After Bayushi Tomaru's failed attack on the Sparrow Clan, Kitsune Hamato came to him with an offer. "They" would provide an opportunity for him to regain his reputation, and all he had to do was destroy an enemy of their choosing. Tomaru agreed, so long as that enemy was no ally of the Scorpion. Years later, Hamato returned, naming that enemy as the Hare Clan, and their price as the children of the Hare daimyo, Usagi Ozaki and Usagi Tomoe.
Kitsune Hamato vanished from Kyuden Kitsuneabout a month ago. Fleeing in the night without taking anything of value from his garishly opulent home. He had no close friends or relatives and was disliked in general as obnoxious and arrogant. Most people are glad he’s gone.
The man captured in Friendly Traveler Village claimed to be a member of "the Kolat", a powerful criminal organization. Under enhanced interrogation, he identified his boss as Kitsune Hamato who was based on a ship offshore where he had been using his magic to cause the tsunami that were wracking the village.
He was encountered on his ship. After Koda and his other men had been defeated he surrendered in a fit of blubbering cowardice. "I give up! Don't harm me! I know when I've been beat! Let me live and I'll tell you how to beat them! The bells! The bells can put him back to sleep!" In the middle of this, however, a green, scaly creature resembling a fox with no fur or skin tore it's way out of his chest, killing him. The creature leapt over the side of the boat and swam away in the direction of the Shadowlands, seemingly impervious to arrows.