Author's Note and Warning: Some scenes from this point on will be more graphic than before. It's not too graphic but a little more than the previous chapters.

Also, thanks to AniSeanna for writing a part of this.


"It was him! He killed his wife and then his own daughter! He killed that boy! He killed them all!"

It was a blunt and short statement by one of his closest friends but it was more than enough to give him an idea of what was happening but it was just too hard to believe for the sheltered, innocent mind of Tenma.

Shindou tried to swallow the lump in his throat away without success. His own words still floated through his head, goading him at how slow he was to realising the truth of everything as they kept on repeating themselves. But he had to get it together for the sake of both of them.

Tenma still supported him and his eyes changed from fear to concerned when Shindou tried to stand again in spite of still shaking uncontrollably but he managed to get up without falling down.

"We have to go." Shindou spoke to his junior. He placed the bag on his back and started to walk out from the porch with the map and compass in his hands. Tenma quickly got up and followed his senior outside.

The rays of the afternoon sun greeted them through foliage of the trees. It all seemed so calm to Tenma with the wind brushing his face gently like nothing bad had happened today at all. He turned to see the small house where they were held captive. You could see how decayed it was from neglect, untrimmed plants entwining in the invaded the joints between the bricks which were at the point of falling apart yet still holding together against all odds. The house was almost absorbed by the surroundings.

"Come on, Tenma! We need to keep the pace up!" Shindou screamed to him from some dozens meters away.

"Yeah, coming!" He yelled back and ran to his senior. When he almost reached him Shindou started walking towards him sternly. "We don't have all the time of the world realize that will you." Shindou said staring forward to the path pointed out on the map. Tenma was taken aback by the way Shindou told him that his voice full of anger and drenched with poison.

"What could have awaken this side of Shindou?" Tenma wondered but he didn't dare to ask so he followed in silence. With Shindou leading the way, the two followed down the path traced on the map along with every wind of the graphite marked drawn.

"Wait." Shindou said upon seeing a ledge as they headed down. It wasn't very steep but Shindou decided they go one at time anyway, him first on his own insistence and when Tenma tried go down, Shindou helped him, again, on his insistence.

"There you go." Shindou said as he guided Tenma by hand to his ground level. Although he knew Tenma didn't really need it, he just wanted to be sure. The man after them was something he had never encountered before in his life and something he was sure shouldn't even be allowed to exist. If he found them, they wouldn't stand a chance.

The two went on down on their way. Bored, Tenma began to hum to keep their spirits up and Shindou smiled contently but he continued to survey the area vigilantly, hoping the man wasn't following behind with one of his hunting rifles. He had locked it all up and threw all the boxes of ammunition he could find into the river a long time ago but he must have more up his sleeve. The sight of animal traps stringed up in his closet were the ones that made him the most uneasy.

"Hold up, Tenma." Shindou said, stopping Tenma again.

"What is it this time?" Tenma asked but Shindou didn't answer him, looking at a bundle of leaves a few feet away. He took a large stone near his foot and threw it across and in one second, out sprung something as it ploughed into the ground in one swift slash. It sprung back to its original position, dangling a bit for them to see a tree; a thin, flexible tree with sharp barbs of double-edged blades tied at its center to form a comblike, springing guillotine. If they had gone through it…

Tenma gulped at the thought. Shindou reached to hold Tenma's arm before continuing onward carefully, vigilantly watching for anymore traps. Shindou knew that there would definitely be more around as they would travel deeper into hell created by their captor. With each step they took, Shindou could see the afternoon sky becoming darker.


Tsurugi was tired. He had walked halfway through the forest with the ghost kid for about two hours now. He felt his tired, aching body begging to stop and rest for at least a minute but he couldn't let himself sit down yet. But it was hard with his stomach hurting so much as did his throat and he would feel a bit dizzy every now and then. It wasn't any surprise since he had thrown up everything and then some earlier in the hospital.

"Sword, sword look we're at the river!" the kid said happily "Now you can refresh yourself again."

"I can see that." Tsurugi said.

The kid nodded and Tsurugi slid down the river bank and looked in the water streaming and glowing in the sun like a mirror. If it hadn't been for the situation he's in he could maybe enjoy this sight. He splashed some water in his face and rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes.

Three days later, the corpse was discovered floating down the river.

He shook that thought out of his mind and the ghost kid kept staring at the older child looking so vulnerable in that squatted down position, staring at the water. He almost wanted to push him in as surprise. That was when he felt a presence near them, maybe hundred feet above them. "Oh, look! It's Circle!" he said "Circle is here too to help us!"

Tsurugi shot his eyes open at those word 'circle'...or 'en'. "Where is he, where is Coach?" he asked panicking but with a low tone. If he was found now he would be in too much trouble, the events of yesterday still flashing through his mind with his coach stomping and lowly cursing around in circles.

"Right up above us." the child answered, slightly scared by the panicking voice. "Come on, we have to go." Tsurugi said. Keeping the pace up again. finding their way back through the thick bushes within this cursed forest.

The child walked beside him, holding onto Tsurugi's shirt to not fall behind. The aura from Endou faded away as time went by. The sun would be setting soon in but they didn't plan on returning back to the caravan. The child looks at the surroundings.

"Do you feel anything yet?" Tsurugi asked the the kid who didn't saying anything for a minute or two, still trying to 'feel' his surroundings but he shook his head.

"Sorry…" he apologised but Tsurugi shook his head, saying to him, "It's fine. Just tell me once you sense anyone else nearby like earlier." Tsurugi told and the spirit nodded eagerly and simply continued, closing his eyes and focusing as hard as he could to find Sword's friends. It was a surprise for to learn that the ghost had actually possessed such an ability but it was a pleasant surprised nonetheless. The ability to 'feel' and 'sense' one's surrounding to see what usually cannot... It was a tempting allure that made him almost wish he was dead as well. Almost.

Tsurugi took out a band and a glove from his pocket and laid it out in front of the ghost. It took only moment the spirit to familiarise himself again with the auras left behind on them by their owners.

The captain's band and the right glove of a goalkeeper…their second goalkeeper to be exact.

Time goes by as he watches the spirit's attempts to find his friends.

…then the ghost opened his eyes.


*CLANG!* went the piece of metal, clamping with huge jaws the size of a shark.

Tenma was shaking and Shindou looked around to see if there was anymore, prodding a fallen branch unto to the ground to spring up anything else.

"It looks like it's safe to continue on. Let's go." he said and Tenma followed obediently behind. There were so many that he had lost count and he was starting to wonder if they were even set there to only trap animals.

Shindou stopped halfway again. He looked around, wondering if he heard what he heard. He grabbed his junior quickly and dove into a shallow cleft, covering his junior mouth to keep him from making a sound.

"Hmf?!" Tenma muffled his question but the older boy shushed him and held him down, pulling some enmeshed leaves and branches on top of them.

"Be quiet!" he scolded, scanning the area quickly and waited for something. Anything.

"…ou sure they're there?"

Both Tenma and Shindou thought they had heard a bomb going off because they just couldn't believe what they had heard.

"That's Tsurugi!" Tenma whispered jubilantly but Shindou wasn't sure.

"Okay. And slow down! Let me catch my breathe!" Tsurugi said.

Shindou moved his body forward a bit to listen into the conversation to find out as much as he could. He then thought for a moment and he slowly pulled back with Tenma, reaching into his rucksack for something else he had packed when Tenma wasn't looking.

"Stay here." Shindou whispered to a confused Tenma, passing the bag over to him and he crawled out into the open, poking his head out to see Tsurugi at a distance down and wondering if there was anyone else. He was shaking nervously, his hand in his pocket.

"Shindou? Tenma?" Tsurugi called out from just below from where his two friends were, still was trekking up the slope and trying to keep up with the small ghost who ran up the mountain in a sprint but when he turned, came back down again to Tsurugi to check on him and maybe to poke fun a little.

"Do you want stop?" the ghost asked teasingly.

"Be quiet!" Tsurugi snapped with a gasp as he shook his head. "And you keep saying there but where is there?"

The ghost pointed up ahead of them as an answer. "There is there. But are you sure we should go? I can feel that one them is very scared and very agitated."

"Don't worry, that's probably Tenma." Tsurugi answered. "He really gets scared easily like that and besides, you said he's with someone, right? Then that's probably Shindou. He's a trustworthy, caring person and so I'm sure he's taking good care of Tenma."

"Okay." he answered, watching Tsurugi worriedly as he trudged through the dirt covered in sweat with his jacket tied around his waist, obviously too hot for him. "Are you tired, Sword?"

"Well, what do you think?" he asked sarcastically and the ghost giggled and zipped up ahead of him.

"Then come on and hurry!" the ghost teased playfully. "Or should I slow down for you?"

"Oh, cut me some slack!" the striker snapped angrily and the ghost came back giggling in a blink of his eyes.

"So I should slow down?" he asked laughing.

"That's not it all! I'm just tired! The only reason why you aren't in because you're-" Tsurugi said but stopped to think. He didn't want to point out such tragic thing and make him go crazy again like in the bathroom before. "You're…younger than me! Age gets to you at this time!"

"But you're only just a couple of years older me." the ghost said. "And when you think about, Mister said I died lots of years ago so really, you're much younger than me."

"I mean it physically." Tsurugi said.

"…I'm okay with being dead." the ghost said and Tsurugi felt a jab of guilt. He looked at the ghost who didn't look happy but not sad either. It was an impassive expression of nothing.

"Do you mean that?" Tsurugi asked and the ghost took his time but he nodded his head softly.

"But it gets lonely." he finished. Tsurugi wasn't sure what to say because the situation was so unfamiliar to him. He turned the two continued on. "Hey, what do you plan to do after this?"

"Easy. Go back home and pretend this never happened." Tsurugi answered and the ghost nodded, following him. "What do you plan to do?"

"I don't know." the ghost answered.

"Well, you have to decide." Tsurugi said. "We'll be leaving once this is over. You can probably return to the museum if you'd like."

"Yes…I probably should." answered the ghost, disheartened.

"Or if you'd like, you're free to stay with us." Tsurugi offered and the ghost jumped with joy at what he heard.

"Really?!" he asked, absolutely thrilled.

Tsurugi shrugged. Stranger things have happened before and in comparison, the ghost was definitely the most pleasant. He was unaware of the suspicion he was casting upon himself as he approached his friends and Shindou was growing more anxious. Shindou's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Who is he talking to?"

Theories began to pop up in his thoughts, none of which he could explain which only furthered his paranoias. Was he wearing a wire and talking with that monster? Was he being threatened to find them? Were they being watched that very moment?

He cursed at how much of a loss he was at. He usually would know what to do but now he was rendered helpless and that also meant he and Tenma were helpless and that was something he couldn't take. He went back to where Tenma was hiding and pulled some more leaves and branches over on top of him

"Tenma, no matter what happens, stay here until I tell you to come out." he told the midfielder and he went out quietly, ignoring his inquiries as to why he was leaving. Tsurugi was a friend, wasn't he? Then shouldn't he be relieved? But if this could be a trap…

"And you needn't worry. I won't hurt him that much. He might even enjoy it."

He had to make sure it wasn't…for Tenma's sake.

He slowly crept back out but he kept behind a tree, not wanting to be spotted by his friend too quickly.

"Tsurugi?" Shindou asked. "Is that you? Are you alone?"

Tsurugi stopped and looked ahead quickly to where he thought he heard Shindou's and by his side, a ghost happily clapped his hands.

"See! I told you I felt someone!" the ghost said proudly and Tsurugi nods his head. He was still surprised at how much he had done but the praises could wait until later.

"Shindou, it's good to hear from you! I thought-" he answered in relief but as soon he came closer, Shindou panicked and screamed at him, "Don't come closer! Are you alone?!"

Tsurugi stopped, surprised to hear the peaceful Shindou yelling threats at him with clear malice in his voice which was something he usually would do, not his polar opposite Shindou.

"What are you talking about? It's me, Tsurugi so don't worry." Tsurugi said, taking a step closer but Shindou just cursed.

"I don't care! Just tell me if you're alone or not!" He yelled without sense of amiability because he really didn't care it was Tsurugi. He wouldn't have cared even if was Sangoku.

The ghost slunk back and looked up to his friend. "Sword, you called him..?"

"Shindou." Tsurugi finished with a whisper.

"God…child." the ghost managed to utter. "But I thought you said that it was Heaven…"

That was what Tsurugi thought too. Tenma was eager and was easily amazed and surprised; hence, easy to frighten on certain occasions, especially when it came to situations like these in which he would usually panic outright. But this time, it was Shindou.

The ghost held his arm for support, looking over to someone who looked as though he was completely possessed by his own rage."Your friend is very scary."

Tsurugi said nothing to him but he agreed, he was very scary.

"Yes. I am alone." he answered, hold his hand so that he wouldn't get scared.

Shindou peeked out from behind a tree to make sure Tsurugi was telling the truth and there he stood alone or at least as far he could see, not noticing the invisible phantom next to him.

He sighed, relieved and stepping out into the path but he said nothing to Tenma, gesturing his hand to tell him not to come out yet.

Shindou finally stepped out completely, now face to face with someone who considered a 'friend' in what felt like an eternity but he kept his distance and Tsurugi frowned at Shindou, seeing not his teammate but a completely different but very familiar person. The predatory glare in his eyes, the way his back arched defensively, the how he breathed with so much anger and hostility… It was like seeing the shell of himself back when he was a SEED.

"Shindou? What happened to you?" Tsurugi asked him and his teammate looked around anxiously, not even paying attention to Tsurugi. He couldn't help but wonder why he was only wearing his soccer jersey, sure he would have been wearing the same thing as him.

"So you're really alone?" he asked desperately and the striker eyed the spirit before nodding his head. Shindou sighed happily, crying a bit of tears from joy.

"Sorry." Shindou apologised. "But…"

"But what?" Tsurugi but he just shook his head.

"No. It's nothing." Shindou answered. "It's just good to see you."

"Yeah…same here." Tsurugi answered with lump in his throat as he remembered about a certain teammate who lying in the hospital room back in town, not noticing the ghost beside him suddenly jolting shudder with a cold sensation flooding through him. "You should know-"

"Sword!" the ghost yelled, making Tsurugi yelp in shock in turn surprising the other male who began to eye Tsurugi suspiciously.

"Gah! Why the heck?!" he yelled to the ghost.

"Tsurugi?!" Shindou asked, taking a few steps back and fearing that the man somewhere nearby.

"Well-I just stubbed my foot." Tsurugi answered quickly, not sure how he would buy that a ghost of all things screamed at his ears.

"Yeah right! You didn't move at all!" he yelled back angrily. "What's happening, Tsurugi?! Are you really alone?!"

"Sword."

"Wha- Of course I am." he snapped angrily.

"Then who did you just yell out?!" Shindou asked.

"Why are you asking so much questions?!" Tsurugi said.

"Why aren't you answering?!" Shindou asked back.

"Sword…"

Tenma peeked his head out worriedly. He could hear them screaming like a boat's fog horn had a baby with an airplane's engine. This was fairly normal but what if the old man heard their voices reverberating through the mountain and found them? He should still be at that rundown shack but with tones they were using…

"SHUT UP AND TELL ME WHY YOU'RE ACTING SO WEIRD!" Shindou demanded, screaming away his voice.

"YOU'RE THE ONE ACTING WEIRD! WHY ARE YOU SO UPTIGHT ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT I'M ALONE?! ISN'T THAT A GOOD THING!?" Tsurugi yelled.

"Sword!" the ghost yelled again for the fourth time but like before, his voice went unheard, slowly fading as the argument grew and it was harder since only the golden-eyed boy could hear him.

"Sword, stop it please and listen to me!" the the ghost pleaded. "It's important!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING!" Shindou replied and he felt *this* close to losing it.

"THEN HURRY UP AND TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!" Tsurugi stated.

"SWORD!" the ghost yelled. "STOP IT! Stop it and just listen to me! Something is co-"

Tsurugi failed to hear the end of that sentence. A loud noise erupted, reminiscences of it still buzzing through the air. Birds and other animals flew away quickly from the all too familiar sound but Tsurugi just stared in shock and his ghost companion froze, holding his hands over his mouth.

For Shindou, it didn't really hurt at first. It felt like a simple pressure, similar to what you feel when a nurse starts pumping air into the sphygmomanometer when it's around your arm. But eventually he could feel the pain sink in along with the realisation that he had just been shot clean through in the shoulder.

Before either could say or do anything else, two consecutive blasts of gunpowder rang out and both Shindou and Tsurugi collapsed on the ground like a lifeless corpse, blood now streaming from both their heads and all in front of the young midfielder, still hiding shakily under the makeshift cover.

"Shindou…? Tsurugi…?" Tenma whispered fearfully, nearly breaking a tear when he saw Tsurugi picking himself painfully. Shindou was too weak to move but managed to let a sore moan.

Tenma was just too happy a first until another shot rang out, this time hitting a tree behind Tsurugi and the two got the idea quickly.

Tsurugi ran over to Shindou's side just with a side-step, narrowly dodging the fifth bullet and he quickly grabbed the injured captain and lied down behind a a monstrous tree for cover which proved hard and thick enough to stop and deflect two more oncoming fires.

The assault stopped, making Tsurugi wonder whether they were safe. He peeked his head out and another shot rang and Tsurugi quickly turned behind the tree, seeing the bullet's impact on the trunk with some bits of wood skin flying as the piece of lead hopped over on the ground in front of him three times.

Tsurugi let out a tiny curse while doing what he can to help Shindou, who was still bleeding by the thigh and head. It was horrible but not as serious as Kirino's injuries. He wrapped Shindou's shoulder with his jacket which made him remember that Shindou wasn't wearing his. "So why aren't you wearing jacket?" he asked.

"J-JACKET?! At a time like this?!" Shindou snapped.

"Well-What else am I supposed to say?!" Tsurugi said back. "Run? We can't run when while there's a gun trained on our heads and we certainly can't fight!"

"But my jacket?!" Shindou said, getting up while holding his graze which unlike Tsurugi's scrape of flesh, opened up like a sinkhole. "There are better things to ask than that!"

"Okay, then where is your jacket so we can change the subject like how to get out of here!" he said back with a surly tone.

"It's not with me, obviously!" Shindou snapped. "I gave it to…oh-oh no!"

"What is it?" Tsurugi asked worriedly.

And then two more fires echoed through and Tenma's pained shriek let out more than loud enough for the three of them to hear.

Tenma had been twice in one leg. He screamed out from the pain but he screamed again when a muscled suddenly dug into his brown, forcing his head down for a moment, muffling his cries before he found himself being pulled up and it was the most painful feeling he ever felt to be dangled inches off the ground with only his hair to keep him falling and he could feel the skin on his head practically tearing from his weight. He turned to see, much to his horror, who else but the man who had kidnapped him and Shindou with a demonic-like expression and a rifle on his other hand.

Tsurugi was too shocked to say anything. He just couldn't believe who was he seeing!

"Is-is that-?!" he said, trembling in his words. Shindou with a bitter expression, glared angrily at the monster. He looked in their direction but instead of dropping Tenma to fire his gun, he did something much worse. He slammed Tenma against a nearby craggy wall of the mountain and to but their outrage, he raised his foot and kicked Tenma where he had shot him, causing another, even more painted shriek from Tenma as held his back down with his free.

Tenma's leg was screaming and when thought nothing could be worse than what was happening, the hand clamped tightly on his hair pulled back with such a powerful that it only took two more hard tugs before Tenma his hair being ripped out from skin. With torturous session finished, the old man let go Tenma, dropping him callously on the ground sobbing hysterically as he felt his head bleeding.

The old man looked back at the tree, stuffing the strands of hair in his pocket and his left hand twitching for his rifle's trigger, eyeing it angrily.

Just behind it, Tsurugi was shaking angrily. He wanted to run out with Kensei Lancelot and literally kill him right there and then but as tempting as it sounded, Shindou couldn't let him go.

"That son of-!" Tsurugi cursed, hearing Tenma's cries.

"Calm down, Tsurugi!" Shindou told him with his teeth grinding. "He's just doing this so we would run out there and get shot down like rabbits!"

"Then what do we do then?" Tsurugi asked. If we don't do something then he's going to kill him!"

The old man became impatient. He looked down to see Tenma still whimpering and was actually trying desperately to crawl away from him. He didn't show anything but there was a glint in his eyes. "And where do you think you're going?"

"I don't know!" Shindou admitted. "Maybe we can use a hissatsu to distract him. I'll use 'Olympus Harmony' again to-"

"Mmfp! Hhhrmr!"

The two startled and turned to see what was happening and there they saw the old man standing on top of Tenma with his rifle nearly four inches deep into Tenma's throat who was struggling to breath with it slowly moving deeper into his mouth, who could only cry, fearing that if he moved, the gunman would accidentally pull the trigger he played with on finger.

"Tenma!?" Shindou yelled at the sight, going up to try and stop him from firing but then the old man pulled the trigger and everything suddenly turned cold for Shindou.

Tsurugi looked out with horror as he saw one more friend completely covered in blood from head to toe. Tenma stared in shock as well as he saw Shindou stagger, his left side completely and the man who had shot him was facing him and there, Tenma wouldn't forget it. He saw finally smile.

"Shindou!" Tenma screamed and much to his own horror, Tsurugi came out as well to help him. It wasn't that was careless, it was just a reaction but one the man fully exploited and fired another round and the ever so powerful and infamous striker fell down on the cold dirt and Tenma broke down, getting up quickly and tried to to run towards them the he felt another pull on his hair and he fell back.

"It's no use." he said coldly. "Now come on like a good boy."

"No! Shindou! Tsurugi! Help me!" Tenma yelled madly in tears but the old man gave him one hard blow to his face using his fists and Tenma fell back down.

Tsurugi let out a weak moan, wondering what had happened as the world spun around. He looked over to see Shindou on the ground and he wasn't moving. He turned his attention over to the blurred screaming and there he saw Tenma struggling violently with their attacker on him, binding his arms with his own jacket.

"Ten…" Tsurugi muttered as he watched helplessly Tenma being dragged away by the old man, holding firmly his arms as he continued to fight and struggle, each time calling out either to him or Shindou to save him.

"Tsurugi! Get up! Please get up and help me!" Tenma yelled frantically. "Shindou! Captain! Tsurugi!"

Tsurugi tried to call out to him as he tried to force his body to move but the large amount of blood he had lost made him very weak. Simply keeping conscious had become a difficult task and could do nothing but hear Tenma's crying fade away with the old man's abusive snaps to keep him in line until they were finally gone. It was only then in life's irony that he began to come around and began to regain control over his body. He finally managed to force himself up on his arms and as quickly as he could, he staggered over to Shindou to see if he was fine like him but an open, bloody wound on his neck was there to greet him.

"Shindou!" Tsurugi said quickly shook him, hoping he hadn't died.

"…ugh." he groaned weaklu. "Don't worry…I'll be fine…just go get Tenma before..."

"I can't do that! You're injured and the man has a gun!" Tsurugi said much to his own dismay as he could imagine hearing another fire from the accursed contraption.

"Listen to me…" Shindou said, pointing towards the bag that had been left behind, barely visible under the piles of dead foliage. "You have to look inside."

Not knowing what else to do, Tsurugi went and took the bag and looked inside as he had been instructed. There wasn't much inside except food, water, a pin, and a book with a '#12" sprawled on it. He took the book with curiosity and began flipping through the pages and inside it contained the purest of evil and cruelty he had ever witnessed. Never had he ever encountered something so violent and inhuman in the most polished form it could ever be. Senguuji Daigo…Kibayama Douzan…the entire Fifth Sector…none of them held even close to the contents of this simple book. It was actually an album to be precise and inside it contained photos of children, young students students, young women, several young boys…

And each photo of them progressed worse and worse. It first started with bounds and gags with them covered in bruises with tears in their eyes but soon he saw them crying blood with cuts, wounds, and black and purple patches all over, disfiguring them completely. Articles of clothing vanished bit by bit as their tortures grew more animalistic until finally it ended with a bone-chilling, heart-breaking sight.

One was of a naked women hanging from the ceiling in a battered state with lacerations scored all over her body but little blood drip out. There just wasn't any left. Another, a boy much younger than him in the same state with stab wounds everywhere and a gag stuffed in his mouth, his eyes still open but there was nothing inside. The next, she was only a little girl and there she was tied on a chair nude with a tightrope around her neck. Dry tears stained on her cheek and dried blood just every where else. Perhaps the most upsetting was one of another boy around his age because Tsurugi recognised him. He played against him just years earlier. He was a member among one of the teams he had defeated back when he was SEED and he remembered him well as he moved months later. He speculated it was because he hadn't taken the lost very well but there he was in the album, in tears tied up into a ball with clothes slashed, torn, and bloodied and the date it read on the photo was a mere two weeks after their match.

And what's worst of all…none of them had brown hair and silver eyes and when he counted them, they were twenty-one in total, eleven numbers higher than the list of victims who reportedly died within the forest and each one of them were obviously taken at different places, some he could recognise as parts of Inazuma Town.

"Do you understand now…?" Shindou whispered staring away, unable to look at the striker. "He told me everything. It's not just people with certain features… He targets anyone he can. This whole thing was just to keep the everyone looking for one serial killer…so much, when he struck a normal person who didn't fit it, no one would realise it was him."

Tsurugi didn't respond. This was too much, even for him. The shear wonder of the true number of people who fell victim to him was simply too frightening of a thought. His reach had extended all the way to their hometown and none of them had even noticed he was there. He looked at the cover the read the '#12' with a better understanding and it was absolutely terrifying. These people definitely weren't his first and they certainly weren't his last. How many albums did that man have? How many people were inside each one? How many of them were strangers to him and not people he had bumped into on the street? And more direly, how many of them are still alive?

It was too overwhelming. He felt like vomiting again but the possibility of Tenma being added within his next album quickly replaced every bit of that feeling with pure rage. Shindou could see that and he took out what he had been hiding the entire time in his pocket, a knife. A very big and sharp hunting knife.

"Sorry, I wasn't sure if I could trust you." he said weakly. Strangely, Tsurugi was all right with it. In fact, he was more than happy and took the knife. He helped Shindou up against the tree, tearing off a part of his jacket that was already tied around his friend's leg and carefully but quickly tied it around his neck in hopes it would help staunch the bleeding.

"I'm sorry but I'll see if I can get you help. " Tsurugi said and then hastily left Shindou alone.

Shindou could only manage a smile as he saw him leave as he could no longer continue moving, having been starved for a day and still reeling from all of what he suffered under his captivity. He wasn't sure if he was going to make either. He looked one more time at the overbearing dirtied album that Tsurugi had left with him, as if it was taunting him somehow.

Tsurugi, as he ran through the forest, couldn't shake off that there was something else about those photos that he also should have seen. Thinking back to what he had read in all those newspaper articles, he finally realised what was bothering him.

...each child was tortured and raped before they died.

"Do you understand now…?" Shindou whispered...

"Don't tell me…" Tsurugi thought, shaking more than ever now. "Shindou, you..."

"He told me everything. It's not just people with certain features… He targets anyone he can…"

It was so quiet, as if the forest itself was grieving and all alone once more, Shindou wept bitterly to himself.


Comblike, springing guillotine- I couldn't find a full description but I saw this once on television. It is a type of trap made to kill small animals. It is built like a normal tripwire trap except instead of releasing a snare, it releases a hold on the end of a flexible but hard object and sends it fly slamming on the animal. To make sure the animal would be dead, sharp ends are added on the side to impale the prey when the trap hits them.

Metal...with huge jaws- This is a type of metal foothold trap.

En- Pronunciation of '円' in Endou's name. Alone, it means round or money.

God...child- When separated, this is the individual translation of the characters in Shindou's surname.

Heaven- Translation of the first character in Tenma's name.