Chapter Two:
The Devil's Request
Amon watched helplessly as one by one the students and teachers, the ones he was sworn to protect, were hauled off to who knows where. The colonel, Rapture and his witch soldier cleared the area. It was just him and Van.
"I thought you were dead." Amon growled, still being held at sword tip.
"Me? Die?" Van burst out laughing. "You're too naïve, brother."
"I saw it happen, I collapsed and when I regained consciousness you were lying on the ground and your body was cold!" Amon gripped his pistol and sword tightly at his sides.
"How about you ask a different question." Van suggested. "It will lead to the same answer." He prompted.
"Alright then, why are you working for the nazis?" Amon demanded, irritated with van's games.
Van smiled. "That was the question I was looking for! Do you really think I would work under crazies like them?" Amon gave him a look as if to say 'and your not crazy?'. "don't give me that, these people are mental cases. The only reason I'm here is because Master told me to."
"Who is your 'master'?" Amon asked.
"The most powerful witch in the world, he wants to rebuild his coven, so he sent me here to gather him some powerful witches." Van's eyes lit up as he spoke of his master. "You are on his list, my, my Amon, what's your power?"
"I haven't awakened, and I wont." Amon didn't like where this was going.
"Other than you," Van continued. "He wants four more members. I have to search them out according to their powers. You should be happy to be chosen, there are many benefits to becoming a member."
"Is not dying one of them?" Amon asked sarcastically. "As you can see, I already have that one."
Van glared at him. "Don't be a fool, you are the way you are because Master wills it."
"I'm sick of this." Amon whapped his sword into Van's, knocking it from his grasp. "I bet I'm still stronger than you!"
Van grinned. His image suddenly dissolved into a mass of water closely in the shape of his body and it flashed forward through Amon in less than a second. His body reformed on the other side of his 'brother'. Amon sunk to his knees. Blood matted his clothes as he hit the ground.
"You were saying?" Van said.
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Amon awoke to fuzzy dark surroundings. He felt as if someone had struck him with a million knives. He blinked open his eyes to see gray horizontal bars, no wait, they were vertical he was just laying down. Passed the bars he saw a city. He also heard voices.
"What if he doesn't wake up?" A girl's voice asked.
"To hell if I know, he's supposed to be the headmaster's bodyguard, right? He'll be fine and get us out of here." a male's voice answered.
Amon sat up slowly. "Who are you?" He asked. He turned to look at the boy and girl.
"I'm Robin Sena, year three WHAA transfer from WHA Italy." The girl answered, she looked young to be a year three, Amon thought.
"And I'm Sakaki Haruko, year four WHAA student." The guy answered.
Amon gained his bearings and realized that the three of them were locked in a jail. Suddenly, a voice boomed in their minds. "Staff and students of Witch Hunter's Academy Australia, you have been captured. Surrender your loyalty to the Fuhrer if you wish to live. Don't think of escaping, before we took over your little school we gained complete control over this country, there's nowhere to run. Don't think of fighting us, we've brainwashed a large group of you, you have no comrades." The voice disappeared at the sound of a click.
Sakaki grabbed the barred door and it swung open. "Why would they free us?" He asked. "They must be stupid.
"They want us to kill each other." Amon answered, getting to his feet. "They made it so we can't trust one another."
Robin shot Sakaki a smug look. "It's a smart idea."
"So what do we do?" Sakaki asked Amon.
"We do what we have to." Amon stared the two down. "You are with me now, that means your facing death. We're going to find their leaders and take them out." He pointed to a sword sheathed on Sakaki's belt. "What weapons do you have?"
"Just the crappy one we get from the academy." Sakaki shrugged. "At least it has orbo compatibility."
"I left mine in my dorm." Robin said when Amon turned to her. "But I use a craft."
Amon sighed at the lack of resources. "That will have to do. First we should find the headmaster, he may be old but he still is a powerful hunter." He needed to get as many allies as he could before the other side got a hold of them. Amon motioned for the others to follow as he snuck out the door and darted behind a nearby building.
How long it had been no one knew, they continually snuck around …wherever it was that they were. It was a city, but instead of everything being close together everything was spread out. They never spotted anyone, it was like a ghost town. They were told that they were still in Australia, that meant that everyone was still there, but were they spread out throughout the continent or were they all in the same area?
Soon the sun began to set and they decided to spend the night in one of the houses. It was a two story house with a porch, plain, simple, and abandoned next to a hill and surrounded by trees. Where had the people who lived here gone? Cautiously, the three entered the building. Empty, just as they thought.
"Robin, you said that you use craft, right?" Robin nodded. "Then would you seal the doors and windows from intruders." Robin nodded a second time and did as she was told.
"Hey, check this out!" Sakaki called from what appeared to be a living room. Amon started towards him and saw that the room was full of screens. On one screen it showed two girls and a guy walking through a city, on another was a group of five boys fighting each other, some of the screens showed an empty scene of a field of town. "I know these guys, they're in some of my classes!" Sakaki said pointing at the screen with five boys.
"It looks like someone was watching us, that means-!" Realization hit him and he swung around at the sound of a scream coming from the upstairs. Amon sprinted up the stairs to find Robin standing over two scorched bodies. "What happened?" He asked.
"They jumped out at me and I burned them, was that bad?" She asked.
Amon bent over the bodies and was able to make the nazi symbol on one of their arms. "No, you did fine." He reassured her. Cautiously, he peered into the other rooms and found that there were no more guards.
They returned downstairs and examined the screens. "Are we looking for anything in particular?" Sakaki asked.
"The headmaster," Amon answered. "As I said before."
"The headmaster? He's right there." Robin pointed at the screen in front of her. Amon and Sakaki rushed over. The headmaster, Ms. Karasuma, Michael, and a blonde girl were walking through a empty city.
"Hey doesn't that building look familiar?" Sakaki questioned, pointing at the edge of the screen. Sure enough the building looked exactly like the one that they were in right then.
"C'mon!" Amon motioned for the students to follow as he raced out the door. The headmaster and his group were heading in his direction and halted when they saw him. Amon stopped too and called to them. "Headmaster, sir!"
Unfortunately, Robin and Sakaki didn't get that they were supposed to stop too. Robin kept running forward but turned her head back to see what Amon was doing and tripped over a root, sending her to the ground and began rolling down the hill. Sakaki ran after Robin as she continued rolling, tripped himself and was sent rolling right into her.
Amon brought his hand to his forehead in embracement and shook his head. The headmaster's group just stared at them with blank expressions.
"Aww! I landed in dog crap!" Sakaki shouted and began trying to wipe it off of his jacket. Robin yelped an 'Ew, gross!' and leapt away from him.
Amon cleared his throat loudly. "Headmaster, sir, are you all right?" He asked the expressionless leader.
"Yes, I'm quite fine." He answered, giving Sakaki and Robin a strange look. "What a team you've put together, Amon."
"They were all that was on hand." Amon answered quickly and glared at his comrades, who were now chasing each other up the hill. "Any way, we need to focus on the matters at hand."
"Yes, yes very much so." Headmaster Burmy agreed.
"Before we begin making plans of what to do next, shouldn't we find out if these people are under the Nazi's control?" Ms. Karasuma suggested, eying Amon suspiciously. Everyone froze upon hearing those words, they seemed as if they hadn't even thought of that.
"We've been together the whole time, so we know that neither or us are under mind control." Sakaki said, pointing between himself and Robin. "What about you guys, how do we know that you're not being controlled?"
The blond girl spoke up. "I resist Ms. Karasuma's mind work all the time, so I doubt I am."
"Yes, and I have been with Dojima and our headmaster the whole time as well." Michael explained. Amon and Karasuma had nothing to say, Amon knew that he was with Van before joining the other two in the cell. Everyone eyed the two of them suspiciously.
"If I were under mind control, I would have killed these two by now. They obviously wouldn't have been any use to me." Amon said, pointing at Robin and Sakaki. He stared at Karasuma who had not yet made any notion of confirming her loyalty. "Ms. Karasuma?" He asked.
"I have no proof, other than the fact that if I were under don't you think I'd kill the headmaster while I had the chance" Karasuma said, but Amon thought otherwise. She seemed nervous as he continued to stare at her.
"Ms. Karasuma, are you sure you're not with the enemy?" Amon asked.
"What makes you say that?" Karasuma's voice betrayed her words, it was shaking. She began to sweat.
"I was just thinking about what Dojima over here said, that she resists your mind craft." Amon started pacing slowly closer to the teacher. "Wouldn't you think that the nazis need someone like you to perform the mind control?" Karasuma glared at him.
"I suppose so."
"What did they promise you? Eternal life? Stronger powers?" Karasuma's eyes widened. "Did someone say that his master wanted you to rebuild his coven?"
"How do you know about it?" Karasuma asked darkly. "Why would he offer it to you when you're not a witch?" The others gasped upon hearing this.
"That doesn't matter, what does is why you decided to listen to him." Amon demanded.
"Why?" Karasuma said this as if it made perfect sense why. "I want to live forever, of course! I'm already getting older and what have I got? Nothing!"
"Wait." Robin's voice was barely heard. "Did you say 'coven'?"
"Yes. My brother said 'coven'." a voice came from behind them. It was Van. "What of it?"
"What are you doing here, Van?" Amon asked.
"Karasuma here sent me a distress message through her mind," Van stepped out from behind a nearby tree. "now be quiet and let the young girl talk."
"I want to know what you mean by 'coven'. The last witches coven was destroyed three hundred and twenty years ago." Robin glanced warily between Amon, Karasuma and Van.
"Is that what they teach you here?" Van mused. "Yes, three hundred and twenty years have passed since coven sank in the dark. Or say they thought. My Master survived, and he calls on me to rebuild his coven. Ms. Karasuma's powers here are not for the main branch but she will still get many benefits." Van grabbed Karasuma by the hand and thy both disappeared in a torrent of water.