I probably listened to that message about ten times before sending it to my mother’s phone. It’s not like it was the last thing that he every said or recorded himself saying, but it’s still a precious piece of his life that I never want to lose.

Before going to sleep, I went into his room and found that Inari Okami figurine. It’s basically just a small plaster statuette that was painted with reflective gold. The eyes are actually made out of real blue sapphires. It probably cost him at least a hundred dollars or more, which was really expensive for us back then.

If I wasn’t afraid of breaking it, I definitely would have went to bed with it in my arms. Instead, I placed it on my nightstand. It only has the middle tail left, so it looks more like a regular fox. There’s something special about it though… I can see why my brother was willing to pay so much for it.

I’m not really sure why, but I just keep feeling the need to touch it? Maybe that’s why the tails broke off? Azra probably man-handled it too hard. I did some research on Inari Okami, since I was bored and had nothing better to do.

Also known as Oinari, the fox-deity is super-famous in Japan. Like, a third of all Shinto shrines are dedicated to her. Aside from being an adorable vixen, she’s basically a goddess of tea, Sake, fertility, rice, general agriculture and other types of industry as well. She’s an overall prosperity deity and related to a bunch of other ‘kami’.

Inari Okami has been described as a shapeshifter in most stories, or at least, she has a bunch of different forms. An old man, a young girl, an androgynous foxy humanoid ‘person’… There’s a place called Inari Mountain, huh? Maybe I should go there one day?

Blacksmiths and warriors like her, ‘cause she’s cool like that. Oh, nice, she’s also related to Buddhism somehow. Umm, ‘kitsune’ are supposed to be white, but the figurine is painted gold. Neat, apparently she was also written about as a snake, a dragon and a giant spider-monster.

Aside from that, my Dad got me four soft tacos… And that was my day… It’s still early though, so I might do stuff later?

Nope, did absolutely nothing productive. Just talked to some of my old friends online. My hands hurt from typing so much. It’s funny how many people wanted to try and make me feel better about getting my brother killed.

I have a good feeling about tomorrow though! I’m pretty sure that something awesome will happen… Maybe I’ll go jogging?

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