Still, he continued to think. He pushed through the pain, and eventually recalled bits and pieces of what had happened; track practice, following Professor Nabui into his classroom and then… nothing. Everything went blank after that.
Strange…
The opening of the door forced Kevin out of his thoughts. His eyes widened in recognition when a familiar man entered with a calm, confident gait.
“
P-Professor Nabui?” Kevin stared at the Social Studies professor in shock. The teacher looked a lot different than he remembered. “What’s going on? Where am I? How did I get here?” A pause. “And just why the heck are you dressed in black spandex?”
“
First, my name is not Professor Nabui,” Kevin’s teacher said. “My real name is Inagumi Takashi. As to your other questions: you are currently within our base. I brought you here because I need you as a hostage.”
“
I see.” Kevin paused. “And the spandex?”
An uncomfortable silence passed between them. Professor Nabui, or “Inagumi whatever,” looked mildly embarrassed.
“
We… ahem, our original idea was to create an armored suit similar to Solid Snake’s, but we, well, we lacked the necessary funding for such an endeavor.” The man’s face twitched as he turned his head and grumbled. “Really, it’s all Heather’s fault. Damn that woman and her love of eroge.”
At this point, Kevin wondered if he should feel frightened or not.
“
Right.” What a weird guy. And who was this Heather person that he spoke of? “So, why do you need me as a hostage?”
“
We need to use you as a hostage in order to capture Lilian.”
Kevin felt like someone had dropped a lead ball on his stomach. Suddenly, the situation didn’t seem so ridiculous anymore.
“
Why do you want Lilian?”
“
Don’t play dumb. We want her because she’s a kitsune, of course.” The ball of lead grew larger, threatening to crush his intestines. “Do you know how difficult it is to capture a kitsune? They are one of the most elusive yōkai in the entire world. We’ve been able to acquire inu, yuki-onna, neko and all manner of other supernatural creatures, but kitsune, we’ve never been able to even find one, much less capture one.”
Kevin’s breathing picked up. His heart rate accelerated until it felt like the pistons of a Formula One race car were slamming into his chest.
“
Why? Why do you want Lilian? What are you going to do to her?”
“
We’re going to study her, of course,” Professor―no, Inagumi Takashi―said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Despite no longer being at the top of the food chain, yōkai still pose a significant threat to humanity. Surely you’ve realized this by now. Your encounter with Chris Fleischer should have been enough to show you how dangerous these creatures are.”
Kevin’s hands clenched into fists. The worry he felt for Lilian made him see white, overwhelming him to the point where he felt like he might explode. This man wanted to capture Lilian, the girl who meant so much to him, and was using him to do it.
He wanted to throw up.
I’m so pathetic.
“
There is much we can gain from capturing and studying yōkai. Many of our technological advancements in viral weaponry have actually come from splicing the genetic codes of various supernal beings with viruses. The common cold plus the DNA of a kappa creates a deadly virus that causes the blood vessels to swell up with water, clogging the veins and arteries. Combining the genes of a nekomata with several strands of the flu creates a virus that causes deadly inflammation in the lungs. Even now, after many decades of research and advancement, we’re still coming up with more ways to use yōkai DNA to further develop humanity.”
The more Kevin listened to this man, the more he felt like vomiting―and punching Takashi in the face. Too bad his hands were tied.
Not like I could do anything anyways. This man’s obviously trained in combat. I wouldn’t stand a chance against him in a fight.
“
Of course, we’ve also had many medical advancements as well. An inu’s genes are part of what gives them such sturdy bodies. By injecting the genes of an inu into a human, we’ve given people suffering from muscle atrophy and disease the chance to walk. We’ve been able to create replacement eyes for people who have gone blind by cloning nekomata eyes, and manipulating their genetic structure to become compatible with a human’s body. There is so much we’ve been able to do, so much we’ve been able to learn.”
The more this man spoke, the more Kevin wanted to escape. To warn Lilian. To beat this man for using him like this. But he couldn’t do anything. He was helpless.
It’s because I’m weak. If I was stronger, then maybe I wouldn’t be in this situation.
“
That is why we need Lilian. A kitsune is the one specimen we don’t have. I would like to thank you for your involvement, boy. Without you, none of this would have been possible.”
Kevin gritted his teeth. Inagumi Takashi was too busy standing on his soapbox to notice Kevin’s increasing distress, seemingly reveling in the sound of his own voice.
I can’t believe this is really happening.
“
Well, I think I’ve spoken enough.” His former teacher came down from his impassioned speech. “I really only came in to let you know that we have no intention of harming you. We understand that you’ve been tricked by this kitsune into letting her live with you. Do not worry, though, once we get rid of her, your life will return to normal.”
Kevin watched Inagumi Takashi leave. As the door closed behind his former professor, frustrated, angry tears spilled from his eyes and ran down his cheeks.
Alone in his cell, with nothing but the walls, floor and ceiling to keep him company, Kevin lamented his helplessness.
If only I wasn’t so weak…
***
The trip to All 4 Anime had taken Lilian much longer than she thought it would. It was nearly twilight when she arrived. The faint yellowish glow of parking lights were all that lit the small store, which was nestled in a tiny strip mall.
Lilian didn’t understand why some evil person would use an anime store as their base of operations, but she figured they were just trying to be genre savvy or something.
She stood several dozen yards away from the store, hiding behind another building and peeking around it. The front appeared deserted, but a glint of light from the roof caught her eye. A man stood at the top, dressed in black spandex. His gun, which reflected moonbeams off its surface, swept back and forth across the parking lot. He was obviously searching for her.
Okay. So, she definitely wasn’t going through the front door. That meant she would have to get creative.
After taking a deep, calming breath, Lilian released a trickle of youki, dispelling the transformation that kept her tails and ears hidden. She then took another breath and started weaving an incredibly complex illusion.
“
Celestial Art: Chameleon Masquerade.”
The light around her body began to bend and distort. Photons wavered as they were manipulated. Had Lilian been looking in a mirror, she knew that her body would have slowly vanished from sight, fading like a ghostly mirage.
“
Kitsune Art: Silence.”
Knowing that just being invisible probably wouldn’t fool them, Lilian silenced not just her footsteps, but her entire self. The illusion she wove was one that covered her entire body in a thin layer of youki, masking every sound she could make. No sense in letting Kevin’s attackers see or hear her approach. She wanted to take these people out nice and quick.
Once she finished weaving her illusions, Lilian proceeded to go around the back.
***
Lindsay, Christine and Eric watched Lilian from a bank across the street.
“
Did you see that?” Lindsay whispered harshly into the ears of an annoyed Christine, her voice shaking. “You saw that, didn’t you? See? I told you that Lilian had tails and ears.”
Christine twitched. “All right, all right. I believe you.”
Damn it, Lilian. What the hell are you thinking?
“
What do you think’s going on? Where did Lilian go? How did she disappear like that?”
Christine sighed. There really was no point in hiding it anymore. Damn that stupid fox for not being careful enough!
“
Lilian’s a kitsune.”
Christine blinked. Lindsay blinked, too, for good measure.
Slowly, like droids whose gears hadn’t been oiled in decades, the two young ladies turned to look at Eric.
“
P-pardon?” Lindsay’s eyes fluttered rapidly, as if she was trying—and failing—to make sense of the unfamiliar word.
“
Lilian is a kitsune, a supernatural shapeshifting fox.” With his arms crossed over his chest, Eric had never looked more serious. “That actually explains a lot.”
Lindsay tilted her head. “It does? Really? What does it explain?”
“
It explains why her boobs are so big.”
“
Pervert!”
“
Duaoh!”
Cracking her knuckles, Christine turned her attention away from the twitching pile of flesh once known as Eric to look at Lindsay. “The pervert’s right. Lilian is a kitsune, a fox yōkai. She probably used an illusion to become invisible. Illusions are a kitsune’s specialty.”
“
And how do you know this?”
“
Because Christine’s a yōkai, too.”
Once again, Eric, who had miraculously recovered from getting his face punched in, received nothing but stares from his two companions.
“
How the hell did you know that?”
“
I watch a lot of anime and read manga.”
Christine facepalmed. Meanwhile, Lindsay just looked confused. What did anime and manga have to do with anything?
“
Ara? What do we have here?”
The three teenagers froze.
Stepping out from the shadows of the bank, her graceful form more imposing than anything they’d ever seen, Kotohime stalked toward them with deceptively feminine footsteps. Her four fox tails swayed as she moved, back and forth, their pendulous motions hypnotic and dangerous. Predatory. Two fox ears twitched on her head, blacker than raven’s feathers and seeming to absorb all light in the area.
The three of them felt an inexplicable fear wash over them, like a rupturing tide crashing against the shore. The woman stared them down, her eyes sharper than the katana she carried in her left hand.
“
You are friends of Lilian-sama and Kevin-san, if I am not mistaken.” Kotohime placed her right hand on her cheek and tapped her index finger, wearing a curious expression that somehow looked both cute and petrifying. “Now what could you three be doing out here at this time of night, I wonder?”
Christine, Eric and Lindsay gulped.
***
When Lilian traveled to the back alley of the store, she found another man guarding the back entrance. Like the one on the roof, he too was dressed in black spandex. Were the situation not so serious, she would have shaken her head.
Spandex? Seriously?
Walking up to the man, Lilian’s youki enhanced eyes picked out several more aspects of his physical appearance that she had not noticed before. Aside from his black spandex bodysuit and the machine gun strapped around his shoulder, he also wore night-vision goggles, combat boots and a handgun holstered at his left hip.
Better not give him a chance to use any of those.
She stopped behind him, swiftly, silently, and poked him in the back of the head with a single tail. The man crumbled like a marionette that just had its strings cut. He would have hit the ground, but that might’ve alerted the person on the roof, so Lilian caught him with her tails and gently lowered him to the pavement.
“
Kitsune Art: Illusory Sleep.”
Lilian frowned.
“
Why am I saying the name of my techniques out loud?”
Because all
shōnen
characters say the name of their techniques out loud. It’s standard procedure.
“
It was a rhetorical question.”
Oh… sorry.
“
Ha… whatever.” Lilian looked from the comatose body to the roof. “Now what should I do? Take out the guard on the roof? Or should I just sneak right in?” She deliberated for a moment. “Guard on the roof it is. I’ll need them out of the picture if I want to escape with Kevin.”
Enhancing her muscles with youki, Lilian leapt onto the roof, landing silently thanks to her
Silence
illusion.
The person guarding the front entrance stood on the opposite side, still sweeping the barrel of their gun back and forth across the parking lot. No doubt he was searching for her.
Lilian took him out in the same way as the guard down below. After lowering him onto his back, she leapt back down to ground level.