Hey all! Vira's back again, and this time she brought along a chappy update! I'm glad you guys liked that last chappy so much. I promised fluff and so there was fluff! =D Well, here's a few A/Ns:

1) Nope, still don't own WHR…

2) Okay, now, I know that a lot of you guys have been prancing about and whatnot because WHR has returned. But. Nobody told Vira about this, and so I was WHR-less for a week. THEN, because I had to wait one more week, the power went out from a stupid storm and we didn't have cable! I missed it again! Which brings me to my third point…

3) Don't celebrate for too long, my little pretties. I saw on the July line-up that WHR will no longer be there. Get it while you can!!! It won't last!!!

4) My computer is STILL out of order, so I STILL can't update my website. I apologize for any inconvenience this might be causing…

5) Okay, now does anyone remember in the second chapter, Amon read that reallllly long attendance list? Yeah. I had him do that for a reason, you know. =D Each character from it will be part of the plot, so it'd be wise to know who they are!

Ah, that should be all for right now. Well anyways, here's a nice update for you!:

Deception…a world of illusion that can change one's life. Reality is twisted and contorted to create a multitude of falsehoods. But in the end, only one truth will prevail. This is the simple truth one must learn to face.

The next month or two had been a breeze for Robin. She had finally gotten her glasses, and with them, her accuracy had shot up to 98 percent. People in her training class were no longer afraid to have her as a partner. Robin's confidence had returned to her and now she felt she had the chance she needed to become a full hunter.

Weeks grew colder and it was now at the end of December, right before Christmas break. On the last day Robin found herself waiting for the bell to ring in Ms. Karasuma's class. Her teacher already knew that it was quite pointless to try and lecture the students on the last hour of the day, so instead she made them fill out a fairly easy worksheet over different witchcraft symbols and signs. Just as Robin was finishing up, a finger tapped her back from behind.

It was Doujima. "I guess you're done, eh?"

She nodded.

"So am I. Then here, I have something for you…" Doujima picked up her bag and began rummaging around. "Hmm…where oh where could it be…" She buried her hand deep inside of it. "Ah! I found it!" Doujima pulled out a small piece of paper and handed it to her. "This is the address to the house where a small Christmas party will be given on the 24th. It's informal, so wear whatever. The time will be from 6 to 10 PM."

Robin stared at the sheet. "Whose house is this? And who else will be there?"

She smiled. "All the people that are invited are students of this building. Mainly, the ones that we can trust with…certain things. As for the house…Sakaki is the one who lives there. Do you know who he is? Sakaki's my boyfriend, you see." She beamed happily.

"Oh. No, I don't really know him…" Robin replied thoughtfully. "But what do you mean 'the ones you can trust?' I don't understand…" She looked at Doujima curiously.

She sighed. "Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough…" Before she could say more, the bell rang to signal the beginning of Christmas break. "Well, I'll see you then, Robin…" Doujima waved goodbye and left. Robin placed the paper inside her pocket thoughtfully and stood up to leave.

And soon, that day arrived. Robin decided not to take her motorbike since the weather was too cold. So instead, she took the bus, which was something she wasn't looking forward to, but there seemed to be no other choice.

Doujima welcomed her once she rang the doorbell. "Hi Robin! Glad you could make it! Come down to the basement, okay? Everyone else is there, and plenty of food, too…"

Robin smiled gratefully and nodded. "Thank you, Doujima." She stepped inside and looked around in a glance. Various Christmas decorations were placed around the walls and floors. It gave a special, inviting glow to the household, which cheered Robin up considerably. Between all the different trading of relatives she had experienced, Robin had rarely celebrated the holidays ever since her mother died.

"I can take your coat, if you want…it looks pretty wet. Was snowing outside?" Doujima peered out the window curiously.

"Oh…yes, thank you, that will be fine. And you're right, it was snowing a little. Not very much, but just enough to make me cold…I catch the flu pretty easily." She sighed.

"Poor thing." Doujima said sympathetically. "Well, there's some nice hot cocoa and tea down there!" Robin nodded, and after Doujima put her coat away, they walked downstairs.

And indeed, when they reached the end Robin could smell all the delicious hot liquids that would hopefully warn her up. She immediately recognized some of her classmates there—in particular, her friends Yuma, Kazuko, and Tsutomu. They waved to her and she walked up to them.

"Hello! This is a surprise! I didn't know you three were invited!"

Yuma looked around before answering. "Robin, this is more than just a party, you know! You do know what this is about, right?"

Robin looked at her with surprise. "Huh? What do you mean?"

She sighed. "Well I guess there's no point in explaining it now. You'll find out soon enough, I suppose…"

"Here, have some cookies!" Kazuko put them into her hand happily. "I made them not too long ago."

Robin thanked him, and went over to the table for some hot chocolate. It tasted good, and warmed her up tremendously.

After a few minutes of more talk, Robin noticed a boy older than her stand up. He cleared his throat loudly, and everyone turned to look at him. "Thank you all for coming here. Please, sit down now." Robin scanned around the room for any open chairs, and finally spotted one. "As most of you know, my name is Sakaki. Most of you ALSO know that this party is really a cover-up for something much greater. I invited you here today because, if what I suspect is true, then we'll need a fairly big number of people for the job."

"What for? Why do you need us?" One person asked behind Robin.

Sakaki smiled. "It's simple, really. Take a look around you—every single one of us is from the STN-J. That's our only connection, really. In addition, I have specifically invited a select group of craft users whom I feel I can trust. We'll need you guys the most. Before I get into details however, I would like each craft user present to stand up, say his or her name, and explain his or her craft. This way we can get a good feel for things."

"I'll go first, then." A boy said to Robin's left. Sakaki nodded and he stood up. "Well, I'm Elijah Morris. In case you haven't seen me practice enough during training, I have the ability to slide any object around. Observe." An empty chair that Robin was sitting next to suddenly moved about fifteen feet upwards. A few seconds later, it was placed in its original spot.

Another boy stood up. "Er, hi everyone. My name is Atsutane Mutsu, and I can form an unbreakable barrier around anything. See, here, I'll show you…" He took a nearby drinking glass and uttered something under his breath. Then he dropped the glass to the ground, but instead of breaking like it normally would, it simply bounced off the floor. Everyone clapped in amazement and he sat back down.

"I'm Maeko Kareko." A girl said. "I can control all types of liquid…like this!" Suddenly all the punch flew out of the punch bowl and all that was left were the ice cubes. It hovered all about the room for a few moments, and then the punch suddenly leapt back to its bowl. Robin looked down at the hot chocolate she had. Her grip tightened around the cup.

"…You can call me Melissa Clarke." Another girl said. Robin immediately noticed that she had a delightful British accent. "I can make certain things float…" One of Doujima's magazines suddenly flew over to Melissa. Doujima gave an outcry as Melissa held it in front of her with her craft and began to read. Eventually, it was given back to its rightful owner. Everyone laughed…except Doujima, of course.

This time, Tsutomu stood up. "Hey everyone, I'm Tsutomu Iseya. My craft is the ability to create impulse waves…like so!" He held out his hand casually and something sprang from it. Rings of waves grew bigger and bigger in an instant, and then it suddenly disappeared as quickly as it was created. "I can make them a LOT bigger, of course." He said with a blush.

By this time they had been standing up to introduce themselves in an orderly fashion, like a sort of circle around the room. The next girl looked around and stood up quietly. "Um…my name is Kazumi Narahashi, and I can change the brightness of a light." Immediately after she said that, the lights went out. Shouts of protest could be heard everywhere, and then they came back on. Kazumi chuckled.

Yuma rose bravely. "I'm Yuma Shinasu. Since I can't use my craft to demonstrate on a person, we'll just take that spider over there in the corner." She nodded to it and everyone looked around. Suddenly, the spider began twitching uncontrollably. "I can make a person have a seizure with special mind waves." She explained. It trembled and nearly collapsed. Suddenly, the spider stopped twitching and she sat back down happily.

A boy stood up next to Yuma and paused to push up his glasses. "My name is Steven Robertson. Allow me to demonstrate my craft…" Suddenly something shot out from his eyes. It was a massive amount of brightness. The thing flew to a nearby wall and bounced off of it. "I can create a large amount of light energy." He smiled at their amazement and sat down.

Not it was Robin's turn. "Um, hello everyone. I guess my craft is simple enough—I can create fire. Here, I'll show you…" She held up a napkin from the table and set it on fire with her eyes. It burned around for a little bit, and then finally the whole thing disintegrated, with only a pile of ash left on the floor. Robin bent over and scooped it up carefully.

Last but not least, there was Kazuko. He stood up nervously. "Er, my name is Kazuko Shiomi. I don't think I can show you my craft though…" He glanced at Sakaki for some support on this.

"That's correct." Sakaki stood up and walked over to Kazuko. He proudly put his hand on Kazuko's shoulder with a smile. "I want you all to pay special attention to his craft. It will be our secret weapon. He has the ability to magnify any given craft, which will be the key to our success. With him, we will be a strong enough foe to Solomon."

Murmurs of confusion and protest could be heard all around the room. Robin shifted in her chair uncomfortably. What was Sakaki planning? And what did Solomon have to do with it?

"Allow me to explain, everyone." Sakaki sat back down. "You see, this 'Christmas party' is actually just a recruitment seminar for all who wish to join my cause. Doujima, the pictures."

She nodded and wheeled over what appeared to be an easel with giant pictures. She handed him a retractable pointer.

"Thanks." He whispered to her. Doujima smiled with a nod, and then Sakaki turned to his guests once more. "Before I reveal these, I will ask you one last time whether or not I may trust you all. Once you see this, there's no turning back. If anybody wishes to leave, do it now."

Nobody dared to move an inch.

"Excellent." He turned to the pictures. "I'm glad I have so many people in here that give their full cooperation. Now then. Picture One. This is a picture of Solomon HQ. Doesn't look too suspicious, right? Just a normal office building, one would say. But most of their work isn't done here…" He moved the picture to the next one. "…No, this is where it all happens. Does anyone in here know what this is?"

"Looks to me like it's the Factory, where the witches go that we catch." Maeko answered confidently.

"Correct, Maeko. But here's another question…how many of you have handled Orbo?" Sakaki moved the card to show a picture of it. All hands were raised. "That's what I thought—in class, I'm assuming. By chance does anyone know what Orbo is made of?"

They glanced at each other with confused faces.

"…That's what I had imagined. But if you think about the wonders of Orbo for a moment, you find yourself questioning what possible substance could exist that is able to nullify crafts of all kinds…"

Sakaki unveiled the next picture. "This is the same Orbo, only this time it has been magnified for a closer look. Notice anything?"

Robin studied the picture, but without her glasses she couldn't see anything wrong.

"I see some strange strands floating within the liquid." Steven observed after a moment.

Sakaki leaned forward. "Those aren't just any stands…that is…DNA!"

A gasp swept through the guests. He uncovered another picture. "Here is the same Orbo, but it has been magnified even more so. Notice that each strand is actually two, or…a double helix. I can see the cogs spinning in your minds from here. Obviously the next question to ask is, exactly whose DNA is that, then? Well, I say that the answer is clear-"

Kazumi stood up suddenly. "Now just a moment here! Are you actually saying that it's a sure, 100% confirmed thing here!? What if you only think it's DNA? After all, Orbo is very mysterious to us. Perhaps it only looks like DNA, but it's really something else?"

All eyes turned back to Sakaki, but it was actually Doujima who answered. "Well you see, Sakaki and I were suspicious about it when they handed it to us in class so we snuck into the STN-J lab and had it analyzed. We almost got caught, but we ended up being okay." She winked, and he blushed a little. "Anyways, that was when we discovered what was truly in it…DNA."

"But not just anyone's DNA…" Sakaki continued. "You may not be able to tell from this picture, but the DNA is actually dyed green, to give it the color of the Orbo. Solomon does this to mask the its true ingredient."

He revealed another picture—this time, it was of a Factory van. "To me, the answer is simple enough. Although there is no evidence as of yet…we believe that this DNA comes from the very same witches that we strive so hard to capture. Some of you are quite appalled at the notion, I imagine, but if you think about it, it only makes sense. Solomon has always had the policy of capturing, not killing, the witches we hunt. To most, this would seem very humane and generous of Solomon. But isn't it possible that they only hold this policy in place so the DNA of a witch can be obtained? Think about it."

"But why?" Elijah asked. "Assuming your hypothesis is correct, why not just take their DNA when they're dead instead of alive?"

"…To be honest, I'm not sure." He replied truthfully. "But I would imagine that a witch's DNA is very different from a regular person's. Death could quite possibly ruin it for the Orbo. Through Solomon's research they might've seen this."

"As soon as Doujima and I saw that it was actually DNA inside Orbo, I knew I would not be able to forget the possibility of what might be happening. I knew…I had to find out for sure. And so, I gathered you all here for help. My plan is to break into the Factory and see if we can find something else about what's going on with the witches there."

"We need you guys!" Doujima chimed in. "Come on…do you really want to hunt witches when there might be a chance that Solomon is not as humane as it may seem? There's something fishy going on behind the scenes here. We need to find out the truth—especially whose DNA this is and how they take it from them. The poor witches…"

Everyone stared at each other through the room. Was this true? Could it be real? What did it mean?

"I know one thing, at least." Robin said suddenly. "If what you say is the truth, then that means Zaizen has been deceiving us. There is no one in here who can tell me what they do to the witches we catch. I would like to find out what they have been hiding. There must be a reason for it that they don't want us to know. But we'll never find out by asking." She turned to Sakaki and smiled. "I'm in."

"Me too!" Yuma cried.

"And me!" Tsutomu added.

One by one, the other craft users agreed to the plan. Sakaki stood up and smiled. "This is even better than what I had hoped for. Very well, our first meeting is officially adjourned. I'll see you guys on another date."

Everyone stood up to leave, each thinking his or her different thoughts. For some reason, Robin wanted to see Amon again after leaving the house. 'Perhaps he would be able to shed some light on the matter' she thought.

But on the other hand, maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea. He would look at her like she was crazy. Either that, or he would consult with Zaizen over the issuse, which was something they couldn't afford to happen. 'I really want to trust him…I want to be able to trust Amon with this…but I don't know…can I? Should I?' She sighed and sat down to wait for the bus. It was all so confusing…

Review Responses:

Bana: Hahaha! Well, we all have our off-days…

Gundamwinggirl: Freaky! That's something that could only happen on FF.Net, I s'pose…

Yuna of Paradise: Heh heh, actually I made the whole thing up…I'm sure they do it quite differently in r/l. =D

Chii-san: Arigato, hope you'll read this as well!

ShiroKitsune: Hehe, yeah it was definitely all off the top of my head…XD

Haruya: Yay! Glad you like it so much, a lot of people seem to…

Midnight Scribbler: I'm relieved to hear you think they're in character. It's really, really hard to do with Amon, lol.

WindSorceress: Hey, there's this story's #1 fan!! =D Yes I agree, it was definitely cute…

Trekgirl01: Really? You really think so? Well, arigato!

lurid-eyes: Hehe, thanks! Hope you'll read more!

Namiko-Daughter of Sekhmet: Yay! Glad you like!

Emma: Well you know, I've read that Wolf's Rain only has like 30 episodes, so once a day on weeknights wouldn't be too long for it, ne?

Sesshoumarusgirl123: lol, hope you haven't been waiting too long then! =D

Seed-of-Flame: Hehe, yeah I wish I were Robin too…falling in love with Amon…mmmm…mmmmmm…

Wake-Robin: Thanks! I think the room idea was pretty neat myself…

Aisling Niamh: Really, not too fluffy huh? Lol well you're the first reviewer to say that!

fantacdreamer: Hehe, a person of few words!

Row: Why do you like typing in all caps lol? Is your keyboard broken or something?

vegetasprincess1: Yeah I think so too! =D

Katana Blade: Really? Well that's cool I guess.

Katana Blade (again): I do? When?

Katana Blade (again): Really? Most people seem to hate the fact it's once a week!

Shawn Provoncha: Arigato! Hope you'll read more!

Katana Blade (again): Well thank you! I hope this is quick enough…

theUniverseBeyond: Hmm yeah, that IS a good quote! Well for the record, I don't do palmistry, lol.

Kagome Of Summer Dances: Argiato! I trust you'll like this one too…maybe? Heh.

Yuna of Paradise (again): 7 dreams eh? Were there 7 guys then? =D

Cat: Gotcha! Here's the next chappy for you.

Yuna of Paradise: Calm down girl! There's no fluff in this chappy really, so you can breathe…for now…

Whew, that took a long time for some reason. Anyways, I really hope you like this chapter, and yes I realize that a) it was a bit slow and b) you guys will be disappointed for the lack of fluff. BUT! More fluff will come soon, promise! And quicker updates! I'm going on vacation so I'll have lots of time to write in the car. Hehe. Anyways, R&R! Arigato, ja ne!!!