It only gets weirder from here. And more M rated.

Also, I'd like to mention that I'm kinda mixing the anime and manga together for this, since the manga is amazing and I kinda wanna write about a teleportation scene with Sato later and that is definitely from the manga.

8888

There needed to be a word for 'almost home,' for when the streets and trees and sounds were familiar, but peripherally so. I knew the mountains and forests around my hometown better than I knew the bones in a hand, so even being able to see a familiar river from a distance as I crested a hill brought a tear to my eye.

The town was visible in the distance, but I'd hold off on getting closer for right now. It had been a long journey of walking and hitch hiking and stolen motorcycles and just recently, and cellphone from a oblivious camper. Sato had probably guessed his target's location by now, so I would need a rest before I threw myself into whatever he had waiting for me.

The old spot by the river was exactly as I remembered it, the water clear and the current languid. One side of the bank was rocky and covered with trees; the base of the small mountain crowned by the local shrine. The other, where I sat, was grassy and soft, with hardly any rocks except for the large flat one that jutted out over the bank. Scattered in the grass were countless tiny wildflowers.

A river wasn't exactly the best place to get clean, but I would definitely rather smell like mud and mountains than old sweat. The water was cold and felt nice on all the places that hurt, even though it wasn't deep enough to really soak in. For a moment, I could close my eyes and pretend I was seven again, and Kei and Eriko were sitting nearby dangling their feet in the water.

I absently made a crown out of nearby flowers and put in on my head.

It was just then, flowers in my hair, toes dangling over the edge of the rock into the water, sun turning my skin golden, that I heard it. Across the water, among the trees, a heavy rustling, like a cross between a wild animal and a hunter. Tree branches moved out of the way of something I couldn't see. I crossed my legs, my skin suddenly cold.

"Where...where...keep looking..." I heard faintly across the water, the voice garbled and strange but nevertheless familiar. Oh, this was Sato's shadow.

My shoulders relaxed, and I beckoned playfully. "Hello!" I called, waving a hand, "Over here!"

For a moment, the shadow completely stopped moving, then with an excited cry it bounded across the water, splashes betraying its path until it stopped short just in front of me. It butted its head into my hand, and I petted it's strangely textured skin with a fondness that was startling.

"We've been looking...we've been looking..." the shadow purred, "we wanted to see you again, Kairi..." it whined, pushing my hand away and resting its head on my bare chest.

I ran my hands up the shadow's shoulders and neck then back to it's flatly shaped head. I was going to lose track of what was where very quickly at this rate. In a flash of inspiration, I grabbed my flower crown of my head, and carefully placed it on the shadow's. It hung oddly on its inhuman head, but it stayed in place. Seeing the flower crown hovering crookedly in the air in front of me made me giggle.

The shadow pressed its body closer to my chest, its enormous hands wrapping around my back. "Oh..." it trilled, "nice...sound."

The hands on my back were light and careful, and they started to tickle. Helplessly, I dissolved into a fit of giggles, clutching at the shadow's back and curling inward to butt heads with it. "More more more!"
it said, and this was just unreal, this giant invisible monster with claws and teeth and the potential to be possessed by fucking Sato at any moment was here, wearing a flower crown and tickling me. It was strange, but I felt that familiar, powerful feeling I normally had around Sato and his shadow, even now, while being tickled. Huh.

"We've been looking for you..." it repeated, running its long tongue up my stomach. Oddly, it didn't really bother me anymore, aside from how ticklish it felt. I relaxed into it, curious to where this was going. "we want to take you away where only we can touch you."

Oh.

The shadow's hands on my back suddenly felt incredibly dangerous, and I was starting to feel cold again with dread. I stopped laughing, my throat too tight to let any sound come out. "we've been waiting for you..." the shadow continued, "we told us to wait here and bring you back to us when you came."

Nono no. "...but...we're having so much fun here..." I said nervously. The shadow's hands were almost as big as my entire back. How could I be this careless and naive? This was Sato's pet, not mine.

The shadow licked my neck, and my head tilted back to accommodate it without any thought. "...but...but...we're waiting for you, we told us to bring you back to us right away. Then we can play with you together."

I blinked at that, then gave the floating flower crown a small smile. I might still be able to salvage this. Uncrossing my legs, I hooked my ankles around what I was pretty sure was the shadow's waist, pulling it closer. I slid my hands up to the sides of it's face and continued to smile down at it.

"Don't you want to have me all to yourself?" I asked, and leaned forward to kiss it.

The feeling of the shadow's tongue in my mouth was still strange, but it was less surprising when I was the one setting the pace. Also, as strange as it seemed, this kiss was much more preferable to Sato's. Must be the lack of constant abuse to my poor lips.

It was hard to kiss something with no lips, but the shadow definitely made up for that with sheer volume of tongue, filling my mouth and sneaking down my throat until I started coughing. Maybe this thing was part snake?

The shadow immediately drew back, making concerned noises. "Maybe take you now...? We'll know what to do..." it said uncertainly.

"No," I said firmly, gently nipping at the shadow's neck, "I'm okay, I promise. I just need a minute to breathe again."

The shadow quivered. Without giving it time to think, I pressed on. "Don't you get it? You're my favorite. I don't want to have to share you with anyone."

The shadow cried happily, its grip tightening around me and its body surging forward, leaping out of the water and pushing me onto my back. Startled, I squeezed my arms and legs around the shadow's body as we fell, landing with the shadow's body pressed completely flush against mine. I fought back the urge to swear, because the maybe I should have took longer than a second to think about seducing Sato's shadow while I was still nude; the friction felt really, really good.

The shadow's claws dug into my back, and its teeth had buried themselves in my left side. Fucking really? "Stop making me bleed," I ordered, pulling the shadow's head away and glaring, "you're going to kill me. Then I won't be able to play with you anymore."

The shadow made a strange sound that reminded me of snapping bones but was probably laughter. "Don't be scared..." it said, "we die all the time and we always wake up."

I shook my head. "I'm different," I said, "I can only die one time. I'll never wake up again after that."

I felt the shadow pulling away, so I clung a little tighter, stroking its back gently. "It's okay, you don't need to be scared," I soothed, "you just need to be a little gentle, and be careful with your teeth!"

Cautiously, the shadow licked along the row of tooth marks it had left behind. My stomach fluttered. "That's it," I sighed, feeling my body relax, "good boy."

I closed my eyes and smiled. Now all I had to do was just wait until the shadow dissipated. It had definitely been more than fifteen minutes, but that probably meant that Sato had a stronger shadow than Takeshi, which was unsurprising, really. Still, I couldn't imagine that it could last forever. I needed to wait for my clothes to dry, anyway.

The shadow, having accepted that using its tongue was safe, seemed determined to lick every inch of my body, occasionally using a feather light touch of its teeth, the force not even sufficient to break the skin. The tongue ran down my arms and to my fingers, up to my throat and over my lips and cheeks. This actually felt really nice, especially with my eyes closed so I couldn't be bothered by the fact that I couldn't see the thing that was turning me into a puddle of goo.

"So...pretty...tasty Kairi..." My breath hitched at hearing Sato's distorted voice from the shadow, even more grounding that this was his when my eyes were closed. Was that the real reason I was actually allowing this? Maybe...I couldn't be desperate enough to allow invisible monsters to touch me like this, but the fact that this was Sato's shadow...

It was too easy to imagine that it was Sato doing this to me, being soft, worshipful of my body, almost loving with caresses when my eyes were closed. But even though this is something I'd always wanted from someone, or more specifically, Kei, it still wasn't quite right...

The shadow had it's crazy long tongue wrapped around and between both of my breasts, squeezing just enough to cause me to gasp at the edge of pain that cut through the pleasure, only to immediately cause a flood of heat to pool into my belly.

The sensation made me furrow my eyebrows into a frown, and I felt my chest constrict in confusion and the beginnings of panic. I then noticed with startling clarity that the sun was warm on my skin, the smell of mud, flowers, and grass filled my nose, the river water flowing nearby, and the shadow was humming, its tongue moving on down my stomach. I registered all of this for a few seconds before my ears started to faintly ring. No...I couldn't possibly...I don't actually like-

Then the shadow's tongue went even lower and past my belly, forcing me to abandon my sickening epiphany with a gasp.

Unfortunately, the shadow correctly interpreted my response as a positive one. I'd already been kinda wet anyway, but bearing the brunt of the shadow's attention was not helping. I felt dizzy, and my face was burning. I squinted my eyes even tighter, which didn't help, then covered my face with my hands, which also didn't help. I should do something, or at least protest! "Sha-shadow...sha-ah!" I tried, my voice sounding strange and unfamiliar, "I...I don't think...I don't think you understand what you're do-ing!" I gasped under a more forceful lick.

The shadow's long tongue was pressed completely against the entirety of my mound, and the hot and slick sensation had me hyperventilating. "...nice noises..." the shadow purred happily, its voice vibrating against me, "more more more," I was going to hell.

I peeked between my fingers, and started giggling again at the ridiculous visual of a flower crown swaying around near my pussy. I felt the shadow keen happily, and then after one last torturous slow lick, the tongue moved on, focusing on my thighs instead. Suddenly, I could think again, and felt awful. I grit my teeth and fought to regain some semblance of sanity, because the only thing I could think about was grabbing the shadow's head and yanking it back up to finish the job.

I felt the shadow place its gigantic hands on my thighs, lifting them up. "Don't be scared..." the shadow said, its tongue moving higher and higher on my thighs but not high enough. "we've done this before...we know...[we know what's nice...]" Then the shadow was nuzzling its way back to my pussy, but I was momentarily distracted by the last thing it said. Was that English? Damn, I hadn't studied that in a while, but it sounded like it was saying something about knowing...

Then the shadow's forked tongue was swirling around my opening and I felt like I'd been shocked by a lightning bolt. I wanted...I needed...

I'm going to fuck you until you can't even remember your name, or that there ever was someone called Kei Nagai.

Oh hell. "Please," I panted, spreading my legs and biting my lip. I didn't even care if Sato or his shadow was my first fuck anymore, I just needed...

At first, it wasn't much different from the rest of what the shadow had been doing with its tongue; long languid strokes that had me tentatively relaxing into them. The shadow's firm but gentle grip on my thighs helped me feel more secure, and as its tongue started to change its routine from swirling to slightly penetrating, my hips jerked up reflexively before I even registered it slipping inside me, and my hands scrambled at the ground beside me to grab hold of something.

The tongue slid further in and my eyes shot open wide but I wasn't really seeing anything. It didn't go any further in, instead it withdrew all the way, before sliding in again. It moved slowly, so slowly that I didn't realized at first how deep it was getting until it bumped against my barrier. The shadow paused, I paused, before it prodded at it again, curiously this time. I let out a soft gasp at the painful feeling of the skin resisting the tongue.

"W-wait! Stop, shadow, stop," I hurriedly placed my hands on its face and tried to keep from losing my virginity like this.

"...did we hurt...Kairi?" it asked, and it worriedly drew back until its tongue was completely removed. I felt slightly erratic with the thought of it completely stopping.

"No, no! Um, it's okay, shadow. I just, that's my hymen, if you press against it too much, it'll break, and then it will hurt. You can keep doing what you were, it's okay." I placated, and I had a feeling that if I were a bit more coherent, I would've been mortified with how desperate I sounded. I swallowed and let go of the shadow and went back to gripping handfuls of grass as it let out a happy croon and slipped its tongue back in without any other warning, causing me to let out a moan.

It didn't press any deeper, thankfully, but it did poke and lick and tease my barrier and every other inch of my inner walls that it could, causing me to let out a mix of moans and groans and mewls. I was distantly aware of someone babbling in the background, but then a couple moments later I realized that was me.

"Oh God, please," I whimpered, shifting my hips up towards its mouth and let out a loud keening noise with the shadow's forked tongue twisted up and fluttered against something and made the world blurry around the edges.

I gulped down air, and couldn't help but laugh a bit, feeling utterly depraved as I lie there by the river, a monster between my legs and its tongue moving inside me.

"Good boy, good boy," I gasped over and over, my eyes wide and feeling like stars were flashing behind them. I grabbed a new fistful of grass, and absently wished it was Sato's silver hair that I could cling to instead. My eyes closed at the thought and a new flush of wetness flooded between my legs at the thought, drawing a delighted hum from the mouth connected to my sensitive flesh. My body coiled tighter and tighter and I was gasping out something until everything fell away and my whole body collapsed.

The shadow didn't seem to quite notice what had happened at first, and I was content to just bonelessly lie there and let the shadow continue to fuck me as long as it would hold my hips up for me. A stray breeze kissed my skin, chilling my body here and there where there were still traces of the shadow's saliva. My eyes slid shut again, slowly losing track of time and awareness of anything other than the shadow lapping at me. Idly, I reached down and petted the shadow's head, running my fingers up along its teeth until I reached the base of its tongue, where our bodies met. The shadow keened under my touch, and smiled.

Finally, it pulled out, licking me clean and then moving on to lick the juices on my thighs. I was going to hell and I didn't give a shit. "Oh, shadow," I sighed as the shadow ran its tongue down my legs and to my feet, gently nipping my toes, "You'd do anything for me, wouldn't you?"

It clambered back up my body to nuzzle my neck, the flower crown starting to come apart but still intact. It purred. I grinned, a manic energy filling my body. I pressed a wet, open mouthed kiss to the shadow's throat, tasting blood and ozone and something that made my mouth feel numb and tingly. "Good boy, good boy..." I crooned, closing my eyes and sighing happily, "did you have fun playing with me?"

"...love Kairi...love Kairi...never want to leave...always fun to play with Kairi..."

My heart leaped into my throat for a moment, my thoughts wandering and replacing that voice with another. I shook my head, and pulled myself back into the moment, opening my mouth for a kiss, tasting myself and victory. "Good." I said when the shadow gave me air again. "I had fun too."

I fell asleep with the comforting weight of the shadow's warm body pressed against me, though I finally could feel the shadow's body fraying at the edges. When I woke up, it was twilight, and the shadow was gone. I stretched, taking stock of my body and finding that I felt better than I had in weeks, maybe ever. Though perhaps that was just some lingering afterglow. I luxuriated in the feeling for a few minutes anyway, gazing up at the darkening sky contently.

After cleaning up in the river, I pulled my now dry clothes back on and headed for town. It was time to get started.

8888

Life in my hometown moved on as normal. The shadows lengthened as students made their way home from after school activities, and some of the smaller shops started closing. As I sat in the train, I took stock of the faces around me. Some were familiar, some were not, but even the unfamiliar people still let their eyes slip away from me like I was some kind of negative space. Ha, I'd gotten spoiled. All this attention I'd been getting had almost made me forget that I was a social pariah.

As I approached the hospital, I hesitated. Should I really involve someone else? Especially now, when I'd advertised that I'd be nearby? I shook my head and pressed on. She was already involved...that she'd been left alone in the hospital for so long was a lucky break that I wouldn't depend on anymore. And it's not as if it should have been any surprise to Sato that I might be looking out for her. If Kei wasn't going to do it, then someone had to protect Eriko.

It had been years since I'd seen her, but I still knew exactly where she would be. She'd been hospitalized off and increasingly on all throughout our childhood, to the point where she more or less had a reserved room. Perhaps some remnant of appreciation for the disgraced Dr. Nagai. Kei and I would go there all the time after she'd had an episode, though back then I'd be in the hospital for a week or two at most at a time.

The receptionist was young and friendly, an unfamiliar face from out of town. Her smile was warm, and it was obvious she didn't recognize me. After asking for the patient's name and room number, she let me pass, cheerfully reminding me that visiting hours would be over soon. I acknowledged her verbally, but otherwise ignored her. I'd stay as long as I needed to, and I wasn't above changing into a patient gown in order to got unnoticed.

The hospital was quiet. My only company once I got past the busier parts of the hospital was a few aides making rounds. People were leaving...getting ready for the night. The light was warm and golden, casting striking shadows that gave everything a sense of velvet mystery. My footsteps echoed in the hall.

After passing several empty rooms in a row, I reached Eriko's. She was in bed, doing something on her phone, so didn't see me right away. I leaned into the doorway and waited for her to look up, a smile rising unbidden to my face as I watched her.

When she saw me, at first she didn't say anything. Her face went white as a sheet, her eyes wide and shimmering. She forcefully jabbed her finger in the direction of the chair by her bed, her eyes following me as I walked over to sit down. She stared at me like I was a ghost.

I cleared my throat. "Um...sorry I haven't visited in so long," I said, going for charming.

"I thought you were dead," she whispered.

Oh.

"Fuck, Eriko," I said helplessly, getting up to sit beside her on the bed, "Why would you think that?" I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

"I figured you and Kei had escaped together," she said, "and I wasn't going to tell anyone. But then I did, because I thought they were safe, but then they weren't safe, and Kei ended up in that lab, and I didn't hear anything about you, and I though...I thought..." For a moment, she looked like she was about to cry. Then she blinked it back, sighed, and leaned into me.

Shit. "I had no idea," I said, "nothing like that happened at all. Kei just went off on his own..."

She clenched her fists. "I've wanted to ask...they're like buzzards, all the reporters and agents and curious neighbors and would-be bounty hunters. I've wanted to ask so many times if anyone knew if you were alright. But I was afraid of drawing more attention to you than I already had."

Eriko didn't cry, but her voice sounded broken, and I felt like a failure. I leaned down and kissed the top of her head, whispering, "I'm sorry."

Eriko blinked rapidly, and took a steadying breath. "It's not so bad," she said, "I just ignore them and go to sleep. Earplugs help with the yappy ones." She lazily pointed at her bedside table, where among the clutter I could see a jar full of blue earplugs.

Something warm and impossible to place bubbled in my chest. It hurt. "I'm sorry for everything else," I said softly.

"Fuck you for making me worry," she said, looking up at me and smiling a rare smile.

I grinned. "Sorry I'm so lovable," I said cheekily, and she rolled her eyes.

"One more thing," she said, "fuck you for being gone for so long. Fuck you for making me deal with all of this at once instead of incrementally. My heart, think of my poor dying diseased heart."

I blinked. "This?"

"Yes, 'this.' Do you have any idea how fucking rude this is? You get hot, you get buff, you have a piercing, and look at your hair!" she added, reaching up to touch the buzzed side for a moment before running her fingers through my longer dyed hair. "since when did you..."

Her eyes widened, and she stared at me, then her hand, then back at me. "Fuck."

She immediately and without fanfare pulled out her IV. "I was right, you are in danger."

I blinked, and glanced at the dangling IV uneasily. "Uh...what?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but you're going to have to trust me. Awww shit now I'm going to have to put on pants," she groaned. She got up out of bed and walked to a small cabinet on the wall. "We already might be out of time; they've clearly followed you here."

...what? I stared as Eriko pulled on some pants, too distracted to really register what she was doing. "Who's followed me here?"

Eriko grabbed my bag and started throwing things from around the room into it. "Ajins, obviously. Probably Sato."

If I had been standing I might have fallen, since my legs suddenly felt like jelly. My eyes widened and I started breathing harder. Eriko looked over at me, and misunderstood my reaction. "Don't worry," she said firmly, "I'll protect you."

Alarm bells were flashing in my head. "Protect me?" I asked incredulously. "Should you even be out of bed right now?"

"I can walk!" she snapped, coming over to me and grabbing my hand, "now come with me if you want to live."

This wasn't happening. This could not be happening. "This is happening," I said in a defeated voice as Eriko broke into a med room.

"Well, yeah," she said, scooping up bottles packets and throwing them into the bag, "I need my meds to not die. The night nurse takes long smoke breaks, we're fine."

I narrowed my eyes, watching as Eriko quickly went through and gathered what she wanted without needing to look around. "Eriko..." I said, "how long have you know how to do this?"

She shrugged. "I've been stealing morphine for here for years," she said, "speaking of which..."

We crept through the hospital, Eriko peering suspiciously around every corner. We took a much different route than I had taken in, and soon we were in a part of the hospital I didn't even recognize. It made me a little uneasy, but Eriko seemed to know where she was going, so I trusted her. I was too occupied wondering how on earth she could have possibly known that there were probably ajins around...that Sato was probably around, and that the target was me. She insisted that there was no time to explain every time I asked. If I didn't love her so much I'd wring her neck.

Just then, Eriko swore, ducking behind a corner. My heart jumped into my throat. "Is it Sato?" I whispered.

She shook her head. "No, worse. It's Watanabe. Aww, damn, he's coming this way. Stay hidden, I'll deal with this."

The bag was shoved into my arms and she strode out. I watched with wide eyes as she confronted on of the three boys I'd seen hanging around Kei sometimes. Which one was this?

"Go the fuck away," she spat, glaring up at him furiously.

Watanabe seemed surprised to see her, but quickly smothered the expression with smugness. "Well well well," he said, "what are you doing out of bed?" Ah, it was the scummy one.

"None of your business, jackass."

The overhead fluorescent lights flickered. Neither of their expressions wavered. "You know..." Watanabe said, "while I've got you all alone, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

Eriko stared at him. He cleared his throat. "Why does no one think you're not an ajin, too? Why's no one taken you away yet?"

Eriko stared at him. "It just doesn't add up. And now you're skulking around near the freight entrance, alone. Sneaking out? Mighty suspicious..."

Eriko stared at him. His eyes darted from side to side. I wanted to laugh, seeing how upset he was that he wasn't unnerving her. "I've got connections, you know," he said, "If I told them I saw you die and come back, they'd believe me."

Eriko stared at him. He took a few steps toward her, putting his hand on the wall beside her head. She didn't move. Watanabe gritted his teeth. "Fuck, you're a bitch," he spat, "frigid and ugly!"

Eriko stared at him. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to take deep breaths and not rush blindly out there to help her. I hadn't fought a normal human in a while, and I didn't want to accidentally kill him.

Watanabe took another step towards her. "You don't have to pretend to be brave," he said, hooking his finger under her chin, "I know you're scared. I'll tell you what, satisfy a little curiosity of mine and I'll drop the whole thing."

Quickly, so quickly that he didn't catch it, Eriko's eyes darted towards me. Oh, she didn't want me to see this.

Part of this situation made me want to laugh. I could see what Watanabe was trying to do, and it was painfully obvious it was all a bluff. Especially when he leaned in with a voice he obviously thought was menacing and said, "You know...I've always wanted to know what it was like to fuck an ajin. Maybe you could oblige?"

Didn't mean I didn't want to punch that fucker anyway.

Eriko stared at him. Watanabe laughed. "Or maybe that would be too much for you...you are sick, after all. Maybe you can just suck my cock instead."

Eriko lowered her eyes and knelt down onto the ground. For a single, heartbreaking second I wondered if she was going to do it. Then, I mentally punched myself, because of course she wouldn't. This guy wasn't even actually threatening.

Eriko abruptly stood up, holding something in her hand. Watanabe looked at it in bewilderment. "What's that" he asked.

"A cockroach." she said calmly, before popping the whole thing into her mouth and eating it, staring at Watanabe the entire time.

I bit back hysterical laughter as the boy backed the fuck up, yelling at Eriko about being a freak before fleeing down some other hallway. She watched him go evenly, her eyes not moving away from him until he was gone. Then she said, "alright, let's go," and kept walking.

I followed behind her. "Do you...do you have to deal with that often?" I asked hesitantly.

"It's not usually that bad with him," Eriko said, which was not an answer, "I can deal with it."

"You shouldn't have to."

"Let me deal with what I can deal with," she said, glaring at me. She grabbed the bag back from me, and I dropped the subject.

"He was wrong, by the way," Eriko said, "we're not going to the freight entrance. That's too conspicuous. There's an emergency exit with a broken alarm back this way. The surgeons use it when they take breaks, I've heard them chatting about it."

We passed an empty operating room, and I paused. Ah, that's why Eriko knew where she was going. She probably knew this part of the hospital best. I lingered in the doorway, glancing curiously at all the surgical instruments, gleaming on the tables. Everything was so clean, no traces of blood anywhere.

Wham!

Immediately my eyes snapped back into the hallway, to the source of the noise, and found that what had once been an open hall was now a sealed doorway. I heard Eriko kicking at it on the other side, and sucked in a deep breath. "Eriko, what it this?" I asked, testing the door and finding it uncooperative.

"It's a fire door," she said, "it shouldn't be shutting on it's own like this...and it shouldn't be locked. Ah, fuck!" she shouted, kicking the door one more time, "Okay, this is fine. Just go back to the last corner and go left. Keep going left and you'll get to a room with a water cooler. This is fine, sit there and wait for me, okay? This is fine."

"Fuck, I don't want her alone in here," I heard her muttering, and I resisted the urge to laugh, because I was thinking the exact same thing. "Be careful," I said, "Something isn't right here."

"Gee ya think? Quit stalling, and try not to fucking die."

Footsteps getting quieter and quieter until I was alone. I glanced behind me at the empty hallway. A vent rattled somewhere in the distance. I took a deep breath in through my mouth, and the air made my tongue a little tingly and numb. Without hesitation, I went back into the operating room grabbed a scalpel.

As I walked, the feeling in my mouth grew stronger and spread to the tips of my toes. A shadow was somewhere near, I could tell. I tightened my grip on my scalpel and kept walking. This was it.

In the end, I was still taken off guard when I saw him. I rounded a corner and found him just sitting there, facing me from across the room. No water cooler, not where Eriko was waiting. I shifted my stance to conceal the scalpel, jutting my chin out. My heart was pounding.

"Oh! Kairi!" Sato exclaimed, as though he was surprised. Bastard.

"Why are you here?"

Sato frowned. "I'm hurt, Kairi. You invited me, remember?"

He opened his eyes, and I felt like I was a butterfly being pinned to a board. "You've been up to all kinds of things lately," he said lightly, "inspiring Takeshi Kotobuki to action, filling my subordinate's head with the idea that his life and death has value, and..." He paused for a moment, a smile oozing across his face. "Don't think," he added throatily, "that I'm not aware of what you and my ghost have been up to today."

I felt a blush cover my entire face and crawl down my neck, and Sato laughed. "Look at you!" he chuckled, "Blushing like you were earlier. I rather liked the way you looked then, though I'd have made you bleed more."

He leaned forward in the chair a bit and the look in his crimson eyes was so intense that I felt like he had paralyzed me with just his gaze instead of his voice. "Kairi," he began in low tones, his voice like molten rock, "you wouldn't have told me to stop."

His words poured into my ears like a litany of pure lust, sending sweet spirals of hot sparks coiling through me until my knees trembled.

I didn't realize I took a step back until Sato tsked. "Come now, Kairi, you're not going to be able to manipulate me like that!" He closed his eyes, and pulled a knife from his belt. "I even brought you something this time, although..." he trailed off in a purr, "I'm curious as to whether or not you'll get close enough to me to try to take it."

"Are you going to give me a choice?" I asked, trying to get it together.

Sato grinned, and sprung forward from the chair without warning. I narrowly dodged a slash to the throat, but I lost balance enough that Sato easily made my knees buckle with a kick to the back of my legs. I clutched the scalpel tightly but kept it hidden, opting instead to go for a ground kick since I was already halfway down anyway. It didn't connect, but it got the man to back away enough that I could get back up, quickly lunging at him with a flying kick.

Sato's strong arms wrapped around my waist and flipped me over, throwing me onto my back and knocking the air out of my lungs. Somehow I kept my grip on the scalpel, and rolled out of the way just in time to dodge a stab to the stomach. He instead embedded the knife in the floor, and I kicked it, sending it flying across the room and clattering against the wall.

"Ah, too bad," Sato said, right before I punched him in the face. It was a solid punch, so I wasn't surprised when it unbalanced him enough to knock him back, causing his hat to fall to the floor. I wasn't even surprised when Sato grabbed my shirt and tried to pull me down too. I broke his grip with a twist of my wrist and using the forward momentum to roll over the man's shoulders and land on my feet a short distance away.

Sato continued to grin at me, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, spitting out blood. He licked his lips. "You're holding out on me," he said, sounding excited at the prospect, "what's that you've got in your left hand?"

I swallowed. "Why don't you make me show you?" I asked in honey tones, backing up slowly.

"Fighting me with one hand is a disadvantage you can't afford, Kairi," Sato chided, stalking towards me.

I put up my hand to block, but Sato moved like a snake, weaving around my counters and ending with his hand gripping my neck, slamming my face against the wall. I felt the inside of my cheek start to bleed, and I probably had a new scrape or bruise. I swirled the blood around in my mouth so that I could spit it out, but Sato swiftly leaned in and sealed his lips over mine, holding my mouth open with his thumb. He licked up the blood inside my mouth, smearing plenty on our lips as he did so. The tremble returned to my knees and I sagged to the floor.

The grip around my throat tightened, and I gasped for air, pounding weakly on Sato's chest as he ravished my mouth. I growled and started to bite back, spots starting to blink across my vision. This seemed to please him, if the way he pressed our hips together was any indication. My vision was darkening and my lungs were starting to burn when Sato finally pulled away and relaxed his grip, letting my cough and frantically gulp down air.

"You're shadow is a better kisser," I said raggedly when I had enough air to speak.

Sato smirked. "Guess I'll have to practice, then." He quickly covered my lips with his again, focusing more on using his tongue than his teeth for the moment. The hand on my neck moved down to my chest, where I was sure Sato could feel my racing heart.

I tore my mouth away from his demanding one. "Why do you-"

"Why do I care?" Sato interrupted, his eyes dark. "I don't. But you have pieces of yourself you want to give to Kei Nagai, and I want to take them from him."

My chest ached at the proclamation. "Kei already has them," I said in a wavering voice, then wanted to kick myself.

Sato smiled fondly at me. "No," His hand dropped down to trace the circle of toothmarks left behind by his shadow on my left side with frightening precision. His touch was heavy enough to hurt even through my clothes.

By breath hitched from the pressure on my marks, and Sato's other hand came up to grip my chin, his thumb and index finger digging into my cheeks as he turned my head back up to face him. I didn't even remember looking away.

"I'll admit, I was taken off guard when I suddenly felt a burst of unfamiliar emotions earlier," Sato said in a voice that was just above a whisper, low and personal. "so when I tapped into my ghost, I shouldn't have felt surprised to see that you were the cause."

My blood felt like it froze in my veins. What?

His hand holding my face captive moved slightly so that his index finger could gently run across my lips. "Once I put a little more focus into the mental link, I could attune my own senses with my ghost's. I could feel what it felt," Sato's red eyes shot up from where they followed his finger's motions to clash with my widened ones, and I was struck with how close they were. "I was tempted more than once to take full control, but there was something about watching and experiencing that was too good to pass up."

I felt my mouth fall open in horror at the revelation that not only did Sato see what happened earlier, but he was there.

The man wasted no time in taking advantage of my shock and pressed his finger halfway into my mouth before I could close it. "Those sounds you made...I plan to draw them out of you again and again," he was still using that voice, the one that was making my insides tighten in all the right places. "I plan to make you come undone around my tongue again and again..." his finger caressed my tongue in purposeful motions, and fuck I was uncomfortably warm.

It was hard to get air into my lungs. Why didn't I just bite down? Better yet, why not use my scalpel?

Sato leaned further in until his lips were next to my ear, and my eyes wandered down to the floor, released from his hypnotic gaze. Something glinted out of the corner of my eye, and they quickly darted over to investigate. My mind cleared a bit at seeing the source. Was Sato unaware of where he'd pinned me?

He lightly nibbled my bare earlobe before growling into my ear, "When I heard you cry my name while my ghost was inside you, I came harder than I had in years." Then he bit roughly into the top of my ear, causing me to cry out at the sharp pain.

The knife I had kicked away earlier was suddenly buried in Sato's back, piercing the heart. I couldn't help but shudder as he let out a wet gasp against my bleeding ear, and he slumped back a bit. I yanked out the knife and stabbed him in the chest as well. Once would have been enough, but I kept stabbing him until I felt the air enter my lungs a bit easier. I was covered in blood, my tank top and blue jeans completely ruined.

Pulling the knife out of Sato's chest, I ran, throwing it away down the hall before I could think. My heartbeats pounded louder than my footsteps. Eriko. I had to find Eriko and get her out of here before Sato-

"You look good like that," I heard Sato say, and I froze, slowly turning around. Already?

He strolled across the room, casually sitting down in one of the chairs. His eyes drew mine like magnets, and I started walking towards him almost without realizing. Sato raised an eyebrow. "Not going to run this time?"

I frowned. "Not while you have the advantage."

"Do I?" He asked, and he might have been smiling, but I couldn't pull away from his eyes long enough to check. I swallowed thickly. If Sato hadn't had the advantage, he certainly did now.

"Not for long," I replied, and schooled my expression into a calm one.

"Mmmm..."

Sato's eyes traveled lazily down my bloodied body and back up to my eyes, once again giving me the feeling of being pinned to a board. He drew in a shaky breath, and licked his lips, some of my blood still on them. His shirt hung in tatters on his torso, the ruined fabric soaked with blood and baring the skin of his sculpted chest and coiled muscles of his stomach. I felt like I was burning alive inside out.

"You look good like that," Sato repeated, his voice rough like gravel. Suddenly, I noticed with a start that he had opened his pants at some point, and was stroking himself with languid hands. His eyes did not leave me for even an instant.

"You look like you're going to bolt," he chuckled, "I might even let you go for now."

"W-what are you-" I sputtered.

"Getting off to? Your face right now. What you might do next. The way you fight. How you writhed when my ghost turned you into a mess. That you obviously think that everything you're doing is an act."

Hearing that, I felt something snap.

Without thinking, I found the ability to move again and marched towards Sato with a deceptively soft smile. He stared at me intently and he quickly removed his hands from himself as I climbed into his lap and began grinding into his erection. The man drew in a sharp breath at the contact, and rested his hands on my knees.

I wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and gently sifted through the short silver hairs at his nape as I brought our faces almost close enough to kiss. "I'm going to win," I murmured, slicing his torso open smoothly with the scalpel.

Sato's hips jerked. I smirked, and continued cutting, slicing through thick muscle and fat and other tissues until he was opened up beneath me and his organs were exposed, practically falling out into my lap. I kept grinding against him, and let out a deliberate moan at the sweet friction. I never let my eyes stray from Sato's almost wild gaze, his crimson eyes burning, and waited patiently until they dimmed and he bled out.

I heard the tell tale sounds of his body remaking itself, and glanced down towards my lap to watch his organs return to their home for a moment, before quickly looking back to watch as his eyes regained awareness. Sato sucked in a breath of air as he came to, and as soon as his eyes refocused on me, he bucked his hips up to revive his diminishing erection, doing so in what felt like barely a second. I let out an approving hum before slicing again, so gently that the pressure was barely sufficient to break the skin. The man leaned into the blade greedily.

"I don't understand you," Sato admitted, his eyes bright. "I can't understand you. You told my subordinate not to die, that his death, his temporary death, was unacceptable. You've killed other humans, who will never come back to life again. You've killed me, enough times that I'm beginning to lose count."

I dropped my hand from his neck and slipped my fingers under his shredded shirt to run them up his smooth chest. "Killing you has no meaning, not like Tanaka or anyone else in this world."

That made the man pause, and he leaned away from the scalpel to tilt his head curiously. "...meaning?"

"All life is sacred," I murmured, "ending any life, even temporarily, is not something to be done lightly. I only kill to protect other lives...some lives are more sacred than others. But you..." I trailed off for a moment before declaring in a slightly louder voice, "you desecrated yourself. You've become addicted to your own death. There is no meaning in killing you."

Sato's eyes gleamed darkly, and he grabbed my ass tightly enough that I wondered if there would be bruises later. "I would say," he said, his voice a rumble that made my entire body come alive, "that I'm going to desecrate you, but...I think I already have."

My hands froze over his chest. I opened my mouth to say something. "No, no...no excuses Kairi, and keep a better grip on the scalpel or I'll take it from you," Sato warned. "I'm going to ask you a rhetorical question. Why are we here? Why am I here in this hospital, and why are you here in my lap? Because you actually enjoy this."

Somewhere in the distance a fan turned on. The overhead fluorescent lights buzzed like a swarm of bees. The far wall had blood splatters all over it. The bloody knife gleamed on the floor of the hallway, almost all the way into the next room.

Eriko and I needed to get out of here before someone discovered this place that looked like a crime scene and linked it to us. Were there security cameras here? I started glancing around near the ceiling.

"So this is what you look like when you've been cornered." Sato laughed. "Why so bashful? You didn't have to come here. You didn't have to tell me you were coming here. You've probably told yourself you came here to protect Kei Nagai's sister, maybe even from me, so why lead me here?"

My mouth went dry. "I..."

"And now here you are, prolonging our encounter when you could have escaped. Tell me, Kairi," he purred, "why is that?"

Sato leaned forward, pressing his face into my chest and inhaling deeply. "You weren't properly neutralized," I said, fighting to keep calm, "Eriko would have been in danger, I could-ah!"

His hand abruptly pulled down the neck line of my tank top and bra cup until one of my breasts spilled out and his teeth closed around my nipple, his mouth hot. I clenched my eyes shut and curled my toes.

"Stop lying," I heard Sato say gently, alternating between biting and sucking, "Stop lying to me. To yourself, just because you think you love someone."

I opened my eyes and stared down at the man marking up my chest. I felt my hands start to shake. Sato drew back and smiled at me.

"You're so young," he cooed, taking my hand and steadying my grip before I could drop the scalpel. He pressed a kiss to the inside of my wrist. "I tried to fool myself into loving people when I was young too."

He brought my hand up to his face, and drew a line down his left cheek with the scalpel. "We're more than that, than them." He drew another line across his cheek, making an cross shape. As I stared at the blood dripping off Sato's jaw, he tilted his head up to kiss me, licking and biting my lips. I didn't react, I was too deep in thought, my mind spinning with denial and truths and despair. Heartbreak.

A boy, with long eyelashes and red eyes, sitting alone on a bench, reading a book. The books were a different language each time. Red eyes widened the first time I sat next to him, like I was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He bit his lip each time he talked about the book, about what it meant to be a human. When he asked for my phone number, and said that we were friends.

My lips were free, and Sato's moved down my throat and back to my breasts, licking and biting all the way. I panted and stared unseeingly at the wall in front of me. I heard something rip.

A girl, falling asleep in my lap as we sat in the shade under a tree, flowers in our hair. The whispered confession that she like her brother better when I was around too. Falling asleep before I could ask her what she meant.

My breath hitched when there was a particularly sharp bite to the tender flesh of the underside of my neglected tit, and I felt firm hands snake their way into my jeans, one palming my ass, and the other...when did my pants get undone?

Takeshi, lying next to me in the dark, his hands cool and light. No urgency, no desperation. No pain. Just kisses, solid and grounding, the feeling of our tangled legs. The words, "I love you."

The hand left my ass to reach up and grab a fistful of hair and squeezed enough to make me hiss. "Come back to me Kairi," Sato growled, "I won't tolerate anything less than your full attention."

I blinked at him and finally became fully aware of what was happening. Who I was sitting on. Who's red eyes were staring into mine, into my very soul.

I let out a choked scream and recoiled like I'd been burned. Before Sato could react, I slid the scalpel that had been resting harmlessly on the mans shoulders under his clavicle, slicing cleanly through the brachial plexus, first on the left, then the right. Sato's arms drooped uselessly at his sides.

"Kairi-" he started to say, but I kicked away, knocking Sato and the chair over and causing me to fall back a few feet. I didn't look at him at all, just clambered up and ran. I held the scalpel so tightly my knuckles turned white. I was coming to the end of a hallway that branched to the left and right. There was an elevator, and a room with a water cooler. Eriko! Where was Eriko?

"Kairi, that's enough," Sato commanded, his voice rumbling in my body, and I couldn't move. My heart pounded against my chest like a trapped animal. Sato's boots clunked against the floor, his footsteps heavy.

"You don't get to do that, Kairi." The vulnerability I hadn't noticed earlier in his voice was completely gone now. This was the Sato I had heard over the phone. The footsteps were getting closer.

"I could just have my ghost reset me," Sato said, "but I think I want you to do it. I think you want to do it, even if you're going to keep lying and running from me."

Move. Move, dammit, move! Sato must almost be close enough to touch me now.

"You're going to reset me," Sato murmured calmly, his voice vibrating through every cell in my body. "and then I'm going to tie down your legs so tight that even the slightest resistance will break them. Then, I'm going to fuck you here on the floor until you feel like everything else is close to breaking."

I felt like I was going to pass out. My body heated, pushing the cold wave of panic that washed through me earlier away. My belly betrayed me and coiled pleasantly at his words.

"And," Sato continued softly, his voice right behind me, "if we're lucky, Kei Nagai's sister will come try to save you, and I will kill her, and you'll realize you don't actually care, and you'll beg me to do it faster so I can get right back to fucking you. And then..." he chuckled, "Well, I'm sure we won't be bored..."

"Kairi!" a voice screamed, and Sato let out a surprised noise. I heard him take a swift step away and then there was a loud, hollow banging sound echoing through the hall. Suddenly my knees buckled and I fell back into a...chair? As I tried to process what was happening, I was moving down the hallway to the right, passing what looked like a water cooler that was still rolling around on the floor, and was pushed right into the elevator. I heard the doors close behind me. Oh, I was sitting in a wheelchair.

After a couple seconds, Sato's voice abruptly released me and my whole body collapsed. I gulped down air and turned around. Eriko was leaned against the elevator door, her face flushed and sweaty. Her eyes were closed, and despite her evident fatigue she was breathing calmly through her nose.

"You good?" she asked, pulling earplugs out of her ears.

I nodded wearily, then realized that she couldn't see me. "Well, I can move."

"Good," she said, "then get the fuck out of the chair. I think I'm about to pass out.

I knew the feeling.