"Lady Mei, the car is waiting" the butler standing at the study door said.

"Thank you, Ken. I'll be there in a minute" replied an elegant looking lady sitting in the dark study. Her red eyes glowed in the dark room. Ken bows and vanishes.

Mei walks to the van. Ken is waiting for her at the door. "The invitation is on the tray" he said as she steps into the van. "I'll look at it."

The van pulls out of the drive way and zooms through the streets.

Mei opens the invitation and reads it again and again as of going the words written there would change.

*YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE WEDDING OF

SASAKI IBARASHI AND MEI TAKAMURA

ON 4TH OF JULY AT XXX HALL

PLEASE DO VISIT TO SHOWER YOUR WELL-WISHES TO THE BRIDE AND GROOM*

Mei sighed. She turned back to see the wedding gown hanging outside its cover in the van. She turned back learning ohh the widow to look at the starry night sky slowly fading into daylight. This means there is less than a day to her wedding.

She wondered how did she send up in this situation. If only she had not accepted the case. Sasaki Ibarashi. 'The' profiler in the entire city of Tokyo. His works are very famous as he is the only profiler who accepted cases which were involved with non human entities. There are other profiles in Tokyo, but they are a biased or don't want to itch any trouble with other entities.

Sasaki, was capable to continue his works as he was a pure blood vampire, from a family who have been feared for several generations. No one cared to mess with the Ibarashis. He is considered to be a husband material by all single ladies in Tokyo.

And how did Mei send up being his bride? It all happened 2 weeks ago. Mei, a first responder, reported to a 112 call from a cleaner saying they saw a body in a dumpster. Securing the scene Mei started to look around for clues. This was the 6th victim of a serial crime where the criminal would over kill their victims. Over kill is when the victim is subjected to extreme torture before they lose their life.

Each victim was found at different locations but all of them were found in dumpsters. There was a wierd claw like mark near the dumpster on the ground but it was unknown to what animal or being it belonged to. The victim death time was ruled to be just few hours prior to the finding of the bodies.

With the number of victims increasing and the public becoming unsettled wanting answers, the PD requested Sasaki to step in as several other profilers and the investigating officers were at loss on how to continue. Sasaki arrived at the scene and the aura around him said ' Don't you dare mess with me ' and ' I'm all business '.

"I would like to talk to all the first responding officers of all the victims" he said after meeting the Chief.

"Definately, I'll have them assembled right now. Why don't you talk to Officer Takamura by then? She has responded to 3 of the cases tull now."

"Hm"

Mei was scanning the bushes for any clues when she felt a presence behind her. She turned and saw a pair of legs close to her and stood up. Seeing the owner of the legs she was taken aback in literal sense as she realised she was falling back into the bushes as he was too close to her.

Sasaki caught her and steadied her.

"I'm Sasaki Ibarashi, and I was told I would find the responding officer Takamura here."

"Thank you sir. And that would be me."

Sasaki gave her the typical look Mei got when they found that she was the one they were looking for. "Thanks dad" she thought in her mind and smiled at Sasaki.

"You're a-"

"-Girl" (Mei) "-Pure blood" (Sasaki) they both said at the same time.

Mei looked shocked. No one knew she was a pure blood. How did he know?

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To be continued 😁

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“How did you know I'm a pure blood?” Mei asked, cautiously looking around to see if anyone heard them.

“Mom told me.” he replied dryly. “Mom who?” Mei asked.

“You don't remember?” Sasaki asked. Then it all came back to her. A year ago, Mei was at the city hospital to visit

a friend who was admitted there. During the visit, Mei received a call and went to the stairway to answer it. Suddenly, she saw two men dressed in formal, dragging a girl who begged Mei to help her as they went past her. Her officer instincts kicked in, and she asked them what they were doing.

“It’s none of your business, Miss. Please leave.”

But she still followed them to a VIP suite, where outside sat a young man looking pretty dishevelled and blood all over his clothes. “Please let me go.” The girl kept begging him.

“YOU flirted around me. I don’t care what you have to say now, but she wants to see you in there.” Said the man with a cold stare. The girl was sobbing bitterly. “You shouldn’t be poking your nose in other people’s business.” He said coldly all of a sudden.

Mei realized he knew that she was standing there. She came out into the view. “I’m with the Police. You seem to be forcing a girl to do something she doesn’t want to do. So, it will be my business.”

The young man smirked. “Well, you found yourself a saviour, too.” He taunted the girl as he walked towards Mei. He cornered Mei into the wall and leaned into her ear and said, “Do as I say, and I will let her go.”

Mei was taken aback as no one had been this close to her, “Fine.” Mei said pushing the man back. “What do I have to do?”. The man nodded to the men in formal, and they once again dragged the girl away, this time she went away willingly.

“Take her place and go inside. You both look kind of similar anyway, brown wavy hair and …” he said, eyeing her top to bottom. “Yes, quite similar.”

“So, you want me to pretend as you girlfriend in front of your mom?”

“Yes. Don’t worry, this won’t repeat. She doesn’t have much time and…” he looked away.

“Got it.” Mei replied grimly. They entered the room. Inside was a very pretty lady connected to all sort of machines. Minus the hospital gown and the wires, one would think she was Sleeping Beauty in real life. Hearing people inside the room, she weakly opened her eyes and smiled on seeing her son.

“Mom” the man said, holding her hands. “This is…” he turned towards Mei. The lady turned towards Mei and weakly smiled and held out her hand. Mei took it and sat down next to the man.

“You managed something no one did, my dear.” She said tenderly in a sweet, weak voice. “You managed to melt my son’s heart and accept him for who he is.” Mei smiled and looked at the man and back at his mom. “Can I ask a favour, my dear?” she asked Mei

“Sure-ow” Mei felt a sharp prick in her palm that she was holding the mother’s hand. She looked down to see that the lady had pricked her palm with her sharp nail. Blood dripped down into the lady’s fingers.

“I’m so sorry” she apologized. Mei assured her it’s nothing and went into the restroom to wash the wound clean. When she returned, she saw the young man standing near the restroom door.

Without any warning, he pulled her by her waist with one arm the other grabbing her neck. He leaned down locking their lips. Mei was stunned. She tried to break free, but his grip was strong. She opened her mouth to ask him to stop, but he goes on kissing her, their tongues entangled in ecstasy. He finally broke the kiss and leaning on her forehead, both breathing heavily.

The mother giggles softly, and sighs deeply. Mei feeling awkward, rushed out of the room, out of the hospital. That was her first kiss. When the cold city air hit her face, she realized what had happened. She signalled a taxi, and left that place and memory for good. Little did she know it would all circle back one day.

Standing in front of her right now was that same young man, looking all tidy and well groomed. No wonder she didn’t recognize him on both occasions. He was so shaggy that day and today looked like an entirely different person.

“I would take that look as you do remember.” He said snapping Mei back to the real world.

“Your mom drank my blood?” she asked, finding her voice. “She did it to know your level. After all, according to her, we were a couple.” He said shrugging.

“And what was the kiss about?”

“A fake proof for her to feel at ease.”

Mei realized that her first kiss was for a white lie.

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To be continued😁

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"Ahem. That aside. Tell me your thoughts."  Sasaki said looking dead straight into Mei's eyes.

"My thoughts?"

"On this case."

"You mean describe the crime scene...?"

"Mhmmn" Sasaki shook his head "Your thoughts on the criminal."

"I'm just a responding officer."

"Responding officer are the first to arrive at the scene, and see many more things. Don't waste my time."

Mei gave up. 'There's no way I can win against him - then or now.' She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and calmed her nerves. Racing her memories through each scene she responded to, she opened her eyes. Sasaki was nowhere. 'Again", she thought as she looked around but there was no crime scene - no cops, no body none of the mess that was there few seconds ago. The place was all neat as if nothing had ever happened. She couldn't understand what was going on.

*Faintly in distance* "Officer Takamura...."

Mei turned around hearing her name. But she couldn't make out where the caller was. “.... Miss Takamura..." Suddenly she felt someone grab her arms and shake her violently. That snapped her awake with a startle.

"Officer are you ok? Did you hit your head? Should I call for an ambulance?" asked a worried looking officer in

forensics suit. Sasaki was behind him watching her closely. Mei realised that she had gone unconscious. She stood up immediately. The officer steadied her. "You shouldn't stand up right now."  "I'm fine" Mei assured him and dismissed him.

"I'll take that this wasn't the first time something like that happened to you" Sasaki said seeing how calm and composed she was. Mei nodded.

"It's happened in all the 3 scenes I responded to. But no one else seem to have experienced the same. Not even the responding officers of the other scenes."

"Tell me about it."

"It's the exact same location minus the crime. It's completely clean..."

"And you fainted like that at all the scenes?" Sasaki asked with a hint of worry in his tone.

"No. I found myself sleepwalking. This is the first time I fainted."

"We'll talk more on this later." Sasaki said as his driver came up to them. Mei headed to her car and leaned on the hood. She closed her eyes trying to remember the scene for clues. Suddenly she felt a coat on her shoulder. She turned around to see Sasaki in a smart cobalt suit. "I suggest you shouldn't be driving in your condition. My driver will drop your car off at the station."

"I'm-" "I also would like to get your opinion. We didn't quite get there, last time we talked." Sasaki casually grabbed her keys and handed it to his driver.

Mei sighed as they walked towards his car. ‘Yep, can never win.’ As they drove out Mei laid out her thoughts. “The killer left the victims in a dumpster. As if they have no regard for the victims, like taking trash out. They have some serious grudge against the victims. The damaged body says it too. The claw mark though… It necessarily need not be of the killer. Maybe they could be trying to frame someone else…”

“Good observation. It’s good to keep your options wide open.”

“No ID on any of the victims. They have been damaged so badly that no ID can be done on them either. Meaning that the killer can be traced if their identity is known.” Mei continued.

“Or they might have been homeless.” Sasaki pointed out.

“The only clue left to identify the victims or at least the jobs they did were their clothes. But none of them belonged to any company. It was like a cosplay costume put on them…”

They pulled up a driveway of a huge mansion. Mei was speechless. She had heard of how rich Sasaki was, but she expected him to be in a penthouse or a huge villa, not a whole castle.

“Let’s go in. Dinner is ready.”

“Dinner? I shall pass-” Mei was about to reject his offer but her stomach had other plans. “I mean thank you very much” she said with a smile to cover her embarrassment of her growling stomach.

The interior of the mansion was as posh as one could imagine. The lounge had huge chandeliers hanging of from the roof. A huge stairway led the way to the upper floors. After what seemed walking for a mile, they arrived at the dinning room. Surprisingly there was no huge oak table to seat an entire family. Instead, there was a small cozy wooden table for four at one corner. The rest of the room had several white boards and pin boards full of images and papers on them. Mei’s jaw dropped.

“I hope you don’t mind having some Sake-poached chicken with soba noodles.”

“Yeah. Sounds great” Mei said still gazing at all the boards in awe.

They sat down at the table. The food smelled amazing. The chicken was lightly poached in sake, soy and sugar and the noodles was chewy. Mei was surprised that a dish could taste so good. It had been a long time she had a decent meal as her job needed her to be on standby at all times.

Once Mei seemed to have settled, Sasaki passed her a photo. Mei looked at it confused. The picture felt familiar to her, but she didn’t know what the photo was.

“Do you recognize them? Or have you ever seen them anywhere?” Sasaki asked.

Mei shook her head. Suddenly she zoomed on the background of the photo. She saw a very familiar plant. A lavender plant. Her neighbors across the street had one just like that. Shocked she looked up at Sasaki.

She was being stalked!

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To be continued😁