Darker than Black: The artifact » Places

         6 am. A shock of white hair stuck out from under a mass of blankets caught in the first rays of sunlight coming through the window. With a grumble, the mass flopped over on the bed and a hand reached out blindly for the curtains to yank them shut.

"Today is the day I finally use a rune to turn off that blasted sun once and for all." the voice was distorted by sleep and muffled by blankets, making it near-impossible to interpret.

"Get up, Taiga. We have work to do." A short, blank-faced, blond-haired boy said from his seat at the desk. "Food is in the microwave."

Taiga grumbled a rather incoherent string of profanities as he untangled himself from the blankets and sluggishly made his way to the kitchen as the microwave began beeping. A couple minutes later he was sitting on the bed eating a microwave chimichanga. "What's the news today, Haru?" he was speaking between bites, looking up at the blond Doll from earlier, who was monotonously scrolling through emails on the laptop. Click, scroll, delete.

"Mr. Tama, from that last side job, wants you to-" Haru began, but was quickly cut off by Taiga.
"Haru. I want to know the jobs from my employer." Taiga spat the word. "They still want us to get that girl? The weapon?"
"Yes. You are going in today as a transfer student, assuming that your runes work. I will be playing the role of the substitute art teacher."
"Assuming your brain works." Taiga shot back the comment.

Taiga finished his food and tossed the plate into the trash can. Ten minutes later, both of them were showered and almost ready to go. Pausing to take a pocket knife and cut the runes for stasis and life into his chest, Taiga grimaced as he made an additional cut on his forearm, spilling a rather large quantity of blood to fulfill his obeisance for the strong runes. Wrapping bandages around his arm and taping a medical pad over the runes on his chest, Taiga quickly pulled on his shirt and jacket before looking in the mirror with a devilish grin. The runes had already made him look about nine years younger, so he would actually look the right age for being in the school.

Within a couple minutes they were arriving at the school and Taiga was being introduced to the class. The white-haired boy was doing his best to look like a nervous ten year old. He was quickly directed to an empty seat beside his target- Audrey.