Kumiho Na - Ri Demon War II
Copyright© 2025 by Jepasch
Chapter 1: The Imoogi
When Teiko Akera opened her eyes, it felt as though she had awakened from a wicked dream. The Kumiho’s seductive voice still echoed in her mind:
“You feel warm and content. Your yoni is wet and itching. You feel how it longs to be filled. Free your master’s lingam from its prison. Yes, that’s it, you’re doing well. Stroke it—firmly, but not too firmly. Caress his manhood. Yes, exactly! Now take it into your mouth and suck on it a little. Lick the tip the way you lick the pearl of a lover, but more firmly, because men are less sensitive there. Men only have these things to give us women pleasure. It is a gift from the Goddess, just for you. Use it. Now it is hard and ready. Set yourself on it and ride it at your pace. But make sure he does not come too early. Yes, take him in with desire. Just like that! You feel how he fills you. Your yoni is made for this; it loves the feeling; you love the feeling. Begin to move your lower body. First slowly—good, now a little faster. Do you feel it? Ah, it feels so good! Faster, even faster! Stop—slower; he’s moaning too much, otherwise he’ll come. Draw it out. Hold the rhythm! Yes, like that! Guide his hands to your breasts. Let him knead them. Feel the strength of his hands, the energy flowing into you. Ah, yes, the sweet pain of rough hands on your breasts—do you notice how it pulls into your yoni? Now ride the Goddess’s wave! Lean forward, press your open mouth to his, imagine the wave driving the pearl into him.”
The Goddess’s wave truly swept her up, the sensation like something warm, something pleasant, leaving her body through her mouth—and then ... something tore her apart!
Pain—such incredible pain that she fainted at once.
Vague memories of a wagon ride in fever. And later.
A new voice resounded in her head.
“Do you want to live? Do you want revenge?”
“Yes, yessss!” she had practically screamed with her last strength.
Another pain, deep in her chest—an ice-cold burning—and the overwhelming stench of rotting corpses took her breath and robbed her of consciousness again.
The dreadful stench still hung in the air. Were there many corpses nearby? With a jerk she sat up. It had not been a dream; it had truly happened. She had carried the demoness’s essence within her and had passed it to her lord, the samurai Taka Miyahara, by uniting with him. But what had happened afterward? What had that ‘voice’ been? Involuntarily she reached for her chest, where an unnatural cold made her uneasy. With trembling hands she loosened her shirt and looked down at her breasts. Nothing unusual was to be seen, yet it felt as if a slab of ice lay on her heart. As she slowly tied her shirt again, she looked around. She was not in a tent but in a hut. Nor was she sitting on a tatami mat, but on a padded Korean mattress. The hut was small and clean. A few chests stood against the walls. Light fell into the room through two paper-covered windows. On a small table she saw a bowl and a bucket. When she looked down at herself, she realized she was wearing a clean undergarment, a kosode of unbleached linen. It was a little too large. Carefully she rose, went to the low table, and knelt before it. Her mouth felt dry and sore, and she was terribly thirsty. A bamboo ladle lay across the wooden bucket. She quickly dipped some water from the bucket and drank. After she had drunk, she poured some water into the bowl and bent over it to wash her face. Patiently she waited until the surface had calmed. She wanted to know what she looked like now. Since she saw no mirror lying about, she would have to make do. Teiko was not overly vain, but as a miko she had to maintain a neat appearance. She was a servant of the gods, and she had to serve them with respect.
No longer a miko—she corrected herself.
She was no longer a virgin miko. Never again would she be able to serve her gods. Bitterness spread through her, and she felt her anger again: Na-Ri! It’s all your fault!
For a few moments she forced herself to calm down again. When she had her emotions under control, astonishment set in. Since when did she react so emotionally? Years of training and discipline should have made such feelings foreign to her, yet somehow it seemed as though another Teiko had lived through it. Slowly she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, as she had learned. The words, gestures, and chants drilled into her for years—she could remember them all, but somehow distant. It was as if they sounded from under water, as if she had submerged her head in the bath and listened to the voices of the other mikos.
Teiko shook her head to drive away these foolish thoughts. First she had to find out what had happened since she had fainted. To see better, she leaned even closer over the bowl. Her face seemed clean. She was just about to lift her head a little and reach her hands into the water to refresh herself when she froze in horror. That couldn’t be, could it? She blinked, then opened her eyes wide. With a sudden motion she jerked her upper body back and at the same time swept the bowl off the table with her hands. Her eyes—what had happened to her eyes? Had it been an illusion? Teiko looked around the room again. She rose and hurried to the chest beside her mattress. With a jerk she opened the lid. Panicked, she rummaged through the garments inside. Nothing. No knife, no mirror.
“Ah, you are finally awake, Lady Akera!”
The male voice made Teiko whirl around. In the doorway stood an older man in the robes of a Shinto priest. Kazuki Ichimaru, the man who had warned her about the demoness.
Teiko bowed deeply before the higher-ranking priest. At the same time, a shudder ran through her—fear of this man.
“Ichimaru-san, yes, I have just awakened. But allow me to ask: where am I, and what has happened?”
Without a word Kazuki stepped closer and crouched down in front of Teiko, at the same time setting a cloth bag down beside him. With his right hand he took her under the chin and forced her head up. Too late Teiko remembered to close her eyes. When she closed them and jerked her head away from Ichimaru’s hand, it was already too late.
Slowly the priest let his hand sink.
“So, you have already seen your face in the water mirror? The mizukagami reveals everything.”
Ashamed, Teiko turned her head to the side and lowered it. The priest’s words shot through her—how thoughtlessly she had once performed the ritual of the water mirror, not truly believing that still water could reveal the inner self. Hesitantly and quietly, her words came: “What happened to me? Why do I have the eyes of a snake?”
“What can you remember?” Kazuki’s voice sounded cold and authoritative.
Teiko felt shame flush her cheeks as she forced the memory to the surface.
“I united with Taka Miyahara-san to give him, as he commanded, the demoness’s pearl. Then—nothing. Where am I here? Where is Taka Miyahara-san? Have we defeated the Kumiho demons?”
The eyes of the priest and demon hunter inspected her sharply and ignored her questions. “Besides your eyes, have you noticed any other change in yourself?”
A vague sense of threat from the priest rose in Teiko. If only that strong stench of decay were not there, increasingly irritating her. It was practically wafting in through the open door. Her gaze fell on two amulets in front of the doorway. They were demon warding stones—like the ones the priest had laid around the camp. Suddenly she understood. Drawing a deep breath, she tried to relax and looked Kazuki squarely in the eye.
“Tell me, Ichimaru-san, am I possessed? Is that why you are holding me prisoner in this room?”
Kazuki did not answer immediately. Instead, he stepped back a pace, knelt down with some effort before Teiko, and then looked her firmly in the eyes. “I will answer all your questions. But first answer mine. What other changes have you noticed? All changes, however insignificant they may seem!”
Teiko nodded in confirmation and considered. “First: my eyes. In the reflection of the wash bowl they looked like the eyes of a snake. - Forgive me, Ichimaru-san, could we close the door first? The overwhelming stench of decay from outside is very unpleasant. I assume there is a battlefield outside, or does it come from rotting head trophies?”
Kazuki looked surprised. “Stench of decay? No. There are neither corpses nor head trophies here. This hut stands on a clean river, and the air is clean and fresh.”
Teiko stared at the priest in disbelief. How could he speak of fresh air when the stench was so overwhelming?
“So you perceive an unusual stench of decay,” the priest concluded. “What else?”
Teiko’s confusion grew. Again she tried to put everything in order in her mind. “When I stood up, it happened very quickly; my body felt almost light,” she began to recap hesitantly. “When I was startled by my reflection, I swept the wash bowl clear across the room, even though I barely touched it. And...” Her hands moved involuntarily to her chest. “Here it feels as if ice were lying on my heart.”
The priest nodded. “Show me your chest!” he commanded.
Teiko’s eyes widened in surprise. The order came so unexpectedly that she hesitated at first. It wasn’t that she felt shame—presenting herself naked during ritual cleansing was not unfamiliar to her as a former miko—but this was no ritual cleansing. At last she nodded and loosened the sash of her kosode. Slowly she let it slide off her shoulders and presented her bare chest to the priest.
Kazuki inspected Teiko’s upper body attentively. Finally he nodded, satisfied.
“You can cover yourself again. There is nothing to see.”
Without a word Teiko nodded and adjusted her clothing again.
“Now I should answer your questions,” Kazuki began. “After Taka Miyahara received the demoness’s power from you, he challenged the Korean bandit to combat. When the man refused to leave the hut, he sent several soldiers to drag him out. But the man was surprisingly strong and skillful. At the same time, further bandits under the leadership of the other demoness attacked our fortified camp. Because you did not reappear even when the loud fighting and shouting began, I searched Taka’s tent and found you unconscious. A brief examination led me to the conclusion that you were suffering from a demonic faintness, which often occurs after a successful expulsion of a powerful yokai. In order to bring you back to your senses with strengthening herbs and amulets, I carried you out of Taka’s tent and laid you in my wagon. However, the horses shied. I had to jump up, and the wagon left the camp without me being able to bring the horses under control.”
Kazuki paused briefly. He had not completely lied. The horses had shied, but they had not burst out through the gate on their own. In truth, it was his panicked fear of the overpowering Kumiho that had driven him to flee actively. And his foreboding had proved correct.
Teiko had listened attentively. Now she nodded slowly to show that she had understood and that the priest should continue. That his aura made horses shy was only too well known to her.
“Only much later did I manage to bring the wagon to a stop. A thunderstorm forced me to wait out the night before I could turn back. The next day I waited to see whether Taka might send us some samurai to assist—after all, we were in enemy territory. At last I managed to turn the wagon and drive back. But on the way I encountered a very badly wounded samurai. While I treated his wounds, he told me that the demoness and the bandits had killed Taka and all the soldiers, and that another demoness had appeared. He had barely managed to save himself by dragging himself out of the camp and seeking shelter in the forest when the thunderstorm broke and the fighting in the camp reached its height. According to his report, it was the demons alone who slaughtered the majority of our samurai. In addition, they kindled a firestorm that destroyed the entire camp and the hut. Since you still showed no sign of regaining consciousness, I had to assume you were dying, even though I could detect no injuries or symptoms of poisoning on you. Together with the samurai I set off and we drove back to the army as fast as possible. To our luck, not long afterward we encountered a detachment of samurai who were scouting the area. Since I could present special authority, I got them to place themselves under my command. When they heard our report, they split up: one group went to the battlefield to scout cautiously whether enemy forces still lingered there, while the other group escorted us as quickly as possible to our commander-in-chief, Daimyo Konishi Yukinaga.”
Kazuki paused again so Teiko could process what she had heard. When she nodded, he continued.
“Our main army has now left Seoul behind and is marching farther north, toward the Chinese border. We are here now in a small village on a river called the Imjin. After we rejoined the army, I informed our daimyo of the events without delay. My report was corroborated by the observations of our scouts, who reported that the hut in the forest, the fortified camp, and a large area of the surrounding forest no longer existed. Only scorch marks and devastation were to be found. Remains of bodies were also found, charred beyond recognition. Fragments of armor suggested that they were all our soldiers. Yukinaga wanted to hear your report as well as soon as you were able, but then something happened ... something unforeseen. A river dragon appeared!”
Kazuki had been sitting in the commander-in-chief’s tent when a messenger burst in, threw himself to his knees, and reported breathlessly: “Yukinaga-san, a river dragon has appeared on the bank, right by the camp!”
Yukinaga and his two guards sprang to their feet, their hands instinctively on the hilts of their katana. “Is it attacking us?” the daimyo shouted.
“No, my lord! It is crouched beside a tent on the bank. The tent where the wounded are being treated.”
Yukinaga’s gaze fell on Kazuki, who was still kneeling before the daimyo’s writing desk.
“You are coming with me!”
Inwardly terrified, Kazuki could only nod at the order. Kumihos and dragons—what other surprises would this dreadful land still offer? Somewhat awkwardly he rose and followed the commander-in-chief and his men.
Great excitement reigned by the river. A large detachment of soldiers had formed a wide semicircle around a small group of tents. With weapons drawn and arquebuses ready to fire, they waited, visibly nervous, for further orders. At the center of attention lurked the dragon.
Yukinaga and his companions stopped on the slope of the riverbank. From here the camp about five paces lower could be overlooked clearly. From the high-water mark to the actual river lay a sandy beach roughly one hundred and fifty paces wide, where the army had set up camp. The dragon was impossible to miss. That it was a dragon and not an unnaturally large snake was clear at first glance. Its head, large and broad as a rice barrel, resembled a lizard, but the maw was lined with long, dagger-like teeth. On the sides of its head were fins, like ears, as large as war fans. Its entire body was covered with palm-sized blue-green scales. How large the dragon was was hard to judge, since most of it was hidden in the river. But the head and forepart rose a good three men’s heights out of the water. If one were to compare it to a cobra rearing up in threat, the creature must have been at least twenty paces long—probably more. Almost motionless, the being regarded the scene.
Kazuki went pale when he saw the dragon. Compared to this being, the soldiers’ weapons looked like toys. And he seriously doubted that the balls of the arquebuses would have any effect, even if it were not a supernatural creature. Most likely they would simply bounce off the scales.
Yukinaga seemed to have come to the same conclusion, for he immediately ordered all soldiers to withdraw from the riverbank. No one was to attack the dragon.
As the messenger ran off, the daimyo studied the threatening apparition thoughtfully. The being seemed to be waiting for something or someone. When Yukinaga arrived, it was as if it were looking directly at the commander-in-chief.
“Ichimaru, what is that?”