Black Phantom

Chapter 12

Tick. Tock.

Naru glared at the clock on the wall threateningly, feeling like it was taunting him for not being able to find Mai so he turned to watch Lin who was staring unfocusedly at his computer screen.

"How many addresses have you done?" he asked.

"Three," Lin replied tersely. "Some of them are on the other side of Tokyo so it is slow progress."

"There's thirty more to go..." Naru trailed off. "We need to narrow it down."

There had to be a way to narrow it down. If he was an assassin, where would he hide a prospective victim who was still alive?

"Takigawa-san, if you were a member of the Sakurazukamori, where would you hide Mai?"

The monk snapped to attention and closed the book that he was reading.

"Somewhere where no one would come across her, somewhere in the middle in nowhere. An uninhabited place..."

"Good luck on finding somewhere like that in Tokyo," Ayako commented sardonically. "That's just a stereotype of evil people, there aren't that many completely deserted places where you can freely play with your victims."

Naru fought back a shiver. Yoshiyaki had certainly seemed to have a sadistic trait to her and the mental image of her taunting either Mai or Gene in a field of cherry blossom trees was not pleasing.

"Yasuhara-san, how is the research going?" he enquired.

Once Lin had been ordered to deploy his shiki the others had volunteered to research the Sakurazukamori with the monk and priestess delving through books devoted to the supernatural whilst the traffic warden was trawling through websites devoted to supernatural conspiracy theories.

"I have found an easter egg on one site which leads to an hidden site with some scarce facts about the Sakurazukamori. Apparently they only work within Tokyo."

Bou-san nodded in agreement. "That makes sense as Tokyo is a hive of supernatural activity due to intense industrialisation and overpopulation combined with the destruction of shrines. It's no coincidence that a majority of the cases that I have been involved in take place in Tokyo."

The narcissist tapped the cover his notebook.

"That does not help, all these addresses are within Tokyo. Yasuhara-san, next fact."

"They are not the average clan of assassins as they ignore the conventions of normal assassins," Yasuhara read aloud.

"I certainly don't consider feeding victims to a cherry blossom tree conventional," the red haired priestess muttered under her breath.

"That's a good point," Bou-san paused. "It's winter right now, if you see a cherry blossom tree in bloom, run."

"Ignore conventions," Naru murmured, not paying any attention to the useless chatter going on around him. The notebook had been left at his penultimate heist to lure him to the next heist where he had encountered Yoshiyaki so they could be expecting him to use the list of addresses to find Mai. Although they probably weren't expecting him to have Shiki at his disposal, it still wasn't going to work out. "Not conventional."

The Kuro Kaitou file that he had left on the table caught his eye and then it all clicked into place.

"Lin, redirect your Shiki to these addresses," he ordered and passed the folder to him. "May guess is that it is where our first heist took place."

The omnouji nodded in understanding. "I will try to make sure my Shiki are discreet as possible, there may be a barrier around the house."

"Where was your first heist?" Ayako asked interestedly.

"The house of the head of a major bank. We started off by following trails left by money laundering- every criminal organisation needs plentiful funds and we came across a banker that seemed to be involved with large amounts of mysteriously disappearing money so we hit his house first. It's a two storey house overlooking Ueno Park, however we did not find anything there so we followed another lead. However we never did actually meet the man, everything was dealt with through his PA," Naru informed her.

"Another fact about the Sakurazukamori is that they may not be an actual group of assassins, they may be all from the same family line," Yasuhara said. "Apparently, due to this lineage the current assassins are able to control the same spirits that their ancestors did, using a contract made centuries ago."

The narcissist frowned. Before coming to Japan he had done extensive research into the Sakurazukamori and neither Lin or himself had unearthed anything like this which certainly seemed to be useful. He thought back to the night that he had met Yoshiyaki, she had definitely tried to give the impression that there was more than one member of the Sakurazukamori and she was elderly; there was a chance that she was training someone else as her successor. He still hadn't worked out how she had been able to disappear right in front of him either. There was a chance that the information that Yasuhara had told him was correct and she was utilising spirits to create illusions.

Once this was over, he would employ Mai as his personal tea maker and Yasuhara as his researcher as he was proving to be moderately useful.


The latent psychic opened her eyes to find herself back in her dream wor- astral plane, she corrected herself. Dream Naru had been very insistent on this and she would have argued back like usual, but he had flashed her a dazzling smile which had silenced her.

"Hello Naru," she greeted as he manifested into view.

"How were the Sakurazuka family?" he asked, not returning the greeting.

Mai snapped back into the memory of Setsuka telling her that she was going to die and it was all Kuro Kaitou's fault. Her lip wobbled and she started sniffing.

"I'm sorry about you having to go through this," he apologised and bent down so he was at eye level with her. "I have a plan so that you can escape, or at least let the people who are searching for you know where you are."

If there hadn't been an imminent threat of death Mai would have started questioning why her narcissistic superior officer was appearing in her dreams and helping her as opposed to someone like Bou-san or Ayako who had been her teachers in anything related to the supernatural. She would have also wondered why Naru kept smiling dazzlingly at her and at regular intervals, but due to the circumstances she did not have an opportunity to ponder this.

"What do I need to do?" she asked.

Dream Naru straightened up and became more serious like the Naru she knew in real life.

"The Sakurazukamori are adept with illusions, but it isn't magic. They simply use spirits to warp the air around them and make someone see what isn't there or they can use it to hide themselves. When you woke up, where were you?"

Mai described the room in as much detail as she could manage as well as recounting her entire conversation with the Sakurazuka family.

It took a matter of seconds for her spirit guide to deduce the truth. "You're trapped in an illusion, you aren't really in a traditional Japanese house, it's more modern, they had their shoes on which would be frowned on in a traditional house, even by assassins. And they said that where you are is desolate?" he frowned. "I suspect that you are in the middle of Tokyo then."

"So if I escape the house, I will be able to find help?" Mai summarised doubtfully.

"In the very least. Do you know how to exorcise spirits?"

In reply she made a slashing motion with her fingers and he smiled.

"That's good. It won't hold them off completely as they are too deeply tied with the Sakurazuka family for that, but it will enable you to break through the illusion. To destroy their connection with the Sakurazukamori, you may need to destroy a cherry blossom tree."

Mai screwed up her eyes in confusions. "Tree? I've told you before not to give me so many instructions at once."

Instead of getting annoyed her guide smiled warmly.

"Break the illusion and tell the people that are coming to rescue you, to find the cherry blossom tree that ties the spirits to the Sakurazukamori, they will understand."

The psychic nodded and went over the instructions in her head, hoping that Dream Naru was right otherwise she really was going to die this time. Throughout her lifetime her magnetism for danger had placed her in some troublesome situations which she had always been escape due to her instincts or help from her friends, but her current situation made all of that seem insignificant.

"This might sound stupid, how do I get out of here?" she enquired, looking around.

Her guide laughed before sobering. "Good luck Mai. Remember everything that I have told you."

He laid his hands on her shoulders and gave her a strong push and Mai found herself whirling through darkness until she landed back in her own body. She opened her eyes and immediately jumped out of the futon she was in.

There was no time to waste.


"Noll," Lin called out. "One of my Shiki has arrived at the location and so far there is nothing suspicious."

The scientist ran an agitated hand through his hair. He had been so sure this time that he had found Mai and time was slowly running out. It was now late afternoon and kidnap victims never stayed unharmed or alive for long.

"Where are you Mai?" he demanded out loud causing everyone else to jump.

Ayako and Yasuhara exchanged knowing looks.

"All right Lin, have your Shiki continue down the list," Naru sighed and tried to recover his composure. Worrying about Mai wasn't good for his health.

"Wait," the Omnouji said. "It can see Mai now. You were right."

The temporary members and the head of it rushed to the door together.

"Let's go," Naru said. "You can all come, providing you make yourselves useful.

The newly formed team made up of a monk, priestess, PK user, Omnouji and a researcher ran out of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters and into a black van. Naru didn't bother giving anyone time to do up their seatbelts and simply pulled out of the car park and onto the road.

Naru calculated that it would take him a maximum of five minutes to get to the house, providing that he broke all speed limits and did not get caught in any traffic jams.

"Lin, what is going on?" he asked as she turned onto a main road.

"Taniyama-san is freely walking around the house and there is no sign of anyone else around, but she is being cautious."

"It sounds like a trap," Bou-san noted nervously.

"Can't you go any faster?" Ayako complained. "Mai is in danger."

"Matsuzaki-san, at the speed which I am going I won't have a driving license left at the end of the day," the narcissist replied shortly. "Stop griping and get prepared."

She received a nudge from her boyfriend and retreated into silence only to be dragged out of it unexpectedly by Lin.

"Matsuzaki-san, is this the action for the Nine Cuts?" he demonstrated.

"Yes. Rin. Pyou-" she was cut off by the Omnouji.

"Taniyama-san has her fingers in that position."

"Hmm, are there any spirits surrounding the house?" the monk asked thoughtfully.

"I am unwilling to make the Shiki go in any closer as it may alert the Sakurazukamori to our imminent arrival," Lin glanced at the road and calculated how close by they were. "A lot can happen in two minutes."

"Matsuzaki-san, Takigawa-san get prepare to exorcise some spirits, I suspect that there may be a lot. Yasuhara-san, stay here- you don't have any ability to exorcise. Lin, go with Matsuzaki and Takigawa,and I will follow behind."


Mai paused as she stepped on a creaky floorboard an strained her ear for any sounds of movement in the house. So far she had not seen Setsuka or her son, or anyone else for that matter since she had escaped the room that she had been confined in. She couldn't sense anyone either. Maybe escaping wasn't as hard as it seemed.

Then she realised that there could be other illusions around other than the one that she had removed and the air around her seemed to tremble and then she knew.

She whirled round. "Rin. Pyou. Tou. Sha. Kai. Jin. Retsu. Zai-"

Before she could complete the Nine Cuts a hand reached out and grabbed hers and she looked around to see Setsuka Sakurazuka standing in front of her.

"Very observant, Mai-chan. You have improved."

The grip on her wrist tightened and Mai winced in pain.

"You wouldn't have happened to have any contact with someone called Eugene, would you?" Setsuka demanded.

Mai tried to pull away, but the assassin was too strong.

"I don't know anyone called Eugene!" she protested vehemently.

Setsuka paused but her grip remained deadly tight. A sadistic gleam appeared in her eyes.

"It has been nearly twenty four hours since your kidnapping and Kuro Kaitou has not yet appeared, oh dear. My bet that he was someone close to you was wrong after all," she smirked. "Since you aren't of any use and you nearly escaped, I might as well kill you now."

She raised her hand and a memory came flooding back to Mai about the death of Masako Hara. "She was stabbed through the chest with a paddle like object, leaving a hole."

Then the assassin paused and Mai heard the sound of a door crashing open and the stamping of feet coming from the floor below.

"It sounds like someone has come to rescue to you."