Ai laid in bed, not moving as memories flooded her mind. One in particular, however, played over and over. It was that night, two years ago…

"Hey, um... Ai? You there?" The boy knocked on the door, awaiting a response only to hear a blood-curdling shriek just a few moments afterward.

"A-Ai?! What's wrong...?" Without hesitation, Yu grabbed the knob and opened the door, realizing she had it unlocked when it easily opened for him.

"G-Get away! EW! EWWW!" He was relieved to see that his best friend was all in one piece, perfectly unharmed albeit absolutely terrified backed up against a way. Her captor was none other than a fearsome... cockroach? Yu let out a secondhand-embarrassed sigh and promptly stomped on the pest, ending it's short existence.

"Come on, Ai. That was just a harmless little roach. It won't kill you!" The girl simply pouted in response, blushing with embarrassment.

"Come on, I think you need some fresh air," Yu joked.

The two of them sat near the beach, taking in a full view of the distant ocean, before Yu decided to speak up saying, "Ai? This is probably awkward to be asking but... what was it like before you decided to live here?"

"Well, it was very crowded, and quite frankly, also noisy," she responded, reminiscing on old memories of her life prior to turning 10, "nobody really ever bothered to notice or hang out with me. I was actually highly sheltered growing up. My mother actually always got worried whenever I was left on my own. Not only that, she would always tell me how the city wasn't the most safest place to hang around in..."

"Really now?" Yu responded, "I... actually was kind of the same way now that you mention it." The boy twiddled his fingers, remembering not-so-pleasant memories of his childhood. "In fact... all those costumes I used to wear? I did so because back at home, I would get pushed around a lot and bullied in my neighborhood," he said while frowning before slightly perking his mood back up to his normally courageous self, "but I didn't let those jerks get the better of me, y'know?"

Ai always did wonder how Yu remained so courageous and outgoing. In fact, the more she thought about it - compared to him - she felt like a complete softie.

"H-How do you stay so strong despite such hardships? I mean... I don't think I could ever muster to be more like you," she sighed. "I feel like I'm a complete pansy the more I think about it..."

"Hey," Yu placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, "if you put your mind to it? I honestly think you can do almost anything, Ai."

She blinked, confused by Yu's statement.

"Do you really mean that?" Ai couldn't help but blush a bit in response. "I mean... you were the one who really got the UFO piece that one time, and you were the one who climbed up the entire cave just to get it down to me."

"If you weren't there, I don't think we would have saved that thing in the first place," he retorted, giving her a cheeky little smile. Ai may not have been the bravest person he knew, but she definitely had a big heart.

"Hey, now; don't feel afraid. I know you have it in you. I mean... I wouldn't lie to you. You're my best friend, after all!"

Best friend...

The memory of their last conversation echoed throughout her mind. It was a lovely day in Animal Village, but Ai couldn't help but feel a bit blue. It had been nearly an entire since Yu had last visited. Ever since her first year in town, after Margie moved away, after exploring the cave, after the Winter Festival... they had basically grown closer than she ever could imagine. He practically came by almost daily up until his disappearance. He vanished without a trace, not even a letter explaining his whereabouts. Truth be told, Ai never exactly learned about the nearby town he supposedly lived in, but she had a bad feeling possibly something happened to him. Just thinking about it unnerved her, and she desperately hoped he was alright.

Getting out of bed and slipping into her favorite pink daisy dress with her bright red shoes, she made her way downstairs to her front door. She almost immediately noticed her mailbox had the little flag up, which was probably the first letter she'd received this week. Could it be from Yu? Maybe she would finally learn about his whereabouts? No, that's good to be true, the girl muttered under her own breath. As embarrassing as it would be to say; she really missed him.

Opening the tiny tin door to the letter compartment, she saw a very peculiar looking letter with a strange stamp which kept it closed. She took it out and flipped it over only to see if there was any name or address, but there was none. It was clean as a blank slate: the envelope had no feeling of physical wear so she could confirm it must have been sent very recently.

It wasn't long before she saw something else though: right below her mailbox was a suitably large package. Curiosity got the better of her as she opened the hatch to reveal... firecrackers, boxing gloves and... wait, are those bowling balls?

What was this? A wacky cartoonish prank-bomb of sorts. It felt like almost as if somebody tried to spring a trap on her. Safe to say, she was more than disturbed by this, and chills started to run down her spine. Was somebody watching her? She didn't bother to stay and find out. Things were getting freaky, fast.

She ran to the first friend she could trust in town. She had to find out what was going on, and she had to find out right away.

Hey, So... It's been a long time since I've written a fic honestly and this is based on a personal headcanon I've had for years. I apologize if the formatting seems a bit off because I honestly had help from my friend with this and I'm wanting to make sure this is the best it can be in terms of length and depth. For the record, Ai is supposed to be the pink villager and Yu is the red one. You'll find out why her hair isn't bunched up into pigtails later on. ;)