Pipe Fox users was probably just a colloquial term; the proper name should be Iizuna users. According to legend, Pipe Foxes were created by burying a fox with only its head aboveground, then beating it mercilessly. After starving it for several days, you would leave a huge pile of food near it, where it could see but not reach it.
When its resentment reached its peak, you could kill it. (All the while, you would use the cruelest methods to keep it filled with hatred—for example, beating it with a stick, drawing blood, and letting it die slowly...)
As soon as the fox died, you would use a spell to seal its soul inside a bamboo tube, then perform a ritual until it became obedient. Normally, the fox's soul stayed sealed inside the tube. When it was needed, you would take it out.
Why use foxes? Perhaps because foxes had some of the highest spiritual power among animal spirits. In fact, people later used dogs and cats instead, with roughly the same results—like the Dog God...
But as Rita watched the Pipe Foxes in front of her, she found it hard to believe that so many of them had been created by the method described above.
She figured they must have been formed through some other method, and the way they interacted with the young man seemed to prove it.
If they had been made using the method described above, they would never be so affectionate. These Pipe Foxes seemed to be genuinely fond of him!
"They're Pipe Foxes... Let me introduce myself. I'm the spiritual beast heir of the Iizuna Family, an exorcist clan, and these are all my spiritual beasts. Beautiful lady... where are you from?"
Hearing Rita's question, the young man readily admitted it. Perhaps he