11

DISCLAIMERS: Any person involved in a sexual act is above the age of 18. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. This story contains some supernatural events, but is not intended to disrespect any religion.

This story also has fictitious members of the Imperial family of Japan. Presently, there are two unmarried princes in the royal family, ages 6 and 62. My characters are not the same ages as existing members of the royal family. I have made up two unmarried brothers, ages 18 and 26, whose mother is now a widow, or dowager princess. There are presently no dowager princesses in the royal family, either. I am hoping that I have treated the royal family, even my fictitious members, with respect.

As for sex, there is little in this one. It has some graphic descriptions, because the main character goes through an involuntary Transgendering from a man to a woman. I am posting it here because I am not sure how it would go over on a non-sexual literature posting site. The story is meant to be open ended, so that the character can be used in many additional stories.

Chapter 10 - Escape

Ahiko's Cave

At 4AM, here were loud bangs on the door that resonated throughout the tunnel. Ahiko rousted from her sleep and put herself into her wheelchair. I slowly got up and used a pair of crutches that had been placed by my bed. Before we could get into the tunnel, there were several lights beaming down it. "Angel? Are you there? We've come to take you away from here."

More lights appeared in the tunnel, and Ahiko was a little leery of going out into it. She motioned me back and peered around the corner. The lady spoke again, "You three go check the upper tunnel. We'll head to the main chamber. We don't have much time."

Ahiko moved her wheelchair into the tunnel. "Mistress, is that you?"

"Oh, thank heaven you're still here! We need to take you away from here. The authorities think you have kidnapped the princess and her son."

"What!...No!...I rescued them!...And healed their wounds!"

Three ladies in black leather outfits carrying flashlights were now in sight. A light flashed in my face. "They're here? Angel, what did I tell you about bringing anyone in here? And what's with putting up this flyer? You have to keep a low profile, or we'll lose you."

Ahiko was slumping down in her wheelchair, and sat with her head down, looking at her lap. I moved towards her and tried to support her. "Ahiko has done nothing wrong! We will just need to explain what happened, that's all." I went over and grabbed the handles on her wheelchair for support, and dropped the crutches.

"Angel! How does she know your name? Angel! You've broken almost every protocol that we have to keep you safe." The mistress turned to me. "Princess, how much do you know about our little angel?"

I squared off and faced the lady Ahiko called 'Mistress' directly. "I know that if you are trying to protect her from being some sort of lab experiment, and that I am on her side. She can see in the spirit world, she can heal, and she can regenerate. She has probably lived in that nine year old body for over 25 years in Japan, possibly another 40 years in the United States, and then possibly some more time in Europe, probably France.

The mistress shot a deadly glance at Ahiko which had the poor girl reeling back, and then one at me.

I pushed further, "Some of those were just guesses, but now you seem to be betraying her too. I tried to figure out the worst thing that someone could do to such a sweet child, and you practically confirmed it. Tell me, is it the French, Americans, or the Japanese who are after her? You are not with a religious order or you would have bowed to her, so who are you with?"

Ahiko was sweating, and starting to look very uncomfortable.

The mistress completely ignored my question and came back at me, "Our members near the American base told us that two teams of special forces came in early yesterday evening, about 9 hours ago." The Japanese security forces have already joined up with these groups, and two other groups, including your Royal Security are activated in this area. A third team of Americans landed three hours ago, and they were flown directly up here on helicopters and a transport plane, carrying specially modified panel vans. You are part of the problem here. You're part of the government trying to capture him! And, I'm not going to tell you who I represent!"

Ahiko started crying. "I don't want to go back! Don't let the Americans take me! I don't want them to do tests with me again! I'm sorry! They were going to freeze in the cold. I'm just trying to be good, and the spirits told me that the boy and this lady needed my help! I didn't know who they were. I'm trying real hard! You have to believe me!"

The mistress stopped and looked over at Ahiko. "The spirits are here? Can you hear them now? Are you saying that the spirits told you to help them?"

I came in for Ahiko again, "Ahiko only saw at the spirit of my father and followed his non-verbal instructions. I think my son and I were merely pawns to affect the onset of her maturation process. That's what this is all about."

The mistress glared at me. "You mean he's lost his immortality! You've got to be kidding! Ahiko, is this true?"

"She never was immortal, she is actually growing younger if you found any time to actually sit down and really talk to her. You're just using her too, just like the Americans want to. You just don't want to lose your little plastic surgeon that does everything without using cuts or plastic. You can't tell me those torpedoes on you and your friend's chests are standard Japanese issue, and our little angel hasn't given you a few upgrades."

Ahiko started to glow, she was sweating heavy now.

"How did you know, what did you force him to do you too?"

"Nothing! She did make my son's little happy pole a little bigger, if you must know! And that was a few days back, before I even came here."

"Well, it's still wrong to alter our angel. You may have altered his life span. We have accepted our angel just as he is, and you should not change him."

"OUR ANGEL? Did you say OUR ANGEL? I want what best for her, and I'm not looking to exploit her, and we don't even know that this it going to do to her. We don't know that for sure, but if heaven wants her to mature, and used my father to send this message, then I think it was the right thing to do. I trust my father's judgment. She may only age 20 years, and then remain a woman for the rest of her life." I was taken back. "What a minute! What's this 'he' and 'his' business about?" I was just starting to think about the first marriage of a prince to a person of non-Japanese heritage. Ahiko, were you originally a man?"

Ahiko looked up as if in a dream world. "I'm going to be a princess?", and then fainted.

The mistress looked up at me. "Now look what you have done!"

"ME! She was sleeping peacefully before you came in!"

I held up my hand, and took a deep breath.

"Mistress, this arguing is getting us nowhere, except to stress out our little angel. I understand that you want to secret Ahiko away from here. If there are military forces in town aready, and they will start to search in the morning, then we need to pull Ahiko and whatever she needs out of here as fast as you can. I think you should let her decide what things she needs to take."

The mistress looked back at me. "Then you will help?"

"She has my son's sperm swimming inside of her right now, and I have a possible grandchild at stake here. You need to think of me as a potential mother-in-law, and not as part of the government. I will help in any way I can, but I need to be kept in the loop."

The mistress's face lit up with astonishment.

"That could be an emperor of Japan some day! You are still going to be watched, and coming in contact with you will be dangerous for her. I don't trust you. Can you give me any idea if what you think is going on here?"

"The child can't become emperor. Ahiko has to be a legally recognized consort before her offspring will be recognized as royalty. But I have an idea what might be happening."

I was looking at the kimono that I wore earlier, and started to push myself and the unconscious Ahiko towards the display where she hung the kimono. "I need some information. Did she tell you how she came to Japan?"

"She said that she burned some men, and then ran away. She healed you, didn't she? The wound gets warm. I think if she goes too far, she could burn someone."

I pulled next to the kimono and stopped. I smoothed to the fabric and then pointed to the bird on the Kimono. "Can you tell me about any winged creatures with a tail that are known to rejuvenate something by burning them, possibly to ashes?

The mistress stared at the kimono. "A phoenix! You think she might be the Feng Bird?"

I point further down. "It fits...and what is the prophesy about the marriage of a Feng Bird and a Dragon?"

"It marks the entrance into a golden age. Are you saying she is going to marry your son?"

We both looked over at me son, who was snoring peacefully. He had never even woken up since this commotion began. "Some defender of Japan you are!

I turned back to the mistress. "I already told you that some of his sperm IS inside Ahiko's vagina. I don't know if they will, but it is a possibility that they will marry."

I looked at one of the others, she had a weapon pointed at me.

"Are you really going to shoot me?"

The mistress went over and grabbed the gun away from the lady. "Yes, but it shoots a tranquizer dart."

"Well, if you have some sort of anesthetic, I want my son out for the next two hours. I don't need him knowing about you. It will make my job to come up with an alibi for us easier. Now, would I tell you to drug my son, a prince of the Imperial House of Japan, if I didn't think Ahiko's life was so important?"

The Mistress thought for a moment, and shot my son. I didn't flinch, "Thank You."

"OK, you've convinced me. You'll need to be contacted after the dust settles. It would be better for you if you don't exactly know who we are, and don't ask too many questions. Do you agree?"

I nodded in approval. "Yes, I will look after our little angel for now, and try to find her doll Miss Flowers. She is going to need her on this trip. I will also get the three of us ready for travel. You can drop the prince and me off at a location away from here, and I'll call the Royal Security to pick us up from there. You start removing anything that you think she needs.

By now, there were eight stunning looking women in black leather outfits milling around. Ahiko started coming to, and I stroked her hair and tried to comfort her. "Angel, we all are sorry that we upset you. We are all going to leave here together, and we need to know what precious things you need to take away from here. I know you will want Miss Flowers, so we will look for that first. The bad men will be in here in a few hours. Can you tell the mistress what things you also want to take away?"

"I need my diaries from the upper tunnel, and my instruments from the lower tunnel."

The mistress looks at her crew. "You two start pulling the diaries upstairs, you, and you, go get some boxes for them. The rest of you start taking out the instruments. Ahiko, are you going to take any of the gold or the Kimonos?"

"We can take some of it, I have never figured out how to pay taxes, so we should leave most of it to cover my debt to Japan. I also want my instrument jigs from the workshop. I can buy new tools, but I need the jigs."

I looked a Ahiko. "Jigs? You're a musical instrument maker?"

Ahiko roller her eyes, "Yes, I am a Luthier. I told you I had clients! What did you think I did?"

"Why doctor, of course."

"Oh... Yes, I do that too, but that's a secret."

We all broke apart and start on our assigned tasks. Ahiko and I removed our sleepwear, and put on the Kimonos from the night before, and we dressed the prince in an entire outfit that Ahiko had picked out while shopping for food. A third wheelchair is brought down from the upper level and I used it. The mistress came by and stares at us in our finery. "Couldn't you find anything less conspicuous?"

Ahiko chimed in. "Oh, like the 'Sisters of Bondage' outfits that you are wearing? Today is the 3-5-7 festival. This is less conspicuous than yours is."

I giggled at our angel calling her eight rescuers the 'Sisters of Bondage'. "Honey, I am going to need a cover story. I showed Ahiko a tabloid that I had picked up. How would you like to be a princess, a snow princess?" She smiled, "I'd like that." I asked for some paper, and I am given a blank diary. Ahiko and I wrote some things down in it while the others busy themselves with loading items into the vehicles.

The harps are the largest instrument taken, the piano is left behind, and her collection of flutes and stringed instruments are quickly loaded in, along with the wooden jigs, diaries, and a few everyday clothes. My son and Ahiko are put in wheelchairs and moved into a van. With an hour an a half before dawn, each of the eight ladies makes four additional trips into the home, twice to remove kimonos, and twice to remove sacks of gold. . While the ladies make their final trips, Ahiko finished healing my ankle, so that my story of wheeling my son from the snow princess's lair would be plausible.

We ended up leaving about half an hour before dawn. The caravan had one cargo van, one passenger van, and two cars.

We drive out the twisting roadway, and past my car. The road runs along the river and the walls of the canyon that we are in. After five kilometers, Ahiko has the van stopped at a curve in the road. "Princess, take care of that diary. I am counting on you to follow through with your part. Mistress, you will have to trust her, and contact her when I am safe. Mistress, I will get out here, and please come back for me in five days in full daylight. I'll need my backpack. "

The mistress is puzzled. "Angel, how can I leave you here, you can't even walk."

"The spirits are telling me that there are people ahead, and that it is not safe for me. The Americans have detectors that can track me, and they work best at night. There is a crack in the wall over there which leads to my emergency cave. I have two months of rations stored in it."

The mistress got the wheelchair from the back, and bought it to the passenger door. Ahiko slid into in and quickly pushes herself over to the sheer rock surface. Using her good leg and her two arms, Ahiko climbed up the wall about 5 meters up and disappeared. I scanned the wall, and even though I know Ahiko is up there, I couldn't make out an entrance. The mistress returned with the wheelchair, and a whistle. Ahiko must have given her the whistle as a signal. She stood for a while, looking in different directions, trying to memorize this particular bend in the road, and then returned to the driver seat. She finally whipped out a GPS device, and marked her position.

"Since Angel told me to, you will be notified when I pick her up. I was not planning on ever having contact with you again, but she has made some sort of arraignment with you. She trusts you to not give up her location. What's in the diary that is so important to her?"

I turn to the mistress. "A request for Political Asylum, a possible adoption into the Imperial Family, which gives her diplomatic immunity, details for a Japanese birth certificate, and possible people to might be willing to adopt her." I paused for a moment. "It would help to have a member of royalty push paperwork through, don't you think? I've also figured out that you're Geisha. You come from a very private society, and I am confident that you know how to keep her private."

The mistress was taken back, "OK, you will definitely be contacted. We will keep her safe until all of the paperwork is complete."

We start drive on the train station. The mistress helped me put my son into a wheelchair, and we started to push him onto the platform. The only other person at the station was an elderly woman carrying a case. The woman limped over and offered to help my son and I get onto the platform. As the two of us sat down next to my son, the mistress returned to her van. Before the mistress could get to her vehicle, and the cars drive off, the elderly lady pulls out a meter from her purse and points it at the vehicles.

After checking the readings, she asks, "Has Angel been moved to a safe location?"

I do my best to deflect the question. "Please forgive me, I don't speak much English."

"I would have thought that you would know quite a lot, from when your father serving as a diplomatic aid in the Japanese Embassy in London. I am willing to have this conversation in German if you wish, since you majored in Political Science, and minored in German at Oxford."

I stiffened in shock, "Who are you?" I tried to recover, by simply staring into the bay that the train station overlooked.

"My name is Janice Williams. I called you about sixteen hours ago, and I was the American who told you that I would help find your son, and the Angel of the Mountain. I was Angel's psychologist in America. I wanted him to have his violin. How is Angel doing?"

"Angel? I don't know what you're talking about." The morning light was just starting to highlight the mountains across the bay. We said nothing to each other, and the only sound was the waves of the ocean lapping against the shore.

The lady pushes the case towards me. "Just, have it tested before you give it to angel. You will find no tracking devices on the violin or the case. I checked it myself. Besides, who in their right mind would glue anything on to a Stradivarius? Tell him Janice saved it for him, the accident was not his fault, and everything has been forgiven."

I look down at the case. "This is a Stradivarius?"

The lady nodded. "I also have something more personal that I made."

Janice put the detector gadget back in her purse, and pulled out a doll, a handmade doll.

"Did you make Miss Flowers?"

She nodded, "I make a special doll for all my patients, we use them to talk in the therapy sessions."

Janice looked at my son and checked out his eyes and pulse. "Our angel has very good taste. You need to give your son the antidote before others see you. A train will be coming soon, and they will depart the train, once they see that you here with your son. I want to help angel. If you need it, I will help you with your cover story for the public."

I finally gave up any semblance of innocence, "She doesn't want to go back. She said he burned people."

Janice removed her glove and showed me her charred hand. "Yes, she did. I don't hold this against her. She doesn't have to go back. She is a servant of Benzaiten now, and I don't think that the Goddess Benzaiten would allow her subject to leave Japan. I'm glad she has finally thinks of herself as female. I've been worried about her all these years". She returned the glove to her hand.

"The Goddess Benzaiten?"

The lady nodded her head.

I gave my son an antidote for the anesthetic, which meant that he will come around about 3-4 minutes. I called Royal Security, and they were now on their way to pick us up. I gave her our weak cover story. Janice pauses and excuses herself to make a phone call, and came back. My son was awake for not more than five minutes when a train pulled into the station.

People saw us, and left the train. They crowded around us, and wanted to know what had happened. I tried my best to relay the weird fantasy story, but I don't think that many of the people bought into it. I told them that my son had been found by the snow princess who called herself the 'Angel of the Mountain'. She had healed his wounds, and had fallen in love while caring for him. She wanted to make him her husband. After crashing my car, I had followed a faint trail of blood to her lair. I had played along, and even agreed to marry them in the morning, until she fell asleep. I then grabbed my son and wheeled him to safety. I was not sure that anyone bought my story, but while I was telling it, the royal security showed up ready to take us away.