The Unsolved Case of Kamisato Ayato

Chapter One

Monstadt has entered the night. As they started to bid each other goodbye and went home to meet their families, the Monstadters had concluded their job and daily responsibilities for the day. Sisters of the church completing their evening services, pubs closing for the evening, and city lights reducing their brightness a little bit to conserve electricity. These kinds of nights are ideal for taking beautiful scenery photographs. Diona at least believed such to be the case.

Diona works as a bartender at the Cat's Tail, a bar that rivals Diluc's bar, Angel Share. She just celebrated her birthday, and she was most happy that her father came to join her and her friends in celebrating without being intoxicated. Her mother had left them a gift, which her father, Draff, gave to her. Draff felt it might be time to give it to Diona even though his wife had told him to wait till she was of legal age. Even though the Kamera was worn out and outdated, it was simple to restore it to its pre-accident condition.

Diona will treasure this present for as long as she lives because it was once her mother's; now it is hers. In fact, she had made up her mind to utilize it as soon as it was fixed. She had chosen to take pictures whenever she could to remember her time with her friends and family. Sayu visiting Monstadt, Klee building bombs in the townsquare before being caught red-handed by the Acting Grandmaster Jean, the traveler playing with cats in the city during their spare time, and other friends were among those she had already captured on Kamera. By far, this was the finest present she had ever received. Catnips were the most recent gift she received that made her so happy and delighted. Many of it.

The Barbatos statue in the city's center was the subject of her subsequent photographs. She had missed the opportunity to take the final photo of the statue with her posing because her days had been so busy. Her intention was to capture the monument in various lighting conditions throughout the day, afternoon, and evening. Diona got up quite early so she could photograph the monument in the early morning when no one else was in the plaza. The second time was around noon, which was much more difficult because Sister Victoria stands in front of the statue and there are other people praying all around it. Diona was left with no other option except to shoot the photo from a distance, probably as a selfie. Not least of all is the evening. At this point, everyone had started going home, so Diona seized the opportunity to snap one last photo of the statue before leaving.

As she considered a stance, she set the Kamera on a stand and started the timer. Quickly pulling out her bow, she pretended to be shooting arrows in an effort to make the scene appear exciting. As soon as the photograph was shot, she went over to it and quickly looked through her earlier attempts at taking pictures. "Mmm, yes, that's ideal! I really like the last one." She smiled as she murmured to herself.

However... As soon as she removed her thumb from the image to get a better look at it, that smile started to slowly disappear. A lone figure in white stood at the top of the statue's hands and was looking forward. Despite the fact that the man was blurred in the picture, Diona couldn't help but feel uneasy. There was something... unnerving... about that man. She glanced quickly up from her Kamera to the statue, and absolutely...

On the statue's hands, there was in fact a man standing.

How did he get there? How did he even ascend there without coming to her attention? Diona would have heard even the tiniest sound if he had climbed. Her body is telling her to leave and disregard this, yet her curiosity got the better of her. She was intrigued by the fancy man in white who was standing there immobile and gazing into the distant. "Hello?" To get the man's attention from beneath the statue, Diona mustered the bravery. "Sir, can you hear me? Now that the city is asleep, I believe you should leave as well."

There was no reply. He didn't even give her a glance. Either he ignored her or he didn't completely hear what she said.

"Sir? Excuse me." She called a little louder and checked her surroundings to make sure nobody in the city was awake before turning to face the man up there. He had not yet responded. What's wrong with him? She said to herself, feeling a little perplexed, terrified, and irritated. Diona wondered whether or not to approach the man up there. But alarm bells are going off all over her thoughts...

He is not normal... Don't get too close... He is not normal...

Shaking her head, Dion desires the ideal selfie with the statue and simply herself, free of any unwanted subjects and photo bombers. She has already decided. She started to climb the statue, taking care to keep her feet firmly planted. She could feel her own heart racing as soon as she climbed up onto the statue's arms, thumping more quickly than a bullet train could depart the station. Now when she was facing him, he was standing motionless with his back to her. "Sir?" She started as she slowly, cautiously, and carefully drew nearer, but then her movements stopped.

Her body refused to get any closer...

The man stood there motionless for a minute, not turning to face her. However, she can hear the tiniest whispers emanating from the man, and possibly even from all around him. Diona's tail bristles and lashes as a defense mechanism, and her ears fall flat against her head. She tightened her hold on her camera. In order to ensure that she wasn't holding the device too tightly and risking a cracked lens, she looked down at the device. But then she became aware of something. The person in front of him...

Was not shown on the Kamera's lens.

This further alerted Diona's senses. Maybe it's just a story... But Klee had mentioned a folktale to the effect that these kinds of gadgets might record things that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. When she turned to face him again, he was still standing still. He wasn't in the picture when Diona turned her head back to the camera. However, he was seen in the picture previously... so then.. why now? Diona was uncertain. However, she cautiously and slowly raised the camera and pointed the lens at the man with trembling hands.

*Click*

When the camera went off, she noticed the man in the still image when she glanced at the picture that was shot...

The man had turned around.

Diona looked up, her face turned a pale color as she looked up at the man that now stared down at her. This man.... This man had no face.... His eyes were there, bit his face.. his face was as hollow as an empty void. The s9ft whispers she heard before wereuch louder now as the man grabbed her tiny arm in his tight grip that caused Diona to snap back to reality.

Panicked by such a person, she struggled to free herself as the whispers grew louder in her ears, in her head, she thought she heard screams of people in her mind. During the struggle, her footing lost their balance as she slipping and fell. The man's gripped had disappeared in an instant like so as Diona fell from the statue, her scream and cries for help stuck in her throat. Before she knew it, her world went black with a sickening thud before her mind went unconscious.

He..... Does Not.... Exist.....