A Fox's Mission

by Brandon Varnell

  “What’s he doing?”

  “Looking around. No, wait. He’s moving now.”

  “Is he injured?”

  Christine’s scrunched up face was awfully cute, but Kevin tried not to focus on that. “It looks like he’s favoring his left side. He’s also walking with a limp.”

  “Okay.” Kevin took a deep, slow breath. “Christine, can you help me?”

  Christine looked at him, blinking several times. She jolted, seemingly realizing what he was asking.

  “O-of course.”

  Kevin smiled as he eased Phoebe onto Christine. They looked ridiculous. The much taller Phoebe was all but on top of Christine, and her boobs were basically sitting on the loli’s head.

  “Laugh and I’ll kill you,” Christine muttered.

  “I’m not laughing.”

  “I saw your mouth twitching.”

  Kevin hid his twitching mouth by turning around and setting Heather down. He leaned her against the wall. Her head slumped against her chest, and her toes canted inward as he straightened her legs. Kevin noticed with sorrow that her toenails had been ripped off. Blood leaked from where they would be. What’s more, her naked body was covered in lacerations and bruises. On a whim, he checked her hands, and gritted his teeth when he saw that her fingernails were likewise gone.

  Someone has to pay for this.

  Kevin did not believe in revenge. He’d seen enough anime to know that it never ended well for the people trying to get it. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t immune to hatred. These people had hurt his friends, people that he cherished like family. They couldn’t be allowed to just get away with this scot-free.

  He stood up and unholstered his pistols.

  “I’ll be back in just a second,” Kevin told Christine and Phoebe. “Please wait here.”

  “H-hold on, Kevin,” Christine started to say before Phoebe grabbed her arm. She looked at the yama uba, who shook her head. Sighing, she looked back at Kevin and gave him a glare. “Don’t do anything reckless.”

  Kevin tried his hand at the infamous Han Solo smirk. “Hey, it’s me.”

  Christine deadpanned. “Did you just quote Star Wars?”

  “No?”

  The deadpanning continued. Kevin turned his head.

  “… Maybe…”

  Christine twitched.

  “What’s he doing now?” Kevin asked.

  Looking at her mirror, Christine opened her mouth to speak—when acid engulfed her mirror, erasing it from existence.

  “He’s seen us!”

  “I figured that! Get back, Christine!”

  Kevin didn’t wait for Christine to respond as he rushed around the corner. The gama spotted him and spat several globs of acid, but Kevin didn’t slow down. He juked across the floor, swerving around each glob that came at him.

  Knowing better than to just dodge, Kevin aimed his guns and opened up. Fire and ice filled the airspace. It was a literal wall of youki projectiles, and Kevin was sure that his foe would fall, but when the gama slammed his hands into the ground, a wall of acid sprang from nowhere and protected him.

  Kevin skidded to a halt, but was forced to move again when the wall suddenly coalesced into a stream that tried to hit him. It slammed against the wall, corroding the cement. Acid splashed against his arms and hissed as they tried to eat through his suit, which steamed but held strong.

  “Bwa ha ha! Did you really think it would be that easy! You might have escaped from my trap, but a pathetic human like you is no match for me!”

  I’m going to wipe that smug look from his face!

  Kevin growled as he dove past the stream, which he could practically feel as it curved around and tried to attack him from behind. He juked left, the acid flying past him, then leapt over the acid as it suddenly swerved into his path. While in midair, Kevin unleashed another round of gunfire. The acid moved to protect the gama, which was fine with Kevin.

  His knees jolted as he hit the ground feet first. The gama launched another stream of acid, but Kevin ducked underneath it, the muscles in his legs bunched before he launched himself forward.

  The gama realized his mistake a little too late. The acid was too far to protect him, and Kevin was now right in his business.

  Being so close to the gama made Kevin’s nose wrinkle. A combination of sweat and swamp mud wafted from the toad yōkai. He paid no heed to the smell and shoved his silver gun into the gama’s mouth.

  His finger was already on the trigger. The gun was charged.

  Letting go of the trigger, Kevin solemnly watched as ice exploded from the back of the toad’s head. Acidic ichor splattered against the ground, hissing as it ate through the concrete. The acid stream, which had been barreling toward him, suddenly had no will controlling it. Newtonian physics went into play and it continued moving forward. Kevin leapt aside before it reached him, and the acid slammed into the dead gama, eating away at the creature’s flesh.

  Kevin took in a shaky breath and turned away from the scene. He walked back to Christine and the others. She and Phoebe were looking out from around the corner. Christine’s wide eyes gazed at him in open astonishment. She looked like someone had slapped her in the face with a dead fish and yelled, “ZA WAROODO!” Phoebe, on the other hand… well, the less said about her expression the better.

  I do not like the way she’s eying my pants, Kevin thought with a shiver.

  He gave them a wan smile, but before anything could be said, Kevin and everyone else were forced to their knees, when a killing intent like nothing they’d ever felt threatened to crush their pitiful existence into oblivion.

  Chapter 12

  Hebi

  Kotohime barely sensed the attack coming. She only had enough time to raise her blade, however, she’d not been able to properly reinforce her body. Her arms buckled as something crashed into her katana, and her knees threatened to snap as the weight of whatever attacked pushed her down. The cement floor indented around her feet, cracks spreading along the surface. She only had a moment to see what had attacked her before it slithered back behind Hebi, disappearing within his trench coat.

  “That was impressive,” Hebi complimented. “Most people freeze completely when they feel my killing intent, yet you managed to not only keep your wits about you, but you also blocked my attack. I can see why you were called the Blood Moon Princess back in your heyday.”

  “You… you are not a native to this country, are you?” Kotohime asked, frowning sternly to hide her trepidation. She was quickly reaching a startling conclusion, and she did not like it.

  “Indeed, I am not.” Hebi’s lips peeled back. His smile was mirthless. “I originated from Japan, if you must know. However, I came to this land several centuries ago, after Hagaromo Gitsune became the new Void Kyūbi. I sought to make this country mine, but I was blocked at every turn by the Four Saints.”

  Kotohime shifted her grip on her weapons. Unlike most occasions, where she only wielded her katana, this time, she had also unsheathed her wakizashi. This was not an enemy she could afford to hold back against.

  “However, all of that is irrelevant now,” Hebi continued, his eyes burning with almost childlike glee. “I have all but the last key needed to renew my ambitions. Very soon, my form will once more become complete, and I will sweep across this land and become its king. I will become the ruler of this country! And when I do, all of the humans who live in blissful ignorance, all of the yōkai who believe in their foolish sense of superiority, will bow before me!”

  A forked tongue flicked out from between Hebi’s mouth.

  “And no one, not the Four Saints, nor the Sons and Daughters of Humanity, will be able to stop me!”

  Several objects shot out from Hebi’s trench coat. Snakes. Dozens of them. They burst from within his clothing and were launched at Kotohime, their hissing mouths wide open and their fangs dripping with venom.

  “Ichi no Ougi.”

  Kotohime stood her ground. Her two weapons flashed in front of her, mere tr
aces of silver. An uncountable number of sword slashes blurred together, forming an impenetrable barrier. The snakes crashed into the barrier and were sliced to ribbons.

  “Excellent!” Hebi crowed. “Marvelous! Truly marvelous! Show me more of that incredible talent!”

  Sensing movement behind her, Kotohime whirled around and sliced apart several more snakes before they could attack. They were diced apart like vegetables on a cutting board. Their black blood splashed against her kimono, eliciting a hiss from Kotohime as smoke rose from her clothing.

  Don’t tell me these snakes are poisonous?!

  A shift in the air above her made Kotohime leap back. Another snake, this one larger than before, smashed apart the floor upon which she’d been standing. Realizing that she needed to be careful, Kotohime attacked from a distance.

  “Water Art: Crescent Blade!”

  She moved the katana in a graceful arc in front of her. A wave of blue energy shaped like a crescent slammed into the snake, severing its head. Even as the body flopped to the floor and went still, the snake head continued to move. It leapt at Kotohime, its mouth clacking open and closed.

  “Water Art: Blade Extension!”

  Water coalesced along Kotohime’s katana, extending its length. Lowering the sword and holding it behind her with a single hand, she reversed the blade, then slashed it across the ground. Cement split as the water, condensed to the hardness of diamonds, moved through it with ease. The katana soon left the ground, pulled upwards in an elegant arc. It sliced through the snake head, splitting it in half long before it reached her.

  “Such elegance, grace, and beauty!” Hebi cackled. “You truly are a marvelous exemplar of your species! However…”

  Kotohime tried to leap back, but something had coiled around her legs. She looked down to see several snakes binding her to floor. Then she looked back up. Hebi’s grin filled her vision.

  “You’ve left yourself wide open,” he said.

  In that second, something powerful slammed into Kotohime’s chest. With a cry of agony, she was sent flying.

  Kevin and Christine moved down the hall as quickly as they could. They didn’t know what that killing intent had been, but neither of them wanted to stick around and find out.

  Of course, moving quickly was difficult for them, as they were forced to carry two people. Phoebe was still not recovered enough to walk on her own, and Heather was out cold. She was also drooling all over Kevin’s bodysuit.

  “I’m so glad this thing is water proof,” he muttered.

  “Is now really the time to be happy about something like that?!” Christine shouted.

  Bursting around the corner, Christine and Kevin skidded to a halt when a large chasm appeared up in front of them. It spanned several feet, too far for either of them to jump. Kevin might have been able to make it if he had a running start, but he was also carrying Heather and was therefore weighed down.

  “Should we turn around?” asked Christine.

  “We might have to,” Kevin said.

  Phoebe breathed heavily. “I saw… a lateral passage back from whence we came. It might lead to a way out of here.”

  “We still need to find Lilian and Iris, though,” Kevin said.

  “Then let’s head to that passage and keep searching,” Christine grunted as Phoebe slipped, the woman’s boobs falling on her head. “You know, it’s really awkward having a naked girl’s tits on my head.”

  “My… apologies…”

  Christine sighed. “Naw, it’s okay. I’m getting used to naked women with massive mammaries these days.”

  “Let’s go,” Kevin said.

  They turned around and retraced their steps, coming to the lateral passage that Phoebe mentioned. Rushing down it, they came upon a door, which led to a set of stairs. With no other choice left but to go up, they climbed the stairs, which opened into another hallway.

  Moving around several corners, Kevin and Christine eventually came upon what he assumed was directly above where they’d been a few seconds ago. There was a large hole in the floor, which was about the same size as the other one down below. However, that sight was secondary to the figure lying on her back in a puddle.

  “IRIS!”

  Kevin rushed over to the raven-haired vixen. He almost dropped Heather in his haste to reach her side. Leaning down after setting Heather on the ground, he winced when the acrid scent of urine hit him. Kevin did his best to ignore the smell as he reached over and pulled Iris to him.

  “Iris! Iris! Wake up!”

  He pried her eyes open. Sightless eyes stared back at him. He removed his hand from her eyelids and placed it on her cheek.

  “Come on, Iris! I need you to wake up!”

  Panic rushed through him. What had happened to Iris? Why wasn’t she responding to him? He’d never forgive himself if someone hurt her and he hadn’t been there to help.

  “Please! Please wake up!”

  Christine knelt next to him as he tried to unsuccessfully wake his mate’s sister. While she wrinkled her nose, probably from the scent hitting her, that was the only sign of disgust on her face. The rest was filled with sympathy.

  “I don’t know if I can wake her up,” she said, “but I have an idea, if you’re willing to let me try something.”

  “Of course,” Kevin said, taking his hand off Iris’s face. “Do whatever you have to.”

  Christine nodded and reached out. She extended two fingers, which she touched to Iris’s temple. Kevin thought he saw mist wafting off her fingers and moving into Iris’s head, but he couldn’t be sure. Not even a second later, a loud shriek tore from the vixen’s lips as she launched herself into a sitting position.

  “KYA! BRAIN FREEZE!”

  Kevin blinked. “What did you do, Christine?”

  “I used my ability to manipulate ice by shoving freezing cold mist directly into her brain.”

  “That… sounds dangerous.”

  Christine shrugged. “Hey, at least it worked.”

  Well, it was hard for Kevin to deny that.

  “Iris,” Kevin started, “are you—”

  “Lilian!” Iris suddenly screamed, crawling back over to the hole. “Lilian! Lilian!”

  Iris looked ready to leap down the hole, but Kevin reacted quicker than she could. He grabbed her by the hair, the only thing he could reach, and pulled her back. Iris shrieked and tried to break free, but she wasn’t using reinforcement. He easily pulled her back to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her body to keep her from moving.

  “Calm down, Iris!”

  “Let go! I have to go to Lilian!”

  “Would you just calm down?!”

  Iris didn’t calm down. She continued to fight in his grip, and he realized that her mind had tipped over the edge of panic. Nothing short of something extreme would make her calm down.

  If that’s the case…

  Kevin used his superior strength to throw Iris against the ground. He winced when her head cracked against the pavement, but he refused to hesitate. While she stared at the ceiling in a daze, he straddled her stomach and placed his hands on either side of her head.

  “Look at me,” Kevin demanded. Iris, her eyes wide, stared at him. “Calm down and tell me what happened.”

  “L-Lilian… she…”

  “I said calm down.” Iris clammed up. Kevin knew he was being stern, but he needed her lucid enough to explain what happened. “Now, tell me what happened.”

  “W-we were ambushed by a pair of spider ladies. We fought them, but Lilian… she…”

  “She fell down that hole, didn’t she?”

  He could imagine what happened. Lilian had probably created a plan to collapse the floor underneath their enemies, but it had backfired and she’d fallen with them. There was no telling how far the fall was, either, as Kevin had not been able to see the bottom.

  Tears burned Iris’s eyes as she nodded. Kevin took a deep breath, disregarding the sharp pain in his chest. His pain was nowhere near as great as Iris’
s pain. He’d not seen what happened, but Iris had been right there and unable to do anything.

  “Lilian is alive.” Iris’s uncomprehending stare met his words. “There’s no way Lilian would let herself be killed by this. Until we’re given irrefutable proof that Lilian is dead, we need to believe that she’s alive. The moment we stop having faith in the people we care about is the moment we lose ourselves to despair.”

  “R-right…”

  Kevin wiped the tears from Iris’s eyes before they could fall. “Are you okay?”

  “I am now.”

  Kevin nodded and climbed off Iris. He turned away, giving her a moment to regain her composure.

  “Help me up, Stud.”

  He turned. Iris sat on the floor, extending her hands in an obvious gesture. He grabbed her hands and pulled her up. Iris thanked him with a smile, then noticed everyone else.

  “I see you two found Perv and Amazon Girl.”

  “Yeah, now we just need to reunite with Lilian, Kotohime, and the others.”

  “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get a move on.”

  Kevin picked Heather back up, and Iris, being taller than Christine, allowed Phoebe to lean on her. Christine seemed grateful since it meant Phoebe’s massive rack wasn’t using her head as an armrest.

  As the group moved off, Kevin was forced to listen to the girls as they conversed. Their discussion was most enlightening.

  “You were the one who woke me up, right?” Iris asked.

  “What?” Christine said. “Oh, yeah, that was me.”

  Iris smiled at Christine, not a condescending smile, but a genuine one. “Thank you.”

  “T-there’s no need to thank me,” Christine muttered, turning her head. “We’re friends. It’s only natural that I would help you out.”

  “Uhuhu, you really are too cute, Christy. That’s why I love you.”

  Poof!

  “D-don’t say such stupid things!” Christine spat, steam wafting from her head. “I’m not into girls!”

  “I know. It’s too bad, though. Lindsay’s going to be very disappointed.”