Akio Tsukino is a staff photographer at a Tokyo newspaper, stuck in the back pages, shooting parades and grade school plays. When a serial killer starts chopping off heads in nearby Kofu, Akio sees a chance to break out of the routine and prove himself. It never occurs to him he'd end up in the path of a monster. 

Masami Sato, a top staff writer on the police beat, is a tenacious woman making a name for herself in a male-dominated news world. When she’s sent to investigate the serial killer, she’ll stop at nothing to get the scoop. If only Akio would get out of her way. 

As they struggle to get along, and ghost stories of evil samurai creep into their investigation, Akio and Masami soon realize that the price for getting the story may be their own heads.

"Headless (The Ghost and the Mask, Book One)"

by Tristram Lowe