To Catch a Fox

With a lead from Emma-Ō's mirror, the Kami identified their next destination: Saffron Hills, where the three-tailed fox had last been seen. After informing Amaterasu of their findings, the sun goddess tasked them with investigating the Kitsune presence in the region—and determining whether these fox spirits posed a threat to the balance of the mortal realm.

The journey through the windy Saffron Hills took several days. Along the way, the Kami encountered a group of traveling monks who, under the guise of hospitality, attempted to drug and enslave them. These monks used a special potion to transform victims into mindless Timble Men, but the concoction had only a temporary effect on divine beings. After a short period of disorientation, the Kami regained control and confronted their captors. During the battle, they discovered another imprisoned Kami, whom they freed. Grateful, this new ally joined their party.

The monks were revealed to be part of a group known as the Plum Bandits, who had been kidnapping travelers and turning them into Timble Men slaves. Though the Kami put a stop to their operation, they found over twenty victims whose minds and bodies had been altered. Unsure how to reverse the transformation, they sent the afflicted to Amaterasu for judgment and possible healing.

Eventually, the Kami arrived at Saffron Village, where they disguised themselves as honored guests of San Xiao, the local village chief. A wedding celebration was underway—San Xiao was set to marry Madam Hu Li Jing, the elegant and powerful owner of the famed Hu's Paradise Tea House. The Kami quickly uncovered that this union was born not of love, but obligation: Madam Hu had recently "given birth" to an heir, and San Xiao, desperate to fulfill his duty, felt compelled to marry her.

However, the Kami's investigation revealed troubling truths:

• Madam Hu Li Jing was a Kitsune, and Kitsune cannot bear children.
• The heir was not hers by birth, but rather the stolen child of Hebikage and Kaede.
• San Xiao had failed to produce an heir not by misfortune, but because the women he had lain with used a forbidden technique known as the Enervating Embrace—a method that drained life essence and left him temporarily impotent.
• Hidden deep in the village was an abandoned shrine to Inari, the Goddess of Rice and Prosperity. Madam Hu had once served as its priestess but had turned her back on the goddess when her prayers for a child went unanswered. Since then, she had adopted and raised orphaned children, though always with a sense of shame and secrecy.

The Kami confronted Madam Hu with the truth. Rather than punishing her, they acknowledged the good she had done by caring for the abandoned and unloved. They encouraged her to stop hiding behind illusions and to embrace the children she raised as her true legacy. Moved, Madam Hu agreed—and accepted Mizuki, the spirited child of Kaede, into her care under one condition: she would raise her as a priestess of Inari.

With this, the Kami helped restore the abandoned shrine, breathing divine life back into its sacred grounds. Madam Hu called off the wedding, freeing San Xiao from his obligation, and the Kami departed—leaving Saffron Village better than they found it, and the future of the child finally secure.