHO, because Virmir's rules and the folktales diverge here.

I think Roko is absolutely still a kitsune. He still has his Star Ball (hoshi no tama) and death isn't necessarily permanent to him because as a kami he already is a minor deity. Where things get complicated is that he's modelocked. Losing his original body has deprived him of the most basic of kitsune abilities: Shapeshifting and disguise. So he has to explain to Monsutākitsune-shin over there, in the politest way possible, that he is without a body due to kitsune trickery going terribly wrong, and what he is seeing IS his native body of the moment. The Tsudzurao no kyodaina kitsune's own kami-vision would instantly reveal Roko is telling the truth.

Were the Tsudzurao no kyodaina kitsune an ordinary one, he would be honor-bound to assist his clanmate, even if Roko is a very junior clanmate. But we already know that every demigod or god they've encountered has been completely out of their gourd, so who knows what this beast is going to do.

When it comes to folklore and comics like these I take a: I'll consider them aligned until the comic canon demonstrates otherwise,, approach. Even folklore itself is frequently contradictory within it's own rules because they're essentially the first franchises that keep getting retconned as they're retold.

And I don't know much about Kitsune lore other than they're Japanese spirit foxes and more tales is more powerful.

I'm assuming Kitsune can die. What I do know of Japanese mythology is it is filled with spirits that are 'killable'. Now Roku has become a ghost in a rather weird way, but however that's happened he seems to be susceptible to these reapers whenever they deal with any other dead being, as they have nipped a few bits off of him. So for now I'm taking that that counts as dead. Bottlenose's spirit seemed to be able to animate his skeleton for a brief bit, so maybe Roku is a highly powerful ghost as opposed to all the level 1s he's been sucking up.

So if that is the case I'm assuming Master 9tails here knows that. I don't know if Kitsune can transform into inanimate objects in lore, but we haven't seen Roku ever do that when he was alive. So I'm being a little biased that when the Master Kitsune is looking at a talking balloon that is shaped like a fox (only one tail) he's making the conclusion that this is another Kitsune not because kitsunes can turn into talking balloons but is looking through the shape to see the spirit 'entity' that is presently Roku bonded within the object.

So what I'm wondering is A: Is Master Kitsune playing a game to further learn what's going on.

B: Doesn't really recognize that Roku is dead because in his perception he just sees spirit entities and energy kinda like the way Roku does now. Which is why I wonder what a 'Kitsune' actually counts as.

or C: They really can turn inanimate and Master K is like, stop being a balloon around me, it's rude.

well technically it would be hard tell at first that he actually is a ballon since it is shape in his regular body just without all tails he normally have especially if character never seen ballon before.

I'm assuming the Master knows what a balloon is. He's not some feral fox living in the wild woods. He's got a nice structure on his island, is familiar with Quetz and I would guess their flying island, and lady crazy tentacles below in her undersea kingdom. And he's really old and probably really wise.

I know I can recognize a balloon person from a regular human at some distance with relative ease. Especially when said balloon is more of a decoration than a reproduction.

And even within the artstyle, there's a bit of dissonance rereading the first chapter and seeing Roko drawn with fur and fluff.

If nothing else he recognizes Roko is hiding somehow and not concluding he's a one tail kitsune with super good grooming technique.

You can't tell for sure but at least in some of the folktales the Fox of Nine Tails was omniscient. (In others he was OMNIPOTENT, just short in power to Amaterasu herself). Assuming this one is omniscient - he can see anything anywhere in the world should he choose - he pretty much knows about the world. I suspect in the case of Vesta and Dime Store Ursula, he's had unpleasant personal dealings with them in the past, and Darya in particular came out the worst for it. Something of this power would just laugh off her siren song.

He thinks in this moment that Roko is just being rude and maintaining his disguise, and doesn't yet understand it ISN'T a disguise. The disguise this monster showed was the velvet glove. What he's showing now is the IRON FIST underneath it.

I think it's just really simple: He sees Roko's balloon body as a disguise. Since the Master Kitsune dropped his disguise out of courtesy, he expects Roko to do the same - and he's rather easily offended.

Roko is still a Kitsune, but he lost his most fundamental power with his body - shape shifting. So the balloon body ISN'T a disguise but is all that is keeping him on this plane. The peculiar rules for spirits are entirely Virmir's and have little to do with the folklore.

And yeah, kami can die. They have very long lives but still have physical bodies for the most part. The Master could be killed, but...good luck. This kaiju kitsune makes Darya look like a baby kami.

Assuming he does, that would indicate something though. That they can turn into inanimate things too. Which to this page I haven't seen the one example, Roko, do. Because I would assume being a long lived, and presumably smart on all things kitsune, that if they were not capable of that, then seeing an animated balloon the Master would have more the reaction of...what the heck happened to you? And not, time to drop your disguise.

Roko didn't just loose the fundamental power of his body, he's lost his body. So unless the Master is going to teach him a unique power reveal, like that kitsune can regenerate or reform somehow, I would think he'd be kinda dense to not catch on that something weird is happening here already.

Which I think would be kinda funny. 'Why haven't you reformed yet? You have three tails after all. That should be easy.'

In traditional folklore the things Kitsune most liked disguising themselves were as humans. That even became a major plot point in the very modern Ghibli anime Pom Poko. I'd never read of kitsune disguising themselves as inanimate objects, but perhaps that's possible in Virmir's universe. Either that, or the Kaiju Kitsune simply doesn't care. "So the disguise is weird. DROP IT" was sent 5x5. And Roko better hope his answer as to why he broke kitsune etiquette is sufficient. This is part of the folklore: The kami have similar rules of etiquette and manners as humans do, and being rude is considered a mortal offense.

Man, if 'I'm dead' isn't sufficient to break any kinds of protocol then he really is a stickler.

The Japanese are, though like with any culture and people, some are more relaxed or conservative about it than others. This dude is thousands of years old (if the folklore canon is being followed) so he's OLD school. And "dead" can get very weird with yōkai - Roko is still walking and talking, even if he's without his normal body at the moment.

But Roko IS doing the right thing by etiquette- a very low bow to a very senior senpai and an indirect statement that his failure to change is not meant as an insult, but because of unavoidable circumstances. All but the hardest cases (i.e. assholes) would be sympathetic and further inquire into his misfortune.

Here is my theory, miyo has no spirit aura because he is a homunculus made by the kitsune, who gave miyo his ninth tail.

Now this is what I call a big giant fox

Love the Nine Tails Kitsune.