Darker Than Black: Paradox Key

Chapter One: Ironic Life

Disclaimer: I do not own the Darker than Black anime. All rights belong to Bones, Tensai Okamura, and Funimation.

xxx

Misaki stood with a pen in her right hand and a writing pad in her left, taking a drunken man's order while she worked undercover and thought about the past two years. It was ironic how her life had turned around working with Gorou Kobayashi and Mina Hazuki. Mostly with Hazuki since she had been teaching her martial arts: if you could call it teaching.

Misaki's mind drifted back in time, as she reminisced on spending most of it blocking and dodging attacks due to the fact that Hazuki would not stop grabbing and kissing her. It wasn't something she wanted to keep on experiencing.

As she progressed, and Hazuki became frustrated with her rejection, Hazuki dropped her handicap and attacked Misaki vigorously to where Misaki struggled.

However, due to her continuously kissing her, Misaki found her footing and began holding her own. One time, Misaki had pinned her down to the ground, but Hazuki had countered with another kiss. Misaki thought that she had gotten use to it since she knew it was coming, but somehow her mind drifted off to where she closed her eyes and imagined kissing Li.

She gave into it passionately, running her hands through silky hair, and pressing her body hard against the one under her. She wanted to show who was in charge, wanted to prove she could be just as dangerous.

Suddenly, she had remembered where she was and realized whom she was kissing. She tried to pull away, but Hazuki held onto her tightly, and turned her over to pin her down. Hazuki glared down into Misaki's eyes to see that she was thinking of him.

"Give it up," Hazuki said. "I can please you like he could never. I could show you things that you could never imagine. Besides, you two are finished anyways."

Hazuki pressed her lips to Misaki, trying to free her mind, and have Misaki see only her. Misaki fought with Hazuki's hold, but she was too strong. She cursed herself for being lured into this predicament.

To her relief, two men entered the training room to stare and watch, which distracted Hazuki, and allowed Misaki to throw her off her. Hazuki rolled to her feet, walked over to the wall, and grabbed a wooden sword to charge after the two men for interrupting her special moment.

How she missed her old life at Section Four.

She chuckled at the thought.

She was no longer Section Chief Kirihara Misaki, nor Yayai Ichinose. Gorou Kobayashi had giving her another name since she was now working with him in a new underground syndicate in America. However, their focus wasn't on the destruction of Contractors, but to prevent governments from eliminating them so that one day they could live amongst humans.

It was an idea Misaki was always passionate about, but she was surprised that Goro had taken up the cause for her. Although, she believed it was more on the lines to keep the Americans from finding a way to harness Contractor powers.

A new name wasn't the only thing that had changed.

Gorou had always made Misaki go under cover with Hazuki as her backup. What was worse was the getup she had to wear. Even today, as she waited on tables, she had found herself dressed in short shorts that revealed a bit too much of her butt cheeks, and a white tight t-shirt that showed way too much cleavage for her liking.

Hazuki wanted to be undercover with her, saying it was too dangerous, but Misaki knew it was for other reasons.

The man she was waiting on now wasn't any better, perhaps ten times more troublesome than Hazuki. He was drunk, ugly, and smelt of tobacco, and he wouldn't stop drooling at her chest.

She stood waiting for the drunken man sitting in front of her to order another drink. To her luck, he smacked her bottom when she had reached his table. She had the urge to kick him in the balls, but to her dismay, the owner of the bar had told her she would be fired if she didn't allow it.

Exactly what kind of bar was this? At least she was getting tipped largely for it, but it was still disgusting.

"Ah, would you like to order?" Misaki asked, as she tried to keep a smile while gritting her teeth.

"Yes," the man replied. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her on top of his lap. "I order you to be mine. You sexy thing."

He proceeded to rub his hands all over her chest and then went to try to kiss her.

Preferring to be kissed by Hazuki, Misaki couldn't take it anymore. She took her hand, reached between the man's legs and squeezed.

Everyone in the restaurant stopped and gazed over at the table from a high squeal of pain that sounded like a woman singing opera.

Misaki's manager rushed over, as the guy lay on the ground with his hands holding his other head.

"What happened?" he yelled.

"I think he had something too spicy to eat and it came out a little hot," replied Misaki with a straight face.

The manager gave her an angry stare.

"Dishes, now!" he screamed at her. Misaki gave him an angry glance back while cursing under her breath, and then headed for the back room.

She walked through the back door and down a narrow hall. If her contact didn't show up soon, she was going to kick her boss in a sensitive area for harassment. As she turned a corner, she saw two men chatting.

They glanced at her; the one to her left undressing her in his mind, as he smirked with his eyes fixed on her chest.

Great, just what I need, another person to teach a lesson to, she thought. Whatever happened to guys drooling over younger girls?

She pushed that thought aside, as she noticed the man to her right was the person Gorou had said to keep an eye on.

The men had finished up their conversation and headed in opposite directions. The pervert walked by her, and then stopped to slap her butt.

"They sure do hire the best around here," he commented while he smiled. "Though I think you would make a better dancer, because I would give up every last dollar for you."

He squeezed her butt and slapped it one last time before taking off.

Misaki held back the urge to grab the man's arm, fling him over her shoulder and knock him out on the ground. However, she only pleasantly enjoyed the thought, as she secretly followed her suspect through the kitchen area and out the break room.

She caught a glimps of someone that reminded her of Li-kun, and shifted her attention in the direction of one of the chefs. She gazed at a young Asian chef sitting at a table stuffing his face with noodles with short black hair, but he wasn't Li.

Sighing, she turned her attention to her suspect and realized he had disappeared. She ran for the back door, charged through it, and stepped into a dark-narrow alley. The buildings in the vicinity were made out of brick, and were engulfed in a brightly lit city.

She looked to her left, and then to her right, unable to see any signs of him, until she glanced down. The man she had just been chasing was lying in the center of the alley with blood spilling out of his mouth, and cuts across his chest and arms.

Wondering what had happened, she gasped and started to approach the victim. She wished she had her gun, but the owner didn't allow them to carry a purse, and there weren't any good hiding spots under her tight clothes.

Suddenly, a black-gloved hand wrap around her waist to pull her tight against a body, as a knife was pressed firmly against her throat.

There was something too familiar about this, but she didn't believe it was BK-201 this time.

She tried to jab the person in the stomach, but it was as if he was expecting her to do that and blocked her elbow with his hand. Aggravated that it didn't work, she opted for plan B, and stomped her heel hard, hoping to connect with the person's foot, but missed as the attacker quickly moved his foot to the right.

Misaki went to scream, but as she started to, the attacker pressed his gloved-hand against her mouth instead.

Where was Hazuki?

"Another sound from you and you will be joining him on the floor," a male voice replied in English.

Misaki nodded, allowing the man to uncover her mouth.

"Did you kill him?" Misaki asked.

"That's no concern of yours," he replied.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"If you don't do as I say."

"Who are you?"

"And if you keep asking questions, I will."

"What do you want from me?"

"You were meeting a contact here, am I right?"

"What's it to you?"

Misaki could feel the blade being pressed up against her throat again. This man was not playing around and she wondered if she would leave here alive. With any luck, Mao would notice, and arrive to jump on the man and scratch his face to shreds.

"Tsk, Tsk, another question. I can guarantee that you will not be meeting him now."

Misaki braced for the killing blow, but noticed that he was stating that he knew the man on the ground was her contact. Did he somehow get the information she was looking for? It was just paperwork, so maybe he had grabbed it after killing him.

"Don't search the man's body, Kirihara-san," he commented in Japanese. Misaki winced from the comment. "If you touch him, you will die. He has been poisoned."

With the last statement, he let go of her. Misaki quickly turned around to see no one there.

"Li-kun?" she somberly cried out.

Misaki turned around and ran towards the end of the alley to see if she could find him. To her dismay, she had no luck.

Workers exited through the back door to have a smoke, making her split, and have the men and women look at the scene flabbergasted.

Xx

The next day, Misaki walked in a heavy downpour while she headed towards her car from another tiring workday. She was told that someone else would be contacting her with the same information, but he or she hadn't shown up. She was beginning to think that she would never get the information, and she would be stuck at this appalling job forever.

Her mind wasn't in it today. All she could think about was Li again. It had been two years since she had last seen him; two years that she didn't think much of him, or had heard anything about him. She was surprised by the rather harsh treatment he had given her the last time they had met, even though she did deserve it. However, pointing her gun at him and not answering his question was the biggest mistake she could have ever made. It was her opportunity to help him, and she blew it.

She was desperate to find him again. It hasn't been easy, always arriving at the last minute while he left through a portal, took off in a helicopter, or disappeared right in front of her eyes.

Although, she did have her moments with him before he had left for good.

Four years had passed. Could he have forgotten their time together, or was he merely playing around with her?

"Misaki Mizuki?" a voice came from in front of her snapping her out of her thoughts.

She stopped to see a tall and thin man with brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue business suit, standing nearby. While his eyes turned red with his body highlighting in blue, he raised his hand and waved it towards Misaki. She didn't see anything, but felt what were like threaded needles cutting her left and right arms.

"You will tell me where the Paradox Key is," the Contractor demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

The contractor raised his hand, compelling Misaki to take cover behind a car, and realized the metal had no effect as the threaded needles cut through like butter. Misaki quickly dodged to her right before the car exploded.

She felt the best thing to do was to keep moving around, that way he couldn't hit her.

Continuing to dodge his attacks, she ducked behind cars as she occasionally got a few more cuts.

She wished she had her gun, and wondered, again, where Hazuki was.

Believing it was Hazuki, she saw someone in a black suit and holding a sword approaching. Misaki gave out a sigh of relief. However, instead of the person heading towards her attacker, they walked over to her. As the person drew closer, Misaki noticed it was a large man with a long ponytail. He quickly swung the sword down at Misaki, having her roll to her left. She dodged his downward thrusts along with the needle Contractor too.

Cursing in her head, she wondered where her back up was, as she kept running down the street using the cars to avoid the needles. A few pedestrians looked on perplexed, and then got shredded into pieces, or sliced in half. She did well dodging the sword contractor. He was nothing but a big bulk of muscles that didn't know anything concerning kendo, and randomly swung his sword.

She became fatigued from continually rolling, ducking and jumping, and found it difficult to keep her balance by supporting herself against the cars. Her vision became hazy from the loss of blood where she was about to lose consciousness, but just before she did, she saw a wire wrap around the tall contractor. She smiled while landing face forward onto the concrete.

XX

Misaki stood in a dark room only wearing jeans with Li behind her. He came up behind Misaki, wrapped his arms around her bare waist, and drew her back against his chest. She could tell he was shirtless, his muscular chest and abs were hard but smooth.

He moved her hair aside to kiss the nape of her neck and send chills down her body. Taking a hold of his hands, she arched her body into his touch, and held her composure so she could dwell in the moment.

Swinging her around to gaze into her eyes, he kissed her lips and lifted her on his hips so that she could get a better hold on his face. They held their kiss, tasting every ounce of each other, and came up for air for a brief moment.

Li threw her on top of a bed with him pinning her to it, his bare chest against hers, his hips grinding between her legs to make her moan and wish he would pull off her pants.

Unfortunately, he pulled out a knife and held it to her throat.

Misaki woke up startled and breathing heavily from the dream. She was in a darkened room with drapes pulled over windows to block out light.

"Bad dream?" a voice asked.

Misaki, startled from the noise, quickly turned her head to the right to see the man from her dreams. He was dressed in his black attire without his jacket and his split blades strapped to his side.

"How...? How did I...?"

"You were bleeding and soaked entirely from the rain, so I brought you here."

"You brought me here? Why didn't you just take me to a hospital?"

"You aren't exactly working for the police anymore. People are after you."

"I'm not a fugitive!"

"No. But there are many people that want you dead from what you know."

"And what is it that I know?"

"You tell me."

Misaki looked down to think about his question. What was he trying to get at since there wasn't anything she knew that he didn't know already? Was it about where she met up with her boss, or did it concern the whereabouts of Hazuki.

Suddenly, Misaki noticed she was completely nude with a blanket half covering her left side. She quickly pulled up the rest of the blanket over her chest.

"What the hell did you do?" she yelled.

However, the thought of Li touching her sent indescribable desires throughout her body that caused her to blush. Nevertheless, the idea of him taking advantage of her while she was unconscious upset her. She would have rather been awake for the experience.

OMG, What am I thinking!

"Like I said. You were completely soaked and covered in blood."

Misaki narrowed her eyes at him. She then noticed her wounds around her arms and stomach bandaged.

"You treated my wounds?"

"I've had plenty of practice."

"Why?"

"Like I said, people are after you. Including me."

Misaki looked at him shocked. "What?"

"Tell me what you know about the Paradox Key?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play games with me. Tell me."

"What makes you think I know anything?

"Your last contact who tried to kill you. I got it out of him before I killed him."

"How did you even know where to find me?"

"I have my sources."

"Your Doll, Izanami. Is she still alive?"

"Her name is Yin!"

"Is she alive?"

He gave her a deathly glare, indicating he wasn't going to answer her question and he wanted her to answer his.

"I really have no clue. Maybe they just want to get closer to the Syndicate and kill Gorou Kobayashi."

Hei approached her and grabbed her neck.

"I have no further need for you then," he growled, as he tightened his grip around her.

He wasn't the same man she had known four years ago. What had happened to him? Didn't he remember anything he had said to her: like his promise? Perhaps it was all lies and she fell for every second of it.

"Wait," gasped Misaki. "I can find out. Let us work together. I have…"

"I have no intentions of working with you. You are more trouble than you are worth."

"If you would let me finish. It's the logical thing to do if you want to find out where this Key is."

"Teaming up with me means death. I do not work with anyone anymore."

Misaki winced at how he stated death. Did this mean that he had killed his Doll, and he would easily kill her?

"So you do care what happens to me," Misaki smirked, calling his bluff.

"You underestimate me, and it will be your downfall." Hei tightened his grip on her throat. "I will kill you if you don't tell me what I want to know."

"No you won't. You wouldn't have treated my wounds if you wanted to kill me."

"I was just keeping you alive for information. You're lucky I didn't kill you two years…"

"As I recall, you have saved my life three times. The last time we had met, you had every right since I had a gun pointed at you and had joined the organization that had your doll, but you didn't kill me."

"I would have…!"

"Knocked me out with your hilt. I know you. I've known you for far too long. You wouldn't hurt anyone innocent. And you won't hurt me. You never could. Except when you had le..."

"You're not innocent," he yelled, and then slapped her hard across the face, causing her head to slam into the backboard of the bed.

He grabbed her neck again, tightened his grip, and continued to stare at her sinisterly. "And you don't know a thing about me."

Misaki found it hard to breath. Staring back at him hurt by his actions, she wrapped her hands around his, the blanket falling to reveal her exposed chest, as she tried to free herself. She kept telling herself she was strong and wouldn't beg to be released. More to the point, it looked like it was over for her.

Moments later, Misaki's stomach growled.

Misaki embarrassingly smiled as she held her stomach. Hei's eyes widened as he loosened his grip, sighed, and walked over to another door to enter and close it behind him.

"Ughhh! I'm so hungry," said Misaki, sighing and pulling the covers over her chest again.

Moments later, Hei returned wearing a tight graphic white v-neck t-shirt, and tight low-cut jeans.

Misaki couldn't believe how deadly he looked one minute, and how he looked as handsome as a J-Rock star the next. He always was attractive when she knew him as Li, but the cool calm attitude of Hei sent desires throughout her body.

He grabbed a black leather jacket and headed for the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" questioned Misaki. "You plan on just leaving me here? I'll leave and you'll never get your answers."

"I'm hungry, and I don't have enough food for the both of us," he replied with a blank face, and exited.

Misaki couldn't believe he would just leave her. Not to mention, he seemed to think that she would even be thinking about staying in this room as a prisoner.

Quickly sitting up, she cringed from the pain from the wound on her stomach, went into the room he had come from, walked over to a closet, and grabbed a button-up white shirt and a pair of blue jeans. She threw them on, both too big for her figure, and waddled over to the door while holding the pants up with her hands.

What am I doing? she thought to herself, as she turned the knob to the door. I've been chasing this man for years, and now I'm trying to run away from him just because he has me held against my will. No wonder he didn't tie me down.

She enjoyed the idea of sitting down with him again to eat, but her troubled mind could only think of how hard it was going to be for her to have him trust her again.

To be continued….

Xxxxxx

Yeah! Another story from me.

It's not as great as my others are; however, it's an idea I've had in my head since the second season ended.

I'd like to continue it, but I'm wondering how many of you would be interested in me continuing this story.

Updates for this story will be extremely slow.

If you haven't read them yet, I recommend reading my other stories first.

Also, if you are a Hei/Misaki fan, please feel free to visit my profile page to get links to two pieces of artwork and wallpapers.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed.