Kitsune Vows Ch. 04

I stood there for a moment, shocked and confused.

"Why, Kagero? What's going on?" I asked.

"They've found me again! They're coming here for me... many of them!" she replied.

"Who?!" I exclaimed.

"Exorcists! Demon slayers. I can feel their presence coming even now, especially the head of the slayers! These people are the ones that I spoke about to you earlier that would demand my life! They must have been nearby and have been alerted that I have found a mate by our wedding blessing. And it's too dangerous for you to be seen with me. They are a ruthless family of slayers that have been hunting and slaughtering my kind and our allies for hundreds of years. They've also hunted, tortured and killed most of my sons and daughters as well for generations; until we are all but extinct thanks to them, and now they have come for me! They will kill me and will not hesitate to kill anyone who is accompanying me; so you must escape from here... and quickly before they find out about us!"

Kagero then hurriedly reached down and grabbed the keys on the floatation fob I had left on the ground where our clothes were, then quickly handed them to me, panic visibly showing in her eyes.

"I promise if I get the chance I will tell you more about this later, but now is not the time... we are both in great danger! Follow this stream back to the lake and the main park, from there you can reach your vehicle. I will try to lead them away and contact you as soon as you are able to reach safety... GO, NOW!"

And with that, there was another bright flash. It faded just in time for me to see a large fox running quickly away into the woods. The table and bath equipment were also gone, seemingly vanished into thin air.

'GO!' I heard Kagero say telepathically.

Seeing how urgently the fox had vacated the area, I followed suit and ran down the stream away from the area of the hot spring. By the time I had reached the end of the stream and the lake, the sun was already setting and I was pretty tired. That had to be the fastest mile that I've ever run in my life, and I still had some distance to go before I reached my car.

After a short break, I continued running through the rest area... passing the volleyball court and cutting through the playground equipment that was there within the area where Aisha and the others had lunch with me the day before. After another 5-7 minutes of strained running I had reached my car. but just as I had unlocked the door and entered my car, seven to eight other cars were pulling into the rest area parking lot. I was beginning to feel anxious as a few of them turned on their headlights and moved to block my car from leaving the parking space.

Too late, I wasn't fast enough....

The car at the rear of the others had swung around the group and positioned itself to face my driver side door and turned on its bright headlights. After about a minute three men approached my car door, all of them wearing black suits and sunglasses. The two outside men were fairly large and appeared about my height and build. The one in the middle was a smaller stature and build, plus he had a sleazy appearance on him... donning a hilarious looking pair of sunglasses... and complete with a Bucktooth grin with a mean overbite!. If all creatures in the world could be described by their eyes, his eyes and face would scream 'Weasel'...

"Get out." The smaller one in the middle barked.

"What?" I asked.

The smaller one then impatiently rushed toward my driver's door and threw it open. "I said 'Get out', you stupid gaijin!" He then grabbed me by the collar of my T-shirt, with his left hand, and struck me on my jaw with his fist on the right hand. Only then he had realized his mistake when he pulled me from out of the car... just to find out that as I brought myself to full height, I was a full head taller than him! And with my mechanic's strength and build... I wasn't exactly a pushover, either!

But from the moment he struck me, my eyes went from a confused look, to complete rage! And I knew that as soon as he now saw the fire in my eyes looking down on him and felt the muscles tensing under my shirt on my chest, he knew I was about to completely wreck him...

My so-called assailant's face then went pale when he realized his situation. He must've felt like a rabbit that had just stupidly slapped a bear! He immediately let go of my shirt and was slowly backing away... but it was too late. I was already fixing my fierce gaze on him, mayhem on my mind...

"Gaijin, huh? Well asshole... If you wanted my attention, you've now GOT IT!"

I then immediately rushed forward with blinding speed and instantly closed the distance to him, grabbing his suit jacket with my left hand. I was about to deliver a killer right to his face in an attempt to knock a hole through it... before his two bodyguards caught me. While I was the strongest of us, they restricted me long enough for the little weasel to escape my grasp momentarily until I shook them both off.

As I discarded my momentary distractions, I noticed that the little weasel running towards the front of a van that was parked with his entourage and quickly gave pursuit... angrily determined to even up the score...

...But I should have remembered the old saying: 'If you needlessly throw yourselves at the enemy, you needn't fear the outcome of 100 battles...' Because as soon as I rounded the front corner of the van, I stopped in my tracks as I was now facing eight more other guys, all armed with silver swords, miniature crossbows and guns. And then to make things worse, they had vicious hunting dogs with them!

Ok, I'm hemmed up right about now... all alone in another country and now facing a bunch of armed guys who look like they might be Yakuza... and they look none too happy with me about how I shook off their friends just now to come after the third one... I think i really stepped into it this time...

And behind all the people who had weapons was the little weasel, cackling a stupid laugh.

"Checkmate, gaijin! You really should've seen this coming... " he sneered.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the cowardly chicken runs away and hides the moment the eagle comes to get him..." I retorted.

"Better watch your mouth; You're in my world now, gaijin... not your world. A stupid foreigner like you should have better manners when he's a guest in a foreign country! I think maybe I'll let you off with just taking one of your fingers for insulting me..."

"Don't you mean 'for making you run like a chicken that was about to be plucked' just now?" I responded disdainfully.

Now this probably wasn't the smartest thing to say in my position, as it only further insulted and infuriated the weasel. The look of anger spread up on his face and he now looked insanely angry. " Get this gaijin! Bring me TWO of his fingers... And if you have to mark his pretty face in the process, so be it!"

"You'll do no such thing!..." A voice boomed from behind them all. "... at least, not until ordered to do it! Now stand down immediately, all of you!"

I turned around to find that the voice was coming from an elderly man who I didn't recognize as he approached with another person beside him. He appeared to be wearing a shrine priest's robes complete with the hat.

The men surrounding the coward immediately stowed their weapons as soon as the priest came in to view. So evidently he was the one in charge, but I didn't want to assume anything seeing that I had just met him.

However, I did recognize the other person beside him...

"Toshio?!" I exclaimed.

Wearing an outfit similar to the old man's, Toshio acknowledged my presence, but remained silent.

"Kinjo, I gave you no permission to lay yours hands on an innocent bystander! At this point, his involvement in anything has not been proven. you're acting disgracefully, and have brought shame upon yourself!

The one known as Kinjo look down in shame for a moment, and turn to leave and join the others. But as he walked away, he shot an angry look in my direction that let me know that this was not over between me and him...

...and I couldn't have agreed more with that sentiment, we were definitely going to have this dance again one day before I left Japan...

The old man then turned to look at me. "And as for you young man, what are you doing here at such a late hour of the day by yourself?"

I had remembered Kagero's warning about who these people possibly were, and what they would probably do to me... So I knew that had to make up an excuse that excluded kagero, and I had to do it quick...

"I had visited this place earlier yesterday with Toshio and a few others while I'm traveling through Japan. I wanted to come back and take a picture of it when all of the sudden it started raining! I was totally shocked because the sun was shining with no clouds in the sky! I ended up getting trapped around the playground equipment until it finished raining."

Luckily, my clothes were still a little damp, because the older gentleman came forward and felt my clothes to see if I was telling the truth. After doing so and confirming my excuse, he seemed satisfied... but only partially.

"And why are you doing out here at this late hour of the evening?"

"Well, earlier today I was feeling sick and was resting in my hotel room, but I got to feeling restless, and I realized that I didn't take pictures of this place. I felt like this Scenery would make a good screensaver background on my computer screens, and since I'm going to be leaving soon, I came back to take some pictures. But as I was scouting for the perfect angle, that's when the rain hit. Do you guys often get sudden storms like that? Man, I've heard of clouds without water... But rain without clouds?! That's something new on me..." I had intentionally began to ramble on like a chatterbox, in hopes of diminishing their interest in why I was in the location at that moment... and Trying to hopefully influence them to just send me on my way..

"Enough!..." The old man finally said. "... We have no time for idle chitchat! If you are nothing more than a traveling sightseer, then be gone! We have important business in this area and are on the hunt for a dangerous creature, the likes of which you have never seen before. And our business doesn't involve you! I do not have the time or patience to teach an infant gaijin like you how to breathe! So If you're not in league with the creature we hunt, then leave... or stay at your own peril!"

"Hey!..." I replied. "...there's no need to be rude! You asked me why I was here, and I was explaining why! But that's no reason to..."

I was cut short mid sentence as the old man had reached inside of his robe and pulled out a strip of paper with writing on it from inside as he did so while keeping his focus on me. I felt a weird feeling, like the air itself was being electrified.

The old man then began to walk towards me, but Toshio stepped in the way, blocking him. "No grandfather, I know him. Demarco is really a good person, he is just new here, and doesn't know what's going on. There's no need to resort to that, I assure you..." Toshio then looked at me. "... besides, he was just leaving, right?" Toshio was evidently suggesting that I should leave immediately.

"And so I was." I answered. And started to walk away to my car.

Wait", the old man said. "Search that car. Make sure that no one else is inside of it besides him.... Check the trunk as well!"

Then they spent five minutes looking around my vehicle to make sure that no one was hidden inside of it. After ensuring that I was alone in the vehicle they were letting me go on my way while their hunting party moved into the nearby woods. But four of them stayed as the old man continued to look at me sternly and had a final warning for me....

"We will let you go for now, but only because we do not have any proof that you are aligned with the beast we are hunting. However, be warned... if we find any evidence to the contrary, you will be seeing us again. And the next meeting will not be pleasant as this one. Know that for hundreds of years our clan has sworn to do everything in our power to eradicate this monster and her brood from the face of the Earth, we also will do nothing less to their allies that assist them. So do not think that just because you go elsewhere that we cannot find you... and pray we are not forced to have this conversation again."

"First of all, who the hell do you think you are?!" I asked. "You have no right to..." I was interrupted in the middle of my argument by the sounds of weapons being cocked behind me.

"Your mistake young gaijin, is thinking that you're still in America! And if you still don't realize what situation you're facing, I'll tell you. Right now you're all alone and a very long distance from your home. and in fact, you're deep within hostile enemy territory at this moment! Know that you are in no position to argue with us and can be made to disappear very easily in this country, with minimal effort and risk to us. Consider it a privilege even that that I am actually willing to let you leave for now unscathed at the behest of my grandson! Now I'm going to say one last time, 'Be Gone'! I won't say it a third time...

At this moment I was completely enraged and furious by being treated like that. This guy definitely needed to be taught a lesson, and I was considering whether it would have been worth throwing my life away to just leap forward and deliver a right cross to the old man's face...

'Don't do it!' A voice whispered.

I was shocked for a moment, but I kept my composure so I could maintain my poker-face

'Kagero?' I thought in my head.

'Don't try to fight with them, my husband... I can see the evil intentions of their hearts! They will not hesitate to kill, in fact the old one is the most dangerous one of them all, even though he is unarmed! They are all hoping that you will give them an excuse to detain and kill you! You cannot win against them, especially when you are unarmed!

Though I was very angry, I knew Kagero was right. Four men behind me, at least two of them were armed; and I only had my mitts to fight with... it'd be suicidal to get into a fight now. Not to mention that the old man was giving off some weird vibes that made my hair stand on end. There's nothing good about this situation, I'd better kick rocks while I can...

'I have finally finished making a big false trail for their dogs to follow.' Kagero continued telepathically. 'It will take them some time to figure out what is going on, but if they follow the trail back to the hot springs and find out that you were there, I'm sure they'll be looking for you later. It's best to get as far away as possible from here and reach safety. Get away from them quickly while you can! I will meet you a few minutes up the road...'

I gave the old man one last glare, the turned back to the rental car. The vehicles blocking me were removed to allow me to leave, and I did so without further incident... besides gritting my teeth in anger from my mistreatment.

As I travel down the road, I approached a bridge over a small river. Suddenly I heard Kagero speak to me telepathically again:

'There is a curvy winding road coming up, then in about five miles you'll have to cross a bridge. I will meet you there on the far end.'

'Okay,' I answered in my head. 'But if you're waiting, get into the car quickly... knowing how rude these bastards are and how little they trust me, they're probably following me right now...'

'They ARE, in fact two of them are in a car following you only about 30 seconds behind with their lights off.'

I looked into my rear view mirror and noticed a faint outline of a car following me in the darkness from a distance with no visible lights... Kagero was right! Sneaky bastards...

'At the next curve, speed up to twice the speed for about a minute or two to gain a few seconds distance so that they don't realize it until after they reach the curves, then slow the car on the end of the bridge after you cross the river and pull over briefly. Our timing must be precise to avoid arousing their suspicions, but if we are successful they will never realize that you had stopped.'

Following Kagero's instructions, the moment I went around the first curve and was out of sight of my unwanted tail, I floored the accelerator and was gone! It's a good thing that I knew about driving fast because the winding road was tough to navigate at high speed. I was doing about 90mph when I saw the road sign for the upcoming bridge and slowed down to make my quick extraction on the opposite end.

As I approached the end of the bridge guard rails, Kagero quickly appeared from behind the embankment and stood by the road. As soon as I slowed down enough to allow her to enter, I immediately unlocked the doors and Kagero quickly jumped into the backseat of the car and shut the door. I then proceeded to speed up the car back to the posted speed limit.

'That went well...' I said.

'Yes, but it was not without recompense...' Kagero answered. '...I can sense the two men who are following us are now angry that they had lost sight of us. I feel them closing in on us and they possibly have the idea of pulling us over and stopping us...'

"Then stay down and hidden back there in the seat, Kagero..." I said. "...We don't want to let them know that there's now two people in our car when there should only be one..."

And no sooner than I had said that, the car that was following us in the dark had came back into view. It was still a good distance away, but it was rapidly moving to close the distance... and still traveling with its lights out.

My heart was beginning to race as our pursuers closed the distance to where they were almost to my rear bumper of my car. It was pretty much evident that they were angry at being given the slip for a moment and they were intending to make me pay for that. As I contemplated my own options for what to do about the situation, I heard Kagero's voice:

'Just drive normally, all will be well...'

"What?" I asked.

"Trust me.." she added.

Though I was hesitant about the situation, I recognized that Kagero might know something that I didn't and continued to drive down the road with our pursuers following dangerously close.

After about a mile more, suddenly flashing blue lights appeared behind our pursuers who were still following us too closely with their lights out. Like a blessing or an insane stroke of luck, we had passed a police patrol car that just happened to be waiting on the side of the road. They witnessed our pursuer following our car dangerously close with no lights and decided to intervene! The pursuers attempted to continue following us since I didn't pull over, until the policeman called out on the loudspeaker for them to stop their car immediately.

Looking in the rear view mirror once again and through the flashing lights I could now see the faces of our pursuers, one of them appeared to be Kinjo, the little creep who punched me earlier. They both looked none too happy about being pulled over, but after what Kinjo had done to me earlier I sure as hell didn't feel guilty or any sympathy about it! In fact I was all too happy to chalk it up to karma and wave 'bye-bye' to them as I disappeared down the road and into the night... while they sorted out their own mess with the local authorities! (Ha ha ha, JUSTICE!)

I continued on my drive, making no stops until I reached my hotel. Kagero continued to lay down in the backseat until I entered the hotel underground parking lot And parked the car. As I turned the car off, she sat up and we both kissed each other across the seat.

The kiss lasted for a few moments, then we broke it to speak of a plan.

"Ok, the hotel knows that I have checked in alone. They may not mind if I have a guest; but considering those assholes might be looking for us, they're the ones that I'm worried about. I don't want them to be able to confirm that you're with me if they locate me. If they learn that we're together, then I'll be the easiest way for them to get to you. This day and age I know that it'd be too easy to find my location if they have someone watching the car rental office or if one of them works there..."