Inter-session: sometime between 33 & 35

[Kumiko]

Tsubushi

Author's Note: Well, I wanted to show how scary Tsubushi is, and it's kinda... important to the plot that she does what she does in this story...
Also, this happens sometime during session 33, in a village a bit away, so.. yeah.
Feel free to point out any inconsistencies, typos, grammatical mistakes, redundancy or whatever else I might've done wrong.
...mindless praise is also nice. ;D

---

Tsubushi walked down the road. She wanted a companion, someone to play with. The old woman hadn't been any fun - at least not for more than a few minutes. Of course, she could play with her doll, but she wanted someone who could think on their own and stand on their own legs, even if her attention was elsewhere. Looking up, she noticed a small village ahead. A smile played over her face - of course, this was not an uncommon occurance; people sometimes thought that it was the only facial expression she was capable of, but now it looked slightly more twisted than usual, and a dangerous gleam had entered her eyes. She was going to get herself a playmate or two.
The village wasn't very big, but it looked nice enough. Tsubushi walked down a street, looking around curiously. Suddenly, a tall shape stood in front of her. Tsubushi slowly looked up. The person in front of her was at least five feet tall, and as she herself stood at only two feet, the woman in front of her seemed like a giant.

"Are you lost, little one?" the woman began and bent down a bit, smiling amicably at her.

"No... I don't think so," answered Tsubushi. She brushed away her blonde hair from her face, letting it arrange itself in perfect curls again. She opened her eyes a bit more, letting the woman see the rare blue colour of them. "Will you play with me?"

The woman looked confused for a moment. This girl - she had to be a girl, right? Even midgets tended to be taller than that once grown. Then again, this person had a grown face - a perfect, pale face, with bright blue eyes, long eyelashes and curly yellow hair. Looking her over, she realised that the person was not carrying herself in the same manner as a child would, but as a grown woman.

"Play with you? But..." she looked even more confused. Asking someone to play with you wasn't something a grownup did - it was something for children to do. Still, the person confused her. Taking another step back, the realisation struck her. "A youkai!"

Tsubushi smiled yet again. "Play with me...?"

The woman backed away, trying to figure a way of protecting herself and the rest of the village.
The small one picked up something from the bag she was carrying - it looked like a small doll. She put it down on the ground, moved her hands over it... and it started to grow. Soon it was enormous, towering over them both - and by now, the rest of the village had started to notice them as well.
Tsubushi moved her hands around, and the doll started picking up the humans, placing them together in a big heap inside one of the houses. When they tried to escape, she brough out a yo-yo, and after mumbling a few words over it too, it flashed out of her hand, growing as it approched the humans, becoming a gigantic version of itself with razor-sharp edges. As it hit them, blood splattered everywhere, and several people lost their heads. Then, it reached the end of its line, and moved back towards her, shrinking and losing its sharp edges, and by the time it was back in her hand, it was once again the size of a normal yoyo.
A man rushed at her with a katana raised in his hands and once again the yoyo flashed out, beheading him as well.
Tsubushi smiled when the doll came back with even more people, placing them all inside the house. Most of the adults were still by now, and the few that weren't were just gathering together, pulling their children close to them.
She stepped over a dead human, nodding to the doll again. The village was cleared by now - or at least no more people remained on the streets. Of course there might've been a few survivors; people in the outskirts of the village, people sneaking away, people who managed to run from the giant doll when it came for them... but all in all, she had most of the village's population, and that was what she really cared about.

"Please... at least let the children go," a woman pleaded to her.

The dangerous gleam in her eyes appeared again, and the smile was still stuck on Tsubushi's face as she answered. "Oh, I won't hurt them... don't worry."

The yoyo flashed out again, cutting down a few more adults, then she put it away, motioning for the doll to do its work. It stepped forward, separating the children from their parents, putting the adults against one wall and the children against the other. Some tried to run across, but were all stopped - the adults by being stomped down by the doll, the children by just being pushed back. Tsubushi was keeping her word... so far.

As people started crying, she rolled her eyes. "Always complaining, these humans... all I wanted was someone to play with..."

It was starting to annoy her. Very much so. Tsubushi waved her hands again, and the doll started crushing the last living adults. A man and a woman clasped hands as they saw their doom coming towards them, whispering some last words between themselves, before the doll ripped off their heads. An old woman stood proudly on her feet until she was crushed. A young man cowered against the wall, pleading for mercy, but he too met the same fate as all the others. Finally, all that remained was the children - none of them older than 13 - and the woman she had first encountered in the village.
Tsubushi walked over to her, the smile never once leaving her face.

"Will you play with me?"

The woman just stared at her. Tsubushi walked around her slowly, waiting for the woman to start talking again. The woman bit her lip, standing straight and glaring at the small one.

"No. I will not play with you. You are evil, and a youkai, and I'd rather die than be your plaything."

"Then so be it," said Tsubushi, the smile almost leaving her face for a moment. She looked around for her giant doll again. The woman backed away. She might rather die than be the plaything of a youkai, but she'd still rather live in freedom than die bravely. Tsubushi moved her hands around, slowly, and the doll stepped closer, bending down to pick up the woman around the waist. She squirmed in its hand, looking down at Tsubushi angrily.

"I hope you die as horrible a death as all the people you've killed today. I hope the miko comes for you. I hope..." she stopped, grimacing in pain as the doll squeezed her. She gasped, but no more sound escaped her lips. The doll kept squeezing her until she was dead - it was easy to tell that this was the case, as no living human's neck would hang at that angle, and as no living human was quite that shade of purple.

Tsubushi lowered her hands and looked up at the doll, making it let go of the body. Touching it lightly, it shrunk to a tiny size again, and she put it away in her pocket before she turned towards the children.

"Come on, children... lets find another house and play."

[Marty]

Scaaaary...I like it though.

[TheXPhial]

It's excellent, as expected

[Marty]

Toshu

Author's Note: Erm, well...this is the continuation of Tsubushi's part of the intersession. It's not very pleasant and has pretty much decided me on not liking Toshu very much at all, but here it is all the same, still an important part of the plot.

---

Stupid horse, Toshu thought irritably. It was so slow! He was on this mission on Kagai’s orders, but since Kurousagi wasn’t coming along he couldn’t use Unari and was stuck riding this slow, dumb horse. Ah, well…he supposed it was better than walking. Meh, whatever. Stupid Kagai, stupid Kurousagi. Toshu rode along, muttering to himself about the unfairness of having a human be more important in Kagai’s eyes than he himself was. Not that he particularly cared what Kagai thought, he just didn’t like to have a human (and her rabbit) running around the castle uneaten. She looked so tasty…. his thoughts were interrupted by voices around a bend in the path and he sniffed the air more carefully. Humans…how could he have missed them? Well, he’d make up for it now! He urged the horse into a faster pace and soon came in sight of them: there were five of them, three men, two women, all seeming rather frightened, though of what he couldn’t tell.

He stopped the horse a short distance away and hailed them with a cheerful “O-hiyo!” All five of them jumped and whirled around…they hadn’t been aware of his presence at all! Never losing the affable grin or the aroma of “trustworthy man,” he dismounted and approached them; they relaxed visibly and his grin widened. This was going to be too easy…still fun though.

“What’s the news?” he asked when he was close enough to tell they really would be no problem. When he applied a reassuring scent over the area just to assure this, they became extremely talkative, though their story was very confused…something about a little girl and a giant woman she controlled? What? After a few minutes of them arguing and talking over each other, he waved a hand to silence them, then turned to the one who seemed to be the leader, a man, maybe forty years old, who he’d already been informed was named Ichidou. “Tell me.”<br>
The man nodded enthusiastically and began his tale. Toshu listened expressionlessly. If he didn’t know the scent the man was unknowingly breathing to control him would also cause him to speak only the truth, he would have had trouble believing the story. A tiny girl, who he assumed had to be a youkai of some sort, wielding a giant yoyo and controlling an even more giant woman? The account was fantastic to say the least. Still, he did listen to the whole thing, unlikely as he found it. Kagai would probably like to know. After the man fell silent, he appraised the group again…three men, two middle aged and one old, and two women, one young and one old. It seemed the old ones were husband and wife…they were certainly clutching each other hard enough to be. Thinking about Kagai’s orders, he decided to set them aside for special treatment. Couples were always fun to play with.

Stepping back, he looked them over. Two men and a woman left. Kagai had said to be creative… He approached the young woman where she stood staring vacantly at nothing and raked his claws down the front of her yukata, the smell of the blood welling from where he’d inadvertently also gouged her flesh nearly driving him crazy with hungry, then addressed the third man, telling him to soak his hands in her blood and go off to munch them for a while. The man had no objection to the blood, but seemed unwilling to actually go and eat of his own flesh, so Toshu demonstrated how wonderful it could be by taking a bite of the man’s hand himself. “See, jiji, your blood is delicious.” The man nodded absently and wandered off to the side of the road to do as he was told, at least partially: he didn’t actually eat his own hand, but he did lap up the blood happily enough. Not that Toshu noticed this; he was too busy staring at the young woman. It was time for breakfast.

He approached her, smiling. “What’s your name, nee-san?”<br>
She smiled in return, completely oblivious to the blood flowing from her chest. “This one is called Hana. What is onii-san called?”<br>
He waved it off. “That’s not important…say, you know, you look wonderful.”<br>
She looked down at herself demurely, once again not seeing the blood. “Oh, I’m not much…”

“Sure you are…just look…” He walked up to her and lapped up some of the blood on her chest, getting his face dirty in the process, and when Ichidou looked like he was going to object, all he had to do was bare his teeth and growled and the man backed off. Toshu started to go back to his meal – she was twitching a bit, uncomfortable with his teeth in her flesh – then he had a better idea. He stood up and backed off, then called Ichidou and the two oldsters over and told them how delicious her flesh was, then stood back and watched as they tore into her, occasionally making delightful noises of enjoyment (or so he thought they sounded like, not that he cared even if they were screams of anguish. Actually, screams of anguish would have been okay too…)

After a few minutes, he sent them off and looked over the woman. She was still on her feet, but sagging. She’d lost a lot of blood and the oldsters and Ichidou, like the fellow happily snacking on his own hand, seemed to have gone mostly for the blood, rather than actually eat her flesh, though she’d lost a considerable amount of that as well. He wondered if she would survive the walk to the shrine. He didn’t want to carry her, and leaving her there to be found alive would be so much more effective than if he delivered her dead. No matter. He remounted the horse and with a wave of his hand, gestured the young woman to follow, leaving the others in the haze…he’d had to dispel quite a lot of his scent to keep them in line and it would remain for a few minutes after he left, which was fine with him. He didn’t care what happened to them now, but he didn’t feel like having them follow him.

The girl did indeed arrive at the shrine still alive, though barely. In a moment of brilliance, Toshu used his belt knife to carve the house-shaped mark Kagai had taught him before into her forehead before sending her up the steps and into the shrine. Not waiting around to see who found her and possibly get caught, he spurred the horse back northeast toward the castle. However, it was quite a distance away and the horse was already tired, so he didn’t arrive until nearly nightfall and Kagai was angry at being kept waiting – angry, that was, until Toshu told him about the youkai with the yoyo and what she’d done to the human village. He dismissed Toshu too quickly to be able to tell, but he thought Kagai seemed almost…pleased. He wondered idly if this youkai was a new bunshin Kagai hadn’t bothered to tell them about.