Still, this power is pretty useful, even if it’s just the ability to break barriers.
Kevin looked at his left hand. This hand seemed to be where this strange power was contained. He’d tried breaking through Kiara’s barrier with his right hand but had only received severe burns for his troubles.
I wonder if it only works on barriers? Can I use it for anything else?
Kiara had described his unique skill as the “ability to unlock barriers,” and indeed, when watching his power at work, it did look more like unlocking than destroying. When he touched Kiara’s aura, the red energy would peel apart like a blooming flower. The energy didn’t dissipate either. It still existed, but it moved around his hand, meaning that he wasn’t destroying it, just moving it out of the way.
Kiara’s aura isn’t a barrier either, not really. It stands to reason this power can work on more than just barriers.
“Kkkkkeeeeeevvvvviiiinnnnnn…………….”
Kevin stopped walking, his head tilting in idle curiosity as he heard someone calling his name.
“Kkkkkkyyyyyuuuuuunnnnnnnn!!!!”
His eyes widening, Kevin swiftly spun around as the source of the voice got louder. He promptly found two large, round, soft things being shoved into his face.
“Uwa!!”
He tumbled to the floor, taking the other person with him. Delightful, childish laughter told him exactly who had crashed into him tits first. Kevin felt almost resigned.
Why do these things keep happening to me?
“Found you!” Camellia said in a childish voice from above him. Kevin would have responded, but his face was currently full of breasts. Just breathing was a chore.
Kevin grabbed the offending objects and tried to shove them off his face.
“Ah-ahn! K-Kevin-kyun,” Camellia complained. “T-that kinda hurts.”
How do you think I feel?! Kevin wanted to shout, but he didn’t. He just kept pushing at the two squishy objects in his hands, which were so large and soft that his fingers sank into them, until Camellia took the hint and sat up.
“Puah!” Kevin sucked in a deep lungful of air. Oh, sweet oxygen, how he had missed thee. After regaining his breath, Kevin tried to look at Camellia to properly scold her, but he soon realized that he couldn’t even see her face—
“Bua?”
—because there were two, large things staring him in the face.
By things, he meant breasts. Outside of Delphine, whose boobs were so large they bordered on obscene, Camellia had some of the most pneumatic knockers he’d ever laid eyes on. They weren’t just large. Well-formed and possessing very little sag, capped with inverted nipples, her breasts were basically the stuff that dreams were made of. Kevin was sure his friends would rage hard if they knew he saw these every day.
“Ga!” Kevin held a hand to his nose, pinching it shut to keep the blood from flowing out.
Kevin had seen Camellia naked plenty of times before. The woman seemed to despise clothing, or maybe she was just that childish. Nearly every morning and every night, Camellia would run around their small two-bedroom apartment in the buff, laughing like a kid as Kirihime chased after her.
After so many days of seeing this, Kevin had grown immune to Camellia’s antics. Often times, he, Lilian, and Iris would simply ignore the woman as she led her maid on a merry chase. The only time they even bothered responding was when Camellia ran in front of the TV.
That being said, even if Kevin had grown desensitized to Camellia’s naked antics, he was still male—a teenage male with hormones running his body ragged. And Camellia, despite having the mind of a five-year-old child, was still a beautiful woman. While it was easy to ignore her when she was in the background, it wasn’t as easy to do the same when he had such an up close and personal view.
Think unsexy thoughts! Think unsexy thoughts! Eric in a speedo—oh, Kami-sama! I think I’m gonna be sick.
“Kevin-kyuun, hello!”
Kevin swallowed the bile rising in his throat and smiled at the five-tails, though she probably couldn’t see it since his hand, slick with blood, covered the view of his mouth.
“Hello, Camellia. Could you get off me, please?”
“Um, Camellia will get off Kevin-kyun.”
“Thank you.”
Camellia stood up, allowing Kevin to get back on his feet. She was still naked, however, which meant he had a problem.
“H-here,” Kevin took off his shirt and handed it to her, “wear this please.”
“Um!”
Camellia grabbed his shirt and tried to put it on. Kevin almost facepalmed when she became tangled in it. Was it really that hard to put on a shirt?
“Ugh, l-let me help you.”
“Tee-hee, thank you, Kevin-kyun.”
“U-un, you’re welcome. Raise your arms, please?”
“Kay!”
After wiping the blood off his hand, Kevin closed his hands and pulled his T-shirt over Camellia’s arms and head. His shirt was fairly tight, being nothing more than an undershirt, and Camellia’s phenomenally sized bust meant it didn’t really fit her.
Kevin tried to ignore the feel of Camellia’s breasts as he worked on pulling the shirt over them. Despite having his eyes closed, he could feel when we pulled the shirt over her nipples. Camellia’s childish giggling didn’t help.
“That tickles.”
“S-sorry.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind, since it’s Kevin-kyun doing it.”
“That really doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“Hawa?”
It took a lot of work and plenty of embarrassment but, in the end, Kevin finally pulled his shirt over Camellia’s super-sized chest. By the time he was done, Kevin’s face was sweaty and flushed, his breathing had grown heavy, and he felt a combination of arousal and guilt.
“Ha…” Kevin wiped the sweat off his face. “There, now we—urk!”
“Hawa?” Camellia tilted her head as Kevin looked away.
“C-Camellia, you wouldn’t happen to have any underwear on you, would you?”
Camellia gained a very thoughtful expression. It was awfully cute. “Um, no. Camellia doesn’t carry underwear on her.”
“I thought not.” Kevin, still turned away, felt like smacking himself in the face. “We’ve got a problem.”
“Hawa.”
***
Lilian bit her lip as she stared at the next page of her manga, a page that currently had no illustrations on it.
She had finished drawing the panels, and she even had a general idea of what she wanted her illustrations to be. The problem wasn’t deciding what she wanted this page to feature, but which illustrations she should use for each panel.
When creating a manga, it was important to plan ahead. If you had no plan, then coming up with illustrations that told a cohesive story was beyond difficult. A good mangaka always plotted their story out beforehand, and decided on which illustrations they wanted to create before paneling each page.
Lilian knew what illustrations she wanted. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was determining which of the many thumbnails she wanted to use for those illustrations.
Like any good manga artist, Lilian had created several thumbnails for each illustration, along with general paneling thumbnails to outline how each page would be presented. She had upwards of a dozen thumbnails for each illustration, and one dozen thumbnails for each page.
The thumbnails for her current page were all laid out on the desk. This particular page had six panels, which meant around six dozen illustrations were laid out for her to choose from, a dozen for each panel.
Looking at panel one, Lilian read the notes she’d created for it.
“Kaylen and Lyla bump into each other—profile shot. Torso to head only. No background.”
She searched through her thumbnails for panel one. All of them were mostly the same. There were small differences in each one, however. For example, one of them was closer than the other. Another showed their left
profile while another showed their right. Some were drawn at a slight angle, a tilt that made it seem like you were looking up or down.
Lilian quickly took out the variations with angles. She wanted it to be a straight on illustration—no tilting. After that, she studied her thumbnails some more, then took out the ones that were further away. This panel had a limited space of 4.5 by 4 inches. The farther her characters appeared to be, the less detail she would be able to draw.
After discarding those thumbnails, Lilian was left with just two. One featured a left profile view, the other a right view. Lilian couldn’t decide which illustration she wanted to use, so she put those to the side and focused on the other panels. She could make a decision once she had a clearer understanding of how the rest of this page would be laid out.
The sound of rustling paper behind her alerted her to Kevin’s presence. He was reading a manga, slowly flipping through the pages. Iris was also there, but unlike Kevin, who sat up in bed, his eyes flickering back and forth, she was asleep. Laying on her side, her form one of sexual elegance even while caught in the throes of slumber, Lilian’s sister rested with her head in Kevin’s lap.
I need to talk to him soon.
She had promised Iris that she would talk to Kevin, and her mate seemed to be, if not receptive to Iris’s advances, then at least desensitized to her antics. He let Iris sleep with them, didn’t freak out when Iris flirted with him, and didn’t seem to mind when she got physical with him. Lilian didn’t think he would let Iris kiss him, but that was okay. She didn’t think Iris’s goal was to get those, not from Kevin at least. So long as Kevin allowed her to join them when they were intimate, Iris should be satisfied.
But will Kevin really let Iris join us?
Kevin had grown a lot since they started dating. He didn’t shy from her touch, he initiated intimacy between them, and he knew how to please her. He was also used to random moments of perversion, such as her mom running around naked, Phoebe trying to seduce him, and Iris’s sexy antics. However, that didn’t mean he would approve of someone else joining him and her when they engaged in foreplay and eventually sex.
Kevin’s still a human.
Even if Kevin had grown immensely from the shy boy he used to be, that didn’t mean he would allow Iris to join them for a threesome. Kevin’s humanity meant that, beyond anything else, he still had all of the morals that most humans did.
To him, dating meant remaining loyal to one person. Having a third member join their relationship was a taboo, something that was morally wrong according to human society. Even if he understood logically that kitsune did not feel like there was anything wrong with a polygamous relationship, his human heart couldn’t fathom it. It kept him from accepting that part of her—of all kitsune.
It wasn’t his fault. At the same time, it made things hard for Lilian.
Kevin doesn’t want a harem either.
It was something he explicitly stated. Kevin didn’t want a harem. Did that mean he was averse to including Iris in their relationship? Could a three-way relationship be considered a harem?
Beloved is very genre savvy, but I think that’s part of the problem.
Yes, it was quite difficult when your mate didn’t want to become a harem protagonist. Things would have been much easier if he was more receptive to harems, but Lilian was actually kind of glad he didn’t want one. If he gained a harem, then it meant the time she and Kevin could spend together would be limited. She didn’t want that, so yes, him not wanting a harem was good, but it was also problematic.
I can’t concentrate on my manga like this.
Releasing a deep sigh, Lilian organized her illustrations, thumbnails, and manga pages, then put them into a small filing cabinet sitting by their desk. She also locked it so Iris couldn’t break in and peek at her work. That done, she stood up and went over to the bed.
“Is Iris really sleeping?”
Kevin stopped reading and looked at the girl using his lap as a pillow. “Seems like it. Are you done working on your manga for today?”
“Yeah.” Lilian climbed onto the bed, scooting over to Kevin. Iris posed a bit of a problem, but Lilian used her tails to lift the Void Kitsune and slid her legs underneath Iris’s body. The girl mumbled a bit at the sudden shift, but then she settled down when Lilian placed a hand on the vixen’s hip. “I couldn’t concentrate. Too much on my mind. Whatcha reading?”
“Fairy Tail.”
“Ugh.”
“What was that ‘ugh’ for? I thought you liked Fairy Tail.”
“I do, it’s just really cliched and predictable.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s funny.”
“It is. I like the fanservice, but that doesn’t change how predictable it is. Every arc is the same as the last one. The only thing that changes is which bad guy they face off against.”
“Look at you, Miss Professional Mangaka, acting so critical of the manga you read.”
“I sort of have to be these days.” Lilian shifted to make herself more comfortable. Snuggling against Kevin, she set her head on his shoulder. “If I want to make a good manga, then I need to learn how to tell good stories. It’s more than just making pretty drawings, you know.”
“I know. And I’m very proud of how seriously you’re taking this. Are you thinking of becoming a real professional and actually getting published?”
“I… I don’t know…” Lilian bit her lip. “I’ve thought about it, but I’m not sure if my work would ever be good enough to get published.”
“Hey, if Hiro Mashima can publish this, then you can certainly become a published mangaka.”
“Heh.” Lilian felt her heart become infused with warmth. Her cheeks also felt quite hot. “Thanks, Beloved.”
“Hm. Anytime.”
Conversation settled down and Kevin began turning the pages again. Even though her eyes were scanning the manga, Lilian’s mind was trapped by her own indecision. Would now be a good time to talk about Iris? She didn’t know. The problem was that although Kevin didn’t fight it when Iris crept into bed with them, she knew he wasn’t receptive to her advances.
“Kevin,” Lilian started, “I—”
“HAWA!!!!”
Before Lilian could even complete her sentence, a loud cry of shock and pain echoed all the way to their room. Iris woke up with a start, tumbling off the bed and landing on her face, her butt sticking in the air. Kevin and Lilian shared a look of alarm. Then they leapt to their feet, raced out of the room, and ran into the living room.
What they found would be forever engraved in their minds.
“H-hawa! Lilian! Kevin-kyun! Help me!”
A completely naked Camellia had somehow gotten tangled up in her five tails. She looked like someone had tried twisting her into a pretzel, but then realized she wasn’t flexible enough and used her tails to force her limbs into the positions they wanted. It looked awfully painful, especially because her legs were doing the splits.
Kevin covered his eyes. “I really didn’t need to see this.”
Lilian merely sighed. It looks like my chance to talk to Kevin isn’t going to happen today.
Realizing that Kevin was going to be useless in this situation, Lilian set about untangling her mother from her own tails.
It was just another day at the Pnév̱ma residence.
***
David Wolfe was a yōkai, one of the few who hadn’t left Desert Cactus High School for the new underground schools set up by Monstrang.
His parents were some of the yōkai who believed they could change the way things were going—the downward spiral of hatred they had found themselves in—that by peacefully protesting their situation, they could make humans accept them.
David thought it was a load of crap. His parents were naive idealists who hadn’t been able to face the reality they were living in. Humans had already shown their true colors. From the moment they learned about yōkai, humans had ostracised them, hated them, and feared them. It was an inescapable truth. Human
s would never accept them.
That was why he and his friends planned on doing something about it.
He sat up in his bed and slowly crawled out. He and his parents lived in a studio apartment. It belonged to one of the few places that still allowed yōkai to live there, though David didn’t think that would last much longer. He’d heard the place was coming under new management, and that the new manager was just a puppet for the Sons and Daughters of Humanity, the newest branch of the American military.
“Oh. David, you’re up early today,” his mother exclaimed in surprise.
“I got things to do today,” David said as he stretched his arms.
“Going out with your friends again.” His mother smiled at him. It was an optimistic smile, and seeing it made him grimace.
“Yeah… friends.”
After taking a quick shower and having breakfast, David left the small, broken-down apartment complex.
He had someplace that he needed to be.
***
The campus for Sanoran Junior High School had once been a large, three-story building with numerous rooms. Now it was a burnt-out husk that was crumbling apart. Walls had toppled over. The entire third floor had collapsed. Nothing remained of the place that David remembered going to when he was in middle school.
He stepped past the caution tape that had been put up all around the campus building, his booted feet crunching against the broken plaster that littered the floor. The doorframe he walked up to was missing its door, and he moved through it, which led into a large, open space that had once been a hallway. Nothing remained now. Even the walls had been destroyed.
“‘Bout time you showed up.”
“Sorry, I got held up by my parents,” David grunted as he stepped through a broken-down door and entered a small room that looked larger than it should be since the walls had been blown to bits.
“Parents, eh? I don’t know why you bother with those people. Parents are always holdin’ you back.”
“Right.”
The person standing before him looked every bit the ugly thug. His large, muscled form was barely covered by a leather vest and ripped jeans. Spikes ran along his shoulders, protruding from his skin like stakes. His knees also had spikes shooting from them, one for each knee, creating holes in his jeans. Much like his shoulders and knees, his bald, scarred head also had spikes, a ring of them, which surrounded his head like a bed of thorns.
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