Nine-Tailed Fox on the Loose?

Here's an odd story out of Japan. An ancient stone that is said to have contained the spirit of a kitsume, a nine-tailed fox spirit, has cracked in half. Some have speculated that the breaking of the rock may have released the kitsume, which I guess would have then run off to do whatever nine-tailed fox things happen to be. Kitsumes are not exactly "demons" in the Western sense, but they are known to be tricksters and according to folklore this particular one is said to have attempted to kill the 12th-century Japanese emperor Toba.

A large volcanic rock said to immediately kill anyone that touches it, the Sessho-seki stone, is deeply embedded in Japanese mythology and is said to be the transformed corpse of the mythological Tamamo-no-Mae. Tamamo-no-Mae was supposedly a beautiful woman whose spirit was possessed by the nine-tailed fox, or kitsune, a demon spirit known for trickery and deception using disguise. Known to answer any question asked of her, Tamamo-no-Mae was part of a plot to seduce and kill Emperor Toba, who fell sick as a result. The fox spirit was exposed and hunted by two mythological warriors, and the spirit embedded itself into the Sessho-seki stone as a last resort, which released a poisonous gas that killed anyone who touched it.

The spirit supposedly haunted the rock, which was registered as a local historical site in 1957, until a Buddhist priest performed rituals to finally make the spirit rest. Now, it has been reported that the killing stone has split in two, likely as a result of natural erosion. According to the Guardian, the volcanic rock had been observed with cracks in several years ago, likely allowing water in, which helped erode it from the inside. That hasn’t stopped superstitions running wild, with tourists that have flocked to the demonic rock saying they "feel like they have seen something they shouldn't".

So I guess the question here would be, did they? Spirits can endure for long periods of time within objects, but without knowing more about the Buddhist ritual that put the spirit to rest it's hard to say whether it would still be present and/or dangerous. It is true that often when a object containing a spirit or spirit instance breaks the enchantment will break as well, and if this stone was truly magically containing the spirit, it might actually be on the loose. I will point out, though, that a crack through the object is usually sufficient to break the magick, so the kitsume could have in fact been released years ago when they were first noticed.

The world has been pretty messed up for the last few years. Could a thousand-year-old escaped trickster kitsune have anything to do with it?