Black Phantom
Chapter 8:
He turned to see the woman known as Yoshiyaki standing in the shadow of one of her cherry blossom tress, dressed in a black kimono that allowed her to perfectly blend in the night. Despite his use of black clothes which also allowed him to hide in the shadows, he felt very exposed, like a corpse on a mortuary slab.
"What makes you think that you know who I am?" he enquired haughtily.
"Everyone suspects that you are Dr. Oliver Davies. You are the only person who would think that they would be in with a chance of bringing up down."
"Us?" he questioned, deciding it would be best to feign ignorance until he had come up with a way out.
"Don't play stupid. The Sakurazukamori. Guardian of the Cherry Blossom barrow. My tree would love to have you, I've never fed them a PK user before and I'm looking forward to using your powers."
The phantom thief fought back a shiver that was going down his spine at her words. Lin had never mentioned that the Sakurazukamori assassin would gain the powers of their victim, but it was no wonder that he hadn't known as they were a very secretive clan, for the obvious reason.
"What makes you think that I have PK?"
"Admittedly you are holding it in so I cannot detect it, but if you are Oliver Davis, of course you have PK," she said dismissively. "Now, are in Japan to track down poor Gene?"
His heart lurched at the mention of his twin brother's name.
"Don't say his name like that."
"Eugene it is then. Poor, poor Eugene, he was never the one we truly wanted..."
Naru filled in the gap easily. "You mistook him for me."
"Yes. We knew what Dr. Oliver Davis looked like from the video of a certain PK demonstration and we never knew what Eugene Davis looked like or that he was your twin. So when someone who looked exactly like Oliver Davis was spotted in Nagano by one of our members we... obtained him, thinking that he was you. We soon found out that he only had abilities as a psychic medium and not PK."
This confirmed the suspicions that Naru had been entertaining all along. His brother's disappearance had been caused by the Sakurazukamori and Gene had been kidnapped by mistake. What happened after that was unknown which was why he was tracking down members of the Sakurazukamori; one by one, using Kuro Kaitou as a cover.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked and glanced around him to ensure that there were no assassins hiding in the shadows.
The woman smiled sweetly. "Because none of it was anything that you did not already know before. As for Eugene's location, I will not tell you, simply because I do not know. He was moved tonight as a precaution."
"What will the Sakurazukamori do if I kill you now?" he narrowed his eyes.
As testament to the clan that she was a member of, Yoshiyaki did not even flinch and her smile widened.
"You won't do it because you are a good person with morals," she answered. "I was like that once. Corruption is easy, the bad side have power, like this."
She clicked her fingers and Naru noticed that parts of hands were blowing away in the breeze. A closer look revealed that her hand had turned completely into cherry blossom petals and this was continuing up her arms and the rest of her body.
"Good bye, Kuro Kaitou. We will meet again. Until the next time."
With that, the last of the petals blew away and Naru was left standing by himself in the garden with only the cherry blossom trees for company.
A year ago his twin had travelled to Japan to meet various other psychic and for research. After not hearing from him for three days Naru had become concerned and had begun investigating. He had used one of his brother's shirts for psychometry which had revealed that he had been lying injured under a cherry blossom tree. Then his vision had gone blank and his psychic connection with Gene no longer worked.
The fact that the vision had not gone green was a sign that his brother may not have died and that it was merely being blocked by someone with significant psychic powers.
He had informed his parents and requested to go to Japan to search for his twin and they had tentatively agreed on the condition that Koujo Lin, an experienced Omnouji , accompanied him.
The suggestion that the Sakurazukamori may be involved had come from Lin after they had found a cherry blossom petal in Gene's hotel room and Naru had recounted his vision in detail.
Between Naru, Lin and his parents a variety of suggestions had been put forward. Luella Davis had wanted to inform the Police which was immediately vetoed by everyone else. Martin had suggested private investigators and Lin had wanted to ask other Omnoujis for help.
The youngest member of the group had simply picked up one of the manga books that he had collected from Gene's hotel room and flipped through it, already familiar with the plot as it had always been one of Gene's favourites. The series was about a teenage boy who led a double life as a high school student and a phantom thief. The principal love interest was the daughter of the head of the task force set up to catch him which planted a certain plot in Naru's mind.
One year ago:
"How easy is it to become a Police Inspector in Japan and a Phantom Thief?" he asked.
"Can you repeat that please?" his father asked disbelievingly.
"I am planning on being a Phantom Thief that uses heists as a cover to investigate members of the Sakurazukamori. Of course, to make sure that no one arrests me, I need to be the head of the task force. Can that be arranged?"
His parents and Lin exchanged looks with each other.
"I'm sorry Noll, I still don't fully understand," his mother said hesitantly.
"All the plans suggested so far are almost certain to get us killed. The Sakurazukamori are likely to have some sort of influence over the Police and a private investigator would be murdered before he could get too close. Both plans can be traced back to use, meaning that death is inevitable for all of us," he explained calmly. "A Phantom Thief would be the ideal cover to hide behind and if I am the head of the task force I can gain entry to locations to case them as a Police officer without anyone becoming suspicous."
The omnouji frowned. "You may have a point and a highly convoluted plan, but you are too inexperienced to be in the Police force, let alone one in a foreign country."
Luella turned to her husband. "Isn't the Chief of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police the brother of one of BSPR's key sponsors?"
"Saguru Hakuba? You have a point and Noll is fully capable of passing the exams to be a Detective Inspector. It's a good thing that he won't need a physical exam..." Martin conceded. "Your mother and I will support this idea the best we can and the moment it gets too dangerous, pull out. We don't want to lose our other son to this clan of assassins."
"I will be careful and I will bring Gene back with me," Naru replied sincerely.
His mother patted him on the head and brightened. "We can discuss aliases. Noll can't use the name Oliver Davis for the obvious reason."
Naru looked down at his hands and knew that he didn't have to look far for inspiration. After all, Oliver Davis was not the name that he was born with.
"Kazuya Shibuya."
A shout of his criminal alter ego's name jerked him from the past and back to reality and he ran across the garden and back to the compound. Traditional Japanese houses were not the most secure as there were so many open ways in and paper screens were not secure in the first place.
He blew open the door of one room using one of his new bombs and went through the sliding paper screens to get into the next room and continued on until he reached the file room which had contained the hopefully exorcised Inugami curse. If it had not been exorcised he was in trouble, but Mai herself had pronounced the room free of curses so he was confident.
With a pulse of his PK he knocked all of the files onto the floor and began speed reading them for signs of anything related to the Sakurazukamori. If her powers were any indication, Yoshiyaki was high ranking.
He opened one brusquely and an envelope dropped out. The phantom thief opened it to find a photo of someone with the same face as him lying underneath a cherry blossom tree, dressed in a white yukata with his eyes closed.
"Gene..." he whispered. "Are you still alive?"
The sound of shouting became louder so he grabbed the notebook and left the way he came, stripping off his costume as he ran and he rejoined Lin and the others a few minutes later without anyone noticing that he had gone missing.
The woman known as Yoshiyaki materialised outside her former home. Illusion was a useful ability that she had picked up along the way. Something buzzed in her pocket and she pulled out of mobile phone,
"Kuro Kaitou really is Oliver Davis and yes, he is looking for Eugene," she said as soon as she accepted the call. "I don't think he will willingly join us and become an assassin so we will have to resort to other measures."
The voice on the other end of the line spoke briefly and Yoshiyaki was able to answer their question.
"I have an idea for his weak spot. We already have his brother so I can suggest another candidate. Mai Taniyama," Yoshiyaki answered.
If her senses were right the female Police officer was the right card to use to obtain Oliver Davis as she had shown a telling reaction when questioned a few days ago about Kuro Kaitou. She had also been suspicious of Kazuya Shibuya being a cover for Oliver Davis, but the man had turned out to be a mere part time monk.
"Be careful," she warned her conversation partner. "She is psychic- she might see you coming."
Can anyone identify the manga series used as Naru's inspiration? It is a real one and comes from the time period that Ghost Hunt was originally written in.
