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Chapter Three: Ghost E-mails:

Kobe, Japan, four in the morning.

Kyoto sat at her daughter’s laptop and opened Sleipnir on the desktop. This machine was going back with Riku at sunrise. Her daughter had been such a help. Kyoko took longer to learn how to use the computer then Kato did, but she managed all the same. Right now, the old woman had been undetected just as her old friend instructed. Kyoko typed in Yahoo’s address in the bar and logged into her account. The old woman got up to speed yesterday when she placed a call to Kimoto Manor.

“Hello?” Rihoko answered.

“Is Kimoto-san there?” Kyoko asked.

“Why?” the young mother questioned in a puzzled tone.

“I need to speak with her,” the old lady told her in a matter of fact way.

“She’s not here,” Rihoko answered. “Who is this?”

“What do you mean she’s not there?” Kyoko asked sounding panicked.

“She went out,” the young mother repeated.

“Out?” the old lady asked as she tried to stay calm. “Out where?”

“Kyoto,” the grad student answered. A perplexed look came over the old lady’s face over the phone.

“Kyoto?” she asked.

“That’s right,” Rihoko said, nodding on her end of the line. “Want me to take a message?” Kyoko bit on her lower lip. She hadn’t planned on this, but couldn’t turn back now. She would just have to make do with this point.

“Well, yes,” she admitted with hesitation.

“Okay,” the young mother answered. She pulled out a notepad and pen from the living room side table drawer. “Whom may I ask is calling?”

“Tell her it’s an old friend and to check her e-mail,” Kyoko said as she tried to make the most of this turn of events. Rihoko wrote down the following information.

“Okay, what for?” she asked.

“Don’t ask questions, just do it!” the old lady pressed her.

“Okay! I will let her know!” the young mother shouted in shock at the older woman’s sudden change in tone. Kyoko took in a deep breath to calm herself down.

“Thank you,” she said once she felt better.

“Anything else?” the grad student asked as she read over her own note.

“No, that is all,” Kyoko said as she shook her head.

“Okay then,” Rihoko said as she tried to figure out what the whole point of this conversation was for the past couple of minutes.

“Bye,” the old lady responded.

“Bye,” the young mother said back. Kyoko quickly hung up the phone. /Now to write the message/, she thought. Unfortunately, she was a busy woman these days. Since Kato left, the village fell on her. She ended up putting the warning off until tomorrow.

So now, Kyoko sat at her daughter’s laptop at four in the morning, no less. Once everything loaded, the old woman started typing.

Kimoto-san:

One of your uncles works at Kyoto University as a professor. Yet, he is merely the puppet. Be on your guard and watch out for the head.

Kyoko read over the message and clicked send.

/I’ve done it for you, Iwao/, she thought as she breathed out. That was another thing; Anna would have to learn the truth sometime. For now, she had to stay in the shadows like Kato said. Kyoko understood why, but still… She shook her head.

/Right/, the old woman thought. Kyoko closed up everything, deleted all of the history, and shut down the laptop. She heard her bed calling out to her.