Okay, so i'll try to get back to the story.

Give me a little bit of honesty after this chap is done.

EVENING… AT AROUND 11:55-ISH...

I was just in the middle of my sleep, but Wallace woke me up in his sleep, mumbling, "You're totally my bitch forever, Vincent." Honestly, does he really need say that?

All of the sudden, I get a phone call at night. Who the hell's calling me at this time! I answered whoever was calling anyways.

"Hello?" I groggily greeted.

"Vincent? Did I wake you up? It's 11:55."

Oh hell...

Itsumi Horietsu
13 years old
Younger Step-sister. Rating: "T" for teen

"Ohh... no... I've been awake for several hours. Several being the key word."

"Yeah, right! What's this I hear about you dating an eleven-year old?"

That got me sitting up straight and shocked.

"SH-SHE'S TWELVE, AND HOW DID YOU NOW?"

"Wallace told me."

"THAT GOSSIPY BITCH!" Hopefully nobody had heard that last remark. "You know me." Wallace also said in his friggin' sleep.

"Yeah, I called yesterday, but you were out somewhere or something. Anyway, SCANDAL!"

"Whatever!"

"Don't you whatever me! Who is this mysterious child?"

"Her name is Katana."

"Katana What?" Can you please stop nosing in on my business? I want my sleep!

"Chau." I replied back.

"She's Chinese? Wait until Mom hears about this!"

"Step-Mom's in Europe! I ain't scared!" Okay, maybe a little bit scared.

"A 12-year-old Chinese middle school girl. You're ridiculous, Vincent."

"It's a Catholic school, too..." Crap, me and my runny mouth!

"WHAT? WITH THE UNIFORM AND EVERYTHING?"

"Hey, my school wears uniforms too. But yeah, the whole deal."

"Oh my God. You haven't-" Okay, now she is going WAY too far.

"No no no no no," I reassured her ,"GOD, no. We haven't even held hands. I THINK she hugged me once."

There was silence for a little moment. "Um, Vince... Why are you doing this?"

"I... I don't know. It's just nice, you know? It's just simple."

"It's been over a year since you broke up with-"

NO. THE LAST THING I NEED IS TO HEAR THAT NAME AGAIN.

"Yeah, yeah."

"So are you moving on, like legit? Or are you just insane?"

"I'll let you know, okay? P.S., how are you even here in Japan? I thought that you were still over at Toronto with everyone else and stuff."

"Toronto is in a little bit of a disorder right now, so we needed to get away."

"I see, oh well, need sleep. Talk to you later, okay?"

"Sure, see ya later."

I closed my cell phone, and looked at the time.

11:58:29

Okay, I still have some time. Noah and Jill have some explaining to do tomorrow.

LATER THAT NIGHT…

Ikutsuki went upstairs to what seems to be a sort of control room

Two figures were sitting in front of a pretty complex, Yukari and Mitsuru.

"Working hard?" Ikutsuki said, "So how're they doing?"

"They went to bed not too long ago. They're asleep now," Mitsuru said as she and Yukari stood up.

"Mr. Chairman, do you think they're...?"

"Well, let's wait and see for now... The Dark Hour is approaching."

MEANWHILE, IN A BACK ALLEY OF TATSUMI PORT ISLAND...

There seems to be a party somewhere in a secluded place...

"And at the tone, the time will be midnight."

11:59:58

11:59:59

12:00:00

CRASH

"What the...?" Apparently there was still one dude who was aware of the Dark Hour.

He looked seriously panicked, especially when he saw a coffin two times his size right behind him. Hell, everywhere around him are coffins.

All of the sudden, there was this sort of black, gooey substance that seems to be coming right out of his face.

"AAAAAAAUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHH!..."

BACK AT THE DORM...

"Hmmm... He's still sleeping." Ikutsuki said as they were still examining the figures on the television screen.

"The 'Dark Hour' occurs every day, at 12 midnight; you could say it's the 'hidden' hour." He added.

"During this time, an ordinary person, shall we say "Transmogrifies," into a coffin and is completely oblivious to all that occurs."

Surprised, Yukari said, "Then, they must be..."

"As you can see, they still retain their human forms. They're sleeping, but they're definitely experiencing the Dark Hour. The only question that remains is whether or not they have the 'potential.' Although, they must. ...If they didn't, they would've preyed on them by now."

"Scary..." Yukari felt concern for the three.

"In any case, we need to monitor them for a few more days."

"Yes sir." Mitsuru spoke.

"I feel kinda bad though, spying on them like this..." Yukari said.

BACK IN THE BEDROOM...

I find myself in the middle of sleep, when all of the sudden I hear this voice ring inside my head, "Master, Master Vincent Horietsu." Then, without warning, I am (or at least it looks like it) flying across this tiled floor, and into a blue door.

Light had blinded me as I 'flew' inside. As my vision cleared, I appeared to be sitting in a chair, in the middle of a room that had resembled an elevator, but in a bluish-color and the gate had a clock that kept spinning and spinning. On the left and right walls were a series of doors, 1 on each with curtains. There was a table in front of me with a blue and velvety tablecloth, and on the other side of the table sat an old man with an abnormally large nose, and a platinum-blonde yellow-eyed woman who was wearing an attire similar to a flight attendant, but (of course) blue.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the man with the large nose greeted to me.

"Thank you for the greeting, but who are you and where am I?" Wow, that sounds SOOO not cliche

"My name is Igor, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This is Elizabeth. She's a resident here, like myself."

"Pleased to meet you." Elizabeth greeted me as well.

"Thanks for the welcoming committee, but you still haven't answered my second question. Sorry for my assertiveness," Man, I feel like a dick right now.

"No need for apologies. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. Only those who have signed a contract can enter this place."

A Contract? Oh shit... A paper appeared out of nowhere and sat itself on the table in front of me.

I, Vincent Horietsu, will take full responsibility for my actions from now till the end of my days.

Crap, I KNEW that this was gonna bite me in the ass one day.

"Henceforth, you shall be welcome here in the Velvet Room."

"Wow, thanks for the opportunity, but what exactly is this room for?"

"You are destined to hone your unique ability, and you will require my help to do so." Unique ability? There was nothing much unique about me... "I only ask one thing in return. That you abide by the contract, and assume responsibility for the choices you make."

"I already signed the contract for taking full responsibility, so I understand 100%." I better hope that nothing goes wrong in my future.

"Hold on to this..." In a split second, a key had appeared in the palm of my hand.

Obtained Velvet Key.

"'Til we meet again..."

Before another blinding light covered my vision, behind Igor I saw a silhouette in the background coming out from one of the doors from the left, and what seemed to be rollerblading to another door.

"WAIT, WHO'S-," I got cut off as the vision faded...

4/9/2009
Early morning

I had woken up from my deep sleep. Huh, must've been a dream. But I had felt something in my palm, and curiosity tells me to open up my right hand. Holy... Guess it wasn't. And who was that figure in the back? Ow, my head hurts from thinking.

I looked at the floor to see the futon on the ground empty. Wallace is probably at work right now. But why should I worry about him, I gotta get to school. Whoa, now those are 5 words that I didn't realize that I would think of...

GEKKOUKAN HIGH SCHOOL GATES...

As I walked up to the gates, I was greeted by a sleepy Junpei.

"Yo... Man, I'm so sleepy today."

"At least you had sleep, I did not get any last night."

"In times like these, it's best to sleep in class. You ever notice how sometimes taking a nap in class makes you more refreshed than sleeping at home?"

"Yeah, I hear ya. Back in Toronto, I had my fair share of class naps."

"Right? You go from dead to being full of energy again. It's such a great feeling!"

"Yeah, but I'm not sleeping when we have got some exam notes, or anything else that's important."

"...Then again, I'm not listening to the lecture, so I'm screwed either way," his tone went from excited to downright saddened. "Oh, but we have classic literature today... That means we're stuck with Mr. Nasty ol' Ekoda."

"Hmmm. First day in Classic Lit. Should be interesting." Although my sleep guage is nearly full, I dunno if I can stay up."

CLASSIC LIT CLASS...

I had just arrived at Lit Class just a minute later than the others.

"Sorry I'm late," I ran out of breath due to being lost a bit.

"Ah, okay. Let's see here... new kid. You're with Kira." Well at least I'm sitting beside someone I know.

So yeah...

"Ahem... I'm Mr. Ekoda. I'll be teaching you Classic Literature. I'll be teaching you about good old Japan all year."

"So what are we doing?" I asked Kira, yawning while I'm at it.

"I think he'll give us some retarded partner thing, and judging by your condition, you'll probably slack off and I'll have to do all the work."

"Some people say Classic Lit isn't relevant to everyday life, but oh, how they're wrong!" Mr. Ekoda kept droning on and on...

Dammit, gotta... stay... awake.

"Hey! Are you all listening to me? Wake up children! Now open your textbooks. First on our syllabus is "Ise Monogatari," the origin of Japanese literature. It's a very interesting story. You youngsters might call it, "da bomb."

Nice try old man, but no.

"...I can already tell that you people are, "zoning out."

Wow... Not making much of a good impression right now.

You're Academics has increased.

AFTER SCHOOL...

Me and Junpei went down to Paulownia Mall afterwards.

"Whenever I hang out with the guys from school, we usually go here."

Not up to the scale of Fairview and Pacific Mall back home, but it's pretty decent."

"There's a karaoke bar, an arcade, and oh, this is the place where you rent CD's. And then there's that bar over there..."

He pointed over to "Club Escapade"

"But I never seen the inside of it, of course."

As we were making our exit, I saw Wallace at the door.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. Noah, Jill and I are gonna be re-organizing our band and having our first practice since like... 8 months. You wanna come?"

"You have a band?"

"Yeah, but I have to drop by another school and pick up my girlfriend. Tell you more about it when I'm back."

"Sure thing."

St. Nichols Catholic School for the Japanese...

"This suuuuuucks, why did you bring me here?" Wallace complained

"You know this place has cute guys too."

"I hate you. Even I would think twice about dating a 12-year-old middle schooler."

"VINCENT, HEY!"

There she was, Katana Chau. Rushing out of the school gates towards me. She collided onto me with a hug.

"Hey Katana. I'd like you to meet Wallace, my cool gay roommate."

"Hey."

"Hello," he replied back

"Yeah, he's gay."

"Oh, do you want to know a friend of mine in my class who's gay?"

"Oh really? Does he wear glasses?" Now he was interested.

"Okay, we really need to go now." I was in a rush. Everyone was waiting

"Be careful," Wallace warned her as he grabbed her hands, "You're too good for him."

The monorail back was surprisingly quiet.

IWATODAI DORM...

We walked up to the doors of our dorm.

"You promise to be good?" I asked Katana

"I promise."

"No seriously, be good."

"Am I normally not?"

"What are you making that poor child say, dude?" Wallace asked me.

"He's promising me to be good," she told him

"He may have been kidding. Are you normally bad?"

"I thought I was okay..."

I knocked on the door, and on cue, Noah opens it. "Hey Katana, this is Noah Tsukeru. He's the talent," I introduced.

Noah Tsukeru
16 years old
The talent

"Hey." he replied back, then without a word, he pulled me inside, abruptly if I might add.

"Is she gonna geek out on us?" he asked me. Why do you wanna know if she geeks?

"She'll just sit in the corner, man." I replied back.

"But... I WANT her to geek out on us."

"She'll geek. She geeks, she has the capacity to geek." Wow. I only knew her for 3 days and I'm saying that she geeks?

"Okay," he opens the door and tells her, "You're good."

As she went inside, I looked around. All our gear was set up. Noah was going to Junpei, Yukari and Mitsuru were each sitting on a couch/chair, anticipating what's gonna happen.

"Welcome back," Mitsuru greeted me in her orderly fashion, "The moon is beautiful tonight, it might be nice to read a book by moonlight once in a while..."

"So... why did you bring us here?" Yukari asked.

"We need to freshen up our playing. After all, we haven't played our stuff for like... 8 months or whatever," Jill answered back.

"Katana, that's Jill. Here, let me get your jacket." I took it, and then just threw it on the floor.

"I'm sorry, what was your name?" Katana asked curiously.

"Jill," she said.

"And you play the drums?" She asked again.

Jill Seto
17 years old
Drummer

"...Yes..." Wow, boredom much.

"Awesome." Katana felt like she was in a front of celebrities right now.

I guided her to the sofa, "This is Junpei Iori, Yukari Takeba, and Mitsuru Kirijo, my dorm mates."

"Hi." "Greetings." "Well helloooo beautiful." They all greeted her, but that last greet by Junpei was questionable.

Katana sat down beside Junpei. "Hi, what do you play?"

He felt a little bit confused. "Oh, uhhh... Baseball, Zelda, Tetris... that's kind of a huge question."

Puzzled, she then asked both Yukari and Mitsuru, "And you two?"

"Uhh, we don't really play any kind of instrument," Yukari answered her.

"Although I would like to play a violin or a flute..." Mitsuru then said.

Okay, enough of the chitchat. "Alright, let's start with Launchpad McQuack-"

"Uh... That's not the actual title of the song-" Noah said in the mic before he got cut off by Jill.

"WE ARE SEX-BOBOMB, ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR."

We made an explosive intro, with Jill and I starting out the rhythm with our drums and bass. I was doing the bass solo while she was pedaling and smashing the hi-hat and snare.

Noah came in with his guitar part...

Yeah, yeah. Yeah! Yeah!

Laminate the stasis

Mama mama serpentiiine

I got a breathalyzer...

AND MY BODY'S CLEAN

For the majority of the song, our parts were mostly instrumental, and that took up about two minutes. and finally we had our explosive ending.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah! Yeah!

(rhythmic bass strumming)

yeah. Yeah. YEAH! YEAH! YEAAAAAH!

By the song's end, we had pretty much left our audience open jawed and amazed. Then they started to say...

"You..." Yukari.

"Guys..." Junpei.

"Are so..." Mitsuru.

"Amaaaazing..." Epic finish by Katana.

SO THEN...

I guided Katana to the monorail. As she headed to the door and walked up the stairs to the train, she turned back to me, droning, "Sex-Bobomb... AMAAAZING." She acted like a machine for that part.

BACK AT THE DORM, IN MY ROOM...

"She seems nice..." Noah said as we commented on the events of the night.

"Yeah." I agreed.

"She seems awesome," Junpei commented as well.

"Yeah," I said again.

"Vincent, if your life had a face, I would punch it," Jill said assertively.

"Yeah... Wait, what?" Does Jill have something against Katana?

"Are you really happy, or are you just evil."

"What, evil as in me having ulterior motives or something? I'm offended Jill!" Really, I was.

"Wounded, even?" Noah asked me.

"HURT, Jill."

"Never mind..." Jill concluded.

"Oh yeah I just remembered. Itsumi called. What's she doing here?" I was so fed up with everything that I forgot how Itsumi got here

"She and some others came over to Japan due to the situation over at Toronto... I dunno, some politic issues or whatever." Noah told me.

THAT EVENING...

So yeah... After our little session, Junpei went home. Yukari asked us how we learned to play like that, and we told her everything that happened back in Toronto. How we all met, how we all got bored, and what we did to kill our time... and I told her that me and Jill dated when we were in middle school. Although the rest of the story was pretty crappy. She then told us of what happened before we came over to this dorm. How there used to be a dorm mother doing the cooking here, now just us students. She also said it would've been great if there was someone to do that in our dorm. I know SOME cooking, I'm just not that good at it. I agreed to that, but then she was all like, "I'm not a good cook, and Mitsuru-senpai just doesn't do things like that. It's like a treasure vault we can't spend." Yeah, like I care about what we spend with our money...

After the talk, I decided to take an early sleep. I got a long day tomorrow...

LATER, IN A CERTAIN ROOM IN THE DORM...

"How are they?" Ikutsuki asked Mitsuru.

"...The same as last night," she told him. "Hm... Very interesting," he felt intrigued at how the new student's weren't coffins, "Even those who have the potential tend to be unstable at first. Memory loss, disorientation, etc. But these new subjects are rather unique. They don't seem to be exhibiting any of the common symptoms..." he concluded with his statement.

"But we're treating them like guinea pigs," Yukari said, still in her concerned phase.

"I understand your concern, but it's imperative that we recruit new members. I heard that he's your classmate, so wouldn't you be more comfortable working with someone from the same grade?" Ikutsuki asked her in his attempt to convince her.

"I-I guess, but still..." RIIIING, a comm speaker from outside interrupted Yukari's thoughts.

"Command room, is that you, Akihiko?" Mitsuru answered the call.

"You're not gonna believe this...! This thing's huge!" Akihiko sounded like he was in trouble. "Unfortunately, I have no time to talk... It's chasing me. I wanted to let you guys know, I'm almost there."

"Does that mean... HE'S BRINGING THAT THING HERE?" Yukari panicked at the thought of 'them' chasing Akihiko to the dorm.

"Mr. Chairman, let's suspend our observation for now. We'll prepare for battle!" Mitsuru said.

"R-Right... be careful!"

LOUNGE...

Mitsuru, Yukari and Ikutsuki ran down to the lounge, and at the door they saw a severely injured Akihiko, sitting down on the floor in pain, "Agh..."

"Akihiko!" Mitsuru spoke out

"I'm alright... Get ready to be surprised, it'll be here any second." Akihiko had a hint of excitement in his voice.

"THIS IS NO TIME TO JOKE AROUND!"

"It's one of them, Akihiko?" The Chairman asked.

"Yes, but it's not an ordinary one-" CRASH An explosion occurred, and it vibrated around the lounge walls.

"Ahh!" It caught Yukari off guard, "What the...! You have got to be kidding me!"

"Mr. Chairman, please head for the command room! Takeba, go upstairs and wake up Seto, Horietsu, and Tsukeru. Then escape out the back." Mitsuru ordered.

"What about you two?"

"We'll stop this here. You led it to us, Akihiko. So you'll have no choice but to fight..."

"Like I had a friggin' choice." Akihiko seemed confident about the current situation. "What are you waiting for, Yukari? GO!"

"I-I'm going."

HORIETSU DORM ROOM...

What the hell is making all that racket... For CRYING OUT LOUD, I NEED SLEEP! KNOCK KNOCK AH GREAT, NOW WHAT!

"Wake up!" Oh great... Can't she give me some peace for ONE night! "Sorry, I'm coming in!"

"Whuh... HEY YUKARI-SAN, WAIT A MINUTE." She opened up the door anyways, and as she came in, she almost tripped over Wallace. "Sorry Wallace-kun."

"Eh, no need." Still mumbling in his sleep. How can he sleep through all this!

"I have no time to explain, we need to get out of here now! THAT INCLUDES YOU TOO WALLACE-KUN." She kicked him a couple of times, and he slowly rose up, but he was kinda wearing an untied bathrobe.

"GAH!" She was horrified by the sight in front of her. "Oh, sorry..." Wallace apologized, "You probably should've wore underpants man." I told him. "Yeah yeah, do you have to be such a pussy?"

"Anyways, Jill and Noah are already waiting downstairs, so we gotta hurry and get out the back door."

As soon as I was taking my first steps, she stopped me again, "Wait!"

"What? Don't we have to hurry?" I asked her as Wallace was tying back his bathrobe.

"Take this... just in case." She hands me a short sword. Where'd she just get the sword from?

"Well, looks like it's time to put that sword proficiency you chose from Grade 5 to good use." I can't believe that Wallace still remembered that I had chosen a sword class!

"What're we waiting for? Let's go!" Yukari seemed like she was in a rush.

REAR ENTRANCE...

"Alright, we should be safe now." Yukari said as we headed to the rear entrance.

"So wait. What the hell is going on?" Noah asked.

"Why were you in such a rush?" Jill asked next.

"As I said, no time to explain."

"Takeba, do you read me!" Mitsuru said through the comm. I thought electronics don't work in the Doom Hour...

"Y-Yes, I hear you."

"Be careful, there's more than one enemy!"

"Enemy?" I blurted out. What's this got to do with an enemy?

"The one we're fighting isn't the same one Akihiko saw!"

"What!" BANG

Another bang had erupted. The source sounded like it wasn't too far from here. "L-Let's pull back!"

"Remind me why I got tagged along?" Wallace, still trying to keep up in his sleep, complained.

2ND FLOOR...

So we went up to the second floor in an attempt to run away from whatever's chasing us. As we got there though, the window broke. CRACK

"What was that?" Yukari was caught off-guard. I was trying not to be Captain Obvious so I didn't say anything.

"It's getting closer...!" She added.

"What are we doing! Running away from Jason Vorhees or Ghostface or something?" I don't think I can take much more running.

"That's why you got to be an energetic nut like me!" Noah bragged.

"NOW'S NOT THE TIME, YOU TWO," Jill interfered.

"Now's the time for me to sleep...zzz," Wallace knocked out on us.

"K-Keep moving!" Yukari commanded.

ROOFTOP...

"Okay, we should be safe here." Yukari said as she locked the door.

"I don't think I can get anymore safe, what with Mr. Gay Sleepyhead here," I said as let down a now sleeping Wallace, "Do you know what it's like to haul a sleeping body up 2 stories?"

"I think we have a good idea..." Jill joked.

SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH

"!" All 4 of us slowly turned back, and we see a black hand of a sort, and then another hand holding a mask. It looked around like if it was a searchlight scanning for something. Then more hands came out, and then comes the hands with knives.

It climbed up the ledge, and then it started charging at us.

"Those monsters... We call them 'Shadows.'" Is it just me, or does that just sound so corny...

As it continued charging at us. Yukari pulled out the gun that she had, and pointed it to her head. "Hey hey HEY! NOW'S NOT THE TIME TO COMMIT SUICIDE, LADY!" Noah freaked out.

But as she pulled the trigger, these blasts of wind energy came out, but none of them hit the mark. The Shadow kept the charge at us, and Yukari tried one last attack, but the Shadow knocked her out.

Conveniently, the gun slided right in front of my feet. I looked down, confused at what I was going to do next.

COMMAND ROOM...

After Mitsuru and Akihiko took care of the shadows on their end, they and the chairman went back to the command room to locate where they were.

"Over there..." Akihiko pinpointed the location.

Him and Mitsuru nodded, but as they proceeded to assist them, Ikutsuki stopped them, "Wait!"

BACK AT THE ROOFTOP...

We were the shadows next targets, and we don't know what to do...

All of the sudden, a voice rang in my head, and not just me, though. Jill and Noah are having the same headache as I am.

I am thou, and Thou art I. The time has come. Open thine eyes, and call forth the power that is within...

As if I was possessed or something, I picked up the gun. I looked behind me. Jill had a card in her hand, and a rune appeared under Noah's feet.

We all nodded at each other, and I put the gun to my head...

"Pe..." Me.

"ru..." Noah.

"so..." Jill.

"NA!" ALL TOGETHER NOW...

YES, CHAPTER 3 UP...

Sorry I took so long. Had summatives to do, and other crap to worry about

DropletofSour: Your a hard man to impress, that's for sure. I'll try to get you on your good side.