Everyone stood silently in the kitchen, their eyes wide with unfathomable shock. Takashi’s mom whimpered softly, bundling herself up in a corner of the cold kitchen floor.

Asa felt sick in her stomach. She looked at Botan and could almost make out tears forming in his eyes. He had always been a scaredy cat. Asa tried to read the others' expressions but she just couldn’t make herself look past Botan. It was too much. She couldn’t grasp anything that came into her sight. Himari glanced at Asa and Botan who stood like statues in one corner of the kitchen, the tears in Botan’s eyes almost falling down. 

She turned her gaze back to the two disfigured corpses on the beech trees. All she could think about was Takashi and Daiki. She tried desperately to push these thoughts away, but she could just picture them hung up on some tree like this. She could imagine them screaming and crying out for help as they were being tortured, hung, and left to die - one of the many ways that Himari speculated as to how these two officers ended up the way that they did. It all played out like a movie in her head. 

There was also a pang of guilt in her heart. Her chest ached with it as she watched the lifeless, fly-infested faces of the murdered police officers. She let him go the other night. She didn’t think far enough when she ran into him and even after speculating what she thought was his plan, she still overestimated her ability to protect anyone. She couldn’t protect her own nephew. How was she going to protect two people that she’d never met in her entire life?? She let these people die! It was her fault. 

Then her restless mind stumbled upon another thought. ‘What time is it??’ She quickly glanced at the clock above the kitchen door. Her expectation was that the officers wouldn't be in Haguko until after 7. She knew that in summer, the city police reported to duty earlier than they did during the rest of the year. It made sense. There was light way earlier and so they had to be at work earlier. But it was still 6:30. All these days she'd been visiting the police station to talk about the investigation so she knew that they began work at 7. 

Her head began to spin. He must have planned it to catch me off guard. Why else would he make his move so early? But why did he plant these bodies here, at my house?? Is he trying to rub it in my face that I had failed to save these people? Is he trying to challenge me to catch him or something? Then she gasped involuntarily as the realisation dawned on her. Her eyes grew wide and her heart began to pound in her chest. There was but one singular thought in her head. Him reopening the investigation, coming into Haguko, talking to Himari, promising to send in his officers, posing as the good guy, all of that, brought her to one conclusion. 

“He’s trying to frame me”, she let the words slip automatically, too shocked to think about any restraint. Her voice was soft and there was a slight stutter. Everyone glanced at her. They could hear it. She could hear it too. The fear in her voice. 

“What did you say?”, Murasaki asked quietly.

Himari turned towards him, slowly, her eyes shot with a look of horror and shock. “H-he’s trying to-”

Before she got to finish her sentence, lightning flashed across the sky, followed by thunder. Darkness veiled them as clouds gathered up above. Drops of rain began falling on the macabre scenery beyond the kitchen door. Lightning and thundering struck again, loudly. Then it struck again and again, each time louder than the last. Himari watched gigantic and heavy storm clouds crawl above their heads. 

“Hima-chan”, Akiko called out, “I think we should get Takashi-chan’s mom out of here”. Himari glanced at her sister-in-law, staring extremely horrified, at the two twisted bodies. She was frozen in place. Akiko spoke again. There was kindness in her voice. “I don’t think she should get caught in the middle of this, Hima-chan. I’m going to take her to her room and stay with her for a minute”. Akiko is calm and collected, Himari thought, as usual. Then she glanced at Murasaki who looked back at her sternly. Murasaki too, huh? She thought, Since when did those two turn so emotionless? How is this so normal for them? So commonplace?

As Akiko lifted Takashi’s mom off the floor and carried her out of the kitchen, Himari could picture herself. She’d done the same thing a few times before; carrying away vulnerable witnesses and victims from a scene of danger and crime. In her youth, when it was just her, Akiko, and Saburo at the academy, they would take on a lot of similar missions. A family in distress, or perhaps a town, plagued by an evil presence or a supernatural force. Saburo, being the oldest member, undertook the majority of the missions alongside superiors from their order. Himari and Akiko were young trainees then. Most of their missions were closely supervised by a mentor from the academy or a member of the order. 

She remembered the last day she ever undertook a mission for the academy. It was a cloudy day, pouring with rain. She stood by a puddle where her destitute face was reflected off the water. She could see herself. And she could see the man lying at her feet. Her mission supervisor lay lifeless, face down, the blood from his slashed throat mixing with the water of the puddle, painting her reflection red. 

“Himari-san!”, Murasaki's voice came muffled over the sound of Himari’s heartbeat, pounding loudly in her ears. 

“Himari-san, snap out of it!”, then she could feel him hold her by the shoulders and shake her aggressively. But she was so far out of it, so far into the mountains, so far into her past to be dragged back into reality that fast. She stared blankly at the two corpses wrapped around the tree. In the background, she could hear Murasaki, Asa, and Botan yell her name. They said other things too that weren’t clear to her at all. She turned her head plainly and stared at Asa who was now holding her by the hand and urging her to come along.

Where? She thought, where are we going? 

Just then Asa pulled Himari’s hand with all her might and Himari lost her balance, almost falling onto the floor. At that moment, she finally snapped back into reality. 

“Himari-san, can you hear me?”, Murasaki demanded. Himari nodded timidly, like a deer caught in headlights. 

“Ah, finally. Come on, let’s go! We gotta go!”

“Where-”, Himari began to say before she heard sirens wailing on the street. It took her a minute to make sense of it but she finally understood why the other three were rushing her, urging her to leave with them. The police. If she was right about the officer’s true motive, then they were probably coming for her now. 

“Ito-san we gotta leave right now!”, Botan yelled, signalling them to escape from the backyard.

“W-where are we going?”, she finally managed.

“We’re gonna get out of here”, Murasaki urged, joining Asa and holding Himari by her other hand. 

“W-why?”, she asked, looking around, “Murasaki-san, why are we leaving?”

He looked Himari deep in the eyes. “You said it yourself”, he said, “he’s trying to frame you”

“So?”

“So we gotta leave! You can’t go to jail right now, Himari-san. Let’s get the hell out of here!” 

Himari paused and looked at Murasaki with wide eyes. He looked back at her with a desperate expression. Asa and Botan stood near the door wearing the same desperate expression that Murasaki was. Then Akiko ran over into the kitchen. Panicked by the sirens, out of breath, she stood by the kitchen door. Himari looked over at her, trying to read her expression too. Then Akiko finally turned her head up to meet Himari’s gaze. “Hima-chan, if you think they’re trying to frame you, we gotta get out of here, soon!”, she urged, desperately.  

The sirens got louder out on the street. Amidst the cacophony of raindrops pattering on the roof, and the low howling of a brewing storm, the sirens managed to agitate everyone even more. Himari looked at Akiko and asked,“where’s Genji and Sakura-san?”. Sakura was takashi’s mother. They're all that mattered right now. She had to make sure they wouldn't get hurt. 

“They’re fine, Hima-chan. They’re not here.”, Akiko said, reassuringly.

“What do you mean??”

Akiko fidgeted, “Don’t worry, they’re safe. Let’s go, we can talk later!”. She ran over to Himari, still out of breath, and got behind her. Then she gathered all her strength and gave a vigorous push which once again made Himari almost fall to the ground. 

“It’s the police!”, a deep voice announced outside the front of the house. This announcement was followed by a series of thundering raps on the front door. Everybody froze in place. Everybody except Murasaki, who ran towards the kitchen door to close it and bolt it tight.  

“Ito Himari-san, we’ve received reports of suspicious activity in your backyard! Open up!”

“Shooott, Akiko-san what the hell are we gonna do??”, Botan asked frantically, bouncing up and down while balling his fists near his temples. Asa glared at Botan. Her own heart was beating frantically in her chest. The only other time in her life that she’d had to deal with the police was when she’d had to bail her friends out for stealing and crashing a car. Fast forward a couple months later, now she was smack in the middle of a murder scene. There was no way she could bail anyone out of this.

“Akiko-san”, Murasaki said composedly, “We can’t take the back door now. Keep that in mind”. He raised his eyebrows at her as if signalling something. She stared at him for a second with a knowing look on her face and gave a brief nod. 

“ITO HIMARI-SAN!”, the police banged on the front door, loudly and repeatedly. Its deafening rumble echoed through the empty rooms of the house. “We just wanna ask a few questions and..take a look around. You don’t have to be afraid if you’ve got nothing to hide.”

After that they could hear the officers speak in low voices. It was all muffled but sounded like instructions. Soon they could hear footsteps right outside the kitchen door. They splashed against nearby puddles, made deep by the rain. Himari and the others heard a few involuntary gasps as the footsteps entered the backyard. Then came the low but intense murmurs. Himari focused. She shut her eyes tight and tried to collect her raging thoughts. 

“Look, whatever we do, we gotta do it now cause-”, Asa began to say but was interrupted by a sudden thunderous banging on the door that made her shriek, loudly.

“Ssshh!”, Botan hissed, “Dude shhh! Please!”

Another loud banging on the kitchen door, “Open up Ito-san, we know you’re in there.”, a familiar voice announced. “It’s okay, Ito-san, I know you’re scared. Actually if I were you right now, I’d be shitting my pants and regretting every single decision I’ve ever made in my entire life.”

Himari’s eyes grew wide. Because she knew who it was. She could recognize it. She’d been expecting to hear it. In fact, she was surprised that she didn’t hear it sooner. 

“This makes me sad, you know”, he continued in a deep, triumphant voice. Himari could almost hear the cockiness behind it. “Ito-san, when we spoke yesterday I would have never thought that I’d not only be suspecting you, but straight up arresting you the next day.”

Well, it’s not like you planned all of this, right?, Himari thought. The officer continued, “But here I am today. Arresting the very woman that this whole town trusted and relied on, to protect it from evil”

“Don’t worry Hima-chan”, Akiko whispered quietly, taking out a rectangular pendant that resembled a metal button, from behind her top. Himari glanced at her, shocked. “Mizoroge-sensei?”, she whispered quizzically. Akiko nodded with a faint smile. 

Another deafening bang on the kitchen door. Asa gasped and held Botan’s arm, who in turn held on to Murasaki. Then another bang on the front door. Then another on both doors together. Then a series of bangs on every entrance of the Ito household. Himari knew that the officer just wanted to taunt her. If he wanted to come in he easily could have. But his ego seemed to overshadow any ounce of strategic intelligence he probably had. If he truly knew who she really was, like he’d said the other night, then he’d anticipate that she would find a way out without exiting from any of the doors. Perhaps he didn’t know who else was in there with her. Perhaps it was irrelevant to her real identity altogether. She couldn’t say, because she didn’t know this truth herself. Yet. 

This is NOT the time! She told herself harshly and shook her head. Amidst the threatening blows on the kitchen door and front door, she glanced at Asa and Botan who looked around and fidgeted anxiously. There was a familiar kind of fear in their eyes. Like her reflection that day on the puddle as she watched her superior bleed out on the mud. 

“Come onnn, Akiko-san, what are you doing??”, Murasaki urged desperately. His facial expression had changed from calm and composed to his usual frantic and childlike urgency. 

Akiko kept clicking repeatedly on her metal button pendant as if trying to flip a switch. “Sensei is not picking up!!”, she hissed quietly but vigorously, frustrated with everything, “Everybody just hold on to each other for good measure. Should work any minute now”. Murasaki hurriedly guided everyone to stand in a circle and hold hands. Akiko held Murasaki’s hand with her left and kept clicking the button with her right. 

Asa and Botan looked at it closely. It really did look like a small rectangular switch. They exchange looks. What’s gonna happen? Is there a trap door? Will we fall through one? Or is this for a special vehicle? An invisible car? A flying saucer? What even crazier world will we be dragged into next??, they thought. It’s as if they were Alice to Daiki’s white rabbit. And now the rabbit was gone and they were lost in a world of riddles with grisly murders and superhumans.  

“Himari-san”, the officer’s voice announced from outside the kitchen door, “Do you know why we’re arresting you?”

So that you could close the case and continue to kidnap and murder innocent people, Himari answered in her head.

“OMG! It worked!”, Akiko squealed softly, “Sensei picked up!”

“Fucking finally!”, Murasaki exclaimed. Asa and Botan tried to smile through all the confusion, at the apparent good news. 

Another loud bang on the kitchen door. “We’re arresting you not just for this murder”, the officer continued, “We’re arresting you for every. single. disappearance that your town has seen over the past two months. You witch!”, he raised his voice in utter disdain, “You and your witchcraft are responsible for this!”

“Okay Hima-chan, give me your hand”

Akiko’s words managed to snap Himari back into the real world. She held the slender fingers that were stretched out towards her. Then with her other hand she held onto Asa’s. Botan held tightly onto Asa and Murasaki and shut his eyes. Suddenly there was a strange vibration going around the circle. Botan felt it inside his body, beneath his feet, and on his arms. He snuck a quick peek at Asa to see if she reacted to it as well. But she seemed to be too busy trying to keep her eyes shut through the whole thing. 

Outside, the officer was almost at the end of his speech, “There’s nowhere to run or hide, Ito-san. You’re going with us”

With that he bust the kitchen door open. Himari saw officers file into the kitchen one by one, from the corner of her eye. She heard officers break into the house from the front door as well. She could see shadows of people moving around inside the house. But there was a bright white light swallowing her and the other four. It surrounded them and encapsulated them from all directions. The vibrations got more and more violent with each passing second until Himari couldn’t feel a single cell of her body. 

Mizoroge sensei’s teleportation technique, she thought subconsciously. 

A single memory of trying this one time at the academy came to her mind. Soon, she felt like passing out. The white light around her was fading out and she closed in on a blackout. 

When she woke up next, she was lying on cold soil. The rain from earlier seemed to have cleared up but the ground was still wet. She could hear several voices around her. She tried to make out who they belonged to. 

“Phew what an annoying ride. I get nauseous every time. Akiko-san, do you have a lemon?” Murasaki-san

“Huh??? You think I walk around carrying some random lemons, Murasaki?? Why don’t you bring your own lemons!?” Akiko-san

“A-Akiko-san, Murasaki-san, Thank you so much for saving us back there!” Aoki-san

“Akiko-san..are we..in the mountains?” Kobayashi-san

Himari slowly sat up and turned towards the others. There was a shooting pain in her head. Why do I feel so weak?, she wondered, even Aoki-san and Kobayashi-san look okay.

“A-Akiko-san..”, she managed to croak out. Akiko turned her head to face Himari and squealed with excitement. 

“Hima-chaaaan!!!”, she hopped energetically over to where Himari was sitting and bent down near her. Then out of nowhere, she flicked Himari’s forehead. 

“Oww”, she rubbed it gently, “What was that for?”

Akiko pouted, “You worried me by spacing out like that back there”, then she leaned in closer to Himari’s face.  “Hima-chan, are you okay?”, she asked.

Himari sighed. Where to begin, she thought to herself. 

“I’m okay, Akiko-san. I’ll be okay. We need to focus on Taka-chan and Daiki-kun. We need to find them.”

“Ssh ssh, Hima-chan”, Akiko patted Himari’s shoulder gently, “We can talk about it later. Let’s rest first, yeah?”

Himari glanced behind Akiko, at Asa and Botan talking and laughing with Murasaki. 

“Yeah”, she agreed, “rest first”

“Not so fast, Ito-san”, suddenly another voice entered the conversation. A familiar, low, deep voice. Himari’s eyes grew wide as a cold chill ran up her spine. Akiko stared behind her friend with complete horror in her eyes. 

This voice. They’ve ditched the person it belonged to only a few minutes ago. At least they thought they did. What was he doing here in the mountains?? 

Himari turned her head slowly. Her heart pounded right out of her chest. Was there no getting away from him?? 

Asa, Botan, and Murasaki saw him too. They froze in place and stared ahead of them, a hint of bitter frustration creeping up into their minds. Did they celebrate too early? They were so relieved for a second there. 

The officer paced slowly into full view of his spectators and stood with arms behind him. A cocky smile formed on his lips as he observed the horrified expressions on everyone’s faces. 

“What a fascinating way to escape!”, he exclaimed cheekily, “too bad you failed.”