Chapter 3
"…" Yuki starred at her husband with a look of utter disbelief, shock and horror.
He had walked into their home, quite calmly, with a cloud of destruction beetles whirling around and crawling on him.
She at first did not know whether to run and get help, scream, or ask him what was going on.
Luckily for her, he spoke up first.
"Yuki, don't panic, it's alright. They won't hurt us."
"T…the deadly kikaichu swarm you mean?"
"Yes, I was able to speak with them, they can understand me just like how we talk to insects around the village. Only they are so much more intelligent! They are like unlike anything –"
He paused in his talking as slowly some of the buzzing insects flew out and inspected Yuki. They flew around her, some landed on her, waving their antennae about. She carefully watched them, quite understandably nervous.
...
Can you understand us too?
...
"Kama, did you say-"
"No dear, it's them."
"What…?"
…We don't know if she can…
We can hear her young's heartbeat!
We like her hair…
"Hey, be careful…!" she yelped out in insect language, not knowing if she liked the feeling of them crawling into her hair or on her pregnant belly.
The insects stopped quite abruptly, and buzzed off of her.
She can!
Interesting…
"Wow...they really are very fluent," she blinked.
"I know."
"But, aren't they dangerous? They can devour a full grown human's chakra within seconds…as the records say."
"They have promised not to harm us."
She was getting a strange feeling from her husband, "What…are you getting at?"
He paused, then started , "In exchange for sparing my life, I am going to act as a vessel for their young for the winter. They were going to eat my chakra as energy to use to go and find a larger host for their young, but since they don't want to kill me, and have taken a liking to me…they are now without either food or a host for their young. Winter is coming, and they told me they need to lay their eggs now or their swarm will die."
She stayed silent for a moment, processing all this, "Act as a host for their young?" She remembered from their records of destruction bugs they needed to lay their eggs within large animals for the young to feed on and grow in to mature properly.
"Yes."
"And…just for the winter you said?"
"By the time it's spring again the young will be mature and fly off to start new group...as they've explained to me. I should be fine, they said as long as I speak to the young they should emerge carefully and not eat all my chakra, and just harmlessly leave."
"This is…all a lot to take in…" she put her hand to her head.
"I know, I'm sorry. There was no other way…otherwise I wouldn't be here for you and our baby," He drew closer to her, and hugged her close. She felt up slowly and embraced him in kiss.
The kikaichu in the room, most of which who had taken to resting on any available chair, table, plant, or shelf, roused up in a seemingly interested buzz. It was as if they were as a group saying "ooooo…"
...Interesting...
Their chakra changed...
We've ever seen humans interacting before.
"Hey…" Kama spoke out. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Did I just hear what I think I heard?" she whispered to him.
Bloodthirsty "destruction bugs" indeed …he thought.
That night, the kikaichu performed their 'ceremony' on Kama. He could still not believe what he was doing, but there was no other way, and he truly wanted to help the bugs, as their feelings of sorrow and worry hit him deeply.
He remained fully conscious and watched as the fifty-or so mating pairs of the insects crawled up onto his exposed skin, and buried themselves into his chest and back. He winced as the feeling. It was strange, for it did not hurt but was indeed not a pleasant or normal feeling. He could feel all 100-some of them crawling under his skin and bury deeper into his body, through his tissue and muscle, but somehow not harming him. He figured they must be doing some kind of complex tissue-healing technique using chakra, how else could they dig through a body and not cause internal bleeding or intense pain?
Within 20 minutes, they emerged again through the holes they had chewed, and he stared and was amazed at them closing them up right before his eyes. Indeed they were using chakra like some kind of medical nin. They can use chakra like humans do in ninja techniques, amazing! he thought, The records never said anything like this. Only mystical otherworldly summons, spirits, or special ninja dogs were known to use chakra like this, but never a small animal such as a beetle.
The kikaichu swarm was just about to leave, but Yuki spoke up suddenly, having been silent all evening, "Won't you get hungry…? Don't you need energy to fly and find your next prey?"
The swarm considered her for a moment.
"Take a little of my chakra…"
We don't want to harm your child.
She looked up in surprise at the feeling of worry and care coming from the swarm.
"Then have some of mine." Kama spoke up.
The kikaichu were conflicted, they indeed were hungry…very hungry, but they didn't want to harm either of the interesting humans they had encountered, one being the host of their young.
Just a little…
...the insects agreed.
The husband and wife nodded.
The black buzzing cloud flew in towards them, and gently alighted on their skin. They stood still as they little beetles crawled on them, practically coating them like a blanket. They avoided Yuki's protruding abdomen. The two of them could feel the pull on their chakra, and the slight drain on their energy, but true to their word the insects did not take much, and before the couple knew it the kikaichu flew up.
Goodbye.
...Thank you...
And left.