Disclaimer: So far, all the characters are mine except for Hikari.

All was quiet in classroom 1-D for all of three seconds. As soon as that time was up, Hikari screamed and Kanaye backed away from the book, knocking over several desks in the process. "What just happened?" he asked his sister.

She took a few moments to answer. "I think they just went into the book."

"That's insane."

Hikari took a few tentative steps toward the object. When she failed to disappear in a blinding light, she carefully picked it up and looked at the page it was opened to. Her eyes widened. "Kanaye! Come look at this!"

The boy slowly made his way over and knelt down beside the senior. He watched in awe as the letters formed before his eyes, revealing the fates of the missing girls.

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Arai Sorano felt the change of environment before she saw it. The rocking motion of the wagon she had appeared on was somewhat soothing as she tried to piece together what had happened. Unfortunately, all she could remember was a glaring red light. She sighed and opened her eyes. While she was no longer indoors, the sky still looked the same as it had before. Glancing around her, she noticed that she was being driven through a small village. A few young children were playing while the older children and their parents tended to their trades. Shrugging, she jumped off the cart. There was only one way she was going to figure out where she was, and it was by actually talking to people.

Her meandering through the village began attracting many stares from the citizens. That certainly wasn't helped by her school uniform and bleached blonde hair. Sorano looked down at her short skirt for a moment before walking up to one of the younger children who was immersed in poking a toad with a stick. "Hey," she asked, "Where am I?"

The little boy whipped his head up in surprise and his stick missed the toad. The creature took this chance to escape and hopped off before the child noticed. The boy stared at her for a moment before replying, "Suzaku no Su."

"That doesn't help."

The boy tilted his head to the side. "In northeastern Konan."

Sorano narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Konan?"

The child stared at her for a few moments before speaking up once more. "I'm Washi. What's your name?"

"Arai Sorano," she responded.

Washi proceeded to grab her hand and yank her off toward one of the houses. "Come with me, Sorano-chan."

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Kinjo Michi had taken only twenty minutes to decide that she very much hated sand. She had been wandering through the desert for what seemed like forever. Contrary to her original beliefs, her short skirt did nothing but allow her to become sunburned, and the soda she had somehow managed to bring here with her simply made her feel nauseous.

She looked up from the endless piles of sand in time to see what looked like a pool of water next to a cave formed by some large rocks. She groaned. With her luck, the oasis would be another mirage, making it the third she had encountered since her adventure began. She sighed and prepared to walk through the heat-induced illusion. However, her shoes hit one of the rocks and sent her stumbling into the water. The cool liquid was a shock to her over-heated body and she felt herself begin to pass out.

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Watanabe Kameko had never been too fond of the snow. She especially had never been too fond of blizzards, such as the one she was trying to fight her way through right now. The question of why there was a blizzard so close to summer had crossed her mind, but at the moment she was more focused on trying to find some kind of shelter.

She was very close to running out of energy when she saw it. The snowstorm seemed to be unable to penetrate one area, ricocheting off what could only be described as a force field. And, in the center of it, there was a human figure, steadily coming in her direction.

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Abigail Russell had seen many places in her life. When she had still lived with her parents, they had traveled all over the world and lived in all sorts of different cultures. It was because of this that she managed to relate her current environment to an out-dated version of China. She had been fortunate enough to appear in a large city, and so had been able to find a place to stay and information as to where she was. She sighed as she hunched over the inn's table. She had never heard of Kutou. Nor had she heard of any of the other countries the innkeeper had mentioned. This could hardly be good.

A shadow fell over the table and she looked up, expecting it to be an employee of the inn. She hadn't had the appropriate currency when she had requested lodgings, so she had agreed to work to pay the price. She gave a small smile at the man who loomed above her. "Are you Meimu-san?"

I'd love it if you reviewed. If you can't think of anything to review about, I'd like to know which of the characters is your favorite so far. Or least favorite. Whatever.