It was a quiet American town—nothing at all like the bustling streets and skyscrapers towering over Kenji back in Union Bridge. With a population of less than five hundred souls, Briar Hollow wouldn't have been anything more than a roadstop tourist destination at most.
But there was a legend that was brewing in this quiet little corner of America.
A church atop a hill, old and mossy, abandoned by both men and time. Its rotting wooden frame is nearing collapse, grass overtook the surroundings, and the dead buried nearby had names no one even remembers anymore.
On an old brick tower by the church, a single rustic bell hung over the quaint little town. Whenever it rang, the city felt a sense of dread. For whenever the old bell of Saint Hathaway echoed, death followed.
[ Nameless of the End: Case 1 ]
[ The Bells toll over Briar Hollow ]
**********
Kenji yawned; the exhaustion he had in his lungs trickled out steadily. It was 6:20 in the morning, the air was still cold, and the sun was still hiding beneath the hills. But a mission notice had forced him and a few others to make their way to the facility. It's been around a week since Kenji hung out with the three other recruits, and he's settled into his routine pretty well.
Relatively speaking, he supposed.
Sitting in the orientation room, Kenji looked towards the stage, where Shō Hakurō stood before the podium. Unlike the last time, there were only seven people in the room in total. Six were familiar — Shō Hakurou was one, but the others were also people he had come to know. Yeon, Aiden, and Octavia sat with him.
Yeon had her head tilted to the side, as if she was still in a state of half-sleep.
Aiden looked brightly at the stage, excitement in his features.
Octavia yawned, but she looked more dignified doing so compared to his casual show of exhaustion. She stared straight at Shō, professional authority oozing from her form.
Along with them, there were two others on the stage with Shō.
Erhardt stood nearby, a smug, arrogant grin clear on his face, even this early in the day.
But next to him, there was another girl. Blue-hair, dyed most likely, and eyes a piercing violet. She wore headphones around her neck, giving off a casual feel similar to Yeon's. But while Yeon's was a casual nonchalance, the blue-haired girl just looked exhausted and half-dead. Nonchalant, not because she didn't care, but because she couldn't be bothered to do so this early in the morning.
When everyone settled into their seats, Shō tapped on the microphone. A static screeched out for just a second, forcing any tired soul to wake from the sudden jolt in their ears. Shō smiled slightly, ever the sadistic jackass in Kenji's head.
"Relax," Shō's voice echoed throughout the room. "You're not drugged, I'm not planning to do anything."
That didn't improve the mood of the room, but most were too tired to comment. Kenji let out a deep huff, leaning on the backrest and focusing all of his waning energy on his brother.
"I'll cut right to it, then," Shō said, cracking his knuckles. "A few weeks ago, a series of unexplained deaths had been popping up all over a quaint little town known as Briar Hollow."
With the click of a button, a single drone flew over and projected an image onto the empty white wall behind Shō. It displayed a top-down view of the town, resembling a satellite image that you'd see on your phone's map applications. But with much greater detail, to the point where zooming in would show you every single hair follicle on a person.
'They really have no idea what privacy means, huh?' Kenji thought to himself.
"The deaths themselves seem natural, but the rate of it all is what gathered our suspicion." He pressed a button, and the projector displayed a chart. "What you see here is every recorded death within the town for the last ten years."
The chart showed a steady plateau, representing a natural level of deaths.
"And right here are the numbers of dead in the last few weeks."
Shō pressed a button, and the drone whirred, scrolling the image to the left. There, the group could see the sharp increase. From a steady plateau, the chart showed off a jagged, uneven mountain that spiked way upwards.
Initially, Briar Hollow's population was 476; now it stands at 398. It's a sharp decrease that has caught the attention of both local authorities and our own. We already sent a few eyes over to assess the situation, but a deeper scan would come from a designated team."
He looked pointedly at the group.
"That team would be us."
Immediately, Kenji perked up. 'Us? Did that mean—'
"Yes, I'll be joining you on this mission today. Considering you're all newbies, it's customary for a veteran to come over and lead." Shō said, fixing his tie for a moment to make himself more presentable for the task.
Kenji couldn't help but feel a childish sense of excitement in his heart. He's fought and killed anomalies before, but those have only ever truly been work. He didn't at all particularly enjoy the thrill that came with it, nor did he even want to keep at it. But doing this, something he considers himself adept at, with his brother? That got him jumping internally like a kid on Christmas Eve.
"Now, then... rumor has it that before each death, there's an unnatural phenomenon that occurs." Shō shifted the slide back to the map.
Shō zoomed in on a particular building. Atop a quiet hill separated from the town, the drone showed a small dilapidated church abandoned and overtaken by moss. In the daylight, it gave off a strange feeling—an uncanny sense of dread from how a mist enveloped the seemingly normal church.
"On this hill, there's a church. Atop this church, overlooking the entire town, is a single tower."
He pressed another button, and the image feed zoomed in on the tower. There, they saw it, a single rustic bell carved rather than forged. Its design is jagged, uneven, and unnatural, yet it has a strange allure. Kenji couldn't help but stare at the intricate craftsmanship. It was messy, but it wasn't at all poor. A paradoxical thing, but there was a certain alien charm to it all.
"Before a person dies, this bell tolls. When it does, within the next twenty-four hours, someone will die without exception. We've yet to observe this phenomenon in action, but that's where you all come in." Shō said.
Erhardt then stepped forward, his usual grin marred by a curiosity that could drive men mad.
"You have three objectives, and one optional one." Erhardt began; his voice echoed around the drones circling the orientation room.
"First, you will collect a sample of the bell. Any attempts by our drones resulted in a malfunction." Erhardt began, "The operatives already stationed there found themselves psychically turned away, as if forgetting the order to collect every time they tried. Hence why we're sending properly equipped primates to deal with this."
"Second! You will profile as many people within the town as you can. Three people of note, the police Chief Harrison Storlyn is one."
The projection showed off a gruff middle-aged police officer. He looked large, old, and haggard, but with a professional glint. Kenji compared him to the old cop movies he had watched; if he were in one, Kenji would reckon that he'd serve the role of the tired veteran partnered with the rookie.
"Next, a newly arrived preacher. Remus Hague of the Constantine Order. A non-profit charity organization from the Vatican. You can imagine our suspicion when a wandering priest arrived at the exact time of the deaths. Keep an eye out for this one, will you?"
The following image shows a grainy photo of a man in priestly attire. He had a friendly look on his face with light facial hair—a charismatic young preacher. If Kenji had a say, he'd reckon the man was a cult leader.
"Finally, Julia H. Nuren. phd with multiple doctorates in cardiotherapy and noted for her brilliance in Biochemistry."
The projection then shifted to a woman. Black hair hanging low, with a faint smile on her lips. She wore a formal dress shirt over a lab coat, with her legs crossed, and a certificate proudly in hand. He glanced at his teammates, only to find Octavia staring a little too intensely. Not the kind you'd see when you recognize, but more the kind you'd squint to see whether or not you did.
Erhardt cleared his throat and continued, his tone turning almost theatrical.
"Finally, this last objective may be considered… grim." He paused, letting the silence drag just long enough to build unease. "You'll need to verify whether the death toll is real."
Kenji blinked. 'What?'
Aiden's mouth fell open. Yeon merely arched a brow, silent but attentive. Octavia looked wholly unbothered, and Kenji wasn't sure if she felt anything towards that order at all.
"Wait— what?" Aiden finally broke the quiet. "What do you mean by ' verify?"
"Oh, don't play the fool, Aids!" Erhardt replied, tone laced with humor that didn't quite reach his eyes. "You know precisely what I mean. You wait for the bell to toll, then confirm whether someone's died."
Aiden stared at him as though the man had just suggested drinking acid for breakfast.
"So you're saying," he began slowly, "we're just going to sit there and see if someone drops dead instead of stopping it?"
"Precisely!" Erhardt said with a grin that was far too wide for the context.
Aiden ran a hand down his face, groaning. "That's... that's insane! If the bell kills people, shouldn't we, I don't know, get rid of it?"
Erhardt's grin only deepened. "Ah, but what if it doesn't? What if the bell is only a symptom, not the cause?"
That silenced them all.
Erhardt's grin faltered — just slightly — before he cleared his throat and turned flippantly away with a dramatic sweep of his coat. His gaze shifted to the flickering projection of the map, the quiet hum of the holo-screen filling the silence that followed.
For a beat, no one spoke. Then, with a sharp snap of the mad scientist's fingers, Erhardt broke the stillness.
"If there were a more efficient way to handle this, I'd be the first to suggest it," he said, voice suddenly clipped and precise. "But the Choir does not operate on assumptions. We test. We verify. We prove whether something holds merit."
He turned back to them, his expression lit by the dim glow of the projection — almost reverent, almost mad.
"When faced with the illogical, the only weapon we have is logic itself! Foolish, perhaps — but then, so are humans. Their stubbornness is both their curse and their salvation."
Aiden opened his mouth, but Erhardt cut him off with a quiet, chilling line.
"People die every day, Aiden."
The casual use of his name froze Aiden mid-breath.
Erhardt's eyes sharpened.
"And as much as I despise this phrase—" he spat the words out like venom, "Progress. Requires. Sacrifice."
He let the words hang in the air, heavy and bitter.
"If we want to stop what's coming," he said softly, "we need to verify."
Erhardt leaned back and waved his hands off-handedly.
"Nevertheless, that's the optional mission. If you somehow manage to find a way to stop this madness, deal with it, destroy it, we'll permit you to try, but don't blame us for the consequences."
With his piece finished, Erhardt took a step back and allowed the blue-haired girl to take center stage. She waved at the group with a pair of tired eyes.
"Greetings, everyone — I'm Kagerou, but you fans just call me Kage or Rou." She flippantly began.
She walked forward and stretched her arms. With a digital hum, the room seemed to shift. Boxes made of metal began to rise from an opening. With a steady hiss, four mismatched boxes flickered to light, a neon blue light lined their frame.
"I'll be here to lend you all your STCTs."
She yawned.
"And to make sure none of you cause a nuclear explosion while using it."