2 CHAPTER I. THE SILENT GIRL TYPES.

Kurumi tiredly stared at the bright white computer screen in his easy bedroom. He glanced over at his rectangular digital alarm clock on top of his drawer, '4:00 AM.' His vision was becoming blurry from staring at the screen so long, but he couldn't go to bed now. It was quite unusual for him to not be sleeping around this time. He only ever got like this when he was extremely interested in something.

The computer had several tabs open, all of which were about cases of a person's voice mysteriously disappearing. All members of the Supernatural Research Club were being tasked to find information about Tsunera. They all planned to share that information tomorrow at a nearby park where she supposedly lost her voice forever. It was hard to really get information out of Tsunera — well, obviously because she couldn't talk but for some reason, no one could see what she wrote. So far charades have been the way they've been communicating.

"Kuru-Nee!" A very older-looking teenager whined from Kurumi's doorway. She had a very curvy figure and looked much older than Kurumi. She had a very mature look to her — her breast being the main reason for it. She had short bluntly cut brown hair with several white clips on her right side and huge golden eyes, this is Kurumi's sister — Hiroko. Now, the question is if she was older or young and the right answer would be both. "You need to rest, what are you even doing up so late? This is not like you, Kuru-Nee!" Hiroko jumped to glance over at her brother's bright computer screen.

"Hiroko, I'm busy with this project—" Kurumi interrupted his own self with a long and loud yawn. His light brown eyes were closing every few seconds. He had dark circles under his eyes as well, worrying Hiroko.

"I know this isn't a school project! You would never stay up so late! School starts in four hours, go to bed." Hiroko grabbed her tired brother's arm, pulling him away from the bright screen. He tried to resist but she just shut him up. "Kuru-Nee, you might burn my breakfast if you go on for much longer!" She complained as she put Kurumi in bed carefully. She then giggled, sneaking inside the sheets and placing herself at her brother's side.

"Aren't you too old to be sleeping in your brother's bed?" Kurumi asked tiredly, too weak to even push her out of his bed.

"You can never be too old to sleep in a brother's bed~!"

"Even when you're eighteen, Hiroko?"

"Kuru-nee, I'm turning fourteen this year . . . you really are tired, hee hee!" Hiroko giggled looking at her brother with an innocent smile. He forced himself to drop the subject of her age.

"Right . . ."

.&&&.

"You look like a zombie, Senpai."

Was how Hanabi decided to greet Kurumi on that early Saturday morning. No smile, no wave, not even a flicker of worry in her dark green eyes. He looked at her — no, stared at her for a long time. Her blank expression turned into a nervous one, her stoic nature faltering just slightly. She placed with the small green ribboned tied to the side of her half-braided brown hair.

"Why are you staring? It makes you look creepy."

"Oh well . . . I just kind of expected you to be wearing public clothing, Ito." Kurumi admitted a little beaten up that Hanabi was wearing the Kimyona High School uniform. It's not like the seifuku didn't look cute, but seeing a girl outside of a uniform? That was even cuter lamenting — he longed to see Hanabi in something other than that damn uniform. In fact, Kurumi had been waiting for this day to see Hanabi wear casual clothing. He crossed his arms, lamenting at the missed opportunity. "You just destroyed my hopes of seeing you without a uniform, Ito."

"Senpai, I would rather you not be so honest when it comes to your perverse thinking." Hanabi deadpanned. She took a seat next to Kurumi, waiting for Katsuya and Tsunera to arrive. The two sat in a comfortable silence, mostly because they were on their phones. Hanabi stole nervous glances at Kurumi, a blush appearing on her cheeks. "Um . . . Aoizawa-Senpai—"

"Kurumi! Ito-Chan!" Katsuya yelled from across the entranceway of the park on his bike. Several bystanders looked at him with confusion. He continued to yell while waving his hands bringing more attention to himself. Once the red light turned green, he rushed to his friends.

Kurumi didn't seem to care either way — he was unaffected by the whispering people. Hanabi was extremely embarrassed at his actions. She tried to act like she wasn't associated with either teenage boy.

"Oh come on, I wasn't that loud." Katsuya smiled, finishing locking up his bike in the bike rack. Hanabi turned away from him, pretending to not notice him. "Oh come on, Ito-Chan~" He teased trying to get her to face him.

Kurumi looked a bit distracted though. His gaze wandered across the park entrance, trying to see when Tsunera would pop up. He didn't think of her as a late person — even he managed to come to the location on time! He kept getting a weird feeling that someone was staring straight at him. He could have sworn he felt something past by his face, but there was absolutely nothing standing in front of him.

"I thought she'd be here by now too." Katsuya stated, following Kurumi's gaze. "We never got her ID, so we can't even call her . . ." He added, then chuckled.

"Now that I think about it . . . getting her phone ID would have been a smart idea. But . . . does texting count as writing? Would it disappear somehow? Since we can't call her . . ." Kurumi tilted his head. The thought of her even having a phone never crossed his mind for some reason. When did he become so airheaded?

"How long have I been surrounded by fools?" Hanabi asked herself as she pulled out her phone. She quickly typed something, waiting for it to bring a response. "She told me her number by making them with her hands," Hanabi explained with a slight scoff at her Senpais idiocy.

Hanabi's phone then buzzed, catching their attention. They all looked to see if it was Tsunera.

[ From: { } To: { Ito Hanabi }

Here. ]

Almost instantly, Tsunera appeared right in front of them with a flip phone in both her hands. The three stared at her in complete shock that she had been there the whole time. She was even dressed differently — she wore a simple white shirt with a spaghetti-strapped yellow ruffled dress over it. Tsunera tilted her head wondering if they could see her and they tilted their hands in the opposite direction.

"This is getting freaky." Hanabi broke the silence and everyone agreed. Even Tsunera seemed to, she never even had people aware of her existence up until yesterday, but now they were back to not seeing her?

"I barely notice your presence this time . . . what the hell . . ." Kurumi muttered, his hand under his chin. "We need to figure this out, today."

.&&&.

The group decided to share their research at a resting area in the back area of the park. The park was called, 'Setsuwa Public Park' and it was known to be pretty huge. There were a lot of families there and a bunch of screaming as well crying children running around. The back area of the park was mainly to rest, so there were several different seating areas and circular tables to sit at.

"Hey, I just realized something."

Katsuya stated as the group began pulling out newspapers, notes, articles, and any other information to help figure out what was wrong with Tsunera. They all turned to him, waiting for him to continue his realization.

"You were able to send a text to Ito-Chan, so wouldn't that mean we have another way of communicating with you?"

"Woah, you're right, Katsuya!" Kurumi turned to his side, where Tsunera was taking in his words. She blinked several times before pulling out her flip phone that had a small music note charm. "Do you want to try?"

Tsunera had already started though. She took a while trying to think of what to say. She kept deleting, retyping, deleting, retyping, and took extra seconds to read it over. Kurumi wondered how all honor students acted. He didn't think she was even trying to search for grammar errors, she really was indecisive and was way too hard on herself. Her facial expression just showed how nervous and anxious she was when she typed. Finally, she turned the phone towards them.

'I am [ ]. It is nice to meet you all.'

The kanji for her name instantly disappeared, but the rest of her message stayed. It was weird, she wrote and corrected so much, you would think she was writing an essay. It was a measly two sentence which made Hanabi think maybe Tsunera wrote more.

"I thought you were writing a whole story." She teased dryly with a small smile. "It's nice to meet—"

'[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ].'

Tsunera had a slight blush on her face but it quickly changed to confusion when Hanabi stopped herself. She turned her phone towards her, seeing that the two sentences disappeared, well the periods didn't disappear. Her flustered expression dropped, she thought she finally found a way to communicate with everyone.

If Tsunera knew she'd end up living like this, she would have never made that wish.