June 17th, 1999 - After School

[independent_dollmaker]

[Alice is first again. She has a copy of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but she's read the same page five times without taking any of it in.]

[Souji is still missing. Today, Hiroshi and Minako are absent, too. No word on why. This group is getting smaller and smaller. Alice can feel the weight of this strange town bearing down on her. Even if just for a little while, she has to get out of here...]

Comments

[flatview]

[ Nui gives absolutely no indication that she's walked into the room, and chooses to do so via rising up behind Alice's book. Did she sneak around on the floor before this??? Probably. ]

Boo~!

[ Of course, it is in her nature to be so cheery in the face of impending disaster, to ignore the awful, awful feeling within the pit of her stomach. But it seems even Nui can't push it away for long--though her tone is as facetiously happy as usual, it's instead masking a sense of uneasiness. She doesn't like being uneasy. She doesn't like her friends disappearing (they're her friends after all!). She botched so many stitches last night from shaking hands and lost concentration she's even sporting a few bandages on her now gloveless hands. ]

[independent_dollmaker]

[YELP. Alice wasn't expecting that AND was high-strung as all hell. She almost jumped out of her seat, and she DID drop the book, losing her place in the process.]

D-Don't sneak up on me like that!

[flatview]

Oh, did I spook Alice-chan? [ mission accomplished

She just sets her elbows on Alice's desk, peering at her curiously. ]

[independent_dollmaker]

[Watching her from that close after their conversation the other day should be against some kind of LAW pull yourself together Alice]

...Is something the matter?

[Uggghhhh of course something is the matter why would you say that]

[itwasfeyt]

[Maya is the third person there, and she immediately sits down near the corner and pulls what appears to be a scroll from her bag. She unfurls it carefully and begins scanning through it.

She didn't say anything, but there was a very clear look of worry on her face.]

[independent_dollmaker]

[Silent for a while, she eventually looks over at what Maya's doing.]

What is that, exactly?

[itwasfeyt]

[She doesn't look up at Alice.] It's a scroll about being possessed by evil spirits. It was from my mom, Misty Fey.

[Slowly, she looked up at Alice.]

What did you tell Hiroshi?

[independent_dollmaker]

What do you mean? I didn't tell him anything.

...I suppose I asked if he had gotten his acceptance letter yet, and that was when he started acting strange.

[itwasfeyt]

He said you told him something. [she paused, frowning nervously.] He said a lot of things.

Acceptance letter? To what?

[independent_dollmaker]

He applied to some sort of prestigious school. It wouldn't have been odd if he had heard back from them by now, so I was curious.

[itwasfeyt]

[Maya thinks hard about this new information, but the more she did, the more it confused her.]

....Ugh! [She slams her hands on the desk and stands up.] It can't sit here like this! I'm way too worried about Minako!

[independent_dollmaker]

...You talked to Hiroshi, right? After I called you.

[itwasfeyt]

Yeah, and we didn't learn anything. Except that he was freaking out about something and he thought I knew something about how "The ninth is dead". Then he slammed the door in our faces and wouldn't talk to us anymore.

[She looks down, not looking at the scroll, not looking at anything really.]

We went back home and then Minako volunteered to go and talk to him next.

[...]

I haven't heard from her since then.

[independent_dollmaker]

'The ninth is dead'... do you think he was talking about Souji?

[itwasfeyt]

I don't know. I think so.

[independent_dollmaker]

I'm scared, Maya. I don't know what's going on in this town any more.

[itwasfeyt]

I talked to Mia about it. We're thinking of leaving town for a while, to be safe.

[....]

I hope I don't have to.

[independent_dollmaker]

I hope it doesn't come to that. So many of my friends are gone already...

[itwasfeyt]

I know...

[ohmygah]

[Back in Osaka, people seemed to avoid Ayumu a lot. Every couple months she would just cycle through friends to sit with at lunch until they stopped wanting her around anymore.

But in this town, she managed to get a whole bunch of friends. Friends that lasted a really really long time. In fact, she keeps making more friends the longer time goes on!

But now everyone's disappearing and not talking to each other. Just like back in Osaka, except now it not just affecting her, its affecting all her friends at once.

So Osaka's just lying down in her chair. Trying to sleep and finding it surprisingly hard to accomplish it for once. Not with that uncomfortable pit in her stomach.]

[happyhalloween]

I think Shigetsuna-sama's bear ate Hiroshi.

[Speaking of which, Maria has a statue of a bear with her and Tomosuke today. She brought it from Maya's house.]

[ohmygah]

[She opens her eyes sadly at Maria.]

...Oh.

You think Tomosuke can make him all better?

[She wants to hope.]

[happyhalloween]

Tomosuke's going to try to scare the bear out of him. But we don't know if it's too late. If he's all eaten anyway and there's no Hiroshi left.

[ohmygah]

[She... doesn't really understand that, but Maria seems to understand what's been going on much more than she does.]

Will Souji and Minako come back to school after we get rid of the bear? Or are ghost bear bikes messing with them too?

[happyhalloween]

I don't know. But that's why I brought this.

[She holds up the bear statue. It has a plate on the bottom that reads KURAIN VILLAGE: HEART OF CHANNELING.]

I'm going to see if I can get through to Shigetsuna-sama with this representation of her bear. Gonna ask her to call her bear back.

[ohmygah]

[That prospect gets her optimism roaring.]

She's gotta listen, right? Fer the good of the group?

[happyhalloween]

[Maria hugs Tomosuke tightly.] Hope so. For everyone's sake.

[fortunatetoaster]

[ Chiyoko has been pacing in an uneasy lap of the classroom ever since she arrived and she shows absolutely no signs of stopping.

Souji gone. Minako gone. And Hiroshi...

Fear coils a knot in the pit of her stomach and though she feels weak at the knees, like she's about to buckle and fall, she keeps pacing, turning everything she knows over and over again in her brain.

She doesn't even want to suspect that all this might be connected, that they might have somehow set this in motion, but...

She stops briefly, takes a shaky breath and then begins to pace again, thinking hard. Then she mutters; ]

I'm gonna give those idiots a million demerits...

[happyhalloween]

A hundred million. A million billion. Hiroshi's being really bad.

[fortunatetoaster]

Infinite demerits. I'm gonna give that idiot infinite demerits an' if he wants 'em takin' off his record, he's gonna get down on all four an' say sorry til he goes blue in the face.

[happyhalloween]

Infinity demerits! Make him say he's sorry!

[fortunatetoaster]

Yeah, I will! He's gonna be so sorry! Just wait and see!

[ohmygah]

What happens if they get too many demerits?

[She doesn't know demerit rules and given the strange events transpiring, she's genuinely worried that everyone's gonna end up with even more demerits.]

[fortunatetoaster]

... I ain't quite worked that out yet.

But trust me. By the time I'm done, Hiroshi's gonna be beggin' everyone ta forgive him and we will and then Minako-chan and Souji-kun'll come back an' everythin'll go back ta normal.

Just wait and see.

[ohmygah]

So nobody'll be kicked out or nothin and everyone'll be safe and happy again?

[Unconsciously slipping into a thicker Kansai as she feels her nerves tighten in fear.]

[fortunatetoaster]

Yeah. Everythin'll go back ta normal, you'll see.

[ and then without really thinking, she gives Osaka a quick pat on the head. ]

So, don't get too worried, yeah?

[ohmygah]

[Head pats are nice. Comforting. Non-awful situation-y.]

...Yeah...

Same fer you, okay?

[fortunatetoaster]

[ pat pat

she's basically petting her like a cat rn ]

Psh, y'don't hafta worry about me. I'm your Prez, yeah?

[ohmygah]

Yeah! You got the votes of the people on yer side!

[happyhalloween]

[Maria places a statue of a bear on the table.]

Everyone! We need to pray to Shigetsuna-sama so she takes the bear-spirit out of Hiroshi! Everyone has to pray with Maria! If we use this representation of her bear, it's bound to work!

[Said bear statue isn't even from Izumizaki but Kurain Village but sssshhhh.]