# Chapter Seventeen: Destruction Author: The Roseblack Dragon Tags: Bathing, Character Development, Feudal Japan, Fox, Human, Kissing, Lizard, Plot Development, Violence (Not In Yiff) #18 of Tales of Ippon _Death comes for all. On swift wings. But some... the meeting is on their terms_ ============================================= "How many are there?" Usuyami asked, standing in the cover of a parapet on the Walls of Tetsumo. Thick black smoke blotted out the midday sun, and the accompanying stench was horrifying. The scouts knelt as they reported. "We couldn't tell, Milady. There's hundreds..." "And Thousands..." She hissed and looked at the army spread out before her. The Gasaran forces had moved. Reports were filtering in from all over Ippon that they were expanding outward from the Black lands, in numbers unimaginable. Aoi looked on from her chair and looked to Usuyami, "We must evacuate the city." "It's too late for that," Usuyami nodded grimly, "Anyone leaving would be hunted down anyway." She set her jaw and nodded. "Tsukino, you will go to the Vault... Bring me Three." "THREE?!" Aoi gasped, "You know what happened the last time you used ONE!" "Aoi, there's no choice," Usuyami replied stiffly. Aoi swung at her, beating against her love's arm with upset paws, "No! I won't watch you kill yourself that way!"   Usuyami turned and gripped Aoi's wrist firmly, staring her down, "The return to your quarters." She turned and barked, "Tsukino!" Tsukino gave a frightened squeak at the command and hurried off, tail tucked close to her legs. Aoi stared At Usuyami in shock and fear, but she could not say what she wanted to... with a nod and a wave, the porters picked up her palanquin and carefully brought her back to her room, where she wept. Usuyami took a deep breath, ignoring the foulness in the air as she focused her thoughts and eyesight... "This will end... one way, or another." * * * "Look at all of them!" Rihatsu gawked, crouched low next to Shuji, with Kasumi on the other side of the larger jirajin. Shuji nodded tensely, "Easily in the hundreds-of-thousands... There's no way to sneak past a force that large." "What about your army?" Rihatsu blinked. "Defending my clan's cities. This attack was well planned, to attack all the clans at once so that they can't lend assistance to each other..." Shuji frowned and pointed, "There. That large area there, that's where the leaders gather."   "Are you planning to take them down?" Kasumi whispered. "No... We'd never leave alive," Shuji sighed... She frowned and nodded, "So, what do we do?" Shuji hissed in frustration, "We wait. Wait for the right time to get to Tetsumo." "I hate waiting," Rihatsu grumped and sat down heavily. * * * Tsukino knelt as she set the long, lacquered case down, bowing her head, "Three, Usuyami- san." Usuyami nodded, tight-lipped and silent until she spoke flatly, "thank you, Tsukino, you may go." She took a breath, "the same for the rest of you... get behind cover and stay away from here, even if I fall." The lookouts all blinked and backed away, leaving the tower. Tsukino didn't move. "Tsukino, go on." "No, Ma'am," the cobalt female shook her head, not daring to look up, "I promised Aoi-san I would look after you. I will not leave you in danger, even if you command me to." Usuyami hissed, "You'll die." Tsukino reaffirmed her kneel and pressed tight fists to the ground, "Even if you threaten me yourself, Ma'am... I will not leave you."   Usuyami sighed and nodded, "Fine... But you were warned." She turned and opened the case, pulling up her bow and taking a single arrow from the case. The arrow was large and decorative, carved with sigils and spells all along the shaft and head. Twice as large as her normal arrows it was incredibly unwieldy on her bow as she nocked the arrow. Tsukino lowered her ears as she bit her lip, watching. "Come, Vanquisher. Breathe thy destruction into my strike, that my foes may know no greater fury than that which we shall deliver now," Usuyami recited the spell, the sigils on the arrow smoldering to life as she slowly drew back. "Bear your sword upon the wind, Split the Heavens with our strength and rain the stars from the sky as we, the righteous, bring ruin to those who threaten our peace." Tsukino covered her ears as the arrow began to shriek, an incomparable wailing of cacophonous screams. Had she not covered her ears she feared she would have died from the sheer violence of the sound. It almost felt enough to make her ears bleed as the arrow burst into white flames.   "Go Forth, Sekaikiri!" Usuyami shouted over the unholy scream as her bowstring gave an almost equal scream, the Arrow tearing from the bow with a force that it shouldn't have had. Tiles from the tower's roof flew after the searing projectile as it blistered through the air, leaving a blinding trail across the vision of those unfortunate souls foolish enough to look. Usuyami looked on unblinking, the scales on her fingers smoldering as the bowstring evaporated. She wavered, but forced herself to stay upright, following the arrow's path with her eyes, right to the intended target... * * * "What is that?!" Kasumi yelped, covering her ears. Shuji and Rihatsu did the same, all of them shaking their heads in confusion at the sudden screaming that echoed across the fields. "Look!" Rihatsu pointed for a moment as the searing line of white light lanced directly into the center of the Gasaran army. There was a breath's pause, and then the World barked. A solid wall of air flattened the trio to the ground, followed by a deafening crash. Light came from all directions, and then all was silent, the singular mote of fury spent. They all sat up, blinking, and Shuji was the first to gasp.   "Rasaga's Breath..." He hissed in shock. The other two looked, and were equally awed by the sight. A whole section of the dark mass of Gasaran forces was gone, replaced by a massively flat crater. Even the forces at the edge of the detonation were reeling from the destruction; hundreds were on fire, some still flailing as they burned to death. The three gawked, but not for long as the screaming began again, making them all wince and duck, Shuji looked on as another line of blinding light shot from one of the lookout towers in Tetsumo's walls. The second blast was farther away, but only slightly less violent to them. "What IS that?!" Kasumi wailed, clinging to Shuji's side in fright. He shook his head, "I don't know... I've never seen anything like it." * * * "Usuyami-san, Please! You can't do it again!" Tsukino was at the smoking female's side, kneeling next to her as she tried to stop her. Usuyami was struggling to stand, or even to move. Her opal scales were charred, smoldering along the edges, with extensive burns on her right fingers and hand. Her hair was singed and smoking, Tsukino having to extinguish a few flames there. The Lady of Tetsumo coughed, smoke leaving her mouth as she strained, pulling a fresh bowstring from her kit, "There's still... more of them... I must... protect... my home."   Tsukino sobbed, shaking the woman as she tried to stop her, "No, you've done enough... we can handle the rest! Look, they're starting to flee, even! Please! For me... For Aoi! Your City needs you alive!" Usuyami paused and blinked, then blinked again, realizing how dry her eyes had gotten from the effects of the weapons... she strained to breathe, lungs and mouth singed a bit as she coughed up more smoke, "I... you... you are right..." she dropped her bow, slumping back into Tsukino's arms, smoke curling out of her nostrils. She coughed again and looked up at the blue Kyujin, suddenly saddened, "f-forgive me..." she whispered hoarsely and then slipped into unconsciousness... "Usuyami-san!" =========================================== "How is she?" "She'll live, thankfully," Aoi sighed, looking at the sleeping Usuyami. Shuji nodded and sighed in relief, "What WAS that, anyway?" Aoi frowned, "the Sekaikiri, ‘World-slayer'... Only ten were made, we do not know by whom. Out of those ten, there have now been five used. Two, ages ago, back during the Forgotten War." Aoi wrinkled her nose as if the words tasted rancid on her tongue, "she used one shortly after her Father's death, stopping an attack by the Gasaran clan that was here. She was far too young, and the weapon nearly killed her then. They are designed to harm whoever uses them, the price for such power... She was lucky this time with using two. I fear the third might have turned her to ash..." Aoi sniffled and squeezed Usuyami's hand.   Shuji nodded, giving a sigh as he frowned a bit at the implications of such weapons, "It was reckless of her, indeed, though she has gained us a foothold with the Akanti clan, if the Akanti forces can move north to assist my Clan, we can push these armies back." Tsukino nodded, "We have already sent a messenger to Lord Futsuyomi." The gathered comrades all jumped as Usuyami coughed and opened her eyes blearily, "Wh-where...?" Aoi and Tsukino rushed to her side, each taking a hand and comforting her. Aoi spoke, "you're in your room, the doctor tended your burns, but he said you shouldn't move for a few days..." She hacked and coughed more, her voice a hoarse wheeze, "S-safe...? Tetsumo is... safe?" Shuji spoke that time, "Your archers put the rest of the forces to rout, and apparently a force of Akanti footmen were arriving to support and they finished them off." He nodded, "you may have saved Ippon." She nodded giving a weak smile and another cough, "s-someone had to..." Rihatsu bit his lip and leaned over Aoi's shoulder, "Usu-mama..."   Usuyami looked, groaning a bit at having to move her head, "Rihatsu... you made it back..." He nodded proudly and smiled a bit, though he was still distraught over her, "The north clans are fighting too...." She smiled a bit, "That's good..." another hacking cough and she noticed the girl by Shuji's side, "W-who?" Kasumi was concerned too, though only because Usuyami's burns looked very painful. She blushed a bit and nodded, bowing politely, "Kasumi Hikamori... Lord Shuji's retainer." Usuyami blinked slowly and nodded weakly, "He always... Picks the cute ones." Shuji smirked a bit and nodded, "I think she'll be fine." Aoi and Tsukino smiled too, nodding in agreement. "Of course," Usuyami wheezed, "It takes... more than this to... Kill... me..." she trailed off, slipping back to unconsciousness, but her soft breathing reassured them all. ========================================== Kasumi rubbed her face with the washrag, giving a shudder as the spots in her vision from the flashes before still hadn't completely gone away. The Gasaran fires had been snuffed and the accompanying stink had been taken away with the breeze overnight. She straightened up and adjusted her sash, setting the rag back on the edge of the basin and looking out of the window. The smell of the forges was something she was not used to yet, and she sneezed. Giving a sigh and a shake of her head, she set about finding Shuji. She opened her room and stepped into the hallway, heading down to the courtyard. But she was stopped when she came around a corner and ran into someone, literally.   "Oww," the pearl-scaled wall whined. Kasumi checked herself and bowed, "Ah, So sorry, Shidomori-sama. I should watch where I'm going." The reply was not as she expected, the English spoken slow and a bit louder than normal, but she hadn't heard any of the words before. She puzzled over when Usuyami had learned English. "Ahh... uhhh? What?" Kasumi blinked confused, but the English-speaking- Usuyami said something softer and faster, possibly an apology from the tone, and then bowed quickly and hurried on. When she walked past however, Kasumi nearly choked on what assaulted her nose. Clearly that woman had not been the Lady of Tetsumo, because she reeked in a way that only someone who hadn't seen a good scrubbing in months could. * * * Shuji yawned and stretched. He had accompanied a small group to go and search through the night for survivors. Across both massive craters, they found two survivors, both Gasaran, and both blinded from the light and burned furless from the heat. He rounded the corner heading into the guest's quarters and ran into Usuyami.   "Ah, hey. You shouldn't be up and about yet," he chuckled, admiring her stubbornness. Her reply in English made him blink, and he caught part of it. She had mentioned leaving, and something about being sick. He blinked and narrowed his eyes at her, "You're not Usuyami, are you?" She paused at the name and shook her head, which made him blink and back up half a step as her scent was wafted at him. "Huegh... Y-yes, you're not... First, a bath." * * * Rosaline blinked. What was with these people and bathing? Had they no idea that bathwater was some of the foulest stuff ever, and the number of sicknesses one could catch?! She had been shown to the bath, or ‘furo', by one of the serving maids, but she knew better and escaped them. Now this larger male stood in her path and said that horrible word. "Like hell!" she fussed and pushed at him, but he moved oddly and suddenly pressed a finger to the back and side of her neck, right where it connected to her shoulder. It wasn't a lot of pressure, but the resulting sensation sent her to her knees, whimpering like a whipped child, "Sweet mother of Jesus!" Again he commandingly growled that word at her, along with another term she'd taken to mean something like ‘immediately'. She nodded weakly, trying to escape his grip and that burning finger, but he released the pressure and she gasped in relief, humbled and nodding, "A-all right..." He nodded and gently led her back to the bath house, where the two maids were waiting. They bowed to the larger male and he smiled, patting Rosaline's shoulder and nodding. She grumbled and followed the maids in, praying silently for her safety and health. * * * Shuji sighed and shuddered, turning around and jumping at the sudden appearance of Kasumi. "Gha! You could have warned me you were there."   She blinked and smiled, "Oh? I thought you always knew where I was." He snorted a bit and eyed her, "True, but that's because I can find you by smell." Kasumi nodded, "Mmm, hard to smell much of anything with that woman there, isn't it?" She rubbed under her nose and made a face. "Mmm, that much is certain.. I wonder who she is," He mused, "she's a perfect match for Shidomori..." Kasumi nodded a bit, "I thought she was her for a moment, and then she walked past me..." Another wrinkled face brought a laugh from the larger male. She looked up to him and blinked, "what's so funny?" He nodded, "Nothing, just the way your nose crinkles." "And you have a problem with my crinkly nose?" she huffed. He smiled, "I might." She blinked and perked an eyebrow, "what's that mean?" He nodded and stretched, "It means I think I need a bath." She blinked, still confused as she stepped up and patted her shoulder, "Go out into the courtyard and work on your Kata. I will be along shortly." She paused and watched him a bit, but he smiled and nodded, "Go on. I'm just going to check on Shidomori."   Kasumi shrugged and continued on. ======================================== "Yes, she's some kind of foreigner," Usuyami spoke hoarsely, her strength returned, but still not fully healed according to the doctors. "She was found among the wreckage of some kind of boat. My people brought her here to recover, and they found she looked like me. I can't explain it either." Shuji nodded and poured her some more tea, which was gratefully accepted. "So she is stranded then?" She nodded, "It would seem so. I was going to send for a teacher to help her learn the language, but with all this fighting..." "Yes, it would be rather difficult," he mused, "Well, in any case, get some rest." "Bah!" she hissed, "I've been resting all night. I need to â€"do- something." Shuji frowned at her, "you need to rest. You'll be of no use to the city dead, and you know that." She sighed, defeated, "Very well. I will rest." She paused and jabbed his chest, "After you tell me the story of your new retainer..." Shuji rolled his eyes and laughed a bit, "fine, fine... I knew you'd ask soon enough anyway."   ========================================= Rosaline purred. She hadn't purred in a long time, once she gave it some thought, but the bath was indescribable for her. She didn't much enjoy the first part, being doused with slightly warmed water and then scrubbed head to toe by a pair of girls half her age. They had used bristly blushes that seemed to scour even the creases under her scales. They had applied soap to the brushes that made a heavy lather after a few passes, and they even ran the brushes through her hair. Another several dousings with more buckets of slightly colder water, and then they led her to the tub. She had screamed at the heat of it at first, but after sitting for several minutes that intense heat had soaked through to her insides, and she felt so blissfully warm. She lifted her leg from the tub and examined her scales. She had been taunted in her younger years about her white scales, called a ghost and other ill things. After the work of those two little imps, she noticed how she almost sparkled. Her coloring was lighter, her hair seemed lighter in color and weight, and she even â€"felt- as if she was lighter. She giggled a little and stood, water cascading down her scales and curves as she looked herself over.   Life at sea was hard. Doubly so for a woman, who according to any sailor; ‘had no place being on a ship at sea'. Rosaline had proven herself time and again, working harder and longer than the rest of the sailors she served with. The captain of her last ship had made her first mate, and when he retired, the ship passed to her command. Without the majority of the crew standing behind her, knowing her hard-earned skill, she would not have been able to keep sailing. But the men were gone now, the ship was nothing but shattered timbers strewn about the rocky coastline... and she was stranded. She sighed and stepped out of the tub, gathering up the thick cloth towel and dabbing herself dry. She was halfway done when the door slid open and she gasped, covering what she could. "Who's there?!" she hissed. "Ahhh, g-gomennasai," the elderly male spoke hoarsely, leaning on his cane a bit, "Atashi wa, Tokko desu." He bowed and when he stood again she saw the heavy scar across his eyes. The old man was blind. She blinked and tilted her head.   "W-what do you want?" she queried He held still a moment, looking a little confused himself as he motioned to his left, a large flat table about as high as his waist, with a thin cushion on the surface of it. She watched as he motioned again, his gestures and nods indicating he wished for her to lie down. She pondered a bit and wondered on the indecency of such a thing... but the people of this land hat not harmed her at all, in any way, so she reluctantly did as asked. She lay on her back, head craned up as she watched the old man approach. He reached out and touched her thigh, pausing a bit and then laughing at her. "Iiya, iiya..." he shook his head. And then said something odd, motioning that she should turn over. She blushed and did so, still looking back to him and keeping her tail tight against her backside out of modesty. He touched her again and she shuddered, as no man had touched her without permission and in most cases a few coins on her part. He mumbled something and then reached over to a jar, gathering a waxy substance and spreading it on his hands as he moved closer, pressing his hands and fingers against eh small of her back. She perked an eye ridge and watched, but then her head and neck straightened as he pushed and moved his hands, fingertips jabbing into her muscles and almost making her shriek in pain, but then the pressure was gone and in the wake of his touch she felt only calming pleasure. Another press of those old hands along her scales and she hissed, arching a little, though he did not relent, and did not let her move, in fact. He chuckled something soft and then kept massaging her back, drawing all sorts of sounds from her as she chirped and groaned and hissed under his expertise. * * * "What should we do with the brushes?"   "I don't know," the other girl whined, "I've never seen someone so dirty! There's no way we can use these again..." "Maybe we can get new ones?" "I hope so, or the Lady will tan our hides!" The other girl laughed, "You say that, but I heard you the last time you got punished." "What?!" "Don't' look so shocked! ‘Please, please, Shidomori-sama! Punish me harder! I've been so naughty!" "I NEVER!" The two girls scampered through the halls, one chasing the other, pausing to bow as they went past the Lord of Rokkotsu and his retainer. Shuji blinked and laughed a bit, as he had always found the antics of children amusing. "What was that about?" Kasumi wondered aloud. He shrugged, "I'd rather not ask." She nodded and looked up to him, "I still won, you know." "You got lucky," he corrected stiffly. "You're just a sore loser," she chided and folded her arms. He grumbled and leaned down, "Very well, you did win, fair and square." She nodded and kept her face smug and waiting, "and?" He sighed, "And I accept that you have feelings for me, and I will not forbid you from showing them."   She blinked and then eyed him, "but it's just one-sided, isn't it?" He looked at her confused, and then doubly so when he saw her eyes saddening. "I can feel this way toward you... but nothing will ever come of it, will it?" she sighed and leaned against the wall, eyes downcast. "What?" he shook his head in confusion, "I never said that." "You didn't have to," she muttered icily, "it was in your tone." Shuji grumbled and hefted the smaller girl clean off the floor, making her shriek in the shock of being picked up. She blinked, seeing his eyes up close as he rumbled, "I am not that dishonorable, to say one thing while meaning another. If you think that there is no feeling on my part... you are wrong. I worry because I do not want to see you ridiculed or insulted." She blushed and nodded a bit, then leaned against him and smiled, "Let me worry about my own face?" "I cannot... you are my retainer... if you are to lose face, than so shall I..." he nodded firmly and then whispered, "but... I've never cared much for what others think of me." A grin passed his lips as he pushed the door to his room open with his tail and carried her inside.   Kasumi blushed and squirmed, "I... I didn't think you would..." he protested softly, but he silenced her with a soft kiss, the feel of his softly scaled lips making her quiver with the newness of the sensation. "Hmmm, so, when you don't have me tied down, you lose that confidence you had?" he grinned teasingly, kissing down to her soft neck. She shuddered and squirmed under him a bit as he lay her down on the spread futon, "nnhh, y-you were... that is, I was... Ahh..." "Hmm? ‘you were' what?" he smirked, hooking his finger in the knot of her sash and pulling slowly, her hands trying to catch his, but it was too late as she made efforts to keep her top closed. "I was t-teasing then too..." she blushed, biting her lip. He nodded and smirked, "So... you don't want to be this way?" he perked an eyebrow and watched her. She gave a whine as her eyes wandered down the opening of his dogi, across what she could see of his sculpted chest, and she swallowed hard. "I..." she batted at him, "you're being mean." He nodded, "Stop fussing and giving me reason to, then." A smile and another kiss had her arms draping around his neck, fingers exploring the harder plated scales along the back of his shoulders as her tiny tongue tasted his lips, the tip of his own tongue meeting hers as she shivered and clung to him closely, her top forgotten as they explored their feelings fully.   ========================================== Source: https://sofurry.com/s/pnG4DvM1 Part of the series Tales of Ippon Previous: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/109197-chapter-sixteen-bonding.md