King Naraku was once hunting in a great forest, and he hunted so eagerly that none of his courtiers could follow him. When evening came on he stood still and looked around him, and he saw that he was lost. Then he saw an old woman with a shaking head coming towards him.

"Hey witch,"' he said to her, "Show me the way out of the woods!"

"Oh, certainly, Sir King," she replied, "I can quite well do that, but on one condition which if you do not fulfil you will never get out of the wood, and will die of hunger."

"What is the condition?"' asked Naraku.

"I have a daughter," said the old woman, "Who is so beautiful that she has not her equal in the world, and is well fitted to be your wife; if you will make her lady-queen I will show you the way out of the wood."

Naraku in his anguish of mind consented, and the old woman led him to her little house where her daughter Tsubaki was sitting by the fire. She received Naraku as if she were expecting him, and he saw that she was certainly very beautiful; but she did not please him, and he could not look at her without a secret feeling of horror. As soon as he had lifted Tsubaki on to his horse the old woman showed him the way, and Naraku reached his palace, where the wedding was celebrated.

Naraku had already been married once, and had by his first wife eight children, seven boys who liked to call themselves the Band of Seven, and one girl, whom he didn't give a flying fuck about. And now, because he was afraid that their stepmother might find out how he liked to perform satanic rituals on them every night, he put them in a lonely castle that stood in the middle of a forest.

It lay so hidden, and the way to it was so hard to find, that he himself could not have found it out had not a wise-woman given him a reel of thread which possessed a marvellous property: when he threw it before him it unwound itself and showed him the way.

But Naraku went so often to his dear children that Tsubaki was offended at his absence. She grew curious, and wanted to know what he had to do quite alone in the woods. She gave his servants a great deal of money, and they betrayed the secret to her, and also told her of the reel which alone could point out the way. She had no rest now till she had found out where Naraku guarded the reel, and then she made some little white shirts, and, as she had learnt from her witch-mother, sewed an enchantment in each of them.

And when Naraku had ridden off she took the little shirts and went into the woods, and the reel showed her the way. The children, who saw someone coming in the distance, thought it was their father coming to them, and sprang to try to kill him like they always did.

Then she threw over each one a little shirt, which when it had touched their bodies changed them into swans, and they flew away over the forest. Tsubaki went home quite satisfied, and thought she had gotten rid of her step-children; but the girl had not run to meet her with her brothers, and she knew nothing of her.

The next day Naraku came to torture his children, but he found no one but the girl, Kagura.

"Where are your brothers?"' asked Naraku.

"Oh, NOW you give a fuck?!" she answered, "They have gone away and left me all alone." And she told him that looking out of her little window she had seen her brothers flying over the wood in the shape of swans, and she showed him the feathers which they had let fall in the yard she had collected.

Naraku rejoiced but he did not think that Tsubaki had done it, and as he was afraid she would make him stop torturing Kagura he wanted to take her with him. But Kagura pimp-slapped Naraku and ordered him to let her stay just one night more in the castle in the woods, and he cried like a wussy and said yes.

Kagura thought, "My home is no longer here; I will go and seek my brothers." And when night came she fled away into the forest. She ran all through the night and the next day, till she could go no farther for weariness. Then she saw a little hut, went in, and found a room with seven little beds.

She was afraid to lie down on them because they all had weird voodoo shit and weapons on them and looked extremely unsanitary, so she crept under one and lay on the hard floor, and was going to spend the night there. But when the sun had set she heard a noise, and saw seven swans flying in at the window. They stood on the floor and blew at one another, and blew all their feathers off, and their swan-skin came off like shirts.

Then Kagura recognized her brothers, the Band of Seven and overjoyed she crept out from under the bed. Her brothers were no less delighted than she to see their little sister again, but their joy did not last long.

"You cannot stay here," Bankotsu said to her. "This super secret murder-planning hiding place; if the po-po were to come here and find you they would kill you."

"Could you not protect me?" asked the Kagura.

"No," Jakotsu answered, "For we can only lay aside our swan skins for a quarter of an hour every evening. It sucks because the feathers are so pretty! For this time we regain our human forms, but then we are changed into pretty swans again."

Then the little sister cursed and said, "Can you not be freed?"

"Oh, no," Renkotsu said, "the conditions are too hard. You must not speak or laugh for seven years, and must make in that time seven shirts for us out of star-flowers. If a single word comes out of your mouth, all your labor is vain." And when the brothers had said this the quarter of an hour came to an end, and they flew away out of the window as swans.

But Kagura had determined to free her brothers even if it should cost her her life. She left the hut, went into the forest, climbed a tree, and spent the night there. The next morning she went out, collected star-flowers, and began to sew. She could speak to no one, and she had no wish to laugh, so she sat there, looking only at her work.

When she had lived there some time, it happened that Prince Sesshomaru was hunting in the forest, and his hunters came to the tree on which Kagura sat. They called to her and said "Who are you?"

But she gave no answer.

"Come down to us," they said, "We will do you no harm."

But she shook her head silently. As they pressed her further with questions, she threw them the golden chain from her neck. But they did not leave off, and she threw them her girdle, and when this was no use, her garters, and then her dress.

Why she thought stripping herself naked would do anything is beyond me.

The huntsmen would not leave her alone, but climbed the tree, lifted Kagura down, and led her to the Prince Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru asked, "Who are you? What are you doing up that tree?"

But she answered nothing.

He asked her in all the languages he knew, but she remained quiet. Because she was so sexy, however, Sesshomaru's heart was touched along with some other places, and he was seized with a great love for her. He wrapped her up in his cloak, placed her before him on his horse and brought her to his castle.

There he had her dressed in rich clothes, and her beauty shone out as bright as day, but not a word could be drawn from her. He set her at table by his side, and her sexiness made him so horny that he said, "I will marry Kagura and none other in the world," and after some days he married her.

But Sesshomaru had a wicked servant, Older Rin, who wanted to marry him and was jealous of Kagura; and said wicked things of the young Queen. "Who knows who this girl is?" she said; "she cannot speak, and is not worthy of a king."

After a year, when Kagura had her first child, Older Rin took it away from her and hid it. Then she went to Sesshomaru and said that Kagura had killed it. Sesshomaru would not believe it, and would not allow any harm to be done her.

The next time she had a child Older Rin did the same thing, but Sesshomaru could not make up his mind to believe her. He said, "She is gorgeous and sexy to do such a thing as that. If she could defend herself, her innocence would be proven." But when the third child was taken away, and Kagura was again accused, and could not utter a word in her own defense, the Sesshomaru was obliged to give her over to the law, which decreed that she must be burnt to death.

When the day came on which the sentence was to be executed, it was the last day of the seven years in which she must not speak or laugh, and now she had freed her dear brothers from the power of the enchantment. The seven shirts were done; there was only the left sleeve wanting to the last.

When she was led to the stake, she laid the shirts on her arm, and as she stood on the pile and the fire was about to be lighted, she looked around her and saw six swans flying through the air. Then she knew that her release was at hand and her heart danced for joy. The swans fluttered round her, and hovered low so that she could throw the shirts over them.

When they had touched them the swan skins fell off, and her brothers stood before her living, well and beautiful. Only Jakotsu had a swan's wing instead of his left arm, which he liked, for it made him feel pretty and witty and gay.

They embraced and kissed each other, and Kagura went to the Sesshomaru, who was standing by in great astonishment, and began to speak to him, saying, "Yeah, I could talk all along. I'm innocent-I mean look at me. How could some as sexy as me be guilty?"

She told him of Older Rin's deceit, and how she had taken the three children away and hidden them. Then they were fetched, to the great joy of Sesshomaru, and Older Rin came to no good end.

But Sesshomaru and Kagura with their seven brothers lived many years in happiness and peace.