A Fox's War

by Brandon Varnell

  That… is this what a real spec ops mission feels like?

  “Nya, it looks like I didn’t get to do anything,” Cassy said, and then she frowned. “Are you all right, Master?”

  “I’m fine,” Kevin mumbled.

  I need to calm down. This is no different than any of the other missions I’ve been on.

  Except it was different. It felt different. This wasn’t some action-packed race to reach a safe point. This was no massive battle where he was too pumped with adrenaline to feel fear. This operation was quiet, everything was done quickly, and death came before people even had time to blink. If Kevin had to put it into words, he would have said that it felt like a black ops mission and not a shōnen-style quest.

  While he was lost in thought, the gate slid open, and everyone climbed back inside before Heather drove them into the base.

  “I thought we were trying to avoid unnecessary casualties,” Kevin said as they left the massacre that had taken place.

  “During actual combat, we do, but not when we’re on real missions,” Kiara informed him. “Since this is all covert, we can’t afford to leave our enemies alive and merely defenseless. Otherwise they could alert their allies and all our efforts will be for naught.”

  Kevin clenched his hands into fists. “O-oh…”

  “This bothers you, does it not, Kevin-sama?”

  He gave Kotohime a shaky smile. “Yes, it does.”

  “I apologize. Perhaps it would have been better if I had not asked you to come along with us.”

  “N-no, I’m glad you asked me. I want… to be one of the people who rescues Justin.”

  “Ufufufu, anything for a friend.”

  Heather followed the path set before them, and it wasn’t long before they reached what appeared to be the entrance to an underground garage. Kevin slid into Kotohime as the elevation suddenly slanted. The ramp they were driving down must have been very steep.

  “Careful, Kevin-sama. I might think you’re coming onto me if you get so close.”

  “Wha—th-that’s not it at all!”

  “Ufufufu, I was only teasing you.”

  Kevin pouted as Kotohime ruffled his hair. However, he felt a little better now. It might have been the familiarity of her actions, but he was no longer as nervous.

  The moment Heather parked and shut down the vehicle, he and the others vacated it and stepped into the massive garage. Kevin checked his weapons, making sure his twin handguns were where they were supposed to be. He also made sure that all of his ammo was equipped.

  “We have less than an hour before the next shift change happens,” Heather said, hefting a large backpack over her shoulders. “Let’s move quickly. Kotohime, Kevin, and Cassy, you three meet up with Mack. Phoebe and Kiara will create a distraction. Meanwhile, I’ll set explosives on all of these vehicles so no one can follow us when we escape.”

  Wow. She really knows how to take charge. Where is that perverted teacher who tried to teach Eric how to peep on women?

  “Very well. Come along, Kevin-sama, Cassy-san. Let’s be off.”

  “Right.”

  “Nya.”

  They split up. Kevin and Cassy followed Kotohime while Kiara and Phoebe took off in another direction. Their footsteps sounded abnormally loud on the concrete floor, and he could hear them echoing all around them. As they reached a large sliding door, the trio found someone waiting for them.

  His hair was a reddish-pink. He wore the military… spandex that had become synonymous with the Sons and Daughters of Humanity. Slung across his shoulders was a rifle.

  “Mack,” Kotohime greeted the usagi.

  “Good to see you.” Mack grinned before his eyes landed on Kevin. “Well, look at that. I didn’t expect to see you on a mission of this caliber.”

  For some reason, Kevin was annoyed by that comment. “Are you trying to say I’m incapable?”

  “No. I’m just saying you’re young. I didn’t think the boss would let someone so young come on a mission like this. You know how he is.”

  “Oh…” Kevin blushed.

  “Nya, where is this person that we’re supposed to rescue?” asked Cassy.

  “Right.” Mack got back on track. “Follow me, and move quickly, please. If people notice that I’ve left my post before we complete this mission, there’s gonna be trouble.”

  The door before them slid open, revealing a metal hallway that gleamed brightly from several lights that had been strategically spaced at even intervals. They walked in. Mack’s pace was quick, which forced Kevin and the others to increase their stride to keep up.

  “Kiara and Phoebe should be starting their distraction soon,” Kotohime informed him. As if in response to her words, a massive explosion rocked the base and sirens began blaring. “There you go. I doubt anyone is going to notice that you are no longer at your post. They’ll likely assume that you’ve gone to help defend the base.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  Kotohime and Mack quickened their pace from a trot to a sprint. Kevin put on a burst of speed to keep up. Cassy stayed right beside him. As they rushed around a corner, the group ran into several soldiers who’d been coming the opposite direction.

  “Shit! Are there more intruders?!”

  “We’ve got yokai! Lay suppressive fire!”

  Before the contingent of soldiers could do much more than shout, Kotohime had unsheathed her blade and vanished.

  “Ikken Hissatsu. Ein Ni.”

  Reappearing on the other side, Kotohime slowly sheathed her katana. As the soft click of her tsuba meeting her sheath echoed through the hall, all of the soldiers that had been trying to bring their weapons to bear crumpled to the ground.

  “Are they dead?” asked Kevin.

  “I only knocked them unconscious,” Kotohime admitted. “Kevin-sama doesn’t like killing unless it’s necessary, right?”

  Kevin smiled. “Right!”

  They moved quickly, following Mack as he raced through several corridors. They ran into a number of soldiers along the way, but Kevin, adrenaline pumping through his body, shot them down before they could respond. He used light youki bullets and aimed at their hands and legs. Once they were on the ground, Kotohime or Cassy knocked them out.

  Because the garage was on the second basement, they needed to take an elevator. The prison was on the first floor. Kevin wondered why it wasn’t in the basement, but he supposed it didn’t matter.

  They entered the elevator and Mack pressed the button that would take them up. There was a soft ding, followed by the doors sliding shut. Then they were cut off from the world.

  Kevin wondered if he was the only person who felt that the sudden silence was awkward. He tapped his index finger against his ebony gun.

  “So,” Mack started, “a guy walks into a bar and—”

  “I do not wish to hear any horrible jokes,” Kotohime said. “Let us keep the elevator clichés to a minimum, please.”

  “Fine. Fine…”

  Silence descended once again. The door chimed softly, then slid open. The hallway they stepped into was mercifully empty. Kevin assumed that Kiara and Phoebe were the reasons for that. Mack soon led them to a door that was locked with a card reader.

  “You guys are lucky I’m so slick,” he said as he held out a card. “It wasn’t easy filching this from the commander’s office. Guy’s got security like you wouldn’t believe.”

  A beep emitted from the reader as he slid a keycard through it. There was a click as the locking mechanisms unlocked. Mack slid the card back into a holster on his thigh and opened the door.

  The other side was most definitely a holding cell. Drab gray walls, ceiling, and floor left little to the imagination. That there was also a figure dangling by the wrists from chains that were hung from the ceiling only confirmed what Kevin already suspected: This was an interrogation/torture chamber.

  The person dangling limply from the ceiling was Justin. Blood leaked from the cuffs around his wrists, his face was cover
ed in bruises, and there were lash marks that ran along his skin as if he’d been struck by a whip.

  “Justin!”

  Justin jerked at someone calling his name. Kevin dashed over to him, but he didn’t touch his once-friend, unsure if doing so would aggravate his multifarious injuries. Dark brown eyes partially glazed over stared at him, blinking several times. Then he grinned. His teeth were stained with blood.

  “Wow… if it isn’t Kevin. How ya doing, Kevin?”

  “Better than you.” Kevin glanced at Kotohime, who unsheathed her katana quicker than he could blink and sliced through the chains. Before Justin could drop to the floor, Kevin caught him. Justin hissed.

  “Ow… you should learn to be a little more gentle. Your mate’s not gonna like it if you’re too rough… ya know?”

  “You’re delusional,” Kevin muttered. “Now, keep quiet. We’re getting you out of here.”

  “Where am I getting out of?”

  “I said keep quiet.”

  Holstering one of his guns, Kevin carefully lifted Justin so that he was carrying the other boy over his shoulder. He held up his silver gun, which had been dubbed Ivory in honor of a video game character that he liked.

  “Okay,” Mack said. “We’ve extracted the prisoner. Now let’s go.”

  “Who’s a prisoner?” asked Justin.

  Everyone ignored him.

  They began to backtrack through the base, which was rocked by several loud explosions. Kevin recognized the sound. They were not explosions caused by actual explosives. Those were detonations caused by Kiara tossing around her youki. He could just imagine her laughing like a loon as she sent dozens, maybe even hundreds, of soldiers flying.

  I hope Phoebe didn’t get caught in one of Kiara’s techniques.

  Upon reaching the corridor with the elevator in it, Kevin saw two lines of troops blocking their way. One line was holding massive man-sized shields. The other line stood behind the first and aimed rifles from holes in the shield.

  “Fire!”

  Kevin closed his eyes as the loud crackle of a dozen rifles going off slammed into his ears. Yet seconds later, when the pain that he’d expected to come didn’t come, he opened his eyes and saw that Kotohime was standing in front of him. She held out her arms, and from her palms, a large dome of water had formed. The bullets that had been fired were stuck in the water, floating like so much useless lead.

  “Water Art: Aqua Aegis.”

  “Nya!”

  Cassy leapt over the wall of water, her fingers coated in hellfire. The soldiers changed their target from the barrier to her, but she slashed her hands out, creating a wall of hellfire that melted the bullets before they could reach her. Then she was among the enemy, tearing them apart.

  The barrier went down. While Mack darted forward, Kevin took aim and fired off several rounds of ice projectiles. Each time he fired, he could feel the gun recoil, but he kept a steady hold on it and continued firing. Despite the jerking, his aim was perfect. Each shot slammed into a gun, freezing them on contact. This allowed Cassy and Mack to take care of everyone in a few seconds.

  “Please stay behind me, Kevin-sama.”

  “Hehehe, she called you ‘Kevin-sama,’” Justin giggled. Kevin wondered if his friend’s mind had snapped.

  Running feet echoed behind them. Kevin turned around in time to see nearly two dozen spandex-wearing soldiers rushing around a corner. Wishing more than ever that he had a potty mouth, he took aim, pulled on the trigger, and held it. One second. The men knelt down. Two seconds. They took aim. At three seconds, Kevin released the trigger, sending a spray of icy shards at the soldiers. This time his aim wasn’t as precise. Many of the soldiers went down screaming as they were impaled by thick icicle-like shards. Kevin winced but didn’t let up.

  “Ikken Hissatsu. Ougi.”

  Kotohime shot forward like a tornado was under her feet. Her katana flashed in the light, a mere glimmer of liquid silver. Rotating, she slashed her katana horizontally in front of her. A ripple seemed to spread through the soldiers. Nothing seemed to happen at first. Then, without warning, a long cut opened up on all of the soldiers’ bodies. It traveled straight across their chest in a long line. Blood spurted from the open wounds as the troops fell to the ground.

  “They’re all down. Let’s go,” Mack said.

  They ran for the elevator, leaving behind the bloody hallway. After reaching it, they were given another long trip up. This time it was even worse because Justin, still not in his right mind, kept talking.

  “Hey, Kevin?”

  “Yes?”

  “Have you ever been tempted to play one of Eric’s pervy games?”

  Kevin sighed. “No, Justin, I have not been tempted to play Eric’s eroge.”

  “I guess not.” Justin chuckled. “You’ve got Lilian.”

  “And Iris-sama,” Kotohime added mirthfully. Cassy hissed at hearing those two names.

  “Iris?” Justin blinked. “She’s screwing Kevin?”

  Kevin blushed. Kotohime smiled. “Kevin-sama and Iris-sama had sex two nights ago.”

  Cassy’s angry cat-like hissing increased in intensity. Justin whistled. “Damn.”

  “I’ll say,” Mack added. “Way to go, Ladykiller.”

  “Can we not talk about my sex life, please?” Kevin spat, feeling the evidence of his shame burning his cheeks.

  The door opened with a ping, and Kevin, Mack, and Cassy were forced to hide behind Kotohime as she created another barrier.

  “Water Art: Aqua Aegis.”

  The bullets struck the water with a splash, then stilled before they could penetrate the barrier.

  “Switch to armor piercing rounds!”

  That doesn’t sound good.

  “I suggest you all duck,” Kotohime said as she let the shield drop.

  The soldiers switched from using their semi-automatic rifles to the larger rifles that had been slung across their backs. Kevin dropped to the ground, accidentally letting go of Justin, who grunted. Cassy and Mack also fell onto their stomachs. Kotohime did not. She stepped out of the elevator just as the soldiers opened fire.

  Then she danced.

  Kevin had seen Kotohime’s sword dances before. Back when Lilian had been kidnapped, Kotohime had danced when she’d fought Shinkuro, the Celestial Kyūbi. She’d held her ground then, and she more than held her ground now.

  She moved like an endlessly elegant stream. Her arms wove intricate patterns, the sword in her hand creating infinite streaks of silver. Sparks burst into existence several times as she sliced through a bullet. Each spark was accompanied by the bang of gunfire. Over and over and over guns rang out like crackling thunder, and over and over and over Kotohime cut through each and every bullet fired. Eventually, the guns clicked empty.

  That was when Kotohime struck back.

  “Ikken Hisatsu. Sen.”

  Kotohime shot forward like a bullet. A thousand flashes of light were all that Kevin could see. The next thing he knew, every enemy soldier that had been standing before them was now lying on the ground, blood leaking from innumerable wounds.

  Kevin felt the loss of life like a lightning bolt to the chest, but he’d already grown somewhat used to killing, so he shrugged the feelings of guilt off, telling himself that he was doing this for world peace. It helped, but only a little.

  “Can someone pick me up?” Justin asked, his voice sounding oddly lucid. “I hurt.”

  He seems to have picked up a verbal tick. I hope it doesn’t last.

  Lifting Justin back onto his shoulder as he rose to his feet, Kevin followed Kotohime out of the elevator and into the garage. Mack and Cassy guarded the rear, on the lookout for more enemies. Heather was waiting by the car.

  “Wow, that was pretty fast,” she said.

  “And we need to be faster still. Kiara and Phoebe did not manage to draw all of the attention away from us,” Kotohime informed her as Kevin rushed to the back and climbed in after Mack yanked the door open. He sat down after laying
Justin on the floor. Cassy sat beside him. Unlike before, she did not try nuzzling her face into his crotch, a fact for which he was very grateful.

  “Are you feeling well, Master? You’re looking a little pale.”

  “I guess I’m still not used to seeing that much death.”

  Kevin had been in many fights since the war started, and he’d even been forced to kill on quite a few occasions, but even with all that, he’d never seen that much killing in a single mission. It seemed as if Monstrang had done a better job of keeping him out of the most violent battles than Kevin had thought.

  With a loud vroom the vehicle’s engine started up. Kevin was knocked out of his thoughts as Kotohime sat on his other side and placed a calming hand on his knee.

  “You did well, Kevin-sama.”

  I could seriously fall for this woman right now.

  “Thank you.”

  “Hold on tight back there!” Heather shouted. “We’re gonna pick up Kiara and Phoebe, then we’re moving out!”

  Kevin flinched when the sound of tires squealing burst through his eardrums. As the vehicle tore across the garage, he tried to keep his mind on everything except the fact that they were letting a madwoman drive. He was so frightened by the gut-wrenching turns that he actually held onto Cassy as she glomped him with a frightened hiss.

  Despite his internal fear that Heather’s driving was going to get them all killed, the woman was actually quite skilled. She wove around vehicles until she reached the exit ramp, then hit the ramp without slowing down.

  A hand suddenly grabbing his leg caused him to look down. Justin was staring at him, his expression lucid but indecipherable.

  “You came to rescue me.”

  It was not a question.

  “Of course, I did. You’re still my friend. Besides, I have to punch you in the face for all the crap you put me through.”

  “Heh. I guess that’s fair.”

  “Hey, Kevin! You can have your touching reunion later,” Heather shouted. “I need you to do something for me!”

  “What’s that?”

  In response to his question, Heather tossed something at him. Kevin reflexively caught it. The object was a gray cylinder with a button on top.