After getting a full night's rest and remembering what Inari had installed into the Protogens' augmentations, he was going to give his sister a piece of his mind. So, after he was finished with his morning prayer rule and daily readings, he marched into Inari's palace with the Protogens accompanying him. Inari then saw him and said, "You're arriving sooner than expected. What makes you decide to see me today?"
But Victor was not interested in meaningless chatter. Instead, he asked his sister, "Is it true what these men tell me about how they are treated? Are their body modifications truly designed to torture them if they don't do everything you tell them? Have you not bothered to even know their names?"
But Inari crossed her red fox arms and answered, "Nogitsunes owe a debt to society, so they get what they deserve. Nothing more. Nothing less. When they have repaid their debt to society, they will be allowed to return."
Victor then stared into Inari's eyes. "And when is that?"
"Never. Once a Nogitsune, always a Nogitsune. I could call you a Nogitsune if you weren't a paragon of virtue, because you reject okami Inari. Besides, these Nogitsunes come from pathetic impoverished families, so this is really a blessing for them and not a curse, even if they have to give up their freedom in the process."
"This isn't right, and you know it. How arrogant do you have to be to deny their dignity as Kitsunes just like us?"
Inari then laughed. "Arrogant? This is merely reality. They are less valuable than you and I. Plus they come from impoverished families which makes them replaceable. The poor are a strain on the economy because they don't spend money, so why not at least get some use out of them in other ways? This is not cruelty but merely wise investing, because the poor are merely a means to an end and a money pit otherwise. Besides, they're going to be dead weight once the coming economic depression happens, so it makes sense to cull the herd, so our now limited resources aren't wasted."
Victor was then so shocked from what he just heard his sister say that he couldn't speak. Inari then continued, "Besides, I'm leaving Vixie in charge of running the clan for now while I find a way to destroy the Keys of Prosperity against my own desires. And fortunately, if Vixie fails, she'll take the blame while I take the credit if she succeeds. So, if you have any bright ideas to stop the economic depression from happening so I don't have to cull useless eaters, talk to Vixie."
Victor then left seeing there was nothing he could do to change his sister's mind, so he went to talk to Vixie. And then Vixie asked while ruling the clan in Inari's place, "What brings you to me friar Victor?"
Victor then answered, "It's the Protogens. I've discovered that their augmentations have been modified to torture them if they disobey my sister, so they live in constant fear of her. Is there anything that can be done to modify these augmentations so my sister can't do that to them?"
Vixie then lit up with a violet flame floating above her head with an idea. She then answered, "There actually is. I've got some connections to a few engineers that design these Protogen parts in Szolsura. It may take a few days for them to get here, but they should be able to swap the parts so Inari can't control them like that. That's what Souzun Yako did, because he considered it a safety hazard if someone could remotely shut down his Protogen parts. I'll get on it right away now that I have the authority to do that as Inari's executor acting in her place. The only limitation is that under legal precedent, I can't do it for any one of them that has committed a serious crime. So, for most of the Nogitsune Protogens, I can have the parts replaced."
Victor then let out a sigh of relief. "Good. At least you treat your people with dignity."
Vixie then put her snow-white paw-hands on Inari's throne confidently. "Always. Besides, I've had enough of Inari treating the people of our clan as mere pieces in an economic game. So, while acting in her place, I'm going to attempt to correct some of the things she's done wrong permanently, starting with the Protogen program. For the ones that have committed serious crimes, they will be removed from society while the rest fulfill their duty to become upstanding citizens while also no longer being treated as expendable. I don't care if they come from impoverished families or not. They're not disposable and everyone has an important role to play in society, and not just those in high social classes like myself. I don't see my extended family delivering the mail, hauling off the garbage, or fixing my kitchen, so somebody has to do it. And there's no shame in not being wealthy."
"I can already tell you're different from my sister. And I althought when I first became a monk that treating people with dignity was standard, and I didn't realize how rare it was making the American Midwest, Szolsura, and the Tanuki clan feel exceptional in comparison."
Vixie then rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it. When my husband and I were on a vacation across America for a month, I met the friendliest people in the Midwest, especially in Omaha, Nebraska. Todd and I particularly liked this wing placed called Ray's Original Wings even though the sauce stained my muzzle and found a lovely church community at Saint John the Baptist that didn't judge us for being Kitsunes. I also got to see Creighton University and meet the person who created the first working Protogen parts there as part of a medical research project. It's a shame how his invention and researched was warped from helping people who have lost limbs and eyesight to now making one's own body a prison. I'm sorry. Am I rambling again?"
"You're fine. But also, I have a question. Who is the current bishop overseeing our clan? I know I serve under the bishop of Szolsura and I'm sent pretty much anywhere I'm needed, but I have noticed we don't have any churches in our clan that are within walking distance or even driving distance from people's homes that aren't some pseudo-Christian confessions or straight up heretics like the followers of Corvin Seiveril and Apollonius. So, I need to ask the local bishop, whoever he is, if he can spare a priest to do the sacraments here in the monastery. I thought it would be much worse, but it seems the youth and the Protogens are starving for meaning in their lives and they found it in our church. I don't want to deny them that, but I realize I can't do this by myself, because so many kits and Kitsunes came to me in the monastery during my prayer rule and meditations that I could not possibly handle a skulk of that size and meet all of their spiritual needs, especially if some of them choose to become baptized and chrismated into the church."
Vixie then looked a little embarrassed on behalf of the clan and said, "Um... we actually no longer have a bishop of the Kitsune clan. So, my husband, Dixie, and I have had to travel for 2 hours to get to the Divine Liturgy all the way in the Tanuki clan. So, you'll have to speak with his eminence Metropolitan Onesimus of the Tanuki clan about this."
"Then I will. I'll get to writing that letter to him, and I assume he will understand once I write what is going on here. We first sent missionaries to the Tanuki clan back in the late 1200s, and now they send them back to us 900 years later. If only his eminence was named Moshi instead of Onesimus."
*******
Blondie and the Protogens
(Protogen March seems fitting for Protogens preparing to take out public enemy number one.)
With Gumiho being public enemy number one, Inari summoned Blondie and her Nogitsune Protogens to fill them in on their next mission. Inari then said, "To you Nogitsunes, it has come time for your training on snuffing out this plague on our society who goes by the name of Gumiho. You know her well. She eats the hearts and livers out of live Kitsunes and is a user of Dark magic. Except this time, we're not going to spare and capture her. We're rightfully going to put that witch to death. Now, Blondie here will be your new commander and be in control of the mission to kill Gumiho."
Blondie then was dressed in his new custom Protogen exoskeleton suit without having to remove his organic limbs while preparing to train with his new Protogens. And after gearing up, he joined the Protogens in the simulations.
*******
Victor's Memories
After returning to his cell in his monastery, he picked up a pen and paper and began writing to Metropolitan Onesimus. But after he was finished, lied down on the floor unable to fall asleep. And while lying there, a memory came to him of his first spiritual son, Moshi the Blacktail.
He remembered Moshi, a lone Tanuki abandoned after an unsuccessful raid on Inari's caravan. All that was left of him was a festering wound and being left for dead, and how he was the only person to notice him and care for him. So, he carried Moshi all the way back to this monastery and brought him back to health. And although Victor didn't think much of it, to Moshi, it meant everything.
For Moshi had never seen kindness as a slave to an unimportant Kitsune clan official and having been part of a bandit gang of 72 bandits having such a fearsome reputation that it even reached Inari and her right paw-hand man Souzun Yako. He was not even given a name by his parents nor anything other than "slave" to his abusive Kitsune master, and it would be none other than Victor himself who gave him a name and first treated him as anything other than a slave or the refuse of society. And then other memories of Moshi came back to him.
Victor then smiled joyfully remembering all the little things he saw Moshi do such as contemplating his own repentance while carrying a bag leaking sand. And then there was the time the monks got angry at him for cooking during a three day fast without realizing Moshi was feeding starving people who had no one to look after them. And then there were the times the monks accused Moshi of stealing when he would leave the monastery in the middle of the night and returning with all manner of things. However, it only ended up being Moshi helping children flee from criminal syndicates and giving them dignified lives and those kits growing up and freely choosing to give him gifts that he would share with the monks and those that needed them. And then the monks accused Moshi of fornicating for spending the night at brothels with the vixens until they discovered he was helping these vixens escape exploitation and start a new life.
However, Moshi was not without his flaws such as his predisposition for a short temper and being wanted by the Kitsune clan law. And then there was his bad reputation because of his former life as the ringleader of bandits with the audacity to raid even Inari's caravans. And then his former bandit gang was known for taking beautiful vixens back to the Tanuki clan as spoils of their robberies for sex and cut off the tails of the men they captured to make sure they could never use their Kitsune magic again while relishing in the pain they would go through. They had such a bad reputation, Inari even considered torching the entire forested hills that the Tanukis lived in to burn them all to ashes.
However, in due time, even the 72 members of Moshi's former bandit gang would see the evil they had done and became monks to atone for their crimes. And when the knights of Inari arrived to arrest and execute them, they did not fight back but willingly accepted their fates and turned themselves in. The knights were taken back so much by this that they chose to not execute them but make them slaves. And those who weren't healthy enough to be slaves were quickly and painlessly beheaded rather than tortured. But the ones that survived, they fled their slavery and returned the Tanuki clan and converted the Tanukis from their savage and barbaric ways to the ways of life.
Even Moshi saw his clan one last time before finally meeting his fate when Souzun Yako confronted him. But even with Yako's katana through his body, Moshi didn't see Yako with hatred but said, "Forgive him. For he knows not what he does."
And when Yako heard Moshi's last words, he didn't understand what Moshi meant until some time passed and met Moshi's closest friends. And when he understood what he did, despite the clan and Inari herself praising him as a great hero, Souzun Yako gave himself the title of Nogitsune believing he had shed innocent blood. Then Yako branded himself with the mark of shame feeling too impure to ever be worthy of all 9 tails and never gained more than 8. But despite this, Inari told Yako, "Moshi was just as guilty as Gumiho. You killing him was not a necessary evil but a necessary good."
And while reminiscing over his old memories, Victor began to drift off to sleep with the Protogens protecting the monastery from anyone who might threaten Victor's life. So, the Protogens remained vigilant. But what they did not notice was Gumiho watching from a distance, salivating over just the thought of the taste of Victor's pure heart and liver. Then she thought how she might sneak past the Protogens and get Victor alone in his cell, but something stopped her. It was as if an invisible wall stood between her and the monastery, and the closer she got, the more she felt a burning sensation in her whole body to the point where she gave up getting any closer. And then she felt the power of her Dark magic vanish behind that invisible barrier she felt nowhere else, including the okami Inari shrines. So, she thought to herself, "If I'm sinking my teeth into that pure heart and liver, I need a way to get Victor out of there and alone."
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Did you know this?
Moshi the Blacktail's Backstory: Moshi the Blacktail's backstory is loosely based on Saint Moses the Black. Some parts of this include the part about Moshi carrying around a bag leaking sand and the part about the monks being angry that he was cooking. Moses the Black was also a slave to an unimportant Egyptian official and regularly abused by his master and was known to have a short temper. After being banished by his master under suspected murder, he went off and started a gang of 72 members that became infamous throughout Egypt and Ethiopia. The monks were also suspicious of Moses's choice to become a monk because they thought he was just trying to flee from the law. He would also die by the hands of a rival gang and refused to fight back and had 72 spiritual children under his guidance with only a few monks who fled the scene to tell the tale of what happened to Moses the Black.
Protogen Parts Inventor Lore: Canonically, the inventor of the first working Protogen parts in Another World's Fairy Tale is a Furry. He also owns a Protogen fur suit. That's why he called his cybernetics Protogen parts, and the name just spread around. Plus, in the real world, Creighton University is well-known for their medical school.