Oneshot Thrills: Anthology of Erotic, Fantasy, Thriller Short Stories

While being wrapped up in a sexy package, Tsunade dishes out her own brand of justice for those hardened, violent criminals who dare believe that they are above the law. She operates as the hand of fate that leads the world’s greatest human monsters to their much-deserved end.

“Tsunade…” Hikaru said as I walked out the door of our shared flat near the city’s warehouse district.

Turning to the lanky guy, not much older than me, he wore baggy khakis and a plain white T-shirt. I knew he was just as determined to make something of himself in college as in high school.

“Yeah?” I paused at the threshold of the steel door, wearing a micro-mini bodysuit, and shrugged on a fitted black leather jacket. Finishing the ensemble were Nine West stiletto heels. My lips were crimson blades of blood. Equally red was my head full of long, tousled curls. The dress left little to the imagination, which was the point. My creamy skin etched with colorful tattoos were the stars, showing off my crouching tiger sleeve, and nothing hidden about my menacing dragon coiling around my thigh and down my calf to my manicured toes.

Hikaru approached me, removing his glasses with drama while focusing his almond-shaped eyes on mine. His head lowered to mine with bold intent, and he pressed the flush of his pink lips to mine.

I gasped in surprise at the sweet passion he infused in the lip lock, a first but one that ended too soon when he pulled away suddenly before I might respond in kind. Hikaru cupped my face with tenderness and stroked my blushing cheeks with his thumbs as he implored, “Be careful. Come back to me. Okay?”

I swallowed yet nodded, speechless by the emotion infused in his soft brown eyes and the sweetness of his kiss. Both acts spoke volumes beyond the words he coupled with it all. Very out of character for him to be so forward. Hikaru was a sort of meek, quiet boy in the years I grew to know him. Cute as he was, he hadn’t a bad boy bone in his body. And bad boys were a weakness of mine that I would never pass up.

Hikaru was everything good, safe, and bo-ring! He could not help that any more than he could help being smart. His computer skills were awesome! A savant; there wasn’t a thing Hikaru hadn’t done on them or to them. If playing video games against him in a player-versus-player arena, hang it up! He never lost a game. Rightfully, I considered him the master of a virtual kingdom.

Hikaru sighed as he watched me leave. What he was thinking showed all over his face when I glanced back at him and waved. He didn’t believe I would take care. That was because I only narrowly escaped the last time I slinked amongst the sewage this city produced. I strolled away, still wordless to his boldness, and cracked a smile. Hikaru was being my little worry wort, yet I liked that role of his the most.

So, I almost lost my life in my previous rendezvous with death. Big deal. Being a risk-taker meant getting hurt sometimes as long as the goal was met. Many suffered far more than I did at the hands of the demons I hunted. If not me to stop them, who? Besides, no one else would get that slithery demon who preyed on high schoolers via X and Instagram like he did me.

My friend had every right to question my faculties to get the job done. I was too personally invested in that hunt. Perhaps I acted on irrational emotions when I needed to keep my wits. Maybe I should have taken every precaution. Hindsight would go so far as my next mission. I either learned from my mistakes or allowed some stinking demon to kill me. I’d be damned if I let that happen. In some ways, I believed I already was.

Although not a fighter, Hikaru saved my life in the nick of time because he secretly monitored my nocturnal activities. He didn’t buy my excuses over the new bruises showing up on my face, arms, or legs, being the latest Judo lessons I had taken along with some mixed martial arts.

Hikaru also picked the lock on my bedroom door. He snooped through my room, finding my demon board. All the information on the targets I chose had been based on the police’s or court’s inability to do its job and protect the public from the revolting beasts. When such inhuman monsters (or demons as I saw them) were released to prey on the weak, the innocent, or the young, I became their salvation. The predators had someone to fear who was not held to the same rules as the police or the judicial system.

My role was much like a calling I served well. I never resisted or questioned it. Sometimes, you needed to be a demon to exterminate one. I was okay with that. Someone needed to add balance against such evils in the world. Therefore, I rose to the occasion by making the sacrifice others couldn’t by luring them into the trap and ensuring their end was permanent with whatever I found. High heels were good for stabbing in an eye or throat, and so were screwdrivers and ice picks. I reserved knives and straight razors for throat swipes when I got in close to put them down and make sure they never got up again.

Only one rule did I abide by above all others. Killing came with purpose in self-defense and as a last resort. It meant that I hunted those demons who did not find justice. The guilty often slipped through the cracks in the criminal justice system. They were free to commit mass murders, rapes, serial killings, and human trafficking, but not on my watch.

I did not blindly pass judgment; I followed the facts. Where justice failed, I stepped in to sow death to those who most deserved it for their heinous crimes. Those demons would be dealt with in no other fashion to prevent them from harming others.

As I was saying, Hikaru, my roommate, was not just the regular run-of-the-mill hacker as a hobby. His cop father taught him how to shoot early, so he and his younger brother Akira would respect weapons and not be foolish in their handling. What neither Hikaru nor his father, Michael, could stop was some sick pedophile pretending to be another little boy on a gaming site and coaxing Akira to meet him at the neighborhood park. The boy, only seven years old, was never seen alive again.

Hikaru nor his family ever got over that loss. His mom committed suicide in the depression that overtook her, where she sat in the garage with the car running and died of carbon monoxide poisoning. His dad was never the same, being the one to find her the next morning. Michael shut himself away from his remaining son and everyone except work. I learned well from him, Hikaru never let people in either. I understood his ways better than anyone. For the last few years, we had been friends in school. Not really close, but closer than we let others get.

That night, I sought my revenge against the same pedophile, and so did Hikaru, unbeknownst to me. He followed me. So brave, Hikaru saved my life from my rapist I allowed to lure me and drug me, as he had the first time. My friend Nancy and I did not know any better. When we encountered him at the mall, we thought the older man was a real photographer and modeling scout and would make us the next it-models. The man drugged us, kidnapped us, raped us, murdered my friend, and would have killed me had I not escaped. He chained me like last time, ready to try and rape me.

I was far stronger than I had been three years prior and learned many new tricks. Hikaru never gave me the chance to use any of them. He put a bullet right through that demon’s skull. Blood splattered on me, but not my own. Thank goodness!

I relished the end dealt to the demon as I wiggled out of the rope bounds. I also mourned it because I no longer would get the pleasure of snuffing out the pedophile’s life like he tried to do mine. He stared up at me with the light vanishing from cold, dead eyes, which gave me some satisfaction. I shook away the demon’s hand that grabbed my feet, and I stomped his stupid face with my heel. Good riddance! It was clear the pedophile would not feel his nose being crushed and me knocking his teeth out with the second stomp, but I didn’t care. The final blows were for Nancy, me, and every other teenage girl like us that the demon hurt.

Hikaru carried me out of that death trap and nursed me back to health after the beating I had taken all tied up. As he did, I fessed up my secret, considering he guessed the rest. Instead of trying to convince me to stop hunting dangerous demons, Hikaru insisted on helping me. I had little choice in the matter, but I warned him he should not get in my way.

Hikaru never made me regret my decision to make him my partner that day. He showed himself to be invaluable in the information he dug up. In addition, any computer access problems I encountered he resolved far quicker than I.

Hikaru desired the same outcome I did. He never wanted another family to face such loss at the hands of a violent criminal without knowing justice. So grateful to have his help on my nocturnal missions at least, I knew someone credible had my back. I really required it tonight, too. Getting into the Yakuza club was the easy part. Now, how in the world I would get out alive would prove an interesting feat.