Disclaimer: WHR belongs to Bandai, Sunrise, and the Sci Fi Channel. I would say something witty here, but I think I've run out of witty things to say. Damn.

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Interlude II: Watchdog

The worst part about rain, he decided, was that it was wet. Tanaka Shinji, the guard and groundskeeper for Raven's Flat, settled himself more or less comfortably in his usual seat. Yes, it was quite wet in here. Although there was supposedly a waterproof screen that kept the rain from blowing in, Tanaka had yet to see it in action. And so, rather than sit out and get soaked, he had opted for a quick cofee break. There was little to guard anyway, save the elevator and an old computer terminal. Besides, the terminal was locked away in a side room; there were times when even he forgot about it.

The storm outside continued, although it had lost much of its intensity. Tanaka sipped his coffee. Hmmm, he thought. Save a coaster and small array of office supplies, his desk was decidedly empty. Where did I put it? The absence of his usual magazine was slightly depressing. It wasn't like he never talked to anyone--he greeted each member of the STN-J at least twice a day--but greeting wasn't the same as talking. The guard sighed. He'd checked the box for "likes working with people" on his application. And he'd specifically asked about getting a receptionist position. When he did talk to strangers, they were usually the tall, dark, and uninvited sort.

As he turned to check one of the desk drawers, a scrap of pink caught the corner of his vision. Ahah! It had been hiding in a corner all along, the silly thing. Miraculously enough, it was mostly dry; only the cover had been damaged. "Sorry," he murmured to the smiling girl on the cover. "I forgot to take you with me." The girl did not reply. For a magazine cover, she was rather inarticulate. "At least the Hunters will be back soon, yes?" he continued, turning his gaze from the magazine to the stormy world outside. "They've been out for a while. Must have been a difficult Hunt."

The girl on the magazine continued to smile sweetly. Save for the sounds of rain and a vague shuffling noise, the gateroom was quite silent. Tanaka sighed again. "No use moping about it," he thought aloud. With a deft, practiced motion, the guard flipped to the center of the magazine. His favorite section: horoscopes. "Virgo," he murmured. The rain seemed to have let up a bit, but the shuffling noise was now accompanied by the click of a keyboard. Huh. That was odd. "Enjoy your brief spotlight. One of your colleagues will become relatively absent. If you are not careful, you may get a visit form an uninvited guest."

An uninvited guest. Tanaka glanced around the room, almost hopeful. The last guest he had encountered had been Robin, and she had turned out to be one of the nicest girls he had ever met. Even when she was not present, her Vespa usually was; he'd spent countless hours tuning it up for her, especially after the incident in the Walled City. In fact, it was here now. Its polished metal frame rested gently against the side wall.

Tanaka blinked, frowned, then looked again. Nothing wrong with the Vespa or the wall...but the door set into said wall was swinging gently in the breeze. "That's odd," the guard thought aloud. After placing his magazine in a desk drawer, he got slowly to his feet and begain approaching that side doorway. It should have been locked, he knew. It had been locked; he'd made sure of that before going up for coffee. And once he got close enough to see clearly, Tanaka saw that he was right--he had locked it. Trouble was, that lock was now in a million disassembled pieces on the floor.

Even as he stooped to examine the broken lock, the sounds of shuffling and typing grew louder. Clearly, the noises weren't his imagination. "Hello?" he called, getting to his feet as he did so. "Is someone there?"

Something moved. At a corner of the small room, one computer screen glowed eerily. But the thing that caught his attention was the person standing in front of it, a gawky silhouette against the glare. "Hey!" he yelled. "What are you doing in here?"

The shadow remained frozen; only the soft shuffle of papers being printed interrupted the silence. "Didn't you hear me?" repeated the guard, trying to appear intimidating and important. Finally, something to do... "Only STN-J personel are allowed back here." He made a shooing motion with his hands.

But the shadow would not be shooed. Instead, it grabbed the stack of papers from the printer and then turned to face him. "Move," it said, and Tanaka realized that he was talking to a young woman. Even as she spoke, something shuddered behind him. Tanaka whirled--just in time to see ceiling tiles rip from their sockets and come flying at him. He cried out in surprise. Tiles whizzed by his head, missed--he got the impression she wasn't even aiming for him--and shattered against the opposite wall. Good god, he thought. What was that?

Before he could gather his wits, she was past him, running down the the short hallway and out into the reception area. "Hey!" he shouted again. Although he was no slowpoke himself, she was quickly getting out of range. "Hey!" As a last ditch attempt at stopping her, Tanaka leapt forward and managed to take her down with a flying tackle.

Papers flew everywhere; the girl met ground with a muffled yelp. "G-get off!" she wheezed. When he did not release his hold, she raised a hand as if to ward him off--and he felt himself being shoved backwards. The guard skidded a short distance before stopping. By then, she had picked herself up and was regathering the papers with the help of her telekinesis. Those papers had to be important, Tanaka realized. Moving as quickly as he could, he snagged several before she even realized what he was doing.

They faced each other for one split second, her eyes glaring pointedly at the papers he had managed to grab. Tanaka held his ground, however. This brown-haired telekinetic had gotten past him once. She wasn't going to do so again. For a second more, she paused, clearly making a decision about something. Then she turned and fled as fast as she could, sprinting headlong into the storm.

He'd have to do something about this. Probably call Amon, or Kosaka, or someone. But before he did that, Tanaka shuffled through the pages that he had managed to retrieve. Maps of the areas around Raven's Flat, a list of Seeds in their prefecture, sewer records, Hunter addresses, electricity bills. . .it made no sense. None of it did. Rubbing his head in confusion, the guard settled back in his seat. Kosaka would know what to do. Tanaka would get his head bitten off, but that came with the territory.

A few seconds after he'd dialed the number, Kosaka's voice sounded in his ears. "Hello?" A brief pause, then a muffled shout: "Hattori, where's my tea?"

"Chief," said the guard. How was he going to explain this? As he thought, his gaze strayed to the drawer where his horoscope magazine rested. "There was an uninvited guest, and. . ."

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A/N: Once more, notes are going to be short due to the fact this is an Interlude. I just want to give a huge thank you to everyone who's stuck with the story this far. Updates should be regular from now on (assuming the muses cooperate, anyway). And next chapter...Author's Notes are going to be a little different. Just figured I'd give you the heads-up. :)

--Manny PenPen