Incubus
He sat. Cross-legged, atop the building that he called school, he sat. Watching. The clouds in the midday Nerima sky looked as if they reached up into the never ending heavens as long as they could, leaving this plane of misery, of torture. He sighed.
He knew he would never make it there, where the sky met eternity.
A bell rang, and he was suddenly on his feet, leaping from pole
to tree to fence to ground with an uncanny sense of balance and
equally uncanny constitution; a normal man would have broken his
ankles with such a leap. But not him, no, he had never even experienced
a mere hairline fracture of his fine frame, rather amazingly.
In fact, most things about him were just as amazing; he was an
unequaled fighter and martial artist in general at the tender
age of seventeen, he had partaken in some of the most awesome
adventures that a person could experience, he even endured women
throwing themselves at him to be his wife. On top of all this,
he was living with one of the horrible Jusenkyo curses that made
his gender always an issue. Yet somehow, all these things seemed
as nothing to him.
He walked up the stairs casually, his hands clutched in his pockets,
and he heard the footsteps beginning to run behind him. He knew
who it was. His emotionless eyes were instantly covered by a
mask of even amiability; the way most people were accustomed to
seeing him. He didn't act like he knew she was there, for it
would startle her if he did, as she was still far across the yard
from him. He almost smiled genuinely.
He knew exactly how long it took her to arrive behind him, and
at that moment, he casually glanced back over his shoulder.
"Aw..." she moaned, bringing her bladed hand down to
her side, "why don't you ever let me surprise you?"
Smiling now, she gazed up into his eyes lovingly. Inwardly,
he wondered if this truly was the same girl who had smashed him
with a table on the first day they met, this playful, cheerful,
loving woman beside him. He wasn't the same either, and a flash
of sorrow swept through him when he considered her enduring what
he had to live with every day of his life. It wasn't possible.
Only distracted by thought for a split second, he put down the
thought and returned her gaze.
"Because, I just can't let a klutz like you sneak up on me,"
he stuck his tongue out, and she slapped his chest lightly.
"C'mon, let's go to class, dummy," she grabbed his hand,
and led him inside the building.
Feeling the grip of her small, soft hand upon his, knowing the
love that was there for him, his mask was betrayed for another
moment, his face revealed to the look of utter anguish at what
he knew awaited him... and her... not far in the future. A tear
nearly escaped him, but didn't. It couldn't. Not anymore.
who are you?
come with me.
love me.
I need it.
her soul...
more... I need love
so beautiful
can't die
thank you... thank you...
not another one
never again
I'll pay the price
no, no, no...
the only way
the
only
way
"A challenge?" Ranma looked
at the parchment on his desk, obviously written by the same person
who always brought a challenge to him written in calligraphy.
"'During lunch. The far trees. Come alone.
--Kuno Tatewaki'"
He sighed as he slipped the paper into his pocket and gazed out
the window listlessly; he knew it was going to have to do with
the wedding that was coming up the day after school let out --
his own wedding with Akane. This time, he knew that nothing was
going to get in the way, for it had taken them the entirety of
the last year, but he and Akane knew the feelings that they had
for each other were real. Part of it had to do with his own calming
down from the unruly boy that he used to be, but she seemed to
have matured as well. Again, he smiled lightly when he thought
about Akane... but it quickly faded. He frowned and closed his
eyes, waiting for class to end.
He sauntered down the grass towards a more hidden part of the schoolyard, where the trees grew and the toolshed sat. He knew that Kuno would be waiting as always, and he even sensed him, the one-track mind of the school's top kendoist. He left his guard at a minimum; it was all he needed.
"Saotome, prepare to meet your match! For I, Kuno Tatewaki
shall strike you down and free the fair Tendo Akane from the clutches
of this upcoming nuptial! And then, she shall find her true love
with he who challenges you!" he spoke, his deep voice sounding
almost heroic if it weren't for the fact that he was speaking
about something that he just couldn't grasp.
Ranma stood and stared at the ground, kicked at the grass, the
lifted his eyes to Kuno and left them upon him; they smoldered
with a darkness that made the kendoist blink at seeing. He hadn't
seen that look in his nemesis before.
"Kuno... Akane loves me, and I love her. Why don't you just
see that and leave me alone? I'll be outta your way soon,"
Ranma said to him cryptically, his voice unusually monotone.
"After all, you don't wanna get your ass kicked again, do
you?"
Kuno frowned. "How dare you? I shall defeat you before
she is tied to you, such a foul incubus! Have at you!"
Kuno began to advance.
Ranma looked up and his eyes flashed widely and his heart sank.
"How... how do you know that?" he said, shocked, then
his eyes darkened to a deep black and a red light shone from his
pupils, "What are you, a yokai, an oni working for the Dark
One? Come to kill this body and make me return to my duties?
Well, I'm going to have to disappoint you today!"
"What?" Kuno said, seeing the change in Ranma, and
then froze in his tracks as he saw the pigtailed boy engulfed
in a black and red aura and raise up off of the ground, energy
gathering in his fists. Then it occurred to him that he intended
to use that energy against him, so began to dodge to the side.
Just in time, too, for the blasts created an impressively deep
crater where Kuno would have been. He looked up and saw Ranma
charging up again.
"Don't think you can get away! I'll not let anyone get in
my way when I am so close! Return to hell, bastard!"
"Have you gone mad, Saotome!" Kuno shouted, scrambling
away from another shot.
"Don't mock me! I see through you!" This time, Ranma
lowered nearly to the ground, and took on an attack stance. Kuno
saw this, and looked about him, then took the only logical course
of action: he ran.
Ranma was on his back at every turn, firing blasts of energy just
barely missing Kuno's heels. Coming across the toolshed, he ran
inside, and whispering a prayer, braced himself.
"I cannot get away from him! What have I done to him
that he would turn... turn so deadly? Tatewaki, face your death
like a man... but at least try to talk to him..."
Ranma slowed down for a moment and concentrated; he could hear
the babbling noise of Kuno's terrified mind from within the shed.
He smiled malevolently and pretended to look around.
"So, you thought that you could fool me by taking on the
form of that moron, Kuno, didn't you? Or have you always been
of Dark blood? That Kodachi is more an evil spirit than woman,
so it would not surprise me if the clan Kuno is part of the Dark,"
he paused; Kuno's mind seemed confused but still in terror. Time
to strike. "Evil spirit, evil man, I shall send you to the
other side; you will NOT stop me from this!"
With that, he fired an energy blast at the shed, knocking out
the wall opposite the one Kuno was leant against. Ranma raised
to the air again, his dark aura stronger than before, his eyes
completely black, save a small point of red light that pierced
where his pupils should have been.
"Why are you not fighting back, fool!? Is this not what you
wanted?" he waited for Kuno to make a move, but the man was
sitting in a traditional pose, with a stern face that trembled
slightly; this angered Ranma all the more. "FIGHT ME, or
I will kill you with one blow!"
"Saotome Ranma," Kuno began, falling forward, his forehead
to the dirt floor, his palms supporting the rest of his weight,
"Forgive me." Ranma was taken aback; what was this?
"Forgive me for how I have wronged you and Tendo Akane.
I am not blind; I can see that you are in love together, and I
can see that my pigtailed goddess is yourself in female form.
I have only done these things in desperation of love and for
my own selfishness! I beg you, if this is my moment of death,
I must have at least the smallest bit of honor to take with me
to the beyond. If you must kill me, at least grant me this..."
Kuno spoke with an uneven, yet strong voice. He remained there,
prostrate, and waited for Ranma to do as he wished.
"He is not fighting back... and he is asking... Gods,
what have I done? The confusion in his mind... that was because
he did not know what on Earth I was accusing him of! And now
this... how could I?" Ranma immediately dropped to the
floor, his eyes reverting, his aura dissipating. Looking at his
own hands in disbelief of what he had almost done: he had nearly
killed a simple man.
"Kuno... get up, I'm not going to kill you..." Ranma
muttered, crossing his legs and hunched over, poking the other
man's head. Kuno lifted his head gingerly, and when he saw Ranma
reverted back to a normal, human looking state, he launched himself
forward, Ranma reeling back as Kuno wrapped his arms fast around
one of his legs.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are indeed merciful
towards my sins!" he sat up suddenly and tried to look dignified
again. "That is... I shall spare you..."
"Can it, Kuno," Ranma spat back. He was, for the moment,
still disgusted with himself for acting so paranoid and foolish:
how could he have mistaken stupid old Kuno for a real member of
the Darkness? Every eminence from the man's mind had signaled
that he was, indeed, only a man.
"Fine, then, I think I should go now..."
"Wait a minute there," he glared at the Kendoist who
was beginning to get to his feet, "You're not leaving just
yet. I can't let you go after all you've seen of me... and what's
this that you're not as thick as brick and know that I'm your
pigtailed girl?" Ranma noticed more sweat appearing on the
man's forehead.
"Sigh... I suppose my act is up," he said, defeatedly.
He sat back down, his back straight and his face stern once again.
"I have loved Tendo Akane since I was in grade school; no
other girl has ever possessed such a balance between beauty and
formidability. It has been the Kuno way for generations to win
one's mate by treating the pursuit of love as battle and strategy,
and so it has been the only path I knew to take in winning her
affections.
"And then," he raised his lowered eyes to Ranma, "you
entered the picture. A man, living with her, intended to be her
husband by her family, who is equally as attractive, but a stronger
warrior than I. And I watched, day by day, you treat her like
dirt and fall into the traps of the other 'fiancees' that you
had, and it... hurt me," he strained with the words, and
Ranma continued to listen, nearly shocked by Kuno's candidness
and... lucidity.
"But what hurt me more is that I saw that she began to love
you from that first day. But a Kuno never gives in... even when
he knows that all is lost. So I kept trying, in hopes that someday
she would see me with the same eyes that she saw you with."
"Well, Kuno... I'm sorry, I guess..." Ranma began, still
taken aback by Kuno's confession; then he remembered the 'pigtailed
girl' part. "But what the hell is up with you trying to
hook up with ME? What kind of hentai-yaoi bastard are you for
that??"
"That..." Kuno began silently, "Is the other half
of my treachery and my... my... desperation. I do not think I
can tell you..." he said dramatically, yet sincerely dramatic
for once in his life. Ranma's eye twitched.
"Tell me or I *will* kill you."
"Right... then I suppose that I must..." he gulped and
sweated more. "For a few weeks, along with the rest of Furinkan,
I did not know that you and the pigtailed girl were one and the
same. All that I knew was that a girl equally as beautiful as
Tendo Akane, but much stronger and much more spirited had fallen
into my life. So I began my pursuit of her with the hopes that
I would win her, which would save my hurting heart from the imminent
loss of Tendo Akane. However, word was spreading of the 'oneness'
of you and my pigtailed goddess, and when I was watching the girl
and Tendo Akane walking home, I saw her pour hot water over herself
and change, before my eyes, into you.
"The pain of the loss of both the women I loved to the same
man was something I could not bear. And the disgrace... loving
a woman who would not love me back, and the other, who was in
reality a man... if people knew that I was thinking clearly, they
would have thought me to be the saddest creature on the face of
the planet, and... yaoi for not giving up on the pigtailed girl.
"I could not break my obsession with the pigtailed girl,
even knowing that it was you, Saotome, whom I hated. So, as the
student body thought me to be as simple-minded and insane as my
father is, I used that. I feigned ignorance and I was accepted
for it. But deep within me, I hoped that, somehow, your curse
and misadventures would break you and Akane apart, and she would
be mine.... or one of those misadventures would make you the pigtailed
girl forever to be mine."
Ranma's mouth was nearly open with the thought of Kuno knowing
it was him all along...
"Now you know, Saotome, that I am not a fool in mind... only
in the heart. Now do you know why I hate you? Why I keep trying
to best you, to break you?" tears were welling up in the
man's eyes, tears that he had been fighting back with all of his
strength, but this... telling the only person whom he never wished
to admit defeat to every sordid detail of his deviance.
"I'm... I'm surprised, Kuno, that's all I can say..."
Ranma began, surveying the broken man before him, and feeling
guilty for it. Had he truly done all these things to a man who's
main fault was knowing nothing about approaching women and never
admitting defeat? For the first time since he had met Tatewaki
Kuno, Ranma felt respect for him. "But it takes a real man...
with honor... to admit what he has done wrong... and to fight
even without hope of winning..."
"I have no honor... I am a dog..." Kuno spat, tears
streaming down his face, his back hunched forward. Suddenly,
he felt soft, delicate hands rub his back and shoulder; he recognized
that touch.
"No, Kuno, I sense it now... you are a good man after all..."
she said to him, her bright blue eyes looking into his sincerely.
"How...?" Kuno noticed that she wasn't damp at all.
"Shh... Just for now, be quiet and let me be your pigtailed
goddess for the moment; wise and gentle," she continued to
rub his back, and pulled him forward to lean on her shoulder;
he resisted, but gave in shortly. His body shuddered with a sob,
and felt him bury his face in her soft, red hair.
"Your clan has made you what you are. I can see it now,
I can see your honorable, good soul, and you do not deserve what
you have gotten out of love. How could one so loyal to his family's
ways stray from a taught path, even when it does not work, or
there is no hope? But do not worry, Tatewaki, there is hope for
you yet; as you have told me your sad story, I shall tell you
tell you mine.
"However, to hear my story you must be prepared to take up
the responsibility that comes with it..." she whispered to
him.
"I want to hear... what do you require?"
"Your family has dishonored you... and so horribly that by
leaving it you would not be dishonoring yourself, and you cannot
dishonor that that has none. Change your ways; be strong but
kind, be persistent but sensitive. And... you must promise to
be friend to Saotome Ranma and protector to his children."
"But... I--" Kuno began to protest, but the red haired
woman shushed him again.
"I will give you a day. If you can make me that promise,
meet me," Kuno suddenly felt the size of the person he was
leaning on grow, the softness turn to hard muscle, and the hair
in his face turned from a fair red to a coarse black, "Saotome
Ranma," Kuno sat up and stared at him, who had just been
his girl a moment before, "in this spot after school tomorrow.
Otherwise, speak nothing of what you have seen here, and I will
tell no one what you have told me."
Ranma stood up and walked off without another look or word to
Kuno, who sat in disbelief of what had just transpired, and mulling
in his head the not unreasonable request of his goddess.
*****
Ranma felt himself hurrying; why was he so eager to see if Kuno would show and listen to his story?
"This has been my secret for my entire life, so why should
I feel a need to share the burden, and with Kuno of all people?"
he asked himself as he leapt the perimeter fence without even
a second thought to it. "Could it be, that he is the only
honorable man I know who I could trust with this? What about
Ryoga? No... I don't think he would understand... he would surely
tell Akane or do something foolish with the knowledge. Anyway,
he has his own love interest now, so it wouldn't be fair of me
to put this upon him. Kuno is a broken man, and he is the only
person I know that has loved both Akane and myself..." Ranma
shuddered a bit when the image of Kuno and his female self 'together'
crossed his mind's eye -- but he let the image linger.
"I need to know that someone will be able to pick up the
pieces."
"How can I possibly accept these terms?" Kuno muttered, pacing back and forth outside the shed, which was still damaged from the day before, still dressed in his Kendo attire, for he had even left practice early to come and hear Saotome's story. "What, in all of the world could cause him to make me vow such things? But I saw him, so deadly... I had no defense at all... and he changed forms without water... I have felt a feeling of darkness from him for a while now; when we fight, his face is so emotionless. What has happened to him?"
"So, you came."
Kuno instinctively spun on his heel, startled, and was face to
face with Saotome, wearing an emotionless mask, the same look
that Kuno had taken note of in their more recent fights. Kuno
straightened himself up and crossed his arms.
"Yes..."
"And the terms? Do you accept them?"
"I -- Leaving my clan, it is something that I have never
even fathomed. It is simply against everything that I have been
raised with -- it is contrary to my traditional values. My name
has given me wealth and notoriety... but those things are meaningless
when that name brings dysfunction and an inability to love. My
father is psychotic, my sister is not much better than he -- she
embraces the Kuno way of pursuit, and my mother... she, in an
early death from the family -- she is the lucky one.
"My heart has been wanting something real, but I have known
of no other way. Part of me, that dutiful son, that carrier of
the Kuno name, hates and cannot accept the terms that you ask
of me."
"All right, I'll be on my wa--" Ranma began to turn
and walk away.
"But," Kuno went on, Ranma stopping in his tracks but
not turning back to face Kuno again, to see the conflict and confusion
in the man's face, to see his hands clutched to whiteness, "After
revealing all of the folly and pathos of the life that I have
lead under the guidance of my clan, I want to start making steps
to restore my honor and my future. In taking my life into my
own hands, I defy my clan, and therefore, I *must* leave it,"
he trailed off, his face forced into a stern frown. Ranma faced
him again and approached.
"Fine. And the rest?"
"I do not understand that. While it is in my own interest
to become my own man, to force me to vow to be your friend and
to be protector of your unborn-- unconcieved children leaves me
dubious. As the way things stand right now, I still do not consider
you a friend, but the possibility is fathomable, yet... it simply
makes no sense to me," he told Ranma, lifting his hands up.
Ranma's blank expression gave way momentary to a sideways smirk.
"That... that is something that is in your benefit, which
will be revealed to you in good time. You will just have to trust
me."
Kuno cocked an eyebrow, then shrugged his shoulders in a rather
'Ranma-esque' way.
"I shall take your word upon that, and so you shall have
mine. I swear," Kuno began, raising his hand palm-out, "upon
my honor as the clanless Tatewaki, that I take upon me the terms
that you, Saotome Ranma has put forth in return for sharing with
me an intimate secret."
Ranma nodded, and walked inside of the shed, beckoning the former
Kuno to follow him. They both sat on the floor cross-legged and
stared at the other for a few moments. Ranma let out an uneasy
breath as he began.
"I'm sure that you are questioning whether I am, in fact
the Saotome Ranma you met nearly two years ago, and I sometimes
wonder that myself... but yes, I am Saotome Ranma, but I have
become my full... 'self' over the past few months."
"What do you mean?" Tatewaki interjected when Ranma
took a moment to choose his words.
"I'm getting to that, if you'll let me continue," Ranma
said, impatiently. The other man crossed his arms, but complied.
"From the time that I was a child, I always knew that there
were two parts to me: the part that was me, Saotome Ranma, martial
artist, son of Saotome Genma and Nodoka, the part that spoke with
others and controlled my body, and thoughts that were separate
from my own; a mind much older than my young brain, and always...
sad.
"It always encouraged me, however, through hard times, such
as whenever my parents seemed distant from each other, or when
I had to leave my mother to go and train. As I grew older, this
second voice in my head began to become one with my own thoughts.
We were merging, not one side overcoming another. I thought
it was natural, something that all people had and it was just
sign of growing up, although I remember it discouraging me from
asking other children what their 'second voice' told them.
"As we, or I, grew together, my coordination and strength
and proficiency with martial arts grew, as if I were becoming
an old master in the matter of a few years. Another side effect
of this was an incredible increase in my attractiveness to women.
I remember, when I was nine, I had a female teacher who would
always give me kisses on my forehead and tell me that I was such
a handsome boy, and that she couldn't wait to see me grown...
a repeated action which spurred my parents to put me in a boys'
school the following year, right before pop took me on that training
trip...
"Yet, I still never thought anything of it; I thought that
it was just who I was. Then came the curse... Turning into an
incredibly sexy girl shocked me enough, but it scared me that...
that a part of me felt it natural and comfortable to switch genders.
I wondered if I were going yaoi, but I still felt attracted to
girls, as I did to Akane within the first week of living with
the Tendo family, so I wanted to be rid of the curse all the more
to eliminate the strange feelings that came with it.
"Anyway... the last small phase of this self-completion
came by the calming of myself around Akane. The outward me had
never really understood the right way to deal with women -- I
was learning, but the other me possessed knowledge of pleasing
women... in many ways..."
"You didn't--?" Tatewaki choked, his face turning red.
"No, no. I would never seduce Akane. But I learned how
to express my love to her and allow her to open up to me on her
own terms. This was the beginning of the school session this
past fall, a good two months after the botched wedding. For a
couple of months thereafter, I felt like I was not growing anymore,
but that I was still incomplete -- like the parts of me had just
stopped coming together close to completion. Again, I wrote it
off as something else, this time just a sign that I needed Akane
to complete me or something flowery like that.
"Nine months to the day of my eighteenth birthday, it happened.
We, I, became one. I was in the middle of my morning Katas,
when I was suddenly surrounded by the black and red aura that
I expressed when I was attacking you, and the knowledge returned,
or rather, was known to me fully....
"...I am an Incubus."
He let the declaration ring for a moment and looked up to see
the incredulous Tatewaki blinking his wide eyes at him. Ranma
smiled a twisted grin and looked down again as he went on.
"I remembered being a servant of a Dark Lord of Hell for
millennia after being born from the souls of love-starved men
and women who had committed suicide in their pain. I was originally
genderless, a Succubus in female form, Incubus in male, but over
the centuries, as I became more defined as a being, I chose the
male form as my baseline form. You know already what Succubi
and Incubi do ... they descend upon sleeping humans, most often
those who are starved for love and affection, have a night of
torrid relations while in the process stealing the soul away from
the person to Hell. I can still see the face of each man and
woman I pleasured before I ripped their soul from them in the
climax of our meeting.
"Most yokai find their only joy in doing what evil they were
made to do... but some of us find the ability to grow; change
our minds. I first showed growth when I decided define myself
as an Incubus, a choice made after I found that I preferred to
descend upon women. But as time went on, that preference grew
to a respect. I used to choose the women that I visited, the
ones that had the worst circumstances-- with an abusive or uncaring
husband, a forced chastity, the loss of a never touched lover
-- and I would grant them the most tender and unforgettable night...
before I took their souls away. As this went on, I would continually
visit some of the women that I was more intrigued with, keeping
them around by pulling out of the act before she climaxed. But
eventually, I would have to do my job. And very rarely did I
find a woman willing to let her soul go to Hell.
"I grew more and more weary of damning the souls of women,
and the occasional man, to torments in Hell merely for my nature
taking advantage of their denied or wronged nature; my 'growth'
as a being had taken the ignorant, wanton joy out of what I was
created to do. It was my job, under the hand of my Dark Lord
to bring him souls, so there seemed no escape, save a few rumors
that floated around from time to time of dissatisfied yokai finding
a way out of their illicit duties. And then, eighteen years ago,
I wandered into the bedchamber of Saotome Nodoka.
"Such a beautiful woman, but so lost, so unfulfilled -- her
marriage had been arranged long before she was old enough to know
what being a wife required of her; her husband had only used her
enough to make sure that he had planted his seed and then ignored
her. He did not love her, and she could not love a man who forced
himself on her for a quick fix and disregarded her afterwards.
I drifted over her, as I normally did, and stroked her soft skin
and silky hair, and kissed her beautiful face.
"I had not expected her to wake up from a mere caress, but
she did, and by intuition, or maybe expectance, knew exactly what
I was...
"Who are you?" she asked, but, with an odd smile on her face, went on, "oh... I know you, yokai Incubus."
"You know me so easily?" he said, still floating above
her, still stroking her face, her eyes closing and her face turning
into his hand. "You've caught me, so I have no influence
over you; you'll soon tell me to be gone," he looked into
her eyes; he had seen so many women's eyes, but hers... hers looked
like they wanted something, wanted...
"I've always heard tales of Incubus coming for poor women
like me... pathetic, sad women. I lie here, the seed of a husband
I cannot love who will not love me inside me, growing. I cannot
bring myself to take my own life and my child's... I am a coward.
So I hoped that you would come, to take me away ... after showing
me more love than I could ever hope to have in this life or after
it, after whispering in my ear, 'come with me' as you love me.
Incubus, do you have a name?" she asked him, her sad voice
sounding almost excited at the prospect of finding both love and
escape, no matter how twisted the package.
Taken aback, the Incubus lowered himself down onto the bed next
to her, and went along with her request.
"I was created only as a yokai Incubus, but I came to be
known as Ranma, the wild horse," he said, brushing back his
flowing black hair.
"Ranma... a good name. If you wouldn't mind, yokai Ranma,
would you just stay with me to talk for the night?" she asked
with the boldness of the hopeless, "At least, before you
do what you came to do."
"Where is your husband? Is this a trick to get me exorcized?
The Dark Lord would punish me for a century for that."
"I did not know that you would be answering to a master...
but, no, I had no intention of getting you in trouble. I... it
has been so long since anyone has talked to me..." she said
earnestly.
The yokai was strangely touched by her, and began to feel a strange
attachment and camaraderie with this woman.
"Then let us talk."
"Nodoka told me about her life, the unhappy circumstances of her marriage, her sorry excuse for a husband. She had to explain to me things about human emotion that I simply did not understand, although these things were what attracted me to my victims, and even the emotions that had created my kind: sadness, loneliness, unfulfillment, despair. The more she talked, the more questions I had, and the more she intrigued me; never before had a human ever spent time with me in such a way, even when I allowed it. The hours went on, and morning was coming near, yet I still wanted to hear more, and she still wished to talk...."
"The light approaches... I cannot stay much longer," the Incubus told his intended victim of the night, although she had been the one to do the capturing. "I suppose," he said, not the least bit angry, "if this is how you intended to avoid me, you have succeeded, Nodoka. I cannot return to you..." he felt her spirit react: come back. "... unless you permit me. You have impressed me beyond any other woman in all of my centuries; I will not... I cannot steal you by use of sorcery."
"I..." she looked out the window at the rising sun;
she knew that her husband would return, drunk, from his 'training'
mission and sleep half the day away. He wouldn't say anything
to her except 'Make me my meal', and 'Be quiet, woman.' She looked
at the dangerous, horribly beautiful creature before her that
in one night had become more important to her, even in his malevolent
intent, than the family that had given her to her husband, and
the husband that she was devoted to by honor.
"I will think about it. Come to my balcony at your hour,
and if I wish, I shall let you in again... so that you may do
what you came to do," she told him, a hidden smile almost
betraying her face. The Incubus nodded to her, and floated out
of her room with the long morning shadows.
"And so I came back, with the audacity to think that she would let me in a second time... but to my great surprise, I found her waiting outside for me. This lovely woman captivated me once again as I sat in the shadows, watching her; the way the silk of her kimono caressed every curve on her delicate body. I had come upon women as beautiful and even more so than she, yet to me there had never been a creature as exquisite as Saotome Nodoka in the light of the moon.
"We started off talking again, and as the night progressed,
I became more engrossed in learning about the woman than doing
my duty. I let another night go by without taking her, and I
let hope leak from my voice when I asked her to let me come another
night. This time, she consented right away and said she would
wait for me again, on the balcony.
"She was there, as she said, and things continued in the
same way... this progressed for a total of seven nights... a week.
By that time, I knew that I was pressing my luck of another suspicious
yokai under my lord's dominion would find out what I was -- or
rather, was not doing -- and report me. I would be reprimanded
and replaced for the job by an incubus that I knew would force
itself upon my lovely Nodoka."
The yokai sat across from the young woman on the bed, engrossed one again in all that she had to tell him, to ask, to wonder. His heart was heavy; he knew what he was going to have to do tonight -- it was for her own good, and his. Better that he do the deed, he who appreciated her, who found no other to be lovelier than she. She stopped talking, and silence fell between them. The yokai looked into the woman's eyes, his sadness barely hidden beneath the exotic visage that he kept smiling towards her.
"Nodoka-chan, I have one more thing to ask you..." he
began, breaking the silence.
"This is the night, isn't it?" she said calmly, "the
night that you finish what you came to do."
The incubus' smile melted when he heard her say this, but he nodded.
"Yes."
"I knew... somehow, when you came in that this would be our
last night together. Anyhow... please, ask your question."
He froze momentarily, caught off-guard by the woman's reaction.
Wasn't she afraid, in the least, of dying?
"Well..." he stammered, "I have often heard humans,
especially in this age, refer to sex as 'making love'. From what
I understand, sex happens whether or not love is between the partners,
and love is usually there before the act is committed... what
is this, is love actually made? Is it a metaphor for making a
baby, or is it something that only humans know about?"
Nodoka smiled at the naiveté of the ancient being. "It
is not something that I have ever experienced, but here is what
I think it is: making love is the act of sex between two people
who's love for each other is pure, and in that physical act of
that pure love, it is intensified... made almost perfect for a
moment in time. The two have together made their love greater.
This is simply my understanding of the term; it is usually thrown
around in popular usage as a nicer-sounding synonym for the act
of sex."
"I like your definition much more..." he trailed off,
thinking of what that would be like. "I would want something
like that. Do you think that a yokai could ever experience that
kind of love?"
"I... I don't know. I don't know if the dark nature of a
yokai would taint the love, or if a pure love would purge the
darkness from it. Maybe it happens. It's not something that
would be heard about in the world of humans."
"Nor in the world of spirits. As long as we are doing our
tasks, what we do in the mean time is generally ignored, at least
for those of us in service to a lord. No one keeps tabs on free
spirits, and reports we have of unusual activity from them are
regarded as rumor."
"Ah," she said, her gaze drifted off into the distance.
Absently, she untied the sash from her kimono, and then let the
silken cloth slide down her perfectly formed shoulders, exposing
the porcelain skin of her torso to the incubus next to her.
Turning her head over her shoulder, her eyes spoke of longing,
and bade him, 'come now, I am ready.'
Needing no other cue, the incubus inched his way over to her,
the robes that he wore melting away from him into a wispy mist,
then dispersing all together. He wrapped his muscular arms around
her waist and began to kiss her neck and her ear, his face buried
in her long brown hair. His moves were subtle and smooth; engulfed
in the touch of his hands and his warm, soft lips that explored
her face, neck and upper torso, she didn't even notice that he
had lain her on her back and had positioned himself over her.
She opened her eyes to see his face above her; he wore an expression
of sadness.
He began.
She remained silent, save a few involuntary, soft moans. At this
point, he was so amplified in his demonic prowess that he could
hear her thoughts beneath her controlled exterior.
'i need it... i want it... thank you... thank you... this is what
it feels like....'
He knew how to extend every moment, every motion; millennia of
women, of practice had taught him how to make the most of his
short time spent coupled with his prey. At the smallest increments,
he began to speed up the pace at which he moved.
'love me... love me...'
Faster.
'more more more.... I need love... more...'
Faster.
Faster.
'thank you.. thank you... thank you...'
Faster.
"So beautiful..."
'a-a-ah-h-h-h...!!!'
Fastest.
Her body rocked in time with his, and he felt her reaching the
point -- the top of her feelings, the greatest of the animal passion
that a human could feel. The feeling that took over her body,
making her human soul less attached in the utmost of physical
sensation. He began to feel her entering him.
"No... you can't die..."
'thank you... thank... you.... ' her thoughts whispered as they
were drowning in him. Half of her soul had already been drawn
up into him.
"Not another one..."
'i'll pay... the price...'
"NO NO NO!!!"
The yokai's thoughts screamed and reached out for every possible
alternative; he was killing the first woman that he had ever...
loved. Reaching, reaching... and found a way. Another soul,
a small, unformed soul. The child in her womb.
"The only way..." his last thoughts whispered. Without
wasting another moment, the incubus' form dissipated, leaving
Nodoka's soul to return to her body. Exhausted, she lay heaving,
atop her bed, an absent hand covering her belly. Souls merged
and the mind of an incubus went into dormancy beneath the forming
infant's own.
"Thank you...." she whispered, falling into a deep sleep,
"Ranma."
**TBC**
