Author's Note: Here is another idea that I have been sitting on for weeks. I so wanted to do this to Mika for quite some time now. And now, here it is. I enjoyed how this all came out. Nine whole pages. The two biggest parts ended up being Mika's part and Izaya's part. Speaking of Izaya's part, I got the idea from The Storage Papers podcast. The Halloween Bonus Episode is called Depraved. I liked it so much that I had to write it as the first kill for Izaya. Oh, I'm not done with him yet. There's going to be more coming soon. I have the next two haloes planned up to the Halloween special. Speaking of the Halloween special, that is coming along nicely. I can't wait to see how that one turns out. For now, enjoy this week's halo.

Halo Ten: Mika:

The next kill came the day Mikado and Kiyomi escaped from the basement of what was once Chou Mori.

Madam Ai was found murdered in her shop around seven in the morning. Her sister and apprentice weren't expecting the sight they saw when they unlocked the door and turned on the light.

A thousand needles were stabbed into each of Ai's eyes. It looked like her eyelids were held back to do it. Ai's neck was twisted to the side of violently that it broke. Her tongue was cut out of her mouth and nailed to the wall. The tarot card for death was scattered around willy-nilly. Her crystals were hung from the ceiling and splattered with blood.

Nakamura looked down at the body and shook his head.

"Sorcery," he said to himself. This disturbed him. The DK was picking up the pace with her kills. However, Nakamura had bigger problems to worry about.

The police department was looking for who leaked the information about the crime scenes. It had to be someone on the inside.

Nakamura looked around. There was a crowd of people gathered around behind the tape. If any of them whipped out their phones to take pictures he was going to rip it out of their hand and chuck it across the room.

"Anybody who looks like they could be a fan of you-know-who?" the CSI asked.

"The Dante Killer?" Nakamura asked. "I wouldn't put it past them." He turned down to the body.

"What do we have here?" the detective asked.

"Kobi Ai, AKA, Madam Ai," the CSI said. "Local psychic in the area. Her sister was the one who called it in." He turned and looked at Nakamura.

"Looks like she didn't see this coming," he said. The detective sneered at him.

"Really?" he asked. The detective wrinkled his nose. The CSI shrugged.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it," he said.

"Whatever," she muttered. "Finish up processing the scene."

"Yes sir," the CSI said. Nakamura sighed and shook his head. He looked out at the crowd of people again. The DK fans could be anywhere. He waved them off.

"Go on! Getting going! There's nothing to see here!" he shouted. "Get going!" The people gradually walked away. Nakamura dropped his head back and sighed. He needed an edge to get ahead of the killer. Suddenly, his phone rang.

"Yeah?" he asked. Nakamura looked around as he listened to the voice talk on and on over the other line. A stern look came over his face.

"Is that so?" he asked. "I'll be right there." The detective hung up his phone and turned back to the crime scene. The CSI were now bagging up the body.

"I'm heading out to the convenience store. Anybody need anything?" Mika asked.

"No," Saori said.

"I'm good," Yukio said. The rest of the people said the same thing.

"Okay," Mika said. "I'll be back!"

"[Be careful!]" Celty said with her shadows. The girl bowed and headed out the door. Mika had been going between Michiko and Celty and Shinra's apartment. No one had seen Mikado for three days now. They filed a police report but they still had no luck at all.

"Don't worry, we will find him," Mika assured Anri. She believes what she is saying. Mika already knows what is going to happen. She's one of the few pawns in the game who still has all of their memories. The girl already knew what was coming next.

She just hoped that they could stop it in time this time.

He is hollow. He seeks out others he can hollow out. The more full of life they are, the more he can consume. He's been doing quite well around Tokyo. His legion was growing each day. His victims all become a part of him. He can see everything that they see. He could never have enough with his victims. In fact, he is always looking for new ones. Today was no different. He had his eyes on a new target.

He watched her walk into the 7-11. The girl wasn't anyone special. She didn't stand out in a crowd. There wasn't a real reason why he chose her. Right now, she's looking through the aisles. It looked like she was shopping to cook things. At last, she was alone today. No sign of that boyfriend in sight. Perfect. He just needed to go ahead and make his move.

Mika walked over to the counter and made her purchases. He waited outside in the parking lot. He watched as the clerk handed the target her change. Mika bowed and walked out of the store.

Show time!

November 6th, 2015

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Izaya flinched as he awoke to the coppery smell of blood. What was it this time? His head was already spinning.

The information broker found that he couldn't move. He reluctantly drew one eye open. Sure enough, he was strapped down to a table. Izaya tried to move but he was cuffed down tight. Against his better judgment, he opened his other eye. He could barely see in the dark. Izaya had to take a guess that he was in a basement of some sort. Couldn't she have picked something a little more original?

Naturally, Izaya had no memory of how he got here. The last thing he remembered was meeting up with a client seeking information on a rival underground fighting ring. Said client ended up being a no-show so Izaya left the club. From there, it was hazy. (In hindsight, that client might have been a set-up.)

He looked down at his body. His ankles were cuffed down too. Izaya had a feeling that his knife and phones weren't on his person. She's always been thorough with this game, hasn't she? A dry laugh escaped from his lips.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

"Okay! I know you're here! Come out and show yourself," he said. There was nothing but the sounds of drips in the background. Izaya gritted his teeth.

"Come on! Get out here!" he shouted. A heavy door swung open. Footsteps walked down the wooden steps. Here comes.

"Oh good, you're finally awake!" a man's voice said. He stood over his captive. This time, she took the form of a skinny man in his thirties. His arms were covered in tattoos. The white wife-beater and black jeans went with the black buzzcut.

"Yo!" he said with a wave.

"Let me guess," Izaya said. "The client was also you?" Buzzcut smiled like a lunatic.

"You're half-right," he said. "I just tagged along to this body." Buzzcut held up his hand.

"I know what you want to ask," he said. "How are you going to die this time? Do you have any ideas? No? Well, let me show you!" Buzzcut let out a loud whistle. Loud stomps and drags filled the basement. Izaya lifted his head in the dark. A confused look came over his face.

"What… is that?" he asked. A tall, bulky creature stood next to Buzzcut. The arms were pumped up. The right one looked more swollen than the left one. The gnarled hands looked somewhat human. The hand had bright apple-green nail polish on it. Its legs looked like skinned meat. Was that hockey jersey it was wearing? Buzzcut smacked the creature on the back.

"This is my friend," he said. "I have been feeding him since the last gate was opened. It started with small animals like rats and squirrels. Soon, that wasn't enough. You know how it goes. Small meat is never enough for growing beasts like my friend. So don't you know what I fed them next?"

"Humans?" Izaya asked.

"That's right!" Buzzcut said. He gave a cute little pout.

"But alas, any old humans don't work anymore," he said. He patted his friend on the shoulder.

"You see he has picky tastes," Buzzcut said. He walked over to a table next to his victim. The possessed man grinned as he whipped back the sheet. Izaya blinked and reeled back at the smell. The corpse looked like a bloated forty-year-old man. The middle was mostly missing along with the arms. His mouth was open in a permanent scream. Izaya didn't like where this was heading. Buzzcut walked over to the body.

"I found this guy passed out by the train station," he said. "I offered him to my friend but he didn't finish his meal. Just picked around at it. I don't know what it was. Maybe he was sick or something. Or maybe it was the booze." Buzzcut turned back to Izaya.

"Because of that, he's still hungry," he said.

"Let me guess, I'm on the menu, huh?" Izaya asked.

"Part of it," Buzzcut said. He patted the creature on the back.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked his friend. The creature walked over to its victim. Panic washed over Izaya's face. He got a good look at the creature's face. That grin with the straight white teeth was made of nightmares. Did they have to be so straight and white? It had two small holes for a nose. The worst part was that the creature had no eyes. Izaya began to see where this was heading.

The creature reached down with long black claws that grew out from its nails. It reached down and dug down into Izaya's left eye socket. The information broker could feel the tips serving the optic nerve. The blood started welling up as the eye was pulled free. Buzzcut stood, grinning. The creature went for Izaya's other eye. The information broker was screaming was the room went dark.

Suddenly, he blinked when his vision came back blurry. In a few more blinks, his vision returned. Only… Izaya found himself looking down at his own body strapped down onto the table. At first, he couldn't comprehend what was happening. He could still feel the blood in his empty sockets. Buzzcut looked at his friend.

"They look great on you," he said. Izaya could see the creature ripping down into his chest. He was going to watch as his own body was eaten alive by this… this… monster! The fat hands pulled the rib cage apart. His bones came apart with a wet sickening crunch. The creature ripped Izaya's still-beating heart from his chest. Izaya felt himself slipping away as the creature bit down into the hot muscle. Buzzcut made his way up the stairs.

"Welp looks like my friend won't have to worry about eyes for the rest of the week," he said. The man shut the door behind him.

Izaya awoke with a start in his own room hours later. He sat up in his bed, panting. To call that experience just a night would be foolish on his part. For he knew that this was just round whatever number this was. She wasn't done with him yet.

This was just the warm-up.

December 18th, 2015.

"Excuse me, miss?" he asked. Mika paused in her tracks. That voice sounded so familiar. Against her better judgment, she turned her head. He towered over her so much so that his shadow blocked out the sun. She didn't flinch.

"What do you want?" she asked. He had no face. In fact, he didn't really look human at all. More like a fleshy mannequin wearing a wrinkled blue checkered shirt and wrinkled black pants. There were impressions of where a face was supposed to be. But he had no face. There was no hair on his body anywhere. Mika tried to step away but he moved closer.

"Become one with me?" he asked.

"What did you say?" Mika asked, hoping, no praying that she heard him wrong.

"Become one with me!" he shouted. His right hand darted straight into her chest. Mika's body seized up like she had been shot by a taser. Her eyes became empty as a thin barb started to tunnel into her heart.

Mika awoke in her mind. There was nothing around her. Where… Where am I? Pink tendrils shot out toward her. She tried to duck away but found that she couldn't move. They latched onto her hands, wrists, neck, and legs.

Hey! What is this? Get off of me! Let me go!

A chorus of mangled voices filled her head.

"It's okay. Just let it take you. Just let it take out. Just let it take out."

Mika started gasping out in pain. Images started to skip around in her head. Upon a closer look, they were from her childhood. The earliest was when she was a toddler. Mika looked so happy with her parents. Suddenly, that image started to disappear. The girl's eyes widened.

"Hollowed out! Hollowed out! Hollowed out!" the voices chanted. A pair of invisible heavy hands rested on her shoulders.

"Just hold still," a deeper voice said. "I am just going to hollow you out and we will become one."

"We're going to erase your memories!" the chorus of waves said.

What?!

Mika watched as more of her memories were getting destroyed. Most of her life up to kindergarten vanished into pieces. Faces of people started to disappear. Sames with some of their names. And basic locations with some of the things she did over the past week. It came up to the moment she met Anri. Protecting that shy, gloomy girl from those bullies.

No!

Mika couldn't let this happen. She wasn't going to let these things strip away everything that she was to be part of whatever they were. They would take away her friends. They would take away her family. They would take away Anri. They would take her away Seiji. She had to break away.

You're not taking away my Seiji!

The girl closed her eyes and screamed. The tendrils broke away from her body and shattered into pieces.

"What the hell?! How did you-?!"

Everything around them vanished into thin air. Mika was now floating in a vast emptiness within herself. She found herself face to face with a fleshy mannequin figure dressed in a black and gold kimono. He too had no face.

"This… This has never happened before!" he said. "How did you manage to break away from my reaping?!" Mika started to get annoyed.

"Who are you?!" she asked.

"We are Chuku," he and thousands of voices filled the air.

"Why did you take to make me of you?" Mika asked. Chuku's nervous laughter rang around in her head.

"Don't you know? We are the hollow men. We are the stuffed men," he said. "I need more to survive." That was all Mika needed to hear to piece together the motive. She put her hands on her hips.

"As for your question," she said. "I couldn't let you take my Seiji away from me."

"Seiji? Seiji?!" Chuku shouted. He tried to reach out for her chest but Mika slapped his blocky hand away.

"No!" she shouted.

"Become one with us?" Chuku asked.

"I said no!" Mika shouted. With that, the emptiness around her shattered and broke into my pieces. The girl breathed out and slumped to the ground.

"Miss, are you okay? Miss? Miss?" the clerk from the 7-11 asked. Mika turned her head. The clerk took a step back.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "You were leaving the store when you stopped in your tracks out the door. Suddenly, you were floating off the ground before you landed on the ground." Mika nodded slowly.

"Yeah… yeah…" the girl said. She grabbed her bags and stood up.

"Miss?" the clerk asked as the girl walked away.

Mika made it down an alley and pulled out her phone. She paced around as the other line rang.

"Sensei, we need to talk, now!" the girl said.

"Yes, we do," a voice said behind her. She turned to see Victor-sensei holding his phone in his hand.

Moments later, Mika and Victor were in a room in an abandoned apartment building. She sat in a chair as Victor was looking into her soul with a pair of old-time glasses.

"What are you looking for?" she asked.

"Shhh," Victor said as he kept looking. Mika pressed her lips together as she went quiet. Her eyes shifted up to the darkened ceiling.

"Yep, he's got his hooks into your soul," Victor said. He sat back and took off his glasses.

"What does that mean?" Mika asked.

"You see, he's put a knot in your soul," the doctor said. "He tried to hollow you out but you fought. So now, you are attached to him but you still have most of everything that makes you you."

"So I am still me?" Mika asked. Victor folded up his glasses.

"That's right," he said. "You can see and hear what he sees and he can see and hear what you see." Mika shivered at the thought.

"Now the only way to break the connection is for the host to be killed," Victor said.

"Right so I have to kill this Chuku-guy and I will be free," Mika said. She slammed her fist on the palm of her hand. But then she paused.

"But what about all of the others?" she asked. Victor had a grim look on his face.

"They will die with him. I'm so sorry," he said. "They've already been hollowed out. They have nothing left."

"So what exactly happens when you are hollowed out?" Mika asked. Victor had a grim look on his face.

"Your identity ceases to exist," he said. "You will just become a puppet of his." Victor turned his back to his work desk. Mika tried to look over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Victor paused for a moment.

"You had me worried, you know?" he asked in a low voice.

"Huh?" the girl asked.

"They all didn't think you were the right choice," Victor went on. "But I knew that you would pull through." The doctor turned to face her.

"That's why I like you so much," he said. Mika gave him a confused look when she heard his tone.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. Victor closed the gap and forcefully killed Mika on the lips. The girl freaked out and tried to push him off. It got worse when he tried to push his tongue into her mouth. Mika finally managed to push the doctor off.

"What the hell?!" she yelled. "What is wrong with you?!" The doctor backed up with big eyes. He blinked at first.

"I'm so sorry!" he blurted out. Victor quickly bowed before he vanished into thin air. Mika frowned as she stared at the empty space where he was. That was when she noticed that something was near her back teeth. She used the tip of her tongue to fish it out. The girl spat out a small flat key. Mika clicked her tongue as she looked at the palm of her hand.

"Oh for fuck sake, you could've just slipped it into my pocket or something," she muttered to herself. But she got the gist. Mika made her way home.

"I'm back," Mika said when she made it back to Celty and Shinra's apartment. To her surprise, she found Mikado sitting with his friends and some of the tadpoles sitting in the living room.

"Mikado, when did you get back?" she asked. "And what happened to you?" The tadpole lifted his head.

"I got kidnapped," he said.

"What happened to you, dear?" Saori asked. Mika lifted her chin.

"I got attacked by something called the Chuku," she admitted. The whole room went quiet.

"What do you mean?" Erina asked.

"What are the Chuku?" Risa asked. Mika broke down the whole story to her captive audience. Celty rose to her feet. Her shadows came out in force.

"[That's it! Nobody is going anywhere alone anymore! If you have to go somewhere, take somebody with you! Do you understand me?!]" she wrote with her shadows.

"Yes, Mom," some of the tadpoles said in a joking tone. Madoka cut them a cold look.

"Seriously, guys?!" she asked. "Celty-san's got a point! Mikado and Mika were targeted because they were alone. Who knows what's going to happen if we get caught alone? We have to try and stay together to defend ourselves!"

"Okay, okay," Yamato said. "Geez." Between the two apartments, it was agreed that everyone had to go in pairs or groups just to be safe. Some didn't think that it would do much, but it was a start.

"So is it over?" Osamu asked in Kitano's office.

"Not exactly," the therapist said. The men stared at him.

"What do you mean?" Daichi asked.

"I told you about her nature, yes?" Kitano asked.

"Yes," Osamu said. "What about it?" The therapist stared him down.

"Well, in some cases after she kills a target, she will go after the direct descendants," he said. "Scorched earth-style." Osamu and Daichi looked at each other.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Osamu said. "Are you saying…?"

"It would still seem that way," Kitano said. "I can still feel her around." Daichi wrinkled his nose as he made a face.

"When would he get time to do that?" he asked.

"It would seem that way," Kitano said. "Though I doubt it was on purpose. Desperation is weird like that."

"So there's a potential kid out there?" Osamu asked.

"Seems that way," Kitano said.

"And she will kill the children, even if they aren't born yet?" the gruff man asked.

"Yep," the therapist said, nodding.

"Is that a bit brutal?" Daichi asked. Kitano shrugged at him.

"That's just how she is," he said. "I don't make the rules when it comes to her."

Meanwhile, Mikage still lay unconscious in her bed in the hospital.