Darker than Black: SSA Ch. 0

"The night sky full of cries,
Hearts filled with lies,
The contract, is it worth the price?
A soul pledged to the darkness
Now I've lost it, I know I can kill
The truth exists beyond the Gate!"
~"Howling" by Abingdon Boys School


Chapter 0: A New Dawn Brings New Beginnings

In the Land of the Rising Sun, the sun was indeed rising.

It rose over the ocean, its light slowly encroaching on the waters of Tokyo Bay, until it reached the harbor and began to reflect off of warehouses and buildings on the waterside. The glittering reflections began to grow in number as the rays of the sun began traversing further and further across the city, bringing light to the gathered structures that marked the capital of an island nation.

Until it hit a wall.

The wall, rising almost unexpectedly from the buildings gathered around it, would have been unremarkable in normal circumstances. It was made from concrete and steel, just like any other barricade. However, this wall towered almost three times the height of the tallest skyscraper in nearby Tokyo, and it inscribed a circle several miles wide over a point that, over ten years ago, had been just another metropolitan area. Now, the wall stood, looming over the city and blocking the now abandoned sector from the outside world.

The residents of Tokyo had long since grown used to the monolithic structure, and they went about their daily business without so much as a second glance at it. No one thought about it. No one tried to approach it. After all, it wasn't something that concerned normal people, and those who asked too many questions about it, or got to close to it, were often silenced. Besides, the wall was a good thing, because it kept whatever was on the other side from escaping to the outside. No one knew exactly what went on within the barrier, except for government leaders, intelligence agencies, and the few physicists that were talented and lucky enough to be recruited into PANDORA, the multinational research agency that studied the area behind the wall. All the average citizen knew was the name of that particular area; a name that would have discouraged further investigation, even had it not been for the military forces that guarded the wall against prying eyes with lethal force.

They called it "Hell's Gate".

*****

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

In an upscale apartment, some 20 miles from the Hell's Gate wall, a hand shot out from underneath a blanket and landed forcefully on an alarm clock. The offending device silenced, the hand retracted to its owner as she sat up in bed, not quite recovered from her rude awakening.

Misaki Kirihara glanced at the outside window, turned to the clock, and mentally swore. It's too damn early, she thought, and briefly wondered why she had set her clock to that particular time. Normally she didn't go into work until later, unless there was an emergency call; and as the Section Chief of Public Security Section 4, there were a lot of those. But the alarm had been on her clock, not her cellphone, meaning that there weren't any major problems cropping up at work. So why this early?

Then she remembered. That's right, I start THAT today. Throwing another dirty look at her clock, Misaki stretched and climbed out of bed, making a beeline for her morning shower. As she passed her desk, she stopped briefly to re-read the letter that she had received just the other day:


Starlight Academy Office of the Headmaster
7734 E Abingdon St
Sendai Prefecture, Tokyo

Dear Kirihara-san,

We have reviewed your application and resume and are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the position of Criminal Justice teacher at Starlight Academy. All new faculty must attend an orientation session the week prior to classes. Please be at the campus auditorium no later than 7am.

Regards,
Genbu Sorahoshi
Headmaster

With a sigh that in no uncertain terms expressed her annoyance with her situation, Misaki tore her eyes away from the letter and stepped into the bathroom to prepare for the day.

*****

"An undercover operation?"

Misaki stood at attention, facing the desk of her immediate superior,  Yoshimistu Horai, Chief of the Public Security Bureau.

"Precisely, Section Chief Kirihara. We're needing someone to infiltrate a certain organization. Given the circumstances, we believe you're the best person for the job."

"Sir, with all due respect," Misaki started tentatively, then as Chief Horai showed no signs of objecting, continued, "I don't see exactly why I am personally needed for this. I'm sure there are other officers that can take the position, and while I would normally gladly accept such an operation, I can't just drop everything and leave Section 4 on some undercover mission. We've been swamped with work all week. Can you believe we've had three confirmed sightings of Messier code BK201 and not one shred of evidence as to what he was doing, let alone his true identity? He's rampaging around Tokyo like a Godzilla movie and we have nothing to show for it!" She stopped as she realized she had been raising her voice, and immediately bowed her head in apology. "Please forgive my outburst, sir. I was just-"

"Frustrated and obsessed with finding BK201. I know," said Horai in a none-too-gentle voice, and Misaki flushed with embarrassment. "That's why I'm giving you this assignment. You need a break, a chance to leave BK201 for now and concentrate on other contractors that need dealing with. There are others, you know, and yet you've focused all of your time and resources tracking down the one. Take, for example, that girl from the last case. She could have gone to another universe for all we know of her whereabouts."

Misaki cringed. That had not been a good day. She had been interrupted at the pool by a frantic call from her subordinate, Saito, about an explosion at a construction site. Apparently, a young girl who had shown no contractor abilities until that point suddenly evolved into a full-fledged Moratorium with fire abilities, and had caused the blast. The MP's that had been sent in to quarantine her had been found dead, apparently at the hands of another contractor. They managed to track the girl and the contractor to an abandoned warehouse; however, before they could reach it, both her star and BK201 had activated, and the star belonging to the other contractor had fallen. They arrived to find him dead along with the corpse of the girl's father and the burnt body of another man, but BK201 and the girl had disappeared. Not dead - otherwise their stars would have fallen - but definitely not anywhere where Misaki could find them.

"Sir," Misaki began, "considering I decide to take this assignment, what exactly would I be doing?"

Chief Hotai glanced at the door, which was locked, and the windows, which were shaded. Misaki had seen that particular gesture before, and usually it meant that whatever was said next was most likely secret information.

"Section Chief Kirihara, what I'm about to tell you is classified..."

No surprises there, thought Misaki, but she nodded.

"The objective you are infiltrating is a school. A well known prep school, actually, called 'Starlight Academy'. They have quite a reputation for teaching gifted and talented students, and they've been around for a good twenty years."

"However, recent activities have brought them to our attention. About three years ago, a man named Genbu Sorahoshi became the headmaster. He made some major changes in the faculty and staff, but the change that worries us the most is a program he set up for, and I quote, 'gifted' students."

"Gifted students, sir?" Misaki asked, although she already knew where the conversation was headed.

"Yes. It's not uncommon for schools such as Starlight Academy to offer scholarships to exceptionally talented students. However, the nature of this scholarship program doesn't sit right. It advertises for students with 'exceptional abilities'. Those who join under these scholarships are required to take special classes, which from the information we've gleaned, are held in secret during the night. What's more, the students themselves are set apart from their classmates, the ones who came through other means." He tapped a finger on the case file in front of him. "We believe that Mr. Sorahoshi is trying to recruit children and teenagers who have just awakened to contractor abilities, and is using this 'Starlight Academy' as a front to train them in the use of these abilities, to become assassins, spies, and the like." He rubbed his temples in a rare sign of frustration before continuing. "But therein lies the problem. We believe, we don't know. The Public Security Bureau may be able to bend rights here and there to keep the existence of contractors secret, but even we can't just storm the place without some kind of hard evidence. And that, Section Chief Kirihara, is where you come in."

"So, you want me to infiltrate the school and report back on the existence of a contractor training program there?" Misaki asked.

"In a nutshell." Chief Hotai passed her the case file.

"Sir, might I ask how exactly you plan for me to infiltrate the school? Even if Saito says I look young, there's no way I'd pass for a student there."

Hotai laughed. "Oh, there's no need to worry about that. The academy recently had an open position for a teacher. We rigged your application, and it sailed through their screening process."

"WHAT?!" Misaki blurted. "A teacher? I'm not exactly the kind of person you'd expect to actually deal with kids all day! Not that I don't like them, but still-"

"You shouldn't have a problem. You'll be teaching Introduction to Criminal Justice; which, as a police officer, you should know plenty about. Just teach what you know, dress like you usually do, and you'll be fine."

"Sir... are you absolutely sure this is not a joke?"

Hotai's face turned serious. "I'm afraid not. At any rate, we'll pass along more information to you as it becomes available. You'll also be receiving a letter from the Academy shortly regarding your employment. We've also arranged for someone to temporarily handle affairs for you as Section 4 Chief while you're on assignment. I might suggest taking advantage of that fact to enjoy some time off before your mission begins. I wish you the best of luck, Section Chief Kirihara. You're dismissed."

"Sir." Misaki bowed and turned to leave the room, feeling quite apprehensive. She was not a people person, and that only got worse the younger said people were. She could handle being undercover, that wasn't a problem. But, as she closed the door to the office behind her, she thought that she would rather face BK201 in a fight to the death before taking a job as a teacher.

*****

A blue Porsche wound its way through the city of Tokyo, headed for the Sendai prefecture. With the onboard GPS pointing the way to the Starlight Academy campus, Misaki's mind was relatively free to dwell on past events.

The world was in a sorry state, all because of the incident that had occurred ten years ago, when the sky had vanished. The stars and constellations that mankind had known for millenia, even the moon, were gone, replaced instead by the "false sky" that had appeared with the two Gates, Heaven and Hell, on opposite sides of the planet. After the incident, the two warped areas of space-time, one in Tokyo and the other in South America, had been walled off and placed in control of the Physical Alteration Natural Deconstruction Organized Research Agency, or PANDORA, which had been formed by the United Nations in response to the crisis. At first, it seemed life would be relatively normal living under the false sky. But that was before the contractors and dolls, before the very nature of humanity changed.

Contractors were humans with special abilities, who worked in the shadowy areas of the world, in everything from espionage to criminal  activity. They were named because every time they used their power, they were compelled to perform a specific action as reparation, which was referred by contractors and their normal counterparts as a "price". In addition, each star that appeared in the false sky was connected to an individual contractor; as such, contractors were often identified by the Messier code of their star. The stars gave valuable information as to the actions of the contractors; they would shine brighter than usual when the contractor was using their power, and if the star left its place in the sky and fell below the horizon,  it meant that the contractor had taken their last breath. It was often said that contractors were soulless and inhuman, because they never showed emotion and relied solely on logic and reason, doing only what benefited themselves without regard for others in this fashion. They would do anything: lie, cheat, steal, even murder, all in the name of self-preservation without so much as a trace of regret or sympathy for their victims. The average person wouldn't know of them; anyone who was discovered having knowledge of the existence of contractors who wasn't otherwise authorized were forced to have their memories erased using Gate-based technology. However, government officials, mafia leaders, and other important people knew the value of contractors. They made the perfect covert agents, and as such, it was necessary for any post-Gate government to have a means of dealing with them, both as allies and enemies.

In Japan, that means was Public Security Bureau Section 4, which was headed by Misaki herself. Practically any crime or national security threat involving contractors fell under the jurisdiction of Section 4. It was dangerous work, often involving tangling with the intelligence agencies and black-ops forces of other nations: in this day and age, it was considered normal for every country in the world to have spies and agents, including some contractors, in every other country and vice versa, regardless of their alliance status. At first glance, one might not expect the bespectacled, conservatively - dressed woman of 27 to be much of a threat. However, both Misaki's subordinates and her superiors had long since realized that behind her calm facade, there was a will of steel that refused to be bent. As such, she was well-respected among the metropolitan police forces despite her youth and gender.

But still...

For the past two years, Misaki had been stumped on the case of Messier code BK201, or as he was sometimes called, the "Black Reaper". Not much was known about him. Whenever he appeared as a contractor, he did so wearing a mask and coat that shielded his face and figure. He was particularly dangerous because his ability to generate and manipulate electricity came with no apparent price. It was said that it was possible for certain contractors to pay off their contract "in full"; allowing them to use their powers freely without the need for reparation. How this was done was a mystery, and before BK201 Kirihara had never encountered a contractor who had done so. If BK201 paid any price for his power, it wasn't something that was overtly noticeable. In addition, he was skilled at using knives and grapple wires, and the few times that Misaki had seen him in person, he was usually in the  process of escaping on one such wire, like a perverted version of Spider-Man. He had evaded the best of Section 4 for well over a year, and Misaki had declared his capture a top priority.

With a start, Misaki realized she had almost driven by the entrance to Starlight Academy while she had been lost in thought. She slammed on the brakes, bringing the Porsche to a skidding stop in a rare display of instinctive driving skill. After glancing around to get her bearings, she drove to the gate, where a single security guard stood in a small kiosk. Misaki rolled down the window to speak with him.

"Misaki Kirihara. I'm here for the teacher's orientation."

"I'll need to see some ID, please," the guard said. He was somewhat put out by the car, which was obviously expensive, and by Misaki's earlier sudden stop, the noise of which had jerked him from a doze and nearly spilled his coffee. He took the card from her and scrutinized it momentarily, then handed it back.

"Kirihara-san, we've been expecting you. Please proceed."

"Thank you." Misaki drove forward, the gate closing behind her. She scanned around for a parking spot in the small lot. As her gaze passed by a row of bushes by the wall, there was a brief movement and a flash of black. She immediately flipped back to the spot. She could have sworn that, for a fraction of a second, she had seen a long black coat disappearing behind the hedge. However, after a minute without any further movement, she shook herself mentally.

Stop being so paranoid, she told herself. Things were going to be hectic enough on this assignment without BK201 getting involved.

Having finally chose a space, she turned off the engine and stepped out, pausing to grab her briefcase. The Starlight Academy campus was massive. It was a mixed school that offered dormitories for students, while still allowing nearby residents to come during the day and return home. A sign nearby pointed in the direction of the auditorium. Misaki double-checked the letter she had read earlier, then tucked it into a front pocket and headed inside.

Meanwhile, on the roof, a black cat watched her with a curious expression on its face. As the door shut behind her, it lifted a leg to scratch its ear. Then it looked down at the campus below.

"Well, this should be interesting," it spoke in a human voice, before jumping down to the grass below.

A New Dawn Brings New Beginnings.... END.