Disclaimer: I don't own anything. (Though I wish I do)

Summary:

Have you ever heard of Dark Magic? What do you know about them? Natsuki is a rising star in the Fuka Police Headquarter who solves her case based on logic & facts. However, her world is turned upside down when she meets Shizuru. Shizuru lives in a world that can never be defined by logic and facts. What happens when the two meet? ShizNat Rated T for now

A/N:

Hi everyone, I have kind of rewrote the story. But don't worry, no major changes to the story. Hope you can reread this story and enjoy it better.

Chapter 5

"Ne...Natsuki..." Shizuru said and took a step closer to Natsuki. They were now cheek to cheek. "Let's find some place where there is only Natsuki and me and no one else to distract us ne." Shizuru whispered into Natsuki' s ear.

"Wh...wha...what are you doing?" Natsuki asked, jerking backwards and covering the left-side of her face with her hands. She could feel the warmth left by the contact just now. And her skill is so soft.

"Don't you want to know what happened just now?" Shizuru asked, leaning forward, once again too close for Natsuki's comfort and soon her face turned a darker shade of red. "Follow me and I will tell you."

Shizuru turned and walked off to a distance.

Chapter 6

Shizuru turned and walked off to an area not far from the crime scene with Natsuki following suit.

It was not far from the crime scene but it offered sufficient privacy from any prying ears.

"Ne..." Shizuru paused before continuing. "Natsuki, what do you know about spirits and paranormal activities?"

"That they don't exist."

Shizuru burst out laughing at that. Her laughers were like wind chimes, tinkling in the wind. "Then how would you explained what happened just now?"

"I...Well..Its..." A frown permanently etched on Natsuki's face as she tried to rationalize her experience.

Though it was mean of Shizuru but she really enjoyed looking at Natsuki struggling to find a logical explanation for what happened earlier on.

Natsuki clenched her teeth and finally let out a growl. "Grr...Alright. I could be wrong! So tell me what happened just now and..and I will...I will...learn to understand it." The growl turned into a mutter.

The grin on Shizuru's face widen but only lasted for a while before she look away, gazing into a distance a far away look on her face, her ruby colored eyes darken.

Natsuki was surprised. She never knew that Shizuru could have this kind of expression. She would have thought that Shizuru would take this opportunity to tease her.

"Ne... Natsuki, a person's journey does not end when he or she dies. When a person dies, her spirit leaves behind the body, which is now an empty shell, and move on to the next stage of her journey. Her spirit would then move on to a specific plane/realm of existence. And in this plane/realm, the spirits would stay and continue their existence, waiting for his turn to be reincarnated." Shizuru said with a faraway look on her face. "However, there are spirits that refused to move on and chose to linger on in the human world. They could be staying here for various reasons."

"So…those that I saw just now are spirits of the deceased? Who refused to move on?"

"Yes. Often the case once those spirits' unfulfilled desires are fulfilled, they should be able to move on to the nether world, waiting for reincarnation. For example, a mother might refuse to refuse to move on because her child is still young and in need of care. And so she might linger in the human world until the child is fully grown up or when there is someone to take care of the child. Or a murdered victim might choose to stay in this world in order to witness the trial of his/her murderer."

"Then what about those..erm..spirits that we saw just now?" Natsuki frowned as she recalled the previous events.

"Human can be righteous or evil. So does spirits. In the earlier examples I mentioned, those spirits are harmless. Meaning they do not have the ability nor will to intervene in our human activities. In other words, they can call them mere observers of human activities. They have no ability to change or affect our actions. In other words, they are harmless. However, there is a group of spirits whom we call the 恶鬼 (er gui) [恶 - er (evil); 鬼 - gui (spirits)]. They harm the lives of the human."

"So those which we saw just now are the evil ones?"

"Yes, including Shiho. For the past 1 year, I had tried on several attempts to summon Shiho's spirit but with no success. I had thought that she has moved on. But just a few days ago, I managed to summon her."

"And that was when her remain was stolen by Tsumugiya Ichinose and Hanakari?"

"Yes, coincidentally, that was around the time when I succeeded. She was already vengeful, full of hatred and ready to kill when I summon her. But she escape before I could do anything. So I was tracking her down when I stumble upon you extracting Shiho's remain."

"So us moving around in circle, returning back to the same spot again and again was due to Shiho? "

"Yes it was due her. In fact the moment her remain was dug up, she had placed a Kekkai or boundary around the Reserve forcing us to return to the same spot repeatedly. This is known as 鬼(gui) 打 (dai) 墙(qian) [鬼(gui) - spirit; 打 (dai) - construct; 墙(qian) - wall] which mean construction of walls by spirits. It was meant to confuse human's sense of direction, trapping them within the boundary."

"And the White and Red spirits?"

"Ara, Natsuki seems to be very interested in this ne." Shizuru teased. The previous solem aura disappeared.

"Ba...baka...I am...just trying to understand this whole thing!"

Shizuru's grin only widen. "Shiho knew that it is impossible to kill Tsumugiya with me around. So she had help from others to divert my attention to somewhere. And it so happened that you were standing too close to me when the Reds and Whites crashed into me. So you were implicated as well. Shiho had me and you transported elsewhere so that she could focus on killing Tsumugiya without having to deal with me at the same time. I would have to give her credit for that."

"Shit! How am I going to write a report on this." An exasperated Natsuki lamented as she combed her hands through her hair. "I can imagine Sakamoto's reaction when he sees my reports on spirits and paranormal activities"

"Ara, Natsuki has a tough time ahead ne." Shizuru replied and gave Natsuki a gentle pat on the shoulder, completely unsympathetic to Natsuki's plight.

"A few more questions. What happened to Munakata Shiho? What do you plan to do with her?"

"Ara, Natsuki seemed rather concern with Shiho ne. Would you like to keep her ne?" Shizuru said she she took out the test tube containing the origami star but only to see Natsuki shaking her head vigorously.

Natsuki wants nothing to do with spirits after today.

Shizuru chuckled.

"This origami star was folded using a talisman and is meant to capture and contain the spirit. Shiho is now contained within this origami star. I will get someone to conduct a ritual for her to send her off to the netherworld where she belongs."

"I see. That's good. At least she is moving on."

Shizuru's eyes soften at Natsuki's comment. Ara she is a gentle girl ne.

Two days later…

Shizuru was watching the news broadcast when the news of a criminal runaway was found drown in a river near the Fuuka Nature Reserve came up.

It came as no surprise to Shizuru. She had expected it. There was a black aura of death surrounding Tsumugiya Ichinose when she first saw him at Fuuka Forest Nature Reserve. The aura gathering around him was that of 怨(yuan) 气(qi).

怨(yuan) is grudge or animosity while 气(qi) means aura.

For a person to gather so much grudge or 怨(yuan) 气(qi), he must have committed many sin.

It was not surprising as he had been illegally digging up the remains of deceased, making money off them, earning the wrath of the deceased. To disturb the deceased in that manner is disrespectful. When too much grudge gathers, retribution will occur and death is needed to atone for the sins, appeasing the deceased.

Shizuru sat in her living room and took out the test tube which contained the origami star and stared at it for a while.

Shizuru had admitted to Natsuki that she was unable to explain why Shiho's spirit did not respond to her summon earlier on.

Shizuru herself included was puzzled by that.

And why did Shiho turned vengeful upon her death.

When a person die and the spirit left, the spirit is supposed to keep the personality traits which he/she had when alive. If the spirit was a kind and caring person in life, the spirit will most likely be the same way in death. Likewise, angry and mean people will usually keep those same negative character traits as spirits.

Shiho was never a mean nor evil person by nature. Though she get jealous easily but she had always been kind and loving towards Yuiichi and the Viola family.

So why did Shiho turned into an 恶鬼 (er gui) and trying to seek vengeance against Yuiichi nii-sama and the Viola family?

恶鬼 (er gui) with 恶(er) meaning evil and 鬼(gui) meaning spirits or ghost.

But Shiho was also vengeful, out to seek revenge. An evil spirit need not be vengeful.

An evil spirit is out to harm the living in general. But when a spirit turns vengeful, it has a specific target and will not rest until revenge has been taken on that specific person or a specific group of people. And for Shiho, her targets seemed to be those who stole her remain and for some reasons unknown Viola Yuiichi and the Viola family.

As Shizuru sat staring at the star, Natsuki's words echoed in her mind.

Just this morning, Shizuru had received a message from Natsuki and the message read:

Hi Shizuru-san, I was putting together all the evidences when something in Tsumugiya Ichinose's testimonial strike me as a little odd. While in interrogation, Tsumugiya claimed that Munakata Shiho's coffin had nails attached at all four corners of the coffin with red strings tied around the coffin and a yellow talisman placed in the middle of the cover. I'm not sure if people normally do that to coffin. Not sure if such details help.

Kuga

The action of nailing the four corners coffin and tying a red string around the circumference with a talisman placed in the middle was to trap the spirit together with body. This prevented the spirit from leaving the body and moved on to the netherland world.

To achieve that, one has to dig out the coffin within three days from the day which the deceased passed away. Once the coffin is digged out, one will have to put the four nails at the each corner and tie the red strings round the circumference four times. The red strings and nails must first be soaked in the blood of a black dog for forty-nine days, after which they can be used. Then a talisman has to be placed in the middle of the coffin. But the act is not done yet. After all these, one has to circle the coffin hundred times, chanting the ancient words. And this has to be done for a week. Each night the one who chanted the spell has to return at 12 midnight repeating such act, no one day should he miss the act. And once the act is done, the spirit will be trapped in the coffin. Unless someone disturb coffin which was what Tsumugiya Ichinose and Hanakari Seito had done. Once the spell was broken, Shiho's spirit was released.

But who would do that? To cast such a vicious dark spell on Shiho?

Natsuki printed and saved her report before switching off her laptop. And then she sat there pondering over this case, rereading her report again and again.

In the end there were some questions left unanswered.

Who really killed Hanakari Seito? Tsumugiya Ichinose or Munakata Shiho?

While all evidence pointed towards Tsumugiya Ichinose as the culprit, Natsuki find it hard to completely exclude Munakata Shiho as a possible murderer. There was simply no reason for Ichinose to kill Seito.

Funny for a police to suspect a ghost of murder. Natsuki thought to herself mockingly.

"Shit!" Yuuiki Nao cursed as she wandered along the third floor corridor of the school building. "Why do they build such a huge school? And for goodness sake where is the toilet?"

Fuuka Academy School was an elite school with a huge campus, housing both the Fuuka High School and Fuuka University. Yuuiki Nao was a first year in Fuuka University. She had chosen this school solely for the people who studied here. They will be the elites of the country in the future. Interacting with them now will definitely be a boon in the future. And most importantly, they were rich kids. Having a rich boyfriend will make life easier.

Nao turned right and saw the female toilet situated at a corner.

"Thank god!" Nao muttered under her breathe. There were only 2 cubicles inside the toilet and lucky for her both were empty. There was a woman washing her hand at the sink. It seemed that she had just finished using the toilet. Lucky me. Nao thought as she dashed into one of the cubical. Any longer, she would have wet her own pants.

Nao stepped out of the cubical and saw the woman still standing at the sink washing hands. Nao couldn't help but frowned in irritation. The toilet is not that dirty that you have to wash your hand for so long. The woman was vigorously pressing the tap and rubbing her hands against the running water repeatedly, her head bowed focusing on the task at hand.

Nao would have ignored her had the woman not be blocking her access to the liquid soap. Nao waited for a while but obviously the woman was not moving an inch. The sound of running water from the tap loud at the background.

"Oh for god sake, could you just excuse me. I need the soap." Nao spoke out loud and clear.

Immediately the woman stopped her washing.

"You can see me?" The woman raised her head to look at Nao.

Shit

Nao stared into a pair of eyes with blood red iris. Droplets of blood was trickling from the corner of her eyes. The colour of blood a bold contrast against her pale skin.

The temperature dropped several degree.

"You can see me, can't you." A statement this time. And the woman smile.

It wasn't a nice expression.

Just as Nao was about to scream, the lights in the toilet flickered once, twice and the whole room went into darkness.

The scream caught in her throat.

There was complete silence.

All she could hear was her ragged breathing.

She could feel the coldness creeping up her spin and the hair on her neck standing up.

OUT! She needs to get out! Nao thought she inched her way to the door in the dark.

Just as she grabbed the handle of the door, she felt a pat on her shoulder.

A cold pat and then a murmur next to her ear. "You saw me."

It was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Nao took a deep breathe and let out a scream as she slammed open the door and flee towards the stairs.

She didn't dare to look behind.

What if I turned and come faced to face with the 'woman'?

The thought was too horrifying.

Nao ran down the stairs and out of the building before she stopped a distance away to catched her breathe.

Here should be safe. Nao thought.

But just as she was about to move off, she felt another pat on her shoulder.

This time with no hesitation, Nao took flight again.

"What is wrong with her?" The security guard mumbled as he saw the redhead dashing off after he tapped her on her shoulder.

Nao stood in front of the same school building which she ran out of two days ago.

She had came back in the end. She didn't want to but she left her bags together with her wallet in the toilet. And money in her wallet was to pay her mother's medical bill.

She knew what she saw in that toilet two days ago.

Ghost

She had told some of her boyfriends but all of them shook off the notion of spirits, thinking that it was all a joke. And so she was here on her own to retrieve the bag.

That ghost that she saw in the toilet was definitely not the kind sort.

Nao paced back and forth in the lawn, biting into her fingernails.

She needed the money urgently. The hospital had sent her a message yesterday reminding her to pay the medical bill as soon as possible before they are forced to stop her mother's treatment.

Shit shit shit.

Nao tightened her fingers around the talisman which she bought from a temple, gathered her courage and stepped into the building once again.

She traced her steps up to the third storey and stood outside the toilet. Her hand shook as she slowly pushed open the door.

Nao let out a sigh of relief when she saw the toilet was empty.

Good job Nao. All you have to do now is grabbed the bag and run.

Nao couldn't find her bag. She remembered she had dropped in on the floor. Nao recalled as she kneeled down to search under the sink.

But as she turned to her left, she saw two feet dangling slightly above the ground and droplets of blood dripping on the floor. Nao looked up saw the woman grinning at her from above, blood trickling down from her eyes down her cheek.

Nao screamed and dashed towards the door, trying to fling it open. But the door remained stubbornly shut.

Once again, the light flickered off.

Nao had her back against the wall this time.

Complete darkness and complete silence. Every nerves in Nao's body was strung tight.

Just then Nao felt cold fingers tightening around her necks.

Tighter and tighter the fingers squeezed.

"You can replace me here." The woman whispered into Nao's ear and chuckled.

Nao could feel her legs dangling above the ground.

The ghost is too strong. I can't breathe. Nao thought as she struggled to loosen the fingers around her neck.

The talisman!

Nao fumbled and threw the yellow paper at the ghost.

But it just bounced off the ghost like any normal piece of paper.

What the Fuck! Pirated version! I got cheated!

Wait! The pocket knife!

Nao took the knife and thrusted against the ghost, screaming "Get the hell away. Fuck you!"

Again and again, Nao thrust the knife into the body as she scream at the top of her lungs.

That went on until the lights in the toilet flickered on and someone stood at the door asking, "What hell are you doing?"

And that was when Nao saw herself sitting on top of a decomposed corpse on the floor.

"Why Nao, you looked so natural with the handcuff on! I almost couldn't recognise you!"

"Stop your sarcasm Kuga." Nao snarled.

Natsuki smirked as she sat down in front of Nao.

She and Nao were first cousin on their mother side and were childhood friends. They used to close but drifted apart after the death of Natsuki's mother. In fact it had been years since they last saw each other.

"Still as mean as a snake huh Yuuiki-san."

"Shut the fuck up mutt."

But Natsuki only grinned at her. And the grinned turned into chuckle.

"Nice to see you again Nao. Though I guess it would be better if we could meet each other at a different circumstances rather than in an interrogation room."

Nao rigid stance dissolved as she slumped back into the chair.

"Yar nice to meet you too mutt."

"Now tell me what happened..."

"Natsuki, how is your cousin?"

"She has kind of settle down. Thanks for giving me a chance to talk to her."

"That is what friends for are. Anyway, we are not really bending any rules for you. All suspect is entitled for a visit by family members." Mai gave Natsuki a friendly punched on the shoulder.

"Thanks. Since I am related to the suspect, I won't be able to involve myself in this case. So I will have to trouble you to handle this case alone."

"Don't worry, there is also Akira-kun. Will updated you soon."

Natsuki watched as Mai moved off to look for Akira and sighed.

Nao had told her everything including the incident with the ghost. Natsuki had thought that she would never have to handle cases related to paranormal activities again. But guess she is wrong. Natsuki sighed once again.

Nao will unlikely be charged for any crime. There will be a high probably that she will be acquitted.

Firstly, the forensic team concluded that the female victim had committed suicide and the body was found to be highly decomposed.

Therefore Nao could not be a murder suspect.

Secondly, Nao was street smart enough not to mention the incident involving the ghost. Natsuki had read Nao's testimonial. She claimed that she had visited the toilet the first time but something spooked her and so she ran off leaving her bag behind. Having noticed that she might have left her bags in the toilet, she decided to check the place again two days later and try to find the source that spook her. But while she was in the toilet, there was a blackout and then she felt something fell on her, forcing her onto the ground. Thinking that it was an attack, she took out the penknife and attacked whoever that forced her onto the ground.

While this wasn't the truth, it was the closest it can get to the truth.

So there wasn't any concrete evidence to suggest that Nao has committed a crime.

However, there was something else which Natsuki was also worried about. The ghost that appeared in the toilet.

From Nao's account, it was obvious that they were dealing with an 恶鬼 (er gui) [恶(er) - evil; 鬼(gui) - spirits or ghost]. While Nao may have escaped safely this time round, what about the next person? Will next person be as lucky?

Natsuki thought, tapping her fingers on the table. Her gaze fell on the phone next to her fingers.

Viola Fujino

A/N:

OMG...I finally manage to squeeze out one chapter! Phew...

I would like to thank for always supporting my story.

Hope you enjoy the story and do drop me a review :)