Life of a Stray Fox

Chapter 30

Dammit it's just one thing after another! What the actual hell!?
My large paws pounded on the ground as I ran to save my brother. The job he and Kyouka had gone on together seemingly turned into something much worse. All I knew was that someone from the mafia had gotten them and that my brother was in trouble. Kunikida, Rin, and Kenji were headed there as well but I took off on foot because I would be able to get there by going through alleys and other areas a vehicle couldn't go.
The park they were in wasn't very far from me now and I pushed myself to go harder, my chest heaving rapidly.
I came to a dead end street and ran faster, leaping up onto the roof of the building that separated me from my brother. With a loud howl I leapt off the building and landed behind a woman I knew all too well.
My eyes scanned the area before finding Atsushi lying on his stomach, blood pooling around him as he watched everything unfolding with a pained expression on his face.
I transformed back to my human form and immediately lunged at the woman with a snarl. Her ability activated and I narrowly missed being struck by Golden Demon.
"Ozaki Kouyou... why am I not surprised it's you?"
The woman stared at me and then gave me a smile that held nothing but pure venom. "Ah, so you truly are alive, ungrateful brat? How unfortunate."
I hated Kouyou with a burning passion when I was with the mafia. She had mentored me for maybe a year and a half while I was in the mafia. To begin with I thought she was alright until I realized she was nothing but a heartless bitch. Kyouka had always been her favorite, ever since we (the mafia) had found her. That was when Kouyou showed her true colors to me. From then until I stopped showing up, training almost always involved Kouyou teaching Kyouka how to try and kill me with Demon Snow. The once adoration I had for the woman quickly turning into hatred and rage until the day I had almost killed Kyouka. That was when I knew I had to stop even bothering with the dreadful woman.
I closed my eyes and allowed a smirk to cross my lips before opening my eyes. "Kouyou, you mean to say you didn't miss me? After all, I did practically learn my hateful nature from you."
She stayed silent and stared at me making me confused before a cry from Kyouka caused me to look behind me and curse loudly.
Golden Demon was now behind me and preparing to bring it's sword straight through my chest.
Violet light surrounded my body and I was instantaneously a few feet away. Golden Demon struck the ground, making Kouyou frown before looking at me with disdain. "Why can't you just die, ungrateful brat?"
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I snarled, my tails twitching in warning. "Because I have something I want to protect now."
With those words, I transformed and crouched low, ready for her to attack me again.
The woman sent Golden Demon after me again but I was much faster than her ability, ducking and grabbing the sword in my mouth. With a sickening crack the blade shattered to pieces, leaving her ability helpless. I swiped my claws at it and with a shriek her ability disappeared into thin air, leaving everyone to stare in slightly terrified silence.
The sound of multiple footsteps suddenly approaching reached my ears and I looked around, only to freeze completely. We were surrounded by mafia agents, all of them with weapons in hand and aimed at either myself or my brother.
Shit... now we're really fucked unless those slow asses get here within the next minute.
"Change back into your human or else I'll have this stupid lad killed here and now."
My gaze turned to Kouyou, rage burning in my chest. I was going to kill her, slowly, and in the most painful ways I could imagine.
"Now, ungrateful brat."
I snapped my teeth in her direction and growled before doing as she said, not wanting to risk Atsushi's life over my own pride.
She turned and looked at Kyouka, holding her arms out and smiling. "Let me protect you. You need not wield that blade for the sake of finding a place to belong ever again."
The girl's eyes seemed practically lifeless as she walked towards Kouyou and dropped her blade. The two walked straight by the mafia agents before they formed a protective wall to keep me from attempting to get to them.
The woman turned with a devilish smile, "I shall leave the rest to you."The mafia agent's cocked their guns and took aim at either me or Atsushi and my eyes widened and turned to him in panic, "NO!"
"Please duck."
I looked up suddenly and then immediately dropped to the ground as a car came flying over head. It crushed a majority of the men who had been aiming at us and I quickly scrambled back to my feet and looked over to where the car came from.
Kenji stood at an angle as if he had just thrown something and I smiled widely at him.
He also grinned as he looked at his handiwork, "Oooh! It went flying!"
I ran towards him and he caught me in a hug, "You're alright! I was worried something bad was gonna happen!"
I nodded my head and pulled away to look at Kunikida and Rin who were approaching. "Are you alright Kotori, Atsushi?"
I looked towards my brother and ran over to him, looking over his wounds.
"Kunikida... why..."
The male stood after helping me check Atsushi out and looked to Kouyou's broken phone.
"We made some modifications to Kyouka's phone. It sends us a signal whenever it receives a call." He grabbed my brother by the collar and jerked him to his feet, "Now get up. How long are you gonna keep letting others protect you?"
My brother's eyes widened and he glanced at me quickly.
Kunikida noticed this but chose to ignore it. Rin stepped forward and spoke, "Getting back on your feet even when you're full of holes... isn't such toughness the man tiger's strength?"
I allowed a soft smile to flicker across my face before hearing Kouyou's voice.
"You vermin from the detective agency..."
She took her sleeve and covered Kyouka, keeping her out of view. "I shall not let Kyouka look upon such poisonous light ever again!"
Mafia agents ran in front of the woman with guns raised in our direction.
"Which is to say, you want an all out war between the two organizations? At such a busy time?"
Kenji stepped up beside me as the tension in the air grew thicker, everyone watching each other, waiting for someone to make the first move.
"Wow. Perfect timing! It seems like a fight is gonna break out any second now! It would've been so much more fun if we'd come just a bit later. Wanna go?"
Everyone turned and looked at the two newcomers that had just arrived, a gut wrenching feeling taking over me.
"Why not...? All this tension is making me... itch."
I eyed the blonde and then the dark haired sickly looking male. They both seemed dangerous but I had no idea what their abilities could possible be.
"It can't be helped." The blonde spoke again, "Since we've got our pay from the guild, we'd better get to work!"
He suddenly pointed towards a group of mafia agents, "Ah... it's gonna be dangerous there! Because the package is on it's way." His voice became ominous and made my skin prickle uncomfortably.
"Kunikida! Something's up there!!"
Everyone else looked up into the sky while I kept my gaze on the two male's.
A sudden series of thud's as well as a bright flash of light finally tore my eyes away and to a group of four people that were now between us and the Mafia members. My jaw clenched and I swallowed thickly as a lump formed in my throat. There was something extremely dark about these people and I knew better than to underestimate them.
"Oh no..." Kouyou's voice quivered, "Fire!"
Suddenly everything became a harsh blur as the fighting started. I stepped closer but someone pushed me back, causing me to stumble and fall onto my backside. I winced and looked up just in time to see Rin be run through by what looked like vines.
Her blood splattered across my face and chest, a sudden cold feeling running through my veins.
We're screwed... these people... they're something else.
I brought a hand to my face and wiped a small spatter of Rin's blood from my face with a shudder.
I don't know what to do.
I looked over and winced in horror as Kenji collapsed in a pool of blood. My body was frozen in place as I watched my friends getting slaughtered around me, a dark feeling creeping into my chest and causing a fog to settle over my mind.
I could feel my mouth move, but the words were unheard in my ears before my world seemingly went completely dark.
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"Curse of the Kitsune: Beast of the Shadows"
The words encircled my mind, repeating like a quiet whisper but getting louder... louder... until it was screaming in my head.
My eyes snapped open and I stayed dazed for a few moments before everything rushed back to me at once.
Rin, Kenji, Kunikida, Atsushi... where are they!?
I stumbled to my feet and realized I was in fox form. My head felt like it was swimming as blurred images flashed through my mind, causing a slight delay in transitioning from fox to human form. I shook my head and lifted a hand to my face only to freeze. There was blood coating my hand and arm, the metallic stench finally reaching my nose. I looked down at the rest of my body and inhaled sharply. My clothes were stained entirely with blood, and upon closer inspection, my left arm was bent at an odd angle, signifying it had been broken.
A noise from a few feet away caught my attention and I looked up, noticing the group of people from before that had caused this. The blonde one with the vine ability was literally being held up by the black haired man I had seen before the fighting started. He looked like he was in terrible shape, bloody, claw shaped gashes and even teeth marks marred his skin and I stood in shock, knowing I had done that.
"Where are Mr. Poe, Ms. Alcott and Ms. Shelley?"
A masculine voice spoke and spotted a man in their group who looked like a priest or something similar.
The one woman among them answered his question. "They're afraid of heights, so they stayed behind... Though they'd be better off dead. Especially that stupid girl Mary. She's practically useless."
I watched them as they looked around, a couple of them having small injuries that appeared to be inflicted by me. The woman appeared to be the only one unscathed which was odd, unless the males around her had kept her safe...?
The woman turned to look back at the chaos they had caused and spotted me standing, an icy look filling her face.
"It's not dead."
The rest of them turned to look where she was and we all stayed, staring at each other. I didn't move, I wasn't sure if I would even be able to fight them with my arm broken and God only knows what else was wrong with me that I hadn't noticed yet.
"I've got her."
The blonde spoke, causing me to tilt my head and speak before thinking.
"How do you plan to do that when you look like utter shit?"
Rage filled his expression as he stared at me, it looks could kill... I'd most likely be six feet under.
I watched him reach into his pocket and pull seeds out, sticking them into one of the many gashes on his body. His arms, legs, and neck suddenly had what looked like large vines crawling under his skin. I cringed at the disgusting sight before my ears picked up a sound from beneath me.
What the....
The ground beneath me exploded and vines shot out. I choked back a gasp and forced my aching body to transform into my smaller fox form. It would be harder for him to hit a smaller target this way, so I ran between the bodies of all the dead mafia agents and towards him and the rest of the Guild members as fast as I could, my arm screaming at me to stop.
I reached them, leaping into the air and transforming back to my human form. The blonde's eyes shot wide open and he spoke, "Shit..."
I balled my right fist up and then decked him in the face, feeling his nose crunch under the impact of my hand. Blood spurted from his face and everyone stayed silent until the woman scoffed in disgust and lifted her arm, making me transform back to my small fox form and then run as fast as I could away from them.
I ran until I couldn't anymore, collapsing on the sidewalk with a loud whine.
"Miss Kotori!?"
I looked up slowly, panting hard. Sherlock's concerned face came into view and I pushed myself to get up, whimpering the entire time.
"Miss Kotori you shouldn't be moving! You're injured severely!"
I shook my head and pushed myself even harder, beginning to trot back in the direction of everyone. Sherlock followed after me and when we finally got there a while later, I moved directly towards Atsushi and collapsed next him.
"Oh my god... I need to call Dazai!"
I watched Sherlock as he did in fact call Dazai, not allowing myself to give in to my exhaustion until I actually saw Dazai running towards us. Only then did I shut my eyes and give in to the darkness.