Alma woke up to the continuous ringing of his alarm clock. He slowly sat up and lightly hit the clock to turn it off. He yawned as he got up to stretch and started getting ready for school. He ate cereal for breakfast, brushed his teeth, and changed.

Alma gathered his stuff, and shoved them into the backpack. Before he left the room, he looked to the photo on his desk. It showed himself, along with his two friends; Kanda, who was his next door neighbor, with the usual glare in his eyes (though Alma knew they held no hate in them). His bluish hair was long enough to reach his shoulders, but now it went down his back, tied with a rubber band. It had been five years since the picture was taken after all. And five years since Allen, the other boy in the photo, had disappeared.

It happened so subtly, yet suddenly. Everything had been normal the day before it happened; Allen hadn't mentioned anything of moving away. But the next morning, Allen didn't come to school. They went over for a visit to the apartment where he and Mana, his foster father, lived in. They found no one there. After two days of their absence, their teacher had announced that Allen had moved away. But it all felt too unnatural. Why hadn't Allen told them that he was moving? Did something happen to them?

Alma's thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell. He checked the clock to see that he would be late to school if he stayed any longer. The one at the door was of course Kanda. They always walked to school together.

"What took you so long?" He asked.

"Lost track of time." This wasn't a lie, and Alma didn't want to mention Allen in front of Kanda. It always made him get into a bad mood. He accepted the answer, and they made their way to school.

Like every morning, the two met up with their friends, Lenalee and Lavi, at the school entrance. They had met these two last year, when they first entered the high school. Now they were the closest, if not the only, friends they had. With Kanda's attitude towards people, most were too afraid to get closer. But that was just because they didn't know him. Kanda was never provoked to anger easily, even if it looked like he always was. But Lavi and Lenalee seemed to get along with him just fine. Maybe it was because of their personalities.

Lenalee was a sweet, nice girl. She liked being positive, but could beat someone up if she ever got mad. As long as you stayed on her good side, which wasn't hard, you'd be good friends with her.

Lavi, on the other hand, was always cheery, making silly remarks. He was quite playful, and made you laugh. The times he got serious would be when he's sticking up for a friend; he strongly valued his friendship with the three.

"Hey, Yuu, Alma, how's it going?" Lavi said, waving happily towards them. Kanda scowled, and tried to smack Lavi on the head. He hated being called Yuu, but Lavi always did it anyway. He dodged Kanda's blow by leaning away, getting used to it by now. But he didn't see the next hit coming. Kanda stretched his leg out, using the tip of his foot to knock Lavi off his feet. He landed with a loud ouch.

"Hey! That was low. Unfair!" Lavi protested.

"Why should I care? If you would learn to keep your mouth shut, you wouldn't be down there." Kanda replied. Alma sighed, and Lenalee giggled as she helped Lavi up.

"Come on, we're going to be late for class." she said. Kanda gave one last glare towards Lavi before walking into the building, with Alma beside him, and Lavi and Lenalee behind them. They chatted all the way to their first class, one they had together. In all, the four of them had three classes together, along with lunch. Some classes had two or three of them together, but there were other ones where they were all separated.

They took their seats in the back right corner of the room, where the windows let in the sun's soft morning light. Their teacher, Ms. Lotto, called for their attention to begin class.

In the cafeteria, the foursome sat in their usual spot, chatting as they gobbled down their lunch. Alma was on his phone when he noticed some news that caught his interest.

"Hey guys, look at this." He turned the phone for them to see. Lenalee read it aloud for the others to here.

"Up North, an explosion of what is suspected to be a research lab blew half the building to pieces. Luckily, there were no casualties, but there were many injured. It was also indicated that there were a few people missing. The cause of the explosion is unknown by the police, but their investigation continues." There was a picture of the lab in flames next to it. Alma frowned.

"That is interesting, but the one I was talking about was the one below that." He turned the phone back so it was facing him, and read the first paragraph.

"For the last few days, there have been claims of monsters being sighted around the neighborhood, all during the night. There have been reports of disappearances, but whether the "monsters" are related is unknown. Police have began to patrol the area in caution of these events, hoping to bring down the cause. For now, it is best to say that it is safer to avoid leaving homes at night." Lenalee frowned.

"First an explosion, then monsters? What is going on?" she asked, voice showing worry.

"I don't know. But if it's true that there are some weird things out there, that are dangerous," his voice turned deep, "you might get eaten, disappearing without a trace!" Lavi said, on with one of his jokes again. But Alma felt a chill go down his spine. This wouldn't be in the news for no reason, and there had to be something going with people seeing the monsters, and reporting it.

Kanda seemed to notice how restless Alma was, and said, "you shouldn't need to worry about every little thing. There's no way there's actually monsters, so there's probably some kind of trick behind it. And they only appear at night, right? They didn't mention anything about house invasions, so as long as you stay home, it shouldn't matter." Alma smiled, feeling a little better. Kanda's words had a way of making everything seem so simple, and it helped him worry less.

"But, make sure to at least be careful, just in case."

Alma sat at his desk, attempting to do his math homework. But it wasn't his strong suit, and it took a while to process what the question was asking. He sighed, deciding to take a break. He headed to the kitchen for a drink of water. The house was quiet because his parents were rarely home due to work. It was hours away from home, so they only made it back about three times a month. But they made sure to keep in touch more often through calls and texts.

Alma's stomach began growling, so he made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and was walking back to his room when, suddenly, he heard a loud THUD sound coming from the front of the house. Alma flinched at the sound. He thought at first that it was some animal like a cat roaming around, but the sound was too loud for that. The conversation he had with his friends made it's way into his mind. Alma shivered, thinking whether he should check it out, or just ignore it. Soon, curiosity won over. He set down the plate of the sandwich he barely started eating, and the glass of water onto the counter, and walked to the front door.

First, he looked through the peephole, but he couldn't see much, and didn't dare turn on the light outside. Alma's house had a porch, so whatever the sound was, it was somewhere there. Gulping, he slowly unlocked the door, and opened it. Nothing happened. He opened the door wider, and looked right, then left-. What he saw made him gasp. There, he found a boy collapsed on the ground.

Well, there's the first chapter. Some people may think this is a pretty rushed start, but I thought this was the best way to introduce the story. And I'm not the type to linger on pointless events, just to stretch the chapters (doesn't mean I don't add detail, mind you). I tried to describe the characters as close as possible to the anime, but it's not perfect, considering the characteristics of my own plot. Especially Kanda; I related his actions to the anime, but his personality isn't really that similar. Let's just say that because in this world, there was no tragedy, he's a bit nicer. Anyway, hoped you liked it. Any comments are welcome, and look forward to the next chapter.