The girl slips the file out of her dark grey overcoat. She stares at the cover of the manila file folder. So she had found it. Sitting on the ground beside the apartment building, oblivious to the hard ground and miserable cold, and pulls her bright red hair over one shoulder. She draws the hood of the black sweatshirt she wears under her coat over her head.
"Let's see how much they know…"
Naturally someone in her… predicament would not go completely undetected, but there were certain things better left unknown. Getting a copy of the document was a pain in itself. Rumor has it there was a leak of information that was let out. All she could get her hands on was a censored document.
The file read as follows:
FILE NAME: CLASSIFIED
ALIAS: THE POSSESSOR
MESSIER DESIGNATON: ZZ150
CONFIRMED [CENSORED] ABILITIES: [CENSORED] OF HUMANS THROUGH PHYSICAL CONTACT. OTHER ABILITIES CAN BE SHARED WITH THE [CENSORED] PERSON INCLUDING ABILITY TO PASS THROUGH OBJECTS. OTHER ABILITIES IN POSSESSION INCLUDE ABILITY TO GENERATE AND MANIPULATE FIRE. THE LATTER ABBILITIY CANNOT BE SHARED WITH [CENSORED] PERSONS.
KNOWN ACCOMPLICES: UNKNOWN
YOUNG AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. IDENTIFIED THROUGH HEIGHT AND PALE COMPLEXION. WORKS ALONE.
"Well, they got most of it…Damn, well, best lay low here for a while… but still… that boy…"
She slips the file back into the coat she was wearing and slips into the night.
It was a bitter night in autumn. It was harsh and cold and the wind ripped through the girl's jacket. She made her way back home to where she belonged. She knew this would not be true for long.
"Chihiro?" The girl's mother asked as she walked into the kitchen, "What are you doing home so late?"
Chi sat down at the hard marble counter and slid the folder across the smooth surface so her mother could read the file. She knew anyways. Her mother had learned she was a Contractor a couple months after she had found out herself. Most children grown taller and have deeper voices when they hit puberty, Chihiro Nakamura developed the power to fuse with people, granting them the ability to walk through solid objects. She could do this on her own as well as generate and control fire… just as the file had said.
"I had things to do, mum." Chi said, staring blankly at the wall behind her mother's head.
"Well, then…" her mother said as she began thumbing through the file her daughter had tossed on the counter. "… I supposed the only option we have left is…" Her mother sighed as she placed the file on the counter. She rubbed her temples with her thumbs. "Boarding school… we can't just move, you know?... especially because your father doesn't know about your… abilities."
"Mom, there's no way in hell I'm going to boarding school. Besides, you do know how tightly they control you there… what if something happened and I needed to get away?"
"That's true." Chi's mother said. "I supposed we'll have to figure it out later. Why don't you get some sleep? It's well past eleven… just don't wake your father, ok?"
"Yeah, mom." Oh, Chi was well aware. Her father was her biggest nemesis, he just didn't know it. He worked for the government… and he had an outspoken hatred of Contractors.
Terrorist this, a 'threat to society' that. It doesn't make any difference he's my father. He hates me all the same.
Chi sat by her desk, staring out into the blackness of the night. She let ten minutes pass before walking into the attached bathroom to take a shower.
The sky…It wasn't just black.
Chi looked at her pale complexion in the mirror.
"It was darker than black."
She undressed and got into the shower. She couldn't help but stare at the scars on her arms and legs. Purple bruises were forming around her knees. She had a gouge that was still in the process of healing above her shoulder.
"Should have seen it coming. Hell, I would have passed right through it. What was I thinking?"
She painstakingly rubbed the cuts and scrapes with soap. The burning soap and the hot water made them turn inflamed and red.
Never again… I promised… never again are they going to hurt her… to hurt me… anybody. Never. I would die for you…
She washed her hair and stepped out of the shower. She stared at herself in the mirror, covered in red scars, like a tiger… like an animal. But that's all they considered Contractors… animals.
"No, I will die for you… Umeko."