Blind Corner

Part Two: I’d Do Anything For You

            Michael was in pain. Everything was so chaotic, there was the sound of gunshots all around him, everywhere, and the agony spread from his shoulder all throughout his body. It spread like some sort of virus from the top of his head, to the smallest toe, to the tip of every finger. He grit his teeth, grinding them together, struggling to bite back a scream. He would not scream, he could not scream, the factory was attacking them and now it took everything he had to lie completely still on the floor.

            Looking up through the cracked lenses of his glasses, he saw a bullet slam into Sakaki. The force of the blow made him fall, his leg twisting like he was some sort of contortionist and there was a sickening crack that followed. There was no doubt in his mind that Sakaki’s leg was broken, very broken, and he would be off of his feet for weeks. If they survived this, he would be unable to hunt for a long time. Next he saw Karasuma fall to the ground, a hand over her bleeding shoulder. Her eyes were still open and they met for a moment. Her kind face was twisted in pain, rage, and confusion. They held each others gaze for a moment before she fell unconscious.

            Michael was fighting off the blackness that was starting to cloud his vision. He heard two more people crash to the ground, no doubt the chief and his assistant. They were closing in on someone, backing them slowly into a corner. Michael saw a flash of black dress. It was Robin. She was seemed paralyzed with fear and surprise. They were still closing in, closer and closer to her...

            “Run Robin...” he whispered, though he could hardly hear his own voice, “Run...” and everything around him went black...

~~~~~

            “Wake up, Michael!”

            His eyes snapped open and it took the computer technician a few moments to realize where he was. Dojima and Karasuma were looking down at him, both perfectly fine. Michael could feel the sweat from his dream on his back and he moved his fingers from where he had been injured gently.

            “Who would have thought we’d show up to see you asleep on the job. The chief would kill you if he found out you were asleep like that.” Dojima commented, tossing her blond hair over her shoulder. Unlike before the attack, she wore her STN jacket over her oh so stylish outfits, but a magazine kept itself imbedded in her hand. She gave him a small smile. She went uninjured from the attack, skipping work again he guessed. Lucky her.

            “Dojima, even Michael needs sleep.’ Karasuma commented and offered a hand to help him off of the couch. Prim, proper, and professional as usual described how she looked right now. However, something else lingered on her face; exhaustion. Michael knew that having Sakaki out of commission, Dojima as an assistant, not mention Robin and Amon missing meant she was doing a majority of the work around the office. She was wearing herself into the ground and everyone was powerless to stop her.

            “Thank you.” he said, taking her hand and she pulled him to his feet. Dojima wandered off, talking mostly to herself about something that held no interest to Michael or Karasuma, She dropped his hand and gave him a very parental look.

            “You were having a nightmare.” she commented. Michael was not surprised that she knew he was having a bad dream, she could probably feel his fear a block away.

            “More like reliving one.” He replied and stretched. She knew exactly what he meant and there was no need to confirm it. She simply nodded.

            “You’re not the only one, I dream about it and so does Sakaki. It’ll take some time, but they’ll stop.” she replied, patting his shoulder.

            “What will take some time?”

            Karasuma and Michael looked up to see Sakaki making his way into the office, still a little uneasy on his crutches. From the look in his eyes, he was still a little dazed due to the heavy painkillers he had been given.

            “We were just talking about how it will take some time for things to get back to normal.” Karasuma lied swiftly. None of them wanted to talk about what was going through all of their heads. Why pressure to bring out the things that made everyone uncomfortable. Besides the mental injuries that would not heal, there was a feeling that they were no longer safe in the office that once promised to keep them safe. It was as if all redments of safety vanished with those gunshots. The carpets that were once bloodstained were replaced, but whenever they looked at the floor the blood was as clear as day. Michael saw Karasuma washing the floor where she was injured, scrubbing ruthless at the perfectly clean carpet. No doubt she could still feel the pain, fear, and anger that they were feeling the day of the attack. Not only was she trying so hard to move on, she was also trying to balance the work of a fu and hard working team.

            Sakaki was having his own problems dealing with what happened. The breaking of his leg was an accident and the factory apologized for the inconvience, but that did not change the fact that he was out of work and worthless, at least in his eyes, until he was completely healed. The day he got out of the hospital it took the persuasion of the chief, Karauma, Dojima and himself to convince their young and ambitious coworker to not go out on a hunt. Staying back at the office with Michael while Karasuma and Dojima did all of the work was driving him insane. Michael was secretly glad Sakaki was on such strong painkillers or he would be nearly unbearable to have around.

            Michael found himself losing all concentration and dozing off at times that were completely inappropriate. It was as if all of his focus vanished just like Amon and Robin did. That was the thing that bothered him the most; there was no sign of either of them. Rumor was that Amon and Robin may have escaped together and could be in hiding, but there was evidence in the lower area of the building that some sort of battle may have taken place. Any evidence of a death or wound had been carefully covered up and despite hours upon hours of searching the only thing Michael could find was a small, almost microscopic, drop of the Or bo. Michael thought about finding a way to obtain a chemical that tested for blood that crime scene investigator used when analyzing crime scenes, but he thought that might look suspicious. Karasuma did reading after reading of the area, but was unable to sense the lingering spirits of Amon or Robin. There was the hole in the wall that had charred remains that suggested that it was blown away by some heat, but Michael did not get a good look at the hole; the factory had it sealed up quite quickly.

            Sakaki made his way over to a desk and eased into a chair.

            “So what’s the battle plan today?” he asked and there was no doubt there was a slight slur to his words. If someone hadn’t know better they probably would have taken him for a drunk, but his coworkers knew better. It was just the medication and before long he would doze off, his head resting against the desk. Combining their efforts, the rest of the group would move him to the couch. A few hours later he would wake up, curse himself that he fell asleep, move and get hit with a wave of unbearable pain, take another dose of pain killers, and start the process over again. Now that a full month had passed since the attack everyone was used to this. Michael believed that Sakaki even knew what he was doing at this point, but continued with the act to restore some sort of regularity to the office. “Has anyone heard anything about Robin or Amon?”

            “No...” Michael replied, “I only found some evidence of the Orbo in the lower room, but no sign of a struggle or a fatal wound.”

            “Could they have been captured?” Karasuma wondered out loud.

            “Why would the factory capture two of its most talented hunters?” Dojima responded, leaning back in her chair, absentmindedly flipping through her magazine.

            “Maybe it has nothing to do with Robin and Amon and they just got caught up in the crossfire.” Karasuma wondered out loud.

            “If that was the case” Michael commented, opening the various programs he needed for a days work, “they would have been back a long time ago.” The silence that followed only confirmed to everyone that Michael was, once again, right. There was no reason why their two co-workers were still missing. The month that followed had been so hard on everyone. The attack, the disappearances, and the lack of answers. It seemed that whenever someone became close to finding out the truth behind the attacks something else would come along and complicate things even more. Or, the evidence behind the attack would somehow vanish from the so-called “secure” places of the office. There was something that they were not being told, but no one seemed to have the courage to go and ask Zaizen what was going on. Truth be told, none of them wanted to know what would happen if they happened to figure the entire truth. Would they vanish like Robin and Amon, vanish from all records, from the world all together?

            “Well, let’s move on. We’re behind and there are witches out there that need to be captured.” Karasuma announced, bringing everyone back to reality. Without a word, they all shifted silently into the conference room, though they were all still unable to focus on their “job”.

~~~~~

            “It never fails to surprise me how bad the food they feed me is.” Michael commented out loud. No one had any snide remark for him though, he was alone sitting in the lower level of the STN-J building, his back against the moldy and broken fountain. His laptop sat next to him, giving off a gentle hum and heat that kept him at a comfortable body temperature. The screen was blank and Michael made no move to wake the machine up again so he could continue to research. There was no much that needed to be done though. All of their targets seemed to think that just because they were witches they were untouchable and hard to catch. However, Michael had all of their current addresses and anything else that could help them find the power hungry fiends.

            He sighed. It was nights like this that he wished he could have someone come and visit him or stay late at the very least. No one ever did though and he never had the courage to ask any of his co-workers if they wanted to stay and keep him company. The night was quiet and there was only one reason they did not have a hunt tonight: Karasuma was about to fall over from exhaustion. After much persuasion from everyone else, they managed to convince their overworked friend to take the night off. Dojima was the one who managed to get the Chief to calm down and let her off the hook even though they were so behind. Michael knew why they were behind and it was not only because they were understaffed; no one wanted to hunt.

            It seemed so odd that everyone’s motivation seemed to vanished into thin air like Amon and Robin, but with their minds constantly on the safety of their missing friends it seemed hard to think about capturing witches. Everyone else was also worried about Karasuma who continued to work herself into the ground without even noticing the concerned eyes of those who cared about her.

            Finishing the last of his disgusting food, Michael picked up his laptop and placed it on his crossed legs and opened the file he kept locked. The file on all of the information on the attack and the possible explanation s as to what happened to Robin and Amon. He felt his eyes drift over to the corner, the blind corner where the two of them sat in each others arms not so far back. It felt like a lifetime ago, like a million years had passed between that moment and where he sat. He sighed heavily, missing Robin’s presence more and the more and the feeling only worsened the longer the thoughts plagued his mind.  

            Sighing, Michael put his laptop aside. He was unable to focus yet again and he placed the blame entirely on Robin. Whenever someone said her name his focus seemed to fly out the window. He just wanted to have her around again, was that so much to ask?

            “Michael?” He jumped to his feet and looked at the fountain. Either he was losing his mind and the fountain just spoke or...

            “What the?” was all he could make himself say.

            “Act natural, remember the camera’s.” the voice replied and he knew that voice. It was her, she was right there, in some underground tunnel. So that was how they escaped...a secret passage. The camera began to make it’s pass over that area and Michael sat back down, his back to the fountain. She was so close and he could make no move to her. “Are you all right?”she asked and he remembers the last thing she saw was all of them hitting the floor after being shot.

            “We’re fine, we got lucky, they just used plastic pellets. Sakaki broke his leg, but besides that we were all out of the hospital in a day.” he responded, trying to remain calm. He was still a little on edge.

            “I heard from Dojima...I’m glad everyone is okay.” she responded. There was a brief silence.

            “What about you? Are you all right?”

            “I’m fine, Amon got me out safely, but what about Amon? Is he all right?” Michael felt his blood run a little cold.

            “What do you mean? We assumed he was with you.” There was a long silence that passed between them. Michael couldn’t have been happier that Robin was alive and well, but the thought that his friend was now missing from all knowledge made the reunion bitter sweet. There was also the fact that he could not see Robin and that made things all the worse.

            “So he’s missing...” she said quietly.

            “I guess so.” he paused, “So what information do you need?”

            “What do you mean?” She sounded surprised by his assertion. Michael smiled.

            “You wouldn’t have come here unless you needed some information. I’ll help you the best I can.” Beneath the rock, Robin was stunned into silence. While she did come for information she did not expect him to guess it so quickly.

            “Yes, I need help.”

            “What do you need Robin. Name it.”

~~~~~

            Robin did not expect to stay in the STN-J tunnel as long as she did. She knew that it would take some for Michael to find the information, but she found herself lingering longer than she expected. From his words, Robin knew that Michael and the rest of the STN had been through a great deal of stress since the attack. She was not surprised that Karasuma had taken all of the responsibility onto herself. Sakaki being out of commission was not helping. She had already seen Dojima and politely declined helping her with the work since she did not have a clue how to do the job and keep her identity a secret. She had never felt so relieved to know that her friends were all safe and now to hear it from Michael himself eased a bit of the tension from her shoulders.

            “Hey Robin...” His voice interrupted her thoughts and her eyes slowly looked to the top of the tunnel, to the entrance that was sealed shut.

            “Yes, Michael?” She said quietly.

            “I miss having you around...” She felt her cheeks start to burn and she looked away as if he could see her.

            “Stop making me blush.” she said in a mumble. She had heard him laugh slightly from above her head. She closed her eyes and pictured him sitting on the dirty floor, resting against the fountain, and smiling. “What is so funny?” she demanded, trying to regain her dignity.

            “Nothing, it’s nothing, I just wish I could see you blush.” And with that it only made her blush even more.

            “I wish...I could see you smiling.” she replied, twisting some of her dress with her fingers. “But we’ll see each other again soon.”

            “How can you be so sure?”

            “I just know it.”

            “If you’re confident, then so am I.” A moment of silence followed and Robin thought about how much she missed everyone back at the STN-J. She thought about how them getting hurt was all of her fault. She thought about how badly she wanted to tell him the truth, but...

            “I need to go.” she said softly.

            “Okay, come back and visit me sometime soon. And Robin?”

            “Yeah?”

            “If you need any help at all, anything, I’ll do anything to help you.”

            “Thank you Michael.” And with that, she began to make her way back down the staircase, touching her cheeks her pale hands, feeling the lingering heat from her blush. “Anything...” She whispered.