Witch Hunter Robin
Fire and Rain
Chapter IX – Bathrooms, Kisses, and Memories
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 unfolding 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, Calypso© and the Evil David Rica© are all my property.
Author Notes :
Wahoo!
It was well worth $100 dollars to get back and running so soon. My computer is fast as it was the day I bought it and F&R will continue as planned!
Oh and BIG WARNING : Sakaki has a flashback in this chapter that depicts his father abusing him and his mother. It's very angst and sad, so you've been warned. You may want to skip it, but if you plan on reading False Echoes (The sequel) I suggest you don't, because one of FE 's main plots concerns Kichiro Wantanabee, Sakaki's father.
Still, BE WARNED , it's very sad. I mean, it's child abuse; you can't get much sadder than that. So you've been warned.
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“Lovely plan, probably the best I've ever heard.” Sakaki muttered sarcastically.
”And what is that supposed to mean?”
”It means we're trapped in an airplanes bathroom with no means of stopping Rica.”
”Don't you enjoy being stuck with me in a small space?”
“Don't change the subject Doujima.”
“You know you're enjoying having my chest thrust into your face.”
“Doujima!”
“You're cute when you get mad, you know that?”
”Can we flirt after we stop the psycho?”
“Only if you'll admit you like me.”
”Doujima!”
”Call me Yurika, no wait, just Yuri, sound more girlfriend-ish.”
Sakaki said nothing, he only sighed.
They had been staked out at an Airport. There were only two flights tonight heading from Tokyo, Japan to America, and as luck would have it both of them were heading to Louisiana, and David Rica wanted to head to New Orleans, so it worked perfectly for him.
They had, of course, found Rica at the Airport terminal, but as Rica had reminded them there, a shoot out in a busy airport would claim many civilian lives. So they had followed him onto the plane, and now they were hiding in a bathroom, on an airplane, which was currently on its way off their small island country and away to America.
Of course the problem was you can't use guns on Airplanes, because even one missed shot into the haul and the entire plane would go down into the ocean. Cabin pressure would drop and everyone would die. They hadn't thought of this when they followed Rica, but now, looking back, they wished they had.
Still, what else could be done but stand hide here in the bathroom with Doujima until they though of something?
----
“Baka!”
Michael slammed his left fist down on the table. He hated using his left fist, but what else could he do?
Raven's Flat was empty now, the body of Joseph Saunders had been taken away by people from the factory, and a factory guard was now surrounding the building, though Michael Lee knew they didn't need it.
Rica was on his way overseas right now.
And now Michael had just learned that Doujima and Sakaki had followed him.
Three computers were set up along each other, and in his swivel chair Michael was using his one usable hand to operate all three of them. On one computer was a Web cam from John Hopkins hospital in Maryland, the finest medical establishment on the planet.
John Hopkins was using their web cams to watch a dangerous surgery preformed. Something they always did when there were surgeries as rare and dangerous as this one.
Amon's Surgery.
On the second computer screen was an Instant Message between himself and someone using an American computer. The conversation was turning ugly. The person on the other end was the computer specialist for the STN-America, the American branch of Solomon's Witch Hunting organization. He had tried to convince her that David Rica was a traitor for Solomon and must be hunted when he reached America, but it took a management order to issue a hunt, and both Zaizen and Kosaka were still in surgery.
Of course his friend from the STN-A was worried about this news of Rica, since she was located in a small STN-A branch in New Orleans, and David Rica was her personal boss.
The third computer was currently booking a single airline ticket to New Orleans from the last plane to Louisianan tonight. It wasn't for Michael though.
“Michael.”
His heart skipped a beat. Looking up from where he sat he saw Robin at the doorway. Her young face, so soft and silky smooth was tired today. Dark rings hugged her face beneath her eyes, and tears still stained her face. Between Michael's vanishing act after he was shot, and Amon's life hanging by a thread, the youngest hunter was slowly breaking down.
Before he knew it she had walked over around his chair and was hugging him from behind, lying her petite chin down on his left shoulder and peering down at the web cam which displayed Amon's surgery. He was still alive, but for how long?
Robin closed her eyes and tried to block the images of doctors in white aprons and teal gloves cutting open Amon's neck, but it was no good. When she shut them she saw Rica shooting him again. It was just as bad, if not worse.
Instead she turned her thoughts away from Amon, and to Michael. Without really knowing what she was doing her lips found his neck and planted small kisses on it. Michael smiled but said nothing, shutting his own eyes.
”Robin, you have to follow Miss. Doujima and Sakaki.”
“I know.”
She didn't even make an attempt to move away, or to stop kissing him softly.
“This isn't like you.”
”I know.”
Robin closed her eyes. Her life had been turned upside down and shaken all around since the first bout with Kita Nobunaga a month ago. Since that first time Michael kissed her forehead. And it had only become more and more different as time went on. This was the second time she had broken down and just allowed the horrors of her life to slip away as she embraced Michael Lee.
“I love you.” The hacker's voice spoke softly.
”I know.”
----
The house was the stereotype of a New Orleans native during the civil war. Colonel Sanders himself could have lived there, raising his chickens and frying them for dinner all around. Of course the Colonel was from Kentucky, (or at least his fast food chain was) but that didn't matter to most who saw it.
It was huge and made from oak, sitting right smack down in the Bayou. The smell of Cajun cooking was an overpowering odor in the air at the home of Charles Calypso.
On the outside the gardens were well kept, and the paint was always fresh and white. But on the inside the house was dark, lights were non-existent. Only old candles illuminating the blackness. The main hallway had two doors to either side, the one of the left led to the ballroom, and the one of the right led to a sitting lounge that contained a chair, grandfather clock and an old couch like the kind psychiatrist use.
Cobwebs and spiders were a common site downstairs, but upstairs there was no light. Up the dark, poorly painted staircase. The stairs were at the end of the main hallway from in front of the front door. Only one bedroom was in use upstairs. The one on the far end of the hallway upstairs. That was Calypso's bedroom.
A laptop was set up, with a direct feed to John Hopkins. Calypso was a doctor in his day, before Solomon targeted him for being a Witch. He liked watching John Hopkins.
The old man who was Charles Calypso had already been told by David Rica that Amon was dead. Amon, the man who killed Calypso five years ago.
And yet John Hopkins had a direct web cam link to a Tokyo hospital where Amon lay, now with a 69% chance of survival.
That did not set well with Calypso.
----
Rica sat in first class, he never flew coach. Coach was for poor people, and normal people. Not for undead witch hunters.
He sighed and grabbed the telephone in front of him. Calls from an airplane were expensive, that was true, but he really didn't give a damn. He sighed as he pressed the small white and black buttons on the manila colored phone. It rung three times before a voice answered with a “Hallo?”
It wasn't the cold, drawing voice of Charles Calypso. It was much warmer, much friendlier voice. Full of youth. Not the kind of person you'd expect Rica to call.
”I have a job for you Gold.”
As Rica spoke the voice changed. No longer warm and friendly, but now speaking with annoyance, obedience and a hint of fear. “Yes sir?”
”There are two Witches on the plane with me. A blonde woman and a dumb punk with her, I want them dead once my plane lands. I'll lure them to the usual spot.”
The voice spoke again. “Yes Sir Mr. Rica. It'll be taken care of.”
“Don't screw up Silver.”
”Gold, sir.”
”Whatever.” Rica muttered.
“Maybe I'll kill people for you when you can remember my name you mother fu-“
”I haven't hung up yet.”
“Sorry sir.”
----
Robin was now on an airplane as well.
It was really a daze, her life, now. She knew the headset wouldn't stay in range to talk to Michael once she got in the air, and she knew that right now as she sat waiting for take off was the last chance she'd have to talk to the young hacker who had stolen her heart, but still she said nothing.
She only sat, leaning her reddish-blonde haired head down on a window as she listened to the faint buzz as static hummed into the headpiece. She wanted to speak to Michael but she couldn't think of the words to say. She just wanted this to end. She wanted David Rica to be stopped. She wanted to wake up and have all of this had been some nightmare.
No.
That wasn't true.
David Rica was pure evil. He had shot, kicked, beaten, nearly drowned, and tried to killed everyone in Japan who Robin respected, cared for, or treated as a friend.
And yet he had helped bring her together with Michael.
For that she could not wish away all of the pain. Because with that pain came those few, fleeting moments when she and Michael had been one. Those few moments when she and Michael had been madly in love.
Sitting at Harry's and staring at each other.
Kisses on the neck at Raven's Flat.
Those few moments of love were enough to erase days of hate and pain. Those precious moments of two young lovers.
Robin just hoped Amon wouldn't have to pay his life for those few moments of hers and Michael's.
----
Minutes passed by.
Still Doujima was trapped in a bathroom, smushed against Sakaki.
Hours passed after that.
At first flirting had been fun, and the bathroom was clean so she didn't have any smells to deal with, but after two hours she was cramping up, her arm was falling asleep, and she was getting a back ache. Still, she was okay. She could sing.
It was now the middle of the night, and the plane was still hours from America.
Doujima was slowly going insane. Sakaki had fallen asleep and now had his head resting against her shoulder, snoring quietly in her ear. She sighed. She had hummed every song she could think off, and was becoming more and more bored. Her entire body was numb, either from the tingling sleeping feeling or from pain. She was no longer having fun.
One thing kept her going though.
Her hatred of David Rica.
Even during her flirting and her jokes and all of that, she hated him. Her face was still swollen and welted from where he had beaten her, and she still carried a invisible scar of hate from that day at the hospital.
The idea of watching Rica die was keeping her going.
----
Karasuma was alone now. She wasn't in bed, though it was late. Instead she just sat in her wheelchair outside the glass window of Amon's operating room. Her dark eyes peering inside as the hunter she had known for many years was being operated on, his life in the balance.
Karasuma had known Amon longer than anyone else on the STN-J, and she knew him better than they did. She also felt the worst watching him lay there like that, life draining from him as doctors struggled to bring it back.
Karasuma's eyes were filled with silent tears. She couldn't remember a time at the STN without Amon.
And she didn't want to ever see one.
----
( BIG WARNING : The following is a flashback that depicts Sakaki's father abusing him and his mother. You may want to skip this, as is does not matter much to F&R but it does have something to do with the sequel.)
“ Kichiro please!”
The apartment was small and dark. A desk and a chair cluttered a corner, with a fold out sofa in the middle of the room. A small TV sat in front of it. Socks, papers, and other cluttered things lined the room. Old potato chip bags and strange smells. It looked like a bachelor pad.
But it wasn't.
It was the home of Kichiro Wantanabee, and his girlfriend. Sora Sakaki.
He was tall and lean, with a perfect face and a well sculpted body. He had once been the star athlete, the man all the women dreamed about.
Sora Sakaki got that man. She was young and beautiful, with a fiery red mantle of hair that reached down to her shoulders and made her all the more gorgeous. At least she had been. Now her face was covered in bruises and her once majestic hair was now dirty and unkempt.
”Shut up woman.”
His fist smacked her hard, sending her back onto the ground. Blood ran from out of her nose. She knew he would hit her again. She was used to it. She just wished he wouldn't do it in front of Haruto. He was so young.
“Daddy, you made mommy bleed.”
Haruto Sakaki was three years old as he watched his father beat his mother. He didn't understand why he did it. He didn't know what it was. But he did know that whenever the red blood came from his body he was in pain. The boy wondered why his daddy would make his mommy bleed, since she would probably be in pain too.
Kichiro turned on his three year old son.
“Fucking brat.”
Haruto saw his father's fist as it flew slowly towards him . . .
“Haruto.”
He felt the pain as it collided with his young jaw.
“Haruto!”
He could felt himself start to cry as his own blood began to flow.
“HARUTO!”
( End of the Warning )
Sakaki's eyes snapped opened as the bathroom and Doujima came back into his blurry view. He could see the blonde before him wore a look of mingled worry and confusion, and he then realized that he was covered in cold sweat and he must have screamed in his sleep.
He stared down at Doujima and he hoped that the tears that were building in his eyes wouldn't fall. He had never cried in front of another STN-J agent before, unless you count the time the one-eyed Witch had possessed his mind and forced his worry to increase.
I had been thinking about dad during that too. Sakaki reminded himself.
Her eyes asked all the questions she could have ever asked. They asked him what that was about.
Sakaki did not answer.
“Haruto.” She said softly, no longer in her flirty voice, or her angry one, or her silly one. Now using a voice that reminded him oddly of the way Robin had spoken his name a month ago after she had tried to cheer him up after he shot her.
“I don't want to talk about it Doujima.”
She sighed. “Okay. But –“
”No.”
”Not that.” She fumbled to move. “We're landing. We're in America.”
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Konnichiwa!
Well, I warned you all about Kichiro.
He is a real jerk, and I just want to make it clear that people who abuse their wives and children are evil, sadistic, and deserve no less than burning in hell for all of eternity.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed the return of Fire and Rain .
And now a special treat! A sneak peak at what is coming in False Echoes , the sequel to Fire and Rain and second sequel to Time Off .
Preview/Summary of False Echoes :
Vol. III in my WHR Coven! Possessed Bracelets, Romantic Getaways, Christmas, Flirting Fun, Sakaki's Dad, Heart Filled Moments, the Angry Spirit of Jack the Ripper, Odd Dating, and did I mention it's the sequel to Fire & Rain ? RobinxMichael, DoujimaxSakaki
Anyway, that's the summary.
False Echoes will contain three different plots all happening at the same time, and be anywhere from 20-40 chapters long.
Anyway, Fire & Rain should be finished by next Wednesday or Thursday, and False Echoes will start next Friday, so enjoy my friends!
And thanks for the many, many reviews! I can only hope to get even more on FE .
Next Chapter : Introducing the STN-A, the American version of STN-J.
And their hunting . . . Sakaki and Doujima!?
O.o you'll have to stick around and see!
Ja Ne
~ Golden-sama