I'm not exactly what someone would understand as 'special'. I'm just a teenage girl.

I'm more of a single player, wanna say I'm not the type of girl who teams up with a lot of guys. Yeah, it's nice to be out with a bunch of friends, but out of the people I know, there's nobody I would trust. May sound weird/arrogant/lonely to you, but dude, it isn't.

In fact, there aren't many people who'd involve with me either. I'm rude, I live for my martial arts and I enjoy fighting. Don't get me wrong, I don't bully people. Actually, I quite like helping people out. But I'm still more of the girl-nobody-wants-to-get-involved-with-too-badly.

Well, that was almost it. I probably should mention two other things I love:

My bike and my knife.

I know, I know. At that time, I was just sweet little sixteen, what meant, I wasn't allowed to drive a heavy motorbike, as I did. And yeah, I had no driving license. But, due to the fact that I always drove responsibly, I never caused an accident nor did I ever attract a cop to me. The only hard thing would be when filling up, but usually, I bought my fuel in canisters or sended someone else to pay. It was as easy as that.

And the knife? Well, I never used it to threaten people who didn't deserve it, and I never took it out in school (at least never when someone was around me). So, it was actually no big deal.

Oh right. The name's Rei.

On the day when everything became…well, I suppose weird covers it pretty well; I was on my way to school. As usual I played with the thought of driving with the bike and park it near the school, but it was way too risky, and I wouldn't let my bike stand at a place without any guard for a half day. So, I went by foot, enjoyed the walk and tried to remember any vocabulary I should've learned. Stress on 'should'. I wasn't exactly a hard-working student; teachers preferred to call me lazy. Nevertheless my grades were good, so I didn't really care.

As I was walking, I almost bumped into a girl. She was my age and had the same school uniform as I did – with the small, but important difference that hers was worn correctly, not like I wore mine – and that girl seemed to be somehow scared.

Not exactly of me, but like she expected to get targeted. I took a step back, lifted my eyebrow at her frightened expression and said: "Woops. Sorry, my fault." She stared at me with wide, blue eyes, whispered something that could be a "I'm so sorry!", turned around and ran. I stared after her, trying to get what just happened.

The school day went by as usual – I studied, slept in half of the subjects and through the breaks, got some exams back – and on my way back home I was almost hyped up. I've filled up my bike the day before, today at the evening I could drive through the whole night. (I suppose you already got it – my evening bike-tours were responsible for my naps through the whole school day.) I was walking faster than the others around me who were still busy talking to friends. When I passed the bunch of girls I usually had problems with – there are humans who just want to fight with me, simply because I'm slightly different from them – I saw the girl I bumped into in the morning. She was staring at her phone, and this time she didn't seem to be frightened, but more …relaxed. Heck, she was smiling widely, and I asked myself if she was writing with her boyfriend or something.

She didn't seem to have friends around, but I had neither, so I moved on. Whoever was writing with her should be worth of listening to her worries and troubles.

I yawned. History class was over (finally) and I made my way to the roof of the school. Guess whom I found there?

You got it. The girl with the phone. It was rather rare to see someone up at the roof due the fact that nobody was allowed to go there. Well, at least in the part of the roof where I used to hang out. The girl was sitting at exactly the place where I used to sleep, and I decided to walk over to her. Sitting down next to her, I gave her a curious look and said:

"Hey. I've never seen you up here." She jumped a little when I got closer to her, and when I ended, she said shyly: "Eh, I'm sorry, I'll leave immediately-" She attempted to leave, but I grabbed her sleeve of the school uniform and pulled her back on the ground. "I never said that I didn't want to have you here; and if you came here, it was because you wanted to. You should step up for what you want, you know? Always leaving will never get you a place to stay."

I crossed my legs over, opened my bento – something nobody expected of me was that I could cook quite good; I lived alone due the fact that my parents didn't want to follow me into the city, while I wanted to go to a really good school – and started eating, not paying attention to the girl beside me. If she wanted to talk to me, she would.

"Ehm, excuse me…" I looked up. "Yeah?" She eyed me curiously. "Why are you up here? Actually, we're not allowed to…" I shrugged my shoulders and picked a tomato out of my bento with my chopsticks. "I like to have my peace, and in addition, I like the sight from up here. And you? Why did you end up here?"

She shrugged too. I didn't get an answer, so I let it be. When I ate up, I lied down on my back and enjoyed the wind playing with my hair, and the sun that shone on my nose.

After break was over, I went inside again. I didn't hear from the girl in a couple of days, and I didn't look for her. I was always friends with somebody for a day or two, but afterwards, it was always over. I wasn't made for a relationship based on things like trust or whatever. And only being around someone to chat didn't require a friendship.

Anyways. It was a usual day, or better said evening. I lived in a quieter, darker or filthier part of Ikebukuro, because of the low rent. And as usual, I wanted to take a ride on my bike. When I pushed my bike out of the narrow path next to the building I lived in, I heard someone shout: "Crap, someone's there!" My head jumped up – I was already wearing my helmet – and I saw a man pushing the back door of a van closed, jumping into the car and meant van started driving.

But that wasn't the interesting thing. The interesting thing was the girl I saw in the trunk. So, I didn't hesitate, jumped on my bike, revived it with a kick start and followed the van.

Did you ever see a movie where a bike follows a van successfully? I have. And I cursed all of those movies for telling such lies. I lost the car almost immediately, and it was pure luck that I found it again.

I followed the van, always keeping a safety distance, and after fifteen minutes or so, the van seemed to have reached its destiny. It was a parking mall, and after I saw it vanish in there, I followed it after having waited for five minutes. The first floor was empty, the second one too. I just wanted to drive up on the third one, when I realized how loud my bike was. Who knew if they weren't already waiting for me, alarmed by the roar of my engine?

I parked my bike, turned it out and listened to any noise. Nothing. Either they didn't hear me or they were silently waiting for me to come.

I took out my knife – the blade was 15cm long, a little more than legal – let the blade snap out and hid it in my sleeve, the blade on the inner side. That way, I would be able o pull it out in a second, ready to attack, but without showing that I had a knife in the first place. I walked up to the third floor, first looking around the corner carefully before entering. The third floor was empty too.

I found the van in the fourth floor. Three men stood in front of it – their appearance wasn't that suspicious, but when I heard their talk I knew that my suspect at the start had been right.

"If this Black Rider won't show up, we'll be able to make a good deal, they always pay well for young teenage girls…"

"By the way, did you see that motorcycle behind us? Are you sure he didn't tell anyone?"

One of the men snorted and said: "He tried to follow us, but he lost us after some minutes. I don't think we have to fear anything from him."

I was relieved they hadn't noticed me coming up there. And I decided it was time to kick their asses. I didn't like it when girls got kidnapped in front of my house – letting them go would give me nightmares. I waited a second, passed up a moment when they all didn't look in my direction, and bashed forwards.

I got the first one from behind with a mean knee-kick in the back. He went down almost immediately (hopefully I didn't break his spine). The second one was one to react fast – he had an iron bat in his hand the moment his friend went down. I dodged, backed off and tried not to get hit. Too bad that guy wasn't a martial artist. Because if he had been, he would've known how to hold up a guard. But that way, he opened up his whole body, and that was an invitation for me. I sent him flying with a kick. Thanks, five years of kick box-training! I owe you big time.

The third guy, however, didn't wait for me to attack. He was over me in the second I was busy with the guy before me, and I received a very hurtful kick. I backed off, pulling out my knife. I wouldn't kill him. Oh, no. But I would hurt him. Maybe badly.

I lifted my knife, the blade pointing at him, twirled it so that the blade was lying at my underarm and intended to cut his chest open – but he saw it coming and with a scream of pain, I let my knife drop. It clattered when it fell on the ground.

I admitted it. That was bad. Even worse – number two was on his legs again, and I was quite in trouble. I've never fought two grown-up men at once.

"Well, well, if this isn't the biker from before." I dodged a hit, and then I got an idea to distract them. With a fast move, I opened my helmet, dodged another hit from the bat – and pulled my helmet off, throwing it at one of the men. He dodged it, the other one too – reflexes were a good thing to work with.

I wanted to knock them out with a kick to their jaws, but someone grabbed me from behind, holding my arms back. I growled angrily.

"Hey, look, guys...another girl! This night's going to pay off well." I tried to kick his feet to force him to let off of me, but it was no use. The man holding me – it was number one by the way – laughed, and I wished I had broken his spine earlier.

The men came towards me, and I knew, I could really need some help.

I was so focused on fighting the man behind me that I first didn't see her, but when I did, I stopped fighting back and only stared at her. The man behind me realized something was wrong, just as the others, and when they turned around, their faces turned into grimaces of pure horror.

The Black Biker.

The Headless Rider.

Not that she was headless, she was wearing a helmet, but the fact that she was sitting on a black bike without any lights, held a giant black scythe in one of her hands and that there were weird shadows all around her didn't leave any doubt in who she was.

I was frightened as heck, but at the same time, I felt so happy – I've seen the living urban legend sometimes, but this was something totally different. And heck, I saw the most awesome human on earth only a few meters apart of me.

When the man suddenly let off me, I almost lost my balance – almost. I stood straight, spotted my knife and got it, all without leaving the Black Biker out of my sight. No matter how cool she was, I didn't trust her one bit.

When I picked up my knife, I heard a scream – I jerked around, just to see how the Headless Rider slashed the men with her scythe. The weird thing was that there wasn't any blood or anything; actually, they seemed to be physically unharmed. They just seemed to…well, faint.

The helmet turned towards me. Cold sweat appeared on my forehead. I shot a look to the girl in the trunk. If I made it fast, maybe I could save her too. I slowly made my way to the girl. The Black Rider didn't move – at least, not mostly. She turned towards us, still remaining silent.

I felt a drop of cold sweat running down my face. Couldn't she say anything? The silence gave me the goose bumps. I looked down to the girl which I had reached by that time. And jumped of surprise. It was the girl with the phone, the one I met up with on the school roof. The Black Biker didn't seem to want to stop me, so I cut through the tape that tied the girl and removed the piece of fabric that was covering her mouth. She gasped for air, her frightened eyes staring behind me. I turned around – and took a step back so that I almost fell into the trunk.

The Black Biker had approached towards us and stood only a few steps apart from us. With a single move, she shook a phone in her hand and started to type something on it with almost in-human speed. She held it towards us, and I read:

I'm surprised to see you here. I was only told about one girl.

My brain tried to work through that. If the black Biker was told about the kidnapping of the bike, it was either because she used to rescue people, and someone who knew her had passed the info to her, maybe because that somebody had been a witness. Or ... she was part of the kidnapping.

I looked at the helmet of the biker. "You…Can you hear me?" After all, she wasn't speaking.

She nodded. I swallowed.

"I saw the van with the girl and decided to follow and help her." Again, the biker in front of me typed something on the phone and held it towards me.

I see. That was stupid, you could've ended up killed.

I felt the heat flowing in my face. "I didn't think that they'd be that strong. Anyway…thanks…for saving me 'n stuff." I hated it to owe someone.

The biker was already typing something on the phone again.

I was asked to bring the girl to a certain place.

She showed the phone to my little friend behind me too. It was silent for a minute, then I said:

"You were asked to bring her somewhere? Does that mean somebody asked you to pick her up here?" I shoved the girl behind me. "Are you part of this kidnapping?"

The biker typed something.

No. My job was to rescue her and bring her to a place afterwards.

I was still suspicious. "And where did that somebody who gave you your job know from that she was getting kidnapped?"

This time, the biker didn't respond immediately.

He's an information broker, I guess that's why he knew.

An information broker? Still, I didn't trust the whole thing.

"An information broker? Aren't they supposed to get information only on request? How did he find out about the kidnapping 'accidently'? Sorry, but this sounds more than just weird to me."

The biker looked at me – I supposed at least, the helmet pointed into my direction, I couldn't see her eyes – and finally answered:

Is the girl a friend of yours?

Weird question. "Even if she wasn't, I'm not going to leave her with somebody I don't trust."

Instead of replying to me, she typed something and waited for a while. I supposed that she had sended a text message to the information broker to ask for instructions. We were waiting, and I watched the biker.

"Do you have a name?"

She looked up, typed something and showed the display to me:

My name is Celty Sturluson. Call me Celty.

Celty? I liked the name, it sounded nice.

"I'm Rei." I eyed her curiously, then I asked: "Why do people say that you're headless?"

Do you doubt it?

I chuckled. "Of course. I mean, headless? That's something I'd call impossible."

So, what if I was headless?

She was kidding, I was sure of it, and so I said without thinking about it twice: "There's an easy way to proof it, right? Just take your helmet off."

If you promise me not to scream.

I nodded, still snickering. I mean, headless?

Celty let her phone slid into her sleeve and grabbed her helmet at each side, and then, with a small pull, she took off.

I opened my mouth to scream, but somewhere remembering my promise, I held my mouth closed with my hands.

Celty was freakin' headless. The girl behind me squeaked, but could control herself. I stared at Celty. "You're headless…For real…"

Are you scared of me now?

I still stared at her neck without a head on it and said slowly: "Not more than I was before."

She looked like she wanted to respond to that, but that moment, her phone rang to show that she had received a text message. She read it.

He says I can bring you along too if you don't want to leave her alone. Though I don't know how to transport both of you on my bike.

"That's okay, I got my bike here too, I can take her behind me too."

Celty would've shot me a suspicious look if she had a head, I knew it.

Aren't you a little too young to drive a bike?

I shrugged. "I bet you don't have a driving license either. And even if you have, you're driving a bike without any lights. I guess I'm not the bad one between us two. "

Still shocked by the fact that she was headless (For real, man! What is my world, some weird anime?!), I grabbed my helmet from the floor. I turned towards the girl. "You can have my helmet, I don't want you to risk -" Celty tipped at my shoulder. I turned towards her. "What? If you give her your helmet, we'll have a ghost hunter after us in less than five minutes."

Celty responded in her own way: she made a helmet out of shadows.

I was glad nobody took a photo of my face at that time. Because I must've looked like Are-you-fucking-kidding-me-?-What-sort-of-freak-sh ow-is-this-? With a mixture of Oh-my-fucking-god.

Anyway, I after I slapped myself (not literally of course) I made my way down to the second floor to get my bike. The girl – what was her name by the way? – took her place behind Celty. I would've been happier if she'd been with me, but nothing I could do.

Arriving at my bike, I jumped on it, revived it and let the engine roar. I was curious what Celty would say when she saw my bike.

I got disappointed. Celty simply drove on, and I followed her. I could tell that she was used to drive faster usually, because she was sort of uncomfortable on her bike, like she tried not to drive faster at any cost.

I appreciated it; although I would like to drive faster too, I knew that it was impossible to follow her at full speed.

After a time like ten minutes, we reached our destination. Celty stopped, typed something on her phone and showed it the girl behind her. She climbed down from the bike after that, and I parked my bike right behind Celty. I climbed off my bike too. Celty showed me her phone too.

Someone's awaiting you at the rooftop. My job ends here.

I nodded.

Good luck.

I was surprised about that one, but before I could ask what that was about, she already drove off. I shrugged, turned around to the girl and said: "Well then. Let's pay this information broker a visit, after all he invited us so kindly." She nodded silently.