A Fox's Mission

by Brandon Varnell

  Kevin burst into action. He pushed off the ground, launching himself forward like a missile. He whizzed past Christine, sprinting through the hole and skidding to a stop on the other side.

  What he found on the other side of the barrier was shocking. An entire community lay sprawled out before him. Large trees nearly one hundred times thicker than anything he’d ever seen acted as houses. Looking at the trees nearest them, Kevin saw that the trees had been hollowed out. Windows allowed a glimpse of the inside, while wooden doors gave them a sense of privacy.

  The trees also seemed to have stories. Circular platforms surrounded many of the trees, and numerous walkways connected each platform together. People walked along these walkways, rushing to and fro as they carried boxes and other items. There were also many people traveling along the ground, which held a bazaar of some kind. There were many people shopping and trading wares.

  While this place wasn’t as large as Saint Byakko, nor did it have the modern yet oddly Asian look of Neo Seiryuu, there was a lively atmosphere about it, a sort of good-natured friendliness that the other two places didn’t quite have.

  “Woah…” Kevin muttered as he stood beside Iris and Lilian. “This is…”

  “Really cool,” Lilian finished.

  Iris didn’t say anything, but Kevin could tell that even she was impressed. If she hadn’t been, then she would have made a degrading comment about it.

  Christine walked in front of them and made a sweeping gesture, as if to encompass the entire village.

  “Welcome to New Genbu,” Christine said. “Come on. I’ll introduce you guys to Orin.”

  Kevin, Lilian, and Iris followed Christine further into the forest village. Twigs and leaves crunched underneath their feet as they steadily moved into the light pedestrian traffic. From up close, it became clear that this place, which was filled with people, was indeed a bazaar. Stalls lined the space on either side, set up between trees as the owners gathered crowds with their flamboyant shouts. Most of what was being sold was produce. Fruits and vegetables were in abundance, though several stalls also had fresh game—fish and deer. Some of the stall owners were cutting up the deer and frying them on old-fashioned charcoal barbeques.

  “I wonder, do all of the Four Saints have their own community?” asked Lilian as several people called out a greeting to Christine, who returned each one with a wave.

  “I wouldn’t know,” Christine said. “I don’t know any of the other Four Saints. But I can tell you that this community was only formed within the last month or so. Before that, Orin and I lived mostly alone here.”

  “I guess the war has caused yōkai to congregate around the Four Saints,” Kevin said as he cupped a hand to his chin.

  “That’s mostly it,” Christine agreed. “A lot of the people you see here are refugees who’ve been displaced by this war. They came here after somehow learning that Orin was living in this forest.”

  “I guess the Four Saints really are famous in the yōkai world.”

  It really was shocking to think about. Kevin knew, objectively, that the Four Saints were a well-known group of yōkai. At the same time, having only learned about them within the last year, it still amazed him whenever he learned something new about the group that Daven Monstrang belonged to.

  “Of course they are. The Four Saints are the ones who made North America a free nation for yōkai. Without them, this place would be under control of one of the greater yōkai clans. It’s only natural they would be well-known figures in our world,” Christine said as if that was obvious.

  Our world. Kevin didn’t think that term could apply to yōkai anymore, not with the war between humanity and yōkai that was happening worldwide. He didn’t say anything, though, because he understood what she meant.

  “Heya, Christine!” A man waved at her as they walked by his stall. “I saw you leavin’ early this morning. Grabbing some new members for the community?”

  “These three aren’t new members, Gramps. They’re here on business.”

  The man laughed. He was an old man with wrinkles lining his face, especially around his eyes and mouth. It was hard to determine his age, especially since he wasn’t human. Wearing a baggy white shirt and tan pants, his large round ears twitched on his head. Kevin couldn’t see a tail behind him, but he assumed it was a shorter one, since this person was a kuma.

  Kuma were bear yōkai. Also known as onikuma, the name itself was derived from a combination of “oni,” which meant demon, and “kuma,” which was the Japanese word for bear. Among the middle-tier of yōkai, they were one of the more physically powerful species. They were also known for their fierce tempers, though this old man seemed quite mellow, perhaps because of his age.

  “So I see,” the onikuma said, his eyes landing on Kevin.

  The air suddenly grew tense. Choked. Kevin could feel the animosity pouring from the onikuma, whose glare was fierce enough to melt through steel.

  “A human?” The onikuma’s harsh glare looked almost lethal. “You let a human inside of our sanctuary?”

  A crowd gathered around them, surrounding the group. When they heard the onikuma mention that Kevin was human, mutters broke out.

  “A human? Here?”

  “What’s a human doing in our home?”

  “We should kill him before he can inform his friends!”

  Kevin felt his muscles tense. The hairs on his neck prickled as the hostility directed at him reached a peak. His instincts screamed at him, telling him to pull out his guns and unload a barrage of bullets into the yōkai around him.

  Lilian and Iris also sensed the hatred. They moved to either side of him, as if to protect him from the glares. Likewise, Christine moved, standing in front of him, protecting him from the onikuma’s glare and returning it with a vicious one of her own.

  “You would protect this filthy monkey?” the old onikuma’s voice was a low, hate-filled growl.

  The air around Christine grew warm as her lips peeled back to reveal pearly white teeth. Kevin actually felt heat waves searing his face, causing him to break out into a sweat. For just one second, he also thought he saw two triangular objects on Christine’s head. However, when he blinked, they weren’t there.

  Am I hallucinating? And what’s with this heat?

  “You would dare insult Kevin?” Christine voice sounded like the angry hissing of a cat. “You, who doesn’t even knyow the first thing about him, would insult this person?”

  The onikuma took an unconscious step backwards. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but he soon returned to glaring at Christine.

  “That boy is a human. They’re the entire reason this war started. Because of them, we’ve been driven out of our homes! Our lives have been destroyed because of humans like him!”

  Christine’s glare became, surprisingly, even more angry. She looked ready to claw the onikuma’s face off. Kevin thought he saw her nails becoming sharper.

  She would never get the chance, however.

  Because a sphere of compressed light suddenly struck the onikuma in the face.

  “Gya!” The bear yōkai screamed as he held his hands to his face, thrashing around like an injured beast. “My eyes! They burn!”

  “Don’t you dare insult my beloved,” Lilian said in a voice that was astonishingly cold, especially for her. “You don’t even know the first thing about him.”

  “We don’t need to know the first thing about him!” someone in the crowd shouted.

  “Yeah! He’s a human! That’s all we need to know!”

  “Every human deserves to die!”

  The crowd enclosed around them. Kevin, Lilian, Iris, and Christine stood back to back. Red and black tails bristled, ice grew from pale hands, and Kevin pondered pulling out his guns. He didn’t want this to turn into a fight. They weren’t here for that. But as he looked at the yōkai surrounding them, he knew that a fight may very well be in store.

  “What is going on here?”

  The earth stood still. A voic
e, one carrying both age and wisdom with it, rose over the din, freezing everybody in place.

  The crowd parted and a man walked through. He looked old, frail even, yet he moved with an unusual grace and carried himself with confidence. His bald head shone in the light. His eyes were squinted shut, but that didn’t seem to hinder him, and he steadily observed everyone in the vicinity, making them squirm.

  Baggy brown pants ruffled as he walked. He was barefoot, but that didn’t seem to bother him. His short-sleeved red shirt was skin tight, partially concealed by a black cloak, but still revealing his somewhat emaciated frame. A strange furry rope was tied across his waist.

  “Does anyone care to explain what’s going on?” the man asked. Even though his voice sounded old and frail, Kevin detected a strength within it, something that went beyond mere appearance and age.

  No one spoke for a long moment. Everyone shifted uncomfortably as heads were lowered in shame. Even Christine looked away from the old man, her body language conveying vulnerability.

  “These people insulted my beloved.” Lilian didn’t seem affected like everyone else. That, or she was so upset that she could shrug off the old man’s presence.

  “Your ‘beloved,’ eh?” the old man mumbled, rubbing his cheek as he studied the redhead. “Hm…”

  Kevin clenched his fist when he saw the old man staring at Lilian’s chest, resisting the urge to punch the man’s face in,.

  “Che, too big,” the old man muttered.

  “E-eh?” Lilian didn’t understand.

  “Your chest is way too big. You should be flatter, like my lovely Christine over there.”

  And just like that, the entire aura that the old man had been exuding suddenly vanished, much like a candle being snuffed out after having a bucket of water dumped on it.

  “Freaking perv!”

  Christine decked the old man in the face, which seemed to cave in under her powerful punch. Everyone watched as the old man was sent soaring. He flew through the air like a rocket, crashing into several stalls, which exploded, sending food and other items flying everywhere.

  “Ha… ha… ha… ha…”

  Christine breathed heavily for several moments. Her face was flushed a surprising red. Kevin didn’t think her cheeks had ever been that color. She normally turned blue when she blushed, which he’d assumed was due to her yuki-onna heritage.

  Is something wrong with Christine?

  “Still violent as ever, eh Tsun-tsun?” Iris asked, chuckling at the hard stare she received.

  “Shut up, Skank. I’m not in the mood.”

  Lilian had nothing to say.

  “Hawa…”

  So she said that.

  Precisely fifteen minutes after Christine punched him, the old man introduced himself as Orin, the leader of this small community, which had been dubbed New Genbu.

  He then invited Lilian and Iris to try out New Genbu’s hotspring, which he said was famous for its healing properties. Neither of them had enjoyed a hot spring in a long time, and while it wasn’t mixed bathing day—which this hot spring apparently did have—they were both eager to relax a little bit. Christine had decided to join them after some cajoling.

  “I have to make sure that perv doesn’t try anything,” she declared solemnly. “You wouldn’t know it from looking at him, but that old man is more wily than a monkey and a thousand times more lecherous than Eric.”

  Of course, it was unlikely that Lilian or Iris had to worry since this man was obviously a lolicon from the way he’d commented on wanting a woman like Christine.

  The hot spring main building had been carved into a mountainous boulder. While the outside maintained the shape of a giant rock, the inside seemed like a semi-modern set of changing rooms. Wooden floorboards squeaked as Lilian walked on them. She moved over to several cubby holes set into the wall. There were no lockers, it seemed.

  Grabbing her green off-the-shoulder shirt, Lilian lifted the clothing over her head. Her breasts bounced as they sprang free, no longer confined by the shirt. Next came her shorts and panties, which she slid out of before folding up and putting in the cubby hole, and then she took off her shoes. Finally, she grabbed a towel from off a rack, which she began to wrap around her—

  “Kya!”

  —the towel fell to the floor as a set of hands snaked underneath her armpits and squeezed her breasts.

  There was only one person who had the audacity to do such a thing.

  “I-Iris!”

  “Uhuhuhu,” Iris’s lecherous old man chuckles filled the air. “You do not know how long I’ve been waiting for this. We haven’t been to a hot spring since Volume 5. I feel like this chance might never come again.”

  “I’m—ah! I’m happy you’re so excited—ahn!” Lilian moaned and squirmed as Iris’s fingers worked wonders on her nipples. “B-but could you ple—oh!—please stop now?!”

  “Hmph. Fine, but only because I love you.”

  Christine glanced over at Lilian and Iris before shaking her head in disgust. “I can’t believe you’re actually letting her grope you like that.”

  Lilian actually blushed a little. “W-well, she is my sister and stuff, so…”

  “That makes it even more wrong!”

  “Now, now, there’s nothing wrong with a little skinship between sisters, Tsun-tsun,” Iris’s voice came from behind Christine seconds before a pair of feminine hands cupped her small bosom. Christine’s frightened squeak turned into a stifled moan as skilled fingers rubbed her nipples through the fabric of her towel.

  “W-w-what are you—”

  Dissension was silenced when Iris leaned into Christine, pressing her breasts against the smaller girl’s back and nibbling on her ear. The yuki-onna bit her lip to stifle the erotic noises that wanted to escape. She looked disgusted at herself for even releasing a moan. Lilian watched on, rubbing her thighs together in spite of herself.

  I blame Iris for this. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be so aroused.

  Lilian liked men—well, she liked a man. Kevin. She didn’t like other men. That being said, Lilian was positive that she was a heterosexual female who didn’t get turned on at the sight of women. Sure, Iris could make her aroused, but her sister could make straight women turn gay. That was just how erotic she really was—it helped that Lilian, as a kitsune, was drawn to beauty, and she had always considered her sister to be the epitome of that word.

  Despite her knowing that she didn’t find females attractive, the sight of Iris teasing the porcelain-skinned, doll-like Christine made Lilian really hot and bothered.

  It must be the setting, she concluded.

  Hot springs: The place where all erotic scenes happened in shōnen manga.

  “DAMN IT! THAT IS ENOUGH!”

  Christine finally had enough. After using her ice powers to freeze Iris solid, she rushed into the hot springs, the towel fluttering behind her. Lilian sighed and, after grabbing Iris with her tails, entered the hot springs as well.

  They were natural hot springs. Unlike some of the man-made ones she’d been in while living in the US, this hot spring came from geothermally heated groundwater. Surrounding the large hot spring, which had been sliced in half by a fence made of wood, were numerous large boulders. The variety of trees and plants interspersed throughout the spring made Lilian feel like she’d stepped into a jungle.

  Sinking into the hot water, Lilian rested her back against a smooth rock and sighed. It really had been a long time since she’d soaked in the tub. Kevin preferred showers because they were quicker, and he didn’t like wasting water or spending more money. While she loved her beloved, she wished he wouldn’t be so frugal.

  A splash to her left alerted her to Christine, who sat down several feet from her.

  “You and Kevin have grown even closer than before.” It wasn’t a question. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

  Lilian smiled as she thought of Kevin. She wished he was in the hot spring with her.

  “Kevin is an acce
pting person. It’s only natural that he and I would grow closer.”

  She knew how hard it was for Kevin to accept some of her more eccentric kitsune traits, especially when it came to matters of intimacy. He had been taught that relationships were between two people only, and that matters like same-sex relationships and incest were wrong.

  Kitsune didn’t have those hang ups. Perhaps it was due to their longevity, or maybe it was just because kitsune were derived from foxes, and thus they didn’t recognize these issues as being morally wrong. Whatever the case may have been, matters like incest and same-sex relationships weren’t a big deal to them.

  Incest was common among yōkai. There were many yōkai, kitsune and otherwise, who practiced incest to keep their bloodlines strong. This was especially big for clans with powerful elemental affinities. Even the Pnevma Clan practiced it. Ivy, Holly’s daughter, was actually the result of a mating arrangement between Holly and a second cousin from a branch clan. There were many other such instances, with that one simply being the most recent.

  Besides, Lilian thought to herself, at least we’re not like Aster and Azalea.

  Christine looked down at the placid waters. “I really do envy you.”

  Lilian blinked. That was random. “Where is this coming from?”

  “I…” Christine’s cheeks turned an unusual color. Purple. A mixture of red and blue. How odd. “Ever since you and Kevin started dating—no, even before that, I envied how open you are. You always say exactly how you feel. I wish I could do that.”

  Frowning at her friend’s depression, Lilian wrapped an arm around Christine’s shoulder and gently pulled the tiny girl into her bosom.

  “I think you’re fine just the way you are,” Lilian said.

  “Says the girl who stole Kevin’s heart,” Christine muttered bitterly.