Leone yelped as he was yanked from his chair and onto the floor. Suddenly, the arm let go around his neck and he scrambled to his feet to face this unknown enemy. He was greeted by laughter when he faced his opponent.
A girl with red hair with blue streaks in it and wearing a black cloak over a blue trench coat stood before him laughing and holding her sides "I got you so good, did you actually think you were being attacked?"
Leone stared at the girl who he now recognized as his friend Galaxy. Galaxy looked up and noticed his completely stoic expression. "Are you okay? You're not mad are you?"
Leone continued to stare at her without even blinking. Galaxy knew what was happening but it didn't make it any less awkward. Leone was the most cat-like person she'd ever met; he was beyond quiet, could sit and stare unblinkingly for hours, navigate in the dark without issue, and he was an excellent hunter. All these things made him a great wizard but his awkwardness combined with Galaxies own awkwardness was enough to make most people nervous.
Leone finally decided there was enough awkwardness and proceeded to hug Galaxy "How'd the job go?"
Galaxy looked up at Leone who was somewhat taller than her "If 'well' means that we couldn't figure out why twenty people just went missing, than it went pretty well."
Leone looked at Galaxy "No, I wouldn't say that "well" would even come close to that definition."
Galaxy laughed "We did manage to find out where some of them may have been heading though. They appeared to have headed over to the town called Fujikawaguchika.
Ryo joined in on the conversation "Why would they head there?"
Galaxy looked at Ryo. She liked Leone's weirdness but Ryo was just creepy. He had a massive crush on her sister Kaidra so it made her feel very uncomfortable but he was Leone's closest friend and had proven himself as a warrior on more than one occasion "Kaidra and I were looking at the maps and we noticed that it was fairly close to Aogikahara."
Leone looked thoughtful "Most people don't go to that place for no reason. I think we should head over there to check things out."
Ryo looked anxious "Wait, now?"
Leone and Galaxy looked at Ryo and then at each other and in unison replied "Now."
The three exited the Root Bear Bar and made their way to where Galaxy had said Kaidra was.
Suddenly, there was a loud voice of a man yelling "GET OUT OFMY STORE! YOU'RE MAKING MY BIRDS TURN AGAINST ME!"
The three looked over a pet store where the voice had come from. The door burst open and a girl with curly, blonde hair and wearing a green jacket stumbled out with birds perched on her shoulders and head and a man (the store owner) chasing after her.
She began running in circles around the group as the store manager chased after her yelling "You come back here and give me my birds back!"
The girl yelled back "NO! They're mine and they don't like it here! They want to be free!"
Leone and Ryo were doubled over in laughter and Galaxy stuck her foot out to trip the store owner. He fell with a clunk and he began to yell at Galaxy when she suddenly ran up to him, closed his mouth and began to whisper "shhhhhh. Do you like money?" She said as she pulled out a roll of fake money "here. Take it all and leave my sister alone."
The store owner looked at the money with greedy eyes, took it, and went back into his store quietly.
"Kaidra," Galaxy yelled "How many times must I tell you to not go into pet stores and steal all the animals?"
Kaidra looked up "But, but, they were so sad and unhappy in there! I had to do something."
Ryo and Leone looked at Kaidra, then at each other, and then fell over laughing. Galaxy shook her head "I only have so much fake money to get you out of these situations and I'm not going to pay real money for your ridiculousness."
Kaidra pouted "Okay. I'll try not to, wait! No, no, no!" Kaidra began yelling and crying as the birds that had been perched on her shoulder and head all flew away "Come back! You told me you wanted to be with me! Don't go!"
Galaxy glared at Kaidra "See? This is what happens every time! You free the birds and as soon as you leave the store, they break your heart and fly away."
The group moved on and headed over to a public parking lot where an SUV was parked. Ryo got in the driver seat and the others loaded up behind him. Galaxy looked at Leone "So what do you think we should do when we get to Aogikahara?"
Leone looked thoughtful "I say we figure out where the most common suicide sites are and scan around there and see if we can find any clues."
Galaxy nodded and then Kaidra spoke "What do you suppose we'll find there?"
"Hopefully, clues on where these people are at." Leone replied. He then looked over at Ryo "Ryo, we should stop by Fujikawaguchika first. We should pick up some supplies as well as seeing if anyone showed up in the town and where they might have headed."
"Yes sir." Ryo replied.
It was at least an hour before they finally got to the town and stopped by a store.
They entered inside and first picked up food. Then Leone walked into the office supply area and picked up some brightly colored tape. Ryo cocked his head to the side "Why do we need tape?"
"Because we're going into the Sea of Trees, we should lay this down as we walk so that we can backtrack by following it." Leone replied.
It was early afternoon so they decided to eat before heading to the forest. "We should go to a popular and easily accessible restaurant."
"Good idea Galaxy. Restaurant like that is likely to have had lots of new visitors."
They found a restaurant called Wundumguy. They entered and the wonderful smell of food hit them so they trampled the waiter and headed to a table.
A bruised and grumpy waiter came and got their orders.
"Alright, let's get a plan ready." Leone began saying "What we're going to do is find a common trail that people use when they're planning to commit suicide and we'll follow that. We'll lay tape down so that way we have something to follow in case we can't find our way back."
The others nodded their heads but then Galaxy began talking "What exactly will we be looking for and why take a trail like that?"
"We'll be looking for any recent signs of life; footsteps, pieces of clothing, AND the people themselves. As for why we're going to use a trail like that, honestly I just have a gut feeling that we're gonna find something on a trail like that."
The waiter showed up with their food but as the others began eating, Ryo decided to ask the waiter some questions "Has anyone new come in recently?"
The waiter looked at Ryo "Yeah, we get new people every day that I've worked here and I've been here for a while."
"Would you be able to tell us how many people have decided to head over to Aogikahara?"
The waiter looked thoughtful "quite a few, but nothing is unordinary about that. It's a popular tourist attraction, although, I have seen a few visitors who did seem kind of. . . Off."
Leone looked up at that. He had a feeling that the waiter was going to confirm what his gut was telling him so he asked "Off, how so?"
The waiter looked over at Leone "They just seemed sad. Depressed, barely touched there food and they wouldn't speak a word."
"Hmmm" Leone looked thoughtful "Thanks for the info."
The waiter walked away and they all bent over close together "So, what we have is that people are disappearing, new people are showing up here, and that some of these people are depressed." Kaidra said.
Galaxy seemed worried "If those people are heading into the forest, you don't think they're. . ."
"I'd say that's our best guess but we can't worry about that for now. We're gonna head into the forest today and hopefully find these people and stop them if they're doing what we think they're doing." Leone said.
They all nodded and then finished their meal. Afterwards, they got back into their car and began driving down to the forest.
It was another hour or so before they found a parking area and began heading over to a trail they had found on the maps.
They soon came up on the entrance into the trail.
"This doesn't look so bad." Kaidra said. The trees were fairly normal looking aside from the fact that there were a lot of them. It was a very dense forest and they could see Mount Fuji directly ahead of them.
Leone looked at the forest and felt this weird sensation that the forest was hiding something sinister inside. They all began walking and Ryo began to lay the tape down as they walked.
They were now inside the forest.