American Kitsune, Volume 12 (Light Novel)

1. Weak to Strong Protagonist (Expect Kevin to grow both mentally and physically as the series progresses)
2. Aggressive Main Love Interest
3. Accidental Perv Moments / Ecchi Shenanigans
4. Harem Hijinks
5. Classic Harem Archetypes
6. Fourth-Wall Breaks
7. Over-the-Top Fanservice

It was early in the morning. The sun hadn’t even risen yet.

Justin sat in the back of a military transport vehicle with Jack and Jill, the brother and sister team that he’d been with him since he’d gone after Kevin. They weren’t twins, though they looked close enough that he could see the resemblance. Jill was older by about two years.

The vehicle they were in had no windows, which meant that he couldn’t see outside. It didn’t matter anyway. The driver would let them know when they were at their destination.

While his breathing was even and his heartbeat was steady, Justin felt his stomach twisting itself into knots. Ever since his defeat at Kevin’s hands, Justin had been thinking about what his friend had said.

“Then maybe you should think about that before deciding to become our enemy. You don’t have to do what someone says just because you were created by them.”

The words of Kevin played over and over again in his mind. He’d thought about them for the past several days, and he had come to the conclusion that his friend was right.

I don’t want to be someone who goes against his own beliefs because the people who made him don’t believe the same thing.

“We’re almost there, Lieutenant,” the driver called out from the front, snapping Justin out of his introspection.

“Right. Thanks.”

Jack shifted in his seat, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “So, we’re really doing this?” he whispered.

“We are,” Justin confirmed. “Are you two ready?”

“I still do not approve of what we’re about to do,” Jill admitted quietly. “However, I approve of this war even less.”

“Good to know,” Justin said, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms.

Justin felt the vehicle slide to a stop. The driver up front rolled down their window and began speaking with the guard on the other side. While he couldn’t see anything, he was familiar enough with the process to know that the driver’s ID was being scanned and their names would be catalogued as “on-site.”

The window rolled up and the car started moving again. It stopped once more several minutes later, and the door was opened a few seconds after that. Justin, Jack, and Jill vacated the vehicle, which had been parked in a vast underground military garage. The driver also got out and saluted them.

“At ease,” Justin said.

“Sir.”

“Go and report to the Transport Division,” he continued. “Afterward, take a break. You’ve earned it.”

The driver relaxed. “Thank you, sir.”

He, Jack, and Jill watched as the driver walked away from the car and toward one of several exits. They waited until he was gone to begin speaking.

“Do you two remember the plan?” Justin asked.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” asked Jack. “Of course I remember the plan. I’m the baddest mother--doof!”

“We remember, Lieutenant,” Jill said, retracting her elbow from Jack’s gut. “Do not worry. Jack and I shall create a distraction, while you do what you need to.”

“Glad to see you’re on the ball,” Justin joked before getting serious. “We’re only going to have a few hours to do this. Once Commander Paine comes back, any hope that we may have had at completing this mission will go up in smoke.”

Commander Paine was currently in Washington DC, where all of the military bigwigs were currently having war talks with the United States President. The commander was going to use this meeting to push his plan forward. Justin didn’t know what his plan was, but he would bet Eric’s entire collection of eroge that it wasn’t going to be anything good.

I’m working with a limited amount of time, with only two other people against an entire base, and I’m betraying the people who created me.

Justin barely withheld his self-deprecating chuckle.

Let’s do this.

***

Someone else was in her bed.

Having lived her whole life by herself, Christine was accustomed to sleeping alone. She knew exactly how much her bed sunk underneath her weight, and she could sense the minute shifts in aspects of her bed such as temperature, mattress firmness, and changes in elevation caused by unusual circumstances.

Such as someone else being in her bed.

The only question Christine had was: Who?

Who the hell is in my bed? Whoever it is, they’re a dead man.

Wanting to find out who’d been so brazen as to slip into bed with her, Christine turned around. Her mouth was open to verbally lash at the soon to be dead person. She paused, however, upon meeting a pair of crimson eyes.

“Good morning, Christy,” Iris greeted with a devious smile, her eyes glimmering like a cat’s after they caught a mouse. In a situation like this, Christine did the only thing she could think of.

“KYA!”

Shrieking, she leapt out of bed, not even bothered by the cold in her panic. Iris winced at the sound. As a fox, her ears were quite sensitive, so the shouting probably hurt--not that Christine cared about something like that, given what the vixen was currently doing.

“Could you be any louder?” Iris grumbled. She sat up in bed, the blanket slowly sliding off to reveal her bare breasts, and raised a hand to her ears. “Honestly, you’re so loud.”

Christine ignored the vixen’s blathering and pointed an accusing at her. “What the hell are you doing in my bed?!”

By this point, the blanket was pooled around Iris’s waist. Christine dipped her gaze downwards and noticed that Iris truly was naked. While she couldn’t see anything past Iris’s hips, there was no cloth to indicate that the vixen had anything on--not even underwear.

“Lilian and Kevin went to bed sooner than me,” Iris informed her. “I thought about slipping in with them, but I felt like they deserved some time alone after what happened yesterday.”

Yesterday she, Kevin, Iris, Lilian, and several other people had traveled to Lake Michigan and rescued two women: Heather Grant and Phoebe. The mission had been more dangerous than anything that Christine had ever done, yet somehow, they’d succeeding and come back alive. A large part of the reason for that had been Kevin and Lilian, whose teamwork had stalled the creature calling himself Hebi long enough for Orin to arrive and defeat him.

After the successful rescue mission, they’d returned to New Genbu, where a party had been prepared in their honor. Christine couldn’t remember much of what happened during the party. She remembered spending time with Kevin and Lilian, and she remembered Iris being her usual self, but a good deal of her time after that was blank.

It must have been the alcohol.

There had been alcohol at the party. Christine had partaken in some of it at Iris’ behest, but yuki-onna were not tolerant of alcohol, and Christine, being the tiny slip of a girl that she was, had even less tolerance. She’d gotten wasted after a single drink.

Christine groaned and covered her face with her hands. She must have blacked out after that one drink, then Iris had probably taken her to bed and slipped in with her.

This… this is the most humiliating moment of my life, she concluded. I can only hope I didn’t embarrass myself in front of Kevin.

“By the way…” Iris began.

“What?” Christine snapped at her.

“Are you going to stand around in the buff all day? Not that I mind the view, but I thought you didn’t like the cold.”

“What?”

Staring at the two-tailed vixen in her bed, Christine wondered what she was talking about. What did she mean when she said standing around in… the… buff…?

… After a painfully long and awkward silence, Christine looked down.

“Kya!”

Then she squeaked when she realized that she was, indeed, bare as the day she’d been born. She tried to cover herself up, but all she had were her hands--and now that Iris had mentioned it, she was positively freezing! With nothing protecting her from the elements, her body temperature quickly plummeted.

Before she could complain, two black tails extended from the bed and wrapped around her. Christine was instantly engulfed in their warmth. She would’ve sighed in relief, but these tails belonged to Iris, and she didn’t trust the vixen as far as she could throw her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Christine demanded.

“Warming you up until we can find your clothes,” Iris announced as she stood up. Unlike Christine, she had no qualms about being seen naked, and so she bared her voluptuous body before Christine. Her pink nipples were partially covered by several strands of hair. Christine, unable to stop herself, suddenly looked down.

Huh… bare…

For some reason that she couldn’t explain, she hadn’t expected this vixen to be the kind of gal who shaved, though she felt like she should have.

“I know I’m gorgeous, but you might want to stop staring,” Iris said, grinning. “People might get the wrong idea.”

“W-whatever!”  Christine blustered. “I wasn’t looking at you cuz I like what I see. I was staring because you’re so damn shameless.”

“Damn right I am!”

“That’s not something to be proud of!”

Growling, Christine said nothing and gathered her clothes. Her outfit lay scattered about the room. Her slippers were by the entrance. Her socks lay on the floor near her bed. Her lolita dress was sitting haphazardly against a chair, and the bodice ended up being underneath her bed. After locating everything, the tails Iris had been using to warm her up retracted and Christine hurriedly got dressed, keenly aware of the eyes that were staring at her.

“Could you stop that?”

“Stop what?”

“Stop staring at me?”

“Why?”

“Because it makes me uncomfortable!”

“I don’t know why you would be. We’re both girls, and it’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before. We’ve been in the hot springs together several times already.”

“This time and those times are completely different!”

“If you say so.”

Iris shrugged and stopped talking. Christine grimaced as she tried to tie her bodice. It laced in the back, which meant she had to reach awkwardly behind her. While she could manage, it usually took her awhile to lace her outfit together.

I should think about getting one that just zips up…

“Here,” Iris said, coming up behind her and grabbing the laces, “let me do this.”

Christine could’ve snapped at her, but as Iris began to gently tie the lace together, tightening it so it was tight but not uncomfortable, she couldn’t bring herself to complain. For all her faults, Iris had done a lot for her, including saving her life at the risk of her own.

Even though it had happened over half a year ago, Christine still remembered that moment like it was yesterday, how Iris had shoved her out of the way of that three-tailed foxes light spear, how the spear had impaled Iris as the vixen took an attack that had been meant for her. More than anything else, she remembered the gentle smile that Iris had given her as she asked if she was all right. Iris was crude, rude, and completely shameless, but Christine counted her as one of her greatest friends.

“Thank you,” Christine whispered as Iris finished tying her bodice.

“You’re welcome. Now, let’s go see the stud.”

Christine was about to nod, but then she realized something. “Iris?”

Iris looked at her. “Hm?”

“You’re still naked.”

Iris looked down at herself. “So I am.”

“Put some damn clothes on!” Christine shouted and facepalmed at the same time.

***

Iris was not in bed when Kevin woke up. Whenever he slept these days, it was always one of three ways; either on his back and Lilian and Iris sleeping on either side of him, on his side spooning Lilian while Iris spooned him, or spooning Lilian while his mate spooned Iris. Last night he had slept on his side, but the familiar feeling of Iris hugging him close had not been present.

It somewhat bothered him that he’d grown so used to her presence that he actually noticed when she was gone. It bothered him even more to realize that he actually missed her presence.

Have I really become so used to her sharing my bed that it feels weird when she’s not around?

He didn’t like entertaining that thought. Having more than one significant other was wrong, and the fact that he’d been sleeping with Lilian and Iris bothered him. Iris always said it was because he let human society dictate his beliefs on right and wrong, but he didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. If society said that something was wrong, then there had to be a reason for it.

And yet I still let her share my bed with Lilian.

Maybe there was just something wrong with him. Perhaps he gave in to the demands of others too easily. He wondered about that, but he quickly decided that couldn’t be it. The only people he’d ever given into were Lilian and Iris, and that was because they had double-teamed him. No healthy teenage male would have been able to resist even one of them, much less both of them at the same time, so he could hardly be blamed for what had transpired--or so he told himself.

Shoving those thoughts to the back of his mind, Kevin sat up. The chilly morning air hit his skin, and he immediately wanted to crawl back under the covers. Glancing around revealed a mostly empty room. Cien and Polydora were no longer sleeping in their hut. Cien had his own hut now, and Polydora was sleeping with the other Yuma Uba.

That means Lilian and I are alone.

How long had it been since they were alone? It couldn’t have been more than a few weeks, but it felt like so much longer. A lot had happened; their mission to California, the attack from the Sons and Daughters of Humanity, going to search for Orin, and the mission to rescue Phoebe and Heather. With everything that had transpired, it felt like months had passed instead of a few days.

Looking down, Kevin felt his heart melt at the sight of his sleeping mate. Lilian lay on her side. Her red hair looked like fire licking at the white sheets. He could only seen her face. Her eyes were closed, allowing him to spot how long and thick her eyelashes were, and her mouth was partially open as she breathed. She was drooling a bit, but Kevin thought it was cute.

Rolling Lilian onto her back, Kevin took another moment to admire the girl who had chosen him. Seeing her so vulnerable like this, knowing that she allowed herself to be this vulnerable because she loved him, made his heart turn into a pile of goo. He really was one of the luckiest people around.

What did I ever do to deserve her?

Lilian mumbled something incomprehensible, then shifted to get more comfortable. As she did, she partially kicked the sheets off, revealing the large T-shirt that she’d worn to bed, the hem of which had risen, exposing a good portion of her flat stomach.

Last night, they’d been too sore to have sex. It was only natural. They had gone on that rescue mission the other day and nearly died fighting against that man who called himself Hebi. Still, seeing her like this now made Kevin grow hard.

I should wake her up…

Straddling Lilian’s legs, Kevin slowly pushed the hem of her large T-shirt further up. As more of her taut stomach was exposed, he felt his erection grow even harder, and his breathing felt slightly hitched. He also felt somewhat embarrassed, but he pushed that aside and focused on his mate. She always enjoyed it when he woke her up like this, and he wanted to make her happy.

He leaned down and placed his lips on her stomach, feeling the muscles twitch underneath him as Lilian sucked in a breath. Trailing kisses along her skin, he listened to the sounds she made; the soft whimpers and moans as he trailed his lips across the taut skin, and the way her breathing hitched as he traveled further up, eventually reaching her breasts.

Kevin stared at her chest for a moment, which was still covered by a shirt. Slowly, he pushed her shirt further her, exposing her breasts, which sat like two proud mountains on her chest. Lilian shivered as the cold air hit them. She tried to grab the blanket and cover herself back up, but Kevin grabbed her hands, laced his fingers through hers, and placed them over her head. He’d be warming her up in a second anyway.

Lilian had the most beautiful breasts he’d ever seen. Large but not obscenely so. Perky despite their incredible size. Her nipples were small and pink, and as the cold air hit them, they hardened into tiny points. Feeling a sudden craving, Kevin leaned down and sucked one of her nipples into his mouth.

“Mnnn!”

Lilian released a breathy moan as he swirled his tongue around her nipple. Her body seemed to shudder against him. Understanding that this meant she would be waking up soon, Kevin let go of her hands and stuck one of his hands into her panties. She was already a little wet, so it was easy to insert a finger into her. As his index finger went in for the kill, his thumb worked out the small bundle of nerves from underneath the hood and rubbed it.

“Nn! Ahn! Ha… ha… ahn!”

Delicate hands grabbed the back of his head and pulled him further into Lilian’s breast. Lilian’s moans increased in volume. He continued working, adding a second finger to the first, which caused Lilian to cry out his name. He felt the warm walls around his finger tighten, then loosen as Lilian’s body became completely relaxed.

“B-Beloved…” Lilian whispered breathlessly.

Kevin looked up and grinned at what he saw. Lilian’s hair had become a messy halo around her head, her cheeks were a lovely shade of pink, and her breathing had grown heavy. She gazed at him with half-lidded eyes and a sleepy but pleased smile.

Crawling up her body until his face was directly over hers, Kevin placed a kiss on her lips. He let himself linger there, enjoying the silken feel of her mouth, and when Lilian’s tongue licked his lips, asking for permission to enter, he gave it, opening his mouth and allowing her tongue to become entwined with his.

He didn’t know how long they remained like that, languidly kissing, though he did know that he wished it could have lasted forever. Yet all good things must eventually come to an end, and Kevin regretfully pulled back to present Lilian with a smile.

“Good morning,” he greeted.

“That was some good morning,” Lilian said, smiling as she reached for his head and hugged him to her chest. Kevin didn’t resist. “How are you feeling today?”

“I’m still a little sore, but I’m better than I was yesterday.”

“Mmm, you certainly seem to be feeling better.”

“Only because you’ve become such a phenomenal healer.”

Lilian didn’t respond at first, but when she did, her voice was soft. “Maybe…”

“Lily?” Kevin looked up to see Lilian frowning. “What’s up?”

“Nothing… at least, I think it’s nothing.” Lilian’s face was awfully cute as she scrunched it up like a chipmunk’s. “I was just wondering if it’s really because I’ve become a good healer.”

Kevin shifted onto his side and, placing his elbow on the fuuton, he used his left hand to keep his head elevated. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” Lilian thought some more. “It’s just that I don’t seem to be capable of healing other people as well as I can heal you. It’s easier to heal a yōkai because their bodies are more receptive to youki, but for some reason, healing you is far easier for me than anyone else.”

“Is that so?” Kevin rolled onto his back and stared up at the tree ceiling, counting the rings in the wood. Pondering her words, he eventually gave a chuckle. “Maybe I’m a half-yokai.”

“Please don’t joke like that, Beloved,” Lilian stated flatly. “That would be a terrible plot device.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

Kevin hummed. Truth be told, he didn’t know much about his lineage. His mom was a human, but he knew nothing of his father, beyond the fact that the man was a coward who’d abandoned his mom. For all he knew, he could have been a half-yokai. He did have that strange barrier negating ability, after all, which was, most assuredly, not something that a human should have been capable of.

Thoughts of his parentage left him when Lilian rolled over and straddled his waist. He was still aroused, and her bottom rubbed against him, causing a groan to escape his mouth.

“Lilian…”

He reached up and placed his hands on her hips. Lilian leaned down as she continued grinding into him. Looking down, Kevin glanced at her breasts through her shirt, then he looked back up into Lilian’s emerald-eyed gaze.

In a serious and needy voice, Lilian said, “I want to have sex.”

There really is no subtlety with this girl.

Still, that was an order that he was more than willing to abide by.

***

Christine and Iris were nearing Kevin and Lilian’s tree hut, barely 15 feet from the door, when a particular loud moan echoed from inside. Perhaps the noise reached them more readily because these huts didn’t have a door. There was just a thick cloth covering the entrance.

Christine froze as her face turned a shade of blue that had yet to be discovered by man.

“Heh… sounds like the stud and Lily-pad are getting it on,” Iris stated in a matter of fact tone.

Another moan echoed from beyond the flap that separated them from Kevin and Lilian. Christine shuddered from head to toe at the sound. It was sensual, erotic, and filled with enough passion that she thought she might freeze over. It was also the most embarrassing sound that she had ever heard.

Christine didn’t like feeling embarrassed.

Tsundere Protocols: Activated.

***

Sex with Lilian was easily one of the most amazing things ever. Kevin wasn’t sure if he could ever adequately describe what it was like to make love to his mate. Lilian was enthusiastic, energetic, and loved trying new things, and since they were both relatively new to the joys of sex, it meant neither one of them had any more experience than the other. It was a process that they were learning together.

“A-ahn! R-right there, Beloved!”

She was also very vocal. Lilian had no trouble letting him know what she liked and what she didn’t like.

“You mean like this?”

“Y-yes! Oh, gods! I think I found One Piece!”

She also enjoyed making random anime references.

“Lily, you make my dick harder than a kunai!”

“You make me wetter than a water jutsu!”

“Is my drill the drill that is piercing your heaven?”

“Yes! Your drill is the drill that is piercing my heaven!”

“Who’s drill is the drill that is piercing your heaven?!”

“Your drill is the drill that is piercing my heaven!”

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU TWO THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” Christine shrieked as she burst into the room.

Kevin and Lilian stopped what they were doing. Their bodies froze mid-coitus, which may have had something to do with the ice that was now creeping along their blanket. Slowly, oh so slowly, they turned their heads toward the entrance.

Christine stood before them like an ice demon who’d just turned the Sanzu River into a winter wonderland. Her entire body had become a frosty shade of ice blue, not just her face, but all of her. Steam wafted off her head like smoke from a bonfire. She was shuddering from head to toe, though whether this was embarrassment, rage, or both, Kevin could not discern.

Well, this isn’t good. I’d better say something to calm her down before she turns us into popsicles.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” Kevin said.

… Silence. Christine stared at him. Lilian stared at him. Iris, who’d just wandered into their little tree hut, also stared at him.

“Okay, so this is what it looks like,” Kevin admitted. “Lilian and I are mates. We have sex. It’s natural.”

“Well said, Beloved. Sex is a perfectly natural thing.”

“Exactly. So, there’s no need to get upset, right, Christine?”

“… Beloved, that was a dumb thing to say.”

“It was?”

“Yes,” Iris said before Lilian could, “it was.”

“Huh? Why is that?”

In response to his words, Iris pointed at Christine. The girl stood stock still. She didn’t move an inch. With her blue skin tone, Kevin almost assumed that she’d become a block of ice. Maybe her yuki-onna powers had kicked into high gear and turned her into an ice statue.

“Uh… Christine?”

“You… two…” Christine whispered. Kevin and Lilian both shuddered. How could someone so tiny sound so terrifying? “You two…”

Lilian tried to talk some sense into the girl. “Listen, Christine… I-I know that what Kevin said wasn’t very polite, but, well, he does make a good point. You shouldn’t really be upset by what we do in our private time together.”

“Bad move, Lily-pad,” Iris said.

Lilian would never get a chance to respond.

Because in that moment, all hell broke loose.

***

Kotohime had woken and gone to meet with Orin well before the first rays of light penetrated the canopy.

She sat in seiza. The ground beneath her was rough, but she used reinforcement to keep her limbs from falling asleep or getting scraped. Lounging on a bed of pillows, Orin, the descendant of the great monkey king Sun Wukong, smoked from his pipe.

“So, you have decided to come with us?” she asked for confirmation.

“I have,” Orin said after blowing out several smoke rings. “Your young companion’s strength and conviction has convinced me that it’s time to set aside the differences I have with that young drake and do what must be done.”

Kotohime hid her relief by lifting the sleeves of her kimono in front of her smiling lips. “I’m sure Davin-dono will be pleased to hear that.”

“Tch. Like I care what that old drake thinks. Now, if it was Sarah, that would be a different story.”

“You are speaking of Sarah Feniks? I heard that she was a companion of yours who disappeared several decades ago.”

Sarah Feniks was the fourth member of the Four Saints, and a woman who was said to be the only one capable of matching Davin Monstrang in sheer power. Kotohime knew very little about the woman, other than that no one seemed to know where she was.

“Yeah…” Orin leaned back and sighed. “I’m not exactly sure when she split with the other Four Saints, as I had left before her, but I heard through rumor that she’d up and vanished about fifty years ago--no one has seen her since.”

As she studied the wizened monkey, Kotohime noticed the way his face had softened at the mention of Sarah, the gentle look in his eyes, and the almost nostalgic aura that surrounded him. Seeing this expression, she realized something.

“You’re in love with her,” Kotohime stated with certainty. “With Sarah-san, I mean.”

Whether Orin would have said something, either a denial or affirmation, would never become known, as Cien walked in seconds later. The young Inu who’d joined them in their rescue mission wasn’t wearing a shirt. Sweat dripped down his body, making Kotohime wonder if the boy had been exercising.

“Orin, do you know if the--oh.” He paused upon seeing her. Kotohime almost broke character when she saw him twitch away from her. “I hadn’t realized someone else was in here.”

“Good morning, Cien… san.” It felt somewhat odd giving a dog who wasn’t Kiara a suffix, but Kotohime was nothing if not polite. “I hope you had a pleasant night.”

“Um… pleasant enough, I guess,” Cian mumbled. The expression on his face suggested that he didn’t know why they were talking. Kotohime didn’t blame him. Inu and kitsune had never really gotten along.

“In any event,” Orin started, “since my decision has now been made, why don’t we go see those three youngsters who originally came here and tell them the good news?”

Kotohime smiled as she stood up. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”

Leaving Orin’s hut, the three of them wandered through New Genbu--the small village that many yokai called their home. It was a very small village of less than 100 yokai. Instead of being made by buildings, be they bricks or wood, the houses and other accommodations had been created directly into the trees, which had circumferences of several dozen meters.

“HOLD STILL WHILE I KILL YOU TWO!!”

“N-now Christine, please calm down.”

“Yeah… t-this isn’t something to get upset over.”

“DIE!!”

“IYAHN!”

As they got closer to Kevin’s, Iris’, and Lilian’s hut, loud shouting reached their ears.

“Ufufufu, it seems Lilian-sama and Kevin-sama have done something to upset their friend.” Kotohime smiled placidly. “I wonder what they could have done…”

“It sounds like Christine is up and about, and she’s even more lively than usual,” Orin said, seemingly in agreement.

“HOLD STILL SO I CAN MURDER YOU TWO!!”

“GYAA!!” came two screams, one masculine and the other feminine.

“Lively… right,” Cien mumbled dryly. “I’m not sure ‘lively’ is the right word for it.”

“Ho?” Orin raised an eyebrow. “Then what would you call it?”

“I’LL FUCKING MURDER YOU BOTH DEAD!!!”

“Have mercy!!”

“How about murderous?” Cien suggested. Orin’s response was to increase his pace. Sighing, Cien followed Orin into the hut. An amused Kotohime walked behind them.

What they found inside was a catastrophe in the making. It looked like a tornado of ice had traveled through the interior. Objects lay strewn across the floor. Many of those objects were completely frozen, and several had been smashed into a thousand pieces like they were made of glass.

Christine was chasing Lilian and Kevin, mist bursting from her pores like heat vents in the Arctic. Whatever the mist touched became frozen solid. Sitting near the entrance with her legs crossed, Iris had pulled out a bag of popcorn, which she periodically munched on as Kevin and Lilian ran from the enraged Christine.

Kevin and Lilian were both completely naked.

“C-calm down, Christine!” Kevin, his modesty protected by nothing more than a pillow, squeaked as several dozen shards of ice nearly impaled him.

“Listen to Kevin! There’s no need for you to get so upset!” Lilian shouted. Unlike Kevin, who only had a pillow covering his junk, Lilian was wrapped up in a blanket.

“I won’t calm down! I’ll never calm down! Now hurry and DIE!!!! DIE NEURONS!!!”

“Kya!” Kevin and Lilian screamed at the same time as they were nearly struck down by a blizzard that Christine unleashed on them.

“Oh, my,” Kotohime mumbled to herself.

“I see you three are as lively as ever,” Orin said as he stepped further into the room. “However, you might want to--doof!”

Kotohime and Cien watched as Orin went down when something smacked him in the face. Then they looked at the implement that had downed him. It was a shoe, one which had been frozen solid.

“Ara, it seems things have gotten out of hand in here,” Kotohime said. Cien said nothing, but he nodded in apparent agreement.

“Oh, Kotohime,” Iris greeted. “What’s up? Want some popcorn?”

“How did this happen, exactly?” Kotohime asked as she grabbed a handful of popcorn when Iris offered her a bag. Cien also went to grab some popcorn, but Iris pulled it away, causing him to growl at her.

“Back off, dog.”

“I’ll bite you.”

“Only two people are allowed to bite me. Try it and I’ll castrate you.”

“Iris,” Kotohime prompted.

“Right, right.” Iris got back on topic. “Well, you know how it goes. Lily-pad and the stud were doing the nasty, Christine heard them, and then this happened.”

“So I see…”

Kotohime went silent after that. Iris offered her some more popcorn. Together, the two of them plus Cien watched the ensuing violence.

***

Christine eventually calmed down, though it might have been more accurate to say that she simply ran out of juice. She didn’t have much stamina, unlike Lilian and Kevin, who could outlast her even on their worst days. In the end, she’d exhausted herself chasing them around that tiny room. After that, Kotohime left, informing them that, after they got dressed, they should meet up with her and the others near the barrier entrance at the edge of New Genbu.

While his mate donned her bodysuit and then threw her pants, long-sleeved shirt, and snow coat over it, Kevin only put on the bodysuit. The bodysuits were designed with their own internal temperature unit, so he didn’t need to worry about freezing. Though he knew that he’d eventually need to put on civilian clothes at some point since this suit was so conspicuous. Strapped across his thighs were his two guns.

“Where are you going, Beloved?” Lilian asked as Kevin stood up after they’d finished packing their meager belongings.

“You’re going to see, Christy, aren’t ya?” Iris prodded with a grin. “Are you planning an early morning rendezvous with her?”

Kevin rolled her eyes. “Nothing of the sort. I just needed to get something from her, that’s all.”

“I’ll leave your clothes out for you,” Lilian said, folding a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt up and placing it on her duffel bag. “You’re gonna need to change before leaving.”

“I know.”

“He just wants to look cool.”

“Quiet you.”

Kevin sent Iris a mild glare with no real heat. In return, she blew him a kiss, which caused Kevin to shake his head as he slung his own duffel bag over his shoulder.

Exiting the small treehouse, Kevin meandered down the dirt road, branches and leaves crunching under foot as he walked to Christine’s treehouse. It didn’t take long to reach. Pausing by the entrance, Kevin wondered how he should do this. He couldn’t very well knock on the door, since all that existed was a cloth covering the entrance.

I could just walk in, but I don’t think that would be very well received. Also, given everything that’s happened to me since I met Lilian, the chances of me walking in while she’s changing or something are high.

He turned his head, as if pressing his ear to a door, and listened. There was some rustling from the other side, then a whump!, followed by some swearing.

“Christine?” he called. The rustling stopped. “Christine, are you in there?”

“I-I’m here,” came the call back. “W-what do you want?”

“I came to pick up those presents… can I come in?”

There was a pause. Then…

“J-just give me a second!”

Kevin waited patiently as he heard more rustling, several bangs!, and numerous grunts. He felt a small drop of sweat trail down the left side of his face when Christine cursed several more times. It sounded like she was having trouble with something.

“Do you want me to come in there and help you?” Kevin asked.

“N-no! It’s fine! I’m ok--kya!”

As a surprised shout went up from the other side, Kevin decided to heck with waiting and rushed into the treehouse. Christine was there, as expected. She was sitting on her butt with a wide-eyed expression on her face. Clothing lay scattered in a mess all around her. There was a briefcase sitting a foot away, leading Kevin to assume that she’d been trying to stuff these clothes into her suitcase and they’d all burst out.

“Are you alright, Christine?” Kevin asked as he walked up to her and held out his hand. Christine stared at the hand like it was an alien artifact. Then her cheeks turned a light shade of blue.

“I-I’m fine,” she muttered, delicately sliding her hand into his. Kevin marveled at how tiny her hand was as he pulled her up. “I-I thought I told you not to come in yet…”

“Ah-ha!” Kevin chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. “You did, but when I heard you scream, I thought something might be wrong. I guess I rushed in here without thinking. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she mumbled softly, looking in his direction.

“Hm?” Kevin tilted his head when he saw this. Was she embarrassed because he’d seen her in an awkward situation? “Christine, is something wrong?”

“N-no,” Christine choked out. “Nothing’s wrong… it’s just…”

“What is it?”

“C-could you let go of my hand, please?”

“Huh?”

Kevin required a second to process her words. Looking down, he saw that, indeed, he was still holding her hand.

“Oh.” He let go. “Sorry.”

“Y-you don’t need to keep apologizing.”

“Eh-hehehehe, right. Thank you, Christine.”

Poof!

Kevin stumbled back as steam burst from Christine’s head as her face turned blue. “W-whatever! Th-there’s no need to thank me. It’s just annoying how you keep apologizing.”

“I guess.” Kevin withheld a smile. Christine really hadn’t changed at all since the last time he’d seen her. Actually, she might be even more tsundere now than she had been. “Anyway, would you like me to help you pack?”

“A-ah! I-I don’t need any help! I can do this just fine by myself!”

Smiling down at her, Kevin said, “I know you can, but wouldn’t it be faster if you had someone lending you a hand? Besides, I want to help you.”

Christine squeaked, but she quickly regained herself. “W-well, I guess it can’t be helped, then. Since you’re being so pushy, I have no choice but to let you help me pack.”

“Then let’s get to work,” Kevin said with a grin that made Christine lose her composure.

“Don’t smile at me like that, you idiot!”

Thwak!

“Kuu!”

***

Kevin, now sporting a lump on his head, helped Christine pack her belongings.

They gathered up her clothes first. He’d never realized that she possessed so many gothic lolita outfits. There must have been at least sixteen pairs of the same lolita dress with very slight variations in cut and color. She also had numerous slippers.

Kneeling down next to an article of clothing, Kevin looked up to see Christine a few feet away, gathering up one of her extravagant lolita dresses. Looking at her like this, the girl really did look cute, like a fragile porcelain doll. As he continued to watch her, his eyes landed on the black choker around her neck.

“Isn’t that the choker that I bought you for your birthday a while back?” Kevin asked.

Christine paused in her work. Her hand went to her choker. “A-ah, um, yes, it is. I… well, this is my… my favorite choker, so I like to wear it a lot…” Christine’s cheeks flushed once more, but she at least didn’t seem to be blowing her top. “After you, Iris, and Lilian left, I was really lonely. I hadn’t realized how important all of you were to me until you were gone. Ever since that day, ever since you three went off to Greece, I’ve taken to wearing this, because it reminded me of all the good times we’ve shared together.”

That was probably the most honest thing he’d ever heard Christine say since she’d confessed her feelings for him. He’d noticed it before, but Christine really was a tsundere. She rarely ever told anyone what she was really thinking, and she covered up her embarrassment with bluster and violence. Moments like this were rare for her. He could count the number of times where she’d been honest with her feelings on one hand and still have fingers left over.

“I’m sorry we left you like that,” Kevin apologized.

Christine shook her head. “You don’t need to apologize. I know that you didn’t have much of a choice. Had you not left, then…”

Then he, Lilian, and Iris would have put everyone in danger. Back then, Lilian had been targeted by the Shénshèng Clan. One of its members, a three-tailed kitsune named Fan had attacked them during Lindsay’s soccer game. Iris had nearly been killed, and Kevin had destroyed an entire school building just to defeat Fan. Christine had been there when it happened, so she understood why they had to leave.

“Thank you for being so understanding,” he said.

Christine quickly turned her back to him. “T-there’s no need to thank me. We’re friends. I-I was only doing what any good friend would do.”

Tsundere until the end, Kevin thought with an amused chuckle.

“Then, Christine, I’m very glad that you’re my friend.”

Christine squeaked. As she sputtered incoherently, Kevin finally grabbed the article that he’d been kneeling over. Blinking when he realized that it felt different than everything else that he’d picked up thus far, he held the article up to study it.

“What is this…?” He trailed off.

The object in his hands… it was Christine’s panties.

“Uh…”

Kevin could hear his brain sizzling.

“W-what are you doing, idiot! Don’t stare at those!”

Christine leapt at him, and Kevin, too shocked by the objects in his hand to do anything, let her tackle him to the ground. The panties were thrown from his hands as his back slammed into the floor. Spots appeared in his vision, but they were soon replaced by Christine’s face, which hovered not two inches from his own. Their noses were almost touching.

“C-Christine?”

He felt his eyes widen as Christine’s face inched a little closer to his. This was bad. This was a very bad situation. Christine was straddling him, and he could feel her thighs touching him, and her body was pressed against him, and… and…

Oh, no…

Perhaps it was the result of him still being horny because Christine had interrupted him and Lilian while they were having sex, but Kevin felt his arousal skyrocket. Christine felt it, too, because her eyes went even wider and she looked down. He also looked down. Then he looked back up. Their eyes met. Christine’s face was the brightest blue that he’d ever seen.

“I can explain this,” Kevin said calmly.

“KYA!”

The sound of Christine’s scream was followed by a loud slap.

***

It took longer than expected, but Kevin and Christine eventually managed to pack all of her belongings, and Kevin had grabbed the presents that he’d bought for Lilian the others, which he packed into his own duffel bag.

“Did you really have to hit me?” Kevin asked, wincing as he touched the bright blue slap mark on his face. There was frost covering it, and it felt kind of numb, but that just made it worse.

“I-I’m sorry,” Christine apologized. She seemed so embarrassed that she couldn’t even activate her tsundere protocols. “B-but you really, um, surprised me.”

“Yeah… I guess that would be surprising,” Kevin admitted with a sigh.

Truth be told, he felt a little guilty for getting aroused like that. Guilty and ashamed. He knew that it was a normal biological reaction, and that it couldn’t really be helped given the circumstance, yet he still felt awful.

“K-Kevin,” Christine stuttered.

“Yes?”

“Do you… that reaction… does that mean you… um, find me attractive?”

Of all the questions that she could ask…

Kevin didn’t know how to answer her. It was true that he thought she was pretty, but he didn’t have the right to tell her that, not after he’d broken her heart. At the same time, it wouldn’t have been right to lie to her.

Withholding the sigh that threatened to escape, he decided to go with honesty. “I’ve always thought you were incredibly pretty.”

“R-really?” Christine looked hopeful.

“Really.” Kevin felt his stomach twist into painful knots. This really was the worst kind of torture. He wondered if this was his punishment for breaking her heart back then.

“I-I see…” Christine murmured. There was a brightness in her eyes that hadn’t been there before, and her lips had curved into a joyful smile. She didn’t even seem to realize it herself. Kevin was sure that if she knew how happy she looked, Christine would have gone full tsundere on him.

Great, now I feel really guilty.

They walked in silence. Kevin tried to take his mind off the past few seconds by enjoying the surrounding greenery. He heard the chirping of bird songs and saw several animals crawling along the trees, chipmunks and smaller mammals, which made their home at the base of the massive trees.

I wonder if these trees are natural, or if a yokai made them grow like this.

They soon reached the edge of New Genbu, where everyone else was waiting. Kotohime and Heather stood near the front, while Orin trailed behind the two with Cien. Phoebe, Polydora, and the other yuma uba were all packed together. Lilian was with Iris. Judging from his mate’s flushed cheeks and the pleased grin on Iris’s face, they must have gotten up to something while he was away. Kevin shook his head.

Now is so not the time for that.

“Kevin Swift!” Phoebe greeted in a booming voice. “Let me once again thank you for rescuing me.”

“There’s no need for that…”

“Please allow me to give you my body!”

“Urk!” Kevin doubled over like someone had punched him in the gut.

“You may do whatever you please with me!”

“G-gurk!”

“However, I would be particularly pleased if you injected your semon into my womb and impregnated me!”

“Would you stop saying stuff like that?!” Kevin shouted once he’d recovered.

Christine sent him a flat look. “You know, I forgot to ask this because so much happened, but who the hell is this girl and why does she keep asking you to knock her up?”

“N-now isn’t the time for that,” Kevin tried to change the subject. Fortunately, he had a wonderful mate who was willing to lend him a hand.

“Here you go, Beloved.” A still slightly flushed Lilian handed him a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt. “You’ll want to put these on before we go into town.”

“Right.”

Kevin sighed as he slipped his clothes over his bodysuit. He actually rather liked wearing just the suit. It made him feel cool, like one of those shonen manga heroes that he admired so much.

While he got dressed, Iris walked up to Christine, wearing a salacious grin.

“So, how was it being alone with the stud? Did you two do anything that you shouldn’t have?”

Christine sent Iris a glare even as she blushed. “Don’t be stupid. We wouldn’t do something like that.” She grabbed her left elbow with her right hand. “Kevin doesn’t even feel that way about me…”

“Hm? What’s this? Why are you trailing off?” Iris’s grin widened. “Did something happen? It did, didn’t it?”

Shrinking into her lolita dress, Christine looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there. “H-he did say that he thinks I’m pretty…”

“Oh? He did, did he?” Iris chuckled. “Uhuhu, that’s good. It means that he thinks of you as a woman and not just a friend. Now all you need to do is seduce him.”

“C-can we not talk about seducing someone?”

“I’ve got an aphrodisiac, in case you want some help.”

“Who said I need help?!”

Kevin and Lilian turned to Iris and Christine when the yuki-onna started shouting.

“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Lilian pondered out loud.

Kevin just sighed. “I’m not so sure I want to know.”

Lilian couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

Kotohime stepped up to them and, with her hands clasped in front of her, said, “Lilian-sama, Kevin-sama, have you packed everything?”

“Yes!” Lilian and Kevin said at the same time.

“Ufufufu, that is good. Since we’re all here now, I believe it’s time for us to leave. Wouldn’t you agree, Orin-dono?”

“I guess,” Orin grumbled, rubbing his neck as if he was working out a kink. “I still can’t believe I actually agreed to go back with you guys…”

“Ufufufu, what are you saying? I thought you agreed to return with us because you were so moved by the courage that Lilian-sama and Kevin-sama displayed.”

“Che. The only reason I’m going is because Christine is leaving, and if she leaves, then I won’t have any eye candy to--”

“Shut up, ya damn pervert!” Christine shouted and threw an ice ball at Orin’s head.

“Gack!”

Orin went down like a sack of bricks.

“And this is supposed to be a member of the Four Saints,” Kevin declared solemnly. Everyone sans Heather nodded.

“I don’t know… I kinda like him,” the blond woman said.

Needless to say, she got nothing but incredulous stares.

***

They would not be flying from Ohio to Arizona but taking a train. Kotohime had told them it was because flying with such a large group would be too conspicuous, but Lilian thought there might have been another reason. On their train ride back to New Genbu after the rescue mission, she and Kevin had heard a rumor that the airports had all been shut down, though she didn’t know how accurate these rumors were.

The plan was not to go north through Columbus, but to travel south, cutting across Kentucky, Tennessee, and the other states that ran along the southern coast, until they reached their destination. Of course, a single train wouldn’t be able to get them back home, so they would be making multiple train hops.

Because there were so many people, they were in the passenger car and not their own private car. That kind of disappointed Lilian. She’d been hoping for some private time with Kevin, so they could finish what they’d started that morning before Christine interrupted them, but she guessed that was asking for too much.

The train itself was mostly empty. Lilian would have found this odd, but very few people were traveling these days thanks to the war. It was part of the reason that the airports were closing down. With so little business, there wasn’t much point in keeping them up and running. Even the trains only still ran because they were needed to carry shipments of supplies between states.

Glancing around the car, Lilian saw that their group had pretty much taken all the seats. Kotohime and Orin sat together discussing matters that she didn’t care to know about. Many of the yuma uba sat grouped together, and she frowned when she noticed they were pointing and whispering at Kevin and Cien. She didn’t know what they were saying, but she hoped they weren’t making up a BL story about her mate and some other guy.

There were three seats to each row, and rows were arranged so that two rows would be facing each other. Lilian sat in one row. She was in the middle, while Christine and Iris sat on either side. Kevin was sitting directly across from her. On either side of him was Phoebe and Cien. Polydora was in the seat behind Kevin, and her glare looked like it could cut through steel. It probably had something to do with Phoebe and Kevin’s conversation--if one could call it a conversation.

“Kevin Swift. I was thinking that we could make a child when we return to Arizona.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to give you children.”

“She will be a strong warrior just like you and I.”

“I’m only sixteen. I have no interest in kids.”

“Her name will be Chloe.”

“… You’re not listening to a word I say, are you?”

“Must be tough being so popular,” Cien said with something of a sneer. Lilian wondered if he was jealous of her mate.

Kevin tossed him a glare. “If you think having some woman try to convince you to have a child with her is easy, then by all means, be my guest and switch places with me.”

“I’m good, thanks.”

“Do you know what sound harems make when they’re being fed?” Iris asked before making strange smacking noises like she was eating. “Nom nom nom.”

“You be quiet!” Kevin pointed at her as he shouted.

Lilian didn’t know what to think of Cien yet. Thanks to prolonged exposure to Kiara, she didn’t hate or fear dogs like she used to. At the same time, she didn’t necessarily like inu either. They were annoying, and smelly, and even though they were all about fighting, they didn’t understand the nuances of true shonen battle mechanics.

I guess I’ll just have to accept his presence. Beloved doesn’t seem to mind him.

Indeed, Kevin seemed somewhat pleased to have another male to talk to, and he’d spent a lot of time smack talking to Cien, who was more than willing to trade barbs right back.

It must be a guy thing. Beloved did this with that Chasey guy in track.

Several hundred miles away, back in Arizona, Casey Chase sneezed.

Lilian felt a sudden frown crawl onto her face as she looked down at Christine. Her yuki-onna friend had been abnormally silent since they’d left. She hadn’t gone tsun-tsun on anyone even once.

“Hey, Christine, what do you plan on doing once we return to Arizona?” Lilian asked.

Christine looked up at her, blinking several times as if she was just now registering her surroundings. “I don’t know… I guess I’ll just go back to doing what I’ve always done before I left.”

“Are you excited to see everyone else?”

“If, by everyone else, you mean Eric and those other idiots, then no, I’m not.” Christine scowled. “I was hoping that I would never have to see those buffoons again.”

Lilian smiled. She knew that her friend wasn’t being honest with herself. While Christine didn’t really like Eric and the others, she was always smiling whenever they’d gone out together as a large group--at least, until Eric did something perverted. Even so, she’d smile again after beating the crap out of him.

“What about Lindsay?” she asked.

It was almost telling to see how Christine stiffened at the name. The almost guilty look on her face was even more telling.

“I… I’m not sure,” Christine admitted at last. “I know how Lindsay feels about me, but…”

“You’re not into her like that, right?”

“Ha…” Christine released a loud gust of wind, which contained some mist. “Of course not. Lindsay is a good friend, but that is all. I’m not attracted to women.”

Lindsay Dianne, one of their friends back in Arizona, had a major crush on Christine. Lilian didn’t know when it had happened, but she’d learned that, on the day Christine left to receive training from Orin, Lindsay had kissed her. Unfortunately for their mutual friend, Christine was straight. Lilian would even bet her tails that the yuki-onna still liked Kevin.

“You know… I’m not too good when it comes to giving advice about this sort of romance,” Lilian began, choosing her words carefully. She wanted to help her friends, both of them. “But when you two finally see each other again, I think you should just be honest with her.”

“I know.”

Christine sent her an annoyed look, but Lilian just smiled as she reached into her bag and pulled out her tablet. Turning it on, she swiftly opened her manga reading app and selected a manga that she knew Christine liked--Ouran High School Host Club.

“Would you like to read this with me?” she offered.

A short silence ensued as Christine stared at the tablet, her index finger twitching as if she wanted to grab the device from Lilian’s hands. The way the girl’s eyes were glued to the screen made it obvious that she wanted to read it. At the same time, Christine never openly expressed an interest in manga like her and Kevin.

“I-I guess I have no choice,” Christine said at last, trying to sound imperious. “S-since there’s nothing else to do on this train, I’ll read this with you.”

As she resisted the urge to giggle at Christine’s continued tsundere-ness, Lilian scooted closer and rested the tablet on their thighs. Together, she and her friend followed the story of a high school female who became a host that entertained other females…

… Manga had weird stories like that.

***

The vast tunnel that Hebi traveled through was dark, but that was okay. He’d always relied more on his tongue than his eyes to see.

“Where are you taking me?! I demand that you unhand me this instant!”

Behind him, Kushinadahime struggled against his tail’s strong grip. He could feel her fighting him, squirming around in his tail’s grasp as if doing so would actually accomplish anything. It wouldn’t. Kushinadahime might have been a goddess at some point, but now she was just a lowly human girl who used to attend a private all-girls high school.

“I don’t know why you keep struggling,” Hebi commented lightly. “You know that’s not going to do anything to me, don’t you, Kushinadahime?”

“I told you my name is Kandice! Kandice!”

“Yes, yes. Kandice. I remember.”

Chortling, Hebi ignored the girl as she released a series of foul expletives. The tunnel that he was slithering down was slanted, and it consisted of many winding pathways. He flicked out his tongue and scented out the correct path, eventually arriving at a large torii that marked the entrance to a shrine.

Known as Japanese gates, toriis were often used to mark the entrance of shrines. They were, in essence, two large lintel posts known as hashira, which supported two beams of wood called nuki and kasagi. While the lower beam, the nuki, remained flat, the upper beam, kasagi, which also featured a black roof, was slanted on either side.

“Did you know that in Japanese culture, toriis are used to mark the entrance to a sacred place?” Hebi asked Kushinadahime, his condescending tone rank with humor. “They’re supposed to symbolically mark the transition from the profane to the sacred. I find it most amusing that the Four Saints would create shrines like this to seal my power away. Really, what could they have been thinking?”

Slithering up to the entrance, Hebi passed through the gate without hesitation. He grunted moments later when, without warning, an incredible pressure slammed into him. His grip on Kushinadahime almost loosened, but he gritted his teeth and channeled youki into his body.

A snake shot from his body, biting onto the torii. As the snake’s fangs sank into the lintel post, blackness spread across the torii. The pressure lessened. Then, as the poison spread through the wood, it ceased altogether.

“Ho… I guess that explains why they decided to seal my powers within shrines,” Hebi said to himself.

He supposed it was only natural that one such as himself would not be welcome inside of a shrine. Any deity seeking entrance into another deity’s shrine required permission. Of course, this shrine had been built to house his power, but that didn’t mean much. The shrine had likely been created in honor of one of the Four Saints.

I wonder which Saint this shrine belongs to?

He didn’t ponder the question for long, and he was soon moving again. Kushinadahime had finally stopped struggling, though he figured she was simply out of strength.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked sullenly.

“You already know why. I need your blood--the blood of the goddess Kushinadahime, who’d been married to Suzanoo--in order to break the seals placed on these shrines.”

“But I’m just a normal girl!”

“You can keep thinking that if you want to. By all means, remain ignorant. It is fine with me.”

Hebi didn’t bother looking at her as he continued on. The tunnel had opened up after they’d passed through the torii. The cavernous space was quite massive. It was shaped almost like a dome, there were numerous stalactites and stalagmites jutting from the ground and ceiling. The place that he slithered down was a small sliver of sediment that had formed a bridge over an underground lake. Several dozen yards away, a shrine sat before a massive boulder that was embedded into a circular platform that rose out of the water’s surface. Peering over the side, Hebi frowned when he saw bubbles rising from the surface and a dark shadow underneath.

Hm, that doesn’t look good.

A massive figure suddenly shot from the water’s surface, racing toward him. Hebi moved quickly, slithering out of the way as the creature crashed into the bridge, destroying it and trapping him and Kushinadahime on the side opposite from the entrance.

“W-what is that?!” Kushinadahime shrieked.

“I believe that is this place’s guardian,” Hebi answered with a mocking smile. “To think they’d go through such lengths to protect this place. Not that I blame them, of course.”

The guardian that faced him was a gigantic sea serpent. It’s sinewy form was covered in bright blue scaled that glistened majestically in the reflective light from the water’s surface. A pair of scaled pinions akin to those of a drake protruded from the base of its neck, just past its head. Hebi judged this creature to be at least 50 yards in length. That was quite large.

“So this is what they have to keep me from regaining my power. I’m somewhat disappointed.” Several snakes slithered out from within his large overcoat, wrapping around Kushinadahime, whom he’d dropped to the ground. “Stay there, Kushinadahime. This will not take long.”

He didn’t listen to Kushinadahime as she screamed at him. Coiling his tail like it was a loaded spring, he launched himself into the air just as the sea serpent crashed into the place where he’d been standing. His ascent took him all the way to the ceiling, where he twisted around and wrapped himself around a stalactite. Then he launched several of his snakes at the serpent, which was unable to do anything as they sank their fangs into its body, biting through scales and flesh to shove their venom into its bloodstream.

The sea serpent thrashed around, diving into the water to create a big splash. It came back out seconds later. The snakes were gone, having been dislodged--not that it made a difference. Blackness was spreading along its once pristine scales. It wouldn’t be long before the poison took effect.

Roaring like an enraged dragon, the sea serpent tried to crush him, but Hebi merely uncoiled himself and fell down. The serpent slammed into the ceiling, causing several stalactites to collapse. Hebi launched himself like a spring from stalactite to stalactite, until he’d landed on a stalagmite that was protruding from the water’s surface.

Prying its head free from the hole it had created in the ceiling, the sea serpent locked onto him. With its glowing yellow eyes flashing like malicious beacons, it charged him again.

Thus began a deadly game of cat and mouse--or snake and sea serpent. Hebi kept ahead of the massive creature by using his incredibly strong tail to leap from the protrusions coming out of the lake and ceiling. His agility allowed him to stay constantly ahead. As the game continued, the blackness from his poison spread like an insidious disease across the sea serpent’s body, which caused the beast to become more sluggish with every passing second. It wasn’t long until scales began to flake off, blood gushed from open wounds, and the sea serpent gave an anguished shriek as his poison slowly ate it from the inside out.

Hebi watched dispassionately as the sea serpent finally lost all of its strength and fell back into the lake, creating a massive geyser of water. If it wasn’t already dead, then it would be soon. Using the stalagmites and fallen stalactites, he made his way back up to the the circular platform that rose out of the lake. Kushinadahime sat huddled by the shrine, as if instinctively seeking its protection.

“I’m glad to see that you’re not dead,” Hebi said with good cheer and a mocking grin. “It would have been a shame if I’d dragged you all this way just for you to die on me.”

Kushinadahime must have been more frightened than he’d realized. She didn’t spew one insult. Shrugging, he went up to her and coiled his tail around her wrist, dragging her up and pulling her to the front of the shrine.

“W-what are you doing?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“I thought that would be obvious,” Hebi said dryly. “I’m going to have you unseal my power for me.”

He didn’t wait for a response. Kushinadahime cried out as he sliced open her palm and pressed it against the kanji that represented the seal. As her blood mixed with the Japanese logographic symbol, the shrine began to glow. The glow was soon followed by the sound of something cracking. It was the rock, and from that rock, dark energy spewed forth, tendrils of swirling black youki that was filled with malice. The tendrils of energy, like wisps of unholy fire, swirled around Hebi, entering his body, strengthening him, empowering him, bringing him one step closer to once more becoming complete.

Hebi’s laughter echoed through the vast cavern.

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Download the Send to Kindle App (PC, Mac).

Drag and drop the EPUB file into the app.

Select your Kindle and send it.

Method 2: USB Transfer (For Advanced Users)

This method requires converting the EPUB to Kindle’s MOBI or AZW3 format.

Step 1: Convert EPUB to MOBI or AZW3

Download Calibre (Link).

Open Calibre and add your EPUB file.

Click Convert books → Choose MOBI or AZW3 as the output format.

Click OK to convert.

Step 2: Transfer to Kindle via USB

Connect your Kindle to your PC/Mac using a USB cable.

Open the Kindle folder in File Explorer (Windows) / Finder (Mac).

Drag and drop the converted file into the Documents folder.

Eject your Kindle, and your book will appear in your library.

Bonus: Use a Third-Party App

Apps like Send to Kindle for Android/iOS or Readwise Reader can also sync EPUBs to Kindle.

Now, enjoy your book on Kindle! 📖🔥