Shuto, Kingdom of Shobu

Winter, 1461

Seigen, King of Shobu, sat on his throne and regarded the small, bedraggled creature chained in the talisman sealed cage with a bored tilt to his head. There were only a few in the audience chamber and the unnatural cries of the creature echoed in the hall.

The creature hissed and bared its teeth at the guards who stood next to cage, banging and rattling enough that they had to ward it away from the door with spears. Covering its head with its small white arms, and long clawed fingers, it gave a few fearful whines. Except for the two horns thrusting up from its forehead, and it's unusual colouring, it looked nothing like a fearsome demon that could effortlessly rip men to shreds.

Hair matted with a thick dark substance, hanging down in clumps all over the rags that barely covered its body and caked in dried dirt, it looked more like a child that had fallen into a mud puddle, but its eyes...the slitted ruby red eyes that stared out from beneath the fringe of hair glowed like molten lava....and there was nothing human about the look in them. What they saw...no one could be sure.

The King seemed to look at the creature for a long time, and then said:

"This is the weapon I was promised?" he asked, with some dissatisfaction. "It looks...weak."

Furusawa stiffened slightly as the King seemed to think that the massacre in Moutan's Northern Forest was some sort of joke, but it was true that the creature in the cage looked quite pathetic at the moment.

When he had returned to the Northern Forest to see if the assassination of Prince Seiren had been carried out as Lady Sakurako had commanded, he had found that thing crouched over the Crown Prince's body covered in blood. The surrounding area of forest had been flattened and bodies and body parts littered the ground for as far as the eye could see.

Before he could even register what it was, the creature had leapt onto him and slashed open his face, blinding his left eye. It would have stabbed him through the heart with its sharp claws had he not jabbed at it with a dagger and then grabbed it by the throat. He could have choked it to death, but Lady Sakurako's handmaiden, Kana, had intervened.

Laughing in delight, she had picked up the child demon by the scruff, giggling as it squirmed and clawed at her, drawing thin bloody lines all along her alabaster arm as she held it high in the air, turning it this way and that.

"Ahhhhh!" she breathed in delight. "My Lord will be pleased! We shall see to it that you grow well, my little Master! Hush now...stop your kicking and screaming, child..."

The horned child only howled in response, still scrabbling.

Clutching at his bleeding face, it took inhuman effort for Furusawa to quell his rage.

"What is that?!" he demanded, his voice hoarse with anger and pain.

"You really don't know?" she asked, sounding disdainful.

He only glared at her out of his one good eye.

Lady Kana eyed him darkly for a moment, and then flung the still struggling creature away with a great crash, knocking it unconscious. Sighing, she crouched down next to Furusawa, and put a hand over his torn face, chanting something under her breath. The pain slowly melted away and was replaced by an itching burn where she touched, and when she finally drew her hand away, he realized that his wounds had been healed. However, he now only vision in the one eye.

"Thank you for your kindness," he grunted, unable to completely avoid the remaining resentment from colouring his tone.

"I am sorry that I won't be able to recover your sight. When you return, perhaps my Mistress, can return it to you. However, it should make it more convincing for you to report that you escaped Moutan's ambush of the Prince, should it not? It would have been hard to imagine that you escaped unscathed."

The disdain remained in Lady Kana's tone, but he knew better than to take issue with it. The person behind her was not someone he wanted to offend. Gathering himself, he stood, and went over to the body of the young man that he had sworn his loyalty to and had called his Prince.

Even in death, and despite the gaping hole in his side, Prince Seiren looked serene. How he could have maintained his composure at such a time, even Furusawa had to admit a grudging admiration. The boy, only seventeen, had died with his sword still in his hand...a courageous death.

With an abrupt churn of his gut, Furusawa suddenly realized that the thing crouched over the body had been protecting it. The fact that the Prince's body and face were mostly whole except for his battle wounds meant that the corpse had been sheltered from the ravages of wild animals and crows. The surrounding bodies, in comparison were much worse for wear.

That disgusting creature...could it possibly be...?

He shoved the thought away immediately, swallowing it back. It would not do to think of it or what it meant...as far as he was concerned, the second Prince had also died in the ambush.

For his part in the assassination, Furusawa felt no regret. Being a younger son of a minor noble house, his ability to inherit the meager assets left by his father was much reduced. Thus, a war would provide an opportunity to distinguish himself in battle and accumulate merits to make a name for himself. The political movements and the infighting of his superiors did not concern him. He was not really interested in power. He only asked for opportunity and decent rewards and if that meant that some unsavoury things had to occur for him to obtain his goals, then so be it. Seiren had treated him well, but he'd been young and idealistic. His idea of governing was to maintain peace. Respectful of onmyoji and sorcerers alike, Seiren had cultivated neither in his contingent, openly rejecting their power. That seeming lack of ambition had made him a pleasant, but undesirable leader for someone like Furusawa.

And now, the small white demon had taken one of Furusawa's eyes. Whether or not he'd be able to recover it, it would now hamper his efforts to move up in life.

Kana watched the man beside her as he dumped the Prince's corpse onto a litter to drag back to the horse cart that was waiting for them. She had seen the flicker of emotions on his face that he thought he had concealed well, but then with her abilities, she had always seen more clearly than others the secrets of men's heart.

Internally she scoffed a little. The most unknowable thing was the human heart. Her lips curled slightly. Even demons kept their word, especially in contract, but humans were perpetual liars...

Slowly, she lifted her skirts away from the blood churned mud, and went to get the demon child that she had been instructed to retrieve.

So this is the vessel that our Master has been waiting for all these years.

She frowned a bit in confusion.

Why would our Master want this flawed thing? It's not even a purebred...a weak thing with a human heart...

Shrugging, Kana picked it up with one hand and tossed it onto the litter beside its dead brother, letting Furusawa drag it away. As an afterthought, she sent a talisman paper whirling after, slapping it down on the child's forehead until they could find proper restraints.

Furusawa did not question Lady Kana about it, and she made no attempts to enlighten him. Even when the cage was brought into the audience chamber and set before the King of Shobu, he pretended not to know who was in it. Kana showed neither disgust nor satisfaction. Having completed her task, she only folded her arms, and returned to stand next to her seated mistress, the Lady Sakurako.

Hearing Seigen's skeptical pronouncement, the Lady Sakurako only smiled. She rose gracefully, her silk gown rustling as she slowly descended the dais. Gliding toward the cage with the purposefulness of a snake, she paused in amusement when it shrieked at her.

"My Lord, it is not fully matured...but do not be disappointed. While it is in this state, it still has its use. Since raw materials must be tempered...just set it loose on the battlefield. You will find it...interesting and worthwhile."

Seigen snorted, but he looked slightly appeased.

"So be it. For now, just lock it in the annex of out sight."

The four guards bowed and began to roll the cage out.

"Faa! Faa!" the thing screeched. "Faaaaa! Agh! Ngh...Argh!!!"

Flinching, Furusawa realized that it was incapable of human speech in its present form, but it wasn't hard to guess what the creature had been trying to say. Furusawa coughed a little, shifting awkwardly.

Still smiling genteelly, the Lady Sakurako turned her limpid gaze to him, inundating him with the full force of her beauty.

"Furusawa Ranmaru...you have done well to escape Moutain's ambush and retrieve our poor Seiren's body. Do you have something to say?" she asked brightly.

He bowed.

"I only did my duty, my Lady..." he answered gruffly, but then he straightened and said: "Your Majesty...if the creature cannot be controlled...when we let it loose on the battlefield, how do we keep it from killing our own men?" he asked, suddenly awkward.

He wanted to show proper and polite deference to the Lady and to the King, but in the end, he was also a military man and he could not help showing some pragmatism and his concern for the well-being of those who would fall under his command.

Kana's breath hissed out at the audacity.

Seigen leaned back, frowning, but he did not feel that Furusawa's question had been overly impertinent.

"My dear Sakurako, you are the cleverest. I will leave it to you to direct Furusawa. Shobu has long been in readiness: once the spring melt has occurred, we will move against Moutan. If that creature can be used, so much the better."

Sakurako dipped courteously to the King, her smile serene.

"As my Lord wishes," she agreed graciously. "Come Furusawa. You've yet to be rewarded..."

Bowing to his king, he followed the Lady into a side chamber. The door closed on the view of his distant and uncaring sovereign leaving Furusawa with his bewitching consort.

"Kana told me what happened," she said softly. "You have my gratitude for retrieving the child for me as he will play a very important part in the war."

Furusawa nodded politely.

It occurred to him that Kana, having arrived at the same time as he, would not have had time to apprise the Lady of the details of what had happened, but he did not question it.

"Your eye. Do you want your sight back? I can return it...but once it's done, your sight will belong to me. Do you understand what that means?" Lady Sakurako asked.

"My Lady...no, I...I don't understand..." he said, shaking his head in puzzlement.

Furusawa had not had many dealings with sorcery. In fact, Lady Kana had surprised him when she sealed up his wound. While he was aware that the Lady Sakurako was an even more powerful sorceress than Kana, he wasn't sure he understood what she meant.

"Furusawa, magic cannot create; it can only take from elsewhere. Kana simply knitted your flesh together, but she did not give you back your sight. Once something is lost, in order to retrieve it, something equivalent must be given as it goes against the natural order. Do you understand?" she explained, patiently.

Swallowing, he nodded.

"An exchange must be made," he said, finally understanding. Although the pit of his stomach flipped, he clenched his jaw. This opportunity would not come again. To be made whole in exchange for some small thing of his would allow him to do what he wanted.

"Yes, an exchange," Lady Sakurako smiled, delighted that he had grasped it so quickly. "If you agree, then I can give you your sight, but in return, everything that you see, I will also see through you. It will not harm you and it will not occur all the time. In fact, you will be quite unaware of it."

"Yes, my Lady," he nodded.

"Do you agree then?" she asked again, confirming a third time.

"Yes, my lady," he affirmed. "I agree to be your eyes."

"Good!" she smiled gently. "Then, please sit."

Gesturing to the seat, she made him sit down and then she came to stand behind him. He jolted a bit as he felt every hair on the back of his neck stand up, but he refused to shy away from it. He had decided and he would not back out of it now.

Calmly, she put a cool hand over the damaged eye while placing her other hand on his opposite shoulder to steady him. She was so close that he could feel her breath on his nape, and it sent an inexplicable shiver up his spine.

"Furusawa, there will be pain, but you must bear it. While it is a shame that I cannot restore its original appearance and you will have to cover it for the rest of your life, your sight will be greatly improved...You will see be able to see through the covering and for a much greater distance."

"Then I thank you in advance, my Lady," said Furusawa. "Please begin."

"Very well..." she said. "Please bear with me and whatever you do, do not move."

At first Furusawa only gasped and panted, but by the end, tears were streaming out of his undamaged eye and he was grunting and sweating as the pain of a piercing flame burned in the eye socket. He felt like someone was stabbing him repeatedly with a thousand needles as the eye was slowly reconstituted.

Sakurako had pressed his shoulder down with a surprisingly iron grip, keeping him immobile as she held her hand over his eye. When she released him and he opened it, he was shocked and gratified by the flare of vision. He could clearly see the room around him, and he could see the Lady's face in sharp focus when she came around to check the eye's appearance.

What he could not see, when the Lady examined it, was that a round blood red seal was slowly rotating over a translucent red iris with a black pupil at its center, replacing what was once a dark brown. Satisfied, the Lady handed him a cloth and he gratefully wiped his face of tears and sweat.

"Always keep it covered for it is not for others to see," she said, handing him a leather flap on a string. He placed it over the eye, but he was shocked to find that he could still see despite the fact that the leather flap was snugly fitted to his face.

As if reading his mind, she said:

"It will take some practice to get used to, but once you have learned, you will be able to 'close' off your sight when you rest. Do not fear."

"Thank you, my Lady. I am indebted to you," he said, moving to kneel before her.

"There's no need. I have what I wanted. A further reward is waiting at the Ministry of Revenue. You may collect it when you leave here. As to the child...once the war has been initiated, I will send you some assistance to keep it in check. You may go."

Seeing that he had been dismissed, he hastily climbed to his feet, bowed, and excused himself from the Lady's presence.

"Disgusting," said Kana, slinking out of an alcove. "How he can rationalize everything that he's done just like that..."

"Hush, Kana. He is a useful pawn, and his misplaced reasoning is also useful. Why waste time lying to him, when he lies so well to himself?"

"What will happen if he regrets it, Mistress?"

"Since he made the contract, his eyes are mine...there's no need to fret."

Kana sighed and folded her arms.

"What about the little horned one, Mistress?"

"Once he is set loose on the battlefield, ensure to collect the soul of everything he kills in order to replenish the Master. I am looking forward to..."

"Mama...are my brothers back?" interrupted a childish voice from the entry.

"Keizo!" Sakurako startled. "What are you doing here?"

Kana rushed forward to gather the sleepy young boy in her arms.

"Kei! Auntie Kana has missed you! Did you miss me?" she asked, cuddling him against her, distracting him from his question.

Giggling the boy nodded, rubbing his eyes as he smiled.

"Mama...?"

"Yes Keizo, let's get you back to bed..." she answered, gently.

Showing a moment of affection that she rarely showed, Sakurako smiled at her only child.

If all goes well, with everything I've done...Keizo will be safe...

She exchanged a look with Kana, and once they were sure there was no one in the vicinity, they carefully exited the side chamber, carrying Keizo back to his room.

However, their presence was noted by the tiny dark eyes of a cotton ball bird.