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THE KIDNAP (dundundundunnnnnn!!!!)

Disclaimers: I don't own Ultra Maniac... just borrowing the characters... (sigh) how sad...

Warnings: dunno, stupid signs... stupid main characters... stupid password... stupid announcer...

I don't want to spoil the chapter, so on with it!!!

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Chapter III: In the Middle of the Very Dangerous and Dark Forest Mountain Thingy... in short, In the Middle

It was already nighttime, which was unusual and weird since they were inside the forest mountain thingy for only five hours and they left the not- so safe house so early in the morning.

"Tsujiai-kun, I'm scared!" Nina whined. "It's sooo dark!!"

"Then get your flashlight." Tsujiai said coolly. "I packed one for you." And with that, he kept walking.

Nina pouted. "Mou, Tsujiai-ku!! You're so not romantic!!" then she opened her mountain bag and got her flashlight. So did Yuta.

Nina turned it on... but didn't see Kaji. "Hey, where's Kaji?" she asked Tsujiai. All she got was, "Dunno."

She searched the whole fores... okay, not really whole, but she searched Kaji with her flashlight in the road they were in. And then she found him... lying flat on the floor.

"He must be tired, being a bulldozer for four to five hours now." Yuta said. Tsujiai sighed. "Okay, I'll carry him."

But when he bent down, Kaji sat upright... I mean he sat upright like a dog on its four legs. His eyes were menacing; it was all white and... evilly... whatever that meant... as in evil... anyway, as if his eyes weren't enough to show his anger, his teeth were all pointy and there was smoke coming out of his nostrils.

Tsujiai smacked his hand on his forehead. "Oh, no, not again!" but this time, Kaji was ready to charge... like a bull!! Guess he just took out the "dozer" part.

Then, he charged... and then... BONK!!!!!!! He hit a tree headfirst. His face was still stuck on the tree when the three ran to his assistance.

When Tsujiai pulled Kaji's face out of the tree, Kaji's eyes were now all swirly... "Which reminds me," Nina said suddenly, "...I'm hungry!!!"

Kaji suddenly shook out of his reverie and yelled, "We cannot think of food at a time like this, Nina!!"

Nina placed her hands on her hips. "And why not?"

"Your best friend, as well as my girlfriend, is captured by some unknown guy and he took her here!! ...Somewhere... Anyway, we need to save her!!" he yelled.

"But--"

Kaji sighed heavily. "Nina, don't worry! After we save Ayu-chan, we'll have a party to celebrate Ayu's safe return 'coz we saved her. K?"

At this, Nina's eyes shone. "A party? Woohoo!! C'mon, let's go!!!!!!" And with that, Kaji and Nina ran. Tsujiai and Yuta sweat dropped.

They ran...and ran...and ran... but then they came past a sign that said, "BEWARE: YOU ARE NOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE VERY DANGEROUS AND DARK FOREST!!! ...IN SHORT, IN THE MIDDLE"

Kaji snorted when he read the sign. "No sign's gonna stop me from saving MY Ayu!!! Let's go guys!!!!!"

"D-D'you think it's s-safe to go in th-there?" Nina stammered. Tsujiai rolled his eyes. "You can wait if you want to, Nina."

"Yeah," Kaji said, ready to run-again. "You keep an eye for monsters or something like that out here, k?"

At this, Nina went bug-eyed. "NOOO WAY!!!!! I'm coming in with you guys!!!!"

"Then let's GO!!!!!" Kaji yelled, punching his fist in the air.

They went in... Yuta was looking around... when he found a sign.

"Huh?" he said, going near the sign. "What's this?"

There were drawings in it. The first drawing was a person (in stick-drawing to be specific) walking, then a plus sign, and words like dog...book...shower...facial wash... word, etc... And as they went ahead, Yuta saw more of the sign.

"Wonder what's this supposed to mean..." Yuta said to himself. Then something hit him. He immediately ran towards the others.

"GUYS!!!!" he yelled. "Guys, I saw this sign, it was like WEIRD, and there were these weird drawings, and I think it was trying to tell us that if we walk in here, a dog, book, shower, facial wash and all other words you know will attack!!!"

The three stared at Yuta like he was some weirdo... which in fact, he is. "Yuta, nothing's gonna attack us!" Kaji said. "But if something does, the things you just said are exceptions."

"Yeah, no way a facial wash is gonna attack us." Nina said. Tsujiai stared at her with disbelief.

"No way... for the first time, Nina's got some brains." He said rather breathlessly.

"Thank – hey!!! What's that supposed to mean?!" Nina demanded, pouting. Kaji and Yuta laughed. "MOU!! If you guys don't quiet down, I'll take you to the other world with my magic!!" [1] This made the boys shut up...

However, Yuta had an evil grin smirk [2] on his face. "What can you do, anyway? You're a drop-out witch who had to study abroad and use a computer to do magic 'coz you can't get one single spell right!"

Uh-oh. Yuta just hit a nerve. Nina's eyes flashed, as well as her hands, and the next thing they knew, Yuta was... flying.

"Woah, I didn't know Yuta's air-borne," Kaji said. Tsujiai sweat dropped. "Uh, I think it's because of Nina," he informed. Kaji stared... "Oh. I knew that."

'All the people I meet always get weirder by the minute,' Tsujiai thought.

Yuta then hit flat... just in front of a castle... a castle with Sebastian's face as the logo of the flag!!

"Greetings, people of the forest!!" a voice suddenly boomed. The three looked around for the voice, but didn't find the...person who owns the voice.

"You have entered my territory!!! To move on, you must say the...PASSWORD!"

"Password?" Yuta said as he stood up. That was the only part of the sentence he heard. Then he remembered the signs.

"HEY, GUYS!!" he yelled.

Nina covered her ears. "You don't have to shout!" she countered. "We're only 10 inches apart!!!!"

"Oh," Yuta sweat dropped. "Anyway, in the signs I saw, what if the stick- drawing walking was to represent 'pass' and the words represent the word 'word' and it makes the word... word-pass?"

"Oh, c'mon man!" Tsujiai said exasperatedly. "The word's PASSWORD for crying out loud!"

Yuta stared... then said, "I knew that."

"**AHEM**!!!!" the voice coughed. [Like duh] "Erm... your password is... correct!"

"WHA?!" the four said in unison.

"Er, yes, the password's 'password'... anyway, erm... next question! What is the meaning of life?" the voice asked.

Nina bit the end of her thumb. "Hmmm...... Y'know what guys? That voice sounds awfully familiar."

"Awful, more like," Tsujiai said under his breath.

All were deep in thought thinking who could have owned that voice....... When Kaji snapped his fingers.

"I know!!!" Kaji said triumphantly. "It's... who was it I was thinking again?" Tsujiai slapped his palm in his forehead.

"Ooh, yeah! I remember! That person in the flag... who was he again?" Kaji said as he pointed at the flag. Nina gasped.

"SEBASTIAN?"

"Erm..." the voice said. "Yeah, its me."

"I knew it!" Nina said, punching her fist in the air. Tsujiai patted her on the shoulder while Yuta said, "Good job, Nina!"

Kaji was waterfall crying. "Isn't anybody gonna praise me for pointing it out to you guys?"

The doors of the castle opened. Their adventure [if you call it] was getting hotter... I think... whatever!!!

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Haay... at last!!! Chapter 3!! Heehee... nyweiz, some clarifications:

[1] Oops, I said the wrong thing in chap 2... its boring without Nina's not- so good magic... and, well, Yuta's black magic... so, Kaji knows... here ya go, Cattleya Glory!

[2] evil grin smirk – arigato to Berny, Mona and Jessica for this! Hope you can do an example of it! [I've been waiting for like, one year now!!!]

And thanks to Jessica/Jishu 'coz she was actually the one who encouraged me to write this fic in the first place, also to Lou 'coz this was originally her dream and when Jishu told me all about it, she told me to write a fic... and here it is!!!

Also thanks to the reviewers:

Cattleya Glory- thanks for the review, yeah, I know that Kaji knows, but in this story, there wasn't supposed to be magic! [Sorry!] But then I realized that it's boring without it!! So I included magic already in this chap...

Aya-yahiko- thanks for the review; although I would advice Aya not to hug Yuta to death 'coz I'm still gonna need him in this fic!!

Maniac witchies- thanks for the review; Tsujiai/Nina forevah!!

Zhakeena- thanks for the review; hope you don't count the [like duh] and all those things in bracket and parenthesis as 'disturbance' of your fic reading.

Jishushika26- ei, Jish! Thanks for dropping by and reviewing... yea, guess I'm gonna need you for inspiration and Darice about her brothers... hehe...

Thank you all for reading!!! TBC!!!!