Trials and Tribulations

Chapter 12

Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own the characters from WHR.

"So, Haru, what's up? You sounded... how should I say this? A bit... concerned... on the phone." The boyish looking young man mocked, a teasing smile gracing his face.

"You haven't by chance received one of these, have you?" the lean, black leather clad man calmly asked as he tossed a gray envelope onto the table between them. Kita's eye twitched at the sight. He had received an identical one – silver gray envelope with a stylized dragon slinking across the right side and bottom edge of the envelope. It was an obvious mimicry of the message he had left the girl. 'But why the dragon?' he wondered, as he nodded slightly at his companion.

"So, what do you make of it?" Maki asked, absentmindedly playing with one of his many black and silver necklaces. "I doubt the girl has anything to do with it."

"Never know. Girls are devious like that. Or it could be she's got some boyfriend who thinks he's being cool."

Kita was getting on Maki's nerves. He had never been particularly enamored with the man and his casualness in regards to their current contract was making him even less so. Kita was the one who had been contracted for this, but was unable to do the job himself. He leaned more towards the conniving type of contracts like blackmail and money sharking. Maki and Matsouka, on the other hand, were typically contracted for more violent hits.

"Could be, but I doubt it. Did you read the message inside? This person claims to have taken care of Matsouka. He isn't one to roll-over easily. Whoever it was would have to be pretty good to be able to even cause a scratch."

Maki wasn't particularly worried himself. He was more interested in getting Kita's reaction, especially since the message indicated that the person wanted to meet. So far the smaller man wasn't handling the aftermath of their 'hit' very well. The go-between had already gone into hiding and Kita couldn't find him. A scout had been killed as well, but Kita was insistent that it had nothing to do with the contract. It was obvious to Maki that someone was retaliating, but Kita refused to see any links and thus refused to do any investigating of these incidents.

They knew that the girl was a hunter, the contact had told them that much. Maki knew what that meant. He had known witches who had been hunted before. They also knew that there were 3 women and 3 men on the team in Tokyo. They knew where all three of the women lived. They also knew who two of the men were – a gadget geek who didn't seem to ever leave the office and another young man who rode a motorcycle. The third man never seemed to be around, but Kita didn't seem to care. Their target didn't stay with any of the men, that they had noticed, so Kita wrote all three of them off as being unimportant. Somehow Maki felt that this third man was going to be the undoing of the deal.

After Kita had sauntered away, claiming to have more important things to deal with, Maki continued to ponder the messages the two had received. They disturbed him, and it was obvious that Kita had no idea what was going on. There weren't any gangs that he was aware of that used dragons as part of their symbols. 'Kita could be right, it could just be some kid who thinks he's cool.' There was a sense of foreboding for the man, however. He had seen a dragon like this before.

This dragon brought back memories, actually. When he was about 15, Maki and Matsouka had been recruited to join a covert operations unit for some group called Solomon. The organization was very militaristic, at least the part that they had contact with, which suited both young men just fine. Their specific team had been mostly an assassination group. They prepped together and trained together, but once given a target, they worked alone to kill it.

Most of the teams had some sort of symbol associated with them, a way to indicate who they were without leaving names or speaking. His team's was the dragon. He remembered one day watching one of his comrades, another boy maybe a year or two older than himself, drawing a dragon much like the one on the envelopes. Attempting to start a conversation, Maki had asked if the other youth knew why their unit was a dragon.

"Because, like the dragon, we don't exist. Even if someone saw a dragon they would convince themselves that they were imagining it, just as they do with us," the dark youth had replied tersely.

Maki had been in awe of the other youth from the first time he met him. He seemed to live and breathe their work, never missing a target or getting caught up in the stress of the job like so many others did. He was secretive and quiet, rarely did he speak and when he did, is was short and to the point.

'That was some time ago, though. The whole team was disbanded 7 years ago, so it couldn't be one of them, could it?' Someone who had been from his unit was the only type of person that he could see getting Matsouka. It was an uneasy thought. Kita couldn't even guess at the consequences of running into someone like that.

———

Robin was walking towards Harry's when she stopped to look up at the crisp, blue sky. She was alone, but she didn't mind. Harry's was only a few blocks from the office and on a wide road. She had started this little ritual a few days before – go to Harry's alone, have an espresso, walk back. It wasn't much, and if she told anyone about it they probably would have thought her truly childish, but the walk made her feel like she was slowly getting out of her fear induced paranoia. She didn't like being so afraid.

"So, the little mouse isn't afraid of coming out of her hole by herself anymore?" Robin recognized the voice, but she couldn't immediately remember why. When she turned to see who was speaking, she saw him, leaning against the wall between two buildings. He stood and started walking towards her. Robin turned to run, but the man grabbed her arm and pulled her in between the buildings with him before she got far.

"Do you remember me, little girl?" He had pushed Robin against the wall, holding her wrists together just above her head so that she couldn't get away while one hand roughly covered her mouth to keep her from screaming. The young man was built and dressed much like Amon, even down to the black trench coat. He was tall, close to Amon's height, but was leaner with short, almost spiky hair. Robin silently nodded her head, her emerald eyes wide with fear. He had been one of the two people who had come up behind her when she was attacked.

"If I release your mouth, promise not to make a racket?" Again, the frightened girl nodded.

"Please, don't hurt me," Robin quietly pleaded with the man when he moved his hand to trace the outline of her cheekbone.

Maki leaned down to teasingly nip at her nose. "Now why would I do that?" Watching her squirm, he wished for the millionth time that it had been himself, and not Yoshi, who had been leading the attack on this girl. He would have had much more fun teasing her beforehand. Yoshi was just too damn impatient.

The silence between the two stretched before he finally spoke to the quivering girl again. "I've come bearing a message. Tell your dog to back off before he regrets picking a fight with us. If he doesn't, both of you will pay for it." He pointedly looked over her body before stepping back and releasing her. Then, with that, he disappeared down the alley.

As soon as she was released, Robin ran back to Raven's Flat. She didn't even stop to wait for the elevator, instead opting for the stairs. If nothing else, that route felt faster. When she got to the top, she was panting hard from the flat out sprint she had just done, as well as how frantic she now felt.

"Michael, where's Amon?"

Michael was the only other person in the office at the moment. He glanced up at Robin then turned back to his computer. Quickly he looked back up at Robin, realizing that something was wrong.

"Robin, what's going on?" he asked as he pulled his headphones out.

"I need to talk to Amon, do you know where he is?" The young computer genius could almost feel her panic from across the room.

"Behind you," came the low baritone voice of her partner.

Robin spun around, surprised at his presence.

"Amon, I saw... he grabbed... Harry's..." The distraught girl was talking so fast she was tripping over her own words.

The eldest hunter put his hand on her shoulder, silently interrupting her. "Take a deep breath and try again, Robin. You aren't making sense."

The frightened woman did as she was told, telling Amon everything about her walk to Harry's. As she spoke, she watched her partner's eyes go from their soft gray to smoldering steel. It frightened, but at the same time comforted, her. She was watching him get extremely angry, but at the same time, she knew it wasn't because of her. Not really anyway. It was comforting knowing that he was getting this angry because someone had threatened her – because it meant he actually cared on some level.

"They're stalking you," he said quietly, almost to himself.

"Why? What did I do?" 'What a question,' he thought, knowing that there wasn't an answer.

When he didn't respond, Robin asked another question, timidly and without looking up at him. "Amon, are you the 'dog' that he was talking about?"

The reticent man ignored this question as well. He was positive that he was the 'dog' the person had indicated, but if Robin wasn't going to put the two together on her own, he wasn't going to do it for her. So far Sakaki was the only hunter who had a true reason to link him to any of this and Amon preferred to keep it that way.

A/N: Wow... number 12. I'm actually a bit surprised that it's actually this long and I haven't lost the plot! Anyway, R&R please.