KINGDOM HEARTLESS [M]

[Crystal Tears]

We were born different.

When you’re little, it only shows up occasionally. A fall that should’ve broken bones, cuts that heal within a day, you’re never sick, and your imaginary friend makes a real impact on your life.

Parents don’t question it, not if they’re smart. It was a miracle you lived through that crash, or that you could hold your breath that long… Nothing more.

It’s when you get older, is when it gets worse.

Children go through phases, when you’re little, you’re afraid of the dark. Every child sees monsters with wicked yellow eyes, and claws. They cry and the parents flick on the lights and you’re safe. After a certain amount of time, you grow out of it, the darkness is nothing to be afraid of, those monsters weren’t real and your well on your way to becoming an adult.

Expect for a few of us, those monsters don’t disappear.

The darkness stays forbidding, and those yellow eyes, you can feel them as you sleep, gazing at you with childish fascination. Only they’re not on you, they’re not interested in you.

They’re interested in your heart.

Each night they inch a little closer, and each night you find yourself burying your head deeper under the covers. An unexplained fear of nothing, it’s not real right? That tingling on your back, that twisting knot in your stomach is just nerves.

One night you’ll dare to look, to peek your head out from under those covers, to see what is making your body turn unnaturally cold. Human curiosity of the unknown, you just have to know what’s there, compelled to finally face what you’ve feared for so long.

* * *

“A train derailed today at 7:06 PM, it is believed that 52 people died in the crash when the conductor suffered a heart attack and lost control of the…”

That was the first of many ‘accidents’.

Unexplained heart attacks, and while some were affecting the elderly…

The doctors didn’t know what to do with the increasingly number of children suffering the same fate. What puzzled them further, was the evidence that the heart had bruising on it making it appear as if something had tried to tear the heart out.

Then came the first murder.

A young woman, a tourist to the country Japan, was found dead in her hotel room. Her heart missing from her chest…

Sara Bailey was the first victim of a serial killer, someone people deemed to have extreme psychological problems.

It is becoming apparent to children and a select group of people, that she was not the victim of a murderer, but the first casualty of a war.

* * *

Figments of imagination, a passing shadow in the corner of your eye, something unexplainable… A promise was made to them that predates our very existence, a promise that will guarantee the destruction of the human civilization, and a reign of darkness that will consume the very thing that gives Humanity its power.

The debt was 10 000.

Now it’s 9999.

KINGDOM HEARTLESS

I

It was a moonless sky, stars sparkling high above with a gentle breeze blowing through the small, slightly run-down part of the suburbs. Not a sound was heard, cars glistening in the dew of the sunless morning. Seconds ticking by until finally something changed, at the house on the corner, a dim glow of a light shone out of a window.

The room was somewhat of a mess, scribbles and drawings that looked more like chicken-scratch all over the place. A television set with a half-taken apart playstation 2 sat covered in dust and paper. The light was from a small lamp sitting on a bed-side table, the bulb a weak one, so it could only illuminate this cubical sized bedroom and not the hallway.

The covers of the bed were thrown halfway off, and sitting up was boy, well, teenager on the verge of manhood. He held his hand over his heart with wide eyes and sweat dripping down his brow. Slowly his crimson eyes gazed down at his rapidly moving chest. His heart was pounding a mile a minute, and there was a dull ache on the skin and ribs. Brushing his bangs from his face he glared out into hallway and waited. He knew they were there, hiding in the darkness like cowards and not daring to come into the light. But he had felt it, something had attacked him while he was sleeping. The boy had been foolish to turn off the lamp, thinking that maybe tonight they would leave him alone.

"I know you're there..." He snarled, bringing his hands down and clutching the bed sheets. "… and I know what you want...." Maybe it brought him sort of satisfaction, taunting them so. "But you'll never get it."

For a moment, he swore the darkness swirled on itself. His heart began to pound again as he could see a form in the black. Summoning up the courage he stood up from the bed and walked up to doorway, keeping a good three feet back. He waited, he had too. He had to see it; tonight he was brave enough to wait. What did they have to fear of him? He couldn't hurt them, and at the moment, they couldn't touch him. It was an even playing field; each would stay in their own preferred element.

On the edge of his mind the boy swore he heard a voice. Cold and creepy, his mind was desperately blocking it out.

Ryou…

Then he saw it, clearer than ever before, having nearly a foot on him, two fierce yellow eyes appeared. The teenager faltered for only a second, before faster than his conscious mind could keep up, he reached for the door and slammed it shut as he stumbled back and landed so his back was against the bed frame. In the light he took refuge, leaning his head back as the sweat returned and the adrenaline made him tremble.

"I was three feet away from death." He muttered; closing his eyes and leaning his head back. "What was I thinking?"

One Year Later
Late Summer in Traverse Town

“Tragic news today, as another victim of the Traverse City killer was found in abandoned alley. The girl; a mere fourteen years old usually cut through the alley on her way to and from school, the houses backing on the narrow path said that wasn’t a sound coming from the…”

Ryou watched as the news anchor seemed a little bit perturbed from the report, maybe it was a little too close to home for him, or that this girl, who the police were refusing to name (until the immediate family was contacted), was the youngest of the victims so far. The man frowned, biting on his thumbnail as he turned from the television to his wall. Numerous news cut-outs and images were plastered all over with strings linking images to a map. There were numerous red tacks all over the map as well; it seemed ten times as frequent as the actual murders.

“What’s the link?” He growled, running a hand through his shaggy black hair. “What the hell ties an elderly man, a fourteen year-old, a widow, and a bus-driver together?”

There was nothing, well nothing he could think of. The police investigating the murders weren’t about to reveal any information they did have. Ryou wouldn’t have been surprised if they were covering up more murders than were being reported. It was at this moment he was thankful for streetlamps and other sort of light creating objects. No, he didn’t have proof it was those… things, but what else could be doing this? The bus driver and the widow’s murders took place an hour apart on opposite ends of the city… It was impossible to get from the northern edge of Traverse to the southern suburbs in an hour.

“Maybe it’s a cult.” He smirked as he thought out loud, spinning his chair around to face the television again. “A cult of psychos stealing hearts…” Of course he had to account for the fact no one had heard again. “Cult of psychos who look charming and trustworthy…”

As crazy as the world was, he doubted his theory.

“Nii-san.”

The meek voice caught him off guard and he turned, blinking as the little door in the way looked rather sick, upset and tired as she walked up to him and tugged on his muscle-shirt.

“What’s wrong?” Ryou questioned, picking her up and sitting her on his lap. “Ai?”

Ai looked up through her dark brown bangs and gave a small sigh. “Daddy left again.”

A flash of anger swarmed over him and the man found himself hoping, briefly, that his father would end up dead through a heart-attack or murder. Ryou didn’t let the emotion appear on his face; instead he ruffled little sister’s hair and smiled.

“He’ll be back.”

“Like the…” She paused, as she expressed a face of deep concentration only capable by a five-year-old. “Turm… in… later?”

He smiled. “Terminator, and how do you know about that? You’re too little to watch that.”

“It was on TV”

“And mom let you watch that?”

“No, but she was yelling at Daddy.”

Yeah, that sounds like his family. To busy arguing to notice a movie that most likely would scare the life out of their daughter was on and she was enthralled by the explosions and horrified by the hulking mass of nude man on the television. When this entire feud started Ryou had wished that the Saito family could be back together like before. Now that wish was a distant memory and he had turned his once hopeful wish into a darker one involving the death of one his parents.

Specifically his good-for-nothing father.

“Did you like it?”

“No.”

He laughed and put her back down on the ground as he stood up and stretched. “It’s a grown-up movie.”

“Mommy wants you to pick up oranges when you’re out.”

Ryou looked at her curiously for a moment. “She told you that? I thought you were supposed to be in bed…”
“They told me.”

The man froze in spot, hesitating and wondering if he should leave it at that or if he should ask what exactly ‘they’ were. He turned from her and began to fiddle with his bag, fixing a strap while shoving a sketchpad and numerous art-related things inside. Ryou shoved his wallet in the back pocket of his jeans and paused, letting out a hiss of air before facing the little girl.

“Who’s ‘they’?”

“The monsters in my closet…”

He sighed with relief for a moment, slung the bag over his shoulder before picking Ai off the ground and carrying her towards her (little too) pink room. Seconds later she was back in her bed, covers pulled up to her chin with her brother sitting next to her. Ai looked happier at least; though as he placed his hand on her forehead, it was evident she still had a fever.

“Just keep your light on at night and they won’t come out of your closet.”

She nodded. “Nii-san will you get the oranges?”

“Yes, I’ll get the oranges.”

She smiled. “Okay.”

“I’ll be back later tonight, try to sleep alright?” Ryou stood up and headed for the bedroom door. “Ai-chan should be outside playing, not inside sleeping.”

“Hai!” She clapped enthusiastically as he walked down the hall.

As he reached the kitchen, he stopped only to grab his keys before his mother caught him. “Pick up some oranges while you’re out will you?”

Ryou stared at her for a long minute before blinking and heading for the door. “Sure.”

* * *

The park was well kept compared to the low-pay apartments around it. The grass was greener and well kept, little to no garbage was seen anywhere except for the one or two garbage cans placed here and there. The trees were beautiful and green, with a soft wind playing with the leaves and peoples’ hair. Ryou sat on the park bench facing towards the playground, only three small children were out today, their parents not far away and chatting to each other.

It was a beautiful day today, and what angered him was his sister was stuck inside sick. She should be out playing but his parents were incompetent fools, not buying the right medicine or forgetting in general. It’s why he went out today, to pick up a few things, Ai’s medicine, apparently oranges, and just get away from the negative aura of that entire household. Of course now Ai had brought an entire new issue he had to worry about.

Either she was psychic, just had a lucky guess, or some monster in her closet had actually told her that their mother wanted oranges.

Which was unnerving and odd, what sort of monster talked about oranges?

“Oh come on!”

Ryou glanced over his shoulder to the slightly forested area behind him. He frowned as he saw a group of kids bugging a woman, but didn’t think anything about it. It was more annoying than anything; one in particular was quite loud about how the woman wasn’t brave enough to go into the forest. The man tapped his fingers on sketchpad as he switched on his headphones.

He wasn’t interested in hearing the argument. The blaring music blocked out the sound and the problem, until suddenly, the woman quickly brushed past the bench. Ryou began to swirl with emotion; hate, anger, and misery. He blinked, land looked up again, staring at the back of the woman who rounded the corner and disappeared. Curiosity got the better of him as he switched off the music device and began to listen to the boys.

“Ha ha!” One laughed.

“What a chicken shit.” The loudest one said with a happy-tone. “Just wanted her to see the damn phone, needed to call.”

Ryou frowned.

“Did we have to toss the phone into the forest though?” That was a girl’s voice, somewhat meek.

“Course we did! If I couldn’t have it, neither could she.”

‘Oh now there’s a winning attitude…’ Ryou thought.‘People say I’m an asshole…’

He sighed a little and shoved his sketchpad into his bag. The man didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, get the phone maybe? Probably, he’d go in, get the phone, call the girl, as hopefully she had her home number or work number in there just in case. If not he supposed he would come back tomorrow, no doubt she would actually return to look for it.

He hoped, or he would have a phone he didn’t need for a while.

Ryou stood up, and with hood up, made his way towards the group. They didn’t seem to take real notice of him until he brushed past one of them and reached the tree-line. That was then, just as he predicted, the leader of the group found it necessary to address him as if he were a child.

“And where are you going?”

He turned, slowly, crimson eyes gleaming at the challenge. He looked at the boy curiously, he was taller than the other boy and the girl, but might’ve been the youngest. Ryou didn’t know whether to laugh or just turn back around and ignore the twerp, after that girl had ran past the man had lost all taste for a conversation with a boy obviously compensating for something.

“Well, I’ll give you three guesses. But I think it’s pretty obvious.”

The boy seemed to smirk at the remark from Ryou, but didn’t like it when the older boy looked at the girl in the group. She didn’t seem to fit in with them very well, but he hadn’t the time to judge.

“HEY!” A rough shove made Ryou take a couple of steps back. “Don’t look at her! I’m talking to you!”

Ryou chuckled. “Oh I’m sorry; I guess you think you’re important don’t you?”

Anger flared in the boy’s eyes. “I’m better than you!”

“Oh I bet you are, picking on a girl and throwing her phone into the forest ‘cuz she didn’t want to give it to you.”

The boy’s fists were clenched now, and Ryou could feel a slow anger building up in him clawing at his control.

“Akira-kun, let’s just go…” The girl muttered, grasping the boy’s arm. “Let’s go get some ice-cream.”

There was a moment between Ryou and Akira, but the red hair gave up. “Yeah, alright, let’s go.”

Both the boys left and the girl lingered for a moment, surprisingly giving the man a warm smile before hurrying after them. Ryou blinked and turned back to the forest, it wasn’t particularly well lit, the canopy somewhat thick only letting the odd stream of light in here and there, but the likelihood of the phone having been thrown deep in there was doubtful.

Chances are it had hit a tree and broke, but he hadn’t actually seen how hard Akira had thrown the damn thing.

‘The kid’s like what? Twelve? Couldn’t be that far...‘

* * *

Apparently he had greatly underestimated how hard that twerp had thrown the phone, and the sheer luck he had. The nineteen-year-old eventually found the damn thing nestled between two trees, a fair distance in the forest. It had missed numerous trunks and other such obstacles which had caused Ryou to adventure farther and farther inwards (thankfully in a straight line). He knew he would eventually hit a fence that bordered the park, and wouldn’t doubt he was a few feet from it.

Carefully he picked up the black and white phone and flipped it open. Eventually, amongst the other random numbers which he didn’t pay much mind too, he found the home number. He pressed the call button and began to make his way out.

It rung twice before a woman’s voice answered. “Moshi Moshi.”

“Hi, um…” Ryou faltered. “I found your phone in the forest…”

“Oh..” She sounded a little surprised, “Um thank you..?”

“Ryou Saito.” He replied as he stopped for a moment to fix his bag. “Do you want to come back to the park and get it?”

“Um…” There was a long pause and suddenly Ryou a cold tingle shoot up and down his spine. Gritting his teeth he began to move again. “Sure, where will you be?”

“I’ll be sitting on a bench.” He replied, and his heart began to race as the feeling got worse. “Facing the playground, kid with a sketchbook, gotta go bye!”

He flipped the phone shut, shoved it into his pocket and ran. The feeling erupted as his skin began to turn cold, but all that vanished as he literally leapt out of the forest and tumbled onto the grass of the clearing. The sun was still shining, though it was getting late in the day and he would have to get home eventually. Slowly Ryou got up, and glanced over his shoulder to see the darkening tree-line.

It had been a while since he felt something like that; it wasn’t like before, it wasn’t curiosity any more.

It was malice.


It had been ten minutes since the call when Ryou glanced up from his sketch to see the woman again. She paused in the entrance of the park, notably wearing a lot of red as she looked from left to right before spotting him. He was already putting away his sketchpad and pencils, after he gave the phone back he would go home. She approached a bit cautiously, probably wondering if he was the same sort of guy that would just tease her and toss the phone away.

“Saito-san?”

He looked at her and nodded, before taking the phone out of his pocket and hanging it to her. “Here.”

“Oh thank you.” She smiled a little, “I’m Mika Yanagisawa, by the way. I just realized I never told you my name on the phone.”

“Yeah…” Ryou looked away for a moment, fiddling with a clip on his bag. “I kinda had to hurry out of the forest...” He didn’t say sorry, but she didn’t seem to mind. “I gotta go…” The man ended the awkwardness quickly. “Bye.”

She nodded. “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”

Ryou looked back at her, stopping for a brief moment. “Maybe, yeah…”

* * *

It was dark out, the street lamps in the city didn’t seem to provide much of anything, let alone illumination. The clouds had covered the night sky so not even the silver light from the moon reached the ground below. Despite all this, and his apprehension about the dark, Ryou Saito particularly liked night driving. Traverse City was quite beautiful at night. The lights from the apartments and skyscrapers created quite the landscape and far-off view, and the neon signs seemed to gain a new edge at dusk, a dazzling effect he enjoyed.

He turned onto one of the smaller side-streets and noted how a couple of the street-lights were out. He frowned, it was typical of the city to forget about the less desirable parts of it, hell he lived in one such district, but at least the lights lining the side-walk worked. The headlights of his car showed various small potholes and other things on the road, nothing really to worry about. Ryou was mostly concerned with taking out someone’s cat-

The car screeched to a halt as a woman ran out onto the road. She didn’t even seem to notice him, sprinting past and into the darkened side path. Ryou frowned, for the briefest of moments he had felt complete horror, and then it had faded as he began to calm down. He imagined it was from nearly taken out the girl; she had come out of nowhere it seemed.
Then his eyes caught something, a movement of black on black, just outside of the headlight’s ray.

‘What the hell..’ His mind went back to the girl, sprinting.

“Shit!” He cursed, slamming the gas pedal down to the floor of the car. A dark red blur zoomed through streets, engine revving and switching gears. He didn’t know quite how fast that woman could run, but something deep down in him told him it wasn’t going to be fast enough.


They were so close now, her heart was pounding and they wanted to see it. Just see it was all, such a darling little thing shouldn’t be trapped in such a prison of flesh and blood. If they didn’t like they would give it back, so why wouldn’t this fleshy thing just let them see? Curses be upon their creator, who would give such a mortal creature the ability to run so bloody fast?

The others had fallen behind, but it was close. The others had almost ran into a moving source of light. After that, it didn’t know what happened, perhaps the metal beast had moved on, distantly maybe it heard a roar, but that was far now. So far, and that beating heart was so close. It was pounding so fast, straining to keep the creature that had it far from the curious…

Silly flesh and blood, we are faster. We will catch you.

These things seemed to lack the ability to communication with all but their own kind. It found this frustrating, maybe if this fleshy thing could hear it; it too, would see the flawlessness of this offer. The shine of the heart was driving it nearly mad; it was so close but still that bone and tendon connection kept the prey moving.

Enough of this, we no longer want to play these games.

In an instance, it had her, slamming her in the back so she flew a good distance onto the opposing sidewalk. It was happy now, for the briefest of moments, until it moved closer. Just a small peek, was that really too much to ask for? It stepped closer as it felt the others near, not that it needed them it would only take a moment for the heart to be examined.

ARGH!

It backed up a bit, since when did this creatures glow? What a horrible little trick! Covering its face for a moment it regained its composure a second later, smooth fingers turning to claws.

It hurt us!

Kill it!

Then we’ll see!

The roar of an engine caught them off guard.


Ryou’s car slammed into the creature as he flicked his lights back on. He watched the thing’s body tear into fluid pieces before seemingly evaporating before it ever hit the ground. Quickly the man shifted gears and swung the vehicle around, turning the lights to high-beams that cause whatever they were to back up or simply evaporate if they were caught in the full blast.

The sporty sedan pulled up to the sidewalk. The girl blinked, watching as the passenger door swung open and there was a man she’s never seen before looking at her with shining crimson eyes.

“Get in the car.” He ordered, watching her move a little and then freeze, seeing darkness forming out of the ground. “NOW”

The woman didn’t wait a second longer; she scrambled into the car and slammed the door short as it sped off again, easily out running those things that had been chasing her.

“T-thank you…” She panted, her mouth and throat bone dry from the sprinting she had been doing. “Thank you.. So much…”

“Try to catch your breath.” Ryou said, keeping an eye on the road as he slowed to a legal pace.

There was a silence between the two as the car came to a stop at the red light. Ryou leaned back in his seat for a moment before looking over at the woman, noting her hair was oddly dyed, the tips were white. Her summer-dress was white too, through slightly dirtied from falling onto the ground. He looked back at the street as they waited for the light to change.

“You okay?” He asked finally, as they began to move again.

“My back hurts…” She stated. “It… Pushed me, I think.” There was a pause. “Oh my God you must think I’m nuts… It was probably just my-“

“I saw them.” Ryou interrupted her, and such a statement made her look over in surprise. He didn’t look back; he looked rather focused on the road. “… Where do you live? I’ll drop you off at home.”

“By the Olympus Theatre, Timeless Crescent, house two.”

He nodded and began to head towards the crescent. Noting how he had been to that theatre a couple of times and never noticed the street.

“… What’s your name?” She questioned.

“Ryou Saito.” He replied, as he caught sight of the crescent. “Yours?”

“Birgitte Hotaru.”

The car slowed to a step in front of a simplistic, simple and clean building. “Well Hotaru-san, we’re here.”

She smiled to him, and looked rather grateful. “Thank you, again.” Birgitte opened the door and stepped out, secretly thankful for the porch light being on.

She stopped halfway to her house before turning, Ryou blinked, confused. As the woman approached he lowered his window, skeptical of why she was coming back to the car. Surely she wasn’t one of those types of woman, not right after a near-death experience, despite the fact he had, indeed, saved her. Birgitte paused at the car door, and handed Ryou her phone.

“If I need any more rescuing, I’ll be sure to give you a call.” She said, in a slightly joking manner. Ryou smirked a little, quickly inputting his name and number. “Thanks.”

“Night.” He replied, driving away only after she entered her home.

* * *

Ryou lay on his bed, frowning as sleep began to take command. His last thought was a curious one, and one he couldn’t get an answer too.

‘Did Hotaru-san glow?’

I am sorry if I messed up any Japanese connotations, punctuation, grammar and/or spelling… What I’ve put in is only what I know, and that may be wrong...

And yes this is a remake...

.: CHAPTERS :.
Season One
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
Season Two
XI
XII ♫ NEW ♫

[PancaKe]

When I first saw the title, my thoughts were along the lines of "Oh wow, Kingdom Hearts fanfiction" - as in the Play Station game with the Disney characters and stuff... After the first few paragraphs, I was like "This doesn't seem right..."

Haha but by then you had me hooked. I enjoy the way you write. I find it simple but effective. Especially the short paragraphs. Usually I would say that maybe putting the writing in colour isn't such a great idea, but I think the font colours were well chosen and they didn't hurt my eyes to read. =)

Umm....
The Japanese names confuse me. I never really know how they work. But I got there in the end. For a while I was confused as to why people kept referring to Ryou as a man... so it was good you threw his age in there somewhere.

[Asilynne]

I loves it ^v^ I like the oranges part the best I think, the moment when the mother asked him and he was all like "oh shit" <3

It was riveting ;D I cant wait to read more, love the Firefly cameo <3333 lol

[classy_cat18]

I told you I was going to reply to this. Here I am. Tipsy, but replying.

Liking the story so far. I actually prefer shorter paragraphs; too much length and detail turns me off. But I'm liking the emotion behind this, the peril and danger. I'm also liking the characters. I think I found Character Most Deserving of an Early Death/Ass Whooping. *points to Akira*

Now I'm off to lie down before the margarita drink takes a good hold on me. *wobbles away*

[ChobiChibi]

You know how much I loved the old version of this, but honestly, I love this so much more (and this is only chapter 1 XD).

It's a lot better paced, for starters. It doesn't feel like you're zipping from one thing to another, it just flows nicely.

I love Ryou, fact XD He hasn't done anything assholey yet, though! Would love to see it, since he seems so nice.

More... Moooooore <3

[Crystal Tears]

PancaKe: Ha ha I tricked you, I’m so devious and sneaky >w< . Thank you for the compliments.

About the font colour, I was worried that it would hurt someone’s eyes, I actually spent a good couple of minutes picking the colour (and carrying some over from RPG) to make sure people would read it without going blind (always handy, vision is).

As for the Japanese names and the like, here’s a little guide (just don’t quote me on it), I don’t think I’ll go outside what’s stated below, if I do I’ll be sure to clarify at the end of the chapter.

-chan: is usually used between female friends or towards younger friends and siblings.
* Particularly young children
-kun: is usually used between male friends or coworkers or by girls addressing a guy they are flirting with.
-san: general term, like Mr. and Mrs. In English.
-sama: a term of honour for people of higher status, especially people like the emperor.
Onee: Older Sister
Onii: Older Brother
Okaa: Mother
Otou: Father
Imouto: Younger Sister
Otouto: Younger Brother
*You may drop the ‘O’ on all (when referring to your own family) except when addressing a younger brother. Thus ‘Nii-san’ which Ai was calling Ryou was ‘Older Brother’.

↑ How it was explained to me, if it’s wrong, anyone my feel free to correct me. Hope it helps PancaKe, you’ll also find I’ll switch in-between depend on whose talking and the situation, so sometimes I might just say ‘older brother’ :3
(If you meant a direct translation of what Ryou or Akira means.. I can provide that later after I look them up XD)

* * *

Asilynne: I’m sorry I began writing it in our MSN chat XD, the mood to write just hit me and I had to start typing (you’re such a good sport about it). I’m glad you enjoyed the ‘oranges’ scene, and the appearance of Birgitte Hotaru. Expect to see more of her ^_~

* * *

Classy_cat18: LOL. Thank you for replying (tipsy). I’ll keep it in mind to not over-describe anything to try and keep you interested. The notable peril/danger in this chapter that was extremely prominent (to me) was the car-scene I believe, I suppose I wrote that well? It was my first action scene including the use of a vehicle in general that doesn’t get completely totaled.

Dawww, Akira had such a small roll and already people think he should die or get his ass handed to him, poor boy.

* * *

ChobiChibi: I remember first mentioning to you that I was going to rewrite Kingdom Heartless and you were all excited to see Rain and (maybe) Dawn again. I’m happy you love this version more than the last, if you hated this version I would have to wonder what I was doing wrong.

Yeah, the original was all ‘Get from point A to point B in the least amount of time possible’ the entire way, probably one of the things that turned me off of it. I will attempt to keep the lovely flow you speak of.

XD. You want him to do something that would label him an asshole? Well you can probably count on something happening in other chapters, no one is perfect right? Ryou will let his temper take control soon enough.

* * *

Thank you all for the replies and have a nice day~

[Samchu]

Good chapter mate, I really like it. Ryou's a really interesting character, that mix of being a jerk and a nice is really well written. And I agree with what everyone's said so far; the pace is great, really pulls you into the story. It's not too bogged down with description but there's enough to give you a strong enough image of the locations so that it works.

My one bit of nit-picking - which isn't spelling for once (XP) - is that you switch from past to present tense for the last few lines. Other than that it seemed mostly ok to me.

[Kuro Espeon]

Vereh Vereh naisu... ^_^ Can't wait to read more!!

Sorry, I'm bad at critiquing. XD

[Crystal Tears]

Samchu: I’m glad to hear you like Ryou, if I remember correctly you didn’t like Rain very much for a reason that was never clear to me. I hope I can keep the pace right for the next chapter.

It’s not for spelling?!?! (jk, jk) I have a tendency to do that, I don’t even realize it half the time. I’ll try to work on it, but you get no promises from me. XP

* * *

Kuro Espeon: XD Appreciate the comment <3

* * *

I’ve got no details on the next chapter I’m afraid, though it’s slowly piecing itself together in the confines of my battered, abused notebook.

I hope to have something soon~

Note: Etsu Ito's name has been changed to Mika Yanagisawa. Thank you and good day!

[Crystal Tears]

II

“Naoko-chan, fetch me a bottle of red wine from the cellar please.”

At the age of fifteen, Naoko thought she was above many people, and knew many things. She turned to her grandmother as she ran a brush through her brown hair, a perfect reply ready that would knock the old woman’s socks off, but before she could open her mouth, a stern dark-eyed gaze threw that idea right out the window.

The girl sighed. “Alright…”


The cellar was a dreadful place, there was always a draft, but it managed to remain damp, dark and musty. Preferably she would be upstairs in her room, playing around on the computer before school started. After all, what was the day without a quick morning glimpse at her livejournal or facebook page? She might have to catch up on something, or comment on a particularly hilarious photo Ayami posted the night before.

“Damn it…” Naoko muttered, almost slipping down the steep steps. “I could be watching Gackt on youtube instead of hunting for a damn- ACK!“

She fell. Head over heels she literally rolled down the stairs and landed on her back. The stone floor was particularly chilly and her skin began to get goose-bumps as she laid there, dazed and a little confused on what had just happened. Slowly the events pieced themselves back together like a puzzle and Naoko opened her eyes.

“God damn it.” The teenager growled, slowly sitting up and rubbing the back of her head. Luckily she hadn’t fallen a very long ways or the pain she was feeling now would’ve been ten times worse. “All this for a stupid wine bottle…”

Muttering various curses the girl got back to her feet and looked around. The light switch was around here somewhere, all she had to do was-

Something creaked.

Naoko froze, what else could be down here? In the darkness she couldn’t see anything. Her mind raced to come up with an answer and she concluded it was mice, or a rat. Unpleasant yes, but she could deal with rodents, she’d just find the light switch, get the bottle, and get the hell out of the cellar.

A strange shiver shot up and down her spine, all of a sudden nothing mattered; she just had to leave. Grandma could live without the wine for a while-

A container toppled over and the girl was gone. She raced blindly in the darkness towards where she thought the stairs were. Only Naoko’s guess was wrong, she hit the wall and tumbled to the ground. Her head and hands throbbed from the impact but her mind told her to get up. Find the stairs, the light switch, just don’t stop moving! Her legs forced her body upright and she ran again, knee slammed into a crate and made a horrible cracking noise, but that didn’t matter, all that did was escaping.

Naoko stopped suddenly, the pain shooting through her knee and head seemed to fade as she stood perfectly still.

A few feet away, were two bright yellow eyes.

* * *

Ryou woke up with a groan, his phone was ringing. Why was it ringing? In fact why was it on? He always turned it off when he went bed so that this exact scenario didn’t happen. Growling in annoyance he grabbed one of his pillows and placed it over his head, muffling the annoying ringtone that was forcing his mind to return to consciousness.

“I swear to God I’ll kill whoever turned it on…” He murmured, slowly rising up, tossing the pillow to the side and turning over to glare at the technical contraption with angry eyes. His back cracked has he stretched and reached over, grabbing the cellphone and looking at the display.

[UNKNOWN NUMBER]

“Oh, if you’re a telemarketer…” He muttered, pressing the small green button. “Moshi Moshi.”

“Hello Saito-san, it’s-“

“Hotaru-san.”

“Yes.” She sounded happy he remembered. “I um… I need your help.”

The man ran his hand over his face, attempting to wake up further. “It is dire?”

“Umm… No..”

“Alright…” Ryou looked over at his bedside clock and found that his frown deepened. “What time is it?”

“8:30.”

“Yeah that’s my point, call back later.” He growled, hanging up and tossing the cell to the other side of his room, where it landed on a pile of clothes.

Ryou was on the verge of sleep once again, his eyes drifting closed and the real world was fading away when the most irritating voice in the world fluttered into his ears and he found his need for his own apartment drastically rising.

“Ryou! Watch your sister for a couple of minutes! Something’s happening down the street!”

‘Oh if murder wasn’t frowned upon…’ The man thought with a small smile, amused for a second or two before his body began to force him out of bed without his mind’s consent. Slowly he stood, quickly putting some loose track-pants on before lumbering into the eye-sore of a room.
He was surprised to see her up and about. Well sort of, she was sitting on the floor, picking fluff from one of her plushie’s eyes. Ryou tilted his head a little in confusion before sitting down next to her.

“What’s up?” He questioned, Ai shrugged softly and kept her eyes on her bunny. “Come on Ai, you’re never up at 8:30…”

“Neither are you.” She looked back at him with big, innocent eyes.

Ignoring the counter, he shifted so he was on his knees and scooped her up. He rose to full height and for a moment Ai seemed entertained she was so far off the ground and didn’t have to hold on to stay at this level. Her smile faded when he put her back in bed and handed her the bunny she left on the floor. Her honey coloured eyes went back to focusing on the fluff, trying to find another hole to pluck it from.

“Come on…” He nudged her as he sat down on the bed. “What’s wrong?”

“If I tell you, you have to tell me why you’re up too.”

“Eh…” Ryou frowned, “I don’t know…”

She poked him, gaining his attention again. “Please Nii-san?”

He rolled his eyes and shifted so he was lying down on her bed, as soon as he did, she leaned back so her head was resting on his stomach. “Fine.”

“They talked to me again…” Ai revealed; lifting up her bunny and making it dance a little.

“You seem upset though; did I get the wrong type of oranges?”

“No…” The girl shifted so she was clinging to him and burying her face in his side. “They said that they hurt somebody…”

Ryou wrapped his arm around Ai and looked down at her, concerned. “What did they mean?”

“I don’t know…” Ai spoke into his side, her voice muffled. “They said it was an accident, they just wanted to look and she got hurt.”

Confusion was dominating his mind, he remembered two nights ago, those things he had seen briefly and that creature he had rammed with his car. How it had faded away, but they didn’t look like they just wanted to see something, they had chased Birgitte a considerable distance (he assumed from her exhausted state afterwards), and one had apparently attacked her.
He doubted they were the same ‘monsters’, if he even believed Ai in the first place. She was prone to making up stories, but she had been right about the oranges.

‘Coincidence.’ He thought. ‘She could’ve asked mom about the oranges.’

“Nii-san…”

He looked down at her. “Yeah?”

“You said you’d tell me why you’re up at 8:30.”

“Right.” Ryou frowned, remember that stupid phone call. “Someone called me, the phone rang, and I woke up.”

“Who called?”

“A girl.” As soon as those words left his mouth, the man instantly regretted it as Ai seemed to perk up with childish curiosity.

“A girl?”

“No.”

“But that’s what you said!”

He sat up with a smirk and grabbed her, threatening to tickle. “No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did!!” Ai chirped happily, and began to sing even as he tickled. “Ryou has a girlfriend! Ryou has a girlfriend!”

“Ai…” He growled as she grinned.

“What’s her name?”

“Go to bed.” He pushed her onto the mattress playful as he got up and stretched, recoiling as she poked him. “Argh!”

“What’s her name?” The girl questioned again, grabbing bunny and hugging the plush eagerly.

“I’m not telling you.”

“Aww but Nii-san!”


It was 9:43 now, and as Ryou poured himself a bowl of cereal, he wondered what could be taking his mother so long. It was a noted fact that the woman was amazed by anything, but when she said something was ‘happening’ down the street, he has assumed it was a gathering of parents arguing about a local bully or about rising gas prices, not something that took an hour to figure out.

He sat down at the table and stirred the cereal mindless as he flicked through channels on the television. Nothing seemed to be on, and the news was much to depressive in the morning. He usually only tuned in around twelve, when he didn’t mind hearing about how some pour mother of three had been murdered by her deranged ex, or a similar tragic tale.

Ryou stopped the channel on the music station; it was playing the Thriller video. He smirked, watching the dance with some curiosity and remembering when he was little how every kid his age wanted to learn to do the moon-walk.

“To bad he died…” He muttered, taking a mouthful of frosted flakes.

“Cause this is thriller, thriller night”

“Ryou!”

He turned from the screen, watching his mother curiously as she slipped off her shoes and moved into the kitchen, seeming a little panicked.

“Oh God Ryou, you know that murderer? Who steals the hearts?”

The man nodded, unable to respond verbally.

“He killed a girl down the street!”

He nearly choked on his breakfast, managing to swallow even through the sudden knot in his stomach made it less than desirable to eat. Ryou stared at his mother for a long moment before standing up and wiping off his face. Despite the faint want of staying away from such a scene, he had to go. Curiosity overruled rationality any day, and today was no exception.

“Where are you going?” He heard his mother call as he slipped on his shoes.

“I’m going to go see.”

“Ryou!” She crossed her arms as he put on a sweater. “It’s a nasty sight, don’t go, everyone’s so sad and afraid…”

“I’ll be fine.” He growled in response. “Just check on Ai and make sure she takes her medicine.”

* * *

His mother hadn’t been lying when she said it was a depressing scene. The ambulance was still in the driveway, with officers and a medic chatting away, one of the cops seemed particularly disturbed, probably the first on the scene and wishing he hadn’t been so eager to do his job. Ryou pushed his way to the edge of the tape the police has quickly set up, and looked around.

There was an elderly woman on the front steps of the house, tears flowed freely down her cheeks and she seemed unable to say anything helpful. Of course Ryou was just drawing conclusions from the expressions on the officer posing the questions, as the other was attempting to comfort the poor woman.

‘I highly doubt whatever you say will bring her any peace…’ He frowned, and found himself feeling a tinge of sadness. He turned and moved out of the crowd, not noticing until he was halfway home that his fists were clenched. ‘Why someone young?’ Ryou questioned, hoping for answer, but receiving none.

“Do you know what happened?”

He stopped, turning to see a teenage girl was addressing him. It wasn’t just any girl though; it was the girl from the park, the one who had been hanging around with that Akira-prat. Ryou raised an eyebrow, not quite sure what to think of her.

“A girl was murdered.”

She was speechless as she looked over at the crowd; she brought her hand up to her mouth as she seemed to think for a second. “Did you know her?”

“No.”

“Oh, I just thought… Well, you were crying.”

“I what?” Ryou questioned a little harshly, and touched just below his eye. To his surprise, his fingertips felt wet. Quickly he wiped whatever tears there might’ve been and moved away from her, looking rather annoyed.

‘Exactly why was I crying?’ He growled mentally. ‘I didn’t even know the girl-‘

“Thank you, by the way.”

He stopped, looking over his shoulder at brown haired girl. “For what?”

“For standing up to Akira-kun, and for searching for the phone…” By this time, Ryou had turned right around, looking at her with crossed arms and a stern gaze. “Did you find it?”

“Yeah, I did.” He spoke in an irritated tone. “I gave it back to the girl too.”

“Thank you..” She shuffled nervously.

“Uh huh…” Ryou tilted his head a little. “What’s your name?”

“My name is Naomi Itsuki.” She bowed her head and looked up at him. “You are..?”

“Ryou Saito.” He looked back over at the crowd. “Do me a favour, next time Akira decides to be a prick, stop him.”

“Oh…” Naomi looked at the ground a bit, not used to be treated like a child from a complete stranger. “I don’t think he wants to hurt anyone…”

“But he does.” The man stated. “And one day, it’ll all come around to bite him in the ass.”

She nodded, seeming to understand perfectly. “Have a nice day Saito-san.”

He rolled his eyes as she crossed the street and disappeared around the corner. Letting a hiss of air escape his lungs as he headed back to the house, briefly wondering where Naomi had been going. She had been wearing casual clothing; light blue shirt and a white skirt, nothing overall fancy. Ryou just assumed she was off to meet up with ‘Akira-kun’.

‘She doesn’t seem like the type of person to hang out with that little punk… So why does she?’


His mother looked up at the door with her gentle hazel eyes and sighed a little as her son took off his shoes before closing the door. The man threw the sweater on the side bench, yawned, and decided that instead of eating, sleeping was much more of a priority. Ryou didn’t notice his mother clearing off the kitchen table, in truth he had forgotten he left his stuff there. Now that he was inside the house, temporarily blocked emotions were swirling and he didn’t want to deal with him.

“Isn’t it depressing?”

Ryou shrugged a bit as he neared his door. “Very…”

“Ai’s asleep by the way, that medicine you got her knocked her out cold.”

“Hm..” He replied, fighting back depressive-feelings. “It was supposed to. Seeing as she never sleeps.”

“Are you really going to bed now?” Came the distinctly unimpressed voice as he entered his bedroom and shut the door. “It’s 10:02!”

“That’s nice…” He muttered, collapsing onto his bed. “I really don’t care.”

* * *

Ryou…

He woke with a start, muscle tense, heart pounding and sweat running down his skin. He couldn’t even recall what he had been dreaming about, only that whatever it had been terrified him. Ryou shook his head, trying to shake the fear from his mind as he reminded himself that the sun was shining through his window. The warmth from the light gave him some comfort as he sighed.

When his phone rang out of the blue, however, he jumped.

“Christ…” He thought, smirking as he slid off his bed and grabbed it from the pile of clothing. “I’m not jumpy… Not at all...”

[UNKNOWN NUMBER]

“Uh huh…” Ryou sat on the edge of his bed as he answered. “Moshi Moshi.”

“It’s 12:10 now.”

“Ha ha.” He replied to the woman. “So what’s so important?”

“You… You said you could see them, those monsters..”

“Yeah, what about them?”

“Well… It’s sort of hard to explain.” She sounded rather apprehensive. “I don’t know if what happened was related, or anything, but I think it might be.”

“Right…” He frowned and rubbed his forehead. “Well when you start making sense, call me back.”

“Saito-san, please don’t hang up.”

‘But I want too..’ He noted. “What’s wrong?”

“Come to my house that will make everything clear… Or at least more so than now...”

“Alright…”

“Thank you. See you soon.”

“Bye.”

As he hung up, Ryou sat in the silence of his room for a couple of minutes. What could be so important? And why couldn’t she explain it on the phone? Today wasn’t going to be a fun day, he knew that much. He’d have to get washed and dressed before he went though, and add another unnamed girl to the tally of those murdered. The man gritted his teeth and looked at the murder board with a slow growing frustration.

Too many people were dying, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

* * *

Of all the things Ryou Saito could possible come up with for why Hotaru-san wanted him to come over, this was definitely not on his list.

“A door?” He looked over at her with an irritated gaze. “You called me over for a door?”

“A new door.” She corrected him. “I woke up this morning because of a light in the hallway, and this was here.”

“A door…”

Birgitte frowned at Ryou for a moment before she fixed her white dress. He mildly wondered if she wore anything but white dresses, it was summer though, so sun-dresses and whatnot were common appearance right now. The gold accenting on the outfit was nice, a little floral design to give the dress that pop every outfit needed. Ryou sighed a little.

“So… It just appeared.”

“Yes, around six this morning…”

“And… You think this might have to do with the monsters?” Ryou tilted his head and put his hands in his vest pocket. “Why?”

“Well…” She flicked off the hallway light and cast the area into a dim darkness. To his surprise, the door seemed to emanate light. Shortly after the little display she flicked the switch so the hallway was lit up again. “They don’t like light, and to my knowledge, this is the only door that glows.”

The door itself looked old, it was out of place in the house but overall there wasn’t anything odd about it in the light. It was a little weather-worn with a black, iron door handle and a small keyhole. But as Ryou took a good look at its wooden surface, he noticed a spiral carved into it, about the size of an average plate. He frowned, running his fingers over the spiral before reaching for the handle and attempting to pull the door open.

“… It’s locked.” He frowned, and just to make sure he pushed, but to no avail, the door wasn’t moving.

“Here…” She grabbed the handle next and tried, but came to the same result. “Why in the world would a door randomly appear but keep itself locked?”

Ryou shrugged. “Well it needs a key.”

“I know my home pretty well,” The woman looked around. “I’ve moved in when I was nineteen and lived here for two years… The key isn’t in this house.”

“Well…” He thought about the key appearing in his house and then his sister. “It’s not in mine; someone would’ve noticed it by now.”

They moved into the living room and stood in silence, a little awkwardly, but they were trying to think of where the key could’ve appeared. Nothing came to mind though, at least for Ryou anyways, but from the saddened expression on Birgitte’s face he would assume she didn’t have a clue either. Frustrating, but he was under the firm impression if they were meant to find or have the key, it would somehow work its way into their lives.

“There’s no sense worrying about it.” Ryou stated as he stretched a little, fixing his t-shirt afterwards. “It’ll show up eventually.”

“What if…” She paused, nervous to even mention it. “They come through? Unlock it from the other side?”

“Is it dark on the other side?”

The woman nodded, and he frowned.

“Board it up.”

“Pardon?”

The man looked over at the door. “Board it up, and keep your room light on when sleeping. So even if they do come through, they can’t touch you.”

“Okay.” She smiled a little at the suggestion. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

Ryou stood in relative quiet, mulling over the events of today and finding that he severely lacked answered for the many questions appearing. The girl that was murdered, if Ai’s monster was in any way linked to that, and this mysterious door. Briefly he toyed with the idea of asking his sister to question her ‘friends’ if they knew anything about it. Of course, that could draw unnecessary attention to both Hotaru-san and Ai, so that was completely out of the question. But he could ask about the key.

‘That probably puts someone else in jeopardy…’ He noted as Birgitte entered the room again.

“I had to find a small light.” She admitted a little sheepishly. “Well thank you for coming over… Even if it was just for a door...”

“No problem…” Ryou replied. “It gave me something to do today.”

As they made their way to the door, he turned, noting a small tinge of hunger that had probably been bugging him for the last hour without the man realizing. He turned to face Birgitte, and looked at her questioningly.

“Do you want to grab a bite to eat?” He questioned and shrugged. “Like sushi or something?”

* * *

Alright, the girl loved sushi; he had learned that very quickly today. He had also learned that she was twenty-one, independent, doesn’t like violence and most notable did not pry into his life like other people seemed to adore doing. He had fun, and that was the first time in a long time that had happened when hanging around another human-being who wasn’t directly related to him. She even full heartedly accepted his less than desirable attitude when he had told another patron to shut his mouth when speaking much too loudly.

It was eight now, night had fallen and since he got home at six, he had just puttered around his room, playing video games and trying to piece together the link that held the victims together.

“Why take the hearts?” He questioned out loud as he riddled enemy aliens with bullets. “Hearts are symbolic I suppose, maybe he or she is acting on the ‘So and so stole my heart’ saying… But it makes no sense.” He remembered the time frame in between some attacks. “He also must have chopper or something… Either that or I want to know what back road he’s taking to avoid traffic.”

“Nii-san, what are you talking about?”

Ryou glanced at his door and smile as he focused back on the door. “Just thinking out loud Imouto-san, what’s up?”

“Daddy’s coming home tomorrow, Mommy doesn’t know if she’s happy or sad.”

She leapt up onto his bed and sat next to him as a grenade sent aliens flying in all directions.

“She’s happy Ai, don’t see it as any other way.”

“Daddy said he had a present for me.” She grinned wildly. “What do you think it is?”

“I’ll take a wild guess and say a plushie of some description.”

“Do you think so?” She clapped happily. “I want another one, a bear this time!”

‘Never mind she has enough plush-toys to entertain the entire child population of Africa.. The girl still wants more.’ He smirked and paused the game, shifting so he was facing her. “So what makes you face off with my disastrous room? You hungry?”

“No, I ate.” She poked him in the knee. “What’s her name?”

He fell back as if he had been shot. “You’re still going on about that?”

“I want to know.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“But-“

“Go to bed Ai.” He ordered and she frowned. “If you go to bed and sleep, I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

“Promise?”

“I promise. Now go sleep and dream of unicorns or whatever it is you dream about.”

She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before making her way back to her room. Ryou rolled his eyes and went back to his game.

“There is no way in hell she’s actually going to sleep.”

* * *

Ai…

The girl turned over, eyes tightly shut as she clung to her pillow and frowned. Nii-san said to sleep, and that is what she was going to do. It was late and her eyes felt heavy anyways, they should know she needs to sleep tonight, to find out Ryou’s girlfriend’s name.

Ai… Wake up Ai…

She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes and looking around the dimly lit room. The lamp Ryou had given her a long time ago still shone bright and it kept the monsters away, for that the five-year-old was forever grateful. But that didn’t stop them from talking to her; she had begun to notice though, that the others couldn’t hear them, not like she could. Maybe if they listened closely enough they might hear a whisper, but nothing more.

“What?” She questioned, yawning. “I need to sleep; Nii-san won’t tell me his girlfriend’s name if I don’t.”

We want to play Ai.

“But it’s dark out.”

We can’t play in the light; it hurts us, like how Ai can’t stare into the gold disk.

“The sun silly.” She smiled a little. “It’s called the sun.”

In the hallway it materialized, a pitch-black figure that was much taller than her brother. Its body was like a man’s, though a bit deformed and a little thin. It gazed into the room with bright yellow eyes, but dared not to step into the direct light from the lamp.

Come play, we’ll protect Ai from the dark.

[Kurosakura]

Kyaaaaa, I luffs it so far! You make me wanna keep reading and reading and reading and reading... I can't wait for the next part!

[classy_cat18]

Another chapter done! You're doing well with updates! Unfortunately, I don't do well with reviews. ^^;

It was another good chapter, and you're doing well with the pacing. You're not revealing too much at a time, just enough to make your readers want more. I feel concerned about Ai. That poor girl doesn't know who she's playing around with.

Anyway, keep up the good work!

[ChobiChibi]

You brought just the right amount of assholeness to Ryou XD You can tell he wants to be a good guy, he just likes to hide it. He also likes sleep. Lots.

Ai's so adorable... I can imagine all hell breaking loose if the nasty yellow eyed things start attacking her, but by the sounds of it they won't... How curious... She's gonna be interesting, methinks.

Love. More. Plz. <3

*coughnamestealercough* XD <3

[Crystal Tears]

Kurosakura: ^_^ Thanks for the comment!

* * *

Classy_cat18: You’re reviews are fine Classy, don’t worry. Oh I’m so relieved to hear I kept the original pace, I was worried about it while writing.

He he, will Ai be okay? Such an innocent little child playing with the darkness outside, I’m sure she’ll be fine… Mufufufufu…

^_^ Thank you~

* * *

ChobiChibi: Sleep is a wonderful thing I and he don’t get enough of. So we try to sleep whenever we can, only thing is, he has yellow-eyed monsters preventing him from a good night’s rest. I like him being more of an ass than a nice guy, makes for more laughs.

I’ve never actually written a prominent little sister role, and seeing as I don’t have a little sister, I can only hope I’m getting it right. Does it sound like they won’t try anything? Can you trust a monster’s word though? Children play all the time and sometimes things get out of hand~ >:3

You will get more.

* * *

Chapter 3 is being planned as we speak! I don’t have much to report on it though, all I can say is that the beginning shall be interesting~

♫

[Asilynne]

I promised comments, sorry you had to wait ^-^()

I love the phone part, I can so imagine being so tired that even something potentially an emergency would seem less important than sleep, and throwing the phone was a nice touch XD I also love Ai, she is so adorable and having 2 little sisters myself I think your doing a great job! Even "asshole" Ryou isnt completely a dick either, hes just had a rough growing up and I think despite the attitude he can have sometimes hes a good hearted person. And I love the way you play Birgitte, I havent even RPed her yet and it fits her personality really well XD So much happened in this chapter thats really cool, and the flow is still great. The end of this one is also very emotional its like "oh no that cute sick little girl doesnt know what shes dealing with!!" and if it were a movie Id be yelling at the screen right now DONT LITTLE GIRL THEYRE HEARTLESS RUN!!!! XDDD

Very good chapter strawberry~~~ ^v^

[Crystal Tears]

Asilynne: The phone scenario was amusing, and if someone called me at 8:30 in the morning I would probably do the same. Its true sleep does tend to outweigh important things as long as they’re not life threatening, and Ryou knows this.

I have fun writing Ai, it lets my inner child come out and write her lines.

There’s more to Ryou Saito then meets the eye?

I’m glad I’m doing Birgitte justice, I’m always afraid I’m writing character’s wrong. Lol, I’m glad you approve.

XD Run Ai Run! I can imagine you yelling at her and getting angry if she didn’t listen.

^_^ Thank you for the lovely comment.

* * *

III

The screen door had just moved.

Now, that made no sense what so ever to Ryou, who was lying on his bed, drifting between the states of being awake and sleeping. But the sound, a foreign sound to hear at 1:30 in the morning, had disturbed his almost slumber. The man sat up slowly, listening carefully, for exactly what, he had no idea, and the silence in the house gave hint that there was no intruder, leaving him with one odd conclusion.

Someone had left the house.

‘Why would someone be leaving the house?’ He thought with a frown as he slipped on some track pants and opened his door carefully. The hallway was barely lit by the dim light coming from Ai’s room and the bathroom. ‘It’s 1:30 in the morning, exactly what was that damn important?’

He reached the kitchen and found himself frowning deeper. No hint here either, he had no particular wish to go outside. Not when it was so late and with his neighborhood being the way it was. Ryou yawned a little and stopped the front door, wide open, with only the screen door keeping intruders at bay. The man raised an eyebrow and slowly peered around the door’s edge to the lawn.

Ryou was frozen for a moment in time; half a second of numbness took control as his crimson gaze landed upon Ai, circled by dark, twisted figures rising out of the ground like some sort of gravity defying liquid. His tired state was drained as his arm reached out to the counter next to the entrance and grasped his keys. The man fiddled with them for a millisecond before moving out from behind the wooden door.

He pointed the small black remote on the keychain towards his car, and pressed one of the three buttons.

Ryou’s car sprang to life, its alarm blaring into the night as its lights began to flash wildly. It stunned the creatures, making them waver as Ai dropped to her knees and covered her head. The porch light came on only a second later, before the screen door was nearly torn off its hinge as her brother ran out of the house and leapt from the edge of the porch to seemingly her side.

The creatures faded shortly after, forced away by the screaming car and the porch light, not to mention the growing number of people who were wondering just what the hell was going on.

“Ai!?” Came the worried cry of their mother, who rushed to their side, still in her nightgown. “Oh my God are you okay!? What happened!? Ryou turn off that bloody car alarm!”

Ryou let go of his sister as his mother picked her up. Reality began to set in as the horrendous noise entered his ears, and time caught up. Blinking a little he pressed the button again and quiet fell over the street, his feeling returned shortly after, numbness fading away to reveal a pounding heart. But another emotion was surfacing as he glared out at the darkness, fists clenched and mind no longer wanting an answer.

‘You came after my sister…’ He snarled, something in him knowing that whatever they were could hear him. ‘For that, I will make sure you all DIE.’

* * *

“Saito-san?”

Ryou looked up, blinking blankly at the girl sitting in front of him. Birgitte had called at ten in the morning, which was preferable compared to the 8:30 of last time. She sat with tea in hand, wearing navy jean-shorts and a white tank top. Ryou frowned, realizing that for the past ten minutes he had completely zoned out on the conversation.

“Sorry…” He sighed, fixing his t-shirt and fiddling with his iPod. “I was just thinking.”

The woman nodded, as if understanding. “Is it true what the news said? That your sister walked out on someone trying to steal your car?”

For a brief second he considered telling her the truth, but really he didn’t want to talk about it. “Yeah…”

“She’s lucky that car alarm scared whoever it was away, if they had of noticed her…”

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” Ryou replied with a bit of a growl. “If that’s alright.”

“I’m sorry; I wasn’t trying to upset you.”

He looked down at the ground, thinking for another second or two before looking over at the mysterious glowing door. The man wondered if it held some clue as to the method of defeating those creatures, but for all he knew, it could let in more of them. That was something he could honestly do without, maybe the glow was to lure stupid, hopeful people to look for a solution behind the door and then release more.

‘It would be my luck…’ He mentally noted with a smirk. “Has the door done anything?”

“No… I’ve looked for the key at work as well, but there’s nothing.”

“Alright…” Ryou ran his hand through his hair. “Let’s look at it this way… We don’t have the key, and we’ll probably not get it until we confront those things.”

Birgitte frowned. “How did you come up with that conclusion?”

“Have you noticed anything about our luck Hotaru-san?” Ryou smirked, as if it were funny. “We don’t have good luck, good luck would mean we would never see those things, they would leave the world, and particularly Traverse City, alone.”

“Life is all about challenges.”

Ryou chuckled and stood up, heading for the exit. “Now that is truly an interesting way of looking at things.” He turned around to look at her as he slid opened the door. “Tell me Birgitte-chan, do you still retain that attitude when it’s a challenge you can’t win?”

Before she could answer, Ryou left, far to irritated to listen to whatever reply she could’ve had.


The sun was high overhead, Ryou couldn’t believe he had spent two hours in there, it had felt like eternity and a second at the same time. Ignoring the world around him for the most part he crossed the parking lot and made his way to his car. His iPod was screaming into his ears with various metal tunes, drowning his negativity in songs that tended to make him feel better rather than worse.

He fumbled around in his pants pocket for his keys as he neared the back of his car, stopping only briefly at the odd feeling he was being watched. Checking his surroundings quickly, Ryou frowned with annoyance; it was quite possible he was being paranoid about the monsters. He didn’t have to worry though, they avoided light; in fact they seemed to die in it, which was a positive note in his book.

“Good Afternoon.”

Ryou turned around sharply, taken by surprise as somehow this man’s smooth, cold voice had broken through the loud music. He had years on Ryou, looking around mid thirties, wearing a dark overcoat and a dark grey fedora that made him appear as some sort of gangster. He frowned at the sly smile on the man’s face and glared into the man’s grey eyes.

“Can I help you?”

“Oh no, my boy, I am here to offer my assistance to you.”

‘Oh this can’t be good..’ Ryou thought; rolling his eyes. “What?”

“I saw you struggling with your keys there my good sir, and I was wondering…” In a flash he had swung open his coat to reveal it was lined with odd knickknacks of sorts. The most notable were that of odd key chains, each with a different little trinket on the end. “If you might be interested in a keychain?”

“No thanks.” Ryou turned from him.

“Come now, I’ll give you one for free how about that?” His voice sounded a little disappointed that Ryou didn’t show any interest at all. “If you find you like it, you can visit my shop on main street; The Hollow Bastion.”

‘What sort of name is Hollow Bastion for a shop?’

With a sigh Ryou turned back to the man and looked at the odd things in the coat. Most of them didn’t remotely interest him, but he had a distinct feeling this guy wasn’t going to leave him alone until he picked one. Whatever he picked was free though, so it wasn’t like Ryou had anything to lose. Quickly he plucked a black keychain with an odd, darkly coloured eye on the end from the salesman.

“There.” Ryou rolled his eyes and attached the thing to his keys. “Happy?”

“Very, now, if you excuse me, I have to be off to work.”

As quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared. The man watched him slink out of the parking lot and out of sight, probably for the better too. The guy was odd and had a gross feel about him, though to be fair to him; Ryou wasn’t much a people person. So it couldn’t easily been his distaste for conversation making him feel a little off.

* * *

“Is she alright?”

Ryou rounded the corner, his cell phone to his ear and one hand on the wheel as he drove home. He had noted about five minutes ago how he could get in a lot of trouble for what he was doing but the cops never patrolled next to the old baseball stadium. It was sort of odd actually, how they didn’t drive past the one place that could very well be swarming with criminals at any given basis.

“She’s okay… She doesn’t want to talk about what happened.”

He rolled his eyes, and switched hands. “I bet… Did she eat anything?”

“She ate a little,” His mother’s voice seemed to ease a little. “But she’s pretty shaken up…”

“Right well-“

Ryou slammed on the breaks as a girl ran straight out of the stadium, panting with grass stains and all over her outfit and a dark red liquid running down her arm. The man blinked as she nearly collapsed on the hood, panting and wincing as left arm hit the car and then quickly retracted.

‘I am getting sick of almost running people over..’

“Mom, I’ll call ya’ back.” He managed, flipping the phone shut and getting out of the car.

She looked nearly his age, with wavy black hair barely tied back in a scrunchie that was in the midst of falling out, her eyes a bright green looked at him with worry and surprise as she struggled to catch her breath.

“Are you alright?” The driver questioned, nearing her and noting that her arm had a fresh cuts in it, four of them, like she had been attacked by some psycho with a butcher’s knife. “What happened?”

“Them…” She gasped, looking at the dark hallway leading into the stadium. “T-They… I was passing by and heard… Someone screaming…” Whoever the woman was broke into tears, whimpering as another cry came from the stadium. “I- I don’t know… I just went in to see... and…”

A brief flash of those monsters around Ai took over Ryou’s sight and he gritted his teeth. He glared into the darkness and walked forward, he would be damned if those things got another person.

“Where are you going?” She grabbed his arm and he paused, looking back at her. “They’ll kill you…”

“And they’ll kill whoever is left in there.” Ryou tugged his arm free. “I’m not going to let that happen, stay here in the light, you’ll be safe.”


The decent into madness was an interesting one. For whatever reason Ryou Saito found himself with the need to confront the monsters that had tried to kill his sister, and he knew that the need would probably get him killed. Fear had turned into anger, and in the darkness, even as that sick shiver in the spine returned, his mind was forcing his body forward.

“Get off of him!!”

That voice, a voice that wasn’t sick or a whisper in his mind motioned him to run. The hallway turned into a sudden dark blur, through the entrance and onto the wide field, a baseball diamond that was in desperate need of care. Ryou’s eyes adjusted quickly to the new darkness, and those blurs became more concrete, one body lie on the ground unmoving, but two others were struggling.
Monsters of the black were there also; too tall to be natural with bright, with evil eyes, they grappled with the children, almost seeming to toy with them.


The one closest went for the eldest boy, wearing some sort of jersey. The kid stumbled, falling back as the creature grabbed at his chest, just missing the flesh and leaving an ice-cold feeling right above his heart. The yellow eyes narrowed in frustration.

Why do they squirm?

It grew annoyed, foot slamming down on the boy’s thigh, claws digging into the soft flesh of the leg. The human screamed in pain, trying desperately to pull himself away from the creature who hunched over, hand turning from smooth and remotely human to clawed and demonic.

Take their hope away; they are easier to deal with.

The other monster glanced at its kin and seemed to nod.

We will succeed.

Akira’s heart was pounding, the creature with yellow eyes had returned for him, a nightmare thought to be unreal was before him, no longer were the monsters small and curious, but tall and devil-like. All he felt was cold, a daunting frigidness of being on death’s doorstep. He couldn’t move, he was far too scared, he couldn’t help either of his friends, one was dead and soon he would be too.

‘Heaven doesn’t await a coward, that’s what father said…’


Ryou tackled the monster, though really his strike seemed to completely miss, as he toppled to the ground. He got to his hands and knees and looked up, it wasn’t physical anymore, its body loomed in an almost cloud like state before reforming. The boy, who he had recognized to be that brat from before, had escaped though, keeping a good distance between himself and the slightly confused creature.
It’s yellow gaze fell upon Ryou, and as the man rose up to full height, those wide eyes quickly narrowed in anger.

It robbed us of the female!

Kill it! Forget the younglings!

The second monster turned from the other boy and faced Ryou, who was quickly realizing that these things probably remembered him for numerous incidences.

‘Shit…’ He thought as he looked past them to Akira. “Run!”

“But-“

“Listen brat I don’t need your help just RUN!”

Akira faltered, but as his friend grabbed his arm and began to run; his only choice was to head for the exit.

“Alright…” Ryou backed up a bit as they neared. “I ran…” He pointed at the one with the narrowed eyes. “Probably you over, so you got a reason to hate me that I’ll admit…”

The break in the violence was over at that last remark, the lead monster attacked, leaping at Ryou with claws barred. The man dived out of the way, and managed a quick roll as the second attempted to crush his face under its foot.

Scrambling to his feet, Ryou found himself completely on the defensive. Using any and all tactics to dodge claws until the angry monster caught him off guard; admittedly he had lost sight of it, but he wasn’t expecting it to phase out of the ground behind him. He turned only in time to feel something akin to knives slice through his shirt and cut down his chest.

His call came out strangled by sheer pain and an odd icy feeling the monster’s claws left after the attack. Another strike came from behind him and is was straight across his back, the throbbing seemed to go from shoulder to shoulder as he fell to the ground, panting he was kicked onto his back roughly by the apparently lackey.

“Urgh…” He groaned, and hissed out a harsh breath of air as a clawed foot stomped onto his chest and held him down. “Go ahead…” Ryou smirked darkly, his words raspy as he couldn’t breathe anymore. “Make my day.”

Now it dies!

There was a loud crack and suddenly the monster’s head was gone, forced into it’s apparently gas state. Ryou blinked in surprise.

There was a distinctive laugh as another crack echoed in the stadium and the creature’s leg and foot was gone.

“Wooo!” Akira cheered, twirling the baseball bat and grinning as his friend handed him another baseball, “its outta here! Run for home buddy!”

Ryou’s body protested as a hand grabbed his arm and hauled him off the ground as the monsters were stunned. He looked over briefly to note it was the girl who he had almost run over. Now he focused solely on running, the problem being that his body was greatly annoyed by the fact he had seven to eight slashes in him and he insisted on running for his life.

When they reached the other two, everyone began to move. Into the hallway they ran, blood loss quickly becoming a notable hindrance, Ryou’s upper frame was beginning to feel heavier to his legs, and the edges of the world were starting to blur. He could hear Akira curse and the girl huff as she tugged him along, but everything was moving far too fast for his slowing mind to keep up.

“AHHH!”

Ryou looked over his shoulder to see Akira scramble and run for his life as one of the creature’s pounced on his friend and phased his arm into the kid’s chest. The other was still after them, closing in on Akira who had shot a ball through its head.

The light of the street was a welcomed change to the darkness, the trio fell to the ground as they leapt out of the doorway, Ryou and the girl landed next to each other in front of his car, while Akira pivoted around and faced the darkness and the yellow eyes glaring from the hallway.

“You bastards!” He screamed, and whipped the bat inside, making one of them vanish. “Y-You… You killed both of them! Yuu and Daichi! I’ll send you all back to hell!”

“Get his phone from the car!”

Akira turned, trying to stop the tears falling from his eyes. He looked at the woman; Karen Yasashisa was her name, if he remembered correctly. In all the chaos that had happened, he could very well be wrong about it. Though the boy did what she told him, running to the sleek red car and opening the door. The phone was lying on the passenger seat and blinking.
The boy picked it up quickly and flipped it open, finding out that the man had missed two calls and had a text message from someone called ‘Hotaru, Birgitte’.

“I got it!”

“Call the police, and tell them to send an ambulance!”

Ryou chuckled as he was nearly unconscious. “What’re you gonna tell them? That I was assaulted by Freddy Krueger and Wolverine?”

Akira dialed 119 and sat down, leaning against the tire of the vehicle.

“119, state your emergency.”

He faltered, Ryou had a point, exactly what was he supposed to say?

* * *

The door to the room opened quietly as a nurse stepped inside, dressed in a dark blue outfit. Evening was upon Traverse City, and it was always the most beautiful time in the nurse’s opinion. She yawned a little, looking forward to the very near future where her shift would end and she would be allowed to go home. Blinking a couple of times she moved to the end of the bed and picked up the clipboard, reading over a few details.

Then she stopped, and looked from the clipboard to the man in the bed, back to the paper she had been reading.

She slipped the board back into the end of the bed, curiosity getting the better of her. Slowly she moved towards the sleeping individual, who looked a little pale but the sheet had said he had suffered major blood loss, actually it was a surprise he was alive. Carefully she pulled the blankets down and pulled on the collar of the sheet he was wearing just a tad.

‘Bandages…’ She thought with a frown, needing to be sure, she pulled gently on one and stopped.

The skin was black.

Her hand pulled away quickly and she frowned, quickly fixing the blankets so they were over his chest again. ‘Poor kid… Almost the next victim of that heart thief… I wonder why his skin turned black… Probably a skin condition…’

The door began to open and the nurse looked over in surprise, watching as the doctor led a teenager into the room. She recognized the doctor as Hajime Kariya, a well respected man in the entire medical community. Many were confused on why he chose to stay at Traverse Central Hospital, but he always told them that doctors didn’t have the liberty of picking the conditions of their work place, nor did they have the choice to abandon hospitals in desperate need of doctors.

His eyes fell upon the nurse, and he smiled gently.

“Nurse Higa, would mind excusing us? I have much to discuss with Yamiguchi-san.”

“Of course doctor.” She bowed politely to both of them, notably the girl, before slipping outside.

The teenager had her arms crossed, the hospital was a cold place, not exactly ideal for wearing a expensive corset and flared jeans, but she could deal with it for now.

“This is-“

“Ryou Saito. Karen Yasashisa and Akira Saotome claim that the heart thief intended to take his heart.” She looked at the doctor curiously. “This theory was accepted by the police because if Daichi Sato, he was missing his heart.”

“That is correct, but…” The doctor flipped over the tan envelope in his hand and handed it to the woman.

The girl didn’t show any emotion, but her mind cringed at the pictures, clean slices with blood oozing from them and the skin peeling back. She blinked and raised an eyebrow however, at the… She supposed it was bruising around the wound.

“Why is the skin black around the cuts?”

The doctor smiled a little at the mysterious. “We have no idea, and I’m the only one interested in finding out. I took samples, but noticed when I was stitching up the wounds that his skin in those areas was unnatural cold. But it isn’t dead tissue; it’s like a tattoo in some respects.”

She frowned, and rested a hand on the hilt of her shinai. “What respects isn’t it like a tattoo?”

“The chill is emits is the only concrete evidence I have, but I have a suspicion the bodies without hearts, they too, probably have the same affect around the wound.” Dr. Kariya flipped the folder to another case. “Karen Yasashisa’s cut on her arm also displayed blacking around the skin, and Akira Saotome had the same effect with the gashes in his legs… But since it didn’t seem to be life-threatening, the doctor looking over the case reported it as bad bruising and let them both go home.”

“How long has he been out?”

“Six hours now, he’ll probably wake up in an hour or so, though I don’t know how well he’ll answer questions… The EMT who arrived on the scene couldn’t get him to focus worth a damn.”

“I’ll wait.” The girl replied, taking a seat next to the unconscious man. “Thank you Doctor.”

* * *

‘What happened?’ Ryou thought, his mind swirling in the familiar darkness of closed eyelids. Fragments of his memory began to piece back together, nearly running over that girl, racing in to help that brat and his friend… ‘Did I die?’ He attempted to move his hand and found his body was sluggish and tired, and the dull throbbing from his back and chest reminded him that he was very much alive. ‘Of course I didn’t die… That would be the solution to all my problems, and far to kind of the world to end me there.’

Slowly he opened his eyes; the dull glow from a lamp seemed to overwhelm him, making him flinch and try to turn his head away from the light. Ryou let his eyes adjust to the glare and found that he was in the hospital. The room was bland, lacking any personality, and the bed was oddly comfortable but not reassuring. People only lay on hospital beds when they were gravely sick or injured.

‘Been here enough to know…’ He thought with a frown.

“You’re awake.”

That was a voice he failed to recognize, even in his foggy memory. It wasn’t Ai’s, no his mother’s, but notably it was female. Recalling Hotaru-san’s voice revealed it wasn’t her, and from what he remember of the other girl’s voice, it wasn’t hers either.

He blinked and looked over, eyes falling on a woman with brown hair and red highlights, though it was more along the lines of auburn now that he thought about it. She looked serious for a girl that was maybe out of high school. Though he very much doubted she was older than him.

“Who…” He began, though choked as his throat was unbelievably dry.

The girl took the small cup of water from the bedside table and handed it to him, speaking as he drank the liquid. “I am Katsumi Yamiguchi.”

Ryou frowned a little as he put the cup down, that last name sounded familiar.

She was still expressionless as she spoke. “I know it wasn’t a man or murderer that did this to you...” She let out a long breath and crossed her legs, getting comfy.

“So how about you tell me what actually happened?”

[Kurosakura]

It's late, I'm half asleep, and my internet connection is failing epically, but I loved this chapter. You portray Katsumi better than I do, and I'm so psyched for the next installment.

[VirtualPlay]

Whee, excellent chapter. Okay, sure I'm a little biased because you've included the character I created for your corresponding RPG, but... ^^;

Still, a really good chapter, it's good to see that it's not all fun and games and people close to main characters are dying, and not just no-named people on the sidelines. That kind of thing is just too typical of Fanfics nowadays.

[classy_cat18]

That attack sent shivers down my spine. Never has darkness hurt so much. *shudder*

Now Katsumi is making her debut. Ooooh, interrogation.

And I agree with VirtualPlay. Life isn't a fairytale and people should remember that when writing fiction.

[Kuro Espeon]

This fic should be subtitled: "Ryou has Bizarre Encounters With Lots of Girls (plus Akira)". XDDD

No, seriously, great chapter. Very chilling and realistic. Keep up the great work!

BTW, I think I know where that whole thing with the keychain is going. ^.~

[classy_cat18]

This fic should be subtitled: "Ryou has Bizarre Encounters With Lots of Girls (plus Akira)". XDDD

Kuro's got a point. Everyone he's running into is a damsel in distress. This wouldn't be a harem fic, would it? *wiggles eyebrows*

[Crystal Tears]

Kurosakura: ^_^ Thank you so much, there is no way I portray Katsumi better than her own RPer, give yourself some credit.

* * *

VirtualPlay: 8D Yay! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Really? I don't read very many fanfics, and the one I am reading had a notable character die off (I hated him, so I was very happy). It's actually one of my favourite things about writing, is the ability and choice the writer has to make a character bite the dust.

I don't see how you could fight a battle with monsters of doom and not have someone close to you die... Doesn't seem realistic O_o; (Of course, said monsters of doom are exactly real themselves...)

* * *

Classy_cat18: :3 I'll take your shivers as a sign of a good job.

Yes Katsumi, her entrance excites me as I have plans for her... Mufufufu...

* * *

Kuro Espeon: LOL It's not my fault that I've only found ways to fit most of the women in! You can count on other males eventually appearing. I did notice while writing the end of III that there was an odd abundance of females.

^_^ Thank you~ Such comments make me happy.

Oh do you? :3 Tehehe, I hope somebody does.

* * *

Harem fic? *big grin* Well- *is shot* Nope, definitely not. There will be men! Well... More men!

* * *

And a special thank you too (currently):

Asilynne, Roy Karrde, Green Lanturn, Classy_cat18, VirtualPlay and Kurosakura for allowing me to use and expand their characters in this a/u fiction of the Kingdom Heartless RPG ♫

* * *

IV

Is in the planning stages; nothing notable past that though... Should I include Katsumi's questions or not? What do you people think?

[ChobiChibi]

Poor Ai! ;o; How dare they play nasty games with her. But atleast she's safe... For now?

Ryou's injuries certainly are interesting O_o It'll be interesting to see what Katsumi has to say, since she seems to know more than she's probably letting on.

This is the point where I answer your question :3

I think you should include Ryou's account of it if it has some kind of significant difference to what you've already said. So, if he attempts to lie to her, for example. Otherwise, I think it would be more interesting to find out Katsumi's opinion on the matter instead, and find out what she knows about the monsters lurking in the dark :3

Can't wait to see who else appears! *cough* XD All in good time, my dear. Keep up the good work <3

[VirtualPlay]

And a special thank you too (currently):

Asilynne, Roy Karrde, Green Lanturn, Classy_cat18, VirtualPlay and Kurosakura for allowing me to use and expand their characters in this a/u fiction of the Kingdom Heartless RPG ♫

Hehe, no problem! ^.^ I'm just glad you were able to use her immediately and in such a good way. Please be nice to her! ^^;

[Kurosakura]

This fic is so awesome that it gets... FANART!

Anyways, my ego's gonna skyrocket sometime soon, so I think I need to try and stay as down-to-earth as I can and say you're welcome and you can do whatever you want to Katsumi (except for killing her off, cause that's just bad, but this is also common sense, so forgive my baseless rambling o-o; )

Anyways, I'm glad you're enjoying my character. I'd really like to see where you go with her and what she has to say to Ryou. Maybe shove Akira back in there and get him pissed off at her for no reason.

[Crystal Tears]

ChobiChibi: No character featured in my stories are ever safe. XD

Yes Ryou's wounds are odd, and eventually maybe they'll be explained.

Katsumi is a fun character; she fit the mysterious type of character that shows up at the end of a dramatic chapter so well; she needed to appear.

Hmm... Well, I did take both opinions on the matter into account and came out with my solution. ^_^ Hopefully its satisfactory with the readers ♥

Yes, all in due time.

(Not that you'll see this until you return, but COME BACK I MISS YOU ♥♥♥)

* * *

VirtualPlay: Everyone's asking me to be nice to their characters. XD Have I been mean at some point?

* * *

Kurosakura: Awww, thank you ♥ The fanart is awesome~

Whatever I want eh? Heh heh heh... No lol, I would never do something so evil. I'll try to keep her alive for you =P

I'm glad you enjoy the story so much as to make fanart. If I threw Akira in there so soon with Ryou in pain and in general a bad mood I don't think the brat would make it out alive. Lol

* * *

IV

Is halfway done! 8D I'm not saying when it will be up because I never make my own deadlines.

[Houndoom_Lover]

I rarely leave reviews but read all the fanfictions at this place. I've decided to review more.

First off, I don't understand the massive amount of Japanese litered in the English text. I know what you're going for, but if you're typing in English, wouldn't it flow better if you said "Dear Brother" "Little Brother" "Good Friend"

You have some awkward tenses here and there. And a few things are purple prosey. Though I've always been fond of purple prose when I'm being silly.

Now when you're writting dialuge, you don't have too, but many sticklers and editors will make you change those periods between speech and action into a comma...

This is based off your roleplay? The plot pacing is okay but it's tilting to the slow side. And at the start of a story, that has a danger of loosing interest. Be careful.

[classy_cat18]

First off, I don't understand the massive amount of Japanese litered in the English text. I know what you're going for, but if you're typing in English, wouldn't it flow better if you said "Dear Brother" "Little Brother" "Good Friend"

She's not the only one who does it. A handful of people tend to do it in RPG with their Japanese characters. It's a quirky style that has mixed feelings. I like it; it reminds you that the characters are Japanese.

This is based off your roleplay? The plot pacing is okay but it's tilting to the slow side. And at the start of a story, that has a danger of loosing interest. Be careful.

Her updates are coming at a good pace. Plus...if she posts it, they will come...

[Houndoom_Lover]

Not her updates. I could care less how long it takes someone to update. I meant the pacing with in the story.

[classy_cat18]

I'm just saying that even though the pacing is slow, as long as she keeps the updates going at a good pace, that her readers will stay interested. And it's a good way to build suspense.

[PancaKe]

I can see what Houndy is saying with the pacing. At times it does seem to be very tedious, but then it speeds up in other sections - so I think all balances out in the end. Either way, I was still intrigued to keep reading!

I love your description. And the dangers that keep coming. I love fics with lots of dangerous points, not just one major climax at the end. Something I need to try and work on in my own stories

[Samchu]

Ok, so on account of suddenly having a full-time social life to deal with; I will be review chapters two and three together. Hopefully I won’t confuse myself.

Chapter 2:
Love the intro. It’s a good way to introduce a character and also to add some added depth to these monsters. Just how far do their appearances stretch anyway? And then we go to Ryou and the mystery of the switched on phone. Yes he could have just forgotten or something else turned it on for him. Or did he do it for some unknown reason? So many questions already and we’re only two paragraphs in. Fun times.
As always I love the interaction between Ryou and his sister (and damn do you make their mother such a hateable character, and I do hate her). I have to wonder though; do the monsters talking to Ai mean Naoko when they say a girl got hurt? And is she the dead girl from down the street? If so…how does wanting to take a look lead to ripping out her heart? Unless there are multiple types of monsters at work here (which to be honest, I wouldn’t put past you).
One thing that confuses me is why Ryou feels the need to say that the key to this mysterious new door isn’t at his house. Why would it be when it has appeared somewhere else? But that’s just me being picky. Also, if the door emanates light why would it be dark on the other side? And if Brigitte can’t open the door how could she know that it’s dark on the other side? Just some things I thought were a bit inconsistent but others might not agree.
The rest of the chapter is a little dialogue-heavy for my taste but it’s well done so I don’t really mind.

Chapter 3:
There’s something so bone-chillingly frightening about the start of this chapter that makes it awesome. Dunno what it is but you put a child into a horror-movie-esque scenario and it gets all the more terrifying. Loved every minute of it!
It was great to see some action scenes in this chapter and they were definitely well written. Good job! Nice to see Akira getting a bit of what he deserved.
Curious about the black marks. Can’t wait to see what they lead to.
Showing Katsumi’s questions might be useful to show how Ryou would react. Would he lie or be honest? How would she react to what he says? It sounds like a great way to really introduce her character and to give us a feel of how much she knows – though it’s not in your style to do that (you like to keep us guessing) so I don’t hold up much hope.
All in all I like how it’s going so far. Keep it up.

[Crystal Tears]

Ooooh more comments I see. :3

Houndoom_Lover: I don’t think there’s a ‘massive’ amount of Japanese references and such, just enough to keep it in the feel I like for the story. I agree with Classy_cat18, it’s a bit quirky but ‘Onii-san’ or ‘Nii-san’ sounds better and smoother than ‘Dear Brother’ and etc.

* * *

Classy_cat18: They will come? Lol.

* * *

PancaKe: :3 Thank you ♥

* * *

Samchu: Oh a big reply ♥♥

I too, shall break it into sections.

II

You love little details, I didn’t quite expect anyone to comment or catch onto the phone occurrence, you were paying attention ^_~.

Ryou and Ai are incredibly fun to write, I keep trying to think back to me and my sister when I was younger but my bad memory fails me and she wasn’t anything like Ryou or had his past so it only helps me to an extent. I’m thinking I should expand a bit on their mother, maybe give light to why she is the way she is.

Have you ever looked through an old fashion keyhole? You can see through to the other side, but all she saw was black, implying its dark behind the door.

III

I have a lot of fun putting characters in situations some don’t like, not a lot of people enjoy seeing a little girl in a scenario that could potentially equal an unhappy and gruesome death. But I’m glad you liked the feeling it gave off.

Did Akira really deserve to lose two of his friends though? Are they paying for his attitude towards the world? He should be more careful if karma is gonna come back and haunt him.

Guessing is more fun ♥

^_^ Thank you ♥♥♥

* * *

And now you wait no longer, I have fought through my writer’s block to bring you the next installment!

IV

We see you.

Ryou half managed to conceal his yelp as he awoke from the nightmare. How long had he been out? He remembered vaguely that girl asking him questions, though everything had been blurry as his mind tried to deal with whatever they were pumping into him. The man found himself sighing as his body relaxed and his eyes fell to the half-open window, letting the sweet morning air filter in.

It was somewhat of a comfort, the sun had risen and its golden rays were shining right onto him. The only problem he had was it was going right into his face, and he believed that was half the reason he woke up. Yesterday had been a nightmare; Ryou remembered the distinct texture of claws slicing cleanly and easily through his skin. It had burned like dry ice, too cold for comfort and recently Dr. Kariya had informed him of odd bruising around the wounds.

As his wounds ached from the man shifting and making the bed raise, Ryou found himself doubting it was bruising. He smiled slightly as he watched early risers jog along the sidewalk and some teenagers enter the small park doctors used for lunch at times. The monsters, whatever they were, couldn’t bother him here, so much light, he wondered where exactly they went when the sun was out in full force, where exactly did they all hide?

“Subway tunnels…” He thought out loud, entertaining himself in his state of boredom.

Dr. Kariya had told him that his sister and mother had come to the hospital soon after he had been injured, but with Ai being the way she was, they couldn’t stay long, only an hour or two before they went home…

… His father hadn’t come.

‘That doesn’t surprise me…’ Ryou thought, looking down at the blanket covering him as a pinprick of disappointment stabbed into his heart. Sadness never made an appearance though; the feeling deep inside him formed into a growing anger, and was quickly buried. ‘Not worth worrying about, he probably called mom to see if I was at least alive..’

Sadly, he doubted that as well.

He turned his head to the small side table and blinked. While the hospital had deemed it necessary to give most of his things to his mother when she had apparently shown up, they had felt the need to leave the single most useless item with him.

The damned keychain he bought before nearly running over the second girl to come barreling out onto the street.

The eye on the end of the keychain seemed to stare at him, and he smirked at it.

“What are you looking at?”

There was no reply, Ryou rolled his eyes and picked it up, examining it as he waited for lunch or the possibility of being released.

He hoped to God either was soon.

To try and cure the dullness, he looked up at the television hanging on the opposing wall to his bed and began to read the subtitles. The sound was off as to not disturb those in the room, but being he was the only one here would it have been such a stretch of their efforts to leave him the remote? Frowning he watched the screen as he snuggled slightly into the bed and tried to ignore the pain.

[FIRST SURVIVOR OF THE HEART THIEF IS, ACCORDING TO-
DOCTOR HAJIME KARIYA, IS RECOVERING FASTER THAN-
ANTICIPATED.
THE PATIENT IN QUESTION HAS YET TO BE NAMED,
OFFICIALS SAY THAT TO PREVENT THE MEDIA FROM-
SWARMING THE INDIVIDUAL, THE IDENTITY OF THE-
SURVIVOR SHALL BE KEPT PRIVATE AT THE REQUEST OF-
THE IMMEDIATE FAMILY.]

Ryou raised an eyebrow at the words he was reading and yawned a little. He had no doubt that his father had something to do with that request, his mother was always looking for attention so there was no way that she had turned down the media. Which meant his father did know of his condition and was choosing not to visit simply because he was probably ‘far too busy’.

“How many times have I heard that one…” Ryou muttered, watching with little interest until they switched to a quick, relatively small story that had potential to develop.

[THE BODY OF SARA BAILEY, FIRST VICTIM OF THE HEART-
THIEF; HAS GONE MISSING FROM TRAVERSE CITY CRIME LAB-
MORGUE.
NO OFFICIAL STATEMENT HAS BEEN MADE, BUT CAPTAIN KAZUTO-
MORI OF THE TRAVERSE POLICE ASSURES THE PUBLIC THAT THE-
BODY WILL BE FOUND.]

Now, he didn’t know quite what to make of that. He knew from recent experience that it was the creatures causing people to have heart attacks, and was almost positive that they were also responsible for actually taking the hearts. They had no need for the rest of the body, so they probably didn’t take it.
Maybe a crazy scientist wanted to examine the body closely for a lead or some such, for all Ryou knew, there might be blacking around where the heart had been, but why actually steal the corpse? Wouldn’t it rot and begin to smell awful?

‘Great thought… Rotting corpses..’ He mulled over the thought as he lazily went back to staring out the window and then scowled. ‘What happened to my car?’

* * *

‘Maybe he’s asleep…’

She bit her thumb quietly, standing in front of the closed door.

‘I shouldn’t wake him if he’s sleeping…’

The girl, in attempt to fight off her nervousness, fixed her scrunchie and brushed her bangs from her face.

‘I’ll just go-‘

“You can go in if you like,” Karen Yasashisa swung around in surprise to see a kind nurse smiling at her, the older woman gestured to the door. “He looked pretty bored last I went in there.”

“Oh um…” She looked back at the door. “When was that?”

“8:45 I think? It’s only ten dear, I’m sure he’s still awake.”

“But-“

“Go on.” The nurse moved forward and turned the knob of the door, gently pushing it open as to not make too much noise. “That boy hasn’t had a single visitor when he’s awake except for Yamiguchi-san, and she saw him when he was flying high on morphine.”

Under the pressure of the nurse, Karen stepped quietly into the room and shut the door behind her. The woman had been wrong apparently, Ryou Saito was fast asleep, his bed had been raised to look more like a lawn chair and his head was facing the window and the sun. She smiled a little; at least he was alive and apparently didn’t need nearly as many contraptions attached to him as he did in the ambulance.

Then the girl faltered, and found herself fixing her white pleated skirt and then her lilac coloured t-shirt. She didn’t know what to do, should she leave and let him sleep? Or just sit and wait? Nervously she wandered over to the window and took a seat.

Only to stand up a minute later and look around for something to do, this caused her wander to the other side of the bed and towards the door.

“You’re pretty antsy for a girl wearing calming colours…”

She swiveled around, caught off guard by Ryou suddenly talking.

“Y-Your awake?”

His head turned and he stared at her with half-curious crimson eyes, she found that sort of fascinating, crimson wasn’t a normal iris colour. Karen began to question if it was a genetic mutation or something else.

“I appear to be, yeah.”

Karen stood silent, and Ryou waited for a minute, secretly noting that she seemed to have a hard time talking to him.

“… You’re Karen right?”

“Yes, Karen Yasashisa.”

“Hm…” Ryou smirked and looked back at the window. “The girl I almost ran over.”

She giggled a little, still nervous. “Y-yes, that’s me…” The girl moved and sat down on the chair again. “How did you know my name?”

“Doctor…” A quick memory lapse made him stop. “What’s-his-face told me.”

“You remember my name… But not you’re doctors?”

“I’ve had a lot of doctors.” The man replied, stretching a little and then winced at the sudden pain. “Beside’s your name is different.”

“Different?”

“It’s not Japanese.”

She smiled a tiny bit. “N-no… It’s not.”

Ryou chuckled a little, his attention back on her. “So how are you?”

“Oh I’m f-fine…” Karen seemed to lighten up as she remembered something. “I’m turning eighteen in two days.”

“Happy Birthday, I didn’t get you anything.”

The girl laughed and fiddled with her scrunchie. “T-that’s okay.”

“You stutter a lot.”

“Oh!” She didn’t seem to keen on drawing attention on that little detail. “I’m nervous, well see-“

“You’re shy.”

There was a silence between them and Karen nodded, looking rather uncomfortable about the fact. Ryou’s smirk became a little more apparent.

‘I wonder if she knows a lot of guys like girls that are shy… They find it cute.’ He thought this and then decided to move on the conversation. “Did you hear about Sara Bailey?”

“Um… She was the first victim of the…” She paused. “Heart-Monster-Thief?”

A trace of a smile began to appear on Ryou’s face. “Yeah, her. Apparently, she got up and walked out of the morgue.”

Her eyes went wide. “P-pardon?”

He snickered and suddenly wished he hadn’t, his wounds ached at the quick movements that snickering brought on. “It was on the news, her body went missing.”

“Oh!” Karen laughed. “I thought you actually meant she got up and walked out.”

“You know with what has been happening, that wouldn’t surprise me as much as it should.” Ryou noted, and she nodded in agreement.

Another brief silence before Karen began again.

“So… I came to t-thank you… For saving myself and Saotome-san.”

Ryou looked at her, confused for a moment before clueing in. “Oh, him.”

“You d-don’t like him?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“We’ve met before.” The man frowned at the memory. “Briefly.”

“I’m sure he’s thankful for you saving him.”

“Hmm..” Ryou gazed back out the window. “… What’s your number?”

The girl found herself once again caught with defenses down and stared at him for a moment with her bright green eyes. Ryou related them to emeralds; they shone in the sunlight with a sparkle many other people lacked nowadays.

“M-My number?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, they’re for calling people. Maybe you’ve heard of them?”

“I-I know… I..”

“I’ll call you and wish you a happy birthday.”

“R-really? Oh.. um…” She looked around the room for an instant before grabbing a tissue from her purse and a pen sitting on the windowsill. Karen wrote her number down as neatly as she could as her nerves began to act up with a new found need to escape from the room and the awkwardness of giving a boy her number. “I-I have to go now.. My friend, Yuki-chan, w-will be,” She glanced at the clock on the wall and almost seemed to pale a little. “Is waiting for me…”

“Alright,” Ryou shrugged and watched her go towards the door. “Bye.”

Karen looked at him and allowed a small, though notably happy smile to appear on her face. “Bye.”

Ryou looked down at the tissue with the number on it and thought for a moment. Karen Yasashisa was a particularly shy and odd girl, and while he was sure she was an interesting person she apparently lacked the confidence to talk to people she didn’t know without stuttering. Of course, it could be she was like that around him in particular, but Ryou had the knack for repelling individuals and making them feel clumsy, not attracting them.
And seeing as that was the definite truth, there was no way in hell he could attract a shy girl, they didn’t handle people with an attitude like his own particularly well.

The door opened, and he watched the nurse enter. Her eyes immediately fell upon the note with Karen’s name and number on it.

She smirked.

Ryou frowned. “What?”

* * *

“You don’t know me, you know you never will”

Ryou listened to the piercing tune of hard rock (deemed satanic music by his mother) as he rummaged through his bag, the aspirin was buried somewhere in the mess he called art supplies and daily necessities, but they had turned into obstacles as he searched for one specific thing. His chest and back were beginning to ache and he could really do without the pain today.

He had been released yesterday, and he was so thankful to be home where it wasn’t a giant bore all the time. Though being at home had its own little quirks, in frustration and trying to deal with them, Ryou had begun to neglect the growing concern that his room needed to be cleaned.

As well as his bag.

“God damn it…” He growled, eyes scanning the contents before quickly scooping up the small container filled with pills. He practically inhaled one as he rushed to knock out the coming agony before it came. “One day I’ll become organized… One day…”

Ryou’s gaze fell upon his cell phone that had been tossed into the corner. It had been two days since Karen had visited him, and today was her birthday if he recalled the conversation properly.

“I said I’d call her…” The man noted, kicking aside his pencil case and notebook as he went for the phone.

Now he was faced with a challenge.

Where in hell was the tissue with her number?

A room went from mildly messy to a daunting task in a matter of seconds, with pieces of paper scattered all over his desk and other surfaces finding a tissue wasn’t going to be a simple task. Not to mention other random things that turned his room into a hazard, like the hidden playstation 2, boxes and the neglected computer tower.

‘I still have to fix that…’ Ryou noted as he tossed his sketchbook onto the bed and gently picked up napkin with the number on it. Quickly he pressed the numbers and fell silent as it began to ring.

“Hello?”

The last language Ryou had expected to hear today was English, vague memories of secondary courses and a mild interest in learning returned.

“uhh…” He began unsteadily. “Hello…?”

“Oh!” She sounded embarrassed. “I’m sorry; I didn’t check the number… Who is this?”

“Ryou Saito.”

“S-Saito-san?” The awkwardness seemed to increase, and as Ryou fiddled with bag, he could practically see her blushing cheeks through the phone. “How a-are you?”

“Fine…” He tried to hide his amusement (noting he was probably failing miserably). “How are you?”

“I’m okay… I didn’t expect a call…”

“Happy Birthday.”

“T-thank you.” Karen sounded rather happy; she hadn’t been lying when she said she expected no call.

Then the man became somewhat curious, there was no background sound, it was her birthday and as far as he could tell it was dead silent other than her talking. Didn’t she have a party or some such? He had grown out of the idea but even he had a small get together when it was his birthday. Ryou frowned a tad and looked at the time.

‘It’s only noon…’ He thought with a shrug. “Aren’t you doing anything for your birthday?”

“I had a party yesterday.”

“Why not today?”

“I was supposed to be out with my parents as a family thing…” The girl sounded disappointed. “But… um… Something came up and it got cancelled.”

“Oh.”

She must’ve caught on to the subtle edge to his word.

“Don’t think badly of them! This rarely happens…”

Ryou didn’t believe her, but that wasn’t important. “Do you want to go out?”

“I’m sorry?” If he had ever heard the girl more terrified then the instance they had met, it was now.

“…” Ryou rolled his eyes and managed to hold back an annoyed sigh. “Out, as in, we both go somewhere for your birthday?”

“Um…”

“Come on,” He smirked as he pushed his wallet into his back pocket, already knowing he had won this dispute. “I don’t bite.”

“I never-“

“Karen-chan…”

There was a small pause. “O-Okay… But… No clubs or anything okay?”

“Right.” Ryou was in the kitchen, blatantly ignoring his mother who was signaling she wanted to know who he was talking to. “Where do you live?”

* * *

The mall was bustling; people were everywhere and occasionally would bump into each other. East Traverse Mall, nicknamed Monstro Mall by many for its sheer size, had everything teenagers and young adults needed to be happy. In fact it was rare to see anybody who didn’t fit that general age group, parents didn’t like bringing their children into this sort of environment and the elderly would probably be trampled.
The result was Monstro seeing random fights, shoplifting, and the latest trends as commonplace, it was a building of luxury intended for those that thought they could do anything, go anywhere, and say just about whatever they wanted too.

Ryou leaned up against a wall at one of the many side hallways leading towards vending-machines and washrooms. Karen was standing to the left of him, rummaging around in her purse for one thing or another, he hadn’t asked. One of the few things his father had taught him; when a girl was searching through her purse, you’d do well not to ask what exactly she was looking for, or risk facing her wrath of not being able to find said ‘it’ and being reminded of it.

The woman eventually pulled from her purse a small notepad.

He didn’t question about what she was intending to write, instead looked across the many heads of people to store full of flashing lights and interesting displays.

Ryou smirked.

“You ready?” He asked in her a slightly inquisitive manner.

“Um…” She quickly wrote something down and shoved the pen and notepad back inside the bowls of her handbag. “Yep, where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”

Karen looked a little worried. “A s-surprise?”

“That’s what I said.” She had a blatant ‘Oh God’ expression and he rolled his eyes. “It will in no way hiss, snarl, bite, nip, hit, thwack, kick, punch, throw things at you or curse…” Ryou stopped. “Well maybe curse…”

“Uhh..”

He grabbed her arm and tugged her into the crowd, causing her to yelp in surprise. The girl tried to stay close, afraid of being run over by the hundreds of people swarming in every direction but the one they were going. As they pulled out of the horde Karen instinctively made sure her bright red skirt and white tee were okay and not stained or damaged by the vast amount of humans she had just bumped into.

“You okay?” Ryou questioned, tilting his head slightly.

“I’m fine…” She blushed slightly, and looked at the store she had been brought to. “An Arcade?”

The man nodded, putting his hands in his pockets. “Yeah…”

There was a silence between them as Karen peered in inquisitively. “O-Okay…”

“… You’ve never been in an arcade?”

“Yes! Well…. When I was little… I don’t really remember it...”

He blinked as he stared at her with disbelief and turned into the outlet. “Come on.”

Whether she liked it or not, Karen Yasashisa was now standing in a semi-crowded arcade where the blaring sounds and lights almost seemed to consume everything. The place was an absolute nightmare in her mind, mostly guys and their video games, paying her no mind but the occasional glances she did get were a little uncomforting. Instinctively she stuck near the only man in this store she did trust to even a small extent, he too, seemed to avoid them, though probably because he didn’t exactly give the impression of a people person.

That was alright though, because maybe if they thought she was friends with him, they’d leave her well enough alone.

“Is there one you want to try?” He questioned, receiving tokens from the machine he had just given money too.

He watched her as she skimmed the room and spotted a game in the far back, well away from the others in the arcade.

“That one…?”

Ryou smirked and followed her towards it, as the duo neared he began to chuckle, amused by her selection. Karen seemed a bit put off as she saw exactly what she had picked from all the games in here, but there was also a lingering interest in her eyes about it.

“Aliens…” He tried to hide his growing smile.

She looked at the monster on the top board and bit her lip; Ryou looked at her and then the monster, but back at her expression which he noted was a little cute.

“Is it a fun game?” She questioned, putting her purse down with care and watching the monitor.

He shrugged. “I guess,” with that he handed one of the guns to her, and began to insert coins into the machine before picking up his own. “More fun with two though.”

Karen smiled shyly before looking back at the screen, watching slowly as the words faded in from the darkness of the background.

ALIENS


* * *

Hajime Kariya was at home, it was unusual, but not completely out of the ordinary. He had decided to take one of his many built-up sick days to stay in his house and work on his research. The others at the hospital had laughed at him a little, taking such interest in bruised tissue, but he doubted their analysis and had secretly obtained samples from the then unconscious Saito-san to see exactly what was going on.

Either he was right, and the blackening skin was highly unnatural and should be truly looked into, or the others were right and it was just a case of odd trauma. No one got hurt in the research so the good doctor was left to wonder exactly why everyone didn’t care even to just take a peek at the samples.

“To wrapped up in their own worlds I suppose…” He muttered as he carried the small white case into one of the stark-white backrooms, filled to the brim with odd medical and scientific equipment. “Doesn’t matter much anyways, in truth they’re probably right.”

The doctor had a tendency to doubt himself; he was quite good at it.

“Of course Yamiguchi-san expressed great interest in the wounds after her discussion with Ryou…” Hajime frowned a bit and pushed his rectangular glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. “And she would probably like some more definite answers then the ones received from a half-conscious patient…”

In a few moments numerous machines were active, and the doctor was staring at a sample under the microscope.

Except something was very wrong…

He had kept the samples cold, so cold in fact, that they should’ve just stopped whatever they had been doing beforehand (or at least slowed down). It prevented cell death before adequate research could be done; it prevented the virus or foreign contaminant from doing anything.

Yet this was not the case in his petri dish.

The epidermal cells were fine, the refrigeration had worked on them, but the muscle tissue, fat, everything that had been below the skin was black. From what he could tell, the nucleolus had ruptured, so that would indefinitely mean the cells should be dead.

But they weren’t.

The cells were alive, contorted and strange as they may be but they were alive. They were unaffected by the cold, continuing to operate ‘normally’ even if they should be in a state of stasis.

Dr. Kariya’s prying nature took over, if these mutated cells could resist the chill from the cold storage and remain unaffected, than it was heat that would be their downfall, and the downfall of the thing changing them.

‘Everything has a weakness…’ He mused with a smirk, preparing a burner. ‘You just have to be patient and find it.’

* * *

There had been a sound.

And odd sound, in fact he was pretty sure that he had never heard it before. It had sounded like a brief, very quiet vacuum and then there had been a very bright flash from his bathroom. He frowned, brushing some of his bangs from his face; he wandered towards the room he had left thirty minutes ago, his tie hanging around his neck, undone.

Masato stepped cautiously down the hallway, eyebrow slightly raised as his dark eyes scanned everything meticulously. Most of the lights were on, there was nothing to fear, though a bright flash from the washroom was suspicious, it could’ve been a bulb blowing, or some other electrical object in the room frying. It was doubtful, but there was the possibility…

‘I don’t recall leaving anything in there…’

Twirling a small piece of ribbon, he rounded the corner somewhat casually. Masato tilted his head in confusion, before him was nothing, an absence of anything odd, unusual, or anything capable of spawning such a show. The man was confused, quickly glancing at the time.

There was still time, he could quickly investigate his bathroom and leave for the meeting. He shoved the piece of ribbon with an odd crystal attached to it into his trouser’s pocket and entered guardedly. The man, half dressed for an important occasion, glared at the emptiness in front of him.

If there was one thing Masato Nagano hated, it was unexplained things.

‘Notably unexplained phenomena happening in my apartment.’

In the middle of his mental note, he stopped. His eyes fell upon his shower, the glass obscured the image inside but he was pretty sure he saw something odd on the wall. Approaching he slid the glass panel to the side and blinked. Masato’s eyes had not deceived him; there was a new addition to his shower wall. The twenty-one year-old’s mouth dropped a bit in surprise before he bit his tongue in thought.

There was a logical explanation for anything, well almost anything, in his life there had been a few events that had no explanation and tried as he might, this might be one of those situations.

There was an old, wooden door that looked weather-worn and old-worldish in his shower wall.

“Alright… That’s new...”

[VirtualPlay]

Hehe, looks like Ryou might just be human after all. Really curious as to what brought about his sudden urge to take Karen out, as well as what Karen's writing in her notebook.

And whee, new character and further exposition through another formerly-minor character!

Looking forward to more! ^.^

[ChobiChibi]

:O Another mysterious door! How interesting! I love how it appears in such a random, unexpected place. I guess that means there'll be more of them?

I really like this chapter overall :3 It's nice to have that interaction between them and not so much tension, although the little bits you did add were interesting. I like the science 8D *nerd*

I have two ideas as to where the body has gone... It'll be interesting to find out :3

YAY BREIF MENTION OF YUKI <3 <3 <3

[Kurosakura]

Ok, before I provide ego-boosting whateverness...

"DARN BISH! YOU FLUFFING SIGGED ME!" <-- shot

Anyways, oh Ryou, he's a stud muffin, think he might score? xD I wonder what Katsumi-chan wants with the tissue samples... I love how you keep me guessing! AND THE DOOR, THE RANDOM DOOR IN THE SHOWER! I couldn't help but laugh at that, keep up the good work. :3

[Crystal Tears]

VirtualPlay: I have been told this Ryou differs a lot from the Ryou portrayed in the RPG… I’m sure I’ll cement him as a jerk by chapter X, it’s my goal now XP

* * *

ChobiChibi: BECKI ♥♥♥ I missed you!

Yes, another mysterious door, one in a hallway and another in a shower… Will there be more? o: maybe!

I actually hated this chapter when I originally wrote it, it felt to empty of anything exciting, but as I reread it and edited a few things I enjoyed it because it shows that they (the characters) are still normal people.

Yes, the science… Special Thanks to Mew Master for explaining a few things so I could accurately input the information.

XD I’m sure there’ll be more brief mentions of Yuki.

* * *

Kurosakura: OMG that convo was funny ♥

LOL Stud muffin, haven’t heard that saying for a while!

Ask Samchu, I’m good at keeping people guessing, I’m rather bad with answers because they only bring up more questions (usually anyway).

Glad you enjoyed the random door.

V

OMG progress? Not really. The beginning has been written, but will probably need a major edit. Trying to figure out where to go, hopefully I’ll get the chapter up for I leave for the cottage.

[Crystal Tears]

V
Strong Language Used

Karen sat quietly in the opposing seat to Ryou, she was slightly hunched over, and fiddling around with her notepad again as she quickly scribbled something down. She chanced a glanced at Ryou, who was staring out the round edge windows looking a bit bored. Of course she could be a little harsh on her judgment; the man looked more distant than anything else.

She was silent for another minute before she dared to speak.

“Thanks.”

His body didn’t move a muscle, but his eyes flicked over to her. “Hmm?”

“For lying, and saying I got the high score.”

Ryou smirked a bit and looked over at the prize she had picked from the counter. They had played four different games, all four different shooters of which she had a tendency to die in, but she seemed to enjoy them the most as she had completely ignored the others (though she had looked at DDR for a minute). Of course, it was even better for her that when they had finished playing the ALIENS game for the second time, Ryou had given her the high score.

His highest score ever on the game and with it she had been able to pick one of the actual ‘good’ prizes in this place.

It was a teddy bear; it was monstrous in size, with a pure white coat and dark eyes.

“It looks like it wants to eat me…” He noted, tilting his head at the plush.

“No!” She giggled, hugging it and pulling it closer to it.

“Or you.” Ryou joked, “Though I suppose better you than me.”

“It won’t eat me!”

He shook his head and leaned back, a sly smile playing on his lips. “Just wait, when you’re not looking, it’s gonna pounce.”

Karen seemed to loosen up, the entire day her shyness had kept her from saying a lot of things or speaking up at certain points. Ryou was glad, that at the end of the day, she wasn’t stuttering nearly as much and even had the gull to stick her tongue out at him.

To which, the man smirked darkly.

“Don’t stick your tongue out unless you’re willing to share it.”

She flushed bright red, retracted her tongue and hid behind her guardian plushie. Ryou chuckled and looked back out the window, the sun was beginning to set; they had spent the entire day wandering around Monstro and had lost track of time until Karen had received a call from her friend Yuki again; who had wondered if her shy companion wanted to gossip or something.
Ryou hadn’t remembered exactly, he did remember though, Karen lying about where she was and who with.

That had amused him.

“I… I didn’t realize it got so late…” She murmured, watching the sunset out the window, a couple of others in the train car glanced at her bear oddly before looking away. Ryou didn’t reply, instead he fiddled with his phone, looking as if something had come up. “Something wrong?”

He looked up a little after and put the phone in his pocket. “Nah, just my sister figured out how to text…”

“How old is she?”

“Five, she’s turning six in august.” He pressed a couple of buttons on his phone and handed it to her. “That’s her.”

She smiled softly as she took the phone and looked at the picture. His sister was adorable, looking up at the phone as she clung to a bunny plush-doll. She was a bit pale though, but Karen was under the assumption she had been a bit under the weather when the picture was taken.

“She’s so cute…” Karen spoke, handing the phone back to Ryou. “What’s her name?”

“Ai.”

She smiled, but it faded as the windows went black. With a rush of air they had entered the tunnel before Main Street Station. Nervously she gazed out the window, shifting uneasily and gripping her bear tightly. Ryou tried to ignore the spine tingling sensation he was getting, his gaze fell to the floor and his body stiffened.

They were here, and they were watching.

“Ryou…”

He looked up at her; she didn’t dare glance at the window either.

“Don’t look at the window.” He ordered, “We’re safe in the light… If you look out the window, you’ll panic.”

Past her, he saw from the corner of his eye movement outside another window. His heart was beginning to pound, the tunnel wasn’t very long, but with these things it may just be long enough for either of them to get hurt. It was a struggle for him to stay still, knowing that they were that close, he wanted to bolt; he wanted to run as far away as he could.

Or did he?

The emotions felt different, even foreign if he focused on them. Slowly his eyes fell back upon Karen, she was almost shaking. Her eyes were tightly shut and she clung to the monstrous toy as if it were some protective shield. Ryou frowned, quickly trying to form some sort of block so he could tell the difference between his own emotions and her’s.

In truth it shouldn’t have been that difficult, his were fiery and full to the brim with anger… Karen’s were cold, frozen with fear.

The others in the car seemed to be oblivious to what was waiting. So many people wrapped up in their own little perfect worlds that the monsters lurking in the dark could just take from them what they wanted with little to no resistance.

‘No wonder they picked this world…’ He thought bitterly, that was, if they even picked worlds or just simply appeared on Earth for whatever reason. ‘Anything they want they can take… The people who do pay attention, they can be killed or ignored. It’s not like there’s a shortage of humans…’

“What was that?”

Karen froze; her body so still she could’ve been mistaken for a statue. Ryou watched the man who had asked the question draw a small amount of attention to himself. He stood, wandering over to the opposing window, leaning so close that his nose nearly touched the glass.

Ryou watched with a sort of cat-like curiosity, he knew something would happen, his body didn’t move a muscle, only his crimson eyes flowed along with the action before him. The man anticipated excitement, for the stranger to get what was no doubt coming, he was practically staring death in the face, and the older man’s closed mind didn’t let him see it.

It: the creature now staring back at him. Piercing yellow eyes for an instant seemed to fall on Ryou before turning to man. The guy blinked, thinking that his eyes must be playing tricks on him, but the eerie gaze wasn’t gone. It clung to the train side somewhat akin to Spiderman.

Unlike Spiderman though, the creature’s arm phased through the train wall and, fighting the light of the car, grasped the man’s tie. He gasped, just beginning to step back when the monster yanked harshly on the fabric it had grasped.

There was a resounding clunk as the man’s head smashed off of the bar framing the window, and a bang as his body slumped to the ground. A few rushed over to him, questioning and seeing if he was okay.

“W-what was that?” Karen asked, staring at the floor as Ryou somewhat paled.

‘If those things can reach into the light…’ His stare drifted to the window nearest to them.

“R-Ryou?”

“Huh?” He looked at Karen and suddenly recalled her question. “Oh! The man tripped, that’s all.”

Her terrified gaze nearly made his lie fall apart, but he managed to keep it together. He stood quickly, gently grasping her arm and tugging her to her feet. She looked at him in confusion as, with bear still in tow, they were now standing in the middle of the train car.

“Why…?”

“We’re almost there.” The man replied with a shrug. ‘I’m not completely lying… Technically the station is five minutes away…’

She was still scared, but she seemed to ease a little at his words, and further more as the train rushed out of the tunnel and the evening light fluttered back into the windows. Ryou looked at the dying sun and frowned a little, time was ticking away, and tonight there was supposed to be a storm. If the storm hit before they got to the car, it may be dark enough for the things to come out and attack.

That was something the man distinctly wanted to avoid.

The train began to slow; Main Street Station was in view with a few people hanging around and a small convenience store to the left of the platform. The parking lot was just behind, it was already half-empty, not many people wanted to be out tonight.

‘Not with the heart-thief or the storm…’ Ryou thought, as the train came to an abrupt halt.

A halt, that sent poor Karen toppling into him, he caught her with his free arm, but she had roughly collided with his chest. Ryou let out a small grunt and winced as his cuts began to throb from the sudden impact of a girl falling into him. She looked up at him with a dismayed, apologetic look as she righted herself, her cheeks flushed red again at the awkwardness of that had happened.

“I’m sorry!” She nearly squeaked, not noticing the doors of the train were opening. “Are you a-alright?”

“Fine.”

She bit her lip and turned so they could exit, as soon as he had stepped off after her, she was facing him again.

“Really! I didn’t mean to-“

“Karen.” He spoke through gritted teeth, reaching into his pocket for the container of aspirin. “It’s fine.”

“B-but… I’m sorry!”

Ryou dry-swallowed a pill and let out a sigh as they made their way to the parking lot. “Stop apologizing.”

“Sorry…”

At the instant she spoke that word she clasped her hand over her mouth, the man just rolled his eyes and chuckled a tad.

The storm…

He stopped unexpectedly, his mind racing to find an explanation. Slowly he turned, scanning the parking lot, every nook and cranny for something. It was daylight, he wasn’t sleeping or drugged, there was no reason to hear that voice, a voice that was a mere whisper on the soft breeze now flowing through the area. His eyes rose, watching the sky as a vast storm cloud moved closer and closer to the sun.

Ryou narrowed his eyes at it, something in him straining to hear which fell silent so often after the first words.

The clouds will give us what we want…

“S-Saito-san…” He felt the tug on his arm and looked at Karen, then to the darkness created by the shadow of the store.

He wasn’t sure if the colour in his face drained; though he could feel himself pale as he silently remained stationary.

“Get to the car.” The man’s hand grabbed the girl’s upper arm again and he turned them around, pulling them hastily to towards the vehicle. He couldn’t hear them anymore, as more of them no doubt appeared the whispers became a cluttered mess, his mind wasn’t able to filter them.

As they began to run, the storm clouds moved over the fading sun, and the area was cast in darkness.

She dropped the bear, and they broke into a full sprint.


Running… So much running… It thought, rising out of the ground, body wavering slightly in a flash of lightning. We want the male dead, play with the others; they will be much better at the game…


The car felt so much farther away, their legs didn’t seem to carry them fast enough, and a shadow in the corner of their eyes only made their pounding hearts work that much faster. Both of them were under the impression it couldn’t get much worse than this.

They were wrong.

She fell.

She careened to the ground in a spectacular way, slamming down on the very arm that had been slashed so cleanly the other day. Karen thought for a second she may have heard a bone crack or crunch, but panic took over. She wasn’t moving and that was key to the escape plan. Run as fast as she could to the very car that could’ve take her life two days before, it had become her savoir now.

The girl forced herself to go, scrambling on all fours before righting herself. Her back was turning cold and she could almost feel her soul try to tear itself away from the physical body in attempts to escape what was coming for her.

Then it hit her, a solid slam to the back. She cried out, a strangled noise that echoed with the thunder that boomed straight afterwards. She hit the pavement and her body rolled, her conscious mind reeling from the attack and wondering what the hell was going on.


It stood over the female, fingers twisting and molding into claws. So much has changed from the old encounter, when it had tried so hard to have what she did. It cursed the adults for saving her; it cursed time for being so long until it could have its revenge.

The female plays the game well… The creature narrowed its eyes, hunching over her and pinning her to the ground with one arm as it hung it’s free hand over her chest. But we play it better.


Her heart felt as it were exposed to the arctic winds, she could feel it phase inside her; a faint ghost of a tingle against the flesh and ribs. Deeper it was moving, breathing become harder as the lungs fought against the growing cold; Karen looked up at it, wide-eyed and unable to struggle.

‘No!’

It looked at her, halting its actions for an instant.

Then it was gone, replaced by a very familiar man leaning over her right where the monster had been. She quickly spotted blood soaking through his t-shirt and the darkness was swirling around them, trying to take form.

But it couldn’t.

‘Just like before, a physical object moving at a reasonable velocity-‘ She stopped mid thought and realized this was a bad time to go nerd.

Ryou huffed, panting and attempted to ignore the resounding ache as he lugged Karen back onto her feet. His body felt incredibly strange; having coming in complete contact with a creature unlike before in the stadium he had flown right through it, today he had decided to take its place over the girl.

That wasn’t a bad position to be in, but now was definitely not the time for that sort of thought.

‘Later…’ He thought, leaping over one of the things morphing out of the asphalt.. ‘MUCH later…’

Something cold wrapped itself around Ryou’s lower-leg; he didn’t stop to look at it though. Hoping that his sprint would make it let go.

His plan failed, badly.

He went down in a free fall, his leg protested to the sudden anchor attached to it, and as he met the ground abruptly, riots of pain began to rise up in his entire upper body save his head, which he had managed to cushion with his arms.

“Ryou!” He looked up to see Karen; she was right next to his car. He swore like a banshee in his mind, and reached into his pocket. He grasped the strange keychain and yanked it out, he flipped through his keys rather methodically despite the situation before pressing the panic button.

The Lancer began again, howling into the storm and flashing. He tried to unlock it, but a swift kick from one of the many creatures gathering around him sent the keys flying out of his hand.

Karen moved for the keys; stepping away from the car.

“NO!” Ryou called, roughly kicking the one grasping his ankle in the face. “God damn it! STAY BY THE CAR!”

“But-“

“Karen if you move, so help me God! I’LL BE THE ONE TO KILL YOU!”

She froze, and stepped back.

He was dead; the man could accept that, what he couldn’t accept was that they got another person while he was still able to fight. His struggling became more erratic, and the monsters began to see how hard a person could fight for their life if they had too.

The odds were mounting against him, but all he had to do was get to his keys. Ryou angrily kicked one off of him and moved for them. He was caught again, and dragged cruelly back towards the mob. He swiveled around, facing the yellow eyes that stared at him with an ethereal intenseness.


He dies NOW.


There was something akin to a sharp 'swish' and then a low thump. Ryou blinked, not believing his luck as he was still alive. He stared dumbfounded at the woman who was now the only thing between himself and the fiends.

Katumi, held her shinai out to the side, the darkness she had struck faded away and the odd green energy that haf escaped flowed into her. Her shut eyes opened, revealing an empty stare that matched the monsters’ empty souls.

“You?” Ryou managed to force out of his throat.

“Go.” She spoke, twirling the sword with such grace that it rivaled the masters. “I will deal with them.”

“But-“

“Take your car, and go.” Her voice left no room for argument; Ryou was pulled to his feet by Karen, who was holding his keys in her hand.

“C-come on…” Her voice was shaking, Ryou didn’t want to run, but there was nothing he could do. “We have to get out of here.”


Katsumi Yamiguchi twirled her weapon a few seconds after she heard the car begin to pull away. She watched with a calculating mind as the darkness readied themselves against her, one in particular watched the car leave, and it was that one, a captain amidst the lackeys, that she decided was beyond simple strategies.

“You…”

It looked at her, head tilted in an inquisitive manner.

“I fear not the dark, nor the monsters consumed by it.” Her callous tone made the being glare at her. “If you wish to have an enemy…”

She readied herself.

“Then let it be me.”

* * *

She was sick again; pale and tired, she was fed up with being ill. Her mother didn’t want to care for her anymore; she wanted a normal daughter who didn’t need to be taken care of every single day. The little girl wanted to go outside without the fear of vomiting; her one wish was to be able to play with other kids her age and not have her family come running to her at the first sign something was wrong.

Ai was going to wish on a star tonight, it worked in all the shows she watched during the day. However, the sky wasn’t visible, a thunderstorm had moved in and all she could do was stare out her window and watch the wind roughly play with the trees in the neighbour’s backyard. The lightning would flash and light up the sky, creating odd patterns in the clouds.

‘Where’s Nii-san?’ She thought, the child never did like storms, she would usually rush to Ryou and he would keep her safe from the thunder roaring over head.

Tears began to fall from her eyes; Ai quietly wept in her room. She knew that if she made to much noise, her mother would barge in and want to know what’s wrong.

Ai…

She turned towards the closet, sniffling. “Huh?”

Why does the little one cry?

“I’m not supposed to talk to you…” The girl huffed, sitting up in her bed. “You’re monsters.”

We’re not monsters, we just wanted to play.

“I’m not listening.” She clasped her hands over her ears. “Ryou will get angry.”

Your brother is always angry...

“N-no.” Ai snapped back. “Nii-san is happy when he’s at home.”

There was silence for a second. We can tell you where he is...

“.. But you’ll lie.”

We would never lie to Ai-chan! The monsters almost sound insulted.

“… Okay…”

But will you do something for us after?

She tilted her head. “What?”

Give this to your Onii-san.

Sliding out from underneath the closet door, despite the many toys in front of it, was a simple black key. Curiously the girl slipped off her bed and toddled over to it, gently picking up the little object. Ai looked at it in the palm of her hand and frowned.

“What’s it for?”

All keys have doors.

Ai frowned. “Oh… So where is Nii-san?”

At the building of doctors, we are unfamiliar with its name. Many sick lay within, trapped and unable to leave...

The little girl shuffled uncomfortably. “The hospital…”

* * *

“You know...” Dr. Kariya smiled lightly as he wrapped the bandage around Ryou’s arm. “I didn’t plan on coming in today…”

Ryou was far too interested in the wall to look over at the man who had, just five minutes early, stitched up the cuts on his arm and ankle. He felt decidedly empty, unable to scrounge up a single emotion that was worth feeling, not even his anger was there to keep him company.

“… You never talked much last visit either…” The doctor sounded amused, he looked over at the man with glasses with a bored stare.

“Where’s Yasashisa-san?”

“In the other room, she fractured her arm.”

“Oh..”

Hajime frowned as the boy went back to staring at the wall. He seemed disconnected, but from his file Ryou Saito had never talked much too any physician, so why would he treat Dr. Kariya any different?

He wouldn’t, but Hajime liked to think he was better than the others.


‘Oh please just shut up and go away…’ Ryou thought, a tingling of irritation beginning to rise up out of the void inside of him. For a brief instance he thought his wish was going to come true as the doctor moved away from him to the other side of the room, fiddling around with some sort of medical apparatus.

The doctor’s white coat was stained with water and dirt at the bottom that left Ryou with the conclusion Dr. Kariya had rushed over here. Ryou didn’t think that he was that interesting, so why exactly would a doctor who had probably gone home for the night come rushing back to work when the call came in that he and Karen had checked in again, with more mysterious wounds.

“Has the blackening around your cuts vanished?” The question snapped Ryou back into reality.

“No.”

“Have they changed in appearance?”

“They’ve faded.”

“Hmmm… Alright.”

“Why?”

The doctor turned slowly, his stare was now focused on the quiet patient made him uneasy. Hajime fixed his shirt before walking over with a clipboard in hand. Ryou frowned, leaning back a bit as Dr. Kariya neared.

“Can’t say…”

Ryou’s irritation spiked, and he gritted his teeth. “The hell you can’t, it’s my body. Tell me.”

“It’s just bruising Saito-san, don’t worry-“

“You fed my mother the same bullshit about my sister.” He snarled, and made the doctor waver in his authority. “It’s nothing, just a cold, she'll be fine...” Ryou slid off the table as he trailed off and grabbing his ruined shirt and vest from the near-by chair.

Ignoring the pain from the cuts he opened the door and headed out.

“Fuck you too buddy.”


Hajime stood in the room quietly, his shocked expression changing into one of disappointment. He couldn’t tell Saito-san, as truly, he had nothing to tell. He didn’t know what he was dealing with, whatever was living in the petri-dish at home; it was something no doctor had ever seen before.

Well… No sane doctor anyways.

Dr. Kariya walked over to the wall-phone and plucked the handset off the wall. He dialed the headroom and leaned against the side-table.

“What?”

Ah, the distinctive welcome of department head Dr. Juro Suzuki.

“Were you expecting someone else to call?”

The old man on the other line coughed, and then sounded amused. “Hajime?”

“Yes, old man, it’s me.” He smirked. “Who were you expecting?”

“The wife, damn broad is on my case again about smoking.”

“You are aware, that smoking is bad for your health?”

“Just because I’m a doctor doesn’t mean I gotta listen to the health board!”

“No…” The younger man chuckled. “Apparently not.”

“So…” Juro sounded suspicious. “What can I do for you?”

“Do you remember that Professor from America? He came here a while going on about monsters or some such? He thought we had a case-“

“Oh that nut job…” There was a hard laugh, Dr. Kariya had to pull the phone away from his ear it was so loud. “What of him?”

“I need his university’s number.”

“You don’t believe him do you Hajime?”

“No!” He exclaimed. “Though I think some of his research may have had some relevance, not with the monsters, ghouls or fiends nonsense but the physical evidence on those supposively attacked.”

“Eh…” There was a short pause. “Alright I found it.”

“Great.” Hajime smiled a little. “Oh… And what was his name?”

“Oh hell, you need his name too?” There was a pause. “Hold on a second..”

Dr. Kariya could just hear the conversation happening on the other end of line.

“What do you mean there's more than one?”

“There were attacks all over the city...”

“what did Mori-san say?”

Hajime struggled to hear the faint voice of whoever was talking to his old friend. He only caught a few words, notably 'appear' and 'different'.

'What?' The doctor thought, frowning as his confused glare dug into the wall. 'Whose Mori-san?'

“If thats what he wants, then do it.” Juro's voice was distinctly on edge now, even as he turned his attention back to the younger doctor. “Right...What was it you needed again?”

“The Professor's name and the University number...” Hajime replied, quieter.

'Just what the hell is going on?'

[VirtualPlay]

Oh man, where to start...

First of all, I like how you tied it into where the RPG plot starts. No question they're based on the same thing anymore. But that poor bear! And man, either Ryou's a jerk again, or he's really overprotective of Karen.

So it seems Katsumi already has her 'weapon.' Yay for green-glowing goodness. Now to wonder what will happen to her...

Ahh, doctors that hide things, never good for the inquisitive minds. And yes, I'm referring to both Ryu and Hajime being inquisitive.

Looking forward to the next chapter, yes.

[Asilynne]

Ch 4: My fave part of this chapter was the news report, it had the feel of someone watching a disaster on tv, feeling bad for it but at the same time slightly disconnected because the news is full of bad news. Also I could imagine Ryou lounging and watching the tv disinterestedly XD

Ch 5: This chapter had me on the edge of my seat! The heartless part was intense, and I cant help but wonder if Firefly knows any of these doctors they keep mentioning? XD Also gee I wonder who the scientist is XD I agree with Mike, Im liking how its tying with the rpg, but yet is also different though it has the same chars, almost like an alternate universe ^-^