‘hot bod’. “Ranmaru!” She called, her voice laced with anger. Ranmaru appeared in approximately 1.5 seconds in her doorway, “You called, Oujo-sama? ”
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Kusanagi looked at her nails, a bored expression on her face, “There’s a bug in my bed.”
Ranmaru turned his cold, emotionless golden stare on Haruka. “I see, a bed bug. Please forgive me Oujo-sama. ” He suddenly put on a pair of gloves and a gas mask. “I shall fumigate your room right away.” He said in his monotone voice. Kusanagi smiled, “Dozo. Please go ahead.” She motioned him inside.
“Nani...? ” Haruka gave the two nervous looks. Ranmaru used his yokai speed to rush at Haruka, lift him up off the bed, and simply tossed him out the bedroom window - the male model went crashing through the glass causing it to shatter. Opps. “I thought the window was open.” Ranmaru explained, half-heartedly.
“Think he’s still alive?” Kusanagi did not sound too concerned.
“Don’t worry, I threw him out that particular window because I placed the trampoline there earlier.” Ranmaru’s motto –
always plan ahead.
Kusanagi smirked, amused, “Planning ahead huh?”
“I smelled his arousal and so predicted he might do something stupid like this, Oujo-sama. ” Ranmaru bowed humbly. Kusanagi became flushed, “That is so...disgusting!”
Kusanagi coughed to regain her composure and turned her attention back to Ranmaru. “But...I have to hand it to ya Ranmaru. God job, taking out the trash! Good boy! Ha!”
Kusanagi whacked Ranmaru hard on the back in an appreciative manner a few times.
Ranmaru coughed from the force of Kusanagi’s blows,
“Thank you, Oujo-sama. I think.”
They both suddenly looked at each other, Kusanagi’s hand was still on Ranmaru’s arm and they both blushed simultaneously. Ranmaru opened his mouth to say something but Kusanagi began to spaz out and punched Ranmaru. “Personal bubble! Baka! ” Ranmaru went flying across the room where he landed sprawled out on his knees.
Ranmaru touched his hurt jaw and pouted. “Oujo-sama...”
But...the punch hadn’t really felt all that bad. In fact...for some reason it made Ranmaru feel funny, there were these odd Bitch 189
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butterflies fluttering in his stomach as he looked up at Kusanagi, who was towering over him with a glare on her beautiful face, her emerald green eyes glittering in anger. The punch hadn’t really hurt much either since Kusanagi hadn’t put much power behind it anyways...and the feeling of Kusanagi’s hand connecting with his face...had felt...good. What was this feeling...? Why was his heart pounding so fast...?
Ranmaru shook his head. What the hell was wrong with him? Was he so starved for Kusanagi’s attention that even violent attention from her seemed...good?
But if Kusanagi was anything like HER - she would continue to beat Ranmaru into a bloody pulp before having her way with him. Oh yes...take advantage of me Oujo-sama...punish me Oujo-sama...! Ranmaru looked up at Kusanagi expectantly, waiting for...
Gulp.
Kusanagi blinked at his odd expression. “What are you...?” She blushed suddenly. There was something about Ranmaru’s open, slightly vulnerable expression that screamed
‘take me now!’ as he was laid out on the floor like that and it unnerved her. There was suddenly something oddly sensual or sexual about this entire situation. How the hell had that happened? Gulp. Kusanagi shook her head and glared. There was her over-active imagination again! It was playing tricks on her mind! “Baka! Hurry up and get yourself up off the floor already!
Mou! What the hell is wrong with you? Weirdo...”
Ranmaru immediately stood up, “Hai, Oujo-sama. ” Was it Kusanagi’s imagination or did he sound somewhat dejected or disappointed? Uso? No way! Ranmaru is not some man with a dark past...or ex-sex slave or something! Kusanagi exclaimed in her mind.
Wow, someone’s mind is in the gutter today. Oh shut up!
Kusanagi could feel the sexual tension between them though. It was so thick in the room one could have cut it with a knife. She couldn’t take much more of this. She had to say 190
something, anything! Kusanagi turned to Ranmaru and opened her mouth to speak but Roze suddenly barged into the room-“Taihen! It’s terrible! Kusanagi! Ranmaru! It’s an emergency!” Roze cried as she rushed into the room, panting for breath, putting Ranmaru immediately on his guard. If it was something that made Roze act like this, whatever it was wasn’t good.
Kusanagi’s back also straightened, “Roze? What is it?
What’s wrong?”
“It’s the SPs...that plant that Haruka brought earlier was no ordinary plant it...the SPs are...” Roze covered her mouth and appeared as though she would be sick. She turned to Ranmaru.
“Ranmaru you must go and try to stop that plant! Kusanagi must remain here with me.”
Ranmaru nodded, “Hai Roze- san.”
But Kusanagi would have none of this and glared at the two of them angrily. Bunch of over-protective...! “Why don’t you two stay here instead!”
“But Oujo-sama-” Roze began.
“And that’s an order! Stay here! Both of you!” Kusanagi declared and rushed off.
“Oujo-sama! ”
“Kusanagi- sama! ”
But Kusanagi paid them no mind and rushed through the halls and out of the mansion to the green house. The green house was another large, domed, glass structure, though smaller than her menagerie. Screams of pain and terror echoed from within and blood suddenly splattered on the glass from inside of the green house.
Kusanagi’s eyes widened in shock, ‘something’ or
‘someone’ was killing her SPs! Kusanagi clenched her fists at her sides, anger pulsing through her veins and giving her strength and courage when otherwise she would have been afraid. Kusanagi kicked the door to the green house open and rushed inside. Roze’s voice called out behind her, “No! Kusanagi don’t!” Had her head maid chosen to disobey her orders and tagged along? She would have to deal what that stubborn maid of hers later.
Kusanagi rushed inside the green house to behold a Bitch 191
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bloody and gruesome sight. There in the center of the green house was a giant plant that seemed to be going berserk. Somehow the small plant that Haruka had gifted her with had increased in size and was now about the size of a jeep. Blood was dripping down from the plant’s gapping open mouth...and Kusanagi suddenly knew what had happened to the SPs in order to cause the carnage that Kusanagi was now noticing as she turned her head to look around the inside of the green house. There were severed body parts everywhere - arms, legs, and heads.
Kusanagi saw that a few SPs were still trying to make a final stand against the man-eating plant. They raised their guns and fired at the gaping mouth of the plant but it seemed to have no effect. Green tentacle, whip-like appendages shot out of the plant’s mouth and towards the unsuspecting SPs. An SP caught sight of Kusanagi, “Oujo-sama stay back!”
Why did that voice make her heart stop? Why did that voice sound so oddly familiar?
A whip-like plant tentacle shot out at Kusanagi and the SP
cried out. “Oujo-sama, look out!” The SP pushed her out of the way and Kusanagi watched in horror as the tentacle wrapped around the SP’s ankle and pulled him back towards the gapping, open mouth of the plant - its long plant teeth fully visible and already coated in blood. In seconds, the SP had been pulled inside of the Venus fly trap-like plant mouth and devoured.
“Kusanagi! Close your eyes! Don’t look!” Roze called out frantically.
But Kusanagi was too afraid to close her eyes...all the SPs had the Grim Reaper’s shadow behind them. The sounds of bones breaking, cracking, being crunched upon, echoed throughout the greenhouse eerily as the killer plant closed it mouth down upon the SP - blood and guts spewing into the air, some of which hit Kusanagi’s cheek.
The SP’s head flew out
and rolled across the bloodied floor towards Kusanagi. The SP’s mask had been ripped off his face due to the plant’s acid and the face was now revealed. 192
Kusanagi’s eyes widened in horror as she looked down upon the face.
Mamoru.
“Mamoru!” Kusanagi cried out in utter despair and confusion.
Kusanagi then watched terrified as the Grim Reaper’s shadow began rising up from all of the fallen bodies of her SP, all their now dead corpses, and transformed into something that was more alive, more real, like a solidified shadow. The Grim Reaper in the flesh. Except there wasn’t just one Grim Reaper but several doppelgangers or copies that had come to life. She watched her face pale, her body shaking, trembling, and her pupils were dilated in fear as the Grim Reapers brought their scythes down upon the fallen SP harvesting their souls... The SPs were getting killed one by one and Kusanagi remained frozen in place, unable to move, to scream, or to do anything. She was paralyzed with fear. She was also about to have a panic attack as the gruesome scene before her began to cause buried memories to resurface of that day. This has to be some kind of nightmare…please I want to wake up now…
Then a tentacle whip shot out and grasped Kusanagi around her waist and began to reel her in and back towards the plant’s gaping, open mouth, as more acid was spilling forth from the plant’s mouth and dripping down onto the green house floor where it burned gaping holes there.
“Kusanagi! Call him! Call Ranmaru!” Roze called out urgently.
Call him! Ranmaru will save you! Kusanagi’s inner voice agreed.
Kusanagi blinked. Ranmaru...? “RANMARU! COME
BOY!” Kusanagi yelled as loudly as she could.
***
Ranmaru had already been about to try his luck in disobeying Kusanagi’s careless order when he sensed Kusanagi’s distress through the Control Collar...
And then finally he felt and heard her direct command for him to return to her side. Ranmaru immediately used his yokai speed to reach the green house in seconds. He sped through the doorway just in time to see Kusanagi suspended in midair, plant Bitch 193
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tentacles wrapped tightly around her body as it began to pull her down towards its wide-open, gapping mouth. To Ranmaru the plant now completely resembled some kind of overgrown maneating Venus flytrap. Ranmaru didn’t have time to take notice of the bodies nor body parts that littered the floor of the green house. Ranmaru’s full attention was focused completely on Kusanagi.
“Kusanagi!” Ranmaru unsheathed his sword and pointed it towards the plant.
Kusanagi’s eyes snapped open, “R…Ran…maru!”
Kusanagi panted strangely and Ranmaru noticed how the plant’s tentacles were sensually wrapping around Kusanagi’s body, around her arms, breasts, trailing up between her legs towards her womanhood…
Ranmaru’s eyes widened in shock. He had read some ecchi manga and so knew where this was going! That perverted plant was about to take advantage of his Mistress! Ranmaru blushed, somewhat turned on by the sight, and shook his head hating himself for it. Now was most definitely not the time! That plant may have had perverted plans for his Mistress but not on his watch!
Ranmaru gathered his yokai energy so that it formed a fiery red aura of flames around him and his sword. Unleashing a battle cry Ranmaru charged forwards towards the plant.
“Hooryahhhh! ”
Ranmaru leapt up into the air and sliced his sword through the tentacles that had Kusanagi moving his sword in a sideways slash. As her body fell down through the air and towards the open plant mouth Ranmaru grabbed her and held her close to his chest with his left arm, while his right arm was still holding his sword, so that as they fell down through the air and towards the plant’s mouth Ranmaru raised his sword and brought it down upon the killer plant in a fierce downwards slash. Ranmaru cut through the plant while at the same time releasing some of his yokai energy so that it empowered the attack with his fox-fire. The killer plant cried out as it was cut in
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half and exploded into a spray of plant goo and blood, which came raining down upon Ranmaru and Kusanagi... Ranmaru’s fox-fire began to eat away at the plant and the plant continued to cry out as it was burned alive. Ranmaru leapt down, still cradling Kusanagi protectively in his arms. He then looked down at his Mistress to see if she was alright-And Ranmaru’s heart broke at the sight of his beautiful and powerful Mistress. Kusanagi was pale, trembling, her eyes wide with fear, her pupils dilated, her teeth chattering. She looked as though she were about to have a nervous breakdown or panic attack of some kind. Her breathing was becoming irregular. She looked like a porcelain cup that was about to shatter. Ranmaru waved a hand in front of her face and saw that she could see but was not seeing him. She was going into some kind of shock...
“Oujo-sama? ” Ranmaru hesitantly tried, feeling at a loss of what to do.
Kusanagi looked up at the sound of his voice, but he could tell that she still didn’t really see him and then Kusanagi began to struggle to get out of his grasp. “Let me go...it’s not too late...I can...I can save him!”
Ranmaru put Kusanagi’s struggling form gently on the ground and watched as she ran over to pick up a severed head.
“Mamoru...don’t worry...I can still save you...Mamoru?
Why aren’t you saying anything?” Kusanagi began to laugh hysterically before her body suddenly swayed and her eyes closed as she passed out, falling forward, and the head fell from her limp fingers.
“Oujo-sama! ” Ranmaru yelled as he rushed to her side and caught her before she would have hit the ground in her faint. The head rolled across the floor before it stopped with its face facing upwards. Ranmaru’s golden eyes narrowed at the revealed face. A man who had messy, spiky brown hair and aquiline features. He had a handsome face. Mamoru? Who was Mamoru? Ranmaru’s attention then turned to the other fallen 196
bodies of the SPs...Ranmaru walked over to another of the fallen bodies and turned it over with his foot curiously.
“No! Ranmaru don’t!” Roze called out.
Ranmaru looked down at the dead man’s body. This man’s mask had also been eaten away by the plant acid... And his face…Ranmaru brows rose…it was the same face as the man that Kusanagi had called Mamoru. What the hell was going on?
Ranmaru turned to give Roze an expectant look. Roze sighed resignedly, “Ranmaru, for now let’s get Kusanagi inside...”
Ranmaru nodded, but he expected to get some answers about all this and soon.
***
Kusanagi didn’t know how long she’d been asleep...but as she was waking she could hear Ranmaru and Roze talking and Ranmaru sounded oddly angry, which was unusual since his voice was usually so monotone.
“Roze, just who...or what were those SP?”
“Clones.”
Ranmaru blinked. “Clones of...Mamoru?”
Roze sighed heavily. “Yes.”
“Who was Mamoru?”
“Kusanagi’s former Samurai Butler he-”
But before Roze could say more Kusanagi sat up in bed looking furious, sparks shooting out of her eyes. “Shut up Roze!
Remember your place!”
“Kusanagi- sama! ” Roze gasped and immediately looked sheepish.
“I can’t believe this! I was mad enough when Grandfather said he was going to hire some more SPs since HE had been spotted in the city. But it was all lies...I can’t believe Grandfather would go that far...!” Kusanagi narrowed her eyes at Roze. “Why didn’t you tell me Roze?”
“How could I...?” Roze looked away, biting her lower lip.
“I can’t believe Grandfather did this. This time he’s gone too far! Argh!” Kusanagi flung her comforter off of her and hopped out of bed. Barefoot and clad only in her pj's she stomped her way out of the room and down the hall towards her Bitch 197
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Grandfather’s study - k
nowing that after everything that had happened that night he would most likely be there. Ranmaru was trailing after her but she wouldn’t tell him to stay behind again... Kusanagi slammed the door to the study open and stalked inside. As predicted her Grandfather was seated at his desk.
“Kusanagi dear-” Kimamura- san began pleasantly. Kusanagi frowned, livid with anger. “Don’t you ‘dear’
me! How dare you! How could you? Why would you do such a thing! Why? ” The last word cracked. Kimamura- san sighed and shot a look at Ranmaru wondering how much he should and could say before speaking.
“I think you can guess why. I knew that he would protect you to the death...and so cloning him to use as SPs seemed like a good idea...at the time. It was...regrettable to lose such a competent Samurai Butler, you see. Besides Kusanagi they’re just clones...it’s not like they’re the real Mamoru after all. They don’t even have souls-”
Tears were streaming down Kusanagi’s face, “You old fool! So now you want to play God? You know nothing! I saw...”
She shot a look in Ranmaru’s direction. “It. I saw...those men have souls!”
Ranmaru’s golden eyes narrowed curiously at Kusanagi. It?
Kimamura- san also seemed equally worried, “You saw...?”
Kusanagi nodded, her expression grim, “Yes, I did.”
Kimamura- san steepled his fingers together, “I see...then I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just make sure you don’t let something like this happen ever again. So no more clones!” Kusanagi waved her hands adamantly through the air.
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