“A-ah.” Lilian blushed as she held her sketch pad to her chest, as though afraid he might try to peek at it. “Th-they’re coming along fine… I think… maybe…”
Kevin’s lips twitched. Embarrassed Lilian was impossibly cute. No two ways about it. It was too bad she only got like this when it came to her drawings. She was awfully shy about showing them off to others.
Two months ago, Lilian had declared that she would become a manga artist. Kevin had supported her, of course. He even told her that he would be happy to help with her drawings. However, every time he asked if she would let him look at her artwork, she refused. No one, not him, not Iris, not Kotohime, not her mom, no one was allowed to look at her drawings, apparently.
He remembered about one month back when he and Iris had teamed up to see what she was drawing. Not only did Lilian beat them both down, she also refused to speak with him for the rest of the day. While that didn’t sound like a very long time to stop talking to someone, it was when your name happened to be Lilian, and the person you stopped speaking to was your mate.
It had been much worse for Iris. Lilian had ignored her for a whole week. She had even locked the other girl out of their room. By the time that week had ended, Iris was a wreck. The girl had been like a vegetable. According to her, she’d been unable to function because she hadn’t gotten her Lily-pad Love Battery recharged.
“You’ll show it to me when you’re finished, right?” Kevin asked, smiling at the fox-girl. “I really would love to read your manga.”
“Ah, um, o-okay,” Lilian muttered. “J-just don’t make fun of my drawings when you see them, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Promise?”
“Pinky promise.”
Kevin held out his pinky. She eyed the appendage for a moment before hooking her own pinky through it and shaking.
“You’ll show me, too, right?” asked Iris.
“No.”
“What?” Iris’s eyes widened in appalled shock. “Come on, please? Pretty please?”
“No.” Lilian held the sketchpad to her chest. “The only reason I’m even going to let Kevin see them is because he’s my mate.”
“T-that’s so cruel!” Kevin muffled his chuckle behind a hand as Iris looked ready to burst into tears. “You’d show him, but not your lovely sister? How could you, Lily-pad? I thought we shared something special.”
“The only thing we share is blood and gender.”
“U-ugh!”
Iris dropped to the ground, her arms curling around her knees as she rocked back and forth. Her actions reminded him of a psychotic patient at an insane asylum. She mumbled something to herself, a mantra of some kind, but he couldn’t hear it. It likely had something to do with her Lily-pad hating her, or whatever.
He turned his attention to Christine, who’d been silently reading ever since they arrived. “Do you know what time Lindsay’s soccer game is?”
Christine didn’t even look up from her manga as she answered. “Her game is at six.”
Kevin looked at the clock, which told him the time was currently half past four. That meant they had one and a half hours before the game.
Maybe we should have gone home? Ah, well. Too late for that now.
“Do you all wanna grab a bite to eat before the game? There’s a small Mexican restaurant about a mile from here that sells some really good burritos.”
Christine and Lilian looked at each other for a moment. Kevin was rather impressed by their silent communication skills, especially when he considered how they’d been bitter rivals seven months ago. It seemed prolonged exposure to each other had helped them get used to the other person’s personality.
“I think getting dinner sounds like a good idea,” Lilian said. Christine said nothing. She merely put a bookmark on the page that she had been reading and snapped the book shut. Kevin finally got a good look at the cover. Erotic Fairy Tales: The Little Mermaid.
I had no idea Christine was into that kind of stuff. That sounds like something Iris would read.
He knew that Christine was into manga, even though she denied it at every opportunity. Kevin had seen her and Lilian exchanging manga when they thought no one was looking. They often made their exchange behind the school lockers between classes.
“Awesome.” He stood up. “Then let’s go there right now. I’m starving.”
“I have noticed that you’ve been eating a lot more.” Lilian also stood up.
“That’s because Kiara and Heather have been running me ragged. I probably burn several thousand calories just getting my butt kicked across the sparring mat every morning.”
As Christine, Lilian, and Kevin walked out of the library, Iris looked up from where she’d been mumbling in depression and realized that everyone was leaving without her.
She scrambled to her feet and chased after them. “Hey! Wait for me! I’m coming too! Come on! Don’t leave me here!”
***
Fan wanted to cover her ears. The sounds of people cheering and jeering assaulted her eardrums, rattling her skull and making her wish she’d been born deaf. The noise was blood curdling. She knew that humans were loud, but she had never realized that they could be this obnoxiously rambunctious.
She sat near the top of the bleachers overlooking a large soccer field. There must have been at least a hundred people with her. The bleachers were filled to bursting. The only reason she didn’t have people sitting next to her was because she had cast an illusion over this area that made it look like there were several intimidating individuals sitting beside her.
With her sharp eyes, enhanced by the miniscule amounts of youki she sent to them, Fan had a close-up view of the people playing on the field. There were a total of twenty-two people running across the soccer field. Eleven wore the uniform representing Desert Cactus High School, light blue shorts and a white shirt with blue trim. There was a cactus on the front. The other team wore red and black.
Having never been interested in what humans did in their spare time, she knew little about the sport that was being played before her eyes. She didn’t care either. It looked stupid. They were just kicking a ball back and forth.
Why humans put so much effort into the most inane and ridiculous things, I’ll never understand.
She tore her gaze from the sight of a bunch of girls kicking a ball. She wasn’t there to watch idiots work up a sweat doing something so banal, so instead of staring at the hairless monkeys as they played, she began searching for the person that she was going to kill. Her target was in this crowd somewhere…
“YOU GO, LINDSAY!”
Ah, there she is.
Fan felt the sneer on her face grow as Lilian cheered for her human friend. The girl was standing next to Christine, a raven-haired beauty—Lilian’s sister—a blond male, and a boy with a lecherous look in his eyes. Lilian and Christine were holding up a large sign that she couldn’t read because it wasn’t pointed at her. While Lilian shouted and made a ruckus, Christine retained an expression of supreme embarrassment.
Her face is blue. She’s definitely a yuki-onna.
Her eyes then traveled away from Lilian to the red-haired vixen’s mate. He stood next to Lilian and Christine, following Lilian’s example. His hands were cupped to his mouth as he cheered for their friend. The only one not cheering was the sister, Iris. Unlike everyone else, she sat on the bleachers, one leg crossed over the other. Her expression spoke of boredom.
The perverted one didn’t cheer either, but that was merely because he was busy drooling.
Fan had to admit that Kevin was a decent example of the male species. Most females would probably consider him at least mildly handsome. He had a strong build, broad shoulders and chest, and his tousled blond hair gave him a sort of carefree appearance. His eyes weren’t the same shade of blue as hers, but they were vibrant nonetheless.
But he’s still human. All humans are filthy and disgusting.
She didn’t know what Lilian saw in this boy.
Fan clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white.
Soon, Lilian Pnév̱ma. Your time is coming soon…
***
Kotohime hummed a gentle tune as she went about taking down the laundry, which she had hung up on the balcony. She was very meticulous in how she worked. Undo the pins, set them in a basket, and then fold up the clothes and put them in the even bigger basket. Kevin often complained about how she hung the laundry up in such an old-fashioned manner, claiming they had a perfectly good dryer that she should use. He just didn’t realize that her method was so much better.
As she worked, she thought about the time that she had spent at the Swift residence. It had been a little less than nine months since she had started living with Lilian and her mate. Despite the rocky start she’d had in regards to Kevin, life with him had been rather pleasant.
There had been a few bumps in the road, though. She still grimaced in phantom pain upon remembering her fight with Luna, and of the events that happened during that time. Still, despite what happened, it had all worked out for the best. She had begun training again to sharpen her skills, Lilian had started training with her, and Kevin had become a stronger person because of what happened.
That boy continues to surprise me.
The sound of a door sliding open alerted her to the new presence on the balcony before her sister’s voice called out to her. “Sister?”
“Hm?” Kotohime turned around to find her sister. The hem of Kirihime’s French maid outfit fluttered in the soft breeze. “Kirihime, is something on your mind? Shouldn’t you be looking after Camellia-sama?”
“My Lady is asleep.” Kirihime frowned a bit, her brow creasing in worry. “My Lady has been sleeping a lot more lately. I’m getting a little worried about her.”
“I have noticed that Camellia-sama has been sleeping quite a bit,” Kotohime confessed. “She’s also been calmer than normal. I do not think there is anything to worry about, however, so try not to let it trouble you.”
“Yes, I suppose I shouldn’t worry.”
“Good. Now, did you need something?”
Kirihime was about to answer when a large spike in youki alerted them both to imminent danger. Killing intent flooded the area. It was so powerful that were she not a four-tails, she would have been on her knees and struggling to breath, much like Kirihime. Kotohime had less than three-fourths of a second to comprehend what this killing intent meant before their apartment building exploded in a massive shower of light and flames.
***
“One. Two. One-one. Two. Hya!”
Kiara glared at her current opponent, a large punching bag that she’d been pounding away at for the last half an hour. It was a specially designed bag made to her specifications. It was denser than the standard punching bag, made from the hide of an onikuma, and able to withstand the most ferocious of punches and kicks. It wouldn’t survive if she punched it at full power, but for the purpose of working up a good sweat, it worked well enough.
The chains attaching the punching bag to the ceiling rattled as she slammed into it with her fist. She shuffled across the mat, moving from side to side as she launched a series of rapid punches. Her fist blurred. The whistling of air as it was cut echoed around the room. That noise was quickly followed by multiple bangs! from her fist impacting against the punching bag.
Several yards away, a large sensor with a monitor attached to it counted the number of punches she released per second, along with how powerful each punch was based on the momentum at which she hit it. Her goal was to increase her punching speed.
Sweat poured down her body in rivulets. Her clothes caked to her skin. Despite how much sweat she worked up, her breathing remained even.
A loud beeping went off, her timer, which told her it was time to stop. She ceased beating the punching bag like nobody’s business and turned to look at the monitor. Three hundred punches in a single minute.
She frowned. My speed hasn’t increased.
She supposed she should have expected that. With only one hand to punch with, her punching speed had been reduced by half. She’d been working hard to get her speed back up to par, but it looked as if she had hit a wall. Five punches for every one second seemed to be her limit.
I suppose it could be worse, but still…
She looked down at her hand, wrapped in white training bandages. She clenched it into a fist, watching as the veins throbbed to life on her forearm. Her arm was covered in muscle. Her fingers and knuckles had calluses from constant training. It was a strong hand, a powerful hand.
It wasn’t enough.
“Five punches isn’t going to be enough to beat him.”
Before her thoughts could linger, the sound of her intercom going off caused her to look over her shoulder. What could her aid want at this hour? Frowning, she walked over to the small speaker built into the wall and accepted the call.
“Yes?”
“Ms. Kuyo, a visitor wants to see you.”
“I see.” Kiara was not expecting anyone. “Did this visitor say what they want?”
“No, ma’am, and I’ve, well, pardon me for saying so, ma’am, but I’ve never seen him before. However, he says it’s urgent that he speak with you.”
“Hmm…” Kiara cocked her head to the side, doing far more than simply contemplating the situation. Something was wrong. She could feel it in her bones. After a second or two, she narrowed her eyes. “Very well. Tell him to head up to my office and that I’ll be with him as soon as I take a shower.”
“Of course, ma’am.”
Sighing, Kiara ended the call and pressed several more buttons on the console. A large slot opened in the ceiling, which her personal punching bag disappeared into as it was hauled up by a series of silent pulleys. A section of the wall behind her timer also opened. The timer disappeared as it moved backwards on a series of treads, the wall sliding closed behind it. Once again, her personal training room looked like one large room with a blue mat covering the floor.
After taking a quick shower, Kiara dressed herself in a dark gray business suit. Like usual, the suit was missing its left sleeve. While some people were disturbed whenever they saw the stump that used to be her left arm, she rather liked the look. It might have made her punches slower, but she couldn’t deny that she looked pretty damn badass.
Entering her personal elevator, Kiara only needed to wait for a few seconds before it took her to the floor containing her office. She exited swiftly, striding down the beige carpeted hall and reaching her office in record time. She reached out for the handle, ready to grip it—
—she paused. Her eyes narrowed. A split second later, she gripped the door and opened it, walking in with a nonchalant air.
A person stood in her office, his back to her. He was massive, towering over her like a Titan towered over a human. He was garbed in what she recognized as the robes of a Shaolin Monk. It was a long, yellow robe similar to a kimono, only looser and more flowing. The sleeves were rather voluminous, extending all the way to the floor. Short, dark hair covered his head.
Three bushy fox tails stuck out of his robes and two ears twitched on his head.
He turned to face her.
“You’re the one who wanted to see me, right?” Kiara smirked as she spread her single remaining arm wide, as though inviting him to try something. “Well, here I am.”
The man’s face bulged. His eyes, which had been impassive a second before, suddenly became filled with an inexplicable rage. Kiara saw the whites turn red as blood vessels gathered within.
“DOOOOOOGGGGGG!”
The man unleashed a most unusual battle cry as he charged at Kiara, slamming into her and smashing them both straight through a wall.
***
“Go, Lindsay! GO!” Lilian cheered for Lindsay as her friend dribbled the ball across the soccer field. She would have cupped her hands to her mouth and used them as a microphone, but her h
ands were currently occupied with the large banner she had made.
“Come on, Lindsay! You’ve got this!” Beside Lilian, her mate also cheered their friend on. She smiled at how supportive he was. It was even better because they were cheering together.
“Come on, hotties! I wanna see those boobies bounc—BWAG!”
“SHUT UP, PERVERT!”
Lilian, Kevin, and Iris all turned their heads just in time to witness Christine bash Eric’s face in. The boy crumbled to the ground, his head smacking against the metal bleachers on the way down. There was a moment of silence…
… And then they went back to cheering for their friend.
Lilian only knew a little about soccer from the time she had played a scrimmage with Lindsay and her friends; it was back before Kevin decided to be her mate. She knew that the ultimate goal was to score as many points as possible by kicking the soccer ball into the opposition’s goal, but she knew little beyond that. Despite her basic knowledge, that didn’t stop her from enjoying the sight of Lindsay playing her hardest.
A loud whistle echoed around the field. Lilian watched, confused when everyone stopped playing and headed back to their respective teams.
“What’s going on? Is it already over?”
“No,” Kevin answered. “It’s just the ending to the first half. There will be a fifteen-minute break before the two teams start playing again.”
“Oh.” Lilian hummed in thought for a moment before smiling. “Why don’t we go and see Lindsay? You know, to let her know that we’re cheering her on?”
“Sure, let’s do that.”
“I guess we’re getting up to greet the dyke,” Iris mumbled.
Christine clicked her tongue. “Do you have to be so rude?”
“It’s an expression of love.”
The group stood up, leaving the unconscious Eric lying on the bleachers, and went down to where Lindsay’s team was resting. They found their tomboy friend easily enough. She stood off to the side, drinking from a water bottle.
“Lindsay!” Lilian called out, causing the girl to turn around.
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