Chapter two!
Not so pleased with the ending, but I really like this chapter. :3
Chapter Two-It was stolen?!
Reina was curled up on the couch, pouring over a thick, leather covered book. It looked positively ancient, and stains what looked like dried blood stained a few pages. It looked like it held secret, valuable information.
It was also extremely boring.
Reina yawned. “How does she expect me to read this whole thing in a week?” She muttered. “It might take me to next year to finish the first chapter. Darn forgotten script.”
“Are you still trying to read that, Reina?”
Linlin walked in, hopping over the couch and landing next to Reina. “That look on your face says ‘naptime’.
“Yuko’s insisting that this book will help my studies.” Reina explained, holding it up for Linlin to see. “I could hardly get past the introduction.”
Linlin laughed. “Might take you the next ten years to read it. You’ll be all old and wrinkly!”
“Well, not all of us are immortal justice-bringers, now are we?” Linlin smirked at Reina’s comment.
“Keep in mind, this immortal justice-bringer is already more than three hundred years old and may decide that that was unnecessary to say.”
“Yeah? Well, this unwrinkled girl could cast your butt on fire.”
“It’s already on fire!”
Both girls collapsed into fits of giggles. “It’s already on fire?” Reina chortled, tears rolling down her cheeks from laughter.
“And has been for three hundred years!” Linlin shrieked.
“WHAT is going on here?!”
The pair turned around to see a sleepy Abe Natsumi, rubbing her eyes with one hand and holding a micro bead pillow in the other. “Sorry, Nacchi,” Reina said. “Did we wake you up?”
“Yes, you did! Stupid bat hearing.” Abe joined them, sitting in an armchair across from them. “I do have to go out and eat tonight. Haven’t gone in a week, I’m starving. As in, you two are looking tasty. Wonder if I have any cans left in my room…” she trailed off, thinking.
“How can you drink that stuff?” Linlin asked, wrinkling her nose.
“Easy. I open my mouth and swallow.”
Reina and Linlin shuddered. “Gross.”
“I don’t ask Yossie why she eats raw, do I?” Abe said. “She does because she has to.”
“I guess.” Reina said thoughtfully. “I mean, I’m using fairy’s blood next week in my lesson. There’s no way to make whatever Yuko’ll teach me without it, right?”
“Fairy’s blood?” Abe said, perking up. “I can honestly say that that stuff is some of the finest I’ve drunk since I died. So light, and tingly, it makes you run around for a few weeks, and it was sweet and airy…”
“We get it,” Linlin said quickly. “I think I might throw up now.”
“Where did you get the blood, Reina?” Abe asked. Reina suddenly looked very shifty.
“Secret 3 A.M. blood test kit.”
“She’s gonna kill you.”
“It had to ferment for a month, I think she would have noticed by now.”
“Ah-hah!” A tiny voice squeaked. It seemed like it was coming from Abe’s pillow.
“Did you and Yaguchi team up or something?”
Abe grinned. “I get a pint of fairy blood now!”
Reina glowered. “Blame Yuko. She showed me how to take it without waking the person up.”
Linlin shook her head in amusement. She was about to say something, when her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and read the new text message. “Says everyone needs to go to Tsunku’s office. ASAP. Something’s wrong.”
The girls of Hello! Project were clustered in and outside Tsunku’s office. The chatter mostly circled around ‘What’s going on?’ It seemed no one knew what happened.
Tsunku stood up from his head. “Everyone, someone has broken into my office and found the hidden drawer.”
A cold gasp rose. They all knew what was in his hidden drawer.
“The list was stolen. It was in code, but who knows how long it’ll take for the thief to figure it out?”
The girls looked among one another, worried and scared looks on all faces. Kumai Yurina raised her hand and said, “Can’t we get it back?”
“We don’t know who stole it, why they stole it, or where they took it.”
“Can’t we call the police?” Koharu asked.
The nearest member to Koharu, Miki, shot her a look. “No, we can’t. We tell anyone that a list of the members of H!P and what conditions they needed would turn all of us into science experiments, on cold lab tables.”
“Oh. Right.”
Tsunku cleared his throat for their attention. “For now, girls, we’re going to increase office security. Don’t let anyone follow you anywhere. If you think someone is, duck into an alley, or hide somewhere, and call another member or myself. And there will be a curfew of ten o’clock. Be in the building by then, or get a hotel room.”
“Aw, Tsunku, that’s when the clubs get going,” Yuko complained.
“And furthermore, you will be subjected to random tests to see if you are you.” Tsunku continued, ignoring the scowling Yuko. “We’re only doing this to protect the secret side of Hello! Project, and that means all of you. So no complaints!”
The majority of the girls were grumbling loudly.
“What’s going on?”
Mika had turned the corner to find more than forty pale faces. They looked like the cat who got caught eating the canary. “Erm…Yuko wanted to tell us something important,” Takahashi Ai said quickly, “But it turns out that she crashed another car.”
“I did no-“ Yuko started hotly, before being nudged in the ribs. “Er, I did not realize how dangerous I can be driving?”
“Ohhhh… So the rumors are true!” Mika cried with glee.
The girls froze, wondering the fastest way to get rid of Mika’s body.
“Nakazawa Yuko is a bad driver, after all! I wondered if that was a rumour, guess not!” Mika put a finger to her cheek, tilting her head. “How amazing!”
With visible sag, the girls relaxed. “Er. Yes. Listen, Mika, Tsunku took the time to tell us that he has to upgrade security.”
“Why?”
“Er…Someone broke in last night.” Ai said, the girls around her giving her looks. “So the security’s being improved to keep us safe.”
“Oh. That makes sense.” Mika responded, before yawning. “I think I want to take a nap…Aika, would you show me the way to my room again?” She looked a little sheepish. “I can’t remember the way.”
Aika nodded and the pair left. “Well, now what?” Yossie asked. Her voice was quiet, so that the retreating backs of Aika and Mika couldn’t hear. Well, Aika could, but not Mika. “That new girl might be targeted for information by whoever stole the list.”
“Why don’t we set up night watches?” Abe suggested, still grasping the pillow, and wearing her pyjamas. “That way, we can make sure they don’t come for her.”
“Good idea. Who wants to do tonight?” Glancing at each other, Iida Kaori and Abe raised their hands. “Good. I have a extra-strong walkie talkie set in my room.”
“Why do you have super-strong talkies, Yossie?” Risa asked.
“Uh…I had a thing for snooping as a kid?” Yossie tried, before switching topics. “One of us on her balcony, one in the corridor. “
“Balcony!” Kaori chimed.
“Corridor!” Abe said.
Yossie nodded. “Good.” She thrust her hand forwards, and was joined by everyone else piling their hands on top of hers. “And thus, we start the ‘Protect-the-Newbie-Who-Doesn’t-Know-We’re-All-Stuff-Of-Nightmares-Campaign’ begins!”
“Can we just call it the ‘PNWKWASON Campaign?” Koharu piped up. “Because ‘Protect-the-Newbie-Who-Doesn’t-Know-We’re-All-Stuff-Of-Nightmares-Campaign’ is kinda long.”
“…Okay, the ‘PUNKWASON Campaign begins!”
That night, Mika climbed into her bed. She had already added a bright blue bedspread, and it reminded her of her home a little. With a sleepy smile, she turned off her light and fell asleep.
Outside her room, Kaori looked at her watch. Abe. Was. Late. She was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago, and she-Kaori-should be on the balcony. “Late again,” she fumed.
Abe ran up a minute later. A trickle of blood ran down from the corner of her mouth. “Drunkards. I’m telling you, they choose the worst drinks. Minus Yuko. For some reason, her blood was good when she was drunk.”
“You’re late.”
“Yeah, well, you try drinking some guy’s blood when he’s pinning you down on a bed in his gross apartme-“
“Yeah, yeah, hurry up. Get me out to her balcony.”
Abe nodded, and they moved into Junjun’s room, next to Mika’s. “You’re late.”
“Blame me, Junjun.” Abe chimed.
Kaori pulled her arm, elbow down, off the rest of the limb and handed it to Abe. “Here you go.”
“That looks creepy, you know.”
“Just go, would you?” Abe took the arm and suddenly, in a small cloud of smoke, became a bat, the arm tucked in its feet. Abe squeaked, flying off Junjun’s balcony over to Mika’s, ten feet over.
The process was repeated with each of Kaori’s limbs, small enough for the batty Abe to carry, until Kaori’s head was in Junjun’s lap. “So, what’s new?” Junkun asked, braiding a piece of Kaori’s long hair.
“Well, my son broke his first hand yesterday,” she replied conversationally.
“Isn’t that bad?”
“Not for dolls. Means we’re growing up. He’s getting a new pair tomorrow.”
Junjun nodded as Abe swooped back in the room. “Won’t you have trouble reassembling when you join your limbs in the balcony?”
“Not really, I’ve put myself together hundreds of times. Have the walkie talkie?” Jujun nodded again. “Good. Abe should be back for it in a minute.”
Abe picked up Kaori’s head by the scalp, swooping out of the room again. She dropped Kaori’s head next to the pile of cold limbs, poofing human again for a minute. “This is exhausting.”
One of Kaori’s hand and wrist suddenly popped up and began reassembling the rest of her body, ending with her head. “Well, just bring over the talkie and then you’re done till a little before dawn. “
“Sure.” Abe poofed into a bat again before flying to Junjun’s room, before returning with the walkie-talkie and leaving again.
Kaori leaned on the balcony railing, the walkie-talkie in a pouch at her hip.
“I’m in position in front of the door,” Abe’s voice said, a little crackly over the talkie.
Kaori lifted it to her mouth. “Yossie wasn’t kidding, I can hear you perfectly.”
“That’s good. Usually these things are awful. I’m now putting it above her doorframe, so I can hang out and still hear it.”
“Ten four.”
“What?”
“That means okay.”
“Oh.”
Kaori could hear the poof and squeak of Abe becoming a bat. She sometimes wondered what it felt like, but then realized that she really didn’t want to know. Abe’s voice, a little squeakier and high-pitched than normal, came through. “I’m in position.”
“If you’re a bat, how are you talking?”
“I poofed back to a human head and neck. Heavy for a bat, you might be surprised to know. “
“For a bat? Well, yeah.” Kaori responded. “We should get back to paying attention and leave the channel clear in case someone tries to call in.”
“Fair enough.” A squeak followed just after, signifying Abe was batty again.
The remainder of the night passed without incident. The most exciting incident was when the shriek of a yowling cat came up from the street. Where the cat had its tail run over by a car. The sun was just beginning to show itself, when Abe came out of Junjun’s balcony. She squinted a little. “Shift’s over.”
Kaori breathed a sigh of relaxation. “My joints were getting stiff.”
“Know what you mean. All the blood rushed to my head.” Abe shook her aforementioned head, before poofing into a bat while Kaori removed her lower arm from its socket.
The process from the evening was repeated, until Kaori reassembled herself in Junjun’s room and yawned. “I’m going home and going to bed,” she said, while a sleepy Abe nodded. She didn’t bother with going to her home, she went upstairs to her room.
Mika woke from a peaceful sleep, the sun shining in through the balcony. It felt like someone had been watching over her all night but she shrugged it off as she stretched. She looked at a row of tiny ink marks on the inside of her wrist as she opened her closet.