Kanu Unchou stared past the steel bars into the gloom behind them. She would have been able to sense the presence there even had she not been able to see it, so strong was the aura that filled the small room.
But it was not the presence within the aura that Kanu Unchou was here to visit; it was the frail host that the presence inhabited. Kanu Unchou looked hard for a glimpse of her friend behind the dragon’s eyes.
“Gen…toku,” she whispered, one hand reaching out towards the bars of the cell. “Are you in there, somewhere?”
The only reply she received was a low growl, and a soft shifting noise. Gentoku’s body was visible now, as she moved across the floor towards the light. When she looked up, it was all Kanu Unchou could do to not flinch from the raw power that slammed into her with the force of a physical blow.
To prevent this, this very thing, was why she and Chouei Ekitoku had spent their lives training. Ryuubi Gentoku, the gentle, clumsy, kind-hearted leader of Seito Academy, had a dragon living inside her. A dragon that Kanu Unchou had hoped to never see revealed.
“Gentoku.” The low growl in response again to the name. “It’s me. ‘Kan-san.'” Kanu used the name her friend had called her for many years, hoping that the familiar words might break through the spirit’s possession.
Gentoku moved closer, crawling on all fours like a beast. No, like the beast she now was. Kanu Unchou crouched down to look into Gentoku’s eyes. What she saw made her stand, quickly, and reach for the key to the cell.
Soundlessly, Kanu Unchou unlocked the lock that held the bars shut, slipped in through the door and closed it quietly behind her. She stood above Gentoku, gazing down at the dragon her beloved friend had become.
Gentoku reached an arm up, wrapping it around one of Kanu’s legs. Kanu was suddenly very aware of Gentoku’s nudity, of the proximity of her body, of the soft feel of her skin against her own leg. She could feel herself becoming warm, as Gentoku’s cool, smooth skin slid up her leg, from behind the knee, along her inner thigh.
Putting a hand out to move Gentoku back, Kanu Unchou was met with soft hair, into which her fingers entwined themselves, as she forgot her resolve force the other woman away.
When Gentoku’s lips pressed against the thin cloth between her legs, it was everything she could do to remain upright. Instead of pushing her friend away, Kanu Unchou steadied herself against Gentoku, relying on her sudden solidity.
With Gentoku’s tongue moving against her, Kanu refused to think about the dragon that inhabited her childhood friend’s body, unable to stop herself from being embraced by the beast. Her legs shaking, she could not have stopped Gentoku’s hand from pulling her underwear aside and entering her if she had wanted to.
And she did not want to.
It was Gentoku’s hand inside her, and Gentoku’s mouth against her, she thought. Gentoku, her dearest friend, her beloved leader, the person she most admired…and desired. Kanu Unchou bit her lip as she climaxed, unwilling to make any sound that might bring anyone to this place.
Gentoku moved away from her, and she fell to her knees onto the cold floor. The dragon’s eyes looked at her with a deep hunger. A hunger that she also felt, a hunger that could only be sated one way. Kanu Unchou reached out to take Gentoku into her arms, crushing their lips together, tongues flicking back and forth, her own hands stroking the other’s woman’s breasts, until she thought she would die if she could not suck on them.
She had, of course, seen Gentoku’s breasts many times. And for so many of those times, she had badly wanted to do this. Kanu Unchou’s mouth moved across Gentoku’s nipples, not waiting for the sounds to let her know what the beast felt.
This was not Gentoku, she reminded herself, as she pulled on already distended nipples. This was not Gentoku, she told herself, as she reached down between the other woman’s legs, to feel the warm wetness. This was not…but she forgot the rest of the warning as they lay against one another, each reaching out to the other’s center with their mouths and fingers. And when she and the thing that was not Ryuubi Gentoku each cried out as they came, it did not stop her from calling out that beloved name.
***
When Kanu Unchou returned, late in the morning to the cell, she found Chouei there, standing with an armful of Gentoku’s clothes. Gentoku herself now lay curled up on the floor, sleeping peacefully, her naked body covered with a blanket.
Chouei Ekitoku offered an answer before the question could be spoken. “When I came down earlier with breakfast for her, she was laying there…” Chouei’s face reddened with embarrassment. “It was pretty, um…suggestive.”
Kanu Unchou turned slightly, hoping to hide the color in her own cheeks in shadow. When she had left last night, she had though that Gentoku looked a little provocative. It hadn’t occurred to her that Gentoku would not change position as she slept.
The subject of their conversation shifted, the rise and fall of her chest more pronounced now. Kanu Unchou felt herself heating up again, but she stomped it down remorsefully. “Is she still the dragon?”
“I don’t think so…,” Chouei’s comment was interrupted by the cell’s inhabitant herself, who suddenly sat up, rubbing her eyes, the blanket falling to her waist.
“I’m hungry,” Ryuubi Gentoku said, her large eyes looking up at them guilelessly. “Chou-san, Kan-san, what are you…” she stopped and looked around, noticing at last her lack of clothing. Clutching the blanket to her, she asked them tearfully, “What am I doing here?”
Neither could find a simple answer to that. That she’d become possessed by the dragon within her, and killed and injured dozens of her own schoolmates, was not something they were willing to tell her. Not yet.
“Come on,” Chouei said gently. “Here’s some clothes. Get dressed and we’ll go get some food.” The two women turned delicately away as the third dressed. When she was ready, Gentoku made her way towards them, just outside the wall of bars. Kanu Unchou could feel Gentoku’s hand upon her back, then her head being laid against her.
“W…what’s that for?” she asked, trying to keep herself from spinning around and crushing Gentoku to her.
Gentoku laughed self-deprecatingly. “I’m not sure,” she said, “I just feel like I should thank you somehow. You’re always there for me, Kan-san, aren’t you? No matter what happens?”
Kanu Unchou closed her eyes and nodded. “Always.”
“Come on,” Chouei’s weary voice broke the spell. “Let’s go get some breakfast.”
Ikkitousen © Shiozaki Yuji, J.C. Staff, Wani Books, Ikkitousen Partners, Genco, Mediafactory and ATX
Original characters and situations, E. Friedman