"HIS EYES WERE GLOWING," CHRIS INFORMED THEM. He was telling the story of his first interaction with the ghost ninjas. "His eyes were glowing. There was something almost ritualistic about it — like it was looking right into his soul."

Isaac nodded. He was sitting on the desk, listening intently because he desperately wanted to know what was going to happen to him and his friends. "That's the same thing it did to me."

"That's what they did to everyone," Allison added.

"Not everyone," Scott pointed out since April and Kira and Allison were not affected by the creatures, so not everyone got attacked. "They only came after the werewolves."

The Sharpe girl reminded him, "And Lydia." She had gone by the Martin girl's house earlier that day to check on her and see how she was doing. She was a little bit shaken up, but other than that, she was doing pretty well.

"Anyone with a connection to the supernatural," Argent explained, and April realized that that made a lot of sense since all of the humans were left unharmed.

Isaac, remembering the story that he was telling, quizzed, "Then who was the guy they went after in Japan?"

"A kumicho — a Yakuza boss," the man answered, and they all looked at him in confusion. "It was my first gun deal. I was only eighteen, and it was supposed to be a simple exchange. Except Gerard left out the minor detail of the buyers being Yakuza. He wanted to see if I could adapt in the moment. Testing my ability to, uh...improvise."

"Or, your ability to survive," the brunette girl muttered, not even trying to hide her distaste for her grandfather, especially since everyone in the room hated him almost as much as she did.

Chris glanced at her before continuing, "The moment the sun came down, it was like they just materialized out of the shadows. They had swords — not curved like katanas, but straight, black steel, like ninjatos."

"What did they want?" Isaac quizzed, desperate to know whether or not they were going to come back and finish the job or something.

"To get to the kumicho," the hunter man responded, and he stared at the ground as if he was reminiscing about the past, trying to remember exactly what happened. April bet that this was something that he thought he could forget. "They cut down every living thing in their way."

Isaac reached behind his ear to feel the brand that was there. It was almost as if it had been burned into his skin, so there was an indent. "Did they mark him like they did us?"

"Not exactly..." Chris muttered.

Scott was still confused as to why the ninjas went after the kumicho. It must have been some sort of supernatural being. "What was he?"

"I don't know. But, there might be someone who does," the Argent man told them, causing them all to lean toward him in interest. "There were a few others who survived that night. One of them was a man named Katashi. They called him 'Silverfinger' because of an unusual prosthetic, and it looked like he was getting ready to take them all on himself. I've known for a while Katashi was in the country. I spent yesterday tracking him down."

"Didn't look like he wanted to be found," Isaac sighed, gesturing to the cut on Chris's forehead that Allison had just finished bandaging up.

"Not particularly, no."

"You think he knows what they are?" Scott quizzed because they all desperately wanted to know the answer. They had all been silently praying that they were done with the ghost ninjas, but none of them had very high hopes for it since they knew they were going to be let down. "Or what they want?"

Argent shrugged, and this was probably the first time that the Sharpe girl had seen him without a clue about something. It was kind of unsettling, especially since no one else knew anything either. "Maybe..."

"What if he doesn't want to talk?" his daughter asked, and that was not really a 'what if.' April was almost a hundred percent sure that this guy would not want to talk to them. Why would he?

The Lahey boy also offered an entirely possible situation. "What if he doesn't even remember you?"

"He'll remember this," Chris assured them, sick of them doubting him. He reached over and opened the box that had been sitting on his desk. He opened it to reveal broken pieces of one of the ghost ninja's masks. "I know I didn't kill it — I'm not sure you can. But, I slowed it down long enough for us to get out of there."

"What was behind the mask?" April questioned, curious to know what these things looked like underneath their masks. Scott picked up one of the pieces to examine it. She also wanted to know why the hell Chris stopped the grab the pieces of the mask when they were fighting for their lives, but that was probably not a useful question to ask.

"Darkness..." he whispered, looking over at her with an almost terror in his voice that sent shivers down her spine.. "Absolute darkness."

《❀》

"THE REAL PROBLEM IS KATASHI DOESN'T SEE VISITORS — EVER," Chris informed Allison, Isaac, and April. Scott had gone back to school to talk to Stiles about something, but the rest of them stayed behind to help the man make the plan to talk to the guy that definitely did not want to talk to him, especially about probably one of the most traumatizing moments of his life. "He's a paranoid recluse who rarely steps outside the gates of his estate."

Isaac raised his eyebrows at him because he was making it sound a lot like there was absolutely no way that they were getting this man to speak with them. "So, how are.you going to get to him?"

"Oh, he's got a thing for rare, antique weapons. Yesterday, I had some contacts put out the word that I was selling one from my own collection. This is a French flintlock turnover pistol from 1645," the hunter informed them, pulling a clear box out of his closet. Inside the box was a very very old gun.

Allison looked up at her father as they all leaned against the desk to examine the weapon. April was pretty sure that it did not work. There was no way. It looked so old. "You're not going alone."

"I want to come," the blonde girl informed them, and she realized that she sounded like a little kid, begging to be included on the grown-up stuff. That was pretty much what she was though — an inexperienced teenagers wanting to hang out with the cool hunters and the werewolves.

Isaac glanced at the Sharpe girl, knowing that he would not be able to talk her out of going to this probably very dangerous exchange. "If she's going, I'm going."

"To be honest, I don't feel good about bringing any one of you," the man told them, but he sounded kind of defeated, knowing that none of them would stp to help the people that they love.

The Lahey boy sighed, trying to convince the man, but April already knew that he was bringing them. There was no way she was letting him not bring them. "Look, they were looking right at Scott when the sun came up."

"Well, that doesn't necessarily mean he's the one they're going after," Chris responded, but he did not sound very convinced about what he was saying.

Allison was still curious, so she raised her eyebrows at him and questioned, "But, if he is?"

"If he is, that might only leave us till nightfall to come up with a way to protect him," her father answered, causing all of them to turn to him in alarm.

April was the one to speak up next because she was a little upset that he did not inform them of this. "You know, that might have been something that would have been useful to mention sooner."

"All right," the blonde boy exhaled, standing up straight and letting them know that he was ready to get a move on. "Let's go see if a paranoid Yakuza wants to put another gun in his collection..."

They were in the car, outside of the warehouse where Katashi was supposed to meet them for the deal when Chris looked at his phone and sighed. It did not seem like a good sigh, and they all looked at him in concern. His daughter asked curiously, "What is it?"

"Katashi won't do the buy in person," he informed them, running a hand through his hair and leaning back against the seat.

"But he's a paranoid recluse," Isaac pointed out, leaning forward from where he and April were sitting in the back to lean his elbows on either one of their seats. "Shouldn't you be a little less surprised?"

Chris breathed out. "I was trying to remain optimistic that we wouldn't have to go to my plan B."

"Plan B? And what's plan B?" the Lahey boy quizzed with a slightly worried voice since they had carefully planned plan A and had not discussed a plan B at all. Allison and April were also confused as to what he was talking about and wondered what he was planning.

He looked back at Isaac through the mirror. "How tall are you?"