Katsumi wriggled her wrists, straining as hard as she could to get free from the rope. She knew it was of no use somewhere in her sound mind, Yanagi had tied them and he always did make the most difficult knots. She had shown up at Kitsuki’s tent earlier that evening, before the sun had set. He was supposed to watch her tonight, but he was gone, and now that he was gone she had to get free. Kitsuki had enlisted in Yanagi’s help. That meddlesome Yanagi. No, not meddlesome, he meant the best but he didn’t know about the other people who were walking around outside. They were just waiting to take her stuff, to take Kitsuki’s stuff, maybe even Yanagi’s stuff. Katsumi had managed to scoot around the room, collecting everything Kitsuki owned and piling it on the bedroll; she was sitting on it for safekeeping. No one was going to take it while she was sitting on it. She wouldn’t let them. Now it was hers. But what about the stuff in the next tent? Or the one after that? No one was watching those things. She had to go and get them. And add them to the pile. And keep them safe. And take them as hers.
It had already been a few hours since she first felt the need. The first consisted of struggling and writhing around to no avail. The second hour she had taken a different approach and collected the stuff. Now she was pulling on the ropes again, pushing down on her feet and tugging with her wrists hoping to tighten the knot in order to create some slack somewhere else. Maybe if she started yelling for help someone would come and cut her free. It was an idea Katsumi considered longer than she probably should have. The only problem with that was how would she know that they wouldn’t just take all the stuff for themselves? It was hers. She gathered it fair and square. Yelling was out of the question.
There was a shuffling outside and Katsumi stopped moving following the noise behind the side of the tent with her eyes. It was circling her, probably trying to figure out the best way to steal her stuff when she wasn’t looking. There was a reason she was sitting on it. It would be harder for anyone else to take. The person stopped at the front of the tent, the flap opened and Kitsuki ducked in. He stopped as soon as he entered and gawked at her. Katsumi stared wide eyed back. He was going to think she had gone insane. He slowly scanned the room, probably looking for his stuff that was now hers. Good thing she was sitting on it.
“I was afraid someone was going to take your stuff!” Katsumi blurted out. Nice cover, he won’t expect a thing.
“Of course,” Kitsuki responded slowly, “I… I appreciate your caution.”
“You might want to go and check next door, I heard someone out there. I think other people are out there taking other people’s stuff,” Katsumi suggested, trying to get Kitsuki to leave. If he was gone she wouldn’t have to pretend she was keeping his stuff safe. She could get out of the ropes and take the things that were now hers and leave.
“Their stuff is none of my concern.” Damn, it wasn’t going to work. Katsumi began fidgeting with the ropes again.
“I’m concerned. I could go take a look.” Katsumi held out her wrists towards Kitsuki.
“I don’t think so…” Kitsuki took a step closer to her. “I want you to tell me what’s going on.”
“I had to gather the stuff up.” Why didn’t he understand that? She had to.
“Clearly. Why?”
“It-It’s comfortable.” It was the truth. Having everything next to her was making her feel better. She wanted to get a bigger pile and roll around in it. This pile was much too small, not big enough for rolling. “Would you like to try? It’s mine though. But you can sit next to me.”
“No thank you… Daigotsu, do you know why you’re tied up?” Kitsuki was talking to her like a child, she wasn’t a child.
“Yeah, I asked you to.”
“Why was that? Because I do not understand what’s going on.”
“I didn’t trust myself, but I do now. That’s why you should untie me.”
“I’m not going to do that. Why didn’t you trust yourself?”
“Because it’s a full moon. I can’t control it yet. Sometimes I can, I’m doing it now. Let me out?” Katsumi pleaded.
“Tell me about the moon and I’ll consider it.”
Easy! She knew all there was about the moon. Once he understood she could get out and get more stuff. The pile just wasn’t big enough.
“At the beginning of the world there was Lady Sun and Lord Moon. And Lord Moon had The Nothing hiding in his shadow. The Nothing whispered things into Lord Moon’s ear, telling him things that weren’t true. Then they had kids. But Lord Moon ate all of his kids because of the Nothing, except Hantei. So Hantei cut Lord Moon open and all the kids fell to the earth, except one, because he was already dead. That’s why there are only nine kami. And Fu Leng fell far from his siblings. He fell so hard he punched through Ningen-do and into Jigoku where he grew in power and became the Dark God. But he’s dead now too. Kali-Ma killed him before the Dark Lord Daigotsu killed her.
“We morn the death of Fu Leng, but now the Dark Lord Daigotsu rules over Jigoku. He’s pretty amazing…” Katsumi said dreamily. There was a reason she shared his name, it wasn’t like the other clans where you were born into a family. Though there were some that were born into the Spider clan, and more that would come now that they could reproduce outside of the Shadowlands. She wasn’t born into it. She took the name and pledged her allegiance to Daigotsu last year during her ‘gempukku’ ceremony. She bled for Daigotsu, and Daigotsu bled for her.
Kitsuki stuck his head out of the tent. She only had a matter of moments before he was looking again. She leaned back, pulling her arms as hard as she could away from her feet where the knots kept the two together. There was a sudden jerk and her right wrist flew free. She quickly slipped her left wrist out of its loop and began picking and twisting at the knot keeping her ankles together.
“Tell me more about Lord Moon.” Kitsuki was back in the tent looking slightly panicked.
“Not unless you let me use your wakizashi.” Katsumi was almost out; she didn’t care to talk any more.
“I’m afraid it’s only for decoration. It’s not even sharp.”
Katsumi was almost certain he was lying about that, no one walked around with a dull blade. She’d find out as soon as she was able to take it, which wouldn’t‘ be too much longer. She shrugged and continued to pick at the knot. It was pretty stiff since she had been pulling it at for a few hours. Kitsuki kept talking but Katsumi wasn’t listening anymore. He was just a noise in the background. The bond was loosening, she was almost out. The rope fell away from her left ankle; quickly she removed the lasso from her right ankle and scrambled to her feet, making for the entrance. Kitsuki stood in the doorway, but he was a cripple and he couldn’t keep her there. She had to get more stuff.
“Daigotsu, what about your stuff here?”
Katsumi stopped suddenly and looked back at her pile. He was right; if she left it here it might not be here when she got back. Kitsuki knew where her hoard was. It wasn’t safe here. She skittered back to the pile and pushed everything around. She had found a sack earlier, now she just had to locate it. There it was! Katsumi began loading her stuff into the bag. She would just bring it with and once the bag was full find a better place to hide her rolling pile.
There was a rustle by the door and Katsumi looked up to see Yanagi standing there. Kuso! Kitsuki wasn’t going to be hard to get around, but Yanagi was a different story. He basically taught her everything she knew, but he had way more time to perfect it. Katsumi shrunk back, trying to think of another way to get out of this.
“Katsu-kun,” Yanagi began in a soft tone that still demanded attention. “Come here.”
“But… there’s stuff here.” Katsumi timidly tried to explain.
“Come here.” Yanagi repeated.
“I can’t. I have to take it with me.”
“I know where you’re stuff is, Katsu-kun. The large pile from last time. We can go get it together.”
Katsumi dropped the half-filled sack and trotted over to Yanagi, grinning from ear to ear. Before she knew it, she was falling. Her feet were swept under her she wasn’t moving forward anymore, but down. She felt her left arm being twisted up, and a hand pushing on her back, towards the ground. The impact was hard but Katsumi had been knocked down more times than she could count, all it provided was a minor discomfort and jolt to her body. She twisted her neck to see Yanagi sitting on her hips, grabbing her right arm and felt the rope wrap around her wrists. He was hogtying her! It took literally seconds for Yanagi to bind her hands and feet together behind her.
“It’ll be a little harder for her to get out of these,” Yanagi explained to Kitsuki. “Just be happy it’s one of the less dangerous ones. You might want to hire someone on nights like this just to stand outside, keep watch, someone who could handle her in case she is in one of those more violent moods.”
“Is there a medicine that can calm her nerves?” Inquired Kitsuki.
Katsumi craned to see Yanagi. He glanced down at her and she shook her head ever so slightly. She knew the answer and desperately wanted to keep it from coming to that. “I’d be calm if you untied me!”
“There have been a couple of times…” Yanagi crossed his arms and wrapped his hand around his chin, that one knuckle pressing on his bottom lip.
“No.” Katsumi interjected, trying to keep Yanagi from even considering the alternative. “Big Brother, no.” She shook her head again with gusto this time. “No!”
Yanagi stood up and poked his head out of the tent; Katsumi could see there was at least one person on the other side. “Go get Negisa.”
“No! No! Please, Big Brother. Please?” Katsumi begged and squirmed around on the ground trying to roll off her stomach and onto her side. Yanagi stepped around her and watched her wiggle.
“Feeling okay down there?”
“I’m stuck…” She said defeated.
“Yeah.” Yanagi squatted next to her and tugged the shoulder of her kimono back up to her neck. It had come loose long before Kitsuki had even came back from the dinner, and all the moving since had only made it slip further down.
“Please? I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Katsumi was almost to tears, “I just want my stuff.”
“I know.” Yanagi whispered and gently caressed Katsumi’s cheek.
He stood and took a step back, waiting for Negisa to show up. Futilely Katsumi pulled at her bonds. Even if she did get out Yanagi would just tie her up again, and there wasn’t enough time before Negisa arrived anyways. It didn’t take long before the tent flew open and in came Negisa, fixing her eyes on Katsumi. Katsumi’s chest tightened. She stopped moving and held her breath. From what Negisa was wearing, she had probably been pulled away from entertaining someone or herself with someone. She may have appeared pleasant to others, but Katsumi could tell from the fire in her eyes that if it were just her and Negisa, Negisa would surely go on a warpath. Negisa kneeled next to Katsumi and held out a small bottle close to Katsumi’s face.
“Drink this,” she pressed the bottle to Katsumi’s lips.
Katsumi opened her mouth and began drinking. She didn’t want to give Negisa any more cause for discontent and there had been other times where when she refused Negisa had found ways to ‘make’ Katsumi drink. Negisa stood, backing up to stand with the other two, all of them watching Katsumi. Katsumi stared back, determined to best the poison Negisa had just given her. She had ignored more threatening things in life than a little cocktail that made you sleepy.
Warmth began to spread through her body, starting with a fluttering in her chest. It ran down her legs, up her arms, and quickly clouded her head. Something told her things were going to be okay. There were worse things to ignore than a little cocktail that made you sleepy… It really wasn’t so bad when she thought about it. The room began to pull away from her and she could feel herself fighting her droopy lids. Maybe if she just laid her head down, conserved some energy so she could stay awake. The ground was so soft; it embraced Katsumi as she sunk further into the drug induced relaxation. She’d have to collect her stuff later, she was so tired.
It had already been a few hours since she first felt the need. The first consisted of struggling and writhing around to no avail. The second hour she had taken a different approach and collected the stuff. Now she was pulling on the ropes again, pushing down on her feet and tugging with her wrists hoping to tighten the knot in order to create some slack somewhere else. Maybe if she started yelling for help someone would come and cut her free. It was an idea Katsumi considered longer than she probably should have. The only problem with that was how would she know that they wouldn’t just take all the stuff for themselves? It was hers. She gathered it fair and square. Yelling was out of the question.
There was a shuffling outside and Katsumi stopped moving following the noise behind the side of the tent with her eyes. It was circling her, probably trying to figure out the best way to steal her stuff when she wasn’t looking. There was a reason she was sitting on it. It would be harder for anyone else to take. The person stopped at the front of the tent, the flap opened and Kitsuki ducked in. He stopped as soon as he entered and gawked at her. Katsumi stared wide eyed back. He was going to think she had gone insane. He slowly scanned the room, probably looking for his stuff that was now hers. Good thing she was sitting on it.
“I was afraid someone was going to take your stuff!” Katsumi blurted out. Nice cover, he won’t expect a thing.
“Of course,” Kitsuki responded slowly, “I… I appreciate your caution.”
“You might want to go and check next door, I heard someone out there. I think other people are out there taking other people’s stuff,” Katsumi suggested, trying to get Kitsuki to leave. If he was gone she wouldn’t have to pretend she was keeping his stuff safe. She could get out of the ropes and take the things that were now hers and leave.
“Their stuff is none of my concern.” Damn, it wasn’t going to work. Katsumi began fidgeting with the ropes again.
“I’m concerned. I could go take a look.” Katsumi held out her wrists towards Kitsuki.
“I don’t think so…” Kitsuki took a step closer to her. “I want you to tell me what’s going on.”
“I had to gather the stuff up.” Why didn’t he understand that? She had to.
“Clearly. Why?”
“It-It’s comfortable.” It was the truth. Having everything next to her was making her feel better. She wanted to get a bigger pile and roll around in it. This pile was much too small, not big enough for rolling. “Would you like to try? It’s mine though. But you can sit next to me.”
“No thank you… Daigotsu, do you know why you’re tied up?” Kitsuki was talking to her like a child, she wasn’t a child.
“Yeah, I asked you to.”
“Why was that? Because I do not understand what’s going on.”
“I didn’t trust myself, but I do now. That’s why you should untie me.”
“I’m not going to do that. Why didn’t you trust yourself?”
“Because it’s a full moon. I can’t control it yet. Sometimes I can, I’m doing it now. Let me out?” Katsumi pleaded.
“Tell me about the moon and I’ll consider it.”
Easy! She knew all there was about the moon. Once he understood she could get out and get more stuff. The pile just wasn’t big enough.
“At the beginning of the world there was Lady Sun and Lord Moon. And Lord Moon had The Nothing hiding in his shadow. The Nothing whispered things into Lord Moon’s ear, telling him things that weren’t true. Then they had kids. But Lord Moon ate all of his kids because of the Nothing, except Hantei. So Hantei cut Lord Moon open and all the kids fell to the earth, except one, because he was already dead. That’s why there are only nine kami. And Fu Leng fell far from his siblings. He fell so hard he punched through Ningen-do and into Jigoku where he grew in power and became the Dark God. But he’s dead now too. Kali-Ma killed him before the Dark Lord Daigotsu killed her.
“We morn the death of Fu Leng, but now the Dark Lord Daigotsu rules over Jigoku. He’s pretty amazing…” Katsumi said dreamily. There was a reason she shared his name, it wasn’t like the other clans where you were born into a family. Though there were some that were born into the Spider clan, and more that would come now that they could reproduce outside of the Shadowlands. She wasn’t born into it. She took the name and pledged her allegiance to Daigotsu last year during her ‘gempukku’ ceremony. She bled for Daigotsu, and Daigotsu bled for her.
Kitsuki stuck his head out of the tent. She only had a matter of moments before he was looking again. She leaned back, pulling her arms as hard as she could away from her feet where the knots kept the two together. There was a sudden jerk and her right wrist flew free. She quickly slipped her left wrist out of its loop and began picking and twisting at the knot keeping her ankles together.
“Tell me more about Lord Moon.” Kitsuki was back in the tent looking slightly panicked.
“Not unless you let me use your wakizashi.” Katsumi was almost out; she didn’t care to talk any more.
“I’m afraid it’s only for decoration. It’s not even sharp.”
Katsumi was almost certain he was lying about that, no one walked around with a dull blade. She’d find out as soon as she was able to take it, which wouldn’t‘ be too much longer. She shrugged and continued to pick at the knot. It was pretty stiff since she had been pulling it at for a few hours. Kitsuki kept talking but Katsumi wasn’t listening anymore. He was just a noise in the background. The bond was loosening, she was almost out. The rope fell away from her left ankle; quickly she removed the lasso from her right ankle and scrambled to her feet, making for the entrance. Kitsuki stood in the doorway, but he was a cripple and he couldn’t keep her there. She had to get more stuff.
“Daigotsu, what about your stuff here?”
Katsumi stopped suddenly and looked back at her pile. He was right; if she left it here it might not be here when she got back. Kitsuki knew where her hoard was. It wasn’t safe here. She skittered back to the pile and pushed everything around. She had found a sack earlier, now she just had to locate it. There it was! Katsumi began loading her stuff into the bag. She would just bring it with and once the bag was full find a better place to hide her rolling pile.
There was a rustle by the door and Katsumi looked up to see Yanagi standing there. Kuso! Kitsuki wasn’t going to be hard to get around, but Yanagi was a different story. He basically taught her everything she knew, but he had way more time to perfect it. Katsumi shrunk back, trying to think of another way to get out of this.
“Katsu-kun,” Yanagi began in a soft tone that still demanded attention. “Come here.”
“But… there’s stuff here.” Katsumi timidly tried to explain.
“Come here.” Yanagi repeated.
“I can’t. I have to take it with me.”
“I know where you’re stuff is, Katsu-kun. The large pile from last time. We can go get it together.”
Katsumi dropped the half-filled sack and trotted over to Yanagi, grinning from ear to ear. Before she knew it, she was falling. Her feet were swept under her she wasn’t moving forward anymore, but down. She felt her left arm being twisted up, and a hand pushing on her back, towards the ground. The impact was hard but Katsumi had been knocked down more times than she could count, all it provided was a minor discomfort and jolt to her body. She twisted her neck to see Yanagi sitting on her hips, grabbing her right arm and felt the rope wrap around her wrists. He was hogtying her! It took literally seconds for Yanagi to bind her hands and feet together behind her.
“It’ll be a little harder for her to get out of these,” Yanagi explained to Kitsuki. “Just be happy it’s one of the less dangerous ones. You might want to hire someone on nights like this just to stand outside, keep watch, someone who could handle her in case she is in one of those more violent moods.”
“Is there a medicine that can calm her nerves?” Inquired Kitsuki.
Katsumi craned to see Yanagi. He glanced down at her and she shook her head ever so slightly. She knew the answer and desperately wanted to keep it from coming to that. “I’d be calm if you untied me!”
“There have been a couple of times…” Yanagi crossed his arms and wrapped his hand around his chin, that one knuckle pressing on his bottom lip.
“No.” Katsumi interjected, trying to keep Yanagi from even considering the alternative. “Big Brother, no.” She shook her head again with gusto this time. “No!”
Yanagi stood up and poked his head out of the tent; Katsumi could see there was at least one person on the other side. “Go get Negisa.”
“No! No! Please, Big Brother. Please?” Katsumi begged and squirmed around on the ground trying to roll off her stomach and onto her side. Yanagi stepped around her and watched her wiggle.
“Feeling okay down there?”
“I’m stuck…” She said defeated.
“Yeah.” Yanagi squatted next to her and tugged the shoulder of her kimono back up to her neck. It had come loose long before Kitsuki had even came back from the dinner, and all the moving since had only made it slip further down.
“Please? I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Katsumi was almost to tears, “I just want my stuff.”
“I know.” Yanagi whispered and gently caressed Katsumi’s cheek.
He stood and took a step back, waiting for Negisa to show up. Futilely Katsumi pulled at her bonds. Even if she did get out Yanagi would just tie her up again, and there wasn’t enough time before Negisa arrived anyways. It didn’t take long before the tent flew open and in came Negisa, fixing her eyes on Katsumi. Katsumi’s chest tightened. She stopped moving and held her breath. From what Negisa was wearing, she had probably been pulled away from entertaining someone or herself with someone. She may have appeared pleasant to others, but Katsumi could tell from the fire in her eyes that if it were just her and Negisa, Negisa would surely go on a warpath. Negisa kneeled next to Katsumi and held out a small bottle close to Katsumi’s face.
“Drink this,” she pressed the bottle to Katsumi’s lips.
Katsumi opened her mouth and began drinking. She didn’t want to give Negisa any more cause for discontent and there had been other times where when she refused Negisa had found ways to ‘make’ Katsumi drink. Negisa stood, backing up to stand with the other two, all of them watching Katsumi. Katsumi stared back, determined to best the poison Negisa had just given her. She had ignored more threatening things in life than a little cocktail that made you sleepy.
Warmth began to spread through her body, starting with a fluttering in her chest. It ran down her legs, up her arms, and quickly clouded her head. Something told her things were going to be okay. There were worse things to ignore than a little cocktail that made you sleepy… It really wasn’t so bad when she thought about it. The room began to pull away from her and she could feel herself fighting her droopy lids. Maybe if she just laid her head down, conserved some energy so she could stay awake. The ground was so soft; it embraced Katsumi as she sunk further into the drug induced relaxation. She’d have to collect her stuff later, she was so tired.
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