Author's Note: The idea for this halo came while I was in the shower last week. I took other ideas from many other places and put them together. Plus, I got to finish up what I started last week with Ran and the Dante Killer. I like how it turned out. I think I am going to enjoy developing Sachiko's storyline for this season. I have been sitting on this for a long time. I already have the next two weeks mapped out in my head. For now, enjoy this week's halo.
Halo Seven: Sachiko:
Body parts were found scattered all over Edogawa Park in the early hours of the morning. They were just tossed around without much care. Blood soaked the grass. A drunken salaryman discovered what looked like a lung and entrails laying on the ground. Boy that was enough to sober him up. Well, at first he wasn't sure what he was seeing. The poor man had the misfortune of walking closer to take a look. When he saw it, he made a call to the police.
-7:00 a.m.-
Detective Hisakawa Sachiko stood with Nakamura at the crime scene.
"One of your circles in hell?" she asked.
"Seems that way," he said. "A salaryman called in last night and reported about seeing a lung on the ground. Thought he was drunk at first but no. Here we are." The detective looked out on the blood-stained grass and shook his head.
"How many pieces so far?" Sachiko asked.
"Quite a few," Nakamura said. "The CSI's tried to wrestle away some part from the stray dogs who were looking for something to eat." He winced at the thought.
"The animal bites are going to make things more difficult to get any accurate results," Nakamura said. "I'm surprised that more of them haven't been eaten."
"Yikes," Sachiko said. The male detective looked over at his colleague.
"What about you? How is your case going?" he asked.
"Not much happening," Sachiko said with a shrug. "I think I might be stuck." Nakamura looked over at her.
"How do you mean?" he asked. She rubbed the back of her head.
"I don't know how to put this," she said. "It's just…" Sachiko shook her head.
"Never mind. I'll figure it out," she said.
"You sure?" he asked. The other detective nodded. They looked up when they heard a soft clicking noise. Sachiko and Nakamura turned to see a kid about fifteen taking pictures of the crime scene with their phone.
"Hey!" Nakamura shouted. The kid turned and ran away. The man sighed and shook his head.
"It's always got to be that one kid," he grumbled.
"You know how they are," Sachiko said. "True crime junkies just want to be close to the action."
"But it gets in the way of our work," Nakamura said. Sachiko blew her bangs out of her eye.
"I get it," she said. "Good luck on finding out who this poor bastard is."
"Yeah," he said. They turned back to see a CSI holding up an ear.
-1:18 a.m.-
Satsu opened her laptop. She promised Aoi that she wouldn't go back to DeathVine. She had been keeping that promise up for close to a month now. But the temptation grew to be too much. Just one little peek. One little peek. Satsu typed in the address in the address bar. She promised herself no gory rabbit holes. Just in and out. Aoi would be none the wiser.
The laughing skull popped up on the screen. Satsu clicked on it. There was DeathVine in its morbid and gory glory. Satsu looked around on the main page. She paused when something caught her attention.
"Huh? What's this?" Satsu asked. The page now had a live streaming section. The woman looked confused.
"Since when do they do live streaming?" Satsu whispered. She turned and looked behind her. Aoi was still sound asleep in their bed. She turned over and settled back into place. Satsu sighed in relief. Good.
"Stay asleep, my dear," she whispered. "Stay asleep. Stay asleep." Satsu took a slow breath. She began to scroll through the open live rooms on the site. One caught her eye.
DK's Private Room.
"Hm," she said to herself. Satsu clicked on the title. A text box popped up asking for a username. Satsu typed in the name, "Silent Hill 77" and clicked okay. The link took her into the video with a woman hacking off Izumii Ran's left leg at the thigh with a mini hatchet. He looked like he struggling not to scream. The leg fell to the ground with a plop. The woman in the bloodied white pantsuit and black and red goat mask turned to the camera and bowed.
"Thank you for the donation," she said. Her victim looked like he was about to pass out. The masked woman turned and smacked him on the cheeks.
"Hey! You still with us? Hey! Hey! Wake up!" she said. The victim jerked his head upward.
"Oh good, you're awake," the masked woman said. She turned back to the camera.
"Thank you for the donation," she said with a bow. Satsu had a confused look on her face.
"What the fuck?" she asked. But she couldn't take her eyes off of the screen. Maybe she hoped that something was fake. This had to be fake, right? Still, Satsu couldn't click away.
The masked woman walked over to the laptop screen.
"Let's see," she said. "What should we do next?" Ran gave up on trying to break free from his bonds. He seemed to be glaring out of his remaining good eye. The masked woman rose to her feet.
"Ranma Bunny 101 has donated 250¥ for another finger," she said. "All right." The woman was about to give up when there were three more notifications.
"Oh, what's this?" the masked woman asked. She leaned in to the screen.
"Looks like we have four more users who are offering the same thing," the masked hostess said.
"Well, okay," she said. "This looks like it's going to be more interesting than I thought. I will see what I can do." She disappeared to the back. When she came back, she held a pair of loppers in her hand.
"Okay! Here we go!" she said. The masked woman turned back to Ran. She forced open his hands.
Snip!
"One," the masked woman said. A pinky dropped to the tarp-covered floor. The victim tried not to scream. His captor giggled.
Snip!
"Two," she said. Another finger dropped to the ground.
Satsu stared at the screen dumbfounded. What the hell was this? She had heard of red rooms before but she had never seen one in real life. Satsu always believed that they were just creepypasta. But now she was being proved wrong this morning. She felt like she was watching something that she shouldn't have. Satsu wasn't sure how far this DK woman was going to take it. Was she really going to kill this man? The horror otaku wasn't sure if she should stick around.
Suddenly, a DM popped up on the screen.
"Hm?" Satsu asked. She clicked on the message. Professor Dark was the one who DMed her. The woman became even more confused at what she read.
"This is not for you."
Satsu wrinkled her nose. She started typing her response.
"What are you talking about?" Satsu pressed send. Professor Dark was already typing. She narrowed her eyes as she waited.
"You are not designed for rooms like this. Turn back now."
Satsu was about to type a response when she ended up booted back to the front page. Now she was really confused.
"What the hell?" the woman asked. She hadn't clicked out of the room and she had barely typed anything in the DM box either. But here she was back on the main page of DeathVine. Who booted her out? And how and why? Satsu tried to get back into DK's Private Room but access was denied. She tried two more times but the same result followed. Satsu finally gave up, logged off, and went to bed.
-7:22 a.m.-
146 body parts were recovered. Some of the innards were chewed on by stray dogs. Chikako was going to have a time with this.
Sachiko happened to be looking around the street for more curious onlookers when something caught her eye across the street. A man about 6'2" stood watching her. He stood out from the crowd with his short black hair, black hoodie, and black jeans. For some reason, Sachiko felt herself drawn to him. She turned and walked toward the tall man in dark clothes.
"Hisakawa?" Nakamura asked. Sachiko didn't listen as she kept walking across the street. The man dressed in black didn't move. He didn't say anything as he got closer. She felt so small in front of him.
"You…" Sachiko said in a small voice. The man stood looking at her.
"Yes?" he asked. The detective looked down at first. Then she lifted her head with a determined look on her face.
"Have we met before?" she asked.
"You tell me," he said. Sachiko frowned as she looked into his eyes.
"Do you know who I am?" the man asked. The detective about stumbled backward. She's heard him ask this question before but it still managed to catch her off-guard. The man smirked and shook his head.
"We do this every time we meet," he said. Sachiko looked confused.
"What do you mean?" she asked. The detective froze as only one name came to mind.
"Osamu?" she asked.
"Heh, much better," he said.
"What are you doing here?" Sachiko asked as she rocked back on her heels.
"What else? I came to check out the crime scene. And maybe watch you work," Osamu said. The detective narrowed her eyes.
"You're fucking with me, aren't you?" she asked. Osamu snickered.
"Maybe," he said. The man looked over her shoulder.
"You might want to get back to your partner over there," he said. Sachiko turned her head. Nakamura stood across the street staring at them. He had a puzzled look that said, "Um… Hello?"
"Oh," Sachiko said as she was coming out of a trance. She ran across the street to her colleague." Osamu watched her leave as before walking away.
"Sorry about that," the detective said when she made it over to Nakamura.
"What was that about?" he asked.
"Honestly, I have no idea," Sachiko admitted. She turned and looked back at the spot where Osamu was. She couldn't explain why she felt like she knew him from somewhere.
-7: 45 a.m.-
"Boss, there is something that you need to see," one of Aozaki's underlings said. The Blue Oni executive looked at him with his eyebrow raised.
"What is it? You get hit with a porno bomb or something?" he asked. The young thug had a concerned look on his face.
"You really need to see this," he said in a low voice. He handed the Awakusu executive his phone. Aozaki took the phone and looked down at the screen. The young thug was sent the stream that went live on DeathVine. The paused screen alone caught his attention. Ran sat tied to a chair gagged and covered in blood. His left leg was missing and his right was busted up to a pulp at the calf. His left eye was also missing. A woman in a white pantsuit covered in blood with a black and red goat mask looking into the camera.
"What the hell is this?" Aozaki asked. The thug started to look pale as if he knew what was coming next. The Blue Oni didn't have to ask as he hit play.
The woman knelt down in front of her laptop.
"Now let's see here," she said. The masked woman scrolled through the comments firing in. Suddenly, she paused. She covered the area of the mask where the mouth would be.
"Oh…" the masked woman said. "Oh my. My lovely viewers. We just got a very generous donation from Nemesis." She jumped to her feet.
"1,437,240.00¥ to cut off his penis!" the woman shouted. Izumii's good eye widened. The comments came on the screen in rapid fire.
"What?!"
"Is she serious?"
"She's not going to do that."
"This I gotta see!"
"Do it!"
"She doesn't have the balls! LOL"
The masked woman scrolled through the comments and pretended to think for a moment.
"Well, now," she said. "This is quite an interesting offer. It actually sounds rather tempting. What do you think? Should I do it?" Ran was quickly shaking his head and yelling behind the gag. The masked woman leaned to the screen. All of the viewers said yes. She sat back and chuckled.
"Well okay," the masked woman said. "How can I say no to the fans?" She got up and walked past her victim to the table of tools. The masked woman came back with a giant cleaver. She walked over to her victim. She had already stripped him of his pants and boxers. The masked woman looked down at his lap.
"Heh, I thought it was kind of cold here," she said. The masked woman cleared her throat. She forcefully managed to push apart his legs. Her victim tried not to look at her as raised the cleaver above her head.
"Welcome to the seventh circle of hell!" she shouted. She brought down the cleaver.
Chop!
Ran screamed in pain through his gag. His cock fell limp to the tarp-covered floor. The masked woman threw the cleaver and turned to the camera.
"Thank you so much for the donation," she said with a bow. Meanwhile, Aozaki looked up at the young thug.
"How long ago was this stream?" he asked as the rage built up brick by brick in his voice. The young thug braced himself for the wrath.
"Shortly after midnight, sir," he said. Aozaki calmed down as he figured flying into a rage wasn't going to help. This was the third person connected to the Awakusu who got attacked personally. Aozaki started to have a hunch about whom to look at first. He looked up at his latchkey.
"We're tracking down this woman and avenge Izumii," the Blue Oni said.
"Yes sir," the young thug said.
Through the severed testes in the mess of body parts delivered to the morgue, the victim scattered around Edogawa Park has been determined to be male.
-12:00 p.m.-
Sachiko and Nakamura sat in McDonald's over lunch.
"Okay, what's the matter?" he asked.
"Huh?" she asked.
"You've been awfully quiet and you keep zoning out," Nakamura said. "Did that guy say something to upset you?" The words were slow to enter her brain. Sachiko shook her head.
"Oh, no," she said. The detective rubbed her forehead.
"I don't know what it is," she said. Sachiko looked out the window. She shoved a fry into her mouth.
"I could have a restraining order placed against him if you want," Nakamura said. Sachiko shook her head.
"That won't be necessary," she said.
"Huh?" her colleague said.
"It's just that he seems so familiar," Sachiko said. "I can't seem to place." That was more to herself than to the other detective. Nakamura was about to say something when his phone rang.
"Excuse me," he said. He pulled out his phone.
"Hello?" Nakamura asked. The call didn't last long but it was enough to call him into the station.
"I'll be right there," he said. Nakamura hung up his phone.
"Duty calls," he said. The detective shoved one last fry into his mouth before getting up.
"See you later," he said.
"Bye," Sachiko said. Nakamura bowed and started walking away. But then he paused.
"Hisakawa, did you know that you have bruises on your neck?" Nakamura asked as he looked through the side of her neck through her long dark hair.
"What?" Sachiko asked as she felt along the sides of her neck. Strange flashes of memory appeared in her head. A big hand seized both of her wrists behind her back while the other one squeezed her neck. She remembered that grip growing tighter and tighter. But she wasn't suffering. In fact, she was in ecstasy. The thoughts of this made her tremble. What was that? Sachiko slowly reached up to her neck. Another chill ran through her body.
"What the hell?" she asked herself. The detective lost her appetite.
-10:00 a.m.-
The news hit the office in the morning. Everyone couldn't stop talking about it. This sort of thing doesn't really happen in Japan. The whispers were already beginning.
"Who do you think is going to be next?"
"This city has gotten too dangerous."
"Do you think that the killer is here?"
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Hey. You don't know that."
Meanwhile, Sawako was reading over the articles on her computer. She read over each word like she was studying the articles. The woman let her mind detach itself only for a moment.
"Hey, hey!"
Sawako quickly looked up. There was a face leaning in next to her. The woman jumped back in her chair.
"Gah!" she shouted. The face stared at her, blinking. Sawako blinked back at him.
"Uh… did you want something?" she asked. The man wouldn't have stood out in a crowd. His short black hair was in a swept-up mess and he wore black-framed glasses. He stared at her with a curious look on his face before turning to her computer screen. Sawako looked at her the article about the body parts found in Edogawa Park. She already had a guess as to what he was thinking.
"Oh," she said. "I like true crime." Sawako quickly closed the article.
"You do?" the man asked. His tone was one of intrigue than judgment. The woman turned to him with a confused look.
"I'm sorry… who are you?" she asked.
"Oh!" the man said. He rubbed the back of his head and chuckled.
"Where are my manners?" he asked. "I'm Asano Greg." Sawako stared at him like he was speaking pig Latin.
"Greg?" she asked.
"Yeah, my dad named me," he said.
"Are you new around here?" Sawako asked. Greg shook his head.
"No, I'm mostly working downstairs with the other IT guys," he said.
"Oh, you're one of the tech guys," she said.
"That's right," Greg said. Sawako tilted her head.
"Did you want something?" she asked. Greg put up his hands.
"Not really. I was just coming up here to see daylight. I noticed that you were sitting alone at your desk while everyone was standing around talking," he said. Greg leaned in like he was looking at a new exhibit.
"You aren't much of a social person, are you?" he asked. Sawako's nostrils flared as she took a breath. She hadn't been angry lately. This Greg guy was starting to test her. She was ready to try and nicely tell him off. But he stepped back with a smile on his face.
"Neither am I," he said. The man turned to leave but then he paused and looked over his shoulder.
"See you around," Greg said. Sawako was left sitting there confused as he walked away. What was all of that about?
-October 23, 2015-
Chikako was able to recover a thumb from the pile of remains once they were all sorted out. That gave the detectives some hope of getting somewhere. The thumbprint was run through the database. The victim was revealed to be Izumii Ran. The news of his death reached the public by morning. His head so far has never been found.
Kururi sighed as she scrolled through her phone.
"Aw damn, that sucks," she said. She read through the articles that kept popping up in the Dollars chatroom. There went her favorite plaything. Now how was she going to kill time? The girl looked up to see Aoba looking so numb.
"What's the matter?" she asked. Her boyfriend looked up with his phone in his hand.
"She actually killed him," Aoba said in a whisper. He handed Kururi the phone. She looked down to see a still of the masked woman holding a power drill over Ran's head. She was probably grinning under that black and red goat mask. Kururi tapped play on the screen.
Ran looked like both of his eyes were gone. The gag had long been removed. The teeth and the tongue had been cut and ripped out. All of his limbs were gone and his torso had been carved up like a hunk of meat. His facial features had been cut off as well. The masked woman laughed at his suffering.
"Final question: Do you know who I am?" she asked. The victim could barely move anymore. He couldn't make any sounds anymore. The masked woman giggled as she turned on the drill.
"Time's up!" she shouted. She leaned down to where his ear used to be.
"I am the Dante Killer," the masked woman whispered loudly. That would be the last time Ran panicked.
"Good night, sweet prince," DK said. "And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." She dug the drill part into his skull. Blood splattered everywhere.
Aoba snatched his phone from Kururi. She looked up at him with a dull look on her face. Her boyfriend couldn't speak.
"What?" his girlfriend asked with a shrug. Aoba struggled to speak at first.
"Ran's dead!" he shouted. His girlfriend said nothing. She didn't need to. The look in her eyes told him everything that he needed to know. Aoba groaned as he threw his hands up in the air.
"Don't you get it?" he asked. "He may have been an asshole but he was still my brother! Even he didn't deserve to die like that!" Thinking about that made him want to throw up. All Kururi did was shrug as she stared at him. Already, she was planning her replacement for Ran.
-10:00 p.m.-
"Thank you for the day," Sachiko said at the door of the police station.
"Good night," one of her other colleagues said. The detective bowed and walked out the door. She hadn't made it a few more steps when she noticed someone stepping out of the shadows toward her. Sachiko reached for her gun.
"Who's there?" she asked. Izaya stepped out of the darkness.
"Good evening, detective," he said. Sachiko had a perplexed look on her face as she pulled her hand away from her gun.
"Orihara…-san?" she asked. "What are you doing here?" The information broker smirked as he gave her a little shrug.
"I just came by to ask how you are doing with those bruises on your neck," he said. Sachiko froze.
"H-H-How did you know about the…?" she asked. She reached up with her right hand and felt along the right side. Flashes of that hand choking her from behind filled her mind. Izaya shook his head.
"Tsk, tsk, detective," he said. "You've gotten sloppy lately. Here I would've thought that you would've done a better job of hiding the evidence."
"What are you talking about?" Sachiko asked. Izaya snickered.
"You'll find out soon enough," he said. "Good night." The man turned and walked away. Sachiko was left standing there with his words not connecting in his brain.
-December 15, 2015-
A dark red smartphone buzzed under blankets and a body on the couch. A woman with long dark messy hair reached for it.
"Hello?" she asked in a half-asleep voice. Talking began flooding her ear. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up on the couch.
"Huh?" she asked. "Who is this? I just woke up. Look, this isn't my phone. I only answered this because it kept ringing under my ass."
"Ma!" a voice shouted. Tomoya dashed over to the couch in the dark.
"Give me that," he hissed as he snatched the phone out of her hand.
"Hey!" his mother said. The tadpole ignored her as he put his phone to his ear.
"Hello?" Tomoya asked. The conversation didn't last long. The tadpole ran over and grabbed his jacket.
"What are you going?" his mother asked as Tomoya rushed out the door. He waved her off as the door swung shut behind him.