A/N- *peeps head out* Bleu Tsuki here, do you still remember me? I feel so bad- all my stories are collecting dust in the fandom. *sigh* Well, I've been busy (that's an understatement) but have managed to write a tiny little chapter to keep the fire going. Actually, you can thank my friend "of fan and fic" for dragging this one out of me. Haha, alright, so, please ENJOY! (And review! maybe? possibly?)
~Bleu Tsuki
Chapter 3: September 27th
Yin touched the play button on the old CD player.
"You'll love it! I know you will!" Kiko squealed, bobbing her bright pink head up and down. Yin nodded fractionally, letting a grin crack onto her face like an egg.
"It's the new Maurice no Bara O.S.T.?" Yin asked carefully.
"Yup! They're making a movie of it! Oh, listen, Tilo has a solo here! You know they're heading in a completely different direction now—all classy instruments and everything...!"
While Yin didn't know all there was to know about Kiko's manga and anime obsession, she did have a deep appreciation for music. Just recently, Hei had bought her a little keyboard to keep in the backroom of the tobacco stand and had even supplied a few songbooks. Her love of music wasn't anything new; rather, it was found and dusted off like a diamond. As for Kiko, she had happened upon Yin's playing one day and had promptly sucked the silver-haired girl into the world of Maurice no Bara using the new classical soundtrack as bait.
Needless to say, it worked.
Yin was startled out of her reverie as the cello solo blasted from the small speakers. It eased off into an open G, then ascending the major scale with a few variations in between.
"Isn't it wonderful?" Kiko moaned, stroking the CD cover.
"Shhh." Yin lifted her fingers to the girl's mouth to make the quiet symbol. "I want to hear."
The two friends sat on the floor of Kiko's bedroom, surrounded by anime posters and stuffed figurines, as the melody rang out. Soon, however, the two violinists, Shizuka and Takumi joined in the throng, and finally, the violist, Adrasteia. Together, they played through a variation of some quartet or other, mashing sounds into a wondrous experience.
When the song ended, Yin turned to Kiko.
"I liked it."
The other beamed happily before grabbing Yin up into a hug.
"Right! I forgot! A Caelum is performing at the Music Festival tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow?" Yin echoed monotonously. "But we don't have tickets."
Suddenly, two gleaming tickets were thrust under her nose.
"TADA!" she screamed. "I got them at the Home Run Noodle House yesterday! They have a new employee, did you know? Oh, but anyway, we can go!"
Yin grinned with her eyes shining.
"Thank you...Kiko. I'll talk to Li about it tonight."
"He better say yes." Kiko huffed. "This is just too good an opportunity to miss! To think: the musicians of the new Maurice no Bara movie! It's unbelievable!"
With much dreamy sighing, Kiko eventually escorted the doll outside, thrusting the new CD into her hand.
"I want you to have it. You really seem to like him." With that, the door shut, leaving the girl to walk alone to Hei's apartment.
.oOo.
"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" Mayu Otsuka of Section 4 leapt out of her seat and screamed.
"Geez, Otsuka. What is it?" Kounu asked, wincing, as he leaned back in his chair with his feet propped onto the desk.
"I just won tickets to the Tokyo Music Festival where A Caelum will be performing! Ahhhhhh!" The fully grown woman screamed and jumped about several more times before the section chief returned, completely baffled by the scene before her.
"Otsuka?" Misaki asked, worried.
"She just won tickets to that Music thing." Saitou said above the screams.
"What? Why is that so—?"
"Maurice no Bara!" Otsuka cried. "They're making a movie of Maurice no Bara and the ensemble that does the soundtrack will be there!"
"Oh." So that was it. Just another one of Mayu's manga things. Misaki nodded, then caught sight of Kouno with his shoes on the desk. "Hey, sit properly! Just because there are no contractors for us to investigate doesn't mean we should just laze around here."
"Wait, but what about the Wanderer?" Otsuka asked suddenly out of her craze. "I thought that contraction was in Tokyo."
Misaki shook her head. "I don't know what November was talking about. I just talked with Kanami and she said the computers were giving faulty readings. Until we get that fixed I'm inclined to believe November was playing another joke on me."
She sighed heavily, wondering how he could be so cruel. Didn't he know that she was hanging on by a thread?
"I don't think he'd do that." Kouno said. "He's MI-6's top field agent even if he is a little cryptic. I'll look into it. The Wanderer, eh?..."
Misaki stepped out into the hall, rolling her shoulders and trying to relax. Perhaps she could go visit Kanami again and see if the status was still the same?
She frowned and shook her head. What was the point? Yet, her feet began to carry her towards Astronomics of their own accord, and she was surprised to say the least when Kanami came barreling down the hall to greet her.
.oOo.
Hei was chopping scallions when there was a knock at the door. His head popped up and the knife tightened in his hand. It wasn't that he was expecting an attack, just that he could never be too cautious. He peeped through the hole, nearly sighing when he spotted the silver-haired doll.
"How are you, Yin?" he asked, quickly opening the door for her. "At Kiko's again?"
The girl nodded before seating herself at the little kitchen table that Hei decided to get.
"Yes." Yin couldn't help a smile that spread over her face. It was so different to have a friend now. With the lack of contractor activity, Yin had enough free time to develop friendships with others. It also helped that she became more emotional every day—not in a depressing way, but just in a feeling way. It was nice for once, but Hei could never bring himself to relax. He was still suspicious: Why was he being left alone by the Syndicate? Why were Mao and Huang taken from them?
These answers Hei had accepted as unknowable, but what if the syndicate should come? What if something should happen and a price tag was on his head?
Hei put a smile on his face for Yin and turned back to his chopping.
"I got a CD." Yin told him. "Kiko's letting me borrow it."
"Another CD?" Hei asked, amused.
Yin nodded vigorously, even though his back was turned.
"I want to go to the Tokyo Music Festival tomorrow." she said.
He stopped chopping. "Yin..." he turned around, with a sigh. "I don't think we can afford that. We don't have a steady income..."
"Kiko has tickets." Yin cut in softly. "I want to go."
Hei felt his heart melt right there. Yin was so young sometimes, and she rarely wanted more than what was necessary (as the kitchen table apparently was).
"You can go." Hei relented. "But be careful. I don't know what's going on with the Syndicate and masses are a prime time for people to start disappearing."
Yin seemed unperturbed by this piece of common sense. "You can stay on the outskirts of the stadium. I think there will be vendors."
Hei nodded. "Alright..." It wasn't like he was her keeper anyway, more like a big-brother there for guidance. He turned back to his dish, and lit the stovetop before a thought occurred to him. "When is it?"
Yin turned the CD case over in her hands. "Tomorrow."
.oOo.
Kanami, usually so in control, was flying down the hall with her ponytail in disarray.
"Misaki!" she screamed, catching her friend by the arm. "You have to come quick."
"What? What's happening?" Misaki asked as they tore down the hall.
"The dolls! They've been close to dormant last year but now they're starting up again, almost as if they've been rebooted! Look!"
The two woman burst through the doors of the Astronomics subdepartment (the actual observatory was down the street) and froze at the spectacle before them. Scientists in long grey lab coats were running frantically around with clipboards clutched to their chests, going from computer to computer and scribbling down info.
"What's happening?" Kanami asked the nearest person shaking from head to toe. Apparently this was not how she left the office.
"The Gate!" the short blonde cried. "It's acting up or something—! The dolls are overloading the computers!"
Misaki gasps as she was pulled towards the doll room. Each glass tomb held a life, a person, a doll. Their eyes were all shut, but there was a tingling of energy in the room that could only have come from the dolls themselves.
"What's happening?" Misaki asked. "Are they speaking?"
"They found a star!" Kanami whispered. "They, they actually found a star."
"What? A new one?"
"What's the code?" Kanami asked another woman. "Oh, GN-198."
Misaki's jaw hung open. "That's...That's what November said. They're calling it the Wanderer."
"Could've told me that before." Kanami muttered. "It still doesn't explain why the dolls are acting this way, though."
"Maybe it's powerful. MI-6 has been tracking it for a while."
"Hmm." Kanami pursed her lips as she approached a computer. "I'll expand the window to show recent activity, not just in Tokyo, but in the entire world."
Misaki leaned into the monitor as the gears began to heat up, whirring inside the supercomputer before the map popped on screen.
There were barely any stars in the eastern world, many blinked on in America and Great Britain, and then of course there was activity everywhere else but Tokyo. It was like someone had X'ed them off the map, which was creepy in itself.
As the stars flickered on and off as the time wore on a very peculiar pattern started to emerge. Starting from the United Kingdom, a bright blue star twinkled every few days before moving slowly across Europe and into Russia. It seemed that every month there were three or more appearances by that unusually bright star, and then scarier still, it began its descent through China in a linear fashion...and stopped right inside Tokyo's border.
Misaki was glued to the screen.
"That's it?" she asked incredulously. "Did you see that?"
"How could I miss it? Oh my god, Misaki! You have to tell Hourai right away. This poses such a security threat for the Music Festival! You know people will be pouring into Tokyo by the thousands!"
Misaki groaned. How could she forget?
"I'll be right on it."
What the two women failed to notice was a little green star flashing briefly in Romania...
.oOo.
Misaki made her way quickly up to Hourai's office, heart pounding for such a simple reason as fear. Why was this happening now? What was happening? She didn't even know that much. Nearly a year of absolute nothing and now...now it was all too much. Thousands of civilians would be in danger from one single contractor, a being that none of the civilian population knew existed! How was she supposed to go dallying with MI-6 on her birthday when she had work to get done?
She knocked sharply on the door, waiting for Hourai's authoritative voice to allow her entry.
"Come in."
"Misaki Kirihara." she said in a rush, letting herself in.
Her boss sat with his hands clasped in front of him, forehead worried by several lines of wrinkles.
"We have a situation." Misaki started with a deep breath.
"So I've heard." Hourai sighed. "What have you heard of this contractor?"
"I know nothing except that its star number GN-198."
Hourai sighed again. "Then I suppose I have no choice but to partner with MI-6. You still on the line?"
It was then that Misaki realized that the man was staring at the computer screen which must have been set up as a video chat.
"Of course we would be happy to lend our aid to Tokyo's Police force." Decade said through the speakers. "Although I had thought November had told me you, Miss Kirihara, had already agreed."
"W-what?" Misaki blinked as Hourai gazed at her in mild surprise.
"Oh yes. The scouting mission. You're going to the Music Festival tomorrow, aren't you?" Hourai asked.
Suddenly it all clicked into place.
"Yes, of course. I just didn't know what it was." Misaki smiled, though she was hissing inside. Damn November, putting me in awkward situations.
"Then that's settled!" Decade announced happily. "Oh..." If Misaki could see the screen she would have seen his face fall as his eyes flickered towards the phone. "Excuse me, Hourai. I've got to take this."
"Very well." Hourai said, clicking the window off even as his phone, too began to ring. He glanced up at Misaki with something like apprehension in his stony eyes. "Excuse me, Miss Kirihara."
Knowing a dismissal when she heard one, Misaki strode out of the room with the intuitive knowledge that something much greater was at play. A contractor in Japan? A contractor in Tokyo?
She grinned sardonically at herself, never understanding why she thrived off of the thrill.
All she needed now was the Black Reaper, and then perhaps everything would be perfect...
A/N- Yay! So it wasn't that incredibly short, in fact, it took a bit of time. Hopefully it has paid off? PLEASE REVIEW! I think I must be addicted to them or something...:)