Chapter 005: Blood

Aside from the occasional spontaneous laugh from Doujima, followed by Haruto snickering and muttering something along the lines of: 'snowball' and 'Amon', everything had returned to normal by the next morning. Kosaka had given them all one of his lectures on 'acting their age' and not being 'irresponsible', but as usual, no one really took it seriously. The snowball fight had apparently helped them all relax for once, and even Amon seemed in a better mood.

Pouring herself a steaming cup of strong coffee, Robin seated herself down at the window sill and stared out at the lawn on which they had previously trampled. The sun had come back out from the clouds, and the twittering of birds could be heard. A blue skied, crisp winter day lay before her as the sun rose over the city. Releasing a deep sigh, she then took a sip of her coffee and reached over to the desk for some cream. Not too much, though. She couldn't ruin its deliciously strong flavor.

"Hey Michael, any more news on who's after Robin?", Haruto asked as he munched on a piece of toast, slouching in his swivel chair. "No. But I have a feeling that we've overlooked something crucial.", Michael responded uneasily, tapping his feet to the music blaring from his headset. "You mean that 'you' overlooked, stupid.", Haruto chuckled, leaning his chair back on two legs. "Its not as if we've been doing anything... mainly because we can't. We don't know where to start. And you're the only one with real 'h4x0ring' skills."

Across the room, Doujima broke out into a small fit of giggles for some unexplainable reason, until Amon gave her his death glare and she abruptly stopped. "Well, you could at least try to help Michael out, seeing as you have nothing better to do.", Karasuma called from across the room as Haruto leaned too far back on his chair and fell over with a loud bang. Doujima began a new fit of laughter as she sat cross-legged in her chair, grinning wickedly. Robin got up and headed towards the sink with her coffee cup, but tripped over a wire sprouting from Michael's computer, dropping her cup with a loud shatter. Amon glanced over out of the corner of his eye, but then went back to work indifferently.

"Oh. Ow...", Robin whispered, a piece of glass protruding from her delicate hand. This made everyone including Amon look back up again. Blood began to drip down past her pale wrist to the floor, making a small puddle at her feet. Noticing the look of concern in Amon's eyes, she blushed and started trying to ineffectively blot up the mess with a tissue. "Hey, Robin. You should probably wrap that up in a bandage of some sort.", Karasuma said, approaching and putting a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "I'm afraid the ice machine is broken. You'll have to go out and get some snow to put on it."

Holding back the tears that had begun to form in the corners of her emerald eyes, Robin nodded silently, biting her lip as she turned to leave. Walking swiftly out, careful not to let anyone see her tears, she passed through the doorway and headed for the elevator. Soon everyone returned to their work, with barely a shadow of concern left on their faces. They had much more important things to worry about than a fifteen year old girl being attacked by her coffee pot.

As Robin reentered the courtyard, still covered with their wild footprints, something caught her eye. Temporarily forgetting about her cut, she ran over to it, her black dress billowing behind her. At her feet lay a small, folded piece of paper. Surprised and curious at the same time, she looked about the place and then reached down to snatch it up. It was covered with frost and was difficult to open without tearing the paper or injuring her hand further. After breathing on it a few times to melt the ice crystals, she carefully unfolded it.