NeonHorizon: Hn. It's been a while, huh? Two months between chapter 21 and chapter 22. I apologize. Here's a new chapter so...I guess...enjoy?
Noriko's pointed, feline ears twitched as she regained consciousness. It felt as though months had passed since she was last awake, but she knew that it could only have been a few hours at best. Pain radiated from her side, back, and hip. It was slowly easing her back to reality and she could feel panic begin to set in.
Her wrists had been bound together in front of her with a thick chain. She could see the dull grey links about a foot in front of her face and she realized that she was lying on the floor. The hard surface beneath the catgirl felt a little wet, almost sticky. Am I bleeding out? Her head lifted and her sharp green eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light of the room.
It appeared to be an apartment, but was very sparsely decorated. No real furniture with the exception of the futon in the corner. She saw some weapons, a radio, cooking supplies, bottles of water, and a first aid kit. The light that allowed her to see her surroundings came from the row of windows behind her, but it was so dim that she was sure they were covered by something.
She attempted to sit up and winced as fresh pain erupted in her left side, spreading up to her shoulder. As her vision went white, she hissed and remembered the stab wound from Kenta. The catgirl fell onto her side again, feeling pitiful. Electrocuted. Stabbed. Slashed. Hn. I shouldn't be alive. I probably won't last much longer anyway. Not unless I've got nine lives.
The door across the apartment from her was closed with no sounds coming from the other side. Noriko began to doubt that the rest of the building was occupied. She suspected that it might be an abandoned building that her captor had decided to make his base. Hissing once more in pain, she tried to adjust herself so she was more comfortable.
Before I blacked out, he said something about wondering if someone would try to save me. No one knows where I am. They don't even know that I was in the same city as them. They probably don't even know that Sonic was there. She looked at her bound hands again as her tail began to swish back and forth in agitation. The chains were tight and locked in place with a heavy padlock. Even if she was in good health, she had doubts that she could break free.
More time passed and the catgirl began to shiver. The duct tape was wet with blood, easing off of her wounded flesh and starting to curl a little. Noriko refused to let any tears fall. She glared at the door, body tense and her breathing labored as she tried to push past the pain in the left side of her body.
To try to keep her mind off of her situation, she thought of her fight with Kenta. She inevitably remembered smearing Sonic's blood on her nose and mouth, which brought her to the realization that she could no longer smell it. Licking her lips, she realized that it had been cleaned off of her face. It was most likely an attempt on his part to keep her from gaining strength from her bloodlust. Still, it made her frown and sniff at the air. There were bloody remnants somewhere in the apartment, but not enough blood to help her.
The catgirl's ears twitched again as she heard footsteps echoing out in the hallway beyond the door. Her eyes narrowed upon it and she tensed, anticipating some sort of attack. Instead, when the door opened, the ninja gave her a nonchalant glance before going to put away some groceries.
She watched him move toward the small fridge, glowering with every ounce of hatred she could manage. "Hnn."
"You shouldn't be awake yet." Speed o' Sound Sonic turned to her, a grin began to form on his face. "You look pathetic."
Her lips curled back in a snarl. She lifted her hands and slammed the chain against the floor as loudly as possible. "You think you can keep me here? Hn! Don't turn away from me!"
"You sound like a cornered animal," he taunted. The man had turned away to finish his task and now he looked at her over his shoulder. "Look at you. You're lying in a pool of your own blood and you can barely even move, but you're trying to sound vicious. Like a wounded animal."
To her irritation, he crossed the apartment in an instant and he crouched down. She felt his fingers tangle in her dark violet hair, forcefully lifting her head from the hard floor and making her look at him. Noriko bared her fangs on instinct, her tail starting to move side to side even faster. Her legs weakly kicked at the floor, trying to push herself to get up, but it was futile. The soles of her boots slipped in the blood and she found his grip on her hair being the only thing keeping her up.
"Hn. Just what do you hope to accomplish?" she finally growled.
"I'm using you as bait to lure Saitama here," he answered bluntly. "I'm counting on him coming to save his precious little pet." Sonic's gaze drifted from her face to the wound on her side. He gripped her shirt with both hands and pulled hard, tearing the fabric to expose Noriko's injured back and hip. His nose wrinkled in disgust at the sight and he looked to her face once more. "What happened here?"
"Don't-!" A loud hiss of pain escaped her before she started yowling and screaming in agony. The ninja was peeling away the tape, slowly, his grin growing as he saw her thrash below him. It felt as though he was pulling her skin off rather than just the tape. Each inch of tape that was pulled away gave her a fresh, searing sensation of pain. By the time he was done, tears were running down her pale face and she sobbed. "Hnnn…please! Please stop! Please!"
"Stop meowing. No one is going to hear you." He moved away from her, reaching for the first aid kit.
Noriko glared over her shoulder at him as he opened the box, watching his movements carefully. Her voice was hoarse from screaming and when she spoke, it was in a low growl. "What are you doing?"
"I can't have you bleed out before Saitama gets here." Sonic was threading a needle with some thread and pulled a bottle of something out of the box. He saw her eyes going wide and grinned.
She curled her hands into fists, teeth gritting as she felt the needle's sharp point dip beneath her skin. Her eyes closed tightly as he set about stitching up the longest gash first. It was a meticulous task that seemed to take an eternity. By the time he had finished with the first cut, she was panting and trying to hold back tears.
The pain that Noriko was experiencing could only be compared to torture. She could recall a time back in the Grey Corporation lab when she had been tormented by Kenta. He had been particularly brutal, but she had fought him off to keep herself alive. This was disgustingly similar to that.
Looking down at her side, she saw the tight, neat stitching performed by the ninja. The skin still shone with the antiseptic liquid he had doused it with, the thread of her stitches dark against her pale skin. Her stomach churned and she fell pitifully onto her right side again, curling up in a ball.
Sonic left her lying there and walked off with a towel that was soaked with blood. He ignored the wide-eyed stare that she gave him, not about to offer any sort of words of comfort or explanation. When he returned, he set a bottle of water in front of her on the floor and sat about a foot away, facing the catgirl. "You need to drink something."
"Hnn…like you care…" she murmured, looking away. She growled in irritation as he grabbed her upper arm and dragged her to sit up. Her back was leaned against a wall behind her and her bound hands were put around the bottle of water. Sonic took off the cap for her and glared until she lifted it to her lips. He just opened it. I heard the seal break so I at least know that he didn't poison me.
The catgirl drank greedily, water leaking from the corners of her mouth and dripping onto the front of her tattered shirt. Her left shoulder was throbbing from where Kenta had punctured it, but it seemed as though her side was Sonic's first priority. When she had finished the water, she continued to glare at him, but muttered a word of thanks. "Hn. Does Saitama even know where we are?"
He took the empty bottle and replaced it with fresh water, dropping a wrapped rice ball in front of her along with it. "I'll tell him where he can find his pet tomorrow."
Shift P.O.V
"I'm sorry, but is Noriko here? Emiko-chan tried to call her earlier, but there was no answer. I was supposed to stay with Emiko-chan until she was back and I had to leave after a few hours; there was a gang starting trouble in the shopping district of City Z. I hope it's okay that I brought Emiko-chan with me…"
"Where's Noriko-neechan?"
"Huh? I don't know. I haven't seen her since this morning. Hey, you okay? You look kind of beat up," Saitama spoke.
Genos had been sitting at the table, trying to decide if he could reattach his arm on his own or not. I did not anticipate taking so much damage today and Dr. Kuseno is busy. If I can make the repair on my own, it would be ideal. The blond cyborg looked toward the door and saw the dog girl begin to bark at Saitama. Beside her, Mumen Rider was trying to calm the child down. "Master Saitama, is there a problem?"
"They're looking for Nya-chan. You know where she is?"
He stood to go and investigate the full situation, frowning and holding his severed metal arm. "I have not seen Noriko since this morning before we left. Do you think that she may need help?"
Mumen Rider frowned back at him, a hand resting on Emiko's head to absently rub behind her floppy canine ears. "She came to my rescue earlier. There was this girl with grey hair and a bird monster. The girl shocked me with some kind of electrical attack and Noriko stopped her from going further. She said that she wanted to go to where you two were and I agreed to stay with Emiko at the police station until she came back. You didn't see her?"
"Whoa. Is that blood? Are you sure you're okay?" Saitama spoke up again.
Genos lowered his gaze and saw blood stains on Mumen Rider's hero costume. Focusing on it, he could immediately tell that this was not the man's blood. "The blood belongs to Noriko, correct? Where did she say that she was going?"
"She said she was going to the city where you and Saitama were earlier. She was going to follow the girl with grey hair." The cycling hero shook his head. "The bird monster cut open her side and she lost a lot of blood."
"You have to help Neechan! She's hurt and she tried to fix it, but it was just tape! It was just duct tape! What if Noriko-neechan bleeds to death?!" Emiko shrieked. She grabbed the cyborg's shirt and started pulling, trying to drag him out of the apartment. He gave a simple nod and moved past her.