A Fox's Hostility

by Brandon Varnell

  The figure was humanoid, though Lilian couldn’t tell if it was human. Its large body stood nearly two feet taller than her. Composed entirely of metal, it gleamed with a silvery sheen. Mechanical joints hissed as it struggled against the Chains of Babylon, a stronger version of Lilian’s regular chain technique.

  Sweat dripped down Lilian’s brow as she gritted her teeth, channeling more youki into the chains, strengthening them and pulling the… whatever this thing was further from Phoebe.

  “I-Iris…”

  “Way ahead of you, Lily-pad.”

  Iris rushed over to Phoebe and hefted the girl up, slinging one arm over her shoulder and wrapping her tails around the yuma uba to keep a firm grip on the Amazonian. Once Phoebe was secured, Iris took off down the hall.

  Lilian could no longer maintain her chains. The golden chains dissolved and the metal thing, no longer restrained, shot forward and crashed through the wall. Knowing that it would be back and that she didn’t have enough youki to destroy such a monster, Lilian ran to catch up with her sister, youki pumping through her legs in short bursts, enhancing her muscles to the point where it only took a second or two before she was running alongside Iris.

  “Did you take care of that thing?” Iris huffed, looking more than a little worn. Her tails had slackened to the point where she was practically dragging Phoebe now. Lilian assumed it was due to exhaustion. Channeling the Void while maintaining control over herself took a lot of effort.

  “Of course not. There’s no way I can defeat something like that.”

  As if to emphasize her point, the wall to their left exploded, and the machine came barreling out.

  “Celestial Art: Flare!”

  The tips of Lilian’s tails glowed white. Two spheres formed on the tips and then shot off, striking the machine in the face before flaring into blinding incandescence. Lilian prayed that the technique would, at the very least, blind whatever that thing used to see them with. Her hopes were dashed when stomping could be heard behind them, and she turned her head slightly to see the thing catching up.

  “D-dang it! What is this thing?!”

  “You’re asking me?!”

  “I was being rhetorical!”

  Lilian and Iris came up on a four-way junction and swerved around a corner. The machine continued to follow them, its feet crashing into the ground. Lilian growled as her tails became riots of activity.

  “Celestial Art: Double Helix!”

  Lilian’s tails twisted together and straightened, forming a helix-like shape. Flames of pure white erupted around them. Arcs of energy coruscated along her tails like lightning. The youki gathered, traveling up her tails to the tips, where it was launched at the machine, two white beams swirling around each other.

  The technique struck the machine in the chest, halting it in its tracks. It skidded backwards along the cement floor, sparks issuing from the bottom of its feet. When the attack dissipated, Lilian expected to see, if not a bunch of innards, then at least a large dent.

  What she was not expecting was for the metal chestplate to barely have a scratch on it.

  “That… that is just so not fair,” Lilian whined.

  “Stop complaining! Just run!” Iris shouted.

  Run they did. Lilian and Iris tore down the hall as quickly as their legs could carry them. Having sensed that her sister was nearing exhaustion, Lilian also grabbed Phoebe and hefted the unconscious yuma uba with her tails, even though she herself was quite tired from her fight against the oni.

  The machine continued its pursuit, following them as they made another turn, which fortunately led them to the stairway. Kotohime was waiting for them.

  “Lilian-sama, Iris-sama, please duck.”

  Lilian didn’t hesitate and dropped to the floor. Iris also fell onto her stomach.

  An almost gentle breeze blew over their heads and backs. Lilian turned her head just in time to see Kotohime attack the machine with one of her signature moves.

  “Ikken Hissatsu. Ichi no Ougi.”

  Upon reaching her foe, Kotohime spun about in a clockwise circle, her blade passing through the space where the machine’s neck was located. A second passed. Nothing happened. Then a ripple spread across the airspace. The machine’s exposed neck exploded in a splatter of oil and blood, and its head flew off its shoulders like a jet-propelled rocket, smashing into the ceiling and denting it. The body remained standing for a few more seconds, then it fell to its knees and crumbled the rest of the way, blackish-red fluids leaking from its severed stump.

  “Ara, ara.” Kotohime raised a hand to her face, hiding her mouth behind the voluminous sleeve of her dark blue kimono. “It seems this was not a machine at all, but a bodysuit of some kind. Oh, dear.”

  Lilian ignored her sudden urge to vomit and stood back to her feet, hefting Phoebe up as well. Iris also stood, though she looked a lot worse off than Lilian. At first, she thought her sister might have been disgusted by the headless body, but then she saw the blackness tinting Iris’s nails.

  “Iris…”

  “Heh.” Iris’s smirk looked more like a grimace. “It seems all this excitement is getting to me.”

  “Are you three well?” Kotohime asked of them.

  Iris gave her sister a warning look, which Lilian decided to heed, for now. There wasn’t much they could do about her sister’s void problem anyway.

  “Iris and I are fine, but Phoebe…”

  “Yes, it seems she has been injured. Please allow me to take her.”

  Lilian was all too happy to hand Phoebe off to Kotohime. Three tails slithered around the yuma uba, who dangled limply within the swordswoman’s grasp. Blue youki engulfed the woman, then moved across her body like water. A healing technique, Lilian realized. Even as she watched, Phoebe groaned and stirred awake.

  Kotohime turned to her and frowned, her brow creasing as she suddenly realized something.

  “Lilian-sama, where is Kevin-sama?”

  That question never got answered.

  Before Lilian could even open her mouth, a massive explosion rocked the entire underground base.

  ***

  Kevin had known that it would only be a matter of time before they were ambushed.

  He, Jessica, and her mother had been running down the hallway, taking a more roundabout route to reach the stairs, when the ceiling above them exploded and nearly a half a dozen figures in black spandex fell through.

  While Jessica screamed and Mrs. Springen moved to protect her daughter, Kevin whipped out his handguns and opened fire. He narrowed his eyes when a purple barrier of some sort sprang up around the people he shot. Was this some new technology? An anti-youki barrier? Kevin didn’t know, but he realized that it meant his guns, for the moment, were useless.

  He holstered them and pulled out a flash grenade. Pulling the pin, he threw it hard enough to smack one of the soldiers in their helmeted face. So physical objects could pass through the barrier? Good to know.

  Mrs. Springen had seen what he’d thrown, and she quickly covered her daughter protectively before closing her eyes. That was the last sight Kevin saw before he followed suit.

  Light burst behind his eyelids. He couldn’t see, but he moved anyway, relying on his memory and ears to find his opponents. One of his strategies was attacking while his opponents were blind. It worked well enough before, so he assumed it would work now.

  He was wrong.

  The click of a gun being loaded alerted Kevin to the danger. He threw himself forward, into a shoulder roll. Gunfire erupted from somewhere to his right. He could hear it tearing through the place he’d been standing. Understanding that his plan to blind his opponents had somehow failed, Kevin skipped back to his feet and pulled out his silver gun, which he made liberal use of, unloading an entire clip into where he could sense the nearest enemy.

  The sound of something shattering reached him, followed by a scream. Kevin didn’t know what that meant, but he didn’t stop moving. Holstering his gun, he darted right, pulling the
black gun out and unloading another clip into where he could hear his next foe.

  Another click echoed around him. Kevin prepared to move. Gunfire erupted, but not at him. A feminine scream caused his eyes to snap open.

  It was Mrs. Springen. She was lying on top of Jessica. Blood leaked out of several holes in her back, staining her shirt a dark carmine.

  “M-Mom,” Jessica uttered, her voice pathetically weak.

  Kevin felt rage. A red film hazed over his eyes. Symphonic rage thrummed inside of his body. He could feel it coursing underneath the surface, bubbling inside of him, threatening to overwhelm him. This feeling, which he latched onto and used as fuel, sprang up from seeing someone he’d tried so hard to protect get gunned down.

  She was only trying to protect her daughter.

  The other soldiers aimed their guns, but Kevin didn’t allow them to fire again. He slid across the floor, kicking the feet out from underneath one of them. He stopped his momentum with a hand, then used the kinetic energy traveling through his arm to slam his foot into the soldier’s helmeted face. The glass faceplate cracked, then gave, and Kevin felt a moment’s satisfaction from the loud crunch! that issued forth. Blood flew from the soldier’s now broken visor as he fell to the ground, landing on his side and staying there.

  Kevin rolled along the ground, grabbing the machine gun on the way. As he rolled onto his back, he aimed at the nearest soldier and shot her in the faceplate. He squashed his regret as holes appeared in the visor, along with splatters of blood. The woman jerked back, falling to the ground, dead.

  The other soldiers reacted to his sudden attack. Kevin rolled across the floor some more as they opened fire, bullets pelting the ground he’d been standing on. He came back up on his feet and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked empty, so he threw it at his nearest foe, distracting them long enough for him to attack.

  He leapt into the air, grabbed the soldier’s head, and then slammed his knee into the faceplate. A grunt was muffled by his gritted teeth. Kevin shunted the pain aside as several glass fragments stabbed into his flesh. The person he kneed went down, falling onto their back, and Kevin rolled off them, grabbing their gun as they went.

  Kevin swerved around, searching for another enemy. When none revealed themselves, he realized that he’d defeated them all. He couldn’t celebrate just yet, though. Jessica looked ready to break down in tears and her mother had been shot. They needed to move. He needed to find Kotohime or someone else who could heal Mrs. Springen, and they were all still in danger.

  Knowing this, Kevin lifted Mrs. Springen into a fireman’s carry, then pulled Jessica to her feet.

  “Come on, Jess. Snap out of it! We need to keep going.”

  “K-keep going?” Jessica mumbled in shock.

  “That’s right.” Kevin grabbed her hand. “Your mom is still alive! If we hurry and find Kotohime or Lilian, we can heal her! Now, follow me!”

  Kevin took off, dragging Jessica along behind him. The girl stumbled several times, having not been prepared for such a hasty action, but she eventually began running with him. Together, they tore down the hall, their footsteps bouncing along the walls, turning a corner into another hallway.

  A hallway that was now destroyed and had a massive hole in the floor.

  “S-shoot,” Kevin swore. Held aloft on his shoulder, an unconscious Mrs. Springen groaned. “Can we even go this way now?”

  Even as he said this, a noise emerged from the hole. Voices. Two of them.

  “W… wa… hawa…”

  “Don’t worry, Lady Camellia. I will heal this up, so please remain still.”

  “Kirihime!” Kevin called out. There was a moment of silence. Then…

  “Lord Kevin?”

  Kevin felt relief flood through him. If Kirihime was down there, then it meant Mrs. Springen could be healed!

  “It’s me.”

  “Lord Kevin, I’m so glad to hear from you.” The relief in Kirihime’s voice could not be masked. “Lady Camellia and I were separated from our group, and then we were attacked by this man wearing a large bodysuit of some kind. I killed him, but then the ground collapsed underneath us.”

  Kevin nodded as he stopped in front of the edge and looked down. Kirihime and Camellia were there. While Camellia was sitting in a messy sprawl, Kirihime knelt beside her, using a healing technique on a small bruise that was even now growing smaller.

  “Kirihime, I have someone here who’s injured and needs your immediate assistance.”

  Kirihime looked up, noticed the woman bleeding onto his bodysuit—which he hadn’t been able to take off yet—and then gasped in obvious alarm and worry.

  “Very well, Lord Kevin. I’ll heal her immediately.”

  Camellia was already healed, so Kirihime used the extension technique to take Mrs. Springen from him. He turned to Jessica, who stood silently next to him, her hand gripping his fiercely.

  “Hold onto me,” he told her. Obviously still in shock, Jessica did exactly that. Her arms wrapped tightly around his waist as she shook. Kevin realized that she was seconds away from crying.

  Kevin looked back down the hole. “Camellia?”

  Camellia looked up. “Hawa?”

  “Can you please use your tails to get us down there?”

  “Ah, um, eh? Hawa! Yes! Camellia can do that. Camellia will help Kevin-kyun and Bun-Bun.”

  Clearly excited to be of some help, Camellia extended her five tails until they had wrapped around him and Jessica like a cocoon. She lifted them into the air, pulled them through the hole, and set them on the ground.

  “Thank you, Camellia.”

  “Tee-hee, Kevin-kyun thanked me. So happy!”

  “Right.”

  Kevin let go of Jessica and turned his head to see Kirihime healing Mrs. Springen. Several bullets were forcefully expelled from her back, and then the holes in her flesh healed over, the skin knitting together, leaving it unblemished save for the bloodstains.

  “There,” Kirihime sighed, “that should do it. What should we do now, Lord Kevin?”

  “We should still be able to reach the stairway needed to access the evacuation tunnels from here,” Kevin determined. “Let’s hurry and meet up with the others.”

  “An excellent suggestion. Lady Camellia and I will follow you.” Kirihime stood and scooped Mrs. Springen up with her tails, wrapping the woman in what looked like furry bondage.

  Kevin turned to Jessica. “You okay to keep moving?”

  Jessica’s frightened expression stared at him. “I… yes.” She nodded eventually, the motion jerky and halting. “Yes, I can keep moving.”

  “Okay. Then let’s go.”

  Kevin and Jessica started moving again, this time with Camellia and Kirihime in tow.

  He prayed they wouldn’t run into any more trouble.

  ***

  After meeting up with Kotohime, Lilian, Iris, and Phoebe hadn’t run into any trouble, and they reached the evacuation tunnel in short order.

  Lilian channeled youki to her eyes, using her control of celestial energy to change her ability to perceive light, giving her a form of night vision. It was a trick she had picked up one night when she and Kevin had been discussing her powers. They had wanted to create super awesome shōnen-style powers, but had come up with this instead. It was a useful technique, though not as cool as being able to stretch your body like a rubber man.

  She looked for familiar faces within the crowd. Lilian didn’t know any of the people here, really. She recognized a few of the people she went to classes with, but she couldn’t remember their names—which was fine with her. Lilian wasn’t looking for them anyway. She was looking for someone specific.

  “Kevin’s not here.”

  Lilian’s stomach clenched.

  “Neither are Kirihime and Camellia,” Kotohime added, frowning. “I am sure they are fine, though. Kirihime and Kevin-sama are strong. We must have faith that they will show up soon.”

  “Yeah…”

  Lilian knew tha
t Kevin was strong. That never stopped her from worrying, though. Kevin was her mate, the most important person in her life. It was her right to worry about him.

  “There you guys are,” Mack called out, walking up to their group. “I was getting pretty worried when you didn’t show up. I had Kotohime wait up top for you. I’m glad to see you guys made it. Now we can finally begin the evac—”

  “Hold up there, Pinky,” Iris interrupted.

  “Pinky?”

  “The stud is still missing. We can’t leave until he shows up.” The raven-haired vixen crossed her arms and glared at him, as if daring Mack to tell her that they couldn’t wait for Kevin.

  Mack looked a little uncomfortable. “Look, I know you’re all worried about Kevin, but we can’t afford to wait for him. We have to get these people out of here.”

  “While I would normally agree with you, I believe it would be inappropriate of us to leave while someone who has done so much for our kind is left behind,” Phoebe stated her opinion.

  “What she said,” Lilian muttered, still looking for Kevin.

  “I believe it is imperative that we wait here until Master arrives.”

  Mack gave Phoebe his best “WTF” look.

  Iris facepalmed. “And you just totally ruined the moment.”

  “Lady Phoebe!” Polydora rushed over to the group. “Lady Phoebe, you’re all right!”

  “Of course I am all right.” Phoebe thumped her chest. “Kotohime healed my grievous, life-threatening wounds quite well.”

  “L-life-threatening?!” Polydora squawked. “You were injured that badly?!”

  While Polydora fretted over Phoebe, despite the woman in question telling her companion that she was fine, Mack continued explaining why they couldn’t wait for Kevin.

  “I understand that you’re worried, but we have to face reality. There’s a good chance that he’s—”

  “If you say dead, I’m going to Gomu Gomu your ass into a wall,” Lilian warned.

  “Gomu Gomu what now?” Mack’s face flickered with confusion.

  “Lilian, what have I told you about copyright laws and plagiarism,” a familiar voice spoke up behind her.

  Lilian whirled around to see Kevin, unharmed, standing several feet away.