An explanation: Both halves of Higure Koukon's name mean 'dusk' in one manner or the other. I went to two different Japanese-to-English dictionaries and found two different words, so I used them both. (Although, Syaoran-san, I do like the idea of it being similar to a Lolita complex…)
I've drawn a peice of fan art for this fic. It's at: www . media miner . org / fanart / view . php / 182692(Remove the spaces and please remember to leave a note) The picture, though not perverted or hentai, is still a little strong, so be careful, all right?
Warnings: Kidnapping, stalking, and rape all mentioned. Lots of angst, Kouichi-trauma and some physical violence. Kinda gentle, huh?
POV: Kouji Minamoto
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it. Don't sue me, I think I need the money for therapy.
I don't own Digimon or anything related to it. Don't sue me, I think I need the money for therapy.Account of Abduction
Chapter 3: Brother
I should have known something was wrong the moment I saw him.
Kouichi was the one who made me notice him. He and I had been walking together, going to the store on an errand for Mother one night when I stayed over. He started out the way he always does, smiling and laughing and bowing to the neighbors who wouldn't take it as mockery.
When we reached the corner of the street, though, he changed. He'd been smiling at me, listening patiently, when he caught sight of something over my shoulder. His face paled suddenly and his smile disappeared.
I love my brother's smile. We have the same face, but his smile is so much better than mine. Maybe it's because I don't use it enough, but when I smile I'm sure I've never looked so…so sweet and gentle, so kind and almost innocent. I'll be the first to admit: 'sweet' and 'gentle' really just don't get along with me.
So when his smile disappeared, there was a slight warning that rippled through my mind. "What's wrong?"
More worrying. He shrank back, making himself as small as he could, like he was hiding behind me, and put a hand on my sleeve hesitantly. He was still staring straight across the street.
"What is it?" I asked again, perhaps a bit harshly, but I hate it when he does this. If I could change anything about him, the way he hides his problems would be the only thing.
He dropped his eyes down and mumbled. "It's him again…"
I turned and got my first glimpse of that…monster. I know I should have felt something from him, and maybe I did, but something about him made me dismiss him. He didn't look dangerous. He looked even more sickly than nii-san does on his bad days, way too skinny to do much damage. And that hair of his, dangling and still wet, it was…pathetic-looking, really.
The only thing that bothered me at the time were his eyes. There was something…not quite right about them. I couldn't quite place it, but they bothered me. For some reason, they just…bothered me.
But at the time, I just brushed it off. After all, Junpei's eyes bother me, too, in the way finding a spider in the bath bugs me. So I guess I just brushed it off without even thinking.
"Who? That guy?" I nodded to him, frowning. "What's the big deal about him? He's just standing there."
"He's always standing there." Kouichi muttered, not looking at the man with a definite air and pulling me around the corner by my arm. "Every day, to and from school, he's on every other corner. I think…I think he's following me, Kouji."
I glared at the stranger as he vanished, naturally enough. "You know him?"
"No." Kouichi shook his head, straightening slowly. "He just…showed up. Out of nowhere."
I relaxed a bit. "He might just be a new neighbor. Someone who works around here."
"In a pressed suit, Kouji?"
I sighed, shaking my head and letting the conversation drop. We switched to school work, and to Takuya's latest detention-earning escapade. I didn't think about that man again.
A week later, my brother vanished into the rain…
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
You know, for twelve years I never even dreamed I had a brother. It's sort of strange, then, that being without him for a month tore me apart so much.
My father didn't seam to care all that much. He avoided the subject more than anyone else, spending his days in the office and his nights locked away in the computer room. Satome was kinder, as she's always been. She visited our mother almost daily, and did everything she could to comfort her.
Mother needed the comfort. I know she cared about both of us, but Kouichi was her son, the one she'd raised by herself and worked so hard to support. She kept working even after he disappeared, to distract herself, I think.
I was with her the night he came back. It was a weekend, so I was staying with her for the evening. I'd come for dinner, and she always seamed to enjoy that. I slept on the couch. It didn't seam right to stay in…his room. Not with what happened.
Then doorbell rang, which was weird. It was after midnight, almost one. Who in all the hells would be here now?
Mother answered the door, wrapping a light robe around herself before peaking out of the window. I sat up, tense. Mom lives in a not-too-nice neighborhood, and there was no way I would loose her, too.
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Kimura-san. Inspector Kanbara. " I relaxed. The voice checked out against my ears. Takuya's dad. "I'm sorry to bother you this late, ma'am, but I need to speak with you."
"Of course." Mom started undoing the locks. Her hands were shaking. I didn't blame her, really. Kanbara-san was the head of the missing children department at the police station. In other words, he was in charge of looking for Kouichi.
She pulled the robe a bit more tightly around herself before she cracked open the door, keeping the chain on to make sure it was him. "What is it?"
"I have a bit of a surprise for you." Kanbara-san's voice held the same air Takuya's does when he's hiding something exciting.
"I don't quite under-" Mother cut off with a gasp as she opened the door the rest of the way. For a moment I thought she'd been stabbed or shot, the way she stared blankly out the door seconds before she dissolved into tears. She dropped out of my vision suddenly, hidden by the door.
"Mother!" I exclaimed, jumping up. It was only then that I heard what she was sobbing:
"My baby! My sweet, sweet little boy! Oh, thank goodness you're all right, Kouichi-chan!"
And it was him. He had curled slightly into mother's arms, gripping the cloth of her robe as though afraid she'd disappear. He wasn't talking. From the looks of things, I wasn't sure if he could. It made me ache just to see his condition, the bruises running up his arms, his neck, his face…
Everything seamed…unreal. Like a dream. If I got close enough to touch the dream, something whispered, it would disappear before I could reach it. Vanish, into thin air, and leave me here alone again…
"N…Nii-san?" I whispered hesitantly.
Kouichi looked up at me. His eyes…they're my eyes too, you know…were full of tears, not to mention the overhang of confusion and…and joy…
"K-Kouji…" He whimpered, breaking away from Mom. He stumbled a little, just enough for my reaction time to kick in and dive to catch him. His hands gripped my elbows as I steadied him, each standing shakily on our own two feet to look into each other's eyes.
He'd been hurt, that was obvious, and it made my blood boil in rage. A very strong part of me wanted to hunt down the hell-damned bastard who'd done this to him and show the twisted little freak what twelve years of Kendo and Kung-Fu training could retaliate with…but when I suddenly found brother's arms around my neck, his face sagging into my shoulder as he gasped about how much he'd missed me, I was calmed. He was home, he was safe now…
That was enough.
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
He woke up screaming again last night.
"No…No, get away!"
The moment I heard him whimpering, I was awake. I've always been a light sleeper, but now I've trained myself to his voice.
Looking at him, you had to know it was bad. He was struggling with the blankets, gasping for breath, tears starting to trickle down his cheeks as he fought. His head was thrown back against the pillow as he wrestled with his sheets, tying them in knots around his arms.
It's been like this almost every night. The nightmares started the night after he came home, and have gotten worse ever since. At first he couldn't sleep at all, not unless mother was in the room. Now he gets to sleep easier, but the night terrors come again and again. Which is why I moved into a cot beside his bed.
It depresses me somewhat. When I slept over before all of this, we would share a bed. After sleeping out in the cold of the Digital World my brother's body heat became very comforting. But after…everything…having someone next to him in bed sent him into a panic.
But when he starts yelling like that, I don't have a choice.
"Nii-san." I whispered, taking him by the arm and shaking him. "Come on, wake up. It's just a dream. Wake up."
"No!" He began shaking terribly, trying to shake his arm loose. "Stay away! Let me go! No!"
One of his yanks pulled me with him as he tried to scramble away. He was somewhat conscious, I could tell, but he wasn't fully aware yet or he wouldn't be fighting me, flailing and yelling and kicking.
On instinct, I grabbed his other arm and pinned him, trying to keep him from hurting himself. "Nii-san, snap out of it!" I yelled, maybe a bit more harshly than I had to. "Stop- Oof!"
He kicked me squarely in the stomach. I'll tell you this, Kouichi-nii might look sickly and he might act gentle, but when he really means it, he hits hard. As in, 'hard enough to knock me off the bed if I hadn't been anchored down'.
"You're not with him any more! He's not here! It's just me! It's Kouji! Wake up!"
He struggled a moment longer before being reduced to hesitant whimpers. Slowly, his eyes opened to blink up at me tentatively. "K-Kouji…?"
"Yeah, it's me." I sighed and let go, sitting next to him as he sat up. "Are you all right, Nii-san?"
I wasn't really expecting him to throw his arms around me, or to collapse into tears in my lap, but that's exactly what he did. Next thing I know, his face was buried in my stomach, his arms wrapped tightly about my waist, and he was sobbing his head off.
"Nii-san…" I whispered softly, but put my arms around him. He sobbed, gripping my pajamas tightly as he did. A wave of shame washed over me, and part of me realized that it was his…the emotions he couldn't take were siphoning off to me.
"I'm sorry, Kouji." He sniffed, muffled. "I didn't mean to…I don't want to hurt anybody. I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
"You don't have anything to be sorry for!" I snapped, and he winced. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down before I spoke. "It's all right…He's never going to hurt you again, I promise. There's no way he can find you here."
"No…He can…He can find me." Kouichi whimpered, turning his head away and holding my hand tremblingly. "He'll find me again, like he always did. I don't want him to hurt anybody else…"
I took a deep breath. "Kouichi, you're acting crazy." I soothed, running a hand through his hair. Mother told me once that she would do that when he got sick as a child, and it seams to soothe him. "There's no way that…that freak…can find you here. He's locked up, he'll never get near you again…"
"No…Kouji, you don't understand." He looked up at me. For a moment, he looked so…so young. Like an eight-year-old. "He's…He's Duskmon."
…
Well, how was I supposed to react? I just sat there as he went on, explaining everything as my brain tried to process the information. Duskmon? That freak, that 'Higure Koukon' man…was Duskmon? In a human body? It was impossible, it was crazy, it was…
The truth.
Kouichi doesn't lie, and even if he did, I'd be able to tell. We're brothers, after all. Twins. And he wasn't lying now, he wasn't making anything up, and he wasn't hysterical. It was the truth.
But did it really…?
"I…I tried to fight it, Kouji, really I did." He was whimpering again now, a few tears pricking at his eyes. "But he's stronger than he looks, and he knew everything about me, I couldn't get away-"
Automatically, my right hand reached out and placed its pointer finger on his lips, silencing him instantly. He blinked up at me in surprise a while before I'd collected myself enough to speak.
"It doesn't…matter." I finally whispered, taking my hand away and letting it drop back into his lap, grabbing on to his free hand. "It doesn't matter now, nothing does. He won't get away with this, you just wait and see. He won't get out this time. He won't."
For a moment, he looked confused, hesitant. "Kouji…"
"He won't." I stressed, gripping his hand lightly. "And even if he did, he'd never get to you again. Never."
My throat caught, dropping the last words to a soft whisper. "I…I won't let him."
There was a long, slow silence between us. I looked at him, and he looked at me, our eyes adjusting slightly to the combination of darkness and moonlight until his features were etched out as perfectly as a marble statue.
And then he smiled, the same sweet, kind, loving smile I'd been missing for so long.
"Thank you." He whispered softly, and we both went back to bed.
TBC…