"Meioshi! Kishi!" Kinzo called out.
They were surrounded by the giants. It wasn't all of them, but it was the main four that ran the onmyoji like dogs. They had to have sensed Maboroshi no kohime's power and came hunting for them. Perhaps it wasn't the goddess's might that summoned them, though. Kinzo could feel the sheer might that the good doctor was emitting, and Tadamasa had to have been providing her with more power. His small snowball sprinkled snowflakes on Meioshi's body to form something akin to a shield. Kishi clung to Meioshi like a lifeline until something happened to her eyes. They went completely blank before turning black as coal. Meioshi's wings poured into his sister's mouth and eyes, and Kinzo's little girl started chanting even more rapidly than before when she had become the oracle. She let out a shrill and Meioshi was covered in fire and Tadamasa's snow. From the elements came a monster the likes of which Kinzo had never seen. Meioshi's Netherworld predator form was in full view and enhanced by the oracle's chants. She let out a roar that struck fear into the onmyoji, but he could see that Meioshi was not a berserk monster. She was holding the giants back and protecting Kishi by making her stay behind her leg.
Maboroshi no kohime growled before she hissed, "That's impossible! She's a hell king!?"
Tadamasa snatched Kishi away from Meioshi while the good doctor charged at the giant going for the little girl. He landed a distance away before calling out to Kinzo to come to him. Kishi snapped out of her trance and yelled Meioshi's name. Though the giant wasn't a fast opponent, he specialized in unyielding power. Breaking his wrist inhibitors, a burst of yoki stretched over the onmyoji territory and cracked the garnets formed there. He summoned his Dai Sōryo no Ono and bellowed out a roar that shook the earth. Meioshi gasped at the weapon the beast was using and shook her head about once or twice in a neck-snapping motion.
That weapon... Meioshi thought. No demon would ever be able to wield such a thing! That's a holy weapon, so then... these giants aren't demons at all. The voices that Kishi was hearing... and the chants... they were the voices of holy warriors? The onmyoji of the past? But, why would they attack the new clan heads? Who turned them into monsters?
Dodging an axe swing, Meioshi went on the defense to try to figure this part out. She looked at Maboroshi no kohime from time to time to see if she was perhaps involved with this, but it seemed she wasn't. She was protecting Kinzo from the other giants until he got to Kishi, and she summoned her own Akai Tsuno katakama yari in defense. The giants were merciless in this warfare, but Meioshi and Maboroshi no kohime silently agreed to ally themselves this one time to protect the onmyoji. The good doctor did start to notice something else about the giants. Although they were targeting Maboroshi no kohime and forcing her to use unimaginable power as kami, they seemed to be aware that Kinzo and Kishi were frightened. One giant, in particular, didn't want to damage Kinzo's biwa and attacked his comrades if it got so much as a singular scuff mark.
"Tadamasa! Go!" Meioshi ordered in her beastly voice.
Her comrade did as told and covered the young ones in his snow before disappearing. Meioshi could sense them. They were on her boat, drifting in the waters of the lake. Maboroshi no kohime was distracted enough to follow the pall bearer with her eyes. A giant took that opportunity to smash his cudgel against her back and make her scream in pain. Meioshi rushed over to the goddess's side and blocked another devastating blow. She didn't realize exactly how much force she had to hold back and yelped when the cudgel descended on her axe arms and made her form a crater at her feet. The goddess gasped when the ground suddenly formed a concave. Meioshi started to visibly panic. She couldn't withstand too many hits like these! She wasn't strong enough. Tadamasa's shield was barely enough. Frustrated, she thought about grabbing the goddess and slapping some sense into her. She couldn't afford to be so distracted by Kinzo moving away to safety when giants of this measure were on the loose. They could call out to more to actually kill the onmyoji!
Surrounding himself with more yoki radiating off his skin, the cudgel giant enhanced his strike and plunged Meioshi deeper into the crater while breaking her shield. About to retaliate, Meioshi rushed over to the goddess and flung her out of the hole, but the giant struck again with greater speed and slammed Meioshi through the ground to rocket out of a hole some distance away. She was met with the naginata of another giant and severely cut across the body before getting stomped on. The wind was knocked out of her body as her bones sunk in from the large foot crushing her torso. This wasn't enough strength. She'd die in this form. When the giant lifted his foot to stomp again, Meioshi quickly escaped and called out to Shanwang through their connection. He accepted the request and gave her his might.
Black hair changed to crimson red hair, teeth remained long as fangs, and a proud roar escaped from her chest. Black shadow formed a new shield around her, and her eyes went from the spidery orange to the oni gold. With a singular hand, she stopped the giant's cudgel from descending on her head. Maboroshi no kohime was even more confused and outraged. She was meant to protect her onmyoji! Not this creature who left the Web of Divine Might! What in the hell was she?
"What are you, wench?" the goddess questioned, summoning her own kami-reiki strength to lay waste to the giants.
"I'm a goddamn doctor, goddess of the onmyoji!" Meioshi replied, smirking proudly. "Don't piss me off more than necessary. I'm already angry that I missed the bake-off at home over this shit. I don't have time for you to be developing grudges over nothing. Either get off your ass and start proving yourself to your clan or I'll let you get beat down by these giants. Do you want a second chance to be the patron of the onmyoji or not?"
"Y-you're...! You're... trying to help me? But why? I disappointed everyone, even my pure-hearted Kinzo," Maboroshi no kohime practically whispered to herself.
"I'm not particularly fond of gods trying to intermingle with humans, but you seem to have a genuine reason for why you left your clan. You didn't abandon them. You were distracted. These giants are unusual to me. If my hunch is correct, I need your strength to purify them, but Kinzo will need your help to trap them if I'm wrong. Do you want to restore the bond between patron and clan head, goddess of the onmyoji?" Meioshi asked, turning slightly to her.
Maboroshi was quiet until her face softened. This creature wasn't bad, after all. She was wrong to assume such a thing. Like Kinzo, she was pure. Twirling her weapon in her hands with new resolve, the goddess nodded her head and made Meioshi smile widely with anticipation. It was a common side effect of gaining Shanwang's power. His bloodlust could be a bit much sometimes. Perhaps, the outcome of this fight would shake the very earth...
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Little songbird, tweet away. The dragon will serve you for as long as you want. Give him the peace he yearns for and your enemies will he haunt. As long as you sing promises of living with the Great Divine, he will remain in your nest and sleep by your side. His kiss will be sweet and his touch will sooth.
Memories played in his mind of times when he was younger and in the company of other women. He was not old by any means. A mere twenty-seven in human years, but he walked the earth and the heavens a demigod. He could no longer live among the lowly and unworthy. Reaching out to interlace his fingers with hers, Sojuro rhythmically made love to his wife of war and wisdom. He knew every place to kiss, to bite, to graze on her body, and he catered to her desires with great care and fine precision. Her eyes fluttered when he thrusted hard at the right angle and her mouth slackened to enjoy the pleasure he gave to her. Her moaning was light and her touches feathery, but he had no interest in them. As he became impatient with the slow pace, he roughened up at the thought of another.
His Jigoku Meioshi...
Those hazel eyes touched by golden candle lights, skin as soft and warm as sweet bread, hair so black and lovely. The twists and waves of her locks when doused with water and blood made him yearn to caress their pattern. The memories of her tears and the feel of her hands on his chest when she pleaded with him were forever imprinted on his mind. Her desperate kiss, those rosy lips, her whispers of love for him. They called out to a part of him that was fuzzy and distant. He didn't know where he ever met Meioshi, but he had been having urges to touch and pleasure the demon wench as of late. He wanted her to cry for him again. He wanted to feel her hands - dry and calloused from battle, yet soft and elegantly coordinated for medical service - on his chest the way his wife often teased him. Before, such a thought would have disgusted him. A demigod with hell's concubine? Outrageous! Yet... there was something about the way her body felt against his, something about the way she remained still and locked eyes with him upon their last encounter, something about the way her hips felt when he rubbed circles into them that called the sexual beast out of him. For a moment, his wife's strong jaw and proud bosom became softer in curve, her thin lips puckered out, her hair was splayed out and about, her skin went from pale and glassy to warm and golden brown, her eyes changed from brown to that witch hazel.
Her flighty moans were painful grunts and breathy chokes. He could hear the clashing of their blades and the force of power cutting the air around them to the point where neither could breathe. The sounds of battle and struggle reached his ears, and he had to claim his victory. Sojuro picked up his pace to take pleasure for himself this night. His wife clung to him and voiced her ecstasy with his speedier, harder thrusts. She was blushing. He remembered when he had Meioshi's slender neck in his own hands in one fight. Her blush was redder, and she struggled to get out of his hold. She begged for him to see some sense. It made plenty of sense for a kami knight to destroy a hell spawn. What was there to look at? What was there to remember? He started to voice his own need to kill, to destroy, to thrust harder into her body. He had to feel her like this. Not this night... but another... He could cast his title away for a night of bloodlust, of the more carnal lust raking its hands against his hard body. What did she sound like? Would she beg for him like she did before? Would she call his name? Which one would she use? The old Sojuro or the new Hidorobo?
He did like that name. He wanted to use it. His wife was not keen on him doing so, even detested him speaking it if it meant he would speak more of her enemy, but he found her warnings dull and instead imagined Meioshi saying the name to him. Soon, his wife was Meioshi. Her naked body changed from the curves of a goddess to the curves of the doctor. He gripped at the sheets of the bed tightly and leaned down to thrust harder. Sweat had already been building, but this was different. He licked his top teeth and released a heavy moan into his wife's ear as he thrusted a bit softer again. For some reason or another, clothes had crept onto Meioshi's body. Not the real one, of course. This fantasy he had come to accept for the night. They were laced, white, and almost feathery. She was younger in this vision, if he had to take a gander. Virginal, sweet, blushing and reaching out to him. He hesitated and stopped his lovemaking for a moment to let those hands, moving like a faint memory, reach up to his cheeks.
For a moment, he had to catch his breath. Why was - ? Was this a... memory? Sojuro knew nothing about the doctor and yet... in this bedroom situated just before the gates of the heavens, he was fantasizing about having that hell spawn in his arms, underneath him, and he enjoyed it enough to taste his wife's skin as though she was Meioshi. With the soft memory came the battle outside of her threshold and he once again had to claim her. He had to claim it all, so he stroked his wife's soft spots over and over and over again until they both let out cries from pleasure. When Sojuro crawled off his wife's body and relaxed onto his back, he was almost startled by his wife straddling him to lay kisses on his jaw, neck, and chest. He dared not picture Meioshi anymore. Although Sojuro had no reason to fear his wife, he was still a human and could have his powers stripped at any moment. Killing Meioshi was his sure-fire way of gaining permanent god-like status, but he had to be methodical and obedient about it. After all, this fantasy of his was harmless. He loved his goddess and wife.
"Maboroshi no kohime has awakened, beloved," Sojuro informed, rubbing the small of his wife's back.
"I have a proposal for her," she informed, lifting her body to look into his eyes. Her makeup was hypnotic: blood red lipstick, eye coloring like fire and coal, and a sprinkle of pearl white blush. His hands dropped to her hips and butt, and he proceeded to massage those areas as she spoke. She seemed pleased with his actions. She then continued, "She is weak. Her insecurity will be her downfall in the end. It is a tale of love with no reward or show of thanks. She can join me in punishing her clan for their betrayal and disobedience. Should she refuse, Father Izanagi can seek justice for those pathetic mortals. You, my love, will have to investigate if that little bitch is responsible for Maboroshi no kohime's engagement on mortal soil. She doesn't want to heed my warning? So be it!"