Mayu reached towards her dagger but stopped, seeing Ichiro raise open palms in the air. Luna’s body was relaxed against my grip which surprised me as she was usually the first to react. Perhaps she didn’t sense any threat coming from Ichiro.

“I’m not here to fight,” Ichiro said, staring at Mayu, then glanced to Luna, completely ignoring my presence. It felt like he didn’t think I was someone that was worthy of his acknowledgement. “I’ve already tried to capture Luna, and I failed my mission.”

“What do you want then?” Mayu asked rigidly. Her hand was poised behind her back, ready to unsheathe her dagger at any time. “Don’t tell me you came here for shopping.”

“I came to warn you guys, about tonight.” Ichiro said, a solemn look in his eyes.

“What?” Mayu raised an eyebrow. “Warn us? Why would you do that?”

“What’s in it for you?” I added, irritated that he was still ignoring my existence. Ichiro glanced in my direction, startling me and I shrunk back slightly from his gaze. God, his eyes were so cold.

“Look,” Ichiro sighed, showing the first sign of emotion I’ve seen from him. “I don’t want anything to happen to Luna…” He paused for a bit. “Some of the other Ashens aren’t planning to capture Luna… they’re planning to kill her.”

I flinched hearing that. Luna yawned by my side.

“I don’t get it though.” Mayu shook her head, confused. “If you get caught, you’ll be treated as a traitor. Why are you doing all this?”

“I don’t know.” Ichiro shrugged. “I just don’t want Luna to die… She’s the only person I’ve ever cared about.”

Luna scrunched up her nose, disgusted. “Don’t ever say that again.”

Ichiro wasn’t fazed by Luna’s comment which surprised me. For some reason I felt some respect for Ichiro. I guess if the girl I liked said something like that to me I would be completely destroyed.

“Anyways, I only came here to warn you guys about the Ashen that you are searching for.” He carried on as though nothing had happened. “You should already know who she is, then you should know why I’m giving you a warning.”

“How did you know we are searching for an Ashen anyway?” Mayu asked hesitantly. She seemed wary that Ichiro already knew of our plans.

“You’re at Shinjuku, are you not?” Ichiro said, glancing around his surroundings. “And tonight of all times for you to be here. This is too much to just be a coincidence.”

“Anyways, we don’t need your help.” Luna waved of Ichiro’s good intentions. “Can you just leave us alone now?”

“H-hang on Luna, let’s just hear what else he has to say first.” I quickly chimed in, hoping that Ichiro wouldn’t be put off by Luna’s hostility. We needed all the help that we could get, and Ichiro might be able to provide us with some important information. I turned to Ichiro. “What did you meant by saying that we should already know who she is, and that was why you are warning us?”

“Oh, so you don’t know?” Ichiro glanced to each of us, stopping at Luna. “Luna knows… you should ask her.”

“Luna?” Mayu crossed her arms at Luna, feeling annoyed that she was hiding something.

“It’s nothing.” Luna said flatly. “We can handle it.”

Ichiro smirked. “As expected, Luna. Always so confident in your abilities.” He turned away from us, his cloak swaying with his motion. “I’ll leave you guys to it.”

He stopped, raising an index finger in the air. “One more thing…” He said, then paused. “They know you are coming.” With that, he walked off into the crowds, disappearing from view almost instantly.

I felt on edge by what Ichiro said. We originally had planned to set a trap for the Ashen, but were we the ones that were actually walking into a trap?

Luna and Mayu were both silent next to me too.

“Maybe we should call it off.” I coughed, trying to break the silence. “I think Ichiro doesn’t have any reason to lie to us.”

“No,” Luna shook her head. “It doesn’t matter if they know we are coming. We will kill them all the same.”

Mayu sighed. “Luna, are you sure about this?” Her arms were still folded in front of her. “I mean, if they know we are coming… maybe they’ve prepared something?”

I nodded, feeling myself side with Mayu. “We don’t have to catch them tonight, right? There’s always next time.” I added.

“We are going to find the Ashen, and we are going to kill them.” Luna said, refusing to take no for an answer. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” She turned to Mayu. “You know that Ashens don’t like to team up. This case isn’t going to be any different.”

“Ugh…” Mayu glanced to her side, unsure. “I don’t know about this…”

“Come on,” Luna urged. She seemed really eager to find the Ashen. Or maybe she was just desperate for blood. “We’re already here. Stop being such a coward.”

“C-coward?” Mayu recoiled, her face went red. “I’m not a coward!” She shook her head, flustered. “You know what? Fine, let’s go do it.”

“Are you serious?!” I said, shocked that Mayu was manipulated so easily. I groaned, hitting the palm of my hand to my face. “Whatever…”

“Ryo, don’t worry, okay?” Luna said excitedly, turning to me with a smile. “You’re going to be safe with me. I wouldn’t let anyone touch a single hair on your body.”

Images of the fight with Azumi flashed back in my mind, and my arm throbbed as I remembered the pain that I endured. It was lucky that Luna was well versed with the human body that she treated my arm better than what most hospitals would had offered.

“Okay,” I breathed, “how are we going to do this? Are we just going to keep searching like before?”

“No,” Luna said, “I know who she will kill.”

“What?” I raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

Luna smiled, tongue-in-cheek. “You saw him, Ryo. You even talked to him.”

“Uh…” I couldn’t recollect what Luna was talking about.

“The shopkeeper.” Luna said. Her eagerness was bordering on the edge of creepiness. “The shopkeeper is going to die tonight.”

Mayu glanced between Luna and me, perplexed. She had no idea who we were talking about.

“How do you know this?” I asked.

“I looked back at the killings that took place, and there was something similar that bounded all the victims.” Luna explained. “Anyways, I’m sure about this. The Ashen will kill the shopkeeper after the store closes tonight.”

“What? So you already knew who the victim was going to be?” Mayu asked, annoyed. “Why the hell did you tell me to search the city then?”

Luna ignored Mayu’s inquiry. “The store is going to close soon.” Luna glanced at a clock that was out on the streets. “We should wait outside, and follow the shopkeeper when he leaves.”

“Right…” I nodded, while Mayu continued glaring at Luna who was ignoring her.

The silhouette of the shopkeeper’s figure paced slowly around the store as he set up for closure. We waited silently, hiding in the corner of the street across from where the store was. Finally, the lights of the store turned off followed by the front door opening, revealing the shopkeeper himself. In his hand was a small video camera.

“Ah, there he is!” Mayu whispered next to me. “Took him long enough.”

“Poor guy…” I mumbled, thinking of the fate that was in store for him. The thought of him dying made me unsettled. “Luna, we are going to save him, right?” I glanced behind me at Luna.

Luna was silent for a few seconds, before replying. “Are you sure you want to?”

“Why not?” I asked.

Luna shrugged. “Just wait and see.”

I felt confused by what she meant by that. What do you mean wait and see? If there was a life that we could save, doesn’t it make sense that we should save it?

“He’s leaving.” Mayu said, motioning for our attention. “We need to follow him.”

“Right.” I nodded, following Mayu and Luna as they moved from their positions.

The shopkeeper walked for a while before stopping in the middle of the street and glancing back momentarily. We blended in with the crowd and for a second, I thought he had realised that we were following him but he turned back and continued on his path.

Eventually, he turned into an alleyway, disappearing from the crowded main streets.

“Where is he going?” I mumbled, musing over the sudden change in direction. There was no way he was heading to his house from this alleyway.

We turned into the alleyway after him, slowing our pace so that our footsteps couldn’t be heard. The alleyway was dark, lit only by the moonlight coming from the sky, and large dumpsters lined up against the walls, creating a repulsive stench.

The shopkeeper headed deeper into the alleyway, making a turn at the end of the path. Luna and Mayu followed quickly, their steps were completely silent despite their speed and it almost seemed as though they were gliding across the surface of the dirty floors of the empty alleyway. On the other hand, I was trailing further behind, being extremely careful to not step on any of the empty bottles that littered the place.

Luna and Mayu stopped at the end of the alleyway, their heads peering the turn on which the shopkeeper had travelled. When I finally caught up to them, I breathed a sigh of relief at successfully crossing the alleyway without making a noise.

“What are you guys doing?” I whispered, then followed suit in peering at the turn.

The shopkeeper was standing in the middle of the alley next to a large dumpster, his back was turned towards us. He was staring down at a flashing light coming from his hands. I squinted in the darkness and realised it was the video camera he was holding earlier on.

A familiar noise came from the video camera, and I gasped as I recognised what it was he was watching.

“… Thanks…”

“Woah, look at this Ryo…”

That was Luna’s voice! Except it wasn’t coming from her, it was coming from the video camera. The shopkeeper had recorded us when we were shopping at his store… But why? It didn’t make any sense.

“So she was wearing black underwear…” The shopkeeper muttered to himself, then snickered in an eerily perverted manner.

There was my answer. The shopkeeper had been recording customers secretly for his own perverse entertainment. I felt myself cringing at the thought.

“There was that stupid guy with her though.” The shopkeeper continued, his tone shifting to annoyance. “Ugh! I wanted to grab that girl so badly, she was so goodlooking!”

He sighed, then turned to the large dumpster by his side, bending down to his knees. He reached under the dumpster, pulling out a large dark bag which seemed abnormally heavy from his movements.

“At least I still have this girl’s corpse from last week.” He giggled, and I felt my stomach turning upside down.

He was kidnapping young girls at his store and killing them! I wanted to throw up and now I knew why Luna had asked me earlier if I really wanted to save the shopkeeper's life.

Just as I was about to turn around to gag, a figure dropped down from the building to the side, landing behind the shopkeeper.

“What the—”

The shopkeeper didn’t even have time to turn around. The figure pulled him into a chokehold, cutting his voice short and an inhumane splutter came out of the shopkeeper’s mouth instead.

“Luna!” I yelped almost instinctively, but without my telling, she and Mayu had already moved forward.

The figure turned towards us, and a bright gleam blinded me momentarily. In one hand, the figure was holding onto a large machete, the blade was pointed downwards, relaxed in her grip. In the other, was the shopkeeper’s throat, pulled into a tight chokehold that was causing all of his veins to pop out on his face, a sign of how strong the figure’s strength was.

The moonlight shone down on the figure, revealing a hooded girl with a young face that matched her short stature. Pale blood red eyes fell beneath streaks of blond hair that came out from the hood of her cloak. She almost looked like a child and for a second, I thought we had caught the wrong person until I noticed the same deadpan expression in her eyes as I saw in Luna.

“Emi!” Mayu seemed stunned by the girl’s appearance. The girl responded with a cheerful smile, though her deadpan eyes only made the ordeal seem creepy.

“Hello, big sister Mayu!” The girl said, raising her machete in the air and waving it dangerously close to the old man’s face. It was inches away from slicing his nose clean off. “I haven’t seen you in a while—”

She froze as her eyes met Luna, the fake smile evaporating from her face. Suddenly, a look of genuine euphoria took over.

“B-big sister Luna!!” The grip on the shopkeeper's throat released slightly, and I heard a haggard inhale coming from him. “I-Is that really you?” Emi stumbled over her words. She leaned closer to Luna, her mouth gaping. “Luna, I-I missed you so, so, so, sooo much!”

Luna ignored Emi’s outburst, and instead, swung her switchblade out, the blade snapping out of the handle dauntingly. The sharp noise of the blade shooting out shocked me, as well as the fact that I wasn’t expecting for it to happen.

Emi glanced down at the blade for a second, then gazed back up uncaringly. “I knew you were going to come find me!” Emi rambled on, her cheeks flushing from excitement. It was as though she didn’t recognise that Luna had just pulled a blade out on her. “That’s why I tried to send you a message with the killings because I knew they would be broadcasted on television! I was sure that you were the only one that could had figured it out, and I was right! Luna, I—”

“Emi, shut up.” Luna sighed, raising her fingertips to her forehead. Emi immediately went quiet. Her obedience to Luna was astounding.

Luna spun to face me, and the annoyed expression was quickly replaced by a pleasant smile. “Do you still want to save that shopkeeper?” She gestured to the figure squirming helplessly in Emi’s grip. I couldn’t tell what was more bizarre, Luna’s inappropriate smile or the sight of a grown man struggling in the hold of what appeared to be a prepubescent girl.

“Uh…” I didn’t know what to say anymore. The answer I had before didn’t seem so clear. All eyes were suddenly on me and it was making me feel very uncomfortable.

“Well, Ryo?” Luna pushed me eagerly for an answer, and I glanced back up at the shopkeeper's face, his eyes looked desperately into mine.

“P-p-please…” He coughed, a mixture of saliva and blood bubbled out of his lips. “S-save me!”

I glanced at Mayu in hopes of inspiration. She met my stare and shook her head furiously in response. Then almost as though she thought I didn’t get the message, mouthed ‘no’ in a very slow and conspicuous manner. I could almost hear her voice speaking to me through her clearly transparent enunciation.

The shopkeeper stared at Mayu’s reaction with a horrified look. Gee Mayu.

I didn’t even think about turning to Emi for advice. I could feel her cold stare burning into my soul from my peripheral sight. I had a hunch that she didn’t like me.

Then the last person was…

I caught a sight of Luna’s spine-chillingly blank face for a fraction of a second, before a pleasant smile replaced the emptiness as she noticed my eyes moving to her. It was like a complete 180 of her prior look. Was that how she looked like whenever I wasn’t watching her? Freaky… but almost expected at this point…

“What’s your answer, Ryo?” Luna asked, the smile was still on her face. “Let him live?” She raised her switchblade up to eye level and a rusty smell filled my nose. God damn, was that blood?— Hang on, what the hell was she doing with that knife?

The switchblade spun around in Luna’s fingertips, frightening me. The motion suddenly stopped as Luna grasped the blade of the knife, holding the handle out towards me.

The smile on Luna’s face stretched bigger. “Or kill him?”