A Fox's War

by Brandon Varnell

  Christine shook her head. “Kitsune are weird.”

  “I’d love to disagree with you, but I really can’t.”

  After entering the apartment, they moved into the living room, where Kevin put on the movie and they both sat back on the couch.

  Kevin loved this movie. While it didn’t make his list of top ten favorite anime, it was at the top of his favorite animated movies. The movie had been produced by Madhouse, an animation studio based in Tokyo. They were responsible for making many of his favorite series and movies, including Black Lagoon, Claymore, Death Note, Devil May Cry, Gunslinger Girl, Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, No Game No Life, Trigun, One Punch Man, and Wolf Children.

  As the movie started to play, Kevin slowly lost himself to the story—at least, until Christine placed her head on his lap.

  “W-what are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’m still tired.” Christine looked up at him and smiled.

  T-this is not good! She’s using my lap as a pillow. I’ve become a lap pillow!

  This wouldn’t have been a problem if the person using his lap as a pillow was Lilian or Iris. He’d even let Camellia use him as a lap pillow before. But there were reasons he was okay with those three using him as a lap pillow. He was intimate with Lilian and Iris, so he wasn’t bothered if they felt his erection, and Camellia’s personality was so childish that he simply couldn’t get aroused.

  That wasn’t the case here. He wasn’t dating Christine, and, even though her body might have been a little childish in terms of her figure, she was not childish in the least. It didn’t help that she was very pretty. He found her attractive in a different way than he found Iris and Lilian attractive.

  “B-but isn’t my lap uncomfortable?”

  “Nyo.” Christine’s grin was very un-Christine-like. “Nyour lap is very comfortable.”

  “Eeep!”

  Kevin squeaked when Christine shifted her head, which resulted in her bumping into something that had grown stiff.

  “Nya? What’s this?” Christine asked out loud as she began rubbing herself against Kevin’s crotch.

  Too much! This is way too much stimulation!

  On the verge of panic, Kevin leapt off the couch. Christine fell to the floor with a loud “Nya!” and a thud. Somehow, she managed to land on her feet. He barely had enough time to register her smile before she pounced on him.

  Oh…

  “Nyour not getting away from me,” Christine said with a Cheshire cat’s grin. She was so close that their noses were touching.

  She smells really good…

  Her scent invaded his nose. Christine normally had a frosty sort of scent, like mintos. Right now, her scent reminded him more of passion fruit. It was sweet and contained hints of spice. It also drove him nuts.

  This is not good. I need to get out of here before I do something stupid.

  “Ho…. what is this? There something hard underneath me…” Kevin groaned, his face glowing like the sun, as Christine rubbed herself against his crotch. “Are nyou getting aroused?”

  “Urk!”

  Panic overrode his mind. He didn’t care what happened now. He just knew that he needed to get out of there.

  Shoving the girl off him, Kevin scrambled to his feet and rushed for the door.

  “Oh, nyo nyou don’t!”

  Christine tried to stop him. She pounced. He was faster and swerved to avoid her. She flew forward, crashing into the kitchen table and knocking it over. Oddly enough, she still landed on her feet. However, by then it was too late.

  Kevin had already left.

  Lilian and Iris were returning home from the mall when they saw Kevin burst from the doorway and run down the road. Being in excellent physical condition, he ran quite fast, disappearing from sight mere seconds later.

  “I wonder what’s going on here?” Lilian murmured, glancing at Iris, who shrugged her shoulders.

  “Don’t look at me. I’ve been with you this whole time.”

  Now curious, Lilian and Iris entered the apartment. There, they found Christine sitting in front of a knocked over table, staring blankly at the door.

  “So…” Iris spoke into the silence. “… I’m guessing something hilarious and perverse happened just now and we missed it.”

  “Nya.”

  “Nya?” Lilian turned her head to look at Iris.

  Her sister grinned. “Why don’t you go speak with the stud? I’ll deal with Christy.”

  Lilian looked back and forth between Iris and Christine, then slowly nodded. “All right.”

  As Lilian left the apartment, no doubt chasing after Kevin, Iris walked up to Christine, or rather, Neko, and knelt down. “Wanna tell me what happened?”

  Heaving a deep sigh, Neko allowed her triangular ears to pop out from her hair. Likewise, her split tail snuck out from underneath her lolita dress, the frilly cloth ruffling as it moved up to reveal some of her butt.

  “I tried to use the straightforward approach,” she said.

  Iris understood immediately. “Yeah… that’s not gonna work with Kevin.”

  “I noticed.”

  “The problem is that the stud still has trouble accepting advances from anyone whose name is not Lilian Pnevma. Even I have to remind him that Lilian isn’t the only one in this relationship sometimes, though he is trying to be better,” Iris appended that bit at the end.

  “Nya?” Neko tilted her head. “So how come he lets nyou have fun with him but nyot me?”

  “Because I was interested in Lilian first maybe?” Iris shrugged. “I’m not completely sure myself, but I really think it’s just because Lilian fought so hard to add me.” She paused. “There is also the fact that Lilian and I went into heat during our birthday. I think that pushed him into doing what he did. Anyway, you’re fighting an uphill battle, especially since your other half won’t admit to how she feels since Kevin rejected her once already.”

  “Nya.”

  Iris stood up and offered Neko her hand. “Anyway, what are you going to do now?”

  Accepting the hand, Neko allowed Iris to pull her to her feet. “I think I’ll give this body back to Christine for the moment. There’s not much that I can do right now.”

  “That’s too bad,” Iris admitted. “I was hoping to see something interesting happen.”

  “Maybe next time,” Neko said with a look that promised future mischief.

  Kevin wandered through the park.

  He didn’t know how long he’d been there, walking aimlessly. The light that illuminated Neo Seiryuu didn’t dim with the passage of time. Still, it felt like he’d been out for a good while.

  What was up with Christine?

  She’d been acting really weird back there—not just unusual but completely different from her normal self. It was almost like she’d been another person entirely.

  Could that have been her bakeneko half?

  He knew that Christine was half-bakeneko. He’d seen her grow cat ears and sprout a tail that split in two during the mission to rescue Heather and Phoebe. However, he hadn’t realized that being a yuki-onna/bakeneko hybrid meant having something resembling a split personality. If that was her neko side, then what did that say about her feelings for him? Surely, she didn’t still like him even though he’d already told her that it wasn’t possible.

  No, that’s not possible. I broke her heart.

  It hadn’t been a pleasant task. Christine was his friend, and he was loath to hurt her, but he also understood that he hadn’t been left with any other choice.

  “Beloved!”

  A voice called out to him as he denied any and all possibility of Christine still holding feelings for him. Stopping, Kevin turned around. Lilian was running toward him, waving him down. He waited until she’d caught up to him before speaking.

  “What’s up, Lilian?”

  “What’s up with you?” Lilian returned fire. “I just saw you run out of the apartment, and Christine was acting really weird. Did something happen?”
r />   “Ah.” Kevin flushed with embarrassment. “You saw that, did you?”

  “Not the whole thing. I just saw you running out of the apartment.”

  Grabbing Lilian by the hand, Kevin led her to the nearest tree. He settled down, and she sat between his legs, allowing him to wrap his arms around her stomach and rest his chin on her shoulder.

  “So…” Lilian started.

  He sighed. Then he informed her about what happened between him and Christine. Lilian didn’t say anything during his recounting of the event. When he finished, she remained silent for several long seconds.

  “That doesn’t sound like Christine,” she said.

  “I noticed.” Kevin couldn’t help but make a slightly sarcastic comment.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not even sure what happened.”

  A thoughtful sounding hum reverberated from Lilian’s throat. “I really do think this is a sign that she still has feelings for you.”

  “I certainly hope not.” Kevin grimaced.

  Lilian paused, and then in a soft voice asked, “Would it really be that bad if she still likes you?”

  “I… yes. Of course it would be bad.”

  Kevin couldn’t return her feelings. He was already in a relationship with Lilian, and Iris’s inclusion already caused a mixture of feelings that he had trouble coping with. Adding Christine to their bizarre three-way would just make everything more complicated.

  “… I guess,” Lilian muttered. “So, what are you gonna do?”

  “You mean aside from pretend this incident never happened?” When Lilian turned her head and gave him a mildly reproachful look, he turned sheepish. “U-uh, I suppose I’ll just see how she reacts when we return home and figure out what to do from there.”

  Lilian sighed as though she was disappointed. “I guess that’s good enough for the moment. Should we head back now?”

  Kevin thought about it, then tightened his arms around Lilian, who gasped in surprise when he leaned down and kissed her neck. “I’d rather not return home right now.”

  Leaning further against him, Lilian tilted her head to allow him greater access to her throat. She hummed as he gently ran his hands over her stomach. “What do you want to do?”

  “Oh, I can think of a few things.”

  Lyrical sounds were produced by Lilian as Kevin kissed her shoulder, then her arm. Shifting against him, Lilian turned until she was resting sideways. He took her hand, kissing her knuckles, her palm, the back of her hand, her fingers. Then he trailed kisses back up her arm and shoulders.

  A pair of hands soon grasped his head. He let them pull him forward into Lilian’s waiting lips. As her tongue became entwined with his, Kevin slowly felt his thoughts fading away, until nothing but thoughts of the beautiful creature in his arms remained.

  It’s a good thing this part of the city gets so little traffic, was the last thing Kevin thought before his mind was consumed by the desire to hear Lilian’s beautiful voice.

  Justin didn’t know how long he’d been sitting in that little room, with its single window, poor lighting, and small table. He suspected that it had been at least several hours. The interrogation had taken a lot of time, and Mack, his interrogator, had been quite thorough in his questioning. He’d asked everything from what sort of operations Justin had taken part in to a complete personality profiling of Commander Paine.

  “Okay,” Mack sighed. He looked as tired as Justin felt. “I only have one more question before we can call it a night.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Why did you decide to betray the Sons and Daughters of Humanity?”

  Justin didn’t answer at first, not because he couldn’t, but because he wasn’t sure how to adequately describe the reason for his decision with words.

  “I guess… it’s because I wanted to become my own person,” he said at last. “I’ve never really agreed with the idea that yokai were enemies of humanity that needed to be eliminated. I fought only because it was the only thing I knew. It’s what I was trained since birth to do. But I… I don’t want to be that person anymore. I don’t want to have someone making all my decisions for me. That’s why I’m no longer with the Sons and Daughters of Humanity.”

  Mack nodded as he wrote Justin’s answer down on a sheet of paper. When he was finished, he placed it on a stack of papers, which he then tapped against the table to straighten.

  Those papers contained all of the answers to the questions that Justin had been asked. He imagined that they would eventually be analyzed by several other people.

  “All right. I think we’re done here. You can—”

  Mack’s words were interrupted by an alarm going off. As a siren cut the air and lights from the alarm flashed red, he and Justin leapt to their feet.

  “What’s going on?” asked Justin.

  “Someone’s infiltrated one of our facilities,” Mack growled, grabbing his communicator and putting it near his mouth. “What’s going on?!”

  Static crackled on the other end before a voice said, “Someone has hacked into one of our command consoles! They’ve hold themselves up in the command room. We’ve tried breaking in, but they’ve barricaded the door!”

  “What are they trying to access?”

  “It’s the data that we got from the USB drive! They’re trying to delete everything!”

  “Damn it! I authorize the use of force! I don’t care if you have to break down the wall! Do not let them erase any of that data!”

  “Yes sir!”

  Justin watched Mack rush out of the door. Following the usagi, who raced down the hall like a rabbit on a sugar high, he wondered about the person who was trying to erase the data that he’d given to Kevin.

  Is it Athena?

  It took Athena fifteen minutes to break through the tower’s security. It took another five to pull up the information that Justin had given to them. By that point in time, everyone had already been alerted to her presence, and there was now a group outside trying to break in. While she’d sealed the door shut, it wouldn’t be long before they used brute force.

  I need to hurry, she thought analytically.

  Just then, the wall to her left blew open. Were it within her nature, Athena would have sworn when a mixture of yokai and humans burst into the room.

  “Freeze or we’ll open fire!”

  The humans were carrying guns, and all of the yokai had transformed into their original forms. They were all low-level yokai, fortunately. She would be able to take them out easily.

  “Hey! Wait a second! This person is a just a child!”

  Everyone hesitated. Athena used that moment to attack. Throwing herself at the nearest person, she leapt at them and slashed their throat with a knife she’d hidden in her sleeve. The human male gurgled as blood poured from his wound. As he fell to the floor, she grabbed his rifle and aimed it at the nearest yokai, shooting them in the head, then laying suppression fire in a wide arc. The recoil from the gun jerked her shoulder, but the act had served its purpose. Everyone was forced to duck or find cover. Now was her chance to escape.

  She rushed out of the room, through the hole that had been blown into the wall, and burst into the hallway.

  “There’s someone running away!”

  “Is that the hacker?!”

  “A kid?!”

  Several other people came running down the corridor. Athena turned on a dime and sprinted away from them. She heard shouting come from behind her, but she ignored it and turned a corner. It was empty. With her feet pounding against the metal surface, she raced across it as quickly as possible. She was almost at her exit point when two other people appeared before her.

  “It is you!” Justin shouted.

  Athena didn’t respond with words. She whipped a knife out and tossed it at him. Justin moved his head, allowing him to avoid it. The one next to her target, an usagi, leapt forward and tried to contend with her, but she slid underneath his feet.

&
nbsp; “Oh, no you don’t!”

  Justin attacked. She barely avoided his straight jab, using her flexibility to contort her body and create a bridge. Athena grunted as she lifted her legs and kicked at him. Justin leapt back, but that had given her the space she needed to leap back onto her feet.

  She felt cold steel on her hand as she grabbed another knife and tossed it at him. Justin dodged it again. This would’ve been a great chance to attack him, but with the usagi already coming in again, she knew that her only choice was to escape. With that in mind, she unloaded all of her throwing weapons at the pair, forcing them to dodge, then bolted for her entry point—-a hole in the glass window that she’d cut out when she snuck in.

  “Damn it! She’s escaping!”

  Athena’s stomach leapt into her throat as she fell. The ground quickly rose to greet her. Her knees protested as she landed on her feet, though she bent her knees and rolled forward to absorb most of the impact. Without a backwards glance, she disappeared into the underground city.

  In another section of Neo Seiryuu, Lindsay was racing past several buildings with a nine-tailed fox at her side. She was already dressed in her magical girl outfit. The skirt fluttered around her thighs as she ran.

  “I am sensing another malicious entity up ahead,” Future Lilian informed her. “Hmm… this one is…”

  “Is something wrong?” asked Lindsay.

  “No.” Future Lilian shook her head. “Nothing is wrong.”

  The two of them burst into the clearing and saw the monster known as a malicious entity, a large creature that looked like a mass of darkness. Lindsay had noticed it before. However, these malicious entities all appeared different from one another. She didn’t know why.

  “There’s your next target,” Future Lilian said. “I’ll leave this to you.”

  “Okay.”

  Lindsay had been getting much better at this whole magical girl gig. She didn’t even hesitate to speed ahead and charge at the monster. While running, she visualized what she wanted and her wand began glowing.

  “Magical Actualization. Start up. Inferno.”