I'm really dumb. I should have learned from the last time not to try doing a mystery in a one-shot. Oh,well. It's a whole week late, and coming out in chapters, but it's here. Hopeflly, I can get this all done before my birthday.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.

Katrina: Ready..

Sarina: Set...

Chabela: ...GO!


Dance of the Dead: For FatCat648

Chapter One: The Beginning

"KAORUKENSHINYAHIKOSANO!" A hyperactive ninja girl was running through the gates of the Kamiya grounds.

"Misao!" Kaoru started running out of the dojo in her white gi and blue hakama. Misao crashed into her with a bear hug and knocked Kaoru over.

"Hey! How'd you know I was here?" Sanosuke came out of the main house to see Kaoru brushing the dirt off of her training outfit.

"Isn't it obvious? You're always here being your chickeny self freeloading off of us!" Ooooh, Yahiko. That was uncalled for. And unnecessary. Sano couldn't think of a comeback to say, so he said

"…." Nothing.

"Hello Misao-dono." As I'm sure you've all guessed, Kenshin came into the scene.

"Yahiko-chan, say hello." Sano finally thought of something to say, but the response was so late, and so poorly thought up, Yahiko didn't even dignify it with a glare.

"I have news!" Misao was jumping up and down while clapping hyperistically.

"What is it?" Sano was curious to know what exactly was making the young okashira so excited. This was too hyper, even for Misao!

"I just learned about this western holiday where people dress up in costumes and the children go asking around for sweets! It's called Halloween!" She started to space out and drool. 'Sugar……' Misao came back to earth and started her speech again. "But instead there's going to be a festival and the shops are giving out sweet goodness and once it turns twelve am and its November first there will be fire works! And we get to wander around in costume! I already have a costume. I'm going as a bunny-human crossbreed!"

"Um, ok…" Sano was expecting something different. Misao was so excited to tell them, that she ran way ahead of Aoshi and Hiko, who decided to take their time in getting there. Hiko was thinking of ways to embarrass Kenshin, using the western holiday Misao kept hollering about. Rohaweenie, was it? He had the perfect plan in his head when the two of them arrived.

"Good afternoon Hiko-san." Kaoru bowed down to him. Hiko bowed back.

"Do you have any plans for Rohaweenie?" Hiko raised an eyebrow as Kenshin snickered.

"It's Halloween! Halloween!" Misao screamed, frustrated. Hiko cleared his throat.

"Oh."

"I'm thinking about going to the festival as a monster." Kaoru was putting a lot of thought into this, as it was her first time celebrating Halloween, and she wanted to make a statement.

"You wouldn't need a costume, at least." Again, uncalled for Yahiko. But he was itching to taunt Kaoru.

"Shut up, chicken wing." She shot back. Yahiko was fuming. To be compared to that… that… idiot! He couldn't think of anything to say, repeating Sano's actions; minus the late response.

"Please come in." The group took Kaoru's invitation, and then talked about the event that was going to happen in exactly 10 days. How were they supposed to make costumes by then? This was really short notice! Of course, no one was caring. They were too wrapped up in the plans for the festival to notice.

"Wait!" Misao shouted, quieting down the room, which was so loud, um, well, it's kind of hard to explain really, but it was seriously loud.

"I'll get Megumi. I don't want to leave her out."

"Sure. Whatever." The way Misao said it, Yahiko thought the message was actually important. Who cared if she let Megumi know about the festival as long as they went? So Misao left. And the room was considerably quieter than before, because Misao was of course, making most of the noise in the first place. As she took the oh-so-unfamiliar route to the Oguni clinic, she wondered 'Do I know where I'm going?'

This made Misao stop in her tracks. What's the point in going somewhere, if you don't know how to get there? Meaning she had to postpone her quest of fulfilling Megumi's non-existent dream of being anything she wanted for a day. It took about a half hour just to get the information she needed, because there were many people who were bad at giving directions, so they made absolutely no sense.

By the time she got to Megumi's clinic, it was late afternoon. She heard many sobs coming from the inside of the clinic, and as Misao walked in, she saw several distressed families. 'Was there a massacre or something?' She padded over to Megumi.

"What's going on?" Megumi jumped up, like, half Misao's height (about two and a half feet), and turned around.

"You startled me!"

"Sorry. Why are there so many people?"

"Ugh. At least one person in their family has been kidnapped." Misao shuddered. At least? "They should go to the police for this! I can't find them! I'm not a psychiatrist either! I only heal physical wounds. This place should have a mental institution or something! And-''

"Calm. Down." Megumi blinked twice confusedly. "Could you please start over?" Misao started to tune Megumi out because she was repeating the same things using different words, and realized that she had no idea what Megumi was talking about. Megumi took a deep breath.

"Okay. Someone's been kidnapping random people off the streets. I don't know who, or why, and neither do the families of the missing. They just vanish, and if they didn't have any relatives or friends, it's like they would never have existed, because no one saw any suspicious activity."

"Creepy."

"Isn't it? I would hate it if someone I knew and loved just disappeared like that." The thing was, Megumi did hate it. After all, she kind of was in that situation, with her having a 'non-existent' family. Misao decided to voice these words to get Megumi out of working:

"The Oguni clinic will be open for comfort from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting tomorrow. For now, go away." There were now many angry people, because of how Misao brushed them off like they were breakfast crumbs on a western table cloth.

"That was mean, but thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"I just did." Misao scowled, but Megumi was only telling the truth.

"Gensai-sensei! Would you take over the clinic for the rest of the day?"

"Okay."

"Thank you."


Sabrina: flip-flop has had a bad week. She has gotten a 3-day fever, forgotten over 35 of her homework, and finally, twisted her ankle while playing soccer, but kept playing because she didn't want to tie to Immaculate Conception again. And in the end, she just made her ankle worse, and she still tied 0-0. But this isn't about her. It's about those poor missing people. Where are they? Who kidnapped them? When will they be found? How are their families doing? Why do flip-flop's pop-tarts taste like original flavor trident?!

Katrina: You ask a lot of questions, don't you.

flip-flop: YOU'VE been stealing my pop-tarts! 0.o

Chabela: Review. It'll put flip-flop in a better mood, so that Sabrina won't get in as much trouble.