To anyone else, the day looked like it would be a good day. The weather was perfect -not too hot, not too cold, the perfect day to go out. But Katsuragi Yako was certainly not anyone else as she strained herself to smile in front of the camera and her boss, Godai, loomed behind the cameraman with the same look of exhaustion plastered to his face no matter what she did.

"No, no, NO!" Godai finally snapped. Yako broke from her pose, relaxing into the terrible posture she normally held, expressing her own frustrations via a loud groan. Both he and she both knew that Yako was only there because of Kanae, her friend and higher-up in Godai's fashion and modeling agency. She just happened to offer up the opportunity while Yako was between jobs, and being a model alongside her best friend seemed appealing at the time. That is, until she actually got to doing it.

"Maybe if you actually gave me some direction I'd be able to-" Yako began as she lost her balance on the heels she was wearing. She gasped as she desperately reached out to try and catch herself on one of the props that were around her, only to fail. Instead, she ran into the backdrop, taking it down with her with a crash. As the entire set slowly collapsed she could hear the entire staff that had been watching her fail at the job she had been graciously given begin to either panic or groan, seeing as this wasn't the first time Yako had single-handedly sabotaged her own set.

"Yako!" Godai yelled as the entire set finally came to rest haphazardly about the floor. He certainly looked like he had more to say than just her name, but instead he rested his face against his palm and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Yako began again, trying to pull herself up on a prop that had been spared from the demolition of the set, only to have it collapse under the weight of her trying to pull herself up and fall to the floor with the rest of the odds and ends along with Yako, who's head slammed against the floor. Clutching the back of her skull she held back tears of pain, as well as frustration.

Still holding her head she sat up, looking over to see Godai whispering something to Kanae who had come for multiple reasons, mostly for support and to convince Godai for the thousandth time to give Yako yet another chance. Either Kanae was good at manipulating people or Godai had the patience far greater than a saint. She could feel Godai's angry gaze run over her for a moment as the two of them whispered to one another as the rest of the staff finally arrived to help Yako and to try and restore the set. Ignoring their offers to help her to her feet, she slipped off her heels just in case they took her straight back down to the ground again and slowly stood upright. It was obvious this time around it would take a lot more time for Kanae to convince Godai that Yako could still be a valuable asset to his company, and she didn't want to hang around to watch. Her simple presence seemed to be annoying Godai anyway, so while everyone else were busily trying to rebuild what Yako had knocked down, she walked over to the exit that led into the alleyway, hoping a bit of peace and quiet would prepare her for whatever was ahead.

"You really did it this time, Yako," She told herself as she leaned up against the brick wall of the building. "All you ever do is cause problems for everyone." She looked down at the dress Godai had given her to model in. She hadn't realized it before, but there was a giant rip that reached all the way to her thigh.

"Great!" She moaned, looking up at the slice of sky she could see through the towering buildings, as if she were waiting to relief to grace her from above. "Maybe it would be better if I just disappeared."

"Maybe I can be of assistance." An unfamiliar voice hissed. Yako jumped, not having expected someone to actually say something back to her, much less offer their services to help her disappear. Yako looked on both sides of her, but no one seemed to be there.

"Hey, who's there?" Yako asked. "This isn't funny, you know?"

"Who said I was making a joke?" The voice answered. She suddenly felt two hands slowly work their way through her long, blond hair, reaching out on both sides of her. And on each, abnormally-long finger was a long, hooked claw. She also could feel someone breathing heavily down her neck and drool slowly ooze onto her shoulder. This would all be horribly frightening enough, but the fact it was physically impossible for someone to be behind her only made the whole situation worse. "I was very… very serious."

Too frightened to scream, Yako quickly whipped her head around to see a man, head and most of his body phased through the brick wall. That is, he resembled a man, but he definitely wasn't one. His entire face was morphed, his mouth and jaw extended from his face like a beak wrapped in skin. His mouth was open in a sly, wide smile, exposing rows of razor-sharp teeth from front to back. His eyes were large and slanted, resting on the sides of his face and fixed on her.

"Now, now, don't make this difficult, or I'll have to settle for ripping your body to shreds before claiming my prize." The man-creature cackled, bringing his clawed hands closer inward, almost close enough to wrap them around her neck.

"Claiming your prize!?" Yako gasped, although she had no real time to stop and think about what he ever could mean by "his prize". She had more important things to worry about, like the fact he was inches away from strangling her. Twisting around, she narrowly escaped his clutches, a single hooked claw marring her cheek. She stumbled toward the entrance that led back into the building (tripping on the hem of her tattered dress) only to have the deformed man nimbly leap in front of her, blocking her escape route.

"I see, so you'd rather have me kill you slowly then?" He asked, whipping away a sticky trail of drool that was making it's way down his beak. "Well I can't say I didn't warn you." Yako tried to escape a second time, this time into the street in hopes someone would save her, but the man caught her by her hair, pulling her back and throwing her to the ground. Yako cried in pain as she hit the filthy pavement, unable to pick herself up quick enough before her assailant pressed her arms and legs to the ground.

"No!" Yako cried, trying and failing to struggle out from under him.

"Now, now, don't refuse me my treasure and my meal." He chuckled, abnormally long tongue lulling from his mouth and licking the trail of blood from off her cheek.

"Your treasure? I think you're mistaken." Interrupted a voice. The man-creature growled, looking over his shoulder to whoever had spoken. Curiosity overcoming fear, Yako looked as well. Behind them stood a man, towering over the both of them, looking down at them with piercing green eyes that peered out through black strands of hair that hung in his face. The rest of his hair was a dirty shade of blond and he was dressed head-to-toe in deep violet and black formal attire. Yako couldn't put her finger on it, but something inside her was afraid of him, even though he could possibly stop the beast above her from doing…whatever he was planning on doing.

"Don't butt in where you aren't welcome, trash." The horrid man snapped, baring his teeth. The other man didn't even flinch, looking down at him as if he were some sort of insect.

"I'd say the same thing to you, but it seems you already have." The other man chuckled darkly. "Someone like you is hardly worthy of obtaining the Ultimate Mystery." Yako looked up at him confused, hoping he'd explain further what exactly this "ultimate mystery" was.

"Someone like me? Do you have any idea who you're talking to, fool?" The man-creature hissed, releasing Yako so he could turn to face him. Yako desperately wanted to run away more than anything, but fear had a just-as-tight hold on her as the man-creature had.

"Of course I do: I'm speaking to an insect." The man scoffed. "I've surprised even myself that I've shared this many words with trash like you." The monster of a man growled, looking like he'd long since had enough.

"Trash, am I?" The man-creature snarled, "I'll show you who exactly is trash!" With alarming speed he lunged at the man, who didn't even bother to side step the attack. Instead he stood his ground and practically welcomed the man-creature's claws as they struck his neck, opening a deep gash from which a frightening amount of blood flew, dying the brick walls and ground below in deep crimson. The killing blow made, the man's body fell limply onto the pavement, splashing against a puddle of his own blood. Yako's eyes opened wide as she watched the only hopes of being saved crumble before her eyes, mouth open in a silent scream as drops of blood splashed against her body.

"See who's trash now?" The man-creature laughed heartily, kicking the dead man's body several times before remembering about Yako, who was staring up at him with terror. "Now… where was I?" He chuckled, licking his claws clean. Yako shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Please, I-I-"

"Heh, humans are always cutest when they beg." He grinned. "And tastiest, too." Without another word he wildly swung a clawed hand at her, ready to kill her just like he had killed the other man. But, despite being frozen by fear, Yako somehow managed to find the strength to dodge his blow, his claws slicing her hair instead of her tender flesh. Her long hair was hacked short in a fraction of a second, but at that point it wasn't like it mattered, seeing as it would have been her body that could have been victim to his claws.

"Oh, so you still have a little fight in you, do you?" The horrific man laughed. "I guess I'll play your little game, it only makes me hungrier. And the hungrier I am the more satisfying the meal."

"Well, it seems you'll be going hungry for quite a while." Yako gasped as she witnessed the man she had once thought dead stand up and clutch the back of the man-creatures head. He had a wide grin on his face, exposing the same sort of pointed teeth and his green eyes seemed like they were glowing. The demonic-looking man, who seemed confident and proud before, seemed to be overcome by fear, now, with the man's fingers wrapped around his skull. "Because this is a meal that you aren't qualified to enjoy." With an effortless squeeze, the inhuman man's skull cracked, blood flowing from his nose, mouth and eyes as the other man crushed his head like it was nothing. Finally, at that moment, Yako was able to scream.

"Heh, it seems I'll have to continue this another time then." The man sighed, grin still on his face as he dropped the dead man's body to the ground where his own body had once lay. His deformed face slowly morphed into that of a normal person, skull still crushed in. "Until then, don't walk into anymore dark alleyways." As quickly as he appeared, he vanished, leaving behind a small flurry of purple feathers just in time for Kanae and Godai to come rushing outside.

"Yako! What's going- OH MY GOD!" Kanae gasped, eyes quickly falling on the dead man's body.

"What the hell happened!?" Godai gasped, covering his mouth in shock.

"I…He…" Yako began, but there was no way she could describe it. She was too frightened and shaken to form a complete sentence, let alone actually tell them what happened. It would sound absolutely crazy, anyway. The only thing she could think to do was break down and cry, which was what she did, and as she began to sob, she hid her face in her hands. Something told her this was only the beginning, and it didn't stop her crying in the slightest.

After finally managing to calm Yako down, Godai and Kanae decided not to pry. Instead, Godai called the police and told Kanae to take Yako home before they showed up, seeing as he didn't want any sort of bad publicity from one of his models somehow being involved in some gruesome murder -although he was sure Yako would never do such a thing. Kanae didn't want to talk about the strange catastrophe as much as Yako, and tried making Yako feel more at ease as they walked home, offering to treat her to a meal at one of her favorite restaurants. As tempting as food was for Yako, she didn't feel like eating after all that. She turned down every offer and, besides that, walked to her apartment with Kanae in silence.

"Still don't want to talk about it, huh?" Kanae sighed. She was sitting beside Yako in her apartment bathroom, cutting Yako's ruined hair so that the ends would be even. Yako kept her lips tightly pressed together. She desperately wanted to tell Kanae, but what could she say that wouldn't make her sound like a madwoman? It was best she not open up to her friend about the attack, so instead she simply shook her head. Kanae groaned, but decided not to continue to press the matter as she made the final cuts to Yako's hair.

"Will you be okay alone tonight, then?" Kanae asked, standing up and placing the scissors on the counter. "You aren't going to do something stupid if I leave, are you?"

"I won't." Yako sighed, still sitting on the floor. She didn't have to look but she could tell her hair was definitely shorter than it used to me. She could hardly even feel it brush against her shoulders.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it, then." Kanae shrugged, worry heavy in her voice. "I should get back to Godai and the others- they probably could use an extra hand over there with the cops swarming the place." She walked out of the bathroom leaving Yako alone.

"You can call me any time if you want me to come back!" Kanae called from the door as she left. Yako didn't bother to answer, though. She was too busy staring back at the girl looking back at her in the mirror. Her hair was extremely short, just as she had feared. She'd read somewhere that shorter hair was in, but she didn't like the look on herself. She looked at the locks of hair that had been spared from the attack that surrounded her feet in despair. She personally felt her hair was her best asset, and now it was gone. Sure, she was lucky to even be alive, but she would have liked to have made it out with a decent amount of hair instead of the hacked-short atrocity she'd been left with.

A knock at the door brought her around from her moping. It was probably Kanae, who was probably too worried about her friend to leave the building. It was to be expected, they'd been friends since middle school after all. She'd be worried too if Kanae had been involved in something like she had.

"I'm coming!" Yako called, walking to the door. "I guess you couldn't keep my word for…" Yako began, only to find there was no one there. "Kanae?" She peered into the hallway, which was completely empty. Looking around confused, she then slowly backed into her apartment and shut the door.

"That was strange, I must be hearing things." She said to herself, turning around. But as she did she came face to face with a pair of glowing, green eyes -glowing green eyes she'd seen once before, but that was enough to have them burned into her memory. Gasping with shock she leaped backward and ran into the door.

"Why are you so surprised?" The man from before asked with a grin, "Did I not say we'd continue later?" He paused. "Well, then again, I can't expect humans to remember much, your species' brains being so small."

"What do you want!?" She cried, looking for something -anything- to defend herself with. Quickly, she brandished an umbrella that was left next to the door, but it was more than obvious that her weapon of choice wasn't going to make him back off.

"Well, I want what every demon currently wants, but what I want more is to keep them from getting it." He explained, grasping the end of the umbrella she was pointing at him and effortlessly bent it until the metal pole snapped in two, leaving Yako with nothing. "The treasure that's inside of you."

"What are you talking about?! What is this treasure you keep on talking about?! I don't have anything!"

"You're sadly mistaken- you certainly do have something; that something being something every demon in hell wants to get their hands on." He placed both of his gloved hands at either side of Yako seeing that she was readying to try and escape. Yako gasped, flinching.

"I guess you still don't understand, do you?" Yako remained in frightened silence. "I shouldn't be surprised- a sub-creature like you probably doesn't have the mental capacity to understand."

"What…what are you talking about?" Yako asked again. "Tell me what's going on!"

"What's going on is that you've been chosen as the vessel for a very powerful demonic energy source." He finally said. "It won't effect you in any way, but if a demon should rip you apart and take it from you, they'll obtain the keys to ruling the underworld." Yako looked at him in disbelief, but by the look on his face he definitely wasn't lying to her. "The Ultimate Mystery..." He paused for a second, seeming like he was thinking about something before he forcefully pressed his lips against hers, locking the both of them in a deep kiss. Yako wanted nothing more than to be able to pull away as the stranger violated her mouth, but after seeing the things he could do without any effort at all, it was clearly obvious objecting to anything he did would be unwise on her part.

"W…what…why…" Yako stammered as their lips finally parted.

"What?" He looked at her with a bored expression -not exactly the way someone looked after they kissed someone like he did. "I was simply checking to see if you really are the Ultimate Mystery's container, otherwise I would have had to kill you." He licked his lips. "But it seems you're just too stupid to comprehend it, that's all."

"I'm not-"

"Neuro."

"Excuse me?"

"My name. Nougami Neuro. I figure I might as well tell you, no matter how inferior you are. We'll be spending quite a bit of time together, so I figure, since you'll be in my presence for so long, I might as well lower myself to your level and introduce myself." He turned his back to her, but looked over his shoulder. "And, what does a worm like you call herself?"

"Y…Yako. Katsuragi Yako. And what do you mean by spending-" But before she could finish, Neuro disappeared again, leaving behind only feathers, just like before. Yako stood in her entryway in dumbfounded silence for the longest time before falling against her door and sliding to the floor. This was too outrageous for her to believe. It had to be a dream, there was no other explanation!

"Just go to bed, Yako," She told herself. "You'll wake up tomorrow and everything will be normal again… or at least…" She picked up one of the feathers Neuro had left behind. "…I hope so."