贄の血
Nie no Chi


Kei: N-...... No! No, don't!......

The lips slowly change shape. The upper and lower teeth touching me dig in as if pushing me into the floor, then open their distance.

Kei: ---

They then close to pinch the skin of my neck. I am bitten - but only lightly. It doesn't really hurt, but...
But, the shock from the bitten surface causes all the tears stored in my eyes to overflow.
Without heed to my face being tilted upwards, the tears spill out. *poro poro*

Nozomi: Come now...... I told you it wouldn't hurt. The poor thing's so terrified.

Nozomi-chan speaks teasingly in a soft, coaxing voice as she separates her mouth from one side of my neck, then passes an order over my shoulders.

Nozomi: Mikage.

As she speaks, Mikage-chan removes her hands, and having lost its support, my neck falls to the floor. *kakun*
A single turn from the ceiling---
A neck so thin, almost too thin. A smooth cheek line connecting to her chin. In the midst of my vision, filled with white, the upper half of her gently separated lips are colored a conspicuous shade.
With those sluggish movements, she attracts my gaze.

Nozomi: ......Come, look into my eyes.

Spinning a web of words, she draws my vision upward.
Brilliantly---
Clearly---
Like the shine of a bicycle reflector, the depths of her eyes catch fire.
Dampened blood red, they forcefully transfix my eyes.
Standing at the center of a strong halation, she smiles complacently.

Nozomi: Fufu, now we're ready.

And, maintaining a subtle smile, she suddenly raises her palm.
My vision lurches to the side.

Kei: ......Eh?

Nozomi: How is it? It doesn't hurt, right?

As she speaks, I finally realize that my cheek had been struck.

Kei: Huh? Why? You only touched......?

Nozomi: Fufu, now there's nothing to be scared of, right?

Mikage: Nee-sama gave you a suggestion.

Suggestion? Hypnosis?
Wait a minute, wait. No matter how naive I am, it couldn't work that easily.
Also, hypnosis is supposed to work by saying "it won't hurt" at the beginning---

Kei: Eh?

Pushed by the shoulders, my body readily topples over---
Nozomi-chan on my left wrist, Mikage-chan on the right, holding me down.

Nozomi: It's alright now, then?

Nozomi: Let us feast.

Mikage: That we will.

Kei: No! No, you can't!

Never minding the state of the futon and yukata, I desperately struggle in a fitful tantrum.

Mikage: You still can't resign yourself?

Nozomi: After all the effort it took to erase your pain.

Mikage: And you still resist?

Nozomi: If you don't behave, we can make it many times worse the next time.

Mikage: It would be best for you--

Nozomi: --if you stayed still, understand?

Power floods into the chilled hands gripping my wrists.
It doesn't hurt one bit, but I feel as if my willpower is being taken away with my body heat.

Nozomi: Fufu, your heart is saying *doki doki* you know.

They edge closer.

Nozomi: It knows about the blood rushing underneath your flesh.

Their two mouths close in, seeking that blood. Their chilled breath quickens.

Kei: Ah......

Under the breath, tickling my throat from both sides, my body shrivels, and then they---
Above my collarbone, as it peeks out from my bare neck...
In a place where the bone connecting my shoulder and neck is absent, seemingly easy to bite---

Nozomi: Ufufufufufu.

---they thrust their teeth.
It didn't hurt.
I was made not to feel pain.
But---
The feeling of something different from my body temperature, splitting my skin and entering my body, I could feel perfectly.
I can easily feel the warmth of my blood, gushing out of the wound with each heartbeat.
And the feeling of their moving lips and tongues, coveting that blood, remains.
It merely doesn't hurt.

Kei: Ah......

The presence of dizziness similar to anemia.
I'm already lying down, so there's no fear of collapsing, but...
I can't believe the feeling in my head, the fog rolling in, and the difficulty of thinking. I couldn't have lost that much already.
But perhaps as an effect of that, or that I simply gave up, or that I'm being considerate because my pain was erased...
At any rate, I become used to the situation.

Nozomi: Nngh......

Seemingly sated, Nozomi-chan releases her lips, swallows, and gulps down the remnant in her mouth.

Nozomi: Your blood... it's the real thing.

So she says as she wipes the blood dripping from her mouth with her fingertips.

Nozomi: We've become reluctant to give you away. Haven't we, Mikage?

Mikage: Nn...... ngh......

Nozomi: Fufu, you were really starving, huh? She says she doesn't want to let you go, either.

The red of her eyes, narrowed in satisfaction, are deeper and cleaner than the red on her fingertips, perhaps full of the power she mentioned, I think to myself.
The red that cast a suggestion on me.
A red that shines like a mirror.

Nozomi: What is your name?

Kei: ............

Nozomi: Did you not hear me? I'm asking your name.

She applies power to her gaze.

Kei: ......Kei. Hatou Kei.

My lips and tongue move, with no resistance.

Kei: Switching the "sa" from "Satou-san" with "ha" from "haoribakama"---

Nozomi: That's a good name. I like it.

Speaking to interrupt my response, she smiles happily and licks the blood from her fingers.

Nozomi: Mikage, that's enough.

Mikage: Nfwa...... hah......

Mikage-chan, in drowsy absentmindedness, remains attached to the gushing wound.
Nozomi-chan, seeming to pay her no mind, continues speaking as before.

Nozomi: I've also grown quite fond of your taste. So, I'm not going to give you away to Nushi-sama.

With a subtle reaction, Mikage-chan removes her mouth from my body.
Shifting her unfocused eyes at Nozomi-chan, she whispers softly.

Mikage: ......Nee-sama?

Nozomi: You've left her so dirty, how immodest.

Mikage: Nee-sama, I'm sorry......

Nozomi: Fufu, you don't have to apologize...

Nozomi-chan reaches out her finger, cleaning Mikage-chan's blood-dyed lips in a petting motion.

Nozomi: ...I understand you were engrossed.

...then touches that finger to her smiling lips as she speaks.

Nozomi: We'll take Kei for ourselves. So you don't have to be so impatient.

Mikage: Nee-sama......

Nozomi: I won't let her go, So there's no need to ravage her like a beast.

Mikage: But, Nee-sama, the Nie no Chi......

Nozomi: It's fine, I've decided. He won't care. We never needed her anyway. Kei was never more than a trump card for times of necessity, anyway.

Mikage: Because she hid so well...

Nozomi: Right. Her appearance here was an accident. The Nie no Chi is like a bonus. So---

After leaving me out of the mosquito net for so long, she pulls me back in with a single glance.

Nozomi: Maybe it's all right if we take you for ourselves?

With no regard for my will, she's trying to decide my fate.
My slowly steadying heartbeat, once again, increases its pace.
Telling me "this is dangerous. Too dangerous."
A throbbing fever spreads over the base of my neck, perhaps because the suggestion has begun wearing off.
And with the revival of my sense of pain finally returns my sense of danger.

Nozomi: Isn't that right, Kei? Am I wrong?

The red eyes peek into mine.
Her eyes crimson, scarlet, like the mellowed maturity of an oozuki lantern.
This is dangerous... these are the eyes of a snake bewitching its prey.
This is dangerous... these are the eyes of calamity that beguile your soul.
If drinking my blood truly grants power, then I must not be trapped again.
And yet... and yet... petrified as I am, I can't avert my gaze.
Someone... someone... please save me.

Nozomi: You... will become our possession.

Am I... going to become their possession?
Once her eyes flash, I will surely become their---

Continue...