SUMMARY - ''Outer shell... flesh and blood... is all you see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but one can not... I shall reveal one's true being.'' R&R (Rated for later chapters)
Beauty Is In The Eye of The Beholder
Chapter One - The Mission
"Yurika Dojima! Your late! Again!" Kosaka yelled as Dojima walked into the office yawing. Kosaka was looking at his watch which read 10:30am.
"Good morning to you too, chief." She replied as she slowly walked over to her desk and plopped down. It had been five years since the fall of the factory. Zaizen was dead. Kosaka was in charge of the STN-J. Hunts were conducted with the use of tranquilizers, or for the pesky ones, empty shells. The factory was never rebuilt, but in it's place was a psychiatric hospital where the witches were given psychiatric care and rehabilitation. Michael's leash was extended to the city boarders of Tokyo. Amon and Robin were safely working back at the STN-J three years after the fall of the factory. Robin was declared safe and harmless after a year of testing and rehabilitation under Solomon. There was only one office romance, and that was Sakaki and Dojima. They had started going out about two years after the fall of the factory, and were very serious. So serious, that Kosaka had to reassign hunting teams to prevent distractions.
"Morning all." Dojima said as she plopped her head down on her arms on her desk, her blond hair falling messily around her.
"Late night?" Robin leaned over and whispered jokingly. Dojima turned her head slightly and smiled and winked at the young hunter, then buried her head back in her arms. Actually, Robin wasn't as young anymore. She was twenty years old, but she was still the youngest there at Raven's flat (Unless you count the year old cat Ember, that had been recently adopted as the office pet). Robin smiled and chuckled as she leaned away from Doijima.
She pushed her long auburn hair behind her ear and continued to type at her computer. Ever since she turned eighteen, she had changed her whole outlook on life and decided to change her fashionable ways. It was no longer pigtails and long black dresses. She now let her hair fall freely against her back, until a mission when she quickly clipped it up with an exceptionally large hair clip. Her outfits now consisted of mostly black pants, light colored tank tops, her new black trench coat and army style black boots which went up to her knees, under her pants. Her emerald green eyes reflected the contents of her computer screen as she surfed the web, looking at up-to-date news over in Italy. Something she did frequently ever since her STN-J brother showed her how to.
About a year and a half ago, one of the hunters, no one remembers who, made a comment how they all are like one big family. Kosaka being the very protective and sometimes strict dad. Robin and Michael are like brother and sister. The way they teach each other so many different things. Karasuma walked up to Robin and placed a hand on her shoulder. Robin looked up and smiled. Karasuma was like an older sister. Always there when you needed a shoulder to lean on and knowledgeable when you needed advice. She was also there to reprimand you when you were doing wrong. Robin clicked out of the Internet and continued to surf for hunts. Dojima and Robin were discovered to be twins separated at birth. Or so Sakaki often teases. They are often seen sharing secrets and confiding in each other about little things such as complaints about work or fun after work activities. Sakaki was picked as the cute cousin, since every time he leaves Raven's Flat, there is at least one girl trying to make eye contact with, but since he's involved with Dojima, he has been very faithful and been good at ignoring them. Amon, well he was picked as the friend that was always included in family events. Even after the fall of factory, he had remained very cold and his personality had not changed. This recent family bond is what lead to the adoption of Ember, the reddish-orange tabby cat with a black tipped tail. Robin had picked her up at the shelter and after a month of placing name suggestions in a jar, the name Ember was decided with out them due to her color and the fact she simply adored Robin.
"Kogo Street has a new occupant. A witch with the power to read one's mind and fix ...one's problems?" Michael skimmed the summary he just found and read out loud at 11:45am. All computer screens lit up with the same information. Dojima lifted her head and scanned the screen.
"I get it!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"Ever seen the movie 'Shallow Hal'?" She asked and spun around in her chair to face a bunch of confused looking people.
"Okay, well, in this movie, Hal is very mean and refuses to even try to fall in love with a fat girl. So a hypnotist puts a spell on him to make him see everyone's true beauty. So he falls in love with this girl who he sees as being breath-taking-ly beautiful but in reality is like super fat and ugly. And he is the only one who can see her skinny... her inner beauty. In the end he relises he is hypnotized gets the spell taken off and can then see her in her true form. But he still ends up loving her, because he learned more about her then her appearance. And in the process, he convinces his best friend to give girls who are weird a chance. So his best friend, who come to find out was born with an enlarged tail bone that wags when he is happy, gives this girl who had an extra large pinkie toe a chance on love. So Hal and his best friend both saw inner beauty and were able to fall in love truthfully, and not by looks alone." Dojima finished and everyone was staring at her.
"What...?" She asked as she shrugged her shoulders.
"It was a good movie." She replied.
"Yeah, now none of us need to see it." Sakaki said jokingly.
"You should go work for the newspaper, ... write movie summaries." Robin complimented sarcastically. Dojima looked at Robin then turned back around and plopped her head back on her desk.
"Let's go!" Amon called as they all moved out of the office. Robin grabbed her coat and put it on while she clipped her hair up. She jumped into Amon's car and they all drove off. Amon parked his car on Cherry Blossom Drive and got out, followed by Robin. Soon, all five hunters were standing on the street looking down onto Kogo Street. Guns at the ready, Karasuma and Sakaki went first. Robin pulled out her glasses and placed them on the bridge of her nose. Then she, Dojima and Amon moved down the street, following the other two. They wandered the deserted street which was lined with abandoned buildings and houses. A fire bout a year ago had taken this street. A little boy about the age of three was messing around with matches and set his room a flame. Within minutes, the autumn wind had spread the flames throughout the entire street, destroying everything and killing only two; the boy and his mother who were trapped in their small apartment. Now, only the chard skeletal remains were left.
A loud and sickly chuckle broke the silence. Michael's voice rang immediately over the headsets of Amon and Karasuma. Karasuma then took Robin and Sakaki down an alleyway. Amon and Dojima ran down the center of the street. The chuckle subsided, and it was once again quiet. The hunters did not group back up. Instead, they remained separated for about two hours. Then by a twist of fate, the two groups managed to go down the same dark alleyway and bump into each other.
The chuckle was heard once more. Robin backed up and backed right into Amon. They both jumped and turned, Amon's gun raised and Robin with a small flame flickering in front of her. Once they relised who each other was, Amon lowered his gun and Robin put out her flame, which was good because her checks had just turned a soft shade of red. A simple touch of Amon always brought warmth to her checks. She longed to be in his arms, but he will never accept her. He will forever see her as the little girl who plays with fire.
The chuckle disappeared and was replaced by an even creepier voice.
"Outer shell... flesh and blood... is all you see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but one can not... I shall reveal one's true being." The voice said in a sing-song way, then disappeared. The hunters walked around. Whatever this witch was, it needed to be stopped. According to Michael, he had already made the mayor of Tokyo see strange things. Like he was living in a child's TV show. Everything so innocent and bright and colorful.
The hunters had now been out for about six hours, the sun was slowly starting to set and it was beginning to get cold out. The voice was last heard four hours ago, but it was at a distance. It was singing the same poem.
"Outer shell... flesh and blood... is all you see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but one can not... I shall reveal one's true being"
"Let's head back." Amon said as he pulled out a small maglight flashlight from his pocket and used it to lead the way from the dark street which was not lit up by street lights. Karasuma agreed as she pulled her jacket tighter around her body to keep warm. Robin walked up next to Amon, one to keep her eyes off the couple walking behind her and two to be closer to Amon. Dojima and Sakaki were huddled close and were walking with their arms around each other to keep warm. It was sweet and cute, but it made Robin envious. Amon spoke over the headset and told Michael to head home for the night. Kosaka had already left, so Michael shut down and headed to his apartment which was just down the street.
As they arrived at Raven's flat and headed up the stairs of the building, the chuckle was head again.
A sudden misty fog appeared to crawl out from the side streets around them. The sun was completely down now and it was a cloudy moonlit night, which didn't help much. Amon whipped out his flash light and shinned it in the direction the chuckle was coming from. The hunters walked cautiously into the fog. The creepy vice returned.
"Outer shell... flesh and blood... is all you see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but one can not... I shall reveal one's true being." He repeated over and over. It got louder and louder as the hunters walked. They were walking slowly and were now only about ten feet from Raven's Flat's doorway. They turned down the alley next to Raven's Flat and walked. Amon signaled to Karasuma to stop and wait. Dojima and Sakaki stayed with her. Amon and Robin walked onward. He choose to take Robin, because of her craft, it would be useful at night.
"Outer shell... flesh and blood... is all you see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but one can not... I shall reveal one's true being." A tall slender figure emerged from the mist behind Raven's flat. He was young, extremely long black hair fell down his back and deep blue eyes reflected the misty fog. His outfit was a strange one. It was a deep violet pants and jacket suit with a double blue pin-stripe up both sides. He had on a pair of white gloves and black dress shoes which made a taping noise with every step. He was smiling and skipping. It almost seemed like his legs were stiff, yet he moved them freely about. His arms were moving freely about his sides like they were broken or made of jelly. His skin was very pale but his lips were cherry red. Robin chuckled when she saw him.
"All he is missing was a big red nose." She thought to herself with a smirk.
"Who are you and what do you want.?" Amon asked in his cold voice.
"Outer shell... flesh and blood... is all you see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but one can not... I shall reveal one's true being." The man sang as he stopped walking and out stretched one arm towards Amon. Amon pulled out his gun and fired over the man's head. The man jumped up, chuckled, then did a funny little jig in mid-air then turned and ran. Amon and Robin followed. The man broke the lock off the back door of Raven's Flat. As they ran up the stairs, Amon called to Karasuma and enter the front door and head for the office.
When Amon and Robin entered the darkened office of the STN-J, the only glow coming from Michael's computer. Their was a message typed on the screen. Robin stood guard as Amon moved over to the computer and read out loud the message, word-for-word.
"Outer shell... flesh and blood... is all I see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but I can not... he shall reveal your true being...?" Amon raised an eyebrow and looked up at Robin who had found a candle and lit it. The flame's glow illuminated her face, making her look more beautiful then ever. Amon ignored this and deleted the message and shut the computer off.
"Outer shell... flesh and blood... is all you see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but one can not... I shall reveal one's true being." The misty fog rolled into the office like a welcome mat for the man who entered next. Amon raised his gun and Robin stared at the man, waiting for Amon's command to fire. But it never came. The man had somehow frozen Amon. He walked over to Amon and touched his forehead.
"Tisk-tisk . See one's outter shell is all you see. You tell yourself it's fear. Part of that is true. but the rest Shall soon be revealed..." The man stepped away, did a little jump twist spin and sashayed over to where Robin was standing. Amon still didn't move. The man moved closer to Robin. She attempted to fire but found herself unable to move. He touched her forehead and a dark blue light in cased both him and Robin. The dark blue light slowly faded to a light blue, then a slate, then gray, and ended in a dark gray. As this light show happened, the man rose off the flow with a gust of wind, whipping the fog and light around in circular patterns around him and Robin. Once they became only inches from the ceiling, Amon was able to move. But the wind was strong and all he could bring himself to do was shield himself behind Michael's desk and watch through squinted eyes. The man began to chant.
"Once a child... little girl no more... a woman she soon became. But you can't see... or do you ignore... the way she calls your name. You can not see... between you and her... love burns like an everlasting eternal flame. Because outer shell... flesh and blood... is all you see. Behind the wall... deep inside... is what needs to be seen. Some can see... but you can not... I shall reveal her true being... it's time to reveal Robin's true being... to you!"
The man finished chanting and disappeared, as did the misty fog and the light show. Amon was pushed back against the desk behind him and the room went dark. He waited a few minutes to allow his head to stop spinning from the flashing lights. Finally he began to stand up.
"Robin?" Amon called out.
"Behold your heart... truth will be found... alone you must discover. Look deep inside... travel if must...Maybe start with your mother? Beat the clock... better not stall... or little phoenix will remain in stone forever." The voice faded away and Amon ignored it and pulled out his flashlight and shinned it around the room. The man was gone. He heard Karasuma banging on the office door which was now closed and locked. He walked over, unlocked the door and was greeted by a blinding light from which came from Karasuma's flashlight. They shinned their flashlight over the room. They tried the light switch, but the lights were blown out due to the wind. Now the only light was coming from the flashlights and the flickering flame from the candle of which Robin was holding. Karasuma scanned her flashlight across the right side of the room. Amon scanned the left.
"Robin..." Amon scanned his flashlight towards the flickering light. There was dust settling over in front of the window bench. Amon raised his flashlight across the wooden floor and raised an eyebrow when he saw something gray and stone like, not what he was expecting. He moved his flashlight up and moved the light beam over the statue which had managed to appear in the small office. He walked up to the stone. He gasped and stumbled backwards when he saw the face.
"Robin? ...!"
A/N- Well? Don't ask how I though of it. I really don't know. (The whole 'Shallow Hal' thing was added in after I finished and I was proof reading it. I haven't even seen the whole movie yet.) I know my spelling may suck but I'm using 'Notepad' and 'Microsoft Works'. I can't download anything else because my computer is a piece of crap. At least I have one program with spell check. I spell checked this many times and yes I proof read it many times. So please R&R. Constructive criticism accepted. No flames. And no commenting on the spelling please.
POLL:
Should I bring Nagira into this as a brotherly figure for Amon?
No - too OOC
Yes - not as a brotherly figure, more as a person to go to with questions
Yes!