Chapter Nine
O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One, you are the praise of Israel. - Psalm 22:2
* * * *
Nearly a month after the Elder and Riou Takeshi have told Yuri, Ren and Tohya about Raven’s Gate, Yuri Yagami is making her way towards Hati headquarters. Like the Elder had expected and half-predicted, they have not as yet been able to turn up a single thing about Raven’s Gate, as they have only a few people on the case.
“Yuri.”
Yuri turned at the sound of her name just before she even managed to set foot into Hati headquarters, only to see Tohya and Ren walking towards her, Tohya giving her a slight wave.
“Hey.”
Yuri nodded to them before the three entered the headquarters, and made their way towards the meeting room of the Phantoms.
“So you two were summoned as well?” asked Yuri, and Ren gave a light shrug. “Wonder what it’s all about?”
“We’ll soon find out, I guess,” said Tohya before he pushed the doors of the meeting room opened, and entering, before being followed by Yuri and Ren. “Phantoms V, VIII and XIII reporting, sirs.”
Riou and the Elder looked up as the three entered the room, and nodded to them to acknowledge their presences. “I apologise for calling the three of you here so suddenly,” said the Elder. “But we have an urgent matter that requires your immediate attention.”
Yuri raised an eyebrow. “Like?”
“Kamizuki. Do you remember one of the researchers working with the CDC (Center for Disease Control) that you were sent to capture, but not assassinate two years ago?” Riou asked, and Ren nodded with a frown. “He was placed under maximum security as…he isn’t exactly right in the head.”
“If memory serves me right, the name of that insane researcher is Kanzaki,” said Ren with a frown, and Riou and the Elder both nodded. Ren sighed. “He gave me a lot of trouble when I was to capture him back then. I thought for a moment that when I arrived at his hideout, it was a scene right out of a Resident Evil movie!”
“What do you mean?” asked Tohya, frowning slightly.
Two years ago, he wasn’t a Phantom, and didn’t know all the details. But he had heard some of the stories going around- that one of the Phantoms was nearly killed in a mission, had it not been for his partner, Yuri, who had been sent by the Elder, as a last minute decision, as his backup.
Yuri chipped in. “Kanzaki,” she stated. “No last name known. He was one of the best researchers that we have in Japan, said to be a genius in identifying viruses and diseases, and how to cure them. But a few years back, he suddenly went insane and vanished. And we have intel back then that he had been dabbling in various forms of dubious and forbidden research.”
“We had no idea what kind of ‘research’ he had been doing then,” added Ren. “And I have no wish to know anyway. But what I do know is that most of his research just before his disappearance, and even after that, had to do with human lives. If I had to make a guess, he was trying to figure out a way to grant humans immortality, and lost his humanity and sanity in the process.”
“Kamizuki here nearly came back half-dead during that mission to apprehend Kanzaki two years ago. We received the order from the government to not kill Kanzaki, as they wanted his research materials. And thus, he was sentenced to life imprisonment under maximum security detail.” The Elder went on to explain.
Ren shivered a little. “I still remember that mission,” he mumbled. “I never want to go through it again. If Yuri hadn’t shown up when she did, I would most probably be dead.”
Tohya was curious. “Why?”
Ren paled at the memory, and Yuri sighed. Not even she wished to remember. “Imagine mutated animals like Labrador dogs and several ferocious looking animals who don’t even look like they’re supposed to be alive,” she said. “It’s a scene right out of a Resident Evil movie! I don’t know what Kanzaki did to them, but those beasts were damned hard to kill, and we had to resort to using grenades to blow them up.”
Ren coughed in his hand. “Anyway, the point is, between Yuri and me, we managed to capture Kanzaki and destroyed all those abominations, and we both nearly died in the process,” he stated, deadpanned. “And as far as I know, he’s still in prison. So why are we talking about a man who’s supposed to be locked up forever?” He asked, looking towards the Elder and Riou.
Elder looked troubled. Riou finally broke the uneasy silence as he looked at Ren with a look that immediately set off several warning bells ringing in his head. “Because, Kamizuki,” he said uneasily. “We’ve just received a report from one of the government officials. Less than a week earlier, Kanzaki escaped from prison.”
Ren’s eyes widened in horror, and Yuri narrowed her eyes. Tohya stared blankly at the captain of the Phantoms before his words sunk in, and he spoke slowly. “…come again?”
“The most insane and feared researcher and scientist in the country escaped from prison a week ago.” Riou replied. “We suspect an inside job, as he was under maximum security, and it’s not possible for him to escape without inside help. The police have combed the country for him, but they couldn’t find him. They’ve kept it quiet to prevent the public from panicking, but a week has passed, and they’re no closer to finding him. That’s why they’ve called for our help, especially since we’re the ones who captured him earlier.”
Ren sighed. “I mean no disrespect when I say this, Captain, but searching for Kanzaki is like searching for a needle in a haystack,” he said. “Even back then, I could only locate him because of some sources that I had managed to get with some difficulty and extreme luck. It wasn’t easy to find that man. He’s good at hiding and running away.”
“We do have a clue as to his current whereabouts,” said the Elder solemnly, and all three Phantoms turned towards him. “Several bodies in the hospital morgue of the Tokyo Medical University Hospital of Japan have gone missing recently. At first, we assumed that it’s just a case of body theft, but with Kanzaki’s disappearance…the timing is too perfect.”
“You think that he’s the one who’s doing it,” stated Ren, and the Elder nodded. Ren sighed. “If he’s been stealing dead bodies, then that must mean that he’s been conducting his ‘research’ again.” He muttered some incoherent words beneath his breath. “Damn that man! Can’t he give me some peace and quiet for once?”
“He’s probably conducting his ‘immortality’ research once more,” said Yuri seriously, speaking the very words on everyone’s minds. She glanced at Ren and Tohya. “We have to find him. Quickly. That man is insane. If we don’t move fast, I won’t be surprised if he’ll be conducting experiments on breathing living humans next.”
The Elder sighed. “And this is your next mission,” he said. “Find Kanzaki. Dead or alive. Though the government will prefer it if you can bring him in alive, we don’t really mind if you kill him.”
Ren scowled. “I don’t understand the government as well!” he said. “What is so important about Kanzaki that they want him brought in alive? It’s the same two years ago! Besides, we don’t answer to the government, and I don’t give a damn as to what they want! They’re not the ones who are risking life and limb to protect Japan and the world! We’re not their tool!”
“As much as it pains me to agree with him—” Tohya ignored Ren’s glare. “The government has been interfering with us far too often recently. They never used to do that before.”
Riou sighed. “We know,” he said. “We’ve been looking into it. The three of you, you have your orders.”
The three Phantoms nodded.
“Yes sir.”
* * * *
Tokyo Medical University Hospital
Tokyo, Japan
Yuri is frustrated, Ren is irritated, and Tohya is annoyed.
The three Phantoms were currently at the reception desk of the Tokyo Medical University Hospital, and were trying to convince one of the two receptionists that they were given the clearance to enter the morgue of the hospital for investigations. The entire morgue level of the hospital was shut down by the director of the hospital until after the investigation.
“Look, we’re given the clearance to enter the morgue for investigations,” said Ren for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, growing steadily irritated with the guy that he was arguing with. “Do us a favour and let us in.”
“And I’m telling you, I didn’t hear anything about this from the director of the hospital, and I can’t let you in,” said the receptionist, equally annoyed. “So even if you’re from Hati, I can’t—”
“Let these people in.” A voice interrupted the receptionist, and all four heads turned towards the source of the voice to see a middle aged man wearing a doctor’s white coat, with square-framed glasses perched on his nose.
The receptionist gasped. “Director!”
“Let these people into the morgue.” The director of the hospital repeated. “I really should have told you that they’re coming, but it slipped my mind.” He then turned towards the three Phantoms, and bowed to them politely. “Thank you for coming. The entire morgue level of the hospital will be closed and restricted to all whilst you’re conducting your investigation.”
Yuri nodded. “Then if it is alright with you, we’ll head down to the morgue then?”
The director smiled. “Of course. Take as long as necessary.” He then bowed again to the three and left.
The other receptionist who hadn’t spoken a single word ever since Yuri, Ren and Tohya’s arrivals, handed a bunch of keys to Yuri. “These are the keys to the entrance of the morgue, as well as the cold rooms,” he said, and Yuri nodded.
“Thank you.”
The three then left quickly towards the direction of the lift to take them down to the morgue level of the hospital, but not quickly enough, especially since all three could hear the conversation between the two receptionists behind them.
“What are these ‘Hati’ people anyway?” asked the receptionist who had argued with Ren earlier, his tone sounding a little grumpy. “Are they so important that the hospital director had to order the entire morgue level of the hospital to be shut down for them, as well as for the police to be taken off the case of the missing bodies?”
“Look, just forget about it,” said his companion strictly.
“Huh? Why?”
His companion sighed. “I’ve heard of people who have disappeared for trying to find out what Hati is,” he said seriously. “Forget about them. It’s better for you this way.”
Yuri, Ren and Tohya exchanged looks before the lift doors opened with a light ‘ding’, and the three Phantoms entered the lift before pressing a button for the lift to take them down to the morgue level of the hospital.
* * * *
“This is right out of a ghost movie.” Tohya muttered as all three snapped on their flashlights in order for them to see just where they’re going.
The morgue level of the hospital was eerily silent, and reminded Yuri of some ghost movie that she’d watched a few years back during one of her day-offs from Hati. The lights of the morgue were dimmed. In order to light up the place properly so that they might at least see where they are going, all three had to use their flashlights.
“Alright, let’s get started,” said Ren, not allowing his unease to be heard in his voice. Yet Yuri and Tohya who both knew him well, knew that he was rather uneasy, judging by the way his eyes kept flickering around.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The sound of a door closing somewhere in the morgue level of the hospital stopped all three in their tracks, and the three Phantoms looked left and right quickly only to see no one.
Tohya frowned. “Didn’t the hospital director say that the morgue level of the hospital is restricted until we’ve completed our investigation?” he asked, turning towards his friends.
Ren nodded, confusion on his face. “That’s right,” he said. “Do you think that it might be an enemy?”
Yuri frowned before turning towards her two friends. “Let’s split up,” she said, removing her gun from the holster by her side, and releasing the safety catch on it. “There might be more than one of them. Ren, you go with Tohya. I’ll be fine on my own.”
“Okay,” said Ren with a nod. “Be careful.”
Yuri nodded. “You guys too.”
* * * *
Yuri was starting to feel ridiculous as a half hour passed, and she still found no trace of any enemies or intruders whatsoever, and was starting to wonder if it’s all just her imagination… However, her job was to uncover any clues regarding the recent disappearances of several dead bodies in this hospital, and as such, she entered the nearest cold room, a room that the hospital used to store the dead bodies.
Yuri stepped into the room and looked around.
She had been to several morgues in the past because of her job, when she needed to confirm the identity of the deceased. More often than not, the body would be that of one of her ‘targets’. In all the cold rooms of the morgues that she had visited in the past, there would be a lone metal table in the middle of the room for coroners to conduct their autopsies, as well as several metal ‘drawers’ set against the walls of the room where the bodies of the deceased were placed and preserved.
And even with Yuri wearing a coat because of the cold weather in Japan which spring always brings, she could still feel the chill seeping through her coat. Yuri frowned and ran things through her mind.
‘Why though?’ she thought to herself, one hand at her chin as she tried to make sense of the entire situation. ‘This whole thing doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Why dead bodies though? What use has Kanzaki for dead bodies?’
Yuri’s ears pricked up as she heard a sound, and she turned around quickly, drawing out her gun as she did so. A black blur entered her vision of sight before there was the sound of a clang of metal on metal, and Yuri soon found herself partially forced back with her gun parrying against a girl wearing a black gauntlet-like weapon on her right arm.
It seemed to Yuri like blades could be fired from the part of the gauntlet resting on the arm of the girl, and there were also three silver blades which stretched over the knuckles on her right hand – reminding Yuri of Wolverine from the X-Men movie.
Her assailant was a girl who seemed to be a few years older than her and her features were Asian. Her hair cascaded down to her shoulders, and she was wearing a sleeveless white shirt beneath a blue denim jacket left opened, and black jeans, along with black and white sneakers.
Yuri narrowed her eyes at this girl. ‘An enemy?’
The next moment, both the two sprang backwards, readying their weapons. “Who are you?” asked Yuri in a dangerous voice, pointing her gun at the unknown assailant.
Said assailant growled low in her throat as she pulled on something nearly invisible to the naked eye, and Yuri dodged, as several blades were suddenly fired from the gauntlet that the girl was wearing on her arm, missing her by mere inches.
“I have no need to answer a dog of the enemy!” The girl growled before she took a swipe at Yuri who ducked down to the ground, narrowly getting her neck sliced opened. As it was, a few strands of hair were sliced off instead. “Are you sent by Raven’s Gate?”
Yuri can only stare. ‘Huh?’
She was forced to deflect the next round of blades fired at her once more with her gun, before ducking down to the ground and swinging her left leg about in a roundabout kick, tripping the girl up. Yuri knew that the girl wasn’t going to listen to her, and the only way to get her to stop long enough to listen to her and to get her to stop fighting is to defeat her.
The girl broke her fall with her left hand before glaring at Yuri, and before the Phantom knew it, her opponent had thrown open one of the metal drawers just above her head which nearly smashed Yuri’s face in had she not thrown herself to the ground. The drawer just missed her by mere inches.
Yuri then rolled over on the ground before she caught a black blur heading towards her face, and blocked the weapon with her gun – the assailant just mere inches away from ending her life. Yuri moved her left hand away from her gun, before curling her hand up into a fist and struck the girl into her lower abdomen, causing the girl to stagger backwards, giving Yuri the opportunity to get to her feet.
She caught sight of a black blur heading towards her way fast once more, and dodged another of her opponent’s attacks, kicking the opened drawer with her right foot, forcing it shut, and forcing her opponent into a dead arm lock which she somehow managed to get out of.
The girl kicked Yuri’s left foot from beneath her, causing her to fall slightly had she not broken her fall with one hand, landing into a crouch onto the ground, and she turned her head just in time to see her opponent’s weapon going close to a vital spot at her neck.
Yuri whipped her gun out and pointed it at her opponent’s head at the same exact moment when her opponent had one of the blades on her gauntlet at Yuri’s throat.
And just when Yuri’s opponent was about to push her weapon further to end Yuri’s life, the door of the room swung open with a gigantic crash. Both girls looked up to see Tohya and Ren standing at the doorway panting heavily with a young man who looked to be about twenty-five years of age or so, dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans with black and white Nike sneakers along with a black coat, his hair looking a little messy and shaggy, falling down to the length of his chin.
“Stop, Selina!” The unknown young man shouted to the girl.
“Stop this, both of you!” Tohya shouted at the same exact moment that the young man did.
Yuri can only stare at the young man before noticing the black butterfly tattoo on the side of his neck, and her gaze went down to his left hand where there was a Hati bracelet wound around his wrist with the Roman numeral of two engraved on the silver crescent moon pendant.
‘A Phantom? Then that means…’
Yuri turned her attention back towards the girl whom she was fighting a moment ago, and saw that the denim jacket of the girl had slipped down one shoulder. She immediately spotted the black butterfly tattoo on her neck, before noticing the Hati bracelet with the Roman numeral of eleven hanging from her left wrist, all the time wondering how the hell did she miss something like that?
“Niisan, she is…” Selina started, turning to the unknown young man who is now identified as her older brother.
The young man sighed and nodded. “She’s a Phantom as well,” he said tiredly. “Withdraw Vigrid.”
Vigrid which Yuri assumed is Selina’s weapon was withdrawn immediately, and Yuri did the same with her Odium, before both girls got to their feet, dusting their clothes off. The young man smiled at Yuri, and offered his hand which Yuri took, introducing himself. “This is the first time that we’ve met, I do believe,” he said with a charming smile. “I’m Sunny Chin. Phantom II. Nice to meet you.”
“We met Sunny in the part of the morgue that we were exploring earlier,” said Tohya, answering the unasked question. “I’ve worked with Sunny in the past, even before I became a Phantom, and I recognised him immediately. Then when we heard the sounds of battle, we immediately rushed over before one of you kills the other by mistake.”
Both Yuri and Selina paled at Tohya’s words. Even for the Phantoms, they have their rules. And rule number one is that no Phantom is to engage another Phantom in battle unless the situation calls for it, or unless it’s an order. It’s an act that is punishable in Hati as an act of treason.
A hand appeared in Yuri’s view just then, and she turned only to see Selina offering her hand to her, which she took. “Sorry for earlier,” said Selina with an apologetic smile. “I jumped to conclusions too soon. As you might have guessed, I’m Sunny’s younger sister. I’m Selina Chin. Phantom XI. Nice to meet you.”
Yuri nodded. “Yuri Yagami,” said Yuri, introducing herself in return. “Phantom XIII. Nice to meet you.”
The eyebrows of both Selina and Sunny shot up to their hairlines, and they immediately glanced at her Hati bracelet, before smiling. “So it’s you,” said Selina with a smile. “We’ve heard rumours of your exploits. You’re sure good. I can see that you’re as good as the rumours stated. No wonder you’re the youngest among us to actually make it as a Phantom.”
“Yeah well…” Yuri snorted a little. “Fame comes at a price.”
“Anyway,” said Ren, turning towards Sunny. “What are the both of you doing here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be on another assignment?”
“The captain gave that assignment to Phantoms IV and XII.” Selina answered for her older brother, and Ren, Tohya and Yuri turned towards Selina. “The captain sent us here as backup for the three of you.”
Tohya raised an eyebrow. “He did?” he asked, and Selina nodded.
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “Something about his gut feeling acting up. When we arrived here, we assumed that you had already left before us. But we thought that we should also take a quick look around, just in case. And naturally, we didn’t expect to get attacked by fellow Phantoms as well.” She winked, and Yuri blushed a little.
“Sorry.”
Selina shook her head. “No, I’m the one who should be apologising,” she said. “I jumped to conclusions too soon. If you weren’t as good as you are, I would probably have killed you by mistake, and the Elder and the captain will then kill me.”
Selina then pulled her gauntlet off her arm before slipping it into the pouch around her waist, as Yuri slipped her gun back into her holster. Both girls then turned towards the boys, with Selina fixing her clothing so that her butterfly tattoo was covered up.
“Did you find anything?” asked Selina, directing this question to her brother, but Ren was the one who had answered.
“Yeah, we did,” said the teen, nodding, before he drew out a photograph from his pouch that seemed to be taken from a Polaroid camera. He handed the photograph to Yuri who took it with a frown. “We found some numbers written in blood in one of the cold rooms in the east wing, and Tohya took a photograph of the scene before we cleaned it up.”
Yuri nodded absently at this. It is simply one of the rules of the Phantoms that any place which they go to investigate for an assignment must be cleaned up, so that no traces and clues would be left behind which might tell quite a tale about Hati or one of their targets.
Yuri raised an eyebrow as she eyed the photograph incredulously, and Selina peered over her shoulder. “What is this?” asked Yuri in confusion, looking at Ren and Tohya before looking back at the photograph in her hand. “Seems like…mathematics equations to me.”
There were several numbers written on the ground of one of the cold rooms in the morgue of the hospital in the photograph, and Yuri surveyed it carefully, trying to decide if it is a code of some sort.
Unfortunately, Yuri isn’t that brilliant with codes. Ren is much better than her with numbers, and so is Tohya. If the two teens were in high school like every normal teenager in Japan, they would be considered mathematics geniuses.
The numbers shown in the photograph were:
10
5 + 10
6 + 5 + 10
5 + 6 + 5 + 10
Selina sighed and scratched the back of her head. “This is giving me a headache.” She groaned. “I’m not that good with numbers. And this doesn’t seem like any equations that I’ve seen before either.”
Her brother nodded dumbly. “Isn’t it just pure addition though?” he asked, confusion in his tone as the five of them crouched down on the ground in a semi-circle. Yuri placed the photograph in the middle of the semi-circle that they’ve formed, trying to figure things out.
“No,” said Ren at once, shaking his head. “I know Kanzaki…if this was even left behind by him in the first place. As things stand, there is an extremely high chance that it was left behind by him for us to find.” He added. “Kanzaki is a Mathematics genius. Two years ago, when I was tracking him down, the chase that I was on led me to France where he was attending a Mathematics convention of some sort. There was a question back then that was brought up which no one but Kanzaki was able to solve, and I later found out that the question is otherwise known as Fermat’s Last Theorem.”
“So what?” asked Selina in confusion, but Sunny, Tohya and Yuri understood what Ren was trying to say.
“Fermat’s Last Theorem is a mathematics question that even the best mathematicians from all around the world were unable to solve, and struggled to solve for over three hundred years,” explained Tohya, putting up the forefinger of his right hand as if giving a lecture to Selina. “But in 1995, a professor named Andrew Wiles managed to answer it. And the correct answer for that question is ‘nothing’.” He grinned at Selina’s surprised and confused face. “Because it’s not even possible to answer that question, as there are no integers for X, Y and Z, which is what was asked in the Fermat’s Last Theorem.”
“And since it’s Kanzaki, he must have left this behind as some sort of clue,” said Ren, turning his attention back towards the photograph. Sunny was frowning deeply as he tried to figure things out, and Yuri was studying the photograph with a weird expression on her face.
Yuri finally looked up. “Do you think that it might be the Tetragrammaton maybe?” she suggested, and every single person turned towards her with a stunned expression on their faces that suggested that Yuri had suddenly spoken in Greek.
Sunny and Selina both stared blankly at this unfamiliar word, whilst Ren groaned to himself, wondering inwardly why he had never thought of that possibility himself. Tohya studied the photograph once more to see if Yuri’s theory might be possible.
“What is this Tetra—something or other?” asked Selina, blinking in confusion.
“Tetragrammaton,” corrected Ren, putting up the forefinger of his right hand in a way that seemed as if he was giving a lecture. “Translated as ‘the four holy letters’.”
Tohya tore his eyes away from the photograph at last, and studied the two siblings before him. “Do either one of you read the bible?” he asked curtly.
Selina and Sunny both blinked at this sudden question, and Sunny shook his head. “Not really,” he admitted, and Selina nodded. “I’m not really that religious.”
“I see,” said Yuri, taking up the mantle next. “Then I’ll explain it to you.” Both siblings paid rapt attention to the teen. “‘Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain’.” Yuri exchanged looks with Tohya and Ren both before turning back towards Sunny and Selina. “This is one of the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament.”
Sunny gasped slightly, his memory suddenly clicking in all of a sudden as he recalled something about the Old Testament that he’d read up on several years back as part of a school project when he was still a student, before he’d joined Hati, and had became an assassin.
“The Jewish and Christian religions forbid the usage of God’s name,” explained Yuri, and both Sunny and Selina paid rapt attention. Even Tohya and Ren both listened attentively.
“That is why the Jews call God ‘Lord’.” Selina nodded dumbly to show that she’s listening. “But what do you do when you write it?” Yuri gestured for a pen and paper from her friends, and Ren was quick to hand her a notebook and a pen which he’d taken out from his pouch. Yuri opened the notebook to a blank page and wrote some words on it.
“You use four Hebrew letters.” Yuri removed her hand from the notebook, and everyone saw some words written on the page which didn’t even remotely make sense. “Yodh he waw he. These are the ‘four holy letters’ written in Hebrew that symbolises God, the Tetragrammaton.” She tapped the end of the pen onto the page itself. “And if you put it into the alphabet…”
“Y H W H.” Ren answered for Yuri, and the girl nodded.
“That’s right,” said Yuri with a nod, and she handed the photograph to Tohya by holding it before his face, with the teen blinking at having the photograph that they were all brainstorming over suddenly shoved into his face. “Now solve this thing, Tohya. That’s your forte, isn’t it?”
“Huh? Solve this thing?” Tohya frowned as he took the photograph from Yuri. “Isn’t it just pure addition though?” He pondered, before his quick mind got to work at totalling the numbers up. “10 plus 15. 21 plus 26. Equals to…”
“Seventy two,” said Sunny suddenly, and both Tohya and Selina looked at him in slight amazement.
“Did you work all that out in your head or something?” asked Tohya in amazement.
“Seventy two is the number that represents God,” said Yuri, and everyone turned their attention back towards her. “And if you place the Tetragrammaton into Pythagoras’ triangle, God’s number, the number 72 appears.” She exchanged looks with Ren and Tohya before turning back towards Sunny and Selina. “This is a line of Judaic Mystical Kabbalah origin, the Book of Yetzirah.”
“And that Kabbalah has something called Gematria, which is a method of letter valuing.” Ren added in his input. “It’s a kind of code that assigns values to letters.”
Yuri nodded, and Selina looked impressed. “I’m surprised that you knew that, Kamizuki,” said Selina.
Ren shrugged slightly. “I happen to read from time to time,” he said.
“And if you read those numbers using Gematria…” said Yuri, scribbling the numbers shown on the photograph onto the page of the notebook, before drawing a circle around the first number of 10, and drawing an arrow next to it. “The first number of 10 is ‘yodh’ in Hebrew. It represents ‘Y’.” And she wrote ‘yodh’ before writing ‘Y’ next to the arrow that she’s drawn.
“Then the number of 5 is ‘H’,” said Tohya, looking over the photograph as Yuri wrote something else into the notebook. “And the 6 is ‘W’. And this means…”
“Y plus H plus W plus H equals 72,” said Sunny, suddenly putting together all the pieces of the puzzle as Yuri wrote it all down into the notebook. Ren, Tohya and Yuri nodded.
“Yodh he waw he.” Ren said, glancing at Selina and Sunny. “If written correctly, it spells out God’s name.”
“Yahweh.” Yuri finished.
“This…is Kanzaki’s riddle,” said Ren, a frown on his handsome face. “But okay, we’ve figured out that it’s the Tetragrammaton, but what does it all mean?”
Yuri frowned and studied the photograph and the page of the notebook, looking back and forth between the two items several times before cocking her head to one side in slight confusion. “Huh? That’s strange.”
“Hmm?” Selina turned towards Yuri. “What’s wrong, Yagami?”
“The number 72…” Yuri muttered to herself, not answering Selina’s question, and frowned, tapping the pen repeatedly onto the page of the notebook. “God’s number… God…” She muttered, seemingly having forgotten about the existences of the others. “‘Kami’…” Her eyes widened a slight fraction as a sudden idea struck her all of a sudden. “Could it be…?”
Sunny sighed. “Yagami, I see that you’ve came to the same conclusion that I did as well,” he said, and everyone turned towards the oldest among their group. Sunny was looking rather solemn. “I think that this has something to do with Raven’s Gate after all. And I’m sure that you’ve suspected the same thing that I have.”
Yuri nodded. Sunny continued. “Furthermore, the present leader of Raven’s Gate is someone known as ‘God’, or Kami. Kanzaki wouldn’t leave a riddle like this with no meaning whatsoever. It’s too much of a coincidence. And I for one, do not believe in coincidences whatsoever.”
“You and I both know that there are no coincidences for people in our line.” Ren added grimly.
“Why do I get the nasty feeling that they’re mocking us?” Selina drawled.
“Wait a moment.” Tohya interrupted, putting up one hand to silence them, a frown on his face. “72? If memory serves me right, I think that there is an old abandoned building somewhere in underground Shinjuku[1]! And the number of that building is ‘72’. If Hati’s records are accurate, that very building used to be an old hideout of Raven’s Gate some twenty years back.”
Ren narrowed his eyes. Something is not right here. Things have been too easy here… Almost too easy. “That’s probably where he is,” he concluded grimly. “Kanzaki.”
Sunny got to his feet, and everyone followed suit. “Let’s go, people,” he said. “We’ve got a rat to catch.”
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[1] ‘Underground Shinjuku’ does not actually exist in Japan