Hello minna-san! Welcome back to another chapter of "Between the Nomicon and Me"!

Thank you for everyone who read and reviewed my story. You guys make me happy!

And a happy Sado is a Sado who updates very soon!

Now, on with the story.

x x x

Disclaimer: I don't own RC9GN. Nor do I own Satoru Norisawa. RC9GN belongs to its rightful owner (still too lazy to search up who the owner of the show is), while Satoru Norisawa belongs to Az the Dragon. The only thing I own is the plot for this story.

x x x

Chapter 1

'Well, this is easy.'

Randy thought, pencil on the paper. 500 words about what they did on the summer vacation. And seeing that something… interesting had happened to him this summer, only days before the school year started, Randy believed he would get a big, fat A with this! After all, who didn't want to hear about the Norrisville Ninja?

Name: Randy Cunningham. Grade 9. Title: What you did on your summer vacation.

"Hey Cunningham…"

Looking up from what he was writing, Randy raised an eyebrow at his best friend since childhood, Howard Weinerman, who somehow managed to sneak out of his seat without being noticed by Mr. Bannister, and was now standing in front of Randy's desk.

"Let me copy of you."

"Howard, we can't turn in the exact same essay," leaning back, Randy casually told his friend, who blinked.

"And why not? We had the exact same summer!"

In a sense, that was the truth. They usually spent their summer together, and therefore, they did everything together. But this year, there was something different. As Howard returned to his seat after being thrown a shoe at the back of the head, courtesy of Mr. Bannister ("No talking!"), Randy thought back to what exactly that something was.

It started out the same as every other summer. Grave Punchers 1-3 nonstop playing without reading the instruction manuals. And then something epic happened: We had punched all the graves!

A day after that, something epicer happened;

Opening the door to his room, Randy noticed something that was definitely not there before. There, on his table, was a weird box. And a glance to the window made his eyebrows go up high. Did some cowboy guy just peak into his room?

Shrugging his shoulder, deciding that people were just weird sometimes, he had his attention on the box instead. For some weird reason, when he looked at it, there was this… feeling. He didn't know what exactly that feeling was, but it wasn't so bad, so he reached out, and opened the box.

The first thing he saw inside the box was a book. A black and red book, with some green mask-thingy symbol in the middle. Randy stared. Really? Someone gave him a book? Did he look like the kind of guy who would read books? Comics and manga were one things, and so were light novels, but books were in a different category completely. Whenever he had to read a book, his mind always wandered far, far away by the time he reached the third page.

"Why a book?" he asked out loud, picking up the book. "Of all the things, why a book? Do they expect me to read it or someth –"

Before he could complete his sentence, the freakiest thing happened. Suddenly, everything became blurry, and from the back of his mind, he could hear… voices.

"The Ninja-what?"

"NinjaNomicon, Nii-sama."

"And what is… nomicon?"

"It's a word compounded respectively from the Greek words…"

"Greek? You know Greek?"

"…nomos, which means 'law', and eikon, which means 'image'. So basically, this is the book of Ninja's rules, with images."

Just as unexpected as it appeared, the voices were gone suddenly, and Randy found himself flung the – now flashing – book away from him, his eyes slightly widened.

"What was that?!" he gasped out, even taking a step back, like the current distance between him and the book wasn't enough. "What the juice was that?!"

Something felt like pain and sadness washed over him, only for a brief moment, but it was still more than enough to make Randy's stomach churn. Immediately looked away from the book that was now in the corner, his eyes landed on something else in the box. Some… piece of cloth? And a note?

What?

With the cloth – a mask, he realized – in one hand, while the note on the other, he read the note first. What was written on it brought a look of awe to his face.

"You are the Ninja?" he muttered quietly under his breath. "Ninja? As in… the Norrisville Ninja? Oh. My. Sweet!"

He practically shouted in excitement. "I have to tell Howard!"

Apparently, someone thought otherwise, because the last note in the box told him: You can't tell anyone.

Randy's eye twitched. "What? Are you serious? I can't tell anyone? This is WONK!"

Huffing, he kicked the box off of the table, before looking back at the mask in his hand. He was holding the Ninja mask in his hand, and apparently, he had been chosen to be the Norrisville Ninja, but he couldn't let anyone know? Then who would celebrate with him?

Whatever, he would think about it later. For now, he had a mask to check out!

Feeling utterly giddy, Randy put on the mask. Immediately, he was thrown into the air as the room was filled with glowing red lights, while black ribbons appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around him. By the time the little lightshow was over, Randy found himself standing proudly in the ninja suit.

It really was the best feeling ever.

I don't know how the ninja suit works, but it's totally a straight up cheese.

With the suit on, Randy started to flip around the room, jumping on things and punching and kicking stuff. It was so bruce! He had never felt so agile, and his movements had never felt that smooth…

…wait a minute. Did he just use the word agile? Since when did he know it, let alone understand its meaning well enough to use it?

Well, whatever. He would think about it later. For now, more punching and kicking!

I'm Randy Cunningham, and I'm the Ninja. It's pretty much the coolest thing ever. The only bummer is I can't tell anyone. Not even my best friend.

Randy halted for a moment to look at Howard, who was rubbing his pencil under his armpit. Grimacing a little at the sight, Randy was about to finish his essay, when Mr. Bannister yelled out for everyone to put down their pencils.

Randy stared at his teacher for a second, before realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He… really wrote about becoming the Ninja on this essay, didn't he? This… really wasn't good.

Looking down at the paper on his table, Randy was about to have a mental panic attack at his dumb choice of topic for the essay when he realized that he had another problem. Half of his essay was in Japanese.

'What the…?! How?! When?! I didn't even…! Why didn't I realize I have been writing half of my essay in Japanese? And when did I learn Japanese?!'

There was no time to wonder where he could possibly pick up Japanese from, because Mr. Bannister was already there, and was about to reach out for his paper. Before his fingers could touch it though, Randy had already shred it to pieces, before dropping said pieces into his teacher's hand.

"And… what is this supposed to be?" the man asked with a raised eyebrow.

Randy gave him an awkward smile. "A metaphor on the fleeting of summer?"

He just hoped Mr. Bannister bought it, and didn't give him a big fat F on his second day in high school.

"I can't believe he gave you a B for that!" exclaimed Howard once the period was over, and they were on their way out of the classroom.

Randy smirked at his friend. "What can I say, Howard? Like Mr. Bannister said, it's an excellent metaphor."

"But I saw you write a lot! You can't be telling me that you planned it from the beginning to write your essay just so you could tear it to pieces in the end. Just what did you write in that paper, Cunningham?"

Randy just chuckled as his best friend began to come up with all the things he thought the purple-haired teen might have written in his essay. Yeah, let Howard guessed. Because no matter how much he tried, he would never have a correct answer. After all, Randy Cunningham, 9th Grade Ninja? Sounded pretty ridiculous.

With Howard still talking, Randy let his mind wander. Okay, so being the Norrisville Ninja was the cheese. If only it didn't come with that NinjaNomicon book. He wasn't sure what that book did, and why the Ninja needed it, but as far as Randy was concerned, after what happened the first time he picked it up, he wasn't about to touch it barehanded anytime soon. Like this morning, when he packed it into his schoolbag. He had to use a piece of cloth to avoid making direct contact with that glowing thing. And the first thing he did upon coming to school was to toss the Nomicon into his locker, just in case his hand accidentally brushed against the cover when he reached into his bag for something. Who knew what would happen then.

Though, the Nomicon didn't seem to like being in the locker very much, if all the colorful doodles had anything to say about the matter.

Ah yes, those doodles. The new – and very much unwanted – addition to his world.

The first time those doodles made their existences known was not even an hour after Randy was chosen as the new Ninja of Norrisville. He was just sitting on his bed, feeling all giddy while looking at the mask all over, when his eyes landed on the Nomicon that was still in the corner. For a while, he just stared at it, before feeling crept out when he thought that the book was also staring at him. Shaking his head, he moved his gaze away while mumbling.

"Great, that creepy book makes me paranoid."

That was when it happened. Out of nowhere, a doodle of a girl in kimono with hair in braid appeared in front of him, folding its arms over its chest while giving him what could only be seen as a glare. Then, a speech bubble showed up, like in those comics and manga he liked to read, with scribbles inside that said: I'm not creepy!

Following by another speech bubble with: You are stupid!

And another one: How dare you call me creepy!?

Randy did the only thing he could do at that moment.

He swore. Out loud.

" %$*!&%*#!"

The doodle changed, shifting into… was that him? And was that the Ninja next to him? Holding a… stick? Or was that a wooden sword? And… did the Ninja doodle just whack the Randy doodle with that wooden sword-stick-thing?

With each whack, a word came out, before they formed complete sentences that said: Kid, you are too young to use that kind of language. Don't do it again, or next time, I will come out and hit you for real. And it will hurt. A lot.

After that, the doodles appeared almost every day. Especially when he was about to do something fun. It was like those doodles just loved shoobing up his cheese, and really, Randy really wanted to blame them all for the fact that the Nomicon was now with him everywhere. Sadly enough, it wasn't the case here.

The truth was that, for some unknown reason, he felt like he needed the book nearby. Not too close, of course, but it had to be close enough just in case. To be honest, he didn't know just in case for what, but it made him feel somewhat… better that way. With the Nomicon in the locker, it wouldn't take him long to reach it if he suddenly needed it for something (he doubted it very much, but hey, better safe than sorry!). Imagined all the time it would take if he left it home instead.

(Besides, when he brought it with him, he could swear that the Nomicon was… happy. It was kind of creepy, but Randy actually felt pleased that the book liked it.)

Though, the Nomicon apparently had made a wrong assumption if it thought he would let it accompany him everywhere once they reached school. No, the book stayed in the locker, while he wandered around, doing his own business.

Inwardly, Randy rolled his eyes when more doodles appeared. There was a doodle locker, with a doodle book drawn inside it, surrounded by the doodles that looked like the sound effect drawings in manga, representing loud banging noises. Accompanied them were big, fat letters that practically screamed at him with: HOW DARE YOU!, LET ME OUT!, YOU CAN'T DO THIS! and YOU DISRESPECTFUL LITTLE BRAT!

Very charming, really.

Randy just ignored it all – just like he did earlier, when those letters yelled at him to watch what he was writing in his essay – and decided to pay attention to Howard instead, who was now talking about… the Ninja situation?

"W-What Ninja situation?" said Randy, smiling uneasily. What was Howard talking about? What exactly had he missed while being bothered by those doodles? "There's no Ninja situation!"

"Exactly there's no Ninja situation!" Howard exclaimed angrily. "We've been in Norrisville High for two days and we haven't seen this guy once!"

Oh! So he was just complaining about not seeing the Ninja yet! And here Randy thought his best friend suspected something…

And so, he just shrugged. "I think maybe the Ninja has to wait for like a robot or a monster attack or something."

Howard stared at him. "Why are you not madder about this? We're the Ninja's number one fans!"

'Wow, I'm myself number one fan? That sounds really weird.' Randy thought, chuckling mentally. But on the outside, he just shrugged again.

"Howard, it's not like the Ninja can just smokebomb by for a meet and greet…"

He trailed off at the end, when an idea came to his mind.

"…or could he?"

Again, he ignored the doodles around him, which now included a big red X and a bunch of sentences like NO!, DON'T BE STUPID! and NINJA, I FORBID IT!

It was hilarious how that book and its doodles thought they could change his mind. He was Randy Cunningham, he was the Ninja of Norrisville, and he just had the brucest idea ever. Nothing could stop him from carrying on with it!

Besides, it was just a little meet and greet. What could go wrong?

x x x

And there you have it, the first chapter of "Between the Nomicon and Me". It looks to be longer than the prologue, but I doubt you guys mind. It only covers not even a half of the first episode though, but meh. More will come in the later chapters.

Anyway, thank you for spending a little time reading my story. Please leave a review on your way out. And please stay tune for the next update!

Bye for now!