Jaynin
4th Level Red Feather
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Demon Hunter Shuni, Episode 6: The Spider and the Snake
Shuni and Akari were trying to comfort one another, but they were both red-faced with giggling that they couldn’t stop; their feet, trapped below the ground, one apiece, were tormented now constantly by the lamia in the cavern below. No longer did she alternate and tease them; Shuni’s sock was rolled up to her toes, and Akari’s foot was bare, and the lamia’s claws traced over the contours of the large foot and small foot at her mercy. This had been going on for several minutes, which was why Shuni was surprised when she felt her sock being rolled back down to cover her foot, being straightened with almost a perverse degree of meticulousness.
“Shuni, what’s going on? They’ve stopped, but…” Akari suspected that something more was coming, and rightfully so. Shuni knew that the demons never gave up so easily, and it was only reasonable to expect a different angle to be employed now. But Akari tugged on her leg suddenly, and it came free. “I’m free! Demon Hunter, they let me go…” Shuni tugged on her own leg at seeing Akari get free, and to her amazed delight, she too felt her foot start to come loose.
“They’ve let go, but why? Come on…” Shuni pulled at her leg frantically, trying to get free before the demons changed their mind and captured her again. She wasn’t making much progress, due to her awkward angle against the hillside… suddenly, she heard a voice calling out:
“Demon Hunter! Akari! Are you two all right?” Running in a rather clumsy fashion, the tailor’s apprentice crested the hill and slid down it to the base, where Akari was standing and brushing herself off quickly. “Oh! Thank goodness you’re not harmed, but… Demon Hunter, you’re stuck,” he said thoughtfully. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you get out. Right, Akari?” He smiled that starburst-bright smile that made Shuni’s heart flutter even thinking about it. Strangely, though, Akari seemed unaffected…
“All right. You try to dig her leg out, and I’ll pull on her. Are you ready?” Akari took up a position behind Shuni on the hillside, and clasped her hands on Shuni’s.
“Ready!” And the tailor’s apprentice started to dig around and enlarge the hole that her leg was stuck in. Between their efforts, it was little time before Shuni had come free of the trap, and she too brushed herself off before thanking them both profusely.
“Thank you so much,” she said with a deep bow. “I appreciate your help greatly, both of you. Let’s go back to the village; it will be dangerous to stay here for too much longer. Come on.” Shuni waved for the two of them to follow, but she had only taken two steps before she realized that something wasn’t right. “Wait a moment, I… my anklet!” Shuni realized that the anklet she had been given by the tailor’s apprentice was gone. “It must have come off when we pulled my foot free…”
“Do not worry, Demon Hunter.” The tailor’s apprentice smiled. “It is worth much more to me than a trinket that you are safe and unharmed. Please, let’s go back to the village.” Shuni nodded, smiling back at him. Walking at a steady pace, the trio made it back to the village in the late afternoon, where both Akari and Shuni went to their respective houses to bathe.
The young man was now blindfolded, but he was able to tell that the room he was in was lit. It was more comforting, knowing that he was being prevented from seeing in a lighted room rather than being in a room where he could not see no matter what. It was warmer in here, too, but that came at a price; he was now shackled directly to the stone wall. Or at least, it felt like stone against his skin, but at different times of day it became a slanted table, or a horizontal slab that served as his bed, or sometimes a normal vertical stone wall again. He was grateful for some of the change, though. It kept the strain from being on one area of his body for too long, and in all was not too uncomfortable, physically speaking.
Three times a day he was spoon-fed by the same mysterious human voice he’d heard on the first day being moved to the new cell. She always cooed over him, telling him how much she loved him, how it was still too dangerous to go outside but that soon it would be safe, once ‘she’ was gone. There was never any explanation to go along with these statements. It was just taken for granted that he knew what was being talked about, and he never did. But he didn’t question her; what she fed him tasted good, not like the gruel he’d had to eat before.
She was extremely possessive, though. The marks she had made on his shoulders the first day, she duplicated every day, to make sure he was still faithful to her, or so she said. It was always brief, and was not too painful, but it had the effect of making the young man believe that whoever it was could be mentally unstable… Sometimes, she would nibble on his earlobe, and then bite it to make another ‘mark’ on him. Sometimes her marks would show up elsewhere, too, but always on the shoulders, every day.
The young man had given up imploring the gods to free him or explain why this was happening. He had resigned himself to his captivity for now, knowing he could do nothing to free himself…
Ain was aware of the young man’s imprisonment, and Vorkaan had assured him that it was part of his plan, but he knew not why the incubus felt the need to imprison a young man of the village. Perhaps Shuni had some connection to him? He didn’t know, but he let Vorkaan run the operation himself. If he interfered, Vorkaan might claim that his interference had ruined the plan and escape responsibility. No, by letting Vorkaan do as he wished, Ain assured that he would have to take responsibility when the operation had concluded.
“Lord Ain?” A different incubus entered his chamber and knelt respectfully. It took Ain a moment to realize that this was one of the incubi he had charged with investigating the Demon Hunter’s weakness when they had first learned of it, and perhaps… perhaps he had learned something that would serve to help in her humbling. “Lord Ain, I have a report.”
“Very well.” Ain nodded and gestured for him to go on. “What have you learned about the Demon Hunter and her weakness?”
The incubus held up two fingers as he looked up. “Two things, my Lord. First, that there is a forbidden dark art that may allow for the limited penetration of her barrier… This art must have been forbidden for a reason, but the reason is not given, and so I am going to proceed with caution. I will research it further and if need be train myself in its use so that I can evaluate its practical use myself.” Ain nodded at that. Why was this incubus not in charge of the operation? He allowed himself to wonder that for two seconds before remembering that all incubi appeared extremely competent until they had to produce a result. “Second, we have located a demon creature who we believe may know more of how to exploit the weakness than we do… With Your Lordship’s permission, I would bring her in here to speak with you.”
“Go ahead,” Ain said, intrigued by this development. With an ‘expert’ to call on, it would be much easier to exploit the weakness they still didn’t quite understand. As the incubus gestured to someone waiting outside of the doors, Ain fixed his gaze on the portal and waited for the figure to emerge. It did not take long; a succubus it was, to be sure, but she was of a different demon type than Vorkaan or his fellow incubi. There were human-formed succubi, too, but some of them had different body structures altogether… In this case, the succubus had the torso of a human female, dressed in a custom-cut robe that covered her human modesty but covered only her torso. It was black, of course, cut in an elegant manner, not too conservative and not too showy, tied around her waist with a red silk sash. Her yellow eyes were framed by long, straight black hair, contrasting against her rather pale skin.
Her lower half, from the waist down, was that of a spider. In this case, it was an odd mixture of a creature that walked horizontally and a creature that walked vertically, so that her human waist led into a spider’s abdomen and thorax, which extended behind her, featuring six spider legs; four of those legs came out of the larger thorax, and two from the abdomen, leaving her two human arms to complete the set of eight. “Sire, my name is Xion,” the succubus said, bowing both with her human and spider halves. “I was informed by your vassal that you were in need of my particular expertise in dispensing of a bothersome demon hunter?”
“That is correct,” Ain said. “Allow me to explain to you our situation…”
“She is coming here?” The voice was less fearful this time, having gained a measure of confidence, but not insolent. It was the voice of a confident, competent underling.
“She is.” The response was given in a tone that had, by contrast, lost some of its authority from before. “You know what you are supposed to do?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Good. Do not forget your task. Be sure not to arouse suspicion tonight.” A smile quirked at a pair of lips. “Your prize is being treated well. Continue to serve properly, and it will be yours soon. Serve poorly…” The sentence did not need to be finished.
“Of course.” The first voice had become quieter, more subservient. “I won’t fail you.”
“See that you don’t.”
Shuni could hardly believe it. Upon leaving her bath and changing her undergarments, feeling refreshed, she had been greeted by the news that the tailor’s apprentice had invited her for dinner that night… The tailor was out of town, the invitation said, and it was a good opportunity for the two of them to have a nice conversation in peace, without fear of disruption or discovery. So long as Shuni left within a decent amount of time, there was no way anyone could accuse her of indecency.
Shuni hardly cared if she was accused of indecency, or so she told herself, but then the logical part of her gave a reminder that if the village thought she was a tramp, it would make her job very difficult indeed. Best not to antagonize them. Else, this mission could become worse than it already was… The thoughts swirled through Shuni’s mind, becoming less and less coherent and more random as she came closer to the tailor’s workshop. Her heart was starting to beat faster, and she commanded it to be still, but the anxiety still lurked within her, hiding now, waiting for her will to weaken so it could re-emerge. Her hand trembled slightly as she knocked upon the door.
“Please, come in, Demon Hunter.” The tailor’s apprentice greeted her with a smile. “Dinner’s almost been prepared, so if you’ll seat yourself at the table, I’ll have it served within a few minutes.” He smiled at her in that way that set her heart aflutter no matter how hard she tried to resist, and she knew that she was blushing. He made nothing of that, as usual, and ushered her to the table before scurrying into the kitchen and coming back with a bowl of rice a minute later.
Soon there was a full meal on the table, more than a little heavy on rice. “I’m sorry there isn’t more variety, Demon Hunter,” the boy said with a slight blush. “I’m not a very good cook, and I didn’t want to ruin dishes I didn’t know how to prepare, so…”
Shuni laughed quietly as she got herself a bowl full of rice and took her first mouthful. “Mmm! If your rice is as good as this, then there will be no need to cook anything else. The taste is wonderful! Not even Kazuo makes rice as good as this.” Shuni finished her first bowl of rice within a few minutes and helped herself to a second helping. The tailor’s apprentice smiled, opting instead to have some fried pickles with a bit of meat. “It’s lovely! I could eat nothing but this rice and be satisfied.”
“Please! Eat as much as you like. I’ll be glad to prepare more if you want some.” That would be a tall order, because the bowl of rice was large, and so was Shuni, and the tailor’s apprentice had no way to guess at how large her appetite would be. Best to be safe and make the offer anyway, rather than appear to be cheap. “Please eat all that you like. Here, have some sake.” The boy produced a bottle and poured a cupful of rice wine for both himself and Shuni…
Shuni awoke, and it was morning. She was in her own bed at Kazuo’s, up with the sun as usual, and fully dressed. That made her eyes fly wide open. Why was she asleep in her kimono? Had she been too tired to take it off? No, that wasn’t the case… it took a minute for her to remember the dinner she’d had with the tailor’s apprentice last night. He’d offered her sake, and that was the last she remembered. With a sudden, involuntary squeal, Shuni clapped a hand to her mouth as her mind filled in the blanks. She must have gotten so drunk that she’d passed out, and he’d carried her back to bed… what a shameful lack of manners she had displayed, Shuni thought bitterly. At least she didn’t have a hangover, but her feet were a little swollen, it seemed. Her socks felt a bit tight. She was in the process of adjusting them when Akari came in.
“Demon Hunter, Shuni, come quickly,” she breathed, looking breathless as if she’d run all the way into town from her fields. “I saw something! I didn’t know what it was, but it was on the edge of the forest, and I think it moved, but when I looked at it, it ran away, and… and…”
“Slow down,” Shuni said, her senses coming fully alert. It didn’t seem like she was too badly impaired from her mishap of the night before… An apology to the tailor’s apprentice would have to wait. This took precedence over that, and since she was already fully dressed, all she had to do was put on her short sword and the pouch with her kunai before she was ready to go. “All right, tell me what you saw again, a little more calmly this time. We’ll walk.” Shuni set off at a brisk pace that was a walk for her, but Akari had to trot a little to keep up. She didn’t complain, and revisited her story in a more coherent fashion.
“Okay… I was working the field near the forest’s edge and I took a break for a moment, and I was looking at the forest’s edge when I saw what looked like something moving. I wondered if it was just a tree or bush or something moving in the wind, so I looked at it a little more closely and advanced towards it a little to see if maybe I could tell what it was.” Akari seemed much calmer now that she was walking with Shuni back to her field, and was able to recite the story without breathless panting or exclamation. “So I was maybe twenty feet from the edge when the bushes suddenly rattled and shook for a moment like something had just run away… and I thought I saw something dart into the forest! I didn’t know what to do, so the first thing I thought of was to come tell you… I hope it wasn’t a waste of your time,” she said suddenly.
“No, I think you probably caught sight of a scout or a spy… I’ll go in and see if I can’t try and figure out what they were up to.” Shuni and Akari arrived at the forest’s edge near the field. “You get back to work, and I’ll be back in a little while, all right?” Shuni waited for Akari’s nod before setting off into the forest. It was daylight, just after sunrise, and that was good. There’d be plenty of light for most of the day, and if she didn’t find anything by afternoon, she’d concede and return to the village for the night. With the plan in mind, Shuni delved into the forest.
“I see…” Xion mused thoughtfully after having heard all of what Ain had to say, supplemented by periodic observations by the incubus standing nearby. “So as I understand it, the problem here is that you need a good way to exploit the opening in the kimono, but you can’t figure out how to translate that opening into a way to get the kimono off of her… I think I can help you with that,” she said, folding her arms across her chest and smiling.
“Can you? How would you propose to do that?” Ain asked, with a raised eyebrow. “The current ‘human expert’ we have working on this problem has been singularly unable to do so, even though he supposedly knew everything about how the human body reacted. How do I know you will be able to do what he could not?”
“It sounds to me that your ‘expert’ has concentrated too much on the obvious physical aspect of tickling,” Xion answered without hesitation. “The mental aspect of it is always very important. In some cases, such as this one, it’s more important. For example, in this case, you could tickle her as hard as you like, make her absolutely speechless with laughter, but it will do you no good because you cannot just keep and tickle her forever. It does not give you any lasting advantage because you still cannot get rid of the kimono. The obvious problem here is that she will need to remove the kimono of her own volition, and making her do that in our presence is troublesome to say the least… The first encounter will be important. Because she does not recognize me, her defenses will not go up immediately, and I can use that time to get into her head and produce some interesting long-term effects.”
“Long term effects like what?” Ain inquired.
“I am… somewhat skilled in the power of suggestion,” Xion said, trying to be modest, Ain thought. “If she does not suspect me totally at first glance, I will be able to plant suggestions in her mind that will prove beneficial to us…”
“You mean having a suggestion by which she will strip off her kimono on command? Such as in hypnosis?” Ain asked, leaning forward. It did sound more promising than what had been said before, by Vorkaan. “If that is the case, then yes, that would be most useful.”
“Unfortunately, I cannot do that so easily as you would say.” Xion shook her head. “The more against the nature of the person the implanted suggestion is, the more likely it is that it will have no effect. She is a demon hunter, trained to be suspicious of our kind and to fight our every move. A suggestion that she make herself defenseless before us is almost entirely unlikely to succeed in implanting itself or in being followed. It will have to be… more subtle.”
“Ah.” Ain leaned back in his chair again, clearly a bit disappointed. “Very well then. Once Vorkaan returns from his latest endeavor, I will tell him to coordinate with you. Until then, feel free to look around the complex, but do not go aboveground without permission. You will be dealt with harshly if you do.” Ain cleared his throat and stood. “You are dismissed.”
“Yes, my Lord.” Xion bowed again, and skittered out of the room. She had not gone very far before she caught a glimpse of a snake-demon in a room by herself, and Xion wondered if this was the lamia that she had heard mentioned in the background briefing just a little while ago, and she decided that it would not be a bad thing to acquaint herself with the ‘specialist’ assistant. Her skittering spider’s legs made entry unnoticed impossible, and the lamia looked up as Xion closed the door.
“Who are you?” she asked, not unpleasantly, and she did not cover her chest with her arms as she did when speaking to Vorkaan.
“My name is Xion,” Xion answered with a smile. “I had heard from your lord Ain just a few minutes ago about your part in the ongoing operation against the demon hunter.” Xion skittered closer, one of her spider’s legs lifting surreptitiously and grazing the lamia at the point where her human torso joined with her snake’s body. The effect was instantaneous. The lamia’s entire body convulsed, and her eyes shot open, four hands darting downwards to cover the area as she let out a decidedly surprised squeal. “Oh my. You seem like just the demon to handle the job, as you must have had a lot of first-hand experience…”
“I have not!” the lamia snapped, a little bit of color in her cheeks as she kept two hands hovering near her waist, eyes now darting downwards to the spider’s legs she had not been paying attention to before. “Don’t do that. It’s – “
“A very sensitive place on a lamia. I know,” Xion said with a little giggle. “I’m an expert on the method you’ve been using on the demon hunter, which is to say, I’m a tickling expert. I’ve done it as my hobby for many, many years, on both demons and humans, so I must say I know quite a bit about the sensitive places on quite a few creatures…” Xion smiled and backed away a bit so that the lamia might relax. “May I ask your name, lamia?”
“You may call me Lilith,” the lamia replied. “You are the first to actually ask my name in quite some time, most of the others here just refer to me as ‘Lamia’, so you may do that if you wish as well. Since there is only one lamia here, there is no confusion.”
“I see…” Xion smiled. “Well, since I hear that you have a mission coming up very soon, I won’t detain you further. I would, however, like to speak with you a little further once you return.” Xion skittered to the side and smiled as Lamia slid past her and out the door. But as her long tail trailed behind, Xion couldn’t help but give its very tip a gentle touch with one of her spider legs before it passed beyond her reach. Her reward was a surprised yelp and another twitch, before the tail shot out of her reach very quickly. “Yes, I would like to talk with you at great length when you return,” Xion said to the empty room, giggling to herself.
Shuni made her progress slow as she trekked through the forest. Her numerous guide marks and other terrain features that she had memorized were now sufficient to prevent her from becoming disoriented and lost and she could spend more time searching for signs of the demons’ passage. There was indeed a track leading into the forest, originating from the point Akari had pointed her to, and while Shuni was not sure what the creature might have been doing spying on Akari, she was determined to find out. Yet at the same time she was aware that this might be a trap, and that she had no choice but to pursue it anyway. Her only defense was to be careful, and to pay heed to what might seem innocuous otherwise.
By midmorning she had gotten a fair distance into the forest and had found no sign of the demons, except for the faint traces of the trail she was alternately picking up and losing. After emerging into a clearing of sorts with no leads on where to go, she decided that a small break was in order so that she could collect her thoughts and take a small breather. Checking to make sure there was nothing suspicious, a process that took ten minutes, Shuni collected herself and sat down with her back to a tree trunk. It felt nice to get off her feet for a few minutes; clumsy and big-footed as ever, getting through the forest with even a slight amount of stealth required more time for Shuni, something that continually irked her.
Her feet seemed even worse today. It was probably due to the effect of drink, her feet were swelling instead of her skull. Well, that was a blessing in disguise, even if it didn’t feel like one; with a throbbing headache would have made this assignment nearly impossible. Concentrating under such circumstances was incredibly difficult, but it didn’t stop Shuni from grumbling about how tight her socks felt. It was even worse now than it had been this morning, probably because she’s been walking on them instead of resting. Shuni slipped off her sandals with a smile, about to take off her socks and let her feet breathe a little –
No. Shuni’s senses suddenly came alert. It was the kind of innocent, innocuous setup that had gotten her in trouble on previous occasions. Probably, Shuni judged, the creature that had run away had been leaving cursed ground in its trail, and that had irritated or otherwise altered the condition of her feet, probably in the hopes that she’d loosen her tightening socks and be pounced upon as soon as her feet were bare. Shuni nodded grimly and stood up, trying to put the uncomfortable tightness of her socks out of mind. It fit all too perfectly with the demons’ mode of operation, and she congratulated herself on discovering the probable trap before she had stumbled into it.
Of course, there was now the question of what to do about it. Clearly the demons would not take kindly to Shuni having discovered their plan, and unfortunately, even though she recognized it, she would still have to be careful, because she could not undo what had been done yet. That led to the question of what exactly had been done, but she wasn’t sure what that was… were her socks tightening, or was that just an illusion? Were her feet being subtly numbed? No, that made no sense – numbing her feet took away the demons’ only advantage. Numbing her ankles, however… Shuni was still in thought as she tried to slip her sandal back on. But then she noticed something which made the predicament all too clear…
“Curses,” she growled, softly, lest a demon be spying on her. Her sandals didn’t fit now, and laying her foot beside the empty sandal, she could see that it had grown at least two sizes. What was more worrisome was that the enlargement hadn’t produced any painful effects; her feet felt completely natural, aside from the tightness of her too-small socks. Could this be an effort to render her already difficult-to-make socks useless? Worse, her clumsiness and relatively slow running speed would be exacerbated…
“So, Demon Hunter, it appears that you have caught on. But too late; your feet are going to keep growing for a bit longer. And they’ll stay that way, too.” Shuni looked up, and saw the faint shape of a demon in the forest ahead. She wasted no time with idle banter and, with a lightning-quick motion, reached into her belt pouch, and a kunai flashed briefly in the sunlight before cutting through where the demon had been standing. “Now, now… best not to be too hotheaded,” the demon mocked her with a soft chuckle. He was in a tree branch now, off to her left… Shuni fingered her second kunai, but decided against throwing it. He could be trying to make her waste them…
Vorkaan found it an effort to keep his oily smooth grin on his face and a teasing note in his voice. Hidden by distance and by his wing from Shuni’s sight was a wound in his right upper arm. The damned girl was faster than she looked, and he resolved not to be taken off guard again. “The only way you can fix that little – shall I say big? – foot problem of yours is to drink this antidote.” Vorkaan waggled a vial of some blue liquid at her before tucking it into his belt pouch and darting into the forest, chuckling maliciously.
Damn it! Shuni knew it had to be a trap, but her only hope was to follow and hope she could outwit the demon. She did not run, however. Running was the easiest way to end up in a trap. So she took it slowly and carefully, looking all around her, carefully stepping over the knee-high branch in her path – and, due to her enlarged feet, getting tangled and tripping right over it, snapping the branch off and getting it caught between her ankles, and sending Shuni to the ground between two trees. She managed to put her hands out in front of her to keep from falling into the ground face-first, but as she slid forward, she felt the tree roots on either side against her upper arms, and the tree branch between her ankles… and her damned baby fat at the waist! Shuni struggled, but she was stuck. It was going to be hard to get out of this…
Shuni was only now realizing how big her feet had gotten… The fabric of the socks was stretched perilously thin. A fingernail could slice the threads, so tense were they pulled… Was that the least of her worries or not? Another chuckling voice came from behind her. This one sounded female, familiar… “We go to all that work to trap you, and you kindly trap yourself, Demon Hunter…” The sibilant sounds… it was the lamia! Shuni gasped in spite of herself, then bit her lip to fight back chuckles. The lamia’s nails were working on the threads of her socks, probably not by accident brushing the soles underneath.
“Heeehee… heee… heh.” Shuni tried to disguise the giggling as a series of soft, derisive snorts. “I’m not stuck. You go on keeping your illusions, and pretty soon you’ll be dead.” Shuni then clamped her mouth shut, both to protect against the possibility of giggling aloud again, and to preserve her best tactic. It would be best to present herself as a helplessly trapped and foolishly giggling girl, while secretly working herself free… she had a kunai still in her belt pouch. She could turn quickly and toss that, hopefully wounding the creature enough to finish it off, or at the least get it to back off.
“Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!” Shuni couldn’t contain the next burst of laughter. Her socks were coming apart, the threads giving way, snapping one after the other… Soon, her ruined socks were hanging in tatters from her ankles, but the accursed branch was still stuck between them… Had the demons been able, they would have bound her ankles to the branch, but as it was she was fairly unable to move them a whole lot. “Heeheheheheee!! Acc-cursed d-d-demons! You won’t get away with thihihiiis!!!” Shuni purposefully spouted the silly, cliché line…
“I won’t say we already have,” Lilith retorted with a smirk, “but we’re getting pretty close…” She had both socks already torn away and was exploiting the large soles in front of her at random. Three hands apiece could have fit on those feet! Even better, their size made for awkwardness, and that prevented Shuni from twisting free or snapping the branch. Vorkaan made no noise as he returned, and Shuni could not have noticed him. “My, for such a big girl, you are very giggly. I bet you can fit lots and lots of giggles inside that belly of yours.” Lilith wished she could have had Shuni completely unprotected. A poke and a tease at her stomach could have helped immensely.
Nevertheless, with Shuni adopting a helpless girl mentality, coupled with the lamia’s teasing and gentle tickling, Shuni felt herself slipping into a dangerous zone, a zone of mindless giggles and ticklish reactions provoked by teasing… “Hehehehehehehe! No don’t! Not there! Please!!! Hehehehe!! Hahaaaahaaaa!” The lamia’s voice seemed to wash over her in a soothing manner, tickling her ears… that was ridiculous! Shuni wanted to pound her fists on the ground in ticklish frustration, but she gripped the handle of the remaining kunai hard to steady herself… Her hands were trapped beneath her body, so the lamia couldn’t see her reach for it.
“Demon Hunter…” Vorkaan’s soft, mellifluous tone floated into her other ear as his fingers presumably joined in… it must be on the left foot, Shuni decided. The tickling had changed there… The incubus on the left, and the lamia on the right, her feet huge and held helpless, both of them behind her and tickle-teasing her silly…
“NOHOHOHOHOHOHO please!” Shuni squealed, realizing that she was rapidly losing control of herself and that her carefully laid plan was crumbling beneath waves of giggles. Though she had meant to laugh, to embrace the tickling instead of fighting it, each burst of laughter eroded a little bit more from her logical thought processes, threatening to tumble her into a quicksand void of ticklish laughter. She tried to struggle, gripping hard on the end of her kunai, the physical motion giving her some touchstone with reality but wearing her energy out.
“Hmm… Demon Hunter,” Vorkaan began again, and he and Lilith both slowed their tickling to a gentle caress. “We know that you have, somewhere, a weakness… tell me where the weakness is, and I’ll give you the antidote, and let you free…”
“Wh-wha-whahaha what?! No way!” Shuni protested through her soft giggling. “What would beheheheheehe the point? You’re probably lyhihyhhahaha lying about the antidote anyway…!” Shuni found the breather and the verbal exchange helpful in regaining her ability to think clearly. The skating fingertips were driving her mad, but at least she could still reason… could she?
“Even if I am lying…” Here, the incubus and the lamia broke into a burst of hard scratching just beneath the toes. Though it wasn’t ‘the’ spot, it was still a tender enough part of her feet, enough to send the demon hunter exploding into laughter. “Even if I am lying, consider your position… This is possibly your only chance to undo the effects on your feet… and if I let you go, why, then I have to capture you all over again… I’m sure a smart, careful Demon Hunter like yourself won’t get caught again…”
Shuni could barely hear him. Wracked with laughter, howls of laughter that made her body writhe and twist, the outside world seemed to fade out. She was barely aware of being stuck between trees, out in the forest with the shining sun overhead. She just knew that she was stuck, unable to make her torment stop, and there were seductive words floating across the void, somehow superseding her laughter even though they were much softer. “AAHAHHAHAHAAHHAA…AAHhahHAHHAHAAHA… HEHEHEHEH… hHAHAHhhAHAhhAHAHHAAHAH!! Nhahahahah… nahaha!! HAHAHAH!! HEhehehe… sthahah… aHAHAHAHAHAhhahaah stahhappit!!! Nohhehe… NAHAHHAHAHAA!!!”
“He could be telling the truth,” the little voice in Shuni’s head said. “And even so, you’ll get out of this… he’s more right than he knows. If you’re smart, they won’t ever catch you again. Besides… it can’t possibly get any worse than this. What can you lose? Look where you are now… if you give in, you’ll at least have a chance…” Shuni didn’t know what to believe, so she just shook her head wildly and laughed into the ground.
“PLllehehehhHAHHEHEHEHEHehehehze!!! Please… plehehEHEHEHEHEHEze sthahah ahahah stoppit!!!! I… I’ll tell… jeheheheHEEH just sthaha ahah stoppit plehehheeeze!” Shuni squeaked breathlessly, then was relieved when the tickling did slow and stop. “Ehehehh… hee… ehheheheaaa… heehehahaha… ahaha… haaa… heeehhhh….” Shuni gulped down air, even though her throat burned slightly with the effort. It was worth it, especially because with her chest pressed against the ground, it was a bit tough to breathe.
“So…” Vorkaan stood, and walked around to where Shuni’s head was, kneeling next to her. “My, my, you’re quite a pretty little thing. I’d never seen you up close before.” It was hard to tell if this was a lie or not, but the line was so smooth that Shuni blushed anyway. Angrily she shook her head. Blushing for a demon? “Where is your spot, pretty Demon Hunter?”
Again chasing away the irritating reflexive glowing from the compliment, Shuni whispered softly. “O-on each foot… j-just above… the… ehhe… no… behehehe… just above the ball of my foot… the pad of each pinky toe…” It was a lie, to be true, but a sensitive place for being close to the real weak spot. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. He didn’t seem to object, eagerly walking back around to her feet, where he found Lilith sucking on the knuckle of a finger.
“What happened?” Vorkaan asked with a frown, and earned a glare in return.
“Nothing. I was just trying to adjust the stick, and I brushed against the fringe of her kimono…” Lilith backed away, scowling as Vorkaan took her position at the right foot, giving her access to both. “It’s not that bad of an injury. You don’t need to… oh, never mind.” The lamia crossed her arms and slid behind Vorkaan, sitting on her coils and looking at the forest while letting the sound of Shuni’s laughter wash over her.
“HEHEHEHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAHHAHAHA!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHhahaha…h ehehehehEHEHEHGH AHAHAH GHAWEDHHDHDD!!!! Nahahha.a.a.ahahahaHAHAHHAAH not thehehehere…!” Shuni overacted, trying to lead Vorkaan into believing he had ‘the’ spot. It wasn’t hard, only about a quarter of the laughter was faked… it was a very sensitive spot, but it seemed that Vorkaan somehow knew it wasn’t the right one. How? His fingers began to wander, and being so close to the goal from the start, it was only a matter of time… Shuni gritted her teeth…
“Ahh! You were a liar,” Vorkaan said, a humorous accusation. He was in good spirits, for two reasons. One, because his plan had come to fruition, and two, because confusing the demon hunter fairly required it. Teasing her made things worse. “You told me the wrong spot on purpose.” When Vorkaan’s fingers had found the real spot, it was like touching Shuni with a jolt of electricity, the way her body had jerked off the ground and her screams of laughter suddenly pierced the sky. His fingers bored in, and the Demon Hunter became a hysterical mess beneath him. “Tsk, tsk. I’ll have to punish you for lying. No getting free, and no antidote!” Only now did a tone of malice enter Vorkaan’s chuckle. He felt that he had earned it, as the Demon Hunter was now almost entirely helpless under his fingers…
“So she actually told you?” Lilith turned, rubbing her chin in thought as she turned…
Shuni was wild with laughter. The fingers boring in on her weak spots robbed her of anything but instinct. “NAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAA!! GHAHAH AHAHAH!! NAHAHAH!! NOHO!! NEHEHEH!! AHAHAH HAHAAH HAHA I’M SORREHHEHEHEEH EHEHEHEH EHEHEHEH EPEHEHE EHHE PLEASE!! NO PLEHEHEHZE NO HAHAH NOT MORE PLEASE WIHAHAHAH HAHAH NEHEHE!!!” On and on it went, but in a little corner of Shuni’s mind, a small alarm went off… her violent thrashing from having her weak spots tickled had caused a small shift in her position. Her hand closed around the kunai… Waves of ticklishness hammered her, making her want to curl up, laugh helplessly, and struggle. “STHAHHAAH HAAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAAHHAAH AH AHAH AHAHAHAA HAHAAHA HAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHA HAHHA STOP IT!!!” With a mighty effort, Shuni twisted around enough, her arm blurring with rapid movement as a kunai flashed into the air.
Only reflexes saved Vorkaan’s life. Nonetheless, the kunai scored a gash from the corner of his right eye, taking off the top part of his ear, and grazing his scalp before continuing onward to stick squarely in the back of Lilith’s hand. Her eyes went wide, seeing Vorkaan’s blood, and seeing the bloody point of a kunai just an inch from her throat… Whimpering in pain, she hunched over low and sped off into the forest, pulling the kunai out and clutching the bleeding wound in her hand.
Shuni wasn’t interested in her. She saw that Vorkaan was stunned, screaming in pain from his wound, and he was the primary target. Vorkaan could only see out of his left eye. His screams were as much pain as rage; he was going to be disfigured. He knew it. His reason for existence… his beauty… all gone, gone because of this insolent cow of a Demon Hunter! He looked towards her… and the flash of a short sword was the last thing he would ever see.
Shuni wiped her blade on the headless incubus’ corpse, and then rooted in his pouches, trying to find the antidote and hoping that it had not broken… Relief washed over her as she felt her hand close around a vial, and barely stopping to consider that it might be poison or another trap, she uncorked it and drank the contents. The effect was immediate, but not full. Her feet didn’t shrink down to normal size at once, but the elastic part of her socks, still around her ankles, felt a little looser. With luck, she would manage to make it through, but…
She had but one pair of socks left; the threadbare, poorly-made socks given to her by the tailor’s apprentice.
Lilith whimpered softly as she finally made it back to the demons’ cave. Not expecting any help, she had gone to her room to look for something with which to staunch the bleeding, and was surprised to see Xion there, the spider-succubus lounging on her abdomen and looking as if she was contemplating something. Lilith was about to growl at her to get out, but Xion was moving towards her before the door was even closed. “Oh my! You poor dear… I’m guessing Vorkaan’s operation didn’t go as planned, did it? Let me take a look at that.” Already, some spun silk was in Xion’s legs, forming itself into a bandage as she examined the wound. “Here.” She put the silk bandage on, wrapping it tightly around Lilith’s hand. “I’ll be right back.”
The lamia was open-mouthed, having not gotten a word in edgewise. She wasn’t sure what to think, either. It was almost unheard of for a demon to be so solicitous, so unheard of that she didn’t know how to respond. In just a minute’s time, Xion was back, and applying a salve to the wound before binding it tightly again. “There. That will help you heal, and ease the pain in the meantime.” Xion sat down, and smiled. “I hope things did not go too badly…”
“Vorkaan is dead,” Lilith said flatly, sitting on her pile of cushions that she used as a bed. “He’s always been a fool, so it doesn’t surprise me, but… I didn’t think this was how he would meet his end. But I’m thankful to be alive…”
“I’m thankful you’re alive, too.” Xion smiled. Lilith was somewhat suspicious of the solicitude, but over the next hour or so, the pain had indeed faded to almost nothing, and the bleeding had stopped. Xion had made a new bandage and was applying it to her hand, which Lilith held out willingly.
“There, you should be better within a few days.” Xion smiled, and two of her spider legs traced on the area where the human torso joined the snake’s body. Lilith squealed again, this time laughing outright, and her face was puzzlement when she regained control of herself, but she was trying to fight down a ticklish smile. A spider leg was still teasing gently along her midriff, prodding into her navel…
“Don’t you ever quit?” Lilith growled, a little less harshly than she might have. “Why are you helping me so much? Why do you care? What is it you want from me?”
“Don’t you see? With Vorkaan dead, I’m going to be made the new captain of this operation… just you watch. And I want you to assist me. To that end, I want you to be able to trust me – as much as a demon can trust – so I want to build a good working relationship. However, I admit that even before I realized this, you fascinated me… I do so love lamia. They’re very sensitive.” Xion grinned widely. She had tickled Lilith to her back, and her spider legs were twitching expertly, teasing the sensitive skin of the snake youkai below her…
“Stop… stop!” Lilith couldn’t help but grin, then smile, then start giggling… Xion had a leg underneath each arm and the fine hairs on the legs were brushing against her sensitive hollows… “I can’t take it… stop, stop I’m ticklish!!!”
“I know.” Xion made sure the door was closed.
Shuni and Akari were trying to comfort one another, but they were both red-faced with giggling that they couldn’t stop; their feet, trapped below the ground, one apiece, were tormented now constantly by the lamia in the cavern below. No longer did she alternate and tease them; Shuni’s sock was rolled up to her toes, and Akari’s foot was bare, and the lamia’s claws traced over the contours of the large foot and small foot at her mercy. This had been going on for several minutes, which was why Shuni was surprised when she felt her sock being rolled back down to cover her foot, being straightened with almost a perverse degree of meticulousness.
“Shuni, what’s going on? They’ve stopped, but…” Akari suspected that something more was coming, and rightfully so. Shuni knew that the demons never gave up so easily, and it was only reasonable to expect a different angle to be employed now. But Akari tugged on her leg suddenly, and it came free. “I’m free! Demon Hunter, they let me go…” Shuni tugged on her own leg at seeing Akari get free, and to her amazed delight, she too felt her foot start to come loose.
“They’ve let go, but why? Come on…” Shuni pulled at her leg frantically, trying to get free before the demons changed their mind and captured her again. She wasn’t making much progress, due to her awkward angle against the hillside… suddenly, she heard a voice calling out:
“Demon Hunter! Akari! Are you two all right?” Running in a rather clumsy fashion, the tailor’s apprentice crested the hill and slid down it to the base, where Akari was standing and brushing herself off quickly. “Oh! Thank goodness you’re not harmed, but… Demon Hunter, you’re stuck,” he said thoughtfully. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you get out. Right, Akari?” He smiled that starburst-bright smile that made Shuni’s heart flutter even thinking about it. Strangely, though, Akari seemed unaffected…
“All right. You try to dig her leg out, and I’ll pull on her. Are you ready?” Akari took up a position behind Shuni on the hillside, and clasped her hands on Shuni’s.
“Ready!” And the tailor’s apprentice started to dig around and enlarge the hole that her leg was stuck in. Between their efforts, it was little time before Shuni had come free of the trap, and she too brushed herself off before thanking them both profusely.
“Thank you so much,” she said with a deep bow. “I appreciate your help greatly, both of you. Let’s go back to the village; it will be dangerous to stay here for too much longer. Come on.” Shuni waved for the two of them to follow, but she had only taken two steps before she realized that something wasn’t right. “Wait a moment, I… my anklet!” Shuni realized that the anklet she had been given by the tailor’s apprentice was gone. “It must have come off when we pulled my foot free…”
“Do not worry, Demon Hunter.” The tailor’s apprentice smiled. “It is worth much more to me than a trinket that you are safe and unharmed. Please, let’s go back to the village.” Shuni nodded, smiling back at him. Walking at a steady pace, the trio made it back to the village in the late afternoon, where both Akari and Shuni went to their respective houses to bathe.
The young man was now blindfolded, but he was able to tell that the room he was in was lit. It was more comforting, knowing that he was being prevented from seeing in a lighted room rather than being in a room where he could not see no matter what. It was warmer in here, too, but that came at a price; he was now shackled directly to the stone wall. Or at least, it felt like stone against his skin, but at different times of day it became a slanted table, or a horizontal slab that served as his bed, or sometimes a normal vertical stone wall again. He was grateful for some of the change, though. It kept the strain from being on one area of his body for too long, and in all was not too uncomfortable, physically speaking.
Three times a day he was spoon-fed by the same mysterious human voice he’d heard on the first day being moved to the new cell. She always cooed over him, telling him how much she loved him, how it was still too dangerous to go outside but that soon it would be safe, once ‘she’ was gone. There was never any explanation to go along with these statements. It was just taken for granted that he knew what was being talked about, and he never did. But he didn’t question her; what she fed him tasted good, not like the gruel he’d had to eat before.
She was extremely possessive, though. The marks she had made on his shoulders the first day, she duplicated every day, to make sure he was still faithful to her, or so she said. It was always brief, and was not too painful, but it had the effect of making the young man believe that whoever it was could be mentally unstable… Sometimes, she would nibble on his earlobe, and then bite it to make another ‘mark’ on him. Sometimes her marks would show up elsewhere, too, but always on the shoulders, every day.
The young man had given up imploring the gods to free him or explain why this was happening. He had resigned himself to his captivity for now, knowing he could do nothing to free himself…
Ain was aware of the young man’s imprisonment, and Vorkaan had assured him that it was part of his plan, but he knew not why the incubus felt the need to imprison a young man of the village. Perhaps Shuni had some connection to him? He didn’t know, but he let Vorkaan run the operation himself. If he interfered, Vorkaan might claim that his interference had ruined the plan and escape responsibility. No, by letting Vorkaan do as he wished, Ain assured that he would have to take responsibility when the operation had concluded.
“Lord Ain?” A different incubus entered his chamber and knelt respectfully. It took Ain a moment to realize that this was one of the incubi he had charged with investigating the Demon Hunter’s weakness when they had first learned of it, and perhaps… perhaps he had learned something that would serve to help in her humbling. “Lord Ain, I have a report.”
“Very well.” Ain nodded and gestured for him to go on. “What have you learned about the Demon Hunter and her weakness?”
The incubus held up two fingers as he looked up. “Two things, my Lord. First, that there is a forbidden dark art that may allow for the limited penetration of her barrier… This art must have been forbidden for a reason, but the reason is not given, and so I am going to proceed with caution. I will research it further and if need be train myself in its use so that I can evaluate its practical use myself.” Ain nodded at that. Why was this incubus not in charge of the operation? He allowed himself to wonder that for two seconds before remembering that all incubi appeared extremely competent until they had to produce a result. “Second, we have located a demon creature who we believe may know more of how to exploit the weakness than we do… With Your Lordship’s permission, I would bring her in here to speak with you.”
“Go ahead,” Ain said, intrigued by this development. With an ‘expert’ to call on, it would be much easier to exploit the weakness they still didn’t quite understand. As the incubus gestured to someone waiting outside of the doors, Ain fixed his gaze on the portal and waited for the figure to emerge. It did not take long; a succubus it was, to be sure, but she was of a different demon type than Vorkaan or his fellow incubi. There were human-formed succubi, too, but some of them had different body structures altogether… In this case, the succubus had the torso of a human female, dressed in a custom-cut robe that covered her human modesty but covered only her torso. It was black, of course, cut in an elegant manner, not too conservative and not too showy, tied around her waist with a red silk sash. Her yellow eyes were framed by long, straight black hair, contrasting against her rather pale skin.
Her lower half, from the waist down, was that of a spider. In this case, it was an odd mixture of a creature that walked horizontally and a creature that walked vertically, so that her human waist led into a spider’s abdomen and thorax, which extended behind her, featuring six spider legs; four of those legs came out of the larger thorax, and two from the abdomen, leaving her two human arms to complete the set of eight. “Sire, my name is Xion,” the succubus said, bowing both with her human and spider halves. “I was informed by your vassal that you were in need of my particular expertise in dispensing of a bothersome demon hunter?”
“That is correct,” Ain said. “Allow me to explain to you our situation…”
“She is coming here?” The voice was less fearful this time, having gained a measure of confidence, but not insolent. It was the voice of a confident, competent underling.
“She is.” The response was given in a tone that had, by contrast, lost some of its authority from before. “You know what you are supposed to do?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Good. Do not forget your task. Be sure not to arouse suspicion tonight.” A smile quirked at a pair of lips. “Your prize is being treated well. Continue to serve properly, and it will be yours soon. Serve poorly…” The sentence did not need to be finished.
“Of course.” The first voice had become quieter, more subservient. “I won’t fail you.”
“See that you don’t.”
Shuni could hardly believe it. Upon leaving her bath and changing her undergarments, feeling refreshed, she had been greeted by the news that the tailor’s apprentice had invited her for dinner that night… The tailor was out of town, the invitation said, and it was a good opportunity for the two of them to have a nice conversation in peace, without fear of disruption or discovery. So long as Shuni left within a decent amount of time, there was no way anyone could accuse her of indecency.
Shuni hardly cared if she was accused of indecency, or so she told herself, but then the logical part of her gave a reminder that if the village thought she was a tramp, it would make her job very difficult indeed. Best not to antagonize them. Else, this mission could become worse than it already was… The thoughts swirled through Shuni’s mind, becoming less and less coherent and more random as she came closer to the tailor’s workshop. Her heart was starting to beat faster, and she commanded it to be still, but the anxiety still lurked within her, hiding now, waiting for her will to weaken so it could re-emerge. Her hand trembled slightly as she knocked upon the door.
“Please, come in, Demon Hunter.” The tailor’s apprentice greeted her with a smile. “Dinner’s almost been prepared, so if you’ll seat yourself at the table, I’ll have it served within a few minutes.” He smiled at her in that way that set her heart aflutter no matter how hard she tried to resist, and she knew that she was blushing. He made nothing of that, as usual, and ushered her to the table before scurrying into the kitchen and coming back with a bowl of rice a minute later.
Soon there was a full meal on the table, more than a little heavy on rice. “I’m sorry there isn’t more variety, Demon Hunter,” the boy said with a slight blush. “I’m not a very good cook, and I didn’t want to ruin dishes I didn’t know how to prepare, so…”
Shuni laughed quietly as she got herself a bowl full of rice and took her first mouthful. “Mmm! If your rice is as good as this, then there will be no need to cook anything else. The taste is wonderful! Not even Kazuo makes rice as good as this.” Shuni finished her first bowl of rice within a few minutes and helped herself to a second helping. The tailor’s apprentice smiled, opting instead to have some fried pickles with a bit of meat. “It’s lovely! I could eat nothing but this rice and be satisfied.”
“Please! Eat as much as you like. I’ll be glad to prepare more if you want some.” That would be a tall order, because the bowl of rice was large, and so was Shuni, and the tailor’s apprentice had no way to guess at how large her appetite would be. Best to be safe and make the offer anyway, rather than appear to be cheap. “Please eat all that you like. Here, have some sake.” The boy produced a bottle and poured a cupful of rice wine for both himself and Shuni…
Shuni awoke, and it was morning. She was in her own bed at Kazuo’s, up with the sun as usual, and fully dressed. That made her eyes fly wide open. Why was she asleep in her kimono? Had she been too tired to take it off? No, that wasn’t the case… it took a minute for her to remember the dinner she’d had with the tailor’s apprentice last night. He’d offered her sake, and that was the last she remembered. With a sudden, involuntary squeal, Shuni clapped a hand to her mouth as her mind filled in the blanks. She must have gotten so drunk that she’d passed out, and he’d carried her back to bed… what a shameful lack of manners she had displayed, Shuni thought bitterly. At least she didn’t have a hangover, but her feet were a little swollen, it seemed. Her socks felt a bit tight. She was in the process of adjusting them when Akari came in.
“Demon Hunter, Shuni, come quickly,” she breathed, looking breathless as if she’d run all the way into town from her fields. “I saw something! I didn’t know what it was, but it was on the edge of the forest, and I think it moved, but when I looked at it, it ran away, and… and…”
“Slow down,” Shuni said, her senses coming fully alert. It didn’t seem like she was too badly impaired from her mishap of the night before… An apology to the tailor’s apprentice would have to wait. This took precedence over that, and since she was already fully dressed, all she had to do was put on her short sword and the pouch with her kunai before she was ready to go. “All right, tell me what you saw again, a little more calmly this time. We’ll walk.” Shuni set off at a brisk pace that was a walk for her, but Akari had to trot a little to keep up. She didn’t complain, and revisited her story in a more coherent fashion.
“Okay… I was working the field near the forest’s edge and I took a break for a moment, and I was looking at the forest’s edge when I saw what looked like something moving. I wondered if it was just a tree or bush or something moving in the wind, so I looked at it a little more closely and advanced towards it a little to see if maybe I could tell what it was.” Akari seemed much calmer now that she was walking with Shuni back to her field, and was able to recite the story without breathless panting or exclamation. “So I was maybe twenty feet from the edge when the bushes suddenly rattled and shook for a moment like something had just run away… and I thought I saw something dart into the forest! I didn’t know what to do, so the first thing I thought of was to come tell you… I hope it wasn’t a waste of your time,” she said suddenly.
“No, I think you probably caught sight of a scout or a spy… I’ll go in and see if I can’t try and figure out what they were up to.” Shuni and Akari arrived at the forest’s edge near the field. “You get back to work, and I’ll be back in a little while, all right?” Shuni waited for Akari’s nod before setting off into the forest. It was daylight, just after sunrise, and that was good. There’d be plenty of light for most of the day, and if she didn’t find anything by afternoon, she’d concede and return to the village for the night. With the plan in mind, Shuni delved into the forest.
“I see…” Xion mused thoughtfully after having heard all of what Ain had to say, supplemented by periodic observations by the incubus standing nearby. “So as I understand it, the problem here is that you need a good way to exploit the opening in the kimono, but you can’t figure out how to translate that opening into a way to get the kimono off of her… I think I can help you with that,” she said, folding her arms across her chest and smiling.
“Can you? How would you propose to do that?” Ain asked, with a raised eyebrow. “The current ‘human expert’ we have working on this problem has been singularly unable to do so, even though he supposedly knew everything about how the human body reacted. How do I know you will be able to do what he could not?”
“It sounds to me that your ‘expert’ has concentrated too much on the obvious physical aspect of tickling,” Xion answered without hesitation. “The mental aspect of it is always very important. In some cases, such as this one, it’s more important. For example, in this case, you could tickle her as hard as you like, make her absolutely speechless with laughter, but it will do you no good because you cannot just keep and tickle her forever. It does not give you any lasting advantage because you still cannot get rid of the kimono. The obvious problem here is that she will need to remove the kimono of her own volition, and making her do that in our presence is troublesome to say the least… The first encounter will be important. Because she does not recognize me, her defenses will not go up immediately, and I can use that time to get into her head and produce some interesting long-term effects.”
“Long term effects like what?” Ain inquired.
“I am… somewhat skilled in the power of suggestion,” Xion said, trying to be modest, Ain thought. “If she does not suspect me totally at first glance, I will be able to plant suggestions in her mind that will prove beneficial to us…”
“You mean having a suggestion by which she will strip off her kimono on command? Such as in hypnosis?” Ain asked, leaning forward. It did sound more promising than what had been said before, by Vorkaan. “If that is the case, then yes, that would be most useful.”
“Unfortunately, I cannot do that so easily as you would say.” Xion shook her head. “The more against the nature of the person the implanted suggestion is, the more likely it is that it will have no effect. She is a demon hunter, trained to be suspicious of our kind and to fight our every move. A suggestion that she make herself defenseless before us is almost entirely unlikely to succeed in implanting itself or in being followed. It will have to be… more subtle.”
“Ah.” Ain leaned back in his chair again, clearly a bit disappointed. “Very well then. Once Vorkaan returns from his latest endeavor, I will tell him to coordinate with you. Until then, feel free to look around the complex, but do not go aboveground without permission. You will be dealt with harshly if you do.” Ain cleared his throat and stood. “You are dismissed.”
“Yes, my Lord.” Xion bowed again, and skittered out of the room. She had not gone very far before she caught a glimpse of a snake-demon in a room by herself, and Xion wondered if this was the lamia that she had heard mentioned in the background briefing just a little while ago, and she decided that it would not be a bad thing to acquaint herself with the ‘specialist’ assistant. Her skittering spider’s legs made entry unnoticed impossible, and the lamia looked up as Xion closed the door.
“Who are you?” she asked, not unpleasantly, and she did not cover her chest with her arms as she did when speaking to Vorkaan.
“My name is Xion,” Xion answered with a smile. “I had heard from your lord Ain just a few minutes ago about your part in the ongoing operation against the demon hunter.” Xion skittered closer, one of her spider’s legs lifting surreptitiously and grazing the lamia at the point where her human torso joined with her snake’s body. The effect was instantaneous. The lamia’s entire body convulsed, and her eyes shot open, four hands darting downwards to cover the area as she let out a decidedly surprised squeal. “Oh my. You seem like just the demon to handle the job, as you must have had a lot of first-hand experience…”
“I have not!” the lamia snapped, a little bit of color in her cheeks as she kept two hands hovering near her waist, eyes now darting downwards to the spider’s legs she had not been paying attention to before. “Don’t do that. It’s – “
“A very sensitive place on a lamia. I know,” Xion said with a little giggle. “I’m an expert on the method you’ve been using on the demon hunter, which is to say, I’m a tickling expert. I’ve done it as my hobby for many, many years, on both demons and humans, so I must say I know quite a bit about the sensitive places on quite a few creatures…” Xion smiled and backed away a bit so that the lamia might relax. “May I ask your name, lamia?”
“You may call me Lilith,” the lamia replied. “You are the first to actually ask my name in quite some time, most of the others here just refer to me as ‘Lamia’, so you may do that if you wish as well. Since there is only one lamia here, there is no confusion.”
“I see…” Xion smiled. “Well, since I hear that you have a mission coming up very soon, I won’t detain you further. I would, however, like to speak with you a little further once you return.” Xion skittered to the side and smiled as Lamia slid past her and out the door. But as her long tail trailed behind, Xion couldn’t help but give its very tip a gentle touch with one of her spider legs before it passed beyond her reach. Her reward was a surprised yelp and another twitch, before the tail shot out of her reach very quickly. “Yes, I would like to talk with you at great length when you return,” Xion said to the empty room, giggling to herself.
Shuni made her progress slow as she trekked through the forest. Her numerous guide marks and other terrain features that she had memorized were now sufficient to prevent her from becoming disoriented and lost and she could spend more time searching for signs of the demons’ passage. There was indeed a track leading into the forest, originating from the point Akari had pointed her to, and while Shuni was not sure what the creature might have been doing spying on Akari, she was determined to find out. Yet at the same time she was aware that this might be a trap, and that she had no choice but to pursue it anyway. Her only defense was to be careful, and to pay heed to what might seem innocuous otherwise.
By midmorning she had gotten a fair distance into the forest and had found no sign of the demons, except for the faint traces of the trail she was alternately picking up and losing. After emerging into a clearing of sorts with no leads on where to go, she decided that a small break was in order so that she could collect her thoughts and take a small breather. Checking to make sure there was nothing suspicious, a process that took ten minutes, Shuni collected herself and sat down with her back to a tree trunk. It felt nice to get off her feet for a few minutes; clumsy and big-footed as ever, getting through the forest with even a slight amount of stealth required more time for Shuni, something that continually irked her.
Her feet seemed even worse today. It was probably due to the effect of drink, her feet were swelling instead of her skull. Well, that was a blessing in disguise, even if it didn’t feel like one; with a throbbing headache would have made this assignment nearly impossible. Concentrating under such circumstances was incredibly difficult, but it didn’t stop Shuni from grumbling about how tight her socks felt. It was even worse now than it had been this morning, probably because she’s been walking on them instead of resting. Shuni slipped off her sandals with a smile, about to take off her socks and let her feet breathe a little –
No. Shuni’s senses suddenly came alert. It was the kind of innocent, innocuous setup that had gotten her in trouble on previous occasions. Probably, Shuni judged, the creature that had run away had been leaving cursed ground in its trail, and that had irritated or otherwise altered the condition of her feet, probably in the hopes that she’d loosen her tightening socks and be pounced upon as soon as her feet were bare. Shuni nodded grimly and stood up, trying to put the uncomfortable tightness of her socks out of mind. It fit all too perfectly with the demons’ mode of operation, and she congratulated herself on discovering the probable trap before she had stumbled into it.
Of course, there was now the question of what to do about it. Clearly the demons would not take kindly to Shuni having discovered their plan, and unfortunately, even though she recognized it, she would still have to be careful, because she could not undo what had been done yet. That led to the question of what exactly had been done, but she wasn’t sure what that was… were her socks tightening, or was that just an illusion? Were her feet being subtly numbed? No, that made no sense – numbing her feet took away the demons’ only advantage. Numbing her ankles, however… Shuni was still in thought as she tried to slip her sandal back on. But then she noticed something which made the predicament all too clear…
“Curses,” she growled, softly, lest a demon be spying on her. Her sandals didn’t fit now, and laying her foot beside the empty sandal, she could see that it had grown at least two sizes. What was more worrisome was that the enlargement hadn’t produced any painful effects; her feet felt completely natural, aside from the tightness of her too-small socks. Could this be an effort to render her already difficult-to-make socks useless? Worse, her clumsiness and relatively slow running speed would be exacerbated…
“So, Demon Hunter, it appears that you have caught on. But too late; your feet are going to keep growing for a bit longer. And they’ll stay that way, too.” Shuni looked up, and saw the faint shape of a demon in the forest ahead. She wasted no time with idle banter and, with a lightning-quick motion, reached into her belt pouch, and a kunai flashed briefly in the sunlight before cutting through where the demon had been standing. “Now, now… best not to be too hotheaded,” the demon mocked her with a soft chuckle. He was in a tree branch now, off to her left… Shuni fingered her second kunai, but decided against throwing it. He could be trying to make her waste them…
Vorkaan found it an effort to keep his oily smooth grin on his face and a teasing note in his voice. Hidden by distance and by his wing from Shuni’s sight was a wound in his right upper arm. The damned girl was faster than she looked, and he resolved not to be taken off guard again. “The only way you can fix that little – shall I say big? – foot problem of yours is to drink this antidote.” Vorkaan waggled a vial of some blue liquid at her before tucking it into his belt pouch and darting into the forest, chuckling maliciously.
Damn it! Shuni knew it had to be a trap, but her only hope was to follow and hope she could outwit the demon. She did not run, however. Running was the easiest way to end up in a trap. So she took it slowly and carefully, looking all around her, carefully stepping over the knee-high branch in her path – and, due to her enlarged feet, getting tangled and tripping right over it, snapping the branch off and getting it caught between her ankles, and sending Shuni to the ground between two trees. She managed to put her hands out in front of her to keep from falling into the ground face-first, but as she slid forward, she felt the tree roots on either side against her upper arms, and the tree branch between her ankles… and her damned baby fat at the waist! Shuni struggled, but she was stuck. It was going to be hard to get out of this…
Shuni was only now realizing how big her feet had gotten… The fabric of the socks was stretched perilously thin. A fingernail could slice the threads, so tense were they pulled… Was that the least of her worries or not? Another chuckling voice came from behind her. This one sounded female, familiar… “We go to all that work to trap you, and you kindly trap yourself, Demon Hunter…” The sibilant sounds… it was the lamia! Shuni gasped in spite of herself, then bit her lip to fight back chuckles. The lamia’s nails were working on the threads of her socks, probably not by accident brushing the soles underneath.
“Heeehee… heee… heh.” Shuni tried to disguise the giggling as a series of soft, derisive snorts. “I’m not stuck. You go on keeping your illusions, and pretty soon you’ll be dead.” Shuni then clamped her mouth shut, both to protect against the possibility of giggling aloud again, and to preserve her best tactic. It would be best to present herself as a helplessly trapped and foolishly giggling girl, while secretly working herself free… she had a kunai still in her belt pouch. She could turn quickly and toss that, hopefully wounding the creature enough to finish it off, or at the least get it to back off.
“Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!” Shuni couldn’t contain the next burst of laughter. Her socks were coming apart, the threads giving way, snapping one after the other… Soon, her ruined socks were hanging in tatters from her ankles, but the accursed branch was still stuck between them… Had the demons been able, they would have bound her ankles to the branch, but as it was she was fairly unable to move them a whole lot. “Heeheheheheee!! Acc-cursed d-d-demons! You won’t get away with thihihiiis!!!” Shuni purposefully spouted the silly, cliché line…
“I won’t say we already have,” Lilith retorted with a smirk, “but we’re getting pretty close…” She had both socks already torn away and was exploiting the large soles in front of her at random. Three hands apiece could have fit on those feet! Even better, their size made for awkwardness, and that prevented Shuni from twisting free or snapping the branch. Vorkaan made no noise as he returned, and Shuni could not have noticed him. “My, for such a big girl, you are very giggly. I bet you can fit lots and lots of giggles inside that belly of yours.” Lilith wished she could have had Shuni completely unprotected. A poke and a tease at her stomach could have helped immensely.
Nevertheless, with Shuni adopting a helpless girl mentality, coupled with the lamia’s teasing and gentle tickling, Shuni felt herself slipping into a dangerous zone, a zone of mindless giggles and ticklish reactions provoked by teasing… “Hehehehehehehe! No don’t! Not there! Please!!! Hehehehe!! Hahaaaahaaaa!” The lamia’s voice seemed to wash over her in a soothing manner, tickling her ears… that was ridiculous! Shuni wanted to pound her fists on the ground in ticklish frustration, but she gripped the handle of the remaining kunai hard to steady herself… Her hands were trapped beneath her body, so the lamia couldn’t see her reach for it.
“Demon Hunter…” Vorkaan’s soft, mellifluous tone floated into her other ear as his fingers presumably joined in… it must be on the left foot, Shuni decided. The tickling had changed there… The incubus on the left, and the lamia on the right, her feet huge and held helpless, both of them behind her and tickle-teasing her silly…
“NOHOHOHOHOHOHO please!” Shuni squealed, realizing that she was rapidly losing control of herself and that her carefully laid plan was crumbling beneath waves of giggles. Though she had meant to laugh, to embrace the tickling instead of fighting it, each burst of laughter eroded a little bit more from her logical thought processes, threatening to tumble her into a quicksand void of ticklish laughter. She tried to struggle, gripping hard on the end of her kunai, the physical motion giving her some touchstone with reality but wearing her energy out.
“Hmm… Demon Hunter,” Vorkaan began again, and he and Lilith both slowed their tickling to a gentle caress. “We know that you have, somewhere, a weakness… tell me where the weakness is, and I’ll give you the antidote, and let you free…”
“Wh-wha-whahaha what?! No way!” Shuni protested through her soft giggling. “What would beheheheheehe the point? You’re probably lyhihyhhahaha lying about the antidote anyway…!” Shuni found the breather and the verbal exchange helpful in regaining her ability to think clearly. The skating fingertips were driving her mad, but at least she could still reason… could she?
“Even if I am lying…” Here, the incubus and the lamia broke into a burst of hard scratching just beneath the toes. Though it wasn’t ‘the’ spot, it was still a tender enough part of her feet, enough to send the demon hunter exploding into laughter. “Even if I am lying, consider your position… This is possibly your only chance to undo the effects on your feet… and if I let you go, why, then I have to capture you all over again… I’m sure a smart, careful Demon Hunter like yourself won’t get caught again…”
Shuni could barely hear him. Wracked with laughter, howls of laughter that made her body writhe and twist, the outside world seemed to fade out. She was barely aware of being stuck between trees, out in the forest with the shining sun overhead. She just knew that she was stuck, unable to make her torment stop, and there were seductive words floating across the void, somehow superseding her laughter even though they were much softer. “AAHAHHAHAHAAHHAA…AAHhahHAHHAHAAHA… HEHEHEHEH… hHAHAHhhAHAhhAHAHHAAHAH!! Nhahahahah… nahaha!! HAHAHAH!! HEhehehe… sthahah… aHAHAHAHAHAhhahaah stahhappit!!! Nohhehe… NAHAHHAHAHAA!!!”
“He could be telling the truth,” the little voice in Shuni’s head said. “And even so, you’ll get out of this… he’s more right than he knows. If you’re smart, they won’t ever catch you again. Besides… it can’t possibly get any worse than this. What can you lose? Look where you are now… if you give in, you’ll at least have a chance…” Shuni didn’t know what to believe, so she just shook her head wildly and laughed into the ground.
“PLllehehehhHAHHEHEHEHEHehehehze!!! Please… plehehEHEHEHEHEHEze sthahah ahahah stoppit!!!! I… I’ll tell… jeheheheHEEH just sthaha ahah stoppit plehehheeeze!” Shuni squeaked breathlessly, then was relieved when the tickling did slow and stop. “Ehehehh… hee… ehheheheaaa… heehehahaha… ahaha… haaa… heeehhhh….” Shuni gulped down air, even though her throat burned slightly with the effort. It was worth it, especially because with her chest pressed against the ground, it was a bit tough to breathe.
“So…” Vorkaan stood, and walked around to where Shuni’s head was, kneeling next to her. “My, my, you’re quite a pretty little thing. I’d never seen you up close before.” It was hard to tell if this was a lie or not, but the line was so smooth that Shuni blushed anyway. Angrily she shook her head. Blushing for a demon? “Where is your spot, pretty Demon Hunter?”
Again chasing away the irritating reflexive glowing from the compliment, Shuni whispered softly. “O-on each foot… j-just above… the… ehhe… no… behehehe… just above the ball of my foot… the pad of each pinky toe…” It was a lie, to be true, but a sensitive place for being close to the real weak spot. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. He didn’t seem to object, eagerly walking back around to her feet, where he found Lilith sucking on the knuckle of a finger.
“What happened?” Vorkaan asked with a frown, and earned a glare in return.
“Nothing. I was just trying to adjust the stick, and I brushed against the fringe of her kimono…” Lilith backed away, scowling as Vorkaan took her position at the right foot, giving her access to both. “It’s not that bad of an injury. You don’t need to… oh, never mind.” The lamia crossed her arms and slid behind Vorkaan, sitting on her coils and looking at the forest while letting the sound of Shuni’s laughter wash over her.
“HEHEHEHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAHHAHAHA!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHhahaha…h ehehehehEHEHEHGH AHAHAH GHAWEDHHDHDD!!!! Nahahha.a.a.ahahahaHAHAHHAAH not thehehehere…!” Shuni overacted, trying to lead Vorkaan into believing he had ‘the’ spot. It wasn’t hard, only about a quarter of the laughter was faked… it was a very sensitive spot, but it seemed that Vorkaan somehow knew it wasn’t the right one. How? His fingers began to wander, and being so close to the goal from the start, it was only a matter of time… Shuni gritted her teeth…
“Ahh! You were a liar,” Vorkaan said, a humorous accusation. He was in good spirits, for two reasons. One, because his plan had come to fruition, and two, because confusing the demon hunter fairly required it. Teasing her made things worse. “You told me the wrong spot on purpose.” When Vorkaan’s fingers had found the real spot, it was like touching Shuni with a jolt of electricity, the way her body had jerked off the ground and her screams of laughter suddenly pierced the sky. His fingers bored in, and the Demon Hunter became a hysterical mess beneath him. “Tsk, tsk. I’ll have to punish you for lying. No getting free, and no antidote!” Only now did a tone of malice enter Vorkaan’s chuckle. He felt that he had earned it, as the Demon Hunter was now almost entirely helpless under his fingers…
“So she actually told you?” Lilith turned, rubbing her chin in thought as she turned…
Shuni was wild with laughter. The fingers boring in on her weak spots robbed her of anything but instinct. “NAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAA!! GHAHAH AHAHAH!! NAHAHAH!! NOHO!! NEHEHEH!! AHAHAH HAHAAH HAHA I’M SORREHHEHEHEEH EHEHEHEH EHEHEHEH EPEHEHE EHHE PLEASE!! NO PLEHEHEHZE NO HAHAH NOT MORE PLEASE WIHAHAHAH HAHAH NEHEHE!!!” On and on it went, but in a little corner of Shuni’s mind, a small alarm went off… her violent thrashing from having her weak spots tickled had caused a small shift in her position. Her hand closed around the kunai… Waves of ticklishness hammered her, making her want to curl up, laugh helplessly, and struggle. “STHAHHAAH HAAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAAHHAAH AH AHAH AHAHAHAA HAHAAHA HAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHA HAHHA STOP IT!!!” With a mighty effort, Shuni twisted around enough, her arm blurring with rapid movement as a kunai flashed into the air.
Only reflexes saved Vorkaan’s life. Nonetheless, the kunai scored a gash from the corner of his right eye, taking off the top part of his ear, and grazing his scalp before continuing onward to stick squarely in the back of Lilith’s hand. Her eyes went wide, seeing Vorkaan’s blood, and seeing the bloody point of a kunai just an inch from her throat… Whimpering in pain, she hunched over low and sped off into the forest, pulling the kunai out and clutching the bleeding wound in her hand.
Shuni wasn’t interested in her. She saw that Vorkaan was stunned, screaming in pain from his wound, and he was the primary target. Vorkaan could only see out of his left eye. His screams were as much pain as rage; he was going to be disfigured. He knew it. His reason for existence… his beauty… all gone, gone because of this insolent cow of a Demon Hunter! He looked towards her… and the flash of a short sword was the last thing he would ever see.
Shuni wiped her blade on the headless incubus’ corpse, and then rooted in his pouches, trying to find the antidote and hoping that it had not broken… Relief washed over her as she felt her hand close around a vial, and barely stopping to consider that it might be poison or another trap, she uncorked it and drank the contents. The effect was immediate, but not full. Her feet didn’t shrink down to normal size at once, but the elastic part of her socks, still around her ankles, felt a little looser. With luck, she would manage to make it through, but…
She had but one pair of socks left; the threadbare, poorly-made socks given to her by the tailor’s apprentice.
Lilith whimpered softly as she finally made it back to the demons’ cave. Not expecting any help, she had gone to her room to look for something with which to staunch the bleeding, and was surprised to see Xion there, the spider-succubus lounging on her abdomen and looking as if she was contemplating something. Lilith was about to growl at her to get out, but Xion was moving towards her before the door was even closed. “Oh my! You poor dear… I’m guessing Vorkaan’s operation didn’t go as planned, did it? Let me take a look at that.” Already, some spun silk was in Xion’s legs, forming itself into a bandage as she examined the wound. “Here.” She put the silk bandage on, wrapping it tightly around Lilith’s hand. “I’ll be right back.”
The lamia was open-mouthed, having not gotten a word in edgewise. She wasn’t sure what to think, either. It was almost unheard of for a demon to be so solicitous, so unheard of that she didn’t know how to respond. In just a minute’s time, Xion was back, and applying a salve to the wound before binding it tightly again. “There. That will help you heal, and ease the pain in the meantime.” Xion sat down, and smiled. “I hope things did not go too badly…”
“Vorkaan is dead,” Lilith said flatly, sitting on her pile of cushions that she used as a bed. “He’s always been a fool, so it doesn’t surprise me, but… I didn’t think this was how he would meet his end. But I’m thankful to be alive…”
“I’m thankful you’re alive, too.” Xion smiled. Lilith was somewhat suspicious of the solicitude, but over the next hour or so, the pain had indeed faded to almost nothing, and the bleeding had stopped. Xion had made a new bandage and was applying it to her hand, which Lilith held out willingly.
“There, you should be better within a few days.” Xion smiled, and two of her spider legs traced on the area where the human torso joined the snake’s body. Lilith squealed again, this time laughing outright, and her face was puzzlement when she regained control of herself, but she was trying to fight down a ticklish smile. A spider leg was still teasing gently along her midriff, prodding into her navel…
“Don’t you ever quit?” Lilith growled, a little less harshly than she might have. “Why are you helping me so much? Why do you care? What is it you want from me?”
“Don’t you see? With Vorkaan dead, I’m going to be made the new captain of this operation… just you watch. And I want you to assist me. To that end, I want you to be able to trust me – as much as a demon can trust – so I want to build a good working relationship. However, I admit that even before I realized this, you fascinated me… I do so love lamia. They’re very sensitive.” Xion grinned widely. She had tickled Lilith to her back, and her spider legs were twitching expertly, teasing the sensitive skin of the snake youkai below her…
“Stop… stop!” Lilith couldn’t help but grin, then smile, then start giggling… Xion had a leg underneath each arm and the fine hairs on the legs were brushing against her sensitive hollows… “I can’t take it… stop, stop I’m ticklish!!!”
“I know.” Xion made sure the door was closed.
