The 'Phantom Bus' Strikes Again:
Twenty-three missing in latest disappearance

Another busload of passengers disappeared yesterday evening at six o’clock. Twenty-three people are confirmed missing, the majority female and under the age of twenty.

It is the latest incident in a string of large-scale kidnappings that have occurred in the Sendai Hill area over the last two weeks. Eyewitnesses claim that Bus #666 vanished after picking up a group of passengers at the bus stop in front of the Hikawa Shrine.

Kaya Takahashi, a student at the nearby T*A Academy for Girls, was among those who witnessed the event. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she said. “Rumors have been flying around school about the so-called ’Phantom Bus’ lately, but I didn’t put much stock in them. In fact, I would have been on that bus if I hadn’t been running late yesterday. It’s crazy to think that something like this could happen in real life, but I saw it first-hand. The ’Phantom Bus’ is definitely real.”

Not according to the Metropolitan police, it isn’t. Yasuo Kozuka, the lead detective on the case, believes there’s a more rational explanation behind the kidnappings.

“Yes, I’m aware of the crazy rumors spreading around town, but that’s all they are -- rumors,” Detective Kozuka said. “There’s no such thing as magic. Buses can’t disappear into thin air; it’s impossible. There has to be a logical explanation for these attacks, and my task force is working day and night to bring the missing people back home to their loved ones where they belong.”

Yet with no reported suspects in the case and no solid leads, some are beginning to wonder if politics may be playing a role in compromising the investigation. Kazuo Asada, the priest at the Hikawa Shrine, is the father-in-law of prominent Diet member Ryoji Hino.

Shinji Oda, whose eighteen-year-old daughter is among the missing, is certain the Shinto priest is behind his child’s disappearance. “I don‘t care who he is related to -- Kazuo Asada should be locked up immediately,” he said. “How many young people have to go missing before the police open their eyes to what is right there in front of them? Asada is a known pervert. Yuko mentioned to me several times that Asada had tried to hit on her while she was visiting the Hikawa Shrine, but she always laughed it off, calling him a harmless dirty old man. I wish she had listened to me when I told her to stay away from that place. If she had, she would still be here with us, safe and sound.”

Others suspect Mr. Hino’s fourteen-year-old daughter Rei, who lives and works at the shrine with her grandfather. “We always thought Miss Hino was a little strange,” Miss Takahashi said about her fellow classmate at T*A Academy. “She’s a total loner, a freak of nature. She keeps to herself and doesn’t have any friends to my knowledge, except for those two creepy pet crows of hers that always hang around her. People are afraid of her because she has these weird psychic powers. If anybody could make a busload of people disappear, I wouldn‘t be surprised if she could.”

Detective Kozuka says that both Kazuo Asada and Rei Hino were questioned by police following the latest bus disappearance. “There is no conclusive evidence linking either Mr. Asada or his granddaughter to these kidnappings. At this time, neither of them are suspects in the case,” he said.

At a press conference held late last night, Ryoji Hino also asserted his belief that his father-in-law and daughter are not involved in the kidnappings. He is offering a ten million yen reward to anybody who provides information leading to the arrests of those responsible for the crime and the safe return of those who are missing.

“As a parent myself, my thoughts and prayers go out to those who fear for their children’s safety and well-being,” he said. “I have every confidence that Detective Kozuka’s task force are doing everything they can to solve this case and hope that this reward will encourage someone to come forward.”


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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Any comments or criticisms can be sent to me at ElysionDream@aol.com. Third place winner of the “Making Headlines” challenge at the “sailormoonland” community at Livejournal.