The Soulbond
Disclaimer: Kishin Douji Zenki belongs to Yoshihiro Kuroiwa (deceased), Kikuhide Tani, Shueisha and licensed entities. I'm just borrowing the characters for a bit of non-profit fun.
Chapter 1
Goki was in the main hall of the Enno shrine, Chiaki and Zenki unconscious behind him, explaining what had happened in the last few hours to Chaki's grandma:
-"And that's what happened, Saki-baasama. Once Zenki had a body again, Ozunu-sama gave me the knowledge to teleport all of us home. He also told me Master -Chiaki-sama- and Zenki are now soulbonded, and must stay in close proximity until they fully bond. Zenki's human form is now his sealed form, but he'll be unable to transform until he bonds fully with Chiaki-sama or he's in mortal danger. With spiritual Sight, you can see the bond, a red rope-like bond linking them together."
"I see, Goki-dono. Let's get things ready for when they wake up. Zenki-dono will need clothes at the least, and they will be hungry..."
"I'm NOT telling them what they have to do to complete the bond, they must discover it for themselves!""I'm tired too, I'll turn back into Gokimaru and I'm going to sleep a bit too. See you in the morning, Saki-baasama!"
.:Zenki? Can you hear me?:.
.:I can hear you, Chiaki. What happened?I feel my body, but it feels strange, neither like my true form or my child form!:.
.:I'm not sure, I remember pulling your soul towards mine and praying for you to have a body, Next thing I know, my body is so tired I can't wake up, and our astral bodies are connected by a red binding!:.
.:WHAT?!:.
.:It is true!:.
.:I'll try to break it!:.
.:KYAAA!:.
.:AAARGH!:.
.:Zenki, messing with that wasn't a good idea!:.
.:Shut up, woman!:.
.:I feel very tired,Chiaki, I'll rest for a while, besides,we can't do anything physical right now:.
.:Rest is a good idea, Zenki. We'll find out what happened later... :.
Several hours later...
"Zenki! Are you here?
"Ouch, everything hurts! Chiaki! Where are you?"
Chiaki turned to her right side and saw Zenki's hair poking out from a futon.
"I'm right next to you, turn to your left side!"
Zenki threw the futon to the side, not realizing he was naked. Chiaki got an eyeful of a naked Zenki that didn't have claws nor pointed ears. The first time she saw a male in fully naked glory. She turned red, practically glowing with embarrasment, and fainted.
"Chiaki!? What are you doing, woman?"
"She fainted, Zenki, must have been the shock of seeing you fully naked in your new body. Here, clothe yourself!"
Gokimaru handed Zenki a fundoshi and some everyday kannushi clothes. While he got dressed, Gokimaru explained what happened the previous night...
"When Dokuro-sou threw you in that pond, your body dissolved and your soul would have reincarnated, without memories, if Master and I hadn't intervened. Chiaki-sama risked death and her own soul to rescue your soul from the pond while I was taking care of destroying Dokuro-sou. Somehow, when she was trying to give you a new body, your souls got connected by a bond, and now you can't be away from each other, until the bond stabilizes."
"WHAT!?" "OUCH"
"I'll heal you of your physical pain, Zenki, but please treat Chiaki-sama with care... She is fragile right now, and confused."
"Zenki, you have to get used to your human form, as far as I can tell, it's your new sealed form. Ozunu-sama told me you won't be able to access your true form for a while, maybe weeks, unless it's a life-threatening situation."
"Ozunu no jijii!"
Sometime later, around noon...
"Chiaki, wake up! I want to go eat something and I can't go farther than two rooms away from you!"
"I'm up, I'm up! Sorry about before..." Chiaki turned red again.
"Doesn't matter, let's go eat!"
"Zenki... what?"
"Didn't you hear me? I'm hungry!"
"Now that you mention it, I'm hungry too!"
After a lunch where Zenki and Chiaki decimated the food that was presented to them, Gokimaru told Chiaki to put on day clothes and told Zenki and her they were going shopping for something for Zenki to wear that wasn't kannushi robes.
"I don't know why I need clothes, just something that covers me is enough!"
"Now that you're human you need them, You can't use the same clothes always, you'd stink and enemies or simply the people around you would smell you coming!"
"Chiaki-sama is right, Zenki, we'll help you choose enough clothes so that you can change everyday for a week. You'll get used to them fairly soon."
"Keh! Whatever!"
Zenki, Gokimaru and Chiaki descended the mountain using the old path that led to Shikigami-chou and talked about the bond along the path.
"Zenki, Chiaki-sama, you're now soulbonded, and must stay next to each other until the bond stabilizes and gives you more freedom. I don't know how or when you'll do it, but Zenki can only regain his true form in a life-threatening situation until the bond is complete."
"WHAT! Gokimaru-kun, are you saying that the bond is like a leash on me and Zenki!"
"Yes, the bond can't be broken, but it can be loosened if the conditions for that are met. You'll have to find out how to yourselves, I can't interfere with the bond, I may make the situation worse."
When they arrived to Shikigami-chou they looked around for a clothing store, and went inside. Gokimaru started to look around and grabbing clothes that could fit Zenki's human form, and then grabbed Zenki too, and entered the changing room.
Once in the changing room, Zenki saw for the first time his human form in the mirror. He was shorter than his true form, around 2 meters tall, the pale marks in his face were gone and his fangs were smaller. His claws were also missing and his hair was now pure red, without the black and red of his true form. His ears were rounded, instead of pointed, his feet smaller... He looked like a puny human. At least he wasn't as weak as his child form, granted, but he wanted to be in his true form!
"Zenki, you must try the clothes to see if they fit you!"
"Urusee, Goki, I'll do it in my own time!"
A few threats later, Zenki was clad in jeans, a red T-shirt, black combat boots and fingerless gloves, and they went to where Chiaki was waiting for them.
"Wow, you look good in these clothes, Zenki"
"Now you think I look good? I always look good! -Zenki teased Chiaki, and she turned red again.-
.:Baka! You know I like you a lot, in whatever form you are in! It's just that you in human form look attractive instead of intimidating, like when you are in your true form... :.
"Now, Chiaki, if I have to go through this, it is fair that you do too!"
Soon, Chiaki was clad in a sports bra, a white T-shirt, black leggings and black combat boots and fingerless gloves that matched Zenki's.
"Good, you look ready for a fight! Later I want to try to spar with you and Goki, to see if I can defend myself and you too. Help me fight in this form... I hate feeling weak!
Later, towards the evening:
"Kuso-! This binding is making us trip, or pull us towards each other! Chiaki! Let's fight back to back!"
They were sparring against Gokimaru, and were losing despite being two versus one.
Zenki was becoming very angry and threw a punch with all the rage that under normal circunstances would have been enough to return him temporarily to his true form. Goki dodged it, but the boulder behind him wasn't so lucky, it exploded in a hundred shards.
"Woah, Zenki! Look at your hand!"
Zenki's fist was surrounded by crackling red lightning.
"YEAH! My lightning has returned to me! Now if Chiaki makes herself more useful..."
"BAKA ZENKI! I'm not useless like you're implying!"
Chiaki turned to Zenki and threw a punch towards him, which Zenki caugth easily, but, suddenly his hand felt like it was burning. He looked at his hand and saw that Chiaki's fist was surrounded by flames, and she hadn't any ofuda on them.
"Well, this a surprise, Zenki, Chiaki-sama, we must explore this further, but now is time to try not to be in each other's way!"
Zenki and Chiaki were ravenous when they went to dinner that night. They also were very, very sore.
"I'm going to wash and then have a good soak in the onsen of the shrine, Zenki, otherwise I'll be too sore to sleep!"
"Really, Chiaki, that works for the soreness in humans?"
"Oh, yes, it does!"
Chiaki went to wash herself while Zenki pondered: -If that works, no wonder Chiaki likes the onsen, I've been more hurt quite a few times, but today was humiliating. I wonder how Chiaki manages to fight with a body this fragile!-
Zenki went to wash himself and then went to the onsen where Chiaki was soaking, with her eyes closed, and entered the hot water.
"KYAAA! Zenki, you're naked!"
"Of course I am, I thought humans went into these hot pools naked!"
"They do, but usually when bathing sparated by sexes!"
Chiaki was red like a lobster, and it wasn't only because of the hot water.
"You are acting strange today, Chiaki, what's the matter?"
Chiaki answered telephatically:
.:I'm with the guy I've liked for years, and we're both naked in an onsen! I'm embarrassed, Zenki!:.
.:Don't be! If I was to mate with someone, it would be with someone like you, a woman that can fight alongside me! Besides, you look attractive to me too, now that I'm not filled with battle-lust or hunger for possession seeds:.
.:Really, Zenki?"
.:I have no reason to lie to you, Chiaki, now that I'm sealed in human form, I feel things that are new to me! I think we're not ready to mate yet -physically we can-, but right now we're too busy adapting to all this, the bond and everything else... :.
The two of them relaxed and basked in the heat of the onsen, letting the hot water wash away the aches of the sparring session with Gokimaru.
Later, when they went to sleep they put the futons next to each other, put on their pajamas and went out like a light as soon as their heads hit the pillow.
Next morning, they woke up embracing each other.
Author' Notes:
神主: Kannushi, Shinto priest.
式神町: Shikigami-chou, the town situated in the mountain where the Enno Shrine is at the top.