Black Phantom
Chapter 5:
2 weeks later:
Mai gawked at the building in front of her. It was a Japanese style house that was spread over an impressive amount of land. A large garden with an ornamental pond and bridge and a collection of cherry blossom trees could also be spotted. She was about to make a comment when she noticed how tense Lin was. His eyes were staring straight ahead and his hands were curled into fists with white knuckles showing.
"Lin-san, are you worried about Naru? I'm sure he will feel better after a day's rest," she reassured him.
The beanpole glanced down at her and forced a small smile on his face.
"You are right. He can get over his food poisoning without me. Come on, Officer Taniyama," he said and led the way to the entrance of the house where they were expected.
The owner of the house was a formidable elderly woman with a poker straight posture and a malevolent glare. She served them tea and then some criticism.
"Why should I have a pack of bumbling Police officers stumble around my house to catch some thief who had not managed to steal anything?" she griped.
"Although we have not caught Kuro Kaitou yet, we have come close and we just need some more evidence," Lin explained calmly. If Mai hadn't seen what he had looked like before they went in, she would have been convinced by his unruffled demeanour.
"Hmph," the house owner grumbled. "I will permit a maximum of eight officers and the rest will be my private security service.
Lin bowed his head. "Thank you, Yoshiyaki-san."
She fixed him an dubious look. "Where is the head of the task force?"
"He is... indisposed by some food poisoning," he answered.
"Hmm..." she fixed her attention on Mai. "Taniyama-san, wasn't it. I hope you are not in love with Inspector Shibuya."
Mai flinched, but in surprise, not fright. "Of course not."
The woman narrowed her eyes. "What about the dashing Kuro Kaitou? Surely you must have encountered him at past heists. Did he seduce you into letting him go?"
Now Mai did flinch in fright which did not go unobserved by Lin.
"We have to get back to headquarters. Thank you for the tea, Yoshiyaki-san. I will see you in three days time."
"Would you like to take a look around the garden first? I cannot have officers falling into the pond at the heist so it would do you some good to see it."
As they walked through the house Mai shivered and when they walked past one door she jumped and began to shiver uncontrollably.
"Taniyama-san, is there something wrong?" Lin asked in a hushed voice so the cantankerous old woman would not hear.
"There's a curse in that room," she hissed and pointed. "It's set to activate to something, but it's not us."
"We will discuss it in the car," he decided as it obviously wasn't safe to discuss curses in the house of a member of the Sakurazukamori.
Mai nodded and tried to stop shivering so she would not draw unwanted attention to herself; she didn't want to face any more scrutiny from the owner of the house.
"Do you like the trees?" the woman asked as they stepped out into the garden. She pointed at a blooming cherry blossom tree.
Simultaneously Lin and Mai paled as both knew about the legend of the Sakurazukamori, although Lin was the one to know that it was actually true.
"How did you get it to bloom so early? Hanami isn't until next spring?" the brunette officer questioned.
"Special fertiliser," was the mysterious answer.
Blood, Lin corrected in his head. To avoid glancing at the ominous tree he looked around the opulent garden. It seemed to have everything that a garden could possibly have and all the plants were blooming out of season. His sharp eyes spotted an empty kennel.
"Do you have a dog, Yoshiyaki-san? You never mentioned that before when I asked about security."
"It died last week."
"It's an Inugami curse," Mai informed him as soon as they had driven away from the house. "It involves burying a dog's head."
"That makes sense," Lin agreed as he kept one eye on the traffic and one on her, using the mirror. "But how did you sense it? I did not feel anything."
He watched her mouth tighten into a frown and her gaze drop to her lap.
"I'm a latent psychic..." she said quietly. "Watch out!"
Immediately Lin braked and switched his attention back to the road. He shouldn't have turned around and looked at her at the same time he was driving around a roundabout. Once he had pulled onto a quieter road he resumed the conversation.
"You are a latent psychic?"
It certainly explained why he kept hitting the nail on the head about everything from PK to calling Noll a Japanese form of his nickname. She hadn't consciously come up with those ideas, it had been her psychic senses which was a relief in some ways, but the next thing that she came up with might prove to be their downfall.
"Yes, Bou-san and Ayako noticed that I kept hitting on the truth behind various hauntings and tested me. I'm not very reliable though, I tend to forget details."
Mentally Lin berated himself for not preparing for her arrival sooner. If they had kept her busy, tea making did not count, her mind would not be free to come up with things that came to close to the truth. He would have to have a talk with Noll.
"Do you think that the curse is set to activate to someone entering that room?" he enquired.
With no trace of her usual airheaded personality, she answered. "Yes. Kuro Kaitou is the most likely person to have a need to enter that room meaning that Yoshiyaki-san will be able to possess him or kill him."
Upon hearing her explanation Lin became slightly glad that she had joined the task force otherwise neither Naru or himself would have known the extent of the trap waiting for them.
"Is there any way to remove it?"
Mai frowned and screwed up her eyes in concentration. "I've never read an exact method of removing an Inugami. One way I have heard of is to get the person who buried the dog's head to repent, however Yoshiyaki-san..." she trailed off. "We could dig it up and get Ayako or Bou-san to bless the area. That's the only possibility I can think of."
"Are Officer Takigawa and Officer Matsuzaki free on the night of the heist?" he asked thoughtfully.
There was no way that he was going to leave the curse in place, but removing it with Yoshiyaki knowing would be challenging.
"They should be. Are you going to ask them to remove it?" she shot him a cautious glance. "Considering that you are a member of the Kuro Kaitou task force you should be glad that someone is making an effort to catch him."
"I'm a Police officer, Taniyama-san, it is not within the law to curse someone even if they are a criminal. It is also highly dangerous to be in the debt of a spirit which is another reason for not condoning it."
Fortunately for Lin she accepted his answer and did not ask him any more probing questions. Once they returned to headquarters, he made a trip to the toilets to inform Naru about the Inugami set against him.
"...so if it not removed by Friday I will be in trouble," Naru summarised once Lin had explained.
"Correct. We will have to take Officers Takigawa and Matsuzaki with us as part of the task force so they can exorcise it discreetly. Unless you can think of an alternative?"
"No. Mai is correct in this case, there is no other alternative."
The familiar use of Taniyama's first name caused Lin to recall her response to Yoshiyaki-san's questioning about her relationship with Kuro Kaitou and her witness statement from the previous heist as well as Naru's strange behaviour after the heist.
"Noll... you said that you "took care" of Taniyama-san at the most recent heist... By any chance did you make a ...romantic advance towards her?" he questioned hesitantly.
There was a taut silence on the other end of the line before his charge replied.
"It was nothing to worry about. She fainted the moment I got close to her. There is no need to tell my parents."
"If you say so, but please try to keep your contact with her to a minimum. Now that we know what she is a latent psychic we cannot take any chances," he warned. "Do not fall in love with her, Noll. For most people that is where it all goes wrong."
"I won't," Naru answered after another moment of silence. "My delivery from Dad has finally arrived after getting delayed at customs so I am setting it up."
Lin accepted the change in subject. "Do not try it out until I get back."
The woman known as Ayumi Yoshiyaki to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police held out her hand underneath the cherry blossom tree and caught a petal that was swirling in the breeze. She crushed it in her hand and let it fall.
"A latent psychic and an Omnouji, if only I could feed them to my tree. However Kuro Kaitou will be more valuable than them," she said out loud and smiled. "It will be worth killing that dog."
She glanced up at the night's sky which was illuminated by a crescent moon.
"In three days there will be no moon. How will the thief that uses moonlight as a cover cope? "
Inugami is a Japanese curse that requires the burial of a dog's head after burying the dog alive in the ground for a number of days.
Next Chapter: Naru meets Yasuhara.
