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

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.


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


---
Tuesday, September 16
Day 5 
 

 
"Yooomi! Taxi's here!"

It was early Sunday morning, and Yomi was just about finished 
packing her bag for the trip to Osaka. A thousand and one questions ran 
through her mind, both for Yukari as well as Osaka herself. The strange 
images that appeared on the tape were no longer an odd coincidence, 
nor were they vague recollections from their high-school years. Yomi 
was now absolutely certain that the video was made specifically for 
them, and that the group's missing members had a direct participation 
in the process.

She zipped shut her bag and hefted it, then walked over to the window 
and saw Tomo, standing at the house's open gate with a taxi cab 
waiting in the street. "I'll be right down!" she replied, and came out to 
the hall to meet her friend outside.

The clock was quickly winding down now. She had just under three 
days to figure out a way to stop this curse, but it wasn't just for herself 
or Tomo anymore. The thought of Chiyo falling under its spell was too 
terrible to comprehend. But, at least, the girl genius was not as deeply 
affected by the video as she had initially thought --after the initial 
reaction of shock, born more out of Yomi's own horror than actual fear, 
Chiyo's worry was related more to her friends having seen the tape than 
to her own fate.

This knowledge did little to set Yomi at ease, though. Four days had 
come and gone with little progress on the actual creation of the tape. She 
hoped there were answers to be had when they arrived at Osaka's home.

Kagura and Chiyo were waiting by the foyer; the former still didn't 
know about last night, but she had been brought up to speed regarding 
the rest of the investigation. She, along with Chiyo, had then decided to 
accompany Yomi and Tomo to Osaka, to try and help locate their 
missing friends. Yomi had initially opposed the idea, still believing that 
there could be danger waiting at the end of the road, but Chiyo's 
increasing worry about her closest friends would not let her wait idly 
while the others did all the work.

"Ready?" Yomi asked. Chiyo and Kagura nodded, then followed her 
out to the entryway. They were halfway to the gate when they heard the 
phone ring; "Ah!" Chiyo exclaimed. "I'll get it!"

Yomi and Kagura saw her return to the house before continuing 
towards the waiting taxi. Tomo was already sitting by the driver, 
himself looking like one of the video's victims... possibly because of the 
girl's incessant questions about mileage, driving on the other side of the 
street, and, how, really, was it any different to drive at 180MPH on a 
race track than on the streets, since they're both made of asphalt and any 
pedestrian crossing the street without looking was looking for trouble 
anyway so there, Yukari's driving wasn't THAT bad.

"Leave him alone, Tomo," Yomi said, passing her bag to Kagura as the 
tanned girl loaded her and her friends' luggage inside the trunk. She 
flinched slightly as two ominous rectangular shapes pressed out through
the side of her bag.

"Come on come on come on let's GOOOO! Shinkanseeeeen!" Tomo 
cheered from her co-pilot seat. Yomi felt an ominous cold chill travel 
down her back --she remembered how Tomo used to get when their 
families took them on vacation on the famous bullet train.

"We're waiting for Chiyo-chan, dummy," Kagura said. Looking back to 
the house, she said, "Ah, there she is."

"Guys! Guys! Waaaait!" Chiyo cried, running towards them. "We have 
to go to the hospital, quick!"

"What? What is it?" Yomi asked. Chiyo reached them, panting, and 
slowed down to catch her breath.

"Sakaki-san..." she breathed. "Sakaki-san woke up!"


-			O!			-


Sakaki sat silently on her bed, staring out the window at nothing in 
particular. Every once in a while, a cloud shaped like a white cat and 
kitten would drift by, eliciting a faint blush and a smile on her face, but 
outside those reactions she remained almost perfectly still.

Then all of a sudden her quiet meditation was broken by three girls and 
a huge fish with legs bursting into her room. The smallest one cried out, 
"Sakaki-saaaan!" and threw herself upon her, hugging her at the waist.

"Chi-Chiyo-chan..." Sakaki said, surprised.

"Sakaki..." Yomi stared at her, glasses fogged. "You... you really woke 
up." Beside her, Kagura and the fish faced each other, then happily 
lifted arms and fins while exclaiming, "Yeah! She woke up!"

"Un," Sakaki replied. She stared at the fish, which was now dancing 
from one foot to another and chanting, "Waaai, waaai, Sakaki-chan's 
fiiine!"

"We were worried about you, Sakaki-san!" Chiyo said, her eyes still 
tearing.

"Yeah," Yomi said, pausing a bit before continuing, "We heard you 
watched some bizarre tape..."

"Un," Sakaki nodded again. The fish had turned to doing the Macarena. 
"What's that?" she asked, pointing at it.

"Ah?" the fish stopped dancing and Tomo's head popped out of its 
mouth. "Ehehe..." she grinned, then pointed a fin at Yomi, "See? I told 
you! She's immune to cuteness now!"

Yomi looked at Tomo up and down. "That's not even remotely... ah, 
forget it." She preferred not to think about why Tomo had packed the 
fish suit in the first place, and the memory of her changing into it in the 
taxi was one she was currently trying to wipe away.

"You okay now, Sakaki?" Kagura asked. "Chiyo-chan said you just got 
back to normal?"

"Yes," Sakaki said. "I had... a dream last night."

"Oooh! Funky video-based dreams!" Tomo gasped. "Were you flying 
above Tokyo and then there were a hundred chibi-Yomis flying with 
you until you got to Tokyo Tower, only it wasn't Tokyo Tower but a 
really huge Yomi that was sucking all souls on Earth because of a new 
Tang diet and-- *oof*"

Yomi quickly retracted her fist with a faintly mechanical sound, a hiss 
of steam releasing from her temples. "Was it about the tape?" she 
asked, worried.

Sakaki frowned, but then looked down at Chiyo. "She didn't get you," 
she said, cryptically.

"Huh? Who didn't...?" the smaller girl asked.

"Sakaki, we've found out a lot about the video," Yomi said. She pursed 
her lips, but then decided to tell her the truth about it. "It... it killed
the people you went to Okinawa with."

Sakaki turned to face her, but Yomi saw little surprise in her eyes. 
She pressed the matter further, "What exactly does the video do? 
What happens after the seven days?"

The question seemed to confuse the taller girl for a moment. She 
looked down at Chiyo, who was staring back with wide and 
questioning eyes as well. But in truth, Sakaki didn't remember much of 
what had happened last Tuesday. The memory of the dream, however, 
was vivid in her mind.

"She... she comes for you," she finally said. "But... she spoke to me."

"Who? Who are you talking about?" Yomi asked. Like Sakaki, her own 
dream surged unbidden to her mind. "Osaka? Are you talking about 
Osaka?"

"She... said it wasn't ready," Sakaki continued, not really listening. 
"That she was almost done with everyone."

The others gulped. Kagura turned to look at Chiyo, but everyone else 
turned to her. "Wh-what?" she asked, defensively.

"But if she comes to get you," Tomo started, "How come she didn't get 
Sakaki-chan?"

Sakaki remained silent at that. Nothing from her dream or the tape itself 
could tell her what was different about her, only... that the others had 
died, while she had not. There was a name, though... a female name, 
that began with a "Sa"... but it was too deeply hidden within the mists of 
her mind. 

A question rose to her lips at last, and she turned to face the others. 
"Did it..." she started, "Did she get Tanizaki-sensei?"

"Yukari-chan?" Tomo asked. "She's in the video too. She's right before 
that scene with the playground and all those Mayas on the screen."

Sakaki blinked. "No... There's no playground in the video..." she drifted 
off. "Maya is in it?"

"Hooo?" Tomo and Yomi turned to each other, recalling their earlier 
argument about the cat suit not being in the video.

"But Yukari really IS on the tape, right?" Kagura asked. The three older 
viewers nodded.

Yomi frowned, "Sakaki, did Yukari-sensei watch the tape too?"

Sakaki looked at her in the eye. "She gave it to me."


-			O!			-


Yomi pushed her bag onto the overhead compartment, secured it, and 
finally dropped onto her seat on the train with a heavy sigh. In
the seats ahead of her, Kagura and Chiyo turned to face her, with
the former asking, "So, what do we do now?"

"We now know who's been making the video," Yomi said, frowning. 
"If Sakaki's right, Osaka has been making newer versions of it 
somehow, and distributing them over the country." She grimaced, 
noticing Chiyo's pleading look of disbelief. "I can't belive she'd be 
running around killing people, though. She's weird, but not... that way. 
There HAS to be something else behind this."

"Yeah, but Yukari gave Sakaki the video," Kagura said. "So it's gotta 
be controlling her and Osaka."

"Right," Yomi agreed. "Either way, we have to stop her. Even Sakaki 
can't figure out why she was saved, and she went through it all first-
hand. If Yukari-sensei can't tell us either..."

"I think Sakaki-san wanted to come with us..." Chiyo sighed, worried 
about her friend relapsing while she was alone.

"Chiyo-chan, she just came out of a coma yesterday," Yomi explained. 
"And Kaorin's family wanted to ask some questions about last Tuesday. 
I wish she could have joined us too, but there was nothing we could do 
about it." Chiyo sighed softly again.

Meanwhile, sounds of fighting, gnashing and biting came from the 
front of the car. "Lemme go! I have my rights! I just wanna see the
Shinkansen guy drive! It's not my fault the sprinklers came on!" A pause,
some mumbled words, and an even shriller scream. "Who're you calling 
stupid terrorist student?! Waah! Waah! Help! My youthful exuberance 
is being repressed! Waah!"

The three girls winced visibly.

"I hope Osaka-san is okay..." Chiyo whispered to no one in particular.


-			O!			-


Sometimes, Sakaki had to admit, being ridiculously tall and athletic had 
its moments.

Certainly no one in the medical staff batted an eye at the long-haired 
"doctor" that roamed the hospital's halls, even in spite of the ill-fitting 
shoes and coat that seemed to be one size too small. Then again, even if 
they did, one look into her stern eyes (particularly when said eyes had 
to look *down* on you) sent even the most suspicious nurse scurrying 
off to at least look busy.

After all this time, a stern-looking Sakaki could still be quite 
intimidating.

Why should she have to stay in bed, anyway, while her friends were off 
risking themselves on a mad goose chase involving this strange video? 
She was in perfect condition; enough to shrug off the few days of coma 
and walk briskly through the corridors as if nothing had happened. 
True, finding a lab coat and shoes had been quite a task, but once she 
donned glasses and pulled her hair back into a ponytail she easily 
became "Miss Supervisor" to everyone who crossed her path.

She hoped she could keep her coat completely buttoned down, 
however. The flimsy blue robe underneath was quite... drafty. Worse, 
the hospital lacked robes appropriate to her size.

Sakaki blushed heavily and pressed her stride forward.

After a few twists and turns, she came across the coveted green sign of 
"Exit", and the lights and darkness of the city beyond. She was about to 
escape into freedom when a quick, almost fortuitous glance to the side 
showed a different sign, labeled "EAST B: Psychiatric."

She remembered Kaorin's parents coming up to her earlier, sick with 
worry about their daughter. It was enough to make her steel herself and 
turn smartly on her heel, heading straight into the ward.

Once again, she walked the halls unopposed. To her dismay, however, 
the doors to the patients' rooms were safely guarded behind a security 
door. Foiled for the moment, she fished a few discarded printouts from 
a trash bin and smoothed them out, pretending to read and glare at them 
disapprovingly as she paced in circles in the hall; there had to be a way 
to get in, she thought.

Her answer came when one of the local doctors approached the door 
from the other side. Visible through the window from Sakaki's point of 
view, he swiped an ID badge through a slot near the door, then waited a 
few seconds for it to open. Sakaki whispered to herself, "A chance!" 
then approached the doctor as he came down the hall.

"Doctor... Kawajiri."

The psychiatrist looked up from his notes to stare at a couple of... well,
the good doctor wasn't a very tall man; and the speaker had been standing
rather close to him when he was called, so it was inevitable that his eyes
never quite reached the woman's face. Indeed, they remained quite level.

"Y-yes?" he said. Why, he had never realized that his very own hospital 
had such... talented people working there!

The tall female doctor spoke extremely rapidly, not that he was paying 
very much attention to her *words*. "Nekopapa is out of tomatoes, he 
needs more. Go to the west wing and give him three hundred CC's of 
chiyo-no-osage and four milligrams of nekokoneko."

The entranced doctor nodded slowly. He could almost swear that her 
coat's buttons were about to fly in all directions... the ones on the chest, 
anyway. He drooled a bit.

"And pengu-butler turned his mind off again. Clean up the spill in 
corridor four, then tell Kamineko number four to pick up the cases of 
Yamapikarya from the front desk. And give me your ID, I lost mine."

Kawajiri blankly handed her his badge. Seeing him just stand there, 
Sakaki frowned and commanded, "Go!" This sent the doctor shrieking 
in embarrassment and racing down the corridor, his head spinning. 
Once he was out of sight, Sakaki quickly dashed for the security door, 
opened it, then leaned against it as it closed. She sighed and smiled 
happily to herself. Her brilliant play with words had worked!

Steeling herself once more, she walked down the corridor, looking for 
Kaorin's room. It was then that her own previous words created an image
of Kamineko, standing on his hind legs and carrying boxes filled with
mountain kittens.

She had to sit against the wall for a few moments as her system dealt 
with the cuteness overload.

Kaorin was being kept at the room farthest from the common room. 
When she peeked inside, Sakaki saw the short-haired girl standing and 
facing the far wall, drawing something on it with a small piece of 
charcoal. Sakaki swiped her card through a slot on the door, waited for 
it to open, and entered.

The light was turned off, so only the moonlight entered through the top 
window. Kaorin stood sideways to Sakaki, a vacant but happy smile on 
her face and a makeshift ribbon on top of her head. Sakaki blushed 
slightly at the cuteness.

"Ah! Done!" Kaorin stepped back from her drawing and admired it. It 
was a picture of a chibi-Sakaki, her hair done up like Chiyo's pigtails 
and with ridiculously cute kittens and puppies drawn around it for good 
measure. "So cute!" she cried, and turned to face her visitor.

The light from the window glinted off Sakaki's glasses, and a small 
breeze from the ventilation picked up her ponytail as well as the lower 
edge of her coat. The look of worry became, in Kaorin's eyes, an 
expression equal parts pissed-off and disinterested, while the light 
threw dramatic shadows across the stretched coat.

Kaorin's mind blew several fuses in a row.

"Cool..." she whispered. She turned slowly to gaze at the drawing. 
"Cute." She turned to Sakaki again. "Cool..."

The overworked repairman in her head hastily replaced the damaged 
fuses with fresh ones. Then, as an afterthought, picked up a cardboard 
stand-in of Sakaki that had fallen down and set it upright. Kaorin's eyes 
widened.

"Sa... Sakaki-saaaan!" Kaorin flung herself bodily into Sakaki's arms, 
relieved beyond belief that she was all right. But... Kaorin wasn't a tall 
person either. Sakaki blushed in embarrassment and stammered, "Uh, 
yes."

As soon as Kaorin realized their position, she yelped and pulled back, 
shaking Sakaki's hand enthusiastically while blushing up to her ears 
and down to her knees. "Thththththththank you for coming for me, 
Sakaki-san!"

"Y-yes..." Sakaki replied. She snuck a quick peek into the hallway, 
making sure it was still empty. "Come on," she said, "I'll get you 
out of here."

Kaorin blushed even deeper. "Aaaaaaaah!" she breathed, almost 
choking herself from lack of air. "Sakaki-san!" she said, standing at 
attention, and bowed from the waist. "Please take care of me!"

"Un," Sakaki nodded solemnly. She looked out the window for a 
second; only for an instant, a trick of the light turned the full moon into 
a bright, blinding ring. Osaka's words echoed loudly in her mind.

"A! But I'm almost done with everyone!"

"No... Kasuga-san..." Sakaki thought. "We have to stop you."



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

Azuringu Dai-O!

End of Day 5
Two days left

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







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