Chapter Fourteen

Kevin clutched the wheel; it was raining and his focus onto the road was determined and unshakeable. "Is it up this street?" he asked without shifting his eyes away from the windshield. "It's not yet six and everything's night."

"It's there," Kano tapped the man's left arm with his free hand, with his other hand he pointed across the street. "That's the gate of the Higurashi Temple."

The detective parked the car and faced the medic. "Stay here Shippo and keep this," he gave the fox-demon the cell phone that Inuyasha planted into his pocket. "If he calls tell him what happened."

Kano took the device and asked: "What are you going to do?"

"Case the joint," he answered with a thick American accent. "I'll be all right. You just be all right too." He unzipped his coat and switched his badge from the inside of his shirt to the outside of his jacket. "If you see anything use - well - use whatever you got, OK?"

Kano squeezed Kevin's hand. Kevin kissed Kano's cheek and with a smile that belied fear and terror, he stepped out of the vehicle into the rainstorm.

It was night; the clouds above were pitch black like death while the city below was bright colored as if alive. Yet the area about the temple was dark and shadowy and calm. Too calm. Kev could not help but be nervous as he walked by the streetlamps anticipating disaster with each and every step. He approached the shrine's gate and clutched his gun when he noticed that though one of the doors was shut the other swayed.

Beyond those doors of ancient, Japanese design were steps formed by stones built into the earth. The rocky stairs ascended fifty-feet. With its trees and its shrubbery, there was a great, profound beauty and serenity that neither the action of that storm nor the possibility of that evil was powerful enough to ruin.

He arose one step at a time; past the edge of the head of the stairs glimpses of the temple emerged into view. First the very tops of the buildings. Then their sloped roofs. Then their facades, their windows and doors. Last was the light - rather - the lack of light. That part of the temple into which the gates led contained its public facilities but at night it was closed and it was kept as bleak as the streets.

Passing through the structures that housed the workings of the Shinto rituals, he felt danger lurked within the subtle facets of the setting. There, in the locked doors and boarded windows. There, in the crawlspace between the small, hut-like structures. There, in the web-work of the dead and dying vegetation. The fear was irrational but it was not unfounded. If a good demon whom he loved and trusted could - by powers beyond imagination - turn himself invisible, what, he asked, could an evil demon the likes of Naraku be capable of?

Birds fluttered and furry, red-eyed animals hissed - branches of trees ruffled and unwound brown and decayed vines that swung caught by the wake of a breeze he could hear but he could not feel. The very form and substance of the world suggested the existence of powers dark and malevolent. And he was shaken by that sudden and unexpected revelation. It was evil intertwined into nature.

It dwelt in the vastness of the sky, limits of the earth. Its home was in the rustle of branches, the crackle of underbrush. It existed everywhere, forever even into the smallest parts of it, in the atom, no, smaller.

Into what realm of the universe did Naraku's influence not extend?

As Kevin treaded onward toward the house - and its light - he heard the clatter of leaves crushing underfoot as if an intelligence was revealing itself through the shadows and darkness of the Higurashi temple. It was a cacophony so balanced and so delicate that the very breath of his body drowned the sensation of it. But it was there and he could not bear it any longer. The evil, piercing yet subtle, tainted his sanity while its miasma infected his lungs. And he felt as though he were caught up in the middle of an ageless struggle, transported back into a time when demons were powerful and humans were weak.

At the modern-looking house - that was the Higurashi residence - he looked up and shuddered. A window-mesh at the second floor had been torn and by the lamplight of the chamber he saw the silhouette of the struggle within.

"Damn it!" he shouted - and tried to aim the weapon but the sight was too chaotic and too distant to be safe to fire. "I'm too god damned late!"

Kevin bolted through the door with one, single kick. A scream followed the intrusion: it came from the end of the foyer at the living room. The officer saw the mother and the young, pre-teen boy; the two looked at his badge and his gun and stepped back.

"Stay where you are," he commanded. The female nodded and the male just stood frozen. A cat by the rear of the chamber, half-in and half-out of the darkness arched and hissed but not at Kevin.

"Damn it!" he ran up the stairs - he heard the thrash of the struggle.

Below, inside the living room with the rain and the TV, the sound of the fight could not be heard. But above, as he leapt up the stairs, it was as loud as a crack of thunder. Now - now - he ran like a cartoon figure; he thought he ought to be faster but it was not fast enough. No matter how much he tried he strained. His movements seemed to be unnaturally slow and sluggish - but - he reached the bedroom and kicked the door and pointed the gun within.

"This is Detective Kevin Markus, get away from her!"

"I'm going to destroy him! Zenku will pay for betraying me!"

Inside the room Kagome stood atop the bed and fought against the hands that chocked her neck. She punched and kicked the assailant - and by the chance of the moment she knocked a lamp and plunged the chamber into darkness of night.

"I said get away form her, now!" he shouted - in English - and for a moment, no more and no less, the figure of the killer was startled. It was enough of a distraction that Kev got a clear shot and without shouting again he fired at the assailant.

A scream - and Kagome fell back onto the mattress and staggered away from her would-be murderer.

"Get down!" Kev shouted. The figure, still masked by the night, was not affected by the bullet. "Stay down!" The figure limped toward the detective who again fired - and fired - three, four shots each time pushing the assailant backward into the window. The last bullet actually pushed the stranger through it onto the wet and muddy ground beneath.

Detective Kev froze and gasped. His gun, spent and useless, was placed back into his jacket. It felt unduly hot. He looked at Kagome - she lived - he nodded at the teenager and approached the window, panting and out of breath.

Kagome gasped and crawled toward the door - where her mother and her brother waited - and asked: "Was that the boogey man?"

Kevin faced Kagome and answered: "As a matter of fact, it was."

He stuck his head out of the window and looked -

"I went inside the bathroom and I saw something you need to know."

"I've won, I've won! Hah hah, I've won!"

That voice - it was not male, not female any longer - it was a new and unheard of union, a bone-chilling mixture.

"Kevin-san, there was no one inside."

It was Zenku, naked and bleeding, and it was clear by the expression upon the face that there had been a change - a victory - that extended from the voice to the body for whatever struggle he fought between himself and his demons it was over.

Recovery Room `18' was alive with banter when Detective Kev entered.

It was morning, the sun as bright and the air was cool - the windows, bare and open, let the world outside filter inside the chamber. Though built for six it seemed to be designed for one: its details were minimal - Spartan and utilitarian - all of which escaped notice. Except for its amber-yellow walls that glowed with a radiance not that of a sterile hospital room but that of a warm and cozy bedroom. And there, upon the bed, lay Detective Kenshin while, off by the side, stood Captain Takeshi and Detective Hideki.

His brother, now awake and alert, did not look as beaten-up as he had been told then by the medics. He chuckled to himself - more nervous than amused - thinking that his brother did not look any worse for wear. Yet. It pained Kevin to see Ken infirmed like that with needles pricked into his arm, bandages taped across his chest. And it scared him to know he had been close to death when that mysterious, red-coated `bystander' brought him into the hospital.

"What's the story, huh?" Kev asked. He had stalked into the chamber by the bed and only then had made his appearance known.

"Little brother," Ken smiled, angling his head back onto his pillow.

Kev bowed at Hideki and shook hands with the boss.

"It seems you're the hero of the story, little brother." Ken raised a newspaper, the Nikei Times, that showed a picture of Kev and a mug shot of Zenku, dubbed the `Brother of Kuzen Killer.' Beneath the front-page headline it read: `American Cop Nabs Japanese Serial Killer.'

Kev laughed: "Reading the funny pages again, huh?"

Ken folded up the paper and hit at Kev's arm. "You're famous. Heh heh heh, maybe, now you won't have to be showing your badge all of the time too."

"Doubt it," he confessed, looking down then up; he smiled.

"You're the hero, kid, live with it," the old man patted Kev's shoulder.

And with that - and with another round of bows and handshakes - the detective brothers were left alone.

"How are you doing? I was told you lost a lot of blood," his voice was low and very much concerned.

"I am OK thanks to Inuyasha," he faced the window and added: "you know, the bystander who saved me after the thugs attacked me."

"Oh, yes, of course, Shi - Kano - informed me about that." And he leaned over his brother's ear and asked: "How much did you see, Ken?"

"Enough." Ken faced his brother. "Enough to keep my mouth shut. Hey, um, heh," he looked nervous, even sweaty, "what did Inuyasha tell you about it?"

"Nothing." Kev squeezed Ken's shoulder and patted his cheek with his palm. "We haven't talked since that evening. Hm, Kano and Kaede are back at apartment `H' sifting through the evidence - we think there might have been more victims, big brother, girls that we just haven't found yet." His brother raised an eyebrow and sat aback. "Well, it's over now all of it. I think - I don't know - but I think it's over." Ken smiled; Kev faced the window. "Don't scare me like that again, OK?"

There was a pause, long but not awkward.

"You know, I understand Zenku." He laughed and sat at the edge of the bed. "He was the younger of the twins. But Kuzen was stillborn and - someway, somehow - it must have twisted him knowing that. Knowing that he shared a womb with a corpse. He must have felt utterly and completely alone. And guilty. For being alive and enjoying it. It must have twisted him." Kenshin nodded and gripped Kevin's knee and laughed: "And, this, you understand?"

"Well - of course - not by that experience." He sighed. "Anyway, Zenku doesn't exist anymore. Doubt if he ever, really, did. The ghost of Kuzen was always a strong part, a dominant part, of him. It was there, always forever there. And he told me as much and I should have realized it when he said relationships between twins persisted beyond death. He sold his soul to Naraku and the demon brought her back, alright, in his mind And now, thanks to the devil, Zenku doesn't inhabit that body, Kuzen - the idea of Kuzen - inhabits that body. I guess for Zenku it was too much to be alone, huh?" He smiled, looking from the window to his brother. "I would have been alone in this world if I lost you, Kenshin."

"You won't lose me, huh, didn't I promise?" Ken `keh'-ed and crossed his arms behind his head. "Where would I go, huh, what would I do?"

And then the cell phone in Kev's jacket rung - he reached into his pocket and removed it -

"Hm, the nurse found a cell phone just like that in my pocket," Ken said.

Kev nodded and stood, answering the call.

"Inuyasha?" he asked through whisper.

"I should've killed Zenku," a gruff, animal-like voice answered. "He knows where she lives now Detective."

Kev looked at the side, at the newspaper, where it talked about Kagome Higurashi - the so-called `Brother of Kuzen Killer's would-be victim - and how she had been saved by the `American Cop.' Was it not obvious? Was it not possible, then, that he could have saved her and doomed her? He shut his eyes and bowed his head - why did he think it would have been over?

"He knows everything," he agreed. "You think he'll try again?"

There was a pause - followed by the rattle of a figure reclining against a chair.

"Yes." It was Inuyasha's chair and it was Inuyasha's figure that sunk into it. "He will not stop."

"What happens now - with Naraku - I mean?" Kevin asked as he walked from the side of the bed to the side of the window. Tokyo looked normal and it reassured him that everything would be normal too. But more and more, with each and every heartbeat, normalcy faded into uncertainty as though he were headed into unfinished territory.

The half-demon turned off the TV - he smelled Ramen - Mrs. Higurashi inside the kitchen cooked it for him.

"With Naraku? Never can tell. What that spider's plotting will not be what we expect. Keep your eyes open, Detective Markus, he knows about you, too, and your brother. He's everywhere and wherever there is evil he lives. Keep your eyes and your ears open, I will be calling you from time to time."

"Wait - but -"

The half-demon hung up in the middle of Kevin's reply.

With his Tetsaiga about his shoulder, Inuyasha arose and approached the rear, glass doors of the house. Beyond them, across the pavement and the garden, was the tree. He heard its branches sway, saw its leaves fall - and the fruits of its crimson blossoms scattered upon the earth.

He opened the doors and entered into the world. For the first time in a long time with his ears uncovered and exposed. Under the light of the sun the cool, autumnal breeze fluttered his hair and swept his face.

Inuyasha brushed the white hair away from the electric eyes that stared into the tree and betrayed the sadness -

And as the scent of Naraku invaded the air he knew it was not the ending but the beginning....

END