I am Succubus!

Chapter 145 – The Moon That Casts a Shadow

This was the largest moon I'd ever seen in my life. It almost seemed fake. However, nothing was more real than the world of kami, and now Amaterasu's brother, Tsukuyomi, was ruling Takamagahara. So much had changed in such a short time that I didn't even know where to begin to process things.

Although the city had become darker as a result of it being night, the moon and stars still provided sufficient illumination. Only, there was one problem…

Past the stone steps of Kon's shrine, the cloud sea that surrounded Takamagahara were raging like crazy. The moon was supposed to have a strong effect on the waves. Well, we were seeing just that. Fishermen were having a hard time fighting against the tug and pull of high tides. In fact, many were struggling to get back to the shores of the city.

"Geez. You think we're still able to get across like this?" Mio asked.

I glanced up at the sky where there were no tengu compared to before. They were instead replaced by a greater number of ghosts like wisps and wandering spirits, as well as dragons soaring through the clouds above.

"I'd like to keep my soul, so let's take our chances at sea," I said.

Mio charmed Kon to create a boat at the edge of the waters again. All three of us climbed on, and the lesser kami transformed into his kitsune form. As soon as he dipped his tail into the waters to set off and spin them like a propeller, we were at the mercy of the torrential seas and battered on all sides.

"Hang on!" Kon warned.

A powerful force struck the boat from the left side, causing us to teeter heavily to the right. I grabbed the edge of the boat to keep from being flung off. Another wave battered us, but this time from the right, soaking me and Mio to the bones.

Mio looked down to find a koi fish stuck between her cleavage, its tail flailing widely. She pulled it out and chucked the poor fish back into the seas.

I spat out a mouthful of salty water. "It's not even storming, and we're being thrown around like crazy!"

"Yo, fuck this— Oh, shit… Wave ahead!" Mio pointed ahead as a giant wave came crashing down on us.

Our boat capsized, and I managed to pick up Kon before it went under. Mio and I returned to Kon's tiny island shrine to ring the water out of our clothes. 

"Ugh… At least it isn't cold in heaven," I said.

"The moon's effect on the seas is too strong. I don't think we'll be able to get across normally," Kon whimpered in kitsune form as three tails and ears sagged.

"I say we try our luck flying. Stay low to the waters and avoid the dragons. Think that'll work?" Mio asked the fox.

"I'm not… sure?" he answered with uncertainty. "All I know is that boats conjured by kami and ferrymen are not sought out by the dragons. It's also not like we normally have succubus flying through Takamagahara and sending them on a goose chase."

We had no other way. Mio snapped her fingers to release the charm's effect on Kon, then the both of us tested the waters by flying just above his shrine. When Kon came to his senses, he looked around to get his bearings and raised his fist into the air at us.

"Oh, you pesky succubus! Don't go around charming kami like that, and I'll seriously get in trouble if you enter the city!" the infuriated Kon cried.

"I'll make it up to you later!" Mio winked.

"Wait, you two can't seriously be thinking about—"

Both of us flew off before Kon could get another word in.

Cruising just over the water's surface at our speeds, we should reach the city soon. Our first order of business would be to get an understanding of what the hell was going on after Tamamo's release. Things shouldn't have descended into chaos so quickly unless there were other forces at play. Namely, the kami and priest who lied to them.

"Saeko, watch out!"

I turned to Mio just in time to see her body slam me like a wrestler. We careened hard to the right. Just then, a serpentine dragon plunged into the water where I just was. The impact sent geysers into the sky and showered us in cold sea water.

When it resurfaced, we were awestruck by the magnificent and gargantuan creature of mythology. The length of its body was covered in brilliant red scales, glistening from the water, and with snow-white fur traveled along its spine from head to the tip of the tail. Two long whiskers wriggled with a life of their own.

"We got to go!" I yelled as the dragon loomed towards us, jaws opened in an attempt to devour us.

Both of us put our all into our wings, but it was clear that the dragon was much faster. It snapped at our legs only several meters away. I could feel the hot breath on my toes, and my heart was on the verge of exploding. If it ate us, I would never see anyone back home again.

"It's gaining on us!" Mio shouted.

Summoning the Blade of the First Temptress to my hand, I stopped in place to face the dragon and swung a horizontal arc. A powerful magic slice knocked the yokai far into the distance. So far in fact, that it landed near Kon's shrine and the ensuing splash of water soaked his island.

"He's going to give me an earful when we come back…"

"Aww shit! That's my girl!" Mio threw her arms around me, squeezing our cheeks together.

A bellowing roar sent shivers up our spines. We looked up to find three more dragons in the sky, making a dive bomb in our direction.

"Oh, shit. Don't suppose you got more juice in that sword?" Mio asked as the color drained from her face.

"I was hoping to save it in case we get into a fight, but it won't matter if we get our souls gobbled up. Hang on to me," I said, and Mio hugged me from behind with both of her hands planted firmly onto my boobs.

When I gave her a dirty look, she shrugged and said, "Hey, at least you know I'm hanging on tight!"

Sighing, I carved the space below our feet with the sword. A portal opened beneath our feet, and we jumped in to be spat onto the sandy beaches of Takamagahara. I got a mouthful of sand from falling face first, with Mio still on top of me safe and sound.

Behind us, the three dragons plunged into the water, just barely missing us.

"Wheeeew! How'd you know you had enough sexual energy to make that jump?" Mio asked.

"I-I didn't… That was pretty much a Hail Mary, and thank god Koga was pent-up to give me just enough." I got to my feet and brushed the sand from my body. The Blade sputtered out, and a familiar succubus hunger gnawed at the depths of my stomach. "And now I'm starving… Great."

We were about to leave when a shadow suddenly shrouded over us. A gargantuan green-scaled dragon at the threshold of the beach, larger than the ones that had chased us over the waters, was glaring at us with piercing gold eyes.

Even more terrifying than when we first met Tamamo, my legs trembled and lost the strength to stay standing. The cosmically large dragon eventually turned tail and flew off back into the skies to join its fellows, kicking up a sandstorm in its wake.

Mio choked, having forgotten how to breathe.

"Let's… not try flying over the seas again…" she said.

"Agreed." I nodded.

We ventured up the mossy stone steps where a field of bamboo separated the beach from Takamagahara. Following the wooden walkway that cut through the field, we finally entered the city again into an area that looked like the backyard of someone's mansion.

White sand blanketed the ground and previously raked to have the patterned grooves of a Zen garden, with shin-high stone lanterns framing a stone path up to the mansion's engawa, the exterior hallway that surrounded the building. Mio walked up to a clear pond which contained an array of multi-colored koi swimming within it.

An old man with long earlobes down to his shoulders emerged from the mansion and locked eyes with them, then went red in the face with anger.

"Oh, good for nothing kids— Get out of my garden! You're leaving your mangy footprints all over the place!"  he yelled.

When we looked back, our intrusion into the man's backyard left many prints and ruined the rake patterns that were done to the ground. I immediately charmed him. His anger faded, fists unclenched and shoulders slackened, then walked up to me with an eagerness to serve.

"What do you know about what's happened in Takamagahara?" I asked.

The man turned a soured gaze south, to the skies where a sliver of sunlight painted the horizon. "Amaterasu's gone and the heavenly city has been plunged into an eternal night. Order has been upended, and that lazy bitch of a new ruler, Tsukuyomi, would rather spend all her time in the comforts of the celestial palace than do anything! All we can do now is long for a new day that may never arrive and weather the coming maelstrom of misfortune that is a soul drought."

"By maelstrom of misfortune, you mean Tamamo, right?" Mio chimed in. "Why the hell aren't your gods doing anything about it? Can't they fight?"

"Unfortunately, no greater kami can fully manifest on Earth with enough power to defeat Tamamo no Mae or Shuten Doji." He shook his head.

"Wait… Tsukuyomi, he? I thought the God of the Moon was a woman?" I pressed further.

"What are you, a mindless human? Tsukuyomi may be depicted as a man in Shinto religion, but greater kami transcends mortal concepts. Right now, that lunar bitch is strutting around her elder sister's chambers with tits out, engaging in orgies, as if to defile the very halls of the celestial palace! We're doomed… Why do I even bother raking the garden…" He sighed.

Neither of us were sure we heard that correctly.

Orgies?

"If a god is having orgies, it sounds like a great time to me!" Mio exclaimed. "How do we get in on that good shit?"

"It's not a great time for the rest of us who are waiting for the kami to fix this mess! And you don't. Not without an invitation from a greater kami who has access to the palace," the long-eared man explained.

"A greater kami who has access… Like Raijin?" I asked.

"If you can get that fat slob to get off his ass, sure."

"Looks like we have some convincing to do. Let's pay the fat fuck a visit." Mio cracked her knuckles.

"Wait!" I grabbed her hand just as she spread her wings to fly. "We haven't had sex with Kana in a while, and after using the sword earlier we're both dry."

If we were going to confront any greater kami of that caliber, then we needed to be at our strongest. We both turned to the old man and grimaced.

"Maybe not with him," I said.

"Alright! A good ol' fashioned succubus hunt, it is!" Mio grinned.

We flew into the city, staying just above the rooftops and not too high so as to be spotted, and scoured for potential victims to feast on. However, the hard part was finding the right ones with quality lust. Everywhere we looked, people were in a somber state. No one was in the mood to fill their carnal desires, too worried about the state of their city. We could tell by the smell, the lack of lust permeating the air in comparison to a school full of horny teenagers. If we were to have sex with any of the denizens of Takamagahara, it would take forever to recharge ourselves, or spend ages searching for the right ones.

I landed on the tiled rooftop of a pagoda in the middle of a bazaar, hanging onto the decorative wooden outcrop of a dragon. Below, yokai and kami alike bickered over the price of a meat bun. Infuriated, an oni customer flipped the cooking station owned by an ushi-onna, causing many people nearby to descend upon the food like vultures. The tearful shop owner could do nothing but watch her food be devoured and not be compensated with a single coin.

"Damn. It really is getting crazy out here," Mio said, landing next to me and handing a skewer of dango towards me with her tail.

The smell of sweet soy and tangy mayo on the delicious balls stirred a deep hunger within me. But as I reached out to take it, I saw the same scene that was happening below.

"Did you steal these?" I hesitated to take the skewer.

"I know you aren't gonna be okay with it, but we gotta eat to keep our strength up. Having a somewhat full stomach'll distracts us from our succubus hunger for a bit." She brought it up to my face, and my guilt wouldn't abate the hunger any longer. I snatched it from her tail and devoured the dumplings.

We watched as people picked the meat bun stand clean, leaving the ushi-onna in tears. Once again, I couldn't help but feel guilty. I was the cause of their misfortune. I was their Tamamo.

A commotion somewhere off the road caught Mio's attention. She leaned over the pagoda to look down. I followed her eyes to where three figures staggered into a narrow alleyway between a tavern and tea shop, hidden behind bags of dirt and red crates. One of them, dressed in a casual blue yukata, was Yuzuki. She was being hounded by two yokai: a man with a monkey's face, and another that was a flying umbrella made of hay straw that parted to reveal a single eyeball.

"C'mon, Yuzuki. Even when the going gets tough at your place, you and the girls still make good coin, don't you?" monkey-man asked.

"Spare us a couple of soul coins. We'll make it up to ya when the drought is over. We're begging ya here!" the umbrella yokai pleaded and opened up to make itself look larger.

"I won't spare a single coin. My girls work hard for their money, and I'm not going to shortchange their labor to grant you charity. Now if you will excuse me…" Yuzuki tried to storm out of the alley, but the umbrella yokai snatched her arm with the hooked-handle.

"Guess we're gonna hafta do it the hard way. Cough up the money, bitch!" the monkey growled, then shoved Yuzuki to the ground.

We had seen enough and made ourselves known 

"Leave her alone!" I jumped off the roof and into the alleyway, landing between Yuzuki and the aggressive yokai.

Mio dropped down right after me, wooden skewer still in her mouth. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I can forgive a lot of things. But I can't forgive when people screw with brothels and their brothel owners. They make the world go round, you know? Why don't you guys take a hike?"

Their eyes glazed over with a shade of pink.

"That sounds… like a good idea," they said, then left the alley.

"Saeko? Mio?" Yuzuki gasped.

"Hope we didn't scare you by dropping in. Are you okay?" I asked, giving her a hand to help up.

"I'm fine… Thank you, Saeko. But just what are you two doing back here? I thought you were gone?" the rokurokubi woman asked.

"This screwed up situation you guys are in is our fault, so we're coming back to fix it," Mio said.

She gasped so hard that her neck stretched up and had to be pulled back down. "Your fault… as in Tamamo's release was your doing?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Which is why we have a request. Yuzuki— Please use us as prostitutes! We're dry of sexual energy and you own a brothel. We can even do it with customers for free!"

"I'm sorry, what? Why?" Yuzuki squinted at us.

"We're succubi. We survive by getting our fuck on," Mio explained and only made the okami more confused.

A flock of tengu flew past just above us, but they didn't see we were down here thanks to the cover of the buildings. Yuzuki placed a hand over our mouths, then extended her head up to check if the coast was clear. When her head returned to her shoulders, she looked each of us in the eye.

"Let's talk more back at my brothel. It's too dangerous out there," Yuzuki said.

We followed her through the city until we reached her brothel and were led up to the same room as last time. The sound of sex was less this time around, and the girls we passed by were also in a depressed state.

"The hell is going on? Normally, when people are feeling like crap, sex is the first thing they turn to," Mio remarked, walking up to the window to look outside.

"It's because with Tamamo's release, everyone is anticipating the worth of soul coins to depreciate. The miasma of misfortune going around in Japan and eventually the rest of the world, means people will experience poor lives, and thus produce low quality souls upon death. It is a very sad state of affairs we have found ourselves in," Yuzuki explained with a sigh.

"That's why we want to do something about it," I said. "But before that, we need to regain our strength through sex, and there's no better place than a brothel."

Yuzuki made a troubled expression. She rubbed the back of her neck and shifted uncomfortably where she sat, on the other side of the low from us.

"When you say do something, do you mean… defeat Tamamo?" Yuzuki asked.

Mio and I traded uncertain glances.

"That's how we'll bring prosperity back to Takamagahara, right?" I returned the question.

"Hey… something seems off." Mio spun around and clenched her fists.

Yuzuki got to her feet and went to retrieve something from the vanity table. I saw from her reflection in the mirror that she appeared conflicted. The tenseness in her posture and voice was different compared to when we first met, less nurturing and more desperate.

"We yokai once freely roamed Japan, did you know that?" Yuzuki said from her desk, pulling open a drawer. "Some lived in harmony with humans, others lived with less than benign intent. But Japan is as much our home as Takamagahara. If… If I were to ask that you let Tamamo do as she pleases, what would you say?"

"Are you telling me you don't want us to defeat Tamamo to end the soul drought?" I stood up and felt a chill run up my spine.

"The soul drought only really affects the kami. For us yokai, it only affects us if we continue living here. Mio, Saeko, I'm sorry. I wish to return to Japan, so I can't let you stop Tamamo."

Yuzuki threw two paper talismans that landed at our feet that began to glow. I tried to summon the Blade of the First Temptress, but my body seized up, and we fell flat to tatami mat floor. It was like my face was glued to the ground.

"Yuzuki… Let's talk about this!" I tried to fight against the strange magical strength holding me down, but it was too powerful to resist.

"Forgive me for this, you two. It is nothing personal." She tossed another talisman, this one made of gold paper and written with pure white ink.

A flash of light blinded us, and our vision slowly came back to reveal a different, significantly larger room than the simple one we were in with Yuzuki. The floor was made of black opalescent tiles that glittered with the color of the cosmos. Red pillars connected the floor and ceiling together, with gold and crimson drapes hanging down from them.

At the far end of the room, sitting upright on an enormous bed of silken sheets was a naked woman as beautiful as the moon, and skin emitting a lunar glow. Long, silver hair flowed down the length of her body and breasts to the floor at her feet. She was surrounded by undressed yokai and lesser kami alike. A handsome red-skinned oni man was feeding her fruits, massaging her legs were two beautiful yuki-onnas, whose very bodies radiated a cool mist, and a kitsune sat on her lap which she slowly petted.

When I tried to move, the sound of rattling chains drew my eyes to my arms and legs, which were bound by restraints covered in small paper talismans. Mio was in the same situation, yanking and clawing at the chains in a vain attempt to free herself.

"It is useless," a voice belonging to the woman that sounded like the echo of winds said to us. "You cannot escape unless I allow it, and why would I let such pretty trophies go?"

"Who do you think you are, bitch? Let us go!" Mio snarled.

The woman giggled, and placed a hand on her cheek as she gazed at us with a piercing glare from the bed. "I am Tsukuyomi, God of the Moon and all that is night. You two should rejoice, for from henceforth, you shall be my little succubus pets to do as I please."