Lily and Shimizu jumped down to the sloping hillside that rested over 100 m below the castle tower.
Shimizu held the black parasol patterned with golden bellflowers up with one hand while hugging Lily with the other to slow down their descent suitably.
“Sister Shimizu…” Lily seemed to ooze a rich and luscious scent specific to an aroused girl at this moment and the chilling night breeze from the wilderness worked to alleviate the hotness inside her gradually.
“Just what is wrong with you, Lil’ Sis Lily? What made you like this? And why are you dressed in such an immodest costume? Did they force it on you?” Shimizu looked at Lily with worry and affection as her slender hand hugged Lily’s supple waist tightly.
This sensation of getting hugged tightly made Lily’s body and mind sink into a nebulous ocean of warmth and comfort.
The duo landed deep inside the wilderness like faeries descending on a pond and vanished into the misty woods.
All Momiji saw when she arrived at the terrace was the vast mountain as the two girls had long vanished.
“Men! Kagami Lily and her female companion have assassinated Mino’s protector! Mobilize all the troops and pursue them into the woods immediately!” Momiji thundered.
Lily twisted her foot the moment she and Shimizu landed on the ground, which wouldn’t have been an issue for her normally, but this caused her to tumble down the hillside while pulling Shimizu along with her.
After experiencing her head spin for a while, Lily felt herself falling into a stream within the valley along with Shimizu.
The river water was shallow, so Lily rested within it with her back against the wet pebbles at the riverbed. The chilling river water assaulted her costume in the meantime and cleansed the hotness inside her.
Shimizu, on the other hand, ended up pressing down on Lily from above because of her attempt to protect Lily from the tumble by hugging her tightly.
Shimizu raised her body up with much difficulty and discovered that she was actually straddling Lily’s underbody right now and that the incredibly supple region which her hand was fastened against was actually Lily’s breast.
The titillating sensation from her palm filled Shimizu with glee. As the waters were shallow, it hadn’t actually drenched her hand, which meant that the moistness she felt from her palm was actually the sweat perspired by Lily.
Lily lifted her head slightly and found herself in a dilemma about how to react after seeing this scene as it didn’t seem proper to squeal.
She thus grabbed Shimizu’s wrist weakly with the intent to push it away, yet found herself unable to do so, “Help me stand up, Sis.”
Shimizu’s affectionate gaze regained clarity suddenly, “Y-Yeah. The water’s quite cold, lil’ sis!” Shimizu helped Lily stand on her feet.
However, Lily almost slipped again the moment she did, which prompted Shimizu to catch her by her armpits in order to help her maintain her balance.
Shimizu then supported Lily all the way to the riverbank and helped her sit down. The fact that the ever wholesome, nimble and martially skilled Lily had become so enfeebled in turn filled Shimizu with an intense desire to protect her.
She then lifted her kimono’s hem and returned inside the river to pick up Lily’s fallen blade and parasol before returning to the riverbank and handing them over to her.
Lily propped her body with the blade while still gasping for air weakly, “I was fortunate to have you come rescue me in time, Sister Shimizu, or else…”
“Don’t say that now. I promised Uesugi that I’ll protect you, yet I still left you alone for such a long time willingly and allowed you to fall into such danger,” Shimizu sat beside Lily and raised her minidress’ hem slightly with the intention of checking whether her fair thighs had been scarred, “Did they bully you? Are you hurt?”
“No,” Lily shuddered and pressed down her minidress’ hem hastily to cover her underbody. She then directed a grudging yet gratifying gaze towards Shimizu with flushed cheeks, “I-I’m fine… Sister Shimizu.”
Lily stammered. She had already gone through enough shame, so she found herself unable to speak out that she had mistakenly drunk an aphrodisiac-filled sake.
Although Shimizu wasn’t ready to believe that Lily was fine by looking at her current condition, she didn’t press her for answers since Lily was unwilling to speak about it.
She hugged Lily tightly, “No matter what, you’re at my side now, lil’ sis, and that’s enough for me…”
A cluster of faint torches appeared in the distant woods within their vision at this moment, followed by the barks of hounds and cries of samurai.
The Tosa-breed mastiffs of Mino were actually quite wild and ferocious with a very keen sense of smell, which allowed them to lead the samurai towards the sisters by following the scent emitted by Lily.
“It’s pursuers!” Shimizu pulled Lily up as she got up, “Let’s leave immediately. Can you run, lil’ sis?1”
Shimizu pulled Lily and ran along the river stream in order to escape deeper into the mountain.
Although Lily and Shimizu weren’t afraid of their pursuers, they knew Momiji would join the search for them for sure soon, which posed quite the danger if she caught up while they were in the middle of a battle.
Lily was still groggy from the aphrodisiac’s effects and almost tumbled down every now and then while running, but she fared better since she had Shimizu to pull her up each time. The speed at which they ran was still much faster than their pursuers, so the duo managed to pull up quite the distance with them and finally arrived at the river stream’s end where it cascaded into a waterfall.
“Take off your stockings, Lily,” Shimizu stated suddenly with a plan in mind.
“Eh?” Lily blushed.
“Take them off quickly,” Shimizu crouched down to strip Lily’s stockings forcibly2.
It was possible for them to suppress their spirit auras, which would prevent those at a level lower than them from discovering them. Shimizu also possessed the means to hide their auras with her black mist in case Momiji probed out for them.
However, it was impossible to eliminate their scent, and it was this primitive method of using sniffer hounds that had left them in a predicament right now.
“Those hounds will follow your scent,” Shimizu began stripping Lily’s stockings tacitly. Lily shuddered momentarily and flopped onto Shimizu’s shoulder, but she didn’t mind it and simply shouldered her as she took off her stockings wholly and exposed her bare feet outside.
Shimizu rinsed Lily’s feet by pulling them inside the river water forcibly after that and proceeded to splash Lily’s calves, thighs and buttocks with the water.
She then tossed Lily’s stockings into a beast trail by the riverbank purposefully.
Only then did Shimizu release Lily. The two of them entered the river water once again after that and Shimizu pulled Lily to the woods on the opposite bank of the river in order to flee deep into it.
The duo ran deeper into the mountain for quite some time and discovered themselves free from their pursuers later, possibly because they had gone searching in the wrong direction after finding Lily’s stockings, or because of the river water cutting off the scent given out by Lily.
Shimizu knew Lily was quite fatigued as they had been running all this while, so the duo entered a vine-covered cavern that they had found in the mountain.
Lily panted heavily right now, and her body was drenched, making her seem utterly powerless. Shimizu made Lily sit on a rock inside the cavern to rest first and went out to fetch some firewood to light a fire inside it.
“I’m parched, Sis…” Lily had secreted too many fluids.
Shimizu chopped a bamboo stem outside the cavern’s mouth and returned with a bamboo tube filled with water from a nearby spring for Lily to drink.
Lily felt much better after drinking the clear spring water and rested against the cavern’s wall. The wrinkled and sweat-drenched costume that she was wearing was glued to her breasts’ skin as they heaved up and down intensely under the fire’s illumination.
Shimizu gulped her saliva down subconsciously when she saw this, but since her worry for Lily far outweighed her desire, she refrained from bullying the feeble Lily right now.
“Lil’ Sis Lily. You’ve come across such danger just after arriving in Mino. Must you go to Heian-kyo?” Shimizu asked while across Lily.
“I have to… Sister Shimizu.”
“The reason I left your side recently was to investigate the hidden plotter who entrapped you. Although I still haven’t found the truth, I’ve gained some clues about it. The faction attempting to murder you is far more powerful and sinister than we can imagine, lil’ sis,” the flames pulsating over the dried firewood reflected inside Shimizu’s somber eyes.
“I know, Sister Shimizu. But I have a reason to go there,” Lily’s determination was as tenacious as ever. However, her current state, which left her leaning against the cavern’s wall with scattered hair, clouded eyes, flushed cheeks and a wide-open kimono front as she exhaled a faint icy breath didn’t really make her look that convincing.
Shimizu didn’t press Lily for the reason since she believed that Lily would’ve long told her if she wanted to.
“I’ll accompany you, then. Lil’ sis,” Shimizu stated solemnly.
“Eh? But didn’t you also say this journey is too dangerous, Sis?”
“That’s exactly the reason I wish to accompany you! I know you are much stronger than me right now, but seeing your current state, it’s quite clear that the unexpected can happen no matter how strong you are. We can look out for each other if I’m beside you since I’ve also gotten stronger.”
Shimizu passed by the fire and held Lily’s hand after arriving beside her, “I’m willing to accompany you no matter how dangerous or grim the path you’ve decided to walk is.”
“Sis… I might’ve fallen into that witch’s hands today if it weren’t for you. I really don’t know how to thank you.”
“Don’t treat me like a stranger now. The two of us would never hesitate to sacrifice our lives for each other if needed, so I’ll punish you if you say anything like thanking me again!” Shimizu declared in a stern yet soft tone while caressing Lily’s moist, hair-glued cheek gently after lifting her chin.
“I won’t say it again, Sis.”
The night deepened gradually, and Lily fell asleep on Shimizu’s shoulder before she realized it. The duo of girls fell asleep while holding hands just like that.
A faint blue mist from outside illuminated the cavern’s interior at dawn on the following day. The fire had almost burnt out by now and just had a little kindling left lit.
Shimizu found Lily still asleep when she woke, possibly because of the ordeal that Lily had gone through the previous night. She kissed Lily’s cheek and gave her a lap pillow on her thighs before caressing her pretty hair gently so that she could sleep longer.
Lily blushed immediately after sensing the supple sensation of Shimizu’s thighs as well as her scent when she slowly awakened and pouted at Shimizu after getting up hastily.
“You’re awake?”
“Mhm,” Lily mummed with a nod.
“How is it? Are you feeling better now?”
Lily got up with steady footsteps and felt wholly good as she braced against the fresh morning wood of the mountain after arriving at the cavern’s mouth.
The intense thirst brought by the spring sake still remained within her and her body even seemed to have gotten hotter, but Lily had full control over her body unlike before, which made her think that her body was perhaps really a natural wonder since it had adapted to the effects overnight.
Although she felt stimulated and craved, Lily was determined to keep it in check silently and suppress it well with her tenacious willpower and fortitude.
Furthermore, this oversensitive body of hers also allowed her to sense the natural world more clearly, almost as if she had woken up from a dream that clouded her eyes.
Lily waved her hand and stored both the Sakura Parasol as well as Yasutsuna inside the mirror and summoned Crescent Moon in her hand with another wave.
A white mist blew by in the next moment, and a massive white hound appeared in front of Lily, which left Shimizu quite shocked.
“T-This is…”
“Thank you, Sis. I’m fine now,” Lily’s heart pounded intensely when her eyes fell on Shimizu’s succulent lips, and a passionate current passed through her bosom, waist and underbody3. However, Lily saw it as a charming reservedness by suppressing it.
