Lyrics
[Intro]
[Verse 1]
He walked the mountain paths in plain grey robes,
a fox among the kitsune, counting prayers like stones.
No sword upon his shoulder, no banner in his hand,
just nine tails and a patience deeper than the land.
They mocked the quiet teacher, said grace would never hold,
but he watched the faithful gather, and he watched the cold grow cold.
[Pre-Chorus]
And when the lamps were many, and the wounded learned to stand,
he felt the threshold tremble underneath his hand —
[Chorus]
Count the thirty graces, watch the mortal fall away,
where devotion fills the temple, no blade will find a way.
He steps between the striking and the ones who kneel to pray —
let the war break on a spirit; let the faithful keep the day.
[Verse 2]
The Kami War had emptied half the names he used to know,
yet still he tended gardens where the lotus learned to grow.
He did not raise an army, did not answer rage with rage —
he simply would not let them bleed; he turned each wound to age.
For every life that gathered, every breath the village drew,
the fox grew less like flesh and more like something passing through.
[Pre-Chorus 2]
And when the count was thirty, when the grace had overflowed,
the robe fell empty to the stones — the spirit took the road.
[Chorus]
Count the thirty graces, watch the mortal fall away,
where devotion fills the temple, no blade will find a way.
He steps between the striking and the ones who kneel to pray —
let the war break on a spirit; let the faithful keep the day.
[Bridge]
Now I am the stillness where the arrow comes to rest.
I am the breath unbroken in the wounded warrior's chest.
I do not lift a weapon — I unmake the very blow.
Stand close, my flourishing faithful. No harm will ever know
the people that I shelter. Let the storm spend all its breath.
I am the vow that outgrew its own death.
[Final Chorus]
So count the thirty graces, let the mortal fall away —
where devotion fills the temple, every blade will turn to clay.
I step between the striking and the ones who kneel to pray.
Let the war break on a spirit. Let the faithful keep the day.
[Outro]
Nine tails on the wind now... and the faithful, kept, remain.
