.: Chapter Seventeen :.
Routine
Amon
It's hard to go on pretending as if nothing has happened. But fortunately for me, I have long mastered this mask of hiding my emotions and thoughts. It's hard to pretend to be the person I once was.
Cases piled up, one after another. The hunters at STN-J got no rest of hunting, as if things were making up for the weeks of boredom that they had. Everywhere they went, there was always a rumor of an 'Eve' that even Amon and Robin couldn't ignore.
In fact, things had been so busy, that fortunately, they didn't have much time to think about their feelings and so it was easy to keep up the mask they both wore.
Michael had managed to find some information about the rise in witch activity.
"Apparently, there's been a distribution of journals that date back to three hundred and twenty years ago. It seems that there was a coven of witches, but they broke up, or something happened to them, because it suddenly disappeared. Anyway, these journals belonged to some of the witches from that coven. It seems that they're appearing in various pawn shops. Eventually, some of the witches found out about it, and knew somewhat about the content inside of it.
"Anyway, inside of these journals, I'm guessing that there are some references to something about an 'Eve'. The information about it isn't very clear, I think, due to the fact that these journals are so old. But, one thing is known very well and it's the fact that this 'Eve' thing holds a lot of power, especially over different elements. Anyway, I guess witches are starting to get power thirsty or something, because now all of sudden they're starting to hunt for it," Michael explained.
Amon was silent, thinking.
"Of course, we both know that this Eve isn't really a thing, and the power in her hasn't yet awakened. So what do we do now?" Michael asked, yawning.
"We can't do much yet without letting people around us know what's going on right now. See if you can track down all the stores that held these journals."
"'K."
Robin yawned. She had been up late last night with everybody, working on another case. She hadn't gotten enough sleep. In fact, since she was considerably younger than the rest of the workers at STN-J, she needed more sleep, but her job wouldn't let her.
Outside of the car, horns could be heard. There was a traffic jam, due to an accident on the highway. She yawned again.
Amon glanced at his partner, and the object of his affections. He was a bit tired himself, but he was long used to it. Returning his glance back to the road, he noticed that there wasn't much change on the status of traffic. Oh well, at least Sakaki would be there sooner since he was on a motorcycle.
"You can go to sleep if you want. It doesn't look like we'll get there anytime soon," he said.
Robin looked at him, her eyes half closed. She mumbled a word of thanks and closed her eyes. In a few minutes she was asleep.
Amon looked at her, watching her sleeping. She looked so tired, exhausted. The job must be taking a toll on her, not to mention the worry and stress of her hidden powers and whatnot. He sighed. In a way, she was sort of like him, having been at this job at a young age.
Hunters at STN-J led a very different life than a normal person. They usually started working at a younger age, when most of them would be at school, talking with their friends. It wasn't that the hunters were ignorant; in fact, they had a higher intelligence than the average person, and good reflex skills. But the job was an important one, and created a big burden on one's shoulder. In fact, the hunters tended to be much more mature than someone else their age.
It was probably because a normal person wouldn't have been exposed to the horrors they saw, or the knowledge of killing someone, or the knowledge of handling a gun, and the knowledge that at any moment they could die. It was a grim situation that isolated them from a social life, because the job was so demanding.
It was hard to find the right hunters, and more often than not, there weren't all that many, resulting in a lot of work distributed amongst a small number of people. They didn't have the time for a social life, to do what a normal person would do. In fact, the job pretty much prevented a person from having any sorts of social life, due to the fact that they had to be able to respond to a call 24/7.
Sighing, Amon leaned back against his seat and waited for the traffic to flow.
An hour later, Amon shook the teenage girl awake, letting her know that they were at their destination.
Robin opened her eyes from her slumber, blinking a few times to adjust to the light. Yawning, she climbed out of the black sports car, and followed her partner.
Showing their IDs at the people who were working on the site of their newest case, they ducked under the yellow tape and headed towards the crime scene.
While Amon talked to the officials and examined the body of the victim, Robin walked around, looking at random things. Something caught her eye on the ground. It was a piece of paper. Picking it up, she took a quick glance at it.
It was an old piece of paper. It was crumpled and yellowed with age. She squinted on the writing on the paper. It was as if the person who wrote it was in a hurry, or just simply had messy writing. Parts if the text was also blurred on top of that. Pocketing the paper, she went to stand by Amon's side.
"His name was Harumi Nagachi, 45 years old and a witch," Amon said, answering a question that Robin had asked. "He had died from being thrown against the wall. The impact was so strong that it caused the wall to collapse. It wasn't just any ordinary throw, since the man weighed over two hundred and fifty pounds."
Robin frowned. "A witch with the power of telekinesis wouldn't have trouble with lifting something or someone that heavy. Do you think it could be the same person who killed some of the previous victims?"
"It wouldn't be surprising. In fact, I believe they are the same person. But previously, the witch had always snapped the victims' necks, so why would he now throw the victim against the wall? He could've also broken the Harumi's neck, despite the man's size."
"Perhaps, something went wrong with his plans, and so the witch became infuriated?" Robin suggested. Then she remembered the piece of paper she had picked up from the ground.
With a rustle of her skirt, she fished out the piece of paper from her pocket. It crinkled as she unfolded gently, as not to damage such an old thing. Amon glanced over at her to see what it was then returned his glance back to the road.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I don't know. It was something I found at the site. I think… I think it's from one of those journals that Michael mentioned. It looks old enough, and it would make sense if it was. I haven't read it yet."
"Try to read it out loud," Amon commanded.
Squinting, she tried to read it. "Some of it is written in Ogham characters."
"Can you make sense of it?"
Robin nodded. "It says…. Within the Eve, therein lies a great power, stronger than that anyone has ever known. This power, once harnessed, can achieve some of the greatest things. The writing after here is blurred for a bit, the next bit says…. I do not believe that such thing should exist. The power could be easily abused, and could easily fall into the wrong hands and cause much damage. But the Witches of the Coven insist on doing so, and it is the vote of the majority to do so, and so, I must help at creating this Eve, even though I do not wish to.
"Carmella predicted with her gift, that this power would be much needed in the future, as the descent of witches continues. She has predicted that one day, the era of witches would end, and that witches will be living in secrecy and those witches that were created to take care of our planet will soon be corrupted.
"I hope, with all my heart that for once Carmella has had a false vision, however that I doubt it, for she is our best seer. Even now, witches are being hunted and burned at the stake. And that's all that it says. It must've fallen out from one of the journals," Robin concluded.
Amon was silent. It was no wonder that many witches assumed that this Eve was an object and not a person. The journals didn't give many hints as to what it was; only speaking of its immense power. Despite this, many would hunt for this illusive thing, in hopes of becoming powerful.
"Keep the piece of paper. Don't let anyone know about it except Michael," Amon advised. Robin nodded.
A moment of silence passed.
"Amon… How long do you think it will take for this to be over?" Robin whispered hesitantly. "I… I wonder… I wonder what it would be like to live a normal life for once… And… I wonder if we can ever…" Robin dropped her head, fidgeting, "… be together." It was the teenage girl who was desperately in love inside of her that was speaking. It was another part of Robin, one that rarely appeared.
For a mere moment, Amon saw the insecurities that had lain hidden inside the girl. And for that mere moment, he felt his heart beat strongly. It ached to hold her, and to chase away those insecurities. But that wasn't possible. Not in the situation they were in.
Robin took a deep breath. "I'm… I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."
Amon stayed silent.
Doujima yawned for the umpteenth time listening to Kosaka rant on about her late arrival, as usual. She couldn't possibly help it, but the work she had to do was awfully boring.
The elevator doors opened and Amon and Robin stepped out. Taking this as her chance to escape listening to Kosaka's boring rants, she rushed over to Robin.
"Robin! So, how did it go? By the way, I never got to talk to you after your… ah… your vacation," Doujima said.
Robin looked startled. She wasn't quite sure what to do, but fortunately, she was spared from having to answer by Amon requesting a meeting.
A few moments later, the STN-J members were sitting in the meeting room, discussing the latest case.
"So you think the people behind these attacks are actually the same person?" Sakaki asked. Amon nodded.
"Though it's not unusual for more than one witch to share similar crafts, the few cases ago were too similar for them not to be caused by different witches. I believe that the witch today is the same, though the victim's death was caused differently than the others," Amon said.
"So I guess we'll be looking for one person then."
"Yes. We've already targeted the witch to be working in the Walled City, so we can expect that the next victim will be found in there. Michael, did you find any matching witches in the Solomon database?"
"Yeah, there are three possible matches. One of them is Anders Leeway. 25 years old. He's an American immigrant from three years ago, but he's too far away from the Walled City, so I'm not sure about that."
"We'll still keep him as an option. It's possible that he could travel from one place to another. Who are the next two?"
"The other two are Hanajima Nanaimo, 30 years old. She lives and works near the Walled City. And the other one is Mori Hakashi, 45 years old. He owns a minor business that appears to be near bankrupt," Michael said.
"I don't think," Robin spoke up, "I don't think that it's Hanajima. The crime scenes didn't feel right for a female. It has to be the other two."
Amon nodded. "Alright then, then we'll track down the other two, and if they don't turn out to be the right ones, then it should be Hanajima. Michael, see if you can track down their addresses."
"I've already done that."
"Good. Sakaki, Karasuma, you two track down Anders. Robin and I'll take care of Mori Hakashi."
Karasuma and Sakaki nodded and promptly left the meeting room to go visit their witch. Doujima frowned.
"Hey, what about me?" She definitely didn't want to stay here and listen to Kosaka.
Amon looked startled. Doujima wanted to work? He shrugged it off.
"You can tail Hanajima then, just to be sure."
"Whatever then." Picking up her purse, Doujima sashayed out the door.
"Let's get going." Amon got up, with Robin following his lead.
Amon drummed his fingers on the dashboard. Next to him, Robin dozed slightly. They had been sitting here waiting for Mori to do something. So far, the man had remained in his house since the afternoon when Amon and Robin had first arrived. They had watched the lights in his house go on and off.
When dinner time had came, Robin had went off to buy them some dinner, and then came back to join Amon in surveying the man. Amon waited for Mori to leave his house. He was sure that the guy was up to something. And then finally something happened.
Mori walked out of house, locking the door. He looked both ways as if to make sure no one was following him, climbed into his car and drove away.
Robin woke up as she felt the car being turned on. Yawning she turned her eyes to the road as they silently followed Hakashi.
Keeping an even distance from Mori's car, Amon and Robin tailed him to the Walled City. Calling Karasuma, he let the pair know that they had found their target going to the Walled City, and that they could back off from Anders. Then he made a quick call to Michael to tell him to call the Factory. By the time this was done, they had tailed Mori to inside of the Walled City where Hakashi parked his car.
Waiting a moment before they stopped their car and followed him, Amon double checked his Orbo gun and Robin put on her glasses. Then they headed out to follow Mori.
He was restless. Though despite getting the feeling that he shouldn't be going out tonight, he had decided to go anyway. The temptation was simply too great. He was getting close to the Eve and its powers! There was nothing that was going to stop him now.
He just simply had to visit one more source – this source was seldom wrong about things, good thing too, since the source had cost him quite a bit. But no matter, once he found out what he needed to know, he'd kill the poor fool.
Life was starting to look good for him. That is till he heard the footsteps behind him.
Amon and Robin followed him, making sure to stay a bit back from their target. Mori, hearing the footsteps began to quicken his pace. The two quickened their paces too. They knew that soon they would have the witch cornered and then would be able to capture him.
Turning his head, Hakashi noticed Amon and Robin following him and he began to run. All notice of where he as running to fled out of his head till he realized he had rain straight into a dead end. Turning around to face his pursuers, he took his stand and smirked.
Amon pulled out his gun, and Robin tensed, waiting for the first blow to come from Mori.
"Who the hell do you think you are, following me! What the hell do you want!" Mori shouted. His eyes narrowed. "Wait, I know about you people. You're the ones who hunt witches. So you've come to hunt me, huh?" he sneered. "Well I'm not that easy to catch!" With that, he used his powers to lift a nearby garbage can to toss it at Robin.
To his surprise, Robin burned the garbage can and it fell to the ground with a clutter. Mori tried again with another large object and Robin burned it again.
"Damn you!" He then tried to snap Robin's neck, but she blocked the energy with her fire, rendering the attack useless. Realizing his efforts on Robin was useless, he concentrated on Amon.
He sent a huge blast of psychic energy, draining the Orbo in his pendant completely. Amon knew that if another blast like that and he wouldn't survive it.
"Shit," he muttered to himself. Robin glanced worriedly at him, but turned her concentration back to Mori when she noticed another trash can flying towards her. She narrowed her eyes and burned the can. But she didn't notice the bit of debris that came flying towards her from behind.
Before she could stop the debris, it hit her, but fortunately, she was able to dodge it from getting a direct hit to the back of her head. But unfortunately, she was hit in the shoulder instead and it ripped a bit of her dress, causing a trickle of blood to flow.
This was bad. Mori turned out to be stronger than they had imagined. Amon's Orbo protection was gone, and Robin had been hit.
Amon cocked his gun and fired, but a blow of psychic energy blocked it from getting its target. He pulled the trigger but to his dismay, he had just used his last bullet.
"Dammit!"
Mori used his power to aim more flying debris at Amon. Before it could hit him, the debris was burned by Robin's fire. Amon used the cover to quickly change the cartridge in his gun. He hoped that he would be able to finish this soon since he didn't have many bullets left.
While Robin was busy covering Amon, she didn't notice that yet another piece of debris was coming at her from behind. This time she wasn't lucky and didn't notice it before it was too late. The debris hit her in the back of the head and she was knocked out cold.
"Robin!" Shit. Shit. Shit. For the first time ever during a hunt, Amon was scared. Very scared. Not for himself, but for Robin. If he didn't do something, the blond might very well die.
He pumped a few bullets towards the witch, aiming carefully. But without Robin there, the witch's attention was all on Amon, and hence affectively knocked down all of the bullets. Amon couldn't keep doing this. His bullets were being wasted and without it, he would be defenseless.
The witch sent out a burst of power, knocking down the raven-haired man. Amon winced slightly in pain, since there was no Orbo to protect him. Grabbing a piece of fallen debris, he flung it at Mori, hoping to distract him and then shot a bullet. It didn't work.
Mori advanced slowly towards the two.
"So you guys aren't so tough after all. And here I heard that once a Hunter was after you, you'd might as well be prepared to die. Looks like I heard wrong," Mori sneered. Raising his hand, he formed a ball of pure energy. "So... Who should die first? Should it be that pretty little girl over there, or should you be the first to go?" He smiled mercilessly.
"Or maybe I should keep that pretty girl…. I like pretty things, don't you know. Keep her to play with for a while, and then after I'm done with her, I'll kill her. Maybe I'll even let you watch. If you beg for mercy, I might not kill her," the witch mused out loud.
Something inside of Amon snapped. He could threaten to kill Amon all he wanted, but if the witch so much as laid a single dirty finger of his on Robin, he would die. Slowly and painfully.
"You know what? I think I will do that. Have you got anything to say, Hunter? You should start begging right now," Mori taunted, "and no need to get up from where you are. Beggars should stay down on the ground." He laughed.
Screw this. Looking deep inside of him, Amon called on his powers. Instantly, three dark shadowy forms appeared. Slowly, they took on the shape of people.
"What the hell! You're… you're a witch too!" Mori shouted, surprised. He hadn't counted on this.
Wordlessly, the shadow forms moved closer and closer towards the witch. Mori shot a few debris at them, but they just went through the forms.
As they slid closer and closer, Amon got up.
"What the hell! Get away from me!" Finally the shadow forms reached the witch and without warning grabbed the wayward witch.
The beauty of these things were that though nothing else could touch them, that any physical object would simply go through their forms, the same couldn't be said for anything the shadow forms touched. The shadow forms could touch and hold anything, while someone wanting to touch them would just go through.
Grabbing hold of the witch, the shadow forms waited patiently for their master. And Amon did something very unlike himself.
Losing himself in his anger, Amon punched the witch. Hard. Once, twice, three times. He kept punching the witch. The witch tried to use his powers, but each time he tried, he was punched, losing concentration. Finally right before Mori was about to go unconscious, Amon fired his last bullet.
Right into Mori's heart. And at that close range, there was no way that Amon could miss.
Amon shook himself wearily as Factory agents arrived to remove the witch's body. His shadow forms had long disappeared and he had propped the unconscious form of Robin against a wall. And along with the arrival of the Factory vans, came Karasuma and Doujima with Sakaki following on his bike.
"Amon!" Karasuma cried, spotting her co-worker. He looked awful. In fact, in all her years at STN-J, she had never seen the guy look this bad after a hunt. Then she spotted Robin. "What happened? Is she alright?"
"She's been knocked unconscious and her shoulder's been cut. Someone should take her to the hospital," he replied wearily.
"I'll do that," Doujima offered. Amon nodded and lifted Robin up effortlessly. Carefully, he carried the blond to Doujima's car and put her gently in the backseat.
"I'll come with you," Karasuma. Doujima nodded and they drove off to the hospital. Amon made a mental note to check up on Robin later, if it was safe.
Sakaki and Amon stayed to check with the Factory workers that everything was alright before leaving. And Amon took the time to make sure he left no evidence of using his powers. He frowned at the thought. He shouldn't have used them. Now that he had used them once, what was to stop him from using them again? And the more he used them, the bigger the chance was of being discovered. Which couldn't happen.
"Shit, Amon," Sakaki said, grinning weakly, "What the heck did you do to that guy? He looked like a train ran over him, or something." Sakaki had gotten a good look at the body of Mori before Factory guys put his body into a capsule.
Amon's eyes frosted over, but the younger STN-J worker didn't notice.
"Nothing he didn't deserve," was the reply.
Ohmeegosh! Yeah, I know, it's been nearly a year since I last updated. Truth is, is that I don't really know where to go with this story anymore, and plus I'm too lazy to write it. That and the fact I have no clue what to write.
I'll try my best to get this story finished, but no guarantees. And I doubt it'll be any time soon before I get another chapter up. Plus the upcoming school year is going to be hell for me. Let's just say big changes have happened in my life and I don't have half the amount of time as I used to.
By the way, was this chapter crappy or what:P
