A wall between

Chapter Five

Amon and Robin walked into the offices at a couple of minutes after six the next morning. The couple looked so dragged out, from being up until really late, then getting a call to come in about a half hour ago.

Robin felt very tired, to the point of feeling like she was going to fall asleep standing on her feet. She looked up at her husband, and could see a little fatigue in his face but it was not showing a lot on his face. She wished she looked as fresh as he did, she thought to herself..

Still, something was still bothering him greatly, but he was keeping to his word of not putting it on her. It made her feel better that he was not ignoring her and brooding, yet she still wanted to know just what was bothering the man.

Michael looked up from his computer and nodded, the walkman in his ears could be heard by all in the room.
“ There is a meeting in the briefing room in ten minutes.” He called out, his voice louder than usual due to the music that was blasting in his ears. “ We have something on one of the cases.”

Amon nodded, and looked at his wife. She saw that a small smile was coming out of him with the news from the hacker lad. She smiled back, happy to see Amon finally flash a smile like that. Perhaps she was overreacting with him, she thought.

Ten minutes exactly, all the hunters were gathered in the briefing room. The last ones to arrive was Michael and the Chief. From the looks on the faces, they had something big to be told.

The head of the STN-J stood up at the front of the room, and proceeded to start talking the instant people had quieted down.
“ We have a identification on the body found on the docks yesterday.” The chief said, in his usual loud voice. “ He was Oki Tanankai, son of the shipping magnet Oki Tanjarji.” The chief paused to take a breath. “ Autopsy has confirmed that all of his muscles and internal organs were reduced to a thin jelly like state, the rest of him seems to be intact.”

Amon sat straight up with the news, his limbs stiffened almost immediately. He turned his head and looked at the chief.
“ Would SOLOMON have a idea on who the witch would be that could do that?” He asked in his usual straight forward way..

The chief nodded.
“ They have only one in their database that matches the power descriptions to a tee.” The man said. “ A witch that is a sometime enforcer and hired killer for the local syndicate. The witch is only known as Shadowmark. He has not been seen in almost four years, and SOLOMON thought the syndicate had killed him when he failed them in some ways then. They think his real name was Orti, but that is all they have, is this speculation.”
“ Is the Syndicate behind this death?” Asked Robin, while the others seemed to be silent.
“ That is undetermined, that is where we come in. The syndicate has it’s hand in the fishing business, but to what extent, is not fully known.” The chief said. “ We have to stop this witch- SOLOMON has put him number one on their priority list.”

The man looked at Michael and nodded. No sooner than that, a picture was brought up on the screen. It was fuzzy older looking picture of a young man, in his mid to late teens.
“ This is the only picture of Orti SOLOMON had.” The chief said with a long sigh. “ We need to track him down, see if this man is the Shadowmark, and if we see that it is... stop him.” He looked at everyone, as a very serious look flashed in his eyes. “ SOLOMON has one stipulation- if this is the witch in question... this is not going to be a standard tried live capture. For reasons that HQ has not told me, he is marked for elimination status.”

Robin gasped at the orders. She had always tried to capture the witches alive, and that was fine in her, just the way the STN-J had set out to do. This order was not sitting right with here, not one little bit.
“ Does that mean... We are being ordered to kill this man?” She said, her voice quivering.
“ That is our orders, Mrs. Syunji*.” The chief said, flatly. “ Simply put, that is what HQ has determined ion their investigation. He is a danger that is far beyond the normal witch classification.”

Robin fell quiet, as the orders hit her. She looked at her Husband, and wondered what his feelings were on this. His blank face told her nothing. This felt so wrong.

With that, The chief left the room without one word more to the collected Hunters. The group just got up and walked stunned out of the briefing room.

Robin looked at her husband, as she strode next to her.
“ Purposely killing a man?” She said lowly, not hiding her feelings she was having. “ I don’t feel right about this, Amon.”
“ If he is a witch with the syndicate, there can be no other logical outcome- he is more dangerous than most other witches.” He said, with a gruffness that was disturbing. “ That is how it has to be.”
“ But killing him... are we not doing what he does?” Pointed out Robin to the man.

Amon’s eye faired with anger, as he turned to Robin. The wildness in her husband’s eyes made Robin flinch back, actually scaring her with is eyes. She had not seen such anger and hate in his eyes as what his eyes were holding. They were practically glowing red.
“ We are going to do our jobs, just like our orders say to do.” He growled, looming over her in a menacing pose. “ That is how it is.”

The man walked off, his foot falls heavier than normal. Robin just stood there, aghast at how the man was acting. She could not comprehend any of this, but this thing with the orders had made Amon back to the way he was the evening before. There was something there, but she did not have one clue to it.

Robin took a deep breath and went to her desk. She did not even let on that she saw the man go into the elevator, and now he was gone. She rubbed her growing stomach and sighed as she took her seat.
“ What is going on with your father?” She whispered to her child.

Karasuma came over to Robin’s desk.
“ Where did your husband go?” She said, as she looked around to see the tall man.
“ He... just went for a little while, somewhere.” Robin said, as that was the only thing she could really say.
“ Is he in one of his moods?” She asked.
“ He has been...” Robin admitted.
“ He’ll come out of it... he does usually.” Miho said, rubbing the girl’s shoulder before going off once again.

After a few minutes, she began trying to trace the last known whereabouts of this Orti fellow. She felt odd doing this work, knowing what the orders were, but she needed to keep herself busy- until her husband came back. She could only hope that the man would open up a little. She did not want to live like this any longer.


( * ) Robin’s married name: Amon and Nagira’s last name