Spending a few days in meditation, you quickly find that you have been, somehow, granted powers by that strange kitsune's dream. Powers of your spirit animal.

Firstly, you obtained the Spirit Essence- passive and active abilities depending on your animal. It can give you anything in accordance with your spirit- enhanced strength and speed, flight, perhaps even elemental manipulation. While some of these can emerge without having to fully rely on your Spirit, you find that overuse of these summons your second ability.

The Spirit Armament. Strange armor or weapons that emerges when the warrior enters into a state where they are fully using their Spirit Essence. An experienced wielder can summon these at will- though at the time, overuse of your Essence made it come out sometimes.

And lastly- a message.

A message detailing Spiritual Ascension- to achieve ascension and make your spirit become more powerful. And the only way to do that is to apparently slay the person who gave you your power...or slay another person who had spiritual powers, like you.

Left with only this knowledge, you realize that your red string of fate had been tied- tied to different warriors, whose names you didn't even know.

And all red strings led through the Imperial Capital- Ashikaga.