Witch Hunter Robin

Fire and Rain

Chapter VII - The Fire

Rated : PG-13 for Mild Violence, Mild Profanity, and Mature Content

Summary : After the bout with Nobunaga, the STN-J is under review from Solomon Agent Saunders and his deputy, David Rica, but is there more to Rica than meets the eye? And what about Robin and Michael's continuing romance?

Disclaimer : I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.

Nor do I own the song Fire and Rain ; I just borrowed its title.

Storyline, Plot, Joe Saunders © , Calypso © and the Evil David Rica © are all my property.

Author Notes :

70+ Reviews.

Wow. That's the most I've ever gotten.

And I know it'll only get better, since this story is still far from over.

And since there will be, most likely, 11 chapters, that means I have one damn good chance of getting over 100 reviews, which had been a goal of mine for, well, a really long time.

And that would make me feel absolutely wonderful to reach that goal at last. So wonderful that I'd probably run out and write a sequel.

*HINT, HINT*

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 The trip to the nearest hospital was, in a matter of words, pure hell.

Karasuma couldn't walk, and Doujima's face had swollen so that she had trouble seeing out of her right eye. Sakaki's stitches, while the wound was almost healed, had come undone and he was bleeding. He knew for a fact that if he passed out the girls would be in even more trouble than ever before, but he had no choice.

Sakaki was the only one strong enough to carry Karasuma, and Doujima walked beside them with a limp (she had injured her leg) and so she leaned against the brown haired boy beside her. Sakaki didn't really mind, he was in good shape and he could easily carry someone like Karasuma, but after being savagely beaten by Rica and then the dazed swim to land as the Yacht sunk, he had lost some of his strength.

The walk was quiet and somber, but quick. They all three knew that if they didn't find some help soon they could be in a very dangerous situation. Of course, they didn't walk all the way to the hospital; mostly they looked for someone who could call an ambulance. But being just before sunrise it was hard to find many people out.

Finally they were able to find an old man who had been walking his dog and was more than happy to call the hospital, and while Sakaki felt himself growing dizzy and his vision was becoming nothing but a blur of color and light, they all made it to the hospital with relative ease.

Doujima was the unhappiest of all; she had abhorrent her time in the hospital after Nobunaga had sent her and Karasuma into a horrid car wreck. She hated hospital food, she truly did. Hospital beds, and those horrible backless gowns all were horrible, but the food was truly hellish.

Sakaki was now lying in one of those horrible beds, wearing one of those horrible backless gowns, waiting for his hellish food as he stared up at the ceiling. The sun was rising now and he wondered if Amon and Robin were okay.

He sighed. Wherever they were they had to be better off than this.

----

Robin and Michael sat in silence.

The two youths were still at a small booth in Harry's Place, while the Master of Harry's, Yuji Kobari, had vanished with Amon somewhere. Robin was not too concerned about Amon, however. He could take care of himself better than any of the STN-J. She was worried about Michael, though. His arm was still badly beaten, and while Master Yuji had wrapped it in new bandages, Michael still winced in pain ever few moments as they sat in mute silence at the small oak table.

Robin's eyes fell onto Michael's tired face. It was still young, truly she didn't know how old the hacker was, he had never told her, but she guessed that he was only a few years older than she was. Yet his young face was aged with a tired worry. The pain of the last few days, of being shot, and of watching his cousin die, and from falling into the river out of a car. All of the pain was becoming too much for him. Tiny cuts covered his youthful features and she wondered if they hurt him.

The biggest problem, really, the biggest fear shining in Robin's emerald eyes was what had transpired between the two of them. Memories of the night their “relationship” began were still fresh in both of their minds.

. . . Michael just lay there on the couch and he was happy. He was out of the STN-J building, he didn't have to work, and he had made Robin smile.

He shook his head. He was getting fed up. If he didn't know better he'd say he was developing a crush for his fifteen year old co-worker. Something he couldn't do. Besides the fact she would never go out with him, even if she would, could he really ask her to do that?

To date someone who was confined to the same damn building for the rest of his life? He shook his head. And even besides all of that, she was a co-worker, and office romance was a bad idea.

And still, she was cute, and he did like redheads . . .

“Damn it.” Michael sat up and shook his head. He couldn't have a crush on her. That was just . . . wrong.

Still, somehow he was drawn over to the doorway of her bedroom. He looked over at her as she lay there asleep and he forgot all those reason why it wouldn't work, and all he thought about was how peacefully cute she looked while asleep.

Before he knew what he was doing he was at her bedside, and he was leaning down. His lips brushed against her forehead for the slightest of seconds before he came to he came to his senses and walked away.

He walked over to the front door and turned around once last time.

“Goodnight, little Robin.” . . .*

Robin closed her eyes. It wasn't like her to be so hung up on things like this. This wasn't the same Robin who had lived in Japan over the past few months. This was a new Robin, a Robin who realized once and for all that she loved Michael and nothing would change that.

“Robin.”

Robin was snapped out of her thoughts at Amon's voice. Both she and the hacker sitting across the table from her turned their heads to the far side of the bar where Amon and Master Yuji had appeared from behind a doorway. Amon walked across the room and as he did he spoke orders.

”Come on, we're going after Rica.”

Robin and Michael both moved to their feet.

”Michael you're staying.” Amon spoke at once without even looking at him.

”The hell I am.” The hacker spat bitterly.

”You're injured and you're not a hunter regardless.” Amon spoke coldly, turning himself around and looking into Michael's warm, hurt eyes with his emotionless ones.

”I don't care --“

”Michael.”

Hearing Robin speak his name seamed to calm the hacker down in a way that nothing else could anymore. He remembered the first day they had worked together suddenly. She had been annoying as hell, which was his first impression anyway. She had messed up his files at the side of his desk and asked too many questions. It seamed odd that that new annoying, rookie replacement for Kate had gone from being nothing more than an irritating co-worker, to someone he would die for in a blink of an eye. Someone he loved.

He could feel Robin's petite hand on his shoulder, his left shoulder thankfully. He sighed and returned to the seat at the booth. He would stay. For her.

Michael gave a small, quiet sigh as he watched Robin and Amon walk out the doors and towards the car that Yuji had allowed Amon to borrow.

“Be careful Robin.” He whispered.

----

Zaizen's vision was blurry, and his head hurt like hell, but he could see better now. For a moment the Manager of the Factory couldn't remember what had happened or where he was, but memories of Rica and Saunders all came flooding back in a hurry. He blinked twice before he could make out the form of David Rica, who was leaning against a desk.

“Well, welcome back to reality Mr. Zaizen.” Rica flashed his smug smile. “Just been having a chat with Joe here about how we should kill you. He reckons we should just shoot you and then cut your eyes from your corpse, but I think we should tear them out while you're alive --“

”My eyes?” Zaizen said, and the twin orbs in question suddenly became wider and filled with the unmistakable look of terror.

”Of course.” David said, reached up to his face and pulling the black sunglasses off the glassy orbs of sight that had once been eyes. Now they were gray, cold and lifeless. “Mr. Calypso loves eyes.”

Zaizen felt a cold shiver at that name. “Calypso? But he is --“

”Dead?” Rica laughed. “Yeah. But before he came to Japan in '98 he made me in '97. Gave me one of his own eyes . This gave me some of his own powers. Yeah, you're little Amon killed Mr. Calypso, but I revived him in the same way he revived me. Of course, I had to give up that eye, but he found me a new pair.”

Zaizen wanted to scream, he had never been this terrified before. Calypso was alive once more? Calypso was one of the undead? Playing with the powers of life and death, playing with the powers of God? These always made for the worst of the psychos. And Calypso was indeed a psycho.

“Then you're nothing more than a puppet.” Zaizen spoke. “A sick puppet of a sicker puppeteer.”

Rica laughed. “You know, David Rica was just a body for me. The memories of Peter Pummel, a New Orleans native and police officer who was murdered during Mardi Gras. Those memories beat inside my head. And they drive me insane. My body, of course, heals from any psychical pain almost instantly. Part of the powers of Mr. Calypso, but my mind won't heal so easy.”

Rica reached out a malice filled finger to Zaizen's chin. “And soon you'll know what I mean.”

There was a low laugh as Rica extended his other hand, and vaguely from his bad eyesight Zaizen could see Joseph Saunders hand Rica a long hunting knife. Rica smiled as he brought the knife up and prepared to tear the eyes from Zaizen's still living head.

”Should I cut them out now?” He said with a smile. “Or give you a taste of what hell is like?”

He pressed the knife into Zaizen's cheek, the steel digging deep down into soft flesh. A trickle of blood fell down from the cut and over his neck, onto his shirt and suit jacket.

“I say hell.” Rica laughed.

----

Sakaki was still lying in his hospital bed, nibbling at the stale Mac & Cheese and the even worse corn the hospital had provided when Doujima appeared at the doorway. His stitches had been re-sowed, though the wound was nearly healed. This, as the doctor reminded him, was a good thing since if it had been fresher he would have bleed to death.

“How can you eat that garbage?” Doujima asked, making a face.

”I'm not fickle.” Sakaki explained.

Doujima put a hand on her hip. “And I am?”

Sakaki laughed.

“That isn't funny.”

”I think it is.” Sakaki pointed out.

“Flirting was a lot more fun last time, back on the beach.” Doujima said with an air of an elderly person remembering the ‘good ole days'.

“I wasn't flirting.”

“Sure.” Doujima smiled. “And Kosaka doesn't have a stash of hentai mangas under his desk.”

Sakaki sighed. “I mean it.”

”Really?” Doujima asked, sounded slightly put out.

”Why?” Sakaki asked suddenly. “You sound like you wanted me to flirt with you.”

“Well . . .” Doujima said solemnly. “You're the only person left from work for me to date.”

Sakaki blinked. “Well, ignoring what's obviously odd about that statement, why would you want to date someone from work? It's against the rules.”

”Exactly.” She smiled. “It'll piss Kosaka off. I mean, Amon's better looking than you, but he's also creepy.” Sakaki laughed but she pouted. “He is too creepy! And Michael's really sexy but he's obviously got a thing for Robin. So that only leaves your or Hitler-Face himself, and so I've picked you.”

Sakaki let out a loud laugh. “You're crazy, do you know that?”

Doujima then did something unexpected. She smiled, leaned in, and kissed Sakaki quickly on his forehead. Sakaki fell into a massive blushing fit, and Doujima gave a girly giggle and walked away.

----

Rica was enjoying himself as he slid the knife over Zaizen, watching the thin red lines of blood appear as it slit into his skin. He had stripped Zaizen of his jacket, leaving him in just his tie and his old white shirt, which was now red with blood.

Zaizen wasn't making a sound. He was just sitting their, his face contorted in pain. Rica was very good at giving people pain. He was almost a specialist. A sick, psychotic specialist. But Rica was getting bored with his toy. He sighed and pressed the knife into Zaizen's face, between his eye and his nostril.

“Well then, I think it's time I go and cut out those orbs of vision, eh?” Rica grinned. “Well, you can thank me when you wake up as one of the living dead.”

“I'll see you in hell.” Zaizen spat.

”No my dear man, you'll see me in Louisiana. That's where Calypso lives now.”

And Jackson David Rica, or Peter Pummel as some may call him, might really have killed Zaizen then. He might have, but he did not. Because it was at that moment that the ding of an elevator was heard and the door opened. Joseph Saunders turned around to look, but the only thing he saw was the Orbo Bullet as it flew into his left eye.

Amon stepped off the elevator and quickly turned his gun towards Rica, but Rica was too fast. He jumped and moved down behind the chair in which Zaizen was tied in. Amon couldn't fire with his boss in the way, and Rica knew it. David pulled out the Colt Python he'd stolen from the downstairs guard when he knocked him out earlier and fired it at Amon.

Before Amon could respond, however, Rica was gone. He had taken off at a run, pushing Zaizen and his chair clear over so that he fell to the ground with a clang. Rica was running as fast as his malice-filled feet would carry him up the stairs, towards the roof.

”Robin, take care of him!” Amon called out as he chased after Rica.

Robin watched the Dark Hunter chase after the Witch as she ran to Zaizen's side, dropping down to her knees. He was knocked out clean and cold, still wet with blood. Robin was ready to look for a first aid kit when she heard the sound of the cane.

Spinning her head around and aiming her eyesight through her glasses like one may aim a gun; she lit the now one-eyed Joseph Saunders ablaze as he tried to smash her head in with the long oak cane. The evil Solomon Agent screamed and fell to the ground.

Robin remember Michael's words, she knew that the only way to kill these creatures made from memories of one man and the bodies of others was to destroy the eyes. She grabbed the knife where Rica had dropped it. She closed her own eyes as she plunged the cold steel into Saunders' one, remaining dead eye, causing the last drops of his living blood to spill out.

----

Amon followed Rica's path by only seconds, ready to sink a bullet into the American Craft User at the first chance he would get. Of course, bullets, Orbo or Not, wouldn't do much to him, Amon knew it may slow Rica down enough to get a clean shot at his eyes.

Finding his way to the last door before the roof Amon hesitated. It was . . . dangerous to go out on the roof. Rica could be waiting at the left or right, or maybe dead center, his gun drawn and ready to fire.

And unlike Rica, Amon would die from the bullets.

With a great kick Amon broke down the exit door and his eyes flashed from center to right to left and then behind him, above him, on the roof over the door that he had just came through.

Rica wasn't on the roof, meaning . . .

Amon didn't have time to turn as the shots pierced his legs. Rica had climbed off the roof and hung himself by his hands, so that the only trace he was even on the roof were five pale fingers keeping himself from falling off the edge of Raven's Flat. When the time was right the American had lifted himself up and fired three shots, two into Amon's right leg, and one into his left.

Amon fell on the ground, and he felt himself loose grip on his Orbo gun. It fell clumsily away from him and he knew he couldn't reach it, not like this. He could hear footsteps and cruel laughter now.

”Mr. Calypso always spoke about you .” Rica was saying. Amon was on his stomach, he couldn't see the smug smile, but he knew it was there.

Amon heard the cocking of a gun.

The forth shot pierced Amon's neckline, where his neck and shoulder blades met. The shot was fatal, and it would kill Amon unless he found very fast medical attention.

Rica was ready to fire a fifth shot into Amon's skull and kill the hunter once and for all when his entire arm caught on fire. Robin stood at the doorway, she still wore the old pink and green Kimono that Yuji had lent her and she looked out of place in it.

The burning tongues of fire that kissed at Rica's arm suddenly vanished as a splash of water from the American's own craft hit them. He smiled and dropped his gun.

”Naw, naw, puppy. I've grown tired of you.”

From out of no where a jet of water, almost like the end of a fire hydrant had been broken off, shot from no where at Robin. She impulsively made a shield of flames but the water broke right through it and hit her squarely on the chest.

Robin was fast, though. She jumped up before the second blast of H2O came smashing into the concrete roof where she had just been sitting with such a force that it broke a hole clear in the ground.

Robin launched three large flaming blast at the smug smiling enemy, but Rica's water craft turned them all into smoke before he got so much as a singed hair. Rica smirked as he launched another spurt of water at her, but she conjured up flames with all of her strength and was able to block out the water, though she was still no closer to harming Rica.

”Naw puppy.” He suddenly said with an even fouler smile than he had ever worn before. “We can screw around all day until one of us gets bored, but you know he's gonna be dead in a matter of minutes.”

Rica's fingers were pointing at Amon, who was unconscious and bleeding with a odd gurgling sound.

“Now you can kill me.” Rica smiled. “But he'll die too.”

Robin's emerald eyes were full of tears as she thought about this. She wanted to stop Rica so badly, but not at the cost of Amon's life.

Rica didn't need a second answer. He laughed, ran towards the edge of the roof, and jumped off. Of course, the fall would only hurt him. The ancient evil magicks that played with him and made him as he was would heal him instantly. Unless by chance he landed on twin nails that poked out his eyes.

Robin sighed and dropped down next to Amon. She needed to find a way to get him to a hospital quickly.

Because if she didn't.

Amon would die.

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