FireCacodemon: Darker Than Black belongs to Tensai Okamura.

Chapter 2

"By the way you're eating, work has been that stressful, huh?" Li asked Misaki as he watched her shovel down more food than normal. It was amazing how much he had picked up from watching Misaki since they became strange friends. He could tell if Misaki was stressed from work or in a good mood depending on how she ate the food presented to the two of them by the chefs. If she shovelled down the food, then the work was stressful. If she ate like a 'normal' person, then work wasn't so stressful. "Did you catch any bad guys?" Misaki swallowed a mouthful of meat before she let out a happy sigh.

"Yes, we caught some bad guys, some real nasty ones," Misaki admitted as she watched Li use the chopsticks to pick up some rice and put it in his mouth.

"It's good to hear that you're keeping Tokyo save at night."

"How did your day go?"

"It was pretty mediocre. Nowhere near as exciting as your day probably was." Misaki let out a small chuckle from that. Li looked from the food at her slightly confused. His day wasn't exciting or thrilling unlike Misaki's job was. Her job was all about protecting the people in Tokyo from criminals and bad guys while Li's job was working as a shop assistant. Selling products, stock taking or restocking the shelves with merchandise for other customers to come in and buy. Rarely they had any thieves which was any possible highlight of the day. One satisfying element of the job was that he met a lot of faces and had made some 'friends' while working there. He had noticed a few times that a pink-haired young lady came into the shop and occasionally glanced at him. He knew she was doing it but she wasn't hurting anyone so ignored it. He was just glad that he worked as a general store instead of a specific shop.

"I don't know about that, where you work you can probably hear the gossip better than I could."

"And do you know how much of that doesn't mean anything to me? Don't believe all the rumours you hear unless there's solid proof to back it up." Li reached down to his food and picked up some meat.

"That's true." She paused for a minute as she watched Li chew on the meat in his mouth. "There have been times that rumours have been true without proof."

"Not all are fake."

Darker Than Black - The Gate's Consciousness – Chapter 2

"Damn, looks like we'll have to re-draw the maps once more…This gate just never stops changing…" Sergei sighed as he leant back in his chair. They had sent another drone into Hell's Gate to make sure that the maps were all correct. It was something that they did every week. Recreate maps because Hell's Gate seemed to change every so often. Sergei gently ran his hand on his beard as he looked at the feed coming from the drone. "Please let Doctor Schroeder that the gate had changed once more, would you?" Another researcher nodded and quickly left the room to contact Robert about information. "This is getting ridiculous…"

"Did…something just move…?" Another researcher hesitated to ask. Sergei looked behind him at the stunned looking researcher before he looked back at the screen.

"It's possible that the gate is playing tricks on you."

"There! There is was again!" The researcher was adamant that they had seen something. Sergei continued to watch the screen before sound was heard behind the drone.

"What?" A mutter of confusion echoed around the room as something grabbed hold of the drone.

"Get the drone back, now!" Sergei barked an order as the team started to try and bring the drone back to PANDORA.

"You're not from here," a monotone voice came through the speakers. Everyone was silent in the room as the drone was 'captured' by an entity they couldn't see. They weren't sure what had captured the drone, but it spoke Japanese, rather fluently too. "You keep sending toys into the gate…why?" It wasn't long before the drone started to shake, and tiny vines started to appear out of the corners of the drone's vision, slowly stretching to the other side, covering the lens. A black shadowy figure walked in front of the drone and crouched down. "What you seek isn't here." The drone stopped responding, visuals cut out and no sound came through. The drone was offline.

"Sir…what do you think that was?"

"I can only guess…but I believe that's part of what we're looking for…"

Darker Than Black – The Gate's Consciousness – Chapter 2

A jingle of a bell echoed down an empty alleyway. Padded paws lightly echoed along with the jingle. Dark purple eyes scanned the surrounding area before the pair of eyes landed on his companion. A young lady with long pale green hair and amber eyes. She wore a pink bodysuit with white fur around the cuffs and around the neck. A pair of white boots covered her feet and protected them from the rough ground that was possible covered in who knows what. The cat walked slowly towards her.

"Hello, kitty," the young woman smiled down at the cat.

"I'd still prefer it if you called me Mao, not just kitty," a male's voice came out from the cat's mouth. Mao sat down in front of her and looked up at her. She was too tall in his opinion, but he never voiced it.

"Did you find anything out?" Amber asked her feline companion after a moment of silence.

"Tapping into PANDORA's files, no additional information has been stored so…it's possible they don't know where it is either. Even if there was, wouldn't you have been able to see it in the future?" Mao watched as her mood seemed to drop slightly. "Something wrong?" Amber shook her head.

"No, I'm just not going to use my power for a little reason like that when my payment is de-aging."

"Right, well, what's the plan now?"

"We sit back and wait for things to play out…There's nothing we can do yet…"

"Do you really think it's possible for Heaven's Gate to still be standing…we just can't access it?" Mao asked Amber. She looked up at the sky and smiled.

"Yes, I believe it to be possible."

Darker Than Black – The Gate's Consciousness – Chapter 2

"Thanks for the meal, I really enjoyed it," Li smiled as she brought him back to his home.

"Thanks for the distraction from work, I'm just glad nothing happened that needed my attention," Misaki said as she watched Li take a key out from his pocket and slips it into the lock. Misaki watched as Li gently pushed open the door and turned his attention back onto her.

"Well, guess this is good night?" Li asked her with a smile on his face and a stomach full of food.

"Have a good night Li," Misaki waved as she turns her back on Li and started to head off home. Li watched her leave before he looked up at the star filled sky.

"No contractor active tonight, huh? That's a first."

FireCacodemon: FadedDiamondDust - Misaki doesn't know much but he has told her about his sister in the past.