Twilight finished falling upon the scene. As it fell, a figure snuck across the rooftops, resting for a moment by the chimney. What kind of figure was this? Male, female? Neither, this creature was long and lithe. Slightly bigger than say the average house cat- for now. As it stepped lightly atop the chimney edge, moonlight caught streaks of white in the fur-no, not white. A blinding elegant silver. A shadow passed over head and two eyes, mismatched in shades of violet and azure, gazed almost panicked upward. Only an owl.
No time was wasted slipping inside the chimney. A rectangular brick slide formed the entrance to the target. An entrance she took easily and without hesitation. The pile at the end of the ride seemed smaller than it had been the night before. A tad less cushioned, and the black cloud seemed smaller- as did her sneeze. She made little effort to shake herself off, instead, continuing her journey tracing the path of the night before. As she passed in front of a glass pane, one vain lapse of control allowed her to look inside and peer at the reflection aimed back at her. The grey and silver of her coat was only half as smutty as it had been. Tonight, she didn't look like a totally black cat. Nothing wrong with that color though- just didn't suit her in this form. She wasn't bad luck- she was simply bad news.
Approving of her appearance, the feline padded on, lightly stepping as she went. Cameras had been angled the previous night, to leave blind spots just the right size for a cat to walk through- clever of her. But best of all, the arrangement had either gone unnoticed, or they simply didn't care. Both ways suited her feline fancy. The only real obstacle was the door itself. The camera pointed there could not be angled subtly enough to allow entrance without blowing her cover. And, it had been repaired. Sadly, that seemed to have been the only security added. Did they not think they would be hit twice in a row? Was such preparedness against their natures?
Well, there was last night's approach. Clinking claws on tile was heard only for a moment before they sank into the softer material of the wall. A swift scaling left only miniscule holes, and before long there was a cat perched atop the night eye. One paw drifted lazily over the tangled mess of (new) cords before a claw emerged to slice through the electric medley. No climb down was needed- only a leap. The noise that erupted from the landing differed from any previous noise heard that night. Instead of the gentle landing of a cat, it was the sound of rubber pads hitting the tile. Not even a shock coursed through her spine from the impact of the landing.
Tamae grinned broadly, almost fangy in nature, as pale exposed fingers grasped the knob and pushed the door opened. They hadn't even locked the door. Then again, perhaps they hadn't had a chance to replace it- she Ihad/I broken it last night. This was nearly too easy for her. After all, she did crave a challenge. She slipped inside the shadowed room, gravity working the door shut as she let her fingers slide off the handle. Instantly her attention went to the staff section of records, fingers flying over file after file under 'Hi.'
Hiwatari came up, but she had to scan the two names. One was Satoshi- the other she hadn't heard of- and thence found itself ignored and shoved back into the depths of the cabinet while she quickly thumbed through the file. Hmm… This was more helpful than the night before. This Satoshi person had been charge of the Dark cases. But most of his data was missing . His office had been taken over, uncleaned the record said, by a man by the name of Satoshi Hikari.
Back to the 'Hi' section…
Her previous file was left on the table, same as it had been before, intentionally. Such a tease was the point of her efforts- it gave people food for thought, and added to her enjoyment of the chase. Hikari now. If any other names were listed, Tamae saw only one. As the file fell open in her hands she saw the same image that had assaulted her in the last document. Satoshi Hiwatari and the Hikari by the same name were one and the same. She snapped the file shut, returning it to its slot in the row and quietly memorized the address of his office. There was a major test two days from now- she couldn't afford to be up late tomorrow night. She'd have to investigate Hikari's office tonight.
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The room was open in front of her in less than half an hour. It seemed spotless enough, but somewhere in this organized chaos was the information she sought. Careful fingers sifted through file after file, intentionally skimming over recent data to the back of the cabinets.
A box, unlabelled, and tucked behind a lamp caught her attention for some unknown reason. Instinct perhaps, or it might have been luck. There in that unassuming box lie file after file, each with the same blacked out heading on it. Curiosity piqued, it was with trembling hands that she opened the first one. Her search had been gratified. As she flipped through every file afterwards to confirm, she had hit the mother load of police data on The Phantom Thief. Through her unending pleasure at her discovery, it got even better. The file piled at the far bottom, for whatever reason it was held an important note mentioned in the others she'd seen in passing- that Dark passed through hosts. And the host family that bore his genes had the name of… Pale lips drew into a tigheter smile as one word whispered over that threshold.
"Niwa…"