6
The next evening, the STN-J office at Raven's Flat buzzed with excitement. Everyone stood around the table beside Michael's computer where the little pink shard lay.
"The lab couldn't identify the material," Michael said. "But they said it was carbon based."
"Couldn't identify it?" Sakaki thought out loud. "Could it be from outer space? A meteor or something."
"But it's carbon based." Dojima snickered. "Maybe it's alive. It's an alien."
"It's not an alien," Karasuma groaned.
"How do you know? Have you ever seen an alien?" Dojima persisted.
"I'm not going to dignify that," Karasuma said, folding her arms.
Dojima shot her a sour look. "And what did you say you saw when you scryed it?"
Karasuma narrowed her eyes at Dojima. "Just jumbled images. Monsters mostly."
"Could this be what gave the witch his extra power last night?" Robin asked.
"Probably," Amon said flatly.
Chief Kosaka squeezed between Dojima and Sakaki to get a closer look at the shard.
"A piece of stone that makes witch powers stronger," he mused. "That reminds me of a story I heard as a lad…"
"Well, that's my queue," Dojima interrupted, "Goodnight, everyone."
"My story is perfectly relevant," the chief snarled after her as she escaped into the elevator.
"We need facts, not myths," Amon said.
Kosaka seemed to give up then. It was like the party was over. Amon was right. There was nothing more they could do that night. One by one, the STN-J members left the office heading home. Even Michael abandoned his usual spot at the computer in favor of his old room two floors below. Robin would have left too, but she was worried about Amon. He had been sitting in the conference room staring at the computer screens for over an hour. To anyone else, he would have been unapproachable. But being his best friend had advantages. She took the seat beside him at the conference table and looked over at the screen in front of him. It was the file for the next case on their list. Was he worried about the mission?
"We will get them all," she said.
He didn't respond but she knew he was listening.
"I know you're thinking about it," she prodded him.
This time, he gave her a quick glance.
It had been two weeks since they'd come home to the STN-J, and two months since the destruction of the Factory. In those two months, they'd become world travelers. They had gone everywhere together. San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Rome, and many places in between. They took care of each other, watched each other's back, and gave each other reasons to go on. It might have stayed that way forever if her last email to Michael hadn't been intercepted by Solomon. The next day, they had received a message from Robin's grandfather, Juliano. He offered them a deal, or rather, he offered Amon a deal. There had been some disturbing developments back in Japan. A small group of known witches had suddenly gained unbelievable powers. Hunter after hunter had been sent to destroy them but none succeeded. Solomon was at a complete loss to explain the sudden change and powerless to stop the new crime wave.
"You were the best hunter in the business," Juliano had told Amon. "If you can hunt these witches, you will have your old life back again."
As stoic as Amon was, Robin knew that he desperately wanted to go home. So she'd pressed him to take the deal and he did, under the condition that she came with him.
"I don't hunt without my partner," he had declared.
"Don't you ever get tired of saving me?" she had asked him on the plane back to Tokyo.
"All the time," he had said.
But now his eyes told a different story. It had been a tough hunt last night and that witch was the weakest one on the list. Now that they were home again, neither one wanted to leave. They had to get through that list or go back on the road.
"Maybe the shard is the break we've been waiting for," she said hopefully.
"Maybe," he said and got up from his seat.
"Are you ready to go now?" she asked.
"Yeah."
7
"Thank god, I thought they'd never leave," Inuyasha said.
He and Kagome had been watching the office building from the neighboring rooftop since dinner time. But now, the lights on the top floor had gone out and only the moonlight shone on the windows. A black car drove around from the back of the building and sped off down the street.
"They left the shard there just like we thought," Kagome said.
"Time to work," Inuyasha declared. The office window was within easy jumping distance and the bars would be no problem for Tetsusaiga. "I gotta hand it to you, Kagome. This was a good idea." Without giving her a chance to respond, he drew his sword and fired off a light blast of energy. Small as it was, the attack shattered the window and bent the bars inward until they broke. "You comin'?" Inuyasha asked, stepping up to the edge of the roof.
"Did you have to make so much noise?" Kagome complained as she hopped up on his back.
"You want the shard or not?" he returned. He ignored her sigh and jumped across to the window.
It took a minute for their eyes to adjust to the darkness inside. The first thing Kagome saw was the computer system.
"Wow, someone's a computer geek," she commented.
"We didn't come to see the sights," Inuyasha growled. "This place reeks of demons. Where's the shard?"
"It's right here," Kagome said, taking the shard from the table. "You never let me have any fun."
"Keh, collecting jewel shards isn't supposed to be fun. It's work."
"I know, believe me."
The sound of the elevator bell made them both jump and spin around.