The Onibi Series (rewritten)

Prologue

Faith is a story foretold by the stars. When one dares to interfere, surely the worst is to come for them.
The olden times of Sengoku, a time of samurai and geisha. A period where seeing youkai wasn't out of the ordinary, as nowadays you'd simply brush it off as ridiculous.

In this era, mysterious events unfold in a certain Castle Town.

Once ruled by a powerful military commander, the town was very well guarded. However, an incident came to light, where dozens were slaughtered. Some of the townspeople were found, but many went missing for weeks. Many were spotted, but their bodies were in awful conditions.
It was announced that eighty percent of the townspeople had disappeared.
How tragic, one must think, that such an incident would occur seemingly overnight, leaving a once booming town stripped of life.

Whatever could've happened in such a town?

A chilly spring dawn arose, down the endless rows of markets ran a young girl, the princess of this town.
That silly girl's name is Mai, the only daughter of the clan that ran the town: the Shishikusa family. This family controls the commerce in the town, and everyone knows that.

Stopping by to see her aunt, she waved happily and grinned with the purest of joy.
Mai Shishikusa is a well-mannered and cutesy young girl, everyone in the town shows great affection towards her. However, this is mainly due to her status as the only daughter of the Shishikusa clan. She continued to skip and hop through, waving and grinning her adored and signature smile.

A lovely girl's life isn't always as peaceful as she wishes, though.

Many years ago, while Mai was still very small, a group of samurai were passing through the town. For her previous birthday, Mai had received a ball that she enjoyed playing with. While playing, she accidentally kicked the ball too far, hitting the foot of a samurai. The samurai laughed at her, ridiculing her and kicking her ball away from her.
The little girl cried out for them to return her ball, but they simply continued to poke fun at her.
Running after her toy, she tripped, skinning her knee as the samurai walked away with elegance.
The girl weeped, and the townspeople stayed quiet as to not cause more trouble with the samurai.

They were merely joking, right?
Even so, jokers are still struck by karma's lightning bolt of vengeance.

The following day, it was too late for them to apologize.
Three of the samurai has disappeared, not a single trace nor body was discovered.
The gibbeted head was found of another who ridiculed the girl, and their body was also gone.
Two more were declared missing, and the other ran from the town for good.

Ever since that day, a rumor spread from ear to ear that anyone who dares to cause misfortune to the Shishikusas are doomed an awful fate. Not a soul dares to prove this rumor right or wrong. The rumor was so widespread that it had even reached the ears of the Shishikusas themselves.

A decade has passed since then, and once again on this morning the girl runs through the town, skipping and hopping through the marketplace.

One, accident.

The grandest tea house in the town is reserved on this calm morning.
On such a morning, a commerce and income related meeting is being held between the city executives.
The first rule to trading in this town is to pay a fee to the man known as Shishikusa, the head of the town.

The Shishikusas.

The family that has been protecting this small castle town for generations upon generations. Since its beginning, this family has kept secrets in shadows away from public eye. Even those they work with keep their mouths shut tight about the work that goes on in the deepest, darkest corners of the Shishikusa family's businesses.
Word and secret about the family reaches them extremely quickly. How such poorly told rumors even end up reaching them is unknown.

On this cool day, a rather peculiar topic was brought up at the tea house.

"Say, Shishikusa, many complaints are being brought up by the Daimyos," an executive spoke up.
"Complaints?" Shishikusa perked up.
The executive nodded his head, looking Shishikusa in the eye, "Yeah. They say the geisha performances and gambling sessions are overwhelmingly boring. They want something new."
"Well, alright. What's it that they'd want to see then?"
"I'm not entirely sure. How about we gather them for the next meeting and ask, hm?"
Shishikusa nodded without another word.

The rest of the meeting went by awkwardly, but nothing further was brought to light, so the day in the town continued as normal. And thus, the commerce in this little town resumed its original pace.

Two, the young lady kitsune.

Being outside of castle town is like being in the midst of a war zone. The safety one feels inside the walls of the town is ripped of one when they exit.
The outskirts are a dangerous land, ridden with bandits, pirates, and the like.
Even so, in such a crime ridden land plays a pretty young girl by the dry riverbed.
Whitish gray hair rests upon her young and pale face, swaying in the breeze as she hums a song to herself.

Behind this young lady come three men.

"Oi!" One yells, "Look over there! Ain't she a bratty lookin' woman?"
The other barges in with his comment, "Sure is! She'll be sure to make us tons of cash, I can already smell the loads of money!"

The men are bandits. They live off selling the bodies of women they get their hands on. Any weak woman they cross paths with ends with the same cruel fate.

"Ready the ropes, boys. Seems we've got-"
"Hold on just a moment. Look at that chick's hair," one bandit interrupted.
"Uhm. It's white, what about it?"
The man who previously pointed out the color of the girl's hair smacked the back of the head of the one who asked.
"Bumbling idiot! Is your hair white at such a young age?"
The one holding the rope spoke up, "Must be part of the kitsune clan."
The two who were bickering look at him in shock, "What?!"
One man snatched the rope and hid it behind his back.
"That clan's blood is connected to youkai! Let's get the hell outta' here!"
The other two nodded desperately, and the men ran off without looking back.

The girl looked up from her reflection in the river, "Finally... that's much better, is it not?"
She glanced at the pebble in her hand, dropping it back into the water sparkling with the gleam of the sunlight.
She smiled, turning her back toward the river and walking away.
She hopped on one foot, humming as she hopped.

"Hmhmm... Oh, Mrs. Fox, holding her red umbrella. Hurry now, spin my feelings into one."

With that, she disappeared into the darkness of the forest.