The Haunted Onsen

by Phil Gabriel

  “So, you like threesomes?” she guessed.

  I opened my mouth to object, only to be stopped as she pressed two fingers tipped with diamond-sharp talons to my lips.

  “I can work with that,” she said. I leaned back in my chair. What was she talking about?

  “You know how we can be in two places at the same time?” she asked in two voices. I shivered as another set of hands started rubbing my shoulders from behind.

  Turning, I saw another version of her, only the flame dress was blue flames instead of red. Every other detail was the same. Reptilian, beautiful, powerful, and dangerous.

  “This is my time-warped self-sister,” she said. She tilted her head and furrowed her brow in thought before continuing, “You can call her Ashleigh.”

  The names should have sounded exactly the same, but I could tell the difference.

  Ashley stood up, pulling me to my feet as Ashleigh took my other hand. Together they pulled me towards the bed. With a mental apology to Kitty-Sue and Akiko and a prayer for forgiveness, I decided to take one for the team.

  “Wait!” I objected. “What’s the Deal?”

  They sat me at the edge of the bed, and Ashley said, “For this service, you can have any inanimate object in my cavern.”

  Ashleigh reached forward and slipped the strap of my satchel over my head. Ashley started to unbutton my shirt as Ashleigh carried my bag to the table. I was about to release the inertia spell that made my bag increase in weight the farther it was from me so she could carry the bag. Instead, I was surprised to see the muscles of her arms tense slightly as she moved the bag. At that distance, it would take a bulldozer to move the satchel.

  This casual display of superhuman strength made me reconsider.

  “Wait!” I said as Ashleigh returned. “We have to talk about protection.”

  “Protection?” said Ashley. “Do you mean condoms? You know I’m trying for a child here?” I noted that Ashleigh turned her head down and looked away. Was she shy? I thought they were the same?

  “Not that kind of protection,” I said. “Your passion might hurt me. I have magic, but I’m still human.”

  “Wait,” she said, holding up a hand. “You said you’ve known a dragon before. She even veiled your interaction. Why are you worried now?”

  “She was very gentle,” I said. “Older, more experienced. She wove a spell to make me stronger. It still almost killed me.”

  Raising her hands to prepare a spell, Ashley said, “I can make you dragon strong!” I recognized the gestures, permanent augmentation with a touch of a priapism spell, and held my hands up to stop her.

  “Nothing permanent!” I said.

  “Why not?” she asked. “You called yourself a pawn; I can make you a king. Don’t you want to be as strong as a dragon? Invulnerable? Flame proof? Do you want to remain a weak human?” She giggled at the idea of wanting to stay weak.

  The temptation to take what she was offering was immense. All my problems solved in an instant. I could go back to the onsen and kick the samurai’s ass, then go to Tokyo and spank a certain nine-tailed kitsune queen’s ass, then go back to New York and kill all of the coven members that had plotted against me. I could beat almost anyone, take anything, have any woman. Whoa, that escalated quickly, said my conscious. I shook my head to clear it of visions of conquest.

  You want to give up your humanity? continued my conscious. Give up Kitty-Sue’s caresses and cuddles? The pleasure of exploring magic with Akiko? The frisson of danger that made it exciting to be human?

  Hadn’t I just been through this same chain of logic when I decided not to wean Akiko from needing those glasses to work magic? Too much power, too soon, would corrupt the hardiest soul. Did I want my friends, my family, to fear me? These thoughts took less than a moment. I made a decision.

  “Not permanently,” I said. “Magicians who use magic to make themselves too powerful invariably go crazy. We need to feel. Feel human passions, human frailties, human emotions, to remain human.”

  Ashley’s look reminded me of a chess grandmaster surprised by an amateur’s move that just happened to block his attack.

  Staring at me with her time-piercing gaze, Ashley said, “You’re right. Making you too strong will cause you a lot of trouble. OK, it’ll be temporary.” She raised her hands again.

  Once again, I had to stop her. “How temporary?”

  Looking at Ashleigh, she said, “Twenty-four hours? That should be enough time to satisfy both of us.”

  “Twenty-four hours?” I said. Suddenly, a mad thought ran through my mind, like a warning from a drug commercial, If your erection lasts more than twenty-four hours, contact a magical professional.

  “No way,” I said. “Kitty-Sue and Akiko are waiting for me and we have a deadline. One hour, tops.”

  “Time flows differently here,” whispered Ashleigh, gaze averted, not looking at me. “For them it’ll be a short time. We really want to take our time and enjoy this.” Then she blushed.

  “OK,” I said, “how about two hours? One hour each?” I realized I was bargaining for less sex and superhuman power. My subconscious kicked me for being on the wrong side of this Deal.

  Ashley cast a questioning look at Ashleigh, who gave a tiny shake of her head. The shy one was greedy for more. It’s always the shy ones.

  Ashley tilted her head, smiled, and said, “How about twelve hours? Six hours each?” She frowned in concentration for a moment and her breasts grew. Damn shapeshifters knew how to entice a man.

  “Four hours,” I offered. My palms itched to caress those breasts. I looked away to avoid surrendering.

  The girls exchanged a glance, then Ashley said, “Eight hours, not a minute less. Four hours for each of us.” She crossed her arms to look firm, but only served to lift up her breasts. Even Ashleigh was looking resolute.

  “How much time will pass for Kitty-Sue and Akiko?” I asked. She had said “a short time,” but a short time for a dragon could be decades for humans.

  The girls shared a calculating glance. “About an hour on the mortal plane,” Ashley said.

  “Don’t worry,” said Ashleigh, “we’re keeping them company.” Then with a giggle, “They don’t seem to be missing you.”

  I thought through the Deal, the constraints. The problem with making Deals with greater entities was that they could always cheat. I was like a child playing cards with grandmother—she could always quote some rule I had never heard of. The more a human tried to close loopholes, the more complicated the Deal became. At a certain point, the entity started to enjoy finding loopholes. Matching wits with a future-seeing entity was a fool’s errand.

  Before I could speak, the jukebox started playing Sting’s “Every Breath You Take.” Did that mean Euterpe would look over me? Help me avoid trouble?

  “Then I accept your Deal,” I said. Of course, the dragon could cheat, but she had shown no sign of deception.

  Ashley and Ashleigh looked at each other, sharing thoughts, and then held their arms up in matching gestures. They wove a spell of strength and endurance using dragon magic, then cast it on me.

  At first, there was no change. Then aches and pains I hadn’t noticed fell away, leaving me energized. Colors in the dim cave were suddenly brighter and I could see outside the Pentachromatic spectrum. Colors that could drive a man insane from their beauty and purity. I could hear the breathing of Ashley and Ashleigh, as well as the beating of two hearts in each of their chests. I could hear the tiniest rustle as their almost microscopic scales slid over their skin as they moved. I was shocked as my vision blanked out for several seconds, then came back. I realized it was the blink of my eyes—operating at dragon speed. My blinks registered as taking seconds instead of milliseconds. It took a conscious effort to ignore the blinking.

  The tiniest breeze flowed through the cavern, rustling my hair gently, bearing the scent of my dragon lovers. They were both emitting the intoxicating scent of aroused females. I suddenly had a painfully tight ere
ction.

  I had to damp down the sensations, as the sights, scents, and sounds had become too intense to bear.

  The feeling of limitless strength was indescribable, and I suddenly regretted putting a time limit on the spell. Maybe I could talk Ashley into extending it. Then the song on the jukebox changed to a Travis Tritt country tune about being “Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof,” a warning about overconfidence. Thanks, Euterpe.

  I smiled and held out my hands to the dragon more-than-twins. They eagerly jumped forward and quickly undressed me.

  With my enhanced senses, I could tell them apart despite the fact they no longer wore the different colored flame dresses.

  “OK, ladies,” I said, pulling them down onto the bed with me. “Who’s first?”

  Seven hours and fifty-eight minutes later, the jukebox started playing a very old song, “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”

  Reveille! It took a few seconds for the message of the song to get through my sex-crazed brain. I realized that if my dragon-spelled strength wore off while we were in our current positions, I would have both my head and pelvis crushed by the rhythmic contractions of dragon thighs.

  Grabbing Ashley’s butt with my palms, I gave one last lick for good measure, causing her to shake with another orgasm. Then I lifted her off of my head. My action coincidentally broke her kiss with Ashleigh. As I held her in the air easily, she looked down between her legs and raised an eyebrow in question. Ashleigh was still thrusting on my erection, so far gone in pleasure she couldn’t stop.

  “Time’s up, Ashley,” I said. “If we don’t stop, you’ll kill me.”

  I saw a hungry look pass over her face as she briefly considered continuing the pleasures for one more minute, even if it meant killing her lover. The wave of relief I felt as she nodded was accompanied by the shuddering orgasm of Ashleigh.

  Despite finishing, Ashleigh continued to rock, unable to stop herself. As the deadline for the spell came closer and closer, so did my impending doom.

  I was saved when Ashley pulled Ashleigh off of me, pulling her down for a kiss while stroking her body. The thought of what to call that flashed through my brain. Masturbation? Fun with future friends? I shook my head again and leaped from the bed.

  The spell ended as I neared the table, all the energy and vitality draining away in a flash, leaving me with multitude of aches and pains. No, not aches and pains: just the normal sensations of a human body.

  I collapsed in the chair and grabbed the fresh bottle of wine that Ashley had thoughtfully left. I drank several glasses; I was dehydrated, squeezed of all juices.

  I turned in the chair and watched Ashley and Ashleigh as they writhed on the bed. The sight of the two, bodies twisted together in passion, failed to get a rise from my drained libido. Even the fond memory of what two sets of forked tongues could do to a man failed to affect me.

  Still, it was an enjoyable show, and they didn’t seem to mind me watching. In fact, I could have sworn it was getting them off.

  I opened my satchel and pulled out a towel and my canteen. Rubbing myself down with the wet towel removed traces of lady dragon secretions from my body. I pulled out fresh clothes and dressed.

  The old clothes and the towel went into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, which I put away in the satchel.

  I took a long, long drink from the canteen. When I finished, it was three-quarters full; it would always be three-quarters full. One of my first and best spells. Dehydration avoided, I poured another glass of wine and continued watching the time-warped twins perform.

  Just as I finished off the bottle of wine, they split apart, each collapsing onto the cushions. They were breathing deeply, almost gasping in stereo.

  The respite, the wine, the water, and the show had given me time to think. I knew what I had to do to complete my task with the ghost samurai.

  “For services rendered well,” Ashley said, “take your choice from my trove.”

  My gaze immediately went to the dragon’s eggshell. With a shake of my head, I squashed that thought. While immensely powerful, it wouldn’t help me with the samurai. I had already made my choice.

  “I’ll take that samurai helm,” I said, pointing to the object. I was reminded of the old joke about the guy who bedded a carny girl. Her room had been full of stuffed animals. The morning after, when he asked how he had performed, the girl said, “Take any prize from the bottom shelf.”

  The helmet was bottom shelf compared to the other prizes, but I had to complete my exorcism of the samurai ghost.

  I stepped over and picked up the samurai helmet and stashed it in my satchel.

  “Thank you for the Deal,” I said. “This helmet will help me save a lot of lives.”

  Ashleigh walked up, her blue flame dress restored. She had a glass of wine in her hand and a mischievous smile on her face. She leaned over and whispered in Ashley’s ear. Hearing secrets from her future self? I wondered if that was anything like a human’s internal monologue.

  Ashley’s face brightened and she said, “Ashleigh makes a good point. You did provide service to two of us. You should get another prize.” She nodded to herself with a self-satisfied smile.

  Unbelievable luck! Yes, unbelievable. Was this a joke? Or a plan that fit in with a future-seeing dragon? Either way, the chance to help so many people with what I could do with the eggshell was an inducement I couldn’t pass up.

  “A second prize, you said?” I asked. “I appreciate your generosity. Now what should I choose?” I stepped over to the jukebox and caressed the buttons without pushing any. The Jackson Browne tune “The Load-Out” started on its own. Euterpe’s way of telling me to wrap things up.

  No more playing around. “Ashley, Ashleigh,” I said, “I would be honored if you would gift me your eggshell. I would look at it and cherish our time together.”

  “You could do great and terrible things with our eggshell,” said Ashley.

  “You could gain immense power with our eggshell,” said Ashleigh.

  “I could help a lot of people,” I replied. “And I think you’ve seen that the temptations of power mean little to me.”

  Ashleigh looked at Ashley and said, “He’s right. He could have been almost as strong as a dragon forever. He was wise enough to turn it down. I think we should give it to him.” Thus, confirming that the offer of power, while sincere, had been a kind of test.

  They shared a glance: female telepathy, the same time-divided mind sharing a singular thought, or something else. They nodded in unison, and then Ashleigh walked over and picked up the eggshell. I had a glimpse of her disabling a spell that would have ruined the day of anyone who tried to steal this treasure. I was suddenly glad I had quashed my impulse to steal the object. Then Ashleigh walked over and handed the eggshell to me.

  Grunting slightly under the weight that she had carried easily, I looked at the prize. Patterns of glyphs and symbols danced under the gleaming top layer, much more sophisticated than my own attempts at high-level magic. Copying biological features into engineering is called Biomimicry. Copying magical features from Cryptozoologic creatures would be called...?

  My chain of thought was interrupted by Ashleigh putting her hand in front of my eyes. “Careful there,” she said. “It’s easy for you to lose yourself.”

  She glanced down at my fingers as I unconsciously traced patterns on the eggshell. “And doing that without a lot of study is very dangerous.”

  My hands froze, and with great care, I put the eggshell inside my satchel. “You’re right, Ashleigh. I will use it carefully.”

  She stepped back, this dragon in human form, wreathed in blue flames, seer, lover. She raised two fingers to her lips and blew me a kiss before fading away.

  I felt a burning sensation on my cheek, but it quickly faded.

  Turning to Ashley, I said, “Should we go and meet Kitty-Sue and Akiko now?”

  7

  Search for Samurai Armor

  With a smile, Ashley nodded and gestured to me to precede h
er out of the cavern. A few steps through that chaotic tunnel led us to a veranda set outside a coffee shop in Hakone. As the tunnel faded away behind us, we walked up to the coffee shop. At a large table sat Kitty-Sue, Akiko, and two more versions of Ashley.

  As we approached the table, the two dragon-ladies rose and bowed, making farewell gestures. They quickly faded away, leaving only one copy, my Ashley, with us.

  “Akiko, Kitty-Sue,” I said, “this is Ashley, the dragon of Lake Ashi.”

  “Hajimemashita,” responded Kitty-Sue and Akiko with perfect Japanese manners and matching bows. I pulled a chair out for Ashley and we sat. Kitty-Sue pierced me with a glare.

  “Boss,” said Kitty-Sue in a cold tone, “I’ve warned you about giving nicknames to deadly creatures.” Ashley preened at the compliment.

  We ordered coffee. As we sipped, Kitty-Sue turned to Ashley. “So, about that Deal—”

  “Our Dealing is done,” said Ashley. “Scott drove a hard bargain, but it worked out for everyone in the end.”

  Finishing her coffee in one drink, Ashley stood. “Lady Kitty-Sue, give my regards to your aunt. Akiko-san, it was nice meeting you.”

  With a short bow, Ashley faded away.

  I turned and found both women glaring at me. I feigned innocence. “What?” I asked. “We made a Deal. We are now halfway to exorcising that samurai ghost.”

  Kitty-Sue crossed her arms and glared. “We’ve been sitting here cooling our heels, making polite chitchat with the twins while you made a Deal with that, that—”

  “Scott-sensei,” interrupted Akiko, before Kitty-Sue could blaspheme the dragon, “you know we don’t like it when you make Deals without including us.”

  “Especially Deals with females,” said Kitty-Sue. “Don’t get me wrong; you’re very good. But when there is a female involved, you always end up getting screwed.”

  At my giggle, quickly converted to a cough, Kitty-Sue’s eyes narrowed. She sniffed deeply through her fox-sensitive nose, smelling me for evidence.