Chapter 1

I ran through the dark forest, branches reaching for my long hair, my heart hammering in my chest. This place was cursed. Yokai and Onryō stalked between the tangle of trees and maze of roots bursting out of the broken, folded ground.

“Mitsuko-hime,” I called, my words swallowed by the dark trees. “Please, Mitsuko-hime, don’t do this. I’m sorry.”

Everything had gone so wrong today. It was supposed to be magical. I had done it. I had contacted the great kami Hangetsu, and I had been transformed beyond a mere woman. A cock. I had done it. I had achieved what we needed to be together. My princess and I could be together.

Branches tore at my red hakama and white haori. I gasped, one of my red ribbons ripped out of my black hair. My heart thudded more and more as I pressed through the woods, following my heart, letting it lead me through this place of death, Jigoku bleeding into the real world.

She was close. My princess.

I burst past the large rock and stopped. I gazed at the mighty pine tree rising before me. My eyes widened in grief at what hung from its limb. I clutched my hands to my breasts, pressing my haori and kimono tight against my bosom as I fell to my knees.

“No,” I cried out in grief and regret. “No, Ōjo-sama!” Tears fell from my eyes as shame overwhelmed me. I had failed her.

500 years later...

Yoshiko Stenet walked down the street towards her school, the Redwood Academy, the warm, California sun shining down on her glossy-black hair. She had her mother’s hair, the fine, blue-black silk of the Japanese, spilling about her shoulders and framing her face. It was round, the skin a light-olive, her cheekbones delicate. But it was her eyes that were most unusual. Caucasian eyes, gifts from her father’s family along with her buxom chest. Her eyes were round and blue, giving her face an even more exotic cast.

Earbuds in, she nodded her head to the beat of K-Pop playing from her phone, streaming off a Pandora station as she walked down the street. She loved Korean pop music even if she couldn’t understand the words. It was so upbeat and cheery most of the times, giving her a light step. Girls Generation played, a chorus of eleven or more members of the idol group singing.

Her shoes smacked on the sidewalk as she shuffled along to the beat of the song. Listening to the music made going to school slightly bearable. She really, really didn’t want to go to school today, and she was trying not to think of the reason, losing herself to her music.

The half-Japanese schoolgirl, just turned sixteen before the start of term a month ago, let her head bob and her feet almost skip, her black skirt swirling about creamy-olive thighs, and long, loose socks pulled up to her knees like many of her favorite Korean pop idols would wear. Lost to her music, she didn’t hear the girl crying out her name from behind.

Yoshiko jumped when her best friend burst from behind her and darted in front of Yoshiko, forcing her to stop and yank out her earbuds, her heart thudding. “Lori,” groaned Yoshiko. “Don’t do that.”

“I called your name, Yoshiko,” Lori answered, a big smile on her lips, her red curls dancing about her head as she walked backwards. Lori was a head taller than Yoshiko, who was used to being one of the shortest girls wherever she went. “And you didn’t hear me.”

“Sorry,” Yoshiko answered, wrapping up her earbuds. She resisted the urge to give her friend a bow like her mother always did when greeting someone.

“Were you just going to keep walking without me?” Lori asked. “Good thing I was paying attention, or you would have reached school while I was still waiting.”

Yoshiko blushed as her friend fell in beside her. “Sorry. I was just caught up in the song. Lost track of how far I had walked.”

Lori narrowed her eyes. They were such pretty eyes. Yoshiko’s heart thudded faster. Her friend was hot, wearing a low-hipped jean skirt, hints of pink panties peeking out as Lori’s green halter top’s hem rose up an inch, flashing bare waist.

Yoshiko had a crush on her friend for awhile, not that she would ever act on it. Lori, unfortunately, was straight. And Yoshiko didn’t want to ruin their friendship by trying to pressure Lori into experimentation. The one time they had kissed had been a disaster.

“Did you get that paper done for Epinosa’s class?” Lori asked, stretching her arms over head, which lifted the hem of her halter top, exposing two more inches of enticing belly and the hint of her bellybutton.

“Yes,” Yoshiko said. “Spent all day yesterday working on it. My fingers felt like they would fall off from all that typing. Such a boring subject.” The paper was on the effect that poverty had over the course of multiple generations and the outcome of their success. “Why did we take this class?”

“We needed a social studies credit,” Lori said.

“But you could have taken an easier class than Epinosa’s,” a male voice said from behind them.

Yoshiko let out a frightened squeak, jumping into the air before whirling around and glaring at her other best friend, Chris. He had a huge grin on his face. He was tall, his blond hair a ruffled mess like any good Californian surfer, his face tanned from the outdoors. Yoshiko had to crane her neck to look at him. His height gave him an advantage playing basketball, but it sucked for Yoshiko to look him in the eye.

“How long were you behind us?” Yoshiko demanded.

“Since Lori jumped in front of you,” Chris said as he stepped up, putting his arm around Lori’s shoulder. She looked short against him, which made Yoshiko feel like a midget.

“And you didn’t say anything?” Yoshiko demanded. “No hi or good morning.”

“I did. You didn’t hear me.”

Lori nodded her head, grinning.

They made a cute couple. Yoshiko realized that if Lori had to be straight, then she should date a decent guy, and Chris was that guy. He was friendly and funny. He didn’t treat Yoshiko differently for being gay. When she came out at eleven, Chris just shrugged and asked if she wanted to play a game of pickup basketball like always. It wasn’t a big deal to him. She was Yoshiko, his friend. It didn’t matter if she was gay, straight, bi, asexual, pansexual, or one of the other types.

He was a decent guy.

So Yoshiko was thrilled, and jealous, when he and Lori finally hooked up over the summer. The pair finally had gotten past that stage of flirting friends both edging at the line, wanting to cross it, but afraid what it would do to their relationship if things went disastrously wrong.

But they hadn’t messed it up so far.

The trio talked as they walked the last few blocks to the Redwood Academy, the small, private high school they attended. They passed through the old gate, a wrought iron sign with Redwood Academy arching over their heads as they entered the ground, their school’s buildings, all old, red-brick buildings, lay scattered around the picturesque lawns. Yoshiko took a quick breath, her eyes darting around, looking for—

“What happened to the tree?” she gasped, pointing at the large Japanese Pine Tree that grew on the lawn before the school. Unlike pine trees in the states, the Japanese Pine Tree had a wide canopy, branches reaching out like a man with a thousand arms stretching them in every direction at once. The needles were a bright, pale green and the bark quite reddish.

Instead, a huge chunk of its branches lay on the ground, one of the main trunks split in half and looked burned.

“Looks like a lightning strike,” Chris said. “From the storm last night.”

“Oh, that’s terrible,” Yoshiko said as they walked down the path towards the school’s entrance. “I loved that tree.”

“Yeah,” Lori nodded. “Remember last year when we tried to climb it and almost were caught by the security guard? Someone was supposed to be on look out.”

“I was,” Chris said. “Only I was on lookout in the wrong direction. Besides, you didn’t get caught.”

Yoshiko nodded her head, staring in a daze at the tree. The needles looked paler, almost gray, like the lightning had killed the tree. And the bark didn’t have that warm luster, but had dulled to a rust-red.

“Miyu’s quite interested in it,” Chris said, pointing out the Japanese girl standing before the tree. She was an exchange student and was in both Yoshiko’s math and English classes.

“She’s only been here a few weeks,” Lori said. “Maybe it reminded her of home.”

Miyu did appear homesick. She still wore her school uniform from Japan: a pleated, gray skirt; a white, buttoned down shirt with a gray vest over it; and a red tie hanging down the front. Her socks were like Yoshiko’s, loose and baggy, clinging tight just below her knees.

Miyu bowed to the tree and a flush of heat washed through Yoshiko as the gray skirt rode up Miyu’s thighs. For a tantalizing moment, Yoshiko hoped the skirt would slide up enough to show off her panties.

But that only happened in Anime.

“Weird,” Lori said again. “You’re half-Japanese. Why is she bowing?”

“Respect, I guess,” shrugged Yoshiko. “I grew up in the States. I’m as much Japanese as you are.”

“But doesn’t your mom tell you stuff about this?”

“Not really.”

The trio moved on and entered the school’s main building, passing into the grandiose halls. The Redwood Academy was built at the turn of the last century. The ceiling was high over head, the entrance wide, the floor marble. Statues of Greek gods, Apollo and Aphrodite, faced each other, Aphrodite’s right breast bare, the suggestion of a nipple dimpling the stone. It was art, so the various protests over the years had kept it from being removed.

Yoshiko hardly gave it a glance as she walked in, her eyes scanning. No sign of her. “Well, I’ll see you for PE, Lori.”

“You’re not going to run faster than me today,” Lori called as she and Chris went right.

“Later, Yoshiko,” Chris said, flashing her the peace sign.

Yoshiko took a deep breath and ventured down the hall, shifting her backpack on her shoulders. She had only gotten twenty feet when Kat Rollins, leaning in a drinking fountain alcove, sauntered out to Yoshiko. The taller girl had a sneering smile on her lips.

“There’s the dyke,” she said as she sidled up to Yoshiko. “Got it?”

“Yes,” Yoshiko said, her insides squirming. She unslung her backpack. “B work, just like you requested.”

“Good, good,” Kat said, light glinting off the spike collar she wore about her neck. Kat dressed in a punk style, her tights artfully slashed, the hem of her skirt frayed, her top transparent, revealing a hot-red bra beneath.

Yoshiko unslung her backpack and fished around in it. She pulled out the answers to the physics homework and handed them over, trying not to glare at Kat. Why did you even choose the class if you’re not going to do the work?

Kat grabbed them and grinned, flipping through the notepaper. “Good, good. And I have a feeling you’ll be doing my history homework tonight. Mr. Page is going to assign us something annoying. I can feel it.”

“I thought it was just this once,” I protested.

She rounded on me, pushing me against the wall, looming. “Listen, little dyke. I own you. Unless you want the pictures on my camera spread across social media. And the video. You can hear the other girls showering on it.”

Yoshiko’s cheeks burned hotter.

“It’s so obvious that you’re in the locker room masturbating while your classmates were washing up after exercising. Got excited by their bodies, huh?”

“Please, don’t do that,” Yoshiko squirmed, mortification writhing through her stomach.

“So I own your dyke ass. You do my Physics and Ancient History homework, and no one will know that you like to play with your clam during PE.”

“It was just that once,” Yoshiko said, lowering her eyes.

“Right,” Kat sneered before pulling away.

Yoshiko squirmed. She shouldn’t feel ashamed for being a lesbian. Not in this day and age, but being caught masturbating in the locker room was too much. The other girls would start to look at her weird, wondering why she had to masturbate. Wonder if she was lusting after their bodies. All wet and soapy and beautiful, a sheen of water over their silky skin.

Heat burned between Yoshiko’s thighs, that naughty itch which had gotten her in trouble. She didn’t even know how Kat had caught her. She didn’t share PE with Kat. Why was she even in there to begin with?

“I just showed up early for PE,” was Kat’s excuse. Maybe it was true. But Yoshiko found it so horrible that she had been caught. How could I have been so stupid?

Yoshiko headed to her first class, math, and struggled to focus as they covered calculus. The math was challenging, and normally she excelled at it, living up to her Asian stereotype. Of course, her Asian mother was dumb as a brick when it came to math while her father was the smart one.

Next she had Physics. With Kat. The bully had a huge smirk as she turned in her homework to Professor Moore, an African American man who looked nerdier than most of the school’s chest club. Kat sat by Yoshiko, playing with her phone, using her text book to hide it, not even paying attention.

Why should she? I have to share my homework with her now.

Lori failed to run faster than Yoshiko in PE, her next class. The pent up frustration from Kat’s bullying kept Yoshiko running fast, unwilling to slow down and let her friend keep up with her as she raced around the track, running her mile.

“Damn, what devil is chasing you?” Lori asked when she finished a half-minuted after Yoshiko, the redhead clutching her side.

“Nothing,” Yoshiko said with a dismissive wave.

“Nothing?” Lori arched an eyebrow, planted her hands on her hips, and, despite looking like she was about to run out of air, she said, “Don’t say that to me. It’s not nothing. Come on, spit it out. Your parents fighting again?”

“No,” Yoshiko shrugged, her cheeks burning. She couldn’t admit it to Lori that she was masturbating in the bathroom. Thinking about Lori herself. Just seeing her friend strip naked, bending over before her, had set off Yoshiko’s lusts. That ass was too gorgeous. Yoshiko just wanted to love it and...

No, she’s with Chris. She’s not gay. We’re best friends. Don’t ruin it by doing something stupid. Something we’ll both regret.

“Then what is it?”

“Nothing.”

Lori’s eyes narrowed. “Is it Kat? Is she messing with you again? I’ll go kick her ass.”

“Don’t do that,” Yoshiko groaned. “That’ll just get you in trouble.”

“So it is Kat.” Lori spat. “Just because they named the school’s library after her dad last year doesn’t mean that rich bitch can strut the school like she owns the place.”

“I think it does,” groaned Yoshiko. “Her dad donates a ton of money. And she knows it. Look at how she dresses. That’s not appropriate at all for school, but none of the teachers care. She’s just copying my homework, okay? Nothing else.”

“Why are you letting her?”

Yoshiko shrugged. “Easier than putting up with her bullshit.”

“Oh, Yoshiko, don’t be like that. Don’t let that cunt—”

“Lori,” gasped Yoshiko, her cheeks reddening.

“Well, she is a cunt. A cunty cunt cunt cunt,” Lori said and Yoshiko found herself giggling at the obscene word. “So don’t let that cunty cunt boss you around.”

“It’s fine.” She put her arm around Lori, loving the scent of her friend’s shampoo and the smell of salty sweat. Naughty ideas surged through Yoshiko as she tried not to look at her friend’s gray tank top molding to a round pair of boobs.

“Just say the word,” Lori said, leaning in closer, “and I’ll kick her ass. Let them expel me.”

“No,” Yoshiko said firmly. “Then I would have PE all by myself.”

Lori grinned. “You just like looking at my ass in these gym shorts.”

Yoshiko blushed and said, her voice tight, “Maybe.”

Lori laughed louder. “That’s why you have to let me win. So you can stare at my ass as I run before you. I don’t mind if you look. That’s what friends are for.”

Yoshiko joined her friend in laughter. It was hard to stay glum around Lori.

After their laughter died down, they had to run the mile again. There didn’t seem to be much of a point in doing it, but it was exercise, and after two hours of sitting in class leaning, PE was a welcome change of pace.

Yoshiko let Lori win. She did have a great ass.

They showered in the locker room afterward, and Yoshiko did her best not to ogle her friend or Annis Shaw or Polina Pajari, the two other girls that had great asses. Especially Polina. The Russian beauty had an ass that was made to be grabbed, and Yoshiko thought about it a lot.

Maybe she’s gay or bi, Yoshiko wondered as she washed her body, staying away from her pussy. All she needed was to masturbate in the showers this time.

Kat came in early, lounging by the lockers, a smirk on her lips as she watched Yoshiko. The half-Japanese girl shivered. Those eyes were so possessive. It was like the homophobic girl thought that she owned Yoshiko now because of those pictures.

Lori shouldered into Kat. “Whoops, didn’t see you,” Lori said as she strolled past. “I don’t see bitches that well.”

Kat just grinned at Yoshiko.

Yoshiko and Lori headed to their social studies class, meeting Chris on the way. It was their last class before they had an hour break before lunch. Then they only had two more classes to go. Yoshiko liked that schedule. It made the afternoon more bearable knowing there were only two more classes left after lunch.

She ate quickly. Lori arched an eyebrow. “You’re an eager beaver.”

“I want to talk to Ms. Lindon about my English paper,” Yoshiko said. “I’m a little stuck. She has the hour free, I think.”

“Afraid you’ll get a B?” laughed Chris.

“No, an A-,” giggled Lori, sitting on her boyfriend’s lap. “Just try to chew your food before swallowing.”

“I am,” Yoshiko said.

She finished eating and darted off, excited to talk about her paper. She had a great take on Pride and Prejudice, and she was hoping Ms. Lindon would agree with her about it. English was by far Yoshiko’s favorite class, mainly because Ms. Lindon was such a beautiful woman. Tall, sultry, a brunette with beautiful curls that fell in waves about her face. She was always wearing such short skirts.

With nylons.

Yoshiko loved nylons. Especially stretched over a girl’s ass. She didn’t watch traditional porn, preferring to look at sexy drawing of Anime characters instead, but if she found a picture of a woman in pantyhose, she could masturbate to it for hours, stroking up and down her virgin flesh, bringing herself to gasping orgasms.

Her feet echoed down the empty hallway. She passed classes occupied by other students busy at work, a tingle shuddering through her. Nipples were hard in her bra, her pussy feeling nice and juicy. Fantasies of something wonderful, something intimate, blossoming between her and her teacher danced through her head.

Yoshiko had her suspicions that Ms. Lindon might be gay, too.

She stopped before her teacher’s door, taking a deep breath as she peered through the small, rectangular window set in the door, glass sandwiching chicken wire. She could see Ms. Lindon’s desk. Yoshiko blinked at what was on the desk. Kat Rollins was bent over it, her face twisted in pleasure.

“What?” Yoshiko gasped, watching her bully shudder on the desk, head thrown back in obvious pleasure. She could just hear the girl’s faint moans through the door.

Her stomach twisting and pussy burning, Yoshiko leaned to her right. She had to see what boy was with Kat. It angered her that Kat and some guy would have broken into Ms. Lindon’s classroom so they could fuck.

“She is such a bitch,” Yoshiko murmured. “I should...”

Her words trailed off. Ms. Lindon fucked Kat. With a strap-on.

Heat flushed through the lesbian schoolgirl as she watched in shocked awe. Ms. Lindon was as beautiful and regal as ever, naked save for her pantyhose which clad her thighs, hips, and the curving swell of her ass—Yoshiko could just see that if she leaned to the right. Ms. Lindon wore the strap-on over it, purple vinyl harness, a dildo of matching rubber reaming into Kat’s cunt. Ms. Lindon’s large breasts bounced up and down as she reamed the homophobic girl, fucking Kat so hard, ramming her dick into the girl’s dripping snatch.