The Beasts under your bed. (Original Work, 44,845 words)

[LillyanaKabal]

Getting back up on the writing horse. So I thought I'd post this new thing. Note, this is the only time I will be posting more than one chapter, because I have two chapters already written. Any subsequent updates will be a single chapter each. Also, the formatting is a little shite. Sorry about that. TWC doesn't seem to like Word.

And Lo, Did the Lilly God reachth down her hand, and touch this post, saything "I shall post this, to Royal Roadth". And it was good.


Nightmares prowl the world. Many varied monsters, some slathering and others sentient. But all, wish to be the masters and sole owners of the planet. An unfortunate goal for the rest of the planet's denizens. However, the citizens of the world do not have to cower in fear, for standing as their shield is the Otherworld Divination and Defense. Several divisions of men and woman, both Human and Quasi-Human, hold back the grim tide of beast and corrupt man. No division of ODD is more famous than the Supernatural Incursion Response. The most well known, and publically believed most important division of ODD, SIR is the mailed fist, the blade which strikes down the Beasts From Beyond. Boasting the largest roster of Quasi-Humans, it trains and equips the next generation to continute the fight!


It is at the doorstep of SIR, that Kiko finds herself, to be the next generation. Little does she know, that she will be the last generation. The Fox God, Vanaet stirs, and the shadows roil and thrash with a new Beast From Beyond. A creature far superior to any seen before, in both power, and cunning. The world waits, scarely daring to breath, as The Great War is poised to flaire anew. And this time, there will be an absolute victor.

==============================================

Chapter one

The concert hall, once so full and vibrant, was mostly empty now. Not that the band had finished playing, or that the crowd had gotten bored, but rather because a massivee canine-esque monstrosity had 'crossed The Road' and started making everyone present into it's snack, totally ignorant of the fact that midnight snacks should be had at midnight, and not in the middle of the day. However, when it tried to sink it's massive, dagger-like teeth into a man with a sucpicious overcoat on, it got promptly shot in the face. While this was not enough to kill it outright, it did recoil from the shot, and stared at the man, snarling and saliva dripping from it's mouth. The man pointed the large calibre revolver at the creature, and grinned.



"So, you thought you'd come here, eat some people, and have a gay ol' time, aye?" He asked, kind of rethorically considering A; the creature wasn't coherent enough to understand him and B; the screaming masses that were still fleeing for the exits made any attempt to speak pointless. Still, quips were the lifeblood of sanity, and one could not hunt giant. elderich abominations from beyond the realm of normality for a living without developing a mental tick to keep from turning into a gibbering mess."Well, unfortunately for you, I am here to tell you that the party is canceled. Buffet is closed. Cafe is shutting down for the night. And don't ask why buffet sounds like it should have a y in it, that's just how language is" He then shot the creature in the face as it lunged for him again, an explosive gout of fire erupting from the point of impact and knocking the creature into the stage, severly scorching it's face. It tried to stand, but the front leg was filled with several flaming rounds which all but rendered it useless. "See, we knew you were coming, and so my first goal was to stop you from getting here in the first place. Didn't exactly work, as you can see" he continuted, fluidly sliding to the side and sticking a bullet into the creature's eye as it tried one last, desperate lunge. Anatomy wasn't the same with these things, so there was little hope that hitting it's eye was a kill-shot, but it certainly stayed on the ground, mewling in pain. "So, now, I gotta keep shooting you with my Arigo until you stop moving and start to melt. I'll admit, it is the more fun of the two options"



The creature, who had been thourghly outmatched, lay on the floor, pottered with holes, and baring it's teeth in a vicious growl, not that it could do much else at this point. A black liquid, with the consistancy of oil, slowly ran down it's face from the occular wound. It hissed when it hit the floor, and then evaporated into nothing. The Man opened the cylinder of his revolver, and dumped the casings onto the ground. There was a soft clatter, and then they vanished as if they had never really existed in the first place. Which, some smart people with high IQ and far to much time on their hands would argue that they didn't. The Man didn't quite understand all that, he just shot things. And occasionally punched things. Rarely, hit things with his trump card, but these days he practically never got to play that.


"Now. We've got sit, stay, and don't eat the humans down. Not a bad collection of skills, if I do say so. But there is just one more i'd like you to learn before we call it a day" he said, cocking back the hammer and pointing it at the hound. "Play dead". The order was punctuated by six loud gunshots, filling the empty hall with a surprisingly sharp noise. The creature readily learned the last trick, and stopped moving, or making any sort of noise. Then, as if the air had suddenly turned corrosive, it started to melt. Nodding to himself, The Man dumped out the casings again, then holstered his gun and gave one last look around. Now he wasn't distracted by an evil demon from Across The Road trying to eat his face, his sharp eyes picked out a small girl hiding behind the curtains on the stage. She must have thought that it was safer than trying to flee. So, putting on his best, most friendly face, he walked over to her, and kneeled down in front of her.

"Hey kiddo. No need to be scared now. I've dealt with the ugly one. So, can you tell me your name?" He asked. The girl simply cowered a bit more behind the curtain, so he decided to try open up some more. "I'm Drax. Drax Ator. I'm the good guy. So, do yo-" he was cut off, as the young girl's index fingernail had hyper-extended from her finger, and punched through his chest, penetrating his heart and going out the other side. Drax looked down at it, confused, and then looked to the girl. "Foul..." he managed, before several more fingernails punctured his chest, slicing his heart to ribbons, and killing him quite effectively.


"You kill my puppy then expect to talk? That is a faux pas, Mr Drax" The girl said, in an airy voice that seemed to originate from several different points at once. She walked up to the body, and stared, smiling for a few moments, before the sound of powerful engines could be heard clearly outside. She scoffed softly, not fancing her chances with a dozen SIR agents, so turned and sliced open the air with her long fingernail, a virtical slit opening up in front of her. She walked through it, and vanished from the hall, the slit closing up several moments later, and leaving one dead man, on the stage.



Chapter two


Anyone who walked behind the old gym of Ashfield School would be granted with an interesting sight. A smallish, blonde girl in a cute, slightly short school uniform would be surrounded by half a dozen thuggish brutes, all wearing their uniform as well. One would think that such a brazen, open act would be foolish, but since the school had mostly migrated to the new buildings, the old part of school was patrolled only sporadically, making it a breeding ground for all manner of deliuqents. Another reaction would be the feeling of immense pity for the girl, as she was outnumbered by larger, more physically robust men, each easily able to overpower her, and so with such a crippling degree of superior numbers, her fate was clearly sealed.



Sticking around for any length of time would show that this train of thought was as flawed as a carpet salesman, and would probably also think the anology was a terrible one. This - the flawed thought, not the bad anology, the bad anology was just due to their individual lack of creativity - was because the young blonde girl was Kiko, and she was overwhelmingly superior to the men who had cornered her in the art of fighting. The teen furthest on her left would charge in, at the same time as the one in the center, clearly with no co-ordination of forth-planning.

A strong kick to the side, carried though with formidable leg muscles would knock the left-charging teen off his feet, and send him crashing into the second boy, introducing them both to the ground in a painful manner. The largest of the half-dozen then let out a growl of vexation and rushed her, only to have a fist sunk firmly into his gut, and his nose broken across her knee as his body doubled over and allowed her to grab his head. The remaining assailants didn't look so eager anymore, until their sneakiest bastard, who had been hanging around before this situation had even started, just in case it went south, smacked her across the head with a plank of wood he had found. The wood was mostly rotten, and not made from great mateirals to begin with, so it didn't do major damage to the girl's head, but it certainly hurt, and drove her to the ground in one quick movement.



The tables turned, and morale restored to the students, they moved in, but didn't get anywhere as the man who had taken her down suddenly let out a cry of pain, spasmed as if he had been electrocuted, and then collapsed to the ground. A second girl, with a longer skirt, a generally more elegant uniform, and an air of command - as well as a smell of ozone - stood several feet away, her finger out-streched and still crackling with static electricity. Seeing her, the small badge that denoted her a prefect, and her less than amused facial expression, the teens quickly bailed, leaving their wounded and saving themselves from the wrath of this thunder-throwing woman. Once they were gone, she walked up to the blonde girl to check for any injuries. The abrasion on her head was the only thing she could find, and it looked like she was still conscious.

"You know, going to the gym every day and Kick-Boxing classes on a Thursday pales in comparison to being able to shoot lightning out of your fingers. You can not measure the level of jealous I am" she muttered, sitting up and rubbing her head.
"A sentiment you share every time I save you from these types of people. I honestly don't see why you put up with them" She replied, helping her up after there was no sign of concussion. "But still, you got in a fight, and really did a whammy one two of them, the third pretending to be hurt so he don't have to face the music" She quipped, a strangled cry of surprise coming from below them. The Lightning Girl then pushed the unconcious teen off the pretender, and dragged him up roughly.
"Ease up Remmy! Man's threads are precious, ya get me?" He exclaimed, and looked like he was going to carry on, but quickly shut up after some static danced between Remmy's fingers. "Remokr. You are not my friend" she replied, staring intently.

"Hell, she is my friend and even I don't call her Remmy. Something about her nature as a walking tazer makes me want to be polite" Kiko put in, with a coy half-smile.
"Friend or not, I have my duty. Now come on" She ordered, dragging the man along and trusting Kiko to move on her own volition.

[LillyanaKabal]

Posting this. It was half finished when I posted the other two, and I lothe to post half finished chapters. So don't expect four to come this quickly.

Chapter three

Tall, fanged, and hairier than the average man, the Head Teacher was clearly not one to hide his Lupus nature. And this overt showing of his nature just added to the intimidating nature. Even Kiko’s thuggish assailant was cowed in the Head Teacher’s presence. He did not seem very happy to see Kiko, indicating that she was a repeat-offender to his office.
“So. Why has Remokr dragged you here this time” He growled, staring down the two of them. The teen boy just muttered incomprehensibly, but Kiko had clearly been planning a speech on the way here.
“Well. This one and his friends stole a girl’s schoolbag, and told her that if she wanted it back, she was to go to the old gym and get it back from them. I, happened to be passing by at the time, and took it upon myself to go get her bag back personally” She explained.
“Knowing your opinion on my staff, I can see why you did not go to them. But this is the third time this month you have been brought here for acts of violence” The Head replied, sighing softly.
“You have a crap anti-bullying problem” Kiko retorted almost instantly, a gut-response rather than something that she had thought out. Not that it elected to negative of a response, however.
“I am aware of that. I cannot eat the offenders, so I must take subtle steps that do nothing. Really, any anti-bullying campaign is for publicity more than any practical outcome. People have rights that need to be broken to get anywhere with stopping bullying. But, this does not change the fact that you are a menace to the school, and the people in it. Everyone is on my back about you and the state their ‘darling children’ return home in. This is your final warning, Kiko. You have to stop this one-woman war against every in the school, or will be expelled. Do you understand?” He asked, staring down the blond teen. After a few moments, she nodded meekly, so the Head Teacher sat back down.
“Good. You can go now. Finish your classes and return home without causing any more trouble, ok?” He did not receive a reply, just another nod before Kiko left, leaving Remokr and the teen boy in the office.

She did as she was told, and did not start any more trouble, as difficult as that was to accomplish. There was always more trouble to start around this place. On the way home she expected the little brat and his band of dickish dooshbags to try something, but they did not. So she got home pretty easily. Opening the door, she saw a person in the kitchen, but didn’t pay any mind to it, purple hair aside. She lived with her dad, so having someone around wasn’t strange. Of course, she got as far as half way up the stairs before realizing that her dad was off at work, and wasn’t a woman besides. So she slowly walked back down the stairs and stared at the apparently random person in the kitchen.

“So, do you often break into people’s houses like this, or am I just special?” Kiko asked. The woman seemed to be standing there like she owned the place, which she didn’t because it was their house, not hers.
“On occasion. But, in this instance, you are special” The woman replied, slowly walking over to Kiko. As she moved, Kiko’s eyes were drawn to her body, and could make out the uniform she was wearing. It was very militant, and she recognized it immediately, the black base and red trim was famous worldwide these days. And the recognition made her slightly embarrassed to be so rude. But then, the woman did just break in without invitation.
“You are a SIR agent? Now I’m both confused and curious. Why did you break in here, and why am I special?” Kiko asked. She tempered her tone so it wasn’t quite as pointed as it was, but she was still rather annoyed.
“I broke in here to get to you. And you are special because your father was special. He worked for us for quite aa long time. Almost everyone in the ODD knew him” She has a soft tone to her voice now, as if trying to avoid her voice breaking.
“Why are you speaking in past tense. It’s kind of ominous, you know” Kiko said, looking at her with eyes that didn’t want to think about the reason why. Suddenly, the woman came forward and embraced her in a hug. It was surprising, and made her even more filled with dread.
“He died. We don’t know how; it was far too precise for what he was hunting to have done it. But he’s just…dead” the woman’s voice did not hold out, and cracked at the end, her sorrow clearly evident. However, Kiko just stared, frowning softly. Like she was trying to comprehend, to understand. And it wasn’t really happening.
“I….” she started, but didn’t know how to continue, so just didn’t. The woman eventually stopped hugging her, and pulled back, wiping her eyes.
“You don’t know how you feel right. You don’t really feel anything at all?” She inquired, regaining her professionalism as Kiko nodded. “Your father told me it’s a Kitsune thing. Basically, any strong emotion is suppressed, and fed to your psyche over time. A holdover from the days when you were actively engaged in the warfare of the realm” she explained. Then when Kiko cocked her head softly, she continued.

“It’s not taught is schools anymore really. There was a time when the creatures that SIR hunt roamed this land like any other animal.

Vicious creatures of unparalleled brutality, the lands were destined to slowly wither and die under their reign. But then, a many tailed man rose up, wielding a crystalline sword of the deepest blue, he led his people into battle against the creatures. And after victories began to mount up, he gathered support from both the humans and the quasi-humans. With the human’s ingenuity and determination, combined with the quasi-human’s versatility and raw power, the creatures were hunted down and killed in their millions, with a few escaping though the dimensions. It used to be taught as history, and then as stories, and now, just…not. I don’t know why, really. But, several of the quasi-humans have kept traits from that war. The Kitsune’s emotional suppression, and the Lupian’s ability to unsheathe silver claws, and the Dragons who breath white flames” She looked to continue, but Kiko buried her head in her hands before she could.
“Why are you telling me all this? I didn’t need to know any of it. And now you are telling me all of it, and just…why?” The cold, slightly dead eyes were unnerving, but the woman was a member of SIR, she had seen much more unnerving things in her life, and brought them to heel.

“You, as your father, are a Kitsune. Kitsunes rarely interact with humanity these days, and so we really have a shortage of them on our staff. With the passing of your father, there is a space we need to fill drastically. Which is why we have come to you” She said, before straighten her uniform, and holding out her hand.
“So, to do this formally. I am Lieutenant-Colonel Lysandra Mizia. On behalf of ODD, I would offer you a place within the specialist squadrons of SIR” Lysandra almost barked, in a very military fashion. As a response, Kiko could only stand, somewhere between awestruck, and confused.

[LillyanaKabal]

Chapter four:

Totally unaware of how, exactly, it happened, Kiko found herself outside the building of the Supernatural Incursion Response division of the Otherworld Divination and Defense. It was an impressive place, but that wasn’t the point. One moment she was in her kitchen, talking to Colonel Lysida, she was crying, Kiko was feeling nothing, and then…. she was here. Maybe she just wasn’t paying attention and agreed to all of it…that would probably be the clearest explanation. Her mind had gone on vacation, it seemed.
“Thank you for accepting my offer. We need all the Kitsunes we can get to fend off the threats, and your race are among the best to do it” Lysida told Kiko, reinforcing the idea that she had agreed, but not sparking any memories. Kiko just nodded and stepped in. The world was numb right now, and concentrating was hard. So she didn’t realize Lysida taking her by the arm until she had been led off in another direction. Kiko stared, but said nothing and allowed herself to be led. Up, and down halls, it felt like forever, but eventually she was led to a small wing with half a dozen people milling around.
“I’ve got a fair bit of work to be getting on with, your transfer and all. These will help you, Kiko. They know a lot more than I do” she told the young Kitsune, and then just, vanished, the air where she was making a sucking sound as it filled the suddenly vacant spot.

And then, she was surrounded by all the people. Tails swished, ears perked, and then someone stepped forward. Four tails could be seen, bushy and looking so amazingly fluffy. She almost wanted to hug it. And then she was dragged into the girl’s amble bosom, and embraced.
“We see your pain, little one. We will sooth it, so you may hunt again” The woman who was quite obviously the leader exclaimed, in a tone that sounded more like a quote than anything. The other tailed people all placed hands on her, shoulder, hip, back, head, and started to hum softly. A few seconds of this strange treatment, and Kiko felt her heart start to flutter, her cheeks flushed, and then something was taken from her body. Flushed out as if she was made entirely of water. Then, as abruptly as they had come, they all backed off, leaving Kiko on legs that felt like they could barely support her, and the world so much brighter than it had been.
“We are sorry you had to experience that so young. Your father, was a father to us all. His greatness shone like a beacon, and was the strongest leadership we have had in so many years. The burden now falls to me, and I fear I will never match him, even in part. But enough of this horridness. I am Asha. I am a Kitsune of Four Tails, and I lead this skulk of Kitsunes, and provide assistance to them when they are sent out to battle the Great Beasts” Asha’s words had a reverence for Kiko, and for the rest as well, it seemed. They all hung off her words with religious-like fervour. Unknowing why, or where it came from, Kiko felt like she was so secure in this woman’s presence, like nothing could ever go wrong. “Now, you may release your tails, young Kitsune” Asha continued, like she was giving permission. Totally out of her depth here, she just stared for a few moments, and then managed to speak.

“I…. don’t have any…” it was a revelation that was met with soft gasps of shock. But Asha just stared for a few seconds, and nodded, as if understanding.
“He did not bring you into the fold. Did not make you aware of your heritage, nor inform you of your culture. It is understandable, Kitsunes are called upon to fight the Great Beasts, and he wished to save you from this fate. He was great enough that he could do this, but now, he is gone, stripped untimely from this world, and his legacy falls, to you” Asha put two hands on Kiko’s shoulders, and they felt tremendously heavy, more so than any hands had the right to feel. And her eyes burned so intensely. “There is fire in you, child, and it is our duty to kindle it, so it may grow” Asha’s words, in fact the entire situation, seemed so much like a ceremony, and Kiko was caught in it, like a leaf in a hurricane. It filled her, like a balloon, the deep breath of the ritual inflating her as it did. This feeling, this connection with people who were both total strangers, and close kin, was one that she would never be able to get used to, but would not want to see it go for the life in her.

And then it was all over. Asha took her hands away, and just nodded before turning and walking through one of the nearby doors. The connection with the others surrounding her remained, but there were no more breaths, and for that she was glad. The whole thing was intense, she wasn’t sure she could handle it any more than she had. Luckily, she didn’t need to worry about that, because, after swaying on the spot for a few seconds in the wake of Asha’s departure, she collapsed onto the floor, and quickly passed out.

Waking up some hours later, she seemed to be in what looked to be a hospital, or at least a hospital-based wing. It had a half dozen beds and some medical equipment around, but nothing she could recognize, since she kind of avoided hospitals in general. They creeped her out and she hated the smell. She was alone, for the moment, and so decided to lay back on the rather comfortable bed, and use the time to try and clear her mind. Her dad was a SIR agent, she was apparently a Kitsune, her dad was dead, she’d been recruited into the employment of ODD, and whatever happened to that crystalline sword from the story? It seemed like the sort of thing that one would keep track of, if it had enough prominence in his slaying of the beasts to warrant an addition to the story.

A man in a white coat walked through the doors to her left, and smiled as he saw Kiko was awake, and conscious.
“Ahh, you are up. That’s good. While you were out we ran some tests on your vitals and whatnot, just to make sure you were healthy, beyond the sudden passing out from Kitsune rituals and all. It’s all in the green, so if you feel up to walking around, Queenie wants to give you a check-up. She says she trusts our medical stuff to make sure nothing was wrong, but now it is her job to see what is right. It makes sense, when you get to know her” he then grinned, and scrawled something on her clipboard. Everyone in a hospital seemed to have a clipboard for some reason. But, putting that out of her head for the moment – she had enough to worry about without pondering the all-encompassing nature of clipboards – she got out of bed, and nodded to the doctor man.
“Alright. I’m ready…ish. Take me to this Queenie”

[Alwyn]

I like the playfulness of your writing, such as the line about the large canine not knowing when midnight snacks are supposed to be eaten, Drax Altor's rhetorical question to the creature and the surprising, sudden twists. The balance between familiar/this-worldly things (a concert hall, a school and a hospital) and mysterious/otherworldly things (such as the SIR, the Lightning Girl and other quasi-humans) works well for me. I wonder what will happen when Kiku meets Queenie and what will follow.

[LillyanaKabal]

Shameless plug, but here we go.

If you liked this then you can always check out my other writing, The Earth Daughter, here. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ter&highlight= and the considerably shorter Life of Yesura (That's the name, I just can't change the thread title xD) here http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...me)&highlight=

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

This is an interesting start. I'm intrigued by the school (for instance, I'd like to know which rights need to be "broken" for the bullying problem to be dealt with). I'll look forward to more.

By the way, I think you'll find you can change your thread titles (I know I can change mine). You need to edit your first post, and click on "Go advanced". There should be a box with the title in it not far above the box with the text of the post. You can edit your title there.

[LillyanaKabal]

People have the right to not be crippled for life. Which is the right that needs to be broken for bullies to be dealt with.

And thank you for the insight to changing thread titles. It is very helpful for the other post, gloriously named 'something something'

[LillyanaKabal]

Chapter 5

As it turned out, this Queenie was the Overseer of Physical Prowess within SIR. Basically making her the boss of the gym, but the woman was imposing and so Kiko didn’t give her that title, worried that it might be taken the wrong way. She was not overly tall, but had an aura of superiority that made Kiko feel like an ant, all of a sudden. It was this oppressive feeling of power that distracted Kiko from the woman’s appearance. Horns on her head, glowing red eyes, and hooved feet, on the end of what looked to be some sort of goat legs. She was quite clearly a Demon, which made Kiko suddenly let out a noise between a shriek and a yelp and stumble backwards, nearly losing her balance as she did so. Queenie, for her part, looked to the doctor, and held out her hand. It was then filled with some blue notes, too much eye rolling from the doctor.
“Thought this was would be better from what I heard, but nope. You get the end of the stick Queenie. Again” He then cocked his head softly, as if listening to something nobody else could hear. “gotta get back, team just got back from a Rakasha nest. One of them made sweet love to the business end of their claws. Try not to break her, aye?” He then left Kiko with this Demon, who just stared for a few seconds. Then walking up close and while roughly the same size, towering over Kiko.
*
“Boo” Queenie said. Kiko recoiled, expecting something totally different, and was rewarded with surprisingly light laughter. “The benefit of all this hate has to be how much fun I can get out of practically every recruit that comes by” Her voice was pleasant and soft, and even the tone shift from humour to seriousness didn’t hurt its auditable beauty. “But seriously. Take off your clothes. All of them” Queenie ordered. Kiko just gave a look between confusion and wonder, if this was a joke or an actual order. The smouldering red in her eyes was a hell of a thing to stare into though – even if Kiko mentally abashed herself for such a terrible pun in such a serious situation – and so after a few seconds, began to strip out of her clothes until she was naked. As soon as that that had happened, Queenie’s fingers ran across her abdomen. They were surprisingly gentle, and they felt very good, making Kiko blush rather deeply only a few seconds into the contact. It was not quite like skin, though. It was more, smooth and a little cold. Kiko had no real idea what it was, and right now, could really look to see. The touch traced it’s way upwards, and her mind braced herself for when the woman did what she thought was going to happen and molested her breasts. However, she went right past them with barely a glancing touch, sliding her hands down Kiko’s arms, and then moving on to her back, giving her ass more attention than her boobs ever got, and then finishing off with a swift but seemingly sensuous stroke to Kiko’s thighs and calves.

Once it was all done, Queenie stood up, and returned to Kiko’s front. The fox girl was distinctly aroused from the experience, but Queenie either didn’t see it, or didn’t really care.
“You have a good muscular structure. Quite a few of the recruits who come here have to be built from the ground up. Now, little Kitsune. Do you have any tails? I need a good overview of your body in every form” Queenie’s eyes seemed to be staring very intently at Kiko, as if to avoid looking anywhere else.
“I…no. Didn’t, know, I was, a Kitsune” Kiko stammered, broken sentences as she tried to cover herself from the gaze of Queenie. It was a hard thing to do, the woman’s eyes felt like they could penetrate right through her to the very soul of her underneath. And souls never wore clothes.
“Ahh, that’s fine. Don’t wanna step on Asha’s toes too much, but don’t overthink it. Kitsunes are born with a tail in their soul, but they have to know how to call it out. You newbies have all manner of different ways. Whistles, clicks, singing, you name it. One guy actually shouts ‘Transform!’ to get his tail. But it doesn’t have to be something you say. Asha tells me it’s much like supressing my Demonic appearance, only in this case you want it to come out rather than go in. It helps me to think of something or someone I really care about, and use that as the keystone” She counselled, before nodding to Kiko’s pile of clothes. “You can put them back on later, by the way. But for now I have something special for you to put on, so your uniform doesn’t get damaged” Queenie told Kiko, with no shortage of amusement in her tone. She then produced a shiny suit similar to her own but in a deep blue colour from apparently nowhere, and gave it to Kiko.

The Kitsune Girl scrambled to cover herself again, even if it was in a thing that gave her curves a little too much flattering accentuation, considering the way Queenie made Kiko feel. It went on easily, which was a shock considering what Kiko had heard about the material, but her mind was solely focused on Queenie and so she didn’t give the suit much thought, just pulled it on and felt it’s slightly-to-tight embrace. She seemed slightly less on edge when she was standing in the outfit, like she was trying to protect her modesty from Queenie. It was then that Kiko looked at what Queenie was wearing. It seemed to be a bodysuit of skin-coloured latex, the suit itself made so well that she would barely recognise Queenie was wearing a suit if she hadn’t felt it earlier. But, the design made her feel slightly awkward, like Queenie was naked. Not that Kiko was much better, but at least the blue in her leotard made it clear that she was wearing something. The differentiation was hard to make with Queenie’s outfit.
“Well, don’t you look stunning? Let’s get started with this show on the road” Queenie exclaimed, seemingly mixing her words as she led Kiko to a ring, and then turned to her. “I’m going to hit you, you are going to try to stop me, and we will see where it goes from there” as plans went, Kiko had heard worse, but she had certainly heard better as well.

[LillyanaKabal]

Frigging hell I am actually being creative for once, someone give me a medal. Of course it's the chapter of pesudo-sex, so of course I am going to get it out of the door quickly (in comparison to some of my other chapters)

Chapter 6

It seemed Queenie was serious with her exclamation, and Kiko took the first blow to her jaw, stumbling and feeling the suit fight her every movement. Not enough to hamper her in any way, but enough for it to be evident, and mentally distracting. Maybe that was the reason she had this dam thing rather than just some shorts. Queenie seemed to have pulled her punch as well, so while it made Kiko stumble, it didn’t really hurt all that much. But still, there was that stare. The stare of disappointment, like Queenie was expecting something Kiko didn’t deliver. Irritated, and annoyed by this stare, Kiko batted away the second punch, ducked under the third, and thrust out a punch to Queenie’s gut.

It was like punching a brick wall. Immediately regretting her decision with a sharp yelp of pain, Kiko backed off, scowling as she panted. The panting was confusing, she hadn’t been doing that much to warrant such exhaustion, and it didn’t really feel like exhaustion. It was more the feeling of intense warmth around her waist. Every movement gave her a new flush of the feeling, and for want of a better word, it felt good. Queenie took advantage of this distraction, and laid down the strikes harder, faster, more aggressively pursuing Kiko across the mat, making her move to Queenie’s will rather than Kiko’s. Keeping her off balance and on the defensive, while the suit still made her feel warm and heavier with every movement. Maybe Queenie was making her move around so much because the Demon girl knew that the suit was making her feel like this, so hot and fatigued. As the minutes passed, Kiko’s guard dipped, Queenie got in more and more blows, until her entire body sagged, and Queenie delivered a strong kick that knocked Kiko over, crashing into the mat with a groan, and just failing to get back up. Queenie was on her in moments, in a literal sense. The cheeks that were already flushed red blazed even hotter, with Kiko unsure what was happening, or what she should do.
“Well, looks like you have had enough of that fun for one day. What do you say we have some of the other fun?” Queenie suggested, bending down to kiss Kiko on the lips, soft and quick. But to Kiko, it felt neither. Her eyes fluttered and her brain just left her for the sunny shores of somewhere saner, catching a ride of the earliest flight out of Kiko’s head when Queenie planted a longer, deeper kiss on her lips.

There was no resisting this woman. She was just too powerful, and her lips were so nice. Kiko had never felt anything like Queenie’s lips. And then a sensual whisper came into Kiko’s ear.
“So, you look ready to pop. Do you want to just, give in and be my pet for the rest of your life? I’ll make sure to look after you. It might be an embarrassing time for the first month or so, but I’ll make sure to take you on walks and feed you properly, dress you up all nice, and take care of any urges you might have. Just have to surrender your will to me. You’ll get used to it, and then you’ll question how you had ever lived without me” She finished, nibbling softly on Kiko’s ear before staring into the girl’s eyes. It sounded so good, Kiko was right on the doorstep of speaking when it flashed in her mind that this was not what she wanted. While she didn’t really have any goals of such, she was not here to get turned into a pet by some dominatrix Demon on her first day here. So taking a steadying breath, she opened her mouth.
“I…” she started, and then headbutted Queenie violently. It seemed whatever made her gut so strong was an active power rather than a natural one, and Kiko felt the crunch of nose as Queenie recoiled, cursing violently and clutching the point of impact.
“God-dam it! Ow! Furry !” She exclaimed, getting off Kiko and making sure that she wasn’t bleeding or anything before turning to Kiko with a broad grin. “Well, congratulations doll. You passed” Queenie quipped. The sudden exclamation that the whole thing was a test caused a surge of anger in Kiko, but it did not help that she was still in this dam suit, and that the feeling of great weights attached to her entire body had yet to go away. As had the feeling of unnatural, pleasant heat that permeated her whole being.

“What the hell….is even going on?” She demanded, slowly moving to get up before Queenie spoke.
“Don’t try to move. You’ll only exacerbate it. As for the question, well…See, we face a lot of creatures, of many, many different varieties. And amongst them, there are Succubi. Lesser Succubi aren’t really anything to worry about, but your average Succubi can really wrap a person around her finger with the powers she’s got. And if you meet a Greater Succubus, well…you are basically a sex slave until she grows bored of you. Unless- “Queenie was, however, cut off by Kiko at that moment, with a sharp shriek.
“What, the actual , has this got to do with anything?!” Kiko demanded, her panting becoming more obvious as the seconds ticked on. Queenie took the interruption with an amused smirk, and sauntered over, straddling Kiko again.
“I was getting to that part. But it seems you are too distracted to listen. I should take care of that problem for you” Queenie stated. And take care of it she did, with expert precision.

Kiko lost her perception of time in that moment, but she knew when it had ended. Panting heavily from actual exhaustion this time rather than just the strange warm weight, she had somehow lost the suit in the time between that moment and now, but it seemed such an insignificant worry, with Queenie lying next to her, basking in the afterglow.
“So…...you do that to a lot of people?” Kiko finally managed to asked, in a breathless tone. The smouldering hellfire in Queenie’s eyes had changed to be something of a more nurturing nature, like a warm fire on a cold day, rather than the raging inferno that could consume a city.
“Only to the people I like. And no, I don’t have a lot of people I like. So you can feel smug that you are on quite the exclusive list” Queenie replied, taunting Kiko and stroking her naked body with a teasing finger until realizing that Kiko was to blazed to really appreciate it, or even notice. So she stopped.
“Well, I feel special now” She muttered, and then smiled softly. “So, I feel this subject is even more valid now, but what were you saying about Succubi?” Kiko prompted, hoping to get back on topic after the accidental derailment.
“Are you sure you want a lecture, and not round two?” Queenie offered. Something of an exhausted glare from Kiko made her grin, and she took that as her answer. “OK then. If you don’t have the willpower to resist a Succubus, your mind will no longer be your own, and you’ll be a danger to your whole team. Which is the nature of this testing. The suit you were wearing was designed to stimulate erogenous zones subtly with each movement, so as time passed, you got increasingly aroused, but couldn’t pinpoint the source. Exactly how a Succubus would act” Queenie finished, watching the embarrassed lights go on in Kiko’s eyes.

“So, this is anti-succubus training, and you couldn’t tell me before because that would ruin the whole surprise?” She offered, to which Queenie nodded.
“It’s to gauge your willpower and see how to tailor the situation to you personally. Usually you’d just have a trainer, but I knew your father well, and I wanted to see his daughter for myself. And I have to say, for a girl who has never been anywhere near this kind of life style, you can colour me impressed” Queenie exclaimed, moving to give Kiko a tight hug.
“I…well…awkward question but….” Kiko started, but Queenie was already way ahead of her.
“If you want it to be. I promise to be gentle, outside of training”

[LillyanaKabal]

Thunder rolls, Voices Boom, Divers Alarum

New chapter



Chapter Seven

Kiko tried to get up, a few times, but Queenie’s training and the subsequent relief had made Kiko aware of an exhaustion she had never really felt before. And so, instead of walking dignified towards the showers, Kiko was carried in the arms of the Demon, like a young child. It made her cheeks flush with shame, but soon, something else entered her head, something she just couldn’t keep to herself.
“Ok, what the actual frack. This place is huge, but from the outside it is barely bigger than an average house” she exclaimed, looking up at Queenie’s amused grin.
“Ahh, that little thing. Well, you see, this area has Space bent around it. We aren’t exactly sure why, or what is causing it, but it allows for a vast infrastructure over a small area, like we have pulled off here. Ever wondered why the SIR headquarters weren’t in some major Capital city? This is why. Uniquely placed to deal with our needs without having to give half the city over to do it” She explained, before arriving at the showers, having set a brisk pace to get there. “Now, you need some help getting clean? I can’t promise my hands won’t wander while I assist you…” She cracked a broad grin, openly admiring Kiko’s body. The idea, however good it was, was one that Kiko couldn’t quite deal with yet, and so shook her head, and took a shaky step towards the cubicles while Queenie stayed in the seating area. Why there was a seating area in the showers, Kiko was not entirely sure, but it was probably there for a reason.
“No, I am fine. Thank you” Her determination to not get sexed up in the showers by her new friend gave her the strength she needed to remain standing while she cleaned herself, brushed her hair through, and then eventually switched off the water and got out to dry herself.

Wrapped up in towels – even though Queenie had had an intimate look at her body, she was still conscious of just showing it off willy-nilly – she saw the Demon woman with a broad grin on her face. Recognising the grin as one of mischief, Kiko gave her a withering stare.
“What have you done?” She asked, in what she hoped was an assertive tone.
“Done? Nothing, I’m a good girl” Queenie tried, but couldn’t keep a straight face, and so broke into laughter. “Ok, fine. Your clothes were soiled, and quite damaged to boot. So I sent them off to get pampered. Meanwhile, I got you this to wear” Queenie stated. Kiko narrowed her eyes at the woman before even looking at the outfit. This was how it was going to go done, huh? Then her eyes went to what Queenie was displaying, and they bulged in shock. There was nothing really wrong with the outfit, exactly. The corset was beautiful, looked crafted to show enough of her assets while also not making her downright sultry. And the skirt went down to her knees, or would if it wasn’t flared so it hung a little away from her and blended modesty with promiscuity. It was all shaded in the black with red trims that was the official SIR colours, but Kiko found herself a little wary. She had never worn something that revealing before. And that was before she even factored in the silk underwear and bra that, unlike the rest of the outfit, barely covered what it needed to cover.
“Do you like it?” Queenie asked, in the teasing tone that knew she had nothing else to wear so it was like this, or go naked.
“Tormenting me on purpose, or does it just come naturally?” Kiko asked, scowling a little as she strode forward and, finishing towelling herself off, took up the lingerie and pulled them on.
“Why can’t it be both?” Queenie retorted, picking up the corset and helping Kiko into it, tying the laces enough so it would not slip off, but not so that Kiko would have any trouble breathing. There wasn’t much ribbing on the corset anyway, as if it had been made for its looks rather than being an actual Corset.

When she had dressed, and gotten into the satin shoes with low heels – Queenie had provided them as well, apparently Kiko’s shoes had also been confiscated – she took her through the building to Lysaida’s office. Having never worn heels before, the clicking on the ground as she walked was something new to Kiko, but she liked the metronome of it, it was kind of soothing. Once the two had arrived, Queenie didn’t even bother to knock, she just walked right in, and up to the desk, piled with paperwork, and grinned at a vexated looking Lysaida.
“Still refusing my offer to burn all the paperwork?” Queenie asked, before looking back to Kiko, who was kind of lingering on the door, not exactly sure how to handle the outfit she was in.
“Yes, I am. And I see you have wasted no time dressing up the new recruit. Come on in, Miss Ator. We need to officially sign you into SIR, deal with your education, and so on. There is quite a bit that goes into someone of your age joining us” She was being a lot more formal than when she had broken into Kiko’s house, but maybe that was just because she was in Work mode right now.
“So, lots of pieces of paper to sign?” Kiko asked, grinning sheepishly as she walked into the office, taking up the offer to come in. It was better than out in the hallway, after all.
“Yes. The recruitment sheet, the basic rules and tenants, and a list of the Quasi-humans we have here, so you know what to expect” She gestured with a folder, which Kiko walked over to take, and then opened, starting reading immediately. The recruitment sheet and the rules were pretty simple, she got through them quickly, but she took more time with the quasi-human list.
“Phoenix…” she muttered, a slight elation in her voice. Phoenixes where pretty rare, mostly because they were very humble creatures and never really revealed themselves in public. Anyone could be a Phoenix until they got shot, or stabbed, or otherwise mortally wounded. But one part of the list made her look up with a broad grin. “Dragon, huh? You SIR agents get all the fun stuff” She quipped, taking a pen and beginning to fill out the form. Name, date of birth, occupation, kin, Quasi-human nature [If applicable]. It was all pretty basic.

“Yes, we SIR agents get all the fun stuff. Or though the Dragons are not exactly social people. They can interact on occasion, but are surprisingly shy, considering they can be thirty foot of scales and fire when they chose to be” Lysaida replied, flicking her eyes to Queenie to make sure the woman wasn’t up to anything, and then returning her gaze to Kiko as she finished the form and handed it back. Lysaida checked it over, and then nodded in satisfaction. “Benefit of being the boss, is that I can accept you on the spot now this paperwork is done, rather than having to go through channels to get to me. Welcome to SIR, Recruit” Lysaida nodded, and Queenie returned to Kiko’s side, beaming like a dog with a bone. Lysaida didn’t seem to be finished, however, so Kiko kept her attention on the Colonel. “To answer the question most often asked, your rank depend on which division you chose to be in. You will probably want to join one of the assault teams, Kitsunes excel there, with their special talents, and it is the divison that our Queenie heads. The ranks are initially which squad you are based in, and then Agent, and finally Striker. Your father was a Striker, incidentally” She mentioned, and did her best to not give in to the despair of such a memory.

Kiko decided to change the subject, and quickly, before the topic got to dreary.
“She heads the Assault teams? I thought, she was boss of the gym” Kiko said, before blushing and covering her mouth. She didn’t mean to give her the title that popped into her head. Queenie, however, found it amusing.
“Boss of the Gym? Heh. Well, I’m the Overseer of ‘the Gym’ as you put it, but the boss of the Assault Teams. Basically I lead routine workouts for the rookies and occasion squads, but I head the assault teams. The two mesh well, so I take care of both” Queenie explained, before giving a terribly wide, scary grin. “And I’ll see to making sure that you know my title much better than you do now” It sounded somewhere between a threat, and a promise for more of what happened after the spar. Kiko wasn’t sure which one worried her more…

[LillyanaKabal]

No heart attacks, please. It's only been two years.

Chapter Six


After letting Queenie torment Kiko for a couple of seconds, Lysaida stood from her chair and looked at the two.
“As much as I appreciate your fashion sense, Queenie, Kiko needs a proper uniform while she is on duty. So, can you take her to Zami for me?” Lysaida asked, but with that cute little inflection that made it an order. Kiko stared at the two, slightly agape as she clocked on that Zami was some sort of tailor, or uniform person.
“Just how much space is bent into this place?” She asked, intently curious, but also kind of exasperated.
“Enough for all our needs. Now get out, I’ve got work to do” Lysaida replied, chasing the two out of her office and closing the door. As soon as they were out, Queenie turned to Kiko, but found the girl already staring.
“She was a lot less…stern when we first met, and a lot more emotional” Kiko muttered. Queenie decided to drop her ideas to flirt with the girl and make her cheeks flush again, and just looked to the explanation while leading Kiko to Zami at a brief pace.
“She’s a Schattenganger. She can walk through the shadows of most things, either organic or synthetic. Walking through the shadow of something alive, gives her a copy of their emotional state every time she uses her powers. Over her time here she has walked through the shadows of a lot of people here, and mostly everyone knew your father in some way or another, so his loss is felt by most. When she used her powers to get into your house, she had to take the sadness and loss of many people, as well as her own. To be honest, I’m amazed the woman is still on her feet and not at the bottom of a bottle, or in a padded room. Her mental fortitude is amazing” Queenie’s voice was heavy with admiration, which was pretty nice to hear.


“So, that’s the Colonel’s default state? With a stare that can crush walnuts?” Kiko quipped. Queenie looked at her with a frown, not exactly how a stare could crush walnuts.
“No. She don’t really have a default state. She is an emotionally versatile woman” Queenie replied, before stopping outside a door in some wing. Kiko wasn’t entirely sure she could get back to where she was without Queenie, so kept close to the woman as they entered the room. There, a man stood, with a very strange shirt. There were eight sleeves, covering eight arms, and each arm was holding some sort of dress making tool, while a tape measure was around his neck. Hearing the door open, the man turned, showing that he had two extra sets of eyes just above his primary set. Kiko wasn’t that surprised, the list did include Tsuchigumo, but it was one thing to say you had spider people, and another to actually see spider people up close.
“Hey Zami. This is Kiko, she’s the newest recruit” Queenie announced, bringing Kiko over to the centre of the room.
“Good day, good day. Take a seat. I think. I am sure there is a chair somewhere” His voice had a very scattered quality, as if he was constantly on the edge of forgetting what he was about to say. “If not, move the cat. If there is a cat around here. I can never keep track of the furry bastard. If all else fails, I am sure the floor is still where I left it” his offers, while given in quite an unorthodox manner, were sincere, so Kiko looked around for a chair, and eventually found one, having to indeed move a cat off it, like she was told. Zami then gave Kiko a deep, rather creepy stare, but that was probably the six eyes and eight arms, more than the stare itself.
“I have your measurements. Which division would you like to join?” He asked. Queenie seemed to have, vanished off into one of the small adorning rooms, leaving Kiko with the slightly spooky spider guy. His ability to get her measurements just by staring must have come from those creepy eyes of his, or just skill as a tailor, mixed with those creepy eyes of his. Or some third source, which involved those creepy eyes of his. His eyes were creepy!
“Assault teams” Kiko told Zami, shaking off her thoughts about his eyes for more formal matters, and feeling they were the best place for her. Kitsunes were meant to fit in there, after all.


“Very well, I shall have a uniform in about a week. A lot of work, you see. And you won’t be needing it until next year at least” Zami then turned from her, and returned to what he was doing as Queenie came out of the side room, holding a sealed bag, with clothes inside.
“Zami will get you your uniform the for the Assault squads. This, contains your on-duty uniform, and your physical exercise uniform. Don’t worry, it’s not like the suit I put you in” Queenie sated. Kiko averted her eyes, and flushed softly, but then turned back with a curious look.
“Strange question, but where is Asha, in the hierarchy?” Kiko was glad that the question had popped into her head, it allowed her to avoid the subject at hand, which was embarrassing and would probably go on being embarrassing for a few years.


“Ahh, good question, actually. Asha is sort of an advisor. She doesn’t work for SIR officially, but is an associate attached to ODD in general. We have them for the Quasi-humans that had a wider, more varied culture. Some of them are basically just humans with extra arms, like Zami. Others, like your father’s clan, have an entirely different outlook on life and need someone else to look after them. So, in our Hierarchy, she isn’t anywhere. In your hierarchy, she is quite highly placed” Queenie explained. And then, for no reason at all, moved in to caress Kiko’s face, and kiss her lips softly. The Kitsune’s face turned a funny shade of tomato, and she tried to look at anything that wasn’t Queenie, but the woman’s hand was cupping Kiko’s face, preventing such an action.


“Sorry. You just looked so beautiful, I couldn’t help myself” Queenie told Kiko, letting her go and straightening up. “On a serious note, we need to get you situated in a room. You can have a spot in the Kitsune quarters, or you can grab one on the main building. Or, you can always come live with me. I have a large bed and I don’t snore, so you don’t have to worry about that” Kiko could see that Queenie was being serious with her offer, and it even seemed sincere. Queenie seemed to be the kind of person that developed strong feelings the moment she was accepted by a person. Having no reason to refuse the offer, and kind of liking it because it kept her close to someone she knew rather than having to go to an empty room in a wing of some place she had very little understanding of so far.


“I can stay with you while I get my head around where I am going and what I am doing” Kiko told Queenie. She was very excitable, from Kiko’s experience, so she thought it best to offer a measured tone rather than one of outright acceptance. The Kitsune expected some sort of teasing kiss or sensuous stroking, but neither of those happened, as Queenie just handed her the bag with her uniforms in it.
“Wonderful. Take this, and follow me” Queenie ordered, heading for the door and making Kiko scramble to keep up, expecting her to wait until Kiko had at least gotten off the chair, but no. This woman was a nightmare, but somehow Kiko was alright with that. Maybe it was because of the Demon’s emotion flooding the place and making Kiko feel what Queenie was feeling. It was hard to be against people that were so emotionally active like Queenie was.


While setting a demanding pace, Queenie didn’t leave Kiko behind, making sure she could always keep up and measuring her step when the girl seemed to be falling behind. Mostly because of the heels, short though they were, were difficult to balance in at anything more than a walk. She had clearly not been one to wear heels in her day to day life. If Queenie had anything to do with that, however, it would soon change. Eventually, the two got to Queenie’s room, and entered. It was a sizable place, with a large bed as advertised, and two wardrobes on each side of the bed. And, for some reason Kiko was not even going to begin to try and fathom, a goat tied to a tether in one corner of the room. Two bed side cabinets, and a door that probably led to a bathroom, or another cupboard, Kiko was not entirely sure on that front.


“Well, it’s certainly roomy” Kiko exclaimed, looking around and seeing a full length mirror that she could admire herself in. The clothes really suited her, and suddenly Kiko found herself quite attracted to the stunning figure she cut. But Queenie’s words snapped her out of it.
“You can put your uniform and any clothes you get in the future in the left wardrobe. The right wardrobe is locked. Don’t try to open it, or there will be frowns all around” she told Kiko. The idea of frowns was definitely something much more than a facial expression, so Kiko made a mental note not to open the right wardrobe. “Now, we have to go to your school and talk to the head teacher about why you are not going to be going there anymore. Would you prefer to tell them the truth, or do you want me to make something up for you?” Queenie offered, sitting on her bed and admiring Kiko openly. Something that the Kitsune-girl did not exactly notice, still looking about the room.
“Why, would I lie about joining SIR?” She asked, a little confused at the idea.
“Well, there are a few people that are less than happy that we exist. Mostly insane cultists, but some are just citizens with more free time than brain cells. Plus, the subterfuge is more until you finish your training than anything. Once you are an official SIR agent, you can handle a couple of naysaying dooshbags” she cautioned. Kiko thought it was sound logic, and so nodded.
“Sure, then you can make something up for me” Kiko replied, finally looking to Queenie, and feeling a tad uncomfortable at the way her eyes lit up at the permission.

[LillyanaKabal]

You know, I always thought these chapters were pretty long, but placed out on TWC, they are rather not, huh? Guess maybe it's because TWC has such broad ass screen sizes or something.

Chapter Seven


Never again, Kiko mentally stated, as she was standing in the Head Teacher’s office, wearing a Maid’s uniform that was somewhere between stately and promiscuous. Kiko would never trust Queenie with free reign over anything like this again, because what she had come up with was a literal nightmare. Sure, her dress was nice. In fact, Queenie’s outfit was magnificent. She had a ribbon wrapped around her neck and the top part of her chest was bare, with the tops of her breasts showing. The dress also had very short arms, not even coming down to her elbows before cutting off with a frilly pattern. The top of her breasts had a frilly fabric look to it but this just made the dress all the better. It then carried on down to the stomach area where it was plain and fitted tightly to her, it looked to be offering support for the rest of the dress by the way it hugged her. The actual light brown dress started around her waist and the sides had the same light brown fabric that with overlapping layers that the rest of the dress was made out of but the front appeared to be a separate part of the dress and was made of silk rather the taffeta the rest of the dress was made out of. Roughly ten tiers of this pink silk ran down her waist part of the dress, each tier getting wider until it reached the floor. The dress was studded with fire drops, rubies and emeralds in a very gaudy fashion, giving a final impression that she was some sort of rich noblewoman or something, and having a Maid just finished the touches.


Queenie was, currently talking with the Head Teacher, but Kiko didn’t hear what they were saying, just silently seethed with the betrayal. She had trusted Queenie to come up with something that wasn’t insane, and that trust had been sorely misplaced. Eventually, however, she was addressed directly, and gave a good little curtsy in reply, not actually having been listening.
“Well, if this is what you want, then I will not get in the way of it” the head teacher told Kiko, before looking to Queenie. “I appreciate you coming to tell me rather than just whisking her away, Miss Fitzen. I hope you will take care of Kiko. She can be a handful at times but don’t let that dissuade you. She’s a good girl, deep down” The head teacher finished.


“Thank you for your advice, mister Ridas” Queenie replied. It was then that Kiko realized she never knew the Head Teacher’s name before now. He had always just been, the head teacher. No name plate or introduction anywhere. It was very strange, but she didn’t dwell on it too long. She was busy internally scowling at Queenie. Maybe if she thought really hard, a large pan would come out of nowhere and hit her on the head or something. Alas, the world did not work like that, and they left Ridas’ office and got to the car with no flying pans. Bundling into the very nice car and having the chauffer start the car and drive off, Queenie seemed highly amused. But Kiko was livid.
“Maid!? Could you really have thought of nothing else, at all, that might have worked?!” Kiko exploded, nails digging into her palms, even though the gloves Kiko was wearing.
“Maybe. But this was the most fun. Besides, you amazing in that outfit, Kiko. It was a suspicion of mine that I wanted to confirm. You can strip naked if you’d prefer. I certainly wouldn’t mind” Queenie was, with her glorious clothes and her laid back superiority and her beautiful car, the perfect picture of royalty right now. It didn’t help Kiko stay calm, however. So she just silently glared until they got back to the SIR headquarters, and immediately went to Queenie’s room to change out of the Maid uniform. Once naked, and to angry to be embarrassed, she rounded on Queenie, who was just sauntering in as Kiko finished getting undressed.
“What is my schedule like? Which set of clothes do I put on?” Kiko bluntly demanded. Queenie took her time getting into the room, and then sat down on the bed.
“Why don’t you come join me on this wonderfully comfy bed, and I might tell you” Queenie offered. It did not have the desired impact. Kiko just grabbed her standard recruit uniform, threw it on, and left without giving Queenie time to even admire Kiko in it. The Kitsune was pissed, it seemed, but Queenie was confident she would come to forgive the Demon in time. So she decided to just hang around her room for a bit, and make preparations to return the dress to who it belonged to. The one who loaned it was never the kind of woman to suffer tardiness.


Kiko, meanwhile, was storming about the place, not even sure where she was going. She hadn’t even stopped to check out the uniform she was wearing until she passed a distinctively reflective window. There she got a better look. Skirt to her knees, polo shirt, and formal blouse, in the predominant colour scheme of SIR. It was actually quite flattering, now Kiko stopped to look for a moment. Maybe when she got back, if Queenie looked sufficiently apologetic, she’d strike a pose for her rather-closer-than-friend. Then Kiko stopped using the window to check herself out, and started using it for what it was originally designed for, and saw that she was outside some sort of firing range. Interested, now, Kiko found a door, and then retrieved a pair of earmuffs from a row of them, with a sign above stating that they were necessary for all personnel in the firing range. Probably to prevent ear damage, or something like that. Putting them on, the world suddenly became strangely dulled. Not muted like she had expected, but the edge was taken off all sound. With sufficient ear protection, she opened the second door that connected the earmuff room to the firing range proper, and was glad for the muffs. The air was filled with loud pops, bangs, and cracks as dozens of SIR agents practiced their marksmanship with a multitude of weaponry. If this was what it was like with ear protection, she wondered how people got on in the field, unless there were some sort of plugs, but then that would mess with communication. Lost in her own little world, she didn’t notice when someone came up and placed a hand on her shoulder. Jumping slightly, she turned to the amused visage of the girl standing next to her. With nothing distinctive, Kiko thought she was just another operative, and so gave her a smile. No risk of weird stuff here.


“Fresh Meat. How lovely” The girl said, flashing some impressive fangs as a glint of light revealed a cadaverous look to her face. It earned her a shriek and a punch in the face, which was apparently not what she was expecting, as the girl went reeling back, and clutched her nose.
“Ow. Dam, you have a hell of a left hook, girl. I was only going to nibble” The girl stated, dropping her hands from her face to show a much friendlier smile.
“We are surrounded by too many guns for you to start that kind of crap” Kiko retorted, electing a rather cute giggle-snort from the girl.
“Fair point. I’m Bruyn. I run the shooting range. I hope I didn’t scare you, I just haven’t smelled you before and so thought I’d come over and say hi” Bruyn explained, and introduced herself. After a few seconds, she was confident that Bruyn was just messing about, and wasn’t actually about to bite, so walked over and took the outstretched hand. The woman’s face had returned to a normal look, so she wasn’t all that scary anymore.
“Kiko. I’m…well, you know. I’m new” Kiko was still a bit nervous, put off by the look the girl had given. She had obviously plastered those emotions on her face, since Bruyn offered some more.
“I’m a Draugr. Hence the rotting face” She said, before noticing Kiko had no idea what a Draugr was. “Think…Viking super zombie. happened, I died, and now I am back to help the world fight the Beasts from Beyond. And in return SIR keeps me from rotting and dropping my body parts were I may. Also covers up the stretch. If there is one problem with being a super strong, neigh-invincible zombie, it’s the stench” she quipped, laughing to herself.


Kiko listened, and then cocked her head softly as she said neigh-invincible.
“So, you don’t follow many zombie rules?” She asked. Normal zombies were quite vulnerable, in Kiko’s opinion.
“Na. See, we are impervious to weapons, but need to be dissected and burned to die. As you might think, it’s difficult to dissect a super strong zombie when you can’t use any weapons on her. Clever, huh? Makes me a great asset on the field against the Shriekers and the Succubi. I’m dead, they can’t bugger with anything that makes you humans tick. But! You did not come here to talk about me, did you?” She asked, and then continued when Kiko shook her head. “Good. Then let us begin the tour of guns! Have you ever shot a gun before?” She finished.
“Nope. I popped a guy in the eye with a bb before, but nothing real” Kiko admitted, looking around and feeling a bit self-conscious at all the confident gunslingers around here.
“That’s fine. No problem with never shooting before. It’s what we work for, after all. Now, you’ll wanna start with a small calibre weapon so you can get used to the weight of guns, and the recoil, and then move up. I’ve got an open booth, we can start you off with the nine mill” she then took Kiko to the booth, and there was a spread of pistols in individual slots, with numbers above them. Kiko’s eyes were immediately drawn to a huge thing near the end, with ‘.650’ above it. She pulled it out of the slot, and marvelled at the weight, barely able to hold it in one hand.
“Tsk, trust you to go straight for the Tenderizer. Tell you what, if you can squeeze a shot off from that baby without it putting you on your arse, I’ll serve you for a week, however you wish me to. And trust me, these fingers might be dead, but they are not stiff” Bruyn teased. Kiko didn’t seem as embarrassed with her as she did with Queenie, and just laughed a little.


“Heh, sounds good, maybe I can use you to keep the other nutter out of my panties” she retorted. Bruyn’s eyes light up, but Kiko ignored her and focused on the gun, clasping it tightly in both hands and taking a wide stance so she was most stable. It was just a gun, there was no way she was going to lose to something like this, even if it was hellishly heavy. So she slowly pulled the trigger, and there was a monumental force suddenly thrown onto her, the gun went up, ripped out of her grasp, and clattered onto the floor, while Kiko herself let out a strangled yelp and lost her balance completely, hitting the deck hard, to the great amusement of Bruyn. Recovering the gun, she helped Kiko up, and then gestured with her head.
“This is how you do it” Bruyn stated, aiming at the target and cocking the hammer before firing off a round. Unlike Kiko’s wild shot which had gouged a small chunk of rock out of the concrete wall at the back, Bruyn’s bullet hit the wooden target and blew apart the head, sending wooden splinters across the firing range. “I guess now; we can discuss how you are going to serve me for the week” Bruyn stated, matter-of-factly as she replaced the massive pistol in its home, and gave Kiko another flash of fang.

[LillyanaKabal]

So I realized I've got a lot of chapters to put in. And I don't think I have enough quips to sustain that. So I am dropping two in from here on out. The large spaces between chapters are actually conforming to a new page on my Word Document. if people dislike them, I wil remove them.

Chapter Eight


As it turned out, her servitude to Bruyn was not what she was put in mind with the quip about fingers earlier. Apparently there was a record of gunmanship here in the firing range, and Drax held a record. Kiko’s father followed her everywhere in this place, even after his death. Drax had managed a record that had yet to be surpassed, making a dozen perfect shots in eleven seconds, using the very gun that had put Kiko on her ass with a single bullet. Bruyn could manage six targets, but then the reload was too slow and she never managed to surpass him. Even her super strength couldn’t keep such a weapon tamed with one hand, which meant Drax had used ‘crazy Kitsune magic’ to make his record, and Bruyn wanted Kiko to beat it in the Draugr’s name. This was the first time she had a Kitsune indebted to her, so she was going to make the most of it. There was only one problem.
“I don’t know how to do any sort of magic. I don’t even have any tails yet. What do you expect me to do?” She asked, exasperated as Bruyn had her firing off a significantly smaller gun as practice.
“Learn quickly. Do whatever you need to do to bring this tail of yours out, and then use it to mess with gravity or whatever he did to negate the recoil of the Tenderizer” Bruyn replied, feeling Kiko up a bit too intimately for her to be comfortable. However, before she could do anything else, the door to the firing range opened loudly, and Queenie stormed up to Bruyn, looming over her angrily.


“What, the actual hell, are you doing to my girl?” Queenie demanded. Kiko put her gun down so she wasn’t tempted to shoot, and then turned to glare herself.
“I’m not your girl. Regardless of what happened earlier, you are moving way too fast for anything to come of this just yet. Don’t you know anything about patience?” Kiko retorted. Bruyn gave a smug smile from behind Kiko, and got a sharp reply.
“You do remember I don’t need to dissect you to turn you into ash, right?” Queenie almost barked, before looking back to Kiko. “I can do patience, but you said you wanted it so I thought you knew what you were getting into” Kiko shook her head violently at that exclamation.
“You said if I wanted it to be, and I haven’t decided if I do want it to be or not. Some people think with more than their crotch, you know?!” She threw back, a rhetorical question that wouldn’t be answered as Kiko stormed off out of the firing range, and out of the building entirely. Let them send someone to come get her back if they really wanted, she was going to go find some place that wasn’t occupied by insane demon girls, and crazy zombies and all manner of that was just too much for her right now. She stormed away from the building at an angry pace, and found herself in a place she’d usually not frequent. She knew of it, all the delinquents and thugs of her school spoke about it like it was the hottest place in the city, but it was actually a run-down portion half a step away from a slum and filled with all the people in the grips of a thousand different vices. Apparently she moved quickly when she was angry, or had lost track of time.


Here was not the best place to be for someone like Kiko, especially not dressed the way she was, but she had to push on and give herself an air of authority and confidence so that nobody would mess with her. She was a SIR agent after all, even though it had only been a day and she was still a rookie. They didn’t need to know that. She wandered around, looking for a way out, but eventually came across a group of thugs harassing a girl down an alleyway. She knew that getting involved would be bad for her in this place, but couldn’t help herself as she walked over, passing some blazed out junkie that was probably so high he couldn’t even hear the cries of the girl ten foot away.
“Hey, let her go” Kiko ordered, standing with a rather intimidating posture, and making sure she was ready to kick ass as soon as she needed. One of the men looked over with the usual look of surprised interest, but she never really got further than that since something heavy cracked around the back of her head as the guy she thought was just a junkie smashed a plank of wood across the back of her head. The darkness of unconsciousness came quickly, so much so that she didn’t even feel herself hit the ground. She had really bad luck with planks of wood, it seemed.


Consciousness returned slowly to Kiko, but when it did, she wished it would go away again. She was naked, and chained to the celling by some manacles that were too tight, and dug into her wrists painfully. Her ankles were equally locked to the floor, stretching her out so there was no slack anywhere. The entire posture was uncomfortable, bordering on painful, but was not the worst part. The worst part, was the man with a broad grin in front of her, openly admiring her figure. She tried to turn, to cover up, to do anything that might avert his gaze, but the chains held her too fast.
“Morning darling. So, what is a SIR girl doing all alone in our neck of the woods? We’ve been good lately. Well, sort of good. Good in relation to how we normally are” he quipped, clearly amused by himself.
“You know, you didn’t have to do all this song and dance just to ask me that” Kiko replied, groggy but irritated.
“Ohh, na. That’s just my curiosity. We got an order in a few days ago for female members of SIR. Specifically, blonde females. I don’t know what that’s got to do with anything, hair’s hair. But, the sex trade has always been high strung, so I don’t question it” he told Kiko, who’s eyes bulged and her body tried to recoil, but was held tightly in place by the chains.
“Sex trade?! You ing pig!” She shrieked, wrenching violently at her bindings, but it was a futile action.
“Feisty. I think I might just take a piece of you first. Finder’s fee, and all” He gave a very nasty laugh, and then moved up to Kiko, who squirmed and cried out, trying to get away. It didn’t help, and he forced his way in without any ceremony or warning. It hurt, a lot more than she would have thought from what she had heard about it from everyone else. If it hurt this much every time, she couldn’t fathom why anyone would ever want to do this. But then, part of it was probably his brutal, uncaring thrusts in and out of her. Might have had something to do with it.


‘Someone…please…’ she thought to herself, sobbing softly as blood began to run down her leg. She tried her best to endure it but it was so painful, so horrible, and she couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the pain and the aggressive intruder. Several minutes later – probably, she had lost her perception of time – he began to let out deep grunts and was panting, so was probably about to blow. And then it flashed into her mind. Something she had never seen, but instinctively knew. A sort of premembering.


A girl, with nine tails splayed in a glorious fashion. An aura of peace, and power surrounded her, such that it made all those around her feel safe, and protected. Then the tails vanished in that moment, replaced by a single tail that slowly faded back into sight. With the tail came a man, scruffy looking but somehow wearing scruffy well. He was beaming with pride as the girl spawned her tail. The man looked so familiar to Kiko, but she couldn’t grasp why. The tailed girl looked to the man, and her eyes were a deep, warm gold. The man’s eyes were the same, which was kind of strange. However, the sight was uplifting, it was enlightening. It filled her heart and her body with a warmth and a light she had never known. The man finished his carnal exploits and made a surprised exclamation, which brought Kiko back into the real world. Where she was sporting a fluffy addition behind her.


“A Kitsune, huh? Well . Looks like we aren’t parting company just yet. You are a gold mine, I ain’t letting you go to get ed by some richie bastard when I can become a richie bastard with you around” the man walked over to a table that Kiko had missed before – it was not like she had thought to look around while this mad bastard had told her that she was going to get sold off. The table held copious amounts of clutter, from which he pulled a large jar, and brought it back to Kiko. Then he pulled out a large knife from his belt, and brandished it in front of Kiko’s face, stroking her cheek with the cold flat edge. “So, your blood is something of a rarity, ya know? I don’t know if it’s just homeopathic voodoo, or it actually works, but what you have in your veins is wanted in dozens of different recipes, for all manner of things. It’s also illegal to possess but hey, no risk no reward, am I right?” He asked rhetorically. Kiko knew his plan, knew what he was wanting to do with her, but was entirely helpless to stop him. Tugging at her binds availed her nothing, and she had no idea what she was actually meant to be doing with her tail.
“So, try not to squirm, and I won’t make too much of a mess, ok?” He seemed to have a thing for rhetorical questions, but Kiko had bigger problems. His blade moved to make a practiced cut across her thigh, and then the screaming began.






Each cut felt like it took hours to finished, and then he would gather the blood that spilled out of it, Kiko screaming and crying hysterically as her nerve endings lit up with a burning pain she had never felt before in her life. She was confident she had passed out a few times, which messed up her perception of time entirely. One second he would be slicing her up, and then the next she would be alone in a room that was far too cold to be comfortable, unsure if when he was coming back, but intensely aware of her new scar. She didn’t know how long she had been here, there were no windows and she blacked out a lot from the shock of the pain, the loss of her blood, and generally a desire to escape what had become her life. It had taken a moment for her to lose everything that was going for her and become merely a cretin’s blood bank. Occasionally she would wake with a sore arm or leg, and a tiny needle hole as the source of the pain. They were putting something in her body, probably to make sure she didn’t die on them from all this stealing of what she sort of needed to stay alive. Without any frame of reference, she could only assume she had spent days here. Days of being tortured until she dropped, days of being fed something by needle, and days of being taunted by her own tail. She had it, it would come out when she gave it a thought to show itself, but it did nothing to explain how anything worked.


One session, she was surprising even herself with her mental fortitude. Maybe her body had just adapted to the pain of being cut open, or maybe the sadistic bastard had given her something that forced her to stay conscious, bleeding from different wounds and then those cuts cauterized with a special lighter he had on him. He said it made him look cool when it lit his cigars with what amounted to a miniature blowtorch, and it had its uses in other places as well. Setting large fires, burning peoples eyeballs out, and right now, making sure his honeypot didn’t bleed more than he wanted. Her body was a canvas of scars. The man had some artistic desire because he had made them into crude but legible sigils, symbols that dotted her body and either denoted something, or merely showed a window into the madness of his mind. The one thing she could not understand was the brand, on her lower stomach. Maybe he was some sort of Homopyromaniac or something equally insane. She could accept by this point that he just enjoyed the smell of burning flesh.


Eventually, the world became muted and dull for her, and she was not entirely sure what was real and what was imagined by her blood-starved brain. Her physiology had undergone changes over the past few days, the appearance of her tail turning her away from the path of the human she had walked, and down the path that she was born to walk. It was either this reason, or because she had never really been semi-conscious from blood loss – generally conked out by this point - that she totally hallucinated her torturer getting thrown through the wall to her holding cell, and another, tall and powerful man, stepping through the hole.


Of course her tormented mind would try to keep her from going into the night entirely by putting on this lovely show for her. But it could have waited until she was a little more lucid and less groggy like she had just been woken up with far too little sleep. They spoke like her head was submerged underwater, but she got the gist of it. The large man was distinctly unhappy at her torturer. Maybe they had different tastes in art. Her torturer lunged for him with a knife, but was blindsided by a fist and smashed into the nearby wall hard enough for Kiko to feel the shudder through her cuffs.
‘Were fists really that strong?’ she thought to herself, before she smiled to herself softly, dry lips cracking and beginning to bleed softly. She was questioning the validity of her hallucinations. It seemed her brain’s endeavour to keep her away from the land of the people who wear pants on their heads and lumberjack exclusively with small fish had failed. Only a mad woman would have the gall to question the inflight entertainment that her brain had so obviously worked very hard on. It was vivid enough that she could smell the fear in the room. It smelt like ammonia. Her nose had become sharp over the days of her imprisonment. She could always smell her own blood, and the odour of her torturer. He seemed to have something against personal hygiene. The climax of her movie was when the man began to delimb her torturer and discard the limbs carelessly about the place. The head was last, and discarded with casual disgust, before his eyes settled on Kiko. Her brain had really done it well, he looked so realistic his eyes like pits of darkness into an endless void, and then he spread large, black wings, that defied physics and shone with the sheer depth of the dark hue. It was a spectacle of such beauty she found herself profusely apologizing for any mean thing she had ever said about her brain. She would remember those wings until she was too dead to remember anything. She only had a few seconds to stare, however, since he launched himself upwards, and vanished before hitting the celling. Her hands waved numbly, and then she just watched the body pieces. She had no experience with hallucinations, but she thought they vanished eventually when reality reared its ugly head. A few minutes into the staring, she started to frown, as reality was taking a long lunch break, it seemed.


Maybe it was because she always passed out before this part, but she felt like her torturer was taking a long time getting back. He had to hurry up, she was a busy girl after all. There was screaming to be done, writhing in immeasurable agony as his knife kissed her skin with its edge, and intense despair to be felt when looking into his eyes to see not lewd, perverted pleasure, but the satisfaction of a man doing what he loved, as if carving her up and bleeding her dry was like the whittling of an icon, or the sewing of a dress. He had never forced his way into her again, as if he enjoyed the deflowering more than the act, or just didn’t enjoy the act. Maybe Kiko didn’t have what he liked. Maybe she was too much fox now and he was the kind of person that didn’t enjoy a quick Yiff in the morning before work. But it seemed the man had no respect for punctuality, and he was rude to boot. His head was faced down, not even looking at her so she could scowl at him for his lack of thought for the plans of others. And scowling at the back of a hallucination’s dismembered head just didn’t have the same satisfaction as scowling into the eyes of a hallucination’s dismembered head. But, he was her hallucination, and so she would make him do what she wanted. Concentrating on his head, she told her brain that no, it had not landed away from her, but actually facing her, hoping that that would change the outcome of the little brain video and give her something to do. It didn’t happen spontaneously, but instead came the tingly feeling that heralded her tail coming forth. It then pointed it’s tip in the direction of the head, and extended a strange orange tether, with attached to the head and tugged it around so she could see his eyes. Her brain didn’t seem to appreciate the fact that she was butting in, as it distracted her with loud noises coming from nearby. Clearly a sequel to distract her, try to keep her from being a backseat hallucinator. They were gunshots, but she couldn’t see anything, only hear them. And occasionally screams. Screams of pain, of panic, of determination, of death. The scent of the blood of others filled her nose. She could feel how violently this blood was being spilled, in glorious battle, and it aroused her, a warm tingle in her crotch filling her body with a pleasant emotion that the man could never extract if he tried all day with his insufficient little trouser snake.


Wait, what?


No, no, no, no. She might have been a resident of Loony Town now, living on the corner of Nutter Street and Insanity Lane, but she still had standards. Getting turned on by some guy’s blood was not something she was about to stand for. It was like she was some sort of perverted vampire, which she wasn’t. The teeth proved it. She had neither retractable fangs, nor fine points to her teeth. If she tried to get into someone’s neck, there would be blood. Which, was the point of being a vampire, now she thought of it. And that revelation made her question her earlier statement. She could bite people, there would be blood, and she could drink that blood. Did that make her a vampire? Logic – such as it was – pointed to yes. Fortunately, for the tiny shred of rationality that still clung to existence like a man with hay fever clung to his antihistamines in summer, a familiar, albeit bloody, face appeared. Horns and all. The face said something muffled and distorted, and then the curtains fell on the performance, and Kiko’s eyes rolled back into her head, sagging into blissful unconsciousness, to await the next act when she finally awoke.






























































Chapter Nine




The next act was boring, when she woke. Sure, the graphics were great - it had changed the scenery entirely, she was in some hospital stroke infirmary stroke health place, laid up in a bed with a machine that went ‘ping’ attached to her - but, there was nothing going on. It was another case of great graphics, terrible gameplay. Why brains thought that was anything approaching a good idea, she would never know. But, lacking any sort of binding in this new and vivid 3d hallucination, she slowly sat up in the bed. Stupid brain even added in her bodily woes. She wasn’t feeling the dull roar of constant pain, but her entire body ached, felt exhausted like a fifty mile run followed by three hours of intimate attention in bed with a very greedy lover. Except she didn’t have the satisfaction of those three hours. She felt cheated. Bloody brain, why not give her something nice to watch.


As if on cue, a cute girl in a pink uniform walked through the door, and saw Kiko awake, so came over.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, her voice soft, and as easy on the ears as her appearance was on the eyes. Speaking of, her eyes were crazy. Pure white orbs without any features in them at all. Incredibly pale skin, pure white hair, eyebrows blending into her tundra-esque skin as they were exactly the same hue. She was like a large clump of snow had come together and put on a pink nurse’s uniform. Not that Kiko was complaining, this was much better.
“Well, let’s get started. Not sure how long this is going to last. Knife through the thigh has been known to throw off my concentration, and this looks pretty cocentrational” she slowly reached out her hand to pull the girl in, but there was no strength in any part of her body and the advances were easily rejected.
“Tip for the future. Kitsunes have been known to have hallucinations in times of great physical or mental duress. But the eyes of those your mind crafts have a warm golden colour, without exception. Nobody really knows why. The one person that seems to have understood is tight lipped with his knowledge. Which is a shock for him because usually he loves to talk, and boast, and brag” The nurse’s voice was like honey to Kiko, such that she wasn’t really hearing what was being said. Just the tone, the voice, the beauty of it. However, as much as she might not have been hearing it, Mr Brain was doing overtime at the office and was surrounded by mugs of coffee, since her eyes snapped to the girl upon registering the information.


“So…if, hypothetically, a person had eyes that were like deep dark pits that were scary and beautiful at the same time, they wouldn’t be part of that rule?” Kiko put in. Testing the waters, so to speak.
“Sounds like you met a very interesting person. But you are right, he would not be a hallucination. He was real, as I am real. As, unfortunately, is everything that happened to you. You were a mess, to the point they called me in. Your physical state has been altered, so it may come as a shock to you when you see a mirror” The nurse warned, before handing over said mirror. Kiko just stared for a moment, trying to comprehend the idea that everything had happened. She could imagine the state she was in right now, something that would never be considered attractive if she were to show herself off. A self-conscious fear gripped her tightly, but then let go, her Kitsune mentality splitting the trauma up into bite sized chunks. So she looked in the hand mirror, and was certainly surprised by what she saw there.


Her left eye had become identical to the girl in front of her, and her hair had a relatively thick streak through it, also the same colour as the girl. Her skin had taken on the same pale colourings, and a stray thought drove her to check if downstairs had the wallpaper changed, but it was covered by the gown, and she found it a bit coarse to strip naked to see those hairs down there.
“Ok. So. I’m really pale, my hair is dyed, and have a weird eye” she muttered. As if saying it would help her reconcile. It didn’t.
“And you are not dead. Best change, in my opinion” The snow-girl quipped, smirking softly as she looked at a clipboard and then wrote something too fast and without proper rhythm to be anything more than a scrawled mess.
“I’m guessing I’m locked in this bed for, ever? Legs broken or some such” Kiko muttered, laying back on the pillows. It was about par for the course, really. However, the comment seemed to annoy the pale girl.
“If I couldn’t heal a pair of broken legs, then I would not be worth anything, now would I? Honestly….” She shook her head and wrote more, even making swirly motions far too much for any manner of writing she had ever heard about. “Now the runes are a different matter. Self-fed by the time I got to them. Unfortunately, removing them would also kill you. And you dying was literally the exact opposite of my plan, so they are there to stay” She finished, before turning and walking out, still clearly offended by the quip about broken legs. Kiko didn’t even get a chance to apologise. Which kind of sucked but then those kind of people were highly strung, and anything could set her off. It was only a matter of time.


However, as if waiting outside for the nurse to leave, Queenie came in a few seconds and smiled softly at Kiko.
“Hey. How are you feeling?” She asked. Kiko decided it would be a great idea to swing her legs over the side of the bed and get up, but the rest of her body had other plans, and she promptly collapsed as her knees buckled without any fight. Queenie darted forward and managed to caught Kiko before she hit the ground, and then carted her back into the bed.
“Honestly, life with you is a constant rollercoaster. Any chance you can give me a day off?” She teased, letting Kiko tuck herself in and then glaring at Bruyn as she came in as well. The two exchanged an aggressive look, like a lion and a cheetah both after the same antelope.
“So, who was the nurse that came in?” Kiko asked, trying to defuse the tension. They still glared a bit, but eventually conceded and Bruyn let Queenie speak.
“That was Shiro. A Kitsune from a clan with a unique power. They are sort after all over the world for their ability to heal any injury short of death. The price, is implanting parts of their own appearance on the patient, in proportion to how much has been healed by them. Nothing detrimental, eyes still see, arms still work. They just stand out” She finished as Kiko stroked her eyebrow.
“They certainly stand out. Dam. Better get used to the spotlight, huh?” Kiko asked rhetorically. Her appearance wasn’t exactly common place now. Shiro was crazy cool, but she had a whole theme that fit her. Kiko was some crazy half-girl with the ‘Shiro parts’ contrasting incredibly with her ‘Kiko parts’.
“Also your mother’s clan is here. They want to see you when you are able to go to them. Very haughty creatures, they won’t come to you. And rather superstitious as well. If anyone that is not a healer enters a place of healing, then they bring calamity upon it. I guess it keeps the kids out of the doctor’s tent, or whatever, but we are civilized here” Queenie finished the last bit in a mutter, before looking to Kiko and smiling softly.
“Get some rest. Me and Bruyn will work something out between us” She suddenly announced, looking to the Draugr girl.
“Do I get no say in this?” Kiko asked the two, her snow-white eyebrows raised.
“Nope” came the reply, from both of them at once. Clearly outmatched, there was nothing left to do about it, other than go back to sleep and let those two play with the strings of her life. She’d clonk them both over the head later or something. Sleep came quick, and easy. Not surprising considering how tired she was.


By the time she woke up again, there was no more light coming through the windows, and instead the lights in the celling lit the room. Feeling hungry and more stable than before, Kiko got out of bed – managing to stay on her feet this time – and headed for the door, pulling it open and looking around. She wandered for a few seconds, before shuddering as if something cold had just run through her.
“Good to see you up and about, Miss Ator. Generally, patients stay in their bed until discharged, however” Lysaida spoke. It took Kiko a few seconds to remember that the woman could walk through shadows, but when she did she looked behind her and gave a shy sort of smile.
“Sorry, Miss. Ma’am. Milady…how do I even refer to you?” Kiko asked, the uncertainly melting away her subdued tone.
“Any of the above is fine. You can also call me Colonel, or Mizia if you wish” Lysaida advised, to which Kiko nodded.
“Miss Mizia. Sorry. I just, can’t sit in a bed all day. I’m an active kind of girl. Also, considerably hungrier than when I last woke up” Kiko replied. Then a tingling feeling came from behind her, and she looked at the tail, that had curved around her shoulder so she could look at it. “Need something, Tail?” She asked. Clearly she was going mad if she was talking to parts of her own body, but Lysaida didn’t seem to react to it in a negative way.
“See you have matured. Keeping Kitsunes in the sick bed is always a nightmare. If you think you can get dressed, I’ll take you to the cantina. Should still be something around” Lysaida offered. Kiko nodded and followed Lysaida back to the office, and then to a wardrobe filled with identical uniforms. “The field can be dangerous. Even training has been known to cause a few injuries. So we have spare uniforms on hand just in case” She explained, taking one off the hook and handing it to Kiko, who retracted her tail, stripped out of her gown, and then paused.


Looking down at her body, she could see the scars the knife had left. They looked as if she had had them for years, but were still predominant scars all across her body. Most on her torso, but some on her thighs, and a few on her shoulders. And the brand was still there as well, something that elected a scoff of disdain from Lysaida.
“Keep that brand covered up, Kiko. Don’t let anyone see it” She warned, a very serious tone to her voice, which made Kiko stare in askance. “It’s the brand of an Arkavian slave. Anyone who sees that and knows what it is will probably try to ship you back as an escaped slave, there is a standing bounty on all escaped slaves and nobody stops to ask questions, so it has become a favoured method of torture in the underworld. Arkavia doesn’t care, it just gets all the more slaves because of this practice. And I’d rather not lose you to some perverted, fat . So try not to wear anything that shows off your gut, ok?” She suggested, making it obvious that while it was technically a choice, there was only one sane outcome. So, Kiko took that sane outcome and nodded, donning her uniform and making sure the shirt was tucked into the skirt so it wouldn’t flash off the slave brand accidentally. She was glad for the long sleeved nature of the uniform, as it hid the deep, vicious – albeit faded – cuts in her arms. With her dressing completed, she nodded, straightened her cap in a minute fashion, and then nodded.


“Ok. Fully dressed. Probably going to need trousers though. This skirt shows off my legs” She muttered, the scar-sigils on her legs were on show, and they embarrassed her. Every time she saw them, she could hear the man’s laughter, and her own screams. While her Kitsune mentality dealt with the psychological burden, she could still hear it. Lysaida bit her lip softly and thought.
“Skirt’s part of the uniform, but I can sort out some opaque leggings if you want. You got something that would suit that?” Lysaida asked. Kiko nodded, and then the woman got on some sort of communication earbud thing, so Kiko quickly put in before she could speak.
“Can you send someone other than Queenie? Or Bruyn? I don’t want to add more fuel to that fire without means to put you out”. Lysaida gave an amused smile before nodding and talking to someone on the other end, sorting someone out to go to her house and grab the leggings. “I would offer the key, but you people probably don’t really care about doors, aye?” Kiko intoned, shaking her head softly.
If Lysaida was a lesser woman, she’d probably be blushing, but that was not something she ever did.


“Well, you know, I needed to get in and I couldn’t really use the door because you locked it. If you’d just not keep us out then we wouldn’t have to break in” Lysaida was quite the tease it seemed, when you got down to it. Or when she wasn’t in a formal situation. Kiko decided not to say anything and just follow her to the cantina. A few people were hanging around there, but for the most part it was as she expected for being at night. She had a feeling it was pretty late as well.
“Any preference?” Lysaida asked. Not feeling like talking, more wanting to just sit down and brood for a while, Kiko shook her head and took a seat, to get some much needed brooding done. The whole thing, Kitsune mentality or not, was harrowing, even thinking about it, remembering it. The scars had faded but they belied how soon it was that she had been rescued. Probably. She could have been in that bed for a long time before she woke up, and a long time again before she actually got out of it. And her torturer was dead. She had no avenue of revenge now, he got himself killed by that guy with the wings. It was all a frigging mess, much like herself. However, despite the fact that she never wanted to go anywhere near that place, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to be there because there was something important in that warehouse. Something deep, and personal, that belonged to her. They stole her uniform, sure, but that hadn’t been hers more than a day so it didn’t feel like it was hers. This strange thing was like something that had been around her entire life. Maybe even longer.


But before she could continue down that train of thought and wonder how something could be hers for longer than she had been alive, Lysaida returned with food. At this moment she didn’t really care what it was, and just devoured whatever was in front of her voraciously. Once it was done, she felt she could eat that again, but didn’t want to say anything because that would be greedy. Half way through her own meal, Lysaida smiled at what must have been a look in Kiko’s eyes.
“Still hungry, huh? Don’t worry, it’s a Kitsune thing. You’ll be noticing a lot of things that come under ‘Kitsune thing’ in the future. Your body, however it does it, can store up to three times its own weight in food in case of an emergency situation were no nutrition can be found. You’ll be able to deal with the feeling of perpetual hunger when you have more control over your abilities, but right now, there is nothing you can really do about it, I’m afraid” Lysaida explained. “Except for eating three times your body weight in food. But that’s hardly lady-like, now is it?” She finished with a tease before getting back to her own food. It was awkward, to watch and do nothing because she had demolished her own food so quickly, and so she looked around. But there was nothing interesting, and so she looked within. That, was very interesting.


Her tail, even when kept within her, was something she could feel. A soft warmth inside her, comforting and making her wish she could hug her own tail. But that would require some serious contortionism and was down the road of doubtfulness. Apparently there was a lot of Kitsune magic she could do with it, but that seemed to be something she needed an instructor for, because she hadn’t the foggiest where to even begin with that one. Best to ask for help than dive head first and run afoul of the rules and limitations of her Kitsune magic. Maybe she could make some sort of happiness beam, focusing that warmth she could feel to the tip and then extruding it to make someone feel better than they currently where. The tingle signifying her tail sprouting ran through her body, and then the thought of the happiness beam seemed to be becoming reality. The warmth was trailing through her tail and gathering at the tip, making the fur look like it was made of fire. The effects were beautiful, but they dispersed quickly, despite Kiko’s attempts to keep them coherent.
“The dinner table is not considered the best place to practice your mass destruction technique, Kiko” Lysaida put in. Kiko stared for a few seconds, before shaking her head. The fire made it look suspicious, but it was not anything destructive.


“I was just trying to share the warmth I felt when I focused on the concept of my tail. I wanted to share that warmth with other people so I could help when they are feeling down” She explained. Lysaida smiled, really enjoying the girl’s motivation, and really not enjoying having to be the one that was going to crush her dreams.
“That warmth you feel isn’t an emotional happiness thing. It’s quite literally burn-your-house-down warmth that can be shot out of a coherent beam at the tip of your tail. It’s called Fox Fire. Most well-known and well-used trick in the Kitsune arsenal” She saw sadness in Kiko’s eyes, and felt bad, but it was better than her blasting a hole through something, or someone, as she continued to try.
“Wow. My race really doesn’t do hugs, does it?” She asked, looking at herself with the same look a person coming to understand the exact function of a gun.
“The Great War was not a time for hugs, unfortunately. It was a time for…well, the opposite of hugs, really. And the mods that were done to increase survival and victory rates will never be removed. Despite your feelings towards it, the Kitsune are a race of warriors” She gave Kiko what sounded like a warning and a commiseration at the same time. She shrugged off both and stood up, still not entirely stable on her legs, but much better than she was when she got up.
“I’m going to retire. Thank you for coming to get me, Miss Mizia. It was appreciated to get out of there while I was still-” she paused for a moment, about to say ‘sane’ but it was hard to really joke about that considering. “- on the right side of not tearing everything apart” she finished. Lysaida caught the pause, and knew what was meant to go there, but said nothing, only nodded and allowed Kiko to go on her way. That way led her straight to Queenie’s room, where she hoped to find the girl. No such luck, unfortunately. And since there was only one bed, she had little choice on where to bed down for the night. Letting out a soft sigh, and relegating herself to getting woken by an over friendly – or over protective when she saw the scars – Queenie, Kiko stripped down, found the attached bathroom, and did her night time hygiene, before slipping into bed. She was more tired than she thought, probably still not fully recovered, because sleep came fast and dreamless, and she was thankful for the latter. She couldn’t handle the cackling of the man and the screaming of her, the smell of blood and the flash of knife. Not now.

[LillyanaKabal]

It's been a long time, so obviously I have been having thoughts. The Earth Daughter, this novel, and my much beloved and neglected Life Of Yesura, are all in the same universe. This is far more removed than Life Of Yesura, but there are still references for the eager fan.

Chapter Ten


Kiko awoke some time the next day, and was surprised to find a lack of Queenie. Kiko was sure that her demon lover would wake her, if only to talk now she was out of the hospital proper. Maybe the way Kiko had snapped at her had caused the woman to really think about how she was acting with Kiko. It felt like she was dealing with Kiko like she would with anyone, dominant and slightly foreboding as she slipped their will from them, in the bedroom and beyond. At least, that is how Kiko saw it, but she could be wrong. She had been about a lot of things, like the mercenary little she had tried to save and subsequently got knocked out and tortured by a nutjob. A now dead, nutjob. That made her sigh again. There was no fire of revenge burning for a dead person, and she hadn’t the foggiest who the others were. She sat in bed, naked and staring into space, before snapping back and getting up, going into the bathroom. She spawned her tail, and stared, wondering if she brushed it, or if it groomed itself, or some other third thing she hadn’t thought of. Maybe she should get it dirty and see if that dirt remained? She was getting in the shower anyway, keep her wounds clean, even if they were as healed as they were ever going to get and the risk of infection was minimal. They still burned with ghost pain, and a shower would help her stay focused.


So she got some toothpaste, and dotted her tail in a few places with it, enough to be noticeable but not enough to be hard to get out. Letting it fade away, she waited a couple of seconds, and then called it back. There were no marks anywhere, which made her smile. That amount of fur would have been a nightmare to wash and dry. And if she ever got more than one, it would be a matter of hours spent in the shower just on her tails. So she let it fade out again and did what toothpaste was usually used for, before getting in the shower. There was always something so liberating about showers. They helped intensely with the feelings and thoughts of the day, washing them away with the rest of the physical problems. Kiko showered daily so dirt and dead skin didn’t really have time to build up, but she was confident that something was around to be showered. There always was. Or maybe she just showered because she liked the way it made her feel. The peace and the lack of need to think. Either way, hygiene and nice smells were the result. And so a nice smelling Kiko exited the shower after finishing, towelled herself dry, and then got into her uniform. Queenie had been around, it seemed, since a pair of opaque stockings were laying over the rest of her uniform. She really hoped that Miss Mizia had not sent the crazy demon girl, but that was by the by at this point. Not exactly sure what by it was by though. Or where the phrase even came from.


Fully dressed, shirt tucked into her skirt, and scars hidden from view, she wandered out and pondered exactly what by it was by. However, she was drawn from this mentality by the subtle stares and mutters of the people surrounding her. Clearly the story had gotten out and even though she was hiding them, everyone knew what was under her clothes. It made her feel pretty naked, and so she hurried into the closest room that she could find, which turned out to be Bruyn’s firing range. However, she was an anomaly, with snow-pale skin, a weird ass eye and a streak of white in her hair like some mad hair stylist.


Grabbing the earmuffs and really hoping that Queenie and Bruyn had sorted their problems out, she went in, and was greeted quickly by an ecstatic super-zombie who was apparently waiting for her, probably saw her coming, or smelled her with her zombie nose. That idea made her giggle, and so she hugged Bruyn back. Her not-quite-human-body-temperature embrace was something she could really get used too, although the eyes that lit up with a scary intent was not quite as enticing.
“So, you out of the hospital fully? Can walk around without pulling a dozen stiches and causing a mess?” Bruyn asked. Kiko’s eyes went wide and she looked about herself as if she could see anything after the effort she had put into cover up.
“I have stitches?” She asked, in a rather panicked voice.
“No” came the laughing reply. “Shiro doesn’t leave anything like that. I was just teasing” Bruyn explained. Kiko gave a relieved sigh, and then punched her in the arm.
“Don’t do that. I honestly worried for a moment I was going to pull something” She grumbled. Bruyn just seemed to be even more amused by that and dragged her to a firing booth.
“Now, I remember that someone still owes me a week of servitude. I put it on hold while you were out, I knew you’d want it that way” Bruyn was so close to nibbling Kiko’s ear – even with the earmuffs on - the Kitsune girl wanted to grab the biggest gun that wouldn’t put her on her ass and shoot. But she restrained herself, and looked to the collection.


She wasn’t a good shot by any margin, but she was still immediately put off at the .22 pistol. It just struck her as dainty, and she wasn’t a dainty girl. The .357 looked more her style, but two guns seemed to have the same calibre and she didn’t really know which one to go for. Bruyn followed her eyes and smiled, stroking her hips while she explained.
“One of them is a cylinder fed revolver, the other is a mag fed semi-auto. However, if you are in the mood, I could show you something with a bit more…kick. I am sure your team will appreciate a girl who knows how to handle something big, long and hard” the innuendos made Kiko blush, but also feel a little sick as it reminded her of the man who had made her handle his rifle. It seemed Kitsune mentality didn’t work if it was something that was a minor feeling, only dealing with the truly crippling feelings. Still, not wanting Bruyn to be put off by Kiko’s problems, she nodded and let Bruyn lead her off. It was a different part of the range, less populated, only three people including her in all of the stalls. Rifles it seemed, were less popular than side arms.
“Now, a secondary weapon out in the field would not go amiss, but I want you to get some work in with the higher calibre stuff. Run into anything real ugly and they are going to thank your ability to shoulder a thirty oh six” She exclaimed. Kiko had no idea what one of those was, until she was lead to an empty stall with the butts of rifles on offer. She saw the calibres above guns, including the 30-06 but her eyes were on the .800, which she drew out. The dam thing looked like an oversized shotgun, two barrels, each one a force of intimidation.
“Or that. But seriously, if you couldn’t handle the Tenderizer, that will break your shoulder. And we don’t want to send you back to the hospital after you just got out, now do we?” Bruyn asked, teasing as she took out a .22 rifle. It was small compared to the rest, but was still pretty decently sized when she put it up against the pistols.

“This is small, easy to handle, not a lot of recoil. Great for getting used to the size of rifles. Finding your firing stance. All our rifles are generally the same size, so you get comfortable with one, you can get comfortable with them all. Now, my suggestion is like this” She helped Kiko into a comfortable position, so that she would take most of the recoil into the majority of her upper body rather than just into her shoulder. “Aim down the sight, line up the barrel, don’t be hesitant to let your instincts guide you, and then slowly squeeze the trigger” Bruyn counselled. Kiko nodded, and did just that, lining up the rifle with the dummy and then firing. Its recoil was considerably less than she was expecting, and she managed to keep it on level, but that level wasn’t sufficient to actually hit the target. She passed that without even being close enough to clip the dummy. She looked to Bruyn, expecting some sort of scolding, but there was only an amused smile.
“What, you expected to hit first try? Pfft, love, only the Main Character of some action novel gets that kind of luck. The rest of us have to work at it” She quipped. It made sense, it wasn’t like she was in any sort of novel. This, was real life. So she tried again, lining it up and trusting that niggly little voice in the back of her head. She shot the gun dry, and clipped the target once, which wasn’t a terrible record for someone who had never been anywhere near a gun before.
“Spare mags are here. I want you to do an hour of practice here in the firing range every day. You’ll see the progress soon enough” Bruyn told her. Still in the belief that she had to follow the girl’s orders for the week, she nodded and stuck another mag into the gun.
“Alright, time to get some rounds down range” Kiko exclaimed, before setting down for the firing practice.


The hour passed surprisingly quickly, the focus demanded in such an action was really drawing her in, and she went through mag after mag of bullets, none of them getting much more than clips and grazes, but she could feel herself adapting to the pace of the rifle after every dry mag discarded. By luck or yet-unrealized skill, she managed to get a bullet right through the target’s skull, but couldn’t repeat the act, so put it down to a fluke. Which made her a little sad, she had hoped to get somewhere in the hour, but Bruyn didn’t seem to waver in her smile, so Kiko tried not to let it get to her too much. Putting the gun back in its slot, she rolled her shoulders and stretched most of her body. It didn’t have much recoil on a per bullet basis, but an hour of consistent shooting could put a strain on a girl like her.
“Well, you did pretty well for your first day. Do I get a kiss?” Bruyn teased, puckering her lips exaggeratedly. Kiko rolled her eyes and planted a quick kiss on her cheek before heading to the exit to get out of the firing range.
“I’m hungry, I don’t think I got breakfast. Doesn’t feel like I got breakfast…I should probably get breakfast. Breakfast sounds good. Probably twice. Can I get breakfast twice?” Kiko babbled, staring at Bruyn and feeling her mentality slip away like an oil covered log. Bruyn just grinned and nodded.
“Sure, you can get breakfast twice. I’ll give you my portion of brains” She replied, holding out her hands in a stereotypical zombie fashion, which made Kiko laugh, and then Bruyn led the fox girl out of the firing range and into the hall, were a large, well-endowed girl was waiting. Queenie. Demon, Boss, Lover? Maybe. Kiko wanted to take things slow, especially after what her torturer had done, she didn’t know if she could handle any manner of romantic attachment, regardless of Kitsune mentality. There was a glance towards Bruyn, but it wasn’t a fire-filled glare, more like an arrogant acknowledgment of a rival. And then it looked to Kiko, and softened. No pity in that look, but a sadness for what had been lost.


Queenie stroked Kiko’s face tenderly, and the Kitsune did her best not to cringe, but her eyes must have betrayed her, since Queenie pulled back a little too quick to be natural.
“Good to see you on your feet. Got training in twenty, so might want to get some food before you get changed and join me and the other recruits” Queenie’s voice had a strained formality to it, and then she left. Just like that.
“Ok…that was strange. I was expecting to watch a live porno of you two in the hallway, but…” Bruyn looked to Kiko, and saw the barely restrained hysteria bubbling just below the surface. “Well, that’s a problem for future Kiko, after she’s had breakfast twice” Bruyn strategically didn’t touch Kiko, confirming to the Kitsune girl that she had seen everything there was to see. But, she still managed to herd Kiko to the cantina. Far more crowded than when she had come with Miss Mizia yesterday, she kept as close to Bruyn as she could without touching, and made it to the counter with a tray. They were serving multiple breakfasts for different dietary needs – Quasihumans didn’t always eat like humans – but she had not lost her taste buds since this physical change, and so she took the normal Breakfast, and took the plate of meat, beans, eggs and toast to a table. Focusing on it rather anything else, she devoured the food with single-minded intensity, only noticing Bruyn’s amused grin after the last scraps had been eaten. Taking a napkin and cleaning her mouth up, she blushed, distinctly embarrassed.
“Hungry then” Bruyn quipped, causing Kiko to blush deeper before her own tray was pushed towards Kiko. It contained the same meal she had just finished, which was confusing. She had been expecting brains, in some manner.
“Darlin’, I’m dead” Bruyn replied in answer to the stare of askance. “Which means I can literally eat anything that has the least bit of nutrition. Food like this is better for a growing girl like you anyway” Bruyn finished. Kiko wasn’t going to waste this opportunity just because her eating habits left something to be desired, and so tucked into the second portion, cleaning it up like a hurricane of eating food, rather than cars and buildings. Someone came by as she was eating and she gave them a vulpine snarl which sent them scurrying. Actually, snarled at them, just for coming near. Part of her thought she needed to get whatever this was under wraps before someone got bit, but the rest of her pointed out the fact that she had no idea what this way was, let alone how to get it under wraps. Being a Kitsune was new to her, and she had no idea what kind of limits this Kitsune mentality had. Maybe this was normal and all Kitsunes turned into sociopaths eventually, but her father seemed happy enough.


The plate of food ran dry quick, and Kiko felt her sanity returning to her tentative grasp, which made her look up at Bruyn with a deep blush.
“Is being overprotective of food a Kitsune thing?” She asked, hopefully able to brush it off on something she couldn’t control.
“Nope, that’s a Kiko thing. But you went through hell, dear. Even with your mentality, there is going to be a few new quirks that you are going to need to spend some time adapting too. Everyone develops them eventually, you just had the misfortune to develop them sooner than most. On the plus side, recruits are practically never brought in with a tail. So you get to learn about what that can do long before anyone else on the same level. Gives you longer to practice, and gives you better control over your tails power when you finish the year of basic” Bruyn always seemed able to see the light, which was nice. Kiko needed someone who could see the light right now, instead of someone trying to shower her with pity and condolences. She had never been the kind of girl for either.


“But, I’d prefer to stay the right side of on fire, so best not keep you from Queenie’s training regime. She’ll never forgive me for that one” Bruyn exclaimed, shooing Kiko out of the cantina and chasing her as far as the firing range before shooing her on some more before going in. Kiko pondered the idea of skipping today, the look in Queenie’s eyes was not something she could handle again. But, if she skipped this then Queenie would come storming down and bark and probably ruin everything, so best not give the girl any fuel for her fire and just go to the lesson. So Kiko completed the journey, and entered the large ‘Room of Physical Prowess’ which was basically just a posh name for the gym. But she knew Queenie didn’t like being called the boss of the gym, so giving it a flashy name suited the girl’s desire for pretentiousness. Several other people, in identical uniforms were milling about, but nothing started as she walked in, so she was clearly not the last one. A few looked in her direction, but didn’t recognize her. The rumours about what had happened to her seemed to spread across the more established people and leave the new recruits alone.


Kiko walked up to the nearest group and listened to them chatter about how exciting it was being here, and how they really wanted to impress the Overseer of Physical Prowess because she sounded like a very interesting woman to know. The way that was said made their intentions clear, and if Queenie heard it, well…the reaction from the Demon Girl would be rather amusing to say the lease. Either run them ragged in the bedroom or make some clear immutable claim on Kiko, the second was probably the one that she wouldn’t be able to shoulder for any length of time. Her nameless torturer had left scars on more than her body. She lacked any trauma from the memory of them, but it didn’t remove the memories altogether. She could still feel it, still hear it. And it flashed in her mind when ever Queenie smiled at her. She didn’t want such a beautiful act to be tainted forever, but it seemed impossible to throw off right now.




























































































Chapter Eleven


On the topic of throwing off, everyone’s train of thought was subject to that when a bright blue haired girl came in, stumbling from a slowdown as the flat-out run became a walk. She had a strange look about her. A gold ring hung from the middle of her nose, and a dozen other golden piercings were scattered across her lips, ears, and eyebrows. When her mouth fell open to pant, the glint of a ring in her tongue could be seen; making it obvious that this girl really enjoyed getting piercings. Kiko wondered if they were anywhere else as well, but gave herself a quick mental slap at that. She wasn’t going to turn into a deviant in response to her fear of sexual commitment.
“I’m sorry I’m late Mistress, I set the alarm for pm, rather than am” She told Queenie, still panting hard. Kiko’s eyes bulged at the title, and looked to Queenie with suspicious eyes. Mistress?! The whole idea that the girl’s voice was cute and light didn’t even find purchase in Kiko’s mind, despite how many piercings were adorning her face and the rather amusing disparity between the two.
“It’s fine Ceal. Not like this is important or anything” Queenie replied, sarcasm dripping heavy and thick from her tone, before snapping her fingers and pointed to a point next to her. Queenie caught Kiko’s glare as she waited for Ceal to come, but just gave an apologetic smile. Which turned to a grimace when Ceal tripped over her own feet and hit the mat.
“This miscoordinated klutz is my assistant Ceal. She might seem a useless bint right now, but I like her. I am Overseer Queenie; you can call me Overseer if you wish. If any of you decide to be over familiar and call me Queenie, then I will drag you to my bedroom and roughly exhaust you there before forcing you to repeat today’s training” It was a threat that was just like the Demon girl, and seemed decidedly directed at Kiko. A threat to bridge the gulf growing between them maybe? She was just the right temperament to try such ham-handed actions.


The sudden explicit threat had shocked the recruits, and some were interested at the unsurprised look on Kiko’s face. It implied she knew the sensual woman up there threating people with exhaustive cardinal activities and then forced exercise. Kiko looked around and saw in the eyes of people looking at her that if anything happened, they would hide behind Kiko as a buffer from the woman. Great. Now she was going to have to decide if she was on the side of the recruits, or Queenie, who would have no problem, at all, taking her here and now if she warranted it. Queenie flashed Kiko a grin that meant the woman knew exactly what the fox girl was thinking and then carried on with her speech.
“You are here because you were physically active before being recruited into SIR. Some of you did gym, some of you learned martial arts, a few of you did both. But now you are here and you will learn how I say. I do not care about what you think you know, and if you dislike that then I invite you to come up to the stage and show exactly what you know with dear Ceal here” Queenie finished. A ripple of giggles ran through the recruits. Ceal looked to be the kind of person to swing a punch and hit herself. And you just had to tug on one of her piercings and she was putty. This thought clearly ran through the mind of a rather large man, who stepped up with a sneer. She recognized him as he called attention to himself. A man who competed in boxing at a national level, Quasi-human bracket.


Queenie nodded at the man, and gave an order for everyone to clear some space, clearing the mat for Ceal and the man.
“Alright. Three-minute round. First to surrender loses. If you lose, then your ego will be punished by making you have to follow everything she says for a day. Of course if you win then she will have to do everything you say” Queenie explained. A lewd grin stretched across the big man’s face, as he towered over the girl. It was going to be over in seconds, and then the cute girl was going to be forced into indentured servitude for the day, all because of Queenie’s boasting. Kiko had half a mind to step in and stop this, but Queenie seemed to sense that train of thought and gave her a glance dissuading Kiko of that course of action. “Ok. Take stances” Queenie ordered. The big man took a solid position, showing skill as well as size and strength. Ceal just looked on, as awkward and shy as the moment she had entered. Setting her jaw, Kiko watched and intended to have some words with Queenie later. “And, begin!”


The big man wasted no time and rushed in, quick for his size, and agile as well. No boxer could survive on strength alone, and this was why he was the representative for his country in global boxing contests. An unrestrained fist flew towards Ceal’s gut and the girl looked liable to break a rib when that connected, but it never did. The earlier prediction that the fight would be over in seconds was correct, but nobody had guessed to whom it would go. In a flurry of moment too fast to catch, Ceal had the man on the ground, standing over him with his arm in a clutch just shy of dislocating it, and a foot on his shoulder. A simple twitch and he would have an arm dislocated from its shoulder. The loud thud of him hitting the mat shocked several people, one of them even letting out a cute yelp of surprise. The man struggled, trying to use his formidable strength to force his way out of the hold, but it was perfect, and kept him latched to the ground as if he was stuck in a tar pit.
“I suggest you surrender, big guy. Ceal’s got a rather disturbing fetish, she likes to hear people’s bones snap, and you are in prime position to indulge her” Queenie put in. Ceal’s focused face turned a deep red and she looked to Queenie frantically.
“Mistress! I don’t do that anymore!” She exclaimed, keeping the big guy in the hold as if all his squirming and writhing didn’t matter in the slightest. ‘anymore’ implying that she did it at one point, was all that the man needed to tap rapidly on the mat, surrendering to this waif of a girl.


“Well, that’s game. And a good first lesson. The creatures you are going to be up against can’t always judge what they can do from first glace. You’ve got to be on guard and never underestimate your opponent, or you will probably be eaten” She told the group. Ceal had let her opponent go the moment he had tapped, but he stayed on the ground, seething in anger.
“That was ! What kind of trick did she use?!” He barked, his muscles seeming to grow and distort as he lost control over his form and it turned back towards his Ogre roots.
“Ceal here, is a Slyph. Their unfortunate mentality compels them to focus on a singular thing to the exclusion of anything else. Only mastery will allow them to move on to something else. Ceal’s mind focused on Combat, which she mastered a few decades ago. She has about three hundred and fifty years of combat experience, so you stood no chance against her. It was a rigged fight from the start, I just wanted to demonstrate that you shouldn’t judge a klutz by her stumble” Queenie continued, ruffling the girl’s blue hair and smiling down at her. Ceal had such a look of contentment on her face from the petting, Kiko thought she might blow a gasket right here in front of everyone. But she kept it together, even when Queenie whispered in her ear. No doubt lewd and horrifying to hear, from the way Ceal turned into the same colouration as a tomato.


“Right, now we are done showing off, listen up” Queenie exclaimed, looking to everyone and then back to Ceal.
“Form up into pairs, and we will begin unarmed sparring. I want a good five-minute match so I can see where you need help and what you excel in” she then started pointing out pairs, leaving Kiko out as there was an odd number. Then paring Kiko with Ceal, like Queenie had planned it or something. The blue haired Slyph came forward and Kiko had a much greater appreciation for her abilities, which led the five-minute match to be one filled with a deeper air of caution than she would have ever given the girl before she took out the Ogre. Ceal managed to restrain herself and match Kiko, making it a hard-pushed workout rather than an ego-destroying match that she had had with the Ogre. Kiko even managed to get a conversation out of the girl while they fought.
“So, Mistress huh?” Kiko started. Ceal blushed deeply and faltered for a moment, but the young Kitsune didn’t take advantage of that and let her recover. It took a whole minute of mock fighting before Ceal even spoke, however.
“She sort of owns me. It’s our culture to give ourselves to one that can best us in our chosen art. Although I was a fool to accept a challenge from the Ever-Burning Lady. So I honour our culture, and my ancestors” Ceal then finished her explanation with a rapid movement that launched Kiko over her flip and saw her deposited none-to-gently on the floor.
“Ow…” Kiko muttered, getting up as Ceal looked worried.
“Was that too much?” She asked, an intense look of concern plastered over her face. Kiko gave her a disarming smile and got back up, brushing herself off.
“No, no. It was fine. Don’t worry about it dear. So, what all this about Ever-Burning Lady? I have never heard that term before, definitely not referring to Queenie” Kiko’s curiosity pushed her to ask what this title meant. It was clearly related to her Demonic heritage, as she could use fire, but what it meant…she was unsure. And it seemed Ceal was not in the mood to share that little tit-bit.


Mumbling something about not being hers to tell, Ceal pushed the next two minutes so that Kiko couldn’t focus on anything other than the fight. And so she did just that, getting her ass thoroughly, but educationally, kicked by the piercing-covered Slyph. When Queenie finally called an end to the match, Kiko caught her breath in the break, and made a plan to get information from the girl. Wait till she as naked, and then take advantage of the rings most probably located elsewhere around the cute girl’s body. The thought snapped Kiko out of the planning session, and she shook her head, denying that she would ever do something like that. She was no pervert, no lecher, and definitely not someone to force a girl to do something she didn’t want to do. Her mind was mess, focus was difficult, and she had so many unbidden thoughts, going from disgust at all sexual activity to being a tormenting pervert so fast it gave her whiplash. Queenie gathered the recruits and got them in a line, and began to speak, which gave Kiko something to focus on.


“Ok, you are as good as you say. Most of this will be refining your present physicality and keeping it sharp, but also teaching you some close quarters stuff. Hand to hand and knife work. Guns are good, but knives don’t jam, and gave give you more satisfaction that whatever it is you are swinging at is dead when you stick it through its skull. Specialized close quarter weapons shall be available as extra-curricular, but a silver knife and an iron knife are standard issue to all SIR agents. Knowing how to use this seemingly small bit of kit may save your life in the field. They may lack the reach of a sword and the punch of a gun, but they are easy to pull out, quick to use, and can slip through gaps better than most” She explained, before smiling. “But that is for later. Right now, we are going to make use of the expansive building to get some cardio done. Being able to outrun a Hell Hound is literally a matter of life and death” Queenie didn’t sugar coat anything, it seemed, and git everyone lined up on the track, before getting them running.


She set a harsh pace, anyone who fell behind would get eaten, she said. What being eaten entailed, was unclear, but by the eight-hundred-meter mark, Kiko was falling behind.
“You’ve got hooves, it’s totally unfair” Kiko exclaimed breathlessly as she ran. The rest of the group joined in, voicing exhausted disdain of Queenie’s extended run because she had the legs to do it whereas the lesser Quasi-humans, and the humans, did not. So Queenie stopped and grinned broadly.
“It was only near a Kilometre, but Rome wasn’t razed in a day. Fine, you’ve got the rest of the day free” She then pointed over to a door in the distance. “That way are showers, no peaking on the other person, or I will set fire to your genitals. This is the only mandatory period in your schedule, but you are encouraged to pick up some extra activities related to the division you wish to join. I head the Assault Teams, generally found here or at my quarters, of which you are welcome to come by any time and try to broker some preferential treatment. Elis is the head of the Intelligence division, mostly found by following the smell of nerd and takeout food to the Computer labs, Bruyn is the head of the Rifles, located in the firing range, and Lasadora is in command of the Standardized Foot Teams. You don’t find Lasadora, you just make your interest known and they will find you” Queenie didn’t seem worried at all that she made Lasadora sound like some psychopathic nutjob, and just headed off, letting people mill off to the showers. Kiko scratched her head intensely and tried to get the idea of tormenting Ceal out of her head. Between that and her scars, she just couldn’t bring herself to go to the showers with everyone else. Eventually she came to the conclusion of just waiting for everyone to be done with their showering before going there herself. Which gave her some time to look around.


This Room of Physical Prowess was big, and possessed a great deal of exercise equipment. And the massive track they had just been forced to run around like mad people. The gym she populated was scant and pathetic compared to this one, made her think that she was getting ripped off with the membership fees. But, then SIR was the best when it came to a lot of things, they needed to be or they wouldn’t have lasted this long. On experiment, she produced her tail and walked towards one of the dumbbells. Focusing intensely, she connected a string from her tail to the bell. So it wasn’t just her going mad, she really could expand a string to control things. Lifting it was a different matter, as she strained upwards and found herself unable to lift it up off its base. Maybe there was a sort of limit to the power she was able to exert with her tail? Asha would be the girl to talk to, after she dealt with her mother’s clan. So much to do, she was a busy fox these days. Like a bee. A bee fox. A Box. Kiko, was a box. It was now official.


With her new title, she turned to the showers, and skipped off merrily, only to be yanked to a stop mid skip, reminded that she was still connected to the dumbbell. She was really dumb to forget that, so maybe she fit being attached to it. Regardless, she needed to let go of it before going anywhere, or spontaneously lift it off it it’s cradle and drag it with her. Option two, she didn’t have the strength for, so she let go of it. Or at least tried. Nothing she thought of was actually working for severing the connection. So she walked up close to it, and started biting it, like she was going to get through it with her teeth, or something insane. Insane or not, it worked, and it frayed until finally snapping and retracting into her tail. What possessed her to bite it, she had no idea, but that was the fun of being her, after all. You never knew what was coming next with Kiko~. Or something to that effect. She needed to fix that, sort her mind out, stop shying away from everything like it was going to bite her head off, and woman up. But it wasn’t that easy. To think that something like that could happen again, and to manage to put the memories of that time to the back of her head. It wasn’t easy. She wasn’t even sure if she could manage it. It felt like it would stick with her forever. But thinking on it would get her nowhere, and so she had to just go get a shower and work from there. And so that is what she did, heading to the shower with slightly less merriness than she had started with. Her mind was much more morbid now. These mood swings sucked. She tried to get back the elation she felt about being a box but couldn’t muster anything, and so just slunk off to get clean.


Fortunately, she had waited long enough and nobody was around, so she was free to feel the fall of the water on her face and be liberated from her emotional distress. This was where peace was found, in the fall of water, the constant noise as it fell from the showerhead to the ground, and the constant feeling of it hitting her skin, as if it was washing away not only her physical dirt and sweat, but also the mental buildup. Eventually she’d have to get out and deal with the real world again, and that would suck, but right now she was free to convince herself that life was good and she didn’t have any problems. It was a nice delusion.


However, it was a delusion that was shattered when she finished. Not because she had finished, she was still in calm mode until the scent of blood hit her nose. Her legs jittered and she couldn’t help but bite her lip roughly to try and retain some semblance of control. It didn’t work, and she lost herself entirely. So when a man appeared, suave smile and strange uniform, Kiko could only smile in a semi-lucid fashion. The source of the blood was from his wrist, where he had cut himself. He must have known that Kiko had some fixation with blood.
“Well, you are a patch-work, aye little foxie?” He asked, taking out some small camera and snapping a few shots of her naked body. A small part of Kiko’s mind made her think that this was a terrible thing to happen, but the rest of it was too frenzied to do much more than give him a nice pose to look at while he was snapping his pictures. Once that was done, he walked up to her, and kissed her neck softly. “Now I got some insurance against stupidity, let’s have some fun” he barely got his sentence out before Kiko jumped him. She ripped off his pants and mounted his shaft with vicious intensity, grinding and sliding up and down without much care that he was more hurt than pleasured by her. He enticed a madness in her, and now he was paying the price. Needing to smell him bleed, even more than she needed to quench the fire that had suddenly sprouted in her loins, her claws raked his chest, her nails suddenly distorting and become sharp and pointed when she smelled the blood. He let out silence shrieks of pain as she sliced him up, and immediately regretted his decision. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into, only that the tool his brother had given him had lit up, and he said when it did that, it would lead her to a girl that was ready for a wild time. Which, was true, he just assumed it was a time that would be less claws more sex. After she’d drained him of several loads, he was allowed to crawl off and bleed somewhere. The Kitsune no longer cared for that toy. The feral part of Kiko’s mind growled in victory as she believed he would not be around again. But another part of her, knew he would return with better preparation. Men rarely gave up on sex like what Kiko had just given easily.


It took her several minutes to recover, the feral minded Kiko simply prowling the showers looking for something else to take, but not finding it. And then she huddled in the corner, clutching her knees. She had no idea what had just happened, but it was like she was watching her own body though a monitor, able to see but unable to stop it from doing what she was so radically trying to avoid. She spent a long time in the showers, scrubbing herself until she split the skin and started bleeding. Terrified, she stared at it for a few moments before realizing it was not her own that set her off. Just someone else’s. This was crazy Kitsune crap. She needed to talk to someone, and it needed to be now. Quickly towelling off and then throwing her uniform on, she stormed through the building, still wet hair trailing behind her until she barged into Lysaida’s office.
“Where’s Asha?” Kiko demanded. Lysaida looked back with blank eyes, as if gauging Kiko’s mental state and determining how she had to react to the sudden intrusion and rude demand. The fury and ragged look to her eyes, as well as the smell the shower had not managed to fully clean, convinced Lysaida to act with an even hand.
“She is currently in her office. I can take you there, but your mother’s clan is still waiting for you and they are getting passive aggressive with how long it is taken you to go see them. I explained you were new to this whole thing, but they are still pretty haughty” she spoke softly, soothingly, but Kiko was too riled to calm down. She kept wondering if her Kitsune mentality would kick in, but it never did.
“Tell them to meet me in the reception in about an hour. I have something I need to sort out first” Kiko then turned and stormed out, making a bee-line for Asha’s office.
“Well, dam. Any clue what that was about?” asked a man, who had been stood unseen until this moment.
“Not in the slightest, but I am going to find out” She replied, picking up a phone and starting to dial.

[LillyanaKabal]

It has just occured to me I should probably have put a trigger warning or whatever the it is these days that tell people there is bad happening in the chapter where Kiko gets raped and tortured. shrug

Chapter Twelve


Like a frantic hurricane, Kiko burst into Asha’s office much the same way she had into Lysaida’s. And much the same way, Asha took stock of her mentality, and replied in a level headed tone.
“Good day Kiko. You look agitated” Asha’s voice was thick with something that Kiko couldn’t pin-point. It felt eldritch and unnatural. The fires of her anger burned away in a moment, and without that to hold back the hysteria, she broke down into tears.
“Something is wrong with me! I…need help!” She screamed, her hands shaking intensely as she collapsed onto the floor and sobbed. Asha had never seen this kind of reaction before, and so got up from her chair and rushed over to hug Kiko tightly.
“Tell me, my dear” Asha gently ordered. Kiko felt as if she couldn’t refuse her, and it all came babbling out. How she took an adverse reaction to blood, how someone found out and took advantage of it, about her scars, and her brand, and what she had done to the man. Eventually she ran out of words and just sobbed into Asha’s shoulder, while receiving motherly strokes on the head, soothing, but akin to a man standing against waves in a storm. She didn’t know how long it took but she ran out of tears to cry, could no longer scream as her throat was too hoarse, and simply slumped. Asha picked Kiko up – with all these people picking her up, a part of her still clinging to sanity thought she was incredibly light, or that everyone could just develop super strength when they wanted – and laid her on a long couch, covering her with a blanket that made Kiko immediately tired.
“Sleep, young Kitsune. Speak with yourself, and awaken” Asha told Kiko. Unable to refuse, Kiko quickly dropped off into a deep sleep.


A few seconds after dropping off, she found herself back at home. Or a very realistic dream of home. It even had her father sat across her, smiling to him with deep gold eyes.
“Dad…” Kiko couldn’t believe it. He was dead, what was he doing here?
“Hey Kid. You really got the end of the stick, huh?” He asked, smiling his coy, confident smile, before leaning forward to pour some tea.
“You’re dead…” She muttered, not able to believe her eyes.
“Yea. Kinda sucks. But no Kitsune close to your heart ever truly dies. I get to be here, with nifty golden eyes that let me Look into your mind and make a perfect helper for your problems. If you want to get technical, I am not actually Drax, but what makes a person, if it is not memory and emotion? I’m as Drax as Drax was, which is why I feel comfortable with the claim that I am him” Drax liked to talk, and Kiko liked his voice. So it was a good partnership between father and daughter. “I’m sorry I never brought you into the life, forcing you to deal with all this so quickly. We Kitsunes are born to kill the Beasts from Beyond. And I wanted to spare you that. As a five-tailed Kitsune, and a Striker of SIR, I thought I was going to be able to keep you out of the life for a lot longer. But it seems something big caught me by surprise. Little ” He finished pouring the tea, and took his own cup, pushing Kiko’s towards her.
“I…missed you. I think I saw you earlier, in a crazy hallucination” She muttered. Drax stared for a second, as if looking through her mind – the way he said ‘look’ made it sound as if it was something different to using your eyes to see things – and then sighed and leaned back.
“Hate to tell you kiddo, but the you have been through right now? You’re going to be through a lot more. Agnaet is in the cycle, so she has to make do with what she gets. But Vanaet has a different thing going on. Sort of cultivation of hosts through certain trials. Which equates to going through a of flaming feces before you reach culmination” He counseled. Kiko knew that this was exactly what they were designed to do. Hallucinations that acted as a portable, personal therapist. What kind of situation would require this kind of modification, however, she didn’t know.
“Great War sucked, huh…” She muttered, shaking her head. Drax’s voice always managed to calm her down, despite everything. She had no idea what Agnaet or Vanaet was, or were – he spoke as if they were people, but sometimes people referred to objects as people – but that question just, didn’t come to her mind.


“Aye. Very few Kitsunes alive today have been in it, but I’m rather old, you know. So I was around in the era where there were more survivors. So you got more stories. And yes, I am glad I did not have to fight in that. SIR is bad enough, I have had some times that are less than optimal, but the Great War? Makes it look like two children with pellet guns fighting over a sand box. I’m sure you are handily coming to grips with all the adjustments that were made to us in the Great War. Arigos were not even something that manifested before” He leaned back, sipping his tea while Kiko did the same. She knew it wasn’t real, but it tasted nice and it was time with her father. Something that was a premium these days. She wanted to go what an Arigo was, but another question slipped from her lips.
“What’s with the blood? Every time I smell it, I go insane. And it is kind of putting a hamper on having a proper relationship with anyone” Kiko put in, slumping back on her chair. How would Queenie react to learning this? Drax looked on for a few moments and then smirked.
“Ha, ran into Queenie huh? She always tried to get me in her bed but never managed. I guess something about our line is enticing to her. If you ever do get to her bedroom, there is this spot just above her hip, left side of her body. Give that a kiss and, enjoy the fireworks” Drax gave a broad grin, that Kiko did not return.
“Interesting, but it doesn’t answer the question. You avoided it completely” Kiko said, calling him out on his avoidance. Drax shrugged casually, but nodded.
“Yea, but I don’t know. Which is wrong. I shouldn’t not. I should, know everything, or near enough, so as to assist you however you need it. Not knowing, is worrying” He then looked about the house, and finished his cup of tea. “That’s all we got time for today, I’m afraid. You are waking up in about five seconds. See you later, m’dear” He then took the cup to the kitchen, as if cleanliness mattered when he was going to pop out of existence soon. Unless he wasn’t. Which was an entirely different kettle of fish.
“Wait, no! I have so many questions for you!” Kiko shouted, before suddenly she was in Asha’s office.


The smell in the air was dramatically different. Asha’s office was empty, and when she got up and tried the door, it was locked. Which was awkward. Asha didn’t have a lot in her office, so there was nothing for Kiko to really do. She didn’t want to look through the paperwork, and didn’t want to disturb anything that might have been laid out in a special fashion.
“Morning” A voice said. Kiko spun around, tail spawning in an instant, and ready to protect her however it could. “Don’t shoot the messenger, not that you could shoot me, but still. Words hurt were bullets do not. Or in your case eldritch fire shot from your tail” He was a man who blathered, it seemed. So Kiko gave him a scowl instead.
“Who are you?” She demanded, baring her teeth. She had no trust for anyone of the male persuasion right now.
“Mananan Dolaharanan. I used to be a Dullahan” He said, reaching up and casually taking his head off to prove a point, tucking it under his arm. “But there was an experiment a few years back, tried to make invisible operatives, but it went the other way and now I kind of don’t exist in this plane. Bonus is, I can actually turn invisible if I want. Just, can’t touch anything, or interact with the physical world in any manner other than speaking to someone. I was assigned to look over you and make sure nobody bothered you. Not that I can do anything to stop anyone bothering you, but I can go tell someone. It’s surprising how quick you can get somewhere when you walk through walls” His monolouging drone – from the head still under his arms – managed to push Kiko away from the edge of her anger. Letting out a deep sigh, she retracted her tail, dropped her anger, and collected her nerves. And he had a hell of a name to boot. How anyone but him remembered that…


“Alright. Fine. What’s going on? Why is the door locked? Are they keeping me prisoner until…” she suddenly trailed off, remembering what had happened. Her breathing hitched and her hands shook at the memory.
“Half and half really. Protecting you from them, and them from you. Asha has a theory on what is going on, and that means you have to be kept from them. She isn’t sharing the theory, just going on warpath to find who did it. Money is on the Tengu. They don’t like Kitsunes, they got overshadowed in the Great War by them, and hold a grudge. Plus, the Tengu enclave is currently on lockdown because of some ritual they don’t share with outsiders. It’s suspicious timing, so she’s got a Fire Team camped out in front of them. A little overkill, but if they really are behind this, then it is beyond petty pranks” He told her. Kiko nodded, trying to get her hand to stop shaking. With time, and force of will, she managed it, but her heart was still going mad. Why wasn’t the Kitsune mentality taking this away?
“What…what’s a Fire Team?” Kiko asked, trying to distract herself.
“Ahh, a Fire Team is a team of veterans brought from the other squads into one squad that can nail almost any task handed to them. They are rare, and only brought out in times of need, or when an intense show of force is needed. They are more often deployed against Cultist sects and Greater Beast nests than anything. More than one sect has outright surrendered when they heard a Fire Team is outside. Lysaida heads that division. The deployment here is to help the Tengu give up and come in for interrogation” He explained. Kiko listened, nodded, and clenched her hands, and unclenched them. Thinking would do her no good right now, so it was time to stop thinking.
“Can, I get out? I promise I won’t murder anyone painfully with long sharp claws and blasting them through the chest with my tail laser beam” Kiko tried to make it sound as sincere as possible, but it didn’t quite convince Mananan.
“I’ve not got the key. I can walk through the door, get Lysaida, but I can’t unlock it for you” He offered. Kiko didn’t trust herself to speak, and so just nodded, and head headed off.


Left alone in the office, she turned her mind inward, and thought about what Drax, or the Drax illusion, had told her. She was going to go through a lot more of this, so she had to steel herself. Mental introspection seemed something that was going to be very common for her if she was going to be put through more of this. She had to accept that this wasn’t her fault. And she wasn’t the one who walked away the worst from that. They guy, despite his ignoble intentions, barely crawled away when she was finished with him. And she had no control over it, whatever this was that drove her insane, it was beyond her control. However, such an admission was not easy. It still harrowed her mind, that she had done that to a man, and that that could happen at any time that she smelled someone bleeding. It was better for her to just give up, said one part. But another wouldn’t allow her to do that, so she was caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to swing either way until soft arms encompassed her, and spoke.
“You are a mess” it was the voice of Lysaida, which reminded Kiko that she could feel the mental state of anyone who’s shadow she passed through. Which meant she knew how Kiko was feeling.
“I am sure you had seen worse” Kiko intoned, her eyes downcast.
“Well, there was Drax, that one time he nearly got his leg bitten clean off. Not the fact that he nearly lost his leg, mind. The fact that he was going to miss the tortilla wraps a guest-chef was cooking for us in his tour of the world. Never seen Man or Mer so crestfallen as he was. But, his problems were much easier to solve than yours. I don’t get specifics; do you want to fill me in?” She asked. Kiko thought for a few moments, and eventually nodded.


“I’m a Monster. That is all there is to it” She told Lysaida, slipping out of her embrace and easing herself down onto the couch. A vile creature, fit for naught but slaughtering.
“That is a lie. Asha tells me that what you did was not something anyone has had to even think about for a few hundred years. So nobody was prepared for it springing up in the new Kitsunes. It was heavy on the mythological side, so I didn’t get a lot. Something, Something, Queen of Blood, Vanaet, Great War. I never did well in my mythos studies. I was a girl more focused on the physical, to be honest” Lysaida told Kiko. And there it was, that name again, like it was following her or something. Vanaet. She would ask Asha about it when she was finally out of this god-damn prison.
“So, can I go?” Kiko asked, tersely as she was already irritated for being stuck here so long.
“We are going to have to keep you here for a little longer before we can be sure that we know what is going on with you” Lysaida was prepared for an active response from Kiko, and was surprised when the girl just, slumped.


“Fine…I’ll just…” she slunk off to the corner, and sat down. Lysaida’s heart ached when she saw it, but she had to put the safety of the rest of SIR before the comfort of one Kitsune girl, so turned and left through the shadows, leaving Kiko alone to ponder the state of her mind, and what was to come. In the corner her hands shook, her body shuddered, tears streamed down her face, and then a soft whisper entered her ear.
‘They fear you now. Nobody will trust you again. Whatever you do, however you try to redeem yourself, they will always look at you different’ it said. The words cut so deep because they were true. She couldn’t do anything about that, just feel the sobs grow heavier. ‘But I can help you, my dear. I can make it so that you are never subjected to this pain again’ it promised. In a moment of weakness, and eminent vulnerability, she just gave in, and nodded, accepting with a groan that could be words were she more coherent. There was soft laughter before she felt teeth sink into her neck, ripping into her. Before, it would be agony she could not stand, but now it barely made a side-bar. She could feel for a second all the fear and anguish draining out of her, before the voice appeared in her head again, panicked and frantic. ‘What?! No, you can’t! I am claiming this one!’ it screamed inside her head, before the shrieks became wordless and it faded away into nothing but ash and dust. There was a haughty noise of victory, and then everything became silent again. Kiko’s hand went to her neck, and felt the wound there. Whatever had happened wasn’t in her mind, it was real.
“You should have let her take me. I can’t handle this” She muttered, huddled into a ball in the corner. She wasn’t expecting a response, and was surprised when she got one.
‘You are the closest I have been in hundreds of years. Finally got some help with the interference, and I will not lose you to some abandoned scavenger. There is nothing wrong with asking for and receiving help, little one. Just don’t rely on it to save you from everything’ it replied, ringing in her mind. The voice was so powerful, so confident, so fearless. It made Kiko cry to even be spoken to by such a powerful being, as weak as she was.


But she was dragged from her thoughts by the door opening, and Queenie standing there. The way her face turned to see Kiko so, damaged, caused the young Kitsune’s heart to thump painfully.
“Fire Team Marric managed to enter the Tengu enclave under orders from Mizia and arrest the man responsible. Mizia has told them it’s the last straw and all Tengu currently in employment are dishonorably discharged back to Ta’al. Their superiors are probably going to chew them out something chronic, we won’t be dealing with them outside Joint Ops for years to come. So, you did pretty well. Less than a week here and you’ve already ousted your enemy’s Enclave. Asha is going to love you” She said, walking over and crouching down.
“I’m a monster. You should just forget about me” Kiko muttered, staying on the ground until Queenie took her chin in her hand and forced her to meet eye-to-eye. And then suddenly those eyes were filled with Fire. Horrors filled the plain ad infinitum, and above it all, below it all, surrounding it all, was Fire. Upon a gigantic mass of smoke and flame in the vague shape of a throne sat a being who radiated power, someone that, even as an apparition, made Kiko both shudder in fear and weep in joy.


And then it was gone, she was back in the room, and Queenie was stood above her in all her Demonic glory. Even more than her Demonic glory, in fact. There was something more to her. Smoldering ghost-fire flickered off her body, passing through her uniform in its insubstantial nature, hair flicked and crackled as if it was made of flame rather than keratin.
“Ohh, my little Fox. You know nothing of monsters. You are a child who has stood on a frog, and now calls herself a murderer. It is not you who should be warding me off. In all honesty, it should be me warding you off. I will admit I am putting a bit of what I felt for your father on to you, and that is not fair, but my heart burns hot and long, it is not something I can ignore without your disdain of me. Now is the time. Can you be with me, knowing what I am?” She asked, her voice seemingly coming from elsewhere than her mouth. Kiko’s shuddering picked up even further, and she stammered incoherently for a few moments before managing to get a grasp on it.
“The…Ever-burning Lady” she muttered, to which Queenie nodded.


“Ceal does talk when she is excited. Yes, I am the Heir to the Throne of Eternal Flame. My home is that of fire, smoke, and ash. My kingdom is filled with naught but those you would call demon, and those we sup upon. I am most monster than you could be in a hundred years. Such minor infractions to morality. Such, mortal actions could never contest with one of my stature. And so I will say it again, for the sake of your frail and damaged psyche. I Am the Beast under your Bed. The bump in the night, the footsteps behind you, the flickering shadow. Can you, accept that?” Queenie asked. There was just, too much to deal with for Kiko. Queenie was, radiant. She felt terrifying, but also so immensely beautiful. All at once she resembled the raging inferno and the warming hearth. She was death, and she was life. And that, was good. Kiko could not stop weeping at the eminence of the sight, and her little head voice pipped up with a scoff at the whole thing.
‘You will be far much more than she is when you awaken. But, I suppose for a girl like you it is rather auspicious’ it told Kiko, the haughty tone thick and heavy. It was clearly something that thought a great deal of itself. Like it was the best thing in the world, and would accept nobody telling her any different.


“I can…” Kiko whispered, her voice dry and cracking. And then, Queenie seemed to almost deflate. Gone was the fire, the fury, the passion, and in its place, was just the woman that Kiko was attracted to.
“Wonderful. Then let’s go get some food”






























Chapter Thirteen


Unfortunately, food was not on the menu, it seemed. As they were ambushed by Asha before getting ten foot out of the room that Kiko had been in. The head Kitsune didn’t seem very impressed with Queenie’s attempts to run off with Kiko, and gave her The Glare. And a bit for Kiko for going along with it. A silent argument played out between the two, with Kiko in the middle, which eventually ended in the defeat of Queenie.
“Guess you are needed by Asha for a bit. I can wait outside if you want...” Queenie offered, and Kiko nodded quickly. With permission to linger outside, Queenie followed Kiko until they reached Asha’s office, and did just that as the girl was ushered inside and all but dropped into a plush seat that seemed to hug her as she fell into it.
“Now, you are probably very distraught over what has happened to you and the Tengu, and I don’t doubt this has happened before. So I looked into it and I finally found record of what, exactly, it is you are going through” Asha started. Such definitive words made Kiko sit up, as much as she could in a chair that was all cushion, and pay emphatic attention. The incredibly intense staring would probably be off-putting for others, but Asha had seen enough in her life to be steeled against that sort of thing. Most sorts of things, if she was honest.


“It stems back to the Great War. That fight was not our own, it seems. Ancient legends suggest that the sky was filled with chariots of fire as the denizens of the stars descended upon our planet to aid us. It’s mostly gibber, but ‘denizens of the stars’ does seem to imply that there were people from other planets here at the time of the Great War. Extraterrestrial life has always been an interesting discussion, and while I wouldn’t say some ancient writing that seems to be using thermatics in lieu of actual words is to be trusted entirely, it’s food for thought” Asha seemed to be enjoying the monologue, so Kiko just let her carry on.


“There is a mention of a woman who ruled over the Life of all who stood on the field. Cross-reference that with a later treatise on The Great War, with some professional translators, I might add. I can really appreciate the effort a man puts into something like this. An- “Asha seemed fit to go on for a while yet but Kiko was interested in something else entirely.
“How long, was I in that room? And hey, wasn’t that room your office? How do you have two offices?” She seemed more interesting in that right now than anything else.
“Ohh, you were there about a week. Time can distort under immense grief or stress, like you were under. And I have two offices because one was my day-to-day office, and one was my proper office. Kitsunes can be rather vigorous at times. And so I have a scapegoat office that is filled with naught but brick-a-brack and general office supplies. This is my real office, in which the stuff that is actually important, is kept. I rarely bring people here because that would invalidate the need for a scapegoat office in the first place” Asha seemed slightly amused, as if she had given the explanation before, to an equally confused person. “And now, if you will allow me to continue?” Asha asked. Kiko was a bit thrown by the fact that she had been in that room an entire week and it had only felt like a few hours.


“A week…why am I not hungry? I know I can store more food than I need but I couldn’t have had that much, could I?” She asked, looking down at herself. Sure, she had eaten more than she usually would, but a week? That was pushing it.
“Not quite, no. But Kitsunes have a lot of things done to them to make them the perfect warriors. We needed it for the Great War, and so underwent such changes that we can hardly be called Kitsunes anymore. If you get down to your last day’s supply and you know – even subconsciously – that you aren’t going to be getting any more in a hurry, then your metabolism slows dramatically to allow yourself to subsidize on that tiny amount that is left. It’s partially the reason for the time dilution that you feel. You won’t be doing anything straining, but you will survive” Asha sighed as Kiko had so many questions that weren’t related to right now.


“Anyway. To continue. Finally. This woman who ‘ruled over the Life of all who stood on the field’ was recorded as the Queen of Blood. Name not put down, unfortunately. But, she had a small cadre of Kitsunes known as Blood Moon Kitsunes. They were entrusted with powerful runic enhancements that fed off blood and gave them physical abilities far beyond their kin. Today, there are a few hereditary inheritors of the Blood Moon Kitsunes. However, they are not able to control the power properly and have it suppressed through alchemical concoctions. Unfortunately, your body is too developed for those concoctions as you were not brought into the Kitsune fold until you were in your late teens. So we didn’t catch it and as a result we didn’t manage to get you with what you needed. So, for the first time in a few hundred years, we have a chance to observe the full power of the Blood Moon Kitsunes. And I can tell you from what I have seen so far, it is terrifying” Asha talked endlessly, and Kiko just, stared and listened. This had confirmed it; she was a monster. A horrible, blood-drinking monster. But Kiko’s horrific revelation did not stop Asha in the slightest.


“Your runic enchantments seem to have gone into overdrive and so their ‘vigorous appetite for battle’ seems to have spilled out. Apparently after a fight these Kitsunes would vent excess emotion with their partners” that part, made Kiko look up, with a frown.
“So, you are saying every time it starts going mad I should find Queenie? I doubt she’ll appreciate that” Kiko replied, shaking her head at the idea of Queenie getting jumped by a maniacal Kitsune girl.


“We don’t have anything specific for a cure. Trans-planetary theorems are not exactly prolific. We could try repurpose the All-Range Communications Installation to broadcast into the stars in hopes of picking someone up, but we don’t have any idea who this Queen of Blood is or where she is or even who – if anyone – will pick up the transmission. We could be inviting horrific creatures to our world. We could be the last bastion in the entire universe after everything was destroyed by these Beasts From Beyond, and we are just talking to empty space. We could get into contact with this Queen of Blood and she neglects to help us. She is a Queen, after all. There are a lot of variables we have to consider” Asha watched Kiko, and seeing the girl’s face fall slightly, decided to speak again. “That, is not to say we aren’t going to do it. Just that you are aware of what might happen in the future. As for now, we can’t do anything about it. So just, take what you now know and try to hold off the feeling if it comes again, and we will get to you when we have something to get to you about. As for now, I suggest breakfast” Asha gave a soft grin, and then nodded, standing up from the chair and taking Kiko’s hand. “Just know that we are doing everything we can to help you. And one way or another, we will fix this” she finished, before guiding Kiko to the door and letting her out to the still waiting Queenie.


After Asha closed the door, Kiko buried her face into Queenie’s chest – and ample bosom – and sighed in a highly vexed manner.
“Mffmfm mmfmf mmfffmfh” Kiko said, her voice too muffled by Queenie to be coherent. For her part, the Demon Queen gave Kiko a soft pat on the head, and stroked her hair.
“Indeed. Most insightful, my dear little fox” Queenie teased. That elected a giggle from said little fox. And after a few seconds, she withdrew her face.
“Breakfast” Kiko exclaimed, nodding to herself.
“What about, Fish Tacos?” Queenie asked, with a strange grin. Kiko stared for a few seconds, and then shook her head.
“No, I don’t really like fish. Battered maybe, but I don’t think fish would suit tacos. I was thinking a big breakfast, like sausage and beans and eggs and hashbrowns and more hashbrowns and ohh my god why do you have so many hashbrowns and please stop your plate can’t handle anymore hashbrowns and well done you have officially split the plate in half from the sheer weight of hashbrowns, you mad woman” clearly deserving of the final title from the description of her ideal breakfast.


Queenie put on a pout that Kiko hadn’t gotten her reference, but didn’t pursue it. It was made in jest, after all, not from real desire.
“Then we will simply get you a stronger plate” Queenie replied, taking Kiko’s hand – loving the fact that somewhere in the week she seemed to have overcome her fear of contact – and led her to the cantina for the breakfast of her dreams.

[LillyanaKabal]

Have you ever seen a woman so happy to have hashbrowns? Truly, they are the food of the gods.

Chapter Fourteen


Breakfast wasn’t quite as amazing as all that, but it was still big and satisfying, and nobody called her a mad woman for the amount of hashbrowns she had. Albeit, they were a much less number than she had originally planned for.
“You know, Hashbrowns are pretty light. How many would you have to put on your plate before you cracked it?” Kiko asked, casually. Another recruit, sat opposite, perked up from that, and her eyes shone.
“If the estimated weight of every hashbrown is around two hundred grams and the plate has an ultimate tensile strength of around six thousand Mpa then it could hold roughly eighteen kilograms at a single point before stress fractures became apparent. So, eighteen thousand grams divided by two hundred comes out at ninety. So, you would have to put ninety hashbrowns on your plate before It cracked” She finished, and then devoured the rest of her sausage with voracious intensity.


“Well….now you know” Queenie said, before breaking into a fit of giggles.
“Quite smart to just pull that out of your hat. What’s your name, darling?” Kiko’s tone immediately stopped the giggles and got jealous glares from Queenie. But the girl was not so prepared for the attention and blushed a deep red.
“Ohh, I…well, you know, just, I, and…got to go” She stammered bashfully and then scurried off with haste.
“She smells of nerd. One of Elis’ new friends, I’d guess” Queenie stated, finishing her own food and helping herself to the remains of the cute girl who had just left. Kiko liked her, but upon reflection, couldn’t remember anything about her. Just that she was smart and cute. Probably described half the people in this place.
“What did she look like?” Kiko asked. Queenie looked up and at the door where the girl had just left, and then frowned.
“I dunno. She was cute but…I don’t remember any specifics. Which is strange, I remember the specifics of everyone that is cute. Pretty sure I got down to her underwear while undressing her with my eyes but…she is certainly interesting. Don’t think we’ve had one of them in a while” Queenie pulled the girl’s tray to her and started eating.
“So you’ve met someone like her before?” Kiko asked, sliding a little closer on the bench and giving a soft smile. Her curiosity was rampant after all.


“Ohh, yea. She’s one of the Not. Interesting people, you can only ever remember one generic thing about them. She’s cute, he’s tall, they have decidedly well kempt hair. Nothing that could point them out in a room. Good infiltration units, because well, you can’t describe what they look like, so you are hard-pressed to find them. She’ll probably get picked up by the Cattanei after recruit days are over” Queenie finished off the girl’s food, and gathered the two trays together. Kiko, finished off her food in silence and thought. It must have been lonely, not ever being able to be recognized. She really hoped that somebody could recognize her, maybe one of her own race, but that was a long shot…
‘About five foot seven, medium blonde hair, brilliant green eyes, sizable bust, wears glasses. Rather toned body. Must be the training to come here. Guess not everyone is dragged immediately’ a voice in her head spoke. The voice…the voice…so beautiful and so powerful.
‘Who even are you?’ Kiko asked. But got nothing in reply. It was so sporadic and random. No warning, no two way talking. Just popping in to say things and then leaving again. Least the voice in her head could do was stick around for a conversation. But then something clocked on and she looked up at Queenie.
“I had a phone!” she exclaimed, sudden and abrupt. The Demon girl looked confused for a few moments, before nodding.
“Yes, yes you did. It’s in my room, with the rest of your stuff. We can go there after today’s training. Which, is in about ten minutes. So best get over there, darling. Don’t be late” Queenie then got up, and hurried off. It was a principle of the matter to be the first one there for training. Although other trainers preferred to be the last and keep people waiting.


And so Kiko was left to think. Which she did. Drax had told her, lots of was coming her way. She’d been bitten by something that can just float into SIR as it wills, saved by something that is in her head, and apparently runes dot her body to a point Shiro couldn’t do anything about them. And she was a hemophiliac because some Queen jabbed her in the soul or some to make Super Kitsunes! All in all, she was well believing Drax when he said there would be more . She was just wondering how they were going to escalade from that. She stroked her hand through the white strand of hair, that symbolized the healing she had received from Shiro. Well, that and her eye, but she could hardly stroke her eye. She had to do her PT harder, longer, vigorous….er. She couldn’t be caught like that again, she just couldn’t. It wasn’t just what it did to her, it was what it did to the people she knew. Queenie. She still couldn’t reconcile contact, getting intense shivers and her hackles raising as she remembered burying herself into Queenie’s breasts. Her mind was elsewhere and she didn’t think about it at the time, but…it was bad. Terribly bad, horrifically bad.


But it was not going to solve itself in a day, and she wasn’t going to sit around and make herself late for Queenie’s class. She’d certainly get the bad juju for being late for that. Standing up, she hurried off, keeping the girl’s appearance in mind so she could talk to her later if she met her again. Her strides were broad and quick, so she made good time, but was still one of the last to arrive in the gym. Expecting a glare, she just got an eyebrow flick that implied much worse than what a glare would have. Kiko gulped, and made a point to talk to Queenie later. She didn’t want the girl dragging her off for a session of rigorous skinship. Not yet, anyway. The idea was quite enticing, but the execution scared her right now. So instead she just got into her gym kit, and set up with her partner Queenie gave her. Which, as it turned out, was Ceal. Queenie using her authority to set her up with the Slyph of Asskicking, whether it was to keep her distracted or as punishment for being late or what she didn’t know. Ceal gave an abashed look of apology before Queenie gave the order to begin, and Ceal lunged into combat.


Her punches were swift, strong, and unrelenting. Kiko could only hold defensively and hope that there was going to be an opening. Which was wishful thinking. There was no opening, until Ceal – and everyone – stopped at a sharp yell of pain coming from one of the pairs. Some loose fiber had turned stiff and sharp, cutting him rather a good one across the bare arm he had up for his guard. Queenie just grimiced and walked up to inspect the damage, but Kiko felt herself losing a battle with her mind again. Falling into crimson purgatory, drowning in the sea of blood, she couldn’t fight against this any more than a man could fight against the rising and setting of the sun. Her eyes glazed over, and they fell on Ceal. But the Slyph woman wasn’t surprised, in fact she had unbridled attention directed at Kiko. So was so focused it could drill through concrete as if it was made of wet paper. It was intense. So intense that Kiko felt the previous sea she was drowning in evaporate immediately, and she hit the metaphorical riverbed with a thump. Her eyes returned and she became rather meek and mild about the whole thing. This tipped off Ceal, who backed down to normal levels of focus. Kiko tried to give Ceal some effort, but her heart wasn’t in it anymore, and so after the third time she had been thrown to the ground, Ceal just let her be and sparred gently till the end of the fight. At which point Kiko hung around and let everyone else go to the showers.


After the catastrophe of last time, she was worried to actually go to the showers. What if she got ambushed again? And what was she going to do the next time someone got a nosebleed? She looked out to the running track, and then thought back to that time she had totally been outrun by Queenie. She was wanting to get stronger, and faster, and here was the best place to do it. So Kiko shrugged and head out to the track, keeping a quick but measured pace so she wouldn’t exhaust too quickly. It was no good sprinting for a two hundred yards and then collapsing. Here she could just focus on the run, and not have to think about anything else. And so she got pretty engrossed in it, becoming obsessed with the rhythm of her body. The fall of her feet, the rise of her breath, the endlessly progressing track. It was magnificent. How could she not have seen this before? So caught up in her revelry, she ran smack into Queenie on the track. Thrown off, she came to realize just how long she had been running. She was drenched in sweat, her muscles quivering and burning, an inch from total failure, and her lungs were gasping deeply for a breath that wasn’t coming in sufficient enough qualities.


“Well, you’re a mess, aren’t you? Get a bit caught up in The Wind, huh?” She asked, stroking Kiko’s matted hair. Seeing Kiko’s confused look, but also the fact that she was in no fit state to reply, Queenie smiled and carried on. “This track, long ago, was blessed by some passing Shaman person with the touch of The Wind. A strange sort of collective something I never really fully understood. Doesn’t affect multiple people, or at least it does but too finely spread. A single person, however…gets The Wind beneath their feet, and is driven to run. Mostly past their physical limit. We don’t exactly know why, nor can we undo it. So people occasionally get totally exhausted on the track. And some people are inspired. That inspiration is why we don’t try too hard to undo it” Queenie told Kiko, before picking her up and carting her over to the showers. Kiko felt useless, but Queenie somehow managed to make getting showered by her feel good, and not at all what she thought getting showered by someone would feel like.


After she was washed and fluffed, Kiko just buried herself into Queenie, too exhausted to be repulsed with physical contact. What was going on, kind of escaped her. She was just aware of a soft embrace, something covering her, and then darkness. It was a nice kind of darkness, a blissful emptiness that didn’t demand anything and stretched on forever, until she awoke. It was dark, but then from the feel of the sheets it was Queenie’s room and it was always dark in Queenie’s room. So she laid back down for a moment and thought. She wasn’t going to get much thinking time outside of right now, so might as well use it.
‘Hey, you there?’ she asked her head. Not expecting a reply, and getting exactly what she expected. Great. So she had a voice in her head that wasn’t probably real maybe. That was a great sign for her mental stablity. Every time someone got a nosebleed she turned into a nutjob, and there was more besides to come. Lovely. Was it still too late to become a goat-herder in the steppes of Albion? She didn’t need a voice in her head to tell her that yes, it is too late to run away and raise smelly things for a living. So she got up and looked around, finding her uniform in the darkness, and leaving Queenie’s bedroom, not really caring how bedraggled she looked. It as part of her style. Fox, maybe she could patient it?


She left giggling softly to herself, and then looked around. So much to do. She had to go to the Gym and get stronger, then to Bruyn to learn how to shoot people in the face, and then to Asha to learn about her fox tails and then to the scary Elis to get poked and prodded and dissected and then left on the table as she went out for lunch. And then she had to go see about this whole her mother’s clan business and talk to them about how, yes, Drax is dead and now she is going to be living with SIR and nobody was going to kidnap her or whatever weird thing Kitsunes did to you when your dad died. She did tell them to meet her in the reception in an hour, and that was about a week ago. Maybe they were mad, and that was why they didn’t call? And speaking of calling, she returned to Queenie’s room and got a phone, dialing up Remokr and not getting through the first time. But eventually she did and Remokr was on the other side of the phone. She didn’t say anything, so after waiting for a bit, Kiko took the advantage.
“Hey Remmy~” Kiko exclaimed, and then bit her lip. She didn’t like being called Remmy. But, after a few seconds there was nothing, and so Kiko carried on. “I just thought I’d call you to tell you I’m doing great at my new place. Everyone is friendly and I am learning a lot about myself” She monologued, since there was still nothing on the other side. Kiko looked up as she spawned her tail, and batted it a bit. “Quite a lot about myself. So you don’t have to wo…wait, what the hell?” She looked at her tail, frowned, batted it a bit, and then looked at it again. There was no mistake. There were two of them. Two tails. Twice the firepower maybe? She was snapped out of it by Remokr on the other side of the phone. But she sounded strange. Her voice was not like it as a week ago. Maybe she had just got up?
“H..ey Kiko. That’s…great. Do you think, we could meet up?” It was a strange question, but then the girl was her best friend and they had been away for over a week.


“Meeting up would be cool, but I don’t know. My week is hectic. Re..” she paused for a moment. They had told the school she was going to be a Maid, not go work for SIR. So she should keep up the subterfuge. She ground her teeth a little, took a breath and spoke with as little venom as she could must. “We, new Maids, don’t get a lot of free time. Maybe next week?” Kiko offered, flopping on the bed to look at the celling.
“A..are you sure you can’t get out sooner?” Remokr asked, not picking up on the stutter Kiko made between Recruits and Maids.
“D’aww, you missing me so much, my love~?” Kiko teased, giggling softly to herself. And being a bit worried she didn’t hear one back. Remokr always loved that kind of humor. “I’ll ask, but after….” She trailed off again. It was a good job Remokr didn’t seem to be there, or this would be a strange phone conversation. After that. Screaming, and burning, and his smile. She started to shake, could barely keep the phone in her hands. She tried to calm herself but it was so very hard to crawl out of the abyss. The voice on the phone sounded so distant as it spoke.
“Could you come out alone?” Remokr asked. Strange. It was so strange that her mind latched onto it, like a drowning man latches onto driftwood.
“I…al-alone? We-well….” She took a breath, didn’t want Remokr to worry about her. Remokr probably had enough bother with school, she always knew how to make trouble with the less than stellar individuals. “Wh-why-why-why would you ask me to come out alone? Do you think I would bring a friend? Do you think I have made a friend? Are you ok, Remmy? You’re acting strange” Kiko sat on the bed and grasped the sheets, taking deep breaths and focusing on Remokr’s troubles so she didn’t have to give any thought to her own. There was silence on the other side, as if the phone had been covered by something. And that sparked Kiko’s suspicions more than anything yet. Something was definitely up. She set her face into annoyed and determined so nobody would see that she was still absolutely terrified of the recent past. Striding with great purpose and no shortage of anger through the halls, she was not stopped on her way, and eventually got to Elis.


Queenie was right, this place smelled of nerd and takeout food. And still the other side was silent, which was worrysome, so she placed her hand over the receiver and looked to Elis. The girl was pretty cute. Ginger hair, freckled face, glasses like jam-jar bottoms. Kiko liked her aesthetic, and wondered if it was natural, or cultivated. She seemed a little surprised to see Kiko storm into her den, but recovered quickly.
“My friend is in trouble. Can you trace a phone call?” Kiko asked, prompting a proud grin from Elis.
“I could trace a phone call coming from another planet entirely, but we don’t exactly do callouts simply because your friend stubbed her toe” Elis quipped, not looking away from the computer screen.
“She’s a Thunderbird, but something has happened to her, and I need your help. Just, listen” Kiko said, thrusting the phone forward. Elis took it and it was hooked up to a computer by a collection of wires. The speakers above them came to life. A few seconds of a soft shuffling sound, and then Remokr’s voice came through loud and clear.
“I’m fine, Kiko. Just come out. I miss you. I want to see you. It has been a lot time since I have seen you. I miss you” Remokr’s voice was, strange. Strained and on the edge of cracking, with a minor touch of hysteria. Elis heard it and immediately frowned in disdain, clearly picking up even more than Kiko had from that sentence. With a silent nod, she urged Kiko to carry on the conversation.
“Yea, I miss you too. It’s been hard work without you there to get me out of trouble. Speaking of, how are you keeping without me around? Not too bored, are you?” She asked, smirking despite herself. This situation was a bit ed up, from the way Remmy was acting strange, way more than just a cold or something like that. But, she still found it amusing imagining her sat twiddling her thumbs as nothing good ever happened for her in school.


“I’m good. Yes. Thank you. So, are you...coming out?” Remokr asked, like a stuck record, latching onto one topic and not letting go. Kiko glanced to Elis, and then returned her attention to the phone.
“You know, if you are this obsessed about it, why didn’t you ever try go out with me on a date? I asked you once and you said you didn’t want to make our friendship strange, but now you are making our friendship strange. So come on. Confess your love or I am not coming out” Kiko was pushing it hard, and normal Remmy would have shut her down hard before she had even finished her sentence. But as it was, she was just silent for a few moments.
“Ok. I love you, Kiko. Please, come out with me” The confession was dry and without much emotion, kind of the opposite of how Kiko felt like a confession should be. But it was certainly something that Kiko could use to carry on the conversation. But Elis gestured that they had it, so she could hang up now.
“Well, that’s great Remmy. I’ll be out to see you very soon~” Kiko then hit the hang up, and let out a sigh of relief. “I half expected Queenie to come storming in when Remmy said that. Like she can smell love confessions or something” Kiko exclaimed, grinning broadly and stretching a little. She didn’t know why she was stretching; she didn’t need it. It was just something she did.


“Hmm, well you are going to need some help if you are going to them” Elis replied, vaguely and avoiding where it was coming from exactly. However, Kiko was too pissed to call and so just went along with it. Waiting a for moments for anything Kiko would say, Elis then got up from her seat after there was nothing, some bones crackling from how long she had been sat, and then gestured with her head to follow. Despite being small, cute, and nerdy, she was a division head, so Kiko followed her and trusted her on the direction that she was heading, wherever it may be.


The destination, turned out to be Bruyn’s range, strange place for a small nerd. Even the Nerd Boss.
“Hey Zed”. Elis said, walking into the firing range and giving Bruyn a wave.
“Hey Nerd. What brings you down here?” Bruyn replied. As ever, the firing range was filled with people, and filled with gunfire. Kiko herself had spent quite a while in here, and could passably shoot something coming towards her, or at least not drop the gun.
“Need a favour. Our fox’s highschool kiss-doll has gotten into some bother and needs help”
“Three on the go at once? What are we going to do with you, Miss Casanova?” Bruyn’s teasing tone was heavy in her voice, and that grin…
“She’s not my girlfriend, but she does need saving. I don’t know who is holding her or why they are holding her or what they have done to her, but I need to save her, and Elis doesn’t want me to go alone” Kiko told Bruyn, a serious tone, and to-the-point attitude. But Bruyn looked instead to Elis. There was something communicated between those two, clearly something between them. Bruyn stared for a few seconds, and then eyed Kiko, before turning and picking up a pistol, and a holster.
“Here, wear this. If you are going to storm into a situation like this, I want you armed. And you know enough to shoot in the general direction of whoever is coming at you, if anyone does come at you” Bruyn helped Kiko into the holster, made sure the gun was fastened, and then gave Kiko a quick demonstration to ensure that she knew how to get it out in a hurry. Once that was done, Elis slipped a bead thing into Kiko’s ear and assured her it was a mini-comms device. And then she vanished.
“Alright, let’s head out. I’ll shadow you, so don’t worry if you can’t see me. Trust that I can see you” Bruyn told Kiko, and then left the firing range ahead of Kiko. Kiko was also about to follow, when it occurred to her that she was in her uniform, and that was hardly subtle. Plus, last time she went out in her uniform she got into trouble. But, looking at what she had thrown on, it turned out that she only thought it was her uniform. In reality, it was the outfit Queenie had put her in on their first meeting, complete with cute little jacket. Don’t dress in the dark, while distracted, it seemed. That woman…still, the coat hid the gun, so it was good. All that was left was to get an excuse for why she was Shiro’d up. That one would be, pretty difficult. But maybe it would come to her on the road.





































































Chapter Fifteen:


She did subtle pretty well, it seemed. Kiko knew Bruyn was following her and yet she couldn’t point out even a general location. Not that she would, but still, damn good. And not pointing people out in crowds made her realize, she didn’t know where she was meeting Remmy. So Kiko rung the girl again, and it took quite the while to answer. On the other side was just breathing and waiting, so Kiko spoke first.
“So, I’m out. Where we meeting up, unless this was all an elaborate prank and I am dressed up in the middle of town for no reason other than to elect a few laughs. If that is the case, I swear there will be despondency and pulled hair” Kiko rambled into the phone, because she didn’t know what else to do. She was full of fire and fury when she was in SIR, but now she was actually out on an op, with a frigging gun under her jacket. What was she going to do, shoot someone? Generally, the idea of guns, yes, but could she do it? The answer was probably, if it was to protect Remokr. That whole love stint was not far from the truth, only dulled with age.
“The. Center. Of town. Is good” Remokr replied, with tone that flared the already burning fire in Kiko’s soul. They were going to pay for this.
“Sounds good, considering that is where I am. I’ll wait here” Kiko strained to keep her voice cheery, and then hung up and got a coffee.


Coffee came prompt, and was paid for promptly, but Kiko couldn’t taste it. She drunk and looked like she was engaging in the general coffee-shop stuff but she wasn’t. Her mind was totally elsewhere. The elsewhere where she was wondering what Remokr had gotten into and if people were going to be dead at the end of the day. The scariest part of that was that she could do it, and not think twice. What kind of situation where the Kitsunes in that made them go this route? That made them become such, monsters? How could anything be so bad as to make them into these unfeeling horrors, half a step removed from the creatures that SIR put down on a regular basis. The introspection wasn’t set to go anywhere, but she did it all the same, because she needed to pass the time. Before her friend arrived and she needed to rescue her from unknown villians. How did her life come to this?


She was meant to be a school girl, with the biggest problem being a group of jumped up who wanted to fight her because men reasons. This whole situation was way beyond what she was capable of dealing with, and if she wasn’t a Kitsune, she’d have no chance of getting pas the first week. Especially not with Mr Knife involved in that first week. Kiko checked her firearm was secure and hidden behind her jacket, made sure she could get to it in a hurry, and then finished her coffee. She wasn’t keeping track of the time, but it felt as if Remokr was late. Maybe Kiko was just being paranoid, but in this situation, she had a good reason to be paranoid. But, just as she was getting to the fighting stage of agitation, a girl sat down. A girl with a passing resemblance to her friend Remokr. Kiko didn’t need the scent of slowly healing flesh, didn’t need to see the tracks made by tears, covered up with makeup but not well enough to hide from her new eyes. She could feel her jitters, feel her anxiety, feel as if she was a second away from a hysterical breakdown.


So, not giving anyone any time to react, Kiko just stood up, hugged Remokr, and then grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
‘We’re running’ she whispered into the earbud, hoping it did what it was said to do, and then gave another tug. “Let’s go somewhere~” Kiko exclaimed. And then she did as she warned Bruyn, and started to run, giggling to herself like a young girl running off to a secret tryst with her boyfriend. Or in this case girlfriend. Queenie would be seething if she saw that, the girl was kinda possessive. But, Kiko would have to deal with that later. Instead, she ignored Remokr’s stuttered and stammered complaints and just dragged her along, running on instinct. Her ears picked out an exclamation of surprise, and then running feet next to hers. Which, not that she needed confirmation, did just that on the idea of it was a trap. It was slightly worrying that they didn’t care about making it believable, only that they got her out. But that wasn’t her worry, Bruyn would deal with her persuers, she just had to get herself and Remokr out of here before the dealing with went down. She had no idea how a superzombie would deal with people, but didn’t want to stick around and find out. Her ears kept track of the running man’s steps until he suddenly let out a strangled gurgle and there were no more steps. Whatever Bruyn had planned, it wasn’t going to end well for her stalker. But it was good he was gone, because now she could stop running quite so frantically. Still running, but not as scared deer as before.
“What are you doing? Where are we going? Why are you running so much?” Remokr exclaimed from behind, firing off questions with no pause for breath. Maybe, Kiko hadn’t slowed down as much as she had thought she had.
“No idea, actually. Fun, isn’t it?” Kiko replied, quite an unhinged laugh that she didn’t really mean to be quite that nutjob-esque, but that was how it came out. She did have some idea where she was going, but it was hard to describe to Remokr, and so just saying ‘I am following something that might be a hunch if you squint hard enough’ was not going to help her any more than what she had just said. Remokr whined some more, but didn’t say anything else and just got dragged along.


Eventually they arrived, and Kiko ploughed through the door without much thought for who might own this warehouse. And then she was hit with a stench of blood, death and gunpowder. Immediately her brain sparked, and she knew where she was. Just as immediately, the Kitsune Mentality disassociated her thoughts and it didn’t bother her that here was where her life took a sharp – literally – turn for the worst. Kiko reached up and stroke the streak of white in her hair, but it was less of a terrible memory. Almost as if it had happened to someone else entirely.
“Kiko, talk to me. You are all white, your eye…your hair…what is going on?” Remokr asked, her tone tinged with fear and confusion. Kiko turned around suddenly and pushed her against the wall, kissing her softly on the lips.
“Well, that’s a story for another time. Right now, I want to make good on the claim that you, love, me~” Kiko’s teasing tone made Remokr blush and look away. Sharply followed by a yelp and a grimace of pain as the fox’s fingers slipped under the jeans she was wearing and scratched the still healing flesh. Swiftly stripping her of all lower garments, Kiko circled the wound with her finger. More accurate to call it a brand, really. Identical to her own. “And how it seems you are a slave now, Remokr. How did this happen?” Kiko’s voice had suddenly frozen, her eyes shining with intensity, and a sharpness to her tone she didn’t even know she possessed before this point. Her friend’s eyes widened, filled with emotion, and then burst into tears, and flopped on Kiko.


While comforting the hysterical girl, she got something in her earpiece. Something from Bruyn.
“Kiko, hole up wherever can and wait, you’ve got an entire cadre of Cultists on your position. , I know Kitsunes are good, but this is just too much…” Bruyn’s warning washed over an icy-cold Kiko, who then slipped a finger under Remokr’s chin and lifted it up, so they were eye-to-eye.
“Right now is when I need you to be a strong woman, Remokr. You can collapse later; Asha is really good for helping people with their hysterics. I know, from personal experience. But right now I need you to be, you. Not this terrified lamb of a thing in front of me” Kiko’s voice had a whip-crack tone, a command as much as a request. And regardless of actual feelings, Remokr obeyed before she realized what she was obeying too. Tears dried up and she stopped with the ragged, hitched breath. Which was good before a man appeared behind them, saw the two, and pulled out a gun. Kiko responded with alacrity, firing off a pair of bullets from her gun at the man, but not fast enough to avoid taking one to her own shoulder. Her bullet had thrown off his aim, but not enough.


This was a new feeling, getting shot. Was entirely unlike the hot, searing pain of getting stabbed. It was like getting kicked in the shoulder by a horse. Fortunately, in a twisted sense, the bullet went straight out the other side, so she didn’t have that to contend with. Just a damn hole in her shoulder, a ton of pain, and Remokr’s attempts to keep it together in light of Kiko’s blood splattering across the hallway as she dragged her into a room.
“We gotta go” Kiko growled, her teeth clenched tight enough to grind together. Kiko had to show a brave face so that Remokr didn’t have to worry any more than she already was. The girl didn’t have the merits of the Kitsune Mentality, after all. The only good thing was that her own blood didn’t seem to set off her Blood Moon . That, would have been exhausting. And she really didn’t need to be going nuts in front of Remokr. That, was not what she needed. Didn’t stop the fact that she was bleeding rather profusely, and passing out would not do anyone any favors. So she spawned a tail and sparked up the fire, cauterizing the wound in her shoulder, and not quite managing to suppress the cry of agony.


“Tail? You…?” Remokr just stared, stunned at the sudden revolution. Apparently maids could carry guns, but not be Quasi-Humans.
“Yea, apparently I’m a Kitsune. Surprised me when I was told as well” Kiko replied, with an unduly cheerful voice. She was just winging it at this point. And, speaking of winging it, she felt…something. Pulling at her, calling to her, leading her. She stepped without thought, and then pushed off the lid to look inside. Mostly, just stolen bric-a-brac and other stuff looking to be sorted out what can be hawked and what can be scrapped. But inside, sat a sword. A sword that sung to her.
“Ki..ko?” Remokr asked, stuttering a bit as her friend just wandered off abruptly. It went unheard, as the fox girl grasped the sword, and pulled it out of its sheath. The Song then filled her ears. Deep, intense, loving. She couldn’t focus on anything that wasn’t it. She couldn’t see anything but the blade and its song. It was powerful, as if sung by a man with a hell of a set of lungs. It sounded, like it was half a song, like he was singing to a person who was absent. She wanted to know who he was singing to. Wanted to know what it was about this tarnished black blade that was so enticing. And then wanted some painkillers as her arm was wrenched out of its socket when the blade shifted itself into the path of a bullet. Fortunately, it was the shoulder without the bullet, but she had really not had good luck right now.


She had seen it on so many medias, bullets being deflected in the dozens by a sword with no issues at all. But the single bullet hit the sword with such force it threw her off balance. Along with jolting the dislocated shoulder. Today was pain, it seemed. The man was stunned by the lightning fast movement and blocking of his bullet, which gave Remokr time enough to shoot a lightning bolt at him, taking him out and causing him to flop about the floor like a beached fish before going still.
‘We’ve breached, keep your head down, Kiko’ Bruyn said through her earpiece. Probably to give her some comfort and explanation of the explosion that she heard down the hall. She was the head of the Rifles, so maybe she had brought some of her people in to help her. Scary thought when the Superzombie needed some help, but maybe it was a manpower thing. A dozen people could search and contain an area better than a single person, so it was worth the time to wait for them to arrive. Hearing the order to hold up, Kiko dragged a box over to the door and blocked it, so nobody could get in. Not something that was easy with one dislocated shoulder and another with a bullet hole in it.
“Barricaded the door. Give two knocks, and then two more knocks when you get to it” Kiko replied, then turning to grab Remokr and hurry into the shelter of boxes.


“Alright, seems like we have some time to sit, silently shriek in pain, relocate my shoulder, loudly shriek in pain, and talk. Mind helping?” Kiko asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Bloody Kitsune Mentality made her out to be an absolute nutjob to Remmy, but she held her own well and placed her own hand on Kiko’s shoulder.
“Gonna hurt” Remokr said, and then popped her shoulder back in. Remmy certainly didn’t lie about the fact that it was going to hurt. Kiko managed to restrain it to a loud grunt, and then settled for some deep panting.
“Holy , I hurt…distract me Remokr. Tell me where you got that brand” Remmy seemed rather nervous and feeling like she wanted to avoid the subject at all costs, but then there was no point avoiding it with Kiko, so just broke into a babble.
“It happened a few days after you left. I was walking home from school when this van pulled up next to me and I was dragged in. They were well prepared, I tried throwing some lightning but the interior was insulated and had rods sticking out of it that drew my bolts away. I don’t really remember what happened after that, just that it hurt. And then I woke up strapped to a table. They wanted to use me to get to you, and I don’t know how they knew we were connected. Probably the same way they knew what to do in the van to stop me frying their asses. I refused, hotly, and insulted their heritage, so they got in some guy with a mournful expression. He said he was sorry for what was about to happen. It brought him no pleasure because his brother had been killed the other day doing exactly what he was up to, and so the act just reminded him of that fresh wound. Did, stop him with the torture though. It was…was…just…” Remokr started to shake, and Kiko could intimately sympathize with what she was going through. Kitsune Mentality didn’t mean that things never happened, just that she could deal with it, whatever it was. So she took the girl, and hugged her softly. Comfortingly. It helped to soothe her.


“I know. I think I may have met his brother, and I think I may be the cause in a roundabout sort of way, as to why he was sad. But, I guess he didn’t try anything on with you, because of the sadness?” Kiko tried to find the light, but mentioning that just made her sob harder. Apparently the sadness had the opposite effect on the guy, and he did it to hopefully dull the ache of his brother’s death. Friendly sort of family.
“How…do you cope? With the memories? With what they did?” Remokr asked, her voice a hushed and terrified whisper.
“I cheat. Apparently Kitsunes are designed to deal with this sort of thing. Our minds dissemble overwhelming emotion to avoid undue stress. Doesn’t work perfectly, I will admit, seems a bit broken if you ask me. But it is better than what you have. Maybe. Thunderbirds are lightning oriented, and memories are just electrical impulses. Depending on how much you can’t bare it, you can always try get rid of it entirely”


Remokr looked at Kiko for a few moments, somewhere between horrified and amazed at the suggestion. And then Kiko’s hair started to stand on end as the static in the surrounding area skyrocketed. Remokr electrified, her skin becoming painful to hold onto. But hold on Kiko did, giving Remokr support that she needed while dealing with her internal issue. And then the pain stopped, and Remokr slumped in Kiko’s arms. So now she had a cauterized hole, a recently relocated shoulder, and a sword with a blackened blade. Looking to the edge, it was coated in a thin something that would stop it being able to cut. Somehow she knew that, even without knowing what it was. Then two knocks came, followed by two more knocks.
“Hey Bruyn. Just, give it a push” She spoke through her comms, trusting in the zombie superstrength to push aside the barrier. Which, worked like a dream. And there, in the doorway, was Bryun. It made her happy.


“Sat around with a half-naked girl clinging to you, and you say she’s not your girlfriend? Such a Cassanova, Kiko” Bruyn teased her, walking over to offer a hand up before seeing the bullet hole and grimacing. She got on her comms to the medic they have brought, and then crouched down. “So, what’s with the sword? Didn’t like my gun so decided to try something more manual?”
“To be honest, I have no idea. I just, need it. It’s mine. Gotta, keep hold of it.” Kiko rambled for a bit before staring at Bruyn, taking a few breaths, and then falling back onto the ground, eyes whiting out as consciousness slipped away, pain and exertion too much to survive any longer.


* * * * *


A new celling. That was no celling she knew. Was she meant to go through more of this? More strange ceilings, more getting shot, more watching her friends fall apart like Remokr. According to ghost-Drax, she was in for more of this. And how many times was she going to tell herself that she was in for more of this before she truly clocked onto the fact? Sitting up in bed, Kiko was dressed, but the clothing was so fine she could hardly feel it at all. Softer than silk could ever hope to be, softer than any material even. A red top and a white skirt that reached her feet was an interesting fashion choice, but she didn’t hate it. Something about it made her heart swell. Made her feel nostalgic and loved. Wiping away the tears that were forming, she threw the covers back and got out of bed, putting on the soft sandals at the foot of the bed, and walking out of the large tent. Something was missing, but the swell in her heart, the feeling of being loved, made it something impossible to put her finger on.


Once outside, she saw a strange sight. Something between an established town and a nomadic camp, it was large and sprawling with many distinct ‘buildings’ but made entirely out of tents of varying size and grandeur. The largest of which was one made with a crimson red silk and made Kiko feel somewhat in awe. It was just a tent, but the tent made her feel both comforted and amazed. With slow steps, she entered the tent, and saw a wondrous sight. The inside was considerably sized, and filled with tailed people of all manner. There were several dotted about talking with each other, a few at a masterfully carved statue of a tall woman with nine tails, and a woman. A woman with five tails swishing behind her, tended to a shrine, keeping it clean and talking to the people that seemed to be…praying to the statue. Her clothes had the same style as Kiko’s own, but with inverted colours. And a few other Kitsunes with one and two tails went about the tent seeing to tasks, wearing the same clothes as she was.
“Don’t just stand there, youngling, help out” one of them exclaimed, dumping something into her arms and sending her scurrying off somewhere and spent twenty minutes being lectured for her lack of sewing ability, before the shrine-tending woman appeared.
“Give us a moment” She told the other one, who nodded and went off to find something else to do. “So, struggling with the sewing?” she asked. Her voice was, so familiar, and comforting to boot.
“I don’t know what I am doing here. And not just the sewing but the tent and the whole place. I was with Bruyn last I remember” she dropped the sewing and let out an exasperated sight, staring at her pricked and bleeding fingers. Not really the worst she had ever felt, so it hardly bothered her, just the
idea that she was going to make a mess.


But that idea was proven false when the woman produced a napkin and wiped the blood off her fingers, and then applied a cream to the pricks to stop them bleeding further.
“Thanks….” She looked at the woman, properly, and her heart throbbed. This woman was, so……
“First thing I ever got to do. I don’t blame him, I understand exactly why he did it but it still hurt” the woman had a mournful voice, one that made Kiko want to cry. But, she managed to hold it back, if only just.
“I…I…was…never, really good at the pronoun game” Kiko muttered, too much focus going into not crying to be able to talk properly.
“Ahh, yes. No doubt he hasn’t told you anything about it, would kind of defeat the whole purpose if he did” The woman continued the pronoun game, as if teasing her or something. But from the tone, Kiko could tell she was just nervous. “I’m Yeni, your mother” and suddenly, Kiko could understand everything she felt about the woman. Could tell why her heart swelled to see her, and hurt to hear her so sad.
“Oh……”

[Alwyn]

The food of the gods, indeed! The Not do sound like ideal infiltrators. I'm impressed by the creative ideas in your universe, including the Not, the SIR, The Wind, Maids, Thunderbirds, Quasi-Humans and others. Keeping track of them can be challenge. I wonder if it would be helpful to sometimes say more about what some of these are, like you did with Fire Teams in Chapter Twelve, or to add a glossary?

[LillyanaKabal]

There's a blurb now! O_O

Also I will make glossary when it is done. Could make a glossary now but then I go "Ohh, that's a good idea" and add it in and then have to go edit the glossary....Also I reformatted a little. I wanted a Dramatic Ending to the last chapter and so I tacked a bit on and then made a new chapter. Please read that (It's after the * * * *) and then this.

Chapter Sixteen


Mother. Mother. Kiko went through so many different emotions in a short length of time. First she was amazed and relieved, thinking her mother was dead or someone she would never meet. Her heart swelled with elation, and then her mind burned with fury. Why had she left? Why…why…why?!
“Why?” Kiko’s feelings spilling over to a point of speech. “Why did you leave me?” Kiko’s eyes filled with tears and was frozen to the spot, just staring mournfully.
“We have an intricate culture. A culture that your father wanted to keep you from. And I couldn’t stay with him telling me that I couldn’t teach you who you were. I couldn’t watch you bounce about life not knowing who you were, looking to your friends as they got old and wondering why you were still young. So I returned to my clan and waited for him to come talk to me. He never did” Yeni seemed deeply aggrieved to look at Kiko as she was. But it wouldn’t last.
“That’s your reason? Some culture keeping you away from your daughter like it’s a valid excuse?!” Kiko’s despair turned to rage at the whole concept, anger bubbling away inside her. In response Yeni took on that angry mother look that just came so naturally to every mother.
“It’s been our guidance for thousands of years, how can you dare call it into question!” Yeni bristled at such an accusation, and barked back angrily.
“And how many children have been abandoned for this glorious culture of yours?” Kiko was not one to give up, so deep in the throngs of anger as she was, and so jabbed wherever she could, not going to be the one to fall first in this argument.
“Ugh, you really are his daughter, aren’t you? No-one else could be so stubbornly against their heritage” Yeni’s tone became a dismissive one, more than hinting at her relationship with Kiko’s father.
“Speaking of parents, are you really my mother, or just the woman who gave birth to me?” Kiko immediately regretted it as soon as she said it, but this was no time for regret. It was a time for anger, and angry words. And in her head, the words of her inhabitant rang out. Forever the most beautiful thing Kiko would hear, they still didn’t soothe her.
‘Wow, you guys suck. I am so fixing that as soon as I am more than a voice in a girl’s head. Nice statue though’


The tent, so bustling and full of life, suddenly just...stopped. Everything went quiet, nobody dared breath, they just stared at Yeni and Kiko. The elder Kitsune stared for a moment and then the fluffy tails behind her back stiffened and trembled, subjecting Kiko to some unseen pressure forcing her down. Kitsunes of five tails and above were those ascending to godhood, and had the power and presence far greater than their four tailed kin. Nobody was sure what was going to happen, not even Kiko. And the voice in her head was conspicuously silent after the last quip. And then, after what seemed like an eternity, the pressure subsided, and the tails retracted. In their place, was tears, and Yeni grabbed Kiko, enveloping her tightly in a hug.
“I…” She whispered, an attempt to speak before failing entirely. Which was good because Kiko was still a bit shell shocked from the power released by her mother. The tent subtly emptied and Yeni just, hugged Kiko. For a long time. And then Kiko took a deep breath and Yeni let go, looking at her daughter through tear stained eyes.
“What a mess we are. First time we ever meet and there is a screaming argument between us. I wish I could have stayed, wish I could have watched you grow up, and guide you. But, we all have such faith in this culture of ours, and nobody questioned it. On the rare occasion that a woman is in this situation where an abandoned City Kitsune is met, the separation and culture has harrowed the love they feel until there is nothing. But for you, I just can’t. There are such feelings in my heart that I just can’t give you up. I have to keep you, and I know SIR will want you back and I know I will be torn if I ever let you go again” Yeni hugged Kiko tightly, pressing her against her bosom as a child would her favorite toy that had only just been returned to her. This extended for Kiko until she was released, and her mother stared deep into Kiko’s eyes. She had the most beautiful auburn eyes, Kiko felt her heart melting all over again.
“Why don’t you like the cities? Why do you live all the way up here?” Kiko asked, looking at her mother with tear-stained eyes.


“Because of The Betrayer. But that is for later. We have to get you back. The Shadowtails magic will be fading soon and SIR is hardly subtle when it comes to these sort of things” Yeni took Kiko’s hand and pulled her along, out of the tent.
“W-woah! Who are the Shadowtails?!” Kiko asked frantically, stumbling along behind her mother.
“Special Kitsunes that can cast powerful concealing magic. They can choose a person, a group, a country or even the whole world, and for a number of hours equal to twice their tails, that person ceases to exist to the chosen targets. Reasons for their absence are fabricated, and they just, aren’t there until the power runs out. We haven’t got the exceptional Shadowtails, but we do alright for these kind of situations”
“So, what did they say about me? Who can see me?” she asked, a little bit of trepidation in her voice.
“Basically…only Kitsunes can see you” Yeni replied.


The idea that there were Kitsunes with such a powerful ability, and the slight terror of the idea that someone could be around an entirely imperciveable. But Kiko really tried to ignore that and just go along with Yeni. Getting dragged into a small, black tent, and then through an archway. A sudden pressure crashed against her entire body, feeling viscous and oozy. Like sticking her finger in jelly, only across her entire body. A few seconds of jelly transport later, and she was in the city again. The back room of a café, in fact. It never really got a lot of custom, but had been around as long as Kiko had.
“Did we just…teleport?!” Kiko asked, looking back at the arch.
“I could go into the science of what we did, but it would go over your head. Just, accept that we didn’t, ok?” Yeni asked, with a coy grin. It was quite disconcerting to see the Kitsune mentality in action with someone else, but it didn’t bother her very much because of exactly the same reason. Running to prevent herself from getting dragged along by her eager mother, they arrived at SIR. And then, on a whim, Kiko gave her mother a tight hug.
“Hopefully…next time can be better?” She asked, smiling awkwardly before turning to the door, and getting face to face with Queenie.
“Yeni. I haven’t seen you here since you left Drax…” Queenie seemed surprised to see Yeni, and Kiko was surprised the two knew each other. Thinking about it, the three knowing each other was logical, but still surprising.
“I did not leave, Tai’zian. Drax forced me to go” Yeni replied, turning to set off, but not making it far because her hand was grabbed by Queenie, or Tai’zian, as it seemed her name was.
“Drax didn’t force you to do anything. But, I’m not getting into that. Why are you here? Have you come to see Kiko?” The Demoness had a warm touch and a soft voice, trying her best to comfort Yeni so she -wasn’t so ready to dart off.
“No. I was in town on Maiden business, and was just passing through. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back” Yeni tugged on the holding hand, not hard enough to rip out of her grip, but enough to impress the fact that she wanted Queenie to let go.
“You were always a terrible liar, doll. But fine, if you want to keep your secrets, I can’t force you to tell me. Just know I am here for you whenever you need me. Whatever you need me for” Queenie’s words made Yeni pause, and look back at the demoness.
“Tai…I loved Drax. Even after my culture forced me to leave him. I was heartbroken to hear he had died, which as you know, is not an easy emotion for a Kitsune to feel. Kiko, I don’t know. I will know in future but for now she has to focus on her training” Yeni nodded, and then strolled away. Tai, smiled to herself and went inside, happy to have talked to her friend.


Kiko then turned away and scurried back into the building. Not wanting Queenie to decide to go check on her while she wasn’t there. In the main lobby, there was a pair of people stood, as if waiting for something or someone. A man, in regal dress uniform, and a sword by his side, stood like a veteran soldier, postured and prepared for any movement. The woman, by contrast, had a rather casual way of holding herself, and a rather casual set of clothes to accompany it. And she had some amazing eyes as well, one was a deep, crimson red, just the shade of blood, and the other was a striking yellow. The yellow eye seemed to glisten in the light. And then, turned to Kiko, while the rest of the woman didn’t move. Kiko froze, not knowing what was going on, since nobody should be able to see her. And then the woman smiled.
“Something funny? Do share, it might break up the monotony” the man told the woman. He had a gruff voice, and Kiko could see some elongated fangs in his mouth almost like the Headteacher of her school, Mr Ridas.
“My eye is seeing things again. As long as I have had it, it’s still strange to see things the rest of me can’t perceive…But, hey. If you have such an issue with the montomy, why don’t you go to the mess hall?” the two seemed friends, despite the differences in their dress.
“Hmm, if I go to the mess hall, who will protect you?” The large, fanged man asked, scanning the hall intimately.
“Heh. Protect me? Darlin, if anything, I’m protecting you. Your position is purly ceremonial~” the woman replied, a teasing grin on her face. “Besides, your montomy is about to break” The woman looked directly at Kiko and grinned, flicking her eyebrows.


A little spooked that someone was looking at her despite being told that nobody should be able to see her, Kiko scurried away to Queenie’s room, and got changed into her SIR uniform. How, she was going to explain the outfit she had just taken off, she didn’t know. But, cross that bridge when she came to it. What was she going to say to Queenie? Or…Tai’Zian as was apparently really called. Kiko had to be sure not to call her that until she found out in a way that wasn’t overhearing it while she didn’t exist. She explored, did some tail tricks and tried to get used to having two, and then practiced drawing her gun from its holster. Because she really needed to keep her mind off what was about to happen. She had an intrinsic understanding of how implausible it was for that woman to be able to see her, and it set her hackles up in fright.

“Hey Kiko. Good to see you awake. Let me have a look at that gunshot wound” Queenie said, coming up to Kiko before she could refuse and expertly stripping her clothes to bare her shoulders. That skillset would definitely work well in the bedroom later. But, for now, there was just a confused look on her face. “Any…secret regeneration powers you’ve not told us about?” Queenie asked. The question made Kiko look to her side and, see that there was no wound. Not even a blemish.
“No…umm, I have no idea where it went, but I was definitely shot” Kiko’s voice had a stunned tone as she stared at the lack of wound.
“I know. Bruyn reported it. We got you patched up and let you rest here, so you were in more comfortable surroundings when you came too” Queenie’s words sparked a memory in Kiko, and she quickly looked to the woman.
“How’s Remokr?” There was a bite to the request, an intense impatience that Queenie picked up on and didn’t try reassuring. Just spoke.
“Unconscious, but other than that she is stable. It was a very stupid thing she did. Could have blown her brain to hell, or fried her nervous system. Or any other manner of a terrible, terrible death. I understand why you did it, but it was stupid” Queenie somewhat lectured. And Kiko couldn’t deny that. “Stupidity aside, come on, we’ve got someone for you to meet. And as much as I love your personality, do try to be nice around this one” And with that, Kiko followed, entirely unsure what her ‘personality’ was. She wasn’t sure it was ever anything of note.


Then she was face to face with the heterochromia woman, and her wolf companion. The woman looked on with a smile, but the wolf-man looked back at the woman and then to Kiko, and then said something she missed.
“Kiko, this is Sarasagi, the Queen of Blood. And her Knight-Commander Ulf” Queenie introduced. Kiko stared for a few seconds and then gave an awkward curtsey.
“It-it-it-it-it is good, to see, you, your Majesty. I, am Kiko” there was a sudden feeling of being pressed down upon, as if the gravity of the world had multiplied many times. She could hardly focus on anything until Ulf nudged Sarasagi in the ribs, and the pressure vanished.
“Call me Sagi. I do so hate the formality of my full name. You are Kiko, I hear. One of my beautiful girls from back in the war” Sagi walked up to Kiko and strokes her face, planting a kiss on her lips which made Queenie scowl deeply, but said nothing about it. Clearly, this Sagi was quite a character to intimidate the Ever-Burning Lady. And then suddenly Kiko shrieked and made Queenie and Sagi jump. Ulf didn’t so much as bat an eyelid however.
“You! Are from another planet!” she suddenly pointed and accused vehemently. After recovering from the jumping, Sagi gave a nervous laugh.
“Yes, yes I am. It is a nice place, but then it is my home so I guess I am bias towards it” Sagi put on a fond smile, remembering all the hijinks and shenanigans she got up to. And then gave Kiko a stare when the Kitsune poked her in the breast.
“Why do you seem so…normal?” Kiko asked more, poking Sagi some more. The question seemed to amuse Sagi considerably, and she gave a hearty giggle.
“Ahh, I am sorry. I’m not laughing at you. It’s just I asked the very same question when I saw my first, extra-terrestrial, if you will. There is a point in gravitational force in the planet, where it is too strong to create fully sentient life. Evolution is too focused on not going splat and not enough on brain power. Standard Gravity is designated as 1G. A planet can get about 2.5G, about two and a half times stronger than this planet’s gravity, before it becomes too strong. And about 0.3G About three times weaker than this planet’s gravity, before it becomes too weak to create a proper form. Life can evolve, but at a staggeringly slow pace and it can’t leave the planet without specialized pressure suits or it will quickly die from either asphyxiation or being crushed under the power of the gravity their bones are not designed to handle. People from different planets may appear shorter and stockier, or taller and more limber, but the general shape remains the same. Planetary aspects can add in deviations. My planet has a lot of night, so I am a very pale thing. Some planets are 95% water, so you get aquatic appearances. But nothing dramatically deviates from that because, Science” Sagi finished her explanation and saw Kiko’s brain had been well and truly burned out.


“You broke it. Nice” Ulf commented, which got him a glare.
“Not my fault they are so easy to break. My Blood-Moons were a hardy bunch. A true delight to fight alongside” Sagi replied, her head held high as she spoke of her Kitsunes. This place was one of great glory and great horror both. One of the biggest wars outside of Olympus Mons. And Mons was a ing deathpit. Even long after it had happened, it was still a holy pilgrimage for Necromancers across the universe, considered one of the greatest places to connect with their aspect. Eventually, while reminiscing, the little Kitsune managed to recover herself.
“You are very beautiful, my Queen” Kiko said suddenly, and then blushed when she heard it and covered her mouth. Queenie scowled at that, but Sagi only giggled.
“To the task at hand then. Blood Moon runes, yes? They have been going a bit wild but you had them under control because of their rarity and the fact that Kitsunes are rarely people in SIR to boot because of how The Great War ended. So this is the first time all the values have added up to make this particular situation. Is that a correct summary?” Sagi asked, holding herself with regal posture despite the less than regal clothing and tone.


“Yea..but, what do you mean, how it ended? Does that have anything to do with…The Betrayer?” Kiko asked. Her mother had mentioned something like that but never elaborated.
“It does, yes. The Betrayer was a cowardly creature who drove a Blade of Blackened Soul into the back of Tzi, the great hero of the Kitsune, and wielder of the Crystal Talon. There, at his moment of triumph, he died. The Kitsune tore The Betrayer into a thousand pieces and then ate them so he would never rise again, but the damage had been done” Sagi looked as if she was going to go on more, but Kiko’s eyes grew wide and her breath suddenly laboured.
“S-sword…where’s my sword? Where did my sword go? I need my sword!” she exclaimed, looking around with a panicked expression.
“Hmm. Reminds me of a young Taka at the start of the War” Ulf commented, before looking to Queenie.
“Bruyn has it” the large Demon woman said, waiting a second before realizing nobody knew her, except for Kiko who was currently freaking out, so she darted off to go find it.


While she was gone, Sagi put a hand on Kiko’s forehead and soothed her frantic heart. Kiko, feeling the warm hand on her head, was calmed. Enough so that Queenie could return and hand her the sword. Kiko grabbed it and hugged it, before unsheathing it and sighing deeply at the song. “It has been a long time since I heard that song. You would not think the man who sung it to be capable of such, but he did. Matched pitch and tone, tempo and style to the song of another, a most potent creation. The two songs together are things of great wonder to behold” Sagi spoke while the song went on, and then Kiko sheathed it and sighed deeply again.
“Yay. Kiko, now with extra nuts. Can’t I obsess over something better than a sword?” she exclaimed, shaking her head before looking up at Sagi. Something about the stare made her feel completely naked in front of her. And so Kiko covered herself even though fully clothed. Sagi smiled and shook her head softly, before cocking it and looking into the Kitsune’s eyes.
“I see she has found a new host in you. I look forward to meeting her again. Divinity is an interesting thing to interact with when you are something like me”. Kiko’s eyes grew wide at the mention of Divinity, especially when in relation to her. As if implying that the she in her was some sort of God. She couldn’t ask any questions however, because a growl suddenly ripped through the air. One of the members of SIR had walked past, and growled viciously at Ulf. The man turned and snarled back, the two baring teeth and certainly not shy about their hostilities.


Sagi closed her eyes for a long second, and then opened them back up and looked to Ulf. The man bared teeth for a few more seconds, and then regained composure and took his place back at Sagi’s side.
“Good dog” the other man said, his voice dripping with venom and hate. Kiko barely had time to react before Ulf pounced with a savage roar and the two ripped at each other with claws and teeth as if the other was an enemy they had been tracking for a decade. The problem came quickly, as their violence brought blood, and Kiko was ensnared. Sagi let out a groan as the two struck each other, but Koko dived right into the combat and it was quickly over with yelps and pained growls. Mostly the man who had stayed to fight, Ulf had recognized a lost cause and backed out with only a few breakages to pay for.
“And that, I take it, is the core concern of my presence” Sagi commented, nodding softly before speaking again. “Kiko!”


The words were sharp and hard, and even in her blood-lusted state, Kiko couldn’t help but turning around to look. And there, she beheld, a wonder. She, was unsure how anything could look this good, could look this beautiful, but she couldn’t do anything about it, and just dropped the battered wolf man and stared.
“Come with me, my dear” Sagi held out a hand, which Kiko stumbled towards and took. With the fox girl in hand, Queenie left to a deeper part of the building.

[Alwyn]

Welcome back! The new ending of your previous chapter is comes across as dramatic, as you intended (and what Kiko sees when she leaves the large tent is a strange sight, indeed). The special power of the Shadowtails sounds very useful in the right situation.

[LillyanaKabal]

There is a similarity. The "jelly transport" is also in my other work, Life Of Yesura. And Sagi is the main character of my planned series, The Queen Of Blood. Everything is connected~