Blade Of The Immortal Fan Fiction ❯ Abstinence Education ❯ Part Thirty ( Chapter 30 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

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A crossroads can lead in every direction but the one you most want to follow...

The characters and universe of Blade of the Immortal/Mugen no Junin are copyright by Hiroaki Samura and do not belong to me. Not one sen will come into my hands in consequence of this story.

Warnings for sex in various forms, including quasi-incestuous themes and a sixteen-year-old female paired with an adult male. Violence and dismemberment are legally required in any BotI fic, so be prepared.

Kengo: An expert in the martial arts.

Abstinence Education
by Madame Manga

Part Thirty


“Manji! What are you doing?”

“What's it look like?” He bent and lifted one of her knees, parting her legs.

“That's not funny! If you're trying to scare–”

“Scared of what?” Manji leaned in and pressed her to the tree with his body. “I'd have been happy to do it this morning in the inn. Or on a heap of straw in my grimy little hut–hell, anywhere you asked me.” He kissed the curve of her jaw. “I kinda wanted to get up something special for the occasion, so I wasn't gonna push you...at least for another day or so. But I guess this'll have to do.”

Breathing noisily in her ear, he slid his free hand into the waistband of her long underskirt.

“But this isn't–Manji!” Rin jumped when he clasped her bobo. He pressed his fingers into her cleft and stroked her with seductive urgency. She cried out, her hips making an involuntary shudder against his hand.

Manji chuckled and plunged one finger into her. He thrust it in and out a few times and withdrew it with a wet sound. Then he pulled his hand out of her skirt, licked his fingers and yanked at his own clothes. His bared thigh pressed between her legs and his sword hilts poked her in the ribs. Rin squirmed away. Manji moved her back into position and tried to free his henoko from his loincloth. He breathed even harder now, his face flushed. She thrashed the leg he held and thumped her foot into his buttocks, still confused but growing genuinely frightened. “That's enough! You've made your point!”

“Not hardly.” Manji ground his pelvis into her with a dry laugh.

“You wouldn't really...do it HERE? You said it wasn't safe–”

He put his hand into the top of her clothing and loosened her inner robe. “I don't care...I can't wait. Guess I shouldn't have waited even this long.” He exposed one of her breasts and dipped his head to take it into his mouth. His tongue felt burning hot and his damp hair left cold traces on her skin.

Rin froze in place, her chest heaving with rapid breaths. This was no joke! Manji licked her breast, suckled for a few moments and then blew on the wet nipple. Shivers went through her as it stiffened. “M-Manji...this isn't fair...you told me–we agreed–you can't just change the rules when you feel like it!”

“Give me a break, woman.” Manji uncovered her other breast and squeezed it. “Rules?”

“Yes! You promised!” She crossed her arms and punched him in the collarbone.

He dropped her leg and removed his hand from her breasts. Then he planted his palms on either side of her head and wedged her thighs between his knees, fencing her in against the tree trunk. “Look at me, Rin-chan.”

His expression wasn't soft or seductive; his eye looked glittering bright, his lips set in a thin line. She'd seen him like this in the middle of combat when battered and tiring, digging down into his deepest energies to come roaring back like a demon. “You think I'm just gonna resign? Because I kinda miscalculated a while back? Yeah, I was wrong–but I don't care.” Manji grinned at her. “No man with a pair of balls between his legs would hold that against himself. After how you let me do you last night...oh, damn...” He put his nose in her hair; his sensual groan tickled her ear. “You're gonna like it even better the regular way. It might smart for a moment at first...but then it's all sweet.”

Rin gazed past his head, speechless.

“You haven't tasted even half of me yet.” He started to caress her bared breasts again. “Sweet, pretty, hot little lady...I'm going to give you everything I got. Everything I've wanted to give you since the first time I kissed you.” He flicked his thumbs over her nipples and nuzzled under her jaw. “There–that romantic enough for ya?”

“Wh-what?” Waves of heat and cold racked her body.

“There's no way in hell...that I'm gonna believe you don't want–” Manji stroked her face, guided her mouth to his and gave her a slow, deep kiss. Rin did nothing either to prevent him or to respond, feeling as limp as a wet towel. He slightly backed off the kiss after several long moments and spoke against her lips. “After you've kept me warm so many times...and after how you've made me feel...I know how you must feel too.” He raised his head and cupped her cheek in one hand to look at her. “Tell me, sweetheart. I want to hear it.”

Rin stared at him, her heart weighted with iron.

A sudden smile lit up Manji's face. He looked almost boyish, brimming over with liberated expectation. “Come on, you can tell me.” He softly kissed her eyelid, then her cheekbone. “I won't laugh.”

She squeezed her eyes shut while the whole world revolved and lurched. Tears forced their way between her lashes and down her cheeks.

“Aw, little woman...ain't nothin' to cry about.” He blotted away a tear-track with one thumb and bent down. Rin turned her head to avoid him and took deep panting breaths, fighting her dizziness. “Sweetheart?”

“Ma-Manji–now? You're s-saying this now?”

“Can you think of some other time to do it?” Manji held her chin and took her lips with his. It was all Rin could manage to keep her teeth closed against his coaxing tongue. “Aw, what's this? Open up for me, Rin-chan...” He bent his knees and rolled his hips, pressing his erect henoko into the thin silk of her underskirt and directly against the mound of her pubis.

Rin shuddered. The taste of Manji's mouth, the feel of his body, and above all, his rough, caressing voice twisted her belly with terrible longing. So easy to imagine giving in to him. Her lost maidenhead would be all his fault–he’d gladly accept the blame. And then soothe her in his arms, and kiss her tears away, and make her his again…

“Not–it won't–I can't! D-don't you understand? It's impossible!”

He let out a short laugh. “Impossible, huh? Watch me.” He stroked her breasts and eased her collar farther down her arms, then kissed her throat. “C'mon. Please. Tell me–”

“Manji-san–if you'd asked me this yesterday...or a-a couple of weeks ago–oh, God, forgive me...” She shoved against his chest with all the force she had left and shied away as he tried to grab her thigh. “Please–please, it's all wrong–there's nothing I can tell you, not now–”

“It's all about the timing, hey? Fine, just gimme two minutes.” Manji made a sharp pelvic thrust against her stomach and grinned. “After I'm good and settled in...then maybe you'll have a little more to say to me.”

“No!” Rin flailed his hands away when he reached down to hoist her underskirt. “Don't touch me!”

“Oh, bullshit.” He gave an impatient groan and tried to kiss her on the mouth. Rin thrashed her head from side to side and pushed on his jaw. Manji thrust a knee against her thigh and opened her legs again. “Calm down, willya? You can wiggle all you like while I'm–”

“N-no–stop! Listen to me–” She tried to catch her breath, panic stiffening her spine. If he ignored her protests just a little longer?

“Sure. Tell me the truth.”

“Stop it now!”

He shook his head in disgust, crouched lower and yanked her skirt upwards. Rin let him uncover her to the waist and braced her thigh against his. When her legs were freed, she took a deep breath and held it. She shot the other knee up into his groin.

Manji stopped dead. He looked startled, but nothing more. Had she missed her target? He leaned forward slightly, his eye glazing over, and in desperation Rin head-butted him in the face with a teeth-rattling crack. He let out a strangled yell, dropped to his knees, clutched his testicles and jammed his forehead to the ground.

Rin scrambled backwards and tried to pull the loosened flaps of her inner robe over her bare breasts. “Are y-you listening to me now?”

She heard nothing but violent groans as he rocked back and forth; she must have connected pretty well after all. Manji fell over and collapsed on his side, hands still cupping his male parts and his knees drawn up. His lip had split from the impact of her skull and blood was splotched on his chin. “Ohh...shiit...!”

Although she'd had no alternative, the sight of her bodyguard writhing on the ground gave Rin a terrible pang. This wasn't like stomping on his toes or clouting him over the head when they had a domestic spat. In duels he'd taken severed limbs, gut punctures, hideous wounds that made him scream in agony, but this was the first time a blow of hers had seemed to inflict even more pain than a sword.

“Manji-san!” Having rearranged her clothing, she came a little closer and crouched down. “Oh, big brother...are you OK?”

Manji opened his eye after venting a few more groans, looking sick and white by contrast with the bright red smear on his face. “I'll...survive.” He put a hand to his mouth and inspected his fingers. “Holy shit, woman, you pack a wallop.”

“I'm sorry–but you said I ought to kick you there!”

“Great.” He rolled to sit upright and pushed back his hair with his bloody hand, then wiped his lips and chin. “Seems like I always tell you how to hit me right where I live...”

“I didn't want to hurt you! You wouldn't believe me!”

“Believe you?” Manji gave her a hard look from under his brows, though he still looked pale and pressed a hand to his lower abdomen. “I try to give you what you've been begging for all along, and you do your best to put me out of commission? Is this a joke?”

“I'm serious.” Rin backed away again. “I can't pillow with you any more. Don't kiss me. Don't even put your hands on me. It's over!”

His face went darker. “Oh, yeah?”

“Because of what I just told you–Manji, you have to understand–”

“I don't understand shit. You didn't tell me this as soon as you say you knew it? You just let me ass-fuck you instead? Why the hell–”

“I did try to tell you! Why did you tell me it was over and break my heart and then grab me like you wanted to eat me alive? Were YOU thinking straight either?”

Manji grimaced and looked away.

“But you were right anyway. We should have stopped this days ago. We shouldn't have started at all!”

“Should have, shouldn't have–” He got to his feet and jabbed a finger at her. “It doesn't work like that, woman. You can't just order me to keep my hands off you.”

“Why can't I?”

“You're mine–I'm your man!” Manji thumped a fist on his chest. “As long as I'm living, I'm the only guy who touches you. Hell, I'm the only guy who looks at you!”

“You don't get to decide that!”

“Wanna bet?” He locked gazes with her and gripped a sword hilt.

Rin's eyes dilated; she moved backwards and stopped against a bush. Manji stalked towards her. “I don't care who it is–I'll string his goddamn guts from the trees! Anybody who gets in my way–”

“You can't! I won't let you!”

With a couple of swift strides he came right up to her and seized her wrist. “Like you could do a damn thing to stop me?”

Her face went cold. “Oh, you're the boss now? What do you think you're going to do if I won't agree– rape me?”

He jerked in manifest shock and loosened his grip. “What the–?”

“If you want to have your own way that badly, I guess there's nothing I could do about it! You won't let me take you by surprise again. You could just hold me down and–”

“How big an asshole do you think I am?” Manji let go of her wrist, but almost immediately grasped her by the shoulders. “Rin-chan– sweetheart– what's with you?”

“Don't start!” She struck his hands away, tears suddenly welling in her eyes again. He looked stunned, lost, even pleading. “No... stop it...”

“But... I want you, dammit! Why? Would you just tell me what the hell I've done?”

She turned away and covered her face to shut him out. Aggression and roughness she was used to, but his anguish was more than she could bear. “Please don't... don't be...”

For a brief while there was only silence between them. Rin heard nothing but the soft rustles of leaves and a scramble of small animals in the underbrush. A hawk screeched overhead; a captured bird cried and fluttered in its death throes. Her ears pounded with her heartbeat. Could Manji really have said such things to her? Really dragged her into the woods to take her? She looked up, almost wondering if this were a dream.

Manji was leaning back against the tree he had tried to use as a support, his eye closed and his head in his hand. He breathed hard but silently, his shoulders heaving. Although she couldn't see much of his face, his posture and the way he ground his jaw told her that he was fighting for control. Against a greater outburst? She looked around the little clearing for an escape.

Manji uncovered his face and met her gaze. He was pale, his voice unsteady.

“Look...I'm sorry I tried to manhandle you. I got a little carried away. But you can't be serious.”

“I... I'm sorry too...”

“Rin, this is fucked up beyond all imagination. You want it so bad you make me crazy, and now you say I'd have to force you? Because you're saving yourself for...that son of a bitch?” His voice cracked. “This just ain't possible.”

“I'm sorry...” She shook her head over and over and looked at the ground. “I'm sorry...”

“Why the hell are you payin' any attention to what that broad says? That nutty whore? You don't know the half of it where she's concerned.”

“But... I think she was telling the truth...”

“You'd actually marry that guy if he asked? The guy you wanted to kill with your own little hands? Why the hell is he even alive?”

Rin pressed the back of her hand to her face. “I told you he was helpless–”

“You think he gives a shit about helpless? A guy who sicced those bastards on your mother? Since you want to talk about rape.”

She stared at him with her mouth open.

Manji set his teeth on edge and made a harsh gesture. “At least your daddy died with a sword in his hand. He went out like a samurai. Your mama was samurai too, and it's nobody but that guy's fault she didn't get to die the same way. You'd climb in the pillow with him?” His voice grew louder; fury surged in his expression. “You'd spread your legs and let him do what I've done–hell, give it all to him and get big with his spew? What the fuck is goin' on here?”

“Manji!”

“Grandchildren? Your family blood? Like hell!”

“That's what Makie–”

“Honor, bullshit. That guy's a sneaky little weasel first and last–he's no samurai. Skulking around behind my back like a thief–you saw him there at the inn. Didn't you?”

“No...” Rin felt her face change color; Manji's eye narrowed. “I didn't talk to him!”

Manji let out a warning growl. “Don't lie to me.”

“I'm–n-not lying!”

“Then what's with this frickin' fairy tale? You gussied up that little idea of mine and served it back to me? What did those two really have to say to you?”

“I told you! I mean...Anotsu wasn't there, but Makie–”

Manji's shoulders heaved up and down with his aggressive breaths. He stared at her in open accusation; Rin realized with a deep shiver that concealing even the smallest part of the truth from him had been a serious mistake.

“Uh...I... might have seen Anotsu... in the garden... I didn't see his face. There was someone all wrapped up like an invalid–”

“Oh, now you did see him.” He sneered at her.

“I'm not sure if I d-did or not!”

“What else are you not sure about? I'll get to the bottom of this, woman. You know I will.”

“But I–”

“Tell me the truth. Now. Why would you think you've got to blow me off for Anotsu Kagehisa?”

“Because of my parents–”

“Your parents?” He pushed himself away from the tree. “You were all on fire when you came to me. You'd have done anything to see him dead. Anything, remember?”

“Yes...” Her fingers sought out the flame design on her sleeve.

“You sure surprised the hell out of me. Sweet little virgin like you.” Manji looked her up and down. “I thought you'd run away bawling and let me fish in peace. But nope, it didn't take you ten seconds to start whippin' the clothes off, even for a scumbag like me. 'Cause it was all to nail the guy who killed Dad and Mom.”

Rin flushed; the reprimand he'd given her still seemed to burn on her cheek. “Yes, it was!”

Manji grinned out of the side of his mouth. “Yep, no hesitation. Never a doubt...until the first time you ran into him in the forest.”

She flushed deeper and looked down.

“You never told me much about that, y'know. Didn't tell me at all for days.”

“I'm sorry...it was hard even to think about...”

“Yeah? I couldn't figure out what was going on with you. Moping around, sneakin' out to cry at night so I wouldn't hear–” Manji took a hard swallow and his cheek twitched; something unsettling had crossed his mind. His voice lost some of its harshness. “OK, tell me what happened. All of it.”

“Um...A-Anotsu...told me why he was killing off the sword schools, and that I wasn't really one of them because I used a weapon the Mutenichi-ryu would have forbidden. That's really all he–”

“You mean your little knives? You tried to stick him with those, huh? Probably just made him mad.”

“Yes, I tried to kill him by myself–which I realize was, uh, kind of stupid–”

“Yep, I can see it now–wasted all your ammo, panicked and tried to book it out of there.” Manji raised a brow and Rin grimaced in confirmation. “So then...he must have got his hands on you. If you listened to him long enough for him to explain all that, he had you pinned somehow.”

“Uh...” He had knocked her down with the blunt end of his axe and secured her to a post, and she had demanded to know if he meant to rape her. A shiver went through her. Manji couldn't be thinking–

“No, you couldn't have gotten away from a kengo like Anotsu once you showed yourself. Did he figure out who you were, or did you tell him?”

“He recognized me...”

“More'n two years after the fact? Now ain't that interesting.”

Rin had no answer.

“So Anotsu's got you down and disarmed. He knows you're the daughter of Asano Takayoshi.” Manji pointed at her. “He knows you want to kill him to avenge your parents, and you've just tried to do it. I know what most kenshi would have done with a girl like you. He didn't kill you or slice your nose and ears off.” He rubbed the long white scar on his own nose. “So what did he do?”

Rin stared at him, aghast.

“And then...he let you go. 'Cause he was thinking you might make him a good wife in another year or two?” Manji gave a cynical laugh, but he seemed to be trying to cover another emotion. “Yeah, right! Bullshit from beginning to end.”

“But it's exactly the sort of thing he would believe was–”

“Would he? What's this guy like, huh?”

“He's honorable! Makie said he would never be harsh to me, and he was kind and gave me water–”

“And he's a goddamn pretty son of a whore to boot. Right?” Manji showed his teeth.

She clapped her hands to her mouth, trembling all over. She'd walked straight into that one...

“Talk to me, Rin.” Manji's voice was low and barely steady.

“There's nothing more to tell!”

“You sure about that? Like not seeing him at the inn? Just a little detail that might've slipped your mind?”

“Wh-what d-do you mean?”

Manji kept his expression locked into a cynical smile, but his features quivered. “Like maybe...he let you go alive...because he figured busting a virgin was enough fun for one day.”

Rin's chest swelled with indignation and she threw up her chin. “I would have bitten off my tongue and choked to death first!”

“That's a lot harder than you think it is, kid. If he decided to teach you a lesson...” His lips curled back from his teeth again and he spoke with aching sarcasm. “There wouldn't have been a damn thing you could do.”

She stumbled away from him and seized a tree branch for support, hyperventilating. He had guessed the truth, in a way–anyone other than Anotsu Kagehisa would almost certainly have done exactly what Manji suggested now. She'd escaped violation and a cruel death only because of her enemy's honorable restraint...

“Can't trust a woman to stick to a purpose, can ya? Not even what she swears up and down is the most important thing in her life. There she is, second-guessing everything in sight and gettin' lost in the woods...so to speak.”

Rin covered her eyes. She tried to push away the image of that smooth, narrow-eyed face. It haunted her like a living ghost, never to be exorcised, not by time nor death. Not even flying to refuge in the arms of her beloved protector could let her permanently escape the long shadow of her enemy.

How many people vainly longed for Anotsu's cool beauty alone? Who didn't even know his grace and strange nobility? She'd never wanted to know those at all...

Manji was silent for a few moments while Rin shook and heaved. He was wrong–she wasn't lying about Makie's message–Anotsu had never touched her. Manji was striking at phantoms. He was only being jealous and bull-headed. Stupid! Everything he thought about this was totally wrong! She startled at the gravelly sound of his voice.

“Yeah...she's still so hung up on the son of a bitch that she's gotta follow him to the ends of the earth...she just don't want him dead any more. Like there's unfinished business between 'em. Something she's got to talk to him about. Am I gettin' warmer?”

“No...!”

“She's not getting big with a brat...yet. So maybe...she's decided she's got to marry the guy who took it–so she can have her goddamn honor back.” Manji drew a deep breath. “Did that bastard have you, Rin?” Rin opened her mouth to deny it, but he didn't wait for an answer. “Did he even need to hold you down for very long?”

“STOP SAYING THAT!” Rin whirled on him. “You...you horny jerk! You just want to be the first one, don't you? Men pay a lot of money for–”

Manji's jaw muscles bulged. “Listen to me, you little cunt–if somebody else had already broken you in, I wouldn't be having this problem!”

Rin gasped.

“Fine, don't tell me what he's done. Don't tell me anything at all.” He thrust his fingers into his hair and moved away from her. “Guess this is only what I deserve...for trying not to be a complete asshole!”

“But...oh, Manji-san, I'm sorry, I know you're not like that–”

“I should've pronged you the first chance I got.” He gave her a strange, painful glare from under his clenched hand. “Yeah, you'd have hated my guts... for a little while, anyway. Funny how a woman can turn that around into... something else.”

Rin reached out to him. “I do hate Anotsu! I don't want him at all–I want–”

“Me?” His mouth contorted. “The guy you just told to get lost and never touch you again? I think I can figure out right where I stand.” She tried to embrace him and he flung her off. “Keep yer hands to yourself!”

Rin began to cry. “Big brother...please...”

“Don't call me that.”

“Wh-what?”

“I ain't your brother.” He gave a shattering laugh that sounded as if it hurt his throat. “Hell no, I'm not!”

“But–”

Manji's head tilted back; he looked at the bright autumn sky through the leaves as if it were black midnight. “I had a sister. She's dead.”

Stricken, Rin stood still. Manji turned away from her and strode into the trees. The thick underbrush closed behind him; he vanished from her sight as completely as if he'd plunged into deep water.



Continued...