The next morning brought a new day.
After he and Lilian returned home, Kevin had gathered their family and told them what he’d told Lilian. While everyone had expressed shock at learning that Kevin’s father was their enemy, no one appeared concerned by this.
“You and I have been screwing each other for months now, Stud. What makes you think I’m going to care about who your sperm donor is?”
While Iris’s words had been crass, she’d more or less put what everyone else was thinking into words. Christine, after freezing Iris in a block of ice for her crass language, had essentially paraphrased what the Void Kitsune had said—minus the “screwing for months” part.
That day, Kevin went to school in higher spirits than he had the day before. Sitting down at his desk, surrounded by people that he considered his family, he spoke and smiled as Iris and Christine traded snipes.
“I knew you were a nerd all along. You probably decided to start dressing like that because Evangeline A.K. McDowell also wears lolita fashion,” Iris taunted.
“Actually, Evangeline wears a schoolgirl uniform,” Kevin corrected her. His words went ignored.
“I don’t know who that is, but I’m not going to have some titanically tittied floozy mock me!” Christine snapped.
“Ha! I do have titanically sized tits, don’t I?”
“I don’t know if they’re really that big,” Lilian mumbled, looking down at her own breasts, which were the same size as Iris’s. “Certainly, Mom’s and Kotohime’s are bigger—and ours are nothing compared to the matriarch.”
“True,” Iris conceded, “but Granny’s a freak of nature. I don’t even know how that woman lives with mammaries that massive. She must be suffering from constant back pain.”
“Are you guys really talking about boobs first thing in the morning?” asked Lindsay, who walked over to their desks. She was holding hands with a very pleased Jessica, whose rabbit ears were twitching.
“Christine started it,” Iris pointed out. “She was talking about my bajangos.”
Kevin facepalmed. “Did you really just call them ‘bajangos’? Is that even a word?”
“Spell check seems to think so,” Lilian said absently.
“What?”
“… Never mind.”
The doors burst open and their hannya teacher walked in. “Shut up and sit down, class! I’ve got some news for all of you, and if you don’t listen, then I’m gonna make you stand outside and balance a bucket filled with ice water on your head.”
Every mouth present snapped shut. Their teacher, one Hannah Diavolo, nodded in satisfaction.
“Good. Now, before we get this class started, I would like to introduce all of you to a new student.” Hannah looked at the door. Kevin couldn’t see anything, but he guessed the person she was talking about was standing on the other side. “Come on. Don’t be shy. Get in here and introduce yourself.”
A second passed. Then a girl walked in. Several peopled sucked in their breath. Whispers broke out.
“Who is that?”
“She’s gorgeous!”
“Look at those legs!”
“Check out that ass!”
“Oh, please. This chick has nothing on Iris.”
“Lilian is my bae!”
“Oi! Don’t let Kevin hear you say that. He might kill you.”
Kevin ignored the words spoken by his peers in favor of studying the girl. Her orange hair was quite long, but nowhere near as long as Lilian’s, Iris’s, or Christine’s. She had two different colored eyes, and she walked with a gait that seemed both confident and nervous. As she moved to the front of the class, the girl turned, facing them.
“Um, hey,” she said uncertainly. “My name is Kandice. It’s nice to meet you.”
Hannah raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you tell us a little more about yourself, Kandice.”
“Like what?”
“Tell us your three sizes!” one of the boys shouted out. He was then subsequently smacked by Lilian’s and Iris’s tails. After which, Christine froze him in a block of ice.
“Ha! Now that’s what I call teamwork!” Lilian cheered as she raised her hand. Iris and Christine gave her a simultaneous high five.
Kevin shook his head, though he couldn’t quite hide his smile.
Mack was sitting in his office when he received the call.
“You’re going to want to see this.”
An ominous call, indeed.
“I’ll be right down.”
After hanging up, Mack went down to the command center, which was a large room underneath the tower. Built into the very bedrock, the walls, floor, and ceiling were all a dark tan. Large monitors had been hooked up to several communication stations. Normally, there would have been several people sitting around those consoles, but today, all of them were congregating around one of the screens.
“What have you got?” Mack asked as he walked up to the group.
Several people moved aside, allowing him to close in on the screen and look at the contents.
“I’ve been going through the data that Athena failed to erase,” the human male sitting at the desk said. “That’s when I found this.”
The information was already up on the screen. As Mack scrolled his eyes across the information, which caused him to feel incomprehensibly horrified, only one phrase came to mind.
“Fuck me sideways.”
After class, Lilian decided to introduce herself to Kandice. A new student meant a new friend, as far as she was concerned, and Lilian had learned well about the value of friends. The phrase “the more the merrier” had become one of her mottos since she began living in Arizona.
Unfortunately, it seemed like every male student had the same idea, and they crowded around her like a pack of horny dogs who all wanted to hump the same fire hydrant.
“What’s your favorite type?”
“Are you dating anyone?”
“Can I be your boyfriend?!”
Lilian felt pity for the poor girl, who looked like she was going to have a panic attack. She was just about to help her—when Kandice helped herself.
“Get the hell away from me, you horndogs!!!!”
Her shout, which echoed across the classroom and likely beyond, caused everyone to shut up and look at her. Kandice was breathing heavily, her shoulders were heaving and her face was flushed red.
“Gods! Can’t you people shut up and give me some space?!”
The boys all looked uncertain, but apparently deciding that they didn’t want to anger her, they left the girl alone, grumbling softly to themselves. Seeing her chance, Lilian walked up to the girl.
“That was pretty cool how you handled those guys.” Grinning, Lilian stuck out her hand. “I’m Lilian Pnevma!”
Kandice seemed taken aback by her exuberant personality, but she still shook her hand. “Um, Kandice.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Lilian said as Kevin and the others walked up. “Oh! Let me introduce you.” She grabbed Kevin by the arm and dragged him forward. “This is my mate, Kevin.”
“Mate?”
“And that’s my sister, Iris,” Lilian continued, ignoring the bemused expression that Kandice wore. “That’s Christine, and the two over there are Lindsay and Jessica.”
“It’s nice to meet you all.” Kandice nodded at each person in turn, and then turned her confused eyes on Lilian again. “Now, what’s this about a mate?”
Kotohime didn’t know why an emergency meeting had been called, but she knew that it must be serious—Mack’s expression was grimmer than she’d ever seen it.
“What is this about, Mack?” asked one of their members. Kotohime thought his name was Jacob something or other.
“Thank you all for coming,” Mack started, ignoring the man, whose weasel-like nose twitched. “I bring you grave news. Our people have been going through the data that Justin Verrator had on him when we rescued him, and we’ve finally learned what the Sons and Daughters of Humanity’s goal is: th
e complete eradication of yokai.”
Kotohime frowned as several of the yokai at the table snorted, as if the concept that they could be eradicated amused them.
“Please,” an onikuma with dark brown fur snorted, “there have been many times that humanity has tried to fight against yokai. While I mean no disrespect to humans in general, the idea that we can be eradicated as if it was as easy as pushing a button is simply ludicrous.”
“Maybe you should shut up and let the man keep talking,” Heather snarked before anyone else could. While the onikuma bristled, she turned to Mack. “I’m assuming the Sons and Daughters of Humanity have come up with a plan to accomplish this?”
“They have. I wouldn’t have called you all here otherwise.”
Grabbing a remote and pressing a button, Mack turned on the overhead projector, which displayed an image against the far wall. The image was of a missile. Kotohime had seen a few before, but only in books.
“This is a new weapon that the Sons and Daughters of Humanity have devised,” Mack explained. “While it looks like an ordinary missile, this is far different from anything that’s been created thus far.”
Mack pushed another button, and Kotohime realized that it wasn’t an image but a video. The image changed, showing the missile soaring through the atmosphere before landing on a three-dimensional surface that she guessed represented the ground. Vertical slits then opened on the missile’s surface and began spewing green fumes. Then the image zoomed out, showing not only how far the fumes would spread, but that there were hundreds of thousands of other missiles doing the same thing across a giant map of the United States.
“What you just saw was a simulation of how the Sons and Daughters of Humanity plan to destroy us. Those missiles contain a toxin that was created specifically for yokai. According to the data, this toxin has a one hundred percent chance of killing yokai regardless of species. In other words, it’s completely fatal to all of us.”
His proclamation was met with silence. Even Kotohime was shocked.
“That’s not the only thing that we’ve found out,” Mack added, and Kotohime could sense the way everyone stiffened in their chairs. “This toxin is based on the DNA that’s been extracted from thousands of yokai for the past several decades. According to the report, there is a specific strand of DNA that is found within all yokai and anyone who is descended from a yokai, which is what the toxin targets. What this means is that anyone who has even a little yokai blood in them will also be killed.”
If Kotohime looked at the people present, she was sure that she’d see the same horrified expressions on their faces that she knew was on hers.
Humans and yokai had been intermingling for millenniums—as far back as 300 BC. While there was no way to confirm it, the chances of more than 90% of humanity having yokai ancestry was strong. At the very least, more than 60% of the human population had the blood of one or more yokai.
Mack locked eyes with everyone present. “This is the gravest threat that our kind has ever faced—the greatest that Earth has ever faced. If we do not stop the Sons and Daughters of Humanity from carrying out their plan, not only will every yokai die, but we have estimated that more than 75% of the human population will also die. We have to stop that from happening.”
School ended on a high note for Kevin. Thanks to Lilian, Iris, and Christine, he’d felt a lot better that day than he had yesterday. His mate had also made a new friend, which she was quite excited about. Her enthusiasm as she included Kandice in their activities and introduced her to their other friends was infectious.
“So, you’re living with Kiara,” Lilian exclaimed as they walked back home. Her nose wrinkled slightly. “Must be tough.”
Kandice laughed. “It is kind of hard, but Kiara’s not a bad person. She actually told me about all of you, though she mostly talked about you, Kevin.”
“Me?” Kevin blinked.
“Yep.”
“I hope she had good things to say.”
“She said that you’re very strong for a human, but that you’re kind of a pushover when it comes to your harem.”
Kevin tripped over his own two feet. With his arms windmilling, he fell facefirst onto the ground.
“Yep.” Iris nodded. “That sounds about right.”
“It is not right!” Kevin shouted as he climbed back to his feet. “I don’t have a harem!”
When even Christine gave him a blank stare, Kevin looked away uncomfortably.
“… Kiara said that you would say that.”
“S-shut up!”
They eventually parted ways with Kandice and made their way home. Kevin had expected to find Kotohime preparing dinner and Kirihime playing with Camellia. So when he, Christine, Lilian, and Iris arrived home to find Kotohime sitting in seiza in the middle of the room and no Kirihime or Camellia, he became worried.
“I’m glad that you are here, Kevin-sama.” Kotohime opened her eyes, and the solemnity they contained caused the hairs on his neck to stand on end. “I have something important to share with you, and I am afraid that you will not like what I have to say.”
Kotohime was right. Kevin didn’t like what she had to say.
Sitting in the living room, surrounded by Lilian, Iris, and Christine, Kevin felt as if the world had been dropped out from underneath him. His father, the man who’d given birth to him, was planning to commit genocide. He wanted to vomit.
“That’s some serious shit,” Iris said.
“Language, Iris-sama.” Kotohime did not take her eyes off Kevin. “There is more that I have to tell you.” Kevin groaned. “Fortunately, this news is good. We’ve made contact with a resistance cell located in France. Apparently, your mother is one of their members. She’s been working with them since before the war broke out.”
“M-my mom?” Kevin’s eyes widened before, almost like a deflating air balloon, he sagged into himself. “I-I see. That’s good.”
Kevin had tried not to think about his mom, but he had been worried. It was hard not knowing whether she was alive or not. Kotohime had lifted a huge weight from his shoulders.
“Lilian-sama, Iris-sama, your family is also alive and well. They’re apparently in the same cell as Kevin-sama’s mother.”
“Who cares about those pricks?” Iris asked, shrugging.
“I-Iris!” Lilian gaped at her.
“What? You don’t like those douchebags any more than I do.”
“They’re still our family!”
“Whatever.”
Before an argument could break out between Lilian and Iris, Kotohime continued. “Kevin-sama, the reason that I am telling you all of this is because I’ve told Mack of your circumstances, and he has granted you special permission to be on the team that plans to confront your father. The decision is yours, however, I wanted you to at least have that decision.”
“Thank you,” Kevin said. “I… I would like to go.”
“I assumed as much,” Kotohime admitted.
“Hold on,” Lilian interrupted. “If Kevin is going on this mission, then I’m going, too.”
“Lilian-sama—”
“I know what you’re going to say, Kotohime. I’m not ready for this. Beloved is going only because of his special circumstances. Blah, blah, blah. I’ve heard it all before, and I’m telling you that—”
“You can go, too.”
“—that I can go, too—wait. What?”
Kotohime’s smile, while grim, was not without mirth. “I said that you can go. The last time Kevin-sama went on a mission, I did not let you go because we could only have a few people on it. However, I understand that Kevin-sama is your mate. If you wish to go with him, I will let you.”
“Yes!” Lilian pumped her fist into the air.
“However, you’re the only one who will be allowed to go.”
“What?!” Christine and Iris shouted at the same time.
“I’ve been able to make an exception for Kevin-sama because of his parentage and Lilian-sama because she
is his mate. She would go to support him whether Mack allowed it or not. However, we can’t afford to let any more people who haven’t been fully trained in warfare take on a mission of this nature,” Kotohime explained.
“That’s complete bullshit!” Iris exploded. “Not trained in warfare? Sure, I might not have trained day and night to kill people, but I’ve fought more than my fair share of battles. You weren’t there when we went to California and took part in the defense of Long Beach. I kicked ass!”
Even in the face of Iris’s anger, Kotohime remained calm. “I am not denying your strength nor your ability to fight, Iris-sama. Being able to fight does not make one a warrior, however. Even Kevin-sama, skilled as he is in combat, is not a warrior, and he’s certainly not a soldier.”
The difference between someone who could fight and someone who knew warfare was astronomical. Being a master of karate did not make someone a master of the battlefield. That was what Kotohime was talking about. Kevin understood this, which was why he agreed with her.
“I think you two should stay here,” he said.
“S-Stud, what are you—why?” asked a shocked Iris.
Kevin turned to her. Grabbing her hand and lacing their fingers as if to tell her how he felt through his actions, he said, “Because Kotohime is right. This is different than what we did during our journey to find Kuroneko and Orin. This is a legitimate military operation, which none of us have any real experience with.”
Iris’s glare would’ve cowed lesser men. “Then why are you and Lily-pad going?”
“You know why. My old man is the one who started all this. He abandoned my mom for this damnable desire to kill all yokai. I need to confront him.”
“And what are you going to do when you confront him?”
“I don’t know that yet,” Kevin admitted. Looking up at Iris, he gave her a helpless smile. “I just know that I need to be one of the people who stops him.”
Iris had not been pleased by Kevin’s decision, and she’d let him know that by storming out of the room. Christine, after several seconds of looking around uncertainly, had followed her.
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