Welcome to Gaia! ::

Life was luxurious. The man that came to see her, she didn't know his name, always gave her the most amazingly delicious foods, and groomed her for hours on end. He said the most beautiful things to her, and surrounded her with the most beautiful things. She loved that man very much, and he loved her in return. Truly she was satisfied.

One day, the door rattled in a way she had never seen before. It usually opened so easily for the man she loved. Maybe he had lost the key? Her question was soon answered, someone she didn't know had burst into the room. He looked so mean and angry, she'd never seen anything as scary in her whole life. He ran toward her, and she panicked. She changed her shape into that of a mouse and scurried under some of the things given to her by the man she loved. The angry man began smashing his way toward her, she had no choice but to run through the door, despite having no desire to leave.

She ran frantically through the giant house, squeezing under random doors until she was blinded by a bright light. She blindly scurried until she bumped into something hard, a tree she recognized from a painting she had been given. She was outside. It was beautiful, the sunshine, the leaves, the soft grass. Suddenly she heard a noise behind her and knew she couldn't stop. She kept running, on and on, eventually changing back into her own shape. She noticed that things were getting less and less beautiful, and this frightened her. Why was the world not as beautiful as her room? It was beautiful before, why didn't it stay that way?

She reached a river with a gnarled tree beside it. Taking a closer look at the tree, she noticed a nice carved out area under the roots. She crawled into it, laying her ears back and closing her eyes, mourning the loss of all the beauty and comfort that had suddenly disappeared like a bubble being popped.

Something exploded next to her, and she shot out of her newfound home.
"Get out of my den!"
She whipped around, and found the source of the voice. An angry looking kitsune was growling at her, and preparing another ball of foxfire. She took off running once more, feeling deep in her heart that there was nothing left for her, no beauty, no companionship, no love.

This time she kept running. She didn't stop at all, despite her exhaustion and hunger. Her chest hurt, her legs hurt, her head hurt, and yet she didn't stop. Her limits were quickly catching up with her, however; she had been running for so long, so long. She was tripping frequently, and when she crashed headlong through a thicket of thorn bushes, she didn't get up.

She rolled over, in that state between sleep and consciousness. She was on a gloriously soft bed; but of course she was, the man she loved only gave her the finest silks to sleep on. …This wasn't silk. She opened her eyes groggily, and found herself on a soft patch of moss. She could hear several voices coming from the next room over, and suddenly she caught the muzzle of a young kit peeking at her through the doorway. As soon as he noticed that she was conscious, he set up a horrible din to alert the others.
"She's awake, she's awake she's awake!"
She panicked once more, fur standing on end, knowing these kitsune would attack her like the other one. She looked around, but the only escape was through the door. She backed into a corner and curled up, putting her paws over her eyes.
"It's alright, we won't hurt you."
The voice was female, very soft and gentle and caring. She peeked out from under one of her paws. It looked to be a kitsune family, a mother and father with three young kits, including the one that was watching her earlier. She uncovered her eyes, but her ears were still down and she was still wary. The mother stepped forward a little, a beautiful smile on her face, a very beautiful smile.
"You must have been through a lot, but you're safe here. What's your name?"
"…Hime." It was the first time Hime had spoken other than to the man she loved. The mother sent a curious glance toward the father, but one of the kits pranced forward and giggled.
"You're really pretty! Just like a real princess!"
Hime was taken aback, she hadn't expected to be treated so kindly. She smiled softly at the young girl.
"Thank you, but my coat's a bit matted from the forest. Yours is so smooth! You have to tell me how you keep it like that!"
The kit giggled and started chatting, the other kits approaching and the parents smiling in the background. Hime felt at ease. It wasn't anything close to her previous home, but it definitely wasn't horrible.

The kitsune family had invited her to stay for as long as she liked, and she was learning many things about the outside world. She learned that there was a balance in the world, a balance of beauty and of more sinister things; there wasn't just good, and there wasn't just bad. She learned that a lot of people knew about her and her beauty, meaning that the man that had broken in was trying to steal her. She also learned that the man she had thought she loved was actually a collector, and saw her as a prized object instead of loving her as a living creature. She learned that Hime was not her name, just something the collector had called her. She learned that she had run a vast distance on that now so distant day, and was now far, far away from the city where the collector lived. She learned that she was a very strong kitsune with powerful legs to take her vast distances. Taking all she had learned, she decided to name herself Ashibayai Kaze and set out to find someone who would love her for who she is, and not her value.

The beautiful Geisha had, for some reason that Ginger couldn't see, decided to take a walk in one of the worse place for beautiful female kits. And this kit was beautiful. Ginger let her eyes rove over the kit, the gentle yet popping dark purple lipstick, the silky waving way her fur grew, the beautiful flowers flowing all over her lower back… Ginger felt her lust growing, she wanted this kit. She would have to share with Pimp Daddy D, of course, but surely he would praise her for finding such a treasure and reward her with this kit, perhaps this would even be this kit's first…

As Ginger watched with growingly unseeing eyes lost in fantasy, a group of males came and began to circle her.

"Hey beautiful, what are you doing out here?"

"Yeah, don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Why don't you come with us, sweetie, we'll protect you."

"Ha ha! Yeah, we'll protect you alright!"

"Have ourselves a little fun, yeah?"

The Geisha crouched down in the middle of it all. Ginger snarled, as if she would let these nobodies take her prize. She was immediately among them, her teeth at their throats, utilizing her foxfire like bullets and shooting it into their eyes, dodging all blows and not letting a single claw touch her. Pimp Daddy D would kill her if she let them touch her. The blood could hardly be seen on her coat, as she was almost as red as the blood. As the bodies lay fallen around her, she sat and smirked at the Geisha, letting her true nature show through. She watched as the beautiful kit got up from her crouching position, noting that there was a small splatter of blood on her beautiful pale pink coat.

"I didn't need you," she smirked back at Ginger, her own evil almost matching Ginger's yet slightly different, "I can easily handle many more than this." She stuck out her chest, proudly wearing that blood splatter, and Ginger saw the truth. This was a kit of true beauty, and she used that beauty to trap others and sate her blood lust, a blood lust even greater than Ginger's. Though, Ginger's was a different kind of lust. Ginger stood, motioning to the kit to follow her, and she did. This person would make a very good companion, she thought, they could take out entire villages if they wanted to. She looked one last time at the kit, into her eyes, and she saw the same destruction shining through those almost white eyes. This would be the beginning of a very wonderful time.

JENOVA remembers the beginning. JENOVA knows all the stories. JENOVA can tell you anything.

But there is one thing JENOVA doesn't know, one thing she doesn't remember.

She is an abomination.

One thing is true; she was around before the treaty between the humans and the coeurls was created, she was around when the coeurls were hunted mercilessly and treated as animals, lower than dirt animals.

But she is not truly a coeurl. Not anymore.

A group of scientists was performing highly illegal experiments on various animal; strange mechanical implants, sewing bits of one animal onto another. They started out with small animals, squirrels and birds and anything they could get out of the local park. Then they moved to bigger animals, dogs and cats, and then smarter ones, monkeys. The head of the department, Hojo, wasn't satisfied. He wanted something that could think, something as intelligent as a human. He wanted a coeurl.

It wasn't hard to get one, they were caught and traded more freely than slaves. The first one died quickly, too quickly. The next time he made sure to buy several. The second one also died quickly. The third one didn't die, but the tests rendered it weak and useless. Hojo was getting frustrated. He followed whispers and rumors to the best coeurl hunter, and paid him well to find a strong coeurl. The hunter brought back a beautiful blue girl, but Hojo had his doubts. He told the hunter that he would get his pay once it could be confirmed that this coeurl was strong. The hunter was angry, and told Hojo that he'd better pay regardless, but was willing to wait until Hojo had his "fun," as the hunter put it, with the coeurl. Hojo would cut off the face antennae that the coeurl had, he had found that it was a quick way to break a coeurl. They could barely get her into the restraints. Hojo was gleeful, this was a good sign. She reacted favorably to the removal of her antennae, she pushed through her pain and showed no signs of weakening. Hojo was ecstatic, and paid the hunter triple the original price. He began his experiments.

The coeurl weakened, of course, but she never broke. Hojo admired her, in a way. She had even taken to the mechanical innards and replacement antennae they had given her. He replaced her eyes with advanced cyber optics technology infused with a bit of magic, and was thrilled when they started to glow, a clear indication that her life force was bringing them to life. He had even tested to see if a hair transplant would work, and gave her long flowing silver hair. He liked long flowing silver hair.

Everything went so well. Hojo only had one more experiment he wanted to try. He knew that the failed coeurl experiment that he kept would become useful. He wanted to transfer that coeurl's memories to the new coeurl. Neither coeurl fought when they were hooked up to his machine, neither of them had it in them to fight, which only made things easier for Hojo and his scientists. Hojo watched the experiment from behind the safety glass, unable to take his eyes away from the female coeurl. When the machines stopped, their mission done, the weak male coeurl collapsed, dead. This worried Hojo, he wasn't sure if the experiment would take. He rushed out to his project.

"Do you know what he remembers?"

She growled and said nothing. No matter, Hojo would find out. He waived his hand at a nearby assistant. He had assistants that would get the answer out of her.

A week had passed, and Hojo was getting irritated. His men hadn't broken her yet. Hojo stood up quickly from his desk as one of the interrogators walked into his office and gave his report. Finally, good news! The experiment was successful, she had all of his knowledge! Hojo then began to collect coeurl, the wisest, the most strategic, the scholars, the elders. One by one, he added their knowledge to his project, which he had named the JENOVA project. One by one, their knowledge was forced into JENOVA. She became weaker and weaker, and yet she still refused to die. Instead, she was twisted and warped. The knowledge was almost too much. And yet she stilled lived.

Hojo was angry. The treaty for peace between the races had been signed, and his experiments had become highly illegal. Since he had no reason to make his experiments secret in the time before the treaty, he knew the authorities would be coming to make him release his project, and there was nothing he could do about it. He had to do something, to make sure this didn't get out.
He ordered his assistants to dispose of every last trace of the coeurls that had died, and he erased JENOVA's memory of what he had done to her. She still had the knowledge of the countless coeurls, but she couldn't remember why or how, or even that they weren't hers.

Fortunately for her, she didn't remember.