The moon bathed the site in soft milky light
Five hooded figures stood in a circle
The wind blowing their capes aside to reveal the fukus beneath
The dark orbs each girl held were pulsing with power as they chanted their incantation that startled the night into an uneasy silence
Led by a sixth figure
The shadowy youma queen
In an attempt to awaken the spirits of the dead
The night held its breath as the ground shook and the stone cracked like an egg to release…
Sakura Jinja
Juuban Prefecture
I was dying. I stood in the guestroom outside my body at the Sakura Jinja. I was watching Ami shouting at the paramedics as they attempted to revive me.
I was holding one of the roses Mamoru had produced from the vines that had destroyed the youma the day before. I floated towards the ceiling, screaming at whatever was pulling me away from my friends to stop. Crying, I entered the night sky through the thin membrane of the shrine’s ceiling and apparently, the material world.
I was weightless as I gazed upon the shrine, shrouded in light blue mist that clung to the trees and the gardens far below my bare feet.
“Mamoru, Rei, somebody, help me,” I shouted, but my own voice came at me from all directions, echo upon echo, like waves too much in a hurry to be polite to their fellow waves, as these washed over one another. I was scared, numb and alone.
I thought I was dead, I really did. The Jinja was gone. All I could see was a swirling mist and something that looked like a set of huge ancient gates and the silhouette of a woman, but I could not see her face, only the bright light from a garnet orb atop her staff, this did not illumine her features in the slightest. Suddenly, the misty veil swallowed up this apparition, and only darkness surrounded me.
Something began to shift, for I could hear the rapid-fire of machine guns drifting in and out of phase.
Images began to replace the void. I watched as two men scaled a nearby power pole. One of these men fixed a tiny camera to the top of the pole then punched a series of numbers onto a hand-held console; likely, an iPhone and then he attached an explosive device beneath. Somehow, I knew this would shut down the entire energy grid within the CBD once it and several others were activated.
Yakuza, these were Yakuza operatives and the Shachihoko were watching.
I could do nothing to stop them. Then the shots rang out, and a red patch upon the back of one of the terrorists sickened me as He screamed, lost his grip and fell. I was there in seconds, speaking to the dying man who could now see me as I cried and reached for his hand. I could feel it; he felt it, the warmth of spirit entering the post mortality world of which I seemed to be a part.
Once more, I asked myself the rhetorical question: was I dead, and could I be revived? If not, the future would be bleak for those I left behind. I had to get back to my body no matter what, although I had no idea how.
I forced myself to head back towards the Jinja on the hill - bad idea.
It vanished. I found myself on some far off world. As I looked, I was shocked to find a most unexpected sight. I saw Mamoru, but it wasn’t quite him, his name was Endymion, a prince of the planet Terra. He was dressed in midnight blue, trimmed with bright green and using a crystal quill.
The Earth was peering into his study, but shouldn’t have that been the moon? I guess it had to be.
Fever, the burning fever, was unrelenting. I was now seeing things, crazy hallucinations. Surely, I was suffering delirium, wasn’t I? The rose was huge; its red petals so pretty, the stem of this surreal flower was as tall as a tree. Either it was unusually large or I was a minute child subject to an alien environment where tiny girls would lose their lives by any number of means.
There was it seemed, no shortage of predators, hostile insects, reptiles, and birds. I had little time to process all this having seen it all after the fact. I had felt just seconds from death's arch.
Another set of images and sensations descended on me without warning. The hot rush of blood pouring over my legs as the sword ended my life in the Silver Millennium, then nothing.
I was floating above the battlefield, so many slain. I could see Sailor Mars. She had become a fiery torch. I was in awe of her power, her body aflame. She took her revenge and burnt Jadeite, her former lover, to a cinder; his contorted body reminiscent of a dancing marionette, a dark flapping sail upon the wind that vanished into the night.
Tokyo
Warehouse District: Yakuza stronghold – Old Quarter
I stepped back, unsure what I had unwittingly unleashed as a cloud of obsidian razorblades flew from the open container. I then felt a surge of cold air behind these nice little leaf-shaped projectiles, and yeah, they were heading right for me. That if I didn't move my ass I was well and truly fucked.
“Oh crap!”
I only had seconds to avoid decapitation at worst, or at the very least, having my throat slashed. Fortunately for me, I lived to tell the tale, fool that I was.
I was bloody stupid. As it stood, my face badly cut. I was bleeding like a pig. My hands were stinging as my lifeblood ran over my knuckles, wrist and back under my shirt cuff. I lowered my hand, the hot sticky substance running back towards my fingertips. The gemmy slipped and clatter to the floor. I screamed. Believe me, I rarely scream.
“You dare violate the cradle of Inari, I am she, known to assume the form of Kitsune,” the disembodied female voice snarled.
Then I heard a menacing growl that, unbelievably, drowned out the fury of the raging storm overhead. I began to wish I’d never touched the damned thing. Now I understood why Tetis hadn’t bothered to examine it. Did she know?
“Fuck, what the hell?”
After struggling to open the crate without defacing or damaging the woodwork in any significant way, it seemed ironic that this entity showed me far less regard for my person than I had for its box-shaped sanctuary. What was it they say? Yeah, that no good deed is ever left unpunished, and I was the perfect proof of that truism, was I not, ne?
Shocked and pissed off now, I wrapped a handkerchief around my injured hand and dabbed at my face. I was a mess. I decided not to reach for the automatic tucked into my belt, and you’ve got to be fucking joking, what would a hand weapon do against forces such as these? I was not about to fall upon my knees and grovel at the feet of this… er; maybe I might think about it. She was beautiful. I wasn't seeing things, for there she was, riding upon the back of a red fox the size of a tiger, her red hair cascading almost to the floor; so sexy.
Her eyes were as black as coal, but her lithe body radiated an unearthly heat like a mini supernova. The woman was hot, yes, in the usual way but also, in terms one might not expect from a supernatural vision of loveliness. She was naked, her hair her only adornment. I shrugged and gave this siren a wolfish grin. I issued my silent challenge, would she call my bluff and feigned attempt at nonchalance?
Couldn’t these beings read the thoughts of us mere mortals? If so, she didn’t disintegrate me for lusting after her or wishing to try some moves out of the Karma Sutra on her delicious physique. She simply pushed back her vermillion locks, her breasts pushing forward, as if beckoning me to suckle her erect plum nipples, and explore every part of her body with my lips. I longed to plant my large hands upon her taught tanned thighs and squeeze until I felt the passion rise. Then I would run my fingers through that tumble of rich ruby that flowed past a well-rounded butt. When she arched her back and met me thrust for thrust, I would be lost to all but her. The Goddess's skin smelling like a sakura in full bloom, dripping with honey, the world of the mortal and immortal would become blurred.
She kissed me long and hard on the mouth. I returned her kiss doubling upon the passion invested by her initiative.
“Shitennou, I wouldn’t ask you to kneel, so I shall perform that duty.” She said with a smile in her voice, smooth as her silken skin.
She then did something unheard of in the annals of Japanese mythology; she kissed my hands while on her knees, looking up at me with fuck-me eyes the size of saucers; she, a Kami, a beautiful Goddess? Yeah, I was stunned and honored, as well as aroused. My senses were overcome with the aroma of musk rising from her sweet body as she worked her sensual magic on me.
“Guardian of Endymion, you should stop this exercise in self-deprecation, for it is the reason you have received these injuries. You are a world builder, and as a child suffering an ingrown toenail, you have turned your power on yourself out of ignorance – open your eyes, get wise, Sky King! It was your choice, had follower in mind but tour dark thoughts are way too dark for my taste. Forgive yourself, Shitennou.”
I did, I mean, I thought and… oh shit. I leaned over and pulled her up; getting an eyeful of perfectly shaped breasts and heat that swept me up in her spell as she embraced me.
All thoughts of Makoto, at least for now, flew out the proverbial window. It wasn’t every day you were offered a Goddess as your lover.
“What The fuck?” I whispered. She opened her eyes to reveal two fiery spheres. I was burning up inside. She took me beyond anything I’d ever encountered with any other woman, but she was far more than a mortal woman, a Kami in fact. We then entered the world of the super-conscious. We roamed these celestial planes hand in hand.
“Yeah, I just got an instant history lesson a short time ago, and you can appreciate me being a little rusty,” I croaked.
She threw back her head and laughed. “Let me heal you. Then," she purred, "We shall talk, yes. But First I pleasure you, and vice-versa; sound like a plan to you, Lord Nephrite?” she purred and took me by the hand and the thumping pulse of energy had healed my wounds in an instant.
She was as good as her word, and as I took her in the office, I had never known anyone life her, and why? It is not every day you screw a Kami: in a swivel chair, on the desk, pinned up against a partition, or on shag pile carpet. I was lost in her volatile depths, drowning in her sex and loving it.
I felt myself flowing into her swirls of light. She was the genetrix of existence. I, her plaything, her brush, finely honed and sharpened chisel. She shaped me to her will and directed my course on her tempestuous ocean currents of liquid fire as we flew from star to star, drifting through nebulae of symphonic dreams where life and death were mere stepping-stones to something far more profound.
My surroundings were a playground that I remembered as home and had long since forgotten.
I woke with a hot body draped over mine, her sweet cheek pressing lightly against mine. I wrapped my arms around her slim waist and suddenly, with a jolt, I woke from the second level from my beautiful dream. I lay on my back, a silly grin upon my lips, drooling like an idiot on the floor in front of the empty crate. I was alone, or thought I was.
I blinked and the fantasy faded. My heart sank. Ace and two other staff were looking down at me with concern etched on their faces.
I was fully clothed. Was the whole encounter a dream? No, a strand of red hair was caught on my collar and I smiled, knowing I had indeed made love to a Goddess and sat up, aware of her perfume on my body.
“You’ve been here all weekend,” Ace said, incredulous, and helped me to my feet. “Tetis?”
“No, Inari, the Goddess; capable of assuming more than one form. I remember now. Let’s just say, if it were a dream it was something amazing, but I know it was real. Take a look at this!” I showed them the strand of long red hair, and it shone with its own light and they stared, jaws dropping at the sight and I smirked.
I was as stiff as a board, and was shocked I’d lost two whole days. Wow, what a fuck she’d been, and to knock me out like that. I was impressed. I needed some coffee, a shower and change of clothes, and a painkiller for my headache.
Having met Inari… the redheaded vixen was going to be a tough act to follow, but I knew Makoto had her own magic that would blow my mind, of that I had little doubt. She was sensational in all ways a woman ought to be. Inari was outside the usual parameters of intimacy that a human woman could deliver; being a Shitennou sure had its perks. I put this encounter down to a supernatural one-night-stand and laughed till it hurt.
Ace thought I had lost my marbles, I don’t blame him, I’d think the same if our positions were reversed. Given all that had happened. He would naturally believe me. Of course, after all, he'd been ravished by Tetis, of all people he would know what I was talking about and would understand.
Ace liked Tetis; he liked her a lot. I didn’t begrudge him that. She wasn’t my type, but each to their own. He was smitten and actually wanted more, and looked forward to taking the initiative on their next meeting.
“Next thing you’ll tell me is you’re dating her.”
“You never know. She’s freaky, but so hot, and pretty in that gothic kind of way, ne?”
“Ace, whatever floats your boat. You know she’s an extra-terrestrial being, a youma queen don’t you? You’ve always had exotic tastes in women though,” I chuckled. “You two are going to shake down the walls when you next get frisky. Remind me to go for a long drive that night buddy!” I chuckled, and he winked.
Shaking my head, I patted his shoulder, and then headed for the change room.
I left him to his fantasies about Tetis. Ace was weird like that, but seemed we were both obsessing over supernatural girls lately.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and walked back along the corridor to the rear car park where my black Subaru was parked when I noticed a floating mirror the size of a house floating before me. My shadow was… being sucked into it, but it was riving, and as it broke free, free of both the mirror and me, it became autonomous and I began of eel scared for the second time that day.
The shape of it was all wrong, my shadow I mean.
“What the fuck?”
I was feeling sick, and promptly threw up. Coughing and leaning against a stone pillar for support, I heard the voice as I continued to cough my guts out.
“Charming, fine way to greet a lady after such a long absence, ne?” she giggled, infuriating me.
“Go away; can’t you see I’m sick as a dog?”
“Oh really, Kou Nephrite, anyone would think you had no manners, and I, your Shadow being snubbed on our first meeting. At least it is the first meeting in several Millennia, remember me?”
I looked up, sensing her words to be true. She was dark, a shadow. As I stared hard to focus on her, she took on the visage of a beautiful dark haired beauty, long black hair that fell to her butt, tight fitting jeans and a black tank top and white leather strappy sandals finished the look. I noticed that her abs and arms, her swan-like neck were tanned. She was cute I had to admit.
I gazed into her eyes, these like black holes, with stars swirling within their fathomless depths.
“Yeah, okay. Give me a moment, will you? You are my Shadow, a battle maiden no less, forgive me if I don’t seem overly enthusiastic right now to make, and I mean, re-make your acquaintance.”
“Yeah right, I expected more from you than that. But dear Neph, I’ll take care of that, and other things, if you’re good,” she giggled and sauntered over in my direction, I was stunned, and yet pleased to see her.
This was all getting a bit out of hand, but speaking of hands, she slid up to me, pressing herself to me, and the warmth and shape of her breasts blew my mind. That old feeling of déjà vu crept over me.
“That’s… better, she ran her hand up the inside of my leg and smiled as she kissed me. I was a sucker for pretty women, even if this one was a shadow and part of me. I’m sick I know, but hell, she was hot. Just another day at the office, I guess.
