Chapter L.

I left Toda in the morning of the following day for the town of Akahoshi on an assigned mission.

Corpses had been disappearing from the morgue of the said-town. But not only at the town's hospital, it also happened at the local Buddhist temple during the night.

Heihachi decided to accompany me and my mission partner was Shuda Yagari.

Tsurayuki Senryū and he were the two members that I had never spoken to at the organization. 

From what I had noticed, Shuda Yagari had mostly a nonchalant attitude towards the people around him and he was taciturn. I had never seen him smiling. He frowned a lot. And apparently, he was a swordsman. He carried a long, cylinder-like object on his back and I guessed that it contained his katana in all discretion. After all, it was illegal to carry a weapon in public.

Akahoshi was rather small but well populated. We reached destination in the evening and we took lodging in a hotel. 

After we had put our bags down, we came down onto the street from the tall building to head for the hospital for our investigation. 

I glanced at Shuda Yagari, when I noticed that he was breathing really hard. The spiky-haired male checked his pockets as he began to cough and I watched his expression tensed when he didn't seem to find what he was looking for.

'Is there a problem?' I inquired, timidly.

'I've forgotten something in my room!' he replied in an urgent tone, flinging around and heading back for the entrance of the hotel.

Exchanging a look with Heihachi who was riding on my back, I tagged along, following after Shuda, feeling a bit anxious as he didn't seem to be feeling well. 

His condition worsened as we entered the lift. His coughing wouldn't go away, and he was holding his chest with an arm; his breathing, short, shallow and fast.

'Hey, what's wrong?' I demanded, alarmed but he didn't reply.

He stumbled his way out of the lift when we reached the floor to our rooms. He looked panicky, his face pale and sweaty and he didn't seem to be able to stop coughing.

He collapsed on the floor of his hotel room the moment he crossed through the doorway, being in the capacity to talk or walk anymore. He extended his arm in direction of his bed, and my eyes fell onto the small object lying there.

It was a quick-acting rescue inhaler.

I realized that he was an asthma patient and he was having an attack!

Without losing a second, I rushed to the bed and grabbed his inhaler, bringing it to him. Pulling him into a half-sitting position, I helped him use it.

It seemed to do him some good. His coughing stopped and he could breathe more regularly.

But I was still not reassured.

'I should call an ambulance!'

I took out my cellphone to dial the number when, he snatched the phone away from my hand and closed it, snapping at me, 'There's no need for that!'

I was a bit startled.

He could sit up on his own now, his expression was worn out, though.

'Leave me!' he muttered, in a rude tone, looking away from me.

I hesitated, unsure whether it was a good idea to leave him alone after the flare. 

'Go away, I tell you!' he growled, shoving my cellphone back into my hand.

Not wanting to upset him anymore, I left him to himself and came out of the door. 

I decided to phone Tsunan to get his advice.

'I'll call him on his cellphone right away,' the latter told me and thanking him, I hung up.

I was way too anxious about Shuda to get back to my room. So, I sat there in the corridor just outside of the door of his room, keeping my ears open in case he would feel unwell again.

***

When Shuda Yagari woke up in the morning, he was still feeling a bit tired and cranky. 

After he had performed his morning rituals, he stepped out of his room, and this day couldn't get more unpleasant, as what greeted his sight was a Shun Shutsuki sleeping in front of the door of his hotel room. 

The latter, who had been sitting against the door, had fell on her side on the mocket when he had open the door. The short fall seemed to wake her up. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she began to stir up.

Unnerved, Shuda stepped back into his room, closing the door with a loud bang.

Dammit! What the problem of that girl?! he wondered, irritated.

***

Rubbing my eyes, I sat up, asking, 'Is it morning already?'

My eyes blew fully open when I heard a loud bang and I stared at the closed door to Shuda Yagari's room in bewilderment, before I looked at Heihachi who was sitting in my lap in its animal form. 

'Was that Shuda?'

Heihachi gave me a small nod.

I wondered how Shuda was doing today.

'Oh no!' I said in a panic as I realized that the latter was definitely ready to leave for the hospital to investigate while I, I wasn't ready yet. 

I rushed to my room immediately to brush my teeth and take a shower, and when I came out of my room again, Shuda Yagari was waiting for me in the corridor with an unhappy look. 

'I'm sorry, I'm late. Thank you for waiting for me. How are you today? If you need to rest, I can take care of the mission alone if you want,' I told him, softly.

'Don't be stupid!' he snapped at me, grumpily, and he turned away to make for the lift. 'Come on, let's go!' 

***

When we reached the hospital, we headed directly for the reception desk in the entrance hall of the main building to ask for the person who was in charge of the morgue.

'I'm sorry, sir, but she still doesn't want to see you,' said the second receptionist at the desk, and I glanced at the person she was talking to. It was a young man of around twenty-two, with unruly brown hair and who wore spectacles. He was carrying a beautiful bouquet of flowers in his hands.

The young man's expression became filled with grief.

'Can you give her these flowers on my part at least?'

'I regret. She refuses that you leave her anything.'

Hanging his head, he turned around and left, dragging his feet under him.

I couldn't help but feel a bit intrigued, wondering who was the person that he had come to visit.

Our investigation at the morgue didn't give Shuda and I any elements in our investigation, apart from the fact that, it was only during the night that corpses disappeared. 

The police didn't even have the start of clue and there had been no witness at the hospital. 

But it appeared that somebody at the Buddhist temple had seen something when a cadaver had disappeared during a wake. 

We decided to interrogate that person, having gotten the latter's name and address.

As we came out of the hospital building, my eyes fell onto the guy with the bouquet, who had been at the reception at the same time as us, earlier. 

He was sitting on a bench by himself in front of the hospital, his elbows resting on his thighs, with his bouquet in hand; his expression desperate.

I was a bit surprised that he hadn't left, the person he had come to visit needed count a lot for him.

As we passed by him, abruptly, I tripped and fell face flat on the ground.

That would teach you for not paying attention in front of me!

Heihachi had flew off just in time.

I sat up with a moan, holding my head in my hand when, suddenly, I realized with shock that I had knocked down the brown-haired man's bouquet in my fall.

All the flowers were scattered on the ground, having lost some of their petals.

Shuda exhaled sharply in annoyment.

'I'm so sorry!' I apologized, frantically, at the young spectacled man, as I tried to gather the scattered flowers.

'It's okay. Leave it. This bouquet was going for the dustbin anyway,' the latter told me, and I paused down to look at him, grimly.

He stood up to leave when, unexpectedly, Shuda Yagari asked him, 'This bouquet, it was destined for whom?'

So, he was equally intrigued?!

'Pardon us our curiosity,' I said, timidly, picking myself up. Heihachi took his place onto my back again. 'We've seen you at the reception earlier.'

'Oh, you've heard that!' mumbled the brown-haired young man, lowering his eyes. Sitting down again, he told us, morosely, 'In fact, I have come to visit my fiancée. She's had an accident a week ago. Every day, I come to visit her but she refuses to see me.'

'Why?'

He frowned at the ground, looking like he was going to cry.

'The accident… It was my fault.'

We waited for him to explain.

'We were coming out of the restaurant. We had a silly fight. She broke into tears and ran away. She crossed the road without looking and got hit by a bus. The doctors say that she'll never be able to walk again and will be in a wheel chair for the rest of her life. She's got a grudge against me, for sure. After all, it's all my fault!'

He held his forehead with his hand, trying to hold back his tears.

A small lump formed in my throat. I was so sorry to hear about his fiancée's condition. And I was so sorry for him too, that he blamed himself for what happened.

After a minute or two, he took his wallet out of his pocket and opening it, he showed us a picture of her.

She was very pretty, with mid-chest level light-brown hair and amber eyes.

'Her name is Yachiru Aragami. And I'm Hideyuki Shimoji,' he said, watching her picture fondly. 'I'll come back tomorrow,' he murmured then and getting to his feet, he walked away.

I glanced at Shuda Yagari.

A few years ago, Yasu Gushiken and he had had a road accident with his bike. Shuda was the only one to survive. He blamed himself for what happened and believed that everyone thinks that it's indeed his fault.

It was horrible to live with such feelings.

***

After this episode, Shuda, Heihachi and I went to pay a visit to the witness of the temple.

'You are from the Gushiken Paranormal Organization?' asked the teenaged young girl, and Shuda showed her our credentials, telling her, 'Yes. My name is Shuda Yagari. And she is Shun Shutsuki.'

'Shun Shutsuki?!' she gasped, staring at me with a half-confused half-frightened look. 'You are-'

She's heard about me!

'I-I'll wait outside,' I said to Shuda very quickly, feeling uneasy, and I came out of the house to wait for him on the street, becoming lost in my thoughts.

A few minutes later, I heard sniffling sound at my feet. Breaking out of my reverie, I looked down and saw that it was a puppy with long black fur. 

I cooed, 'Hey there, little guy!'

It whined in response, its stomach gurgling.

'You're hungry, eh?'

I took a glance at the food stall on the other side of the street which was selling croquettes. 

Crossing the road, I bought us- including Heihachi- three croquettes each. The canid devoured its croquettes in less than two, before it gave me another whine.

My mouth went slightly agape. 'You're still hungry, eh?' I smiled. 'Well, you may take mine!'

I set the three croquettes down on the floor and watched it swallow it down. This time, it appeared to be satisfied and it began to lap at its paws.

'Shall we go?'

I jumped at the sound of Shuda's voice, having not heard him arrive.

'I'm sorry that you had to take care of the job all alone,' I told him, with an apologetic look, and he muttered, 'Yeah! I'm just glad she accepted to tell me what she saw despite everything.'

We began to walk.

I took a backward glance at the puppy, hoping that somebody would adopt it very soon.

'What did you learn?' I asked Shuda, timidly.

The teenaged girl was the niece of the defunct.

'She said that she was in the courtyard of the temple when she saw something take her uncle's dead body out of the building. It was moving too fast for her to see what it was. She saw it only as a shadow. Obviously, cadavers don't disappear on their own. Someone is definitely behind this. And by the way that thing was moving, it's definitely no human being.'

There existed many creatures of the night that preyed on human corpses. We needed to find out with what we were dealing with.

***

In the night…

'Why-Why did we come here?' I gibbered, my eyes traveling our surroundings. 

There were tombstones everywhere. We were in the local cemetery!

I gulped hard.

Without any warning, Shuda Yagari came to a stop and I bumped into him from behind.

I cringed away as he turned to face me with a glare.

'Are you dumb or something?' he demanded, irritatedly. 'Cadavers have disappeared. There's no wake at the temple tonight and the security at the hospital has been reinforced. Whatever that thing is, it's definitely going to fall back on the cemetery. I've got a list of all the people who have just been buried only a few hours ago. There are two. We're gonna keep an eye on their graves for tonight.'

'I see,' I murmured, unable to keep myself from feeling jittery for being in a cemetery, especially at this hour.

In all of a sudden, my eyes fell onto a certain person who was walking by the cemetery at that moment.

'Over there!' I told Shuda, pointing at the said-person. 'Is that-'

I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

How can this be possible?!

Thank you for reading!