LUCKY THIRTEEN
Word traveled quickly around the STN-J.
Haruto Sakaki, investigator, hunter, and loyal friend, was to be hunted. The order had come down directly from Solomon open hearing of the situation. He was to be hunted and detained on site, sedated immediately. His fate was sealed.
And it was Karasuma's fault.
She had gone to speak with Kosaka, who immediately overreacted. Karasuma spent at least an hour pleading her innocence before he had no other choice but to call the events in to Solomon. Kosaka ordered her to state everything she knew, everything. She sat on the phone for another hour at least just telling her tale. She spoke of Nocturne, of the witches sanctuary disguised as a club, of the witches who lived there. Miho told them of the fire elemental, the telepath, and the precognitive. Solomon's interest immediately pricked at the last one.
In the end, the order came down hard and true.
Doujima sat at her desk, trying not to cry or ruin her makeup.
Michael, meanwhile, hammered away at his keyboard, as if he could ignore the world in favor of the small screens and monitors, in favor of the digital realm. There, the hacker didn't have to help in the hunt of his own friend.
"Hey," Miho greeted as she returned from the meeting with Kosaka.
Michael didn't answer. He just stared deeply into the screen. Michael and Sakaki had been close friends, despite their differences. They were almost brotherly, like long lost siblings. Karasuma couldn't blame the hacker if he chose to hate her forever for what she'd done. In fact, the empath wouldn't be angry or upset at all if Michael chose to.
Karasuma leaned close to the hacker. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry." Michael hardly flinched at the apology. "I'm sorry, but Sakaki's dangerous. He can't control his Craft and he's being used as someone's puppet. He's being controlled by someone else." Miho closed her eyes. "I just…. I want to help him."
"He's not dangerous. He's Sakaki." The empath had never heard him speak so bitterly, so harshly towards anyone.
Miho nodded. "Sakaki's just a tool for someone who is truly dangerous." The empath's heart melted in her chest. "It's not his fault. None of this is." She tapped her fingers on the desk nervously. "It's the people he's with. We need to get him away from them."
"But, you… and Solomon…. Solomon ordered the hunt," Michael stammered. "You agreed to it."
Miho closed her eyes, trying not to get upset. "I had to. Don't you understand?" He didn't say anything in response to that. "Someone from that group is controlling Sakaki. He's not OUR Sakaki anymore." Her fist balled in sudden aggression. "It's that telepath." Rage swelled within her. "We have to hunt him. If she's still in control, there's no telling what she'll make Sakaki do. To us…. To himself…"
Michael's jaw dropped. He hadn't thought of it that way, but Karasuma held a valid point. Even Doujima looked startled at that, but the blonde couldn't argue. Both had seen the power of witches, the unimaginable forces of the unseen Crafts. A witch could most certainly be completely capable of forcing Sakaki by mental coercion.
"He'll be alright," Miho assured the hacker. "We'll get him back, and set everything straight."
xxxx
The house had stood vacant for close to two years.
Even after they moved to Japan, they had only stopped to visit the house but once or twice to be sure there were ample supplies in the event of an emergency. Other than that, the house had been left to itself. Years ago, when he first purchased the house, Kristo had a groundskeeper tend to the property, but, now, the gardens had over grown into wild thickets. The koi pond that had once been beautiful kept, but, now, it lay practically stagnant. It surprised Kristo even then that a few of the large, graceful fish still swam, coming up and begging for food just as they had while he lived there.
The house itself had, at one point, been considered "opulent." It had been simple enough for Kristo to afford it, mostly from helping save another witch from Solomon. The grateful witch, before fleeing for the nearest hiding spot, sold Kristo the house for the paltry sum of 500, so long as the witch and his family, were welcome whenever they needed the refuge.
Thus far, they had yet to return.
Upon setting foot on the long driveway, Kristo wondered what became of Fukai, his wife, Yumi, and their twin babies. He hadn't heard anything of them, or seen them since buying the house. Absently, the man pondered if Solomon had finally caught up with the small family and imprisoned them as witches.
Dusk had just begun to settle over the house, casting eerie shadows this way and that. He held his handcrafted katana low at his side before slowly moving towards the house, keeping his guard up as he approached. Kristo allowed all sounds to pass through his ear, listening and looking for the telltale signs of intruders. Thus far, there was nothing. Only crickets, a few last birds calling out for the evening, and the swiftly rolling twilight crossing over the home.
The crunch of gravel under tires alerted him to the other cars pulling up the driveway behind him. The bright headlights shone against the white panels of the house. Yet, Kristo didn't flinch. The man continued on his patrol, knowing that the car approaching was just Brett. The younger of the two men must have taken a longer route to the house, taking the time to drive and work out his anxieties on the highway.
Besides, Kristo had no need to worry about anyone coming up the driveway. Bear and Raven sat in his little car, the engine still running and in gear, ready to strike at anyone who would dare come uninvited.
It wouldn't be too long before Geoff, Nycole, and Sakaki made their way up to the house.
Kristo strode up to the porch that wrapped around the home. He moved closer to the walls, to where the shadows pooled in deep inky blobs. They seemed to stretch and crawl, reaching towards the man. Kristo smirked to himself and stepped into the dark. It swallowed the modern samurai in a flash, and into the dark he went. The shade carried him easily from place to place, concealing the man, allowing him to pass this way and that, to check the entire grounds. He moved from the small dog run to the right of the house, past the koi pond, around the porch, over the gravel garden, and to the back. When the man paused over the smoothly worn sparring ring, the night spat him out.
Kristo stepped down from nothingness itself and onto the stone. "Home at last."
He tiptoed up the steps and back into the shadows, before passing into the house itself. The man checked this way and that, moving through the old cobwebs, pulling them down. The black of night swept over his footsteps, concealing them. The house was empty, perfectly so.
Kristo stepped out of the shadows and into the large living and dining room. This room, this large, bamboo floored hall, had once been the life of the house. Here, he had eaten, lived, practiced and slept. An old futon still lay on the floor from the last night Kristo had slept there, before he met the group and found his own destiny. This room would once again feel the life and energy of a home.
He moved to the breaker boxes and set the main breaker. Lights flickered to life as electricity filled the house. Instantly, one bulb burnt out. Kristo shrugged it off. It was but one among many. The house felt alive again.
He opened the front door for Kathain, Bear, Raven, Brett, Geoff, Nycole, and Sakaki, bidding them to enter. The others flooded into his house, like an army seeking camp for the night. Sakaki seemed better from sleeping all day in the car; the hunter even walked on his own. Kathain and Nycole had even gone so far as to swap nervous, frazzled jokes as they searched the house for extra futons and blankets for the night.
Kristo, however, just went out and back into the night.
He had grounds to patrol.
xxxx
They had returned that day.
The house seemed so empty after the long night at the bustling club Nocturne. Robin heaved a sigh of relief at the silence and tranquil peace of their home. Amon seemed refreshed by the quiet, too. However, that didn't last long, as the former hunter picked up the two staffs.
"Oh, Amon, can't we spar later?" Robin almost whined.
The tall man handed the teenager her staff. "You must always be ready, Robin."
She blinked, staring down at the wooden weapon in her hold; would the girl ever have to strike at Sakaki the way Amon asked her to fight him? "Amon…"
"Hmm?" he raised an eyebrow, begging her to continue.
"I…" Robin struggled to form a coherent thought. "I think we should help Karasuma find Sakaki. We should help him."
Amon shook his head. "No. Solomon's order a hunt on Sakaki. It isn't safe." Robin blinked in shock. "You have to keep one step ahead of Solomon. Standing in their path is never the wisest of choices." He saw the pain and torment in the girl's eyes. "I know you want to help him, but you can't be anywhere near him or the hunt. You'll just get captured by Solomon, or worse."
Genuine concern from Amon? She wondered who had replaced the hunter Robin had once known and worked alongside.
"I understand…"
xxxx
Michael sat up in the night, working on his computer, searching beyond hope for Sakaki, hoping that his friend was still alive out there. The hacker typed furiously on the keyboard, hunting for any sort of connection, any way at all to find the group. He started with the usual routes, trying to get a triangulation on Sakaki's phone, but the hunter had been smart enough to turn it off. He went looking into the club, cracking their files. Nothing. The club had been purchased by the group in cash, surprisingly enough, and licensed under an American name. All of their ties to the States had been severed. There seemed to be no way to find Haruto.
The hacker rolled across to another computer console, pulling up some music. He had to give up. There was no way to find Sakaki. The people who had taken him had been so very careful to cover their tracks.
But, how careful was careful?
Michael kept searching, praying they hadn't been careful enough.
xxxx