Kitsune

A kitsune, also known as a fox-spirit or a were-fox, is a supernatural being often equated with a vampire. A kitsune is a fox capable of taking human form (usually female), and survive by draining life-force. Unlike vampires, they do this without drinking their blood. They, too, are incapable of entering human dwelling places without invitation. While they are more powerful magically than werewolves, werewolves are considered more savage in their bloodlust.Stefan Salvatore: Of course, the kitsune, the foxes, are much more powerful magically, but werewolves tend to kill before they think. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 5)
==Description==
A kitsune's true form is that of a fox, with a white-tipped tail. They can achieve up to eightMeredith Sulez: But they can have up to nine tails, and the more tails they have, the better at everything they are. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 12) additional tails as badges of honour, which can be removed without pain.Misao: You can't leave a fox without a real tail! That's why the ones you cut didn't hurt. They're badges of honour. But my real tail is in the middle, it's tipped with white, and if you cut me there; you'll see blood and it will leave a stump. (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 38) Nine-tailed kitsune are able to freely cross from one world to another.Meredith Sulez: Theyre supposed to be able to cross over freely from one world to another. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 12) The additional tails are usually invisible, but are made visible if one needs to use their full power."The extra ones usually were invisible, he gathered, as he neatly caught her in a kekkai as well." (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 27) They are capable of shapeshifting into whomever they like.Inari Saitou: A fox, silly girl. They can turn into anything they like, don’t you know? Even humans. Why, one could turn into you and your best friend wouldn't know the difference. (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 21) However, they are unable to do this perfectly, always having some small identifying flaw.Meredith Sulez: Yes, but always with some small flaw if you have the wits to notice it. They can never make a perfect replicate. (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 21)
Kitsune feed on life-force, just as vampires do. However, they do this through stealing memories rather than through drinking blood.Elena Gilbert: If vampires are obsessed with Power, kitsune are obsessed with memories. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 1) They store others' memories in star balls, in which they also store a measure of their own power. The destruction of a kitsune's star ball means their death.Meredith Sulez: We found they're called hoshi no tama. And that translates to ‘star balls’. Each kitsune puts a measure of their power into one, along with other things, and destroying the ball is one of the only ways to kill them. If you find a kitsune's star ball, you can control the kitsune. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 12)
They are known to use malach to possess girls, and lead boys to destruction, whether that be by luring them into swamps or off cliffs.Meredith Sulez: Well, every single source I checked agrees that kitsune possess girls and then lead boys to destruction. What kind of destruction depends on where you look. It can be as simple as appearing as a will-o'-the-wisp and leading you into a swamp or off a cliff, or as difficult as shapeshifting. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 12) Other kitsune, such as those that lived on the Shogun's estate, caused less destructive mischief, and were even useful to the Shogun in that they fed on the rats and insects that would otherwise destroy the crops.Inari Saitou: Mukashi-mukashi, or as you say, long ago in the times of legend, a great Shogun became angry at all the kitsune on his estate for the mischief they made. For many long years they were up to all sorts of pranks, but when he suspected them of ruining the crops in the fields, that was it. He roused every man and woman in his household, and told them to take sticks and arrows and rocks and hoes and brooms and flush out all the foxes that had dens on his estate, even the ones between the attic and the roof. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 30)
Some kitsune are like gods and goddesses, testing humans and rewarding them if they succeed.Meredith Sulez: Some of them are supposed to be like gods and goddesses who sort of test you, and if you pass the test they reward you. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 12) Inari Saitou claimed to be a Kitsune Goddess.
==Weaknesses==
Kitsune are vulnerable to iron,Damon Salvatore: Iron. They do badly against iron – they're demons. (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 33) and are greatly wounded if their real tail is removed. They can be killed by the destruction of their star ball, regretting their actions (known as the Sin of Regret)Meredith Sulez: But, then, other stories say that kitsune can be killed by the Sin of Regret or by blessed weapons. (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 12) or by blessed weapons. They can also be contained in jars bearing particular Japanese characters, as Shinichi and Misao were at Unmei no Shima.The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 30
==Notable kitsune==
*Inari Saitou
*Shogun's children
*Shogun's youngest daughter
*Shinichi
*Misao
*Unidentified prisoner
==Notes and references==
 
Category:Species