InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Changing Lives ❯ Lust, Regret, Fear ( Chapter 17 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Inuyasha’s eyes softened considerably. For a moment Kagome was certain he was going to kiss her, in front of the therapist; perhaps give her something to write about. But he just hugged her a little more completely and dropped his head to nuzzle her shoulder lightly.

For a moment, neither of them noticed that Sarah was even in the room.

~*~ Hospital ~*~

“Cute, cute, cute,” she chanted.

He snorted, but otherwise didn’t reply.

~*~ The Phantom ~*~

He looked over at the time and sighed as the minutes ticked closer to midnight. All in all, he didn’t want to get up and do this again; his point was made, wasn’t it? On the other hand, he had only existed until now to do this, to get it over with so he could die without regret.

But he was regretting killing them.

AE Forty Nine

Kagome wasn’t scheduled for another therapy session for a week. That was good. The bad news was, her therapist called in and wrapped the court around her little finger to get Kagome for daily sessions, again two hours each.

Since Kagome couldn’t trash her room out of frustration, she went with Inuyasha back to Sengoku Jidai with her bow and blew up several demons. In fact, they’d had to track the demons down, just so she could kill them. After about a dozen, Inuyasha stopped her, using the excuse that he couldn’t smell any more live ones.

He kept his mouth shut about the real reason, and though Kagome obviously knew he wasn’t saying everything, she took the excuse and stopped. Unfortunately, then she wanted to target practice.

She wasn’t going to use Inuyasha or anybody else as a bull’s eye, so instead Shippo created a stone shaped like a person for her to aim at. After perhaps half an hour with little help in depleting her anger, she was growing a crowd. She only kept shooting because they kept ‘oooh’ing and ‘ahhhh’ing.

Then she aimed into the sky and released her final arrow, not knowing exactly what she was doing, but following her instincts. She concentrated on the head of the arrow and at its peak, she exploded it with power. It shimmered and shone, looking something like fireworks.

While everyone was watching the arrow in the sky, Kagome had gestured for Inuyasha and he took her away from the crowd. She felt better after all of that, but now she was hungry for something else. If she tried to name it, she wouldn’t be able to, but she knew it had something to do with. . . with. . .

Hell, all she knew was that she was hungry, and it wasn’t for causing pain or eating. And it couldn’t be from attention after all of that time trailing a crowd. She only had one thought of what it could be left, and she bit her lip on Inuyasha’s back, deciding to simply ignore it.

Unfortunately his motions were keeping her from ignoring it well. She exhaled a shaky breath, and her fingers gripped his shoulders tighter.

No. . . fucking. . . way.

This was so completely against the stereotypical views of how a rape victim acted. It’d only been. . . Hell, couldn’t have been more than a week, week and a half! Yet part of her was definitely throbbing, and most definitely for Inuyasha.

Wrong wrong wrong! her mind kept chanting. She was supposed to be fearful of all touches, which she was – unless it was Inuyasha touching her. And at first, she couldn’t really stand his touches, either. But later, when she’d had time to come back to herself, assess what had happened, and focus on him. . .

His touches didn’t bother her so much. He was strong and comforting and he smelled so good. . .

She shook her head sharply at that. What was she thinking?! He smelled good? Since when was she the one who could smell people?

As it turns out, she snapped back to herself just in time. Inuyasha stopped running finally, near the well, but on the opposite side of it than the village. Far enough away that one could see the well, but not be seen through the foliage. She knew immediately that he was giving her time to relax and calm down, and she thanked him for it as she slid off him.

Sliding off him was a bad idea. It was slightly stimulating, just enough to get her mind back on the subject of his body. She’d seen his chest plenty of times, but thinking about it now. . . He was a hunk.

Which made sense, if you thought about it. I mean, he’s a half demon, not used to eating big meals, or even steadily, who’s almost always in a fight or in a rush. Where would there be room for one to relax and slouch enough to grow unhealthy and large?

“. . . Kagome?”

She blinked. Her eyes refocused and she realized she’d been staring at him and his body for a while now. “Sorry,” she half-laughed.

He tilted his head a little. “What was so interesting?”

The look in his eyes suggested he knew already. So Kagome just shook her head, smiling and leaned into him. He lifted his arms to hold her there after a moment. There was most definitely a pulse going through her now, something that felt like a heartbeat but was much stronger. She knew what it was, though she’d rather not have to say it.

And then Inuyasha said, “I can smell it.”
She shivered in his arms, and lifted her chin to see him. She must have looked inviting, because he leaned down to kiss her, and though it was the same as every other, it felt so much different. She couldn’t help but move until her arms were around his neck, pulling him to her more firmly.

It felt so nice. . .

And then came a surprise. She felt his mouth open, and then his tongue at her lips. Without thinking, or even realizing exactly what he was doing, she opened her mouth and lifted her tongue to meet his. About here is when everything spiraled of out control.

Suddenly he was holding her much tighter, kissing much more aggressively. And Kagome not only didn’t resist, but she tried to match him, and a thudding, pulsing feeling began through her body. She wasn’t sure if she was excited, or embarrassed, or even a little angry, but whatever it was, it was making her want him more.

Her mind traveled back to the sex part of her story, remembered how clearly the scene was in her mind, and against her will, her mind began playing the scene over and over. It only served to make her believe it really will be like that, their first time, all hot sweat, desire, and love.

She made a sound like a mix between a gasp and surprised squeal when she felt her back against a tree, and then she lifted up a bit, and her legs were around his waist. Inuyasha’s mouth moved to her neck and began kissing there, and she couldn’t help but tilt her head back at the rush of sweet pleasure.

She moaned a little, at this feeling, and gasped when she felt what was clearly his tongue licking at her skin. So she’d been right, she realized, when she described his senses, that he liked to taste. Even in her pleasured haze, she managed a smile. She really did know him well, didn’t she?

It must’ve been a second later that she felt his hand travel up her skirt and grip her hip. That’s when everything went to hell.

Immediately Kagome was remembering her rape, remembered a paw of a hand grabbing that very spot, and for a moment, she couldn’t tell what was real – Inuyasha, or. . .

She screamed.

Inuyasha jerked and took his hands away from her a moment, then moved one arm behind her back, the other lifting to cup her cheek, and she fighting him. All of a sudden the only thing she could think of was getting away, she could hardly feel him anymore.

“Kagome!” he snapped. “Open your eyes!”

She turned her head away from the voice. “Let me go, stop it!” she yelled, without thinking.

He wasn’t letting go. If anything he held her tighter, pressed his face to hers, started petting her cheek and hair. “Kagome, shh, look at me,” he pleaded.

She was whimpering, in an effort not to cry. Scenes were still flashing through her mind, scenes she wished she could forget. She was pushing at him, trying to get down. Stuck between Inuyasha and a tree, she felt horribly trapped, and it was heightening her panic.

Still, even as she fought Inuyasha, pushed at him and told him to let go of her, he kept whispering to her, trying to calm her down, making no motions and using no tones that would make her afraid. As she came back to herself, after who knows how long, she relaxed and leaned against him, dropping her head to his shoulder. She knew the moment she began crying, because his arm around her waist tightened and the muscle turned to stone.

She was shaking, and badly, and as she focused, she realized he was shaking, too. Both his arms were around her now, mostly just holding her there. She gave a shaky laugh once she was calmed, and lifted her head. “I guess. . . I do need that therapist after all,” she joked weakly.

Inuyasha didn’t reply, or quirk a brow, or frown or smile. He sat down, pulled her to his chest, and wrapped his arms around her, so his sleeves were mostly hiding her there. She couldn’t see his eyes, obscured by his bangs, but knew he was shaken, and pretty badly at that.

The first time in a long time they manage to kiss and actually get somewhere, while she seemed to be okay, and she snaps. She couldn’t help but feel bad about it. She was so sure she wanted him, that was willing to go all the way with him, and her mind plays tricks on her. She cursed her luck.

Then she went home. It felt nice to relax on her bed once more, Inuyasha beside her, warm and comforted. She even managed a smile. Though thoughts of tomorrow and that trip to the therapist were now both confusing and angered her, she found herself looking forward to it. She even made the decision that Inuyasha wouldn’t come this time, at least not into the room with her.

She imagined how he would flip upon hearing that.

~*~ Phantom ~*~

He sighed heavily as he made it back to his room, jumping through the window. He took off his coat and tossed it aside, leaving a trail of blood and flesh where it dragged. He wiped his cheek, and saw a long streak of blood accent his sleeve. Figures.

He laid down on the floor, stared up at the ceiling. That one was messy. A little too messy.

For one, the man had squirmed a lot, tried to fight through the whole thing. It made it harder to kill him, but in the end, there was no choice. The man was deformed too much to live by the end, he would have been in constant pain until his dying days. It was a pity kill.

And he should be hating them.

In all honesty he still did, but. . . he was hurting them so much, and he was certain the last on his list, Desyno Ferino, was terrified. He already knew the man was locked in protective custody, in some steel room somewhere.

What would be crueler, at this point? Killing the man, letting his fears come true, and ending it all in one more night? Or not killing him, not attacking him at all, and letting him fear every waking and sleeping moment for the rest of his life, wondering if Death was right behind him?

It was be a mercy to kill him. It really would.

That made it a little better. It was just one more. . .

He had to keep telling himself that. Just one more. . .

~*~ Detective Motsumoto ~*~

Despite efforts from everyone in the squad, and news reports from all of Japan, the Phantom remained at large. It was driving him crazy, and this latest death, Itsukonomu, the fifth man to be killed, was found in more pieces than any of the others.

But a shrink brought in to analyze the situation didn’t think the Phantom was getting crueler. After watching the tapes, the woman said that the Phantom was regretting his actions, and getting sloppy because of it. This was mainly obvious after the Phantom had ripped open the man’s arm, and then tried to close the wound, to keep it from bleeding out badly.

One could say his bloodlust overtook him and he didn’t want the man to bleed to death too soon, but the psychiatrist shook her head and told them all that his resolve was wavering. He didn’t want to do this anymore.

But something made him finish with Itsukonomu, and Motsumoto knew that he was going to finish off Desyno too. No matter what the police did, where they took him, how they protected him, the Phantom was going to get to him by tomorrow night.

And then it would truly be over, and that Phantom would disappear, leaving all six brutal homicides unclosed. Motsumoto really, really wanted to catch that guy, and make him pay before it ended. He wanted the man to go to trial and get the death sentence for all he’d done.

As part of the squad’s nightly routine from these murders, they told a shrink, that same woman, exactly what they thought on the matter.

She told Motsumoto, “He would only go to trial and accept his sentence when his deed is done. You would not be able to hold him, no matter how you tried. In the end, he would allow himself to die, lethal injection or not. It’s hard to hear, Motsumoto-sempai, but you literally have no power on this man. The only reason why he would obey your rules is because he feels he should.”

That burned like salt on an open wound. He has no power over the Phantom? That couldn’t be true. Motsumoto was the best detective in a thousand miles! There was no one that didn’t fear him and his squad, taking them down, pinning them for all!

Yet this Phantom continually made it around him. It was driving him crazy, not being able to catch the man, no matter what.

After the third kill, Tsunemi, they began moving the rest into protective custody, despite how some of the squad couldn’t feel bad for the imprisoned brutes. There was even one or two who voted against it, but followed orders anyway.

Yashutino Ryoki, the younger Yashutino brother, had been in solitary. Steel door, cement walls, five guards patrolling at all times. Any normal murderer would have been caught in the act, no matter how stealthy, how sneaky, how tricky he was. Yet this Phantom detained all the guards without a sound, simply took the key to the cell, let himself in, and locked the door behind him.

And Yashutino was left at his mercy, of which there appeared to be none.

They got smarter with Itsukonomu, though. Stronger cell, hidden keys, a dozen guards, all of them slept during the day and stayed awake and alert all night. Each guard was also fitted with a sensor which when pressed would set off an alarm, an alarm which also notified the police. This would also happen if the guard’s heartbeat slowed to a sleep or death pace.

This time the Phantom managed to separate the guards, take off the sensors, place them on himself, find the hidden key somehow, and again, it was a repeat of all the others.

Cameras were useless. Guards were pointless. Sensors and alarms were obsolete. Keys were playthings.

The only thing left to do would be to take Desyno out of the country, some other place less reachable. And that’s when it hit him.

Motsumoto knew of a place you could not get to without a helicopter. Sometimes he went there when work was tough, and he’s been meaning to visit it since these deaths began, to take a load off and let the nightmares wreak their havoc.

He could take Desyno there. With some quick assembly, he could make another solitary cell, without a key this time, and hide all the tools which assembled it. There would be no way to get to Desyno!

And Motsumoto himself could be there. He could try talking to the man, and if he was unreasonable, he could always have a gun ready.

That was it. Motsumoto had it all figured out. One way or another, he was going to have a showdown with this Phantom before he got to Desyno. Motsumoto was positive that if he could at least talk to that Phantom character, he could find some way of reasoning with the guy.

That letter, his actions, the unbending schedule – it all pointed to the Phantom being a generally good guy who had horrible things happen to him. If he was growing weary of killing, then Motsumoto felt he could detain the man fairly easily, given a few talks.

Then again, it was possible that the man was a psychotic killer, and the sloppiness was not from regret, but from a heightened bloodlust. Hence the reason why Motsumoto made sure to keep his gun nearby.

He stepped out of his office and gathered his team, telling them the plan quickly. He had to get everything moving fast, at it was already ten in the morning, and it would take all day and some of the night to get everything done, even with a dozen extra bodies.

He even smiled as they all began their duties, his mind showing him one scene after another where he caught that damned Phantom and took him in. There was no that the man could get away anymore.

And this had to work. If that letter were true, then after Desyno, the Phantom was going to disappear, and all the murders were going to be left unsolved. That, of everything, was the one thing Motsumoto was not going to let happen. Oh no, the Phantom was going to be caught, identified, judged and sentenced like all the other psycho killers in his district.

No one ever got away from Motsumoto.

~*~ That Night ~*~

Everything was set up, calm, and dark. Motsumoto remained in the darkness on the stairs, while Desyno was in his set-up cell in a holding room on the other side of the house.

The house was, in fact, a cabin. It was sitting atop a mountain, with broken ground everywhere around, and even a cliff. There was a very steep path up to the cabin, to the back door. The front door faced the cliff. As far as he knew, this cabin was built as a place to keep prisoners of war back in the past centuries.

There was thick forest in every direction, and currently the moon was nearly hidden, from clouds, mountains, and because it was nearly time for the new moon night. Another three days, from the looks of it.

The path led into the forest, and had a straight drop if you didn’t veer off it after a few hundred feet. The drop itself was just ten feet, but because of the steepness of the mountain, if you don’t stop yourself quickly after the drop, you’ll simply keep falling. Many deaths have happened because someone slipped, went over the drop, and couldn’t catch themselves in time.

Very few animals came around here because even they could tell it was dangerous. Other than birds in the trees, bugs on the ground, moles under the ground, and a few squirrels, the area was mostly deserted. There was no way to climb the broken ground without setting off a landslide, whether small or large, and it would alert Motsumoto if it happened.

He kept his eyes open, his ears clear, and his gun at ready. He could be up all night, waiting, for no reason, but he wasn’t willing to sleep, take that chance, and wake up to find Desyno in pieces.

He really didn’t see how the Phantom could have known that Desyno was here, in any case. He kept the information confidential, only his team knew about this plan, but there was always the off chance that someone was a double-crosser, a paid informant, who would give that Phantom what he wants to know.

There was also the chance that the police room was bugged somewhere, so all spoken plans are recorded. But then, in case of either of these two ringing true, they had the place searched for squealers and electronics. They did this after the forth death, to make sure that what they said wasn’t being repeated somewhere, somehow.

Motsumoto was no novice to police work. In fact, his eldest son had resorted to a life of crime for a decade, and after being rehabilitated, he told Motsumoto everything. All the tricks he’d used, the information, turning what he knew about Motsumoto’s work to his advantage, everything. In the end, his son had proved the greatest asset to his current skill as a officer, because of the previous crime wave.

Which is why Motsumoto was sitting on the stairs, perfectly still and silent. Here was the perfect place for sounds to echo, and it was impossible to hear an echo from the stairs and not be able to pinpoint it. Not only that, but he obscured from windows on both levels, making him invisible as long as he stayed silent.

Some birds outside chirped and took flight, and the sound of trees being moved came to his ears. He remained still, however, and focused on the sound.

No way was that wind. From up here, the wind hits everything or nothing, not just a few trees from one direction. And no doubt, it was getting closer.

The gun in his hand felt heavy all at once, and he gripped it tighter. He was perfectly willing to kill, should the Phantom refuse to be taken in.

And then all sounds stopped, even the clock ticking in the next room. Motsumoto’s heart beat a little quicker, hairs raising at the back of his neck.

Something was happening.

:End Chapter:

Merry Christmas.

Happy Hanukkah.

Happy Kwanza.

Or whatever you’re celebrating.

In any case, here, have a chapter. Finished in something of a rush so it could be a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/etc present.

Good night and good riddance, bleh. And yes, this whole alternate ending thing, it’s almost finished. Most certainly, the climax is coming up soon, and after that, a steady drummed-down slope till the ending. Maybe then I’ll get on with the sequel.

:Sigh:

So, on a better note, how was everyone’s Christmas? From what I understand, Hanukkah is starting tomorrow, so, yeah, can’t really ask how Hanukkah went, now can I? XD

Moving ahead, part of the present was that almost-lime way back up there. Yes, Kagome has the hots for Inuyasha and yes, it’s only getting stronger, despite the rape and all that. What, you think women can’t recover that fast? I know what it’s like, I’ve been raped and molested myself.

And really, it’s nothing to be ashamed about. Especially if there was, like, no way to fight back or avoid it, that kinda thing. Once you can forget, you really, literally forget. I haven’t thought about my rape and been depressed about it in. . . hell, I don’t think I was ever ‘depressed’ about it. Don’t even remember any nightmares, neither. O.o

Oh well, I was a kid at the time, there’s like no way for me to remember it, anyways. Seriously though, I have a healthy, in fact a bit strong amount of lust.

Why do you think I write lemons? For you peoples? HA! I write ‘em for myself. Just ask a couple buddies of mine. They know.

Wow I can really chat, huh? Suppose I should end it now.

Side note: Sorry it took so long. I had like no ideas for what I should do in this chapter, besides kill somebody and get on with the Phantom thing. What surprises me is that some of you just know who the Phantom is, yet some of you have no clue. Makes me laugh, really it does.

Although I will remind you. . . DON’T REVIEW WITH “I know who the Phantom is, it’s,” THAT KIND OF THING. THAT GIVES REVIEW-READERS IDEAS ABOUT WHO DONE IT, INSTEAD OF LETTING THEM TRY AND DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES. If you think you know, say you think you know, PLEASE.

Can’t stress enough about that. -.-

See ya!!