"He just disappeared!"

The rest of the group turned their heads towards where Osaka was pointing. The mysterious man had disappeared, nowhere to be found.

"Hm, that's odd." Kagura said, turning her attention back to the hockey game. The rest of the group did so as well.

Everyone seemed to not care about the man who was seemingly following them, Osaka thought. How could they just dismiss it so quickly?

Although it could have just been a coincidence, Osaka had a hunch that something fishy was going on with that man. It just didn't make sense.

Osaka decided to focus on the hockey game to help herself forget about the strange man. Although she wasn't much interested in hockey - because she didn't know the rules - Osaka wanted to clear her mind.

Her eyes darted from player to player, watching them glide across the ice and fight harder and harder for control of the puck. She made a game out of trying to stay focused on it, but even so found herself still frequently losing the small black disk among a tornado of different men.

Once the final buzzer rang and the game was over, they all stood up and got ready to follow Danny to the exit.

Osaka stood up, with Kagura in front of her waiting to exit the row of seats.

"Alright everyone, we will be going back to the car now. Follow me to the exit." Danny announced to the group. Everyone gathered their things and were now ready to leave.

Osaka took one final glance across the stadium, just to make sure.

Sure enough, the same man she had seen before was standing there behind the large glass panels, seemingly staring directly into her eyes.

She stared back, trying to get a better look. The man had piercing eyes, with his gaze fixed almost entirely on Osaka herself.

For a moment all that existed in the entire world was Osaka and that man, the breeze from the industrial air conditioners creating ripples in the long coat and neck gaiter that he wore. His eyes seemed to communicate some meaning, that of which Osaka could not decipher.

"Hello!"

"Earth to Osaka!"

Tomo waved her hand in Osaka's face, forcing her to snap out of it.

"What?"

"You spaced out like, super hard."

"Oh, sorry."

The group continued to exit the stadium. They all got into the car, and Danny started the engine.

Chiyo turned around from the passenger seat.

"Alright everyone, for our last stop of the day I will be giving you all a tour of my university's campus. After we finish the tour, we'll all go back to the hotel and get some rest for tomorrow!"

Osaka stared out of the car's window and watched the traffic go by. She couldn't get that man off of her mind.

He was obviously stalking them. What bothered her so much is how little everyone else cared about it, even though they saw him clear as day.

"I can't get that guy off my mind." Osaka said.

"Who, the creepy guy from the game?" Kagura replied.

"Yeah. I saw him twice, and the second time was clear as day, even you guys saw."
"I think we're being stalked."

Everyone in the car seemed to be holding their breath, except for Danny. Yomi decided to break the silence.

"Now where'd you get a silly idea like that? It's probably just a coincidence." she said.

"I mean... you are prone to getting in your own head." Kagura said. "Don't mind it, it's nothing."

"Alright then." Osaka said, defeated.

She laid her head down on the window and closed her eyes, just trying to forget about the strange man she had seen.

"We're here!" Chiyo exclaimed. Osaka's eyes slowly opened.

Tomo's face was glued to the car's window, excited for the 'cool American college' she had heard about from her classmates.

Danny put the car in park and everyone exited.

"You all have fun, I am going to park the car. We'll catch up later when you all are finished."

"Alright, bye Danny!" Chiyo said, waving.

Chiyo turned to the group.

"Well everyone, are we ready to take our walk and see some of the buildings that I go to school in." she said. Everyone nodded.

They all walked about a block, then stopped in front of a large plain looking brown building.

"This is Brittany Hall, the building that I live in with my roommates." Chiyo said.

"Wow. It's huge." Tomo said, her neck craned up towards the top of the looming structure.

"No kidding." Yomi said. "And I thought the buildings in Japan were tall. These knock them out of the water."

Suddenly, someone opened the door in front of them.

"Oh hello Chiyo!" said a tall girl with long blonde hair, done into a ponytail.

"Hi Anika! Remember my friends from Japan I told you about?"
"They've come to visit me for a week, so I'm giving them a short little tour of the campus."

"That's so nice of you! Well, do you mind if I tag along?" Anika replied, smiling.

"Sure, it'll be fun!" Chiyo said. "Guys, this is my good friend and roommate Anika. She's an international student too, from Germany."

The group oohed and ahhed.

After Chiyo introduced everyone to Anika, they continued on to their next destination.

"This is the Bobst Library. Fun fact, it's 12 whole stories full of books and other media." Chiyo said.

The building was quite tall and bronze in color.

"Chiyo and I like to study in there." Anika said, laughing. "It's the perfect place for cramming."

Chiyo chuckled.

"Can we go in?" Tomo asked eagerly.

"Hmm, I'm not sure..." Chiyo contemplated.

"I won't take long, I swear. I just want to ride the elevator all the way up."

Tomo pouted, desperately trying to convince Chiyo.

"Alright fine, I'll let you in. But just once, promise?" she said.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Tomo replied, running to the doors at the front of the building.

Chiyo turned back to the rest of the group.

"Osaka, Kano, can you go with her?" she asked. "Just make sure she doesn't get into any trouble please."

They both nodded and followed Chiyo to the door. Chiyo swiped her student ID and the doors opened, with Osaka, Kano, and Tomo entering.

"Now remember Tomo, Chiyo said only once." Osaka said.

"Yeah, yeah."

Tomo quickly pressed the 'UP' button to call the elevator. When it arrived, they all got on. No sooner had they stepped foot inside than Tomo had pressed the button for the twelfth floor.

The elevator closed, its mechanical parts whirring and humming as it rose.

It was completely silent. Restless, Tomo tapped her foot, and Kano reached for his pocket.

"Ya can't smoke in here." Osaka said.

Kano looked at Osaka with an annoyed expression and placed the pack of cigarettes back in his pocket.

Once the elevator reached the top, the doors opened and Tomo swiftly exited.

After running over to the large windows, she looked down, watching the cars that looked as small as ants go by one by one. Osaka and Kano followed behind.

"Wow, this building really is tall..." Osaka said, staring directly at the ground below.

Her eyes then caught view of the group. Chiyo-chan looked slightly annoyed, obviously waiting for Tomo to hurry up. Yomi shared a similar expression. Anika smiled at them, seemingly enjoying herself.

Tomo then noticed the group as well, and waved. Chiyo still retained the same expression, but Yomi shook her fist up at her.

"We better get back down there." Osaka said, motioning to Tomo and Kano.

The trio walked back and took the elevator to the bottom floor, re-joining the group.

"Finally. Took you long enough." Yomi remarked.

As Chiyo opened her mouth to speak, a loud rumbling sound emerged from Tomo's stomach. She smiled from embarrassment, nervously chuckling.

"Haha, sorry guys. I guess running to and from the elevator really made me really work up an appetite!" she said.

"Well now that you mention it, I'm getting kind of hungry as well..." Chiyo replied.

"I could eat." Kagura said. Kano, Eguchi, Handa, Sakaki and Anika seemed to be indifferent to the idea.

"Alright then, I'll call Danny. I know a great place near here that we can go."

Once Danny joined the group, they started towards the restaurant Chiyo had mentioned.

As they walked the bustling streets of New York, Osaka couldn't help but take interest in all the little interesting things that were going on around them. The massive high-rise buildings, yellow taxi cabs driving by, the occasional bike messenger who would ride by.

After spending a significant amount of time watching an obviously drunk man fight a small dog for a piece of food, Osaka turned her head in the opposite direction and saw an empty alleyway. Normally she would have simply disregarded it, but something caught her eye.

A figure stood at the back of the alleyway, seemingly staring at her.

Osaka stopped dead in her tracks and stared down at the figure, trying to discern who it was.

A street lamp mounted onto the wall of the adjacent building began to flicker, before turning on. The sudden light revealed that the figure was in fact the same strange man that Osaka had seen before.

Her eyes widened, almost in disbelief, as she thought she wouldn't see the man again.

Osaka brought her hands to her face and rubbed her eyeballs to make sure what she was seeing was real. Once she opened her eyes again, the man had completely disappeared. The street lamp was off as well.

"What the hell..."

"Hey Osaka, catch up!"

Osaka looked up to see Anika, motioning for her to come re-join the group. They had arrived at the restaurant a few feet ahead of her and were waiting in front. She ran over and joined them, trying to forget about what she saw in the alley.

Chiyo had picked out a small local café, which Osaka found quite quaint. It reminded her of old American movies from the fifties.

After everyone sat down, the waiter came over to the table and asked them what they wanted to order. Chiyo had to order for everyone except Anika, as they were the only ones who could speak fluent English.

"Thank you, everything will be right out in a minute." the waiter said, leaving with their orders.

"Excuse me, I'm going to use the restroom." Anika said, getting up from the table.

While the group waited for their food, they looked for something to do to pass the time.

Tomo glanced at everyone, then grabbed the drink menu sitting in the center of the table and pointed at it.

They all squinted and attempted to read the English word that she was pointing at.

"Orange"

Tomo blocked the word "Soda" with her finger.

"Remember in Yukari's class when we learned that the English word 'orange' has two meanings?" she asked.

Osaka and Kagura nodded.

"How come we use two different words for it in Japanese huh?"
"I mean, the color is 'orenji' and the fruit is 'mikan', what gives?"

"That's a good question Tomo." Kagura replied. Osaka was seemingly deep in thought.

"I think I heard about this in a class before. It's called a homophone. Or wait, maybe it's a homonym." Osaka said. "It's like, a word that has the same spelling but different meanings."

"Hmm. I guess there is a lot of those types of words in Japanese too..." Tomo said.

The waiter returned and set their meals down on the table. He set the last meal at the empty spot where Anika was sitting, and left.

"I wonder what's taking Anika so long." Tomo said. "Her food's gonna get cold."

Tomo had already began chowing down on her food.

"That is a little concerning." Chiyo said. "Sakaki, can you go check on Anika?"

Sakaki nodded and got up from her chair, making her way towards the restroom.

Osaka waited apprehensively for Sakaki to return, cautiously chewing her food as if swallowing would cause the worst possible scenario to occur. No one else seemed to be concerned about it. 'Hell, why would they?' Osaka thought. They hadn't seen that man.

After a few minutes, Sakaki returned. She had a sullen expression on her face.

"Anika wasn't in there." she said.

"What do you mean she wasn't in there?" Chiyo asked, clearly confused.

"I checked all the stalls, the entire restroom is empty. I called her name as well, and I got no response. I hope she's okay." Sakaki replied.

Chiyo became increasingly concerned.

"I think we should check again..." Chiyo said, getting up from her chair. Sakaki, Tomo, and Osaka followed.

Chiyo made her way to the women's restroom and walked inside, as did the rest.

The quartet scoured the small restroom, coming up empty. Anika was nowhere to be found.

"Shit." Tomo said.

Osaka looked around the room, and after coming up empty returned to where the others were standing and discussing what to do next.

"At this point, there's nothing we can do but ask around, and I'll have to call the police and report it." Chiyo said. "Now we all need to stay calm and hopeful, she's probably perfectly okay."
"We need to make sure the rest of the group stays calm as well."

"Okay." Osaka said, nodding along with Tomo and Sakaki.

While they were walking back to the table, Osaka took a final glance back at the empty restroom. She noticed something that she hadn't noticed before.

The small window in the corner of the room was ever so slightly cracked open.

It didn't look big enough for a person to fit through, she thought. But was it open before?

The thought bothered Osaka as she sat down at the table, with Chiyo explaining the situation to the others.

Chiyo used a payphone to report Anika missing to the police, and then the group asked around the nearby area if anyone had seen her. They had no success, which disappointed them.

Once they had been searching for a while, Chiyo decided everyone might as well go home and get some sleep.

Danny dropped them all off at the hotel, with Chiyo going back to her dormitory.

As everyone walked back to their rooms, Osaka's mind raced with scary ideas about what happened to Anika.

She couldn't get the thought out of her head that her disappearance might have something to do with that strange man that she had seen.

"Osaka, are you okay?" Kagura asked, clearly concerned.

Osaka slowly looked up.

"Yea, I'm fine." she replied.

Osaka gripped the door's handle and turned it. Something in the back of her mind made her fear that the man might be watching them, even though she knew the thought was irrational.

'I mean, it has to be a coincidence. He couldn't have anything to do with Anika.' she thought.

The girls got ready for bed without saying a word. Anika's disappearance had seemingly muddled up the entire trip.

Osaka slipped into bed, trying to silence the many thoughts that her imagination couldn't help but conjure up.

She closed her eyes angrily, just wanting to get some sleep.

Osaka was awoken by the chirping of nearby birds. The bright sun rays shone directly into her eyes, which annoyed her and caused her to get out of bed.

Kagura and Tomo were still asleep. Osaka had no intention of waking them, so she quietly put her slippers on and slipped out of the door.

She planned to buy a bottle of water from the vending machine down the hall, so she made her way down towards the elevators.

After using her quarters on the machine, Osaka pressed the button and it dispensed a bottle. She grabbed it and made her way back to the room.

Once Osaka had closed the door, the phone on the nightstand started to ring. She hurried over to it to try to answer it before it woke up Kagura or Tomo.

She picked up the phone, noticing that both Tomo and Kagura had began to open their eyes, much to her dismay.

"Hello?" Osaka said, groggily.

All she could hear on the other end was slow, labored breathing.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Come meet me. Behind the building." the voice said, almost sounding distressed.

"Anika? Is that you?" Osaka said, starting to become frantic.

"Please, just come. I'll tell you more." the voice said, before hanging up.

The dial tone rung in Osaka's ear.

She looked up, realizing that Kagura and Tomo had since woken up and been listening to the conversation.

"Who was that, Osaka?" Tomo asked.

Without even answering her question, Osaka ran out of the hotel room. Tomo and Kagura both ran after her.

"Osaka, wait!" Tomo said, frantically trying to keep up with her.

Instead of taking the elevator, Osaka ran down the stairs, practically flying down each step.

She burst through the fire exit and was greeted with the blinding morning light. After coming back to her senses, she rushed towards the back of the building, searching for Anika.

Suddenly, Anika appeared from behind a nearby dumpster. She looked different though, Osaka thought.

Her long hair looked matted and unwashed, and she was wearing something that resembled a hospital gown. Her face looked rough as well, showing signs of blunt trauma injuries.

"Anika... are you okay?" Osaka asked. "What the hell happened to you?"

Anika seemed panicked.

"Listen... I don't have much time." Anika said nervously. "They're going to get me."

"Who's going to get you?" Osaka asked.

"Just stay away from them! Listen to me Osaka, it's this group, and they have something called Project Episilo-"

Before Anika could finish her sentence a bullet flew directly through her forehead, blowing her head to pieces. The entire upper half of her head was now gone, with just a jaw and teeth in it's place. Her body went limp and then collapsed onto the floor, blood still oozing out of the lower half and pooling around her.

Osaka's ears rang harder than they'd ever rang before. She didn't know whether she should scream, or laugh from the absolute absurdity of the situation.

Her eyes felt almost glazed over. She couldn't stop staring at the first dead body she'd ever seen in her life.

In the movies it was different. In movies, you can't smell the blood, you can't smell the innards, she thought.

Time seemed to stand still for Osaka as she struggled to process what just happened.

Before she had time to react, Osaka felt someone grab her from behind and shove a sharp needle into her neck. The pain was violent, the long thin needle piercing deep into her skin.

No matter how hard she tried to resist, Osaka's vision continued to get darker.

And darker.

And darker.