Eitsu's Nine Lives (永津の九生) [yuri/GL yokai reincarnation story]

40 - Īśānī

A/N: We've reached Chapter 40!

Uh... this chapter is... It's fucked up. There's no other way to say it.

CW: NSFW. 

Tsubaki whimpered like a wounded animal.

She massaged the paws of the dead cat, squeezed its shoulders, rubbed and patted its back and sides vigorously. The corpse lay unresponsive on her lap.

A strained gurgling sound bubbled from Tsubaki's throat. She cast desperately around the room as if there might be something there that would resurrect the dead cat.

Nothing.

A fresh wave of horrible tears overcame her, and she clutched the body close, rocking wildly back and forth as she sobbed.

Eitsu had been frozen all this time. At this point, she marched to stand in front of Tsubaki and crouched down right before her. "Hey!"

No response.

The kaibyou immediately looked to Bunshyo, who tried to pretend she had not been watching the whole situation intently.

"This is a mirage. What's this all about?"

The house, the projection of Tsubaki, the dead cat, everything collapse into dust immediately. Bunshyo mutely turned away.

A hand fell on her shoulder. Five sharp claws pierced the flesh mercilessly.

"Well?"

"Sh-Shinigami Mou ordered..." Bunshyo croaked, her voice rough and dry with disuse like the pages of ancient books.

"Why?"

Bunshyo looked away. Eitsu dug her claws even deeper, feeling bone.

The shinigami might be dead, but she still felt pain. She writhed and rasped hastily, "I don't know! I don't know! I was told to retrieve memories of you from the deceased, but this is the only one I could find!"

"And why is that?"

"Some of the dead are... control... it's hard. Those with strong wills can sometimes hide things."

"So you grabbed the only memory you could find and trotted it out in front of me, hoping for... what, exactly? This?" She shook Bunshyo with the hand clamped into the flesh of the shinigami's shoulder, like a cat with a rat.

"No... No... I don't know. Shinigami Mou said to observe your reaction."

"Shinigami Mou is doing a lot of ordering around. Is this Izanami's orders?"

Bunshyo's eyes widened at Eitsu's lack of respectful titles for the Queen of Yomi, but the claws in her shoulder soon brought her back to the situation at hand. "I don't know. Shinigami Mou never said."

"Right." Eitsu let go of Bunshyo and calmly washed her fingers with her tongue. The blood tasted strange, but not unpleasant. "We're going back."

*

"You ordered what?" Izanami asked coldly.

"Divine Majesty." Mou trembled but remained firm. "We cannot trust the kaibyou. I simply wanted to test her-"

"And who gave you the authority to do that?"

The shinigami bit her lip and closed her eyes. "Y-Your Majesty... I am retribution, revenge against injustice. I-"

"Whose retribution? Whose revenge?"

"Y-Yours, Divine Majesty."

"So when I speak, you move. Did I speak, Shinigami?"