Nippon, 1908

Passing through the frozen void between worlds, Kethan entered the world he had fled from months ago.

Huffing and with frosted fur a great black cat appeared in a flurry of pink and white cherry blossom petals blowing on the wind. This path had pointed the way, drawing him to it as he sought out his first priestess.

Months he had fought instinct, tamed and controlled the animal now residing in his soul. Feeding the instincts on livestock and wild beasts far from the life he had nearly killed. Now he had a new hunt in this new land.

A moments concentration and the local language filled his head.

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Satoh Ayumi walked with careful steps down the rain slick streets of Meiji Japan. The basket clutched in her arms being her only chance to prove her father's theory and bring life to the rusting monstrosity that was all she had left of her Father. Seeing the pretty Geisha, the nobles in their Western style clothes, brought out how short and plain she was. She couldn't afford the elaborate headdresses with their rolled curls, the painted kimono's or the face paints. Every coin she earned went to rent, food and finishing her father's work.

"Girl! What present do you have for us there? Hmm?"

Looking up in shock, she saw the four street toughs moving to surround her. One of their leering faces in every direction she turned. One of them grabbed her and held her tight as another pulled the basket from her hands and holding up the lump of fused quartz the size of both her tiny fists together.

"What? Glass?" Cried the tough as he discarded the now empty basket.

He went to throw the orb of crystal, but as he reared back, a pair of huge black jaws came down on the back of his neck and with a loud crunch the tough fell limp. Two bounded leaps and the tough who pulled out a dagger found his arm torn free. Twisting the bloody jaws turned and left a throat torn open, silencing the scream from the severed arm. Then one turned to run with a wailing cry of "ONI!" and pulled the great cat like it was on a string to the chase and with a bound the jaws came down on the crying man's skull and silenced him.

Turning to stand before Ayumi, now collapsed to the knees. The last tough crouching behind her, the cat roared at full volume, and the tough tried to flee but didn't make it two steps. Ayumi sat there half blind in terror. The cat turned and picking up the basket in its jaws, placed the basket in her hands. Picking up the crystal orb in its jaws, to then drop the now blood covered orb in the basket. Then sitting back on its haunches it watched her. When she didn't move, the cat grabbed her arm gently and pulled her to her feet. Butting her, from behind, she started walking slowly at first, then faster. The cat always at her side, she arrived at her home and watched with wonder as the cat explored. Rarely away from her long.

Deciding to work on the task left to her by her father, she went out to the workshop behind the small house. The huge cat at her side.

"Are you truly an Oni? Or some other spirit?" She asked staring the cat in its huge green eyes, eyes that stared back with a far too deep of a gaze to be animal. The only response was a deep rumbling purr. She burnished away the gathered rust and oiled the great gears. The almost 20' tall metal Samurai knelt there; chest opened, and a delicate web of wires surrounded a hole the size of the orb. The cat turned and ran off, returning a minute later with the orb in its jaws. Dropping the orb into her hand, it sat back and gave a series of chuffs far too close to laughs.

"Oni indeed." She laughed, starting the enchantment on the orb. Each day for weeks, she would proceed before the orb would be ready.

That night as she laid down on her futon, the cat chirped to her and slid open the door and slipped outside, closing the door behind it. She felt comforted that the ancestors had sent such a spirit to watch over her.

Waking the next morning, she found the great black head tucked under her arm.

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Each day Ayumi would go out for her errands, that days laundry paying the costs, the spirit at her side. Her neighbors whispering as she passed.

Then enchanting the orb each night, she felt the great spirit at her side adding power to the flows. Each night the spirit let itself out, returning after she slept. She awoke to find it curled against her side.

Three weeks later as the moon neared its ripest, she finished the day's work in the shop. This time, the spirit pulled her in to the bath. With quiet and calming noises the spirit pulled her kimono from her. Standing, naked before it, the spirit proceeded to wash her with its tongue, falling first to her knees and then her back as sensation flooded her. She was laying there lost in sensation, and didn't notice at first that her entire home was filling with small black house cats. When the spirits great tongue swept across her core she twitched and shuddered. Lapping at her, with gentle bites, strokes across jaw and throat she could feel across her entire body. Her scent filling the air as the tongue returned to her center and she howled for her first time as the spirit pushed her over the edge. Rolling her over to kneel across the bath bench she knew what was coming and welcomed it. Small furred bodies brushed against her small pendant breasts, her quivering arms and legs. Tiny tongues and paws left no part they could reach untouched. Then the great furred body crouched over her, and she felt the massive intruder at her opening. She experienced a frisson shoot through her as the jaws closed on the back of her neck. Thin trickles of her blood dripping from her that were caught on the tongues of the swarming cats. Her pounding heart keeping time. Nonsense noises poured from her lips as she was kept just over the edge in one long continuous orgasm. Then her all too human cry, weak but melodious, was joined with a bestial roar that had the neighbors cowering.

Barely given a chance to enchant the orb today the spirit took her right there in the workshop. Standing up, today in a furred human body with a cat's head, the spirit held her against the wall as he filled her void. The spirit was if anything bigger and more enthusiastic in this form. As evening came, she lay there covered in the spirits seed. Dozens of small cats licking her clean. Her matted hair almost white, sleeping there on the workshop floor, warm in her blanket of furred bodies.

Today the spirit looked fully human, but easily a foot and a half taller, three times her weight. She was panting as he took her, when she felt a spike of pain that hurt and yet felt entirely right, her body shifting, bones breaking and reforming. She relaxed and by the end of the day, it no longer hurt as her body continued to change. It was far more bothersome when she sprouted fur, and he took her yowling from all fours. When she returned to human form she was no longer plain and short, now without makeup, her looks would make the prime Geisha envious. She knew now of the Great Goddess and the rituals she must perform. She also knew her task; it would lie with her to make steel guardians for all the Priestesses to come as a long forgotten and almost dead Goddess was renewed.

A week later the new priestess had converted the workshop to a temple. With a dozen black cats as attendants. Already a young street girl was listening to her words. A chest of coin had appeared the day after the spirit left, its other gift would swell her belly by the end of the year.