11: A Royal Visit

http://mgefanon.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Flodoomable/The_Adventures_of_The_Travelling_Ranger_(Link-Hub)

A Royal Visit

=Chapter 1: Breaking and entering.=

Walking around in the Main capital of Zipangu Florandus Vindivicus could clearly see the center of it as the huge palace of the empress rising into the sky could be seen from nearly all parts of the city. He assumed it to certainly contain many mysterious and intriguing secrets and with him just being another foreigner he probably wouldn't get anyone in trouble if someone would see him in the process. With a plan and the risks being sufficiently low he decided on taking a look inside the next night. Being back in a city he was again 'escorted' by two kunoichi's always following him via the rooftops. The ranger did feel in control though, he was certain the kunoichi still felt that they hadn't been noticed by him. He would use this as an advantage, at nightfall he rented a room in a tavern of some sort. Being a foreigner he noticed the upped prices and the fake smiles most men gave him, though it was heart warming to see how the mamono woman did always seem to honestly smile at him. A one-tailed inari also residing in the two-story house offered to share her room with him, which he had to sadly decline. The curiosity for the secrets that the palace held was to great for him to wait one more night. Once almost everyone in the house had fallen asleep the ranger vaulted out of his window grabbing on to the room with his Icepicks, pulling himself up the roof he noticed a kunoichi with her back to him. The female was staring thoughtfully at the moon holding some sort of pendant. The ranger silently sneaked past her over the rooftops from building to building till he came close to the palace. He lowered himself from the city rooftops and ran over to one of the huge pillars holding up the front of the palace, he used his icepicks on them to climb up the pillars to the roof of the palace. There he saw a small group of kunoichi who guarded the upper levels. The mamono where only looking in the distance for airborne targets, because they didn’t expect any other kind of enemy to be able to reach them up there. Florandus sneaked past them and saw an opening in the roof, going through it he came into the attic above a pretty big room.

=Chapter 2: A mother’s charm.=

The attic itself contained a huge black ball like silhouette and many white balls of webbing hanging or laying everywhere throughout the room. The ranger heard a strange repeated sound akin to breathing, yet somehow much heavier than that. He then noticed the black ball move with each inhalation echoing through the room. Curiously he crouched up to it and saw arachne like legs that where much to big for a normal arachne. Not having seen this species before he grabbed a loose piece of wood, went to the other side of the room and threw the piece behind the strange arachnid making a small thud against the wall. Movement in the ball occurred as the arachne unwrapped itself to reveal an arachne with three times bigger arms and legs, even the human part had a bluegrey-ish color. The ranger’s arachnophobia seemed to rise up as he found himself shudder at seeing the creature. The beast had unwrapped itself and looked at the direction were the wood hit the wall, finding the piece she picked it up and smashed it in her hands as if it where but a piece of fruit. The fat Zigangunees arachne stood still over the wood pieces and looked around for a reason of how it got there. The ranger saw a double trapdoor underneath where the beast just slept. Mustering all his courage Florandus crawled over till he was in front of the trapdoor. He got out his blade and cut clean through one of the hinges holding it up, the other he left alone. The Spiderwoman then noticed his figure in the darkness of the attic and ran right at him. The ranger walked around the trapdoor for the beast to run right over it. The remaining hinge and lock where torn apart under the weight of the beast and both she and the doors crashed down forty meters into the room below. The spider smashed onto a chair and half a table, obliterating it in the process. Florandus looked down at her seeing if she was downed when to his surprise the beast got up as if nothing happened. She looked up and roared at him, she then shot a trail of webbing ridiculously far up nearly reaching the ceiling. Seeing a failed attempt she then covered a nearby wall with webbing and used it to climb up to the ceiling. The ranger knew he did not have long before she would be back and thus he had to think of something. Then in an act of cruel desperation he cut open a white webbed ball above the trapdoor spilling thousands of tiny baby versions of the beast down into the room. With a shiver shooting down his spine Florandus looked back at the other balls in the attic, twelve more of them dotted around and all probably willed with thousands of those 'Things'. It made his skin crawl just imagining himself getting swallowed in a sea of those beasts.

=Chapter 3: The creepy crawlies.=

Back in the room the beast had jumped down off the wall and thrown down as much webbing as she could produce, successfully softening the fall for all the tiny creatures. The babies where not even as big as one of their mother's fingers, yet she managed to catch or save every single one. Now even more enraged she stormed up the wall and smashed her body through the ceiling, bringing her back in the same attic as the ranger. With all the baby spiders spreading and running through the room there was only two half-safe options for him not to get torn apart by an angry mother. Florandus ducked and weaved the blows that the mother threw in his general direction effortlessly breaking through part of the attic floor and walls. The ranger ran for the exit back to the roof and despaired as a shot of webbing produces strangely fast covered the entire exit. With only one option left and the attic floor becoming unstable and smaller with every blow from the beast, Florandus prayed to the gods above, below and beyond as he ran for the trapdoor and jumped to the now thick layer of webbing that had broken the babies fall earlier. Landing it the ranger felt a large blow to his body, even with the thick layer it still felt as if he had fallen two meters hitting the hard wooden boards. Being stuck in he noticed the baby spiders coming towards him. In a blind panic he took out his only not web-covered weapon, an icepick with his right dominant arm and struck it at his left outside the webbing. In this manner he pulled himself out and tore the webs constraining his other limbs loose. He immediately ran to one side of the room only for the small beasts to run after him. The ranger tore off the webs covering his other icepick and struck them both in the wall, trying to climb away he saw the horde of tiny spiders follow him up the wall. Florandus mentally hit himself at forgetting that spiders can scale walls. He jumped to the side where the spiders had not accumulated yet. He was about to make a run for it to one of the doors in the room when he and the spiders stopped their movement. What at first sight had seemed an empty dining room was now a room with two rows of more than twenty kunoichi, a small highly decorated girl with a strange wig in between them and the beast standing while grinning behind the girl. With the thousand small spiders not moving any closer the ranger calmed down if only a bit. The girl took a few steps forward and the kunoichi behind her drew throwing stars, knifes and pretty much any small distance weapon that could fit in one's pocket.

=Chapter 4: Bad manners=

The girl spoke in a regal voice and seemed to be of importance. "My name is Kiyomi of the house Shirakawa, Empress of Zipangu. As a formality I demand to know your name foreigner." Florandus thought for a moment as he would rather not have his name to be that of the man that broke into the empress's palace. "My name.. Is Penculos Tinker." At that the ranger ducked to see a throwing knife just miss his nose and hood, burrowing itself in the wall behind them. The girl seemed displeased. "That was a test to see if you are an honest man, you have failed. My ninja's have asked around during your stay with us, Florandus Vindivicus. I sentence you to die.." The girl had not even finished her last word as the wig on her head was launched off her head with an arrow from the ranger. The kunoichi who had not even seen him draw an arrow let alone his bow shocked as they stood, had that arrow not been aimed at their empress head they would have been unable to protect what was most precious to them. The empress herself had not moved a muscle as she stood there frozen with tears coming down her cheeks while maintaining the same stern expression. Florandus took out another arrow in his hand, the kunoichi stood in disbelief for they knew they could not stop another one of those quick shots. The ranger had to keep up his bluff as he aimed at the girl, yet he felt hesitant to aim at her teared up face. "As you just saw I am capable of killing her whenever I want, There is a reason that I didn't do that already." The girl tried to keep up her stoic figure, but her tears of fright and the shivers over her body betrayed her as she spoke. "What are your demands for an empress's life?" The ranger tried to think of the least threatening request he had ever heard. "Well, a nice meal and a tour through the palace would be nice." He understood fully what was going through the group before him as they all got the same confused look on their faces. Even the empress had left her stoic expression behind and whipped the tears from her eyes. "A-a meal?" The ranger rolled his eyes in an over dramatic way in an effort to break the tenseness of the moment. He lowered his bow, but at seeing the konuichi ready their arms to throw their weapons he raised his bow again. "Not to quick now, I can still kill hit her." A look of disgust was thrown at him by many of the kunoichi, while the Spiderwoman still grinned. The ranger looked to his legs and saw the spider babies try to scale them. Freaking out the ranger dashed out of the pile of spiders and barely evaded multiple throwing weapons. Shaking off the remaining spiders he shot two arrows grazing the kunoichi's cheeks at either side of the small girl. The throwing of weapons stopped at seeing two kunoichi holding their bloodied faces. Seeing the blood the girl yelled out. "Stop! Don't hurt them!" The kunoichi all looked at their empress and hid away their remaining weapons. One of the two injured ninja's bowed and asked her a question. "My empress, don't worry about our safety. We are here to protect you, are you sure we should not kill this man?" The girl held the bloodied cheek. "That foreign assassin did not kill me when he could and I know he won't do it now with being surrounded." During the conversation Florandus looked around the room more and noticed the table, one side under the trapdoor and the other safe and expensively decorated. The ranger thought to himself that he was not the only sneaky person in this palace.

=Chapter 5: An unexpected guest.=

He was addressed by the empress. "Foreigner Florandus Vindivicus, having seen your skill at sneaking past my kunoichi guarding the palace and the quick use of your bow I Kiyomi of the house Shirakawa, Empress of Zipangu offer you a meal with myself and the tour you requested. We do have to implore you to leave your weapons behind for the remainder of your visit." The ranger shook his head in a negative manner. "I shall accept apart from the notion of leaving my weapons behind." He saw the girl stare at him in distrust, her words from earlier to her servant where obviously a white lie to all of the occupants in the room. She sighed and nodded. "Very well.." From under the ranger the stream of tiny spiders retuned to their mother, the empress seemed to not mind the tiny spiders at all. She was about to walk to the table next to them when she was mentally and visualy reminded that one side had been utterly destroyed. Seeing the body of the empress the ranger chuckled, an even deeper sigh had left her body from all the commotion in the middle of the night. "Kiyomi, why don't you go to bed and let me show myself around?" The girl seemed very displeased and some of the kunoichi gasped from the possible hundreds of formality rules that where broken by that one sentence. The empress motioned something to a kunoichi as she gave orders. "Make sleeping arrangements and have the foreigner sleep in a room next to mine." Florandus found that quite a strange decision, why let the assassin as he was called sleep in a room next to who they think the target is? The ranger found this out soon enough as he and the girl where escorted to the two rooms. in either room a group of six ninja's where told to guard the sleeper in their respective room. An inari was preparing their beds and a shirohebi was offering to help with undressing. The empress had gone to her room and was being undressed by her shirohebi. The ranger could do nothing apart from stare at the girl's figure making a pleasant silhouette show on the paper doors that separated them. Florandus could already feel the stares of the eight woman in his room silently judging him for spectating the silhouette from a girl around the age of twelve. Looking back at the woman in his own room his assumptions of being stared at where confirmed, he nervously chuckled. "Why the look, Is it a surprise that your empress is beautiful?" He smiled with relief as that notion made most of the woman look away in shame. At the same time he was embarrassed as the silhouette of the empress yelped in a hushed voice and covered her private area's with her arms. The light from her room quickly faded and her servants apart from the guards left the room. In his own room the inari had finished making the bed and left, she was not as fast as the other inari because they didn't plan on having a visitor that night. The shirohebi came up to him, Florandus noticed the colored tip of a needle she was hiding between her fingers on the right hand. "Could you hold out your arms please?" The ranger shook his head and grabbed her hands together. "My sincerest apologies, but I ha.." The shirohebi felt Florandus take the needle from her hand and backed away from him. "What is this colored liquid on the needle? I don't need my clothes stitched or colored, thank you very much." The ranger walked up to one of the six guarding kunoichi and appeared to give her the needle, when she reached out he stuck the needle in her hand and took it out not half a second later. The kunoichi reached for her weapons and fell to her side on the ground, unconscious. The others where about to react when Florandus pinned the needle into the wall. "There.. Now that that's done we can all go to sleep." He motioned for the shirohebi to leave and she complied taking the unconscious woman with her. The young man inspected his bed for more needles and layed down on the bed still fully dressed. One of the kunoichi killed the light, the ninja's inspected his every move as the ranger tried his best to lay comfortable.

=Chapter 6: Not a morning person.=

It was early in the morning and Florandus was still awake, he couldn't sleep with five assassins sitting a meter away from him. The kunoichi had watched him role around in bed, mess with the sheats and randomly tap the ground through out the night. Having nothing better to do and assuming it was about time for the princes to wake up any way the ranger got out of bed and sat next to one of the ninja's. The kunoichi looked at him expecting a dagger in her throat at every moment while the ranger tried to whisper in her ear. "Say, sins you're all woman.. Did you ever see the empress naked?" The mamono looked at him with wide eyes and a blush was seen over her mouthcover. The woman turned to the others who had been very quiet and thus heard the question too. One of them was trying to hold in a giggle, two where blushing silently as well and the last just seemed very disrespected. Florandus continued with his rumbling no matter how ridiculous they seemed. "I'm just here to find secrets hidden away in the palace, though I didn't expect to meet a giant arachne. Does she have big boobs, I couldn't really see with all the running. And why am I called an assassin?" Failing to keep their silence the kunoichi looked at him curiously. "Forget the ushi-oni, did you just say you where searching this palace for secrets?" The ranger acted cheery to the woman. "Yeah, such a big place is bound to have amazing things locked or hidden away. I mean why else make it this big?" The kunoichi shared looks to one another when one from the middle poked her head out of line facing him. "It's so big to impress the leaders of other provinces. Why are you looking for secrets?" Florandus nodded at hearing the reason for the magnitude of the palace. "I'm a traveler, It's my hobby to discover secrets." Four out of the five ninja's gathered around him. "Could you tell us about one of your travels?" As requested the ranger told them about the time he rescued three nightmares out of a village guarded by mamono killers, halfway the story the paper door to their room opened and the empress walked in in a slightly see-through nightdress. "Could I perhaps listen to the story as well?" The ranger blushed intensely as he received a full show of her body, all he did was sheepishly motion her to join while he concentrated on not activating his nether region. The kunoichi noticed what made the young man so closed off and all blushed as well, one of them took the sheets Florandus had used and wrapped up the young girl. The young girl wondered why everyone was so silent till the woman who covered her up whispered the reason in her ear.

=Chapter 7: The child behind the mask.=

Kyomi yelped again and franticly covered herself completely in the sheets, making her look like a white cocoon. A ninja held in a giggle and peeled off the cocoon to reveal the girl's head. "My empress, you should not try to suffocate." The empress in response just gave her an embarrassed look and turned to the ranger. "O-only the husband of an empress is allowed to be a man who has seen her naked.." Florandus yet again probably broke a hundred formality rules when he stopped her lips from moving by placing his right finger on them. "I know where you're going with this, I'm to young to marry and I decline." The kunoichi around them let out a combined sigh of relief, while the girl kept silent with her lips on his finger. She nodded out of understanding, a small smile and a blush came on her face though as the ranger took back his finger. "Place that finger on your lips.." All the nerves that had left the guards not a second ago came crashing back in with them looking between the two in surprise. Florandus was confused to what was happening. "B-but this finger already touched yours.. what do you mea.." The girl smiled wider as she hid her mouth in her cocoon. "Put that finger.. on your lips and kiss it." The ranger gave her a strange look and kissed the finger where it had touched her lip. Kyomi giggled from in her cocoon while the ninja's felt centuries of honor to their family go down the drain. "Now press the finger back on my lips.." One of the kunoichi fainted followed by another as the rest watched the horror of broken formalities. Florandus reached out to he with his finger still confused, before he could make contact a knife was drawn to his left and held to his throat. The ranger motioned to the assailant to look down, there she saw his dagger nearly press into her own throat. Kyomi leaned forward and kissed his right finger on the same spot he had kissed it. She hid her face in the cocoon in embarrassment. "My first in-direct kiss.." Florandus felt many death stares pointed at him when the empress asked him to continue the story. Trying to calm the mood the young man went on with telling his story while having a knife to his throat and a dagger to a kunoichi's. By the end of the story they all had calmed down and taken away their weapons, the empress wanted to hear more stories and took the foreigner to the enclosed gardens where they sat at the river bank watching the fish swim around. The empress had managed to get the both of them some privacy, privacy meaning every ninja that was not looking for intruders was watching them while hiding ready to strike at any time. She wanted to sit on his lap for some reason, but she decided against it after seeing half the kunoichi ready their weapons.

=Chapter 8: Of course you’re my first..=

Florandus was annoyed that he had to sit here while he could be exploring the palace, but declining the girl's wishes would mean a dozen and another throwing weapons to be thrown at his back. "Say, don't you ever feel uncomfortable with the constant observing of your every move?" The girl turned to him and said rather passive aggressively "I don't mind, I didn't threaten to kill an empress. Can you tell me another story?" The girl seemed very different from the one he had met yesterday and it unnerved the ranger beyond belief. "S-sure.." He told her a story about how he had met a pharaoh and looted her ruins. Over the course of the story Florandus noticed Kyomi sitting closer and closer to him when nearly at the end of the story she was actually sitting on his lap. "And that's how I escaped the pharaoh's ruin.." The empress looked with stars in her eyes, stars that where not returned by the young man. He must have been lost in thought as he suddenly felt her lips on his, she smooch him gently savoring the moment. breaking the kiss they locked eyes, she smiled at him in a soft loving manner. Had they not the age difference of seven years one could have described it as the loving gaze of a married couple. From the outside Florandus smiled affectionately back at her while on the inside he wasn't happy at all. This kiss would probably cost him his freedom in marriage or his life in death, both very similar things in his eyes. She whispered to him in a hushed tone. "My first kiss.." The ranger was not keen on finding out what other First times they would experience if he stayed with the girl, a cute wife wasn't enough to calm his explorer's nature. "Kyomi, could I get that tour you promised me?" The empress giggled for no apparent reason and lead him by the hand through the palace. Seeing many large versions of common rooms found in every manor he wondered if there was anything special about the palace at all. "Are there any rooms that you where never allowed to enter?" The empress pondered for a bit, then she lead the ranger to an old library in a rather secluded part of the palace where when not yet seeing the kunoichi she pulled a book and the wall moved to revel a hotspring. The door closed behind them and a sign above the ceiling made Florandus clear why this room was secret. The sign said: Lover's spring. The girl was holding a diary and showed it to the ranger. "This room is where every empress was made according to this diary, it tells about how each empress came here with her lover and made the next in line. It even has instructions on how to do it." Florandus could see what was coming next as he rubbed her shoulders and went long with it. It had been more than a week ago sins he had last felt a woman's special touch. The girl was surprised he went along with it, but she felt that it would diminish her honor if she where to back down now. They undressed and entered the springs together, about two hours passed and the two where now calmly enjoying the warmth of the water while in each other's arms.

=Chapter 9: Leaving a mark.=

Kyomi was exhausted and slept with her face buried in the ranger's neck, the ranger on the other hand was thinking about leaving the palace for what it was.. A shirohebi entered the hotsprings with a towel and a bottle of scented oils, she undressed herself and poured a bit of the oil into the water. Florandus smelled a sweet scent that came off of the water now. Sitting down in the spring the shirohebi closed her eyes and relaxed her muscles. The girl in Florandus arms yawned and kissed him, she then gave the young man staring at something a weird look and followed his gaze. While enjoying the scent that came from the oil the snake woman looked at the spring water, then at the couple and then at the ceiling. Where she first felt relaxation she now felt anxiety as her look slowly returned to the empress and the foreigner partially inside her. The lady began to sweat profusely as she stared at them, the sweat wasn't thanks to the heat of the bath. The couple looked back at the bare breasted servant. there was a minute of silence as they stared at one another when Florandus broke the awkward silence. "H-hello.." The snake woman pointed at their connected parts. "Did you.." The ranger shook his head no while the empress nodded yes. "I see.." The woman got out of the bath and motioned to the door. "I never witnessed this and you won't murder me, okay?" The couple disconnected with a moan from the girl and they dressed themselves. "The ranger kissed the empress and bowed to her. "Listen, I'm going to go now and you tell them you didn't get abducted. okay?" Kyomi nodded. "This won't be our last time together right?" Florandus shook his head. "Of course this won't be the last time." They kissed once more and the ranger ran through the door. Once outside he passed two guards and ran out of the city as fast as he could. The guards smelled the scent of the oils that followed him, their eyes widened as they recognized the smell. The guards asked where the empress was and got directed to a room a bit further on, once there they both fainted as they smelled the exact same scent on the empress.

Meanwhile Florandus ran to the first boat back to the mainland he could find and hid himself on board.