PROLOGUE: A Uncle finds Death, but not in the deadly way.

 

"Why did they pawn her off on me?" A young man dressed in a grey trench-coat, a black fedora with a black and white feather in it, and some high-top white DC's sighed, sitting on the brown bench in the old train-station's waiting area. His nearly-black, blue hair had sweat fall from it, the temperature was nearly one-hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit, yet he kept the coat on. Underneath, a assortment of weapons, ranging from two katana's strapped to his waist to a few semi-automatic pistols, he was waiting for the train to arrive so he could grab his niece and leave.

 

"Life has plenty of time, they say. I guess it's a lame pun considering the facts, but it's not far from truth." The grey-eye'd young man sighed, reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a pocky stick and placed it in his mouth, like a twig or toothpick, but it was far from short enough. He slowly picked at the stick: dragging a little bit of it into his mouth, breaking off a section of it, and repeating this process till the small strawberry stick was gone, almost as if it were evaporated into the hot day. "If they didn't tell me to bring all of this equipment, I could have at least came better dressed for early-spring weather." The boy mumbled to himself, pulling out his old-style flip-phone, he checked the time. "13:02. The damn train is late... An hour late. This is far from usual considering-" His though was interrupted by a yelling over the speakers. 

 

"The 12:03 train from California to Elsseburg has been delayed due to train hijackers. The authority's are trying to handle it, but are having trouble doing so. Please remain calm if you are expecting someone from the train, or expecting to travel in it, the situation should be over soon." The voice rang out from the intercom.

 

"Great. Death's not even here yet and she's causing problems. I better go save her prissy butt before she gets herself ironically killed." The man stood up, he was impressively tall, somewhere near 6"9' in height, and he jumped down onto the tracks, then headed in the direction the train was coming from. After an hour's walk, he found the train. Cop car's were lined up in front of it, and men in the traditional blue police uniform fired on the train's engine front, but were getting no-where with it. The man just walked around them, another hour's distance, then walked back into the ending of the train, onto the caboose, there were men in there armed with AK-47's and flash grenade's, but the man's sudden entrance caught them off-guard, the man drew one of his pistol's and shot one of the hijacker's right in-between the eyes. The other neanderthal attempted to shoot the man, but  he dodged all of his haphazardly shot projectiles, and then pulled out a combat knife from his coat and stabbed the man in his neck, but he left the knife in. No point in making a huge mess, right?

 

The caboose had only a few, tied up people in uniform. Likely train staff. The man cut them free and continued into the next few car's, when he encountered a few of the guards again. Quickly, he dispatched with them with a few bullets to the body or face and moved on to the next batch of captives. More guards, first though. Oh, dear, I forgot to mention the look of our faceless-grunts. That's just it: They're faceless grunts. Take whatever you imagine to be them, be they large, muscular tan guy's, bald and stupid, be they small, skinny pale boy's that shouldn't be fighting like this, take your choice on their appearance, whatever you like. Back to what I was saying about our hero, though. As I was saying, he had to deal with more guards, these ones armed much the same, the man dispatched of them quickly and looked about the hostages, but saw no Death. He freed this group, then carried on. A similar scenario happened in the next twelve cars, none of the grunts were very smart and only a few times did they actually have walkie-talkies, but they almost never made use of them, and even when they did the next group still went down with ease. When he made it back up to the near-front of the train, in the car next to the engine of the train, he finally encountered an enemy who posed a slight threat.

 

She moved quite fast for an average human, able to doge semi-automatic fires, so the man switched to dual-wielding his Katana's. This woman's black and white(No, not salt and pepper, her hair was legitimately black-trimmed with a white inside) drew out a claymore nearly the size of the woman from underneath her crimson-red hooded cloak, and held it with one hand. The man whistled. 

 

"Impressive little lady, but I don't think a big sword is gonna help you in this case."

 

The woman spoke back.

 

"Heh. Well, at least I need something to compensate for, what's your excuse?"

 

"Oi! I'm not talkin' about you're personal business, lady."

 

"Well, I am, since you're gonna die, you might as well get a little diss before you go."

 

"If anyone's Dead, it's probably you." The man put away his katana's and the woman put her claymore away. "What got you into hijacking trains that you're suppose to just be riding, Death?" The man asked.

 

"You could say I wasn't running the hijacking at first, but after I killed their leader they figured I took over for them. I figured you'd come looking for me and take them out for me, Life." The snow-white skin of Death's face barely curled up into a smile and Life frowned.

 

"You never liked doing work, did you?"

 

"That's an outright lie!" Death chuckled, and walked over to her uncle and punched him in the arm.

 

Life sighed. "Well, I hope the police will like it that I did their job for them.". He took out another Pocky stick from his pocket and placed it in his mouth. 

 

"Hey, you better share one of those with me!" Death complained, the tied up passenger's stared at the two talking casually, they looked perplexed by the situation, and Life just smirked. 

 

"Sorry, last one." He chuckled, but Death punched him in the face and took the Pocky stick out of his mouth. "I've got a lot of work cut out for me..." He muttered, sighing as Death swallowed the Pocky hole. "You know that you're suppose to eat those by biting them and chewing on them, right?"

 

"Yeah, but I like to swallow them hole." She laughed a little, then walked to the side door and exited.

 

Life sighed. "She's too damn strong for her own good, she's stubborn, mean, and crew, but it's nice to have her around again." Life existed out of the train door that Death left open after freeing the passengers. After a few hours of explaining, proving that he in fact was a private eye and working in the best interests of his charge, they cleared him and Death for responsibility's. After a long car-ride to the outskirts of town, Life and Death made it to Life's house: A once abandoned old-folk's home. On the front door of the very generic building was a generic P.I. sign, the same generic symbol, but the lettering was done in a very scroll-y font, it read 

 

Life Investigations

Private Investigator, Lead Investigator: Life Wiynn

Secretary and Apprentice: Death Ried

 

"You know, if I didn't want to be a P.I, like you, I would never come out here on my semester break." Death looked at Life irritably. "I told you I didn't want to be an apprentice to you."

 

"Well, you are. You've yet to solve a single case on your own yet, and you're blunt methods keep getting you arrested and sent to juvvie."

 

"So? I get out five minutes later anyway."

 

"One of these day's you're gonna end up dead as your name imply's if you don't cool your heels."

 

"Whatever. I'm going to go settle in, put my gear away, then I'm heading to the mall."

 

"No, You're not going anywhere. You're seventeen. You still have to obey curfew for a year or so, don't forget."

 

"Curfew is at twenty here? Are you serious!?"

 

"Quite. Stone cold fact."

 

"That's crap! Ugh! You use to be kinda fun, but now you're just a drag, Life!"

 

"Funny, that's what my wife said before she left me. Oh, well. Now get inside, it's about to be time for dinner, anyway."

 

"Ugh. Fine. What are we having tonight?"

 

"Since I know you, a flat-bread New York style fire roasted pizza, pepperoni-only extra cheese for you, pepperoni, extra cheese, fresh sun-ripened tomato and garlic cloves, spicy fingers, and cheese bread."

 

"You didn't skimp out on desert, right?"

 

"Do I ever?"

 

"At least there is a plus to being here other than experience: Your cooking."

 

The two laughed a bit before Death slaps Life upside the head. "Now get in there and make me dinner, woman."

 

"Just as tough and demanding as ever, I see."

 

The two enter the house and...

The prologue is finished.

 

 

If anyone liked this, I'll happily continue it, but it's not just my story alone, in a sense. I want all my readers to come up with an idea for the cases, if they so wish, and if I like it I'll probably use it as a story arc for the first couple of investigations. I know the P.I. element isn't too huge right now, but it will be later.

It seems really interesting. Keep it up! I don't have any case ideas yet, though...

Chapter 1: Sinister Suspicions: Supernatural Cases afoot? (Case One)

 

Morning. Life hated the morning, the night suited him better. Cooler, much calmer normally, relaxing. He sat up in his bed, basic pajama's covered him as he looked around the room. only about a yard's length away was Death, since her room wasn't quite yet finished. She'd already had taken up residence with Life for a month, and not too many things had happened yet. Death was getting bored, and since she wait's for no one, sooner or later she'll go looking for some trouble. "If I didn't know you could handle yourself in a fight, I wouldn't let you leave this house." Life thought, and with a sigh, he stood up in the small wooden room.

 

His room was the old staff room; he had to do some renovation to it before he could live in it, like replacing some of the floorboards, having entirely new walls built for the room, and get a few little "extras" put in, like trap door's, hidden armaments, and having all the homestead stuff be able to retract into the walls or floor so that he could use the room as a place to train and practice as well. The room itself was rather large, about as big as a living room is for someone just a wee bit above middle wage could afford. He had a few dressers, a few paintings(Some of his work, others copy's of famous works like Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh) but the room lacked any form of window, and instead had vents from the outside bring in fresh air and has adjustable lighting, and even different kinds of light bulbs for different kinds of light, like purple light bulb's for a black lighting effect. The TV he had set up in front of his room, mounted to the stone walls, was turned off, Life sighed and went over to Death's bed. She was clutching to the remote as if it were a teddy bear and she were having a bad dream. I might as well take the time now to really explain how she looks.

 

Death was shorter than Life by quite a bit. She was 5"4', and if you saw the two of them out in public, you would think she was his teenage daughter, not nearly the same age as him, Life being twenty and her seventeen, separated by only a few weeks. She had been born with interesting hair. Their family was full of strange hair-based mutations. When Life went without his fedora, his hair would curl upwards, almost like natural spikes that had ornate curves at the ends of them, and his hair isn't always dark blue; it can be a dark green, or bright yellow with orange as an undertone, depending on his emotion at the time, and Death's hair was-as I said in the prologue-white on the tips, but black in the center. Not a single ounce of grey in her hair, it's kept short(reminiscent of her mother, who liked to keep her hair short as well) but like Life's. it spiked, it actually resembles that of a character from an online show Life liked when he was younger: It appeared windblown, down just below her chin, her bangs and hair seemed to slightly swoop to the right, as if a slight breeze kept it in that direction constantly. 

 

Her skin, a snowflake white, yet she would never burn for some odd reason, and she never tanned since she was little, even though she was constantly going places. She was skinny, skinny as could be in fact, she looked like a supermodel based on how thin she was. She had a smaller chest-size, much to her own dismay, and in fact she looked tiny overall in stature, almost like she was a sixth-grader, not a junior in high school. Her eyes were a crimson color, almost like dried blood.

 

"I'm lucky she has a small chest, or the way she's clutching this thin I wouldn't ever be able to just grab it and turn the TV on..." Life thought, reaching for the remote, Death literally jumped awake and kicked him in the head. 

 

"You were trying to touch me, weren't you!"

 

"N-No! Where did you get that idea!?"

 

"Oh, come on! You've been divorced for three years! You're probably about to go insane if you don't get to touch someone, even if it's you're own niece!"

 

"What in the name of god makes you think that? I'm not some disgusting perv!"

 

"Oh, please! I bet you only married her cause you wanted her!"

 

"For the love of god just stop yelling at me for  a minute and listen! Look at what you have wrapped oh-so-tightly in your hand right there!" Life's tone was very dead; his more serious sounding voice. The angrier he got, the less emotion he showed.

 

"What in hell's name-" Death noticed the remote wrapped oh-so-tightly in her fingers.

 

"You know I need that remote in the morning so I can check the news and the security camera's, so I went to get it. Jesus, why are you so paranoid all the time!?" Life yelled, clearly annoyed. He snatched the remote out of her hands and turned the TV on, changing it first to the security camera tapes, he sat on his bed and reviewed the footage in high speed fast forward, Death, in some old gym shorts and a large t-shirt she had once stole from Life gathered her usual garments(Her red hooded cloak, and then her soft armor for underneath, a white and reddish-orange flannel and black skinny-jeans. She moved into the bathroom, which was just a step to the left from the room door, undressed, and opened the shower door. She turned on the faucet in the very basic blue bathroom, and water didn't come out, instead, ice. She yelped then yelled out "Ow! How dose that make any sense?!"

 

"I haven't had an opportunity to turn on the water heater yet." Life yelled back, his eyes still glued to the screen.

 

"Why did you turn it off?" Death yelled

 

"Because I don't like keeping it on all the time. Saves money." Life replied.

 

Death moaned, then put a towel on and walked to the very back of the hall, opened the door, and went into the basement. Pushing the leaver open, she sighed, then went back up to the bathroom after getting her iPhone off of her bed and bringing it into the bathroom, putting Pandora on, and waiting for the water to heat. Meanwhile, Life finished the recordings. Nothing unusual. He changed the TV over to the news, and the first article that came up that interested him: "Supposed bed rapist attacks again, victim says she has seen him, but doubts that anyone will believe his appearance, so chooses to withhold the information. Odd animal furs found at the crime-scene. If I had to bet my money... Five... Four... Three..." Life got up, walked into his office that was next to the door leading to the basement, and said "One." as he sat down. A woman knocked on the door, and then entered, the same woman who appeared in the news. She had long, brown hair that curled, a schoolgirl outfit, and a tan messenger bag on her. "Welcome to Life Investigations, ma'am. I would assume your Sherry Arnald, no?" Life looked at the woman, who was startled by the fact he recognized her. "Y-yessir. But how did you-"

 

"Simple. The fact the media outlet's state that you refuse to tell anyone your rapist's identity that it means it was more on the... How shall we say... Supernatural side."

 

"You could tell from just that?"

 

"Quite. I've been doing this for some time ma'am. I know what to look for. So sit down and tell me what happened."

 

The investigation begins to heat. 

The investigation continues to warm.

 

"Finally..." Death muttered, closing the shower door behind her, the water had finally become warm enough for her. She took her towel off and hung it above the door of the shower, then began to wash herself. Meanwhile, Life continued to talk with the woman. 

 

"...And finally, it had a huge body, heavy hairs, and wasn't too... Gentle... So it's probably very muscular..." She finished her account of the rapist's appearance, clutching her hands together tight, she tried to hold back her tears, but Life walked over to her and gave her a hug. "Let it out... I know it's not easy to recount something like that if it's just a regular human... But a monster must be even harder... I'm sorry." He consoled her, and she cried onto his shoulder. "Don't worry, ma'am, We'-" Life barely got those words out before a scream came from his bathroom. "Death!?" Life yelled, getting up and running to the bathroom, he pounded on the door. "Are you OK, Death!?" He shouted, but all he heard was shower water. "I'm coming in!" Life yelled, kicking the door in, a large, harry creature of some kind was standing over a naked Death, who looked over it's shoulder before noticing Life there pointing his gun at itself, to which it promptly vanished into smoke.

 

"Crap! Where did it go?!"" Life looked around, but then remembered that it had tried to rape Death. He grabbed her towel off the floor, then wrapped it around her body and carried her out, lying her on her bed in the bedroom, he covered her completely with her blanket, then pulled up a floorboard below him, pulling a charm out of the ground below it. It was a strange piece of paper with some form of kanji on it. Placing it on her head, Life also took out a few of the Christian Cross from the hole as well, and lined them around the bed. "Hopefully this will protect her until she recovers... I gotta go back to miss Sherry and make sure she is OK as well..." Life muttered, running out of the room, Sherry was sitting there with a very worried look on her face.

 

"It appears the thing that attacked you is in my house now somehow. It's not safe for you to be here, miss. I will be escorting you back to your home and placing protection charms on your house so that you may not need worry about him intruding again." Life explained, walking over to a large safe, he opened it quickly and removed four more pieces of paper, like the one he had placed on Death's head, except these were laminated. they had the kanji for the four gates written on them. He also removed two crosses, and some prayer beads, storing them in his pocket, he closed that safe, then quickly moved into the room adjacent of the office: The armory. He placed on his trench-coat, which had most of his guns and blades, all of them made of silver or use silver projectiles. "Silver can kill any unholy creature... whatever this thing is is defiantly unholy..." He thought, gathering a few clips of bullets out of the ammo boxes, he also gathered some salt, in case he had an idea of what was occurring.

 

After gathering of those materials, he escorted Sherry out and into her car, then poured a salt line around it. "I think this creature may have the unique ability to control Shiki, or spirits under someone's command. But salt lines do not allow spirits to pass normally. You'll be safe in the car for a moment as I make some salt lines around my home." He told Sherry, before locking the door's and making a large salt line along the borders of his home. After he finished, he moved to the car, hopping over the line, he unlocked the door and got in on the driver's side seat, then started up the car and began driving to Sherry's home. After a few hours of driving, they made it to her residence, then told her to go inside. After she got into the house, Life set to work. First, he lined her house with salt lines, like his own, around it's borders, and then he placed the paper sheets onto the front door, the sides of the house, and on the back. "Four Gates, hear my plea to thou. Please bless this house and guard against whatever evil may try and do harm upon it." A small blessing he preformed on the house, hoping to guard against any Shiki from entering or exiting. He kept the prayer beads and crosses stored, just in case, but after he had finished the preparations on the house, Life crossed over the salt line and went to Sherry's door, notified her that her house should be safe, then left quickly, returning home. "The protection spell won't hold for very long... I need to get home soon." He thought as he drove back.

 

The investigation starts to cook. What will be it's flavor: Sweet or sower?