Demon Hunter Shuni, Chapter 7

[Jaynin]

Demon Hunter Shuni, Episode 7: Silken Prison


All it took was a little ingenuity, Shuni decided, admiring her handiwork. She had spent some time considering the problem of her ripped and torn socks, not desiring to go around wearing totally sliced open socks on her way back to the village. She wasn’t much of a seamstress, but what she had managed to do was scrounge around for a few small sticks, which she then carved slight notches into and then sharpened the points just slightly. Using these sticks, she then went and found a nest of silkworms, which were handily scattered in many places around this forest. It would have been a good source of income for the village, had the forest not been infested by demons. Perhaps she would raise that issue later, after she had eliminated the demon menace from the woods. It would not only remove the threat to the villagers’ safety but also increase their economic livelihood… The thought pleased her.

Using her sharpened sticks, Shuni managed to get some raw silk and then spin it into a very rough thread. Obviously, it felt nothing like the smooth, light texture that manufactured and professionally spun silk had. But it was enough for Shuni, using her sharpened sticks as needles, to thread her slit socks together a little bit, and secure the ends with the notched sticks laid parallel to her feet. It was loose, and likely wouldn’t last the end of the day, but it would protect her feet while she walked back to the village. Satisfied with her work, Shuni set on her way back to the village, feeling rather good about herself. There was just one more thing to be done. Shuni retrieved the corpse of the incubus, slinging him across her shoulders and setting off. It wasn’t terribly glamorous to be carrying a bloody corpse of a demon, but it needed to be burned, and Shuni had neither the tools nor the inclination to safely start a blaze in a forest. She would take him back to the village, both as proof of her deed and as a way to properly dispose of the body.

Despite the weight on her shoulders, Shuni felt light in her step and her heart. She had scored an undeniable victory, had she not? Her main tormentor was slain, his plot thwarted, and his assistant fled. Surely they would raise up another to oppose her, and likely he would use the same methods. But Shuni was now a veteran, and her opponent would not have the experience of this one. He would, granted, learn from the mistakes of this one, but the only true teacher was time, and time’s grading curve was steep. Shuni continued to carry her burden towards the village, yet in many ways it wasn’t a burden at all.



The light stung his eyes, so unaccustomed to it had he become. It was the first time he had been allowed to use his eyesight for a long while. True, when he had first been moved here, he had been allowed sight briefly, but his eyes had not adjusted in time to discern anything useful before he had been robbed of sight again. This time, though, the blindfold was carefully untied by a pair of soft hands that felt female… was it that girl again? The young man shuddered, wondering what sight he was about to behold. Would it be some terrible demon masquerading as a human? Surely there could be no humans other than himself down in this godforsaken pit… The soft hand stroked his cheek as his eyes adjusted, painfully slow.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to harm you.” The young man looked up, into the face of a female, and then he gasped as he took in the detail. Her skin was rather pale… well, if you lived underground, you would be pale, wouldn’t you? But her eyes were yellow. Yellow eyes… like a cat’s, or… his eyes followed the lie of her straight, long black hair. It went well with her black robe, tied with a red sash… reminding the young man of a black widow. The analogy became even more apt as he looked down past her abdomen, and saw the distinctive parts of a spider. His eyes went wide, and immediately fixated on hers again, now distinctly showing terror. But Xion simply continued to stroke his cheek soothingly, smiling as she made cooing noises as if to calm a frightened child. “There, don’t worry. Despite my appearance, I haven’t come to hurt you…”

“Don’t look so glum,” she continued, and her hand trailed down his cheek, over his neck, rubbing softly, then her fingers ran along his chest, and he squirmed softly, taken a bit aback by her manner and the way in which she touched him. Another spark of fear touched off in his breast; did this demon want to lie with him? What horrid abominations would be the result of such an unholy union? His body quivered in fear, and he tried to pull back from her touch. The spider-woman’s face quirked into a grimace, and she withdrew her hand. “You’re still afraid of me, I see… it’s to be expected. Still, I will prove to you that you’ve nothing to fear…”

Xion knew that as unsettled as he was, his normal body responses would be subverted by fear. So there was no point in trying to do anything other than calm him just yet. As she continued to speak and coo softly, the frightened young man suddenly swallowed and blurted out brokenly, “W-were you the o-one bringing me m-meals…? I… if you were… th… then th-thank you.” He swallowed and went back to trembling, looking away from her now. Xion simply put her hand to her chin in thought.

“Bring you meals? No, I haven’t…” Before she could finish, another female voice called softly as the door opened.

“My beloved, I’ve come to…” The young man looked in the direction of the voice, but the open door blocked his view of whoever had come now. “What? What have…” The voice gasped softly in disbelief, and there was the sound of a shattering plate as the owner of the voice dropped it in shock. The voice hissed sharply, then demanded: “You fiend! What are you doing to him? I demand you stop that this instant!” Quickly, Xion replaced the blindfold, preventing the young man from seeing who it was that had wandered into view.

That voice was familiar to the young man, though. He could identify it as the girl who had been bringing him meals, and also the woman who laid her nails into his flesh as a mark of possession. The reaction to seeing the lustrous spider-demon cooing before him matched with that personality, as well. He just wished that he could have seen her face, but he realized this was very deliberately being kept hidden from him. Still, he went quiet and listened to them argue. It was not a question of overhearing; they were right in front of him and made no attempt to hide their voices.

“Stop it? First of all, it’s unwise to make demands that you can’t enforce,” Xion replied smoothly, her legs clicking on the floor as she turned to face the other woman. “Second, I’m the replacement for the one who was giving you orders before. That makes me your superior, and definitely not someone you would take such an insolent tone with.” She paused, and the young man could envision a smirk curling on her lips. “Seeing as I have not introduced myself to you properly, I’ll be willing to let this insubordination slide…”

“In command?” the other woman replied, a haughty tone and a snort making the young man envision her with her arms crossed and head turned. “That bumbling lout was hardly good enough to be in command of me. I work for my own ends, spider. I cooperate with you because it is convenient for me, not because I’ve enlisted in the ranks of your gangly cronies.”

“This is true,” Xion replied smoothly, approaching the woman again. “He was very much a fool, and had not the wit to make proper use of you. But I do. You see, I’m not ignorant and arrogant like he was. I know what you want, and I’m willing to offer you reasonable tasks in exchange for that… and besides.” The young man realized how the spider-woman’s tone had so smoothly turned from being firm to being… enchanting? Seductive? Even knowing that she was making an attempt to cajole the other woman, it was hard not to lose himself in the silken caress of her voice.

“I know you want to see the witch humiliated… made a laughingstock, cast out, eliminated, removed from your path so that you can pursue your real goal…” Xion chuckled. “My name is Xion, I have no need to know yours.”

“Xion…? Well.” The other voice sounded mollified, a departure from the haughty, spoiled tone of just a minute before. “Xion, I think you and I understand each other far better than your predecessor. Yes, I do want that witch out of the way… her snotty manner, that bold, sauntering stride, her willowy yet innocent features… they all contrive to drive me mad. I cannot stand to see her walk those grounds longer than I must…”

“It sounds to me,” Xion said coyly, “that you might want her instead of wanting to eliminate her…”

“Me? Want anything to do with that girl? You must be insane. I loathe her!” The girl’s voice barked indignantly, but Xion merely chuckled. The young man gulped. Why was Xion feeding the fire after having so skillfully doused it? She made no sense…

“Ah, but what someone thinks they loathe, they may actually learn to love in time… This holds true for not just people, but other things as well. The body adapts remarkably. It modifies sensations, feelings, perceptions, to fit what the brain fixates on. Allow me to demonstrate…” The demonstration of what, the young man was unsure, but an unsteady yelp filled the room a moment thereafter, followed by another round of indignant exclamation.

“Don’t touch me like that! No! Cease, I demand it! Stop! Stop it, I sayyyyy!!” There was the sound of a minor scuffle, of someone backing up quickly, and the rapid click-click of the spider-succubus’ legs following her. In just a few seconds’ time the sound of movement ceased. “Let go of me! Foul creature, stop that! Stop, stop, stahaaaaaaappit!!!” There was a squeal, immediately punctuated by a breathless giggle. There was an odd, soft swishing sound, which elicited a gasp, and then a yelp. “No! Get this off of me!”

“Now listen,” Xion said, as if nothing at all was untoward. “You see here the silk I spin? You will never ever break it without an enchanted blade, yet it’s also soothingly comfortable, is it not?” The other woman had no time to agree, because she was giggling intermittently, every attempt at interjection broken up into static. The young man found himself strangely curious as he listened to the two women tussle, squirming against his bonds and wishing he could see what in the world was happening. “This is what my plan will be…”

The young woman in question could only nod her assent. There was no room for disagreement, because she was in fact suspended from the ceiling by a thick bolt of silk which was wrapped around her wrists, pulling them above her head but letting her stand flat on the floor. Xion was speaking softly into her left ear, too low for the young man to hear. The black cloak, which the woman wore to hide her identity, had its hood pulled back, and Xion’s two hands were hidden within the folds of the cloth. From here she could explore all.

Xion smiled as she recounted an old guideline she had once composed for herself when she began the study of humans so long ago. First, fingernails to the hips; then, if possible, her spider forelegs to the waist as well. Anything would work so long as it was capable of producing a fair amount of friction, but nothing sharp. Here, from the hips along the waist, near the sensitive groin area of both males and females, dragging the nails along the hipbone produced an excellent response. Her female subject tossed back her head and emptied her lungs in a sudden burst of laughter.

“NO! Hehhehehehee… p-pehehEHEHeheh perverted crehehEHEHehehe creature! Hehehehehehee… g-get your… h-h-hahahahaa hands… out! Out of thehEHEHEHEHRE! STOP!! NAhHAHAAhhahahahaaa…!” Xion of course did not listen to such pleas for a respite. True, one could consider tickling in the vicinity of the genitals to be improper and perverted, but it was also a place on the body that was loaded with nerve endings, hence the significant response of this young woman. “Heheheheh… hahahaha... nahhahaha!!! Stop! Oh, please! PleheheheHEHEehehase stoppit!” Her legs kicked and her hips twisted, but her body was braced against Xion’s front, and in this case Xion abandoned using her forelegs to assist in tickling the girl but instead used them to keep the girl’s legs pinned in place, spread slightly apart.
Use the element of surprise and pick a sensitive place to elicit the first reaction; then, continue, so that it requires more than a moment to recover from the stimulation. That was to say, pick the spot most likely to be ticklish and exploit it until the victim started laughing harder. This was the key to getting a good response from the other areas, and to find in particular the prime ticklish spot on any given ticklish person. The rather spare clothing this young woman wore under the cloak made matters easier.

Second, explore the other ticklish areas of the subject. Xion’s hands slowly slid upwards from the young woman’s waist, tickling along her hipbones as she did so and eliciting another squirm before settling in to start in on trying her stomach and navel. Here, too, Xion got a good response: “No! Stop thahahahhat! Stoppit! Shthahahahahahaeeeee! Stop tickling mehehehehehe! No! NhahahAHAHHAAHHA don’t stick your nails in thehEHEHEHEHEHRE!!! STOP HHAHAHAAH HSTOSHAHAH STOP STOP!!!!” The volume of her pleading increased significantly when Xion’s fingernail gently probed into the navel and twisted. So, this was the weakness, then. Or so it would seem. Further exploration was possible, but for the moment, Xion had all the information she needed. She wasn’t trying to break this female, not exactly. Her goal was more to… condition her to accept her subordinate role.

“I trust there will be no problem in our cooperation, then?” Xion asked softly, answered only by jerky nodding in between fits of explosive laughter. “Good. You know what you want to do, and what you must do for me. Now, I shall leave you be with your beloved possession, so that you may gather the resolve to carry out your next task…” What Xion didn’t say was that she understood human emotion better than Vorkaan had. Clearly this male was an obsession for the girl. She wouldn’t go so far as to call it ‘love’, because love was a more gentle emotion, and mutual. This was a case of one-way fiery passion, thus it was an obsession. The point was, however, that if she was given continual reminders of her reward, it would inspire her on to greater efforts in the face of adversity. Gathering her silk and disentangling the girl from its sticky embrace, Xion took her leave.

Oh, and it was also a demonstration of what the punishment for failure would be…



Shuni’s enchanted kimono was resistant to the blood of the demon she carried across her shoulders, and the stray blood streaks that got onto the arms or shoulders of her clothing wouldn’t stick and form a terribly ugly stain, but simply dried up, as if it were rapidly evaporating water. The same could not be said, however, of Shuni’s skin and hair. By the time she had returned to the village, there was a fair bit of blood in her hair, and streaked on her cheek and the back of her neck. Granted, it was quite disgusting, but no one had ever said that demon hunting was terribly clean work. Besides, the payoff would make this all worth it.

Emerging from the forest, Shuni got the attention of quite a few villagers without even needing to say anything. The sight of the corpse slung across her shoulders, obviously that of a demon’s, sent them running in all directions bearing the news, and by the time she had arrived in the center of town, there was a large crowd there, waiting and murmuring. Unceremoniously, Shuni slung the corpse down into the center of the assembled villagers, who had formed a circle around her when she came in. It was laid bare for all to see, the bloodied form of the slain demon, and the bloodstains that graced Shuni’s skin could be from no other result than battle with this demon. Or so it appeared, anyway. Shuni raised her voice and spoke.

“People of this village!” she said in a bold, clear voice. “Look upon the demon which I have carried into your town square. This demon was one of the leaders responsible for the ongoing series of attacks upon this town. I slew him in the forest today,” Shuni proclaimed, which set off a series of murmurs. “In time your village will be free of demons entirely! However, this is not the only demon responsible for harassing the village and your farms. I will not rest until all of them are displayed here, slain, for you to see.” Shuni paused, hoping she’d get the reaction she wanted… and, she did.

The villagers let out a cheer, some of them holding hands and dancing around, others looking with morbid curiosity at the maimed demon. Still others seemed to be quietly relieved, not expressing much in words, but their faces showed volumes. Shuni let it go on for a moment before issuing her final proclamation, rubbing her foot against her ankle to rub out the brief itch that had sprung up. “Your only task in this,” she said over the clamor, allowing it to die down before continuing, “is to build a fire and incinerate the corpse of this foul being! Once its remains have been burned to ashes, it will be unable to return to this world in any form.” The villagers roared approval, and several dashed off to find firewood, the others dispersing to make room. Shuni, for her part, was headed towards the room she had in the mayor’s house, because she needed to clean this stinking demon blood off of her skin…

Leaving the clamor behind, and hearing the first sparks as flint struck steel, Shuni made her way to the mayor’s house and opened the main door, closing it behind her – and stopping in her tracks as she saw the village’s most important males seated around a table, with the mayor sitting at the head. They all stopped talking to look at her, and Shuni flushed red. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to interrupt…”

“No, no, come and sit down,” the mayor said, gesturing to an empty spot at the table. Shuni sat down, giving her ankle a surreptitious itch as she did so. “We were just discussing a matter which probably will concern you greatly in the coming days.” Someone took a puff of smoke from a pipe, blowing the smoke into the air, where it slowly dissipated and filtered out of the room. “Akari was kind enough to bring us the news of your accomplishment today, and we do owe you a debt. However…”

“While you were gone,” the tailor cut in gruffly, “my apprentice was spirited off somewhere! No one knows where he’s gone to, and the village was in an uproar before you arrived, and we can only assume the worst.”

“I see… perhaps then,” Shuni said slowly, crimson blossoming in her cheeks, “I was diverted away by the spy, and during my absence the boy was abducted…” She spoke slowly, then coughed as subtly as she could afterwards; her feet were starting to tingle slightly, and her mind was suddenly seized by wild imaginings of what could be happening… The tingling and uncomfortable growing feeling of before was not present again, but more a slightly itchy and tickly feeling of, say, an insect, crawling along the skin… Shuni slid the sticks which had held her socks together out of the threads and surreptitiously disposed of them, thinking that perhaps the bark was causing the sensation. She returned her attention to the discussion around the table. A man somewhat younger than the tailor, a rather handsome man in his forties, was speaking now. By his distraught demeanor, Shuni assumed him to be the boy’s father. He had the pretty-boy looks about him, even at his age. She could see where he got it, now.

Yet Shuni could not do more than focus on the general direction his words were taking. Thankfully, he seemed not to blame Shuni for the problem, instead being of the opinion that the villagers had to rely more on themselves to protect one another and the village and not rely solely on Shuni, who was after all but one person. She nodded gratefully at this, but she couldn’t make herself speak up with words of thanks or anything of the sort. She hoped her vaguely troubled look would be interpreted as thinking on what to do now that the boy was kidnapped, but that wasn’t quite the truth of the matter… what had happened was that, somehow, the silkworms from the silk thread she had used to repair her socks had gotten into them, and their slow meandering about on her soles had elevated the sensation from an irritating itching to a tickling that threatened to have her burst into giggles right here at this discussion. It was fortuitous that she was not needed to talk too much at this discussion; the silkworms were starting to spin threads, and why they were doing this she did not know, but the threads were drifting across her sensitive soles and threatening to tangle in her toes. She couldn’t even curl her feet in defense unless she wanted disgusting bug guts all over her feet, which might be even more unpleasant than this light tickling.

Shuni prayed that this meeting would end soon. She had, after all, walked into the middle of it… Sweat slowly beaded on her face and she shifted slightly, eyes cast at the table and mouth compressed into a tight line. She shook slightly every so often, when the silkworms found a sensitive spot. Their touch had no direction, no consistency or pattern, just the skittering, wiggling feeling of insect bodies and legs against her skin. Perhaps the only thing that saved her from exploding into laughter at this very moment was the simultaneous unpleasant feeling of having bugs trapped under her clothing. That was a less than pleasant thought in and of itself, but the two sensations combined to keep Shuni’s focus far from the matter at hand. The village elder Kazuo was saying something now, not addressed to her as far as she could discern, but at any time she knew a question could be directed at her, and in her current state she’d miss it entirely, looking the fool and losing whatever respect she had managed to gain amongst the villagers. The desire to make up a reason to excuse herself was growing. It wouldn’t be too hard to do, but then the men might wonder why she was walking out of the room on tiptoe and looking as if she were walking on eggshells. Who would believe that she had silkworms in her socks? It was utterly ludicrous…
Shuni divided her focus between praying that she would not be asked any questions and trying to keep herself with a straight, somber face. Even a smile of repressed laughter wouldn’t help her here; if she so much as showed an improper expression, well… she didn’t think it would go over very nicely with the villagers here. Why did these things always happen to her… why oh why did they… Shuni looked up suddenly, a blush painting her cheeks. Kazuo was talking to her, but the other men around the table were shifting, talking to one another, and making to get up and leave. The meeting had ended and Shuni hadn’t even noticed because she’d been in too much of a tizzy over the subtle tickling in her socks that was driving her to wit’s end. Hastily she tried to remember what Kazuo was saying: “…get yourself cleaned up and have some rest,” he said with a kindly smile. “You’ve helped a lot today and I know you must be tired from your earlier ordeal. Rest easy, child.” And with that, he too departed, although he only went into the kitchen to begin cooking the evening meal. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky, now, and Shuni blinked, realizing she was the only one who still knelt at the table. Hastily, she slid her feet out from under her, being careful not to step on the bugs, and pulled her socks off quickly, seeing some of the silkworms go flying and brushing the remainder off of her feet while letting out some pent-up giggles. Strands of silken thread crossed through her toes, and she had to work at the tangle for a minute before she could move her feet freely, dusting them off and shaking the silkworms out of her socks before examining the pair with a sigh.

They had sufficed to get her here from the forest, but this pair of socks was shot, otherwise. Bare strands of thread covered most of the sole, and the strain of walking plus the silkworm activity had made them little more than old rags for dusting. Shuni barely suppressed a sigh, wondering what it was that she was going to do now. First things first, though. Shuni let herself into the bath and was pleased to see that the wooden tub’s water was heated, a fire smoldering in the fire-pit below the bath. Doffing her clothing and hanging it on the peg inside the door, Shuni cleansed herself with the smaller tub of cool water, shivering as she vigorously splashed herself with it and soaping up before using another round of splashing to rinse off. A cursory examination of her hair and head revealed that most of the blood was gone, and with a happy sigh Shuni stepped into the hot water, doubling up so that it came up to her neck and letting the heat soak into her bones…

With a start, she jerked her head up, realizing that she’d dozed off. Not for long, fortunately; the sun was still in the sky, and Kazuo’s knock sounded at the door again, reminding her of what had awoken her. “Shuni, child, dinner is ready. Come and eat,” he called pleasantly, prompting Shuni to hastily dry off and dress before sitting at the table to eat. And eat she did, consuming quite a bit of the soba noodles and rice with vegetables that had been laid out for her. The old man always seemed to know when to make extra food, and nary a scrap remained when Shuni leaned back, blowing out her cheeks and fanning her face lightly. “Busy day, hm?” he asked, cleaning the dishes away with a smile, and Shuni only nodded. “Best to get some sleep then. You’ve earned it.”

It was true. Shuni’s jaws cracked with a yawn, and though the sun had only just gone down below the horizon, leaving some light to see by, Shuni found herself crawling to her pallet and shrugging off her kimono before wrapping herself in a blanket and falling asleep, almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.




It was fully dark when Shuni awoke again. She didn’t know why she’d been awakened, but there was no noise or movement that she could pinpoint which might have woken her. For that matter, she did not feel tired or cotton-headed as she normally did when awakened before she was fully rested, so in the minute or so that she laid in bed, trying to think of what might have happened, she came to the conclusion that she was fully rested and had waken up now, because she had gone to sleep so early. That was kind of silly – if she was so tired to fall asleep so fast earlier, she would most certainly need a lot of rest – but Shuni had no better answer for the circumstances. Her first instinct was to shrug it off and go back to sleep, rolling over to do so. But the nature of her awakening prevented her from getting back to sleep, and after about fifteen minutes of disgruntled tossing and turning, Shuni reluctantly threw back her covers and stretched, getting dressed in her kimono and looking around the room. There was nothing that had tried to attack her while she slept, and letting her awaken and put on her kimono was the height of foolishness, if there were a foe out there.

Shuni found herself quite bored and not knowing what to do. She was awake, but concentration seemed beyond her grasp, and a few minutes found her outside in the village, wandering aimlessly. She had no clock, so she had no way of knowing what the time was, but it felt as if it were in the deepest part of the night. She let herself wander, and soon found that she was making a path for the forest. For some odd reason she felt drawn in that direction; it was opposite the way to the demons’ lair, and it was a part of the forest Shuni had not made any great effort to explore. Maybe now was a good time to rectify that oversight… perhaps there was something useful that way. The soft glow of her kimono lit her way as she walked through the forest, glancing to the left and to the right but seeing nothing aside from trees. Her mind seemed lost somewhere in a dull haze, not tired and not fatigued, but simply unwilling to focus. In her absentmindedness, her feet kept her moving forward, and a short jaunt into the forest became an hour’s walk into some region yet unknown. Maybe the reason why the demons made no effort to explore or use this area was because it was totally unremarkable.

With a start, Shuni suddenly realized that she had come across a small glade in the forest, an area free of trees with a couple of small hillocks and a stream running through the middle of it, lazily trickling through its rock bed with the moonlight shimmering off its surface. The clearing was of no small size, and Shuni crested the nearest hill to gaze out over the entire area. It would have been the perfect site for a hidden village of ninja deep within the forest or something of that sort, but there was no such thing, unless all the entrances were hidden in the hillsides… With that notion in mind, Shuni started to explore the reverse slopes of all the hills, but she found no hidden village of ninja. The silliness of it made her giggle, but her search was not fruitless…

In the center of the glade, the stream had started to cut away part of the hill, with the result that there was a grassy overhang on its one side. If she were to walk on it, it would surely collapse into the stream below, but that was not what she found that was of interest. There was actually a hole cut into the side of the hill, lined with stones to make a rectangular doorway. So there was someone or something that lived here, or at least there had been… the surrounding area showed no signs of habitation, so perhaps this peaceful glade had been the last dwelling of a hermit or someone like that, someone who lived alone and had died many years before, leaving nothing but this doorway to mark his passage… Overcome with curiosity, Shuni ducked inside the doorway, and was surprised to see that it was in fact a tunnel high enough for her to stand upright in without any trouble. Her kimono’s light did not even come near to illuminating the end of the stone tunnel, but without hesitation Shuni strode forward, idle curiosity foremost in her mind. It was not that she was heedless of possible danger, but confident that she would be protected from it.

And so it would. The kimono shielded her from all physical harm, yet Shuni was not experienced enough to realize that it did not protect her from psychological strikes. The cave itself seemed oddly warm, not cool like the outside air had been. It was warm and… a touch moist, not so moist as to be thick, but enough water in the air to prevent it from being dry and dusty. It somehow felt very comforting, comforting enough to relax her as she went further into the tunnel. Shuni did not stop to think that perhaps something was amiss until she had gone far enough into the cave to realize that she could not see the moonlight at the entrance nor see any kind of change in the passageway up ahead. It seemed as if she had been going slightly downwards since she had started walking, but it was certainly odd to build such a long tunnel like this. Shuni was not alarmed besides a general feeling that something was slightly off.

Over time, Shuni realized that the light of her kimono was no longer penetrating the darkness, or anywhere, for that matter. She was walking in a black, formless void, and while she could see herself quite clearly, she could not even see the stones on the walls beside her. To reassure herself that they were still there, Shuni reached out and pushed on one of the walls – only to find that it was not there, and she overbalanced, toppling off of the path and somehow falling into the dark abyss… yet the feeling of falling was not there, either. Shuni didn’t know what to make of this, she hadn’t even screamed, when the whole scene went bright so suddenly that it caused her to shield her eyes. But she did notice that it suddenly felt as if she were outside on a warm summer day with a light breeze ruffling her hair, and something tickling at her sides…

Shuni let out a yelp and hopped aside, only to feel the sensation of many such slightly rough things brushing against her body, but when she opened her eyes, she noticed that she was in the middle of… a field. The things she had felt were grain crops, tall and green and swaying lightly under the summer breeze, and as far as she could see behind her, there were waving green and earthy tones to the land, bountiful crops of all kinds. In front of her there was… the village? Shuni waded out of the field, but as she did so, she noticed that what she was focusing on had a tendency to waver or become fuzzy at times, as if she couldn’t quite keep herself focused on what was happening. That proved all the more true when she suddenly found herself standing in the path that led to the village, cutting between the rows of fields, in the blink of an eye, when it still seemed a minute’s walk away just a moment before. It seemed as if she was dreaming. That would make sense… it would explain this whole silly scenario. Shuni pinched herself and waited, but nothing happened. Besides that, who thought logically to herself when she was dreaming?

Shuni decided to make her way to the village, noticing how there seemed to be no people in the fields, working the crops and tending them. The village seemed far away, then within a moment she had blinked within a short distance of it… and with this blink, others had finally appeared. Shuni somehow knew that she was laying down on her stomach atop the hillock in front of her, one of the few swellings of earth that were just outside the village before it gave way to flat fields. The village stood on a small plateau of sorts, the ground sloping gently upwards before it gave way to the higher, flat ground upon which the houses of the village stood. And Shuni knew that she was, at that moment, laying down with a book, reading it and basking in the sunlight, her feet propped casually on the edge of the slope, bare. Shuni knew that she was there; she saw herself, even at the same time as she was walking up the path. She also saw the two farm girls crawling up the slope beneath her feet, shushing each other with soft whispers and stifling giggles as they advanced, on the prowl, their prey crystal clear.

At that moment Shuni knew that she had gotten distracted by the words of a cute boy who had taken a break from his chores for a moment to speak with her. She knew what would happen; in the middle of the conversation, those girls would stroke her feet, and she’d break out into an embarrassing squeal of laughter. Shuni opened her mouth to call out a warning, stretched out a hand to restrain the girls, but her movements felt slow, mired in honey, and no sound came from her mouth at all. Instead, the scene seemed to flicker… and now the girls were not just stalking up the slope but positioned within arm’s reach of both soles, light skin upturned to the sun and caressed by the soft breeze. What was more startling was her own position… Her words to the boy buzzed in her head, like a background conversation she couldn’t quite hear, but now she was prone on the slope beside one of the girls, eyes wide as she saw their fingernails reach up and start at her heels, slowly tracing down along the contours of her feet and tickling ever so lightly from heel to toes.

Shuni knew it tickled. She knew that she had let out a soft giggle which the boy had not noticed or cared about and kept talking. She knew that the second set of fingernails, following the first, sent her into silly guffaws of laughter, but her feet did not move… no one seemed to care that she was laughing. The girls, their long, soft fingers teasing over and over against Shuni’s soles, seemed almost like cats pawing at a scratching post, just with an infinitely lighter touch. She was giggling harder, and yet… yet… Shuni blushed. The Shuni laying on the slope beside the two girls had her full attention on the Shuni whose feet were being teased, and she found herself starting to warm a little to the notion, to smile and fight back a snicker along with the girls who were doing the teasing. Poor Shuni was so ticklish, but it was so much fun to tease her… Shuni reached out again, to guide the hand of one of the girls, urging her with both mind and body to stroke gently with her nails in short strokes at the instep. Shuni always started giggling when that happened, and yet it felt kind of nice, too…

It was kind of silly how she had always objected to tickling Shuni’s feet like this. Now that she thought about it, it was really kind of fun… Shuni nodded eagerly as the farm girls tickled her feet, alternating with precise, light touches of their nails to certain points on her feet, or just letting their fingers wander and gently stroke back and forth against the sensitive soles. They both used two hands, often using one to keep up a gentle scratching just below the ball of her foot, where Shuni had guided them to, and using the other to trace slow, meandering lines with the tips of their fingernails across the soft flesh of her sole and heel. Shuni made sure to direct them not to tickle on the weak spot yet. If you tickled Shuni’s feet softly and steadily like this, she enjoyed it, and then you could start tickling on weak spots as much as you wanted with little resistance. Shuni, resting on the slope with a wide grin on her face, knew that all of this coaching was driving Shuni reading the book mad… all that terrible teasing was making her giggle hysterically and slam the ground with her fist, laughing her cheeks to a rosy shade of pink as she succumbed to the tickling. The boy had crouched by her, only smiling and teasing her for being so ticklish, not thinking her odd or rude for bursting out in laughter.

With a happy smile on her face, Shuni reached out for her own foot, joining the girl who was teasing her left foot and stroking with one finger carefully on the weak spot, just the way Shuni hated it… stroking, not scratching. Shuni buried her face in her forearms and laughed so hard that her body shook, her feet tensing up and wiggling around a little, but Shuni wouldn’t be deterred, stroking that spot just below her pinky toe, on the ball of her foot… Then she would stop and let Shuni giggle and enjoy the sensation of fingernails lightly scratching on her soles. While soft, they had been subjected to just enough walking to allow a good amount of friction from nails. It was the friction that tickled, and Shuni’s feet were just so sensitive. Shuni had become so lost in the happy haze of tickling her own left foot that she hadn’t realized the farm girl she’d been sharing with was gone, leaving Shuni alone to tickle the large, sensitive foot propped up just above her head. It wiggled around as she stroked it, her nails teasing in the creases of the skin with delicate precision. She didn’t go in between the toes, because that didn’t tickle Shuni as much, focusing more on the sole, instep, and heel. She smiled at Akari, who smiled back, deft fingers expertly tickling Shuni’s tender soles. Akari had been one of the ones most responsible for tickling Shuni… Shuni never had wanted to admit how much she’d enjoyed Akari’s teasing and her tickling.

The warm haze seemed to settle over Shuni even more, until she was no longer laying on the slope tickling her own feet. She was the Shuni, the only Shuni, the one on the slope having her feet softly tickled, her face flushed with a healthy color as she laughed into her hands, wiggling around on the warm grass as she tickling stroked up and down her soles. Now she could feel every jolt, every ticklish sensation that skittered up her spine, making her body react with a pleasant tingling warmth that caused her to rock back and forth with uncontrollable glee. The hands tickling on her soles were so soft, so gentle and precise… just that right amount of tickling, teasing her soft sensitive spots, to keep her from becoming so hysterical that the pleasant feeling disappeared. Shuni’s forearms were pressed against the book she’d been reading, the tip of her nose smudged slightly with ink where she’d pressed it into the book while giggling, yet the whole warm and gentle feeling washed over her body, the tickling going on, stroking her weak spots… stroking, stroking lightly, making her laugh even harder now, but she couldn’t stop, couldn’t get away. Her muscles had tingled ‘til their strength had melted into something warm that oozed all throughout her insides, making her skin tremble slightly with sensation.

Still she laughed and laughed uncontrollably. She couldn’t stop, and it felt so nice, felt so good that she didn’t know what she was going to do… Shuni closed her eyes and let that tingling pervade her body with a rush, letting it run to all her nerve endings, even the ones that were naughty. Shuni giggled, a naughty giggle, a hidden giggle, as her body shifted a little bit, the light gone with her eyes shut, now just a warm feeling that was all over her body, the warm grass beneath her stomach, the tickling fingers at her feet…

Shuni opened her eyes, but the blackness hadn’t fully gone away. But she realized, with a start, that she was leaning against the wall inside the stone tunnel she’d started to explore, one arm wrapped tightly under her breasts and the other gripping the material of her kimono at the thigh, firmly, almost as if she’d been shivering or something. It was too warm to shiver, though. Shuni still felt a residual warmth, a faint tingling, all through her body, but… had she been dreaming just now? Fallen asleep because the tunnel was warm and had such an odd dream? Shuni felt a little groggy, but she could see another archway in the stone up ahead, leading to a room that seemed to be lit. Suddenly yawning, Shuni stumbled in the direction of that room, using a hand against the wall to support herself. The room was only a few short steps away, and she reached it without mishap, but what was inside took her breath away.

Burning in three wall sconces were lanterns, lighting the room within quite nicely, and what there was inside seemed like it had been transported from an opulent, exotic mansion. The floor was carpeted with a pearly white material that felt soft and warm, making Shuni remove her sandals and walk around in her threadbare socks, the ones the tailor’s apprentice had made her. It tickled slightly, making her giggle as she looked around. There in the corner was a sleeping place made up, with a fine mattress on the floor and smooth silk sheets covering it, a fluffy down pillow propped at one end. A polished mahogany dresser was against the wall opposite the bed, which was in the corner to Shuni’s right, and a mirror above the dresser. A mirror! Down here! There was also a washstand, and a pail for water to be carried in if needed. There must have also been something in the candles, an incense of sorts, because the air smelled pleasant, and it made almost a crackling tingle against her skin. Shuni shifted slightly, wanting to lie down and sleep, but a corner of her mind spoke up first…

Reluctantly, she made herself admit that it could be a trap. There was no evidence of anyone else here, but… she had wandered in an aimless direction for an hour at an unknown hour in the night. No one could know she was here, but just in case… The walls were made of mortared stone, with a shaft for air bored into the ceiling. This was barred in a cross-hatched pattern; Shuni tested it with her hands, and it felt solid, noting that the bars were iron and in good repair, and did not wobble when pulled on. That only left the entranceway. To solve that problem, Shuni removed her kimono, then dug the points of her kunai into the mortar on either side of the open doorway, tying the sleeves to the handles so that it stretched out over the entrance and formed a screen that no demon could get through. She was quite proud of her handiwork, and nodded before yawning sleepily.

Time for bed, then. Shuni crawled into the silk-sheeted pallet, giggling slightly at the feel of the silk against her skin. It felt so soft, it was a wonderful feeling, and a wide smile stretched on Shuni’s face as she closed her eyes, settling into the comfortable bedding. For a moment she lay still, motionless, and then a soft giggle escaped her lips, and she removed her underwear, slipping the garments off and tossing them out from under the sheets, adjusting her position and sighing with comfort. The freedom to move was matched with the lovely sensation all over her body, combining to produce a hidden smile of pleasure upon her lips as she drifted off to sleep, the warm tingling of silk on skin easing the embrace of unconsciousness.




Above the ground, Lilith slowly uncoiled from the air shaft where she had been listening to Shuni as she prepared for bed, her sharp hearing finally picking up the gentle rhythmic sounds of a sleeping person’s breathing. “Well, she seems to have gone to sleep,” she said wryly to Xion, stretching all six of her arms before thinking better of that and keeping them close to her body. The spider had proven to have quick and wandering hands, keeping Lilith just a little on edge the whole time she was around the woman. “I don’t really see what the point of all that was, but I have to admit it worked like a charm. I think she’s naked, if that means anything,” Lilith offered. “It sounded like she took her underclothes off as well before going to sleep.”

Xion, who was squatting a short distance away with her chin on her hands, grinned. “It’s a bonus, because now I can go a little further than I would have been able to otherwise.” Quietly moving over to the air shaft, which was hidden under a bush at the forest’s edge, Xion took Lilith’s place and spoke quietly, lest her voice carry down to the sleeping Shuni. “The point is subtle, something the late Vorkaan failed to take into account. What he tried to do was torture her with tickling… so as you see, she grew suspicious of its every mention and instance. I have to undo his blundering, but tonight was a big step forward.” She started to spin some silk, a very thin thread, down into the air shaft.

“What’s that for?” Lilith asked, pointing with one of her hands, and lounging on her coils, back resting against a tree trunk. Now that Xion was preoccupied with whatever it was she was doing, she’d be less likely to sneak in a poke or two at the lamia, but Lilith made sure that her tail tip was out of the reach of Xion’s spider legs.

“I’m spinning her a new garment, but first…” Xion’s look of concentration forestalled comment, as she seemed to be fishing around for something with her thread. “Ah. Got it,” she said, and within a moment she had pulled up Shuni’s bra, her thread hooked around one of the straps. Lilith raised an eyebrow, but Xion studied it, and then set it carefully aside. The thread dipped down again and pulled up Shuni’s underwear, which Xion also studied, before her silk-spinning organ started to produce more. This her legs seemed to be working, almost sewing into a particular shape, with a number of glances at the discarded ones she had pulled up…

“I didn’t figure you had an underwear fetish,” Lilith said with a light grunt to break the silence, but Xion only smiled, not speaking until she had finished spinning. When she was done, a pair of underwear and a bra that looked identical to the ones that had been pulled up rested in Xion’s hands, and she started to lower them back into the air shaft. “Oh, I get it. Pretty clever. So what’s with the new pair? Is it cursed? Will it nullify the barrier of her kimono?”

“It’s silk,” Xion replied, as if that made its purpose self-evident. She lowered both garments in with a self-satisfied smile. “Oh, don’t pout like that. Listen, it’s really very simple… everything we do from this point is going to associate tickling with those warm, tingling feelings that make her shiver… we’re going to associate tickling with something she likes. Those undergarments are silk. That’ll keep her feeling nice and tingly for us tomorrow… we have to be awake before she is, so you’re not seen,” Xion said.

“Me? What about you?” Lilith asked with a raised eyebrow.

“She hasn’t seen me yet. And I’m going to use that to my advantage. You’ll get to see everything tomorrow,” Xion promised, patting her on the upper arm. “For now, let’s get some sleep.”