Hello everybody, Exotos "Still-Making-Fanfics-Of-Things-Other-Than-Loud-House-I-See" 135 here, bringing you something I'm not very used to writing: Not only an anime fanfic, but a mystery one at that.

Okay, so I'm not a stranger to mystery myself, but the mystery is more along the lines of disturbing rather than intriguing. At least, I hope it is.

Anyway, I got inspiration for this story based on the previous times I accidentally wound up digging too deep in the dark side of the internet... but I figured that wouldn't be creepy enough, so I decided to kick it up a little notch.

What did I do? Well, you gotta read to find out. As for whether I'm going to continue this story or not...

Oh look, the chapter's starting! XD

Yazawa Residence, Nico's room...

"Why did I see that? Why didn't I say no?"

That exact sentence repeated itself ad nauseum in Nico Yazawa's head, as the girl stared at the ceiling, her normally vibrant eyes now tiny and shivering, while her skin was as pale as the snow.

"Nico?"

The girl's mind stopped saying that sentence before she slowly, weakly turned to the source of the voice: One of her fellow idols, Honoka Kosaka, holding a glass of water.

There were other idols as well:

Nozomi Tojo stood by her side, sporting a motherly look while she gently caressed Nico's hand.

Umi Sonoda, who was talking with somebody on the phone.

And finally, the one idol Nico wasn't happy to see, Maki Nishikino, who leaned against the wall, looking at Nico with a worried look.

"Okay, got it, thanks," Umi said before hanging up. "The paramedics will be here as soon as possible. But until then, we need to keep Nico hydrated, fed, and most importantly, calm."

"You heard that, Nico? The paramedics will come soon," Nozomi told the disturbed girl as she grabbed Honoka's glass of water and took a sip of it. "So, hang in there, sweetie."

Nico weakly smiled, which slowly fainted as she turned to see Umi walking to her. "Okay, Nico, try this: Breath in, and out."

Umi did the motions: She took a deep breath, then exhaled before gesturing Nico to do the same. The girl managed to repeat the motions, but she briefly hesitated when she glanced at Maki looking at her with concern.

It wasn't long before the others noticed, with Umi being the one to ask, "Uh, Maki, did you-?"

"Don't even finish that sentence!" Maki snapped. "I had nothing to do with Nico's collapse!"

Nico wekaly glared at Maki, even going so far as to try grit her teeth. However, she didn't have enough strength to do so, and Nozomi quickly gestured her to stop.

"Nico, please, you need to reserve your strengths," Nozomi told the girl, gently brushing her shoulder. "I know, how about you show us why are you angry with Maki?"

"Bag..." Nico weakly pointed at her school bag. "Phone..."

Umi walked to the bag and took out Nico's phone, which was half-charged.

Nico promptly said, "Messages..."

Umi entered the messages, and Honoka went to her side as she read the first of several messages:

"Hello, Nico, it's Maki! Hey, I found this little story online that I found very interesting, maybe you could check it out sometime?"

"The next message is just a link to the story," Honoka said as she and Umi turned to Maki, who had a look of mixed anger and horror. "It seems to be titled Maki Maki Macabre."

Maki's eyes shrunk as Nico clutched her chest, shivering a bit more than before.

And as Nozomi comforted Nico, Maki rubbed her temples, growling, "The story had such a title, and yet you still read it, Nico!?"

"Calm down, Nico, the horror's over," Nozomi turned to Umi and Honoka, "Delete those messages right now."

Umi nodded, and as she deleted the messages, Honoka got up and walked to the disturbed Maki, saying:

"Maki, those messages were sent today, hours before Nico collapsed. But, how could you send them if you lost your phone yesterday?"

Nico blinked twice and weakly said. "Lost?"

The redheaded muse walked closer to Nico, making sure to mind both her step and her tone as she grabbed Nico's hand and said:

"Nico, I don't know who sent you those messages, but I swear I didn't do it! I lost my phone yesterday, and I spent the whole day looking for it with the rest of Muse!"

Nico slowly turned to Nozomi and Honoka, who nodded to confirm her suspicions. She then turned back to Maki, who held back tears as she stated:

"I would never hurt you, Nico. Not with bad intentions, good intentions, not even as a prank!"

"Maki..." Nico slowly, weakly smiled. "Maki..."

The redhead smiled and nodded. "Yeah, Nico. I'm here."

The duo shared a gentle hug, with Nozomi making sure Maki didn't use more force than necessary.

And a couple hours later, the paramedics arrived and took Nico to the hospital, with the Yazawas and the idols waved goodbye. Not long after they left, Maki was immediately hit by Nico's younger sisters.

"It's because of you Nico's in the hospital!"

"We hate you! We hate you!"

"Girls, that's enough!" Nico's Mom said as she pulled her daughters away from Maki. "I'm sure there must be more to this!"

"We believe that too," Umi said, folding her arms.

"Maki lost her phone yesterday, so we were helping her look for it when we heard Nico screaming in the clubroom," Nozomi explained, frowning as she added, "We dropped everything to check her, but when we found her, she was on the floor unconscious, with the clubroom's laptop turned on."

The Yazawas gasped, prompting Honoka to say, "D-Don't worry, though, there was nothing there!"

The family sighed in relief, and Nozomi said, "We'll keep investigating what happened in our free time, until we find out who sent Nico those disturbing messages."

"Understood. Thanks again for bringing Nico home," Nico's Mom told the girls. "We'll keep an eye on Nico while you look for whoever sent her those messages."

The woman frowned. "Oh, and... please, be careful. It's already terrible that my poor baby girl collapsed, it'd be worse if her friends collapsed too."

"Except for Maki," the younger Yazawa children said. "She deserves it."

"Girls!" the woman snapped. "That's it, we're going back inside. Say goodbye to the girls."

"Bye!"

The Yazawas went back inside and the girls left afterwards, with Maki stating, "Okay, first things first: Find my phone tomorrow after school."

"Yeah!" Honoka exclaimed, raising her arm. "And what do we do after that?"

"We'll pay Nico a visit, I guess," Umi said, before glancing at Maki, "Well, Honoka, Nozomi, and I'll pay her a visit."

Maki stopped on her tracks, causing the others to stop before Maki slowly turned to them, sporting a concerned look. "Just you three?"

Honoka and Umi exchanged looks as Nozomi walked towards Maki, put a hand on her shoulder, and calmly explained:

"Maki, we know that you're just as worried about Nico as we are, but the thing is, as far as anybody knows, the messages that lead Nico to... whatever she saw, were from your phone. And until the situation's cleared up, everybody's going to assume that you were the one who sent her those messages."

Maki lowered her head and sadly nodded, which was followed by Nozomi smiling and gently brushing Maki's head as she said, "Everything's going to be just fine, don't worry."

The redhead's frown slowly turned into a smile and her look turned into a hopeful one, feeling a slight bit of hope resurfacing... and then the mood was ruined by a ringtone being heard out of nowhere.

But this was no ordinary ringtone, as Maki quickly realized:

"That's my ringtone!"

The girls immediately ran around the place, searching for the source of the sound, until they found it... inside a trashcan, close to the bus stop. The girls hesitated for a moment, until Maki took a deep breath and held it as she put her arm inside the trash can, and took out Maki's phone from it.

She then exhaled and checked her phone as Umi and Honoka winced in unison, the latter saying, "I hope you wash your arm when you get back home, Maki!"

Maki nodded and saw the ringtone was because she got a new message. So she opened her messages and found the newest one came from an interesting sender:

"Unknown Number"

"Wait, we were just talking about looking for Maki's phone, and now she's getting a message from an unknown number?" Umi pointed out, scratching her head. "You think it might be the person that sent Nico those messages?"

Maki sighed. "There's only one way to find out."

The girls went closer to Maki as she opened the message, and what did it say?

"Thanks for letting me borrow your phone. I sure hope that Nico enjoyed the little story I made for her. Maybe you should see it too sometime-"

Maki deleted the message without hesitation... only for a link to appear next, prompting her to delete that message too.

"How horrible, first she makes Nico collapse from... whatever she showed her, and now she wants to do the same to you?" Nozomi recapped, narrowing her eyes. "What kind of sick joke is this?"

"And most importantly," Umi said. "How did she know to call you precisely at this moment?"

Maki flinched and started looking around, hoping to see any signs of the sender around, or at least something that gave her a clue as to how it happened. However, it wasn't long before Nozomi returned her to reality:

"Calm down, Maki, freaking out won't help anybody."

The redhead took a deep breath. "You're right, Mrs. Ayazawa said it herself. But still, I can't help but wonder if that degenerate's watching us as we speak."

The girls looked around some more, until Nozomi folded her arms and said, "Anyhow, we should get back to the clubroom, and tell the rest of the girls about what happened."

Umi and Honoka nodded in agreement, and they then turned to Maki, who looked sternly at her phone before she saved it in her pocket and said:

"Yeah, let's get going."

And so the girls walked back to the school, with a single thought shared between their minds:

"Who would do such a thing?"

And that'll be it for now. Truth be told, while I could develop this into a bigger story, I don't know if I could keep everybody in-character while doing so. Heck, maybe everybody in this little one-shot is super OOC and I haven't even noticed!

But yeah, I have a little something to add: My previous experiences weren't the only thing that inspired me to write this little story. Another, peculiar Love Live story, one also featuring Nico oddly enough, gave me a bit of inspiration.

Don't worry, I didn't read it... after reading its content on the summary, I just couldn't.

And before anybody asks, yes, I believe this story could've worked better for Halloween, but guess what? I got the idea after the holiday had passed! What are the odds?!

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little story I wrote. And I'm sorry if it was a bit anticlimactic, but hey, gotta work with what we got.

So, see you next time, everyone. Wherever that may be...