Taigen Watches: One Shot (Mizu/Akemi/Taigen)

Taigen Watches

**VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED. Coercion, forced prostitution, a freshly tortured Taigen, etc...**

Taigen

My entire body is ready to give up. If I don't move, my muscles remain numb. But every breath brings agony with it. My wrists and ankles are still bound to the wooden torture device in this freezing room made of stone. If I listen beyond the pounding of my heart, I can hear the waves pounding against the rock outside. I'm here, on the island that Mizu is so desperate to reach. And all I had to do was let my guard down.

I have survived one round of torture, but I know I cannot survive another. Heiji Shindo knows it too. I've been left alone for now, but for how long, I don't know. All I know is numbness and pain and the roaring in my ears. And that stupid blue eyed samurai that got me in this mess. I'm in too deep now, and I must see this madness through. I must assist Mizu in any way I can, even if that means being tortured to death.

If we make it out of this mess alive, I'll deal with him then. And at this point... I'm not sure exactly what I mean to do with him. A duel? That seems futile now. My chonmage is gone, and I can't get it back. Who would have guessed that scrappy little boy I used to terrorize would grow to such a formidable opponent.

It feels strange to respect a monster like Mizu, but it courses through me nonetheless. It has settled in my bones and twisted into something unrecognizable. All this, despite the fact that he ruined my life and my engagement to the princess. I would have been unstoppable. And Akemi is fine enough. She would have been a decent wife.

But now here I am, on the brink of death, shivering in my near nakedness, throbbing with numbness and pain, at the mercy of Heiji Shindo.

The door bursts open, and I flinch in response. Ow. Heiji Shindo's voice rings in my ears. So pointed that I don't hear the scuffling that accompanies it. "Get in! I don't know what Madame Kaji was thinking, sending ugly whores like you!"

My eyes flutter open. Except one of them is swollen shut, and the one that opens is blurry and watery. But there's no mistaking the two distinct, colorful uchikake that stumble into this stone torture chamber. There are no other layers of kimono under the colorful and decorated uchikake. Heiji Shindo is disposing of these prostitutes. Not good enough for the white devil that lives here. I can't see well enough to tell if they are beautiful or not. One of them won't lift her eyes. But I see their dark hair is loose and shiny. And the colors of their clothes swim in my vision.

Forcing my head to lift an inch, I stare at Heiji Shindo through my hair. He's in the doorway with his stump of a hand exposed, the bandage pink from blood. I hope it hurts him. I expect him to sneer at me before retreating out of the room, but he folds his arms and walks to the platform in front of me where he sits, looking down on all of us. Me and the whores. One of whom is visibly trembling. The other still won't lift her gaze from the floor. All I can see is the white cast over her skin and the red line at her eyelids.

"Well," Heiji Shindo sneers, "entertain us. Or are you not only ugly, but stupid as well."

My gaze locks with the trembling one, who's shroud in a pale lilac uchikake that exposes the top of her chest. I still can't see well, but I know what fear looks like. She isn't ugly. And she isn't a whore. My eye widens, sending a bolt of pain through my face. I know this woman. I would recognize her in her princess garb or her nightclothes. Akemi.

Akemi! Here! On this island of death! Did she follow me all the way from Kyoto?! How did she get here?! Heiji Shindo has no idea what he holds in his only remaining hand. A princess. He can't know.
Recognition dawns on Akemi's face. She lets out a whimper and then tears roll down her cheeks, smearing the white pigment  over her skin, the pink on her cheeks, the black on her eyes.