JUNJOU TERRORIST

III

FOUND

Blurring images and deafening sounds was the kitten's world, moving in and out of days he stayed. It took him weeks to regain full consciousness, his system adapting to the burned incense his new masters used, but when he did, he prayed to lose it again cause what he saw was deeply shocking. Pets, of many types and breeds were chained to the walls with iron bars and locks, some others were in small rectangular cages too small for their bodies. He tried to move but his arms were held, he was even chained by his neck and could barely breath, the collar was roughly cut and honed, easily bruising his skin, it burned and hurt every time he tried to move. How long had he being there? days? weeks? MONTHS? He tried to speak but his voice faded out and was replaced by a gurgle and chocking sound, his roommates looked at him, pain filled and hopeless. How long was he going to stay there? days? weeks? months? YEARS? The fear grew, churning inside his stomach like cold fire, the natural feeling of it scared him the most, like a welcoming sensation of "home", the acid feeling of acceptance of his own death.

But then, days went by and nothing happened, and even when it did he was barely conscious. The gang would drug them first and by the time he woke up, two or three pets were gone, music would be played somewhere around the house, some screaming and laughing, cries and cheers mixed with metallic voice and booming drums. Then another two or three would return, sometimes the same that were gone before, other times, new ones. What had happened to the other ones? he dared not know. "Ignorance is bliss" he repeated to himself every time their master's voices run through the corridors. But the more he stayed, the more he learned as well. By the end of the 5th event, he knew he was being kept in the basement of an old abandoned house, the gang collected them for clients, not for themselves, he never met them, thought.

Cause there were no windows in his room and they only used flash lights he counted time by feeding, the gang fed them 5 times before every party. They were always partying somewhere up and left from his room, their hard loud laughs piercing his ears, bringing dark nightmares that pestered his dreams, daring to bring back memories he had tried so hard to forget.

"You have to find them!" a voice called inside his head, "the code is engraved" the voice commanded and the kitten hissed pushing away from the wall. It was almost feeding time, his stomach cramped but he yearned water more than anything and he also hated so much the feeding time. His body craved for it, but it not only prolonged his misery, but it gave the gang another reason and method to hurt them. David, he learned quickly the name, loved placing his meals just close enough for him to barely touch the plate with his nose, but far enough for him not to be able to pull it. The torture was unbearable, But it was worst when he refused to try, David hated them when they didn't try, and tended to throw the food at the wall and hit them with the plate. At least when the torture ended he would move the plate, a few centimetre so the pets could slowly pull their meals close enough to eat them.

"Fuck! they're here! THEY'RE HERE, YOU BROUGHT THEM HERE!" the voice outside woke him up from his dark thoughts, looking around he saw lantern lights, flashing in quick circles, they were running, "STUPID ASS-WHOLE!" they were still far away from them, fighting with each other, "AND WHAT WAS I SUPPOSE TO DO? LET THEM GET ME?! FUCK YOU AND YOUR STUPID IDEA OF KIDNAPPING THAT FAGGOT!" He didn't need to look at his cellar mates, they were all tensing up at the voices.

"SHUT UP! the both of you" their leader barked, the voice coming closer, "and if you don't want to be caught you'll do as I say" their voices died out for a moment, the door broke open and the three entered the room in panic, "set them loose, QUICK! they'll be out of the drugs in a couple minutes, cops will be trying to catch them all first"

"WE GOTTA GO NOW!"

"JUST SET THEM FREE ALREADY!"

"It's done! IT'S DONE" they repeated, he fell to the floor with a dull thump and hard clanks, the metal against the floor, same noises repeating all over the room. "LET'S RUN, THEY'RE HEEEERE!" Just like the gang members said the kitten could hear the loud sirens, he felt cold sweat drenching his ragged shirt, his eyes adjusted quickly watching the other pets react, deeply frighten. What was happening? who were they? the tension was building up like a tsunami between his cellar mates and it flooded his sensitive mind. Then, there was a sound, a dull sound like static in his ears and after, the house was light up completely. "RUUUUUN!" screamed a voice in his head and something inside him reacted, he moved one leg and then the other, he tumbled and fall over and over again, against a wall, down stairs, breaking doors open, but he kept running until he was out of the house, flashing lights following him, and even farther away, until he was deep in the forest. And even farther away, until he couldn't hear the sirens, or the screaming, or the guns, until his legs could not hold him any longer and he tripped for good, hitting his head against a rock.

When he woke up again, the moon was high in the sky and there was no sound, not even the natural buzzing of the city, or the slow rhythm of the wind against the trees, everything was still, like the whole world was holding it's breath. He furrowed his brows, his ears twitched and turned, he blinked long and hard until he was finally able to tell where he was, a soft murmur starting around him. "Mitsuhashi University"he read, in a big rectangular sign, "Professor's parking area" read another sign below and the kitten wrinkled his nose, the words he could read them, but the meaning behind was foggy and confusing, he felt a tight connection to it, like he had heard it before, but his head hurt so badly. He shook it, tried standing up but he was barely able to move three steps until he fell again, there was no moving away.

What could he do? He looked around again, the moon light helped him define the structure frame. It was a collection of five buildings, in a letter "L" order. Two buildings were tall and close together, one was tall and large curving to form the "L", another one was too far away to tell its width but he could tell it was small. And the closest one, small and short was the oldest, gray stone and dark wood, with one open window at the first floor.

The kitten looked around again and gulped, he felt his heart racing, his ears straining to hear any sound, but there was nothing. Pulling all his strenght he closed his eyes, breathed deep and baring his teeth he moved, dragging half of his body until touching the wall, it felt cold and hard against his bruised body, it felt somehow safe, he followed it like a life line until he reached the window. He breathed in again and hissing as loud as he could, used his claws to push himself up and crawl inside the dark room. "..." with a loud thud he fell to the floor, the pain rippled through his body but he continued on dragging himself until he felt another wall. Turning around he let his back reclined against it, his eyes quickly adjusting to the dim light. The office felt so small, the right wall stacked to the roof with books, the two desks in front of him with 4 to 5 columns of piled books, another small shelf to his left bared more books that it could hold. Almost every book leather bind, with dark used gold lines and letters, yellowish pages with brown spots. The office smelled humid and, "old" he thought, it was a funny smell, it tickled his nose, but the air around was so calm and warm.

Founding a coat in a chair by his side he stretched his arms and pull it over his shoulder, it took him long minutes but at the end he felt his body slump, he was tired, thinking slowly about the past months of his life he could not think of at least one good thing, even the doctor had being just a few days, so short he could only count it as flash happiness, he felt his heart throb with pain and tears starting to fall. "I should be used by now, I'm no longer a kitten, I should not cry anymore" he thought, his ears dropping, he was about to let his mind drift in to its usual nightmares when the door opened and the lights were turn on.

"where the heck I left that damn coat..." growled a deep baritone voice, "Oh no, the window!" the man entering the room at seeing the opened window run towards it to close it, the door closing as well behind him. With that, the kitten was cornered, but the man had not seeing him yet, maybe if he tried to get closer to the door, but then the man turned and they faced each other. The kitten gulped hard, the men blinked, the kitten felt his ears pinning instinctively, his eyes widening, the men in front gulped, the kitten felt his body frozen with fear. A second passed, two seconds, three, the kitten felt like time had stopped and his body would not move ever again but when the men tried to move forward the kitten screamed and ran as fast as he could passing under the chair and under the left-side desk, until his shoulder hit the wall hard making him cry in pain. Turning, he saw the man moving behind him, bending to see him, he tried to act brave, hissing sounds breaking from his ribcage but he knew that would not work, the men was tall and he looked too strong for him, he was frighten.

But again, nothing happened, the man bended a couple of times, looked at him for a series of minutes, trying probably to understand what had happened, later, realizing the facts he took his cellphone to call animal control, he had never met personally with ferals so he didn't know what to do in this type of cases, but then, bending to look again at the poor kitten he noticed the battered tail and clothes, his skinny body trembling hard against the wall, his sad looking face, the fear in his eyes, even with the state of his clothes he could manage to notice the dark blood stains, "wounds". He closed his phone and put it inside his pocket, turning towards the small kitten he spoke as calm as he could.

"Hi, mmm... my name is Miyagi, what's yours?", the kitten looked at him confused but did not response, trying to pool his legs closer to his chest, Miyagi sighed, he knew he should call the police or at least someone with better knowledge on pets but still, he did not call, sitting on the floor he continue on speaking "I'm a teacher here, my full name is Miyagi Io, you can call me Miyagi, this is a university, I normally don't stay that long but I have being having some hard days so I had to do extra hours" the kitten's brows furrowed, still confused, "This is Mitsuhashi University, it's a good university and I love working here, but sometimes it's so tiring I just want to go on vacations," the men who called himself Miyagi continued on explaining in a soft cadence, like the soft murmur of a river, like the sweet rich calling of the wind in a summers night. "It has being 3 days since I last saw my apartments bed, don't tell the boss but it's becoming a habit to sleep in my car," Miyagi said, turning his eyes, then, noticing a curious look on the kitten, his furry round ears twitching to catch every word he said, he smiled.

"Either way..." he said taking a cigarette from his breast pocket, he was about to light it when he saw the kitten withdrew again with fright, looking at the cigarette and then again to the kitten he noticed the burn scars and felt terrible for the small kit. "..." without a word he took his cigarette and the box in his breast pocket with the lighter, and after showing them to the kitten he tossed them inside a trash can. "It's okay, I can stop smoking for the time being, I guess" he said and smiled apologetically, the kitten was surprised and even thought he did not move, his lips formed a small smile. "You must have had a terrible time kit" said Miyagi and scratched his head trying to think of something to do or say when the kittens' tummy rumbled, "Ah... I see, wait here!" he said and stood up immediately, searching in his discarded briefcase he took out a paper bag, inside, some food. When he turned again two pair of stormy gray eyes were looking curiously at him, drawn by his catish blood he had stopped being cornered and was looking at him intensely, his nose sniffing the air, catching the good smell, his tail swift in loops with desire, his focused stare made Miyagi chuckle.

"So cute" He thought and then taking the paper bag he walked as slowly as he could, bent and placed the food in-front of him, to finally push it with his foot as far away from himself as possible, and closest to the kitten, who looked at him suspiciously. At this he lifted an eyebrow and sighed, "I guess you can't help being cautious" he responded to an unvoiced explanation and walking closer he bent and took one bite of the sandwich, "I would eat more to prove its okay but I'm afraid I didn't left much of my lunch, so if I do that, this won't satisfy you..." he said. Would he eat? the kitten as if understanding crouched forward and taking the bag with his paw pulled the food towards himself and started eating it's contents slowly. Miyagi watched him eat and felt content, somehow peaceful inside, so he sat down and continue on speaking, wondering if the kitten could understand a word he was saying. He talked about the university and his so awesome classes, about Kamijou, his cute assistant and also, about the school he had come from, his family, apartment, car. Hours passing, the sky outside clearing and lightening, he was so engrossed on talking that he didn't notice the kitten had come out of under the table and was by his side, when he turned and saw his face so close to him he gasped and would have shouted in surprise if he had not restrained himself in time, it would be no good to startle the kitten when he had gotten him out.

Looking at the kitten he chuckled again, he was rubbing his eyes sleepily, "I can borrow you my lap if you want to sleep there" he said patting his legs and the kitten was rather confused at first, but he repeated the motion and then, trying, he just placed his head where Miyagi had patted. Miyagi smiled and started petting the kitten's head tenderly, gingerly rubbing his ears, moving along his head to the back of his human ears, the kitten rubbed his eyes again, sighed and yawned. Miyagi kept the moving while his other hand rubbed softly in circular motions to massage his shoulder blades and back. The kitten rubbed his face against Miyagi's lap, he yawned again and closed his eyes falling quickly asleep. Miyagi continued on petting him for quite some time, enjoying the soft snoring and cute looking kitty. He thought about calling animal control in the morning and promised himself he'll do that, but he knew deep down that that, was in reality, out of the question.

- 0 -

It was already morning, the sun completely up, when Miyagi woke up. A certain numbness in his legs caused by a certain weigh on it, caused by a certain little kitten he had tried to help the night before was starting to bother, but the kitten was still asleep, comfortably curled in his lap, so he decided to wait a few more minutes. Moving his hand to pet his head again, he chuckled "..." when the door was open suddenly and a short old man entered the room.

"Miyagi-kun?!" the man called surprised at seeing his professor on the floor, still confused Miyagi just mumble "Dean?..." when the kitten, waking up from the shouting and moving from Miyagi lifted his face and stared at the old man in-front of him. In response the dean shouted again, calling the kitten "Shinobu?!"

- o -

Author's note: Hope you like this new version of the Found chapter, I really hope so... if not.. rumble, R&R