Fox

The Fox is a non-player character in Persona 4. It plays a significant role in the protagonist and the Investigation Team's exploration of the Midnight Channel.

Appearances

 * Persona 4 / Golden: Supporting Character; Hermit Social Link
 * Persona 4 (Manga): Supporting Character; Hermit Arcana
 * Persona 4 The Animation: Supporting Character; Hermit Arcana
 * Persona 4 The Golden Animation: Cameo

Design
The Fox has orange fur and several scars on its right eye, forehead, back, and left leg. It also wears a red apron with a heart pattern.

Personality
The Fox is loyal, serious, and dedicated to its task. It can always be found at Tatsuhime Shrine, in hopes that people might come and give offerings if their wishes, written on ema leaves, are granted.

Persona 4
The Fox is found at the Tatsuhime Shrine in the Central Shopping District beginning on May 5th. Apparently, the Fox had made the shrine its home, and is concerned with the dilapidated state of the area. It believes that if people's wishes written on the ema are granted, more visitors will come to the shrine and pray, and the shrine will be more prosperous.

The fox had also apparently taken a liking to the protagonist. It follows him whenever the Investigation Team entered the Midnight Channel, and can also be found in random areas within the dungeons, ready to heal the party's SP with a leaf collected from the shrine. However, this healing service is very expensive, even more so when the fox is in a bad mood on a particular day, increases the amount it will charge the party for healing. Ranking up the Hermit Social Link will grant a discount based on how far along the Social Link is ranked.

At the end, the protagonist manages to fulfill all the wishes of the ema, and the shrine's offertory box is filled with money from people who have expressed their gratitude. The Link does not hit max rank on completion of the final request, though. The protagonist needs to make one additional visit to the shrine and also have maxed Expression to understand the fox's wishes.

On that subsequent visit, the money from the offertory box disappeared, alarming the protagonist and the fox. However, it was revealed that the money had been used to improve the conditions of the shrine, with most structures covered with a golden sheen. Seeing the populace willingly offer to have their wishes granted greatly pleases the fox, and it gives the protagonist its own ema as the social link maxes out.

With the shrine properly renovated, the protagonist can now pray at the shrine to get a boost to any Social Link.

In the epilogue, the Fox had apparently given birth to three fox cubs.

Social Link / Ema Requests
The Fox's Social Link automatically begins in May 5th. The Fox then implored the protagonist to fulfill the wishes written on the ema. When the protagonist agrees to do so, the Hermit Arcana Social Link will be unlocked. The Social Link rank increases whenever a wish is successfully fulfilled. Taking up a wish does not consume the whole day, but reporting a successful wish-granting session to the fox will. It is one of the only two daytime Social Link that can advance during rainy weather, the other being the Sun.

Persona 4 The Animation
In anime, the Fox first meets Nanako during a rainy day on August 6. Nanako gives the Fox her Loveline umbrella to keep it out of the rain, and leaves. The Fox stays with the umbrella until it was blown away by the wind and destroyed.

To return Nanako's kindness, on August 7, the Fox approached Yu and gave him an ema quest to help Shu Nakajima. This begins a long chain of ema quests over the following weeks, including those of Hisano Kuroda and others. At the end of the episode, the Fox gathers all of the yen that Yu helped to bring to the shrine, and during the credits presents Nanako with a new Loveline umbrella bought with the shrine yen.