Naoko and the Executioner

[estirose]

Naoko cradled her child as Wataru yawned, his little face reflecting little more than a slight discontent with life. She had formula prepared nearby, special formula that didn't contain anything that would make Wataru pattern and reveal his Fangaire ancestry to anybody who didn't previously know about it.

The hunter cell that Otoya was part of would keep Wataru safe. She'd warned them of what to avoid, how to keep her baby boy safe and undetected. Of course, one misstep, one error in Wataru's entire life would expose him to the Fangaire, especially the well-meaning fools who had forgotten that the Fandiri were dual-edged swords - both their means of keeping their numbers up and hunters that protected humans from them.

She'd had time to both study and live history. She knew that her kind protected - overprotected - their children, and lived in horror of one of the Fandiri being used for their other purpose.

Well, Wataru would grow up, and he would hunt. The right to defend themselves from rogue Fangaire was something that had been long denied to humans, and of the Fangaire, only the Executioner and the rogues really hunted nowadays. She hoped that Wataru would be the Executioner's equvalent in the human world, giving them the justice that they had been denied.

Naoko had hunted before, hunted her own kind, but even there she wasn't really applying justice for humans. She did not have the human attitude that Wataru would need to protect his own kin, and she was aware of that. Wataru would grow up among humans, humans that would protect him from his other kin, and would grow up to protect those who had things in common with him.

As Wataru yawned once more, his mother sang an ancient Fangaire lullabye.

* * *

Twenty-two years later

Naoko started at the ringing of her doorbell - a doorbell located at her little mansion's gate. Probably some newspaper salesperson or something. Getting up, she flicked on her video camera, recognizing the man at the gate.

"Executioner," she breathed. She thought quickly of anything she might have done that would have warranted the man's attention. She hadn't killed any humans that she knew of. Maybe someone she'd known had committed that wrong, and he was merely wanting to ask her some questions.

She hoped that it was a case of mistaken identity. She did keep in touch with her own kind, but those she associated with would surely not be killing humans. And if so, she hoped her little Wataru would be taking care of them, as he was meant to.

Most of the Fangaire she knew could care less about what the Executioner looked like. But his was a position that should be held by a human, not a Fangaire, so Naoko paid attention.

She realized after a moment that she hadn't answered the doorbell, and hurried to do so. No matter what she thought about the man's position, she couldn't afford to be rude. She politely told him over the intercom to come to the door, and then hurried to open it. "Matsumoto Naoko?" the other Fangaire asked pleasantly.

"Yes?" she asked. She did have to wonder who had gotten in trouble.

"I would like to talk to you," he said. He appeared to study her. "You know who I am, of course."

Naoko wondered if he presumed that everybody knew who he was, or if he knew that she kept up on such things. "I do, but not everybody would. Executioner."

He laughed. "I don't presume everybody does. You, however, I would expect to." He paused. "I must talk with you. May I come inside?"

* * *

She'd let him in with some misgivings, though she'd mostly done it because she'd worked hard to cultivate the image she had: sharp but quiet, attentive but noncommittal. She'd learned long ago it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission. With the Fangaire before her, it was best to pretend that she was one of the crowd, not worth talking to.

"I actually came to talk to you about your son," the Executioner said.

Naoko tried not to look startled. She'd had, over her lifetime, birthed several Fandiri. Of those, only two were alive or presumably so - the daughter who had passed the Chooser's inspection and had gone through change, and Wataru, who was hopefully still safe with his father's cell.

"I've had three," she said, as casually as apossible. "All died of old age as Fandiri."

"Plus the son you left with a hunter cell," he added.

Wataru. He'd been discovered, somehow, and been traced back to her. She'd have thought that she'd have been brought before the Judging council for that act of 'treason', not visited by the Executioner. Maybe they thought she was dangerous. Some of her belongings were supposed to go to Wataru through Otoya; she hoped that someone would read the note and send them on once the Executioner killed her. Probably in front of the whole council. And her son.

"Wataru," he supplied, confirming her fears. "I have the fosterage of him."

Fosterage? As far as she knew, the titled positions took only apprentices, not foster children. "Fosterage?"

"Well, I'm not Hiraoka Hotaru's first choice of foster parent, but he *is* a teenager. Quite intelligent, too, once I brought him out of his shell. I'm very proud of him; he found a way to escape my grounds. He's going to make a good Executioner some day. I know that was not your intention, but if he's going to hunt, that's the way things have to be."

"That was not what I brought him into the world for," Naoko said, aware that she was confirming her own guilt in the matter, but then again, the Executioner seemed to know anyway. "Humans need their hunters too, and the Fandiri are part of their right to defend themselves."

"That would explain why you went to a hunter cell and became pregnant by one of its members," the Executioner mused. "Obviously you have no idea on what's happened the last two decades with them."

"I had to remain seperated and ignorant, for Wataru's sake," Naoko admitted. She looked over to the Executioner. "Are you here to kill me, or bring me to the Judging Council?" She hoped she'd have time to prepare, make sure that Otoya got certain things for himself and Wataru.

He smiled. "Actually," he said, "I'm here to talk to a former member of the Wondrous Blue Sky Association."

"Otoya's cell," she said. "I never was a member, Executioner. I agreed to birth a child that could be used to hunt rogues."

"And so he is," the Executioner said. "Well, right now, he's in training, but...."

"He'll be hunting them as one of our own kind, Executioner, not on the humans' behalf. After all, as your apprentice he's a Fangaire, not a human, even if he hasn't been changed yet." Maybe she could find a way to get him away from the Executioner, to a safe place.

"Actually," and Naoko thought the Executioner sounded a little embarassed, "The Council had him changed a few days ago."

Naoko sighed. "So, you came here to tell me that Wataru went through the change?"

"Actually," The Executioner said, "I want you to go back to that cell, back to Otoya, and have another child."

"You... want me... to have a child with a known hunter," Naoko said, trying to wrap her mind around the concept. "Why?"

"I want you to have the child... and I want you to share custody with his father, actually," the Executioner said, correcting himself. "From what I can tell, you and Otoya did well together."

"You not only want me to have a child with a hunter, and you're on a first name basis with that hunter," Naoko said. "Hiraoka-san would be taking that child away from me in a heartbeat."

"Actually, they're a helper group now," The Executioner said. "Technically, Wataru's. Really mine. They're mine to watch over, just as you must have watched over them once."

Naoko had to wonder if Aso Yuri, who had never liked her, had been consulted on that decision, and how she'd reacted. "And how did they react to that bit of news?"

"I haven't bothered to tell them yet," the Executioner said.

"I can think of at least one member of that group who is not going to take kindly to being appropriated by one of us."

"Aso Yuri, you mean?" The Executioner asked. "She'll get used to it. It's the key to her being able to hunt."

"I know the personalities of that cell, Executioner," Naoko said, "None of them will take well to being told they're under the protection of a Fangaire." Except Otoya, maybe.

"As I said, they'll get used to it. Especially since it's technically Wataru that they're under, not me. Wataru is one of them, after all."

"They're still not going to take well to it," Naoko said. "This is a hunter group - they don't hold the Fangaire in high regard, though at least they only go after the ones that err. They're the last ones who want a Fangaire's protection, even Wataru's."