A Fox's Rescue

by Varnell, Brandon

  Shinkuro frowned as Kevin contorted his body around the beams.

  “Strange…”

  Several more beams appeared around Kevin and tried to impale him. They missed again.

  “How are you doing that?” Shinkuro asked in honest curiosity, and maybe even a touch of something else. “A human should not be capable of moving at the speed of thought, much less the speed of light.”

  Shinkuro’s words rang true, and indeed, Kevin was not moving at the speed of thought or light. He was, after all, only human. However, Kevin had, through nearly a year of constant, rigorous training, gained the ability to control the flow of battle, to literally force his opponents into attacking only the places that he wanted them to attack. This allowed him to react like he had precognitive abilities, but in truth, all he was doing was tricking Shinkuro into attacking the openings that he purposefully left in his guard, and then avoiding the attacks as if he had predicted them.

  “This human…”

  The Celestial Kyūbi did not seem the least bit bothered by what he was seeing. He seemed almost curious, and it was clear to Kevin that Shinkuro was not taking this fight seriously. From the very onset of this battle, the enlightened entity had been holding back a great deal. Shinkuro likely didn’t believe that bringing his full power, or even a hundredth of his power, to bear was necessary to defeat the likes of a four-tails, two two-tails, and a human.

  Kevin would use that arrogant sense of superiority to his advantage.

  Sweat had long since broken out on Kevin’s skin as he avoided beams of light. It ran down his face and stung his eyes. However, he dared not close them for fear of his enemy using that second it took to blink to defeat him. He needed to keep Shinkuro’s attention focused solely on him.

  “Void Art: Fires of Oblivion!”

  “Aegis.”

  Shinkuro didn’t even move from his position as void fire rained down on him. His eyes never left Kevin as the black flames of the Void splashed against his shield and were snuffed out by his overwhelming presence. However, one of the beams attacking Kevin did veer off course as it changed targets. Iris was forced to throw herself to the ground, the beam passing by over her head.

  “Come on, Lilian!” Iris shouted at her fraternal twin, who remained where she had fallen on her hands and knees. “Get your head in the game!”

  Lilian tore her gaze away from the prone form of her maid to look at Iris. She blinked once, then turned her attention onto Kevin, stuck in the center of a massive light show. The boy she loved was gritting his teeth, sweat flying off his body as he danced to avoid being perforated by the many beams that sought to penetrate his flesh.

  Her expression hardened.

  “Celestial Art: Reflect!”

  One of the many beams that tried impaling Kevin suddenly curved and traveled toward Shinkuro. The Celestial Kyūbi frowned and quickly took control of the light beam, only to blink when he saw the beam still traveling toward him. An illusion. He dispelled the illusion and then conjured six more beams, which he made converge on Kevin’s location at the same time. This time, there were too many for Kevin to avoid. The young man was stabbed repeatedly from multiple angles.

  And then he burst into black flames.

  “What?” Shinkuro blinked, the time it took to realize that the illusion Lilian created of one of his beams being reflected back at him had, in fact, been used to mask the illusion that Iris created of Kevin still being under attack by his beams. Kevin must have used his split second of distraction to escape.

  A flare of intense youki dispelled another illusion, revealing the figure of Kevin running toward him. The beams that had been attacking an illusion changed directions, curving around and going straight for Kevin, who somehow sensed them coming and dove to the side. This did little to deter Shinkuro’s attack, however, and the beams quickly followed him, forcing Kevin to roll along the ground in order to dodge.

  “Void Art: Void Fire!”

  More void fire splashed against the Aegis that Shinkuro conjured. The Celestial Kyūbi almost sighed.

  “You should already know by now that such an attack is—Gya!!!”

  Shinkuro’s words were cut off by an abrupt squeal of pain. Even the beams chasing Kevin were disrupted, dispersing back into their elementary particles.

  The Celestial Kyūbi directed a pained grimace at Lilian, whose teeth were clamped firmly on one of his golden tails.

  “You bit me,” he said, as if feeling the need to state the obvious.

  “And you should never take your eyes off your opponent!”

  Shinkuro swiveled his head as Kevin rushed up to him. The young man was already throwing a punch aimed right at him, a victorious grin already splitting the teen’s face in half.

  The attack never hit.

  The fist stopped centimeters from Shinkuro’s nose.

  For one single second, time stood still. Kevin’s mouth opened, though no words came out. Instead, blood poured from his mouth. He looked down at the gaping hole going straight through his chest, his eyes wide and disbelieving, and then looked back up. His eyes locked with Lilian’s seconds before the pain hit him.

  Like that, Kevin fell forward, his body striking the ground—

  —and then he was no longer lying on his stomach, but instead on his back. A bright blue sky greeted him. He blinked several times. His head was pounding like war drums inside of his skull, and his ears were ringing. He tasted blood on his mouth from where he’d bit his tongue, and he needed several seconds to orient himself.

  An illusion.

  It hit him like an iron bolt shot from a crossbow. The entire thing he’d just experienced, all of it, it had been an illusion. But when had he been trapped, and for how long? Had he been trapped within this illusion the whole time?

  Kevin turned his head, ignoring the sudden spike of pain that drove into his skull like a stake. He could see Lilian lying only a few feet from him. She, too, was lying on her back, staring up at the sky.

  Groaning as his muscles protested and his mind rebelled, Kevin turned over and slowly crawled up to Lilian. Just from a single glance, he could tell that she was still trapped within an illusion. Her glazed eyes stared sightlessly at nothing, and drool leaked down her cheeks.

  Being a human, Kevin did not have the ability to dispel illusions. He had no youki with which he could inject into another. However, that did not mean he was not without options.

  Kevin didn’t hesitate to place his mouth over Lilian’s. Rather than a normal kiss, however, he took her lower lip between his teeth and nipped it hard enough to draw blood. Lilian’s gasp told him that she’d emerged from her illusion, so he pulled back and looked into the girl’s rapidly blinking eyes, which soon focused on him.

  “K-Kevin. W-what…?”

  “We got trapped in an illusion,” Kevin told her. “You, me, and Iris.”

  “Iris…” Lilian mumbled, “where is…?”

  “Over there.” Kevin pointed at the distant Iris lying face-first on the ground, her body twitching and shuddering as she fought her own illusion. “You’ll have to break Iris out of the illusion she’s in.”

  “Right.” Lilian hissed in pain as she sat up. “Wh-where is Kotohime?”

  Kevin was startled when he realized that he didn’t know where Kotohime was. In his illusion, she had been pierced by innumerable beams of light, or had he become trapped after that happened?

  A noise soon reached them. Lilian’s ears twitched and Kevin’s head swiveled around, both of them locking onto the battle happening not too far from them.

  It was Kotohime. She was fighting against Shinkuro, and she had never looked more beautiful. Trapped as she was within the middle of a storm, with beams and orbs of light pouring in from all directions, seeking to penetrate her flesh, Kotohime still maneuvered about with a dancer’s grace. Her movements were swift and sure, elegance defined. Light beams came at her and were subsequently redirected by her katana and wakizashi, both of which wove a never-ending mesh
work of silvery flashes around her body.

  Kevin had known that Kotohime was strong. He’d watched her battle against Luna Mul. He’d seen her myriad of sword and kitsune techniques. He’d even faced off against some of those techniques in their most recent spars. Yet in all the time he’d known her, in all the time they’d spent together, he’d never seen her the way he was seeing her now.

  However, even he knew that she would not last. Against a monster like Shinkuro, against a being whose power stood on par with gods, Kotohime was but a speck, an insignificant ant fighting a titan. The only reason she was still alive was because Shinkuro was arrogant and refused to bring his full power to bare. That said, she would need help.

  “Hurry up and dispel the illusion around Iris,” Kevin said softly. Lilian nodded and made her way over to Iris, stumbling and wavering, the aftereffects of whatever illusion she’d been held under still affecting her.

  Kevin stood to his feet. His legs shook and his knees wobbled. His head spun as vertigo struck him like a Spirit Gun to the face. Everything spun, his stomach rebelled, yet still Kevin remained standing, eventually shaking off the overwhelming dizziness.

  He looked toward Kotohime, toward the battle. She was still trapped within the middle of a storm, a storm of light beams that sought to impale her. Sweat flew off her voluptuous body as she spun and danced, a ceaseless string of constant movement. Even though he knew the situation was dire, Kevin couldn’t help but admire Kotohime as she fought. Had he ever seen anything so ferociously beautiful before?

  “Right.” He slapped his cheeks. “Time to get to work.”

  A single glance at his surroundings revealed nothing. Neither did a second. Kotohime was avoiding the light attacks, but her foe wasn’t present.

  It took a moment, but Kevin soon realized what this meant and looked up. There, floating above them all, lording over them like a king does his subjects, Shinkuro watched as his light beams battled against the swordswoman.

  He picked up his guns, which lay in the dirt where he’d fallen. He frowned. One of his guns had run out of bullets. Odd.

  His suitcase lay next to the guns. Undoing the latches, he opened the case, grabbed the cartridge filled with Delphine’s youki, exchanged the now empty clip of celestial energy, and then took aim.

  Just like last time, a massive beam of pure white blasted out of the tiny silver nozzle. Easily ten times larger than him, the cylinder of destruction slammed into Shinkuro and washed over him. The power in his gun soon ran out, the cylinder dissipated, and his opponent was nowhere in sight.

  Just as he thought he had won, light particles gathered in the air, coalescing into a single, nine-tailed form.

  “W-what?”

  Kevin blinked. In that split second, Shinkuro disappeared.

  “Beloved, behind you!”

  Kevin didn’t question the voice. His body reacted before his mind could even think about what to do, twisting around and narrowly avoiding the beam of light that sought to incinerate his chest. The beam sped by, then curved around, traveling back toward him, but Kevin already knew it would. He even knew exactly where it would strike.

  The beam missed when Kevin swerved to the right.

  A second beam was added to the mix, yet it, too, missed after he spun around, and Kevin inexorably moved toward Shinkuro, who stood some distance away, watching him with that inexpressive gaze that made the enlightened being seem so much more inhuman.

  A third beam was added.

  “I think I finally understand,” Shinkuro muttered softly. “You are not moving at the speed of thought. Instead you are predicting my attacks somehow.”

  Even if Kevin were inclined to answer—which he wasn’t—the addition of a fourth beam kept him from speaking. All of his concentration was focused on avoiding death as he continued moving toward the Celestial Kyūbi.

  A fifth beam was added. Kevin moved to avoid it, but in doing so, ended up getting hit by the third beam. It pierced through his left shoulder, leaving a tiny, needle-like hole from which blood poured. He could no longer feel that arm, as it had gone completely numb. A necessary sacrifice in order to keep moving forward.

  “Void Art: Oblivion’s Chain!”

  “Celestial Art: Underground Chambers Prison!”

  The beams dispersed, and Shinkuro found himself being restrained by two different sets of chains. Several chains of celestial energy had erupted from the ground, wrapping around his legs and keeping him from moving. Another set, these ones blacker than a starless night, had erupted from what looked almost like a portal, or maybe a black hole. It hovered over Shinkuro’s head, this swirling vortex of darkness, and from its depths, the chains had erupted forth, binding his arms.

  “Now, Beloved!”

  Kevin didn’t hesitate, for he knew that even a second’s hesitation would make Lilian’s and Iris’s techniques worthless.

  He closed the distance between him and Shinkuro. The Celestial Kyūbi actually looked mildly surprised. He wasn’t attacking, though not for lack of trying. It was because he couldn’t attack. While Lilian’s technique restrained him, Iris’s chains, being composed of the Void, consumed his youki, leaving him incapable of using any light-based technique.

  This was his chance.

  Or so Kevin thought.

  The chains binding Shinkuro were destroyed, decimated when the Kyūbi finally released his unfathomable power. Kevin’s entire body threatened to cease as that feeling, the aura of a king, washed over him like miasmic vapor. Only force of will and sheer grit allowed him to push past this feeling.

  Kevin launched his fist forward.

  For one second, he believed his attack would make it…

  For one second, Kevin allowed himself to believe that he could wipe that inexpressive gaze off Shinkuro’s face…

  And then Kevin’s fist went straight through Shinkuro, or rather, it went through his afterimage. A second later, something seared straight through Kevin’s back and out of his chest. He stumbled, then fell forward, smacking the ground face-first, barely conscious as his body grew numb and his mind threatened to shut down.

  He didn’t get back up.

  “Beloved!”

  Lilian was only able to get out that one word before several beams of light struck her body, burning straight through flesh, muscle, and bone with ease. A strangled gasp was all she released before collapsing.

  “Lilian!” Iris shouted before snarling at Shinkuro. “Damn you!”

  “Void Art: Flames of Oblivion!”

  A wave of void fire washed over Shinkuro, consuming everything in its wake. The ground was incinerated as the black flames consumed them. The bamboo trees beyond were quickly brought to oblivion by the living conflagration.

  Shinkuro wasn’t there anymore.

  “G-ga!”

  Iris fell onto her knees when a large hole appeared in her abdomen. She swayed for several seconds, then her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and she fell face-first onto the gravel.

  “I… Iris… no…” Lilian mumbled. Tears stung her eyes and fell down her face.

  “D-damn you…” Kevin gritted his teeth as he forced his body to move, his arms going underneath him and pushing him up.

  Shinkuro frowned. “You should not be able to move.”

  “I shouldn’t be able to do a lot of things, apparently,” Kevin gasped as the fingers of his right hand curled around his gun. He raised his hand and aimed at Shinkuro. “It doesn’t stop me from doing them, though, and it won’t stop me from pumping you full of holes because of what you’ve done to my family.”

  Shinkuro stared at Kevin and, despite the overwhelming pain from the fist-sized hole in his chest, Kevin stared right back. He didn’t know what he hoped to accomplish by this, however, as it was clear that they had lost. Out of all those present, he was the only one still capable of moving, and he had a hole in his freaking chest. It was becoming abundantly clear to him that this battle had been over even before it began. Shinkuro had been taking t
hem as seriously as a human might take a cockroach.

  “So these kitsune, you consider them family.” Shinkuro paused for a moment, as if contemplating those words, and then nodded. “That is admirable. It is very rare for a human to accept kitsune so readily. You have my respect for that, and it is because of my respect that I shall make sure your passing is painless.”

  A little late for that, Kevin thought sardonically. He didn’t voice these thoughts, mainly because forming words hurt.

  More globes of light appeared around Kevin, and he knew that his death was near. This was the end. He was not trapped in an illusion. This time, his death would be quite real.

  I can’t believe this is it…

  The globes changed to beams.

  Kevin smiled bitterly.

  I wish I could have at least mated with Lilian once.

  “That is enough, Father.”

  Before the beams could impale Kevin, a voice spoke up. It was a familiar voice, though he couldn’t quite remember where he’d heard it before. Shinkuro also seemed to recognize the voice, for his eyes showed surprise.

  Slowly, Shinkuro and Kevin turned their heads.

  Jiāoào stood on the battlefield, supported by Fan, who had an arm wrapped around his waist while one of his arms had been slung over her shoulder. Li and Zhili stood beside and slightly behind them.

  “My… son…”

  “This battle is done, Father,” Jiāoào said. “Just… let these people leave.”

  If Kevin wasn’t so confused to see Jiāoào, he would have been by the boy’s words.

  “Are you sure?” Shinkuro asked. Jiāoào closed his eyes and nodded. “I see. Very well then. I shall agree not to kill these four despite the trouble they have caused.” Shinkuro paused. “And I guess it would be prudent to also heal them, as there would be no point in sparing their lives if they are just going to die anyway.”

  Kevin still didn’t know what was going on, but he knew that the battle was over. As this realization hit him, all of the adrenaline that kept him conscious up to this point left, and the last thing he saw before darkness claimed him was the Bodhisattva walking over to a wounded Kotohime.