Journal Entry Five

There were a few jumps between the last jump and this next one. I’m not putting them in because I don’t remember them clearly enough to write about them. I think this is partly a matter of the simple passage of time and partly the after affects of the horrendous beatings I received. Those days are forever lost to me. I doubt I’m going to miss them.

I’d passed out before I hit the ground. When I came around, I was face to snout with an enormous black and red dragon. The creature blew air out of its nostrils, making me blink a little when some of the fresh blood covering my naked body dried in the suddenly arid, sulfur scented air. I blinked again when it turned its head to call two people over. My brows furrowed as I tried to understand the growled words. It took me a moment to realize that the creature was speaking Japanese. Soon, two figures came over; a man and a woman. The woman, skin so pale it seemed to be bleached and robed in black, rested a slender hand on the dragon’s side. I noticed for the first time that the sky was dark and had lightning dancing from the clouds.

“Hono’o-kun, darenga kanojodeska?” She asked the dragon in a strangely penetrating voice. It took all of my concentration to decipher what she was saying, much less translate it.

“Wakarimasen. Kanojowa tatta ima mezamashta,” came the gravely reply.

The woman nodded, and her green on black eyes came to rest on the man suddenly kneeling by my side. I looked up at him, brows furrowed in confusion at what was going on, not being able to translate what I should know.

“Daijubudeska?” he asked me softly, frowning at my slightly wide-eyed look at his long auburn hair and deep blue, almost black robes. “Onamae wa nandeska?” He tried again. He sighed at my slight, pained headshake.

He then rested a hand on his chest, keeping constant eye contact with me as the woman examined my broken and bloodied body. “Hoshi Majutsushi,” he waited for my slight nod before motioning to the woman at my other side with an open hand, “Ryu Josei.” I nodded a little again. He rested a gentle hand on my bare shoulder, being careful not to touch the bone-exposing gash that was there, a curious look in his cobalt eyes.

“Diana,” I whispered.

He nodded slightly and looked to Ryu Josei.

“Kanojowa naosuo hitsuyo to imas,” she commented softly. “Watashiwa nani mo suru ga dekimas nai.” Again, he nodded and gathered me into his arms as gently as possible. Still, something shifted inside my body and I screamed in agony before darkness stole all awareness away.

Over the next few days, I slowly recovered and my Japanese finally came back to me. Their healer, a small man with long copper curls, Kagayaku Sakura, helped me deal with all my physical injuries, while their lead teacher and mage, a tall, broad shouldered and silver haired man by the name of Saisho no Chishiki, helped me brush up on my Japanese skills and taught me about this  world.

There was an unknown mage grabbing at leadership of the towns and tribes scattered over the land. My equivalent, Chikyu no Ban’nin, had power over all the elements and was the main person handling the attacks. She was hardly ever around, so I never really met her. Hoshi, Ryu, Sakura, Saisho and their lead warrior, Inazuma no Senshi, assist her efforts and head the military and civilian populations. These names, by the way, were all titles, I never found out their given names. Inazuma and I had, not surprisingly, become friends. Though, I did find it odd how we were never able to be alone together.

When I was finally able to walk, the sunshine haired man would spar with me or just hang out together with one of the others when they weren’t working and I wasn’t helping someone  out.

One day, we were walking together, along with Sakura and Ryu, through the forest along a wide path. Sakura was playfully tugging at the shimmering red mixed in Ryu’s ebon hair, while she, in return, would keep reaching over to undo the bow holding Sakura’s cloak closed at his throat.

“By the gods, you two,” Inazuma laughed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you two were brother and sister, not comrades in  arms!”

“Hey,” the pale woman protests, “he started it! He burst in on me while I was bathing and dumped a bucketful of that jasmine love elixir stuff in the water. Do you know what that does to a person?!”

The healer grinned wickedly at her. “What are you complaining about? You yourself said you enjoyed, and more importantly, needed it.”

She snorted. “Maybe so, but I was late for that meeting because you and our resident scholar wanted another go with me. I felt so bad for making poor Hoshi wait for me!”

“That man needs to learn  patience, and who better to teach it to him than a fellow sky dweller?” Emerald eyes looked over the black robed woman. “And you didn’t need to send Hono’o Tamashii to incinerate my favorite riding cloak.” He paused before grumbling, “…stupid dragon…”

“I heard that,” a deep voice came from above. A wind blew hair and clothing back when the massive black and red wings thrusted one last time as the dragon landed in front of us.  “ ‘Stupid dragon,’ indeed. You should be thanking me, healer. That was one of the ugliest pieces of clothing I’ve ever seen.”

“It was not ugly! It was simply…classic.”

Inazuma snickered. “There’s a difference between classic and moth-eaten, stained and ragged.”

Ryu laughs. “Hai! It could have been worse.” Her eyes twinkle darkly at Sakura’s curious look. “You could have been wearing it while he was burning it.”

The green robed man was about to retort when the sharp sound of Inazuma’s blade sliding free of its sheath interrupted him. “Ryu,” he says in a low voice, “take Hono’o and get Sakura and Diana out of here.”

I summoned my sword to my side and looked the blond haired warrior in the eye. “I will help you.”

He looked at me measuringly before nodding to Ryu. The pale woman pulled Sakura onto Hono’o’s back behind her before looking back down to the two warriors. “We will return once we drop Sakura off.”

Inazuma nodded as his blade bit into the flesh of the first attacking soldier. From the dull brown uniforms they wore, I could tell they were of a small army trying to get in with our adversaries by picking off one of the leaders on our side.

I fought alongside him for about fifteen minutes when we heard dual roars from above. Over us, Ryu, perched upon Hono’o’s back, between his wings, held up her glowing hands, green flame, matching the glow of her eyes, passing from her to her adversary. The man she battled, equally as pale as she with green streaked black hair and red glowing eyes, his own hands blazing with red fire. The dragon he was on was a beast of shimmering ivory and exchanging hot orange flames with the majestic black and red creature Ryu is partnered with.

I didn’t have time to watch the awesome light show above because the people I battled suddenly seem to multiply. I yelped when, with a sudden crash of thunder, lightning struck just behind me. When I looked over to my comrade, his eyes were crackling with lightning all their own.

“Get down!” I screamed as I summon my silver bow and arrows to me, cocking an arrow, pulling back and letting fly as soon as the blond man is flat on the ground. The man about to smash the spiked club over the back of  Inazuma’s head, dropped his weapon and gripped his neck, suddenly pierced by my arrow. He gurgled once before falling over, dead. The arrow shimmered away as we both looked around, finding ourselves the last ones standing and only slightly injured. He had a shallow gash over his left eye, and I had a slightly deeper one in my shoulder. We’d both need stitches, but not healings.

“Need a ride?”

We looked up at the voice as Ryu and Hono’o landed.

I grinned a little, pressing a hand to my bleeding shoulder. “Hai. Going our way?”

She laughed, her usually pale skin pink or blistering red in places. “To give Sakura a little business? What do you say, Hono’o-kun? Think you can handle two more passengers that far?”

“Unless Inazuma’s been into the sweet cakes again, I do not think that will be too much weight.” If dragons could smirk, he would have been.

I couldn’t help chuckling at that as Ryu gave me a hand up, the blond haired man sticking his tongue out at the woman and dragon as he mounted behind me.

That night, after I told my part of my story and got my shoulder stitched up, I was lying in bed, drifting in that land between sleep and wakefulness. I turned over groggily at the light touch running down my bare arm.

“Mm…?” I murmured as I opened my eyes to see the head of the military kneeling by my sleeping mat. “J…err…Inazuma?” I sat up, pulling the oversized, sleeveless shirt back up over my shoulder and rubbing my eyes. “Do you need something?”

“Hai,” he murmured, “you.” Before I could reply, he leaned over and crushed his mouth to mine in a hard kiss.

“Mmph, Inazuma,” I pushed back from him. “I can’t…not healed enough…”

He growled softly, and it was then that I knew that wasn’t going to stop him. I clenched my teeth and thrusted my hand up into his face, aiming to claw his eyes with my nails. However, he caught my hand in a stony grip and I felt my energy somehow draining away.

“No,” I whispered as he looked down at me with eyes that sparkled with power.

“Don’t worry,” he leaned down to whisper in my ear, easily overpowering my weak struggling. “I won’t hurt you much, and you won’t remember this tomorrow. This will be nothing more than a dream. Your energy is close enough to Chikkyu’s that it will help Seishin Karada, my true mistress.”

He moved down, his mouth mere centimeters from my neck and his breath barely whispered over the skin as he continued. “Anyway, I’ve always wanted to bed Chickyu.” He licked my neck. “But you’ll do.” With that, he bit at the junction between my neck and shoulder, the sharp pain made me inhale sharply. He suckled my neck, right over the cut, and I felt life leaving me. I tried to push him back, but he took my arms and pinned them over my head.

“No you don’t,” he whispered as he lent up to look me in the eye, his lips crimson with my blood. Horror gripped my heart as I saw bloody fangs gleaming through his grin. “I’m not done yet. Part of you is in me. Now to cement the bond.”

“No,” I whimpered weakly as he pressed his lips to mine. The metallic taste of my own blood flooded my mouth as I felt him pulling the shirt up and off over my head, leaving me naked under him as he somehow worked his own pants off while still holding me pinned. He lowered himself into me. The sudden agony made me sob into his mouth, tears slipping from my squeezed shut eyes.

With every thrust of his hips, I felt something tear inside me. One statement repeated in my head in a horrible mantra.

He betrayed me.

The pain drowned out the rage, and I sobbed helplessly through the entire act, turning my head from him when he shot his seed deep into my injured womb.

When he pulled out of me, he looked down and blinked at my blood mixed with his own fluids coating his softening erection. He frowned, took my chin between his fingers and turned my head to look at him.

“…p…please,” I whispered in a broken voice, eyes misted over with tears. “…no more…”

“No,” he answered softly, blood stained lips turned down slightly at the edges in a frown. “No more tonight. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

I didn’t want him touching me anymore, but there was no strength left for me to fight with. I was drained from both the energetic and physical ravaging. He picked me up, surprisingly gentle as he carried me to his private bathing chambers, being careful not to be seen by anyone.

I couldn’t look at him as he gently washed my entire body, being very careful of my wounds, before leaving me to soak in the warm water while he cleaned the mess left in my quarters. Exhausted tears fell from my eyes as I sat there, unable to move.

When I was finally allowed to lay back down on my mat, he leaned over me and traced a pattern on my forehead, between my brows, while murmuring something too soft for me to hear. As soon as the last word left his lips, I dropped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next morning, I remembered nothing, save for what I thought was a vague nightmare. The soreness I blamed on my pre-existing wounds. This continued for a week. Every night, the betrayal and shock stung as painfully as it had that first time, only to be forgotten after the almost ritual cleaning. I didn’t know that the nightmare of rape and vampirism was true. After all, Inazuma was always his sweet, funny self during the day. Why should the nights be any different?

With the pull of the sword now added to everything, I was slowly beginning to crack and start the slow spiral into insanity. Finally, after everyone heard the story and Chikyu more or less ordered me to be examined physically and magically, did the dual facts of the rapes and the spell come to light. Unfortunately, there was no way to tell who the rapist was or to break the spell.

I was moved to new quarters and guarded over by Chickyu herself that first night. At his usual time, Inazuma showed up, running his fingers down my arm as he usually did. That’s as far as he got though. My instinctive cringe gave it all away. The body remembers, even if the mind does not. He yelped as his arm was twisted painfully behind his back. When I sat up, I saw Chickyu holding a dagger to Inazuma’s throat.

“So our suspicions were right. How could you betray us like this? How could you do this to Diana?” She growled.

Wide blue eyes looked out of a frightened face at me as he whispered, “I had no choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“I…” he closed his eyes.  “I was captured by the mage, Seishin Karada, and,” tears escaped, “she changed me. Threatened to   kill me if I didn’t…”

Chikyu’s grip had loosened on him and she brought the dagger away from his throat.

“Well try to help you, Inazuma…”

“No…” he shook his head. “There’s only one path for me now…”

He unsheathed a dagger from down by his ankle and, before either of us could do anything to stop him, he plunged it deep into his belly, black blood blossoming on his shirt. He fell to his knees, face contorted with pain as he ripped the dagger up through his midsection. Chickyu fell to her knees behind him, cradling him in her arms as I leapt to my feet and dashed to Sakura and Saisho’s quarters, clad only in that oversized, unlaced shirt that constantly fell over one shoulder. They were curled together in their bed.

“Guys,” I said in a slightly breathless voice, “Inazuma needs you!” I turned on my heal and dashed back to my new quarters, the two trouser clad lovers right behind me.

The details of what happened next I don’t remember because as soon as Saisho lifted the binding spell from Inazuma so Sakura could heal him, every night I was raped in that reality rushed into vivid detail into my mind. Hoshi and Chikyo had to hold me back to prevent me from killing Inazuma myself.

The next day, after I’d recovered from my stint with insanity and while Inazuma was still resting from the extensive healing done on him, the rest of us were standing outside of the stone castle they called home. I was preparing to leave. The pull of the sword wasn’t that strong yet, but I just couldn’t stay there. We all exchanged hugs, bows and well wishes before I sliced open the familiar portal between realities. Just before I stepped through, I turned back to the group one last time.

“Tell Inazuma I understand why he did what he did, and with time, I’ll forgive him. Sayonara to ganbatte!”

At hearing their return final farewells, I stepped through, leaving yet another world behind, but taking with me new pain, knowledge and memories.

Journal Entry Four
Journal Entry Six
Pain and Learning Index