The blood was stickier than he remembered. But then again, the last time he'd been this bloody, he'd only had blood on his hands and arms, not his hands, arms, face, head and neck.
He'd been gutting a deer then, his first, under the watchful eye of his older brother, he'd only been 17, not a trace of any kind of facial hair on him then. That was 14 years ago now, and his wiry, black/brown beard hung a full 6 inches from his chin, and touched his chest when he bent his head down to look at something. It too was soaked with what was now drying blood.
Robert Bjornstad sat on the curb of the street, his cuffed hands in front of him, his left holding a lit cigar between his index and middle fingers. He was a big man by any description, a full 6 feet tall out of his shoes, and an easy 250lbs, with broad muscular shoulders, and thick strong arms and legs. He kept his dark hair cut short on his head, and sported a number of tattoos on both arms and others covered by his shirt that couldn't readily be seen. His piercing steely blue eyes were set under a strong brow, and along with his full beard, intimidating physical build, and more than a few rune tattoos that were visible on his arms, made him look like a modern Viking, which given the Germanic and Scandinavian heritage on both sides of his family, was appropriate.
He listened as the wails of approaching police, ambulance, and other emergency response vehicles grow louder and shriller as they got closer to his position. He wasn't worried, there wouldn't be any fight from him. The fight was already over, and he wasn't going to run. He was going to own up to what he did, and damn anyone who tried to make him feel guilty about it, sometimes you had to put the good aside, and do the evil that was necessary.
He'd arrived in Japan only 3 days prior, planning on spending the better part of the next 18 months traveling and seeing a culture he'd always found fascinating, as a reward to himself for finally completing 8 whole years of Federal Probation, and being off the leash. The fact that so many liminals had decided to come to Japan in the recent years, had only made the decision easier. Being a lover of both history and mythology, he'd found it fascinating how many "monsters" from ancient stories and myths had actually turned out to be actual beings, and the chance of potentially meeting and making friends with some seemed too good to pass up.
Then he'd walked down the street and heard the screams. A woman and a girl by the sounds of it. He'd run in the direction of the commotion and nearly tripped over the prostrate form of the unconscious police officer lying face down near the front of the alley mouth. About 5 yards in, one massive individual seemed to be in some sort of altercation with another, smaller individual.
The smaller of the two seemed to be a Catgirl or some such type and was pounding at the larger, dark skinned, orange haired, pig faced individual, in a futile attempt to get him to release his hold on a smaller individual, another Catgirl by the looks of it, no more than 12 years or so judging by her size and build. She was crying and tears ran from her eyes and snot from her nose, it was plain to see she was terrified.
"Let go of my baby!" The older cat girl cried before being shoved roughly to the ground sprawling almost prostrate, shaking in fear and hopelessness.
"Not a chance!" the orc snorted "A little morsel like this deserves my fine attention!*snort*"
The little girl sobbed, terrified as the lecherous pig actually began to grope her through her clothes.
Rob stepped over the mother and glared into the orcs face, his own voice barely recognizable from a feral snarl as he said "Put her down". His blue eyes flashed bright, and the bones in his hands could be heard popping and cracking as he balled his fists.
"You can't make me do a damn thing!" the orc snorted again, grinning at him, a look of wicked glee glinting in his tiny eyes as he added "You'll go to prison if you so much as lay a finger on me, thanks to the law, so why don't you just head on back to wherever you came from? *snort*"
Rob remained where he was, quivering with rage now, as he ordered in a louder voice "Put. Her. Down! NOW!" his voice rang of the walls, but the orc seemed unmoved.
"Like I said, you can't lay a finger on me, but I can lay a finger on-" the orc got no farther with his words. Rob had closed the distance and driven the toe of his boot squarely, and as hard as he could into the pudgy bastards' groin. The orc actually squealed like a stuck pig, and dropped the girl, hands going to his crotch as he sunk to his knees.
Grabbing the girl away from the orc, Rob quickly handed her back to her mother, before turning back to the orc who was glaring at him through tear filled eyes, spittle flying from his mouth as he shrieked in impotent rage, "You're f**ked, you idiot! You are so f**ked! When I get a lawyer-" once again his words were cut off, this time as Rob had lifted his foot off the ground, and drove the sole of his left boot squarely into the orcs snout, as if he were kicking in a door.
The fat pigs' back slammed onto the ground, and blood began to pour from his snout, as Rob mounted him, and using his legs and knees to pin the arms down, and began to rain down full powered punches, one after the other, into the face and snout, specifically aiming for the snout, knowing how painful it would be.
He was roaring at the top of his lungs, full blown berserk rage fueling his every move now. "How's it feel!? HOW'S IT FUCKING FEEL!?" he roared as he drove his right fist down and felt the cartilage and underlying bone of the snout crumple and break under his knuckles.
"HOW'S IT FEEL TO BE POWERLESS!?" The next left felt like it crushed the cheek bone.
"HOW'S IT FEEL TO BE A VICTIM!?" The follow up right actually knocked teeth out of the gums.
Rob was punching harder, and harder now with his right arm, using his left to hold down the orc down by his throat, the twitches and squirming beneath him driving his instinctive urge to finish this, end it, to kill this thing.
He suddenly had lost feeling in his right arm and could no longer get it to move below his elbow. Snarling with frustration, he moved farther up, and seizing the collar of the orcs shirt, bellowed with fury, before slamming his head into the orcs, and then did it again, and again, and again, until the orc finally stopped moving.
He rolled off the pig man, panting. His right hand and wrist felt broken. The orcs snout was split down the middle almost to his upper lip, blood poured from his nostrils, out his ears, from the corner of his rapidly swelling eyes, and out of his mouth, he seemed to have lost most of his teeth, and he wasn't moving at all.
Rob looked up to see the girl he had rescued was being held in the arms of her mother, where she sat only a few feet away, backed up as far as she could get from him during his ruthless attack, and both were wide eyed in shock and horror, mouths agape at blood soaked man who had ended up saving them before unleashing a barbaric spectacle of rage and fury. There was an odd look of sorrow and shame on his face, as though the looks on their faces were more wounding to him than anything else could be. Slowly he rose to his feet, and walked over to where the unconscious police officer was still face down on the ground. After checking to make sure he still had a pulse and was breathing, Rob fished the cops handcuffs out of the pouch on his duty belt, and then went and sat down on the side walk.
Fishing around in the back he'd dropped at the mouth of the alley what felt like forever ago now, he pulled out a plastic wrapped, dark chocolate brown colored cigar, and after biting the cap off with his teeth, lit it with a Zippo lighter from his left pocket. After replacing the lighter, he'd stuck the cigar in his mouth, and then cuffed his hands.
He knew he was bound for prison outright, if not deportation home and then prison. He'd just killed a liminal, with his bare hands. Regardless as for his reasons, his life was over now, and he resigned himself to accepting that fate.
The blue smoke drifted up from the end of the cigar, lazily swirling patterns in the air where it was caught in the sunlight briefly, before being blown away by the breeze.
He thought about how it always reminded him of the look of pattern welded steel, or what people now referred to as Damascus steel.
He thought about the breezes that blew through the trees at the edges of the farm fields in upstate New York, where he'd hunted with his older brother all those years ago.
He thought about his one time fiance, her quick wit, how she'd always been able to frustrate him to her great amusement. How wonderful and beautiful she was. How losing her because of his own stupid decisions had hurt him more than anything, solely because he'd seen how much he'd hurt her.
He thought about all the things and people he was never going to see ever again...all the things he would never get to do...this time there was no going back...
Soon the first of the response vehicles finally pulled up next to him, coming to a halt with a slight screech as the tires braked on the asphalt of the road. It had M.O.N. printed in large bold letters on the side.
As the doors open and the passengers and drivers piled out, he looked up to see the faces of those who would most likely be the ones to take him into custody.
((Authors Note: I plan on this being a broad an in depth look of the current-ish Monster Musume Universe through my characters (really my) eyes, as well as a story of redemption, struggle and self-forgiveness. I don't intend to pull punches here, there *_WILL_* be parts of this story I am sure many will not agree with, like and may even flat out hate, but that's okay. Not everyone has t like or agree with my work, just as I do not have to like or agree with the works of everyone else. I hope that maybe through this lens of fantasy and story telling, I may even open a few eyes to different viewpoints and ideas, maybe start a few discussions, possibly even change a couple of opinions for the better, but ultimately, I hope this story is entertaining to all who choose to read it, at least as much so as it is for me to write. Thank you for reading at least this far, and please enjoy the rest! :3 NYAxemaster))