Fallen Brides: Koyoi — More Than Halfway There

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Here's your weekly Fallen Brides update. It's a couple hundred words longer than last week's, but this is a long section, so it doesn't end on as good a breaking point.

This section finishes up Koyoi's flashbacks, and starts on what I'm sure all of you knew was coming.

It occurs to me that I should probably have mentioned this before, but Shinonome, Koyoi, and Tasogare mean "daybreak," "evening," and "twilight," respectively.

(Text after the cut.)

"Sister! Sister!"

Koyoi's attendants desperately struggled to restrain her from running to Shinonome.

Half a year had passed since Tasogare's disappearance. It was just before sunrise, and the first fingers of dawn colored the sky.

Someone had made an attempt on the life of Koyoi's elder sister, Shinonome. The culprit apparently commanded flames, and had attacked her in her sleep. Shinonome had noticed something was out of the ordinary before the attack, and managed to wake in time to evade it. But the would-be assassin's spell had been potent; although Shinonome had cast a defensive spell of her own, both her arms had been burned, and the force of the blast had smashed her into the wall of her room, knocking her unconscious. The people of the household had noticed the noise, and found her collapsed.

Shinonome's life was in no danger, but the burns she had sustained on both arms would leave scars.

"Who was it!? Who attacked my sister!?"

Koyoi vented her anger on her attendants, shouting in an uncharacteristically loud voice.

In the Amanomiya clan, it was usual for even those who trained in the same place to study different subjects. This was so that a master could gauge the quality of their disciples' mana, and teach each one what they were best suited to handle. The same held true even for candidates to become the next head of the clan.

Koyoi's training had focused on large-scale, highly destructive techniques specialized for offense. Shinonome, in contrast, had studied defensive spells and small-scale techniques that supposed a one-on-one confrontation. Koyoi herself was low in aggression, and rarely angry. Her personality and magical potential were at odds with each other.

This difference in techniques was a large part of what had split the Amanomiya clan in two. Those who had trained in the offensive arts assembled under Koyoi, and the users of defensive spells under Shinonome.

Therefore, someone capable of breaching — even partially — the defenses of a practitioner on the level of Shinonome, who had trained directly under the previous head, could only be found among Koyoi's party.

Koyoi surveyed the faces of her followers. Every one of them averted their eyes, hung their head, or otherwise failed to meet her gaze.

So that's how it is.

Seeing their attitudes, Koyoi understood. Only one of them had done it, but every one of them knew who it was. And they had deliberately refrained from stopping them, and from informing Koyoi. Koyoi accepted that the fault lay not with them, but with herself.

It's my responsibility. A chief must know what is in her followers' hearts. But I...

She was surprised to find her sister's attitude completely unchanged. She showed no worry or weakness to those around her. Koyoi pondered the contrast with her own angry shouting.

I lack the capacity to be head...

She had failed to control her followers, and injured her sister. She was not qualified to lead the clan. She could no longer face her sister, either. Shutting herself up in her room, asking and answering her own questions over and over again, Koyoi only sank deeper into the morass of her own thoughts.

A week after the incident, she fled the Amanomiya clan alone, without a word to anyone.

◊ ♦ ◊ ♦ ◊

Koyoi swung to the left, breaking the stare she had exchanged with Tasogare. Then, without a backward glance at her sister, she ran into the castle.

Why? Why? Why didn't I kill her!? Koyoi asked herself as she raced along the corridors. The sound of her footsteps was barely audible, absorbed by the thick, wine red carpet.

She did not delay her preparations to pursue Deruella. She withdrew a fresh talisman from her pouch, and chanted an incantation. The writing on it shone, then it left her hand and moved of its own accord, floating ahead of her. This talisman performed a similar function to a tracking dog. Instead of scent, it remembered, and pursued, the mana emitted by its target. Deruella's mana was distinctive; it would not mistake it.

Koyoi followed the talisman with her eyes. Her feet never stopped running, but the rest of her brain's capabilities were spent on self-questioning.

What am I doing!? Didn't I swear before taking this job that I would stake the pride of the monster slayers — of the Amanomiya — on this!?

As long as Koyoi had sworn to bear her clan's burden, she had to keep to their teachings. The teachings of the clan were the teachings of its head.

I have to either isolate or kill anyone taken by the monsters! Especially if they're my own kin.

If she had faced a stranger, it would not have been a problem. The mere fact of being watched by an Amanomiya would cause an ordinary monster to cease any conspicuous activity. Against a monster who had been a member of the clan, however, she had been firmly instructed to employ severe punishment.

If one of her kin became a monster, they were finished the instant they stood out. There was no greater shame than for a monster slayer to fall, and become a monster themselves. Tōtetsu had stressed that to Koyoi repeatedly.

But...

Koyoi could not bring herself to kill her younger sister. That final smile Tasogare had shown her was likely the main reason for that. Tasogare had looked truly happy in her sister's eyes. She had never looked like that when she was with the Amanomiya. Even her elder sisters, who must have been with her most, had never seen her look like that.

Was I jealous of Tasogare...? Jealous of her becoming a monster? Because she looked happy?

Her mind had been full of exclamation points, but now question marks began to supersede them.

Is becoming a monster such a good thing? Does it make you happy enough to make a face like that? Was that smile genuine?

The talisman halted. The glow of the writing slowly faded, and it fell, powerless, to the floor. It had fulfilled its purpose.

This is the enemy's stronghold.

A wooden door, almost the same size as the castle gate, stood before Koyoi. She gulped audibly. Even through the door, she felt practically crushed by the mana hanging in the air.

Enough. If I don't control my feelings...

She pressed a hand over her racing heart, and breathed to refine mana. The wasted mana that she had allowed to escape her body in her excitement was pushed back against the surface of her body, and absorbed through her skin.

Next, she put her hands on her belly. On the monster mana-suppressing charm. The talisman was radiating so much heat that she could feel the warmth through her clothes.

Alright, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. I'll be fine...

Struggling to convince herself, she put a hand on the door, and pushed.

The door swung inward with a grating sound, and a lightness that belied its size. Clinging, visible mana overflowed through the crack.

The first thing Koyoi felt was the overpowering tactile sensation of that mana. Mana was normally invisible to the naked eye. In Lescatié, however, common sense did not apply. Still, to Koyoi, who had spent her days facing mana as a monster slayer, mana with a color was not such a rare sight.

Koyoi's earliest memories were her days of training, with nothing in sight except the hut where she slept. Due the unimaginable months and years that generations of her ancestors had spent training day in and day out in that field, its ground was always blanketed in a white haze of mana.

Mana with a texture, however, was a novel experience.

She breathed deeply in a further effort to calm her feelings. With each breath, a sensation like vegetable gelatin made even softer ran down her windpipe. She grimaced.

The next thing she sensed was a sickly-sweet odor. A number of different sweet scents, like fruits boiled down into concentrates, came wafting to her. She remembered an orchard in the southern region of the continent, which she had come to when she had only just fled the Amanomiya, and did not yet know her way about.

After that, sound. It sounded like a chorus, rising ever higher and higher. After a few steps, Koyoi was able to make out the particulars. It was women's voices. Deep inside, in the same place that the smells emanated from, the voices of several women overlapped.

Koyoi advanced, one stepped at a time so as to make sure of the floor, talismans at the ready. As she closed the distance to the inner chamber, a black silhouette rose up in her vision, which had been a uniform field of violet.

She did not know what it was at first. It formed complicated angles, swaying forward and back, or possibly right and left. When she managed to discern color in what had seemed a mass of black, she finally realized what she was seeing.

It was several monsters and one human, naked and intertwined.

The human man was seated, stark naked, on the tall-backed, gold and jewel-encrusted throne, where once only the king had been permitted to sit. A number of monster girls were wrapped around him, freely exposing bodies so flawless that they might have escaped the world of a painting. One of them was straddling his hips, vigorously shaking her own up and down. Her face was turned skyward, her mouth gaped open, and her pants were practically shouts. Her hair was purple, and formed distinctive vertical rolls.

Her Highness...!

Koyoi recognized her. She was one of the members of the royal family who had been listed as targets for rescue and protection at the meeting the night before storming the city. Francisca Mistel Lescatié.

Another woman was kissing the man's lips. Sitting in the gap between him and the princess, she had her arms wrapped around his head, and was wholeheartedly sucking on his mouth. She had pink hair, and appeared far too young to have any sexual knowledge at all.

Two more monsters had their mouths close to his ears, one on each side. A gray haired, strong willed-looking monster with an eye patch was at his right ear. Her lower body was that of a snake, rather than a human, and was knotted tightly about the man's torso, the throne, and her own body. The other was a woman with long, blue-green hair. In stark contrast to the monster across from her, her features gave a gentle impression. Both of their faces were as rapt as could be as they stuck their tongues into the man's ears, sucking and clinging to them. From time to time they withdrew their tongues, whispered something, and narrowed their eyes in ecstasy.

There were four monsters beside the throne.

Two of them were girls even younger than the monster exchanging kisses with the man. They alternated between squabbling to lick the white fluid that spattered their bodies off each other, and twining their tongues together to gulp it down.

One was a girl with short, blue hair lying senseless on the floor. Little spasms ran through her whole body. Her feet were facing Koyoi, displaying her lightly-furred sex to Koyoi's view. A large volume of white goo burbled out from between its clean lines with each breath she took. Koyoi could not see her whole face, but she was able to note her lips, parted in a joyful grin.

The last was kneeling, and staring at Koyoi. She looked bored. Her arms and legs, like Tasogare's, ended in animal fur and claws. Her green hair was gathered on either side of her head. She was staring straight ahead with her chin resting on her right hand, which in turn rested on her raised right knee. While the other monsters were besotted with intercourse, she alone watched Koyoi with a clear head. The animal ears that sprouted from her head were twitching up and down.

This is bad!

The talisman Koyoi hurled shone, and in the same instant a sinister, black arrow flew from the bow that the monster had readied faster than the eye could follow. Koyoi focused the explosive magical energy that was her specialty into a single point, stopped the speeding shaft just in front of her. There was a roar like thunder, the monster's arrow went flying over Koyoi's right shoulder, and struck the floor with a dry clatter.

Koyoi speedily flexed her right elbow, and a talisman flew from her sleeve. She caught it between her fingers. Talismans were disposable, ceasing to burn after a single spell, so she had to keep fresh ones to hand at all times.

At the same time, the monster was materializing an arrow from her right palm and pulling her bowstring taut.

Silence flowed between the two. The previous exchange had taught both of them that they employed similar methods of attack. Once they fired one shot, they would need time to prepare another. Even if that only took an instant, it would create an opening.

Whoever makes the first move, loses, they both thought.

"That's quite enough of that."

A voice broke the tension. Its tone — cheerful, although it coiled stickily about the eardrums — sounded awfully out of place.

Koyoi's mental strain dissolved. Her body, in contrast, went rigid. The owner of the voice had embraced her tightly from behind.

"Lady Deruella..."

The monster lower her bow and arrows, and abandoned her attitude of vigilance.

"You mustn't do that sort of thing, Primera. I mean," Deruella, the cause of all of this, circled an arm around Koyoi's waste, and gently stroked Koyoi's chin with her right index finger, "we're going to make this girl one of your friends."

"I, I'd never— Ah!"

Koyoi's vigorous disagreement was cut short by an unexpected sensation. Before she knew it, her sash had been undone, and Deruella's hand had snaked its way down to her loins.

"Wha, what are you—"

Koyoi learned what the monster behind her was about to begin through her body before she could finish the question in words.

"Ooooh!"

She threw her head back and screamed. A scream not of pain, but of pleasure.

Deruella's fingers moved quickly, and as precisely as if they had eyes of their own. Koyoi's undergarments were a sort of time-honored Zipanguese loincloth called a fundoshi — an article Deruella had never so much as set eyes on before. And yet, through some exceptional sense for all things sexual, she removed it with the greatest of ease. Koyoi's underclothes fell to the floor with a light thud. Then, quick as lightning, Deruella's fingers approached her privates.

Koyoi had cried out because Deruella had flicked her clitoris.

"Haa, haa. What, what is...?"

The sensation was momentary, but it was sufficient to weaken Koyoi, who lacked any such experience. The strength went out of her body, and she ended up surrendering herself to Deruella in spite of herself.

"Hee hee. Didn't that feel lovely? You know, those girls are always doing things like this," Deruella whispered in Koyoi's ear, gently stroking the tip of Koyoi's chin with her index finger. "Always touching their precious places, like this."

Deruella squeezed Koyoi's clitoris between two fingers, and rubbed them together.

Koyoi panted, quivering all over.

What is this feeling...? My hips are tingling, and my mind's going blank...

She almost abandoned herself to the pleasure, but soon rallied with a shake of her head.

No! What am I thinking? The foe I must defeat is right behind me! This is a golden opportunity!

New strength flowed into her limp arms. She bent her elbow, and then shot her arms out to fire talismans.

"No more of that."

Before Koyoi knew what was happening, Deruella had released her body, and rested an index finger on each of her outstretched arms. Then, faster than the eye could follow, she drew patterns on them.

"Ah, aah..."

When Koyoi's arms had been marked with something like dark violet ink from the wrists up, they dangled limply in obedience to gravity.

"You don't have to do that sort of thing anymore."

Deruella rested a hand on Koyoi's head, and stroked it gently.

"I doubt you'll believe me... but I didn't come here because I wanted to fight you or the Order. I only..."

Deruella fell silent for a moment.

"Well, my methods might be excessive, but I just want to make friends with humans."

At some point, without Koyoi noticing, the cries of pleasure that resounded in the throne room had vanished. The monsters and the man were staring at Koyoi, some standing, some sitting. She could sense no animosity from them. Even the wolf monster Koyoi had exchanged blows with a moment before was watching her apologetically, her ears drooping.

"You expect me to believe that...?" Koyoi shouted. She had to wring the voice from her throat, and it came out sounding hoarse. Although she had made her rebuttal for the time being, even she knew that she was just putting up a bold front.

If she had arrived here without incident, she would never have believed Deruella's excuses. She had spent her life training to repulse monsters, and being taught that all monsters were the enemy. But she saw her monsterized sister's joyous smile. Overlaying her body with that of the man she loved best in the world, Tasogare had felt the greatest possible happiness.

"I mean, it might be, but..."

Anyone who heard her could tell that the force behind her words was lessening.

"You see, I believe that if humans all become monsters, there will be no more fighting."

Deruella hugged Koyoi with both arms, slipping her right hand into Koyoi's kimono.

"Although of course, the Order and their hired soldiers, like you, are still resisting..."

Deruella's soft chest pressed against Koyoi's back.

"But they're just afraid to change. You've felt that way before, haven't you?"

Koyoi thought back. Due to Tōtetsu's death, the eyes of the people around her had changed. When she had fled the Amanomiya, and when she had arrived on the continent, her environment had changed. Because she had knocked on the door of the adventurers' guild, and gotten to know Doon and his comrades, her relationships with people had changed. Many times, Koyoi had been frightened to placed herself in a different environment.

"But once you did make the change, it was less painful than you thought — in fact, it was fun — right?"

She had left home, and seen the ocean for the first time. She had boarded a ship, drunk grape wine for the first time, and had a rough time of it. On the continent, everything from the air to the food had been different. When she had helped people in trouble, the townspeople had thanked her from the bottom of their hearts. The numerous adventures she had gone on with Doon.

"Becoming a monster is like that. It feels good, and it's fun, and, most importantly, every day is happiness. Come on, wouldn't you like to give it a try?"

"Aah... Ooh..."

Koyoi was troubled for an answer. What should she do? Should she change? She still had doubts.

Deruella stretched a hand to Koyoi's belly, and stroked her bare skin. When she encountered the talisman affixed to it, she smoothly ran her index finger along it.

"You know, ordinarily, you would have started becoming a monster the moment you entered the castle?"

Her finger lifted the edge of the talisman. She peeled the adhesive paper from the skin, and just a little of the talisman peeled loose.

"You can stay human right now thanks to this talisman. If I peel this off, you can become a monster right away."

"Right away...?"

Koyoi just absentmindedly repeated Deruella's words.

"Yes, right away. There's nothing to be afraid of. All you need to do is relax, and leave everything to me."

The mana Deruella naturally emitted was steadily reducing Koyoi's ability to think. She no longer had the rational ability to interrupt her words, or to resist. Her sister's smiling face, still lodged in her mind, returned even more vivid than before. And with it, Deruella's assertion that conflict would cease.

If there was no more fighting, Shinonome, and Tasogare, and I could all get along. No one in our family would hurt each other anymore.

Deruella's right hand gently took charge of Koyoi's limp arm.

I've had enough of fighting and hurting. Even with monsters.

"I will."

Her lips moved faintly.

"I'll become a monster. I'm tired of fighting..."

"It's alright. It's alright now. You don't have to wear yourself out fighting anymore."