Chapter 51 - One Night In Nikko...

6PM

"Sigh…" Gin, a reporter, sighs in frustration as he aimlessly walks the quiet streets of Nikko, hoping that something interesting will happen.

*ring* *ring*

His phone suddenly rings and he already has a suspicion of what it is about.

"Hello? Akiyama-san?" Gin answers his phone in interest.

It is rare for him to receive a phone call from his boss.

/Gin. Come back to Shibuya. You're done there./

Gin almost drops his phone at the order.

"Sir, the serial killer is still at large." He politely protests.

/I know. The whole of Japan knows. But what can you do about it? It's been two months since the killings started and the killer hasn't been caught yet./ Akiyama dismisses Gin's protest.

"Sir. And I'm one of the first reporters to find the scoop. I can't just give up a month of work." Gin insists.

/Yes. And what results have you shown for that month of work?/ Akiyama counters.

"…" Gin is stumped.

/I have things and scoops in mind that you have more use for. So, come back. Other networks are also giving up on it./ Akiyama says.

"May I ask for a week more? I'll use my own money on my food and lodging." Gin is not ready to give up.

/What's the use of one more week? Since surveillance increased there in Nikko, the serial killer hasn't made any movements in more than a week. Even your partner thinks that the killer has already left Nikko and lying low somewhere. / Akiyama reasons.

"Still, sir. Just one more week. After that, I'll go back there without regrets." Gin tries again despite not having a convincing reason to back up his request.

/… Okay…/ Akiyama hears the desperation in Gin's voice.

/Just one week. And you will come back. If you won't, you'll be in big trouble./ He relents.

"Thank you, sir!" Gin bows even if the person he is speaking with is not with him in person.

/Yeah, yeah. You've contributed many exclusives for the network. I'm also giving you the benefit of the doubt./

"I'll work hard, sir. If this results to nothing, I'll pay you back with many more exclusives." Gin promises.

The phone call ends at that note.

"Haaaa…" Gin however, is not happy. He is still frustrated.

His producer partner and his cameraman has already given up on the case earlier in the day and went back to Tokyo, leaving him alone to do legwork in the small Nikko City.

He then looks around the quiet streets and he cannot help but note that the police patrol has considerable thinned compared to a week ago.

This is the reason why he decided to stay. He feels that at the first sign of police patrol laxing, the serial killer will make a move again. While he does not want anymore victims, there is a part of him hoping that another killing will happen.

"Even if that killer decides to lay low from now on, at least no one else will be killed." He can only utter to himself as he continues to walk around aimlessly.

His utterance somehow makes him feel better at his horrible thought.

*ssk* suddenly, another pedestrian brushes lightly on his shoulder as they pass him.

"Hm?" He also smells something strange.

A mixture of human body odor and what he can only guess as the smell of a wild animal, has just assaulted his nose.

Gin then looks back and realizes that he just crossed paths with a man of around 6 feet tall, fair skinned, and lanky. Even though the man is wearing what looks like expensive clothes, he is sure that the horrible smell that assaulted him came from the man.

He is about to move on when he suddenly remembers one of the witnesses he interviewed.

That witness is the one who found one of the victims' body, with that certain victim being that witness' close neighbor.

The witness claimed that when she found the victim's body in the victim's apartment, she noticed a smell of strong body odor and stray dog, lingering in the victim's bedroom.

So after the witness called the police, she opened the victim's apartment windows to let out the smell she could no longer tolerate.

Remembering the witness' claim, hope and suspicion rises in Gin's heart.

Gin then pivoted on his foot to turn around, and takes in the details of the man's appearance. After familiarizing himself, he immediately finds a deserted alleyway, and transforms into a cat.

He does not look exactly like a cat however. He looks more like a living wooden sculpture of a cat.

Gin ready in his cat form, immediately runs out of the alley. The tall man, standing out of the crowd due to his height and expensive looking clothes, is easy enough for Gin to spot again.

And so, with agile movements, Gin stalking begins.

An hour later, Gin is still boringly tailing the man.

The tall and smelly man had an hour-long lunch in one of Nikko's classy restaurants. After that, he then starts to wander around the city streets seemingly without a certain destination in mind.

He would sometimes stop in front of a store front if he finds something interesting, and goes on his way after losing interest.

The only reason why Gin has not given up is because the man is the only lead that the he has.

Soon, the man starts to leave the busier parts of the city.

Gin regains his curiosity as the man seems to be heading to the direction of the industrial parts of the city, a place that is supposed to be vacated at this hour instead of visited.

Gin also notices that the man upped his speed into a running pace.

A few minutes later, like Gin expected, him and the man are now in the industrial part of the city. Not only that, they are at the edge of the city, near the forests.

Gin's journalistic instincts flare as the man he has been following, makes his way to the woods, so he follows the man in.

While the forest is dark as the sun has already set, Gin's cat form allows him to have the night vision of a cat, so he has no problem tailing the man.

A few minutes after the two entered the forest however, Gin suddenly loses sight of the man and he stops in his steps in confusion.

He looks around to see if he simply oversaw the man, but he confirms that he indeed lost sight of his person of interest.

Soon, a chill runs up his spine. The forest is too quiet, not even cicadas which are supposed to be abundant during the spring, can be heard. Only the wind and the sound of leaves dancing can be heard, but those do not help with the discomfort that Gin is feeling.

He then takes this feeling as a warning and decides to give up his pursuit.

As he turns around however, his heart almost jumps as the man he thought he lost sight of, is just a step in front of him, looking down at him with an amused expression.

Gin realizes that he became the one who is being followed.

"Well. Hello there." The man greets Gin.

While the man is handsome, Gin shivers at the man's sadistic grin. A grin that does not belong to a human, no matter how evil a human is.

Gin, realizing that the man knows that he is not a cat, does not bother replying and simply kicks his paws against the ground to get away as far as possible.

A few tens of meters away from his original position, and just as he thinks that he will not be pursued, black spikes suddenly grow out of the ground at a speed that will kill him if he didn't dodge.

Gin, after dodging the spikes, increases his speed once again, running the hardest he has ran in his entire life.

He does not know why, but his guts is telling him that if he does not get back to the busy areas of Nikko, he will not live to see tomorrow.

Suddenly, right above him, he sees that the man has caught up to him.

Gin notices that the man is wearing shoes that are made out of the same materials that the black spikes were made of. He figures that the man not only has the ability to manipulate the shape of a certain material, he is also part psychokinetic.

Gin knows that it is common for manipulation / psychokinetic hybrid superiori who are at least Class D, to be able to fly by simply transforming a certain material into an object they can ride, and mentally controlling that certain object's movement.

'Fuck. He can fly.' Gin curses his luck.

While he can run as fast as a cat, a superioris who can give themselves the ability to fly will always be faster.

3Soon, *krr… krr… krr…* spikes shoot out from the ground once again but this time, in a way that it forms an improvised cage.

*thunk* Gin's tiny cat body then crashes to the bars of the cage and he almost switches back to his human form after being rocked.

As he struggles to stand up to his four feet, he realizes that he is trapped within the cage.

To find a way to escape, he takes a closer look at the material the cage is made of.

Suddenly, a realization dawns on him and he freezes in fear.

The bars of the cage seem to be made up of the same black ice that the serial killer encased their victim with. He then looks up at the man to take in the face of who he now all but confirmed is the Nikko Ice Coffin Killer, in his mind.

"Little cat, why were you following me?"

Gin is interrupted from his thoughts by the tall man's question.

"*Meow*" Gin replies in a low growl, to confuse the man.

"You're not going to speak properly?" The man walks closer to Gin and Gin once again sees the evil grin on the man's face.

"*Meow*" Gin can only try to distract the man  again as he thinks of a way to get away.

He is starting to feel helpless however. He knows how tough the black ice is based on what he had seen in the bodies of the victims, so he knows that his cat form, or even his human form is not strong enough or hard enough to break it apart.

"Hmmm… Do you need to transform to your human form to talk properly?" The man asks as he summons more spikes outside the cage, and transforms them to a bigger cage.

The smaller cage that was containing Gin then slowly disappears.

Gin realizes that the man made the new cage large enough to contain a human.

Seeing that the serial killer does not seem to want to kill him immediately, Gin sighs in relief and he calms down.

'Should I talk to him' Gin is tempted to answer properly, but he realizes that the man's victims are both men and women of all adult ages, so he is not sure if he can talk himself out of his predicament.

"*MEOW*"

"Are you really not going to talk?"

Suddenly, Gin sees black tentacles start to grow out of the man's back. Then those tentacles slowly approach the cage.

'Think fast!' Gin's brain goes to overdrive.

'Wait a minute. He doesn't know why I'm following him… And he doesn't know I know…'

Just at the moment the black tentacles get inside the cage, he gets an idea.

"Mister.. Hold on for a moment!" He calls out, actually making the man pause his actions.