Nezumi's Curse
Summary
dude disrespects his wife by cheating on her under the claim he's being more godlike by doing so and this pisses off ferventi. ferventi calls in a favor from hikaru, and asks her to torment the certified dumbshit bc he's kind of busy with this badger nonsense. hikaru transforms into a young woman to see if he will hit on her, he does, but hikaru kind of just wants to leave it to be ferventi's business and tries to leave. dipass mcgee tries to stop her and this ROYALLY pisses off hikaru, in which she then curses him to be a swarm of mice and chases him across japan, eating the mice one by one until all that's left of him is a pair of mice that are his guilt and despair, the smallest of the mouse swarm
The god, the great fox, was beckoned to her shrine by an unusual call- the beck and call of another god was rare, unusual, oft only for the most dire of pleas and calls to aid to not be done in person or not to wait for gatherings of the gods, so regular and predictable in their happenings. Although the call itself was odd, the presence on the lingering winds of its melody was not- the Wolf, long an ally, long a friend, a confidant, lover, and guardian to his cult and hers.
'Hikaru, Hikaru, I have been told of the misdeeds of one of mine on your lands,' Ferventi spoke through her shrine, his words iced by howling wind and snow of his own domain, long away. 'One who such defiles my name in his acts in your shrines.'
That such news came from such a distant ally rather than one of her own priests was news to the god, who shed her mortal form and fur bristled under the moon in anger- not to the wolf, but that such had been kept away from her ears.
'It is a great disgrace to hear, my old friend, but your blood runs hot and arrogant these days. For what do I have to believe it was not but a slight, when you drive your fang to any who disrespect you these days?'
Such a question did anger Ferventi, but he did yet admit he was to busy to handle the matter himself, else he would, but did not wish to see trails of the badger's unworthy blood across her land in his haste to do so, and left the shrine swiftly under call of his warriors and hunters with a final ask:
'Long have we been allies, and long have we dealt with mortalkind in tandem. At my last aid of you, it was promised to give aid of me, and I ask of it now.'
To deal with such a nuisance of a mere mortal was not within the fox's plans- autumn was soon to fall and so her festivities and preparations for the long winter and its lean times but promises given were promises kept, especially to such an esteemed ally. Disrespect to his name was disrespect to her as well for allowing their misdeeds, and such diminishes in either's power could not be afforded at such crucial times of the year. Hikaru threw off her cloak of maple leaves to take the guise of one of her priests- a young woman of bare not yet twenty, beautiful and kind around the eyes, the type of timid that mortal long misunderstood to be fangless. She took the woman's place at her shrine with compensation of the butterfly's wine and the raccoon's rice twice per week upon her door, to keep the priest at home and out of sight.
By the twelfth of night, the fox had grown tired and itched under her disguise in mortal hide and was near to shed it like a snake when the man she sought slithered upon her, with teeth of lie and promise.
'Become like the gods with me,' He beckoned, with no care to hide the ring of his finger. 'The gods hold many wives with nary a clue of one another, become one of mine, your beauty mine to hold among so many other.'
Historical Basis
The myth is almost certainly an embellished tale of the Curse of the Mouse, a curse well known for its use by Hikaru Vulapin, God of Foxes. The story is very likely to be a conglomerate of multiple other tales and cases of men being cursed by the fox god, especially given the name of the tale's titular unfortunate soul: In all of the oldest texts of the myth, Nezumi's name is written literally as '鼠', as opposed to other characters or spellings. The character '鼠' literally means mouse in Japanese, where the myth originated.
Japan being the home of Hikaru, there are numerous tales and confirmed cases in which she has cursed individuals, usually men, throughout history. It is well known her dislike of sexist men and especially those that are overbearing and refuse to leave young women alone, with many stories attesting that behavior will specifically earn her ire.
Spread
The Curse of Nezumi, or Nezumi's curse, likely was its own standalone myth but is most well known for its inclusion in several books that were collections of tales about the pantheon that were printed and distributed in the middle 6,000s. The vast majority of myths, legends, and tales in these books were commonly folk tales and stories that had been passed down through local communities, only being published later on collectively through publishing houses in Tokyo, Hokkaido, and Okinawa primarily for travelers, tourists, and pilgrims to the various temples and shrines across the country. A primary focus was on local gods, such as Hikaru and Sasakia, as well as much older folk stories.
The earliest records of the standalone Nezumi story have long since been lost, but the vast majority of later recordings of it often reference them or outright state they were sourced from these older records, with little variation from them until much later on, when the story was adapted into plays, shows, comics, and movies. There also are commonly sold figurines depicting scenes from the tale, often sold at shrines and meant to be given on one's journey to the Red Maple District, the primary worship site of Hikaru, which are often inscribed with small blurbs of the story.
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