The Demon Queen

The Blue Spider Lily (Part 1)

"Oooh, and you've brought Gyutaro-kun!" Douma waved at Gyutaro. "Nice to see ya! How are you doing?"

"Is this really what I've got to put up with?" Gyutaro mumbled under his breath.

"Yup," I mumbled back to him.

Gyutaro sighed a little. "Hello, good evening, Douma-san," he said flatly and tried to smile.

This smile was his awkward, forced, tooth-filled smile.

Douma smiled brightly at him. "Oh!" He clapped his hands together. "You've gotten so polite and respectful! I don't see you that often. It's just your sister who comes by here sometimes --"

"For food!?" Gyutaro piped up with suddenly-excited eyes.

The pots rattled in his arms.

I shot a few tentacles from my body and threw them to the pots to stablilise them.

"Damn it, don't chip them, Dandruff Boy!"

"Calm down! They're not cracking, Scarface!"

Douma gasped. "What did you call her!?"

Gyutaro and I both fell quiet.

"It's not a big deal, Douma. We always call each other names," I said.

"Y-yeah, it's just what we do so don't get excited," Gyutaro said in a shaky voice.

Douma put his hands on his hips. "You do realise that I did a lot of work on those scars, my little birthmarked friend --"

"What did you call me?" Gyutaro asked in a squeaky voice.

"And you need to respect the work I've put in on Sakura-chan's face," Douma continued. "It took a long time to fade those scars and I don't appreciate --"

I pushed some pots into Douma's chest. "Douma, shut up and take some of these."

Douma took the pots and looked at me. His face scrunched up. "Ewww, will you put those slimy tentacles away, please!" he whined. "They're so disgusting, Sakura-chan!"

Gyutaro looked curiously at Douma. "Huh? I didn't know he could be like that."

I looked back at him. "You've been around close to 100 years and you didn't know?"

"Sakura-chan! They have scales! Ewwww!"

Gyutaro started to laugh.

I turned back to Douma and sucked the tentacles back into my body. "How do you hang out with Gyokko so much these days if you get squeamish over tentacles?"

"Because I expect it from Gyokko. Not from you," he replied with a pout.

"Oh. Well, I am very sorry."

"You don't mean that."

"Nope."

Douma sighed dramatically. "Ahhh, you're always out to tease me, Sakura-chan!"

"Oi, Douma-san," Gyutaro said as he stepped over with the mini tower of pots he was holding. "Have you got a place for me to put these? And maybe some sweets? I'm a hungry boy and need some sugar."

"Huh?" Douma looked at him. "Oh. Sure. Of course," he said and led us to the room he stored the pots in.

After putting away the pots, we ended up in Douma's dining room. Douma and I each had a cup of tea in front of us while Gyutaro sat stuffing his mouth with sweets.

Douma laughed a little. "Don't be so fast now, you might get sick," he said to Gyutaro.

Gyutaro wasn't paying any attention to us. His focus was solely on the sweets.

"Now, to business," I said to Douma and had a sip of tea.

"Ah. The Blue Spider Lily."

"Yup."

Douma started to fidget with his cup on the table. "Well ... ehm ... I really don't have any good news."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Your followers still can't find it?"

"They found it," he said. "I mean, the field that it grows in, and a local charcoal salesman in the region verified to my followers that the flower grows there, but ..."

"But what?" I asked, my hand holding the teacup so tightly that it was close to shattering in my grasp.

"There was a fire that raged through the field some time ago," Douma said. "And all of the flowers were burnt. And they never grew back."