Plenoptic

Presenting the first interlude! I'm pretty excited about getting to develop my own Hunter stories. 'Aiden' is pronounced with an 'ai' as in 'hai' or 'cry.' I had a really hard time naming Zero's parents.

Somehow HB has become really mystical, so the interlude chapters will correspond directly with a theme in modern science.

Atavism: n. Genetic throwback; a reappearing ancestral trait.

"As long as you're alright with being Kyrie Kiryuu."

The huntress froze when she heard those words, lowering her binoculars and turning a dark glare on her companion. Taka glanced up at her, flashing her a wide grin before returning to sharpening his sword.

"Hadn't thought of that, huh?"

"...No," Kyrie said reluctantly, tucking a long strand of silver hair behind her ear and turning back toward the street, putting the binoculars to her eyes and focusing on the entrance to the warehouse they were staking out. She had a clear view of the warehouse and surrounding, vacant parking lot from their position on top of the adjoining building. As soon as the nest leader emerged, Aiden would have a clear shot, and their job would be done.

"I just can't believe my little sister's getting married," her cohort sighed dramatically, getting to his feet and placing his sword in its sheath, apparently deeming it sharp enough.

"If you keep saying that, people will start to think we're actually siblings."

"We might as well be." He joined her on the edge of the roof, folding his arms over his chest. There was a chilly breeze in the air; it whipped at his white fringe, blowing it back off his forehead. Pale, ghostly pigmentation wasn't by any means uncommon amongst the hunters, but Kyrie had always admired Taka's snowy hair and clear blue eyes.

He seemed to sense her staring, and blinked down at her before quirking a grin. "What? Falling in love with me?"

Her cheeks flushed, and she turned away quickly, almost smashing her face into the binoculars in her haste to avoid his gaze. "Don't be stupid. Don't you have a girlfriend?"

"She won't let me call her that. She says it's annoying." Taka sighed, sitting on the edge of the roof and letting his legs dangle over the side. "I asked her to marry me."

"And?"

"She threw her textbook at my face." He laughed, scratching the back of his neck. "But she was blushing. She'll say yes next time."

"You're a colossal idiot."

"Thank you!"

"Not a compliment."

"I've always wanted to be a colossal something. Oy, Aiden!"

Kyrie whipped around, dropping her binoculars (Taka leaned forward haphazardly to catch them before they fell off the roof) and scrambled to her feet as her fiancé approached. "Aiden- what's wrong?"

"Hibiki hasn't called in," Aiden Kiryuu replied brusquely, taking the binoculars and looking at the warehouse entrance. "He missed the check-in by three minutes."

"Relax, I'm sure he's fine," Taka almost snorted, remembering at the last moment to check his tone. Even Kyrie would admit that Aiden was harder, at times, than he needed to be, but it was a hardness born of necessity. He was known as the greatest hunter within the Society for a reason, and it was partly due to his infallible cool and collected manner. Aiden was a leader, and he understood better than anyone that leaders couldn't afford to falter.

"Assumptions will get us killed," Aiden retorted flatly, consulting his watch. "If he doesn't report in one minute, we're going in."

The moment the words left his mouth, however, the doors to the warehouse were flung open. Taka scrambled to his feet, hastily drawing his sword as Aiden pulled the Bloody Rose from its holster. No less than five vampires stepped out of the warehouse, holding a man with a hood over his head in front of them. The largest among them- the leader, Kyrie surmised- stepped forward, fangs bared, eyes scanning the rooftops, before pulling the hood from his captive's head.

Taka started forward automatically, but Aiden seized him by the coat, restraining him with difficulty when Hibiki's pale face emerged from beneath the hood. His expression was drawn and resolute, but Kyrie saw the fear in his eyes, and it set a cold knot of dread twisting in her stomach.

"Let go," Taka hissed at Aiden, pulling against his team leader. "Dammit-"

"Hold on," Aiden snapped back in low tones- at this distance, they'd be easily overheard by the vampires. "Keep your cool."

Kyrie held up a hand, shushing them both; the leader was talking.

"Hunters," he said loudly, his voice ringing across the empty parking lot. One of the headlamps flickered. "We know you're here. Come out of hiding, and maybe we don't cut open your friend's throat."

"Aiden!" Taka snarled, straining. Aiden flung another arm around him, shaking his head.

"There are as many as thirty vamps in that warehouse. We can't risk the whole squad."

"They'll kill him!"

"They'll kill all of us if we go down there. We have to fall back."

"Hunters! You have thirty seconds to comply!"

"Call Yagari," Aiden said to Kyrie, nodding at the radio clipped to his belt. "Tell him we need to withdraw."

"Take the shot!" Taka said desperately, making a wild grab for the Bloody Rose, but Aiden held it away from him. "Damn it, Aiden! He's right there!"

"I can't make it from this distance. You know that. I needed Hibiki's go-ahead before I moved in closer."

"Fuck this! Get off!"

"Ten seconds, hunters!"

"Yagari," Kyrie said into the radio, willing her voice to stop shaking. One of the vampires was stepping forward, wicked claws extending like scythes from its fingertips. "We're pulling back. Mission failed. Repeat- the mission has failed."

"This is your last chance," the leader was shouting, turning in circles, searching. They were lucky Taka had a knack for placing troops; the glare from the bright streetlamps in the lot obscured them from view. Aiden clamped a hand over Taka's mouth and forced him down onto his stomach, holding him down with his weight without taking his eyes off Hibiki. Kyrie sank to her knees, reaching shakily for Aiden's hand. He didn't return her grip.

The leader nodded over his shoulder. The other vampire stepped forward, toward Hibiki, who shouted and began to thrash, attempting to shake off the two who held him. Taka had gotten an arm free and was reaching as if he could close the impossible distance between himself and his teammate, shouts muffled by Aiden's glove.

The clawed vampire moved, lunged, and Hibiki's throat opened. The vampires holding him released his arms, and he stumbled forward, coughed, and then tumbled to the ground like a puppet cut from its strings. There was an odd ringing in Kyrie's ears. It obscured the sound of approaching footsteps, distracted her from the voice of their back-up escort, a young huntress who had already secured them a safe route out.

Jaw clenched, Aiden grabbed the back of Taka's coat and seized Kyrie's hand, pulling both to their feet with one hard motion and running after their escort. Kyrie stumbled after him robotically, emptily. She had known Hibiki since she was seven years old. He and Taka used to play pranks on her. Once they caught a cockroach and put it in her backpack. When she cried at seeing it, Hibiki killed it with a rock. When she cried more, upset that they had killed the little creature, he'd apologized and found her a frog instead. She kept that frog until she was thirteen. Her father had killed it then, calling it frivolous.

The cockroach, the frog, and Hibiki were the same. Extinguishable. Expendable. Snuffed out in mere moments.

The next time she was aware of her surroundings, she was in a car, seated between Aiden and Taka while the young huntress sped down the roadway, checking their rearview mirror for a tail. It seemed that they'd gotten away clean; in spite of the threat of death, Hibiki hadn't given away their ambush location. He'd protected them as they couldn't protect him.

"What do I tell them?" Taka asked quietly, turning his head to look at Aiden. The laughter and energy that defined all that Taka was, all Kyrie had ever known him to be, seemed to have drained out of him. "Kyoko and Toru. They live here. They live right here in this city. Hibiki hadn't seen them in four years...he wanted to-"

"Had he contacted them in that time?"

"No." If there was anything to be said for the Hunters' Society, it was that they were thorough. When Hibiki's hunter blood revealed itself, he had been cut away from his human parents, and he remained estranged from them as much as he could. Dutifully. Loyally. His hunter brothers and sisters had become his new family. Likewise, though, when Hibiki did sneak away to see his parents, Kyrie knew that Taka had accompanied him, that the older couple had come to love the enthusiastic hunter as their own. He was no replacement for their son, though. Who could replace a man of Hibiki's caliber?

"He died of leukemia," Aiden said without hesitation, resolutely. "It was sudden and highly aggressive. We didn't know until it was too late even for us to treat him."

"They'll never believe that. They know what he was doing for the Society. They-"

"Will never have the real story, Takahiro, and that's the way it will stay," Aiden said sharply, glaring at his younger partner. "For their own good as well as ours. You will tell him that Hibiki died of illness, that we cremated his body as per our customs, and you will express your condolences. No more. I know, in spite of your efforts to hide it, that you were close to Hibiki's family. That's why I'll let you be the one to tell them. If you cannot stick to the falsified report, I will have someone deliver the news in your stead. Am I understood?"

Taka stared at him, seething silently, but nodded curtly at length and turned to look out the window, watching the city rush by. In the morning, he called Kyoko and Toru, and that would be the last they would hear from him for two more years.

And so concluded the Hiroshima job.

I love, love, LOVE Taka. I'm like a shameless mother.