"Uhm.. Uncle Gio."
"What?"
"I thought all the nuns were abducted in churches. That's what I read in the records too."
"That's right. What of it?"
"Then… why are we standing in the front gate of a school?"
First of all, it's not my fault. I don't know my way in Itoman City, and the records did say that the third nun, Uncle Gio's sister, was abducted on a church.
What the hell is going on?!
"This school is under the jurisdiction of the church, a Catholic school if you will. My sister was abducted in the church 'inside' the school."
Seriously? So somehow an abduction happened inside a school grounds and… and…
What happened to the students? Are they seriously attending class knowing what happened?
"The school is temporarily closed until the case is solved and the culprit is arrested." Uncle Gio says as if reading my mind.
Somehow his words are making me sigh in relief. Why though? Maybe because I've been obsessed with safety ever since everyone from Hope Orphanage died? No, maybe it was probably way before that.
In the end, I just don't want anyone innocent get harmed for unreasonable reason. Kind of what Metatron told me back in the ruined church.
The third church is smaller than the other two, but the damage remained the same, if not even more extensive. A wall was fully breached and a gaping hole is very much obvious.
"How dare they do this in a house of God." I hear Uncle Gio say.
I agree though. Churches are considered sacred, no matter where you go in the world. The fact that it's been defiled and the nuns that protect it have been taken just means whoever is doing this does not fear the high being that the Church follows.
Well demons are known to be creatures of the dark and they also abhor those that are in the light. And according to the legends, they hate God and those that serve Him.
But… Why is a yokai involved in such a thing?
I should probably start snooping around so I can get some useful clues.
Hmm…
Blood is almost everywhere, which is quite dreary to be honest. Not to mention blood trails seem to drag on in every direction. Almost like the bodies were dragged to…
Oh my gods I just found out something.
I saw it in the other two churches too, but I dismissed them as nothing but bloodstains! I never thought they can be a clue! Or maybe it's a clue, but at last I'm getting somewhere!
"Uncle Gio! Can you fly?"
"Huh? Of course not! That's not part of my skill set!"
Aah… I guess I just have to do this myself then.
Activate
I close my eyes and concentrate energy on them. I imagined a third eye being constructed in the air, at the very center of the bloodstains which I have been studying. From that third eye I can see the bloodstains stretching in six directions, all meeting at the very center, like an X with another line separating the left and right, a weird X. If I am to connect the ends, it will probably form a hexagon, or if I'm being imaginative enough, a six-pointed star.
Yes! A breakthrough!
"Uncle Gio! Do you still have the photos from the two other crime scenes!"
"Ha? Uh… yeah."
***
We're all gathered inside the room given to Gio. I asked Shizu and Nik a while ago to take pictures as well as aerial photos of the place they investigated. I compared the six pictures and I can see the same weird X I noticed from the churches, only they weren't bloodstains but more like ash or coal. One was even a crack on the pavement.
"Do you see it?" I ask them, a little giddy than I want to be.
"So, they have X's? Isn't that common?" answers Nik nonchalantly.
"NO! Even if they're common, is it really just normal for six places where abductions and deaths happened to have them? Isn't that suspicious?" I press even further.
I'm not sure if it's really a clue myself but at least we're getting somewhere.
"This… whatever this is can be anything, okay?" I say again. "It can be the remnants of a magic circle, or a symbol of an organization, or a message left by the culprits!"
"Well if you put it that way." Shizu mumbles and sits next to me. "But I still don't see where this is going."
She's right of course. Even if the weird X is a clue, but what kind of clue is it? Is it really a message? Will it lead us to where the abducted nuns and teenagers are?
Ah, they're still presumed alive since no bodies surfaced in the city yet. And the police are hoping that is also the case.
'Be aware of the patterns, little one.'
That's Metatron's advice before vanishing and leaving me.
Wait… patterns?
I dive for my laptop, which is thankfully still open and immediately pull up a map of the Itoman City. I mark the areas where the abductions happened and decided to connect each pair; the places where a nun and a teenager were abducted at the same night.
I can't help but smile when I see the same weird X forming once I'm finished with what I'm doing. I show it to them with a triumphant look on my face.
"Still think it's nothing?" I question.
Well that caught their attention.
"I see." says Uncle Gio after I explain to him what I was talking about in his language. "If we connect the areas where it happened, the same mark shows up. And look, they're all intersecting at this place."
He points at the center of the pattern where all lines meet.
"Dragon veins?" I hear Shizu mutter.
What is she talking about? Dragon veins?
Wait a minute…
That's it!
""Ley lines!"" Nik and I shout at the same time.
I pull up another map in my monitor but this time, it's a map of the ley lines in the city. Imagine my surprise when the pattern coincides with the ley line map I have opened.
"That means those that were abducted were taken at each points of a ley line and it intersects at this one point." Uncle Gio says.
"Then the nuns and the teenagers are probably being held in this area." I point to the center of the pattern. "But why though? I mean, why abduct females on new moons and follow the ley lines in doing so? Shizu, is there something significant for demons within Itoman City?"
"Not that- Oh! During World War II, Itoman City became the final frontier of the Battle of Okinawa. A lot of people died here. Itoman is also noted for the Himeyuri Butai, a field hospital nursing corps of 221 high-school students who committed suicide at the end of the battle. For whatever reason, half of those that died remained in this world, unable to crossover to the Underworld."
"That's a bad thing right?"
So the demons have something to do with those souls? That has to be it, right?
But… to do that, I mean… I'm thinking about rituals with sacrifices and stuff…
Oh shit! I just realized something!
Four robberies, two of them being antique stores! Six females, probably all of them being virgins, all gathered at the intersecting point of ley lines!
"Shizu! Can you call the police station and ask them about the robberies this week?"
"Huh? Why all of a sudden!"
"Just do it! And ask them the inventory of what was stolen!"
"Okay!"
"Uncle Gio!" I call, switching a language. "Call your friends and ask them regarding any demon-related rituals that have something to do with souls, ley lines and sacrificing six virgins!"
"What?!"
"Just do it!"
"And Nik!"
"Uh… yes!"
"That thing Shizu said about people dying in Itoman City during World War II, look into it. And make sure you look into it in the supernatural perspective!"
"Roger!"
We have to hurry. If there's anything my Intelligence is worth for in my stats, it's that I can figure things out. With it, I'm also smart enough to realize that rituals usually depend in celestial movements. And if my memory is correct, the next full moon is a super moon, which is a very big opportunity to do some shady ritual that needs sacrifices.