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Tuesday, September 9



"Th-th-thank you for having me over, Sakaki-san!" all but gushed a young 
girl, whose friends called her Kaorin.

"Ah," nodded her tall, striking companion as she pored over her notes.

"I-I heard you got a very good grade in the l-last exam! I guess I'm really 
lucky you're helping me study!" 

"Mm."

"S-say!" Kaorin fidgeted with her pencil almost to the point of breaking it. 
"Did you hear the story going around at school? About this really creepy 
videotape that kills you when you watch it?"

Sakaki stopped her reading and looked up, "A tape?"

"Yes!" Kaorin exclaimed when Sakaki's attention suddenly turned to her. 
"They say there's a videotape, and when you watch it, it's like somebody's 
weirdest dream. Then this woman comes on, and she yells at you, through 
the screen, only you don't hear anything."

She paused for effect, trying to deepen her voice to sound more dramatic, 
and utterly failing when Sakaki looked at her straight in the eye. "Iiiyand 
when it's over, your phone rings! A-and someone says, 'You will die in 
seven days.'" She gave a false shriek and said, laughing nervously, "Scary!"

Sakaki, for her part, said nothing. She just looked down at her notes,
staring past them. A small TV set, on a table next to them, continued to
advertise the channel's Hello Kitty wares.

"Sa... Sakaki-san?"

"Who told you that?" Sakaki asked.

"Uh, Chihiro did." She gulped audibly. "Sakaki-san... did you watch the 
tape?"

"Un," Sakaki nodded. "Last week."

Kaorin stared.

"Aaaah!" she sighed in unrestrained admiration, "Sakaki-san is so cool and 
collected in the face of certain... certain..."

"Urban legend."

"Right! Urban legend! There's no way tapes can look back at you and then 
make phone calls! Silly idea, right!?"

*riiiiiiing*

Kaorin froze. "Ah."

Sakaki looked at the clock on her desk. It read 10 pm. She frowned and 
rose, then strode out of the room. The telephone continued its ominous ring 
in the kitchen downstairs.

"Wait! Sakaki-san! Sakaki-saaan!" Kaorin called out, trying to keep up with 
the taller girl's pace. But by the time she caught up with her, at the foot
of the stairs, Sakaki had already grasped the handpiece. Kaorin gasped,
"Ah!"

Hesitant for just a second, Sakaki picked up and said, "Hello?"

Kaorin felt the rush of blood through her heart in the moments before 
Sakaki finally said, "Un," and hung up.

"It was Kagura," the taller girl said at last. "She's coming over with
the sodas."

"Ah!" Kaorin said, and slumped against the wall. "Just Kagura! Right, no 
such thing as killer tapes, right? I-I'll go clear up a bit upstairs, OK?"

"I'll get the glasses," Sakaki said, watching Kaorin nearly stumble her way 
back upstairs. She didn't understand why the shorter girl was so afraid of 
this tape. In fact, she had found it rather... cute. Actually...

She stared blissfully at the ceiling for a few moments. Behind her, in the 
living room down the hall, the TV switched itself on into blaring static,
but it went peacefully ignored.

Nearly a minute of static came and went. Sakaki was still in her voyage 
through the Land of the Cute, her back turned to the darkened hallway.

A solid thump was heard, followed by a painful, "Aaaa." The loud static 
had been replaced by sounds of a forest.

It was no surprise that, when the sound of shuffling feet came closer, and 
closer still to Sakaki, she failed to notice it. But then, Kaorin called
from upstairs, "Sakaki-san! Did you get the glasses?" and she snapped back
to reality. Without batting an eye, she bent down into the cabinet, took out 
some plastic cups, and quickly headed for the stairs.

"Aaaa... I missed," groused a voice behind her, unheard. Then came a 
quick "pack!" sound, like a very tiny balloon popping, and all was silent in 
the hall.

Sakaki reached the top of the stairs to suddenly find the door to her room 
dripping wet. Worse, a rather large puddle had already formed there --and 
the sounds of birds and insects, which had gone ignored earlier, were loud 
and clear now, and they were coming from her room.

Puzzled, she gripped the doorknob. It was also wet, dripping heavily into 
the puddle below. She paused for a moment, as if expecting something only 
she would understand, then twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

The grainy, blurred image of a stone well was fixed on the screen of her 
small TV. She would have screamed, but she had the chance to utter only 
one word.

"C-cute..."



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