Mental torture for fun and profit! Well, maybe not profit...
*********************
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.
*********************
Thursday, May 29
Day 2
As much as it pained her to admit it, Yomi had to agree on one thing:
Tomo's explosive cheer could be amazingly persuasive.
Despite all video rooms in campus being reserved for weeks in advance,
somehow she had managed to grab one right when they needed it the
most. Even better was the fact that Tomo had already picked up on many
of the skills needed for this sort of work, an unsettling thought in itself.
Yomi had initially despaired at the idea of Tomo taking the same
Journalism classes as her, but now it seemed like the luckiest coincidence
in her life.
"So this is the console, you can do all sorts of stuff with it," said Tomo,
pointing at a control panel set beside a pair of monitors and cassette
decks. "You can copy from one tape to another, print images, and make
the principal look like he's dancing backwards! And record that too!"
"Ah. I was wondering who had made that," Yomi arched her eyebrows.
Tomo grinned and stuck out her tongue. "Anyway, here's the copy you
wanted. I left the original back at Chiyo's place."
"Uwaaah!" Tomo stood up, "Chiyo-chan's gonna watch it! And I'm going
to miss it!" She started to race out of the room, but Yomi caught her by
the arm. "Kagura's right outside with Chiyo, dummy. And I hid the tape
so she wouldn't find it."
"Aww..." Tomo sat back down. Disappointed, she took the copy of the
video and fed it to one of the tape decks.
The pair watched the bizarre sequence once more, only this time they
actively sought any kind of rhyme or reason for the images. They still had
to fight hard against the urge to whisper "Cute..." whenever Chiyo
appeared on-screen, though.
All of a sudden, Yomi gasped and said, "Stop!" Tomo complied out of
sheer reflex, pausing the image exactly at the moment when the long-
haired woman was about to toss herself into the ball pit. "Back up a
little," Yomi said, frowning. Using a dial knob, Tomo rewound the video
slowly, past the woman's hysterical rant and into a scene of a disturbingly
familiar cat costume.
"There, freeze!" said Yomi. "Where did that come from?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Tomo asked. The image on screen was that
of the white, fluffy cat suit she had worn herself during the Culture
Festival, but it looked as if it were being worn by someone much, much
smaller. The effect was creepy rather than cute.
"That wasn't there when I watched it," Yomi explained, frowning. "When
I saw it the first time, it went straight from the image of Chiyo-chan
smiling at the camera to the angry woman screaming. The cat was not
there."
"Aaa..." Tomo raised an eyebrow. "You sure you didn't just forget about
it? Maybe you blinked and missed it? It came up pretty fast when I saw it
at Chiyo-chan's house."
"You saw it..." Yomi shook her head. "No, I'm sure it wasn't there before.
And even so, what is it doing here in the first place?"
"Heee, it IS a creepy picture," Tomo chuckled.
"Yeah, but look at all this. It has Chiyo, it has Maya, and now it has this
cat suit you wore back then. It even has that cat-thing Sakaki told us
about." She narrowed her eyes. "It's almost as if this video was made for
us."
Tomo shuddered, "Waaah, that's even creepier." She paused for a second
to look at the image on the screen again, then resumed playback. The cat
disappeared almost instantly to be replaced by the hysterical ranting,
which was then followed by the ball pit scene. This time, both girls
reached for the pause button almost at the same time.
"Ah." They stared at each other, and then glanced at the image. Without a
word, Tomo rewound almost up to the beginning, where they found the
shot of the woman in the mirror. Tomo snapped her fingers.
"They're the same!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, I think so too," said Yomi. "They have the same hairstyle. And
look," she pointed at the little bit of shoulder that was visible in the
mirror
scene. "I think that's the same sweater, too."
"Huh," Tomo nodded. "Hey, that sweater looks..."
Yomi's eyes widened. "It couldn't be... Forward! Move forward!"
Tomo did as commanded, and advanced the tape up to the ball pit again.
Indeed, it was the same woman in both shots. But it wasn't that which
interested them. Tomo stopped the advance, then rewound just a couple
of seconds. The extreme close-up of the angry face stared back at them.
Paused as it was, the video presented said face with extreme clarity.
"Yukari-chan!" Tomo tried to stand up so suddenly that she fell
backwards along with her chair. Yomi just stared.
"Wh-what..." she mumbled. "Chiyo-chan, Maya, and Yukari-sensei?
What is going on? Who made this?!"
"Hey, guys," Kagura asked through the locked door. "We heard some
shouting in there. Everything all right?"
Tomo and Yomi looked at each other, eyes wide. "Yuh-yeah," Tomo
managed to say. "We... we're just watching the news, right?"
"Right!" Yomi nodded forcefully. "Just the news!"
"Ah, OK," Kagura said. "I just thought I heard you shout something about
Yukari-sensei."
"Er, we did! We did!" Tomo said, standing up. "She flew her car off the
Tokyo Bay Bridge and ended up on a garbage boat! Uh, yeah!"
Kagura was too stunned to respond to that. Yomi winced and whapped
Tomo. But Chiyo...
"Waaaah! Not again! Yukari-senseeeeei!"
Yomi fell over.
"She's... she's all right, Chiyo-chan!" Yomi said, motioning for Tomo to
stop the tape completely before opening the door to comfort the younger
girl. "Tomo was just joking, seriously."
"Really?" Chiyo looked up at her, eyes wide as saucers and leaking like
faucets.
"Y-yeah, really," Yomi forced a smile, making a mental note to never,
ever ride Yukari's car. "In fact, we were about to call her now. Right
Tomo?"
"Huh?" Tomo stared blankly at her. "We were?"
"Yes, we were," Yomi repeated through clenched teeth. "And Kurosawa-
sensei too, just in case. Come on."
"Ah! Right, right, I got it!" Tomo replied enthusiastically. She patted the
relieved Chiyo on the head while Yomi retrieved the tape from the video
room. But as the group headed out in search of a phone, Kagura drew
Yomi closer and whispered, "Hey, does this have to do with Sakaki and
Kaorin?"
Yomi nodded just enough to be noticed, "We're not sure what's going on,
but keep an eye on Chiyo-chan." At Kagura's bewildered look, she
explained, "I think we'll have to look much deeper into this than I
thought. She really would be safer with you than us."
Kagura flinched, "Whoa, whoa. Safer? What do you mean, safer?"
"It's hard to explain, but I think the videotape is related to her... to us
in
some way. Just... watch for anything unusual."
"Dammit," Kagura swore. "All right, I'll do my best." She sighed, "Really
lousy coincidence that we can't find Osaka right now. She'd probably help
you figure this out."
Somehow, Yomi found herself agreeing. "Hmm... I'm sure she would."
- O! -
"And then, just when she thought she was safe..." Tomo narrated in a
dramatic voice before a terrified Chiyo, "she looked back at her
apartment... and saw her daughter come out!"
"B-but I thought they were both in the elevator!"
"Ah, so did she!" Tomo loomed over her, "But then she looked back at
the little girl with her... and it was the ghost of the missing girl!"
"AAAAAH!" Chiyo cried and hid behind Kagura.
"You're cruel," the tanned girl glared at Tomo, who had to hold her belly
as she laughed. "Hey! Yomi! Don't you think you've been waiting
enough?"
"Just one more try," Yomi called back from the phone booth. So far, there
had been no answer from Yukari's home. It could have been any number
of reasons, really --she could be sleeping, she could be hunched over
some video game, she could be drunk, she could be sleeping off the
drunkenness, she could be sleeping off the drunkenness while dreaming
about video games... Yet, after having seen her in the tape, the reasons
going through Yomi's mind were of an entirely different and morbid
nature.
"Dammit," she cursed, hanging up. She considered calling the school, but
knew better than that. If anyone could know where Yukari was, it had to
be Minamo.
She retrieved her address book from her purse and rifled through it for the
number, finally coming across it (as well as a scribble in Tomo's
handwriting, correcting the entry as "Nyamo.") She picked up the phone
and dialed.
After three rings, the line was picked up. "Hello?"
"Kurosawa-sensei?" Yomi called.
"Yes? Ah... Yomi? Is that you? Hi!"
"Y-yes, hello. Er... this is a little strange, but... do you know where
Yukari-sensei is?"
"Yukari? Hmm..." Yomi could hear Nyamo tap her nails over the phone a
few times. "No, I can't really say. Summer vacation started early this year,
and I haven't seen her since."
"I see..." So, she could have gone missing without anyone noticing? "Did
she say she was going somewhere for the summer...?"
"I don't think so, I... wait, actually, she did mention something. I think
she
said she was visiting some distant relatives in Osaka."
"Hmm. When did she leave?"
"A couple of Weeks ago, I think." Nyamo paused for a second. "Is she in
trouble again?"
"N-no, not really," Yomi lied. "We just need her for... a video project."
"Heh. Careful with those!" Nyamo chuckled, "Did you hear the one about
the cursed video?"
Yomi considered strangling the phone. "Yes. Yes, I have. Anyway,
thanks for the info, Kurosawa-sensei."
"You're welcome! Tell everyone I said 'Hi'"
They exchanged good-byes, and Yomi hung up. Having traumatized
Chiyo enough for one day, Tomo approached and asked, "What'd Nyamo-
chan say?"
"She doesn't know where Yukari-sensei is either," Yomi replied. "But she
said that the last time she heard of her was when Yukari-sensei went to
visit some relatives in Osaka two weeks ago, so that's a start."
"Aaaa..." Tomo considered this. "Are we going there too?"
Yomi paused. The trip to Okinawa had been quite a blow to her savings,
but maybe she could wiggle out a sponsorship out of the college's
Journalism department. Still, they couldn't just fly around the country
under such a pressured schedule. If this "lead" turned out to be a bust...
"We'll try to contact her over the phone first," she said. "You'll keep
trying her house to check with her parents, if they're home. I'll look for
any Tanizakis in Osaka." She picked up her backpack. "In the meantime,
we have the appointment at the hospital. Let's see if we can find out more
there."
- O! -
Hospitals were rarely considered cheerful places. The cold sterility of the
surroundings came off as inhuman, a sentiment that was only bolstered
when one entered the psychiatric ward.
"Who knew Kaorin would just go nuts like that?" Tomo wondered aloud
in the ward's waiting room.
Yomi covered her face with one hand at her friend's bluntness. "We don't
even know what happened to her yet. She couldn't have seen the video,
because I did and I'm all right. It had to be something else."
"Um, I watched it too, and..." Tomo said, trailing off. "You said she was
with Sakaki-chan when it happened, right?"
"That's what Kagura said, yes," Yomi nodded. "Even if we don't know
who made the video or why, we can find out what it does after the seven
days are up."
"And why Sakaki-chan wasn't killed by it?"
"Exactly. Maybe there's a way to break the curse after all."
"Aa..." Tomo sat back and crossed her arms. "I know!" she said suddenly,
slamming her fist on her open palm. "You gotta make as many copies as
you can and show them to other people, and then they have to do the
same!"
Yomi glared at her. "What kind of ridiculous idea is that? Passing the
curse to someone else?"
Tomo deflated, "Yeah, you're right... But maybe the guy that made the
video just wants to be heard, sooo..."
A nurse walked into the waiting room. "Takino-san? Mizuhara-san?" The
two girls stood up. "The patient is ready to see you now."
- O! -
A chilling sound of scraping metal echoed through the hall, coming ever
so closer to the visitors' room. It came from the worn wheels of a moving
screen, a vertical wall of white cloth set on a steel frame, which was
currently being pulled along by one of the hospital's orderlies. Screens
such as this were often used to keep patients out of sight from their
companions in this part of the hospital. This time, however, it was being
used to block the patient's view of a very dangerous object in the common
room --a television set.
Kaorin walked slowly beside the screen, her gaze cast downwards and her
feet shuffling slowly over the cold tiles. The orderly that pulled the
screen
for her moved just as slowly, well aware of what would happen if she saw
the TV in the room they were now crossing. Thus, it was with a sigh of
relief that she delivered her patient safely to the room where her friends
awaited.
"Hello, Kaorin," said Yomi.
"Yo!" Tomo raised her hand, enthusiastic.
Kaorin seemed not to notice them.
"Maybe if we cut right down to it..." thought Yomi, then spoke. "Kaorin,
we know you were with Sakaki the other day. Do you remember what
happened back then?"
Still, there was no answer.
"Yeah," Tomo prodded, "you know, like the TV suddenly going to static
and pulling you inside or something?"
Yomi calmly slapped a hand over Tomo's mouth. "Kaorin, we know
Sakaki watched a video..." She reached with her free hand and took hold
of Kaorin's. "Do you know anything about that?"
As if a light had been turned inside her, Kaorin's eyes focused. Slowly,
she faced upwards to look into Yomi's eyes. "You watched it."
Yomi gulped. "Yes, we watched it." She leaned forward. "What is going
to happen now?"
Kaorin looked down at Yomi's hand, spreading out the fingers into a
number. "She'll show you," she said. "Four days."
Tomo pulled Yomi's hand off her mouth. "Actually, she watched it two
days ago. I did it yesterday."
Kaorin blinked. "Ah. Um..." She spread Yomi's hand open again. "Five
days?"
"Who?" Yomi asked. "Who will show me?"
"She'll show you..." Kaorin drew back, shrinking into herself, "...the
cute."
Yomi and Tomo stared at her as she grinned a little and blushed. Yomi
tried to take her hands again, but that was all Kaorin would say for the
moment. Nothing else would bring her out of her reverie.
As a pair of nurses came back with the blinding screen to return Kaorin to
her room, Tomo grasped her hands behind her head and said, "Well, that
didn't help much."
"No, it didn't..." Yomi sighed as she watched the nurses guide Kaorin
away. "But she reacted as if she had seen the video herself, so it has
something to do with its images."
Ahead of them, in the hall, Kaorin steadily shuffled along with the screen,
until they reached the common room. In truth, the screen itself was little
more than a bedsheet stretched squarely over a frame; light could filter
through it easily, whether it came from the windows... or the TV.
It only took a moment for Kaorin to look sideways, and catch a glimpse
of the glowing blue square beyond the translucent screen. A moment
which caused her to stop instantly, letting the screen continue ahead
without her.
"Huh?" only Yomi noticed that Kaorin had stopped. "Kaorin?"
As soon as her eyes made contact with the glow of the TV, Kaorin went
into a trance all too familiar to those that had watched the cursed video.
Her eyes widened and unfocused; her face blushed up to the ears; and her
mouth contorted into an unbelievably wide smile. Almost simultaneously,
the TV screen flickered and flashed with static; the few mental patients
that had been idly watching it shifted in their chairs and whined.
Yomi started running towards her. "Kaorin!"
But it was too late. The image on the TV finally settled on a quiet, frozen
shot of the ball pit in the middle of a classroom. Kaorin then clasped her
hands and drew them up to her chin, and, eyes closed, nearly shrieked
out, "How cuuuuute!"
If Yomi had turned to the TV at that moment, she would have seen a
ghostly female figure, all in white, standing just outside the ball pit. The
other, luckless patients, did not miss the image.
"So cute!" some of them started to cry, then the rest followed, and almost
instantly a deafening chorus of "Cute!" and "Adorable!" filled the entire
ward. The nurses, finally realizing what had happened, immediately
called for help to control the situation. For her part, Kaorin had collapsed
on the floor, unconscious from the sugary overload.
"Kaorin! Kaorin!" Yomi knelt by her, then shook her by the shoulders in
an attempt to wake her up.
Tomo stood a few feet away, aghast, staring at Kaorin's face. "Oooh!
Shell-shocked!" she exclaimed.
Yomi winced, then had to back away as a team of nurses came by to carry
Kaorin off on a stretcher. The TV had gone back to normal, as though
nothing had ever happened, yet all patients in the room sported the same
expression of joy on their faces.
"Now we know one thing for certain," said Yomi grimly. "It's not the
terror that kills you."
She looked at Tomo in the eye.
"It's the cuteness."
*********************
Azuringu Dai-O!
End of Day 2
Five days left
*********************
Jorge A. Pratt
00709382@academ01.ccm.itesm.mx
terbril@rocketmail.com
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