Brief and probably inaccurate explanation of the anime's plot that you really don't have to read...
Contractors weren't always contractors. They used to be regular human beings just like you and me, but after the mysterious appearance of Heaven and Hell's Gate which altered the appearance of the skies twelve years ago, people started acting differently. After the spontaneous creation of the gates, the natural sky disappeared along with the natural stars. Immediately after the stars changed, people began to come into possession of strange powers.
Each contractor had a power and a star unique to their own, meaning that each star had a contractor to come with it. Contractors were kept secret from the public but could only be so for so long seeing the rising number of mysterious deaths. The abundance of contractors however could only be determined by how many stars remained in the fake sky.
Since the identities of every contractor are impossible to comprehend, they have used each star's Messier Code to identify when they are actively using their abilities or when they have perished. Hei is an infamous contractor with the Messier Code of BK-201, however when he is not in action, he is Lee Shenshun, a Chinese exchange student attending university in Tokyo. The general public have given him the nickname "The Black Reaper." after his contractor's attire of a black, bulletproof coat, and mask. He had the ability to generate electricity until recently, when the government had developed a weapon that exorcised him of his powers.
Unable to fight with electricity, he was put to a disadvantage when fighting off all of the different factions that were out to get him. Yin is a doll, an emotionless spirit medium with the ability to use her observation spirit to track enemies and Hei's targets.Oh and also Hei's lover. An observation spirit is only able to 'observe' through a medium. Yin's medium is water, but she does not have to be in direct contact of water in order to use her observation spirit.
Contractors are supposedly emotionless, but unlike dolls they can act like regular human beings. Hei however, has been able to retain his emotions, and his one ambition was to find his sister, also a contractor who has disappeared on the day of the 'destruction' of Heaven's Gate in South America. Only to discover that his sister is gone, Hei had all but given up until Yin had begun showing feelings for him. This was unlike a regular doll. As a doll, Yin was supposed to be emotionless. But this was a sign that both of them were different than the rest of the contractors and dolls. They were evolved from the rest.
Eventually, after many years and plot turns and twists, Hei and Yin had managed to destroy Hell's Gate in one fell swoop, but have been lost in the process...or have they?
Author's Note
Meh. Well I couldn't explain the entire plot in one chapter because of laziness. If you want a better understanding of the plot, then watch the anime. Its worth it.
"Where are we going, Hei?" A girl asked, her silver glowing hair gently blowing in a non-existent breeze. She looked around only to discover that they were surrounded by a vast, unending expanse of stars. There was no ceiling or floor to make physical contact with, yet Hei was able to walk through the vacuum of space as if there were.
"To heaven." the man in the black cloak and mask reassured her, carrying her like a damsel in distress. Yin simply nodded to confirm that she agreed or at least hoped that he was correct in his assumption. Hei wasn't in contact with his sense of touch. He couldn't feel his feet making contact with anything nor could he feel Yin's weight, but maybe that was just because she was a generally small girl. "Its beautiful out here...wherever we are." Hei continued. It had been over a decade since he had seen the real stars, the real night sky. "Ahh but i must be dreaming..."
"No." Yin interrupted before Hei could assume that he was merely fantasizing again. Though it was unnoticeable, Hei was hiding surprise under his mask, not expecting Yin to suddenly speak up like that. "You can't be dreaming...Not if I'm able to share this weightlessness with you." she clung on to him tighter, forcing him to feel that she was there with him in his so called dream. This time, he felt her arms clenched around his torso, but at the same time it caused a flash of light to appear, and expand to the end of their personal little dream void, making the stars disappear once again, and hitting the two with a good dose of reality.
As the light faded, it took Hei a moment to notice they were high above the ground, and that the ground seemed to be getting closer the longer he pondered. He failed to notice however, that Yin was quickly drifting away from him as they plummeted down to earth. "Yin!" he tried to scream, only to have his voice taken away by the force of the wind resistance. He desperately extended his hand in hopes of grasping her, but to no avail. Already knowing that she'd been lost, he accepts their fate and closes his eyes.
...
Hei awoke with a gasp. He was sweating profusely and hyperventilating to add on. It had all been a dream like he said. "Dammit" he thought to himself. As he sat up, he had noticed that his cloak and mask and other attire were folded neatly on a bedside table to his right. "Where the hell am I" the room smelled of baked goods and tea. Finally deciding to get up and look around, he equipped his cloak, and hid his mask inside a compartment in his cloak where he usually kept it while off duty. With that, he quietly, and cautiously climbed down the stairs of whatever building he found himself in. The ceiling was noticeably lower than any ceiling he's ever stood under. He had to crouch in order to get down the stairs. As he approached what seemed to be the kitchen, he had begun to hear a voice...singing. Ever so cautiously, he took a peek into the room. To his surprise, it wasn't a matter of who was singing, more of a matter of what was.
The creature standing on four marshmallow like limbs had its back turned to him so it hadn't noticed his presence as of yet. It didn't look threatening, in fact, it looked the opposite. It seemed to be...making tea? Well, it had finished making its tea, and it had turned around. On sight, the creature gasped, and it's pupils shrunk to half it's original size. Seeing how it was possibly about to scream, Hei quickly took a dive and covered it's mouth to muffle it.
"Shhh~" Hei was desperately trying to calm the equine down so that it wouldn't make too much noise or give away his position. The horse like animal had stopped struggling, but now instead was petrified by his touch. Hei let go of it's muzzle, and immediately it began to speak.
"Pleasedonteatmeididntmeananyharmohcelestiapleasejustdonteatme" it squeaked out all in one breath.
"Its okay i'm not going to eat you. I don't eat live animals--wait what?" Hei's facial expression was a mix of "I'm dreaming again." and "Oh crap". "Say that again." he had said almost questioningly, but it's reply was a squeak from judging by the voice and long mane, talking female pony. "Look. I'm not going to hurt you." Hei reassured as if he were talking to Yin "but can you please calm down and tell me who you are and where I am."
After a long moment of hesitation and awkward silence, the pink maned filly spoke. "Umm...I'm Fluttershy, and this is my cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest where I found you unconcious." she mumbled, barely audible. Hei exhaled, and took another deep breath.
"I'm going to need you to be more specific than that. Ponies don't normally speak as far as I can tell. What country am I in?" he pressed further, trying to get answers. The filly who claimed to be called Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane and gave out yet another terrified squeak as a response. Hei seemed to have given up, and was starting to stand and find the exit of Fluttershy's cottage until he was hit with excruciating pain in his ribs. As a result of the pain, Hei wailed and fell back down, but rolled over just in time so his rib cage wasn't damaged anymore than it already was. He hadn't noticed the pain in his upper abdomen and torso until just now, and was harshly surprised at how immense it was.
"Oh no." Fluttershy suddenly had a change of heart and rushed over to Hei's aid. "You musn't move. When I found you on the edge of the Everfree Forest, you were badly injured. You'd broken three ribs somehow." Fluttershy hoisted Hei over her back and began bringing him back upstairs to the bedroom where he first awoke. Once back in the bed, Hei found Fluttershy to be staring at him like waiting for him to say something. After a second of thought he did.
"Tell me...did you find...a girl...with me?" Hei said in between pauses to groan in discomfort. Fluttershy shook her head, her eyes now locked onto his. "Dammit...lost her...again." Hei was on the verge of tears him being a contractor who retained his feelings as a human. "I've already lost Pai...not...Yin."
"Um...mister...who are you talking about?" Fluttershy asked quietly and quizzically. She tilted her head in confusion, her eyes ever gazing into Hei's. It took Hei a moment to think about the question. He didn't know exactly why. He knew for sure who he was talking about otherwise he wouldn't be talking about hem, but he still took his time answering Fluttershy's question.
"My closest, dearest friends..." Hei had let a single tear fall out of his eye. Fluttershy, feeling sympathy for the stranger in her house tried to comfort him.
"Please don't cry mister. When somepony else cries, it makes me feel sad as well." Fluttershy nuzzled his cheek to show that she had cared. "Do you...want to talk about it?" the normally shy filly offered. Hei simply shook his head, hiding true desperation. He needed to talk to her, to anybody. His mind was telling him to just let it all out, but he was a contractor. An emotionless, heartless killer whose judgement are only based on logic and not will of heart. "Well...then get some rest. You won't be healed for a couple days without a healing spell." This got Hei's attention.
"Wait, healing sp-" Hei blurted out before the door closed behind Fluttershy. Hei was alone again and was left with nothing but to comply with Fluttershy's requests until he was healed properly. "Why didn't I just die from the fall?"
...
Yin was sitting on an uncomfortable wooden chair inside what had seemed to be a...tree house. She was taken in by a certain lavender bookworm after being discovered along side a path to Zecora's in the Everfree Forest. She'd shown no sign of being dangerous to Twilight, and to the unicorn's surprise was able to understand the modern Equestrian lingo.
"You seem to understand me, but can you speak?" Twilight spoke while at the same time was burying her face into a book on native Equestrian wildlife. The response that she received was a blink, a moment of hesitation and a quick nod. "Well then...why don't you try saying something? Start with where you're from, and where if any are the rest of your kind? My book doesn't give me any hints as to what you are, so why instead of looking into one of my old tomes, why don't you tell me instead?" Twilight was trying to be as calm as possible, trying to contain her desire to just bombard this creature with experiments and questions. In return for her politeness, she got a blink and a blank stare.
The screaming, and groaning that followed could not be described with mere words, so they are only to be mentioned, and not described. "Alright then. Fine!" Twilight was just getting over her tantrum, and a devious smile began to stretch from cheek to cheek. "If you won't talk, then I'll just force the information out of you...In the name of science!" The purple scholar's horn began to glow intensely, and her facial expression had shown that she was putting all of her effort into casting the spell. Suddenly, a jolt of purple static came from Twilight's horn, and hit Yin, encompassing them both in Twilight's lavender aura.
Twilight found herself in a scene she thought was quite distasteful. She was seeing from her guests eyes, a memory reading spell. The first thing she saw was a figure. It wore a black cloak and hid it's face under an eerie looking mask which happened to be messily stained by blood. The floor, and walls were painted crimson after taking a look around. Bodies of more strange beings lay piled on top of one another by the dozen. Twilight wanted more than anything to will herself to leave the scene, to walk away, or for the spell to wear off, but the memory wasn't over yet. The next thing she knew, the cloaked figure was full on sprinting its way over to her. Twilight swore she could see the intent to kill on the creature's eyes behind that horrid mask. As it closed in, and the blow was about to be struck, a flash of purple light came in between her and the attacker, and the spell had finished before it was able to reach her.
Twilight was hyperventilating hard, and was soaked in a cold sweat sweat from her mane to her hooves. She turned around to see Yin, still stone faced, intently sitting on the undersized wooden chair. Twilight then proceeded to put on a fake, plastered smile that hid true fear, and without hesitation, she left the room in a hurried trot. Yin sat there the rest of the day undisturbed.
...
End of Chapter One
Author's Note
I actually watched Darker than Black a really long time ago. So if you've watched the anime, and find that I have some plot details wrong, please don't hesitate to inform me. This is only my third fiction, my first fic got cancelled, my second i got rid of entirely because it totally sucked. I'm still not used to writing unlike my younger brother Fluttrick, but I intend to try to make a little more time for it and get into the flow of things soon. I will now proceed to type unnecessary words for the sake of reaching two thousand words in the first chapter. OCD... This is Gale signing out.
A faint glow was the only thing that illuminated the halls of Canterlot Castle. Princess Luna had been up since she had raised the moon, and was in the middle of her nightly diplomatic duties such as signing trades with foreign lands, and of course, keeping the moon moving at a steady pace across the Equestrian night sky. She had been back from banishment for about four years now, and was still just starting to get the hang of modern Equestrian culture.
Things had been running smoothly for her since the incident at Nightmare Night three years ago, and the general public had come to welcome her back with open arms, so long as she didn't speak in the traditional royal Canterlot voice, and literally scare the daylight out of them. The future was looking bright for the co-ruler of Equestria.
The moon was at the height of the sky by then, which was about noon for Luna when Shining Armor, accompanied by two other Canterlot guard officers arrived at her private study. "How rude Shining Armor for you to rush into my private study without even knocking." Luna scoffed sarcastically, looking stern for a moment, but quickly changing to a smug smirk after she knew she'd had them scared.
"Well we don't have any time to knock Princess." Shining Armor's expression had shown that he meant business. He beckoned Luna to come close, and when she did, he whispered in her ear for a brief time. Luna's pupils had shrunk to the size of needles.
"No." she had given him an irritated, almost threatening look, which caused the captain of the guard to back away slowly. Luna then proceeded to burst out of her private study and raced towards her bedroom. "He's lying." she had thought to herself. Within a matter of seconds, she manages to reach her quarters, and once inside, she rushes towards the balcony. Taking a gaze out of her balcony, she realized something was wrong immediately.
None of the stars were in the right place. In fact, she didn't even recognize any of them. The only familiar piece of her own night sky was the moon. Her horn began to glow dark blue, and she began to frantically attempt to rearrange the unfamiliar sky, each consecutive try a failure. The stars weren't moving, they were no longer loyal to her. A shrill shriek was heard from the castle, waking every filly and foal in Canterlot.
...
It had been about a week since he woke up in the room he was occupying now. Hei was just about ready to get up and start moving again. The next day, Fluttershy would let him go, and he'd be free to start roaming this new world he found himself in. Over the past seven days, he'd learned a lot about his whereabouts. He was in fact no longer on Earth, which explained his talking equine host, and that he was now living in Equestria, which seemed to be a country on whatever planet this is which is ruled by two princesses that controlled the Sun and the Moon. He had also learned much about basic Equestrian society from the filly whom had really seemed to really warm up to him. After the first day, he put on his Lee Shenshun act while around Fluttershy, giving him more of a less scary appearance.
Looking up at the night sky again was a relief, to know that those accursed gates could never bring harm to anything ever again made Hei feel at peace. "If only Yin and Pai were here to see this." he had silently wished to himself before letting slumber embrace him.
Shortly after, the sky had changed from a serene dark blue, to a menacing shade of purple, and the stars had begun to disappear one by one, letting new ones take their place. Throughout the night, Hei shivered uncontrollably, and later was even woken up by the trembling, and the dark nostalgia, the all too familiar feeling pulsing through his every muscle, every vein and bone.
He sprung up almost instinctively, and poked his body out of the nearby window as far out as possible without falling out. The sky had changed, his dream of being able to live in peace again shattered in an instant. Quickly, and without too much fuss, he equipped his gear, and hopped out of Fluttershy's bedroom window. "Thank you for your hospitality Fluttershy." he closed his eyes and swiftly bowed his head as a silent sign of thanks. "It seems that I won't be able to restart like I hoped I could" he was now speaking aloud, and hadn't noticed he was crying until a tear had wet his hand. He promptly left the cottage, and fled into the forest beyond Fluttershy's property.
...
"My most faithful student Twilight,
This is a very urgent message that under no circumstances are you to show to anyone but Spike, and the other wielders of the elements of harmony. Last night, your brother had discovered a drastic change in the night sky. It was later confirmed that the sky had changed when we found Luna on her bedroom balcony crying, and muttering gibberish in the old Equestrian language.
I'd like you, and your friends to meet me in the Canterlot archives in front of the Starswirl the Bearded wing this evening after sunset. I'll fill you in on your task when we meet there. Do not respond to this letter, I don't want any loudmouthed mailmare to start spreading rumors.
Your mentor,
Princess Celestia
Spike had finished reading the letter aloud to Twilight who was looking quite fidgety, all the while staring at Yin, motionless as a statue who had not moved from the chair in a week. "Alright then...Spike help me round up my friends. You can get Fluttershy, and Rarity. I'll see if I can find Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack before it's too late to go." Spike nodded, and rushed out the door, ecstatic that he could escort Rarity to the train station. Twilight was not as thrilled, but nevertheless, she was working against the clock.
...
Spike had already found Rarity, and took his sweet time in getting to Fluttershy's cottage which they eventually did arrive at. "Fluttershy, are you in there?" Spike asked after taking a few knocks at her door. She opened the door, but she was not exactly how the two had expected her to be. She was crying, a lot.
"What's wrong dear?" Rarity asked, offering a hankerchief to her forlorn friend. Fluttershy took the offering, and wiped her face of tears, trying to put on a smile, but failed and instead had it look more like a grimace.
"Nothing..." Fluttershy responded, not sure how they would react if they found out she was until last night hospitalizing a strange, unknown creature. "Is there something you needed?" she questioned, trying to change the subject.
"Yes, in fact there is." Spike answered. "We need you to accompany us to Canterlot this afternoon. Princess Celestia sent us an urgent message, and by the sound of things, she means business." Fluttershy simply nodded, and followed Spike's lead after stepping out and closing her door, and they were on their way to the train station.
...
Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were already waiting for the other three, and Pinkie Pie was there as well, but was busy stuffing a couple thousand cupcakes into a briefcase. "Are we ready to leave?" Twilight asked to her friends. They all nodded, and proceeded into the train with haste.
...
Hei had not exactly made his presence in Equestria a secret. He had already snatched a random pony from the streets, demanding that he take him to their capital. Of course, with his life threatened, this completely random colt had complied with Hei's demands and bought him a ticket to Canterlot by train. Hei merely swatted the ticket away, and slammed his fist against a tree. "Where is the train station?" Hei asked, looking as intimidating as possible. The stallion pointed his hoof at the colorful looking building with the tracks laid along it, and immediately after, hid his face with his hooves, trembling at the eerie vibe this strange thing gave off.
Hei didn't hesitate to sneak over to the station and find the first train which he then proceeded to hop onto the caboose of so that he'd arrive unnoticed. When the train started moving, he took a quick peek inside the caboose. It was empty to his surprise. So silently slipping in, he leaned against the corner of a wall nearest the door so that if somepony opened the door, he wouldn't be the first thing to be noticed. All there was left to do was wait.
...
The girls were talking on the train, trying to lighten up the dark situation. Joking, and making idle chatter for the sake of keeping the train car noise filled. They all knew that the situation up at Canterlot was not of the most casual class, and that they needed to be serious about the whole situation, but who can stay serious when Pinkie Pie is around? "And then I told her 'your berries are in the well!'" Pinkie Pie exclaimed before before breaking out into a fit of laughter. All of her friends joined her in her giggling, all but Fluttershy who stared out the window, trying to hide her constant flow of tears.
"Fluttershy, you've been crying almost the entire ride so far, is there something you want to talk about?" Twilight asked, concerned for Fluttershy's well being.
"Oh no. I'm fine Twilight" Fluttershy replied in the most fake of happy tones Twilight had ever heard.
"You can't see the princess with teary eyes." Twilight retorted, furrowing her brow at the same time. "If you have something that's bothering you, you're welcome to let it out on me." Fluttershy suddenly seeing the opportunity to tell her story turned around from the window and wiped her face with her hoof again.
"It all started about a week ago..."
...
"So you've discovered one of those creatures too? What a surprise. I knew she wasn't the only one..." Twilight had listened to Fluttershy's week long experience with Hei and was astonished at the difference between the natures of the two beings. They generally had the same physique except one with female and one with male physical characteristics. But the way Fluttershy had described the male she had found, it must've been very physically active, meaning that these things could potentially be dangerous. Fluttershy, who had been watching Twilight doze off into her own little state of analysis was confused. Had Twilight seen the same creature too? But Twilight said 'she' wasn't the one she found a male?
"Twilight, the one I found was a male as far as I could tell...did you find another one?"
"Actually, yes I did. I was on my way back from Zecora's in the Everfree Forest, and I found her on the side of the path leaning against a tree. At first I was a bit frightened, because I had never seen something like it before, but after deeming her harmless, I discovered that she could understand Equestrian, and she seemed civilized enough, so I took her back to my library."
Fluttershy by now had gone silent. Perhaps this was the friend of his that her former guest was talking about. She needed to find him again, to tell him that he didn't have to be so forlorn. There're more than one of his kind now. What a strange coincidence. No. It couldn't have been a coincidence, if there are more than one, then it must've been fate or something. With the two mares lost to their own minds, they failed to notice a colt glaring at them with eyes glowing red.
Suddenly breaking the silence, a rather posh looking mare screamed, dropped her drink, and pointed a hoof at the strange stallion who was now somehow embodied in loose pieces of scrap metal of the train. " Now you die!" the armored colt shrieked, obviously very cocky about his probably newfound ability to draw metal to himself. Everypony shook with fear at the approaching menace. Twilight screamed, Fluttershy squeaked, however for another certain contractor, the situation couldn't be anymore perfect.
Almost out of nowhere, the door to the caboose swung open, and in came a wire flying at the amateur contractor propelled by a force unknown. All the ponies watched the wire wrap it's self effortlessly around the stallion who struggled against the bind in vain. Another surprise was to see him start convulsing rapidly, as if hit by lightning, but whatever caused him to do so was also not yet to be known by the helpless observers. The metal pieces fell off of the amateur assailant with him following suit shortly after.
Deeming it safe, Twilight approached the fallen attacker, and gave him a quick nudge before putting her hoof in front of his mouth to see if he was breathing. "He's...dead." the mare concluded shortly before the train car was filled with fearful chatter again. Ignoring the panicked ponies around her, Twilight approached the door to the caboose where the wire propelled in from and looked around for the source of the attack. When she found nothing, she closed the door, and receded back into her own train car where things were quieting down, and everypony's nerves were beginning to calm.
...
Hei sat on top of the train car where he silenced the contractor, watching the clouds drift by.
"Finally. They've shut up."
Author's Note
Well here ya go. Super slow because lazy. notice how i dont even bother to make complete sentences in the author's note. well. um ok. I'll see what i can do about another chapter. I kind of just make up these things as i go so don't expect some well planned masterpiece. Gale out.
