48Light poured into her vision as she stepped into the dining room. Her father sat at the table, chewing idly as he watched the edges of the tree branches outside thump against the house.
She was twelve at the time, and had already expressed her adamant desire to join the police force one day. While part of him was delighted that his child was essentially following his footsteps, he was more than worried about her plunging into such a dangerous career headfirst.
His eyes followed her as she stumbled across the room and sat with a pitiful 'ohayoo'.
"You're awfully sleepy this morning." He said. "Did you stay up late last night?"
She felt like she hadn't slept at all. Her body was restless and heavy. She spared a glance to the spot next to her, where her mother would've sat. And then met his eyes.
"I was studying," she said, looking down at her pajamas. They were her favorite. The ones with the little pink stars all over.
"I see. So, what were you studying?"
She hesitated. She hated to stumble in front of her father like that, a man of both virtue and strength, whose dark eyes could monitor straight through a person's soul in one blink.
"Defensive tactics." She lifted her head. "I borrowed one of the books from your office. I'm sorry I didn't ask first."
"It's fine, as long as you learned something from it."
At this, she perked up again. "I did," the enthusiasm returned to her voice. "A lot, actually- I"
"Did you?" He interrupted stiffly.
She stopped short, let her shoulders fall. "I get it. You just don't believe in me," she mumbled, lowering her head.
"It has nothing to do with that, Misaki. Times are certainly changing. And by the time you get older, things will be a lot more complicated."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying-
"It won't help you now." Something in his voice changed, deepened, which prompted her to look up.
There, in her father's place sat BK-201. The fear the rippled through her left her body quivering. Strangely enough, he appeared the same way she'd last seen him; draped in black and that ambiguous mask of his. "All that training wasn't enough to prepare you for this. It was all a waste of time," he said.
"What? Wait, what are you doing here? Where's my father? What have you done with him?" She asked, jumping up. She hadn't even noticed that it suddenly became dark outside and the sunlight that once flooded the room was now moonlight.
He stayed seated.
The trees outside still moved against the roof, but there was something darker about them as they made his mask play games with the shadows of the room like strobe lights.
"Li,"
"I told you," he said coolly as he rose and arranged his coat. "That man is gone forever."
She didn't know how another copy of him, suddenly ended up behind her, but he came close enough to murmur in her ear. "You're move."
Suddenly, she felt his hands large hands wrap maliciously around her throat. She choked back a cry. No, she thought. He's really going to kill me this time. Ignoring the familiar feeling, she fought hard to loosen his grip. But his hands were like iron rods.
And the more she fought him, the harder he squeezed, lifting her off the ground.
Somehow, she was forced to face him and his mask, as it glared beneath her with angry slits for eyes. She wished she could reach down and pull it away. She wanted him to see her without it, to touch his face as though she could rid him of all hatred by the warmth of her hand.
And she finally noticed that there were two other Black Reapers present, standing on either side of her current one. The one from the breakfast table stood there to the right, staring blankly behind that gloomy porcelain. On the left side there was the innocent Chinese exchange student Li, wearing a green jacket.
"It's your move, detective. So, what will it be? Are you going to arrest me?"
When she tried to speak, his grip tightened.
"Well?"
In a final attempt, she stretched her arm down to his face. Soon, she felt the edge of his mask at the top of his head. With two fingers she tipped it away and heard it shatter below.
His face leaned in from the shadows, his hair spread in wild strands across his forehead. What scared her the most were his glowing blood-shot eyes and the fact that it would be the last thing she would see in this miserable world. "ANSWER ME!" He roared, hurling her across the room.
Misaki woke with a start. The first thing she noticed was that she wasn't home. Also, she was wrapped in something warm.
Darkness surrounded her and she took a moment to allow her eyes to adjust. Even then, she couldn't see her own pasty hand right in front of her eyes.
At least, she knew she was in a room, although there were no windows. But she could tell from the hard surface she lay on that the place was old and the smell of dust and desolation filled the air.
What happened? How did I get here?
It took a few moments for her to recollect, but her eyes widened as the night's events rushed to her, making her jolt into a sitting position.
Regret came quickly after, as a sweltering pain shot up her torso and left her breathless. She'd definitely bruised a couple of ribs.
More than that, she thought grimly as she felt her body begin to register all the damage she acquired from the night. At least, her feet weren't so cold anymore. But her knees still stung like hell and the raw meat exposed there would be painful to tend to later.
Her throat was sore and her head was pounding relentlessly, but she knew she could recover from those after some rest. That's if she could make it out of this mess alive.
She placed a hand on the tender area below her breast and looked around. Then she thought of the two people she lost today. Takehiro. Mao. Damn it, Mao. It's all my fault.
The last thing she remembered vaguely was flying off with BK-201 in the parking lot. Against her will.I wonder if he drugged me she thought. She also remembered that she still had the truth serum that Kobiashi gave her earlier that day. Beyond that were snippets of their conversation when they were back in the parking lot.
Is he here in the room with me? She wanted to check her pocket for the serum, to be sure he hadn't searched her and confiscated it, but wouldn't risk pulling it out if he might be watching. She thought it was foolish to even consider that he had night vision. There were certainly limits to his ability as a contractor.
She could practically write a book about the man by now. Better safe, than sorry, she thought.
It surprised her when she lifted her hands to feel the sewn-in bullet hole, the same one along the chest that she'd studied when she saw him wearing it tonight. He gave me his coat? And she moved her hands inside it, which she noted, kept his scent. The smell of it was something masculine and dangerous. Just like him.
What surprised her was when she felt the skinny little syringe in her pocket.
Good, it's still there. Now to find the door. There has to be a way out of here. And she began her blind search, crawling on her knees, trying her best to ignore the pain and sudden light-headedness. She waved her hands in front of her, hoping she wasn't that far from the door and also that she wouldn't run right into it. When she didn't find it there, she inched forward, when she felt a small tug at her ankle.
She froze.
"Warm enough?" His voice burned through her and echoed from the empty space across the room.
"What did you do to me?" She reached down to her ankle to investigate what had stopped her. A wire. She traced her fingers along the knot, trying to determine the pattern he had tied it. If there was a little bit of light, she might be able to unravel it.
He jerked on the other end of the cord to end her efforts, in the process slightly shifting her body across the floor.
"You're a lot more trouble than you're worth," he said as he recalled using his own body heat to save her from dying of cold. She had been so close, he could feel the easy rise and fall of her chest against his, reminding him of his humanity. He hated her for that.
"Where am I?"
"Let's make this quick," he snapped. "I'll ask you questions. Your life depends on the answers you give me."
Misaki snapped her head around as his voice had moved again. "Now," And what he did next made her heart race. His eyes glowed, two red pupils as he summoned his power to produce an electric current on the end of her ankle wire, which he held.
"Who is the contractor with the ability to create earthquakes?"
When she didn't answer, he moved the current closer to her. She glanced up to see his dark silhouette, standing several feet away. Ghostly and serious in a black turtleneck and pants.
"SG-592. Elliot." For some reason, she felt like she'd already told him that before.
"So you know him." He had to crosscheck the things she'd told him from earlier.
"Not on a personal level. But I do somehow feel attached to the criminals I'm after."
He caught something in her voice that he didn't like. He hauled over and slapped her hard across the face.
She didn't make a sound, but her ears were ringing afterwards.
"Don't make the mistake in thinking that you can trust me," his voice was so harsh she inched back a little, which seemed to please him. "I won't hesitate to kill you this time."
She swallowed the pain and focused on the volt in his wire. "So then, why have you brought me here?"
"I need to know all the information you have on that contractor."
"I can't say," she answered with a stiff chin. "I'm still investigating the matter and the crimes he's committed. I'm sure you saw the news recently."
"I used to give the MPD more credit for their creativity," he said disdainfully.
"Well, it was pretty short-notice considering you haven't been active for quite some time. What were you doing there that day, anyways?" she wished she could take back those words.
He sent a mild shock through her leg that zipped through the rest of her body like a fire.
She screamed so loud her ears popped. I hope someone heard that.
"Scream as much as you like. No one will hear you here." He said as though he read her thoughts. "If you answer like a cop again, I'll take your behavior as uncooperative and end it here."
"I don't know!" Misaki roared. "Just like you, all I have right now are small facts and several questions. He killed three CIA agents that went AWOL. You'd have better luck speaking to the Americans. We pulled two unknown bodies from that giant hole in the ground with no idea who they are. People have been dying in this city every time I turn around, some from invisible killers. I'm no closer to solving his case than I am to solving the rest. But choking and slapping me around is not going to get you any closer to the truth than it'll get me out of here."
Panting, she then concentrated on keeping her stare fixed on his mask.
Hei knew she was telling the truth about Elliot. But he had to be sure that he wasn't one of Section 3's personal pets. That meant that there was no way she could know about the old Syndicate's existence and how they managed to find him.
Misaki wasn't sure what his next move would be. Standing tall above her with no empathy, she understood now why they called him the Black Reaper. He looked like death.
The only sound in the room came from her breathing and the electricity that separated them.
Whether he'd slap her again, or shock her, she gritted her teeth so hard in anticipation, it made her jaw ache. She wanted him to know she could take a hit. Clearly, she'd proven that tonight.
"Why are you working for the Syndicate?" he asked.
"We're not like the old Syndicate you worked for. They just used you to meet their own ends. What we're trying to do is establish the coexistence between contractors and humans, not to kill them. You can hate us, hate me all you want for what happened to her, Izanami-
"That's not her name," he growled as he roughly pulled the wire, making her jerk across the floor again.
She didn't have to remind him of that time, of that weakness. He didn't need to remember how he had failed as both a human and a contractor and nearly lost Yin. How he had nearly lost his mind in dozens of bottles of Sake.
He moved forward into the orb of his power, which produced a blue glow between them that made their shadows dance eerily on the walls.
"Earlier, you said that contractor killed three men. Who were they?"
After some hesitation she answered. "Carl Richards, Andrew Johnson, and Tony Rembert."
She saw him go rigid when she mentioned Rembert. He seemed to think for a moment before he backed away a little.
"Did you know him? Rembert?"
He didn't answer. That name certainly rang a bell with him. He'd worked for the guy long ago back in America. Shady guy. Hei never thought he'd hear of him again. And now he was dead. That didn't surprise Hei, however, he wondered what the man was doing back in Japan in the first place.
When he moved toward her, she quickly asked. "Wait, who exactly are you after now?"
Even if he decided to slap her again, at least she could stall her death a little longer.
Misaki didn't realize that Hei's only job was to do everything he could to protect Yin from the dangers that followed him relentlessly. And he wouldn't wait, like last time, for them to catch up to them.
He'd meet them, right on their home turf and settle things once and for all. If he had to slap a woman around to get there, so be it. His problems were much larger than the cop sitting in the middle of the room now.
Misaki was relieved when he finally called off the electric deathtrap. She heard him shuffle around the room and flick a switch. A dim bulb behind her came on and she was glad to have her sight back again, although the view wasn't anything spectacular. Just a plain white room with cracked paint and no furniture.
She heard her captor walk behind her.
"Are you letting me go?"
"The man that died tonight. Is he connected to this?"
"He was the witness at the hotel."
"If anything you've said tonight was a lie-
"They're not!" And she froze when she realized he moved to look into her face. It was difficult to resist the urge to steal his mask away. He was so close, she could feel the heat coming from his body. As she started to feel light-headed again he backed away.
"Stand up," he ordered.
She did so.
"Are you going to kill me?"
"Take off my jacket."
She wanted to take out her syringe while doing it, but he was watching her closely. She peeled the warm thing off and handed it over to him. She didn't have to fake the pain either. Just what the hell did he do to her earlier? How long had she been with him?
When she felt him reaching down and untying the wire from her ankle, she pulled out the syringe. It would probably be her only chance to use it. It was her last bit of leverage left.
He was completely exposed. It wouldn't be difficult to reach down and jab him in the neck with it. He wouldn't even know what hit him.
But she didn't move.
And when he moved away she hid it from him by covering it close to her side with her hand. Damn it! I should've done it. I should've done it. Why didn't I do it?
Hei moved across the floor behind her and she turned in that direction. He was wearing his jacket now.
"The exit is this way." And he left the room.
That was a very long chapter to write. It would've been longer, but I thought it best to end it there. Tell me what you guys think. I know it's been a long time, but I still have a plan for this story. I know where it's going and where it ends. My only problem is finding the energy to write after a ten hour shift almost every day. But I won't abandon this story. So, until next time, stay tuned!
