Blue Kitsune: I like to dedicate this chapter to all my fans who have been waiting patiently for me to update and also for lin4anime4life for her wonderful fanarts that I will try and have post for everyone to see. Please read and review!
Tea: Blue Kitsune does not own Yu-gi-oh or Nightwalkers. So don't sue her with this story and just review and whatever
Chapter 17: Mother & Son
It was a nice morning when a girl of ten was running outside of her apartment, getting ready to head for her school, "See you later mom!"
"Manami! You forgot your gym clothes." Her mother call as she went to catch up with her daughter, trying to grab her attention before she left without her things. She found her standing right by the stairway, looking up to the ceiling.
"Manami? Honey what is it?" Her daughter pointed and she looked up and to her horror saw what it was.
A dead cat mangled and hanging from a light bulb, limps dangling and blood staining the ground underneath, the smell of the corpse coming to them.
She did the only thing she could and screamed...
The sky had turn cloudy like the weatherman forecast and had begun to rain, lightly but which made them bring out the umbrella when they had been certain it would. Serenity and Mokuba had gone out to head for the market down the street to pick up a few things and was only a short walk ten-fifteen minutes tops. Everyone was at the mansion, Yayoi wanting to talk about an important assignment that the N.O.S. brought up and Mokuba wanted to get some fresh air even though Seto would have insist for the servants to but Serenity volunteer to come along and they allowed them to, probably too busy thinking what Yayoi had for them. Now here they were, standing under the umbrella Serenity brought with them and talking for a while.
"So what do you think about all this? I mean you and I and some of the others aren't well you know..." He said and she thought what he was implying.
Were they just in the way because they barely did anything? It might have seem so because even though her brother and Yugi, her boyfriend had capabilities to sense the breeds and Mokuba's brother was a vampire-in-training with Tea and well some of the others had millennium items that could help out in more ways than one.
"Well we are helping in a way you see." He look to her like she grown an extra head, "Name one thing we did?" She bit her lip, trying to think, "Well we're doing all we can. We're getting the groceries and keeping an eye out for any suspicious characters that might be a breed right…" That didn't seem to be any importance and she stopped and saw they were down in a playground. "I think we better turn back now, we headed the wrong way." She was about to grab his hand but Mokuba was staring off before them.
"Serenity over there! Look!" And she turn and following the direction where he was pointing and saw standing by a bench, was a little boy with a yellow umbrella set aside staring down at something. They walked over to him.
"Hey don't you know you'll catch a cold if you stay out here like this." The kid turned, startled to see them standing behind and towering over him. Serenity crouched down to see what was it that caught him to barely pay attention to the rain. "What's that you got there?" And saw a little kitten was inside the wet box, its fur matted down and mewing.
"Ah you poor thing." She grabbed it in her arms and cuddled it, not minding that it was wetting her shirt, trying to search for warmth. The boy watched her closely. "I found it here all alone, I didn't want to leave it to die, all wet and cold."
"Then why don't you ask your folks if you could take care of it?" Mokuba suggested. They both saw the boy with fear written in his eyes. "I can never do that! My mama gets really mad when I bring an animal in. And when she gets mad, she's like a different person..." Serenity held the kitten close in one hand and then looked to him, wondering why that and thought there might be a reason behind it. "Where do you live?"
"In an apartment." The little boy answered and she nodded, thinking that must've been it, knowing places had obligations with owners and pets. "I see. Maybe that's why your mom doesn't want you to have a pet. Maybe it's against the rules."
Mokuba tried to cheer up the boy by saying, "Hey listen, why don't we take care of it for you and then bring it back in a week. We'll take turn caring for it." He stared at him, a hopeful look in his eyes. "You will?" They nodded at him. "Great! My name's Shinji."
He said. Serenity smiled. "I'm Serenity Wheeler and this is Mokuba Kai—"
"Shinji!"
All eyes turned to see a woman coming towards them and Shinji backing away slightly, "Ma-Mama..."
She walked over and glared down at her son. "I'm hoping you weren't thinking of bringing that animal home were you?"
He shook his head. "No mama. I just saw it cold and I felt sorry for it and.…" He extended his hand out towards the kitten.
"Don't you dare touch it!" His mother said, slapping his hand away and grabbing him on the shoulder. "I wasn't going to touch it mama. I swear I wasn't going to..." Serenity saw enough and hand the kitten to Mokuba and went to go talk to her.
"Excuse me, but I don't see any trouble with petting an animal?" The woman glared at her and she felt like she had been touched over by ice pricks on her skin. The woman's gaze held such coldness as she said harshly, "I don't see you having any business in this miss. So go and run along home. And take that mangy fleabag with you!" She grabbed her son's arm and started to drag him away. "Come on let's get you out of these wet clothes." Serenity and Mokuba saw the boy looked tearfully at his mother and said, "Mama you're hurting me." And left, leaving both Mokuba and Serenity to feel sorry for the poor boy.
Tea, Kaiba and the rest of the gang were sitting in the living room, having coffee or in other's case blood mixed with their drink and were learning of their new recent case.
Photos of dead animals found gutted and removed of their entrails were scattered on the table as Yayoi explain what happened. "…Seems like they not being throw there on purpose. More for show."
"Like a display." Mai picked up one and grimacing at the grimy death shot. She dropped it and looked away, her face turning a little green at the thought. Yami and the others were looking at this too.
"Are you sure this is the work of a breed?" Bakura asked, "Most people would think it some kind of satanic cult because I know back when people believe in the Gods, invoking favors or blessing from the divined ones, they would make sacrifices of live animals or human beings by removing their internal organs and—"
"That's a little too much information. WAY TOO MUCH THANK YOU!" Yugi and Ryou said at the same time, covering their ears not wanting to hear anymore of what he had to say. Bakura glared at them for interrupting him and Yayoi who shook her head and grab one off the table and indicated inside the photo.
"The pieces are being clawed right out and eaten and I doubt no sane human could go and do something like this, even if it's possible but I have doubts that. This is definitely more like a breed's doing." She looked to Tea who had not said anything, not one word since the beginning and had been silent throughout the discussion but knew she had listen to everything that was said, taking it in and digesting slowly about this case. "So what do you think? I like to hear what you might have to say."
Tea didn't have to turn to speak as she set her glass down on the table and entwine her fingers in front of her face. "I not sure if I should even consider doing this particular assignment." Yayoi and the others looked surprised and were caught off guard by her bland response.
"You sure Tea, I mean after all, it's not like you have much of a choice. What about your benefit , I know you wouldn't want to see them not taken…" She lowered her choker but Tea didn't seem so much as bat an eyelash at it.
This is very odd, Yayoi thought, I never seen Tea acted like this and I practically known her half my life. It must have to do with this case or something else which I'm not sure why? Perhaps she didn't but she wasn't going to stop and asked what was bugging her now, not when they had a case to be dealing with. "Tea whether you like it or not, you don't have any choice. The N.O.S. has already confirmed you as a part of this, miss expert hunter..."
Tea shrugged her shoulder, barely with any enthusiasm. "No choice at all…" She looked over at the pictures again and picked one up.
"The work of a low level breed who eats animals and attaches itself to human-animal instinct, kill or be killed, if I ever saw one." The door opened and everyone turn to see Mokuba and Serenity coming in the room, with them a load of groceries in their arms.
"Hey you guys, sorry we took so long. What's with the long faces—" Serenity was saying when suddenly the kitten jumped out of one of the bags and plopped down to the ground. Joey jumped back with a start.
"What the hell, Serenity you know I'm allergic to cats remember." And if to prove his point, he sneezed every second. Guni came flying in the room and saw what was happening.
"What's the commotion about? And why is there a cat here and Joey sneezing?" Serenity picked up the kitten and started to pet it on the head.
"We met a little boy who found it by the playground, and we told him we would watch it for him until later." Mokuba explained, then saw the pictures on the table and went to them. "Eww, gross! Who could do such a—huh?" He picked up one that caught his eye and went over to Serenity, holding it for her to see.
"Hey isn't this the apartment where the playground is." He handed her the pictures and exchange hands for the kitten while she look at it. She studied and then nodded, "You're right Mokuba. Is there a case happening there?"
"I'm afraid there is, so would you guys mind showing us where the place is?" Yayoi asked. Both nodded. This was going to be an exciting case for them after all.
The rain had let up as they arrive at the simple complex. Kaiba was still seeing Tea was on edge about this.
Was there something she was afraid of to let him or the others know about? He let this bothered him before he saw a small kid running up to them.
"Hey, Shinji!" Mokuba waved over as he approached them. The boy was surprised to see all of them at once. "These are our friends and our brothers, Seto and Joey." Shinji nervously said hello to them then saw Serenity with the kitten in her arms, his anxious attitude disappear and a smile appeared on his face.
"You brought the kitty." She nodded, "And she's all taken care of." She gave the kitten to him and watched as he started to pet it and listen to it purr. Some watched, others like Yayoi, Tea and Kaiba stared right at the apartment ahead.
"Hey, do you live in that apartment, right over behind this playground?" Joey asked pointing to the building itself. Shinji looked up and said, "Uh huh. Me and my mama lived there after dad left." He then looked at Serenity. "Hey can I keep her tonight, I promise to hide it from my mama." She said ok and everybody watched as he and the kitty headed back to the apartment.
Mokuba said, "You know it's hard to understand why people would hate animals so much. I mean no offense or anything but Serenity remember when Shinji's mom went all of a sudden berserk when he was about to touch the cat?"
The others regard one another, listening to what they've said. Shinji's mom not liking animals... went berserk over her son trying to pet a cat? Could she really hate them so much to even kill them?
Suddenly they heard a scream down the alley, which brought them to their attention. They raced fast to see a group gathering around an alley. They saw many people pushing and crowding, but only one person that Mokuba and Serenity recognized as she made her way through.
Shinji's mother, what was she doing there? They all pushed through as they came to see what was lying there. A dog torn to bit and most of its organs eaten. They heard somebody threw up and it turned out to be Mokuba who had lost his food on the pavement.
I know how you feel kid, everyone thought. Tea turn slightly back to where she saw that woman head off to. Now she knew something was definitely up and had to involve her.
Everyone was walking away from the scene, for everyone's sakes. "Oh man, that was really disgusting! I think I might have lost my lunch if we didn't leave." Joey said, his face set and pale. He looked over at Malik and Ishizu. "Your tan seem to have lost a lot of color." They ignored him and him scratching his head thinking, "So did anyone else thought that woman was strange beside me?" Yugi nodded. "Yeah she had this look in her eyes, not human at all but..."
"More like she was possessed of a demon." Tea looked at them, listening in on what they had to say as he nodded.
"Yeah she was scary. Who was she?"
"She's Shinji's mother." Serenity said. Tristan raised an eyebrow. "The animal hater?"
Bakura and Marik stared at one another. "Definitely sounds like a suspect."
"She's very scary and you did say she hated animals, so she has an appetite for animal—"
"Stop it! Don't say that." Mokuba cried. "Even if she is, that kitten's going to be in trouble."
Malik snorted and stuff his pockets into his jeans. "Well at least we'll have some bait as to know whether it's a breed or not." Ryou glared at him. Yayoi shrugged. "A small sacrifice to pay to help save others." She tried to reassure Mokuba and Serenity, but they ran off towards the complex. Let's hope we can save the cat before she finds it, they thought when the others pursued after them.
Shinji's mother arrived back at the apartment. She had closed the door and was pasting her son's room when she heard an animal mewing. She opened his door and saw him holding a box with a kitten inside.
"Shinji!" She yelled. Shinji looked up startled at his mother. "Mama-please, don't I have no animal in here!" He tried to hide the box behind him but she pushed him aside and grabbed it out of his hand. She carried in one arm and ran out of the room as the boy rushed to her and cried, "Please don't hurt it!" But the door was slammed into his face instantly.
Mokuba and Serenity reached the apartment building when they saw Shinji's mother running out, carrying a box. With the kitten!
"Oh my God we have to stop her!" Mokuba cried as he went after the woman with Serenity following behind. They chased after her, going by the dark alleys and then onto a vacant knoll where in front stood the lake and the woman standing there, staring at it.
"Hey lady! Where's the kitten?" Serenity cried asking her. The woman didn't turn or say anything. Mokuba walked forward and grabbed the lady's arm.
"Hello. Answer us!" The lady dropped the kitten out of her arms and the kitten ran away in the opposite direction. Mokuba looked up at the woman, saw her staring zombie-like and then started to walk away. When she was passing Serenity, she stopped and looked right at her. "You wouldn't understand." She said and left, leaving the both of them baffled and confused. "Huh what did that woman mean we wouldn't understand? What do you think she meant by that?" Mokuba asked as he then saw the rest of the group heading towards them. "To tell the truth Mokuba I have as much no idea as do you." Serenity said.
The next day in the afternoon, Mokuba and Serenity decided to pay Shinji a visit. He was sitting on a bench staring at the ground underneath his feet. "Hey!" Mokuba cried and Shinji lifted his head to look at them. He smiled but it was only on a fake impulse for them. Serenity and Mokuba took a seat beside him on the bench.
"You all right?" Serenity asked. Shinji shook his head. "The kitten's gone."
"Ah don't worry, it's a tough little fighter, I'm sure it's going to make it on his own just fine." Mokuba said, trying to cheer him up. A lost attempt as Shinji stared right down at his shoes. Then Serenity patted his shoulder. "Shinji I have a question about your mother?" He lifted his head up. "Why does your mother hate animals so much?"
Shinji shrugged his shoulders weakly, "I don't know why. But my mama hates animals and the animals I bring home well..."
"The animals you brought home?" Mokuba asked, now this was getting somewhere. If the animals that Shinji brought home and his mother hated animals, then that could mean...
"The animals I bring... always end up dead the next day when my mama takes them."
Shinji jumped off the bench and then looked at them. "But my mama wouldn't do something like this! At least...I don't think so..." He was lost at words as he started to walk home and Serenity and Mokuba headed to the mansion to tell the others what they've learned.
Later that evening, Shinji's mother looked into her son's room. Seeing her little boy asleep, she closed the door silently and held the box tightly cradled in her arm as she walked out of the apartment room and headed down the stairs. She thought that no one was out on the stairs until she saw a group of teenagers, two she recognized before, the redhead and the little boy and one woman standing there, blocking her.
Shinji's mother gasped, how could they known, no, oh God no! Startled she dropped the box, the containment dropped out. Serenity and Mokuba turned their heads away in disgusted as they saw the animal carcass inside. The rest of the gang moved forward, forcing the lady to be back up against the wall. Yayoi pulled out her gun and aimed it at her.
"Yayoi wait a minute!" Mokuba rushed over towards her. "You can't just shot her. Think of Shinji he'll be without a mother."
"At least he'll be better off somewhere else than with the likes of this creature of darkness, eating the carcasses of animals." Yayoi told him.
"Maybe it would be better to just send the woman to the shadow realm." Marik whispered to Bakura loudly for the lady to hear.
"Oh good idea, she'll at least have plenty company of her kind to hang with in the shadows." Yami glared at the two and just as he was about to say something, Kaiba walked over to Yayoi and pushed her gun down. "Kaiba what are you--" But he didn't pay any attention to them as he turn to look at Tea.
"It's inside isn't it?" Tea nodded then walked over to the door to where Shinji and his mother lived. The woman panicked. "No stop! Please there's no one there! Don't!" Tea paid no heed to her as she and Kaiba entered the quiet room and then headed to one of the doors down the hallway. "Please don't, my son!" But Tea already opened the door and there everyone saw it.
Sitting on the floor, unaware of the people staring at him, he continued to feast on his meal as Mokuba and Serenity entered last and saw the breed.
The breed…Shinji.
"No it can't be...Shinji!" They couldn't believe it. There was Shinji, the little boy was the breed itself and he was eating the flesh of one.
The breed turned and stared at them with red glowering eyes. Joey and Yugi gasped as the others started to back away and only Tea, Seto, Mokuba, Serenity and the mother of this breed stayed in full circle around it. The woman looked at them and said in a startled voice. "What-what are you doing?"
She watched as the two vampires bit their fingers and produced blood swords. She gasped and then stepped in front of them. "Please don't! He's my son, my son, my little Shinji—"
"He's not your son anymore. Your son's already dead." Tea stated for her to hear clearly, staring at the abomination. Everyone gaped at her.
"Dead!" Serenity cried out, shocked to hear this sort of news. The woman shook her head and ran to the little boy.
"That's not true!" She wrapped her arms around the breed and stared up at them. "Sure, I thought at first...I lost him but he came back, he came back to me. The doctors had been wronged when he said the disease killed him but he's alive. He's alive and well!"
She hugged the child closer and everyone stared at the woman like she had gone nuts. Kaiba felt certain that during the time when her child died, the breed took the chance to take over, making her believe her son survived and recovered in good health when all this time a breed had been inside her son's body the moment he passed on.
"But what about the animals he killed! Surely that was a clue your son wasn't who he was anymore, that he's not human. He's not your child!" Kaiba said, noting the woman continued to not listen to one word, shaking her head, "No you're wrong, he would never do that. He's just a child and doesn't deserve to be killed!"
"That breed kills God's creatures for Heaven sake for it's own life. Kill or be killed! That's not living, it's Hell!" Tea cried, wanting to slap some sense into this hysterical woman, to wake her to reality to see the truth but all was in vain and she had no other choice. She and Kaiba rushed forward with their swords raised, aimed directly for the breed.
"No!" The woman cried out but the breed left her arms and darted across the room. Tea went after it to one side where it dodge and headed to the top of the drawers. Kaiba slashed over at it but the breed quickly jumped out of his way. The breed continued to dodge their attacks until it slipped and fell into a corner and Tea and Kaiba rush in and block his escape. Cornered and trapped with nowhere to go, Kaiba and Tea went over towards it. Tea lifted her sword and went to plunge it deep into the breed's heart when—
"Stop!" Shinji's mother cried, grabbing the tip of Tea's sword, holding on with shaking hands as Tea stared at her in disbelief and anger written on her face, gold eyes blazing. Blood dripped from the woman's hand as she continued to manage a firm grip on Tea's sword, refusing to let go even if it had to skewer through her first to get to her son.
"Get out of the way." Tea growled, not wanting to harm this insane woman who was preventing her from doing what she came here to do, "This breed, this thing is not your child. He's a monster! A beast. A nightbreed!" She went to convince her, to open her eyes to the truth, "He kills and eats the flesh off living creature, is that the kind of life you would want for this—" But the woman refuse to heed anymore what she said as she said in a voice near breaking with tears running down her face.
"No he's not." She let go of the sword and went to the little boy, cradling him in her arms. The breed went to her gently and started to lick the cuts on her palms. "You see, he's my little boy...see that mole, he had that when he was born. And that scar when he was two and hit himself on the coffee table, and this…and this..." The woman ranted on as she continued to hold the breed in her arms. She then looked up at them, her eyes with a mysterious glaze in her depth. "I can't live without him and he is my son no matter what..."
They made it out of there as they walked down the street in a small pack tight group, ready to head on home while Yayoi had to go make the report to the N.O.S.
"You know HQs is not going to be too happy hearing this case not solve and that we are letting this one go." Yayoi said as she and the gang left the apartment. Everyone was too lost in their own thoughts as to hear what Yayoi said. Yugi and Joey were as much confused as how their six senses had failed them.
How could they have not know?! How had it been able to keep from sensing that the breed was in Shinji all along? Kaiba wondered too, had the breed been able to hide his presence that easily or was it due to now his vampirism sense that made him realized it all too late. He turned to see Tea staring up ahead at the others walking away from them. Somehow she knew all along and didn't say anything about it.
"You knew, didn't you?" Tea turned and stared at him. She didn't speak but in her eyes, he saw the truth. "Why didn't you say something about this?"
She sighed, "Seto, does it really matter. The way that woman lost her child and believing he live by a miracle was something I knew that would one day come to past and I would have to make a decision of either a killing of a simple breed or both the mother and child. A breed that had been fostered and cared by a person is harder then when it's been alone and has no one to look after it. No family or friends. No one to give it love or affection. That mother would have been willing to die for her child, even if it's soul's gone and a breed in his stead. That's what happens. The love of the mother is more to fear than that of the breed."
She grabbed Kaiba's hand, gripping it tight and walked with him to the others, her words repeating in his head. To never been love or cared for, the breed would have surely been born in darkness for the rest of its eternal existence if it were not for a mother who saw and raised it as its child.