Preface

Because of the nature of this story, I thought a quick author note was in order to explain what you're getting into. This story is in fact a fan-fiction of the anime Celestial Method, aka, Sora No Method. This means that the characters, Nonoka, Shione, Yuzuki, Souta and Koharu are not mine, but belong to the show, along with Noel if/when she shows up. However, I am expecting that most of my readers will be unfamiliar with the show, and as such I'll fill you in on the back stories of the characters as needed. There are a number of OCs here as well, including my main character, so I'm hoping it won't be too hard for you to get into the story. I do apologize for all the Japanese names if that is a turn off, but as this show takes place in Japan, I decided to keep most of my OC names in Japanese, though I know it can be hard to keep track of who is who. This story is also a bit of an AU, basically ignoring the events of the last two episodes. Partly because I hadn't seen the final episode when it aired, and partly because this makes my job easier. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: The Shortcut

It was supposed to be a shortcut.

That's what Mrs. Uro told us at any rate. We'd get back well before midnight, save money on gas, and not have to waste the first day of Winter break sleeping, since there was no way anyone could sleep well on a bus like this. Well, Hanayo was somehow sleeping in the back seat, and kept mumbling something about a ninja and a cigarette shop. And that's how we found our Astronomy club found taking a trip through the supposed haunted woods on the way back from our end of the year trip.

Sure, she'd heard of the rumors, we all had, but they were just that, mere fictional stories of death that happened a century ago, or so the stories told. I didn't think anything of it, it was just a myth, and apparently Mrs. Uro thought the same thing as she pulled onto the two lane road and turned the headlights on. Sure, the road may have needed work, and it wasn't a path that most people took, but that didn't mean there was anything dangerous about it

"When did it get so dark in here?" Nonoka said, scooting a bit closer to me as the bus went over an especially rough patch, throwing us up in the air for a couple seconds.

"It's just the trees," I said, wanting to believe that's all that it was, but even though I could barely see the sky through the leaves above us, it seemed like the light was being sucked away. Of course, this was only a trick of the eye, fueled by the paranoia of these crazy stories that no one would ever believe were real. We'd been traveling through the woods for about 10 minutes, so it was only natural that it would get darker, not to mention the fact that the sun was setting.

"Yeah, nothing to worry about," Souta said, leaning back in his chair right behind Nonoka and me. He shut his eyes and yawned, obviously tired from our trip. Knowing him he just wanted us to all shut up so he could actually try getting to sleep.

"Why are you trying to sleep at a time like this?" his sister, Yuzuki yelled, pretty much waking up anyone in the bus who might have been trying to rest. "This could be such an exciting trip. We just got done seeing that awesome observatory, and now we get to explore these haunted woods, and we might even be able to figure out what happened all those years ago."

"You really can get excited about anything, can't you?" Souta asked while shaking his head. I really couldn't say I was surprised at Yuzuki's excitement, she really was passonent about anything that even just barely interested her. Then there was Souta who was just the opposite, much more reserved, trying to remain calm, if anything to keep Yuzuki from doing anything too crazy, though it never seemed to stop her from doing whatever idea came to her mind. Although, if it weren't for those strange plans of hers, we would have never met. Of course, my idea of making new friends normally doesn't involve my pants being on fire, but it worked out for the best, and I wasn't mad at her for too long.

I heard the sound of Shione's camera shuttering from the other side of the bus, while she hadn't said anything for a while, she seemed to be interested in the rumors at least. "Do you believe them?" Koharu asked, to which Shione replied with a simple shrug of her shoulders.

For all the time that I'd known Shione, it seemed strange how little I really knew her. Sure, we hung out together a lot, but it was always with several of us. I don't know, Shione was nice enough and everything, but it just seemed like there was some type of barrier between us. Koharu on the other hand was always welcoming, and helped me out a lot when I first moved to their school. Well, after I decided that just because she'd have some whack job like Yuzuki has a friend it didn't mean she was crazy too. Just the opposite in fact, I'd sometimes just hang out at her family's shop on the way home from school when I didn't have anything better to do.

"Are you afraid, Ryo?" Nonoka asked from right beside me

Instinctively I shook my head, but I can't say that wasn't a lie. I didn't want to believe any of it, but yeah, I was afraid, just a little bit maybe, but it was there. I felt myself twitching at every bump in the road, thinking that maybe it was a sign that something was wrong, instead of it just being a normal noise on a normal trip. "There's nothing to be afraid of. We'll be home soon, and just laugh at all of this," I replied.

I focused my attention back to the front of the bus, seeing the headlights barely illuminating the dark road in front of us. I took a few deep breaths, telling myself over and over that this was nothing, that all this fear, all these rumors, were just that.

"Yeah, you're probably right," she said, as we went over another bump that knocked the earbuds out of Shione's ears. "Not many people go this way, do they?" Nonoka then asked, to which I had to agree, seeing that there weren't any other cars on these roads was at least a little bit worrisome.

"They're probably just scared over nothing," I then said.

"Hey Ryo," Souta said from the seat behind me, signaling for me to come closer to him.

"What is it?" I asked in a whisper, leaning around the seat.

"They really seem to be worried about this," he said, "We should probably try to get them thinking about something else

"Oh gosh, not choice number three! Don't make me remember that!" Hanayo started yelling from the back of the bus, though she was still sleeping.

"That can't be a good sign," I said, as pretty much the entire class turned to look at her. However, she quickly rolled over, and then started snoring again.

"That might be good," Souta said, as the people on the bus started talking about what she was saying, wondering what kind of dream she might be having.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"They're distracted. Now maybe I can finally get a nap," Souta said, leaning back again, and closing his eyes. I then turned back to Nonoka, who was looking out of the forest that seemed to get darker with each passing moment.

"So what was your favorite part of the trip?" I asked, hoping that it would be something that would let her think about other things than the admitting creepy forest that we were going through

"Um, well, probably when we got to see all those shooting stars," she said.

That had to be one of the highlights for me too. It's one thing to look up from our back yards during a meteor storm, but it's another to see them magnified without all those city lights. "I still can't believe that Yuzuki convinced them to let us come out here," I said.

"Well, that's Yuzuki for you," Nonoka said with a smile. I knew that they had been friends for a while, back since they were really young apparently, and had gone to the observatory near their homes to hang out. When it was torn down, someone mentioned wanting to find another one, Yuzuki thought it was a good idea, and with a plentiful amount of bugging people, the Astronomy Club got to take a field trip out to the Kyoto Observatory.

"How many times did she try calling?" I asked.

"126," Souta commented from behind us. "Every day when we got home from school for over 6 months."

"But it was worth it, wasn't it?" Yuzuki proudly proclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah."

"We should try to do another one of these," Nonoka said, "Find out another cool place to visit and all go there right before our next break from school."

"Any ideas?" I asked.

"I've heard that there's a space center near Kimotsuki, maybe we could see about going there?" Koharu suggested.

"That might be fun," Shione said with a gentle smile, which might have been the first thing she said this entire ride.

I thought that was probably a long distance away from school, but going to Kyoto took several hours to get to, so maybe that could work. It was worth a try, and knowing Yuzuki, she would most certainly try if it sounded like fun. "Worth a shot at least."

However, as we had almost forgotten about where we were, the bus hit a big bump, one much larger than any others, even throwing Hanayo out of her seat and onto the floor, where she started muttering something about getting revenge on a door before getting up. The bus started slowly down greatly, the sound of metal screeching filling the air. "There's fire," one of the guys in the front of the bus said looking out his window. The bus started curving quickly, Mrs. Uro clenching the wheel as much as she could, bringing us along the side of the road and to a stop.

"What happened?" someone whose name I didn't know asked. Several people crowded around the front of the bus.

"The wheel fell off," Mrs. Uro, getting up from the driver's seat. At this, there were a number of hushed whispers throughout the bus, everyone saying it was part of the curse, or something like that. But it could just be a coincidence, that's what it had to be.

"There are several flashlights in the emergency kit let's see what happened," Mrs. Uro said pulling one out of the glove box before exiting the car.

"Some of us should go with her, make sure nothing happens," Souta said.

"There's strength in numbers after all," I said, "As long as we're together, there isn't anything to fear," I then added, but even just saying that I reminded myself and all of us that there were things to fear. But still, I started walking to the front of the bus, and about a dozen of us followed.

I took one of the flashlights and shown it around, not exactly looking for anything specifically, but just wanting to give some light to this dark place.

"It's over here," Nonoka said, seeing the tire in a ditch along the side of the road.

I looked over at where the wheel should have been, seeing that it had completely come off. I kind of knew how to change a tire, use a jack, unscrew the tire, put the spare on, but beyond that I really had no idea how to fix anything with a car. I then brought out my cell phone, figuring that this would be the best option, call someone, get rescued, and then we all get out of here without anyone panicking.

Except, I didn't have any reception.

"Can anyone get a cell signal here?" I asked, and several of the others brought out their phones with similar results.

I didn't want to believe that I could have been wrong. This was all just bad luck, some unluckily coincidences. But either way, we had to figure out what to do, get help here, or at the very least, get us somewhere that we could get help.

I felt Nonoka grab my arm, trying to get closer to me. With the amount of things going on, it seemed like I wasn't the only one starting to get scared. Many of us were frozen in fear, others were shaking, about to break down, which made what I had to do next even harder. "What do the rumors say about the murders?"

If this didn't mean anything, then all I did was just scare a lot of people.

If it did, then maybe, we could all get out of this alive.