Reprisal's Lair

by Lynn Francis

  There was a ripple in the air and then a woman equal to Inoue’s beauty in both it’s perfection and it’s otherworldliness because of that very perfection stood before Inoue in front of the shrine, neither women’s kimono silks soaking up or becoming stained by standing in the ankle deep water of low tide.

  Both women gave the other the slightest inclination of the head to acknowledge their human forms.

  “I have heard rumors of your father’s support of the present child emperor on the throne” Inoue stated.

  “They are not rumors but fact” was the dragon’s daughter reply. “Why do you care nine tail?”

  “I care because the human world is getting ready to rip itself apart in an attempt to create a new order.”

  The dragon in human form arched her eyebrow. “Again, why do you care fox?”

  “I am neither for nor against what the humans do. I really do not care. What I do care about is that one of theirs turned demon is intent on returning and destroying the entire imperial family. Again, it is not the destruction of the imperial family that disturbs me, but rather the how. If he had stayed on our side and did everything he could to manipulate his revenge from there I would be fine. Earthquakes, volcanoes, even if he managed to cause a widespread famine. Fine. But a demon inhabiting a human body will lead to massive destruction. We are not meant to manipulate an actual body.”

  The dragon gave her a little smile “But it is fine to impersonate a human, and cause the destruction that way. Isn’t that what you foxes do all the time, even slip into the emperors bed and influence from there. Plenty of mingling I would think.”

  Inoue could not help but scowl but she refused to let the dragons daughter goad her into anger.

  “We are playing within our own rules. Impersonation is fine. And you know it. I am talking about combining two completely different forces of nature into something that is not of nature. You’re being deliberately obtuse if you refuse to understand the implications of that Netsuke.”

  The dragon was quiet a moment before answering.

  “What do you want fox? You know that father gave the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi to the imperial family. We are not only invested in Antoku but the entire family. Father blessed him and he has his full support. And I am still confused as to what this has to do with your human inhabiting demon.”

  “The demon wants to destroy the imperial family. It’s Sutoku, emperor turned more than Yūrei. It wasn’t just his rage that turned him demon. It was a bond with a Shinigami.”

  Netsuke gasped. “I had heard rumors that such a thing had happened, but didn’t believe it.”

  Inoue grunted. “There are risks to locking yourself up in a shrine on an island and refusing visitors. That’s something you and your sisters must have anticipated.”

  Netsuke’s face turned grotesque with a snarl and her features rippled. “Fox I will not be insulted on my land. Tell me what it is that you want or leave, my patience and hospitality won’t last much longer”

  Inoue had forgotten just how much the dragons disliked the foxes. Never known for their patience, her very presence made it worse.

  “It’s your smell” the last dragon she had encountered had said. She had bit him for that. Since then she was not so welcome among them. She must try to remember that she thought to herself. Dragons held grudges much longer than foxes.

  “I do not care who is on the throne. But the young man that Sutoku has bonded with is very dear to me. I wouldn’t want him destroyed if we could avoid it. My request is that you pass on to your father that this is an issue and that if he wishes to keep demons from gaining access to human bodies in the future we should work together. I’ll do my best to protect Antoku, but we need to work together on this.”

  The dragons face twisted. “You want us to work with you, perhaps come up with a plan that you then have all the details to and just trust that you will not use this information to send Antoku direct into a trap?”

  “I know how it sounds. But it’s the truth. Number one to me is that we stop this demon from calming full control of Riku’s body and destroying this world. The next is that we save Riku in the process. In that order. The very fact I told you Riku is important to me and that he will be used as a direct attack on the imperial family should show you what I say is true. I revealed my vulnerability in this plan. Surely that means something to you.”

  “If you truly care for this Riku as you say you do. Perhaps it’s an elaborate lie to get us to trust you so you can betray us.”

  Inoue took a deep breathe. She had nothing left to lose. She had tried to solve this on her own. It had been a foolish endeavor. One that her pride caused and now the whole of Japan would pay for. If pride hadn’t allowed her to win she was now ready to risk it in hopes the loss of pride would.

  She looked Netsuke direct in her gold flecked eyes and said “You can believe me. Riku is my nephew and the last connection I have to my now dead sister Natsuko.”

  The dragon was still for a moment and then nodded her head. Family she understood. “I will speak to my father. Stay close to rivers, someone will contact you.

  And then she turned into shimmering scales that disappeared beneath the water.

  Chapter 13

  Riku felt himself swimming towards consciousness. It was if he was under water and was returning from depths that were so black he couldn’t see, and then there were lights before he burst through the surface and everything came into focus.

  His brain felt far too big for his skull. He let out a groan and sat up.

  A samurai in full battle gear stood at the foot of his bed. Seeing that Riku was up he told another to summon Lord Ishikawa. He gave a bow to Riku but didn’t speak.

  It was only a few moments before Ishikawa entered.

  “How do you feel?” the older man asked.

  “Like I did after I woke up after the ceremony where you promised me unlimited power to use to help Japan and instead I just had bloodlust and blackouts.” Riku answered.

  “You have been unconscious for almost a week. We were starting to think you wouldn’t wake. Lucky for you the princess returned this morning. You can thank her you’re awake.”

  Riku tried to nod but the pain that reverberated through his entire made him wince.

  Seeing his discomfort Ishikawa turned to the samurai who still stood guard and sent him to find Takiyasha-hime and bring her here.

  She must have been close by for the door opened just a minute later.

  She bowed to Riku before asking “And how do you feel Riku Sama, and do you think that you are well enough to tell us everything that happened?”

  Riku stared a moment at her. It wasn’t just the bow, which she had never given him before, her face looked paler and her eyes had dark circles under her eyes.

  “How are you?” he asked rather than answering.

  She smiled. “I am also tired. I have found a way for you to the control of your powers. All of them. If you accept the transformation, which will be painful but not as bad as the first, you will indeed be unstoppable by most men.”

  “Why would this time work when the last time didn’t?”

  “Because I know what I’m doing. I am not a hermit mage that likes to dabble in the dark arts and call it done. I pay for my knowledge knowing the full consequences. Can the same be said for you?”

  Riku’s eyes flicker over to Lord Ishikawa’s and saw his face darken but the man remained quiet.

  “I am not so sure I can say that, as much as it saddens me to say. I am however willing to make a change. I do not want this feeling of dependency.” Riku gingerly lay back and closed his eyes.

  “I do want to know Takiyasha-hime, how you plan on making things different. I have obviously trusted before, jumped without looking before, thought that trusting someone whose values I wanted to follow would bring glory and making things right. Instead, I suspect that my soul is lost and a Tengu wants to eat my eyeballs. I thought it couldn’t get worse many times before and
each time I take a stand I end up here, more beat down, more lost and I am tired of it. Part of me wants to jump for your offer. And the other part tells me that I would be insane not to have learned from my past.”

  Takiyasha-hime nodded, “You are wise to be hesitant and it shows you have grown. I am sorry it had to happen in such a short period of time. I do want to impress upon you how important it is that you trust me. This is the only way forward. The tengu will kill you if it is unable to make contact with Sutoku, and there are only two ways for you to allow Sutoku access to this world. One is to let the barrier drop, which you need my help for, and then it will be as before, only now with an enraged Sutoku. I can assure he he has not taken kindly to that barrier. You may not regain consciousness, and you will not be able to stop him from rampaging with access to your body and its powers. The other is to trust me, and incorporate him into you.”

  “What do you mean by incorporate him into me?” Riku asked. “Isn’t he already a part of me?”

  “He has been sealed inside of you, but he is not part of you. That is why you would lose consciousness to him without memories of what he had done while in control of your body. You are not combined. I am talking about submitting him to you. You would still be able to have control, instead of one or the other of you being in control, it would be him submitted to you. Although I have to say, you would be in control, you would be in control only if kept him satiated.”

  Riku looked at “What do you mean by satiated?”

  “I mean he would need blood Riku. But the good news is that instead of the blind rage you found yourself in before, you could feed him the blood of our enemies. Of Japan’s enemies. And as angry and confused as Sutoku is at the moment, they are also the blood of his enemies.”

  Riku took a moment to process what Takiyasha-hime was saying.

  “You mean I would drink blood?”

  Takiyasha-hime nodded and Lord Ishikawa shifted in his stance and broke in.

  “This is your solution, to turn him into a blood drinker?”

  “Not just a blood drinker. A blood drainer. I have done a lot of research and discovered that there are a breed of yokai in a land so far away that it is even beyond China. And there they have a breed of shifters that are human, The Yokai live within the bodies of the humans. And the humans have most of the control. Unless they try to ignore the bloodlust. Then the demon can take control. The wizzard I sought out to help is a very powerful one. With the scrolls i brought he was able to decipher them and we know how to merge Sutou with you instead of having him merely sealed. A seal will break Riku. The border i put up in your mind is also not going to stick. It will all break. It’s just a matter of time. I really think you should commit to this.”

  “And what about the Tengu, if Riku has control we still have the problem with the Tengu.” Ishikawa asked.

  “No, he will be able to defeat the Tengu. Given his new power there is always the chance the Tengu accepts that Sutoku is sealed but the revenge is moving forward against the Taira and the entire royal court. Of course it might not. So I suggest you stay close to Riku as well.”

  Riku decided to interrupt. “I haven’t actually agreed to any of this” he protested.

  “It is your only chance, and after what I have done this week to gain this knowledge, I strongly suggest that you recover quickly, because you are going to need every ounce of strength you have to survive this ceremony. And afterwards you will truly know what power it is.”

  Chapter 14

  Suke Izumi stood allowing the waves to break over her ankles with her baby Tan in her arms. The other divers were just coming out of the water, their white loincloths clinging to their wastes and their breasts glistening with drops from the sea. They were laughing with each other but a hush fell over them when they saw Suke on the shore.

  “It’s not a hostile hush” Suke reassured herself. “They just don’t know how to react to me. That is all.”

  She smiled and waved at them and the other women waved back but as they left the water no one stopped to talk to her outside of her best friend Isa.

  “Hello Suke!” she cried, a little too brightly Suke thought.

  Isa leaned over and cooed at the baby before showing the baby one of the treasures in her basket that she had pulled out of the sea.

  “Look at this baby Tan! Look at this treasure” holding an abalone in front of the child. “This will be placed upon the shrine of the emperor himself! And he will offer our bounty for the dragon King. One day little baby they will ask you too for this. It is a great honor to be ama!”

  She then turned to Suke. “You should join us soon. It truly is a great honor to be an ama and the other divers miss you.”

  Suke could not help the chortling sound that escaped her throat.

  Isa looked embarrassed and Suke could not help but apologize. “I am sorry Isa. But they did not even stop to say hello, or look at Tan. They hardly seem to miss me.”

  Isa smiled again. “The baby is past the 100 days Suke. Your mother will happily watch her. If you wait too long you will not be able to return to the sea. The other ama, they do not know why you hesitate here just at the shoreline of the sea.”

  “I am happy with Tan. It has been so long that we tried for a baby, I was starting to think that we wouldn’t be able to have one” Sukie protested.

  “Still, be grateful and return to life. Not everyone gets to be an ama. We fight so hard to be us. It is said the emperor himself will come to collect these bounties. You have been part of building this up. Why give up when you are so close to success? To go back to being a peasant housewife.”

  The words felt like a slap across Sukie’s face and she instinctively hugged Tan to her chest. “This is what they are saying about me” Suke thought. “This is why they have turned against me. It is not just that they think Tan is possessed, they think I have turned against them. But I haven’t, I just don’t love anything more than my baby.”

  Isa’s face softened at the sight of the distress on her friend’s face.

  “We want you back Sukie. We want you diving with us. We want you to come out of the sea with us, our baskets full and proud. We deserve to be proud, so few of us can stand next to us. Look at me Sukie. I know less than thirty women in the whole of Japan who do this. And yes, we are saddened you have left us. We can stand proud next to our men. Most women stand behind them. Cower behind them even! But we stand proud next to them. We bear our chests just like them when we work.” Isa looked down at the baby in Sukie’s arms.

  “Come back to us. You yourself can be the one to train your Tan when she comes of age. Look at you halfway in the water with her. The sea is calling you. You miss it. And I bet she is a natural in the water. Look how she coos in your arm, why don’t you dangle her?”

  “Oh I don’t know” said Sukie.

  “You shouldn’t be afraid of the sea. Once that fear creeps in it is over, you know that. Do not let the baby make you afraid of the sea. Here, let me do it if you can not”

  Sukie reluctantly gave the baby to Isa.

  She lowered Tan into the water and after an initial look of shook the baby’s face relaxed before bursting into a fit of giggles.

  “See!” Isa cried “she was born to live in the sea.”

  Suddenly a wave taller than both women broke over them knocking both women down to their knees. The baby slipped out of Isa’s grasp and disappeared into the water. Suki stood up screaming and Isa dove beneath the waves searching for the baby. Then Sukie broke free of her terror and dove to find her baby as well.