after some time had passed, the emperor suddenly and mysteriously fell ill. he went to many priests and fortune-tellers for answers, but they had none to offer. finally, an astrologer told the emperor that tamamo-no-mae was the cause of his illness. the astrologer explained that the beautiful young woman was in fact an evil fox with nine tails (kitsune), who was making the emperor ill in a evil plan to take the throne. following this, tamamo-no-mae disappeared from the court.