A Fox's Rescue

by Varnell, Brandon

  “LEFT!”

  Swiftly reacting to the words, Kevin and the others swerved left, around a stalagmite, barely avoiding the sharp rock thrown at them like a spear.

  “RIGHT!”

  They moved right. Another large boulder slammed into and then through several stalactites and stalagmites like a drag racer crashing into numerous paper walls. Kevin tried to shield himself from the debris, but with two women in his arms, he had no appendages with which to protect himself. He ended up getting smacked in the face by a rock.

  “I can see a light up ahead!” Phoebe’s shout was heard above the roar of crashing rocks and the clack-clack-clack! of the giant crab behind them.

  Kevin looked up to see that, indeed, a bright light was shining through what appeared to be a gap in the wall. Seeing the literal light at the end of the tunnel renewed his determination. He quickly thought up a plan.

  “Iris!”

  “What?!”

  “Use your void powers to shoot that thing’s eyes out!”

  “I don’t have enough youki for that!”

  “Then shoot some fox fire at it! I don’t care! Just do something to distract that Kingler!”

  “IT’S NOT A KINGLER!”

  “I’ll try.” Iris sounded dubious, but willing to give it a shot. One of her tails moved like a trebuchet, flinging a ball of fox fire at the crab. It missed the crab’s eye, striking its hardened carapace instead. The crab ignored it.

  “Do you have enough youki to try again?” Kevin asked.

  Iris didn’t respond to his question with words. Two balls of intensely bright flames lit up on the tips of both her tails. She then flung both at the monstrous creature chasing after them. One went wide, striking against the wall, but the other slammed right into the monster crab’s left eye.

  Teeth-rattling squeals emitted from its mouth. The enormous crab crashed headlong into the tunnel wall. It then crashed through several rock formations, stumbled to the other side, and crashed into the opposite wall. Each time it slammed into something, it had so much force behind it that Kevin and the others almost lost their balance. Adrenaline and fear saved them, forced them to keep running even as they stumbled, spurned them onward despite the world feeling like it was coming apart at the seams.

  “It’s still chasing us!” Iris warned.

  “Then we just need to keep moving!”

  They continued to run. The slope became steeper and still they moved up. Their muscles were forced to work harder, but they dared not slow down. They couldn’t afford to.

  “It’s gaining on us!”

  “Iris, shut up!”

  The light was closer now. It continued getting closer, the gap getting bigger. Kevin could see that it was actually quite large, maybe twice as tall as him and two times as wide.

  Come on! Just a little further!

  Kevin pushed himself hard. Harder than he ever had. Harder even than when he’d been fighting against Fan or Seth.

  Just a little more!

  His muscles felt like they were being pulled apart. His lungs burned like acid was dripping through them. His breathing came out in short rasps reminiscent of a man dying from a fatal respiratory disorder.

  And he still pushed himself harder. He pushed himself past his limits. He pushed his body beyond what should have been possible. He pushed and pushed and pushed—

  —and then they were out, bursting into the light, the sun shining on their heads, a cliff face mere feet in front of them. The group stopped as one, skidding along the ground for nearly a foot before stopping right next to the ledge.

  Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the cavern wall they’d just come from exploded. Kevin and the others fell on their stomachs just as the crab came bursting forth like a Titan breaking through Wall Maria. The gigantic crustacean continued on, its six legs nearly crushing them as it stumbled. One leg fell off the edge, causing the rest of the creature to tumble forward. Gripping Iris and Polydora fiercely, Kevin scrambled back away from the ledge as the enormous yōkai fell off.

  A moment of absolute stillness descended upon the group. For a few seconds, the only sound permeating the ledge was that of heavy rasping and the sounds of the crab falling, which grew more distant as time passed. Using that moment to observe the others, Kevin saw that they all looked exactly as he felt, exhausted beyond comprehension, like they were ready to drop dead right there. Resting with her face pressed against his chest, Iris heaved and gasped. Each breath sounded like it would be her last.

  On a side note, Polydora didn’t seem to realize that she was using his crotch as a pillow.

  A few seconds later, Kevin broke the silence.

  “I am never doing that again,” he declared. The others didn’t say anything, but they all nodded in agreement.

  CHAPTER 9

  CHINA

  Kashgar was an oasis city in Xinjiang. Geographically speaking, it was one of the westernmost cities in China, located near the border of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and several other Middle Eastern countries. It had a long history that went back at least 2,000 years.

  It was a dirty, ragtag group that arrived at this city late one night.

  Kevin had never felt so tired before. Ever. It almost surprised him, this deep-seated exhaustion that seeped into his bones, muscles, and the fabric of his very being. On the other hand, they had recently been attacked by a snake lady and her cohorts on a vessel, molested and nearly drowned by a giant tentacle monster, chased by a bunch of crab yōkai and one super big crab yōkai, and then had to trek across a mountain range and a desert. Given that, he felt his desire to find the nearest hotel and sleep like the dead was perfectly understandable.

  It also explained why he barely paid any attention to where they were going.

  “Can anyone here read Chinese?” he asked. By all eight million Shinto gods, even his voice sounded like it was ready to drop dead. When all he got were several headshakes, he sighed. “Figures.”

  Trudging along with his companions, Kevin wearily gazed upon the city with his tired, bloodshot eyes.

  He didn’t know much about China beyond what he’d read in history textbooks and seen in various anime and manga inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Still, the city didn’t appear much different from any other city. Combining both new and old architecture, Kashgar represented what he was beginning to consider the standard for most Middle Eastern cities. Old buildings like palaces were mixed in with new buildings of a more modern age. People walked through open streets, the wide roads and plazas weaving together in a tangled web. Stalls lined either side of the road they walked. Most were closed due to the late night, but he imagined that, come morning, they would have enthusiastic workers enticing people into buying their wares.

  It took far too long for his liking, but they eventually managed to find a hotel. They had to walk into several buildings before discovering one that actually served the purpose they needed.

  Being the only one among them who didn’t have the deus ex machina ability to understand and speak every language in the world, Kevin stood off to the side while Iris and the others spoke to the person managing the front desk. His eyes strayed from the sight to view the hotel interior. Warm light emitting from strategically placed lamps illuminated much of the area, while also providing a friendly atmosphere. He could see a sitting area to his left. Several doors leading to gods-know-where were arrayed along the walls. At the end opposite from him, a hallway led further into the hotel.

  The group came up to him after a while. Iris stood at the fore, dangling a key in front of him.

  “We’ve got our room.” She grinned, her sharp canines flashing.

  “Right.” Kevin groaned as he pushed off the wall. He and the others walked down the hall under the watchful eye of an employee manning the front. Perhaps if he’d been less tired, Kevin would have noticed the man making a phone call and speaking in a hushed tone as they left.

  Their footsteps sounded dull as they walked along soft ca
rpet. Beige walls with evenly spaced doors enclosed around them on either side. A couple of bulbs buzzed above them, and several flickered, clearly about to go out.

  “What number are we?” asked Kevin.

  “122,” Iris answered.

  Kevin blinked the fuzziness out of his vision and focused on the doors. His eyesight was blurry, most likely due to exhaustion, and it took him nearly thirty seconds longer than it should have to read each number. 102. 104. 112. 120.

  “Here we are,” Kevin muttered as they found the door leading to room 122, which looked just like every other door in this place: brown and plain.

  Iris unlocked the door and pushed it open. Entering the room, he and his allies were greeted to a small interior space, a plain bedroom with two twin beds, a nightstand, a dresser, and a closet. A door to his immediate left led to what Kevin assumed was a restroom.

  Unanimously, the group decided that it was time to sleep. Unfortunately, they soon found themselves in something of a conundrum. Namely, sleeping arrangements.

  “The stud and I will take this bed,” Iris declared, grabbing Kevin’s arm and pulling him to her. She had a surprising amount of strength left, or maybe his fatigue made him that much weaker.

  Phoebe didn’t seem to agree with Iris’s decision.

  “While I will not contest your sleeping with Kevin Swift, as you are the closest among us to him, I would like to point out that there are seven of us. These beds can't hold more than four at most. One bed will need to hold at least three people.” Unconsciously straightening her back, Phoebe’s chest, which had already been quite visible because of the numerous rips in her shirt, bounced several times. “Therefore, I believe it is only right that I, too, share your bed.”

  Shrrrkchuhk!

  Kevin glanced over at Polydora while everyone else looked around warily, as if expecting something to attack them.

  “I wonder what that sound is.” Menippe frowned.

  “Do you think it’s from an enemy yōkai that has been following us this whole time?” was the suggestion posed by Euryale.

  Thoe shook her head. “I'm sure we'd have sensed an enemy if it was.”

  Kevin thought about letting them know who was really making the noise, but he didn’t contemplate the thought for very long. He was too tired.

  “Don’t worry about the noise,” he told the others. “Let’s just get some sleep.”

  “That,” Iris began in a sage-like manner, “is the smartest suggestion I’ve heard all week.”

  ***

  Kevin couldn’t sleep. It had nothing to do with not being tired. His body was beyond fatigued. The aching tiredness spread through his bones, letting him know that his body demanded rest.

  It also had nothing to do with his current predicament. Despite feeling like he should not be comfortable with his situation, surrounded as he was by two beautiful girls, Kevin was actually quite comfortable. With his body spooning against Iris—who pressed her firm, shapely bottom into his crotch—and Phoebe—who spooned him in turn—Kevin was, surprisingly, not bothered by his predicament. He’d like to blame that on weariness, but he felt desensitization might have been the deciding factor there.

  If he had to pin his inability to sleep on anything, he would say it was because his mind, filled as it was with thoughts, refused to let him rest.

  “Something bothering you, Stud?” Iris’s drowsy voice reached his ears. Further accentuating the fact that she was now awake, the raven-haired vixen shifted against him. Kevin wondered if his lack of arousal was due to tiredness. At any other time, he would have been harder than a brick wall.

  “Not so much bothering me,” he said softly. “I was just thinking about Lilian.”

  Iris didn’t speak for a moment. “You really love her, don’t you?”

  “Course I do,” Kevin muttered. “Lilian means everything to me. Without her, I would have never become the person I am today. I would have been stuck in a rut, pining after a girl from a distance, too afraid to even speak with her despite how long we’d known each other. Lilian helped me, made me into a better person, makes me want to continue becoming a better person so I can stand by her side.”

  “And I’m sure her love for cartoons and comics has nothing to do with it.”

  “Anime and manga,” Kevin corrected tiredly, “and I wouldn’t say that doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s nice that she and I share the same interests. It’s nice being able to do the things I love with the person I love because she loves doing them too.”

  “I guess. Heh, hearing you say stuff like that reminds me of why Lilian chose you in the first place.”

  “Jealous?”

  “Maybe a little,” she admitted, “but at the same time, I’m happy she has someone like you.”

  “Glad to hear that.”

  “Now if I could just convince you to let me join you, things would be perfect.”

  Kevin had absolutely nothing to say to that.

  “... Good night, Iris,” he mumbled before closing his eyes and trying to get some sleep.

  ***

  Phoebe woke up with a start. Moonlight poured in through an open window. A soft breeze caused the curtains to billow ever so slightly.

  Kevin’s back was warm against her cheek. His entire body was warm, in fact. Despite having never met the girl before, Phoebe really did envy Lilian. She probably experienced this every day before being kidnapped.

  After taking just a second to admire such a simple act as lying next to the warm body of a man, Phoebe tried to determine what had caused her to wake up. She could tell that something was wrong. The problem was that she didn’t know what that something might be. It took her nearly a full five seconds to figure it out, and it was something so simple that if the situation hadn’t been standing on the edge of a precipice, she would have cursed herself.

  The window was open.

  It had been closed when they’d gone to bed.

  Reacting on instincts born from a lifetime of training, Phoebe untangled herself from Kevin, placed her hands on the bed, and pushed herself into a mule kick. There was a satisfying crack as her feet made contact with something, followed by a loud squeal of pain, which preceded the sound of a body slamming into the ceiling. At the same time, the other three yama uba reacted to the attacker by their bed. That particular figure, whose body was cloaked in shadow, didn’t just smack into the ceiling, but went straight through it due to the combined force of their powerful legs.

  The noise woke up Kevin, who reacted incredibly quick for a human. The young man rolled over Iris, the gun he’d kept hidden underneath their pillow whipping out and pointing at the falling figure. The barrel lit up like a sparkler as golden energy emitted from its nozzle. The figure squealed some more as two bullets composed of youki slammed into it, sending it flying across the room, where it smashed head first into the wall before dropping to the floor with a thud.

  The sound of combat caused Iris to wake up. Unlike the others, who all woke up at the drop of a hat, hers was a slow process. The two-tails sat up in bed, revealing herself in all her nude glory. She was completely heedless of her audience as she stretched her hands above her head and yawned.

  “Iris, put some clothes on quickly. We’re leaving.”

  Phoebe watched almost curiously as Kevin ordered Iris to get dressed. He barely paid attention to her nakedness, implying this either wasn’t a singular event, that he was used to the female body, or, the most likely answer, a case of both. She didn’t know how to feel about that.

  Does this mean it will be harder to convince him to give me children?

  Iris must have sensed something in his tone. She didn’t argue with him, instead getting out of bed and putting her now dry but still ruined clothes on.

  Kevin walked over to the figure he’d shot and knelt next to them. Phoebe followed suit, also kneeling in order to properly study whatever had attacked them.

  What parts of its body wasn’t covered in dirty rags was pink. Pink skin
covered in dirt and grime, like it had been rolling around in mud all day. An elongated, elephant-like snout replaced a nose. Thick lips were peeled back to reveal flat teeth that were too big to be human teeth. It looked very much like a pig. A human-shaped pig, but a pig nonetheless.

  “What… is this?” Kevin wondered out loud.

  “It’s a baku,” Phoebe said.

  Kevin turned his head to her. “Baku?”

  “A pig yōkai,” she nearly spat at the creature. “They’re a form of lesser yōkai, some of the weakest among us. They often try latching onto stronger yōkai, such as kitsune or inu. They’re a disgrace to the yōkai name.”

  Iris, Polydora, Euryale, Thoe, and Menippe walked up behind them.

  “Do you think these two are working for the Bodhisattva?” Kevin asked.

  Phoebe shrugged. “I do not know. However, I very highly doubt someone of the Bodhisattva’s stature would ever resort to hiring these two for aid.” She stood up, Kevin following suit. “They are most likely working with slave traders. Our own clan has had trouble with their kind before. Yama uba are not as powerful as the higher-tiered yōkai, but we are highly sought after by humans due to our appearance.”

  Kevin nodded in response to the words. Phoebe could practically see the young man’s brain turning.

  “Let’s tie these two up with those blankets over there and leave the city,” he said at last. “I don’t know what’s going on here, and I don’t know who sent these two after us, but I have no intention of finding out.”

  ***

  Getting out of the city was going to be much harder than he made it sound.

  Kevin had no clue what was happening. All he knew was that he and his companions had become prey.

  The world around him was lit up with lights. Loud sirens blared in the night. He could hear shouting and the sounds of running feet coming from all directions. Kevin didn’t know what exactly was going on, but someone had clearly ratted them out, or perhaps they were simply unlucky. Whatever. They needed to get out of here regardless.