Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing of the Darker Than Black Fandom- I also know next to nothing about Japan so please forgive me any and all errors I make whilst writing this fic. *

Notes about the AU: Before becoming a Section Chief, Misaki Kirihara was trained in psychology. I took her alias name from season 2 (Yayoi Ichinose) but there isn't any significance in this connection. This story also roughly takes place after episode 10.

Notes about Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder: Usually there is a main personality which can see everything the others can. Hint: There are more than two in this fic. Hint2: To tell you more would ruin the plot.

Summary: Hei has been acting strange lately. Naturally, the Syndicate bring in Misaki Kirihara, known as Dr. Yayoi Ichinose, to sort him out. Little do they know this is their fatal mistake. Hei/Misaki. MPD/DID!Hei

I'd like to dedicate this story to Destinies Entwined because she's an amazing person! Go check out her stories!


Empty Mask

Chapter 1: Last Chance

Huang inhaled deeply, a cigar perched on his lips. His cap was drawn over his eyes and a newspaper was spread across his lap. He sat on a park bench outside of Police Headquarters, thinking how ironic it was that the highest of those who stood for justice were merely pawns of the Syndicate's. He thought of this and smiled bitterly to himself, remembering a time when he was on the other side of the game. But that was besides the point. That wasn't why he was here, because currently, he was here on a rather peculiar set of orders:

"If Hei begins to act strangely please contact Mr. Hourai at your earliest convenience." That was it. No symptoms, no clues or hints as to what that strange behavior could possibly be. Hell, Huang thought, Hei was strange already. How was he supposed to know the difference? But lately, things had been getting a little bit strange. At first, Huang hadn't even noticed it. He'd ask the contractor questions like: "When did you get back? Who did you talk to?" And sometimes he would answer, and sometimes he would not. Huang passed this off as contractors being moody or secretive, but the more and more this kept happening the more Huang realized that Hei looked downright lost.

Perhaps this was what acting strange meant. Perhaps he should actually get help. Discreetly placing a phone to his ear, he dialed Mao.

"Yes, you know what we talked about. If he does it again, I have no choice but to report it."

.oOo.

"Hei! Hei!...HEI!" Mao yelled, giving his partner an odd look.

"Yes?"

"I've been trying to talk with you for the last five minutes. Are you sure you got enough sleep after the-"

"Mao." Hei fixed him with a stern glare. "I'm fine." Hei hoisted himself from the floor, dusting off his pants despite the floor being spotless.

Mao whipped his tail back and forth in agitation. "Well, I'm not repeating myself," he said unhappily.

Hei frowned. What had got that cat all in a mood? "Yin?" he asked, "What's going on?"

The doll who sat at his kitchen table glanced over at him. "Last night, the police found traces of your blood. They've done a scan and have followed it back to the park."

"What?" Hei couldn't believe his ears. He had bled at several crime scenes. Why were they just tracing it now?

"I think it was when your wire was cut by that police officer and you scraped yourself on top of the building," Yin supplied helpfully. "Unlike the Wei Zhijun case, there was only one possibility to whose blood it was."

"So why aren't we leaving?" Hei wondered. "Where's Huang?"

"It's too suspicious if you leave right now," Mao explained. "You live right across from the park after all. If they asked the tenant about you, they'd eventually find out you haven't attended a single class in Japan. Bingo. You'd be dead within the month."

Hei shot him another glare. "So what? We're supposed to just stay in here and wait it out? They could come upstairs any minute!"

Mao sighed before sending a knowing look to Yin. "You want to tell him? I already said I'm not going to repeat myself."

"What?" Hei growled, irritated now.

"Huang wants you to talk to the police officers to see how much they really know. Offer them help if you have to. If they know a lot, tell them you feel unsafe in the area and then Huang can fix you a new place. If they don't know anything, then you can continue to live here."

The entire situation seemed contrived. If they had his blood sample, then why hadn't they pinpointed him yet? "Fine," Hei grumbled, standing up abruptly and grabbing his green jacket. "I'll see what I can do."

.oOo.

Li Shengshun shut the door of his apartment room very carefully before locking it. He had heard that Tokyo was not altogether safe at the moment, so he thought it was best to lock his doors. He made his way down the steps of the apartment building before running into Misuzu, the white-haired landlady. She swept the lot thoroughly even though the rest of the tenants were dropping crumbs like crazy. Looking up, she waved at him.

"How ya doin', Li?" she greeted, setting down her broom. "Isn't it crazy that those good-for-nothing criminals go to a kids' park? The police have been here all morning making a racket with their electronic devices!"

Li nodded to her with a grin. "Oh, that is a shame. I wonder how long they'll be here." Police? In a park? Now that was strange...and scary! He couldn't believe that the city crime could reach him!

"Too long if you ask me," Misuzu huffed. "Just hope they catch the damn criminal..."

She went on with her mumblings and her sweepings, while Li continued down to the street. He couldn't help but glance over at the park though. So far, the police had amassed little trays of evidence which were labelled by little, yellow numbered tags, wrapped the whole park in yellow caution tape, and parked a mass of flashing police cars in the parking lot. He watched as the long-haired police chief bent down to dust off the bench, carefully scouring for fingerprints. She stood back up, stretched out her back, and turned around to shout something to her subordinates.

"Saitou, check the slide. Look for signs of struggle like nail marks in the plastic. Maybe our BK-201 kidnapped a kid for leverage." Misaki Kirihara grimaced as she thought about why else someone would kidnap a child. She couldn't possibly believe it of BK-201, but the evidence had led them to a kids' park and all possibilities were a go.

"Yes, chief! I'm on it!" Saitou shouted back.

As the long-haired police chief turned back around, she caught sight of Li across the street. It couldn't hurt to ask the locals could it? She quickly checked her work site to make sure everyone was okay for the moment before crossing the street to Li.

Li watched as Misaki advanced way too fast for him to pretend like he wasn't just spying on them. She adjusted her glasses as she reached him.

"Li Shengshun, right?" she asked politely. "You live in the apartment complex across the street- we met a few times before?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," he replied dumbly as he scratched his back. What a beautiful woman! They had only met a handful of times, but already he had a crush a mile deep. "Miss Kirihara?"

"You can call me Misaki," she told him quickly, "Anyway, I was wondering- since you live here- if you've noticed anything strange lately. Any new tenants that have a black trench coat?"

Li tilted his head in confusion. He had a black trench coat, but he couldn't possibly have anything to do with the crime scene, right? "Uh, I have one. Did I do something wrong?"

Misaki paled considerably. "No! No! I'm sorry. I didn't mean you at all!- silly of me to base my search on clothing alone. No, I just came over here to see if you saw anything suspicious we should know about. As you can see, we're scrambling for clues, but nothing promising has turned up yet."

Li's eyes widened in curiosity. "Oh? That's a surprise. It seems like you have the whole police station searching."

Misaki cracked a half-hearted grin. "Just Section Four and-" she nodded towards where a tall blonde man was talking with a turquoise-haired woman, "-some curious volunteers."

"Volunteers?" Li repeated blankly. "You mean, I could help?"

Misaki wet her lips. "Only if you want to, I don't want to pressure you or-"

"I'd love to help!" Li said. "If there's a criminal near where I live I want to help bring him down."

"Oh, well, in that case we'd love to have you," Misaki said, "Maybe you could swing by tomorrow and I'll explain what jobs are available. We're pretty much done for the day, and besides don't you have school today? It's a Monday."

Li gaped, startled. She remembered? "Oh! Yeah," he said. He reached around for his book bag, but realized that it wasn't on him. Blushing, he said, "I must have left my books in my apartment."

"Don't worry about it. It happens to everyone. See you tomorrow, Li- I mean Mister-"

"No, Li is fine." He smiled. He watched the pretty police officer walk away before turning back up the route to his flat. He couldn't believe it. The beautiful Misaki Kirihara had spoken to him! With a stupid grin on his face, he went back to his apartment, nearly forgetting to unlock the door.

"Hei? Is that you?" someone from within asked.

And Li remembered nothing more.


A/N: Thanks for reading! I love MPD stories very much and have read them in other fandoms. I haven't had the time to actually dig through DTB lately- something which I really regret. Also, just wanted to apologize for any errors. If you find any please let me know and I'll try and correct them!

Please Review!