A Fox's War

by Brandon Varnell

  “Me too.” Iris winked. “You can’t leave me out of any fun you might have.”

  Christine scowled and blushed. “D-don’t think I’m going with you because I want to. If I wasn’t with you, then you three would probably forget your original purpose and do something shameless with each other.”

  “You’re always welcome to join us when we’re shameless.” Iris smiled suggestively.

  “Shut up, Skank!”

  “Let’s hurry up. The longer we wait here, the bigger the chances are that Mack or Kiara will notice what we’re doing,” Kevin said.

  The hospital was in the opposite direction of their apartment. It also took more time to get there, around fifteen minutes total.

  It was nighttime, and although there was no sun due to this place being underground, there were artificial lights, which had currently been turned off. Only a few street lamps were available to guide them.

  Like most hospitals, this one was fairly standard, if a little small. It was shaped like an L. The walls were gray, and there were numerous windows. Perhaps it was because the place was so dark, but Kevin felt an odd sense of foreboding coming from it, or maybe that was merely his imagination.

  “Is this place giving anyone else the creeps?” asked Iris.

  “It does seem kind of eerie, doesn’t it?” Lilian said.

  “I-I’m not scared,” Christine said.

  “Say that when your legs stop shaking, Tsun-tsun.”

  “Bitch!”

  The hospital was dark as they entered and looked around. The waiting room was empty, which Kevin had expected. What he hadn’t expected was for no one to even be there. Given how much chaos was happening outside, he’d fully expected there to be guards, nurses, and doctors rushing to get the patients to a shelter. Why did it seem like there was no one here?

  Has this place already been evacuated?

  “Which number is Slowpoke in?” asked Iris.

  “One fifty-four,” Kevin said. “Just follow me.”

  They went off down one of the corridors, their footsteps echoing ominously loud. Kevin felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The only sound, aside from their footsteps, was that of their breathing, further adding to the eeriness of the moment.

  “Okay,” Christine admitted as they turned a corner, “I’ll admit that this is freaky.”

  Iris grabbed Christine’s hand. “Just stick by me, Frosty. I’ll protect you.”

  “You’re the one who needs protecting,” Christine rebutted, gripping Iris’s hand in return.

  “Beloved…”

  Kevin grabbed Lilian’s hand as they reached another corner. He stopped. Peering around the corner, he saw a mostly empty hallway. It was mostly empty because the two guards who’d been posted at Justin’s door to keep him from leaving were lying on the ground in puddles of blood.

  Kevin rushed down the hallway. The closer he got to the guards, the worse the scene became. They were clearly dead. Their throats had been slashed open. From the shocked looks plastered on their faces, which remained even in death, they hadn’t even been given enough time to change into their yokai forms.

  “W-what is this?” Christine asked.

  “Beloved…”

  “I know.”

  Did Justin do this?

  Kevin burst into Justin’s room and, as expected, he did not see Justin anywhere. The bed was empty, though the sheets looked to have been ruffled, as if someone had spent the night tossing and turning. Moving over to the bed, Kevin saw that there were several stains on the sheets. Frowning, he moved to the other side. There was more blood on the floor, which created a trail to the window—the open window.

  “It looks like he fled,” Iris said.

  “But did he flee because he was trying to escape or was he fleeing because he was running from someone else?” Lilian asked. “If he just wanted to escape out the window, then there would have been no point in killing the guards.”

  “Which means he was fleeing from someone,” Kevin said.

  “Do you think it’s an assassin?” asked Christine.

  Kevin turned to the others. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

  “Pinky isn’t going to like that,” Iris pointed out.

  “Yeah, well, what Mack doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

  As the group leapt out of the window, Kevin wondered how much trouble they would get into for going off on their own in the middle of an emergency. Then he decided that he didn’t care. He had a friend to save.

  Justin was running.

  His breathing was heavy as his bare feet padded along the ground. He wore nothing but a smock, which was covered in his sweat. A sharp agony traveled up his side, phantom pain left over from his torture at Commander Paine’s hands.

  He didn’t know where he was. Tall buildings stood on either side of him, a network of interconnecting, maze-like structures that he guessed were business offices of some kind.

  Something whizzed past his head, a sharp pain searing his cheek. Warm blood ran down the new wound. His body was already littered with such wounds. The person chasing after him was damnably good with those throwing knives.

  Turning a corner, wincing as something jabbed him in the foot to draw even more blood, Justin tried to put on more speed. He didn’t know if he could outrun whoever was hounding him. However, it didn’t matter. He couldn’t allow himself to be finished off here. If he could just find someone, then maybe he could—

  “Dead end,” Justin muttered to himself as he slowed to a stop.

  There was a large wall in front of him. It loomed over him like a sign that this was the end. His lips twisted into a mirthless smile. He was injured, alone, tired, and without a weapon. Meanwhile, the person following him seemed to have an infinite number of knives which they could throw at him. It was hardly a fair fight, but then, assassins never did fight fairly.

  Turning around, calming himself by taking several steady breaths, Justin confronted his would-be killer with the calm of a man who knew that the odds were stacked against him. The person came into view. His breath caught in his throat before, without humor, he chuckled.

  “I never imagined that you would be the one the commander sent to end me… Athena.”

  Walking toward him with the unerringly confident gait of a trained killer was none other than Athena, the blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl.

  Eight

  The Battle for Neo Seiryuu

  The situation had taken a turn for the worst.

  It all started after Kotohime had arrived at the seal to discover that the people guarding it were dead. The problem was further compounded when she discovered that, indeed, the seal had been broken. Not only was it broken, but she didn’t know how to fix it. That wasn’t the only issue, however. By far, the largest problem was how, immediately after confirming that the seal had been broken, yokai that were clearly under the Yamata Alliance’s banner came pouring in.

  Feeling her feet pound against the concrete surface, Kotohime leapt backwards as the air in front of her was split. The kamaitachi who was responsible soon tasted her blade when, upon charging youki to the bottom of her feet, she launched herself forward at a speed that broke the sound barrier.

  “Ikken Hissatsu. Hikisakimasu.”

  As blood sprayed from the kamaitachi whose two halves fell away from each other, Kotohime leapt into the air, avoiding a pair of scissor-like hands from a kamikiri that had tried to impale her from behind. Water swirled around her blade. It coalesced into a constantly flowing stream that covered the edge, which Kotohime used in her next technique.

  “Water Art: Water Blade.”

  The water on her blade shot forward in a crescent. It struck her enemy, splitting the kamikiri’s chest open like an overripe fruit. Gurgling, the yokai fell over and died.

  Kotohime landed on the ground. Seeing the other yokai come streaming in, she shifted her stance, widening it as she resheathed her katana. She breathed in deeply, held it for one second,
and then expelled it.

  “Ikken Hissatsu. Gekido, Tsukiyomi-no-Mikoto!”

  She spun in a circle, her blade moving so quickly it wasn’t even visible as a glimmer. Then she stopped on a dime after completing a full rotation. The tip of her blade, which pointed at the ground as if she were set to impale the asphalt, didn’t so much as quiver. One second passed. Then two seconds. Then the world exploded around her in all directions.

  Kotohime’s hair whipped about her as it was caught within a fierce gale. All of the yokai who’d been near her were thrown back, their bodies ripped to shreds as a ripple passed through the air, expanding like a shockwave. The ground was torn apart. The earth was upheaved. Chunks of asphalt and gravel sailed everywhere as something akin to a tornado spread across the ground and quickly expanded. Glass shattered as the ripple struck the buildings before, like toppling Jenga blocks, the structures made of concrete and brick collapsed.

  As the earth settled, a heavy silence fell over the now destroyed section of Phoenix. Kotohime stood in the center of a massive crater of her own creation, a pillar that jutted from the ground around her like an elevated platform, the edges of which were perfectly smooth.

  Clap. Clap. Clap.

  Mocking applause filled the air.

  “Bravo,” a female voice said. “What a brilliant display of swordsmanship. I can see why you’ve been hailed as one of the deadliest swordswomen to ever exist.”

  A woman stood several yards away, at the very edge of the crater. Blue skin glimmered within the moonless night. Her skin stood in stark contrast to her crimson eyes. Horns jutting from within her voluminous hair identified her as a kijo, though her skin tone was most unusual for one of her species. She clapped once more with her clawed hands.

  “Who are you, josei-san?”

  The woman smiled as she raised a hand to her chest. Kotohime could see fangs glinting behind peeled back lips that reminded her of a vampire.

  “I am Alice Visam,” the woman announced, “and I have come here to kill you.”

  Kiara grabbed Phoebe and the others and forced them to get ready and head out with her. Fortunately, the alarms had woken them long before she’d arrived, and they’d already been able to glean that trouble was afoot. Kiara only needed to explain that someone had destroyed the barrier to spur them all into action.

  “Do we know who broke the barrier?” Phoebe asked as they made for the entrance.

  Kiara shook her head. “No. About the only thing we’re aware of is that someone has destroyed the barrier and will likely be attacking soon. We haven’t been able to contact Kotohime either, which means she’s either busy fending them off, or she’s been defeated.”

  She didn’t like to think that her rival could be so easily beaten, but if the enemy forces had outnumbered her, then it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Kiara was pragmatic enough to realize this.

  “I cannot see Kotohime being taken down so easily,” Phoebe said confidently as Polydora strode on her left.

  Kiara grinned. “Neither can I.”

  A loud explosion ripped through the hallway just then. The very air itself seemed to detonate. Kiara winced as hot air stung her face, whipping her hair about like it was caught in a fierce gale.

  She and the others rushed to the entrance, only to discover a scene of devastation. The garage, which served as the only way in or out of Neo Seiryuu after the completion of Davin’s Tower, had been completely annihilated. The ceiling had caved in. Everything was buried under piles of rocks and gravel. Standing on top of that gravel, looking down on them as they entered, was an onikuma whose black fur denoted his origins. As the yokai unleashed a furious roar, the myriad of creatures standing by his side sounded out their own battle cries and descended upon Kiara and her group like a pack of ravenous hyenas.

  Project ATHENA was the name given to the conception of children who were predisposed towards assassination. They were more intelligent than regular humans, had a higher capacity for learning, were more dexterous, and possessed special traits that made them perfect for assassinations. What’s more, children created from this project were essentially unthinking, unfeeling killing machines.

  As far as Justin was aware, the girl standing before him was the only successful child to have been conceived from Project ATHENA. The rest had died while still being incubated.

  “I can’t believe the commander let you out of your test tube,” Justin said. Athena continued to silently stalk forward. “What? Not gonna say anything?”

  “There is no need to answer your questions,” Athena informed him. “Once I have learned about where you stored that information you stole from Commander Paine, I am going to terminate you.”

  Justin grinned. “Now that’s a problem. See, I’m not very interested in dying just now—not until I’ve at least atoned for betraying my friends.”

  Athena stopped walking. She tilted her head. “I do not understand the logic in that statement. Atonement to one’s friends is only for people who have friends. You are just like me, an experiment born in a vat, created to serve Commander Paine. You have no friends.”

  “Maybe I was like you once,” Justin admitted. “But I’m not like you anymore. I’ve decided that from here on out, I’m going to make my own choices.”

  That’s what I should have been doing from the start… right, Kevin?

  Athena’s frown was miniscule but present. She must have been confused, which he didn’t blame her for. She’d never seen the real world before now. In fact, he was positive that she’d only been let out of her test tube a couple dozen times for training.

  There standoff didn’t last long, and Athena had apparently deemed his words worthless. She was throwing her knives at him seconds later.

  Justin did his best to dodge, swerving to the left before juking to the right, then ducking and moving again. He did everything humanly possible to keep himself from becoming a predictable target. Athena had a ridiculously high intelligence. Knowing her specs as he did, he understood that if he became too predictable, she’d be able to throw those knives of hers to much greater effect by angling her trajectory to where he would be in the next second instead of where he was.

  More knives came flying at him. Justin rolled along the ground, ignoring the jarring pain in his shoulder. As he returned to his feet, he knelt down and scooped up one of the knives, which he used to knock aside the next pointy object thrown. Then he took two steps back and to the left. Athena’s next tossed knives missed him by a hair. He could actually feel the weapons cutting the air as they whizzed by him.

  That accuracy is dangerous. If I don’t change the pace soon, she’ll eventually kill me.

  Athena seemed to rely on long-range attacks, so if he could close the distance between them, then perhaps he could limit her options. He made a decision. When she threw her next knife, Justin didn’t try to dodge and instead charged straight at her. This was definitely a good thing. The knife had been thrown, not at him, but at where he would’ve moved if he hadn’t decided to charge her.

  For perhaps the first time since their battle started, Athena appeared surprised. He didn’t think someone like her could feel surprise. Justin didn’t dwell on the thought long. Stepping into her guard, he tried to slit her throat before she could react. However, Athena proved to be quick on her feet. She bent her torso, avoiding his swipe as she planted her hands on the ground, forming a bridge with her body. She then brought her legs up and attempted to mule kick him in the chest.

  Leaping backwards allowed Justin to avoid getting hit. He still felt the displaced air against his shirt. This girl must have some kicking power. As Athena leapt to her feet, Justin moved back in and tried to gut her, but it seemed as if the element of surprise was no longer on his side. She pulled out another knife from within her pants. The loud clang of their weapons clashing together echoed and sparks flew as the two knives ground against each other.

  “Where the hell are you getting all these knives?!”

  �
�Extra Dimensional Storage Space.”

  Her words created a lull in battle. Justin looked flabbergasted. “You actually have one of those?”

  “Yes.”

  He looked at her flat chest. “Huh… I thought you needed boobs for that.”

  Athena frowned. Then she tried to kick him in the nuts.

  “Woah!”

  She missed when he took a step back, but while he avoided her initial assault, Justin wasn’t prepared for her grabbing his shirt. He felt a moment of weightlessness as the world around him tilted. Then all of the air was violently expelled from his lungs when he was slammed into the ground. As he coughed and struggled to breathe, Athena stood over him, her knife poised to kill him.

  “Celestial Art: Light Sphere!”

  Athena leapt out of the way of a light sphere that sailed past her. It struck the wall, detonating and leaving a scorch mark shaped like a perfect circle where it hit. Seeing this, Athena apparently decided to fight another day and fled. Justin watched as she kicked along the walls, ascending to the roof of a building before she disappeared from sight.

  “Justin!” Kevin’s shout reached his ears. Looking upside down, he saw the blond teen running toward him with three other people.

  Grinning as the four surrounded him, he said, “Hey! Nice of you to come rescue me, Kevin. The assist is most appreciated.”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to hearing you talk like a normal human being,” Iris declared.

  “That’s rude.” Justin pouted.

  Christine scrunched up her face. “Wait. Aren’t you… Justin?”

  “The one and only.”

  She turned to Iris. “I thought Justin was supposed to be a retard.”

  Justin winced. “Ouch. That’s a really harsh thing to say.”

  “Well, he was a little slow, but I don’t think he was completely retarded.” Adopting a faux wiseman’s stance, Iris nodded several times. “Slowpoke here never went full retard.”