“And now your actions in the past are coming back to bite us, it seems.” With her hand still hiding her smiling lips, Kotohime giggled. “Ufufufu.”
Kevin hung up the payphone he’d used to call Monstrang. He didn’t have his cellphone on him. The chances of them being tracked through it were too great, so they’d been forced to leave their phones behind.
He exited the phone booth and looked at Lilian and Iris, who stared at him expectantly.
“Monstrang has asked us to stay here for the time being,” Kevin told them.
“Wait. So you’re saying that we’re basically stuck here until the big guy says otherwise?” Iris asked, looking aghast. “I don’t want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere! Call him back and demand that he send someone else to stick around while we go back home.”
“Um, no,” Kevin said. “I’m not gonna do that.”
Iris crossed her arms. “What? Why not?”
“Because Beloved knows how important it is for us to be here,” Lilian answered for him. “He also knows that Monstrang doesn’t have anyone else he can send.”
“Tch!”
“What do you plan on doing, then?” asked Christine.
What were they going to do indeed? Kevin wasn’t sure if there was anything more they could do. If Orin didn’t want to rejoin the Four Saints, then there was little that he could do to convince the saru otherwise. Before he thought about how to convince Orin to rethink his position, they needed to find a place to stay.
“Do you know if there are any hotels nearby?” Kevin asked.
Christine frowned. Humming thoughtfully, she rocked on her heels for a moment before answering.
“There are a few around here, but they’re not very good hotels.”
“We don’t really have much of a choice. Do you think you could tell us how to get there?” he asked.
“I’ll drive you there,” Christine said. When Kevin stared at her as if surprised by how helpful she was being, she blushed. “W-what are you looking at me like that for? W-we’re friends, right? Of course, I’m going to help my friends!”
“Sorry,” Kevin apologized with a cheerful grin. “It’s not that I’m shocked. I know you’re a good person. I’m just worried about how Orin will take this. He might not like you helping us out.”
“Like I care about what that old perv thinks.” Christine scoffed, as if the very notion that Orin’s thoughts and opinions mattered to her was beyond ridiculous. “My friends are more important than some old monkey who tries to perv on me every time we train.”
“Hear, hear!” Iris cheered. “Who needs some perverted old monkey when you’ve got someone like me?”
“I’d rather take the monkey,” Christine snapped.
“… Now that was just mean.”
“Hmph! Serves you right.”
The group got back in Christine’s truck. Lilian didn’t want to sit with Iris in the back, who’d probably use their alone time as an excuse to play tonsil hockey. She instead sat on Kevin’s lap.
Unfortunately, Iris didn’t feel like sitting alone, so she also tried to sit in the front.
On Christine’s lap.
“W-wh-what the hell are you doing?! Get off!”
“Don’t wanna.” Wiggle wiggle. “Let me sit here.”
“No! Get off—h-hey! Quit wiggling, damn it!”
Through the combined effort of Kevin and Lilian, they eventually pried Iris off Christine, who then drove them to a place they could stay.
The tiny town they were in apparently didn’t have a hotel. Instead they were driven to a hostel, which they were only able to get accommodations for because of the season. The old lady who showed them where they’d be staying told them that this place became busy during spring and summer, though there was no telling if that would happen this year so long as the war continued.
Their room wasn’t so much a room as a unit. It was a tiny space of about thirty square feet. The wooden floor was old, and it creaked when stepped on. White walls covered all four sides, and there were some mold stains along the bottom. There was a single bunk bed sitting against the wall farthest from the door, and a small dresser sat next to it.
“Not much room to move, is there?” Iris asked, looking around, her nose wrinkling. As someone who enjoyed the finer things in life, this place must have been akin to sleeping in a dumpster for her.
“What were you expecting?” Christine asked, her voice full of scorn. “In case you haven’t noticed, this a dinky little village with a couple hundred people living here. You’re not gonna find an extravagant four- or five-star resort in a place like this.”
“I just wish they had a desk,” Lilian said, also studying the place they’d be staying at for the foreseeable future.
“I doubt we’ll have much time for you to draw manga,” Kevin told her, causing the redhead’s foxy ears to droop.
“Hawa…”
Strength had returned to Phoebe. It had taken days to get her strength back. Their jailors didn’t feed them much, and what they were fed was often drugged, leaving them with no option but to eat sparingly. Even now, after what felt like days, she still felt weak, though she was better than she had been.
Heather’s dedication to her recuperation had been a great help. The woman had taught her the best way to deal with drugs while still gaining enough sustenance. She’d also provided excellent moral support. Their situation may have been helpless, and Phoebe would never wish this on anyone, but at least they had each other.
“I wonder if Polydora managed to escape,” Phoebe said, speaking out loud simply to break the silence.
“If they haven’t caught her yet, then I imagine she’s escaped,” Heather said to her immediate left.
Neither of them moved very much. Moving expended energy, and neither of them could afford to expend more than what was absolutely required of them, especially since both of them still underwent regular torture sessions.
Phoebe looked down at her bare body. Scars littered her skin, some stark white and others glaring red. Her fingernails and toenails had been pulled off and hadn’t grown back yet. Heather was in even worse shape than her.
A cool breeze blew into the jail cell through a barred window, but it brought no relief. The coldness stung her raw nerves, and because it was winter, the nights were unbearably cold. She and Heather had taken to sharing body heat to survive the freezing cold nights.
“I wonder how many days have passed.”
“Two.”
Phoebe closed her eyes. So she’d only been here for two days? It felt like a lifetime. And Heather had been here for much longer—at least a week longer than she.
“I really admire you,” Phoebe said suddenly. Heather’s ragged breath hit her neck as the woman shifted. The woman had rested her chin on Phoebe’s head.
“Why is that?” asked Heather.
“Because you’re so strong. I have only been here for two days, yet I can already feel myself breaking. You’ve been here for at least a week, and yet they still haven’t gotten anything out of you.”
It humbled Phoebe to think of this woman, a human woman, who appeared to be even stronger than her. In a contest of strength, Phoebe might have the upper hand. However, this woman’s mental fortitude was frightening.
“I’m not as strong as you seem to think,” Heather’s voice was a raspy whisper. “So many times, I’ve broken down and almost told these people what they wished to know. The numerous torture sessions to pry information from me have turned me into a sobbing, unintelligible wreck so many times that I’ve long since lost count. I’ve been tempted to tell them what I know so many times. So many…”
“But you haven’t,” Phoebe declared with quiet confidence. “Even though you’ve undergone unspeakable torture, you’ve given them nothing. That makes you strong.”
“No, on my own, I’m weak. It’s not my own strength that’s kept me from telling them what they want to know.” Phoebe remained silent, allowing Heather to continue. �
�It’s the people back home. All of the people I’ve met since I started living in Arizona. I know that if I broke under these interrogations, I would be putting my friends’ lives in danger. They give me strength.”
“I see,” Phoebe said softly.
She wondered if she could draw that kind of strength from her loved ones. She thought of Polydora, stern and no nonsense—except whenever Kevin was involved—and, of course, she thought about Kevin, too. She didn’t really love him, but she thought of him as a dear friend. She respected his strength as a warrior if nothing else. Lilian and Iris and their family were also very important to her, and then there were all of the yama uba who came with her when she journeyed to this country. All of those people were her friends, her family.
I won’t let these people hurt them.
That thought solidified in her mind. No matter how much torture they put her through, she wouldn’t yield. She would protect her family.
The squealing of the bars opening alerted them to their warden entering the room. Harsh angles reflected off his face due to the low lighting. His dark green skin looked like puke, and the warts on his face appeared ready to pop. Webbed hands and feet gave away his amphibian origins. A gama , a toad yōkai. They weren’t very powerful, but their ability to manipulate fresh water was impressive.
Two other yōkai stood on either side of him. Both appeared humanoid, but Phoebe knew otherwise. The one on his left had arachnid legs jutting out of her back, and the other one’s legs were double-jointed.
“The blond woman,” he spoke, his throaty voice bubbling from bloated lips. “You’re coming with us.”
The two yōkai with him hauled Heather up by the arms. She tried to walk on her own two feet, to show her strength, but her legs didn’t work like they used to. She had no more strength left.
The last thing Phoebe saw before Heather disappeared and the bars were slammed shut was her friend’s reassuring smile.
“Please, please be all right,” she whispered into the dark, lonely room.
The room did not respond.
They had run into a problem. There was nothing to do.
This wasn’t something that Kevin thought of often, mainly because he always had something to do. With a fun, foxy, anime-loving girlfriend, her equally sexy sister, and all of his other friends, he hadn’t been bored in a very long time.
It was fortunate that they were in the middle of a forest, Kevin decided. While they couldn’t play video games or watch anime, there was one thing they could do, something that he hadn’t done in a long time.
Animal watching.
When he was younger, Kevin used to go out into the desert and search for animals. Sometimes he would catch them, other times he’d simply observe them. Either way, it used to be something he’d do nearly every day.
Arizona was home to many animals. Most people didn’t realize it because Arizona was a desert, but they had a unique ecosystem filled with a variety of creatures well suited for deserts: Mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, javelina… there were even thirteen different species of rattlesnake.
Wayne National Forest had even more variety than the desert. There were a lot of animals here: mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. Needless to say, Kevin was in heaven.
They were in the northern part of the forest. Kevin stepped past trees that pierced the sky like natural skyscrapers, climbed boulders that were as large as a Snorlax, and hopped across stones jutting from streams like turtle shells. Trailing behind him, Lilian and Christine moved at a much slower pace.
He wore his combat suit because, well, he didn’t have anything else to wear aside from his normal clothes, and he didn’t want to get those dirty. Still, despite not having any clothes that were truly suitable for tromping through a forest, he felt like an explorer, like Steve freaking Erwin. It was awesome.
“Don’t get too far, Beloved!” Lilian called out to him.
Turning around, Kevin gave her a boyish grin. “Don’t worry! I don’t plan on letting either of you out of my sight!”
Lilian almost shook her head at the sight of Kevin running off again. It was like watching a kid hyped up on sugar.
“I didn’t realize he was this obsessed with animals,” Christine said as she watched the blond teen run off.
Smiling, Lilian giggled. “Beloved used to be like this when he was younger, or so I’m told. He used to keep a diary of all the animals he’d seen, complete with detailed sketches and everything.”
“How do you know that?” asked Christine.
“Kevin keeps that diary under his bed, along with several other books on animals and animal biology.” Lilian paused, tilting her head in thought. “I don’t think he’s touched them in a long time, but there’s a lot of stuff in there. Anyway, I think he stopped because he’d seen pretty much everything he could where he lives. Being in a new place, with new animals, must have brought back that old excitement.”
It was rather nice, she had to admit, seeing her mate get excited like this. Kevin had been dealing with a lot these days: school, the war, being a good mate, her sister. That last one was particularly hard to deal with. Iris was insatiable. Her sex drive was even higher than hers!
Despite everything going on in his life, Kevin did his best every day. He was always attentive to her needs. He spent time with her when she wanted him. He backed off when she wanted space, like when she was drawing manga. He didn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to—unless it was something she needed to do and she was stubbornly refusing to do it. Sometimes he failed, like when he’d tried to take her on a date but they’d ended up being ambushed by his friends—he’d apparently told them about it and they’d decided to spy on him—but he always tried his hardest. That was, in her opinion, his most endearing trait.
“You really do know everything about him, huh?”
Lilian looked at Christine to see her staring at Kevin, the expression she wore one of intense longing. It made Lilian uncomfortable—not because she was afraid that the yuki-onna would steal her mate, but because she felt guilty. This girl loved Kevin, too. She might not have been able to say it, but her feelings for him were genuine. What’s more, Christine was her friend.
I wish there was some way I could help her.
But there wasn’t anything she could do. Kevin didn’t want a harem, and Lilian, open as she was about sex, wasn’t sure if she wanted him to have a harem. She knew that Kevin would never neglect her. That wasn’t the problem. If anything, Kevin would likely neglect every other girl, and therein lay the problem. Iris was only a part of their relationship because Lilian had forced the issue, and that vixen had enough personality that neglecting her was impossible.
Even if Christine did join them, she was too tsundere to tell Kevin that she wanted him to pay attention to her, which was the only way to make him treat her like a boyfriend would a girlfriend. Lilian worried that if Christine did join them, she would be miserable.
Human relationships are so complicated.
Lilian didn’t really understand the human need to have one partner. Kitsune had many mates in their lifetime. Granted, she’d never love any of them like she did Kevin. Chances were good that she wouldn’t even love most of them, and they’d simply be used to scratch an itch when she was in heat, but that didn’t change how kitsune had more than one partner. It also wasn’t unusual for kitsune, or yōkai in general, to sleep with multiple partners at the same time to spice things up.
What was the human word for it again? Po… li… gi… mus?
Polygamy.
“That’s it!” Lilian snapped her fingers. “Thank you.”
You’re welcome.
“Why are you thanking me?” Christine asked.
“I wasn’t. I was thanking the author.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Never mind.” Lilian waved the girl’s curious look off with a smile.
Christine stared at her for several more seconds, as if contemplating whether to smack her
or not, when she shrugged.
“Whatever.”
A moment of silence passed between them. Lilian used that moment to observe their surroundings. Trees loomed over them, and the canopy they created blocked out much of the sun. At ground level, a veritable cornucopia of plants showered the land in color, interspersed between rocks.
“Hey, Lilian?”
Lilian turned to Christine. The girl’s cheeks had gone purple.
Now there’s an unusual color for a blush.
“Yes?”
“Iris… how did she—with you and Kevin—I mean—”
“You want to know how Iris ended up joining our relationship?”
Christine nodded meekly.
“I suppose the long and short of it is that Iris is… well, she’s always been a part of me. From the moment I took my first breath, Iris has always been with me. I love her very much, and I know she loves me back.” Lilian frowned a little. “I did try to resist having a relationship with her at first. Kevin didn’t feel comfortable adding another girl to the mix, and humans are against incest. Kotohime said it has to do with genetic mutations and misguided morality, but I don’t really understand any of that.”
“So, it’s because Iris is your sister…”
“It’s because I love her,” Lilian corrected. “My feelings for her aren’t as strong as my feelings for Kevin, but Iris is still a part of me that I can’t live without—no, she’s a part of me that I don’t want to live without.”
Kevin was a finite existence. He would eventually die. It was the most regrettable truth, and the thought tore her up. Thinking about Kevin’s relatively short lifespan made her regret ever being born kitsune.
Iris made that thought bearable. Even when Kevin died, her sister would still be around, would still be with her. Perhaps it was selfish of her, but Lilian couldn’t bear to part with Iris, not when she would be the only person that Lilian could stay with for the rest of her life.
And if we’re both with Kevin, then I’ll have someone else who can remember him with me.
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