Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Bleach, InuYasha, or Boogiepop
I know they haven't had a chance to act as rash as they normally should, but expect more of a chance for Naruto and the others to leap into danger head on in later chapters.
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II.
You've been chosen to participate in the D-Raven's "Game." You have no choice. Either you play and win, or your soul is ours. Your first challenge, give the girl you love a flower. You have two days.
I shoved the note back into my locker, dismissing it as some stupid prank. 'It isn't even that interesting,' I thought to myself. 'I've seen better, Hell; I've come up with better!' It was true. Once in the 9th Grade I didn't like a teacher of mine, so I filled his car with cow manure. Yeah, I know, not the most original thing ever, but I managed to pin the blame on someone else.
See, there's this student who was always getting on my nerves, and her mother was mean to me too. I knew that this student had been having trouble in school and his mom was constantly arguing with the teacher over it. So I managed to pin the prank on her, that's what she gets for being so immature. Not that I'm not immature, I totally am.
Pranks are my life; I love to prank people almost as much as I love eating ramen. So when I found the letter I naturally felt a little disgusted by it. There was no point to it. Nobody would be stupid enough to act on it, so what was the point? What was there to be gained from this prank? Would you spy on your victim throughout the day, just to see them give out a flower? Where is the joy in watching that? You're not humiliating them even if they are turned down, which, in my case would probably be the result, should I choose to believe the note. But there was no mayhem to be caused, no chaos to stir. Every good prank should lead to either humiliation or mayhem; this wasn't likely to lead to either. Getting turned down is hardly an uncommon occurrence and isn't going to give anyone much license to mock you; so it couldn't be a humiliation-oriented goal. Yet, there was nothing wrong with giving a flower to some one you like. It would hardly be interesting to watch.
"Someone leave you a love letter?" Asked a familiar voice.
"Nope," I answered Rukia. I showed her the note. "Just the world's stupidest prank."
She took the note from me almost excitedly. She seemed to like this sort of thing. Urban legends, chain letters, and the like always interested her ever since I've known her. "So you got one of these too, huh?"
"Wait, so you got one too?" I asked. I couldn't believe someone took the time to go around shoving these things into people's lockers. What a waste of time. Well, I suppose that if you gave the notes to a bunch of people you could start some interesting school bound legends, like the stories you hear about haunted bathrooms.
Of course, now I know the truth behind the notes, or rather, half the truth.
"I didn't get one," she told me, "But my friend Tenten did. Her note told her that she had three days to sneak into the boys' bathroom or else her soul would be taken. She didn't believe it of course, but she went and did it anyway just for the Hell of it. The next day she got another one."
'That's interesting,' I thought to myself. 'You complete your mission and you receive another one.' This new development piqued my curiosity. "What did the second note say?" I asked. 'Would all subsequent missions become more difficult?'
"It told her that she had one day to write a short story and submit it to the school newspaper's short story contest. She didn't feel like playing along anymore so she threw the note away," Rukia explained to me.
"Has she gotten any more notes since then?" I asked Rukia.
'I'm not sure," Rukia told me. "She hasn't been in school for a while now. I checked with her parents, and they said she hasn't been home in over two weeks; that's about when she got the second note."
I face palmed. "Haha, very funny," I said sarcastically. "Quit trying to mess with me."
"It's true," Rukia insisted. "Tenten got two of those notes, and after failing the second game, she vanished from school. It's probably just a coincidence, but I swear I'm not making this up! Everyone thinks she just ran away, but I'm really starting to worry about her."
Rukia was always a great liar, but our years of friendship have built a bond between us that surpasses normal human understanding. I could tell when she was lying to me. I couldn't pick it up out of the blue, but I could study the tone of her voice and read her facial expressions like and open book when I tried. She was telling the truth.
It was freaking me out.
"S-stop saying that," I pleaded. "It's just a note, there's no way it could really be true, could it?"
"Don't be silly, of course its not true," she said almost mockingly; in a playful sort of way of course. "It's just a silly prank that somebody is playing on everyone. Who knows why people do these kinds of things? Though I'm still worried about Tenten."
This eased my mind a little, and once we slipped into a conversation about manga, the note pretty much slipped my mind, falling into the dark corners of my brain, where they should have been forgotten.
I didn't think about it again until lunch the next day. I sat down to eat the onigiri I had made for myself when Ichigo-kun sat down next to me. "Yo', Naruto-kun," he said. "You hear anything about the D-Ravens?" He asked me nonchalantly.
"I got a note talking about some sort of weird game the D-Ravens were playing," I told him. "Why? Did someone you know get a note from the D-Ravens?" I asked him.
"Yeah, my friend Ayumi found one of the D-Ravens' notes in her locker this morning. It said You've been chosen to participate in the D-Raven's "Game." You have no choice. Either you play and win, or your soul is ours. Your first challenge is to give a present to a friend. Ayumi's not superstitious or anything, but she said it sounded pretty cool so she gave me a ninja keychain." Ichigo held up a keychain of a chibi ninja dressed all in black. "You said you're into ninja, right? You want it."
"Thanks!" I said, taking the keychain from him. I immediately attached it to a belt loop on my pants and reached into my pocket for my house keys. "Are you sure she won't mind. She did give it to you, after all." I quickly fixed my keys onto the chain.
"Don't worry about it, I told her I'd give it to you. She knows I'm not into ninja," Ichigo took a bite out of his sandwich
"So, did Ayumi get another note yet?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked in return.
"I heard that once you complete a mission, you get another note. Rukia said that's what happened to her friend," I explained.
"So what happened after that?" Ichigo's curiosity was evident in both his tone and body language; he leaned forward so he could here better.
"Well, she didn't complete the second mission so she never got a third note if that's what you're wondering. The thing is, Rukia's friend hasn't been at school or at home since she failed. It's kind of freaky."
"Did Rukia tell her friend's mom about the note?" Ichigo took another bite of the sandwich. "It sounds like they're connected. There could be some stalker kidnapping students as part of some twisted game."
"I never thought of that," I responded. It did make sense. It explained a possible connection between the note and the disappearances while still falling within the realm of possibility. "As for whether Rukia told her friend's mom or not, I'm not too sure."
That's when a brilliant idea hit me. Students were disappearing from school, or so the rumors said. Rukia confirmed that at least one student had vanished. There was a mystery here. If I could solve it, I'd become well known at this school as a genius detective! They'd all stop mocking me. I wouldn't have to deal with those looks on their faces anymore. The glares of detest had gone on long enough. I couldn't see why the rest of the world had come to look at me that way. Was it all because of my poor grades?
Students hated me. Their parents hated me. I could never tell why.
In all my life, I've only had one, Rukia. Well, I suppose that's changing now, I'm hanging out with InuYasha and Ichigo a lot. They're both on the receiving end of some fierce stares, just like I am. Ichigo has his natural orange hair, and people often treat him like a delinquent for it. InuYasha's got the white hair, but to make matters worse, he has to wear the skull cap because of some sort of birth defect. But they've both managed to make a few friends to help them get through everything, just like I have.
"Think we can solve the mystery?" I asked him.
"What mystery?" Ichigo asked back.
"The mystery of the D-Ravens and the disappearing students," I answered. "If we figure everything out, everyone will have to respect us," I said excitedly.
"Who cares about respect," he said. "Why does it matter what the idiots in this world think about you. Their opinions are about as worthless as they are, just live to impress yourself."
"I guess that's true," I answered.
We continued eating our food until a young girl I recognized as Ayumi-san walked by with a worried look on her face. She was staring nervously at the note she was holding.
"Something wrong, Ayumi-chan," Ichigo asked her.
"I found another one in my locker." She handed the note to Ichigo. It was obvious from the look on her face that she was terrified. "I-I-I don't normally put to much faith into these kinds of pranks, but this one is really scary," she said.
I leaned over the table to look at the note.
Your second task is to write a letter to a relative and mail it. You have one day to complete this mission.
Again, it was a simple mission, nothing too out of the ordinary. The problem here was the fact that whoever had shoved this in her locker had known that she had completed the first mission. Someone was watching her. But, as scary as that was, it was nothing the police would take seriously. They'd simply dismiss it as a prank. After all, who wouldn't?
I looked at Ichigo with a smile on my face. He let out a sigh.
"Don't worry," he told his friend. "We'll figure out whoever's behind this. Who ever it is, they're obviously watching you, so it can't be too hard."
She seemed to be slightly intimidated at the concept of being stalked, but her face eased when Ichigo promised to help.
"Let's catch these creeps and bring them to justice!" I said enthusiastically.
"Do you idiots even have any idea where to begin?" Rukia interrupted. She's really nice but I hate how she keeps calling me an idiot, even if it is just light hearted teasing between friends. "Do you have a list of suspects?"
"No," I said, hanging my head low.
"Well, here's what we know. Not counting Tenten, three students have disappeared so far in just one month. I asked their friends, and they all received notes just like the one you and Ayumi got. This means there is about a ninety-nine percent chance that it is not a coincidence. We have enough evidence to take to the police, but adults are known for being idiotic on occasion. They may not believe us. I still think we should try talking to the authorities, but in the meantime, here's what we know. Whoever is handing out these noted is watching their victims. They know when a mission is completed, and they know when it's failed. That means they're around here a lot. With more than one person receiving a note at a time, it means the perpetrator obviously has accomplices. The fact that they're able to kidnap the students, as I suspect is the case, indicates that they have a way of getting the student off campus without being spotted. This means that someone in the group has a car or an accomplice outside of school who does own a car. However, one of the missing students was a third-year on the American-Football team; I doubt a younger student could have over powered him, though it is possible he was drugged."
Listening to Rukia sorting through her clues to reach a conclusion was really exciting. It made me think we could actually do this! I was on the edge of my seat, listening to her words as if they were the newest opening theme to my favorite anime.
"There have been no signs of a struggle at all," she continued, "So either students are being drugged, or they're being kidnapped by someone they trust. I checked and the students have no mutual friends between the three of them. This leads me to one conclusion, though I'm not one hundred percent certain my reasoning is correct. I believe that a teacher may be responsible."
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To Be Continued
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