The Migong, Kingdom of Shobu

Present: Late Spring, 1472

How long as it been now? Three days? he wondered.

Bound by the restraining spell, Seiji felt the seal script pulsing against his skin as he lay on the stone slab. Though his body was trapped, his mind had wandered restlessly in and out of his memories. He'd thought about Seiren and their journey to Moutan, the royal academy, and the days spent in freedom wandering about with Iseulbi, cementing their friendship. Though he'd never admitted it out loud, he had always felt something else. Something beyond gratitude.

Outside, above the lake, he could tell that the moon had risen to its fullest as he could already feel his body responding, changing. He hissed, digging his claws into his palms. Resisting. Dark mist swirled around him, filled with ominous whispers that he couldn't make out.

In the beginning, the voices had driven him to the brink of insanity. If he let them inside his head, they'd screech at him for days. Now that he was older and more experienced, he could block them out, but they still tried to break through his defences with tricks. The fact that Seiji could resist did not bother Akuma who simply considered this part of the tempering process. The stronger Seiji became, the better suited he was to contain Akuma's power.

From above his head, Seiji heard a distant crank and then a clang that told him some poor soul, seven levels above him, had been forced into the Migong. He flinched as the smell of fear, rank and desperate, filled his heightened senses, teasing his nostrils with the tantalizing aroma of despair. Human emotions, more so than flesh, were the true sustenance of a high demon.

No...I won't...

Watching Seiji supress the urge to writhe, an amused voice came out of the darkness and whispered into his mind:

"Give in. Feast. Devour. Consume," said Akuma.

"No," Seiji ground out.

"Why fight so hard against your true nature? It is only a matter of time before you succumb. What's so difficult about accepting me? After all, I'm you," the voice laughed. "And you are me."

"We aren't the same!" Seiji hissed, feeling his insides grind and heave with the transformation. His fingers twitched as he tried not to let on how it affected him, but when the horns pushed out of his forehead and his hair started to change to a pale silver, he couldn't hold back his cry of pain.

The disembodied voice only cackled.

"My delightful vessel! The more you fight me. The more I want to possess you."

Huffing through gritted teeth, Seiji said:

"Do you have...any idea...how much you sound like an old pervert?"

Akuma's booming laughter echoed in the stone chamber.

"Seiji, Seiji! How can you say that when you've been having such impure dreams lately? Shall I let you meet your beloved? Why don't we toss you into my illusion realm and see how you fare with such temptation?"

In the dark, someone snapped their fingers. Even though he was lying down, he felt like he was falling through the air as he was sucked into Akuma's illusion realm.

"No wait--! Argh!" he howled, arching off the stone slab as another stab of pain went through him. Black and red scales rippled over his shoulders and back. So fast...too fast this time, Seiji thought to himself in despair.

Dammit...

"Pul...?" asked a high lilting voice to his left.

He turned his head and gasped, as his gaze collided with the deep dark eyes of the nine-year old Crown Prince of Moutan.

Iseulbi.

"Pul...what's wrong?" the little Prince frowned.

"A gift for you, Seiji. This time I will bypass the sacrifice above and let you enjoy the flesh of something else..." laughed the voice.

"No, Akuma! You—!" Seiji cried in horror, but the young boy walked up to the slab and placed a gentle, comforting hand on his script-covered shoulder.

"Pul...it's alright," the boy said, dark eyes full of kindness.

Seiji sat up and shoved the boy away with a cry. He fell to the floor with a cry, scraping his hand. Seiji didn't realize he was crying, until his own tears splashed onto the stone. The boy's eyes filled with pain and confusion as he stared up at Seiji.

"Get away from me, Iseulbi...run! I'm a monster. Please run!" he begged.

But it was too late.

Seiji's nostrils filled with the scent of fresh blood coming from Iseulbi's scraped wrist and his gut turned with horror. "Please, no!"

Something deep and dark and hungry opened its mouth inside him and roared: Miiinnnne! Mine...

Seiji covered his nose to stop the scent of blood, screaming: "Iseulbi run!"

"Why?" the boy prince wailed, clutching his bloodied wrist.

This isn't real...Stop...Stop yourself! Stop it! Seiji shouted inwardly, but his body had already moved on its own and he was seizing the bloodied wrist, licking it, trembling with the need to tear into the child in front of him. Instead he forced himself to let go and bit his own lip.

Scooping up the small body, he placed the weeping boy on the slab, teeth pulled back in a grimace as he fought for control. The boy trembled like a frightened deer as Seiji held him still.

Seiji closed his eyes, counting his breaths.

I won't eat him...I won't...

"But aren't you going to eat me...?" a voice asked.

Seiji stiffened and opened his eyes to look down. "What...?" he choked in surprise as he found himself crouching over a young man who looked to be about nineteen. Eyes glimmering with invitation, he was sprawled naked on the stone bed with his wrists caught above his head in Seiji's iron grip.

Seiji jerked backward, hastily releasing him.

"I'm all grown up now, Pul...can't you tell it's me...?" the young man asked, looking disappointed.

Seiji stared at him, speechless. Yet as his eyes traced the young man's features, he began to see the resemblance and as soon as he realized it he was filled with shock at himself.

Akuma's throaty chuckle echoed in Seiji's head.

"Wow...you're standing up too...this is quite the show we're having..."

Seiji flushed, one hand covering the evidence of his arousal and the other covering his eyes.

"Please get up," he said to the adult version of Iseulbi while sitting back on his heels. "There are robes over there."

"Do you...not want me? Haven't I always been the one in your heart?" asked the fake Iseulbi, saddened by his rejection.

Seiji felt his jaw go slack and then he heaved a sigh filled with bitterness.

"This illusion is absurd..." he breathed, while Akuma smirked in the background.

The demon king had tortured him for years using a whole variety of methods to force him to relinquish control over his own body, but this was a new kind of torture. To be trapped in the illusion realm was far better than going into a blood frenzy and tearing a living human to shreds, but this...Seiji blushed harder, desperately willing his erection to go down, but apparently his body had other ideas.

To think that the childhood obsession he had concealed so well for years would end up as fodder for Akuma's amusement. Unfortunately, until the moon set, Akuma's influence over him was at its height. Now that he had regained his senses, Seiji would just have to wait him out...and if that meant being accompanied by his childhood love, in whatever form, then so be it.

"Pul..." said the young man. "Tell me...tell me that I'm the one who's been in your heart."

Seiji groaned and rubbed his forehead, smile still bitter. He dropped his hands into his lap.

"Iseulbi..." he began in the gentlest voice, feeling pain in his heart. You saved me and treated me well...how could I not have you in my heart?

He opened his mouth to respond, but the air shifted again, and in place of the young man was now a young woman.

"What the...? Why is it this damned dream again?" snapped the girl in consternation. Turning, she looked him up and down, colouring slightly and said: "Oh...that's still the same too..."

Frozen by the abruptness of this change, Seiji felt like he'd turned to stone. Completely taken aback, he couldn't do anything other than stare at the girl wearing Iseulbi's face. He felt like he'd just returned to his awkward fourteen year old self.

The girl looked about with curiosity. Completely unafraid, she slipped off the stone slab and pulled a robe on, ignoring him while she took in her surroundings.

Akuma, surprised by the intruder, coalesced next to her in the form of a dark mist.

She instantly skipped backwards, landing ten feet away in a crouch.

"What are you?" Akuma hissed from within the nebulous cloud. "Who are you?" he demanded, a strange note colouring his voice. "How did you get into my illusion realm?"

"Well, this is new...two demons..." the girl muttered. She cocked her head, eyes flitting between Seiji and the formless cloud.

"Hong Yi...?" whispered the shadow. The dark cloud became motionless...even its swirls seemed to freeze mid-air.

The gears clanked loudly in Seiji's brain as the shadow form began to solidify into a more human shape. It seemed noticeably agitated and there'd been a tremor in that soft query.

Hong Yi? wondered Seiji. He watched the two as they confronted each other, almost as if they'd forgotten that he was still in the room.

The girl frowned at the coagulating shadow of Akuma. Out of the darkness, a bit of light began to glimmer and the faintest outline of something that shouldn't have been there reached toward her. For an instant, Seiji thought he saw the swish of blond hair and the blue horns of a dragon, but the image was swallowed back into the shadow cloud.

"No...you're not her..." Akuma affirmed, though doubt still tinged the demon's tone.

"I'm Feiyan," said the girl. "But if this is just a dream...then I should be able to do this..."

She twirled a finger, and a small bloom of flame immediately popped up, dancing on the tip of her nail.

"Divine fire! That's...No!!" the shadow cried with a rising screech as a column of fire suddenly erupted around it.

"Why not?" asked the girl with a laugh. "It's my dream and since I have full control this time, why shouldn't I punish a shifty demon?"

Seiji's mouth dropped open as Akuma's form evaporated, leaving only a few floating cinders. Incredibly, Akuma's presence had vanished, telling him that Akuma had been completely ejected from the illusion.

Satisfied, the girl flicked her fingers and the flames died as quickly as they had risen.

"How did you do that?" he demanded.

"Actually, I'm not sure myself...but let's not talk about that right now..."

Seiji didn't like the sudden grin she turned on him.

"Now, as for you, my pretty demon. It's now my turn to punish you!" the girl smirked, dropping her robe in a pool at her feet.