Chapter 9: The Conflict

 

Until the hot water ran out and I was hit with frigid cold water, I stayed in the shower. The temperature didn’t bother me as much as it would to mull over my thoughts. It was a nice distraction that made me blissfully numb.

But, with a twist and turn, I shut off the water and ended my relaxing session. Once I pulled the curtains back to step out, I knew just by looking around the bathroom alone that this house would queue up a loop of thoughts to a past that wasn’t mine.

Because of that, my yellow cat-eyed gaze was on the floor when I walked bare and dripping to the door. Opening it up, I first saw the wet footprints I’d made on my way to the bathroom. But they were accompanied with wet prints not of my making. I could tell because the footprints were larger than mine.

Blinking in confusion, I quickly darted my head out of the doorway to look down the hall. When I searched in the other direction, I found myself staring straight up at Hideki and he was looking right back at me.

Immediately, I shut the door and through the door, I practically screamed: “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?”

For a second, he coughed. I supposed I’d caused him to choke at the sight he must’ve had of me with nothing on. Then he replied, “You left your shoes outside, so I set them on the mat by the door.”

Not screaming, but toned down a little, I yelled: “Why didn’t you knock!?”

“I did. You didn’t answer. I came in.” There was a pause as I processed this. “You’re not his sister, are you?”

That startled me, “What? You know who I am.”

“Hitomi. That was her name and I also saw the photo of Hitoshi and their father in a group photo. There are quite a few family photos in here, but none with you in it.” I cringed at hearing that and looked behind me for a way out of here. Some way to escape.

...Escape naked? No.

With no way out but the one I’d entered through, I loudly pleaded: “Please leave!”

After my plea, there was only a silence. I waited, listening for any sign that he was still behind the door in the hall. Not hearing anything, I decided to open the door a little to peek out.

His foot wedged into the door.

I tried to push the door shut, but he simply stood with his foot taking the crushing force. After a few seconds of me struggling to either push the door, stomp his foot, or heel-kick his toes back out into the hall, he overpowered my strength with his own.

Being as nimble as I was now, I took a quick step back and leaned a hand against the now wide-open door. I just stood there with all of me exposed to a furious, or maybe pained, Hideki. I’d probably done some serious damage to his foot.

“That -- ohh, kshhhh...” He hissed and bared his teeth at me, but not in a snarling angry manner. He was giving me a tortured look before he took a hobbled step into the bathroom.

...I was fairly certain he was going to tell me how much that had hurt.

Without much else on my mind, I had only one more move that I could take and probably hurt him worse than I already had. “Hideki... Hitoshi is dead. You killed him.”

He paused just past the door, with me taking another step away from him.

Softly, after he had taken in a deep breath to cool down, he asked me, “Where is he?”

How could I answer that? Technically, his spirit was in the afterlife… wherever that was. As for his body, I was the current owner of it and Hitoshi’s memories. That would also mean he was right here, just transformed by a meddlesome stray cat.

That wouldn’t fly so well with Hideki.

When I bit my lips, showing him I was keeping silent on the matter, he asked me again more firmly, “Where is Hitoshi?”

Shutting my eyes, I shook my head without giving him the answer. I couldn’t tell him without any proof that I’d mysteriously stolen and warped this body. There would be no answer to what had happened to him. Probably never, even if I were caught and analyzed by the world’s top scientists.

Whatever had happened here was beyond imagining. Who would’ve thought a cat could chase a spirit?

...On that thought, I believed the Egyptians might’ve been onto something about the relationship between kitties and the afterlife. Had this happened before?

Broken out of my thoughts, I jumped when I felt something touch me. Opening my eyes, I saw he had removed his dark blue jacket and wrapped it around my bare shoulders. Just like before, he held me by my shoulders and guided me wherever he willed me to go -- which was out of the bathroom.

When I was out in the hall with him, he turned me to face the same direction as he did. With him towering above behind me, I tried to look back up at him in wonder at what the Hell he was doing. He only gave me a gentle push to get me moving again and we walked together down the hall.

Now that I was out of the bathroom and had a clear sight of a way out, I bolted --

-- and was tugged back to him with a yowl. He’d snatched my tail!

“Trying to steal my jacket?” I stood stock still as he took a single step back behind me. Before letting go of my tail, his heavy hand dropped back down onto my shoulder -- likely this time firmly holding me and not letting me go this time around. “Dogs are so much easier to train. Not sure if it is possible for a cat to be trained in being well behaved.”

Trained? With a pained expression still on my face, I looked back over my shoulder and up at him questioningly.

“Yes?” I just stared at him without answering. “You can talk.”

“What did you --” I stopped myself from mewling out the word ’mean’ and continued with a fractured question: “Trained?”

We remained still for awhile. Then he spoke, “Never mind. Let’s go.”

I blinked, nearly stumbled, turned to look ahead of me again to see where he was leading me, glanced over my shoulder at him, glared, and faced forward again before I did a tumble. But I really wanted to know what the Hell he had meant by training. “Wait! Tell --” I stopped myself before mewling again; I was seriously hating being a feline right now. “Training, please?”

“Dogs.” My cat ears shot straight up and pivoted to hear behind me more clearly. I supposed he saw that, and I felt more than heard him silently chuckle. “Unlike a cat, I can teach a dog to speak when I want them to.”

My ears flattened. “I can talk.”

“Fuma Hitoshi. If he’s dead, where is he?” And in response, I was silent as I had been before. “See? I can get more out of a dog.”

Sparked into indignation, I shot off my mouth. “Like your loyal buddies? They follow every word you say, don’t they?”

We both came to a halt, but the motion of our bodies didn’t stop. He spun me around to have me face him. “You saw what happens to those who don’t listen. They heel.”

And with my anger still keeping me on fire, I shot right back at him. “Or else, right?” I pulled back his jacket to show him the stitched line his dogs had given me. “They listen, or get beaten, but if that’s not enough, you kill them. Is that it?”

He only glanced down at my once fatal wound, then lifted his gaze to meet mine. Without saying a word, he snatched the part of his jacket I had opened to shut it and cover me once again.

And his hands dropped back down on my shoulders once again. Before he could turn me around, I stood my ground to keep facing him. I resisted him.

I yelled: “Speak!” And waited for him to respond. He paused his attempt at turning me around and just stared me. That wasn’t the response I was looking for, so I said, “I asked you a question, Dog.”

“QUIET!” That bark nearly sent me into a panic and I tried to free myself again. If his hands weren’t pinching off and restricting my arms in that squeeze, I’d have been scratching the Hell out of him right then. His hands clamped painfully down on my shoulders harder until I ceased my struggle.

He eased up a little and gave me a little push backwards, but this time without letting me go. If he had let go, I likely would have fallen from the unexpected push.

I didn’t fight him as he turned me around; I complied this time when we got moving again. He had guided me to Hitoshi’s bedroom.

“Go. Get dressed,” he said as he let me go to enter the room.

A look over my shoulder showed me his big frame blocked the exit into the hallway. No way for me to slip by him… unless I pounced him again?

...I remembered how I’d acted the last time and the unpredictable nature of me being in heat. Me being this exposed and vulnerable made jumping him a bad idea.

But I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of getting dressed with him watching me. It wasn’t because of modesty, but because of how I felt. Even without being near him, I felt more of that fire pouring all over me the longer Hideki stuck around.

Being careful of how I spoke, I pleaded: “Hideki, privacy, please?” Even if it wasn’t for modesty, I could still say it was.

He took his eyes off of me for a second, but returned his watchful gaze to me. Glancing in turn, I caught what he was worried about. The reaction he gave was one I’d expected from him: he glanced at the window.

Looking back at him, I said, “I’m not you. I won’t go leaping out of windows.”

“I never jumped out of one.”

“Whatever.” I shook my head, but didn’t start this dressing game with him still watching me. “Hideki, please?”

Finally, he turned around, but stayed in the doorway. And he had the balls to say, “It’s not something I haven’t seen before.”

“That’s not the point.” I was having a difficult time keeping level-headed with him around too.

“What is?” I kept silent, throwing the jacket off of me to the bed, and went for the dresser in search of something to wear. As I dove into the drawers, he repeated: “What is the point?”

“Hideki, I don’t want you -- hey!” The instant I glanced at him, I did a double-take as I caught him looking at me. “Turn around!” Before he could get any more free peeks, I pulled over my head one of my shirts. And of course, the shirt was red.

“Give me a good reason.” I was asked this the moment my head popped up through the collar of my shirt. For some reason, my kitty ears stood up like they could finally breathe. But, honestly, was he being serious?

“I’m a girl, naked, and in the mewddle of getting dressed.” Those sounded like three very good points, even if I did mewl. “Be a gentleman!”

He closed his eyes, but it was in an incredulous way as he shook his head. Before he turned back around, he confessed: “I can’t tell if you are Hitoshi or… or someone else. You act like him.”

...I did?

“How?” As I asked, I rummaged through those memories for anything that might be similar to how Hitoshi behaved. I blindly pulled on a pair of tighty whities, but they weren’t really comfortable, and my tail had expressed its displeasure of being nearly confined again.

Huffing in mutual dislike, I pulled the pair of underwear off before I ended up with them tripping me. Having a tail had not been an enjoyable experience.

“You do. I can’t place it exactly.” I was trying to find a pair of pants that my tail wouldn’t start protesting and abruptly reject by yanking them down. But Hideki comparing me to Hitoshi was worrying me. I was feeling a little confused about who I was again.

So I simply stopped and asked: “Try.” More than anything, I wanted to hear him say something that might help me know if I was a cat or not. “Please, Hideki, tell me.”

“You’re not afraid. Not exactly.” I tried to wrap my head around that.

...And I didn’t see it, and I said as much. “I am afraid.”

“Oh?” He looked back, stared me down, but I’d had just about enough of him not listening to me.

With the intent to claw his eyes out, or something of the like, I took one step towards him --

-- and he turned to take a step, closing our distance.

“Hideki, I told to turn around.” In response, he just grinned at me.

That was it. With one swipe, I lashed out at his face --

-- and he blocked it with one arm --

-- my other hand went in between his block and shoulder --

-- and he grabbed me by the elbow with his other hand going under his block. His block transitioned to grapple the arm I’d first assaulted him with before I could continue this fight.

As I glared up at him, he simply kept on grinning back down at me. I gave his hold a tug to get free, but he had a sure grip. Firm, not at all harsh as he had been before.

In a gentle tone, he told me, “You’re not afraid of me.”

A weird sound came from me. It sounded like a hiss, but I never openly voiced it. The noise remained deep down in the back of my throat like how a growl should’ve worked. But this was… it was strange in a painfully tense way.

I wasn’t certain what went through my head, but my body could feel a tension building up. My spine had cramped for a split second to shoot a tingling all the way down to the base of my twitching tail.

Before I knew what I had done, I barely jumped, but I was up with my feet off the ground. By instinct, I landed my bare feet on his legs and scrabbled my way up to the top of his thighs. My toes, somehow, managed to rip at his pants and dig into the meat underneath.

And he expressed his painful shock at what I had done… I guessed my toesies had some pretty sharp nails down there.

In that instant, as I watched Hideki’s face transition from an amusing moment of shock to a flinching grimace, and despite my lighter weight, I bore down on his legs by standing up on him while pulling back to free my arms. Also, once again, I took triumph in causing him to flinch!

But soon regretted it when he stared daggers at me. I was still in his grasp, and that was not a good place to be in when just hurting the big guy.

For another instant, nothing happened between us. Then he lifted me up by my arms. He was toughing it out and showing off how he still had control.

He wasn’t going to dominate me anymore, so I hissed --

-- I was raised higher in response --

-- every sharp nail I had curled into his flesh --

-- and he tried to throw me off!

Within his hold, I snatched and dug into his arms, anchoring myself, before he could toss me away. Sharp as they were, that wasn’t quite possible with my feet. So I kicked, scratched, and scrambled for as much purchase up his tall frame until I found a hold around his waist. The moment I had hooked my legs and hugged him in a different sort of carried upright straddling position, I let go of his arms.

And he grabbed me by my shoulders once again. He attempted to bear down an incredible weight of force to try to push me off of him.

While my lower hold was being scootched down, I changed up my upper hold, pulling down on the crook of both arms. If he pushed, he was coming down with me.

There was a funny thought that came to me. If he hadn’t lent me his jacket, his arms would’ve been better protected, but him wearing just his white shirt offered me an opportunity to leave more of my mark on his flesh.

No idea why, but that made me smile.

...Then I dropped the happy grin I had on my face when I realized where I got the feeling from. There was a conflict of interest to hurt him... but also to mark him as mine.

After that realization, I immediately let go of his arms.

He released me. His hands stayed near mine; I believed to protect from any retaliation I might have had intended, but I didn’t move.

For just the few moments of fighting with each other, we were both breathing heavily. We were still kinda tired from our ordeals; Hideki dealing with me, his gang, and then me again; and me still not entirely recovered from the beating at the shrine and fatal stab wound.

At last, there was some motion from him. From almost being bent over by our downward struggle, I felt him straighten up.

And his arms, lean and hard, also a bit sticky from my scratching him up, came around to touch my bare side and back, alongside my waist and up my ribs to reach and meet his opposing arm across my spine.

Closing the arm length of distance, he pulled and drew me against him, allowing his fingers to ripple down my back and clasp around the top of my now tightly clenched buns.

And I seized straight up in his embrace the very instant he grabbed me by the base of my tail!

In a very low, and slow, voice, he commanded: “Put your legs down.”

One leg slipped down his flank; I felt for the floor and stood on one foot until I did the same with the other. After I’d set myself down, he had yet to let me go.

His tone softened, but still retained that commanding voice. “When I let you go, you will not give me any more trouble.”

“Just…” To keep my mouth from mewling out the wrong thing again, I had to take a deep, calming, breath and ask him one big question. “Why are you here?”

There was that grin again.

With a moment of silence, I began to wonder if he was refusing to answer me before he suddenly said, “I’m here for you.”

That was not the answer I was expecting to hear, and as I shook my head in confusion, I kept my eyes locked onto his to be certain he wasn’t just messing with me. My new life had done enough of that.

“I’m letting you go slowly. Don’t be a bad kitty.” That earned him a quick glare, which only made him chuckle. “Listen, I’m the only one between us two who has been getting hurt here.” One of his hands left my backside to ruffle the top of my head, which earned a deeper glare. “What? Am I petting you the wrong way?”

As he laughed at my frustration, he actually did begin to pet my head. His hand went between and behind my ears, but it was the stroke of his palm coming down behind my head, near the nape of my neck, that caused an unsettling stir in me.

...And I felt that laughter from him. Still held in a single strong arm, his thundering chest and mine squeezed together, I could feel the genuine amusement from his laughing quaking against me. But also, I heard and felt the increased rate of his heart.

I was shocked; a fluttering burst of excitement showered me in skin-tingling spurts. This was not a sensation I had expected to experience -- never ever.

To help myself, I looked away only to close my eyes. I couldn’t take this any longer.

If he continued to hold me like this, I was afraid of what would happen. I was absolutely certain he could feel the rapid beat of my heart. It didn’t matter how thick that band of muscle was across his broad chest, I knew he was sensing what I could.

His hand slid over my kitty ears, which immediately muffled everything I was once hearing. But, in fact, I could hear my heart thumping like it was a tiny motor. Over the other sensations, like the strong male scent he was giving off, the sound of my heart rang in my ears almost as if it was out of control.

My folded ears were struggling to adjust under his palm, but as the pair perked up, I heard the loud thrumming of my heart. That wasn’t my heart, was it...?

No... with every steamy breath I took, I heard it. The sound came out when I exhaled. And what was worse, I knew I was making it happen. This wasn’t some feline instinct.

I tensed up to keep the sound in, and tried to hold it back, but when he moved his hand just a little bit, I couldn’t contain it. The sound just bubbled out of me like.

...I was purring. Purring! As of this moment, my entire body was a furnace of embarrassment, but… but I couldn’t stop. Or rather, I wouldn’t, because I knew the moment his gentleness ended, we would be hard and aggravating to each other again.

Despite the fact that he was still petting me, he had let me go. There was no hand holding my tail any longer, and his arm around me was gone, but I stayed where he had me.

“You’re a little crazier than I remember.” What he just stated, I had to agree with him. I was nuts.

But for him to treat me like this, after the I damage I had done, I was surprised he hadn’t done anything to me for payback. I had to have shed some of his blood; I’d felt the slick red stuff on my hands a moment before… just for a second, I peeked at his stained white shirt, then shut my eyes once more.

I was losing... it. Whatever it was. My composure? My sanity? Myself?

Maybe that was why I dropped everything for the comfort I suddenly felt. I tried to keep cool, have a head on my shoulders, and resolve everything calmly with a rational perspective. But nothing that had happened after I was stabbed was within reason.

A hot instinct had told me, again and again, I needed purpose to balance everything out. I hadn’t listened, but when I’d opened up to it, I refused. And now those instinctual urges were driving me bonkers!

Leaning into him, I continued to display an affection that I knew was going to be more trouble than it was worth being calmly coaxed by his petting. As awkward as it was, and continued to be, I decided to remain where I was until he stopped.

What was the absolute worst happened to be all that I felt: everything. Every inch of me was imprinting on the entire frame of his masculinity. Even with my eyes closed, the image of Hideki with the feel of his body showed me too much of what was under his clothes.

The image of him without his thick blue jacket on was now leaving a mark on me. The trace of warmth from his arms being around me was one thing, but the radiant heat coming off of his body and seeping into mine gave me a comfort that I had never imagined was possible, let alone experienced.

What the Hell was wrong with him!? Why was he still petting me!? Why hadn’t he told me to get dressed yet? If he’d push me, guide me to where I needed to go, as he had been doing before, I’d… I’d scold him, tell him to turn around or simply to get lost, and I’d find something to wear. Then go from there.

Instead of him being a big jerk to me, I felt enabled by him. An unwelcome attraction that was growing more difficult to withdraw from.

But if and when we’d stop, his petting and my pressing, would this incident be dropped as if nothing had happened between us, or would there be a risk of whatever was happening being taken a step further?