A Fox's Rescue

by Varnell, Brandon

  “Whatever you say, Iris,” Kevin said without any inflection in his voice.

  “You’re so shy.”

  “I’m pretty sure that you and your family stamped out every bit of shyness I once had.”

  His words rang of the truth. Iris didn’t know much about Kevin before he and Lilian started dating, since they’d become mates before she arrived, but from several very reputable sources (his friends), she had discovered that Kevin used to be abnormally girl shy, to the point where even being in a girl’s presence caused him to faint. Iris had nearly died laughing when she’d been told that.

  She glanced out the tiny window to her left. She saw tall buildings passing by. People crowded the walkways. Street signs and giant advertisement boards were in abundance.

  “So where are we going?” she asked, turning back to Kevin.

  “If we want to get out of Turkey, then we need to travel to the border,” Kevin informed her. “We can’t take a plane, not to get closer to China at least. Your grandmother informed me that the security checkpoints for planes arriving in China are unbelievably tight when it comes to supernatural matters. A human and a kitsune would be automatically detained. That’s why we’re traveling by ground. These three gentlemen have been kind enough to offer us a ride to Özalp.”

  Said three gentlemen shuddered. Iris had to wonder what Kevin had done to them last night to make them so compliant. He must have done something really harsh.

  I can’t believe I missed that.

  She wouldn’t say this to anyone because it felt like she was betraying her feelings for Lilian, but Kevin looked really hot when he was taking charge. Watching him when he became more serious and controlling made her wet.

  “I’m still not sure why we can’t take a plane.” Iris bit her lip in contemplation. “Can’t we just fly to the next country over and sneak into China that way?”

  “You clearly haven’t been paying attention to any of the lessons that Kotohime tried to impart, have you?” Kevin’s succinct reply showed irritation. Oh, it looked like she’d touched a nerve. How nice. “All of the countries surrounding China are under the control of the Bodhisattva of the Shénshèng Clan. They have spies and informants in every country surrounding China: India, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia, Korea… If we flew in there, we’d have to pass through security, and if the Bodhisattva is smart, which I have no reason to believe he isn’t, then he’ll have yōkai working in these countries to inform him of when people of interest arrive.”

  Iris really did have to marvel at how much Kevin had thought about this. She’d done some thinking, too, but making plans like this had never been her strong point. It really served to bring home the point she’d been realizing for the past several months.

  Lilian really did make a good choice when she chose him as her mate.

  “What about north?” asked Iris.

  Kevin shook his head at her question. “We can’t fly up north either. To the north is Russia, and Russia is under the control of King of the Tengu, Sōjōbō. Sōjōbō isn’t like you kitsune, who rule their territories loosely. According to Kotohime, he rules Russia with an iron fist. Nothing gets in or out of the country without his say so. I have also been told that he does not take kindly to people encroaching on his territory, and a human and a yōkai traveling together would definitely garner his interest.” Kevin gave Iris a surprisingly steely look. “I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to become food for a flock of ravens.”

  “Crows,” Iris corrected. “Tengu are crows. Shouldn’t you know this stuff? What would your fellow otaku think if they knew you didn’t know what a tengu was?”

  “Whatever,” Kevin sighed, sounding tired. “Anyway, the only other place we could travel to would be Kazakhstan, but that country is the territory of The Great Kitsune Fire Clan, Ignis, who Kotohime mentioned share close ties to the Shénshèng Clan. The moment we step foot into that country, we’ll likely be killed.”

  “So north is out.” Iris scratched the back of her head. “What about south?”

  “To the south is Iran,” Kevin explained patiently. “They don’t have any clans taking residence there, but there have been rumors that an organization of hostile yōkai have gathered in the country. No one really knows much, but there has been news about disappearances and mutilated corpses being found in the streets. Not the type of place we want to pass through unless we’re left with no other option.”

  “Did Kotohime give you that information, too?”

  “Yes.” Kevin nodded. “Before we left, I asked her about everything she knew on the countries surrounding China. I didn’t want to go into this mess unprepared, so I made sure that I learned everything I could before we set out.”

  Iris paused to consider the information. She was beginning to realize that Kevin really had thought everything through far more than she had.

  “So what’s our plan, then?”

  Kevin reached into their small duffel bag and pulled out a map, which he unfolded and set on his lap, allowing her to lean in close and see where he was indicating.

  “Our plan is to travel here.” He pointed at a spot on the map. “Azerbaijan. We’ll take the train at Özalp North into Azerbaijan using this route.” His finger trailed along the map before stopping at one spot in particular. “We’ll stop at Zod Railway, and then take another train all the way to Baku Railway Station here.” His finger moved again, then halted next to a large body of what she guessed was water. “After that, we’ll take a ship and cross over the Caspian Sea into Turkmenistan, make our way across the country to Tajikistan, and go from there to China.”

  Iris’s head spun as she tried following Kevin’s itinerary. She couldn’t, however, and thus relied on her fallback protocol for when things didn’t make sense to her: insults.

  “Sounds needlessly complicated to me,” she declared petulantly. “It would be so much easier if we just had to travel through one country and be done with it.”

  “It would,” Kevin agreed, seemingly not bothered by her pouting. “But that’s not really in the cards. If we want to make it to China unnoticed and unharried, then we need to be smart about this.”

  Iris stared at Kevin for a long time. Unlike previous times, back when they’d first met, he didn’t turn from her stare, instead choosing to meet it head on. It really showed her how much the young man had changed since their first meeting.

  “I guess you’re right,” Iris conceded at last. “I suppose I’m just letting my impatience get the best of me.”

  Kevin’s smile was one of kinship. It told Iris that he knew exactly how she felt.

  “You’re not the only one who’s worried,” he said softly. “You’re not the only one who wishes they could rush into China, guns blazing, and rescue Lilian.”

  “No.” She gave him a smile that mixed sadness with resignation. “I suppose I’m not.”

  ***

  “That girl.”

  Kevin blinked when someone spoke up in the mostly silent car. He turned his head to see the one he’d decided to call Tubs, due to his fat stomach, nodding at something next to him. “Is she your, you know?” he asked, holding up a single hand, pinky extended.

  “No, she’s not,” Kevin answered succinctly, although he couldn’t blame the akaname for his preconceived notions.

  He looked down at Iris, who’d fallen asleep about an hour ago. She was sleeping a lot more, though he guessed that meant her body was still recovering from being in a coma. The raven-haired vixen was snuggling against him to savor the warmth of his body heat. Her head rested on his shoulder, and he could feel her breath hitting his skin. His arm was nestled between her sweater stuffers. She was hugging it like it was a teddy bear.

  Shaking his head, Kevin dispelled his thoughts, desires born from hormones, and faced Tubs again.

  “She’s my mate’s sister.”

  Tubs raised an eyebrow. “That is your mate’s sister?”

  “Yes. That a problem?”

 
“No.” Tubs looked away. “No problem. It’s just that, uh, you two seem so close. I guess I kinda figured she was with you.”

  “She’s not,” Kevin told him adamantly. “She’s just using me in order to sleep with her sister.”

  That made all three akaname blink.

  “So she’s one of those girls, huh?” Nerd asked in his perpetually nasally whine.

  Kevin didn’t know what he meant by that, so he just shrugged. “I guess.”

  “I can’t believe you guys are talking about this crap,” Slick mumbled. “You two are asking him questions like a bunch of fucking gossips, when you should be asking the more important questions.”

  Everyone turned to look at Slick—except for Iris, who remained sleeping soundly against Kevin.

  “Like what?” asked Tubs.

  “Like why they’re trying to sneak into China in the first place.”

  Tubs and Nerd turned back to Kevin, who suddenly found himself being put in the spotlight. Under the intense, needy looks of the two yōkai, he did the only thing he could think of.

  He smiled a smile so wide that it nearly split his face in half and forced his eyes closed.

  “I could tell you that, but then I’d have to kill you.”

  And just like that, the trio of yōkai became extremely uncomfortable within his presence. Tubs jerked away as if he might get shot if he stared at Kevin for too long. Nerd turned back around and pretended to stare out the window, while casting the occasional wary glance at him through the reflection. Slick just went back to driving, though Kevin could see the sweat forming on the back of his neck.

  “R-right,” Slick squeaked. “Forget I asked.”

  “Very well,” Kevin acquiesced easily enough, though the smile remained on his face. He’d always wanted to say that.

  ***

  Kotohime and Abercio were sitting across from each other. She’d been offered a chair but politely declined. She instead sat in seiza before a small table that her host had brought in. If she didn’t know any better, she would have said that he’d bought it months, maybe even years, in advance, on the off chance that she would one day visit him.

  She grimaced at the thought.

  Knowing him as I do, that is probably exactly what he did.

  “So let me see if I have all of my facts correct here.” Abercio leaned back against a black leather lounge chair, his posture and bearing radiating bemusement, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to make of her tale. “You are telling me that a young man, a human no less, is being sent into the heart of the Shénshèng Clan’s territory with only Iris, a two-tailed kitsune who can barely control her void powers, to rescue Lilian.” A poignant pause followed as Abercio’s intelligent emerald eyes gazed at her with incredulity. “Is that about right?”

  The room they were in was Abercio’s private lounge. It didn’t have any windows. Kotohime assumed that was to keep out prying eyes. The fact that this room had a large bed, a shelf full of sex toys, and a massive collection of DVD porn only made this room’s true purpose all too obvious.

  “It is indeed as you have described.” Kotohime nodded with great reluctance.

  “I see.” Abercio took a long swig of the ale in his hand, which he drank straight from the bottle. “You do know that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard, right? The chances of them making it to China, the chances of them getting even close, is so close to zero that I’m not even going to mention the odds to you.”

  Kotohime flinched. “I am aware of that.”

  “I honestly don’t know what Mother is thinking,” Abercio mused, his demeanor far calmer than Kotohime’s. While he sat there like this knowledge meant nothing to him, she gripped the fabric of her kimono tightly in her hands. “She has to realize that what she has done is complete suicide. Those two are going to die long before they reach Shénshèng Clan territory.”

  “Pnév̱ma-denka is aware of how unlikely this endeavor is to succeed.” Kotohome tried to keep her voice calm. “Which is exactly why she thinks it will work. Shinkuro-dono will never expect us to send two children, one of whom is a human, into their territory.”

  “Shinkuro is the least of their problems,” Abercio refuted her. “Regardless of which route they plan on taking to get into China, they will have to confront numerous dangers along the way.”

  Kotohime said nothing. The fabric of her kimono rustled as the strength of her fingers’ grip increased. Abercio continued.

  “Even on the off chance that they do somehow manage to make it to China’s border, sneaking in will be impossible. The Shénshèng Clan isn’t like us. While we interfere very little with the humans living in our territory, the Bodhisattva retains complete control over all those under his banner. Human and yōkai. I hear that he even has non-kitsune working under him as spies and guards in every city and town within China. Getting past all of them is impossible, and that’s not even taking the impossibility of getting into the Shénshèng Clan’s palace into account.”

  A moment of silence passed. Abercio waited for her to say something, but when it became clear that she would not, he kept speaking.

  “The Saint’s Chariot; some have called it the greatest wonder ever created by a yōkai. Legend has it that it was raised by the first Bodhisattva, the very first kitsune created by Lord Inari, by slashing a mountain at its base, sending it to the sky, and flipping it around. It hovers in the air, protected by a barrier unlike anything imaginable today, a barrier so great that not even the human’s vaunted technology, their high-tech satellites which orbit the earth, can see it.” His expression darkened. “And that’s not even mentioning the Citadel of Light.”

  Kotohime withheld her shudder. The Citadel of Light was the Shénshèng Clan’s stronghold, their base of operation, an impenetrable bastion, an impregnable fortress. It sat on the Saint’s Chariot. Many yōkai had attempted to invade the citadel. All ended up meeting the same fate. Failure. Death. This was one of the many reasons she had protested allowing Kevin and Iris to go try and rescue Lilian.

  “I… have faith in their ability to succeed,” Kotohime said with as much confidence as she could muster.

  Abercio looked at her incredulously. “You honestly think they can break into a fortress that has withstood countless sieges for thousands of years? A human and a kitsune who hasn’t even gained her third tail?”

  “Kevin-sama is no ordinary human,” Kotohime told him. “He is a remarkable young man, and he has already faced many dangers the yōkai world has to offer. If anyone can infiltrate China, breach the Citadel, and rescue Lilian, then it is him.”

  Abercio stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. Kotohime refused to back down and met his stare head on. Finally, the man sighed, scratching the nape of his neck and releasing a tired chuckle.

  “This Kevin Swift must be a rather extraordinary young man to have garnered such confidence from you.”

  Despite her worry, in spite of her fear, regardless of how the thought of sending Kevin and Iris into danger made her stomach twist into knots, Kotohime still managed to smile.

  “He is, indeed, one of the most remarkable human beings I have ever met.”

  Her solemn declaration was met by another chuckle and a mumble of “lucky bastard” from Abercio. Kotohime smiled, though it lacked her usual elegance. She turned her head toward the general direction of China, her thoughts going out to the young man who was even now attempting to rescue her charge.

  Please stay safe, Kevin-sama…

  CHAPTER 4

  TRAIN RIDE TROUBLES

  Phoebe stared through a pair of binoculars. She had to admit, these humans really did know how to craft some interesting technology. This device, though primitive compared to some of the other ones she’d seen before, worked wonders. Her eyesight, already sharper than a hawk’s, was enhanced to awe-inspiring levels of perception. With this tiny invention, she could see things that were far away in crystal-clear detail.

  She and her forces stood on a large hill, a grassy k
noll covered in long strands of bright green that stretched out for kilometers. The neighing of horses greeted her ears, snorts and movement, a clapping of hooves, made them twitch. Several dozen kilometers behind them lay their home, invisible to the naked eye.

  “My Lady.” One of her runners came up to her and knelt, head bowed in deference. “The train comes. It is less than ten kilometers east of us.”

  Phoebe swiveled her binoculars in the direction indicated. There, chugging along the tracks, was none other than their quarry.

  “So it seems,” she said evenly. She took the binoculars away from her face and presented a smile to her subordinate. “Thank you, Polydora.” The girl before her blushed. “Now come. We must prepare the raiding party.”

  Without a backwards glance, Phoebe strode down the hill with long, ardent strides. Polydora tried to keep pace, but it was difficult with her much shorter stature. None among her tribe were taller than Phoebe.

  Polydora looked up at her with a questioning glance. “Do you think we will get a good haul, My Lady?”

  “I certainly hope so.” A frown creased Phoebe’s face. “It has a been a long time since our people have had any men in their presence. If things keep going the way they are, then we are bound to become extinct. We must not let that happen.”

  Phoebe and her attendant soon reached the encampment. Fold out tents lay strewn about, small triangles of tan fabric jutting out from the sea of green. Several women walked around the camp, all dressed in less elaborate garments than her. A few tended to the horses, while others carried equipment across the camp.

  “Sisters!” Phoebe’s voice boomed across the encampment, stopping all in their tracks. They turned to her as one, and she gave them a confident smirk. “Our prey approaches! You all know what is at stake, what we stand to lose should we fail in our task. Extinction. We must not let this happen. Today, we shall ensure that our clan continues to live on. Long ago, we yama uba were feared, and today, as we accomplish our goals, we shall strike fear into the hearts of all human females once again! To arms, my sisters!”