Staying at home with Ryuji all day over the weekend was basically suicide. Fortunately for Midori, she had her best friend in her life, even at unfortunate times like this. Hanging out at Yaya Hayate's house every day after school was her sanctuary. It was her only ticket to escape from her hellhole home, even if it was for a short time. After all, it wasn't like Ryuji gave a damn whether or not Midori would return home—dead or alive under any circumstances. As shameful as it sounded, she wouldn't expect it any other way coming from a despicable man like him. All the more reason why she felt no guilt or regret disappearing all day and making him worry about her absence whatsoever. She always hoped she'd come home and found him dead from a heart attack or something.
Besides, Midori was certain he'll come in her room tonight for another one of his drunken 'greetings'….
So without hesitation, Midori immediately got out of bed and started the day as soon as she opened her eyes that morning. Once she finished brushing her teeth, washing her face, and brushing her soft brown hair, she rechecked her bruised cheek where Ryuji smacked her last night. The bruise was still noticeable, but not as red and burning anymore. Midori put some healing ointment on her cheeks so it would recover more quickly. She then returned to her room and dressed into some jeans and her favorite pink 'Hello Kitty' shirt.
She walked down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen, preparing herself to see Ryuji sitting at the table. To her surprise, no one was there. Sighing in relief, Midori fixed herself a bowl of cereal and text Yaya that she'll be coming over in a few minutes with her iphone. Obviously, Ryuji hasn't gotten over his hung-over state quite yet, seeing that it was already past 11:00am. Honestly, Midori could care less whether he'd wake up or not. Hopefully he would just never come out of his room at all, or die in his sleep by choking from his tongue. What a miracle that would be. Then again, she knew such wishes were too good to be true, for it wouldn't turn out that easy. Sighing again, she finished her breakfast, watched the dishes, and headed to the door with her bookbag. She glanced back at Ryuji's window at the top of the house for a few minutes, and then got on her bicycle to ride over Yaya's house.
Both girls sat on Yaya's bed in her room, neither of them speaking for a few minutes. Finally, Yaya sighed and decided to be the first to get to the point of her thoughts. "You realize that this can't keep going on forever, Midori. For how long will you put up with this? Until your uncle really takes your last breath?".
Midori sighed and closed her eyes. "Yeah, I know", she whispered softly.
"If you know all of this, then why not leave? You know you can always live here since you have no other family. We'll be like sisters".
Midori smiled at Yaya gently but shook her head. "Yaya, you know I can't just leave like that. Not when all my possessions are still there, the memories I've cherished with my aunt for the past five years—and still do. Despite living with him, turning my back on those good memories of Aunt Shino would be as if I'm betraying her". Yaya blinked and studied Midori for a moment, glancing back on the bruised mark on her cheek. Midori knew how Yaya felt about her situation, how it broke her heart to see her best friend suffer from so much pain and abuse. What Midori didn't realize was how helpless Yaya felt about herself for not being able to help her best friend and reason with her. She never did understand her intentions sometimes. Yaya shook her head again.
"I gotta tell ya Midori Watanabe, you truly are an idiot", she said sadly.
Midori chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose I am", she answered.
Yaya stayed silent for a few minutes, but finally thought of something. "Let me ask you something….as wicked as it sounds, have you ever wished your uncle was dead?" she asked slowly. Midori turned around and quirked an eyebrow. What brought this on for Yaya to say something like that? Even though she couldn't deny it being true.
"Umm….every day. Why? Don't tell me I should plot an idea to kill him myself and not be suspected for murder or anything, right?" Midori said, trying to be sarcastic.
"It's not like that—in a way. Have you ever heard of this website called Hellcorrespondence?" Midori looked back at her curiously, her eyebrow rose higher. "Well anyway, I heard this one girl from my fifth bell class say that this website is a site for people who want to plot revenge against their enemies", Yaya continued. "It's said that whoever's name gets typed on the site, Hell Girl will appear and drive the tormentors to the very depths of hell. But you can only link to the website at the stroke of midnight".
Midori stared at Yaya for a few minutes, then finally laughed and flipped her hand. "Oh please. Do you expect me to believe that some website like that actually exists? Sounds like some kind of voodoo mischief crap to me".
Yaya shrugged. "Whether you believe me or not, you can't help but wonder. Remember that girl named Sara who kept on picking at Mizuki in gym class all last week and Monday?". Midori nodded. Recently, the principal announced some disturbing news over the intercom that the new transferred student went missing without a trace the following Tuesday morning. The girl's parents even made a missing report to the police and established a search party for her. Though the girl proved herself to have a reputation as a snotty bully, Midori hoped she hasn't been kidnapped or seriously injured somewhere. The other girl, Mizuki on the other hand, showed less sympathy but relieve about her bully's disappearance.
"Well, despite her possibly being kidnapped, don't you still find it funny how composed and content Mizuki looked all of a sudden? I mean seriously, it's rarely common for someone to disappear just like that with a blink of an eye", Yaya stated.
Midori shrugged. "That may be true, but that still has nothing to do with some stupid voodoo website. Of course Mizuki would look pleased because she did hated Sara after all. I highly doubt that she has something to do with her disappearance".
"Yeah, I know. But still….", Yaya trailed, gazing off. Midori gave her a playful nudge on the arm.
"Come on, let's just hang out and have some fun. Looks like you've taken too much crazy bullshit from those damn ditzy girls".
Yaya looked at her but smiled again. "Just…just be careful, Midori. You know I'm always here if you need me", she said softly. Midori gave a nod, but changed the subject by opening her bookbag and pulled out her Algebra book.
"So let's get the hard stuff out the way first, shall we?". As both girls kept quiet and studied homework together, a part of Midori's mind kept switching back about that mysterious website. No way it could actually exist…could it?
It was only ten minutes until midnight, the soft ticking of the minute hand filling the silence of her room. Midori boringly tapped her fingers on the desk, her chin resting on her other hand while sitting in front of her laptop. It was a birthday gift she received from Aunt Shino when she turned thirteen. "I can't believe I'm falling for this…", she grumbled and sighed. "That goes to show how bored I am. If I find out Yaya made this crap up just to be funny, I'm gonna kill her". She looked back at the clock on the wall above her desk set. Only three more minutes til midnight now. After she typed in the website name and pressed 'Enter', the Google search page showed up, having the exact website name be the first on the list. She looked at the clock a final time, counting down the seconds of the minute hand as it went around. Once the minute and hour hand touched 12, Midori simultaneously clicked on the website name with the mouse.
She jumped back alittle when a single fire light appeared out of nowhere on screen, then turned into a completely black page. There was nothing else but a name bar in the middle of the page, a smaller box below the bar that read 'SEND', and a single quote written in red above the bar that read, 'Your Grievance Should Be Avenged'. Midori blinked a couple of times before doing anything else. "So this is what Hellcorrespondence's supposed to look like?", she asked herself. She looked at the name bar, the entire white box empty and the blinking text mark waiting to type something.
A part of Midori yearned to go with the flow and type in Ryuji's name, whereas another part of her held her back for something—was this really a good idea? Putting some kind of voodoo spell on someone was not her character at all; in fact, she would be plotting for murder if the story was true. Would Hell Girl really come and take Ryuji away from her for good? Would she punish him to the depths of hell? But the thing that worried Midori the most was her new behavior for going along with this. Was this new intention changing her heart of will as a good person? Would this have her turn out to be just as evil?
Midori closed her eyes for a minute and took a deep breath. Something finally possessed her to type in the man's name in the text bar: 'Ryuji Moeruhi'. After she clicked on the 'SEND' bar, everything on the black page disappeared, having the screen completely black. Not sure whether it went through successfully, Midori clicked the 'BACK' arrow button at the left upper hand corner, only to have a new blank page show up and read, 'Page Not Found' in big bold words. "W-what? How it disconnected like that?", she asked confusedly. Feeling awkward out as it was, she turned off her laptop and shut it close, then got up and crawled into her bed. "That's enough foolishness for tonight", she said.
Before she could set herself to sleep, the message tone from her iphone suddenly ranged. Midori grabbed her phone from the lamp desk next to her bed, and her emerald orbs grew wide with shock. The entire phone screen glowed crimson red, having a single message written in bold black words in the middle of the screen:'You Message Has Been Delivered'. Midori quickly sat up, dropping the phone where her lap that was underneath the blanket. Her heart started beating with panic, not taking her eyes off the glowing screen until it finally vanished and returned to her normal background picture.
"What have I gotten myself into?", she asked nervously, her uneasiness bringing a chill down her spine. She really had a bad feeling about this…
END NOTE: Don't worry fans, you'll definitely get a chance to see Ai on the next chapter. The plot is slowly starting to thicken. Hope this wasn't another long chapter, but it will have more action along the way. In the meantime, please show your kindness and review anyway. Thanks a bunchies! (offers you a cookie) ;)