folklore AU hazuki

YOU GOT THE FIRE KKUNG KKUNG KKUNG
YOU GOTTA DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT jIgEUm mOMcHURYoEO hAJIMA OOOohkay i will stop singing now)

I finished the second ginger in my FOLKLORE AU BABES series which so far includes JUST ELAIN: 
Hazuki first technically appears in the folklore prequel- which takes place in the 15th century- but she lives to see the 1990s folklore au because kitsunes live like forever

the pattern on her kimono is asanoha with shippo (with hanabishi on the inside? idk). they're very common heian prints. it's of note that her entire outfit is very gender ambiguous (hair looks like a chinese male topknot, but was worn by Japanese prostitutes; she's wearing male horse-riding hakama, but they're effeminately solid-coloured and her top is female as well. This is intentional because hazuki likes playing the Guess My Gender game)

Description copied from tumblr:

Tales of fox spirits are ubiquitous in Asian folklore, ranging from the tales of the huli jing in China to the fox spirits of Southeast Asia.* In many of these stories, the fox is a malicious trickster: she lures travellers into bogs, possesses humans, and feeds on the virility and livers of men.

The Japanese counterpart, in contrast, is often more morally grey; in many tales, they come to the aid of their human neighbours or become loyal wives and mothers. Most commonly, kitsune are simply irritating pests of the Japanese moors and uplands who spend their time knocking prideful humans down a peg or two. Known to infest abandoned lots with their kits and extended families, they tend to cause mischief and wreak chaos for whomever is unlucky enough to move in. Nonetheless, the kitsune family may become attached to a certain household, serving the family line for generations.

They have the power of illusion, and can bend reality to their will; they can also possess humans, shapeshift, and produce foxfire by rubbing their tails together. Their souls exist outside their bodies, and are contained in glass pearls known as hoshi no tama (lit. star balls). If the ball can be obtained, one can often force the kitsune to do their bidding under threat of murder. A fox grows a tail for every one hundred years alive, and upon reaching nine hundred becomes a pure white nine-tailed fox granted with omniscience.

A fox’s only weakness is clerics: holy men can exorcize their possessed victims and can see through their illusions and glamours. The layfolk, too, can identify a kitsune by tails peeping out under their clothes when drunk or careless. Their shadows, too, are in the shape of a fox. Some are suceptible to food bribes (our heroine, mainly).

While nowhere close to godhood, Hazuki of the Akifuji clan possesses a measly three tails. Her androgyny hardly lends to the human myths of stunning fox brides, but she is centuries too young for a spouse when there’s food to be eaten and humans to be entertained by. Although she wouldn’t admit it, her clan loyalties are tested when she finds a cursed village girl with a never-ending neck, a sullen daoshi, and an impending provincial conflict.

Centuries later, she is tested once again when she’s summoned for a thoroughly unique problem on the other side of the earth.

(the neck girl is yoko. the daoshi is wenyan. but you knew that. i can't wait until i can coherently write out this plot without fucking it up)