Blue Seed Fan Fiction ❯ Dreamer Awakened ❯ A New Enemy ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 5: A New Enemy









Dreamer Awakened

CHAPTER FIVE



Ryoko's phone was ringing. She pulled it from her pocket
and answered it. It was Daitetsu.
"What have you found out?" he wanted to know.
Ryoko looked around the small wooded area behind the local
high school that had been cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape.
"Not a whole lot," she told him, watching Kome
stoop to look at the crushed metal frame of what was left of a bicycle.
"There are some tracks here, and one of the trees has slash marks in it,
but that's about it."
"Have you found Sakura yet," he wanted to know.
"Not yet, but we're working on it."
As she spoke she saw Shunichi Sugishita's little red sports
car pull up next to the rented car she was driving and she quickly finished her
report to Kunikida before ringing off. Putting her phone back in her coat
pocket, she pushed her short black hair away from her eyes and watched Sugishita
climb under the tape and approach her and Kome.
He was dressed in casual slacks and a bright yellow shirt,
his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses. Ryoko rolled her eyes when she saw the
glasses. It was a cloudy afternoon, so what did he need them for, she wondered
aloud.
"Probably thinks it makes him look cool," Kome
groused.
"Or maybe it's to keep that shirt of his from blinding
him," Ryoko replied in a droll way.
"Good afternoon ladies," Sugi said with a cheesy
grin as he stopped next to them.
Ryoko ignored the greeting, his grin setting her teeth on
edge and cut to the heart of the matter before he could waste any more of her
time. "I thought Sakura was coming with you," she remarked, "you
did find her, didn't you, Sugi? Or are you just here on a social call?"
"Of course I found her," he said with a casual wave
of his hand, "don't I always come through for you, Ryoko?"
Kome rolled her eyes and turned away in disgust, leaving
Ryoko to deal with Sugi on her own. "Well, where is she then?"
Sugishita looked around and then at his watch. "She
should have been here by now."
"Idiot," Ryoko muttered. But as if on cue, a cab
pulled up and Sakura climbed out of the back.
She was dressed with the usual Sakura flair. Despite the cold
winter air, she was wearing high heels, a mini-skirt, a tight mid-riff shirt and
a little leather jacket with a fur collar that was more for fashion than for
warmth.
"Hi, everybody," she gushed, "you can relax
now. The famous and talented Sakura has arrived."
"Give me a break," Kome mumbled hunching her
shoulders and shoving her hands in her pockets.
"Sugi, be a doll and pay the driver for me," Sakura
said, flashing her crimson eyes at an appreciative Sugishita, who had slid his
sunglasses down to the tip of his nose to take a better look at her breasts and
the shapely curve of her backside.
Ryoko gave him a sharp shove, saying through clenched teeth,
"Quit ogling her assets and go pay the driver."
Sugishita stumbled forward under the pressure from Ryoko's
shove and gave her a sheepish grin. "Okay! Keep your hair on - I'm
going."
Ryoko turned her attention to Sakura, grabbing her by the arm
and dragging her forward through the grass and across the soft earth.
"Hey!" Sakura complained as the spikes to her heels
sank into the ground, in jeopardy of being broken off, "watch it. I just
bought these shoes, and they were expensive!"
'Well then, you shouldn't have worn them out here, should
you?" Ryoko replied ruthlessly. "You're not here to add color,
Sakura. We called you to get your assessment . So assess!" Ryoko directed
waving her hand in front of her.
Sakura shot Ryoko a fulminating glance which Ryoko ignored
and then turned her crimson eyes to the crime scene. Kome came to stand by Ryoko's
side to watch Sakura, now joined by Sugi, examining the evidence.
Sakura walked around, without touching anything. She stopped
by a tree that had three long slashes across it at eye level, the gouges running
deep into the wood of the tree and then turned and crossed to where the body had
been found, looking down at the ground where the earth had been churned up. She
crouched down examining the soft pile of soil and the tracks next to it,
following them as they ranged across the ground beginning at the road and ending
next to the pile of earth.
"So," Ryoko asked her as she finished looking
around.
"Hmmm," Sakura mulled, pushing the sandy, wind
blown locks of hair out of her eyes, "Old and new souls. How odd," she
murmured to herself and then louder, "I feel a sense of evil here, but not
an overwhelming one. Whatever it was, it's moved on and probably won't come
back."
Ryoko remained silent waiting for her to continue and when
she didn't, said faintly, "That's it? That's all you can sense?"
Sakura shrugged her shoulders and Kome added in disgust,
"Jeez, Sakura, what do they pay you for!? What a load of crap! It doesn't
take a rocket scientist to see that whatever did this isn't here anymore! Can't
you come up with something better than that?"
Ryoko grabbed Kome by the arm, "Calm down," she
said, and then to Sakura, "I want you to go over to the morgue. Maybe you'll
be able to sense something more if you take a look at the victims."
Sakura sighed in boredom, "Okay, whatever you say. Come
on pretty boy," she said, addressing Sugishita, "you can drive me in
that lovely car of yours."
Kome and Ryoko got into the rental car, with Kome muttering
heavily under her breath all the way to the morgue. Finally Ryoko said,
"Come on, Kome. You shouldn't let her get to you like that."
To which Kome made no reply, but at least she ceased her
complaints. Kunikida was outside the morgue smoking when they drove up. He came
over and opened Ryoko's door.
"I see you found her," he commented, pointing to
Sugi's parked car, as Ryoko unfolded herself from the driver's seat.
"Yep, we found her all right," Ryoko replied,
"but I don't know how much help she's going to be."
"So she wasn't able to detect anything at the crime
scene?"
Ryoko shook her head, "Nothing but a vague sense of
evil, or so she says. That's why I brought her here. Maybe we can get
something more out of her once she sees the bodies."
Kunikida nodded, and Ryoko and Kome followed him inside.
Sakura was already in the examination room looking at the bodies when they went
in. Sugishita was with her, but his aversion to gore far outweighed his
preoccupation with Sakura's luscious figure, so he kept his distance, leaning
against the wall next to the door while he waited for her to finish her
examination.
"This is not good," Sakura told them as she looked
at the body of the young boy. "Whatever did this," she told them
pointing to the burn mark on the boy's forehead, "is feeding on the flow
of a human's life force, drawing it out through the third eye."
"But what is it?" Kunikida wanted to know,
"what kind of being could do that?"
Sakura shifted her gaze away from the boy and on to Kunikida,
"I don't know," she told him, "it doesn't feel like anything
that I've ever felt before, but - " she looked back down at the boy,
trying to understand exactly what it was she was feeling. "Have you talked
to Momiji and Kusanagi?"
"No," Kunikida replied, "I was hoping to avoid
that."
"Well, boss man," Sakura said turning away and
walking to the door, "I don't think you're going to be able to avoid it
much longer, 'cause whatever did this isn't going away. It's just going to
keep getting stronger and stronger."
Kunikida gave a defeated sigh, "All right then. I guess
I'll go talk to Kusanagi."
At his words, Sakura eyes lit up with interest, "I'll
come with you. I'm curious to see what Carrot Boy has to say about this."

Momiji squinted, looking down at the numbers she had compiled
in her data on the iwatto that still needed to be added to her computer. Water
temperature, barometric pressure, average water depth, blah, blah, blah, she
thought. She crinkled her nose in frustration, her eyes sliding over to Kusanagi's
portfolio and camera for the hundredth time that afternoon as she sat, leaning
over her laptop sitting on the kitchen table. Kusanagi watched her watch him in
secret amusement.
He was sitting next to her, elbows resting on the table as he
rearranged his photographs, adding some new ones that he had taken while away
from Tokyo.. Momiji couldn't seem to contain her curiosity about them, wanting
to see them because they were so beautiful and feeling peeved at the same time
that Kusanagi apparently hadn't been too broken up about their separation,
getting on with his life without her.
"Is that Bandai-Asahi Park? Those are some very lovely
photographs," Momiji remarked, craning her neck, looking at the
photographs, unable to keep the wistfulness and envy out of her voice.
Unbelievable, she thought. She was actually jealous of his
camera! But she couldn't seem to help herself. It was as if his camera had
taken on a living, breathing existence. It had been with him, wherever he went,
his companion and silent witness, bearing the gift of his vision, of what moved
him and what he wished to remember. She wished with all her soul that it had
been her that he had wanted to share these things with. She wanted to be the one
to bear witness to his vision, to see the world through his eyes, and have him
share with her all the things in life that he found beautiful.
It was a bleak feeling and she tried to push it away, but
some of what she felt must have shown on her face for he said to her, "They're
only pictures Momiji."
Her green eyes slid from the pictures to his face, and seeing
his searching gaze, she buried her head behind her computer screen. Her face
turned red, and she kicked herself for being so transparent with her emotions.
She could still feel him looking at her and she forced herself to keep her eyes
pinned to her data sheets, her eyes almost crossing from the effort. She felt
her shoulders sag in relief as she heard a knock at the front door and Kusanagi
turned his attention away from her.
"Were you expecting someone?" he asked her, as she
got up from her chair.
She shook her head and went to the door, Kusanagi following
close behind her. Her mouth fell open in shock as her eyes swept from Mr.
Kunikida to rest upon Sakura Yamazaki standing next to him.
"Sakura?" Momiji breathed in amazement, her eyes
sweeping up and down Sakura's figure, taking in the black spandex and leather
that Sakura was sporting.
From behind her she heard Kusanagi remark dryly, "Why,
hello, Cherry Blossom. I see you're still shopping in the kiddie section for
your clothes, eh? I think you might want to try bumping them up a size or two,
since you appear to be bursting at the seams. It would be a relief to everyone,
I'm sure, since I, myself live in constant fear of having my eye put out by a
flying button whenever I'm around you."
Sakura tossed her head and chose to ignore his comment,
instead focusing her attention on Momij and her current choice of apparel.
Momiji was wearing a shapeless sweatshirt and her favorite pair of jeans that,
by now, were pretty shapeless as well, her clothes hanging on her like she was a
wooden stick.
"Boring!" Sakura exclaimed, pointing to Momiji who
self-consciously stepped back, her back bumping into Kusanagi's hard chest,
which rebounded her forward again. Sakura gave a sultry laugh, and then
dismissed her with a wave of her hand. "You made a much more interesting
fashion statement when you were in Tokyo. Now they might as well hang you out to
scare the crows."
Momiji's face puckered into a frown and she opened her
mouth to defend herself but found herself gently pushed to the side as Kusanagi
stepped in front of her.
"What are you doing here, Sakura?" Kusanagi asked
with blunt hostility.
"I might ask you the same thing, Kusanagi," she
replied, her crimson eyes sliding slyly from him to where Momiji peeked out from
behind his back.
"That's enough," Mr. Kunikida spoke up, cutting
off their exchange. "Momiji, can we come in for a minute?" He asked in
a more pleasant voice, his brown eyes meeting the green ones peering around
Kusanagi.
"Of course," Momiji murmured and Kusanagi
reluctantly stepped back to let Sakura and Kunikida enter.
"Why did you bring her here?" He muttered as
Kunikida passed him.
Kunikida sent him a speaking glance and surreptitiously
pointed towards Momiji trying to assume an innocent expression when Momiji
turned and gave him a smile, asking him if he would like some tea.
"Umm, Sakura, why don't you go and help Momiji get us
all some tea?" Kunikida suggested.
Sakura's head shot around, her eyes widening first in
amazement, then in disgust. "You're joking right?" she laughed, and
when no one else joined in, said sourly, "I don't do domestic. Let little
Momiji do it by herself."
"Sakura," Kusanagi said disparagingly, "Momiji
has a broken arm. Why don't you think of someone else beside yourself for a
change and give her a hand."
"It's okay," Momiji mumbled, not wanting anyone's
pity; especially Kusanagi's, "I think I can manage it by myself."
She smiled brightly at everyone and left the room.
After she was gone, Kusanagi stared coldly at Sakura. She
tried ignoring him for a few seconds, looking at her perfectly manicured nails
and then at her perfectly sculpted legs, perfectly crossed, thinking to distract
him with her good looks and charm. Wondering if it was working, she glanced
casually in his direction, her face collapsing into a pout.
"All right fine, " she huffed ungraciously into
Kusanagi's unrelenting demeanor, "I'll watch the water boil, but that's
it!" She stomped toward the kitchen, her rear end jiggling precariously
with every step.
"I'm relying on you to keep her busy for a few
minutes, Sakura. I need to talk to Kusanagi alone."
Sakura didn't say anything, flicking her sandy hair over
her shoulder in a sullen manner as she entered the kitchen.
Kusanagi barely waited for the door to close behind her
before he fixed his attention on Kunikida. "So are you ready to tell me
what's going on?"
Kunikida sighed heavily. "You're not one to beat about
the bush, are you?"
Kusanagi leaned forward in his chair. "Not when it comes
to protecting to Momiji."
"Well," Kunikida began, "I'm not so sure
that this is about Momiji."
"Then why are you here?"
Kunikida got restlesstly to his feet and paced around the
small room. "Because I'm not so sure that this isn't about
Momiji, either."
Kusanagi got to his feet too and stepped in front of
Kunikida, forcing him to a halt. "If you're worried about your 'confidentiality',
don't," Kusanagi told him shortly, "I couldn't care less about all
your little governmental secrets. My main priority has always been and always
will be protecting Momiji. If it doesn't concern Momiji, then it's just as
well forgotten, as far as I'm concerned."
Kunikida shook his head and looked away from Kusanagi's
bold gaze. "It's not that, Kusanagi. Momiji is the most precious thing in
the world to me besides my wife and I trust you to take care of her. If I trust
you to take care of her, don't you think I would know that I could trust you
to maintain any secret that I had, no matter how great or small it might be? No,
the real reason I didn't want to tell you was because I had hoped it wouldn't
come to this. You and she deserve a little peace. "
"Peace?" Kusanagi laughed incredulously, "even
if the world stood still, there would never be any peace for me around
Momiji."
Kunikida looked at him in an odd way. "What does that
mean?"
Kusanagi ran an exasperated hand through his hair and shook
his head. "Forget it. It doesn't mean anything. Momiji just has a way of
getting under my skin, that's all."
Kunikida's eyes flashed with understanding, but he didn't
say anything. Instead he returned to the sofa and sat down. "I need you to
come to Wakasa with me. Today. There have been some more attacks and I want to
see what you think - if you can pick up on anything."
"What? Like Aragami?" Kusanagi wanted to know.
"Maybe," Kunikida admitted, "but maybe not.
That's why I want you there in Wakasa. If it is Aragami, then maybe you'll
be able to sense something. But I don't want Momiji to know about it just yet.
She hasn't had a chance to recover yet and I don't want to alarm her
unnecessarily."
"What about Sakura?" Kusanagi wanted to know.
"She's already been to the crime scene and seen the
victims. She couldn't give us anything concrete. She suggested that I call you
in and I agreed."
"How generous of her," Kusanagi replied
acerbically, cutting off the rest of his comment as he heard Momiji's voice
approaching the kitchen door.
"No, Sakura! Let me do it." Momiji said, her voice
raised in panic. There was a loud crash of china shattering against the stone
floor and then silence.
In a low voice, Kusanagi told Kunikida, "Tell me where
it is. I'll meet you there."
A few seconds later, Momiji and Sakura came out of the
kitchen, empty handed, Momiji wearing a turbulent expression and Sakura a
petulant one.
"Well don't blame me," Sakura said matter of
factly.
"But I do blame you," Momiji said through clenched
teeth.
"Well you were the one that dropped the tray,"
Sakura replied heatedly.
"Only because you managed to sling boiling water all
over my hand!"
"What?" Kunikida demanded in alarm, shooting to his
feet and grabbing up Momiji's hand. Kusanagi too had risen to his feet and
they both crowded around Momiji, looking at the angry, red welts forming on the
back of Momiji's hand and wrist.
Momiji managed to pull her hand free from Kunikida's grasp,
pulling her sweatshirt sleeve down to her fingertips to hide the burn. "It's
okay," she murmured lightly, "she mostly missed, but only because I
dropped the tea tray to avoid the water."
"Well, what about me," Sakura wailed, holding up
her own blistered fingers for them to view.
"I tried to tell you not to pick up the kettle, that the
ceramic handle gets really hot, Sakura, but you wouldn't listen."
"Owwhhow," she wailed, her eyes squeezed shut
dramatically, "my pinky hurts."
Kusanagi just looked at her dispassionately and rolled his
eyes. "Is your IQ smaller than your dress size, or haven't you figured
out what HOT means yet?" he asked caustically, angry at her for hurting
Momiji with her carelessness.
Sakura seemed to immediately forget about her injuries and
she opened her eyes to shoot Kusanagi a defiant glance.
"I am very well aware of the meaning of the word HOT.
Just ask my last boyfriend, or would you care for me to demonstrate it for
you?"
"No thanks, I think I'll pass," Kusanagi jeered.
Kunikida stepped between them, like a parent separating two
brawling children and since there was no tea to serve and Momiji couldn't make
any more because her tea service had been shattered to tiny bits, Kunikida took
Sakura by the arm and dragged her towards the door before she could make any
more trouble.
"I really just stopped by to see how you were
feeling," Mr. Kunikida told Momiji as he dragged Sakura over to the car,
her heels clomping and scraping against the drive as she tried to keep up with
him. "I'm sorry for all the trouble!" He shoved Sakura into the car
and turned and waved again, before climbing into the car himself and driving
away.
After they had gone, Momiji stood at the open door, her arms
crossed against the cold, staring after them.
"I wonder why he brought her here?" she said,
mostly to herself and felt Kusanagi tugging on the back of her shirt, pulling
her inside.
"Who knows," he lied, shutting the door. He stepped
closer to her, taking her hand and pushing up her sleeve.
Momiji felt her breath catch in her throat at his closeness,
and kept her eyes centered in the middle of his chest, feeling suddenly too shy
to look up into his face for some odd reason.
She felt his long fingers, still in their black driving
gloves, lightly trace the redness on the back of her hand and her breathing
became even more difficult.
"That woman is a menace," Kusanagi muttered under
his breath, but in a very normal voice as he let her hand go. "Do you have
anything you can put on that?" he wanted to know, still standing too close
to allow her to think clearly.
Momiji nodded and edged away from him slightly, hoping that
the distance would help her heart, which had become lodged in her throat, to
relocate back into her chest and allow her to speak. "It's really not
that bad," Momiji said, but Kusanagi disagreed with her, asking her again
if she had anything to apply to the burn.
"There should be some burn ointment in my first aid
kit," she told him.
Kusanagi asked her where the first aid kit was, and then told
her to sit down, which she did, waiting patiently for him to return. Kusanagi
climbed the stairs two at a time and went into the bathroom, looking on the
shelf where Momiji said the first aid kit would be. Everything was neatly
arranged so he found it rather quickly. He opened it up, took the burn ointment
out and slipped it into his pocket. He hated doing this, but he needed an excuse
to leave without arousing her suspicion and this was the only way he could think
of.
Lucky for him that Momiji was right. The burn really wasn't
that bad and didn't really need any ointment, but it was the only excuse he
could think of on such short notice. He went into Momiji's spare bedroom, his
bedroom for the time being, and pulled his black coat out of the closet. Folding
it over his arm, he returned back downstairs.
"I couldn't find any," Kusanagi told her briefly
as he returned to the living room, slipping his coat on and heading to the front
door. "I'll go get you some."
Momiji stood abruptly and stammered, "oh, but you don't
have to do that, Kusanagi. I don't want you to go to all the trouble -"
"Don't be silly," he told her in dampening
accents, "it's no trouble at all. I'll be back as soon as I can,"
he said without looking at her, and opened the door. Momiji tried to stop him,
but he was not to be dissuaded, infuriating her by saying as he left, "be a
good girl while I'm gone. And don't touch my camera."
Momiji ground her teeth in irritation at that.
"As if I would!" she muttered, incensed, but
Kusanagi didn't hear her. He was already gone.

Kusanagi arrived behind the local high school long before
Kunikida; the advantages of traveling by air. He wanted to make this quick and
if he had ridden his bike, it would have taken too much time. There was no one
around right now and Kusanagi didn't approach the yellow tape marker. Instead,
he turned in the other direction and began wandering through the trees. It was
Friday afternoon, and the school was unusually quiet.
It must have been a kid from the school that had been killed,
Kusanagi thought. That would explain the silence; the local officials would have
taken every precaution to ensure the safety of all the students until they were
certain that the threat of danger had passed.
A light rain began to fall through the trees, hissing and
popping against the brown leaves scattered across the ground and Kusanagi turned
up the collar of his long, black coat. He took one more look around and then
turned and headed back in the other direction. As he neared the yellow tape,
Kunikida's car pulled off the road and onto the grass and Kunikida and Sakura
climbed out.
"Sorry," Kunikida said, his hands thrust deeply
into the pockets of his overcoat as he approached Kusanagi. "You haven't
been waiting too long, have you?"
Kusanagi shook his head and Kunikida stepped under the
marker, followed closely by Kusanagi. Sakura on the other hand had only made it
a few feet from the car. The rain was making the soft ground even softer and her
heels were sinking so deeply into the earth that every time she took a step, it
pulled her shoes off. She lifted her foot, curling her toes to try and keep her
shoe on and windmilled her arms to avoid toppling over.
Sakura cursed heavily under her breath as she watched the
retreating backs of the two men, her mood not improved by Kusanagi's casual
words of dismissal. "Your not exactly dressed for field work, Faith
Healer," he said without even looking at her, "so why don't you stay
by the car. We really don't need you over here anyway."
Sakura shouted an obscene suggestion at Kusanagi, which he
just ignored and bent to look at the crumpled metal frame of the bicycle.
Kusanagi had seen wrecked bikes before but never one quite as odd as this one.
It wasn't just bent and crushed from impact, it was actually twisted like a
corkscrew in the middle, and crushed like an accordian.
"As you've most likely concluded," Kunikida
spoke, standing next to him, "the victim of this particular attack was
nothing more than a boy."
"Do they know when it happened?" Kusanagi asked,
standing and moving on, "was it daylight?"
"Closer to dusk," Kunikida told him. "Most of
the victims have gone missing at night, but not all of them."
Kusanagi listened to his explanation not making any comments
as he crouched down and looked at the long, deep narrow indentions next to the
footprints of the boy, both darkened with blood spatters. With his eyes, he
traced the outline of the claws set close together and then another set where
the outline of the boy's body had been made with white tape.
He stood abruptly and pointed down to the tracks, "Did
you see this?"
Kuikiida came over and looked down, wondering what he was
looking for. "What?"
"It changed," Kusanagi said. He frowned and
narrowed his gaze as he looked around at the rest of the prints.
"What do you mean, it changed," Kunikida asked.
"I mean, it literally changed its appearance."
Kunikida glanced up at him, "how can you tell that?
These tracks look the same to me as those over there."
"Well they're not," Kusanagi replied with a
frown. "These are shallower, and the gait is farther apart. That suggests
not only a change in size but also in weight."
Kunikida looked back down, but still didn't see any
difference. "Are you sure?" he asked, turning his head to follow
Kusanagi's movement as he moved over to look at the ground near the tree
scarred with slash marks. "They look the same to me."
"I know what I see, Kunikida," Kusanagi retorted.
"Look here," Kusanagi motioned him over to the tree and pointed down.
Kunikida came over and Kusanagi pointed to the boy's
footprints next to the tree. "He must have been running from it and it
struck out at him, hitting the tree instead. But look at how far back it was
standing when it struck." Kusanagi moved to stand next to the attacker's
tracks to demonstrate his point.
"You're right," Kunikida said, "it would
have had to change its appearance drastically to be able to hit the tree from
there. Is it Aragami?" Kunikida asked heavily, dreading Kusanagi's
answer.
Kusanagi didn't answer, turning his back to Kunikida and
walking back over to the outline of the boy's body, passing it and stopping
next to the soft pile of churned up dirt. "It travels underground," he
murmured. Kusanagi crouched down, placing his hand on the ground and closed his
eyes. He opened them again as Kunikida approached him.
"Is is Aragami?" Kunikida asked again.
Kusanagi stood up, frowning. "I don't know. It's
gone now, whatever it is."
"How can you tell that it won't be back."
"I didn't say it wouldn't be back, I just said that
it was gone. It travels underground, or at least it can travel
underground if it wants to. If it were underground close by, I would be able to
feel it."
Sakura finally made it over to them, her muddy shoes dangling
from her fingers. "Well, Carrot Boy, what did you find?"
"Not much," he told her shortly, looking down at
her feet, white from cold and covered in mud. "Are you nuts?" He asked
her, "It's wintertime, Sakura," he informed her in case she had
forgotten, and she made a surprised whoop! as he picked her up.
"Kusanagi!" she breathed, batting her eyelashes at
him, "you really go all out when you want to sweep a girl off her feet, don't
you?"
"Save it for someone who finds your overblown charms
appealing," he told her in clipped accents and received a smack to his head
for his effort.
He dumped her to the ground next to the car and she would
have fallen onto her rear had Kunikida, who had been following close behind
them, not stretched out his arm to steady her.
"Has anyone been attacked by this thing and lived?"
Kusanagi asked slowly, looking back through the falling rain at the yellow tape
in the gathering gloom of the evening. Kunikida shook his head and Kusanagi
continued his questions, "How many victims?"
"Twelve so far, ten in and around Sappora, the other two
here, all within the space of about three weeks."
Kusanagi thought hard. "A creature that prefers the
dark, traveling through the earth and attacking mostly at night, it's shape
adaptable with incredible strength, " he said, thinking of the bent
bicycle. "It could be Aragami," he murmured, trying to find a hidden
correlation between what he saw here and what Moe had told him about Momiji's
accident and the incident with his mitamas. "It could be… but it doesn't
feel…right." He said the words softly, mostly to himself and then focused
his gaze on Kunikida's tired and stressed figure.
It was apparent that he had been putting in a lot of over
time on this case, and apparently with good reason. But there was something in
Kunikida's brown eyes, a kind of wariness when he looked around, that couldn't
be explained by what Kusanagi had seen so far.
"What is it you're not telling me?" Kusanagi
wanted to know. Kunikida didn't say anything and Sakura snorted, drawing
Kusanagi's attention to her.
"You haven't told him about the bodies yet, boss
man," she said.
"What about the bodies?" Kusanagi inquired with an
eyebrow raised at Kunikida.
"This thing is not just killing its victims in regular
animal fashion," Sakura responded before Kunikida could say anything,
"It's draining the spiritual energy from it's victims from here,"
Sakura pointed to the small dot on Kusanagi's forehead. "It leaves a mark
on the forehead and the victim's entire body is affected by it. "
"What kind of mark?" Kusanagi questioned.
"Sort of like a shadow or a burn," she replied
vaguely.
"No," Kunikida interjected heavily, turning away
from them, fighting with himself over his decision to tell Kusanagi about the
one mark that had been different. He needed to know, Kunikida thought to
himself. After looking at this recent attack through Kusanagi's perspective,
it became clear that it had been more than an aberration in the shape of the
mark. It was a sign of things to come. "There was one time that the mark
was different," Kunikida turned back and told Kusanagi watching the change
in Kusanagi's face and body as he learned the truth. "That one time, it
had the definite shape of a mitama."
Kusanagi felt the hot denial rush through him at Kunikida's
words. No, he thought angrily. No, dammit!
"What?" Sakura yelped, "you didn't tell me
about that one," she shot an accusing glance at Kunikida as Kusanagi
struggled to come to grips with the truth.
"I had been hoping that its shape had just been a
coincidence," Kunikida admitted, "but after what you and Kusanagi have
told me, I am fast coming to the conclusion that it was no coincidence."
"So it is Aragami," Sakura said and they all fell
silent as each considered the ramifications of her statement.
"Does that mean that Susano-oh has returned as well? And
what about Kaede?" Kunikida wondered aloud.
"What about Momiji?" Sakura spoke up. "Do you
think they'll come after her again?"
"Momiji will be protected no matter what," Kusanagi
replied in an uncompromising way. He had lost her once already. He was not about
to do so again. "She will not be sacrificed again. I won't allow
it."
"Neither will I," replied Kunikida. "I think
it's time to reassemble the original members of the TAC. Maybe with a little
luck we'll be able to stop this thing before it gets any stronger."