Chapter 33

Aside from a few disapproving looks from other travelers for riding with a neko, Kal guessed they assumed Kashka was a prostitute, the next couple of days were uneventful.

On the afternoon of the third day, three Azum men approached from behind.

“Ho there, outsider!” one called as they kicked their horses into a trot. “We would like to buy some time with your neko there.”

“She’s a free woman and not for sale,” Kal replied as the men rode up on either side of them. He touched Kashka’s shoulder as he felt her mind go perfectly still. “She’s also a highly skilled assassin,” he continued, pulling a side of her cloak back to reveal one of her daggers.

“Are you threatening us? I am the son of Lord—”

“I don’t care,” said Kal. “I’m an outsider. You said so yourself. I neither know nor care who your father is. But if you rode up to a stranger and asked to fuck his woman, I can’t imagine he was a very good father.”

The speaker’s face twisted in anger, but another of the men burst into laughter.

“He’s got us there, Nao. Father is a piece of shit, and the sooner he dies, the better. Forgive my youngest brother, stranger. He seems to think the world revolves around him.”

“You only say that because you’re the eldest, Ichiro,” Nao snapped.

“You three are brothers?” Kal asked.

Ichiro nodded. “I am Ichiro, the eldest. This is Asahi, and you’ve met Nao, whose name means ‘honest one’ but, in typical youngest child fashion, has proven to be everything but. We are the sons of Lord Junichiro of Soma, a bastard of a man, but also the man who brought our family up from the dregs to be the second most powerful family in the city. We are traveling to the festival of Ikuno, are you as well?”

“My name is Kal, and this is Kashka. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Kal looked at Nao, “That doesn’t include you. We are going to the festival, though it wasn’t our reason for going there. I have business in the village and only heard about the festival a few days ago. Could you tell me a little about it?”

Ichiro looked over at his second brother. “Asahi? You know more about the lore of this area than Nao or I.”

Kal held up a hand. “Wait a moment. Ria, I think you may want to hear this.”

Asahi watched with interest as the sprite flew up to Kal’s shoulder. His expression became distant as he gathered his thoughts before speaking. “For thousands of years, Ikuno was merely a minor spirit travelers prayed to for safe roads and good weather along their journey. People built a small shrine to her on the side of the road that the local village took care of.

“About a thousand years ago, the monster girls appeared, and Ikuno’s spirit absorbed enough of their magic to become flesh and blood. But she also took on some of their lust, which turned her into a spirit of love as well as travel. When not wandering, she would bestow blessings of love and fertility upon young couples. Many women unable to conceive had children after speaking to Ikuno, but as a spirit of travel, she was rarely at her shrine.”

Kashka looked up at the mage. “Kal?”

“That hits a little close to home.” Seeing the brother’s curious looks, he said, “My mother was one of those who couldn’t conceive and went to Ikuno for help. She’s the reason I was born.”

“Ah, so this business you have is repaying her?” asked Ichiro.

“That’s part of it, but there’s much more to the story than just giving my mother a child. I’d like to hear more of the area’s history,” he said, looking hopefully at Asahi.

“For many centuries,” the brother continued, “things went on this way with Ikuno appearing every so often, bestowing her blessings upon those she met before moving on for sometimes decades and even centuries at a time. The last time she appeared was around two hundred years ago, during a troubled time in Azum’s history. The emperor had fallen to an assassin’s dagger, and there was much infighting among the nobles over the vacant throne. This left much of Azumbaho in chaos, and the lords were so preoccupied with seizing power they let bandits and cutthroats run rampant on Azum’s roads. Ikuno appeared and began clearing the roads around her shrine and the village of bandits. So vicious were her battles with the marauders that people started calling her a spirit of war, but she rejected such a title.

“For five years until the new emperor was chosen and the fighting finally died down, the area around her shrine was one of the safest in Azumbaho. When the lords turned their attention back to clearing the bandits from the roads, Ikuno decided it was time to leave. The village offered her what gold and food they could as thanks for protecting them. She refused, instead asking for three young men and one young woman to join her for the night. As she and the villagers made their way to a local hot spring, she also invited a monster girl they met on the way.

“Though there aren’t any details, it was rumored to be a night of debauchery and sex as the men and women pleasured Ikuno until exhaustion took them. When they awoke in the morning, Ikuno was gone, but her legacy remained. Both women conceived that night, a boy for the human and, of course, a girl for the monster girl, but she left the village before giving birth. The children were considered blessed, and in the village’s council chambers, two seats of honor are reserved for the descendants of those children. Over two centuries, most of the town could claim to be the human woman’s descendant, but no monster girl has ever claimed the other chair.

“In Ikuno’s honor, the village built the roadside shrine into something worthy of their savior and has maintained it since. About a year and a half ago, several villagers came forward saying that Ikuno had returned to her shrine in spirit form. The news went out that they would be holding a tournament to be one of the three men, one woman, and one monster girl to greet Ikuno as she becomes flesh and blood once more.”

“The sacrifices?” Kal asked

Asahi nodded. “Ikuno is said to be a giant of a woman, worthy of being called an oni. Tales say it takes time for her to become so large, but men’s essence helps her grow faster.”

“And the tournament?”

“The tournament is in honor of her battles to keep the village safe and will be a series of duels. For men, there are three different classes. The first is unarmed combat, the next will be armed, but only training weapons are allowed, and the last class is called enhanced, where magic and even magic weapons are allowed. Killing your opponent is an immediate disqualification.”

“What about the women and monster girls?” asked Ria.

“Since there is only one tournament for the human women, it is training weapons only, though I imagine they would need to accommodate any unarmed fighters somehow. The messenger didn’t mention anything about the monster girl’s duels outside their existence.”

“Figures,” muttered Kashka.

“You don’t need to compete if you want to sleep with the winners,” said Nao. “We three are right here.”

“I don’t plan on competing, but if Kal decides to, all my bets are on him.”

“Fancy yourself a fighter, do you?” Nao sneered at Kal.

“I think I’m fairly good with a staff and know enough magic to make things interesting,” the mage replied.

“That means you and I may end up matched against one another. Assuming you make it that far.”

“You seem confident in your victory.”

“Nao is nearly as good as Asahi with a blade,” said Ichiro, “and has plenty of magic tricks to help him win. While I am well trained in all types of combat, I am especially good at hand-to-hand and will be in the unarmed tournament. Asahi will be testing his skills with the training weapons.”

“You come from a powerful family and seem to be well off. Why are you doing this?” Kal asked.

Ichiro shrugged. “For fun, mostly. It gives us a chance to match our skills against some of the best in the land but also will bring our house honor by helping an oni come into her power.”

“And we get to fuck an oni and two sluts all night long,” said Nao.

“You won’t,” said Ria. “She might let your brothers, but when Ikuno gets a whiff of your shitty attitude, your dick won’t come near her.”

“Ria, leave them be and be careful what you say. I doubt Ikuno will be interested in taking three strange men into her bed,” said Kal.

“Oh, right,” said the sprite, her cheeks fading in her version of a blush.

“Care to explain what that was all about?” asked Ichiro, glancing between Kal and the sprite.

The mage shook his head. “No, aside from telling you not to get your hopes up about spending the night with Ikuno, even if you win your respective tournaments.”

“Female company has never been an issue for the three of us. But you can’t say something like that without giving a reason.”

“I can and will. You’ll see why at the end of the tournament. Much as I would enjoy talking with you and your brother more. To put it mildly, your youngest sibling’s presence is ... distasteful.”

“I understand, and often feel the same way about my brother. But he is still family, and as annoying as he is, I still love him. We’ll leave you in peace,” said Ichiro, then kicked his horse into a trot. His brothers followed suit, leaving Kal and Kashka behind, but not without a final glare from Nao.

“It’s curious how they don’t see Ikuno as a monster girl even though they know she was created by the same magic,” said Kal as he slowed Shiro and let the men get further ahead.

“The Azum people have a capricious view of monster girls,” said Ria. “But Ikuno was a spirit in the area long before becoming an oni, it sounds like. They probably see her physical body as an addition, like a house with a room built on it. It’s still the same but with something new tacked on.”

“Sounds reasonable, but I suppose we won’t know for sure until we get there.”

“Kal, can we make camp early tonight?” asked Kashka.

“Sure, why?”

“Because I don’t want to run into them again,” she said, tilting her head towards the brothers growing smaller on the distant road ahead.

“Did Nao bother you that much?”

“No. But he seems like the type to try something when you aren’t looking, and the other two shouldn’t have to bury their brother. Also, since you currently have a ship docked in Soma, if they are from one of the city’s powerful noble families, we shouldn’t make them enemies.”

“I think Nao is a lost cause. He thinks everyone else should drop everything and give him what he wants.” Kal shook his head, chuckling. “It’s still hard to wrap my head around The Dauntless and the other ships belonging to me. But you’re right. I do need to play nice with the locals.”

They didn’t see the brothers again until they arrived at Ikuno’s hometown.

The village of Sayaka wasn’t large by any means, but the festival and tournament ballooned its population well beyond its borders, making it look more like an army camp than a rural village. Tents were nearly staked one on top of the other in the surrounding fields, and ranged from two-person pup tents up to large pavilions. Everywhere he looked, men, and a few women, sparred with wooden training weapons or padded fists. Fairly often, another tournament-goer sat nearby with bandages around their head or hands, cheering on the matches. Azum priests walked among the tents tending to injuries for a few coppers.

“It looks like the organizers want everyone in fighting shape,” said Kal as they watched a man near the road pay a priest and remove the wrapping on his forearm.

Kashka nodded in agreement. “Dioga and the others should have come. Those three don’t seem interested in money, but they could make some good coin here.”

Once past the gauntlet of tents, they entered the town proper.

Or at least they tried to.

Sayaka was packed with people there for the tournament and festival, from competitors to people just there to make merry and enjoy themselves. In his time in Carriston, Lantaris, Fazal, Calfera, and even Kuji, he had never seen such a mass of people gathered in one place. Suppliers with carts full of food and drink shouted at the milling crowd to make way so they could deliver their goods. Hawkers set up on the sides of the village’s main road yelled over the din, trying to sell their wares.

Kal angled Shiro toward a stable on the edge of the village and joined a line of people with the same destination.

“Kal!”

The mage looked around for a moment before noticing Ichiro waving at him. The brothers were on foot and appeared to have just left the stable.

“Good to see you decided to compete,” he said as they approached.

“I haven’t decided. I’m just looking for somewhere to stable Shiro here,” he said as Kashka patted the horse on the neck.

“Then you will need to go to a farm on the north side of town. They’ve turned it into a large stableyard.”

“Make sure you have a full coinpurse,” said Asahi. “Their prices are outrageous.”

Ichiro nodded. “there are a lot of horses up there. Make sure yours is marked, or you may never find it again. They’ve cleaned out the stables up ahead to use as registration booths for those competing in the tournament,” he said, pointing at the purple, blue, and teal armbands each brother wore.

“It still smells like horse piss in there,” Nao grumbled.

“A decades-old stable smells like horse? How shocking,” Kashka deadpanned, rolling her eyes. “Next, he’ll be complaining a restaurant smells like food.”

Nao raised an eyebrow at the cat and grunted as his brothers chuckled at his expense.

“She has a point, Nao. What were you expecting?” Asahi asked, but the youngest brother waved off his question and didn’t answer.

“If you change your mind and decide to enter, you will need to register on the north side of town,” Ichiro said to Kashka. “That’s where they are handling the women and monster girls.”

“Why do they need their own place?” Kal asked

Asahi tentatively raised his hand for Kal’s attention. “They are letting women fighters choose proxies. Women who will greet Ikuno in their stead if they win.”

“But not for the men?”

Asahi shook his head. “That was my first question. The planners quickly realized that powerful men may force their servants to compete and then take the honor of greeting Ikuno for themselves.”

“Now it’s ‘greeters,’ not ‘sacrifices’?”

“The original men and women that spent the night with Ikuno called themselves sacrifices, but that was more of a joke. The messengers sent to our family and across Azumbaho also used the word ‘sacrifice’ though they explained it was a sacrifice of our essence and time, not our lives. I guess the people here felt ‘sacrifice’ was too strong of a word and now call them ‘greeters,’ which feels more appropriate in my opinion.”

“When does the tournament start?” Kal asked.

“Tomorrow, I believe, but it might be the day after,” Ichiro replied. “The villagers know Ikuno is coming and that she is coming soon, but won’t know the exact moment until just before it happens. But the tournaments will be held over four days. The first day is multi-man melees. The last three standing in each fight will move on to the one-on-one duels. You and Nao will be going to a large area they roped off at the top of a hill in the northern part of town and will start by dueling instead of the melees since so few of the fighters use magic.

“The festival starts when the tournament ends. Once Ikuno returns, there will be a final day of festivities and celebration.”

“And they told you all this in there?” the mage asked, pointing at the stables. The brothers nodded. “No wonder the line is hardly moving. What do you think, Kashka? Should I sign up?”

Instead of looking back at Kal, she flashed a malicious grin at Nao. “Yes.”

When Kal told the clerk registering him that someone had already informed him of the tournament details, the mage worried the man might collapse from relief. The entrance fee of a few silvers was explained as payment for referees and staff and the effort to get the town back in order once the tournament and festival concluded. The man handed Kal his teal armband, marking him as a contestant, and directed them to a path that ran back the way they came and around the packed village to the makeshift stableyard to the north.

On the makeshift road bypassing the town, they encountered a clutch of women with painted faces milling about. The gaggle took one look at Kashka and steadfastly ignored her and Kal’s existence.

A little further up the road, they heard a burst of excited voices behind them. Kal turned to see the women approaching a lone man wearing a blue armband. The mage recognized him as one of the people in line with him at the stable. Unfortunately, they were just outside the range of his translation spell.

“They’re prostitutes,” said Kashka, her ears flipped backward to listen. “They’re trying to convince him to spend his coin on them instead of going to the monster girls’ tents.” She felt his question across the bond. “Ratt was teaching me the Azum language since The Scarlet Bitch has so many dealings here. I didn’t learn much, but I think I understood what they were saying.”

“Sneaky rodent. Well, maybe not so sneaky. She did tell me to my face she would try to steal you from me. It sounds like Ratt planned on you sailing together for quite some time.”

Kal felt Kashka’s sadness over the bond from thinking about Ratt and stayed quiet the rest of the way to the northern road.

The hill Ichiro spoke of for the magic duels was uncomfortably close to the field set aside for monster girl’s tents, not that there were many. Thinking back to his fight with Elta and the column of fire the cleric summoned over his head, it felt far too close. He was more saddened than angry the tournament organizers cared so little for the monster girls’ safety.

“Planning on adding to your harem?” Kashka asked as Kal turned Shiro into the monster girl’s camp.

“No, I’m just going to make a statement. Probably an unpopular one.”

Like the human camp coming into town, several women were sparring, but no clerics were moved among the bandaged and bruised, taking care of their wounds.

“We really should have brought Dioga,” Kal muttered.

“You could go get her tonight. Fly back after nightfall and bring her back. I’ll stay here.”

“Interesting idea, but I’d need to carry her back somehow.”

“No, you just need to carry her core. She can put the rest in flasks and store them like Cyrene’s lubricant. When you return, she should be able to absorb her lost mass into her body. That’s assuming I understand how slimes work.”

Kal thought for a moment. “I don’t ... I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. Ria can’t store living beings because it will wipe their minds. But if everything but the core gets stored ... I think that might work. And if I push myself, I should be able to get back to them in just a few hours.” Kal looked around at the monster girls staring at them as they passed. “Too bad Ruce isn’t here. She could get me there in a handful of minutes. Let me think about it while we get settled in.”

Stares, whistles, and numerous offers of pleasure followed Kal and Kashka as he directed Shiro toward the middle of the sparse camp. Seeing a suitable space, he and the cat dismounted to more than a few questioning looks.

“Ria, tent please.”

Kal threw the canvas square on the ground and then said the command to begin setting it up, followed by the word to turn it into its largest form. The magical construction of a large pavilion tent caught the attention of most of the camp and a large number of monster girls ranging from lizard girls and insectoid women to harpies and tanukis.

Turning to the crowd, he raised his voice. “The doctor is in! If you have bumps or bruises from training, come into my tent, and I will take care of them. If your pussies, asses, or stomachs need filling with human seed, I will NOT take care of those. Understood? Also, if anyone knows some extremely fast harpies, I may need their help for a nighttime flight to pick up an assistant.”

“I know a hayabusa,” said a lizard girl with unusually wide fingers sporting lateral groves. As she stepped forward, Kal noticed her feet were the same shape as her hand, and the tips of the toes curled backward with each step in a way that made his own feet hurt. She wore a bandage on her left arm and the left side of her face.

“What is a hayabusa?”

“A very fast harpy, like you asked. She’s been carrying messages between our families and us. I’ve never seen anything faster in the sky.”

“I have a friend back home I’d like to test that against,” he said with a smile before unsealing the tent. “Come inside. Let’s get you fixed up.”

Kal about fell off the chair he sat in as he tended to the monster girls when a near copy of Ruce walked into the tent.

“I heard you were looking for me?” said the harpy.

Kal gently removed the hand of the raccoon woman he was healing from his groin before answering. This was the fifth time he had stopped her from groping his balls through his trousers since she came in for treatment. “You are?”

“Hattori. They said you were looking for a fast harpy,” she said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “Nothing in the sky is faster than a hayabusa.”

“What about a peregrine?”

“We are called that in other parts of the world.”

“That explains much. I need you to take me back toward Soma after nightfall.”

Hattori shook her head. “You would be dead within minutes.”

“I’ve flown with your kind before and have magics to protect myself. Even if I didn’t, you could hold me facing backwards. That’s what my friend did when I flew with her,” said Kal, removing the raccoon’s hand from his trousers again. He glared at the woman on the stool in front of him. “Keep that up, and the next time you get knocked in the head sparring, you can just drop out of the tournament.” He said, tapping the stained white linen band on her arm.

“Okay,” the woman muttered as her mischievious grin vanished and she clasped her hands in her lap.

“What is so important you need me to get you there and back tonight?”

“Honestly, I don’t need you, but you can make what is for me an hours-long trip in only a few minutes, and I do want to get some sleep tonight. As to why? There are no clerics healing those injured during practice like over in the human tents. We will bring back someone to do the same for the girls here.”

“Why can’t you do it?” Hattori asked before glancing at Kal’s teal armband. “Oh.”

“Right. I can’t heal the women here if I’m fighting, and healing uses up mana I might need during my duels.”

“Fine, I’ll help you, but I want you to fuck me as payment.”

“Expected. You are welcome to join my lover and me in bed until Ikuno returns.”

Hattori looked surprised for a moment, then grinned. “I get you for four nights instead of only once? Why didn’t you say so in the beginning? So, when do we leave?”

“At nightfall.”

Hattori owned a small mana crystal she used to enhance her flight speed, but like his flight with Ruce, Kal fed his mana into her so she could maintain their insane speed for the entire trip.

The mage’s wind-shield nearly met its match when put up against the falcon’s speed. Kal watched the barrier ripple from the intense force of the oncoming wind, but the shield held throughout the surprisingly short trip.

Ming made finding the women easy once they arrived. He planned the journey at night to keep prying eyes from seeing him fly, not that it mattered anymore since Hattori was doing the flying, not him. Upon noticing a small spot of glowing forest, he realized that finding the girls in the daytime would have been far more difficult.

Hattori set him down beside the road and Kal jogged into the forest, his eyes glowing red from a hastily cast darkvision spell.

“Ming! Dioga! Zakku! I need your help!” he called.

“Kal?” said Ming, glowing brighter and rising into the air.

The mage slowed to a walk as he came upon their little camp. Zakku had turned into a wooden washbasin again, which Dioga lounged inside. The mimic’s human head and torso rose out of Dioga’s slime and took up a similar posture, leaning against the side with her breasts resting on the rim.

“What do you need our help for?”

“Specifically, I need Dioga’s help. The tournament you told us about is taking care of their human contestants but ignoring the monster girls getting hurt during training. I’m doing what I can, but I’m also a contestant and need to save my mana for my fights. Will you come with me and help?”

“What about Zakku and Ming?” the slime asked.

“It may take a little while, but they can join us when they get there or wait here until the tournament is done, and I bring you back.”

“Wait, how did you get here?” asked Ming.

“I flew with the help of a very fast harpy.”

“Then how am I supposed to come back with you?” the slime asked.

“Kashka thought I could store most of your slime in Ria, then carry your core. Once we get there, Ria will give your slime back.”

“Will that work?” Dioga looked dubious.

“Another slime I know can create full copies of herself that last for three days away from her main body. If what I know of slimes is correct, then it should work.”

Dioga thought about it for a few minutes before sighing. “Remember your goodbye?” she said, “I want lots of those in return.”

Kal smiled. “You’ll be competing for time with Kashka and Hattori, the harpy who brought me, and only until Ikuno comes back. I expect to be very busy afterward.”

His smile faded as Zakku made a motion with her fingers telling him to turn around.

Kal crossed his arms, “Nope, tell me to.”

The mimic glared for a moment before saying, “Turrn arouund.”

“Already quite the improvement,” he said, turning his back to the women.

A few seconds passed before the scraping and slithering of the mimic’s transformation stopped. When Kal turned back, the tub had been replaced by a small barrel attached to a wooden frame with padded hooks at the top to go over shoulders and some straps to keep it in place.

“It looks like Zakku wants to come too,” said Dioga.

“What about me?” asked Ming.

“I ... have an idea,” said the mage as he picked up Zakku and hooked the mimic on his back. Leather straps snaked around his waist, securing her in place. “Come along. Hattori is out by the road.”

Hattori looked on skeptically as Ria produced a flask, Kal removed the stopper, the slime poured part of herself into the container, then Kal re-stoppered the flask before Ria swapped it with a new one. The slime-girl became increasingly translucent with each bottle until she would have been invisible if not for Ming’s light. After filling a final small potion bottle, Dioga flowed the remainder of her body and her core into Zakku’s barrel. The mimic formed a lid with a small hole for the slime to poke out of if needed.

“Interesting backpack,” said Hattori.

“She’s a mimic,” he explained.

“Even more interesting. But what about your luminous friend?” said the harpy, nodding at Ming.

“Our luminous friend weighs almost nothing. If Zakku can produce a couple more straps, she can ride along too.” On cue, two straps fell from behind the pack’s barrel.

The tsukogami cringed. “That’s going to put my face in your butt.”

“Zakku needs to keep Dioga balanced on my back, so she can’t make room to the side for you.” this is the best way, and it’s only for a few minutes.”

“Fine, but we’ll do it my way,” Ming floated upside down and approached Kal’s back. Spreading her legs around the barrel, she brought them together against Kal’s back. Zakku adjusted Dioga’s container so it stood out from the frame and allowed the tsukogami’s legs beneath, then sent out the leather straps again to secure Ming in place.

The position left Ming facing the back of Kal’s knees, and her bottom and sex exposed to nature as her robe fell over her lantern. A few seconds later, the tsukogami squealed and shouted, “Zakku! Stop that!” but trailed off into a half-moan.

“Yes, stop,” said Hattori. “If I’m not getting any during this flight, neither are you.”

A slimy tendril rose from the barrel’s lid and formed into a mouth. “I could take care of that for you,” Dioga giggled.

“No, Dioga,” said Kal before the harpy could speak up. “Not at the speeds we’ll be going. Get an eyeful, as this will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but other than that, stay still. I think we are ready,” he told the harpy.

Other people might have found their head hanging between someone else’s knees uncomfortable. But for a monster girl like Ming, who could float in any position she wanted, it was more annoying to have her ass on display to the whole world.

Her feet rested on the back of Kal’s head, and the harpy’s talons brushed her calves as Hattori grabbed the mage’s shoulders and lifted them above the treetops. As they gained speed, it took Ming’s breath away to watch the moonlit forest pass beneath them. She had never imagined going so fast.