Darker than Black
Chapter Ten: A Kiss Goodbye
Day after Misaki's kidnapping:
The near death experience Mito had faced from BK201 yesterday had put him on edge, making him pace his office that was dimly lit by a lamp on his desk, as he rubbed the wound BK201 had left on his neck. He was grateful to be alive, but it was also humiliating. The only thing that he was pleased about was that his window had been fixed immediately.
His best agent, ML921, had been lucky to use his ability just as Misaki impaled him with BK201's knife, but the embarrassment had pierced his pride. He had pledged to make her pay for his shame.
Mito grabbed a glass of whiskey on ice and drank it. He began to think of ways to capture Section-Chief Kirihara again in order to kill BK201 and stay alive, but how were they going to do it successfully?
There was a knock at his door.
"It's unlocked," Mito said.
It eerily creaked opened. A short man slowly entered and walked into the light to stop where his face was still in the shadows. Mito frowned at him while taking a sip of his whiskey.
"I was waiting for you to show up," said Mito bluntly after swallowing his drink.
"You and the Syndicate had a lot of nerves to kidnap Misaki behind my back," the shadow-figured man stated.
"Don't you dare lecture me!" barked Mito, as he slammed the glass on his desk, splattering his drink all over his paper work. "She is the key to finding BK201."
"And look what had happened, Mito. It got you nothing and almost cost the Syndicate their best agent. One other thing: what would you have done to her after you killed BK201?"
Mito leaned on his desk with his arms supporting him up, as he narrowed his eyes at the figured man to say, "You know exactly what we would have done."
The shadow-figured man didn't speak, but Mito knew his face was burning with hatred, which enlightened his mood.
"I warn you now, Mito," threatened the shadow-figured man. "Don't you or your lackeys ever attempt to kidnap her again, or you will face my wrath."
"Don't you dare threaten us!" snorted Mito. "You are just a puppet, and you do what we tell you, or have you forgotten?"
The figured man pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Mito. Mito tensed as he stared down the barrel and feared to see a bullet fly from it.
"I might be a puppet," stated the man, as he walked into the light, "but now and then my strings you pull end up snapping."
Mito gulped slightly, as sweat ran down the side of his face while staring at a devilish looking Kirihara Naoyasu. Naoyasu stopped before Mito with the gun a meter away from his face.
"Bold move, Kirihara," Mito said bluntly, but fear had echoed from it.
"Don't underestimate me, Mito," threatened Kirihara through clenched teeth. "Misaki is all I have left after her mother had died, and I will risk my own life to save my daughter if I have to."
Mito blinked at him confused from his words, and then started to laugh.
"What a joke, Naoyasu!" Mito smiled devilishly. "Misaki is all you have left? We all know the truth about that, and about that woman named Megumi?" Naoyasu's right eye twitched. "What, you didn't think we noticed? What would poor little Misaki say if she knew daddy was fooling around with a woman her own age?"
"If you test me too much, Mito, my finger might flinch more than what it should."
Mito stood silently to see if Naoyasu was bluffing, but he saw only death in his eyes.
"I could have you killed for this," was the only thing he could think of to say, and hoped Naoyasu would give in.
"It doesn't matter to me, as long as she's safe."
They stared at each other, waiting for the other to blink.
"All right," Mito finally caved in sighing. "I will talk with everyone about backing off."
Kirihara held the gun to Mito's face for a few seconds, wondering if the old man was pulling his strings, and disarmed the gun. Kirihara holstered it and turned to leave.
"And don't you dare point that gun at me again, or you will be lying six feet under the ground," Mito said, acting as if he had won the showdown.
Kirihara didn't respond to the comment and walked out of the room.
Present:
Saitou had lost sight of Misaki for a brief moment and thought nothing of it, but as minutes passed by he began to wonder where she was and started searching for her. He had saw Kanami watching the dance floor flabbergasted and had asked her what she was looking at. Apparently it was nothing in which he decided to continue his search for his date.
He looked for fifteen minutes with no luck, and wondered if she had gone to the restroom. Saitou walked over to where Kanami was talking with Yamato's wife.
"Oi, Ishizaki, ma'am, do you two know if Misaki went to use the toilet?" he asked.
"I just came from there and I didn't see her," Kanami replied. "In fact, I haven't seen her since…?" Kanami hesitated on her words.
"Since when?"
"Eh, after she left the bar to talk with her father."
"Well," Sakura began "I don't know if it matters, but she came over to my husband and said something about someone being here. He went to go tell a guard and I haven't seen her or my husband since."
"Who was the person?" Saitou asked.
"Misaki didn't give a name, but a code number. I believe he was a Contractor with the number LM129, or something like that."
"A Contractor?" blabbered Kanami and Saitou together.
Saitou looked at her shocked for a few seconds, and then went over to a guard with Kanami following. He asked him if he knew whom Yamato had spoken to.
"My partner," the guard said. "I haven't seen them since, or where they went. Security is on high alert at the moment, but I wouldn't worry over the situation, sir."
Unfortunately, Saitou was concerned when it came to Misaki. A black figure caught the corner of his left eye near the side exit. He decided to check it out, stepping through the door, and stared at an empty hallway. Saitou had had this feeling he was experiencing déjà vu, like he was back at Alice's party as he tried to help Misaki escape. It felt like someone had disappeared out of nowhere.
Misaki and Yamato followed the guard down the stairs after ML921 and his date. Misaki was having difficulty keeping up in her Yukata and sandals, and started lagging behind.
She wondered if what Li had said was the reason why the Syndicate's agents had infiltrated the American Embassy. She thought of how they would be able to arrest the Contractors without the proper equipment, especially at how skilled ML921 was.
Suddenly, the stairs under the guard turned sideways into a slide, causing him to fall on his bottom and turn on his side, as he scratched and clawed at the concrete. Yamato went to grab his arm, but missed in which the guard slipped off and screamed to his death. Misaki came up behind her commander and looked away before the guard came to a sudden stop.
"ML921's power, I take it?" questioned Yamato.
"No, it must be his partner's since he makes a black hole," replied Misaki.
"Really. You think you can jump this?"
"Hai."
Misaki kicked off her sandals, as Yamato jumped the slide. He turned around and waved her to follow, which she complied, and barely made it. They cautiously continued downwards while watching for any more traps. She wondered how far ahead the two Contractors were and hoped she and her commander would catch up soon.
Yamato unexpectedly stopped to where Misaki ran passed him, and then halted to turn around as her eyes widened in shock, noticing his foot had been caught in a black hole. The next thing she saw was the stairs turning into a slide under his feet, forcing Misaki to dive and quickly grab his right arm.
Yamato looked up at her displeased for doing something so foolish and shouted, "Baka, let go before the stairs where you stand turn shape!"
"No," grunted Misaki, struggling to hold onto Yamato's arm.
The stairs under her body changed into a slide, causing her to fall along side her commander. Misaki's heart seemed to stop. Fear of never having Li hold her again coursed through her body, as her life with him flashed before her eyes.
"LIIIII-KUUUUNNN!" she screamed.
Suddenly, a wire wrapped around Misaki's and her commander's waist, and then slowed their descent. Misaki stared wide-eyed and flabbergasted from Li's daring rescue. She tried to look up to see him, but the wire disappeared at the top floor.
"BK201 saved us?" questioned Yamato looking up.
He then glared at her with beady eyes to show he knew BK201 had meant to protect her from harm. She was expecting him to say something, but he kept quiet.
As they drew closer to the ground, the dead guard's body lying awkwardly grew in size. A few moments later their feet touched the ground, allowing the wire to loosen and recoil upwards.
Yamato looked upwards and shouted, "Show yourself!"
Li didn't answer, irritating her commander.
"COWARD!" His voice echoed in the stairway.
Yamato glared at Misaki and gestured with his reddened face for her to follow him into a cluttered garage. They walked over to a door to their right, and stepped through it to find they were in a narrow hallway. Half dozen guards were lying dead from stab wounds, or they had been stuck in the cement like from the movie The Philadelphia Experiment.
"Impossible?" questioned Yamato skeptically.
Darker than Black
Misaki and Yamato continued forward, avoiding the men who were begging for help from their graves, and entered the next room with their weapons drawn where men and women had faced the same result. Misaki noticed ML921 and his partner's backs were turned since they were looking through a window with a huge machine in a grand laboratory.
His partner wore a stunning blood red dress that was laced over her shoulder, and shaped to her hourglass figure. Her dark and silky hair hung down to her waist, and her feet were bare, probably because she had ditched a pair of high heels to be more mobile.
She pulled out a piece of tissue from her black leather purse and ate it.
"You'll have to use your power again, so why even bother with your obeisance?" asked ML921.
"Cause it tastes good," replied the woman.
Figuring she could get the drop on ML921, Misaki placed her finger on the trigger and fired, surprising Yamato. Unfortunately, ML921 created a black hole to swallow her shot, making her cringe from the failed attempt.
"Still trying to kill me from behind, Officer Kirihara?" asked ML921, as he turned to face them.
Misaki felt sweat traveling down the side of her face and feared the worse. Surprisingly, Yamato stepped in front of her, aiming his gun, and shot at ML921 only to receive the same result.
"Hey, Tsu, Commander Yamato isn't as smart as he looks," commented the woman. "He should have known not to waste ammo after seeing your ability."
The ground underneath Yamato changed into a liquid substance, causing him to sink into it and then had it hardened with his head and gun hand sticking out. The woman was going to deal with Misaki, but Tsu snatched her arm.
"She's mine," he said and stepped before the woman.
Misaki took a step back, fearing of what the man would do to her, and wondered if she'd see the sunrise. His eyes lit up, but before he could summon his power, a double-edged blade was thrown at him. ML921 didn't have time to swallow the knife with his ability, so he instead used his arm to block it. He looked over to where it had originated from, and then his eyes widened from surprise, as he noticed a wire connected to the blade. Electricity ran through the line and shocked ML921, sending him backwards as the blade was yanked from his arm, and crashed through the window to fall out of sight.
Misaki looked back to stare at Li to see he was wearing his white mask, and his trench coat over his tuxedo. Her heart swelled with joy and started breathing easier.
"BK201!" shouted Yamato.
Li turned his attention to the woman, flung out his wire to dodge the concrete turning into liquid below him, and landed near Yamato. She tried it again, releasing Yamato from his prison, and allowing Li to save him. They soured off and landed next to Misaki.
The woman snorted at Li before hurtling through the shattered window. Li was going to follow, but stopped as Yamato shouted, "FREEZE!" Li turned to look down Yamato's gun. "You're under arrest, BK201, or should I call you Hei?"
The officers and Li stood in silence; the machine's hums were the only thing that could be heard. The air seemed tense to Misaki, as she tried to breathe from the stand off.
"Call me what you like," Li replied moments later.
"Misaki, why aren't you pointing your gun at him?"
Misaki hesitated. She couldn't draw her weapon on the man she was in love with. Noticing her expression, Li turned towards the window, which frustrated Yamato and compelled him to fire.
"NO!" shouted Misaki uncontrollably.
Time seemed to stop for her, as she stretched out for him while thoughts of Li being killed crossed her mind. She imagined holding him in her arms as his life slowly slipped out of the wound her commander had induced, her tears drenching his face while he smiled up at her one last time, and then his eyes diminished as his life slipped away from his body.
Surprisingly, the bullet reflected off his coat, resurfacing a memory of a bullet ricocheting and snapping his wire to destroy his mask and revealing Li's face to her. Misaki wondered why she couldn't remember that day, but guessed it was because of the Syndicate. The only thing she cared about at the moment was that Yamato's bullet hadn't pierced through Li's coat and body.
Her boss was looking at Li surprisingly, as Li hopped through the window after the Contractors. Yamato then turned to look at Misaki displeased.
He said nothing since words were the last thing on his mind.
Hei landed on a catwalk and looked over at the massive machine sitting against the back hall. Three levels of catwalks lined around it with work areas that had tons of buttons to push. The third level had an access extending over from the exit. Two stairwells descended to the ground: one along the front wall, and the other in front of the machine. Two pillars lay center and divided the weight they were to support.
Workers, wearing white coats, were hiding under his or her work area; shaking in fright from the intruders, and flinched when they noticed him.
Hei looked at a quivering male worker and asked, "Where'd they go?"
The worker answered by pointing down to the ground.
"Arigatou."
Hei climbed over the rail and dropped to the ground level. He scanned the misty area in order to find the two Contractors; nauseated that the Syndicate had sent ML921, and disappointed he had not died during their first encounter.
A black hole was thrown at Hei in which he dodged, and threw one of his knives while jumping back as the ground liquefied.
"Impressive, BK201," stated the woman. "May I kill him, Tsu?"
"I would like to kill him, Haruko, but ladies first," replied Tsu.
"I'm far from being a lady, but thank you anyways."
Her brown eyes glowed red. Hei contemplating the floor was about to liquefy again, but he noticed a circular portion of the ceiling plummeting towards him with silver liquid around it. Hei rolled out of the way, as it struck where he stood, shattering into pieces, and destroying a portion of the ground, as the silver liquid spattered everywhere.
A meter of a pillar's bottom and top portion formed into liquid to splash on the ground near Hei, causing the rest of it to fall sideways at him, which he dodged before it ruptured on the floor and shook the ground.
"You're quick, BK201," said Haruko.
She dropped another portion of the ceiling, causing Hei to roll out of the way. He ran along her side in which she created a silver puddle in front of him, but he jumped over it and threw his knife to impale her heart. Haruko dropped to her knees, and then fell forward dead.
ML921 frowned and ran at Hei, using his ability to swallow a knife Hei threw, and started fighting him hand-to-hand. ML921's left cheek was struck hard and stumbled back into the machine. Hei moved in for another attack, but he instead found his foot caught in a black hole. He decided to throw two knives, one being swallowed, and the other impaling Tsu with a wire connected to it. Hei preformed his power, shocking ML921 and the machine.
The machine started acting weird, which made ML921 decide to run, as Misaki and Yamato entered. Misaki ran over to check on Hei, looking terrified that he was trapped in ML921's black hole. Yamato showed no surprise.
"You two need to get out of here!" shouted Hei.
"Not without you!" pleaded Misaki.
Hei took off his mask and looked into her brown eyes.
"Misaki, please," begged Hei while placing his hand on her cheek.
They stared at each other for the longest time, neither of them speaking, as they lost themselves in each other's eyes. How beautiful they were and how calm they felt as he kept his eyes on hers. Hei slowly leaned towards her, longing to kiss Misaki, but hesitated centimeters away unsure of her emotions. As if she sensed his uncertainty, Misaki enclosed the gap between them and pressed her lips against his.
They tasted of wild cheery, paralyzing and drowning him in the luscious savor. Their kiss intensified, Misaki and Hei parting only for air, as she entwined her arms around his neck while he wrapped his behind her back and drew her to him.
Nothing existed for Hei except Misaki, and he wanted it to be this way, but reality hit him and pushed her away.
"Go," he whispered.
"No," cried Misaki, as a tear ran down her cheek.
"Please."
Misaki shook her head.
"Son of a…" muttered Yamato, rolling his eyes. "Let's go!"
He grabbed Misaki's arm and dragged her up the catwalk and out of the room with her screaming. Seconds later the machine whined in protest of the extinguishing power, which caused the room to be engulfed in white. Hei believed he had just died, but the bright light diminished to show he was still alive. He looked down at his foot to see it was no longer bound to the black hole.
He then noticed the machine looked to be old and destroyed with cobwebs all over it. The ground was centimeters thick with dust, and only emergency lights were working. Hei ascended the creaky staircase and walked along the rusty catwalk. He wondered if the machine had done something to the metal, but what would have grown the cobwebs and dust within seconds?
He walked through the door, and as he headed down a diminished hallway that was infested with rats, he hoped Misaki had gotten out of the laboratory. He entered the garage to see it looked to have been abandoned for years.
Hei headed up into a rugged down lobby where thick metal plates were placed on the sliding doors. He walked up to it, cursing the thing for not opening, and called on his power to send twelve volts into the line and open the doors. A darkened sky lay behind it.
He stepped onto the circular brick driveway that was cracked with weeds growing from them, and vines lining the archway. Hei walked out to the streets, marveling at vehicles that looked to be futuristic driving by. He began to wonder what had happened a few minutes ago. Had he died and was living in an afterlife version of the world? No, he hadn't died. If he were dead he would be talking with Mao, Huang, Amber, and his sister. What had happened to make everything around him different?
Suddenly, a blue modern-style Porsche screeched sideways to a stop, blinding Hei from the lights. He tried to see through the window, but it was too dark.
After a few minutes passed by, someone exited the car's left side, showing he or she was average height for a Japanese person, and pointed his or her gun at him.
"Don't move!" ordered a feminine voice. Hei thought she sounded like Misaki, but she had a higher pitch. "BK201." She said with discuss. "To think you've been alive all this time when you should be dead."
"Nani?" questioned Hei. "Me, dead?"
"Don't play dumb, BK201. How'd you do it?"
"I—I don't know what you're talking about?"
"LIAR!"
The figured woman slowly approached him, stepping into the light to show she had long black hair tide back, and she wore blue jeans with a tight t-shirt. A badge was clipped to her pants, but what caught his attention the most were her brown eyes. He had stared into them only moments ago.
"Did you even bother to think of how my mother had felt?"
"What did you say?"
A/N: I am sorry for the big cliffhanger, but I found that this was the only way I could end this chapter and set up for the next one. I am wondering what you all think, so please let me know. Thanks.