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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.


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---
Saturday, September 13
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 tailor-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!" Chiyo had never really
liked horror movies, even a badly-narrated synopsis of one.

"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. "I'll never watch that movie!
Waaah!"

"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 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," she deadpanned.
"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 much more 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 set 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 stone well 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 well. 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."



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Azuringu Dai-O!

End of Day 2
Five days left

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Jorge A. Pratt
jorgepratt@prodigy.net.mx
terbril@rocketmail.com