Fortune and misfortune are relative things to begin with. The dungeon of the Shadow Kingdom is dark and damp, with chains hanging low and cold seeping into the bone. Fuzenkitsune keeps his head lowered, letting the shackles on his wrists sway gently with each breath and knock together with dull, heavy clinks. After arriving in the White Fox territory, he does not remain under its protection completely. From time to time, he still goes out to train.

The Shadow Kingdom is never a peaceful place. Beyond the White Fox clan's land, countless eyes remain fixed on the movements of the demon king, and on that mysterious younger brother at her side. In the end, the Eye of Fortune draws greedy eyes. One ambush after he leaves the territory drags him into this lightless prison. A great yokai who rules one region yet already stands on the edge of old age takes a fancy to those strange eyes that see the flow of fate, hoping to break him with torture and forbidden curses, then raise him into a tool that knows only obedience.

In the darkness, Fuzenkitsune says nothing. Only the Eye of Fortune keeps turning in silence, searching for the one path that leads out alive. A gray, withered aura coils around the guards. It is the sign of misfortune closing in, but they notice nothing. I hear Lady Demon King Kuzunoha turns down Okuninushi's blessing and plans to leave the Shadow Kingdom. The guards' idle chatter slips through the cracks in the stone, reaching him in broken fragments.

Fuzenkitsune still keeps his head bowed. In this torment, he loses one of his horns, and blood from the broken stump now runs down the side of his forehead. So she finally leaves. Just like my sister. Even leaving, she does it cleanly. Then... I can't embarrass myself either. The instant the words fall, the chains on his wrists snap apart. At almost the same moment, dice hidden all across the cell, placed there in secret long ago, burst out one after another with sharp whistles through the air.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The guards do not even have time to react before they collapse one by one, all breath and sound gone. Fuzenkitsune rolls his bloodied wrists, lowers his eyes to the guards at his feet, and speaks in a calm voice. So this is it. Today's misfortune is me. In the next instant, his figure melts into the shadows deep within the prison and slips away without a sound.

By the time he arrives, Kuzunoha is already gone. At the far edge of the wasteland, the light of the formation has only just faded, yet traces of lingering demonic power still stain the ground. Sand and wind sweep across it, and a few pale violet remnants flicker between the pattern lines, as if someone deliberately leaves behind a narrow path. Fuzenkitsune slowly comes to a stop. This is...

He looks at the formation that has not yet fully fallen silent, and suddenly smiles. Honestly... so my sister knows all along what I plan to do. Kuzunoha leaves, but she does not seal off this road completely. Whether he follows or not is for no one else to decide. The choice belongs to him alone. A wild fox lives by wild fox rules. Fuzenkitsune steps to the edge of the formation, and his strange eye begins to turn once more.

The lingering trails of demonic power, the last force of the formation's closing motion, and that narrow gap that has not yet vanished all reveal themselves to him bit by bit. Fortune and misfortune really are always two sides of the same thing. At this moment, his feeble demonic power becomes his chance instead. If he can use the traces Kuzunoha leaves behind and weave his own aura into the formation before it fully closes, then perhaps he can ride that current out.

But if he makes even the slightest mistake, the formation is just as likely to tear him to pieces. But Fuzenkitsune is never one to stop here. He steps into the center of the formation and pours in all of his blood and every scrap of demonic power he has left. Hummm, under his forced push, his reading of fate, and the pull of the remnants Kuzunoha leaves behind, that silent formation actually glimmers again with a faint, trembling light.

Dear sister, I'll see you in Heian-Kyo. As for this round, win or lose, I'll place my bet. With those words, he leaps forward and throws himself into the light that shines once more.