Chase: Jekyll and Hyde 6

After following Ken for about two hundred meters, I realised that my actions weren’t taken using my best judgement. If this guy was really a dangerous psychopathic serial kidnapper – and possible killer – then it wasn’t safe following him with just my broad dagger. But I had some martial arts skills and I was good with the dagger too, so I decided that taking action was a much better option than risking losing sight of him.

And another possible abduction.

I followed him at a safe distance, making sure to keep my steps as quiet as possible and regulating my breathing. His movements were suspicious. He was walking rather like a raging beast, with so much force in his steps, yet not a distinct direction or aim. I could have sworn with all of my life’s savings that this guy was the man we were looking for at this point.

After about 400mmetres of walking, I finally saw a light up ahead, and what sounded like a lady’s voice. As we got closer, she seemed to be looking for something.

“I’m sure it dropped somewhere around here,” she muttered, still looking.

I resisted the urge to call out to her and ask what the problem was as was my nature. That would only alert Ken to my presence, forcing him to abandon his mission and making him realize that I was on to him. Or even worse, he could go on a rampage. I could only follow quietly, watching as he approached the lady.

“Oh, Ken? Thank goodness you’re here! I’m trying to…ungh!”

I heard the groan, but what’s worse, I watched as Ken hit her on her temple with a blunt object in his hands. She crumpled to the ground, and after making sure she was incapacitated, he scooped her in his arms and began moving at an unprecedented speed, at least for someone carrying another person who was unconscious.

I never knew Ken to have any extraordinary physical prowess, so this was unexpected. I whipped out my dagger and began to follow them, increasing my pace but trying to stay as stealthy as possible while doing that. He soon moved into a little forest clearing and slipped into thick forest.

I had to hand it to Ken; if I hadn’t spent a lot of time in these forests, getting acquainted with the terrain; if I hadn’t been forced to learn hunting by my estranged father, I would never have been able to keep up with him. He moved through the trees like he’d been born there; like he’d lived there his whole life. This made me wonder just how long he had been planning to strike this village before he eventually came here.

Eventually, he reached what looked like the mouth of a large cave. I could recognize this place a bit; I had only been here once, and that was when I wandered quite very far from the village. We didn’t even come near here during the search as it was too far and the terrain was unfriendly. But here, he had found a safer shortcut. Just how much of a predator was Ken anyway?

I watched the cave and after twenty minutes, he came out and left the way he came. I was sure to hide, and my heart skipped when he stopped for a while and sniffed the air around him before moving on. Immediately I dashed into the cave, looking inside to see three women, quietly sobbing. Their mouths had been gagged, and their figures bend outwards due to the ropes tying their limbs together behind their backs.

As soon as they saw me, their eyes flared open and they wriggled around, obviously very frantic. I could make out Izumi, Sakura and Mito, the last girl who had just been brought. Thank goodness, they were not killed. I made quick work of the ropes, freeing the girls. Sakura was frail-looking, obviously being severely malnourished. I was angry now, wondering…

“What are you doing here?!” A hoarse voice called out behind me.

I turned to see a silhouette of Ken standing in the entrance of the cave, breathing hard and staring daggers at me. Clenching the dagger in my palm behind my back, I stood up slowly.

“You’re the monster, and the monster hunter, Ken? That’s pathetic!”

“There is no Ken, There is only Akuma, and you are in my lair now, messing with my wives…”

“Women you brought here forcefully. Not our wives, and I don’t even know what this lair thing is supposed to mean, but coming from your sick perverted mind, I’m sure it can’t be anything good. But I don’t care, because these girls right here are leaving now with me.”

“A duel? I’ll be happy to oblige you!”

He rushed towards me at a blinding speed, not giving me time to react. I could only bend, making sure to drive the dagger into his knee before he kicked me in the back of the head. I fell to the ground while he groaned loudly before pulling the dagger out of his nee before falling to his knees, crawling over to where I was.

The ladies used this opportunity to run out, and I was happy for that, because the powerful kick to that critical place made it difficult to move. He crawled over to me.

“You made me lose my women, and now I’ll be sure to get caught with this injury. You die, n…”

He suddenly shouted and fell on me. Pushing him off, I squinted at a silhouette I saw behind him, which wielded a spear. The figure drove the spear into Ken’s body three or four times, making sure he was dead, before helping me up to my feet.

It was Inosuke, one of the members of our Search Party.

“I saw you follow Ken, and then I followed you. When I saw what happened, I followed the both of you to the cave before running back to notify others. We caught sight of Ken before he took off into the woods, and we weren’t able to find this place until we saw Sakura and the others.”

I didn't know how to thank him, so I just grinned weakly as I slipped into unconsciousness, my brain finally succumbing to the brute force of the attack. I remember feeling that when I woke up, it was going to be to a Hero's Welcome.

******

THE END.

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