A Fox's Mate (American Kitsune Book 6)

by Brandon Varnell

  A strike to the face caused Christine to stumble back. Raising her hand to her stinging left cheek, Christine tried to gather her powers and smack the assistant PE coach with a golfball-sized ice cube.

  Heather dodged, ducking low and pushing off the ground with her legs to come at Christine before she could do anything else. A hand slammed into Christine’s jaw. Her vision went white. She could’ve sworn she felt something break just then.

  I never realized humans could hit so hard!

  This would have been so much easier if Heather wasn’t a victim in all this. If she was another yōkai or an evil human, Christine wouldn’t have had to play it so safe. It was bad luck that she was fighting someone familiar, someone that she didn’t want to hurt.

  Yuki-onna were not fighters. They were neither good at it nor did they enjoy it. Most of them preferred a peaceful life.

  Christine was no different in that regard, and it showed as Heather continued to pummel her with punches and kicks that felt like tiny mallets smacking her with concussive force.

  Blood and spittle flew from her mouth as a fist planted itself in her gut. Her head snapped back when a knee broke her nose. Her vision became blurry and disoriented as two palms were thrust into her chest, knocking the wind from her lungs. Everything turned into a dizzying display of blurred lines and silhouettes.

  A kick smashed into her with enough force to lift her off her feet. Christine opened her mouth to scream, but then her back smashed into something hard and unyielding, and she felt like she’d swallowed her tongue. That something shattered underneath her.

  Christine heard a scream, though it took her a second to realize that she was the one screaming. Her body twitched with micro-spasms. Her back hurt. She’d never felt pain like this. Her vision was blurry and darkness crowded around the edges. Gritting her teeth, she tried to force herself to remain conscious. She’d be killed if she didn’t.

  A shadow loomed over her. Heather’s fuzzy face swam into view. She was holding the gun again, which was pointed right at her.

  So this is it, huh?

  Christine closed her eyes and sighed. She knew that she should have been frightened, but in that moment, all she could think about were her friends. Was Lindsay okay and waking up right now? How were Alex, Andrew, and Eric doing? She really hoped that Eric had a huge migraine from her ice sphere, the damn pervert. Of all the people she thought about, the most important was…

  Did Kevin manage to save Lilian and Iris?

  It was pathetic. She was staring down the barrel of a gun, awaiting death, and all she could think about was Kevin. Heather’s finger went to the trigger. Christine watched the finger begin to squeeze it as if in slow motio—

  BAM!

  Christine blinked as a loud noise echoed all around her. Heather blinked several times as if she was confused. Then her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and the woman crumbled to the floor, revealing a conscious Lindsay standing behind her, a bent folding chair in her grip.

  “Lindsay?”

  “Are you all right, Christine?”

  Christine needed a second to think up a response. “Um, yes?”

  “That’s good.” Lindsay breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  “Me too,” Christine mumbled.

  “By the way…” Lindsay started again, scratching at her cheek with an index finger. “You wouldn’t happen to know what’s going on, would you? Because the last thing I remember was going to the bathroom and then waking up on a couch. Where are we? Why are we here? Why was Heather pointing a gun at you?”

  Christine stared at Lindsay with a sense of incredulousness, and then looked down at Heather, who was sporting a rather prominent bump on her head. She glanced at Lindsay. Then Heather. Lindsay one more time… and then she began laughing.

  Lindsay pouted. “I fail to see what’s so funny about this!”

  “I-I’m sorry,” Christine said between chuckles. “I didn’t mean t-to—to laugh or anything. You’re right, this situation isn’t very funny, but for some reason, I-I can’t stop laughing…”

  Lindsay’s pout reached new levels. Several large veins also popped out on her forehead, as if to convey her annoyance. However, she still held out her hand to help Christine up.

  “Come on. Let’s get you somewhere so I can check for injuries. Then you can tell me all about what’s happening and why I have a headache.”

  “Okay.”

  After a few more chuckles, Christine and Lindsay walked back to the changing room.

  As her pixie-haired friend bade her to sit down and began checking for injuries, Christine’s mind went toward her other friends.

  I hope those three are all right.

  ***

  Kevin was not all right. He was not all right at all. From the moment he’d decided that jumping into a classroom was a good idea, he’d been on the defensive.

  Cassy was an incredibly agile fighter. She didn’t just weave through the desks. She used the desks as springboards, leaping from one to another, or jumping from one to the ceiling and then launching herself at him from above like an avenging angel. He’d been forced to use every unorthodox method he knew to avoid getting hit.

  In short, the battle really wasn’t going as planned.

  Something that Kevin took specific notice of about Cassy was her speed. She was quick, to be sure, but she didn’t move as fast as he thought she would. She also didn’t hit as hard. While she’d gotten plenty of strikes in and all of them stung, none of them were debilitating. Her strength was about what he imagined a really strong human would have.

  “Nya!”

  Like a cat leaping from the dining room table, Cassy sprung at him from the ceiling. Kevin hit the floor, shoulder-rolling away and skipping back up. He then had to block a series of bicycle kicks as Cassy leapt at him from a desk.

  His forearms stung as they were assaulted by numerous swift attacks. Each strike thudded against his arm like baseballs being thrown by a star pitcher. He managed to block the worst of it, but one of them got through and clipped his ear. He hissed. The nekomata landed back on the ground and came at him with a straight on frontal assault.

  Cassy swiped at him. Kevin spun around. The attack whooshed against his clothes, which tore across his chest. He felt his pectorals being exposed to the mild air.

  Moving backwards, Kevin avoided numerous punches while blocking those that he couldn’t. Several still made it through, pummeling his chest, arms, and face. However, while each attack stung, they didn’t hurt.

  A fist whizzed by his ear as he tilted his head at an angle. Cassy retracted her hand, which had nearly clawed him across the face, and immediately launched a series of high and mid kicks. He was forced to raise his arms to block. Each successive strike thudded against his forearms, stinging like dozens of mutant wasps. Kevin gritted his teeth and rode the attacks out, constantly backing away.

  There has to be something around here that I can use.

  Kevin couldn’t afford to take his eyes off his opponent, for doing so would be all but asking her to defeat him. He rapidly glanced around the room. He moved around, forcing Cassy to turn with him so he could study the room’s layout while keeping his eyes on her as well. Several bruises formed on his skin from continuously getting hit. It wasn’t until Kevin started to worry for his health that he located something that could help him.

  The fire extinguisher.

  If it worked once before…

  Changing his plans, Kevin continued retreating, but this time, he moved toward the extinguisher. If Cassy knew about his intentions, she didn’t let on. Her attacks came in with the same speed as before, and they still lacked the punch that he would have expected. Soon, Kevin’s back was pressed against the wall.

  “You’re a persistent fighter, nya,” Cassy said. Her breathing was a lot heavier than he imagined it should have been.

  “That’s because I can’t afford to give up,” Kevin said.

  “Tch! In tha
t case, I’ll make nyou give up, nya!”

  As Cassy sprang at him again, Kevin grabbed the fire extinguisher and used it to block the nekomata’s latest attack. The loud ringing of Cassy’s fist meeting the metal extinguisher filled the air, followed quickly by the cat-woman’s pained howl.

  “NYA!!”

  Kevin didn’t waste this opportunity and quickly shot the woman in the face with the extinguisher’s contents. Cassy stumbled back, her hands going to her eyes and rubbing at them as she hacked and coughed. He used her distracted state to sneak away. He left the classroom, closed the door behind him, and ran toward Ms. Vis’s classroom again.

  He didn’t know how much time had elapsed during his fight, but surely Lilian and Iris were still in trouble. He needed to—

  W-what?

  Kevin’s eyes widened as his legs ceased to function and he tumbled to the ground. Pain flooded him as his face smacked hard concrete. Groaning, he pushed the pain aside and tried to move, to get up. However, his body wouldn’t obey him. When he attempted to move his left arm, his right index finger twitched. When he tried moving his right arm, his left leg would twitch. No matter what he did, his body refused to respond like it was supposed to.

  “W-what’s going on?”

  Footsteps reached his ears.

  “I scrambled your body’s nervous system,” Cassy said. A pair of bare feet with leather straps wrapped around the arches appeared in his field of vision. “You didn’t think all those baby punches I gave you were for no reason, did you? Each time I hit you, I aimed for a specific nerve in your body and injected a small portion of my youki into them. All of the commands and signals that your brain gives out are sent throughout the body using the nerves. By injecting my youki into them, I’ve scrambled them so they won’t respond to you like they should. I’m sure you’ve noticed this.”

  Kevin indeed noticed this. Each time he tried to move a part of his body, a different limb would move as opposed to the one he wanted. He hadn’t realized that such a thing was possible outside of shōnen manga.

  “Stay here and wait for Seth to deal with your girlfriend and her sister,” Cassy continued. “After that, I’ll take care of you just like you did for me. I’ll make sure you’re never hurt like this again.”

  Kevin gritted his teeth. “D-do you really think I’m just going to give up…?”

  “You’re in no position to say something like that. I’ve already beaten you.”

  “No, you haven’t…”

  Kevin tried moving his left leg. His right arm twitched.

  “I-I refuse to lose here…”

  He tried to move the big toe on his right foot. His left index finger moved instead.

  “I won’t let myself be beaten…”

  “W-what are you doing?!”

  I think I’ve got this…

  If he could find out which parts of his body the corresponding signals were being sent to, then he should be able to move like normal. It would be hard, but he’d already figured out one thing: The signals were being sent to their opposing limb. Right and left. Foot and hand. Toes and fingers. So long as he kept this in mind…

  I can do this.

  Slowly, he moved his feet. His hands pressed against the ground instead, palms flat. With a grunt of effort, he pushed himself up.

  “Not by you or anyone else…”

  “Impossible! How are you getting up?! You shouldn’t even be able to move!”

  “Heh, who the hell do you think I am?” With his legs shaking, Kevin rose to his feet. His back was hunched, but his head was tilted up to look at the shocked Cassy. “I told you, didn’t I? It doesn’t matter to me if you’re a yōkai or whatever. Nothing is going to stop me from getting to Lilian and Iris. Not you or anyone else. Don’t underestimate me just because I’m a human.”

  Cassy’s eyes were bulging. They were so wide Kevin wondered how they hadn’t popped from her sockets.

  “Y-you… I can’t believe this…”

  Kevin slowly slid back into a combat stance, a narrow one designed for fleet-footed movement. His legs wobbled as he accidentally sent the wrong signal to his brain. Still, he worked it out and faced Cassy with his dominant foot forward, right hand extended and forming a fist, and his left hand a few inches from his cheek.

  “So go ahead and scramble my nerves as much as you want. It won’t change a thing! I’m still going to beat you!”

  Cassy didn’t seem to know what she should do. After a moment’s hesitation, her face hardened and became firm. She slowly slid into her stance, her eyes never leaving his.

  A wind blew through the small section of the school. Several leaves floated past them. Cassy waited until the leaves flew by, and then she attacked.

  Kevin didn’t know if he was being an idiot for not giving up. He probably was. What he was doing, fighting someone so far beyond him in skill, strength, and ability, was stupid.

  Even so, he refused to stop.

  Hang on, Lilian, Iris.

  ***

  Lilian barely had time to perform a technique. She bent the light around them, distorting her and her sister’s bodies to make it look like they were still standing. Then she grabbed Iris by the arm and yanked her to the ground.

  Guns blazed. A sound like roaring thunder resounded across the campus. The bullets hit nothing but air as the forms of Lilian and Iris dispersed like holograms.

  Despite having avoided the initial barrage, the situation was not looking good. Lilian was running low on youki, and she was sure that her sister was in the same predicament. On the other hand, Seth looked as fresh as ever.

  It didn’t help that they were fighting off several skeleton warriors that had been summoned from the Sanzu River. The skeletons were weak. A good celestial or void attack would have destroyed them, but neither could afford to use their kitsune techniques carelessly anymore. That left them with hand-to-hand combat.

  Unfortunately, neither she nor Iris were very good at martial arts. They’d not trained much, and although Lilian was being trained by Kotohime, three weeks of training couldn’t increase her abilities by a wide enough margin to make a difference.

  “I’m impressed,” Seth complimented the two as they continued fighting. “You managed to avoid the initial barrage by tricking my warriors with an illusion that bent the light around you to make them think you were standing when you were really lying on the ground. Very impressive. But it’s all over now. You two are nearly out of youki. Pretty soon you’ll be completely empty. Why don’t you just give up and become my dolls?”

  “Shut up, you old coot!”

  “Not a chance!”

  Lilian and Iris shouted at the same time. Another skeleton lined up a shot, but found its gun being knocked out of its grasp when Lilian struck it with one of her tails. The other tail rose and knocked its head off its body.

  It was a good thing these warriors were so weak, though that meant little when they just got right back up and continued attacking. She was getting tired. Her ragged breathing sounded harsh to her ears. Her heart was going to burst out of her chest if she didn’t do something soon.

  Seth laughed at them. “Hahaha! Struggle as much as you want, girls! It won’t change the outcome of this battle! You two are hopelessly outmatched!”

  “Tch, I hate to admit it, but the man’s got a point,” Iris said to Lilian. “I’m running on empty here, so unless you’ve got some trick up your sleeve, we’re screwed.”

  “I do have something that might get us out of this situation,” Lilian huffed. “It’s a long shot, but I don’t really see what choice we have. Think you can buy me a little time?”

  “I guess it depends on the amount of time you need.”

  “At least a minute.”

  “Ugh, that’s a tall order, but I’ll do my best.”

  “If you two are done trying to plan your way out of this hopeless situation, let’s get this party started again. I’m curious to see what you two have up your sleeves,” Seth said, snapping his fin
gers.

  The warriors attacked. Those without guns surged forward while those with guns took aim. Since there were more than a dozen of them, it meant they had a lot of opponents to deal with.

  Iris gritted her teeth as she wove an illusion around herself and Lilian, replacing their images with those of other skeletons and putting their own image on a pair of enemies—the ones that were charging at them.

  The muskets suddenly swiveled, aiming at the surging enemies and firing. This didn’t do much, for even though the skeletons’ bones broke and split apart, more just crawled out from the abyss. However, Iris didn’t stop. She continued weaving illusions, creating anarchy amongst the skeletons’ ranks, causing them to constantly attack each other rather than her and her sister.

  Void Kitsune, and void users in general, were an interesting bunch. Most illusions didn’t work on spirits since they were essentially ectoplasmic matter that had been forced onto this plane of existence. Even Lilian was only capable of fooling them by bending light. However, because of the Void’s very nature, void users could manipulate spirits by erasing the youki that had summoned them and supplanting it with their own youki.

  While Iris sowed confusion and disorder, Lilian concentrated on the ball of light that hovered equidistant between her hands. Her tails had encircled the appendages and were constantly emitting light particles that gathered into the tiny sphere of energy, which hummed with a vibrancy unlike anything she’d ever produced.

  Just a few more seconds.

  “Lily-pad…” Iris was panting, and her cheeks were growing flushed as her skin started to glisten with sweat. “I… I don’t have much youki left… whatever you plan on doing… you had better do it now…”

  “Don’t worry. I’m done.”

  “Celestial Art: Divine Wave.”

  Lilian clapped her hands together and the light contained between her palms was released. It shot out in a ring of energy that passed through everything, yet seemingly harmed nothing. However, as the divine youki passed through the skeletons, all of them collapsed, clattering into a pile of bones, their forms unable to hold together as the energy used to revive them was purified.