Chapter 8

Ayashi's POV

"So guys, I want you to meet Ayashi." Pagpapakilala ni Calvin sa akin sa dalawang kababaihan na nakatayo sa harapan naming dalawa.

"Hello Ayashi, I'm Fiona Banao, nice to meet you. I've heard a lot of rumors about you." A lady with plain black hair said.

"More like bad rumors you say," siniko naman siya ng babaeng nagngangalang Fiona.

"Don't be rude."

"Fine, fine." She rolled her eyes, "I'm Phoebe Stone Valliant and by the way, it's not nice meeting you."

I looked at her from head to toe.

"Don't worry, the feeling is mutual." Bahagya kong pinitik ang band aid na nasa noo niya, "It's not nice meeting people who is quickly hurt by something that can be easily avoided."

"Are you purposefully making fun of me?" Bakas ang inis sa tono niya.

"No," I smirked, "that's just how the way I speak." Pumagitna naman agad sa amin si Calvin.

Fiona laughed awkwardly.

"So yeah, welcome to the school publication. There is still another member you still haven't met yet, nasa field ata siya ngayon dahil may soccer practice sila." Fiona uttered, "But anyways, I heard from Calvin na balak mong sumali sa school pub?"

I looked over to Calvin but he just avoided my gaze. That's not what I exactly told him.

"Not really," nagsimula akong maglakad-lakad sa loob ng opisina nila, "I was just curious about something."

Fiona and Phoebe looked at me with confusion.

"Curious? About what?"

Umupo ako sa isang bakanteng swivel chair tsaka ako tumingin sa nakabukas nilang computer, there is a flash drive that was plugged in. There are some files on the screen but most of them were named as confidential. 

Their office looks nice and neat, there are some bookshelves, five desks, five computers, two printers and two cabinet. 

"About where Calvin gets all of the detailed footages, as I come through in my investigation, I somehow knew that there are no CCTV's near the hallway where Linette and Kaitlyn last met. But then, I found this..." I showed them two insects, in a far glance—you may imagine that it's just a normal bug but when you check it closer, you'll find out that it is a small spying device that only a skilled inventor can make.

This device can't just record a video but can also spy on you 24/7 without you noticing.

Phoebe glared at Calvin while Fiona just smiled.

Fiona walked towards one of the shelves while Phoebe tried glaring at her, signaling her to stop doing what she was about to do.

"Fiona, stop. If he finds out about this, don't you think he'll not be furious?" Pagpigil sa kanya ni Phoebe, "We'll all be dead if you ever show this woman what we're hiding."

"Girl, chillax. Alam na din naman ni Ayashi so what's the point of hiding it, hindi ba?" She smiled gently, "And besides, it's a good thing that she can be part of our team. She's a good investigator."

"Ah, those are just rumors."

"There are some articles that could support my statement, thank you very much." Fiona glanced at me as she pull one book from the shelf and then she said, "Open sesame!!"

A few seconds gone by but nothing happened, napatampal naman sa noo si Calvin.

"Urgh, it's actually open says me and not open sesame." Phoebe rolled her eyes, "Oh my goodness Fiona, we already told you about this."

"Whatever." She tried again, "Open says me!!"

Then there is a door that appeared on the wall, it was a metal door and it is needed a security code for it to finally open. That metal isn't just an ordinary metal.

Calvin typed the code, he undergo a fingerprint and retina scan first before the door opened. When the door finally opened, it quickly showed me a bunch of machines and computers, it's just like their office but even bigger and fancier.

May sofa set, flat screen TV, a mini bar, a kitchen, six rooms and another room that has a signage which says BACK OFF, LEADER'S SPACE.

"Welcome to the school publication headquarters," Fiona said as she stepped first inside the room, the area of the room is like four classrooms combined.

I quickly looked at the face of a woman with a robot body, she's moving a little robotic.

"Welcome back to the headquarters, Lady Fiona, Sir Calvin, Miss Phoebe and..." the robot glanced at me, it seemed confused, "...my system failed to analyze your identity."

I only heard about cyborgs but I never knew anyone who successfully made one that looks exactly like a human being, although this robot may need a little bit of upgrade yet it is still so amazing to see one.

"Atashia, this is Ayashi Vixen Yamamoto. She'll be one of us once our leader agreed to it, but you still should add her as one of your bosses from now on." Nakangiting usal ni Fiona, the robot looked at me as she began to scan my whole body.

Her system load for a few seconds before she started blinking again.

"Mademoiselle, welcome to the headquarters. It's nice to have you aboard.”0₩

Fiona put her arm around my shoulders.

"Ayashi isn't just smart but she is also very capable. I mean, that shoot out almost got her and Calvin but—"

"Hold on, you knew about the shoot out?" Sinamaan ng tingin ni Calvin si Fiona, "You knew all about it yet you didn't even call the cops?"

Pinitik ni Phoebe ang noo ng lalaki.

"Stop right there, we're a low profile organization who is hiding behind the shadow of a school publication, you think the cops won't question us if we ever called them that day?" Phoebe rolled her eyes again, "What will we gonna say to them? Like hello? Is this the police station? We just wanna report that there is shoot out going on and we are not in the area where is it currently happening but we can see it because we are spying on them."

Calvin sat on the sofa, he crossed his arms before he pout like an ugly duckling.

"That's not what I meant," he looked away, "since you guys are my friends, it should be very considerate of you to pull me out in that situation."

I roamed my eyes around the whole room while they continue their conversation, I somehow noticed that all of the computers have a footage anywhere in the world. They are spying on people around the globe?

Fiona is near to tears so she went to Calvin's direction before she hugged him.

"I'm sorry, I promise that we will call the cops if that happened again." Naiiyak nitong usal.

I'm confused. I mean, she was just happy a moment ago and now she's sad? 

"Fiona, we're just doing what we have to do—"

"I will never gonna abandon Calvin like that again, uwaaa!"

I chuckled. Calvin and Fiona seems to be very alike.

"Anyways, I just wanna ask one question." Napabaling ang atensyon nila sa akin.

"Yeah?"

"What is the device you use to spy on people?" Pagtutukoy sa mga footages na nasa bawat computer.

Phoebe was hesitant to answer but Fiona  obviously wanted to answer that.

"We call it  the eye, our leader made it. Many syndicates and powerful illegal organizations wanted to have their hands on it since it's a very useful tool, we use that device to see what was going on around us." Fiona explained before she mess Calvin's hair.

"The eye is not functioning very well the passed few months, the footages is starting to disappear one at a time after it was saved. Every footages was always transferred to an inventory which our leader only knew but then, every footages fade away or sometimes it just got deleted like it never existed." Pagsingit ni Phoebe.

"And sometimes, the live footages can be tampered and edited. It's not normal. The eye cannot be hacked that easily." Dugtong ni Calvin.

I looked at the screen and I noticed some glitch on the system, that can't be good. 

Is it perhaps a virus? 

"A new report was submitted in the school publication's exclusive email account." The four of us immediately looked at Atashia, medyo naguluhan ako. Naglakad si Phoebe papunta sa isang study table na may nakatungtong na laptop, she then opened it and started doing something.

"A new what?"

"A new report." Calvin was the one who started explaining, "The school publication has an exclusive email in which only a few people know, they send us a report or something that they wanted us to investigate. Konting tao lang ang nakaka-alam ng services namin, some people became our regular clients and they often introduce us to others if they wanted our help with solving some cases. Some of those cases happened in school so as the school pub, we also write all of the happenings and share it to the students inside the campus. Isn't that fancy? I feel like we're a VIP."

Napangiwi ako. VIP is not even close. I sat down on the sofa and sighed.

"For me, it's more like an organization who doesn't want to get ban so they started keeping a low profile and doing their job behind the shadows." I uttered sarcastically that made Calvin pout, Fiona just laughed.

Just a second ago she was sad and now she's—

Never mind.

"Anyways, what did you worked on so far?" Atashia handed me a cup of coffee, I thanked her for her generosity.

"Crimes such as murder, tracking down a huge group of drug dealers and we even started hunting down one of the most wanted criminals." Sagot ni Fiona habang sumisimsim ng herbal tea niya, "It was a tough job but hey, we did it."

If the rest of them are just a computer geek, they will never gonna have an improvement at all.

"How about something spooky? I mean, such as things that related to ghosts?"

"We never receive a job like that before." Calvin answered, I was about to open my mouth when Phoebe suddenly spoke first.

"I guess we'll be having and facing a case like that, guys." Calvin and Fiona looked at her, "Our leader seemed to have agreed for us to work on this creepy case."

Hold on, I keep hearing about this leader of theirs but I still don't have any idea who is it. Natigil si Fiona sa pagsimsim ng herbal tea niya nang marinig ang sinabi ni Phoebe.

"A creepy case? Bakit naman papayag si boss sa mga ganyan?" Napangiwi si Fiona, "He knew very well that we are not some paranormal dudes."

"We can't actually argue with him if he already agreed to it."

"Pasalamat kasi si boss dahil hindi naman siya sumasama sa tuwing may ginagawa tayo." Fiona crosses her arms, "We always have the work on our plates."

"I'm not actually getting what you're all saying but who is this boss that you speak of?" Kunot noo kong tanong, "Hindi ko kasi masyadong naiintindihan ang balak niyong sabihin."

"You'll meet our boss pretty soon, he just don't like being showy to others." Naiilang na paliwanag ni Calvin, pinaningkitan ko lang siya ng mata.

They are hiding something but I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to find it out.

Atashia, the robot, went into our direction with a fresh printed report in her hands. She then handed it to me.

"Atashia, I told you to hand it to me—fuck, never mind." Phoebe stood up from her seat before she went into the mini bar and pour a glass of beer for herself, I looked at Fiona.

"She's already 18."

Nagkibit-balikat na lang ako tsaka ko inumpisahang basahin ang report sa bagong kasong inaasikaso nila. What's in the first sentence made my brows arched, Calvin and Fiona looked at the report too.

The bride huh?

On the year 1902, the Vanilla Sugar Hotel was built. It was owned by business tycoon named Oliver Rogers who was still 32 at the time. The hotel was known for its exquisite and delightful services, it was considered as one of the best hotel in Asia. After a few years of success, Oliver Rogers married Shannah Pablo—a not so wealthy yet renowned seamstress in one of the towns in Zamboanga. Shannah was obsessed with fine cloth, she often spends her free time sewing dresses until she is satisfied by it. Everything is going on Oliver's way, the hotel is doing great, he doesn’t have a problem with money, his wife loves him and Shannah was already pregnant with his child, everything seems to have a happy ending. Not until she gave birth to girl named Olivia Rogers, isn’t a typical kid. She often looked at her while saying, “Sew me a wedding dress, mother.” And Shannah started sewing all the way. Oliver didn’t find it unusual, but everything seems to stop being normal when one day, Olivia told him the words, “Someday, I’ll be the most beautiful bride than her, Dad.” While pointing on the mirror. Followed by the words, “that bride who keeps looking at you.”

"Okay, I'm out of here. I don't want to be part of that, I swear!!" Fiona stood up, "I don't even want to wear a wedding dress. Where did you even saw this article, Atashia?"

Atashia blinked weirdly.

"It's in a site where only a few people could find," she took the empty cup of Fiona, "I thought it would help you out since the boss just sent me a command to assist you with the case in any way I could." She then started walking away.

If she isn't blinking weirdly, I can say that she'll pass as a human.

"What happened next?" Walang ganang usal ni Calvin.

"It says here that the hotel got burned together with Oliver and his family, the only thing that survived the fire is the wedding dress tailored by Shannah herself." I put the folder on the table,"They didn't say the reason why and how the fire started, they just finish the article like that."

Calvin sighed as he started scratching his nape. Something is wrong with him.

"If you have something to say, you can say it. It might be able to help us or something."

"It's actually nothing," he laughed awkwardly, "so what did the client say on the email?"

Nilagok ni Phoebe ang isang basong beer.

"After that hotel burned, binili ng isang negosyante ang lupain at pinatayuan yun ng isang dormitory. Nag-undergo ng iba't-ibang renovation ang dormitory sa nakaraang mga taon, the current owner of it now reported a paranormal activity." Sinalinan niya ng beer ang baso, "Lagi na lang umaalis ang ibang mga resident ng dormitory dahil may nakikita raw silang nakalutang na wedding dress."

"Pota, okay guys bye. Kaya niyo na yan." Tumayo si Fiona at akmang aalis na sana siya nang bigla na lang siyang nadapa dahil sa sarili niyang kagagawan, napaupo siya sa sahig habang sapo-sapo ang ulo niya.

Calvin quickly went to her direction to help her.

"Ayos ka lang ba, Fiona? You slipped while you're walking, wala ka bang sakit?" Sunod-sunod na tanong ni Calvin, Fiona shook her head as she started getting back to her feet.

"My vision just got blurry but I'm fine because I'm Fiona!!" Maligalig nitong usal habang pinipilit pa ring tumayo kahit na nawawala na siya sa balanse.

Phoebe stood up before going to her direction as well.

"That doesn't make sense at all," while they are busy making sure that Fiona is okay, I noticed a crumpled paper near the kitchen sink. I looked at Atashia and she was busy cleaning the mini bar, I simply went to the kitchen sink and took the crumpled small paper before I slid it to my pocket.

I don't know if I was hallucinating or not but I suddenly saw Linette standing next to Atashia, her eyes were blank and she's crying with blood.

Something must be going on. The last time I saw the soul of Linette, something happened—I came across her case. There must be a meaning behind it.