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"So, Rokkotsu-sama, how does it feel?" the old vixen churred, smiling.

Shuji hefted the spear only to find that it was lighter than he expected. With a

thoughtful expression, he stepped back and made play with it, the blue steel blade on the

end splitting the air keenly as he swung and spun the pole arm. Halfway between a glaive

and a spear, the blade was wide, with the tip angled like a Tanto piercing dagger, but on a

larger scale. Sharpened along both edges, front and back; it was made to cut on both the

fore and backswing. Another pass and he stopped the spin, tucking the weapon under his

arm and looking at it again. The haft was solid, without much of the 'spring' that wooden

spears had, but all of the lightness of wood. The white-translucent crystalline pole was not

stiff or rigid, but had the feel of wood to it, with the strength and tenacity of the finest

steel. "I have not seen its Equal. What is your name, blacksmith?"

"Shiji Hasatri," she grinned.

Shuji blinked, astounded, "The Smith of Living Steel?"

She laughed, "That was a few decades ago... but yes."

Shuji nodded, "I will treasure this for all my life."

The vixen laughed, "Well you shouldn't have much trouble with that. Set it down

and someone else pick it up."

Shuji blinked and nodded, setting the spear down. Rihatsu leapt at the

opportunity to hold his new instructor's signature weapon, he gripped the haft and pulled, but

the spear weighed more than anything he'd ever encountered. It would not budge. Everyone

looked on, amazed.

"The spear is yours and yours alone. None can claim it, fetch it, or put it to use."

The old Kyujin nodded as Shuji picked up the spear, much to Rihatsu's pouting.

"A curious technique at the very least. How did you manage such a thing?"

Usuyami asked, her inner blacksmith surfacing.

Shiji smiled, "it would not be much of a trade secret if I told you... but the binding

requires some uncommon things, such as a part of the one who it is to be bound to." She

smiled at Natsumi and nodded.

Natsumi nodded back and looked up to Shuji, "Spear special too."

Shiji nodded, "Indeed, I managed to forge the stone from the Ajiki into the blade.

I'm sure you'll find the result useful."

Shuji nodded and smiled, "I thank you, from the bottom of my heart."

The Kyujin laughed, "Thank not me, Rokkotsu-sama. Thank your foreign friend

there."

He blinked and looked at Natsumi, "you?"

She nodded, "With Merchant-san's help. Old spear important, but new life coming,

so need new spear."

Shuji blinked and then blinked again and gasped, "What? Wait.... You mean

you're?!"

Natsumi tilted her head, confused.

Shuji nodded and put his hand on her lower abdomen, nodding

emphatically, "Here? Life?"

Natsumi gasped and went red in her cheeks, but the result was not shy

embarrassment. She reached up and swatted the larger male across the cheek, forgetting

her Japanese and scolding him in a string of angered English. Shuji blinked and bowed, not

daring to rub his stinging cheek, "Forgive me... I thought you were talking about something

else."

She stopped her grumbling and sighed, rubbing her now sore palm, "Not... not

wanting children."

Shuji nodded and smiled, "Not yet, for me... but..." he leaned in and whispered to

her, making her blush as she swatted his chest lightly and leaned against him.

"AHEM!" Usuyami coughed, "since we're all ready... I think it's about time we got

moving again. Those things haven't come back, so we can say it's safe that the Gasaran

forces are focused elsewhere. With that being the case, we should hurry on to Tetsumo."

Shuji nodded, "Yes... that's probably for the best."

Usuyami turned to her maids, "Kita, Yui? Go on ahead of us and make sure there

are messengers ready to travel to the Akanti provinces. We need to get word moving

throughout Ippon that these foul things are massing for war."

"Yes ma'am!"

"Mistress!" And the two women were gone, leaping through the forest trees

toward the city.

"Hagoni isn't much more than two days travel. If we leave now we can get there

by sunset tomorrow," Usuyami nodded, "There will be plenty of time for... other things...

when we arrive." She smiled to Aoi, who gave her a warning look.

"We are going?" Rihatsu nodded in the direction they were going to go.

Usuyami nodded, "Yes, we are." And the group set out at a brisk walk, pacing

themselves for the journey.

"So, how does it feel, Master James?" the feline purred.

James barely responded with a groan, his throat tight, and his body numb. His

head pounded with a dull ache as his vision cleared. But the colors were off, almost,

distorted. Even though he saw things clearly, it was like he was looking at everything

through a spyglass. He found his eyes focusing from the whole room, to little things, like the

ants crawling along the floor, and the cracks in the ceiling stones. "Ugh... wh-what happened?"

Gul'brekh smiled, "We finished the treatments. Can you sit up? Or Stand?"

"Everything's numb," James growled, his voce sounding deeper, "What did you

do?"

"The numbness will pass. And All I did was give you that which you desired. The

strength to take back your wife from those who have stolen her."

James growled and held his head, his hand covering his entire face, "ugh... S-

summer... that lizard bastard..."

"Yesss..." the feline smirked, "Come with me James, Take a look and see what

your wife's captor will face now."

James shook his fuzzy head and turned, sitting up shakily as his feet touched the

cold stone floor. As he stood, the stone crunched a little... he felt... higher... his point of vision

well taller than the tall feline who had stood over him before. He turned and saw a mirror,

and staring back at him was a massive black fox, piled with muscle and coarse fur, eyes

glimmering with a balorous green as the thing blinks in shock at its own appearance. "Is

that... me?" James and the thing in the mirror spoke.

"Yes. More than a match for any barbarian Samurai, don't you agree?"

James looks at his massive hands, musing over the sensation of moving them as

he adjusted to his new shape, "How... did you do this?"

"That... is a secret. But trust me, your wife will see that you are far superior to

that gibbering reptile," the feline sneered. "As it stands, Yemi is completely enamored with

you now."

James blinked and strained his fuzzed memory. When he arrived, Gul'brekh had

set an Ipponese serving girl to attend to him. In the days that followed, she had attended to

him nightly, for several hours, performing acts that he would never have dreamed Summer

doing. Inevitably he felt his loins stirring, and in wonder without shame, he glanced down,

blinking in astonishment as his sheath swelled ominously. Gul'brekh laughed, "I see... I will

send her in, to give you time to... become familiar... with your features" As the feline left,

James' shaft spilled out, making him yip in shock at himself, well over twice his previous

mass, his shaft was longer and thicker all around. And he was not even fully-hardened! That

soon changed as he found himself marveling at his own member, the growing length sporting

several semi-hard bumps on the length, and a ring of what could only be described as

flexible 'prongs' circling the ridge just behind the throbbing tip. The prongs were amazingly

sensitive, and touching one sent a shiver down his nerves. The door opened and Yemi

stepped in, her long black silk robe half open, her eyes wide and staring.

"J-jami-san... you's wanting Yemi service, yes now?" she spoke softly, a hint of

fear in her voice as she untied the sash, opening her robe fully as she stepped forward

shakily. James blinked; he could smell her fear, the odd scent almost flooding his senses.

Some part of him said that it was wrong for her to fear him. That part was quickly bashed

senseless by the primal instincts that were gnawing at his focus hungrily, pushing him to

stand and step toward the now-tiny woman, a low, lustful growl leaving his throat as he

pushed the robe off her, making her jump. She froze and trembled, eyes locked on the

monster of a shaft that proudly greeted her, the thing easily the size of her forearm, but

thicker all along it, and dripping threateningly with heavy, musky globs of pre. She looked up

from it and met his eyes, gasping, "j-jami-san?"

He did not answer, James Brinks was lost as the beast he had become took over,

picking up the small girl and shoving her roughly against the wooden table, the impact on

her hips bending her over as she yelped in fright and immediately started to crawl up onto

the table, trying to get her legs up. The hands came down, though and gripped her tiny

waist, holding her backside up, with her feet off the floor and her chest and face pressed to

the cloth-covered wood. She struggled, but it was useless as the James-beast growled and

pulled her back against the throbbing meat of his cock, the head crushing her dainty little

petals as he smeared the hot sticky pre all over her folds, working her hips to gain purchase

into her.

Yemi, for her part was screaming and grunting, trying to clench herself closed, to

keep the massive beast from taking what she had so foolishly and willingly given before. She

looked back with another gasp as the beasts' thumbs squeezed her rear, spreading the

plump cheeks of her backside that had made her so popular in the Teahouses of her home.

With her rear, the thumbs also spread her clenched petals and he gave a grunt as he shoved

the wide tip against her entry, finding his place as he churred and shoved again, the tip

starting to penetrate, stretching her tightened cunny around the thickness as with a feral

snarl he lunged again, popping her open over his shaft as a third of him sank into the

screaming girl.

Groaning, he began to thrust away at her violated sex, each forceful shove

driving more of him into her. Yemi screamed and thrashed, only serving to fuel the fires of

furious indignation inside him, a massive paw left her rear and clamped down on the back of

her neck. She gave a choked cry as her face was driven against the hard table; almost

cutting off her air supply as the beast behind her savagely rammed his massive shaft into

her over and over again. She whined, feeling herself blacking out, but that was all ended as

everything stopped for her as she felt and heard the bones at the top of her neck finally

surrender to the crushing pressures of the beast's paw. Yemi was gone, but the beast called

James Brinks didn't' care however, and simply kept on going, ramming himself into the limp

little Kyujin mercilessly. Then with a snarl, he drove himself fully into her, her lifeless body

giving no resistance to the invader as his knot inflated. There was a distinctive 'crack' as a

tight pressure on his knot was relieved, and the girl's legs went even limper as his length

swelling slightly before he could feel his body pumping the poor girl full of his essence. As he

calmed down, his mind returned and he blinked a bit, pulling out of the girl's body with a wet

sound as his spent seed sloshed out of her abused sex. Her neck was broken, and her once-

shapely hips now sat ad off angles, her pelvis likely broken by the massive knot he sported

at the base of his shaft, the slowly softening length coated in his own release and the girl's

blood. He backed away, spooked by what he had just done as the realization hit him. The

now-massive James Brinks dropped to his knees and wailed, the roar of dismay echoing

through the complex. Outside the door, Gul'brekh smiled...

Hagoni was visible from the cliff top, but the climb down into the valley, and

across the bridges into the village was another day's worth of treacherous paths. Hagoni was

settled into the side of the cliff, Even though it was a farming village, Hagoni's rice was a

unique breed that was somehow grown in caves and underground grottos. The secret of

the 'darkrice' was kept within the village, and none from outside were allowed to see the

caves. But the group that camped at the top of the cliff was not there for rice, they were

there to plan.

"So Hagoni is a diversion?" Aoi blinked.

"Indeed," Usuyami smiled, "I'm good friends with the headman, and he has a

tunnel that leads about two Ri north, from there we can split up. Yarimoto-san will head

northeast to Ganta, the Hodai will be willing and eager to rally to face this threat, the lesser

clans should follow their lead."

"Wouldn't you be a better choice? The Hodai have had great relations with the

Akanti for decades," Shuji blinked. "I've never actually had any communication with them."

"You'll do fine. I'll head west to Ikito; I think they'll be the first targets, since they

have such small settlements." She nodded pointing to a map that had been procured earlier.

"Who will go north to Rakari?" Aoi questioned, pointing out the frozen northlands

on the map. "That is going to be the most dangerous to get to as they will have to pass by

Gasayama."

Usuyami nodded, "Rakari will be Rihatsu's mission."

The young samurai blinked and looked up, "Me?"

Usuyami nodded, "You. Travel east with Yarimoto-san, then turn north once you

reach Ganta's Siriu Plains. From there you can reach Nizuru in a day of straight travel, and a

ship there can take you to Gomoran, just outside the Fuzhun Citadel. Lord Garasu should be

eager to help the son of Aritseru Kajikuro."

Shuji slapped his knee, realizing, "Because his wife is one of Aritseru's daughters!"

"Exactly. He Values family above all else. A brother-in-law would have every last

bit of help needed. And if the Fuzhun ride to war against the Gasaran... so will all of Rakari."

Usuyami nodded.

Rihatsu wasn't so convinced, "That is very far..."

She sighed, "Rihatsu... Consider the journey of your life... and you will see that a

trip to Rakari is not but a fraction of the road you will walk in the greatness of your life."

He wanted to smile, but all he could remember was the viciousness she had

showed when he was trying to please her two nights past.

Aoi nodded, "We are all relying on you, Rihatsu-sama."

Shuji smiled and clapped the boy's shoulder, "And as soon as I finish my business

with the Hodai, I will make my way to you."

Natsumi tugged on Shuji's sleeve, "I coming, yes?"

Shuji thought a moment and nodded, "Yes... but it will be a hard trip. If you want

to stay back, I understand."

"Shuji-sama goes, Natsumi goes," she nodded firmly.

Usuyami clapped her hands and closed the map, "good, then get some sleep.

After a break in Hagoni tomorrow, the real journey starts." And the group separated into

their respective tents, Usuyami taking the first watch...

Shuji walked up to the tree and knocked on it, "Shidomori-dono... It's my turn..."

She silently landed behind him, "shh... something's coming."

Shuji jumped when she spoke, but froze at her words. Indeed the brush was thick

with movement. Something big.

"It's been circling for a while. It sounds like a person, but the mass is far too big

to be anything less than a horse and rider," she hissed quietly, her blade ready to be drawn.

Shuji nodded and gripped his spear, "there straight ahead... I think it sees us."

"I'll move left... can you get its attention?"

"Consider it done," he smiled and she was gone.

Ahead of Shuji, about twenty paces, the dark mass waited in the brush, the

heavy breath audible to him at even that distance... a sniffing, and then a growl. And then

something he did not expect... a deep voice snarling, "You..." Shuji readied his spear.

"YOU!" the thing roared as it barreled out of the brush, a black creature easily

half again Shuji's height with massive claws and corded muscle under the shimmering oil-

black fur. The swipe impacted the spear's haft and knocked Shuji flying into Rihatsu's tent,

the silk shredding under the strain. The small camp was in motion, waking from interrupted

sleep as Shuji righted himself.

The black beast wore thick leather and steel armor over its arms and waist, the

chest and back mostly only protected by thick leather plates. Balorous green eyes glared ad

wicked teeth snarled at the Rokkotsu Lord, "You... kill you..."

Shuji blinked a bit, but held his ready stance, the creature lunged again and he

slid around the attack, the haft of the spear screaming through the air as the weighted end

impacted the thing right between the eyes, making it stagger, but it still got a hand on him,

hefting Shuji by the ankle it flung him at the nearest tree. The impact was hard and it

knocked the wind out of Shuji's lungs.

"Shuji-sama!" Natsumi wailed, and the beast paused, turning to look at her, the

snarl fading into a look of shock and worry as it crooned...

"Summerr?" the thing blinked.

Natsumi sucked in a breath, covering her mouth in horror, "James?! What

happened...?"

James crouched down, keeping from towering over the small woman, "Summer,

I'm taking you home..."

She backed up, terrified, "N-no..."

"Yes. We're going home," he insisted, tail swishing with a twitch of frustration.

She backed away again and screamed, "NO!!"

Rage boiled up and over as the black beast lashed out, knocking the smaller

woman flying out of sight.

"Natsumi!!" Shuji roared, leaping to his feet.

"Yarimoto-san, NO!" Usuyami screeched as she had poised herself in a tree for a

surprise attack, but Shuji was in motion, snarling and spinning his spear with enough force to

distort the air around it. The black beast turned at the last second as the spear's blade bit

into the creature's shoulder, chewing clean through the armor from the force of impact. Shuji

gripped the spear and managed to redirect the rotational force into himself, making him spin

up and around the spear where his foot impacted the creature's cheek, sending it spinning

away as the spear wrenched free.

The wound did not bleed, and the arm did not move. The creature growled in

pained rage as it lunged again, Shuji's reaction whipping the spear up and then down

impaling the creature's hand into the ground as he spun again, his katana coming free with

an unearthly shriek of steel, biting clean through the creature's skull from top to bottom, and

then again from cheek to cheek. A third spin carried Shuji alongside, and he lopped off the

minced head at the neck, snarling as the creature's body fell lifeless.

He stood there for a second and then spat on the corpse, dropping his sword and

running to where Natsumi landed.

"Natsumi!!" he skidded to a halt in the brush, the cloud cover clearing above as

the moon shone down through the ruined trees. He picked her up, but her body was limp and

no breath stirred in her lungs. He gasped and shook, "Natsumi... no..." Shuji trembled as he

clutched the foreign woman to his chest, sobbing into her hair. The heart that had loved him

would never beat again... and the lord of Rokkotsu was undone. As the others gathered,

Shuji set her down, kneeling silently alongside her, setting her hands folded over her chest,

arranging her perfectly. When he was done he took a slow breath and spoke softly...

_"No sword cuts deep,

"As the wounding of the heart,

"That death brings from love."_

Usuyami nodded and bowed at the waist, Aoi and the others following, Rihatsu

catching on after Aoi. With heads lowered, they all stayed a moment before they stood and

Usuyami put a hand on Shuji's shoulder, "I am sorry, Yarimoto-san," she sniffed a bit and

forced her eyes to dry, "Take what time you need."

Shuji nodded numbly.

After the camp was struck, and they had started down the path to Hagoni, Shuji

gathered wood and materials, setting his love's body atop the stack, and starting a blaze as

he intoned the prayers to the gods for the safe passage of her soul into the holy courts.

Through out the valley his voice carried on the winds, the lonesome chant casting a pall on

the day as the dark clouds gathered, and once the body had reduced to ash... the sky wept

along with the Lord of Rokkotsu.

As the rain poured on, Shuji took his freshly blooded spear and strode to the

Cliffside, staring into the chasm. He took a deep breath and turned his head skyward, raising

his spear, "Sufai!! Hear my Plea! See her safely to your court, and another innocent shall

never see harm in my sight so long as I draw breath!!" As if to acknowledge his cry, the sky

split with a riot of lightning and thunder... and Shuji smiled.