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FIC: Irrational Numbers [Darker than Black, Amber x Hei]
Title: Irrational Numbers
Author: Omnicat
Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge: Tensai Okamura & co’s Darker than Black: the Black Contractor anime.
Warnings: Temporary character death and gore.
Characters & Relationships: Amber x Hei & mentioned Pai
Summary: “How many times, Amber?” he asks. // 481 words
Author’s Note: Enjoy!
Irrational Numbers
“How many times?” he asks.
Yesterday, Hei was impaled in eight places. The Contractor responsible had some kind of matter compression and decompression power, but beyond ‘shrapnel bombs’ and the sheer number of them, Amber hadn’t bothered with the details. Eight places had been the best she could do while still completing their mission and keeping everyone she needed to alive. It had been a pain to clean out the wounds, but no arteries, bones, or organs had been pierced, and at least two pieces of shrapnel had damaged nothing but skin.
So she’d told him “Stop right there!” and he’d skidded to a halt mid-sprint, and been impaled in eight places.
“Amber,” he prompts. “How many times?”
Last week, he’d thrown his sleeping sister into a waterfall at her prompting. He hadn’t even hesitated; just let Pai slide from his back, took hold of her wrists, spun on his axis, and flung her limp, unresisting body over the edge of the cliff. Pai’s lungs are still irritated by the water she inhaled, but all he’d asked afterward was: “How many tries did this mission take you?”
“Amber.”
“You always hate the answer I give you to these questions, so why do you keep asking them?”
Two days before that, Amber had had to turn back the three hours it had taken them to find Hei floating face down in the stream Pai had electrocuted.
She tapes down the last fresh bandage, slathered heavily in antibiotic cream. This wound is a little too warm to the touch for her liking, so they’ll have to keep a close eye on it. Hopefully they didn’t miss any debris lodged inside.
Last month, he and Pai had both been torn apart by a horde of hijacked animals once, and the whole squad had been ambushed by an inexperienced but overpowered sensory manipulator and slowly, inexpertly slaughtered a few times more. Like pigs. Amber hadn’t thought of the time she had, quite by accident, witnessed the slaughtering of a pig as a child for years even before she became a Contractor, but that day, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.
They’re all being slaughtered like pigs. The Syndicate isn’t even trying to hide it anymore.
“It’s a human thing, I guess,” Hei says, touching the bandage and brushing her fingers in the process. “So?”
Something gives, and Amber presses her face into his bare shoulder, her breath leaving her in a hard and shaking gust. “Too many, Hei.”
She can’t even remember. She lost count a long time ago.
“Amber?” he says hesitantly. She can feel his hands hovering around her shoulders, not touching. “What are you –?”
“I hate having to answer those questions.”
“I thought Contractors weren’t bothered by these kinds of things,” he says quietly.
“Yeah. I’m as surprised as you are.”
Author: Omnicat
Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge: Tensai Okamura & co’s Darker than Black: the Black Contractor anime.
Warnings: Temporary character death and gore.
Characters & Relationships: Amber x Hei & mentioned Pai
Summary: “How many times, Amber?” he asks. // 481 words
Author’s Note: Enjoy!
Irrational Numbers
“How many times?” he asks.
Yesterday, Hei was impaled in eight places. The Contractor responsible had some kind of matter compression and decompression power, but beyond ‘shrapnel bombs’ and the sheer number of them, Amber hadn’t bothered with the details. Eight places had been the best she could do while still completing their mission and keeping everyone she needed to alive. It had been a pain to clean out the wounds, but no arteries, bones, or organs had been pierced, and at least two pieces of shrapnel had damaged nothing but skin.
So she’d told him “Stop right there!” and he’d skidded to a halt mid-sprint, and been impaled in eight places.
“Amber,” he prompts. “How many times?”
Last week, he’d thrown his sleeping sister into a waterfall at her prompting. He hadn’t even hesitated; just let Pai slide from his back, took hold of her wrists, spun on his axis, and flung her limp, unresisting body over the edge of the cliff. Pai’s lungs are still irritated by the water she inhaled, but all he’d asked afterward was: “How many tries did this mission take you?”
“Amber.”
“You always hate the answer I give you to these questions, so why do you keep asking them?”
Two days before that, Amber had had to turn back the three hours it had taken them to find Hei floating face down in the stream Pai had electrocuted.
She tapes down the last fresh bandage, slathered heavily in antibiotic cream. This wound is a little too warm to the touch for her liking, so they’ll have to keep a close eye on it. Hopefully they didn’t miss any debris lodged inside.
Last month, he and Pai had both been torn apart by a horde of hijacked animals once, and the whole squad had been ambushed by an inexperienced but overpowered sensory manipulator and slowly, inexpertly slaughtered a few times more. Like pigs. Amber hadn’t thought of the time she had, quite by accident, witnessed the slaughtering of a pig as a child for years even before she became a Contractor, but that day, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.
They’re all being slaughtered like pigs. The Syndicate isn’t even trying to hide it anymore.
“It’s a human thing, I guess,” Hei says, touching the bandage and brushing her fingers in the process. “So?”
Something gives, and Amber presses her face into his bare shoulder, her breath leaving her in a hard and shaking gust. “Too many, Hei.”
She can’t even remember. She lost count a long time ago.
“Amber?” he says hesitantly. She can feel his hands hovering around her shoulders, not touching. “What are you –?”
“I hate having to answer those questions.”
“I thought Contractors weren’t bothered by these kinds of things,” he says quietly.
“Yeah. I’m as surprised as you are.”