Chapter Fourteen: Betrayal
Past:
Hei, Amber and Havoc arrived at the northern quadrant to see Contractors and humans lying side-by-side dead, or trying to fight off the ambush they had been suckered into fighting. Havoc ran into the mist of the battle. She glowed blue and made a vacuum-like hole to suck in opposing troopers.
Hei and Amber trotted around the battlefield, killing the enemy if they got in their way. Hei threw his blade over end to have it impale a soldier, as Amber fired the assault rifle she held to exterminate three men.
"Do you see my sister, Amber?" Hei asked.
"No!" shouted Amber.
They continued attacking the enemy, as Hei fought in close combat with a soldier, and snapped his neck while Amber watched his back.
As soon as the enemies were dealt with, the remaining Syndicate men regrouped. Hei, Amber and Havoc joined them.
"Have you seen my sister?" Hei asked.
"She was fighting with a group east of here," said a man.
Hei, Amber and Havoc stormed off towards it.
They reached the vicinity to see Bai lying in the mud with two-dozen men floating dead in a swamp. Hei ran over to her and cradled her in his arms. Bai had blood pouring down her forehead and between her eyes. He checked for a pulse and was pleased to find one.
Moments later she opened her eyes and said, "Brother, you're all right."
"I should be the one to say that, Bai," said Hei, and helped her stand. "What happened? Did you electrocute them?"
"No, one of our own men blew himself up to take out the enemy. I was caught in the blast."
"How about we get out…"
Suddenly Havoc struck Hei in the back of the head with the butt of a rifle, and fell forward onto his stomach. His vision became hazy, as blood poured down into his eyes. He looked up at his sister who was staring at Amber. Amber walked up to his sister, holding the meteor shard they had stolen together, and handed it over to Bai.
Hei felt betrayal overwhelm him from the woman he had fallen in love with. How could she steal the shard, knowing the consequences, and why was she handing it over to his sister. Were they planning something diabolical, and had they both deceived him the whole time? Was it Amber who had set up the ambush?
Bai looked over at him; showing no signs of remorse or regret before Hei passed out.
Present:
The sun peered through the seam in Misaki's blinds to shine onto her eyelids. They twitched, making her turn on her side while keeping her naked body under the covers for warmth. She reached out for Hei, but she felt her sheets instead.
Misaki slowly opened her eyes to see she was alone in her bed. She sat up while holding her covers over her and gazed around her room to see his clothes had vanished from the floor as well. Misaki stood from her bed and walked into her living room; hoping to see him on her couch watching television, but it lay unoccupied.
She bit her bottom lip to hold back her tears since she knew this would happen. However, one had escaped her right eye. Misaki wiped at it and walked into her shower to rinse off the long and wonderful night away.
As she stood in her shower, her mind drifted on how romantic Hei had been. In her opinion, she would think a Contractor would play it rough in bed, but Hei had been gentle with her.
To her, it seemed he had done it before, which made her slightly jealous since he was her first. Misaki was so uptight with her work she didn't think she had time for a relationship, and she ended up pushing men away from her. Although, when she met Hei as Li, something about him changed her mind about her life.
She exited her shower, wrapped a towel around her, and returned to her room to dry her hair. Once she finished with that, she dressed in a clean suit, and placed on her glasses. Misaki walked over to her bed to lie on it and take in Hei's scent before she headed off to work.
Suddenly she noticed black hair on her pillow. A thought crossed her mind, wondering if she should do it behind Hei's back, but her curiosity swallowed up her rational being. She picked up the hairs to put them in an envelope and placed them in her purse next to Marcile's hairs.
Misaki exited her apartment, descended to the garage, and entered her car to drive off towards her work. While she drove, her thoughts continued to linger on her night with Hei. Would it be their only time together, or would they have a night like that again? She hoped the latter.
She pulled into the Foreign Affairs garage moments later. She exited her car and ascended to the science lab. She located an elegant woman and walked up to her.
"Hello, I'm Section-Chief Kirihara Misaki," she said. "I need you to do a comparison on these hairs." Misaki handed over both hairs. "I'd like you to only report to me about the results."
"Hai," the scientist nodded, and took the hairs.
Misaki headed up to the fourth floor and sat down at her desk to begin her work. Her mind returned to Hei. Somehow, he had put a curse on her, as if to make her thoughts dwell on him.
Marcile walked up to her desk and stood at attention. She looked up at him baffled for his military pose.
"What is it, Marcile?" she asked.
"I was wonder, could I have the afternoon off for Azumi's party tonight?" he asked.
Misaki, not caring about the request, looked away and said, "Go ahead." She wanted to get her thoughts back on Hei.
"Really? Thank you so much, Chief!" he chimed, and ran back to his desk.
Later on in the day, Misaki forgot her promise to Marcile as she left to go see Kanami for lunch. She walked up to the bench where her friend was sitting. She was pleased to see Kanami finishing her cigarette and smothering it in an ashtray on top of a trashcan. Misaki sat next to her while setting a McDoness bag between them and grabbed a burger to munch.
"Glad to be out of the hospital?" Misaki asked between bites.
"Happy," replied Kanami. She took out a fry to throw it in her mouth and chewed. "And I'm glad to eat something as good as this. I'm also excited to return to work."
"How are things going at fixing the place?"
"Now that the charts are working. Slow. Those engineers take breaks every half an hour to gossip about what men gossip about and other things. If most of them weren't cute, I'd kick them out of the lab so I can do my job. They're always in my way and it's getting on my nerves.
"What's up with you, Misaki? Why are you in such a mood?"
Misaki choked on her food for a second and then said, "Wha—what do you mean?"
"Ootsuka called earlier to get some more info on QU025. She also told me you look love struck. She asked me if I knew anything about it. The first thought that came to me was Li being in town. He wasn't kicked out of town, was he?"
"Eh, no. And how can Ootsuka tell? She's in love with her anime stuff."
"Don't ask me. Maybe because her anime stuff can have a lot of fluff in it and she picked up it from that."
"Wha—what did you tell her?" Misaki stuttered to say.
"I wasn't sure, because I wasn't. Don't worry; I didn't say anything about Li to her. So why are you love struck?"
"I—I'm not love struck."
"Liar. I noticed you walking a little bow-legged."
"S—so?"
"So; you either magically grew family jewels, or you and somebody, namely Li, slept together."
Misaki, finding it hard to eat her food, blushed. It seemed Kanami was the detective and Misaki a lab rat.
"I'm right, aren't I?" teased Kanami, smiling devilishly while leaning close to her. "How was he?"
Misaki's eyes drifted over to her, her cheeks bright red, and said, "Can… can I keep that to… to myself?"
Kanami frowned, sitting up straight as she closed her eyes with her nose pointed upwards, and said, "Don't worry, I won't ask anymore. He was probably bad if you don't want to talk about it."
"Hey, don't get the wrong idea!"
"Heard that line from you before," Kanami smiled.
Misaki gulped, remembering saying that line after Kanami had caught her talking to Li in the bra section. That day had been an embarrassing day for her.
"If he wasn't bad; and you two had had a wonderful night, then why the long face?" Kanami asked.
"How can I put this?" muttered Misaki, as she gazed at the ground. "He… It was probably our only time. He… might be leaving again."
Kanami's cheerful mood diminished from Misaki's agony posture.
"Imm—immigrations?" she asked. Even though it wasn't the case concerning Hei's situation, Misaki nodded to it. "I'm sorry."
Misaki looked up at her friend and smiled for her support. She took another burger from the bag and began eating. Kanami snatched another fry to stuff it in her mouth.
"You know," continued Kanami between bites, "you could marry him to keep him in town."
Misaki choked on her food again.
---
Azumi walked through the halls of her school and smiled at her friends, as they passed by with her best friend, Kiku, beside her. She had long hair, dark eyes, plumped face, and stood the same height as Azumi.
"Today's the big day, isn't it," she said. "You're eighteen."
"Hai, I know," replied Azumi. "Mars-kun said he'd be at my party tonight too. Maybe I can sneak out of my place with him, and well, you know." She blushed.
"You think he has any experience in that area?"
"Have no idea."
Azumi noticed her other friend standing in the mist of everyone staring off into space. He had short black hair, a sharp face with narrowed eyes, and he stood a few centimeters taller than Azumi and Kiku. Azumi walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He snapped out of his daze and looked back at her.
"Azumi? I didn't notice you had snuck up on me," he said.
"That's because you were staring into space, Nachi," said Azumi. "What were you thinking about?"
"I—I don't know? Everything seems to be a blank until you tapped me on the shoulder."
"Oh. Eh, you're still coming to my party, right?"
"Of course. How could I miss your eighteenth birthday since you only get it once! I also want to meet the guy who stole your heart from me."
"If you're thinking of taking him on, you'll lose, since he's a cop."
Nachi smiled and said, "You always liked the bad boys."
Azumi made a slight curtsey while winking and sticking out her tongue. Nachi turned away from her and headed for his next class, as did Azumi and Kiku.
---
After school, Nachi walked along a ravine heading home. Times like these he liked to be alone with nobody to bug him. He was a little upset that Azumi had a boyfriend: even if you could call them that since how they met. He had asked her out a dozen times, but she kept on turning him down.
He figured for her to go out with him he had to do something terrible, but he couldn't do such a thing.
Suddenly he began to pass out and stood still, as his eyes went out of focus. The ground started to quiver and shake under his feet, and then the concrete broke before him to trail along into the ravine.
Nachi snapped out of his daze; wondering what had happened, and then noticed the crack before him.
"What the heck?" he questioned. "What just happened here?"
"Hey, kid, are you all right?" asked a plump man, as he ran up to him.
"Eh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. What's going on?"
"What's going on? Didn't you feel that earthquake just a second ago?"
"Is that what happened? I had dozed off for a bit."
"Dozed off? In the middle of an earthquake?"
Nachi, feeling awkward about what the man was thinking, began to run off. The man pulled out a phone and dialed 119.
"What is your emergency?" asked a voice.
"I think I just encountered a Contractor," the man said.
---
The day had been dragging on for Misaki at the Foreign Affairs. She was getting impatient to know the lab results she presented earlier and prove her theory.
The phone on her desk rang. She snatched it quicker than Hei could whip out his wire and said, "This is Kirihara."
"Section-Chief, I have the results," said the scientist.
"And?"
"You want to do this over the phone?"
"Yes, now tell me what you have."
"There's no match," she said.
"No match?" questioned Misaki. "Could there be at least a comparison of some sort? Like maybe brothers perhaps?"
"Yes, they share part DNA. I checked the data base, and I'm not going to ask why Fukazawa Marcile's hair ended up in my lab, but I checked the records for the other hair."
"Get anything?" Misaki asked hysterically.
"Yeah, a dead ten year old. Apparently, a Li Sheng from China had to give blood to his baby sister, Xing. They were killed in a fire a little after Hell and Heaven's Gates appeared."
Misaki's eyes widened, believing Li Sheng is Hei. She had found more information than she expected to find.
"Thank you," said Misaki and hung up the phone.
Moments later Saitou came up to her. She looked up at him and waited for him to speak.
"Chief, we got a call saying some guy might have spotted a Contractor," he said. "I called Kanami, but even though they're only at sixty percent running capacity, she was able to determine there was no Contractor active."
"Apparently the man thought wrong," said Misaki.
"I thought so too, Chief, but I had heard a small earthquake was recorded in that area: only in that area."
Misaki blinked at him a few times and then said, "You're not thinking…?"
"We might have a Moratorium," he said.
"Did you get a description of the kid?"
"Yes, and I sent it out to all units. The public doesn't know yet so we can avoid a panic with the locals."
"All right. Get Detective Fukazawa to give you and Kouno a hand while scanning the streets."
"Fukazawa? Chief, don't you remember? He said you had said he could take the rest of the day off for his girlfriend's eighteenth birthday."
Misaki smacked her head at letting him have the rest of the day off since her mind was somewhere else at the time.
---
Marcile walked up to Azumi's apartment holding a small present and knocked on the door. Seconds later the door opened to show Azumi's mother smiling at him.
"Glad you could make it, Marcile," she said. "Come on in."
He entered to see the small place slightly cramped. Azumi was over by the window wearing a pink shirt and blue jeans. She was talking with her best friend about something when her eyes drifted over at him. Azumi turned to face him smiling and ran up to hug him. She pulled away from him and gazed at the present in his hand.
"That for me?" she asked.
"Yes," he said, and handed it to her.
Azumi smiled and ripped it open to see a necklace. She picked it up and began placing it around her neck with Marcile's help. She looked down at it and then turned around to face Marcile.
"I love it," she said, and gave him a peck on the cheek.
The doorbell rang. Azumi's father answered it to show a sharp face boy in which he smiled at him while gesturing the boy in. He bowed his thanks while entering. The boy located Azumi and walked over to him.
"Nachi, you made it!" said Azumi.
She walked over to hug him, and pulled away. He looked down at her and then at her guests.
"So which one of these guys is your boyfriend?" he asked.
Azumi grabbed Marcile's right arm and pulled him towards her to cuddle next to him. Nachi's jaw line tightened; showing his jealousy, but he pushed it aside and forced a grim-like smile on his face.
"So you're the famous cop I've been hearing about," said Nachi.
"I wouldn't call myself famous," said Marcile embarrassed.
"The way Azumi puts it; it sounds like you saved her from a monstrous creature."
Marcile chuckled while scratching the back of his head with his free hand. Nachi bowed and walked off to get something to drink.
Azumi guided Marcile around, showing him and her new necklace off to her friends. A few of her friends asked if they could see his gun. However, he told them he had left it back at his place. He instead presented his badge. The girls awed while the boys rolled their eyes.
Kiku guided Azumi away from Marcile with Nachi watching everything, as he wished he were dating her. How could he make her eyes avert to his eyes.
Suddenly he spaced out. The ground began to shake; freaking out everybody in the room, and having the floor begin to crack. A string of it creaked over to Azumi, causing her to stare down at it petrified, and then it branched off to form a circle around her. Azumi's heart pounded fast while she froze in fear.
"Azumi!" shouted Marcile.
Within seconds, the floor caved in on her, making her scream while falling through. Marcile ran at her and grabbed her before she hit the floor in the apartment below. The people in the lower apartment, somehow able to avoid the falling debris, looked up puzzled.
Unexpectedly a piece of the roof in Azumi's home came down on Kiku. Marcile looked over at it startled, and then another piece of the ceiling crumbled and slammed on Marcile. He cringed in pain, and then his hold on Azumi gave way to have her fall into the lower apartment. Luckily, the fall was a mere meter, which allowed her to land on her feet and looked up only to see Marcile's hand.
"Mars-kun!" she shouted.
The floor in the lower apartment began to crack under Azumi's feet. She tried to run from it, but she ended up falling into another apartment and breaking her leg.
She cringed in pain, and then freaked out as cracks circled around her again.
"Wha…?" she muttered.
The next thing she knew she found herself falling through the floor once more. Azumi's body slammed onto the ground to have her right elbow break, which impelled her to scream from the impact.
Azumi tried to stand, but she couldn't since she was slowly losing consciousness.
In her apartment, Nachi snapped out of his daze and saw the mess. He looked around to see Kiku, Marcile and a few other guests under rubble. He began to wonder what had happened to Azumi and noticed a hole in the floor. He ran over to it and gazed down to see the girl he really liked two floors down hurt.
"No, what happened?" he muttered.
"An… earthquake, Nachi," said one of Azumi's friends. "Where've you been?"
"An… earthquake?" he stuttered. Fear overwhelmed him, remembering the guy from earlier mentioning an earthquake while his mind was spaced out. "No, it can't be!"
Nachi stormed out of the apartment, hurried down the somewhat crumbled steps, and ran down a few blocks. He stopped running as his eyes diminished, as though he had been possessed. The ground started shaking under his feet, growing stronger with time slowly ticking away. Cracks formed in a building nearby, creeping upwards like a prey trying to run from a predator. Within seconds, it came crashing down.
Above the crumbled building with innocent victims buried in the rubble, a new star was born.
---
Misaki drove through the city where the Moratorium had been spotted earlier. She figured the boy was long gone now. Eventually he would show his presence, but she hoped no one would get hurt in the process.
Something in the sky caught her attention. She pulled over and stared up to see a star shining bright. An uneasy feeling settled in her stomach, as though Hei had knocked her up and she was about to experience morning sickness.
"A new star has appeared!" shouted Kanami through her CB. "I repeat; a new star has been born. YF231 is its Messier code. We are locating it in Shinjuku Okubo."
Misaki gasped and feared Marcile was in the mist of the Moratorium.