When I went down for the explosion, I felt the instinctive need to cover myself with my tails. I was not entirely sure why at that moment, but I did not hesitate and covered myself immediately.

  The shock wave then ripped over me as time seemed to still for a moment. It felt like the world was holding its breath for something. And then time resumed, and a wall of fire rolled over me.

  Getting back up from the ground after that happened and dusting myself off, I checked my tails to see how badly they were damaged. Surprisingly, they were mostly fine, with the fur only being a little bit dryer than I would have liked. I then stopped what I was doing for a moment to think of why I would have done that.

  Nothing really came to mind, except for the constant lessons my father and grandfather gave me about safety and how it was better for one of your arms or legs to be damaged instead of your head or back. I guess in the moment my brain took that same principle and applied it to my tails as well. It could have also been some instinct thing combined with my knowledge of fire and the fact that I was technically a fire saintess kitsune. However, the only way I would know was if I was in a situation like that again, and that was definitely not somewhere I wanted to be anytime soon.

  With those thoughts cleaned up, I turned around to inspect my handy work.

  Behind me and in front of the mission hall was now a small bst zone that blew the door off its hinges and even carved out a part of the wall itself. The most gruesome part was lying near where I was standing in the center of the bst. Two of the person’s buddies were thrown back and littered with injuries, while the one that was standing slightly farther away escaped with only a couple of internal injuries from the shock wave and being blown back a slight distance. The man himself was now missing a hand and a good portion of his lower arm. As for the rest of his body, it was best to say that it looked like someone had left a steak on the grill for too long. Most of his body was charred, with a good portion of it being broken and mangled, as I did not hold back with this bomb.

  The sight of his body made me feel slightly sorry for him and gave me the slightest feeling of a gag reflex I did not know I had, but I held it back and was about to go around him and walk into the Mission hall.

  I then had what I thought was a small bout of paranoia hit, and I went into that state where I was able to see all the Qi around me.

  Looking at the man's body again, I saw that there was a decent amount of Qi leaving his body all at once, and all of the Qi in his body seemed to no longer be moving. This was something I knew nothing about, but it made me scared enough for a second that I ran forward and grabbed his still remaining wrist to check his pulse. The reason I did not go for the neck was because of the charred skin and the fact that I could find the one on his wrist almost instantly.

  After waiting for a few moments with my fingers over his vein, I did not feel any sort of pulse.

  This caused a bit of panic to well up from within me as I wanted to check the rest of his body when I heard a voice from behind me sigh and say, “Stop checking. He’s already dead. Died the moment your bomb went off.”

  Turning around, I saw a boy standing there wearing the robe of an elder. Something about him seemed familiar to me, but I honestly could not care right now. I was currently having to deal with the split in my mind. Part of me was terrified and feeling incredibly guilty for killing someone, but the other part was saying it was fine because the man deserved what he got, and it was going to happen sooner or ter. I did not need to check anymore to confirm the boy's words as I already knew the outcome, I just did not want to fully accept it at the moment. The boy then said, “I know most people don’t fully get used to it, but it is better to figure out your stance on killing people as it will come up more in the future. It is the nature of what we do, after all. It is also a major part of this world that is not going to go away. However, you do not need to have the answer to this question right now so I suggest that you put it away for right now and focus on what you came here for.”

  Thinking about what the boy had just said for a moment, I guess that he was right, but I still did not know why he wanted me to go away. Taking a small moment to take a breath, I asked the boy, “Don’t I need to stay here to answer some questions or do some things?”

  Just when I finished asking my question and before the boy could even respond, I heard Mom's voice say, “You just go in and find the mission you want. I will deal with the situation here.”

  Turning my head slightly at the sound, I saw Mom slowly walking toward us with a calm look on her face. I then looked at the body of the man on the ground and could not find any words to say. Since that was the case, I swiftly nodded and turned to go inside the mission hall.

  As I walked to the door, I could see some of the people inside the mission hall looking out through the new hole in the wall I had created. It was not every day that you got to see a Kitsune kill someone, after all.

  Walking through the door, I noticed that the room did not have any noise. It was a little weird when I sat in the middle of it all, But I ignored it and walked toward the now disheveled and yet still functional quest board.

  Most of the quests were simple hunter-killer-type tasks or herb-gathering tasks. I did not want either of those, but it did leave behind the investigation and information-gathering quest.

  I then looked over at the investigation Quests as those ones were the ones to draw my eyes for right now. It would not always happen, but it was enough.

  The next problem I encountered was that even though I could read the requests, I did not know where they were from. Frowning at that, I stood there and thought of a mission. Letting out a sigh at this, I was about to walk away when I heard an unrecognizable voice speak up and ask, “Is there anything that you need?”

  Looking over at the source, I found a strange man standing there who had asked me a question. Next to him were a few other people looking over a map draped on one of the tables.

  Well, with them offering help and having the right piece of equipment that I needed, I walked right up to them with a smile on my face.