A Fox's Family (36 page)

The
thing that she had just cut the head off of was standing again. Its
head was also back on, gleaming and seamlessly attached to its
shoulders as if it had never lost it in the first place. A glance to
her left revealed that the figure Kirihime had stabbed with her knife
was also back on its feet, and it had already engaged her sister in
combat.

With
her left hand holding her sheath and her right hand gripping the hilt
of her katana, Kotohime regained her placid smile as she stared the
thing down. “Ara, ara. It looks like this will be a little more
interesting than I first suspected.”

The
thing said nothing. It merely charged, and the sound of steel
clashing against steel rang out across the empty street.

***

Though
she was normally hesitant, Kirihime felt none of that as she attacked
her new enemy. Just like when she was on the hunt, her blood was
pumping, her heart was racing, and she was enjoying the thrill of
mortal combat.

Her
three tails slammed into the creature, whose undulating,
anthropomorphic body continued to unnerve her. It flew for several
feet before slamming against the blacktop. Sparks arced off its
gleaming silver surface as it tumbled along for several dozen feet
before coming to a stop.

While
she hadn’t expected that to be enough to kill this thing,
Kirihime still felt surprised when it slowly picked itself off the
ground and stood up.

Clawed
feet slid across the road, emitting a horrendous squeal like her prey
normally did right before she killed them. It turned to face her. Its
rippling surface gleamed brightly within the night, the moonlight
reflecting off its unblemished metallic body, which didn’t have
so much as a scratch on it, as if she hadn’t sent it tumbling
along the ground like a ragdoll.

What
is this thing made of?

Frowning,
Kirihime used the extension technique again. Her three black tails
shot out from underneath her blouse, their tips attempting to spear
the thing through the chest. It sidestepped her first tail, which
pierced the ground it had been standing on, then backpedaled to avoid
her second tail, which she tried to use as a bludgeoning tool. Her
third tail came in, and this time, the thing’s hand shot out
and grabbed onto it, its fingers curling around her tail in a
vice-like grip.

That’s
not good.

Kirihime
yelped as the thing yanked on her tail, and she was sent rocketing
toward it at dizzying speeds. Despite being surprised by the sudden
maneuver, she did not allow herself to remain inert. Swinging her
feet around, she pointed her heels at the creature, which either
couldn’t react in time or didn’t realize the danger it
was in.

She
planted her heels into the thing’s visored face, the heeled
points digging into the metallic, bullet-shaped head with a loud
crack!
like
rumbling thunder. Its head snapped back as it stumbled backwards.
Kirihime used its head like a springboard, kicking off and flipping
into the air before landing several feet away.

This…
this is exciting.

Just
like when she was hunting, Kirihime felt her blood pumping through
her body at an abnormal rate. Her pupils had become dilated and her
breathing heavy. A wide grin spread across her face, stretching from
ear to ear.

People
who saw this grin usually ran away screaming. The thing facing her
did not run. Its servomotors whirred. Its red visor flashed. It
almost looked like it was thinking about something. Kirihime did not
know what it might have been thinking about, but she didn’t
really care. She charged at it, rushing toward it in a full-on sprint
enhanced by her youki. Within seconds she was there, standing before
it, her knives ready to tear it limb from limb.

She
thrust the knife in her left hand, but the thing appeared to have
finished thinking. It moved more quickly than she expected it to,
deftly swerving around her attack, dodging it, and then trying to
impale her.

Not
one to be outdone, Kirihime bent her torso like a contortionist, the
spear passing above her and cutting the air. She wrapped her three
tails around the extended spear as it passed and tried to lift the
thing off the ground, but the strange mercuric substance proved to be
quite slippery. Like an eel it slid from her tails’ grasp.

The
thing attacked her again, thrusting out its left hand, which also
morphed into a spear-like shape. Kirihime tilted her head, but the
thing had anticipated her movements. Its right spear-hand suddenly
filled her vision.

Kirihime’s
eyes widened. Pain flared across her cheek as she tilted her head to
the left, the sharpened spear moving past her, grazing her skin,
cutting into her flesh.

This
pain… it feels good!

To
keep the thing from attacking her again, Kirihime closed the distance
between them.

“
Water
Art: Crystal Blade!”

Water
coalesced around the knife in her left hand, hardening into a
crystalline structure that glittered with the consistency of
diamonds. That same knife was then thrust forward, her enhanced speed
making it move more quickly than anything a normal human could match.
The thing tried to block the attack, but one of Kirihime’s
tails wrapped around its arm, pulling the appendage away from its
torso.

The
knife pierced the armored body, slicing through it with ease. The
blade carved a trail across the chestplate before making a violent
exit when Kirihime yanked it out. No blood poured from the gaping
wound, and Kirihime watched in silent astonishment as the metal
undulated, becoming liquid, before closing around the vicious-looking
slash mark.

“What
the…?”

Shocked
by how her foe had healed from what would have killed even a yōkai,
Kirihime nearly missed the spear that the thing tried stabbing her
through the head with.

Bringing
the blade in her right hand up, Kirihime blocked the attack. However,
the strength behind the blow pushed her backwards. She skidded along
the ground for several feet, kicking up a light cloud of dust. She
eventually stopped, but was forced to immediately move again when the
spear quickly elongated, seeking to penetrate her flesh.

That…
that looks just like the extension technique!

Kirihime
swerved left. The spear followed, becoming liquid again and changing
direction to keep her in its sights. It moved so fast it appeared as
nothing more than a blur. Kirihime moved faster than she ever had
before as she pumped more youki into her muscles.

“
Water
Art: Three-Tailed Crystal Whips!”

Three
whips made of water formed on the tips of her tails and quickly
solidified. They shot forth, lashing out at the metal spear, which
fell to pieces as the incredibly sharp whips of hardened liquid
sliced them into multiple segments. Unfortunately, this didn’t
seem to end the problem, as the spear simply grew back to its
original length and continued extending.

Her
mind working overtime, Kirihime began to move about more erratically.
She juked and jinked, moving in increasingly complex patterns to
avoid the spear that followed her like a male fox in heat. Sweat
formed along her brow and threatened to sting her eyes. The patterns
she made with her movements became increasingly more complicated as
time went on.

It
was only after nearly five minutes of evasion that her intentions
became clear. The seemingly random patterns she traced while dodging
had caused the spear to become tangled into a complicated knot.
Kirihime increased her physical abilities with the enhancement
technique after twirling around the spear again, her body vanishing
into thin air before reappearing several feet away. She hoped that
with the spear twisted into a knot, she would have a shot at taking
her enemy down before it attacked her.

Her
plan to have the strange mercury-like substance twist itself into a
knot proved unsuccessful, however. The substance simply melded into
itself without resistance, and then the spear continued following
her.

“
Water
Art: Water Armor.”

Appearing
around her form, thousands of tiny droplets like liquid crystals
glittered, their twinkling akin to stars of the Milky Way galaxy.
They moved and pulsed, rippling and shifting into a variety of shapes
before amalgamating on her body. The many droplets of water combined
to form segments of an armor both ancient and powerful. Each segment
covered her body, connecting to each other like links in a chain and
forming a set of traditional samurai armor. The armor rippled for a
moment, its form seemingly not fully cohesive, before hardening into
sparkling crystallized water.

Kirihime
charged the spear. Not even bothering to dodge, she let the hardened
point of sharp liquid metal hit her. Squealing erupted as the spear,
unable to penetrate the diamond-hard armor, scraped along its
surface. Sparks coruscated off the armor as the spear’s course
deviated, sliding across the armor until it no longer presented a
threat.

As
Kirihime closed the distance, a deranged grin appeared on her face.

“I
would really like it if you died for me, please!”

The
two knives, hardened water encasing them and lengthening the blades,
struck the armored figure at the hips. The two weapons tore straight
through the amor, bisecting the thing and causing the top half to fly
away from the lower half. The legs, no longer supporting a torso,
tumbled to the ground. Meanwhile, its torso soared for several feet
before hitting the road with a loud clatter, its surface rippling
like a placid pond disturbed by a rock.

Kirihime
waited for several seconds. When it became obvious to her that the
thing was dead, she dispersed her water armor and stuck the now
waterless knives into the sheaths underneath her skirt. At the same
time, her sadistic and cruel demeanor vanished.

“I-I
am terribly sorry that you had to die.” She bowed to the
armored figure—or at least the upper half of it. The figure
didn’t respond, though she had not expected it to. With her
apology said, she turned around and started walking away.

She
never saw the spear soaring toward her unprotected back until it was
too late.

***

Kotohime
observed her opponent. Her keen eyes studied its gleaming surface,
its sleek design, its clawed feet and strange abilities.

The
battle had come to a standstill. This thing, whatever it was, did not
have a very durable body. Her blade tore it apart like it was made of
rice. Then again, it didn’t really need one. Its ability to
reform no matter the damage she inflicted on it was impressive.

Kotohime’s
katana moved at speeds beyond what even most yōkai could
perceive. It appeared and disappeared at will, nothing more than
brief flashes that struck out and vanished in the same instant.
Rather than simply saying her blade “moved,” it might
have been more accurate to say that her katana was instantly
teleporting from one location to the next.

With
each flash of her katana, one of the many spear-like tendrils that
her enemy launched at her was sliced into exactly six pieces. The
strangely liquid substance splattered against the ground, creating a
puddle, which would ripple before, ever so slowly, crawling back
towards the armored being, amalgamating once again. This, too, she
catalogued in her mind.

For
its part, the strange armored being had yet to move from its spot. It
stood there, a sentinel at the ready. Its arms moved while its heels
dug in. The spear-like tendrils shot from its hands ten at a time,
one for each finger.

That
was something Kotohime had noticed early on. Even though it all
appeared to be made of the same liquid compound, no other part of its
body except for its hands seemed capable of creating those strange
tendrils. It also couldn’t create more than ten at any given
time.

This
worked to her advantage. Her speed was such that blocking against ten
attacks at the same time wasn’t a problem. Her hands moved and
her blade followed, arcing paths of light that sliced through each
tendril with ease. When Kotohime felt she had her opponent’s
timing and attack patterns down, she charged forward.

Six
tendrils appeared on her right and four on her left, all of which
were set to skewer various parts of her body.

Moving
with an instinctive grace bred from years of experience, Kotohime’s
feet danced along the blacktop. Legs bent and thigh muscles bunched
underneath her beautiful kimono, preparing for what was to come. With
a push, her feet left the ground in a burst of speed.

She
shot forward, her body parallel to the asphalt and spinning like a
top. In a manner that was similar to a blender, the blade in her left
hand spun about so rapidly that it could only be seen as bright
silver streaks. The blade created a funnel around Kotohime’s
body, a whirlpool of steel that sliced apart everything in its path.
All ten tendrils were shredded. Her blade spun right through them,
cutting them into hundreds of tiny pieces.

Ceasing
her spin by creating a counterforce to halt her rotary movements,
Kotohime flipped around, landing on her feet just six inches from her
foe. She crouched down in a manner that was all predator. The figure
tilted its head, its red visor staring at her with an unnatural glow.
Swifter than it could track her, she came up and swung her katana.

“
Ikken
Hissatsu. Sen
.”

Her
blade lashed out an uncountable number of times. Over and over, the
katana appeared as instantaneous flashes of silver that continuously
moved within split seconds of each other. The flashes, though brief,
soon coalesced into an ethereal spiderweb of otherworldly
luminescence, and the creature, thing, whatever it was, found itself
trapped within the middle of this intricate web of continuous
attacks. Unable to move. Unable to block. Unable to do anything. All
it could do was stand there and ride out the wave of ceaseless blades
assaulting it from all sides.