To Devlin Dracul, man, this question is rather tough. In all honesty, while Furuichi, Hecadoth, and Agiel are my most favourite characters, I would want to be Nanami Shizuka. She's mature, sweet, level-headed, and she's pretty strong. I kind of like her character and her friendship with Toujou (even though it wasn't explored much), and I really wish there was a backstory to her and Toujou's friendship.
Anyways, enjoy Chapter 4!
Disclaimer: Beelzebub belongs to Ryuuhei Tamura, not me.
Chapter 4- Missing Children
"In addition to the disappearance of two-year-old Kunieda Kouta yesterday afternoon, one more young child has gone missing last night and three children went missing in the early morning," the news reporter says this morning on TV. "First off, Kanzaki Futaba, age four, went missing last night by the convenience store at around 8:30 pm, according to her uncle. And this morning, at around 3:45 am, Nanami Keita, age ten; Nanami Toshinori, age six; and Nanami Noriko, age seven, were kidnapped from their own house."
This is the first thing I hear on the news this morning as I get ready for school. Now, I'm really shocked. It's barely been a week and already four more kids have gone missing! Not only Kanzaki's niece, but all of Shizuka's siblings have gone missing! "This is seriously escalating," I muse to myself as I head to the door. "I'm leaving, Mom!" I call.
"Have a nice day!" she calls back.
Sure enough, when I get to school, this is all that anyone is talking about. In fact, Kunieda is still absent this morning. However, I see Kanzaki looking very worried. Feeling bad for him, I decide that I should say something at least. "Hey, Kanzaki," I say, getting his attention. "I'm sorry to hear about your niece." I say it in a genuine way. He simply nods in acknowledgement.
"What happened that night?" Natsume asks him.
"We were at the convenience store because Futaba wanted me to get her pocky," he starts. "Then, as we were paying for it, the cashier suddenly flipped out and grabbed her straight from the floor! I tried to fight him but he was too fast! Hell, he threw me into the shelves and took off with Futaba! Paa-ko, you were there, right? You saw it!"
Yuka nods, her eyes wide. "Yeah! It was crazy! The cashier was seriously messed up! He just disappeared after taking Futaba!"
My eyes widen in surprise. "Seriously?" I ask. "Why would a cashier do that?"
"I dunno, but he looked like he was possessed!" Kanzaki says.
"A possessed cashier...?" Oga wonders. "Then, we can't go to that shop anymore."
"Dah," Beel agrees.
"Yeah, that's not the main problem here," Agiel tells him.
"That's really strange," Hecadoth comments.
"Yeah, I know." We turn to the doorway and see Shizuka standing there. A look of worry, sadness, and concern is on her face, as well as dark circles under her eyes.
"Shizuka… I'm so sorry to hear about your siblings," I tell her.
"What happened this morning, Nanami-senpai?" Furuichi asks her.
"We woke up when we heard Noriko, Keita, and Toshinori screaming for help from Noriko's room," she starts. "There was one thing similar in their rooms. They were taken straight from their beds. When we got to Noriko's room, we just saw the broken window." She rubs her forehead with her hand. "However, I think you need to know this."
"What?" Agiel asks.
"I had woken up at 3:30 am to the sound of what sounded like a children's lullaby," Shizuka starts.
Hecadoth looks surprised. "A children's lullaby?" he asks.
"What did it sound like?" I ask.
A frown crosses her face. "That's the thing… it didn't sound like a lullaby at all," she says. "It was a music box melody that sounded extremely eerie and ominous. At first, I thought I was dreaming, but it was real. Even scarier was that it continued for fifteen minutes straight. And then, that's when we heard the screams from Noriko's room. But by the time we got to Noriko's room, they were all gone. Noriko, Toshinori, and Keita. We only saw the room in disarray and the window broken."
Hilda frowns. "How odd," she muses.
Right then, Kanzaki turns to us. "I think I know what you're talking about," he recalls. "Yesterday, in the convenience store, I heard some weird-ass creepy music over the radio right before the cashier flipped out."
"Yeah," Yuka agrees. "It was a very weird music box-like lullaby, almost like that creepy ringtone from that movie Chakushin Ari. In fact, I was half-expecting a creepy long-haired girl to come from the ceiling."
"A lullaby, huh?" We see Kunieda standing by the entrance. She looks tired, her eyes bloodshot with dark circles under them, and she sounds like she's been crying.
"Nee-san!" Yuka exclaims.
"I'm sorry to hear about your brother," Shizuka apologizes to her.
"Thanks," she responds. "I had gone to the police station to ask about my brother and from what I had heard, the daycare staff members had apparently heard a creepy music box melody that sounded oddly like a lullaby. I don't know how it sounded, but after it had stopped, there was a loud crash a few moments later. And that's when Kouta had gone missing."
Shizuka turns to me. "Yumi, your dad's a cop, right?" she asks. "What did he say about it?"
"Yeah, he showed me a few photos from the daycare where Kouta had gone missing," I say. "He noticed some odd residue on the ground right near the hole in the wall. Because of that, he believes that the culprit is not human."
"Not human?" Furuichi asks in surprise. "Could it be a demon?"
"That's the thing," Hilda says. "Even if it was a demon, why would they want to take these children?"
"Is there something special about them?" Hecadoth asks.
"Well, when you think about it, all these children are related to a strong person," Furuichi explains. "Kanzaki-senpai is a member of the Tohoshinki, Kunieda-senpai is the leader of the Red Tails, and Nanami-senpai is a member of the Six Horsemen."
"You have a point there," Hecadoth says.
"Even then, for what reason would a demon be wanting these children?" I ask.
Before any of us can talk, we suddenly hear the sound of a phone ringing. Furuichi notices this and picks his phone up. "Hello?" he answers.
His eyes grow wide as he hears the person on the other end. "What?!" he whispers in shock. "Wait, what do you mean by 'she just disappeared'?"
We watch as he becomes silent, listening. "A creepy melody started playing out of nowhere…" He trails off. He suddenly hangs up and slowly puts his phone away.
"What happened?" Yuka asks.
Furuichi slowly shakes his head, looking very shocked and worried now. "My sister… she just went missing now…" he replies, sounding rather distant.
This sudden news alarms us. "Ehhh?!" Kunieda exclaims, shocked.
"How?!" Shizuka asks.
"Her friend told me that they had heard a rather ominous melody suddenly playing in the school during their gym class," Furuichi starts. "And then, there was a sudden explosion in the gym. Honoka had just disappeared in the dust cloud."
However, Agiel is confused by something. "But all these other kids were really young," she says. "Furuichi, your sister is a preteen girl."
"Looks like they're evolving, as my dad would say," I comment grimly. "It seems like age doesn't matter anymore. In fact, all evidence is clear that the culprit is not human."
The atmosphere that hangs in the classroom is a tense atmosphere now, and some people periodically leave. Kanzaki leaves to go look for Futaba, right after Furuichi and Agiel had left to look for Honoka. Eventually, Saotome-sensei lets us go early, since he himself is troubled by the events.
"Hecadoth, I just want to stop by Honoka's school," I tell him on the way home.
"Of course," Hecadoth says. "I had the same idea. There's something that seems off about this and I need to make sure it's not what I think it is."
When we arrive at the school, I see Dad's car in the front. When we enter, Dad is just walking towards the entrance. He stops in surprise upon seeing us. "Yumi, Hecadoth," he says in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"We wanted to check out the crime scene," I tell him.
Dad's hesitant, but he gives in. "I understand why, but here." He hands me some gloves. "Put these on."
We follow him to the gymnasium, which is still charred and in disarray. Right then, Hecadoth notices something by the doors to the equipment room. "What is it?" I ask.
"Look at this." I follow him and he points to the ground. On the ground is the same clear residue that was in the other photo.
"What is that?" I ask.
"I've seen this before. This is venom," he explains. "Venom from the Medusa Cobra in the Demon World. It's highly poisonous."
"That wasn't even in the Nanami siblings' rooms, or in the convenience store," Dad says. "But it was at the daycare."
Hecadoth nods. "It's been confirmed. One, that there is definitely more than one culprit, and two, that they're definitely not human."