Kevin opened his mouth to speak—
“A-ah!”
—when an orgasmic cry rang out, slightly muffled for some reason. His vision soon adjusted to the darkness, and he realized that the reason it was so dark was because he was underneath Camellia’s dress. Also, the person who released that cry had been Camellia herself, and the reason for it was because her crotch was pressing against his mouth, which stimulated her body every time he tried to talk.
Well, he started mentally, this hasn’t happened in a while.
It was during this moment of contemplation that Kevin finally realized something else: He couldn’t breath.
Eyes widening, Kevin struggled to get out from underneath Camellia.
“Mph! Mph! Mm mm! MMPPH!”
“Ah! Ahn! Hawa!”
Unfortunately, Camellia didn’t seem to realize what was going on. When he tried to push her off and gasp in a breath of fresh air, she clamped her thighs around his head, her grip tougher than a vice and twice as painful.
“Mmmph! Mrrggglle! Mm!”
“H-Hawahawawawa! K-Kevin-kyun! Ahn! That—hawa!”
“M-Mom! Get off Beloved this instant! You’re suffocating him!” Kevin heard Lilian say, muffled though it was by Camellia’s thighs.
“I’m sure the stud is fine,” he heard Iris reassure her sister. “I bet you he’s enjoying this.”
“Mm! Mm mmph mmphing mmm!” Kevin tried to say that he wasn’t enjoying this, but because his mouth was being shoved into Camellia’s crotch, only muffled screams were heard.
“See? He’s having a blast.”
“No, he isn’t! Beloved is clearly choking to death! Mom, get off my mate before he dies from a lack of oxygen!”
Kevin continued to struggle, but he could sense himself growing weaker. He felt sluggish, slow, like he was wading through mud. His head felt light, and spots were appearing before his eyes. It made Camellia’s surprisingly adult panties look like they had polka dots on them.
“HAWA!”
“Don’t worry. He’s the main character. I doubt he would die from something as inane as Finagle’s Law.”
“I don’t care about some stupid law! Mom! Get off my mate!”
The last thing Kevin heard was Camellia’s loud cry of, “HAWA!”
And then everything returned to darkness.
***
After passing out and waking up in the infirmary, Kevin was taken to Monstrang, where he and Lilian took part in an After-Action Report debriefing.
Kevin didn’t pay any attention to the debriefing. He knew that he probably should, but a wave of exhaustion had hit him the moment he’d woken up in the hospital. If Kiara and Kotohime hadn’t forced him to attend, he would have dragged Lilian to bed with him and slept like the dead.
He and Lilian were sitting near the back. Iris sat on Lilian’s left and Kotohime sat on his right. Phoebe had tried sitting next to him, but the maid-slash-bodyguard had, fortunately for him, claimed that spot before the yuma uba could. Instead, Phoebe sat in front of him, the ever-faithful Polydora sitting by her side.
The world faded out for a moment. When he came to again, Kevin noticed that his position had changed. He was leaning against Lilian, his head resting on top of hers. From her even breathing, he could tell that she had fallen asleep. That meant he must have drifted off as well, but something had woken him up. He wondered what.
And then it happened.
An alarm blared. A loud klaxon split the air with a piercing squeal. Lilian jerked away and would have fallen off her chair had he and Iris not caught her.
What’s going on?
Kiara swore. “It looks like we’ve been infiltrated.”
Monstrage shouted over the noise, issuing orders. “B Squad, head up to the residential wing and begin evacuating the civilians via the exit tunnels underneath the base! C Squad, you guys are heading up top with me! We’re going to deal with the people who’ve infiltrated our base!”
Kotohime stood up, her movements swift and graceful, and gestured for him, Lilian, Iris, Phoebe, and Polydora to follow her.
“Come, you five. We’re a part of B Squad, so we’re going up to the residential wing with the others.”
They joined a larger group of yōkai exiting the room and took the elevator up to the third floor, which was where the residential district started—the other group, which was much larger and consisted of both Monstrang and Kiara, ascended to the first floor.
Kevin had no idea when he and the others had been designated B Squad, but he supposed it didn’t matter. Mack, who was once again in charge, issued orders. “All right, everyone! There are only sixteen of us, so I want you to divide into groups of four. Each one of you is going to take a wing. Get everyone together and then begin traveling down using the stairwell. Don’t use the elevator.”
Obviously we shouldn’t use the elevator. It only has a 12,000 pound capacity.
And there were several hundred yōkai within each wing. There was no way all of them would fit into the elevators.
“Master.” Phoebe turned to Kevin. “I shall accompany you during this arduous hour.”
“Uh…”
“Where Kevin goes I go.” Lilian grabbed his arm.
Iris grabbed the other arm. “I’m going with the stud, too. Huhuhu, this should prove to be interesting.”
“W-wait!” Polydora looked between the four before locking her eyes onto Phoebe. “L-Lady Phoebe, what about me?”
“Ufufufu, do not worry, Polydora-san.” Kotohime placed a hand on Polydora’s shoulder. “I shall have you accompany me with my group.”
The girl looked ready to argue, but she was pulled away by the swordswoman, whose grip on her shoulder was ironclad. The girl was dragged off, but her voice remained for several seconds, her scream of “Let go of me!” echoing down the hall until fading into ambiguity.
“Well,” Kevin started, “that just happened.”
“Indeed, it did,” Phoebe agreed. “Now come, we must act swiftly if we want to evacuate everyone within the hour.”
“Why within the hour?” Iris pondered out loud.
“Because bad guys normally storm strongholds within an hour?” Kevin guessed.
“Because it’s easier to say within the hour than within the hour and fifteen minutes?” Lilian offered.
“I was being rhetorical.” Iris rolled her eyes. “Now let’s hurry up and follow Ringlets before she disappears.”
Kevin and the two vixens caught up with Phoebe. Thus began the process of going door to door and telling every resident about what was happening. Reactions varied from panic to quiet acceptance and everything in between.
“We’re under attack?!”
“How did this happen?!”
“How did they find us?!”
“It was bound to happen sooner or later.”
“We need to get out of here!”
The responses varied, but most residents responded with similar statements. Phoebe took the lead whenever they had a panicking family. She calmly and efficiently explained to each family what they should do. Kevin left her to it. She was much better at leading than him.
“You must follow the hallway all the way to the elevator. There is a door on the left. It leads to the stairwell. Take the stairs. There’s an extra level at the bottom that you can’t access through the elevator. It leads to a series of tunnels, which is how we’ll be evacuating you. Wait inside of those tunnels. We will lead you out once we’ve made sure everyone knows that they need to evacuate.”
Kevin admired Phoebe as she took complete charge of the situation. With her directing everyone toward the stairway, they made excellent time, and in no time at all, they’d reached the last residence in their wing.
“K-Kevin? What are you doing here?”
Jessica was shocked when she saw who stood before her upon answering the door. Wide-eyed and slack-jawed, the usagi looked at him and the other three people with him in shock. She probably hadn’t been expecting to see
him again so soon.
“Jessica, I’m sorry to bother you, but we don’t have a lot of time. Is your family here?”
“Um, my mother is, but Father had to leave for a bit. He said something about meeting a few friends who also live here.” Jessica must have sensed the urgency in his voice. Her words were more decisive than they had been since, well, for as long as he’d known her.
“I see. Please get your mom out here.”
Jessica nodded and went back inside. While she did this, Iris placed her chin on his left shoulder.
“Is this your next conquest, Stud? Adding a rabbit to your harem?”
“I don’t have a harem.” Kevin scowled.
“Yet.”
“Ever.”
“Iris,” Lilian’s tone was admonishing, “you know Beloved’s stance on harems.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Iris rolled her eyes and lifted her head off his shoulder.
“Am I a part of this harem?” Phoebe asked.
“For the last time, I don’t have a harem!”
At that moment, the door opened and Jessica’s mom stood in the doorway. She had the same long hair as her daughter, and the same figure, though it seemed even bustier than Jessica’s. Kevin assumed that Jessica would look like this woman when she grew up.
“I hadn’t realized you were growing a harem, Kevin.” The woman’s eyes narrowed in disapproval. “And here I thought you were one of the decent men.”
Kevin would have banged his face against the wall, but they needed to leave quickly.
“Look, we don’t have time to discuss this. I’m sure you heard the sirens a while ago. This place has been infiltrated, though we don’t know by who. Everyone is being evacuated, and you are the last two in this wing. You need to come with us.”
While Jessica shook like a rabbit staring at a bullet train, her mother took a deep breath and kept calm.
“I understand. Give me one second to grab my cell phone.”
“Okay.”
Jessica’s mom went back into their apartment, then came out seconds later with a phone in hand. Her blond bunny ears twitched as she typed at super speed. Kevin was impressed. He couldn’t type anywhere near as fast. Was this some kind of rabbit ability? Rapid texting?
“I’ve sent Jason a text message letting him know what’s happening,” the mother of one said, pocketing the phone. “Please lead the way, Kevin.”
“Right.”
Moving down the hall at a swift trot, Kevin stared straight ahead. He could see Phoebe in front of him, and according to his ears, Lilian and Iris were on either side of him. Jessica and her mom were obviously trailing behind them.
While they ran, a loud explosion suddenly rocked the interior. Dust fell from the ceiling as several cracks formed, spreading along the cement surface all the way down the walls.
“W-what was that?!” Iris squawked.
“How should I know?” asked Lilian.
“Let’s just keep moving,” Kevin grunted, stiff muscles straining. It looked like he wasn’t going to be getting any sleep until later.
“An excellent suggestion, Master.”
“Don’t call me that!”
The interior shook some more. Kevin and the others stumbled as a particularly loud explosion seemed to rock the entire hallway. Looking up, his eyes widened when he saw large cracks spreading across the ceiling at an impressive rate. Furthermore, the cracks were spreading right over Jessica and her mother!
“Look out!”
Pushing off the ground, Kevin shoved Jessica and her mother away just as the ceiling came down.
“Kevin!” came Lilian’s frightened shout.
“I’m all right,” Kevin coughed. “Jessica? Mrs. Springen?”
“I-I’m fine,” Jessica said.
“As am I.”
Standing up, Kevin saw that the entire ceiling had collapsed, separating him from Lilian, Iris, and Phoebe. He tried to see if there might be a way to climb over, but a glance up revealed that such an option wasn’t viable—the path was blocked floor to ceiling by debris.
“Beloved?” Lilian’s voice called out.
“Master?”
“Stud?”
… A moment of silence.
“What? Everyone else was calling him by their given pet name, so I thought I would, too.”
Kevin almost facepalmed, but he shunted his irritation aside. “Listen, you three, go on without us.”
“… Are you sure?” Lilian didn’t sound like she wanted to leave him. “If we leave, then—”
“We’ll be fine,” Kevin reassured her. “This isn’t the only method to reach the stairway. We’ll just have to take a more roundabout route.”
“Okay,” Lilian said after a several second pause. “We’ll meet up with you at the stairway.”
“Right.”
“Be safe, Master,” Phoebe called out.
“Stop calling me that!”
Kevin listened to the trio’s footfalls grow softer and softer until they faded into obscurity. He sighed. Nothing was going right this day it seemed. He was sore, tired, and now on top of having to fight an oni, he needed to escape from their base because someone was attacking it.
How did they manage to find us?
It was a question that would have to wait. Kevin turned to Jessica and her mom, then gestured for them to follow.
“Come on, you two. We’ll go back to the last junction and get to the stairs that way.”
The two usagi nodded and, without a backwards glance at all of the rubble, the three of them took off down the hall.
***
Lilian was confident that Kevin would be okay. That didn’t stop her from worrying.
Kevin’s with that Jessica girl. Knowing him as well as I do, if something happens, then he’s going to do something suitably heroic and another girl will fall in love with him.
She honestly didn’t care if someone fell in love with Kevin. She and Kevin had formed an unbreakable bond through many trials. Another girl falling for him wasn’t the problem.
Kevin doesn’t want a harem, but he keeps bringing more girls to him.
As expected of a harem protagonist.
“Be quiet,” Lilian snapped.
…
At this rate, we may end up dealing with more harem shenanigans than anything else.
Dispelling the thoughts, Lilian focused on her surroundings. She, her sister, and Phoebe were racing down the hall, traveling toward the stairway that would lead them to the tunnels they were supposed to evacuate everyone through.
Lilian hadn’t known about the tunnels until they were mentioned, but she supposed that was just because she’d never bothered to study the layout of this place. She wondered if everyone else was already there, waiting for them.
“The stairway is just up ahead!” Phoebe called back to Lilian and Iris. She ran ahead of them, her eyes narrowed as she studied the area as if wary for a surprise attack.
The explosions had all but stopped now. Lilian wondered if that meant the battle was over. Yet even as she thought this, the ceiling above her exploded, forcing her and Iris to leap back so that they wouldn’t be flattened.
Several figures fell along with the ceiling. Clad in black spandex and Kevlar vests, Lilian easily recognized the Sons and Daughters of Humanity’s uniform.
“Celestial Art: Orbs of an Evanescent Realm!”
Lilian didn’t hesitate to send half a dozen light spheres at the men and women before they could recover. However…
… the orbs never reached them.
“What?” Lilian gawked as her light spheres slammed into a purple barrier that appeared a foot from the soldiers. She didn’t have time to stand there like an idiot, however, as seconds later, the seven soldiers took aim at her and her sister.
“Void Art: Void Fire!”
Dark flames spewed into existence like a dragon’s breath. They splashed against the shield, eating away at the barrier, which dissolved into nothingness seconds later, the fire
dispersing as it ran out of energy.
Lilian didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the opening Iris gave her.
“Extension!”
Her two tails shot out from behind her, wrapping around a soldier each and using them as a bat, slamming them into two other soldiers, who flew into a wall, their helmet-covered heads cracking against the cement.
“Extension!”
Iris latched onto two soldiers as well, her tails coiling like snakes. Unlike Lilian, who merely used them as a bat, Iris lifted them into the air and threw them into the hole they’d made in the ceiling. The two soldiers screamed as they flew out of sight, and then came back down seconds later, landing on their heads. Lilian winced when she heard the loud snap! of their necks breaking.
The last soldier was defeated by Phoebe, who closed the distance between them quickly. She batted the soldier’s gun away, then placed her foot into the soldier’s instep, keeping them from moving. With nary a thought, she grabbed the woman’s left forearm, twisted it, then spun around and tossed the female onto her back. Phoebe then rabbit punched the woman in the throat, crushing her windpipe. The woman’s eyes widened and her hands rose to her throat as she slowly choked to death.
“Come on.” Phoebe stood back up and ushered the two kitsune to follow her.
“Iris?” Lilian looked at her sister, who's sweaty face seemed a tad pale.
“I’m fine.”
She clearly wasn’t fine, but Lilian didn’t say anything. Now was not the time.
They didn’t make it far before, without warning, the wall on their right exploded and something large burst out of the debris. Phoebe barely had time to turn her head before the figure slammed into her. The yuma uba’s gasp of pain was completely drowned out by the loud crack! as the thing that had rammed her crushed her against the wall.
“Phoebe!” Lilian cried out before hastily gathering her youki. “Celestial Art: Chains of Babylon!”
Six chains appeared out of swirling eddies of light that looked like miniature galaxies, or perhaps tears in the time/space continuum. Each chain wrapped around the large figure, two binding its arms, two tying its legs together, one wrapping around its chest, and the other coiling around its neck. The chains then reeled back into the eddies, pulling the figure off Phoebe, who fell to the ground with a dull thud.
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