Chapter 3

The Thirst of the Lash

 

Chiyo nearly stumbled on her way down the narrow stairwell. Her heart was pounding in her chest. The stairs weren't easy to navigate with her arms still tightly pinned to her chest and her legs still hobbled. The rope caught against the edge of the stair, threatening to send her sprawling down while she was still leashed to her friends.

"Hurry!" barked the guard behind her, making no effort to actually help them. Was it on purpose, she wondered? Were they intentionally showing them how impossible it would be to try any kind of escape? Or worse, were they just doing it because they liked being cruel? It was such a strange idea, but Chiyo was noticing how the men seemed to be downright pleased with every opportunity to shove or poke at them.

She hoped that they'd at least be untied soon- they'd been bound for hours now, all throughout their forced march, and Chiyo had never imagined that just being tied up could hurt so much. The ropes pinched her whenever she moved, her arms ached, and her legs cramped form the stilted way she had to walk. Her jaw was unbelievably sore from biting down on the gag for so long. She didn't even understand why it was there; it's not like there was anyone to come help her if she screamed.

When they reached the bottom they were ushered into a large, strange room and made to kneel side by side. Their presence was noticed quickly, and a broad-shouldered man wearing a fine robe and a carved wooden mask appeared from the next room over. Two men, wearing similar uniforms to the soldiers but without the weapons or armor, followed him. He stood above Chiyo, inspecting her, but he gave no clue as to his opinion of what he saw.

They waited on the floor while he paced in front of them. Yumi voiced her discontent, but the man refused to take notice. Chiyo was anxious and afraid, but at least they'd stopped marching. She wished she could lay down, but for the time she tried to be happy just to be off her feet.

Footsteps began to sound on the stairs behind them, and soon Akio appeared again, this time less his armor. The man in the mask stood aside to let Akio take his place.

"Ungag them."

Chiyo was relieved to hear the words, and was grateful to have the cloth removed from her mouth. She let her jaw hang open, trying to ease the cramp out of it.

"Today you will learn submission to me and my men. I will hear an oath from each of you, to serve and obey, without question or hesitation, no matter what is demanded of you."

"I'll swear an oath to rip your guts out with my bare hands," said Yumi, glaring at him.

Chiyo was afraid to speak, but she was even more afraid for Yumi, and she summoned what little courage she had to open her mouth.

"Yumi, please, they'll-"

"Quiet!" ordered Akio, casually hitting Chiyo with the back of his hand. "You will not offer opinions unasked for, and your friend will be disciplined by her master."

Chiyo bit her lip. The slap hurt, but it was the iron-fisted brutality that it promised in her captor that truly struck her.   

"I will hear that oath, from each of you, right now. If any of you refuse, then all three of you will be punished."

"None of us are going to swear to obey anyone," said Yumi. "We're not afraid of you!"

Chiyo admired Yumi's bravery, but she was wrong. The look on Akio's face changed only slightly, but it immediately told Chiyo that Yumi had made a grave error.

"We'll start with that one," said Akio, gesturing toward Miyoshi.

The two assistants grabbed her and threw her to the floor in front of Chiyo and Yumi.

"Leave her alone!" said Yumi, starting to rise before the soldier behind her pulled her back down. "Get your hands- nngh!"

Chiyo watched the soldier throw a loop of rope around Yumi's head and land it between her teeth. She didn't have time to protest before one was around her own head, shoved into her mouth. Chiyo's guard pulled on the ends of the rope, tightening the snare around her head and pinching her cheeks. He jerked her head around with it a few times, making sure she knew what kind of control he had over her. She couldn't even turn her head to see how Yumi was faring, but she could hear pain in the unintelligible noises she was making.

Forced to be a spectator she could only stare as Akio tore Miyoshi's clothes off. He ripped her dress to shreds and yanked the pieces out from under the ropes that held her helpless.

"No- don't-" she begged.

Akio laughed, and put his hand up her dress. Miyoshi yelped, and his hand came back with her panties in it, pulled down her legs and over her feet. He took her hair in his fist and yanked it back, and when her mouth fell open he stuffed them inside. His soldiers held her head in place while he took one of the shreds of her dress and tied it around her head, keeping Miyoshi from being able spit her own panties out of her mouth.

Chiyo's stomach turned. Akio wasn't finished. He kept tearing until Miyoshi was completely naked. Chiyo had seen her friends nude before, usually while bathing in the hot springs. This was completely different. There it had been something fun and pure- this was sick and twisted. Akio even put his hands on her breasts, tugging at them to better position them between the ropes. Chiyo was humiliated for her friend, and she couldn't imagine how Miyoshi must have felt. She only suspected that she would find out before they were finished.

Miyoshi whined while Yumi was grunting loudly, furious at seeing her treated like this. Akio was smiling. He was enjoying this. They all were. They laughed at Miyoshi, pinching her and slapping her bottom. Chiyo still couldn't believe that people like this could exist, terror freezing her stomach into a solid knot.

Akio put Miyoshi's feet together and tied her ankles. He kept her face down where she couldn't do much to resist, not that she had the kind of fight in her to give them any trouble. He put a short wooden bar with metal loops fixed on the ends at the back of her knees, then bent her legs over it. He ran a rope around her waist, then down through her crotch. He even ran it through the lips of her vagina, then tied the whole thing to her feet.

Chiyo was transfixed, praying that they'd reached the limit of this evil. She quickly saw that they hadn't. The loops at the ends of the bar were for more rope; rope that ran to a pulley mounted on an overhead beam. Akio pulled on the rope and dragged Miyoshi into the air, suspending her from her knees. She cried into her gag, and Chiyo didn't need to understand the words to know that she was begging for mercy.

The man in the mask slid a large wooden tub underneath where she was dangling, and motioned to his two assistants to bring forth a pair of large jugs. They poured their contents into the tub, filling it with water. While they did their part the masked man ran a rope from her feet to her shoulders and pulled it taught until Miyoshi's back was forced to arch.

Finished with his work, he nodded respectfully to his master. Akio eased Miyoshi down toward the water. He stopped her just an inch short of her head touching the water, her hair already starting to soak. His eyes moved purposely to Yumi's, staring her down, and with a twisted smile he plunged Miyoshi into the water.

Chiyo screamed out to her friend, lunging forward out of the irresistible need to help her, and only coming up hard against her own helplessness. Miyoshi jerked in every direction she could, but the water was all the way up to her shoulders and she was barely making  a splash in it. Akio held her there, letting her drown while Chiyo tore her own lungs out just to let him give her a chance to submit like he wanted. She'd do anything he asked to stop this. It was inhuman.

Miyoshi's hands clawed at her ropes while her feet tugged hard over and over again. Her head was thrashing around, but it couldn't move her body enough to get anywhere near the surface. Chiyo was terrified that she would go still at any moment. She was sure that she could never hold her breath that long.

After a nightmarishly long time had passed Akio pulled on the rope again, lifting her into relief. Miyoshi gasped and then coughed. The gag in her mouth was soaked, making it hard to clear her breathing passages enough to get the air she needed so badly. Chiyo needed time to relax too; she hadn't realized how tight the rope around her head was or how deep she was digging into her wrists and arms in her desperation.

Miyoshi hung, her chest heaving while water dripped from her head. She whined a few times, and Chiyo could see that she was looking Akio in the eyes, offering her surrender just as Chiyo wanted to. Before her breath had even been caught she dropped again, her pleading face engulfed in the water.

Again Chiyo had to count the seconds in complete powerlessness while Miyoshi fought for survival when it had been rendered impossible. Her only hope was the mercy of a man who had shown none so far.

"Look at those tits bounce around," said the man behind her to his partner, the man holding Yumi.

Miyoshi wasn't just naked, she was naked and on display. They'd gone out of their way to degrade her as well as make her suffer, and they were getting some strange kind of pleasure out of it. Akio put his hand on her while she struggled, taking no account of what she was enduring while he fondled her like- no, not like a pet.

Chiyo knew what this was. She remembered the festival, and the strange attraction she felt toward Haru while he danced. She wanted to touch him then in a way that was more intimate that even friendship. It was natural, she knew, and suddenly she couldn't understand why she had pretended it didn't exist for so long. But while that had been a loving, beautiful desire these men were expressing it with bizarre cruelty.

Suddenly, and just for a moment, Chiyo knew what would happen to all of them. She forgot just as quickly, and she only remembered that it would be terrible.

Akio lifted Miyoshi again, and again she coughed and choked while trying to fill her lungs. The masked man took a long strip of cloth that had once been part of her dress and dipped it in the water, and while Miyoshi was barely getting the rhythm of her breath back he slapped her with it across her chest.

Chiyo winced at the sound. Miyoshi screamed, and had to fight for control of her lungs again. The man behind her laughed and jerked on her crude bridle, seemingly just to share in the giving of abuse. The man beat Miyoshi again, re-soaking the cloth so that it would sting more. Poor, gentle Miyoshi didn't deserve this. Nobody did.

While she was in the middle of a long, agonizing cry for him to stop Akio plunged her again into the watery hell. Her body twisted in the few ways that the rope would allow it despite how painful it looked. Chiyo had never seen a body contorted this way, arranged and restrained so unnaturally. That her friend could be reduced to what she saw before her shocked her to her core.

The man in the mask didn't think it was enough, and he slapped her right across her stomach with the cloth. Bubbles appeared in the water, and the most frantic and terrifying struggling yet took her over.        Chiyo couldn't even count the times Miyoshi was rescued at the last possible moment only to be thrust again without warning into the water. She couldn't count the times the echo of the wet strip against her skin cut through the room. She didn't know how Miyoshi was surviving this, and in the pit of her stomach was the fear that it would happen to her and Yumi too before the night ended.

Her relief when Akio tied the rope to post, holding Miyoshi above the water and ending this sick game, was tempered by her dread of what they would do next.

"Get the board," he said, and the masked man nodded and obeyed. He fetched a square wooden platform covered with triangular ridges and placed it next to one of the posts. He looked over to her and Yumi, waiting to see which one of them it was for.

Akio made a gesture toward Yumi, and the men threw her on the floor in front of Chiyo. One of the men put his knee on her lower back to pin her there while they stripped her pants off, leaving her naked from the waist down. The masked man took her underwear and was about to gag her with it when Akio stopped him.

When he approached Chiyo, his men, not needing a spoken order, lifted her enough so that he could pull her pants down as well. He used his knife to cut her panties off, exposing her pussy for all the men to see. She had never felt so scared or vulnerable before in her life. She closed her legs once they let her back down to hide herself, but one of the soldiers forced them open, and when she tried to resist the man behind her pulled on her bit to remind her of his control over her.

Seeing their eyes on her bare privates made her feel ill. They were practically drooling, like she was a piece of meat to them. Her humiliation didn't bother them in the slightest, and seemed only to encourage them.

Akio took her underwear over to Yumi and put his knee on her head to keep it still. He let the rope come out of her mouth, but before Yumi could even speak a single curse he had the underwear pressed against her face. When she refused to open her mouth to let them in he pinched her nose shut. Yumi could only hold out for so long before Akio won, and Chiyo heard Yumi choking as they were pushed deep inside.

The masked man provided a strip from Miyoshi's dress to finish the gag while one of his assistants tied Yumi's ankles together. Chiyo was struck by how quickly they worked and how neat the lines of rope and knots were. Miyoshi was the same way- there was intent in the way her chest was tied. These men were practiced at this. How many poor women had come into their hands? What became of them?

Yumi was picked up and her shins placed on the board, right on top of the wooden ridges. They forced her to kneel on it while they tied her thighs down, roping them to the board. Chiyo saw Yumi wincing- all of her weight was resting on those ridges, and there was no padding between them and her skin.

Akio crouched in front of her, using her hair to hold her face to his.

"It's time for you to learn your first lesson about obedience. We're going to untie your arms. Once we do, your friend is going to be lowered back into the water. She will stay there until we've re-tied them. And in case you're wondering, I'm not afraid to let her get a little water in her lungs. My man here is very good at keeping his charges alive, although I understand that it's a horrible thing to go through."

He nodded to the masked man, who untied Miyoshi's rope from the post. Miyoshi whined, her eyes shut and her fists clenched. Yumi tried to shake her head, asking him to stop, but Akio was having none of it.

"Make it easy for us, and this will go quickly. Every second you fight is another that your friend suffers."

He let go of her hair and loosened the rope from her chest. As soon as her hands were free the man made good on Akio's words and dunked Miyoshi into the water.

Akio hauled Yumi's blouse over her head. The halter that hugged Yumi's chest to keep her breasts still while she fought gave some resistance, but he muscled it off without much consideration. Yumi tensed and stiffened when he seized her arms, not able to bring herself to let him bind her again so easily, but with Miyoshi already writhing as she hung on for her life she allowed herself to be bent over with her arms behind her.

Akio held them straight while he tied her wrists together. He was working fast, but not fast enough. Chiyo's heart was pounding harder and harder while Miyoshi's time slipped away. After her hands were secured he began to weave rope around her arms. Once they were in place he tightened it, and as he did Yumi's elbows were brought together until they almost touched. Yumi screamed, but Akio showed no concern as he fixed his knots to make the abusive pose permanent.

Still he gave no motion to save Miyoshi. He double-checked his knots, fussing with where each bit of rope lay while Yumi roared at seeing her friend shuddering violently. Almost in disinterest, he gave the sign, and Miyoshi was brought from the brink again, coughing and gasping.

Yumi's situation was quickly growing as bad. Akio put her forearms against the post, raising them until her elbows were as high as her shoulders. Yumi couldn't do anything to stop him as he bound them there, tying them both at her hands and at her elbows. Chiyo felt her own arms aching as she remembered when the tsurujin had her in a similar position. This looked to be even worse. Yumi's breath was already ragged and she was groaning as she tried to wriggle free.

The assistants appeared again, each one holding a heavy bronze disk. Akio motioned for them to come. The first one took his disk and set it on Yumi's thighs, increasing the weight that now bore down on her shins. Yumi made all the noise she could with her mouth stuffed like it was. Chiyo couldn't stand to hear her. She was always so brave, strong, and proud, but now she'd been reduced to crying for mercy from these uncaring monsters. The second disk was placed on top of the first, and a bit of rope was used to make sure they wouldn't slide off.

There was nothing else they had to do. Yumi would stay in agony while they stood back and enjoyed it.

Akio turned his gaze toward Chiyo, and she knew that her time as a spectator was up.

"Put your boot on that one's back."

The masked man put his foot between Yumi's shoulder blades and let his weight come down upon it. Yumi screamed, and even muffled by the gag it made Chiyo's stomach churn.

The man behind her took the rope out of her mouth. Akio was there waiting with Yumi's panties. Chiyo knew what he wanted, but opening her mouth to let him stuff it wasn't easy. She closed her eyes, and in a moment she felt cloth in her mouth. They tasted of sweat and filth, almost making her throw up. She held it down as best she could while he tied it in place. The strip of cloth sank between her teeth, pushing the panties in even further.

The ropes holding her arms fell away and finally let her move them. It hurt. They'd been tied too tight and too long, and her joints were killing her.

They didn't give her long to dwell on it. Yumi screamed again.

"Get rid of your clothes. Now."

Chiyo stared at the ground while she threw off her robe. She fumbled with her bra, her nerves long gone and Yumi's horrible wailing still in her ears. She tossed it down and finished pulling her pants off over her feet. She was completely naked now, her breasts and loins only covered by her hands. Even that was taken away as the soldier behind her grabbed her arms and twisted them across her back.

Her entire body was exposed for everyone to leer at now, and they weren't shy about doing so. Chiyo felt filthy. She was ashamed of herself, even though she'd done nothing wrong. Now that they were gone her clothes seemed like they had been providing some kind of protection against these men, and now she had nothing.

She moaned at Akio, asking him to leave Yumi alone now.

"Take her to the table," he answered.

The two assistants took her from the soldier and dragged her over to a heavy wooden platform. At each end was a thick cylinder with rope wrapped around it, and a loop trailing off at each corner. A wheel and ratchet was at the end of each one of the bars. In the center of the table were three wooden rods sticking up a few inches, pointed but not sharp. Another wheel was on the side of the table, even with the rods.

Chiyo didn't dare resist as they turned her around and forced her onto the table. They laid her flat on her back, or at least as flat as the wooden rods would allow her to be. Two of them were poking her in the kidneys while the third sat a few inches above her butt. They kept her elevated, letting only her shoulders and heels rest upon the cold, hard surface of the table. The men pulled her arms and legs over to the corners so that the trailing loops could be tightened around her wrists and ankles.

Akio took the wheel at her feet and turned it. The slack in the ropes holding her spread on the table slowly vanished. He switched to the one at the head and turned it as well, the ratchet locking it tighter and tighter as her body was stretched out. The rope bit into her skin as the rods forced all of her weight onto three painful points. Chiyo screamed, this time finally for her own sake.

Her tormentor moved to the center wheel. As it spun the rods pushed higher and her back rose with them. There was no more slack in either the ropes on her limbs for the rods to take. Her tendons burned as her body, already pulled too taught, had to absorb the increased strain.

Being on her knees with her chest wrapped in rope and a bridle in her mouth now seemed like luxurious freedom compared to this brutality. Every muscle in her body was tense, but she had no more power to budge than the table itself. Even drawing air into her lungs was an act of great effort. She groaned every time she exhaled in perfect misery.

"You have a nice body," said Akio.

She caught a glimpse of his face. There was a sneering pleasure written all over it. His eyes were studying her naked flesh intently, and they looked very happy with what they saw. He put his hand on her chest, filling his fingers with her breast. She willed her body to jerk away, but her muscles were no match for the dreadful mechanism that held her, and her torso didn't even budge.

"So do your friends. Have any of you been used before?"

Chiyo didn't know what he meant. When he didn't get an answer from her he slid his hand down from her chest, over her stomach, and to her loins.

"I suppose I should check."

His fingers touched her between her legs. They were on her vagina. They were inside her vagina. She bit down hard on her gag. Of all the places to touch her- it was defiling in a way that she didn't understand.

"A virgin," he said. "Good. That's something I'll enjoying taking from you."

Suddenly Chiyo knew. She knew what had happened to Ikumi. She knew what was going to happen to her and her friends. Akio was going to rape her.

She'd never known the word before. Now she did. It was like a veil lifting from her eyes. A part of the world that she must have always known about, but never realized, appeared to her. The way the men stared at her nude body, the pleasure they took in touching her, the leering intent on their faces- they wanted to fuck her, and they knew how exactly how much she didn't want them to. They even seemed to like it.

Chiyo felt string being tied around each of her big toes. She could barely look up enough to see the masked man at the foot of the table. He tied the string to her ankles, holding her feet still as if being able to move them at all, even when her ankles where fixed in place, was too much freedom for her to have.

Akio took a strip of leather from one of the assistants. He let it fall gently across her stomach, dragging it along to let her feel its texture. It was a lot of effort to hold her head up enough to follow him as he doubled it over in his hand and took position at her feet, but she couldn't bear to look away.

He raised the strip in the air and swung.

The strip crashed against the sole of Chiyo's foot. She wasn't sure what hurt more- the sensitive skin on the bottom of her foot, or the way her body reflexively contorted itself against the table and its bindings. She cried out until her throat was sore. She was completely helpless to stop them from performing any act of sadism they liked, unable to even flinch away. She was tied down in a way engineered not only to give them unrestricted access to her most sensitive areas, but to magnify any abuse they chose to inflict on them. Akio hit her again, alternating between her feet to keep each one in agony as she endured fresh strike after fresh strike.

She felt the panties in her mouth, now soaked with her saliva, creeping down her throat. She fought to keep them back with her tongue, even as the beating her feet were taking compelled her to scream with the force of all of the air that could be pushed out of her lungs. Was this going to be how she died? Choking to death on Yumi's dirty underwear while robbed of any speck of dignity? Beaten and stretched until her heart gave out? Bound so viciously that she expired of sheer exhaustion before they even had their chance to rape her?

The lashing paused, but the pain lingered, barely dulling as her muscles burned, unable to relax and test themselves. Her heart and lungs tried valiantly to keep up, but were outmatched by the ingenious cruelty of the monsters whose hands she was in.

Chiyo heard splashing. She couldn't look to see, but Miyoshi was being dunked in the water again. Yumi was still groaning, doubtlessly still tied just as tortuously to the post. If only she could beg to submit, to offer them any pleasure they desired, she would. They'd have her soon enough anyway, whether she offered or not.

"That's enough of a warm-up. The whip, now."

Chiyo made every noise that she could. Just let them take out her gag. You've won, she thought, just give me a chance to show it.

Miyoshi gasped for air again, but the sound of the whip lashing against her skin cut it short. Miyoshi's cries were pitiful. She was broken as well. They must have been able to hear it, but they wouldn't stop. Each impact made her sick. It seemed to Chiyo like they spent a whole night whipping Miyoshi. The pause that finally came was too brief, followed by what had to be hours more of Yumi's flesh being ravaged. When the next pause came Chiyo tried to brace herself for the inevitable.

First it came across her stomach. If there was any part of her body that didn't already hurt, any muscle that didn't burn or any joint that didn't ache, it did now. The whip laid agony across her chest, across her breasts, across her ribs, across her thighs, and anywhere else the tip could work itself into. Her skin stung as hard leather collided against it, and the bite sank deeper as well, shocking anything that lay beneath. Chiyo slipped into a delirious nightmare, where they only things she could understand were the notes of torment her body was screaming.

She wasn't even sure when he stopped. It didn't seem to matter. The stinging refused to dull, and the spikes in her back weren't growing any more comfortable with time.

"This one as well," said a voice. She thought it was Akio's.

"All three still have their flowers. A fine selection, I have then."

Chiyo heard him pacing, taking his time with some decision while the table held her stubbornly, no matter how desperate her silent pleas for it to slip just a little were.

"This one," he said.

Chiyo couldn't see which one of them he meant, but the sound of Miyoshi being lowered to the floor gave it away. Miyoshi and Yumi's muffle voices filled the air, Yumi's letting Chiyo know that she was still in awful pain and Miyoshi's letting her know that she was afraid and heartbroken.

"See that the other two are more appropriately behaved by tomorrow," said Akio. "I'll be having that oath from them."

Chiyo caught only a brief glance of him as he left the room, pushing an unsteady Miyoshi in front of him. Her and Yumi were in the hands of the masked man now, and if there was any hope that he would offer them relief, it was crudely brushed away when he put his hands on the wheel and turned it. Chiyo couldn't even scream this time. She wished she could.

 

Punnydin village was in a clearing, of sorts. There were no trees within the small collection of wooden huts, but Taiko still couldn't see any sky above her. She thought about the time that must have passed since she and her friends had their battle with Akio, and she wondered if it shouldn't be nighttime yet. Still, the forest had grown no darker.

The village looked empty, as far as she could see. Vines grew over the houses and the ground was little more or less covered with vegetation than the rest of the forest. Nobody showed their face, nor did their chimneys smoke.

"Is anyone here?" asked Taiko.

"Yeah, they should be," said Aka. "They're afraid of strangers, though. And you are a little weird-looking."

"Hey!"

"What? It's true- pink hair? And that outfit? Who goes around looking like that?"

"I do!"

"Yeah, and you're weird-looking."

"You shut up," said Taiko. She looked around the village one more time, then took a deep breath and called out as loudly as she could.

"Hey, everyone! My name is Taiko! I'm not here to cause any trouble, I promise! Come out and meet me- I'm sure we can be great friends!"

"Seriously?" said Aka, "That was so bad I'm not sure I don't think you're working for Lord Akio now."

Aka trotted forward into the middle of the village.

"You can come out, guys. It's me, Aka. The girl is a big-time crazy, but she's good crazy, you know?"

A few doors opened and men holding carved and painted clubs stepped out, cautiously but showing no signs of aggression. Taiko followed Aka, stopping before she came too close to anyone but entering the village. A few others came outside as well, and more peeked through windows.

The Punnydins were short and round, their tallest barely matching Takio's height and their thinnest rivaling Mayor Ryouta for his girth, although they seemed to hold it more naturally. They wore simple cloth tunics, mostly undyed, and few visible decorations. Their hair was a deep grey, and it stood straight up from their heads.

"Hello everyone," said Taiko, bowing to them. "I hope I didn't frighten anyone."

"Where did Aka find a creature like you?" asked an old woman as she approached, leaning on her walking stick with every step.

"I found her wandering through the forest. I was caught in a snare set by a soldier, and she showed up and ran him off. She even healed my leg."

"How did she do that?" asked the old woman suspiciously.

"Magic!" said Taiko, winking and giving them a thumbs-up.

"You have healing magic? That's something I haven't seen for a very long time. Where are you from?"

"I'm from Umai village. Have you ever heard of it? We're not far away, but everyone keeps acting like I'm from another world."

"No, I haven't. My name is Nǎinai, by the way. I supposed I should thank you for helping Aka; we're fond of him here, for some reason. He's a nuisance most of the time, but he's hard to get too mad at. Has he convinced you to come here for some scheme of his?"

"Actually, he's helping me. My friends were taken prisoner earlier today by a man called 'Lord Akio'. He-"

Taiko stopped when she say the reaction to that name. Everyone shrank away just a little bit and the men gripped their clubs nervously.

"That's terrible to hear," said Nǎinai, "Always so terrible to hear."

"Don't say that like they're gone forever. I'm going to save them. I just need a little help."

"A little? My poor sweet thing, there isn't enough help in the world to save your friends if they've been taken by that man. We're lucky that he isn't interested in the girls from our village, but many others have lost their young women to him, and there's nothing any of them have been able to do."

Taiko was taken aback. How could she talk about this so passively? She seemed sympathetic enough, but was she really expecting Taiko just to shrug and move on, abandoning her friends?

"I won't accept that," said Taiko, hardening her expression. "Aka said that there was a spirit here- one called Minoru- that knows things about this Akio person."

"So that was his little game, was it?"

Taiko looked down to ask Aka what she meant, but her new friend was nowhere to be seen.

"We haven't spoken with Minoru in a long time. There's a shrine that we used to summon him at, but now the area is haunted by a dark creature. As much as we'd love to have him back, it's just too dangerous. I'm sure that Aka had visions of you figuring out how to get rid of it, the little sneak."    

"I'll do it."

Nǎinai nearly dropped her walking stick.

"What?"

"I said I'll do it. I'll get rid of the evil spirit so you can have your shrine back. Then I'll talk to Minoru, and whatever it takes I'll beat Lord Akio and put an end to this horrible spell of fear he's put everyone under."

"Slow down, girl. You just walked in here. You don't even know what's going on around here yet. Maybe you should sit down and rest for a little while, and we can-"

"Talk me out of it? No thanks. I've made up my mind. I'm going to help my friends, and everyone here too."

"That's madness. Lord Akio isn't some minor bully you can just thump on the head. He's dominated this part of the world since anyone can remember, striking out from Ishi-jo Fortress and taking whatever he wants from whoever he wants. Nobody gets away with going against him. Besides, at least his war with Queen Tomiko keeps them both occupied, usually."

"Queen Tomiko?"

Nǎinai nodded.

"We only hear stories and rumors. They say that she's even worse than Lord Akio. That she's a frozen demon in the form of a woman."

Taiko looked around at all of the grim faces and nervous glances into the forest. It was as if they though that just talking about this would summon Akio's soldiers, and they might come rushing out of the forest at any time. None of the them except Nǎinai even seemed to want to come forward to talk.

This wasn't right. Evil spirits, bullying lords, and tyrannical queens- where were these people's heroes to help them? Someone had to give them hope. Taiko put her hands on her hips and stuck her chest out.

"Well haven't you been saying that you've never seen anyone like me before? This is going to be the day where everything changes. And it's going to start with your shrine. So who here is going to tell me where to find it?"

 

Lord Akio pushed the new slave into his personal chamber. She was weak. She'd offered no resistance on her way up to his room, already cowed after such a short time in the cellar. A few rounds of dunking and a few lashes, not even hard enough to break her skin, and she was barely able to walk but so afraid that she did so on his command anyway.

It only took a minor press on her shoulder to send her to her knees. She stayed there, shivering and tugging nervously against her ropes. She whimpered purposelessly and tried to sneak her glimpses around the room, keeping her eyes close to floor level and not daring to face him directly.

He would have expected such timidity from the typical village woman, but not from one of the four warriors that defeated a group of his men. Not even he expected them to break so quickly, although at least the one with the spear seemed to have more spirit.  

The woman in his room now was gorgeous beyond belief. Her body was a dream, with a perfect heart-shaped ass and breasts that would overflow in his hands. She was flawlessly smooth, starting with her unblemished skin, obviously untouched by hardship, but going deeper than that. Her flesh was like the water of a gentle brook in how it flowed from one part of her to the next, as soft as a pillow but slender and delicate where it should be.

Even while cowering on her knees there was a glowing vitality to her. There was only one other woman who he'd ever known of that could raise such desire in a man, but the ice queen Tomiko wasn't in his chambers tonight. This one was.

Akio crouched behind her and loosened the knot that held her gag in. Even when it was ready to fall out, she held onto it with her teeth, apparently too nervous to spit it out on her own. Akio ripped it away and pulled her underwear out of her mouth. She gasped in response, but said nothing, letting her jaw hang open while spittle sat on her lip.

"I don't recall whether you told me your name before I had you gagged the first time. Tell me now."

"Miyoshi," she said meekly.

"Have you learned who your master is, Miyoshi?"

"Yes," she said in an almost sob.

"Are you ready to serve me with your body?"

"I... I don't know what you mean."

How could she not? All three of them seemed shockingly naive. The cat-woman had as well. Was it a foolish bluff, part of some vain hope that he would be too embarrassed by her ignorance to take his right from her? Or was she unwilling to admit it to herself?

Akio let it hang while he removed his belt and boots, along with other extraneous bits of clothing. She didn't offer any comment while he made himself comfortable, stripping down to only his undershirt and pants. They hung loosely off of him now, and he felt more relaxed to be free of the uniform he'd been wearing since dawn. He'd been looking forward to this moment since they'd captured her. His cock had been hard all throughout her dunking and whipping. She was mad if she thought there was any way she was going to get out of this.

He lowered himself to one knee in front of her, put his fingers in her soft brown hair, pulled back her head, and pressed his mouth against hers. She squealed and turned her head away, but he pursued her, twisting it back and kissing her again, running his tongue along her sealed lips.

"Open your mouth," he said.

She whined in response, shaking her head. He threw her onto her back and straddled her, watching her squirm under his weight.

"That was disgusting!" said the girl, "What are you doing that for?"

Akio squeezed his fingers around her breasts. They were round and firm, and sensitive too judging by the way she arched her back and screamed. He pinched her nipples to make her scream again, drinking in the sight of her body as it writhed under him while her sweet voice rewarded his every touch with some cry or moan.

"Stop it! That hurts! Just tell me what you want! I already told you, I'll do it!"

"I won't explain it to you like a child. If you still don't understand, then you'll have to learn by experience."

He leaned down and sucked on her lips again, holding her head with one hand while feeling her ass with the other. His body weighed down onto hers, and he felt his hard, throbbing cock press against the warmth of her loins. It begged to thrust inside of her, but Akio wanted to savor this. She tried to wriggle away, but it only caused her body to rub against his.

Her scent was sweet, and as she grew warm in either lust or embarrassment- Akio didn't care which- it only grew sweeter. Despite her submission she still held some things away from him. He would take them, leaving her with nothing that she didn't know, to the very depths of her heart, that he owned.

Akio stood up and approached his shelf. The girl rolled onto her side, a more comfortable position for her but not the one he preferred.

"I didn't tell you to move!" he barked. "Stay where I leave you, slave."

She froze, still on her side, waiting for him to come back. He took a box from the shelf and returned, rolling her over again and retaking his position over her. He placed the box on the ground next to her shoulder and opened it, taking a brush and a small jar from the inside.

Lord Akio didn't have any magic users of his own to command, and far too little expertise on the subject that he could call on. He was careful to acquire whatever magic items or tools he could find and use, however, and this one was a fascinating little treasure.

The girl watched him in confusion as he opened the lid of the jar. He dipped his fingertip into it and smeared the gooey contents across her lips. She recoiled at first, but when she finally realized that it was merely honey she risked licking it off. He watched, amused at her wariness. The honey was harmless, and she needn't be afraid of it. The brush, on the other hand...

He let the fine bristles of the brush soak up the golden liquid, then parted her legs and put his own between them, holding them open. He put the tip of the brush to the inside of her thigh and began to write a single word- 'itchy'.

Even as he wrote she tried to pull her legs away, but he held tightly to her thigh to complete his work.     

"That tickles! Stop- Hey, ugh, what is that?"

He watched her face grow more distressed as the brush's magic took old. He held on to both of her legs, keeping them apart while she started struggling to close them.

"That itches!" she said.

"Of course it does."

She wanted to scratch at it, naturally, but her hands were bound and he couldn't rub her leg up against anything while he had it in his grip. She twisted and squirmed against the floor as the itching drove her toward madness. Lord Akio knew that it was no mild sensation. He'd tested the brush on many young women before, and the girl's frantic struggle was no surprise to him.

"Please! Let go!"

"Do you want me to remove it?"

"Yes! Please, yes!"

Lord Akio let her endure it a little longer before he leaned down and licked the honey off of her skin, sucking on her flesh to get all of it. Her leg tasted as good as her lips, and even this close to her cunt he was pleased with her aroma.

She calmed down when he was done, but still shifted uneasily.

"You're gross," she said through a wince, "How are you enjoying this?"

She thought this was gross? He tried to imagine what she would think when he put his cock in her mouth and made her swallow his cum. But not tonight- she'd take him in her cunt tonight.

He picked up his brush again. He made sure she saw it as he gathered her breast in his hand and touched the tip to her skin, right below the nipple.

"No, no! Please!"

A few strokes drew the word 'hot' on her flesh. She fought to stop him, feebly trying to turn away, but she had nowhere to go. She threw her head back and let out a high pitched scream. She rocked her hips, but they were pinned under his.

Akio took her other breast, dipped his brush into the jar again, and marked it as well, this time as 'cold'. The girl thrashed her head from side to side while the feeling of burning and freezing ate into her skin, even though she was physically unmarred by any actual harm to her body. It was far too precious to leave scars on, of course.

"That's enough! Take it off!" she cried.

"Do you want me to lick it off?" he asked.

"Y...yes."

"Tell me. Tell me that you want my warm mouth on your breasts."

"I want your warm mouth on... on my breasts," she said. She wasn't able to face him to say it, her head turned away and her eyes shut.

He gave her what she wanted. He gorged on her tits, feeling her nipple in his mouth while he sank his fingers into her shoulders to hold her still. He wasn't in a hurry, and made sure he'd thoroughly cleaned one before moving to the other, and giving it the same loving attention.

The girl didn't keep her revulsion to herself. She groaned as he devoured her, letting sounds of distaste flow freely from her throat. Akio would do something about that.

He grabbed her by the jaw and held her head down. This time it was her neck that was his target, and she was just as helpless to stop him as before. 'Tight' appeared just alongside her windpipe.

Her mouth and eyes opened wide as she found her throat refusing to let air through. He let it sit for a while, waiting until her face was a charming shade of red before relieving her with his tongue. She gasped when the word disappeared, but Akio wouldn't let her have more than a few gulps of air. He drove straight from her neck to her mouth, dragging his tongue over her chin on the way.

She was slow to close her lips this time, and his mouth joined fully with hers. She turned away again, and this time he let her. He ran  the handle of the brush down the side of her face while she quivered under its touch.

"You're very beautiful," he said. "If only you knew what a figment of raw desire your body is when wrapped up in those ropes-"
        He ran his finger along the path one of them made as it sank into her chest and watched it hold taught while her muscles tensed, testing it and finding it more than a match for them.

"You wouldn't ask silly questions and try to deny me."

She was breathing deep and fast, her mouth gaped open again. Beads of sweat hung onto her skin, and still she squirmed, letting him see over and over again the strong rope defeat her. He fondled her breasts again, and all she could do was shut her eyes and moan sorrowfully.

Akio coated his brush in honey again. He wrote small this time, fitting the word on her areola.

'Sting'.

She shuddered violently and screamed. Her voice was beautiful, and even in agony she hit the perfect pitch and tenor. It was as if this girl was crafted by the gods to delight him.

"Kiss me," he said, leaning over face. "Kiss me until I'm satisfied, or I'll leave it there all night."

He smothered her lips with his and felt her reflexive resistance before she drove herself to relax and let him have his way. He pushed his tongue into her mouth and mingled it with hers. She was still tense, and her whining gave away her disgust. It was alright- he would take his time, and she would suffer until she learned.

His hands occupied themselves with her body, feeling the soft skin of her shoulders, her sides, and her waist. She pulled away from them wherever they went, but all she accomplished was grinding her body against his. The motion of her lips began to match his, and she slowly let him coax her tongue out between her lips where he wrapped his around it and sucked. He felt her gag underneath him, but he wouldn't let such a thing give him pause.

She was succulent. Even in desperate need of training as she was it was still paradise to have her in his arms. When she broke away he put his lips on her neck again and kissed her there while she gasped and let out such an arousing little squeal.

"That's enough! Please, it hurts! Take it off and I'll be good, I promise!"

He turned her head back to face his and resumed his embrace. He would not act on her command, even with such a promise. She would learn to take him at his word when he said that he leave it there until he was satisfied. He felt himself driving his hips at hers, and his cock burned to taste her cunt. He let her continue, happy to know that she was doing it through the pain she was feeling, and willing to let her suffer as long as he was enjoying her mouth.

When a new fancy finally took him he let her go, squeezing her breast as he sucked the honey off. She was left panting on the ground, her chest rising and falling and making the ropes that bound her pinch deeper each time her lungs expanded. Akio slid off of her and pulled her to her knees again. She swayed uneasily, visible exhaustion sapping her balance.

He opened his shirt and let it fall off of his shoulders, exposing his bare chest. He guided her face to it, pressing her against him.

"Now it's your turn. Pleasure me like I've been pleasuring you."

She obeyed, although not without groans of complaint. The girl, finally adapting to her new status as a sexual servant, worked her lips against his skin. She whined when he tightened his grip on her hair, but he paid no heed, too busy reveling in how sweet her mouth was as it warmed his flesh. He breathed deeply, feeling his body relax and grow excited at the same time. There was little passion or skill in her service, but the fearfulness of her submission made up for it. Like a predator watching wounded prey his blood was heating at the vulnerability she couldn't help but show.

Akio turned her around, putting her back against his chest so that he could reach his fingers to her pussy. She closed her legs around them when she saw what he was doing, but a simple jerk on her hair opened them up again, just wide enough to hug his hand as it sought her out.

She was warm and moistened by sweat, but her cunt was still too dry. She tried to jerk out of his arms, still not ready to give her loins to him.

"You're not wet. Have I not been to your satisfaction?"

"I... I don't know what you mean. I'm sweating all over, aren't I? Why does that even matter?"
        "Your cunt, you imbecile. I want your juices flowing from it."
        "What? Please... I can't do that."

Akio marveled at such virginity. Had she never even played with herself before? He stroked her clit while holding her head tightly against him, letting her wail and struggle all she liked. If this wasn't to be enough, then he would let her taste the brush again. He could always simply write 'aroused' on her, but that would be too crude a method for his taste. It would rob her of the proper conditioning.

And if the pain he could bring her with the brush didn't make her appreciate his touch when it was gone, then he wondered if bringing in one of her friends would help. He smiled to himself; even if it didn't, it would still be amusing.

 

Taiko tried to stay quiet while she slipped through the trees. They were thick here, which meant that she was close, at least according to Nǎinai's directions. She was looking for a rockier area now, where she would find a small hill with the shrine on it. It was trickier than she expected- the closeness of the trees made it hard to see very far ahead of her. She checked the compass the villagers gave her again, and was thankful to see that she was still on track.

Eventually she broke through, and found the earth rising as she approached a thinning of the forest. A large boulder greeted her, and behind it was a mound that blocked her view beyond. Now that she was out of the trees she scanned her surroundings, and when she came back to the boulder she was startled to see a strange figure crouching on top of it.

It looked like one of the Punnydins, except thin to the point of starvation. A white mask covered its face, carved to look like it was laughing. Aside from the mask it was wearing nothing but a loincloth. Taiko noticed dirty fingernails and patterned scars across its chest.

"Who are you?" ask Taiko, wary of the creature.

It cocked its head, letting Taiko wait a moment for its answer.

"I'm the guardian of this forest. Those who pass through must pay me tribute. What do you have to give me?"

Nǎinai hadn't said anything about a forest guardian, and Taiko doubted that she would have failed to if it was true.

"If you're a guardian, then why do you let that evil spirit haunt the shrine here?"

"Evil spirit? That's nonsense. What would you even be doing here if you thought there was an evil spirit around?"
        "I'm coming to vanquish it," she said, standing tall.

It laughed, and Taiko swore she saw the mouth on the mask move subtly as it did.

"You? You're going to 'vanquish' something?"

Taiko listened to the forest. It wanted to be dark, brooding, and scary. She pointed at what she was sure was the evil spirit, threw her other arm out to the side, and then twirled them in a wide circled to come together over her head.

"Show this creature my power, forest! Bare your teeth and show it your anger!"

The forest obeyed, growing darker and more sinister. The air itself boiled with menace.

"I am the great Taiko of Umai! My power is vast, and my patience is not. Leave this forest! Vanish and never return, or you will see more than just this petty demonstration!"

What it would see, Taiko wasn't quite sure of yet. The forest wanted to be threatening, but that's all it cared to be. With her fish's breath spell still going she couldn’t enhance herself any further, but this spirit probably didn't know that.

The spirit looked around, impressed, and dove behind the boulder.

"Why don't I just hide until you leave, great Taiko of Umai?"

The voice was coming from behind her. She turned to face it and dodged a swipe at her side. No, not a swipe at her. It had the compass, which had been hanging from her belt, in its hand.

"You wouldn't have this if you didn't need it, right? I'll just let you get lost out here."

Taiko grabbed for the compass but the spirit launched into a sprint, bounding toward the mound with speed and ease. She ran after it, looking for something she could use to trip it. Pulling together a spell on the run wasn't easy, but she couldn't let it get away.

She chased it over the mound and another behind it, barely making it over bounders and thick roots from the few trees that rose from between them.

"You'll need to be faster than that to keep up with me!" it shouted. A moment later the spirit made an abrupt turn and dove into an opening in the earth.

Taiko rushed into the opening, hoping to catch it before it could disappear too deeply into the burrow. Her heart stopped when she found herself barging into open air, the opening below much larger and the drop much steeper that she expected. She did her best to land on her feet, but her balance was off and her knees crumpled on the impact. She tumbled onto the dirt beneath her, which was thankfully soft and free from any bare rocks.

She shook her head, knowing she didn't have any time to waste, but even before her vision came back into focus she knew she'd lost the spirit. The cave was dark, the light coming in from the opening already too dim from the forest above. Her eyes adjusted as best they could, but all she could make out was a tunnel with a pool of water at the end.

Taiko didn't see any trace of the spirit. Then again, she didn't see where it could have gone, either. The cave didn't go back very far, and she didn't see any passageways it could have fled down. Of course, it was hard to tell, but as she stepped closer toward the pool she grew more certain that she was seeing all there was to the place.

Had it just vanished? It was a spirit, after all, but why lead her on a chase first if it could just do that? Had it wanted her to come to the cave for some reason? Taiko turned to run when she realized that she'd just charged straight into a trap. She stopped before she'd even taken a full stride. Something was between her and the entrance.

The thing made her skin feel like it wanted to tear itself off and hide somewhere. It was almost twice Taiko's size in all, but that was hardly the worst part. It had the head of a woman with pale skin, but her back was covered in hard, black pieces of shell with long, thin hairs growing out of them. It had no legs, but eight arms grew from where its ribs should be, each covered in the same way as her back all the way down to its hands where they merged with long, black fingernails.

Taiko looked into its face, and immediately wished she hadn't. The creature had as many eyes as arms, four large ones and four smaller ones running across her forehead. None of them blinked, no matter how long she stood frozen in front of it.

"I... I'm sorry," said Taiko, her blood turning to lead. "I didn't mean to disturb your den. I was just following someone, and I thought they came in here."

"Don't be sorry," it said in a voice that was hollow and raspy, but unmistakably feminine. "I haven't eaten in a long time. Will you tell me your name, before I wrap you up? All anyone does once I start is scream. It's annoying, you know."

The stillness of the thing kept Taiko locked in place. Even as she spoke, nothing but her jaw itself moved. No, she couldn't think about that. She needed a spell, right now.

There was nothing there but the cave. Taiko rushed her movements, trying to draw as much of its will out as quickly as possible. Maybe she could get it to swallow the thing up. She knew she didn't have time to think. Whatever happened, maybe it would at least keep it off balance long enough for her to dive past it.

She had even less time that she was counting on. The thing didn't need to crouch first or give any sign. She just moved, leaping at Taiko straight from where she was without a trace of warning. Taiko's spell was just forming, and she was just opening her mouth to give it its command, but instead she only screamed as she was enveloped by the creature's grasping hands.

She was pinned in an instant. Two hands held her wrists to the ground and a pair of arms wrapped around her legs. Two more hands held her arms near the shoulder, and she still had two hands to put on Taiko's face, holding it straight up to stare into the eight unblinking eyes and mouth full of black teeth.

The thing was strong and heavy. Even if the thing had only two hands to hold her with she would still have been almost impossible to throw off. There was no 'almost' for Taiko now. The creature filled her view, looming over her as her back pressed firmly into the dirt. A woman's breasts hung from her chest, and her entire underside was warmer and softer than her back looked when it came to rest on top of Taiko.

Taiko had never been this afraid before. It was paralyzing. She knew she had to do something, but her mind refuse to tell her what.

"Can you tell me your name, now? Please do. You won't be able to in a little bit."

The voice was cool and distant, passionless in tone but strikingly sincere.

"T... Taiko," she said, grasping at the hope she could convince the thing to let her go.

"That's nice. 'Taiko'. I don't know if I've ever eaten a 'Taiko' before."
        "What do you mean 'eaten'?" she said, "You're not just some beast! You can talk! Wh... why would you eat someone if you know they don't want you to?"

"Well, they taste good. It's good to eat. That's what people are for. Why do you scream and fight so much if you know how good it is to eat you?"

"Please! I can get you something better to eat!"

"Why? I have you. You'll taste very good."

The creature leaned closer. Taiko shut her eyes and screamed again, telling herself that this couldn't be real. None of this could be real. None of this horrible, grisly day could be real.

Fingers slid into her mouth and held it open. Taiko felt a tongue invade her throat, lapping around and spreading its saliva everywhere. She started to gag, only stopping herself from throwing up because she wouldn't be able to turn her head to the side to spit it out. The tongue covered her lower face generously, only stopped when the creature started to spit something up from deep inside her throat.

A wet, sticky mass landed on Taiko's mouth, oozing inside before toughening up. The creature's hands spread it over her face, pulling it into strands and wrapping them around her head. Taiko yelled as loud as she could, but her mouth was completely sealed off. She bit down on it, but it was too tough to chew through. She dared to open her eyes and saw a white, taffy-like substance hanging from the creature's maw.

"See?" it said, "Now you can't talk at all. We could have talked some more, while I got you ready. Now we can't."

 Taiko's stomach lurched as the world spun, and in an instant she was face down, her cheek pressed into the dirt. She couldn't believe how quickly and easily the monster was handling her. It took her arms into three pairs of hands and held her wrists behind her back. She felt the tongue running over them before they were wrapped in the strands, which seemed to glue themselves to each other and to her skin.

Taiko fought as hard as she could, but she was lost in the creature's grip. She bent her elbows and crossed her wrists against her upper back, putting her hands between her shoulder blades, and no matter what Taiko did to resist the creature continued to work, quickly and efficiently. She wrapped more strands around her wrists, binding them completely. She pulled on the strand between her wrists and her head tight, forcing Taiko to bend her neck back. Her body was lifted as easily as a doll's while four arms worked in concert to encircle her chest with the ropey substance. It all tightened as it dried and toughened up, squeezing her chest and leaving her arms without the slightest bit of room to move.

Every second she became more and more helpless in the hands of the monster. She was going to eat her, and for the first time in her life she couldn't imagine a way to stop it. She couldn't even hope for her friends to come rescue her. They'd been counting on her. She'd failed them when they needed her the most. She'd never even see them again to tell them how sorry she was. They'd never know why she didn't come.

Taiko thought about her friends and cried, not being able to believe that their last time together had already passed. Their last festival. Their last song. Her tears ran down her cheeks and mixed with the dirt that still stuck to them.

She felt a tugging on her feet and her boots being pulled off. Now it was her ankles being licked and covered with the strands. The thing turned her over again and worked her way up Taiko's legs, layering the stuff on thick in several places. Not even her leg muscles were a match for the creature, and once her knees where bound tightly together she gave up. Taiko surrendered and waited for the end.

When the thing was finally finished with her it crawled away, leaving her only in the grip of the strands. It didn't matter; escaping  was impossible. She lay with her back against the ground and her legs bent, knees pointed up toward the roof, the strand between her feet and her arms too tight to stretch them out. Her head pointed back, forced that way as well, and she could see the pool of water.

The creature crawled into view. Taiko was horrified by how quietly it could move. She was dragging a large stone to the water's edge, one that must have been almost as heavy as Taiko. The monster grabbed Taiko again and dragged her to the pool as well, right next to the stone.

"You're almost done now," she said. "It's too bad you couldn't talk until it was time to eat you, but this is as long as you would have been able to talk anyway. 'Taiko.' I'll remember that when I start eating you."

The creature picked up the stone and wrapped the strands around it, weaving a net that it wouldn't slip out of. The same strand was still attached to her feet. Taiko's eyes went wide when she realized what was about to happen.

The stone plunged into the water. A moment later, Taiko went with it. The stone pulled her violently into the pool in a disorienting rush. Cold water engulfed her, shocking her and submerging her completely. The pool was deeper than it looked, and she hadn't hit the bottom yet.

Taiko opened her eyes and let them fill with water. She saw the surface, visible only by the meager light of the cave, disappear above her as she plummeted into the depths. She descended into complete blackness, and when there was nothing left to see she shut her eyes again.

The pull of the stone finally ceased as a dull, distorted thud reached her ears. She sank further a bit before floating up again, coming to rest with a slight tension on her ankles where the stone kept her anchored to the bottom of the watery pit. Silence consumed her, and only the rustling and swishing of her own body as she jerked against the stone, trying in vain to pull loose, disturbed it.

She had some time. Her spell, the one she had first cast when she fell into the river, was still holding. She wasn't drowning quite yet. She thrashed around, but she was restrained too tightly to get anywhere. Her arms weren't coming free, that was certain. Her hands were in a useless place. With her heels almost against her bottom she couldn't move her body enough to either sink down farther and reach the stone or put any real force against the strand that held her to it.

She had some time, but nothing to do with it other than think about what was going to happen when her magic ran out.

 

Miyoshi did her best not to cry. She had done everything in her power to please Lord Akio, even the most disgusting and humiliating things she could imagine doing, but it was never enough.

"I want your cock inside me," she said, as convincingly as she could. "I want you so deep inside me! Make it hurt, please!"

She was on her back again, this time with her ankles tied to her thighs. Her head was in his lap, or maybe more accurately in his crotch. He was kneeling behind her head and holding her with a hand under her chin while he played with her breasts. The word 'cramp' was written on her stomach, as if she didn't have enough genuine cramps from being tied up so long.

"Please, I don't care if you leave the word there, just fuck me! I can't wait any longer!"

She could wait until the end of the universe for him to put that repulsive thing inside of her, but he'd told her to convince him that she wanted it, and he was going to keep torturing her until he was happy with her performance.

And then he'd fuck her. She knew what the word meant now, and what was going to happen. She was still trying to wrap her mind around it, how strange a thing it was, and how ugly this man was making it. All she knew was that she didn't want his dick anywhere near her, but that was exactly what she was tied up in his room for. He was going to force her to have sex with him, and he was going to make sure she suffered as much as possible in the process.

He leaned over and touched her pussy again. She bit her tongue as his fingers intruded on her, but even if she didn't need to behave to make him take the word off her stomach there would have been no where for her to go to get away from them.

"Then why aren't you wet?" he asked. "Do you expect me to fuck a dry cunt?"

She wasn't wet because she hated him and wasn't aroused in the slightest. Why was he asking such a question? What did he expect her to say? She could pretend to want him to fuck her, but he knew that it was a lie. Maybe he should at least stop torturing her with the brush- that certainly wasn't helping.

"I promise I'll be wet once you start!" she said, knowing that it wouldn't happen, but having nothing else she could say.

A rap at the door took Akio's attention. He put her head on the floor and, thankfully, licked the honey symbol off of her stomach. Miyoshi tried to relax, to get some respite until his next scheme against her, but a hundred aches and the memories of his touch nagged at her.

She kept her eyes shut when the door opened, not wanting to see who was going to get a look at her like this. She opened them again when an angry, muffled curse broke out.

It was Yumi.

"As you requested, Lord Akio," said a soldier, bowing.

Now Miyoshi knew what he had been doing when he left her for a moment earlier. Was he going to torture Yumi in front of her again? Did he think that if she couldn't get aroused being tortured herself she'd do better seeing her friend suffer?

"Yumi!" she said, her voice weak and sorrowful.

Yumi couldn't respond in kind, a gag still in her mouth.

"Very good," said Akio, "You may go."

The man did as ordered while Akio dragged Yumi into the room and shoved her to the ground. Her hands were tied in front of her, but her elbows were tied with rope that went behind her back, keeping her hands pressed tightly against her chest. Miyoshi saw her still trying to struggle, but the wince on her face whenever she moved told her that she was hurting.

"Please," said Miyoshi, "Leave her alone. I've tried everything to please you. Hurting her won't help, you have to believe me!"

"I would rather see for myself. Even if it fails, it will be fun to try."

Yumi growled and tried to fight him off as he took her in his grip, but he was strong and she was too weak from her ordeal. He tied her legs the same way as Miyoshi's, taking every opportunity to grope her in the process. When her legs were finished he tied a rope to her hands and threw the other end over a hook that was hanging from his ceiling.

He untied her elbows, and Yumi immediately tried to take her own opportunity to put one of them in his ribs. He was more than able to handle her, though, and hauled her arms up above her head. He pulled on the rope until she was dangling from her wrists, her knees still touching the floor but her butt in the air. He lowered her just enough that she could support herself on her toes while her rear rested on her heels, then tied the rope in place.

Yumi tugged on her bindings a few times, then gave up. Miyoshi knew how she felt- sore and exhausted. She was amazed to see that Yumi still had the strength to resist as much as she had. She grunted when Akio went back to caressing her breasts, but he was hardly dissuaded. It was when he reached for his brush and jar of honey that Miyoshi couldn't watch in silence any longer.

"No! Don't you think that if I could do what you wanted I'd have done it by now?"

"Perhaps. That is why some experimentation is in order."

Yumi didn't need Miyoshi to tell her exactly what the brush did. When Akio brought it between her legs she recoiled, sensing the danger. Akio simply grabbed one of them and pulled it all the way to the side, leaving the other open to write on. He put the honey mark on her thigh, near her loins- 'hot'.

Yumi screamed as the magic took effect. Akio sat behind her, keeping her legs spread with his hands while she writhed and thrashed about. Her strong, toned body hardened with effort, but the ropes were stronger still, and they refused to let her slip away.

"What? What do you want?" cried Miyoshi, straining against her own ropes.

"If you want it removed, come over here and remove it. You've seen how it works, haven't you?"

He wanted her to- to lick it off of Yumi?

Miyoshi struggled to get her legs up enough to roll over. She fell onto her stomach, and tried to inch her way toward Yumi from there. She found herself wearing out too quickly, and not making enough progress. She struggled again to get back on her side, and from there she worked her way across the floor. All the while Yumi was crying into her gag and trying in vain to free herself with brute force.

"It's all right," said Miyoshi, trying to stay strong for her. "I... I'll do what he wants. I'll make it stop."

She plopped onto her stomach again, this time with her head between Yumi's legs. She couldn't believe how much effort it took just to move a few feet, but she didn't have time to rest. Having her face almost pressed into Yumi's crotch was a strange feeling. Both of them were hot and sweaty, but Yumi stilled smelled sweet to her, and she wasn't grossed out like she was when she had to put her mouth on Akio's skin.

Miyoshi lifted her head and licked Yumi, taking the honey off of her thigh. She knew that Yumi was relieved when her grunting died down. She also knew that it would only be temporary. Akio was already reaching his arm around Yumi's waist, brush in hand.

She watched as he wrote again, this time a few inches above her privates. Yumi fought as best she could, but soon she was contorting in pain again. Miyoshi tried to reach the mark, but couldn't while still lying face down. She had to get to her knees.

It wasn't easy. With no way to lift herself up she had to roll onto them, but for her weak and abused body that took everything she could muster. Even once she was on her knees she had to scoot over to Yumi, and all the while Yumi hung from her wrists, growling fiercely into her gag and straining against her ropes.

Miyoshi finally reached a position where she could lean over and suck the honey off of Yumi's body. It tasted good. She cleaned the area thoroughly, in no hurry once she was sure the magic was broken. Yumi whined in the same what that Miyoshi had when Akio was slobbering all over her body. Miyoshi couldn't blame her- she was surprised she didn't find this more disgusting than she did. Or at all, really.

She pulled herself away and looked at Yumi. She was still beautiful. Akio's ropes and other cruelties hadn't spoiled that. No, it was more than that. Yumi actually looked good like this. She looked- she looked enticing. To her horror, Miyoshi realized that she was admiring her friend in the same way that Akio was admiring her. She suddenly understood the appeal of having a woman bound and helpless in front of you.

Akio pulled Yumi's head back and wrote on her neck, putting the word 'sting' three times on one side. As soon as he let her go Miyoshi did her best to get to her. She couldn't reach her neck without entwining their thighs, pressing more of their flesh together. She nuzzled her face into Yumi's neck and kissed her. She wouldn't stop this time. If this was what Akio wanted to see, she would give it to him without making Yumi suffer for it.

She slowly walked her lips down to Yumi's chest. It was working. Akio didn't interrupt her. Yumi was complaining, but it was easier to hear that than her screaming. Miyoshi opened her mouth wide and took in Yumi's breast.

"I think we've found where your tastes lie," said Akio.

The words brought shame to her for the enjoyment she was taking in this. It wasn't right, not when she was doing it for his amusement, and not when Yumi hated it. But she had no choice; no more than when she had to kiss Akio, and she didn't know how not to feel aroused by it.

Akio grabbed her by the hair and pressed her face into Yumi's breasts. She didn't resist. He guided her along, bringing her lower toward Yumi's belly, and she tasted Yumi's skin all the way down. Miyoshi wished he would vanish. She wished she could be untied, and that she could take Yumi in her arms and show her love without his abuse poisoning it.

"Remember this," he said. "They'll be times when you'll be allowed to enjoy it again. But it will always be for my benefit, and you will be expected to show the same passion when I fuck you. Do you understand?"

He pulled her head away from Yumi long enough to answer.

"Yes," she said, shutting her eyes, as if she could make her humiliation go away just by removing the world from her sight.

Akio threw her to the ground again. Miyoshi knew to stay where he put her.

"And for an extra incentive..."

He picked up his brush again and pushed Yumi's head forward, holding her hair out of his way while the pressed the tip to the back of her neck. Yumi started to squirm and moan. She rubbed her thighs together, and everywhere else she could rub something against her skin she did.

"Her entire body will itch while that mark is there. It will be there until after I've been satisfied with a nice, wet cunt."

Akio rolled her onto her back and put his fingers in her pussy again. She hadn't realized until that moment how hot and moist it had become. It was inflamed now, and sensitive to his touch.

Miyoshi watched Yumi wriggling, stretching, and tensing. There was something about the way her body was held in bondage, and about the way her body moved while restrained. It was something she could stare at forever. It was all that could make Akio's touch bearable.

Akio threw the rest of his clothes aside. His naked body and hard member drew toward her, and in a moment he enveloped her. He forced his mouth on hers again, and she used all of her willpower to force herself to kiss him back. His hands and mouth moved all over her while his bare chest laid on hers. He was heavy, and with her legs still tied foot to bottom supporting his weight was all the more uncomfortable.

Akio reached down and guided his cock toward her helpless pussy. His fingers had been a tight fit, and her lips had recoiled at their touch, but this was much worse. He pushed the thing in, and no force of will could have stopped Miyoshi from wincing and gritting her teeth. She felt a sharp pain as it ripped into her, then a deeper one as he continued forward. It was obviously too big for her, but he kept sinking it deeper anyway. She threw her head back and cried out, feeling like she'd been impaled on stake.

"You'll learn to scream better than that," said Akio, giving one last push to make sure he was getting every last bit of his cock inside of her.

"Tell me how good it feels," he said.

"It... it feels good."

"How good?" he demanded, squeezing her breasts until they hurt as well.

"Very good!" she said, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "I hope you never take it out!"

A tear left the corner of her eye and ran down the side of her head. Yumi was furious, raging into her gag so loud that everyone in the castle must be hearing it, but Akio didn't seem to care. He started fucking her, driving hard and deep. With his bulk on top her and her legs bent the way they were Miyoshi's hips were locked in place, and she couldn't do anything to lessen the force of his impact.

Miyoshi tried to breathe, fighting her lungs when they wanted to lock up. She groaned as her sore flesh took him in, over and over again. His hot breath was falling on her face, and she closed her eyes and laid her head to the side to try to get away from it. He wouldn't allow her even that, and he jerked her head back into position for his tongue to worm its way into her mouth again. It stayed for far too long, and even when it was gone his lips still worked at hers while he fucked her unceasingly.

Miyoshi thought she was going to pass out. How long was this going to last? Akio wasn't slowing down at all, and if anything he was driving harder and harder with every moment. He reared up where he could put the maximum amount of force behind each thrust and pounded on her poor loins. Her entire body rocked with each impact, and a feeling of dizziness came over her.

Akio grunted loudly and pushed extra hard. Miyoshi felt something being released inside of her, and with a wave of nausea she realized what it was. Akio finally slowed down, but took his time making sure he filled her with every drop of cum he could get out of himself.

His cock hurt pulling out of her as much as it had going in. She was incredibly sore, or rather she was incredibly sore in one more way. Akio rolled off of her, but even as uncomfortable as her position was, she couldn't fathom being able to roll onto her stomach.

"That was adequate," said Akio, "for now. You'll be expected to do better next time."

 

Taiko was shivering. The cold water had long since sapped all of the warmth from her body, and as time stretched on she felt like it had soaked her through to her very spine. She was still bound just as tightly, the strands having lost none of their stickiness for being submerged. No amount of struggling had accomplished anything other than tiring her out. She floated, unbreathing and unable to move, listening to silence and staring into blackness.

Maybe she was already dead. She certainly felt like she was in a watery grave, forgotten and waiting to decay. If not, then she would be soon. She could no longer feel the magic in her lungs. She never imagined that she could die like this, and once again she begged for her friends' forgiveness and prayed that, somehow, they would survive. She was afraid.

The first urge to inhale came to her. She was holding her breath for real now. The magic was dying slowly, giving her plenty of time to feel her lungs burn and face the end that was coming to her. As it grew in intensity she lashed out one more time, trying to rip the strands away with the brute strength she didn't have. She grew more and more frantic as holding on became harder and harder, fearing madly that the water would rush into her lungs at any moment.

Taiko jerked against the strand binding her to the rock, knowing that she wasn't even coming close to breaking it. Until she did. She was shocked at first, feeling her legs stretch out and her body float away from the rock. Then she started to swim, kicking her legs liked a fish, racing to the surface before her chest imploded.

Her head broke into sweet, merciful air. She took in all of it that she could, but keeping her head above water while still wrapped in the strands wasn't easy, and her arms more no more willing to come free than a moment ago. Her escape would be short lived if she couldn't get out of the water before she tired out and couldn't swim anymore.

Something surfaced behind her. It was Aka, the little sneak who'd gotten her into this in the first place. Then Taiko spotted another familiar face- the creature was at the other end of the cave, staring at her, probably wondering why she was still alive and how she'd gotten loose. Taiko filled her lungs again and dived.

Aka followed her, and she tried to stay still while he chewed away the strands around her arms and chest. Her magic was fading just slowly enough to extend her stay under the water and give him the time he needed. When her hands finally came free she tore at her gag, but even there she needed Aka's help. She was amazed at how fast he could bite through the sticky material- it was tough, and even once it was cut in half peeling it off of her skin hurt.

Taiko looked up to see the creature hovering over the surface of the water. She was still in no condition to try to fight the thing, but now she had a few seconds to act, and she didn't waste them. For a second time that day she used the last of her breath to cast a spell while underwater.

The cave wanted to be dark. So dark that not even the creature would be able to see.

Devour all light, little cave!

The monster's den went totally black. Taiko broke the surface again, needing to breath, and hoped that the creature would be too confused to grab at her based on the sound of her splashing. She readied her magic again and listened for Aka.

"Bat's ears!" she said, giving him the means to find his way in the utter darkness.

Now she only had to escape herself. She dived again and heard the creature lunge into the water where she'd been, just as she feared. She surfaced and flattened herself against a wall, feeling the splashing of the creature a few feet away from her.

"What did you do, 'Taiko'?" she asked, going mostly still and only occasionally making a sharp burst of action. "I want to know how you did that. Won't you tell me? We can talk about it while I wrap you up again. I'll do a better job this time."

Aka barked from the other end of the cave.

"Who's there?" said the creature, climbing out of the water. "Is that you, 'Taiko'?"

Taiko made her motions as quietly as she could under the cover of the creature's questions.

"Mouse's tread!" she whispered.

She moved quickly, finding the edge of the pool and pulling herself out of it. The creature hit the wall where she'd been hugging it seconds ago, but didn't know where to go from there. Even dragging her legs, Taiko moved silently now, feeling her way along the edge of the cave.

The creature went silent as well, not needing Taiko's magic to do it. Taiko imagined her systematically feeling her way around the cave. She was still faster, especially with Taiko's legs still bound. Her heart pounded in her chest as she moved toward the other end of the cave as fast as she dared. It jumped when something tugged at her feet, but the tickle of fur against her skin told her that it was Aka. She let him gnaw her legs loose, then scurried blindly toward where the exit should be.

Taiko hit a wall and started climbing. It wasn't until she was mere feet away that the darkness yielded, and with one last push Taiko threw herself into the open air of the forest. Aka came bounding after her a moment later, landing on the ground next to her and shaking violently, flinging water everywhere.

They both ran, putting enough distance for comfort between them and the cave. When they stopped Taiko reached down and grabbed Aka by the scruff of his neck before he could escape, holding him up.

"I should make myself some boots out of you!"

"Hey! What gives? I just saved you!"

"Did you know that that thing was out here?"

"No! Of course-"
        Taiko shook him.

"Don't make me cast a truth spell on you."

"Okay, yes, I did, but I never thought you'd go running into her cave. Only an idiot would do that. When you didn't come back I followed your trail, and let me tell you, going into Tsuchigumo's den wasn't my first choice of how to end my night. Even I'm not sneaky enough to get past her if she's not sleeping, which fortunately she was, and when I didn't see you I was worried I might be too late."

"You were too late. I must have been down there an hour! It's only because I had a spell on me that I didn't drown."

"Hey, lucky that. So, uh, you haven't run into that spirit yet, have you? I thought I smelled it around the cave."

"Yes, I have, it lured me into the cave, trying to get me eaten by that thing."

"Oh, clever."

"As clever as making you into footwear? Are there any other surprises waiting for me tonight? And how did you smell a spirit, anyway?"

Aka looked away, avoiding her gaze.

"Aka..."

"Okay, so the 'spirit' might not really be a spirit."

"Boots and a hat!"

"Wait! The 'spirit' is actually sort of a friend of mine. But she was cursed somehow by Lord Akio's men. Everyone used to love her, before that. I was hoping you'd figure out how to get rid of it."

"Why didn't you tell me that? Did Nǎinai know?"

"No, I was afraid if I told them who she really was they'd be less afraid of her, and they might even wind up hurting her if it's what they had to do to get rid of her."

"Why didn't you tell me, then? What if I had hurt her just because I didn't know?"

"I, uh, was kind of just hoping it would all work out."

Taiko resisted the urge to throw him.

"So now I have to figure out a way to capture her so that I can figure out what's wrong. You're going to tell me everything now- everything that she can do, what her weaknesses are, and how she thinks. Oh, and how close are we to the shrine right now?"

Taiko grilled the fox, learning what she needed, while waiting for her current spells to expire and her magic to recharge.

The 'spirit' was waiting for her when she neared the place where Aka told her the shrine should be.

"You?" she said, looking through her mask at Taiko. "You're supposed to be dead. What gives? I heard Tsuchigumo getting ahold of you. You screamed and everything."

"You underestimated me. Didn't I tell you how powerful I am? Now your pet is dead, and I know what it was guarding for you."

"You're lying. She wasn't guarding anything; she isn't even my pet. I just used her."

"You won't mind if I take the villagers to see it, then? They'll find it very useful. Particularly in getting rid of you for good. That's if you can escape me first. I'm going to do some wonderfully awful things to you after that trick you tried to pull."

"You're bluffing. I don't know how you got away, but I've seen frogs that were more fearsome than you, 'great' Taiko. I bet Umai isn't even a real place."

"Enough talking!" said Taiko, making her magic gestures as vigorous and dramatic as possible. "Ushimuttsu's brawn!"

Taiko charged her, and her enemy immediately retreated, just as Aka had predicted.

"Come follow me again," she said, "I've got plenty more traps to lead you into!"

She was still faster than Taiko, rapidly putting distance between them, but that didn't matter. Taiko knew where she was going. She ran briefly in the direction she was being led, but turned around when it was clear that the 'spirit' was too far ahead to see her anymore. Instead she headed back to the cave.

Taiko made it just in time to see the troublesome creature sneak into the opening. She waited, and after a brief period of silence, was rewarded with the sounds of a woman's scream. Taiko rushed to the opening, then climbed down as quietly as she could.

Tsuchigumo, the loathsome thing that had almost eaten her, now had her real adversary in her eight-handed grip. Now that she was captured her shape shifted back to its true form. Her mask disappeared and her hair grew into a fiery orange mane. Her figure transformed into an hourglass shape that filled out a red kimono, and instead of a gangly specter it was a beautiful young woman with a fox's ears and tail that Tsuchigumo held in her possession.

"Get off me!" she yelled, her panic easy to hear. "I'm poisonous! If you eat me you'll die!"

"You shouldn't scream," said Tsuchigumo. "I don't think you're poisonous. I'll try eating you a little bit at a time to see."

"I've got friends looking for me! Strong ones! They'll kill you if you hurt me! There's a-"

Her pleading was interrupted as Tsuchigumo filled her mouth with her silk. Taiko watched while Kuzuno struggled hopelessly in her grasp, no more of a match for the monster than Taiko had been.

"My last food used tricks and got away. I'm going to wrap you up very tightly. I don't want it to happen again."

Taiko's ordeal was repeated, this time for Kuzuno. Her wrists were covered in sticky silk and put high up against her back. Her chest and arms were wrapped many times in many ways with the strands, so tightly that Taiko was afraid her ribs would crack. Kuzuno whined and squirmed, but Tsuchigumo had no trouble preparing her to be drowned and eaten.

When Tsuchigumo was just about to get to work on her feet Taiko ran through the poses for her next spell.

"Cling to her, silk!"

Tsuchigumo hadn't noticed her until now, but she immediately snapped her head toward Taiko when she broke her silence.

"You came back," she said. "Now I have two things to eat."

Tsuchigumo started to move toward Taiko, but stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed that something was wrong. Her web was sticking too well. It was already stuck to the two hands that had been weaving it around Kuzuno, and when she used her other hands to try to pull it off they became stuck as well.

The creature didn't know what to do, and in her attempt to get free she managed to tangle herself up even further. She tried to bite off the strand coming from her mouth, then to pull it away, but it refused to behave, and soon there was a huge gob of hanging from her jaws. Tsuchigumo fell, and her own silk glued her to the ground.

Taiko gave her a wide berth as she went to retrieve Aka's friend. Her ankles had just enough of the silk on them to hobble her. Taiko, still under the effect of her brawn spell, picked her up, threw her over her shoulder, and carried her to the opening. Kuzuno made it more difficult than it needed to be, kicking her legs and trying twist out of Taiko's grip.

"Stop that! Do you want me to leave you in here so you can be eaten?"

Kuzuno had a pointed, angry response, but the silk in her mouth prevented Taiko from deciphering the specifics of it. She hurled her through the opening before climbing after her.

The spell on Tsuchigumo's webbing would last for a little while, and as much as she'd been tangled up it might hold her for a while still even after it lifted. Taiko wasn't about to hang out near her den longer that she had to, however, so she scooped up Kuzuno again and walked until her brawn spell started to fade.

She set her struggling prisoner on the ground and looked around for her new confederate.

"Aka!" she called out, not seeing him.

"Mistress Kuzuno?"

He was slinking out from behind a tree, his ears pressed down and his tail hanging low. When he got within a dozen feet of her she roared and lunged at him, at least as much as she could while still tied up and gagged. It was enough to send him flying away, and in a heartbeat he was vanishing back behind the tree. A few moments later his head appeared again, poking out carefully.

"See? She's even mean to me now. Me! Can you tell what's wrong with her?"

"Come over here," said Taiko, kneeling down next to Kuzuno. "She isn't hurting anyone like this."

Taiko put her hands on the woman- or as Aka had called her, the kitsune- and let her senses flow over her. Physically, she was fine except for a little strain put on her by the webbing. Taiko delved deeper, but she couldn't find any sign of a curse or evil magic.

Aka was closer now, approaching only with extreme tepidity.

"So? What's the deal?"

"I don't know. I can't see any curse."

Taiko sighed. She started to work the silk free from Kuzuno's mouth. It wasn't easy; the strands didn't want to tear, and they were stuck fast to each other. Aka was too busy keeping her body between him and Kuzuno to help. Eventually she got it free, tearing it off of her skin as gently as possible.

"Ah!" screamed Kuzuno, snapping at Taiko's fingers. "Aka, you little traitor, get over here and chew me loose!"

Aka hid himself entire behind Taiko, and she could feel him huddled against her back.

"Aka! You can't leave your mistress in the hands of this evil woman! She tried to feed me to Tsuchigumo, and now she's planning on taking me to Akio to sell me as a slave."

"Don't listen to her," said Aka, "She's been a huge liar ever since she was cursed."

"You don't need to tell me that," said Taiko, wondering if it was really only since whatever Akio's men had done to her.

"Kuzuno, Aka here brought me to help you. We know that Akio's soldiers did something to you, and it's been making you feel bad. Can you tell me what they did? I promise I'll do whatever I can to fix things."

"Untie me, and I'll tell you."

"You two... I'm not stupid, okay? I can't untie you until you're better, so just tell me what they did."

"I'm fine this way," she said. "I don't feel worse off at all. In fact, Akio did me a favor. I'm much more clever now, and I'm not going back to how I was before, so you can stop wasting your time and untie me right now."

Taiko sighed. Why couldn't anything today be easy?

 

Water poured over Chiyo's face. An entire bucket's worth, just enough at a time to force her to hold her breath and make her feel like she was drowning. Her gag was soaked, and it dripped water into her throat. The water flowed from her head down to the table, where it drained into a tub below so that the bucket could be refilled as many times as they liked. This was the ninth time, by Chiyo's count.

Chiyo's body was still stretched out over the table with the wooden spikes in her back. She couldn't even feel her arms and legs anymore, except when something touched them, causing them to explode in pain. Her breasts and vagina were more constant sources of agony. Between her legs were metal clamps, fixed to her soft lips and biting into the sensitive flesh. Her breasts were pressed between two wooden boards, each lined with pointed studs.

The water finally ran out and Chiyo had her chance to breathe again. She coughed, sending a wave of vibration through her body that caused dozens of aches and pains to flare up. She was alone now. Yumi had been taken away, to what fate Chiyo didn't want to think about. It was just her and her torturers. The masked man worked in silence, and neither of his underlings felt the need to speak either. It was up to Chiyo alone to fill the room with her cries.

She heard the tub being moved away. They were finished with it for now, meaning that some new horror was being prepared for her. A click came from the table and her whole body burned with a new intensity. To her surprise, it was because the spikes were being lowered. It didn't matter for the moment- she screamed, her body hurting just as if they were being pushed up.

Eventually all of the tension went away. Her hands and feet were still bound, but the ropes were slacked. Chiyo still didn't dare to move her limbs, even the slightest twitch letting her know how traumatized they were. The clamps came off next. First the boards were taken away, and then the clamps were taken away one by one. Blood rushed into places where it had been squeezed out, awakening nerves that immediately erupted in pain. The rope around her wrists and ankles loosened, and in an instant her hands and feet were throbbing from the same inrush of blood.

Chiyo didn't know how long she could spend on that table before having the strength to push herself off, but the masked man wasn't that patient. He grabbed her arm and pulled her over the side. She willed her feet to catch her, but they didn't answer, and it was only his grip on her arm that slowed her collapse to the ground.

He dropped her into a heap, and she didn't budge from it. She wanted to pull the gag from her mouth, but her arms were dead. Chiyo would rest for every second they gave her.

They were hardly generous. The men straightened her out and rolled her onto her stomach. They put her arms behind her back, and Chiyo dismayed to feel the rope wrapping around them in the exact same way it had when Akio first took her prisoner. She offered no resistance, not that it was in her power to impede them in the slightest.

When Chiyo was bound again they pulled her to her feet. Her legs couldn’t even support themselves, let alone the rest of her weight, and she was unable stand like they wanted her to. When they saw that she needed more time to rest they bent her over the table, letting her torso lay on it while her legs dangled. The masked man slapped her in the ass with his hand, repeating every few moments until he thought she'd had enough.

They pulled her to her feet again. This time she managed to remain upright for a brief moment. She fell onto her knees, but they were insistent, and the next time Chiyo was taking unsteady steps toward a doorway on the other side of the room.

She collapsed another three times before they reached their destination. In the next room over were a dozen cages, six each against opposite sides of the wall. Only one of them was occupied, and to Chiyo's surprise it was a familiar face- Miruku was curled up inside, as naked as Chiyo and bound in the same way. She wasn't gagged, but when she saw Chiyo she only hid her face and curled more tightly.

Chiyo was put on her knees in front of a cage against the opposite wall, and the masked man went to work tying her ankles together. One of his minions tied a rope to her wrists and ran it through the bars on the roof of the cage. When she was ready they opened the door and backed her in, shutting it and locking it closed.

To make sure her night would be as unbearable as possible they finished by pulling on the rope tied to her wrists, forcing her to stay upright on her knees but with her chest hunched over. She wasn't surprised to feel them knotting it in position.

They left Chiyo to rot without a single word. She finally had time to realize how hungry and thirsty she was. She'd have all night to think about it.

 

Taiko looked at her compass again. They were going in the right direction, at least. She didn’t know if she trusted Aka or not after all of his little omissions, so a bit of caution would be smart.

Aka was far ahead of her, nervous of being too close to the kitsune while she was still under whatever curse she was under. He alternated between trotting forward at double pace and waiting until Taiko caught up. He looked around nervously while stopped, alert for any threats.

Kuzuno was making a grand ordeal out of every step. Taiko had already removed some of the web around her and adjusted it to make her more comfortable. Taiko’s arms were still sore from how they’d been bound, and she wasn’t going to keep Kuzuno like that just to be cruel, even if she tried to have Taiko drowned and eaten. Still, she was wary, and wasn’t falling for her melodrama. Her arms were folded they way the women from Umai’s had been. The stickiness of the strands made up for Taiko’s lack of skill in ropework and kept it from needing to be too tight. Taiko had fashioned a leash that was fixed to her waist to keep her from running, and Taiko was making her walk out in front so that she could keep an eye on her.

"I’m tired!" whined the kitsune, "You’ve been marching me for hours, and you’ve tied me up too tight."

"Stop being ridiculous."

Kuzuno dropped to the ground, plopping onto her knees. She looked over her shoulder at Taiko with mournful eyes.

"How can you be so cruel? What do you want from me?"

"Get back up! You don’t need a rest if you have so much energy for theatrics, and I’m not untying you!"

Kuzuno growled softly at her. When she saw that she wasn’t going to convince Taiko that she was suffering a different look crept across her face.

"I know what you want. You want my body, don’t you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You’re taking me somewhere to ravish me! You’re going to put your hands all over me- force your lips on me- make me pleasure you with my tongue- make me howl for you! You’re terrible!"

Kuzuno was on her back now, arching to show off her breasts. Her voice was sultry, and even the fear in it seemed calculated to allure. She slid one of her legs against the other, slowly bending it and raising her knee.

Taiko felt her face flush red. She was gorgeous, and she knew how to make a hell of a display out of herself. Taiko knew that it was an offer, not fear, and the only thing she could understand about it was that her own body seemed to want it. She was incredibly embarrassed, and she was sure that she wasn’t hiding it very well.

"Don’t try to deny it! I can smell your filthy lust. Just- just do it already and get it over with!"

She threw her head back and let her chest heave, panting dramatically.

"Squeeze!" said Taiko with a hurried casting.

Kuzuno yelped, this time honestly, as the strands tightened around her for just moment to crush the air out of her.

"Now start walking again you weirdo, or I’ll drag you back to that monster’s den!"

Kuzuno gave up on her antics after that, and the rest of the journey back to the village went quietly.

When the village appeared in view Aka rushed forward to herald her victory. The villagers seeped back out of their houses and coalesced around the fox, and Taiko heard the murmuring as she led Kuzuno to them.

"What’s going on?" asked Nǎinai, "That's- that's Kuzuno!"

"This is your 'evil spirit'. Aka can explain, if you like. Can't you?"

Aka shrunk at the pointed comment.

"Well, uh, you see-"

Aka made his confession, filling them in with a somewhat sanitized version of the story and leaving out the part where Taiko almost drowned. They had a hard time believing it, and Kuzuno confused it further by offering her own tale where they were in league with Akio and leading them into a trap at the shrine. In the end, Taiko won out, and they agreed to thank her by summoning Minoru once she was ready.

It was nighttime by their reckoning, although Taiko was lost as to how they could tell. Still, they were happy to feed her and dry her clothes, and some of the young ones were comfortable enough with her now to  ask her questions about herself, her friends, and their village. Taiko had fun telling them the story of the fuumog, and telling them about how their magic worked.

A few hours later she was dressed again and Nǎinai was ready to accompany her to the shrine. They left Kuzuno, now locked securely in chains, behind under the watchman’s guard. The trip back to the area the shrine was in seemed to take longer than the first time. Taiko had been walking, running, swimming, fighting, and struggling all day. She was unbelievably tired, but there was no way that she was going to wait any longer to get her answers.

"That's it?" she asked.

They had just come over a rocky mound, and there it was, sticking out of the ground.

"That's it," said Nǎinai.

It wasn’t what she expected. A perfectly white cylinder rose six feet from the earth. It was about two feet in diameter, absolutely smooth, and flawless in its shape. There was a cutout on one side, running from top to bottom, that showed an unnaturally black void resting in the interior.

Nǎinai approached the shrine, said a short prayer that Taiko couldn't understand, and then pressed her hand against the cutout. Taiko saw that what she thought was empty space was really some sort of glass. It was so clear as to be invisible, but she could see the way Nǎinai's hand molded itself against a solid surface.

"Are you there, Minoru?" she asked.

A few seconds of silence went by.

"Nǎinai, how are you? You haven’t come for a while."

Taiko turned around to see a translucent figure, appearing in shades of blue and glowing slightly. He looked like a young man with lightly colored hair and dressed in flowing robes. They were plain, but layered, and they were fit very precisely to his form. He let his eyes fall on Taiko and raised his eyebrow.

"I don’t recognize you, but that shouldn’t be. Who are you?"

"My name is Taiko," she said, bowing. "I'm very happy to meet you, Minoru!"

"This one helped our village," said Nǎinai. "She cleared the way to your shrine when it was denied to us and saved Aka from capture. She wishes to share in your great knowledge."

"Mm-hm," he said, not seeming to pay much attention to her. He stood in front of Taiko, making no noise when he walked, and put a thoughtful look on his face.

"And how did you get here, Taiko? You're obviously far from home."

"Not that far, it looks like. I mostly walked here since this morning."

"Walked? You aren't serious, are you?"

"Of course I am. I did swim part of the way, too."

Minoru's brow furrowed.

"I think you should start from the beginning."

Taiko told him her story, from the tsurujin that attacked Chiyo, to finding Ikumi, to Umai's destruction, all the way to the kitsune and the monster. He listened, nodding every once in a while, then started asking questions about her village, her friends, and everything about how her world worked. He tested her memory, seeing how far back she could remember adventuring with her friends. After an exhausting interview he fell silent, thinking to himself. Taiko waited anxiously, perplexed at the nature of some of his questions and his line of thinking.

"Our worlds are fusing," he said, breaking his silence.

"What?" asked Taiko, taken off guard.

"Your world has come along and started fusing with this one. As you said yourself, the world you come from clearly runs on different rules than this one, and there's been some serious geographical blending. Everything seems to be changing, and the simplest explanation is that it is."

Taiko didn't know what to say. It was too much to believe, but she couldn’t deny how well it made everything line up.

"Is that… normal?"

"No, of course not."

"Can we stop it?"

"No idea. I’m not even sure how or why the bubbles are touching."

"Bubbles?"

"Technical terminology. Look, I know a lot of stuff that nobody else does, but I’m not omniscient. I can't even tell you what's going on in Akio's castle right now, other than by a few educated guesses. If you want to know more, you're going to have to find more for me to work with."

"Where would I even start? Can you tell me more about this multiple worlds stuff? How many are there?"

"A bunch," he said, hurriedly and dismissively. "Look, this might be due to forces way beyond our ability to affect. It might not be something that you 'stop'."

"But you don't know that for sure."

Minoru sighed.

"No, I don't. If there is a local cause it's probably centered around one of two people. Lord Akio or Queen Tomiko."

"Why do you think that? I mean, I know they're the most powerful people around here, but-"

"No, it's not that. They're... they're not important because they're powerful. They're powerful because they're important. Kind of like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means they're not going to be the pushovers you're used to."

"You know more than you're tell me," said Taiko, crossing her arms.

"Yes, I do. And I've got good reasons for it."

Taiko wanted to push him, but she was afraid that she might shut him up altogether if she was too demanding. There were still other things she was hoping to learn; he might know something about what had happened to Ikumi. Besides, if she could keep him around long enough she could pry a little bit at a time out of him about this 'important' stuff.

"I don't want you to get too carried away with ideas about stopping this fusing," he said. "Figuring out how to make it happen as smoothly as possible might be the smarter move, and it's easier to see where to start there."

"By saving my friends."

Taiko had almost forgotten about it. That was her number one mission, wasn't it? If she was going to figure out why realities were suddenly weaving themselves together, she would do it with her friends- Yumi, Miyoshi, Ikumi, and Chiyo. And if they had to turn this world of cruelty and madness into something livable, they would.

"Okay, then. What can you tell me about Lord Akio? Where is his castle? Do you know how it’s defended?"

"Did you see where Nǎinai put her hand to summon me?" he asked.

"Huh? Uh, yes, why?"

"Go put your hand in the same place."

Taiko didn’t understand, but she did as requested. The shrine hummed and a small glass cube appeared, floating in the air before her. She cautiously reached forward to pick it out of its spot.

"With that, you can take me with you."

He turned toward Nǎinai.

"Sorry to run off already, but I'm curious about this whole thing."

"It's okay," she said. "If you're helping Taiko get one over on Akio we'll all be rooting for you."

"Right," he said turning back to Taiko, "I can lead you to Ishi-jo Fortress, but I'll need to look around inside to get any details. I'll be able to wander freely within a thousand feet or so of that crystal, so if you get it to the castle wall I'll be able to scout for you."

"Hey," said Aka, his voice coming unexpectedly from Taiko's side. "I helped out in getting your shrine clear, so maybe there’s something you can do for me? Kuzuno is cursed somehow, and we need to figure out how to fix her. Taiko here was useless at that part, but we did capture her. She’s back at the village."

"Yeah, I saw what happened to her. One of Akio's captains, Teruo, stole part of her soul with one of his magical artifacts."

"That's awful!" said Taiko, "Why would he do that?"

"She was a nuisance to his men. Kind of like Aka, but worse. They'd have liked to bring her in as a slave, but a kitsune isn't easy to catch. Instead, they got a part of her soul."

"We need to get it back," said Aka. "That's our top priority."

Taiko didn't bother to at glare at him.

"We can plan tonight back at Punnydin," she said. "Tomorrow I'll rest and prepare, and then, tomorrow evening…"

Tomorrow evening. Was that soon enough? Could she wait all day relaxing while her friends languished in some cage? Nobody seemed to think that being Akio's prisoner was a good thing. But she had no choice. She might only have one chance to save them, and she couldn't blow it by rushing in early.

"Tomorrow evening. We show Lord Akio that his world has changed too, and we can be just as dangerous as he is!"

 

General Tadao was listening intently. After the disaster of Lady Kori's capture yesterday good news and a change of subject was critically needed, and this was both.

"I counted approximately two hundred and fifty villagers, including children and the elderly. I estimate that sixty of their males are of fighting quality, and none of their females."

"What kind of fighting quality?" asked General Nashi, interrupting the scout.

"Their men wield mostly bows, but they are of primitive construction. For close combat, they only have wooden clubs. They possess no armor to speak of. I was not able to witness a demonstration of their individual skill, but they do not appear to have any notable drilling or discipline. I would estimate a poor showing against our troops."

General Tadao wasn't so quickly convinced. Tribal skirmishers on their home turf could threaten better armed and organized troops quite effectively. He held his tongue for the moment; the scout was here to present what he had observed. His opinion beyond that was not important enough to waste time arguing over. Tadao would voice his concerns when it was time to plan their attack.

The scout was going over details of the terrain he'd been scouting now. It was a strange situation; the village had been found just over the Isshou Mountains. It was far too close for them to have missed it for so long, and when they first heard of this scout's report General Nashi immediately demanded their maps to be checked and previous scouting reports be brought up for reference. To their disbelief, there were no reports, and the maps were blank. How such a blind spot could exist for so long was beyond any of them.

"Thank you," said General Tadao when he was finished. "You may stand by in case we have any further questions."

The scout nodded and took a position against the wall. Nashi was the first to offer her opinion.

"Fifty men should be sufficient," she said. "We should kill half of their warriors, then press the rest into Her Majesty's service. If we take a dozen or so of their children hostage it should ensure their good behavior. They don't sound like they have much in the way of material resources to offer us, but they will be useful in controlling this new territory."

"Very blunt," said Tadao. Nashi was ruthless, but she was often too crude in her methods for his taste.

"We should learn more first. Offer them gifts and friendship in exchange for providing guides to map out the region. We'll learn a lot of things that way that they won't be so willing to volunteer if we attack first. Once we've got a good handle on what they know and what they're capable of, then we can demand fealty. We'll also know the best men to kill and the best to leave alive. I suggest two hundred soldiers, as a show of force. They don't need to be there for long. If the villagers know what we can throw against them they'll be less likely to rebel down the line."

"I suppose we can spare that," said Jinpachi, one Her Majesty's supply ministers. "But the tithe is coming due in a few days, and our soldiers are needed to ensure that it goes smoothly. If there were any other military operations planned-"

General Tadao wasn't sure how Jinpachi had even weaseled his way into the meeting. These affairs were above his station, but he was a sharp and ambitious young man who had shown an aptitude for making himself just useful enough so that his audacity would be tolerated.

"Why don't we just kill them all?"

Nashi was crude, but at least her methods served a greater goal. The Lady Oni Satsujin was not burdened with any such thing.

"Fifty men. Kill any of the warriors who resist, make any who surrender watch us rape all of their women and then burn whole lot in their own houses. Maybe torture some of them first. We keep a few witnesses alive to bring back and tell the story."

Lady Satsujin would slaughter Queen Tomiko's entire kingdom if she let her. Tadao knew she wouldn't care to hear about what could be gained from subjugating the villagers instead of wiping them out, but he spoke anyway.

"That would be pointlessly wasteful," he said.

"Nashi was right. They've got nothing we need. All they are right now is in the way. We'll get rid of them and be done with it."

"I didn't say that," Nashi responded sharply. "They'll be better suited to patrolling their native environment than our own soldiers would be, and if-"

"I don't care."

Her Majesty's words silenced everyone. General Tadao turned to see her gazing toward the ceiling. Queen Tomiko never cared except when something displeased her. It was Tadao's duty to make sure that never happened, to wage her wars against her enemies, and to keep her subjects well under heel. The consequences for failing were severe.

But pleasing her? That never happened. She never celebrated victory or enjoyed the spoils they brought her. Tadao wondered what she would ever do if they did succeed in bringing the entire world under her rule. Would even Lord Akio's head on a pike be enough to make her happy, even for a moment?

The entire room waited for her command, knowing too well not to offer any more opinions after her disinterest had been declared.

"Satsujin, bring the prettiest girl in the village back to me. Do whatever you like with the rest."

 

There she was, a figment of divinity. A perfect creation of melancholy grace. An aching beauty wrapped snugly in gentle blue robes that flowed regally about her. She leaned against the railing of a balcony so high that entire mountains lay under its shadow.

She was untouchable. A being apart from him. He looked down at his hands- weak, clumsy hands- and found himself unworthy. He took a timid step toward her, and then another, but with every step the distance between them grew. He called out her name, but his voice was a whisper, lost in the vast hallway.

She was a tiny burning ember in a shell of ice. He was nothing.

 

Akio woke to the darkness of night. He sat up, try to shake the dream from his head. He was tired, and it was a struggle not to lie back down, but he couldn't bear to slip back into that world. He needed to make his mind his own again before he risked returning to sleep.

He looked around his room. He was alone. The two girls were gone, taken to another chamber to be secured for the night. Nothing here would occupy his mind enough to clear his head; he needed to walk it off.

Akio found an evening robe and fastened it around him, resolved to take a walk through the passageways of his fortress. He tried to think about anything except the dream, but it kept coming back to him. It was a far more common disturbance to his sleep than he would have liked. He was Lord Akio. He was not weak. He was not timid. One day, he would have Tomiko before him, and he would not be deterred from taking her as the greatest prize of all. She would be punished for denying him for so long, for taunting him with her beauty and not offering her body as tribute. The three women from yesterday would be thankful for his leniency if they knew what he had planned for the Queen and her icy cunt.

But the dream always insisted otherwise. No matter how many women he conquered, no matter how many enemies he struck down, it always waited. It always came, whispering its lie to him in the night where it could sink into his soul and convince him it was the truth.

Akio was on the balcony now, overlooking the courtyard. The slaves from the day's raid were huddled in their cages, waiting to be brought to whatever labor camps needed them. Guards patrolled the wall, no less alert for the late hour. They were well trained. They were strong, like their master.

It would take more than a walk, he saw, to distract him. Perhaps he should inspect the other slave. What was her name? Chimo? She'd looked good stretched out on the rack.

A stirring in his loins reminded him of who he really was. One day, he would have Queen Tomiko. But tonight there were other cunts deserving of his attention.

 

Chiyo still had Yumi's panties in her mouth. It hadn't stopped being gross, no matter how long they sat there. Neither had her jaw stopped growing sorer and sorer, or her arms less cramped from being bound, or her knees from supporting her weight for so long.

The emptiness of the night gave Chiyo nothing to think about but the chaffing of her ropes and the knots in her back. She couldn't even bring herself to dread the next morning. Maybe it would be worse than what she was currently enduring, but it was hard to believe it. She wouldn't survive at that rate. Even the cruelest masters had to feed their slaves at some point.

Chiyo heard a noise- someone was coming. The light was dim, but she could still make out the silhouette of the man who was responsible for all of this. He was dressed in a simple robe now, walking into the room barefoot and without the usual presence he commanded. He stood in front of her cage, and all Chiyo could do was stare at his feet. Not that she was anxious to look him in the face, even if she did have the freedom to crane her neck up that high.

"Are you going to greet your lord?" he asked.

Chiyo moaned. What else could he expect from her?

She felt him tugging on the rope holding her hands to the top of the cage. When they came loose she immediately slumped down. It hurt, of course. Everything hurt, and it was only after an initial bloom of pain from stiff joints finally being moved that a tiny bit of relief settled in.

Chiyo knew it would last long. The cage door swung open. She hoped he would drag her out, because moving on her own might not even be possible.

"Come out," he said. His tone was no less harsh and pitiless, despite the difference she felt in his mood.

 Chiyo tried her best. She squirmed until she was on her side, then pushed with her feet against the back of the cage. Her legs were weak, and she still had to work her torso across the floor to get out. The stone underneath her was hard and cold, but it was still an improvement over the table or the cage.

Akio lost his patience and grabbed her by the arms, pulling her to her knees. She tried to support her own weight, but as soon as he let her go she collapsed. Chiyo didn't want to displease him any more- he'd made his point about his ability to punish her for it very clearly- but she was at her physical limit, no matter how much she feared him.

Chiyo whined into her gag, hoping she sounded submissive.

"If you're so weak you shouldn't have offered resistance earlier," he said, sounding annoyed at her.

He dug his fingers around her rope harness and dragged her, sliding her body along the floor into the next room. The one where her and her friends had been stripped and beaten. He pulled her over to a mat that was against one wall and dropped her onto it. She fell onto her back, and was able to look up at him as he descended, straddling her thighs and putting his hands on her sides.

It was going to happen now. He was here to rape her. He slid his hands along her skin until he reached her breasts and squeezed them. She groaned, squirming in discomfort at his touch but too weak to offer any real resistance. He squeezed harder in response, and she could feel his hard cock under his robe. His grip was like iron, and her breasts were all the more sensitive for the whipping they'd taken earlier. When he'd had his fill he pinched her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, pulling them out while he did.

Chiyo cried out, her poor voice echoing through the otherwise quiet rooms. This was hardly the most painful thing she'd had done to her tonight, but it hurt all the same. Akio didn't mind. He kept playing with her breasts, and soon it was his teeth that he was using to clamp down on her teat. She had her eyes shut now, not wanting to see the crude joy in his face while he pleased himself at her expense.

Other parts of her body were subjected to his groping as well. He squeezed her ass with both hands while kissing her neck and stroked her legs when he moved his lips down to her stomach. Chiyo grimaced at the wetness he was leaving behind, and felt sick when he slurped at her belly button.

She had a brief chance to rest while he untied her feet, but before she could even start to stretch them he was licking her leg, and he slowly worked his way all the way up to her inner thigh, then her belly again, then her chest, and finally to her lips. The cloth between them still offered her some protection, but almost as soon as he reached it he started to untie it.

Chiyo was finally able to spit Yumi's underwear out of her mouth. She didn't even have the chance to savor it before Akio was upon her. She shut her lips, but he quickly slapped her breast to remind her to behave. Chiyo yelped, and tasted his mouth full on hers for having left herself open. He was grinding his cock against her now, his body pressed tightly against hers. He opened his robe so that she could feel the unwelcome touch of his bare skin against hers.

Akio taught her to kiss him, punishing her with a sharp hand against her hide when she was too reluctant and caressing her greedily when she pleased him. Either was just as repellent to her, but she knew now how easily he could sentence her to an entire night of torture.

Without warning Akio flipped her over, holding her back to his chest with his arm across her throat. He reached down with his other hand and ran his fingers across her pussy.

"You learn faster than your friend," he said.

Chiyo's heart sank. He was talking about Miyoshi.

"I'll bet I can make you cum with your first fucking."

His fingers penetrated her, touching parts of her that she didn't know could be touched. She wailed and struggled, no more able to remain still than if she was being burned by fire. Akio grunted in approval and tightened his grip.

She wished he would hurry and get it over with, but he took his time, rubbing her and sending surges of intense physical sensation through her body. She tried to keep control of herself, but she was no match for him, and little but little he forced her toward sexual arousal. Her pussy soaked his fingers, letting him work them smoothly against her nerves, amplifying her reaction.

"Please, stop!" she cried between her moaning, writhing in his iron grasp.

"Learn to enjoy it," he said. "There will be few pleasures available to you as a slave, save for the satisfaction of serving your master. This will be the one pure pleasure that you can hope for, and you will have it in abundance if you accept it."

He kept her on edge for far too long, easing her back if she went too far but never letting her rest. By the time he pushed her back her pussy was dripping with fluid and screaming with every touch. She was exhausted, now in a completely new way, but her body begged to be finished off.

There were still a hundred things Chiyo didn't understand, but she knew one thing very well- that it wasn't supposed to happen this way. She remembered seeing Haru dance on the stage. That's how it should feel. He should have been the one to teach her how it felt to be touched this way. She wouldn't have minded it then, even if he tied her up first.

Akio put his hands on her hips and brought her ass into the air. Chiyo braced herself. The tip of his penis probed at her opening before forcing its way inside. Chiyo bit her lip so hard that she tasted blood. It hurt having his entire length shoved into her virgin pussy, but the shudder it sent through her when it slid against her lips was far worse.

Once he started pumping into her there was nothing she could do. Her body betrayed her, flooding her with sensations that she couldn't handle. She was on the verge of exploding, but even in that she was at Akio's mercy, unable to force it to happen so she could release herself from the tension. Akio fucked her firmly and steadily, but not hard enough to push her the rest of the way.

Chiyo could barely spare the breath to scream, but she did it anyway. Akio kept his hands locked around her hips while he drove relentlessly into her, making sure that she felt every thrust and keeping her from any hope of slipping away. He went on forever, and the entire time she had to sit on the cusp as something tried to burst inside of her, knowing that if he pushed just a little harder it would happen.

"Is this good for you?" he said, "Is your cunt full enough?"

"Yes," she said, knowing what the truth would earn her. "It feels very- ugh!"

She couldn't even finish the sentence. She needed relief, but there was no sign of it in sight.

Akio grunted with every thrust now, his pace starting to creep up. Chiyo felt herself slip over the edge, screaming and thrashing about as her pussy gushed. The intensity slowly grew, and Chiyo knew that it was unstoppable now. It rose to an unbearable peak as his cock pounded away at her, and when her release finally came her body poured every last bit of its remaining energy into it. Every single one of her muscles tensed as she desperately willed it to stop, but it was intent on running its course.

Akio wasn't finished, and even when she did start to subside he still held her captive, fucking her and keeping her from coming down completely. She couldn't even scream now. Her body was limp, jiggling every time his hips slammed into hers. His grunting gave her hope that it would end soon, but it could never be soon enough.

Chiyo couldn't believe his stamina. She was starting to heat back up again, and she feared that she would go through that horrible thing all over again if he didn't stop. She didn't know how she would be able to do it- she was spent to her very core. His cock was coming harder and harder, faster and faster now. Chiyo held on, and finally her prayers were answered when she felt his cum emptying inside of her. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but after a few hard pushes to make his point, he finally slowed down, stopped, and let her rest.

"You sounded very happy back there. Are you looking forward to the next dick that fills your hole?"

"Yes," she said, her voice weak. "I hope you fuck me again soon."

He couldn't possibly believe her, but he was satisfied none the less. Soon she was locked in her cage again, but at least this time she was free from her gag and wasn't tied to the top bars. Her pussy was sore; Akio had been nothing like gentle with her. Her arms hurt even more than before, having a fresh round of torture to force her to struggle against her implacable bondage.

Chiyo didn't fall asleep. She passed out, exhaustion simply overwhelming her and dragging her into unconsciousness.