“Lilian, I, uh, I don’t really think this is…appropriate.”
Lilian paused in her rubbing. Emerald gems blinked once, twice, thrice. She tilted her head, red hair shimmering like a layer of silk in the sunlight as it swayed around her face.
“Why not?”
“Because people are watching.”
Kevin tried not to turn his head. He didn’t need to. He could feel their eyes on him and Lilian. It usually didn’t bother him anymore, but there were times when it did get to him, like when his overly affectionate girlfriend-slash-mate did something, well, sexy, in public. He especially disliked it when they stared at her.
“Oh…” Only after he’d spoken did Lilian seem to notice the stares. “Uh…” Her cheeks reddened. Lilian, for all her exquisite beauty and vivacious attitude, didn’t realize that her appearance and actions generated a lot of male attention. Kevin thought it was endearing, but it was also kind of annoying. “I… guess I should get off, then.”
“That would probably be a good idea.”
“Wait.” Lilian’s eyes brightened. “I can just craft an illusion to make people think we’re not here. Then I can finish putting sunblock on you!” Her normally bright eyes dimmed, becoming half-lidded and smoldering. “And then you can put suntan lotion on me.”
The idea had merit. Kevin would admit that it appealed to him. However…
“They’ve already seen us. Wouldn’t it be weird if we suddenly disappeared while they’re still staring at us?”
“Uh, um, oh…” Lilian’s shoulders slumped. “Right. I forgot about that.”
Kevin chuckled. He’d never met someone who could be so blissfully ignorant about matters like this. Then again, Lilian was something of an abnormality, both among humans and yokai. She was wholly unique.
Fortunately, matters were put to rest when he offered to rub lotion on her back. Lilian’s mood improved as their situation was reversed, with him straddling her thighs, and his rough hands rubbing lotion onto her back. Kevin rather enjoyed the moment as well. His mate’s skin was so soft and warm, and the soft moans that escaped from her parted lips was like listening to an angel’s choir.
And then Lilian rolled over.
“Front now.”
And Kevin facepalmed.
“Can’t. People are watching, remember?”
“Oh… right.”
***
For nearly an hour, the group of teens played in the water. Even Christine, who complained about the water being too cold, enjoyed splashing water at Lilian, Lindsay, and Iris.
“Ha! You think you can beat me in a water fight! I’m the master of water fights!”
“Oh, yeah? Take this!”
“Gya! My eyes! Salt water in my eyes!”
“O-oops, sorry.”
“Gotcha! Now we’ll see who’s boss!”
“Mmrrrggle!”
The water fight ended when Lindsay nearly choked after Christine got a little overly enthusiastic. The yuki-onna had dunked the poor blond tomboy’s head underwater, and then she wondered why Lindsay had stopped moving.
Kevin and his friends also tried their hand at bodysurfing.
“Okay. In order to catch a wave, you have to get the timing down. If you start too soon, you’ll overtake the wave. If you start too late, the wave will pass you by.”
“Shut up, Andrew. Don’t try to sound like an expert here. This is the first time you’ve bodysurfed in your whole life.”
“So what? This is the first time you’ve done it, too, jerkwad.”
“And you don’t see me trying to act like an expert when I’m clearly not, do you?”
“Just shut up!”
“Come on, you two. Let’s not—buwaf!”
While Eric tried to make the two stop fighting and ended up embroiled in the battle royale after Alex and Andrew both sucker-punched him in the face, Iris teased Lindsay.
“Would you mind helping me catch a wave?” she asked. “Maybe you could hold me up while I kick my feet.” Iris pouted, sticking out her lower lip as if daring the other girl to nibble on it. “It would be a really big help.”
“Uh…” Lindsay seemed at a loss for words. Her face looked like it might explode. “… I-I, well, if you want me to…”
The poor girl nearly passed out when a pair of boobs pressed into her back, and a beautiful mouth nibbled on her ear. “Thank you so much. I would have asked the Stud and Lily-pad, but they’re so busy being a lovey-dovey couple that I didn’t want to interrupt them.”
Blood trickled from Lindsay’s nose as she struggled to remain conscious.
“U-uh… it’s no problem…” she said with glazed-over eyes.
Kevin felt vindicated by the sight. “I’m glad to see that I’m not the only person she does that to.”
Lilian just facepalmed. “Idiot sister, your true colors are showing.”
After trying to bodysurf, the group decided to play with a beachball.
“Lilian.”
Kevin bumped the ball with an underhand hit that sent it sailing towards the redhead standing opposite of him.
“Alex.”
Lilian, in turn, hit the ball to Alex, who bumped it to Eric.
“Gothic Hottie!”
“Stop calling me that!”
Despite her tsukkomi act, Christine didn’t miss a beat and hit the beach ball towards Andrew, who then bounced it at Iris.
“Snow Wench.”
Christine gritted her teeth as Iris gleefully smacked the ball towards her harder than necessary.
“Fox Cunt.”
In retaliation, Christine hit the ball twice as hard, not even bothering to hide that fact by lobbing it high like Iris had done.
“Bitch Tits.”
Iris returned the retaliation by reinforcing her muscles and smacking the ball again. The ball ended up getting whacked so hard that it was a wonder the thing didn’t pop.
“Go suck a dick, bitch!”
“Maybe later. And at least I can get a dick to suck. I’d be surprised if anyone wanted you touching theirs, flatty.”
“I wouldn’t mind if Gothic Hottie sucked my—”
“Not another word out of you, pervert!”
“BUAFF!”
And just like that, their game ended when Christine slammed the ball into Eric’s face, not only causing it to burst, but also sending the perverted lech into blissful catatonia.
“What?” She glared at everyone as they stared at her.
“Way to go, Christy,” Lindsay said. “You just popped our ball.”
“I didn’t mean to! It’s all their fault anyways!”
As Christine pointed an accusing finger at them, Eric groaned and Iris smirked.
Since they could no longer play with the beachball, the group went back up to their umbrella. Kotohime and the other adults were all waiting for them… well, Kiara and Kotohime were waiting for them. Camellia was playing in the water, and Kirihime was trying to keep the infantile woman from tripping. She failed, of course, but Camellia didn’t seem bothered.
Her breasts broke her fall.
“I’m glad all of you could join us. Would you like some snacks?”
Before coming to the beach, Kiara had convinced them to stop by a shop where they’d loaded up on food. There were all kinds of treats located inside of their bags: chips, sandwiches, salads, and various flavored drinks both carbonated and not.
All of it was store bought, so it didn’t taste as good as Kotohime’s or Lilian’s home cooking, which Kevin was quick to point out. His words earned him a kiss on the cheek from Lilian, and Kotohime ruffled his hair like an affectionate older sister.
“Ufufufu, this humble Kotohime does not deserve such kind words.”
“Modesty doesn’t suit you,” Kevin shot back. “And do you ever stop laughing like that?”
Kotohime just hid her smile by placing her hands on her cheeks. “Ara, I don’t know what you mean.”
“… Right.”
Munching on a san
dwich, Kevin stared out at the vast ocean. Waves lapped against the shore with an almost gentle nature that belied the tide’s strength. In some ways, the ocean reminded him of Kotohime, gentle at times and, well, decidedly not gentle at others.
As he gazed upon the water tenderly caressing the sandy shores, Kevin thought he saw several strange objects in the distance. He couldn’t see them clearly, but they looked like streaks of blurring color moving at high speeds across the water’s surface. He blinked once and they were gone.
I must be seeing things.
“Is something wrong, Beloved?” Lilian asked, sitting beside him and munching on a bag of chips.
“Naw.” Kevin dismissed his worry with a grin. “I’m just surprised that a tentacle monster hasn’t risen from the ocean and started randomly groping people.”
A perfectly valid concern.
“Don’t jinx it,” Lilian warned him. “Knowing the author as I do, he might very well decide to do that now that you’ve mentioned it.”
Also a perfectly valid concern.
Kevin’s eyes widened. “You’re right! With how cruel and sadistic he is, it wouldn’t surprise me if people started getting tentacle-raped for no reason.”
I take offense to that.
“Ugh,” Kevin groaned, “I really shouldn’t have opened my big mouth.”
“What the hell are you two talking about?” asked Christine.
“We’re talking about—” Kevin stopped talking. His eyes went through a series of rapid blinks, then he turned to Lilian. “What were we talking about again?”
“Ha…” Lilian sighed in disappointment. “It seems the power is still weak in you.”
“That’s because Kevin-sama is a human,” Kotohime interjected herself into the conversation.
Kevin crossed his arms. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“She’s talking about your ability to break the fourth wall,” Iris commented. She lay on her side, traces of sand clinging erotically to her still wet skin, which glistened in the sunlight.
Kevin shook his head. How does she make everything look so freaking sexy?
“Indeed.” Kotohime nodded. “I suspect that the only reason Kevin-sama is even capable of doing this much is because of his exposure to kitsune.”
Lilian tilted her head before nodding. “That makes sense. So, does that mean that Kevin would lose his ability to break the fourth wall if we stopped living with him?”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not even here!”
“Probably. After all, Kevin-sama is just a human.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Ufufufu, nothing at all, Kevin-sama.”
“Dang vixens,” mumbling to himself, Kevin went back to his sandwich.
At least you won’t make fun of me. He took a vicious bite out of his food.
***
After they finished eating, the group split up to do their own thing. Lindsay dragged Christine off somewhere, the twins wrestled in the crashing waves, and Eric and Heather were gone. Kevin assumed they were trying to peep. That worried him, but he told himself that what they did wasn’t any of his business—unless they peeped on Lilian. Then there would be hell to pay.
Kiara was trying her hand at bodysurfing, and she was doing a lot better job than he and his friends had done. This was in spite of the fact that she only had one arm. Meanwhile, Kotohime was helping Kirihime keep an eye on Camellia, who splashed around in the water like a child having a field day.
He and Lilian meandered along the edge of the beach, hand in hand, water lapping at their feet. The suggestion to relax and travel along the shoreline had been Lilian’s. She thought it would be romantic. Kevin felt the same way.
“I wish we could go over to the theme park.”
Kevin looked at the park that Lilian spoke of. He wouldn’t call it a theme park, for the term implied a large-scale park with roller coasters. This place didn’t have a single roller coaster, though it did possess several rides that were often found at carnivals. He didn’t bother correcting her.
“We could probably ask Kotohime to go with us,” he suggested. “I’m sure she’d agree.”
“She probably would, but I’d rather we go there alone, just the two of us. It wouldn’t be the same if she came along.”
“I’m sure she’d follow from a distance.”
Despite his words, Kevin understood how she felt. Lilian wanted it to feel more like a date. It wouldn’t feel like a real date if they knew Kotohime was hovering over their shoulders, even if she did keep her distance.
“Well, there’s not much that we can do about that,” Kevin mused. “With that assassin still out there, you’re not allowed to go anywhere without either Kotohime or Kiara around. It’s for your protection.”
“I know, but it still sucks,” Lilian muttered. Even though her ears and tails weren’t visible right then, Kevin could imagine the way they would have drooped, as if mirroring their owner’s despondency.
As they continued walking, Kevin noticed something odd happening to the sea.
Is the water swelling?
Indeed, all of the water near the shore was getting sucked back out to sea, towards a large swell that looked a lot like a wave—except it was far too big. And it continued growing larger with each passing second, until it towered over everything else, even some of the houses lining the street across from the beach. Kevin noticed that all of the water in the harbor where the yachts were parked had also been pulled away. The various boats now lay on the beach floor beneath the dock.
What the heck is happening?
“Lilian-sama! Kevin-sama!”
He and Lilian turned their heads towards Kotohime. She was rushing towards them, running quickly, body blurring; she must have been using reinforcement to reach those speeds. Her eyes looked panicked. They were wide, and the pupils were dilated. Kevin couldn’t remember seeing her look so frightened.
“Lilian-sama! Kevin-sama! You two must get away from there! That’s a—”
But Kevin couldn’t hear anymore. All he could hear was the rushing sound of water. He looked back at the wave and saw that it was all crashing down.
Time seemed to slow as Kevin realized instinctively that he was going to die, crushed by several tons of water.
“Get down, Kevin!”
Something tackled him to the ground. A body pressed against him. He stared up at what should have been the sky, but all he could see was the giant wave descending upon them. Then the wave came crashing down and Kevin saw no more.
Chapter 7
Heartache
Seconds before the wave crashed on top of her, all Kotohime could think about was how she’d failed. All she could see was Lilian and Kevin as they were mercilessly crushed by several hundred tons of water. Her mind, her heart, even her body rebelled against this knowledge. Yet her eyes could not deny what they saw, and the weight of her failure should have crushed her.
But it didn’t. She couldn’t let it.
Acting with the quickness bred from years of experience, Kotohime’s four tails sprang out from her tailbone, pushing aside her bikini bottom. Youki flowed through her tails like water rushing down a river. All of Lilian’s and Kevin’s friends were with her, which was fortunate. While she might’ve been too late to help Lilian and Kevin, she could at least protect the people they cared about.
Kitsune Art: The Water Temple’s Ancient Realm was one of her most powerful techniques. It wasn’t an attack. It couldn’t inflict damage upon another. What it did was allow her perfect control over any body of water within a two-meter range. This technique could usually only be used by a kitsune with five tails or more, but her talent at wielding water meant that she could use it at four. Her sister could not use this technique, but she had no doubt that Kirihime still lived. She was inventive.
Kotohime barely paid attention to the others as they gazed at the dome that had trapped them, watching as the water swirled around them in all directions. She n
eeded to concentrate to maintain the technique. Even the smallest slip in her mental discipline would cause it to come crashing down.
This was especially true since River Kitsune like herself couldn’t manipulate salt water. In order to use this technique, she’d been forced to draw moisture from the air and separate the salt with another technique that she’d created. She was essentially using two techniques at the same time.
“Whoa,” Eric whispered. “What… how… what is this?”
“It’s a kitsune technique,” Heather told her apprentice. “If I had to guess, I would say that this is an ocean technique.” She looked at Kotohime, as if to confirm that she was right. Kotohime said nothing.
“What’s wrong with Alex, Andrew, and Justin?” asked Eric.
The three young men in question were lying unconscious in the center of the dome. They were completely still; however, the rise and fall of their chests showed that they were alive.
“Don’t worry about them,” Iris declared, biting her lip. The girl was trembling, and her eyes quivered with unshed tears. She’d clearly witnessed what happened to Kevin and Lilian, the same as Kotohime, and she was doing everything possible not to cry. “They’ve been placed under an illusion.”
“A very well-cast illusion,” Heather added, eyes flickering back to Kotohime. “I’m impressed. I’m no expert on kitsune abilities, but I imagine it takes a lot of effort to cast two techniques simultaneously.”
Kotohime remained silent. It had not been two techniques. It was three, and it did take a lot of effort.
“You can’t talk, can you?”
A head shake was Heather’s answer.
“All right.” Heather sat down, crossing her legs as she lowered herself to the floor. “In that case, I suppose there’s nothing for us to do but wait.”
“H-hold on!” Eric shouted rather obnoxiously. “I don’t get it! What’s going on? How do we get out of here?”
“You need to learn when to stop talking and start observing, Apprentice,” Heather chided. “Right now, there is nothing that we can do, so do yourself, and us, a favor: sit down and keep your mouth shut. This technique is obviously taking a lot of effort to keep up. We don’t want to break Kotohime’s concentration and suddenly find ourselves drowning under several hundred tons of water, do we?”
A Fox's Vacation (American Kitsune Book 5) Page 16