Having won the battle, captured the human team behind the attack, and freed the remaining Bigfoots, Tsukune, Moka, Kurumu, Mizore, Ruby, Kokoa, Kouta and Ling-Ling set up camp in an old storehouse in the village. The elder took care of their traitor and Moka and Ling-Ling went back to the plane and sent a sitrep back to Fong-Fong in Hong Kong. When they return, they find everybody but Kokoa already asleep. After talking for a few minutes, Ling-Ling goes outside on night watch duty (since she does not need to sleep) and Kokoa tells Moka that she's going back to the plane to get some Sake and to not wait up for her. However, after Kokoa leaves the village she heads towards not the plane but instead towards the mountain bunker and the enemy. While she is spying on the base, Ko-chan reports to her that an army of monsters is heading to the enemy base. As she is about to leave to tell everyone else about everything, Kokoa is attacked and knocked off of the cliff. Managing to land on her feet, she lures in one of her attackers and sends her flying head first into the rock face as the other lands in front of and then slowly approaches her. [*1]


Chapter 12: Kokoa's Battles

At the Bottom of the Ridge

March 6, 2017

"So, you recognize what I am and it seems like you have some history with my species. Then what would you like me to use to kill you with, my teeth, my claws, or my scorpion tail? I'll let you decide," the Manticore growled at her.

"Kokoa-sama!" shouts Kou-chan as he finds her again. "I'm-"

He then sees the creature.

"Holy crap a Manticore?" he shouts. "I'm ready to go mistress. Just give me the order, wee!"

"Stand down Kou-chan!" [*2]

"Yes mistress, right awa- What? Kokoa-sama what are you talking about?" he yells.

"Stay out of this Kou!" she shouted.

"This is… PERSONAL," Kokoa angrily growled in a low voice.

"This is going to be too easy," the Manticore boasted and then roared at her.

With that, he charged at Kokoa who just stood there. Then, he lunged at her. Just as he was about to claw her, she caught both of his paws with her hands and her youki exploded and enveloped her entire body in a red far deeper then any blood. When he quickly followed it up with trying to bite her head off, she tightly grabbed both of his paws and held tightly onto them while she quickly flipped her legs up…

SMASH!

…Sending both of her knees into the Manticore's chin…

CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

…Also twisting his forearms out of their elbow sockets. After she completed her flip, she…

SMASH! GWAUH!

…Sent him flying into the rock face next to his buddy with a monster throw.

He hits the rocks hard and flails around on them, roaring in anger and pain. Kokoa then slowly and calmly walks up to him with an unbelievably menacing aura all around her, stepping over the shattered remains of all three sets of his teeth. When she gets close to him, he tries to sting her with his scorpion tail, but Kokoa catches his tail between her hands, grips it tight enough that he can't get it free again, puts her right foot on his ass…

ROOOOOAAAAAR!

…She rips his tail right off of him. As she stands over him, looking at him with her red eyes, he knew he was done. She throws his tail down next to him, bends down, and…

SNAP!

…Twists his head backwards.

Standing back up, she quietly whispers to herself.

"One more payment for what you bastards did to me in Iran."

"Kokoa-sama!" yells Kou-chan. "You were great and all, but we have trouble, wee!"

"What is it now?" Kokoa calmly asked and then looked at Ko-chan with blood splatters on her face and Ko-chan goes white for a second before collecting himself again.

"Part of the monster army that I saw is here! Some of them are already attacking the human base over there."

Looking at the base, Kokoa saw that Ko-chan was right. The humans were under attack and getting slaughtered.

"That's one problem solved. Now let's get out of here Ko."

"Yes mistress, wee!"


2

The Arms Dealer's Bunker

"Casanova!" the major furiously bellowed as he stormed back into a now empty CNC room, except for Casanova. "What in the name of Lenin is going on here?"

Casanova just stood there smoking his cigar as he watches the chaos unfold around him on the security monitors with a smile on his face.

"Is something wrong, major?"

"My men are getting wiped out by a bunch of unknown 'creatures' and all you can do is just stand there and smoke your cigar?" the major screamed in his face.

"Please do not scream in my face Zhukov. It's very annoying."

"Y-y-y-you, bastard!" the major shouted before he grabbed Casanova's cigar out of his mouth and threw it onto the ground and he continued to rant. "Was all this your doing?"

"You stupid human," he said with a dark expression on his face and anger in his voice. "Do you have any idea how expensive Vintage Cuban Cigars are?"

"Stupid what?" the major asked, confused.

SLASH!

In an instant, Casanova slashes his hand across the major's stomach. Major Zhukov looks down and sees blood start to ooze out of the red line across his belly. As he staggers back, the top half of his body slides off of the lower half and…

SPLAT!

…Both of them fall to the ground as his blood and guts spills out onto the floor.

"I said that you were a stupid human you stupid human."

Casanova lit a new cigar and tossed the used match onto the mess that used to be the major.

"You dumb humans have now outlived your usefulness to both me and my organization."

He blew some smoke rings and then added one more thing.

"You were useful idiots though, or as my old mentor would say: 'Useful pawns."

"In any event, that was the last cigar you will ever ruin.

"Casanova then turned back to look at the map on the wall and puffed on his cigar.

"Now, as for you my little lone wolf; you may have defeated a pair of birds, but now I already have my hunting dogs tracking you down with my hunters following closely behind them. So, how long are you going to last? I wonder."


3

In the Woods near the Bunker

As Kokoa makes her way back to her tread, she suddenly gets a chill down her spine. Looking around but seeing nothing in the near pitch blackness of the woods, she tries sensing for any nearby unknown youki. She finds two of them.

"Come on out you two! I hate playing hide-and-seek!"

"…So you noticed us, huh?" a voice shouted back in the darkness. "Did you hear that little brother?"

"Sure did big brother," another voice coming from the other direction yells out as they start circling around her. "You think we should just kill her and be done with it or should we play with her for awhile first?"

"Since when do we let a girl go without playing with her first?"

"Good point, hahaha!"

"Kou-chan!" she calls.

"Yes mistress?"

"Fly back and warn everyone what's going on. I'll get back there as soon as I can."

"But mistress-"

"Now Kou!"

Sensing her resolve and knowing that she wouldn't change her mind, he gives up.

"Y-yes, mistress," Ko-chan replied and then quickly started flying back towards the village.

"Oh no you don't pip squeak!" one of the voices shouts as he quickly jumps from tree to tree to catch Kou-chan.

Just as he was about to catch him…

GUH!

…Kokoa catches him with a left hook in the middle of his stomach that knocks the wind out of him. She then quickly spins around to drop-kick him in the back and sends him straight down into the snow.

THUD!

"You fell for my little trap you cocky idiot! As if I would you or anyone else touch my Kou-buddy!"

Kokoa jumped down fast to give him another punch and drill him into the ground, but the other voice grabbed her right arm from the side and flung her back first into a tree…

GWAUH!

…Knocking the wind out of her.

"Romulus! Say something!" the second voice cried out as it rushed to the other's side.

"Shut up Remus!" he yelled between coughs. "Quit worrying about me and get that bitch!"

Hearing their names for the first time, Kokoa recognizes those names and stands up.

"Let me guess, you two are brother Werewolves. Am I right?"

"How the hell did you figure that out?" Remus shouted in surprise.

"Are you kidding me? 'Romulus and Remus,' the two wolves of Rome that are said to have raised the man that later built the city of Rome and founded the Roman Empire. So they are very popular names among Werewolves. I however, consider them to be very cliché, tacky, and downright dumb."

"Cliché…?"

"Tacky…?"

"Forget playing with you! We'll play with your bones after we tear you apart!"

"Die bitch!"

Sensing their movements in the still pitch blackness, Kokoa jumps up and out of the way. The two brothers then cut down the tree that she was just leaning next to a second ago.

"Where the hell is she?"

"I'm not sure where she is! I know that I smelled her over there where she hit you before, but now, I can smell her in several different places!"

"What is going on here?"

Listening to their frustration, Kokoa smiles to herself.

I knew if I took my coat and gear off and scattered them all around the place and rubbed up against some trees that their noses would get confused. I guess all that training I did with Gin is starting to pay off. I'm just glad that Ko-buddy made out of here safely. But since he's gone, it looks like I'll have to pull these bad boys out.

Kokoa silently took off her light field backpack, pulled out her weapons, and put them on her hands as she thought to herself.

These mutts don't have a Yuki'Onna's chance in hell now.


4

The Old Storehouse

"That little fool!" yells Moka as she quickly gets dressed. "She's gotten too good at lying. She even had me fooled."

"You can't blame yourself for this, Moka," Tsukune tells her as he also hurriedly gets ready to leave himself. "She's always been a wildcard."

"Which I knew from the start," Moka angrily replied before she started breaking down. "I should've been able to anticipate this. If anything happens to her, I… I don't know what I'd do."

"We're coming too," Ruby says, shaking as she tries to stand up.

"Like hell you are," Tsukune tells her. "You and Kurumu are staying here. You're both still too exhausted or injured to do anything. Just stay here, rest up, and protect Kouta and the village. The rest of us will help Kokoa, okay?"

Tsukune gives her one of his big reassuring smiles and she grudgingly agrees.

"…Okay… …Tsukune…" Ruby replies. "Just be careful out there, okay?"

"And bring that brat back," Kurumu adds.

"Will do," Tsukune answered.

After everyone had left the building and mounted the treads, Ruby sighed and asked Kurumu a question.

"How are you feeling now?"

"Better, it still hurts in places and my joints are still stiff as hell, but I'm getting better."

"Couldn't get enough of a recharge from him to get back to normal?"

"How could I? He was helping you out with those monkeys all afternoon. All the serious wounds are healed so I'm not about to drop dead or anything, but my body still feels weak."

"I guess it's up to me then," Ruby states as she digs through her backpack, pulls something out, and tries to stand up on her still shaky legs.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I need to boil these herbs to help relieve our fatigue, pain, and give us an energy boost so that we can be ready in case they need us," Ruby replied.

"I thought you already used up all the herbs you had treating the Bigfoot's injuries," Kurumu inquired.

"These are different types of herbs."

"C-can I help?" Kouta asks them as he crawls into their tent.

Thinking about it for a few seconds, Ruby then answers him.

"Can you do everything I tell you to?"

"Yes!" he eagerly answered.

"Then start boiling some water and I will teach you how to grind the herbs down so that we can use them."

"Okay!"

Kouta then ran to the fire to start boiling some water. Ruby leaned back and fell back into her sleeping bag.

"Still feeling a little weak yourself?" Kurumu asks.

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Call it a hunch. You did go a little overboard with the healing earlier."

"So I guess that makes both of us reckless fools, huh?" Ruby replied and they both tried to laugh before it started hurting too much to continue.

"Do you think that Kokoa bit off more then she could chew this time?" Ruby asked her.

"When has she not?"

"Good point."


5

The Woods near the Bunker

Standing up, Kokoa yells out loud.

"Hey fleabags…! Over here!"

"Now you're mine bitch!" Remus shouts as he lunges at her.

"It's a trap you idiot!" Romulus shouted after his little brother, but it was too late.

As soon as he got close enough, Kokoa ducks to avoid his paws and hit him with a right hook in the side of his chest that sounded like an explosion upon contact and with so much power behind it that he crashed through several trees before finally stopping. Romulus rushed over to his little brother's side.

"Remus…! Speak to me! Say something!"

"Is that it?" Kokoa asks as she slowly walks towards them. "I thought you two would've been stronger then this; how disappointing."

"How the hell were you able to do that to him? Who the hell are you?"

"These are my Raimei Kobushi, and I am Aono Kokoa, wife of Aono Tsukune, and the 4th daughter of the House of Shuzen!" [*3]

"Holy crap!" Romulus screamed. "You're The Barbarian Battle Queen?"

Kokoa pops a blood vessel before she replies.

"You know something, I really hate that title and you just made a big mistake by mentioning it!" she screamed at him.

Kokoa springs forward at them but Romulus quickly grabs his brother and jumps up and away using the trees as springboards to escape. As Kokoa chases after them, she realizes that somebody is shooting at her and takes cover just inside the tree line. Sneaking a peek, Kokoa sees that she is pinned down by a lot of enemy fire that was coming from a good distance beyond the tree line where she was.

"A bunch of small fries with rifles huh? It would be suicide for me to go out there now. But I still have to do what I can to keep them busy here and buy everyone else as much time as I can."

Kokoa crawls through the snow from her hiding spot for a short distance, gets up and runs deeper into the woods for a few minutes to lure them into a battlefield that would favor her more and render their range advantage useless.

"Range means nothing when the fighting is face-to-face," she said to herself. "The question is; how the hell did they know where I was anyway? That fleabag could not have made it all the way back to them that fast while carrying his brother, even if he had a full moon to work with. Do they have someone that can sense youki from that far away?"

"Yes, we do."

Kokoa quickly jumps to her left side, rolls a couple times, gets on her left knee behind a tree, and starts trying to sense for whoever it was that caught up to her so quickly.

"Over here," the male voice whispered.

Kokoa spins around after hearing the voice behind her, but sees nothing. She then tries to calm herself down.

What the hell's going on here? Kokoa thought. How is he doing this? Wait, wait, wait… I need to keep my head before I lose it. Calm down, breathe, focus, and sense for his youki.

"Look above you," she hears the whisper right above her head.

She lunges straight up, but again finds nothing and lands back on her feet. Now extremely pissed, she screams out to him.

"That's it you trickster bastard! I'm done playing games!"

Kokoa cups her hands together over-and-under and pours her youki into them as his voice continues to taunts her from every direction. She finally manages to locate his presence hiding behind some trees a short distance away, and aims in his direction.

"Kaze no Tsunami!" [*4]

Kokoa fires her technique in his direction, flattening the entire patch of woods in front of her in an attempt to hit her stalker. Then she senses her surroundings for and finds him again.

Did I hit him?

She cautiously starts walking towards him and then the woods light up as his own youki explodes around him and he rises up from the debris.

"How dare you… How dare you do this to me after we haven't seen each other after all these years, Shuzen Kokoa!" he yells in a low and angry voice at her.

"And who the hell are you?" Kokoa yells as she drops into her fighting stance.

"I'm your old friend, Toboso Atsushi," he says as he stands up.

"Who?" she asked, confused.

"Toboso Atsushi! Don't you remember me?" he asked in a hurt voice.

"Not really; should I?"

"After all the times we played together in your father's castle when we were kids? How could you forget me?"

"Oh yeah," she said.

"You remember?" he shouted in an excited voice.

"You were one of the other brats that I beat up sometimes after my Onee-sama left home and had a really lame name."

"At least she remembered me," he quietly says with tears streaming down his face and then clears his throat. "Anyway, I want you to come with me."

"Huh?" a now very confused Kokoa asks. "Shouldn't we be fighting to the death or something right now?"

"And why in the world would I want to do that? I already told my men to stay back while I deal with things here, so they will not be bothering us," he states as he walks towards her.

"Shuzen Kokoa, I want you to be my wife!" he declares.

"What?" Kokoa yells out in extreme confusion and disbelief.

"I've never forgotten the time we spent together with me looking up at you after you put your foot on my chest after having just defeated me. To this day I can still remember all the different types and colors of the panties that you wore back then."

Hearing what he just said, Kokoa starts popping one blood vessel after another.

Getting down on one knee in front of her, he continued.

"The only reason why I am even here was to search for you my dear. After Romulus told me that he had met you here, I knew that it was our destiny to be together."

Clasping her left hand in both of his hands, he then popped the question.

"Will you marry me?"

Controlling her anger as best as she could; she calmly asks him a question with trembling hands.

"Before I give you my answer, could you please tell me everything about your new friends and everything they plan on doing here?"

"Only if you say yes my dearest," he says and then kisses her hand.

Kokoa forced a smile and gave him some incentive.

"Tell me and I will give you a big fat one on your lips," she suggestively said.

"As you wish my love," he quickly agreed.

After he explained the plan in detail, he stood back up.

"That's everything I know. Now, you promised me a reward," he reminded her and puckered up.

"Close your eyes," she told him in a very sweet voice.

BAM!

Kokoa sends him flying with a big fat one right in the kisser and…

OOMPH!

…He flies back-first into a tree and drops to the ground.

"You hentai baka!" she screamed after him. "I already have the best and strongest husband in the world named Aono Tsukune and you're not him! You were a poor excuse for a vampire back then, and you still are now! My 9 year old son could beat your ass without half trying, you lousy trickster ventriloquist!"

"I was wondering what was taking so long," a new male voice said. "And I had such high hopes for you too, Toboso Atsushi."

The new figure slowly approached his injured Vampire follower.

"Boss!" a frightened Toboso Atsushi yelled from down on the ground.

"Oh well, I have plenty of followers that are more then willing to take your place."

"No boss, wait! I-I can explain!" he says as he gets up on his knees.

SLASH!

"I'll be sure to tell your family that you died honorably in battle," he casually says as he walks past Toboso Atsushi's body.

His body seemed to freeze in place as the stranger walked by. Then it tipped over and fell apart into thick slices of lifeless meat like a stack of steaks toppling over.

"Who and what are you?" Kokoa demanded as she readied herself for yet another fight.

"Allow me to introduce myself," he politely bows as he approaches her. "My name is Casanova. I am the leader here and would like you to join us."

"Kiss my ass bitch!" Kokoa answers him as she charges right at him.

"Who said you had to say yes to join?"


6

The Woods near the Bunker, Kokoa's last known location

Guided by Ko-chan the whole way there, Tsukune, Moka, Mizore and Ling-Ling arrived at the area where Ko-chan had left her and they immediately started searching for her.

"What the hell happened here?" Tsukune asks.

"This was definitely Kokoa's doing," Moka states. "She obviously used her Kaze no Tsunami."

"But she rarely uses that," Mizore comments.

"I know," Moka agrees. "That means whoever she was up against was either no weakling or seriously pissed her off. In any event, we need to find her and fast."

"Okay everyone," Tsukune begins to say. "We'll split up into two teams. Moka, you take Ling-Ling and I will take Mizore. That way we each have someone to sense for her. Let's go."

"What's the rush? Kokoa is just fine," a man's voice tells them from the shadows.

"Where's my sister? Show yourself you coward!" a worried and angry Moka shouts.

"As you wish, my dear," he replies. "But you're not going to like it."

The voice steps out of the shadows into the weak and spotty moonlight with Kokoa walking alongside him.

"Kokoa!" calls Moka.

"What the hell did you do to her you bastard?" Tsukune angrily yells at him.

"I'll show you," he answers Tsukune as an orange glow lit up his face, exhaled, and then calmly says a single word.

"Charm!"

To be continued…


Note #1: I was tempted to say "Fire Watch" instead, but that is pretty much just a U.S. Navy and Marine Corps term, so I did not.


Note #2: Stand Down – A general military term basically meaning to back down or out and do nothing.


Note #3: Raimei Kobushi or Thunder Fists – A pair of spiked gloves that was made by Ruby, Yukari, and Omote. They are used similarly to Rakurai. Raimei Kobushi transforms the user's youki into sonic shock-waves. They not only greatly enhance the user's physical hitting power by sending its shock-waves through whatever it hits (depending on how much youki the user puts into it), but it can also manipulate a small pocket of air pressure between them for a special technique. Unlike Rakurai, even if it had no youki to feed off of, Raimei Kobushi can still deal a lot of damage in the hands of a strong user that likes close combat.


Note #4: Kaze no Tsunami or Wind Tsunami – The special technique that Kokoa's Raimei Kobushi can perform. As the names implies, it is a tsunami of wind that originates from her gloves. It's like a big wind shotgun, meaning that it destroys everything in front of the user for a short distance. To use this technique, the user must cup the gloves over-and-under of each other, use their youki to suck in the surrounding air into the small barrier created between the gloves, charge the air with their youki, and open them in the other direction. However, it requires a moderate amount of youki to use and it takes a short time to charge up. If interrupted before fired, then the mass of energy will be split in half with each half being held in the palms of the gloves, kept in check by the small individual barriers in each of the gloves, and is maintained by the user's youki until they are either reunited and fired or punched into a target at half strength each.


If you have any questions regarding my story then please ask them all in the forum that I created on this site and not in the reviews. I would also appreciate it if everyone did not talk about potential spoilers or have back and forth discussions in their reviews as well. That is what the forum is for. Thank you.


Want to become one of my patrons and enjoy all the patron exclusive content available? Then subscribe to my patre0n page today! I go by same pen name there and have a link for it on my fictionpress profile page. See you there!