Steel Trim

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 19

John strode into the blacksmith's shop, a bell ringing as the door swung open. Yuki and Yashiro were not far behind him, the former wearing an expression of dry amusement and the latter of moderate confusion. The rich smell of charcoal and flame hit him like a wall, and he breathed it deeply. He could barely pick out the scent of burnt metal underneath, and it was… familiar, almost comforting, as his own workshop sometimes smelled a bit like this, even if the aroma was a bit weaker.

T...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 18

It was weird, but John slept decently last night despite the armed men camping next door in his warehouse. Maybe it was because Yuki was downstairs, and they couldn't get to his room without sneaking both her and the motion detectors. It was clear that Yuki was willing to put herself at risk to make sure he lived after both fights yesterday with the Nameless, which was a strange feeling he didn't know how to deal with, to be sure… But, if he were on...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 17

Okada Yashiro was terrified but had to be strong for his men. The kitsune kneeled across from him, as did her mysterious Unbound companion, this "Lord John." What was he to her? He looked a lot like some descriptions of that mysterious foreigner that traders and a few priests kept insisting they saw spying on them when they passed nearby—but he entirely lacked the discomforting Presence they all insisted he had. Really, he felt more like the kitsune herself, erasing any of his doubts of her...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 16

Yuki jumped onto the walls and John scrambled up behind her onto the side closest to the road. Thankfully, she found Aiki and Haru on the way over, and they were hunkering down in their "room" right now. She glanced over to John. His heartbeat was pounding as fear threatened to strike him down, but he managed to keep his expression under control, burying his panic under an exterior that looked almost cool and collected if you couldn't smell his stress sweat.

All of this probably isn't g...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 15

John took a deep breath before knocking on the door to the bath. "Yuki, I have some clothes for you when you're ready," he called, "If you're not, I'll leave it folded by the door.”

He heard the kitsune rise out of the tub, water pouring off her, before stepping out. "There's no rush!" he hurriedly added, but a moment later, he felt the warmth of Yuki's Presence crash into him, bright light and warmth pouring through the paper door. It was intense, even through it, and he looked away ...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 14

John pushed the door open, and Yuki slowly walked in not too long after him, still looking as exhausted as ever. "This way," he said, guiding her toward the main building after he closed and barred the gate. All at once, the tension left his shoulders, and he breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe. No ambushes. No surprise spiders. "Hey, Yuki?" he asked, and she flicked an ear in response, "Smell anything wrong?"

Raising her muzzle, she sniffed the air before shaking her head. "I'm n...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 13

Yuki bowled the creature over like a raging bull, smashing it into a nearby tree hard enough to splinter bark and wood alike. It was knocked onto its back, underside sizzling lightly in the sunlight filtering through the canopy, and the kitsune pounced on it as it was trying to right itself.

He didn't have a clear shot. "Yuki!" he called, stumbling over his words momentarily as he tried to remember the native tongue, "Heat!" She ignored his call, but he swore he saw an ear flick.

...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 12

Weirdly enough, it turned out that kappa were a lot more friendly when you told them that you'd come to deal with their forest's demonic spider infestation. Strangely, he still hadn't told them his name, but Yuki seemed unbothered, so he didn't push it. Maybe it was a yokai thing.

"Thank you for your aid," Yuki said, glancing down toward the turtle in the water.

"Don't get much tribute when there's a bunch of spiders mucking things up, do I?" the kappa said, shrugging, strolling n...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 11

"Weapons, check. Warding, check. Supplies, check," John mumbled, checking over the contents of his bags as he geared up in his foyer, stuffing away the modified motion detectors he retrieved from his shop.

"It's not that big of a rush, John," Yuki said, shaking her head, "It takes much wealth for a hive to start producing Greater Nameless."

He grimaced, slowly turning to the kitsune. "Where do you think I got all this paper from, Yuki?" he wrote, "I certainly haven't been trading ...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 10

Needless to say, his kitchen was pretty different. It was pretty funny to show Yuki an induction element and watch her look of sheer bafflement as the water heated up with no open flame involved. He even encouraged her to touch the active surface before he placed the pot on it and left some ice on it next to the pot, but not quite touching, to show off how it was entirely unaffected. Of course, this launched a whole new barrage of questions, given she didn't sense any fire aspected magic in p...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 9

John felt pretty good about himself. Despite the terrifying situation, he and Yuki managed to defuse it without any bloodshed! Granted, it was mostly on her; he just mean mugged a bit, but was glad it all worked out. It was lucky John had decided to keep something a bit more visible and intimidating loaded after yesterday, even if he still needed a better non-lethal option. Sure, he could try to under-power Lightning B04, but the physics just didn't work out.

The amount of power require...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 8

Yuki really should ask John more about his capabilities once they were back at the fort.

Silence hung over the road, thick enough to be cut with a knife, and Yuki caught the edge of a few shrill screams and scrambling feet from several streets  over. How annoying. Still, she wasn't worried; this… undead was probably the extent of their local might. Yuki doubted they'd be deploying an asset likely to cause unrest amongst the townsfolk with its grotesque appearance if they had an U...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 7

The following morning was better. Still, having two strangers and an almost stranger on his land while he slept wasn't ideal, but he eventually managed to pass out, given it was Yuki downstairs. He had already well established that if she were going to pull anything, she would have done so long ago. Besides, it was hard to picture someone who worried over two strangers like a mother hen doing anything too drastic, and he was confident that the other two would trigger the hidden detec...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 6

"Well, the rats have finally run out of breath. I'm sure that if you managed to keep running for a few more minutes, you definitely would have lost us," gloated the cruel man before bellowing with laughter, smacking an iron-armoured gauntlet against his leg like it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard in his life.

Aiki tore his eyes from the towering kitsune and mysterious figure silently staring down at them to face their pursuers. In the time they wasted, the half-...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 5

By the time evening rolled around, John had crammed a good portion of a notebook full of symbols with approximated pronunciations underneath, and Yuki had a chunky primer of impromptu math and physics homework, given how much of his explanations were flying over her head.

Needless to say, they both needed a break.

Still, he had to wonder: was the local math just not advanced enough to have an equivalent to calculus? Then again, Yuki had been imprisoned for who knew how many years;...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune: Ch. 4

Under Yuki's golden gaze, even as outwardly harmless and mischievous as it felt at that moment, John was like a rat caught in a trap. The towering kitsune stood there and awaited his response, smiling serenely and wrapped in a dimming halo of warm sunlight that hugged her form like silk as it soaked into her like rain upon dry earth.

She knew his secret, but wild animal panic did not take him, no matter how hard it tried. Why? He felt it rising, but it tapered off whenever it seemed lik...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune: Ch. 3

Thankfully, the rest of the night passed without incident. It was easy to rig up extra detectors and pair them to the spare crystalline lights on his alarm tablet. Whenever he crept over to check on his guest, Yuki was either meditating or sleeping, and he refrained from disturbing her. Thankfully, she placed the plates by the door for him to take when she was done so he didn't have to step into the room.

John had even managed to get a few hours of sleep! Not as much as he should have, ...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune: Ch. 2

John froze when he saw her imposing figure through the open gate, towering over him with a malicious-looking toothy grin. The angle before made it hard to notice, but she must have had a foot and a half, or maybe even two, on him, and the kitsune was so close she could reach out and touch him even without lunging. His attacker would already be upon him by the time he could bring his gauntlet up to defend himself, and his muscles tensed, prepared to fight for his life. He still had a trick or ...

Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune: Ch. 1

Today marked five years since John Hall had found himself in this world, the realization etching a frown on his face as he withdrew a pencil-thin file from the shard of gray crystal he was working on. Five years of being shunned by the locals. Five years of lingering on the edge of society like a spectre. Five years since he was stolen away, a week after he finally got his dream job as an industrial engineer.

Well, that ruined his mood fast. It was probably best to stop for now lest he ...