When he was back at the precinct, he immediately reread the case files from the other murders to see if there was something that he missed and to refresh his mind.

All of the victims were young adults around 20-23 years old, and they were all young and beautiful despite their gender. They also wore similar clothes – some kind of a working out clothes that consisted of leggings and crop tops for the three females and a tracksuits for the sole male victim.

Toru scrutinized the pictures one by one and suddenly he caught something shiny on one of the photos. He couldn’t see clearly on the printed copy so he called up the digital copy and zoomed in to see what was that thing that had just caught his attention.

He was so immersed in the picture that he didn’t realize that someone was looking over his shoulder, until they started to talk.

“That looks like a keychain.”

Toru almost jumped from the surprise and he turned around to see the newbie was standing behind him with such a sweet smile on her face.

“Hi Boss, nice to see you again.” She offered her hand and Toru shook it.

“Kira, right?” He saw that Kira came in with Lee and the man smiled brightly. “So, how do you know that it’s a keychain? It didn’t exactly look like one.”

“Ah, that’s because I’ve seen one exactly like that before.” Kira suddenly became sheepish and Toru wondered what it was all about. “It was back when I worked undercover as a… dancer, so I have to take special lessons. I registered at one of the dance schools for idols and the keychain to their dance studios were identical to that one.”

Kira then took a piece of paper and started to draw the keychain’s design.

“There.” She turned the paper around for the others to see. “As far as I knew, they did not let any students borrow the key unless it was approved by a higher authority, or they just snuck it out. And believe me that there were a lot of students who snuck the key out because they wanted to practice around the clock.”

“Okay, let’s find out if those victims were the students of the same dance school. Where did you say it was again?”

“It’s Morgan Academy.”

After they dug deeper into the victims’ finances and the testimony from their close friends, they deduced that all of the victims were indeed the students of Morgan Academy that was very famous for producing very successful idols, models and actresses – and one of their most famous faces was Artemis.

She was the hottest commodity ever since she appeared around 5 years ago, and she quickly became the darling of the media because she was super beautiful, talented, and most of all, super secretive. No one knew about her private life, and it was all thanks to Blake Morgan who put the lid on his most precious talent.

From what they gathered, Morgan Entertainment really protected their stars’ privacy and they paid very exorbitant fees to their artists, that’s why a lot of people wanted to be a part of them – hence, the Academy.

Aside from the obvious, the victims did not really have any personal life because they spent most of their time practicing for their debut, and that actually lessened the pool of suspects.

“We should go there and ask some questions.” Toru pointed to Lee and Iseul. “Lee, Iseul, you guys go. The newbie stays, since she has been there. Go ask around and shake some trees to see what comes out.” Then he continued to talk to Kira. “And you. Let’s go to the morgue.”

When they entered the morgue, Geraldine was in the middle of her break and her face lit up when she saw Toru. She quickly swallowed the food and brushed off the crumbs of the sandwich she held, and she almost ran toward Toru when she saw Kira.

“Geraldine, this is Kira. She’s new. Kira, this is Geraldine, the ME.”

Kira offered her hand and it took an extra few seconds for Geraldine to take it – with an obvious unpleasant expression on her face.

“So, what did you find?” Toru did not waste time and walked to the occupied autopsy table where the body was already prepared.

It was obvious that Geraldine was waiting for Toru for the up, close, and private viewing – seeing how disappointed she was when she saw Kira – and that was also why Toru brought the newbie with him.

“Same as before. She was killed quickly by one stab under her jaw, with a device that’s long enough to pierce her brain. Then the killer skinned her alive – very professionally if I may say, so maybe he works as a butcher.” She showed them where the killer made the incisions. “The whole skin is still intact too, and judging how the inner has decayed more quickly than the skin, I suggest you contact the expert on this.”

Geraldine took out a matte black name card with only a phone number in dark gray on it. No name, no institution, nothing else.

“I got this with such difficulty from the dark web. To use their service, you only have to call the number and then leave a message in the voicemail with your name and number, and they will contact you back if they’re interested in your case.”

“What kind of a shady organization is this?” Toru frowned. “How did you know about this?”

“Well…” Geraldine suddenly became sheepish. “There’s this… website that I love to frequent. It’s a group of demon hunters, shamans, and exorcists, who work hard to make people safe… Here, let me show you.” She took her laptop and typed very fast on it to access the dark web.

“Demon hunters? Shamans? Exorcists?” Toru frowned. This was actually not the first time that he heard about the absurd jobs. Hell, he even arrested a few of those scammers who gave hope to the desperate families who lost their loved ones by giving them false hope and took their money.

“Look, I know what you think, but they are real, I swear, I’ve been analyzing their videos and none of them were edited. Here, just watch for yourself.” She turned her laptop around and pressed play.

The video was surprisingly clear and in high def, and there was no shaky view just like the ones that claimed to be filmed by the amateurs and gave off the fake horror vibes that he loathed.

It showed the view of the clear night sky with the blue moon, and it was obviously taken from a professional grade chest camera that they used in filming action movies. Too bad no face was shown, only bodies clad in all black.

There were at least two people – one who held the chest camera, and the other who walked in front of them – and they moved swiftly and silently like predators, through a field with very tall grass.

From the surroundings, Toru could guess that they were somewhere near the secluded mountain, and from the blue moon, he could find out the exact time that this video was taken. But then he inadvertently concentrated on the video – so did Kira.

The leader gave the camera holder a military hand sign to stop, and they were hiding behind a huge rock and took out their weapons.

Kira whistled when she saw them.

“That was some high tech heavy artillery, Boss. I’ve only seen them in magazines last month, and they were only prototypes and not for sale.”

Toru knew it too because he also read the magazine. But he noticed that the ammo was different. Instead of the usual ammo, they loaded silver bullets carved with ancient runes on it.

If it was only for a show, then their backup should be a very rich person since the silver bullets would cost almost ten times the usual bullets. Added the personalized runes, they could easily buy a luxurious car with only one magazine.

Suddenly the video moved super fast, and it showed that both the leader and the holder of the camera were running toward an old building that was obscured by the tall grass just now.

There were quite a few people outside, lounging on the chairs and it looked like they were in the middle of a party with bottles and weird music everywhere. But what surprised Toru was the first shot that was suddenly launched by the cameraman and it pierced a man’s heart.

And yet, instead of dropping dead, he… vaporized.

Vaporized just like dust. Without any trace left behind.

The next thing that happened was a carnage.

Both shooters shot at the crowd and one by one they vaporized while screaming with a very high pitch.

Toru did not know what to make of this video, or whether it was real, when suddenly one of the people moved very fast and showed himself in front of the camera. From up close, Toru could see the very pale skin of the man, and how his pupils were blood red and when he opened his mouth, Toru could see two rows of sharp teeth that were unlike any human’s teeth that he had ever seen – and he gasped.

Fortunately the camera holder was very swift and blew the weird man’s head until the brain and the blood splattered all over the camera, and then the video stopped there.

“It’s only a preview of one of their works, and don’t worry, they are still alive. There’s part 2 where only the client can see, and usually they will send the confirmation video after the payment.”

“How did you know so much about this?” Kira couldn’t help but ask Geraldine – who shrugged nonchalantly.

“Because I was one of their clients.”