A Fox's Family (American Kitsune Book 4)

by Brandon Varnell

  Her plan to have the strange mercury-like substance twist itself into a knot proved unsuccessful, however. The substance simply melded into itself without resistance, and then the spear continued following her.

  “Water Art: Water Armor.”

  Appearing around her form, thousands of tiny droplets like liquid crystals glittered, their twinkling akin to stars of the Milky Way galaxy. They moved and pulsed, rippling and shifting into a variety of shapes before amalgamating on her body. The many droplets of water combined to form segments of an armor both ancient and powerful. Each segment covered her body, connecting to each other like links in a chain and forming a set of traditional samurai armor. The armor rippled for a moment, its form seemingly not fully cohesive, before hardening into sparkling crystallized water.

  Kirihime charged the spear. Not even bothering to dodge, she let the hardened point of sharp liquid metal hit her. Squealing erupted as the spear, unable to penetrate the diamond-hard armor, scraped along its surface. Sparks coruscated off the armor as the spear’s course deviated, sliding across the armor until it no longer presented a threat.

  As Kirihime closed the distance, a deranged grin appeared on her face.

  “I would really like it if you died for me, please!”

  The two knives, hardened water encasing them and lengthening the blades, struck the armored figure at the hips. The two weapons tore straight through the amor, bisecting the thing and causing the top half to fly away from the lower half. The legs, no longer supporting a torso, tumbled to the ground. Meanwhile, its torso soared for several feet before hitting the road with a loud clatter, its surface rippling like a placid pond disturbed by a rock.

  Kirihime waited for several seconds. When it became obvious to her that the thing was dead, she dispersed her water armor and stuck the now waterless knives into the sheaths underneath her skirt. At the same time, her sadistic and cruel demeanor vanished.

  “I-I am terribly sorry that you had to die.” She bowed to the armored figure—or at least the upper half of it. The figure didn’t respond, though she had not expected it to. With her apology said, she turned around and started walking away.

  She never saw the spear soaring toward her unprotected back until it was too late.

  ***

  Kotohime observed her opponent. Her keen eyes studied its gleaming surface, its sleek design, its clawed feet and strange abilities.

  The battle had come to a standstill. This thing, whatever it was, did not have a very durable body. Her blade tore it apart like it was made of rice. Then again, it didn’t really need one. Its ability to reform no matter the damage she inflicted on it was impressive.

  Kotohime’s katana moved at speeds beyond what even most yōkai could perceive. It appeared and disappeared at will, nothing more than brief flashes that struck out and vanished in the same instant. Rather than simply saying her blade “moved,” it might have been more accurate to say that her katana was instantly teleporting from one location to the next.

  With each flash of her katana, one of the many spear-like tendrils that her enemy launched at her was sliced into exactly six pieces. The strangely liquid substance splattered against the ground, creating a puddle, which would ripple before, ever so slowly, crawling back towards the armored being, amalgamating once again. This, too, she catalogued in her mind.

  For its part, the strange armored being had yet to move from its spot. It stood there, a sentinel at the ready. Its arms moved while its heels dug in. The spear-like tendrils shot from its hands ten at a time, one for each finger.

  That was something Kotohime had noticed early on. Even though it all appeared to be made of the same liquid compound, no other part of its body except for its hands seemed capable of creating those strange tendrils. It also couldn’t create more than ten at any given time.

  This worked to her advantage. Her speed was such that blocking against ten attacks at the same time wasn’t a problem. Her hands moved and her blade followed, arcing paths of light that sliced through each tendril with ease. When Kotohime felt she had her opponent’s timing and attack patterns down, she charged forward.

  Six tendrils appeared on her right and four on her left, all of which were set to skewer various parts of her body.

  Moving with an instinctive grace bred from years of experience, Kotohime’s feet danced along the blacktop. Legs bent and thigh muscles bunched underneath her beautiful kimono, preparing for what was to come. With a push, her feet left the ground in a burst of speed.

  She shot forward, her body parallel to the asphalt and spinning like a top. In a manner that was similar to a blender, the blade in her left hand spun about so rapidly that it could only be seen as bright silver streaks. The blade created a funnel around Kotohime’s body, a whirlpool of steel that sliced apart everything in its path. All ten tendrils were shredded. Her blade spun right through them, cutting them into hundreds of tiny pieces.

  Ceasing her spin by creating a counterforce to halt her rotary movements, Kotohime flipped around, landing on her feet just six inches from her foe. She crouched down in a manner that was all predator. The figure tilted its head, its red visor staring at her with an unnatural glow. Swifter than it could track her, she came up and swung her katana.

  “Ikken Hissatsu. Sen.”

  Her blade lashed out an uncountable number of times. Over and over, the katana appeared as instantaneous flashes of silver that continuously moved within split seconds of each other. The flashes, though brief, soon coalesced into an ethereal spiderweb of otherworldly luminescence, and the creature, thing, whatever it was, found itself trapped within the middle of this intricate web of continuous attacks. Unable to move. Unable to block. Unable to do anything. All it could do was stand there and ride out the wave of ceaseless blades assaulting it from all sides.

  And then it was over.

  Kotohime sheathed her blade, the resounding click echoing across the silent road. The thing behind her slid apart, thousands of separate pieces hitting the ground with a wet splat.

  Turning around to observe the armored figure, Kotohime noticed immediately that it wasn’t dead, despite being turned into several puddles. The mercury-like substance still glowed. Blobs of liquid metal pulled themselves together, congealing into a single entity once more. Like a rising tide, it surged upwards, its undefined form rippling. It began bulging in some places and retracting in others, its body constantly shifting, as if it couldn’t decide on the form it wanted to take, until it eventually settled on an approximately human shape.

  “Hmm.” Gripping the hilt of her katana, Kotohime observed her regenerated foe with the sharp eyes of a warrior. “It seems I will need to use something more powerful than a simple sword technique to defeat you.”

  It had become clear to her that this thing was impervious to all forms of physical damage—slashing, stabbing, blunt force trauma; none of that would work. If she wanted to defeat this strange metallic being, then she needed to use something that didn’t require her to cut it.

  But what technique should she use? It would have to be something that could destroy its body in one go. Maybe… yes… that could work, provided she was careful.

  The thing seemed to realize that its tendril attacks wouldn’t work on her. Its hands shifted, the metal elongating into two double-edged blades about three feet in length. Then it charged at her.

  Kotohime met the charge head on. The first attack made by the armored figure was a downward slash with its right blade, which Kotohime redirected when she raised her katana at an angle, allowing the weapon to slide off her sword. She then shifted her stance, her feet sliding across the blacktop as she raised the katana above her head with the tip pointed at the ground. The ringing of steel echoed as her foe swung its blade again, only to discover that her katana was there to meet it. When their weapons locked, she flicked her wrist and the blade grinding against her katana was redirected over her head, following the contours of a crescent.

  Her skillful redirect caused he
r opponent to stumble forward. Reversing her grip on her katana, Kotohime sent an enhanced thrust at the figure with her pommel. The creature, unable to properly ground itself, could do nothing as she hit it with the full force of her youki-enhanced strength. Like the sonic boom of a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier, a powerful shockwave sent the thing hurtling backwards where it smashed into the ground, breaking apart the road and digging a long trench in the blacktop.

  “Water Art: Dance of Timeless Erosion.”

  Before the thing even had a chance to stand back up, water gathered around it. At first, the liquid only appeared as tiny droplets barely larger than a thumbtack. There were a lot of them; thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands; glittering gems from a hidden treasure, tiny pearls of moisture that remained liquid and unstable. They looked small, harmless, and were surprisingly beautiful.

  Then they began to move, swirling around the armored figure like pieces of debris trapped in a tornado. The water droplets picked up speed, the rotatory forces becoming an intense maelstrom of energy, a whirlpool of incredible power that danced around her armored foe. And then the funnel of rotating droplets started to shrink, conforming to the size and shape of the being trapped within.

  Water is an unusual element. It is generally very gentle, soft and tender, like a lover’s caress. However, it can also be powerful and chaotic, a tempest squall capable of unmitigated destruction in the right circumstances.

  It was not wind or fire or earth that created the Grand Canyon. It was water. Thousands of years worth of water eroding the earth, slowly chipping away at it. There was power in water, both terrible and great.

  Kotohime, as a Water Kitsune, was capable of controlling this element with the ease of one born into it. Her very blood pulsed with the flow of water. Her technique, Dance of Timeless Erosion, was an ability that showed her powers over water to their fullest extent.

  The water molecules encased the metal figure from head to toe and continued spinning. The force generated from each droplet, combined with each droplet’s continuous motion, took what constituted as several thousand years’ worth of erosion and compressed it into several seconds.

  When the water finally dispersed, her armored opponent was gone, vanished. Annihilated. Its very molecular structure had been broken down and eroded. The only thing that remained was a strange orb, which Kotohime picked up and placed within her Extra Dimensional Storage Space.

  “I see you took care of your opponent, sister.” Kotohime turned to greet her younger sibling, who smiled at her as she walked up. “And without receiving so much as a single scratch.” The woman’s eyes shone with a glimmer of admiration. “I’m always amazed by how powerful you are.”

  “In a few decades, you will be this strong as well.” Kotohime observed her sister, the cuts on her clothes and the blood leaking from her many wounds. Her gaze traveled to her sister’s side, where Kirihime held a hand against her torso, carnelian fluids seeping between her fingers. “You are injured. Do you require healing?”

  “I appreciate your concern, but you need not worry about me.” Demure as always, Kirihime smiled at her elder sibling and brushed off Kotohime’s concern. “That thing, um, whatever it was, it was stronger than I expected it to be. I underestimated it and ended up paying the price.”

  “I see. So, you had to use ‘that,’ then?” When Kirihime just tilted her head in honest confusion, Kotohime sighed. “Never mind. Let us report back to the others and inform them of this new development.”

  “Okay.”

  ***

  Standing on the roof, a gleaming metallic figure observed the battle’s conclusion from afar, watching as the two beings defeated its two brethren. After cataloguing the many attacks used and studying the battle with its high-spec processor, it quickly determined that fighting those two would end in its defeat.

  While it had no concept of death, it did have orders to exterminate Heather Grant. Its processor, which functioned on logic, reasoned that it couldn’t eliminate its target if it was destroyed.

  With no more reason to stick around, it left, disappearing into the night. It would wait for another opportunity to dispose of its target.

  ***

  Kevin’s sleep was interrupted by an annoying voice.

  “Kevin-sama. Lilian-sama. I must ask that you two please wake up.”

  “Five more minutes,” Lilian, who’d slept with him, didn’t appreciate being woken up either.

  “I apologize, Lilian-sama, but I must insist that you two wake up now. There has been a new development that you should be made aware of.”

  With a groan of complaint, Kevin opened his eyes and sat up. Yawning, he raised his arms above his head, his eyes closing as stiff muscles were stretched taut. Sitting up beside him, Lilian rubbed her eyes in a most adorable manner.

  “Come along, you two.” Kotohime stood before them. “We are having a meeting in the living room.”

  “Right, right,” Kevin yawned again, “we’re coming.”

  When he, Lilian and Kotohime arrived in the living room, it was to see that Kirihime and the others were already there. He and Lilian sat down, while Kotohime gracefully moved to stand beside her sister. The only one not present was Camellia, who he assumed was still sleeping.

  “Thank you for waking up so promptly, everyone,” Kotohime bowed politely.

  “Whatever. Look, I don’t want to be rude or anything,” Iris started, crossing her arms and giving the swordswoman a tired glare, “but does anyone want to tell me why I had to wake up at this Inari-forsaken hour?”

  Unlike Kevin and Eric, who sat on armchairs, and Lilian―who sat on Kevin―Iris had chosen to rest on the floor. Once again, Kevin found himself unconsciously admiring the raven-haired fox-girl; without even trying, the girl somehow made even the simplest of gestures look unbearably sexy. Sprawled regally on her right side, her head resting on her right hand, the kitsune’s posture seemed designed to draw all eyes to her. Her sleepwear, a tiny white shirt that stretched tautly across her breasts and showed off her flat stomach and a red thong, ensured that she remained the center of attention.

  “My apologies, Iris-sama.” The sound of Kotohime’s voice gave Kevin the strength needed to look away from Iris, something he was very grateful for. “The reason that I have asked all of you to wake up at such an untimely hour is because just a few minutes ago, a pair of… of… creatures? Robots?” Her nose scrunched up. “I do not know what they were, exactly. Suffice to say, they were hostile, and I believe they were responsible for Heather-san’s condition.”

  Everyone looked at Kotohime in alarm.

  “Fortunately, Kirihime and I managed to defeat those things,” Kotohime continued. “However, we are now faced with a new problem. The strange foes that we fought are completely unknown to me. They were neither yōkai nor human, but something else entirely.”

  “So, you don’t know what they were?” Lilian looked troubled.

  “I do not.”

  Kotohime went into a brief description of the enemy she and her sister had fought. Only half of Kevin paid attention. The rest of him was trying to ignore the way Lilian’s butt felt against his erection.

  Lilian leaned back against Kevin’s chest after Kotohime finished giving her description. “It sounds like those things were made of mercury. That’s the only metal I know of that can become liquid at low temperatures.”

  “I do not believe it was mercury. While the substance did indeed behave in a manner similar to mercury, it also acted completely differently from that particular type of metal, moving almost as if it had a mind of its own.”

  Kotohime reached into her cleavage and pulled out a orb. It didn’t look like much. It was a sphere about the size of a baseball, silver, but with black veins running along its surface.

  “Is that…?”

  “Indeed.” Kotohime nodded at Kevin. “After I defeated my opponent, all that was left of it was this strange sphere.” Holding the orb up to her eyes, the maid-slash-bodygu
ard’s brow furrowed. “I was hoping we would be able to discover what those things were with this, but I confess to being at a loss.”

  “I think I might be able to answer a few of your questions.”

  Everyone turned their heads to see Heather standing in the hallway leading to the guest rooms. She didn’t look good. She was leaning against the wall for support, and her right hand covered her left side. Her heavy breathing was accompanied by sweat covering her flushed face, as if just standing there took a concerted amount of effort.

  “Master! You’re awake!” Eric was at her side in an instant. “Are you alright? Is there anything I can do for you? Do you need any help?”

  “I’m fine, my young apprentice.” Heather gave her student in the ways of perversion a smile mixed with a grimace. She looked back at Kotohime. “I believe I can answer at least some of your questions. Apprentice, help me walk; I seem to be having some trouble moving on my own right now.”

  With Eric’s help, Heather was soon sitting on the armchair that he had vacated, the young pervert choosing to stand behind her.

  “I’m sorry for getting all of you involved in this. I would also like to thank you for helping me.”

  “You are welcome.” Kotohime graciously accepted Heather’s thanks. “Now, then, I believe you mentioned something about having answers to our questions.”

  Heather nodded. “Right, it’s about those things you fought. I don’t really know what those things are, but I do know who created them; a group calling themselves The Sons and Daughters of Humanity.”

  Iris wrinkled her nose. “Pretty pretentious name, don’t you think?”

  Heather shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t come up with the name. Anyway, The Sons and Daughters of Humanity is a secret organization of the highest level. Very few people know they exist, and fewer still know what their true goals are. I’m not exactly sure who’s funding them, but I know they’re very powerful, and that they’ve got some deep pockets.”