Black Phantom:

Chapter 11:

Naru froze at Bou-san's words and racked his brain at top speed to produce a plausible denial that would convince the monk that he was wrong. He had made a mistake in underestimating the monk. A mistake that he never wanted to make again. He forced a smile on his face.

"You have to be careful about saying things like that, Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san will shout at you again."

"You can't fob me off like that, Naru," the monk said with a devious smirk. "Just spill the beans now, the less time you waste denying it, the less faster we will find Mai."

The scientist shot Lin a questioning glance. Although Lin was his bodyguard and it was Naru that gave the orders, he preferred to have his opinion on important matters like this as he was normally more level headed. In return Lin gave him a slight nod of his head.

"There is no point in denying it. I am Oliver Davis and Mai has been kidnapped by the Sakurazukamori," he sighed.

Bou-san raised his eyebrows, he hadn't expected such a fast confession whereas Yasuhara looked unsurprised. As for his girlfriend her mouth resembled a certain famous person of someone screaming.

"Are you Kuro Kaitou?" was the monk's next question.

"Yes and Lin is my accomplice, but you have already guessed that."

It had hit Bou-san suddenly that the profile that they had been constructing matched the head of the Kuro Kaitou task force, Kazuya Shibuya who seemed to be highly intelligent, but hadn't actually caught the thief yet, meaning that there was a high probability that he really was Kuro Kaitou. Then he had recalled being on the receiving end of Mai's rant after her first day with the task force with one of the key points that she had been reprimanded harshly by Kazuya Shibuya for jokingly suggesting that the phantom thief was a PK user and that the Inspector knew what PK was, but he had never heard of Oliver Davis which was inconceivable as the two were synonymous.

There could be only one reason to feign ignorance, Kazuya Shibuya had to be a cover for Oliver Davis.

The clincher had been the idea that the nickname "Naru" had some connection to his name and he had remembered a conversation that he and Yasuhara had had with an Australian priest about western names and their abbreviations. He had been sure that Oliver could be abbreviated to Noll so he had checked with Yasuhara who had confirmed it.

Naru began to notice that a certain priestess was glaring at him. A memory came floating back to him of Mai explaining Ayako's feelings towards Oliver Davis.

"Ayako says that if she ever meets Oliver Davis in person, she will castrate him for taking up so much of her boyfriend's time."

He shuddered and decided it would be best to change the subject.

"As Takigawa-san knows, I can go Psychometry and I have borrowed Mai's key..."

Bou-san's eyes widened in excitement which was half about Mai and the other half was the prospect of seeing Oliver Davis use his abilities. "Can you trace her?"

Naru shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. All I saw was the kidnapping, someone with psychic abilities is blocking it. Takigawa-san, you are correct about the Sakurazukamori being involved."

The monk shot Ayako a triumphant look before he turned serious again.

"Do you have any way of finding Mai? Or any knowledge of where she may be imprisoned?" Ayako enquired. "Surely you have learnt something."

Instead of replying Naru snapped open the notebook that he had found at the penultimate heist and handed it to the redhead.

"It contains a list of names and addresses of members of the Sakurazukamori. Most seems to be low ranking members who have no idea who they really work for," he pointed to one that had been circled by him. "This is Yoshiyaki, who turned out to be a very high ranking member."

Ayako turned the notebook round so the others could read it.

"Were you planning to progress down the list?" Yasuhara asked.

"Yes, unless a better alternative made itself know, " Naru answered. "We won't know exactly where she is until they send me, as Kuro Kaitou, a message."

Bou-san nodded. "I understand why you got me to impersonate you at that heist; you didn't want the Sakurazukamori to tie Kazuya Shibuya with Oliver Davis. Do they know who Kuro Kaitou is?"

"Yes. I suppose it would be easier if I simply explained why I was here..."


Mai blinked."Yoshiyaki-san?"

The woman frowned for a moment before smirking. "That was the guise that you met me as. Seeing as you are not exactly going anywhere, I can tell you my real name. I am Setsuka Sakurazuka."

Sakurazuka... why did that sound familiar? Mai concentrated. Cherry blossoms...blood..

The Sakurazukamori.

Her uncle had told her that they were a clan of assassins. That was right, she had been walking home when she had felt that something bad was going to happen and then she had remembered her dream about cherry blossoms. Now that she was more awake she was able to put the clues together, she had been kidnapped for a reason unknown to her, but if Yoshiyaki was involved it had to be connected with Kuro Kaitou.

At the moment all she could do was gain information about where she was being kept and her captors. She glanced surreptitiously around her. She was lying in a futon on a tatami mat floor with sliding paper screens on both sides and an open door in front of her. The sound of traffic or trains was not apparent so she was not in a densely populated area.

"Do not even think about escaping," Setsuka warned. "This place is very desolate and you wouldn't be able to survive. It would be best if you stayed her here."

"Why did you kidnap me?" she asked, deciding that it was a safe and obvious question to ask.

"Do you know what the Sakurazukamori is?"

Mai nodded. "A group of assassins."

Setsuka smiled widely. "That is a deliberate misconception that has been spread around to confuse people. In reality, there is only me and my future successor who is also my son who is standing guard outside the door."

A shadow appeared across the threshold and a man dressed completely in black entered the room with a lit cigarette in one hand. Despite the cold he was wearing black sunglasses. His mouth stretched into a demonic smile causing Mai to shiver involuntarily which did not go unnoticed.

"Mai-chan, this is my son Seishirou. He was the one that brought you here," Setsuka introduced before turning to her son. "I thought I told you not to smoke inside."

Her son extinguished his cigarette and glanced at Mai.

"Are you really psychic?" he asked snidely. "Masako Hara was a lot more fun than you. She knew exactly who was after her and made some good attempts to fight the shikigami that I sent after her. But I still got her in the end- the look of fright on her face was priceless."

The mother and son exchanged amused looks before Setsuka patted Mai on the head.

"Don't be so mean, she had never been trained to use her abilities properly and unfortunately for her, she will die without ever reaching her full potential."

Die? Mai's heart paused in its contractions and then sped up. Setsuka smiled apologetically at her.

"Sorry Mai-chan, it's nothing personal. This wouldn't have happened if you were not involved with Kuro Kaitou, blame him."

This made some sense to the female Police officer who had encountered him twice, been kissed by him and hugged him, as most people would take that as a sign that they were romantically involved, but she prayed that they didn't want any information about the thief as she didn't know a thing other than the fact that he liked black and that his mouth tasted like Earl Grey and he sometimes made her think of her narcissistic superior officer.

Was he wondering about where she was right now? Did he even care that she was gone?

In any case Yasuhara, who she had been supposed to meet would have raised the alarm when she didn't turn up at her apartment and would have contacted Bou-san and Ayako and they would certainly be making an effort to track her down.

Or that was what she hoped.

Setsuka eyed her amusedly. "That ponytailed head of the task force won't be able to track you, he is only a monk. The same goes for the priestess."

"How did you know what they were?" Mai gasped in fright.

"The mark of a good assassin is to be able to sense the abilities of the people that they are up against. I sensed that you were a psychic when we first met and that the male Police officer with you was an Omnouji, but powerful people can rein in their abilities which makes it harder."


"So that explains it all," Yasuhara stretched tiredly after hearing the whole story. "Kuro Kaitou is a cover for you to hide behind whilst you are searching for your brother."

"And Lin-san is your bodyguard who was roped into being your accomplice," Ayako added.

"He is more than capable of protecting me, he is an Omnouji after all."

The priestess elbowed her boyfriend in the ribs teasingly. "Look it's the first live Omnouji you've ever seen!"

The monk scowled at her before turning to the Chinese beanpole. "Lin-san, do you have any shiki?"

Lin nodded. "I have five."

Upon hearing Lin's reply Naru concocted an idea at the same time as the monk.

"Lin! We can use your shiki to find Mai!" Naru barked, wondering why he had not thought of that sooner, but he suspected it was because he was too distracted by Mai's disappearance.

The aforementioned Omnouji blinked in surprise. "I had already thought of it, but I did not suggest it as it cannot be done; we don't have enough information to go one. Although my Shiki and I know Taniyama-san well, I need a basic location in mind to order them to search somewhere."

A notebook was thrown at him and he caught it neatly and looked up to see a very determined Oliver Davis staring him down.

"We have a list of prospective addresses."


"Was it all right to send her to sleep?" a certain cigarette smoking assassin queried. "You say that she is psychic."

His mother nodded. "It's not a danger, she is only latent and doesn't understand how to use it properly. If she had stayed awake any longer she might have noticed that she was really trapped inside an illusion. I will dispose of her tomorrow unless Oliver Davis makes an appearance before then."

"How is Eugene?"

A smile was shared between them.

"Very quiet."