Name: Konjiki Kuzunoha (Note: Done in Japanese fashion. Kuzunoha is her first name, whereas Konjiki is more a title than anything else, meaning "Golden.")


Title: Golden Vixen


Age: 417. As a Kitsune, this essentially means that she has reincarnated a total of four times, and now possesses a body with an apparent physical age of approximately 17. This also determines her total number of tails: four. However, she usually just merges them together into a single tail for convenience.


Sex: Female.


Race: Kitsune. Rather, she's technically a Kitsune spirit inhabiting a Human body, due to being sired of a Human father, but still possesses the full power of her heritage. Really, the only thing this changes is her default form: that of a Human with several foxlike traits.


Appearance: It is difficult to describe the overall appearance of one who can and will change minor details of her form as she sees fit. However, throughout all of her varying transformations, many features remain constant about Kuzunoha's appearance. Her height is always generally five feet, seven inches, while her build is tall, lean, and slender, with most of her aforementioned height being provided by her long, limber legs. With a thin waist, flat stomach, and, much to her chagrin, only slightly less flat chest, she seems rather doll-like and fragile at first glance, an impression which is rapidly contradicted by the surprisingly well built physique she hides beneath her deceptively thin frame. Her skin tone is somewhere between its original pale and being darkened by the sun's radiance, instead maintaining a healthy pink hue that is neither pale nor overly tanned.



Perhaps her most notable (Human) feature is her eyes. With a petite nose, ears, and chin, and soft, gently pursed pink lips, her rather attention grabbing gaze is, without contest, the centerpiece of her face. A bright green in hue, her twin emerald orbs, framed as they are amidst the flowing golden curtains of her long, straight hair, draw in the attention of those who look upon her almost immediately - that is, if her ears don't first. Poking up from the top of her head, her large, white and gold-furred triangular fox-like ears are very difficult not to notice, even amidst her waist-length cascades of gleaming blonde tresses. Similarly, the matching tail - or tails, depending on how many she feels like having at the moment, a number which can range anywhere from one to four at any given time - she possesses is also difficult to notice, as she has an almost comical tendency to express herself through various different quirks of these two inhuman features. If her ears are perked up, for example, it usually means she's happy, while if they and her tail droop lifelessly, it's a sign she's feeling sad. If her tail pricks up, she's on edge, and if it begins to dart eagerly back and forth, she's excited about something. Overall, one can tell more, perhaps, about her emotions by watching her ears and tail than they can by looking at her youthful face.

There are, however, a few other tell-tale signs of various emotions and actions that one can observe in her, and, based on what form she is in, one can tell a few things about what she is doing. First and foremost is the change that she undergoes when she begins actively using her powers. No matter how many tails she has chosen to manifest at any given moment, the instant she begins using her abilities, all of her tails will become visible. In addition to this, her eyes will turn a vibrant shade of yellow-green, and several crimson markings, the very edges of which are pictured in the first image above, appear upon her body, starting just beneath her eyes and running down the sides and back of her neck to form a series of concentric crescents and circles upon either shoulder.

Her wardrobe varies quite considerably, as shown in the images. However, general constants in her manner of dress are: tight fitting, nonrestrictive tops and bottoms, usually sleeveless jackets and short pants/skirts combined with tall stockings, boots, or leggings, topped off with a pair of oftentimes mismatched, detached sleeves.

Personality: At the very least, Kuzunoha could be called nominally polite, even to her enemies. Yet, despite her usually cordial, calm, and respectful demeanor, she is undoubtedly distant and aloof at almost all times, preferring to do things on her own than to involve others. In conversation with others, she usually remains quiet, never really saying much if she doesn't have to. Although it's pretty easy to tell that she's not a cruel or cold person, given her actions - she operates on a highly venerated code of honor that prompts her, among other things, to be highly reluctant to hurt others, and to honor her opponents' skills instead of mocking them or trying to overcome them through unfair or illegal means (although if an action is both within her power to execute and within the bounds of the rules, she won't hesitate to use more pragmatic means of doing battle) - and polite attitude, she is nevertheless rarely seen as a friendly individual due to her solitary personality. Quite simply, she has a goal, and doesn't want to let anything get in the way of achieving that objective. More than anything else, she is determined to win in the tournament, and so doesn't want to grow overly attached to anyone who might be fighting against her, so as not to hinder her when that battle comes. However, on the other hand, she also doesn't wish to make her opponents reluctant to do battle with her, as exploiting such a kindness in her adversaries would make the battles she must fight meaningless and cowardly, in her opinion. In short, she wants to fight her enemies at their strongest, and defeat them, with neither party being held back by sentimentality or reluctance.

But, to the surprise of most who actually manage to get to know her, Kuzunoha is actually a rather outgoing individual at heart. Cheerful, polite, energetic, and friendly, one might even call the Kitsune childish despite her tremendous lifespan. She enjoys simple things like games, music, good food, and painting pictures, something you wouldn't expect from such a confident combatant, nor from a person who enjoys battle so. Tremendously loyal to those she calls her friends, she's willing to do almost anything to help them out when they're in a pinch. Thus, given her devotion to those close to her, it makes sense that she'd be reluctant to befriend her enemies until after she's defeated them, as she would very likely be unable to bring herself to fight anyone she cared about. Nevertheless, there is one other reason that she remains so distant from other people, a secret that is just as surprising to most as her hidden sweet side, as it were.

Namely, Kuzunoha harbors a lingering distrust of males as a whole, likely due to bad recollections of her father's retainers. In any case, being in close proximity to any sufficiently mature man renders the otherwise outgoing Kitsune rather nervous and edgy, causing a variety of different reactions depending on the actions of those men interacting with her. Any sort of perceived romantic advance generally makes the Kitsune very flustered, causing her to momentarily forget her manners and good nature and immediately try to either defuse, derail, or escape from the situation, sometimes in an unintentionally violent way, such as a slap or a sudden bout of seemingly uncharacteristic anger. On the other hand, she becomes tremendously edgy and sometimes even passive-aggressive in response to overly authoritative male figures, their commanding presence adding to her initial nervousness at their proximity and attention. In other cases, such as when shown platonic kindness by a member of the opposite gender, she often is left completely baffled as to how to react, resulting in an uncharacteristically shy persona prompted by her repressed fear of men. Consequently, one could say that she's actually a bit of a tsundere despite her usually kind attitude, or at least in regards to the attentions of members of the opposite sex.

Background: To explain Kuzunoha's past requires first some elaboration of the nature of her family, and how she came to be conceived. Her father was a Human nobleman, a feudal lord of considerable standing. Respected by his allies and feared by his enemies, he had made a name for himself both through his harsh yet just lawmaking, his tremendous honor, and his overwhelming prowess in battle, distinguishing himself in all regards both in times of war and of peace. Yet, despite his renown, he remained unmarried until one eventful day. While traveling to one of his holdings, he came across a poacher who had dared to attack one of many sacred foxes that dwelt within the shrine of a local guardian deity: a Nine-Tailed Fox whose name had been lost to time. These foxes, renowned for their magical golden furs, were not to be harmed under penalty of the law, yet this hunter dared try to slay one of them and claim its pelt for his own. The young nobleman, who was a pious man, was outraged by this sacrilegious man's actions, and came to blows with him, eventually striking him down for his crimes. However, he sustained several wounds in the process, and collapsed. When he awoke, he was lying inside the Kitsune land goddess' shrine, not beside the fox he had saved, but rather by the side of a beautiful woman with hair like burnished gold, who tended to his wounds and nursed him back to health. Traveling with him back to his castle, this mysterious woman became his wife, and ruled by his side for many years. However, on the night that they were married, she made him swear that when she or any child she sired was to bathe, the room was to be sealed and under no circumstances entered.

They had but one child: a girl to whom they gave the name of Kuzunoha, and the appellation of Konjiki, or "The Golden," in reference to her hair, which was much the same as her mother's. For the first dozen years of this daughter's life, nothing strange was observed either in her person, or in that of her parents. However, if one looked closely enough, one could see that she was far from an ordinary child. Gifted with tremendous intelligence, she occupied herself from a young age equally with her studies and with astonishingly complex pranks, which she reveled in to no end. She admired both her parents greatly, and alternatively listened to tales of the distant past told her by her mother, or to tales of wars and battles fought by her father, the latter of which actually drove her to study the art of swordsmanship, much to the surprise of her teachers. Further to their astonishment, she was remarkably skilled with a blade, wielding the weapon with such strength and grace that, despite her small size, she swiftly overcame even her father's tremendous prowess at the tender age of fifteen. Yet, it was around this time that strange happenings became associated with her. She was too quick, too strong, too graceful, it seemed. There was something otherworldly about her, and the retainers of her father began to fear her, and they counseled her father against both her and her mother.

At last, her father caved beneath his curiosity, and for the first and the last time, he broke his word, and allowed his retainers to investigate their suspicions, leaving the castle bath unsealed and allowing them to steal a momentary glance upon his wife and daughter as they bathed. Unable to contain his own curiosity, he went as well and, to his astonishment, he beheld the secret they had concealed from him for so long: the women were not mere mortal Humans, but rather, his wife was the very land goddess at the shrine where he had defended the fox, who had actually been herself, all those years ago, and his daughter bore her mother's supernatural power.

His retainers, horrified by the "monsters" in their midst, were unable to control their fright and anger at being deceived so. Rising up against the women, they attacked them as they were emerging from the baths and, despite her father's attempts to control them and her mother's efforts to protect her, both of Kuzunoha's parents were grievously wounded. With the last of her strength, her mother assumed the shape of a great fox, and carried the young girl to safety, fleeing into the wilderness before finally collapsing from her wounds.

Unable to so much as move any longer, the legendary Kyuubi, mother to Kuzunoha, lay paralyzed and weak amidst the wilderness. Hiding away from Humans, they survived the fall of the Human nobleman's empire, and the end of his life. Allowing her blood to awaken, the faithful daughter remained by the side of her helpless mother for many hundreds of years, hunting amidst the wilds to feed her helpless parent, tending to her wounds, and nursing her ailing mother as best she could. Through four reincarnations, Kuzunoha remained alone in the wilds, until at last, the inevitable finally took place. The legendary land goddess Kyuubi passed away, and, ever reluctantly, Kuzunoha returned to Human society in despair, her hopes of seeing her mother alive and well again dashed after centuries of toiling in vain. Yet, to her amazement, something unexpected occurred that changed all this.

Namely, a mysterious new being entered the world, offering the one who triumphed in a contest of martial strength one wish to be granted them. Hoping for the resurrection of her mother, Kuzunoha immediately went to the place that had been spoken of, already fully prepared to fight to the bitter end to once again see her beloved parent.

Magic Specificity: Kuzunoha specializes in the shaping of latent energy known as Youki. As a Kitsune, she possesses truly tremendous amounts of this energy, and can utilize it in a variety of different ways. First and foremost, by channeling this spiritual energy through a physical object, such as a weapon or her own body, she can reinforce it, allowing her to make her body far, far faster, stronger, and more resilient than that of an ordinary Human. Capable of moving as little more than a blur from one point to another, her speed is most certainly nothing to be trifled at, as even veteran fighters might well have difficulty so much as following her movements, let alone reacting to them.

On top of this, however, Kuzunoha's Youki has several other uses. By making it manifest outside of her body, she can generate an odd sort of bright golden flame that, strangely enough, rather than generating warmth, seems to consume it, adding nearby heat to its own energy with the side effect of freezing most things it comes into contact with. She can also alter the appearance of these cold flames, making them assume illusory shapes to trick her opponents. One of her favorite tactics is to use her tremendous speed to replace herself with a phantasm of this sort without being noticed, then allowing the enemy to strike it, only for the copy to shatter into chilling flames and wash over them. She can also, however, conjure incorporeal obstacles and the like to confuse her opponent, or simply manifest her Youki directly to attack her opponent. Being incorporeal, however, her Youki's only directly defensive properties are its reinforcement abilities.

There is one other application of her Youki Shaping, however. By disassembling her body into Youki and reshaping it, she can alter aspects of her appearance, drawing her appearance either closer to or farther from her true Kitsune form, such as concealing her tail and ears from view, or, at the opposite extent of her abilities, transforming all the way into a fox. Through this same means, however, she can also dissipate wounds into Youki and rebuild the injured area, allowing her to heal injuries if given the time. Alternatively, she could break down her entire body into Youki, then reform it at a location where more of her Youki already exists, a tactic she often uses as a sort of portal-like teleportation to swap out her real body for a fake at the last second. This, combined with her overwhelming speed, makes her notoriously difficult to hit.


Weapons: Pictured above, Kuzunoha has two "weapons" she often uses, although only one of them could really be called such. This is her sword, a broad, curved, single-edged weapon designed somewhere between a Katana and a Dao. This crimson and silver blade, thanks to the influence of her Youki, is unnaturally sharp and durable, capable of cutting cleanly through even granite with ease. Its edge is cold to the touch, and often leaves a faint, frosty mist in its wake.

The second "weapon" is her parasol, an oriental style red umbrella of neatly woven straw shown in the background of the first picture. Although it seems innocuous enough, it has actually been reinforced many times over by her Youki, serving as a tremendously durable shield despite its light weight. To the surprise of many, this frigid ward, aside from serving as a means of cooling oneself in the hot sun, is capable of deflecting sword strikes and magical assaults alike without even showing a scratch on its surface.


What will you wish for: Her mother's resurrection.


Other: Battle Theme 1: Mezame and Battle Theme 2: Storm and Fire, both by Yuki Kajiura.