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"Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical."-Blaise Pascal


Chapter Five
Symbols

Two Spartans lay dead. Their headquarters had been blown up. And now this.

This was not boding well for Tokyo's finest.

Takenouchi Sora sighed deeply as she bent down on one knee to study the chalk outline of a body the height and weight of Ryuichi's drawn by one of the crime scene analysts. Behind Yagami Hikari stood, electronic notepad in hand, and yellow police barricades had been set up at the only entrance to the alley. Three uniformed Spartans were guarding the inside of the alley against the usual rubbernecks trying to catch a peek.

With another sigh she pulled on the white latex gloves she carried at almost all times and asked Hikari, "No one saw anything?"

The brunette shook her head while studying the pad. "No. There was no one on the street last night at the time Shindou-san was abducted."

"What about the Spartan that was on call last night? He should've been right outside the building."

"The terrorist knocked him unconscious."

"How?" Sora asked, ready to straighten up but stopped abruptly as something red caught her eye just behind one of the knocked over garbage cans. She crab walked around the outline and investigated whatever was behind the trash can.

"Well, that's the strange part," she commented, staring at Sora with an arched eyebrow. "She didn't hit him or anything; he says she just touched him somewhere on his neck. The next thing he remembers is waking up about an hour later."

"Interesting," she mumbled as she reached out and retrieved one, perfect, red rose from its hiding place. "She must have some kind of martial arts training…since she used pressure points."

Hikari gasped, not entirely hearing Sora's last observation, as her gaze was fixed solely on the flower in the other's hand. "A rose…those are supposed to be extinct!"

"Apparently not." She stumbled somewhat clumsily to her feet, wiping some grime off her jeans as she did. "C'mon. There's nothing we can do here now."

"What do you think about all this?"

Sora sighed deeply, something she apparently did often around people of the surname Yagami. "I've seen worse, much worse than this. But this case bothers me more than any of the others I've worked on."

"Why?"

"Because my other cases were committed by people who were sadistic, yes, but the woman doing these is much more than that. Most of the other people were normal everyday people who didn't give a damn about anything they did.

"But she isn't normal and everything she's done so far indicates she cares a great deal about all of this. It's personal for her and that's scary."

"Why?"

"Because, Hikari, this isn't just terrorism. It's vengeance."


Yamato roughly figured that he had been in Mimi's home for about three or four days. Three or four days in which he hadn't seen or heard from Mimi; for the first while he'd worried that he'd angered her, or she didn't care about what happened to him. Now he had resolved not to care about her or anything she decided regarding him.

It had worked so far.

Since Mimi wasn't giving him the benefit of her company he had taken to exploring the intriguing prison he found himself in. As his captor had stated there was only one door he so far could not enter, no matter how hard he tried to break the lock. (It also turned out that it wasn't Mimi's room either. He had stumbled upon that earlier in the day.) He had grown bored to trying to get through the door and had continued on his way to discover, among other things, a home movie theater, an indoor gym, and a library.

The library had found to be the most interesting for him. It was a circular room with one window peering out to the west and walls painted a light blue. Book shelves ran across the walls laden with well taken care of books with different sections marked off by white cards. To his joy this room also held a fireplace with a comfortable red armchair in front of it; there was an oak table next to it and the floor was carpeted in blue with red designs in the fabric.

There were five books placed on the table next to the chair, having been read previously, and he prowled the section of books marked "Government and Politics" with curiosity. On the row he was currently inspecting the book on the far right was called Mein Kampf by a man named Adolph Hitler and the one on the far left was a book called What is Property? written by a man named Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

"You must love reading Yamato," spoke a feminine voice from the doorway. "You seem very interested in my collection, at least."

He spun around to see Mimi floating across the room to stand next to him and despite the way she ignored him he gave her a genuine smile. "Yeah…I haven't even heard of most of these. Where'd you find them?"

"Lots of places…"

He arched an eyebrow. "Did you steal them?"

"Property is theft."

He sighed and ran a hand through his blonde locks. "Should've known you'd say something like that. Still…what exactly are you trying to do?"

She didn't answer for a few long moments, just stared at him consideringly. "There is something very wrong with Japan," she answered finally after a moment. "You should know that as well as anyone, but no one ever tries to stop those responsible, our beloved government. That's where I come in."

"And you think you can just change everything by blowing up buildings?"

"They're not just buildings Yamato! They are symbols; the more people that support them, the more powerful they are. That's why blowing them up can change so much…"

"And when has change every done something good for this world?" He frowned deeply. "People are selfish, evil and will repeat the same mistakes over and over. Even if you change anything it's just going to happen all over again. There is no saving us."

Disappointed cinnamon eyes bored holes into his jaded cerulean ones and calmly, quietly she walked away from him. He smirked. "What? Finally realize the truth, Mimi?"

"No, I'm just too disgusted right now to think about how someone so smart doesn't have enough brain power to hope."

And she had the nerve to disappear before he could retaliate.


Footnotes:
The books on the shelf- The books are supposed to represent the right and left sides of politics. The book on the far right symbolizes fascism the extreme right wing policy and the one on the far left represents anarchy, the extreme left wing policy.

What is Property?-This was a work published in the year 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who is widely considered the first self-proclaimed anarchist.

"Property is theft."-This is a quote from Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.


Author's Notes: Sorry this chapter was so short, but it's mostly a setup for the next one. Please read and review.