He blinked. Several tendrils flew at him. There were four—no, five!
Wide eyed, Kevin moved quicker than he’d moved in a while. A tendril tried to pierce his throat, but he stepped aside and moved past it. Another came in, aimed at his heart. Kevin dodged and smacked it away with his silver gun. Two more came in from either side. It was a pincer maneuver. They went wide and curved in toward him, but Kevin leapt backward and the two missed.
That’s four. Where is—
Kevin gasped in realization. He moved to avoid the attack. He was too late.
Grunting, Kevin looked down at the tendril that had torn through the left side of his torso. It wasn’t a terrible wound—certainly not life threatening, provided he got Lilian or a water yōkai to heal it soon, but it still hurt. His silver gun clattered to the ground as he placed a hand over the wound, ignoring the warm blood staining his fingers.
Metal scraped against ground. Kevin clenched his teeth, looking up to see the Yōkai Killer stalking toward him. It seemed to understand that he was injured, which was perhaps why it acted so much more cautious. Was this thing capable of understanding that an animal was at its most dangerous when cornered?
Gotta think… come on, Kevin! There has to be a way out of this.
He was injured, in pain, and growing weaker. There wasn’t much he could do, but he should still be able to do something! Anything!
Dang it! If only I knew this things element affinity, I could—!
His eyes widened. He stared at the silver gun, which had clattered to the ground. He remembered the words of Dr. Henry, that damn oni who had gotten his hopes up back in Neo Seiryuu.
“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, sort of like a machine gun. 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.”
That was it!
Ignoring the pain flaring in his torso, Kevin tore off his bandolier and tossed it into the air. He aimed his black gun at it, held the trigger, then released. A lance of fire shot from the barrel, striking the bandolier, which detonated in front of the Yōkai Killer.
Kevin dove for his silver gun, heedless of the stinging throb from his wounds. He unloaded the clip, then reloaded the gun with the ammo clip of void youki he’d gotten from Iris. Clambering to his feet, he aimed his gun, held the trigger, and waited.
The flames dispersed.
Kevin waited.
The Yōkai Killer emerged unscathed.
Kevin waited.
It charged at him, its arms shifting from claymores into lances.
Kevin waited for one more second. Then he released the trigger.
A conical beam of black energy discharged from the barrel. It didn’t blow a hole through the Yōkai Killer. It negated the very concept of the material that it touched. The strangely hydrous metal that composed its body was consumed by the Void, its very existence erased.
However, the beam didn’t stop after destroying the Yōkai Killer. It continued on, slamming into a building across the street. Kevin watched, horrified, as black flames spread from the hole the beam had made, traveling to the rest of the building. Its movements were almost insidious as, little by little, the building disappeared, the flames eating away at the bricks, all the way down to the conceptual level. Soon, there was nothing left, just an empty lot where there had once been a two-story building.
“Oh…”
Kevin fell to his knees, no longer strong enough to hold himself up. With the battle over, and the adrenaline that kept him going vacating his bloodstream, Kevin’s strength vanished.
He fell onto his back, staring up at the sky. It was a bright blue, almost cheerful. Somehow, he felt like the sky was mocking him.
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
Having lived with Iris for over a year now, Kevin knew a lot about the Void. He knew what it was, what it did, and what it wanted to do. He knew that, and yet still he’d used it. The void bullets, which killed even more indiscriminately than if Iris used the Void herself. They were too dangerous. That was why he told himself that he’d only use them as a last resort.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Kevin lifted his gun and looked at the meter that told him how many shots he had left.
“It’s half full,” he murmured, dropping his limb again, the gun clattering against the road. “I should have figured this would happen. Charging it for that long had to have drained a lot of the youki put into it. Now I’m two hundred and fifty bullets less—though I suppose I could ask Iris to fill the cartridge up again.”
Kevin didn’t like the idea of asking Iris to do this unless it became necessary. He wanted to protect her, to keep her from having to use the power she so despised—at least, he wanted to minimize her use of it as much as possible.
She should be allowed to live in peace. Everyone should be able to live peacefully.
The sound of scraping metal drew his attention away from his thoughts. He turned his head, shock jolting through him. The Yōkai Killer, black flames engulfing its body, slowly consuming it, stood up. There was a gaping hole in its chest where his attack had blown through it.
Why?
It stalked toward him.
Why isn’t it dead?
Its movements were inexplicably slow.
The Void should have consumed it!
Its arm twitched, then bulged, and then shifted into a spear. The Void ate away at its body. Pieces of it vanished as they were consumed. Yet still it moved. Still it drew near to him.
D-dang it!
Kevin tried to move, to get up, to fight back, but all he could manage was to twitch his arms. He was so tired. His body simply didn’t have the strength needed to fight anymore.
Dang it!
Tri-pronged metal toes scraped along the ground. The sounds were like nails on a chalkboard, and as they grew closer, Kevin imagined his death growing closer as well. He couldn’t die, though. Not now. Not yet. There was still so much he had to do!
Move…
Kevin wanted to go to college. He didn’t know what he would major in, but he would discover that along the way, so he could choose a profession that he loved doing.
Move.
There were so many things that he wanted to do. He wanted to be a good mate to Lilian, to eventually marry her and start a family with her. He wanted to help Iris accept herself, and to be there for her when she needed a shoulder to lean on. He wanted to see Christine again and tell her that he was sorry he hadn’t recognized her when they met again in that arcade. He wanted Kotohime to ruffle his hair and tell her that she was proud of him. He wanted Kiara to give him that fanged grin as she watched him train. He wanted Phoebe to find someone who could help give her a child and would be there to raise it with her. He wanted Lindsay to find happiness. He wanted to see his mom again. He wanted and wanted and wanted, and there were so many things that he still had to do. He couldn’t die here. He wouldn’t die here!
Move!
The Yōkai Killer stood several feet away. A lot of its body had already disappeared, consumed by the Void, but the parts it needed were still there. Its lance-shaped arm was set to stab his chest. Kevin gritted his teeth as he fought with everything he had to move. He just needed to move. Move. Move. Move. Move—
MOVE!
“Void Art: Pillar.”
Black flames slammed onto the Yōkai Killer from above. An enormous pillar of darkness blotted out the machine’s form until Kevin could no longer see it. No heat was emitted from these flames. They technically weren’t even flames, not really. Just as quickly as the void fire had come the black flames dispersed. Kevin looked at the spot where the YK unit had been; there was nothing left in that spot except for a five-foot wide circle of charred ground.
“What…?”
“KEVIN!”
>
Lilian ran up to him and knelt next to him. She lifted him up and held him to her chest. He sighed and closed his eyes as his face pressed into her soft bosom.
“Are you okay? You’re injured! I’m so sorry! We should have come sooner! We should have—”
“Lilian,” Kevin interrupted. “Thank you. I love you.”
Lilian froze. She remained silent for several moments before, almost shyly, she whispered, “I love you, too.”
“You okay there, Stud?”
Kevin couldn’t see Iris. He wouldn’t have been able to even if his eyes had been open, but he didn’t need to see her to know that she was giving him one of her sexy smirks.
“Fine, just a little tired.”
“Yeah, that’s our bad,” Iris said. “We meant to come sooner, but another of those YK machines attacked us.”
“It’s fine,” Kevin mumbled. By the gods did he feel tired. “You’re here now. That’s what matters.”
“Come on, Beloved,” Lilian used his pet name now that they were out of danger. “Let’s find someplace where you can rest.”
Together, Iris and Lilian helped Kevin stand, holding one of his arms over their shoulders. He slumped within their grasp, lacking the strength to even lift a single leg.
“Thanks for doing this,” he whispered. “And… sorry for being a burden.”
Lilian shook her head. “You could never be a burden. Don’t say stupid things like that.”
“Lily’s right. Besides, this situation has its advantages. With you so weak and helpless, it means I can feel you up as much as I want.” As if to emphasize her point, something grabbed a handful of his left butt cheek and squeezed.
“Please don’t,” Kevin muttered.
“Hey! You’re right!” Lilian exclaimed, as if surprised she hadn’t thought of that first.
“Not you, too, Lilian!”
“By the way, Stud, wasn’t there supposed to be a building in that lot over there?”
“Urk!”
***
Hina growled at the Yōkai Killer. Raising her left hand, the tip of which was glowing blue, she wrote kanji within the air. San. The kanji glowed a brilliant blue before acid spewed from it like water from a fire hydrant.
The Yōkai Killer sliced it in half.
Scowling, Hina leapt back as several spears punctured the ground she’d been standing on. She continued to write. Kaze. A burst of intense wind blasted from the kanji, slamming into the Yōkai Killer and forcing it back. The machine sank its clawed feet into the ground and resisted.
Honō. Intense flames shaped like a cone blitzed the Yōkai Killer. The fire splashed against it, burning around it on all sides. The Yōkai Killer remained unharmed.
Hina was about to try something else—
“That is enough, Hina.”
—when Kuroneko suddenly appeared right next to the Yōkai Killer, her left hand gently touching its shoulder.
“Ether Disintegration.”
And just like that, the battle was over as, like a figurine made of ash, the Yōkai Killer fell apart, crumbling into dust particles that flew away when a breeze blew through the street.
“There,” Kuroneko said, clapping her hands of imaginary dust. “Now the battle is almost over. You’re lucky this unit was harnessing ghost youki for a power source. I wouldn’t have been able to destroy it so easily otherwise—though I do wonder where they got that kind of energy. I suppose it doesn’t matter at the moment.”
“Um, right.”
“Is something wrong, Hina?”
“No… I was merely wondering if those two reached my honey in time.”
“I thought I told you,” a voice said. “Beloved isn’t your honey, you secondary character.”
“Tch! And I told you to keep your grubby paws off him!”
Lilian and Iris walked with a nearly unconscious Kevin between them. The young man’s head lolled from side to side, and his eyes were unfocused. He was clearly on his last leg.
“It seems you’ve been in quite the battle, child,” Kuroneko observed with a cool gaze.
“Understatement of the century,” Kevin muttered blithely. He didn’t seem to be all there.
“Indeed. Well, then, now that you three are here, why don’t you come with me? It is time we ended this battle.”
Kuroneko turned and walked back toward the beach. After a moment’s hesitation, Iris and Lilian followed with Kevin in their arms, and Hina trailed behind them.
“Let me carry him,” Hina demanded.
Lilian growled. “No, shut up.”
“I’m stronger than you. I should be the one to carry him.”
“He’s my mate!”
“And my sex toy.”
“Please don’t say such disturbing things, Iris.”
The group bickered and squabbled all the way to the beach, with Lilian and Iris claiming that Kevin was their mate/sex toy and Hina trying to refute them. Of course, Kevin was practically unconscious by this point. Kuroneko ignored them as they walked onto the sand and looked for one of her maids.
“Ah. Elizabeth, please get that charming commander back on the line for me.”
The woman she spoke to had scales around her eyes, shoulders, and legs. Jutting from her maid-like swimsuit was a long, reptilian tail.
“Yes, Kuroneko-hime!” the maid said.
Kuroneko smiled as she was handed a phone. “And now, let us see if I can’t make the commander more reasonable.”
***
“All of the YK units have been destroyed, sir!”
Gunther turned to Justin. “You see that, boy? All of your—eh? Where’d he go?”
Justin was gone. Gunther looked around the entire bridge, but there didn’t appear to be any sign of him. He clenched his hands into fists as blood rushed to his face.
“That… that bastard! How dare he run away!”
“Sir! That, uh, that woman is on the line again.”
“Give me that!” Snatching the comm. unit from his subordinate's hand, Gunther held the device to his ear. “If you’re calling to try and make me surrender, then you can forget it! America never gives in to threats!”
“Really? Are you sure I can’t convince you?”
“Uh, sir?”
“Silence!” Gunther ordered his subordinate before returning to the woman on the other end. “Now you listen here, you goddamn cunt! This country will never give into your threats! We refuse to surrender!”
“Sir?!”
“Oh, well, that is too bad.”
“SIR!”
“WHAT?!” Gunther screamed at his subordinate.
“T-there are several unidentified objects surrounding us, sir,” the soldier said, pointing outside.
Gunther felt the blood drain from his face as he looked outside. Surrounding his entire fleet of warships, rising from the water like jutting rocks, were several dozen gigantic figures. Inky black and with a pair of large, round eyes, these beings appeared vaguely humanoid in shape, but only from the shoulders up. The rest of their bodies were invisible, hidden beneath the water’s murky surface.
These were the umi bōzu, water monks. They lived in the seas. Most umi bōzu preferred the vast oceans, but they occasionally traveled closer to land as well. A rare few actually enjoyed being near the land.
“S-sir?” the soldier spoke again. “W-what do we do, sir?”
“Excuse me, Commander,” Kuroneko’s voice came out of the unit. “But can I convince you to surrender now? If not, I will have no choice but to destroy your entire fleet.”
Gunther gritted his teeth. He raised the phone to his mouth. “We… we surrender,” he choked, the words coming out with great reluctance.
“A wise choice,” Kuroneko said. “Now, then, how about you and everyone else abandon your ships and come ashore? I would much rather we discuss the terms and conditions of your surrender in person.”
Gunther had never felt like crying more than he did now.
***
Sev
eral miles outside of Manhattan Beach, Justin watched the proceedings.
He stood on a several story tall building. A fierce wind whipped around him, but he didn’t feel it. His thermonuclear suit kept his body temperature at exactly 96 degrees.
Through the HUD display on his helmet, Justin zoomed in on the beach, watching as all of the soldiers who’d been on board the ships were taken prisoner once they reached the shore. Commander Gunther stood at the front, his grizzled and scowling visage easily recognizable amongst the crowd. Standing beside him was an elegant woman with a cat tail that split near the middle and triangle-shaped ears sticking out of her head.
“That must be Kuroneko, the famed Byakko of the North Gate,” he murmured. It amused him that the one who’d earned the title Byakko lived in California. While it could technically be considered north, California was about as far south in the United States as one could get.
Kuroneko spoke with Gunther, who grunted and growled in response. Justin couldn’t read the nekomata’s lips, but he read the commander’s well enough. It seemed Gunther was being stubborn and trying to come out of these negotiations on top.
“Too bad he’s not going to get anywhere with a woman like that.”
The Sons and Daughters of Humanity had little information on Kuroneko, but what they did know was enough. Born sometime within the late 900s, Kuroneko was the oldest living nekomata on the planet. Her powers were beyond incredible, and her many centuries of life had given her wisdom beyond measure. It was no wonder they’d lost this battle against her.
“And I had commandeered the entire Naval fleet stationed in California for this operation, too,” he grumbled.
That wasn’t even mentioning the number of soldiers that had been used in this operation. Altogether, Justin estimated that about 5,000 troops had been lost and another 35,000 captured. Of course, he’d also lost ten of his YK units. Commander Paine wouldn’t be pleased when he heard that.
“Still, at least we gained some valuable data…”
A Fox's Alliance (American Kitsune Book 10) Page 26
