Somewhere between dream and dawn, a girl was born who did not belong.

Kasumi Tanoue moved between worlds as easily as breath a whisper in the Veil, a child of snow and light.

She vanished without warning, returned with starlight in her hair, and spoke of rivers that ran upward and skies that sang.

Her sister called her blessed.

The elders called her cursed.

When the demon struck, the Veil was torn open, and something vast reached through the wound.

The world shuddered. The gods intervened. Konohanasakuya-hime offered grace.

Inari Ōkami offered the chain. They made her a shrine maiden, control cloaked in holiness.

Years later, fire and blossoms fell together. A cursed blade found its mark.

The goddess of bloom died in her arms. Kasumi’s grief cracked reality itself.

Konohanasakuya’s light fused with her soul; her shadow was sealed away.

Inari rewove her essence with nine tails of living foxfire to keep her whole.

Now she walks the boundary between realms, gathering the scattered, mending what was broken, and bearing the power of two souls that were never meant to share one body.

Her beauty hides sorrow.

Her silence holds the storm.

Kasumi is both flower and flame: the Veilwalker, the Foxfire Saint, the curse that keeps reality alive.