An example of the perfect ironies of life is that when I am not busy scrambling to write a novel within a month, I can't seem to use my free time to post chapters of the story I am supposed to be working on. But as soon as I have a novel to write, I am consistently distracted by my fanfiction. So, surprise chapter for you all. I hope you enjoy it. Picture link below. If it doesn't work, I'm very sorry.

http:/i. ytimg. com/vi/rENa2AobQuY/0. jpg


Vol 1 Back Cover

Ishibashi Hikaru blinked in surprise as he stared at the sight in front of him. He really thought that he had understood her, but clearly he had been wrong.

The large, floppy poster was hanging over her head, but the shock of her bleached hair and the perfect posture she was standing with were telltale signs that it had to be her. He watched for several minutes as she fought with the poster, forcing it onto the side of the building. He thought he saw dark swirls holding it in place from time to time as she pasted it up on the yellow bricks. It did not take him long to recognize the face on the poster. He remembered all of the people that they had had on their variety show after all, and Fuwa Sho had been something else.

He was also the reason that the very cute girl who had substituted for Bo that night was still working with them. So why was she hanging a poster of him with "warui otoko*" written on it?

She gave a strangely maniacal cackled as she smoothed the last wrinkle out of the poster. Why she had stuck it to the back of the building where Fuwa worked, Hikaru had no idea. But this girl standing here was very strange to him. He did not see "Kyoko-chan" as the kind of girl who would wear a blue jacket with "urami**" written harshly on the back and the sleeves.

"Kyoko-chan?" he called out uncertainly. She twisted to look at him, her hand still pressed against the poster, holding it in place. The look on her face was completely foreign to him, distaste laced with contempt and bitterness. Then she noticed him and started, glancing around anxiously.

"Hello, Hikaru-san! What are you doing here?" Her movements were slightly jerky.

"I was just… going to meet up with the others. That poster…" But he could not quite ask. Her face changed again, becoming a little sad and frightened.

"Do you think you could forget you saw me here?" she asked, peeping up at him from under her lashes, her lip thrust out slightly in a pout. It was not the face she had made that day at the bottom of the stairwell, which he had later dubbed her Natsu-look when he had started watching Box-R, but the effect was just as manipulative. Maybe worse. Where had she learned that look?

"Um, like… another secret?" This smile was Natsu's.

"Just between us," she breathed as she stepped past him, tugging a bit of his hair. And then, she was just gone, like she had never been there.

Looking back up at the poster, Hikaru noticed that it seemed to be oozing some sort of malevolent aura. He felt his gut twist in uncomfortable ways as he stared at the picture and then at the words on it. They seemed to be handwritten and he was having a hard time picturing a Kyoko so furious that she would write something with that much hatred in it.

Hikaru swallowed slowly, wondering how many other personalities Kyoko-chan had. He was not sure he could handle them all.


*The kanji on the poster are read this way, and essentially mean "bad man."

**Kanji reading again. Means "grudge."

Short. Sorry about that. I hope you liked it. Thanks to Will for taking time out of her own WriMo to edit this.