Witch Hunter Robin
Fire and Rain
Chapter II - Adjusting to Change
Disclaimer: I do not own
Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of
Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been
26 episodes/
Nor do I own the song Fire and Rain; I just borrowed its title.
Storyline, Plot, Joe Saunders©, and David Rica© are all my property.
----------------
Pain boiled up in Sakaki's legs as he tried his best to walk along the narrow
platform. He had to keep his arms steadied on both arm railings and walk
across, but it wasn't that easy. Recovering was a hard business, he knew that.
Sakaki had been stabbed, stabbed with a six inch bowie knife in his waist. Kita
Nobunaga had been the stabber, and now he was stuck with the incredibly long
and painful process of moving again.
Apparently the shock from being stabbed was still in effect, because Sakaki
couldn't walk: hence the psychical therapy. He had always loved Gym class when
he was just a boy, but now he hated doing the exercises the nurses gave him. He
felt so . . . helpless. He hated the feeling of helplessness. He wanted to go
somewhere, anywhere. He just wanted to take another road. Find a hiding place.
Find a place to disappear from his world now.
It wasn't because of the pain, the deep searing pain that he felt in his body.
It was the deeper, hotter pain that he felt down in his heart whenever he
remembered what had happened. It was the pain of knowing he failed Amon and
Robin.
But most of all the pain of knowing what happened. He had been there; he had
been there to protect Karasuma and Doujima. They were in a hospital, they
couldn't protect themselves. They needed him. And he had failed. If Amon hadn't
been there, if Amon hadn't been ready, if Amon wasn't so damn good at his job
then three witch hunters would have died that night, and Nobunaga may never
have been stopped.
With a sigh the weight of his heart seamed to become almost unbearable and he
dropped from the railings and back onto the floor. Suddenly he heard footsteps
walking to his side, the nurse, no, it was someone else. The nurse would have ran after him, this person was walking.
"Sakaki."
Sakaki shifted his weight and looked up at Robin's worried face. He hadn't
heard her come in, but he wasn't surprised. She had come to visit him before.
Part of him still felt guilty that she was being so nice to him after he had
shot her, but he didn't dare bring that back up again, he knew she'd only tell
him the same thing she had before.
"Yeah, I'm okay Robin." He lied, trying to get to his feet.
"Those things suck, eh?"
Sakaki turned his head to see Doujima sitting on a chair in the end of the
room, a magazine in her hand.
"Are you too lazy to even come over when someone needs help?"
"You just said you were fine." Doujima laughed.
Sakaki sighed and, with some help from Robin, managed to stand up once more and
hold onto the railings. Robin sighed and looked hesitant to move, in case he
should fall again, but Sakaki wasn't going anywhere. Not yet.
"So is this the one who refuses to come into work?"
Sakaki looked over up at the door to see an American man in a navy STN jacket.
He wore dark sunglasses and a smug smile. Sakaki didn't know who he was, but he
didn't like him.
"He was stabbed." Robin said, Sakaki turned and saw angry passion burning in
her eyes. Whether it was because she was sticking up for him, or because she
hated the American man with the southern accent, he didn't know.
"And in Japan that's a fitting excuse?" David Rica said with his always smug smile on
his face. Sakaki opened his mouth to speak but Doujima beat him to it. Instead
of Robin's anger filled explanation, or the four letter words that had been
floating around on the tip of the rookie's tongue. Doujima had stood up and
slapped David Rica across his face so hard that it left a large, red hand
print.
"He was stabbed you stupid son of a bitch!"
Robin and Sakaki were taken aback by Doujima's sudden fury and they both
stepped back into the railing behind them.
David Rica stood, his head tilted to the left, sunglasses lopsided over his
ears and eyes and the smug grin on his face was gone. He reached out and
grabbed Doujima's wrist and anger seamed to surge from his entire body.
"Now I hope you know you just lost your job." Rica spat violently. Doujima
merely laughed. She'd heard that threat before from Kosaka, and yet, as anyone
knows, she had connections.
Rica turned around and left the hospital room, only to stop and stick his head
back inside. "And you, boy, if you're not back on the active roster by next
week you can join her!"
When Rica had vanished Doujima gave a great huff and walked over to the two
younger STN members with her arms crossed.
"I hate that man." She said bitterly. "I really, really hate him."
"Who is he?" Sakaki asked, though it was obvious he would still hate the man no
matter what the answer was.
"A Solomon review agent." Robin said quietly, her face still flushed from
watching the outbreak of Doujima's anger.
"What!?" Sakaki yelled and he nearly fell over onto the blue mat beneath them
once more, but both girls grabbed one of his arms. "Doujima! You can't slap a
Solomon review agent!"
"Relax." Doujima said, ruffling Sakaki's hair. "Number one, I can get away with
most anything, remember?"
"Well I can't." Sakaki mumbled.
"And number two." She continued ignoring him. "There's another Solomon agent
here, that guy's boss. So don't worry."
"I guess . . ." Sakaki mumbled quietly.
"Robin!"
Michael's voice filled the room from the small communication device. Robin
brought it up to her face.
"Michael, what's the matter?"
"We've got a serious emergency! Are you still going to visit Sakaki?"
"We're here now." Robin asked. "What is the emergency?"
"Suicidal man on the roof." Michael said.
"What, this roof?" Doujima blinked. She ran to the window and looked out onto
the hospital grounds, and sure enough several police and firemen were parked on
the street around the hospital, and a large crowd had gathered.
"Michael." Sakaki asked, puzzled. "What does a suicidal man have to do with
us?"
"He's a witch, what do you think?" Michael shouted back. "Robin, look, you
gotta stop him from jumping. If he does we're in a lot of trouble."
Robin blinked. "Why? What will happen?" She hadn't meant it like that. She
thought suicide was a horrible thing, but she wondered what made this so
urgent.
"He won't die." Michael's voice said bitterly. "He doesn't know what he is, but
he knows he has powers. Robin, if that man jumps he's going to survive it
without a scratch, his powers will protect him, and if they do that a whole lot
of people are going to be curious about it. Some of them may even try to
re-create his stunt."
----
Robin and Doujima ran from the room, leaving Sakaki behind. He wanted to come
along, but both of them had strictly forbid it. Running up the hallways they
used the elevator to get to the top floor and finally found the stairs leading
up to the roof.
"Hold it!" A police officer stood at the door and shook his head. "No one gets
by."
"STN-J." Doujima said.
"What?" The cop blinked confused.
"Us, we're with the STN-J."
The cop quirked his brows. "Even if you are, what does the STN-J have to do
with a suicide?"
Doujima narrowed her eyes and began to speak, but Robin had beaten her to it
this time.
"Sir, if it means a man's life what do you care who we are and what authority
we have?"
The cop blinked and began to say something that sounded like "No" but Robin
continued to speak and cut him off.
"Please, rules and regulations can wait, a human life is so much more
important."
Somehow the way the reddish-blonde haired girl spoke those words made the
officer realize she was right and he stepped aside. Doujima was impressed, very
impressed. She made a mental note to ask Robin how to sound so sincere later.
Then again Robin really was that sincere.
The man on the edge of the roof turned around and looked at the two young women
who had appeared from the doorway.
"Stay back or I'll jump."
"Why?" Robin asked. "Why do you want to do this?"
"You won't understand." The man said, and in his voice was real fear. "You
won't understand."
Robin took a timid step forward. "Is it because of your powers?"
The man's eyes widened and he moved closer to the edge, causing a nervous gasp
from the crowd below. "How do you." The man began with terror in his voice.
"How do you know?"
Robin took another step forward and gently smiled. "It's
okay."
"No it's not!" The man screamed. "I'm a freak!"
Robin shook her head. "No, it's more normal than you think."
The man looked even more afraid of this. "C-can you, Do y-you--?"
"Yes." Robin said, she extended her petite hand out in
a friendly fashion. "It's quite okay."
The man reached out his hand and shakily took Robin's. She smiled a genuine
smile of friendship and began to lead him away from the edge.
Then the gun fired.
Robin watched in horror as the man's chest exploded with small bullet holes and
he fell backwards over the roof.
Doujima spun around to find Rica standing at the doorway with his gun drawn. He
wasn't using a Orbo gun, just a basic 9mm. Doujima
screamed: "What are you doing!?"
"Calm down lil' puppy." Rica said with his annoying smile. "If the witch is
dead his powers can't save him."
"Robin had already convinced him to stop!" Doujima screamed even louder. "You
murdered him in cold blood!"
"Oh? It looked to me like he was trying to take lil' Robin and pull her down
with him. You should thank me."
Doujima tried to slap him again, but Rica was too fast and he grabbed her wrist
and began to twist it painfully. Doujima felt tears well up in her eyes but she
bit them back and shot a deadly glance into Rica's eyes.
"Now listen here." David said with venom. "I'm your boss whether you like it or
not, and if you hit me one more time it'll be you who falls off the next roof."
Turning around he disappeared down back into the hallway. Doujima growled and
kicked her foot on the ground. David Rica was a smug jackass and she would do
everything in her power to make him suffer while he was in Japan.
Doujima then turned to Robin, who hadn't moved at all. The youngest of the
Witch Hunters just stood, a few drops of the man's blood on her youthful face,
and a look of sheer foreboding in her eyes.
----
Touko stood in the kitchen while she waited for the pot on the stove to boil so
that she could finish preparing the tear. Amon said nothing from his seat at
her table; he just looked down at his gloved hands. It was completely silent
except for the bubbling of the water.
Finally the whistle on the tea pot let out its steam and scream and Touko
grabbed it to fill up the two small glasses that contained the tea bags. She
did it in silence, and Amon added no sound. She glanced back at the table from
the corner of her eyes just to make sure he was still there at all. It was hard
to be sure of that at some times.
Then the front door opened and the eyes of both Amon and Touko shot to where
Robin now stood. The young girl had noticed both of them and her cheeks filled
with a distinctive pink blush.
"I'm sorry, I didn't --"
"It's fine." Amon said standing up. "I was just leaving."
The dark hunter walked by her without a word to Touko and the blonde sighed
quietly. Yet just as Amon's shape threatened to disappear through the door of
the apartment, Robin's voice stopped him.
"Amon."
"Michael told me." The dark hunter said before she could begin to explain about
the hospital or about what Rica did. "He's from Solomon; there is nothing we
can do."
And with that Amon vanished away. Robin sighed and dropped her head, and then
she walked over to where Touko stood.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were busy." The younger girl said.
"No, it's alright." Touko smiled and handed Robin the cup of tea originally
intended for Amon. "Here."
"Ringraziarlo."
Touko blinked and then Robin shook her head and sighed. "I'm sorry, I meant
Arigato."
Touko laughed and sat down. "It's alright Robin, switching languages must be
hard."
Robin nodded. "It's not that. I learned Japanese while in Italy, it's just small things like 'thank you'
that I still have trouble with."
Touko nodded and the two sat drinking the tea in silence. Robin sighed and
looked out the window at the sky. Less than a hour ago
it was clear and blue, now it was dark and rain was building.
Below on the street rain was beginning to fall quietly and as it did Amon got
into his car and drove away without a backwards glance.
----
David Rica stood in his hotel room with a sneer on his lips. His sunglasses
were off and lying on the nightstand and he stood in front of the old oak
dresser looking the mirror at himself.
His face was pale and his hair was dark, but as he looked down at the
reflection it wasn't his pale skin or his dark hair that made David Rica look
unusual. It was his eyes. Only his eyes knew the truth about what happened.
Only his eyes told the grizzly story of David Rica's life.
Only his eyes told what kind of horrors he had seen and what kind of horrors
were contains within his memories. Memories are an odd thing, people love them,
and they live for them. People spend years when they are old, simply sitting
and thinking about, trying to relive their memories.
Yet David Rica's memories were the kind no one would want to relive.
The STN Reviewer from Solomon screamed and punched the mirror before him,
watching the glass shatter into his hand. Blood trickled down and fell onto the
TV guide on the dresser top below him.
With another scream Rica ran into the bathroom and turned the water on at its
fullest. Making quick use of his craft he made the water fly up into his face
and wash it. The water was cold and it chilled him to his bones.
When at last the water had washed his face he looked into the mirror before
him, but still his eyes told the same, horrifically sad story. With a scream of
fury and anger he smashed the mirror with his fist, only causing more blood to
seep from his old and new wounds on his hands.
He then fell down to the ground and began to cry. He couldn't understand why
the darkness inside his eyes wouldn't leave him alone. He couldn't understand
why he kept seeing those memories.
They weren't his memories. They couldn't be. They were the memories of a man
who had been viciously and brutally murdered in cold blood for doing no more
than his job.
The memories of a police officer who had done no more than try to stop some
Mardi Gras punks from smoking illegal drugs.
The memories of a man who was dead.
Those were the memories that stared back at David Rica from his eyes.
-------------------
And that, my friends, is chapter two.
I hope everyone enjoyed it and I hope you'll come back for chapter three, which will be done later.
