In a dimmed study, a man with sandy blond hair was scribbling something on a yellowed page of a leather bound journal. There was a soft mewl from his familiar as it leapt on his table. The black cat sat on the table staring at its master with fathomless orange eyes. The man glanced up to meet the orange gaze of his familiar and he smiled in his usual mysterious smile as if he knew what that gaze meant.

"Yes, I know," He patted the cat's head, "she's alright." he said gently to his familiar, "So stop worrying." He shifted his pale blue eyes to an unseen audience and winked knowingly, "Well, hello there. We meet again."

He placed the quill into the ink bottle. Yes, this was the twenty first century but he loved old items. Many of the items in his palatial residence were ancient. Some were normal, some dangerous and cursed. Currently, he was busy trying to retrieve the second cursed item, the Deadly Vanity Mirror. It had claimed its first victim there were five more to go. The first victim died horribly. She was skinned alive. He had to get to it before it claimed the remaining five victims and formed into something terrible.

His curse breaker and partner, Haruhi Fujioka was to meet him at a Maid Café in Shibuya was the one owned by the sweet tooth Mitsukuni Haninozuka called 'Choco-Candy.' But she called to say she'd visit him in his home. He was taken by surprise when she said this. He knew she didn't really like the immense mansion. There was an incident here which had caused her to disappear for half a day into a different dimension. When she did appear, she was injured badly.

It wasn't traumatic for her because as she claimed that there were clear and present danger at the other side that needed her help. If she didn't help, it might have disrupted the universal balance. It was so like her to be fair even when the odds were against her. She was tough and soft at the same time. A good EQ balance as well as having a high IQ was an added plus. The experience in that dimension somehow made her see things differently.

She wasn't skeptical when he asked for her help in his quest to retrieve the three cursed items. She shone again for the first quest in retrieving the seven coins of Midas. So, he was pleased when she informed him that she would come to his home. The house welcomed her. He could feel it in his bones. He blinked when his familiar tapped his hand with its paw. Then he nodded his head as he remembered his invisible audience.

"How rude of me to have made you wait. What a terrible host I am." He closed his journal and laid his head on the high backed leather chair. Lightning and thunder could be heard and seen flashing and clapping from the two windows in that circular study room.

His enigmatic, pale blue eyes shimmered and looked almost electric as they slowly met his invisible audience, "It was a night just like this that Kirimi's best friend's cousin had experienced something extraordinary. It happened two months after her accident. I called it the 'Call from Beyond…'"

Asada Heights, Apartment X-TA-C…

Naoko Hirada's entire body seemed like it was made of solid lead and she felt like she was being pulled in by an invisible magnet. She wheezed for breath but water entered her nostrils and mouth. She sputtered and choked while her body thrashed about, trying to break free from the grasp of death. Her head hurt terribly, as if someone or something was whacking hard at her cranium. Her skull cracked, blood gushed out, blurring her vision and she felt herself slipping under water, drowning in her own bathtub!

Her hands flailed and she screamed. Water gushed into her mouth… She woke up with a start, her heart was beating wildly and she coughed fitfully. All traces of sleep gone, she was perspiring and trembling as she slipped out of bed, hugging herself while shuffling towards the bathroom. Then, she stopped at her tracks, as she saw a flash of lightning and jumped at the clap of thunder. Sudden fear gripped her. She hesitated at the bathroom door, then turned and headed towards the kitchen instead.

There, she washed her face at the kitchen sink. Then, she grabbed a cookie from the cookie jar. She raided the fridge for a carton of full-cream milk. She sat on the kitchen stool and poured the milk into a mug. She ate another cookie. She didn't care about diets. She had no use for them since having these dreams. This wasn't the first time she was 'seeing' her own death. Nothing went right for her ever since that horrible car accident two months ago. Her parents died in that crash.

The bus that was out of control wasn't because the driver was drunk, he was avoiding another car whose driver was drunk and the bus driver swerved but one of the tires burst and that was what made the bus to lose control. The bus crashed through the divider and went over the other side of the road. That when the accident occurred. The bus banged their car. The impact sent their Daihatsu Mira spinning and then crashed against a divider separating the road and the ravine.

Her father who was at the wheel died instantly, her mother who was badly injured with both her legs stuck under the compacted car told her to safe herself. She didn't want to go but her mother screamed at her to go because it was too late for her mother but it wasn't too late for her. The car groaned and the divider creaked loudly. She heeded her mother's advice as she scrambled out from the broken back windshield. She dropped to her knees and as she turned she saw the divider broke and the car plunged downwards into the ravine.

She screamed and screamed not because of fright but seeing her mother's tear filled goodbye as she stared at her for the last time until she fainted. She was unconscious for two whole days. When she came about, and begun her life as normal that was when things started to go wrong for her. She started to have nightmares of her own death ever since moving into this apartment.

Fear was building by volumes with each dream more vivid than the last, weighing her down. Not even drowning her anxiety with midnight snacks in full force could eliminate the terror she felt. The terror she felt was enough to neutralise the fat build-up. She wasn't surprised at her current self. The reflection in the mirror showed a person with sallow complexion, reed thin body, sunken cheeks and bloodshot eyes with dark rings. Just as she was about to drink, her eyes widened in dread.

"Oh, no…," She cried in horror, "Not again!" She dropped her mug, and the milk had turned blood red. The mug broke into pieces spilling its contents.

The liquid didn't spread on the kitchen floor, but gathered itself and 'travelled' out of the kitchen. She was gripped with fear and curiosity but curiosity won and she found herself trailing it into the living room, then into the bedroom, heading straight for the bathroom. It crawled into the bathtub, slithered up the tiled wall at the head of the bathtub's taps. There it stopped. The dark liquid bubbled, forming a watery face. She jumped back in fright, slipped and fell on her bottom, as the watery red eyelids opened, revealing blood-red, tortured eyes.

Its mouth opened, spurting blood onto her pyjamas. ""H-help… h-help me… please…"

Her stomach churned at its rasping, miserable voice. She braved herself and managed to ask weakly, "Help?"

The apparition writhed in pain, "Here… died… killed…" The bloodied eyes stared imploringly, "Here… please…"

She woke with a start. Her pyjamas were damp with perspiration. It was a dream within a dream. She climbed out of bed as realization hit her. Those previous dreams that she had wasn't about her predicting her own death but it was the spirit of someone who lived and died here in this apartment. It was the spirit of someone who'd been murdered, relating the sin and asking for her help through dreams. She dragged a sledgehammer from the store room into the bathroom, stopping at the spot where she had fallen.

She looked at the tiled wall at the head of the bathtub. Gripping the sledgehammer with firm determination, she swung it at the tiled wall at the head of the bathtub's taps until she managed to make a large hole. She was covered in dust when she stopped. While brushing the soot off, she peeked with fearful anticipation into the hole and suddenly a skeletal hand with bits of rotted sinewy skin burst forth and hung at the edge of the hole.

"Acckkk!" She yelped, than clamped her mouth, stifling her horror. Her eyes caught sight of a shiny object clasped in its grip.

Wiping the beads of perspiration on her grimy forehead with the back of her hand, she looked carefully at the object, trying not to touch the skeletal hand. It was a watch and it had an inscription – 'Shigeru Inohara.' She'd heard of the name before. It was the name of the property agent and owner who sold the apartment to her. She gasped as her mind pieced everything together. She had proof and instinct told her that the murder weapon was hidden in the apartment, maybe even buried with the victim.

She frowned as she suddenly recalled something about man had a wild looking tattoo on his wrist. It was black and shaped of a seiryu (dragon) with flaming red eyes. He was one of the henchmen of a notorious yakuza leader in that prefecture. The yakuza leader was Roichi Murakami. But Inohara was afraid, wouldn't look and didn't dare look at the bathroom when he showed her the apartment. Now she knew the reason. He was guilty as hell. He would not get off that easily.

Gazing at the skeletal hand, she whispered, "Justice will be yours." Resolute, she went to the telephone at the side table beside her bed and dialled for the emergency number for the authorities, "Officer, I'm Hirada Naoko," Gulping her apprehension, "there's a dead body in my house, my address is…"

"Near death experiences often would trigger some unexplainable phenomenon to its victims. Some spiritualists would say that those who'd experienced near death were given a second chance in life to make the lives of the living and also the dead a justified one. In Hirada's case, she was what spiritualists would call a 'seer.' She 'sees' things that would make your skin crawl. These apparitions could be anything or anyone and projected to her anywhere and at any time." Umehito Nekozawa stroked the black cat's head lovingly.

"What are you mumbling about, Umehito-senpai?" A familiar voice made him look at a pleasing apparition before him.

He stopped stroking his cat. He glanced to see his favourite person besides his dear sister. "I told you not to worry." He spoke to his cat that had turned into a hand puppet when she entered the study ushered by the butler.

"Of course," Haruhi was looking at him with concern in her warm brown eyes, "I'm worried about you," Looking around at his line of sight wanting to see what he was seeing but couldn't, so she shook her head, "I was in front of you and I called out your name six times already."

Umehito smiled, "If you called my name for another thirty eight times, I'll be with you always." His eyes gazed at his curse breaker in a way only his cat knew what it meant.

She blinked unbelievably at him, "Are you alright?"

"I am excellent as always."

She frowned slightly, "I didn't ask how excellent you were." She sighed, "You rich people, can't even hold a normal conversation."

"I gather you had a tough time traveling here." He still gazed at her with that slow mysterious gaze of his.

She had a hand on her hip, "If I knew it would be raining this hard I'd have asked you to teleport me here. I hate lightning and thunder…"

"Actually," He smiled, "I did teleport you here. The terrain here's just as dangerous when it's raining or snowing." Then he was serious, "And I knew you hated lightning and thunder."

She was speechless. She didn't want to know how that happened. Anything impossible was possible for him. She didn't even want to know why that part of the episode was erased from her memory. She didn't dare ask him. The answer would probably shock her to death. It was best to let the unknown stay as it was.

He stood up, "You must be hungry, let's adjourn to the dining room." He came to her side and offered her his arm.

She took his arm, "Yes, I'm rather hungry." She nodded, than she tugged his sleeve, "Fill me in about the quest."

"I will."

"There's news about one death most gruesome," She told him, "Skinned alive the woman was. There's a nut lose somewhere…" She glanced at him, her eyes widened as it sank into her mind, "Don't tell me… it has something to do with our quest."

He wanted to sing when she said 'our quest.' But because of the gravity of the situation, he just nodded. Out of volition, "I don't want to lose you," He muttered under his breath, "You're too valuable to me."

"What're you mumbling about now?" She looked curiously at him.

His answer was as elusive as his smile, "There's a second chance in life. Cherish it." But nevertheless it sent chills down her spine.

THE END

A/N: This is the second installment to Nekozawa's Journal of Mysteries. These two installments can be considered as prelude standalone independents. I'll stop at chapter three. However, if you want more independents to Neko's JoM, please do leave a line or two. The independents will have bits of their real quest. The real quest will begin when there're enthusiastic responses from you. The real quest will get its own space not shared nor inserted here. If you would like to see their supernatural quest come to life and how the mystery is unfolded, please by all means leave me a message / review. Another thing, if you read this chapter, there's a slight indication of my previous story WISH. This is to inform you that this prelude is after WISH (after they'd graduated from Ouran - 5 years for Haruhi and 7 years for Nekozawa). Those of you who are waiting for updates on the fantasy / mystery - LORD HARU, romance / humour - TENSHI FOR AKUMA and fantasy / adventure WISH, please be patient. Due to demands from you for a sequel to the fantasy / romance - KARESHI CARESS, I've a story frame for it in mind and am calling it as KARESHI CARESS: SECOND AGE. Right now, I'm still cultivating the plots for each series. But they won't be coming out so soon. Also, I've a sudden urge to write supernatural / mystery stories, so those of you who're into Neko/Haru will get an eyeload. Again, their quest (title TBA later) will depend on you.