A Fox's War

by Brandon Varnell

  That shouldn’t be too hard.

  She hoped.

  Kevin had never been to the White House. It was a large building with what appeared to be two stories and a perfectly manicured lawn. The main building looked like a combination of modern and Greek architecture, especially with those columns. Connected to the main building via a pair of long hallways were the east and west wings.

  As they descended from the helicopter, Kevin went over the plan in his head. Ethan Paine was currently meeting with the president. Their job was to infiltrate the White House, confront the president and the top brass in the military, and inform them of what Ethan’s plan entailed. In other words, they were going to try to convince the president that Ethan Paine’s plan would kill more people than he realized. If they could do that, then it might be possible to create a ceasefire between humans and yokai.

  They were dropped off several hundred yards from the White House, which was currently being protected by dozens of armed guards. Kevin supposed they should just be glad there were no tanks or anti-air missiles present.

  “Let’s get moving, everyone!” Kotohime ordered.

  Following the four-tailed kitsune as she calmly strode down the street, Kevin and the others remained on high alert. Their alertness proved to be a boon. Nearly a dozen armed soldiers wearing unique-looking armor rushed onto the street where they had been dropped off.

  “There they are, men! Open fire!”

  Kevin and the others were forced to scatter as a hailstorm of bullets peppered the area where they’d been standing. He and Lilian quickly ducked behind a wall. Cement chipped and flew all around them as the wall had several holes gouged into it. Knowing that if things kept up like this, they would be sitting ducks, Kevin looked at Lilian.

  “Don’t worry, Beloved. I’m on it!”

  He almost thought he could feel the youki flowing around Lilian as she channeled it into an illusion.

  “Celestial Art: Chameleon Masquerade.”

  Kevin couldn’t tell if the illusion had worked or not. He didn’t feel any different. However, Lilian confirmed that she could not see him, which was good enough. After taking a deep breath to steady himself, Kevin bolted from behind the wall and fired off several rounds at the soldiers. Two went down when they were hit by the spirit bullets he was using. They were low-powered bullets and wouldn’t kill, but they would drain anyone they hit of their vitality for several hours.

  “The enemy is invisible! Switch to heat-vision goggles!”

  Oh, this is not good…

  The soldiers that he was fighting had clearly come expecting kitsune. They lowered the goggles that they were wearing on their heads, then took aim again. Kevin only had a moment to realize his mistake as they opened fire.

  “Celestial Art: Barrier that Protects the Princess!”

  A dome of golden energy surrounded Kevin, protecting him from the bullets, which pinged off its surface. The dome crackled and flickered, but it still held strong. The soldiers soon ran out of ammo. The dome disappeared.

  “Now, Beloved!”

  “Right!”

  Kevin aimed his guns and fired. Six shots, three from each gun, were fired near-simultaneously. He didn’t aim for their bodies. The shots that he fired smacked into their goggles, knocking the devices off their heads, rendering him once again invisible.

  Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Kevin rushed at the soldiers who could no longer see him. It didn’t take long before he was attacking the first one near him. A quick double palm thrust to the chest caused the man to stumble. Little damage was done since the man was wearing a Kevlar vest, but Kevin unholstered his guns again and fired two shots at point blank. The spirit bullets flew straight through his enemy’s vest and stole the soldier’s vitality. The man crumpled, unconscious before he even hit the ground.

  “Shit! He’s in our midst!”

  “Hurry up and put your goggles back on!”

  “I can’t see him!”

  Before the soldiers could regain their wits, Kevin dropped two more, a man and a woman, with more point-blank shots. As the two soldiers dropped like sacks of potatoes, Lilian stepped out from behind her cover.

  “Gomu Gomu no Extension!”

  That girl seriously needed to learn about copyright.

  Her tails extended to incredible lengths, stabbing into the ground near the soldiers. Without ceremony, the tails pulled her forward, and Lilian oriented herself so that she was pointed feet first at the group.

  “Lilian Kick!”

  Had Kevin not been busy fighting against another soldier, who was blindly flailing their knife around like a maniac, he would have facepalmed. Still, he could not deny the effectiveness of Lilian’s attack.

  Her foot slammed into the face of her opponent, launching them clean off their feet. They struck the ground hard after flying for several yards. Rolling along the ground, the soldier tumbled like a ragdoll before coming to a stop after smacking into a light post.

  Putting his enemy down with a well-placed shot to the chest, Kevin turned around to help his mate—only to find that she had things well in hand.

  “Lilian Punch!”

  This time, Kevin did facepalm when Lilian liberally punched the next soldier with her tails. Since a kitsune’s tails were where they stored all of their power, they were the easiest appendage to reinforce.

  She had likely packed a lot of youki into those tails. The woman that she smacked flew into the air, ascending well over the height of a one-story building before crashing into a tree. Rather than something falling off, her foot appeared to become stuck between a pair of branches. The soldier, clearly unconscious from Lilian’s powerful tail attack, dangled upside down like a Raggedy Ann doll.

  “Nice job!”

  “Ufufufu, thanks!”

  Kevin and Lilian shared a high five. After which, they observed the area around them, checking to see if there were any more enemies.

  “On the building, Stud!” a familiar voice shouted.

  Kevin and Lilian spun around to see an enemy soldier standing on a building several yards away. They were already aiming at him and Lilian. There was no time for them to do anything as the loud bang of a gun echoed through the street.

  They both winced, expecting to feel the sting of a bullet penetrating their flesh. When no stinging sensation came, they opened their eyes… and gawked at the sight before them.

  It was a massive wall of ice. At least three yards tall and maybe even a foot thick, the ice wall glistened brightly in the afternoon sun. Kevin was shocked to see it, but he also realized what it meant. Only one person he knew called him “Stud,” and there was only one person he knew who could use ice like this.

  Looking around, Kevin eventually located Iris, Christine, and Justin. Christine and Iris were dressed in men’s military uniforms. He almost did a double take when he realized that they were the same people who’d been in the helicopter with them. However, his shock didn’t last long, and while he didn’t get angry, a sense of resignation hovered about him like a bad cold.

  “I can’t believe you two snuck onto this—wait. Yes, I can.”

  “You should have realized that we would do this,” Iris said, walking up to them with a seductive saunter and a mischievous grin.

  “I concur,” Lilian said.

  “Did you know they would do this?” Kevin asked.

  Lilian shook her head. “Not for sure, but I suspected they might.”

  He sighed. “Honestly, you two…”

  “You can’t expect us to just sit around at home while you and Lilian go into danger,” Christine argued with a scowl and a blush. “You and Lilian are important to us… and stuff, s-so it’s important to be around to protect you.”

  “It sounds to me like they were just worried about you,” Justin added. “While I’m not one for insubordination…” he paused, and his expression twisted, as if he’d realized the irony of his words, then pressed on. “… I don’t think leaving them out of this operatio
n was a fair move either.”

  Kevin knew better than to argue at this point. Aside from being in the middle of a combat situation, he was honestly touched that they would do this. While Kotohime was going to be disapproving, and Mack would get upset, he couldn’t find it in himself to be angry.

  “Well, what’s done is done. Let’s just keep going with the mission.”

  Their decision made, the group of four went off in search of their companions.

  Ethan stood before the most powerful men in the United States.

  The room that they were in was small; large enough for a long table, several chairs, and room to walk around, but nothing more. He was at the head of the table. To his left, sat the president of the United States, and to his right was the vice president. Everyone else was a member of the military—the Admiral of the Navy, General of the Armies, and all of the other senior members of the United States Military.

  “President, if I may ask, why was this meeting called?” asked the current admiral—a hard-looking man with a square jaw and gray sideburns.

  “The one who called this meeting wasn’t me,” the president declared. “It was Commander Paine.”

  “Members of this esteemed body, I have heard troubling rumors about how you have been considering a ceasefire with the yokai,” Ethan began.

  “We have,” the General of the Armies stated. “I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but many of our soldiers have abandoned their posts to join the Four Saints’ cause.”

  “Traitors who’ve abandoned their duty,” Ethan rebutted in a calm tone.

  “Loyal soldiers who’ve come to believe that we are in the wrong,” the general corrected. “It appears that some of our most loyal soldiers—decorated war heroes even—were yokai. What’s more, many of our human soldiers are involved with yokai. I know at least a handful who are married to a yokai and have several children.”

  The Admirable of the Navy nodded. “At least several thousand of my best soldiers are either married to a yokai or a yokai themselves. Soldiers join the military to protect their families. When the military says that their family is the enemy, it’s only natural that they would abandon us in favor of them.”

  “The yokai are a threat,” Ethan stated with absolute certainty. “We’ve all seen the power that they wield. Having fought the yokai now, having seen their power for yourselves, can you deny that they are not a threat?”

  No one said anything. They recognized the threat that yokai presented. However…

  “It is true that yokai are a powerful force to be reckoned with,” the general said. “But are we not also a powerful force? I believe there is a reason that yokai have not willingly revealed themselves to us.”

  “And what reason is that?” asked Ethan.

  The general leaned forward and placed his elbow on the table. “Fear. They have seen our technology, and they are afraid of what it can do. What other reason could they have for hiding themselves?”

  Murmurs of agreement went around the table. If it hadn’t ruined his composure, Ethan would have scowled.

  When he’d first presented the threat of yokai to the United Nations and the United States, he’d done so by showing off footage of the kind of destruction that yokai could cause. He’d incited the fear of yokai inside of them. That fear had caused them to act hastily. But with the war having continued on for so long, heads had begun to cool off and logic was starting to prevail. If he wanted his plan to succeed, then he needed to reignite those heads.

  “Fear? No, I’m afraid that the yokai have nothing to fear. I believe you all received a report several days ago about how a mountain range in California was completely wiped out, yes? It was destroyed by a single yokai.”

  Ethan reached into a folder sitting on the table. He pulled out several sheets of paper, which he passed around to those sitting at the table. On each sheet was an image of a giant silver snake with eight heads and eight tails.

  “This monster is called the Yamata no Orochi. It’s the leader of the Yamata Alliance, and it is the one responsible for creating another Grand Canyon. Gentleman, this creature has the same amount of power as a nuclear warhead. It could easily be considered a weapon of mass destruction.”

  No one spoke for the longest time. Ethan cast a grim smile. He could practically feel the fear pouring off them.

  “What do you suggest we do?” the president asked at last.

  “I currently have several missiles being shipped to Portsmouth via an underground train network. They’ll be there in several hours.” Ethan paused. “These missiles are not ordinary explosives. They’ve been developed to release a toxin that attacks a strand of DNA unique to yokai. It is one hundred percent effective.”

  There was a pause in the conversation. Ethan allowed it to extend. He couldn’t be the one to keep the conversation going or he would seem desperate.

  “What will happen to humans?” asked the vice president.

  “Humans are not affected by this toxin,” Ethan informed them.

  “If we do this,” the General of the Armies started, “we will be inciting the wrath of all the humans who’ve made families with yokai.”

  “Those people are already lost causes and should be arrested anyway,” Ethan said. He saw the way several people who’d been nodding along with him shifted into glares. Realizing that he’d made a mistake, he backtracked. “What I mean is that any human who has engaged with a yokai sexually or otherwise has likely been brainwashed. They will need to be rehabilitated before they can be let out into society again.”

  He could see the way their faces shifted. They were contemplating his words, taking them seriously, on the verge of capitulating. Give them a few more seconds, a little time to sweat, and they would soon be—

  The doors suddenly opened and a man dressed in military fatigues entered the room, saluting.

  “Sirs! I apologize for intruding, but we’ve just received a report that several Apache helicopters have stopped right outside of the White House. Several yokai, including the high-profile target known as Kotohime, were seen exiting the helicopters.”

  “What?!” the president asked in shock, standing from his seat.

  “Do not worry, Mr. President,” Ethan said calmly. “I suspected the yokai would try something, and I have brought a number of my elite YK units with me. Say the word, Mr. President, and I shall have them come to our defense within seconds.”

  The president remained silent for only a moment before nodding. “Do it.”

  Ethan smiled. “Yes, sir,” he said, then he pressed a button on his wristwatch and spoke into it. “Activate the elite units and have them intercept the enemy. I repeat; activate the elite units and have them intercept the enemy.”

  Within a remote location, in an underground bunker, a young man with spiky black hair and a white lab coat stood before a control console. The lights played off his face as he grinned.

  “Activate the elite units and have them intercept the enemy. I repeat; activate the elite units and have them intercept the enemy.”

  The words were like a panacea to his ears, and he took great joy in pressing several buttons, of listening to them beep, and of knowing that he’d just unleashed his creations upon the world.

  “I can’t wait to see how these new units fight,” he said to himself.

  Within the darkness of his underground bunker, the young man observed the creatures that his units would be fighting with a grin. He hoped it would be an amusing battle.

  Kotohime was not pleased when Kevin, Lilian, and Justin returned with the two interlopers in tow.

  “Christine-san, Iris-sama, I would ask why you two are here, but I don’t think I need to.” Her tone was cold, like hoarfrost gathering on a window.

  Iris seemed unaffected. “Is now really the time to be reprimanding us?”

  Kotohime’s stern glare shifted. “You are correct. Now is not the time to reprimand you. However, I will be punishing you when we get home.”

  “Sure thi
ng.”

  “I can’t get punished by someone who isn’t even my mother,” Christine muttered.

  “Did you say something, Christine-san?”

  “… No.”

  “Ufufufu, rest assured, you will be getting punished along with Iris-sama—regardless of what you think about our relationship.”

  “Urk!”

  “Nya! Kotohime, Lilian, Master!” Cassy shouted as she ran toward them with a squadron of humans trailing behind her. “We have trouble!”

  “Did she just call you ‘Master’?” Iris asked Kevin, wearing a grin that promised humiliation.

  “Now is not the time for harem jokes!”

  “What do harems have to do with being called ‘Master’?” Justin wondered out loud.

  No one answered him. Barely a second later, several large military transports turned the corner. There was a large turret on top of each vehicle, which was being controlled by a soldier, each of whom immediately zeroed in on them and opened fire.

  One of the human soldiers that they were allied with was ripped apart by massive armor-piercing rounds. Kevin grabbed Christine’s hand and yanked her away, running with Lilian, Iris, and Justin. They hid behind the nearest building. Meanwhile, Cassy and Kotohime attacked the vehicles.

  “Ikken Hissatsu. Sen.”

  Kotohime’s blade moved faster than the speed of thought. It wasn’t even a blur. All Kevin could see was flickers of light as she cut straight through numerous bullets. It seemed not even the armor-piercing rounds of a 50mm artillery gun could stop her.

  “Nya!”

  Cassy, who’d been using Kotohime’s attack-turned-defense as cover, leapt over the older yokai and launched herself at the vehicles. Her hands and feet were covered in hellfire. Using the hellish purple flames, she tore into the transports, melting the guns, destroying the engine, and tearing the chassis apart like it was made of paper.

  The soldiers, unharmed by the destruction of their vehicles, tried to run away. Kevin wouldn’t let them. He darted out from his cover, took aim, and fired. Each bullet struck a retreating back, the ethereal projectile flying straight through the Kevlar vests and draining the soldiers of their vitality, dropping them like fifty-pound lead weights.