Ubiquitous Nightmare.

Note: I do not own anything to do with Azumanga Daioh or Silent Hill. I only own this fan fiction story.

Hello again, everyone. Got a few things to say in this pre-speech today. Firstly, sorry for being a little late, brother came back after a month of not showing.

Secondly, I'd like to say a big thank you to jamesranma who posted some very good ideas in my forum. Some of them may be implemented into this chapter. This one, by the way, deals with the 'real' world, where the school, and more importantly the teachers and other students, are. On with the story!

(-o-)

Chapter Six: A disturbing development.

Life in and around the school from which the Azu girls hailed had been quiet since they left. The classes were semi-empty from activity involving Tomo, and not many questions were answered by the resident prodigy.

"Hey, Yukari, it's time to go to lessons now," an eager Nyamo said, resting her hand on her friend's shoulder. Yukari rose, eyes still half asleep, before turning to face her.

"But it's only 1:40..." she whined, causing Nyamo to face her with a look of annoyance.

"Exactly, it's nearly the end of break, and I'm worried about the girls from your class," she continued, causing Yukari to look at her with now open eyes.

"Why?"

"In my last lesson, your class had P.E, and a majority of them just ran off site. I had no idea why either, they just...Took off," Nyamo explained, with a worried tone.

"...Well, who were they?" Yukari asked, holding back the urge to criticise her teaching abilities into why they left.

"That's what has worried me. It was Sakaki, Tomo, Kagura, Yomi, Osaka and Chiyo." Nyamo listed.

"What!? Why would they leave?" Yukari fired, causing Nyamo to sweat drop.

"That's why I'm worried..." she repeated. They both sat, in near silence, trying to consider the reason as to their sudden departure, but nothing good came to mind. Not at least until Chiyo was on Nyamo's mind.

"I saw that Chiyo was the first to leave, the others just ran after her I think," she said, causing Yukari to feel a little more annoyed.

"But, it's just why..." she replied. Sooner or later, the school bell chimed to signal the next lessons starting, as Nyamo shot out of the staff room, with a drowsy Yukari following.

The next teacher to have the class was Yukari, and she seemed eager to resolve this issue. She slid open the door with a great amount of force, pacing in and slamming some papers onto her desk. She looked up, to see the class a little bewildered, and confused.

"Okay, today class, we're going to...Hey," she began before noticing the six or so empty seats dotted around the classroom. They were all the ones Nyamo had named earlier. Her eyes opened a little wider, before attempting to change the lesson plan.

"Ah, I see quite a few are away today. Well, I guess we can scrap this lesson then," she said in her usual tone, getting one or two excited voices raised in the process. "I have another topic I want to talk about."

The class all paid direct attention to their teacher, after having heard this. Yukari lifted a pencil while sitting at her desk, while contemplating the best way to start the 'lesson'.

"Alright, I'll be blunt here. Does anyone know why or the whereabouts of the missing students today, or have any information?" she fired, as a few people lifted their hand. "Yes, Kaorin?"

"I-I saw Miss Sakaki leave with the others today during P.E," she timidly said, with numerous other people also nodding in agreement.

Yukari winced at the information, as it was a direct replica of Nyamo's. She asked others for any more information.

"I saw Chiyo turn all weird-like in P.E and just walk out of the front school gate, and I think the others were just trying to catch her," said a male source, as Yukari contemplated that there may be more to this then a visit to the local shop.

Kaorin was seated, now shivering slightly, waiting for her heroine to walk into the classroom, and ease her mind by saying something along the lines of 'I'm sorry I am late, I was pre-occupied by some kittens', or something of the same agenda. This never happened, not for the whole lesson. She had no idea how deep this situation actually was.

Yukari sat in her chair the whole lesson afterwards, indirectly letting the class talk about whatever they wanted, although it was mostly over the missing students. She tried to think of as many conclusions as to the missing pupils, but could not think of any logical ones, or ones that even made sense. Soon after, there was a knock at the classroom door.

Yukari gingerly opened it to reveal none other then Nyamo, standing with an even more worried expression after seeing the empty chairs.

"I see they've not returned yet..." she trailed, while Yukari grabbed her by the shoulders and violently shook them, leaving the P.E teacher in a light daze.

"They'll be alright, I know they will. It's just, why would they just go?" Yukari added, while Nyamo now looked quite stern.

The bell chimed once again, signalling the end of the lesson, and after a short homeroom period, the end of the school day. Yukari did not seem so ecstatic about the end of the day, as was easily proven by her rather powerful speech that afternoon.

"I won't do role call today, as hardly anyone is here," she said, even though the other 15 or so people were seated. "I just want to ask if anyone knows anything about the missing students or the P.E lesson, please stay after the bell for five minutes. I want to speak with you."

That last bit made her feel a little angry, but in her heart she was also very worried about the girls. The bell chimed once again, as the students rose to leave, with around three staying behind.

"So, what do you all know?" she asked the remainder.

"Apart from what's already been said, Miss Yukari, my friend and I here noticed Chiyo acting kind of...Weird, to put it politely. She was talking to herself," the male stopped, before his friend spoke up.

"It's true! Her mouth was moving, but there was no one near her. She then just up and left the school," she finished, before the third pupil stepped forward.

"I was there while all of this happened," he said as the others looked to see the speaker.

"And, what do you mean by that?" Yukari asked, as the pupil took a deep breath.

"Where to begin...Well, around the time that Chiyo-Chan started feeling ill and stepped out of her game, she sat down on the benches. I was not doing P.E either that day, and as such was already seated there. I was sort of out of the way, but I could hear every word she said," he paused, although showing no signs of stopping at that point.

"She kept mumbling about a few things, saying that she could hear voices," he stopped, thinking of Osaka. "She then said some things about 'Silent Hill', whatever that is. She then just got up, saying that she was going to go there. Miss Yukari, where, or what, is Silent Hill?"

Miss Yukari stood in a sombre silence, absorbing every word he was saying. She did not realise that he ended in a question.

"So, she went to this Silent Hill place then? Do any of you know where it is?" she asked, as the male sweat dropped. The others nodded in disagreement, before Yukari slumped back into her chair.

"Alright, you can go now," she finished, before picking up her pencil and tapping it against the table.

Little did she know, but Nyamo was stood behind the door the whole time, overhearing the whole conversation. She smiled internally at the worry Yukari was expressing, before the three students left. Nyamo put one finger over her mouth, saying to be quiet. The students smiled and carried on walking.

Nyamo entered, much to Yukari's amazement. She walked over to the slumped teacher, laying a hand on her back, reassuring her 'it will all be alright'. This worked to a certain extent.

"What're we going to do, Nyamo? Our pupils are missing. This is serious," she said, almost causing Nyamo to blink hesitantly at her for being unlike her usual self.

"I-I don't know either, Yukari. I think we should phone the police though, at least," she replied, before ruffling through her bag to retrieve her mobile. Yukari watched, up until Nyamo had the phone to her ear.

"Nyamo, could I tell you something? I would've said it another time, but with them gone, I may not get another time," she said, with Nyamo excusing herself and putting the phone down.

"Sure, what is it?"

"It's about the students. I've never felt like this in my whole life. I love my class, I'm really happy to have them. When this happened, I've felt a little powerless, and even thought this is my own fault. Could they have run away because of...Me?" she said, as Nyamo's expression started to resemble a mother's.

"Hey now, it's alright. It's not your fault; they're just headed to somewhere. They'll be back soon, though I still think we should call the police," Nyamo replied, putting one arm around Yukari's neck in comfort.

"Well, alright then...Hey, wait a minute, how did you know they went to Silent Hill?" she shot back, as Nyamo began to sweat slightly.

"Uh...I just knew they were headed somewhere, that's all,"

"Oh, alright then. Let's call the police, I'll call their parents to notify them," Yukari spoke, whilst lifting her own mobile from her pocket. Nyamo had phoned the police by the time Yukari had phoned two families, the families of Sakaki and Yomi.

"They just said that it's not been 24 hours yet. We'll have to call again tomorrow, if the parents notify us of their absence," Nyamo said, as Yukari placed her mobile down after speaking to Yomi's parents.

"Well that's about right, Sakaki's parents say that she is usually like this after school, but can't say why she would go during school. She never complained of anything, although Chiyo does sound very familiar to them. They've been notified now, so they will call tomorrow if they're not here," Yukari said, before turning to Yomi's parents.

"Yomi's, on the other hand, are furious over their daughter's absence. They are also very worried...They said they'll probably ground her if she returns later then eight o' clock."

Nyamo looked expectedly at Yukari, as she dialled and talked to the other's parents. She talked to Chiyo's last.

"That's odd," Yukari added. Nyamo shot up and inquired, as she began to talk.

"They say that Chiyo has been acting awfully strange lately, like talking to herself and frequently being very quiet. They also say she has had very bad visions and dreams at night, according to her. They are very worried also, and are also threatening grounding her," she finished, as the two remained silent for a couple of minutes.

"All of their parents say that they have not been notified of any changes in the school timetable today either," Yukari said, as Nyamo began to worry further more.

"I have a bad feeling about this...Say, Yukari; do you get the feeling that Chiyo's dreams and things are related to this? I mean, she was acting very strange in P.E..." Nyamo asked, with her friend just shrugging in return. They both lifted themselves to their feet.

"Oh my gosh, it's that late already?" Nyamo boomed, noticing that school ended around two hours ago. They both left, clearly frantic with worry over the missing students.

"I hope they are alright..." said Yukari, although seemingly to herself.

(-o-)

Well, there you have it. Thought I'd fill you in on the teachers and the others, thanks to jamesranma reminding me. Please review, and thanks for reading. This is LHA signing off.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Azumanga Daioh or Silent Hill. I only own this fan fiction story.