Bible Black

A Book for All and None

By Henry

Author's Note: Yes, this IS a sequel to 'The First Signs.' I recommend reading that particular story first, as it retold the 'La Noche De Walpurgis' storyline. This sequel is appropriately set ten years in the future, and the events run parallel to the 'La Lanza de Longinus', with several characters from the Shin timeline, but tying in much less directly than its predecessor.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bible Black, Neon Genesis Evangelion, or the respective characters thereof. I do lay claim to Asante Hirazuki and Zarathustra.

And so, without further ado...

TOKKEN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT
CONSCRIPTED FIELD OFFICER DOCUMENT: CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

HIRAZUKI ASANTE
Rank: Lieutenant
Department: Shinjuku Main Branch
Missions Completed: 17 S-Rank Assignments, 30 A-Rank Assignments, 74 B-Rank Assignments, 42 C-Rank Assignments, 22 D-Rank Assignments
Official Conscript Number: 002
Assignment Status: S-Rank; Moscow, Russia

Chapter One: The Devil Wears Glasses

Lefortovo Prison, Moscow, Russia

It had been a simple assignment. Operating with officials from the Russian government, he had to be temporarily detained by the KGB and placed in the medium-security facility so he could silently dispose of the intended target, a man the Russian government had captured attempting to detonate a large portion of the Antarctic, which the Russians had repeatedly claimed was their territory.

Though 'officially' the Japanese and Russian governments were in dispute about who deserved to take possession of the trophy prisoner -himself a Japanese national- the prime minister of Japan and president of Russia had made a secret deal to have him killed and make it look like an accident... something ideal, like a prison riot.

A single Tokken agent had been rather unceremoniously dropped just past the Russia-Mongolia border, and subsequently detained by the KGB as both an illegal immigrant and potential saboteur. The man's rather unpleasant demeanor had also contributed to his sentence, and he had been repeatedly struck about the face and chest during the various interrogations before his incarceration.

All -in short- had gone according to plan.

Hirazuki Asante was not imprisoned at all, though he had been trimmed a lot of his mangy dark hair and been forced into a simple white-black prison uniform, he could easily have escaped at any time. The prison guards had dismissed the markings on his hand as some weird Japanese cult thing, so they hadn't restrained his right hand.

That would prove their undoing, once the time was right. At his very first lunch feeding, on the second day of his incarceration, Asante spotted his target, involved in a fight against two Russian inmates, who severely beat the man down, much to the amusement of guards and prisoners alike.

Asante stepped forward, to the man's side, and speaking in their native language asked: "Rokubungi-san? What are you doing here?"

The man looked up through a pair of partially-broken orange tinted sunglasses, virtually identical to the pair Ritsuko used to wear. "Who are you?"

"Hirazuki Asante," he introduced, helping Rokubungi up to his feet. "It's not exactly typical to find another Japanese man in a Russian prison."

Rokubungi dusted himself off and nodded. "I am used to being hated, Hirazuki. I am not used to being helped without promise of reward."

"Then reward me," Asante requested. "Save my backside some time and we'll call it even."

Rokubungi seemed indifferent to this and resumed eating. He said nothing further to Asante, much to the already irritated alchemist's chagrin.

Later in the day, he arranged with one of the guards to make a call to his 'embassy,' when in fact he was going to contact one of Tokken's makeshift outposts, this time a plane set up at Domodevodo International Airport, which would eventually be his means of escape.

"This is 002," Asante stated simply. "Dr. Akagi, please."

His reluctant coordinator came on the phone shortly thereafter. "Yes, Asante-kun, I'm here. Have you found Gendo?"

"Ma'am," Asante answered neutrally.

"There's been a change in your orders," Ritsuko told him. "You are now to escort him out of the prison and bring him to this plane."

"This coming from the top?" Asante asked.

"It's coming from me," Ritsuko replied simply. "This is a scrambled communication, Asante-kun. The Russians and Tokken alike will be on the dark for this."

"If I might ask, Doctor, why do you want this man alive?" Asante asked. "I never expected you to do anything without Tokken's consent."

"Bring him to me," Ritsuko stated simply, and thus ended the communication. Asante sighed and returned to his cell as he prepared for the evening's events. Lying on a cot against the wall, Asante placed his right palm against the stone and began analyzing every element in the walls...

Four hours later...

Every cell bar in the prison fell down. Every single one. Though at first somewhat timid and surprised, the inmates eventually got the hint and started leaving their cells en masse, and made short work of the night watchmen. Asante exited into the crowd of prisoners, searching for the one other Japanese man in the facility.

Locating his intended target, Asante found Rokubungi being assaulted by the same two Russian inmates who'd been beating him earlier. Not wanting to deny Ritsuko's orders nor allow anyone the pleasure of killing the annoying man, Asante pressed his hand upon each man in turn, and ripped all the carbon from their bodies, leaving not but disfigured, watery masses in his stead.

He had expected Rokubungi to be surprised, but the bearded man only smiled at him. "And why did you save me, Hirazuki?"

"A mutual friend of ours' is expecting you," Asante answered. "Now come on," Grabbing Rokubungi with his free left arm, Asante led him to one prison wall and promptly shattered it, leading his apprehended target/new ally out from the prison and into the Moscow tunnel system, working his way back to the airport, to turn over this man to Ritsuko.

He had been eerily silent all throughout, a smile plastered upon his face.

Back at Tokken headquarters, Dr. Nagamine Yurika, the woman who had taken over the Zarathustra project from Ritsuko, presented her findings to the Tokken administrators.

"We still have only one successful prototype?" one of them grunted.

"If you can call it a success," another chimed in. "The creature remains as useless as your research, Doctor."

Dr. Nagamine, flustered and breathless, prepared to give an answer but was interrupted by one of her commanders. "It has been ten years, Doctor. How long can it possibly take to identify the genome needed to mass produce it?"

"We will issue a simple ultimatum, Doctor. Present to us superior findings in the next week, or your project will return to Dr. Akagi's care."

Dr. Nagamine seemed willing to argue but didn't, and bowed to the council, exiting in a hurry and returning to her lab, where her single success waited for her.

"They don't realize how special you are," Nagamine stated. "They only think of you as a soldier; they don't understand the advancements you can make."

The creature growled.

Nagamine ran her hand over the creature's pebbly gray flesh. "Yes, I know what you want. I'll keep you satisfied." She turned off all security cameras and began to undress. "I'll give myself to you as often as you need, Zarathustra."

The creature growled in a more satisfied manner and descended towards her, any other thoughts consumed by monstrous, animalistic lust.