There was something about rice. Something about the smell of freshly cooked rice, or day-old rice, or scorched rice, or fried rice. Especially fried rice. Day-old rice in a ripping hot wok with egg and onions and just the right amount of seasoning carved a path straight through to the pleasure centres of the brain. Something so simple couldn't possibly be so divine.

In the Animal Realm, next door to Hell, where the only divine thing in sight had a target on her head from three different organised crime families, such sentiments were strange. In a place that survived by the skin of its teeth, held in place by a fragile, three-way balance between massive crime families, the idea of obsessing over food should’ve been ridiculous.

Toutetsu Yuuma whistled to herself softly as she coated the wok with oil. Food was Yuuma’s joy. Her nature, her greed, and her ability to devour just about anything made food something of an evolved joy to her. Perhaps it was because of that ability to experience so much more food and flavours than others that she'd come to appreciate certain cuisines over others. Fried rice was a simple joy that she’d never give up.

She stood at the burners, something sloppily rigged together by beasts who wouldn't know an electrical fire from a gas fire. Behind her, a whirlwind of activity took place. Knives flashed, blunt instruments swung, and a cacophony of noise rang out. Between the shouting and the crying, barely organised chaos reigned.

Yuuma ignored it all. Instead, she reached across the countertop, over the sliced vegetables, and pulled an egg from the supply box. Still whistling, she cracked it against the rim of the wok and dropped the yolk into the hot oil, relishing the resultant sizzle, even though she could barely hear it over the noise behind her.

A commanding shout cut through the room. Scowling, Yuuma looked over her shoulder at a tall, older beast roaring at a younger one who quailed under his superior’s gaze, his ears flattened against his head and his tail sinking low. Yuuma quickly spotted the problem; The fool hadn't cooked his sauce long enough. The pressure had gotten to him. That'd happen in a place like this; Keeping one's nerve was vital in the kitchen. Yuuma turned her eyes back to the wok and tossed the bowl of chopped shallots, chilli, and garlic in, stirring the slowly scrambling egg and the vegetables around in a motion that could only have come from years upon years of practice. As the sizzling continued, so too did the whistling.

Her shirt itched. Her feet itched in the stifling shoes she wore, and she felt like her horns itched too.

The Beast Metropolis was a technological haven amongst other things (though, she would assert, some areas were more advanced than others) which meant that the surveillance systems in the city necessitated disguises. Yuuma was the matriarch of the Gouyouku Alliance, so she had at her beck and call a whole host of eager eagles who would've been more than happy to assist her in her goals. Even so, Yuuma was a loner through and through. Very few people knew that Yuuma disguised herself in this fashion, and even fewer knew why. She suspected that if those eager eagles knew it was so she could sneak off, deep into the territory of the wolves of the Keiga family, and work in the kitchen of a restaurant she’d taken a liking to, then the Gouyouku Alliance just might lose some recruits.

She tossed the leftover rice from the previous day into the wok, quickly breaking what grains were still stuck together up. The rice had to be right. If there was still too much water in it, it’d clump together.

There was no real reason she couldn't have done this in her territory. Not a single restaurant in the Gouyouku Alliance's territory would turn her down, nor would they say anything but yes to her requests. But...therein lied the problem. There was no joy in being surrounded by a bunch of yes-men who'd have praised her cooking even if she'd burnt the rice to a crisp and forgotten to add any seasoning. That was the treatment she'd get in her own territory. Dull, tepid waters. No, she—

"Hey! Rakutsu! Where the fuck is the rice for table five!?" Yuuma scanned the countertop with a scowl. Working the kitchen meant getting yelled at, like she was still a minor grunt low in the organisation. "Save your daydreaming for later or you're cut! Get your shit together!" The chef was a hard-ass, the kind of guy who'd spent most of his life repressing all his anger and letting it build and build, and that had translated into an ornery personality that had harsh words and harsher threats on hand once he'd landed himself in the Animal Realm.

"Two minutes, chef!" Yuuma shouted back, using one hand to keep the rice from sticking to the wok. She looked over her shoulder in the meantime, noting which kitchen staff were lost in the weeds. That wolf there, panting tremendously – he’d be in for it if he didn’t get his act together soon. Yuuma turned back, keeping her nerves under control.

She shook the wok before the rice grains at the bottom could burn. Again, Yuuma found herself hating the shoes she wore. Her disguise wasn't much - Different, shabbier clothes, unadorned horns, eyes that didn't look so scary (or so she was told) and an overall worse sense of fashion, and she became near-unrecognisable. It helped that, as the loner she was, and as someone who spent a lot of time in Former Hell below Gensokyo rather than the Animal Realm, she was rarely seen by the denizens of the Beast Metropolis. Only the higher ups in the organisations would recognise her quickly. To most, she was just some poor spirit, trying to get by in a world dominated by the strong.

She threw heaps of seasonings into the wok and splashed sauce along the edges as she got to mixing everything in. The culmination of the fried rice was her favourite part. When all those seasonings and sauces mixed with the sizzling chilli, garlic, and shallots, the resultant aromas made all the bustling around in a packed kitchen and getting yelled at like she really was some nobody worthwhile. "Rice is ready!" She shouted across the kitchen.

Yuuma shaped the rice into a perfect dome on a plate and headed to the window for final checks. "Rice? Good, that's table four! We need two more portions. You've made enough, yes?" Yuuma opened her mouth as he finished talking, which, in the chef's books, was at least three seconds too slow, "Come on, I'm not talking just to hear myself! Get to it!" If she'd been the poor waif that she was pretending to be, she'd probably have stewed angrily about the treatment, despite being too weak to do anything about it. She found some simple pleasure in letting herself be bossed around like this. It was…nostalgic.

If Yuuma's lieutenants weren't so used to being left to manage the Alliance themselves, she probably wouldn't have been able to indulge in this behaviour. "Back to work, Rakutsu!" The chef shouted at her, making her snap to attention. "What if the higher ups walked in!?"

The higher ups being that dumb-as-rocks Saki Kurokoma and her weird three-tailed dog thing. In truth, Yuuma could (and, in fact, had) beat both up handily by herself, but bringing that up seemed a poor decision. She was thankfully spared from further shouting as a waitress shoved her way into the kitchen, shouting out a new order.

In the split-second that the door from the kitchen to the restaurant proper was swinging shut, Yuuma got a straight view through to the front doors. The place was the typical affair from the mainland, transposed into the Animal Realm – lots of red, lots of gold trim and detailing, and plenty of smoke from the various tobacco devices that nearly everyone in the restaurant seemed to be using. It was the perfect look for the Keiga family. To Yuuma and the Gouyouku Alliance, it seemed gaudy. Even Yuuma's infinite avarice wouldn't lead her to this sort of excess.

The view to the restaurant wasn't the important part. The important part was the customers. Usually it was a variety of slightly better off city dwellers who lived in the Keiga territory; Typically the kind who'd come into a little too much money a little too quickly and were looking to blow it all on whatever they thought of. Wolves, usually, but sometimes others.

Case in point: Right now, there was a tall man walking through the front doors, dressed in dark blue. It should've been nothing, but Yuuma froze. That was no wolf. That was no Keiga grunt at all. Not with those sharp eyes, and especially not with the way they scanned the room as if looking for prey. Oh, he could hide some of the animalistic features, but that, Yuuma knew, was an eagle. There was just something in the way he held himself - A sort of cavalier attitude which seemed to be permanently instilled in eagles. Yuuma knew, of course, that he was here for her. There could be no doubt about that. No eagle would be stupid enough to head this deep into Keiga territory without good reason. Whether Yuuma counted as good reason was up for debate. To him, maybe. As far as she was concerned, the eagle was an idiot.

A rough hand grabbed one of her horns in a gesture that nearly had her punch the chef in the face. "You can daydream after I've fired you for slacking off!" He roared in her ear, shoving her off in the direction of her station. It was a nice, if hollow threat. He'd never fire her. She cooked too well, and the wolf had no idea where she’d come from or where he’d find anyone half as good. If he fired her, he could say goodbye to his restaurant's reputation. As she stumbled past the other cooks, who were doing their best to not draw the chef's ire, she looked over her shoulder and froze a second time. The roar from the kitchen had not gone unheard, and in that split-second as the door swung shut, the eagle stood at the entrance had looked straight through.

Straight at her.

Caught out – That's what she was. Because, much as she'd love to pretend it was some grunt who'd gotten lost, she knew who that eagle was. And he knew her at the slightest glance. No, there’d be no playing dumb. He'd recognised her, and she had to deal with that before this delicate house of cards toppled down around her. Or escalated into an all-out war between the Keiga and the Gouyouku. Either was likely.

"Chef, I'm going on break!" She called loudly, ensuring the burners were off. Someone else could handle the rice. She didn't bother waiting for the chef's reply. For all his shouting, the wolf was reasonably perceptive. Not perceptive enough to realise that she was the head of an enemy organisation, but still. He'd shout, but someone would take over and the kitchen would keep on working.

Yuuma barged through the kitchen doors, through the break room, and into the hallway that led to the main floor. Just in time, too, as the eagle who'd spotted her was already hurrying in her direction. It was a busy restaurant tonight; The tables were full of wolves. They'd spot the stupid eagle's inability to hide his uppity attitude quickly, and that'd just lead to a whole oil ocean's worth of trouble that no one needed.

She intercepted him in the hallway. To her luck, they happened to meet right in front of the bathroom, and she wrapped a hand around the lapel of his suspiciously sharp jacket (did he think he was fooling anyone?) and shoved him inside immediately. She darted in and slammed the door shut, then hurled the eagle back into the door. She stomped closer and slammed a hand into his chest, forcing him to keep still. Since he was near double her height, it almost looked comical, but the implicit relationship between the boss and the subordinate kept him from taking it with anything less than complete seriousness.

Silence surrounded them, broken only by the dull ebb and flow of the restaurant beyond. "Right." Yuuma growled. "Right..."

"I'd recognise that voice anywhere." There was that tone - The slightly posh, slightly uppity voice of an eagle. "Lady Toutetsu...I've found you." Yuuma's eyes narrowed at the slight smile that graced his lips.

"Kaneki." Yuuma's voice failed to surpass a deep, rusty growl. "Care to tell me what a top lieutenant of the Gouyouku Alliance is doing in Keiga territory?"

Kaneki cocked his head. "What I'm doing? I could ask you the same thing, Lady Toutetsu. What's the reticent boss of our organisation doing here? And..." He seemed to take notice of her properly then. "...Apologies, but what in the name of sanity are you wearing?"

Far from her usual attire in its blue and red hues, Yuuma wore the slim clothes that a busy kitchen required. She’d pulled open her ragged chef’s jacket on her way through the break room, revealing the thin shirt underneath complete with a small patch indicating that she was affiliated with the Keiga Family, and her trousers had ragged hems that helped sell the ‘poor animal spirit’ aspect of the disguise. For a poor sheep spirit like that, being able to have a badge indicating affiliation would’ve been a mark of pride. She hadn’t worn clothes like that in a long time before coming here. Not since the city barely existed.

Even so, Kaneki couldn’t get away with saying that. "What I do in my own time is my business." Yuuma hissed. "I'm not beholden to you. Even if you think otherwise." Her top lieutenant did seem to feel a sense of...misplaced responsibility toward her, despite her lack of encouragement. Whenever she was in the Beast Metropolis, he was always looking to be near her. When she was away, she'd heard, he became strict, determined to keep things running perfectly for when she returned.

"I never suggested you were." Kaneki's reply held that tone again. "We of the Gouyoku all act on our own. But when you come back and then you immediately disappear, my job becomes to…find you." His icy blue eyes contained an exasperated edge to them that made Yuuma scoff. "I know you've done this before, Lady Toutetsu. You've done it a few times. You've been to restaurants all across the city."

He'd let loose one fact too many. "Oh?" Yuuma's eyes narrowed; her sharp teeth displayed themselves. "And how d’you know that?" She pressed a hand against his stomach (it was the closest thing she could reach without having to stretch her arm up awkwardly) and pinned him against the door. "I keep things very quiet. Have you been spying? Stalking? Kaneki, I didn't know you had it in you!" Her eyes pulsed, the thin veneer of magic preventing their real shape from coming out falling apart. Suddenly, Kaneki found himself pierced by those horizontal pupils. "Now, what should I do with you?"

Anyone else, and they'd probably have broken instantly, backing down without pause. Kaneki's eyes retained the signature eagle sharpness as he stared back. "Nothing, Lady Toutetsu. Not unless you want to explain to whoever replaces me why you...removed me."

A harsh growl escaped Yuuma's throat, but she remained still. Problem was...he was right. Oh, it wouldn't have mattered to the rank-and-file grunts in the organisation, but the other high-ups would have questions if she silenced her second in command, and that kind of in-fighting was what had led to the creation of the Gouyouku Alliance in the first place. All of the major factions in the city held on by showing the others that they were unified and controlled. Giving that idiot Kurokoma or that control freak Kicchou a hint that there was trouble in paradise (or the opposite of paradise) was asking for all-out war.

“…Fine. I know you eagles have your own…methods.” Members of the Gouyouku Alliance acted on their own, and the higher-ups often had their own information networks. A fact that made for headaches. Yuuma pulled her hand away and stomped across the room, crossing her arms. “Ensure that no one can…exploit it.”

Kaneki stalked toward her silently, coming close enough to force her to look up at him. “My channels are watertight. And silent. No one will know a thing. They exist for keeping an eye on things.” His unspoken words hung in the air.

"Things like if the boss is misbehaving." Yuuma finished darkly. "What do you think I am, huh? Your child? Your ward? I'm no one’s responsibility." Finding herself sick of him looming over her, Yuuma shoved him back; he stumbled into the stall doors. "Do I look like I need you checking up on me?" She stalked closer, her voice growing harsher. "You're my subordinate. You manage the place when I'm away. You don't spy on me. You don't follow me around like I'm a lost child." She let some more colour into her voice and was pleased to see Kaneki shrink back slightly. "You especially don't admit that you've been following me around for some time."

For a subordinate, Kaneki didn't behave like one. "Lady Toutetsu, you know as well as I that you can't keep this up forever. It's only a matter of time before the wrong person sees you, in the wrong place, at the wrong time." Suddenly it was Yuuma backing up as Kaneki pushed away from the stalls again and in her direction. There was actual anger in his expression now, like her actions were a personal slight. "You mean so much to us eagles. You’re our way-too-reliable boss. Even so, being here…”

Yuuma scoffed. His concern was overbearing. "I like you more when you're desperate for my approval. Why do I keep you around?" In truth, there was a good reason Yuuma kept Kaneki around. The desire to please her was strong in him, and she liked that, but he was...a looker. With his icy blue eyes, his tall, wiry physique, and his strikingly large wings when he felt like displaying them, he ticked a lot of boxes.

One box, he ticked more than others. This, she’d learnt thanks to a mishap of cosmic proportions. He'd happened into Yuuma's private rooms – The ones she rarely used at the top of the Gouyoku Alliance headquarters – as she'd been stepping out of her bathroom. Scrubbing off the bloodstains that came with working in the Blood Pools of Former Hell was no easy task. It sometimes took several sessions of lathering to get the grime off all the ridges of her horns. Thus, she'd not bothered getting dressed until she was finished. And in walked Kaneki, dustcloth in hand, ready to give the rooms that Yuuma rarely used a complete dust-off. He’d frozen, staring at her. For once, she'd broken that unflappable nature of his as he'd stared at her nude form.

But, pointedly, one part of him hadn’t frozen.

The encounter had taken on a certain lascivious undertone in their meetings since. Oh, Kaneki had apologised profusely and offered to gouge his eyes out in recompense, a gesture that made Yuuma laugh, but they both knew that something had tangibly shifted from that moment onward. It took hold of those moments between conversation; Those times between the turning away where Yuuma's eyes would slide across Kaneki's form, sticking just slightly in one spot. And she knew just as well that he did the same, his eyes tracing the contours of her body when he thought she wasn’t looking.

There were times where Yuuma leaned into it. Where she'd stretch just right so Kaneki could see through the gaps in her clothing. Where she'd position her legs to expose just slightly more thigh than usual. There was something in it that titillated her. She was supposed to be above her subordinates. But much like her when the chef was yelling at her, a unique pleasure came in going along with it.

"I know you can take care of yourself. You’re nigh-invincible. You come here because no one can fight back even if they do catch you, yes? But I—" Kaneki's words faltered as Yuuma growled and slammed a hand into the wall, pressing herself up against him and grabbing his collar so she could drag him down until they were nose-to-nose. "Ah - I - Lady Toutetsu—"

"I'm your leader, damn it! You worry about the subordinates below you, not me!" Yuuma's voice rusted, becoming harsher and throatier. "I come here when I want anonymity. I can pretend that I'm still the nobody I used to be! When the city barely existed and all I had was a shitty little hovel that I had to share with—" She forced herself to shut up. "…I'm not here to cause any problems. I'm here to cook. That's it. That's all." She dragged Kaneki closer. "Now, would you kindly fuck right off and let me..."

And at that moment, something changed.

While looking into his eyes, Yuuma suddenly became…aware. She'd pressed herself against his body to shout into his face, and...something had reacted. Something pressed against her with a burning heat that she could feel even through layers of clothing. Something that throbbed with blood so powerfully that it was practically audible. Slowly, Yuuma's lips, previously engaged in angry shouting, morphed into an 'O' shape.

"...If I told you, Lady Toutetsu, that this was just a coincidence, would you believe me?" Kaneki's voice was strained. Yuuma tried to shift, but it seemed to provide a tantalising bit of stimulation for Kaneki, and his eyes squeezed shut.

Yuuma eased back, her eyes falling from Kaneki's face to the front of his trousers where that thick bulge resided. She'd wondered ever since that initial incident just what he had hidden there. Usually, she clamped down on those thoughts. But sometimes, late at night, she let them fill her mind. Let the fantasies and thoughts cloud her brain until she found herself hot and panting, her thighs rubbing together and her face flushed. On rare occasions, it happened while she was bored, working in the Blood Pools. Chiyari had caught her once, daydreaming, drooling, and dripping wet, her hand grinding against her skirt. She'd not lived it down until she'd whacked the stupid lizard on the head a few times.

"...I don't think I would." Yuuma replied slowly, tearing her eyes away from the hefty bulge before her to look back up at the man sporting it. "So why don't you tell me what it actually is?"

The atmosphere grew thick with tension. Neither side made sudden movements. Yuuma slowly edged closer, and Kaneki's eyes followed her even as the rest of his body remained frozen, aside from what was surely painfully throbbing below. It’d been a long time. Yuuma had, in the past, taken what she wanted, when she wanted, and that had included men, but recently, she'd abstained. Held back. She suspected that the cause of her reticence had come in the form of nine tails and disapproving eyes. But now, in this situation...Toutetsu Yuuma found herself...interested.

"...You're beautiful, Lady Toutetsu." Kaneki's voice was measured and methodical. "And you were...pressed against me. Just now." Yuuma didn't care for this roundabout speech and fixed him with a stare that made it clear that his answer wasn’t good enough. He squeezed his eyes shut. "It's been a while." Yuuma tilted her head, and Kaneki broke. "…It's my cock, Lady Toutetsu."

"Is that right?" Yuuma's hand drifted forward, gently brushing against the bulge in Kaneki's trousers. She slid her fingers across the straining fabric, drawing a shiver from the eagle. "And what am I to do with that? Don't lie to me, Kaneki. I'll be upset."

With his body pressed against the stall and his eyes squeezed shut, Kaneki seemed a statue. Even so, the conflict in his mind was near audible. Finally, the icy blue of his eyes revealed themselves as he looked down at her. "Anything?" He asked.

"Anything isn't an answer." Yuuma murmured, tracing a pattern into his trousers. "Tell me your fantasies." She pressed her hand harder against his trousers, the heat of the prize underneath palpable. To her annoyance, the eagle still seemed reticent. Well, she was done with slow and steady. Growling, she grabbed his collar yet again and dragged him down to her height. "I want you to tell me the truth," she hissed, "and I always get what I want."

The tension boiled over; She kissed him. His mouth had been falling open as she'd done it; her lips crashed into his with near enough force to bruise. Yuuma yanked on his lapel, drawing him closer and holding him in place. She leaned into the kiss – Her lips soon became not enough; she pushed further, her tongue slipping out from between rows of jagged, sharp teeth to swipe across Kaneki's lips. He didn't last long, and like a switch had been flicked, he gave in.

He pushed his tongue out in return. His hot breath tickled her lips as his tongue slid across hers, the sensation almost foreign to Yuuma after so many years. He felt gentle; There was a softness in the way he kissed that belied his beast nature. Yuuma urged him forward, capturing him in a lustful lip-lock that sent tingles dancing across her spine as he fearlessly twisted his tongue into her mouth, with no heed toward the sharpness of her teeth. He was getting into the swing of things. His hands, once pressed firmly against the stall behind him, were suddenly on her. Far bigger and far needier, he groped at her body, his hands sliding across her back and against her neck.

Forcefully, he yanked her body into his. His hands pushed into the muscles of her back, hard enough to leave marks against her skin beneath her ruffled, sweaty shirt. He was all tongue - Overwhelming and electric, pushing into her mouth further and further without fear or hesitation. He tangled with her own tongue with an intensity that Yuuma doubted many could match, and his hot breath sent heat dancing across Yuuma's lips.

Yuuma fared little better. She hadn't realised, but she was needy. Pent-up, desperate, and above all, greedy. She set herself against him, pressing him back into the stall door roughly. Her chest, where a strong flame burnt, pressed into his trousers. She couldn't muster the focus to decide where to aim for next. All she could focus on was the hot and heavy feeling of him, and the saliva she was wetly consuming as her tongue twisted and writhed against his. She didn't think a kiss could be such a big deal, but the lust and greed that burnt between them made it so, and Yuuma couldn't stop a husky groan from escaping into his mouth as Kaneki's hand shifted against her neck, sending warm tingles across her nape that melded perfectly with the heat inside her.

Kaneki dragged his hands free, pushing Yuuma away just enough that he could reach the buttons of her shirt. He moved with intensity; There was nothing playful nor gentle about his movements. He needed to see her disrobed now, and Yuuma couldn't even think of stopping him as his hands dragged against her skin like trails of ice and fire, brushing up her navel and across her ribcage, against her chest and her hardening nipples. He reached her top button and undid it with lightning precision even as he continued to kiss her, unable to conceive of pulling away. Her burning hot body seemed to burn more with each button dragged loose, the flesh sweaty and clammy, yet tremendously sensitive.

The kiss finally broke, leaving them panting. Yuuma's mouth felt thick and full, a sensation that she hadn't felt for a long time. Kaneki's eyes blazed with unrestrained lust, which made her wonder just how he'd been restraining himself for so long. Yuuma’s greed drove her now. “Tell me what you want, Kaneki,” she murmured.

"I..." His rational mind made one last valiant attempt to reach him but fell short of clearing the tsunami of lust that consumed him. Instead, he threw caution to the wind and yanked at her shirt, ripping the thing open and scattering buttons across the bathroom floor. Yuuma's breath hitched as her skin was left exposed to the cool air, even as Kaneki's hot hands fell to her chest, brushing over her hard nipples and sending electricity rolling through her. She whined as he tweaked them, his rough touch delicious.

Yuuma wasn't going to be outdone, though, and she knew what she wanted right away. As soon as she had a chance, she pushed forward, back to the heat of Kaneki's crotch, and took hold of the waistband of his trousers. Her first attempt at pulling them down went astray as something blocked her movement. Growling, she yanked a second time and was rewarded with a shift as Kaneki's prick sprung free of its confines, slapping into his stomach wetly. It remained stiffly upright, throbbing and glistening in the harsh lights of the bathroom. That thick member looked just delectable to Yuuma, and before she could think, she’d leaned forward and planted a sloppy, saliva-filled kiss about the glistening, mushroom-shaped head of Kaneki's cock. The eagle himself groaned with need as her lips pressed against him, and with no access to her chest, his hands found themselves in her hair. He steered clear of her horns, thankfully, as Yuuma wouldn’t have reacted well if he’d grabbed them without permission. Even the head chef only got away with it because she didn’t want to destroy her cover.

The glistening liquid coating Kaneki's cock left a delectable salty taste upon Yuuma's lips as she licked them, and she decided that she wanted more. "Tell me, Kaneki, did you fantasize about this?" Her fingers formed a ring as she slid them down the turgid length of his cock, settling at the base as the eagle's legs tensed and flexed. Yuuma pressed her lips against the underside of Kaneki's prick again, relishing in the heat of it. It was so thick and heavy that it rested across Yuuma’s face, appealing to some degenerate part of her mind as his precum marked her. The slightest stimulation drew whining pants from the eagle, and as Yuuma let her head fall, trailing little kissing across his length, she felt his hands squeeze her hair.

"I-I did, Lady Toutetsu..." Kaneki's voice grew strained with each kiss Yuuma pressed on him. She worked her way down to the base, then began working back up again. "M-More than once."

Yuuma kissed the underside again. This time, she swiped her tongue out, running it across his skin. Hot, salty flavours courtesy of his precum competed with the heady taste of cock in her mouth. She trailed her tongue up from the base to the tip of his dick, where his almost-purple glans squeezed out another dollop of pre. Yuuma pushed her fingers up, encircling the cockhead in skin and making Kaneki whine again as she rolled the foreskin back down again. Across a swathe of rigid cock, her tongue travelled, tracing a path across the vascular vessels that networked a path up that heavy length. His shaft grew wetter and stickier at her ministrations, and she grew more and more excited.

"Tell me more." Yuuma murmured, her lips sounding out the words against his shaft. "What exactly?"

"Y-Your mouth..." Kaneki weakly murmured. "I wanted you t-to use your mouth..."

Use her mouth Yuuma did. She brought herself back up to the bulbous head, opening her lips and exhaling a hot breath against his tip. Before he could react, she enclosed him, lowering her head and drawing the tip of his prick into her hot, wet mouth. She swirled her tongue around the tip, taking care to keep her sharp teeth clear.

Kaneki was certainly manly, and she found that her mouth felt full all over with the head of his cock inside it. She laid her tongue flatly along the bottom of the head, against that tight band of skin that made him shiver weakly. Yuuma settled herself in front of him, the height difference between them working in her favour as she barely even needed to stoop to get to his cock. The salty taste of his precum faded as she drank it all up, leaving nothing but the velvety taste of his skin as she suckled him. "Lady Toutetsu, I - Deeper..."

Yuuma didn't need the encouragement. She pressed in, pushing herself deeper down his cockhead and onto the shaft itself, letting him settle deeper into her mouth. Her tongue swung around in a rolling sweep, from the underside across to the opposite side, tracing the veins on his length. Yuuma's breath came out in pants and she felt lightheaded, but breathing in through her nose only filled her lungs with the rich, intense scent of cock and made her feel even more drunk on lust.

She bobbed her head slightly, drawing her lips up to the edge of his cockhead before pushing them back down. Kaneki babbled above her. "A-Ah, you're so - Lady Toutetsu, your tongue - Fuck..." Sloppily, drooling all the while, Yuuma went down further, slurping at the length as her lips claimed more of his tasty cock. She pulled back shortly, playing with the head again before dropping right back down, pushing more and more of him into her mouth in a messy, thoroughly lewd act that made it abundantly clear that Yuuma was as horny as he was. All the while, Kaneki's stupidly stiff cock leaked more and more precum that Yuuma delighted in swallowing. The more she swallowed, the more the desire grew within her to push things further. "Amazing..." Kaneki huffed weakly.

Yuuma's eyes flicked up at his icy blue eyes, softened by the pleasure and lust coursing through him. She smiled slightly around the obstruction in her mouth, then redoubled her efforts and sunk deeper. She brough her head back up, then dropped it back down with intensity, pushing his oozing cockhead through into the back of her mouth, where it snugly settled. Her teeth, completely under control, very lightly scraped against his shaft.

She knew that Kaneki could see what she was planning, and he seemed nothing but excited by the idea. "L-Lady Toutetsu, I..." He mumbled, but fell silent as she raised an eyebrow at him. Deliberately, her eyes locked on his, she pushed her head forward, sliding his cock deeper still. His cockhead slipped forward, through the back of her mouth, and it reached the unparalleled tightness and heat of her throat. A lesser woman might have struggled, but Toutetsu Yuuma was a greed-filled beast who could devour anything. There was nothing her throat couldn’t handle. With no hesitation, she pushed on, relaxing her throat as it practically reshaped to hold the lucky eagle's cock. Slowly, she took him deeper.

And finally, she settled, her nose nestled in his tidy pubic hairs and his cock lodged firmly in her throat.

Though they lived in Hell (or near enough), the eagle was clearly in Heaven. He throbbed in her throat, pulsing with heat. Yuuma didn't cease her ministrations, rocking back and forth, her throat's contractions massaging and squeezing more pre from him. An odd desire overcame her, and she moved her fingers from where they’d been pressed against his legs. She reached up, finding his hands still buried in her hair. Very deliberately, she moved them to her horns. Kaneki's eyes widened, but as she forced his fingers to grip her tightly, he breathed out shakily. "Lady Toutetsu..." He husked, "y-you look so pretty like that."

He tugged on her horns lightly, testing out the boundaries. She shifted back, his cock teasing the entrance to her throat deliciously as he pulled. Once he’d confirmed that she wasn't going to bite his cock off for his actions, he pushed her horns firmly, drawing himself back from her throat until only the head remained in her mouth. Welcoming it, Yuuma did not resist as he roughly slammed back in, hilting himself deep in her throat again with a sloppy, wet groan from Yuuma as her insides clenched.

He got into the swing of things, using her horns as handles and forcefully fucking her mouth. Now that control had been taken from her, Yuuma found that she was burning. Between her legs was an incredible heat, and one she couldn’t even begin to deny. Hurriedly, she shoved a hand below the waistband of her trousers and her underwear, slipping it past her mound until she enclosed on a swollen bit of flesh. Tweaking her clit set off a rush of pleasure that rolled through her body and eliminated thought for a split-second, leaving only the messy, sloppy deepthroat for her to feel.

Once thought returned to her, she ventured further, finding that, unsurprisingly, she was soaked. Her questing fingers pushed onward, sliding between her folds and slipping into her soaked cunt, tight and hot and wet and just begging for something more substantial than a finger. She curled her finger inside, rubbing against her most sensitive spot and blanking her mind out again. She barely held off an orgasm there and then as she slid her finger back before pushing it deeper into her pussy.

And there she was, fingering herself while taking the cock of her subordinate down her throat in the bathroom of a restaurant deep in enemy territory.

What a life she led.

She didn't want to stop; She relished that feeling of her throat being crammed full of cock. The only thing she'd relish more is if he'd fill her throat with a delicious load of his cum. So, roughly fingering herself, and even though was no longer in control of the speed, Yuuma redoubled her efforts at suckling, licking, and teasing Kaneki into an eventual orgasm.

"Nngh...Just - Just a little more...Lady Toutetsu..." The eagle grunted. He was close, as if that wasn't evident in the way he throbbed tantalizingly. "Your throat feels so good..." He clutched her horns tighter and his pace sped up. He matched his thrusts with his yanking on Yuuma's horns. Drowning in lust, Yuuma sucked even harder.

And at that moment, Yuuma heard something. Cheering. Coming from outside the bathroom. She couldn't turn to look with her horns gripped so tightly, but she had a horrible, sneaking suspicion. This was Keiga territory, and those brawn-for-brains wolves were the rowdy type. Cheering meant one of two things: Either a waiter had made a spectacle in falling over, or...someone important had arrived. And in Keiga territory...

She had a horrible suspicion that Kurokoma Saki had just walked in.

Yuuma might not have cared if she was caught in Keiga territory on a normal day, but given the situation, she'd gladly skip it. And for as much of a stubborn hard-ass as the head chef was, he didn't deserve to have his kitchen implode in a brawl between the heads of two massive organisations, especially when one of them had just been sucking cock in the bathroom.

She'd have liked to make Kaneki aware of this little fact, but he was currently deaf and blind to all but the pleasures of her throat.

Just to make matters worse, her suspicions were soon confirmed. "Ah, shut your big fat mouths!" That was the annoying jumped-up horse's voice, though it was quickly drowned out by even more cheering. The wolves revelled in that behaviour. Yuuma told that voice whispering about how bad this was in the back of her head to button it so she could listen.

"Well, I can't fault your taste!" Kurokoma spoke loudly. "This here's the best restaurant in the city!" More cheering and whooping followed her words. It was a little hard for Yuuma to focus with her throat being so roughly fucked, but she tried her best. She even withdrew her fingers from her soaked cunt so she could pay attention. Still, Kaneki's panting, husky breaths, and weak moans were getting in the way. "Alright, you lot, back to your meals! I sure as hell ain't here so you can all stare at me!" A raucous wave of laughter followed her words, but things seemed to calm. Yuuma would've breathed a sigh of relief, but then she heard something else that left her frozen. "Hey, boss man!" Kurokoma again. "Where's the toilets?"

The toilets. Like the ones Yuuma was in right now.

Kaneki couldn't listen to her, and with him so close to a messy finish, the idea of pulling out was likely as foreign to him as Heaven was. But being caught by the matriarch of the Keiga Family was untenable, so Yuuma abruptly smacked Kaneki's hands from her horns. Before Kaneki could react, she pulled back, his cock sliding from her throat, across her tongue, past her teeth, and popping free of her mouth, leaving an obscenely lewd mixture of saliva and precum in Yuuma's mouth and all over her chin, where it dripped down onto her perfectly flat chest.

No time to escape. Especially when Kaneki's twitching and throbbing dick refused to abate. Yuuma dragged him forward and away from the stall door, threw said door open, shoved the eagle inside, quickly rushed in, and locked the door behind her. It was the best she could do on short notice.

Short notice it was, as no more than a few seconds passed before the bathroom door opened. "—As hell, right?" Kurokoma’s voice.

"Yep. Yep, definitely. You're right, Lady Kurokoma." Oh, she knew that voice. Kurokoma’s weird three-tailed dog thing that she'd beaten up in the past. Enoka? Something like that. Yuuma turned to look at Kaneki, who'd fallen onto the toilet in the stall after she'd shoved him inside. He looked a little dazed and more than a little blue-balled. His angrily throbbing cock which still shot straight up into the air made that quite clear. Outside, the dog thing was still talking. "You said there's lots of meat here, right?" Yuuma pointedly stared at Kaneki and raised a finger to her lips, telling him to shut the hell up.

Kurokoma laughed. “Oh yeah, loads. I struck a deal to get first look at the supplies coming in.” Yuuma suppressed a groan. The supply runs came from an organisation so wreathed in shadow that no one knew anything about them, but they turned up, like clockwork, bearing everything the city needed to function, meat for cooking included. A necessity when you were stuck in the afterlife and didn’t have easy access to materials and livestock. Clearly, Kurokoma’s deal was why the Gouyoku and the Kiketsu had been getting sub-par cuts of meat lately. Yuuma would have to do something about that. “And no one suspects a thing!” Kurokoma sounded smug; Yuuma wanted to bite her head off.

She heard a very quiet shift behind her. Kaneki was sitting up. "Ugh, it's all stalls. I miss the old style." Kurokoma groaned. Her footsteps echoed across the tiled floor. Yuuma thanked the gods (the ones she didn't hate) that she'd locked the door.

And at that point, the worst happened. Kaneki, the stupid eagle, had apparently become completely blinded by lust. Yuuma felt a little bad that she'd been forced to stop him before he could fill her throat with a hot, sticky load, but she'd not had a choice. That’d left him horny and needy, and as Yuuma stood listening to the conversation outside, his weight suddenly landed on her back. His hands wrapped around her and squeezed, groping her heavily and roughly.

She briefly entertained the idea of telling the horny idiot to piss off.

But only briefly, because she soon felt the heat of his prick sliding against her rear and it made her inner core clench up something fierce.

It was an insane situation and an even more insane idea. Kurokoma and her subordinate were right there! Right outside the stall door! And yet...that only made her want it more. To get thoroughly fucked, to get seeded, to get pumped so full of cum that she’d be dripping it across the bathroom floor where Kurokoma stood. And all without her knowing. In fact, now that the idea had entered Yuuma’s head, it was all-consuming, taking over every thought process until all that remained was her desperate pussy and Kaneki's stiff cock.

Her hands were on the waistband of her trousers instantly. She wriggled them down, grinding herself against Kaneki all the while, until the cool air of the bathroom washed over her and the heat of her soaked cunt practically turned to steam in the air. She looked back over her shoulder, staring Kaneki dead in the eye. It was a very simple message: Get us caught, and you'll no longer have that cock at all.

Kaneki seemed to take her meaning. His hands came down roughly on her ass, but extremely quietly. They slid across, coming to rest on her hips, gripping her tightly. He pulled her against him, taking one hand away to reposition his cock, leaving it to slide beneath her ass and across her lower lips. The heady burn it brought nearly made Yuuma get them caught there and then. The moan had practically escaped her lips when she clamped down on it. Kaneki slid his hand up to her chest, pulling her up so that she rested against him, his cock trapped between her thighs and her cunt, becoming just as soaked in her juices as it was in her saliva and his precum. Slowly, he teased her, grinding it against her dripping pussy without deigning to fuck her.

Meanwhile, outside the stall, the conversation continued merrily.

"That's so cool, Lady Kurokoma!" The dog thing— Enoko! That was it! "Ooh, d’you think they let you grill your own meat?"

A sharp, metallic crunch pierced the air, making Kaneki jump slightly, which in turn pushed his cock even harder against Yuuma's soaked lips. Again, Yuuma was forced to grit her teeth to keep a whine from escaping. That was the stupid dog thing's two other sets of teeth, the traps on her wrists. Now that she was upright, Kaneki's hands roamed all over her naked chest and navel. Her skin was proving to be traitorously sensitive, and she bit her lip as his fingers circled her areolae and kneaded at her sensitive nipples.

"It ain’t that kind of place, dumbass." Kurokoma scoffed. "Besides, if I wanted to grill my own meat, I could do that at home."

Yuuma's need for something to fill her pussy was starting to spill over into a rabid, feverish want. She blindly reached out and grabbed Kaneki's wrist, squeezing it so tight that it was seconds from breaking. Pointedly, she stared at him. The message was clear: Get to fucking me already. Anymore and she'd be caught. And while the idea of being caught was lighting a fire in her belly like no other, actually getting caught would be…bad.

Fortunately, Kaneki seemed to take her unspoken words to heart, because he stilled between her thighs. His hands slid back down to her hips, but this time they squeezed, dragging her upwards. Yuuma scrabbled, trying to get her shoes to find some purchase. She leaned back against his chest, looking down and panting as silently as she could manage as she watched his rock-hard cock twitch between her legs. Slowly, she reached down, slid her fingers to her lips, and spread them wide, giving him clear access. Kaneki reached down to reorient his cock, prodding at her entrance. She nearly squeaked, her fingers slipping loose and her lips enclosing the tip of his cock.

"Oh, right..." Enoko's voice was casual. "What d’you get to eat here, then?"

Yuuma shoved her wrist into her mouth and bit down on it just in time to keep any lewd moans from leaking through. Kaneki's glans clung to her quim, and her body was screaming that it wanted more. The fingering she'd given herself earlier had primed her for an explosive orgasm, and she was teetering on the edge of paradise, only held back by the cock that had yet to start pounding her silly.

But Kaneki didn't keep her in suspense. He rolled his hips forward, his cockhead spearing her, spreading her lips apart as if they were nothing. He drove his cock slowly, surely into the burning hot tightness of her pussy. Yuuma bit down harder on her wrist, squeezing her eyes shut and trying not to groan as her senses were completely overloaded. As Kaneki's glans buried itself deep into her insides and his stiff shaft followed, he returned to pawing at her chest and pinching her nipples, ensuring that she couldn't get a moment's respite from the pleasure assaulting her from above and below.

"Hmm..." There was nothing Yuuma wanted more in the world than for Kurokoma to fuck off and die. Right now. "Fried rice, maybe. The wolves love all the meat more than me."

The complete smoothness that Kaneki's cock slid inside her with was almost annoying. How wet had she been? How ready for a good, hard dicking had she been? He was everywhere at once, scraping against her inner walls electrifyingly, pushing deeper and deeper into her tight cunt with every moment. It’d been so long since she'd even thought of doing this. All that time had left the sensations near foreign to her mind, but as much as she'd had to fight to keep her reactions to that initial penetration quiet, the slow push of Kaneki’s cock and that burning hot fullness as her pussy was stretched out to accommodate the thick, rough prick inside her was something her body still loved.

Her head lolled back, falling against Kaneki's chest. He was looking down, she could tell, because she felt the ghost of his hot breath against her head. He was doing his best to be silent, which was a small mercy. It seemed that Yuuma was more in danger of getting them caught, especially as Kaneki paused, easing himself slightly back out, scraping his stupid prick against the walls of her needy pussy all the while. Each shift brought the need to whine out of her, stretching her silence to the limits.

Kaneki wrapped his arms around her chest and navel, squeezing her body tightly as he rolled his hips once more, reversing course yet again and feeding thick, stiff cock back into her dripping wet slit. Her body balanced on a knife's edge, and that edge only became sharper as Kaneki lowered his head, getting as close to her ear as he could without her horns getting in the way. "You're so wet." He murmured so quietly that she barely heard it. "Wet and tight..." He squeezed her tighter in his arms and pushed his hips higher, digging in deeper and forcing her glistening folds apart with ease.

On the way up, his prick shifted slightly, changing angle and scraping lightly against her sensitive spot. Yuuma's eyes shot wide open and she clenched her teeth around her wrist tightly as her mind fluttered. She might have cum a little there. That knife's edge was looking very precarious right now. Her spine arched and her body shuddered in Kaneki's grip. Her walls clung to every bit of his dick, desperate to wring more pleasure from the very welcome intrusion.

That long, thick, rough prick inside her continued to spear her, shoving through her soaked cunt and deeper still. Yuuma couldn't believe how right it all felt. He fit like a glove inside her, leaving no part of her to waste. He pushed once more, finally halting. He hilted himself inside her, his cock pressed right up to her womb. There they remained for a moment, both doing their best to silently pant for breath.

"Hey, Enoko, what's up with your right trap? It's not closing properly."

Yuuma twitched, forcefully reminded of the presence outside. At the same moment, Kaneki's hands brushed roughly against her nipples again, nearly dragging another moan from her throat.

"Huh? Oh, er...Huh. That's strange. I'll have to check it out later." Two clangs rang out. "Hey, uh, did you actually need the toilet, or...?"

Yuuma's eyes widened. Kaneki took the chance to roll his hips, withdrawing slightly from her insides before pushing himself right back in. Her eyes rolled upward. Her spine arched again, dragging her upright as her head rang with flashes of heat and ice. She bit down on her wrist harder, certain she would draw blood. It was overwhelming in the best ways, and Yuuma dearly wished she was free to moan as slutty and desperately as she wanted. She was dying to cry out in ecstasy and demand that Kaneki fuck her properly, pounding her pussy with no mercy.

She wanted that, but she couldn't have it, because there were two idiots outside rambling about nothing.

"Oh! Nah, I just wanted to give those lot outside a chance to get over themselves." Kurokoma sounded very casual about it. "Why? Do you?"

Kaneki's hands shifted. They dragged themselves across her skin, away from her nipples and to her shoulders. Yuuma tried to look back and ask him what he was doing, but he suddenly thrust his hips, at the same time pushing on her shoulders and shoving her down on his cock. His cock rammed through her, making Yuuma bite her wrist so hard that she felt the exact moment her teeth broke the skin and warm, metallic-flavoured blood dripped out around her mouth.

The eagle didn't deign to grant her respite. He pushed up again, retaining just enough control to keep from slapping his hips into hers lewdly and loudly. Yuuma knew just as well as he that they were stretching the boundaries of silence now. Sex wasn't silent. Even sex like this wasn't silent, and while they were going slow enough to keep from discovery, it'd be over if they let any noise out. Yuuma, despite being lost in a sex-fuelled haze of emptiness, found the strength to halt things. She stretched her legs down, getting her toes on the ground, then pushed Kaneki's legs wide, dropping herself lower and preventing him from thrusting as he had been. Unfortunately, this had a side effect. It forced his cock to ram back through her pussy and hilt itself again, pushed comfortably close to her womb. It made Yuuma take on that unrivalled feeling of complete fullness again, more intensely than before. And finally, it pushed her over the edge.

Though her wrist bled, she forced it back into her mouth and bit down hard as she peaked. The head rush washed over her instantly, and she went from being grounded, in a stall, in a restaurant, in the depths of the Animal Realm, to floating on clouds somewhere near Heaven in an instant. All her thoughts faded, leaving her to feel nothing but pure pleasure as it radiated across all her body at once. She didn't feel the pain from the self-inflicted bite wound. She didn't feel Kaneki's hands as her gripped her waist, and she didn't hear Kurokoma and her pet dog thing. She tried to ride it out silently, her hips bucking, her back arching, her head rolling back, and her blood dripping from her wrist.

All the while, Kaneki ground his hips against her, gently massaging her clenching cunt and teasing out every twitch that it possibly could in the throes of her powerful orgasm. Her pussy was no doubt squeezing and gripping him even tighter. It shuddered with her orgasm, burning hot and impossibly wet. She squeezed her eyes shut and yet stars still popped in her vision. She floated; her mind felt strangely disconnected from her body.

And slowly, she returned to the real world. Her orgasm petered out, the last few shudders and bucks of her hips driving pleasant tingles through her spine and into her brain. She became aware of the floor she stood on with shaky knees. The burning pain from the wrist in her mouth that she'd mauled faded in, and she felt that wonderful fullness as Kaneki's cock throbbed inside her. Gingerly, she withdrew her hand from her mouth, cringing when she saw how badly she'd bit it. Silent pants wracked her body, and she shivered weakly at the explosion of pleasure that’d rippled through her.

"—Get back out. They're going to start panicking otherwise." That was Enoko's voice. "And, uh...it's a bit..."

"...Yeah." Kurokoma replied. "Probably a good idea. Let's go." Yuuma heard footsteps - Kurokoma's boots. "Hey!" The matriarch suddenly shouted. "Y'might be quiet, but we can sure as shit smell sex. Get a room!" And with that, the door slammed shut, leaving the room blessedly empty.

Yuuma exhaled shakily. "F-Fuuuck..." She groaned weakly.

"Lady...Lady Toutetsu..." Kaneki replied just as weakly. "You look so pretty when you're cumming." His hands full to her hips, and he yanked back on them, pushing his cock as deep inside her as he could. Yuuma groaned and trembled again as his cock ground against her. "We don't need to be as quiet..."He suddenly placed a hand against the square of Yuuma's back and pushed, forcing her forward and bending her over. Abruptly, his cock slipped free of her tight confines, dragging a disappointed whine from her at the emptiness. Her hands slammed into the stall door as she was pushed against it.

"You...You've been holding out..." Yuuma husked, panting as Kaneki squeezed her ass. His stiff length roughly smacked against her, rubbing and leaking with wild abandon. "Don't need to hold back anymore..." She murmured, pushing herself up against his cock as much as she could.

Kaneki's hands slid down and she felt his thumbs press into her labia, pulling in opposite directions and stretching her petals wide. She held little doubt that they glistened and dripped lewdly, inviting him back inside. She throatily gasped when his cockhead prodded at her entrance, Kaneki wiggling his hips slightly to find the perfect angle.

She went to say something, to tell him to stop messing around, when he suddenly hammered his hips forward, slamming himself inside her and hilting himself deep in her cunt without warning. Immediately, her eyes rolled back and she sagged against the stall door, its presence the only thing keeping her upright. Quickly, Kaneki pulled back and thrusted back into her rapidly, his hips rolling forward to smack against hers with intention.

This wasn't stealthy sex anymore. As he gripped her hips tightly and thoroughly pounded her, giving her the rough fucking she'd been dying for, Yuuma knew exactly what this was. Breeding sex. Impregnation sex. This was Kaneki determined to leave her dripping his hot, sticky load.

She sagged against the door again as one of Kaneki's fingers slipped around her thigh, finding her clit. He haphazardly traced his finger in vague circles about the sensitive nub of flesh, and the already overwhelming pleasure built to a crescendo. She didn't quite have a full-blown orgasm like earlier, but it was damn close, and if he continued much longer, she’d be screaming her delight to the entire restaurant.

But he didn't continue for much longer, because even as he pounded her, his thrusts deep and forceful, he had other ideas. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her waist, and yanked her upward. "W-Wait, what're you—" Yuuma's eyes widened as she felt the ground slip away from her. Her legs scrabbled for purchase but found none. She would've stopped him, but the shift from standing to being carried caused Kaneki's dick to shift to a different angle inside her, and suddenly she was being battered just right. All resistance she had to this idea abruptly vanished from her mind, replaced with pleasurable nothingness. "O-Ooh..." She mewled. "That's gooood..."

Her arms, previously braced against the wall, slipped down to hang uselessly in the air, leaving her cheek pressed into the stall door as her only support while Kaneki railed her. The all-consuming pleasure was everywhere. Her body throbbed with heat; Her eyelids fluttered, she drooled, and she saw spots in the corners of her vision as she stared unseeingly. The stall banged with each thrust, and if anyone happened to need the toilet, there’d be no excuses for what was happening, but Yuuma found that she had stopped caring. All she cared about now was the sublime fucking she was getting, and all she wanted to care about was a thick, delicious load assaulting her thirsty womb.

"Just - a little more. Fuck, you're so..." Kaneki forced his words out in short, sharp grunts, heavy breaths making up the rest of the time. "Hanging off my cock, it's so fucking..." He failed to finish his sentence. Instead, he redoubled the effort into fucking her even harder, pounding her cunt over and over, so rough that Yuuma's mind and body barely had a chance to comprehend it. Every time he reached her deepest point, his cock stretching her wide, his shaft rubbed up against her sensitive spots and made her clench up tightly.

Yuuma finally managed to claw back some wherewithal, awkwardly shifting her head, even with her cheek pressed against the door, so that she could try to look back. "Kaneki. Kaneki..." She murmured, trying to get his attention. "Cum inside."

The eagle froze, midway through pulling back for another thrust. It made sense. He'd been hoping for it, certainly. Probably dreaming of it. Still, he'd never have done it without permission. But now...he'd gotten it. He had gotten permission to pump her desperate womb full of his virile semen. "...Lady Toutetsu..." He husked. "Your horns..."

Yuuma groaned as his cock rubbed against her g-spot. "Graaab them..." She whined. "Do what you want, just keep fucking me!" She couldn't restrain herself from pushing back against him, grinding his cock in deeper and deeper.

"Understood!" Kaneki sharply replied. In a flash, he was on her, and this time, there was no teasing out reactions. He manhandled her, gripping her horns like handlebars. He yanked her head back sharply, growling. Her spine arched and her hands grasped at nothing as the last bit of agency she had was thoroughly stripped away. Throaty gasps became all she could get out with each obscene slap of Kaneki's thighs against her ass, and she could barely see anything for the stars in her eyes now. All that existed was pleasure. It rippled through her, pooled within her mind and soul, and tried to drag her into oblivion.

She hadn't let anyone touch her horns like this for a long time, but...there was something terribly attractive about the way Kaneki manhandled them, the way his pants and grunts synchronised with him yanking her head back by her horns. The way she could feel her neck stretch as her head was pulled back...It made her feel weak, trembly in the knees in a way that was very different from the way that hitting her peak made her feel. Kaneki thrusted just right. He menaced her womb with his rugged cock, teasing her with the promise of a messy finish. Yuuma could feel him throb as he thrusted. She could feel the way his thrusts became more needy; The tension in him stretched to the breaking point.

"Lady Toutetsu..." Kaneki murmured, pulling her head back so he could get closer to her ear. The strain was evident in his voice. Only one thing could be coming next. Yuuma didn't need to think about it. She just moaned sweetly and encouraged him to continue.

But then he rammed forcefully against her inner walls, hitting her g-spot so perfectly that the climax overtook her instantly. It burnt like the fires of hell, sweeping through her hard and fast, erasing everything else once again. Her muscles tensed at random, her toes curled in her shoes, and her teeth gnashed violently. She crashed through another peak, taking in those wonderful feelings with a throaty moan as her head was yanked back. She weakly twitched as the pleasure rolled through her in waves, each one intense enough that she could hardly contain herself.

And all the while, Kaneki continued to thrust into her. "F-Fuck—" He grunted, gripping her horns even tighter. "Gonna - Gonna fill you up. Get you fucking knocked up!" He was over the limit, Yuuma knew. Even lost in the post-orgasmic haze as she was, she could feel the throbbing and the burning heat. Even she couldn’t stop him now. "I'm gonna—"

That was that. He growled like a true beast and rammed his cock deep inside her, prying apart her folds and hilting himself right up against her womb. There, he throbbed deliciously, and – Yuuma knew – could practically feel - he let loose. White, burning hot, desperate to knock her up, his seed spilled forth, crashing through her cervix without hesitation and painting her baby-room white. With each throb and each spurt of his cum, he yanked her back by her horns. Finally, he dragged her back upright, against him, and used his grip to force her head around and drag her into another sloppy, messy kiss, even has he continued messing up her insides with his semen. Yuuma could do little more than moan into his mouth as he came.

The heat spread through her navel as her womb greedily sucked up every available drop of semen. Yuuma's mouth remained slack as Kaneki claimed it, gripping her body so tightly that he was no doubt leaving marks. She had no idea how long it'd been going on. How long had he been cumming? How packed full was her womb? How had they not done this sooner? He continued to growl like a beast between making out with her, and the possessiveness she felt from him was extraordinary.

Finally, his overexcited cock began to calm. The throbbing subsided, though Kaneki managed to tease a few more spurts out with some last-minute thrusts. Yuuma's womb was absolutely stuffed, and she suspected that her stomach might be bulging a little. That too felt irresistibly lewd.

Kaneki's thrusts finally came to an end, his hands loosening against her skin. He eased out of the kiss, his hot breath washing over her face. He shifted Yuuma upward, and she shuddered with the pleasurable feeling as his softening cock slipped out of her pussy. She squeezed her thighs together before any of his seed could ooze out of her cum-slicked slit.

"Mmm...Kanekiiii..." Yuuma groaned weakly. "That kind of greed and assertiveness is…good." She didn't bother trying to stand. She doubted her knees would be up to the task right now. Nigh-indestructible she might be, but sex exhausted her in a different way to battle. "Left a whole lot up here..." She murmured, gently rubbing her belly. "Really trying to knock me up, are you? You beast."

He had the good grace to look embarrassed. "I, uh...Heat of the moment..." He weakly shrugged, looking away. "No man could rightly keep their head together with you, Lady Toutetsu." It was as sweet as it was silly, and Yuuma couldn't help but laugh.

She suspected that they might've pushed their luck a little; For the bathroom to remain empty this long was nothing short of a miracle. "I think we need to get out of here." Yuuma said, finally pushing Kaneki's arms away. She tentatively got her feet on the ground, but her knees buckled as soon as she tried to put weight onto them. Stumbling hard into the stall door, she thought about the enormity of sneaking away.

Kaneki, looking as weak as her, slowly pulled his clothes back on. They both stunk of sex and sweat, and as intoxicating as that was, as depraved and slutty as it made Yuuma feel, she did still like this restaurant, so destroying her chances of working here wouldn't be good. Yuuma slid her trousers back up her thighs and fastened them, still feeling Kaneki's cum packed inside her, held in place only by her underwear. Gently, she unlocked the stall door and eased it open, only edging out when she'd confirmed that it was empty. Kaneki stumbled out after her, supporting her. They both listened to the raucous noises coming from the restaurant outside, and then, as one, turned to look at each other.

"Out the bathroom window?" Kaneki asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Out the bathroom window." Yuuma nodded.

"—Need to stop wasting all your supply runs. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that the wolves can't get enough of the meat, I wouldn't bother. It's—"

"Kurokoma." Yuuma was tired. "I don't care." She drained her cup and started looking around for a bottle. "Get to the point before I strangle you with your own tail."

The Beast Metropolis, with its vying major factions, still needed some level of coherence. Wars between the factions were bad for life, and so the semi-regular meetings between the heads of the major factions remained the safest way to deal with potential problems. It helped that, since the emergence of that aggravating goddess in the Primate Spirit Garden, the Keiga, Kiketsu, and Gouyoku actually had a threat to keep at bay.

Still, they didn’t like each other. "You sound like you've been taking something you shouldn't have." Kicchou Yachie, leader of the Kiketsu Family, spoke quietly and smoothly. Her gaze was fixed on Kurokoma. "And you," Her gaze switched to Yuuma, "Are even more reserved than usual."

"I'll show you how reserved I really am if you carry on." Yuuma growled. "Get off your high horse. Uh, no offense, Kurokoma."

"Fuck off."

"...Quite." Kicchou didn't look like she believed Yuuma.

"Anyway, my point was that I was at this restaurant recently." Yuuma's ears pricked up and she hurriedly put on a disinterested air. "Best fried rice in the city. Anyway..." Kaneki was back at the Gouyoku headquarters, trying to wrangle some of the younger recruits. Things had changed between him and Yuuma once again. She’d come away from that night with an obsession. "I went there the other night, right? And I went to the toilets—"

"Oh? Stomach problems?" Kicchou smiled in what could barely pass for some facsimile of sympathy. "My, it's because none of those wolves can cook, I'm sure. It's too delicate an art for beasts like that. You'd never see that with my otters."

Yuuma upended a bottle of cheap, nasty sake into her mouth as Kicchou and Kurokoma bickered. She wished she was alone. Failing that, she wished she was at headquarters, having some fun with Kaneki where they could be caught. Anything would be more fun than sitting here.

"My point was, I went into the toilets, and you know what I heard?" Kurokoma had gotten Kicchou to shut up for a moment. A rare feat. "Sex. Someone fucking in the stalls." Yuuma whipped her head around right as Kicchou did. She did her best to match the turtle-dragon’s scandalised expression. "They were trying to be silent, but...I mean, it's not the sort of thing you miss."

"What a tight ship you run over there, Kurokoma." Yuuma dryly said, trying to restrain the tingling feeling in her lower belly. That night really had awakened something... She’d already found excuses to drag Kaneki off multiple times since. "At least someone in your territory is enjoying themselves."

"Fuck off, Toutetsu. Your lot don't even know what fun is." Kurokoma whined. "Normally, that sort of thing would put anyone off going to a place, but..." Yuuma raised an eyebrow. "But damn, their fried rice is so good..." Yuuma restrained her smile. Good to see that her food was still winning hearts and minds.

"You're so easily swayed. It's pathetic." Kicchou's voice dripped with pity. That, of course, set off another round of bickering as Yuuma found another bottle of sake to drink from.

Yuuma suspected that this strange thing she had going on with Kaneki couldn't last. It'd probably blow up spectacularly. But still, it was fresh and new, and it had her hooked. Her appetite demanded more. As soon as she could escape from the two annoyance that passed for matriarchs, she could go and sate herself.

She just hoped her eagle subordinate could keep up.

>>41417

Kento hurried through the forested path to the Myouren Temple. Dark clouds hung in the sky, ready to unleash a torrent of rain any minute now. When he had left the village, even if the sky was gray, he was sure that it wouldn't rain.

But he had gone too far now, and as a Youkai exterminator, his weekly visits to the temple were of the utmost importance. Byakuren's vast array of knowledge was invaluable, at least whenever she was available. He had other reasons as well, chief among them being visiting Kyouko.

Kento smiled as he thought of her, the once meek Yamabiko who had joined the temple, who quickly became a blazing rainbow of happiness. Since then, they had become close, with Kento a frequent visitor of her concerts and her always stopping by to talk to him whenever she went into the village. As he finished reminiscing, his mind went to the other temple members. Ichirin and Unzan didn't like him much. Minamitsu treated him with superficial kindness, even as she tried to drown him. Her creativity surprised him. Whoever heard of a ship phantom trying to drown someone in a latrine pit?

'Ah, Minamitsu. Funny as always, well I guess you're more fun than the Tanuki.'

Byakuren was just as annoyed with him as she was interested in having him join the temple. That only encouraged him to push his luck with her, and the others.

Then a droplet hit his head. Rain, sounding like a phantom's screams, exploded behind him with a burst of wind. Kento broke out into a sprint. Wind and cold air whipped past him as he ran, staying just ahead of the squall. He passed underneath the temple gate and into the courtyard as he flexed the skills he had learned as an exterminator. With a final hop, he landed safely under the temple roof.

He laughed at himself as he got his bearings. The sudden downpour passed over the temple gate, beating against the temple roof like countless tiny hands

Kento took a moment to enjoy the scenery before the rain drained all color from the temple grounds. No birds sang, and no sun shone, just the fierce rain as it washed the world away. A wave of nostalgia washed over Kento, and he reminisced on his childhood.

He had spent countless days like this, watching the rain with his mother. There were happy days, and people he would not give back. Some of that was his own fault, and some was chance. Immersed in the moment, Kento tasted the sweet nostalgia turn bitter and sorrowful on his tongue.

A familiar voice cut through the scene. "Oh, well, if it isn't a certain someone?"

"Ah, Nue, it's good to see you again." Kento's gaze stayed frozen on the rain. He knew searching for her was a fruitless effort. "I'm honored to be in the presence of such an ancient Youkai as yourself."

The hairs on the back of Kento's neck stood on end as he felt Nue point her trident at him. "You're here to see Kyouko, aren't you? Don't act like I don't know how you look at her."

"Well, of course I'm here to see her; we're friends, after all." He said, trying to play it off to put Nue on the back foot. He had known her for long enough to recognize her tactics; she wanted people to feel threatened and unsure. A typical stalker, the whole pathetic package, just the type of person he liked to tease.

There was a beat of silence, only the sound of rain drifting across the temple grounds, before Nue spoke again. "Be careful, Kento, if you break her heart, I won't be the only one mad."

Kento could imagine Byakuren's terrifying visage and suppressed a shudder. He didn't doubt she would be furious.

"Well, nobody's stopping you from joining us." Nue was chronically shy, easily embarrassed, and a total pervert. Kento knew how she would interpret his offer, and just as he expected, she didn't answer back.

Kento waited a second longer, listening and watching the rain as it beat against the temple grounds. He turned away as the downpour picked up, traveling deeper into the temple complex. He passed through the front hall and into the passage that connected the first four halls of the temple and enclosed the first courtyard.

Across from him, Kyouko stood near the corner where one hallway met another, leaning against the railing that faced the courtyard. Kyouko was short, only coming up to Kento's chin, with soft green hair that contrasted nicely against the pair of brown floppy dog-like ears and her tail.

He could still remember when she first came to the temple, downcast and sniveling. She was the perfect picture of pathetic cuteness. Byakuren had given him a swift chop to the head and a long lecture after he said that out loud. Kento always counted himself lucky that Kyouko hadn't heard that, instead her first impression of him was as a nice, helpful, and handsome person.

Not incorrect, but not nearly as imp-like as he actually was.

Their second meeting was more auspicious. Byakuren had strong-armed him into helping her with Kyouko's move into the temple. Kento enjoyed seeing how fast she grew out of that initial meekness, always shouting greetings and good morning to people or brightening people's days, even if they didn't ask for it. Of course, she had never fully lost all of that initial shyness around him, which only made her more cute in Kento's eyes.

After she had settled in. That was where she and Kento had first properly become friends. He was already visiting the temple anyway, and Kyouko always wanted someone to read sutras with her. He found it strangely invigorating, although he also spent time with her outside of the temple, usually whenever her band was playing.

Kento took a step forward, and before he could speak, Kyouko had already turned around to face him. Her ears twitched, and Kento felt a little of the color return to his world as she smiled.

"It's nice to see you again, Kyouko," Kento said, smiling as he approached her.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too." Kento could see her tail wagging as she talked.

Kento nodded and walked beside her, grabbing onto the guardrail. "So, are you enjoying the rain?"
"Yeah, look what I can do," Kyouko said, cupping her hand to her mouth. "HeLoO KeNtO!" She said, echoing the sound of the rain as she talked, making it seem as if she was speaking underwater.

Kento and Kyouko both laughed, a light feeling rising inside him as she smiled. Despite the chill in the air, the moment felt warm. Kento's eyes drifted to the courtyard, and he could already imagine how bright the plants would be once the clouds cleared. Wet earthy smells drifted into the passage.

"So, how's your music career been going? I've been pretty busy lately, so I haven't been able to keep up."

"Great! Miss Inaba wants to host a big event, and Misty and I are supposed to be the stars." Kyouko was practically glowing as she talked, shyness vanishing from her face.

Kento remembered those nights. Sweaty bodies dancing to ruckus music, human and Youkai alike, intermingling as if there was no difference between the two. He wasn't sure if Byakuren knew those sorts of events existed or not. She'd be happy with the coexistence, but furious with the hedonism, and no doubt she'd try to butt in.

Kento's thoughts returned to the moment, Kyouko before him, and the chill of the rain outside. "I see, so you and Misty are gonna knock those Prismriver sisters off their number one spot?"

"I-I don't know about that." Kyouko blushed, thinking he was just complimenting her, but Kento had faith in her. Even if he thought she could be air-headed, she had talent.

"Well, either way, I'll be there to watch you sing Kyouko."

"You better mister!"

The two of them giggled; nothing about the situation was funny, but they both felt at in each other's presence. Kento's smile softened as he looked out onto the courtyard. A part of him thought he really should get to business talking to Byakuren right away, but as he smelled the wet grass, asked another question.

"So, are the others here?"

"Byakuren and Shou are, but the rest are out," Kyouko said, kicking her feet as she looked out at the rain. There was a slight nervousness to her movements that made Kento pause.

"Really now?" The others were probably up to some mischief somewhere. He decided to not mention that or Nue to her. She might have still been peeping, but Kento cast that thought away. Impishness contorted his face as he decided to push his luck.

"I, but... I do have something else that I want to talk to you about." Kyouko said, stammering underneath Kento's gaze.

"Really, what is it?"

Kyouko took a step back, nervous, but she wasn't far enough away as Kento reached forward and ruffled her head. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure a good girl like you isn't up to anything bad."

Kyouko stood in silence as Kento happily pet her head, flushing red and tail wagging all the while.

"I-I'M," Kyouko hid her blushing red face, unsure of what to say.

"I'M NOT A DOG!"

A wave of sound exploded out from her, sending Kento stumbling back as the temple shook and rain flew away. Kento smiled, laughing off Kyouko's accidental attack.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Kyouko clung onto Kento, nearly in tears, as she tried to help him regain his balance,

Kento steadied himself, resting a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, after all, your crying face is the cutest."

"I'm not cute." Kyouko scowled at him, huffing as she let go and folded her arms.

A flash of yellow and a rush of wind cut into the scene before Kento could say anything else. Across from Kyouko and Kento stood the temple's avatar, Toramaru Shou, spear and pagoda in hand.

"Kyouko!" Shou said, her pagoda at the ready. "Are you okay?"

She turned on her heels, placing her back to Kento as she faced Shou, her face still bright red.

Shou's pagoda illuminated the scene in rainbow hues. Kento smiled at her, the light of her shining jewel seeming distant to him.

"Ye-yes, it's just," Kyouko blushed, embarrassed as her eyes darted between Kento and Shou, trying to find an explanation that didn't reveal Kento had pet her.

"It's okay," Kento said, petting her head again before looking Shou in the eyes, "She just reacted badly when I gave her a little pat on the head."

"Kento!" Shou planted her spear into the floor, causing his hand to flinch away from Kyouko's head. "I know you and Kyouko are friends, but she's a Youkai. Would you pet me just because I'm a tiger?"

Kento rolled his eyes, he wouldn't try something like this with some Youkai he was unfamiliar with, although... He squinted his eyes and thought about it for a second. Shou didn't have any ears or a tail, unlike animal Youkai. Byakuren had given him a very technical explanation for why that was, but he had forgotten it. Her hair was still pretty fluffy, and if he used his imagination, he could see a tail swaying back and forth behind her. There was also the appeal of someone so upright and reserved acting cute.

"Ye-"

"Don't answer that!" Shou stamped the butt of her spear on the floor again, massaging her brow with her other hand. "You shouldn't go around treating animals or Youkai so lightly!"

"I thought you and Hijiri wanted Humans and Youkai to get along?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you should just go around manhandling Youkai, even if you're an exterminator. Control your desires." Shou huffed before turning to Kyouko. "How do you feel about Kento petting you?"

Kyouko shuffled on the spot, before admitting, "I... I don't hate it."

"That's fine," Shou said, nodding along, either oblivious to Kyouko's embarrassment or more concerned with her lecture. "There's nothing wrong with liking to be pet, as long as you don't let it interfere with your work."

Kento nodded and turned to Kyouko beside him. "So, can I pet you some more?"

"... Yes"

"See, everything's fine," he said, smiling as his hand went back to Kyouko's head, ruffling her hair.

"No, it's not. You still touched her without her permission. I shouldn't even have to scold you. Be more conscious of your actions and ask first before doing something like that."

He sighed and removed his hand from Kyouko's head, "Okay, I will, but before you go, can I pet you?"

Shou's eyebrow twitched, "No... If you need anything, I'll be at the main gate. Hijiri is in her quarters right now preparing for an event in the human village. Don't disturb her."

His eyebrow rose at that. Members of the temple went to the village to beg for alms, but this sounded different.

Shou continued, "I won't tell her what you did, but remember to reflect on your actions, Kento. I don't want you getting hurt because you act carelessly."

"Yes, yes, I will. I'll ask anybody before I pet them first, and if they try to bite me anyway, I'll exterminate them!"

"Kento..." Shou stressed, looking at him as her eyebrow twitched at his usage of the word extermination. Gensokyo's Youkai extermination had much more to do with chasing away troublemakers or sending them to a religious institution, but Byakuren and Shou still disliked the insinuation of killing.

"Uh, Shou," Kyouko said, feeling another lecture coming on and tired of being embarrassed. "Kento and I still have to read sutras together."

"Sorry for keeping you two: Go read some sutras." Shou rubbed her brow as she walked away, one of Nazrin's mice following her.

Kento chuckled before looking back down at Kyouko. "Right, you want to read sutras? Lead the way, Kyouko."

"I will," Kyouko said, taking Kento by the hand.

He didn't particularly enjoy reading Sutras, but Kyouko did, even if she didn't understand them. He had become quite familiar with them. Kyouko's presence could make almost anything bearable for him. The scripture hall connected to the front gate by the same corridor that enclosed the first internal courtyard.

The rain continued to beat against the temple grounds, draining color as it ripped through the air and shattered on the roof. A slight fog gathered in the air as Kento and Kyouko entered the scripture hall, only for Kyouko to keep moving.

"Hey Kyouko, we're not here to use the scripture hall, are we?"

"Yeah, we're not," Kyouko admitted, not looking back to meet Kento's eyes.

The two passed through the hall and the corridor to the rear hall that formed the back of the building enclosing the internal courtyard. Kyouko entered a side door and then followed it to the main hall's rear entrance, Kento right behind.

She opened the rear door into the second courtyard. Beyond, the two of them saw the rain form a solid wall of water and sound, shrouding the pavilion and the temple quarters behind it.

The only place Kyouko could take him after this was the great hall with the statue of the Buddha, its pavilion, or the monks' and nuns' quarters.

"Do you think we should stay here?" Kento asked, regretting not bringing an umbrella.

"No," Kyouko said, her voice small, "I'll take care of it."

Kyouko held her hands up to her mouth and blew a bubble, its green-tinted surface a magic barrier. She expanded it until she could take it from her mouth and into both hands, then she kneaded it, squeezing and stretching until it took the shape of an umbrella.

Finally, she sang, "Rain, rain, go away." Releasing a stream of sound-based Danmaku into the barrier. The Danmaku broke apart as it ran into the walls of the barrier-umbrella, forming a solid, shifting pattern of differently colored bullets reflecting the light that passed through into a rainbow.

"See," she said, smiling as she held the iridescent umbrella.

"Yeah," Kento felt a bit embarrassed, but didn't let it show on his face. He could have just as easily created a barrier, but using one for something so simple never came to mind.

The two stepped out into the torrent. Raindrops reverberated as they hit the umbrella, sending waves of sound across its surface in a rhythmic pattern.

Transfixed, Kento stopped to feel the rain on his hand. It was falling so hard and fast that it reminded him of the needles used by that Youkai Shrine Maiden.

He looked out at the second courtyard. It was less grassy than the first one, having more paved areas, as well as several trees that provided sources of cover for Youkai like Nue, who didn't like to be seen.

The two of them stood side by side, shielded by the umbrella. Kento stopped Kyouko, taking her hand in his, their fingers intertwining. He didn't want to lose the sudden onset of sentiment like he had earlier, and savored the moment. The courtyard smelled of wet grass and rain, its dreary washed-out hues smothered by the light from Kyouko's umbrella. The echoing beat of the downpour sounded throughout the entire courtyard. He could feel Kyouko's warmth alongside the chilly wind and the droplets of rain that fell sideways. The two stood there for a moment, surrounded by the pouring rain and illuminated in multicolored light.

"Uh, Kento, we should get going,"

"Yeah, let's get a move on." He tightened his grip on her hand.

The two passed the great hall and pavilion atop it, making their way to the large private quarters on the other side of the second courtyard. Kyouko let go of his hand so she could open one half of the large door to the rear building. Kento furrowed his brow as he followed Kyouko inside.

'Is she making a move on me...?'[i]

Kyouko was normally meek around him, but this wasn't unwelcome. It was a bit out of character; Nue wouldn't put her up to this, and neither would Shou nor Byakuren. He didn't think any of the others would try; Murasa would, somehow, try to drown him in the rain.

He didn't want Kyouko to feel ashamed of herself or guilty if she was being manipulated by someone else; after all, Kyouko's pathetic face was only fun when he was the reason behind it.

Kento had little time to think as he and Kyouko reached their destination, a plain paper door which Kyouko opened. Inside, he could see she had neatly prepared, laying out new tatami mats and a pair of futons.

Kento went in first, allowing Kyouko to stay behind him to close the door.

As he heard Kyouko the door click shut behind him, Kento flexed his brow. "Kyouko, nobody put you up to this, did they?"

"NO!" She said, stamping her foot into the ground, her voice echoing throughout the room.

Kento shrank back a bit. "Okay, I just don't want to force you to do anything. I love you, you know?"

"Yes," Kyouko said, blushing as she stepped forward and took his hand, "and I love you, too."

He considered that there was probably something blasphemous about having sex in a Buddhist temple, but he reasoned that as long as Byakuren didn't find out, it would be fine.

Outside, the rain still splashed against the roof of the temple, creating a curtain of sound that resounded throughout the room, isolating Kento and Kyouko from the rest of the temple. The isolation, combined with the dampness and dim light, created a comfortable atmosphere.

"Well, I guess the =rain will give us plenty of cover, but Byakuren still has pretty sharp hearing, right?"

"Oh! I can do something better," Kyouko said, jumping up as she got an idea, before holding up a finger. Effortlessly, she summoned another bubble, which expanded to fit the shape of the room, popping Kento's ears as it passed him.

"It's okay, she won't be able to hear us now."

The rain was distant and muffled, but Kento noticed something else: a quick beating, different from the drum-like beating of the rain. The beat of his and Kyouko's hearts. Dim lamp light refracted off the barrier as well, gaining a prismatic quality that filled the dim room with color.

Only after hearing his heartbeat did he realize how nervous he was.

This would be a first for him as well; he and Kyouko had only ever kissed before, and he always held back from going any further.

"Well, let's get this going, then," he said, turning around. In sync, he and Kyouko undressed.

With Kyouko's barrier up, they could hear every detail of each other getting undressed, every fold of fabric, every awkward movement. If Kento strained his ears, he could even hear the faint beat of Kyouko's heart, giving him a wonderful mental image of her pathetically cute face.

Finally pulling their last articles of clothing off and folding them, Kento stood up and started counting down. "Okay, on one, two..."

"Three," Kyouko finished.

Then, on cue, both of them turned around.

>>41421
Kyouko was beautiful, with a soft, slightly plump figure, accentuated by how short she was, not to mention her sizable bust. Two large breasts with oversized areolas and large nipples complement the curve of her hips, and her round face with her emerald eyes and plump lips.

Kyouko took a step toward Kento, her eyes locked on his semi-erect cock, and Kento followed suit. Kento braced one hand against her shoulder, holding her in place.

Kento looked down at her wordlessly as she rose to meet him. Thick, plump lips quivering in anticipation. His thin lips enveloped hers as their mouths met, and they kissed. It was wet, warm, and desperate, Kyouko barely being held back as she practically tried to devour him. Her tongue tried to explore every inch of his mouth as Kento, slowly, methodically broke down her defenses, pushing her back into place with gentle nudges.

His other hand explored her body, avoiding touching the obvious spots. Instead, he started at her collarbone and trailed his hands down her shoulder: Down the length of her arms to feel her hands, and then back again, caressing her body. Kento's hands went down again, down along the length of her torso, ignoring her breasts to feel the shape of her hips.

The two separated, both breathing heavily, their faces messy.

"Haa... I never knew you could be such a desperate kisser Kyouko, where's that shy girl?"

"I'm not shy, you just-"

Moonlit nights after concerts, the shadow of the wall around the temple, shaded days underneath trees. All welcome memories of times when their lips had met. Kyouko had tried to make the first move then as well, stuttering out an awkward request, only for Kento to embrace her.

"It's okay, Kyouko, I'm here for you."

She tried to speak, but only squealed as she squirmed underneath his touch as his hands moved from her sides to the chub of her belly, to right atop her womb, and pressed down softly. His other hand went around her back, cupping her ass.

Kyouko gasped, unable to hold herself in as he groped her.

Kento let go of her ass, instead moving his hand to the base of her tail, before stroking along its length. "Good girl, you're such a good girl. Now, what do good girls do again? They bark, don't they? How about a bark from my beautiful Kyouko?" Kyouko's eyes watered as she bit back a yelp, not wanting to give in to Kento's praise.

"Okay, then how about this?" Kento squeezed her ass hard, and against her will, Kyouko let out a yelp that echoed around the room. Kyouko's mind filled with arousal and shame, completely helpless to Kento just as she had always been.

He hadn't even touched any of her sensitive areas but somehow, his calloused hands teased every drop of arousal out of her as he rubbed her. She had wanted to do something more for the longest time, not content to kiss him. Then she had gotten nervous at the last moment and the impish Kento took the lead, treating just as teasingly and gently as he ever had.

He finally stopped squeezing and stroking her belly, his hands moving their way back up her body. Kento grabbed her breasts, holding them gently as he admired her body, and taking careful measures not to touch her nipples.

Kento shushed her as he caressed her body, denying her any release. Kento loved her pathetic face, savoring the sight as his fingers danced around her breasts.

"I-it's not fair, you want to feel good too. Stop teasing me."

Kento smiled, it wasn't just sadism; he didn't want to actually hurt her. Youkai were more flexible than humans, but still he didn't want to thrust into her off the bat and hurt her.

"I'll try my best."

Kyouko moaned as Kento's hands pressed into her breasts before tracing the perimeter of her areola. Kento finally assaulted her nipples directly, running a finger over them.

"Kento, please." She was holding onto him, her hands desperately clinging to him.

He responded, angling one of her breasts upward and wrapping his mouth around the nipple. Kyouko couldn't contain herself as his tongue lashed her tit and Kento's teeth brushed against her. She bent her back, angling her body into Kento as his mouth played with breasts and his hands explored her body.

Kyouko's skin was warm and salty against his tongue. Kento trailed one of his hands down her body and to her inner thigh, before resting it atop her pussy, feeling its juices. Kyouko squirmed against his hand, and he responded, inserting a finger and searching out a delicate spot.

Kyouko let out an explosive scream as Kento brushed his finger against her g-spot, squirting out juices that coated Kento's hand. Kento touched her again, and he simultaneously bit down on her nipple, sending a surge of pain and pleasure coursing through Kyouko's body.

"K-Kento, Kento, Kento!" She came, bucking her hips as her juices flowed down her legs. Unable to contain herself, Kyouko's senses left her to drown in the tide of sensation.

Kyouko's legs failed her, going soft as jelly as the orgasm swept over her. Kyouko howled, the sounding echoing throughout the room as the pleasure ripped from her pussy all the way to her brain. She would have fallen to the ground if it weren't for Kento holding her.

The sound of Kyouko's howl echoed for a while longer, drowning out everything else as Kento suckled from her teat and he explored her inner walls. Only as the echo faded, did he finally separate from her swollen breasts.

Her pussy overflowed with juices, soaking his hand, and her face was a mess, full of need. Every breath she took reverberated around the room, the rapid beating of her heart, and the wet sounds of her pussy surrounding them both.

Kento inserted another finger into her pussy, eliciting another gasp as his free hand held her steady. Kento smiled as he removed his fingers from her chest, moving his hand along her body, forming a trail of her own arousal, until he reached her face.

Kyouko's mouth hung open as Kento removed his other hand from her shoulder and inserted a thumb in, holding it open for him to inspect. Her mouth was wet and warm, lines of saliva going from the floor to the roof of her mouth, the length of her pearly white teeth, her large tongue laid down along the floor, and the deep, warm, and wet crevice that was her throat.

Kento moved his soaked back hand down to her pussy. One by one, he inserted a finger into her, each seeking to scratch that itch inside her. She felt full, so wonderfully full, she didn't even realize she could feel this full. It was painful, so painful too, an exquisite pain that bled into pleasure as it reached a crescendo. She moaned again, squealed, utterly incoherent as Kento's hand filled out and explored her insides. At that, she came.

Kyouko went silent again, her mind empty of everything but need.

Kento slowly removed his hand as she breathed heavily, glowing in the wake of her orgasm as she leaned into his touch. Kyouko moaned softly, still sucking on his thumb with no thought in the world.

Finally, he took his thumb out of her mouth. "Now," Kento presented his soaked hand to her, seeing the lust in her eyes. "suck."

Kyouko eagerly followed his command, wrapping her mouth around his hand coated in her juices and sucking on it. Kento felt the wetness of her mouth, the caress of her tongue as she swallowed down her own juices, savoring the salty, sweet flavour as the sounds of her sucking echoing across the room. Every minuscule detail of what her mouth was doing, every single wet movement rebounding back on them.

"That's a good girl," Kento said, arousal stirring within him, as he savored Kyouko's messy face sucking on his hand.

His free hand continued to play with her body. He traced down her side, before going to squeeze her ass, squeezing it as he held her close and his erect dick pushed up against her soft stomach. She squirmed as he groped her, his hand going back up to thumb her nipple, until finally relenting. Kyouko gasped as Kento removed his hand from her mouth, a trail of saliva connecting the two before he flicked his hand, breaking it. She fell towards Kento, gasping still as she took in more air, bracing herself against his rough body.

"K-Kento, please, I-"

"Shhh," Kento soothed, petting her hair with his free hand. "You're such a good girl, Kyouko, so good. Just wait a while longer."

Kento's words echoed around the room, filling Kyouko's head with his praise. He wanted to give it to her as much as she wanted it, but he held himself back, wanting to savor Kyouko's pathetic face more than he wanted to release it.

He laid Kyouko down on the futon, her head resting atop a pillow. Kento followed quickly after, going down onto the floor, and placing himself just beneath Kyouko, her wetness in full view.

Kyouko's lower lips quivered as he braced his hands against her inner thigh, but he did not head down immediately. Instead, Kento traveled up her body first, feeling her soft and squishy flesh before burying his face in her stomach, kissing her plump softness.

"You're so beautiful, Kyouko, especially this soft tummy of yours."

"P-Please."

Kyouko wanted to plead with him to go lower, to touch her there, instead she babbled, unable to contain herself. Kento traveled down with her body, planting kisses along the way, taking special care to kiss her right above where her womb was. He smiled as he earned another spasm and pathetic mewl from Kyouko, even without fucking her she had still molded like clay in his hands.

He separated from her slowly, giving her a moment to breathe as she splayed open her legs. She leaned into Kento's touch as he approached her pussy, laying his face right before her lower lips.
He pulled himself forward, and Kyouko moved her hips to meet him, gasping as his face buried itself between her legs. Her pussy enveloped him with her warmth, juices, and scent. Wet, needy, and quivering as he stuck out his tongue and teased her lower lips, Kyouko let out heavy breaths as he traced around her wetness.

He drew out every pitiable mewl from her he could, before he puckered his lips together and kissed her clit. His lips enveloped that button, wrapping around the bud, sending a wave of pleasure across Kyouko's body as she bucked her hips.

Kento didn't let up, wrapping his tongue around her clit and playing with it, relentless in his pursuit as her lower lips leaked juices onto him.

Kento separated from her folds, finally giving her a moment of respite. Kyouko's heavy, laboured breaths reverberated throughout the room.

"Kento," she said, breathless and needy. Kento kissed her folds, his mouth flush against her pussy as his tongue penetrated her. His tongue wiggled inside of her lushness like a snake. Kento tasted her insides, savouring the flavour of her wetness as he searched for a spot he had found earlier. Kyouko's walls contracted around him, they tried to find something to fuck herself on, but was only greeted by Kento's tongue.

Kyouko gripped the futon beneath them as she came again, clenching her teeth as she sprayed Kento's face with her juices. She forced her body down on him trying to fuck herself harder on his tongue. She couldn't think; her thoughts were entirely consumed by Kento as he ate her out. The denial was maddening.

She clamped her legs around his head. In a moment, every sight, every sound, every smell, every last sense Kento has was filled by her. Kyouko's wetness was the only thing to greet him, sickly sweet and intoxicating. His world blurred around the edges, and where he ended and she began blurred his mind, there was only warmth and an insatiable need. Then Kyouko released him.

Kento's breaths were sharp, the world beginning to spin as his tongue moved. In and out, in and out, he went, removing his tongue only to tease the opening of her pussy, or to dance around her clit, drawing forth more gasps of pleasure in the wake of her orgasm.

"K-Kento." Kyouko gripped the futon beneath her, pleading with him.

Kento's face was slick with her fluids as he separated from her, his breaths deep as his lungs tried to suck in as much of Kyouko's scent as they could manage.

"I know, Kyouko..."

He loomed over Kyouko now as he repositioned himself, manhood inflamed and ready to give Kyouko what she wanted. Kyouko was small, needy, and lustful beneath him.

"Yes, now can you... Can you-"

"Can I, what?" Kento rested his cock against her pussy, dripping wet and needy. He desperately wanted to plunge into her lower depths, but he held himself back, wanting to draw out Kyouko's pleasure even more.

"Please!" Kyouko's voice echoed through the room, "Put it in. Give it to me, I need your cock."

Kento rocked forward, pushing into her with his fullness. Kyouko's wet and quivering walls embraced him with all of their might. Kyouko's back arched, seeking Kento as he pushed himself into her. She felt like she was going to burst, holding in a scream so loud that she could burst the barrier surrounding them.

Kento was still not done with drawing out her pleasure. He sat up and then hoisted Kyouko up with him. She held in a scream as she suddenly met the hilt of his dick, a white flash of pleasure shooting through her brain.

Kyouko's hands wrapped around his back, and so did her legs, trying to support herself as she sat on his dick. Kento didn't make any sudden movements, instead wrapping one hand around her as his other hand ruffled her hair, stroking Kyouko's head again.

"Shh, it's okay, Kyouko, you're doing so good." She nodded along to his praise absentmindedly, too engrossed with the length inside her, and then she moved.

It was tortuously slow for both of them, every creeping inch of Kento's shaft going deeper into her, only for her to move back up. She took the lead, drawing wet noises out of both of them that echoed throughout the room as her pussy hugged every inch of Kento's cock.

Her whole body twitched as Kento guided her, up and down, the tip of his cock leaving her for only a moment until it met the opening of her womb again, kissing her.

Kyouko finally held herself steady, stopping mid-stroke to look Kento in the eye as she leaned in, whispering as her head rested on his shoulder. "Please, cum inside me."

Kento smiled as Kyouko unwound her arms from behind him and lay back, crashing onto the softness of the futon below. Kento crept forward, inserting himself deeper into her as he mounted her.

Slowly, Kento pulled out, and then with one quick thrust, the base of his cock slammed into Kyouko. She gasped underneath him, her mind screaming with pleasure as her hands clutched at his back as he plunged into her. Her pussy squeezed even tighter around his cock as she tried to get her bearings, but the pleasure was too intense.

But she knew one thing: she wanted Kento, and moving her head up, still half-blind, she knew she wanted more of him. Their mouths intertwined once more, Kyouko's lips pressing against Kento's face, her tongue invading his mouth, feeling his teeth.

Kyouko's face was a mess, streaked with sweat, and her pupils transformed into the shape of hearts. "More..."

He wanted to give it to her so badly. He had drawn out her desire for so long and now she didn't hesitate in trying to sucking him dry, every inch of her walls, every piece of her being sucking in him, dragging him underneath an ocean of pleasure.

Kento shuddered, and then he went hard and fast. Again and again, Kento pumped into her relentlessly. Kyouko bounced back and forth against the ground, feeling as if Kento was trying to bore into her as if she was about to split apart.

Finally, he tired, slowing down as he slammed into Kyouko one last time. She wrapped her legs around Kento as he released inside her. He descended on her, as he released load after load inside her. Then, she moved in, closing the distance between them.

Kyouko and Kento kissed.

At that moment, there was no difference between Human and Youkai, just a need: the warmth between two bodies, the echoing, wet sounds of their sex, and each other.

Slowly, the two separated, enraptured.

Outside, the rain had stopped, letting rays of light through the walls. Kyouko held onto Kento as bird song fluttered through the air. Inside their personal bubble, Kento hugged her and rolled over. She Laid flat against him in their own little world, her eyes fluttering, drowsiness overtaking her as she felt the warmth within her stomach. Kento couldn't stay awake either, and the two drifted off to sleep, unaware of Nue snooping from a distance or a slightly furious Byakuren who stood outside the room.

Sakuya Izayoi is her name. Capable of manipulating… time.

The hell! He narrowly dodged being trampled by a donkey and its grouchy tender, saving himself from falling into the fragile rice sprouts. Those two were on the wrong side, having pushed aside a couple ahead of you, and were now entering a spat with another party behind. Whatever. No shortage of asses and assholes in either world.

He took his final appraisal of the fortune slip, shaking his head. There would be plenty of time to scrutinize the auspicious piece of paper later.

Or maybe not. He had received a phonograph with a wobble from the Hieda household this morning, a rush order for a priority client. There was still the mechanical calculator, a real retro doozy proposing two and two was three. It was a key job, from a respected acquaintance who also happened to be one of the few reliable sources of imported stuff. Then there were all those orders for more of the karakuri mini-automatons. The little dolls could dance, wave a flag, or pour tea, adding cultured liveliness for any room.

And he couldn’t fucking wait for the craze over the inane grinning toys to end. Yet the more he arduously pieced together, the more the backlog grew. And they broke so often, their owners accusing him with nothing but their eyes that it was his shoddy workmanship, not their awful keeping. He consoled himself: the dolls had allowed him to build up a solid nest egg and it would all be over soon anyways. Fads are like that.

He felt the fortune crinkle slightly in his pocket as he walked into the village. Discarded slips could already be seen on the path from the shrine, mostly misfortunes. Another day, another fad. He’d keep his, the handwritten slip had a charm and he needed all the “Great Fortune” he could get.

Leaving behind the hawkers and other pedestrians, he slid away from the main streets until he was almost alone in approaching his home. One person remained, waiting for him. Under the shade of the gnarled tree by the door was “Great Fortune” herself, as dazzlingly crisp as ever.

“Ms... Maid.” He had felt the urge to test the other name, but decided against it. It didn’t sound right in his head. Not yet.

“Mr. Tinkerer.” She nods back to him. Her voice is clear with a deeper edge. She holds two bulging bags, fresh vegetables poking out of one, boxed village goods the other.

He unlocked the door and holds it open for the guest. “Pocket watch again? I thought I had fixed it just last month.”

“Not quite.” She left her shopping on the low shelf by the door. “Allow me to show you.”

He followed her into the central space of his workshop. It was a tight fit for two. Shelves and racks took up every spot on the walls, some for simple storage, others displaying ticking clocks, mechanical birds, solar systems, waving cats, miniature trains. Neither gave the mechanical artifacts more than passing attention.

There were also outreaching arms to avoid, articulated limbs of wood and metal rods that sprung from the four workbenches in the room. Intricate subassemblies, trays of tiny components, and gleaming precision tools suspended by mechanical hands surrounded the partially disassembled projects on three of the benches, like an exploded view out of a diagram book. The joints of the arms could be locked in place and the hands manipulated to various configurations, or replaced entirely with magnifiers, drills, or other heavier tools. They were a terrific help in his work.

Two of the benches were stationed by the rear sliding door. The remaining two were placed under windows. As the sun moved, at least one bench stayed in the light, allowing every hour of day to be worked.

He did have lamps, but the flames were weak and filled the room with smoke. The uneven light would force squinting at miniscule parts as he played keep-away with the shadow of his fingers. It was going to be a long evening.

The maid stopped before the unoccupied bench.

“Oh.”

Where there had been a clearing on the scratched surface was now the spot of a clock. It was a premier work of painted enamel and gilt trim, a wonderous tabletop piece on four carved legs. But the flaw was obvious: even as the early afternoon sun shone through the windows, the dial was confident it was the hour of the constellations.

The uncanny way it just… appeared, unaccompanied by sound or flash, stunned him no matter how many times she pulled the move.

The tinkerer is reminded of something an old friend had showed him in a game. In that virtual reality, the 3D avatar, armored up like some Norse berserker, could pause the world by looking into his inventory, select an item to be dropped, then return to the world to see the object instantly render in. A convenient power, and easily abused. They had laughed manically as, computer shuddering and whining, several thousand cheese wheels poofed into existence, filling the houses and flowing down the streets.

Gensokyo from the maid’s perspective, he figured with some humor, must work the same way, with her as the adventuring dragonslayer and him as the ever-obliging shopkeeper.

He refocused on the new job, testing the weight of the clock. The polished surface was cool to the touch. The maid had placed a dainty placemat of silk underneath the piece, a tasteful arrangement that brought sophistication to even an old workbench.

The hands might be jammed on a dried husk of an ant or a stretched gear, or maybe the whole mechanism was corroded into a disfigured brown mass that the maid’s mysterious employer had only now decided to get fixed. Whatever the fault was, he would be fixing it, restoring life to the antique treasure without a mark on the exterior. In return, he could expect prompt and generous payment, and access to the exotic goods only the maid’s household could provide. The routine was familiar now, no longer needing words to agree upon or hands to shake.

Curiosity still tickling, and feeling confident of holding the last key needed to solve the puzzle, he turned his head and blurted out the question: “Seriously, what is the secret behind your teleport trick?”

“Oh?” She seemed amused at his bafflement. “You realize I flew here, right?”

“I got over the flying. There’s acceleration, you gals fly at different speeds, it’s all explainable by some underlying mechanism. Not a clue what that might be exactly, but… that’s all I need. But this—” he waved at the clock “— just doesn’t make sense.”

“Consider it a natural talent.”

“I agree, Ms. Maid, but your talent isn’t just sleight of hand.” He straightened out the fortune slip and held it up to her, clipped between two knuckles. “Your secret, revealed!”

“Oh my. I didn’t know you were interested in that kind of stuff.” She scoffed, plucking the slip from him, raising an eyebrow as she reads the name. “I remember we agreed that fortune telling was nothing more than comfort for the foolish.”

“Well, yeah, but everyone was talking about it, and uh, I got curious.” He throws out a joke, “It’s not every day you see the shrine maiden looking that cheery!”

“True.” The maid handed the fortune back to the tinkerer. “Congratulations on the draw, by the way.”

“Who even made these? The shrine maiden?”

“Mostly. A few others including myself helped out.”

He had an inkling who she meant, probably the colorful panel of judges at the “fireworks” contest. “Guessing you all gave yourselves the best fortunes?”

“There were many fortunes greater than mine in the pool. Like that white hare’s.” The maid took the question seriously, thinking with one finger on her chin. The light from the window caught on her slender neck like carved alabaster. “And that celestial’s. Regardless, I did not write my own. I believe it was Marisa who did. She was very kind, honestly.”

Marisa, huh? The out of season trick or treater could be seen from a mile away. But he did not fully believe the maid.

“Very funny about that. I actually felt some of these fortunes were a little too on the dot. Let’s see... it’s this one about work. Business is booming, but you know I failed to get an apprentice this spring.”

“You’re hardly the only one with that problem.”

“There’s some other ones—"

“Fortune doesn’t exist, but effort does. You shouldn’t let vague words affect you so.” Her words are firm, but then softened. “Do you feel bad working alone?”

“No—maybe.” He admitted with a half-formed grin. “But I didn’t make as good a sell as I could’ve. Can’t blame the kids, either. To their parents, I’m nothing but a crippled foreigner with a knack for fixing trinkets.”

“I could speak to my Lady on your behalf...” She’s serious, isn’t she? He couldn’t meet her sapphire eyes.

“And work for who they call a vampire?” The maid only tilted her head at his words. His sarcastic laugh died in his throat. “I… I’ll keep it in mind. But I’m not so sure your lady would want someone like me. I’m nothing but good hands, and I lost my best one.”

“You must not be like that. You’ve done well for yourself.” She gestured towards the bench with partially finished karakuri.

“Only in Gensokyo, where electronics are magic and my high school diploma puts me in the village’s educated elite. And it’s all dumb luck that the Hiedas wanted of those dumb automatons, so now every other prominent family needs one. It’s money sure, but a curse, too” he complained, unable to contain it. “If kintsugi suddenly became fashionable, these people would be throwing their bowls on the ground by the set. It’s all a game of social standings and money and if you can’t keep the pace, you’re tossed like a rotten fruit…”

His cheeks felt aflame. His left hand rose, halfway to cover his face, but not confident enough to make it all the way there. “Sorry. I’m being childish—”

He tried his best to quash the darkness¬ that had led him to Gensokyo in the first place. He had been treated rather well, objectively speaking, and he did not wish to gamble again, dreading the other realms he now understood were waiting. Sakuya put her hand on his, lowering it. He breathed deeply.

“You’ll be working through the night, then?”

“Yeah…” He forced himself to smile. “Tough, but when I get into it, it’ll go fast. It’s like my own little time power.”

She curled her fingers around his right shoulder, running down to where it tapered off. The sensitive touch put a hitch in his breath.

“Both of us will need our rest,” she said, softly.

“I’d like to,” he muttered back. His fingers fluttered on his trouser leg. “Badly. I’ve missed you.”

“You’re curious, but do you truly want to understand what it means to manipulate time?”

“…I do.” The fingers stilled.

“Very well.” The way her lips curled immediately set off a volley of alarm. “Stand here, please.”

“Okay…?” He did as she asked. “What’s—”

In a blink, the room became dark, every window and door shut and cloaked in blue shadow. With the articulated arms, the furniture transformed into a blocky centipede encircling him and the maid. The tinkerer also found himself stark naked. The floor was cool on his toes.

Like something from a nightmare, he thought, before action finally seized him. His shoulders twitched, arm shooting to cover his crotch. He felt exposed in front of the fully uniformed maid. But his hand never got there. It couldn’t.

“Wait—” His shoulders flexed, but every time his hand dived down, it’s displaced back to his side. The barest hint of touch echoed on the skin of his wrist. He looked back up, eyes accusing. “Hey!”

The maid couldn’t help but giggle at the sight. A neat stack of clothes sat next to the clock on the bench. His clothes. They even looked freshly pressed. His belongings, including a pocket watch, were lined up perfectly on the bench as well.

The realization hit, his nakedness forgotten. The full processing of what had happened, her power, its implications, churned in his mind.

“It’s true! It’s Incredible! I mean… I mean with an ability like that, you could do pretty much anything! The possibilities… you could master any skill, work and rest whenever you want. A whole day done in 5 minutes, no! An entire week… I mean, are you immor—"

She was there, instantly, right in front of him, leaning in. Her breath was light on his neck. Her fragrant apron tickled where it lapped at his bare skin, particularly at chest level, and also increasingly down there. He felt the heat and more rising between his legs.

“There more interesting things I can do.” The faint blue of her eyes swallowed his own.

The precipice of these sessions always stung with a final doubt what such a gorgeous woman saw in his mediocre, incomplete self. But he always shrugged it off. “Teach me.”

Whatever remained of doubt was flushed away, not by her hands or her body or her lips, but by the sudden horniness that occupied his whole body. His cock was rigid, tingling ferociously. No, she had used her hands, he suspected, but how? He pitifully attempted to hold back, clenching, but it did nothing to stop a swell of pleasure that fluttered his eyes.

“Wha…” He looked around, shocked, still twitching down there. Yet there was no mess or maid anywhere.

Then he felt her fingers on the back of his neck, followed by her chin. A warmth and two soft points pressed into his back. He reached behind, instinct guiding him, and felt a luscious leg. In the corner of his eye, he noticed her clothes sprawled messily over the clock. A split second later, they were tidied, folded in a stack next to his.

He grinned. “Nice— oh!”

He groaned. This woman! Once again, his cock throbbed on its own, possessed, and he had to brace on the side of a cabinet. His mind stayed cloudy, his lower half felt so… alive, as if it hadn’t already been used twice. There was more happening, but he couldn’t dwell on it. She was now in front of him, her slender, wonderful self completely bare.

He tried to say something, but her finger was there to shush him.

They caressed each other. He slid up her hip, tracing her navel with a thumb, sinking over her pert breast, brushing her silvery head. He untied braids, one after the other, setting aside the green ribbons. Twisted hair unfurled against her collarbone as he freed her headdress. The hand returned downward. He brushed past grey hairs, encountering the hot folds of flesh. She shuddered; her own hands mirrored his explorations.

They lifted each other out of the workshop, to the side room where a bed and other essentials had been stuffed. She eased him onto the raised futon, laying him down, cock raised like a pillar into the air. But she did not join him in the way he anticipated.

Heat, and an intoxicating wetness enveloped and then vanished from his groin in the same compressed moment; he felt sensations everywhere, all at once, from sensitive flutters on his chest to a transient pressure on his pelvis, which then buckled under the stunning release. His hand fell back down, unable to grip a rear that wasn’t there anymore. If he ever fucked a ghost, it would probably feel something like this.

Again, his exhausted cock was reinvigorated unnaturally quick, paced perfectly for the maid’s renewed assault. She was on him, kissed him on the chin, to the neck. He managed a tantalizing feel of the angular bones of her back. She lowered herself onto him and he thrust. Then she was gone.

“Ah, fuck—" He couldn’t help but let out a moan. She did it again! The pleasure of sex exploded all over his body. But this time the orgasm did not resolve. It went on, and on, the pent-up energy unable to escape. The tinkerer tried desperately to lower his tensed hips or move his feet, but everything felt entombed in warmed, thick jelly. His hand flailed around, gripping the sheets, trying to assist his stone-hard penis to no avail. The fingers felt odd, like the force was being refracted, slowed. Even the hairs resisted with the stiffness of steel wire.

He looked helplessly to the side where the maid waved at him. She had her head on her hands and elbows on the bed, observing him with a delighted fascination.

He remained in this annihilating state for a subjective eternity, finally released with a shuddering gasp. Then the next lesson began. Eventually, he gave in, surrendering himself fully into the stop-start rhythm of her voiceless lectures as both student and experiment.

###

The maid and tinkerer sat on the frame bed, resting against each other. The sliding door for the bedroom had been opened, their naked bodies basking in the afternoon. He looked out the door, utterly unafraid, gazing over the backyard. Hemmed in by fences and bushes, there was a well, and a small outdoor oven. No breeze blew.

He finally understood what people meant by “deafening” silence. Not a single bird chirped, no distant blacksmith clinking away. The light wasn’t exactly the same either, he decided. It was still warm, but it cast a cool and subtle greyish sheen. In the maid’s private world, the differences could be great or small, real or imagined.

How any of this was possible, how he could see anything at all and stay breathing if time was truly stopped remained a mystery, but it didn’t bother him. At this point, just like the flying and the magic bullets, he had reached a satisfactory level of understanding. Any more was gratuitous and a waste. This was the common sense of Gensokyo.

She rested her head on his shoulder. Previous times involved a frenzy of passion, to take and give as much as they could before their respective responsibilities separated them again by weeks, or even months. This, he decided, was far sweeter. He felt even a little sleepy. The tyranny of the machine shop, of the quota, had no sway here.

One aspect of recent events left him unfulfilled, however.

“It’s an amazing power, but it’s not really fair I can’t do anything back,” he spoke, breaking the silence.

“I assure you, I lacked no satisfaction.” Her chest tickled his side as it rose and fell.

“But it’s not as satisfying for me. You could jerk me off in a fraction of a second, anytime, anywhere, and I couldn’t do—

Pleasure rushed through him again. He had somewhat expected this and angled himself as the surge rattled his groin, to avoid dirtying the bed.

She had allowed him to feel a final drop squeeze its way out, see the splatter on the ground. Then it all vanished, his shaft cleaned. Only his racing pulse and the afterglow suffused in his bones was proof of the deed. He never felt her head even twitch.

“…that’s what I mean. It’s a really one-sided power!” He breathed, squeezing her thigh a little in protest.

“Power corrupts.” Her expression looked so sincere, but those smug dimples said far more.

“You’ve been corrupting me all afternoon, or however long it’s actually been.” His instincts failed him again: so many clocks on display, yet all were rendered as worthless as the maid’s broken one. “How long could you keep this up?”

“How much bread do you keep in your pantry?” Her eyes glinted. “How much water can be drawn from your well?”

“Good point, but—" He raises a finger “—If you can speed up parts of a human body, you should be able to speed up crops too. And we have a lake…"

“So much praise about my ability.” Her cheek leaves his side. “I hope you don’t forget about the rest of me.”

“I’d never, but there hasn’t been a chance to prove it.”

She was silent. He never bothered her when she pondered.

She rose and returned to the workshop. He watched curiously as she took his pocket watch off the bench. It was a blocky bronze piece, a square form with rounded corners. He considered it a practical tool with dials for regular timekeeping, a chronograph’s stopwatch, and even a timer. She stood there, doing something with it. The way the light hugged her backside was breathtaking.

When she came back, her voice was subdued. “For now, and only now, when you set the stopwatch, my ability will be activated for you. Reset it again to return.”

“That easy?” He asked, unsure but excited.

She handed the timepiece to him with both hands, the offering as her answer. He gingerly reached out, placed his hand in hers, felt warm fingers, the cool burnished metal, and that button, visually unchanged yet almost electric against his thumb. He squeezed.

She didn’t react as he removed the pocket watch and placed it on the bed. He rose slowly, snapped his fingers in front of her face, poked her nose, brushed her hair. Not even a twitch. Her eyes remained fixed on her empty hands, pupils partially widened.

She wasn’t pretending. This was real.

He walked around her. Her body was still like some classical sculpture, and in his layman’s opinion, far more beautiful to reckon. Unlike stone, her skin remained warm and soft, her limbs pliable. Regardless, she was now his to explore, no felt ropes or stern signs to stop him.

He knelt down. There was a droplet of sweat on her outer thigh. He pushed it around, enraptured at how the liquid dollop could be circled about, moved up and down the pale skin, or squashed into a toroidal shape.

Enough playing around. Time for some payback.

Except for some problems. Whatever magic it was made her significantly lighter. He tried to separate her hands, but the rest of her body kept shifting with the motion. Awkwardly clamping her with his legs did little better, the two of them almost falling over. His arm dropped with frustration. He stopped it from hatefully gripping the absent traitor on the right. Think!

Wait. He picked her up at the waist like a mannequin and took her into the workshop.

“Priorities,” he grunted. The closest bench happened to be occupied by a nearly complete karakuri, a pair set meant to bounce a pearly bead representing a kemari ball on a gossamer wire strung between the participant’s tiny shoes. With hasty contempt, the players were swept aside. The delicate set froze mid-topple, saved from the hardwood floor. One head had detached, hovering an inch away from its neck.

“I call upon you, my friends!” He tore the tools off their arms, conscripting them for a vastly more urgent cause. A low stool was rolled away, and some bedding and a pillow hastily thrown on top of the workbench. Then the maid took her spot on the padded surface, curved into an odd, sitting-like pose.

Rubber grips were moved to support her back and brace her arms. Her legs had been parted, the lower half of her body floating at him. He knelt. From this angle, her restrained expression could be taken as an almost dismissive challenge. He teased with his fingers, relishing the bends of the flesh down there, then brought his tongue in play, working until his mouth felt raw. His cock stood ready again, but he didn’t need it yet.

He moved her to a more stable position on the bench. With the stopwatch in hand again, he pressed the button.

If there was an elegant way to experience pleasure, only the maid could pull it off. She breathed in sharply, arching her back and rolled her shoulders back in one fluid motion. The tension gripped her, winding down slowly.

She breathed out from her mouth, glancing around the changed environment. “Mm. I was dreading what you—"

He set the watch down. His heart pounded just looking at her blushing face, lips halted mid-speech and eyes narrowed, all framed by disheveled silver hair. It had worked, but could he do better?

A glorious image popped up. He’d need a dildo, and a slide-crank mechanism, and some kind of power, pedal-based? Could some engine be devised to remain unfrozen? It’d require more experiments, more tests. He shook his head. Right now, he had to work with what he had.

Parts coalesced together in his mind. He did have a wooden wheel. And a string of lacquer beads in this box over here. The pedals, colorful and chipped plastic nostalgia, would be donated from the old bicycle outside. The chain was long gone, but there were alternatives for that. It would be ramshackle, but he had plenty of time to make it work. No one could judge him on craftsmanship in this absolute privacy. The tools he needed located, he almost reached to get dressed, but stopped. There was no point.

One section of linen scrap was cut and pieced into a belt. He adjusted the height of the stool and installed the pedals with some leftover structural components. Two of the articulated arms would grip the axel for the beaded wheel. The lubricant already present, he tested with a thumb, would do nicely.

He aligned the beads with the maid and took his seat, and started on a slow pace. It was a narrow fit, the belt barely avoiding his own crotch. As he pedaled, he entertained himself with the maid’s body. He chuckled to himself, doubting many men in history could claim this kind of view while exercising. The overall quiet, broken up by the gentle creaking and squeaking of the spinning machine, made a fine place to read, or even work on something.

As the initial excitement was replaced with a relaxed patience, his earlier thoughts returned. He stretched to grab the fortune slip off the adjacent bench.

“I don’t believe in fortunes either. That’s why this stuck out to me.” He read off the slip to the frozen maid. “I’ve talked about the work stuff already, but other than not having enough hands, I guess things really are looking up these days.

“Even the language is starting to click. A lot fewer misunderstandings and work is easier. It’s like a… what is it… a positive feedback cycle? But it wouldn’t have kicked off without your encouragement.

“You’ve always reminded me to take breaks.”

Skip love.

“And nagged me over keeping the shop clean. And I guess starting this shop itself was sort of a gamble.

“The baking is going well too. I can actually swallow my bread without water now.

“And…” He glanced at his pocket watch set next to the maid’s. Actually, that explained how he felt so well rested the previous times they napped together, as if a full night’s sleep had been folded into mere minutes. “…yeah. I do prefer it over my regular watch. It’s there when I need it, out of sight when it’s not.”

“And returning to this one… ‘All the time in the world.’ I believe it.”

###

Sweating, legs sore, he moved the wheel away and replaced the maid back on the bed. As he returned for the stopwatch, he again noticed the pair of dolls trapped mid-fall. A sense of regret filled him at the sight.

He gently scooped up the dolls and brought them back to the bench. The string in this leg had snapped due to the blow. A waste. He rapidly replaced it. He reattached the head, adjusted the connector. Then, since he was sitting here already, he brought more parts and finished the piece entirely, finally winding it all up. He watched as the first figure kicked the bead with a soft tick, launching the pearly sphere in the air. But as it neared the end of its arc, the bead slowed… stopping completely, suspended just above the opposite doll’s foot.

He stared disbelievingly, before groaning. Right, he was in the middle of something.

Back at the bed, he gazed down at her slender form, drinking in her curves, the perfect tones and colors that made up the maid. She held so much power, yet was so vulnerable like this.

“…Sure kept you waiting. Sorry,” he sheepishly said. He knelt on the bed, and sat her up. With a firm grip around her torso, he inserted himself into her, gasping at the preserved slickness, the encompassing heat. He met her gaze; her eyes were liquid, alive, just paused. For the first time that day, he was in control of his pleasure as he kissed her neck, her chest, giving special attention to the firmed nipples. He swayed and thrust for both of them, gradually building up the pace. The pressure of hours of working and waiting roiled, spreading through him, tingling his feet, up his legs, before bursting out.

He curiously studied the globules of semen trapped amber-like in the still air. They cast a shadow over the shallow valley between her breasts, barely reaching the hair over her crotch. One lazy scoop with a towel made for a simple clean up.

He kissed her a final time. He raised the stopwatch. He looked upon her face.

“Sakuya Izayoi.”

Those became his magic words. The maid’s exhale was her answer as she returned to life.

“—wou—uud!” She cut herself off with a yelp, eyes rolling up before they shut entirely. Her body began to convulse and her limbs spasmed, her back locked under the powerful, shattering orgasm.

The maid fell back, laying on the tinkerer, their warm bodies slicked into one. He held her steady as the pleasure quivered in her and through him. He caressed her smooth arm, rolling her fingers in his. Her breathing slowly steadied.

“I heard that squeak,” He whispered.

“Don’t… expect such an easy win next time…”

The exhausted lovers cuddled together on the bed, drifting off. Outside the workshop, the world was still. On a nearby tree, shaded by leaves mid-flutter, a mother bird held a worm over her greedy brood, patiently waiting for the humans to awaken.

"... and I'm the strongest, remember! It's important! Make sure you write down that I'm the strongest!"

Marisa stifled a grin as Cirno poked her. "Yeah, yeah, I wrote it down. See, it's right here in my notes, 'kay? Your fortune is the strongest."

The ice fairy squinted at Marisa's notebook. "That's fine then! As long as you remember. It's important."

Yep, fairies can't read kanji, thought Marisa as Cirno flew off. So long as nobody explains to her it actually means 'strongest misfortune', I'm safe. Heh-heh.

Marisa knew pranking fairies was childish of her, but she needed a cheap laugh; the past three days had been exhausting. When Reimu had asked Marisa for her help with an omikuji fortune stand for the upcoming festival, she had readily agreed to help out her best friend. Only then did Reimu reveal the scope of the project: dozens of different fortunes, all with original writing based on the youkai, gods, and other figures of Gensokyo. And she was expecting Marisa to help write the rough draft! Reimu had handed over a template and a list of fortunes for Marisa to write, and half the names on the list Marisa could barely remember. But she wasn't about to admit that to Reimu, and she didn't want to let Reimu down or do a shoddy job. So she'd been flying all over Gensokyo, interviewing youkai to refresh her memory and write proper profiles on them. And now, with Cirno taken care of, there was only one name left on her list.

Well, she thought, making her way back home through the forest in the twilight, now I get a rest. Heh-heh.

Doremy Sweet, the baku who presided over the Dream World, was not an easy youkai to meet. Or more precisely, even if you met her, in the morning you'd forget all about it. But there had been a few incidents recently that had brought residents of the Dream World into the real world and vice versa, and they had stirred Marisa's curiosity about the nature of the two worlds and the boundary between them. One of Marisa's areas of magical research over the past year or so had been the creation of a means of entering the Dream World while still conscious, and as luck would have it, she had a prototype ready for a trial run. An incense made with equal parts dormitive and stimulant mushroom extracts, with a heaping helping of hallucinogens in the mix: Dream Spelunker. Anyone sleeping while breathing in the fumes would be suspended on the border of REM and non-REM sleep, allowing their waking self to slip safely into the Dream World and explore. Probably. That was the theory, anyway. This omikuji project would be a perfect opportunity to test it.

Marisa cleared some half-finished projects off the table by her futon and set up her incense burner. She dropped in the prototype dose of Dream Spelunker, lit it up, and took a big whiff of the resulting smoke.

Wow, that is... not a great smell. Musty and mushroomy, burnt peanut-buttery... I should try adding some vanilla or cinnamon when I make Dream Spelunker Mk. II. She scribbled out a quick note, then settled into her futon and let drowsiness wash over her. She eased her body into the first relaxation she'd really had in a few days of zipping all around, and she started to feel a creeping ache of sexual thirst in her loins. With the end to her toils in sight, her body was asking her to show it some appreciation and deal with the needs she'd been putting off. She wasn't quite done with the job yet, but she groggily reached her hand inside her bloomers, fingers tracing over her clitoris and triggering a small earthquake of pleasure in her lower body. She ran her other hand over her slit and began to finger herself.

Marisa conjured up a well-worn fantasy: Reimu, fully nude, lying on top of the donation box at the shrine. Marisa followed the curve of her naked body in her mind's eye, from her inviting and seductive armpit, past her perky perfect breasts, down her side and over her ribs that showed under her flawless skin as she breathed, to her hips and her soft and just slightly plump ass. This time she would imagine Reimu was showing gratitude for her hard work in helping prepare for the festival.

"You're always there when I need you," said the Reimu of Marisa's imagination. "You're such a reliable friend, you deserve a reward." Reimu would climb on top of Marisa, stripping off her witch outfit in a frenzy of passion and pushing her wet pussy lips in her face to be licked. Marisa would slip her tongue into the folds of Reimu's vagina and explore that sacred wonderland in detail.

"Mnahhh," Marisa moaned, twisting around in her futon, but her body's craving for sex was battling with its need for sleep. Her exhaustion-addled brain drew a blank trying to come up with the next sexy scenario, and their imagined lovemaking grew fuzzy and indistinct in her mind. She tried to keep rubbing her clit, but her fingers were growing clumsy, and any pleasure she was gaining was dampened, like a wild party being heard through a thick wall.

Marisa knew she wasn't going to be able to cum like this with just her fingers. To do it right, she'd need to get up and get some help from her broom in reaching her deepest pleasurable spots, but her limbs were growing heavier and heavier and masturbation no longer seemed like a good enough reason to stay awake. Her hands slackened inside her drawers as she descended into slumber...

Opening her eyes, Marisa found herself standing in the middle of an orchard. Blinking and swiveling her head, she took stock of her surroundings. Around her stretched row after row of tall, sturdy peanut trees. The trees were clearly laden with a bumper peanut crop, but their trunks were unbowed by the weight, remaining firmly erect and thrusting rigidly toward the sky. Marisa reflected that she didn't know what raw peanuts actually looked like on the tree, and she was pretty sure come to think of it that peanuts didn't even grow on trees, but she could definitely tell those were peanut trees. Which meant...

Nice! she thought. I made it to the Dream World still able to think straight. Good work, Dream Spelunker!

She was still feeling horny, but it was definitely time to get back to work. The next step in the planned experiment was to find Doremy Sweet so she could interview her. Last time Marisa was in the Dream World, passing through on her way to the Moon, it was a straight passageway through the starry night sky, and all she had to do to find Doremy was head forward. But that had been a passage created by the Lunarians, and this time she was here under her own power and things looked very different. In this stout and robust thicket of peanuts, she wasn't sure where to head. But hey, she'd figure something out.

Well, let's start with something silly but easy. "Baku, oh baku, your nose is so long," Marisa called out in a sing-song voice, her voice disappearing into the endless rows of peanut trees. She stepped forward and rapped her knuckles three times on the nearest tree's hard trunk. "Baku, oh baku, who do you love? Baku, oh baku, come out, come out!" A cross between a nursery rhyme and a magic spell, she had made it up off the top of her head, but if this world worked on dream logic...

A blue-haired youkai in a nightcap and a fluffy black-and-white gown stepped out from behind a tree, tail trailing behind her. Doremy Sweet, ruler of dreams.

"Oh, little miss magician from Gensokyo," cooed Doremy, "back again so soon? You must be really pent-up, you poor thing. Don't worry, your sweet Doremy is here to bring you some goooood dreams. Just let me get changed."

In the interval from one glance to the next, instead of a black-and-white gown, Doremy had switched to a red-and-white shrine maiden outfit with big white detached sleeves. Her red nightcap was replaced by a red bow for her ponytail and red hair tubes for her bangs. Marisa boggled at seeing the baku's smug face in Reimu's shrine maiden outfit, then boggled further as she cast her glance at the lower body. A large bulge was suddenly protruding and pitching a serious tent in the outfit's skirt.

As Marisa stood boggling, Doremy sashayed over to her side, tail swishing behind her. She wasted no time in draping herself over Marisa, pressing her hardness against the witch's thigh and lightly grabbing her breast. "I've got something big and hard and just for you," she whispered breathily, directly into Marisa's ear. Doremy's other hand reached down to pull up her dress, lingering with a feather touch against her thigh and then reaching to untie her bloomers.

Something big and hard sounded awful appealing to Marisa, but the omikuji interview should come first. "Actually, before that, I came here on a little bit of a quest. See, there's a festival comin' up in Gensokyo, and the shrine is gonna haveeeeeEEEGKHRGL!" The hand had finished removing her underwear and started tickling its way through her pubes, rendering her incoherent.

"A quest? Oh my dear Marisa, that's not the type of dream you want. Not when you are dripping with lust like this." Doremy's hand had made its way down to Marisa's vagina, which was wet and quivering, begging to be penetrated. "You can play superhero in a bit, but this is the first course."

Doremy's cock grew and grew and poked its way free of her skirt, revealing itself in all its proud glory. Marisa was panting, she was so thirsty for it. The interview could wait after all.

"Ahhh, Dor... Reimu! I want your big rod!"

Doremy nuzzled up to Marisa and started gently stroking her hair. Marisa reached down to grab the baku's penis, hot and throbbing in her hand, and guided it towards her waiting vagina. Doremy pulled Marisa into a tight embrace, sticking out her tongue and giving the side of her face a big lick. Then suddenly she recoiled.

"That taste! What is... what have you done?!?"

The grove of peanuts spun away, and when Marisa's surroundings re-stabilized she was sitting on top of a metal stool in a featureless metal room. She was now entirely nude, and a bright spotlight glared harshly on her skin. Her body was still flushed from the foreplay, but it didn't seem like she was getting her sweet dream with Reimu after all. She shifted on the stool to try to cover up her hard nipples and damp pussy.

Doremy stood in front of her, confused and angry. No longer sporting that tantalizing penis, she was back to wearing her black-and-white gown, but she was wearing a tweed deerstalker hat and holding a giant magnifying glass, through which she was peering at Marisa's exposed body. Marisa shifted position again.

"You have your real self in there, don't you!" Doremy thrust an accusing finger in Marisa's face.

Uh-oh.

After Marisa explained about Dream Spelunker and her reasons for coming to the Dream World, Doremy seemed to calm down a bit. At least, her face went from "angry glare" to "bemused smirk". She still hadn't given Marisa her clothes back, or let her off the interrogation stool.

"You people of Gensokyo need to learn to sleep when you're asleep and wake up when you're awake. Honestly, it's becoming a problem."

"I didn't think it would be an issue, I just wanted to ask ya some questions," Marisa said meekly. "I, uh, don't have my notebook on me right now, but no worries, my memory is solid as a rock."

"Oh, there are some worries, Miss Kirisame of the Real World. You don't seem to understand the situation you're in."

"I'm sittin' naked on an uncomfortable chair and you got me all worked up and left me hangin', plus I haven't gotten through a single question of my interview."

"Forget your interview!" Doremy's smirk cracked a bit. "I'm saying this for your benefit. You came here under the influence of an experimental drug, without a thought about the side effects. Ordinarily, you can't be here as your Real World self, only your dream soul should be capable of being in the Dream World. What your 'Dream Spelunker' has done is crammed your real soul inside of your dream soul and smuggled it in that way."

"Yeah! That's how I figured it, hitchin' a ride with the dream soul was gonna be the best way to get in. That's the whole basis of the design. So what's the problem?"

"The problem is, there's not enough room. As a spelunker, you have to be careful of tight spaces, right? You're stuck."

"Stuck?"

"Your soul is pressed in so tight that it won't be able to get back out in the morning. It'll remain here, wedged inside your dream soul. Your body will wake up without a soul, and you'll be left here as a butterfly's dream of being a human. I don't know what'll happen to your body. Perhaps it will just lie there until it slowly disappears, perhaps it will become possessed by a wandering spirit and become a youkai. Perhaps your body will wake up without you and go on living your life like normal, and nobody but you and I will ever know the difference."

Marisa squirmed. "Right, OK, don't want that. So how do I get unstuck?"

"Well, let's see..." Doremy ogled her with the magnifying glass some more. "A sharp shock to the spirit should dislodge you, I think. It would have to be very strong. A pointed impetus of emotional disturbance powerful enough to knock you free of the dream you're wedged into."

"Impetus of emotional... like what? You're gonna sneak up behind me and shout 'boo'? Tell me a tearjerking story?"

"The strongest single moment of emotional disturbance would be the peak of an orgasm."

"..."

"You're really wedged in tight. It's gonna have to be a big one."

A smile was creeping onto Marisa's face in spite of herself. "Well hey, if that's what it's gonna take. I'm still all warmed up, so you can change back and we can pick up where we left off."

Doremy's expression grew wistful. "No, I'm afraid that won't be good enough. As far as my personal preference goes, sweet dreams are the tastiest, but I know your dream self's desires. I know what it will take to give you that sharp impetus. What you crave most, deep inside, is a dream that's dark and bitter."

The room whirled and shifted. Doremy seemed to glow with ominous power as the rest of the light in the environment was sucked away. The stool vanished from under Marisa and she toppled, SPLAT!, her bare ass landing on the muddy ground.

Marisa took a moment to regain her bearings. She was outside again, surrounded by trees, but no longer the neat rows of the peanut orchard. A wild, dark forest pressed in on all sides, illuminated by a full moon, leafy branches and thorny brush grasping malevolently from the shadows. The Forest of Magic's clinging miasma could be almost friendly once you got to know it; this chaotic overgrowth was simply predatory. She heard a wolf call out in the distance, and a chilly breeze began to blow over her body. With nothing to protect her from the elements, she shivered.

Doremy stood over Marisa, illuminated in radiant youkai energy. "You've done the most foolish thing a weak little human can do." She glared, and her outfit shifted. A white button-up shirt with a red plaid waistcoat, and a red plaid skirt with a flower ornament on the side. That's what Yuuka wears, that stupidly powerful flower youkai. A parasol appeared in Doremy's hand and she thrust it down in Marisa's face. "You walked willingly into the lair of a youkai."

"Youkai are the apex predator. This world belongs to us." The voice came from Marisa's left. She turned and saw - another Doremy? This one was wearing a blue dress with a bronze pauldron and a black overcoat, white fur pom-poms trailing at the bottom. She wore a blue tokin cap and carried a large tripod. A clone? Dressed up as the bigshot tengu Megumu? "You humans exist to live in fear of us, cowering in the safety of your village. When we catch you outside, it's all over for you."

From the right, now: "To a thousand-year-old youkai, you're nothing but a speck of dust." Marisa's head was spinning as she saw a third Doremy, in a form-fitting leather bodysuit. The multicolored sutra floating in the air next to her pegged her as... Byakuren? In her outfit from the urban legends incident? "You can never match our power, beauty, and perfection. Pretending to be brave, marching in like you're not afraid of monsters - we know what you really are. A crying child, waiting to be silenced."

A strong hand grabbed Marisa from behind and spun her around in the mud to face a fourth Doremy. This one was naked except for a purple sage's tabard covering the front of her body and a white mob cap on her head. Marisa felt a wrench in the pit of her stomach recognizing the nastiest youkai of all. She's even gonna be Yukari? "Yes, you've been doing things a human never should do, and you've earned some punishment."

Marisa got to her knees in the dirt and tried to say something, but she was reeling and all she could do was stammer. "Guh- eh- whaaa, Doremy? Punishment?"

Yukari-Doremy shifted her tabard aside, revealing a floppy cock hanging from her crotch. Slowly, like a stalking predator, it grew rigid, engorging itself to grow larger and larger as more youkai energy concentrated in it. Marisa knelt transfixed on the forest floor as it grew, until it was fully erect and she was face to face with its single shining eye.

"This is what you wished for, after all. All the time you were running around battling youkai, playing the heroic incident resolver, you really were hoping to lose. To be caught by a strong enemy, taken and mercilessly ravished with no hope of resistance, treated as a toy and then thrown away. What you wanted was to be a cum dumpster for youkai."

"I..." Marisa started to deny, but her words caught in her throat. The other three Doremys had pulled out their dicks as well, and she was surrounded on all four sides, caught like a rat in a trap. The more Doremy heaped abuse on her, the more her body heated up, burning back the cold night air of the forest. She was about to explode, her whole body was ringing like a tuning fork in the frequency of lust. She felt a splash of liquid on her breast, and realized she was drooling.

"Congratulations, it's finally happened," Megumu-Doremy sneered down at her from the side. "You're gonna get fucked just like you wanted, but first you have to admit it."

"Hah?"

"You're nothing but an ordinary pervert, yearning to be a sex toy for the things that go bump in the night. Say it! You're just a slut for youkai cock. Admit it!"

Marisa churned with emotions as the bakus stood cruelly over her. She wanted this. She was about to throw up. She was desperate for this. She was so horny she could cry. She was a magician, she was an incident resolver, she was a naked girl in the mud, she had her pride, she had her needs, she was lonely every night in her house in the woods and she NEEDED to get FUCKED right NOW. One emotion pushed its way out of the depths of her heart and overtook the rest. She clenched her eyes shut and screamed at the full moon.

"I'M A SLUT! FOR YOUKAI COCK!!!"

"Good girl," whispered Byakuren-Doremy.

The next moment, Yukari-Doremy grabbed Marisa roughly by the braid and yanked her forward, shoving her giant cock down her throat. Marisa felt like she ought to be choking - don't humans need to breathe? - but there was no time to examine the dream's logic as the baku's meat rod slammed in and out of her gullet. Marisa's face mashed into Yukari-Doremy's crotch, intoxicating her with the scent of a youkai in heat.

"Time for you to learn the difference between youkai and humans," came the voice from behind her.

Yuuka-Doremy was pulling her legs apart and lifting her up to get access to her dripping pussy. Suspended in the air between the two youkai, Marisa's whole body bucked and shuddered as Yuuka-Doremy inserted her penis. This was what she'd been waiting for. The lust ringing through her body went ultrasonic as the fat cock plunged into her, the folds of her vagina convulsing and tightening around the member like the paw of a greedy monkey that would sooner die than let go its prize. Yuuka-Doremy shifted her arms to hold her up her by the waist and began thrusting with inhuman strength in perfect rhythm with Yukari-Doremy in front.

"You like that?!" she shouted. "No human can fuck you like this. A dirty girl like you can't be satisfied by tiny pathetic human dicks. It's hopeless. You're a slave to youkai. There's no going back for you."

Marisa deliriously started to wonder whether that was true, started envisioning a new life as a cheap whore on Youkai Mountain, when suddenly, a SMACK! as Megumu-Doremy slapped her across her breasts with the tripod and brought her out of it.

"Come on, there's still two more youkai masters for you to satisfy. Put those weak human hands to the use they were made for!"

Marisa reached out her right hand and grabbed Megumu-Doremy's cock, stroking it back and forth. The hot penis in her hand was twitching in time with the thrusts of the other two Doremys.

"You're doing great," came a cooing in her left ear. "Just one more. Here we go." Byakuren-Doremy pushed her penis gently into Marisa's left hand, and she began stroking it as well. Now she was truly being fucked from all sides. The forest filled with the primal mating noises of the five women.

How long Marisa spent drowned in pleasure as a youkai cocksleeve, she had no way of guessing. Countless sex-drenched eons with the lust inside her building, always feeling ready to explode but never finding release. In the end, Yukari-Doremy was the first to go.

"Ah! Hah! Hah! I'm coming! Drink it! Drink it all down, you human slut!"

Yukari-Doremy's thick cum shot down Marisa's throat, scalding hot in her esophagus, and as the youkai pulled out her dick the fishy-tasting slime flowed copiously into her mouth. Even if she had wanted to, there was no way she could swallow all of that. Her lips erupted with sticky semen, flowing down her chin and onto the ground.

"Useless bitch!" cried Megumu-Doremy. "Can't even, hah, follow simple, mnnnngh, instructions AH I'M COMING!"

Megumu-Doremy sprayed semen on Marisa's face. She pulled her cock free from Marisa's hand and rubbed it through her hair as she continued to ejaculate, making sure Marisa's entire scalp was flooded with her seed, jizz flowing in a rivulet down the braid in her hair. Megumu-Doremy stepped away to admire the canvas she had covered in her paint, a satisfied expression on her face.

Yukari-Doremy pulled away as well and let Marisa fall forward, catching herself with her right hand as Yuuka-Doremy still held her from behind. Byakuren-Doremy slipped out of Marisa's left hand and ejaculated wildly, spattering cum all over Marisa's back and side. She circled in front of Marisa and got down on her knees, coming face to face with her and staring intently into her eyes.

"You're doing great," she whispered. "You've been very brave. I'm proud of you." Then she softy lifted Marisa's cum-stained face for a kiss.

As their tongues tenderly entwined, the pounding from behind stopped. Yuuka-Doremy pulled out and set Marisa back on solid ground once more. Byakuren-Doremy embraced her without breaking the kiss, gently stroking her back, from the nape of her neck down to her buttocks. The emotional whiplash from losing herself in animalistic pleasure to a sudden moment of loving warmth was too much for Marisa, and she began to cry. Doremy hugged her tightly, and the world whirled around them again. When Marisa looked up from her tears, they were in an opulent western-styled bedroom, just the two of them on a massive silk-sheeted bed, no more clones. No more costumes either, Doremy was now as stark-naked as Marisa, her flushed skin seeming to glow in the room's romantic candlelight. Marisa looked down. Doremy was still swinging quite a bat down there, she noted.

"You should be just about ready, now," said Doremy, her voice wavering as if she was about to cry too. "But I have one thing to ask... Could you do the moving at the end? For me?" She lay back on the bed, penis pointing straight up to the ceiling.

Marisa didn't need to be told twice. She leapt forward, lowered herself onto Doremy's pole, and started riding. Some last shred of sanity advised her Doremy would prefer it gentle, but she was lost in the throes of sexual frustration and rode her savagely, slamming the tip of Doremy's penis hard against her womb over and over. She needed this, she was starving for it, and even if she had wanted to, she couldn't stop herself from taking it as rough and hard as she could. She bent down to squeeze Doremy's breasts and saw her face contort with pleasure in response. She bounced even faster as she mashed Doremy's soft breast meat between her fingers.

"That's good! Marisa! So good! I'm gonna cum! Cum with me Marisa! I'm cumming...!"

Marisa was a bowstring under too much tension, a boiler that had been far overpressure for far too long. As the hot youkai semen flooded her womb, the orgasm that had been building all this time finally broke its shackles and ripped through her body. Every muscle from her jaw to her toes convulsed at once, like she was trying to tear herself apart, and her knees dug sharply into Doremy's pelvis. The inside of her head went white, then went all the way through white to fill her vision with scintillating colors she'd never seen before. For the first time in Marisa's life, she could swear she saw the eight million gods. She fell on top of Doremy's soft warm body, gasping for breath as the echoes of the orgasm rippled through her. A primal scream tore itself from her throat-

-and she sat bolt upright in her futon, howling alone in her house in the woods with no one to hear her.

After a few minutes of shocked blinking and gawping she managed to piece herself back together. Yes, she was in her familiar messy bedroom, and the few intrepid rays of morning sun that had dared venture into the Forest of Magic were streaming in her window. She felt at her crotch, and her bloomers were soaked, but only with her love juices, not youkai cum.

OK, that was all a dream. I'm back home, no, I'm still home, I never left. That was just a trial run for my experimental dreaming incense, Dream Spelunker. I just had an adventure, which is something I do a lot, because I'm an adventuring witch, and I'm home safe once again, or still. That stuff was all dreams, not real. I'm a genius magician who does cool magical experiments, and not a sex slave for youkai. This is my real life.

Marisa heaved a sigh and smacked herself in the face to firmly ground herself in reality. She was still a working research witch, she shouldn't lose sight of that. She needed to do a post-experiment assessment.

"Point one: Dream Spelunker works great."

Maybe too great, I almost lost myself there. Jammed too tight into my own dream soul... I definitely need to tinker with the formula for Dream Spelunker Mk. II and lower the power if I don't want a repeat of that whole rigamaroo. Which I don't. I don't? I don't.

"Point two: I got some stuff to work out in my unconscious."

That stuff we were doing together in my dream was filthy and messed up, but it was really really hot. I never felt like that before. Even the parts I hated were hot, because I hated them. And Doremy knew exactly how I would feel about it...

"Point three: what's Doremy's deal, anyway?"

Seemed like Doremy and dream-me were sex friends, maybe even lovers. She sure expected to bang as soon as I arrived. Is that like, an invasion of my privacy, to have sex with dream-me without telling me? There's a lot I still don't understand about the Dream World, and Doremy herself is a total mystery...

"Aw, dammit."

I never got to give her that interview!

There was no helping it now. There wasn't gonna be enough time to put together a Dream Spelunker Mk. II for another shot at an interview before the festival. She'd just have to make something up. Marisa stretched placidly and got out of bed. For some reason, all the tension in her muscles had been erased and she was feeling really refreshed right now. After she had a wash and a change of clothes, she'd get started on writing up Doremy's fortune.

Reimu flipped through the pages of Marisa's rough draft. She raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, these seem to take a pretty biased viewpoint. Even that person might get mad if it's like this."

==================================================
Big, Long, Thick Fortune
Well-Hung Baku of the Dream World
DOREMY SWEET
Capable of eating and creating dreams

"You might not be conscious of
it, but the ruler of dreams
has a major thing down there.
With a cock like that, she
could be ruler of the world."

Fortune: You are caught up in a powerful fantasy.
If you let yourself get lost in it, it will bring
you excellent pleasure.

Wishes: Your dreams will come true. Even the ones
you're embarrassed to admit.

Studies: Sex education is auspicious.

Health: You'll be plagued by erotic dreams. You'll
feel a little sex-starved.

Tools: You'll find a sex toy that's just right.

Travel: A dream-like trip.

Sweets: Try adding vanilla or cinnamon.

Hobbies: You have some pretty out-there fetishes.
But if your partner plays along, there's nothing
wrong with it.

Love: Find the perverted lover of your dreams.

Body: If you lose the ability to tell dreams from
reality, you'll have great misfortune.
====================================================

Reimu gave Marisa a long look. "Well, it'll be combined with the versions the others wrote to make the final draft, so I guess it's fine."

Suwako Moriya is a kami. I love her dearly.

Humans and other beings had become closer in recent years. It was not too unusual to hear that someone was acquaintanced with some yokai, kami, or other thing. Some even befriended them, and some foolhardy few took them or were taken as lovers.

In living memory this would have been preposterous. But that’s how it is now. The other kami of the Moriya shrine, Kanako Yasaka, could be found easily and approached without appointment for just about anything, and was often the center of festivals and parties. Suwako was more reclusive.

The first time we met had been about two years ago, an early summer day. Strolling through one of the gardens of the Moriya Shrine complex, trying to clear my head. I’d spotted a pair of beady eyes peering out at me from over a mossy white stone and froze by instinct. It was a second before my conscious mind caught up and I remembered that those ‘eyes’ would have belonged to the hat of one of the kami of the shrine. I went further and the rock peeled back like a curtain to reveal her, tabard and skirt stark violet against the lily pads. My eyes were still locked with those on the top of her headpiece, which was a tall, sloping bucket hat made of dried yellow reeds.

The awkwardness of the scene finally dawned on me, staring at the kami squat next to the lake like a toro lantern.

I bowed and said “Good afternoon, Suwako-sama.” and immediately regretted using her name as a stranger. She rose nonetheless, her legs sprouting from between her black shoes and her skirt, the cotton material of her socks so close and so thin that I could discern the tensing of the muscles underneath. I whipped my head up and our eyes met.

A polite smile underlined a slight nose and cheeks tinged delicately pink, framed by blonde bangs tied with cinnabar ribbons. A fringe, parted in the middle, hung nearly long enough to cover her eyebrows.

She would seem to just be an eccentrically dressed young woman, barring the intricate craftsmanship of her dress. Except for those eyes.

Unbroken white surrounding sulfurous yellow surrounding jet black pupils. Flecks of gold swam in her irises as the light played upon them. The intricate gyokugan eyes of holy statues were but pale and dead imitations of hers.

“Good evening.” She said, her smile growing just a bit. “It seems you’ve lost track of time.”

I let go breath I hadn’t realized I was holding in. “These gardens are just so beautiful. Did you have a hand in making them?”

“Mm-hm.” She cast her eyes downward and I followed her gaze toward a small frog hopping its way into the lake. As I brought my eyes up they were almost caught by the border of exposed skin between her skirt and her stockings – I brought my gaze back up as smoothly as I could, noticing the frogs embroidered on her dress. I recognized the style as Ōtsu-e, looking like they had been stolen directly from their scrolls. I looked up and naturally met the eyes of her hat. Being at my own eye-level, I was drawn to meet its eyes and not hers, shaded underneath.

“Kanako’s too caught up in present-day zeitgeist. There’s good things to take from the outside world, like technology, and there’s bad stuff… Like modern art!” The kami chuckled softly.

“What’s modern art?”

She stopped mid-breath and looked at me for a moment. She tilted her head back and grinned, her huge hat somehow staying in place. The light of the sun caught on her lips. “Sometimes I forget that the human village hasn’t been introduced to the horrors of the outside yet.” She stepped forward. “If you have the time, I’ll curse you with the knowledge. Share its burden, rather.”

I felt a chill at that word – curse – as it occurred to me then who I was speaking so casually with. It was often said that ‘A god you won't touch cannot curse you’… Mostly in relation to problems people didn’t want to have to deal with, though. Not literally referring to gods – like then.

“I’m quite interested in art!” I bowed again. “I’d be honored to learn from you, kami-sama.”

A candid smirk lit up her face. “Thank you, but I can’t promise that you’ll glean anything educational from my ranting.”

And so we both made our way. The gentle wind brought the scent of flowers and garden plants. The sound of her shoes upon the gravel, steps light and at faster tempo than my own, cut through the stillness of the day.

Passages of written law. My eyes glazing over the dry text. Clamping the book shut and opening up that much more interesting notebook…

“Hey, Izumi.” A voice broke me out of my trance. “You look pretty out of it.” It was Hiroki, one of my old classmates and friends.

“Thinking of frogs again?” Shin said. Another old classmate. His eyes darted to my crotch and then back. “Yep. He’s hard. Called it.”

Lacking a response I sighed. I’d been just following the two around with my head down. Everything seemed to be determined to increase my headache, so I tried to just shut it all out.

“Keep your head up, Izumi.” Hiroki’s tone bordered scolding.

“Alright.”

They started towards some congregation and I followed.

A cacophony of jaunty festival music taunted me. Normally I would have taken wholly to the festival atmosphere, but… But there was no need to think about that. Even if I couldn’t leave all my cares behind, I had to be here. I looked over at the familiar torii gate which stood over the entrance to the Wind God’s Lake trail, and the set of sixteen onbashira which were laid waiting in front of it. Eight of those were reserved for human riders, and the other eight for yokai.

Speaking of yokai, the shrine grounds were as usual flush with them. Mostly tengu, who lived in secluded settlements nestled in the cliffs and forests on this Yokai Mountain; Moriya Shrine sat at the peak of the mountain, so for them a visit was only a short flight there and back.

Hiroki and Shin had joined in on a conversation with some vaguely familiar people. I gave them a little wave out of obligation, and looked up to the sky.

I tried to entertain myself, recollecting a sweet memory…

Her face. Fresh summer air, breathed from the forest and not from crowds of yokai and some few men. Her face. Smiling as she sat down on a bench, legs swinging, the whole animation of her body easy and relaxed. I’d came back and searched for her and found her. She pointed to the notebook I held. An expensive, leather bound volume with thick, textured pages.

“What have you brought that for?”

“To take notes, of what you tell me.”

She smiled. “Well! Sit down, and I’ll tell you all about what’s in sight here. I’ll bet you a bottle of sake that you’ll fill at least 2 sides of paper with what I tell you.”

A more courageous part of me took the initiative and sat down next to the kami without hesitation. I put my pen hand to the paper and brushed against the fabric of the long silk sleeves of her undershirt. I turned to her and she was so close. It was then that I had first properly caught the scent of her, in that still summer air. Like that nearly imperceptible vitalizing note that cool, quality water has, the smell of her teased out and warmed by the sunshine.

“First of all, this bench. Whenever I design something like a garden I draft some vistas – that’s a memorable view from some point,” She made a sweeping gesture over the garden, my eyes followed her hand. “like this one right here.”

The view certainly was memorable. The sparse leaves of the spindly maples ceased and I beheld below a dark forest covering the foothills. The frequency of human structures increased as I looked toward the sprawl of the Human Village, variegated white and black like ink flicked across a scrap of paper.

I had to crane my head to see that – the bench faced towards the mountain, its back against a gray, bare rock. Facing forward again I saw the path I had entered from, stepping stones clung to on their side by grass which grew plump and low.

My eyes were naturally drawn to a statue situated opposite the forest window. Upon a plinth a dun blonde frog and a black snake were locked in combat.

“What’s that?” I’d asked.

Suwako pointed to the frog. “You see that frog? That’s supposed to be me. Losing. The snake’s Kanako. You walk farther up the trail and there’s the frog bowing to the snake, and then next is the snake coiled proudly in front of a miniature shrine and in a miniature lake next to it the frog sits peering out from behind the little onbashira.”

I scratched my head. “Did you make those statues?”

She turned to look at it. “Oh yeah. Kanako made sure I got every detail to her liking… I sound too bitter. Kanako’s a good, old friend. We banter.” She turned to me. “Its a generous interpretation besides, to say there even was a fight. Between me and her, that is.” She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. When she opened them she said, “Before that I and the other kami of Moriya were fighting off similar invaders to our ancient kingdom. Kamidom?” She looked at me quizzically. “Does kamidom work? I’m not a king, I’m a kami.”

“You could popularize it. Then it’d become an accepted word.”

“Yes, yes, and then in all the dictionaries it’d say I invented it too… Ah, I’m getting distracted. Where was I…” her eyes focused upon nothing in particular. “Those invaders were trying to unify this island of Japan under one ruler. We met them with as much force as we could muster. My army was supplied with iron arms… They weren’t anything like the metal you’re probably familiar with. It was brittle and black, and oxidized readily. Still, iron then wasn’t ubiquitous like it is now, and our enemies fought with lesser metals.

“As time went on more and more of the little states around Moriya were conquered by or otherwise joined the invaders. Thus, the assaults on my kingdom-” She paused at that word again, only to shrug it off. “Became more intense and frequent. Enemies at all sides.” She leaned back far, pointed her face to the forest canopy, and turned her eyes to me. She seemed distant and somewhat vulnerable. “That was when I met Kanako on the battlefield.

“She’d appeared suddenly at the break of the dawn of a chill autumn day, her arrival announced by howling winds which brought dark clouds to cover heaven. I emerged from the ground, flanked by my mishaguji serpents, as she hung still in the sky facing toward my army’s main encampment. I and my soldiers flung curses and threats up at her, yet she just smiled… and then she produced a thin vine, which in less than a blink grew and coiled around our weapons and reduced them to red rust, which scattered in the wind.

“Naturally, after that I surrendered…” She glanced at my notebook, and her eyes shot open. “You’ve been writing that all down!?”

My stomach dropped at her exclamation. My throat produced strange noises which carried out of my open mouth.

She turned to face me then and after a moment of intense eye contact she laughed, the sonorous and sweet sound echoing around that little clearing. Her eyes darted between me and the hands she’d put up to her face as if to defend herself. “Hey, hey! I don’t mind.” Suwako reached up and pat my shoulder. My body released its tension immediately at her touch. “In fact…” She grinned. “Did you enjoy my little story?”

“Yes. Very much.” I cringed a little at my own enthusiasm, but Suwako didn’t seem to mind or notice.

“Well then. How’s about whenever I get to reminiscing like an old lady, you whip out that notebook and get to writing down my ramblings?” She knocked the side of her head. “I’ve got a lot of stuff shelved away up here that’s not written down. Could free up some space, and besides, I hear every god nowadays has a book.”

Then she turned to my notebook again. “You have very nice handwriting, by the way.”

“Ah, Thank you, Suwako-sama!” I had smiled at her compliment, then doubt took hold. I scrutinized the drying marks on that page. “Its because I practice it a lot. I’m a student. And its quite utilitarian, besides”

She turned up to look at me and asked “What are you a student of?”

“I’m studying to be a tax accountant. Math and law and such.”

“You know, one of the first things humans did after inventing writing was use it to tally taxes.”

“I hear a lot of innovations get abused right out the gate.”

“You liken tax to abuse?”

“Yeah. You ever heard of anyone that was grateful for a tax-man? Or any bureaucrat for that matter. No. Somehow after years of this shit, their only innovations to the system are to make it seem like you’re doing something important while doing jack-shit, so everyone’s exhausting themselves for…”

My eyes trailed up and up even further and caught the dark eyes of a huge blue oni. His hair was a contrasting ginger, and hung to his shoulders.

“Sorry.”

He, for a miracle, didn’t seem angered by my random outburst. In fact, he nodded in agreement. “Eeyup. Glad to hear a human say it. World’s rife with bloody trickery.” He took a swig out of his sake gourd. “No use dwelling on that now though. Festival!” He pointed a long nailed finger to the sky at that, like he’d told a sagely truth.

I thought he was gonna beat me up. I composed myself. “What’s your name?”

“Takechi. Yours?”

“Izumi.” I looked around for Hiroki and Shin, “Ah, have you seen two guys-”

“Hey, Izumi!” Hiroki was suddenly behind me, alongside Shin. “Wondering where you’d been.”

“Ah, yeah, sorry,” I cleared my throat. I swept an arm in the oni’s direction. “This is Takechi. We were discussing politics.”

Shin barked a laugh at that. “Can’t say that politics would be my choice of icebreaker.”

I could only offer a nervous laugh back. Introductions were made. The conversation continued. I sparsely spoke nor truly heard what was being said, something about log-riding tactics for when the onbashira would be dumped into the lakes.

Takechi thrust his gourd in my direction, breaking my spell. “The main event’s gonna be starting soon. Want a drink for luck?”

Offering thanks I went to take it, but hesitated. It could be dangerous, being even a little drunk, and oni sake was known to be strong. Even just its smell burned my nose.

But it could help with this headache. I took the gourd and took two hearty swigs, before I had to part with the burning liquid.

Everything became a little more muffled. The initial hit nearly knocked me off my feet, and recovering my senses was a methodical and slow process.

I went to hand the gourd back but he said something about passing it around. The gourd was removed from my hand and that was good enough for me.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, some great brownish thing. I looked over in its direction and squinted to see a huge wooden throne, decorated like a mikoshi, sacred symbols carved and painted gold upon its roof. It was constructed of dark and austere wood, in places painted with cinnabar, standing as tall as a building, hung with huge shimenawa, and topped with a miniature replica of the Moriya Shrine. Two thrones sat empty in its main hall.

“Is it starting now?” Shin said.

I cleared my throat. “No, no. There’ll be organizers telling us when it starts.”

The oni nodded. “Are you fellas goin’ to the after-party?” I couldn’t believe he was asking after us. I felt a twinge of guilt. He seemed like a very nice person, but I’d just been distant and mopey around him, barely trying to converse.

“We are. Not sure about Izumi, though.” Shin elbowed me. “Let me let you in on a secret. You know that frog kami?”

Takechi lost that typical oni brashness. “The curse god?” I cringed at that word curse.

“Yeah, that one. Izumi’s riding that log all the way down, so she’ll ride his all the way down, all night.”

The oni leant in and spoke in a hushed tone, “Are you serious? Talking like that about a kami at their own shrine!?”

“Oh, no.” Hiroki interjected. “Izumi and her meet up regularly. He says it’s to record her histories, or something.” He massaged his forehead. “No ‘riding’ or otherwise involved though, by Izumi’s word.”

Takechi brought a huge hand to scratch the back of his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but then just shrugged. “Well, Izumi, since you’ve got the ear of the gods of this shrine, maybe you could put in a good word for me? I heard that Moriya can bless fortunes.”

“I’ll try.” Looking around there were now volunteers dressed in white, both yokai and human, directing the festival goers to the growing procession. “Looks like its starting.”

Our group made our way to the onbashira to take our places. Minstrels with no specific uniform gathered behind the throne, a few of them floating casually in the air along with their instruments.

Passing by the throne Sanae came into sight. She stood in front of it, a space cleared out around her, her head bowed to the gohei she held in front of her with both arms, pointed to the sky. She was dressed in much more traditional shrine maiden attire than her usual, but still where a miko’s clothes would traditionally be red, Sanae’s were blue; which complimented her green hair.

I took my place next to one of the onbashira, chatter and bravado in the air. The oni and my friends had taken up spaces close to one another and were chatting idly. I grabbed one of the attached ropes, and watched those empty seats for any sight of Suwako. If Sanae had gotten dressed fancy for the occasion, what must the kami of the shrine look like?

I looked up at the sky, blue turning dark streaked with thin wisps of cloud. The sun was hidden behind the cedars towering around us. I took in deep breaths of air to steady myself.

Everyone had gathered by the looks of it. A taiko drumbeat started, hushing the procession, as from around the front of the shrine came the two kami in synchronised steps. Suwako walked behind Kanako and both sported gorgeous jūnihitoe dresses, patterned with vivid scenes of nature – snakes on Kanako’s and frogs on Suwako’s. Behind Kanako floated her usual shimenawa rope ring hung with white shide streamers, framing her dark purple hair which hung to her shoulders. Suwako had foregone her usual hat, and instead a concentric set of dark iron rings floated behind her head.

Both moved with an easy grace, their movements perfect and in sync, eyes above the crowd. Kanako disappeared behind the throne but Suwako stayed in sight. Her face was composed, and her delicate features were highlighted with expert makeup; her beautiful eyes accentuated by red eyeliner in the style traditional for kami. A high, trilling flute cut in, playing a complex melody.

I must have been gawking, because my friend’s faces had scrunched in suppressed mirth. Upon my realizing it and looking their way they’d went red-faced, clenching teeth and squinting so hard their eyes were nearly closed.

With great effort I stopped myself from watching her take her place in the procession. I instead pretended to adjust with my grip upon the onbashira’s carrying rope for a few moments.

But eventually I had to look, and saw that now the kami had taken their place a few steps behind either side of Sanae. After a moment, the miko took her gohei in her left hand, and brought both arms up in a circular ring motion as both kami ascended, floating in the air to take their places at the throne. Both kami had their eyes set on the trail – not tense, neutral. Large yokai volunteers lifted the throne by its carrying sticks.

Sanae began to wave her gohei above her head in steady movements like a metronome. A volunteer behind each of the onbashira gave the signal for the team around it to go, staggered so they would be in single file.

My team was the third from the last to go. I couldn’t get a good look at Suwako, even though I really wanted to. I had to focus on carrying the onbashira down the winding trail. The music covered the smaller sound of our work, but was in marching time with our wasshoi shouts as we strained in sync to heave the pillars to the lake.

After a bit I settled into a routine, and let my mind wander onto another memory to pass the time…

I was following her through the shrine grounds, but she’d stopped and had a brief exchange with some human shrine visitors; out of the corner of my eye I watched them pay their respects to Suwako and leave hastily, while pretended to study what I’d written in my book.

I glanced quickly at her. Her eyes just a little bit too wide and glinting under the shade of her hat’s brim, her small smile, in the light by contrast, seemed restrained somehow. All in all it was fitting for a god known for curses, the sort of look which could leave one with a lingering yet vague unsettlement. Honestly, I found it… strangely appealing.

That could be chalked up to my familiarity with Suwako, though. The travelers had left my sight and I reflected on my first meeting with her. If she had not been so amiable then, would these ritual orations have ever started? What had compelled her to be so friendly to me in the first place?…

I focused my eyes again on the pages of the book. The page was blank. Suwako hadn’t started to tell whatever tale she had in mind today yet.

“Alright. So.” She glanced at me, her expression warming. “I wanted to talk about how I’d tamed the mishaguji.” She opened her mouth again, but only a hoarse croak was released, which trailed off into silence. She stared at nothing in particular for a while.

“I can’t seem to remember. Oh well.” her voice was clipped. She began to move forward.

I hurried to her side, flicking through my notebook. “Hey, Su- kami-sama, you told that one before, I have it written down.”

She stopped, her back still turned to me.

I went to her side and presented the text “Here.”

She took the book from my hand and read in silence. The pace she read increased, yet she was very careful when turning the pages. “Could I ask you a favor?”

“Of course.”

“Could you spare your evening so I can read through this book?”

The words paralyzed me. I tried to simultaneously remember if there was anything embarrassing or personal in the notebook, if I had a clear schedule tonight, and she’s inviting me to stay over late does this mean-

“Of course!”

“Alright. Follow me to the living quarters, this could take a long time, and I think it’d be best to be comfortable.”

I had to suppress more than a gasp in response. She set off at a brisk pace and I had to jog to catch up.

We made our way in silence to the shrine’s living quarters. Once we’d gotten comfortable at a table with some tea, she’d began poring over my notebook – every page. I’d given up on worrying if there was something embarrassing in there, no point. She read in complete silence.

After reading the last page, she flicked back through the book. When she stopped, she read the page once more, her lips parting a little.

“You write poetry?”

Ah. She’d found the poetry. “Yes.” Was it one of those where I used some poor metaphor to describe her? Or one of my melodramatic and angsty pieces? I let out a campy sigh but it just came out pained.

Her eyes dropped to the page again, before she closed the book carefully. “I know its probably personal, and I’m sorry for prying.” She handed the book over. “But I quite like it. Its nostalgic.”

“Nostalgic?” Did she know? That I was writing those in reference to that archaic tradition of writing poetry for your suitor?

She sat down, taking a sip of tea before she spoke. “Yeah. Last I was in the outside world, not many people wrote poetry. It used to be obligatory to learn it.”

I allowed myself a moment to think, sipping on my own tea. Very nice tea. “I find it easier to express myself with writing.” Shit! Why’d you say that!? You’re bringing up your embarrassing poems again!

“I can see that.” Suwako said, see what? What did she think about what I wrote? “And I think if you’re passionate about it you should pursue it. Its a good way to take stock of yourself.” She leaned forward. “But despite that, writing it down is still keeping it to yourself. Talking with someone you trust about the issue can help you find a solution to it… you know, push you past ruminating on the thing.”

She peered into me with those eyes. I could feel my anxieties laid bare by her. I’d been visiting her nearly daily now and my studies had suffered. I didn’t want to break my streak… I felt if I left it too long without visiting I’d lose her somehow. Maybe someone else would take my place, or she’d lose interest in me – the thought made my heart ache. And what about that amnesia she’d been struck by? If it weren’t for my writing, would she have been able to remember?

I gulped. “Can I share something with you?”

“Of course. You listen to me for long enough.”

“I’m really worried you find my poems weird.” I forced out a laugh.

Suwako’s sad smile faded and her eyes went down to her tea cup again. “I just said I like them.”

“Ha, Short memory. Sorry.”

She met my eye again and again I felt her trying to unravel me again. “Okay. Just know that ignoring your problems isn’t solving them. And if you want to change something in your life, it’s best to start as soon as possible.”

“Okay.” My response came a little too quickly. I cast my gaze down. It was obvious I was deflecting.

We sat in silence for a while longer.

“I have more notebooks back home. With your stories. I can bring them tomorrow.”

She took in breath to speak but hesitated. “Yeah. I’d like to see them.” She drummed her fingers once over her cup. “But could you leave that book you have with me?”

“Why?”

“You know the last few incidents? The ones with the markets and cards, and then the invasion of the animal spirits?”

I nodded. The latter had been a quite frightening one – the spirits had nearly gotten to the village.

“Well, that market incident relinquished ownership of all the land in Gensokyo – including my ownership of the shrine.” her eyes darted about as if she was tracking some flying insect. “It basically reduced the faith and belief in all the supernat- the kami, yokai and spirits, to zero. We need that to survive.

“I don’t gather much of my own faith. I’m bad at it, if you couldn’t tell; I rely on Kanako for it.” Her eyes suddenly made contact with mine. “So what you saw back there was a result of that lax attitude. I’m a type of kami which is purely spiritual, so the tales and belief in me are what constitute me. Forgetting them would be like losing parts of your soul. And it was only by chance that I had you and your writings to remedy it.” She stared at me expectantly. Expecting what? You know exactly what.

“What would have happened if it weren’t for the books?”

“I’d have likely kept living. But I’d have been changed. Have you heard of people calling me a ‘frog god’?”

“Yeah.” Too often.

“I’d have likely been morphed closer to that public perception. A parody of myself.” She took a shuddering breath, which made me shudder also. “I’m sorry. I need some time alone. Will you leave the book?”

“Yeah.” I left the book on the table and got up. I uttered apologies and farewells and left into the night.

I’d come home to a light scolding from my concerned parents-

A flashing light woke me from my daydream. The lake lay in the distance, flaring in the evening sun.

Well, to finish the memory quickly… When I went to the shrine the day after I’d brought my other notebooks. There’d be no way to remove whatever personal writings in them without Suwako being able to tell so I settled on asking her not to pry, to which she agreed.

For the next few days I stayed at the shrine, only leaving to return home in the evening. They were cherished memories – I’d never felt valued by virtue of my actions before.

I regret one thing about that night, though. It was a ridiculous fantasy, but – what if I’d confessed my love to her then?

On many nights I’d imagined it. Waking up to see her face. Spending all day with her. I’m ashamed to admit, but I’ve thought about sex as well… she said Sanae was her descendant, and she was human, so it shouldn’t be impossible to start a family, right?… Who am I kidding. A god, falling for someone like me?

I looked around. Everyone, man and yokai, were ragged; the shouts of wasshoi had become hoarse, but still we continued. The instruments played in a frenzy, trying to motivate the riders to complete the final stretch.

Dragging those pillars onto the lakeshore, clothes sodden with sweat, nothing seemed more inviting than plunging into that cool spring water. But there was still some distance to go. Carefully maneuvering the onbashira to turn right, we continued around the lakeshore. Without the cover of the cedar forest the sun beat hot on me and chill winds spread through the layered sweat on my face and into my skin. Still, neither I or others lost pace.

Eventually the procession was halted by the volunteers. The stretch of lakeshore there was clear of onbashira. Each team turned their pillar toward the lake and then brought them back a few paces onto the land. We then mounted.

All of the instruments had stopped. Anticipation reigned, every being there wiping their sweat-soaked brow and shielding their eyes from the sun to watch the two gods. Then the taiko drum began again.

Synchronised, Suwako and Kanako stood up. Each slightly raised the arm farthest from the other, palms upturned, with the other folded across their abdomen. They both had their eyes trained on the onbashira team in front of them.

They shot their arms upward, and the earth underneath the first onbashira upheaved nigh instantly into a slope down to the lake. With a great ruckus the pillar and its riders slid down and hit the water hard.

The dismounted team gathered their bearings quickly and industriously began heaving the pillar upright, pointing it to heaven, the god’s eyes still upon it. After much shouting the team managed to get it into position.

The kami then lowered their arms and the onbashira also lowered, sinking into the lakebed. When the god’s hands had returned to their hips the team let go of the ropes, and the pillar stood firm.

With no movement on the kami’s part the upturned earth returned to its normal, flat state. The act had left no trace upon the land.

The god’s eyes then landed on the next onbashira team, the one Takeshi was part of. The throne was moved forward, Sanae keeping pace in front. My friends were repeating the riding advice they’d discussed earlier. I wished him luck. The throne stopped, the god’s eyes alighted upon the log, and the process was repeated.

Next was our team’s turn. The throne approached. Suwako’s eyes were focused upon the onbashira but then in a moment less than a blink her eyes flitted over and met mine and then were ripped away. Before I had time to even realize this the world slanted, my body tensed and still staring at Suwako, her gaze focused on the middle distance. The faces of my friends passed by disoriented and then I plunged into the water, gasping, choking and flailing. I surfaced and heaved and hacked up water. Shin had pulled me up and was beating the liquid out of me.

I got to work pulling the pillar into place despite objections for me to rest, which were warbled when it went through the water stuck in my ears.

Holding the rope taut, I watched Suwako. She was focused on the onbashira again, her arm raised up in the sky. As she brought her arm down my rope slackened – it had been sunk into place.

We waded through the shallows and returned onto land, behind the throne, being offered dry-downs by some very pretty tengu women. My friends gleefully accepted – I refused, and like clockwork they begun making accusations which the dryers found quite fascinating, questioning me about specifics. I asked for a towel and dried myself in silence.

A second wind had entered the other riders and I. Some tried to get a good angle to watch the others on their way down by standing in the lake, peering around the great throne. Plans were discussed for the coming party.

A common thread among the conversations seemed to be recreating the faces others had made on the trip down. I noticed that Shin was crouched by my side, looking up at me with his eyes wide, mouth flattened, and chin jutting out.

“Is that what I looked like on the way down?”

“Suwa-kami-sama… I cannot take my eyes from you-” He fell over and began to flail on the ground, mimicking my panic in the water.

“Hey, didn’t you fall off before you made it to the water?” I picked him up and he pretended to gasp for air. “Hey.” I began to lightly beat his back like he’d done mine. He stopped coughing and I let him go.

Hiroki appeared beside me, along with the oni Takeshi, both in good spirits.

I greeted them warmly, a lighter and less burdened part of my mind taking over for a time while the other slept.

Eventually the last onbashira was erected, all sixteen of them now joining the greater continuity along the lakeshore. The throne was turned around, and the procession headed back to the shrine.

The section of honor for the onbashira riders offered much free food and drink, and was staffed with very attractive women, both yokai and human.

I’d parted with my friends. They knew why I was leaving and for once didn’t jeer at me for it.

I was looking for Suwako. Kanako would have been the obvious person to go to; I could see her huge shimenawa ring still floating behind her head as she moved through the honor section. Yet I was apprehensive to approach her… and besides, I couldn’t see the halo of iron rings Suwako had donned anywhere beside her, so she probably wasn’t near her. Or she might have put them away for safety concerns, they were very sharp.

I turned my head and saw platters of rice balls laid out on a cart’s counter. My stomach growled at the sight. A pudgy looking fellow oversaw them, and was now eyeing me idly.

“Are these complementary?” I asked.

He nodded.

I took that as permission to wolf down the things. The man watched, unsurprised, and turned his back to the small kitchen behind him, likely to replenish the stock that I was taking.

After over a minute of frenzied eating I had to stop. I thought maybe something to wash it down would be nice, so I turned around and saw Kanako.

“Hey Izumi!” She was still in her ritual garb, her imposing figure softened by a charismatic smile. “Glad you found the time to make it to the festival.”

“Oh, thanks, but, uh, its nothing really I, I can always find the time.”

She leaned in. “You looking for Suwako?”

I hesitated. “Yeah. Uh, where is she?”

“She’s over at the lake.”

I felt that there was some plot afoot. Kanako’s face was a mask and broached no answers.

“Thank you. I’ll go see her.”

“Hey.” Kanako had raised a fist at me. I stepped back, expecting that she would punch me, perhaps for seeking out another god. Except she seemed amused, and not in a cruel way. She still held her fist out. “I’m not going to hit you. I’m doing a fist-bump. It’s an outside world thing, like a handshake.” She pointed with her other hand to her fist. “You bump your fists with the other person. Sanae showed me, its really cool. Come on.” She shook her fist. “Give it here.”

I balled my fist, raised it, and brought my knuckles to hers. Kanako seemed quite pleased with that. “Very good. See you!” and with that she walked off, the crowd parting for her.

I gathered my courage – which was strange, because meeting Suwako alone wasn’t really that unusual for me – and went.

Once I passed the crowds and the torii gate my legs worked of their own volition; I knew the way by experience. The smell of cedars and petrichor above the forest musk. On not enough days, sunny, overcast, windy, raining even, I’d made my way down that trail. Sometimes Suwako would accompany me and sometimes I would meet her at the lake.

Sometimes, she’d take me aside from the trail and lead me into that ancient forest. In the dells, mounds, meadows, thickets and clearings there were many curiosities, laid untouched by the village people because of the threat of rabid yokai in those same woods. One didn’t have to worry so much about them in the area around Moriya shrine, especially so with a kami guiding you. Lately I’d been making some money selling the curios we came across.

The last remnants of autumn leaves squelched beneath my sandals. I was getting quite anxious. I mean, why did she call me here? It couldn’t be a trick.

For what reason does a girl call a boy aside from a party, you idiot? She’s…

No. I couldn’t even entertain the notion. I am content. Lets not gamble for something when the odds of winning are infinitesimal. And besides, you fool, what makes you worthy to take her as a lover?

I hastened, hurrying to her as fast as my lathered legs could take me. I focused on the trail to shut out my thoughts.

I saw her, sat near the lakeshore on a bed of gravels.

She turned to face me, smiled, and waved me over.

I went. She watched me all the way. Her golden eyes were even more beautiful highlighted with red. She also wore lipstick of the same color which sparkled in the light of the sunset.

She gestured for me to sit. I did.

I looked out onto the lakeshore. The light of the sun caught on the bumps of the small waves of its surface.

“Did you have a nice day?”

“Yeah. You?”

“I did too.”

“If you liked today you should become a kami of logging. Then you could watch over people hauling trees every day.”

She let out a little laugh and shuffled, her layered kimono making quite a ruckus. “I wouldn’t want to become a patron of lumberjacks. Too noisy!”

“Yeah.”

The sun set into the treeline, and its reflection in the water rose into reflection of the treeline. I looked over and met her eye. You know why you’re here.

Tell her. Tell her you fool. You love her.

No. No, you love her, but how could you be her lover? You couldn’t even manage your studies, let alone a relationship, a relationship with a god at that. You’re lucky to just be able to speak to her. You tell her you love her and you gamble away the one good thing in your life. Are you really prepared for that?

Suwako smiled – small, yet content. She looked out across the water again. I followed her gaze to watch the last light of the sun filter through the leaves. “I saw you got back with your friends. I’m really glad to see that. How are they?”

“Good.” Doing better than me. “A bit bawdy, though.”

“Bawdy? What were they saying?” She grinned.

“I can’t say, sorry.”

“But you can. Come on.”

“They were saying that I was riding the onbashira down…”

“uh-huh.”

“So…” What are you doing you fucking idiot.

“Are you gonna make me guess?” She put a hand to her chin, tilted her head up to the sky and let out an exaggerated [/i]hum[/i], her bright eyes catching the fading sun and sparkling like stars. “I’ll guess they said, ‘You want to ride that onbashira all the way down… so she’ll ride yours all the way down!’”

I felt utterly weak. I was shaking. “Yuh-ah-yeah.” I gulped.

“Izumi! For heaven’s sake, calm down!” She planted a steadying hand on my shoulder. “I wouldn’t mind even if you were the one to say it. Its just a joke!”

“You’re the only good thing I have in life.” You might as well throw yourself in that lake now! You couldn’t just keep quiet, and now you’re making your creep thoughts known to her like you expect her to counsel and coddle you!

You’re crying now, you retard. You may as well grab one of those rings and cut your throat-

She was tracing rings around my back, rubbing it. Like consoling a child. It was soothing.

I brought my breathing back to normal.

She didn’t say anything. The warmth and light of the sun left only the cold of the spring night, which found my wet face an easy target. She didn’t need to say anything.

I got up. “I need to take a walk.”

“Okay. I’ll be here if you need me.”

“Thank you.”

My father half-covered his mouth with a balled fist. My mother looked at him, eyes huge.

“What did they say exactly?” His voice was flat.

“That, ‘Your performance this year was poor. So you need to spend another year for the qualification.’”

“Will we have to pay for the other year?”

“Yeah.”

“Dear-” The look on mom’s face was heartbreaking. “Can we afford that?”

Dad only looked at her. Then back at me. His eyes burned shame into me. “I want to see your work.”

I stammered.

He took that as confirmation and left.

Mom said, “Maybe we can convince them otherwise.” She didn’t sound convinced.

“Izumi!” My father shouted from my room. I got up – “IZUMI!” I got up quickly and ran to the room.

He stood in front of the low desk in the corner of my room. On it were two piles of books – one much smaller than the other.

His expression was ambivalent. “Does your accounting course have a section on the Moriya shrine?”

I could only stand there.

“I guessed not. Despite that you have about a dozen books on that plague god-” He restrained himself, pinching his brow.

“She-” He shot me a glare. “I’m sorry for wasting money, dad.”

“It’s not money I’m concerned about. I’m concerned about you, and your obsession with that malevolent thing.” He pointed to the larger corpus. “You told me before that, writing down her words stopped it from losing ‘itself’ or whatever. Have you ever, I don’t know, received any compensation for this?”

“I don’t know.”

“You haven’t. You know why? Because you’re being led on. You’re dancing in their palms, dancing your life and future away.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll focus on my studies.”

“Will you stop going to that damned shrine?”

I stammered.

“Until the answer is no, there’s no point.” Fatigue set upon him. “Your mother and I want to see you succeed, Izumi. You’re our only son. She’s ill from worrying about you. I am too. We won’t be here forever, and after we’re gone, what will you have?”

“Hey.”

The scene swam before my eyes.

“Hey. Hey, kid.”

“Fuck off.”

“You’re the one that came to me.” White. Black. My sight cleared somewhat. The world was shaking.

I was being restrained. I tried to fight my way out of it but it was no use. The cold seemed to be effective in clearing my vision, so I took deep breaths of the chill air.

The image which greeted me made me regret that. Before me stood the notorious tengu reporter, Aya Shameimaru.

I thrashed, “Please don’t put me in your newspaper!” She let go, and I fell in stages onto a jutting cobble with my left knee. The impact felt heavy, but I could feel no pain.

“Put you in my newspaper? Someone should put you in a mental asylum!”

“If you put me in your newspaper my parents will kill me.”

“You’re a bad listener, you know that.”

I could hear a woman shouting somewhere far off. Something whooshed past very quickly

“Whoa, whoa!” Aya said. “I didn’t do anything, he’s drunk as shit and he just fell over by himself-” Even more things flew past. “Alright, clearly I’m not welcome.” the downdraft of her take-off nearly blew me over.

Someone put their arm under my shoulder. I turned and saw Sanae, her long hair a shock of green against the red festival and black sky.

“Are you alright? She didn’t hurt you?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I tried to pick myself up but the leg I’d fallen on wasn’t cooperating. A cold pain grew there. “I fell over myself.”

“Hold still.”

“Alright…” I shuddered as the shrine maiden did something to the leg, returning feeling and eradicating the pain. I stood up.

“Aw geez, Izumi.” Sanae’s eyes crawled the length of me as she held me in place. For all their movement they remained unfocused. “I thought you were at the lake.”

“I was. Now I’m here.”

She didn’t find that amusing. “Come on.” She put an arm around my shoulder and lead me off somewhere. “How much have you been drinking?”

“A lot.”

She hissed something. We were approaching some building – when we got to it she propped me up against the wall.

“Sorry for being a bother.”

She just sighed. She produced something clear from somewhere – A plastic water bottle. She unscrewed the lid and handed it to me.

I took a gulp of water, soothing my dried and cracked lips. I stared up, slumped against the wall like an invalid nearing death and attempting to reckon its nature by the sky. “I’m so tired.”

Sanae’s eyes met mine with great intensity, and her lips were held tightly together as if words would escape otherwise. “Maybe you should have another walk around the lake to clear your head.”

I considered this, gulping down the rest of the water. Some spilled onto my skin, the coolness of it feeling good. Sanae sighed again. She took the empty vessel out of my hand and I mumbled thanks. She pointed toward the dark thicket of cedar bordering heaven and earth. Was she smiling? I cleared my throat and said thank you a bit louder in case she didn’t hear but she was already gone.

Taking her advice I struck out. I was behind the shrine, the torii gate leading to the lake stood stark red against the thick forest and spotted night. My legs were already bringing me there out of habit.

There were few people here. All were distracted and did not look my way. I stopped at the gate – past it the way was totally dark.

…What if on that road were some creature waiting? What if seeing a lone stranger wandering down a dark and secluded path some cruel partygoer decided to make pursuit?

It was dark. So my legs had already made the decision. The packed dirt felt much nicer to walk on than the cobbles, anyway.

Eventually the darkness took shape. Nothing new. I continued.

Suwa lake. No, the Wind God’s lake.

The full moon was reflected perfectly upon the still waters. I looked into the lake and saw my face blocking the stars and quickly pulled back. Lifting my gaze I could see both the sky and its perfect image upon that seemingly impenetrable surface. The huge onbashira bordering the lake and the shore in intervals were mirrored, looking twice the length and suspended, still, like the foci of a ritual. That second sky was so perfect I felt vertigo at the sight of it.

I took up the trail again. I trudged slowly, eyes closed, guided along by memory like a jiang-shi. A part of me worried at the danger of the night but it was silenced by exhaustion.

I felt condensation upon my face. I opened my eyes and gasped. Fog surrounded me. I could only clearly see the shore and the forest’s border foliage but beyond that things were reduced to silhouettes. I looked frantically for something that could be the cause of it.

To have appeared so suddenly – It must be the work of some yokai. My heart beat coolly in my chest despite the implication. I continued walking.

I thought of my family and my heart skipped. I broke into a full on sprint. My notebooks. What would my parents do if they found it after I disappeared at a party at the shrine? Destroy it. My one good thing spitefully disposed of.

I tripped over something and went flying, landing face first into the packed dirt. Flipping onto my back after a breath, I saw what had tripped me, the end of a tail which blended into the mist. Another breath and the tail shot into the forest and the movement of it could be traced by the sound of foliage rustling.

Another breath and then above me two red eyes burned in the vapour and a white and huge serpent’s head formed around them. It hung there rootless over me like a celestial body.

One of Suwako’s mishaguji, serpent gods. Recognition and fatigue placated my panic. It would do no harm. It continued to float there in space. Slowly it retreated and the sound of it descended and then left into the forest.

I got up onto my feet, massaging my jaw. I must have impacted the ground with it -

I tripped again, this time getting no airtime. I stopped my fall with my arms and jumped into a crouch and then stood and looked down at the second thing that had tripped me.

It was Kanako Yasaka. That mirror on her chest was the only definite tell, the top of her body facing the forest shrouded in grass and the bottom shrouded in a patch of lake shore reeds.

She floated upwards and rotated her body upright in the air and stood in front of me, arms crossed and back straight. In the monochrome, her colors were a memory. She smirked.

“Lucky you woke me up there.” Her voice boomed, the acoustics of the thick fog adding a muffled taper to it. “Can’t remember the last time I got so drunk I wandered out into the wilderness and collapsed. I owe you a miracle!”

I hacked, trying to speak – “Thank you, but its not worth that much.”

“Ah…” She drew a large breath, seeming to savor the clammy, cold air. “I suppose you’re taking a break from the hustle-bustle, so I’ll leave you now.” With that the kami spun and floated into the mist.

I turned around and continued on my way. The absurdity of the current situation was oddly soothing. A sheltered wonderland, six armspans across, populated by distant gods, watched only by the full moon.

My train of thought stopped when my foot came dragging forward, covered in a mass of something.

My tired eyes had trouble focusing...

But then I recognized it. A huge mass of purple. Patterns of frogs. Suwako’s clothes. I whipped my head back and caught eyes staring at me from the brush. But it was just the hat. Suwako’s hat. Where’d that come from? Had it somehow turned to face me?

I turned my head and noted the barest marks on the ground leading into the lake from where the clothes had been piled up.

Ripples in the water stretched toward the shore. My eyes followed the pattern to its source. Further and further out it trailed, the frequency of the rings increasing.

At the very edge of the fog strands of blond pooled around a nose and a pair of eyes which met mine with an expression inscrutable at this distance and in my state. My heart palpitated but it could not motivate any part of my body but my eyes and my cock. Underneath that still, inky water would be her lithe, naked body.

She approached, rising from the water, gliding forward, eyes still holding mine in place unblinking. First her lips, colored nearly verdigris in the filtered moonlight, neutral and still and indiscernible as the waters of the lake. The length of her bare neck next, then her collarbone. She did not hesitate as she rose further exposing her shoulders and the gentle incline of her small breasts suddenly peaking into twin buds, her nipples, the droplets clinging to them catching the moonlight and making them sparkle and wink like rose gemstones. My breath choked and my heart spasmed, a flush of hot blood fled to my face, my eyes had been dragged away from hers which I had previously thought was impossible to watch the gentle rising and falling of her chest, the smooth plane of flesh that was her stomach, the only landmark on it her bellybutton staring from its dark hole – and she stopped there.

My eyes rested on that bellybutton, like pilgrims who have walked far and yet are blocked at the last stretch of their destination. They made the slow return journey back up the length of her wet and glistening and perfect body.

My eyes and hers met once again. No answer could be drawn from them. The white which reflected and amplified the moonlight, the supernaturally huge black pupils which swallowed it, and the thin and intense yellow border of her irises – in each of those sockets was an annular eclipse frozen at the point of perfect alignment. She made no move.

I drew breath again, ragged and desperate like a man released from a choke.

Every second I expected the scene to vanish, to wake up with heavy blankets and heavy heart to trudge back into the real world.

Yet despite the sudden onset of weightlessness I could ascertain that this most certainly was still real. I studied her revealed body more assiduously than anything before in my life, trying to ascertain the taste and feel of it by sight. The silken texture of those buds. The taste of her lips and her mouth. Running my tongue along the length of her smooth skin pale in the light of the moon…

She did not react to my hungry look at all, her breathing still steady, those eyes never flinching. No shame, like a painting.

At last I got the implication. I undressed myself, freeing myself of my hakama first, then undoing my kimono which for an awkward moment was caught, tugging on my penis which had escaped from my fundoshi. I kicked off my geta and peeled off my socks and I was naked, my clothes sitting in a heap next to Suwako’s unfortunately displaced ones.

My breath shuddered and not just because of the cloying cold of that misty night. She did not react. I tested the water with a toe and somehow it was warm. I went to her.

With every descending step her image came into fuller and more exquisite detail. The texture of her skin, some water still desperately clinging to it, color coming into her pink nipples and straw colored hair, those eyes luminescent and arresting.

Suddenly she moved forward. I stopped immediately, my balls hanging taut over the water. In a moment she was close enough that I could feel the warmth her body radiated.

Without taking her gaze from my own she put both her hands gently on my shaft, caressing the length of it lightly with her left while holding the tip in place with her right. When she reached the base, she stopped for a moment and tilted her head to the side. Some strands of her hair clung to her face and her bangs stayed perpendicular to the earth.

She pulled my penis down gently from its excited upright position and in the same movement slowly raised herself up towards me so close. My tip and her threshold kissed and then I was brought inside of her.

My breath quickened as she lowered onto me, into her quivering and contracting envelopment. I Still stared into those pupils wide as a cat’s, like contained abysses. All I wanted to do at that moment was grab onto her slim hips and begin pounding like an animal to hear her breath shudder also, to see those eyes go glassy with sex, to draw sweet sweat from her and drink of it.

But I could not. She hung her arms around my neck and gently pulled me. She moved back and I moved as well like this was a practised thing, small steps in sync like a ritual. The methodical slowness of it and the teasing sensations generated by our movement building up frustration in me.

Suddenly she jumped up and in one movement latched onto my face and brought me down into the water. I did not even have time to close my eyes before I plunged, I gasped involuntarily but with Suwako’s lips so tightly wrapped around mine I only managed to bring forward her tongue into my mouth.

The water did not sting, nor did my body stress from hypoxia. We floated away and for the first time in ages my heart felt weightless. Suwako held the back of head strongly pulling it towards her and the suction of her kiss besides would have been enough to make our mouths inseparable. Lower, Suwako clung loose enough to me with her legs to allow for the motion of my hips, which I excitedly conceded. Similarly my hands on gripped her hips pulling her towards my thrusts.

Her hair lifted from her scalp, floating around her face like the fine tendrils of a jellyfish, sometimes tickling my own face and obscuring my peripheral. Her pupils had returned to human proportion in the transition from air to water. Seeing her before, alien in the dark, I had dissociated her from the Suwako in my mind, the one which pervaded my thought and dreams. With her familiar again before me I overflowed with vigor.

I could see nothing besides her face and really, I didn’t want to see anything else ever again. I’d spend eternity watching the minute movements of her expression and how I could affect it.

I sucked greedily at her lips and tongue and she did also, a movement in lieu of breathing. My eyes shot open at the feeling of her tongue tracing dexterously across mine like a finger. Suwako squinted mischievously as her tongue then wrapped itself around mine, tugging it forward into her mouth.

The taste of her made me heady. Though I could barely hear for the water flowing past my ears I could feel her convulse with both mouths, the upper one maintaining a steady time while her lower spasmed like it was electrified in a mad and entrancing physical melody as I brought her sliding tight down my cock rhythmically.

I could feel heat build up exponentially now despite the cool lake enveloping our bodies. A familiar heat that I had strived for on many nights envisioning scenarios like this. The look in Suwako’s eyes told me she knew and she released my tongue and pressed her lips even tighter against mine.

I only lasted a few more thrusts before I came; as I did Suwako’s leg-lock tightened connecting me to the soft skin of her belly as I released huge bursts of semen inside of her. Her pupils had dilated again, this time to half the size of her irises and momentarily devoid of that inhuman intelligence, for once illucid.

We stayed like that for a while, still underwater. The only movement our sucking at one another. I tried to burn her expression into my mind – She had begun to return to her usual clarity. Something in her eyes told me she had noted my pleasure at her lapse.

All of a sudden we were out of the water, just our heads. With a final struggle Suwako separated her lips from mine the both of us letting out a mournful moan and letting a fine string of mixed saliva trail between us dipping into the lake where it was subsumed.

Heavy fog still shielded our nakedness from everything but the peeping moon. Our panting and the water were the only sounds. Her tongue hung, dark red and of normal width but extended long enough to reach her chin. I quieted myself to hear her breathing. She noticed this and the edges of her lips curved into an open mouth smile like a dog.

We floated like that for a while. Hands on each others hips, her bare legs brushing against mine and producing a sensation like static. She’d closed her mouth and caught her breath, and now the gentle rocking of the water and my reflexive movements into her made her release small, sweet, teasing moans in a syncopated rhythm.

Lacking any better ideas I crunched forward to kiss her again but stopped when she curled her tongue up and put it to my lips in a hushing gesture. She pushed me back down into the water and climbed up onto me. Faithful, I remained stoic even as liquid lapped at my earlobes and threatened to block out the sound her exertions.

She straddled me, having climbed far enough out of the water that just her chest was exposed. I stared at her breasts. They might be small, but I could for sure fit the whole tit in my mouth.

Suwako pinched at my skin. I looked up to see her bemused face, her bangs raining huge, slow drops.

She straddled me tighter, then released. Ah, I see. I tread water to lift my lower half, and she rose also, glorious gold and marble in the night, her eyes the color of blazing steel, more brilliant than the moon, the stars, even the sun. She hunched over me, grabbing my shoulders. A mad grin stretched across her face, just slightly too far for a human, revealing rows of pearl teeth.

Suwako began moving, slowly, slowly, the folds of her insides catching on my glans over and over. Raising up far enough that I feared I would unsheathe, and then bringing herself all the way down to the base, our hips touching. Dread excitement washed over me as I realised she was gradually accelerating, her breath hissing and sucking between her teeth.

After a dozen breaths, her riding had become fast enough to create an audible noise from underneath the water – shamefully I released into her, gasping pathetically as I did so and without so much as half a heartbeat Suwako slammed her hips down and her pupils again grew to the size of eclipsing moons as she tilted her head to a side letting her soaked hair hang lopsided catching moonlight and glistening.

Once I had finished she began again at the same tempo, this time pivoting her hips back and forth. I gasped and Suwako’s grin had opened and she drew great ragged breaths in sync with her lowering and raising, faster and faster.

In an effort to hold I’d stopped my breath. I could see myself reflected in her eyes. Suddenly she stopped at the peak of her movement, clenching her teeth once again into a grin. She winked, and started to spiral tortuously slow down the length of my shaft maintaining unblinking eye contact with me. I tried not to blink either, one for fear that any movement would release the deluge of seed churning in my sac and two so I could watch her uninterrupted, the swaying of her hair heavy with water, her joyful and sadistic expression. Taking a risk I brought my eyes to her chest, her nipples looking like small tightly puckered lips, inviting kisses. I had to rip my eyes away and bite my lip, nearly drawing blood to stop from coming. I escaped lower to her bellybutton, which made agonizing progress downwards, three centimeters from the water. Two centimeters from the water. One centimeter from the water – then submerged, my breathing becoming more and more like hoarse screaming as with one, two, three, four twists she had fully consumed me, and as I came deep inside she pressed herself against me not kissing me but so close, the warmth of her and her breath more healing than sunshine.

She let her tongue fall into my mouth and I begun to loll it around, tasting it, feeling its texture and springiness with my own tongue...

Before she drew it back, and pressed her chest against mine, released her leg’s grip on me. She began to gently kick her legs in the water, propelling the both of us in some direction.

Eventually she slowed. Her eyes focused on something ahead of her; craning my neck to look back I could see one of the onbashira. We were at the lake shore.

She swung her leg over and dismounted me like a horse, leaving me splayed out floating on the water, the only parts of me above the surface my torso and the tip of my penis. We were in the shallows, the water up to Suwako’s knees as she walked to the shore.

I turned up to look at her. The full moon was behind her head, shadowing her face. She croaked in an attempt to speak. Taking a deep breath and trying again, she said “Come on.”

I let my feet touch the ground in the shallows and stood up also. We both turned toward the lake bank were soft grass grew against the worn lip. Standing side by side with her out in the open I felt utterly exposed.

Suwako’s eyes had returned to human proportion, but her lids were heavy. She did not meet my eyes.

She pointed further to the shore, where on the lake bank grew a patch of soft grass. “Let’s sit down. I want to talk.”

“Suwako...” Her name escaped my mouth without my realizing it. She looked up at me. I took her hand in mine.

“I love you.”

Her expression became starry-eyed, and breath seemed to catch in her throat – her godly presence had left her again.

She gulped, and we turned fully to face one another. “I love you too.” She said.

We brought each other into a hug. I crouched slightly to let her head rest on my shoulder. I ran one hand though her hair and embraced her tightly with the other – she returned it, holding me with both arms.

Her breathing had become shaky. Mine too.

“Izumi. You could’ve told me that ages ago.”

“I thought I’d missed my chance.”

“No. Izumi, its not like that.” She loosened her grip and pulled back, her hand on my shoulders. “I was just waiting for you to say it. All that time. Seeing you suffer in silence like that…” She cast her gaze down. “I heard all of your prayers too.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t-”

“No!” Suwako shouted, her eyes turned upon me, grave. “The reason you’re in the state you are now is because you didn’t do anything! Even as your life was falling apart…” She brought me close to her again, and stroked the back of my neck. “Don’t you have any initiative?...”

“I don’t – I…” My voice cracked into a hoarse and agonizing sob.

Suwako pulled herself back. She was teary eyed too. “I’m sorry for shouting.” She took my hand. “Come on. Lets sit down. I want to tell you something.”

She lead me by the hand onto the bank.

We emerged from the water. She let go of me and sat down facing the shore, one leg over the other, her arms supporting her weight as she leaned back. I sat next to her.

Her head to the sky, Suwako took a deep breath. “You were afraid to confess because I’m a god, right?”

I laughed despite myself. “Well, when you put it like that…”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “But am I right?”

“Yeah. I never thought anything like this could ever happen. But, why’d you even want me?”

She tilted her head to look at me. “What do you mean?” She saw the look on my face and must’ve realized. She blinked slowly. “You’re very dedicated. You just can’t decide things for yourself. You could do good in most anything you apply yourself to… But you found yourself torn between your studies and me.” She brought a leg up to her chest. “I have to apologize for that too. I… wanted to take you in. But, I wanted you to make the first move and, I was very vague with my suggestions, in hindsight.” She took a deep breath. “I suppose that’s just my nature as a god.”

“And as a woman.”

“Why, you’re one to talk, man…” That got a little laughter out of her. “But I’m not wrong, am I?”

Yeah. She was right. I nodded.

“You need to stop being indecisive. It’s so easy to let things spiral out of control because you feel afraid of change. I know because I do it myself…”

She shuffled over, close enough that our sides touched. She looked up at me, then rested her head on my shoulder. “There’s this repeating pattern in my mind. Self-pity, shame, anger and sadness. Then I try to stop the thoughts – distract myself. The feelings become more intense the more times I let it happen. But trying not to think of anything gets harder and harder to do. I still give in to it, even now…

“You like my stories, don’t you Izumi?”

“Yes. Yes, I love them.” My answer was immediate.

“Well, here’s one which I think will get my point across better. In the decades before I and the shrine came to Gensokyo I bordered extinction. We kami get our vitae from when humans keep us in their minds. The stronger the emotion or more introspective the thought, the more nourishing it is. That’s faith, explained simply. Its why we have festivals, and mysteries, anything you can think of that would turn peoples thoughts to us. Half a century ago…” Suwako seemed to be focus on some invisible point, perhaps shrouded in that fog. “No, longer than that.

“A restructuring of the country occurred. I, once revered and feared, all of a sudden became a graven icon of old superstition and control. In an instant it all crumbled. I didn’t do anything about it. I thought people would turn back as quickly as they had turned away. They didn’t.

“My existence before then was already obscure. Knowledge of me was passed mostly through word of mouth and some few local scrolls. Maybe only one or two people outside of my native region even knew my name. In government documentation, It was Kanako’s shrine, and all the legends and festivals were in Kanako’s name…

“So within a very short span of time I was almost snuffed out completely.” She took my hand into hers. “Kanako helped a lot. She was still known, even if there was no real faith in that knowing. Right before Sanae came, the only things sustaining my existence was Kanako and the barest memories of some few people nearing the end of their life and being eaten away at by dementia besides… I was fading. And I tried to be content with that.”

She breathed deeply. “Throughout my life I’ve been so lucky. Lucky to have been allowed to still rule after Kanako conquered my kingdom, lucky to have had her and Sanae to bring me into Gensokyo, lucky to have been born a god in the first place. Lucky to have you. Gensokyo is just another in the long list of second chances that I’ve been given. Brought to me despite my complacency...

“But you’re not always going to be so lucky as to have someone that’ll bring you that second chance. You have to take them yourself. The moment to act on them may be fleeting and their effects on your life may totally change everything.” She turned to me. “You’ll doubt yourself – you’re young and don’t have much frame of reference. But leaning too far into doubt leads to chronic hesitation.

“You’ll tell yourself not to uproot, that you’ll only cause yourself suffering by doing anything, while you rot into the soil… Look at me. Older than most things. Yet I was like you too, just a few years ago. I convinced myself that nothing mattered and that I should just… die. Let myself fade away. I thought it would have been painless but it wasn’t. It did damage to me that hasn’t healed to this day. Likely won’t ever heal.

“What I’m saying is that you should reach out for those second chances. Put your mind to work to determine whether it’s right, but don’t put it off. Be smart and be brave because complacency will kill you from the inside out.”

The sound of her soft breathing and the waves lapping upon the shore calmed my mind. She was right, but right now I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I leaned into her. “Okay.”A shuddering breath. “Okay. I love you Suwako.”

“I love you too.” If I could repeat that affirmation forever I wouldn’t mind.

But I stayed silent. I closed my eyes and soon my mind went quiet.

I opened my eyes and all was how I’d left it. I can’t have slept for long because it was still dark.

I’d been awoken by another anxious thought. I looked down and by some miracle she was still there also. She was already looking up at me. Did kami sleep?

As I repeated in my head the events of the night a question began burning at the back of my throat.

“Hey, you know when we first met?”

“Yeah.”

“You were really friendly. All the time I was with you, you were rarely that forward with anyone else.”

“I was just being protective.”

I laughed. "Alright. But seriously, why were you so open even during our first meeting?"

"I don't know. I suppose I made the decision on a whim." She smiled up at me. "That's scary to think about, isn't it?"

I nodded.

"You'd have been fine, though. You wouldn't have had me distracting you from your studies…"

“I wouldn’t have been nearly as happy as I am now. I don’t regret a thing. I love you.” I lowered my lips to hers and she met me halfway for a lingering kiss on the lips.

“I love you too.”

We both looked at eachother for a bit. It was liberating, being able to silently and shamelessly enjoy eachother. But the moment had to end – I had another burning question on my mind.

“Suwako, Why do you have a long tongue? I thought you weren’t a frog god”

She quickly shot out her tongue and lapped once at her own eyeball. “Its just nice to have. Comes in handy.” She pouted “Besides, you seemed to like it.”

“Yeah.”

“See? No need to dwell on it, then.”

“Yeah.” I took a deep breath and soaked in the moment. A scene out of my wildest dreams, I and her naked, our only cover the fog. Leaning close to one another in the afterglow of sex. Another thought crossed my mind. A wish I’d kept in the back of my mind.

“Suwako, could I work at the shrine?”

“As what?”

I didn’t expect her to respond so quickly. “As a priest. I… you taught me a lot about all the rituals and the history of the shrine. I think it could work.”

“Initiative. I like it. You’ll need a lot more of it if you want to work for us though…” She traced a contemplative finger down my chest. “Although, I’ve never heard of a priest married to their kami.”

“Marri-” Suwako kissed me lightly on the lips.

When she pulled herself back she brought her hand quickly down to my shaft and began stroking. “Why, yes.” her voice was a husky whisper, “Marriage. You’ve already gouged me out with your cock, so the order of events is off. But if they happen in close tandem people don’t mind.” She brought her other arm around my head and pulled me down close.

“Huh-” I was cut off again when her tongue began writhing around my ear and wiggling in the canal, her stroking pace quickening.

She stopped suddenly, and peeled herself off of my side. She began to crawl in front of me, slowly and cat-like; her tongue still hung from her mouth, contrasting with the blank and innocent expression she now wore.

She stopped. We faced eachother, me sitting with my legs wide and her on all fours.

Her tongue extended and made its way to wrap around my-

“Hagh, ithn thith phumiliyu?” Suwako spoke with her tongue still a hair’s length away from my cock, saliva dripping from it onto me and making me shudder.

She tilted her head to the side, looking contemplative. “Ogh. Righh. Thith ith wan oth thoth things yuu thing abough erry nigh.” She pinched her eyebrows in mock concern, “Yuu shoulgh no tha yuu keb mi ub wi tha. Erry nigh I cuddn helb bud pway wi mithelth alothid yuu.”

Before I could decipher that her tongue constricted around my tip, reached inside the foreskin and did a circuit from one side of my frenulum to the other; then with only her tongue she peeled it back and the thing slithered further down my shaft.

When she reached the base she held her tongue still, and still peering into my eyes she lowered her head to kiss the shaft with her soft lips. She held like that for a moment, a knowing breaking through in her expression.

She then lowered her head further down, taking just the tip into her mouth; I could feel her tongue lolling around it and hear it also, but the length wrapped around the rest stayed still.

Until it didn’t. The rest of the tongue started to take up the twirl, starting from the base where it pushed out from the fold of her tightly suctioned lips. and carrying on like a dancer’s ribbon.

The sound of her sucking and moaning was joined by the sound of her tongue writhing around my shaft. Before the whole of her tongue was in motion she brought her head down even farther, swallowing both my cock and her own tongue – her throat shuddered, yet Suwako easily accepted me deep into her.

Her tongue did not uncoil either, such that both it and her throat gripped me as she brought her head down the final length of my shaft – and stopped there.

She took my left hand and guided it to the top of her head. I gulped. Watching her, a kami, do such an indignant thing… “Suwako… I want to make you feel good too.”

The corners of her eyes lit up in a smile, covering for her currently occupied mouth. Her head rotated around my shaft as she brought the rest of her body under my right half. Shooting a sly look up at me she guided my right hand to her pussy, rubbing my fingers against some spots as a guide. She let go my hand, but I could feel it brush up against mine as she inserted her fingers into herself a few times, making herself moan. When she brought back her hand her index and middle finger were coated in a somewhat viscous and translucent substance which I could only assume was a mixture of my seed and her juices.

Without a second thought I sucked on them, parting the fingers with my tongue. I couldn’t liken its taste to anything else, except that it was somewhat salty.

Her fingers moved suddenly, pulling at my cheeks from the inside and running her fingernails over my teeth, pinching my tongue and pulling it out. She left it exposed to the air for a while before she let it go, bringing her hand down to her own nipple and beginning to play with it.

Before I decided to begin pleasuring myself with her throat, I tried various arrangements of my fingers around her pussy, relying on the look in her eyes for approval.

Her eyes widened and she tightened around me – This was the one, then. My middle finger inserted into her, my index and ring kneeling around the entrance, and my thumb flicking her sensitive clit back and forth.

It was difficult to coordinate both hands so I started slowly, pulling her up my cock. I didn’t mind, as that way I could savor the perverse noises her throat made and the lewd sight of her clinging lips trailing, dragging lewdly across my length.

I stopped at the tip; her tongue still wriggled around my whole length. Released from the choke of my cock, Suwako breathed heavily, squinting up at me with one eye, her gagged moans in time with the movements of my right hand, and swelling up a vicious streak in me.

“You said something about playing with yourself earlier?”

She tried to make a sound of agreement but was cut off as I bobbed her head up and down my length, like making a doll nod.

I extended my ring and index fingers to pinch her clit between them, and also pressed down on it with my thumb. She winced and suckled pathetically.

My middle finger then made great scraping digs along her inside walls. It took great force to push her open, feeling like it might even break my finger. “Were you receiving my wet fantasies like you would prayers?” instead of waiting for a response, I pinched tighter and finger-fucked faster. Her expression melted, her eyes began to water. “Were ones like this your favorites?”

I slammed her head down, and her throat parted for me. She gagged and shuddered a little, but otherwise no protest was made. And the look in her eyes told me she was enjoying this more than she’d like. “Can I go faster?” I whispered, as if to not break character in front of an audience. She slobbered on my cock in agreement.

I gulped. Without consulting my thinking mind I began to slide her head up and down my shaft. Her familiar voice muffled and spluttered on it. She squeaked when I teased her with my right hand. Her tongue seemed to move and constrict with a mind of its own, its sole intent to induce orgasm and feed itself.

My movements had become automatic. I held fast her eyes with my own. They still did not succumb, even as I lowered and raised her fast enough to whip up a froth of her saliva and my precum.

There was a challenge in her look. “I wish you could see how yourself.” I said, my voice surprisingly steady. “Are you enjoying this? I am. It’s an honor to use your throat to pleasure myself, kami-sama.”

She could only express her indignation by squinting, her other modes occupied with being fucked. I didn’t really deserve to talk to her that way, but that was why it felt so good. And she seemed to enjoy it besides.

I began to twist her head back and forth as I brought it up and down, “Remember this move you did in the lake?” I removed the fingers from her entrance to stab them into her.

Her gaze wavered. I felt a warm spray on my side, and Suwako tried to draw breath in through the limited space I allowed her. Despite her best efforts I hadn’t yet came, a miracle by all descriptions.

I removed my hand from her pussy, and moving quickly I hooked my right arm under her and lifted. Then came my left to assist, leaving her halfway up my cock, lips outstretched. Her surprised face rotated out of view as I brought her drenched lower half up to my face.

I held Suwako by her hips with my elbows, letting my hands run across the smooth and sweaty lengths of her splayed thighs. I licked just around her pussy, salty on my tongue, eliciting some spasming as I let her fall down onto my shaft with a few embarrassing noises on her part. I licked the reaches of her inner thighs next, savoring her taste and the softness of her under my tongue.

“You taste really goo-”

Her legs pincered around my neck as Suwako let herself drop even further, bringing my face to her lower lips.

I could hear and feel Suwako reposition herself, her arms to the ground like she was doing push-ups. I had regained my composure in the meantime and began to touch those same sensitive spots with my tongue now. I kneaded her ply ass with my hands -

Her tongue tightened greatly, and began to stroke the length of my shaft like a hand as she also bobbed her quickly head up and down it, producing an almighty noise.

I couldn’t do anything but brace against her as I resisted for a few more moments, then burst, trying to slam myself up into her throat but she was already flush against me, swallowing me. When I thought it had to be done she coaxed more and more out.

Finally my orgasm finished. I continued to sink my hands into her ass and thighs while savoring the taste of her.

Her legs released from my neck and she released from my face, nimbly folding onto herself. She landed, her legs and arms bent and supporting her weight, looking like a tea-table. She was slowly pulling her lips off my cock – when we separated it shot upright, flinging up a thin arc between the two points which caught the moonlight.

She tilted her head to look up at me. her hair hung off her upside-down head as she opened her mouth wide to reveal she’d swallowed all of my semen. Her heavy breathing landed warm on my cock.

She floated effortlessly into the air, spun herself to face me and barreled straight into me, pushing me down onto the grass.

She was on top of me again, her whole face lit up with a wicked humor. She leaned down against me, warm and sticky with sweat; her neck to my face, I having to crane up to meet her eye.

“Most gods would kill their priest for disrespecting them so.”

“You didn’t, though… So you like it?”

Something glid smoothly across my shaft and pinched the tip – peeking, it was her foot. “About as much as you like the same treatment.” She gave a breathy chuckle as her other foot came to tease and stroke my cock.

She twisted to the side and kissed me nearly side-on, inserting her long tongue into mouth and letting it go limp. I sucked and played with the soft mass in my mouth, the heavy aftertaste of my cum still on it.

Just from her feet I was nearing completion. I pulled her away from my mouth. She looked a little confused, but caught on when I tried to pull her further up my length. She bared her chest to me, her small and delicate teats slick and reflecting streaks of light.

I first lightly circled her left with my tongue, then I pressed hard, indenting the tender flesh; feeling her fast heartbeat pulse through my tongue.

Then I couldn’t help but satisfy my curiosity. Tilting my head I opened wide, and tried to take her whole breast in my mouth, squishing them tight by sucking hard.

Suwako groaned low, almost frog-like. I pulled my head back to suck tight on her nipple and she actually croaked, her footjob becoming sloppy.

I gave the nipple a few final tongue flicks then separated. “I thought you weren’t a frog god.”

“Youuhh-” I brought my hands to squeeze her nipples, cutting her off into a moan. Her tummy pressed and ground into my chest.

“Yet you’re croaking.”

“You-” She hiccuped as I brought her right nipple to my mouth, kissing and tonguing it.

I separated. “I love it.” I went back and pulled the nipple toward my with my mouth, grazing it gently with my teeth, and Suwako trilled. “But its no good to deny it, Suwa-kero.”

She growled, and her feet began to much more dexterously dance over my shaft in response. “You’re very lucky, you know that?”

“I’m the luckiest man in the world.” taking a nipple in my mouth again I moved a hand down the length of her side, and upon reaching her hips, suddenly made to insert my thumb into her asshole before I came.

It penetrated surprisingly easily. Suwako gasped and gripped my cock tight as I came all up her back, the volume of her exhalations increasing as I teased her more intensely. I had managed to get my thumb hilted into her anus.

I was ripped from her tit as she rose upright, her face blank, her pupils eclipsing again.

“Hey, your asshole is pretty well-trained, it practically sucked my thumb in.”

She was still, statuesque even. Her breathing had completely stopped. In one spider-like movement she lowered her face less than an inch from my own and I could see my eyes reflected back at me reflecting hers repeating the cycle until the detail became too fine for my sight.

“Get your thumb out of my ass.”

I removed it with a pop. “Sorry.”

Humanity returned to her. She reached out an arm and stroked me under my chin, then looked up at the moon like it was intruding, then back at me. “We’ve got time for one more thing. How about it, Izumi?”

“Yeah. Please get off my chest. Its hard to breathe.”

“Sure.” Suwako slid off me. Laying with her back on the grass, she pulled her thighs up parallel to her sides, her lower legs dangling in the air as if to surrender. “This is an ultimate outside-world sex move.” Her lower half, exposed and unguarded by any limb, coaxed me into standing. “Its called a ‘mating press’.”

She spoke like she was trying to introduce me to a weird hobby of he- “Wait, mating? Like, pregnant?”

She arched up an eyebrow. “Yeah.” Then realization dawned on her. She let her legs fall to either side of me as she sat herself upright. She met my eyes, warm, but watchful. “Would you be alright having kids with me?”

“…I, I don’t know if I could… Be a good father.” I run a hand through my hair. “Its already too late for that though, isn’t it? I came inside.”

“Izumi.” Suwako took my hands in hers. “You’d make a wonderful father. But if you don’t want kids that’s fine. We don’t have to.”

I traced her soft palms. “Uh… if we did have kids, would they look like Sanae and have long tongues?”

“Sanae’s generations removed. I think the green hair might be a magician thing. And…” A smile opened up at a corner of her mouth. “They’d have the tongues.”

“Does Sanae have a long tongue?”

Suwako tutted, shaking her head. “Izumi… you can’t go asking things like that about my descendant.”

“I was just curious how long it, uh, ran in the blood.”

“How long it is? Izumi!” Suwako laughed softly. “So, would you be ready for kids? I can stop myself getting pregnant if that’s what you want. And if you do want kids... They’re not gonna just pop out right now… They take a few months.”

I gulped, and slicked my hair back across my head. “I’d like to think that I’d be ready for that when the time comes.”

“So you want kids?” She wasn’t doing very good at containing her excitement.

“Yeah.”

Suwako’s veneer broke into a radiant smile so wide it nearly closed her eyes. She went forward to embrace me; with our chests to one another I could feel her heat beat fast. “Thank you. Thank you. You don’t know how much that means to me.”

I tried to respond but the words were lost in a moan as she rubbed herself against my body, my cock squashed between her pussy and my stomach. “Now that that’s settled…” She pulled me into another kiss, her tongue thrashing around in my mouth. Pulling out, she went to my ear, and spoke into it and licked at it in turns, “Why don’t we get back to where we left off?~ Where your kami was going to fully submit to your cock?~ Where you were going to make a mess of me?~ Where you were going to plant your seed in my divine womb?~” She released my cock from her groin, took a hand from my head and played with the tip. her gaze flicked quickly between me and my cock.

“You want this bad, huh.”

“fucking breed me already.”

“I need you to do your mating call first.”

Suwako froze. Then she smirked, and pressed herself tight against me. She trilled softly in my ear as she rubbed herself against me. She tried to guide me into her but I stopped her.

“No. Do that thing again.”

“The mating press?”

“Yes.”

She fell back slowly and gracefully and smoothly reassumed that submissive position. She breathed hard in anticipation, her eyes focused upon my cock.

I took my time to crawl over her, studying her pale and soft body with my eyes and hands, giving her sensitive parts a rougher inspection – the pace of her breathing quickened.

Until I was over her, my thighs pushing down on hers, our lower parts poised and ready to accept each other with the slightest movement. Again the only thing I could see was her face. It was a shame that I couldn’t watch her body as I ravished her in this position, but I imagined I could instead feel her squirming as I pressed down upon her, the position letting me reach deep into her and kiss her womb, pinning her to the ground and slamming down mercilessly over and over-

“Do it.”

I grabbed her face and all in one motion inserted my tongue and my shaft into her, muffling her moans as I reared up to come violently back down, playing with her tongue which put up weak resistance, sounds desperately trying to escape every time I slammed into her, picking up pace now.

I released our kiss and her voice came out, the very same that I’d spent cherished hours scribing down and hanging on every word now only able to gasp and whimper underneath me. I put both hands to her face, running one through her hair which clung to her skin and with the other hooked a thumb in her cheek, allowing me to peer into her mouth, velvet flesh and perfect teeth, her ragged gasps taking on a whistling quality as I quickened my pace.

I took my hands off her face and grabbed her own hands instead, pinning them above her head and leaning in close, our breath mixing, her eyes glazing over yet being shocked back by the sensation of my cock entering her over and over again, the sound of our sex becoming louder and louder.

I pressed myself further against her, her thighs soft like pillows against mine, her insides clinging to me and somehow tightnening, near wringing me out, as I went on. She called my name, and I called hers.

I resisted climax despite the urge welling up in me to plant my seed firmly in her. Meeting her eyes again, her gaze and breathing shaky, she flailed wildly at my face with her tongue; I managed to catch the thing in my mouth and pulled on it like a dog would.

Her tongue twisted around mine and pulled me down for another kiss and I could take it no more. With one final thrust I let my entire body go, trying to put the whole of my strength toward penetrating her deep, pushing on her womb, hypnotized by the way she looked at me, peered into me. I felt her warm spray against my groin as I let my own stream of warm liquid into her.

I gave a few final spurts, and reared up.

My strength was giving out. I lifted my head to the moon and squinted at its brightness.

I was suddenly falling. I couldn’t think. I felt warm arms stop me, holding me gently. I looked up. Suwako. She kissed my lips. I tried to reach out to her but couldn’t manage that. I closed my eyes and slept.

116; on the stick that the monk had drawn, that number was written.

First to her thoughts was that that suggested an awful lot of possible fortunes. A staggering number that ought to cover, why, almost any future that a woman could have. Though a second's more consideration brought a second thought, which was that the Hakurei Shrine's timeworn tactic was for all possible futures to lead to repeat purchases.

She brushed a lock of sunset-coloured hair (and there were truly few other adjectives for her unsuitably long and un-monk-like tresses, which bore the coolth of sky and burning sun at once) out of her eyes, and read her future on a slip of paper.

Well. Yes, she certainly was in for “astonishing longevity,” that much was long decided. Though finding religious institutions loathsome seemed unlikely to be in her cards, unless she happened to find herself trapped in that thrice-damned-and-twice-again owl's hellish halls.

Unusually for the Hakurei Shrine, the sacred tree was already flowering white with wishes willed to the wardship of the god therein--perhaps some hundred already had tied their fates to the tree. The hundred-and-first tied hers to a higher branch, heretofore left bare.

Then, Byakuren Hijiri found a place in the shade to stand and wait for the northeasterly fog to roll in.

She arrived with the breeze, coming down the stone-paved way fiddling with a little clay komainu. She was picking at a seal on the bottom which concealed her fortune, and thus distracted, she nearly walked straight into Byakuren.

She looked up. It required some craning of the neck. Mighty king of all oni, but it showed nowhere save her long crown: she could fit quite snugly beneath Byakuren's chest, if she had a mind to, and while perhaps some of that was the monk's height…

Well, Suika Ibuki was not as tall as the trees that lined the steps, to say the least.

“It pains me to see you living like this.” Byakuren's expression was mournful and her hands were clasped.

“You just really in love with starting conversations by try'n'a piss people off?” Suika scowled.

“You used to be a monk. You know what the right paths are, but you left them to chase temptations.” Byakuren
extended her hand, “But so did I, as I suppose you know. We can always start again.”

Suika slapped it away. “I don't need to start shit again. What makes you think I'm not still on the path?”

“The drinking, for one. Hunting and eating meat, for another. Womanizing, so I hear. I haven't heard of you ever paying your respects to the Buddha…”

“Bah. There are monks of all kinds, I'll have you know. Y'all ever hear of old Ikkyuu? Now there was a guy. Never did Daitoku Temple have an abbot more loved… hell, of all the monks in the old capital, he was up there. And you know what he found in his enlightenment?”

Byakuren heaved a great sigh. The places this country's faith had gone while she had been gone.
“One abbot hardly-”

“He realised, drinking and fucking never did nobody no harm!”

“Thirst is the very definition of duhkha.”

“So you're cool with the-”

“While sexual relations are merely another kind of thirst. How can you expect to abandon transient pleasures and find the only true satisfaction while forever chasing the most momentary of passions?”

“Nirvana is a woman, woman! Shakti, shakti, am I right? The body is a temple, yours and mine. Ain't it better to worship at the feet of eternity itself than chant dead words all day? Hell, you give me the chance, I'll show you Nirvana in this Samsara-” Suika licked her lips lasciviously, reached one groping hand towards Byakuren's breasts, and was slapped away.

Shaking her hand as if she'd felt that at all, she went on, “And anyway, I thought you Huayan types were all-in on Indra's Web? There is no ‘you’ or ‘me,’ you say. The rafter and the house. Well then, how about the poison plant? Ain't it also the holy lotus flower?”

“Simply sophistry,” Byakuren shook her head, and her voice took the tone of the stern mother that so bowed her novices’ head, “Just excuses for giving in to temptation, and you would know it if only you were honest with yourself. Every wave contains the ocean, as you say; each wave is in all the ocean, too… but ships are still dashed against the rocks.”

“Feh. Live a little. ‘Good friend of the Dharma,’” Suika swung her arms wide and raised her eyes to the heavens, singing her oratory like a siren's song, “‘so proud, let me tell you-’”

“Let me tell you that I do not appreciate the assertion that I would do better as a… a…”

“A what? Come on. You can say it. It ain't gonna kill ya. And if one little word can throw ya off the path, well, we can always start again.”

Inhale. And exhale, long and strong. Wordlessly she straightened her back, clasped her hands, closed her eyes--opened them again. Smiling.

“If you would only spend some time on the right paths again, soon you would see. If you would try at all to move past attachment, you would look back on all the foolish things you say now, and laugh,” she spread her arms, as if waiting for Suika's embrace, “I will be there for you, if ever you do. I only want for you to find happiness, you know. Come back to the temple, just for a month, perhaps, and let me show you, if I can.”

Suika took a long, defiant drink from her gourd, while her other hand finally retrieved her fortune. Whatever she saw in her future (and whatever it was that she didn't want Byakuren to see, for the paper vanished in an instant) set her grinning.

“Come live my path for a month, and I’ll show you. Come ‘kill living beings, speak lying words, take what is not given, consort with the women of others’ with me. This world is thin as fog, we both know that, but you won't pierce it running and hiding from the shapes it makes!”

“And you won't pierce it running towards them.” But a sun rose in her eyes even as another set in the skies behind her…

Byakuren Hijiri held out a hand to Suika Ibuki once again. But she did not hold it to grasp - she saw now that would be groping at mist - no, she made to offer herself.

“A month, then. I will follow you into sin some days and see if truth lies there, and on others you will return to the life of a monk.”

Suika's little warm hand was pressed against her palm in barely an instant. The king of all oni, king of desire, held tight--the humble white lotus held tighter.

If Byakuren was suspicious of such easy agreement, she did not show it.

Suika glowered at the offense to the senses she had been served.

She had dragged herself out of bed at the Hour of the Tiger! She had tried to stay awake through morning meditation and gotten smacked with the keisaku more than enough for it! She had recited the sutras just fine! Byakuren had even stopped her afterwards to praise her for it! … That had felt better than she'd ever admit to the damn frigid flower.

And now she was being punished, punished with food more tasteless, rice more plain, than anything she had ever seen served in the Hakurei Shrine! She eyed the tea like she expected it to jump out and bite her.

“You try'n'a poison me?”

“Shh.”

“No, I'm serious here, how do you survive eating this-”

“Mealtimes are to be silent, Ibuki.”

“Fuuuck, ten-hundred-and-something years, and I forgot how much I fuckin’ hate temple life…’

“Remember what you agreed to. You will live by our rules under our roof.”

Suika threw her head back, groaned, and fell backwards onto the floor.

“Yeah, yeah, just you hold up your end of the bargain and I'll survive…” And then she was silent. Though, she still did not drink the tea.

Being deprived of drink for an unheard of… oh, twelve hours or so ironically left Suika stumbling around like a drunk. Long-forgotten habits stole control of her muscles, however; and she was able to do her daily work as though she was a puppet on strings. More or less. Suika was recovering from a hangover that had been building for generations; a little sympathy was due. Byakuren followed her all day watching to see that she was well (and behaving well), and did not point out the glaring spots of mud she missed in the halls, or the snapped branches on the trees she was asked to tend.

Lunch came - Suika choked down a little monk-food - and went. Afternoon meditation, Suika dozed through; the next set of chores, she stumbled through. By dinner, she was hungry enough not to care.

And afterward, she went to wait in the abbot's quarters.

Byakuren helped Ichirin with the dishes, then followed Suika. She crossed the threshold with no small trepidation; she went with icy blood, pumped by a heart beating all the way up her throat.

A sense of irony haunted her. She spent almost no time in these quarters; she preferred to sleep in the common hall with her disciples. Her own bedroom, and it was a strange, alien place… now hosting an aspect, so it was said, of the Tempter himself.

She did not see Suika though there was nowhere in the room to hide, and that only worried her more.

Byakuren sat down in the centre of her ten square jou, legs crossed to meditate. She lay her arms out to the side, watched the scene of lake and bare tree painted on the shouji, and let mind and self vaporise. “Namu Amida Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu Namu Amida Butsu Namuamidabu-” Faster, faster! The words spilled from her mouth as if squeezed out by the groping hands tracing her body from behind… the small warmth pressed against her back, the lips planting kisses against her neck which sent such shivers down her spine! Something in her stomach tied itself in knots; worse, something in her body replied to the burning heat pressed against her with its own. She quivered, and felt-

One transgressing hand trailed up to her breast, and began to squeeze, and knead, and caress--then pinch, and no chant in the world could hold up against the electric feeling–Suika kept going, she twisted Byakuren's nipple, pulled it as if trying to force milk to flow, and all breath left Byakuren's body, her head was swimming-
The other hand slipped between her legs, and slender fingers began to part-

“No! Stop!”

Those evil hands froze.

“Why should I? You knew the deal. I woke up before the fuckin’ sun today, now you let me show you my right way… right? Don't tell me you're backing out! Because if you deny me what’s mine, I might have to take it…”

“I’m… I apologise. I am simply not ready yet. Giving up my chastity is a bridge too far, for the first night, at least. I vowed my body; let me keep my word as long as I can.”

“Funny thing for an abbot to say,” Suika grumbled, pressing her face into the crook of Byakuren's neck. “Even back in our day, they all kept having kids, had to keep the temples in the family I guess, and these days it's downright expected!”

“... Even so. Other monks can do as they like, but when I swore to be chaste, I meant it.”

Byakuren pulled herself away, and sat down again facing Suika. She was grateful her face was already as red as it could ever get, because the oni was stark naked, and it was all she could not to look too hard at that petite-yet-curvy body, practically pocket-sized but also quite visibly adult… that perfectly unblemished skin, soft as silk, pliable as a pillow, but sometimes hard as iron and hot as hell and other times still, paradox. She tried not to let her gaze linger on the way Suika's pretty little nipples stiffened in the evening coolth, or the petals of her–

“You probably swore not to cut plants, disturb soil, store up food… but I saw that garden. Swore to live as a beggar scraping by on only what the lay people can spare, that is literally the definition of bhikku! We just ate dinner, even though a monk’s not s'posed to eat after midday,” Some small mercy granted, Suika interrupted that line of thought.

“... In the end, vows are just a particularly skillful means, and what made sense in India is not always sensible in our land.” Byakuren admitted.

And before Suika could seize on that, she withdrew a bottle of whiskey - confiscated earlier from Murasa - and two boxes from her sleeves. One she kept for herself, the other she filled and passed to Suika. The bottle, she set between them.

“Tonight, let’s share this. Will that be enough?”

For a second, Suika looked tense, her tiger-nature coming to the fore; she let out a low, feline growl, and her body was primed to pounce, and Byakuren steeled her sinking heart against the fear that Suika would make good on her threat… but then the tension slipped away.

She filled Byakuren's box until it was spilling over the side, then held hers in the air.

“Cheers, woman! To your edifi… efiddy… effigy… ediphic… learning the bliss that you've been denying yourself!”
“A toast to you, and your first steps to regaining the path.”

They both laughed.

The morning was light and sound and fury. Somehow even the dormitory hall before sunrise burned her damned-to-hell eyes. Suika would've screamed, if only that wouldn't have just made the pain worse.

She ignored the gentle hand on her shoulder shaking her awake, and turned to bury herself in her futon. The shaking became a little bit more insistent. Suika's claws dug into the wood floor.

The hands were suddenly stronger than her, somehow, and flipped her over. She stared into Byakuren's face - she looked only barely better off - and tried to tell her to fuck off. It came out entirely unintelligible.

“Shh. You’ll wake the others,” Suika's neighbour on her left, Nue, stirred, but did not wake, “I’d like to apologise. Yesterday, I failed to help you when you needed it. Perhaps I thought of it as letting you reap the consequence of your own foolishness, but you were in pain and I let you be. Here. Drink this. Hydrate. You'll feel a little better.” She handed Suika a bucket of fresh well-water.

Perhaps half of it ended up all over Suika instead of down her throat, but it seemed to help all the same. She let out another string of incoherent noises.

“Take your time.”

“Same time tonight?’

Byakuren smiled and shook her head.

“You realise I do expect some abstinence, or you living with us might as well be meaningless. Every second evening, and only one vice each night. Today you will live wholly as a monk, and tomorrow-”
“Tomorrow I get those big-ass titties all to myself!”

“... I was thinking meat, perhaps.”

“Yeah, yours!” Suika cackled, Nue stirred; Byakuren shushed.

“A little more time to come to terms with the idea… if you would be so kind.”

Suika’s hand shot out and pinched Byakuren's rear; she clamped her hands over her mouth to keep from shrieking.
“Fine, but y'all don't get to delay forever. Sooner or later I'm taking my, aha, pound of flesh.”

For as unsteady as her hand was, Suika's skill in calligraphy had returned to her from the deep recesses of long-obliterated time, and she copied the sutras as if it were as simple as raking the dry gardens.

(Raking the dry gardens, on the other hand… where once there had been tranquil rivers, she left raging seas. Byakuren was gonna be upset when she saw it…)

The next evening, after sunset, the two stole out of the temple; Byakuren in a hooded cloak, Suika following as a flowing mist amid the downpour. Eating meat in the temple would be… difficult, even setting aside worries of ritual pollution. Shou would smell it, and Bishamonten's stern eye seemed to be the only thing that put Suika off her ease. So instead Byakuren found herself pushing open the door of the izakaya Geidontei, long after closing hours.

She locked eyes with Mamizou and felt herself shatter.

A sly grin spread across the bakedanuki's face; she leaned back, took a puff from her pipe… She saw Suika recorporate herself through the door, shook her head, raised her hands.

“I ain't seen nothing,” Mamizou assured her, then shouldered past out into the rain.

Byakuren remained frozen on the doorstep, so Suika yanked her inside and sat her down at the counter.

“Some pork skewers over here, Miyoi!” She called, waving.

“Coming right up! I got some kind of special fizzy Outsider drink in, too. From some place called Shanpan, I hear.”

“Hell yeah, we'll take-”

“We will take tea. Both of us.”

“... Aaaugh. Right. What she said.” Suika admitted, face downcast.

“Ah. Is this that bet you said you were going to take?”

“Sure is. Sure sucks, too. I haven't had a drop in two whole days, and she won't even let me have any fun with her!”

Byakuren cleared her throat loudly.

“... Uh.”

“Well, there's still most of the month to go. And remember, if you need me for anything, I'm your girl!” Miyoi slid a pair of warm cups over the counter with a dazzling smile, and a nod to Suika.

Not long after, there was meat sizzling on the grill, and a scent pervading the air that, after so long, only turned Byakuren's stomach.

“‘Those with compassion eat meat,’ or sumthin’ like that, says the Hevajra Tantra. The way I see it is like this, if it helps,” Suika said, seeing her discomfort, “If self is an illusion, it's not so different from chewing yer own nails, or something like that.”

“And if self is an illusion, it’s little different from lopping off your arm to please your stomach, surely. What compassion is there in the slaughterhouse?” Byakuren stared down at the plate as it was set before her, and wondered if the boar had been a kind thing, or an evil one, or if it had known such ideas at all.

Suika was already tearing chunks away between her sharp fangs. “Well… you didn't kill it, you didn't see it killed, and it wasn't killed for you. That's good enough, ain't it?”

“... To the letter, yes.” It reassured her none.

“Well then, eat it!”

“... Namu Amida Butsu,” Byakuren repeated. She reminded herself of the teachings she was here to learn and discern if they were indeed a means. If there is no duality to the enlightened, then, the division of profane and pious must surely be mere avidyā? And, by doing wrong even if only a little, only as safely as possible…

Tentatively, Byakuren took a bit of pork, and tore away something of ignorance.

That night, Byakuren left her body - sick and bedeviled of meat - and landed on Mt. Ooe. She, and seven other women, were standing on the stonework wall of a colossal continental monastery, staring out over Heian-Kyou far below. Orange light showered across the grounds; the scent of lotus flowers flowed freely. She was naked in the summer warmth, and she was cradling her stomach. She was pregnant, heavily so, with a princess–Shuten-Douji's daughter. So were all of the other women.

A joyous shriek lanced from below, where Ibaraki-Douji was astride that poet she was so pleased with.

… a monastery, yes; a monastery of oni and monsters, more than monks.

A monastery of bliss, though. The nun sat down, to give her aching feet a rest. Her body was so heavy, so strained, so happy and full of miraculous life. She basked in the feeling of the setting sun's rays and the warm wind caressing her belly, promising paradise for her daughter. She rubbed her hands across the taut skin and luxuriated in the sensation. She felt her little girl kick with the strength of her father, and such little things as morning sickness seemed so irrelevant and far away.

One of the other women, a pink-haired girl with the body of a fertility goddess came up and knelt beside her. Roving hands went up and down her body, drew milk from her laden breasts, and thrilled her with pleasures only her splendid king's most loyal douji knew. Whispers snuck into her ear, encouraging words about what a good wife she was and how fertile, how big she was getting… the shapeliness of her body… how much the king loved her, loved to lay with her… no, loved to fuck her. How wild, how strong…

Ibaraki-Douji screamed again, long and loud and begging for more, harder. It did not interrupt.

“She’ll be back soon, and then we can go to together. Just us two, and our babies, and her. Just think how good it will feel…”

But the dream was breaking up, hazy, breaking away… she saw the silhouette of the king emerge from the fog, larger than any man who ever live, and Suika's lips drew in close and-

Byakuren woke up with one hand between her legs, and another over her stomach. There was a terrible heat in her body, and a terrible moisture between her legs. And already the dream was leaving her, fading from her memory no matter how she tried to grab and grasp it.

Her head was spinning for the whole day. She stumbled over her words during chanting, drifted away during meditation, and found no refuge in fleeing to her quarters instead of participating in worktime. She couldn't stop thinking about it, even though she didn't even remember what ‘it’ was anymore. Though, the way Suika kept smiling at her, from the corner of her vision, made her think that she did.

At evening service that night, Byakuren almost digressed into the topic of Karmamudrā. She would speak no words of support for it! But that it was encroaching on her thoughts at all was…

Suika entered the abbot's quarters just in time to find Byakuren - with halting, testing fingers - reaching down between her legs, and up to her own breasts. She left, silent but clearly pleased.

Suika never visited the abbot’s quarters the next night, so Byakuren returned to the dormitory hall with absence weighing on her mind. Already in her sleeping clothes, she simply lay out her bedroll, and lay down to sleep. It did not come. The dark of the hall only oppressed.

That was when the mist came in; a seeking fog enveloped her body. It reached between her clothes, as solid or as soft as it needed. Steam rose where the cold vapour touched her, and oh… grasping tendrils spread across all her body–a sweet smell in her nostrils–caresses across the cheeks–kneading her breasts, teasing her nipples--seeking between her legs and toying with her clit… everywhere at once suffered the loving seige.

Steadily the pace increased, the stimulation became more intense. Electricity ran down her spine, her mind began to fray with white heat. She arched her back, quivering, whimpering-

Lips emerged from the fog and pressed against hers, silencing her. Byakuren opened her eyes and met Suika's; the oni withdrew.

No voice spoke; she heard vibrations carried within the fog and nowhere without. “Shush shush shhh… You don't want any a' your girls to see you like this, I bet?”

“I-I-I-OOooOohhh… ah…” Not that Suika was making it easy, with her endless vapour fingers poking at every sensitive part of her body… Byakuren couldn’t stop moaning, crying… bucking her hips… all was heat and love and bliss and her vision was going white, white, white…

“Oh, you bad girl! When Shuten-Douji says ‘shush,’ she! Means-!”

Tongue and haze alike filled her mouth. One wrapped around her tongue; the other traced her inner walls, and then she felt teeth biting down on her lower lip–

Byakuren gave out another great cry. Suika swallowed it.

Burning, burning--really burning, more and more mist sizzling from the heat suffusing her body, pleasure turning to fire, legs shaking, lungs tightening–

When the mist finally withdrew, Byakuren had barely enough sense to notice.

“Fuckin’ nice, Renren. Good gods, you've got one hell of a body. Chastity. Now that was a fucking crime, keeping that to yourself.” She gave Byakuren's tits one last squeeze, pushing one last whining ecstatic groan out, then gave her a kiss on the stomach, and went on, “Hey, I know you said every second day, but fuck, I don't know if I can wait that long. You up for a little something tomorrow?”

Byakuren just moaned long and low.

“Great! See you then!’

And then she was gone, and Byakuren was alone with only her trembling body, thoughts incoherent from bliss, and a sense of dissatisfaction.

“Ze sho ho ku so Fu sho fu metsu...”

They must have made for a strange pair to see in the streets of the Village. Oh, the head monk was a well-admired sight as she went on her almsround, chanting sutras for the blessings and karma of the laity, but for her to be accompanied by the erstwhile king of Youkai Mountain? They were opposites, so it would seem, in all ways - not only physical, but philosophical - but there they were, wearing the same temple robes, chanting the Heart Sutra in harmonious accord! No wonder they drew so many stares.

Byakuren stood a little taller, proud to show that any “self” could be saved from selfishness, if only it opened its heart to the Buddha and anātman.

It was hard to know what Suika was thinking as her khakkhara jangled… and easy when she continued “Fu ku fu jo“ with a sly grin towards her partner.

And then, before so many eyes, Suika yanked Byakuren into a back alley.

“N-namu Amida-”

“Ah-ah-ah. That's not right. I let you have your fun last time, but this time you gotta meditate on this properly.” Suika pressed a finger to Byakuren's lips, while her other hand pulled away her robes.

Byakuren cast an uneasy glance down the passage. The alley twisted enough that they couldn't be seen from the street, but all it took was one curious wanderer and there she was - with her breasts suddenly hanging free, her nipples stiffening in the morning chill.

“Now I want'cha to use this opportunity to see through the nature of passion and pleasure and all a' that, alrighty? Let it flow, let yourself feel it completely, feel all of it! ‘A sex-loving monk, you object! Hot-blooded and passionate, totally aroused. But then lust can exhaust all passion, Turning base metal into pure gold…’”

“'The lotus flower Is not stained by the mud.’ Just…” Another worried look to the side, and then she let herself slump against the wall, “Just do it.”

Suika’s grinning face disappeared underneath her robes; Byakuren clamped her hands across her mouth and still almost shrieked.

Every muscle in her body tensed. Every hot breath on her vulva sent her quivering, every kiss a thunderstorm–and then Suika really started using her tongue.

She hissed playfully, and Byakuren was too distracted by the thrill of the exhalation on her most sensitive parts to realise what she was warning the poor, foolish, virgin monk of.

Suika had inherited her tongue from the great eight-headed snake her father, and she put it to uses more skillful and intense than he had probably ever dreamed of.

“Ooooohhhh…” Focus, focus! But the more she tried to hone in on the pleasure, the more it overwhelmed her. Enlightenment, here?

… Perhaps, was the last thing as her head started to go fuzzy and the heat coiling within her threatened to spring (and funny, it felt a little bit like the other night, when she had gotten drunk for the first time. Was that strange?), perhaps, if only she could learn to be mindful through the storm.

“Ah, ah, ah…!” Byakuren's hips trembled, thrust and retreated of their own accord, while Suika's hands joined her tongue in its exploration of her insides.

So warm, so wet, just barely not screaming–

Her legs gave out. It felt like her very soul was bursting, there was nothing in the universe but pleasure, and then, for a second, there was nothing whatsoever, except stars exploding into cosmic dust.

She realised, abruptly, that she was flat on the ground, staring at the sky, breathing heavily. Suika sat herself down on Byakuren's stomach; one hand was wiping sticky wetness from her mouth, the other was snaking out to squeeze Byakuren's left breast yet again.

“Fuckin’ unfair. I'm the cow here, and I'm stuck with these,” she thrust her chest out, and barely made a difference, “You’re just some frigid ascetic, and you get these udders?”

She pinched and twisted Byakuren’s nipple to punish her for this injustice. Byakuren stifled a gasp, and quickly broke back into panting.

“Whatever. How ‘bout it, Renren, you learn something? Gotcha brain cooled or some shit?”

She waited for Byakuren to collect her breath. She did not make it easier, though; she kept tracing her hands across the curves of her body, feeling every inch of burning, sensitive skin.

“Fuck, what a body,” she muttered under her breath, “I mean, look at those hips, you're perfect! Shit, I just want so bad to--heheh, you'll find out. Maybe not for a few days, though, I'm calling in on a trip to the pub next time. Fuck me but I need a real drink.”

“I think…” Byakuren finally found the wherewithal to reply, “I was close. Perhaps we need… to try again?”

“Aw, hell yeah, c'mere, pretty girl!” Suika's fangs closed around her stiff nipple. This time Byakuren really did shriek.

(They barely outran the footsteps coming down the alley, and their robes were in perfect order when they were next seen)

Suika hated how easily she backslid into the life of a monk. She walked paths of memory as if it was still a thousand years ago, and she was still…

She woke up even before the tiger at her own hour! She found herself liking the food again. Meditation came easily. Even tending the trees and dry gardens wasn’t so hard to do rightly after all. And she was quite proud of the quality of her copied sutras!

One evening she found herself at the edge of the dry garden, staring a thousand years into the past. The sun was setting purple then as it was now. The scent of pine, too. Even in that long gone by spring, no cherry blossom had flowered in the white lotus’ land; such ever-changing things served only to distract good monks, who were to live in a world eternal as dharma, without time or seasons. Sakura were better left to shrine maidens and shintou priests. She remembered sitting and listening to the head monk's lectures, much the same now as they had been then. Though the congregation had been larger then, easier to disappear in.

It hadn't been all that long after she narrowly escaped the fate of her father, beheaded while passed out drunk. She had been raised by monks; returning to those ways had been a comfort. She had been just another believer in the threadbare life - carefully unrecognisable even to other survivors of Ooe drifting by to see what the truth of the rumoured youkai temple was. For that matter, nobody who saw her now ought to be able to recognise her from those days. But sometimes Byakuren looked at her or said something in just such a way…

Well, anyway, the sun had set the same on that temple as it had on Ooe. The moon was cresting the mountains now, and she wondered where the time had gone.

… or when Byakuren had sat down beside her. Her eyes were closed. She was smiling, and her hand was closed over Suika's.

Oh, hell, she had nearly… actually, entirely forgotten!

Well. Maybe a few more minutes like this before leaving for Geidontei, na?

… Byakuren remembered nothing of the night past that point (save that she had had a dream, and that in that dream she had been a nun in a monastery on Ooe, and that afterward she had been bedeviled by a powerful longing for… something…), but from what she could glean, she had been carried back from Geidontei on Suika's petite back. And, Suika laughed at her, about how she had “never expected you to get so aggressive! Just needed some drink to bring out the real you!”

To which Byakuren had admonished her that, first of all, there was no real “self,” but second of all, that the things one chose not to do were also part of one's identity, so the drunk mind without inhibitions could hardly be a more real ‘her.’

And then she had thought about what ‘aggressive’ might mean and, red-faced, begged Suika to tell her what she did in her alcoholic haze… the oni only laughed harder the more she demanded to know.

“I’m proud of you.”

“What?” Suika stopped exactly where she was, one hand holding a cloth to the floorboards.

“I know it's been difficult for you, adjusting back to temple life, but you've done really marvelously! Come here!”

Byakuren swept Suika up into a hug before she had a chance to reply; Suika just relaxed and enjoyed the feeling of being held to the monk's warm, soft bosom. Byakuren started ruffling her hair–but her hand was drifting. Wait, wait ,wait wait wait--silky palms closed around the base of her left horn, and began to rub–

“AaaaAaah!”

“... Oh my.”

The sun was setting on the temple gardens, and on two betters finishing the longest and hardest work of the day. All the new seeds had, at long last, been planted… Was, certainly, what Byakuren had thought at that moment, when Suika's doffed clothes smacked her in the back of the head.

“Bet you've been dyin’ to see what I can do, eh? What secret arts were worth abandoning my temple for?” Suika sounded outright eager, verging on impatient. If anybody had been ‘dyin’’ for this moment, it was her.

Byakuren elected to let her wait, instead. She took her time unwrapping the clothes from her head, folding them up nicely and then, finally, turned around to look. Byakuren looked down. Byakuren snapped her head back up.

“I sincerely hope you abandoned temple life for more than the ability to grow a… penis.”

“Hey, all dualities are illusions born from ignorance, right?” Suika shrugged, “Transcending the avidyā of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ can only be good! Ain’t gotta visualise shit, I can skip straight to being Yab-Yum!”

Byakuren pinched the bridge of her nose and scowled. “Certainly. That isn't actually why you learned to do that though, is it?”

“Come a little closer and I'll show you why!”

But Byakuren's feet were frozen to the soil.

Suika scoffed; “Meetcha halfway, then.”

Every step forward that horned shadow loomed larger. For a moment Byakuren took it for her eyes playing tricks on her, until she had to crane her neck to meet Suika's eyes.

And the thing between her legs was… well, the size of it- just completely- at this scale… it…

When Suika rubbed her length against Byakuren's entrance, the tip slid between her breasts. And now she saw it properly for what it was, and it was the obscene culmination of ushitora and of oni. Long and tapering, as an ox, but also lined with barbs, as a tiger. But there was no consistency at all; here a barb was larger, there a barb was rounder - informed by the formless primordial fear of monsters that shaped and made shapeless the oni.

“Never met a human that could take the pace before. Always had to hold back with you, ya flimsy bitches. Not you, though, right? ‘Superhuman’ Byakuren Hijiri.”

Shining light seized around her limbs in answer. She reached out haltingly, placed a hand on the monstrous member as if expecting, or hoping, that it would pass through mere mist. With clumsy hands, she began to stroke that length, and toy with the barbs. If there was a way to describe what she was feeling, perhaps it was something like… ‘aroused by fear.’

“Hell yeah, woman!” Suika slid a long claw (had that been there a second ago?) beneath the crisscross straps of Byakuren's jacket. She licked her lips. And then she pulled and cut the thin cloth asunder. Long kishin tusks snapped shut on the strap of Byakuren's dress and bit through. Sheer brute force sufficed to tear her underclothes.

Byakuren could feel her nipples stiffening in the cool evening air. The urge to hide whatever little she could behind her arms gnawed, but was denied purchase. She tried to stand proud in the face of the future barreling towards her, but didn't quite manage that, either.

And then Suika was through with patience; Byakuren had barely a lightning-flash’s span to register that she was being lifted up into the air before she was being slammed down again.

She didn't get far, before coming to an abrupt stop.

“...Are you fucking kidding me?”

Byakuren’s beatific smile was almost radiant, except for a tiny tint of malice behind her half-lidded eyes.

“My, what's wrong? Too ashamed to take a poor monk's purity? Or just… not strong enough, my dear king?”

“You fuckin’ bitch!” Suika lifted her up again, then reared back herself. When she slammed Byakuren down, she thrust up to meet her. To no avail.

“You… Youuu-! This is, this is cheating or something! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?”

“You wanted me to strengthen my body. Can I help it if my maidenhead is strengthened too?”

Suika growled, tiger-like–hissed, snake-like–threw her to the ground and mounted her from behind. Byakuren thrilled at the sensation, the spines rubbing against her cunt, but she did not so much as gasp. She kept her breathing carefully even, and strove to see through the pleasure. The heat was building inside her belly, and she let it spread all throughout her and fade out. The craving, the wet greed to be filled…

Well. She was only human.

And oh, but the feeling of Suika's arms closing around her. So huge and powerful, holding her so tightly…

Suika pulled back-

-Slammed down, throwing all her weight into one earthshaking thrust.

Byakuren's arched body collapsed, hammered into the soil underneath her.

And the white lotus’ petals, more than a millenium preserved, were plucked.

And it was a bliss so almighty she nearly went blind. It ought to have hurt. That was only normal; having that inside her was far beyond. Without proper preparation, even?

She wrapped her hands around the bulge in her stomach. This pillar of flesh and heat inside of her, splitting her body to such a degree that it was only magic keeping her together… scraping its barbs across her insides…

No, it did hurt. It hurt like the Hell of Blazing Fires had been born into her womb. She had surpassed pain, she told herself, even as she restrained a grimace. It only remained to transcend pleasure.

“Oghhh…” Softly, almost silently… But Suika did not miss it.

“Aw, aren't’cha adorable?”

“Don’t… nn. Be silly. Why, I barely felt that. How am I to surpass attachment to pleasure, if my partner is so… Oh!”

Suika wasn't about to take that lying down; she thrust her hips and kept sawing, scraping… still slowly, but even then, at that size, the slightest motion dragged barbs across her entire inside and pushed against the mouth of her womb. Her innermost secrets were quivering, begging to be bred, and Suika was only too happy to comply. Paradoxical paroxysms of pain and pleasure pummeled her.

Byakuren hoped that Suika had determined this was unsafe for humans by basic common sense, and not empirically. Parts of her body that were never meant to be touched were being fucked.

The bulge in Byakuren's belly pushed ever further out with every blow. This would kill even most youkai!

“Ahaha, you're drooling, you liar. From both ends!” She hooked one finger into Byakuren's mouth; the other hand went down to her clit. Lightning strikes shattered her, she arched her back, bucked her hips, and Suika met her happily…

Each blow came faster and harder, beating her into the plot. Dribbling fluids fell in a perverse facsimile of watering.

(Ridiculously, she was overcome with a sudden worry for the new plantings. As the soil parted more and more around her and she was pushed deeper and deeper in… she suspected they were going to have to replant all of this. Damn and blast, how was she going to explain this to the others?)

And - was Suika… chewing on her hair? She turned her head to follow the tug on her scalp. Her vision was swimming in and out of focus, but… yes.

“My darling, do you think you could focus a little? What happened to ‘shakti, shakti?’ You mustn't be so selfish.” She really had no idea where this tough girl act was coming from. Was she trying to prove that she would not be lead astray by pleasure? That she was a good student, doing what was asked of her? Was she trying to egg Suika on? Was this a strange thing to be worrying about when her virginity was being ruthlessly annihilated? All she knew was it was bound to collapse. Wet slapping of flesh on flesh, Suika's broad hips rocking wildly against hers–it was a wonder that it hadn't crumbled already.

Suika’s giant palms fell atop hers. Weight, warm and comforting. Their fingers interlocked.

Hot breath on her ear whispered, “Anything for you, little lotus. Just let me hear that voice of yours cry!” and then-
Byakuren had never considered that her ears might be unusually sensitive.

She was considering that now.

Warm lips traced a trail of kisses from the tip of her ear, to the base. Across the back of her skull, down her neck. Between her shoulderblades. Each press of the lips struck like every nerve in her body had suddenly gathered right in that very spot.

“Aa-a-aaaah… That's … you're doing amazing, dear… oh, I! Can’t!”

“Sing for me!”

She did.

“Hey. Hey I got a fuckin’ idea. You love your motherly schtick. All ‘I’m proud of ya,’ all ‘aw, come here, darling.’ Haha, how about I make you a real mommy?”

“I…” Byakuren gasped.

“C’mon. You know you want it. Fuck, I bet you've dreamed about it! I sure have. Wouldn't it be great? Just imagine,” a tendril of mist reached out and rubbed her stomach, paying special attention to the part above her womb, “Imagine this belly all fat with oni brats. Your tits all milky. Wouldn't it feel so good, letting me drink from ‘em? Don't you want a kid of your own?”

The mist stretched out and spread. The hazy shape of a monstrously gravid stomach formed over her real body. In fugue, she made to hold it, cradle it… of course, her hands passed right through.

“I mean, fuck, ah, hnng, look at you! Your body was nnngh made for it!” Suika was riling herself up with her dirty talk; she thrust harder and she panted harder, “Ah, oh, you got hips any woman'd killllll for. You got tits I'd kill for! Birthing fucking hips. Udders. Aw, fuck, aw, ah, imagine it. Imagine being all big and round. Imagine nn-hnhnhn having my kids inside you! It’d be the fucking best!”

“I…” Dreams of Mt. Ooe, half-remembered. So heavy, so full of life, joy, light… milk… “I want it. I really do. But we can't. I have responsibilities. And. Ooh. A reputation to uphold…” She tried to shake it off. That was not the point of this, was it? Ah, but she needed to find pleasure to surpass pleasure, didn't she? So, the next step, maybe…

Ahhhh. She breathed deep, centered herself. Suika kept ramming her. Moved her hands into dhyana mudra. Oh, gods save her, it felt so good, that, that absolute titan tearing her up, that pressure on her womb, that glorious fullness. She strained to clear her mind of attachments-

No, damn it all! She wanted it!

“Ffff… Oh, fuck it all, do it!”

“I knew you’d love it. Get… knocked… the hell up!” Suika was at a fever pitch, striking like a blacksmith's hammer on the red-hot door of her womb.

Byakuren shrieked, loudly, sharply enough she feared all the temple had heard her, but as Suika speared her to the very depths in one final, merciless thrust, she was too deep in the throes of climax to even care.

And then her whole world went white. So did her insides, for that matter. She felt a volcanic warmth flooding her body and bursting out from her lower lips, and good gods, she already looked pregnant as she fell, twitching, into the dirt. She imagined she felt the pulse of life, the breath of Buddha-soul embodied in the planet itself… She imagined a mountain, Ooe reborn, growing in her womb.

Her hands found their way to her nipples. She squeezed, as if somehow she expected there to be milk already.

“Thhh… thank youuuu… darling…”

And then Suika collapsed on top of her, in every way exhausted; and there perhaps was proof of her Middle Way, for thought too had been exhausted, if only for the moment. Nothing left but void and bliss and a muttered mantra; “Ah, Samsara truly is Nirvana…”

At length, a little bit of sense returned to her.

“Haha… oh, that was fucking good, little lotus flower. Heh, you look good like that. Gonna look even better when it's real.”

The ‘little lotus’ lay there, breathing heavily. She was trying to find her inner balance (and perhaps also the strength to throw a giant monster off her back), but her mind was too full of fuzz. So instead, she just lay there, feeling the cool earth on one side, and the warm body of her partner on the other.

“… No, ‘partner,’ that isn't right.”

“Eh?”

“What do the young people call it… ‘girlfriend?’”

“Oh, that’s it? Ain't it obvious? You're having my baby. You're my bride, aren't'cha?”

“Oh, is that right? I rather thought I got a say in that kind of thing.”

“Not when your wife-hubby-whatever is an oni! You know us. Bandits, brigands, raiders - takers!”

“Even the monks, I suppose.”

“Especially the monks!”

“Hmm.” Byakuren struggled to get her hands beneath, and rub her bloated belly. Oh dear, yes, she could feel why no ordinary human could ‘take the pace.’ As she and her magic wound down, even she was feeling well and frayed.

“... I should say that, I suspect, I would need to learn a little more magic if I really wanted to bear your children. Human bodies weren't really made for lives this long, you know? Now, I don't know what the things I already do might be causing in my womb, but I fear I might have to give it a little… extra encouragement to be fertile.”

“Pff.” Suika hauled herself to her feet, and picked Byakuren up, too. Her length was already rising up to meet the monk’s soaked quim, “Just means we gotta try harder!”

“Wait, I'm not ready yeeeee-!”

Vaiśravaṇa slammed the butt of her spear against the floor. If any eyes weren't drawn by the resounding thunk of it, they were drawn by the jangling as the rings dangling from the crosspiece came to rest. Or the strangled yelp that no one would have believed could come from Suika.

She resisted the urge to throw herself to the ground. Some births were much harder to overcome than others.

Shou was tense enough to pounce, glaring with all the heat of midwinter, and her fangs were poking out where her carefully neutral mouth twitched towards a frown.

“I know you've made some kind of deal with Byakuren, even if she won't tell us the details. I know you’ve been getting… close to her.”

And, hm. There was someone looming from behind, too… probably that odd human-youkai and her cloudy friend, who'd be a kindred spirit if only he weren't entirely opposed to Suika.

Shou leveled her spear at Suika. The tip brushed against her nose. Oh, it’d been sharpened just for this!

“Just know that if you hurt our sister. If you touch her at all, in fact. We will make you wish that you had died at Mt. Ooe.”

Somebody cracked their knuckles deliberately loudly.

… And was that a foghorn? Surely the ship phantom had better threatening sounds than that?

“Too late! And, hey, if I'm already doomed, might as well take it even further, am I right?” … she very carefully did not say, though it took effort.

Instead she pretended not to notice the cold sweat that Bishamon's ire inspired, and said: “Loud and clear, boss!”

A pile of white robes, a straw hat, and a walking stick thumped to the floor in front of Suika. Bleary eyes blinked blindly in the candlelight.

Nue's snoring was awfully loud.

“Whuh…”

“We’re going on a pilgrimage,” Byakuren smiled, saintly sweet and already dressed in her pilgrim clothes. She set the candleholder down to tug down those nightclothes.

“... Fuckin-”

“Watch your language in the temple, dear.”

“-where to? It's Gensokyo. This is practically the only Buddhist anything in the whole place… where, by the way, in case you hadn't noticed, there’s nowhere further than a daytrip away.”

“We’ll be traveling to the depths of Old Hell, to meditate and consider karmaphala. I've already asked Shou to handle the temple while I'm gone. And…” she leaned in close, “I thought you might enjoy a night or two at a hot spring inn… was I wrong?”

Suika reached out and lifted Byakuren's chin.

“I think it might be a damn good thing the both of us.”

hey took the long way around, just for the sake of it. After all, it was not only the destination that defined a pilgrimage, but the effort made in walking it, the sacrifice- it was a votive of blood and sweat and sometimes tears. They trudged across Youkai Mountain (the tengu gave them a wide berth, but many of the mountain hags had been demonslayers themselves in younger days). A hidden tunnel, deep in a mountain glen, wound down and down and down toward the Underground, so long and winding that they camped for the night somewhere down there. They crossed the pontoon bridge, careful to keep their staves raised (traditionally to avoid disturbing the souls of monks still walking their pilgrimages past death, their ghosts hiding from the daylight beneath the bridge… but here, for the sake of the bridge-princess), and passed through the raucous streets of the former capital, surrounded by oni who could not seem to decide if they wanted to fall to their knees before Shuten-Douji or start throwing rotten food at her. They asked the mesne lady at the manor house for passage to the old hells, and though she gave them the most infuriatingly knowing looks and narrated their thoughts back at them, she did let them pass otherwise unmolested.

And on their way back up, Hoshiguma-Douji welcomed them to an onsen inn.

Insofar as there were open air springs down here, this was one of them. One only had to tilt their head up to admire the glittering crystals on the dim, distant cavern roof. And of all baths down here, this was the finest, reserved for the personal use of the Four. Here were the finest, hottest waters; pools lined with the best stone.

Suika stumbled into the hot spring, and practically disappeared under the water. For a second, you could only see her horns above the water line. Of course, then she found the little tray of drinks floating by. Then she needed to get her head above water to drink.

Byakuren slipped off her towel and slid in beside her. When Suika offered her a cup, she respectfully declined. When Suika swam over to lounge in her lap, she wrapped her arms around her little darling. When Suika leaned back to use her breasts as pillows… she giggled girlishly.

As she let the steamy waters flow around her, luxuriated in the heat on her skin and the weightless feeling, she also felt the hum of mystic power thrum through her body already, preparing for the night ahead of her.

She leaned a little closer to Suika, and she began to snake two hands all down her body. Petite, but so curvy. Unworn by time though she had lived so long; unscarred by battle though she had fought so many. Another hand squeezed the oni's rear - really, very nice and plush - and one stroked her horns. By now she was trembling, sighing, moaning… putty in the monk's hands, and, speaking of which, a fifth began to play with her clit, and a sixth attacked her cute little nipples, which stiffened so fast. She wanted to be considerate, and have her lover well-prepared before she started in earnest.

It took Suika a moment to realise there was something rather strange about this.

“Whoah!” broke away, stumbled, and tumbled under the murky, mineralised water.

Byakuren giggled girlishly. One pair of arms shrugged, another hid her open mouth.

“Really, Suika. You should know it's a very small step from strengthening the body, to adding to it. In fact…”

She lifted herself to sit on the very edge of the pool. She leaned back, spread her legs, and revealed the magnificent, throbbing member she had just added to herself. Human in size and shape, nothing compared to Suika's monstrous work, but she was well pleased with it.

“I thought quite a lot about what you said in the garden that evening. And I thought, you were right, what a silly distinction is man and woman! Why, when I have the means available to me, should I not take from both?” She pulled Suika out of the water and hoisted her into the air by the horns.

“Are you ready? Would you like to try it out?” She slipped a hand between Suika's legs. Oh yes, she was ready.

Two of her hands pulled Suika's legs over her shoulder, while another two grabbed her around the waist. She leaned in and pressed her lips against Suika's. Even drunkenly clumsy, that serpent tongue really was just so very nice…
And then she rammed into the Tempter's cunt. The downward motion folded the little ogre practically in half with her feet closer to her own shoulders than the ground. It took everything she had, including a bit of magical manipulation, not to burst right then and there. So snug, tight, warm… oh, she couldn't have even imagined how it would feel on the other side!

“Mm, your vagina feels so nice around my-”

“Oh, for the love of-,” Suika groaned, and not the pleasured kind, “Are you still calling it that? C’mon! My pussy! My cunt! Your cock!”

“Your pussy feels so good around my cock. You're so tight, dear!” She thrust her hips, and almost gasped louder than Suika did. The feeling of Suika's inner walls gripping as she pushed in was just divine.
She lost control of her hips almost immediately; her arms were not much better. Every thrust up met the petite body slamming down. Namu Amida Butsu, somebody, anybody, save her, it was too good! Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth; Suika's slack jaw was no better. It felt like her eyes were crossing--she could still see that Suika's were.

“Good girl. You're doing so well! I love it, darling. Come on, shake your hips a little harder, you can do it!”

“Yes, mother… Whoah-ah-ah-ahaghn!”

She pushed as far up as she could go, and pulled down as far as Suika would go. Her cock knocked on Suika's eager womb, while her inner walls - gripping so tightly - felt like they were trying to force it in. It made the next thing she wanted to do a little difficult.

She retreated, lifting Suika off her cock, spun her around, held her low, and thrust back in. Her two unoccupied hands seized her horns. She wanted to be a kind and considerate lover, but she also just couldn't resist. She'd been wanting to try this for ages.

She yanked. Holding Suika's horns almost like the handlebars of her bike, she pulled and twisted her around. When she thrust, she pulled, when she retreated, released. It sent Suika practically bouncing against her hips, laughing deliriously.

(She hoped that wasn't because Suika had noticed that moment when she'd really gotten carried away and mimed revving the engine)

“Try’na… ahaha yessss… literally ride me like a bike here, Renren?”

Damn.

“Then you betterrrrreerer put some fuckinguhuhhuhh gas in the tank, if you know what I mean!”

She knew.

“That’s just what I'm going to do, darling. In fact I’ve been thinking about it a lot. You know, I do think you still drink too much. I just want you to take a break, before you drink yourself into the grave, one way or another. We nearly lost you that way before I ever met you. I wouldn’t want to see it happen again…”

“Whuh?” The abrupt semi-lecture seemed to completely drain Suika's enthusiasm. She went from eager partner to dead fish. “No, dumbass, I meant-”

“Let me finish, darling. I'm getting to it.” For good measure, she caressed the horns extra-firmly at the base. Suika was rocking her hips again instantly.

“And you were right, that night! I would love to be a mother. But I thought about it some more, and I would really like to be a father, too! I think nine months out of the bottle would do you some good!”

Suika groaned–she was trying to say something, but drink had blunted her tongue and pleasure drove her voice away.

She hammered against Suika's womb, delighted by her short squirming body, which writhed at her every touch, everywhere, all at once - the oh-so-sensitive base of her horns, cupped under her breasts and toying with those pretty little nipples of hers, plunging between her legs.

“Ahhh, ah! Ah! NnnnNnnNNNgh…”

“Oh, you're a good girl, Suika,” loving hands ruffled her hair. Two others touched her stomach, and set her screaming.

“OOOOOoooOOOH-GH! Wh-wha’ th’ hells…”

“How many children should we have, dear? I think… Ahah, I must think of your wellbeing and the temple's reputation. Not too many. Maybe just the one?”

“What did y’...”

“Mm? Oh, well, it's not only my body I can fiddle with. I just gave a little push to your ovaries, that's all. Sort of like this!” She sent a pulse of power down her fingertips just as they tweaked Suika's nipples.

“Oh! Owa-ah-aah!”

“I'm glad that worked! Think of what fun we can have, if I can make you so much more sensitive just by touching you!”

There was no more turning back. Suika's convulsing, constricting depths made sure of that. She could swear she felt her new balls, supercharged with seed, churning–begging to plant it all. Byakuren tightened her grips - all of them - held her close, and came in for one last earth-shattering attack.

And she came. The coiling, oh-so-tense knot in her stomach came loose in one white-hot moment. It felt like her soul surging out of her body, and she strained not to let it overpower her. Suika's body was milking her cock with everything she had, and her body was only too happy to reply in kind. The Tempter's womb desperately wanted to have a child quickening in it, and the ācārya's cock was wild for just the same thing. She thrust as deep as she could go, and it felt like Suika's womb was trying to suck her in.

Supernovas burst in lotus flower patterns. Galactic arms spun out of control. Moons shattered like so much pottery. Byakuren fell from stars down into the heavens, and tumbled back into something approaching consciousness. Something approaching true clarity.

Two mostly-human hands drifted into dhyana mudra. Two youkai hands made the same sign. Two selves pushed, perhaps, a little bit past pleasure… or perhaps were so terribly overcome that attachment disguised itself as anātman?

Who could say, really?

Suika fell to the bathhouse floor, more stuffed than she had probably ever been. Byakuren felt her heart quicken as she began to feel the weight of what she'd done. Her seed… her seed poured out from the king of all oni's most assuredly soon-to-be pregnant pussy. She was genuinely going to be a parent.

She lay down next to Suika, and began to trace the veins on her stomach with six tender caresses. She was… terrified. Excited. This was it, there was no turning back, she had found a whole new Middle Way she had never imagined… but, she hoped, so had Suika.

Faintly, she remembered the fortune she had drawn that day… Well, if either of them had gotten caught in her own trap, it would have to be-

Something long, warm, and wet slithered around her cock. The body in her arms disappeared into the hot spring steam.

Two identical faces - a little bit smaller than Suika already normally was - leered up at her from where their forked tongues were wrapped around her quickly-restiffening length.

“Fuck. It isn’t the temple, but cleaning's still my duty, am I right?”

And then a certain spined, bone-hard prick slid between her breasts.

“And I gotta make some more messes first!”

Byakuren licked her lips and pressed her tits together, wrapping Suika’s spined rod in pillowy warmth, “Let me help you with that, dear…”

The head monk's voice faded out. Sutra chanting for the evening was over. The monks began to file out on their way to a little bit of free time before nighttime proper fell. Only Byakuren and Suika made no motion to leave. Shou, brow wrinkled inward, gave Suika an ice-cold look on the way out, but made no problem of it. Suika grinned, patted her abdomen, and flashed a peace sign in reply.

Suika rather resembled her name by this point. She was humongously round, with however many children Byakuren had actually fucked into her - she was a little worried she had lost control and gone far overboard - and with her short stature, it truly dominated her silhouette. She spent most of her time in a special bedroom that had been prepared for her in light of her condition. So did Byakuren, for that matter.

When everyone else was gone, Byakuren swept her off her feet and carried her away. A woman of her mighty power hardly needed help moving around even in her current state, but that was hardly the point.

Byakuren set her beloved down on her futon - the softest the temple could provide - and then joined her. She lay behind Suika, swaddling her in her arms, holding her close, keeping her and their child warm and safe from the evening chill. Suika was playing with a piece of paper.

“Oh? Is that your omikuji from that day?”

She leaned over and nipped at Suika's nipples, enjoying the way the oni cow-nature shone through. Both in the incredible quantity - a real flood of warm, sweet milk flowed out at the slightest prompting - but also the way it made Suika moo, genuinely moo as cows did. Perhaps it was childish, but the long, deep sound rumbling out of that small frame made her laugh. Well, everything about her wife delighted her these days.

“-OOoooo… Don't do that when I'm trying to talk! Yeah, it is. Fucking… lying thing, look at it!” Suika thrust it in Byakuren's face..

“‘Number 54, Slight Fortune. Treasure Hunting…’ Oh, that’s our Nazrin! How cute.” ah, she was pointing at… “‘Family: You'll end up with a huge family. Every day will be tumultuous…’ That seems pretty accurate, darling.”

“But if I'd known I was gonna be on this end of it, I never woulda taken that bet!”

“... You only agreed because you wanted to knock me up, really?”

“Hell yeah! Have you seen your body?”

“Well.” Byakuren caressed the taut skin of Suika's gravid belly, admiring the majesty of it and the way her touch sent Suika quivering. Felt the way their girl (Boy? Boys? Girls?) kicked, and laughed every time. Oh, she was so excited… And she did wonder what it was like. If maybe she'd enjoy it...

“Perhaps tonight is the right sort of night for a little karmamudrā. It’s been a while...”