The Darkberri caves were quiet, silent except for the occasional echo of dripping water. The glowing lichen gave them enough light to see by, although Taiko still had to watch her step.
"I smell it," she said. "It's in here somewhere, but I can't pick out a trail."
Her fuumog's nose had tracked the monster this far. Now they just had to find it among the twisting tunnels that ran under the Oogie Mountains.
"Over that way," said Chiyo, pointing to a tunnel that split off from the cavern. "If the maps in my book are right, there's an underground lake down there. If I was going to have a lair, it'd be near water."
"Lead the way, Tsuki Okami."
Ikumi's wolf crept silently forward, ready to pounce at any sign of trouble. Chiyo followed him, staff pointed ahead. Tomiko, without a word, summoned a flurry of snow to her hand, priming her magic to strike. She followed on Chiyo's right while Ikumi stayed behind her.
Taiko looked for Miyoshi and found her stuffing her face with the berries that grew all across the cave floor.
"Miyoshi! Not now!"
"Mm?"
Miyoshi swallowed, but grabbed another handful.
"But they're so good!"
"We can take some home before we leave," said Taiko.
"No, we can't. Chiyo said they'll spoil as soon as we take them outside. Try some!"
Taiko shook her head and started following the rest.
"Come on, before you get left behind."
Taiko's arms were seized and locked behind her back. Miyoshi had them entangled in her own, her hold firm but not uncomfortable.
"I think I'm going to have to tie you up again tonight, Miss bossy," she whispered, her head resting on Taiko's neck.
Miyoshi was getting disturbingly good at it. Taiko didn't actually let her do it, but Miyoshi always wound up getting Taiko at her mercy whenever she wanted, and despite her best attempts to resist Taiko was spending a lot of time bound snugly while Miyoshi treated her like a slave.
She was absolutely merciless when it came to how thorough and secure her ropework was. It was never painful, but it was always as tight as it could otherwise be, and Taiko could usually barely move. Miyoshi had learned quickly, and Taiko had no choice but to obey her commands and satisfy her whims if she wanted her freedom again. Miyoshi had even punished her several times now for not yielding fast enough, demanding to be untied, or not sucking her toes as ordered. She'd been bent over Miyoshi's lap and spanked, left tied to a chair and gagged for hours while Miyoshi went to pick flowers, and even brought to the cusp of orgasm and then denied release, spending the whole night tied to Miyoshi's bed wanting to cum while Miyoshi, satisfied by Taiko's own tongue, slept on top of her.
She'd become a regular tyrant, but there was nothing Taiko could do. Every moment with her was worth it. No punishment was as bad as spending a night without her. No ropes were too well-tied if they made her smile.
Taiko was snapped back to attention when Tsuki Okami growled. Miyoshi let her slip free and she ran to the tunnel they'd advanced down. She caught up with them to see the monster- the kurosumi- standing at the edge of the water.
Ikumi stood her ground, but Taiko could see the fear that she was struggling to conquer. Taiko remembered the demons she'd face herself, and knew that Ikumi would stay strong.
The creature stalked forward, ready to attack. Chiyo sent lightning arcing down her staff and toward its body, but animalistic instincts let it dodge easily. Taiko focused on the creature's body. It liked to melt. It was as much a substance of its own as it was the creature's, and Taiko sensed where she could join her will with it.
She stood with her arms out to her sides, brought them to cross above her head, then circled one through the air while the other curled against her chest. Her magic flowed out and touched the kurosumi's body.
"Melt, tar!"
The kurosumi roared in anger as its arms and legs went gooey without its consent. Stuck in place, it was a ripe target for Tomiko. A freezing gale whipped up around her and flowed out over the creature. It stopped melting and froze solid, locking its last snarl of fury in place.
Tsuki Okami, seeing his opponent rendered harmless, hammered into it and sent it crashing to the ground. It shattered, pieces of the awful thing scattering across the cave floor.
"Get back," said Chiyo.
She struck the broken fragments with her most powerful blast, reducing them to tiny shards for good measure.
"It can't, uh, reform from that, can it?" asked Taiko.
"No," said Tomiko. "It won't bother anyone again."
Ikumi closed her eyes and bowed her head.
"The spirits are thankful," she said. "They don't revel in killing, but that thing didn't belong here."
It didn't take them long to get back to the surface. Taiko basked in the gentle warmth of the sun. Tomiko didn't care for it as much.
One month had passed since the battle at Frostspire. Queen Tomiko was a different woman now, just as promised. She was still melancholy and reserved, sometimes even indifferent. But her cruelty and despondency were gone. Sometimes she even had fun when Taiko gave her no other choice. The first festival she'd been forced to be a part of had her desperately pretending to be unimpressed, but as hard as she tried she wasn't able to keep from smiling once or twice.
Haru was waiting for them above.
"Did you find it?" he asked, walking over to Chiyo.
"Mm-hm," she said.
"I'm glad you made it out safe, then!" he said, wrapping his arms around her.
She tried to wriggle free, embarrassed. Taiko didn't know why. Everyone knew they were together now. When he only squeezed her harder in response she surrendered, and as red as her face was she looked warm and safe in his arms.
"So, back to Umai?" asked Ikumi, standing next to Taiko.
"Hm... it's still early."
"We could stop by Tampopo forest and see how Uffmog and her cubs are doing," said Miyoshi.
"Or we could go collect some specimens from the doppi plants that are blooming right now by the Midori Lake," said Chiyo. "They only do that two weeks out of the year, and they're almost up."
Tomiko just sighed.
Taiko looked to the sky as she thought about what adventure to embark on next. Grief tugged at her heart when she found herself wondering what Yumi would have suggested. Taiko would never know what kind of fate she'd gone to in that other world. All she could do was hope that she would have her happy ending too.
Yumi entered her master's chambers. She knelt, waiting with head bowed as he finished writing out his orders to send to Captain Yushin.
"You may speak," he said, putting down his brush and rolling up the piece of paper.
"My mission has been a success," she said. "Kori has been captured, and sealed in the prison at Chinmoku Rock."
"The Oni are finished, then. Good work."
It was a crucial victory, but Queen Tomiko- or at least her shadow- still remained strong in her frozen kingdom. After losing Frostspire Akio's forces had been obliged to retreat. Having to lay siege to Ishi-jo further weakened him. Now, with the fortress back in his hands, he was slowly getting things under control again.
Yumi was helping him. Not by choice, obviously. There was a new mark on the back of her neck, made with the kurosumi's tar. It was Akio's crest. After taking her back to Ishi-jo in bondage Akio had broken her again, just as he promised. Naked, on her knees, crushed by the rope digging into her arms and chest, and stinging all over from a brutal whipping, she pledged her oath of absolute servitude to him. She accepted his symbol as a part of it, and when it was drawn on her neck with his cursed brush it forever sealed her obedience to him.
"Strip," he said, turning to watch her.
For just an instant, she resolved not to. In that instant, the pain of every torture she'd endured since her first capture at Akio's hands echoed throughout her body, and she swiftly got to work removing her uniform. She folded it neatly and laid in on the floor, kneeling before her master- there was no denying that he was- so that he might enjoy the sight of her naked body.
Yumi was thankful that he was the only one who was allowed to see it. She was his to enjoy, but she was his alone. He'd changed. He was no less strict a master, no less dominating, but he was no longer cruel or wanton. He cared for her. As a valued piece of property, perhaps, but no more would he entertain the kind of inhumanity he threatened when she was first his prisoner. Her life so far was still filled with humiliations, punishments, and unwilling servitude, but there was hope, too. She was allowed to have things to live for and a limit to the evils she would have to endure.
She was also his only personal slave now. Once determined to be the first to rape every woman who entered Ishi-jo, he now reserved all of his attentions for Yumi.
Akio's rule over his domain had transformed as well, along the same lines. He was still a villain, of that Yumi could see no contention. He still demanded fealty and tribute. Women were still enslaved and used sexually against their will. But there was mercy and a measure of fairness in bowing to him now. Slaves didn't exactly have any rights, but there were standards that their treatment was expected to live up to. As long as they behaved.
Yumi held out hope that time would transform him further, that he would eventually become the person that the timid little man who spawned him would have truly wished to be.
But not in her wildest dreams did she ever expect that she would have her freedom.
Akio opened a drawer and took a bundle of rope from it. Taiko folded her arms behind her back. In truth, she was no more helpless before him while tied up than the mark already made her, but she still trembled at the promise of being sealed in strict bondage. Akio still craved it, of course, so physical restraint had become her constant companion.
The feeling of the rope against her skin made her want to rebel, but instead she dutifully allowed her master to weave it around her wrists and arms, every second a new knot or coil around some part of her removing her ability to defend herself against his coming assault even further. He was careful to make sure that it pinched her breasts just right, that it would be just a little painful if she struggled, and that it encouraged her posture to show off her womanly shape as much as possible. She knew that none of it would be removed until at least the next morning.
Akio groped her from behind, thoroughly testing that his ropework would stand up to her squirming no matter what part of her body he squeezed. Yumi made sure that her legs were spread enough for him to caress her inner thighs, and even run his fingers across her sex. It was demeaning to offer herself to him like that, but pride was a luxury that she was allowed very sparingly.
"You fill those ropes out beautifully, as ever," he said.
He stood, and from the still open drawer he picked up his favorite flog.
"Master, please," begged Yumi. "I did a good job, didn't I?"
"Yes,
and what of it? Good work is to be expected of a slave."
"But then I don't deserve to be punished, do I?"
"A slave should never go too long without a reminder of what the whip feels like. In times when you have served me well, more than ever, it is good for you to be reminded not to expect a reward beyond my pleasure."
Yumi braced herself. Akio slapped the leather tail of the flog against her ass. It wasn't the hardest she'd ever been beaten, but it still stung. He circled around her, whipping her sides, her stomach, her breasts, and the insides of her legs. Yumi was allowed utter a few cries of pain- if she didn't, he regarded his touch as being too light- but she wasn't allowed to move at all. Her legs stayed open while the leather strips of the flog beat against her flesh.
It took a lot of effort to stay in position while she waited for the inevitable. The flog took her pussy, and every muscle in her body tensed as she fought it to remain upright and open. Her breasts were stuck again, harder this time, before he moved around to her back to finish the session.
She panted, her body smarting all over, but even more keenly than the pain she felt the weight of his yoke around her neck, the totality of his ownership over her. She couldn't deny that he'd achieved his purpose. She was his slave, now and forever. Even if he freed every other slave in the world, he would always keep her for himself.
Yumi waited for him while he put the flog away. His hands would be on her soon, and her pussy was already wet in anticipation.
Akio laid her on her back and kissed her. She didn't resist, but only cooperated with reservation. It made him more aggressive- it always did- and his fingers slipping into her pussy while he held her jaw. He was hurting her, but just enough to warn her how willing he was to punish her again. He kissed her all over, from her mouth, to her shoulder, to her breasts, all the way down to her naval as he stripped his clothes off.
He spread her legs roughly, and she bit her lip while he let his cock sink into her pussy. She had to moan as he started fucking her. It felt good. She couldn't just blame her renegade loins anymore- for all his evil, for all she chaffed at her slavery, she needed him to fuck her, and if took a thousand lashes a night to remind her why, it was worth every one.