“I’m not talking about enchantments and illusions, girl.” The way Kiara scoffed, as if she thought the idea of practicing enchantments and calling it training was too stupid for mere words to express, made Lilian grit her teeth. “I’m talking about real training. Combat training. I remember how you used the enhancement technique when we fought. It was pathetic. Rather than training what you’re already good at, you should be training what you’re weak at. It’s the only way you’ll ever improve.”
Lilian turned her head, no longer wishing to look at this woman. What did she know? Kitsune were all about their illusions and enchantments. When those weren’t enough, they had their specialized techniques. It was how they were. They didn’t need to become physically powerful, not when their illusions, enchantments, and elemental techniques were enough to fend off attacks by other yōkai.
“I can get along just fine without the need to get all sweaty and gross. The only time I want to work up any kind of sweat is when Kevin finally snaps and pounds his meat stick into my honey pot.”
“LILIAN! DON’T SAY SUCH EMBARRASSING THINGS!”
“Whoops. Sorry, Beloved!”
“You shouldn’t take your eyes off your opponent, kiddo!”
“Gya! My nose! You just broke my nose!”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby. Your nose is fine.”
“It’s bleeding!”
“Noses tend to do that! Now keep that guard up!”
“EEK!”
“Hya!”
Thus the battle continued. It would be long and hard and brutal… for Kevin, that is.
***
Kiara sat with Heather at the dinner table, eating a meal prepared by the blond bombshell; steak and mashed potatoes. It was a simple meal, but that suited her just fine.
“So, what do you think of my protege?”
Heather paused mid-scoop, her spoon sticking into the mashed potatoes. The hesitation didn’t last, and she soon had a mouth full of starchy goodness. It gave her time to think up a suitable answer.
“He’s not all that good at fighting—he kinda sucks actually, but the potential is there. He’s got guts at least.” She paused, thinking some more. “I’m honestly not sure how he’ll do against yōkai though, which is what he’ll most likely be facing if he sticks around with Lilian.”
“That is true.” With her dinner already finished, Kiara leaned back in her seat and placed her hands on the table, drumming her left index finger in an off-beat rhythm. “Against a yōkai, especially one at a higher level than, let’s say, a two-tailed kitsune, he’ll be in deep trouble without a weapon of some kind. I’ve been trying to find something that’ll suit him, a weapon powerful enough to help him deal with the more powerful yōkai he’s bound to run into, but I haven’t had much luck so far.”
“Do you think he’s even suited to a weapon?” asked a skeptical Heather. “I don’t mean to be rude, but he doesn’t really strike me as a weapon-using type.”
“That’s because you’re thinking traditionally,” Kiara replied, her left hand coming up to her chin. “I’m thinking of getting him a more esoteric weapon. At first, I thought about commissioning someone to create a set of metal gauntlets and greaves to increase his hitting power, but his deceptive fighting style makes using those problematic.”
“Yeah, that weird style of his is awfully good at misleading people, though it’s really unrefined. It will need a lot of work before he can use it in battle.” Her eyes suddenly lit up. “Hey! What if you gave him a weapon with a lot of versatility? Like… like… I know! A utility belt!”
“A utility belt?” Kiara gave Heather a flat look.
“Yeah, a utility belt. You know, like Batman.”
“I don’t think that would help him match the strength of a yōkai.” Kiara rubbed her jaw in thought. “Still, maybe I could commission some kind of strength-enhancing bodysuit…”
“Huh?”
“It’s nothing.”
Kiara was just about to take her plate to the sink, when her danger senses screamed at her to move.
The ceiling directly above them exploded in a shower of wood, stucco and insulation. Heather and Kiara both reacted quickly, leaping away from the dining room table. A second after they vacated their seats, something heavy crashed into the floor—and the dining room table.
“What the fuck!” Kiara actually swore. “My table!” A growl. “I don’t know who or what this thing is, but the moment I see its face, it’s dead!”
No one destroys my stuff and gets away with it!
The dust blocking their view dispersed, revealing the figure that had dropped down through the ceiling. Its bright surface glimmered within the light, despite the amount of dust covering it. Its body, roughly humanoid in shape, stood on two thick legs and had arms that appeared to ripple. A red visor situated on its helmet and shaped like a T scanned its surroundings.
“That’s the thing that nearly did me in!” Heather exclaimed in shock. “I thought those two sexy fox-women destroyed it!”
“I’m guessing there was one more.” Kiara’s eyes never strayed from that visored, bullet-shaped head.
The thing lifted its arms and pointed them at her. Kiara’s eyes had just enough time to widen before a hailstorm of bullets were shot from the silver being’s fingers. She and Heather both ducked to avoid the lethal projectiles, which ended up hitting her wall and blasting several holes straight through it.
“My wall!” Kiara howled. “Do you know how expensive it’ll be to fix that?!”
Anger washed over Kiara like gasoline being poured onto a bonfire. She didn’t know what this thing was, robot or whatever, but she honestly couldn’t find it in herself to care. This… thing was destroying her condo, which cost a lot of money to build and even more to maintain. There was no way she could let that stand.
This thing is dead.
Unlike Chris, whose shift from human form to yōkai form took time, Kiara’s was instantaneous. Her ears quickly sprouted fur and grew longer and floppy as they moved up her head. Her face remained unchanged, as did most of her body, but the nails on her hands and feet grew exponentially longer and much sharper. A single bushy brown tail sprouted from her business suit, jutting out of the small flap in her pants.
With a low growl and a snarl on her face, Kiara used her immense speed to appear right underneath the thing wrecking her home. She placed her hands on the ground, palms pressed firmly against cool tile, fingers splayed. She lifted her legs into the air and tucked them in towards her chest…
… And then launched them forward with enough power to crush a car.
Like the clapping of thunder, Kiara’s attack resounded throughout the condo as her feet crashed into the thing’s jaw. Despite clearly weighing quite a bit, it flew into the air, back out of the hole it had made in her ceiling.
Kiara followed, jumping through the hole and landing on the roof. She looked up to see the thing still ascending. She must have put more power into her kick than she’d originally thought.
Dark eyes watched as the thing continued soaring. When it reached the apex of its ascent, it began to descend. Seeing this, Kiara shot off her roof like a missile, heading straight for the enemy. Before she reached it, she twisted her body around, her feet swinging about in a fast arc that cut through the air.
A loud bang reminiscent of an explosion echoed across the valley when the heel of Kiara’s foot met the back of the metallic being’s head. The metal surface pulsated and it was sent flying towards the ground at speed. Kiara’s eyes danced with satisfaction as the foolish creature smashed into the street with force. The earth shattered underneath it, the ground cratering as large chunks of road and rubble were upheaved and sent flying.
Kiara landed several feet away, her eyes narrowed as she watched the machine clamber to its feet. This battle was making a lot of noise, and since she lived in a condominium complex, that meant a lot of people were hearing it. Already she could see lights turning on and shouts sounding out. She n
eeded to end this now.
I’ll also have to talk with Davin and see if he can send members of the Saint’s Brigade to erase the memories of everyone here.
Now there was a fun conversation waiting to happen.
Not wanting to give the mech any time to recover, Kiara shot forward. The pavement cracking underneath her feet. She extended her left hand in a swift punch, her entire forearm corkscrewing as it smashed against the thing’s face. The power behind the twisting straight was such that the area she hit splattered like a boulder being dropped into a lake.
The machine skidded backwards, though it didn’t go far. Digging its feet into the road, the metal man gouged a trench along the blacktop for several feet before stopping.
Before it could so much as raise its guard, Kiara was there. She had assumed a power stance. Her feet were spread wide, knees bent, arms tucked into her torso. The machine’s processor barely had time to register the heat source mere inches from its body before she struck.
Her fists were a blur of impossibly fast motion, visible only as a streak of earth tone colors. They slammed into the metal body like a rampaging bull, pounding away at it. Each time one of the blurring fists struck, large chunks of the creature’s body were blown away, the odd metal becoming liquid as it splattered against the ground like mercuric blood.
The attacks became more vicious. Anger fueled movements intensified to the point where each fist contained what seemed to be the power of an entire pantheon of angry gods. Before long, nothing remained of the machine except for silver puddles that glistened in the moonlight.
Kiara eyed the splatters with disdain. Muttering obscenities under her breath, she turned around and began to walk away.
She didn’t get far before a most unusual noise reached her. Kiara turned, her eyes narrowing into slits as she witnessed the splatters of silver liquid crawling along the ground. The small pools began to combine, congealing together and growing larger. It then started to shift, its form bulging and expanding and contracting. A head sprouted from the top, bullet-shaped and streamlined. A neck formed underneath, followed by shoulders and then arms. Like a muck monster rising from a swamp, the creature’s body emerged from within the silver liquid, the last bit of which crawled along its legs to form a pair of feet.
Kiara’s eyes narrowed. “So, Kotohime wasn’t exaggerating when she said you could regenerate from any and all forms of physical damage. In that case, I’ll just have to annihilate you completely.”
Taking a deep breath, Kiara shifted into a new stance. Her left foot slid forward, the right moving back as she bent her knee. She brought her hands together near her torso, her tail also curving around her body, the tip moving into the gap between her hands.
Another breath. The carefully placed locks on Kiara’s power were released. The energy flowed out from her body, engulfing her in a red flame of undeniable power. Youki gathered within her palms and the tip of her tail, a tiny ball of bright red that grew larger with each passing second. Rays shone from between curved fingers, a blinding array of vermillion that grew in brilliance until it reached a zenith.
Kiara’s hands shot forward, fingers opening like a venus flytrap. However, unlike the plant, these appendages were not meant to capture, but to release. A bright red beam of conical energy shot from within her hands. The compressed youki expanded the further it moved away from her, until the beam was at least twice as tall as Kiara. It struck the machine, its entire form becoming engulfed in bright red, disappearing entirely as the youki washed over it.
The energy put into the attack ran dry, the beam dispersing into thousands of particles. Kiara nodded in satisfaction when she saw that there was nothing left of the creature—or the road. All that remained was a huge trench nearly sixteen meters long. Glistening with refracted moonlight, the entire trench appeared to have been glassed, the blacktop superheated to the point where it had melted down to its base components.
She felt a drop of sweat run down her face.
“Looks like I put a little too much power into that attack.” She scratched the back of her neck. “Davin’s really not gonna like this…”
Chapter 9
Kidnapped
“It looks like those creations of yours were all defeated. If I had known you were going to send some of the science division’s prototype experiments, I would have told you not to bother. Now you’ve revealed how far along our technological weaponry has come and there are several yōkai who now know about our organization, including the big man running this place. I’ve got to tell you, that move you just pulled--not very smart.”
“…”
“I’m not being insubordinate. I’m merely stating the facts, and you can give as many justifications as you want, but it won’t change the fact that you screwed up royally. Now you’ll never be able to silence Ms. Grant. She’ll be put under the protection of Davin Monstrang and Kiara F. Kuyo, neither of whom are pushovers.”
“…”
“Very well, though if leaving her alone was going to be the end result of your plan anyway, we should have just let her be from the start.”
“…”
“Right, right. Silence those who could reveal our existence, blah, blah, blah. Look, why don’t you just give me my orders now?”
“…”
“If I am a smartass, then it’s because your people made me this way. My orders?”
“…”
“Same as always, eh? Fine. I’ll continue keeping an eye on the yōkai going to Desert Cactus High, as well as the ones Kevin’s been interacting with outside of school. Yes, yes. I understand. Justin out.”
As the conversation wound to a close, Justin pocketed his cell phone and looked up at the morning sky. Reds and oranges and yellows mixed in streaks and swirls of color. Radiant beams of light shone down from parted clouds, casting patterns along the ground. School would be starting soon.
Justin’s lips curled into a smile. “I wonder what today will bring. I’m sure it’ll be interesting.”
***
Ling wandered the school courtyard, enjoying the brief respite from her normal activities. While she had dedicated her life to Lord Jiāoào, that did not mean she didn’t appreciate the small moment of freedom. All around her students and teachers walked. Classes started in about twenty minutes, so she had enough time to get a feel for the campus’ layout.
Gaining entrance into the school had been depressingly easy. The man who called himself this educational institute’s principal was a pervert of the highest level. She didn’t even have to show off any skin. Just appearing before him had turned the man into a drooling sack of flesh. Had assassinating him been her mission, she would have been able to kill him before he could have even registered that something was wrong.
Truly, perverts are a weak-willed group of people.
The buses began arriving, and Ling found a nice place to sit down and observe. She enjoyed watching people go about their daily lives. It was something of a hobby for her.
Of course, she was not just doing this to watch teenage boys and girls do what teenage boys and girls were wont to do.
“A sleep over, eh? Sounds interesting, but are you sure it’s alright to invite me along? Won’t the tomboy and flatty get angry?”
It wasn’t hard to pick out Lilian, Kevin and Iris amongst the crowd. Lilian’s hair, a vibrant red very few individuals possessed, stood out starkly amongst the masses. Her sister was also easily noticeable, especially because every male in the vicinity, and even some of the females, would cease what they were doing to drool over her. Even Kevin could be distinguished amongst the crowd; his blond hair, blue eyes and the limp in his step, like someone had repeatedly knifed him in the thigh, made spotting him quite simple.
“Lindsay’s already given me permission to invite you along. The only reason I didn’t you ask last night is because Kevin and I didn’t come home until really late.”
“Right, right. You were training with that… dog, right? I don’t know
how you can stand being around her.”
They walked through the crowd. Whispers broke out. Ling, with her youki-enhanced hearing, could make out everything being said. It seemed that some of the men didn’t like Kevin for being so close to the two kitsune. The poor fools didn’t even realize how dangerous being intimate with Lilian and her sister was—and if Ling had her way, they would never know.
“Kiara’s not… okay, she is that bad. But, she’s helping Kevin get stronger. If it’s to help my mate, I’ll gladly withstand her presence.”
“Aren’t you two being a little biased?”
Iris and Lilian gave Kevin a deadpan stare. A drop of sweat rolled down his face and neck before disappearing into his shirt.
“Right, stupid question. Forget I asked.”
“So, when is this sleepover?” Iris inquired.
“We’ll be going over to Lindsay’s house this Saturday around noon.”
“Uh-huh, and how will we get there?”
“Lindsay’s mom is going to pick us up.”
“Urk!”
Ling nearly chuckled in amusement when Kevin tripped over his own two feet and face planted into the hard concrete.
“Kevin!” Lilian cried out as she knelt next to her mate. Iris hung back and snickered at the teen’s misfortune. The redhead tossed her snickering sister a glare before helping her mate stand up. “A-are you alright?”
“Y-yeah,” Kevin held a hand to his nose, which Ling noticed was bleeding, “I’m fine. So, Mrs. Diane is going to be…” he shuddered, “… picking you up?”
“Um!” Lilian nodded. “Is that a problem?”
“No, no.” Kevin shuddered again. “There’s no problem.”
“Then why do you look like a rat that’s been caught in a trap?” asked an amused Iris.
Kevin sent her a glare. “Hush, you.”
Ling watched the group walk off, her mind going over everything she’d learned. Lindsay and Iris would be traveling to a friend’s house to spend the night this Saturday. This meant that, for at least one night, the two-tails would not be in the presence of her bodyguard.
A Fox's Family (American Kitsune Book 4) Page 30