New York - December 25th
"Hello all, and may I say Merry Christmas from your favorite radio channel. I am filled with such grief to inform you that an incident has occurred in our lovely town. A local park near the art museum has been flooded with dead bodies, surrounding the little pond. The police continue to investigate these bodies with care, taking notes to wounds and trends between each of the bodies. So far in their investigation, there have been no signs of wounds whatsoever and each of these people were dressed formally with some sort of body art on them, notably the substances that spewed from the mouth. The police have already figured that the substances were not drugs—rumors have said that it was some sort of lipstick... Odd isn't it? As of now, we still have no information about who would do such a horrid thing, but the officials are calling this the new crime of the century. I'll continue informing you listeners about any updates on this scene. For now, we have a guest speaker, who has seen the entire event —"
The radio was silenced with the flick of a finger upon a switch. A girl turned over towards her "partner," who continuously laughed away, lounging in his so-called throne. The sixteen-year-old girl made her way to her crazy partner, sitting herself on the arm of his throne of silky,black cotton. The other turned away from her, leaning on the other arm, allowing his delusional laughter to persist. He let out a big sigh of happiness and joy, which bubbled in his chest as the imagery the radio told of recurred in his mind so easily as though it was right in front of him. Quickly, the small man leapt off his chair in joy.
"That. Was. Exciting," the boy spun around and headed towards the window of the hotel room to open it and let in fresh air. The girl nodded quietly to herself.
"Yes, it was," she gave a small smile of resentment that also seeped into the tone of her voice. Immediately, the dirty blonde man walked over to her, cupping both of her cheeks. With his olive green eyes, he peered straight into the burning eyes of the silver haired girl.
"Peko, hey," his voice seemed so soft that it sounded far away, as though he was trying to call for someone, "What's the matter?"
"I'm afraid that they will find us one day," Pekoyama Peko remained still as the boy began to lower his hands away from the girl's figure. The boy only laughed as a response.
"Oh, come on, " a slight tease was heard in the boy's voice, "at least we made them 'beautiful.' We did something amazing for them, Peko. You should be proud." Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu placed his hands into the pockets of his slacks before turning to the window of the room. "Well, we ought to start packing up now, yeah? Gotta leave the hotel right away tomorrow." He made his way over to a blue luggage by one of the beds in the room. It was a rather bulky luggage that fit all of his things— shirts, jeans, suits, underwear, jackets, wigs, etc.
"Right," Peko agreed, walking over to her black luggage but stopped herself. "Hold on. We have the entire day. Shouldn't we leave now?" The boy sighed tiredly.
"Really," he closed his eyes and massaged his neck, "we can't just buy tickets right away. I already have the tickets for the flight at six tomorrow." She slowly walked over to her luggage and began to organize her things. While she was doing so, she heard the other slam shut his luggage preceding a massive amount of heavy footsteps that stomped back and forth in the hotel room, which may have resulted in several footsteps depressed into the colored carpet of the room. As Kuzuryuu walked on, Peko slowed down in her process of packing up. Suddenly, the stomping paused. She refrained from turning towards the boy, so she peeked in the corner of her eye towards the boy. Standing with his hands in his slacks, the boy held his hand to his chin, holding it and rubbing it in thought. Before he looked back at her, Peko turned her attention back to her packing.
"Hey, it is still early, right? Just as you said," the tone he spoke in was one that resembles a verbal smirk. Peko remained silent and let Kuzuryuu speak on as she closed her bag and zipped it. She walked over to the hotel bed and sat as he spoke. "Heh... Hey, Peko? How about we go one more round in this dump?" He gave a slight chuckle to his self. "I mean, why not, huh?" He rushed over back to his luggage, quickly flipping it open and taking out a bottle of god-knows-what before closing the bag to stand in front of Peko. "So what do you say, Peko? Wanna do it again?" Peko remained silent and her face remained blank as though she did not understand the question, but Kuzuryuu knew her feelings. Behind that face was a sign of thought and questioning. He smiled softly towards her silent figure, knowing the answer to his question. Peko closed her eyes and looked at her master.
"As you wish, Master."
"Heh," He smirked, "then let's get ready, shall we?"
"You wanna go, Nidai?" I quickly stomped towards him with a wide smirk across my face. "I'm all ready to kick your ass right now. Come on then!"
"Not at a party, Akane!" Before I was able to punch him, he grabs at my fist and pulls it behind my back. I struggle to break loose from his grip as he dragged me towards the door. I screamed at him to let me go, but he kept talking on and on about how it was for my own good. After being thrown out and the door shutting in my face, I sighed in frustration, trying to punch the door open, but without luck, I SOMEHOW wasn't able to. I sat down, sighing in anger and looking up to the night sky. How ironic. While the damn world around me was mute with the distant sounds of people chatting and doors of houses closing, here I was sitting on the doorsteps outside of a classmate's party where the delicious treats were. I pouted looking down, and that's when I remembered that the front door was probably open. So I put my sulking to an end, and rushed over to the front. I turned the corner and that's when I heard screaming from the house. I forced myself to run faster and reached the door. I turned the knob of the door and ran inside. I stood at the hallway frozen by what I was met with. Before me was not a party of joyous people dancing and chatting with one another —there was a gathering of people falling over and dying by one another, drinks spilling and dresses flittering here and there. In the middle of all that mess, I saw my only friend and coach fall over. The tears began to perk into the corners of my eyes. I shuddered and quivered with fear.
In a shaky whisper, I managed to call to him, "N-Nidai...?" He laid there, motionless on the floor, just like any of the other bodies around him. I didn't care for the others like I did for Nidai. The only center of my attention was my best friend who stayed where he was in his position on the floor.
I ran over to him, falling to my knees before his figure. Shaking him, I began to call out his name repetitively, "Nidai! Nidai!" The tears were beginning to overwhelm me but I tried fighting them back. No way in hell am I crying. Never... But why? Why now?
"Come on, Nidai! Wake up!" His eyes showed no signs of life, even though they were wide open. My wish wasn't granted, and my body grew cold. I cried and cried over the death of my best friend, sobbing over his cold body. What the hell happened after I was gone? Why? Who did it? What did it? Questions ran in and out of my mind but all I wanted to think about was Nidai's death. The words "why" continue to reverberate in my head.
My thoughts came to an end when I heard laughing and footsteps coming to the room. In fear, I ran to the nearest room: the bathroom. I sat in the bathtub sliding the curtains to hide myself. I tried to keep my sobbing quiet so that the intruder wouldn't catch me. The questions of "who" and "why" began throb in my head once more as the intruder began to talk.
"Hahaha, Peko, isn't it great? We managed to do it once again!" A man speaks with a sort of excitement. The hell kind of person is he? Laughing and enjoying the sight of dead people... Isn't he phased by it?!
"Young Master, we must leave. " There were two people: a man and a woman. Accidentally, I looked through the gap between the curtains, allowing me to see the culprits of this crime. The man was much shorter than the lady and had messy brown hair and a white tuxedo on. The lady, on the other hand, had black hair, glasses, and a little white cocktail dress that matches her partner. However, they both quickly took their wigs off. The man had blonde hair and the woman had silver hair. What the hell is going on?
"Yeah yeah, but how much of the goods do we have left?" The lady held up two bottles of a sort of liquid; it's hard to see from here. The man looked down at the bottle while I pulled myself away from the crack, feeling a sense of fear recur in me. "Great! Let's get out of here, Peko!"
" Yes, Master," The footsteps begin to fade and become mute. Soon, it grew silent. I got up, shaking as a cold chill ran down my spine. I exited out of the bathroom, the awful smell of the dead filling my lungs. That's it. I'm going after them. I don't need the help of the police. I'm going on my own, tracking them with everything I have.