“I’d like to disagree with you…” Lilian watched her giggling, naked mother run about with childish glee. “… but I don’t think I can.”
“Ah!” Camellia gasped as she noticed them. She stopped running and turned to Lilian and Iris, her already radiant smile growing in both brilliance and moé. “Iris! Lilian! Hello!”
“Hi, Mom,” Lilian greeted. Iris just sighed.
“M-My Lady, watch out!” Kirihime shouted.
“Hawa!”
Lilian winced as Kirihime, unprepared for Camellia’s abrupt stop, ran right into the voluptuous woman. The two crashed to the floor. Somehow, beyond Lilian’s ability to comprehend, Kirihime fell on top of Camellia, whose face became buried beneath the maid’s skirt. Meanwhile, Kirihime had fallen in such a way that her face was buried in her mistress’s pelvis.
It was the perfect 69.
“H-hawa! Why is it so dark all of a sudden?!”
Kirihime, her eyes rounder than tennis balls, tried to say something. Due to the placement of her mouth, no words came out.
“Ahn!—K-Kirikiri, w-what are you—aaahn!”
The two younger kitsune watched as their mother’s legs wrapped around Kirihime’s head and pulled her deeper into the place between her thighs, as if it was a reflexive reaction. The intensity of Kirihime’s muffled grunts and groans increased, becoming louder and more frequent. This caused the gasps and moans from the surprised and confused Camellia to increase, which in turn caused her legs to tighten their hold around the other woman’s head.
Lilian and Iris stared at the scene for a few more seconds before turning to each other.
“I’m gonna put our stuff away,” Iris declared.
“Thank you,” Lilian said. “I have to speak with Kotohime.”
“Right.”
The pair promptly walked off in separate directions, ignoring the scene of the three-tail’s face being buried between their mother’s thighs. While Iris disappeared down the hall leading to Kevin’s room, Lilian went outside where Kotohime just had finished hanging up the last of the laundry.
She absentmindedly wondered what Kevin would say if he knew that their maid/bodyguard was hanging up his underwear where everyone could see it. It was probably a good thing that they usually didn’t arrive at home for another hour or two.
“Kotohime?”
“Ara? Lilian-sama?” Kotohime turned around. Her kimono, a beautiful mauve piece with sakura petals swirling from the base in a spiral pattern up the fabric, gently swayed as she moved. The woman presented her ward a magnificent smile and a polite bow. “I am pleased to see that you have returned home. I trust you had a pleasant time at school?”
“It was fine,” Lilian said. The novelty of school had kind of worn off by now, but she still enjoyed the chance it presented to spend time with all of her friends.
“That is good.” Kotohime rose from her bow. With her hands clasped in front of her, she looked the very picture of an ideal Japanese woman. “It always brings me great joy to see how happy you’ve become. I must admit, I had my doubts, but I believe that attending a human school has done you a lot of good. You seem much happier now than you were before.”
If Lilian was not already positive that her maid didn’t know the real reason for her joy, she probably would have said something. However, they both knew that the true reason for Lilian’s happiness wasn’t necessarily the school. Attending school just happened to be a byproduct of what made her happy.
Thinking about her happiness made Lilian remember the reason that she’d come out to the balcony in the first place. Straightening her posture, Lilian mustered her courage and looked Kotohime directly in the eye.
“Kotohime, I want you to teach me how to fight.”
Kotohime blinked. “Ara?”
***
Kevin eventually discovered where Kiara was taking them after they exited the I-10 on West Warner Road. They parked in a mostly empty parking lot, in front of a two-story building constructed out of a combination of brick, steel, cement, and glass. Exiting the vehicle and following Kiara to the building, Kevin glanced at the sign on top of the door, which read C2 Tactical.
They walked between a set of large cement pillars and through the double doors. Upon stepping inside, Kevin saw why this place had been given such a name. It sold guns. Situated along the walls, on racks, and in stands were a large variety of guns: Handguns, rifles, shotguns, etc. There were several types of firearms that he couldn’t even begin to recognize.
Kevin froze. Kiara walked several steps into the store before realizing that her pupil no longer walked beside her. She turned, frowning at him. “Something wrong, boya?”
“N-no.”
“Then hurry up and follow me.”
Kevin walked into the store, ignoring the shudder that passed through his body. He followed Kiara as she walked up to a display case near the back. No one was there, but that changed when Kiara rung a small bell sitting on the glass display counter filled with guns.
“Hold yer horses, I’m comin’!” a voice shouted from behind a door on the other side of the display.
Some bumping followed and the door soon opened to reveal a middle-aged man with a beard and salt and pepper hair. He walked up to them, his black C2 Tactical shirt stretching over his expansive beer belly. Upon reaching the counter, he glanced at Kiara for barely a second before a grin that revealed smoke-stained teeth appeared on his face.
“If it ain’t Kiara! How ya been? Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“You know I don’t really care for guns,” Kiara quipped.
“Ah-ha! Ain’t that the truth. Yer into that hand-to-hand stuff,” the man laughed, slapping his hands on the glass display, causing it to rattle as he leaned over. “Don’t know why. Fighting bare handed might look cool, but nothing beats a good gun by yer side. Can’t do anything with yer hands if someone pops a cap in yer belly.”
Kiara’s smile was indulgent, if a bit strained. “Yeah, well, you know me.”
“That I do,” he said before noticing Kevin. “And I’m guessing this is the runt you mentioned over the phone?”
Kevin’s right eye twitched at being called a runt, but he didn’t say anything. His eyes were locked mostly on the guns within the display case. His hands felt clammy.
“Yep.” Kiara placed a hand on Kevin’s back. “This is Kevin, my disciple and someone who I felt could stand to benefit from learning a thing or two about shooting a gun.” If she noticed Kevin’s shudder at her casual mention of the words “shooting a gun,” it didn’t show. “Boya, this is Jeffrey Sanderson. He’s the one who tutored me back when I was learning about long-range weapons.”
Kevin forced his eyes away from the guns to look at Kiara. “I didn’t know you knew how to use guns.”
“It would be stupid not to understand how to use a gun,” Kiara told him. “If you don’t know how guns work and how to use them properly, then how can you expect to beat people who do use them?”
That made sense. Kiara didn’t learn how to use a gun because she wanted to use them, but because she wanted to understand their strengths and weaknesses so she could defeat people who did.
All yōkai, regardless of species, were susceptible to guns. While some like inu and oni had some resilience to projectile weapons, even they were not immune. It might have been the atomic bomb that caused yōkai to create a law about never revealing their existence to humans, but it had been guns that initially leveled the playing field between humans and yōkai.
Kevin’s mind felt strangely numb as he filled out the paperwork that Jeffrey placed on the table for him. He was then led to a room near the back. Carpet shifted to glossy cement. The sound of their footsteps echoed loudly in Kevin’s ears, a dull, incessant tapping that almost made him recoil. Jeffrey led them to a table near the back where several guns had already been laid out.
“Normally, we’d be going to the office room in the back, where you’d watch a movie on gun safety,” Jeffrey informed Kevin
, his voice echoing along the almost empty room. “But, I figured it would be easier fer me to just show you. Kiara said yer better at learning through first-hand experience.”
What followed was an explanation of gun safety and the basic types of guns. Kevin barely heard any of it. His eyes had zeroed in on the array of weapons lying on the table. Long-barreled rifles with heavy cartridges. Semi-automatics. Pistols. Double-barreled shotguns. Weapons with tactical scopes. There was a lot of variety in that selection, and all of it made Kevin quake.
“Now then.” Jeffrey didn’t seem to notice Kevin’s lack of attentiveness. “Why don’t we start off with something basic.”
“H-huh?”
Jeffrey picked up one of the handguns, a black 9mm pistol. “This here is a Smiths & Wesson MP9 with a seventeen round cartridge and a four point twenty-five inch barrel, reinforced polymer chassis, superior ergonomics, ambidextrous control, and proven safety features. It’s a great weapon fer a beginner to learn how to shoot.”
After saying all this, the man shoved the gun into Kevin’s hand. He looked at the gun, his eyes wide and his hands shaking terribly. Jeffrey placed a hand on his back and led Kevin to the shooting range, which was already set up with a paper target 50 feet away.
“Now then, when firing a gun, you need to have a firm stance. Keep yer feet exactly shoulder-width apart. Place yer leading foot in front and the other just slightly back. Then put both hands on yer gun…”
Kevin felt his body move as if it had a will of its own. He felt like an outsider, as if there was someone else inhabiting his body, and he was merely watching as it followed Jeffrey’s instruction. His hands rose up, gripping the gun and pointing it at the target. They were shaking badly. Sweat covered his hands, creating a wet, slippery surface against the handle.
My shout of rage and anguish proceeded several thunderclaps as I unloaded all of the bullets in the gun into the kitsune who had hurt my mate.
Visions plagued his mind.
Blood sprayed from the multitude of wounds that opened up like a fine mist. The woman’s body jerked back and forth as if she was undergoing intense muscle spasms. The blood that jetted from her body like streamers splattered against the ground, staining it in crimson.
The shaking increased until his arms began to shake as well.
She stared into my eyes, her own wide and round, surprised, as if she could not believe what had just happened. Her mouth opened but no words came out, just a strange gurgling and a lot of blood. Then she fell onto the pavement, on her back. Her body twitched once, twice, and then it went completely still.
The gun clattered to the floor.
“H-hey! Careful with that thing! The safety isn’t on!”
Kevin ignored Jeffrey as he spun around, shoving the older man out of the way with his shoulder. He ran out of the shooting rage, and then out of the shop altogether.
His stomach rebelled against him the moment he exited the front door. Kevin fell onto his knees, one hand pressed against the ground while the other went to his stomach as he proceeded to empty out its contents. His body shook, shoulders wracking as vomit spewed from his mouth. Even after everything he’d eaten that day had spilled onto the ground, his body continued to dry heave.
The sound of doors sliding open reached his ears, but he paid it no mind. The sigh that followed, which was swiftly proceeded by a hand falling onto his shoulder, was harder to ignore.
“So, you’re afraid of using guns because of what happened during spring break.” It was not a question. “I suppose I should have seen this coming. You might be working hard to get stronger, and you might be getting better at fighting, but you’re still just a kid.”
Kevin didn’t say anything, or more like, he couldn’t say anything. Even if he had been capable of speech, what would he say? What could he say? Nothing. So he kept silent.
“Come on,” Kiara said, lifting Kevin’s right arm and slinging it over her shoulder. “Let’s get you back home. We’ll do this once you’ve come to terms with what happened.”
***
The wind blew across the land, billowing blades of grass, making them sway in a gentle, constant motion. Presenting a stark contrast to the grass were the two figures standing on opposites sides of the small park. The tension between them hung thick in the air, a palpable, suffocating feeling. It was a good thing, then, that nobody else was present.
Lilian stared at Kotohime, a nervous trickle of sweat running down her scalp. Her fists clenched and unclenched, and her tails had turned into a flurry of activity, swaying and writhing in agitation.
Contrasting to the appearance of Lilian, Kotohime remained calm and collected, her gaze reminiscent of placid pools of twilight. Even when Lilian’s body wavered and vanished like a ghost, those eyes did not change. Even when the earth bulged all around and chains of light shot up from the surface, the swordswoman acted without haste or worry.
A flare of youki, strong and swift, burst from her body. The chains shattered into nothingness, revealing them to have been illusions. Her body then turned, a counterclockwise motion as her blade, still in its sheath, lashed out and struck flesh.
“Kya!”
A cry of pain erupted from Lilian’s mouth as she was sent sprawling to the ground. She quickly scrambled to her feet, however, and leapt several feet back to put some distance between them. Kotohime did not follow her, and instead she chose to let her opponent recover. She kept a two-handed grip on her blade as she observed her ward.
“You should know that an illusion of that level will not work on me, Lilian-sama,” Kotohime said as Lilian placed two fingers against her now bruised cheek. She jerked her hand back and hissed in pain. “If you wish to fool me by using illusory arts, then you must be more subtle about the illusions you weave.”
“I know,” Lilian grumbled as she climbed to her feet.
“If you know this, then you should also know not to break part of your illusion after casting it,” Kotohime continued. “While your imagery is impeccable, the form that you tried presenting to me disappeared halfway through. What’s more, your chains did not make any noise when they shot from the ground, which was a clear indication that they were fake. This also allowed me to hear your footsteps as you tried to sneak up on me from behind.”
Lilian winced with each point that Kotohime struck home. “I know that, but it’s difficult maintaining multiple illusions at once, especially when I’m trying to affect more than one sense at a time. At most, I can affect two, maybe three senses at a time, but I can only hold that type of illusion for about a minute, and that’s only when I’m using a single illusion. I don’t have enough power to affect more than one sense when I’m using a multi-layered illusion, or two illusions at once.”
“Indeed. As a two-tails, you lack the power and control necessary to cast multiple illusions simultaneously. In which case, your focus should not be on crafting multiple complex illusions, but simple illusions designed with subtle misdirection in mind. Observe.”
Kotohime ran toward Lilian, who tensed at the woman’s swift approach. She didn’t know what her maid and current teacher planned on doing, but she prepared for every eventuality that she could conceive. Closer and closer Kotohime moved. Her blade raised when she reached striking distance. Lilian moved aside as it swung down…
Crack!
“Owch!”
… and still ended up getting hit.
“Ow, ow, ow.” Crouched on the ground, Lilian cringed as her hands felt the large, mountainous lump sprouting from her hair. It felt like a baseball underneath her skin! Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked up at Kotohime. “H-how did you do that? I could have sworn I dodged it!”
“An illusion,” Kotohime responded, placing her sheathed katana at her side once more. “I merely created an illusion to make my blade look sixty-five centimeters off from where it actually was. Simple, but effective.”
That meant that Kotohime had used a smaller-scale illusion to only change one aspect about h
er: The position of her blade. By changing only the position of her blade by several centimeters, she created an illusion that was hard to tell was fake. Small illusions were harder to see through than large illusions.
Wincing, Lilian stood to her feet. “That wasn’t a simple image illusion, though, was it?”
“Indeed it was not.” Kotohime’s smile spoke of how pleased she was that Lilian had recognized this. “With an illusion like this, there are three senses that need to be taken into consideration: Visual, auditory, and somatic, or sight, sound, and touch.”
“Why touch?”
“I’m glad you asked.”
Quicker than Lilian could see, Kotohime raised her blade and swung it down, stopping just before it could reach her charge. Lilian’s eyes bulged as a blast of air struck her face. Her hair was buffeted away from her, and her eyes stung as the wind caused them to water.
Kotohime returned the blade to her side. “Tell me, what did you feel just now?”
“Well, I felt wind hitting my face,” Lilian said. Kotohime remained silent, causing her to frown at the obvious prompt. Thinking harder, Lilian eventually discovered the answer. “Which I need to take into account when creating an illusion. When you struck, the wind caused by the air being displaced from your swing hit my face. A skilled fighter would notice if this didn’t happen and realize that it was an illusion.”
Kotohime beamed. “Exactly. Experienced fighters have the ability to recognize even the most minute and seemingly innocuous shifts in perception. If you create an illusion of yourself running toward me while the real you is running several feet from the illusory you, someone such as myself will be able to hear that difference due to the angle at which the sound vibrations are coming from. Likewise, if you create an illusion like the one I just showed you, we’ll notice the different angle at which the displaced air is hitting our face and respond accordingly.”
Illusions were a complex art that required making someone think that something was happening when it really wasn’t. To do this, an illusionist sent their youki into the mind of the one they wanted to place under an illusion. The foreign youki would then affect that person’s mind, creating a false representation of the real world.
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