Chapter Thirty-Eight: Ticket Inside:
-October 23rd,
2011-
The first task
came at three in the morning. Anna wouldn’t get the text until seven in the
morning. She reached for her phone next o the futon. A confused look came over
her face.
“Huh?” she
asked. The sender was blocked. Alright, Anna saw where this was heading. She
shook Tsuzuki on the shoulder.
“Wake up,” she
whispered. The shinigami lifted his head.
“Hm?” he asked.
“What is it?” Anna shoved her phone in his face.
“It’s already
started,” she said. Tsuzuki backed up and blinked away sleep.
“Huh?” he asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“Here,” his wife
said. Anna opened the text.
Task #1
Burn the leaves
Light the thread
Burn two hairs
of a virgin
Pray and chant
this sutra three times: Cho Shin Ka Sho
See what happens
next.
The couple
looked at each other. Anna frowned at the screen.
“She can’t be
serious,” she said. Tsuzuki stared at the message.
“What does that
even mean?” he asked. “It doesn’t make sense. Is this a riddle or something?”
Anna shook her head.
“I won’t do it,”
she said. “No. No way.” Tsuzuki turned to her.
“What do you
want to do?” he asked. Anna shook her head again. Tsuzuki’s phone suddenly rang.
“Excuse me,”
Tsuzuki said. He picked up his phone.
“Hello?” he
asked.
“We’ve got
another disappearance,” Hisoka said on the other line.
“What?” Tsuzuki
asked.
“It happened
last night,” the younger shinigami said.
“I will be right
there,” Tsuzuki said. He hung up the phone.
“Who was that?”
Anna asked. Her husband turned to her, frowning.
“We’ve got
another one,” he said. “It happened last night.” Tsuzuki looked grim.
“Oh,” Anna said
as the color drained from her face.
“Yeah,” her
husband said.
---------
-Ju-Oh-Cho-
Hisoka and
Watari waited in Watari’s lab. They looked up to see Tsuzuki in the doorway.
“Red Garden
again?” he asked.
“Yes,” Hisoka
said.
“That’s eleven,
right?” Tsuzuki asked.
“Yes,” Watari
said.
“Please tell me
some good news,” the oldest shinigami said. Watari and Hisoka looked at each
other.
“We might have
something,” Watari said.
“What?” Tsuzuki
asked.
“Come look,” the
blond scientist said. The older shinigami walked over the computer. Watari moved
aside.
“What is this?”
Tsuzuki asked. He scrolled down the list of names.
“List of
potential victims,” Hisoka said. “We think there are more of them before those
eleven.”
“Even before it
was reported?” Tsuzuki asked.
“Yes,” Watari
said. The older shinigami kept scrolling down. His jaw dropped.
“How many years
had this been going on?” he asked.
“Since the
fifties, give or take,” Hisoka said. Tsuzuki turned to them. No one could to
describe the gravity of the situation.
There would be
more coming.
---------
Anna turned her
phone in her hand. She wasn’t going to take the bait. She already deleted the
text. But, that wasn’t end of it. What would it take? Who would die next? Anna
rubbed her forehead.
“Damn it,” she muttered. Her phone buzzed again. Anna frowned. She already saw where this was heading.