Author's Note: Now we talk a little bit more about the Asahara/Church of Light. I feel like I haven't done enough this week. I was worried that I wasn't going to get much out of this week, but I like how it worked. I already know what we are doing next week. How is this season going to turn out? You are going to have to stick around and see. For now, enjoy this week's halo.
Halo Four: Asahara:
Kitano hit record on his tape player.
"To create a player in the game, they have to be driven to utter despair. Despair that they cannot climb back from. There has to be no hope in their eyes. Redemption is out of their grasp. Basically, it has to be hopeless for them. Then, we offer them some notion of relief. They have to willingly take the deal for it to work. So in a way, it's like a deal with the devil.
"I am happy to say that the process is starting without a hitch. There's just one more obstacle that needs to be cleared. From there, the Woman in Red's powers will be freed."
Kitano frowned. "However, there is another problem that is slowly rearing its ugly head. The Asahara. For now, no one in Ikebukuro is buying what they are selling. Still, I wonder how like that will last. Murata comes across as an ambitious young man. Given the size of his following, he's managed to get by with his charms.
"This could be a problem for us. The question is, how do we deal with Murata and his church? I have some ideas, but it will be time-consuming. It is a good thing that I believe in delegation. The only thing to answer is who would want to take this task on.
"But there is another problem."
Kitano sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Unfortunately, one of our pets is involved with this Church of Light. We are going to need to get her out while destroying the church."
He lowered his hand. "I don't like when things are made more complicated than they need to be. Still, it can't be helped in this situation. It needs to be stopped before it gets out of hand. That is it for now."
The therapist hit stop.
Saitama.
Sasaki Eito and Inoue Narumi were once in love. Their friends made fun of them being all lovey-dovey and icky. Eito and Narumi just laughed it off. They knew that their friends were happy for them. So how could it have gone so horribly wrong?
Eito was a proud member of the Toramaru. In fact, he and Rocchi were close. They met during their senior year of high school. Chikage thought that he looked lonely. It was him who approached him. Eito was sitting alone on the roof when this pretty boy walked up to him.
"Yo," he said. Eito gave him a strange look.
"What do you want?" he asked. Chikage sat down next to him.
"Not much," he said. "I'm Rokujo Chikage. And you are?" The other boy narrowed his eyes at him.
"Why?" he asked.
"Just talking with you," Rocchi said. Eito frowned at him.
"You're weird," he said. The gangster shrugged.
"I get that a lot," he said. Even back then, Rocchi had that strange charm that drew people to him. It didn't take long for Eito to follow Rocchi wherever he went.
Eito's younger brother had to ID the body. Even he wasn't aware of anything being wrong.
"I'm so sorry for your loss," Rocchi said outside of the police station. The fourteen-year-old boy looked up at him. He didn't say anything and walked away. Non clung to her boyfriend's arm as the other girls stayed close behind. Narumi's parents already IDed her remains earlier that morning. Yes, her remains. The details are still too horrifying to the public.
Ikebukuro.
Hisakawa looked at the crime scene photos on her desk. She had two different ones side by side. The first picture was of that body found in the fancy apartment. She had been found naked on the living room floor. Yen bills were stuffed into her mouth. Her stomach had crude, large stitches. The medical examiner cut them open to see her internal organ had been pulled out and replaced with yen coins. The official cause of death was disembowelment. The victim's id was Shizumu Aina. She was a home care nurse. It was suspected that she was stealing from her clients. Some of the families that she worked for felt no sympathy.
The latest victims were Iwai Habiki and Kamiya Chisuzu. Both of them worked at the same company. Iwai was the manager and Kamiya was a top-ranking office lady. Just as Hisakawa suspected, Iwai was married. He had been married for close to thirteen years. Two children and the family lived with his elderly mother. Kamiya was mostly single.
The detective shook her head. Something told her that these two cases had to be connected. She couldn't put her finger on it.
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.
"Yes?" Hisakawa asked. She turned to see the door creak open. A rookie cop stuck his head in the doorway.
"Excuse me," he said.
"What is it?" the detective asked.
"Here are the lab results," the cop said. He held up the folder in his hand. Hisakawa walked over and took the folder.
"Thank you," she said. She opened it up and looked inside. A curious detail stood out under the toxicology report.
"Ketamine?" Hisakawa asked. She looked up at the cop.
"Yes," he said. The detective took a moment to think.
"Just like the first case," she muttered to herself. The rookie cop gave her an odd look.
"That live-in nurse?" he asked. Hisakawa looked up at him.
"I think I might have a connection," she said. She walked over to the crime scene photos of the three victims. The rookie cop walked up to her side.
"How can you be so sure that these two cases are connected?" he asked. "There are plenty of places to get ketamine. Like the vet's office." Hisakawa turned to him with a little smile on her face.
"Thanks for the idea of where to start," she said. She patted him on the shoulder and walked over to her computer.
"Huh?" he asked. Hisakawa sat down and started typing away on her computer. He walked over for a look. The detective was already buried deep into her work.
The Asahara arrived in Ikebukuro three days before summer break ended. Already, Murata became his filmed preaching. The members began recruiting more to join their flock. How are they doing?
Well…
"Do you want to join the Church of Light?" the recruiters would ask.
"No thank you."
"Not interested."
"Go away."
"No."
"No way."
"No thank you."
"No."
"No."
"No."
That first day didn't go as planned. Oh well, there were going to be here for a while. Plenty of time to recruit new members. Reverend Murata knew this too well. He was going to make it happen.
Noriko sat back in her desk and looked up at the ceiling. She reached up to one of the lights in the classroom.
"Sometimes, I think I am going crazy," she said. Masaomi looked up from his phone.
"Huh?" he asked. She looked over at him. The girl shook her head. The blonde shogun frowned.
"Come on," he said. "Did those girls say something stupid to you?" Noriko shook her head.
"Then what is it?" Masaomi asked. She lowered her head.
"I feel like I am losing my mind," Noriko said.
"What do you mean?" he asked. She lifted her head and hesitated for a moment. Could she say this without coming off as she said?
"Well… It's just…" she began. Noriko paused and lowered her hands.
"I keep finding myself in weird places," she said.
"Weird?" Masaomi asked. "Weird like how?"
"It's usually a place that I've never been to before. Sometimes, I will find myself by a place like a public pool," Noriko said. "I don't know how I got there. I wouldn't have any shoes on either. There's something not right about this place. Everything looks normal, but it looks so… wrong. You know what I mean?" Masaomi tilted his head.
"What exactly are you saying?" he asked. "Like what does this pool look like?"
"It's like… I want to say that I feel like I have been there before, but I haven't all the same," Noriko said.
"I'm not following."
"It's like a pool that I have been to when I was a kid. But something seems off about it." Noriko frowned.
"I'm not explaining this right, am I?" she asked.
"No, I'm listening," Masaomi said. "What about it?" The girl felt like she was talking too much but just had to keep going.
"That pool isn't the only place either," she added. "I have myself at the subway station, different hotel lobbies, in houses I've never seen before. I just end up there and I don't know how."
"And this is a dream or something?" he asked.
"I don't know," Noriko said. She sat back in the desk.
"I think it's going to get to me," she said. "It's all becoming blurred to me. Sometimes, I can't tell if it's all real or it's all in my head." The girl looked over at the door.
"Like how can I be sure that I won't walk out that door and disappear into another place?" she asked. Masaomi turned and looked at the open doorway. He could see in the hallway. The door itself looked normal.
"Hm," Masaomi said. He rose to his feet.
"What are you doing?" Noriko asked.
"If I go out that door, do you think I will disappear?" the blonde shogun asked. A worried look came over her face.
"Please… don't…" she said. Masaomi turned and walked over to the door. He walked out into the hall. A few seconds passed. Noriko's stomach dropped. No…
She leaped to her feet and ran to the doorway. The girl looked down the hallway.
"Kida… -kun?" she asked.
"Ba!" Masaomi shouted as he swung back around the doorframe. Noriko fell back with a yelp. The boy broke into laughter. She looked up at him, glaring.
"That's not funny!" she snapped. Noriko picked up a rag and chucked it at him. The boy laughed.
"Okay, I'm sorry," he said. Noriko sat on the floor, pouting. Masaomi held out his hand.
"Here," he said. He helped her to her feet. She didn't say anything.
"We'll keep you grounded if you feel like you are floating away," Masaomi said.
"Huh?" Noriko asked. That calm smile on his face was all she needed to know to understand what he was saying.
The first sermon was had gone great. This was to be expected of Murata after all. Still, it wasn't enough. After that first sermon in Ikebukuro, he sat in front of his vanity mirror and frowned.
"Is something wrong, sir?" his right-hand man asked. He was in his thirties with a boyish face. The suit made him look that much younger. Murata glanced up at him.
"It's not enough," he muttered. The right hand and the other two men went quiet. Murata huffed in his seat.
"I mean, it's only the first time," one of the other men said. "You have to give things time." He was near fifty at best. He looked younger in his fancy suit. Murata whipped his head around. The man went quiet. The minister looked at the couch behind him. The woman with the red hair in her dark blue cheongsam.
"What do you think, Miya?" Murata asked. The woman shrugged and shook her head. The minster huffed. He was going to have to turn up the charms. Ikebukuro was a tough crowd. Tokyo didn't seem to have many believers as Okinawa did.
No. This wasn't going to do.
Murata rose to his feet.
"Sir?" his right-hand man asked. The minister turned with his flashing grin.
"It's time to get to work, everyone," he said. Miya sat with a stoic look on her face. She already knew what was coming next.
Aya walked down that narrow alleyway. She made it to the brick wall and pulled out her pink piece of chalk. The therapist drew the door on the wall and pressed her hand on the surface. The door appeared in front of her. She opened it and went inside. She walked past the cool breeze in her face.
Chatter greeted her as she walked down the stairs. The blood knights were already waiting behind their booths. How long had they been waiting for her? She pushed aside the red curtain and walked into the room. Aya took her place in her booth. She picked up the bell and rang it. The room grew quiet. The therapist cleared her throat.
"Everyone," she said. "The time has come for us to advance the game. You are free to make your kills." The knights cheered behind their booths. Aya rang the bell again. The room grew quiet. The therapist picked up a small clicker and pushed the button. Little screens popped up in the twelve booths. Murata's face appeared on them as they turned on.
"This is Murata Kichizo," Aya said. "He is the head of the Asahara, also known as the Church of Light. He will become a nuisance to us. We want one of you to kill him."
"I'll do it!" Number Four said.
"No, I want to do it," Number Twelve said.
"But he fits in with my theme of heresy."
"But he's 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.'"
"Heresy!"
"No other gods!"
"Heresy!"
"No other gods!"
"Hersey!"
"No other gods!"
"Hersey!"
"No other gods!"
"Hersey!"
"No other gods!"
Aya gritted her teeth the whole time. The cracks in her patience started to form as her temple throbbed. The other knights stayed quiet as they listened.
"Heresy!"
"No other gods!"
"Quiet!" Aya finally yelled. Four and twelve stopped arguing immediately. The therapist took a breath.
"Right," she said. "There is a better way to do this." She reached into her purse and plugged up her phone to the machine. With one tap, a dice gambling app appeared on the screens.
"Call it, evens or odds," Aya said.
"Odds," Four said.
"Evens," Twelve said.
"Okay," the therapist said. She tapped to screen for the dice to roll. The knights waited with their eyes glued to the screen. The cup lifted on the screen.
"Odds!" Aya shouted.
"Yes!" Four shouted, pumping their fist in the air. Twelve sat back, pouting.
"Aw, don't worry Number Twelve," Number Eight said. "You'll find someone else to fit 'Thou shall have no other gods'. You already got two kills under your belt already." Twelve still looked mad. Aya cleared her throat.
"Any other questions?" she asked. No one in the room spoke.
"Good," the therapist said. "You are free to begin your kills. I am sure that some of you have already started. That is all." The meeting was over for the week.
The Church of Light was determined to have Ikebukuro in its grasp. It was going to take some time, but they were confident that they could do it. Murata was going to have to step in and guide them in the right direction. Meanwhile, he did manage to get some new members to join.
Kitano looked at the picture of Chisa in her high school years. Not making removing this obstacle from the game personal just got that much harder.
Saki started to sense that the end was coming for her. When summer break ended, no, even before then, she began having nightmares. Most of them ended with her death. She had been strangled, beaten, stabbed, drowned, and shot. The thing was Saki could never see the face of her killer. It was never the same person. Sometimes, they looked like normal people. Sometimes, there was no face at all. There were even times that Masaomi was the one killing her.
Last night was one of those dreams.
Masaomi had no expression on his face. He doesn't say a word either. He just stabbed her in the neck. Saki didn't get a chance to make a sound. She let out a small gasp. Masaomi didn't stop stabbing her. The blade went into her throat and chest repeatedly. Saki let out a gurgling noise as the light was snuffed out from her empty eyes. His blank expression would be the last thing that she would ever see. The last thought in her head was why would he do this to her.
Saki couldn't bring herself to tell Masaomi about her nightmares. He looked like he had too much on his mind. The deaths of the Yellow Scarves added more to his plate. Mikado's condition was already getting worse. No, Saki had to keep this to herself for now.
But how long was that going to last?
Yuuko watched Saki from outside her window. She frowned and pulled out her phone.
"Hello?" Daichi asked. The dark angelic girl looked frustrated.
"Can I kill the girl now?" she asked.
"Not yet," he said. Yuuko started whining over the phone.
"But I want to kill her now!" she whimpered. "It's not fair!" She puffed up her cheeks and frowned.
"At least wait until your brothers get here," Daichi said. Yuuko dropped her shoulders and sighed.
"Fine," she grumbled.
"It will be well worth it, I promise," her handler said.
"Fine!" Yuuko said again. She hung up, frowning. Yuuko took one look at Saki through the window before she vanished into thin air.