A Fox's Alliance (American Kitsune Book 10)

by Brandon Varnell

“Well,” Iris sniffed, “that was anticlimactic.”

  ***

  Lilian felt like she had taken on the bulk work of their enemies. Unlike Kevin, who was only facing one, and Iris who only had to deal with two, she was fighting against three tanuki. She wasn’t really sure what was up with that. Were they attacking her because she was the main character’s first love interest? Maybe they thought they could take her hostage or something? It was a stupid idea, and one that she would be sure to disabuse them of.

  “Gomu Gomu no Extension!”

  Remaining tried and true to her favorite shōnen hero, Lilian used the extension technique like a certain rubber man. Two of the three tanuki dodged her tails, while the last one realized her tails wouldn’t go near him and charged forward.

  Her tails wrapped around two tables, then she stopped extending her tails and allowed them to retract. Since they were wrapped around the tables, instead of actually retracting, they pulled her forward, turning into a makeshift slingshot.

  “Lilian Heel Stomp!”

  “Wha—BLEGGGH!”

  The unfortunate victim of her attack was the tanuki who hadn’t dodged because he’d thought she was attacking his friend. He had run at her, as if hoping to attack her before she could react. Now, instead of being the one to attack her, he was on the receiving end of her attack. Her sandal-clad feet slammed mercilessly into his face. Arterial fluids sprayed from his nose and mouth as he flew backwards like a missile, smacking into the wall, which dented as he bounced off of it and fell to the floor.

  He didn’t get back up.

  “W-what the hell?! She just pounded Fred’s face in!”

  “S-she’s a monster!”

  Strange words coming from a tanuki.

  “Ha!” Lilian grinned as she struck a suitably heroic pose. “Give up now, losers! None of you can stand up to my awesome technique!”

  “It’s not your technique!” Kevin shouted as he fought against the tanuki leader. “You stole it from a manga!”

  “U-ugh.” Lilian grabbed her chest as if someone had shot an arrow through it. “T-that is just too harsh, Beloved… even if it technically is true.”

  The two tanuki left standing decided to use her distracted state to launch an attack. Both of them sent an impressive blast of wind her way. Their plan was to no doubt smack her with a wind technique so powerful that she would be sent flying and slamming into the wall behind her.

  She had other plans.

  The wind slammed into Lilian, and then seemingly went straight through her. Before the two tanuki could even contemplate what they’d just seen, the Lilian several feet away disappeared, and a new Lilian appeared in front of them, the tips of her tails glowing with an ethereal white light.

  “Time to sleep, you two. Celestial Art: Illusory Sleep.”

  The two tanuki stumbled as they were suddenly overcome with a powerful compulsion to sleep. Their eyes drooped and their shoulders slumped. One of them rubbed their head, as if trying to fight off a migraine. The other slapped his cheeks, no doubt hoping that doing so would keep him from falling asleep.

  Lilian frowned when, after two whole minutes, the two still remained on their feet.

  “Gomu Gomu Iron Fist!”

  Using the extension technique again, Lilian’s tails quickly went from two feet long to three yards long. Both tails coiled at the end until they formed a circle that somewhat resembled a fist. And then, without preamble, she slammed both fist-shaped tails on top of the two tanuki’s heads. The pair crashed face-first into the tile, which dented underneath them, abrasions spreading across the floor like an intricate web.

  Lilian grinned, feeling quite proud of herself as she stared at the two twitching tanuki.

  “How do you two like my new technique?” she asked the unconscious pair. “I call it Gomu Gomu Iron Fist!”

  “Now you’re just combining two different techniques from two different anime together,” Kevin shouted. “And don’t mix Japanese with English! It sounds stupid!”

  Lilian’s shoulders slumped.

  “… Mugyu…”

  “Stop using other people’s catchphrases!”

  ***

  Kevin squared off with the leader of the tanuki gang. Truthfully, the tanuki didn’t really look like a gang leader. If Kevin were to go by human appearances, then the man before him was a middle-aged man with gray sideburns and a receding hairline. He looked more like the kind of person you’d find working as a grocery store manager than the leader of a gang. Even the clothes he wore underneath his tan coat made Kevin think grocery store manager. After all, what kind of gang leader wore khaki pants and a white, albeit dirty, button up shirt?

  “You damn human!”

  The tanuki snarled as he sent a jet of wind in Kevin’s direction.

  Kevin couldn’t see the attack, as wind had no form, but he could feel the currents of air as they suddenly accelerated. He juked to the left, then to the right. The tanuki howled and waved his arms like a madman orchestrating a symphony. The next blast of wind tore the ground in front of Kevin apart. He avoided it by rolling along the ground, getting out of its range. Kevin then came back up and tried to steadily progress closer to the tanuki.

  Unfortunately, the tanuki seemed intent on not letting him close the gap. He sent blast after blast of powerful winds at Kevin, who was forced to weave around a series of invisible attacks. All around him objects were blasted to pieces. A chair shattered into wood chips. A table exploded, the metal twisting as it flipped through the air before stabbing into the wall. The people who were present during this fight screamed and tried to run away.

  This is just great. Of all the times for me to leave my guns in the car.

  Kevin felt like he should have learned his lesson long ago. How many times had he nearly been killed by yōkai randomly showing up like this? Ten? Twenty? Sometimes it seemed like 100 times. Yet even now, it seemed that he still hadn’t learned his lesson.

  Whatever. I don’t need my guns to beat this guy.

  This tanuki clearly wasn’t a fighter. He threw around his wind ability like a rank amateur, sending blast after blast of wind at Kevin, as if hoping he would hit Kevin if he kept up a constant assault. However, even though Kevin couldn’t “see” the wind, he was still more than able to dodge it.

  “Damn you! Hold still!”

  “I can’t believe you just asked me to hold still. Do you know how stupid that is? What person in their right mind is going to stand there like an idiot and take your attacks?”

  “Raaaa!”

  “Woah!”

  Clearly upset from Kevin’s constant dodging, the tanuki spun around, whipping his tail in Kevin’s direction.

  A massive burst of wind nearly slammed into Kevin. It clipped his side as he was dodging, causing him to spin. Rather than let himself be taken down by this, he used the rotation to roll across the floor. As he came out of his roll, he grabbed onto the nearest item he could find—a piece of broken wood—jumped back onto his feet, and chucked it at the tanuki. Rageful and therefore unprepared, the tanuki couldn’t respond to the threat in time, and the wood fragment bounced off his head.

  Kevin used that as a distraction, running for the yōkai in a burst of speed. The tanuki saw him and tried to send another wave of wind at him, but by that point, Kevin could already predict what it would do. He went down onto his knees, sliding along the floor as he did the mambo. He could feel a powerful gust of wind pass over him, then he was clear, skipping back up to his feet and closing the distance between him and the tanuki.

  “What the—”

  The yōkai didn’t even have time to blink before Kevin headbutted him.

  “Gaa!”

  The tanuki stumbled back, but he didn’t get far. Kevin latched onto his hand and yanked him forward. The tanuki folded over Kevin’s knee, coughing out air and spittle, until Kevin launched a powerful straight into the tanuki’s left cheek. Falling to the ground, the tanuki tried to get back up, but Kevin rushed over to him
and kicked him in the face. Hard. The yōkai went limp, falling to the ground, his head smacking the tile with an audible crack.

  Standing over the now unconscious yōkai, Kevin took several deep breaths. The adrenaline was quickly running out of his system, and he could feel exhaustion settling in—along with pain. All of the little aches and bruises that he’d ignored during the fight could now be felt. The clipped shoulder stung. His left arm was bruised from when he’d rolled across the floor. His chest also hurt, but that was merely the ache that came from a sudden rush of oxygen filling the lungs, not injury.

  Wiping the sweat from his forehead before it could sting his eyes, Kevin turned his attention to Lilian and Iris. Both of them were already done. They stood over their defeated opponents, all of whom were already tied up with rope. Kevin sighed, then grabbed his limp opponent by the arm and dragged the tanuki over to them.

  “Let’s tie this one up, too,” Kevin said.

  “Okay! I’ve got plenty of rope. Just set him in there with the others.”

  Kevin thought Lilian was being way too cheerful, but he was too tired to tease her about it. He did as he was told, and soon, the tanuki leader was tied up with his gang. As Lilian cheerfully hogtied, or rather, as she re-hogtied, the tanuki gang, Kevin finally looked at their surroundings.

  McDonalds was a wreck. Tables had been demolished. Booths decimated. Fragments littered the floor—scattered debris from the powerful wind attacks their foes had launched. Several walls had actually crumbled, their remains barely standard. There were a lot of injured.

  “What should we do now, Beloved?” Lilian bit her lip.

  “How about leave before the military comes?” Iris suggested.

  “We can’t leave like this.” Kevin shook his head. “Not when there are so many injured people here. If nothing else, we should at least do what we can to help before leaving. Besides,” he glanced at the unconscious group of tanuki, “I want to know why they were doing this.”

  Iris sighed. “You’re way too nice for your own good.”

  “If you say so. Lilian? Would you mind coming with me?”

  “Of course!”

  “Iris, keep an eye on the prisoners.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Go on and do what you shōnen heroes do. Don’t mind me.”

  Kevin’s first order of business was healing the father of that family. The man in question was near the back, leaning against the wall, surrounded by his wife and two daughters. He looked dazed. His eyes were murky and unfocused, sure signs of a concussion.

  “Excuse me,” Kevin said, getting the wife’s attention. The woman turned around, paused, then shrieked when her eyes landed on Lilian.

  “S-stay back!”

  “That was rude,” Lilian huffed. “We’re just here to help.”

  “Ma’am,” Kevin tried to placate the woman, “I understand why you might be frightened, but Lilian’s only here to heal your husband. He has a concussion, and if he doesn’t get that looked at, then he could be in jeopardy. Please, let us help.”

  The woman bit her lip. Hesitation shone within her eyes. Kevin and Lilian waited on baited breath, knowing that should the woman decide to deny their help, it would likely damage her husband even more. They also knew, however, that they could not force help on others. It was one thing to help someone who asked for it. It was another thing entirely to help someone who never wanted it in the first place.

  “O-okay. I-if you can heal him, then we’ll be very grateful.”

  “Of course! Leave it to me!” Lilian thumped her chest. For just a moment, Kevin thought the woman’s eyes flashed with envy. He couldn’t blame her. Lilian had an amazing chest, and the way it jiggled when she thumped it? Absolute perfection.

  The two girls, young children who couldn’t have been out of elementary school, moved away, and Lilian knelt next to the man. Kevin stood beside the woman as Lilian’s tails lit up, so he noticed when the man’s wife tensed.

  “Relax, she’s just using a healing spell.”

  “A healing spell?” The woman glanced at him.

  He chuckled. “Well, I call it a spell, but it’s actually a kitsune technique. Lilian’s a Celestial Kitsune. One of her abilities is to heal others.”

  “Oh… I see.”

  The glow on Lilian’s tails died down, and the man groaned as he came to. Lilian stood up and moved to stand beside Kevin. She wore a gentle smile as she looked at the woman and her daughters.

  “He’s all healed. He still needs some rest, but he’s not in any danger.”

  “T-thank you.” The woman surprised him and Lilian by bowing to the kitsune. “Truly, I really appreciate you helping my husband.”

  “Naw, it’s okay.” Lilian rubbed the back of her head, a bashful blush spreading across her face. “Helping people is sorta what we do, you know, cuz we’re shōnen heroes and all that.”

  “What?” The woman blinked.

  Lilian slumped. “Never mind. We were happy to help.”

  Receiving a nod of acknowledgement, Lilian and Kevin made their way over to Iris. Eyes were on them now. Most of them were afraid, but a few seemed curious. He ignored those looks. It was better to let these people make their own judgements based on their actions rather than have him try to sate their curiosity or defend what they were doing. Still…

  “Lilian?”

  “Hm?” His mate glanced at him.

  “Can you help anyone else who might have been injured?” he asked.

  “Of course.” Lilian beamed, glad to be of some use. “Leave it to me!”

  The redhead trotted off toward the next group of people, who seemed wary, but were at least willing to let her help. Kevin smiled as his mate knelt next to a crying little boy and healed his injury. He reminded himself to give her a kiss later.

  “They still haven’t woken up yet?” Kevin asked upon reaching Iris.

  She shook her head. “Naw, they’ve been out cold.”

  Clicking his tongue, Kevin decided to disregard any sense of subtlety. He went over to the cash register, grabbed an extra-large cup without paying, filled it with water, came back, and threw it on the group of unconscious yōkai.

  “Waaa! Cold!”

  “Wazzat? Who… you wanna piece of me?”

  “I swear, I didn’t do it! I don’t know who put that dildo up your—”

  “SQQQUUUEEEEEE!”

  Kevin waited until the group of tanuki had settled down before setting his eyes on their leader. The tanuki in question noticed his look and defiantly stuck out his chin.

  “Why are you doing this?” Kevin gestured to the McDonalds, letting the tanuki know exactly what he meant by “this.”

  His response came in the form of a harsh glare. “Why should I tell you?”

  “I suppose you don’t have to tell me,” Kevin admitted, much to the tanuki’s smug satisfaction. “However, if you don’t tell me, then I’ll have no choice but to let these humans get justice for what you’ve done to them.”

  Kevin had spoken loudly. Everyone there heard him. All of the humans who’d been hurt, the ones who’d been frightened, they’d taken on a terrifying visage. Anger. Hatred. Rage. A thirst for revenge. Dark faces gathered to glare at the group of tanuki, who suddenly realized how precarious their situation was.

  “Now, then,” Kevin squatted down and glared at the tanuki, “tell me why you’d do something like this. You don’t seem the type to go robbing restaurants, so I’m curious.”

  It wasn’t a question.

  “...”

  “What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

  “I said it’s because we have no other way to make a living!” the tanuki shouted. “We were fired from our jobs, and no place will hire us anymore because of what we are. We have families! But the only way we can even afford to feed them now is by stealing from others!”

  Kevin was afraid that was the reason. He’d noticed it earlier, but looking at them all more closely, he noticed that none of them looked even remotely like thugs. O
ne had the appearance of a middle-class worker. Another reminded him of those stay-at-home dads. For all the gods’ sakes, one of them looked even younger than him! These weren’t gang members. They were yōkai who’d been forced into stealing to survive.

  It also explained why they were attacking this place. This was a rest stop. No one lived here, not even the people working at this station. Travelers passed through, and there was a small town about thirty minutes away, but that was it. Since only people passing through came to this stop, it meant they didn’t have to worry about people being warned about a group of tanuki attacking restaurants until it was too late.

  Kevin rubbed his temple. “Cut them loose, Iris.”

  “Stud?” Iris looked uncertain.

  He sent her a firm glance. “Please cut them loose.”

  Iris’s expression was still questioning, but she still did what he asked. The tanuki all climbed to their feet, slowly, as if unsure of whether or not they should. Kevin ignored their wariness and went over to his binder, pulling out a sheet of paper, grabbing a pen, and scribbling something on it. He then walked back to the group of tanuki and shoved the paper into their leader’s hands.

  “You’re going to leave this place and go to the address listed in there.” Kevin gestured to the paper. “Do that, and I guarantee the safety and livelihood of you and your families.”

  While the tanuki gaped at him, the humans who’d been seconds away from leaping on them suddenly raged. Screams erupted from the angry humans who wanted their revenge.

  “Do you mean to tell us you’re letting them go?!”

  “How could you do such a thing?!”

  “You can’t let monsters like them walk free!”

  Kevin listened to the outcries of his own species and gritted his teeth. His shoulders shook as discriminatory remarks stung his ears. Emotion overflowed within him, boiling, bubbling like a cauldron of nitroglycerine.

  “SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!”

  A deafening silence rang out. Mouths snapped shut, eyes went wide, and several of the people who’d looked ready to attack, suddenly stumbled backwards. All of their attention was focused on him.

  Kevin glared at them.

  “Listening to you people makes me sick! None of you understand what’s really going on here, or who’s really at fault for this situation. You’re all letting your own fears and prejudices get the best of you—hating and denouncing others because they're different from you, claiming they’ll destroy humanity if you let them. Reality check, people! Yōkai have been around for thousands of years! If they had really wanted us dead, then they would have done so a long time ago, when we didn’t have the advanced weapons we do now.”