A Fox's Rescue

by Varnell, Brandon

  It was startling to realize that she’d told him about almost all of the special times that she and Kevin had shared as a couple. There were so many of them, hundreds even. It made her wonder about how long she’d been stuck in this place. Days? Weeks? Months? She had nothing to help to determine the passage of time.

  “I wonder what Kevin’s doing right now.” Her lips twitched into a smile when she realized that she knew exactly what he was doing. “He’s probably coming to rescue me even as we speak.” She looked down at Jiāoào. “You know that your family is in for an asskicking, right? My mate’s not the kind of person who would let you just kidnap me.”

  “I highly doubt that,” a voice spoke up seconds before a figure emerged from the door. “Kevin Swift might be troublesome for a human, but he is still just that: human. While he might be capable of defeating myself in combat, he wouldn’t stand a chance against my brothers, all of whom have been trained since their third tail to fight.”

  Lilian scowled at Fan as the three-tailed kitsune closed the door behind her.

  “Ha! You’re just jealous because you don’t have a mate who’s willing to lay down a shōnen-style asskicking for your sake.”

  Fan twitched. “I have no clue what a shōnen-style asskicking is, and I do not particularly care.” She walked over to the bed. Lilian noticed that she had a bucket of soapy water in her hands. “It does not change that there is no way a human can contend with kitsune as powerful as my brothers. Even Li here would be more than a match for your mate.”

  Lilian’s gaze switched from Fan to Li. Ever the silent shadow, Li stood behind his mistress, arms crossed and expression solemn.

  “Whatever,” Lilian mumbled as she stood up and went over to the window. She had no desire to see Fan washing Jiāoào’s body, though she would admit to being thankful for the girl, if reluctantly. If Fan hadn’t volunteered to do it, then she would’ve had to deal with cleaning the brat. She’d rather die.

  “If you’re still coming up here, I’m guessing that means your old man is still out?”

  “Thinking of running away?” Fan snorted. “Don’t bother. Even if he isn’t here, there’s still no way you could escape from the Citadel of Light. Or have you forgotten about what happened last time?”

  Lilian hadn’t forgotten. How could she? The experience had been frightening. That eight-tails, Chao, was one of the most horrifying people she’d ever met. He invoked a primal fear within her, a feeling derived from the instincts born during the days when she was still just an ordinary fox.

  That didn’t mean she would let Fan know that, however. No way. She refused to show weakness in front of that girl, or anyone else from the Great Celestial Clan.

  “Ha…” She heard a sigh come from Fan, along with a rustling of clothing that signified someone’s clothes being removed. Lilian tried not to shudder at the thought of being in a room with a naked Jiāoào. “It seems there hasn’t been any change in my beloved younger brother’s condition.”

  “You cannot expect his condition to change so soon, Lady Fan,” the calm rumble of Li’s voice echoed around them. “All change takes time. Lord Shinkuro believes that Lord Jiāoào’s condition will improve the longer he is in Lilian Pnév̱ma’s presence.”

  Lilian wrinkled her nose. She didn’t care if Jiāoào never recovered. After what he had done to her, what he tried doing to her, the two-tailed brat of a kitsune didn’t deserve to be given a second chance. That wasn’t even talking about what he’d done to that poor woman who looked like her.

  She didn’t express her thoughts verbally, however, as she knew that it would lead to Fan becoming even more annoying than she already was.

  “Hey, girl!”

  Lilian twitched. “I have a name, you know.”

  “Like I care what your name is,” Fan retorted arrogantly. “I want you to hurry up and fix my beloved younger brother.”

  Lilian scowled and turned to look at the three-tailed kitsune. When she saw that Jiāoào was still naked, she quickly turned back around. She so didn’t want to see that arrogant brat in a state of undress. She didn’t need that kind of mental scarring.

  “If you’re so eager to see him go back to how he was, then why don’t you cure him?!”

  “Don’t you think I would have already done that if I could?!” Fan shouted. “Now hurry up and fix my brother!”

  As Lilian and Fan began arguing, Li rubbed his head. “These two should never be allowed to stay in the same room.”

  ***

  When Iris told him that this ship only accepted women, she hadn’t been kidding. Kevin had learned early on that the only people on this ship were women. They were everywhere. The passengers, the employees, everyone here was a woman.

  I feel really self-conscious right now.

  Kevin walked around, trying to ignore the fact that he was the only person with a sausage onboard. He scanned the area, wary that someone might come up to him.

  Because of how small the ship was, there weren’t that many people. He didn’t know what their passenger manifest looked like, but there couldn’t have been more than maybe fifty to seventy-five people on board. He saw women with varying physical appearances doing everything from lounging around on beach chairs to chatting at tables while sipping cocktails.

  The ship had two decks, plus a deck below where he knew there to be several restrooms, the passenger rooms for resting, and the kitchen. His shoes clicked along the deck, annoying him to no end, especially because he could hardly walk in them. He had a new respect for women who wore heels. His gun case swung back and forth in his hand, and he could feel his guns hidden underneath his sundress scrape against his skin.

  I still can’t believe they made me wear this.

  Kevin scowled. This had to be the most humiliating thing he’d ever been forced to do, and this dress was so uncomfortable! His legs itched, the sundress was way too airy down there for his taste, not to mention the crap they’d stuffed into his bra was rubbing his skin raw.

  How could they do this to me? Dang that Iris!

  He looked up at the sky. Orange and red swirls danced across Heaven’s canvas like lazy streamers drifting along ephemeral zephyrs. Kevin saw pink and purple intermixing like paint on the palette of an artist. In the distance, storm clouds gathered.

  Judging from the sight of dusk blanketing the sky, Kevin determined that they were near the halfway point of their journey. They’d boarded the ship around late afternoon and it took several hours to cross. They had, maybe, another hour, two hours at most, before reaching their destination. After that they would be in Turkmenistan.

  Deciding to take a seat, Kevin went up to the second floor, which had the appearance of a lounge. Women sat in comfy-looking arm chairs situated around glossy tables. A good deal of them were dressed to impress. It made him wonder how Iris had managed to get tickets.

  She probably enchanted that human into giving her tickets, he concluded.

  He sat on a red sofa near the window overlooking the first-floor deck. Observing those down below, Kevin managed to find all of the yama uba who’d come with him. Phoebe stood talking with Polydora, who seemed unusually clingy for some reason. Euryale sat at a table sipping some tea, her long red hair tied into a ponytail and her tight sleeveless shirt revealing a body that made several women glare at her in envy. Menippe spoke with the other girl, her sundress similar to his own, except in different colors, while Thoe hung in the background.

  He frowned at her. Why did she get to wear pants, while he was wearing a dress?

  “Excuse me,” a voice said somewhere off to his left. Kevin turned his head as a beautiful woman in a dark red dress with a plunging neckline walked up to him. It was the one who Iris had been talking to before. He blinked when she smiled. “Is this seat taken?”

  “Uh.” Kevin coughed into his hand. “No. Help yourself,” he said in a voice that he hoped to the anime gods sounded female enough to fool her.

  “Thank you.” The woman sat down, her grac
eful movements akin to a dancer. Kevin noticed the glass of wine in her hand, which she sipped periodically. “I hope you have been enjoying your time on my vessel.”

  “Y-your vessel?” Kevin stuttered. He could feel his skin breaking out into a cold sweat. Did he sound like a girl? Was his wig still on straight? Dang it! Why did this woman have to start talking to him?

  “Indeed.” The woman’s regal bearing became even more stately, as though she was puffing out her chest like a peacock. “My name is Felia Aygϋn. I am the owner of this vessel.”

  “I-I see.”

  “Are you confused about my presence?” Felia smiled, and Kevin noticed there was something… off about her smile, though he couldn’t say what. “I do not know how other vessels are run, however, I enjoy mingling with my passengers. I believe it is important to know what those who ride my vessel think. Did they enjoy the cruise? Did they not? Was there something they believe I could improve upon? It is crucial to know the thoughts of those you ferry across the sea, otherwise you’ll never be able to improve your services for next time.”

  “Yes.” Kevin nodded even as he wished she would leave. “That makes sense.”

  He listened as the woman continued speaking to him, wishing she would hurry up and leave. The longer she stayed, the more worried he became. However, as the minutes passed by, Kevin soon realized that she would not be leaving anytime soon. For whatever reason, she seemed intent on conversing with him, and Kevin, too afraid to tell her off, could do nothing but sit there and listen as the woman continued conversing.

  “Are you feeling all right, miss?” the woman, Felia Something-Or-Other, asked, her demeanor concerned. “You appear to be spacing out.”

  “Huh?” Kevin blinked several times, then cleared his throat and adopted as feminine a voice as he could muster. “Oh, yes. I’m, uh, fine. I was just thinking about something.”

  His heartbeat accelerated when the woman narrowed her eyes in suspicion. The look left a moment later, and the woman’s face once more switched to concern.

  “Oh, my. You’re breaking out into quite the sweat.”

  Her voice laced with what sounded like genuine concern, Felia leaned over and placed her forehead against Kevin’s. He froze. His body went into overdrive and began sweating more. His mind shut down as it tried to come up with a way out of this situation and failed. The woman remained like that, her head against his, dark eyes staring at him, their quality almost hypnotic. A forked tongue flicked out from her mouth and retracted just as quickly.

  The woman stood up moments later, her face a frightening rictus of hatred and loathing.

  “I knew it,” she snarled at him. “You’re not a woman!” She reached out before he could run away, grabbed his wig, and pulled it off. “You’re a man!”

  Everyone on the second-floor deck stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at him. Kevin’s mind went into overdrive when he saw the expressions they all wore. Disgust brimmed beneath curtains of shimmering hair. Vengeance simmered behind smoldering eyes. He could feel their intent to harm him, to main him, to kill him. It was almost a physical thing, a manifestation of humanity’s most negative emotions.

  Felia pointed at him, her face twisted into a mask of barely constrained revulsion, as if just being near him caused her to feel physically ill.

  “Ladies, kill this man!”

  Before Kevin even knew what was happening, all of the women surged toward him. They swelled like a tidal wave, threatening to overtake him. Some became swallowed by their own comrades, trampled underfoot as the group rushed him like a maelstrom overtaking a ship. One woman stumbled and was overtaken. Another tripped over the hem of her own dress and was lost within the sea of surging bodies. No one seemed to care. They continued on, heedless of the comrades they were losing to their own violence.

  Because he didn’t know if these women were rabid yōkai or just innocent humans, Kevin couldn’t very well attack them. His eyes flickered across the surging sea of feminine fury as he searched for a way out of this quandary before he was swallowed. It took him a second longer than he would have liked, but he eventually found something that might help him.

  Keeping a firm grip on his ammo case, he reached underneath his sundress and pulled out his silver gun. With aim honed to perfection through months of practice and years of arcade simulations, Kevin fired off several rounds at the chandeliers that hung overhead. The blue bolts of youki blasted out of the barrel and struck the cables holding the chandeliers up. Six shots for six chandeliers.

  They fell, then, landing on top of several women and pinning their bodies to the floor. Kevin knew that he only had a small window of opportunity to act, and he took it. He spun around and raced over to and then up the wall. At the apex of his run, he used his runner leg muscles to push off, soaring over the first wave of unruly females. He landed on the first chandelier, then leapt off that one and over to the next one, then the next, and then the next, leapfrogging until he was past the horde.

  “What are you girls doing?! Kill that man now!!” Felia screeched.

  Kevin squeaked when the women turned around as one and charged at him again, their furious battle cry nearly shattering his eardrums. Knowing better than to stick around, he unlatched his shoes, holstered his gun, and bolted out of the door; he then ran down a flight of stairs, and then through a hallway before, finally, bursting through the doors that led to the first-floor deck.

  Everyone stared at him.

  “Kevi—I mean, Kiara Swift.” Phoebe walked up to him along with her entourage of yama uba. Polydora, Euryale, Menippe, and Thoe frowned at him with what he hoped was concern and not scorn. “What is wrong? You look like you have been exerting yourself quite a bit, and I could have sworn I just heard the sound of combat coming from above. Was that you?”

  “Problem…” Kevin gasped. “… Big… problem…”

  The five yōkai shared a glance.

  “What is the problem?” asked a frowning Polydora.

  Before Kevin could answer, the doors he’d just burst through were blown off their hinges. Felia and the other women, those who hadn’t been pinned to the floor by chandeliers, stormed out. The woman, her expression livid, scanned the area until her eyes locked on him.

  “There!” she shrieked as she pointed at him. “That person right there is a man! Ladies! You know what to do!”

  All of the women on the first-floor deck stood up from their seats, dropped their drinks, or climbed out of the pool. Kevin soon realized that traveling down here may not have been his best idea. It looked like the number of enemies had just tripled! Even with the added benefit of his yama uba allies, they were still grossly outnumbered.

  “How did she discover that you were a man?” a shocked Phoebe asked as the group closed ranks.

  Felia sneered. “Do you think me a fool, girl? I knew from the moment I saw him sitting on the couch that he couldn’t possibly be a woman. He lacks the elegance, the inherent beauty found within all women.” The woman’s body made strange undulations as she spoke of women’s beauty. Half-swoon, half-hip thrust, the motions of her body were highly disturbing—and also not humanly possible. “Plus he reeks of man. You can always tell when someone is of the male persuasion simply by his horrid stench.”

  Kevin’s annoyed frown came with a vein throbbing on his forehead. “I resent that. I’ll have you know that I take a shower every single day.”

  His words were promptly ignored.

  “Kill him, ladies! Kill him and detain those poor, misguided women who would aid him!”

  Women rushed forward, their intent obvious. Phoebe and her fellow yama uba rose to meet them. The five women of inhuman origins attacked with the skill and ferocity gained through years of intense training. They tore through the horde of enraged females like a pack of tigresses tearing into a herd of antelopes. They were a blur of fists and feet, a whirlwind of lashing limbs.

  Kevin found that he couldn’t focus on his allies when a group of women attacked hi
m as well. He fell back into his loose battle stance, leaving larger than average gaps in his defense that even amateur fighters like these women clearly could see. He let them come in close, allowed them to attack, and then began picking them apart with precise strikes that knocked them unconscious.

  “Why are you ladies doing this?” And while he fought against the horde encircling him, he tried reasoning with them. “All we want to do is cross the sea. Why are you attacking us?”

  He didn’t expect an answer, so he became surprised when several women actually gave him one.

  “All men are pigs!”

  “Damn rapists!”

  “Filthy perverts!”

  Had he not been surrounded by angry women, he might have actually sweatdropped at their answer. They were attacking him because they thought all men were, well, like Eric? That… that was so sexist! That was like saying all women were pure and innocent maidens, which was clearly not true. He’d met more than his fair share of dirty females to know that. Heck! Phoebe had been planning to turn him into breeding material! These women were being totally unfair!

  He was left with no time to talk. Women came in close, forcing him to focus on fighting. These females were definitely human. Their attacks lacked strength. Their movements lacked speed. They didn’t have the supernal powers of a yōkai. Perhaps they were being controlled by that Felia woman. It made sense, and if that was the case, then knocking them unconscious should snap them out of it—at least, if they really were enchanted.

  A problem soon presented itself as the battle dragged on. Kevin didn’t realize it at first, but he eventually became aware that he’d been separated from Phoebe and the others. He saw them several yards away, surrounded by women, their bodies blurring in and out of focus as they attacked and defended in equal measure. They appeared to be doing well, but their enemies were also trying to subdue them, not kill them. The same could not be said for him.

  Kevin ducked under a wine bottle, the end of which had been shattered into sharp points as it struck the railing. He hit the arm holding it with a palm, knocking it out of the woman’s hand and sending it over the ferry’s side and into the sea. His second attack was a karate chop to a nerve cluster in the neck. With her nervous system scrambled, the woman toppled like Fat Bastard after being kicked in the crotch.