Disclaimer: I don't own any Witch Hunter Robin characters
CHAPTER EIGHT: ANOTHER RESCUE
"There!" Mai pointed to where the short haired woman in the dark raincoat was running down the street.
Nagira hauled on the steering wheel and executed a highly illegal U turn to chase after her as she chased after the young witch.
"Looks like we've got company." A motorcycle zoomed past them, overshooting the alley the woman hunter disappeared into.
"What should we do?" Mai breathed, eyes intent on the alleyway ahead. Her pulse was racing, and the excitement of the chase was making it harder and harder to control her need to let loose with her powers. The desire to show off was always there, just under the surface.
"We head them off." Nagira sped up past the alley entrance, down four blocks and swerved into a side street. The street passed an intersection, then another. Just ahead loomed a wall, dead-ending the street. He pulled the car around in a U turn, nearly scraping the paint, and cut the engine with the car facing the last intersection.
"Come on." He kicked the car door open and began sprinting toward the intersection.
Mai followed more slowly, noting that her boss had left the headlights on. It would make it impossible for the witch hunters to see their license plate, and keep them backlit. She approved. Every sense tingled with anticipation. The metal ribs of the buildings, and the root-like pipes under their asphalt blanket called to her.
By the time she reached the intersection, she knew where every scrap of metal was in the street before her.
A flash of white, and the boy ran past. Nagira cursed and ran after him, but Mai stopped when she came to the intersection and waited, feeling her mouth crease into a smile.
The boy on the motorcycle came first. Mai decided to play with him a little. She bent and rolled a trashcan lid directly into his path.
The boy tried frantically to avoid it, but she sent it directly under his front tire, the bent edge sharp enough to pierce it. The motorcycle rolled onto its side and skidded past its driver, who lay on the pavement.
The sharp staccato sound of running footsteps came from behind Mai. Without bothering to turn she kept the motorcycle going and had it careen off the building in front, then she threw it at the sound of the footsteps.
"Ah!" The woman cried out, so Mai shifted a little, offering only her profile. The woman was on the ground, the motorcycle lying behind her, its back wheel still spinning impotently in the air. It must have missed her.
As Mai watched, the woman raised her gun hand and fired. She was fast, but not as fast as Mai. Reaching out with her mind, she pulled the metal sewer lines up from the pavement. They were rusted antiques, superceded by the synthetic tubes that now carried the city's sewage underground, but they made a fine barrier.
Globs of liquid splattered against them. Mai grinned. This was getting interesting. She bent the metal tubes back and forth, making them resemble headless snakes searching for their dinner, and giving them a nearly impossible flexibility. Then she sent them toward the woman.
"Mai!" Nagira's voice came faintly. "I need you."
It was like swimming up from the bottom of a pool filled with Molasses, but gradually Mai came back to herself. She heard the woman frantically scrabbling to get away from the metal pipes, and with an effort, Mai changed their purpose from predator to barrier, pulling out more pipes and weaving them across the alley lane.
In another second she was running toward Nagira's voice. There was another sound coming from that direction, a constant incoherent cry of rage or fear. As she shot between buildings, she came to a scene that stopped her, literally cold.
Icicles littered the ground, not the natural kind that looked like dripped candle wax, but knife-like spikes. The end of the street had been closed for some sort of roadwork. The street was torn up, and penned behind sawhorse barriers, and in front of the barrier stood the boy, one hand outstretched, the other bracing it.
The smell of the sea was strong, and even though the evening had been warm and humid, Mai could see her breath. She glanced around wildly for Nagira and finally saw him crouched behind a forklift sort of a vehicle which was studded with the ice knives.
"Stop it!" Mai yelled as she came forward.
The boy looked over at her, and she gasped as she recognized the look in his eye. He was drunk with the power, and past the point of caring or listening. He was also younger than she'd thought.
In an instant, Mai pulled the Triangular saw toothed bucket off an earthmover vehicle and threw it at the boy, using it to pin him to the ground. It took all her concentration bend the bucket out of shape to ensure his capture without accidentally amputating a limb. The result was an amoeba shaped blanket pinning the child to the pavement.
"Nagira." She breathed as he pulled himself to his feet and walked over to her, brushing ice shards from his coat.
"You did good, Mai. The kid was too hysterical to listen. He thought I was one of the witch hunters." Nagira smiled ruefully, "Maybe we should get some sort of a sign to flash at...Hey."
Mai fell against Nagira's chest, shaking. He was OK. He wasn't dead, but he could have been. While she'd been playing cat and mouse with a couple of witch hunters, he could have been killed.
His hands grasped her forearms and gently pushed her a few inches away from where she'd glued herself to his torso.
"What's wrong?" He asked in that low velvety voice of his. She read concern in his eyes, concern and some other emotion she couldn't name.
"I thought you were..." Her voice cracked. She couldn't go on with the thought.
Nagira gave her a crooked smile. "You don't need to worry about me." He said, and squeezed her arms gently before releasing her. "But I appreciate the thought." He kept looking at her, then smiled again, muttered something that sounded like "Heck with it" and took her in his arms and kissed her thoroughly.
A banging noise brought Mai back to the present. Nagira raised his head and sighed. "I think that's the kid."
Mai blinked and sprang away, pressing her hand against her lips. "Oh!" She'd completely forgotten the young witch she'd trapped. He'd be running out of oxygen about now. She pulled the metal off him and dropped it with a clank over by the earth-moving vehicle it belonged with.
The boy raised himself on his hands and knees, gasping for breath. Mai dropped to a seat beside him and put her hand on his shoulder.
"It's OK." She said. "We aren't hunting you. We're here to help."
He kept coughing, and brushed her hand away, but he didn't attack. She felt Nagira come to stand behind her.
"Who are you?" His voice held the high querulous tone of a preteen. He was tall for his age, bony, with short dark hair, rich spaniel's brown eyes, and a child's clear skin.
"I'm...Mariko." Mai had trouble remembering her alias for a minute. "I'm a witch too."
That brought her a sharp look from the boy. "What do you want?"
"Just to help you." At a loss, she turned and looked at Nagira. She wasn't good with children, she'd never had brothers or sisters and had never been much of a babysitter.
Nagira thrust his hand out, as if expecting a handshake, and said to the boy. "You look like you could use a lift."
The boy stared at the hand suspiciously for a moment, then looked between her and Nagira, assessing them. Then he grabbed Nagira's hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.
"Where are your parents?" Asked Mai.
The boy gave her an angry look. "I don't have 'parents'. My dad's gone. I live with my mom, grandma, grandpa, and sister."
"You look a little young to be a fugitive. Why don't we take you home?" Nagira asked, beginning to make his way back to the car.
"No!" The boys stopped following them. "I'm not going back. It's their fault I was being chased."
"What do you mean?"
"They called the hunters on me. I know it. They betrayed me." The kid's voice went cold, flat. Mai had to restrain herself from taking him in her arms and hugging him. Despite what she'd done at the bank, she couldn't imagine her own mother ever turning on her. Of course, her mother had known about her abilities.
"Are you sure?" She couldn't help the doubt she heard in her own voice.
"Of course I'm sure! It's all because of what happened at school."
"You might want to tell us about it in the car. Once those two witch hunters report in to the STNJ this place is going to be crawling with hunters." Nagira and Mai exchanged a look. Amon could be among them. It wouldn't do to have his colleagues find out Nagira was rescuing the witches Amon was supposed to be hunting. True, Amon had called them once to shelter an old married couple being hunted, but that didn't mean he wanted anyone he worked with to know about it.
"Come on." Mai grabbed the boy's hand and began to run to the car.
He dug his heels in a minute, then came with her. When they reached the car he climbed into the back seat without a word. Nagira jumped in and within a minute pulled the car back on a main street and sped away.
"So, what happened at school?" Nagira asked casually.
The boy, pressed between their seats, was alternating between looking at the front windshield and examining the various dials and gauges on the console.
"I was making an ice castle after school behind the playground." He said absently. "One of the other kids came and saw me." He grew quiet for a minute, then continued. "He was an older kid, a mean bully. I guess I got scared. I didn't mean to but the...castle came down and it...hurt him."
"I'm so sorry." Mai told him softly. The boy looked at her.
"I went home. I told my mom and grandma what happened. They sent me to the store to buy candy. When I was walking home, THEY came."
"The STNJ hunters?"
"Yeah, I guess. I ran really fast." He sounded childishly proud of himself. "I lost them a couple of times, but they kept finding me. My family must have told them where I liked to hang out. They must have told them everything." The bitterness was unmistakable.
"Maybe not." Mai offered. "The STNJ are really smart. They could have found out some other way."
The boy was silent, letting his expression of disbelieving contempt speak for itself.
Nagira broke into the conversation. "Well, if that's how it is, what do you say you come home with us."
"No. And if you try to make me I'll..." The kid moved back in his seat and began to bring his hands up.
Mai saw Nagira tensing up, so she acted first, practically throwing herself into the empty space between the driver and passenger seats, she grabbed the boy's hands.
"That's not necessary. We'll take you wherever you want to go, right?" She glanced back over her shoulder at Nagira, who nodded. "Where do you want to go?"
The boy got a faraway look in his eye, and then said, slowly. "I've got a cousin. He's older an has his own apartment." He went on, his words gaining speed. "He's really tough. He has a job. My mom doesn't like him, so she thinks I don't either. She'd never guess that I'd go there. Since he doesn't like her back, I'm sure he'll hide me for a while. I'll be safe there. Please, could you just drop me off at the train station?"
"Look, kid. If he's a family member the STNJ may have his place staked out already." Nagira told him, reluctantly.
"Why would they? He's my dad's cousin, not my mom's. Like I said, she doesn't like him. Besides, I'm not going with you."
Mai didn't like the look the kid had in his eye. She'd only just got him calmed down the first time he got upset. She tore a piece of paper off her notepad and jotted down Nagira's untraceable phone number, and handed it to him.
"OK. But if you run into any trouble, you must promise to call us and we'll come and get you."
Something flashed in the boy's eyes, but he took the piece of paper. "Alright." He muttered.
Nagira pulled up next to a train station. As soon as the car rolled to a stop, the kid was out the door, about to shut it behind him.
"Hey kid." Nagira's voice stopped him. He froze, waiting. "What's your name?"
"Isao. Isao Watanambe." He said, then shut the door and jogged away into the station.
Mai watched him go, wondering what would become of him. There was so little they could do to help. She had a hard enough time just helping herself to stay in control. What chance did a child witch really have?
"Hey." Nagira's voice pulled her out of her reverie. "We can only help if they want it." He reminded her softly.
She smiled faintly. "At least we saved him from the STNJ." She said, and leaned back against the car seat.
"You look beat. I'm going to drop you off then go pick up those papers."
Mai began to protest then stopped. It wasn't often Nagira let her out of training. Besides, she needed time to think about what had happened between them after she'd trapped Isao. A few minutes later, he dropped her off at her apartment, and was gone.
The next morning Nagira greeted her as he always did. He sent Hirata out to get coffee and bean curd pastries for a meeting later that morning, and called Mai into his office to take notes on the documents he'd picked up the night before.
Mai kept expecting him to mention the kiss, but apart from a warmer glint in his eye when he looked at her, he was the same old Nagira.
They were seated at the small table in the conference area of the office when Amon strode in, and slammed a newspaper down on the documents in front of them.
"Well hello to you too." Nagira greeted him facetiously.
"Read it." Amon commanded tersely.
Nagira stilled, then reached out and pulled the newspaper to him. As he read, Amon spoke.
"There are reasons why I don't call on you for every case."
Nagira's hands clenched on the newspaper, crackling it. Unable to read upside down, Mai watched helplessly as his brow furrowed. He looked up at Amon. "I didn't know."
"Stay out of it." Amon growled, and left, his black coat swirling in his wake.
Nagira got up from the table and followed him to the door.
Alone in the conference room, Mai grasped the edge of the newspaper gently, and pulled it toward her. The front-page story was horrific. A family, a mother, father, adult aged daughter, and grandchild had been slaughtered. Between them there were seventy-two knife wounds in the bodies, though no knife had been found on the scene. Police were looking for the other grandchild, who the paper described as a "troubled youth" also being sought by police as a possible witness to the death of a classmate whose body had been found crushed by a pool of water. Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of Isao Watanambe was urged to contact police immediately.
Mai dropped the newspaper on the table, no longer able to deny what her mind was frantically trying to disbelieve. Isao was a monster. And she'd freed him. The STNJ had been right to hunt him. If she and Nagira hadn't interfered, Isao's family would still be alive.
Feeling sick to her stomach, she buried her face in her hands, and hunched over.
She heard Nagira enter the room. He put his hand on her back.
"It's not your fault, Mai. No matter what Amon says, we've been doing a good thing. I admit, I wasn't thrilled about it at first, but now it feels right. We'll just have to be a bit more careful about who we help."
A roaring blackness opened up before Mai. She felt as if she were about to fall into an abyss. Swallowing her bile, she turned to Nagira.
"I need to go home. I don't think I can work today."
He looked like he was about to object, then his expression softened. "Sure. Take the day off. Take two days off. Hirata and I will manage."
He pulled out her chair to let her get up. She started toward the door, but as she brushed past him, he stopped her by putting his hand on her arm.
"Mai, when you get back, we'll talk."
She felt the darkness reach out and cover her soul again, and depression pulled at her heart like a lead weight. Nagira must have seen it in her eyes, because he put his hand on her cheek, and pulled her forward so their faces were only inches away.
"Not about Isao. About us. I want there to be an 'us'."
Mai touched his face gently, mirroring his gesture and stared up into his warm brown eyes, memorizing the contours of his visage. Then she stepped back, and left the office for good.
Nagira would be upset. It wasn't in his character to rant or rave or throw things, but he'd feel her absence. She didn't delude herself that he'd be all right, but he'd survive. He was the strongest, kindest, person she'd ever known, and she would cut her own heart out rather than stay with him, placing him and this tender new feeling growing between them in danger.
She'd call Mikeo. There was talk among the witches of a program in Italy that trained witches to use their powers in the service of the church. Mai didn't know if she believed it, but anything was better than risking Nagira's life. Her mind racing ahead, she already began to think of resume websites she could surf to find Nagira a new secretary.
As she left the building, it began to rain. Mai lifted her face to it, feeling the cold drops against the warm air, put her head down and walked away.
TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT CHAPTER