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Jarrett and Hy greeted them in the hallway the next morning, and they were soon joined by Watari.

"Austin Ford's address. I got a call earlier," Jarrett said, handing Tsuzuki a slip of paper. "He lived with his parents, which is why it was harder to locate. They've tipped off the police anonymously, so that his family will be informed," Tsuzuki nodded, as the group continued to the front lobby.

"Did everyone sleep all right? This place is kind of a dump," Hy said with a yawn. "I kept hearing things from the next room over." Watari giggled.

"Yes, this place does have gloriously thin walls, doesn't it, baby?" Watari said, winking at Hisoka, who went a bit pale but said nothing.

"I had strange dreams of Eden last night," Jarrett said. "I saw Hohoq, my guardian spirit, but he did not speak to me directly."

The five men absorbed the information in silence as they made their way to the fast food restaurant for breakfast.

xxxx

The Ford household was located in a quiet suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of town. Tsuzuki and Hisoka rung the doorbell of a cheerful yellow house with a tidy lawn and waited. After a few moments, a thin, middle aged woman answered the door, her eyes puffy and red rimmed.

"We're very sorry to intrude upon you, Mrs. Ford. I'm deeply sorry for your loss," Tsuzuki said, and introduced himself and Hisoka.

"I -- I'm not quite up to an interview right now. Please," Mrs. Ford said, wincing. Tsuzuki nodded, his violet eyes filled with sympathy.

"I understand. I was wondering if perhaps we could see Austin's room?" Tsuzuki asked. Mrs. Ford nodded solemnly, leading them inside and silently taking them through her immaculately neat home to a door leading to a descending staircase. They followed her down, where she stopped at a door to a basement room.

"Everything is how he left it," she said, reaching into her pocket and fishing out a key, which she used to unlock a latch bound with a padlock that had been bolted to the door frame.

The small bedroom inside revealed much about its former occupant. The walls were covered in band and horror movie posters, and collectible figurines adorned the many shelves crammed with games and DVDs. A collection of soda cans and dirtied dishes showed little time had been spent outside of this sanctuary. Both a laptop and desk top computers prominently occupied the desk that was an obvious center of most activity that had gone on in the room. There was an assortment of odd looking pieces of hardware equipment wired to the machines, that appeared to have been fashioned from spare parts.

"Do you think you can smuggle out that laptop under your coat, Tsuzuki?" Hisoka asked. Tsuzuki gave him a questioning look. "I think we should take it back to Watari and see what he finds."

xxxx

The four men gathered around the scientist, after leaving him to work with the stolen laptop for a few hours. Watari had his hair pulled back, a pencil behind each ear and still a third which he used to scribble notes on a tablet.

"Lose your pencil, Watari?" Hy asked with a sharp toothed grin.

"Erm -- yes, the dratted things keep disappearing," Watari said distractedly, finishing his last sentence with a flourish and giving his attention to his onlookers.

"So, here's what I've found out. It seems our Mr. Ford was quite the hacker. He would break into databases and sell the information to interested parties. And even more interesting was what I discovered in his photo files," Watari said.

"What was it?" Tsuzuki asked.

"It seems he was a master at making pornographic photo manips of celebrities!" Watari exclaimed cheerfully, getting a groan from Hisoka, and a blank stare from Jarrett.

"Which celebrities?" Tsuzuki asked innocently.

"Tsuzuki!" Hisoka exclaimed in exasperation.

"Okay, okay! Was there anything on there to indicate that he was trying to hack into the Imaginary World?" Tsuzuki asked. Watari shook his head.

"No. But he did have a correspondent in Paris who apparently did and was seeking his advice on some technical issue. I traced the source of the e-mails to a public computer in a cyber cafe in Paris," Watari said.

"Do you think the messages came from Muraki?" Hisoka asked.

"It's really impossible to say. They said in the message that they were trying to hack the program for a client, and I see no reason for Muraki to have fabricated this piece of information," Watari said.

"It isn't much to go on, is it?" Tsuzuki said, his brow furrowing.

"No, not really. We may as well call it a day, guys," Watari said with a sigh.

xxxx

Tsuzuki found himself in a strange place that he'd never been to before. It was a beautiful, wide open wilderness, with towering mountains overlooking the field of wildflowers where he found himself resting on his back. He'd never seen a sky so blue, and it filled him with a sense of peace.

He scarcely had time to ponder the feeling, before he found himself being pounced upon by a tall, giggling form with wild hair sticking in every direction.

"Tsuzuki! You're here!" the shiki cried with delight.

"Byakko! Where are we? What is happening?" Tsuzuki asked, pushing the enthusiastic tiger spirit from him.

"I don't have time to tell you everything. You'll wake up soon," Byakko said. "Eden has been invaded by something unwelcome, and I know your path will lead here. I just wanted you to know that I can be called on for help, even in this foreign realm. I'm not really supposed to be doing this, so don't mention it to the others, okay? Take care!"

The tiger spirit winked and disappeared as abruptly as he'd appeared, leaving Tsuzuki alone and pondering his words.

"Tsuzuki?" a groggy voice questioned, pulling him from sleep. He turned to see an adorably sleep ruffled Hisoka curled beside him. He kissed him tenderly.

"Byakko was trying to contact me in a dream," Tsuzuki said, winding his arms around his lover. "I think Muraki has found a way into Eden."