The Dream Shifter

Chapter 110

Chiharu walked bare foot down the hardwood floors to the underground level of the mansion. It was in this floor that they kept most of the things for their trade. Her purpose was not for equipment as she firmly stepped through the hall with a cross expression. The weight of her family was on her shoulders and her grandfather's death still fresh in her mind.

In front of her was a large metal door that waited for her to put in her code on the keypad to the right. Her fingers played across the screen quickly inputting the code followed by an acknowledging beep from the computer before the heavy door slid open. Inside, the room was well lit and lined with cupboards and cabinets that housed a different sort of tools of trade. This was the examination room meant for investigation into technology and biological matters. The sterile metal polish table on the right held one of the bodies from the men that they brought back. His companions were set on the other tables further back.

Standing next to the n***d corpse was Tamotsu. He tilted his head over to the sound of Chiharu's entrance. "Good afternoon, Lady Chiharu."

"Tamotsu…" She barely came up to the examination table that she approached. Her gray eyes traced the figure of the man drawing up images from the night she tried to kill him. Chiharu blinked once and turned her head up towards her guardian. "You've had five days. What can you tell me?"

"Yes, my Lady," Tamotsu walked around the table and pulled out a computer tablet. He ran his finger across the screen bringing up the information. "They had no immediate identification on them. Which indicates these were professional assassins. However, because there were three it meant that they were in a group so it was unlikely that they were hired. Of the known three man teams in the world none of these fit their description." He flipped through more data pausing for a moment.

Chiharu walked around the table crossing her arms. "You said no immediate identification. That means you've found identification?"

"Yes, that is correct. After I exhausted my sources through hired channels I changed my search. As you know the Chinen Clan has a specific fighting style and training methods. Someone knowledgeable enough would be able to determine that from just examining either our fighting or our bodies. As such other groups have their own distinctions as well. It took some time but I was able to identify through their body's scars and definition that they are from the Higoshi Clan."

"…the Higoshi Clan…" Chiharu carefully said measuring out her voice to keep the anger from being caught. She was less successful in hiding it in her shaking arms and tensed hands. "One of the three main families…they've always clashed with us and now in our weakened state they choose to attack. They'll learn that it was a costly mistake to attack my family." She marched out of the room with Tamotsu chasing her down.

"My Lady! Where are you going?"

She turned around in her paused step causing her short hair to spin out rising in anger. Her eyes were fiercely glowing from the restrained emotions. "I'm going to plan a counterattack!"

"…sister…" whispered Fumiko to herself. She had been staring at the picture on her table next to her bed for the last couple of hours. Since school was canceled she was feeling lost with no direction during the time that she normally was sitting in class listening to a lesson.

There was more weighing on her mind than having no direction. She had come to accept what she had seen from Yuki when he saved her life from the woman that attacked her. It seemed impossible, but she had found herself taking it in quickly. Then when he saved her again there was something different about him. He had seemed so hesitant before and uncertain. She wanted to know what had happened to him. The return to nature outside had barely even fazed her after the initial reaction that she had. It worried her more how easy it was for her to accept the new reality.

Her parents were having more difficulty adjusting. They could not use the car and no buses were running either and the train could not because there were no more tracks. The entire transportation system was destroyed and they were suddenly forced to walk or pull out their old dusty bikes. It had left them going in circles at the dinner table while she remained in her room.

Fumiko sighed before she finally lifted herself up from her a bed. Her dark brown hair cascaded down around her shoulders and face hanging free. "I've got to do something…but what…" She looked over at her bookshelf that was unruly organized with countless books. "The library's closed today and I've already finished all of the books…" The early morning and last night had been spent reading through her stack of books. She had nothing to do so it made it easy for her to burn through them all quickly. Unfortunately, her motivation to re-read one of them was not in her.

She leaned over to the bedside table and grabbed her hair brush. While she tried to think of something to do she slowly cleaned up her hair. "…nothing's coming to me… It's been a while since I've been this lost…" Her mind had still been partially on her sister causing her to briefly flashback through memories. "…Kimiko…"

Fumiko stood up from her bed, still brushing her hair, walking towards the window. The view of her neighborhood was no different than anywhere else in the town. Trees grew in the street side by side with tall grass and plants. There was a strange looking tree attached to their neighbor's house that melded with the corner and bent over the roof to expand out to cover the entire lot as though it was providing an umbrella for the family. "Was this all in Yuki's mind?"

At the last moment before she turned away she saw a young girl no more than twelve running through the tall grass almost buried by the height. There was a panicked look in her body that made Fumiko return to the window. A moment later there was a dark shadow that leapt out after the girl barely missing her. "She's being attacked! I need to help her!"

Fumiko ran through the house quickly with the image of the girl still burned in her mind. The panic in her body was pounding at her heart enough to make it burst. 'What was that? Was that an animal?' Some many questions ran through her mind as she passed through her house, leaving her parents distractedly puzzled by their daughter's actions.

She did not bother closing the door as she turned wide to make it in the direction of the young girl. Once Fumiko made it in view she could see that the girl was still running screaming to anyone that might hear her, unfortunately everyone was ignoring her pleas too afraid to do anything themselves. Behind the girl was a blurred brown-gray mass that did not look like anything that Fumiko had ever seen before. It was significantly larger than the girl and ran on four legs; luck was the only thing that was saving the girl from the creature. 'Is that another one of Yuki's creations in this world?'

The creature had let out a deep roar that seemed to momentarily paralyze the little girl causing her to trip in her fleeing. Fumiko was still too far away from the two being forced to watch as the girl was cornered by the predator. While Fumiko was tall and had long legs she was hardly athletic, a fact that she was cursing now. 'I'm too far away still! I won't make it!' A roar was drowned out by a shrieking when claws from the animal ripped across the girl tearing into flesh and clothes. "Stop it!" Fumiko looked around quickly, still running, to find a palm sized stone in the tall grass. She picked it up and threw it at the animal without thinking about the consequences.

There was dull thud at the stone hit the back of the animal and bounced off almost unaffected by the weight. The animal turned its head a little trying to figure out what had happened. It had bought Fumiko enough time to finish the distance and slid around in front putting her back to the beast. "You're safe now," she said softly.

The little girl coughed briefly still trying to adjust to the new situation. "Who are you?" she asked looking up towards Fumiko.

"You can just think of me as a Big Sister!" Fumiko declared as she spun around narrowing her eyes in determination to stand against the beast that was nearly as tall as she.

Her brave words only confused the girl further as she tried to collect herself through all of the pain that she was feeling. The girl crawled away on her back pushing with her legs through the grass away from Fumiko. A foul odor breathed out from the mouth of animal like a fine mist of tendrils wrapping around the legs of Fumiko searching her out guided by the smell of fear. "Pl-Ple-Please…"

"It'll be alright," Fumiko said reassuring the girl while keeping her eyes focused forward. She sounded confident of what she was saying, but it was just a carefully worded phrase. There had been many times that she had come to the aid of others saying the same thing. They were almost a reflexive action for her. Yet she could feel the uncontrollable terror creeping through his skin turning her blood to ice. The thing before her was something that she could only imagine, and that scared her. The unknown was real and anything was possible now. This was not a simple bully or guy coming on too heavy; she was facing monster with pure carnal desires breathing down her merely held back by whim.

The four legged beast pawed its fore legs at the ground throwing back grass. Its brown short fur that covered the entire body was interspersed with thick gray hair like strains that grew along its spine undulating about with a mind of their own. The first pair of eyes was set in front of the face while a second pair were at the side all focused on Fumiko. A quick sniffing of the air by its wide and elongated nose looked for the fear that she was trying to conceal. The head of the animal was larger than her half of her body with a mouth that looked like it could snap her in two with only one bite. Several large fangs, three times thicker than her even her thumb, in the front were pushed out and exposed giving a clue to what the rest of the mouth would look like.

Fumiko slid a foot back as the seconds ticked away for her. She felt cornered knowing that she could not run and could not fight with nothing but her fists. Unfortunately, time had run out as the creature ceased its hesitation and lashed out with heavy paw, claws already extended. She had only moments to react; moving on instinct she turned away from attack trying to get into the grass. Her waist took most of the claws dragging through her blouse and flesh quickly turning the blue cloth reddish violet. Fumiko let out short yelp trying to hide the pain so she could move to protect the little girl that had become frozen again.

The child stared up at her pleading with her eyes. She could only scream through her hands that muffled her mouth when she saw Fumiko's twisted face from the second swipe against her that ran across her back. Fumiko forced her eyes to focus on the girl already quickly becoming overcome by the pain. 'I wish Yuki was here…he would be able to do something about this…' The girl suddenly stretched out her hands towards Fumiko worried by the look on her face. It snapped her mind back narrowing on the problem before her. 'No! I'm here and I have to do something!'

"Can you run?" asked Fumiko as determination returned back to her face pushing away the fear. The little girl gave her a quick nod with uncertainty. "Good… When I say to, start running to the nearest house…" She kept her eyes on the child trying to keep her from getting scared as the time slowly passed. Behind her she could feel at the edge of her the animal getting closer preparing once more.

The next strike for Fumiko came and pulled herself down into the dirt to avoid it. Missing surprised the beast for only a moment, but Fumiko was already turning around with a thick clump of dirt and grass in her left hand. She tossed the clump at the face of the animal, which was already very close to her. "Run!" The animal let out an annoyed roar having caught a lot of the dirt in the eyes making it lash out all around it quickly. Fumiko was hit by the back of the fore leg in the wild swings knocking her through the grass.

The girl had stopped in her steps hearing Fumiko being struck. "Big Sister!" the girl screamed running back towards Fumiko.