A Fox's Mission

by Brandon Varnell

  Lilian didn’t flinch, but she did feel a little guilty. She also felt really bad for Lindsay, who’d been lovesick for Christine for a while now. Of course, she’d already known that her yuki-onna friend was straight and nothing would ever happen between her and Lindsay, but she still felt bad.

  Maybe I should test the waters a bit.

  “What about Lindsay?” Lilian tried to sound casual.

  Christine frowned at her like she’d said something completely irrelevant. “What about her?”

  “Didn’t you and her kiss?”

  “Wh-w-w-where did you hear that?!” Christine’s shrill cry echoed.

  “Where do you think?” asked a now-thawed Iris. Unlike Lilian and Christine, the raven-haired vixen stood underneath a miniature waterfall, luxuriating in the feel of hot water caressing her body from above. “Lindsay told us all about your passionate make out session at the airport.”

  Poof! Christine’s face exploded with color. The water also began to grow warmer.

  “I-I-I-I—that’s not—we didn’t—”

  “There’s no use denying it.” Iris grinned like a cat that had a rat trapped between its paws. She walked out from underneath the waterfall and walked toward Christine. “We heard all about it. Every. Single. Dirty. Detail.” By the time Iris had finished speaking, drawing out each syllable with sensual overtones that would’ve put any man in a coma, she and Christine were nose to nose.

  Dark crimson eyes stared into frightened blues. Christine’s face looked ready to explode. For some reason, while the water was continuously increasing in temperature, the air seemed to have become ice cold. Lilian shivered as she ducked into the water.

  “What’s wrong?” Iris asked Christine, whose eyes seemed to swirl around inside of her head. “There’s no reason to be embarrassed. I don’t mind if you swing that way. I’m rather partial to women myself—well, I’m partial to Lily, but it amounts to more or less the same thing.” Lowering her voice into an erotic whisper, Iris continued prodding the yuki-onna. “Come on, just admit it, you like Lindsay. You want to have passionate, raunchy lesbian sex with her. You—”

  Was about as far as she got before Christine exploded into violence.

  Tsundere protocols activated.

  “DIE!”

  “Woah!”

  Fire erupted from Christine’s left hand as she swung it at Iris, who leapt backwards, out of the water, to avoid getting hit.

  “What the heck? Fire?”

  Christine stood within the water, fire covering her left hand and ice her right. With little ceremony, she tossed several icicles and fireballs at Iris, who was forced to leap off the boulder, which exploded.

  “Is it just me, or have you gotten even more violent?” Iris asked.

  Her answer was a fireball to the face. She ducked, going beneath the water’s surface.

  “DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!”

  Lilian ignored the pair as Christine chased Iris around the hot spring. It looked like they were having fun, so she didn’t want to interfere.

  The sound of a door sliding open drew Lilian’s attention away from the comedy routine. It had come from the other side of the fence.

  Kevin?

  Grinning, Lilian decided to pay Kevin a visit.

  She was sure he would appreciate it.

  Kevin wasn’t the first person to enter the male side of the hot springs.

  He stared at the old man standing several yards away. Orin stood by the wall, pressing his hands against it and leaning over, his eyes attempting to drill a hole through it. Kevin had known Eric long enough to know what this man was trying to do.

  “If you’re trying to peek on my mate and her sister, I am going to hurt you,” Kevin said as he stepped into the hot spring. The steamy water relaxed his muscles as he sank into it, causing him to groan in relief.

  “Heh, is that so?” Orin muttered as he continued patting the wall. “I’d like to see that. A human trying to hurt me. How amusing.”

  Kevin nearly gnashed his teeth at how easily this man dismissed him. He didn’t react outwardly, however. Both he and Orin knew that his threat had been nothing but him blowing smoke. Orin was a member of the Four Saints, one of the four most powerful yōkai in the United States. The idea of a single human defeating him, or even hurting him, was laughable.

  “Tch!” Orin clucked his tongue. “It looks like someone decided to reinforce this with youki-infused earth—and they set a trap to let them know when someone tries to break through using youki.”

  “Sounds like some of the girls here are on to you,” Kevin chuckled.

  “This is only a minor setback,” Orin said, though mostly to himself. “Such minor setbacks will not be enough to stop a man of my power and tenacity.”

  As Orin stood there, hands on his hips, looking off into the distance with eyes composed of steel, Kevin sighed.

  Great, it’s a bigger, pervier version of Eric. This is just what I need.

  The man turned around again, and that’s when Kevin saw it. His tail. It uncoiled from around the man’s waist, making him realize that what he’d initially thought was an accessory was actually an animal appendage. Long and flexible, Kevin recognized it as a monkey tail.

  Saru. In Japanese, the word meant “monkey,” and it signified what Orin was—a monkey yōkai. Little was known about monkey yōkai, as they were exceptionally uncommon. The most well-known monkey yōkai was, in fact, Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey King from the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West . If one were to go purely by what was known about Sun Wukong, then saru may very well be some of the most versatile and powerful yōkai in the world.

  According to legend, Sun Wukong possessed an immense amount of strength; he was able to lift his 17,550 lb staff with ease. He was also extremely fast, capable of traveling 34,000 miles in one somersault. Sun knew seventy-two transformations, which allowed him to transform into various animals and objects. Sun Wukong was also said to be a skilled fighter, able to hold his own against the best warriors of heaven. Each of his hairs possessed magical properties, capable of being transformed into clones of the Monkey King himself, and/or into various weapons, animals, and other objects. He also knew spells to control wind and water, conjure protective circles against demons, and freeze humans, demons, and gods alike. In all regards, Sun Wukong was a god amongst yōkai.

  He was also the inspiration for a popular shōnen manga.

  Orin grinned as he hopped onto the wall… and stuck there. Kevin blinked, unsure as to whether he was seeing things or not. Orin, defying gravity itself, stood on the wall and walked up until he reached the edge. After which he grabbed onto the ledge, then lifted himself up to peek over the side.

  “All right, pretty ladies. It’s time to… eh?”

  Two sets of eyes stared at each other: Brilliant emerald and squinty black. Lilian and Orin gazed at each other in surprise for what felt like hours.

  Then Orin looked down.

  “Hm, they’re still too big, but you have very nice nipples.”

  Faced with this unprecedented situation, Lilian did the only thing she could think of.

  “YOU PERVERT!”

  She smacked him with a reinforced tail. Hard.

  The room was small. Possessing little in the way of decoration, Kevin would even go so far as to call it barren. The floor was made, not of wood or carpet, but of grass. And while the walls were composed of wood, that was only because this room had been built within a tree. Nothing else existed in this place, except for a few cushions, upon which he and the others sat.

  Orin sat before them on several large cushions—the most extravagant objects in this room. They were arranged in such a way that Orin could lounge on them like an indulgent old man, or maybe even an arrogant emperor. Perhaps he would have looked similar to one of those two people types, but the gigantic bruise over his right eye, which had swelled to the point where his eye was no longer visible, ruined that particular effect.

  “So,” Orin started,
blowing puffs of smoke from his mouth, an ornately carved pipe held in his left hand, “Kuroneko spent a great deal of effort in locating me. She wouldn’t have done so unless she had an excellent reason. That woman is not one to waste time.” He shifted to get more comfortable. After drawing from his pipe, smoke blowing out of his nose, he continued. “I am guessing the reason she sent you all this way is because she has a request that she would like to make of me, yes?”

  “Actually, the one who made the original request was Daven Monstrang, not Kuroneko.”

  “Ah.”

  Even though Orin looked relaxed, Kevin sensed a certain tension wafting from the monkey yōkai, like he’d overworked his muscles and forgotten to stretch.

  “So… the old drake wants something from me, does he?” No longer the perverted old man, Orin’s smile turned mirthless. “If it is coming from Daven Monstrang, I can only guess that he wants to gather the Four Saints together and have us join forces once more.”

  Kevin and Lilian shifted in their seats. A glance out of his peripheral revealed that Iris wasn’t uncomfortable like them, but he hadn’t expected her to be. Iris didn’t care about what was happening. She was here because Lilian and he were here. Christine was impassive, though her shoulders sagged a little.

  Shaking his head, Kevin focused back on Orin. “That’s right. Monstrang is of the opinion that, in order to present a stronger front in this war, one that can stand up to the US Army and the Yamata Alliance, the Four Saints must come together again.”

  “Of course he is.” Orin’s chuckle was condescending. “And I’m guessing he wants to pretend he’s our leader again. No doubt, he would like nothing more than to order us around and get on our case when we don’t follow his ideals.”

  Kevin tensed. “I’m sure that’s not—”

  “What’s more,” Orin raised his voice which, despite his old appearance, boomed with power and authority, “he not only doesn’t have the guts to come here himself, but he sent younglings to do it for him. Two young kitsune and a human boy. Does the man have no respect? Has he forgotten that it was I, Orin, heir to he who controls the west, that originally founded the Four Saints? The arrogance!”

  Orin slammed a hand onto the ground. Abrasions appeared underneath his palm as the earth was split.

  “This monkey shall never bow before that foolish young drake.” Orin smiled, but it wasn’t one of mirth, and instead possessed nothing but outrage. “Be sure to tell him that when you leave tomorrow morning.”

  “I’m really sorry about that old perv,” Christine said as Kevin and Lilian set out their sleeping mat.

  They’d been granted a place to stay the night. It wasn’t much, just a tiny tree hut with a single room like the one Orin spoke with them in. There was even less in this room than in that monkey’s room. It had been provided to them as a courtesy, but they didn’t have any furniture. The only reason he, Lilian, and Iris even had a sleeping mat was because they’d come prepared.

  Extra Dimensional Storage Spaces really were awesome.

  “It’s fine,” Lilian said as Kevin knelt down and straightened the mat out. “You’re not responsible for what happened.”

  While Kevin and Lilian set up the mat, Iris lounged on her side, looking for all the world like an empress waiting for her manservants to tend to her. Christine stood beside him and Lilian, watching as they worked, her tiny fists clenched.

  “I-I know that,” Christine said, looking away with blue cheeks and a scowl. “B-but still…”

  “Lilian is right,” Iris interrupted. “That old fart is the one at fault. You have nothing to apologize for, so don’t. It’s not really in your character concept to apologize anyway.”

  Christine frowned at the girl’s comment, but she clearly remembered enough of Iris’s—and Lilian’s—odd personality traits to shrug it off.

  “Whatever. I’m not apologizing because I feel responsible. I just felt like someone should since that old pervert won’t.”

  “Thank you, Christine.” Kevin sent the girl a gentle smile. “I appreciate the sentiment, though I do agree with Lilian and Iris. This isn’t something for you to apologize over.”

  Christine looked down at her feet, covered by black slippers. She drew several circles in the grass, her cheeks, already quite colored, gaining more depth.

  “O-okay,” she whispered. “I-if you say so… then I guess I have no choice.”

  Kevin finished spreading out the mat, then Lilian laid the blanket on top of it—a large fleece blanket that was oh so soft. He and Lilian had spent many hours under this very blanket, playing video games, watching anime, or reading manga on their new tablet. Iris joined them occasionally, too, but that was only when she wanted to seduce them or cuddle.

  “There, all done,” Kevin said.

  “Great!” Iris cheered, darting underneath the covers before anyone else. She roamed around inside before sticking her head out. One of her tails also popped out and beckoned Kevin and Lilian. “Come on, you two. Warm me up, would you?”

  “In a minute,” Lilian said. “I wanted to show Christine my manga panels first.”

  “Manga panels?” Christine blinked.

  “Ufufufu, that’s right.” Lilian puffed up her chest. “I’m making a manga. I wouldn’t show you before, but I’m more confident as an artist now. I’ve evolved. Come on, I’ll show you.”

  As Lilian dragged Christine off to a corner of the room, Iris pouted. Huffing to herself, the raven-haired vixen turned her attention to Kevin, giving him a coy look.

  “How about you, Stud? Won’t you come into my bed and warm me up?”

  “You mean my bed,” Kevin sighed. “I’m the one who bought it.”

  “Semantics.” Iris waved his words off with an indulgent wave of her hand. “We’re family. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is also mine.”

  “That doesn’t even make any sense!”

  “Sure it does. You just have to look at things from my perspective.”

  “So, you’re saying I should put myself into the shoes of a narcissistic young woman? I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “Cute. Your comebacks have gotten much better.” Iris held open the blanket and patted the spot beside her. “Now, come here. Lilian’s gonna be talking Tsun-tsun’s ear off for a while, and I don’t want to sleep alone.”

  It was true. Once Lilian got into her manga, which she’d become confident enough to show people now, it would be hours before she stopped showing off. Not that she didn’t have a reason to show off. Her manga illustrations were quite good. But, whenever she got like this, not even Kevin could bring her back.

  Since Kevin was also tired, he slowly crawled underneath the covers with Iris. She grinned at him and, after he laid his head down on the large pillow they’d brought, Iris curled up against him and was soon asleep. Wrapping an arm around the girl, allowing her warm body to lull him, Kevin closed his eyes and listened to his mate talk Christine’s ear off until sleep took him as well.

  Lilian wouldn’t even realize that he and Iris had gone to sleep without her for another hour.

  Chapter 2

  Becoming a Magical Girl

  School that Friday was absolutely dreadful. Lindsay would have wondered why school had become so boring, but she already knew the answer. Today was the day she would start to seriously train with Lilian to become a magical girl.

  Lindsay was surprised by how much she was looking forward to this. Magical girl training. It sounded so stupid. Yet she couldn’t help but be excited. Now. Finally. She would become more than just a burden that needed saving. She would become someone that her friends, that Christine and Lilian and Kevin and Iris could rely on.

  Unfortunately, first she had to get through school.

  “Like, don’t you think it’s weird how those three are always going off on missions and stuff?” Amber asked as she buffed her nails. It was lunchtime, and her friends were talking about their favorite subject: Kevin, Lilian, and Iris.

&nbs
p; “I know, right?” Monica said. “You’d think a couple of high school students wouldn’t be used for important missions and stuff, right? But those three are always getting sent to who knows where. It’s enough to make you wonder about the bigwigs who run this place. I mean, I’m grateful to them for giving us this safe haven, but is it really okay for them to send kids our age on life-endangering missions?”

  Lindsay couldn’t recall when, exactly, her three friends had become such a hot topic, but it had been going on for a while. Kevin, Lilian, and Iris, whether they knew it or not, were popular subjects amongst the student body. She couldn’t go a day without hearing someone talk about them at least once.

  “Well, they are really strong,” Jessica said, her rabbit ears twitching. “I mean, they took on that oni when our school was being held hostage and everything. And they also saved everyone at the old base when it was attacked. Lindsay and I would have been dead if not for them.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Amber said.

  “Still, though, should high schoolers really be involved in this war?” Monica asked. “It doesn’t seem right to send a couple of kids on dangerous missions. Don’t you guys think that’s kind of irresponsible of the people running this place?”

  “Like, I guess,” Amber said before turning to Lindsay. “What do you think?”

  “Huh?” Lindsay blinked.

  “Spacing out again?” Monica teased. “Seriously, Lindsay, you really need to stop doing that.”

  Lindsay grinned sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck. “Um, sorry. What were you talking about again?”

  Monica sighed. “Nothing important.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  “So, anyway, have you checked out the latest fashion? It seems military uniforms are in,” Amber switched topics.

  “What? No way!”

  “Way!”

  Lindsay sighed and tuned her friends out. She didn’t care for fashion very much, or at all. How her friends could enjoy something so inane was beyond her.