Chapter X
"We've lost contact with both Zero and Hazuki. They should have reported in an hour ago," said Goro. Madame Oreille's facial expression surprised him. Her eyes immediately shot open with fear and with her smile gone, she quickly shifted to the edge of the seat. Goro believed that alarm was what she was feeling. He didn't blame her. The woman turned her head to the side.
"Girls?" she asked her twin dolls in an uncharacteristically tentative voice. They shook their heads.
"Damn it," she cursed and returned her attention back on him.
"Get Misaki and Hei back here, now. I want them under 24 hour surveillance, Blitz is dangerous and we can't afford to take any chances –" Mao's voice cut her off.
"We can't do that just now. One of our agents have reported that Kirihara Naoyasu's apartment has been bombed - Misaki and Hei should have been inside the apartment when it exploded. A trap set by the Syndicate no doubt," he said, eyes piercing into Madame O's.
"Besides our priority right now is to notify the intelligence agencies about the Project Cocoon breach and devise a strategy to deal with Blitz. We need Misaki and Hei to protect Kirihara Naoyasu," Goro added, already feeling the air ripple in her disapproval.
"No. That will take too long. They may be too injured to carry out the mission. If she is holding Hazuki and Zero hostage, then she to bound to make another move against us using Misaki's current unstable state. It is not a coincidence that Misaki was made a contractor in time for Blitz's awakening –"
"I agree but we have no proof. MI6 and the CIA will find out soon and if they discover that we were withholding this information then we will cause an internal strife and possibly a war. I am afraid that Blitz anticipated your reaction and is seeking to exploit your-"
"Alright," she said sombrely. Goro could see her forcing down her protests, unsettling as usually Goro found the woman extremely carefree.
"Mao, locate Valkyrie and Hei. Tell them to get ready for the Section 4's annual department party at 7pm. I will get someone to drop off some suits and dresses at their apartment for them to choose from. They are to lay low until then. " With a nod the cat darted off. After a moment Goro decided to follow after the Madame's swift stride. Somewhere in his mind his inner Goro was shouting at him but as he readjusted his glasses, the doubt disappeared from his mind. Perhaps he was worried as well.
(0…0)
Misaki woke up to the faint but abrupt scream of a woman. Her strained eyes opened up to darkness as her body slowly woke up. No matter how many times she blinked the darkness wouldn't go away and her memories did little to help her as they replayed Hei's shocked face and outstretched hand before the explosion.
The sensation of having all of her weight on one side of her body told her that she was possibly laying sideways on something. Her hand clutched onto what it rested on…a leg. Misaki shot up in confusion but she was guided back down by a warm hand that, when she was sideways again, rested on her head. It began to stroke her hair, which she realised was loose and resting on her arm. It was tender; it lulled her back into sleep. She liked that. She hadn't felt this…peaceful in a while.
Misaki reached up, feeling the hand that caressed her hair, only to find that, despite its sudden rise in temperature, she not too long ago held that hand.
"Hei-"
"Ssshhh," he said softly. It immediately confused her, until Misaki realised somewhere in her cloud of calm and confusion that her hair was loose and resting on her arm and that her glasses were no longer on her face. She slowly remembered why. The flecks of flickering lights far in front of her were talking and the chorus of startled squeals and grunts were indeed, she found, from an audience. Misaki looked into Hei's face but she already felt him easing her off of him. Why are we in a cinema?
Disturbed, she remembered exactly whose lap she was sleeping on and allowed herself to be sat up in her own chair. She was about to ask him something but the words melted on her tongue as he leaned in close, lips practically brushing her neck.
"I am going to get you some clothes, now that you are awake," he whispered.
"W-wait. Why?" she managed to reply, beginning to feel disorientated. She tried to remind herself that the close contact was only a convenience, rather than a deliberate attempt to incapacitate her. He came back to her ear.
"You shielded me remember," he murmured and slipped out of the cinema. Misaki looked down and was able to make out huge rips in her black jacket and that all too familiar smell of burning.
It was only when she was sure he was gone when Misaki was able to take a long sigh, shivering from the tingle of her now sensitive neck. This was not good. She tried to focus on the big screen but Hei had chosen seats right at the back of the cinema and no matter how long she squinted at the screen, the blurs remained blurs. Her mind was clouded. She closed her eyes but it only intensified the memory of his lips even more; the heat on her neck was threatening to spread like a disease. She needed to snap herself out of it. Misaki, you are twenty-seven not seventeen. It's logical to lean close to someone if you want to them to hear you, calm down.
She decided to think about Satiou.
After an hour, when the movie was reaching its end, Hei slipped back inside and she felt a bundle of material sit on her lap. She knew where this was going. Misaki gave Hei an expecting look and he calmly turned around as she attempted to squat/ kneel down and take off her coat, very eager to pull the material, which she assumed was a top, over her head. It wasn't a top. She pulled it down to find that it was indeed a strapless summer dress and even her bat eyes could make out in the dark that it was white. She frowned. Did he do this to infuriate her?
When the film ended and the lights came on he began to walk out with the drove. Luckily, Misaki had felt her disposable phone in her inner jacket pocket and three minutes before and was able to text Himuro to disguise them both as a young couple. But, unfortunately she still couldn't see so as Hei began to disappear into the swirls of colour, she snatched his hand before she could stop herself, pulling him to an abrupt stop. Misaki wanted to say that couldn't see and this was the most practical and inconspicuous way for her to get around but nothing came out. His eyes were blurry to her but she could feel his blank but knowing look as he squeezed her hand and led her out. The people leaving the movie looked at them in disbelief when his stomach released a howl. She almost relaxed, almost.
(0…0)
The most logical place to look was in at Naoyasu's apartment and if they weren't there one would look in the surrounding area or maybe eavesdrop on the police. The next logical place to look after an hour or two is their own apartment, a dwelling, Mao found, whose bedroom was currently occupied.
Mao could hear the shameless mewls from outside and, indecisive, debated what to do and how much longer it would take for them to… finish. After ten minutes he began scratching at the window only to be met with two minutes of shuffling before the window was opened Zero sauntered into the front room.
"Mao," he said with indifference. Mao could do nothing but stare and the man in disbelief. This was the third time he had walked in on Zero, (for some reason this is what the man did in his free time) and the kid just stared at him with the calmest expression.Yeah,it's not like you're supposed to be captured right now or anything.
"How are you still alive?" he questioned, jumping onto the table in an attempt to get him to focus on him and not the measly amount of food in fridge. Zero was half naked, the lean muscles underneath his skin stirred and rippled like there was a den of snakes lurking beneath as he reached for a mere milkshake.
"Details, details. I'm just paying my price here-"
"Don't mess with me kid, you don't have a price and if you did you wouldn't be revealing it to us anytime soon, just like with your power," Mao sneered. The kid's games annoyed him; he was too old to deal with his crap.
"You've seen me use my power many times before," Zero's voice was feigned with innocence. He had the same façade projected on his face.
"Just because I've seen your power doesn't mean that I understand it. You know that. So how about we return to the original question," Mao said. He could feel the time fly by him, Misaki and Hei could be dead by now but this guy stood in front of him with a mock pensive look, as if you haven't already invented a lie to tell me, brat. He suddenly felt Zero's face darken.
"Blitz set me free for the sole purpose of putting Madame O on edge. She told me to tell Madame O that 'she will see her soon'. Hazuki is still back there. She hasn't paid her price," he replied eventually. Mao found that his unwavering eyes had his full and unblinking attention which increased the impact of Hazuki's predicament. He had heard the rumours of contractors who didn't pay their price in time…
"Say I believe that, Why was it rational for you to come here?"
"Because Misaki should be here."
"And how does she rationalise anything?" Mao was taken aback to hear Zero curtly sigh.
" Misaki is the only reason why we are all fighting the Syndicate. Whoever the accomplice is, the syndicate are clearly linked to Blitz. They rather want Blitz or have Blitz which is especially bad for us," he said but Mao struggled to see where this was going.
" Why?" Mao asked, inching closer to Zero. He smiled.
"Because Blitz favours Misaki, and we have her," he murmured, turning away from Mao and ultimately leaving him to digest this by himself. If Mao thought about it, it meant that the biggest threat to society was going to hunt Misaki and his team down. Section three would have to go up against an evolved giant. He had to tell Madame O but wait…
"Does Madame O know about this?"
"Yes, some of it."
"Why do you know? Is it safe to assume that you have betrayed Section 3?" Mao questioned, knowing that if he was Mao could escape him on terms of speed alone, in theory. The man turned his head around and gave him a threatening side look.
"I know a lot of things that I shouldn't, cat. One of those things happens to be Blitz and I assure you that Madame O already knows about my predicament. If you want to find Misaki and Hei I suggest you start looking in restaurants because it seems, cat, that kids these days can't live without eating every hour," Zero concluded. It looked like he was about to enter the bedroom
"Why are you interested in… intercourse? You cannot, as a contractor, commit to a relationship and you haven't been seducing women from intelligence agencies for information, so how do you rationalise it?" Mao's query seems to excite the kid since his eyes immediately lit up in its usual splendour.
"The human soul is most honest when it's vulnerable and in heat. Would you like to see for yourself?" he offered, gesturing towards the bedroom. Mao had never run faster from a twenty-five year old in his life.
(0…0)
Satiou paced in his office, Misaki's old office, trying not to think 'what would the chief do?'. The world had gone mad and he was one of the walls defending this mad world. There were scanners in the streets to detect contractors, curfews and regular patrols. They didn't catch criminals anymore, they caught unfortunate contractors. The other day, the checkpoint by the Home run house had detected a contractor. Satiou had taken the guy in and questioned him to find that he had been trying to integrate himself back into a normal world. The guy said it was too dangerous for a contractor to work in a Japan controlled by America. He said that he was tired of being used.
Satiou knew how the chief would have handled it, she would have made him atone for his crimes, probably work for the police then she would have allowed him to live his normal life, under surveillance of course. But, Satiou didn't have the same freedom that his previous chief had. He sighed to himself, he was more of a dog than he had ever been. His orders were to shoot the man. He did. It was the first of many contractors that he had had to kill. It was becoming genocide and no one was doing anything about it. Satiou had remorse for a lot of those contractors but he would have none for BK201. He sat down to in her old chair, it was him, Li Shenshung, who lead her to her death and now he was prancing around with the Black Valkyrie, another phantom contractor, as if the Chief never existed.
No bodies were found in the apartment so thought that they must be in the rubble on the street. They weren't there. The amount of times that he spat 'damn it' to Kouno was unbelievable. He visited Misaki's grave afterwards, vowed that he would let him get away; whispered that he loved her. The higher –ups said that both contractors should be at party tonight. BK201 will not escape.
Bye-Bye
Kei
