AN: I actually had planned out this story before I had started planning Powered, but I had also made the decision to wait until the current storyline of the manga was over, seeing as it featured Heiji- I wanted to hold back on really beginning the story on the off chance that Gosho actually allowed Heiji to confess (how about that ending huh). With that arc finished, this story is finally ready to be released!

Once again, of course, it's a Heiji-centric fic, but unlike Blood and Snow, the mysteries I've got planned for this story are a lot more supernatural adjacent in a way- the supernatural is involved, but it's generally something more subtle for the most part than the more overt nature of Blood and Snow- but will also feature more varied supernatural elements at the same time, beyond just vampires. I think it'll be pretty fun and different from the previous story I've written (and of course, Powered is just completely a different thing lol) so I really hope you guys enjoy it because I've got some fun stuff planned for this story!

Please let me know how you feel about this story! Your thoughts and impressions are important to me, and I love hearing from you!

The Bells Chime Beyond

Chapter One

The Village in Which the Foxes Dwell

The first thing he noticed was the sound of bells.

Their distinct chime faintly rang out from somewhere in the distance- from where exactly, was something that he couldn't pinpoint. It almost felt as if the sound was welcoming him to the village. It was a strangely pleasant sound.

This place, a small village that went by the name of Seishina, nestled in the mountains of Hokkaido, was certainly pretty far away from his hometown of Osaka. But the letter that had been sent to him from this place had immediately caught his interest, and considering the client in question had agreed to not only pay his travel expenses, but to provide him with a place to stay while he was here, he didn't exactly mind.

And there was, of course, the scent of a case that drew him here.

"Let's see, the shrine is..." Pulling out the letter that he had been sent, a map of the village helpfully enclosed inside of it, Heiji looked it over carefully. From the nearest, he had rented a motorcycle, and had driven the rest of the way out of here. "...that way."

Tucking the letter and map back away, he started up the motorcycle again, heading down the road. It wasn't long before the shrine rose up in front of him, it's long steps leading up deeper into the mountains than the rest of the village. The shrine itself appeared to be built into one of the bigger mountains that encircled the village. The faint chill of an early winter clung to the air, but it wasn't so bad that a light jacket wasn't enough to handle it.

Parking the rental motorcycle at the bottom of the steps to the shrine for the moment, Heiji took off his helmet, hanging it on one of the handlebars. Pulling out his luggage from the storage compartment, he glanced up the steps to the shrine. It seemed that his current client lived here. She had described herself in her letter as the chief priestess of the local shrine, having taken it over from her grandfather who had recently passed away.

Yamagishi Ritsuko. That was the name of the woman who had requested his help, hearing of his reputation from as far away as snowy Hokkaido. She'd given only a few details about her request in her letter, apparently seeming hesitant to provide more information in such a format, but it had been more than enough to catch his attention.

After all, a priestess didn't normally receive death threats.

Shouldering his bag, Heiji made the trek up the stairs to the shrine. Pausing mid-step halfway up, he turned around to glance back at the scenery he was leaving behind. The sun stretched over the small village, and he could tell even from here that what was probably normally a sleepy town was in the midst of the process of getting ready for a big event. As he ascended the steps to the shrine, there had been a fair number of people coming and going aside from him.

Some kind of festival, he thought.

Making his way up to the top of the stairs, his suspicions were confirmed. There were unmistakable evidence of the beginning of setting up for a festival. The shrine was bustling with activity, but it didn't take him long to spot the woman who was most likely his client.

A burst of red hair, almost the color of the hakama she wore, was the first thing that greeted his eyes. Yamagishi Ritsuko, as it turned out, was a petite looking woman with a shock of red hair, that she wore in a long braid. Her eyes were a deep green color, reminiscent of leaves, and her skin was rather on the pale side. She glanced up partway through talking to a young man, taking notice of Heiji. Making a small face of surprise- maybe he was earlier than she had expected- she made an apology to the man, and quickly excused herself from the conversation.

"Hattori Heiji, correct?" She asked, keeping her voice low. When he nodded, a look of relief seemed to wash over her features. "Thank you for coming all this way. I'm a little tied up right at this second, but you can make yourself at home in that annex over there." She said, pointing towards it. "It should only be a few more minutes."

"Yeah, no problem." Heiji said, glancing around the shrine once more. "I guess yer gettin' set up for a festival of some kind."

"Yes." Ritsuko told him, nodding her head. "So it's a bit busy right now. I'll be with you as soon as I can though, I promise!"

"It's fine, it's fine." Waving a hand, Heiji was quick to reassure her. Allowing Ritsuko to quickly excuse herself, he made his way over towards the annex she had pointed out. He paused once reaching it, noticing that there appeared to be a pair of foxes resting underneath it's porch. Tilting his head to get a better look at them, one of them briefly lifted up it's head, looking back at Heiji, before it settled right back down into it's nap again.

"Hm." Blinking, Heiji shrugged his shoulders, carefully heading into the annex itself. Taking a seat once inside, he set down his luggage, and leaned back, glancing around the room. It seemed that this annex was possibly designed as a meeting space- there was more than enough room for what would be more than a few villagers around it's table.

It wasn't long before Ritsuko joined him, sliding open the door and giving him an apologetic smile. He couldn't help but notice that as the priestess entered, the pair of foxes that had been sleeping underneath the porch had apparently come in right behind her, finding a nice corner of the room to curl back up in and return to sleep.

"Is that normal around here?" Heiji asked, glancing over towards the slumbering foxes, neither of whom seemed to pay him any mind.

"The foxes?" Ritsuko asked, glancing back at them, before nodding her head. "It's always like this. There's a lot of foxes in this area. Some of them used to be pets before they were released back into the wild, so there's a number of them that are quite used to humans." She told him. "That's Sumiko, and the one with the two white rings on it's tail is Yuki."

"You can tell 'em apart?" Heiji asked, quirking a brow. They kind of all looked the basically the same to him.

"Yes, ever since I was a little girl." Ritsuko nodded her head, laughing slightly as she scratched her cheek. "You could say it's my special ability. I've always been able to tell the foxes that live around here apart. Ah, by the way," she blinked, glancing around the room. "Is your number two not here yet?"

"Ah, sorry." It was now Heiji's turn to apologize. "Actually she came down with a cold right 'afore we left. She was really bummed out about it too, I think she was lookin' forward to comin' here."

"Is that so?" Ritsuko blinked, frowning a little. "I suppose it can't be helped. I hope she gets better soon, then."

"So?" Heiji pulled out the letter, sliding it towards her. "You want to fill me in on the whole reason why ya called me out here? I get the feelin' there were things ya were leavin' out in yer letter."

"Yes, that's true." Ritsuko nodded, once more glancing around the room, more nervously this time. "Then, I'll start with the festival itself, I think. That's the easiest place."

"As I mentioned before, there's a lot of foxes in this area. This shrine is dedicated to foxes as well, I'm sure you noticed that much, Hattori-san." Ritsuko began. "For as long as anyone can remember, Seishina has been called the Village of the Foxes, and it's our yearly tradition to have a festival celebrating the foxes once every year. It was still a small, local event when I was a little girl, but ever since a reporter who visited during the festival wrote a story about it, more and more people have been coming every year."

"And the festival has expanded with that." Ritsuko told him, her eyes narrowing a little. "If it was just left at that, it would be fine. But for the past three years or so, it seems like the mayor has been wanting to take advantage of the festival's popularity to expand the village. That in itself is fine too, but..."

"Let me guess. He's an unscrupulous guy tryin' to carelessly tear up the habitat of the foxes?" Heiji guessed.

"Yes, that's right." Inclining her head, Ritsuko clenched her fists, clutching at the fabric of her hakama. "Not just that- he also wants to tear up several sacred spots, and wants to expand into the Fox's Mountain."

"Fox's Mountain?" Heiji asked.

"It's a site that has been sacred to the village for generations. It's the mountain this shrine is built into. Ancient tradition states that aside from the shrine, the rest of the mountain is supposed to be the foxes' territory, hence the Fox's Mountain." Ritsuko told him. "The village elder and I opposed him, along with my grandfather, but he has a lot of supporters. Especially from people outside the village, people with powerful ties who seem to see a lot of profit in the region."

"There's even talk about tearing out the shrine entirely to build a fancy ski resort on the Fox's Mountain. Isn't that horrible?" Ritsuko asked. "They want to clear cut the entire mountain to build ski courses, even!"

"It certainly sounds pretty terrible." Heiji agreed, folding his arms in front of his chest. "An'? How does that bring us to the matter of the death threats?"

"In order to stop the mayor's plans, the village elder and myself have gathered together a group of concerned citizens. We're trying to get the Fox's Mountain protected as a habitat for the foxes. If we manage to do that, even the mayor and his powerful friends won't be able to touch it."

"Naturally, that's made the mayor really angry." Ritsuko told him. "Ever since then, I started receiving anonymous death threats in the mail. Even that much, I could handle, but things changed recently." Her gaze flickered briefly back towards the sleeping foxes in the corner of the room, before she turned back towards Heiji. "Two weeks ago, someone placed the body of a strangled fox on top of the offering box."

A flash of anger bolted through Heiji's eyes- whoever was behind this had some nerve, mixing an innocent animal up into this. The fact that they were willing to kill an animal didn't bode well either- someone who was willing to kill an animal that easily probably could resolve themselves to kill a human. "That's horrible." He said, his voice low. "That's takin' things way too far."

"It really is." Ritsuko agreed. "I called the fox Mai-chan. She was a sweet fox, who often hung around the shrine. The children here really loved her. To think someone would do something that horrible to her..." She trailed off, gripping the fabric of her hakama tightly. "But that's not all."

"There's more?" Heiji asked, eyes narrowing.

"Recently when I was cleaning my grandfather's things, I discovered something." Ritsuko said, her voice almost a whisper, just loud enough to hear. "Right before he died, my grandfather had apparently also received the same threats I am now."

The silence that cast over the room was brief, but sharp. Closing his eyes, Heiji took in and let out a deep breath, before opening them once more. "And so ya started to suspect yer grandfather's death might have been caused by someone else?"

"At first, I really did just think it was a tragic accident." Ritsuko told him. "Once a week, the head of the shrine carries out an offering to Grandmother Fox's shrine, deep in the Fox's Mountain. A part of that path can be somewhat dangerous, so when grandfather's body was found washed up by the river that circles the village, we thought he had just slipped. His eyesight was getting worse, and I kept pleading with him to hand over the duty to someone else, but..."

"Grandmother Fox?" Heiji asked, quirking an eyebrow. "There's another shrine on this mountain aside from this one?"

"Ah, yes." Glancing up at him, Ritsuko placed a hand over her heart, trying to calm herself a little. It seemed like this had ripped open a wound that was still raw in her heart. "Grandmother Fox is the fox who watches over all the foxes who live on the Fox's Mountain. She's an ancient white fox, at least two times bigger than any other fox. There's a small shrine dedicated just to her in the mountains that we're tasked with looking after too."

"And does anyone else know where this shrine is?" Heiji asked.

"No, they shouldn't." Ritsuko shook her head. "Well, that's what I say, but everyone knows at least where the path to the shrine starts. And after generations of use, the trail has become pretty well worn on it's own."

"An' it's not impossible that someone might have followed the old man, I take it?" He asked.

"It's not impossible." Ritsuko agreed.

"So, if the situation is so serious, why haven't ya contacted the local police?" Heiji asked. "Surely they'd be able to help ya just as well."

"Well..." Ritsuko hesitated, as if she was uncertain about telling him this. "Actually, the person in charge of the village's police is a personal friend of the mayor. So..."

"So yer sayin' the police might be involved." Heiji finished for her. "This certainly sounds like a complicated situation you've found yerself in, Yamagishi-han. Is there anyone in the village ya can rely on?"

"There are." Ritsuko said. "The village elder, of course, but he's getting on in years himself. There's my fiancee, he works as a veterinarian for our village and the surrounding villages. Many others as well."

"Is he here now- your fiancee?" Heiji asked.

"No, he's gone to a neighboring village to help a calf give birth. He won't be back until tomorrow, at least." Ritsuko shook her head. "His name is Inugami Takahiro. Actually, we were supposed to get married during this festival, but with everything that's going on right now, I don't know if that will happen."

Closing his eyes for a moment, Heiji mulled over the information he had been given. "Alright." He said, getting to his feet, attracting the attention of the previously slumbering foxes. "I'll accept yer case, Yamagishi-han."

"Thank you so much, Hattori-san!" A look of relief washed over her face as she got to her feet. "I don't know how I can repay you!"

"Now, now, I haven't even gotten started investigatin' yet." Heiji said, holding up his hands. "Well, first of all, I'd like to get a look at the path up to the shrine ya mentioned earlier. Can ya make that happen, Yamagishi-han?"

"Ah, just Ritsuko is fine." She told him, before frowning a little. "And I don't know... honestly, only the head of the shrine is allowed to visit Grandmother Fox's shrine. But..." Nodding her head, she came to a conclusion. "I'm sure that in this situation, Grandmother Fox would want this mystery sorted out just as much, so I'm certain it would be alright. Ah, but..." She hesitated again, glancing outside. "It's starting to get late in the day, and it will be dark before long. It wouldn't be safe to take the path then."

"Then what about first thing in the mornin'?" Heiji asked. It would be harder to search for clues in the dark anyways. "And? Yer letter said something in it about a condition I needed to follow if I'm goin' to investigate around here- what was it?"

"Well you see..."

"Oh, so one of the helpers this year has already arrived?"

"Yes!" With a wide smile, Ritsuko stepped aside slightly, readily answering the older woman who had come to visit the shrine first thing in the morning. Dimly, Heiji found himself thinking that Kudo would be nothing but complaints about having to wake up this early, and wondered what his shrunken rival was doing at the moment.

"This is Heiji! He came all way from Osaka to help with the festival this year!" Ritsuko introduced him. "The other nine are supposed to arrive over the course of this week."

The condition, as it had turned out, had been something Heiji had been suspecting ever since Ritsuko began describing the situation to him. If the people who had been sending her threatening letters knew that she had hired a detective to solve the case, there was a possibility that they might step up any plans that they had.

Luckily, Ritsuko had just the thing to mask that.

"It's good to see people interested in our little festival lately!" The old woman beamed. "Be sure to work hard, young man!"

"Yeah, I will." Heiji nodded, giving the old lady his best smile, watching her as she headed toward the offering box. "So this why ya mentioned I should bring someone to come along with me."

"I thought it would be even less suspicious if there were two of you." Ritsuko whispered, glancing over towards him.

As it turned out, it wasn't an uncommon practice for people from outside the village to participate in the festival. Before it became popular, it used to just be people from the surrounding villages, but with the recent increase in attention, there had been people from all over Japan wanting to be a part of the action personally. It was a four day festival, all total, and it took two weeks of prep work to get ready for it. From what Heiji had heard about it, it sounded like quite the spectacle.

It was too bad Kazuha wasn't here, she would have loved something like this, he thought.

"Sorry, to have you help with the cleaning, Ha- no, Heiji-kun." Ritsuko apologized. "After we finish this up, I'll show you the path to Grandmother Fox's shrine."

"It must be hard to run a shrine by yerself though, Ritsuko-han. Ya don't have any usual help around here?" He asked.

"Takahiro helps when he can." Ritsuko told him. "And it's really not that much trouble. It usually only really gets busy during the festival. Besides, the air's really good here."

The smile on her face was quickly wiped away as she looked towards the entrance towards the shrine, and Heiji watched as she seemed to stiffen. Glancing towards it herself, he took note of the person entering the ground- and right away, the first words that sprung to his mind were 'self-important' and 'insufferable'.

If this guy wasn't the mayor, he'd eat his hat.

"M-mayor." Ritsuko stammered, swallowing a little. Heiji couldn't help but note her knuckles turning white from how tightly she gripped her broom. "What brings you here so early in the morning?"

"There's no need to look so tense, Ritsuko-chan." The mayor- whose name was Abe Daichi, Heiji had gathered- began, seemingly growing pleased at how she flinched from the way he addressed her. "What's wrong with the mayor of our lovely village visiting our lovely local shrine?"

"I don't want to hear that from the man who wants to tear it down." Ritsuko's town was sharp, but it seemed to be all she could do to not tremble. "What is it that you want, Mayor? I've already told you that I'm not giving up."

"Now, now, don't say that." Daichi gave her a rather businesslike smile. "I've already told you that we'll just be simply relocating the shrine to a better location. It's so remote out here, compared to the rest of the village. I'm sure you find it inconvenient too, Ritsuko-chan."

"I don't think she likes ya calling her that." Heiji butted in, unable to stay quiet. This definitely seemed like the kind of guy who tried to put profit above everything else. Probably couldn't make it in the big city, so he played at being a big fish in a much smaller pond. "Yer like three times her age, anyways, what's with the 'chan'?"

"Who are you supposed to be?" Daichi asked, turning his gaze towards Heiji. "I haven't seen you in the village before- this isn't for outsiders to butt in."

"He's not an outsider, at least not for the next two weeks." Ritsuko said, shooting Heiji a grateful look. "He's one of the volunteers for the festival."

"Hmph. Well, regardless, that's no tone with which to speak to your elders, boy." It seemed to take every little bit of control Heiji had in his body to not just outright deck this guy, an effort that was probably more than a little visible on his face as the middle aged man scoffed at him. "I can see this isn't a good time. I'll come back to discuss the matter of the mountain later."

Dismissing himself, the man headed back the way he came. Heiji couldn't help but notice that the whole atmosphere of the shrine seemed to relax as soon as he left.

"Ya okay?" Heiji asked, glancing down at Ritsuko, who was trying to steady her breathing.

"Y-yeah." Nodding her head, she quickly put on her best smile. "Now, why don't I show you the path to the shrine?"

"I'll take ya up on that offer." Heiji said, setting aside the broom he'd been using.

He had of course, talked with Ritsuko more thoroughly after dinner the previous evening. She'd shown him both the death threats she'd received, as well as the ones her grandfather had gotten. They were both printed on computer paper, but the style of the notes seemed similar enough that he was pretty certain that the same person was sending them.

Which didn't, of course, mean that they were necessarily the same ones who were behind the strangling of the fox, and the (possible) murder of her grandfather, though the odds were higher that they were. Naturally, the mayor was a prime suspect, but somehow Heiji doubted he was the type who would get his hands directly dirty like this.

It turned out that Ritsuko had actually sought outside aid prior to this- after the strangling of the fox, she'd sent a letter to the same journalist who had originally made the local festival so popular, asking him for his help. Even though he agreed to come to the village to speak with her, he never showed up. Naturally worried, Ritsuko had called his editor only to learn that he had indeed left for Seishina, but he hadn't heard anything from him since.

She could only fear the worst.

With Ritsuko, the sole heir to the shrine and the leader of the opposition, out of the way, the mayor could then proceed according to his plans. He definitely stood to profit from her death, as well as her grandfather's- so it wasn't unlikely that he was indirectly involved in all of this. How deeply that connection ran, Heiji wasn't certain, of course- this could also be the work of a follower of the mayor's who had decided to take things to extreme measures.

Out of the mayor's most prominent followers were the previously mentioned police chief, the mayor's first son, as well as several locals who had gotten quite rich by following the mayor's lead. He'd gotten all of their names from Ritsuko, of course.

Ritsuko's list of allies included of course, the aforementioned village elder and her fiancee, but also the local schoolteacher and principal, and many of the frequent visitors to the shrine. It seemed almost as if the village itself was split in half over this issue.

She'd mentioned that the mayor also had a second son, but had also mentioned that he was estranged from the family. He worked as a doctor, and when his father had learned that he had no intention of making a name for himself in one of Japan's big hospitals, but wanted to work as a doctor at the local clinic, he'd thrown a fit.

"The path starts here, Hattori-san." Ritsuko pointed out, causing Heiji to break out of his thoughts. Stretching out beyond them was a path that had been created by the weekly traffic of human feet, over the course of a hundred years. It lead deep into the mountain, from the looks of it. "Please do watch your step. The middle part can be more than a little treacherous."

She really hadn't been kidding about that, Heiji found himself thinking later, casting an eye down at the long drop below him. Straight below him was a fast running river- even if you managed to land in the river, and not on the rocks, you'd be swept away before you knew it if you fell from here. Briefly, a memory rose up in Heiji of the time he and Kazuha had fallen over that cliff on the so-called 'Mermaid Island'. With a pathway that barely allowed for two people walking side by side clinging to the side of the mountain itself, it was no wonder that people thought her grandfather's death had simply been an accident.

"Did ya notice anythin' strange about the path when ya used it after yer grandfather's death?" Heiji asked.

"No, not really." Ritsuko shook her head, moving along the rocky path with all the grace in the world. "Of course, I didn't think it could have been a murder then."

"An this river leads to where yer grandfather was found, right?" Heiji asked, casting a slightly wary glance at the rushing waters below him. He sure wouldn't want to fall down there, he thought. In the back of his mind, he couldn't help but think about how much that uncle from the detective agency would hate this place. Nothing in the world would be able to convince him to cross it.

"It does." Ritsuko told him. "I can show you to the spot he was found later, if you want."

"Yeah, that'd be good." If someone had shoved her grandfather off the cliff here, there wouldn't be much evidence left behind, Heiji thought. Especially not if it happened a year ago. Still, it was worth checking out.

Before long, the hazardous cliff side path gave way to safer and stabler ground, once more leading into the forest that seemed to cover the mountain. The path became a little less clear this way, so Heiji made sure to stay in step behind Ritsuko, just in case. If he managed to get himself lost in the middle of a case, he'd never hear the end of it from his father- or Kudo, for that matter.

"Ah, we're here."

Rays of bright sunlight were what first hit Heiji's eyes, and he winced a little from it, before they adjusted. Lying before them was a circular clearing, in which an old, but well kept shrine stood. There was a carving of a fox sitting in the middle of the shrine, a fox that had been carved with wisdom in it's eyes. Clustered around the shrine itself were a quartet of foxes, who barely paid the two visitors any mind.

"So this is the shrine, huh?" Heiji asked, glancing around. He wasn't quite sure what he had been expecting- maybe something a little creepier. Unexpectedly, it was strangely warm, almost inviting in a way. She'd mentioned briefly that there used to actually be two shrines like this one- but the location of the second one had long since been lost, and nobody knew where it was.

"You can look around if you want, Hattori-san. I'm going to perform the prayer, since I'm here." Ritsuko told him. "Ah, but don't stray too far into the forest. It's really easy to get lost in there."

"Have ya had people get lost in it 'afore?" Heiji asked, circling the shrine to get a better look at it. One of the foxes briefly raised it's head to look at him, before it got up, and ran deeper into the forest, leaving the other three behind.

"Actually, that would be me." Ritsuko confessed, giving him a slightly embarrassed grin. "That was actually how grandfather found me in the first place."

"Found ya?" Heiji blinked, quirking a brow. "So yer not his blood related granddaughter, then?"

"I'm not." Shaking her head, Ritsuko closed her eyes. "It seems that when I was first found, I didn't have any memories, and nobody could ever find my parents, so grandfather took me in himself. He's raised me by himself ever since then. That's why I'm so grateful to him."

Naturally, something that curious that perked Heiji's interest. Children generally didn't just appear out of nowhere. That said, he doubted it was related to the case at hand, interesting as it was. His thoughts quickly turned away from this curious story, however, as the faint sound of bells in the distance caught his ears. Instinctively looking for where the sound was coming from, he spotted the fox that he had thought had run away, lingering just at the edge of the forest.

It was also carrying something odd in it's mouth.

Noticing that Heiji was now looking at him, the fox strode over towards him, setting the object down in front of him, before he dashed away. Leaning down to pick it up, he held it carefully in his hands, observing the object- which turned out to be a silver watch. It looked somewhat expensive.

"Hey, did yer grandfather even mention losin' a watch?" Heiji asked, showing it to her.

"No." Ritsuko shook her head, looking up at it with a frown. "Did Ku-chan bring that to you? That's strange, she's not the type to steal from the villagers. I don't think she would have taken it from any of the other foxes' stashes either."

"Then how did it get here?" Heiji asked. It didn't appear as if it had been exposed to the elements for very long, he thought- maybe only around a month or so of weathering. Had there been someone else here, at this shrine that was supposed to be a secret? But when, and why?

The fading sound of bells in the distance offered no explanation.

Several days had passed since Heiji had entered the village. Piecing together a case that was this deeply rooted in the village wasn't exactly proving to be an easy task. Under the cover of a student who had come to help out with the local festival, he continued to investigate the mysterious matters surrounding the death of Yamagishi Ritsuko's grandfather, as well as the threatening letters sent to the both of them, and the strangled fox that was left on the top of the offering box. Sure enough, while Heiji was there, another threatening letter arrived- this one warning Ritsuko to cease her actions unless she wanted punishment to befall her.

After speaking with the few other people who helped out at the shrine on occasions- the resident handyman, and the cook who helped out during meetings, he'd come to the conclusion that none of them knew anything about the letters. Nobody had noticed anyone strange hanging around when the fox's body was discovered either.

He'd gotten a chance to speak to Ritsuko's fiancee- Inugami Takahiro- as well. He'd been deeply troubled over the notes, but it didn't appear like Ritsuko had told him about her grandfather's death being a possible murder yet. She probably didn't want him to worry more than he already was. He seemed like a good, honest man.

Speaking to the mayor's supporters wasn't easy, something Heiji wasn't very surprised by. Most of them just brushed him off, once they learned he was working at the shrine. He had been able to speak to the local police chief, at least, someone he had been regarding with suspicion. Ueda Hitoshi was his name- and while on the surface he seemed like an honest, straightforward man, there was something about him that Heiji just couldn't like. It was something about the way he spoke about Ritsuko, he thought- there was an awfully patronizing tone about it. 'A silly little girl' he'd called her, even though Ritsuko was well into her twenties, hardly a child.

There was one other person he had wanted to speak to- but he hadn't been able to track him down, constantly missing him. It was on the fourth day that Heiji was finally able to stop Wakahisa Taisuke outside of his clinic, flagging him down with a wide grin. The estranged second son of the mayor, who had taken his on his mother's maiden name as a sign of protest, he recalled.

"You're Wakahisa-han, right? I hear yer the village doctor." Heiji greeted him, lifting a hand.

"I am." Taisuke responded, briefly adjusting his glasses. He was a tall man with dark brown hair, who didn't really resemble his father. "You're one of this year's festival helpers, if I recall correctly. Can I help you? I hear that you've been trying to talk to me for a few days now."

"Ah, ya have, have ya?" Heiji rubbed the back of his neck. Word spread quickly in a village like this, he'd have to keep that in mind. "Fer a doctor, yer pretty hard to track down."

"Well, it's precisely because I'm a doctor." The man said simply, tucking his hands into his white doctor's coat. "So? What can I help you with? Yamagishi-san is the one who called you here, if I'm not mistaken. Don't tell me something has happened?"

More than a little surprised he knew that much, Heiji blinked. "What gives ya that impression? That Ritsuko-han was the one who called me here."

"Most of the villagers don't really pay attention to such things, but I know who you are." Taisuke noted simply. "Hattori Heiji. Known in some parts of Japan as the Detective of the West. You're awfully far from home, detective."

Narrowing his eyes, Heiji felt his body tense. "Can't a detective have other interests?" He asked, quirking a brow.

"I suppose." Closing his eyes, Taisuke heaved a sigh. "Well, I wouldn't be surprised if my father was doing something that called for investigating. And if it has anything to do with Yamagishi-san, I'm certain she wouldn't want to go to the police, not with Ueda in charge." Shrugging his shoulders, Taisuke gave him a half smile. "Well, I'm not your enemy, detective. I just want to stay out of the conflict. The less I deal with my father, the better."

"Then, why don't ya move away from here?" Heiji asked. "If ya went somewhere beyond his reach, wouldn't that be better?"

"I have my reasons." Taisuke replied.

"Hmm." Arching a brow, Heiji heaved a sigh. "Well, if that's the case, I don't suppose ya would mind tellin' me if yer old man's been up to anythin' suspicious lately? As a neutral party."

"When is he ever not?" Taisuke answered. "Well, if we're talking about things that are more suspicious than usual..." Frowning a little, he put a hand to his chin, mulling it over. "Lately I've heard a vague rumor from my older brother that he seems to be having some kind of secret meetings. He doesn't know with who though, or where."

"Since when?" Heiji asked.

"Let's see... maybe since around two weeks ago?" Taisuke frowned. "That sounds about right. "No, it would probably be going onto three weeks ago by now. Someone called him out in the middle of the night back then, my brother was worried about it."

"In the middle of the night?" Heiji frowned, his eyebrows knitting together. Three weeks ago- that matched up to the time when Ritsuko had called the reporter. Something about this stunk to him. "I see. Anythin' else?"

"No." Taisuke shook his head. "You should be careful though, Hattori-san. My father probably doesn't realize who you are, but if trouble is getting as bad with him as I think it is, you might want to consider exerting caution. He can be pretty ruthless- it's due to that that we ended up moving out here in the first place."

"I'll keep that in mind." Heiji nodded. "Thanks fer yer time, Wakahisa-han." Lifting a hand, Heiji quickly left the clinic, briefly glancing back once to notice that the doctor seemed to be watching him leave.

It was the sound of bells that woke him from his slumber that night.

It had been a dreamless sleep, for the most part, or so he thought. There was a vague memory of something white flashing through his mind, but he quickly put it out of his thoughts as he returned back to the world of the waking. Two of the other helpers had already arrived, and were currently sharing the room with him- but they didn't seem the least bit disturbed by the sound.

Frowning a little, Heiji got up, quickly changing into his clothes, deciding to investigate once and for all, where this bothersome, yet strangely pleasant, sound was coming from. Tucking on his cap, he carefully left the room. The night air bit at him with it's chill, and he shivered a little, wondering if he should have brought a proper jacket with him.

It was the faint sound of voices, not of bells, that caught his ears, however. Quickly realizing that they seemed to be men's voice, Heiji narrowed his eyes, trying to pinpoint where they were coming from. The back of the shrine?

Waiting a few seconds to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness, Heiji carefully peered around the shrine. Nobody was in sight, so he quietly made his way towards the back, just catching the sight of two figures disappearing deeper into the forest. Vaguely, he recalled that the place they had disappeared was the entrance to the path that lead to the small shrine in the mountains, he narrowed his eyes. Recalling the mysterious watch that he now kept with him, he wondered if these guys had something to do with that.

Either way, it was suspicious. Squinting, he could make out the faint light of a flashlight in the distance, before they moved beyond what he could see, hidden by trees. Checking to make sure that there wasn't anyone else around, Heiji carefully headed towards the path himself.

No longer able to make out the light of their flashlight, Heiji fumbled around in his pockets, pulling out his cellphone from his jacket. Using it's light to illuminate the path in front of him, he carefully made his way down the path himself. They must have gotten a ways ahead of him, he thought, as he arrived at the treacherous part of the path before he knew it. Stopping just short of it, he briefly paused to consider the best course of action. His instincts told him to keep going- but the more rational part of his brain told him that it would be bad if he were caught here, on this section of the path. There would be nowhere to go, after all.

Perhaps it would be best to just wait right here and hide himself in the trees, for when the two people came back.

The chime of a bell broke up his thoughts once more, and dimly, Heiji realized that the sound was different- the sound of the bells that he'd kept hearing during his time in the village was pleasant, but this one was sharp and piercing, almost as if it was sounding an alarm.

The first thing he felt was the pressure, the sensation of something wrapping around his neck. It cut into his throat, the strong arms that held the rope in place giving it all that much more force. Dropping his cellphone light, Heiji tried and failed to let out a cry.

"I told you there was something suspicious about this kid. He's been asking questions lately." That was a voice Heiji didn't know, he dimly thought, even as he struggled for breath, grasping at the hands that held the rope. Although he heard the man wince as his nails dug into his skin, the pressure didn't let up. "That girl probably called him here. Ueda's been keeping an eye on him."

Ueda? So the police chief really did have something to do with this. But now wasn't the time to think about something like that.

Gasping for breath, Heiji moved to claw at the rope that was encircled around his neck, trying to get it off of him. Failing that, he found himself trying an tactic he could to free himself- shoving against the person who was currently in the process of strangling him. Forcing the man backwards, Heiji heard the faint sound of protest from him- and then a greater cry from the other man with him, one that, for a moment, Heiji couldn't understand.

Then he realized that there was no ground underneath him.

In the struggle, he'd apparently managed to force them both off the cliff. And although the big man's body blocked the force of the impact with the river below, it wasn't long before the cold, rushing waters pulled him under.

This wasn't good.

As the last bit of his consciousness was faded away, a single question rang out in his ears, alongside the distant sound of bells.

"Do you wish to live, child of man?"