Today's "day" is a little shorter, still keeping with the flow of the
original.

*********************

Azuringu Dai-O!


Azumanga Daioh! is owned by Azuma Kiyohiko, Media Works
Ringu is owned by Koji Suzuki.
Ringu/The Ring, Asmik Ace, Dreamworks SKG.


*********************


Wednesday, May 28

Day 1


If there was one thing that Chiyo disliked about large houses, it was the
silence. Houses such as hers should always be filled with friends and
family; people running through the halls, laughter at somebody else's
joke, relatives getting into heated arguments over the silliest things.

This morning, even though Yomi was there, Chiyo's footsteps were the
only sounds in the hallway. She wished that her parents had let her bring
Tadakichi-san over for this trip; at least, she would have had some
company.

"Yomi-san?" she called, knocking on the guest room's door. "I'm... I'm
going to the hospital now. I'm leaving you some tea and rice cakes out
here, okay?" There was no reply. Yomi was probably still asleep; she had
arrived pretty late last night, even though Chiyo didn't expect her for
another couple of days. Sighing, Chiyo set down the tray she had been
carrying, touching the small porcelain kettle on it to make sure it was
still
hot. "I'm going now!" she called again, heading down the hallway. "I'll
call if something happens!"

Chiyo then hefted the backpack she had left lying by the stairs, and
hurried out the front door. It was still early, yet the overcast skies
promised rain for later in the day; she was taking an umbrella from a
stand next to the door when the bell rang.

She pressed a button on the intercom. "Hello? Ah, Tomo-san! Wait a
moment, please."

The gate at the end of the compound slid open slowly, and Chiyo saw
Tomo, who was grinning back at her despite the bags under her eyes.
"Yo, Chiyo-chan!"

"Good morning!" said Chiyo. "Um, I think Yomi-san is still sleeping. I'm
going to the hospital to be with Sakaki-san and Kagura-san."

"O-K," Tomo flashed a thumbs up, then watched Chiyo run down the
street towards the hospital. With a yawn, Tomo pressed a button on the
outer wall, closing the gate, then headed slowly for the front door. "Dumb
Yomi, dragging me out of that neat resort and now getting to oversleep
when poor Tomo-chan misses her beauty sleep." She stretched and
yawned again.

Yomi, however, was not asleep. As a matter of fact, she hadn't slept a
wink since last night, when she arrived at Chiyo's house and threw the
damnable tape under a pile of clothes in the guest room. Now, all she
could hear going through her head was that distressingly sweet children's
song; it would be annoying if it weren't so gosh-darn-it cute.

Sitting down on the bed, Yomi went through yesterday's events in her
mind. Sakaki and her classmates had probably seen that same video, thus
leading to the grim results of last Sunday. However, she couldn't help
thinking that, as bizarre as the images had been, they had instilled her
with both dread and adoration for them. If anything, she still blushed at
how cute some of the scenes had been.

That brought the issue of Chiyo's appearance in the tape to the forefront.
Whoever had made the video obviously knew the girl, but what possible
reason could they have for making her such a prominent figure? And who
was that woman that first appeared brushing her hair, then screaming at
the camera before dropping into the ball pit?

She fished the tape out of the clothes that buried it. Did she really
believe
the legend? Would she have her own obituary by next Wednesday, or end
up in a coma, like Sakaki?

"Yo, Yomi!"

Tomo's voice in the hallway derailed her train of thought. Panicking,
Yomi juggled the tape in her hands before finally hiding it behind her
back, then cursed herself for not finding a better hiding spot once Tomo
entered the room.

"Yo," Tomo said again, lifting a hand in greeting and seamlessly turning
the greeting to a yawn. "What'cha up to?"

"Uh, nothing, nothing, I just woke up," lied Yomi. "Did you get our
appointment with Kaorin and the doctors?"

"Aw, we just got here," Tomo complained. "I'll TRY to get it today, OK?
What's the rush, anyway?" A telltale motion behind Yomi's back made
her blink. "What's that?"

"Uh, what's what?" Yomi backed away, trying to hide the tape from
Tomo's view.

"Hee-hee..." Tomo grinned. With a cry, she pounced on Yomi and tackled
her to the ground. The two of them wrestled for the tape for a moment,
until Tomo headbutted Yomi and ran off, giggling maniacally.

"Tape! Tape!" she chanted. "I knew you'd find it! It's Cursed Video
time!"

"Wait, you idiot!" Yomi staggered to her feet, and chased after Tomo.

"Waai, waaai!" Tomo kept cheering as she ran all over the house, looking
for a TV of any sort. She was finally rewarded when, upon arriving at the
game room, she came across a wall-screen armed with surround-sound
and a cat-shaped popcorn machine.

"Uuooooooooh!" Tomo breathed, then laughed excitedly as she jammed
the tape into a VCR set under the screen. When Yomi finally caught up, it
was to see the ring of light proudly dominating the room.

"Ah," Yomi stood there, paralyzed, as the video played once again. But as
she had seen it once before, at least her mind was alert enough to try to
make sense of the images this time around.

Tomo, for her part, was entranced, giggling in excitement all the while.
However, by the end of the "feature," her face had taken that same look of
absorbed adoration as Yomi's had the day before.  Her visage completely
flushed red, she simply stayed frozen as the shot of the ball pit in the
classroom appeared, a popcorn kernel hanging from her lips.

"C-cute," she finally said. "Can I get a copy?"

Yomi fell over.

"A copy?! Why the hell would you--"

*riiiiiing*

Both girls stared at a nearby phone, neither daring to move. It rang four
times before the answering machine picked up. "Hi!" said Chiyo's
recorded voice. "You reached the house of the Mihama family! Please
leave a message after the beep, please!"

The machine beeped. There was an awkward silence from the other end
of the line, then a frustrated sigh. The line went dead.

"Damn it, Tomo!" Yomi said, finally getting a grip on her nerves.

"Ah, you said you didn't believe in this story anyway," Tomo defended.
"What's a video gonna do? Trip me up with the tape so I fall down the
stairs and crack my head open and leave gooey and squishy brain stuff all
over the floor for people to slip on and go, 'Hey! The video did it!'?"

Growling in frustration, Yomi looked around the room and spotted a
digital camera nearby. She grabbed it and forced it into Tomo's hands.
"There!" she said. "Take your picture and see if I'm worried over
nothing."

Tomo looked at the camera, then at Yomi, and at the wall-screen that was
showing mute static while the tape rewinded. Then she took a picture of
Yomi.

"Not mine, jerk!"

Tomo turned the camera around, and snapped her own picture. "Eheheh...
Yomi's such a scaredy-cat..." She switched over to the camera's image
viewer, then just about fell backwards when she saw the results.

"Yo-yo-yomi!" she exclaimed, "You have Chiyo-chan's pigtails! And a
really weird face!"

Yomi sighed. She hadn't expected a different outcome, but had still held
hope. She took the camera from Tomo's hands, and ascertained the
inevitable: Tomo also had the infamous pigtails. And was making the
horrifying-joy expression as well.

"See? That's why I didn't want you to watch this tape!" Yomi
reprimanded. Tomo just looked downcast, shuffling her feet.

"B-but," she said, "That tape was cool! Pleeease make me a copy, Yomi-
chan!"

"Gah! You *still* want a copy?!"

"Sure! It's weird and cute and scary and it had Chiyo-chan in it! And I
wanna show it to Kagura!"

Yomi slapped her upside the head, "Fine, have your copy, but you're
NOT showing it to anyone else!"

"Awww..." pouted Tomo. "Thanks, Yomi-chan! I'll go reserve the video
rooms!"

"Video rooms?" Yomi wondered. "What for?"

"Well, we're investigating, right?" Tomo assumed her smarter-than-thou
posture. "We'll need to analyze this tape down to the last second! And we
have just the equipment back in college!"

Yomi stared at Tomo with a mixture of horror and admiration. "That's...
that's actually a pretty good idea. Try to get them as soon as possible, and
I'll make a copy for us to work with."

"O-K!" Tomo grinned and gave a thumbs-up. "I'll let you know how it
works out!"

"Right," Yomi said. "Now let's go visit Sakaki-san."


*********************

Azuringu Dai-O!

End of Day 1
Six days left

*********************


Jorge A. Pratt

00709382@academ01.ccm.itesm.mx
terbril@rocketmail.com




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