Dark, yes. Scary, no. That was what Yuna Hatake thought as she walked through the woods to the west of the school. These words were rumored to be haunted, although at the moment, she was thinking that was the furthest thing from the truth. Yes, they were dark, but there wasn't a single scary thing about them--at least nothing she could see anyway.

She thought about the rumor that there was a killer on the loose. Now that rumor was a bit different. After all, there had already been two killings. She shivered slightly. She may not like anyone here at Chino, but that didn't mean that she wanted more people to die.

Her thoughts lingered on the killer as she went deeper into the dark woods. What sort of sick psycho murdered students at a reform school? To her, it didn't seem like the best place to go about killing people. But then, she was not a killer, so she supposed she wouldn't be a very good judge of location.

As she thought about it, a school located basically in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dense forests did seem like a perfect place for killing. She shivered again, jumping slightly when she heard a rustling sound coming from the bushes off to her left. She turned to stare at them, her eyes glistening.

"Who's there?"

As much as she didn't want to respond, Yuna knew that saying nothing and walking away would probably not be the best idea. How she wished she could, though. She hated having to talk to people at school, no matter how friendly they seemed to be.

She had always wondered why her parents sent her to this boarding school over all of the others that she was sure they had researched.

She supposed that it probably had something to do with how secluded of an area this was, as well as how far away from home she would be. She knew they wanted her as far away from them and 'normal people' as possible.

She looked over the girl, her eyes dark. Maybe this girl was the killer that everyone was looking for. She mentally smirked at her own thought. That was just ridiculous, and she knew it. Finally she spoke.

"Hatake Yuna."

"We are in a class together."

Now what was she going on about? Voices? There weren't any voices. Of course it was possible that she truly did hear something, but then, not very likely. There was always the chance that she wasn't lying, although Yuna didn't believe that that was the case.

She stared at the other girl blankly for a few more seconds, before shrugging noncommittally. There was really no reason for her to get involved too much in someone else's life. How troublesome...

"No, I do not hear anything. Perhaps you are being haunted."

Why did she say that? It had slipped out before she could stop herself from speaking. She hadn't planned to go along with Zuki's words, and yet she had ended up doing just that. She really had been spending too much time around the people who went to this school--some of there insanity had definitely worn off on her.

"I would think anywhere would be fine. Not many people come out here."

It was possible that ghosts did exist, and were haunting this girl, but it wasn't exactly likely. It was more likely that Tsuzuki was only messing with her, and that she was only playing alone to see how far it would go before one or the other gave it up. Shrugging, she shook her head.

"Perhaps. It is impossible to know what the netherworld has planned."

She had spoken just as seriously as before, but for her, that was her usual tone. She didn't really have a happy, sad, joking, or angry tone--it was all the same with her. Years of hiding all of her emotions had made her completely impassive.

"Only two recently. There have been two killings in the past few weeks."

It wasn't surprising that this girl had no knowledge of the killings. It wasn't exactly common knowledge; she was fairly certain that she was probably the only student that even knew about them--and that was only because she had accidentally overheard two teachers speaking of the deaths while she was in the office.

"You're... almost correct. Two killings, in six months. I do not know any other information. No one knows who the killer is."

For all anyone knew, it could be the principal of the school, or any one of the other teachers. Unlikely, considering how few deaths there were then. If it was a teacher, there probably would be many more deaths--too many to cover up.

Again, this girl had gotten it part right. It wasn't just that there was a killer on the loose; there was so much more to it than that. Since no one knew who it was, the killer really could be anyone--even Tsuzuki. Yuna doubted that though, since the other girl seemed to be so clueless about the whole matter. Of course, that could just be an act, but she didn't seem to be acting.

"As I said, no one knows who the killer is. It could be a student, or teacher. That is why the police have not been brought in."

She didn't know why she was discussing this with Tsuzuki. It wasn't as though they were friends--they had only just met about ten minutes before. But still, she supposed she could give the other girl the best answer that she could, even if she didn't know if it was right or not.

"They want to try and figure out who the culprit is themselves, without involving law enforcement because the police will have to take every single person in for questioning, and then probably just arrest the first person who responds suspiciously to questioning."

That was what she thought anyway. It was true that, for delinquents, there was a good chance that the police would in fact, think the first person questioned would be the guilty one, just because of that person's past record.

She had to agree with the point t hat Tsuzuki made. It was very unlikely that she would meet with the killer, and even if she did, she did know how to defend herself. But anyway, the other girl was right. There was still a chance, no matter how small of one, that she might run into the killer out here--especially if she were alone.

"You are right. It probably is not a good idea to be out here at night. Still, I was curious about what they say about these woods."