Silence In Numbers: File One (24 page)

Hitomi smiled gratefully as she folded her hands in her lap. “I don’t think I could live like that; usually I keep things pretty neat and clean, if not orderly.”

“Extenuating circumstances, I’m sure.” Sano noted that she seemed very tired, though he knew she hadn’t been busy at her job seeing as it had been closed for a week.

“Yes, but I’d rather not discuss that. How about we move onto your business?”

“Right; well, I’m sorry to come in the evening. Half past eight is not the time I’d prefer to bother people, but this is a special case that had to be taken care of quickly.”

Hitomi frowned. “I’m sorry?”

Sano sat back, wishing he had Katsumi’s ability to seem so totally in control and knowledgeable. “There was a break-in at a store very early this morning; the security camera caught some interesting footage.”

Hitomi paled, seeming to shrink a bit. “Oh no… Oh no, I thought I… Look, I have an explanation…”

Sano raised an eyebrow, showing a bit of curiosity without revealing any other emotion or knowledge; in reality, he was simply mimicking Katsumi and hoping it worked, which it seemed to. “Do you?” he said in what he believed to be his best impression of his boss. This obviously wasn’t lost on the others as he could hear Reno’s snickering in his ear, which made him have to fight to prevent a smirk.

“Yes, but it’s… You’re going to think I’m crazy…”

“Crazy is better than criminal. Continue, please; I am truly interested to hear your story.”

Sano, if you don’t stop doing that crappy impression of me, I’m going to hurt you.

Captain Sama, how dare you! It is a fabulous impression.

Fine. Here’s my impression of you: I’m Sano! I don’t know anything! Even though I’m thirty-three I’m still a child without even a grasp on the concept of maturity!

Okay, see, that was a crappy impression.

I also don’t know what a good impression is! And I’m stupid!

Now you’re just being hurtful, boss. And I’m not stupid! I’m really good at math!

What’s a math? Two plus two is five! I’m gonna go play in the street!

I’m done talking to you!

“Um… Mr. Lionel?”

Sano blinked, looking up. “Huh?”

Hitomi looked confused. “You sort of blanked out for a second there…”

“Hahaha, nothing to be alarmed about, only thinking about something!” Sano laughed, waving it off.

“Oh… Okay.”

“Please, go on with your story.”

“Right… Well, you see… There’s this, um… Person…”

“A person.”

“Yes, a person… He threatened me to make me steal that knife, and wanted me to do worse…”

“So why didn’t you call the police?”

“Well, I figured they’d think I’m crazy…”

“None of this sounds crazy so far. Where is this ‘person’ right now?”

“Well he might be coming back soon, but…” Hitomi looked at Sano. “You shouldn’t be here when he gets here.”

“Oh, I plan to be. It’s not a problem.”

“You can’t! You won’t be able to hurt him, he’s… I mean, he’s…” Hitomi swallowed. If she was hauled in to a psych ward, at least she wouldn’t be used by the thing anymore. “He’s a… ghost.”

Sano opened his phone, doing something on the screen. “I know.”

Hitomi blinked. “You…” She blinked again. “You… You know?”

“Yep. It’s kinda why I’m here. Tell me something, can you tell me which of these he looks more like?” He held the phone out to her, which showed three pictures; one of a white spirit in a humanoid form, one of what seemed to be a vortex of static, and one that was a blue cloud of flame and burning coal eyes just like the one that had recently terrorized her. She had, though, seen all three examples before.

“These… These look like real pictures…”

“Yeah, they are.” Sano leaned forward to look at the phone as well. “I mean, it might not be one of these, but we’re betting it’s one of these, so what do you say?”

Hitomi pointed to the one on the far right. “It’s… That one…”

Sano blinked. “It’s that one? You’re sure? Like, sure sure?”

Hitomi nodded. “Y-yes… Why?”

“Oh… Shit. Um… That’s not a ghost.”

Hitomi blinked in confusion. “It’s not? But it’s…”

“That’s not a ghost.” He stood up, suddenly a lot more alert. “That’s a demon.”

“A demon?! From the stories?!”

“The stories came after the demons, not the other way around.” Sano lifted a hand to his ear. “Guys, we got a problem. It’s a Shade.”

“THAT… WOULD BE CORRECT.”

Sano grimaced at the voice behind him, turning around in time to see the wave that blew him off his feet and into the wall. Hitomi let out a cry and ran towards him but a claw of blue flame materialized, grabbing her wrist. “YOU ARE NOT RELEASED FROM MY SERVICE.”

Kurasano drew his pistol as he stood. “How’s this for a release form?” He fired several times and the demon let out a shriek, allowing Hitomi to run from it to Sano, curious as she was that the thing had actually been hurt by the shots. It was only hurt, though, and its eyes burned with rage as its flames grew higher.

Suddenly the door was kicked in and Katsumi stepped through. “Sano, that line was terrible.”

As she lifted her pistol Rufus stepped in beside her, lifting his as well. “Honestly, you need to work on your one-liners. Amateur at best.”

“Fuck you. How’s that one?”

“Better.”

“MORTALS HAVE NO PLACE INTRUDING UPON MY PROPERTY,” the demon bellowed as its light filled the room.

Katsumi grimaced as she and Rufus began to fire. “Sano, get the girl to the car, now!”

Sano fired a few more shots as he pushed Hitomi in front of him. “Gonna have to trust us; get outside!”

It wasn’t difficult to trust people who were in the process of saving you from a demon, so Hitomi ran as she was told, getting out of the apartment as the bellowing roars and sounds of gunshots followed. Sano pointed to a large black car and she got in the back seat, followed closely by Sano.

In the front seat Reno looked back at them, as he already had the car running and ready to go. “What’s going on in there?! It sounds like a legion of tigers with machine guns!”

“Start driving; we don’t have the gear to take this thing on.”

“On it.”

“But what about the others?!” Hitomi interrupted, looking frantically out the back window. She was answered by two thuds on the top of the car as it peeled out, zooming onto the road.

The demon appeared in the parking lot below, following them with a vengeance. Katsumi leaned her head down to one of the windows, yelling above the sounds. “Keep driving, Reno! I’ve got Law moving to intercept at the bridge!”

She went back up and Hitomi could hear both her and the other man firing from the roof, somehow holding on as the car swerved with deadly speed around every obstacle. She really had little idea what was going on; first of all, every one of these people seemed to be able to see the ghost… demon… as well as she could, even though nobody else had before.

Secondly, even though she was terrified, they all seemed to know what they were doing, which at least made her feel better. She’d been totally lost before, with no idea what to do, but suddenly she was surrounded by people who not only believed her, but seemed to have the will and ability to help her. “Relieved” didn’t cut it.

Up ahead of the car, on a bridge it was currently speeding towards the tunnel of, Law sat perched on the edge with an absolutely massive weapon that looked more like a rocket launcher than anything. He had it aimed at a certain spot and was just waiting for the car to pass through it. “Come on…” A second before it did, he pulled the trigger, and the weapon gave a high-pitched whine as it charged up before firing a thick white beam that struck the Shade head on. “Bet that hurt.”

It caused no physical damage to the surroundings, but the demon gave an unearthly scream and vanished from sight. The car finally slowed down to a normal speed as two doors opened and Katsumi climbed into the front, Rufus into the back beside Hitomi. The girl was watching behind them, looking from the empty street to the people with her. “You… killed it?”

“No,” Rufus answered, smoothing his wind-ruffled hair back. “It was banished, but it can’t be killed on this plane. All we did was delay it for a bit.”

“Oh…” Hitomi looked between the other passengers. “I just… Who are you people?”

“We… are vengeance,” Reno said in a super-serious tone. “We are the night.”

“You are Batman?” Hitomi said with a smirk.

Reno grinned. “I like this girl.”

“Seriously,” Katsumi said as she turned in her seat to meet the other woman’s gaze, “The answer to that is top secret. Don’t worry, we’re going to answer it for you,” she continued with a smile, “but you’ll have to keep it quiet. You’re also going to need to stay with us, for a short time.”

“You think it will come back,” Hitomi stated.

“It will,” Sano nodded, drawing her attention to him. “If you’re with us it can’t do anything about it, though. And then we’ll get a chance to do something about him.”

Hitomi sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. “This is all so… strange. Sudden. Fast.”

“That’s us,” Sano smirked.

“I’m Fast,” Reno added. “Rufus is Sudden.” He gestured to the seat behind his in which Sano sat. “He’s Strange.”

Hitomi looked at Katsumi. “So what’s she?”

“Someone I try not to call names,” Reno muttered, earning a smirk from Katsumi.

Minutes later they were back at HQ, driving the car into a large garage. The team dispersed, as not all were needed now; Katsumi and Kurasano led Hitomi into a comfortable room where M met them with a smile. “Ah, Miss Saizen, I’m glad you could visit.”

“Um… Yes, well, I really only had two choices, and the first was probably dying.”

M chuckled. “Of course. Either way, you are in safe company now. I am M.”

Hitomi blinked. “Just M?”

He gave a knowing smile. “Just M. I am the Director of this division.” He pointed to Sano, who had taken a seat in a chair as he let the adrenaline wear off. “That is Kurasano Lionel, First Lieutenant of the division and second-in-command here.”

Sano waved and gave a grin. “She knows my name already. Just Sano is fine.”

Hitomi smiled. “Yes, the cool-sounding name,” she said, eliciting a laugh from him.

“If you say so,” M interjected, earning a glare from Sano, to which he of course responded with a smile. M then pointed to Katsumi, who was leaning against a counter with her legs crossed as she lit a cigarette. “And the woman to your right is Katsumi Samakura, Captain and leader of the team.”

Hitomi had already gathered that the woman was the leader thanks to the banter in the car. She smiled politely and gave an uneasy wave. “Pleased, um, Captain.”

Katsumi gave a friendly smile. “I appreciate the respect, but you can call me Katsumi. There’s no point in adding stress to your situation.”

Hitomi smiled more easily then, nodding. “Thank you. I’m not very good with strict, rigid rules.”

Sano snickered. “Neither is Katsumi.”

The older woman reacted with an amused smile, replacing the cigarette in her lips. “Maybe.”

“Miss Saizen,” M interrupted, drawing the younger woman’s attention back to him. “We’re Aegis Corp, as you no doubt already know. We happen to be the SIN Division.”

Hitomi tilted her head. “I’ve never heard of that one. But then, I’m not very well-versed on your corporation’s divisions.”

“You wouldn’t know it even if you were,” Katsumi replied as she let out a breath of smoke, fixing the woman with a more serious gaze. “SIN stands for ‘Supernatural Invasion Null’. Basically, we’re the response to paranormal-based threats.”

“Like… Ghosts and demons.”

“And vampires, and other supernatural entities.”

“I…” Hitomi blinked. “I didn’t know those existed.”

“You knew,” M replied with a smile. “But you passed off ghosts, vampires and evil spirits like urban legends and myths.”

“And demons have a natural defense,” Katsumi added. “The thinking ones have selective invisibility, meaning only those they want to see them can see them. And the unthinking ones, the monsters that do things like randomly attack cities, humans will forget any details about them soon after they’re out of sight. Considering they don’t appear on any civilian-available manner of recording, this means everyone forgets whatever they saw and enables us to pass off their attacks as a more mundane event in smaller situations, or a terrorist attack in larger ones.”

“But if humans forget about them, how does your team fight them?”

Katsumi tapped her head. “They’re all immune to that, thanks to a special cybernetic memory chip. I am for different reasons.”

Hitomi took a seat, trying to understand it all. “So all sorts of things exist that everyone thinks are just stories? Why don’t you just tell the public about it so everyone is warned?”

“People, as a general whole, are very unreliable,” M explained. “The world’s governments have always believed- and rightly so- that certain things should be kept from the public.”