Demon Gate

"Yes," Satou replied, "for the Lady Sasaki."

"And why do you need to venture up the mountain to pick flowers? I am glad that you have taken a liking to her, Satou, but you have duties here. It will not do for the head of the shōen to go gallivanting off while his laborers do all the work in his stead. That might be how things are done down in the valley, but that is not our way. Remember, while status might be inherited, loyalty and respect are earned."

"I know father, but I saw the most beautiful flowers while I was clearing the blocked stream. They will make a wonderful bouquet."

"I don't see that you have to woo the Matsuyo girl, she is already engaged to be wed. Then again you have always been a...sensitive boy, and you have been taking your responsibilities seriously as of late. Very well, Satou, you may go pick flowers up the mountain. But do not stray too far, and be back before dinner or your mother will be upset with you."

"Thank you father," he said, followed by a short bow. He wasted no time, following the stream as he headed off up the mountain.

CHAPTER 4: RED SPIDER LILY

The Oni was waiting for him when he arrived, sitting on the boulder with her cudgel leaning against it at her side. She looked as magnificent as ever, her massive legs crossed and her red skin shining in the sunlight, her white hair blowing gently in the breeze. She greeted him with a wave, Satou taking a moment to catch his breath. He had hurried, and the terrain was difficult.

"Welcome back, little Satou," she cooed. "I trust that your journey wasn't too taxing?" She was making fun of him of course, smiling at him as he recovered from his hike. "Don't get too comfortable yet, we're going for a walk."

"A walk?" he asked.

"I come down to the forest to hunt in the spring. It's the season when most of the game is looking to mate, which makes them loud and imprudent. Kind of like you actually. You can tag along, but only if you promise to be quiet."

"I can be quiet!" he insisted.

"Have you ever been hunting before?"

"No," he admitted, "but I've watched plenty of animals. I know how to stay hidden."

"Well you managed to sneak up on me, so I'll trust you. But if you scare away a deer, I might just decide to have you for supper instead."

The Oni bared her pointed teeth in a grin, laughing at her own joke. She gestured for him to follow, rising to her feet and returning the heavy club to its place on her back. She was wearing her long cloak again, the patchwork of animal skins doing a good job of hiding her red complexion from view. Perhaps that was its purpose as well as keeping her warm, to conceal her from her quarry? Satou hurried along after her, struggling to keep pace with her long strides.

"So you said that you come down to hunt," he said as he made his way into the forest behind her, "does that mean that you live higher up the mountain?"

"My village is higher on the peak," she replied, moving between the trees and keeping her eyes on the woods as she weaved through the undergrowth. "We rarely descend this low, where the air is thick and stifling, but it's the only way to find good game for meat and furs."

"None of my people have ever scaled the peaks, at least not that I know of," Satou replied. "What's it like up there?"

"Humans like to farm, and there is no soil that high," she said as she squeezed between two trees. "It's cold, windy, the air is thin enough that you would probably have trouble breathing. There is snow all year round." Despite her size, she was pretty fast, she knew the terrain well and was clearly experienced at navigating it. "I am surprised to see humans even this far up the valley. Why aren't you down on the plains?"

"My grandfather led his people here to escape oppression," Satou explained, "they established a farming community in the valley so that they might be free to rule themselves."

"And you grew up here?" she asked.

"Yes, I have lived on the mountain all my life. I have never seen the lowlands, or at least I have never visited them. I can see them from the terraces on a clear day."

"Perhaps that is why you behave so strangely..."

"In what way am I strange?" Satou asked, hopping over a protruding root.

"Well for one, you didn't flee the moment that you saw me. The humans tell tall tales of evil Oni, they say we bring disasters and eat travelers. Only an inattentive child would be so careless."

"I'm not a child," he complained, "I'm old enough to marry."

"You're the size of one," she laughed, amused by his indignation. "At least an Oni child, I don't know how large humans grow."

"I'm almost five foot six!"

"Is that supposed to be impressive?"

"Maybe not to you," he grumbled.

"You're also high-born, isn't that right?" the Oni asked as she pushed a branch out of her way with a loud creak.

"What of it?"

"Aren't the high-born supposed to stay inside their fancy castles and never interact with anyone who wasn't born with a silver spoon in their mouth?"

"Perhaps the upper classes," he said with a shrug, "but not me. My family might be the leaders of a shōen, but we are still only farmers. We have a respected position in society, even a Shogun cannot live without the rice from our paddies, but we don't own castles and servants or anything like that."

"But still, would you say that it's normal for someone of your class to be running around the woods and exploring?"

"I suppose not," he grumbled, "now you're starting to sound like my father."

She laughed at that, turning to look back at him over her shoulder, her large tuft of hair bouncing as she walked.

"So you don't pay attention to your elders, you disobey your parents, and you'd rather be out in the woods than sitting on a silk pillow? Maybe we have more in common than I thought."

She held up her fist and went silent, Satou stopping behind her and crouching low. He waited for a few moments as she scanned the trees.

"Never mind," she said, "thought I heard something moving around."

"What are we hunting?"

"Whatever I can get my hands on," the Oni replied. "Deer mostly, maybe a bear or a wolf if one crosses paths with us. The more pelts I can bring back, the better."

"Do you sell them?" Satou asked.

"No, we use them."

He followed her through the woods for a while longer, the conversation dying down as she turned her attention towards tracking animals, but Satou didn't mind. He was just glad of her company, peering up at her to admire her every so often when he was sure that she was looking away. Her hair was so huge. It was fluffy and bouncy like a cloud, extending all the way down to the small of her back, cascading over her shoulders and contrasting sharply with the dull browns of her cloak. He couldn't see much of her figure beneath the garment, but she still radiated that confidence that he had found so alluring the first time that he had seen her. It was like she never made a wrong step, so sure of herself, moving with deliberate intent.

Satou was thrilled to be exploring the forest too. As the Oni herself had said, not many humans came up this way, and they were venturing far from the beaten path. He might be the first person to ever tread this ground. Well, the first human in any case. Perhaps the Oni had already explored and mapped the highest reaches of the mountain range? The idea filled him with wonder, he burned with the desire to know what secrets those snow-capped peaks held.

"Quiet," his giant companion whispered, gesturing for him to stop. He listened intently to the chirping of the birds and the rustling of the treetops, then he heard it too, a distinctive sound like two sticks being scraped together. He peered past her, searching for whatever was making the noise. It took him a few moments, and then he spotted it. There was a majestic stag in the distance, he could just about make it out through the trees. It was grinding its impressive set of antlers against one of the rough trunks and making a racket, trying to attract a mate or ward off rivals perhaps?

"I'm going to get closer," the Oni whispered, "stay here and don't make a sound."

He nodded, watching as she began to creep towards it. She was remarkably quiet despite her immense size, able to move through the undergrowth without making much noise at all. She crouched low, covering herself with her cloak, the skins from which it had been woven concealing her against the woodland backdrop.

Satou realized that she didn't have a bow or a spear. How would she take the animal down? Surely not with her massive cudgel? She would never get close enough to use that without startling the deer.

He watched with bated breath as she drew ever closer to the clueless creature, which was far more concerned with making a racket than paying attention to its surroundings. She was getting incredibly close to it, freezing like a statue whenever she thought that it might be looking her way. The cloak made her look like a giant clump of brown moss, she blended into the scenery perfectly.

The Oni reached behind her back and slowly drew her cudgel. No way, was she really going to attempt to bring the animal down with that? Was she going to throw it?

When she got close enough to the stag that it ceased its strange activity, turning its head to face her as its ears twitched curiously, the Oni threw back her cloak and loosed a bellow that shook Satou's bones. Her crimson skin flashing under the sunlight, she charged at the deer, crashing through the forest like a charging ox. She was so massive and heavy, splintering wood and tearing up the undergrowth, but she closed the distance impossibly quickly with her long strides. The stag was so startled that it very nearly fell over itself attempting to escape, stumbling and lurching as its limbs flailed, scared out of its wits by the sudden appearance of the red demon.

It was too late, and the Oni closed, bringing her massive cudgel down on the deer. She landed the blow in the middle of its back and the deer crumpled under the weight of the weapon, loosing a pained cry as it vanished out of view beneath the ferns and bushes. She hit it again with a sickening crunch, presumably in the head as Satou could no longer see it, and the animal went silent.

"Got it!" she declared, resting the cudgel across her shoulder and wiping her brow with her free hand. "Damn it gets hot and humid down here..."

Satou approached cautiously, eyeing the clumps of gore and fur that were clinging to the studs of her iron club. It seemed like overkill to him, like smashing a mouse with a hammer. The cudgel was so large that it might well have pulverized the deer into an unrecognizable pile of mush. She had said that she also hunted bears, however, and that might be a more suitable foe for such a deadly tool.

He felt like he should have been frightened by the sight, but all he could do was marvel at how powerful she was. There was nothing like her in human experience, no one as strong or as fast, no one able to swing such a giant weapon or able to smash through the forest like a rolling boulder.

He peered around her leg, itself almost the size of a tree trunk, seeing the corpse of the deer. Its spine was snapped, and there wasn't much left of its head beside a pool of blood and bone. As barbarous as her hunting method seemed, the animal hadn't suffered unduly, it was extremely dead...

"He's a good sized buck," she mused, giving it a prod with her foot. She wasn't wearing any shoes, and her toenails were much the same as her fingernails, black and pointed like claws. "Let's take him back to my camp and skin him."

"Your camp?"

"Yeah," she said as she leaned down to pick up the dead buck by its rear legs, "you didn't think that I lived in the pool did you?" She swung the animal over her back like it weighed no more than a sack of grain, turning about and heading back the way that they had come.

"I hadn't really thought about it," he admitted, following along behind her. "You're going to get blood in your hair," he warned, watching as the deer's ruined head bobbed with every step that she took.

"I'll wash it out later," she chuckled, "maybe you can lend me a hand with that?"

Satou blushed, going quiet as she looked back over her shoulder at him with a toothy grin.

***

The Oni led Satou to a clearing in the forest where she had set up a large tent, made from the same patchwork of animal pelts as her cloak. There was a fire pit in front of it that was full of charred logs, and there was a large iron cooking pot nearby. She made her way over to a tanning rack that was already drying several pelts, dropping the lifeless buck beside it and beginning to carve it up with a nearby knife that was the size of a Samurai's sword.

Satou wandered around the clearing as she did her work, inspecting the Oni's campsite. He wasn't sure exactly where they were now in relation to the shōen, these forests all looked exactly the same. The only point of reference that he had was the nearby mountain that loomed over them, its peak capped with white snow and its bare rock face shrouded in mist. He peeked inside her tent, seeing that it was crudely stitched together from mismatched pelts, supported by a conical structure of branches and logs that were tied together with lengths of vine. It wasn't quite large enough for her to stand inside it, but that still made it huge by human standards. She slept on a rug that was made up of animal furs, and there was a large bag inside along with a few other sundry items. Was she able to pack all of her belongings in that huge sack and lug it all back up the mountain, along her with her cudgel and her take of furs? She certainly seemed strong enough.

She quickly finished butchering the deer. Before long its skin was drying on the rack, and there was a large pile of meat lying on the grass beside it.

"You like venison?" she asked.

"Sure do," Satou replied, marveling at the quantity of meat that lay before him. Back in his farming community, the meat was always shared between everyone when there was a successful hunt, which meant that each family got comparatively little. With just the two of them, there was enough food here for him to eat his fill three times over.

"I don't know how much humans eat," she said as she gestured towards the glistening meat with her bloody knife. "But it can't be very much, so just take what you need, and I'll eat the rest."

"Er...how should I cook it?" he asked.

She looked at him quizzically, cocking her head.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know how to cook it," he admitted. The Oni rolled onto her back, holding her belly as she laughed at him. Satou stood with his arms crossed, waiting for the racket to die down.

"Boy, you really are a pampered little lord, aren't you? You don't even have to cook for yourself back on your farm?"

"Well...no, that's a task for the women. The men hunt and tend to the farm."

"So who does your cooking for you, not your future wife I'm sure?"

"My mother does."

She laughed again, wiping a tear from her eye as she sat up straight.

"This is why I wanted to keep you around, Satou, you're a riot. Now c'mere, I'll show you how to prepare the meat."

***

They prepared a stew in the pot, chatting about cooking methods and hunting as the Oni showed him how to prepare the meat. She threw in a few herbs and root vegetables that she had collected beforehand, and by the time it was done it smelled very good indeed. She poured his helping into a bowl that was far too large for him, drinking her share from the cauldron itself with a ladle.

"Watch you don't burn your tongue," she said, "it's very hot."

He sipped at the steaming broth experimentally, his eyes widening as the flavor reached his tongue. It was good, great even. When he fished out a piece of venison, he noted that it was incredibly tender and juicy. The Oni watched him eat with a smile on her face, the pair sitting on the grass beside the fire pit as she let the crackling flames die down.

"So how does Oni cooking compare to human?" she asked, slurping at her ladle.

"Good!" Satou exclaimed, blowing on his stew before lifting the bowl to his lips and taking another draw from it. "We mostly eat millet and vegetables."

"I thought you guys farmed rice?" she asked, raising a fluffy eyebrow.

"We do, but the majority of that is sold or paid in taxes."

"What is taxes?"

"We have to pay a fee to the local government."

"Why? You grew the rice, why should you give it away? What do you get in return?"

"I don't really know the ins and outs of it yet," Satou admitted, "I just know that we can't eat most of what we farm. Things are better now, my father says that things were worse when his father used to live down where the land is flat. The taxes were exorbitant, and the workers were no better than slaves. I'll be expected to learn how it all works if I'm to lead the shōen one day."

"You humans and your weird customs," she muttered as she chewed on a hunk of meat. She was talking with her mouth open, fishing out pieces of venison with her fingers, but Satou held his tongue. She was a wild creature, she couldn't be expected to observe proper table etiquette. "We live just fine without taxes and governments."

"I never asked you your name," Satou said, glancing up at her.

"It's Higanbana," she replied, "but you can call me Higa."

"Higanbana," Satou repeated, "the red spider lily?"

"That's the one."

"In my culture, the red spider lily grows in hell and guides the reincarnated to their next life..."

She gave him a shrug as she drank from her ladle.

"It's a pretty name," he added, "and a beautiful flower. It's...fitting."

"There you go again with your poems," she said, reaching down and ruffling his hair with her massive hand. It was nearly large enough to encompass his entire head. He fought her off, making a futile attempt to straighten it as she chuckled at him.

"Are all Oni named after flowers, or just you?" he asked.

"We get named after lots of things. What does your name mean?"

"I don't know that it has one," he replied, "it's probably traditional."

They finished up the stew, the Oni eating an impressive amount as befitted her exaggerated size and strength. He wondered how much food she had to consume in a week to sustain herself, how many deer she had to hunt.

"You should eat more," Higa said, apparently making the same observation about him. "Maybe that way you'll grow a little bigger." She laughed at her own joke as he frowned at her.

Satou set the bowl down, then stood to gave her a short bow as was customary when giving thanks.

"Thank you for the meal, and for inviting me into your home," he said as his companion smirked at him.

"Come on Satou, you can drop the formalities. If you hadn't noticed, this isn't exactly a castle. It is cute though..."

She swept him into her arms suddenly, just as fast and as unexpected as when she had slain the deer, Satou finding himself pressed up against her huge body before he had a chance to react. Her strong arms were closed around him, he could feel her bicep as one of them pressed against his cheek, firm and slick with her sweat. The Oni trapped him in a tight bear hug, laughing at his struggling. She thrust his face into her bust, or rather into the sling made of animal skins that contained it, but he could feel her ample flesh yielding beneath the fur as it tickled his nose. Her scent was pleasant, strange, her odor making his head spin. She smelled of exertion and herbs. It was oddly feminine, triggering something in his brain that set his senses on fire.

She reached down and messed up his hair again, the sensation of her fingers on his scalp making an appreciative shiver roll down his spine. She was teasing him, yet it felt...good. He had never been touched like this before, she was so unreserved, it felt so natural. His wife to be wouldn't so much as look him in the eye, never mind hold his hand. She certainly wouldn't have hugged him like this. He liked this feeling...