“Oh, man. How disappointing.” Lilian’s shoulders slumped. “And here I thought it was finally time for me to show everyone my true power.”
“Careful there, Lilian, your ego is showing,” Kevin said.
Lilian gaped at him. “What? No, it isn’t! All I’m saying is that I wanted to show everyone what I can really do.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve finally learned how to use Gear Fourth.”
“Ufufufu, that’s a secret.”
Kevin grinned as he lost himself in his conversation with Lilian. The familiar ebb and flow of their talk filled him with a sense of peace. Lilian was also beaming at him, her lips curving themselves into a beautiful smile, and her emerald eyes glittering with the wondrous luster of a newborn star.
“Ha! Now who are the ones who need to stop making poorly masked anime references?” Iris taunted.
“Tch, whatever.” Kevin turned his head. “This conversation is mostly over anyway.”
“So you say, Mr. Blushes A Lot.”
“Wha—I do not blush a lot!”
“You so do,” Iris continued to tease him.
“I-I-I do not! Shut up!”
“You’re tsundere is showing.”
W-w-what are you—grr! Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!”
“Hey, Lily-pad. When did your mate learn to channel Rie Kugimiya-san?”
Lilian puffed her chest up in pride. “Beloved has always been capable of it. He’s awesome like that.”
“Stop ignoring me, damn it!” Monstrang shouted before coughing into his hand. “Ahem. Now that you three know what it is that I want you to do, your first destination is a place called Saint Byakko, which is located somewhere in Los Angeles, California. When you get there, I want you to meet up with a woman called Kuroneko. Not only is she a close acquaintance, but she’s the best information broker in the world. She’ll know where to find the allies that I’m looking for.”
Kevin, Lilian, and Iris snapped to attention and threw Monstrang a really poor imitation of a salute.
“You can count on us, sir!”
Monstrang facepalmed.
Why do I feel like I just unleashed something chaotic upon this world?
***
Kiara had asked him to meet her before he left on his mission, which was why he was wandering the halls of the Central Tower.
Monstrang’s top brass all had offices and workplaces in the Central Tower. Kiara, who was in charge of training and recruitment, was located on the sixteenth basement, along with her second-in-command and the resident female pervert Heather Grant.
Speaking of…
“Well now, if it isn’t the Sex Machine of the Hour.”
Heather stood in the hallway, right in front of the elevator’s exit, grinning at him. Unlike the last time he’d seen her, when she’d been wearing sweats, this time she wore a form-fitting black leotard with a white lab coat thrown over it. This allowed him to easily see that her bosom didn’t lose out to the kitsune women he knew. Well, Camellia was definitely a lot bigger than her, and Delphine’s pneumatic knockers could have been considered planetary bodies with their own center of gravity, but aside from those two, her twin titans didn’t lose out.
Oddly enough, she was also wearing glasses.
“Heather, what’s with the glasses?” Kevin asked. It was only after asking this question that he realized what Heather had said. “And what did you just call me?”
“Shi shi shi,” Heather laughed as he stepped out of the elevator. “I heard that you and Lilian got frisky in the girls’ locker room.” She held up her hand and gave him a thumbs up. “Congratulations! You have now become a man!”
“What the heck is that supposed to mean?!” Kevin wasn’t blushing. That heat he felt crawling across his cheeks? Yeah, that so wasn’t a blush. “And don’t say stuff like that in public!”
“Aw, even after all the kinky things you, your mate, and your mistress have done, you can still blush. So kawaii.”
“Don’t speak in Japanese,” Kevin spat as he moved around her and walked down the hall. Heather turned and caught up to him. “And how did you even hear about that? Lilian told me that she put up a bar… oh, that little minx.”
“Heh.” Heather smirked at him. “Even if Lilian had put up a barrier—which she didn’t, by the way—I would have still found out.”
Kevin groaned. “Let me guess, you set up cameras all over the girls’ locker room.”
“And the boys’ locker room,” Heather added. “I’m not one of those discriminatory authors who only uses women for her inspiration.”
“Whatever.”
Kevin wanted to bury his face in his hands. He remembered a time when he used to think that Eric was the biggest pervert in the world, but after meeting Heather, he realized the truth. Eric was nothing compared to the woman walking beside him. It was almost frightening how salacious Heather was, especially since she was a woman who loved peeping on other women. Seriously, how freaking creepy was that?
“Where’s Kiara?” he asked to change the subject.
Heather tilted her head. “Hm, I think she’s in the laboratory right now?”
“The lab?”
When Kevin gave Heather a questioning look, the blond woman merely grinned.
The laboratory, otherwise known as Lab 51, was the place where yōkai scientists tried to create technology that could use youki as a fuel source.
Kevin found it interesting that there were yōkai out there who didn’t mind using technology. Of course, a lot of the yōkai here in America were the ones who’d fully blended into human society, so perhaps it was only natural that they wouldn’t be averse to integrating human technology with youki. Still, it was an intriguing fact, and it made him realize that even Kotohime, who for so long had seemed like the most knowledgeable person about yōkai, wasn’t perfect.
Lab 51 looked a lot like the science labs he’d seen in various anime. It consisted of several long hallways with white tiles, white walls, and a white ceiling. Situated within the walls were windows and doors. The windows allowed him to catch a glimpse of the experiments going on inside of each lab, which were labeled based on their purpose. Kevin saw labels such as acoustics, aerodynamics, agriculture, botany, ecology, entomology, horticulture, medicine, optics, robotics, and so many others. Each title was posted on the door in bold print.
“Here we are,” Heather announced cheerfully as they stood in front of a door labeled Advanced Warfare. She opened the door and Kevin stepped inside.
The interior was larger than he’d initially assumed. It wasn’t very wide, but it was extremely long. Kevin could just barely make out several figures in the back, which were so far away they were just blurred figures. Long tables were arrayed around the room in rows, and numerous yōkai dressed in lab coats worked at those tables. Some used blow torches, while others fiddled with strange machines that he’d never seen. The scent of oil and ozone pervaded his nose. Kevin shook his head to rid himself of his sudden bout of lightheadedness.
“Kiara! Hey, Kiara! I’ve brought Kevin with me!”
Heather waved at a woman who was unmistakable even from a distance. She, unlike everyone else, wore a gray business suit that conformed to her body quite well. Wild brown hair fell about her head, framing a set of feral brown eyes and grinning lips that showed off her fangs. She was also the only person present who was missing an arm, and the suit, custom made for her, only had one sleeve, letting her show off the stub of her missing arm as if it was a trophy.
Kevin would admit, if only to himself, that Kiara looked completely badass with only a single arm.
Standing next to her was one of the largest people he’d ever seen. His towering form intimidated Kevin a bit. Orange-ish skin gleamed as if freshly oiled. A pair of horns protruded from his head, long and curved, ending in sharp points. Several more horns lined up in a row on his forehead. He lacked eyebrows, and instead had only a single thick brow ridge, which cast shadows over his dark brown eyes. Two
large, tusk-like teeth jutted from his lower jaw.
It was an oni.
An oni wearing a scientist’s lab coat.
What the hell?
“Ah, there you are, boya,” Kiara greeted him with a feral grin. “About time you showed up. Let me introduce you to my colleague here.” She gestured to the oni. “Boya, this is our foremost expert on fusing human technology with youki, Dr. Henry Von Stein. He’s the one who made those guns you're so fond of.”
Kevin snapped out of his fugue and quickly remembered his manners.
“Uh, um, pleasure to meet you.” He held out his hand, which the oni took in his much larger hand, engulfing it completely.
“The pleasure is all mine,” Dr. Henry replied, sounding almost stupidly sophisticated. Kevin was expecting him to suddenly begin speaking with a British accent. “It is nice to see that my first foray into fusing youki with human technology was a success. The blueprints Heather provided were most insightful, but there was still a lot of trial and error involved.”
“I-I see. That’s, uh, good to know.”
Who would have thought that an oni was the person responsible for creating his guns? Kevin guessed that old saying about “never judging a book by its cover” really was true.
“I must also thank you as well,” Dr. Henry continued. “Thanks to you, we have managed to acquire a lot more data on how to properly fuse youki with human technology.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Of course, many of our creations are still in the testing phase, and are not ready for field use.”
Even as the oni doctor said this, someone at the table next to them suddenly flew backwards like he had jets attached to his chest. Kevin watched as the person, a bakeneko, let out a shrill scream as he flew across the lab and slammed into the wall. The wall dented. Cracks spread from the center of impact. Slowly, oh so slowly, the bakeneko peeled off the wall and crumpled to the ground.
Kevin could feel the droplets of sweat trailing down his face.
“Is he going to be okay?”
“Oh, sure.” Dr. Henry waved a hand dismissively. “He’ll be fine. This sort of thing happens all the time.”
Kevin wasn’t reassured.
“So, um, why did you call me here?” asked Kevin, turning away from the bakeneko, who even now remained lying inert on the floor. Shouldn’t someone get him to the hospital by now? What was wrong with these people?
“Because I heard you’re going on a mission,” Kiara said as if it was obvious, “and I want to make sure you’re well equipped. While we don’t have any new gadget for you to use, we’ve made some improvements to the old ones that you’ve been using.”
“Oh.” Kevin blinked. “Cool.”
“Indeed.”
Kevin considered this. “Does that mean you’ve made something that will let me more easily use my blood as a catalyst for youki?”
He remembered his battle against the oni back at Desert Cactus High School, and how he had used his own blood, infused with Lilian’s youki, to kill it. Kevin hadn’t done much experimenting with that. However, it was clear that this was a powerful discovery.
Kiara and Dr. Henry looked at each other. They wore expressions he couldn’t figure out.
“About that…” Kiara began.
“We actually tried infusing human blood with youki,” Dr. Henry took off with the explanation. “However, none of our experiments have born any fruit. I believe the reason your blood is such a powerful catalyst comes from whatever unique genetic disposition you have, but we haven’t figured out how or why this is.”
“I see.” Kevin did know that he was a bit odd. He could break through barriers made from youki, and while he couldn’t do anything else, he knew that wasn’t something a normal human could do.
“Show him the new cartridge you guys made,” Heather butt in enthusiastically.
“Yes, of course.” Dr. Henry turned back to his table and grabbed what Kevin recognized as an ammo magazine, which he then presented to Kevin. “This is a modified magazine that we’ve come up with. Unlike your previous one, which could only hold one hundred shots, this one can fire up to five hundred.”
“That… that’s impressive,” Kevin choked.
Dr. Henry grinned. “Isn’t it? That’s not the only feature we’ve added to this. Your other gun could only shoot single projectiles in the general shape of steel bullets. This one can fire several different projectile variations, including bullets, beams, and lances. The type of projectile fired is largely dependent on how long you charge it. Do you see this meter here?”
Kevin looked at the meter Dr. Henry pointed at. It was the only black part of the silvery magazine.
“I see it.”
“When you hold down on the trigger, this meter fills up. If you release the trigger any time before it reaches the halfway meter, then it sprays bullets in a rapid-fire mode. At the halfway mark, it fires lances that can penetrate the metal hulls of even a tank. And when you reach the full meter mark, it fires off a beam that can destroy a tank outright.” Dr. Henry handed Kevin the magazine clip. “Impressive, is it not?”
“It’s really cool,” Kevin agreed. Seriously cool. While Kevin didn’t really like death and destruction, his inner video game nut was squealing like a fangirl.
I’m holding a piece of weaponry that other men my age would cream themselves over.
What a heady feeling.
“So, what else do you guys have for me?” Kevin asked eagerly. He really wanted to see all the cool stuff these people had created. He was already imagining all kinds of things like gloves that let him shoot youki Kamehameha Waves and stuff.
“That’s it,” Dr. Henry said.
“W-what?”
“That’s it. That’s all we have so far. Everything else is still in the testing stage.”
Kevin felt his world crumble.
“What do you mean that’s it? I came all the way here for a single magazine? What a load of crap!”
The orange-skinned oni scowled. “Oi! Don’t call my creation a load of crap! I’ll have you know that building advanced machinery like this is insanely difficult, and we only started even attempting to do this last year. Expecting anything more at such an early stage of development is like asking the gods for a miracle.”
“Shut up!” Kevin pointed at the oni. “You guys just crushed my dreams! I thought I was gonna get something cool like my own Flying Nimbus, or maybe even Ryuko’s Scissor Blade! But all I’ve got is an ammo clip that lets me shoot more bullets!”
“Spoiled brat!”
“Moronic Goliath!”
As Kevin and Dr. Henry growled, glared, and threw insults at each other, Heather and Kiara stood on the sidelines. Their heads moved back and forth between the two like they were watching a ping pong tournament.
“You know something? I think those two are going to get along just fine,” Heather said.
“They’re both a pair of idiots, at least.” Kiara grinned.
“Hairless ape!”
“Overgrown dork!”
“Go back to the stone age, homosapien!”
“You’re the only one who belongs in the stone age! Why don’t you go carve some hieroglyphs or something?!”
“They’re gonna be at that for a while, aren’t they?” Heather asked.
Kiara shrugged. “Probably.”
“Thought so. Anyway, wanna grab a bite to eat?”
“Sure.”
Heather and Kiara left Kevin and Dr. Henry to their arguing, which really wasn’t arguing so much as name calling.
It would be almost fifteen minutes before Kevin realized the two were gone.
***
Kevin arrived home after spending a good portion of his time arguing with Dr. Henry, who clearly had the emotional range of a depowered Gundam. After stomping up the steps, he opened the door to his house, walked inside, closed it—
“Hawa!”
Having already expected it, Kevin deftly sidestepped Camel
lia’s “greeting pounce,” leaving the poor woman to smack face-first into the door. He turned his head to look at the woman as she removed her face from the door. There was a small bump on her forehead, which she rubbed at with tears in her eyes. He noticed that she was completely naked.
“Hawa… that was mean, Kevin-kyun. You’re not supposed to move.”
“So, what you’re saying is that I’m supposed to let you tackle me?”
“Yes!”
“Not gonna happen!” Kevin shouted.
Camellia’s ears drooped as if reflecting her disappointing. “Hawa.”
Thanks to living with these kitsune for so long, Kevin had finally gotten a handle on how to deal with them. It was kinesthetic learning at its finest. Thanks to over a year and a half of first-hand experience, Kevin could no longer be caught by surprise.
“L-Lord Kevin! Look out!”
Kevin turned around—
“Wha—ooof!”
—and received a faceful of boobs, showing that, even after living with these kitsune for over a year, he still didn’t quite know how to deal with them. He wasn’t sure whose boobs these belonged to right away. As he tumbled onto his back, he struggled to push the woman off and noted how frilly her clothing was. This was definitely the frilliness of a maid uniform.
“Mph!”
“A-ahn! S—Lord Kevin, p-please stop!”
“Mggrlee!”
“N-ng! Th-that tickles!”
Kevin flailed underneath Kirihime, who in turn flailed around on top of him, which resulted in his face being pressed further into her cleavage. He could feel his head growing fuzzy. His vision was beginning to swim. Lack of oxygen had caused spots to appear before his eyes. Kevin was sure that his face had turned blue already.
If something doesn’t happen soon, I’m… going to… pass out…
“Hawa kick!”
What?
“Kya!”
Kevin sucked in a deep breath of air as, quite suddenly, Kirihime flew off him. He coughed several times, then sat up and looked around. Kirihime lay on the floor several feet away. Her eyes were spinning around in their sockets, and she seemed dizzy.
“Ugh… what… how did…?”
“Hawa… are you okay, Kevin-kyun?”
A Fox's Alliance (American Kitsune Book 10) Page 6
