RPG The City of Death

[Dead Alice]

OOC: Time for introductory posts! :D If you need character info, go here: [url]http://otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=38697[/url]
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[I]Another body was found in the -[/I]
Click.
[I]A woman originally from Tokyo was said to be dead -[/I]
Click.
[I]You can save now on clearance items -[/I]
Click.

?Keitaro, you?re going to be late for school,? the impatient Asuko Fujima called to her 16-year-old daughter.
?I?m coming, Mother,? Keitaro sighed.
?Onegai (please), Keitaro-chan. You spend far too much time in front of that television.?
Keitaro decided to ignore her mother?s rant this morning, as she wasn?t in the mood to argue. She grabbed her bag from the coffee stand and left their small apartment without so much as a goodbye. When she made her way outside onto the busy sidewalk, the sky was still as dark as it had been for the past few days. She began the walk to Takizawa High that was her morning ritual. The occasional gusts of wind made it apparent how annoying skirts could be. Thankfully her dark brown hair was plaited to prevent further disturbances.
Keitaro reached the school as usual, around the same time as her classmates. Of course, everyone ignored her, though she was used to it. She managed to carry a smile on her face until lunch period, when she would be forced to sit alone. She decided, though she hadn?t eaten breakfast, that she wasn?t hungry, and chose to draw rather than eat.
?Did you hear about Nanashiro-sensei? His wife died last week??
Every five minutes someone would mention death. It seemed to be all they could talk about since the murders began. Keitaro remained silent as she mindlessly sketched gothic portraits of no one in particular, at the same time painfully repressing memories. Her stomach continued to protest its lack of food, but she ignored it.
[I]I wish they?d all just shut up? It won?t be long until one of[/I] us [I]is dead.[/I]

[Cyriel]

Suddenly, someone cuffed Keitaro on the ear. She whirled around, shocked at being so roughly treated, and then looked up. The girl was tall, with luminescent eyes and dark hair in large ringlets. Her heart stopped; it was the new transfer student... Rumors were running around everywhere about her; how she had killed someone in the U.S., how she brutalized students... Keitaro had seen the effects herself; the recently feared school bully had been found in an ally, broken, and had had to be sent to the hospital.

Keitaro swallowed, still staring, and finally spoke bravely, "Yeah? What do you want?"

The student smiled cynically, sliding into the seat next to Keitaro. She tossed over a sandwich to Keitaro, "I could hear your stomach growling from two classrooms away. Eat something; it's getting on my nerves." Her eyes bright, she opened a granola bar, eating while she watched other students pass by, and the lunch room become more crowded.

The sandwich still in her hands, Keitaro looked over at the student, "...Umm..thanks...but I have my own lunch. You can have this back."

She waved it away, "No, keep it anyway. I don't eat meat." Looking at the sandwich, Keitaro saw that there was turkey in it. "By the way, who are you? And why do you always eat alone?" She looked over at Keitaro, who looked down quickly, biting her lip.

"...Umm..well, I don't know. I just do, I guess. And my name is Keitaro. Fujima, Keitaro."

The girl laughed quietly, twisting one of her ringlets around her finger, "Well, Fuji, I'm Cortiga Arvalis, and if you make up a nickname for me like I just did for you, I'll slaughter you." She winked, but Keitaro wasn't totally sure that she was joking. Cortiga was... Well, she didn't know what to think of her.

Suddenly, Cortiga's foot shot out, tripping another student. The girl shrieked, falling over, and quickly stood up, her face red and angry. "What the h*** was that for?? Oh...you! Cortiga, you're going to get it this time."

Cortiga shrugged, and stood up, her eyes bright. "What, me? I was merely thanking you for the rat I found in my locker this morning. I must say...the sight was quite interesting, and the way you smeared the blood everywhere showed such great skill. But...I think your taste is off. Because I think it'd look so much better if it was stuffed down you throat." Her pose was languid, almost lazy, and her confidence shone through. It was almost arrogant, but Keitaro knew that from what she had heard, Cortiga could back up everything she said.

The student, however, was not thinking quite as clearly, and immediately screamed, lunging for Cortiga, her fingers outstretched to try to rip into Cortiga's skin. Cortiga deftly dodged the flying hands, catching the girl's arm and twisting it back, the bone popping in a disgusting sound. The girl started screaming; Cortiga rammed her head into a trashcan. Then leaving her on the floor, she deftly flipped the trashcan up and over, dumping the contents on the girl's moaning body. Shoving her back as she tried to get up, Cortiga finally took out a small, gray, bloodied mass of fur. A dead rat. A couple of the watching students shrieked; Cortiga just smiled. Taking the bundle in her hand, she opened the girl's mouth, and shoved it in. The girl coughed, turning over in the trash, and the rat fell out. Cortiga just smiled, stood up, and dusted off her hands.

She winked at Keitaro again, and started to walk out of the lunchroom, a path clearing immediately.

[Shwa]

Jim was working in the mechanics room down the hall from the english wing of the school with his professor and another student named Joiko. They were working on a car found at the junkyard and were given an assignment to fix it for extra credit and theyw ould only have to take three other classes for the rest of the year. Jim was underneath the car changing some of the parts, the teacher was finding some wires for the steering wheel area, and Jokio was installing the trunk....they were all listening to the radio when an announcment came on:

"This just in...another murder has been reported in downtown Tokyo where a lawyer was founf to be dead in the allywa near the Internet Café. It was presumed we was killed yesterday afternoon after the hours of 4:30 to 6:45 near Junihiro station. The killer as police presume stabbed the man and dumpped his body in the allyway. Investigators are asking anyone if they know any information to please come down to the station and report it to them immediatly."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened as they gave the report, it had to been the 6th one this week alone already about mysterious murders all around the city.

"Its a shame about Nanashiro-sensei who dies last week, he hasn't slept or eaten anything since. Poor man" Jokio said as he went over to the shelf and tried to find a screwdriver for the bolts. After about 5 minutes the bell rang and it was time for Jim to have lunch, he washed his hands and face which was covered in grease and sut and headed out the door while the other two stayed behind. He wanted to hurry to the cafeteria to meet someone so he ran a bit, the hallway was clear Kim thought until he ran the corner and bumped into someone. Jim landed on his butt and saw the other person still standing. It was a girl and next to her was another one.

"Watch were your going shrimp, you just bumped into Cortiga" she said angrily, Jim looked up and her and stood up.

"It was an easy mistake, geez get over yourself" Jim replied as he brushed himself off. He apoligized to ther and she explained why she was a little jumpy after she pumled a girl in the cafeteria, Jim laughed at the thought.

[Balinese]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Ami Tsukiyono kept her book in front of her face, hiding tear-tracks that had crept down her cheeks. She had just caught a few minutes of the news and heard about the latest murder in a series that had been plaguing Tokyo. "Aki-chan, forgive me."
She bumped into Jim Mishima outside her next class, and quickly began to apologize, afraid that he'd smack her or be mean. Instead, to her surprise, he patted her on the back and told her to forget about it.

"I heard about Akiko. I'm really sorry." Jim looked at her apologetically.

Ami couldn't hold back a flood of tears and mumbled an excuse as she ran for the girls' lavatory, sinking to her knees in a bathroom stall and crying. She left the bathroom as ther bell rang, heading for her next class.[/FONT]

[Matarael]

[COLOR=Navy]Kisho Tanaka walked down the hall to his next class. As he walked, he noticed Ami emerging from the bathroom, eyes red with sadness. Kisho almost went to talk to her, he boasted himself as a good listener to problems and concerns, but faltered in step and forgot the idea. There was no way he could muster the confidence to talk to a girl, it was his greatest weakness.

His next class was English, so he strode into the classroom with a positive demeanor. He sat at his desk before turning to the boy beside him, his friend and co-worker at SubZero, Hiroshi.

"Hey, you here about the murder?" he asked in a hushed voice. Although it was fine to talk about the situation freely, he felt uncertain at making this particular one public knowledge.

"Yeah, this won't be good for buisness."

Kisho nodded. He was referring to the murder down by SubZero, the most recent one yet. He had heard about it from Joiko, who he talked to occasionally. He was about to say something else before the teacher entered the classroom, commanding total silence.[/COLOR]

[Shwa]

Jim sat there alone at a table near one of window to the left of the filled up and crowded cafeteria. He was working on his laptop to see where he could place the new engine for the car until he got a mail flash that interrupted his work. He stopped for a bit and decided to look into it later, he was taking a drink on his soda when he thought of Amiand how sad she was. That he knew she needed some time when she made that "excuse" to go to the bathroom.

"Poor girl...I'll go see later on how she's doing....maybe see needs to talk to someone" Jim though as he went back to his laptop to open the mail. It was another news report, Jim insantly took out his headphones to hear in silence:

"Yet again another murder victim was found....yet this one was "strangled" as police say in the report. It seems to be a hand mark around the neck until the base of the palm where it disapears, police thing it was part of a short glove fationable to kids. Speaking of the matter, police are making announcments of searching the school just in case they can find the culprit or an associate. This is Han Tuhikashi reporting..."

This was the second murder in the last 3 hours today! Jim shut off his computer after he saved his work and put his headphones away in his backpack. He started to think that all the murders are connected in some way but he couldn't put his finger on it. All the victims were killed in different ways, but there were no clues or any traced for the florensic scientist could find anywhere. Once the bell rang Jim headed back to the workshop.

[Dead Alice]

Keitaro sat staring for a few minutes, her eyes wide at what she had just seen. [I]That girl... Cortiga... She was really weird, but for some reason I feel respect for her.[/I] She probably would've sat longer, but the bell signaling that lunch period was over forced Keitaro out of her bewildered thoughts. [I]Where am I going again...? Oh yeah, math...[/I] Keitaro groaned.
"Nice to see you aren't late for once, Miss Fujima."
"Hai (yes), Nataka-sensei," Keitaro muttered, finding an empty seat in the back of the classroom.
Once class had begun, Mr. Nataka began the Geometry lesson as usual, and Keitaro found herself dozing.
"Miss Fujima, would you stand please?" His commanding voice brought Keitaro back to reality, summoning a few giggles from other students.
"Huh? Uh...ok." Everyone was familiar with Mr. Nataka's ritual of forcing sleepy students to stand up for prolonged periods of time. ((OOC: My science teacher does that. ^^; )) However, this didn't help anyone to be interested in his lectures.
[I]Seems like he makes me do this every day...[/I]

[Balinese]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Ami slipped into her seat in the Geometry class, listening intently to Mr. Nataka. She was so intent on the lecture, she kept writing when he told Fujima Keitaro to stand up to pay attention. "Same old routine." She scrubbed her eraser against her paper and continued to take notes, preparing them for later study.

The class ended, and, in what seemed like no time at all, Ami was heading for her next class of the day, study hall. She slid into her seat beside a guy named Kisho, and flashed him a small smile. [i]"Konnichiwa, Tanaka-san. Ogenki desu ka?"[/i] (Good afternoon, Kisho. How are you?)
[i]"Hai, genki desu. Tsukiyono-san wa?"[/i] (Well. And yourself?)
"Things are starting to get a little scary, Kisho. There have been too many murders lately... I think something's going on."
"Yeah, it seems kind of funny... I think we should go to the police, see if they'll tell us anything."
"Should we?" Ami nibbled on a fingernail that was already ragged. "I don't think they'll tell anyone that's not in their ranks anything..."
"Then we'll MAKE them!"
At the voice coming from behind her, Ami cringed a little further into her seat and said weakly, "Hello, Cortiga."[/FONT]

[Cyriel]

"My goodness, do all you Japanese girls cringe like that? Seriously, I'm surprised you don't all get some early wrinkles or something." Cortiga rolled her eyes, and then slid into a seat next to Amy and Kisho. Both looked warily at the tall girl, but she only slouched and looked bored, running her pencil around the edge of the desk.

The teacher entered, sighed upon seeing Cortiga, and then continued to the front of the room. "Ahem, excuse me please. Today's study hall will be the same; stick to rules - you should know them all by now." He sat down at his desk, adjusting his glasses and getting some work out.

Immediatly, Cortiga slipped in her earphones, playing her mp3. The cords were hidden by the dark ringlets of her hair, and the teacher had stopped noticing her long ago, since nothing could really be done about her behavior.

[Shwa]

Jim grabbed his books and literally sprinted down the empty hallway, he wasn't suppose to be in the workshop that time, he needed to be in another class. It took him about 5 minutes to find the right room and he entered slowly, the teacher was paying too much attention to his lecture and didn't notice the door open or shut. Jim crawled on the floor trying not go grab anyones attention, once he found a seat he quickly got into it. After taking a few breaths he noticed he was sitting behind Ami, Cortiga, and Kisho...Cortiga looked at Jim for a second and smiled a bit.

"Your kinda late" She smerked, Jim just gave a smile and opened his books to the chapter they were on. While he was reading the others began to talk to eachother that interested Jim a bit:

"So we're going right?" Ami asked

"Yeah, we have to learn something" Kisho replied back with a wisper.

"Lets pumle them if they dont tell us anything" Cortiga stated. Aim the looked back at Jim with a staright face. She informed Jim on what they were talking about and their plans, Jim was very interested and decided to tag along with them whenever they go. They rest of the class was really borning...it was hard for him to stay awake, but since he was behind so many people he slowly drifted to sleep on his desk.

[Matarael]

[COLOR=Navy] Kisho smiled as he watched Jim's slow descent into sleep. It was quite amusing. He then returned to his book. If there was one thing Kisho enjoyed doing, it was reading. Give him a book and he could be entertained for hours. He just liked books. Yet this time he was fuelled with the excitement of a murder mystery. It was very much like a novel, the four brave, young detectives, working on a case that could very well put them in real danger. He stifled a smirk at his own thought, and returned to his study.

Time passed quickly that lesson, and Kisho followed the others out into the corridor. The end of the day brought with it a sudden sense of relief, followed by excitememnt at the task ahead.

"Shall we get going?" asked Ami.

Kisho figured Ami as the leader in this little group, having come up with the idea in the first place.

"No time like the present." he added cheerfully.[/COLOR]

[Dead Alice]

[I]Another day wasted[/I], Keitaro thought with a sigh. [I]If only Kodachi were here... No, I've put that behind me. I will forget...[/I] Thus she walked home alone as always, expecting to recieve another lecture from her overprotective mother.
"I'm home," Keitaro called into the empty silence of her apartment. "I didn't get homework today either," she added, wary of her mother's suspicions. She recieved no reply. "Mom?" [I]Maybe she's shopping...[/I]
Keitaro set her backpack on the coffee table, when she noticed something strange on the wall in front of her mother's bedroom. It looked as if someone had stuck their hand in red paint and smeared it everywhere. But Keitaro knew it wasn't paint. [I]Blood... but that means...[/I] Keitaro felt something like ice drop into the pit of her stomach, the coldness of realization. Though she wanted to fight it, she needed proof, to know this wasn't just a nightmare.
With her heart beating at an alarming rate, Keitaro slowly made her way into her mother's room, and her eyes grew wide at the sight of Asuko Fujima's dead corpse. She wanted to scream, to faint, but she couldn't. All she could do was call the police, barely able to speak, and wait for them to haul her mother's body away.

"Apparently she was bashed in the head with a curling iron, and stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen with a sharp kitchen knife..."
Keitaro felt sickened. Listening to the police report was almost worse than seeing it herself. Everything disappeared from around her; all she felt now were the salty tears that burned her ocean blue eyes with regret.

((I would've wrote more, but we're going out to eat...))

[Balinese]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]After school, Ami led the group to the police station to begin to ask questions, but before they could even go in, they were confronted by the sight of a sniffling girl being half-led, half-dragged into the station by three uniformed officers.
"Wait a minute... wasn't that Keitaro from school?" Jim made a move to head into the station and was rebuffed by an officer. "Hold on, son. We have a victim in there, and we can't afford to have anything happen to her." He made a shooing motion. "Go on home now, the streets aren't safe for kids."
Cortiga glared menacingly at the policeman and lovingly touched the chain she had around her hand, but the policeman stared back, unfazed. "Get out of here, or we'll take you in for insubordination."

"Hey, I've got to get to work!" Jim took off down a side street.

"I'm going, I'm going." Cortiga sauntered off.

Ami shook her head. "Well, that was a bust."
Kisho patted her arm. "We'll try again some other time."
She smiled and pulled out her Geometry notebook, writing a phone number down quickly and handing it to him. "Call me later, maybe we'll know something more. I've got to run." She headed toward the public library where she was an assistant, knowing that the teenage-girl gossip mill would start up soon.[/FONT]

[Matarael]

[COLOR=Navy]Kisho sighed as he watched Ami leave. The novel had ended even before the climax. Sham, it would have been fun. Still, there was always tomorrow. Then he wondered about Keitaro's part to play in this elaborate game of Cluedo. Perhaps one of her friends had died. Just goes to show that it could happen to anyone. He glanced at his watch, before running full pelt down the road to the Internet Café.


"You're late, Tanaka-kun."

"Very sorry, Saito-san"

"It isn't like you to be late, Kisho. In fact, you normally turn up early to get more done in time."

"I know, but I had some urgent buisness to attend to."

Mr. Saito laughed at this.

"Oh well, one in three hundred days isn't bad."

SubZero was empty today. Whilst Mr. Saito rummaged around in the complaints drawer, Kisho looked sadly at the many computers not being used, the many browsers not being surfed. The fear of the people was too great to contend with.

"Ah, here's one worthy of your expertise."

He slipped on his reading glasses and read the rather scruffy Kanji.

"Number 20 has a faulty server, it shuts down when you log on."

"I'll get right on it!"

Kisho hopped onto the stool by Computer 20. Next to him sat his schoolfriend, Hiroshi.

"Kannichiwa, Takahashi-san."

"Kannichiwa. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing" Kisho felt it was best to keep this little adventure hidden for now.
"What're you doing?"

"E-mail doesn't work. Says something about an overloaded inbox on every computer. Thing is, it won't let me into the inbox in the first place."

"Well, good luck with that."

Kisho's computer showed the successful login screen, complete with little dancing anime mascot.

"It's working fine." Kisho called back to Mr. Saito.

"Hmm, never mind then."

Kisho reached for the logoff button, but stopped as an unusual message in red appeared on the screen.

[CENTER]TOO CLOSE...[/CENTER][/COLOR]

[Shwa]

The sun was now at the peak of setting as it turned bright orange, Jim was already latre to get to the mechanic shop and new Sirohimes would get mad at him for being late the 3rd time this week already. Jim was still worried about what he saw at the police station with the others...could Keitaro be in some kind of trouble...maybe she neds some help. Jim immediatly turned back aorund to the police station as he approched the building everyone was gone...he was sure they would still be there doing something. When he entered everything was hectic...the phones were ringing non-stop, everyone was too preoccupied to stop, and photographers were everywhere following the police chief for interviews. Jim was the grabbed on the shoulder and turned around rough by the same cop who wouldn't let him in earlier:

"What are doing here, you need ot get home kid" He said with a stern look on his face. Jim smiled nervioudly and gigled a bit.

"Ummmm I have to report a roery in progress...heh" He replied.....Jim was then thrown through the enterance doors and landed on the sidewalk. He got a bruis on his knee which scrapped his pants as well. He brushed himself off stumbling as he got up.

"No go home, its not safe on the streets let alone around the station" the cop replied before slamming the door. At the same moment the street lights came on throughout the neighborhoodbut for some reason no cars wer out on the streets...in fact no one was out there at all. Jim started to walk home the same way he ran towards work before, but he didn't like being alone outside when there's a killer on the loose. Jim walked for about an half an hour before he saw the lights in the main distric..he saw basically the Internet Cafe's lights since they were soo bright. Jim had a funny felling that he was being watched, and once he turned around there was a tall figure looking down on him...Jim was too scared and stunned to move of breath at the moment.

[Matarael]

[COLOR=Navy]Kisho chose that moment to look outside.

"Isn't that Jim from school?"

Hiroshi looked up from his computer and at the two figures outside the Café.

"I wonder who that other guy is, you think it's his dad?"

Suddenly, the man's arm lunged out and gripped Jim by the throat. Kisho and Hiroshi gasped before turning to Mr. Saito.

"Saito-san," screamed Kisho, "Jim's getting hurt outside."

Mr. Saito jumped up from his desk and looked through the Café's main window. Jim was struggling now, his arms tugging at the shadowy figure's coat. Saito rummaged through his drawer again, before retrieving a large pistol. All residents now carried firearms (or all those competant to use one), and Saito seemed ready to use his. He ran outside, before aiming his gun at the figure's leg.

"Hey! Let go of him!"

He fired a warning shot, the sound of the explosion shaking the very sky itself. A few of the police looked outside, before brandishing pistols of their own and aiming them at the man. The figure let go of Jim, who ran to the safety of the Café. Nobody's eyes left the man, until another, larger explosion ripped through the evening silence. The police station suddenly burst into flames, and everyone was hurled to the floor.

Kisho felt his mouth, and it came away red. He would have that mark for a while. He looked up, suddenly aware of the danger he was in, but the man had gone, leaving a desolated station behind him.[/COLOR]

[Dead Alice]

[I]Is this the end? Is there nothing left for me? I feel no reason to go on... no hope at all...[/I]
Keitaro had been told to go home and get some rest, that she would be contacted in the morning, but she refused. She wandered aimlessly along the road, feeling ultimately empty. The sky was getting darker and darker, like her soul.
She was alone now. No mother, no father, no brother, no friends. She began to feel that her existence was useless. She couldn't even cry any more.
Every time the chain on Keitaro's jeans rattled, she thought of numerous ways to kill herself. She wanted to see her own blood replacing her mother's. She wanted to bleed for Kodachi, for her father. She wanted to die, hoping that maybe she could be with her family that way.
Keitaro stopped and looked at the road. It seemed like her last hope.
She stood on the right side of the road, facing away from the direction a car would face, hoping for a quick death. The speed limit should be high enough...
Keitaro closed her eyes hard as she heard the sound of an approaching car, its horn blaring loudly in warning...

OOC: Hope somebody pushes her... o_o By the way, Keitaro's not gonna be this depressed all the time. I'd be the same way if I were in her shoes!

[Cyriel]

BAM! The car raced past, swerving slightly as the horn let out a continuous raucous sound.

Keitaro found herself on the sidewalk, skinned from the concrete, someone lying on top of her. Immediately the person got up, yanking Keitaro up from the ground, slapped her, and shook her furiously.

"What the h*** is your problem??" Cortiga's familiar voice was furious, laced with anger. She shook Keitaro again, holding her in a steely grip. She had been trying to sneak her way into the police station, when she had seen Keitaro leave. Noticing her desperate expression, Cortiga had merely followed Keitaro. When Keitaro had stared unseeing at the passing cars, Cortiga had had a slight uneasiness, and had gotten a bit closer. And then the girl had stepped out into the road, and Cortiga had unconsciously sped into action, throwing them both onto the sidewalk before she had time to think. And now she was faced with a girl that had just tried to commit suicide, and was asking what her problem was.

Absolutely ingenious. Life got more exciting by the minute.

[Shwa]

The sound of amublance sirens rang throught the crowded streets as they arrived to the now demoplished police station, officers were injured and others tried to help get any survivors out of the burning building. Jim looked outside the window of the Internet Cafe whee he ran inside with the others who saved him from that person. Kisho and Saito-San were making sure Jim was all right, he had a couple of deep cuts around his neck when he was grabbed, they felt like tiny razor-blades on each of his fingers. Kisho wrpped some bandages around his neck, the others locked the doors and windows ans looked outside as they saw a large crowd of people, medics, and reporters in the area.

"Thank you for helping me" Jim gave a smile at the three who helped him, they just took the credit and looked around some more. There was a large knocking at the front door, Kisho slowly opened it and wa surprised to see who was there...it was Keitaro getting a piggy-back ride from Cortiga. They both look like they've been through hell and back.

"Are you two alright?" Kisho asked as he let them inside.

"We're alright, we just had a little accident earlier but nothuings broken" Cortiga replied, but Keitaro just stared off into space without talking to anyone, just sat in her chair staring. Everyone else gathered in a group and talked over with eachother.

"Ok, so far we know that this person has everything planned out and will kill in an instand" Jim stated as he sat down on one of the tables, Kisho walked in a pace around it thinking.

"Maybe this is way over our heades, so far everyone today has ben in some kind of danger" he said finally not pacing anymore. Cortiga just stood leaning aaginst the wall looking all tough.

"Well, maybe we should all gather together...we'd be safe in numbers" She explained...everyone looked at eachother and knew omeone was missing from the original group

"AMI!!" they all said at once.

[Dead Alice]

[I]Why did Cortiga do that? She could've been killed... instead of me... Was I being foolish?[/I]

Keitaro stared blankly at the walls, her mind focused only on her thoughts. She was confused, alone, and felt sick. She couldn't understand why anyone would want to save her. Her life was empty, wasn't it? She tried to convince herself of these things, yet something was repeating in the back of her mind.

[I]What if he's still alive? What if you could find him? You'd have a reason to live then, wouldn't you?[/I]

"Maybe..." Keitaro said quietly to herself.

[Venge]

OOC: sorry I havent even PUT my first post here. Major brain malfunctions going on. I can barely keep up with all the RPs Im in. Well, I hope Im not too late in the story! :D :p

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matt walked down the street, the dark night sky shining in the moonlight. He was walking to clear his mind.

"Why are these murders happening?" He asked himself.

He suddenly looked to his right to see a car swirve out of the way of someone who was pushed out of the way of the speeding car. He couldn't recognize the two in the darkness, even though a street light was near them. He reached behind to his back pocket and grabbed his two daggars, the metals of the blades shining in the moonlight. He walked up to them.

"Hey, are you two okay?"

Keitaro and Cortiga looked up to him. Cortiga spoke first.

"WHAT!? She almost got hit by a freakin' car here!? Are you crazy or something?"

"As a matter of fact, I think I am. Most people think I am anyways."

"Who is that Cortiga?" Keitaro asked.

"Some dumb idiot thinking that you might be okay after almost being ran over by a car."

"Thanks for the compliment." Matt said. "Well see ya!"

Matt passed the two girls as he continued his walk. He put his two daggars back into his back pocket.

'That was strange. Something felt weird when I spoke to them...It couldn't be that they..wait, why the hell am I thinking about them anyway?' Matt thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OOC (again): BTW, Matts special sense is he can feel strange auras around someone when either they will impact his life or that he will impact their life. But he doesn't truly understand it completely.

[Balinese]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Ami was quietly working in the library's main room, stocking books on the shelves and helping patrons with their selections. She yawned slightly and turned to get a look at the clock as three grade-school aged kids came up to her and asked her to help them out with selecting a book for a report. "Okay, come with me..."

As she stood on her toes to reach a book, four teenagers came rushing into the library, asking the librarian where Ami was. Knowing her responsibilities, Ami handed the book to the closest of the children and walked over to see Jim, Kisho, Keitaro and Cortiga. "Hi, guys," she began, then noticed the slight strain on their faces and stopped for a second. "Something wrong?"

Cortiga grabbed Ami's forearm and tugged her into an alcove so the group could talk without being overheard. "Someone just tried to kill Jim, and then Fuji here almost got run over by a car. Yeah, I think something's wrong."

Jim rubbed gently at the side of his throat, where lurid bruises were beginning to form. Kisho looked more worried than usual, and Keitaro just stared at the floor.

"I think... this is getting serious." Ami brushed her hair out of her eyes and gazed levelly at each group member in turn. "We need to be extra-careful. Should we stick together?"

OOC: sorry about the lateness... college junk -_-[/FONT]

[Shwa]

Everyone was deciding if they should stay in a large group or in pair with eachother...all were suseptible to the attacker at any time during the day and night. Everyone stood agains the shelves or just stood in the library room where they were meeting.

"I think it would be better if we stayed together..there's powers in numbers as they say" Jim said to break the long silence between the group.

"Yeah, but we can't stay together 24/7.....that'll be a problem" Kisho spoke up and scrached his head a bit.

"Let get the facts: 1. We go to the same school 2. Most of our work places are cole to eachother 3. We have cell phones to contact everyone and 4.....we have to see if our houses are near eachothers" Ami said as she took out her cell phne to check the time, it was about to turn 9pm. Everyone gave their addresses and cellphone numbers to everyone. It was a ood sign that they lived real close to everyone...but now they needed a plan for the night.

"I could have you all over my house tonight...my parent don't mind at all and there basically never home because of their work. They commute to different party of Japan and stay at fancy hotels so it wouldn't be a problem. I'll go one ahead to get the place clean...call me in half an hour" Jim stated as he put his cellphone away in his pocket after getting the other's numbers.

"Maybe someone should go w/ you just in case" Keitaro said..so Cortiga volunteered to go with him. Once they left the library they both sprinted towards his house taking only 2 breaks for breathing and resting. It took them about 10 minutes to get there, Jim locked all the doors when they entered the house.

"Nice place ya got here" Cortiga said as she looked at the house, Jim just blushed as he took off his shoes and looked for some extra blankets and such. Cortiga started to call Ami to tell them to take a Taxi to the given address so they would be safe.

[Cyriel]

"Hey, Ami, yeah, we made it fine. You still got Fuji and the others with you? Yeah, ok. Meet us here. Sounds good - see you soon." Hanging up, Cortiga returned the cell phone to her pocket, and then looked around. Jim had seemingly disappeared, and she could hear him in one of the adjoining rooms moving things around.

Exploring on her own the large, spacious floor plan, Cortiga turned up in the spotless kitchen. Seeing a basket of fruit on one of the counters, she grabbed two apples, washing them quickly under running water from the faucet. She bit into one, tossing the other with her hand as she walked back to Jim. She found him bringing blankets down to the couches in one of the living rooms.

"Hey, catch," she called, as she threw an apple at him. He barely caught it in time to keep it from smashing into his head. At his slightly shocked glance, she shrugged, "Hey, you caught it, right? So it's all good. If you hadn't caught it, then yes, there might have been a problem with me throwing it directly at your skull." She laughed, and then winked, finishing the rest of her apple. Picking up a couple blankets, she tossed them over to Jim.

"So...your parents are out alot because of work, eh? What do they do, anyway?" she asked, as she batted some pillows.