A little breeze scattered rubbish and dead leaves as the front doors of the Shikoku Power Plant opened for the first time in more than forty years. The wind made a sound like a yawn. The Paranormal Experts crew turned on their flashlights and quickly adjusted all of their television equipment so that they could begin filming in the dark. There was still some light coming into the building through its boarded up windows, but as the sun went down, that light would fade fast.

The lobby was completely empty. Only a few chairs had been left behind when the building's furniture was sold. To the left of the entrance was a long hallway, and to the right were the double doors that led into the main room where all the generators were located.

A handful of little tanuki scurried into their hiding places as Kiyotsugu stepped inside. Chiaki shrieked, jumping and pointing at each yokai, but neither of the camera men could adjust their focus quickly enough to catch the tanuki on video.

"Over there! There! Up there! No, there! Right! No, Left! Your other left, dunce!" She shouted.

"I think we missed them all." Kiyotsugu sighed, sounding disappointed.

Chiaki pouted dramatically, but only for a moment. One of the camera men checked her microphone. He gave her a "thumbs up" to signal that it was ready, and the light on his camera switched from red to green. As soon as the filming started again, Chiaki had a winning smile plastered on her face.

Kana hesitated in the doorway, the last to enter the power plant. From where she stood, it looked as though the members of the reunited Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol were about to walk right into the mouth of an enormous monster. Jiro yawned slightly and Kana raised an eyebrow in his direction. He smelled like he'd been drinking a lot of sake. Was that why he was so calm?

When Rikuo glanced over his shoulder to see if she was following him, Kana took a deep breath and ran to his side. He took her hand and she relaxed slightly, despite the fact that she suddenly felt quite cold. Though Kana wasn't about to admit it to Rikuo, she did still have her gun. She had also loaded it with two real bullets. There were four more bullets in her purse, but she had felt safer not using them all. If they were attacked by angry yokai, who knew what might happen?

Kiyotsugu and Chiaki led the way into the main room. The huge machines had not been used in a very long time. Since part of the roof had fallen in, debris littered the floor. Years of rain and snow had done more severe damage. Patched of black mold covered he drywall and the remaining ceiling tiles. Everything metal was corroded. The smell that permeated the air was like the inside of a dumpster. Saori grimaced, holding her nose and Kiyotsugu gave a low whistle.

"This place is creepier than that old auditorium we explored back in Junior High," Kiyotsugu admitted. "Do you remember sneaking in there?"

Rikuo nodded slightly. How could he forget? They had all almost been killed by one of Tamazuki's underlings and he'd been unable to do anything about it until the sun went down. At the time, it was the closest he'd come to revealing his secret to his friends. There were some things about being yokai that Rikuo did not like, but feeling helpless was far worse. Though Inugamigyobu had promised that the Shikoku yokai wouldn't cause him any serious trouble, Rikuo was still nervous. He sensed something in the old power plant and he felt better knowing that night was not far off. If anyone saw that he was openly carrying Nenekirimaru, they didn't say anything.

Though they had already done most of their introductory narration outside, Kiyotsugu and Chiaki explained to their cameras that ten people had vanished near the power plant since it closed down. They introduced Yura as a "real live onmyoji" and Rikuo as "a Kanto yokai investigator". Yura said nothing at all, but the expression on her face suggested that she thought she was far too grown-up and important to be on such a silly show.

"This reminds me of Don Kanonji," Saori whispered, rolling her eyes. The show had focused on a self-proclaimed "spiritual master" and had attracted many fans despite being unforgivably stupid. When she and Natsume were in Junior High, they had both secretly watched it.

"I know, right?" Natsume beamed. She crossed her arms, adopting Kanonji's famous pose. "Muahahaha! The spirits are always with you!"

Jiro groaned and threw up in a nearby trash can.

Rikuo waved as the cameras turned on him, looking somewhat embarrassed. He looked up at the sky through the hole in the roof at the setting sun. Though the main room was the most interesting, there were three floors of offices on the west side of the building, and he got the distinct impression that any danger they might run into was somewhere over in that area. What bothered him most, however, was that apart from the nervous little tanuki, he hadn't seen or heard any of his subordinates.

Where were they? Why weren't they making trouble?

Not for the first time, Rikuo thought of the Baku. He also wondered why neither Tamazuki nor Tsurara had tried to scare Kana yet. She was a very easy mark, and a golden opportunity had already presented itself several times.

A swirl of fresh green leaves suddenly whipped up around Chiaki. She shrieked dramatically and seized Rikuo's arm, almost knocking him right off of his feet. Kana stumbled into the wall and grimaced as she saw that she'd gotten a black mark on the sleeve of her white coat.

"What is it, Chiaki-chan?" Kiyotsugu wondered. He had adopted a silly "heroic" pose and a tone of voice that Natsume and Saori found it very difficult not to laugh at.

Picking up a leaf, Chiaki showed it to the camera. "Where did all of these leaves come from?" She wondered innocently.

"It looks to me like we have an infestation of tanuki!" Kiyotsugu announced. "What do you think, Rikuo-sama?"

Rikuo coughed as the cameras turned on him. "Um, tanuki? Sure."

Off camera, Chiaki gave him a disapproving look.

"What do you want me to say?" Rikuo demanded.

"Cut!" Kiyotsugu groaned. The cameras stopped. Kiyotsugu surveyed the Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol. No one looked very impressed. "Can't you all act more excited?"

"You want me to be afraid of Tamazuki's brothers and sisters?" Rikuo snorted. "They're cowardly yokai, and they're not even supposed to be in here! If I threw my hands up in the air and shouted "boo", they would all run away!"

"So would you chase them off on camera for me?" Kiyotsugu suggested hopefully. "Ooh! Or maybe you could draw your sword or work some magic instead? C'mon, Rikuo-sama! This needs to be our best show ever!"

"First, the sun hasn't set yet!" Rikuo replied. "Second, I'm only here to make sure that you stay out of trouble! It's weird enough pretending to be a "yokai investigator". Besides, I don't want anyone watching to figure out a connection between me and..." He trailed off into silence. There was really no reason to say anything more.

"Well then, I suppose we have no choice but to keep looking for something worth filming," Kiyotsugu decided.

The cameras started rolling again.

"Don't worry!" Kiyotsugu declared. "A place like this must be swarming with yokai! Let's keep looking!"

"Victory will be ours!" Chiaki paraded off after him.

Yura put her hands on her hips. Saori glanced to Natsume, and both of them groaned.

"This is so stupid," Saori said.

"Just like old times," Natsume agreed.

Kana smiled. With Kiyotsugu dragging everyone around, it did feel a bit like the old days. It was very easy for her to forget all the awful things that had happened, although she still shivered at the thought of Tamazuki's lecherous stare. Of course, Rikuo had promised to protect her, and she did trust him. She glanced in his direction. The sun would be setting soon, and the fading light from outside was already staining the sky red. Kana could see that same fiery color reflecting in Rikuo's normally brown eyes. When the sun went down, would he assume his yokai form?

Television audiences would surely think that the change which came over him was nothing more than clever costuming and computer generated effects, but Kana knew better. At night Rikuo behaved like a completely different person. It had been awkward enough seeing her childhood friend for the first time in five long years. She'd always been attracted to him, but she was much too shy to admit it. Of course, Rikuo was shy himself, at least during the day. Night Rikuo would not hesitate to take her out for a romantic moonlit walk. He'd even bought her dinner and drinks at an exclusive yokai-only restaurant and gambling house run by the Neko Clan. It was very possible that he didn't even know how difficult he was to resist when he sat brooding in the branches of his cherry tree. What girl could possibly resist?

Despite how nervous yokai still made her, Kana knew that she would not play hard to get if Rikuo ever actually tried to sweep her off her feet. She'd gotten her hair and her nails done before getting on the plane specifically hoping that Rikuo would notice how grown-up she was and hopefully see her in a different light.

It shouldn't be so difficult to get the attention of a seventeen year old boy.

Kana frowned slightly, glancing at Rikuo. He was staring up at the ceiling and had his hand on the hilt of Nenekirimaru. Of course, Kana knew that Rikuo was no ordinary boy. For many years he'd had responsibilities that no high school senior could dream about. He was a real hero who'd fought monsters and saved the world more than once, like a character in a fantasy manga. Rikuo could have lorded over everyone and yet he chose not to. Kana did notice, however, that Kiyotsugu was in the habit of calling him "Rikuo-sama".

Kana didn't hear much of what Kiyotsugu and Chiaki were saying to the cameras as they led the way down the hall. To the Paranormal Experts, the building's mysterious and gruesome history was very exciting. To Jiro, Natsume, and Saori, it seemed mildly interesting, like something they might have watched on television. But Yura and Rikuo both suspected real danger, and that made Kana very afraid.

A snowflake landed on her nose and Kana sneezed. When she looked up, there was no sign of where it had come from.

Up ahead, the corridor split in two. There were two sets of stairs, one going up to the second floor and a second going down to the basement. "All right, Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol!" Kiyotsugu stood with his hands on his hips. "Here is where we split up!"

Kana stared at the straws Kiyotsugu held in his fist nervously. Was he crazy?

"Half of these straws are painted red on the bottom, and the other half are blue." Kiyotsugu explained. "The red group will go with me and our first camera down to the basement. The blue group will go with Chiaki and our second camera up to the roof."

"Why aren't we all sticking together?" Saori wondered.

"Our show only lasts forty-five minutes!" He replied. "And this is a really big place, loaded with all kinds of yokai! We need to explore as much of it as we possibly can! Then we will cut the best parts together, and that will go on television. Please! This is very important for my research!"

"For our research!" Chiaki corrected. "I'll do my best, boss!" She gave him a dramatic salute.

"Fair enough," Yura nodded. She drew a blue straw.

Rikuo stepped forward and drew a red straw.

Kana held her breath and prayed for a red straw. If she didn't get one, it would look cowardly to ask someone else to trade. Though Rikuo had promised to protect her, she didn't want him to think that she couldn't stand on her own two feet.

Jiro sighed and then smiled slightly as he saw that he'd drawn a red straw. Natsume took a straw next and hers was blue. Before Saori could pick the third straw, Kana lunged and seized it. She very slowly opened her eyes to see what color it was. It was also blue.

Kana tried not to look too nervous as she went to stand beside Yura. The onmyoji had saved her life more than once before. It wasn't that she didn't trust Yura. It was just that she would have preferred to be protected by Rikuo, especially when his underlings from the Nura Clan were probably planning all kinds of horrible mischief.

"Thirty minutes, back here!" Chiaki announced, checking her cell phone with the time stamp on her camera man's camera. "Happy hunting, Kiyotsugu-kun!" She winked, running for the stairs. Natsume followed with an exasperated sigh. The camera man picked up the rear. A cold chill raced down her spine and Kana quickly jumped in front of Yura. It was safest, she suspected, to be somewhere in the middle of the pack. If she wasn't up in the front, she couldn't be as easily surprised... and if she wasn't in the back, she wouldn't feel so vulnerable.

Rikuo watched Kana disappear around the corner with Yura and the camera man close behind her. She was so nervous it made him worried, and he hoped that she'd taken his advice and gotten rid of her gun. A girl who scared so easily had no business with a weapon like that! She was just as liable to hurt one of her friends or herself as she was to hurt any yokai who might startle her.

He sighed and followed after Jiro who was having some trouble making it down the stairs. After drinking with Awashima and Kurotabo most of last night, his friend had a ferocious hangover and it showed. He would probably be embarrassed later to remember that he'd gone on television looking so awful. Fortunately, with Kiyotsugu's antics, it was very possible that no one would actually notice what a mess Jiro was.

Of course, Saori wasn't distracted by Kiyotsugu. He hadn't changed at all since Junior High and she'd never paid much attention to him back then. "What did you do last night, you dummy?" She chided Jiro, elbowing him a little. He stumbled again.

"It was those yokai!" Jiro replied sullenly. "And Kiyotsugu drank more than I did!"

"Hunh. He seems totally fine," Saori observed. "But I guess did drink four energy drinks before we left the VIP tent."

"That's right! The Power of Black Garlic! I buy that stuff by the case! It's the best!" Kiyotsugu exclaimed. He was already around the corner on the landing below them but apparently he could still hear everyone loud and clear.

"Here. Have one." The camera man passed Jiro a small black and gold bottle.

Jiro glanced at the ingredients on the label. "Is this stuff even legal?" He demanded.

"Legal, sure. But safe? I don't know. I mean, look at Kiyotsugu!" Saori hissed. "He's completely mental!"

"He's always been like that," Jiro reminded her.

"You want one?" The camera man asked Rikuo, reaching into the pocket of his khaki vest.

"I don't think I need any caffeine. It's almost sundown," Rikuo replied.

The camera man shrugged. He obviously didn't understand what Rikuo meant by that, but Jiro and Saori glanced at one another nervously.

"You're not actually going to... you know?" Jiro began. He knew perfectly well that it was Rikuo's habit to change into his yokai form at night, but on live television?

"Of course not. The Lord of Pandemonium can't get caught on camera by humans. It would ruin his reputation," Rikuo rolled his eyes. "But I did get my Fear back." As he spoke, his appearance rippled slightly like a reflection in water. "And if anyone could bottle that, Kiyotsugu's Black Garlic would be out of business," Rikuo finished. Saori took a hesitant step back. The camera man stopped drinking his energy drink. He obviously realized that he had just missed something interesting.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Nothing," Rikuo lied.

"That was seriously creepy!" Saori informed Rikuo.

Rikuo smiled slightly. It seemed that his teeth were a bit fiendishly pointed, or maybe it was just the red flicker in his eyes that made him seem much more dangerous than he had been only moments before. The sun was obviously going down. Even if Rikuo still looked like his day self, he was already behaving like his night self.

Jiro shrugged. He cracked open his energy drink and was about to take a sip when something small and fast-moving shot over his head, snatching the drink right out of his hand. Saori shrieked and grabbed the camera man's leg. He swore incoherently as his hat popped right off of his head and floated across the room. High pitched giggles filled the air. A shower of bright green leaves poured down on them. Saori picked up a leaf. She shrieked as something suddenly tugged on her hair.

"It's the tanuki again," Rikuo explained, attempting to talk to the camera. He leaned in much closer than necessary and spoke very loud. "They like mischief, but they're not dangerous."

"Ow!" Jiro grimaced as an acorn struck him in the side of the head. "Are you sure about that?"

Rikuo rolled his eyes. "Hey, you stupid little raccoons!" He shouted. "Cut it out! Can't you illiterate little minions read the kanji on the back of my coat?" He put his hand on the hilt of Nenekirimaru. The giggling immediately fell silent, and the flurry of leaves disappeared.

"Ooh, big tough guy!" Saori smirked. "That's new for you, Rikuo-kun." She punched him in the shoulder and immediately shook out her hand. "Ow! Are you working out?" She teased.

Rikuo did not reply. "Where did the camera man go?" He asked.

The three glanced at one another.

"I knew this splitting up business was a bad idea," Saori sighed. "He probably got excited and ran ahead of us. Let's keep going downstairs."

"Uh..." Jiro began to protest. "Where are the stairs?"

Sure enough, the steps leading both up and down had completely disappeared.

"This place is changing all around us!" Saori gasped. She pounded on the concrete wall. "Help!" She shouted. "Kiyotsugu! Camera man! Can you hear us? Yura! Kana-chan!"

Jiro's flashlight flickered and went out. He shook it, trying to get it to turn back on again.

Then, Saori's flashlight also began to flicker. "No!" She whispered fearfully. "No, don't you dare go out!"

The light cut off.

"Jiro! Rikuo!" Saori shouted into the dark. There was no response.

Meanwhile, Kana headed up the stairs. She followed after Chiaki who was skipping along but made sure to stay close to Yura. The girls passed a number of identical doors with little square windows covered in dust. Natsume rubbed one window clean with the sleeve of her shirt and peered inside the room. "It looks like a laboratory." She announced. "Maybe the workers stored their chemicals up here? Although... I'm not sure why they have that."

Kana squinted through the window. Sure enough, Natsume was pointing to a chair that was tilted back at an odd angle underneath a lamp that had long since burned out. It looked like it belonged in a dentist's office. All around the chair, the space was empty except for a small table with several tools on it. The walls of the room were lined with shelves filled with glass bottles of chemicals. Some of them looked very old.

"Isn't this place supposed to be a power plant?" Kana asked. She was beginning to feel even more uncomfortable than before. In her experience with yokai, things usually started seeming out of place right before they got really dangerous.

"That's what everyone says." Chiaki admitted.

"Maybe there was something going on here that no one knew about?" The camera man suggested.

Yura shuddered. "You're welcome to, but I'm staying right here!"

"What are you afraid of? You're an onmyoji, right? It's just an old dentist's chair!" Chiaki teased.

"Yokai don't scare me. But dentists are scary!" Yura argued. "Have you ever had a root canal?"

"No," Chiaki admitted.

"I didn't think so," Yura smiled slightly.

"That's why you shouldn't eat so much sugar!" Kana whispered. She knew about Yura's secret weakness for sweets.

Yura sighed in defeat. Natsume jiggled the handle of the door and it popped open. A gust of stale air blew out and Kana grimaced.

"Ooh, it smells like a biology class!" Natsume grimaced.

"That's formaldehyde," Chiaki wrinkled her nose. We did an episode at a haunted hospital once," she explained.

"Why would they need formaldehyde at a power plant?" Kana wondered. She noticed that Yura, despite her fear of dentists, had followed her into the room and had her hand on the pouch that she kept her prayer strips in. Clearly, the onmyoji sensed something.

"They wouldn't. Not for any reason I can think of," Chiaki paused. "It's used for preserving things like um... brains in jars, dead pigs, stuff like that."

"Ew," Natsume grimaced. "Doesn't stuff like that give you the creeps?"

"Something that's dead can't hurt you. Why be afraid of it?" Chiaki replied cheerfully.

"You are one weird girl," Natsume replied.

As the camera man signaled that he was about to start recording, Chiaki's expression suddenly changed. She was acting again.

"Oh, I promised Kiyotsugu-kun I would try to be brave, but this place is sooo scary! We found a laboratory on the third floor. We haven't seen any yokai yet, but this just feels like the kind of place where something might jump out at you! Oh, I don't know if my heart can take it! It's a good thing we have our onmyoji friend along for protection. Yura-san?"

Yura did not respond. She was examining the shelves on the opposite wall.

"Let's take a look at some of these bottles!" Chiaki waved to her camera man. "Hm, I wonder what this is?" She moved aside a glass bottle, glanced at its label and then reached for another bottle on the same shelf, further in the back.

It suddenly got very quiet in the room. "Something is holding my wrist," Chiaki whispered fearfully.

Kana paled. "Something?" She echoed. The expression on Chiaki's face did not suggest that she was pretending to be afraid. Yura turned slowly.

"It's not letting go!" Chiaki looked very worried. The camera man crept closer. He angled his flashlight and changed it to the brightest setting.

A hand suddenly shot out of the wall and knocked his camera into his face. The camera man landed flat on his back. Blood trickled from his nose. Chiaki shrieked. Another hand was holding her by the wrist and it lifted her up. As her feet left the floor, she started kicking madly but it didn't seem to do any good. The arm the hand was connected to was spider-like with gray skin, like an old, emaciated corpse.

The whole building began to shake. Dozens of glass bottles fell from the shelves and Kana stared in horror. The wall behind the medicines was made of contorted bodies cemented together. They groaned in pain and reached for her with claw-like fingers. Their eyes were hollow and black. In the years that she had known Rikuo, Kana had run into a number of terrifying yokai, but the stench of death and the sight of those grasping hands was worse than anything she had ever seen before.

Yura immediately seized a prayer strip from her purse. She was preparing to invoke one of her shikigami, but the first word of the incantation did not roll off of her tongue. A hand came from the wall behind her and seized her by the neck. She gasped and struggled for breath.

Kana fumbled for her gun. "Put them down!" She ordered, pointing her weapon at one of the central heads. It seemed to be oozing out of the wall to get a closer look at her.

Dust billowed from its mouth. Its teeth were yellowed and jagged. "A human?" The yokai spoke with a voice that reverberated. All of the corpses in the walls began to move, moaning and tugging on Kana's white coat. Their fingers left streaks of black and the smell of old blood wherever they touched.

"We'll leave!" Chiaki sobbed. "Please, please, don't hurt us!"

"Leave?" The yokai cackled. "No, you will not leave. You will stay. You will stay for a very long time!"

The central head expanded in size and unhinged its lower jaw like a snake. It dangled Chiaki over its mouth as if it intended to swallow her whole.

Chiaki screamed

Kana fired twice. A hand lashed out of the wall and struck her across the face.

She crumpled to the ground and her whole world faded to black.