In the afterlife, there is an institution that judges the sins of the dead. That institution is called the Ministry of Hades. 1 Within the judgment bureau of the ministry is the Summons Department, whose charge it is to retrieve any lost souls still wandering the mortal world. A special agent of the of the summons department is the shinigami, a guardian of death. 2

Currently, three shinigami were frantically discussing on the events that had occurred as the fourth of their group was missing. Shinigami must worked in pairs in the field on earth, currently Williams and Smith were accounted for, it was Asato Tsuzuki who was missing his own. The older man, who had died at 26, was nearing 100 years old of existence but was no preoccupied with locating his physically 16-year-old partner.

"There was no energy discharge." Stated Smith who had been with Hisoka. "Kurosaki just vanished." He said for the umpteenth time in frustration.

Williams shook his head and yawned, he was getting tired, and teleportation didn't cut jet lag across time zones. "You didn't catch anything unusual?" He asked his partner.

"Aside from Summers' threat, nothing."

Tsuzuki was pacing his eyes holding an unreadable look. "Could Summers' have done it? Her record shows no extraordinary abilities but very weak spiritual power." He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Watari recently reported that the system had been tampered with, though. Summers may have been the one who did it." He muttered aloud.

"Tsuzuki, you idiot! Stop worrying so damn much, I could feel you from outside the building!" Yelled Hisoka as he entered through the door. "I'm fine." He rubbed his head; a headache was building up, how he hated being empathic at times. "Whatever happened to me will have to wait, a lot of people are in danger." So Hisoka began to tell them exactly what he saw. The shinigami immediately began to plan on their attack, on the creatures Hisoka had seen.

Elsewhere within the Ministry, they scientist/doctor, Watari was analyzing the computer system. What ever had happened was confusing him. There were errors in the data, when he pulled them up he could clearly see them but when he tried to run any diagnostic programs, no sign of interference or tampering appeared. He didn't understand, there were certain computer programs he knew about.

"Maybe it has to do with the Summers case?"

Watari let a out a frustrated cry before turning to the unfamiliar voice behind him to tell him not to bother him with the work. "Who are you?" He demanded looking at the figure before him, this was no one he knew. He knew of mostly everyone working in the department and he was certain this individual didn't.

The figure before him reeked of power. He looked perfect, Watari felt that this physical appearance was lulling him into a calmer state; if he had been human he felt he would sure have fallen into a type of hypnosis. His physical appearance melted to a normal one as the affect lost its grip. Smiling at him, the man raised his hand. "You'll have your answer soon enough. In fact, you'll get to know me a better after this." Watari screamed.

Outside the room Watari was in, Tatsumi heard the scream several halls down. He ran to the room only to encounter no one. The only evidence that the scientist had been there was a fallen hair ribbon that was sometimes used by the scientist and his owl, 003, circling around a small area hooting frantically. Tatsumi carefully approached the area. He felt a presence approach him, the shadow master quickly through the shadow at the figure. Turning around, he saw no one there and felt no one there. His shadows melted away.

Tatsumi quickly left to notify the others. In the hallway he was stopped by the smiling figure of the man he was going to report as missing. "What's the rush Mr. Tatsumi?" 3 He asked, holding a brewing cup of coffee. Tatsumi smiled.

"Nothing, I had merely thought I had heard a scream, I was mistaken it seems." Watari looked at him.

"Over working yourself?"

"Maybe. Excuse, Mr. Watari"

Watari merely stared blankly as Tatsumi disappeared from view. Turning around, he ventured to the room he had previously had inhabited. 003 flew out of the room, she refused to land on the man. Watari eyes followed the bird before he turned back to the computer. "Now, what could possibly go wrong next?" He asked laughing.

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Buffy smiled at Umi held the wooden sword to her throat. It had been a good demonstration with her parents and hours of interactive combat resulted in a few "successful" offensives by Umi on Buffy. Buffy stood up and stretched, Ichigo entered the living room which had been rearranged to accommodate them. "I will be serving dinner soon." She announced to the room.

Umi smiled. "I will help my mother, excuse me."

Buffy sat confused, she was certain the work dinner had been thrown in there. After hours of fighting and no real lunch, she was starving. She looked at the watcher who was sitting in the corner. "You go clean up, dinner will be ready in an hour or so. In the mean time, I'll place these things back in their place."

Getting up, Buffy headed toward the bathroom. Before she entered she heard someone yelling in Japanese outside. Looking through the window, she spotted one of Umi's sisters. She looked to be struggling with a bag of garbage that had spilled open. Luckily, most of it has stayed in tact. She shook her head, at least the danger of broken garbage bags still prevailed across the ocean. Buffy moved to the shower, aside from a small disturbance, life was normal. She froze for a moment before continuing to the shower.

Meanwhile above the earth, Watari looked down from his position. Where ever he was he didn't know but he didn't know one thing. "Is there anything to do up here?" He wondered trying to find a way to get back to either Earth or Meifu. Aiming for the Ministry, Watari's face was stern; there was his doppelganger interacting with the others.

He turned to the being that had brought him here.

"No need to worry, I don't like my guests to worry!" It called in mock pleading. With a wave of it's arm, Watari fell into a deep sleep. "It will all be over before you awaken." It chuckled out.

As Buffy stepped out of the room dressed, she headed toward Hikaru. Briefing him on her dream, she told him to contact the main branch in Japan. If she was being targeted, she had to know by who or more likely what. As she told Hikaru of what she recalled, Hikaru frowned but did not say anything. Moving toward the his cellular phone, Hikaru couldn't help but feel nervous, why did it seem like he should just let things be?

OOOOOO

1 and 2 is stated with in the English comic/manga versions of the series, it explain the basis of Descendents of Darkness or Yami no Matsuie which ever title one is familiar with.

3 is a bit more simple. –san is an honorific but translates as Mr/Ms/Mrs. Seeing as how that could through off reading of those not familiar with this term I decided just to translate as the dialogue was already implied to be Japanese to begin with.

This chapter in all is to state the PtB's attempt to infiltrate the Ministry, Buffy's own actions show her own ignorance to what is occurring. My OC watcher is aware of Shinigami in reference to Japanese mythology but doesn't know whom Buffy is really speaking of but feels like he should leave it alone due to something I'll reveal in an upcoming chapter.