Chapter 2 : Saved by death
Title : Onnagata
Author : dark kingdom
Email : kataki2001-at-yahoo.fr
Fandom : Sailor Moon (anime) Dark Kingdom
Pairing : Kunzite / Zoisite (they're only just meeting here...)
Rating : a bit of violence and hints of sex
Copyright : Zoisite, Kunzite, Sailor Moon and the rest are the property of Naoko Takeuchi.
Author's comments : this one is told by Shiro.
I had felt obscurely flattered by the Tennou's talk. Even though I'd been trained for as long as I remembered to move and talk like a woman, and even more, like an impossible ideal of woman who didn't exist, it was not really my nature.
But there wasn't a moment where I was allowed to be himself, except when I was utterly alone. In the theater and with guests, I was supposed to maintain the aura of female perfection. I was always acting, even off stage.
Now I was given a chance to be myself and get a few debts paid.
Bad idea, after all. Murasaki sensei was old and slow, and it had been easy to take him by surprise. But his assistants are younger, and he liked them strong and tall.
I do manage to stab the first one who reaches me, but I lose the tantou in the fight when two others follow him. I try my best to escape their blows, but as more arrive and fill the room, they finally catch me. Maybe not wearing my usual many layers of clothing was supposed to allow me to move faster, but once they have me, it means my last protection is gone.
Can one die of being punched? At least I'll take two of these idiots with me into death.
Damn this Tennou who gave me false hopes. Not that I really believed…
Wow! What has he done this time? The guys have been blown away by another of his spells. I thought it was the end of me, too, but it didn't touch me.
I get up and try not to throw up. My enemies have not just been blown away, their bodies lay dispatched with highly unnatural angles. I don't know why, it makes me more queasy than when I stabbed one with my own blade.
I gather myself and turn to the Tennou. I failed his test, so I expect he will kill me as he said. He probably never meant to give me a chance anyway.
He looks at me weirdly. I can't decipher his steely eyes. Then a cold smile appears on his lips, and the room darkens around us.
I thought it was the end, but a dim light rises again, allowing me to see an unpleasant place. Carved walls of raw stone, with dark green roots and purple moss surfacing in places. A chilly draft comes from behind me, from a corridor fading to shadows. On my left, a pool of black water, only troubled by a slow current. On my right, a stone bench emerging from the wall.
In my back, the deep voice of the demon.
"I though you might be wanting a bath."
I turn to him, then look down at myself. I had forgotten that I was nearly naked, and my skin is stained with blood… mostly not mine, though.
"I'll be back."
He seems to fade into nothingness and I'm left alone in this strange place.
I sigh and take off my last piece of cloth. I can't wipe out my memory or prevent what will happen, but at least I can face it in a clean body.
The water is not cold, and it's not an onsen either, but it's pleasantly warm. I wash away the blood from my skin and loosen my hair to bathe it too. I start relaxing, despite the sore spots all over my body where my ancient fellows hit me.
Then the white-haired Tennou reappears. I get out of the pool without waiting for his command. Let's not make this worse than required.
He looks me up and down then raises a hand. The chilly breeze turns into a warm wind that keeps getting stronger, until it sweeps me off my feet. I have to close my eyes against it, floating amongst a twirl of heat that dries my skin and runs through my hair.
That's a most unusual foreplay, if it is one… But it feels good. I open my eyes briefly and see the Tennou standing, guiding the wind around my body with both his hands, a mischievous smile on his lips. So… Foreplay it is.
But I don't care. It's too pleasant to resist, and I give myself away to the sensation.
It stops way too soon, the wind decreases and I land softly in front of him. He brushes a lock from my face and drops.
"Nice hair. You shouldn't hide it or hide behind it."
It's a very detached and factual comment. Yet for some reason it makes me blush and I curse myself silently for it. I get - got… - a lot of praise from my guests, and never paid attention. But he doesn't sound like he's expecting a favor in return, so the compliment hits right at heart.
It really annoys me to feel so vulnerable to him. But what choice do I have?
"Stand still."
Here we are. And he obviously really likes to play with my nerves. He moves his hands above my shoulders, not touching them though. His eyes start glowing, and I find myself floating a few inches above the ground - again -, but steadily this time.
Another weird sensation runs over my skin, as I see energy threads encircling me, tightening into a self-weaving fabric of light. It finally tarnishes into a black and grey uniform, very simple, and black leather boots. Then I'm back on the ground again.
I look from my new outfit to the Tennou, puzzled. It is more traditional to take one's clothes off before sex rather than the dressing one up… Or is that a demon's special perversion?
"This will be your training suit from now on. Is it comfortable?"
I walk a few steps, stretch a little to test the fabric, then nods.
"Hai, it's fitting all right."
Well, it can, since he weaved it over my body.
He extends his palm to me, and more energy threads appear, forming two more complete uniforms in the air, that get folded all by themselves then float to me.
"Now come with me", responds Lord Kunzite.
I follow him along the dark corridor, carrying my new clothes in my arms. A door opens a few steps within, on the left wall. We walk in a six tatami room with sparse furniture. A wide stone cot covered with dry thick moss - it looks pretty comfortable, actually -, a bench against the side wall.
"These are your quarters now. Leave the uniforms here."
I comply, and we go on along the corridor, that lightens softly as we walk through.
"This wing is rather desert, you'll have plenty of room to practice. Most of your time will be spent with my youma, though. They'll teach you warfare."
As he says that, we reach a much wider room and I meet the first Dark Kingdom habitants that leave me no doubt about they not being human.
All of them five are women, as far as I can tell, or at least, female. They have curves, anyway. One also has thorns. And another, feathers. I'm not sure to place what exactly they may have been born from.
Lord Kunzite cuts into my musings and introduces the first one.
"Yoshitana will take charge of your physical training."
That's the one with horns. She takes a step forward and nods sharply. She's the tallest of the group, thought not as tall as the Tennou. She's also strongly built, with bold muscles playing under a furry brown skin.
"I know you do have training already," adds Kunzite, "but what I'll ask you will require less grace and more strength than what you're used to."
Yoshitana gives me a look from my head to my toes, and she'd probably drop a mocking comment in other circumstances. But she doesn't. I swear to myself that even though I look like a woman, I will hold my own like a man in front of her.
"Saiyuki is my best spy. She will not only show you how to sneak into strategic places, but also how to decide what information is worth searching for, and where to look for it."
She is smaller than me, petite, graceful and silent, her skin covered with tiny silvery scales, like a snake. She has eyes like black pearls, holes in the place of ears, no hair, and long webbed fingers. She smiles to me, a genuine smile if not especially warm - and rather freaking with her fangs showing -, more like a sign of recognition between peers.
"Welcome, Shiro".
I'm taken aback, as much because she's the first one I heard talking as by hearing nice words. I figure I'd assumed from their only half-human features that they were mute, but their appearance is the least human thing about them, actually.
I mumble a "Thank you" and give her my automatic theater smile in return, while Kunzite introduces the third youma.
"Furihuri is an expert in long-distance weapons. She'll teach you the use of bow and throwing daggers".
She's the one with feathers, short black feathers running along her limbs and crowning her head. She is staring at me with fixed, piercing gold eyes.
"Bandana will see to your close-combat training."
The most human-looking steps forward. Though I don't know what her mask covers exactly. At least, she's about the same size and stature as me, so fighting against her shouldn't be too painful.
" And last, Arika will assist her. She's a fencing expert."
A slender, green-skinned youma, with lianas falling from her forearms and legs, and hair like short whitish roots.
I utter a general "Pleased to meet you" and bow, not too low.
The Tennou turns to me again.
"I gave them instructions for your training. For anything else - food, questions -, ask Bupu."
"Bupu?"
Just then, I feel a discreet draw on my uniform jacket. I look down and face a very small youma, two feet shorter than me, with short clawed fingers, black and white fur, and a nose like a daikon.
"Bupu is me", says the creature through her pointed teeth.
I see. Helpful, but not that bright. But then I figure, if she had more striking skills, she probably would be a warrior and destined to untimely death.
And I was starting to wonder if the Dark Kingdom only had fearsome warriors for citizens, if even their women are fighters. Apart from the Tennou and the six youma, I didn't see anyone, not even the unremarkable workers that accomplish all the hard tasks needed for higher classes' survival. Maybe, in this place, they were actually invisible, not just ignored like where I came from?…
"I'll be watching your progress. Don't disappoint me."
Eek. Lord Kunzite vanished before I could assure him of my determination, and I'm left on this barely disguised threat of him.
I turn to my new tutors.
"What's next?"
Bandana winks and replies :
"Get rest, you will need it. Ban ban!"
She slips through the ground like if it was water and in a few seconds she is gone, too. Arika, Furihuri and Yoshitana follow her. Saiyuki stayed behind and explains.
"Lord Kunzite told us that your training would start tomorrow. In the meantime, Bupu will get you food and everything you may need. And she will awaken you for the practice in the morning. We'll see you then. Try to sleep well. Tomorrow will probably be a tough day for you."
She leaves, too.
To be continued...Glossary :
onsen : hot springs
hai : yes (yeah, it's fan-girl Japanese, close your eyes if it bugs you)
six tatami room : room size in Japan is often estimated by the number of tatami you can put in it. It can vary, but a "six tatami room" would be about 12 square meters (don't ask me in non-metric...)
daikon : black radish (it's not gratuitous fan-girl Japanese. I was going to write "a black potato", and then it occurred to me that potatoes were probably not common in Japan at this time. So, just trying to be not too blatantly historically wrong here)