Disclaimer: see part 1.
Stability
Part 11 – Ecdysis
By Random1377
Keitaro's feet felt as if they were made of lead as he trudged up the stairs to the Hinata Sou. In spite of the bone-deep weariness, he was elated and light of heart as he looked up at the building and smiled softly to himself.
Naru's brain activity was finally back down in the normal range.
And she might even wake up sometime in the next few days, he thought happily. I've gotta tell everyone.
This was the only reason the manager had been able to leave his wife's bedside, for while he wanted to be there when she woke, the doctors had been confident that it would not be any time in the next fifteen hours. And besides, Su had promised to stay by Naru's side while he went home for a shower and some sleep.
She had been very delicate in letting him know that he was a little less than fresh in the smell area.
Keitaro took a step forward, but came up short as something crunched under his foot. Stepping back, he looked down, finding a half-crushed cicada shell lying at the top of the staircase.
Ecdysis, he thought suddenly, the phenomenon wherein an insect sheds its outer skin. Huh… guess that life sciences class wasn't wasted after all.
He looked around, frowning suddenly as he realized that he could not hear any cicadas. At the height of summer, the trees should have been alive with their chirping calls, but there was not so much as a whisper of sound from the treeline.
Kinda… creepy.
Approaching the porch, he chuckled. "Guess Motoko's here, anyway."
The swordswoman's backpack sat on the ground in front of the building, looking sad and somehow forlorn as Keitaro scooped it up and threw it over his shoulder. Must've been in a hurry, he reasoned. I'll just bring it in for her.
On impulse, he turned away from the front of the building and started around the side, half-formed thoughts of seeing Shinobu's vegetable patch flitting through his mind as the smell of damp earth filled his nostrils.
He pursed his lips as he passed by the turned up ground.
Somehow, it looked like someone had deliberately torn the little patch to shreds.
Wonder what happened there, he thought, squinting in the dark as the sound of running water filled his ears. Reaching the back yard, he sighed, his shoulders slumping as he surveyed the scene.
"What a mess…"
The entire back yard was a swamp. Water was everywhere, and at the back edge of the yard there was a huge, muddy mound – as if someone had been digging a hole, then abruptly decided not to and hastily filled it with dirt and water. With a deep sigh, he leaned down and turned off the hose, shaking his head as he wondered who would have left it running like that.
Maybe there was a phone call, he reasoned, glancing once more at the mound of earth. But still, they can't turn off the faucet?
He stared into the darkness for a moment, biting his lip as he looked at a long, curved stick lying on the ground near the muddy heap.
"Nah, can't be."
Turning away, Keitaro went into the Hinata Sou, chiding himself for thinking that Motoko would ever leave her sword lying around in the back yard – let alone near a huge pile of mud.
One shower and change of clothes later, Keitaro felt like a new man. He dried his hair as he wandered around the empty residence, wondering where everyone had gone to.
Maybe they all went out for dinner? he mused. It's only eight. Maybe Haruka stopped by, or something, and they all went out for a bite to eat. Heading towards his room, he decided that he did not like the way the house felt when it was empty. Everything was too quiet.
Once in his room, he amused himself with developing scenarios for why Motoko's backpack was on the porch, and why the hose was running in the back yard. He imagined Shinobu working in the yard (possibly expanding her vegetable patch) and Motoko returning from school – and Kitsune grabbing them both and hustling them out the door with a big grin as she told them things were too dismal and they needed to go out and have some drinks.
That sounds like something she would do, he thought, drifting pleasantly on the edge of sleep as he imagined Motoko rolling her eyes and Shinobu stammering that they really shouldn't leave the Hinata Sou unattended. Kitsune would tell Shinobu not to worry so much, he mused, and Motoko would complain that she had studying to do, but then they would be out of the house, and Kitsune would be laughing, and… and then…
And then Keitaro was fast asleep.
( 0 0 0 )
"Darling… wake up…"
Keitaro mumbled and tried to go back to sleep, but the warm, soft lips trailing kisses down his bare chest made this impossible.
"Wha-"
"Shh…"
Confusion set in as Keitaro tried to glance downward, but his eyes seemed to be covered by a thick, black blindfold. A quick flexing of muscles told him that his wrists and ankles seemed to be bound with rope – a situation he might have found unnerving had it been the first time.
His wife, he had found, was rather fond of being in control.
"N-Naru…?"
He hissed as, instead of a verbal response, the warm heat that had been moving down his body finally reached its destination.
Dream, he thought incoherently, it… this isn't a dream… feels too good…
A shiver ran down his spine as his wife began an aggressive campaign to please him, running her hands all over his chest and stomach as her mouth continued its activity.
It was, Keitaro thought with a relief so deep it was almost pitiful. Everything else was a dream… oh god, more like a nightmare! I… I…
Thinking became rather difficult for several moments as his partner repositioned herself, straddling him and giving him a deep, hungry kiss as she prepared for the next logical step.
"I love you, Keitaro…"
Keitaro's back arched as he was engulfed in heat of another kind… but his pleasure was short-lived as his partner cried out in pain.
"What's wro-"
"It… it hurts!"
Keitaro felt as if he had been doused in ice water. The words were almost identical to the ones uttered by Naru on their first night together… but he had known the sound of Naru's voice long enough to recognize that the woman awkwardly trying to make love to him was not the one he had vowed to be with until death parted them.
"Sh-Shinobu…?"
"Why does it… hurt?" the woman gasped, her hands resting on Keitaro's shoulders as she continued to move. "It's supposed to… feel good…"
"Shinobu, stop," Keitaro demanded. "Get… what do you think you're doing?"
Keitaro struggled, but it was a useless gesture. His wrists and ankles, he realized with sick horror, were not tied down with regular rope, but with the plastic zip ties he had purchased to bundle his stereo wires together… and the more he fought, the deeper they cut into his skin, making him wince as Shinobu's soft, ragged breath washed over his face.
Her fingernails dug into his shoulders, making him wince as she rocked against him. "Just… need to keep going," she whispered, clearly speaking more to herself than him. "I love you so much… I know it will feel good if I just keep going…"
"No!" Keitaro cried, trying to squirm away from the woman as she continued to slowly move herself up and down. "No, Shinobu – stop it! Get… get off!"
A trickle of sweat slipped down the side of Keitaro's face as he ineffectually fought against his bonds. Stop, he thought desperately, stop this… somebody help me. Don't let this happen!
"Mmm, I can feel you inside me," Shinobu crooned, pausing with her hips against his and leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. "Should I go faster, darling? That's what Naru said whenever you-"
"Cut it out!"
Keitaro could tell that Shinobu was smiling as she whispered, "I'll bet our babies are going to be beautiful…"
It lasted for a long time. How long, Keitaro would never know… but he guessed it must have been well over the usual time for that sort of thing, as he held out for as long as he could. He started with reasoning, telling her that what she was doing was immoral. When that failed, he moved to reprimanding her and trying to make her feel guilty for making him do something he didn't want to do.
Ultimately, he had been reduced to begging and shouting for help, but it was all wasted breath as Shinobu continued to force herself on him, finally getting what she wanted from him and telling him (in a voice so gentle it made his stomach turn) that he should save his energy, since they were going to be together for a long, long time.
Sorry, he thought miserably, blinking fiercely to try to hold back the tears, I'm so sorry… I couldn't… I couldn't stop…
That the betrayal was just physical meant nothing. He had still betrayed his marriage vows. If he had loved Naru, he felt, then he wouldn't have been excited by the touch of another.
"Mmm just imagine how happy we can be now that Naru's out of the way," Shinobu hummed happily. "Why did I wait this long?"
At the mention of his wife's name, and the realization of what Shinobu was saying… something inside of Keitaro's brain snapped. He screamed, yanking at his bonds until blood began to trickle down his arms, throwing out curses even he would not have thought of using under normal circumstances and vowing that once he got free, he would tear Shinobu limb from limb.
The rage he felt was so hot he was certain that it would be enough to free him from his bonds. Naru, his wife, was hooked up to more wires than one of Su's creations – all for the sake of jealousy? The very thought of it drew such a wretched scream from him that he was sure he had snapped a vocal chord. He continued to struggle for as long as he could, ignoring the pain in his wrists and ankles as he tried to find a way to hurt the girl responsible.
Finally, however, he was too exhausted to do anything more than sob.
He cringed as he felt a soft hand caress the side of his face, and for one, glorious moment, he thought that maybe someone had heard him screaming and come to rescue him.
Until Shinobu whispered, "You don't need to be so angry, darling. Now, Naru said it took a few times before it stopped hurting, and since we're all alone…"
And as her hand began to slide up his thigh, Keitaro knew that there was nothing he could do to stop her.
Somehow, he found the strength to continue screaming.
( 0 0 0 )
Su took the stairs three at a time, ascending to the Hinata Sou like a rocket as she struggled not to grin like an idiot.
"Keitaro! Keitaro, where are you? I've got great news!"
She threw the Hinata Sou's front door open and bounded in, pirouetting like a ballerina as she imagined the look on Keitaro's face when she told him what had happened.
Doctors said it was a miracle, she thought with a broad grin. Fastest recovery they've ever seen.
"Keitaaaaaarrrooo!"
Glancing at the mat by the front door, Su picked out Kitsune, Keitaro, and Shinobu's shoes all in a neat little row. And there's Motoko's backpack, she thought happily. Everyone's home.
She dashed to Shinobu's room, thrilled with the idea of telling her first… but the room was empty and dark, as were Kitsune and Motoko's rooms.
Maybe they're all talking with Keitaro, she thought, as she wandered towards the manager's room. Get it while you can, girls, this is the last time Naru's gonna let anyone near that room at night. Boy, she was pissed when she woke up, she thought with a grin. Nearly broke that orderly's wrist when he tried to calm her… down…
Su stood outside of Keitaro's door, her nostrils flaring as she sniffed the air. Living in close quarters with newlyweds, and having recently experienced sex herself, Su knew the smell of heavy sexual activity – and it was strong even from outside of the room, meaning that whatever had happened (or was still happening) behind the thin pine and rice paper was intense and long lasting.
Maybe Kitsune… brought her boyfriend home?
It was the first thought that came to Su's mind, and she discarded it almost as soon as it surfaced. If Kitsune had brought a man home, why take him to Keitaro's room? The next thought, as horrible as it was, was that it was Keitaro that Kitsune was sleeping with. Motoko would never touch what was not hers, so it had to be Kitsune behind the door.
It just had to be.
"Is… anyone there?"
Su knew it was a foolish question. She could hear rustling behind the door, and (she thought) the faint sounds of rough, uneven breathing.
"Keitaro… are you there?"
She reached out, laying her hand on the door and reminding herself that she had to tell him about Naru.
"I'm coming in."
Su slid the door open, bracing herself for the worst.
She did not brace hard enough.
"Keit-"
A third of the manager's name escaped her lips before something hard and unyielding was driven into her stomach, knocking the breath from her lungs and sending her to the floor in a gasping heap. She shook her head to try to clear it, but before she could get her bearings, someone was forcing her arms behind her back and cinching her wrists together with a piece of plastic.
"There," an unmistakable, cheerful voice declared, "now, I think you've been told before, but it's rude to enter a room uninvited. Hush now – you're interrupting."
Blinking away tears of pain, Su rolled onto her side. "Shinobu?" she gasped, still trying to recover her breath. "What… what are you doing?"
Shinobu crouched down in front of her lover, pushing a strand of hair out of her face before she replied, "Just what I should have done five years ago."
Su glanced around the room as best she could from her prone position, and as her eyes landed on the futon, she gasped in shock, unable to hide her surprise at what she saw there.
In her agitation, the question came out in a single burst of air.
"Whathaveyoudone?"
No matter how she tried, Su could not look away from the macabre, sweat and blood stained body lying on the bed, and the only reason she knew that the man lying motionless and blindfolded on the futon was not dead was the shallow, ragged sound of breathing rising through the air behind the still-smiling Shinobu.
"They didn't make a cute couple."
"What?"
Su continued to stare as Keitaro shivered and let out an incoherent groan.
"They didn't go together," Shinobu explained patiently. "Anyone could see that. She was too rough with him… she didn't deserve him."
Slowly, Su's eyes moved up to focus on Shinobu's face. "It was you," she breathed, "you put the wax on the floor… you h-hurt Naru…"
Shinobu tilted her head to the side. "Don't cry," she said warmly, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the small, cell-phone shaped device. "You know it was the right thing to do."
The realization of how she had contributed to what had happened hit Su like a baseball bat to the gut, forcing her dinner back up and out of her stomach as she stared helplessly at the detector she had made for Shinobu.
"Y-you said you wanted it to h-help us," she croaked, flinching back as Shinobu set the device on the floor and gently wiped the vomit from the corner of her mouth.
"I did," Shinobu said happily. "Can't you see how this helps?"
This can't be happening! Su thought frantically. I… I did this – I helped her do this…
She had thought that the dark-haired girl was going to use the Resident Locator V 2.4 to keep tabs on everyone in the Hinata Sou and let them know when dinner was ready. In hindsight, it was a flimsy reason for needing a device as advanced as the locator, but Su had been so willing to trust – so deeply in love – that she had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.
Squinting at the screen on the small device, Su felt the world swim into shades of gray. "Motoko," she whispered, "Motoko and Ema are… Shinobu… oh Shinobu what have you done…?"
In creating the device, Su had simply copied her Tama-locator and added bio-codes for the other residents. When the residents were healthy, they moved from one point to another on the device's display grid, occasionally flashing to show that their status was normal.
The dots corresponding to Motoko and Ema's names were stationary… and had not flashed once in all the time Su had watched them.
"What have you done?"
Shinobu rose to her feet. "I thought you would understand," she sighed, shaking her head as she gazed down at the helpless girl. "You knew – everyone knew – who it was I loved." Abruptly, she laughed, giggling until tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. "I'm so glad," she gasped, "I'm so glad I was able to feel this way. I'll have to find that doctor tomorrow and tell her I feel great – better than great! Perfect! Invulnerable! Su… Su, you have no idea what I can do now! I can hear things people say from three rooms away! I can smell dinner cooking when I'm coming up the stairs! I can feel… oh Su, I really wish you could feel what I feel."
The words flew from Su's mouth before she could stop them.
"I won't forgive you for hurting them!"
Smiling down at her as if she was speaking to a slow child, Shinobu said, "I didn't hurt them, Su… I set them free. They were prisoners of their love, don't you see? I just freed them from their hopeless longing."
And it was then that Su realized that the other woman was completely insane.
"Don't worry," Shinobu said kindly, "you'll see when-"
Su's survival instincts went into high gear, and she rolled onto her back, kicking her feet up over her head and then bringing them back down and violently shifting her center of balance, effectively flipping herself upright in a move that would have made any Olympic-level gymnast proud.
Unfortunately, Shinobu was more familiar with her body than anyone else in the world, and as soon as Su had regained her feet, Shinobu swept them out from her under, sending the other woman crashing back to the floor.
A gasp of pain escaped Su's lips as her forehead connected sharply with the side of Keitaro's desk. Blood immediately rushed into her eyes, blinding her with red as she hurriedly tried to rise once more.
"Just lie down," Shinobu advised pityingly, easily forcing Su to the ground with a carefully timed shove. "You'll just hurt yourself more, and I don't want to see you get hurt – I want to take all of your pain away…"
Four failed attempts later, Su lay gasping for breath in the middle of Keitaro's floor. The blow to her head, as well as the lack of oxygen from breathing so hard, made her dizzy, and with icy horror, she realized that – baring a miracle of adrenaline – she was not going to be on her feet anytime in the near future.
Or, as Shinobu promised, ever.
"Good girl."
Su whimpered as Shinobu crouched down and gently wiped the blood off of her cheek. "Don't… touch me," she panted, trying to shy away, "don't touch me!"
It made her sick to her stomach that only the night before, she had been begging for the opposite, and she swallowed with some difficulty as Shinobu's hand slowly slid down from her cheek and gently wrapped around her throat, her revolution intensifying as – even then – she realized that she still wanted Shinobu to make love to her.
"Don't be scared," Shinobu told her warmly, "when it's all over, you'll-"
Su's eyes shot to the ceiling, widening in surprise as Kitsune – covered in dirt from head to toe – dove through the hole Keitaro had neglected to repair for all those years and hit Shinobu from the side, throwing her off of Su and sending her tumbling halfway across the room.
Kitsune's left eye was bloodshot and crazed, the right swollen and blackened as if she had been hit with a tremendous force, and when she bared her teeth, Su could see that three had been knocked out. Blood mingled with the dirt in her hair, caking it together in ragged clumps and giving her a ghoulish, almost undead presence. Before Shinobu could regain her footing, the gray haired woman had crossed the distance between them, driving her fist into the dark haired girl's jaw and knocking her back up against the wall.
"Should have made sure the job was finished," she hissed, drawing her fist back for another hit.
She swung a second time, but Shinobu simply dropped to the floor, allowing Kitsune's fist to crash into the drywall where she had been standing only a moment before, plowing clean through it and connecting solidly with the wall stud behind it. Kitsune howled with pain, cradling her shattered hand against her chest as she fell to her knees and blinked tears of agony from her uninjured eye.
Shinobu began to circle her, looking so much like a shark that Su could barely force herself to continue watching. She knew, as Kitsune must have, what was coming… and there was nothing either of them could do to stop it. The dark haired girl regarded the injured woman from every angle, as if trying to decide on the best way to finish her off.
"Does it hurt…?"
Kitsune grimaced at the gentle, motherly tone of Shinobu's voice. "Fuck you," she gritted, glaring up at the other woman in open defiance. "Just… just do it, you sick freak."
Smiling brightly, Shinobu reached down and grasped the handle of the kitchen's biggest butcher knife, pulling it from where she had it concealed under the edge of Keitaro's mattress.
"Alright."
As she started forward, however, Keitaro let out a soft, miserable moan, his voice so rough and abused that Su barely recognized the words he was uttering.
"Na…ru… 'm… sorry…"
Shinobu froze, her body rigid as a board as the words hung in the air like a specter. She began to tremble, lifting her hands up and staring at them as if she had never seen them before, her eyes wide and clear for the first time that night. The knife fell from her hands, landing point-down at her feet as she tried – desperately – to understand why she was doing what she was doing.
"I… Keitaro, I…" she fumbled for words, turning to face him with an expression that was pure horror.
Su's heart broke at the utter confusion in her friend's voice, and even as she watched, Shinobu's face went from scared, to ecstatic, to cold and calculating, before focusing on Keitaro's wrists… and going to unadulterated misery.
"Never… meant…"
Shinobu began muttering under her breath, her hands twitching at her sides as she paced back and forth in front of Keitaro's bed.
"Wasn't supposed to… shouldn't have… can't… I… Keitaro, I…"
Words failed. Nothing fit. There was nothing she could say to explain herself.
"Hkkk!"
She no longer needed to.
The knife punched through Shinobu's side with a sickening 'thunk,' lodging between two ribs as Kitsune – barely able to hold herself upright – stumbled back, leaning against Keitaro's dresser for support as Shinobu sank to her knees, her eyes wide and staring as she reached down and wonderingly explored the wooden handle jutting out just under her armpit.
There were no words of apology, no entreaties for forgiveness, and no explanations whatsoever. One minute Shinobu was alive and trying to comprehend why there was five inches of steel buried in her side, and the next… she was simply dead, sagging to the floor with a long, tired sigh and falling silent as her body evacuated all of the waste it had been holding onto.
Pretending there was not a dead body in the room, Kitsune grabbed the scissors lying on Keitaro's dresser, staggering almost drunkenly over and clumsily cutting first Keitaro's, then Su's bonds before slowly sitting down on the floor. "God," she whispered, staring at Shinobu's corpse as Su hurried over to Keitaro's side, "I need a drink…"
"I'll get you a double," Su promised, wrapping Keitaro's bloody wrists in one of his undershirts and gently pulling the blindfold away from his eyes. "I'll get you a whole bottle of whatever you…"
She trailed off as the scissors fell to the ground with a loud clatter, looking quickly to where Kitsune was still sitting in the middle of the floor. The gray-haired girl's undamaged eye was fixed and unblinking, and without needing to check, Su knew that she was dead.
In passing, the gray-haired woman took with her the details of how she clawed her way out of her own shallow grave and dragged herself to her room, drifting helplessly in and out of consciousness as Keitaro screamed himself hoarse less than ten feet away before finally summoning the last of her flagging strength to force her body into motion.
It is unfortunate that Kitsune did not have the opportunity to tell Su that it was the sound of her voice that got her moving, or that her last fully coherent thought was, At least I got here before she got Su, too.
Perhaps it would have offered some kind of consolation to know that, in a roundabout way, she had been key in ending things once and for all.
"Why?" Su sobbed, clutching her head as blood from her earlier head wound began to seep between her fingers. "Keitaro, why? Why did this have to happen?"
Keitaro said nothing, his eyes staring resolutely at the ceiling as fresh tears began to leak from the corners of his eyes.
He never spoke to Su again.
As far as she knew, he never spoke to anyone again.
The End
Note: Chapter 1 will be posted in two days.
Hawker-748 pre-read once more.