Evening was soon arriving, and the students were seated around a table eating dinner. The mix of many conversations filled the room as some showed off several souvenirs that they had bought while others were opening up cell phones to show the photos of Fushigumo Village that they had taken.
“Hey, do you think Big Bro would like this?” Tsugumi was asking Sachiho, holding up a keychain that she had bought. It had a wooden talisman attached to it with a carving of a cloud on it. “Or do you think this one is better?” she asked as she held up a letter opener that resembled a small katana.
“I think Senpai would prefer the letter opener,” Keita said with an amused smile as he popped a sushi piece into his mouth. “You know, since he’s in the kendo club…”
“Not to mention he gets a lot of love letters,” Sachiho giggled.
“Hm…yeah, this seems like a better one,” Tsugumi said. “Miyama-san~!” she said to Kanako who was sitting next to her. “Here, take this as a symbol of our friendship!”
“Eh? Ah…th-thanks…” Kanako said after getting over the initial shock of Tsugumi almost shouting into her ears. She took the keychain and admired it; although it was simple, it was clear that whoever made it put a lot of work into it.
“I hope you’re enjoying your meal!” Rie said cheerfully as she came in to check on them. “Do you need any more rice?”
“Yes please!” their chaperone, a young teacher by the name of Handa Tomie said. Tomie was a young teacher at the age of twenty-two, having barely gotten out of college. She had been chosen to chaperone the trip due to the teachers ‘being impressed by her initial performance’ or something like that. Kanako thought that Handa-sensei was nice enough; she seemed able to empathize with students easily. Many students liked her and she was often given positive feedback from the other teachers.
“So, Miyama-san, is it okay if I call you Kanako-chan?” Tsugumi asked, looking at Kanako with bright eyes and a good-natured grin.
“Eh?! Ah…um…I…I think it’s fine…” Kanako said, her face red.
“Ahahaha, Kanako-chan is so shy, just like Sachi-nee!” Tsugumi teased as she put an arm around the other girl. “Hey, are you still worrying about the shrine thing?”
“N-not really…” Kanako lied. In truth, she couldn’t help thinking about what she had seen in the shrine. She hadn’t told the others yet, but she had experienced a strange feeling while in the shrine, a feeling of heaviness, a feeling of being watched. Although it was probably her imagination, it still bothered her.
------------------------------------------------------In another part of the village, hidden away from the eyes of others, four shrine maidens were gathered around another girl whose arms were tied up above her head, the rope bound to a beam at the top of the building. The girl’s shirt had been taken off and her breasts trembled as the girl shivered in fear. “The Priestess has come…” one of the shrine maidens whispered as the others took a step back.
The Priestess was a girl about nineteen years old with long black hair and eyes that were an unnatural green. She was tall and had a rather intimidating presence. The shrine maidens bowed to her as she approached them. “The guests are staying at the local inn tonight,” one of the shrine maidens said. “Mari thinks that she’s found the girl who is the destined mate to the Princess. Your orders?”
“First, we make sure that they can’t leave the village,” the Priestess said as she approached the bound girl. She started to trace the area between the girl’s breasts, causing gasps and moans to come from the girl’s gagged mouth. As she finished tracing, a strange pattern started to glow on the girl’s skin. “There, that’s done. The storm clouds will take a while to gather, but soon their communication will be down. What about the bus?”
“One of us has already gone to take care of it,” another shrine maiden said.
“Perfect. Make sure that you handle everything with care.” With that, the Priestess walked out of the building, heading back to the main Fushigumo temple. The temple was empty tonight, but it didn’t matter to the Priestess. She headed into the main room of the temple and walked over to a small statue in the shape of a pyramid on the altar. Pushing it down and turning it clockwise two times and counterclockwise three times, she then pushed against the back wall of the temple and walked into the hidden door that appeared.
Walking down the stairs of the hidden room, the Priestess soon came upon a series of doors. She pushed one of them open and walked in, revealing a bedroom of sorts. She stepped in and started to strip off her robes. She walked over to the bed and climbed up, smiling down at the naked girl tied to it.
“Hello Shiori,” she said with a smile. “I hope you weren’t worried about me too much.” She leaned down and kissed the girl on the forehead, eliciting a small moan from the girl. Saliva was dripping down from the girl’s mouth due to the ball gag stuffed in and the Priestess leaned down and licked the side of the girl’s mouth.
“Everything is going according to plan,” the Priestess said. “Soon, the Spider Princess will awaken and grant us our dearest wish.” As Shiori continued to moan, the Priestess giggled as she stroked her captive’s long dark blue hair. “Uncomfortable, my dear? I’m sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. If only you hadn’t tried to run away from me, you wouldn’t be like this…”
The Priestess pulled out the ball gag, causing the girl to gasp. “Please…Saki…don’t do this to me…please…” Shiori’s words were soon cut off when the Priestess Saki leaned down and kissed her softly. Shiori could only cry softly as Saki’s hands massaged her breasts with hungry vigor.
“Shiori, I love you so much…”
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The students were getting their beds ready, but none of them really had any intention of going to sleep so soon. It was only nine o’clock and the energy of the students hadn’t been completely spent yet. “So…what should we talk about?” Keita asked. The door separating the boys and girls haven’t been closed yet so the students were still allowed to mingle with each other before the lights went out.
“I know! Let’s tell scary stories!” a student called out.
“Scary stories?” Rie asked as she walked in with some more pillows. “I don’t know if these can be considered scary stories, but Fushigumo has quite a bit of stories!”
“Really?” Sachiho asked. “What…what kind of stories?”
“Any about the Spider Princess?” Tsugumi asked eagerly. Both Sachiho and Kanako looked at Tsugumi with dismay on their faces, but the energetic girl didn’t seem to notice her two friends’ discomfort.
“The Spider Princess, huh?” Rie said thoughtfully. “Well, there are actually a few myths as well as urban legends about the Spider Princess…Oh! I know of a good one!” The students started to crowd around as Rie began her tale.
“So the myth of the Spider Princess starts around the time when the onmyouji were still the most powerful spiritual force in Japan. It was said that a princess was traveling across the country to meet the son of a powerful lord for marriage. The princess’s travel company decided to take a shortcut through the forests since there were rumors of bandits around. However, it was in the forests that the bandits lay in wait…”
“Did…did they get her?” Kanako asked.
“The bandits attacked, but the fight woke something far more dangerous: a jorougumo whose powers were as strong as those of a god’s. The jorougumo attacked the two parties, devouring most of them in her rampage. The princess was said to have passed out at the sight of the giant spider, only to come to in the spider’s lair.”
“She was bound to a giant web and thought that she was done for; she assumed that the jorougumo didn’t kill her because she wasn’t hungry. It was at that time that she realized there was someone else in the cave: a beautiful woman with very long black hair and red eyes that were like blood drops. The woman was playing a biwa but stopped as soon as she noticed that the princess was awake.”
“‘Why did you bring me here?’ the princess cried out. ‘Are you going to kill me as well?’ The jorougumo didn’t say anything, but merely smiled at the princess and walked over to her. She gave the princess a kiss and…”
“Whoa, whoa! Time out, time out!” Keita exclaimed. “Kissed? That spider woman kissed the princess? Wow, didn’t see that coming…”
“‘From now on,’ the jorougumo said, ‘…you are no longer a princess. You belong to me; in exchange for your life, you will give me your freedom.’ The jorougumo planted her egg into the princess’s body, making the princess her ‘bride’ so to speak…”
“Wha…” Sachiho’s face had turned a brilliant red. Kanako too could feel a blush spreading across her face; what kind of a legend was this?
“The princess would later on give birth to another jorougumo, one that would be known as the Spider Princess. The jorougumo and the princess…no one knows what happened to them. No legend tells of their fate, but I think it’s possible they’re still around.” Rie laughed a little as she finished her story. “It’s not a good one, I know…”
“Wow, who would’ve thought there’d be girls love in mythology?” Tsugumi asked. “Thanks! That was a really interesting one! Any actually about the Spider Princess?”
“Hm…I trying to think…aha! There’s another famous one. The Spider Princess, after she had grown up, was terrorizing the countryside. She would attack livestock, dragging away cows and horses to be devoured in her lair. She would also attack any villagers that ran afoul of her, mauling them and occasionally killing some of them.”
“The village near her lair grew desperate; they needed to find a way to get rid of her. It was at this time that a shrine maiden by the name of Sayako. Sayako, pitying the villagers, went into the forest to find and exorcise the Spider Princess. She was said to have found the place where the Spider Princess was using as a lair and the two began to fight. Although the magic of Sayako was strong, the Spider Princess was more powerful than she had anticipated. It took all her strength just to hold the demon at bay and she soon realized that if the battle dragged on any longer, she would lose.”
“So what did she do?” A wide-eyed Sachiho asked.
“She did the only thing she could; she used all her strength to summon a magic seal. Using this seal, she managed to catch the Spider Princess by surprise, trapped the Spider Princess underground, and put her into a deep sleep.”
Rie laughed a little as she finished. “Well, it’s really an incomplete myth; no one knows what happened to Sayako afterwards. Some people think she might’ve died after using so much power while others think she might’ve escaped. But what they do know is that the Spider Princess is still sleeping somewhere, supposedly near this village if the legends are correct.” Rie suddenly started as she looked at the clock. “Oh! I better get back to work! I hope that you’re all comfortable and enjoy your sleep!” With that, she took off with the unused sheets and pillows in her hands.
As the students started to settle down in their beds, Tsugumi turned towards Sachiho and Kanako. “Pretty interesting story, huh?” she asked with a grin.
“It…it was interesting…” Sachiho smiled nervously.
Kanako had to agree with Sachiho; the story was interesting, but there was something a little disturbing about it too. She just couldn’t put her finger on it…
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Rie was putting the extra pillows back into the closet when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. Whirling around, she realized that it was her mother. “Mom, please don’t do that!” she said. “You nearly gave me a heart attack…”
“You were telling them the story of the Spider Princess, weren’t you?” her mother asked. “So does that mean you have accepted her into your heart?”
“Mom, I’m telling you, I’m not going to join the group,” Rie said exasperatedly. “I just told them a story, that’s all.”
“Just a story?!” her mother exploded. “Rie, you listen to me. The Spider Princess is no myth, she really exists! She sleeps below this village, waiting to awaken and reclaim the land as her own! You, as my daughter, have an obligation to…!”
“I don’t have such an obligation!” Rie exploded. “Stop pestering me about it, okay? Stop trying to force your beliefs down my throat!”
Her mother looked like she was about to say more until another employee called out. “Masako-san, someone’s calling for you!” Masako turned and strode off, giving her daughter one last look before going to greet her guest.
Rie could hear her mother call out “Yoshiko-san! Come on in!” The girl sighed as she closed the closet door after putting the last extra sheet inside.
"Honestly, why is she so obsessed about a myth?" she asked out loud. "It's almost as though she's letting it take over her life..."