Witch Hunter Robin - Episode Nine: Sign of the Craft
Version: 1.0
Date: July 19, 2003
Air Date: August 27, 2002
Summary by: Kala Mekiv (orbo@vauss.com)
Website: http://vauss.com/usuyami

Distribution of this summary is FORBIDDEN without 
permission from either Kala Mekiv or Shinji 
(csdiaz@edisto.cofc.edu).

---------------------------------------------------------

From a building, eerie laughter and singing can be heard echoed 
in the hallways.  A man turns around in fear, apparently 
catching the glimpse of a young girl's face.  The girl mumbles 
something inaudible, and the next thing heard are the screams 
from the man as he falls from the building, apparently having 
been set ablaze.  The scene switches back to a stairway and a 
lightpost, where an Ogham's barrier has been drawn, focusing in 
on the Futhark rune ansuz (shaped like an F). 

Robin gets a phone call in the middle of the night, and answers 
it.  She sits up in bed, with the blanket wrapped around her 
nude form and talks to whoever's on the other end (more than 
likely Amon), then asks for the location to meet him at.

Later, she walks into a morgue with Amon and a man who asks to 
know if they're from STN.  Neither she or Amon reply as he 
thanks them for coming in so early to look at the body.  The 
man explains that the person was burned to death, but had no 
signs of smoke inhilation.  Amon turns to him and says that he 
heard there was no sign of a burning in the room he was in prior 
to death, and the man agreed, explaining that it seemed the 
corpse was cooked in a microwave--the heat originating from the 
inside and going out.  Amon looks at Robin, then tells the man 
that someone will be by shortly to take the corpse back to 
whoever is in charge of the case and they get ready to leave.  
The man stops them, saying he thought THEY were going to take 
the body with them.  Amon and Robin give him a sort of "What the 
hell are you talking about!?" look.

[OP]

The scene changes to an intersection where Sakaki sits waiting 
for someone.  Michael gives Karasuma and Haruto (?) some 
information on the victim -- 34-year-old Oikawa Tatsurou, the 
son of a small company chairman.  Karasuma asks if someone he 
knew burned him down.  [AN: The sub said, "Does that mean a 
spoiled son's really burned him down?" I'm not sure how to take 
that, actually, other than through my interpretation.  All will 
be answered in the WHR R1 DVD #2.]  Michael says it's something 
like that, then says three possible witches behind the attack 
were found in the STN's data, but two of them don't even live in 
the area.  Karasuma asks if their suspect comes up 
automatically, and Michael replies by sending her data on the 
suspect.

In the STN-J meeting room, Robin and Amon look at information in 
a suspected witch.  Robin stares at a girl's picture, and asks 
why "this person" would do such a thing.  Amon asks her if she's 
concerned about it, and Robin replies that the witch was normal 
until the incident.  Amon then asks her if she was born in 
Japan, and Robin says that even though she was born in Japan, 
she moved to Italy when she was small.  Amon continues, saying 
"Even so, you can't deny that there's a possibility that you 
have 
relatives in this country, huh?"  Robin furrows her eyebrows at 
him, but says nothing. Michael comes in to tell them that Sakaki 
and Karasuma have found the witch's location, then turns to look 
at Robin, who seems to be preoccupied by something. Amon notices 
this, then tells Robin that they're leaving. 

Karasuma and Sakaki stand outside of a building, waiting for 
Amon and Robin to show up.  Once they show up, Amon asks about 
what's going on.  Sakaki says that the witch hasn't made a move. 
Amon asks if there is only one doorway, and Karasuma replies 
that it is, unless there's one they don't know about.  Amon 
calls Michael to tell him they're starting the operation, and to 
call the Factory in preparation.  Michael gives them the 
go-ahead to start, saying everything's in place.  Karasuma asks 
if they're going to arrest the witch and take her to Factory. 
Amon says that the computer at Factory said there must be an 
inquiry about Yoshioka Aki, the witch they are hunting. Karasuma 
asks what would happen if Aki's powers awakened, and Amon says 
they'll still take her by force if they must.  

Back at the STN-J offices, Doujima yawns as she pounds away at 
her workstation, looking up information on Aki.  Her eyes widen 
as she finds something interesting, commenting on how "strange" 
it is.

Amon and Robin ring the doorbell to Aki's apartment three times.   
They wait for her to open the door, but get no response.  Amon 
turns the doorknob and discovers it is unlocked.  He tries to 
open the door, then finds it is locked by a chain lock on the 
inside.  He tells Robin to cut it, and they make their way into 
the apartment.  Both of them make their way into a bedroom, 
where they find a body covered with sheets.  Amon approaches the 
bed and inspects what is under the sheets.  Once he gets 
glimpse, he calls Michael to tell him to call Factory in, since 
it appears someone "took care" of Aki.  Robin looks around the 
room, and notices a pile of ash (or sand?) off to the side the 
bed and plays with it.  

A closeup of a laptop found in the room, the screen still asking 
for a password...

The computer is taken back to STN-J, where Michael pounds away 
as he tries to figure out the password, with Robin looking over 
his shoulder.  Doujima walks over to them, saying she is on her 
way out.  Haruto offers her a ride home, and the two leave right 
as Michael cracks the password. (l337 h4x0r)  Left on the laptop 
is a message:

	"Oikawa Tatsuhiro
	 Matsunaga Kiyoshi
      Aramune Seiichirou
      I am the one who killed these three.

                        Yoshioka Aki"

Michael says it is a confession of her crimes, but Robin 
mentions that there are two murders they did not know about.  
Michael starts doing research on the other two victims 
immediately.

One of the men mentioned on Aki's list drives along a freeway 
alone.  Seconds later, he looks to his left to see a young woman 
sitting next to him and begins to panic.  As he hits the brakes, 
his car is set ablaze, instantly killing him.

A short time later, the police, Amon and Robin appear on the 
freeway where the now-torched car finally stopped.  Amon 
mentions that this one was their fault since STN-J was so 
careless with incidents with newly awakened witches involved.  
Robin said that Aki was dead, but Amon asks her if she believes 
a ghost did the attack.  Robin thinks, then tells Amon about the 
sand in her room--sand which Amon had no idea was even in there.   

Near the building where the first murder occured, a young girl 
stands underneath an overpass, staring at the posters of one of 
her victims.  A little girl starts laughing as she sets the 
posters ablaze as she leaves. 

In Aki's apartment, Robin analyzes everything in the bedroom in 
the apartment.  Her voiceover explains the position of certain 
elements as Karasuma pulls up to the apartment building to join 
her and Amon.  

	"Sand is North.  It expresses the position of Earth.
	 South is the position of Fire.
	 West is Water.  (She tastes the water in the cup...)
	 East is Wind.  And circle is Space."

Karasuma asks what is wrong, and Robin concludes that the 
Rastral's projection method, a ceremony performed to break away 
from a body, was performed in the room on Aki by someone who 
wanted to contact her will. Amon asks Karasuma to use her 
scrying ability to find out if Aki's will was still present in 
the room.

Outside of the hotel, the girl looks up at the building and 
smirks.

[EYECATCH]

While parked on the side of the road, Amon and Robin listen as 
Michael gives them more information on the two victims who 
apparently once worked for Aramune Seiichirou.  All three of 
them were once involved in helping domestic violence victims and 
patients at rehabilitation centers.  Michael explains that their 
volunteer work was merely a cover for something larger.  Aki 
also interned with the them in the same project.  Amon tells 
Michael to get a list of people who worked with Aramune at the 
time and Aramune's address.  Michael pounds away at the 
computer, doing the search, but even he is unable to find anyone 
else who was involved in the incident.  He sends something to 
Amon, and asks if Karasuma was able to find out anything using 
her ability.  Amon says that she wasn't able to find Aki's will 
in the room, implying that whoever performed the ceremony took 
her will with them when he or she left.  They decide to that 
searching for the person who performed the Rastral's projection 
method.

Michael stops typing as he remembers something Doujima told him 
earlier.  Doujima had looked up some information on Aki's 
history and came across something strange in the record -- she 
found two Aki Yoshiokas.  Amon tells Michael to start looking 
through the list of people who were in the facility, up to and 
including people who were dead, and to find out what happened 
within the facility.   Amon decides that talking to Aramume 
Seiichirou is his and Robin's top priority.

Back at the hotel, someone begins forming runes (symbols?) with 
sand just outside the front doors...

Amon tries to get ahold of Aramune in the lobby of Kochiyama 
Hotel, but is unable to get in contact with him.  Aramune's 
secretary refuses to allow him to talk to Aramune, using the 
excuse that he is busy with the election and tells Amon to make 
an appointment with the election office.  

In Aramune's hotel room, Aramune is completely smashed as he has 
flashbacks about Aki's visit in his office at the facility.  
Young Aki says she knows that he and the other volunteers at the 
facility are selling their bodies on the black market for money, 
but Aramume says they are trying to heal the sick.  Aki shakes 
her head, saying there was nothing wrong with her two friends 
Hiroshi or Suzu, but they were sent away only to come back 
"strange."  Aramune, Oikawa, and Matsunaga look at each other as 
Aki tells them that she will never forgive them for what they 
have done.  Aramune smirks at her, telling her that a child 
should not be so rude to her elders.  The other two men chuckle 
as Aki becomes infuriated, setting a piece of paper on Aramune's 
desk on fire with a strange white flame.  The three men look at 
the young Aki, who says nothing.

Aramune wakes up from his flashback, and says that it's not 
possible for Aki to alive.

Aki finishes drawing her Ogham circle and begins to chant, 
singing something similar to a child's song.  Aramune finishes 
up another glass of liquor and looks up to see an illusion of 
young Aki standing in a corner.   After taking one look at her, 
he flees from the room.

Michael tells Amon and Robin the information he found about 
Aramunes little operation.  Aramune's facility were sending 
children overseas to become donors in an elaborate transplanting 
business, since they cannot perform the operations within Japan. 
Robin is disgusted at the idea of such a thing. Michael also 
mentions the information he found on the people living in the 
facility who were already dead, and a Saki Yoshioka pops up. 
Aramune's facility was closed a while back due to a small fire.  
Amon asks for the location of the facility, which Michael gives 
him.

Aramune pulls up to the facilty, and heads for the chariman's 
room, where he comes face to face with the now grown-up Aki, who 
welcomes him. 

As Amon and Robin pull up to the facility, Michael tells them 
that Saki was Aki's twin sister.  Saki supposedly died from a 
disease, according to the records, but it is questionable.  Once 
they pull up, they notice Aramune's car.  They hear Aramune's 
screams, and rush in.  Both come in time to see Aki standing 
over the burning body of Aramune.  Aki turns around, and attacks 
Amon, who shoots Orbo at her.  Aki's fire completely overpowers 
Amon's Orbo shot, and the force of it knocks him flat on his 
ass.  Robin turns to see if Amon is alright, and blocks another 
one of Aki's attacks.  Aki is surprised by this, and Robin tells 
her that she is also... something that she never says. :P

Aki's eyebrows furrow as she launches an even stronger attack at 
Robin, which Robin completely blows through using her own Craft.  
Aki says that they have the same power, and shakes her head in 
disbelief.  Only Saki could have used or had the same power. 
Robin frowns at Aki as she approaches, using her powers every 
few steps as she approaches Robin, repeating over and over that 
only Saki could have used her powers.  Robin gets worried as Aki 
gets closer, but Amon recovers enough in time to shoot Aki full 
of Orbo before she gets close enough to touch Robin.

Karasuma tells the STN-J members the next morning that because 
Saki and Aki were identical twins, it is possible they could 
have very well had the same Craft, or ability to manipulate it.  
Haruto says that Aki was trying to avenge her sister's death, 
and Doujima says she broke away from the body to find her 
sister's murderers.  Karasuma wonders what Aramune and his men 
were doing, and Robin replies that it was fear.  Fear caused 
Aramune, who was seeing a political seat, to be afraid of Aki, 
since she knew his past. They tried to quiet her, but they 
didn't realize that Aki was still alive.  Saki was afraid her 
sister would become a donor, so she had her escape using the 
Craft to bring her death.  Robin says both of them were trying 
to live. Karasuma says that everyone does, but if they hadn't 
hunted Aki down, she would have used her Craft to become a true 
assassin.  Robin says that she knows that, but she can't help 
but feel that Aki's reasons were somewhat justified.  

In the director's office, Amon informs Zaizen that Aki had 
connections to several ceremonies, but there were no connections 
with her.  Amon couldn't find anything, but Zaizen tells him 
even a little affection deferred his search. Amon tries to deny 
it, but upon Zaizen's lack of response to that, he says that he 
will do more investigating...