| Nagira goes to his Pachinko-parlor informant, and afterwards goes to have a chat with Robin in her room. Someone saw Amon staking out some house, that should be the logical place to go find out information about Amon's whereabouts. Kosaka is waiting to see the police commisioner, and is told to cool his heels. Meanwhile, Nagira found out that the house only has an old woman. Nagira's frustrated (unless Amon is having some kind of torrid love affair with the granny, why would he be here, one wonders), but Robin suggest that he might have asked her about another person. Nagira gives in and goes to do a little research on the old lady to find out what would be so interesting to Amon. In the police HQ, Kosaka is finally allowed to see the commissioner, and is interrogated about the contents of his report, such as Zaizen's apparent disappearance from STN-J headquarters. The Commissioner says that there are problems between Zaizen and SOLOMON, and there might be a shake-up in the ranks. The police are just going to wait and see the outcome of this power struggle. In other dramatic news, Zaizen finds that STN-J's budget has been slashed 40%, and demands to talk to the Financial Branch of SOLOMON. But nobody will receive his call. He wonders if this is how HQ is trying to pressure her, and then receives an e-mail saying that SOLOMON is sending a Hunter. He gets paranoid and tells his secretary to investigate the financial officers of SOLOMON Japan. Nagira does some old-fashioned library work with the family records, and finds out that the old lady's son stayed there for a short while over a decade ago, and the son died over 15 years ago. Next stop is the university where the son worked. Kosaka's in a slump ever since his interview with the police commissioner, and doesn't even respond to Doujima's greeting. Everyone's a little unnerved by the cloud hanging over Kosaka. At the university, they find out the name of the son - Toudou Hiroshi. Doujima strides out of STN-J with an extremely serious look, and as Nagira and Robin research, the pasty-white Hunter stands on the streets of Tokyo. Nagira discovers that Toudou was a assistant researcher at the University, and left because he was poached by some European company - FZ Genetics. FZ Genetics was a pharmaceutical company with rumored ties to SOLOMON. The hunter is Willem Hasselbyke, age 42 - a Dutch Hunter. (Sounds like some kind of kinky toy...) Zaizen orders his minions to do more rearch. The Hunter can smell the recent death of the other Hunter, Hornely. Nagira knocks at the old lady's door, giving her some fast story about being one of Toudou's ex-assistants, blah blah blah, but the old lady cuts through the crap and tells "Nagira-san" to come in. (Amon must have told her that Nagira would come.) Robin takes off her biking shades and the old lady seems surprised to see her. She escorts the two into Toudou' old room and tells them to look around. The room only seems to have scientific crap in it, but they locate a diary about Toudou's European research and a picture. The picture has Toudou with a young woman who looks like Robin with a bigger forehead and undone hair. Nagira guesses that Robin's resemblance to that woman must explain why the old woman was surprised, but Robin is in a huge hurry to leave all of a sudden. ("Must...escape...past...immediately! Can...not...wait!") Nagira grabs up the diary and runs after her. Doujima walks into headquarters and gives Michael some more junk food. She casually asks Michael if he's ever heard of SOLOMON's genetic research team and leaves. Michael stares after her and dutifully begins hax0ring for information about the team. FACTORY has located the Hunter, standing at the same spot he was standing at twelve hours ago. The Hunter comments that his prey is still distant, but then a FACTORY van comes out of the darkness. This Hunter seems to have earth powers, so he forms an earth shield when the FACTORY goons go after him. He attacks, but their Orbo and Orbo bombs make short work of the Hunter. As they drive off, one of the goons starts clawing at his face and acting violently, causing the others to knock him out. Zaizen, upon hearing about this, says that they can't get slowed down by Orbo's side-effects. Doujima, walking home, sees the FACTORY van drive by, and starts running around, looking for evidence of the raid. Nagira and Robin read Toudou's journal, and Nagira notices that the symbol pi is repeated often in the notes - analysis of Pi genome, unlocking the way to control the abilities, and so on. The Pi Genome thing seems to be the core of Toudou's research about genetics and Witches, and how to control Witch abilities. Robin suddenly realizes that this has something to do with Orbo, and asks Nagira if there's anything about a priest named Juliano in the diary. Nagira says not, and he leaves for the night. Robin turns off the light and looks at herself in the mirror. She thinks of the picture, and wonders why Father Juliano is in the background of the picture. Now, how exactly her eagle-eyes picked that up in a single glance at the picture is quite beyond me, but... Nagira runs home in the rain, and is stopped by Amon in the street. Nagira says that Amon purposely laid a trail for him to follow, and asks him what he wants. Amon says he's going to Hunt Robin. Nagira asks him what the hell for, and Amon says that Robin's a dangerous Witch. Nagira yells at him for following SOLOMON's arbitrary interpretation of the word Witch, and asks Amon if he's still tortured by the memories of his mother. (Ah, I KNEW something like that was coming. There are no naturally sullen people; there is ALWAYS a tragic past or three.) Amon says that it's not that, Nagira must have seen Robin's powers. Nagira says he doesn't care, Robin hasn't changed at all, and you can't just judge people based on their past, you have to trust their hearts. And Amon must have trusted Robin's heart when he gave her over to Nagira's care. Amon just looks shifty-eyed. Nagira swears to protect Robin, and gets coshed over the head from behind before he can finish his sentence. "Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the coven sank in the dark. Reunion. Hatred for blood. A dead-end alley. The forbidden encounter restarts a stalled spinning wheel." [previous] [next] |