After the ‘excitement’ in the storage room, Karel asked--

"--Come with me."

Er, ordered the girls to follow him as he stalked out of the room, removing the swords from the wall. He didn’t bother to look back and see if they’ll follow. They will follow him. However, upon hearing silence behind him, Karel abruptly stopped and looked over his shoulder, frowning.

"Well?" A slight movement in the room told him that the girls were still active as one of them poked their head out of the door; it was Tsuki poking her head out.

"Um... Do you want me to bring the bow with me?" She rose an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah. Now come." Again, Karel walked on. While he was off, Tsuki merely glared at his back until she sighed and looked back at her friends.

"Isn’t he the friendly type?" Angie muttered, rolling her eyes for emphasis.

"Yeah, I noticed." Chris dusted herself off as she placed a hand on her hip. "He actually thinks we’re going to do his bidding once he says so. That kind of attitude pisses me off."

"Yep," Angie agreed.

"Ooooh yeah... Well, we might as well go," Tsuki stated, ignoring the stares of Angie and Chris. Niu nodded as she walked over to her.

"Uh...why?" Angie exhaled, letting out exasperation.

"Because, I’m curious." Tsuki stopped in mid-step as she grinned at them. "Come on, now, aren’t you? I mean, this whole, freaky situation was quite... Quite..."

"Interesting?" Niu supplied. Tsuki smiled.

"Yeah, that. Now why don’t we follow Mr. Hyde?"

Karel was close to bashing his head, getting tired of waiting for the ‘idiots,’ as he called them, to appear. Before he could let out his frustration on the door frame, shuffling sounds were heard from behind, telling him that those idiots came. With a disgruntled thought, he composed himself as he gave them a reprimanding look.

"Geez, took you long."

"Yeah, yeah..." Chris gave him a cold smile. "So what now?"

"Here," he said, jabbing a thumb at the door behind him. "It’s the parlor room." Once everyone entered, Karel took out an iron key in his pocket and locked the door with a soft click.

The parlor room was pretty big but dark since there were no windows around. The only source of light came from numerous candles that decorated the room; some candles were in iron candleholders while others were sitting on a stylish platform, iron as well. Karel didn’t do with those. Instead, he used a light switch, making the chandelier light up in the middle of the ceiling.

The entire room was painted in burgundy, giving the sense of vitality without making one feel morbid with its dark color. The furniture were mostly wood, particularly red wood, and they were sofas, a desk, and a large, round table situated in the middle. Karel took a seat at the table, making the girls do the same.

"Whoakay, now what?" Angie asked. Karel placed the swords on the tabletop as Tsuki did the same with the bow.

"I am Karel--"

"--Wow, now he’s being decent," Chris remarked.

"--Head man of the hunting organization, Kage Shizuka, and keeper of the sacred weapons," Karel finished, ignoring Chris’ interruption.

"Huh? The Kah-geh wah-kah?" Angie blinked, shaking her head.

"Kage Shizuka. Roughly translated as ‘Silent Shadow’."

"Riiiight... And it’s a hunting organization which is...?"

"Arrgh, a group of hunters," Karel supplied. Before Niu could question him any further, he rose a hand, silencing her.

"Kage Shizuka is an organization that was created to stop nightwalkers: demons, vampires, lycanthropes, dark magickers, etc. Ever since, lets see... that incident in Kyoto?" Karel looked at each of the girls, assessing them for any knowledge of the incident. Seeing nothing, he sighed.

"The Kyoto incident... Took place, I think...ten years ago. At first, people thought that a serial killer was responsible for all the murders."

"Murders...?" Karel nodded at Tsuki.

"Yeah. It seems that this serial killer had an interesting way of murdering his victims." At the wondering look of the feminine group, Karel went on. "That is, each body that was found was either beheaded with the heart torn out or that all of the vital organs were taken out.

"However, after further investigations, officials found out that supernatural factors were in it, especially when a witness of the latest murder claimed to have seen an unusually large wolf, stalking outside of the victim’s home.

"Having that lead and the fact that the murders took place in every night of the new moon, Kyoto’s police force kept guard at every urban area until..."

"Damn, it’s coming right at us!" Officer Takagawa said, dodging off to the side as a gray wolf dashed for him. Police cars surrounded the beast, lights glaring off silver eyes as it snarled. Already, two men were down since they came in contact. The wolf grabbed one of their limbs and shook, tearing apart ligaments and skin tissue before it cracked bones.

"How can we do this?! Isn’t this supposed to be a job for Animal Control?" A man shouted nearby, Officer Hayabusa.

"We already tried that but they couldn’t do a thing!" Was his reply. Great, instead of getting some psychopathic killer, we get a wolf... Takagawa thought, frowning. Now what...?

Before the wolf could lunge at another poor soul, a flash of silver passed before it until the wolf yelped, floundering on all fours. Trying to see what was going on, Takagawa stepped closer, Glock17 poised and ready. The gray animal was panting as it fell over, revealing a silver instrument in its chest...Right where the heart was. As Takagawa inspected it, the silver object turned out to be a silver dagger.

"Who...?"

"It seems that you guys caught up with this idiot," a voice said behind him. He whirled in place, the gun in both hands as he pointed at the stranger’s forehead.

"Hey, relax! I’m on your side...er, let me introduce myself. I’m Gavin..."

"...And Gavin was my grandfather. He informed officials of how he was hunting down Borkin the lycanthrope into Kyoto." Karel added. "My grandfather was rewarded for his help and was questioned on his knowledge of such things. Afterwards, the government decided to make an organization to deal with the supernatural. With the help of my grandfather, they managed to create Kage Shizuka, the organization of ‘hunters’ to take down nightwalkers that interfere with humans."

"Ah...I see..." Tsuki trailed on, eyes glazing over. I do remember some of the Kyoto incident... But I had no idea that it had to do with the supernatural...but then...

"Hey, did the government left the incident like that? That the murders were caused by a mere human?"

"Why yes, of course. It would make sense, wouldn’t it?" Karel asked her, tapping a finger. "Imagine, the whole world learning about the existence of werewolves and demons... You can just see everything in chaos."

"Yeah..." Before silence prevailed in the room, Angie coughed.

"Yes?"

"So, we get it now, this organization...but...what do these have to do with it? You said sacred weapons, right? Are these it?" Angie motioned at the objects in front of them.

"Oh yeah, the sacred weapons..."