Demon of Lust in the Land of Water 2 (Patreon)

Demon of Lust in the Land of Water

Chapter 2

-VB-

Mei grumbled while she tried in vain to keep the mosquitos off of her. With her were two other Kiri ninjas, neither of whom she was all too familiar with. Kentsuo was a kenjutsu specialist with bandanas everywhere, and Anari was a genjutsu specialist with a distinct love for eerily made stitches. And then there was herself, Terumi Mei, a ninjutsu specialist wearing customized personal kimono in the middle of a swamp.

She really didn’t think she would end up in the eastern swamp islands looking for a rumor, but here she was, chasing after a rumor because her crazy kage told her to right on the peak of intense unrest where bloodline users like her just ended up dead in the streets overnight every night for the past few years.

And instead of helping her family or the village, she was out here, chasing rumors of a demon.

Great.

“This place is weird.”

She turned to Anari, because she had just spoken a code word for “possible enemy trap.” Mei mentally cursed her inattentiveness, because what other reason was there for her and her team to get caught in a possible trap if not for their inattentiveness?

“Yeah, I guess,” she agreed. “But it could be better if the corps does something about it.” Get ready to flush them out. Get ready for combat.

They shrugged in unison.

“Sure,” Kentsuo muttered as he rested his hands on his wakizashi pairs.

Mei hummed and walked forward a little bit more.

She still didn’t notice anything.

Their advance into the swamps, this roadless and uninhabited place where rumors shoul-.

…

A roadless and uninhabited place where people didn’t come by.

A place where people didn’t come by.

How could rumors of a demon rise up from a place where people didn’t come live in, travel through, or regularly visit, how could there be rumors about this place?

She knew for a fact that this place was remote even by the standards of the Land of Water and Kirigakure. Why would anyone visit an island that was just a swamp?

No one did. No important trade route, no important noble house, no important ninja clan, and not certainly any city, town, or village existed on or around this island.

She glanced over her shoulder.

Her “teammates” had already drawn their weapons.

“... There was never a rumor, was there?”

“Orders, Terumi,” Ketsuo shrugged. “Sorry.” He wasn’t really apologetic, merely saying so as a courtesy.

All three of them jumped into action.

Mei instantly spewed thick toxic gas from her lips to obscure their visions before jumping away. Ketsuo jumped after her, his swords sparkling in the dim sunlights piercing through the swamp canopy. She jumped back and back again before ducking from his third strike and spewed lava. He rolled to the side before he shunshin’ed away.

Mei grimaced as she heard bells, a sign of Anari’s genjutsu.

“Kai!”

And came face to face with a slightly corroded sword plunging down on her chest as the illusion of Ketsuo having disappeared dispelled itself when he had merely charged her the moment the genjutsu activated.

Mei twisted her torso, grimaced as the blade sliced along her shoulder, and then struck out with her own hidden kunai at Ketsuo’s back as he missed his surprise attack. He spasmed as the kunai punctured through the back of his neck, and he tumbled away from his own momentum.

She then whirled around, trying to find Anari.

“There was never any order to kill me, was there?” she shouted. “You just wanted to kill me!”

No matter what anyone would say about the Fourth Mizukage, one thing was clear: he would never toss away loyal and willing ninjas. Mei, for all of the negligence the Mizukage showed for the bloodline users, was loyal and strong.

“You’re a filthy bloodline user,” Anari spat, her voice coming from multiple locations… but delayed from the front and not the back. “Of -”

‘Yoton: Yokai no Jutsu!’ she intoned before spitting towards the place where Anari’s voice came from first.

The acid mud punched through her corrosive mist before hitting something fleshy with a splat. Soon, the swamp was filled with Anari’s shrieking scream before she died as the acidic mud ate through her torso.

Mei sighed.

‘Just another day in the Bloody Mist.’

She took a step forward in the muddy swamp floor when her legs gave out. Her eyes widened as she realized that she had been poisoned. When-?

-grimaced as the blade sliced along her shoulder-

She looked at her right shoulder, and saw bluish green residue near the deep cut. Sheglanced over at Ketsuo’s dead form, corroding away in her mist, and saw the same bluish-green residue on his nearly corroding… katana. Where had he pulled that out from?

Mei sighed as she noticed the scroll he’d brought with him.

“They had prepared for this from the moment they had met each other in the mission office, didn’t they?” she muttered as she felt herself grow weaker.

She tried to stand up again, but couldn’t get herself up. She reached for her own antidote sack, even though she knew that she didn’t know what this poison might be and knowing that the wrong antidote might actually become a poison that would kill her, but even that failed when her strength in her arms failed her.

She collapsed face-first into the muddy ground and weakly stared out.

A deep voice rumbled from behind her where she couldn’t see. “Really? You drop me off here?” he sighed. “Oi oi oi, what the hell happened here?” She heard footsteps, but her consciousness was rapidly draining away into darkness. “The fuck…?”

She felt someone touch her just as she lost the battle to stay conscious.