Black. All was black. All was twisted into void of shadows, filled with the souls of the lost. Forever doomed to wander throughout this dim world of endless darkness. Worst of all was the fact that she could feel them, pressing their cold hollow bodies against her warm one, seeking out and attempting to absorb her warmth. Her craft. Her life. Even though it was as if she had left her real body somewhere else, and was merely floating in sprit alone. Then the presence of those around her vanished, like dust swept away by a warm summer wind. All that was left was the single moon like eye of a raven as it filtered through the darkness and fell upon her face. Illuminating her pale flesh in its fierce silver glow.
Breathing hard, Robin, woke with a start. The image of the raven and its horrid unblinking eye still all to fresh within the tormented depths of her mind. Wiping her forehead with the back of a sweaty hand, the fire witch attempted to get a hold of herself. Only to find that it was proving most difficult, the horrible feeling of the souls clinging to her very being was bad enough, but the eye. The damned eye of the bird was what unnerved her the most. Like a bad omen, yes just like a bad omen, and perhaps it was.
The teen shook her glossy blond hair and pulled the loosely laid covers tighter around her bare body. An omen...an omen signifying what? That she was perhaps going insane? That couldn't be it half of her personality augured, she was just overworked. All the stress on her body and mind was finally catching up with her. Agreeing with this theory for now the girl lazily pushed herself up from her bed, and yet a small voice in the back of her clouded mind warned her not to be at ease, that the dream, as well as the raven held more meaning.
Once again she raised a hand to her brow, holding her head in her slightly quivering hand before shaking it softly from side to side. Perhaps she really was going mad... No. That couldn't be it she refused to belive that.
A little faster than she meant to the fire witch stood from her bed and hurried to cloth herself in her normal attire hanging neatly in an utterly bare closet. Adding the finishing touch to her appearance, the girl tied up her hair into its normal style. Taking merely a moment to dare a glance at the clock sitting next to her bed. No wonder her alarm hadn't gone of like it normally did. The satanically red numbers continuously flashing across its black screen read: 12:00 no doubt it had been caused by the power outage last night because of the storm.
Finishing up her hair, Robin darted from her room and out into the main living space of the apartment that she shared with Touko, only to find her roommate already gone and a cold pot of coffee sitting on the kitchen table. Normally Robin would of quickly gulped down the thick black liquid no matter how late to work she was, but the fact that it was already cold forced her to decide not to. She had never been fond of cold morning beverages.
Fumbling around clumsily with her keys, the blond craft user struggled to open the front door, and then relock it. Finally succeeding with this task she quickly checked to make sure it was secure before briskly trotting down the hallway and out of the apartment complex, where in a hurry, she franticly found her vespa, boarded it, and began to make her way towards Ravens flat.
The world outside was wet, and dreary because of the rain the previous night, yet the low hanging black clouds still seemed about to produce more of the chilling sky liquid. The day was so dank in fact that it reminded Robin of her dream, and the utter darkness of it all.
The thought brought a shiver to her slender body, and so she quickly pushed the memory from her mind. In turn focusing her concentration upon the road ahead of her and the place she needed to be. Her attention was soon shifted to a lone figure walking alone on the street, while it was not completely un normal for a soul being to be walking at this time of day, it was slightly odd to see that the person seemingly did not mind the weather if not enjoyed it. The figure was cloaked in a long black trench coat hiding its gender, with a heavy black scarf around its face, concealing it entirely from view. Save for the eyes which Robin could not glimpse clearly as she sped past.
"Odd..."she muttered softly to herself. While she had missed most important physical attributes such as hair color, and skin tone, she did however notice that the figure seemed to be trotting, if not skipping down the street as if in celebration of the rain.
Robin tried to think of any reason a person would be out on such a day at such a time, but her thoughts were interrupted upon her arrival at the Stnj building. It was just such a habit to pull into her normal parking space in the vast inside parking complex that she barely noticed that she had done it at all. However she did take notice of an unknown black vehicle parked on her left side.
Tilting her head slightly to one side as she looked upon it, the witch studied the car for a moment longer before remembering with a jolt that she was late. Quickly she forgot about the mystery car, as well as all other thoughts. Leaving only the fact that she was late and would most likely be yelled at by Amon...well scolded anyway. Amon didn't even need to yell, let alone even speak at all to instantly attract attention to him, and get his point across crystal clear.
Cringing ever so slightly at the thought as she entered the elevator, Robin let out a heavy sigh and quickly composed herself, for her appearance had become a little disheveled from her departure and arrival.
The silver gray metal doors opened with a load 'ding' before opening to the top level of the stnj building, as well as throwing Robin once again from her thoughts. Normally she would be greeted by Doujima (if she had even bothered to show up on time for once) but all she was met by was a complete stranger sitting at her working station. All the eyes of the other hunters locked curiously on him, excluding Amon. Despite the looks he was getting the stranger calmly looked up at Robin and smiled softly.
Upon closer inspection Robin couldn't help but notice that he was young, probably no older than 18 years of age, yet he had already accomplished a clam, nonchalant look that it took most other young men decades to master without fault. The young man had pale skin, covered mostly by his dark clothing consisting of a relatively plain black muscle shirt exposing lean, well formed biceps, and a pair of black jeans. He possessed a long glimmering mane of unusually long straight black hair tied neatly into a single ponytail and falling limply to his lower back. But what captured Robin the most were his eyes, which were a beautiful inhuman gray, with flecks of gold and icy blue within them, much like a cats eyes.
Robin couldn't help but stare blankly at his attractive, smiling face. Seemingly transfixed by his eyes. Without waiting for her words, the stranger took a stand and bowed slightly in her direction.
"Forgive me miss." He said softly, his voice silky and smoother than Robin would of thought possible from a youth his age. "But I believe I have taken your seat." He raised his well built body up form its formally bowed position, and stood in a confident, yet respectful manor. Speechless Robin stuttered slightly, unsure of what was transpiring.
"U um yes...you are in my seat but that's fine...I really don't mind... I mean I wasn't even here to use it up until now..."With a slightly amused smile on his fine face, the young man nodded and took a step away from Robins chair allowing her access to it.
Robin remained still for a moment more before moving towards her work area slowly, her eyes never leaving his face.
Amon, who had been watching this entire thing unfold from the beginning narrowed his colorless eyes, and stood up. His powerful aura, and expression giving away the fact that he was slightly uncomfortable, if not down right annoyed with the presence of the stranger.
"Exactly what are you doing here anyway?" He spoke, directing his question towards the youth and for now ignoring Robin who stared at him in bewilderment. The young man merely looked towards Amon with a calm collected gaze, appearing to be one of the few known people with the courage, and perhaps stupidity to stand up to the dark hunter.
"My reason for being among you today was explained in the email sent directly from Solomon HQ, to whoever is in charge of this particular branch of the stn. I believe your chiefs name was Kosaka?" Amon glared at him for a moment longer before shifting his menacing gaze to Kosaka, who suddenly appeared very small and frightened. Like a cornered animal.
"Well?" Amon's soft, yet bold voice once again rang through the ears of the other hunters, causing all but the new arrival to notably flinch.
"Um well...." Kosaka started, his eyes falling to the ground. "I did receive an email about a hunter named Katsu Yuhara arriving within the next couple of weeks, but I however didn't know that he would be arriving so soon...and that...no offence Yuhara-san, that he would be so young...I was planning on telling everyone here today, but now that you already here Yuhara-san you wouldn't mind sharing your reason for being here."
Katsu shrugged, the attention of the others once again falling on him yet he didn't appear to even care, let alone notice.
"My reason for being here is simple...I was sent by Solomon to aid you in your latest case...the one concerning the dead earth witch..."
"Is that your only purpose?" Amon inquired darkly
"No..."Katsu answered simply." Even after the murder case has been solved I will be remaining here a permanent member of the stnj..."
"And why exactly is that?" Amon once again spoke up, annoyed by the confident, nonchalant tone of the young hunters voice, and because of the fact that his death glares, which normally made people cringe, were having no effect on him whatsoever. Katsu raised his oddly colored eyes to meet, and match Amons glare.
"That Amon-san is something that I am not qualified to tell you...At least not until instructed by my heads." At this, the hunter narrowed his eyes in his own soft glare, signaling that he would say no more. Slightly taken aback that one so young chose to boldly stand up to him like that Amon strengthened his glare, yet Katsu refused to lose any ground. Whoever he was he was certainly bold, if not fearless. In an attempt to break the silence Kosaka spoke up, his voice, as well as his body quivering. No doubt from the amount of will power the two hunters were throwing about.
"W well it's a pleasure to have you on the team Yuhara-san..." For a moment Katsu disconnected his glare from Amon to nod briefly to Kosaka and utter a soft 'thanks'.
Having remained silent throughout the entire ordeal like the rest of the team, Robin tentatively spoke up. "Exactly what do you know about the murder case Yuhara-san?"
Katsu once again turned away from Amon, this time completely, and smiled slightly at the fire witch.
"Not much I'm sad to say, I've only been in Japan for a little over 12 hours. So far I've only really done an examination of the body...well what's left of it anyway, and I have also conducted a quick search of the area in which the killing took place."
"And what exactly have you found in your searches Yuhara?" Amon growled softly, not even bothering to add the respectful san at the end of his name. Katsu took a moment to fix the dark hunter with an equally dark look, before once again taking his turn to speak.
"Correct me if I am wrong but I do believe that your former analyses of the cause of death was that his throat was slit open followed by his stomach, all before he was drained of blood correct? "Amon reluctantly nodded, as did Robin "I see..." Katsu continued. "What I discovered was merely that the victim did not die from having his throat slit...but actually from a hairline fracture in the back of the neck, It was so discrete that I barely noticed it myself...Only after death was the body of the witch slit open..."
"How exactly were you able to distinguish this?" Sakaki inquired finally speaking up.
For a moment Katsu
remained silent, his oddly colored eyes scanning over his fellow
hunters "...after you've been through all special training that I
was forced to under go back at headquarters It's no surprise that I
was able to find certain things that you overlooked..."His voice
was soft and surprisingly modest. "oh one more thing I also
discovered besides the cause of death...When I did my own
investigation of the murder scene I was able to tell from the break
in the neck that the witch was hit from above and slightly at a right
angle...Thusly meaning that the killer was perched on top of the
building to the right of the alleyway where the murder took place..."
"So someone must of allowed the killer access to the roof?"
Karasuma piped in.
"That's just it." Katsue continued, "I spoke with the people who were present at the building that night, and none of them let anyone into the building. I even checked out the door leading to the roof. It was locked and bolted with no finger prints on the knob whatsoever..."
"So how did the killer get on top of the roof?" Michael asked, joining the conversation "are you suggesting our killer can fly?" Katsu fixed Michael with a firm glance
"That's a very distinct possibility."
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Okays I just wanna say thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 1 your comments made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside coughs up a hairball or it could have been that O.o oh yea and special thanks to Amons angel of the darkness and Duzzie for being the first two people to review my fic its means worlds to me.
Amon: but it doesn't mean your writing will improve at all ¬.¬
Meow-Chan: galaaaaaaaaaare TT
