The boiler was hissing loudly in the next room. A woman sat alone in a larger room carpeted in tatami mats and pillows. Clothed in a lightweight kimono, she plucked at the strings of a long necked instrument. A collection of musical notes graced the air as she practiced, what was for her, a challenging fingering. Her delicate and preternaturally strong fingers stressed the man-made shamisen. As the stanza came more naturally, she added her voice to the that of the instrument. Together they spoke an age old song from a time long passed. Conscientious of the nearby bath awaiting her, she carefully placed the wooden instrument on the floor.
Zhu was a timeless creature formed when the world was young and men struggled to carve out their place in a hostile environment. Her kind shepherded the communities of man, protecting the fragile gathering; at times from their own folly. There was a time the Kami were common. It had been ages since Zhu had seen another of her kind. In fact she had come to see herself as a unique being with powers great and small and followers that worshiped her in equal measure with the sun. That was lifetimes ago.
Zhu had learned to enjoy the comforts of civilization: The flesh of animals prepared over a fire and served with all manner of harvested plant life. A unique art practiced by men everywhere. She especially loved mint when mixed with a soy marinated meat. A heated bath too was a comfort not easily found in nature.
Dropping her silky raiment to the floor she settled into the steaming pool. Her milky skin blushed when it contacted the fire-kissed water. The pool was a comfort, a place to relax, but she often mused and brooded over her current captivity. Kuma was her captor. His given name was Kodai Nando, but everyone in his inner circle called him Kuma after the great bears that roamed the highlands. Kuma’s appetites were as dangerous as those of his adopted totem. His reputation for acquiring objects of beauty was well known to the merchant community. Many sought to curry favor with the bully-warlord with gifts of rare and beautiful objects. Zhu was both.
Zhu pawed at the crest of fox ears atop her crimson mane, grooming and washing in small motions. Though she looked the part of a human female, she possessed qualities that would be the envy of any mortal. Her impossible proportions and nearly flawless skin were blessings inherited from a magical realm less scripted by the harsh realities of the material world.
Remembering her penchant for mint, she paused in her respite in hopes of scenting the water with a sprig. The brimming tub splashed onto the wooden drain boards as she extracted her naked form from the tub. Pausing to squeeze the excess water from her matted tail, she pushed on the door slightly. Remembering the lectures she had received for dripping water over the whole of the house, she paused to draw a towel from a stack neatly folded by the door. Satisfied that she had met her master’s requirement, she headed for the master suite to retrieve the last ingredient to a perfect bath.
Her normally keen senses failed to reveal the intruders that had invaded her second floor retreat. Though surprised by the appearance of a man springing from the shadows, her animal nature succeeded in bending her body in ways to evade capture by the uninvited guest. The man was intent on grappling her into submission, but his clumsy human motions were no match for hers. A seed of mirth grew in her mind as she imagined turning the tables on her assailant. As she imagined his surprise at the turn of events, she erupted in a bout of laughter as no comic could ever aspire to invoke. She became aware of the unnatural source of this unbidden mirth.
As she held her belly in an attempt to contain the laughter her eyes were wide with surprise and anger. A bare-chested man covered in tattoos combed the air with his fingers, The language of magic was the source of her current condition. With modesty lost and the towel now a discarded cover, she forgot modesty as she battled to regain her composure. The two men pressed in. The dark haired man spoke first.
“It is not my intent to bring you harm! If you promise to behave we will be about our business.”
Zhu did not fear for her life, she was more annoyed that her bath had been interrupted.
The tattooed man spoke next. Over the course of the next few minutes she learned that they were not burglars or a rival gang, but a band of men set to unseat her master and deliver to him long overdue justice. Zhu agreed to cooperate with the band of men as their goals might well align with hers. The dark haired man eventually announced himself as Takeshi Arisaka. He offered to aid her in departing the beautiful prison that had been her home these many years.
“I confess your offer is tantalizing.” She said. “But I cannot leave! Not without something very precious to me.”
“What is so precious that it is worth more than your freedom?” Takeshi asked.
Zhu pictured a village. The home she had known for ages. She saw the people and remembered how they had burned effigies in her honor, celebrating and dancing in the streets at the conclusion of another successful and bounteous harvest. Then she saw fires consuming those same images as demonic creatures ravaged the land and people she had cared for.
“It is not something that I can leave without.” She struggled for a moment before confiding her deepest secret. "That thing I need is my very life. If it is destroyed I will be banished to the unseen world or worse.” She slumped her shoulders feeling vulnerable and defeated.
“We will look for it.” Takeshi said. “What does it look like?”
She described the small leather sack with the golden tie. In her heart she hoped they could produce what she herself was unable to procure. Even if they couldn’t find her stolen seeds, the anger she felt toward her master compelled her to reveal all she could of her master's little treasures.
Eventually the men had claimed the prize they had sought. They implored her to depart, but the wrath of her master would be far greater if she left without her harvest soul.
A prison without bars is still a prison if you don’t have free will. She though to herself.
Just as they were preparing to depart, the tattooed man emerged from the storage room with a familiar bundle.
“Is this what you were looking for?” He said with a stifled smirk on his face. His pride at finding the prize was evident in his whole being. A shock passed over her, prickling her skin like it was waking from a numbness. Her face brightened, elevating her beauty beyond the physical. She wanted to embrace him. Her boundless gratitude somehow stifiled to match his placid demeanor. He offered it to her with no thought of compensation. He had held her life in his hand and turned it over with no thought of deception. She filed away that memory. This was no ordinary band of bandits.
