(Author's notes: Welcome to the remake of RCL! Right now, the story's plot might look familiar, but I promise you, things will be a whole lot different this time around with the story. Enjoy!)

It was graveyard shift at the book store. The store was empty, save for the one worker still there: Ruth. There was another worker, her friend Abby, but she was out at the post office collecting a, as she put it, "an uber awesome present that's so full of uber awesome I think my head will explode." This was probably some really stupid present or just an excuse for Abby to go out and get some food, but Ruth could care less. Right now, it was just her and the store's manga book collection, alone for another night of reading.

She tucked some of her black hair out of her face and got comfortable with the latest volume of Naruto. This volume, she hoped to see more of her favorite character: Itachi Uchiha. Itachi was her favorite for many reasons, most of which could be summed up in the fan girl phrase of "he's hot."

Just then, the door of the store burst open. The little bell rang, and Abby appeared, giant cardboard box in hand. "Yooo!" she cried out, loud enough to wake everyone within a two mile radius.

"Hey, Abb'," greeted Ruth. "I see that you're happy."

Abby shook her head, wildly-grinning. "You betcha!" She put the box down on a nearby counter and arched her back, rubbing it and grumbling to herself before turning back to gawking over the box. Abby was a good friend to Ruth. To sum her up, she was nice to just about anyone but herself. She was a little overweight, and she was obviously self conscious about that. She wore gold-framed glasses that she had had for years now and still had her hair dyed black from when she cosplayed as Tobi from Naruto a few months ago. You can probably guess who she fangirls over in her free time.

After watching her friend drool for a while, Ruth finally asked, "So, what's even in this box?"

"Oh, I don't know!" her friend exclaimed happily, her natural curls slightly bouncing with her giddiness. "It's a present from that one guy I met at the anime convention. He was so nice. I can't actually believe he got me this stuff, God, I need to hug him when I see him next time!"

Ruth cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "Let me guess. It's yaoi, isn't it?"

"No!" Abby shouted in defense. "He's a guy, why would he happily buy me yaoi?" Talking faster and faster with each word, she began to rant. "I mean, it must be extremely embarrassing to have to go to the store, actually be seen, potentially by friends or teachers or even relatives, buying explicit guy-on-guy books? And how can you even have a shred of dignity in your eyes when you have to look at the cashier as you check out the books? And how, in the name of God, are you supposed to sneak the books, some of them possibly shrink-wrapped to keep little kids from peeking into them, into the house and not have to be humiliated when you have to explain it all to your parents? Do you think any guy would want to go through all of that? But yeah, some of it is yaoi."

"I figured," sighed Ruth.

"Now, let's open this bad boy up, shall we?" asked Abby as she went into the store's back room to search for a box cutter.

"Absolutely not," protested Ruth. "For one, I don't want the manager to come back and find us with our noses in this crap and two, I really don't wanna know what rocks your boat."

Abby would have started whining back at her in protest, but Abby had just the card up her sleeve to get Ruth to agree with her. "Ya know," she said slyly, "if there's one thing that I'm 100% sure that I make sure my convention buddy got for me, it was Naruto yaoi."

Ruth was listening now. "N-Naruto yaoi?" she echoed, her face starting to get red.

"Mhm. Hot, steamy Naruto yaoi. I made it very clear to my good buddy that he better make sure that it was Akatsuki yaoi. I didn't want anything but. He told me during an IM session that a lot of the good ones that he found happened to have Itachi in them."

"Alright, I'll help!" shouted Ruth, admitting defeat. She rushed into the back room and started looking around in a frenzy. "Where is that box cutter?" she screamed.

"Five bucks a book," said Abby, putting her hands on her hips and walking out back towards the box. "And if you take way too long to read it, it'll cost you extra."

"I don't care!" exclaimed Ruth as she put the box cutter in her friend's hand. "Just open it!"

Without hesitation, Abby cut the tape open. As the box's flaps were slowly lifted, both girls could swear they heard an angelic choir nearby. They were about to enter fan girl heaven.

And that entrance to fan girl heaven was immediately blocked. On top was a large scroll. The paper of the scroll had a yellow tint to it and was only held shut by a tea green ribbon. There were books underneath, but they were obscured by the scroll.

"Abby."

"Yeah, Ruth?"

"What in the name of Hell is this?"

"I don't know. Don't ask me," snapped Abby as she gingerly pulled the scroll out of the box and set it on the table.

The girls stood there, examining their peculiar present, just wondering. "Maybe it's one of those fancy scroll-things you buy and they paint your name on it in Calligraphy?" guessed Ruth.

"I don't think so. This looks a bit large to just have my name on it, or something."

Ruth slapped a hand to her forehead and groaned. "I give up!"

"Let's just open it, then," mumbled Abby.

The girls slowly undid the knot that kept the scroll bound. They took a step back as the scroll unrolled itself a bit.

"W-Well," murmured Abby.

"Open it up," urged Ruth. "I'm just curious now."

Shifting the scroll so that it had more room on the table, Abby slowly opened the rest of the scroll. It was long, and the scroll slid off the table with a thump. On the scroll, was writing neither of the girls could identify, though Ruth figured it was probably Japanese and could somewhat make out a couple symbols.

"What the hell is this?" asked Abby.

"I really don't know," said Ruth.

"Well, it must be important if he sent it to me."

"Yeah, good point. Maybe we could tell what's so important if he wrote it in something we actually kn—"

Ruth was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing. She shared a nervous glance with her friend before slowly walking to the phone and answering it. "Hello?"

"Ruth?" said the voice on the other line. It was their manager. He didn't sound pleased.

"Oh, Mr. Bales. How nice to hear your voice," Ruth said shakily.

"Oh, don't you try sweet talking me! You've been goofing off, haven't you?"

And now they were caught. Ruth shared another look with her friend and then tried her best to lie. "Oh, Mr. Bales! How could you think of such a thing? I mean, that's the first time you've ever asked that!"

"Ruth, if you and Abby don't have that store in tip-top shape when I get back or, I swear to God, I'm going to fire you."

Ruth tried not to gasp. It sounded like their boss was having a rough night, and he was using them to vent. "A-Alright. But the store's pretty clean already. I don't think there's much we can really do."

"Did you organize the latest shipment?" the man asked impatiently.

"Yeah, I got started on it, but I took a break."

"Did you spiffy up the display case?"

"That's Abby's job, and she just got back."

"From doing what?"

"Uh, uh, I don't know. She had an important package to go pick up. She just got back maybe five minutes ag—"

"Get that slacker over here," demanded Mr. Bales. "You know how I am with people who skip out on their jobs!"

"Alright, alright," said Ruth. "Abby!" she said, turning her head and covering the mouthpiece of the phone with one hand. "Get over here. Bales wants to talk to you."

"I kind of can't right now, Ruth."

"Why not?" huffed Ruth, putting the phone down. "I swear to God, if you make him fire me, I am going to kick your ass!"

"Ruth, the scroll is kind of glowing. I really don't care about Bales right now."

Ruth was about to put her hands on her hips and ask her friend what she was talking about, but then she saw exactly what she meant. The scroll was indeed glowing. The symbols on the scroll were glowing green, and the light was slowly creeping upwards towards her friend.

"Abby, get away from that!" shouted Ruth.

When Ruth picked the phone back up, she heard her boss asking, "What the hell is going on in there? What have you two done now?"

"Um, um, listen, Mr. Bales. I really have to go. We're having a bit of a problem here. Call back in, like, ten minutes, ok?"

"What, are you getting robbed?" asked the man, skeptical. "Do I need to get down there? Maybe even call the cops?"

"Ruth, hang up already!" shouted Abby. "Seriously, the light's already eaten the table!" The curly-haired girl was backing up. And she wasn't lying about the table, either. The whole table, box, scroll, and all, were glowing the same green. And the light was still growing outwards.

"Hang on!" Ruth turned back to the phone. "Mr. Bales, I seriously have to go now."

"Ok, just what is going on in there? Did I hear something about a table? Are you two morons breaking my stuff again?"

"No! It's just that seriously, I really need to hang up."

"Ruth, help me! It got my foot!"

"Damn it, Abby, I said hold on!" Ruth shouted at her panicking friend. This was only getting worse and worse. "Mr, Bales, sorry to be rude, it's just that—"

"Ok, I am seriously just going to come down there," the man interrupted, now worried. "This sounds really bad. Are you sure I don't need to call the police?"

"No, no, I think we don't need to get the cops involved. Just please, hurry down here!"

"Alright, alright. I'll be there in about 15 minutes. Just hold on."

"Mr. Bales, I really don't think we can do that!" shouted Ruth. She was looking back towards the light. It was growing outwards and was getting close to her. Abby was frozen in place, the light crawling up her body.

Before another word could be said, a blinding flash of green exploded through the store. And just like that, both girls and the light were gone.

"Ruth? Ruth? Ruth, what the hell?" the man shouted. No answer.

The man quickly snapped his cell phone shut. He was starting to sweat now. What had happened? Was the store being robbed? Were his employees being held hostage, or, even worse, dead?

He shook his head and left the light of the lamppost he had been leaning against. He walked quickly into the night, back towards his store.

Meanwhile, at the now empty store, a figure walked in. He was pale with short, dark hair. You could say he was Asian to a certain degree. His small eyes glanced around the store. Walking towards the back, he saw what he was looking for. The scroll was there, but now the writing was gone. "Well then," he said to himself, smiling. "Looks like my little game has begun." With those words, he disappeared, leaving the store empty once again.

Author's Note: Update, 2/21. RCL now has an official cover now! It's just for chapter one. I would like to take special note that these covers are not by me, but by a good friend of mine Ruth. She may be planning to do a cover for each chapter, so I'll keep you guys updated. Thank you and I hope you like it! ~Dot-Sensei