This is my first Okami story. I'm planning on posting this up on FanFiction.net too, but you guys get to read this first~! (Because I love you guys <3) I'll add a new page every once in a while, so if you like this story, check back every so often to see if I've updated.

Please bear with me, as I do not have that much of an expanded vocabulary. Nevertheless, I really want to get this story on the road. It would be appreciated if someone left a review, whether it have constructive criticism in it or not. Flames will be ignored, though, thank you very much.

I noticed there weren't many stories over at FF.net (And none here!) with Rao in them, and I felt I needed to change that, as she is my favorite character in the game. Soon, a brilliant idea played itself into my mind. Why not tell a made-up story of her life before the whole “Ninetails” thing came into being? There was hardly anything on her background in the game, so that would give me plenty of room to develop a storyline that I thought would be fitting for her. I found it to be a wonderful plan. I hope you do too. Please enjoy A Day in the Life.

Also, you may take note that when Rao recounts her battle with Ninetails, she describes eight spirits that inhabit each tail, not nine. Using my own logic, I assumed that Rao had to be the ninth spirit that Ninetails wanted to inhabit his final tail, otherwise there would be no other reason why he would attack her in the first place. Of course, that is just my own opinion...

And sorry if it seems Rao is quite out-of-character in this story. I would venture to guess that her original sweet self had soured somewhat over the years.

Note: First chapter, last chapter, and any other chapter that is “present day” in the setting is written in first person. (Rao's view, of course.) All other chapters are in third person.

~*~*~

I stared.

It was all I could do, just stand there and gawk at the rotting remains of my body. Soon, that skeleton will be a mound of earth on the ground and the clothes it's wearing will be a part of the dust in the air. Nine years. It's been nine years since Ninetails killed me and corrupted my body. It's hard for me not to have a mental breakdown knowing that I was slaughtered just for the purpose of deceiving the people of Sei-An City. But I had accepted my fate and all the things that could go wrong long ago when I took up those Prayer Slips and devoted my life to being priestess of Ankoku Temple.

Yet... even though I had helped, protected, even taught sermons to those people, they do not miss me. As far as I've observed, only the old, bald man outside the temple entrance seems to remember me. But all he says is how “Rao truly lived as the great Buddha did.” Is that all? I tried so hard to keep Ryoshima Coast and Sei-An safe and spread the religious beliefs I stood for around. And they simply throw me to the wind after it turns out I've actually been dead for years and years. Of course, I bear no ill will to the people when saying that, but really, was I anyone to them at all, even just a fellow citizen?

I blame Ninetails. I blame Orochi too, because he contributed to it all by giving the fox demon a power-up with his dark aura upon his defeat. With the intent of ruling Ryoshima and wishing to gather the soul for its ninth and final tail, Ninetails disguised himself as a man wearing a fox mask and infiltrated Sei-An. His intended victim? Yours truly, of course. Why did he choose me, of all people? Even I wonder. Perhaps it was because of my position as priestess and because I was so close in relations to Queen Himiko, may her poor soul rest in peace. It may have been a completely different motive, who knows?

I recall the day he came to one of my sermons. I found it odd that he was wearing a mask, but it wasn't my place to judge people, so I allowed him in. He listened intently as I spoke, drinking in every word that came out of my mouth. I must say he was the most attentive person that day; all of the other men who were present had their eyes adjusted to a part of my body lower than my face. Yet, even though I admired the mysterious aura about him, I did feel a tiny, tiny hint of danger when I looked at his masked face. I thought nothing of it at the time, and that was a fatal mistake.

I departed from the city and returned to the humble Ankoku Temple, only to realize the fox-faced man had pursued me there. I asked him if he needed anything in particular and he replied with demonic laughter. Suddenly, snakelike... things started sprouting out of his back and his human form melted away, revealing an enormous fox with nine flowing tails, each distinguished by unique vulpine masks. I noted that the ninth tail, even though it was just as normal as the others, was limp. Perhaps, I had pondered, perhaps he wants to steal my soul and have it inhabit that tail...? That must have been the reason. But how could I resist? My simple Prayer Slips were for small menaces like Imps and vengeful spirits, not a behemoth demon like this one.

Anyone with a working brain would've done what I did next – run like hell. Where I would go to seek refuge would have to wait until later. I flew up the steps and past my house, the dreadful thump-thump of the demon galloping after me propelling me forward even faster. And then I hit a dead end. The rocky wall behind my home completely blocked me from going any farther. I shivered as I listened to the demon cackle, and I slowly turned to face him, defeat plain on my face. “Stand still,” he commanded. “This will only hurt a little bit.” I backed up against the cliff side and remembered the secret room with the well I had built for easier access to Sei-An City that was right behind me. Quickly, I back-stepped right through the wall, seemingly melting into the rocky surface. Eagerly, I dove into the well, where I stood just below the entrance. The wall would delay the demon for a while, as would this well.

It was in that passageway where I made my last stand. I listened as the behemoth crashed through the enchanted barrier and saw its oversized figure loom over me. It hissed and spat as it tried to squeeze through the hole, but to no avail. I thought it was about to leave when it suddenly screeched and split into eight different women, all wielding a pronged sword and wearing a fox mask. These must be the souls of the other women he's killed, I thought with horror. The females leaped down the well, ready to tear me to shreds. I pulled my Prayer Slips out of my sleeve, praying to Amaterasu that I could defeat them one by one.

The spirits individually weren't too hard to beat. I had knocked three of them out, though, when I began to tire. There were five more, and their attacks were not letting up. It was then when I allowed my guard to slip only for a moment. That was enough time for a woman wearing a pink fox mask to drive her sword right through me. It was so instantaneous, I didn't have enough time to cry out. I simply stood there, frozen in time, while the drip-drip of my blood falling to the floor got painfully loud. Looking pleased, the fox-girl turned her head to another fox-girl, this one being extremely chubby, and commanded, “Give me the mask.” The tubby woman obeyed, handing her an ivory mask decorated with red and black markings. Pain had overwhelmed me now, and it was getting difficult to breathe with the blood forcing itself up my throat. The pink-masked girl faced me again, and I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was smiling. “Welcome to your new life, Rao. You are now the Dark Lord's Ninth Tail,” she said, and pushed the mask onto my face as I exhaled my final breath.

I found out that demonic energy was what kept the souls from escaping their tails. Many a time I tried to break free, but again and again I was barred by a black, evil force. I knew that the other tails, no matter how hard they tried to cover it up, wanted their liberty as well. They wished to go to the Celestial Plain (Or at least be allowed to roam the world) and see what the afterlife had in store for them. But what could we do? We were all being held prisoner by some silly cursed mask and an insane fox demon.

Ninetails decided to inhabit my body for some reason. It was an odd feeling, being inside your own body, but it actually isn't yours because your body is actually a corpse, and it's sitting down in a well somewhere, its flesh becoming a feast for maggots and flies. Strange indeed. There were noticeable differences between the real me and the Ninetails Rao, though, and I wonder if anyone was observant enough to pick up on them. One, I wore blueish-green rosary beads, and Ninetails wore red ones; all of the tails had crimson beads strung around them, so I suppose that's where he got that detail from. Two, I always kept my hair out of my eyes. Ninetails had a lock of hair covering the right eye, which turns out to be the eye that was somehow gouged out years before. Wasn't there anyone who picked up on that...?

It continued like this for several more years. Ninetails's performance of me was nearly flawless. He executed everything so beautifully, that eventually I came to respect his skills. Every day he'd journey to Sei-An, teach the people sermons, visit the Queen, and return to Ankoku, where he'd give a bubbly hello to the old man who would always be outside the temple gates. He would even feed the animals that ventured into the main temple grounds. He was just like me.

And then Okami Amaterasu came along and changed everything.