“You’re not going to kill them?” Kevin asked.
“Oh, no,” Kuroneko replied. “Killing them would serve no purpose. It would only incite rage against yōkai. No, what I plan to do is much better.”
“And that is?” Iris, unable to withhold her curiosity, asked.
“Hold them for ransom.”
Iris face-faulted. “That’s it! What kind of simple idea is that?!”
“Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones,” Kuroneko said, staring off into the distance.
“Don’t try to sound wise with me!” Iris shouted.
Lilian nudged Kevin in the side. “I think Iris is trying to steal your job, Kevin.”
Kevin pouted at his mate’s gentle ribbing. “Not funny.”
“Now it is time for negotiations,” Kuroneko determined. She glanced at the trio, her eyes gleaming. “Would you three care to join me?”
***
“W-what the hell?!”
Justin chuckled at the flabbergasted Gunther, whose face had gone from confident to slack-jawed. The soldier in question spun around to pierce him with a glower, but he ignored the vitriol in the older man’s gaze.
“I told you so.”
“Shut up!”
“You see? This is what happens when you don’t listen to people who are in the know,” Justin continued, heedless of Gunther’s growing anger—or rather, purposefully egging the grizzled war veteran on. “You don’t understand the first thing about yōkai, and you completely underestimated Kuroneko’s cunning. Now your entire ground assault has been defeated.”
Gunther’s face quickly turned puce. Justin thought the man might explode, which would have been funny to see. It was too bad his lunch-time entertainment was interrupted by a quaking soldier walking up to them.
“Uh, um, sirs?”
“WHAT?!” Gunther snapped.
“Eep! Please don’t kill me!”
Justin outright laughed when the poor soldier fell onto his knees, begging for his life. Gunther snarled at him, but Justin disregarded the man and knelt next to the soldier.
“What did you have to report, soldier?” asked Justin.
“Um,” the soldier sniffled. “We just received a communication from Kuroneko.”
“What?!” Gunther screamed some more.
“HYYAAAA! Don’t kill the messenger!”
Gunther scowled. “Shut up, soldier! Put this criminal on the line!”
Justin rolled his eyes. Could this man overreact any more than he already was? He was like those hardcore soldiers from really bad war movies.
A comm. unit was quickly placed into Gunther’s hand, which he raised to his ear. Justin couldn’t hear what was being said from the other side, but judging by the war veteran’s quickly reddening face, it wasn’t something good.
It’s probably entertaining, though.
“You… you fucking piece of shit!” Gunther howled. “America doesn’t make deals with criminals! We won’t give into your fucking demands!”
“Problems?” Justin asked, though he didn’t really need to. He could guess as to what that conversation was about.
“ALL FORCES! ATTACK!”
“And he’s ignoring me.” Justin sighed. Silently moving to the back of the bridge, Justin pressed a small button on his wrist watch and held it up to his mouth. “YK units thirteen through twenty, prepare for combat.”
Justin received no response, but he didn’t expect one. Lowering his arm, he watched the chaos unfold around him, his lips twitching into a grin.
Things are about to become even more interesting.
***
“Well,” Kuroneko started, staring at her cellphone as if it was something foreign, “that didn’t pan out like I thought it would. Seems the man in charge over there is a hardass with a temper and isn’t willing to listen to reason.”
“What does that mean?” Kevin asked. “Aside from the obvious, I mean.”
Kuroneko’s lips twitched into a grin. “It means we’ll be doing things the hard way.”
“Kuroneko-hime! Incoming missiles!” one of her yōkai subordinates shouted.
Plumes of smoke trailed from missiles that were heading straight for them. There were so many they blotted out the view of the sky, a literal wall of explosive death. Kevin couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen such destructive fire power arrayed against him.
Kuroneko raised a hand.
“Aether Shield.”
It sprang to life before their eyes, a giant blue wall of ethereal energy. The missiles slammed into the wall, detonating with the force of a million beating drums—a maddening staccato that exploded in their ears like a stentorian announcement of imminent death. Yet death did not come. The shield held strong.
“Cannon fire! Incoming!”
The loud boom of cannon fire bombarded Kevin’s ears like crackling thunder. Lilian and Iris gritted their teeth as they held their hands to their ears, while Kuroneko’s ears merely twitched. Giant shells, armor-piercing artillery rounds, slammed into the shield, exploding on contact. Shrapnel flew outward, a scattering of metal shards that rained death upon no one, because the shells could not reach them. Kuroneko’s shield had held strong once more.
“Woah,” Iris muttered, speechless for the first time in a long time.
“That was so cool!” Lilian squealed, her fists near her face and her eyes sparkling like gems. “Kuroneko was so awesome! As expected of a woman who embodies what it means to be a shōnen heroine.”
Iris facepalmed. “Lily-pad, I love you, and I get that you’re into that sort of thing, but could you please keep the nerdism down a bit? It’s really creepy.”
“Oh, whatever. You think what just happened is cool, too!”
“I never said that I didn’t. I’m just asking that you try to keep your otaku from showing so much.”
“Hmph! You know I can’t do that. What would Luffy say if I stopped showing this kind of enthusiasm?”
“I don’t even know who that is.”
Kevin tuned out the sisters’ back and forth banter. It was just their way of releasing pent up anxiety. Instead of listening to them, he locked his eyes on the woman who’d protected them.
So, this is the power that belongs to a member of the Four Saints.
Kevin had faced all manner of creatures in the past year. He’d even fought against Shinkuro Shénshèng, the Celestial Kyuubi, a being so powerful he stood on par with the gods themselves.
Here was another person who Kevin suspected had a similar power. Kuroneko, a member of the Four Saints, a woman whose power might very well be in the same league as a Kyūbi.
It was a humbling sight.
“Get ready everyone,” Kuroneko called out, and her voice was heard all across the beach. “They are coming.”
“What?” Kevin said.
Kuroneko pointed toward the sea line, where ten familiar-looking silver anthropomorphic machines were getting closer. Kevin wondered if the feeling of lead in the pit of his stomach was from worry or despair.
“Oh,” he breathed, his legs feeling weak. “This is so not good.”
***
“Sir! Several objects have just been launched from the Defender!”
“What?!” Gunther shouted. “What the hell are those idiots doing?! Open up a line to them!”
Justin smiled as Gunther shouted into a comm. unit.
Watching this guy get worked up is almost as amusing as watching Eric get his ass kicked by several dozen angry girls.
***
YK units, otherwise known as Yōkai Killers, were machines specifically created for the purpose of hunting and killing yōkai. Their silver bodies were made out of a type of mercuric compound which, when infused with youki, could be manipulated to take any shape, reform after being destroyed, and held a certain level of sentience.
Yōkai techniques barely affected them. Blow them apart and they just regenerate. Slice them to pieces and they reform. Killing them took more skill and power
than most yōkai possessed. They were nearly perfect killing machines.
Nearly perfect.
Kevin had faced off against these machines several times in the past four months. After nearly a dozen separate engagements, they had uncovered a weakness to the Yōkai Killers.
Elemental affinities.
The Yōkai Killers were powered by a generator that stored and released youki. However, not just any youki would do. Only certain types of youki could power a generator. In other words, only youki that possessed an elemental affinity would work. If you could discover what type of affinity was being used to power the YK unit, then you could discover its weakness.
Unfortunately, discovering which elemental affinity was being used to power a YK unit generator wasn’t so easy. There was no way to tell from just looking at one. They didn’t give off any youki emissions that could be detected. Even the most skilled yōkai at sensing energy couldn’t determine the affinity being used in a YK unit—something about nanotech circuitry interfering with a yōkai’s ability to sense youki, or so Dr. Henry had said.
Either way, it meant that the only way to find out what affinity was being used was through trial and error.
“Get ready!” Kevin shouted, loading his guns with water and fire elemental cartridges. He had one of each of the four main elements, and then one celestial and one void cartridge. While he would have loved to get his hands on some of the middle-tiered elements, those were hard to come by. Heck, the only reason he even had celestial and void was because of Lilian and Iris.
Lilian cracked her knuckles. “Don’t worry, Beloved! I was born ready!”
“Remember, don’t take any unnecessary risks,” he warned her.
“What are you saying? If you don’t take risks, you can’t create a future!”
“Lilian, if you start going Gomu Gomu on me, you’re sleeping on the couch.”
“What? You can’t do that!”
“Try me.”
“Now’s not the time you two,” Iris shouted. “They’re coming!”
Numerous techniques were launched at the Yōkai Killers. Giant jets of water flew through the air. Massive blades of winds cut an arc across the sky. Gigantic pillars of flame rose up like someone had opened the gates of Hell. A hundred techniques soared, unerringly, traversing the airspace within seconds like heat-seeking missiles.
The attacks collided, detonating in a brilliant blaze of elemental destruction. Fire collided with water, creating a sizzling hiss of steam. Lightning blew apart large chunks of earth, erupting into crackling hunks of debris where arcane arcs of energy skittered over their surfaces.
“Did they hit?” Kevin asked.
Lilian shook her head. “No, they missed. The YK units have split up.”
Kevin grimaced. “At least that means we’ll be able to fight them one on one—or three on one.”
“B-but that wouldn’t make it a fair fight!” Lilian complained. “Kevin, don’t you know how these things work? Shōnen heroes always fight their battles one on one. That’s how it’s been since time immemorial.”
“No, it isn’t,” Kevin refuted. “There are plenty of shōnen heroes who’ve used teamwork to defeat their enemies.”
“Luffy never fought any boss battles with help,” Lilian mumbled.
“Don’t go espousing the virtues of that meat-loving idiot.”
“Luffy isn’t an idiot!”
“Yes, he is! All he ever thinks about is meat!”
“Oh, yeah? Well, Natsumo’s only purpose is to get randomly stripped naked, so there!”
“Is now really the time to be arguing over this?” Iris asked.
“YES!” Kevin and Lilian shouted at the same time.
Iris pressed a hand to her face. “Why do I even bother?”
Regardless of what any of them said, their antics would have to wait. The two kitsune perked up. Their ears twitched. Lilian and Iris heard it before they saw it: Shifts in the air currents.
“Incoming!”
Kevin and Lilian leapt away from each other. No sooner had they done so did the ground they’d been standing on explode in a cloud of dust. They covered their eyes as the wind whipped at the air. Glaring into the cloud of dust from between her fingers, Lilian channeled her youki to create several balls of light.
“Celestial Art: Light Spheres!”
Two spheres of light flew into the debris. They struck something and detonated, creating intense winds that blew away the dust, revealing the Yōkai Killer, its glistening silver form completely unharmed.
“Okay, so it’s not a void-type generator being used,” Kevin murmured, pulling a notepad and pencil out of his pocket. After flipping through several pages, he eventually came to a blank one and wrote on it.
Yōkai Killer Encounter #5
Earth
Fire
Wind
Water
Lightning
Ocean
Forest
Ghost
Ether
Celestial
Void
“Right. Scratch void off the list.”
“Is now really the time to be doing that?!” Iris shouted.
Just then, the Yōkai Killer shot forward, the ground cratering beneath it. Kevin put his notepad away and slipped into his preferred combat stance, a relaxed pose with his arms at his sides.
His left side was wide open. The machine’s left shoulder twitched, a sure sign that it was going to attack his left flank. A five-fingered hand congealed into a single straight-edged blade. The Yōkai Killer thrust the sword forward, intending to impale the opening in Kevin’s side.
The attack was diverted. Using his left hand, Kevin pushed the attack away, sidestepping to the right at the same time as he spun. His back was now presented to the enemy. The Yōkai Killer turned around to attack him again.
“Celestial Art: Divine Chains!”
Light coalesced in several places around the machine, from which several chains emerged. They wrapped around the Yōkai Killer, binding it. The machine struggled against its bindings, but even if it was immune to a celestial attack, that didn’t mean it could just break through every celestial technique.
Kevin spun around, presenting his left profile to the machine. He’d already taken aim with the black gun in his left hand. Bang! A red bullet-shaped projectile lanced out of the gun, striking the Yōkai Killer right in its red-visored eye.
Nothing happened.
“Okay, so it’s not a wind type, either…” Kevin scratched wind off the list.
“Don’t take out your notepad in the middle of a fight!” Iris screamed.
The golden chains dissolved as Lilian released the technique to conserve her youki. With nothing holding it back, the Yōkai Killer launched itself at the redhead, who used the extension technique to push herself into the air. In that moment, Kevin fired off his silver gun, the water projectile slamming into the Yōkai Killer and splashing harmlessly against its metallic surface.
“Not a fire type either.”
Turning to him, the Yōkai Killer designated him as the greater threat and charged.
Yōkai Killers were rather simple creations. While they were incredibly deadly due to their unique composition and abilities, their limited form of sentience meant they couldn’t think for themselves. They could follow orders, and they were quite good at that, but they couldn’t adapt very well to unusual situations or circumstances.
Basically, whoever attacked it at the time became its target, and it focused solely on them until someone else attacked it.
“Kitsune Bi!”
Fire erupted from Lilian’s two tails and slammed into the YK unit’s body, causing it to once more switch targets. It turned to her and rushed forward to attack.
“Celestial Art: Chameleon Masquerade!”
Lilian vanished before everyone’s eyes. The Yōkai Killer stopped, but Kevin knew it wouldn’t stay still long. It was just switching from regular vision to infrared. Even Lilian couldn’t make herself
invisible from that. Acting quickly, he changed out his cartridges from fire and water to earth and wind.
Bang!
A wind bullet pinged off the Yōkai Killer’s surface.
Bang!
Earth was reduced to rubble as it smashed against what amounted to a reinforced steel wall.
“So, it’s not either of those.” Kevin sighed.
The Yōkai Killer switched targets from Lilian to him again. The instant it turned around, however, Lilian appeared in a haze of light particles.
“Celestial Art: Light Sphere!”
A golden orb of light slammed into the Yōkai Killer’s back and exploded. It stumbled forward, falling to a knee. Its back bubbled, the silvery substance becoming liquid before several sharp tendrils jutted out of its back and attacked Lilian.
“Void Art: Sword of the Void!”
Iris leapt over the stakes. Black flames in the shape of a crescent blade leapt from her tails, slicing through the tendrils before they could reach Lilian. The flames then bit into the earth and erupted, but Iris quickly smothered the power with her own force of will. She landed on the ground several feet away, skidding across the sand.
The Yōkai Killer hesitated. It seemed confused, for lack of a better term. Kevin understood that this meant it was trying to compute what just happened and coming up blank. He and the two sisters used that time to regroup.
“Do you think it’s using celestial energy?” asked Lilian.
“No, if it was, the reaction when the Void hit it would have been much more violent,” Kevin said.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
The Void was truly a frightening power. Unlike every other element out there, the Void could harm a Yōkai Killer no matter its affinity. That was because the Void worked on a different level than standard elements. Fire, wind, water, forest, and spirit. These elements all had one thing in common. They were spiritual components of the earth. They were connected to all earthly things.
The Void was nothing like that. It was not an earthly power. Like its counterpart, Celestial, it was a power that went beyond the realm of earthly elements.
The absence of concept. That was the Void. The beginning and the end. That was the Void. A surging desire, and overwhelming need. The Void consumed all, breaking down that which existed and completely erasing it until nothing was left. In some ways, the Void could be considered the complete negation of all concepts. Everything ended with the Void.
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