InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dangerous Allure ❯ Redemption's Song ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: All always all characters will be walking that fine line called OOCness, and yes, some of them might jump right over that line and head for the hills! There are no demons in this fic!!

Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership to anyone!! They all belong to the wonderful Rumiko Takahashi.

Redemption's Song

The air was stale-humid around him, almost to the point that he found it hard to breathe. The sky above was dark and starless, casting an eerie shadow to everything and anything beneath it.

The ground was damp from the earlier downpour and littered with discarded plastic cups, broken glass bottles, used tissues, condoms, and condom wrappers-that various men had used with the many prostitutes that called this place their office of sorts.

Kicking one the offending objects away from him, he reached into the pocket of his worn black leather jacket and retrieved a cigarette from the crumpled package he'd shoved into his pocket earlier that night. Placing it in the corner of his lips, he then reached into the front pocket of his tattered baggy jeans, and pulled out the extravagant lighter his wife had given him a few months ago as a birthday present.

Staring down at it, a condescending smirk on his face, he thought, `If she wants me to stop smoking then why the hell would she buy me a damn lighter?'

He wasn't by any means upset with her… Hell, he'd never truly gotten upset with her for anything that she'd done, because quite honestly, she could do no wrong in his eyes.

The woman had a heart of gold-there was nothing she wouldn't do for a friend or a family member; all they needed to do was call and ask and she'd be there willing and able. Whenever he was sad about anything, she'd find a way to make him smile and forget his troubles. And more than that, regardless of whom he was, and the fucked up things he did or said, she loved him unconditionally, and she never let him forget it.

`All the more reason for me to be home right now,' he thought agitatedly as he flipped the titanium latch on the silver lighter, and watched a small blue flame spark to life before him. Leaning in slightly, he placed the tip of the nicotine stick within the small blaze and inhaled.

`I'm going to have quit this shit one day,' he thought as he removed the cigarette from his lips and stared down at it as if he expected it to refute his statement.

Shoving the lighter back into the pocket of his jeans, he turned his attention away from his nasty habit and quickly glanced up and down the sparsely crowded street as he wondered for the umpteenth time that night why he'd decided to come out here tonight of all nights.

Up and until a month or so ago, he'd spent the past few years alternating his Friday and Saturday nights between this district-the red district-and Kuni Alley, which were both renowned for prostitution, drugs, rape, murder, and everything else in between.

`Nothing but a bunch of bottom feeding bitches, the lot of them are,' he scoffed derisively.

This was the perfect place for a killer or rapist to hideout. It was perfect because everyone looked untrustworthy. Everyone appeared as if they were up to something and would rather kill you than look at you. Therefore, no one questioned anyone about anything and no one saw anything for fear of their own immoral deeds being found out.

So, yes, this place was perfect. It was where the body count over the past few years had begun to pile up. More importantly, it was where the body count of young men had doubled in the past few months, and it was where the one he hunted…the one he was hired to hunt was said to roam.

The police had come to him under the secret of darkness and asked him to join them in this hunt because he had connections within this community that none of them had. He could get into places that they couldn't, and because over the past ten years there had not been a single solitary case that he hadn't been able to solve.

Basically, they wanted the best of the best on this particular case, their words, not his.

`Bunch of fucking suck ups!' he bit out mentally.

He wasn't a cop-had never been. He wasn't a private investigator-he would never call himself such a thing. He was simply a man…a human with an ungodly insight into the human mind and psyche.

`They call it a gift, I call it a curse,' he thought as he took a puff off his cigarette and ashed it on the ground next to him.

The only things he knew about the assailant was that she was a female that had such a penchant for the scalpel that the taskforce nick named her Scalpelrella. He also knew that she was a gruesome attacker, leaving all of her victims eviscerated with no hope of survival. It also went without saying that she was damn near brilliant, very precise, and extra cautious because she never left any trace of herself in any of the rooms or alleys, she utilized. She never left anyone alive nor did she leave any witnesses to speak about the crimes she had committed.

At first, he found it hard to believe that any woman would be capable of such atrocities. So, he'd advised the investigators that maybe the men were gay and that this was the work of some kind of hate group or sexual deviant that had it out for gay men. Unfortunately, the families of all the victims vehemently denied that any of the victims showed or had any gay tendencies.

What also puzzled him was that the men that she chose were all burly, strapping men in excellent health, but none of them-not one-had ever put up any kind of resistance against her. There were never any defensive wounds, no skin beneath their nails, none of her DNA or blood, or even her sweat was ever found on their bodies.

That and the fact that all of the bodies were found nude was the reason that he and the taskforce deduced that it had to be a woman that they were looking for.

`What is it my baby always says? Oh yeah, men need to stop thinking with their dicks.' Chuckling lightly at the mere thought of her, he finished, `I think she might be onto something.'

He still found it hard to believe that a woman-any woman-could be capable of such horrific acts, but he could no longer contest the idea either that maybe, just maybe these were crimes that no other, with the exception of a woman, could carry out without ever getting caught.

`She must be one angry bitch.'

After countless hours of going over the case files in his head, he figured that he was probably looking for a woman in her early to late twenties, very attractive, and easily able to fit in with any crowd she chose. He figured she was not a prostitute, but maybe someone that was somehow familiar with the life of prostitution-even if it was only on the outside looking in, which is why she always came back to this place-this district to do her deadliest work.

He also surmised that perhaps she had possibly been hurt by a man or a group of men in her past and was taking it out on these poor bastards.

In the beginning, he wanted to profile her as being narcissistic, but her crimes-the nature of them, the manner in which she carried them out was not in a manner befitting someone that had that holier than thou mentality. She wasn't narcissistic-not in the least. No, it was more like she was simply killing vermin or swatting a fly. It was almost as if she thought she was doing society a favor and that in itself made her crimes so much worse.

Still, something didn't sit right with him with that profile; if she had been hurt and these crimes were taking place because of that, wouldn't the crime scenes have been in disarray? Wouldn't she have disfigured the men's faces? But in all 37 of her victims, none of their faces were harmed in anyway.

`I guess, I'll have to ask her,' he thought matter-of-factly.

That question had plagued him on one too many nights and perhaps that was the real reason why he felt the need to be here, walking within the midst of these people…these vagrants…these prostitutes and Johns until the early hours of the morning.

It was that need to locate answers to those questions that left his wife at home feeling neglected. It left him feeling drained, withdrawn and powerless to stop things he couldn't rightfully comprehend, but desperately needed to before another body turned up.

Taking another puff off his cigarette, he pushed his dark bangs back away from his violet eyes as he watched inconspicuously as a group of sailors walked past arm in arm with a few prostitutes.

He wanted to run up to them and warn them, but if she was here… If she was watching…

He shook his head for even thinking such a thing. `I've been doing this for far too long now, and I've yet to find her. She's like a ghost…an enigma…a ghastly fantasy. If she was here, the chances are slim that I'd even find her,' he thought as he glanced up at a decrepit looking hotel that should have been condemned the year he was born.

`Disgusting,' he thought as his eyes came to rest on a blonde woman sitting in the window staring down at the street with a sad expression on her face. He couldn't really make out her features, because of all the grime and the dirt covering the window, but there was something about her that was almost…

There was a loud crash behind him, and he swirled around, dragging his attention away from the window and the blonde woman. Clutching at the hilt of the 8' bowing hunting knife that was attached to his belt, his eyes came to rest on a filthy malnourished dog that was digging through a fallen trash can.

`Fuck,' he thought as he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart. `Fucking mongrel almost scared the living shit out of me!'

Stepping back into the shadows, he turned his attention back to the dilapidated hotel and up towards the window the blonde woman was sitting in, but she wasn't there anymore. The only thing he saw was the light flickering of what might have been candles of some type.

`She's just a prostitute,' he thought as he turned his attention back towards the street, dismissing all thoughts of her. He needed to find someone that didn't fit in, yet did fit in-if that made any sense.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he started down the street to stand near the alley at the opposite end of the street. Stepping into the street, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed his wife's number, but the call went straight to her voicemail. Closing the flip, he decided he'd wait a few minutes before he tried again.

Making his way quickly towards the alley that was a few doors down from the hopefully soon to be condemned hotel, he dialed his wife again, needing nothing more than to hear her voice.

There were a few soft clicks, three rings, and then her soft voice whispered something sweetly in his ear.

“You always know what to say to me,” he replied into the phone. “Where are you?”

Stepping to the side in order to allow a woman and man to pass him by, he quickly darted into the alley in order to regain a little anonymity. “Yeah, I'm working late again, but I'll try to be home before the sun comes up, okay?”

Stepping into the darkest corner of the alley that was closest to the street, he avowed quickly, “Love you too, babe. Drive carefully,” then hung up as his attention turned to a group of cackling women that were sashaying past him, all of them scantily dressed.

Honestly, he wasn't sure what exactly he was looking for, but he knew he'd know exactly what it was or who it was when he saw it.

Glancing down, he shoved his cell phone into the inside pocket of his jacket. At that exact moment a soft, delicate scent floated to him and held his attention as if it were the ghostly fingers of a specter.

Shaking his head, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he stared up and down the street looking for the owner of the scent.

`Chanel No. 5,' he thought, indentifying the scent as his violet eyes scanned the crowd quickly.

`Black hair, short black hair, blonde hair, bleach blonde hair, man, man and woman, woman, red shirt, striped shirt, skirt, sailor uniform, cheap sandals, black trench coat, long- waist- length glistening black hair, black stilettos, blue suit, leather satchel…'

He stepped out of the darkness and onto the sidewalk, his head twisting carefully from side to side as if he was a dog looking for its master. `Black trench coat, black stiletto heels, leather satchel, shimmering black…hair…'

He licked his lips slowly; unable to believe that finally…finally he had found her. His heart was racing within his chest and his palms were sweaty. Maybe he was jumping the gun a little bit, but this…this feeling…

It…It was never wrong!!

`She doesn't fit in here, but then again she does. Expensive clothing, but yet they can be mistaken for trashy. Seductress… She could be… She could… Even from behind, I can tell that she has the ability to lure men to their… It's her! It's her!'

Looking up at the address on the building she'd vacated, he committed it to memory and promised himself that he would send the police back there to do a thorough search of the premises. But for now, he had to follow her…to find out where she was going, and if it was really her, the woman he'd been hunting for more than five years now.

Starting after her, he made sure to try and maintain a decent distance from her so that she wouldn't know that she was being followed. However, the more he stared at her backside, the more he wanted to run up to her, grab her by her shoulders, and spin her around so that he could look into her eyes and see the evil that was surely hidden within.

Side-stepping a drunk man that was staggering towards him talking loudly about absolute nonsense, he quickly shoved the man out of his way and proceeded on as he subconsciously memorized the sway of her shoulders, the way her hair fell down her back in thick luscious curls, and the manner in which she strutted down the sidewalk never looking down once-her head always held high-proud.

He realized quickly that there was an air about her, one that was familiar to him, but so unfamiliar that he didn't have a choice but to discount it as he watched her round the corner at the end of the block.

Slowing, he stopped, inched towards the corner and peered around it in order to make sure that she hadn't caught on to him. Noticing that she was still proceeding on to her destination, he quickly stepped around the corner and proceeded after her, making sure to maintain his distance.

Head held down, hands shoved deep into his pockets, he listened intently to the click of her heels as they clacked against the concrete sidewalk beckoning him to come follow her as if they were merely playing a game of cat and mouse. It was a game that he had become accustomed to even if she wasn't aware that she was playing it with him.

Over the past five years that he'd been working on this case, he'd been playing this game daily, but until now, his foe didn't have a face, a persona, or an actual body, but here she was in front of him, in all her glory-Scapelrella.

`Don't jump the gun,' he told himself, not wanting to get his hopes too high. `It honestly might not be her. You could be chasing your tail.'

The absurdity of that thought almost made him laugh, since he knew that whenever he felt this strongly about anything-he was usually right.

Refraining from outright laughing, he watched her come to a stop a block ahead of him, and patiently wait for the light to tell her that it was safe to proceed.

`Now's my chance,' he thought anxiously as he took another step closer.

Less than ten feet separated them, but for some reason he couldn't cover the distance between them, something stopped him dead in his tracks. It was a soft tune…a melody that he heard a million times before, but at this moment…this brief second in time he couldn't recollect just where he had heard it.

`Damn, I know that… I-`

Before he could finish his thought, the light changed and she continued quickly across the street.

He was behind her like a mouse hungrily chasing a piece a cheese.

She stopped.

He stopped.

She turned to the left as if looking for someone; as if making sure that she wasn't being followed.

He turned to the right and stared into the grimy window of one of the dirty dive bars that lined the street, his hands shoved deep within his pockets and his head low so that if she looked his way he would seem inconspicuous to her.

Because of the darkness that lay like a black disgusting blanket over the place, he couldn't make out her face-not the color of her eyes, the shape of her nose, or even the tone of her skin. As he stared at her silhouette in the window, he couldn't help but to feel like he was missing something important…very important.

She turned and started down the sidewalk again, seemingly satisfied that she was not being followed and he sighed in relief that he hadn't been found out.

Running his hand down his unshaven face, he started after her again.

`I can't lose her! This is probably going to be my only chance! I have to stay with her! I have to!'

She veered off quickly into an alley and he quickened his pace as to not lose her. Nearing the alley, he halted quickly and stepped back and to the side as a black Toyota with dark tinted windows shot out of the alley barely pausing to check for oncoming traffic.

He couldn't make out the model of the car, but he knew it was her; he could tell from her profile.

Staring after her, he hissed, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

Glancing around him, he wanted to kick himself for not parking on this side of the street, but how could he have known that he'd find her? Still, he wanted to maim him because the longer he stood there mulling over things that he couldn't figure out, she was literally getting away.

`I have to go after her, but if I go back to get my car; I'll lose her,' he thought anxiously as he stepped into the middle of the street, his hands on his hips. His eyes narrowed as he watched the red of her tail lights disappear around a corner a few blocks down.

“Shit!” he hissed heatedly.

Turning at the sound of a motorcycle driving towards him, he smirked as he stepped directly in the path of the rider and waited patiently for him to come to a screeching stop.

“Oi, what the fuck are you…”

Stepping quickly up to the man, he grabbed him by the collar with one hand while punching him dead on the nose a few times. Once was to stun him, the second hit was to let him know he meant business, and the third… Well that was just for fun.

“Sorry about this,” he stated not sounding half as sorry as he should have. Pulling the guy the rest of the way off the bike, he pulled the one business card that he carried with him out of his back pocket and dropped it on the ground next to the guy that was currently trying to quell the blood that was draining from his nose. “Call me tomorrow, and I'll tell you where you can find your bike.”

Jumping on the bike, he gunned the engine causing the tires to squeal and peel out as he headed down the street and around the corner that he'd seen her turn moments before.

Thankfully there weren't very many cars on the road. He quickly revved past a Honda, an imported Chevy, a Nissan, a Mercedes, and slowed as he came up on a dark colored Toyota.

Driving up close enough that he could see the silhouette of the driver, he quickly fell back behind the Mercedes that was following behind her.

Leaning forward lower on the bike, in order to try and block the chill of the night air, he thought, `Found her, now to follow her. Hopefully, she'll lead me to her lair and that's where I'll call the others and they'll take her into custody.'

The road flew by beneath him, the buildings and other cars around him were nothing more than a blur of colors melting into one another creating a rainbow of colors, but he paid no attention to any of this. His eyes were focused on one goal, her.

She veered onto the interstate, he followed.

She drove swiftly in the far left lane heading away from the city and to what appeared to be the suburbs of Tokyo; he followed from the middle lane.

She slowed momentarily to move over one lane in order to get around a slower driver, and then got back in the far left lane; he followed.

`Where are you going? Why are you in such a rush?' he wondered.

Twenty minutes later, he watched her cross over two lanes of traffic and make her way into the exit lane.

He followed like that perfect student or the well behaved child.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, this place, this exit seemed familiar, but it wasn't something that he was willing to spend too much time thinking about. He had to pay attention to her and the route that she was taking because if he lost her… If she was able to get out of his sight for even a minute, he knew in the deepest crevices of his bones…his heart that he wouldn't find her again.

She made her way quickly passed locked botanical gardens, closed shopping malls, late night bistros, and an all night sushi stand that he couldn't help but stare at because it brought up memories.

Memories that told him that he needed to pay attention because this place…this place was just a little too familiar. This drive… The entire drive and even her; they…it was…

He shook his head in an attempt to refocus his attention. Revving the engine of the bike, he shot passed the sushi stand and through the yellow light that she'd passed through a minute or less before.

He watched the tale of her lights make a right onto a street that he quickly found out was lined with massive oak trees, only to brake and make a quick left.

He stopped at the corner since for some reason he knew she would have to stop and wait for the security gates to open.

Staring around him, he mumbled in bewilderment, “This can't be happening. She can't live… She can't live… This shit can't be fucking happening.”

She pulled forward slowly through the gates.

Knowing that this particular neighborhood was something of a maze, he jumped quickly off the bike and darted towards the swiftly closing gates. Squeezing through them just in time, he dove into the underbrush in an attempt to hide himself from her, should she look back.

`She can't live here, damn it! She can't fucking live here!' he hissed vehemently as he watched her stop at the end of the short street, and make a right onto the connecting street.

Cutting through a few of the heavily forested yards of a few neighbors; he kept her in sight as he watched her turn the next corner, and his heart… Everything within him slowed to a crawl.

`No'

He didn't want to know anymore. He didn't need to know anymore. The familiarity of it all… It made sense now, it made…

`Shit'

It made too much sense! It was…It was too fucking familiar! She…she was too fucking familiar! From the very beginning, he knew, didn't he? He fucking knew!

He tried to shake off that feeling of trepidation that was quickly coming down on him.

The moment she'd turned into the neighborhood, he'd realized, it was his neighborhood.

The moment…the second, she'd turned onto his street…

He slowly walked towards the street in question; the lane…the Avenue that he'd called home for the past year.

He didn't worry about her escaping, because he knew that there was only one way in and one way out. It was a cul-de-sac with 3 large homes sitting on it. One of those homes was his own.

As the car that he'd followed from the dirtiest, seediest part of town pulled slowly into the driveway, his heart skipped a beat and sank into the bottoms of his feet.

`Toyota, Avalon… Purchased two months ago-Anniversary gift.'

`Leather Satchel… Graduation gift from her younger brother.'

`Leather trench coat… Purchased in Aspen, last year, family reunion.'

He shook his head as the world he knew, the life he had become accustomed to blurred and twisted into something ugly and vicious.

He wanted to forget this…all of this! He wanted to go back to a time before now…a time before today when he was ignorant to the truth!

His shaking hands came up to cover his face as the door to the car opened and she began to exit. He couldn't look at her, he couldn't…he couldn't look at her because then the truth…the truth would be entirely too real…too final.

This…this just couldn't be happening! What did it mean? What was he suppose to do with this information? What the fuck was he supposed to do with this fucking information?

`All of the months…the years that I've spent searching… She was…'

`All of the sleepless nights… She was…'

`All of the deaths… The killings… The… Fuck!!'

“You'll catch the person responsible for all of these killings,” she'd said to him one too many times when he felt like giving up.

How many times had she brought him back from that dark, desperate, desolate place that he'd get lost in from time-to-time because of this case?

She was the reason he pushed on! She was the reason… She was the fucking reason!

`Fuck,' he screamed in his head as a spell of dizziness came down on him forcing him into the bushes that he'd spent the previous afternoon pruning.

`No… Not…' he thought, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. `This… is some sick fucking joke! It can't be her… not…not…'

Another bout of nausea came down over him, forcing him to his knees as his stomach lurched unrepentantly as if telling him that his thoughts, what he wanted to believe about her, were all lies.

He didn't want to believe any of it, he really didn't, but his gut; it told him that what he believed-as hard as it was to believe-it told him it was the truth and no amount of denial was going to make it go away.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard the door of his home open and he closed his eyes, unwilling to face what he knew would come next.

“Is someone out here?” she asked softly, innocently.

His shoulders slumped forward and his head lowered as the soft scent of her perfume, Chanel No. 5, floated to him on the breeze.

At that very moment, the very essence of his soul died. As he stood slowly to his feet, his arms hanging limp, his heart broke for the very last time.

As the soft sound of her feet brushing lightly over the grass that he cut once a week, made its way to his human ears, a solitary tear formed in his eye.

“Inu…Inuyasha, what are you doing out here?” she questioned.

Turning to her, he inhaled deeply as he stared at her, unable to find the words to say anything.

His mind flashed with images of the woman's… the killer's… the murderer's silhouette and he knew… He knew.

`Dark luscious curls… Head held high…'

She stepped towards him, and he stepped back away from her.

`The sway of her hips…'

“Inuyasha, what's wrong? Why are you out here? Where's your car?”

He shook his head, not wanting to believe any of what his mind…his psyche was telling him, but he knew he couldn't deny it. No matter how much he wanted too, he couldn't.

Staring at her as she took a step back away from him, her face morphed for a brief moment into something vile, something wicked and filled with hatred and sadness, but as soon as it had come, it was gone again.

Blinking a few times, he continued to stare at the woman whom he'd loved from the first moment he had seen her.

`It can't be you.'

Hesitantly, he reached into the back of his waistband and pulled out his gun. A nine millimeter that she'd bought him for protection when he'd first started working this case.

She stepped back cautiously as he undid the safety on it.

Staring into the eyes of the one woman whose laughter was enough to brighten his darkest day and chase away the wickedest of dreams, he asked, his voice hoarse and heavy with grief and regret, “Why? Why didn't you come to me? Why… Why didn't you tell me?”

She just stood there staring at him, her arms down, her eyes…her eyes…telling him everything he wanted to know and everything he didn't.

As a slow tear trailed down his cheek, he brought the barrel of the gun up so that it was leveled with her chest. Cocking it, he silently pleaded with her to say something that would make him rethink what he knew to be true.

She said nothing.

“How could you do this, Kagome? How could you kill all those men?”

He knew he knew too much for her to let him live, and he knew too much for them to pretend that this…that he hadn't found out. They couldn't… There was no possible way that they could go back to the way things were.

He had to stop her. He knew he had to. He just couldn't let her walk away from this because she was sick and she would probably end up doing it again, and again, and again.

He couldn't turn her in; she would never survive in jail. Her family…her family would never understand. Hell, he…he didn't understand. No, this…this was the best way. This…this was the only way.

“37 lives, Kagome… You took 37 lives, damn it! 37 men that had families waiting at home for them. 37 mothers, and fathers are mourning, Kagome. How…How could you do this? How could-”

“I am me and she is I,” she whispered softly, cutting him off, her expression blank as if telling him to do what he felt was necessary because she couldn't have cared any less about the outcome.

He took another step back away from her as he reached up and wiped his eyes with the back of his free hand.

She stepped towards him wordlessly, and the silence that ensued…

The deafening silence after the loud bang that echoed viciously off the chill of the night was a deafening…crippling…thing.

~Fin~

July 4th, 2008 ~ 4:52 p.m.