A Fox's War

by Brandon Varnell

  “Will do,” Kevin said.

  “Ufufufu.”

  “Dare I ask why you’re laughing?” Kevin asked.

  “Oh, it’s nothing.” Kotohime raised a hand to her lips, and Kevin knew that the sleeve of her kimono was hiding a smile. “I was just thinking that Kevin-sama finally seems to be acting like Iris-sama’s mate.”

  “Huh?”

  Kevin needed only a moment to realize what she meant. He looked down at his hand, which was still holding Iris’s hand, then tried to reflexively jerk it out. It didn’t work. Iris’s hold-fu must have been strong that day—or she was using reinforcement.

  “Come on, Stud. Let’s get my lovely sister and our little doll.”

  “Doll?” Kevin made a face. “Are you talking about Christine?”

  “Uhuhuhu.”

  Kevin shuddered. He would never get used to the way the women in this family laughed.

  Lilian didn’t know how long she’d been sitting on that bed, letting Christine use her boobs as pillows.

  Her friend had fallen asleep a while ago. Lilian felt fortunate that there had been no waterworks. While some men might enjoy comforting crying women for whatever reason, it was not something that Lilian liked dealing with.

  “Nngg…”

  “Oh, are you waking up?”

  Christine stirred and raised her head, blinking several times as she apparently realized her situation. She looked up at Lilian’s face. Then she looked back down at Lilian’s boobs, which were right in her face.

  “Waaa!”

  Crying out, she jerked backwards. Because she was on the very edge of the bed, she fell and smacked her head on the floor. Lilian, still sitting on the bed, gazed down at her friend in amusement.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Christine mumbled as her cheeks turned blue.

  Lilian felt her lips twitch as she held out her hand. “Here.”

  “T-thanks.”

  She pulled Christine up and was about to stand herself. It wasn’t until she tried standing that she realized her legs had fallen asleep. Tumbling forward, she pushed Christine back onto the ground, landing on top of her. She was lucky enough to catch herself, which stopped her from squishing her friend’s face in her boobs—though that didn’t stop them from dangling in front of her friend, who stared at her two breasts like they were UFOs.

  “Ufufufu, I seem to have fallen. Sorry about that.”

  “Don’t laugh about something like this, and get off me.”

  “Right. Sorry.”

  Before Lilian could stand back up, the door opened and Kevin and Iris walked in. They took one look at the compromising position that she and Christine were in, then Iris whistled.

  “Oh, wow. I hadn’t realized we’d gotten to the yuri love scene yet. Isn’t that not supposed to happen for another few volumes?”

  “Technically, it’s already happened,” Lilian replied succinctly. “Several times, in fact,” she added with a pointed look.

  “Yes, but now there’s a loli involved,” Iris shot back. “The fans are going to go crazy over this.”

  “Can you two please not talk about this?” Kevin and Christine said at the same time.

  “Oh, a double tsukkomi. Nice one, Beloved!”

  “Be quiet and get off me!” Christine cried out.

  That night was the first night in over a week that they’d had dinner as a family. It was also the first time that Christine received the full kitsune family experience. Her reaction to the shenanigans of the others had been amusing, and Kevin would freely admit that he enjoyed the way Iris had teased Christine more than he should have.

  After dinner, everyone headed for the bath house. Because there was no plumbing inside of the apartments, bathing was communal. Kevin supposed that was the side effect of building temporary shelters instead of permanent ones.

  Like most bathhouses, this one was divided into a men’s and women’s section. Perhaps in an effort to make them more comfortable, the bathhouses came furnished with many amenities, and the baths themselves were similar to hot springs.

  After thoroughly rinsing himself off, Kevin enjoyed lounging in the bath. There were several other men wandering about. Some were human while others were yokai. He noticed a group of shōkera. They were large creatures with red skin and three toes. Legends said that they spent most of their time lurking about on rooftops, and Kevin had seen them lounging on top of enough buildings to confirm that they did, indeed, enjoy high places.

  As he tore his gaze from the yokai, a splash next to him drew his attention.

  “Cien.”

  “Swift.”

  The dog yokai leaned against the lip of the tub, as if trying to act nonchalant. He only had one arm. Because of that, his oh so casual way of leaning against the tub was kind of ruined. Also, while it was a little childish, Kevin was pleased to note that the other boy’s muscles weren’t as well-defined as his own.

  “Has everything been squared away?” he asked.

  Cien breathed out through his nose. “For the most part. They’ve given me my own place in exchange for the intelligence I have on the Yamata Alliance. I was forced to get a minder, though. Heh, I guess they still don’t trust me.”

  “Give it time. Once they learn that you’re about as threatening as a kitten, they’ll lay off.”

  “What was that?! Are you saying I’m weak?”

  “Oh, no. Not at all.” Kevin waved the other teen’s anger away. “I’m just saying that you’re not very threatening. I mean, if a stern voice can turn you into an obedient pup when you’re experiencing bloodlust, you can’t be that much of a threat, can you?”

  Cien’s flushed face turned several shades redder. “You… listen here! What happened back then was a fluke! It’s never gonna happen again!”

  “Sure, sure. I believe you.”

  “I’m serious!”

  “If you say so.”

  As Cien scowled at him, Kevin chuckled. He didn’t know what it was, but he really liked messing with the inu. Perhaps it was because the other boy sorta reminded him of Casey Chase, his old rival.

  Chase, huh. That reminds me, I wonder how everyone’s doing on the track team.

  It had been a long time since Kevin had thought about track and field. Before Lilian, before he learned about yokai, track and field had been his bread and butter at school. He’d dedicated himself toward becoming the fastest track star possible. At the time, his goal had been to use his track and field record to get into a good college. Unfortunately, once he’d learned about the dangers that came from being intimate with Lilian, he’d been forced to discard track and field so he could learn how to fight.

  I don’t really regret quitting, but I do kind of wish I could get back into it.

  Well, he supposed he could join his senior year, provided they weren’t still at war.

  Before he could get depressed thinking about the war, several loud shouts erupted from the other side of the divider.

  “Kya! What do you think you’re doing?!”

  “Aw, come on. What’s a little skinship between friends?”

  “Friends don’t grope each other’s boobs!”

  “There isn’t much to grope.”

  “What was that?!”

  Kevin tilted his head and looked at the divider that segregated the men’s section from the women’s section. Those voices were ones that he recognized.

  “Sounds like the girls are having fun,” he commented lightly. When Cien didn’t answer, he looked over to see that the inu had buried half of his face underneath the water to hide his blush.

  Kevin laughed.

  “Now, now, settle down, you two,” Kotohime said as Iris tried to fondle an irate Christine.

  “P-please listen to my sister and calm down,” Kirihime added. “Lady Iris, if you keep doing that, Ms. Christine will get upset, and then she might freeze the bath.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Christine said with a scowl.

  “You s
o would,” Iris teased. When Christine turned to scowl at her, Iris sighed. “Fine, fine. I’ll back off. But—” raising her hands, Iris made exaggeratedly creepy groping gestures, “—don’t think you’re off the hook just yet. I’ll return, and then I’ll—”

  Iris never finished her sentence, because in that moment, Lilian had coiled one of her tails around the vixen and yanked her into the water with a loud splash.

  “Please stop that. It’s disturbing.”

  Sputtering out water, Iris, rather than become upset, grinned at her sister. “I think you’re just jealous that these masterful hands were fondling Christine’s tiny titties and not your mountainous mammaries.”

  “Who’s tiny?!” Christine shouted, covering her modest B-cup breasts.

  “Don’t call someone’s breasts mountainous when yours are the same size,” Lilian retorted. “Besides, ours have nothing on Kotohime.”

  “You’re right,” Iris murmured. “They’re like a pair of giant molehills.”

  “I was thinking watermelons myself,” Christine added.

  “M-my sister’s breasts are pretty big.”

  “Hawa! Boobies!”

  All eyes turned to Kotohime’s boobs, which floated in the water like a pair of buoys. As she noticed the many eyes staring at her chest, Kotohime smiled and calmly pulled her katana out from between the gap in her towel-covered cleavage.

  “It is not very nice to stare, so I would appreciate if you all stop. Ufufufu…”

  “Ugh.” Iris looked away with a grimace. “I hate it when you do that.”

  “Ara? Do what?”

  “That! That creepy smile while you threaten to kill us.”

  “Oh, my. Did I ever say that I would kill you?”

  Iris deadpanned. “The whole ‘pull a katana out of your Extra Dimensional Storage Space’ kinda makes that threat obvious.”

  “Ufufufu, if Iris-sama says so.”

  “I do say so.”

  “Speaking of Extra Dimensional Storage Spaces,” Lilian started, “we really need to come up with another name for them. That’s such a mouthful.”

  “We could just give them acronyms,” Iris suggested. “How about we call them EDSS?”

  “No, that sounds too close to AIDS, and I’d rather not have the readership get freaked out because of that.”

  “Yeah…” Iris sank into the water. “It does sound like an STD of some kind. I don’t think that’s what the author is going for.”

  You’re right. It isn’t. Also, let’s keep this PG-13, please.

  Kotohime snorted. Beside her, Kirihime watched Camellia as she learned to doggie paddle.

  “You are writing a bath scene, yet you ask us to keep things PG-13? Surely, you can see the hypocrisy there.”

  …

  “Oh, nice one, Kotohime. I think you rendered him speechless.”

  “I try, Iris-sama.”

  “Who the fuck are you people talking to?” asked Christine.

  “What do you mean?” Lilian tilted her head curiously. “We’re talking to the—ah! That’s right. Christine can’t break the fourth wall.”

  “It’s because she’s a yuki-onna,” Kotohime said.

  “Poor girl. Her patron god must have hated her,” Iris said in a teasing voice.

  “I’d rather not know what you idiots are talking about,” Christine spat. “I only want you to stop it.”

  As Christine and Iris bickered some more, Lilian leaned against the tub and tried to relax. She hated how the baths were communal. It meant that she couldn’t bathe with Kevin. While shower sex wasn’t anywhere near as fun as the dōjinshi she’d read made it sound, they had discovered that bath sex, which was essentially the same thing only sitting instead of standing, was not only doable but also enjoyable.

  Thinking about some of the dōjinshi she’d read brought to mind her own manga. She was halfway finished with the first volume, but she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with it yet. Naturally, the idea of publishing it appealed to her. At the same time, she was kind of embarrassed to seek a publisher. Would they even want to look at her work?

  “Someone’s spacing out,” Christine said, and though it sounded snide, Lilian understood that’s just how her friend was. “What are you thinking about that’s made you so quiet?”

  “I was just thinking about my manga,” Lilian said.

  “That’s right. In all the excitement, I nearly forgot that you were making a manga.” Christine made a face. “What is it about anyway? I remember seeing the pictures, but they didn’t seem to tell a story.”

  “T-that’s just because I’ve been making the manga panels out of order,” Lilian defended, blushing. “I got distracted with other scenes I wanted to write and ended up writing them nonlinearly.”

  “She probably ended up getting ideas for a lemon and stopped her previous work to make that,” Iris added.

  “Lemon? What do lemons have to do with anything?”

  “Ah! You don’t know what a lemon is?” Lilian gasped, then pulled out her trusty TV Tropes for Dummies book.

  “Hey, I haven’t seen that in a while,” Iris commented as Lilian flipped through several pages.

  “For some reason, watching you pull that out of your boobs pisses me off,” Christine added.

  Ignoring the peanut gallery’s comments, Lilian flipped through pages until she found the one she was looking for. She then adopted Lecture Pose number thirty-two, which involved her sitting with her calves tucked under her bottom, one hand holding her book, while the other made nonsensical gestures that were supposed to make her look smarter.

  “Ahem. A lemon is a fan fiction that contains explicit sexual content. This can range from plot-what-plot screwfests with no justification, to exquisitely plotted and crafted stories that just happen to follow their participants into the bedroom on a regular basis. It used to be a really common term, but it has seen less use recently.”

  “Uh-huh,” Christine said. Her voice suggested that everything Lilian had said was lost on her.

  Lilian continued. “The term was originally specific to the anime fan fiction community, but by the early-middle-2000s, it had spread to other fandoms as an alternative to just calling something porn or smut. The origin of the term is obscure, but the most common etymology traces it back to the classic hentai anime series Cream Lemon. There was apparently a mailing list for publishing erotic anime fan fiction called ‘The Lemon List’ in its honor. The term derives from the idea that like a lemon, sexuality looks beautiful and alluring, but when you experience it more directly, it's bitter and sour.”

  … Silence. Everyone stared at Lilian as she put away her book and faced them with a smile.

  “I don’t really get it,” Christine admitted. “But it sounds to me like lemons are really shitty sex scenes written by losers who’ve never had sex.”

  “They’re not all bad,” Lilian defended. “Some of them are really good.”

  “Wasn’t there a crappy book that got published a while back, which was basically a lemon fan fiction?” asked Iris.

  “We’re not going to talk about that,” Lilian declared.

  “You people have completely lost me.” Christine pressed a hand to her face. “I think I can actually feel my brain cells screaming in agony as they’re slowly killed by the stupidity around me.”

  “That was a really complicated insult for one so short,” Iris taunted.

  “What the hell does my height have to do with anything?!”

  “There you are, Kotohime,” a voice said from beyond their tub, interrupting Iris’s retort.

  Everybody stopped what they were doing to look at the person who’d intruded on them. Fully dressed despite the fact that they were in a bathhouse, her unkept hair as messy as ever, stood Kiara.

  “Kiara-san,” Kotohime greeted. “Was there something you needed from me?”

  “The Four Saints are asking for us.”

  “So I see.” Sighing, Kotohime stood from the bath and stepped out. Holding a
towel to her chest, she gestured at Kiara. “Then let us not waste time here. If you’ll allow me to dry off and get dressed, we can leave.”

  “Then let’s hurry.”

  Turning to them, Kotohime bowed her head. “Camellia-sama, Lilian-sama, Iris-sama, sister, Christine-san, I’ll see you all later. Please be sure to prepare for bed after this. You may not have school, but that is still no excuse not to get a good night’s rest. Tell Kevin-sama the same thing, if you could, Lilian-sama.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” Lilian gave Kotohime a thumbs up.

  Kotohime stared at her. “That was terribly corny, Lilian-sama.”

  “Oi!”

  Giggling to herself, Kotohime wandered out of the bathhouse with Kiara. Lilian watched them go, the smile that she’d been wearing slowly turning into a frown.

  I wonder what they need Kotohime for?

  Lilian spent the rest of her time in the bath pondering that question.

  Kotohime followed Kiara as she led her up to Davin’s office.

  Several people were already present when she arrived: the three other members of the Four Saints, Heather, Phoebe, and also a woman whom Kotohime had never met.

  Hair as dark as raven’s feathers traveled down her back like a glistening curtain. Her eyes were a vibrant and playful yellow, which followed Kotohime from underneath several bangs. Leather pants and a sleeveless top adorned a lithe, yet busty figure. The cat tail sprouting from a hole in her pants near her tailbone split in two about halfway up, and the triangular ears on her head marked this woman as a nekomata.

  “You two are late,” Davin grunted.

  Kotohime looked over at the man. She nearly stumbled.

  “W-who are you?” she asked in shock. Orin, Sarah, and Kuroneko snickered.

  A large vein appeared on Davin’s forehead, throbbing angry red. “I can’t blame you for not recognizing me, but do you really have to sound so shocked?”

  “C-could you really be Davin-dono?” Kotohime stuttered. This person certainly sounded like Davin Monstrang, but there was no way he could truly be Davin Monstrang. He was too… skinny, and he had muscles. Davin was, well, she didn’t want to say it out loud, but he was really fat.