A loud and intrusive noise roused Anita from her slumber. She mumbled something, and sat up slowly. In the darkness, she could barely make out the sparse contents of the room, or, at least, her side of it. In one corner, there was a large frog plushie, the last remnants of her once huge collection of frog-related items, the large glass sliding door through which she could see the stars, and, here and there, small piles of books, one of which was lying scattered on the floor. The other thing that was in the room was a tall, dark looming figure, with one foot in the air, frozen in mid sneak. Anita sighed, and dropped her head back down to the pillow, grumbling.
"Jeez, Ma-ne, can you be quieter next time." She said, tugging back the covers, and turning over. Maggie, who was scratching her head in a nervous way, nodded.
"Y..Yeah...sorry, Anita-chan." She said, apologetically, before leaving the room.
Ten minutes drifted by, and Anita tossed and turned, but she could not find herself a pathway back to sleep. A few seconds after Maggie had left her room, the memories of her dream drifting back. I was so violent...all those people killed by me and my power...and I...I...kissed Hisa... As she thought the last two words, a shudder went through her entire body at the memory. Even if it were only a dream, it was still pretty vivid. She felt her cheeks begin to heat up a little, and she hurriedly batted her face with her hands in an attempt to beat back the blush. It's been years since I've even seen her, I wonder why I even thought of her... she mused, as she slid out of the bed.
She began to re-arrange the books back into a pile, when, in the moonlit, one caught her eye. It was called 'Of you and me', and the author...Oh yeah...that's why she's still in my mind after all this time... Anita realized. The author was Hisa. It was her second novel, and her best seller. Anita had bought it on the day it was released, and it was the only book she had finished in less than a day. She smiled as she looked at the cover. A lot's happened in a short while... She thought, turning the books cover. It was autographed. That had been the last time Hisa and Anita had met, and...well, they hadn't exactly parted on the best of terms. It was a few days after the book was released, and Hisa had asked to meet Anita in a cafe. It was there that she delivered the news that blew them apart. Hisa was to be going to an upmarket private school in a place called M city, and Anita...well, she wasn't. She had gotten into a strop, and stormed out of the cafe.
That was three years ago... the pink haired girl thought, with a twinge of pain running through her. Three years...and I've not changed...Ok, so I'm a little taller than I was back then, but I'm still stick thin and flat as a board...and my stupid hair's still pink... She thought, twirling a strand of her hair in her fingers. She felt her eyes drooping suddenly, and pushed herself up from the floor. Hopefully, this new job Mi-ne has gotten us will bring some distraction...I thought I'd gotten over this... She thought, slipping back into the bed. Sleep arrived moments later, and the girl was soon dozing away happily, the book clutched against her chest.
She awoke the next morning to Maggie shaking her. The impossibly tall girl would normally never do anything like that, which sent a small run of panic through the girl. She sat up, bleary eyed, and turned to the black haired woman.
"What's wrong? What's happened?" She said, rubbing furiously at her eyes. The tall one smiled a worried smile.
"We're going to be late...Onee-chan asked to meet us in Jinbocho at ten, and it's ten to..." She said in her quiet, stoic voice. Anita yelped, and kicked the duvet off of the bed. Frantically, she began to search through her draws for some clean clothing, but, due mainly to Maggies' inherent lack of cleaning instinct; neither of the girls' laundry had been done.
"Why didn't you take our clothes!?" Anita yelled, as she began to gather up what spare paper she could find.
"...Sorry..." Maggie whispered as Anita, satisfied that she had enough, began to use her ability. The paper, a mixture of plain white, and magazines, began to twist around itself, spinning and crawling, crackling over the thin girls' skin, covering it. The material very quickly formed a simple clothing look, trousers and a shirt, but it had taken on colour. That was one of the mysteries of the Paper Users abilities, Ink also seemed to conform to their commands, if it had been printed, anyway.
Fifteen minutes later, the two sisters were walking along the crowded streets of Jinbocho, Tokyos, and indeed the worlds, bookstore Mecca. There were enough books in that little shopping district to fill Big Ben twice over, and some of them were exceedingly rare, and powerful. The meeting place was, when compared to the rest of the area, exceedingly modern. It was the only bookstore in the area which had a coffee bar in it as well, and it was full of modern books, latest publications, it even held stocks of manga, the only shop in Jinbocho to do so. However, when Anita and Maggie arrived, the place looked like a scene from one of the aforementioned manga. There was a large transit van parked roughly outside, with one wheel up on the kerb, and the front window was smashed. Men in black jumpers, with black masks on, were all around, holding odd-looking machinery that sparked on occasion. Even as they watched, a woman in white ran out of the shop, with a person over their shoulder. The person was bound, and had a bag over her head. Inside the shop, the girls could see Michelle, with a gun pointed at her head. The blonde woman caught sight of the two, and, not thinking, shouted out to them.
"THE WOMAN IN WHITE HAS OUR CLIENT!!!" Before being smacked around the head with one of the strange sparking devices.
"NEE-CHAN!" Maggie screamed, charging forwards, impacting against the first of the men. Anita, on the other hand, had registered her other sisters words, had bolted for the transit van. She plucked a sheet of paper from her outfit, and stretched it out, using it as a lasso, catching it on the van. She charged forwards, leaping up, managing to just get a hold onto the top of the van before it began to move away.
The driver, unaware that the girl had taken this action, took off at a steady pace. Anita began to dig into the roof of the vehicle with her paper knives, eventually cutting a small hole in the roof, big enough for her to slide down into. She dropped into the back of the van, expecting to meet the woman in white. Instead, there was only the person with the sack over their head. It was tied on tightly. Shimate... Anita cursed within her own mind, before ducking down to the bound figure.
"It's ok; I'm here to rescue you. This may hurt a little, but it's better than being kidnapped, right?" She whispered, before setting to work on the back door of the van. Within seconds, there was a hole big enough to leap through. The driver, though, had heard the loud noise of the metal falling down into the road, and had slammed the brakes on.
"DAMNIT! Ok, gotta do this the hard way, then..." Anita said, with a touch of glee in her voice. She stood back, getting close to the bound figure...bound female, Anita noted, and a very abundant one at that, and readied herself. Her outfit, by now, was in rags, but she didn't care. Whoever came up to that door would feel her wrath.
The van slammed sideways at a slow pace, and it was only the blessing of paper that saved Anitas' life. A huge pillar of rock had erupted from the ground, and pierced both sides of the van, missing Anita by inches. Her vision was suddenly full of stone. She stumbled backwards, and tripped over the client, who squeaked.
"Sorry...Things have...developed..." She muttered, picking the girl up bodily, and, charging through the open hole, allowing the rest of her outfit to act as a shield and cloud, aiding her escape.
"Someone got away with the girl...The Boss isn't going to be pleased with this..." The driver muttered, as the girl ran. The female chuckled.
"The Boss has finally found what he was looking for, Mr Stone. Paper..." She said, as she bent to the floor, and picked up one of the strewn bits that remained from Anitas' clothing.
Anita ran onwards, fully aware of the fact that she was naked but for a pair of panties, until she found what she was searching for. A heavily shrubbed area within which she could hide. She dove into it, and rolled, making sure she bore the brunt of the impacts, before coming to a halt. Slightly out of breath, she pulled a thin sliver of paper from her underwear, leaving her with literally only a few scraps protecting herself from the world, and began to set to work breaking through the bonds. Holy...Holy crap...These...these aren't ropes...these are rocks... She thought as she worked away on the incredibly tough bindings. The girl in the sack was visibly shaking, and Anita could hear sobs coming from within the bag. This girl sounds no more than thirteen the way she whinges. She thought, as another sound invaded her ears.
"ANITA-CHAAAAN!"
"Anita!"
It was her two sisters. "OVER HERE!" She yelled, as she continued to work on the last of the bindings. The two women must have heard her, because they headed over to the bushy area. Anita, having worked the last of the solid bindings off, pulled the hood off the girl slowly.
"There we go, still in oneDWAH!!" Anita began, before her jaw dropped. The purple haired girl rubbed her eyes, fighting against the harsh light of the sun, before looking across at the short girl. Eyes that lit up with sheer joy.
"ANITAAA!!!!" The girl screamed, wrapping her arms around the pink haired girls neck, and glomping her.
"H...H...Hisa! Wha..ho...whe..." She stammered, but, in the end, settled for hugging the girl strongly.
"Ohoho! It looks like you two have REALLY hit it off again. Only a few minutes and already you're going at it!" Michelle said when she and Maggie entered the scene. She was hit on the head shortly after with a piece of rock binding.
"I could do with some paper here or, preferably, some clothing..." Anita mumbled, her arms clutched around her chest, hiding what little there was to hide.