Sex is a Job Description? Ch. 12

"You okay?" asked Tom.

"Nevermind. No sex. Ever. Nope." She buried her face in a pillow and screamed.

Jerhme gave Tom an apologetic look and looked unsure of how to put his hands in his lap as he watched Veronica scream and pound her fist into the back of a chair, snapping its insides like twigs.

"You've accomplished a rare feat. Breaking the seals that your human portals put upon us is a very difficult task. I've never seen her that worked up before."

"I'll be sure to remember that if she ever tries to spread rumors that I'm lame in the sack," Tom replied sardonically. Jerhme just sighed and returned to watching over Veronica. The teen watched Veronica screaming into the pillow, arching her back in pain.

"So how exactly did I make all that happen?" asked Tom after a silence between Jerhme and himself. The demon turned to him and gave a knowing smile.

"We from the Second Circle are only capable of the things we are known for because we have sex. It energizes us. It feeds us and gives us power. The seals your human portals place on us limit what we are able to do, and greatly reduce the effectiveness of sex on our abilities. You pleasured her to such an extent that it broke the seals and allowed her to take in all the energy and power you generated with her. As I said, it is a rare feat, though not unheard of."

"So we outsexed magic?" Tom reiterated in leyman's terms.

Jerhme chuckled a bit at that. "No, not quite. In those terms, you outsexed Varonica, and in turn, she was able to break the seals to enjoy it more."

"She didn't really look like she was enjoying it all that much," Tom admitted guiltily, shooting Veronica a glance as she slammed her fist into the seat cushion with thunderous force. "She still doesn't."

"Her tail wrapped around you, which was enough a sign of her true intentions that whatever she said didn't matter," Jerhme explained in almost a bored tone, as if he were telling Tom this for the fifth or sixth time.

"Well, I guess that about answers everything about it," Tom said in resignation. "Should I apologize to her once she, you know, comes back to her senses? I feel like I did a shitty thing to her knocking her up like this- not, knocking her up like baby-wise, but, fuck, you know what I mean."

Jerhme shook his head. "There is no need. She enjoyed it."

Tom breathed a sigh in relief. "Awesome, 'cause it'd be really awkward to have to pull her aside and be like 'hey, sorry for scrambling your insides with my cock, no hard feelings, right?'"

"Apology not accepted," Varonica moaned, turning her head away from the pillow. "You owe me several, not one, not three, several mind-blowing orgasms that don't involve me being fucked senseless against my will." She shot a scathing look to Jerhme.

The rest of the flight to Japan, Tom kept mostly to Greg and Harvey's vicinity and joked with them about things and talked for a while. Having them around almost always brightened his mood, and they kept him occupied as time passed and the sun sank in the east, their flight taking them into the early hours of the morning in Japan, just before the sunrise.

When they landed, the agents were gathered up and the Director picked out the eight that were going to Hell and separated them from the twenty that were going as support and would return to Earth once Ceria's guests had made it into her care.

"You seven," he started. "Are going to get in a van that will take you as far into the forest as physically possible, and then you'll walk until you're in Hell. You twenty are flying back to America now for debriefing."

"Wait a minute," Mattiesko protested, but the Director shot his objection down in a stony glare.

"Shin said any more than necessary would cause trouble for him and threatened to scrap the operation if we didn't meet his demand. So, twenty of you go back, seven of you go. Hop to it." With everything out in the open, the two groups went their separate ways, one looking relieved and sitting back down to return home, the other following the Director with apprehension and anxiety.

Jerhme carried Veronica off the plane bridal-style, his arm under the sack of ice drizzling water out of a small hole at the end. Veronica shifted her legs uncomfortably and ground her teeth.

"Gentle," she managed to say, grimacing. Tom exited the plane after then and a chill hit him almost immediately. His breath floated away in an icy breeze and he shivered, looking out at the dim white scenery. The whole airport was covered in several inches of snow, and the stuff fell in flurries, carried every which way by the growing wind that slapped Tom like sandpaper.

"Head count!" the Director shouted as he walked over to what Tom guessed was the welcoming committee.

"White Death!" Mattiesko shouted back his callsign for the mission.

"Battleborne!" Allen's replacement, Oscar, said, looking smug.

"Bloodsugar!" Greg sounded off.

"Prince Charming!" Harvey raised his voice.

"Taskmaster!" Jerhme answered, prodding his companion.

"Purple Heart!" she yelled.

"Jailbait!" Tom groaned.

Everyone turned their heads toward him and Veronica outright burst into hysterical laughter, only to be silenced as the sack of ice slipped from between her legs.

"Jailbait, really?" Oscar, asked.

"Climbed on top of his first demon at fourteen," Greg explained. "The Goddess, if I remember right, wasn't it, Tom? Your first demon?"

Oscar laughed in a demeaning way. "That is absolutely hilarious."

Tom didn't say anything. His first demon. His first demon had murdered both of his foster parents, the Talaky's. He bit back a lump in his throat as he remembered their dead, distant gazes staring at him without souls. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe easier, the wind biting his cheeks fiercely.

"Fall in!" the Director yelled from across the runway. The team of seven made their way to him through inches of snow, trudging after him as he followed two short men into the airport. Inside, they navigated the building to the front and boarded a van, piling into it like prisoners on a chain gang. The doors slammed as they were seated and the van started off to the Shirakami- Sanchi.

The ride was rather tense, with nobody speaking as they began to feel the gravity of the situation beginning to take hold. This didn't have the usual pomp and order and ceremony that these sorts of events usually had. It was a silent, professional affair.

Half an hour later, the van stopped and the back doors opened and an elderly Japanese man leaning on a cane smiled up at the seven.

"Hello, it is very nice to meet you all," he said, raising a hand.

"This is Uesugi Isoroku. He's the Annainin of the Shirakami-Sanchi, the guide. He'll tell you how to navigate your way to Hell. Beyond this point, you're on your own." One by one, he shook each of the agents' hands, giving Tom a hard pat on the shoulder. They shared a nod and then the Director got into the back of the van, closing the doors behind him. The vehicle drove away and left six shivering agents, one wincing demon, and a cheerful old man out in the snow.

"You are here to walk the path to the other world, yes?" Isoroku said, looking the team over with intrigue.

"Get on with it," Veronica growled through clenched teeth.

The old man's eyes gleamed. "You two know the path. You will find what you seek. Go on; they will join you." Jerhme nodded and started off into the forest, trudging through snow that was up to his knees. The two demons were lost in the nearly absolute darkness as they left the light of the lamp hanging from a tree limb above.

"So...that's it? We walk?" asked Oscar, sounding skeptical.

"Come with me," the guide said jovially, waving a hand. The remaining five followed, but the old man held his hand up and asked for only Oscar to follow. The others stepped back and Oscar was spoken to in the darkness, and then Isoroku returned, leaning heavily on his cane.

"Come with me," he pointed to Mattiesko. They left the light and then the old man returned again, without Mattiesko. Tom looked at Greg and Harvey, but they shrugged, and Harvey left with the old man.

"What the fuck is going on?" Tom asked incredulously.

"Fuck if I know," Greg answered, shrugging. "The Director trusts this guy, and we've got no other way into Hell, so this is it I guess. He said we'd find Veronica and Jerhme at least."

"I think we have a better chance of freezing and dying than finding them in the middle of a rift between worlds," Tom commented dryly, as Isoroku came back with a smile.

"This forest is old. It knows many things, many paths that have been travelled, many souls that have come looking for the things you do. Let it guide you. Come, I will start this one on his journey." Greg followed him into the darkness and Tom was left alone, shifting uncomfortably in the knee-deep snow until the guide returned, tracing a path in the snow he had taken before.

"So now you take me where I need to go?" Tom asked, hoping to get out of the chill that was starting to sink into his legs, feet, and hands. Why the group hadn't been winter-equipped for this mission he didn't know. Twenty-something coats and jackets wouldn't have taken that long to get.

"We will speak plainly about things," the guide said, reaching up with his cane to hook the handle of the lamp above them and take it down effortlessly. He set it down on the snow and white, fluffy powder melted away from it, revealing a large stump just beneath the snow's surface. "But first, we will have sake," he finished with a grin, flipping the top of the lamp up and taking out a jug with a handle. Steam rose from the top.

"Huh, nifty little thing there," Tom remarked. Iroroku nodded and reached into the snow, pulling out of it two large, shallow dishes and what looked to be two fold-out stools. He handed a stool to Tom and they both set up seats on opposite sides of the stump, Tom fumbling with there the snow was actually deep and where the stump's edge was. It was a little unsettling here, to be the last one left of his comrades with this old man who had led everyone else into the darkness and returned without them.

Even so, he managed to push his anxiousness down and fake a smile through his shivering.

Isoroku hung the lamp up again and then poured sake into the dishes. The guide raised his dish with one hand, holding it so still that the only motion on the hot liquid's surface was that of snowflakes hitting it. Tom had to raise his with two hands to keep it steady, and nodded in thanks.

They drank, and then two more drinks were poured.

"You bring many worries into this place," Isoroku stated solemnly, taking another drink.

"Yeah, no kidding. I've almost died twice in the past three days. I saw someone die in my place today, actually." Tom drank. Hot, dry liquid made his throat hurt, but he finished it off anyway, having another drink poured quickly.

"You are alive. What has happened cannot be changed. No matter how long ago."

Tom narrowed his eyes. "If you're telling me to get over what happened when I was fourteen, we can just forget this whole thing and you just let me wander out into the dark."

"I do not know what happened to you. But you bring it with you here, and the forest does not want you to travel through it with such a heavy heart. Release it, like a ribbon adrift in the wind."

Tom sighed. "The last ribbon I saw drifting in the wind was a piece of skin from a guy I saw die in front of me. How the fuck am I supposed to just let that go, like this?" Tom pantomimed grabbing his tie and throwing it into the breeze.

Isoroku nodded. "Yes. It took me many years here to find a way to release the hurt in my heart. You have learned it in a single night."

"I haven't learned shit!" Tom shouted. He took the sake and downed the now-cold dish in one long gulp. Isoroku poured him another one immediately.

"You have learned what to do, but not how. How comes after."

Tom rolled his eyes. "Lotta help you are, mister Miyagi."

"You will find your path in this forest. I have heard the guides here are very friendly. They are more than willing to help a weary traveler who will sit and listen a while." Isoroku smiled and motioned for Tom's sake dish. The teen downed the warm sake and passed the empty dish to the old man, who raised the rest of the jug of sake to his mouth and proceeded to drink the rest of it without taking a break for air.

"I guess that means I need to scooty-puff my junior out of here, huh?" he asked rhetorically, standing to leave.

"If you feel you are ready to let go of your heavy heart's pain and find your path," the guide answered, giving the teen no help at all.

"I'll be fine. I hear the guides here are an incredible help finding where to go," Tom joked, starting off into the darkness. The lamp behind him went dark and Isoroku chuckled with mirth.

"They are certainly better than the ones in Aokigahara."

Tom had no idea what the guide's last comment meant, but didn't dwell on it as he trudged into the thick snow and flurries, hugging his arms to his body. At least he had some alcohol in his system to keep him warm, if not a bit unsteady on his feet.

He kept his mind out darker places, trying to stay focused on finding a path through the forest. With all this snow, it was literally impossible to know where the fuck he was going. Everything looked the same, snow blasting everything in sight and filling his face with cold, stinging flakes. He looked up at the sky, and found that the forest was so dense with branches and snow and leaves that he couldn't see shit, especially not in the dark.

The agent searched the forest for what seemed like hours, inebriated, freezing, and absolutely lost. He stumbled over what he believed to be the thousandth root today and cursed at the top of his lungs, lying in the snow looking up. He knew the sun was out, but the snow was so thick that he couldn't see anything but wet, heavy fluff and darkness.

"At least it looks pretty out here," he said, pushing himself to his feet. He wiped snow out of his face with his sleeve and continued, legs sore and feet aching. His shoes were sopping wet and freezing and he couldn't feel his toes or fingers, but he didn't have a choice but to keep going. Stopping meant that he'd probably freeze.

"You look lost," said a voice out of the darkness. Immediately, Tom fumbled with the sword on his back and drew it, holding it with half-numb fingers. He looked around, finding nobody.

"Hello?" he shouted, not waiting for a reply. "I'm looking for a path through the forest!"

"Then put that away and come closer," the voice replied impishly, giggling. Tom pursed his lips in thought, and then managed to get his claymore back into its scabbard. He debated keeping his gun ready, but thought better of it. Whoever was out here was probably able to take him on no matter what he had on him. He didn't know if he was in Hell yet or not, so he needed to keep his head on straight and play by the rules at least until he understood what was going on.

"Alright, it's put up. Where are you?"

"Behind you," the voice replied, warm breath causing his entire left side to shiver. Tom fought the instinct to whirl around with his elbow at the last moment, and just turned to face the new person.

In the snow stood a woman in a thin white robe, looking up at him through black hair that hugged her robe wetly, as if she'd been out here for a long while. She smiled, bowing to him politely. Tom repeated the gesture back to her and she held out her hand.

"Come, my home is not far from here," she said, leading him through the snow with the sure-footedness of a cat. Tom had trouble keeping up with her pace, so she slowed down and let him fumble through the darkness and snow behind her, holding onto her hand as a lifeline.

They climbed the side of what Tom guessed to be a mountain for a while, occasionally walking over small wooden walkways built over frozen streams. They wound through the forest without saying anything, the woman not even looking back as Tom struggled to understand how she was able to navigate this place so easily.

After a while, he asked, "Are you another Annainin?"

The woman stopped and laughed at his question before running both of her hands through her hair with a sigh. "No. I simply live here."

"Then have you come across anyone else here? I came here with six other people."

The woman shook her head and took his hand again. "No. You're the first in a great many years." Her words had almost a sad quality to them, but he couldn't think about it as they began to follow the path only she could see at a fast pace.

Not long afterward, they came upon a small building in the side of the mountain. A squat wooden shack stood against a rock face, light shining through its leather-shuttered windows. Smoke blew away in the wind, rising out of a small stack of stones jutting from the roof.

Tom followed her to the door and she swept the door aside, ushering him inside. She pressed the cloth door outward and unfurled a bamboo mat from the top of the doorway, wedging it into the frame to keep the wind and snow out. The temperature rose greatly after the wind ceased to whip through the house and Tom breathed a sigh in comfort.

"Thanks," Tom said, unzipping his jacked. He placed it on the floor and leaned his sword against the wall. The agent bit the tip of one of his gloves, pulling his hand out of it and flexing his fingers, realizing they were almost completely numb by now. He took off his other glove and then worked on his boots.

"Let me," the woman said, stepping in front of Tom and kneeling before him subserviently. She unlaced his boots and then took them off, peeling his wet socks off as well. She placed them next to his other clothes and then reached up for his belt.

"Whoa! Whoa no, I can do that. No problem," Tom countered, grabbing her hands and gently pushing them away from his crotch. The woman looked confused.

"You don't...you don't know what I am, do you?" she asked.

"Clearly a demon of some sort," Tom droned. "But I'm not sure what that has to do with this."

"They call me a yuki-onna here. I've taken you into my home, and now you are obligated to lie with me tonight," she stated as-a-matter-of-factly. She reached back up for his belt, but he held her hands away.

"Not interested. I'll be leaving now," Tom said, stepping to the side to get his jacket. The woman looked stunned, and stood to block him. He pushed past her, annoyed, and got his jacket off the floor.

"You can't leave," she said, sounding deadly serious.

"Just try and stop me," he shot back, picking up his sword.

His hand was thrown against the wall, dragging his body with it. His claymore clattered to the floor and the agent growled in frustration and pain, trying to grasp what had just happened. He turned to the yuki-onna and found her with a large block of ice floating above her clenched fist.

She punched the air and sent the ice flying toward him. He raised his arm to shield his face, but the ice struck his hand and pinned it to the wall, like it had his other hand. He realized now that he was stuck, and another block of ice pinning his ankle. He kicked the ice off with his free foot and then found both his feet were pinned together with more ice.

"Now, lie with me, human," the yuki-onna said, smiling at him with plush, blue lips.

"Look, I have better...shit, really? I've had sex like seven times today. Cut me a break, please?" he pleaded, knowing his body was definitely not ready to do this again.

The woman looked surprised. "Seven times? I must have pleased some deity. A man like you is very rare in this forest." She strode across the small room and let the bindings around his hands and feet melt away, unbuckling his belt and snaking it off his waist easily.