The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune

Kaede sat as far away and as close as she could to the humming demon as he folded his long body into a happy pretzel and went to work on her arrow. Suddenly a whetstone thumped heavily on the grass at the demon metal smith’s long narrow feet and he appeared to be having some sort of epileptic fit.

Hands patting himself down in all directions, Totosai couldn’t find it! Where was it – he was going to look like a real idiot in front of this pretty little miko! Thin face white in panic, Totosai continued to search his person for a very important item. His professional reputation was on the line here – what if this girl told every demon she met about the inability of the great Totosai, sword maker to the Kami themselves to sharpen even a small arrowhead!

Had the fool pursued that train of thought even a little ways out of the station, he needn’t have worried. Any demons she did tell of his inadequacies would have soon become purified ash, dull arrow or not. Problem solved. But alas – this is Totosai we’re talking about; most demons thought he was the most talented, gifted and airheaded craftsman to walk the land of Japan and he was never the wiser.

Left eyebrow quirked in disbelief, Kaede wondered what sort of demon she’d fallen into. As she curiously watched and strove desperately for professional detachment, the young miko noticed something about the tall demon: tanned taunt skin flashed at her here and there while Totosai hunted around in his kimono. The idiot was unwittingly flashing her his body in his single-minded search and the miko within her drew back in fury – was the idiot trying to plunder her purity? The seventeen-year old girl within her rushed forward with hungry eyes and wondered – was the idiot not aware of how good those brief glimpses of muscular male anatomy looked? Shaking her head in irritation, the young miko’s cheeks flared a bright red and then took the express train to downright crimson when Totosai finally pushed the right side of his kimono down to his elbow and bared his wide chest to her rapidly blinking eye.

She started to breathe again once he found what he was looking for and redressed himself. Kaede hoped in those brief few moments that her mind was out and not taking messages that she hadn’t been noticed ogling the lanky demon before her.

She wasn’t worried about Totosai; she knew he hadn’t noticed, the big idiot. She was more concerned about any villagers who might be in the area and buckled her little screaming hentai tight within the recesses of her mind, determined not to let her control slip again. She was a miko, not some drunk, horny tavern wench looking to worm her hands into that green and black kimono and run fingertips over the fine looking flesh below… Stop it, stop it stop it!

Totosai smirked when he cocked an eye at the closely-wrapped and oh-so-formal figure of the girl before him. He’d felt the vial he was searching for bump out of its interior pocket within his clothes and following the ties around his waist with one hand, the blacksmith, looking to share his ultimate triumph with the nearest creature, had caught the young Keade nearly drooling over the sight of him. She never even blinked when he turned around, hand still shoved in his clothes and made sure it was him she was looking at. Maybe she wasn’t such a cold fish after all…

Totosai grinned when she began to frown and shake her head. Even he knew you couldn’t dislodge certain thoughts once the mold was cast. He knew he wasn’t really much to look at, but if it got the girl into his arms for some quality face-in-boobs time, well then he’d be happy to play the stud card. But first, to the business at hand; the demon blacksmith was as partial to cute, little females as most young men but his first love would always be steel, iron and fire.

“I found it! I knew I had gotten some last time of I was at the sea – whale oil is the best lubricant for the sharpening stone. These points will be sharp enough to pierce even the toughest turtle yokai’s shell.” Totosai happily nattered on to no one in particular.

He couldn’t have planned it better if he’d tried. Kaede’s mouth went slack as she watched the demon before her strip to the waist, lean forward and begin slowly, methodically whetting her arrow point. She could see the white twisted silk of a fundoshi that peeked out rhythmically as the smith bent forward and drew back, his short attention span incredibly focused upon his work. Was there no part of this demon’s body that was not tanned by the sun? Compared to the whiteness of her own chest, this creature’s body was like a foreign delicacy just waiting for her tongue. Especially those massively broad shoulders and those long, muscular arms; Kaede swallowed hard and absently scratched the side of her eyepatch with a glazed look in her eye. As the demon leaned relentlessly foreword and drew back, the image of her naked body taking the place of that very slick and somehow… lucky whetstone flashed into her mind and caused her to choke on the hungry sigh that was threatening to escape her.

Turning away from the vision before her eye, Kaede forced her mind to remember its training and its guilt at even considering lying with the enemy! Bad miko! She was going to march herself straight to the nearest shrine waterfall and purify herself within an inch of her life! Feeling a small tugging on her shoulder, Kaede whipped her herself back around, ready to brandish her bow like a cudgel.

The point of the damn thing very nearly made Totosai a Cyclops himself as he froze in the awkward position of being on his knees with a hand in the girl’s quiver, which once she turned back around meant that his bare chest was pulled hard into her face.

Before she could stop herself, Kaede slipped her tongue out and tasted the demon’s tan skin. Then she remembered herself and screamed.