“Uh, ah, okay.”
Unlike the boy’s shower, which consisted of several stalls, the girl’s shower had no stalls. It was just a large open space with several shower heads arrayed around a room composed of nothing but tiles. Lindsay believed it was because boys were immature and would make fun of each other, or spend their time comparing dick sizes or whatever.
After wrapping towels around themselves, she and her friend entered the locker room. It was empty. She and Jessica had stayed in the shower until the other girls had left. They walked over to their lockers and opened them.
“KYA!”
Lindsay nearly slipped on a puddle as Jessica shrieked. Something fell out of the blond bunny’s locker—a figure. A person.
“Eric…” Lindsay ground her teeth together as she glared down at Eric, who wore a lecherous grin and had blood dripping down his nose.
“Hehehe, Lindsay… hu hu hu… sup?”
Eric wasn’t even looking at her, for he only seemed to have eyes for Jessica. Lindsay couldn’t rightly blame him for that, but still, not only was it a blow to her pride, it also upset her. Jessica was suffering and frightened, and here was this pervert hiding in her locker to spy on her while she changed!
She looked at Jessica, whose eyes were bulging like two large hockey pucks. The poor yōkai’s body shook, her legs shaking and her arms shivering. She looked back at Eric, still staring, blood gushing from his nose like a fountain.
Lindsay cracked her knuckles.
“Eric…” Her lips stretched into a large smile that twitched violently. “Please die for me.”
***
“Um, ah, Lindsay?”
“Yes, Jessica?”
“Are, um, are you sure it was okay to just, ah, leave him there?”
“Leave who?”
“Eric.”
“Ah, him.” Lindsay nodded her head. “Yeah, he’ll be fine.”
“WHAT’S THIS PERVERT DOING IN THE LOCKER ROOM! GET ‘EM GIRLS!”
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
“Hu hu hu hu… see? He’ll be just fine.”
Jessica stared at her friend, eyes quivering like a scared rabbit.
The two of them exited the hallway and stepped into the light. Many students were already sitting down for lunch. Most of them stopped as she and Jessica walked past them, their eyes staring at her friend with hostility and fear. Jessica stepped closer to her, as if doing so would protect her from the glares. Lindsay grabbed her friend’s hand. It was a small comfort, but she hoped it would help.
They reached the quad, where Alex and Andrew were sitting, arguing over one thing or another.
“And I’m telling you, cat girls are the best. You clearly do not understand the amazing softness of their tails, the suppleness of their ears. Give me cat girls or give me death!”
“Idiot,” Alex scoffed at his twin. “Everyone knows that kitsune are where it’s at. Do you not remember how hot Lilian and Iris are? They’re the finest example of female sexuality that I have ever seen.”
“Of course you guys would be talking about which species of yōkai is hotter,” Lindsay sighed.
“Oh, Lindsay,” Andrew greeted her with good cheer, until he noticed Jessica. “Yo!”
“Ah!” Jessica gasped and hid behind Lindsay, her head peeking out from behind the tomboy’s shoulder. “Um, hello.”
The two twins stared at Jessica, then at each other.
“Alex?”
“Yes, Andrew?”
“I want to redact my opinion. Bunny girls are the best.”
“Bunny girls?”
“Bunny girls.”
“Shut up, you two. Seriously, I don’t want to listen to you guys perving on my friend.”
Lindsay pulled her friend into a seat and sat down herself, setting her lunch box on the table and opening it up. Her friend hesitatingly followed suit.
“We weren’t perving on anyone,” Alex defended himself.
“That’s right. We were perving on yōkai in general, not one person. Though I will admit your friend is hot.”
“Eep!”
A vein throbbed on Lindsay’s forehead as her friend ducked behind her again. “Keep talking, bub. You’re asking for a beat down.”
Ever since Jessica had been outed as a yōkai, Lindsay had convinced her to eat with Kevin’s friends. The usagi had been extremely surprised to discover that there were humans who didn’t fear or hate yōkai. While she wasn’t exactly comfortable around the group of boys (Jessica was a lot like Kevin in that she’d always been shy around the opposite sex), she was more at home with them than anyone else at school.
“Has there still been no word from Kevin?” Lindsay asked the same question she always did during lunch.
“None,” Alex answered after swallowing a bite of his chicken and ham sandwich. “We haven’t heard from him, Lilian, or Iris.”
“I see.”
Lindsay couldn’t deny that she was worried about her friends, but she tried not to let her worry overcome her. She had to stay positive.
“I’m sure they’ve just gone underground. Kevin’s resourceful, and Lilian and Iris are pretty cunning, too.”
“Yeah,” the word was said without much enthusiasm.
Lindsay had never liked silence, and this stifling lull disquieted her. She tried to find something to talk about, but she didn’t know what to say. Some of their friends were missing, the world had been turned on its head, and every day hostilities between humans and yōkai grew. Their little group had managed to avoid attention thus far, but she didn’t know how long it would last. She was sure that Alex and Andrew were thinking the same thing.
Spying something out of the corner of her eye, Lindsay looked up from her meal. Standing several dozen yards away, a group of yōkai huddled around a building far from the bustling traffic near the center of the campus. She couldn’t tell what species they were, as they were too far away, but her eyes were keen enough to at least pick out the added appendages they sported. She wondered what they were talking about.
“WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”
Just then, Eric ran past them. Seconds later, a horde of girls ran past them, too. Alex, Andrew, Jessica, and Lindsay watched in solemnity as their friend was surrounded and pummeled to the ground. After the girls left behind the beaten, bruised, and bloodied figure of Eric, Alex and Andrew shook their heads.
“You’d think after years of getting the crap beaten out of him, he would have learned his lesson, but nope.”
“You said it, brother. I think this is one of the first things we can agree on.”
Lindsay didn’t say anything. She turned back to her meal and sighed.
Christine… I wonder if she’s okay.
***
“A-Achoo!”
“My, but you sneeze a lot, don’t you? Are you sure there isn’t anyone special back home?”
“S-s-s-spe—what the hell are you talking about nyaow, you old bastard!?”
“Just for that, you’re staying longer for more practice tonight.”
“Urk!”
“By the way, your ears are showing.”
“NYA!”
***
All throughout lunch and the rest of the day, Kevin was subjected to numerous glares. Unlike when he’d been going to Desert Cactus High School, these glares weren’t because he was with two beautiful vixens—at least not fully.
Something needs to be done about this.
Unfortunately, Kevin didn’t really know what to do. It wasn’t like he could just magically make them accept him, and after what the rest of humanity had done to them, he couldn’t rightly blame them for not liking him. Were the situation reversed, he’d probably feel the same way.
“Kevin? Lilian to Kevin. Come in Kevin.”
Blinking several times, Kevin realized that he’d gotten completely lost in thought. He looked down at the redhead sitting between his legs and smiled apologetically.
“Sorry, were you saying something?”
; Lilian gave him a vaguely putout look that looked adorable, like a chipmunk with its mouth full of acorns. “I was saying you haven’t turned the page.”
“Oh! Sorry.”
Kevin’s cheeks colored. He flipped the page of the manga he and Lilian were reading. It was a rather interesting story in which the world learned about the existence of monsters. In it, a young man named Kurusu Kimihito is inducted into the “Cultural Exchange Program,” and a lamia named Miia comes to live with him.
Of course, the differences between this story and their own predicament were stark. Being nothing but a silly harem comedy, this particular manga didn’t have any of the fear and uncertainty that came from different supernatural creatures living in human society. Still, it was a pleasant distraction if nothing else.
If only real life were this simple.
“Ne, Kevin.” Lilian grabbed his attention again, leaning against his chest and stretching out her legs.
“Yes?”
“Do you think we’ll ever be allowed to let our friends know that we’re okay?”
Monstrang had forbidden anyone from communicating with people in the world outside of this base. He said it was to keep the Sons and Daughters of Humanity from intercepting their calls and using them to track down their location. Kevin didn’t know if his boss was being paranoid, but he did agree to a point. Without knowing what sort of technological edge their enemies had over them, acting foolishly or without thinking could have disastrous consequences.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, flipping to the next page. Hm, these were some pretty nice illustrations. Say what you will about Okayado, the man knew how to draw boobs. “I wish we could, but I… I just don’t know.”
Lilian placed her hand on the manga, gently prying it from his hands and setting it face down on the floor. She twisted around until she was sitting with her legs over his left thigh.
“This is eating you up, isn’t it?”
Kevin’s body slumped forward until his head rested against Lilian’s. “I won’t deny that I’m not worried, but I’m sure they’re okay. None of our friends are yōkai, so the chances of them getting caught up in this mess are slim.” Kevin’s lips twitched, but his smile was not one filled with joy. “This… it’s probably for the best that we don’t have any contact with them from now on. If anything, they’d be in more danger if we contacted them than if we just left things as they are.”
Lilian shifted some more. She straddled his thigh and wrapped her arms around his middle, pulling herself closer until her body was doing its best to meld into his chest.
“Lilian…?”
“Thank you.”
“H-huh?” Kevin looked down to see nothing but the crown of Lilian’s head. Her crimson hair looked like flames up close. “What are you thanking me for?”
“For becoming my mate. For not being upset even though you’re in this mess because of me. For accepting me. For… for everything, I guess.”
“Silly,” Kevin murmured into Lilian’s hair. “There’s no need to thank me for stuff like that. I… I, well, you know that I love you and all, so…”
“I know.”
Kevin didn’t know how long they remained like that. Time seemed immemorial in these moments, lasting for an eternity yet ending far too soon.
Knowing that this moment wouldn’t last forever, Kevin wrapped his arms around Lilian’s waist and pulled her even closer.
She rubbed against him.
“Mm.”
Kevin froze.
“Lilian?”
“Yes, Beloved?”
“Why aren’t you wearing any underwear?”
“Ufufufu, am I not wearing panties today? Oops. My bad.”
“Don’t say that so joyfully! And don’t laugh like Kotohime when you’re acting more like Iris! That’s completely out of character!”
“You’re getting more genre savvy by the chapter, Beloved.”
“That doesn’t make me happy!”
Before their banter got much further, the door to their bedroom burst open.
“You guys have to see this—” Iris started, then stopped when she realized what was happening. “What the hell, you two?! I thought you guys were gonna read one of those boring comic books! If you two were about to get jiggy with it, you should have told me!”
“Oh, shut up, Iris,” Kevin mumbled. “We weren’t getting jiggy with anything, and don’t use such a lame term to describe sex.”
“Fine. Then how’s this? If you two were gonna have raunchy sex on the bedroom floor, you should have invited me to join.”
“That’s not any better!”
“Were you saying something?” Lilian asked, deciding to be the voice of reason.
“Oh, right.” Iris’s face lit up into a grin. “There’s something happening on the news that you guys have to see.”
***
“… And in other news, the nonviolent protests are picking up and seem to have finally spread from Italy into the rest of Europe.”
When Kevin and Lilian arrived in the small living room, it was to see Kotohime, Kirihime, Kiara, Camellia, Phoebe, and Polydora all sitting in front of the TV. He and his mate wandered further in and sat down on the couch, where Lilian cuddled up to his side and Iris cuddled up to Lilian’s side. Kevin felt like facepalming, but he’d grown so used to this that he just sighed in resignation.
What an odd trio we make.
“So what’s going on?” asked Lilian.
“The protests in Italy have spread.” Kiara nodded her head at the screen, arms crossed as she leaned against the wall. “It seems we’re not the only ones who want to fight this.”
Lilian looked at the screen, which showed a bunch of people standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. They weren’t doing anything, just standing around carrying signs, but that wasn’t what had caught her attention.
“Those aren’t just yōkai,” she exclaimed in surprise.
“Correct, Lilian-sama. It’s a coalition of humans and yōkai who’ve banded together and are trying to prove that we can coexist.”
Lilian nodded but didn’t say anything. The people on the screen were, indeed, a mixture of various yōkai and humans. What’s more, some of the human and yōkai appeared to be couples. There, a young man and woman stood with their arms around each other, the woman’s triangular ears twitching and her single tail swinging behind her. Here, a young man with fox ears and four tails had his arms wrapped around a human female who leaned against him. Kevin even saw a massive bear yōkai with a woman and a child sitting on his shoulders.
“That is so incredibly awesome,” Lilian mumbled, feeling a fire become lit inside of her at the sight of so many humans and yōkai coming together, out in the open like that. “Beloved, we must do something like this!”
“W-what?”
Lilian stood up and walked in front of the TV, placing one hand on her hip and clenching the other into a fist near her face.
“We must do something like this! We can’t let these people be the only ones who act this awesome! How are we supposed to live with ourselves if these people are doing something so cool while we’re sitting on our laurels?!”
“Y-you do bring up a good point,” Kevin admitted, “but, still…”
“And besides! We’re the main characters here, not them!”
“And you’ve lost me.”
“We can’t let people who don’t even rate as side characters get the better of us!”
Lilian felt a fire burning in her soul, which manifested into ethereal flames that burned around her like an aura. She was so pumped up. They were going to do this! They had to do this! Then, once they started protesting, their sheer awesomeness would make everyone else snap to their senses and join them—just like in a shōnen manga! Yes, she could see it all now:
Lilian stood in front of the camera, Kevin by her side, holding her hand. In front of them was a woman with a microphone and a cameraman stood behind her, filming their triumphant moment.
&
nbsp; “Ms. Pnév̱ma, you and your mate have just brought peace between humans and yōkai. What are you going to do next?” asked the woman with the microphone.
“We’re going to celebrate by having sex!” Lilian declared.
“Lots and lots of sex,” Kevin added.
“Uh huh…”
“And then we’re going to Disneyland!”
The newscaster stared at her oddly, and even Kevin was looking at her like she’d said something strange. In response to their expressions, Lilian covered her mouth with her hand in a very Kotohime-esque manner.
“Ufufufu, sorry. I’ve always wanted to say that at least once.”
“Ufufufu…”
As one, the group watched Lilian go off into her own little world, which was displayed above her head in a giant thought bubble similar to the ones Kevin found in manga panels. Kevin wondered how such a thing was possible. Was this more of her kitsune magic at work? Had the boundaries between reality and fiction finally corroded? He didn’t know.
“Master—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Should we do something about her?” Phoebe asked, completely ignoring Kevin’s demand.
“No.” Kevin shook his head. “It’s impossible to stop Lilian once she gets like this. Don’t worry. She’ll eventually calm down.”
“Ufufufu…”
“I hope,” Kevin added when Lilian showed no signs of calming down.
***
Frederic had gathered his friends together that night. They were in the room that his parents were staying in, though his parents were currently out trying to find jobs. He didn’t know why they bothered.
It’s not like they’ll be able to get jobs anyway.
“What did you call us here for, man?” asked his friend, Axel. They’d been best friends for a while now, since their parents had known each other for years and all. Axel was an itachi, a weasel yōkai.
“We need to do something about that human,” Frederic said. “We can’t let some stinking human stay here.”
“Yeah, that’s right!”
“We can’t let a human live among us!”
“They’re the enemy!”
“OFF WITH HIS HEAD!”
Frederic, Axel, and everyone else turned to look at the yōkai who’d shouted loudly enough to wake the whole East Wing.
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