It was Violet, the short aunt of Lilian, who was currently pounding the crap out of a poor log. She launched her fists forward. They slammed into the wooden log, shaking the entire thing down to its foundation. Sweat flew from her skin and her toga had become partially see-through. Also…
What. The. Heck?
Violet’s chest looked a lot bigger now than he remembered. Wasn’t she supposed to be flat? Those things looked almost like watermelons!
The girl eventually stopped punching the log. Her fists were bruised and bleeding, but she didn’t seem to care. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, and then looked down as though just now realizing something.
“Aw, man!” she grumbled. “My chest bindings are all wet. Freaking great. Now I’ve got to get some new ones and rewrap my chest.”
It was at this point that Kevin decided to step in. “I had no idea you wore chest bindings. I guess that explains why you looked flatter than a billboard the last time we spoke.”
“Unyaaa!” Kevin stumbled back as the woman shrieked. She whirled around, a hand rising to her chest. “You! Don’t freaking sneak up on me like that!”
“Sorry,” Kevin apologized. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“S-scared?” Violet laughed. “Who said I was scared? I ain’t scared of nothing!”
Kevin turned to Kotohime. “She was scared, right?”
“Indeed she was, Kevin-sama.” Kotohime nodded. “She was positively frightened.”
“Thought so.”
“You two shut up! Shut up right now! I wasn’t scared at all!”
Kevin could have continued to tease her, and in fact, he was tempted to keep it up. He decided not to. There was something else that he wanted to talk about.
“Are you training?”
“Of course I’m training,” Violet grunted. “What’s it look like I’m doing?”
“Hitting a log really hard.”
“Thank you for that enlightening observation, Captain Obvious,” she snarked.
“Your sarcasm is unwarranted.”
“Your presence is unwarranted.”
“All right. Fine,” Kevin said. “I’ll leave. It’s not like I want to hang around a midget with knockers the size of her head anyway.”
“What was that?! You wanna go, brat?!”
“Bring it on, shorty!”
Violet charged at Kevin, who sidestepped her as she threw a punch. To add insult to injury, he stuck his leg out as she stumbled past him, which, of course, caused her to trip and fall face first into the dirt. Kevin withheld a chuckle as Violet lay on the ground, her butt sticking in the air.
“Do you like eating dirt?” he asked, taunting her.
“Grrr!!!” Violet leapt to her feet and spun around. The murderous look on her face would have been frightening on, say, Kotohime. On her it just looked silly. “I’m gonna kick your ass!”
“I’d like to see you try!”
Kevin cracked his knuckles and grinned. This was going to be fun.
***
While many of her brethren looked down on humans as being inferior, Kotohime had always admired humanity's tenacity and their ability to adapt. Humans had gained great power. They weren’t the supernatural abilities of yōkai, but their technology was to the point where even a nine-tails had to be wary of them.
Kevin was a great example of human adaptability. When she had first met him, he was a wishy-washy teenager who smacked of harem protagonist tropes. Of course, he still smacked of harem protagonist tropes, but that was neither here nor there. Since their meeting, Kevin had changed. He had accepted Lilian, he was learning how to fight against yōkai, he had already killed two yōkai, and he was currently kicking Violet’s ass.
“Hold still, you!”
“Why should I hold still? It isn’t my fault you’re too slow to hit me.”
“Damn you!”
Kevin was running roughshod over Violet. Of course, he wasn’t hitting her. In fact, he hadn’t attacked once since the battle had started. He was simply letting Violet wear herself out, dodging or redirecting her attacks. He used the same style on her that he’d used on Kotohime earlier. Kevin presented openings in his defense, which even an amateur like Violet could see, and used those openings to force Violet into subconsciously attacking them, making her easy to predict.
“Why! Can’t! I! Hit you!?”
“Because you suck, that’s why!”
“Grr! Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up and let me fucking hit you!”
“Yeah… no.”
As Kevin continued to taunt, tease, and toy with Violet, Kotohime sat underneath the shade of a tree and quietly cleaned her katana.
“Ufufufu, I’m so happy that Kevin-sama and Violet-sama are getting along so well,” she said to no one in particular.
***
An hour after picking a fight with Violet, Kevin left the three-tailed vixen huffing and puffing as she lay on the ground. That chick had more stamina than he’d expected. While he wasn’t too winded because dodging her required so little effort, he had been forced to expend a lot of energy.
Kevin chuckled as he thought about Violet’s reactions to his teasing. He wondered if Iris and Lilian were bad influences on him. He was sure that teasing someone over their height and chest size was not something that he would normally do, but it was definitely something that Iris would have done.
Well, whatever. Violet got some combat experience, so she can’t complain.
“You seem pleased with yourself, Kevin-sama,” Kotohime observed.
Kevin smiled. “You can tell? I guess I just feel relaxed now. It’s as if all my stress went away by beating up Violet.”
Hiding her mirthful smile behind her kimono, Kotohime said, “I’m pleased to hear that, but do try not to pick on Violet-sama too much. She’s had a rough life.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Thank you.”
Pushing through a line of trees, Kevin halted when a wall suddenly appeared before him. He didn’t know which building this was. That being the case, he followed the wall until he reached the corner. He paused again.
There were voices coming from around the corner.
“Look who came crawling back to the Pnév̱ma Clan,” a male voice sneered. “Did you and your sister miss me so much that you couldn’t stand to be away for a moment longer?”
“As if,” Lilian’s voice reached him. “One Piece will end before I ever miss your ugly mug, Palladius.”
Kevin pressed his back against the wall. He peered out from around the corner. Lilian was standing several feet away. There were two bishounen next to one. He recognized Caleb, but the other person was unfamiliar to him.
“Little cunt!” Not-Caleb snarled. “I should teach you a fucking lesson in manners!”
“I don’t think you should be doing this,” Caleb told the man.
The other kitsune scowled at him. “You think I fucking care what you think? Shut up, dickweed.” He turned back to Lilian. “Now that your sister isn’t here to protect you, I’m going to have some fun.”
Before he realized what he was doing, Kevin leapt out from around the corner, unsheathing his guns and unloading a torrent of bullets into Not-Caleb. The kitsune was so surprised that he couldn’t do anything as he was hit in the chest and shoulders by several water youki bullets. There was no blood. These bullets were low intensity. Even so, the man’s body jerked back and forth as though he was having muscle spasms.
Kevin stopped shooting. As the man stood there, swaying like a drunkard who’d downed an entire keg by himself, Lilian twisted her tails together, turned them into a giant fist, and slammed them into Not-Caleb’s crotch.
“Gomu Gomu no Pistol!”
The high-pitched squeal that followed made even Kevin wince. The man collapsed to the ground while holding his nutsack. As Kevin walked up and got a good look at the man, he noticed that the kitsune’s eyes were rolled into the back of his head.
“Beloved!” Lilian leapt at h
im.
“You need to be careful, Lilian,” Kevin said as he hugged the vixen back. “Using someone else’s attack name could get us in trouble for copyright.”
“Whatever. It was just once.”
“You say that now, but… in any case, what happened here?”
“This jerk thought he could try to take advantage of me since my sister is in a coma,” Lilian said with a scowl. “I’m kinda surprised. I thought he’d try to go after Iris since she’s an easier target right now.”
Kevin wrinkled his nose. “I’m really beginning to lose respect for your family.”
“If it helps, most of us aren’t like him,” Caleb said, gesturing to the unconscious kitsune. “Many of us don’t like Lilian or Iris, but we won’t hurt them either.”
“I’m not sure that’s any better,” Kevin said. “Anyway, what should we do with him?”
“Why don’t you leave him to me, Kevin-sama, Lilian-sama?” Kotohime suggested.
“Um, we’ll leave him to you then,” Lilian agreed.
Kevin took one look at Kotohime and shivered. He didn’t want to know what she planned on doing to this guy. He really didn’t.
***
Many still considered Paris to be the capital of the fashion world. Karen Swift would not deny this. Having traveled the world over as a fashion journalist, she could say with all honesty that Paris did indeed have the latest in fashion trends.
Having just finished spending the past several hours at yet another fashion show with one of Vogue’s photographers, Karen walked the streets of Paris. Lights flashed all around her. Cars drove by on the road. Despite it being 10:37 p.m., there were still hundreds of people walking down the streets, enjoying a night on the town. Karen watched the people walk past her with envy. She’d not been able to go out like that since graduating from high school. Not since…
Best not think about that.
Karen hastened her pace. The Four Seasons Hotel George soon loomed before her, a large U-shaped building of at least seven stories. She entered the lobby and was greeted to a beautiful marble floor with unique designs. Several glass vases filled with colorful flowers sat arrayed around the room. Expensive artwork lined the walls and beautiful statues sat on pedestals.
She ignored the ostentatious decor in favor of hopping on the elevator and traveling up to her room. The elevator pinged and the door opened on the third floor. She stepped into a well-lit hallway. Beige carpet met her heels. Keen eyes surveyed the white walls with several paintings hanging from them in between each door. She reached her door and was about to slide her card through the keycard slot… when she paused.
Karen had an outstanding sixth sense. She could tell when something was wrong, even if there was no evidence to suggest that something was out of place. It was a skill that she had developed early on in life, about a year after high school, in fact.
Something was definitely wrong now.
Taking a slow breath, Karen reached into her purse and pulled out a small gun. It was a personal defense gun that she’d had custom-made for her several years back. Black and sleek, it had a slim design that allowed her to easily slip it into her purse without anyone being the wiser. It only had nine bullets, though, so she needed to make each shot count.
With her gun in her right hand and the card in her left, she unlocked the door and gripped the handle.
One. Two. Three.
She flung the door wide open and stepped swiftly inside, her gun already sweeping the room for potential hostiles. It didn’t take her long to find the anomaly in her room. He stood with his back turned to her, hands clasped behind his back. He wore a large black trench coat that went down to his knees. She saw his face in the window’s reflection and her blood ran cold.
“Ethan Paine.”
She quickly pointed the gun at him—only to be forced to leap back when something dropped from the ceiling. A dark cloak fluttered around the crouched figure. Gleaming black metal and a red visor glowed with malevolence as it penetrated her with a glare.
“At ease.” Ethan’s gruff voice made her ears prickle.
The figure straightened, mechanical joints whirring as it moved. It stood to its full, intimidating seven plus feet of height, towering over the much smaller Karen. It stared down at her, then moved to stand beside Ethan, a silent guard.
“I see you’ve finally created them.” Karen’s voice was cold. “You were always going on about creating a warrior capable of fighting against yōkai, though I never expected your perfect warrior to be a robot.”
“Humans are simply too fragile to stand up against the threat of yōkai incursion without aid.” Ethan still had not turned around. “These Yōkai Killers will be the first line of defense for humanity.”
“I see you’re still going on about how yōkai are threats against humanity.”
“Of course.” Ethan finally turned to face her. “My beliefs will never change. I am surprised to see that yours have. Was it not a yōkai who took your family from you? And yet now you are allowing an entire family of yōkai into your house, letting them get close to our son—”
“My son,” Karen snapped, shutting the man down before he could truly start. “You gave up any right you had to call him your son after what you did to him, after what you did to us. You are no father of his.”
“It’s just as well.” Ethan dismissed her words, causing Karen to grit her teeth. “Anybody who willingly cavorts with yōkai is no son of mine.”
“Why are you here?” Karen asked. “I know you, and I know that you know better than to show your face to me. You wouldn’t come here unless you had a damn good reason, so let’s hear it, and make it quick. My patience isn’t what it used to be.”
“Are you sure you want to threaten me?” Ethan growled out in a low voice. “My guard is quite zealous when it comes to my safety. It has a series of very powerful overrides installed that not even I can stop when activated. Threaten me any more than you already have and those overrides may activate.”
“Your guard is just a hunk of metal,” Karen determined. “Steel and circuits. Once you know how something like that works, it’s no longer a threat.”
“Don’t be so sure. You may be a whiz when it comes to technology, but our science department has made leaps and bounds since you left us. I doubt even you could discover a weakness within this killing machine.”
Karen stared at Ethan with a hard look. A trickle of sweat trailed down her brow, but she dared not wipe it away. She kept her gun pointed at Ethan, whose scarred visage remained impassive.
“However, I did not come here to fight with you today,” Ethan continued. “I have merely decided to give you this one chance to save yourself and your son. Times are changing. The world is changing. Yōkai activity is increasing by the day. It won’t be long now before the yōkai menace becomes a threat that the governments of the world will no longer be able to ignore. And when that time comes, all those who side with yōkai will be terminated.”
“And you’re giving me this warning in order to have me tell Kevin that he should stop seeing Lilian. Is that it?”
“By the time I finish telling you everything I know, you’re not going to want that kitsune or her family spending any more time with your son anyway.”
Karen’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that your son was nearly killed one week ago when a group of yōkai attacked the Pnév̱ma Clan and destroyed your apartment.”
“W-what?” Karen stared at the man, shock raging through her body. Only her knowledge of how dangerous Ethan was kept her from dropping her gun. “What are you talking about?”
In response to her words, Ethan took out a small disc from a pocket inside of his trench coat. “This disc contains the video of a battle that my subordinate recorded. Your son was involved in it and was nearly killed multiple times.” He set the disc on the table, which also had her laptop. “Watch this, and you will understand why peaceful coexistence between humans and yōkai
is nothing but a pipe dream.”
Ethan walked past her, his metallic guard following behind him, the whirring of its joints echoing loudly in her ears. She heard the door shut, and the sound of footsteps and whirring servomotors soon receded. Karen listened, not moving until she was sure that Ethan and his abominable contraption had left.
Slowly making her way over to the table, she picked up the disc and looked at it. She then sat down, turned on her laptop, typed in the password, and inserted the disc.
And then she saw it, her son’s battle against a yōkai, a kitsune with three tails using celestial techniques. She watched as he, Lilian, Christine, and another girl that she didn’t know, fought against the three-tails, which culminated in the girl she didn’t know getting stabbed through the chest, and her son and his companions retreating.
She brought a trembling hand to her face, her mind unwilling to believe what her eyes were telling her. This wasn’t a fake. Ethan knew better than to give her falsified video content. That meant this was real. That battle had been real.
As the video ended, Karen scrambled to pull her cell phone out of her pocket. She quickly hit the speed dial to call her son, then put the phone to her ear.
The wait felt like forever. With every ring in which the phone went unanswered, her mind became plagued with worry. Images of her son being killed in a similar manner to that girl filled her thoughts. She knew that she had never been a very good mom, that until his middle school year, she’d barely even tried acting like a mom, but she still loved Kevin dearly. The thought that he might be hurt, or worse, dead, caused an icy fist to clutch her heart in an iron grip.
The ringing stopped.
“H-hello?”
Karen almost sobbed in relief as her son’s sleepy voice filled her ear. She’d never believed something so mundane could be so cathartic.
“Are you sleeping in, Kevin?” She teased her son. “It’s already two in the afternoon. Shouldn’t you be up by now?”
“Two in the—oh, right. I guess it is.”
“Is everything all right over there?” she finally asked.
“Hm? Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
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