Mrs. Kusame led the three men into her house and directed them toward the living room. The room was small and dirty, with papers and magazines clumped up on the table, and stacks of unopened mail laid in a cluster on the lamp desk next to a photo located next to the beige couch

"Please, have a seat. May I offer you something?" She asked as she waited for them to be seated.

"That would not be necessary, please." Fuji answered as he indicated to the chair in front of them.

"I know this is hard, and I'm sorry for bringing this up, but when was the last time you saw your husband?" Kikumaru asked as Oishi pulled out a notepad.

"The last time I saw him was two weeks ago. He was on his way to work just after we had an argument." Mrs. Kusame answered as fresh tears welled up.

"What was the fight about?"

"He kept telling me that they were coming for him and that it was only a matter of time." She answered.

"Did he say what was coming?" Fuji asked as glanced at the pictured photo of a man in his early thirties .

"No. Later on when I arrived home I checked our answering machine and there was a message. it was awful!"

"Do you still have this message?" Kikumaru asked.

"Not the message tape. I recorded the original to my phone." she said as she pulled it out. The men waited patiently while she scrolled through her phone, noticing the distinct shaking of her hands.

"You don't have to play it..." Kikumaru began as she almost dropped the phone.

"No, I want to. With this you can find the killer and bring my husband some peace." she said as tears started it slow descend out of her eye. Soon a voice came through and she placed it down on the table. There was a distinct sniffle and the shriek of the wind could be heard as though a radio station was turned to AM.

"I... I'm sorry. I never meant..." a quivering voice said.

"You never meant to double cross us, to betray us..." A deep voice replied angrily

"No. No. You have to believe me, I would never do that... I only.. hoped.."

"You only hoped to do what? Because of you, our whole planned is ruined. Soon the Daemons will come and you thought you would get away with it. What? Did you think we were going to let you and your pretty little wife go?"

"Please...she has nothing to do with this... it was all me."

"Because of your action, you just bought your ticket to the after life."

A muffled scream of agony pierced the speaker before Kikumaru reached across the table and silenced it abruptly. They glance at Mrs. Kusame as she cried openly in her hands and Kikumaru gathered her in his arms.

Ryoma glanced around as he parked at the outskirts of the forest. One thought crossed his mind. Isolation. Isolation and dirt. Miles and miles of dirt and trees of all kinds. Knotted roots sprang from the ground and grass stood high from it.

"Well, lets get to work, shall we?" Inui asked as he exit from the car. Ryoma climbed out next and they began walking toward the scene. Upon arriving at the clearing the first thing Ryoma noticed was the burnt grass. Hunkered down, he grabbed a handful of dirt and sniffed it.

"Gasoline and gunpowder." Ryoma murmured as she stood up indicated his head toward the ground. Inui looked down before noticing the barely-there footprints. He followed it, walking toward the farthest side of the clearing before coming back with a wallet. Ryoma opened it and pulled out the license belonging to Kusame.

"Looks like we found the murder scene of Kusame." Ryoma said as he handed the wallet back. He ground his teeth as he glanced around again.

"What are you thinking, Ryoma?" Inui asked

"Just wondering why here. Why go all this way just to dispose of a human?"

"Does it matter? They killed him and now we are tasked with finding them. No matter how much we wished otherwise, there is nothing we could do about the past" Inui answered

"Something doesn't add up." Ryoma muttered before running his tongue over his teeth. 'I'm missing something, but what.' A flash of memory rose up and all he saw was the empty sight of the man they had killed next to him. Grief, guilt, anger, and shame began forming in the pit of his stomach. The sightless eyes seemed to be telling him something. He couldn't remember what happened for those three years but every now and then flashbacks would make itself known. All he wanted to do was make sure that never happen to anyone else.

'Yes, and you are doing such a great job at keeping the body count low, buddy'

The sarcastic thought coming in loud and clear.

"Shit, besides the wallet and ash, we really don't have anything." Ryoma said as he passed a side glance towards Inui.

"We still have to examine the other sites before we can report back, lets continue." Inui said as he led the way towards the other scenes. After about three hours of searching, they came up with nothing except gunpowder and ash connecting them to all the scene. Driving back towards the house was somber as both Ryoma and Inui kept quiet. Upon arriving inside the house they were greeted Tezuka.

"Ryoma. Inui. Get cleaned up for dinner then we will debrief what we found out." He stated. Inui gave a nod in acknowledgement while Ryoma gave a non symbol grunt and began his ascent towards his room, closing the door behind him. He took his dirt covered clothing off after placing his weapons on the bed. Ryoma entered the bathroom while turning the shower lever to the hottest degree he could handle and then letting the water slide down his body. He wrapped his lower half in a towel when he was finished and headed toward his dresser. Just as he opened the first drawer a short knock alerted him to some one announcing their presence.

RxR