Sayumi rushed down the street, towards her friend, Maiko's house. It was their seven year anniversary of being friends. When they were twelve years old, they had made an important promise. A promise that neither one of them had forgotten. Sayumi ran up to Maiko's front door, knocking rapidly, and then waited impatiently for an answer. Even though she was seventeen, she still acted as long she was a young child. Maiko's mother, Mrs. Kirimi, opened the door moments later, an apron tied around her waist and flour splattered on her.
"Oh, Sayumi, how are you?" She asked politely.
Sayumi bowed respectively, "Very good, ma'am." She straightened, "Is Maiko-chan there?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, you just missed her. She's on a date right now. I think she went down to the park." Mrs. Kirimi answered.
'Date?' Sayumi thought to herself, "Oh, well, thanks. Bye, Mrs. Kirimi!" She turned and rushed down the street towards the town park. She lived in a small neighborhood where everyone knew each other and no one was particularly unfriendly, everyone was friends. A few years ago, the neighborhood put their money together and built a new park for the children of the neighborhood.
Sayumi rushed down the grassy hill to the park, a there was Maiko. With a boy named Hideo Isao, the same boy that Maiko knew Sayumi had a crush on.
Seven years ago, Sayumi and Maiko were in the 7th grade. There was a boy in their homeroom that both of them had crushes on. However, when both of them began to flirt with the boy and at one point both dated him at once, their friendship became a dwindling tie. They began fighting constantly, fighting over who broke up with the boy and who got to continue dating him. But when they found that the boy was dating a third girl, the friends decided that this boy wasn't for them. They realized that by dating the guy that they both liked only put their friendship in danger. They promise on the day they broke up with the boy that they would never date someone the other had a crush on.
"Maiko!" Sayumi shouted at her longtime friend. She stormed over to Maiko who was kissing on the monkey bars with Hideo. Maiko jumped at the sound of her friend's voice. Sayumi glared at her friend from below the monkey bars, "How could you, Maiko! Do you know what day today is?"
Maiko pushed herself off the monkey bars and stood in front of Sayumi, "Sayumi, it's not what it looks like!"
"Save it, Maiko!" She shouted, "I saw you, you know I have a crush on Hideo! You broke our promise!"
"That promise was five years ago!" Maiko replied angrily, "You can't hold a promise from five years ago over my head anymore!"
Hideo watched the quarreling girls; it made him feel good that they were fighting because of - No. They were fighting over him. Sayumi crossed her arms, "Maiko, a promise is a promise no matter how long ago it was! You promised, Maiko! And you broke your promise! I hate you. Just burn in Hell!" And with that, Sayumi whipped around, storming back up the hill, leaving Maiko to stare at her as she left.
Later that night, Sayumi sat at the dinner table with her parents. No one had said a word as the finished their hibachi dinner. Sayumi's father kept glancing at his daughter, thinking of saying something to her but decided against it every time. He never was good with talking to his daughter. His wife on the other hand, had an amazing bond with Sayumi. The two would share almost everything with each other.
"Sayumi, dear," Her mother began, "What's wrong, honey?"
"Nothing," Sayumi mumbled. Sayumi's parents glanced at each other as Sayumi stood from the table, "May I be excused?" Her parents nodded and Sayumi brought her dishes to the sink then rushed upstairs.
"Hey, Sayumi, ever hear about the Hell Correspondence?" Maiko's asked.
"No, what's that?" Sayumi replied.
"It's a website that only opens at midnight. They say that if you type in the name of someone you wants to send to Hell, the Hell Girl comes and kills them for you! Isn't that cool?"
Sayumi remembered the Hell Correspondence, a website that could cause the death of anyone you wanted. No consequences, no loss. Just a freebie to make all your troubles go away. Sayumi sat at her computer for hours, refreshing and refreshing the page on her web browser She kept glancing at the computer's clock, 11:59. One more minute… 00:00! Sayumi refreshed the page on last time and a flame flickered on the monitor, leading to a type box with the words 'Type the name of who you wish to send to Hell'
Trembling, Sayumi slowly typed in the characters of her friend's name, "Ma-iko Ki-ri-mi." She one by one typed in the character, sounding them out as she typed. She looked away and pressed enter. Sayumi felt a slight chill as the words disappeared from the screen and the clock changed to 12:01. The screen on the monitor went white. Sayumi read the words on the screen aloud, "Error, page could not be found."
"You've requested my help?" A voice from behind her asked.
Sayumi jumped out of her seat, turning to find herself in a strange landscape. The sky was dyed a bright red. A single tree stood in the center of the area, a tall, black haired boy was leaning against the trunk of the tree, staring at Sayumi. A young girl in a school uniform stood a few feet in front of her, she was beautiful, a very pretty girl with red glowing eyes and long, sleek black hair.
"W-Who are you?" Sayumi asked, trembling despite the calm feeling she received from the landscape.
"My name, is Ai." She turned to the boy, "Ichimoku Ren…" The boy nodded and brought his necklace up to his lips, lightly kissing it then disappeared. A green straw doll with a red thread around its neck appeared in Ai's hand, "Take this."
Sayumi extended her hand, picking the doll from Ai's hands, turning it over in her own, observing it, it was just an ordinary doll, nothing special at all. Nothing someone would look at twice and think that something was different about it, "What is it?"
"If you really want to claim your revenge on your friend, pull his red thread. Once you pull that thread, it initiates a covenant between you and myself and the target of your revenge shall be banished straight to Hell. However, you must pay a price as well." Ai explained.
"B-But," Sayumi stuttered, "The Hell Correspondence is supposed to be worry-free! You're the Hell Girl, right? You're supposed to take care of my problem without me being affected!"
"Sending someone to Hell is digging your own double grave. You shall go to Hell once your time comes. However, this is only when you die. You may live your life until your time of dying comes to retrieve you and bring you down into the depths of Hell's flames. You shall suffer along with your target, never knowing the true joys of Heaven's light." Ai answered.
Sayumi hung her head, "I understand. I'll give your offer some thought. One more thing-" Sayumi cut herself off as she looked up, seeing her bedroom wall. The Hell Girl was gone, along with the gorgeous landscape.
The next morning, Sayumi walked into homeroom, taking a different seat than usually. Her original seat was next to Maiko, but now, she was in no mood to sit near the ex-friend of hers. Sayumi struggled to concentrate of her teacher's lecture but found it harder than usual. She was turning the straw doll over in her hands, feeling the strange toy. After what seemed like hours, the first lecture of the day had ended and it was time for lunch.
Sayumi rushed from the classroom, not wanting to meet up with Maiko today. She headed straight for her locker where she had kept her lunch then went up to the rooftop of the school to sit and eat at one of the tables up there. She would come up here with Maiko a lot when the two had a lot on their minds. And right now, Sayumi had too much on her mind for her to handle. She didn't know whether or not to use her little toy to send Maiko to Hell.
"What do you think, Ai?" Hone asked, sipping her tea.
"It's too early to start guessing. She does not wish to kill her friend." Ai answered quietly. Wanyuudou walked into the room, removing his hat and resting it on the coat rack. He sat down, legs crossed, besides Hone.
"I think she'll pull it," He answered, "They always do."
Sayumi sat on her bed, the straw doll held between her hands. Tears were streaming down as her fingers pinched the red thread. A knife lay glistening in the moonlight on her nightstand beside her. Sayumi slowly pulled the thread from the straw doll's neck. A cold wind blew in through her open window, carrying the straw doll out the window, leaving her with the thread and a boy's voice echoing through her head, "You're grievance shall be avenged." She reached for the knife and held it pointed at her chest. She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling and her hands trembling. She closed her eyes and…
It was ten minutes to eleven as Maiko walked down the sidewalk with her boyfriend, Hideo. She had her arm locked with his, walking tiredly down to Maiko's house. They had just seen a horror flick at the drive-in theater after their dinner at a local Italian restaurant. As they walked down the street, Hideo felt Maiko's arm leave his. He turned to her to see why, seeing an empty space next to him where Maiko had been, "Maiko…?" He said, looking around, confused.
Maiko whipped around, seeing nothing that she had ever seen before. She was standing in the middle of a vast plain with a red tinted sky. Not far ahead of her, was Sayumi with her back turned to Maiko. She rushed to her friend and put a hand on her shoulder. Sayumi slowly turned around and Maiko saw that the person was not Sayumi, but a woman with half her body a skeleton! Maiko slowly backed away, turning to run straight into a boy. The boy bent down, his head lowered. Maiko screamed bloody murder as she saw a giant eye on the top of his head.
She ran past the boy, running across a seemingly endless plain. Finally, she saw one last person, a beautiful young girl with long black hair, wearing a flowered kimono. She slowly turned around, revealing her bright red eyes. Maiko shook her head, slowly stepped backwards, "No… No, w-what is this!"
"O' pitiful soul, looking down upon others, causing them pain and torment… A soul bound to the very depths of Hell…" The girl began.
"I know who you are…" Maiko whispered, "You're the Hell Girl!"
"Perhaps… it is time to die."
Blood splattered on the bed and floor as the knife pierced Sayumi's chest. She slowly removed the knife and ell to the ground. As she died, tears dripped from her face, falling into the pool of blood beneath her. She struggled to give her last words before falling into the darkness, "N-Now… Now we can… Be best friends… Forever…" Then her eyes shut and she went stone cold.