Chapter I

Sudden Involvement

"Hey! Who's down there? This area is off limits!"

The bleached tawny luminescence of a lone flashlight lit up the top few concrete steps of the darkened stairwell as the security guard, Harumi Uchida, arrived hastily to inspect the clamor. Not even moments ago, as he had been walking around the property, he heard a loud shuffling echoing near the mouth of the archway leading down into the tunnels. He, regrettably, was in charge of keeping any unauthorized personnel out of the tunnels during his night shifts until they could tear down the one-story building—that, oddly enough, had a maze of corridors throughout the entire under-area—which sparked his coworkers to simply refer the maze as the tunnels. The most logical of reasons it was being torn down was it's old age and frail structure, as it could spontaneously collapse at any given moment and lethally crush anyone underneath its depths. For some undisclosed reason, there was an open stairway that led into the dark abyss that was the tunnels, whom nobody thought of adding a door before and instead hired night-guards to keep things under check. Not only that, but there were the supposed rumors of a legend about these tunnels in particular; that they were haunted by the spirit of a young woman who was betrayed coldly by her former lover and killed in the depths of the underground walls, only to plague the long, dark corridors below and attack anyone who dare disturb her once happy, now miserable sanctuary. It was also said that she would purposely lure unsuspecting men into her realm to get her revenge on the male species, believing all men were scum and needed to be punished brutally.

But, stories are just that, stories, he assured himself. They couldn't possibly be real. To think the ghost of a young woman killing men for one mans crimes? Yeah, right. That was as likely as he becoming a millionaire. How would they even know of the reason why she lures men down into the maze? It's ridiculous. Despite his thoughts, he preferred not to have any blood on his hands if tonight were the night it just so happened to cave in on any unsuspecting thrill-seekers, or for him to witness any ghostly apparitions if he had the choice.

The night was silent as he simply stood before the underpass; very few cars drove by the fence that was only a few yards away. The sound of the tree leaves ruffling in the wind and crickets singing their nightly songs were soothing to the security guards skittish nerves. The only thing left that would completely leave him at ease would be the assurance that nobody was sneaking about in the tunnels where he was suppose to be keeping watch; and, of course, nothing awaiting him down below. Unfortunately for him, the noise echoing from underneath continued once again upon his approach. Frowning, he rubbed his prickly chin, feeling the five o'clock shadow of stubble he neglected to shave that morning, and shivered at the cold, harsh breeze. The wind cut into his cheeks like razors, so he lifted up his arm to try and block it from catching his face. The howl of the gale was loud, but it was nothing compared to what the guard could still hear coming from beneath his feet.

Just as he had concluded his thoughts on that matter, the shuffling noise suddenly stopped, making Uchida frown and cup his ear towards the entrance, his hands slightly trembling. From the cold or fear could be anyone's guess, but if there really were a ghost, he'd have a chance to run away, right? There wouldn't be any more reason to investigate the noise, right? He knew he didn't have any other choice but to venture down into the pitch-black maze. Gulping at the growing lump in his throat, Uchida held his flashlight close to his hip, his other hand gripping the handle of his taser. He could simply electrocute any civilians or unwanted company if it were a real threat—if that were not already obvious. Yet considering the taser rods would do nothing to help stop any ghosts, if there were any, that is, the feeling of the weapon in his sweating palms made him feel a little safe... as well as vulnerable.

Taking a deep breath, Uchida Harumi placed on large, heavy booted foot on the first step down the stairwell, and then another, until he was inside the mouth of the concrete arch holding the dirt above the ground on this hill side. The further he descended, the more stiff his legs became. He peered down the steep rock steps into the darkness, sweat making the grip on his flashlight slacken somewhat. He stopped after taking another few steps down to listen for any movement below. He heard nothing, only the sound of the winds impact on the exposed stairwell wall of the tunnel and distant and rare cars driving by on the rode.

Perhaps he was just hearing things; his imagination must have been running wild from all the gossip the other security members passed along when their shifts ended. Surely, ghosts did not exist. He was simply getting paranoid. He sighed at his foolishness and shook his head, a trembling chuckle escaping and echoing as the noise bounced off the walls. He decided it was time to circle back and keep watch outside, where it was certainly less nerve-wracking than inside the near-depths of the darkness. He turned around and lifted his leg to tread up the stairs when he suddenly felt something warm puff of air on his neck, as though someone were breathing over his shoulder. He stiffened, his body stationary as his eyes widened in fear. There was another warm breath, this time by his jaw. Suddenly, a chilling, body-less voice purred directly in his ear, "Let's have some fun in the dark, darling...We can dance in your crimson breath for a while tonight... Oh... You shall be ever so pleasuring... Allow me to demonstrate just how much you mean to me..."

He opened his mouth in a terrified scream and urged his body to scramble towards the exit, when a powerful, invisible force picked up his body and slammed him onto the staircase. A female shriek of maniacal laughter echoed endlessly in his ears as he was thrown down. He gasped out in severe pain, his jaw having been smashed downward onto a step, possibly shattering it. The overpowering force lifted him back up and flung him against the walls, ceiling, and back onto the staircase again, whipping him around like a yo-yo. He was unable to cry out now without emitting a gurgling, muddled gasp as he choked on his own spit and blood.

"Yes... Weep your sorrows like the scum you are~! Men are demons... you deserve to rot and bleed for our tortured souls... I will show you the mercy we were dispelled..."

Tears escaped his tightly pinched eyes and his body felt like a mangled, twisted, and bloody disaster of flesh and muscle as something solid wrapped around his left ankle and dragged his weeping body down the staircase, his head making a loud THONK on just about every step it hit. If not for the darkness, Uchida would have assumed he were unconscious; every one of his muscles had gone numb from the intense pain he was experiencing, assuming he was not paralyzed from the neck down. He knew plenty of bones had to have broken, not that he could do much about it by this point.

"We'll play another game, hmmm~...? I'm having a marvelous time... This is what we receive in return for you bastards crimes and horrors towards us... Feel our pain, our suffering... YOU WILL BE ON THE RECEIVING END OF THE HORRORS THIS TIME!" There was another bark of laughter, horrendously dry as the whisper of a voice cackled and groaned.

At the moment, he was to busy being dragged down an immensely long set of stairs to perceive anything the disembodied voice declared. Other than his attack, he was surprise he wasn't already dead, or knocked out, for that matter. But he was aware of what was happening, or so he assumed. That was what scared him the most. It took everything in him to try and focus on his situation, though terror definitely overrode his thoughts most of the time. His head hit the last step, his skull throbbing so intensely that it felt like his brain would explode. His limp body began to drag down the pitch-black hall at a fast pace, and his head screamed for mercy. He didn't want to die tonight. He didn't want to die at all!

Suddenly, a distant light illuminated the darkness from the direction he'd came from, splotched of black spots still covering his vision. The dazzling light blinded him, causing his head to erupted in agony. In a single moment, all of his senses dulled dismally; his sight obscured, his ears ringing to deafening tones, his body unable to perceive the ground beneath him, and his smell, completely useless as his own blood filled his nostrils completely. He had never felt so lifeless and out of control.

After what felt like an eternity, the ringing in his ears faded ever so slowly, to be alerted by blaring pandemonium. His skull still throbbed, but he could hear a faintly distorted chanting as he regained his one sense. The words he heard were in a language he could not understand; well, that, or he simply could not hear the phrases properly. As time passed, he could hear the shrieks of another voice, this one more familiar, as it screamed in pain. It cried out in absolute hatred, and he realized it was his attacker who was screaming. The chanting voice raised an octave and he could tell, while it still sounded somewhat distorted, it was a woman's voice. The words were still complete gibberish to him, but the force and power was evident in her tone. Somehow, it soothed his pulsing cranium, the throbbing dulling to a feeble migraine(which was already many times better than it's prior state), and his tense body relaxing. The cries continued, but they did not disturb him at all. It was like he was a sailor listening to a siren's song, blissfully content.

"No...! This is... my NEST! You can't just... come and hurt ME... Stop! I'm lonely... Please, I'm.. not done... I must get my... Revenge! No!" There was an abrupt pause as an agonizing scream rattles the area, "SCUM! I will KILL Y—KYAHHHHH~!" The ghosts cried out in a shrill voice as it was cut off, its echoes diminishing every second. It wasn't long until silence encased him, the chanting having formerly ended. In no time at all, the agonizing pain came back. He wished with all his might that the woman would start chanting again. He wanted to hear the siren's song... He needed it, he couldn't bare the pain much longer.

A soft sigh reached his ears, "You've had enough 'revenge' for one lifetime, Hun." The woman's voice said in a mellow tone, "And you've surely done quite the number on this poor man. Engañar..." She trailed off, her speech softening and her words slurring together, as though she were tipsy from drinking. Footsteps echoed in the hall as the woman drew near him.

"Sleep now, this will tide you over until the ambulance arrives," the siren stated, placing something by his face. An odd smell engulfed his nostrils, opening his nasal passages and allowing him to sniff the scent. As he inhaled it again, it began to smell faintly of lavender and honey. The aroma grew stronger, and he sighed pleasantly, enjoying the smell. From a distance, he heard an ambulance siren blaring it call, then footsteps, and then chatter. As he laid on the concrete, his mind fogged as the scent surrounded him, making everything distant until only blackness and silence was left.

A raven-haired Chinese man sat at his office desk, his long fingers practically flying across his lap-tops keyboard as he typed away. It was fairly late at night, but he had not yet finished his report on the latest case the SPR(Shibuya Psychic Research) team had completed. It had been quite a while since the they have had other cases, so his boss had demanded a full report, no details forgotten. And none would be, of course.

As he typed, there was a knock on the door behind him. He paused, his fingers hovering over the keys, and listened, then answered the door by raising his low voice, loud enough to carry through the wood, "It's open."

The office door opened up to reveal a girl in her late teens with short, brunette hair, her hands folded in front of her as she smiled slightly, "I was just getting ready to leave for the night, would you like some tea before I go?" She asked in an exhausted yet friendly manner to the older man.

After a moment, the man shook his head, "No, thank you Mai-san."

Mai nodded and bowed, stepping out of the room, "Alrighty then. Have a good night, Lin-san."

He nodded in return and went back to his work as he heard his office door close once again.

It was another twenty or-so minutes later that he finally finished his report and set it up to print and file. As he waited by his printer-machine, he glanced at the clock that was hung up near on the wall, his head the same level as the device. It read roughly eleven o'clock at night, and he sighed silently, rubbing the bridge of his nose from fatigue. As he waited for the rest of the papers to finish, he gazed around his roomy, yet fairly empty, work-office. The walls were an off golden-sand color, not that he particularly minded— or cared, for that matter. His desk sat across the room the from door, his back to the only exit. There was no window in the small, square room. To some, it would feel like a holding cell, but to Lin, it was an acceptable work space.

When the papers had finished printing, Lin picked them up and shuffled them so they were neatly straightened before stapling the report together at the corner. He placed the little booklet inside the open case file for storage before picking it up and exiting his bureau, heading towards his young boss' office to hand over his work. When he reached the door, he knocked once and stood patiently for a moment before entering the room without awaiting a response.

Inside the large, square, red carpeted room sat a miniature replica of a judges desk you would fined in courtrooms, only this one had more angles and design on the front. Bookcases and shelves of objects swallowed up most of the back and side wall space, books stacked vertically on every available shelf, along with countless left-over books with no home that sat in organized piles beside the filled cases. On either side of the room were two doors— one lead to the filing room, and the other a private bedroom in the vent of late work-nights. In the midst of the office, a young man who was only twenty-one years of age sat behind the desk, an open book in his lap. A mop of black hair was swept messily in the man face, obscuring most of it from view. He wore all articles of clothing in black: black shoes, black dress pants, black long-sleeved turtleneck shirt, and just beyond, a black trench-coat was hung up on a coat rack behind him with a dark grey scarf. Without glancing up from his novel, the man spoke in a dismissive tone, "Mai, tea."

Lin bit back a remark that was on the tip of his tongue, you don't even realize she's no longer at work, Noll. He thought, shaking his head only slightly in disappointment before advancing into the room. He'd never respond harshly to his boss without reason, though sometimes it seemed easier to do so with how he acted with his female assistant around.

"Noll, I've finished the report from our last case," Lin stated simply, placing the file onto the clean and empty surface of the bureau. Oliver Davis, whom was under the alias of Shibuya Kazuya while working in Japan, lifted his eyes as his assistant spoke to him using his English nickname. Noll(or Naru, as Mai called him in Japanese) said nothing for a moment before sighing and setting his book on his desk. From far away, the book would have resembled a large dictionary; but up close, he could clearly see the maroon colored leather of the cover, where the title "Psychic Phenomena: Theories and Legends" was written in bold black italics. This is his pleasure reading, as per usual, Lin thought as he switched his gaze back to Naru, who had the file open in place of the book. After a few minutes, he nodded and shut the file, handing it back to the tall man in front of him.

"Go and store the file in the cabinet room."

Without a moments hesitation, Lin nodded once and walked directly towards the door to said room.

"Wait," Naru called, fixing his pose in his leather swivel chair, "where's Mai? I've asked for a cup of tea a little over ten minutes ago and hadn't heard a single curse nor any sort of response from her yet."

The tall Chinese man simply smirked in amusement with his back facing his boss as he searched for the correct key to unlock the cabinet room. "She has gone home for the night already, Noll. She has her University orientation to attend in a few days and must finish packing and moving her things to the new apartment she'll be living in," Lin stated, unlocking the door in front of him and entering, finding the current filing cabinet they were using. He unlocked the drawer when he found it and place the file inside, shutting it back up and locking it before leaving the room.

Both men stayed silent for a while, Naru nodded and resumed to reading his book as Lin stood nearby, lost in his thoughts. It wasn't long before he was suppressing yawn. Naru peeked at Lin and lowered his head in agreement. He was quite tired as well.

As Naru stood and gathered his coat, he and Lin heard a bell chime jingle— it was the SPR's front door. The two dark-haired men exited the large office and went to investigate who had bothered to come by so late in the evening. It wasn't another minute when they heard footsteps clambering up the staircase that lead to the front desk where Mai was usually stationed as the secretary of the SPR building. A few seconds passed by and a man in a grey business suit panted as he finished his trek up the steps. The man looked young and fit, most likely in his early thirties, with thick, brunette hair that was left decently long and a Van Dyke styled beard. He was bent forward with his hands on his knees as he caught his breath before standing up straight and facing the two other people in the room. He seemed to be sizing them up as his gaze traveled between them before he bowed politely, his heaving breaths still obvious, but then profound.

"Good evening, gentlemen. My name is Otsu Hisashi. I'm sorry to come so late in the night, but there was just an incident involving one of the underpasses near here; I'm the owner of said property and would like to discuss the on-goings as soon as possible."

Naru nodded and motioned for Lin to make tea while he gestured for the unexpected client to follow him into the interviewing room— which was basically like the living room of any ordinary house. Four black pieces of seating furniture took up plenty of the inner space; two were a simple single cushioned armed-chairs, while the other two were large couches, each facing parallel to the other across a rectangular coffee table. Naru pointed to the chair opposite of his own.

"Why don't you begin to explain your situation, Mr. Otsu? " Naru asked the man in his usual professional tone just as Lin returned with a tray of adorning three cups teas as well as a sugar bowl and placed the tray on the coffee table, handing out the teas he had prepared. Taking one of the steaming cups of tea, Naru blew on the rising vapor and took a sip, slumping and rolling his aching shoulders. Naru knew that Lin could make a tasteful cup of tea, but at that very moment, he was wishing for Mai's instead.

As if the Chinese man could hear Naru's thoughts, he let out a breath and prepared a notebook and a pencil, awaiting the client's story.

Not wasting another second, Mr. Otsu picked up one of the teas from the tray and began to explain the circumstances.

xXx

The night air was cold and sharp as Lin walked quickly to his modified Honda civic to escape the harsh gale. As he opened the car door, a gust of wind blew into the door, making it difficult for the man to close it as he sat himself in the drivers seat of the car. When he finally managed to close it, he sighed, shaking out his hair. The long fringe he had that covered nearly half his face was in a disarray, and he hastily brushed it down until it felt proper on his face. Sliding the key into the ignition, he eased out of the parking lot of the SPR property and onto Shibuya street, heading south. He drove towards his apartment building, which was approximately a half-hour drive away with heavy traffic. Fortunately, the streets were not nearly as busy at this time of night, much to his relief, and turned on some music, keeping it on low volume. He would never admit to his boss, but he did enjoy music from time to time; although, it was not the normal 'pop' music most of the other employees he worked with listened to. It was slightly more heavy, similar to rock and roll, but he only listened to the more... considerable rock music. Well, for the most part.

After driving for around fifteen minutes, nodding his head slightly along with the beat, volume low, he noticed an ambulance parked about twenty yards ahead of him on his right. It was parked crookedly on the side of the street, as well as a few police vehicles stretching along the road. He parked a block away from the scene to inspect it from afar. Unlike his boss, he was not so curious about what could possibly have occurred, but it happened to be in the direction of his apartment, so he decided to check out the scene; if it was even worth it.

Noll may want to investigate this, it might be Mr. Otsu's case, Lin considered, sighing. He'd left Naru back at the SPR building by his order's; He would sleep in his office's attached bedroom tonight. The only reason Lin could think of one other than the fact that he was already to conducting further investigation into Mr. Otsu's case, was so he wanted to catch Mai early and demand for tea. They hadn't yet agreed on taking his case, but it sounded quite interesting, to say the least. And considering Lin's luck, it was best to get some more close up information from the scene ahead of time, for obvious research purposes.

Officers were talking and walking towards a mound. After a moment, an EMT member emerged from the dark depths of the mound, carrying a stretcher up until it rested on the flat surface of the ground. The body didn't seem to be dead, but it certainly looked like hell was placed upon it. From the distance, it mainly looked like a scarlet mess of sheets and limbs, but due to the fact that there was no body-bag, he knew that person was still alive. Quite unfortunate, he thought, sighing again. This certainly is a case we should consider.

A thud sounded outside as something hit the black Honda. His body stilled for a moment before he noticed a flash of white in the corner of his vision. His head darted towards the white... hair? A woman who looked to be in her late teens or early twenties was sprawled beside his car door, rubbing her head. She was dressed in all black, but her short mane of white hair was tangled together, and as she shook her head, it didn't aid in fixing it. She stood up quickly, hiding her face behind the fringe of white hair as she tipped her head to the side. The woman stood completely still, her face tilted towards Lin's window. Her body tensed and she brought up her arms, preparing to attack, when a yell of one of the officers sounded close-by. Glancing around at the ground, she knelled down and hastily searched for something she must have dropped. When her expression brightened, she bent down briskly and retrieved a black mask, slipping it on over her face.

The man stared at her with wide eyes, awe-struck. He had no idea what to think or do, so he simply sat there, watching the woman turn around and head back into the alley. Gulping, the Lin finally reached his hand towards his door handle and unlocked his door, opening it. That was enough to grab her attention. She spun around and eyed the black vehicle, her body in a fighting stance as she awaited the man to exit him car. Suddenly voices were audibly picked up by the win, alerting them of the cops. The woman turned and ran into the dark alley, hoping up a ladder and climbing up onto the roof with ease. She glanced down at the black vehicle, as though expecting the man to follow her, then shook her head and spun around again, her hair flying, and disappeared from sight.

It took him some time to recollect himself from what he had just witnessed. While it was not just a potential murder scene, it was still something completely unnerving, as well as intriguing. He just hoped he could forget about that part of the night, seeing as his thoughts lingered on the white-mane girl. But that was unlikely to happen.