Somewhere between Ikebukuro and Shinjuku, some ways from the Mejiro district, a research facility stood quietly. Although it was a distance away from the station, but in context of Tokyo, the amount of land this three storey research facility surrounded by trees and barriers occupied was no laughing matter.
Yagiri Pharmaceuticals was one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the Kanto region, and this was the site of its new research facility. But, its reputation as Kanto's leading pharmaceutical company was a thing of the past. Its prestige nowadays could hardly compare to that of its heyday, as its performance was sliding.
And it was just when Yagiri pharmaceutical's share prices began to fall when an American company proposed to buy over their business. The company was called 'Nebula', and had been doing joint ventures for about a century now. The company dealed in transportation, publishing, biotechnological research and so on, on a very large scale. But behind their rock-solid repertoire, there were many rumours. Like those about deals with the government. But these rumours were always quashed by their methods of legal repression.
Yagiri Pharmaceuticals was on the selling end, and as long as they gave in unconditionally, they wouldn't have to start mass-retrenchment. Although this was so, but there were some of the staff-especially the director, who was a member of the Yagiri family, who couldn't really accept this.
The one who objected to it the most violently, was a woman named Yagiri Namie. She was twenty five years old when she became the sixth research facility's, or simply the sixth research director, and was also the chairman's niece.
Namie was able to progress so quickly through the ranks, wasn't totally due to her being especially favoured since she was a Yagiri. The fact that she was exceptionally talented and efficient was also an important factor. But, the situation she was facing now had a lot to do with her family. The problem wasn't her position, but the department she worked in.
Because there was a rumour within the Yagiri family, that whatever the Namie's department was researching was in fact the main reason for Nebula's offer.
What the sixth research facility was dealing with, wasn't really medicine. The facility claimed that they were working on the development of a new kind of drug to boost the immune system, and would be ready for clinical trials in the near future-
But in fact, it was actually something that was 'not of this world'.
Twenty years ago, Namie's uncle managed to get his hands on a specimen that resembled a human head from overseas. It looked as beautiful, as if it was alive, and it was like it was sleeping. Having a beautiful girl's face as a specimen sounded rather grisly on the surface, but in fact it did not seem cruel at all, more like the head was a complete, living entity.
Namie who had been only five years old then obviously wouldn't know that the head had been smuggled.
After all, if it had been brought in by the legally appropriate means, then they'd surely have been stopped by the customs.
Her uncle had no idea what kind of magic could have conjured such a thing, and as such even began to see it as the Yagiri family heirloom and showered his care on it. The moment he had some free time, he'd lock himself in his study to admire the head, and sometimes he'd even talk to it.
Namie would often come over to play with her cousins, and when she saw her uncle do that, she'd feel a little uneasy. But after a while, she got used to it.
But, there was something that upset Namie. And that was the fact that her younger brother, Yagiri Seiji, seemed to have been bewitched by the head, and was even more hopelessly infatuated with it than her uncle.
