AN: I really hope you enjoy this. From rereading the last chapter I realized that I had actually deleted a couple of paragraphs from the memory. It was between Jiro asking Kei what he was doing in the house and Atsushi asking if he'd really searched everywhere. I'm hoping that it read fine without it 😊
Well, I really hope you enjoy this and is it just me or is Kei Takishima (and Hikari) one of the best characters ever written 😉 (right up there with Blaine Anderson and Kuon Hizuri imho 😉)
Chapter Four – Outlining Shadows
Kei looked upon his girlfriend as she lay in the bed, tears in her eyes. He gently touched her cheek, barely putting any pressure at all there, "You should get some sleep. I'll keep a look out," he told her as he knew that she was scared. He would definitely be there for her. He knew that her family would be there in only a few hours but right now he was all that she had.
"You're here," Hikari whispered as she looked at him, "I don't want you to fade away again. I don't want this to be a dream," she said before crying even more. Kei looked at her lovingly and let his hand go through her hair.
"Are you number two in sleeping as well?" he asked and Hikari seemed to draw in on herself. Kei frowned, those words had always brought strength and a desire to win against him. Now it felt that they were hurting her.
"We haven't competed for a long time," she whispered as tears ran down her cheeks. "Can you …" she began before feeling her words drift off. Kei looked at her with a very concerned expression on his face.
"What do you need? What can I get for you? Do you need me to get a doctor here?" he asked and Hikari grabbed his wrist as he stood. She didn't like seeing him so panicked but at least it was with her well-being in mind.
"Can you hold me?" she asked, almost begging him. She noticed the look of shock on Kei's face. She lifted the cover for him and he froze before slipping his shoes off and getting into the bed, making sure there was enough room between them. She had been hurt so much over these past four years and he didn't want to be a part of that.
"Is this ok—" he said hesitantly before feeling Hikari snuggle up close to him. Kei, mindful of the hospital machinery, wrapped her up in his arms. "I love you so much, my dear Hikari," he said as he kissed her forehead. He felt the way she clutched onto him as if he were a lifeboat saving her life. Finally he felt her getting to sleep and so just held her.
He had really missed having her in his arms.
…
…
It was only a couple of hours before Kei felt someone enter the room and his eyes snapped open. He had started to fall asleep with her. Maybe it was the happiness that came from finding out that she was alive, maybe it was from the way he could finally hold her in a way he had missed so much, or maybe it was the exhaustion of all of this. Still, he had told her he would protect her and he had fallen asleep.
Hopefully nothing bad would happen.
"I'm here do check her," a male nurse said with a very bad Japanese accent. Kei frowned.
"[Both of us can speak English very well, speaking in Japanese is unnecessary,]" he said as he looked at Hikari. She seemed to be sleeping more peacefully with him. "[Does it have to be now?]"
"[I'm surprised that you are in the bed with her.]" The nurse said and Kei looked at him as he attempted to study him. He then turned to Hikari who was waking up a little.
"Hi, did you manage to rest?" he asked Hikari with a kiss to her forehead, "The nurse just wanted to ru-" Kei blinked as Hikari came closer to him and seemed to try to hide in his chest. She was shaking as if she was going to have a panic attack. "What's wrong? The nurse is here if you want to -" he watched as she looked up at the nurse and her eyes widened in fear.
Kei froze before looking at the nurse himself whilst holding the woman he loved as close as possible. He studied him before realizing that the nurse recognized her. That would be impossible unless - Kei looked at his badge, committing it to memory, "[Is that your real name?]" he asked as the doctor nodded. Kei glared at him in an extremely cold manner. "[Get the hell out,]" he hissed as a dark aura loomed around him but kept a safe area for Hikari. "[You'll be arrested in a number of hours.]"
Out of fear, the nurse left and Kei tried to calm himself down before he scared the black haired angel in his arms. "Are you okay?" he asked and Hikari closed her eyes as the fear and pain could be sensed throughout her body.
"Hhhe ju-just pp-paid," Hikari whispered to him as Kei's eyes widened. He hadn't been expecting to hear that. So, this creep that had taken her had been charging men for sex and had been forcing her to prostitute herself? He would kill them. He would systematically kill each and every one of them.
"It'll be okay. I'm here now, we'll be okay," the blond attempted to remind her. He had to be strong for her but it was killing him inside how she had been kind enough to offer to help somebody and he had done all this because she was trying to help. He would never allow anyone to get to her like that again.
….
….
Kei couldn't help but allow the swarm of images to keep circling around and around in his mind. Thomas Glover. This was a man who had taken advantage of Hikari by making her pleasure him to avoid being tortured. The younger Hikari that he knew wasn't comfortable about sex and that was with him. She would try and help people but they must have used a lot of drugs on her to make her body do what they wanted. That was enough to summon the demons of hell to seek revenge on this individual.
As the door opened again, he wrapped his arms around Hikari and made sure that nobody could touch her. She grabbed to him, nervously looking over his shoulder. She found such a relief as she saw Atsushi standing there in a loose t-shirt and blue pants.
"Hikari?" he asked as his mouth dropped and his eyes widened. "Oh my god," Kei moved back to allow the siblings to hug one another. "Oh my god," Atsushi whispered, "It's so good to see you. I never thought I'd see you again, little sis," he said before looking back at the blond. "Thank -"
"You don't need to thank me," Kei said as he looked down, "I really haven't do-"
"You've done so much for this family," Jiro said as he placed a comforting hand on Kei's shoulder. "My daughter's back, that is something that we should all be thankful for," Jiro looked over at Hikari and then at Masako who was crying as she saw the now twenty-two-year-old moving around.
Kei looked at them before bowing his head quickly, "I did what I could but I really didn't do -" he looked at Hikari as he felt his stomach churn. "I have to go somewhere very quickly," he told her, "I promise that I will come back and your family is here. I'll be right back if that's okay."
"That's okay," Hikari nodded nervously before looking down, "Can I ask for something?" she asked and Kei looked over at her.
"Of course, anything," he said quickly.
Hikari closed her eyes before looking up at him nervously, "Please don't kill that man?" she asked and Kei stopped. He looked at her in shock. Was she serious right now? That man deserved the death penalty for abusing her. He couldn't fathom why she was so concerned about this man who had violated her. He didn't seem apologetic. "I don't want you to get into trouble. I want you with me. Please?" she begged him and Kei sighed before going over to her and nodded.
"Sure, I'll make sure not to kill him," he said before kissing her again and leaving the room. He knew that she was safe with her family. He had to take some more steps into giving her the security that she needed.
…..
…..
Hikari could only remember blurred images and flashes of the last few hours or was it last few days, she wasn't sure. What she was sure about was that if this was a competition then that was a very unfair way of them to cheat. Real contests shouldn't have drugs involved, that was meant as cheating and she would make sure they paid if the drug had any negative side effects to it.
As she opened her eyes, she saw herself in a room that had a table and chair, a bed, a box, and a little bell and this all was within the same amount of space as one might have in a cupboard under the stairs. She didn't understand why she was here.
She sighed before calling out, "Thanks for the competition but I'm going to go now. It was great playing with you guys, I guess," she said before trying to get her arm free. She yanked on it and then looked back to see that she was handcuffed to the wall. That certainly added a new level of difficulty to the game.
"You guys are a lot of fun but this is enough for today!" she called out to the darkness before trying to yank her arm away again. It wasn't budging. She looked at her wrist and saw that there was a needle poking in there.
"It's not very fair to challenge people and then drug them. That's a very dishonest way of chea-"
"Will you keep your mouth closed," a masked figure said as he approached her with carefully measured steps. He looked around and then sat opposite her. "We can either do this the nice way," he said as he caressed her cheek, "or we could do it the nasty way," he said as he took out a knife and Hikari paled as she saw it. It was an incredibly sharp knife.
"We can do it the nice way," she said. "After all, when friends challenge one another it's good if they set rules and guidelines and you have to be nice and to try to understand the other person. That's what Takishima taught -"
"Will you shut up?" the man said before pulling out a collar from his bag and slipped it over her throat. "I've been watching you for a while and you're perfect for me. You're beautiful which is most important. Your strong, smart, and hard working. I really am impressed by you," he said and Hikari blinked hard before trying to take off the collar.
"This is nice but I'm no-" as she undid it, she felt a sharp zap throughout her body and felt that all her strength was drained from her. "What did you put on me? When Takishima finds out -"
"He thinks you're dead," the masked man smiled, "All it took was a little change of clothes to keep him from looking for you." The man watched as Hikari realized that she was now wearing a light nightgown. "Did it take you that long to figure out you weren't wearing a school uniform. Well well well, my sources are incorrect. I'll have to change that immediately," the man took out the knife and held it up so that it glinted in the tiny glow of the bulb. "Well, until next time, my Hikari Hanazono."
Hikari flinched. She opened her mouth to yell that only Takishima was allowed to call her that but the man pressed a button again and she fell unconscious. Hopefully Takishima wasn't hurting too badly right now.
End of Chapter Four
Thank you for reading
Thank you so so much for the reviews, they really mean a lot to me.
Misshollyjolly65, sallymorgan983, 00nighthowler00
