Chapter Text
When the princess of the Nanase family was a girl, she went missing for a day.
It was early summer, and she had been easily seduced by the promise of sweet smelling plants and chirping birds, of gentle streams, of the comforting shadows cast by ancient trees. So she had slipped out from under her nursemaid’s ever careful eyes, dropping her calligraphy in a fit of motion and hauling up her cumbersome skirts. She ran, her feet thumping against the wooden floors, breaking into exhilarated laughter as she went.
In the forest outside of her home, there was beauty as far as her eyes could see: maple and cherry trees, bamboo, wildflowers too numerous to count. She dug her fingers into the earth until they were black and dirty. She ate berries and rolled into the greenery.
But when evening came, she realized she couldn’t find her way back home. She was hungry and frightened, and the once comforting shadows became oppressive instead. As her eyes filled with tears and her voice broke into a high, soft whimper, she saw a fuzzy light in the distance. She followed it, a sensation of pressure growing in her small chest until she felt she might burst.
At last, she came to stop at the base of the largest tree she’d ever seen. Creatures of all kinds had gathered around it: frogs, centipedes, fat snoozing squirrels. The light she’d seen from so far away were fireflies, congregated in numbers she’d never dreamed of. There was a nook in between the twisting roots just big enough for her to fit in, the bark padded by soft moss. She crawled into it, settling until her breathing evened out and her eyelids grew heavy. Above her, the wind rustled the leaves and clacked the branches, a lullaby for the little lost princess.
There, she slept safe and unbothered, and when morning came she realized that home was within a stone’s throw. She walked out from the edge of the forest and returned unharmed—but not unchanged.
Her mother wept and gathered her into her arms, her father laughed in relief, and her nursemaid yelled at her until her voice gave out. They wanted to dismiss the whole experience as nothing more than a child’s reckless disobedience. But the princess never forgot how those woods had protected her, how they had been full to bursting with beauty and life. Spiritual to her core and all at once imbued with a sense for magic, she knew quite well that the forest wanted her to return.
Izayoi didn’t appreciate summer as much as she had when she was young. Young girls didn’t have the same sense of propriety that women did; they didn’t mind sweat soaked hairlines, or peeling off layers of clothing to cool down. A child could go outside, put her feet into the cool dirt of the back garden and not worry about the mess she might make on the tatami. She missed her childhood the most in summertime.
Now, she was made to stay inside and practice the koto. She was forced to suffer under too many layers of colorful silk, her heavy hair trapping heat against her neck, while she played for an invisible audience. The moment her fingers quit plucking the strings, though, she was certain Nodoka would appear out of thin air to scold her. Her nursemaid was always picking on her over one thing or another. Nodoka’s stubbornness and diligence could only be matched by Izayoi’s apathy and laziness.
As usual, though, Izayoi was keeping her eye out for opportunities to escape.
The clouds outside had been gathering since morning, black and crackling with electricity. They had still not passed over the mansion, and in fact had not moved all day, even as the wind picked up. It was beautiful, unnatural, and distracting. She plucked out another half-hearted tune, and then all of a sudden the earth shook tremendously. The braziers rattled, the wall scrolls threatened to dislodge, and Izayoi careened forward onto her hands.
On the walkways outside, she could hear maids and guards shuffling around and chattering amongst themselves. Had it been an earthquake? A lightning strike? Izayoi crept away from her koto, and detoured to her room to shed the heaviest and most decorative of her outer kimonos. She grabbed a small book of bound papers, slid on her sandals, and at last passed outside as quietly as she could.
She had been sneaking out into the forest for years now, and had perfected the art of slinking about. While the guards congregated by the eastern gate and speculated about the source of the noise, she found her way out through the westernmost gate. When she was a safe enough distance away from the mansion’s outer walls, she broke into a full run.
The air was warm and moist, but the feeling of it blowing her hair away from her face and lifting her hakama from her ankles still refreshed her. She let the momentum of her delight carry her deeper into the forest and only slowed down once the undergrowth impeded her. She stopped, and breathed in deep.
A familiar magic enveloped her, one she’d known for a long time. These woods always had a current running through them that she couldn’t explain. The water felt cleaner, the trees always moved as though someone was swaying them, and every creature thrummed harmoniously. Today the feeling was enormous inside her, making her chest tight and her stomach rise as she walked.
After a while the breeze stilled, and the buzzing of the cicadas halted completely. A glimmer shone in the corner of her eye, glistening like dew against the ferns. She squinted at it, perplexed.
Violet scales littered the ground and sparkled in the dim afternoon light. They were too large to be fish scales, though Izayoi could not think of what else they might be. When she picked one up to inspect it, she found it hard as iron, the edges sharp. As she followed their trail she noticed that the trees were broken in places, the branches snapped clean off. Bits of long, white fur had also gotten snagged in the leaves and bark.
Her senses felt consumed, her skin prickling, her hair rising along her arms and legs. She crept along, quiet except for the sound of her own breathing as it grew more excited and frantic, on edge as she listened intently for hints of activity. At last she heard the low hum of men speaking in agitated, tense voices. She paused.
The trees around her now were in an even worse state, so badly broken that they’d formed a small clearing. Even though there wasn’t any fire, Izayoi wondered if it really had just been a lightning strike she’d heard. Perhaps these men were out here to investigate the source of the tremor as well.
But when she drew a little closer, she found that they weren’t men. They weren’t even humans.
They were yokai.
And these were not common demons, not snarling oni or shrieking ghosts. Their forms were impressive and terrible, thrillingly beautiful and oozing with danger. She pinched the thin skin of her wrist to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, and when the pain was very real, she gasped. Her notebook fell to the forest floor with a soft whump. Two sets of inhuman eyes turned sharply towards her.
She panicked, hiding behind the thick trunk of an old maple tree. She longed to run, but her legs felt leaden and useless, and she knew they’d be faster than her anyway. There was nothing she could do besides hope that they’d ignore her. There was a heavy silence before their conversation resumed.
"You have been a thorn in my side for long enough," one said silkily. "First your kind steal from the dragon clan, and then you have the nerve to fight your little tussles on our ancestral grounds."
“My army was nowhere near your borders. Since when did you take such interest in inuyokai politics?” scoffed the other.
“You need to be reminded of your place.”
Izayoi heard a low growl, and the scraping of steel.
“Put the sword away, pup. You can’t seriously be thinking of trying to use Sounga against me. ”
“Why the thirst for blood anyway, Ryukotsusei? I thought it was unbecoming to pick fights with creatures you deem below you.”
“You would never do such a thing,” laughed the one called Ryukotsusei. “You’re a friend to all the scum of the earth. Fleas, foxes, even humans! You thought I didn’t notice you veering away from that little village? Afraid to crush the ants beneath your feet?”
Izayoi felt faint. There was only one village he could have meant.
“If you’d prefer I not be merciful, I’m more than willing to oblige.”
So far, neither of them had acknowledged her existence. Izayoi wondered if it would be worth sizing them up, to see if she might be able to escape after all. She took a deep breath, leaning to just peek around the tree trunk.
Each yokai was a sight to behold. One, the owner of the violet scales, was holding himself in an unnatural imitation of a human form. Energy trembled around him, like invisible flames, the kind of shimmering one might see rising from the ground on a hot day. His flesh was as pale as a cloud, deep purple stripes running up and down the length of his face. Most unnervingly, his eyes were a bloody shade of crimson, the pupils no more than black slits contracted warningly.
The second one was more human in appearance, but that wasn’t saying much. He was incredibly tall, bulked out by fierce looking armor and a pelt of thick, cream colored fur. His face may have been sort of handsome if it weren’t contorted in rage, his lips peeled back to reveal a set of sharp ivory fangs.
“I wouldn’t want to disturb our little guest,” laughed the first one, and she put the face and voice together at last. Ryukotsusei looked directly over at her and she withdrew, cursing herself for her curiosity. "A loyal hound to the bitter end, to fear offending such a pathetic creature."
Izayoi held her breath, heart racing. She felt a wave of pressure over her body, from her toes to her scalp. It was so much power in one place. Her legs shook and she collapsed, her skirts crushed in her fists and her hair plastered to her forehead.
"Inu no Taisho," Ryukotsusei flourished, his voice hissing and popping. "I look forward to seeing you again very soon."
There was a great crunching noise and the ground shook for the second time that day. The scales made sense to her now—Ryukotsusei was a dragon. His true form was magnificent even as he slipped up through the canopy of trees and disappeared into the dark clouds above. The sky cracked and boomed as he joined with it, lighting up in brilliant flashes.
She was so in awe that she had not noticed the second yokai approaching until he was standing before her. Izayoi tensed and shot to her feet, flattening herself against the tree but knowing she could not escape him.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
Her lips trembled and formed words, but no sound came out. She realized that the surge of yoki from before must have been his doing. She felt it now, and saw it lifting his hair and flickering over his skin. Izayoi braced against it.
“Do you hear me?” he said, agitated. “You need to leave.”
Her blood felt hot and cold all at once—the raggedness of his features frightened her, but also stirred a peculiar awe. She had never seen a demon depicted like this anywhere, so close to a man but still so wild and unusual. She had gaped at him a moment too long, though, and he was not interested in entertaining her further. His clawed hand lifted threateningly and he snarled, a sound that ripped out of his chest and hit her like a hammer.
“ Go! ”
Startled out of her shock, she stumbled for a few steps and then started running as fast as her legs could carry her. Once or twice she tripped, scraping her hands and knees as she came down, but the world felt like such a blur around her that she hardly noticed. She was utterly breathless as she stumbled in through the back gate.
The guards were shouting that the princess looked as though she’d been hurt. One barely caught her as she slumped, dead weight in his arms, the high of her adrenaline replaced at last with exhaustion.
o0o
"You could have been snatched by bandits! You foolish girl!"
Izayoi was used to being yelled at, but for once she knew her father was right.
"–too old for this, daughter, entirely too old. How many times do I have to explain this to you? You must take one of the guards and at least one maid with you when you wish to leave the grounds! I’ve been beyond indulgent, and yet you still break the only rule you are given. Why are you so determined to abuse my generosity?”
She kept her head low, eyes trained on the dirt beneath her fingernails and the black hair pooled at her knees. There was no other way to deal with him when he got worked up and flew into one of his pointless tirades. She would simply have to let it pass.
As the lord of the mansion, he had every right to scream at her until he was hoarse. His reprimands still hurt a bit, but her father was the sort of man who was a sting without venom. By dinnertime he’d likely be cooled down and perhaps even in a good mood again, all smiles and gentleness once more.
"I'm sorry, chichi-ue," she offered as soon as she heard a break in his rant.
"Not sorry enough to behave! I wash my hands of this mess, ” he announced, looking down to his wife where she knelt beside him. “You may speak with her. See if you have any more luck.”
She nodded, giving him a raised eyebrow as he rose and left the room with an air of supreme annoyance and superiority. He paused only long enough to throw a scathing look at his daughter, but Izayoi was unconvinced by his show of authority.
“Daughter.”
Izayoi glanced upwards, finally relaxing her spine and loosening her expression. Her mother was looking at her, her nut brown eyes tired, disappointment written into the fine features of her face.
"Haha-ue?"
"Why do you not value your life?" she said gently, arms falling limp to her sides. "All we have left in the world is you. The Nanase clan absolutely cannot afford your loss."
"I'm so sorry, haha-ue."
The lady of the house shifted from her place, coming to kneel before her daughter, and in a gesture of affection and easy forgiveness, took her into her frail little arms and rested her chin on her child's crown. She petted the top of Izayoi's head, combing her slender fingers through her hair.
"Do not return to the forest.”
"I won't," Izayoi promised, voice muffled against her mother's chest.
This was all part of the theatrics her parents insisted on. She would be yelled at and forgiven, and she would play at being a good daughter until they relaxed once more, but when their guard was down she would slip away. This routine had been unchanged for a long time.
The Nanase clan wasn’t really worth much, in any case. They’d been quite wealthy once, hundreds of years ago, but the uprising of the shogunate had left them unstable and fractured. A few generations of mismanaged resources, squandered gold, and bad marriages later and they had been reduced to their current state. All that was left to the family name was an old mansion in an isolated forest, a tiny village of peasants who could barely feed themselves, and a single, errant princess with no brothers or sisters to shoulder some of the family burden. This was Izayoi’s justification for doing as she liked; the clan was going to die whether she behaved or not . Though she loved her mother and father, she couldn’t find it in her heart to pay their warnings much heed.
Izayoi had an elaborate fantasy about running away and becoming a miko when the coffers finally ran totally dry. She knew she could sense magic, and she’d worked hard to note where it gathered—the forest was rich with it, and most of what she’d learned over the years had been from her time there. Besides, she’d been keeping notes about the creatures that lived in it, both natural and unnatural, as well as all of the medical herbs and plants she was able to find. Her book was still out there. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing all of that information and starting from scratch.
So she returned after three days, taking only a short trip at first to avoid suspicion. Without the yoki from before to guide her, it was much more difficult to retrace her steps, and so she trudged back home empty handed.
That night, she replayed every step in her head. She thought of the distance and time, the trail of scales and fur, how long the shadows had been and which direction they were facing. She thought of the book sliding from her numb fingers.
Izayoi cursed herself for being so spellbound and careless. She wasn’t afraid anymore, and in fact hardly remembered why she was so scared in the first place. There was no way that the demon could spend all his time waiting for her to return, after all. Surely he had forgotten all about her by now.
She crept out the next day, early in the morning before the sun had completely risen. This time, she reached the clearing of trees with no trouble. Her book was undisturbed where it had fallen. Izayoi dropped to her knees and flipped through its pages—it was damp from dew, but not falling apart. Some of the ink had started to run, but the charcoal sketches remained in place, with all of the most important parts right where they belonged.
"I thought I told you not to return."
Her eyes flew wide open and she glanced up, but the moment she saw his face she felt compelled to look away. Immediately, her head dropped in respect and she leaned towards the ground, nearly touching it with her forehead, palms flat against the earth.
"I was only... I just..."
"You’re rather odd. Are you interested in the affairs of daiyokai?"
“I’d actually like as little to do with them as possible.” For a moment she could have sworn she heard a tiny snort of laughter.
"You don't get the luxury of telling me what you do or do not want," the demon told her. "I gave you a warning, and you chose to ignore it."
Her hands contracted into tight fists, her eyes squeezed shut, head still cast towards the ground. Her heart was racing so fast she feared it would rupture. He crouched in front of her, and from this position she could just see the tip of his boots, closer to her than she expected him to be.
"You don't understand how much danger you're in, do you?"
Izayoi squeaked, shaking her head. Her hair formed a blessed curtain around her burning face, even as she lifted and straightened her back. Izayoi braved another quick glance at his face and felt a little jolt of surprise—his expression was one of amusement, not anger.
Still, she hadn’t forgotten who and what he was.
"Are you going to eat me?" she managed, past her dry throat and lips.
He laughed at her.
"Oh, no. Not me, but there are plenty of things in this forest that might like the taste of you," he told her. "Do you want to live, little woman?"
She nodded fiercely.
He offered his hand to her, and his eyes met hers for only a second before they darted away to scan the treeline. She'd never seen gold so rich in her life—it shifted and shimmered, lively and deep. He suddenly pulled her up so that she was standing next to him, and she wobbled on her feet.
“No harm will come to you,” he assured her. Izayoi wasn’t sure she believed him, but she also realized she didn’t really have a choice.
So she acquiesced, and walked with him. His hand was still wrapped around hers, pulling at her roughly to keep up with his long and purposeful stride.
"Are you taking me home?"
“I won’t be able to rest until you’re delivered there safely.”
“Do you think I can’t even get out of the forest without something trying to gobble me up?”
“It’s not that, little woman,” he said, sparing her a quick look over his shoulder. “It’s that I don’t trust you to do as you’re told.”
Izayoi’s face warmed up and her mouth turned down. She hated him calling her little woman, and the way he ordered her around, and his hand gripping hers tighter and tighter. She wanted to struggle, not because she thought she had a chance of escaping, but just because she wanted him to feel humiliated too.
"Please don't patronize me."
“I don’t mean to,” he chuckled. She stopped in her tracks, planting her feet firmly. She could see that they were close to the edge of the forest now, very near the western gates of the Nanase estate. He turned to her, one eyebrow raised. "I have to ask what possessed you to return to the forest. Nobody else would have dared, not after what you saw."
She shrugged lightly, pulling her hand from his at last.
"I just wanted my notes back. It’s not your place to bar entry from my family’s forest.”
“It’s not my place?”
“I don’t even know you!” she said bitingly. “Who are you supposed to be, telling me where I can and can’t go?”
“Who are you, that you would take a yokai so lightly?”
“I asked you first.”
"Your life could be in danger. Your family's lives as well," he continued, as though he hadn’t heard her. "Ryukotsusei could turn this whole forest and everything inside to ash in just a few seconds. Fighting him here would certainly do irreparable damage.”
“Then fight him somewhere else and leave us be!”
“Would if I could, little woman. This land has already been marked by him. He will not leave the plains of Musashi easily.”
Izayoi frowned, recalling the damage she had seen. Something clicked in her mind, a memory, something insignificant she had heard before.
“You were called Inu no Taisho, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said, drawing himself up straight and glaring down at her haughtily. “So you do know who I am.”
She had heard one or two stories before—he was the Dog General, who was said to prowl in the western lands. He was friendly with humans. He rarely lost a battle. He did not look anything like she had pictured he would.
“I thought you would be bigger.”
He laughed, startling her. It was a sharp and unkind sound, almost cruel.
“This is all a great joke to you, isn’t it?” he asked, baring his teeth as he smiled. “Something funny to pass your time. I have been patient with you, human, but it is important to me that you know the depth of your ignorance.”
She crossed her arms, her cheeks flushing harder in anger.
“I have seen your kind squabble over this land for a long time. You think you can make a claim on something like a forest, and pretend to own it because you have the right titles and deeds. Ryukotsusei doesn’t care if this forest belongs to your family. He will kill you if you get in his way.”
“Why are you so concerned with my wellbeing?”
He clenched his jaw. Izayoi pressed further, taking advantage of his silence.
“I know I’m insignificant,” she told him evenly. “Why should it matter to you?”
“Why throw your life away so recklessly?”
He hadn't really answered her question. Ryukotsusei had accused him of fondness for humans, and though she could not personally vouch for it, it seemed like she had found a weakness.
“My name is Izayoi. I’m the princess of the Nanase clan,” she said, softening her voice. “My family is destitute, and weak, and the only future I have to look forward to is an unfulfilling marriage to whichever man is willing to overlook our poor fortunes and have me anyway.”
She held up her notebook.
“This contains everything I’ve been able to teach myself about healing, magic, anything that will let me make my own way in the world. I’ve learned it all from this forest, and now you are asking me to give that up for you.”
The Inu no Taisho looked, for the first time, genuinely caught off guard. His mouth fell open in surprise, but he seemed to not know what to say to that.
“It may seem petty to you,” she murmured, drawing her notebook close to her chest. “But it’s all that I have.”
They stood together in awkward silence for a moment. At last, though, he sighed gustily.
“I won’t deny you that.”
“You won’t stop me from returning?”
“That would be a waste of time. I didn’t account for such stubbornness.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He grinned at her, tipping his head to one side curiously. “I’ll own that my concern might seem unnecessary to you, but I can’t let you walk into a trap knowingly. Perhaps we could compromise?”
“Oh, the great Inu no Taisho wants to compromise with some foolish little woman?”
He snorted and rolled his golden eyes. “Stay out of the forest for a week. At the end of that, I’ll return with a deal for you.”
“Why a week?”
“Consider it a show of good faith,” he shrugged. “Proof that you won’t go back on a promise. You haven’t set a good precedent thus far.”
“I didn’t promise you anything, yet,” she pointed out, though she was reminded suddenly that she had broken nearly every promise she’d made to her parents in the last week alone. “How will you know if I’ve done as you asked? Are you planning on staying out here to keep guard?”
“Of course not, I don’t have time,” he chuckled. “I have vassals for that. How do you think I knew I’d find you here today?”
Izayoi blushed again. She hadn’t even noticed herself being watched.
“If I do as you ask,” she said carefully, “will you promise to do something for me in return?”
“You have my word.”
“It’s settled, then. I will see you again in a week.”
“Yes. Until then, Izayoi.”
The yoki that poured off of him had calmed down during their conversation—she only realized it now because it increased again, and in a wave of wind and light he vanished. With him gone, she realized how exhausting it had been to be near him at full power; it was like she was always tensing and readjusting her balance so that she wouldn’t be knocked breathless.
Or, perhaps he tired her out because he was infuriating. It was hard to separate the two.
Behind her, she could hear Nodoka calling her name. She’d spent too much time dawdling with the demon, and now she would almost certainly get a talking to. It had been well worth her time though, and even though her muscles were tired and her head ached, she was glad she’d held her ground.
After all, it was quite an accomplishment to outsmart a demon.