Kotoru Sets Out: An Adult Fairy-Tale
by Ian Johnston
Originally read February 3, 2012 at Annex Theatre's Spin the Bottle

Kotoru was a Hengeyokai, a magical shape-shifting cat from ancient
Japan.  Hengeyokai cannot be killed, and so Kotoru had lived many
years.  One day, he grew bored of Japan, and strolled onto a ship.  He
walked boldly, as only a cat can do: tail high, not deigning to notice
anyone around him.  A sailor named Tom let Kotoru into his cabin and
made up a little bed for him.  Tom knew that keeping pets was against
Shinjuku Shipping Company regulations, but he also knew that a cat was
good luck on a ship.

The ship arrived in San Francisco, and Kotoru walked off the ship, and
quickly found himself in Chinatown.  Hengeyokai do not need to eat
food, but they thrive on the energy of humans, and Kotoru found he was
attracted to the familiar smells of Chinatown.

Kotoru, although gregarious, had only been among Japanese people while
in Japan.  The sight of all the Gaijin (as he thought of Americans) in
San Francisco at first dismayed him severely, and he hid in Chinatown.
However, soon he discovered that the Gaijin were also fascinating, and
he wandered out among them, quickly learning English.

He sauntered, in his cat-like way, into an apartment building, looking
for interesting things happening, but all he found was people watching
television.  These people were boring, and he quickly left them to
their flickering screens.  He found a bar and walked in.  There were
televisions here too, but most of these people weren't paying attention
to them.

Kotoru assumed the most beguiling form he knew: a beautiful Geisha with
a flame-red silk kimono, perfectly made-up white face, and feet the
size of thimbles.  He was determined to find a playmate here, and this
seemed the most expedient way.  He was surprised when everyone in the
bar started laughing.  He was mortified when he realized they were
laughing at him.  One of the patrons yelled something about Halloween,
which Kotoru didn't understand, and he fled as quickly as his tiny feet
would carry him.

Kotoru wandered through the city, bewildered and unhappy.  He would
have to learn about this new place.  Cats were obviously welcome many
places, so he kept to his natural form.  He walked into a bar again,
but this time just sat and watched.  People drank, flirted with each
other, yelled at each other, and simply sat quietly conversing.  The
music was too loud, and Kotoru found his head was swimming with the
noise.  He was reminded of Tokyo, where he had visited once and never
returned.

Another night, Kotoru found a dance club.  This was even louder, but he
braved it anyway, because the people were so different-looking.  Their
clothing was so strange, and revealing, and he found himself fascinated
despite the avalanche of sound.  Inside the club, the air was hot and
humid, and the smell of sweat and alcohol was like a fog.

Kotoru picked a beautiful man who was dressed in a mesh shirt and shiny
black pants, and assumed a shape like his.  The dark skin gave him a
little bit of trouble, but in the dark room no one would notice.  At
least as a human, he didn't have to smell everything so much.

Kotoru found a beautiful woman standing at the bar and ran his long,
delicate fingers over her sleeve, which was made of something very soft
and velvety.  She looked at his face with an angry expression, but her
face softened as she saw him.  "Hello," she said, shouting over the
loud music.  Kotoru had never bothered much with speaking.  He simply
drew his face close to hers, smiled in the soft way which was so
familiar, and leaned down to kiss the woman.  She was surprised, but
didn't resist.

The woman's friend, who was standing nearby, tried pulling her away
from Kotoru, but the woman waved her off, snaking the other hand up
Kotoru's neck to twine her fingers into his soft, kinky hair.  She was
drunk with his scent and his body.  He growled happily under his
breath and pressed against her, kissing her more, moving his lips over
her neck and shoulders.  Around them, the club thudded and swayed.

Soon, the woman pulled her face away, said something Kotoru
didn't understand, and dragged him toward one of the corners of the
building.  They went into a small room tiled in white, tumbled into a
small stall, and she eagerly undressed him, pressing against his body
the whole time.  His erection sprang free, and in a moment he was
thrusting inside her with a wild abandon.  So San Francisco was not so
different from Japan as all that.

Their hasty communion finished, he left her moaning and shivering
happily on the toilet.  Kotoru was nothing if not skilled in the ways
of pleasure.

He left the dance club, very pleased with himself, and changed back
into his natural cat form.  He was energized and ready for the next
conquest, but wanted to find somewhere quieter to do it.  He sauntered
into an internet cafe.

Here, the people were all staring at screens again, and Kotoru was
tempted to leave.  But he looked at one of the screens, and was
impressed for a moment with what he saw: the person at the keyboard was
controlling the view, with a gun bobbing and weaving near the bottom of
the screen.  It flashed repeatedly in time with a clicking thing in the
person's hand, and Kotoru watched as a tiny figure on the screen fell
over in a garish splash of red.  The man controlling the screen wore
headphones and had a look of intense concentration on his face.

Kotoru stepped out into the alley next to the cafe, and changed into
the shape of the woman he'd met at the dance club, a perfect
reproduction down to the gauzy shirt, black bra, purple-and-black
striped stockings and very short skirt.  He stepped back into the cafe,
and focused on the young man at the computer.  Kotoru knew in a sort of
abstract way what a computer was, but he was always much more
interested in the people.

The young man didn't look up at Kotoru, so he walked closer, trailing
an elaborately-painted nail across the man's shoulders.  Now the young
man looked up, annoyed at having been interrupted.  "What do you..." he
started, trailing off as he got a look at the woman, who was staring
at him with the kind of rapt gaze he had never seen before.  His eyes
fell into hers, disappearing into a warm hazel sea, his aggression and
testosterone of a moment ago converted into a swelling desire.  The screen
flickered red in a series of flashes, then the view tilted sideways,
and Kotoru heard a faint musical tone play through the headphones which
were now sitting splayed across the keyboard.

"Hi," said the man, "I'm Jake.  What's your name?"  His voice was
distant as Kotoru's musky scent filled his nostrils and inflamed a passion
he would never have believed even two minutes ago.  Kotoru said nothing,
bending his woman's face up to the young man and brushing her dark-purple
lips across his.  Kotoru could feel Jake's manhood pressing through his
clothing, could sense the throbbing desire within him, and reveled in it.
Jake felt himself to be in a dream, and barely noticed that the beautiful
woman had led him to that alley beside the cafe.

Kotoru rubbed the front of Jake's pants eagerly, throwing a leg over
Jake's.  His woman's lips pressed hard against Jake's, eliciting a
small groan.  He urgently pulled up Kotoru's skirt, and in a moment
Kotoru felt Jake slide inside his woman's body.  Kotoru thrilled to the
ecstasy running through his body, the waves of pleasure he felt
spreading from his woman's crotch outward until he tingled to his
fingertips.

Jake dropped to his knees, spent.  His eyes were half-closed, and he
looked near to passing out.  Kotoru took no notice, hiking his skirt
back down over the flare of his woman's hips, a warm flush running
through him like waves of scented steam in a bath.  San Francisco was
even better than Japan -- it had never been this easy over there.

Coursing with energy, Kotoru almost skipped down the alley, not
noticing the shifting, dark figures who separated from pools of
shadow and followed him.  A moment later, he heard, very close by,
"Well well, and what have we here?" just as a hand slipped around his
throat and clenched very hard.  Something cold and hard was pressed
into the small of his back as the voice said, "Nice and quiet, and
nobody dies."

Kotoru had felt fear in his long life, but this was not one of those
times.  Hengeyokai cannot be raped in the conventional sense of the
word, and although it would be painful, even a bullet would not kill
Kotoru.  He turned around to face the voice, and saw there a tough,
angry-looking face, which was nevertheless covered over with an expression
of surprise.  The woman's teeth were somehow longer than should be
possible, and he was not ready for the lighting-quick movement of her
gaping mouth toward his throat.  The gun fired twice as he felt
something warm spread across his chest.  The world tilted, the
buildings falling forward and his vision went black as the pavement met
his descending head with a crack.

Kotoru sat a few feet back, daintily cleaning the blood from his fur
with successive passes of his rough tongue.  Yes, San Francisco
promised to be an interesting place.  He only limped slightly from the
slowly healing gunshot wound to his flank, as he walked back toward
Chinatown.