InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Seven Feudal Fairy Tales ❯ The Fallen Maiden ( Chapter 34 )

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and other associated companies.

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Four: The Fallen Maiden

 

 

Hot and corrosive, a brilliant green cloud of acid spoiled the water between the goddess and the demon. Then he was gone, leaving her alone in the plume of boiling poison. Burning bubbles and blue sparks sizzled around her as she stepped through the slowly diluting fog, its wispy tendrils loosening as it dissipated.

 

“You are more squid than dog, my love,” Oto-hime chided with a growing pout as she surveyed her quickly dissolving robes, her soft skin beneath unbroken. “If you wished for me to remove my raiment, all you had to do was ask.” With a graceful shrug, the tattered garment fell to her heels and she smoothly stepped out of it.

 

Several panels of silk away, the tai youkai hid from view behind the billowing fabric. He was not in the habit of retreating and a pang of annoyance grew behind his temples at the idea of it, let alone the act. He had had little choice though. She was no ordinary opponent and neither were her attacks.

 

He looked down at his fist, clenching and unclenching it as he felt his strength slowly returning. Seizing his eye as it shimmered faintly, the pink and lavender glitter of her skin remained behind where she had massaged his hand earlier. Still tingling his flesh lightly, its effect stirred his blood with an unrelenting desire. He followed the thin trails she had drawn along his muscled arm with her nails, their delicate paths venturing past his shoulder. He reached behind himself, his questing fingers finding his lower back and his firm, exposed cheeks. They soon returned with what she had left, a fresh coat of the glittering salve that both excited his nerves as well as soothed them.

 

Sesshoumaru leaned out past the floating silk, his vision finding only the fuchsia, teal and purple of the hanging cloth. He sighed mildly as he thought; a successful plan of action was not forthcoming. He had no swords, no armor and no clothing that mattered. His claws and poison were useless with the barrier of the scroll protecting her from harm. If her entire body was dipped in the ointment, then close combat was an ever growing disadvantage, multiplying easily if there was nothing left of her thin kimono to clothe her shapely figure.

 

Snared at the notion of her nubile body, his mind easily hovered over the curves of her hips and the fullness of her breasts; all relieved of the translucent fabric she wore. An uninvited heat built in his loins as his thoughts continued to linger on her supple body. Soon, the image of it was writhing against him in ecstasy, her rapid breaths at his ear and her nails in his back. Catching himself, the youkai lord snarled and bit at his lip, hoping the prick of pain would dispel the growing carnal craving she had enticed with her caresses a moment before. A thin line of red trickled where his fang pierced his lip. `This was not good.'

 

His sight then filled with the warmth of magenta as the silk he hid behind swelled wide in the currents of the room. He leaned back as he examined it, feeling the strength of its weave with his fingertips. An idea formed in the demon's mind and with a precise swipe of claw, a strip of the fabric drifted down into his waiting grasp. All he needed to do now was to distract her.

 

“How is it that the beloved wife of Susanou is a prisoner in a place that only holds his enemies?” Sesshoumaru called out in question, twirling the torn cloth into a tightly twisted length of rope.

 

“You wish to know my story?” she asked suspiciously, strolling unhurriedly around her bed, letting her hand graze the ivory pearls as she awaited his doubtless return. “You are not the type to wonder at such things.”

 

“Tch,” he snorted with a fresh scowl at her unerring insight. “You do not know me, woman.”

 

“I know men and your deception is loss.”

 

“You will not tell me it, even as I am your love?”

 

“Love?” she laughed melodiously, a faint note of venom tingeing her voice. “That I may share if you desire it so. I will tell you the wonders of love.”

 

“Hn. If you would be so generous, I should hear it.”

 

“Very well,” she replied in accession, curling her finger in a long lock of navy hair that hung before her ear. “You may hear my sordid tale of love if it pleases you. It begins many, many years ago, with an old, earth god couple who had eight beautiful daughters and lived in a great mountain near a river. One day, an evil serpent with eight heads happened upon them enjoying the waters that flowed there. Spying their vulnerability, the gluttonous beast eagerly demanded a sacrifice lest it devoured the whole family. Fearful and cowardly, the couple quickly offered their eldest daughter to satiate the dragon's appetite. The largest head snapped the maiden up greedily, but with eight heads in all, how could one fragile goddess satisfy it when there were seven other equally hungered mouths waiting to taste?

 

So the serpent departed only to return the next year, demanding another daughter. Without hesitation, the gods offered it the second eldest. The next head of the beast swallowed her down, savoring her blood and purity with every crunch. Satisfied, it slithered away as it had done before and as one might expect such evil to do, it returned at the same time the following years. And each time it came back, it desired another sacrifice and each time the couple chose the next eldest daughter until the eighth year arrived and they had but one. Me.”

 

“I had known my fate,” Oto-hime continued, rolling a glossy pearl between her fingers, her eyes focusing on her hazy reflection of its smooth surface. “For seven years I had watched my sisters die their gruesome deaths at the jaws of that vile beast. To a greater degree, I accepted it, knowing that I would soon join my sisters wherever gods go when they die. My parents were far more terrified than I by its impending arrival. Once their last child was gone, what would become of them at the jaws of the monster? They had nothing left to offer but themselves.

 

The day before the dragon was expected to arrive; a lone man in heavy, samurai armor approached our place at the head of the river. Seeing my parent's misery, he asked why they wept to which they replied in lie, saying that they were mourning the loss of their daughters and more so for the final one that they were about to lose to the beast's insatiable hunger. With a crooked smile and a strange gleam in his eyes, the warrior keenly listened when my parents described the eight-headed serpent. When they were finished, he quickly offered to slay the creature, but only if he could take me as his bride for he had fallen in love at my sight. Expecting to lose their daughter regardless of what the next day brought and finding renewed hope for their survival in his confidence, they easily accepted and I was given to the man. For safe keeping, he took me aside and transformed me into a fine tooth, kanzashi comb. Unable to move, I could only observe the world from my spot pinned in his dark hair.

 

Renowned for their skill with rock and drink, the warrior next asked for their aid in setting a trap for the dangerous dragon. In the night and in accordance to the man's instructions, my father crafted a massive platform of stone with eight vats around the rim and my mother brewed a sake refined eight times, its sweet scent inundating the countryside with an intoxicating fog.

 

The beast arrived as expected the following morning. Lured by the pure drink poured into the stone troughs, it easily forgot about its hunger and chose instead to satisfy its thirst. Glutted on the potent liquor, it soon laid down in drunken contentment. The cunning man slipped out of the shadows and slashed at the prone beast, severing its heads with his blade. He left one untouched, the youngest head and the one whose satisfaction I was meant for. The sinister delight he entertained at leaving it to survive should have been my first warning for what would soon be awaiting me. I was relieved instead. No matter how well I prepared for my inevitable death, I truly did not wish to die.

 

Relentlessly the warrior assaulted the beast, long after all but the one had perished. My parents were pleased with his seeming thoroughness, their assuredness at their own continued existence growing with every cut as he rent the serpent into a thousand pieces. Finally his blade struck and shattered against his quarry in the eldest dragon's tail. Through the blood and mangled flesh, he retrieved a shining sword, the fabled Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.

 

In a hurried manner, we departed soon after, traveling far from the mountain of my family. To be honest, I was not unhappy at leaving the place of my birth and I was only honored more when I discovered that my seemingly human husband was none other than the great god of the seas and storms, Susanou.

 

That night he took me, consummating our joining with his rough touch. Despite the pain, I did not mind it. I was a possession and such a fate for a wife is not uncommon or shameful. When he was satisfied, I was turned into a comb once more and placed in his hair. Time passed unchanging, a kanzashi by day and the object of his desire by night. He slew the serpent for me and I found solace in the love he had shown in that singular act. Then a night came to pass that he did not call on me at all. I stayed affixed in his hair throughout the evening, unbidden and untouched.

 

Days blended into weeks and then into months as I remained in my solitude, serving my only purpose by holding his oily locks in place. Using his newly acquired blade, Susanou fought and conquered the land, driving out the vicious warlords from their comfortable places where they exploited the farmers and villagers around them. He cleansed the world of their evil intent and garnered the adoration of the desperate and oppressed. Bowing before their new savior, they celebrated him with sumptuous feasts and pleasured him with gifts of exotic treasure and nubile women.

 

He enjoyed every excess freely and I looked on from my perch, neither honored nor respected for my stature as his wife. I tasted no feast and I wore no treasure. There was no admiration for my position at his side, only the grinding sway beneath my grip as he relieved his lust within every untasted maiden he was given.

 

Perhaps Susanou sensed my growing discontent or perhaps he was bored with his mortal toys and wanted to feel the flesh of a goddess again. He called on me, expecting my usual willingness to please him and finding my wrath in its place. I cursed him and demanded to know how he could treat so foully his greatest treasure, the woman whom he had slain the feared Yamata-no-Orochi for. He laughed cruelly at my words and it was then that I learned what he had truly desired from his battle with the ill-fated dragon. His treasure had been Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi and nothing else.”

 

“Only the sword?” Sesshoumaru murmured softly under his breath as he wove through the swaying silks in silence, seeking his opportunity.

 

“He had learned of the blade's existence long before he had dug it from the butchered serpent's tail. Why else would he have split it so unrelentingly if it was not to search for the famed Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven? He though could not slay the formidable beast without a cowardly trick and for that he needed the famed abilities of the gullible earth couple who were conveniently being tortured by the same dragon. He was clever in his approach though. Knowing if he entreated their aid without asking for anything in return, they would grow suspicious of his intent. Perhaps they would even discover his goal and deny him their talents. Worse yet, they could grow bold and devise their own plan to gain the sword. Legendary in name, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi was one of the three greatest treasures of heaven and earth and the one he planned to present to Amaterasu so that he would be forgiven for his insults to her station and regain his status as a god. He could not fail in his acquisition of it and he knew what to ask for in order to gain it. If he desired my hand in marriage, then I would seem to be his prize and the sword only a fortunate happenstance.

 

I had sensed his deceit the years before when I was at the mercy of my parent's selfish wishes. The unseemliness of his bravery for a woman he professed to love but had scarcely met. My desperation to survive and my naiveness at the treachery of the world clouded my judgment and I had not noticed his true intent until that moment. “A means to an end” he maliciously called me before he shaped me into a comb yet again and this time I expected forever.

 

Eventually, his apparently good works upon the mortal realm of earth garnered the attention of his compassionate sister. Skeptical of his changed nature, but unable to deny his recent deeds, Amaterasu granted her exiled brother an audience. One day she appeared before him amid a field blooming brightly, nurtured by the decayed bodies of his slain foes. Her eyes never looked beyond the gleaming brilliance of the sword he presented. Like all gods of the heavens, kindly or not, her greed and pride were insurmountable before such a wondrous gift. She carelessly returned the powers of the oceans and storms to Susanou without further thought and ascended to the heavens with her newly acquired treasure.

 

Stretching his reach with his newly regained strength, he drew the dark, menacing clouds of a growing storm around him. Hail and rain poured from the black sky as a tempest raged, pounding the earth as the evil god laughed wickedly at his own power. Days passed as the wind whipped and water flooded the land. He remained in place, immersed in his own deluge as he recited incantations under his breath.

 

Then the storm dissipated, allowing the banished sun's warm rays to pierce the heavy clouds to the battered world below. Seven days had passed since he had begun and in his hands now were two scrolls. After that moment, I remember nothing, but for the last time I would ever see the sun as the darkness overtook me.”

 

A sudden heat warmed her back as she finished and the fierce grip of the tai youkai seized her wrist.

 

“I do not care for deceit, hime,” the demon lord whispered coolly into her ear as he pinned her arm behind her back. “And while my desire for your tale was merely an attempt to distract your attention, I appreciate the enlightenment it bestowed. Now, where is the chest?”