“So… I’m just… going to stay here?” she asked, struggling to form the words. Her tongue felt thick, heavy, swollen like a sponge.
The Bodhisattva shook his head.
“You will not just be staying here. You will be looking after my son. As you are the one who put Jiāoào into this pitiful state, you and that human mate of yours, it is only right that you care for him as he recovers.”
Lilian didn’t understand. She tried to say as much, but her voice had stopped working as the pressure he exuded finally became too much. It pushed down on her, preventing her from speaking.
“You are confused.” It was not a question. “Allow me to explain. My son can do nothing on his own. He cannot eat; he cannot move; he cannot even go to the restroom without aid. You are going to be the one who aids him.”
“No.” The word left her lips even before she realized what she was saying.
“No?” The Bodhisattva raised an eyebrow at her defiance. “No,” he repeated. Not a question. The look he gave her, so calm, so placid, sent chills down her spine. “You would defy me?”
Lilian tried to speak, but the pressure that had been building since the nine-tailed kitsune announced his presence suddenly became unbearable. Her legs didn’t buckle. She simply fell flat on her face. Like Earth’s gravity had suddenly undergone a two-thousand-fold increase, the Bodhisattva’s presence bore down on her in such a way that she was forced to the floor.
“Seeing how you are the progeny of a traitor, I am unsurprised by your audacity.” The Bodhisattva’s voice remained calm, even as the weight of his presence threatened to crush her. “However, I had been hoping that you would have become a more reasonable person with time. It seems such is not the case.”
Lilian’s mouth opened to say something, but all that came out was a raspy, gurgling sound. Breathing started to become difficult. Her lungs tried to inhale, but oxygen refused to come. It felt like she was underwater without scuba gear, and with the weight that threatened to crush her into a fine paste, she might as well have been stuck at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
“Let me tell you something right now, Lilian Pnév̱ma.” The voice came from above. She tried to raise her head, but the presence, the weight, the indescribable feeling that pressed down on her and proclaimed her worthless, prevented that from happening. “The only reason you are alive right now is because I need you. If you refuse to help me, if you do not cure my son, then you are of no use to me, and will be disposed of accordingly.”
Lilian gritted her teeth as she struggled to retain a grip on her sanity. Blackness crept at the edge of her vision. The lack of oxygen to her brain made her head fuzzy. The only reason her mind hadn’t snapped yet was because of the anchor she used to keep herself from breaking; it was the image of a young man with blond hair and blue eyes smiling at her. It kept her from going over the brink, though it did little to keep her from feeling like her body was being turned into a bloody smear on the floor.
Such was the power of the being before her. Those granted the ninth tail are akin to gods walking the earth, kitsune whose powers have transcended the boundaries that constrain their race, granting them a near limitless power. And Shinkuro Shénshèng, the Bodhisattva, the nine-tailed Celestial Kitsune of a legendary and ancient clan, was considered to be the greatest Celestial Kyūbi in all of history.
“This is not a request,” the Bodhisattva continued. Lilian made a sound like a vacuum sucking in nothing as the weight of his presence increased. “This is an order. You will do this for me, or you will die.”
“I…”
Lilian gritted her teeth as she struggled to get up.
“I…”
Her legs and arms shook like the limbs of trees caught in a violent hurricane.
“I…”
Finally, she managed to raise her head, and she looked up into the blue eyes of the Celestial Kyūbi, whose presence continued pushing her to the floor.
“I… w-w-w…”
She managed to keep her head raised for exactly two seconds. Then her head fell back down, smacking against the carpet, and darkness engulfed her vision.
***
They needed to find a place to stay for the night.
Kevin looked up at the sky. Night had yet to fall, but the sun was going down. A combination of red, yellow, and orange swirled across the sky, setting buildings ablaze, making the atmosphere appear as though it was on fire. He looked at the buildings, trying to figure out which one was a hotel, but he really couldn’t tell the difference between any of these buildings.
“I wish I could read these signs,” he said with a sigh.
“You mean you can’t?” Iris gazed at him with a bemused expression. “Haven’t you been all over the world? I thought someone as well traveled as you would know how to read and speak other languages.”
Kevin’s messy blond hair swayed as he shook his head negatively. He absentmindedly noticed how empty the street they turned down was. He couldn’t see a single soul. How odd. It had been busy everywhere else, even at this time of day.
“While I’ve traveled to a lot of countries, I can only speak and read the languages of countries I’ve been to a lot of times. I know French because Mom spends most of her time in France. I know Spanish because we often traveled to Spain whenever she took me with her. I know Japanese because—”
“Because you’re an otaku.”
Kevin’s right eye twitched as he glared at her.
“I am not an otaku!”
“Oh? So you’re a weeaboo, then?”
“I’m not that either!”
“You so are,” Iris teased. “You have all the makings of a weeaboo.” She began ticking reasons off on her fingers. “You watch anime all the time. You’re obsessed with reading manga. You care more about Japanese culture than your own. You cosplay.” She gave him an amused smirk. “Need I go on?”
Kevin’s eyes narrowed.
“Okay, one: I don’t watch just anime. It just so happens that anime is my favorite form of televised entertainment. Two: I read manga because I like the artwork more than American comics. Three: I do not care more about Japanese culture than my own. I rather like being an American, thank you very much. Four: I cosplay, but so do a lot of other people. There’s nothing wrong with dressing up in a costume and having fun.”
“Whatever you say, Stud.”
“Tch!”
Kevin was about to say something sarcastic, but he never got the chance because two people, familiar faces that he remembered seeing about half an hour ago, emerged from behind a door to their left.
“Look at you two, having a little lover’s quarrel.” The man with slick-backed black hair grinned at them. Kevin noticed that the bruise he’d given the other man was gone. Of course, the man’s attention was not on him but on Iris. “You see, this is why you should have come with us. Unlike this kid, we could have actually shown you a good time.”
“Oh, I highly doubt that.” Iris’s smirk was deadly seductive as she draped herself over Kevin, who did his best to ignore the pair of pneumatic knockers pressing into his side. He actually thought Iris might be a bit bigger than Lilian. “You see, the stud here may be an anime-obsessed nerd—”
“Hey!”
“—but he’s also strong, kind, and knows how to play my games. He entertains me in ways you boys will never be able to. He’s also got a really big dick.”
“Would you not mention my dick?!” Kevin shouted.
“Why? You should be proud of your Excalibur. Sure, it might not be a one-eyed monster, but it’s still a good size for someone your age, and you’re still growing.”
“How would you even know something that like?”
“You underestimate my abilities of observation,” Iris declared, her snuggle pups jiggling as she puffed out her chest. Kevin almost facepalmed when the three disguised yōkai started nose-bleeding. “I can tell the size of a male’s manmeat just by looking at them. For example—” she pointed at the guy with s
licked-back hair “—he’s got an inch worm for a phallus.”
The man squeaked, an embarrassed flush crossing his face as he covered his crotch with his hands. Sweat ran down the left side of Kevin’s face. It looked like Iris had been right on the money.
“And that one next to him has an average-sized needle dick.”
The man she pointed at, a young man with a brown head of hair and gray eyes that sat upon a square-jawed face, followed his friend’s example and covered himself.
“And that other guy they were with has a chode.”
“Girly, you are so dead,” a voice said behind them. He and Iris turned to see the last member of the trio, a lanky teen a head taller than Kevin, glaring down at them with a red face. “I don’t care how hot you are. No one insults members of The Cat’s Nya and gets away with it.”
“The Cat’s Nya?” Kevin made a face at the name.
A grin made its way onto Iris’s face. “Is that some kind of yaoi fanclub?”
The man with slick-backed hair snarled. “That does it! You two are so dead!”
The three beings surrounding them began to change. Their bodies shifted and morphed, squashing and growing compact, becoming no larger than a child or a really small adult. Their skin changed color, and in the sparse amounts of light remaining, their skin shone with a thick layer of grease that covered their bodies like unwashed filth. The skin of the one with slick-backed hair became a deep red like blood, while the other two turned a mottled green reminiscent of mold. Legs became long and gangly, double-jointed appendages that moved in ways human limbs weren’t supposed to move. Long, disgusting tongues stuck out of their no longer human faces.
“Iris?” Kevin leaned over to the vixen. “Do you know what these things are?”
“Don’t look at me. You’re the otaku. Shouldn’t you know what they are?”
“I’m not an otaku.” Kevin glared at her. “I can function perfectly normal in regular society… and I only know the major yōkai that often appear in anime, not the ones you rarely ever see.”
The grin Iris gave him revealed her sharp canines as they glinted in the remaining speckles of light. “And you just proved my point.”
“Enough of your blathering.” The one with slicked-back hair looked ready to start spitting acid. “You two are dead; prepare to meet your maker!”
Kevin and Iris looked at each other, then glanced at the creatures that leapt at them. All three yōkai had launched themselves into the air like predators pouncing on their prey.
“Yeah, we’d rather not,” Kevin said.
Just as all three were about to pounce on the pair, Kevin and Iris disappeared, or rather, the minor illusion that Iris had cast to make it look like they’d been standing there disappeared.
“What the hell?!”
“Where’d they go?!”
Kevin rushed out from behind a dumpster as their squawks of shock resonated across the street, his silver and black handguns already in his hands, firing off several rounds. The creatures squawked in shock and scampered away from the bolts of bright red energy that lanced out of his guns with the thunderous roar of cannon fire. The energy bolts struck the ground, blowing large chunks out of the cement.
“Extension.”
Appearing several feet to Kevin’s left, one of Iris’s tails shot out from behind her, lengthening to an incredible size and smacking the red-skinned leader in the face. The yōkai’s head snapped back as he was launched off his feet, hitting the ground like limp ramen noodles. His two companions stared at their boss’s flaccid body in wide-eyed horror.
“Bro!”
“Don’t take your eyes off your opponent!” Kevin shouted as he rushed at the two other yōkai. The first one became the victim of a pistol whipping. Kevin slammed his gun against the back of the creature’s head and sent it face-first to the ground.
The second one tried launching its tongue at him, but it soon found a tail wrapping around it and constricting it like a vice. Gurgling emitted from its mouth, which opened wide like a gaping maw. Its long tongue squirmed and wriggled like a worm being poked with a hot needle. Gruesome saliva the color of bile dripped from its mouth and hissed angrily as it burned the ground like acid.
“Extension.”
The tail elongated more. It whipped around and slammed the yōkai into the brick wall of the nearest building. Then the tail retracted, but the strange supernatural creature hung there, embedded into the wall. The yōkai’s asphyxiated gasp of pain soon turned into a squeal of horror when several red bolts of energy exploded off the wall all around him, showering him with shards of brick.
Kevin glared at the creature as he walked up and stuck the silver gun into the yōkai’s face. The frightened squeak it let out was like the kind a mouse made when caught within the paws of a cat.
“I do not know what you are, who you are, or what your reasons for transforming in front of a human are, and quite frankly, I don’t really care. Instead, I am going to give you this one chance to leave. Run away with your tail tucked between your legs and never bother me or my friend again. If I ever see you again, I won’t be this nice.”
With the barrel of a gun being practically shoved into his mouth, with Kevin giving him a glare filled with his annoyance, the yōkai could do nothing but nod.
“Good. Now get out of here.”
Kevin retracted his gun and watched as the yōkai grabbed his friends and scampered off. That fight had been easier than he had expected. He was actually kind of disappointed.
“Those are minor yōkai.” Kevin looked at Iris, who smirked as though seeing right through him. “That’s why it was so easy to fight them. Minor yōkai like that aren’t much more powerful than a human. They just look different and have some minor supernatural abilities, but even then, most of their powers are pretty weak.”
“Is reading minds a void ability now?”
“Course not.” Iris chuckled as she leaned into Kevin, making sure to press her breasts against his arm. “I just know you so well that I can tell what you’re thinking.”
“Whatever.” Kevin shook himself out of her grip and walked off. “Come on. We still need to find a place to stay for the night.”
“Whatever you say, Stud,” Iris mumbled as she ran to catch up with him.
***
The hotel room they had rented out for the night was sparse. Lacking in any real decorate, it only had enough furniture to be vaguely considered a hotel room. There was a single bed, two nightstands, a dresser, and a small table. Nothing else.
Iris sat on the bed, laying on her stomach, feet kicking in the air like something a child might do when they were bored. She wore nothing but a semi-translucent nightie, which fit her frame perfectly and tantalized him with hints of her cleavage. He could also see her nipples poking through the fabric.
She glanced over at him, her chin resting on her hands, the look she presented inquisitive.
“What are you doing?”
He looked up from the map that he’d been pouring over to glance at her for a second. He then looked back down at the map. It was spread across the table.
“I’m trying to determine what route we should take to sneak into China,” he answered. “The matriarch told me that the entirety of China is under the control of the Bodhisattva, both the humans and the yōkai. That means sneaking in via airplane, which had been my original intent, won’t work.”
“Is that why we traveled to Turkey and not China?” Iris sat up. Kevin’s right eye twitched when her twins bounced once, jiggled, and then swayed as she moved.
She’s doing that on purpose…
Kevin nodded as he looked over the map, ignoring the creases from where it had been folded and letting his finger traverse the mostly smooth paper. He did his best to ignore Iris.
“That’s right. We can’t just go in half-cocked and expect things to work out. We need a plan.” He paused, frowning as his finger grazed against Azerbaijan. “The problem is that I am unsure of which route t
o take. From what I can see, there are three routes we can take to get to China. One is to head south after reaching Azerbaijan and travel through Iran along the Caspian Sea, then make our way through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Another is to head north and travel through Kazakhstan. The last option is to travel straight through the Caspian Sea and then traverse across Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgzstan.”
“The people in that area sure love their stans, don’t they?” was the idle comment from Iris.
Kevin rolled his eyes, showing just what he thought of her childish words.
“Be serious here, Iris. Lilian has been kidnapped and we have to rescue her. We can’t afford to let ourselves be whimsical.”
“I rather like being whimsical.” Kevin didn’t look up, but he didn’t need to. He could practically hear the grin in her voice. “It rolls off the tongue so well.”
“I really wish you would be serious. Don’t you care at all that Lilian’s been kidnapped?”
“Of course I do.” Iris’s huff was followed by the rustling of fabric and the bouncing of springs. Kevin ignored it and continued focusing on the map. “You know that Lilian is the love of my life. Every moment that she and I are apart tears me up inside. However, I also know that allowing myself to get stressed out and constantly worry isn’t going to help her.” Kevin frowned. Why did her voice sound closer than before?
He found out the reason for that a moment later when a pair of slender arms wrapped around him and two perfectly rounded breasts pushed against his back.
He stiffened. In more ways than one.
“You know what I think you need?” Hot breath washed over his left ear. He told himself that the shudder that coursed down his spine was due to fear and not arousal. “I think you need to relax, take a load off. I can help with that. All you have to do is ask.”
Kevin took several deep breaths to center himself. When that didn’t work, he pinched his thigh hard enough to cause a sharp jolt of pain to travel straight to his brain. The pain brought clarity. It brought focus.
“I thought you loved Lilian,” he said.
A Fox's Rescue Page 3
