A Fox's Family (51 page)

I
need to get out of here!

Lilian
was about to renew her struggles when something grazed her skin. It
stung, and she felt blood dripping down her hand—something
sharp. She felt around for a moment before touching the object again.
Long handled. A ring at one end. At the other, a leaf-shaped blade.
In a flash, Lilian realized what it was. Her kunai! She’d
completely forgotten about it until now!

“Ha!
I love foreshadowing! Thank you for this!”

You’re
welcome.

Ignoring
the blood dripping down her hands, causing them to become slick,
Liliam fumbled with the kunai. She grasped the hilt and then
proceeded to cut the fabric binding her hands and wrists. Jorōgumo
silk was
incredibly durable, and it could withstand the enhanced strength of a
three-tailed kitsune, but it couldn’t handle something sharp.

She
sliced through the silk with relative ease. When her hands were free,
Lilian cut the bindings around her legs and chest. She was just about
to cut the ones constricting her tails when the door slammed open
with a loud
bang!

“I
knew you’d try to escape if I left you to your own devices long
enough.”

Maddison
walked into the room, her glinting green eyes betraying her
intentions. Madness had consumed her. The way she walked, her heavy
breathing, that insane smile, and those quivering pupils that were
wide and unsightly told Lilian as much.

“Now
I can kill you and claim that you tried to escape. Then Jiāoào
will have no choice but to accept me as your replacement. He won’t
throw me away.”

Insane
giggling bubbled up from her throat. Lilian tried not to shiver at
the sound, but didn’t quite manage it. Yet even with the fear
coursing through her body, she felt a sliver of pity for this woman.
Maddison was obviously broken, a living doll whose sanity had been
shattered into a million pieces by Jiāoào’s
cruelty.

“You
could just let me go,” Lilian tried to appeal to whatever
compassion remained within the other girl. “You could say that
I knocked you unconscious and escaped.”

“Oh,
no. No, no, no, no. That won’t work. That won’t work at
all,” Maddison chided Lilian. “If you were to escape, he
would throw me away anyways. It’s better to just kill you now.
If you’re dead, he’ll have no choice but to accept me.”

The
face that looked somewhat similar to her own smiled. Bile rose up in
Lilian’s throat. Maddison marched over to Lilian, who had only
just managed to scramble to her feet.

“Now
be a good little bitch and die!”

With
a surge of motion, Maddison’s two long tails snaked around
Lilian’s throat and lifted her off the ground. Lilian’s
legs automatically kicked out in protest, and her hands flew to her
throat in a futile gesture as she tried to suck in oxygen through her
constricted airways.

“Stop
struggling and just die already!” The grin on Maddison’s
face grew impossibly large, splitting her face in half. Emerald eyes
grew big and round. Pupils dilated and became disturbingly small.
“Die! Die! Die! Die!”

“
Ce…
Celestial… Celestial Art…”
Lilian
rasped, struggling to speak with her throat almost completely closed
off. “
Celestial
Art… Light… Sphere!”

“GYA!”

Maddison’s
tails released their grip on Lilian and dropped her to the floor. The
redhead covered her face with her hands, and Lilian looked at the
damage that her attack had done. Maddison’s face had become
covered in ugly burns, red splotches that marred her skin.

“MY
EYES! OH, GODS, I CAN’T SEE! YOU BITCH!”

Two
long red tails became a riot of activity. They crashed into the
walls, the floor, the ceiling―anything
and everything. The bed was overturned and shattered into splinters,
feathers and springs. The dresser became wood chips that scattered
along the ground. The window shattered into thousands of irreparable
fragments.

Lilian
tried to dodge, but her tails were still bound by the
Jorōgumo
silk.
Because of this, she couldn’t enhance her body with youki.
She’d barely even managed to produce that light sphere.

One
of the tails smacked into her, sending her crashing into a wall. The
air left her lungs in a
whoosh!
She
slid to the ground, coughing and wheezing. Maddison had recovered by
this point, and her maddened eyes glared at Lilian. Forgoing the use
of her tails this time, she wrapped her hands around Lilian’s
throat and started to strangle her fellow kitsune.

The
hands wrapped around her delicate neck were impossibly tight as
Maddison squeezed the life out of her. Lilian’s eyes bulged out
of their sockets. She tried to think of a way out of this; tried to
think of something, anything, that could save her from this crazy
bitch.

That’s
when she saw it. Her kunai. It was lying just a few inches from her
left foot.

If
I can just reach it…

While
her hands tried to keep the other kitsune from choking her to death,
her left foot reached over and attempted to grab the kunai. Rasping
noises bubbled from her throat, a choked gurgling sound from deep
within her esophagus. Her heel touched the cool metal ring. Her
vision was starting to get spotty. She slid her foot backwards along
the ground, taking the kunai with it. Maddison chanted “Die!
Die! Die! Die!” like a mantra as Lilian took one hand off the
other kitsune’s forearm and reached for the kunai.

“That
it’s! Just die! Die for me, please! You’re no longer
needed! I refuse to let myself be thrown away! I won’t allow
you to―Gurk!”

Maddison
ceased ranting. She opened her mouth, but only wet rasping sounds
emerged, along with several streams of blood that ran down her chin.

Lilian,
her teeth grit and her eyes narrowed with unusual ferocity, twisted
the kunai she’d plunged into the other kitsune’s chest.
The hands around her throat slackened, allowing her to gratefully
suck in a lungful of air.

Maddison
fell onto her backside. She looked down, staring at the small metal
object piercing her heart. Rivulets of blood ran down her body and
stained her clothes.

Her
eyes went back to Lilian.

“W-why…?”
Tears gathered. “All I wanted… was to not be thrown away
again… I just… I just…” Her eyes glazing
over, Maddison went limp and fell onto her back.

She
didn’t get back up.

“Oh…”
Lilian’s body went into a series of shuddering. She wrapped her
arms around her legs, which she had curled into her chest. Tears
leaked from her eyes to streak down her cheeks.

She’d
just killed someone… she had… and this person was…

“Oh,
no…”

Gasping
sounds escaped from her lips as she tried to breathe. A different
type of constriction had blocked her throat. The shuddering
increased.

“Oh,
please no…”

Her
eyes wide, Lilian cried as she realized that she had just murdered
someone who had been broken, unable to think straight. Someone who,
through no fault of their own, had been backed into a corner.

“I
can’t believe it…”

She
had killed someone. She had killed someone. Why? Why had she done it?
Surely there had been another way. That girl hadn’t needed to
die.

“Kevin…”

She
wanted to see her mate. She wanted him to hold her and tell her that
everything was going to be okay. She wanted him to tell her that she
hadn’t done anything wrong.

Kevin…
I need to see Kevin.

“I’m
sorry,” Lilian whispered as she slowly clambered to her feet.
Her body shuddered and swayed as she was overcome with a sense of
vertigo. She raised a hand to her face, covering her mouth to keep
herself from throwing up. She looked down at the two-tailed kitsune
and shed several more tears. “I am so sorry, but I can’t
let you kill me. I need to save my mate.”

That’s
right. Her mate was in danger. She had to protect him. She had to…

The
earth suddenly screamed.

About
a mile or so away, a large pillar of black flames rose into the air,
as if hell itself had decided to invade the Earth.

“What
is that?” Lilian asked herself, then shook her head. “Focus,
Lilian. Kevin needs you.”

Sparing
one last sorrowful glance at the dead kitsune, Lilian ran out of the
room.

***

Kevin
noticed something odd about this kitsune. Ever since the battle had
started, there had been something strange about Jiāoào.
It was on the tip of his tongue, but he hadn’t fully realized
just what that something was until the battle had turned in his
favor.

A
tail tried to smash into him from above. Kevin moved to the side as
swiftly as his name implied. The tail created a small indent in the
ground. Kevin stomped on it. Hard.

“Gya!
My tail! Damn you!”

Jiāoào
tried to punch him, but it was oh so sloppy. Kevin stepped to the
left and forward. His right hand came up, almost gently nudging the
fist wide and sending Jiāoào off-kilter. The two-tailed
kitsune practically stumbled into his left hook.

“This
is…”

Eyes
narrowing, Kevin waded into Jiāoào’s guard. His
right hand redirected the sloppy jab thrown at him. At the same time,
his left hand shot forward in a swift straight. Jiāoào’s
nose broke under his assault.

“Damn
you! Damn you, damn you, damn you!”

Two
tails came at him from either side, trying to hem him in. Kevin knew
from his lessons with Kotohime that those tails packed a wallop. A
kitsune’s tails were the strongest appendages they had, because
they were where all of their youki was stored. Even without
reinforcement, their tails were capable of lifting boulders with
ease.

Throwing
himself forward, Kevin rolled along the ground. The tails struck the
spot he’d been standing seconds too late. Kipping back up to
his feet, he bashed his forehead against the underside of Jiāoào’s
jaw.

“Gah!”

Jiāoào
stumbled backwards. A hand came up to his mouth. Blood leaked from
between his fingers, dripping onto his stupidly extravagant robes.
Kevin would have smirked, but he was too busy dealing with his
realization.

“You
can’t use Celestial techniques yet, can you?”

Even
with a hand covering his face, Jiāoào’s shamed
blush was visible for Kevin to see.

“W-w-what?!
Shut up! Of course I can!”

“Then
why haven’t you used them already?”

The
blush deepened.

“I-I-I-I—th-that’s―I
just don’t feel like it, okay?! You’re not worth the
effort!”

Jiāoào
seemed to have taken several lessons in tsundere.

“And
you shut up, too!”

Kevin
blinked. “But I didn’t say anything.”

“Not
you! I’m talking to the author!”

“The
author?” Kevin’s eyebrows twitched. “Oh, great! You
mean to tell me I’ve got to deal with another one?! How many of
you foxes are gonna talk to this imaginary idiot?”

I
rather resent that.

“You
wouldn’t understand,” Jiāoào snapped. “The
fact that you don’t even know what I’m talking about
proves my superiority.”

“That
doesn’t prove anything of the sort! All it proves is that
you’re crazy!”

“I’m
not crazy! You’re just an idiot!”

“Who’re
you calling an idiot?!”

Before
the argument could continue, a loud explosion rocked the area. Kevin
and Jiāoào turned their heads just in time to see a large
pillar of black flames shooting into the sky.

“Ha…”
Jiāoào sighed. “That
Shílì…
he’s really enjoying himself too much.”

“Whoa…”

Kevin,
too, found himself entranced by the surreal display. He didn’t
know what the strange fire was, but he was getting some really bad
vibes from it. Even though the distance between him and the fire was
vast, he still felt a strong urge to run away.

Unfortunately
for Kevin, he had forgotten the cardinal rule of combat.

Never
look away from your opponent.

“Oof!”
Kevin grunted as a tail smacked into his stomach and stole his
breath. He was lifted into the air, but before he could get too far,
another tail snaked around his leg. “Oh, crap. This is not
good―WAAAA!”

The
tail slammed Kevin onto the ground, hard. The air left his lungs. His
back screamed in protest. The rubble still piercing his skin dug into
his muscles, sending molten iron dripping through his nervous system.

“Uagh!”
Kevin coughed up blood. The tail lifted him up again. This time it
swung him into one of the pillars, which cracked as he hit it. With a
whimper, he fell to the ground, which sent lances of agony up his
side.

“It
seems our roles have reversed again.” Jiāoào
chuckled. “Just as it should be.”

He
picked Kevin up by his ankle again. Dazed and unable to think
straight, Kevin dangled limply in Jiāoào’s grasp.

“Did
you really think you had what it takes to defeat me?”

Slam
!
Kevin’s vision went white as pain overrode his mind.

“Fool.
I’m a kitsune.”

Smash
!
Kevin’s body broke against the fountain in the center of the
courtyard.

“I’m
superior to you in every way possible.”

The
tail lifted him again and began to spin Kevin around.

“And
now, I’ll prove it to you!”

Jiāoào
let go of Kevin, who flew through the air like a Gundam being
launched from the Archangel.

Blurs
flew past Kevin’s vision. He could see nothing but streaks. His
stomach dropped into his feet. The urge to vomit nearly overwhelmed
him. All he could do was squeeze his eyes shut.

Then
his body hit the door.

And
all he knew was pain.

He
could feel hundreds of small needles stabbing into his skin. They
hurt, a lot, but he soon found out that this pain was negligible
compared to what came next.