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The brownstone was indeed run-down, as Jarrett had said. The two story brick building was old and in bad repair, and the surrounding neighborhood didn't look much better. Tsuzuki and Hisoka pushed the buzzer by a metal door that looked as if it had been struck repeatedly with a sledgehammer, and waited. The door clicked unlocked, and Hisoka swung it open on its rusty hinges with his shoulder. They stood in a dank foyer with a staircase leading to the apartments above. The door to an office with wired windows opened slowly, revealing a tiny woman with a blue tinted rinse in her hair.

"Hello. Are you here about the vacancy?" she said, adjusting her glasses and trying to get a better look at the two men.

"No, mamn. We had some questions about your former tenant, Nastas Greenwood," Tsuzuki said, offering his hand graciously. "My name is Mr. Tsuzuki, and this is my partner, Mr. Kurosaki." The woman sighed heavily.

"The feds, the police, now you guys. No one ever came to see poor old Mr. Greenwood until he died. I'll tell you what I told them. He was a crotchety old hermit that rarely left his rooms, never had any visits except the church girl, and never talked to me about anything but his rent and the weather. Lived here more than thirty years, and that's about all there is to say about him," the woman said with a shrug.

"Have his rooms been cleared out?" Tsuzuki asked, glancing up the staircase. The woman nodded.

"Yep. There wasn't anything interesting. Just a few sticks of furniture and a bunch of old books. Phyllis says he had some notebooks he used to scribble in, but they disappeared right along with him," she said.

"Phyllis? Would this be the girl who brought him groceries?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Yeah, that's the one. Used to come by once a week," the woman said.

"Any idea where we might find her?" Hisoka asked.

"I don't know where she lives or anything, but since it's Thursday you might find her doing volunteer stuff at the church up the street," the woman said.

"Thank you for your time, mamn," Tsuzuki said, as he and Hisoka left the building.

"I wonder why Muraki would be interested in what he was writing in those books?" Hisoka asked, as they returned to the relentless heat of the sidewalk outside.

"Who knows? Maybe this girl will be able to shed some light on the subject," Tsuzuki said. "Are you holding up all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Hisoka answered irritably. "At least it's not humid, like Louisiana."

The church was a short walk away, and they entered the air conditioned building gratefully. There was a bustle of activity inside, various church members working at long tables set up in the front room, filling cardboard boxes with food. They caught the eye of a young woman with a broad face and mousy hair, who walked up to greet them.

"Why, hello! How can I help you?" she asked cheerfully.

"We're looking for a lady named Phyllis," Tsuzuki said. The young lady laughed and offered her hand.

"You found me," she said with a smile.

"Is there somewhere we can sit down? We'd like to ask you about Nastas Greenwood," Tsuzuki said. Phyllis nodded sadly.

"Of course, right this way," she said, leading them into an empty room with folding chairs sitting in a circle.

"This is where we hold our Bible study meetings," Phyllis explained, gesturing for them to have a seat and pulling a chair around to face them.

"How did you know Mr. Greenwood?" Hisoka asked.

"Well, a member of our church used to live in the same building, and suggested that he might need some help from our program to assist the elderly," she said, sitting very straight in her chair and clasping her hands in her lap. "I've been involved with the program for about a year now, and Mr. Greenwood has been one of the people I've visited since I started."

"Did he ever have any visitors? Perhaps from a physician?" Tsuzuki asked. Phyllis shook her head.

"No, not that I ever knew of. He seemed to be in pretty good health really, though I think he may have been growing a bit senile. He said strange things sometimes," Phyllis said.

"Such as?" Tsuzuki prompted.

"Well, I used to talk to him about opening his heart to Jesus and reading the Bible. He said that he had already seen heaven, and that he was trying to get back there," Phyllis said.

"Did he ever elaborate on the story?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Well, he said that he saw -- the other world, yes, that was what he called it -- in a vision when he was young. He said that he had been involved with some ritual to find his guiding spirit and that he went into a trance where he saw the other world. He said the animals take human form there," Phyllis said. Tsuzuki and Hisoka exchanged startled looks. "He said that when he told his tribe what he had seen, that they did not believe him, and that it was the reason why he'd left his people."

"Did he say anything else?" Hisoka said. Phyllis shook her head.

"No, that's pretty much the gist of it. It really is a shame that he died obsessed with such nonsense. He was a nice man," Phyllis said with a sad smile.

"Thank you very much for your time, Miss," Tsuzuki said.

xxxx

"This man, Nastas Greenwood, must have found some way to enter the Imaginary World!" Watari said in wonder as the five men gathered awkwardly in a small room of the roadside motor lodge where Tatsumi had booked them to stay.

"Wakaba said she'd been unable to contact the Tengu," Hisoka said thoughtfully.

"But wouldn't a human in the Imaginary World stick out like sore thumb? I mean, wouldn't he have gotten killed, or at least thrown out?" Hy said, lying across the bed with his head propped up on his hands.

"Well, for all we know, he did get kicked out. The story wasn't very detailed. But I think there may be something to the fact that he said that he'd gone into a trance," Tsuzuki said.

"Like maybe he'd left his terrestrial body here, and crossed the realm in spirit form? Interesting," Watari said.

"Any word on who the other victim was?" Hisoka asked Jarrett.

"We have a name, Austin Ford, but not much else. There are no work records on him, so he's been difficult to trace," Jarrett said. "He was twenty-five, and attended school locally until the age of eighteen. I have a friend back at the Louisiana department trying to find a recent address for us."

"It doesn't seem that there's anything to be done until then. Let's get a good night's rest guys," Tsuzuki said, stretching.

"So who's room is this, anyway?" Watari asked.

"It doesn't really matter. They're all the same. Do you want this one?" Hisoka asked boredly. Watari shook his head and jumped to his feet,

"No, I'll take the one next door," Watari said. "Have a good night, boys." He gave them a wink and left the room.

"I guess we'll be one door down then," Jarrett said. "Come on, Hy."

Hy climbed off the bed and followed his partner out into the hall.

"This worries me. The Imaginary World is a place of delicate balance. I wonder what Muraki's interest in it is? He clearly meant to get information on it from Greenwood," Tsuzuki said, sliding off his jacket and working on the buttons of his shirt. Hisoka crawled across the bed, and began to assist him, placing soft kisses along his chest as more flesh was revealed.

"I've been waiting to get you alone all day," Hisoka murmured. "No more thinking about Muraki tonight."

"Agreed," Tsuzuki said, shivering slightly as Hisoka removed his shirt, pulling him downward.

Hisoka moved before Tsuzuki could fall on him, rolling over as the older man lost his balance and collapsed upon the matress face first. Hisoka was tugging down his slacks before he could even catch his breath, running his tongue lower and lower down Tsuzuki's back.

"I should make you go a couple of days without loving more often," Tsuzuki said, his voice muffled by a pillow, receiving a playful smack on the backside for his teasing.