Disclaimer: I do not own DNAngel.
Satoshi was not having the greatest of days. It was an ordinary school day, no new warning letters from Dark yet, and he couldn't decide if that was good or not. Krad was being unusually stubborn, which was a leap considering how stubborn he usually was anyway. Almost idly, Satoshi was following Daisuke through the school's hallways, but the redhead seemed a little out of it. At least that behavior was normal - Niwa always seemed to be a little out of it.
Suddenly, Niwa was yanked out of the hallway into a dark classroom. It surprised Satoshi, so he stayed around the corner in the other hall, waiting for Niwa and his temporary captor to come out. After a few minutes, Niwa suddenly burst out of the room and rushed away, and after a few minutes more, Riku Harada appeared too, looking a little dazed. Idly, Satoshi wondered what they'd been doing in there, and calmly followed the hallway in the direction Niwa had gone. The Harada girl didn't even notice when he passed.
Satoshi turned another corner, and found Niwa in the middle of one of the hallways, just standing there. Satoshi retreated back around the corner, and idly wondered what the redhead could be thinking about. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his chest, and Satoshi leaned heavily against the brick wall. Krad was making a sudden, wild attempt to break free, and this time it was Daisuke he was after.
"I don't care if it's the boy or Dark himself. What difference does it make?" he screamed at Satoshi. Satoshi put his hands on his head. It gave him a headache whenever Krad was being that loud - it wasn't really the volume that bothered him though, it just felt as though Krad were taking over his whole mind, shoving out all other thoughts that Satoshi might be having. Satoshi tried to shove back at his other half, struggling, as he had the day before, to contain him. "Why don't we capture him now while he's weak and unsuspecting? He'd eventually turn into Dark and then we could kill him!"
"No," Satoshi gasped, and after a minute, Krad finally drew back, still stirring restlessly. Satoshi peeked back around the corner, only to find that Niwa was walking away again. As I suspected... he thought. Thinking about him makes me....
The night passed insignificantly. For the most part Satoshi watched the news and did his homework, although of course, he wasn't required to do his homework. When he had decided to attend middle school, the principle had advised him that if he was willing to do this, he'd still have to do all of his work and turn it in on time - not that he thought middle grade school work would be a problem for a child who'd already graduated from a University. However, Satoshi could pretty much get away with anything at this school - the teachers all knew his story, and they had all also agreed not to treat him specially, but they usually did anyway. For instance, if he didn't have his work done, they'd let it slide. None of it mattered anyway; not for him.
Although, one thing the principle had said that day was still true - the school work Satoshi was given was no problem for him at all, and usually didn't take any longer than ten minutes to complete. So, he really didn't have much to do that night. The news was saying nothing about Dark either, so he picked up the remote and turned it off. There was nothing of any interest for him on the television unless it had something to do with Dark. Nothing else really caught Satoshi's attention.
Sometimes it did seem like this mission to take down Dark was sucking up Satoshi's life, but he was a Hikari, so what else did he have to live for? That was thinking logically, but on boring night's like this he sort of wished he did have something to do, something else to think about. Then he wouldn't have to worry about being too smart, he wouldn't have to put up with his father, and he wouldn't have to be constantly reminded of his purpose in life, the weight of the Hikari fate on his shoulders, he'd be normal and have friends and....
No. Satoshi had thrown away that line of thought long ago. It didn't do anything good for him. Reminding himself that he had to stay focused on his goal, Satoshi finally went to bed.
The next day was a bit more unusual. Not significant exactly, just different. The word floating around the school was that Riku Harada had disappeared, just like all those other girls around town who'd been disappearing. Daisuke Niwa seemed glum about it, but Satoshi thought he couldn't be too terribly upset, because it gave him an excuse to follow Risa Harada around everywhere, offering comfort and soothing words.
Satoshi wondered idly what was happening to all those girls. He'd seen it all on the news the night before, but it hadn't really interested him. It wasn't like he had anything to worry about, if it was only girls going missing, and it didn't have anything to do with Dark. Now he wondered, should he do anything about it? It was just a passing thought, one that he immediately discarded. If it didn't have anything to do with Dark, then it didn't have any place for him to stick his nose in. It wasn't any of his business, even if one of his classmates had gone missing.
Still, it was a depressing sort of day. Everyone was talking about it, but they were quiet about it, sad, as if she had died or something. Satoshi couldn't deny that it bothered him a bit, even if he wasn't very worried about Riku Harada. He didn't even really know her. She was just a girl who ended up near Daisuke sometimes because of her sister.
And suddenly Satoshi saw a place where he might be interested in this puzzling situation. Niwa would do anything for Risa Harada, and so if the other Harada sister went missing, wouldn't Niwa have Dark do something about it? Would Dark do it?
For the very first time that Satoshi could remember, he wondered what kind of person Dark must be like. Was he a bastard like Krad? (Krad heard that, and growled threateningly, but Satoshi just ignored him.) Was he anything like Niwa had been expecting he'd be? Or had he taken him by surprise, as Krad had Satoshi? Was Dark nice to Niwa? Did he take his feelings into consideration, or was he as much of a snake as Krad was?
Inside his head, Krad scoffed. It seemed that he had something to say. "Dark is a weakling and a disgrace. One day, our bodies will be one, and he will no longer exist." Satoshi listened in on his other half as Krad's thoughts came to him more in pictures than in words. Krad was anticipating the day that Dark would disappear forever, and Krad would never have to see him again. Through Krad's eyes, Satoshi could see Dark's face clearly in his mind.
He supposed that Krad's hatred meant that Dark was his opposite. Perhaps Dark was the good one after all.
Krad smirked again, but it came out as a half-growl. Satoshi's thoughts were making him angry. "Don't even think about switching sides," Krad advised darkly.
It was Satoshi's turn to scoff. How could I possibly switch sides? he demanded. Krad was his other half, not Dark. He couldn't switch sides even if he wanted to - and he didn't really want to. Sure, it would be nice to have a pleasant other, rather than this evil plotting maniacal one that he was stuck with, but Satoshi was too caught up in his plans to capture Dark. His entire life revolved around taking the Phantom Thief, so how could he possibly do anything other than what he was supposed to?
No, Satoshi was more determined than ever. One day, Dark would be in his grasp, and then....
Well, it wasn't important what happened afterward. There was nothing for Satoshi once Dark was captured. He would have succeeded and... his life would be good as over. He tried not to think about it.
That night when Satoshi got home, he flipped on the TV again, and listened to the reporter talk about the missing girls while he undressed out of his school clothes. The news was soon switched over to another reporter, though, who had information about a new warning letter from Dark.
Satoshi's eyes lit up. That was his cue.
He began to get excited as he sat down at his computer to look up information about the artwork that Dark was supposed to steal, but he remembered to keep a cool head. Unlike the other times, with the previous warning letters, the news reporter hadn't had much to say about the artwork which was supposed to be stolen. They hadn't even given the name of the artwork, just the name of the owner, and that the painting was one of a unicorn.
Satoshi pulled up two different windows for his favorite search engines, and quickly scanned through the pages of useless junk that always came up whenever you typed something in. Finally, he found a website that looked like a reliable one, but under the lists and pictures of artworks by that particular owner, there were none of unicorns, just a small excerpt about the man's daughter.
Satoshi looked and looked, but still found nothing of a painting of a unicorn under that owner's name. He kept the news on, but there was nothing more about Dark's warning letter other than a few small comments. After a while, Satoshi became obsessed, but as much as he searched, he kept coming up with nothing. As far as the internet knew, there was no painting of a unicorn by that man.
Finally, Satoshi sat back in his chair to think. Perhaps the reason why the news reporters hadn't released much information about the artwork was because they didn't know anything about it either. But wouldn't the owner himself get involved? The man was still alive, Satoshi had seen that. And if the artwork existed, the man would want to keep it out of the hands of a phantom thief, wouldn't he?
Surely Dark wouldn't send out a warning letter for something that didn't exist. That would just be stupid, and Dark was anything but. Satoshi began to rock his chair back and fourth - it was a nervous habit. There must be no public record of the painting, Satoshi thought, and wondered if he should get involved. I'm supposed to be observing the detectives in the field again....
Inside his head, Krad laughed. "Yes, let's see how our good friend Dark Mousey is doing tonight."
For a moment, Satoshi considered that. As head of Dark Counter Measures, he had a job to do, to oversee everything that the detectives on the case were doing, and if they were doing it right. And the situation with the unknown painting was quite puzzling.
He smirked. "Not tonight," he said aloud, and switched off his computer. Krad, who had been growing excited with each passing minute, growled inside his head. Amused with himself, Satoshi prepared to take a shower.
Later that night, long after his shower and just before he was getting into bed, Satoshi flipped on the news one last time, and after a minute the reporter on the screen began telling him about how the police had questioned the owner of the painting that Dark was supposed to steal. "Strangely, the owner himself said that the painting didn't exist! Did Phantom Thief Dark send out a warning letter under false pretenses? Or did he really make a mistake and threaten to steal something that doesn't exist? This has been reporter Yuki Suzaki, now back to you in the studio."
Satoshi hit the button on the remote and the screen went blank. He wondered if Dark had already made his move.