A Fox's War

by Brandon Varnell

  “On the count of three, push that button,” Heather told him.

  Kevin could already guess what this thing was. Nodding to Heather, he closed his eyes and counted down. Three. Two. One. Pressing the button, Kevin nearly shrieked at the blast of numerous explosions going off in quick succession. Turning around, he saw that the entire base was collapsing on itself like a house of cards.

  “How many explosives did you use?” he asked.

  “All the ones in my bag, so… about forty pounds of C4.”

  Kevin deadpanned. “And you didn’t think that was a little too much?”

  Through the rearview mirror, Kevin could see Heather’s solemn explosion. “In the words of Michael Bay, you can never have too many explosions.”

  “Michael Bay never said that!”

  Sitting in his secure command bunker, Commander Paine listened to the report from one of his subordinates—some random lackey—as he explained their situation.

  “On top of prisoner number 2234A323 being successfully extracted, several dozen pounds of C4 were detonated in our main garage. The entire western half of our facility has collapsed on itself and will take several months to repair. We also incurred heavy losses, with over three hundred and sixty-two casualties and one hundred and sixty fatalities.”

  Commander Paine grunted at the loss of life. “Have our forces focus on locating the survivors and rendering first aid. We also need to gather the dead and give them a proper funeral.” That would further endear him to his subordinates, and he could use this incident as a means to incite their rage against the yokai who’d killed so many humans.

  “Yes, sir.”

  As the communication line shutdown, Commander Paine stood up and made his way out of the office. The metallic thunk-thunk of his two guards’ footsteps echoed behind him. He ignored them and strode down the hall and into an elevator. After sliding his keycard through a small slot on the side, he stepped back and waited as the elevator took him down to the deepest levels of his Cortez base.

  As the door slid open, Commander Paine stepped into a subterranean room. It was not a massive room, but it was large enough to house several giant cylindrical containers filled with water. Within those containers floated lifeforms. Children. Much like codename Justin, these children had all been artificially created, bred and born for a single purpose. Unlike Justin, however, these children were perfect.

  “Ah, Commander Paine. Have you come to see the specimens?” an older man asked. The one standing before him stood with a noticeable stoop, as if he spent far too much time leaning over a console. His gray hair was long and went down past his shoulders. He wore a white lab coat on his lanky frame, which seemed a perfect match for his ghostly white skin.

  “I have a mission for one of them,” he confirmed. “Activate project 0010 ATHENA. I have a mission for her.”

  Six

  Project Athena

  While the fighting had calmed down in Phoenix for the most part, that did not mean they had ceased entirely. Both the Sons and Daughters of Humanity and the Yamata Alliance occasionally still sent contingents into the city. Monstrang had assumed they were probing into his territory to try and locate Neo Seiryuu. It was a useless endeavor. They would never find the base unless they had access to a yokai more powerful than the Four Saints, but that didn’t stop them from trying.

  Thoe and Euryale were among several of the forces that had been sent out to deal with the latest group that had invaded their territory. It was the Yamata Alliance this time. Thoe didn’t know why, but the yokai faction seemed to have become more active in their area as of late.

  Twirling a spear around her like it was an extension of her own body, Thoe cut down several kamikiri that tried to cut her open with their scissor-like hands. A quick thrust impaled one through the chest. She yanked the weapon out, blood spraying everywhere, then twirled to the left and sliced another one, drawing a line through its flesh from left shoulder to right hip.

  Kamikiri were rather weak yokai. While their scissors would cut flesh as easily as any blade, they did not possess that much physical strength. It didn’t help that all of them were rather small. Most barely came up to her waist. That being said, while kamikiri weren’t strong individually, they could cause a problem in large numbers.

  Thoe grimaced as several dozen kamikiri poured in through a number of alleys. There must have been at least one hundred of them. Looking at Euryale, whose heavy breathing told her all she needed to know, she made a snap decision.

  “We should retreat and find a choke point.”

  “Sounds like… a good idea.”

  Fighting a retreating battle, Thoe and Euryale swiftly left Peoria Avenue and moved down 23rd street. There was a sports complex up ahead, and if they could fortify a hallway inside of it, they would be able to force the kamikiri into something more closely resembling single person battles.

  While they were retreating, Thoe heard a frightened wail pierce the air. The voice sounded young. If she had to guess, the person who’d screamed couldn’t have been more than nine or ten.

  “Euryale! Cover me!”

  “W-wait, Thoe! Don’t go off on—damn it!”

  Thoe darted forward, her spear spinning, cutting down kamikiri left and right. She followed the source of the screams as she danced around her foes. She winced as several cuts appeared on her skin. They weren’t deep, so she ignored them. The scent of a hundred unwashed yokai covered in blood filled her nose as she ran into an alley.

  At the end of the alley were several kamikiri who’d broken off from the main pack. They were surrounding a small figure that was huddled on the ground.

  Letting out a soundless battle cry, Thoe ran up to the wall and jumped. She ran along the wall. When she began to lose traction, she leapt off and launched herself at the kamikri. Her first attack was a downward slash that cut through one kamikiri’s face. Twirling around, she launched another attack that carved her opponent straight through his ribcage. Flicking the blood off, she stepped back as Euryale leapt onto the shoulders of one kamikiri, using her powerful leg muscles to snap the yokai’s neck.

  “Nice of you to join me,” Thoe said.

  Euryale scowled. “I didn’t have much choice! I thought we were going to the sports complex.”

  “Plans change.”

  Dispatching of the last enemy immediately next to them, Thoe turned and knelt down next to the figure while Euryale stood guard.

  “Hey, there,” she said softly so as not to startle the person. “Are you okay? Don’t worry, we’re not here to hurt you.”

  The person who she and Euryale had rescued was a young girl. Her blond hair was so pale it almost looked silver. Eyes that were reminiscent of the sky peered out from underneath thick bangs. She had a cute little button nose and a small cleft chin. Thoe wanted to take her home with them.

  “You won’t hurt me?” the girl asked.

  “A little help here!” Euryale shouted as she fended off several kamikiri that tried to break through. She was using two swords to great effect, spinning around like a dancer as she cut her enemies open.

  “What’s your name, little one?” Thoe ignored her companion.

  “It’s Athena.”

  “Athena. That’s a very pretty name.” Standing up, Thoe smiled at the little girl. “Don’t worry, Athena. We’ll protect you.”

  Turning, Thoe twirled her spear around in complicated patterns as she joined Euryale.

  “I can’t believe you decided to take us so far out of the way just to save a single girl.”

  “You know I could never leave someone so cute to fend for themselves.” Thoe shrugged her shoulders. It was the only action she could take before the kamikiri bore down on them in earnest. Then she became lost in a sea of bloodshed.

  “Give me a Magical Shooter!”

  Magical Actualization. Start up. Shooter.

  Lindsay pointed her wand at Future Lilian. Light burst from the tip, which then formed into a sphere that shot at her nine
-tailed opponent like lightning. A golden shield rose up to meet it. The lightning shooter attack splashed harmlessly against the shield, dispersing.

  She and Lindsay were in a clearing far from any residences. The field they were using was actually one of the agriculture plants that Monstrang had several yokai growing to keep Neo Seiryuu self-sufficient. She had set up a barrier around them, one that not even a member of the Four Saints could penetrate, so there was no chance of them being discovered.

  “Good. Now make a shield.”

  Magical Actualization. Start up. Barrier.

  Closing her eyes and bringing her wand up to her face, Lindsay visualized a barrier appearing before her. As she conjured an image within her mind, light emitted from her wand, which soon spread out of it like streamers in the wind. The streamers quickly congealed together in front of her, forming a barrier of ethereal silver energy. A sphere of golden youki slammed into the barrier, cracking it but not breaking through.

  “Ufufufu, not bad. That wasn’t bad at all. However, you still have a long way to go before we can call that combat ready. The time it takes for you to conjure the barrier is too long, and your attacks take too much time to be effective. Against those golems that you’ve been fighting, this might be enough, but against sentient opponents, you have much work to do.”

  Lindsay frowned at Future Lilian’s assessment of her abilities. “I thought the whole point of this was to be capable of defeating those golems.”

  “No, the golems are merely a symptom to a much larger problem.”

  Actually, the golems were her own creation, and she was just using them to train Lindsay, but her friend didn’t need to know that.

  “A larger problem?” Lindsay blinked. “What kind of problem are we talking about? And if that’s the case, then why is an ordinary high school student like me the one dealing with it? Shouldn’t we let Monstrang and the others know?”

  Lilian shook her head. “Monstrang cannot deal with this threat, and that is because… this is something that only a magical girl can solve.”

  “Don’t say that with such a straight face!” Lindsay shouted.

  Thoe stood in the hallway of a hospital, arms crossed, index finger tapping an impatient rhythm against her bicep.

  After rescuing Athena, she and Euryale had retreated and let the other yokai fighting alongside them deal with the kamikiri. They’d made their way back to Neo Seiryuu. Athena had been in complete awe of their underground home. However, before she could take the girl home with her, Polydora, who was in command of their squad until Phoebe returned from her mission, ordered her to take Athena to the hospital for a checkup.

  That was how she found herself waiting in the middle of a hallway.

  How long is something like this supposed to take? Surely giving one little girl a checkup shouldn’t take that long?

  Even as she thought this, the door to Athena’s room opened and the doctor stepped out and walked up to her.

  “Thank you for waiting,” he said.

  “No problem. Is the checkup done now?”

  “The checkup is complete,” the doctor said, looking down at a clipboard. “There are a few anomalies that I found with her physiology. I’ll need a few days to look this data over and see what it means. However, there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with her.”

  “Does that mean I can take her home with me?”

  “I would clear it with customs, but if they say it’s okay, then I don’t see a problem with it. In either event, we’re done here, so you can go in and grab her.”

  Thoe nodded, thanked the man, and hurried into the hospital room. It was a mostly normal room, the kind she’d expect to see in a hospital. The difference lay in the bed, which looked more like a tube with an advanced scanner. Athena was putting on her shoes.

  “Hey, Athena.”

  “Auntie Thoe!” Athena grinned as she finished lacing her shoes. Thoe giggled at being called “Auntie.”

  “How was your check up? That doctor didn’t do anything weird, did he?”

  Athena shook her head. “No. He didn’t do anything weird.”

  “That’s good. Are you ready to head home with me now?”

  “Yes!”

  Smiling, Thoe held out her hand for Athena to grab, and together, the two of them left the hospital.

  Kevin arrived at Neo Seiryuu on December 24th, Christmas Eve.

  Rather than head straight home, he went to the hospital, where Justin had been allocated due to his injuries. Kotohime had already gone home, and Kiara had gone to deliver the report. Phoebe, despite wanting to stay with him, had also left, saying that she needed to check on her people and see how they’d been in her absence. The only person who stayed with him was Cassy.

  “Nya, Master?”

  Why do so many people call me that?

  “Yes?”

  “How have you been, um, since that time?”

  “You mean since you and that kitsune assassin tried to kill my mate?”

  “Urk!”

  “I’ve been fine, I guess. With the war going on, my life has been essentially derailed, but I’m getting by,” Kevin answered as Cassy pounded on her chest as though trying to dislodge a hairball as she coughed.

  “T-that’s good, nya.”

  Kevin wondered how Justin was doing. He’d passed out about an hour after they escaped from the Cortez base. Kotohime had healed all of his physical injuries, but she’d said that he likely had several mental scars, which were keeping him unconscious.

  Squirming beside him, Cassy, a soft pink hue lighting up her cheeks, said, “Nya, Master. After this, I was wondering if you wanted to…” Kevin turned his head as the woman’s voice grew softer until she was mumbling incomprehensibly under her breath.

  “What did you say?”

  “Nya! I-it’s nothing.”

  “Hm.”

  He was pretty certain that he knew what Cassy wanted to ask him, and he was kind of glad that she’d seemingly lost her nerve. There was no clean way to break it to her, but while she might have been interested in him, he wasn’t interested in her. She was pretty, certainly. However, he knew nothing about her, aside from the fact that she was the cat he’d taken in when he was a child. That was not enough for him to desire intimacy with her.

  Though it’s apparently enough for every yokai I’ve ever met.

  Kevin wondered why yokai seemed to fall in love so easily. Granted, he was going off his own experiences, but it seemed like most of the yokai that he met fell in love with him on their first meeting, or was he just being arrogant?

  Let’s see, there’s Lilian and Christine, though I am kind of hoping she doesn’t still love me. Hum. Cassy also seems to feel something for me, but I don’t know why. There’s also Hina. She tried to force herself on me back in Los Angeles. Then there’s Phoebe. I think she just wants a baby, but still…

  There were a lot of yokai who wanted him for something. Oddly enough, none of the human girls he knew liked him that much. He was friends with Lindsay, but she was apparently into chicks, which made him wonder what her interest in him had been. None of the human girls he knew, like Lindsay’s soccer team or the track and field girls, would give him the time of day.

  Just then, the door to the hospital room opened and a doctor stepped out. His floppy brown ears and bushy tail gave away his species.

  “How’s Justin, doctor?”

  “Your friend is fine, for the most part,” the inu doctor said. “He seems to have suffered innumerable physical injuries, but those were healed by, if I had to guess, a River Kitsune of considerable talent.”

  Kevin had to contain his grin at the compliment that the inu had paid to Kotohime.

  “In either event, he is fine now. He’s currently sleeping, which is what he needs the most, especially since he was hiding a USB device in his rectum.”

  … Silence. A crow began cawing in the distance, which was odd because they were underground—and in a hospital.

  “I’m so
rry,” Kevin started, his face blank. “What did you say?”

  “I said that your friend was hiding a USB drive inside of his rectum. His butt hole. His sphincter. His—”

  “I heard you the first time!”

  “Then you should not have asked me to repeat myself.”

  “Tch!”

  As Kevin clicked his tongue, the inu doctor produced a plastic baggy from within his white lab coat. Sitting securely inside of the baggy was a small device shaped like a rectangle with rounded edges.

  “In any case, here is the USB drive that was stuck inside of your friend’s—”

  “I don’t need to hear it!”

  “—ass hole. You should probably deliver this to Davin Monstrang.”

  Kevin glared at the inu doctor as he tentatively took the bag. He felt a shudder course through him as he held it. Just knowing that the object inside of this bag had been shoved up another person’s butt made him green.

  After pocketing the USB drive, Kevin left the hospital.

  “Master.”

  It had been a thankless task, one that he hoped he never had to do again. Even now, just thinking about touching something that touched something which had been shoved up someone’s butt hole made him want to vomit. Fortunately, he had other things on his mind.

  “Master?”

  Meandering down the paved pathway, Kevin let his gaze wander across the expansive greenery and buildings that surrounded him. Neo Seiryuu was an underground city, so there was no sun. However, artificial lights had been created to simulate sunlight. They turned off during the night. Since they were lights, there were no sunsets down here.

  “Hello? Earth to Master. Come in Master.”

  Now that he was back, he planned to speak with Lilian, which was all well and good, but he didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry for sleeping with your sister,” sounded weird. He didn’t even know if that was the right thing to say. Maybe if he, Lilian, and Iris hadn’t been having sex, that sort of apology would make more sense. The problem was that they were sexually active together, all three of them.