Disclaimer: I do not own any Witch Hunter Robin characters, I'm only borrowing them.

Thanks to my reviewers, SakuraAngel04 –a steady encouragement (and I promise not to be a slacker), YellowDancer21 for your kind words and advice, and also to Kate, my newest reviewer.

Personal note: My computer disk ATE chapter seven so I had to rewrite it. I'm going from memory here, so forgive me if it turns out a bit choppy. I HATE MY COMPUTER! I'm quite sure it did something nasty to the disk.

CHAPTER SEVEN: AFTER OSAKA

Mai stared out the car window. She'd agreed to go with Nagira to a client's office to pick up some documents before heading off to the dump for more training.

The last thing she'd wanted to do after Osaka was use her power, but Nagira had insisted.

"You have a gift, Mai. You have to use it." He'd said.

And so she had. Nagira was like a child excited about a new toy. How could she deny him? Every other day after work they'd gone to the dump, and the strain of using her power while clamping down on the dark excitement it stirred up within her was beginning to tell. She had dark circles under her eyes, and the nightmares were getting worse. Nagira had begun to cut the training sessions short, ordering her to go home and get some sleep. As if she hadn't tried, but sleep eluded her.

She kept reliving that moment when she'd nearly crushed Nagira, just because he'd distracted her. Sometimes in her dreams it was Nagira behind the dumpster getting crushed to a pulp. Sometimes in her dreams, she didn't even care.

And now here she was in his car, once again on her way to another training session as soon as the last errand of the day was run. This particular client worked near the waterfront, so Nagira took the road that led down by the sea.

The water was dark and still, as was the night. Nagira's car barely made a sound as he drove, too fast as always, along the water. Wooden pylons, connected to planks, held the roadway away from the lapping water below. It was somewhere around here that Mai had pulled Amon onto the man-made beach nearly a year ago.

"Amon hasn't called lately." Mai spoke the words dreamily, half hypnotized by the seascape flashing by.

She heard the smile in Nagira's voice as he answered. "My brother isn't exactly the talkative type. I never could get him to open up, and we shared an apartment for nearly four months after my father died."

"Hmm?" Mai, still sleepy, made an interrogative noise.

"Amon's mother had just died too. My law school roommate bailed on me to go get married, so I had an extra room. Amon was finishing his last year of high school when dad died. I let him stay with me until he figured out what he wanted to do. Turns out the STNJ snapped him up. Dad was a witch, and unlike me, Amon's got the gene too."

"Were you close to him growing up?" Mai assumed a divorce situation since Nagira had said 'Amon's mother'.

Nagira smiled humorlessly. "I didn't even know I had a brother until the reading of the will. My father made sure no one knew about his mistress or his other child. Appearances were everything to him. From what little Amon let slip, dear old dad didn't spend any more time with him than he did with me. Still, his guilty conscience must have got to him. He split the estate evenly between Amon and me in two separate trust accounts. We can't access the capital, but the earnings are ours. So far as I know Amon's never touched a yen of his. Neither of us liked dad very much, but Amon's got more principles than I do when it comes to money." Nagira's tone was self-mocking.

"I'm so sorry." Nagira had never spoken of his family or his relationship with Amon. Mai assumed it was because he wanted to keep things businesslike. She had no idea that the truth was so painful. Suddenly, she missed her mother, and wondered if she'd gone on with her life, thinking her only child dead. Still, it was better that way, and safer. Mai hugged herself and shivered.

"Don't be." Nagira's voice was brusque. "Amon's a survivor. And pride's not always a bad thing. Besides, I thought girls always go for the dark brooding types."

"I don't." Whispered Mai.

"Come on. You saved his life." Nagira's tone was joking, but there was an edge to it.

Mai straightened her spine and looked straight at Nagira. "I saved Amon because I couldn't save my boss from being killed. I needed to do something right, and he happened to be there. He is not my 'type'." She kept staring at Nagira until he looked back at her and saw that she meant it. Why was it so important to her that he take her words seriously? She slumped back in her seat.

"I wonder, what is your type, Mai Izuki?" Nagira asked softly.

You are. Thought Mai to herself. But I can never have you. She pretended not to hear the question and looked out the window again. They'd left the sea and were now entering a maze of skyscrapers and apartment buildings, the urban redevelopment zone. On Mai's side of the road a boy, hardly junior high school aged, was jogging across one of the small open green spaces, too small to be called a park.

At first Mai thought he was just exercising, but he wasn't jogging, he was sprinting, hard. Mai leaned closer to the window. A woman in a dark raincoat with short light brown hair was sprinting after the boy, and gaining. Something about the way she held her hand down by her side, in the folds of the coat as she ran, set off warning bells in Mai's brain.

The boy was headed straight for the road, and he wasn't stopping.

"Nagira! Look out!"

He glanced over, saw the boy crossing in front of the car, and pulled on the steering wheel. Tires screeching on the pavement, the sports car swerved, and made a sharp ninety-degree turn, coming to a stop facing the buildings on the other side of the road.

Her heart pounding in her chest, Mai saw the boy's pale frightened face as he spared them a glance before racing across the empty lanes of traffic past their car and disappeared between two buildings on the other side. The woman sped after him, her face set, determined, and her gun hand still down at her side.

"Nagira, I think that was a witch." She managed to choke the words out despite her shock.

"Well then. Let's go rescue him."

And with that Nagira turned the car back facing forward and took off after them.

TO BE CONTINUED

(Assuming my stupid computer doesn't eat the next chapter too!)