Dark Lady Amon

by amiwakawaiidesu

(Based on characters and situations from "Witch Hunter Robin", created by Hajime Yatate and Shuko Murase)

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CHAPTER TWO

Before emerging from Robin's room at Nagira's law office building, Amon checked Robin's appearance in the mirror and noticed that her hair ribbons were very close to unraveling; when Amon tried to fix the ribbons, though, he just unraveled them more and finally gave up trying to fix the 'handlebars' altogether, letting Robin's hair fall loose around her shoulders.

Stupid ribbons, Amon thought, giving Robin's face one last look in the mirror before turning for the door. I like this look more anyway.

Disturbed though Amon was by his current predicament – trapped inside Robin's body, with his own body nowhere in sight – he immediately regretted being critical of Robin's hairstyle; it was just his frustration at work, for he was a man accustomed to being in total control of himself and his actions. Now, though, he was the steward of another person's identity and the responsibility rankled him – although he knew if the situation were reversed, Robin would be careful and considerate with his body.

"Forgive me, Robin," Amon said, looking into the mirror again. "I promise you, I'll get to the bottom of this."

Amon then reached for the door handle at last, and descended the stairs to the level of the main law office, hearing the heels of Robin's shoes echo in the stairwell. Hana-san, Nagira's secretary, also heard the sound of Robin's shoes approaching, and looked up with poorly-concealed disgust when Robin entered the office area.

"Um…Hana-san," Amon said, "is Nagira available?"

"I'll have you know Nagira-san is meeting with a client right now," Hana replied. "And what's with your hair?"

"Look, I really have to see Nagira; it's very important."

"What, did you miss your period or something?"

Amon thought about for a moment, then realized it had never occurred to him that Hana might assume there was a relationship between Robin and Nagira. But now that he thought about it, Robin and Nagira had spent a lot of time together, and Amon knew his brother was very fond of young girls…

"Look," Amon said, trying not to lose his patience, "I just want to speak to Nagira, all right?"

"Don't you raise your voice with me, young lady! I've had quite enough of Nagira and you sneaking off at all hours of the day and night and doing God-knows-what! I work very hard to keep this office in some kind of order and I don't need some teenage tart coming in here and demanding things on top of everything else I have to put up with – !"

Just then, the door of Nagira's office opened and Nagira himself looked out at the office area.

"Is something the matter here?" Nagira asked.

"Nagira!" Amon said. "I need to talk to you!"

Hana adopted an exasperated expression, while Nagira's legal secretary Hirata just avoided eye contact with everyone in the office, as usual.

"It sounds important," Nagira said. "Can it wait?"

Amon shifted his weight on Robin's feet, suggesting it couldn't wait.

"All right," Nagira said. "Just give me a minute, okay?"

Nagira then withdrew into his office, and remained there for several minutes until the door opened again and Nagira escorted a Chinese man out of the office. Nagira spoke of looking into the man's case and the man seemed pleased, but Amon could only guess what they'd been speaking of earlier behind the closed door.

"Robin," Nagira then said, "won't you come in?"

Again, Hana gave Nagira a sour look but Amon ignored that as he walked through Nagira's door and then accepted Nagira's invitation to sit in a chair near his desk before Nagira closed the door behind him.

"So," Nagira said, as he rounded his desk and dropped into his own chair, "what can I do for you, Robin?"

"Nagira..." Amon said, "how well would you say you know Amon?"

"Well, we did live in the same home for a few months when we were younger," Nagira said. "Why do you ask?"

"There's something I need to tell you, and you might not believe me. But I need to impress upon you that I'm absolutely serious...

"Nagira, I'm Amon."

Nagira – who was just opening a pack of cigarettes – appeared amused.

"You don't say," Nagira said, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag on it. "I always remember Amon being a bit taller."

"Nagira, I'm completely serious. I'm sure you think this is some kind of joke – and I don't know how it happened exactly – but I'm definitely not Robin. I don't know if she's still alive or not – or if she's still in this body – but I know I'm not Robin."

"Okay. So if you're Amon, where's your body?"

"I don't know," Amon replied. "I don't know if Robin told you, but after the collapse of the Factory, I started working one last case for Solomon Headquarters in Europe, investigating the Shinjozuna Corporation, and Robin was helping me. Last night, I arranged to meet a contact at the Shinjozuna parking garage who claimed to have inside information about witches who were working for the company, but instead I was ambushed by three very powerful witches and they clobbered me good. I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly happened after that, but I think Robin drove the witches back with her craft, then I passed out…

"And now I'm here, and I don't know where my body is, or where Robin's mind is."

"So," Nagira said, "even though you look like Robin, you actually have Amon's mind inside you, with all his thoughts and memories?"

"That's right. I remember almost everything about my life…except how I got here last night."

"Well, if you really are Amon, I wonder if you remember that prank you pulled on me when we were kids and we were living together."

"That prank...? Oh, you mean that time I left the thousand-yen coin in the toilet bowl and you got blue dye all over your hand when you went to fish it out?"

"Yeah, that's the one. And what did I do for revenge?"

"You wrote 'baka' on my forehead while I was sleeping," Amon replied, "and painted all over my face with lipstick.Yeah, that was very funny, when I went outside without you telling me first."

Nagira laughed.

"Well, you did have it coming," Nagira said, with a slight smile.

"Perhaps," Amon said.

Amon paused a long moment, then added:

"I don't know where else to go for help, Nagira. I can't go to headquarters because they wouldn't believe I'm really Amon, and I can't go to the STN-J or I might blow the whole Shinjozuna investigation. You're all I've got, Nagira..."

"Easy there," Nagira said. "I didn't say I wouldn't help you. This is just a little peculiar, that's all. It's not every day you find out your little brother is actually a teenage girl."

"At least you're taking it well."

"Well, working with witches, you see a lot of strange stuff. This is certainly near the top of my 'weird shit' list, though..."

Nagira turned his chair toward the window, then took a long drag on his cigarette and slowly exhaled the smoke.

"Just before you came here, a few weeks ago," Nagira said, "there was a witch Robin made friends with – an old Chinese lady named Mrs. Wong who came here for help with an immigration matter. The two of them seemed to get along real well, and I even heard Wong thanking Robin once for some help she gave her. Did Robin ever mention that to you?"

"No," Amon said. "Robin didn't talk much about her life here."

"Well, maybe Robin was afraid you'd hunt Mrs. Wong, just like you hunted her. But you're not a hunter any more, are you, Amon?"

"No, this mission is strictly intelligence-gathering."

"Well, all right, I'm going to trust you then. Mrs. Wong has a knickknack shop a few blocks from here – selling New Age stuff, crystals and amulets and such – but I understand she also knows a lot about the local witches, and she's very respected among her people. I wouldn't be surprised if she knew something about this matter – or at least would know how to point you in the right direction to get some answers."

"Mrs. Wong...right. I'll go check it out."

"Wait just a minute," Nagira said, as Amon started to stand up. "Why don't you wait until I'm done with work this afternoon, then I'll go with you. I don't know if you've looked in a mirror, but you look pretty frazzled. Why don't you go back upstairs and rest for a while. And maybe take a bath, too; that would make you feel better."

"Nagira," Amon said, "I have no intention of taking Robin's clothes off until we found out what happened to her mind. I feel bad enough about this situation as it is; I'm a 26-year old man, for God's sake, and Robin's just 16 years old."

"Well, just don't grope yourself inappropriately," Nagira said, while glancing at his watch.

"In the meantime, I better get back to work or Hana will kill me. Just take it easy, and I'll come up to check on you in a few hours."

X O X O X

As Amon headed back upstairs, he was aware of a vague uneasiness in his stomach for the first time, but he supposed it was probably just something Robin had eaten the night before. As he recalled, they'd both had a late night snack at a ramen stand before going over to the Shinjozuna building, and there was no telling how fresh the ingredients might be at a place like that.

So Amon resisted an urge to get something from Nagira's refrigerator, and instead went back upstairs to Robin's room, where he tried to figure out the trick of tying up Robin's hair properly, but eventually gave up in frustration. He then climbed back up to Robin's bed, kicked off Robin's shoes and laid down on the bed, still wearing Robin's convent dress.

More tired than he realized, Amon then dropped off to sleep almost instantly, only to be startled a moment later by an unexpected voice:

"Amon, is that you?"

Amon woke with surprise as he heard Robin calling to him, but he quickly realized he was still dreaming; he was surrounded by a silvery fog now, and felt very disoriented. He seemed to have his old body back, though, which was a relief. Robin wasn't weak – for a girl her age – but her body seemed very small and fragile compared to the body Amon was used to, and he was always afraid he would damage it if he wasn't careful.

Then he saw Robin, standing amongst the fog in her red coat and convent dress, with her light brown hair done up properly in its twin handlebars, and he was relieved when his own voice came out of his mouth when he spoke to her.

"Robin!" Amon said. "Where have you been?"

"I'm sorry, Amon," Robin said, "I didn't expect this would happen. Has it been difficult, living inside my body?"

"Well, no, it's all right...

"But never mind that. How did this happen? How did I get inside your body?"

"It was a spell I learned recently," Robin replied, "from Mrs. Wong, a client of Nagira's. She asked me to help her score some crystal balls with my fire craft, and in exchange she taught me the spell of Soulkeeping. I never thought I would need it, but then when those witches came to take you away, I couldn't let them do that; I took your spirit inside myself and ran, so they could have your body but they couldn't have your mind…

"I didn't realize how hard it would be to use the spell on another person, though; with Mrs. Wong, I only practiced on small animals, and I was able to remain conscious with their spirit inside me. But after I took your spirit inside me, it took all the strength I had just to get back to Nagira's office before I collapsed. So this is the only way I can speak to you now, in your dreams."

"Will you be able to recover?"

"I think so, but I don't know how long it will take. It may be days, or even weeks, before I'm strong enough to control my body again. But I'm glad you have control of my body in the meantime, and I hope you can use my body to find out what the Shinjozuna witches did with your body. If your body is still intact, then I'll be able to return your spirit to its proper home after I regain my strength and become conscious again."

"I'm just glad you're not dead," Amon replied. "I was very worried about you."

"You're very kind, Amon. You've always protected me, so I am glad to shelter you inside me now...

"I don't mind if you look at me, by the way," Robin added, seeming to sense that concern Amon had raised earlier with Nagira; "I know you're a gentleman, and would never use my body for sordid purposes."

"Robin," Amon said, "Nagira and I plan to go to visit Mrs. Wong later today. Is there anything else we should know before we go there...some way to let her know she can trust us?"

"Mrs. Wong is very perceptive; you shouldn't have any trouble..."

Robin then smiled slightly – a rare expression coming from the normally reserved young woman.

"This might not be the best time to plan any strenuous activity, though," Robin said. "You might be a little preoccupied the next few days..."

Robin then began to fade away into the fog, until only her enigmatic smile remained.

"Wait a moment," Amon said; "what do you mean...?

"Robin! What do you mean...?"

X O X O X

A moment later, Amon woke up sweating, and feeling as if his insides were tied up in knots. He had never felt a stomachache like this before, with such cramping and aching, and he was only barely aware of the sound of knocking coming from the door below his bed.

"Robin...er...Amon...are you all right?"

Receiving no answer, Nagira opened the door and then went inside, where he observed Amon (in Robin's body) writhing in agony on Robin's bed.

"Amon, are you all right?"

"I...don't think so..." Amon said, finally rolling off the bed. "My stomach is killing me...!"

"Is it something you ate? I know that bread in my refrigerator might be a little funky…"

Amon just groaned, curled up in a ball next to the steel bars surrounding the bed.

"Um...wait here," Nagira said, ducking out of the room. Then a few seconds later he reappeared with his secretary Hana, who looked very miffed to be distracted from her work yet again.

"Hana, you're a woman," Nagira said. "Could this be some kind of female problem?"

Hana lifted an eyebrow.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Hana asked, giving Amon a sour look. "Honestly, she acts like she never had a period before."

"Is that what this is?" Nagira asked.

"Well, isn't it? She asked me to get some things for her because she expected it would start any day now. Those don't look like ordinary cramps, though; maybe you should get a doctor."

"Good idea. Oh, but Hana, I wonder if I could ask you a favor...?"

Again, Hana lifted an eyebrow.

"Robin hasn't been herself lately," Nagira continued, "so I wonder if you wouldn't mind staying with her. And if she is just having a period, and needs help with any of those...ah...female products…maybe you could help show her how to use those..."

Hana responded by stamping her foot on the ground, crossing her arms and shooting Nagira a look of ultimate frustration.

"Mr. Nagira, I have had quite enough of your nonsense! It's one thing when I have to tell clients you're unavailable when you're off at a pachinko parlor or gallivanting with your underage girlfriend, but this time you have gone too far! I quit!"

Hana then spun on her heels and turned toward the door, but Nagira grabbed her before she could leave.

"Hana, please! Here…"

Nagira fished in his trousers for his wallet and pulled out 50,000 yen.

"…on top of your pay for the day. And go ahead and bill the whole day as overtime, on me."

Although Hana was still fuming, the 50,000 yen did go a long way toward making her overlook what a jerk her boss was.

"All right," Hana said, taking the cash, "but just this once! Now go call a doctor."

"Domo arigatou," Nagira said, bowing profusely to Hana as he backed out of the door. Hana then slammed the door behind him and turned to Amon.

"Is he serious?" Hana asked Amon. "You have amnesia or something?"

"Something like that," Amon groaned. "Jesus, how do you women put up with this...?"

"Yeah, I ask myself that all the time," Hana said. "Just hold tight and I'll be right back."

Amon grunted in response as Hana left, then rolled over as he tried to find a position that was somewhat less agonizing. Then, when the cramping subsided slightly, it occurred to him that Robin must have gone through this every month, and yet she never showed any sign of distress over it.

I guess we men are sissies, Amon thought. It's probably a good thing we leave this to the stronger sex…