**VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED. Coercion, forced prostitution, a freshly tortured Taigen, etc...**
Taigen
My entire body is ready to give up. If I don't move, my muscles remain numb. But every breath brings agony with it. My wrists and ankles are still bound to the wooden torture device in this freezing room made of stone. If I listen beyond the pounding of my heart, I can hear the waves pounding against the rock outside. I'm here, on the island that Mizu is so desperate to reach. And all I had to do was let my guard down.
I have survived one round of torture, but I know I cannot survive another. Heiji Shindo knows it too. I've been left alone for now, but for how long, I don't know. All I know is numbness and pain and the roaring in my ears. And that stupid blue eyed samurai that got me in this mess. I'm in too deep now, and I must see this madness through. I must assist Mizu in any way I can, even if that means being tortured to death.
If we make it out of this mess alive, I'll deal with him then. And at this point... I'm not sure exactly what I mean to do with him. A duel? That seems futile now. My chonmage is gone, and I can't get it back. Who would have guessed that scrappy little boy I used to terrorize would grow to such a formidable opponent.
It feels strange to respect a monster like Mizu, but it courses through me nonetheless. It has settled in my bones and twisted into something unrecognizable. All this, despite the fact that he ruined my life and my engagement to the princess. I would have been unstoppable. And Akemi is fine enough. She would have been a decent wife.
But now here I am, on the brink of death, shivering in my near nakedness, throbbing with numbness and pain, at the mercy of Heiji Shindo.
The door bursts open, and I flinch in response. Ow. Heiji Shindo's voice rings in my ears. So pointed that I don't hear the scuffling that accompanies it. "Get in! I don't know what Madame Kaji was thinking, sending ugly whores like you!"
My eyes flutter open. Except one of them is swollen shut, and the one that opens is blurry and watery. But there's no mistaking the two distinct, colorful uchikake that stumble into this stone torture chamber. There are no other layers of kimono under the colorful and decorated uchikake. Heiji Shindo is disposing of these prostitutes. Not good enough for the white devil that lives here. I can't see well enough to tell if they are beautiful or not. One of them won't lift her eyes. But I see their dark hair is loose and shiny. And the colors of their clothes swim in my vision.
Forcing my head to lift an inch, I stare at Heiji Shindo through my hair. He's in the doorway with his stump of a hand exposed, the bandage pink from blood. I hope it hurts him. I expect him to sneer at me before retreating out of the room, but he folds his arms and walks to the platform in front of me where he sits, looking down on all of us. Me and the whores. One of whom is visibly trembling. The other still won't lift her gaze from the floor. All I can see is the white cast over her skin and the red line at her eyelids.
"Well," Heiji Shindo sneers, "entertain us. Or are you not only ugly, but stupid as well."
My gaze locks with the trembling one, who's shroud in a pale lilac uchikake that exposes the top of her chest. I still can't see well, but I know what fear looks like. She isn't ugly. And she isn't a whore. My eye widens, sending a bolt of pain through my face. I know this woman. I would recognize her in her princess garb or her nightclothes. Akemi.
Akemi! Here! On this island of death! Did she follow me all the way from Kyoto?! How did she get here?! Heiji Shindo has no idea what he holds in his only remaining hand. A princess. He can't know.
Recognition dawns on Akemi's face. She lets out a whimper and then tears roll down her cheeks, smearing the white pigment over her skin, the pink on her cheeks, the black on her eyes.
"Go on, girls! Give this dying man one last hard-on."
Akemi shrinks under Heiji Shindo's annoying voice. The second woman remains standing tall with her eyes downcast and her long hair obscuring part of her face. They must have been touched and roughed around in front of the white devil before being cast aside.
Akemi reaches trembling hands toward me, but they drop the instant Heiji Shindo snaps, "don't touch the prisoner. Touch each other. Give me a show! Or should I dispose of you rotten whores now?"
Akemi lets out a sob and shrinks in on herself. But then a whisper catches my attention. "It's okay. I told you I would protect you."
My blurry gaze goes to the other prostitute. She's on Akemi's side? Does she know? Are they friends? How long has Akemi been following me? Been disguised as a whore?
Heiji Shindo interrupts with another snap of his voice. "No whispering! Kiss. Now."
My gaze snaps back to Akemi. I wonder if she knows I'm not in love with her. That she's kind and smart and powerful, and that's all. By the way she looks at me with panic etching her features, I think not. I hope she didn't come all this way for me.
Her gaze drops to the floor. "I'm sorry," she breathes.
The next second, she steps toward the other woman in a blue uchikake.
"It's okay," the other one breathes back.
My vision swims and my heart pounds with strange emotions as I watch Akemi rise on her toes to kiss the woman. I'm surprised to find no jealousy. Akemi was supposed to be mine. But now I don't want her. Now I don't know what I want. If I survive, that is.
I don't hide my gaze as I watch my lover kiss another woman. Instead, I watch Heiji Shindo. He stares slack jawed at the women with unbridled glee.
"Kiss harder," he urges.
To my utter surprise, the two women deepen the kiss without hesitation. Their mouths work against each other, smearing the pigments on their skin. Akemi's hand raises to the other's neck and pulls her down. Their uchikake pressed against each other, their bodies mold before my blurry eye.
This is wrong. Dishonorable. I should close my eyes. Instead, my mind wanders to strange places. I don't want Akemi like I used to. Like the stolen time she shared her body with me. But seeing her kiss another is awakening my mind. The pain in my body moves over for desire.
But Heiji Shindo mustn't know I know Akemi. I cannot fold. I cannot speak. The sloppy sound of kissing is interrupted by a soft sigh from Akemi as her lips leave the other whore and travel down her elegant long neck.
Mizu has a long, elegant neck. I shake that strange thought away. My mind is slipping through pain and desire and confusion.
Heiji Shindo's nasally voice is the only thing that breaks through. "Take the tall one's uchikake off! Her breasts are tiny. Like bug bites. Such an ugly whore. Right, Taigen?"
My gaze lifts from the women to Heiji Shindo on his throne. Such a puny man. Dishonorable and deplorable. But am I any better? Because yes, her breasts are nonexistent. And I were looking for women to fuck, I would skip her without thought. Not that she isn't beautiful from what I can see, but unassuming.
"Right, Taigen?" he repeats with a condescending tone.
All I can do is grunt through my dry throat. My lips are broken and barely held together by dried blood. Any real speaking will reopen the cuts. I see the blurred form of the woman in blue step away from the other. Her face remains down-turned and partially shielded by her hair. Akemi gasps and pants and gazes at her counterpart in horror.
"Do it!" Heiji Shindo sneers, leaning forward in his seat.
Akemi has no choice. But she still doesn't act. And I am powerless to help her. To help either of them. Why Akemi thought it would be a good idea to come here, I may never know. Perhaps she isn't on this island of her own free will. Am I so arrogant to think she would attempt to break in undercover? She has no training. Nothing but a princess's education.
My gaze darts between the two women, confused by their interaction. Did they not expect to have to perform sexual acts today? They're prostitutes. At least, the other one is. Akemi could be acting. For me. But there was no mistaking the longing in those sloppy kisses. I see the smudged colors on their faces even through my blurred vision.
Heiji Shindo jumps up from his chair with a shout. "Do I need to threaten your miserable lives again?! Do it!"
The tall one is suddenly the one trembling with fear. I blink at her face to see the expression through her hair. Her eyes lift suddenly, full of terror, full of shame, full of...
I can't help the gasp that rips through my throat. It instantly turns into an agonizingly painful cough. The taste of blood fills my mouth, and it dribbles past my lips.
Eyes as blue as the spring sky stare at me. In horror.
Mizu!!
Relief floods through my blood. Akemi isn't here alone. And I may just have a chance to live! Mizu is dressed as a prostitute. No wonder Heiji Shindo is complaining about breasts. My gaze roams his body, looking for places he might be hiding his sword. His eyes dart right back down to the floor. He's hiding his blue eyes from our enemy on the throne above us.
I tense, waiting for the moment when he draws his sword. Why has he taken so long? It's only us in this room. One enemy of no skill. Why hasn't he cut me free? I would only crumple to the ground in pain, but still, I would be free.
And then a coldness seeps into my bones when I hear him whisper through stiff lips. "You have to do it. It's okay."
What?! Why isn't he fighting? Why keep up the act? Akemi is about to expose his bare chest. It will be obvious he's a man and not a female prostitute. An attractive one. With strangely long hair.
I shake that thought away and return to preparing my body to be cut free. Mizu. The bastard. Snuck in as a whore. But why did he bring Akemi? Or did she sneak separately? Do they know each other? Surely. Is she truly selling her body now? She can't be. Right? My head thumps with pain in time with my beating heart.
I watch out of one blurry eye as Akemi's trembling hands reach for the blue fabric. Mizu drops his head, his unusually long hair obscuring his eyes and cheeks. His hands tremble just as bad as Akemi. Confusion makes my head pound harder. I drop my gaze, relaxing my neck for a second before the hammer comes down.
"Oh!" Akemi gasps.
"Why is your chest bound? What kind of a whore are you?"
Heiji Shindo's words swirl in my mind. Chest bound? Is Mizu injured? I lift my head with effort to see through strings of blood-soaked hair.
I blink back the blurring in my eye to focus on the sight before me. Mizu stands naked. But there's a bandage around his chest. My gaze drops further, looking for other signs of injury.
My jaw drops. I'm hallucinating. I'm knocking on death's door and seeing the strangest sight as my body gives up on me.
Mizu. The boy I tormented, the man I fought, the man I hunted, the man I respect. The man I grudgingly like... But there's a distinctly feminine curve to his waist. And where there should be a cock swinging between his legs is.... distinctly feminine.
"I said, why are your breasts bound?" Heiji Shindo barks from his throne above us.
Mizu's face remains lowered as he stands there trembling. "Some men prefer boys. I often cater to those desires."
My eyes are glued to the spot between Mizu's legs. I can't be imagining this.
"Fowler doesn't like boys! He likes blood and tits! You! Unbind her!"
I watch with one wide eye and a slack jaw as Akemi struggles to unwrap the bandage around Mizu's chest. And then it falls away.
Breasts. Mizu has breasts. And a cunt between his legs.
Mizu isn't Mizu. Mizu is...
All this time??
I swallow bloody saliva and suck in a painful breath to speak. But then Heiji Shindo's voice breaks through my whirlwind thoughts. "Ah, much better. Now you disrobe too, and start touching each other. Don't make me ask again."
Mizu is a woman. And I can't say anything. Akemi looks just as shocked as I feel. But he can't be a woman. He's too strong. Too powerful. Too...
"I'm sorry," Mizu whispers at Akemi as he disrobes her with trembling hands. Wait, SHE disrobes her!
Akemi shakes her head and lets her uchikake fall to the floor.
"Stop whispering! Touch each other!"
I can't close my eye. All I can do is blink past the blurry vision as Mizu... the woman, Mizu, embraces Akemi. The princess Akemi, my old lover Akemi.
I must be dreaming. This is just some sick dream to save me from dying of my injuries in this cold torture chamber.
Both women's nipples are pointed as their hands wrap around each other's forearms. I watch silent words pass between them with each stroke of their fingers on each other's skin. I stare in awe and confusion and wonder when Akemi reaches for the red marks on Mizu's ribs from the binding.
She's been binding her chest. Pretending to be a man to get her revenge on the white devils. And now she's in front of me, naked. And I don't feel hurt. I don't feel disgusted. I don't know what I feel. Confused. In pain. Intrigued. I recall the way Mizu's body shifts and arches when he fights. She. The way his blade zings through the air with perfect precision. She. The way his blue eyes hold mine with intensity. She.
Mizu flinches away from Akemi's touch. Akemi closes the distance between them until their perky breasts brush together. My mind reels. Mizu and Akemi. Mizu with breasts and a cunt. Mizu is... she's... well, she's nice to look at. I can appreciate a good body. Her muscles are sinewy. She's just as strong as she always had been. She has a waist and a curve to her hips. Her legs are long and lean.
Mizu continues to tremble, continues to keep her blue eyes on the cold stone floor. The discarded clothing lies on top of a splattering of my blood. My heart pounds, my head aches, and my numb skin feels flushed in this cold room.
Two pairs of lips so close to touching. Both parted with trembling breath. "It's okay," Akemi breathes.
Then the distance is closed. My mind shutters with a strange sense of longing. I'm strung up, near death, throbbing with pain. And all I can focus on is the sight before me and the heat rushing between my legs.
The tight cloth separating my cock from the cold air becomes unbearably tight. I try to keep my gaze on Akemi. She is familiar. She is safe for me to admire. But I stray. I stray so hard that I can't stop my slack jaw from releasing a drop of bloody drool from my mouth. Mizu. Mizu's body. Mizu's lips. Mizu's taught brown nipples, Mizu's trembling breath.
"Ahhh... much better."
My good eye flicks up to the throne where Heiji Shindo sits. Anger floods through my tired muscles. How dare he look upon this sight. How dare he expose Mizu like this! What's worse is that he has no idea. Mizu has shut her eyes, and I doubt they will reopen. The sound of sloppy kissing fills the room, and before my very eyes... eye... Akemi and Mizu melt into each other's arms. My mind sputters and skips and throbs.
And then they sink to their knees on the pile of colorful fabric. My head drops, relaxing my sore neck. But I keep my eye trained on them. On the way Mizu pants when Akemi moves her long hair and kisses her ear and neck. She had all that hair hidden this whole time. I can't believe I didn't see it. There had to have been signs.
When Akemi clumsily gropes Mizu's breasts, Mizu's head falls back, and she lets out a moan. A moan so deep and breathy and confused. My cock strains, even as I tell myself these women are under duress. But they sure look flushed with desire for being forced. They aren't forcing the enjoyment they feel. Akemi begins exploring Mizu's body as the latter leans back on her hands with her legs parted. She just lets it happen. Her eyes remain glued shut, but her head turns to me. Does she want to look at me?
With rapt attention, I watch Akemi dip her delicate fingers between Mizu's legs. My mouth waters at the sight of her heaving breasts. My mind flashes back to the few shared moments between us when we weren't fighting. And the perfectly precise way she cut down those trees in the forest with her sword. If it were me exploring between her legs instead of Akemi, would she enjoy it?
Mizu moans, and I flinch with pain as my hard cock jumps under my tight fundoshi. Anger flushes through me every time I see Heiji Shindo out of the corner of my blurry vision. He will die. I cannot allow him to keep the memory of these women. Of Mizu. Even if he never knows it's the blue-eyed samurai.
In a sweet voice that carries around the room like a rolling wave, Akemi says to Mizu, "I'm going to kiss your delicate flesh and make the ache feel better. Okay?"
"No sweet talking! Just fuck each other!" Heiji Shindo shouts, though there's still a look of perverted glee on his face.
He has no idea what he's looking down at.
But I know exactly what's happening. Mizu is exposed. Trembling. But flushed with desire. Akemi is nervous but excited. I can feel it. My head spins with strange thoughts and feelings, and I'm not strong enough right now to fight against them.
"Lie back," Akemi tells the trembling woman.
Mizu drops back, propped up on her elbows, eyes tightly shut. Akemi's face drops to her body. I hear the wet kisses on Mizu's skin despite my heart pounding in my ears.
Soft feminine lips wrap around stiff feminine nipples. Mizu lets a noise escape her throat as her face lifts to the ceiling. I watch her face contort with pleasure. Oddly similar to the way it contorts with pain. I'm reminded again of the warrior Mizu is. A female warrior. A formidable opponent.
Akemi sucks and licks at Mizu's nipples until both women are panting and squirming. I keep waiting for Mizu to look at me, but those blue eyes remain firmly behind her eyelids.
And then Akemi travels down between Mizu's legs. She shifts Mizu slightly so her back is toward Heiji Shindo and her legs are open before me. I always assumed there would be a cock between them. But now I'm staring at a blooming pink flower surrounded in curls. Glistening under the dim light.
I stare open-mouthed, though painful breath hardly comes to me. My cock is hard and throbbing. So restricted. Like Mizu's breasts were before. But not now. She heaves, her wet, taut nipples staring me in the face. Daring me to enjoy watching them. And I do.
Akemi's backside faces me, and she lifts so I get to see her wet cunt. They're both enjoying this.
Jealousy roils in my guts knowing that Heiji Shindo is also enjoying this. My numb hands curl into fists.
But then Akemi's face lowers and kisses between Mizu's legs, and she gasps and looks down at the scene before her. Akemi lets out a whimper and wiggles her hips with need. I feel the same need. So much need. It boils in my sore muscles, overtaking my anger toward my captor.
Mizu's gaze lifts, and I catch it with my one good eye. In the blue, a vision swims. Heat bolts down my spine. Mizu, just like this but with her hair how it should be. With her sword in her hand. Instead of Akemi between her legs, it's me. She tastes like forbidden fruit, and her moans aren't that of a woman, but a fierce warrior.
Then Mizu's eyes shut, and the vision dissolves. I watch her cheeks flush under the smudged and streaked pigments. She moans. Quietly. Nervously. But Akemi is savoring. Slurping. Squirming. Panting. Moaning. Such a little slut. Pride sweeps through me as she cares for Mizu when I can't.
Mizu begins to squirm as well, and I delight in the show of muscles when her legs tense around the princess. An obedient princess. Servicing a warrior.
It doesn't matter that Mizu has a cunt and not a cock. She needs servicing like any other samurai.
My swollen eye throbs with pain, and while my other is still blurry, I stare intently at Mizu's face. So familiar, and yet now different. Her eyes are screwed up and her tight jaw is parted as she pants. The flush on her nose peeks through. I watch her back arch as pleasure streaks through her. Her moans caress my ear, traveling all the way down to my throbbing, restrained cock. I can't help the fantasies. Of using my cock to make her moan, man or woman. Warrior or wife.
Akemi comes up gasping for air, and then suddenly, she shifts her weight and pushes her hand between Mizu's legs. I know exactly when she slips her fingers inside. Mizu's eyes shoot open, only to land on my face. My breath sticks in my burning throat. Our gazes lock for only a brief second, but it feels as though an eternity passes between us. As if we're imagining the same thing.
Akemi dives back down with a slurping noise while her arm pumps and her ass cheeks jiggle. Mizu's eyes slam shut and her entire body screws up.
Tensing, her jaw drops, but no sound comes out. Not for the few drawn out seconds when pleasure holds her in its tight coil. And then her head drops back with a wail and her legs extend out while shaking violently.
Dark thoughts swim in my mind. But I don't take my eyes off the sight before me. Mizu. Not a man, but a woman. Coming. Moaning. Shaking. Panting. Whimpering.
"That's enough!" Heiji Shindo barks.
I forgot he was here. My good eye lifts to his flushed face as he stares down at the two supposed whores who have been working for him. Akemi sits up and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, shifting to give me a view of what I truly want to see. What I can hardly look away from. Mizu is trembling and panting, her lean body flushed, her cunt swollen glistening with spit and orgasm. Such a pretty cunt. Begging for me. I can see it quivering. The rest of her body looks wired and tense, and though her eyes are closed, I can feel the fire radiating off her. My lips tingle as I watch her tongue drag across her bottom lip. I wonder what she tastes like.
"Well, Taigen? Is your tiny cock hard, or is there such little blood left in your body that you remain shriveled?"
My gaze lifts to him and I stare with my one good eye. It takes effort, and the flavor of blood grows stronger, but I manage to speak. "Why are you concerned about my cock? Are you so impotent that you have to live through my body? Even like this, I am still in my peak physical form. I could please both these whores at once. With each hand."
He spits at the floor, avoiding hitting Mizu by mere inches. "You! The tall one. Go pull the prisoner's fundoshi down to see the state of him."
My gaze falls to Mizu still on the floor sitting on the soiled uchikake. Where is her sword? She swallows, and slowly rises to her feet, letting her hair cover her eyes. With her back to Heiji Shindo up on his throne, she approaches, her breath trembling with nerves. Her body trembling with nerves. Naked body. A woman's body. If my nose weren't broken and bloody, I know I would be able to smell her. Instead, I stare through my blurry eye as we come face to face.
With Heiji Shindo unable to look at either of our faces, I whisper. "Look at me."
Her head lifts, but her eyes remain downcast. I grunt, unable to muster the strength to speak again through my dry throat and cracked lips.
In the spring in Kohama, when the sun is high, the ocean meets the sky, and they match in a dance of sunlight and waves. Pale blue. I meet the spring sky in the eye. Mizu. The deformed monster. The offspring of a white devil.
Fear is etched on her face. So vulnerable in her naked state. So full of shame after experiencing pleasure from Akemi's lips and tongue. But still, her eyes meet mine.
It hurts, but my lips turn up at the corners, anyway. Just a small smile. But it is enough. Enough to share a dozen conversations between us. And finally, Mizu and I understand each other.
"Hurry up!"
I swallow and stiffen, preparing to be exposed.
"Sorry," Mizu breathes. But she steps to the side, to show my body strung up in this torture chamber.
Then her hand brushes the skin of my hip. It's all I can do not to shutter and groan with need. I hold myself stiff and force my eye to glare at Heiji Shindo.
Mizu exposes me, her fingers warm and tingly against my numb skin. I let out an involuntary sigh when my throbbing cock is revealed to the chill air, no longer so confined. Mizu gasps. Akemi whimpers.
And Heiji Shindo looks angrier than I've seen him yet.
"Disappointed?" I tease him, knowing just exactly what hangs between my legs. Only it isn't hanging right now but bobbing and leaking and throbbing.
He jumps down from his throne and heads toward the door. "The three of you whores can rot in this room."
The door slams behind him, and then it's just the three of us.
My heart pounds wildly. Mizu swiftly lifts my fundoshi, but she would have to touch my throbbing hard cock in order to fit it back under the tight fabric.
My body slumps, and my mind goes entirely blank of any rational thought. "Please touch me."
Her hand shoots back. "What?!"
But Akemi rushes toward me in a flash of pale skin. "Taigen!"
Her arms wrap around my neck as she lets out a sob, and I groan in pain. She releases me quickly, crying and laughing. "I'm so sorry!"
The sound of a blade makes me sigh with relief. The next second, my bonds are cut, and agony rips through my arms to my fingertips as I slump. But I'm caught by a naked woman, her skin warm against mine. Mizu holds me, helping me to the cold floor littered with dried droplets of my blood. My cock throbs, half outside my fundoshi.
"Well..." I swallow and flinch from the pain. "Is there any more to your plan besides revealing your womanhood and making me hard beyond belief?"
Mizu gasps and pulls away from me. "I... I didn't... Akemi... not me. I'm..."
I look into her blue eyes, entirely oblivious to the woman I had resigned myself to marry once upon a time. Mizu blinks and looks away, and I force my hand to her cheek where the white and red are smudged. I wait until the spring sky looks into my eye. My soul.
"You are beautiful, Mizu."