A Fox's Alliance (American Kitsune Book 10)

by Brandon Varnell

“Do you feel the same way?” Justin asked Jill.

  “More or less.” She shrugged, not saying anything more.

  Looking at the vast cityscape, Justin replayed Kevin’s words from earlier that morning.

  “You’re not some machine whose programming demands it follow the orders of its master. You’re a human being, and whether you were born in a test tube or from a mother’s womb, nothing is going to change that. It is your prerogative as a human to make the choices you want. That’s what it means to have free will.”

  “What would you do if I told you that I can no longer agree with the ideals that we’ve been following?” he asked.

  “Are you saying that you no longer believe we should be fighting this war?” asked Jack.

  Justin nodded. “Yes, or rather, I’m saying that I no longer believe we’re on the right side of this war.”

  “That’s treason,” Jill said, her voice deadly serious.

  “Is it?” Justin turned his head, gracing the woman with his amused smile. “As I recall, it was not America who decided to start this war.”

  Jill wore a complicated expression. “That may be so, but we still joined in. We’re still taking part in it.”

  “So, you would be willing to fight your fellow Americans simply because they’re not human?”

  Jill looked uncomfortable. “That does sound wrong, I’ll admit, but we still have our orders.”

  “Then perhaps it is time we brought the United States proof that we’re following the wrong path, rather than fight a war we had no business starting,” Justin said, observing the two. While Jill was clearly straddling the fence, Jack seemed more at ease with the idea he’d brought forward.

  “How do you propose we do something like that?” the male twin asked.

  Justin smiled. “By showing the president and everyone else in charge that the people they’ve decided to back aren’t all they appear to be.”

  ***

  “Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! That really hurts, Stud!”

  Iris cried and winced as Kevin applied ointment and bandages to her wounds. Because she was a Void Kitsune, Lilian couldn’t heal her. That meant they had to treat her wounds the normal way.

  “Maybe that will teach you to be a little more careful next time you find yourself in a fight.” Kevin gently spread some ointment on her abdomen wound, which she’d gotten from a bullet grazing her. He then gently blew on it before applying a bandage. “There, all done.”

  As Kevin sat back in his chair, Iris glared at her body, which was covered in bandages.

  “Ugh,” she groaned in complaint, “I look like a mummy.”

  “You’re an awfully sexy mummy then,” Kevin absently said. Beside him, Lilian mumbled to herself as she tapped on their tablet.

  “Why thank you.” Iris winked. “You know, hearing you say something so nice makes me feel like you deserve a reward.”

  “I shudder to think about what kind of reward you have in mind,” Kevin responded quickly.

  “I know,” Iris snapped her fingers, “how about a kiss?”

  “That doesn’t sound like much of a reward.”

  “Oh? Then perhaps you would like something more… intimate?” Iris let a finger trail down her skintight tube top, slowly moving it through the valley of her breasts.

  Kevin looked away.

  “… Maybe later, like when we’re not in a place people can hear us.”

  “Uhuhuhu, good answer.” Iris leaned back and crossed one leg over the other. Her two tails rested against her lap, and she absently stroked them. “Still, I do feel like giving you something as a way of saying thanks for helping dress my wounds. I suppose a kiss will have to do.”

  Lilian finally looked up from her work. “If you two are going to kiss, would you mind maintaining that pose for a couple of minutes? I’m not very good at drawing kissing scenes yet, so I could use some real-life references.”

  “You would make your boyfriend kiss your sister so you can have a reference to draw from?” asked a flabbergasted Kevin.

  Lilian shrugged, as if to say it wasn’t a big deal. “It’s just Iris. I don’t see how that would be a problem.”

  “You hear that, Stud? Lilian’s given me permission to have my way with you.”

  “No, she didn’t! She only said you can kiss me!”

  Lilian nodded in agreement. “That’s right. I’m not drawing a hentai right now, so I don’t need any sex scenes at the moment.”

  “Are you saying you might at some point?!”

  “Ufufufu, you never know.”

  As Iris stuck her tongue in his mouth, Kevin wondered how his life had become like this—and whether or not he should have been feeling happy or stressed.

  ***

  Lilian woke up at the sound of the door slamming shut. She blinked several times, staring at the well-defined chest of her mate, which she was using as a pillow. After spending several moments luxuriating in the feeling of her mate’s body and warmth, she sat up and looked down at him.

  Kevin slept peacefully. His eyes were closed and his mouth parted. While she wanted to kiss those lips, she held back for the sake of observing her mate.

  He really has been through a lot.

  Everything had started last year, when Lilian, wounded by Kiara when she was in a feral state, had found Kevin after nearly ten years of being apart. Since then, her life had been filled with so many ups and downs. Together, they’d faced enraged inu, dangerous humans, assassins, kitsune clans, and more. While some part of her felt regret, for it was only thanks to her presence that Kevin had suffered so much, another knew that Kevin didn’t regret a thing.

  She’d had so much fun since meeting Kevin. They’d gone on dates, hung out with friends, played video games, watched anime, and read manga together. Even with all of the things they’d been through, Lilian wouldn’t change the life she had now.

  Leaning up, Lilian placed a kiss on Kevin’s forehead. He stirred, mumbled something about “rice cakes” in his sleep, then settled back down. Lilian giggled before standing up and exiting the train car.

  It was midday now. Bright rays of light burst through the window, naturally illuminating the hall. She could feel the train rumble beneath her bare feet as it ran along the tracks.

  She found Iris exactly where she’d expected to find her, leaning over a toilet, retching. Sweat covered her bare back, visible since she only wore a tiny tube top to protect her modesty.

  Kneeling down, Lilian placed a hand on her back, ignoring the sweat and soothingly rubbing it.

  “Did you have another nightmare?” she asked softly.

  “It wasn’t so bad this time. I think they’re getting better, or maybe I’m just getting used to them,” Iris tried to reassure her, though with how she was retching, Lilian didn’t feel very reassured.

  “Is it because Kevin stopped your trials?” Lilian asked, frowning. Ever since her sister’s Trial of the Void had been stopped by Kevin, Iris hadn’t suffered from as many nightmares.

  “I think so,” Iris said as Lilian moved her hair out of her face. “When the trials were interrupted, I think the Void relented a bit. Perhaps it sensed a threat when Kevin foolishly reached into the Emissary’s body and pulled me out. I don’t know. I just know that the nightmares haven’t been as bad.”

  Heaving a deep sigh, Iris pulled some mouthwash from between her cleavage and made liberal use of it. After thoroughly rinsing her mouth out, she flushed the toilet, and turned to her sister, offering Lilian a quick peck on the lips.

  “Thanks, Lily-pad.”

  “You’re welcome.” Lilian smiled. “Now, let’s go back. The ride isn’t gonna last much longer, and I want to get a little more sleep.”

  “Good idea. I’m sure the stud is missing us as well.”

  Smiling to each other, the two re-entered the train car and fell back to sleep.

  ***

  The train came to a stop at Hockey Valley Scenic Railway. People were disgorged soon after it stopped.

 
; Kevin and his two companions received something of a shock when stepping off the train. The modest railway, a little series of structures built from wood, steel, and concrete, held an almost humble appearance, especially when compared to the large station in Columbus and Lancaster.

  “Kind of a dinky place, isn’t it?” asked Iris as she, Kevin, and Lilian walked down a flight of old cement steps, leaving the raised platform and stepping onto the sidewalk.

  “Well, it is in the middle of a forest,” Lilian said.

  Indeed, surrounding what appeared to be nothing more than a tiny hamlet were thousands of trees. Most of the trees were tall and thin. Since it was winter, the leaves were all gone, leaving the branches barren of life.

  “Brr, it’s cold.” Iris shivered and buried herself between Kevin and Lilian, wrapping their arms around her. “Hurry, you two. Warm me up.”

  “I think someone’s been spoiled,” Kevin muttered.

  “So, where are we supposed to meet this contact again?” asked Lilian.

  “Kuroneko said that we were supposed to meet them at Full Brooks Café,” Kevin answered. “She said it was on the corner of Hocking Street and West Columbus.”

  “I wish she’d given us a map,” Iris mumbled from her place between him and Lilian.

  “She gave me directions,” Kevin assured her. “We’ll be fine.”

  Nelsonville, the place where they found themselves, really was a tiny town. All of the buildings were small and old, the kind of structures Kevin expected to find in a place that received few visitors. There weren’t many people either, though he assumed that would change during the spring and summer seasons.

  Finding Hocking Street was easy. They just had to walk for a few minutes, and West Columbus was the next street over. From there, they located Full Brooks Café easily enough. It was a quaint building composed of red brick and with two stories. A balcony jutted out from the front. Plain white columns supported it. A sign sat in front of the door, telling passersby what their specials were for that day.

  Standing in front of the door was a person.

  A very familiar person.

  A very, very, very familiar person, who looked incredibly impatient right then.

  Kevin, Iris, and Lilian all felt their jaws slowly drop when they laid eyes on the lolita-clad figure tapping her foot on the sidewalk. She was a small girl with long, straight black hair. Her porcelain skin complimented her cute button nose and small lips. She didn’t have much of a figure, but no one would deny that she was an awfully cute young woman.

  “Christine?!” they all yelled at the same time.

  Christine turned at the sound of her name being shouted. Her eyes widened when they landed on Kevin. Her cheeks quickly became stained with red as she pointed at them.

  “W-w-w-what the hell are you three doing here?!” she shouted the line that they wanted to ask.

  Life was just full of surprises.

  AFTERWORD

  When I was writing A Fox’s Alliance, I wanted to place a heavy emphasis on the story. However, I also didn’t want to neglect everything else like the fan service, character dynamics, and showing the development of my characters… I especially didn’t want to neglect the fan service. That’s very important to me, you know.

  The American Kitsune series has been a combination of ridiculous—and ridiculously stupid—comedy, fan service, harem tropes, and an actual plot ever since volume 4. I’ve been constantly introducing new elements into the story to create something more complex than the silly harem series we got in A Fox’s Love, A Fox’s Tail, and A Fox’s Maid.

  In the previous volume, I finally unveiled the role that the Sons and Daughters of Humanity were going to play. They’re basically like Nazis. Instead of hating Jewish people, they hate yōkai, and unfortunately, yōkai happen to be an incredibly dangerous group of supernatural beings that represent one of humanity’s greatest fears.

  The unknown.

  You always hear about humanity’s great fear of the unknown. We are afraid of things we don’t understand, and when we are afraid, our response is to take extreme actions that are often detrimental to ourselves and the people around us. It’s like those kids who do tests of courage by traveling into the woods in the middle of the night, only to break their leg because they tripped on something. If you’ll forgive me for quoting Star Wars for a moment: Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, and hatred leads to the dark side. If the unknown is what we as humans fear, then our fear will eventually turn into hatred, which will cause us to lash out at what we fear—if only to prove to ourselves and others that we don’t fear it.

  Of course, this isn’t all humans. There are some humans who don’t fear yōkai. Kevin is a good example of this, but there are many others aside from Kevin. I introduced this element in the last book with the Kuma Yōkai and his girlfriend. There are also men and women who have knowingly married and had children with yōkai. These men and women helped form Neo Seiryuu.

  Since Kevin, Lilian, and Iris were traveling by themselves, not only did I get to focus on the crazy stuff they get caught up in, but I was also able to establish their new dynamics. Kevin has finally accepted Iris into his relationship with Lilian. It took a lot of work because I wanted to adequately show Kevin’s struggle, as a human who grew up in a society that shuns polygamous relationships, as he slowly accepts the idea. I actually wanted to write a lot more. I had a huuuuuge, like mega huge, chapter planned out for the day Kevin willingly accepted Iris into his bed, but I sadly had to cut it from my final manuscript because it messed up the pacing of my story. Instead, I added a little flashback to show you all what happened. It isn’t much, but I hope it did an okay job of doing what it needed to. I’m honestly kind of worried I failed…

  Ahem.

  Anyway, I have been having a lot more fun writing this arc than I expected to. I think my chuunibyo has been coming out a lot more lately. I’ve been introducing all these new ideas and elements that are more complex than the silly harem series I love to read like To Love Ru and Monster Musume. I still like writing about my fan service because boobs are great and I love them, but it’s also nice to have a series that really pushes me as a writer. I might also be taking some inspiration from Gintama.

  Of course, this series is still very much a parody. Some of the elements I’ve introduced add a whole new level of WTF ridiculous to the story, like magical girl Eric and Lindsay. I’ve decided to mix time travel elements with magical girl tropes from series like Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Cute High Earth Defense Club Love!, which is basically a magical girl anime with boys becoming magical girls instead. I thought the idea of turning Eric into a magical girl would be… well, I thought it would be dumb but amusing.

  There’s not much else I can say. However, before I go, I have some people I want to thank.

  I would like to thank my editor, Crystal Holdefer, for continuing to work with me. She is awesome. I also want to thank Kirsten Moody. She and I have been working together since A Fox’s Love, and we’re planning to create an American Kitsune manga/comic adaptation using Patreon to fund our project.

  Speaking of, I’d also like to mention that I have opened a Patreon for anyone who would like to support me that way. I currently have an exclusive story that you can only read on there. It is an erotic time travel wuxia harem series with Norse mythology inspirations called WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior. The story is about a man named Eryk Veiger, who fights against and loses to the otherworldly being who killed his wife and daughter. He gets sent back in time and tries to do things over. I will warn you all, this series IS an erotic harem story. It has sex, a harem, and a good deal of violence. If anyone would like to read the first chapter for this story, you can do so on the page after this one.

  Finally, I would like to thank everyone who read this story, everyone who has been writing reviews of my books on Amazon (I seriously can never thank you enough), and everyone who has been supporting me. I want to thank all of you. You
are the most awesome people in the entire universe. I appreciate you all so much that I wish I could do more than what I am doing now. You are all incredible people.

  Thank you for your continued support. I hope to see you in the next American Kitsune volume, A Fox’s Mission!

  ~Brandon Varnell

  www.patreon.com/BrandonVarnell

  WIEDERGEBURT:

  LEGEND OF THE REINCARNATED WARRIOR

  CHAPTER 1

  THE FINAL BATTLE

  The air burst all around me. Flames seared the hair off my arms and caused my skin to crack and burn. Blood seeped from my skin, looking almost like lava leaking from cracks in the earth’s crust.

  Though I quickly circulated my Spiritual Power, channeling the water element through my body to heal my wounds, I did not allow myself to sigh in relief. More explosions were detonating all around me, forcing me to swerve in every direction. What’s more, by channeling the water element and using it to heal myself, I had been forced to split my attention two ways.

  The lightning covering my body had grown weaker as a result of my split attention. In that moment, seven figures appeared above me. I glared up at the winged beasts flying over my head. They were naughty but shadows. However, those shadows were currently surrounded by intense Spiritual Auras that crashed into me like tidal waves rolling over a small village.

  One of those great beasts released an avian cry before it swooped down, and the moment it did, the blazing heat surrounding my body grew even more fierce. Sweat broke out on my skin. It quickly dried up under this unfathomable heat. I could feel my skin getting singed once more, and I knew that I could no longer afford to run.

  Since this creature was using fire, I decided to use water.

  Dissipating the lightning in my body, I took a deep breath, and then circulated my Spiritual Power again. Instead of the sensation of static crawling across my skin, something soft and almost gel like covered my body. One step further. Grimacing as the heat from the creature closing in caused steam to rise from my body, I channeled more Spiritual Power into myself and transformed my entire body into water.