The Midnight Game

"Hurry up Mikado! It's already eleven! We're late," blonde haired, golden eyed Kida Masaomi grinned as he tugged his best friend behind him, practically running down the sidewalk as he wove throughout those partaking in Ikebukuro's nightlife.

Black haired, azure blue eyed Ryuuagmine Mikado took another laboured breath as Masaomi dragged him along; running was definitely not his thing. For some reason, the shy boy had a bad feeling about this. The pair was hurrying to meet up with Kadota Kyouhei, Togusa Saburou, Karisawa Erika and Yumasaki Walker, but Mikado was confused as to why they were meeting the gang so late. "Where are we going again?" he had to ask.

"I already told you man, Erika said she came across something super interesting while she and Walker were looking for some anime online. It's a game or something, and she sounded really excited about it; you know if those two found something interesting that didn't have to do with a manga, it must be pretty cool. Oh hey, I see Saburou's van up ahead," the blonde spoke animatedly, and to Mikado's relief, they slowed their pace to a fast walk.

"A game? Why did we have to meet them at night then? It just seems odd, don't you think, Masaomi?" the blue eyed boy spoke calmly, trying not to let his suspicions reveal themselves in his voice. Nonetheless, Mikado waved politely as Erika bounded excitedly out of the van and towards him and Masaomi with Walker following behind her.

"Hey guys!" Walker greeted them as the otaku approached. "You ready for tonight? It's going to be awesome!"

"Yeah, we found the instructions for this game online, and it sounded so cool! Come on, we already have all the stuff, so we just need to go," Erika grinned from ear to ear and motioned towards the van. "We have to start at exactly midnight, so we don't have any time to waste!"

Her words caught Mikado's attention. Midnight? Stuff? Not to mention where they were going…What kind of game was this, exactly? The entire situation was becoming increasingly peculiar. "Um, Erika, where are we going, exactly? What game is this?"

The Fujoshi giggled as she jumped into the van's third row seat with Walker, then turned to Mikado as he made himself comfortable next to Masaomi, who seemed to not be the least bit bothered by the whole thing. "Don't worry Mikado, I don't even know if it's going to work, but at the very least, we'll have fun. It's called the 'Midnight Game'! Have you heard of it?"

Masaomi turned halfway around in his seat to look at her as Saburou started driving. "Isn't it one of those weird ghost games, like Bloody Mary?"

Walker nodded fervently. "Yeah, but that one's a definite hoax. This one sounds a lot more complex." He paused and looked towards the front seat as he asked, "Did you find a place for us to play, Saburou?"

Saburou turned around and grinned, "Yeah! There's this factory over near Arakawa that's been abandoned and unguarded for a few months. I still can't believe you were so insistent on this; we're just going to run around in the dark, scaring ourselves. Even more unbelievable is that you convinced Kadota to go along with this!" The driver jokingly shoved Kadota's shoulder.

"Yeah, well, you know they wouldn't let it go until we agreed. I hadn't seen them so obsessed with anything since they adapted the Wolf and Spice light novels into a manga," Kadota sighed. He was not exactly looking forward to this; he felt a bit silly in fact. He believed he was too old for sleep-over party games.

Mikado gulped—this definitely didn't sound very fun, running around some abandoned factory. "So…What is the point of this game? What do we have to do?"

"Good thinking! We should go over the rules before we get there so we have time to do everything! So smart, Mikado!" Erika cooed, and proceeded to fish something from her bag. Upon further inspection, it was a folded (and from the look of it, a very abused) piece of paper, which she began reading from, "Okay first off, it is NOT recommended that you play the Midnight Game, and those who choose to participate must do so at their own risk. Things to keep in mind throughout the game are as follows: DO NOT turn on any lights during the game; DO NOT use a flashlight during the game; DO NOT use a lighter or any other substitute for a candle because it will not work; and lastly, DO NOT provoke the Midnight Man during the Midnight Game."

Mikado felt his heart beat in double time. Okay, now this was just becoming insane—he hadn't even heard the official rules to anything yet and he was already starting to get scared. Mikado didn't like to think of himself as a coward, but if he was able to avoid conflict or situations such as the one he was currently in, he did. This game did NOT sound enjoyable. Mikado was about to interject, but Erika began reading again.

"It must be 12:00 AM when you begin the ritual, otherwise it will not work. You need a candle, a wooden door, a drop of your own blood, a piece of paper, a lighter, and salt. If you are playing with more than one person, they will all need their own of all of the listed materials, and will have to perform the steps separately, but the time still applies.

"Step one: Write your first, middle (if you have one), and last name on a piece of paper and put one drop of blood on the paper. Allow it to soak in.

"Step two: Turn off all the lights in the house or place you are playing. Go to the front door or entrance, which must be wooden, and place the paper with your name in front of it. Place the lit candle on top of the paper with your name.

"Step three: Knock on the door 22 times. Note: You must complete the first three steps within a minute, so that the final knock ends while it's still midnight, or it won't work, so be quick.

"Finally, open the door, blow out the candle, and close the door. You have just summoned the Midnight Man and allowed him in!" At that, Erika stopped and giggled, "Sounds so intense right?"

Mikado stared wide eyed as he heard Saburou chuckle from the front seat. How could everyone be so calm about this? Once again, the boy did not believe himself a coward, yet this was far beyond his comfort zone. Perhaps it was because up until last year, he had lived out his entire existence in a small town, growing up with traditions coupled with superstitions, and had yet to shake the mentality. The teen could still remember his mother dutifully avoiding stepping on the cloth edge of their tatami mat so she didn't bring bad luck upon herself. Mikado sighed and glanced over at Masaomi, who sent him an encouraging half smile.

Erika cleared her throat and continued reading from the paper in a dramatic fashion, "Step five: RELIGHT your candle. Now your goal is to avoid the Midnight Man until exactly 3:33 AM. If your candle ever goes out, it is because the Midnight Man is near you. Other ways to tell if the Midnight Man is near you: if you feel a sudden chill; if you hear any whispering; if you see any shadowy figures. If your candle does go out, you must relight it within the next TEN seconds; it is your only protection. If you are unable to relight the candle, you must surround yourself with a circle of salt as a last line of defence. If you are successful in relighting the candle, then you may proceed moving about the building. If you are successful in creating the circle of salt, you must remain within the circle until 3:33 AM. If you are unsuccessful in both of these attempts, the Midnight Man is able to get you. You must continue until 3:33 AM without being attacked by the Midnight Man or being trapped within the circle of salt to win the Midnight Game. The Midnight Man will leave at 3:33 AM and you will be safe. Staying in one spot the entire game will only result in the Midnight Man finding you. It is HIGHLY advised you continue moving throughout the game (with the exception of being in a circle of salt). All rules are to be followed with utmost precision; failure to do so may yield dangerous results. Wow, I bet this is going to be such an adrenaline rush..." Erika concluded thoughtfully.

Mikado now knew his feelings of unease earlier were not unfounded in the least. This sounded dangerous, messing around with the spirit world. "You…really think this is such a good idea?"

Masaomi was the one to pipe up next, "Mikado, it's just one of those kids' games people play to scare themselves. Don't you remember back in grade school we went to Takashi's house with everyone and he convinced us to play Black Cat Scratch and it didn't even work? This is going to be just like that except different rules, you know? Besides I'm too awesome to let some shadow guy dispose of me, or you, for that matter," the cheeky blonde grinned. "So, are we almost there, Saburou?"

The black haired boy felt slightly comforted by his friend's words, but he still couldn't shake the sinking feeling he had. The whole set of rules was way too complicated for 'one of those kids' games'. If his candle did happen to go out, ten seconds certainly didn't seem like long enough to relight it…

Izaya & Mikado

The van lurched to a halt, and Mikado looked out the window on his side to see a large building, at least three stories tall, looming against the light of the half moon. The azure eyed boy flinched slightly as Masaomi clasped a hand on his shoulder and mouthed the phrase 'Don't worry.' Easy for Masaomi to say! How could he not worry? This sinister little 'game' sounded rather questionable. The group piled out of the van and Walker looked around at all of them.

"Everyone has a watch, right?" the smiling boy asked. After seeing them all nod, he handed each person a rather large container of salt, a pen, a lighter, a needle, and a candle, "Alright! My watch says it's 11:56 PM, so we have four minutes to get in there and summon this Midnight guy," Walker laughed, gathering his own supplies and running off for the factory's entrance.

Mikado shivered lightly against the night's chill and zipped up his white and green jacket as he pocketed what he was able to of his supplies. Perhaps he was just overreacting, after all. The teen smiled wanly at the building; he had come to Ikebukuro looking for excitement, hadn't he? Excitement meant breaking out of one's comfort zones, defeating the norm, and ignoring the mundane; this was certainly not mundane! With renewed confidence, he followed Walker towards the factory, the crunching of gravel beneath his shoes sounding deafening compared to the stillness surrounding them. As he approached the door, Walker forced the puny lock to give way and took a butler stance, gesturing everyone inside.

"Okay, we have to be fast so we can all do this. It's 11:59PM—everyone write your full names on here!" The young woman took a blank sheet of paper from her bag and deftly tore it into sections for each person. "And...GO!"

The noise of the furious scribbling of pens filled the ominously dark room, the only light coming through the door and supplied by the moon. Erika and Walker could be heard giggling as they each carefully pricked their fingers and made a dot next to their names. Mikado took his own needle and winced as it pierced his skin; he placed his own small crimson mark next to his name and took out his candle. Once everyone had finished, which took virtually no time at all, they lined up their papers and candles in a path along the still open doorway; each was lit quickly. Mikado jumped when Walker suddenly slammed the door; the older man's smirk could be seen by the candlelight.

"It doesn't say we have to knock separately, so everyone just knock twenty two times. Oh, but we have to hurry, less than thirty seconds left!" Erika squealed—and immediately began knocking on the door; grudgingly, Kadota walked up to the door and began knocking, followed by the rest of the group. Once everyone had completed the twenty two rappings on the door, Erika took the liberty of blowing out each person's candle; Walker reopened the door and laughed as he dramatically closed it once more.

"Welcome Midnight Man," he giggled, and took up his candle as Erika relit them all.

Mikado took his candle as Erika handed it to him and fingered the lighter in his jacket pocket. The teen glanced over to Masaomi and murmured, "Well, here goes…"

The blonde beamed back, glad Mikado was no longer completely scared about the game. Masaomi knew exactly why this kind of thing would scare his friend though—back home, they never would have done anything close to this. This fact alone contributed to the nervous excitement the golden eyed teen was currently experiencing.

"We can't just stay here! He'll get us," Erika tittered in mock fright. "We have to split up for the full effect!"

At her words, Kadota grinned, "If you say so, Erika, but you're the one who hates being by yourself."

The Fujoshi snorted, "Dotachin! Don't be mean! I can handle myself. Besides," she smirked evilly and laughed dramatically, "I won't be by myself; the Midnight Man could be anywhere and everywhere."

Walker grinned, "So~ scary!"

Everyone split ways quickly; Mikado cast a last sidelong glance at Masaomi before heading up a rather noisy set of metal stairs leading to the second floor. Once on the second floor, the teen could see this was where the offices were located, and moonlight streamed through the windows lining the hallway, for which he was grateful. This wasn't so bad...Saburou was right, this was merely a group of people running around in the dark, scaring themselves. And that was what he centred his thoughts on for the next hour; this was just a silly game.

Eventually, as he became comfortable with wandering around, his thoughts drifted to Anri, he almost wished she had come with them; alas, she declined because she had to study. Mikado groaned aloud when he remembered he had school the next day—he was going to be so exhausted, especially if they wouldn't be ending this game until 3:33 AM! The teen stopped to checked his watch; it was only 1:13AM, so still over two hours left. Being in the same class as Anri meant he had the same studying to do...Great...

The blue eyed teen sighed and looked down at his slowly dwindling candle and the lighter he had neglected to put back in his pocket, even as he recalled the salt still tucked away in said pocket. Just because he was at the point that he'd convinced himself he didn't believe in the game, he still didn't want to lose or take a chance of wasting his ten seconds by fumbling the lighter out of his pocket. Satisfied with his current condition, Mikado continued walking around aimlessly—until he noticed a door cracked open on his left; this was odd because all the other offices lining the hallway had not only been shut but locked, and he had tried at least four of them.

Creeping forward, the teen pushed the door open slowly, then held his candle into the office and kept his body in the hallway. Mikado was surprised at how spacious the room was; it was almost twice the size of his, albeit small, three meter by three meter apartment. In the room's centre was a large, ornate desk and a tall, high-end leather swivel chair placed behind it; the rest of the room wasn't visible with the dim lighting provided by the candle. This must have been the president of the factory's office, judging from the quality of the furniture left behind.

Mikado was about to step into the room, if for any reason merely to satisfy his curiosity and give him something to busy his attention for a while, but he stopped when he felt a chill from behind him in the hallway. He felt himself panic for a minute, but took a deep breath and scolded himself for becoming so frightened over nothing. After a quick glance behind him revealed nothing and he made sure his candle was still lit, he proceeded into the large room. Once further inside, he could see many charts and diagrams decorating the walls and an absolute sea of papers covering the floor; the teen shuffled through them and plopped down in the dusty, albeit comfortable, chair. Mikado checked his watch once more out of habit—only thirty minutes had passed since his last glance; he might as well waste some more time.

After sifting through some of the infinite number of papers, the teen concluded this was an old cell phone factory, and they had gone bankrupt, judging from all the negative signs adorning any recorded number he came across. Mikado sighed and leaned back in the chair, being mindful to keep his candle perfectly upright—he was getting so tired. The boy straightened and sighed; the last thing that he needed to do was fall asleep in the centre of a room full of flammables, such as an endless supply of paper, with a lit candle. Just as the teen turned the chair slightly, he felt a chill and started when he saw his candle's flame extinguish.

Even in the dark, his blue eyes widened and he flicked the lighter against the candle's wick—then he heard a small whisper from behind the chair; the speaker's voice deep and gravelly, "Never…Stop."

The teen shakily exhaled. Was he just imagining things? He grew more frightened when he noticed he was able to see his breath; a small bit of fog hovering before his face, illuminated by the moonlight from the hallway windows. Suddenly, the leather swivel chair in which he was seated was violently shoved to the left of the desk, sending the startled boy tumbling into the mass of papers masking the very hard floor beneath, if the landing was anything to judge by. After scrambling to stand and slipping on several papers on his way out of the office, the teen turned once in the safety (or what he thought was safety) of the hallway to look back into the room.

It seemed much darker than it had before, he noticed. Azure eyes squinted and Mikado could have sworn he saw movement. The teen still had his candle in hand and reached into his pocket for the lighter; after fumbling with the cheap thumbwheel, he finally managed to get a flame to take to the candle's wick. Mikado held the candle back toward the doorway of the office, hoping to see whatever it was that shoved him; curiously, he wasn't able to even see the outline of the desk or fallen chair anymore.

Involuntarily, Mikado leaned forward into the room with the candle; it was as though the room had been taken over by the blackness.

He had to stifle a scream as a black mass rushed to the doorway and stumbled backward, but managed to hold his grip on the candle. Though the light of the taper was dim, it would have been enough to illuminate a figure in the doorway. The boy's eyes widened in horror as he saw what appeared to be countless black, gnarled hands grasping the door frame and even stretching across the floor, close to where Mikado now sat in shock.

"Heh...Not going to help…Too slow…" the whispering voice mocked.

Thankfully, Mikado was able to snap himself out of his terror; he quickly retrieved the container of salt and drew a quick, albeit messy, circle around himself. The inky shapes inched closer, but were unable to penetrate the salt ring; the teen couldn't help the small smile that spread across his face in response to the trivial victory. "Doesn't matter how slow I may have been, you can't get to me now…" the boy stated, waiting for the thing to either respond or leave, praying for the latter.

"…Not now…Later…Soon…No…Escape…Took too long…"

A chill ran down Mikado's spine at the broken comments—there was no way he was stepping outside of this circle until 3:33 AM. He checked his watch quickly; he still had the better part of an hour until time was up. What now? His gaze wandered back to the murky mass occupying the door frame...and he had to know. "What…What, exactly, are you?" Mikado couldn't resist asking. He was scared of this thing because it obviously had malicious intentions, yet the fear sent excitement coursing through him, much like when he had first seen Celty. It was a being which was new, extraordinary, and different.

"I am…called…many…Demon…Ghost…Spirit…God…Punisher…Shadow…Yes, shadows…is best…I am the darkness…everywhere…Does my answer…satisfy you, Ryuugamine…Mikado…?"

Mikado perked up at being addressed by name; it was unsettling, as was the entity's answer. "I suppose it will have to," the boy answered, not wanting to anger it further.

"…Seem anxious…you…should be…Later…Soon…took…more than…ten seconds…Heh…"

The grip Mikado kept on the dwindling candle tightened at the creature's words. He was startled when he heard the echo of footsteps drawing near, most likely one of the game's other players; quickly, he turned back to the Midnight Man still in the office doorway. "What do you mean later? Why did you repeat it?" Icy blue eyes narrowed as his heart rate sped up; Mikado had a good grasp of what the thing meant, he just did not want to be correct.

"…Not now…Later…Soon…Mikado…" And with that, the swirling darkness receded into the office and the door slammed loudly, the lock turning to bar re-entry to the room.

Mikado forced himself to calm down as he saw the small bobbing light of someone else's candle coming down the hall towards him. As the person neared, he could see it was Walker. "Heh, how long have you been sitting there?" the otaku grinned as he knelt next to the shy teen encircled in the haphazard salt ring.

The teen looked at him in puzzlement for a moment, then realized Walker must not have seen the shadows or heard the Midnight Man. Quickly recovering, he deemed it best to keep this to himself for now; grinning sheepishly he replied, "Not too long. I guess I lost…"

Walker beamed. "Yeah, but don't feel bad. I passed Erika, and she looked like she had been sitting there for at least a couple of hours…Saburou is out, too. It's down to me, Kida, and Kadota." The young man smirked and called down the hallway, "Hey, Midnight Man, you should let me win and go find Kadota and Kida!"

Mikado couldn't help but glance back at the office door—he wondered if Walker would be quite this brave if he knew the Midnight Man was literally right here. He was broken out of his staring by the older young man straightening back up.

"Well, I better keep moving. Just watch the time and we'll meet back at the entrance, it's not too much longer until the end," Walker said as he disappeared around a corner up ahead, leaving the brunette alone with his thoughts…and the presence lurking behind that door.