“Welcome home, Mistresses,” she said in a deep, stilted voice. “If you could… oh, it’s you. What do you want?”
Her disposition changed the moment her eyes landed on Lilian. For her part, Lilian felt a surge of annoyance. This was her first time visiting this café, and she’d been hoping that this particular kijo wouldn’t be there.
Why couldn’t she have stayed in California?
“Is that any way to speak to your mistress?” Lilian asked, stressing the word “mistress.” The kijo, who she knew as Hina, gritted her teeth.
“My apologies… Mistress. If you would come right this way, I’ll find you a place to sit.”
Grinning smugly, Lilian followed the kijo to a table. The kijo pulled out a seat for all three of them. Lilian was last. When she moved to sit down, however, all her butt met was air, and she crashed to the ground.
It was like an electric jolt traveling up her tailbone. A shiver passed from her tails all the way to her scalp, then it traversed down to her feet. When the pain was properly grounded, she looked up and glared at Hina, whose smug grin told her everything she needed to know. She grumbled under her breath as she stood up, grabbed the chair, and sat herself down on it.
“One of our waitresses will be right with you in a moment, Mistresses,” the kijo said before walking off.
“I really hate her,” Lilian muttered harshly under her breath.
Christine looked curious. “Why?”
“Because she’s an oni.”
“You hate her because she’s an oni? Isn’t that racist?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
A maid soon came and took their orders. Lilian asked for lemon tea for herself and hot chai for Lindsay, who had yet to arrive. Christine and Iris ordered hot chocolate and black tea respectively. Seconds after their orders were taken and the bakeneko maid wandered off, Lindsay walked in through the front door.
“Hey, you guys!”
Christine stiffened in her seat. Lilian gave her a compassionate look before beaming a smile at Lindsay and waving her down.
“Lindsay, over here!”
Walking over to them, Lindsay paused in front of the table. She looked at Christine, and her posture suddenly became stiffer than a board.
Lilian tried to break the ice. “Come on. Sit down.”
“Oh, uh, thank you,” Lindsay muttered as Lilian pulled out a chair. She sat down. Lilian moved back to her own seat.
“I ordered you a hot chai. Hope you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind. Hot chai is my favorite.”
“I know.”
Conversation petered off again and a stifling silence filled the air around them. Christine was looking guiltily at the table, while Lindsay wore a prominent frown. Iris wasn’t even paying attention, which she guessed was a good thing, as it meant she wouldn’t say something to ruin any chances these two had at reconciliation. Lilian bit her lip.
Should I try to keep the conversation going, or would it be better if Iris and I left so they could talk without us?
Lilian didn’t know. It wasn’t like this had ever been a problem before. She was used to everyone laughing and joking around, verbally sniping at each other and having a good time. This tension that filled the area, threatening to choke the life out of her, was annoying.
Abruptly standing up, Lilian placed her hands on the table and forced a smile. “I-I think I’m going to go to the bathroom. Iris, would you come with me?”
“Hm?” Iris eventually realized what she wanted and stood as well. “Yeah, sure.” She licked her lips. “Going to the bathroom means I get to be alone with you.”
“… We’re not having sex in the bathroom.”
“Tch. Way to spoil my dreams. In that case, I won’t go with—ow! Ow! Ow! Okay, okay! I’ll go with you! Just stop yanking on my ear!”
Lilian uncoiled her tail from around Iris’s ear. She grabbed her sister’s hand, then dragged her to the bathroom. She didn’t go into the bathroom, of course. That wasn’t why she’d come this way. Instead, she hid around the corner and peeked her head out, watching her two friends as they sat stock still, awkwardly looking away from each other.
“Come on,” Lilian muttered to herself. “Please… please just talk to each other.”
Christine didn’t think she’d ever been more uncomfortable in her life.
She was uncomfortable when she was with Kevin, but it was a completely different kind of discomfort. That kind made butterflies flutter in her chest and warmth travel to her cheeks. This made her insides squirm like a bunch of worms were wiggling around inside of her intestines.
I need to say something, but what should I say? Should I apologize? How would that even work? I can’t see something like, “I’m sorry you heard me talking with Jessica. It’s all true, but let’s still be friends,” working here.
“Nyo, it definitely won’t.”
Please don’t say anything right now.
It was a really screwed up predicament that she was in. Did anyone else have to deal with this crap? She didn’t think so.
Ugh! Come on, Christine! Just say something!
She took a deep breath.
“So…” she started.
“Listen I…” Lindsay began.
They stared at each other awkwardly.
“You go first,” they said at the same time.
… More silence.
“A-about what happened with Jessica…” Christine said.
“You don’t have to explain,” Lindsay interrupted. “I-I get it. You don’t like me. I understand.”
“Don’t interrupt someone when you don’t even know what they’re going to say,” Christine snapped. “I do like you, just not… like that. I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but I’m straight. I’m not into girls.”
“So things would be different if I had a dick?” Lindsay muttered bitterly.
“P-probably not,” Christine admitted.
“Why? Because I’m not Kevin?”
Christine blushed, but she forced herself not to overreact. This was important. Her friendship was on the line, so she couldn’t afford to let her embarrassment get the best of her.
“Yes… but it’s not in the way that I think you’re thinking, so let me explain before you say anything, okay?”
Lindsay crossed her arms, as if bracing for impact. Christine closed her eyes. This was the heart of the issue right here. She needed to be honest.
“Yuki-onna are an odd species. There are two things about us that have always held true. The first is that yuki-onna are only ever women. You’ll never find a male yuki-onna. Ever. The second is that we need humans to produce children. It’s normally impossible to produce a child with a yokai. I say normally because I’m proof that yuki-onna can have children with other yokai. I’ve also heard of some other children besides myself occasionally being born between yuki-onna and another yokai, but not only are they rare, they are always and without exception exiled.”
“Were you exiled?” asked Lindsay suddenly.
“I guess.” Christine shrugged. “I grew up in an orphanage, so I’m pretty sure I was abandoned.”
Lindsay said nothing, perhaps because she had nothing to say and knew that an apology would only piss her off.
Christine stared at her drink. The next part that she was going to talk about was something that no one else knew—not even Lilian, Kevin, or Iris.
“Because we are a clan of all women, we cannot mate with our own species. We need human men, as I have said. Of course, this means that all yuki-onna are born straight. There is no such thing as a lesbian yuki-onna. Furthermore, yuki-onna birth rates are extraordinarily low. Only certain human males have the ability to successfully produce offspring with us. I don’t know exactly what makes one man more capable of reproducing than another. All I know is what Orin told me.”
Christine paused. She wasn’t used to speaking for so long, and she was out of breath. This was also an embarrassing topic.
Really, the
things I do for my friends…
“When yuki-onna come of age, they are sent into the world to find and bring home a man. It’s sort of like a coming of age ceremony, I guess. Each yuki-onna has a different idea on what makes the ideal man. However, there is one thing that never changes between us. Our bodies tell us when someone is fit… t-to reproduce with us…”
Christine flushed heavily as she continued talking. She could feel her face turning both hot and cold as both sides of her became embarrassed. Lindsay looked bemused.
“I… I don’t think I understand…”
“I-it’s hard to explain. It’s like… like a soul mate… kinda… I mean, they’re not really our soul mate, but they’re kinda like our soul mate because we can have a kid with them. And so your body starts to get all hot and t-t-t-tingly… it’s like… and ha… I mean…”
“Christine… there’s steam coming out of your head.”
“Look, j-just shut up!” Christine was feeling dizzy. Her entire body felt like a furnace that had been stuck on top of Mount Everest. “I-I’m aware of what’s happening to my own body! I-I-I—”
“Woah, woah! Easy, I get it.” Lindsay raised her hands in a placating gesture. “I understand, so you can just relax now.”
Christine did relax. She slumped face-first onto the table. Her body shuddered from exhaustion. Who knew telling someone all that could be so embarrassing?!
“So… Kevin,” Lindsay started, “he’s kind of like… seriously the only one for you, huh? If you want to have kids, I mean.”
Christine flushed. “I-it’s a bit more complicated than that. Basically, t-the body, heart, and mind of a yuki-onna are one. I-if the body doesn’t accept someone, then the heart and mind won’t either… something like that.”
Lindsay frowned into her drink, brows furrowing as she thought this through. Finally…
“So… Kevin… he’s the only one for you then?”
Sitting up and covering her face with her hands, Christine said, “There might be other people out there who give me the same reaction, but Orin once told me that the chances of me ever finding someone who my yuki-onna and bakeneko sides will both accept is about one in seven billion.”
There were seven billion people on earth. While that made it sound like Orin was saying there might be one person out there, that was actually inaccurate. About a billion or so of those people were yokai.
“I see…” Lindsay blew out a deep breath. “Those are long odds. You know that Kevin is with Lilian, right?”
“He’s also sleeping with Iris.”
Christine still didn’t know what she was going to do about Kevin. She wasn’t lying when she said he was likely the only person she would ever love. While she didn’t want to use the term soul mate, it was true that Kevin had already been imprinted on her body, heart, and soul. Even if someone else who was compatible with her miraculously appeared, she didn’t think she would be able to accept them.
“That is true… and with how much he’s changed, you might very well be able to join his… harem.” Lindsay wrinkled her nose. “I can’t believe I actually said that.”
“I can’t either,” Christine admitted wryly—before the situation hit her and she suddenly became self-conscious again. “So, um, are we friends again?”
Lindsay’s reassuring smile made her feel a lot better. “We never stopped being friends. Just because we fight occasionally doesn’t mean we’re not friends anymore.”
Unbidden, Christine felt her entire body relax. “Thank you. I’m glad for that… and I’m sorry for, you know, what happened and stuff.”
“There’s no need for that. In fact, I want to apologize. I shouldn’t have run away after hearing you talk to Jessica.”
“Speaking of Jessica, you know that she likes you, right?”
“Well, of course. She’s my friend.”
Christine felt a vein throb on her forehead. “No, you idiot! I don’t mean like that. She likes you the way that you said you like me.”
Lindsay paused. Her eyes were wide. “Wait. Really?”
“You mean you didn’t know? What kind of idiot are you?”
“But she never gave any signs that she liked me!”
“Maybe you just didn’t see them.” Christine shrugged. “She told me that she likes you. The whole reason she asked me about my feelings for you is because she was jealous.”
“Oh…” Lindsay pressed a hand to her face. “I really am an idiot, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, you are, but considering who I… l-love, I think we’re all a bunch of idiots.”
“Heh, you actually admitted that you love Kevin,” Lindsay teased with a grin.
“I-it’s not like I haven’t confessed to him already. Shut up,” Christine muttered. She tried to hide her blush by drinking her hot chocolate. It didn’t work.
Lilian frowned as she leaned closer to the wall. Even with her ears reinforced, she couldn’t hear what Christine and Lindsay were talking about.
Maybe I should get a little—
Thoughts fled her mind as she felt a hand slip underneath her shirt to fondle her breasts.
“Kya—mmph!”
Lilian’s squeal was muffled by a pair of delicate fingers intruding into her mouth. She felt one of them caressing her tongue. She recognized the fingers, and the body that was now pressed against her back.
“Shh,” Iris whispered before nibbling on her ear. “You don’t want anyone to hear us, do you?”
“Hmph! Mmph!”
“Now, now. Just relax and let your dear, sweet onee-chan please you.”
“Mm muggrlle mph!”
Lilian squirmed against her sister’s skilled hands. When she had said that she would spend time with Iris, she hadn’t meant in public like this. She tried to reinforce herself, but Iris put a stop to that by caressing her tails, which turned her body into putty.
“Ah, ah, ah. I can’t have you escaping. For the rest of our time here, you. Are. Mine.”
Putting up a feeble defense, Lilian knew that she was moments away from giving in. Her sister was too skilled with her hands, and she knew her far too well.
“What are you two doing?” a voice behind them asked.
Iris must have been as shocked as her. They both let out a loud squeal of surprise and tumbled to the floor, where everyone could see them. Several people began snapping pictures, and Lilian realized that her shirt had ridden up her chest, exposing the underside of her breasts. Flushing a bright shade of red, she yanked her shirt back down and tossed Iris her fiercest glare.
“Iris…”
For once, Iris looked nervous. “W-what is it?”
“You’re sleeping on the couch from now until Kevin returns.
Her eyes growing to the size of milk saucers, Iris let loose with a horrendous scream as if undergoing the most excruciating physical torture imaginable. “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
A little ways off, still sitting at the table, Christine looked at Lindsay. “Let’s pretend we don’t know those two, okay?”
Taking one look at the pair who were still on the floor, Lindsay turned back to Christine and nodded.
“Agreed,” she said.
They shook on it.
Their mission started at midnight.
Kevin sat in the back of their military transport as Heather drove up to the base they would be infiltrating. Peering out the window, he saw a large wall surrounding a massive building and numerous watch towers. The towers appeared to have gun turrets on them. He took a shaky breath and wiped his sweaty palms on his body suit.
“You nervous?” Kiara asked with the calm of an experienced warrior.
He glanced at her. “Is it that obvious?”
“Yes. You look close to hyperventilating.”
“I don’t think I’m that bad.”
“You’re not,” Kotohime reassured him. “Kiara-san is merely teasing you.”
“Hmph! Way to spoil my fun, Kotohime.”
“I try.”
�
�Nya, don’t worry, Master. I’ll protect you, nya.”
“For some reason, I don’t feel very reassured when I hear you say that.”
“Nya?”
“Don’t worry, goshujin-sama,” Phoebe suddenly said. “I will make sure that your baby maker is still in working order after this.”
“Who the heck is goshujin-sama?!”
“We’re pulling up,” Heather announced. “The mission’s about to start. Time to look alive, you guys.”
It was almost amazing how quickly everyone went from joking to serious. The sudden shift in atmosphere almost made Kevin lose his composure.
I guess this is what it means to be an elite.
Heather pulled up to a large gate. Kevin and the others were forced to hide as several soldiers moved alongside the car, inspecting it. One of the soldiers held a tablet in his hand. This one walked up to the window that Heather had rolled down.
“I’ll need to see your ID,” he instructed.
Heather said nothing as she handed the falsified ID over. Mack had supposedly hacked into the Sons and Daughters of Humanity’s security system and created a false persona for Heather. Kevin waited on baited breath.
“Hmm,” the guard murmured. “It looks like everything checks out. However, due to an incident several days ago, we’re going to have to inspect your vehicle.”
Kevin froze. This had not been part of the plan.
“Sure,” Heather agreed without hesitation. “Go ahead and take a look.”
“Thank you.”
While Kevin remained frozen in place, Kiara and Kotohime moved to the backdoor, Phoebe readied her tonfas, and Cassy flexed her fingers. The doors opened. Everyone besides him exploded into action. Blood sprayed from the throat of a soldier when Kotohime slid her blade across his neck. The other one was sent flying, his face caving in, when Kiara punched him. Phoebe than darted out and took down two more soldiers with her tonfas in quick succession. The last soldier, the one up front, tried to bring his rifle to bear, but Heather shot him in the head with a silenced pistol. The fight was over in the blink of an eye.
The others moved quickly, grabbing the bodies and hiding them inside of the guard station. Kevin sat with his back pressed against the vehicle wall, his hands shaking.
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